Once the Israelites finished reconstructing the wall around Jerusalem, their attention shifted from restoring the wall to restoring the people. With the wonderful momentum their achievement provided, the leaders

understood they couldn't return to their previous lifestyle.

Complacency, sitting still, and maintaining the status quo were not an option.

Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Wendall continues our study in Nehemiah Chapter 8, where we find a renewed passion

for spiritual health and godliness.

This passage contains profound life lessons for both leaders and followers. Chuck titled today's message,

Revival at the structure.

Get away from the ritualism of Christianity and get locked into a whole brand new creative approach to

knowing the Lord God of heaven. That's part of the reason the youth of our day are turning us off.

They're weary of the structure that means nothing more than the empty sacrificial system and sacrament system of the Roman church in the in the mid 15 and

1600s. They're sick of it. And I'll tell you these people when they came before God were not even told to do it.

They heard the word and they refreshingly worshipped God.

And by the way, sometime the very best response is silence.

I honestly believe my most meaningful times of worship are times that I have absolutely run

out of words and I have gone before God with not a thing to say.

After the word of God was read, after praise was given for the reading of the word and its marvelous revelation,

there was insight into the scriptures.

Before I dig into verses 7 and 8 which form the real nucleus of this passage, I want to warn us against two extremes.

Churches fall into these extremes all the time.

The larger we get the easier it is to form an extreme.

The extreme of nothing but emotion,

and the extreme of nothing but teaching.

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