Pastor Bowie was sharing with me that he was talking with a pastor in Dayton and the pastor said to Bowie, "It's like you people at Ginghamsburg think you can change the world. And you're doing it!" To be the church of Jesus Christ in the world means exactly that. We're not sitting back and waiting for Jesus to return and letting the rest of the world go to hell. We believe that God is a God of restoration, a God of renewal and every person who makes a commitment to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord becomes part of that rebuilding movement.

We're going to begin with a question. In 2007, do you think, in American, that more people are connected to the church than in 1800? Obviously there are many more people, so I'm talking about percentage. In America, today, it's around 30-34% who are connected to the church. In this area it's 26 -27%. In 1800, 4% of people were connected to the church. We're still living off the fumes of what happened in 1800. Let me tell you a little thing that happened between 1800 and 1830. It was called the Great Awakening. People had fallen away in tremendous numbers from God. There were some preachers, one by the name of Charles Finney, another Lyman Beecher that God began to work through. There was revival in American as people repented and returned in great numbers to faith. It also had social consequences because the abolitionist's movement came out of this church. Some of you have heard of Harry Beecher Stowe in Uncle Tom's Cabin, she's related to Lyman Beecher of this same movement. All throughout history and, as matter of fact, in American history, there have been two Great Awakenings. One was in the 1700s with a man by the name of Jonathan Edwards in New England. The second Great Awakening was when Methodists and Baptists flew across this country. That's why you see a Methodist and Baptist church in almost every county in America. What happens is that God's Spirit moves and the church repents and first and foremost seeks the presence of God and to be the hands and feet of God in the world. After repentance, and we study this throughout history and the world, God always pours out blessings and demonstrates his power in abundance. What happens spiritually - think of Thanksgiving Day when you've eaten a great meal. After the meal, you become lethargic. And there's this cycle of God's people repenting and the outpouring of God's blessing and power. They experience that blessing and power in abundance and then they become lethargic and forget the greatest need is the pursuit of God's presence and purpose through the word of God. When you forget that your greatest need is to pursue God's purpose and presence through the word of God, you begin to substitute the pursuit of happiness for the pursuit of God.

In Nehemiah 8, we've built the walls, now it's time to build the character of the people. We are in the second week of a three-week series on building Godly character through the word. Open your Bibles with me to Nehemiah 8:9-12. Remember the people had been reading the word for six hours, reflecting on the word and responding to the word. What happens when we commit ourselves to serious study of the word on a daily basis? Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, 'This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.' For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law." When you allow the word to penetrate your life on a daily basis, the word has the power of conviction.

Last week, I showed you the Bible I received when I was nine years old and had tucked it away until I was a senior in high school. When I began to read that word on a daily basis, something began to happen in my life. I became aware of brokenness in my life that I wasn't aware of before. And I become aware that only God could do things that I was truly seeking. Listen to what it says in Hebrews 4:12. "For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword . . ." It doesn't say that the word is a sword; it says that it's sharper than a double-edged sword. What's sharper than a double-edged sword? A scalpel. A sword is used for condemnation - a scalpel used for healing. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. When I allow the word to be part of my everyday life, it gets to those places that are unresolved inside of me that I've repressed and often not even aware of. Any time you're not allowing the word to penetrate the core of who you are, "religion" never gets to the unresolved stuff. It's why so many religious people only go so far and they appear to be hypocrites. It's what Jesus called the Pharisees. The Pharisees were zealous about the law of God. They would fight for the word of God, but he said the Pharisees were like whitewashed tombs. On the outside they did all of these religious things and had the appearance of being very spiritual but on the inside there was nothing but death. And here's the problem: religion creates self-righteousness. I'm right, you're wrong. When you're dealing with religion, you're always pointing out the splinter that is in your sister or brother's eye and you are never dealing with the beam that is in your eye. It is why the Pharisees had such problems with Jesus. It's why ultimately the religious people crucified Jesus. They didn't get it. Here's what they said about Jesus, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." What kind of God would advocate hanging out with unclean people? Who would advocate hanging with sinful people? When the word convicts me and the real issue of having the word work in my life every day, the real problem is not the Muslims, or the homosexuals. The real problem is the stuff that is unresolved in me that God wants to deal with so that I can begin to love as Jesus Christ loves in the world.

What we see when we allow the word to really become a scalpel of healing is that God is not a God of condemnation but a God of celebration. Look with me at verse 10. We already know that the word has convicted them because they were weeping. Now look at what he tells them to do. "Go enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those that have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." That is what I call the key verse of our study. When we quit understanding our need to pursue the presence of God and the purpose of God through the word, we began to substitute happiness for the pursuit of godliness. Happiness is not the goal. Joy is the goal. The joy of the Lord is your strength. "The Levites calmed all of the people, saying, 'Be still, for this is a holy day. Do not grieve.' Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understand the words that had been made known to them." What happens when you understand the words that the Spirit makes known to you is that you realize that God is not a God of condemnation but a God of celebration.

This is what has so ticked off the religious folks: of the metaphors that Jesus loved to use for the kingdom of God was the metaphor of party. God is a God of party. Religious people get upset if music is too loud. You have to understand again that we have institutionalized and churchized Jesus, but Jesus is something that stands in stark contrast to religious traditions and norms. When the Pharisees were using the Bible to show why you don't hang out with unclean people, Jesus was saying that you have eyes, but you don't see, ears to hear but you don't understand. He was saying they didn't know how to interpret the Bible. I'm trusting you're here because you want to go to the next level in your life, so I'm going to get big on you. I'm going to trust that we should do graduate level work here. Is anybody comfortable to stay where you are or do you want to go to the next level with God?

We need to recover a Jesus hermeneutic in the church before the world is ever going to take the church seriously again, before there is going to be another renewal. Hermeneutic means how you see the scripture. Remember what Jesus said, "You have eyes to see but you're not seeing, you have ears to hear but you're not really hearing what God wants to do." This is where everyone was until Jesus - and where most of the church still is today. If you have a religious interpretation, then you read the Bible as a legal document. And if you understand the Bible as a legal document, you see God as judge. From a Jesus hermeneutic, or a Jesus interpretation, he does not see the Bible as a legal document, but as a relational testimony. If you interpret the Bible relationally instead of legally, then you see God as Father. If you are looking at God as judge, that will affect everything of how you understand God, God's purpose, who you are and who other people are. But when you understand God as Father, everything you read in the word is the opposite. So if you come from a legal interpretation, you're focus is on commandments, the Bible is a book of commandments. If you approach the Bible relationally, as Jesus did, then it's not about commandment, it's about covenant. There is a word in the Bible called hesed. It's Hebrew, and it means unfailing or unbreakable love. Many times in the Psalms, if you're reading, "Your love endures forever" that's the hesed word. It means nothing can change God's love toward you or anyone else in the world. Or, "Your unfailing love, O Lord." That is the Hebrew word hesed. If you come from a legal perspective, the Bible is a book of commandments. If you come from a relational perspective, it's a testimony of covenant of God's unfailing, unbreakable love. From a legal perspective, it's about condemning the lost, but from the relational perspective, from a father point-of-view, it's about saving the lost. We all know the scripture, John 3:16, it's my favorite one, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." We ought to memorize 17, very few people memorize 17. It says, "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." If you are looking at the Bible as a legal document, where you see God as judge, then it's about punishment and warning of punishment. But if you understand the Bible relationally, it's not about punishment, it's about discipline. A loving parent disciplines their children. Not punish children to break or condemn them, but it disciplines children to create success. If you're looking at the word as a legal document, you understand people as virtually slaves, servants of God; but from a relational document, we're the children. Jesus said, "I call you friends." The friends of God. Do you understand why religious people were incensed and said to nail his behind to the cross?

Here's the next one and this is the one that pushed them over the line. In the Jewish Orthodox community, when you talk about God, you say YHWH (spelling the letters). Let's say you're talking to me about God, you'd say in the name of God. In ancient Jewish times they would say YHWH. They never spelled out the whole name. They left out the vowels. We believe they left out the vowels A and E and we believe it was Yahweh. Some of the Bibles said Jehovah. Jehovah was trying to translate YHWH, but it's a wrong translation. We think it was Yahweh. Jesus came into this religious culture and said, "No, it's not YHWH, it's Abba. He went past Father here. Abba was the Aramaic word which was the common language of the people. If you were in Hebrew school, you spoke Hebrew. But the common everyday language in your house was Aramaic. It was what a child would use, a term of endearment, it was papa or daddy. If you see God relationally and understand that it's not commandment, but covenant, and that God is not a God who punishes, but disciplines, then we can come as a little child in trust saying Abba. If you see the book as a legal document, it is a warning of death. If you see it relationally, God is God of life, resurrecting life, restoring life, not willing to leave any life in death. If you understand the scripture as a legal document, you experience God through rigid religious ritual; but if you understand it relationally, God is a God of party. Happiness is an illusion. There is a difference between happiness and joy. It says in this passage, "This day is sacred to the Lord; do not grieve. For the joy of the Lord is your strength." Happiness is based on temporal external circumstances. "I'll be happy when the results of my cancer test come back and they say the cancer has been eradicated." "I'll be happy when this divorce settlement is over." "I'll be happy when we get out from under the burden of this debt." Happiness is based on temporal external circumstances. Joy is found in God.

Here's the key to life: this day is holy to the Lord. The key to life is when you realize that every day is God's day and you commit yourself to live in such a way that gives God joy. The joy of the Lord is my strength, so when I do the things that give him joy, when I live in such a way that it blesses God, that is my strength, my joy, my meaning. This is what it says about Jesus in Hebrews 12:2, "For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, . . ." The cross wasn't about happiness. He was willing to endure the cross, and by enduring the cross, he gave the Father joy. And by giving the Father joy, that was the strength of Jesus' life. ". . . and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." The right hand of the throne of God, that's the power of God and the joy of God in your life. That's assuming that everyone is right-handed, that's the strong hand - it's not saying you're wrong if you're left-handed. The Spirit of the word, the power of the word convicts and brings us to that place of truly celebrating of what the gift of life is all about.

Here's the third part. The Spirit through the word connects us to God's purpose in the lives of others. Look with me in verse 10. "Go and enjoy choice food." Choice food means the best. If I look at the Bible relationally, I'm a dad; I know what it means to bless my kids. I want to give my kids the best. If I look at it legally, I'm going to think of it as rations. When I look at it relationally, I'm going to think of the best. Go and enjoy choice foods and sweet drinks and send some to those who have nothing prepared. The Spirit through the word doesn't let you sit around and enjoy the blessings of God. For people who can't afford the party, we take the party to them.

I love this church. The only reason I'm in this church is because this is a recovery church, it's for people like me, The twelfth step of the recovery program says, "Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we try to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs." It's not enough to just experience God's healing and health in our own life. We don't experience joy until we carry that healing and health to the life of other people.
This is my last time I'm going to speak to you for a few weeks because I am going to the Sudan. So the next time you see me will be after I've returned home. In three weeks, I'm going to be teaching on when life doesn't make sense because that's what comes up next in Nehemiah and I'm going to be where life's not making sense. I'm doing something that we've never done. I'm giving you our itinerary while we're in the Sudan because I need you to pray and know what to pray each day.

We're going to arrive in Sudan on Friday, June 15. On Saturday, June 16, we're going to go through our UMCOR security briefing in Khartoum. We'll meet with Sudan's vice president and he is going to tell us his illusion of the west and that nothing is really happening and no one is really dying. Later, we will meet with our United Nations representative.

On Sunday, June 17, we fly to Darfur and Sunday and Monday we'll be on the ground in Darfur and that's the most critical dangerous time. We will make courtesy calls with local officials - if you don't report to one of these officials within 24 hours of coming into their tribal territory, you could be subject to death. A courtesy call is really just letting them know we're in their area. So pray for that. We will visit the Khor Omer IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) girl's youth skills center, one of our vocational schools. We're then going to one of our kindergartens. The only meal those kindergarteners get all day long is the one they are fed in the morning in our kindergartens. Then we're going to the Ed Daein boy's youth skills center and to the El Naeem IDP camp's temporary school. All are funded by The Sudan Project. We will spend the night in Darfur. Please pray for our safety in Darfur and also for the equipment we will use to capture the pictures and story for you.

On Monday, June 18, we will travel to the town of Adilla for a courtesy call with local officials, visit the Algora permanent classrooms and a safe water project, and then return to Khartoum. Tuesday, June 19, and Wednesday, June 20, we will tour Khartoum and its markets, meet with Sudan's Minister of Humanitarian Affairs/Minister of Health, have a trip/project debrief with UMCOR, and depart for the U.S. The team arrives back in Dayton on Thursday, June 21. Our time zone in Sudan will be seven hours ahead of you. Will you covenant with me to pray? Commit to personal daily and urgent prayer on the team's behalf. Thank you for your faithfulness.

I'm not sitting around waiting for Jesus to come back and condemning the rest of the world to hell. God doesn't want anyone to perish. I want to take everyone with me. Our job is Nehemiah work. Our basic work is building economy, schools and water safety; but true transformation can only happen in Jesus Christ. We have to witness in word and deed. God wants to do a great thing.

Let's pray. Father, we are so thankful for this feast (communion) You lay before us and the incredible blessings You have for us in our lives. But, we are not content to feast at this table by ourselves. We want to take the party to those who have none. For this, Father, we come and we give You thanks. We pray for revival in our homes, our church, our communities and in our world. Amen.