“6-Hour Church Service” – FBC Morning Light (10/10/2024)

Well, a good Thursday morning to you. Have you ever been through a revival in your church, in your personal experience, in your walk with Christ?

We have a record of that kind of a thing in Nehemiah in our Bible reading. Yesterday, we read chapters 7 and 8, and chapter 8 began the revival, and chapter 9, it continues.

Chapter 8, it begins with the preaching of the Word and people responding properly to the

Word. They're convicted, they mourn, their mourning is turned to joy because God has met with them,

God has convicted and challenged them, and God isn't done with them, therefore they're joyful and rejoicing.

They respond to God's Word with obedience. They hear what God says to do, and they respond with obedience.

The revival continues, if you will, in chapters 9 and 10, actually, reading today.

It begins with an extended worship service.

Did you notice that in verse 3, it says the preachers, if you will, stood in their place and they read from the book of the law of the

Lord their God, and they did so for a fourth of the day. After that fourth of the day was over, it says they then confessed and worshipped the

Lord their God. I'm not sure if the day here is talking about a 24 -hour period of time or the daylight hours.

Either way, that's probably longer than any single church service you've been in.

Let's take the shorter of the two. Let's assume it's the 12 hours of daylight, and for a fourth of those 12 hours, or three hours, the preachers preached the

Word. They didn't then just dismiss everybody and have a closing prayer and go home.

They spent the next three hours in confession and prayer and worship of the

Lord. What an incredible time. They weren't there aggravated and antsy to get out of there.

There was clearly an attitude of, we want to be here.

We want to experience what God has for us in this situation, and they're there joyfully.

This is the experience, I think, when revival comes to a church. Time is rather inconsequential.

We're not burdened about getting out of there by 1145 or whatever. It's a joyous occasion.

It's also a worshipful occasion. But I want you to notice the worship, the nature of the worship that comes out here, beginning in verse 5 of chapter 9, and the focus of that worship.

Unfortunately, so much of so -called worship that occurs in churches today is really more us -oriented.

It's focusing on our feelings, and how we're so blessed, and all of these kinds of things, rather than focusing on God.

And yet the worship that's happening here in this time of revival is very much a

God -centered worship. They're focusing on the Lord, and look at some of the things that they're focusing on.

His glorious works of creation, His work of election, and redemption, and the preservation of God's people,

His grace in revealing Himself to us, to His people, in the fulfillment, praising

God for the fulfillment of His promises, praising Him for His judgment, and then not only

His works, but His character. He's a God who is ready to forgive.

He's gracious and merciful. He's slow to anger. He's abounding in hesed, in that covenant love.

He is faithful. And then when all of this worship of God transpires, it culminates with God's people in corporate prayer, presenting themselves to the

Lord in willing consecration and commitment to Him. I would suggest that this is a great model for our weekly gatherings as God's people.

Maybe not to the extent, I don't want to be so unrealistic as to say that every

Sunday is a Revival Sunday, where we gather for six hours, and it's just like time stands still.

No, this is an exceptional thing. I understand that. But I think when it comes to the body of what's going on here,

I think it's a wonderful objective for us as God's people to want to get together on the

Lord's Day to enjoy and relish in the hearing of God's Word, in the praying together unto our

God, confessing our sins, and appealing to Him, and worshiping Him for His character, for who

He is, for what He has done, and doing so both in prayer and in our hymnody, our singing.

We have a time of God -centered worship that all culminates in our commitment to Him.

So we walk out of that service on the Lord's Day with a renewed determination and a desire to live for Christ, to serve

Christ, to be pleasing to Christ with all of our lives. Nothing wrong with that.

I think that's a very reasonable thing that we should desire and long for as we gather with God's people.

I hope you'll long for that this coming Lord's Day. If you long for it, I wouldn't be surprised if that's not exactly what you experience.

Well, let's ask God to bless us in that desire. And so we do, Father. We pray that in our churches we would relish the preaching of the

Word, we would delight ourselves in being willing to confess our sins, and to pray to You, and worship

You, and exalt You, and in the end commit ourselves to You. Give us that spirit, we pray, in our churches, and we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen. All right. Lord bless you with a good Thursday. Hope you have a good one. God bless.