This is week 20 in the book of Nehemiah. It took 18 of those weeks just to get the walls built. The theme of the book of Nehemiah, even though it seems like it is rebuilding walls, is really about building people and character. Before you can rebuild an individual's character, you have to rebuild communities. Healthy individuals come out of healthy communities. Without walls, you can't have commerce. I know this as a leader in a community in the Miami Valley area. During the time I have been pastoring in this area, we have lost 20,000 people due to job loss. We are struggling because we are still in the industrial age. Without walls, you cannot have commerce. The people of God aren't supposed to retreat behind the safe walls of the fortress of their faith. God calls us to be a force in the world. You can't have healthy people if you don't have healthy community. We have to save jobs, we have to be innovative. It is not about getting everyone to work in the church. It is about getting the church to realize God's redemptive purpose in the world.

Without walls, not only can't we have commerce, but we have to be about saving jobs. You can't have culture - the heart of culture is education. You have to save minds. As the people of God, we all have to be active in the Miami Valley area to make sure that we pass all of our school levies. I love what Jesse Jackson said at Omega Baptist Church last week: "When you have second-rate schools in your communities, you will then build first-rate prisons." Not only do we have to save jobs, we have to save minds. What creates healthy communities are healthy core values. This means we have to save character. We have to save souls.

This brings us to Nehemiah 8. Nehemiah has been the primary instrument of God for the first seven chapters. One of the gang of four, which we originally talked about, Ezra is going to come center stage. Ezra was a priest and an expert in the law of God. In this chapter, we will focus on rebuilding character or core values. Nehemiah is going to build people through the word of God.

Open your Bibles to Nehemiah 8:1: "When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns (In other words, they now have safe communities and we can get down to character development.) all the people assembled with one accord in the square before the Water Gate. (I am going to point out later the significance of the Water Gate, because he tells us that several times.) They told Ezra, the teacher of the Law, to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel. (The Book of the Law of Moses is called the Pentateuch or the first five books of the Old Testament.) On the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. He read it aloud from daybreak until noon. (That was a six-hour worship service!) as he faced the square before the Water Gate, (Anytime you see something repeated, it is important, so we better find out its meaning; that is the second time we have seen Water Gate.) in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law. (Some didn't work on their grocery list at that time – all the people listened to the Book of the Law.) Ezra, the teacher of the law, stood on a high wooden platform built for the occasion. Ezra opened the Book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; (That's another thing, it keeps repeating that he is standing above them. Remember, the Bible comes out of the Hebrew world, not the Greek world, so physical action is what means the most in the Hebrew world. In the Greek world it is mental thought. This physical action means something.) He opened the Book. All the people lifted their hands and responded, 'Amen, Amen.' Then they bowed down and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground." This word went on and on, and it lists the readers in order, who took over when the one before was tired. Verse 8: "They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning, so that the people understood what was being read.

I want you to bow your head in prayer with me. I want you to hear not the words of the man, but the word of God. Open yourself right now to God's word. Ask the Spirit to make your heart attentive so that you can apply his truth to your relationships, your world, your mission. In Jesus' name, Amen.

For the word of God to imprint the soul of who you are as a person, you have to first read it. Everybody has something in their house they don't use. A musical instrument - anyone have a piano in their house that hasn't been touched for years? Anybody have any exercise equipment that you use to hang clothes on? I know that everyone in this room has a Bible somewhere in their home. Do you know the Bible is the all-time best seller? This continues to surprise me - the Bible outsells every other book published - every year!! In the world, the Bible is the most owned book, yet the most under-utilized book in most people's homes. You have seen me share this before. I brought it with me. This is the Bible I was given in 1960, in third grade Sunday school. For years I had it tucked away, gathering dust, in a nightstand next to my bed. In my senior in high school, when I didn't think I was going to graduate and I had been in a rock group that was busted, sometime during that year in high school in this sense of frustration and quest for direction, I pulled out this book. I began to read this book and that is when the transformation in my life started taking place. It wasn't because I heard it in church. I began reading this book. What was amazing was that it became a nightly ritual.

I had to put myself through college so I would go to class every day. I would report to the grocery store at 5 p.m. where I worked until 10 p.m. I came home at 10 and quickly (I do not recommend this) made two pieces of toast, cut a piece of Spam, and threw it in a frying pan with a fried egg, and had a Spam and egg sandwich with potato chips. I had a regimen going. From 10:30 to 1 a.m., I studied. From 1 to 1:30 a.m., I would read the word and then I was back in class at 8 a.m. It was amazing - the reading of this unique book that began my life transformation.

When Jesus was standing before Pilate in trial, the day before his execution,  Pilate said, "What is your business?" Jesus said, "I have come into the world to testify to the truth." Pilate asked that classic, age-old philosophical question, "What is truth?" Everyone has his or her own idea and opinion, from Rush Limbaugh to Howard Stern. Right now in our culture, spirituality is in. I saw Madonna in an interview on TV the other day about adoption. She was talking about being qualified to be a parent. She said, "I am a spiritual person." What does that mean? Today people talk about spirituality without absolutes.

Ezra is going to save the character of a civilization. The authority or truth he used is called the Book of the Law of God. We live in a universe that is governed by laws. Just like there are physical laws, like the law of gravity that we are all subject to, there are absolute spiritual and moral laws. Thou shall not kill. Somehow, in every culture around the world, that is inherent. It is woven into our being. The world agrees, it is wrong, it is an absolute evil. That is what the problem is in Sudan right now. This is what the nations of the world are trying to organize; through the U.N. Thou shall not commit adultery - that is inherent in every culture around the world. It is not that we don't do it, we break that law, but it is inherent within us that thou shall not commit adultery. If you commit adultery, it destroys relationships. Relationships are built in trust. Thou shall not steal - any time you break one of these laws, you tear the fabric of the created order that creates destruction. That is called sin.

Look at verses 4 and 5. They built a platform and Ezra was standing above all of the people reading this law of God. He is demonstrating that all ideas are not equal. Literally the people are under the wall of God. This means that all ideas are not equal, all gods are not equal, and there is a higher law, a higher authority.

Do you remember when Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness and the temptation basically came down to three things; instant gratification, recognition, and the misuse of power. Aren't we all tempted by these same three things? Jesus placed himself under the authority of the word of God. We know he had been reading it, because against all three temptations, he quoted scripture. He chose to place himself under the authoritative word of God, rather than the moral relativities of his personal passions, opinions, appetites or the morays of his culture.

You can't place yourself under the authority of God's word if you are not reading God's word. The character of the people through the word of God is first you have to read it, and second, you have to reflect on its meaning. Look at verse 3. This is a six-hour reading of the word in one day, and the people are listening attentively. That means they are reflecting on its meaning.

We live fast-food lifestyles, both physically and spiritually. I was traveling this week with Michael Pollard, who is on our staff. Wednesday night we were in the Baltimore airport waiting to catch the Airtran flight back to Dayton. I bought a chicken salad sandwich, and Michael's supper was an Auntie Ann's pretzel. Right next to our gate where we were sitting is a McDonald's, so all these business women and men were sitting there with something from McDonald's, whether it was a salad, a wrap, a Big Mac or french fries. They were talking on cell phones, working on their laptop computers and eating at the same time. I was watching people talk, check computers and papers, and taking bites out of food. They were not even cognitive of what they were eating. This can't be nutritionally healthy.

To reflect means you have to allow time to digest. If you are not reading the word and allowing time to reflect and digest the word, then the word of God never becomes the word of God for you. The Jewish people used to linger over the word of God until they said they heard the call of Yaweh - that means the word of God, when the written word becomes the living word, or the specific word for me. It is the personal word of God for you, between the lines of the written word. What is so important on reflecting are the enzymes that allow the written word to digest. Water Gate - remember, Water Gate is mentioned several times. Water is an important symbol in scripture. Water stands for baptism, washing clean. It is a symbol of the Spirit, which is what the Spirit does in our life. Jesus said you must be born again, born of the water and the Spirit. Why is the Spirit essential in digesting the written word of God in our life?

The written word, in and of itself, has some limitations. You exclaim, "What did he say!" I checked my Bible, and it will be a little different, based on the print in each of our Bibles. My Bible has 1,153 pages. You cannot contain the whole of who God is in 1,153 pages. You can't contain the whole of who God is in all the books written in the world. So what is the purpose of the written word?  Listen to this from John 20, "Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book." Wow! There are a lot of things that Jesus said and did that are not recorded in this book. But these are written down in this book that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. This book doesn't contain life; it bears witness to the one who is life. Some people worship this book. That is idolatry. This book cannot possibly contain all that is of God. The purpose of this book is not that you will find life in this book, but that you will believe in the one who is life.

This book is really a Cliff Notes version of the story of God. If all you have is this book, then you have the story of God. But, if you have the Living Word, you know the God of the story. It is like the Apostle Paul. If all you have is the story about God, then you will go out like the Apostle Paul and use it as a sort of destruction. Remember, he said that Jesus was a blasphemer and all these Christians who were following Jesus were blaspheming. He went out with a sword to kill Christians. But then he confronted the Living Word on the road to Damascus. The resurrected Jesus Christ and the Living Word became personal for the Apostle Paul. He said, "Who are you, Lord?" That is what happened when I started reading the New Testament. I was asking this question and seeing that this Jesus was different from the "religious" Jesus that I had seen in all of those goofy pictures. You know, the white dude with the red lipstick holding a lamb. "Paul said, 'Who are you, Lord?' And Jesus said, 'I am Jesus, who is alive, who has a plan and purpose for your life.' The Apostle Paul said, 'For my life? Then what should I do?'"

It is through the Living Word that you discover the God of the written word. Jesus' disciples had the written word, but after the resurrection, Jesus, the Living Word, opened their eyes to understand the scriptures. It is so dangerous without the Living Word that people used the written word for centuries to support slavery. They pointed to the words "Slaves, be subject to your master." Without the Living Word, people will use the written word to subjugate women - to make women less than men. That is why you hear me say this is a dangerous book. It can only be read under the guidance of the Spirit. It is why you hear that emphasis that he did it before the Water Gate.    

For the word to impact my life I have to read it. Secondly, I have to reflect on it and allow time to digest it. I also have to respond to God's real truth in it. In verse 6, it says they immediately bowed down and worshipped. When they read the word and reflected on the meaning of the word, and heard the voice of God for themselves, then they responded to the truth in it. True worship is right alignment of my heart's focus. You have heard me say this before. It only takes me about 24 hours to lose a healthy fear of God. I have to begin every morning reading the written word, reflecting on the written word, and allowing the written word of Jesus to reveal its meaning for me.

I can bow down to exercise - to healthy things in our life. I was working on my message Friday morning, and I was thinking, "I have to get to the gym." Why is my mind screwing with my work, about getting to the gym? Because I am bowing down, I am beginning to worship this thing called exercise. Do you see how this can happen? Why do we realign our heart focus? I can bow down to my job - and that is easy to do in ministry. You can begin to worship ministry, instead of worshipping the Lord of ministry. Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there your heart is also." So, when I am confronted with God's truth, it allows me to redirect my energy, my resources and values, and then make practical life applications.

Look with me at verse 8: "They read from the Book of the Law, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read." In Hebrew, that means so the people could apply what was being read. The word of God is not written for knowledge. It is written so you can apply it to prosper in God's purpose for your life.

Listen to what is says in 2 Timothy, "All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness (here is the part I want you to get) so that all God's people may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." When I realign my focus, I can take the truth of the word and apply it to the worth of my marriage, to healthy parenting, to my work and to my finances, beginning with the tithe. God does not give us this book to frustrate us. God loves you, he doesn't want to frustrate you, but protect you and provide for you, and lead you into the prosperous purpose of his presence and his will, and his godliness in your life.

At the beginning of summer is when we put things on cruise. We go off diets, and all the things that we know are healthy. There is no better time to re-examine the purpose of the word in your life. When you look at the last seven days, how has the word of God been an active part in your life? Can you imagine if I would have had only one meal this week? If your only exposure to the word is coming here once a week, and the last time you had the word in your life was last week, that is like going to a restaurant and reading the menu, but you never get the meal. I am just a menu. I need to train you to leave this place and to make the word of God an active part of your daily life. We are doing everything we can to help you grow in the word, or use the word. We give you the Transformation Journal every week in the bulletin. I use it every day in my life. You also can download this from the internet - you can even do it on the internet. On a weekly basis, you can go deeper. Bowie Bible Study meets most Wednesday nights and Mike goes deeper, based on what I have done on the weekend. That is just another way to repeat or reaffirm the word in your life.

I want you to do something right now. As a follower of Jesus, all laws aren't equal.  All ideas are not equal. You have to be submitted. There is a higher law. You have to be under the authority of that law. You cannot be under the authority of that law if you are not studying the law and practicing that law.

Lord, we stand before You, some with joy, others with heavy hearts, some with depression, some conflicted, some caught in sin that we don't know how to get out of. You are the Savior, the Deliverer, the Great Physician, the Creator. Lord, I pray for every need represented in this room, and that it will network out through our families and our relationships. We pray that You will meet each and every need and that You will heal us in the deepest places of our need. Lord, for the one who is caught in an addiction or sin that they cannot be free of, we pray now in the name of Jesus to be loosed, that evil has no sway or power over us. In Jesus' name, be free; in Jesus' name be well; in Jesus' name we claim resurrection in our relationships; in Jesus' name we claim spiritual health for our children; in Jesus' name we pray for peace in Darfur, in Jesus' name we pray for the salvation of the world. It is in Jesus' name that we go as free people. Amen.