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Guest (Female): Welcome to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We're so glad you've tuned in today. At Connect with Skip, we're passionate about helping you grow in your relationship with Jesus. That's why we share verse-by-verse Bible teaching that's both clear and practical, so you can live out God's truth wherever He's placed you.

You can stay connected beyond the broadcast when you sign up for Pastor Skip's free weekly devotional. You'll receive biblical encouragement, exclusive content, and helpful resources to guide you deeper into God's word delivered straight to your inbox. Signing up is quick, easy, and completely free. Sign up today at connectwithskip.com. Now, here's today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig.

Skip Heitzig: Imagine a Jew married to a Gentile trying to observe their dietary laws, their annual festivals, keep kosher, and ceremonially clean. They wouldn't be able to do that. Some people dating will say, "Well, as long as we love each other, it'll all work out." The issue is not will it work out. The issue is will this marriage enjoy God's blessing? That should be the primary issue. Will this relationship and eventual marriage perhaps fulfill God's will for my life?

That's why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6, "Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? What communion has light with darkness?" They put their foot down. These men are saying we're going to be under scriptural authority and we want relational purity. If an unbelieving guy comes along and says, "I want to get to know your daughter," your answer should be, "If you don't know Jesus Christ, you don't get to know my daughter. If you're not following Jesus Christ, I don't want her following you."

Men, the two most important decisions you'll ever make in your life are who is your God and who is your wife? Women, the two most important questions are who is your God and who is your husband? These are the two most important issues you will ever have in your life. If you can't agree on God, you're not going to agree on much else. You add kids to that mix and you will have a confusing situation.

By the way, according to a first-rate survey done by Pew Research and Baylor University, they discovered that interfaith couples, that is husband and wife with different religious affiliations, tend to have a higher divorce rate than same-faith couples. It's really not an issue as long as we love each other, it'll all work out. So, they are making a clear commitment to a clear separation. Priority number one is scriptural authority and then relational purity.

The third is spiritual regularity. This concerns the Sabbath day. Look at verse 31. "If the peoples of the land brought wares or any grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we would not buy it from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. And we would forego the seventh year's produce and exacting of every debt." Essentially, they're saying we're going to keep the Sabbath day and we're going to keep the Sabbath year.

Did you know there was a Sabbath year as well as a Sabbath day? Saturday begins Friday night at sundown to Saturday at sundown. That's Sabbath, Jewish Sabbath. But there was also a Sabbatical year. The commandment that God gave the children of Israel, they had not kept this for exactly 490 years. They would go to their fields, they would plant, they would harvest for six years. On the seventh year, they would do absolutely nothing. For an entire year, the land would not be tilled or cultivated. They would just let whatever grows from the land feed them for one year. Let the land rest every seven years.

That's an exercise of faith, trusting God for 12 months doing no business but trusting that whatever God brings in, He'll provide. Well, they had not done that for 490 years. If you keep a Sabbath year every seventh year, in 490 years, they broke 70 years. How long was the Babylonian captivity? 70 years. That's one of the reasons they went into captivity for 70 years. God said, "You owe me 70 years. I'm going to let the land rest for 70 years. The 70 years you did not let happen for 490 years, I'm taking it now."

They figured that out and they're now going to keep the Sabbath day. They want to keep that six days of work and one day of rest. In Leviticus 23, they are called appointed times and days for sacred assembly. When they say we want to keep the Sabbath day and the Sabbath year holy, it means we want to worship in the temple together every seventh day.

Saturday was the day of the Sabbath for the Jews. In the New Testament, that is not the same. Did you know that all Ten Commandments in the Old Testament are repeated in the New Testament as binding for believers except for one? That's the Sabbath. Sabbath was uniquely given to the Jewish nation. In the New Testament, Jesus said man was not made for the Sabbath, the Sabbath was a gift from God for man.

Paul said one man may esteem one day of the week over all the other days like Sabbath. Another guy will say all the days of the week are the same. Paul said let each one be persuaded in his own mind. Pick a day that you're going to enjoy as your Sabbath of rest before the Lord, a day of worship. In the New Testament, it happened to be Sunday, Acts 20, on the first day of the week when the disciples gathered together. Why Sunday? Why not Saturday? Because Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday, the first day of the week. That's why the church gathered.

In Nehemiah 10, they're saying we're going back to the Bible. We're going to keep our relationships pure and we're going to orient our business so that we shut down one day a week and not buy and sell. Some of the Jewish people were saying, "Let's keep our business open seven days a week because it's a good business opportunity," and now they're saying no more. We're going actually to keep this day holy.

I have a question for us today. Would you rather operate seven days a week in your business without God's blessing, or would you rather operate six days a week with God's blessing? You can get more done in six days that are blessed by God than you could ever get done in seven days that are not blessed by God. Let me make application to us today in 2025. Set the example that going to church is going to be for you a weekly activity.

I realize I am speaking to a culture where the average born-again Christian goes to church two out of four weekends a month. But I'm saying set the example that church is going to be a weekly activity. It's going to take priority over work, over your kids' sporting activities, over the golf game that's on television. When I was a kid, I never asked my parents if we were going to church. If I did, they would say, "Are you breathing? Are you alive? Of course, it's Sunday. We are always going to church." They made it a priority. I grew up with that.

Why weekly? Why does the Bible, Old and New Testament, make it a weekly practice? Think of what you're exposed to for six days a week. Think of the messages you hear, the conversations you hear, the values you hear and see around you. What is shaping your reality? This is why we go back to church and get a dose of the truth and get reminded of who we are. I know for a fact that many of you work in offices and businesses where people do not think that what you believe is awesome.

Church is the place you need to come back to to remind yourself of what is really true. It's where we get reoriented. Church is the one place that reminds us we're not weird. Some of you are weird, but you come to church and you go, "Wow, that's right. This is right. This is not weird. The world thinks it is, but I come back here and I get reoriented." I meet people all the time, not just locally, but in different places who say, "Hey, we listen to you on the radio or watch your YouTube channel," and I say that's neat, thank you very much. I usually follow up and say, "Where do you go to church?"

You'd be amazed at the answers. "Well, my kids have... and my work... or my wife... we were hurt." They don't go to church. You have no right to give up on church. Jesus didn't give up on the church. He said, "I come to build my church," the only thing He said He's going to build.

Guest (Female): This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Your support helps reach people every day with biblical truth that brings clarity, hope, and direction in difficult times. This month, we'd love to thank you with a timely resource centered on God's power to restore what's broken. When you give today, you'll receive City in Shambles, Pastor Skip's complete 18-message study through Nehemiah on CD plus digital download.

These messages will help you understand how God works in times of confusion and instability, how revival begins in the hearts of His people, and how to move from passive concern to courageous faith in action. Your gift helps extend the reach of Connect with Skip Heitzig, connecting more people to God's word. Request your resource when you give $50 or more at connectwithskip.com/offer or by calling 800-922-1888. Now, if you're looking for a way to go deeper in your Bible study, here's a great way to do just that.

Skip Heitzig: Learning your Bible matters. I'm committed to teaching God's word, and I want you to understand the depth of scripture for yourself. That's why I want to invite you to join me in a 90-day through the entire Bible reading challenge using the YouVersion Bible app. We call it Jesus People Grow. So, for 90 days, we're going to read together God's word. We're going to learn it, receive it, and we're going to let it shape us so that we can also be faithful in sharing good teaching with others. So, join me. Let's learn our Bibles and grow in the word of God.

I've always been amazed that Christians can have the strongest convictions about everything except this. They have the conviction that the Bible is God's word. They have the conviction that Jesus is God's only son. They have the conviction that He's coming back again. They have a conviction about the Trinitarian doctrines. They are very stickler about this and that. But they don't have, shockingly, a conviction about church.

The New Testament, Acts 2:42, says they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers. That means to stick to something, to be loyal to something, to be regularly present. That was their conviction. And that is their conviction in Nehemiah 10. Word of God is our authority. Our relationships from here on out are going to be pure. We're going to follow God in this. We are going to be spiritually regular, keeping the Sabbath day and the Sabbath year.

Here's the fourth and final one: financial responsibility. Verse 32 says, "Also, we made ordinances for ourselves to exact from ourselves yearly one-third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God, for the showbread, for the regular grain offering, for the regular burnt offering of the Sabbaths, the new moons, the set feasts, for the holy things, for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and all the work of the house of our God. We cast lots among the priests, the Levites, the people for bringing the wood offering into the house of our God, according to our fathers' houses at the appointed times year by year, to burn on the altar of the Lord our God as it is written in the law.

And we made ordinances to bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all the fruit of all trees year by year to the house of the Lord. To bring the firstborn of our sons and our cattle as it is written in the law and the firstborn of our herds and flocks to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God. To bring the first fruits of our dough, our offerings, the fruit from all kinds of trees, the new wine and oil to the priests, to the storerooms of the house of our God, to bring the tithes of our land to the Levites, for the Levites should receive the tithes in all of our farming communities.

And the priest, the descendants of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive tithes. The Levites shall also bring up a tenth of the tithes to the house of our God, in the rooms of the storehouse for the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the offering of the grain, of the new wine, the oil to the storerooms where the articles of the sanctuary are, where the priests who minister and the gatekeepers and the singers are, and we will not neglect the house of our God."

I counted nine times they repeated the phrase, "house of our God." That's what all this is around. We are going to fund the public worship in the house of our God. That is their fourth essential. So, they're going to take the temple tax, half of a shekel for everyone 20 years and below. That was a temple tax. Jesus paid that in the New Testament. You know what that was all about, by the way? It was to remind God's people that they were redeemed, that God paid a price to set them free. God wanted that reminder every year. "I paid a price to set you free." So, they did that.

They also brought wood for the altar of sacrifice. They also pledged to support the priests with tithes, offerings, first fruits. Now, get this. They're not rolling in money. Finances are tight in Jerusalem. The overlords in their life, the government in their life is Persia, and Persia put a heavy tax on all the peoples it subjugated. In fact, if you remember back in chapter 5 of Nehemiah, this is what the people complained about. Our tax rate is incredibly high. So, it's not easy for them to do it.

But Jesus said, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and render unto God the things that are God's." They decided we're going to do that. That's our priority. We're getting back to the Bible. We're going to keep our relationships pure. We're going to keep the Sabbath and we're going to fund the public worship for the house of our God.

At the beginning of this message, I quoted a verse and I just want to bring it up again and ask you if we really believe that. In Matthew chapter 6 verse 33, it says, "Seek ye first, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and everything else will be added unto you." I wonder if we really believe that. I ask you that because I used to sing that song every week in my church when I became a Christian. I knew all the words. I knew the chords. I knew the harmony, the melody, the second harmony. And I sang it. I don't think I really believed it.

If we really believe that, then God will be first in His authority over our lives, scripture. He'll be first in our romantic relationships. He will be first in our weekly schedule and He will be first in our budget. Now, I know many pastors are scared to talk about this topic and I just want to bring it up. Why should we fund Christian ministry? Why should we fund Christian ministry? Why should we spend one cent to fund Christian ministry?

Here's the answer: because evil is being funded in this culture, in this world. Darkness is being funded in our society, in our culture. Most of the money spent in our culture goes to evil, including many of our taxes. I am not excited about how the state government spends my tax money. I do not agree with the decisions they make. So, I want to put my money where my mouth is and fund Christian ministry. Unless truth and righteousness are funded by God's people, there will only be evil and darkness funded by a fallen society. The devil's kids will fund their things.

Somebody paid for the Bible to be translated. Somebody paid for the television program to be aired so you could hear the gospel. Somebody paid for the camp that you could go to or the mission trip for your children to go on or Freedom Fest to be put on. It is generosity that turns people into partners. It turns God's people into God's partners. We are partnering with God.

These are their four priorities. We're under God's scriptural authority. You could just have that as your only banner because once the scripture is your authority, then all these things will just fall into place. Relationship, regular worship, what you fund. But where do we begin? We begin where God begins. We begin at the beginning. We begin with God himself. God must be our top priority. God should never be a part of our lives. God should be over all the parts of our lives.

Have you ever heard of a set of books called The Great Books of the Western World? Anybody ever heard of that? It's a voluminous set of books. Okay, have you heard of Encyclopedia Britannica? Encyclopedia Britannica put out a series of books years ago called The Great Books of the Western World. The editorial chairman of all that including Britannica was a guy by the name of Mortimer J. Adler, brilliant guy.

Somebody noticed that in The Great Books of the Western World and Britannica, the greatest number of words had to do with God. They asked him about that, that there was more space devoted to the subject of God than any other subject in history. They asked the chairman Mortimer J. Adler why, and here's his answer: "It is because more consequences for life follow from that one issue than any other." In essence, what he was saying is more is about God because the stakes are so high. That's why.

The Bible says the fool has said in his heart there is no God. Actually, that's a poor translation. The literal translation is this: the fool has said in his heart "no God." It's not necessarily denying the possible existence of God or the veracity that there is a God. It's saying I don't prefer God. It's like if you go to a restaurant and you had a good meal and they say, "Okay, now it's dessert time," and you go, "no dessert." You're not denying the existence of dessert. You're just saying none for me, please.

So, the fool has said in his heart "no God." I don't want God. If there is a God, I don't care, I don't want Him. That's a fool. We begin with God. A smart person says yes to God. He will be my priority. So, the stakes are high. If you have not given your life to Jesus Christ, if you have not surrendered your life to God, if God is just a spoke in your wheel, a part of your life every now and then I go to church, every now and then I sing a song, every now and then I read a Bible verse, God's a part of your life. God wants to be over all the parts of your life. God doesn't want your money. He wants your heart. He wants you. If you've not done that, settle that.

Guest (Female): We're so glad you joined us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before you go, here's a reminder. When you give $50 or more this month, we'll send you City in Shambles, Pastor Skip's complete study through Nehemiah on CD and digital download as our thanks. These messages offer practical biblical insight for anyone burdened by the brokenness they see in the world around them, helping you respond with faith, prayer, and hope instead of fear or despair. Your support helps keep this Bible teaching ministry on the air, connecting more people to God's word. You can give today at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888. See you next time.

Guest (Male): 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.