Fight for Your Family Make Resolutions

Fight for Your Family

Make Resolutions

The songs says

Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset,
Swiftly flow the days…

One day flows into another and before we know it

We don’t remember growing older

Or, our children growing older

Life needs to be times of celebrative feasts and times of reflective fasting

All the people under the leadership of Nehemiah entered into a fast

At the end of the fast they wrote down 7 things they would commit to Nehemiah 10:30-37

At the end of the list was one more commitment

That I think is a commitment every family should make

"We will not neglect the House of our God." Nehemiah 10:39

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.    Hebrews 10:19-25

Sunrise,sunset, sunrise, sunset; Swiftly flow the days

The days slip away so quickly, don’t neglect the House or Family of God

Make Resolutions

Fiddler on the Roof…

 A musical with music by Jerry Bock,

lyrics by Sheldon Harnick,

and book by Joseph Stein,

set in the Pale of Settlement of

Imperial Russia in or around 1905.

It is based on Tevye and his daughters

(or Tevye the Dairyman) and

other tales by Sholem Aleichem.

The story centers on Tevye,

the father of five daughters,

and his attempts to maintain his Jewish

religious and cultural traditions as outside

influences encroach upon the family's lives.

He must cope both with the strong-willed

actions of his three older daughters,

who wish to marry for love –

each one's choice of a husband moves

further away from the customs of their

Jewish faith and heritage –

and with the edict of the Tsar that

evicts the Jews from their village.

In this musical is the song…

Sun Rise Sun Set.

At my daughter Sarah’s wedding to Timothy Godfrey,

 I not only had the honor of officiating the wedding… 

But at one point in the wedding a slide

show with pictures of Sarah and Tim

flashed from the time they were

babies to becoming adults.

It was during this slideshow

I sang the song Sun Rise Sun Set…

Is this the little girl i carried?
Is this the little boy at play?
I don't remember growing older,
When did they?

When did she get to be a beauty?
When did he grow to be so tall?
Wasn't it yesterday when they were small?

Sunrise sunset, sunrise, sunset,
Swiftly flow the days,
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers,
Blossoming even as they gaze...

Sunrise sunset, sunrise, sunset!
Swiftly fly the years,
One season following another,
Laden with happiness and tears...

One season following another,
Laden with happiness and tears...

I don’t know how I got through it.

The songs says…

Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset,
Swiftly flow the days

One day flows into another…

 And before we know it,

 we don’t remember growing older.

Or, our children growing older.

Life needs to be times of celebrative feasts

and times of reflective fasting.

We see this in in the Book of Nehemiah…

They built the wall and then they feasted.

After the feast, they came together to fast.

The fast was a time of reflecting on the past.

As they traveled down memory lane,

 they remembered what God had done and

what they and their ancestors had done.

After the time of reflection,

the fast came to a

conclusion with seven resolutions.

Seven Commitments they all agreed to

keep as they moved forward in life.

What if each year the family would

take time to reflect on the past year

and make commitments for the future?

All the people under the leadership

of Nehemiah wrote down seven

things they would commit to.

You can find the list in Nehemiah 10:30-37.

At the end of the list was one

more commitment that I think is a

commitment every family should make…

 "We will not neglect the house of our God."

Nehemiah 10:39

With all the activities of a family,

 it becomes challenging to

remember the bigger picture…

The House of God

The fact we are called to the Family of God.

Neglecting the House or Family of God is

more than being in church every Sunday.

  

It is serving…

 Making family contributions

of time and resources.

It is storing up treasures in heaven where

the Family of God will live forever.

In the New Testament we find the

resolution already written out for us…

 

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another

— and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Hebrews 10:19-25

God the Father made a way for us to be

His family through the blood of Jesus.

Therefore, let’s encourage one another

and not give up on meeting together

in the House of the Lord.

  

Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset,
Swiftly flow the days

   Don’t let the days just pass you by…

 Take some of those days to fast and reflect.

Write down resolutions you and your

family can commit to in the days ahead.

And place in most important…

"We will not neglect the House of our God."

Scripture Reading

Nehemiah 8:18-9:3 NIV

18 Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. They celebrated the feast for seven days, and on the eighth day, in accordance with the regulation, there was an assembly.

Nehemiah 9 NIV

9:1 On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads. 2 Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers. 3 They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the LORD their God.

Nehemiah 9:38 NIV

38 "In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it."

Nehemiah 10:28-11:1 NIV

28 "The rest of the people — priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, temple servants and all who separated themselves from the neighboring peoples for the sake of the Law of God, together with their wives and all their sons and daughters who are able to understand —   29 all these now join their brothers the nobles, and bind themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the Law of God given through Moses the servant of God and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations and decrees of the LORD our Lord.

30 "We promise not to give our daughters in marriage to the peoples around us or take their daughters for our sons.

31 "When the neighboring peoples bring merchandise or grain to sell on the Sabbath, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day. Every seventh year we will forgo working the land and will cancel all debts.

32 "We assume the responsibility for carrying out the commands to give a third of a shekel each year for the service of the house of our God: 33 for the bread set out on the table; for the regular grain offerings and burnt offerings; for the offerings on the Sabbaths, New Moon festivals and appointed feasts; for the holy offerings; for sin offerings to make atonement for Israel; and for all the duties of the house of our God.

34 "We — the priests, the Levites and the people — have cast lots to determine when each of our families is to bring to the house of our God at set times each year a contribution of wood to burn on the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the Law.

35 "We also assume responsibility for bringing to the house of the LORD each year the firstfruits of our crops and of every fruit tree.

36 "As it is also written in the Law, we will bring the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, of our herds and of our flocks to the house of our God, to the priests ministering there.

37 "Moreover, we will bring to the storerooms of the house of our God, to the priests, the first of our ground meal, of our [grain] offerings, of the fruit of all our trees and of our new wine and oil. And we will bring a tithe of our crops to the Levites, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all the towns where we work. 38 A priest descended from Aaron is to accompany the Levites when they receive the tithes, and the Levites are to bring a tenth of the tithes up to the house of our God, to the storerooms of the treasury. 39 The people of Israel, including the Levites, are to bring their contributions of grain, new wine and oil to the storerooms where the articles for the sanctuary are kept and where the ministering priests, the gatekeepers and the singers stay.

"We will not neglect the house of our God."