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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.

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Skip Heitzig: Would you open your Bibles, please, to Nehemiah chapter 8. Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 8 is a text of scripture that I have built my ministry upon. In case you wonder what I do when I travel so much to so many of these places, it is this. I have been able over the last couple of years to train pastors in various countries how to teach the word of God expositionally.

We have a few slides just to show some of the groups we've done. This is Rome, Italy, and then we had a pastor's conference in Mexico City. We had one in Ethiopia and then we had one recently in London, England. These are day seminars where I do five sessions back-to-back all day long talking about the value of preaching, and in particular, expositional, expository preaching, letting the text of scripture speak for itself. Much of it is based on this key verse in Nehemiah chapter 8.

Nehemiah chapter 8 describes the transformation of a nation way beyond building walls and guarding it, protecting it. It describes revival, a spiritual awakening that happens when a group of people have exposure to hearing the word of God. When they hear the word of God and they understand it, a transformation takes place.

If Jerusalem, that Nehemiah has come to, is going to remain strong and go into the future, it's going to need more than just walls and guards and government. It's going to need God at the center of their life. So they have built the walls, everybody is in their place, the government has been formed, but something else needs to happen.

Back in the 1800s, in 1866, Glasgow, Scotland, came up with a motto for their city. Here it is. How's this for a city motto? "Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of His word and the praising of His name." That's the motto of the city of Glasgow. Now most people in that city don't know that motto because over the years they dropped the spiritual connotation, so now it simply reads, "Let Glasgow flourish," period.

But the city can't flourish without the preaching of His word and the praising of His name. What a great motto. "Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of His word and the praising of His name." If any city could have that as their motto, it would be the city of Jerusalem that Nehemiah has come back to because Israel was called the land of the book. The book, of course, is the Bible. Anywhere you go in that country, the Bible comes to life because this is where the Bible stories unfolded.

Let Jerusalem flourish by the preaching of His word and the praising of His name. This year, we've been talking about taking ground. But before you can ever take ground in your city or in your personal lives, in your marriages, God has to take ground in your life. He has to be at the center of your life. And that's where Nehemiah 8 really comes in because Nehemiah chapter 8 through the rest of the book focuses on this spirituality that becomes the center of what is going on.

I once preached a message in this chapter and I called it "The People, the Bible, and a Watergate Revival." That's because the revival broke out in the city of Jerusalem at the Watergate. It was when Nehemiah said, "I am not a crook." You have to be really old to remember that. That was President Richard Nixon when there was a Watergate scandal in the 1970s. But this is a Watergate revival, 5th century BC, Jerusalem, when Nehemiah and Ezra are together in this spiritual revival.

This sort of brings up a question. What is the place of the scriptures in America? I ask the question because at one point, the answer would have been it's at the center of this nation. It's on all the monuments. It's on all the pictures and paintings that have been put up around Washington D.C. The scripture is very key.

Did you know that the Bible was once taught as curriculum in our public school system? At one time, the Bible was placed in the courtroom where people put their hand on the Bible and swore to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help them God. Now, that is not required. The Bible is not as central as it once was. Of course, then we have to ask the question, what is the role of the Bible in our lives?

Somebody once said if everyone decided to read the Bible at one time, it would generate the worst dust storm in history because it's just been sitting around for a long time in many homes. What I'd like to do in Nehemiah chapter 8, the portions that we're going to read, is give you five quick elements to revival. Five steps, or you could say five telltale signs of authentic revival, or you might say five steps to taking ground, whether it's personally, in your marriage, in your ministry, in your family.

Here's the first step: realization. They knew they needed more. Look at verse one. "Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of the Watergate, and they told Ezra the scribe..." By the way, this is the very first appearance of Ezra in the book of Nehemiah. Of course, he's featured in the book of Ezra, but the first time he's mentioned here is this verse.

"...and they told Ezra the scribe," he's the spiritual leader, "to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month." Now, get this. They, the people, had the idea. They approached Ezra. Ezra didn't approach them. They approached Ezra and said, "Give us a Bible study."

This proves, this shows that the Holy Spirit is at work even before the Bible was opened and Ezra began reading to them the scriptures. People don't gather together as one man unless the Holy Spirit is moving. People don't beg for a Bible study unless the Holy Spirit is working. And that's what they're asking for. Give us a word from God.

A few years ago, I was going to the airport. One of my assistants was driving me to the Albuquerque airport and he asked me a question. He said, "Skip, can you name five pastors who are senior pastors of churches, five pastors that you know of in our country who are true expositors, who are under the age of 40? Name five senior pastors in America under the age of 40 who are expository preachers."

So I named one, and then another one, and then I think I eked out a third, and I was stumped. Now, I can name expository preachers, but I'd have to name my staff pastors. All of them are apt, great expository preachers. But when it comes to senior pastors of other churches in our country who are true expositors, I was stumped. I said, "Now, why do you ask me that question?"

He said, "It's a question that our School of Ministry students asked me. They said, 'Can you name five pastors under the age of 40 who are expositors?'" And he asked them, "Why do you ask that?" And they had posted on Facebook this: they said, "We're kind of done with glam rock liturgy and preaching for pizzazz that masks the lack of biblical preaching. We want our souls fed, not our emotions tickled."

These are young people saying, "We're done with dazzle. We want depth. We don't want a show, we want to know what the scriptures have to say." And that's what the people are realizing here. That's the realization. The walls are finished, the people are in their place, the government is in its place. They know they need more.

So in verse two, Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month.

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. And 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, here's Skip Heitzig with a special invitation for you.

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.

Now, let's return to today's teaching. Now, the seventh month was the Hebrew month of Tishri, and Tishri was the festival month. It was the month where the Feast of Trumpets was celebrated. It was the month when the Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated. Yom Kippur was also celebrated. The first day of the seventh month was the Jewish New Year. It was New Year's Day.

And it's sort of like we want to start our new year right. We want to make a New Year's resolution. We want the Bible to be central. So on the first day of the seventh month, Rosh Hashanah, New Year's Day, they make this request. And they make it to Ezra. Now, Ezra was a priest and a scribe. And a scribe is somebody who is an expert in the law and an expert in spiritual matters, in scripture. Scribes would copy by hand, letter by letter, the text of scripture from one document that they had in front of them to another document to pass it on to the next generation.

Nehemiah had been in Jerusalem for a while. Nehemiah had built the walls. Ezra had been in Jerusalem 13 years before Nehemiah came. He was the spiritual leader. So the people gather together, they go to the spiritual leader and they say, "Give us a Bible study. We have a civic leader, Nehemiah, but you, as our spiritual leader, give us a Bible study." So he brings out the scroll, the Pentateuch, the law of Moses, we are told in verse one and verse two.

Now what that means is he brings out the first five books of Moses. That's the Bible study: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. I hope you appreciate the fact that they didn't have a New Testament. They didn't have the Gospel of John, they didn't have the book of Philippians or Romans, all the great doctrinal, grace-filled teaching that we have. They had the law of Moses, but they're hungry to hear even that, to hear the word of God. Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, they will be filled." And these people are about to be filled.

So realization, that's the first step. Now the second step is reading. They heard the word of God. Verse three: "Then he read from it," it being the law of Moses, "he read from it in the open square that was in front of the Watergate," watch this, watch this, "from morning until midday." If you think I preach a long time, this guy set a new record. "...before the men and women and those who could understand, and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law."

"So Ezra the scribe stood on a platform of wood which they had made for the purpose, and beside him at his right hand stood Mattithiah, Shema," and there's 13 names that are listed right hand and left hand. Verse five: "Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people, and when he opened it, all the people stood up. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, 'Amen, amen,' while lifting up their hands, and they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also, Jeshua, Bani," and 13 other names are given, they are Levites.

"And the Levites, all these people helped," watch this, verse seven, "helped the people to understand the law and the people stood in their place. So they read distinctly from the book, in the law of God, and gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading."

Now let me unpack a few things. I want you to notice first of all, it was a lengthy service. I'm smiling a little bit because of that fact. So it's a lengthy service. It says it was from morning until midday, literally in Hebrew, from the light until midday. So from dawn until noon. This is a six-hour church service. And they are standing up while they are listening. These people wanted this. These people are like Jacob in the book of Genesis wrestling with the angel of the Lord saying, "I'm not going to let you go until you bless me. I want to get something from this."

And also notice the appetite they came with, a spiritual appetite. It says, "The people were attentive to the book of the law." The people were attentive. Why were they attentive? They hadn't heard it for years. Many of them had never heard the Bible read. These were people who came from Babylonian captivity, 70 years in Babylonian captivity. Maybe some of them were older and they remembered hearing it years before. But most of them had never heard a public message of scripture. So they're hungry for it, they're attentive to it, and they're about to get a feast.

When Charles Haddon Spurgeon came to London, you know, it's interesting, Spurgeon began as a young man. He died at age 57, but he had a long ministry in London. When he first came to London, England, Victorian London, he found that the people were so starved spiritually that a morsel of the gospel was a treat to them. So Spurgeon began teaching the Bible to them, expounding the scripture. People were saved under his ministry every week. Years later when he died, it was said that the people in his congregation knew more of the Bible than the theologians did just from the steady weekly teaching and exposition of scripture.

I've had the privilege to go to countries like Thailand and India, Africa, and I've been humbled as I go there and I meet people who, as we begin the church service in some of the humble surroundings, they have walked for hours to be at church. And when they get to church, they expect a lengthy service and are willing to sit on the ground or stand for hours.

Yet I've been in churches in America where when I say open your Bibles to, the only Bible that opens up is my own. There is a famine for the word of God. Now something else I'd like you to notice from the text. It says that verse four, that Ezra the scribe stood on a platform of wood. So they had to construct, at least hastily, some kind of a platform to raise him up.

Why would they do this? Well, this is a practical matter. They had no PA system, no little microphone on the mouth, no speakers hanging up. So for thousands of people to hear a man's voice, they had to raise him up so that that voice could be heard distinctly and clearly. It was just something very practical to do. And today, there are practical things that we do to minimize distractions. We have a nice air-conditioned room, we have soft comfortable seats, we ask people to stay in their places.

We want to minimize distraction so that the word of God can have maximum impact. It's just very practical. And we ask people, bring your Bible so you can read along with us. In those days, there was a copy of the scroll that only a few people had, the priests and the scribes, but now everybody has access to the scriptures. So those are practical preparations.

The greatest preparation, however, is done in the heart by you. The people were attentive to the words of the law. I hope you come to church prepared and attentive to hear a word from God for your life to shape and change your life because this is not a speech. I'm not giving a lecture. This is not an oration. This is a Bible study. This is a sermon. It's very, very different from a talk.

Now, something in verse seven and eight is really the crux of all of this. It says, "They helped the people to understand the law. The people stood in their place, so they read distinctly," verse eight, "from the book, in the law of God, and they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading."

Now there's a group of men next to Ezra, right hand and left hand, and a group of Levites. So either they are taking turns, maybe Ezra started reading for a while then another one took over and read for a while, then another then another, etcetera, or Ezra read and there was a break and the Levites fanned out and these men fanned out into the audience and helped people apply the text of scripture.

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.