Background:
In the Old Testament Sacred Assemblies were usually associated with Jewish holy days like the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
At the Sacred assemblies the spiritual leaders would call God’s people to confess and repent of their sins. They were meant to renew their covenant relationship with the Lord and return to Him in faithfulness and obedience.
They were times of worship and sacrifice and fasting and opportunities to renew their fellowship with God. God’s people have always tended to depart from Him and from obeying His commands.
Spiritual leaders knew that the sacred assembly was a time of corporate repentance in the face of God’s righteous judgment. And when God’s people truly turned to God for repentance often revival would spring out from those sacred assemblies.
Sometimes God’s leaders wouldn’t wait for a Jewish holiday to arrive. If they felt the need to call God’s people together into a special Sacred Assembly they would.
The prophet Joel did this. God’s people had experienced great destruction from swarms of locusts because they hadn’t been faithful to the Lord. As a spiritual leader, Joel knew the remedy was to call God’s people to return to Him through a Sacred Assembly.
Joel 1:13-14; 2:12-13,15-16
God’s people weren’t being faithful in taking care of their spiritual responsibilities. And God said that the real issue wasn’t that the people weren’t doing what they were supposed to do. They weren’t, but that wasn’t the real issue.
The real issue was that their hearts weren’t right. God said, “Instead of tearing your clothes as a sign of contrition, if you want to tear something, tear your hearts cause that’s where the problem lies.
Your hearts aren’t right with me. Return your hearts to me and then we can get somewhere.” And the people responded, God heard their prayers, forgave them, and restored their land.
We’ve called this Sacred Assembly for our church for a number of different reasons:
- We’re at the beginning of a new ministry year and now is a good
time to join ourselves together in commitment to God before all the outreaches and disciple-making events of the next 9 months.
- To unify our entire congregation before the Lord. God blesses
churches that are unified – not churches that are divided.
- Because we long for God to bring revival into our lives, our church, and this community.
This Sacred Assembly is based on the one called by Nehemiah. Before we begin let’s sing this old hymn together.
Band: “Come Thou Fount”
In the book of Nehemiah it tells the story of how God called a man to go to Jerusalem and lead the people in a great building project. That man was Nehemiah.
And the building project was the walls around the city. Jerusalem had once been one of the most beautiful cities in all the world. In King Solomon’s days we’re told that gold was as common as rocks.
And Jerusalem was the capital city of God’s people, the Jews. But God’s people had forsaken him and over a period of hundreds of years God passed judgment on His unrepentant people.
Eventually he allowed a foreign nation, Babylon, to defeat Judah in battle and destroy Jerusalem. They killed a large percentage of the population. Many who weren’t killed were deported and resettled back in Babylon.
Only a very small remnant of the poorest people were left to live in the land. But 70 years later God sent a remnant back from Babylon to live in Jerusalem and they rebuilt the temple so they could once again have a place of worship.
And then several years later God sent Nehemiah to Jerusalem to lead the people in rebuilding the walls around the city. Throughout the course of that building project there were lots of distractions and obstacles.
People from the surrounding nations didn’t like it and they threatened to start a war with them. They ridiculed them and did everything they could to discourage the project.
Even some of their very own people were against rebuilding the walls. So Nehemiah was leading the people with attacks and opposition from without, and dissention and complaining from within.
But in spite of all that God blessed and the walls were completed in 52 days. And when it was over Nehemiah brought the people together in a Sacred Assembly.
Now that they had the temple rebuilt and now that the city had walls again, the people had what they needed to begin to prosper again and to become the righteous nation that God had wanted them to be.
Everything was in place except a spiritual revival. The people had to want to serve God. The people had to want to separate from sin and separate from the world and honor God first and foremost and be obedient to him.
So here’s what they did. Listen to Nehemiah 9:1-3.
They: Gathered together,
Fasted,
Read from God’s Law,
Confessed their sins,
Worshiped
We’re gathering here tonight like the people under Nehemiah. We’ve fasted this week and this morning and this evening we have read from God’s Law.
Only when we read and study the Bible do we understand our need to confess our sins. Only when we look into God’s Word do we understand that God is holy and that we must live holy lives for Him.
This morning we studied Romans 12:1-2 where God asks us to give ourselves on the altar - soul, body, mind and will as our spiritual act of worship to God.
And when we come face to face with a holy God as revealed in His Word we realize that we need to confess our sin before Him. We need to come clean so that His hand of blessing will be on us.
Worship came last. It came last because only when we truly confess our sins to God and come clean before him can we have a right relationship with Him. And only when we’re right with God can we truly worship unincumbered by sin.
I long to have God’s hand of blessing on my life, and my family and on this church body. I long for God to use us in this sinful world we’re living in as beacons of light and righteousness.
And that’s why this evening we’ve called this Sacred Assembly. To give everyone here a chance to hear God’s Word, confess our sins to Him, worship Him with clean hearts and leave this place going out into the world as witnesses taking the light of God out into our neighborhoods, our places of work, and our community.
The rest of Nehemiah chapter 9 recounts God faithfulness to His people down through the years. Folks, God has been faithful to us. He has never let us down. He has never failed to provide for us.
He has been faithful to this church now for the 12 years that we have been here in Norwalk. If you would agree with that, say, “Amen”.
Since God has been faithful to us I’m calling us to in turn be faithful to Him. I’m calling everyone here to commit ourselves anew to honoring Him in every area of our lives. And it begins with our spiritual leaders.
Listen as we hear from Nehemiah once again. Read Nehemiah 9:38; 10:28-39.
In these verses were 5 areas of commitment that the people were making. They said in Nehemiah 10:29 that they were going to follow the Law of God. They were pledging to obey the Word of God.
Tonight I’m going to ask you review your life. As best as you know how, are you obeying the Word of God in your daily life? If not, I’m asking you to commit yourself tonight to faithfully following the Word of God.
Secondly in verse 30 it says they were not going to allow their children to intermarry with the godless people around them. That’s a commitment to purity. I’m asking you tonight to commit to living a life of purity in reverence to God.
Third, in verse 31 it says that they would uphold the Sabbath as a day of rest and worship. I’m asking you tonight to commit to honoring the Lord’s day and not forsaking being here with your church family every Sunday.
Fourth, in verses 32-37 it says they would be faithful to tithe and give their offerings so that the service of the temple could be properly maintained. I’m asking you tonight to commit to honoring God with your tithes and offerings so that His work here at FCC can be properly taken care of.
And finally in verse 39 that they would do everything they could to take care of the temple so that proper worship of the Lord would continue effectively.
I’m asking you tonight to commit to likewise taking care of God’s temple so that worship of him will continue effectively in our personal lives and in our church as a whole.
Now, we’re going to spend some time in personal reflection and confession. We’ve set up 6 prayer stations around the room - one for each of these 5 areas of commitment and the cross here at the front.
Take a look at your notes. (Read paragraph)
At each station there will be one of our elders and at least one prayer partner. If you would like someone just to pray with you or pray a blessing over you, that’s why they’re there. Please feel free to ask them to pray with you.
Bow your head and close your eyes.
PRAY
When you are ready, feel free to move about and go to any or all of the stations. If you want to sit where you are and pray this handout you can do that. If you want to come up to the cross and pray you can do that.
When the band begins to sing we’re going to ask you to return to your seats and our elders are going to lead us in a prayer of corporate confession.
PRAYER STATIONS
BAND: Song
(Introduce with 2 Chronicles 7:14)
CORPORATE CONFESSION OF SINS (ELDERS) – STANDING
WORSHIP SET
CLOSING
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