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

Faith Baptist Church

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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?

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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It begins with an extended worship service.

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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

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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

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

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

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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

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

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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.

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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

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

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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.

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