Readings and Ideas for the week of July 28, 2024

Sermon Notes

From the Joint Outdoor Service on July 24, 2024 
Toby Sumpter: A Mind to Work
Nehemiah 4:6, "so we rebuilt..."
1. Clean Hearts- keep short account of sin with one another (1 John 1:7)
2. Honest Work - diligent labor with no lies, complete sobriety and a good name (Psalm 15:2-5)
3. True Worship - worship like you mean it, coming before the Lord in complete honesty, clothed in the righteousness of Christ
Doug Wilson: Lessons for the Limelight
Nehemiah 4:6
1. The people had a mind to work. People can be lazy, but also so can be entire cultures. (Proverbs 13:4, 26:16, 22:29
2. They were competent in their work. Industry: cultivate it in yourself and encourage it in your culture.
3. They were working in the presence of hostilities. Co-belligerence with who can stand with us against enemies takes wisdom. There is danger in persecution but also in blessing.
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Psalm 44:2 (from the Daily Office, July30th)
With Your hand, You drove out the nations
     and planted our fathers;
You crushed the peoples
     and made our fathers flourish.
Noticed how God is seen as the primary actor here in giving the land of the original occupiers to His people, especially in using the verb planted.

Isaiah 2:3b-4a
The law will go out from Zion.
    the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
He will judge between the nations
    and will settle disputes for many peoples.

John Calvin's commentary:
"Mount Zion...raised to the highest pitch of honour, when she shall become the fountain of saving doctrine, which shall flow out over the whole world." (p. 96)
"Who, then, would have thought not only that it would have a place there, but that it would also reign in all foreign places, and in the most distant regions?" (p. 97)
"We also infer that it was necessary that all the ancient ceremonies should be abolished, and that a new form of teaching should be introduced, though the substance of the doctrine continue to be the same; for the law formerly proceeded out of Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:20), but now it proceeded out of Zion, and therefore it assumed a new form." (p.98)