Connect

Guest (Male): This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Thanks for joining us today. At Connect with Skip, we love helping you understand God's word and apply it to your life through clear, practical Bible teaching and real encouragement.

If you'd like help to keep growing in your walk with Jesus, sign up for Pastor Skip's free weekly devotional. You'll receive biblical insight, teaching highlights, and exclusive resources designed to help you stay strong in your faith, all delivered right to your inbox.

Signing up is quick and easy, and you'll be glad you did. Go to connectwithskip.com and join the list today. That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig.

Skip Heitzig: Nehemiah chapter 10. Let's turn to Nehemiah chapter 10 for our continuation of this study, City in Shambles. There was a couple in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a dream of theirs to have a vacation in New York City to attend a Broadway play, so they got tickets well in advance to *Phantom of the Opera* at the Majestic Theater on Broadway. By the way, that play played continuously in New York for 35 years.

They wanted to go. They got tickets, flew to New York, and planned their vacation around it. They were so excited. They walk in the theater, and their seats were seven rows back, right in front of the orchestra pit. Great seats. The place was packed, every seat taken, except one. That was the seat right next to them, and then after the empty seat, another gentleman was sitting.

They enjoyed the first half of the play. Halftime intermission came, and the man from Atlanta leaned over across the gap, the empty seat, to the other gentleman. He said, "Can you believe that there's an empty seat at this play? It took us months to get tickets. It's so hard to get in. I can't believe there would be an empty seat, especially here."

The other gentleman said, "Well, actually, that's my seat. My wife and I loved to come to the theater. We made it a regular practice, but she has recently died, so the seat is empty, but I have come." The man from Atlanta said, "I'm so sorry for your loss, but surely you would find a friend or a relative, somebody who would want that seat." The man from New York said, "Oh, no. They're all at the funeral."

Do you think he had misplaced priorities? Theater over the funeral of his wife? One of our biggest struggles is priorities in life, learning to put first things first. Most of us spend too much time with the urgent rather than with the important. There's a little booklet out called *The Urgent vs. The Important*, and the author makes that statement: that we spend so much time with the urgent rather than what is important.

Essentially, that has been happening here. The people of Israel are back in the land rebuilding the city of Jerusalem. 52 days, they set their shoulders to the work. They complete the work. They rebuild the walls. They repair the gates. It was urgent that they do that. They had to get it done. They urgently gave themselves to the task at hand because there were enemies around them who did not want it built, and they were at great danger. That is urgent.

Chapter 10, there's a pivot to what is important. Nehemiah chapter 10 is one of the most significant events in the history of God's people because it's a spiritual reckoning. They have a crisis. The crisis leads to a commitment. The commitment leads to a covenant. They establish their priorities. They say, "There are certain things that are essential, important, vital. We're going to do those things."

Nehemiah chapter 10, to put it in the words of Jesus, they are now seeking first the kingdom of God. Or to put it in the words of Paul in Romans chapter 12, they are presenting their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Do not be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of your mind. That's what's happening here. Their mind is transformed, and they're going to make some changes.

You should know that for hundreds of years, generation after generation, what they are about to enter into and do, they have not done in their past, and they realize that. They just sort of have floated along as God's people. They had lip service but not a lifestyle. They were, in the words of Jesus, for hundreds of years, they were lukewarm.

They went to church, the temple, sporadically. They kept the Sabbath periodically. They gave of their income inconsistently. They prayed and they worshipped intermittently. God was not at the center of their lives. That's their history. God was not at the center of their families. Until now. All of that changes now.

You know my testimony. I was raised in a religious home. I had first holy communion, I had confirmation, I did all the rituals. I was not saved during that time. But when I was saved, when I genuinely committed my life to Christ, everything changed. Attitudes changed, goals changed, actions changed, motives changed, appetites changed, my friends changed. I even had a different family, a spiritual family. Everything in my life was radically different.

Now, Nehemiah chapter 10, and we're going to read from verse 28 down. This is a good place to start for any family, for any marriage, for any person. I'm going to give you four priorities, four essentials that they decided they must keep. These are first things first. Chapter 10 is a collective mission statement, and it's good for a family, for a marriage, for an individual. A collective mission statement. The leaders are saying, "This is how we're going to do life together."

Let me give you just a little note about this. I know we haven't even begun yet, but this is initiated by the men of the congregation of Israel. The men are the leaders. They step up, they man up, and they make a decision that life's going to be different in their homes and in their nation.

Can you imagine if after church on a Sunday, women, don't elbow your husbands right now, if your husband came home from church and he said, "You know, the Lord really spoke to me. I'm really convicted, and things are going to change around this house. I'm going to make some changes in my personal life in terms of going to church, in terms of reading the Bible. You're going to have a different husband after today. Kids, you're going to have a different father after today." Can you imagine the changes that would occur in any community if the men did that?

Now, we are not going to read verse 1 through 27. Look down and tell me why. Right, that's why. 84 names are given in 27 verses. By the way, if you're looking for a name for your child, do not pick any of these names. Except maybe Nehemiah. He's pretty famous there. 84 names, beginning with Nehemiah. The list includes priests, Levites, various leaders.

Now, why did they do this? Well, they did this because, and when I say do this, they're signing their names to a document. They're putting their name on the dotted line. A pledge to keep a list of priorities. They do this because they have just rehearsed their history starting with chapter 8, and the law was read. It was that long worship service, six-hour worship service, and the people heard the word. They got convicted, and then they prayed to God in chapter 9. Now, they sign this document and make these priorities.

So, it's a public ceremony. They make a public commitment. And here's the first item of business for them. The first priority that they say we must keep is scriptural authority. We're going to have scriptural authority in our families, in our lives, in our nation.

Verse 28: "Now the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the Nethinim, all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, and everyone who had knowledge and understanding, these joined with their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse and an oath to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God and His ordinances and His statutes."

What they're saying is we're going to obey the Bible. We're going back to the Bible. We're going to obey the scriptures. That's going to be the authority in our lives. They were obviously affected by what Ezra had read. Ezra was the priest who stood up in Nehemiah chapter 8 and read the law for several hours. So, expositional teaching did its thing, made its mark.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Every day, friends like you help bring clear, verse-by-verse Bible teaching to people searching for truth in a world that often feels confused, divided, and uncertain.

And this month, we want to thank you with a powerful resource designed for times like these. When you give, you'll receive City in Shambles, Pastor Skip's complete 18-message study through Nehemiah on CD plus digital download.

In these messages, you'll discover how God works in seasons of spiritual and cultural collapse, how prayer and obedience become the starting point for renewal, and how ordinary believers can respond with faith instead of fear.

We'll send this resource as our thanks when you give $50 or more to support Connect with Skip Heitzig. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com/offer. Now, here's a special invitation for you.

Skip Heitzig: Hi, I'm Skip Heitzig, Pastor of Calvary Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the author of the devotional *Soaring Above It All*. If you're a believer who longs to see the big picture of God's word, but maybe you've felt overwhelmed or you've been unable to make all the pieces of God's story fit together, I wrote *Soaring Above It All* for you.

From Genesis to Revelation, I've highlighted the Bible's big picture, distilling key passages, events, people, themes, and significance. This approachable overview of scripture will help you stay engaged in God's word daily.

My hope is that as you read through the Bible, this devotional will enable you to better understand God's truth and His heart and plan for your life. Preorder your copy now on Amazon or wherever books are sold.

Guest (Male): Now, let's return to today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig.

Skip Heitzig: The word of God, it says, you know this verse in Hebrews 4:12, "The word of God is alive, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart."

Let me read it to you in the New Living Translation: "The word of God is full of living power. It's sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our inmost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are." They felt that power. They felt exposed. They felt convicted, and they are motivated to change. Their first change is we're going back to the Bible.

Now, they had not been doing this, as I mentioned, for years, for generations. They were God's people, yes. They were not living according to God's principles. And they say that's going to change. Now, you may say you're a believer. But are you a Bible-believing follower? Are you a Bible-reading, Bible-acting, Bible-practicing believer?

You know that verse in Psalm 119? David said concerning the word of God, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light unto my path." You ever wonder what that actually means, to say it's a lamp and a light to my path, my feet? What he's saying is, I'm going to navigate my life according to your word. I'm going to make my choices, my decisions according to the word of God.

This priority, this first priority, what you're going to notice is the foundational priority they make, which will now dictate how they're going to live life in other areas, like their dating relationships, their marriage relationships, their worship responsibility, their financial responsibility. But it all begins here with the scripture.

Now, if your Bible is open, if this is the only day your Bible is open right now, your life will show it. How many of you remember the song "If You're Happy and You Know It," "If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands"? Everyone remember that song? "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands." Okay, that's enough.

If you're happy and you know it, then your life will surely show it. I'm going to add a verse to that. If you have a Bible and you know it, then your life will surely show it. Now, if this is the only day you open your Bible, your life will show it. If you have a Bible that you keep at home and it just sort of sits there and it looks good on your coffee table, and you put names of your family in it and press flowers in it, and then once a week bring it to church, not a good plan.

I'm going to share with you something I discovered this week. It blew my mind. The Center for Bible Engagement, it's called the Center for Bible Engagement. It's part of Back to the Bible ministry started back in the 1930s by Theodore Epp, great organization. They did a survey, and they conducted the survey not with 20 people, not with 200 people, not with a thousand people. A survey of listen: 400,000 people.

It was a very long and extensive study. It was a 400,000-person study regarding Bible reading habits and the impact of the Bible in their daily lives. Here is the key takeaway from that study. The key takeaway they called the Power of Four effect, the Power of Four. And here's the bottom line. Those who read the Bible between one day and three days a week see almost nothing change, minimal changes in their life.

However, once you go over into day four, after four days of regular Bible engagement, everything changes. Those who engage with the scripture four or more times a week are 228% more likely to share their faith with others, 407% more likely to memorize scripture, 59% less likely to view pornography, 30% less likely to struggle with loneliness, 74% less likely to gamble, 231% more likely to disciple others, experience a 60% decrease in feelings of spiritual stagnation, a 32% decrease in anger, and a 40% decrease in bitterness in personal relationships.

The Power of Four days or more of engaging in the scripture. I remember when I was a brand new believer, I heard this little clever statement: seven days without reading your Bible makes one week. Not just W-E-E-K, but W-E-A-K. Makes one week.

Question: is Jesus a part of your life, or is Jesus over all the parts of your life? That's where it begins: scriptural authority. They make that decision. Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." I've been doing this a long time. I've been teaching a long time. I've been a Christian—I'm old. I consider the day to be a bust, a loss, if I have not spent time in the word of God. That's just my personal experience. Everything begins right when I have a time of engaging in the scripture.

So, that's their first priority: scriptural authority. Second: relational purity. Relational purity. Look at verse 30. They say, "We would not give our daughters as wives to the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons."

Now, I need to explain that a little bit. Intermarriage between Jews and pagans was a huge issue. In fact, it was a big thing going on there. It was one of their foremost problems. This problem was forbidden, by the way, in the Old Testament scriptures, the law. God forbade the Jewish people to intermarry with pagan non-believers because it's going to dilute their own faith, ruin their land allotment, a lot of things. And so God just says don't do that.

But it was a big issue. It comes up in Ezra chapter 9 and 10, it comes up here, it comes up later on in the same book in chapter 13. So, we have Jewish people marrying the unbelievers of the land, and they're saying, the people are saying, that's not going to happen anymore. We're not going to do that. We're going to have relational purity.

Now, you might wonder why would Jews even want to marry pagan Gentiles anyway? For the same reason that Christians still do it today. There's all sorts of reasons people come up with. There's more unbelievers than there are believers. We're surrounded by unbelievers all the time, and so we see more of them. There is a cultural pressure that comes with that. There's social status that people want. Or it's as simple as, "She's hot," or "He's awesome. I've never seen anybody like that."

Solomon had a problem with this. Remember that? King Solomon, any of you remember how many wives he had? 700? And concubines? So, he had a thousand women all together in his life. A thousand women. No wonder he had so many problems. Not because of the women necessarily, but because of him. And he married foreign women. And these foreign women, it says—this is what it says—turned his heart from the Lord.

See, that was the problem. God said, "I don't want you to marry them because you're Jewish, and they're going to take away your Jewish faith." Now, a lot of people say, "Well, you know, I'm dating an unbeliever, but I consider it my mission field. I am hoping to lead them to Christ." So, it's called missionary dating. What usually happens is the opposite. The believer gets dragged down rather than bringing the unbeliever up to that place of faith.

So, notice again, the men of this congregation are saying, "Not going to happen. We're going to lead our families. We are the head of the house. We're not going to let our kids marry outside of our faith." And you might think, "Well, why would the parents have to say this?" Because in those days, you didn't choose your wife or husband. Your parents did. I know a lot of you are going, "That is goofy." Maybe so, maybe outdated, but they didn't have the divorce rate we have. So, we're not necessarily doing a better job as a culture picking our own.

Here's the best thing: let God pick your husband or wife. Be committed relationally and let God bring that person into your life. And so these men are making this stand. And can I just quickly say, again, I want to see men step up to the plate.

There's an attack in our culture on masculinity. If a man decides to be a leader or act masculine, our culture will label that as toxic masculinity because they want to see men move into a passive role and not act as leaders anymore. We don't want that patriarchal oppression. Well, I'll tell you this: what happens when men don't lead? When they stand by passively? What happens is the devil will come along and say, "You need a leader? I'll be one." And he will infiltrate that family because the last thing Satan wants is godly families. He does not want that in any city, any culture.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go, remember: your generosity helps share God's word with people around the world, offering biblical truth and hope in a time when many feel discouraged or overwhelmed.

And this month, we'd love to thank you for your gift of $50 or more by sending you City in Shambles, Pastor Skip's complete 18-message study through Nehemiah on CD plus digital download. These messages will encourage you to respond to brokenness with prayer, repentance, and courageous faith, and remind you that God still rebuilds what's been torn down. Give today at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888. See you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig.

Ready to go deeper in your faith and discover your calling? The School of Ministry at Calvary Church in Albuquerque is designed to equip you with practical Bible teaching, hands-on ministry training, and real-world experience. Whether you're called to lead, serve, or grow, this is your next step. Classes are forming now. Visit calvarysom.org to learn more and apply today. That's calvarysom.org. The School of Ministry at Calvary Church: your calling starts here.