Remember!

What does prayer have to do with your memory?

When you go to God in prayer, you have to remember who God is and what He has been. Sometimes what He has been is not just in your life time, but your memory and praise has to extend to those God led and moved on so that you could be here today. He was making ways for you and laying a foundation of who He is for you, before you were born. Join us in Nehemiah 9 with Special Guest, Canaan, for this next stop in our prayer journey.

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#biblestudy 

#biblestudyforbeginners 

#biblestudyforteens 

#Christian

#pentecostal 

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Transcript

Press means to apply force.

When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation.

He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through. And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us. Welcome everybody back to the Press podcast.

We are so incredibly glad that you are still listening to us even in the Book of Nehemiah.

Hopefully you've found this journey both inspiring, encouraging, challenging, all of the ings.

We are really glad that God is just leading us through these books.

Last week we were in Nehemiah chapter six.

Nehemiah is my favorite book.

If you've missed any of the episodes, hopefully you'll go back and get caught up because we're going to wrap up Nehemiah in the next two weeks.

And an important stop in our journey is here today in chapter nine.

But first we have a guest host and his name is Canaan.

Say hi Canaan.

Hey everybody.

And Canaan is one of the most chill people you'll ever meet.

But I do believe the Lord is going to give him something to share with us today. But Canaan, can you tell us how you got involved with Press?

Yes, so it was actually my freshman year of college, so about like two months in, I heard about Press and ever since then I've pretty much just stuck with it.

Yeah, and now he's going to be a junior, right? Yeah.

Ah.

So that's a great thing.

He also helps lead one of our campus ministries.

He's very involved and teaches somewhat sometimes, at least leads a group.

Yes.

All right.

So I'm excited to hear what Canaan has to share today. So Canaan, Nehemiah chapter nine, tell us about it.

Okay, so the background to this story is really just about how the children of Israel didn't keep a festival called the Feast of Booths.

If you want to learn more about that, that's in Leviticus chapter 23.

And so this prayer is really just a prayer of them confessing their sins and how they hadn't kept it and kept the law of Moses. And so it kind of starts back in Nehemiah eight talking about how Israel, they were hearing the word of God and they had realized that they weren't doing the things that they were commanded to do. And so in Nehemiah chapter nine we start off with them talking about just getting back into it and everything like that, getting back to the Feast of Booths and getting back to where they need to be with God. So Nehemiah chapter nine, they're getting back to God and they're about to pray. Before we get to chapter nine, I was looking at chapter eight this morning and how they stood up and the law was being read to them and their reaction to it. Did you happen to notice that looking at chapter eight?

Yes, they were talking about how when they heard the word, they kind of were scared. And so because they realized they hadn't kept the word. And so what I like is their response because after they heard the word of God, obviously they were scared because they realized they hadn't kept it and done what they were supposed to do, but they realized it was time for them to change. And so that's actually what this prayer is about is them wanting to turn and confess. So this whole prayer is really just about confessing their sins and confessing about the fact that they just hadn't done things the way that God had told them to do. They kind of just forgot what God had done for them because that's really what the whole festival was actually about was a sign of remembrance how God had brought them out of the land of Egypt. And so God told them to make the booths to remember how that that's what he did for those when he delivered them out of Egypt. The booths, that's a sign from the people from back then. And so scripture actually says that they hadn't done this since the days of none. And so I'm not sure how many years ago that was, but it was quite some time.

And so to start off the prayer, what I liked about this prayer is I actually kind of immediately thought about the prayer that Jesus gave in regards to there being an order to prayer. And by order, I don't really mean like you have to say certain things at a certain time, but kind of a a structure to prayer. And so they started off This is the longest prayer in the Bible, so we're not going to read too many of the scriptures, but they started off by blessing God, praising him. They also started off by reading his word and that's a side note.

It's a good thing to take your word into your prayer closet with you or wherever you pray.

But they were reading the word of God, they were praising him and blessing him and that's just a great start.

That's how you get into the presence. That's how you go before God because you don't just jump before God and just expect him to respond like that.

They set the atmosphere. They were covered in sackcloth and they pretty much just got themselves together in preparation to go before God. And so throughout the entire prayer, what stuck out to me was the fact that as they were confessing their sins, they always connected it to a time when God had been merciful to them and their fathers. And they weren't just confessing their sins, they were confessing the sins of their fathers as well.

So you can also ask God on their behalf. You can pray for them and their on somebody else's behalf. And so throughout the prayer, each time they said pretty much they had fallen short at this place or that place, they matched it up with the time that God had been faithful to them and merciful to them and their fathers before. And well, something that I took from it actually was just more so that generations can have effects on the future generations. And what I mean by that is it seems I kind of thought about it as traits, kind of like how personal traits can be passed down from somebody else. I feel like that was kind of what it was here.

How the children of Israel after all this time, they still were doing the same things that their fathers and them before them were doing. They were still doing the same things by like not remembering what God had done for them before.

And so I kind of thought that those were some things that were being passed down.

I know at church we've been talking about how God won't let you pass a test that you didn't earn a passing grade on.

And so God wasn't just about to let them get past this. This was something that needed to be changed, dealt with. And God was making sure that they understood that because there was no going forth until they actually dealt with the problem. They couldn't just continue forgetting about what God had done for them and their people.

I like that you used the word traits. I hadn't thought of that, but I did notice the pattern. I guess from the other end, though they remember the sins of their fathers, they also remember the testimonies.

And I thought how important it is that we share not just in church or testimony or not just in youth services, let's say, but from generation to generation. There's some testimonies your kids are going to need to know or perhaps that you know from your mom or that I'll know from my mom and my kids will need to know that will build for their future, how they'll know God will be through something that we shared, you know?

Yeah.

When you look at this passage, are there any verses in the prayer that stood out to you?

Honestly, I would say no.

There was a couple of them that like kind of stood out to me just because of the contents of them, but for the most part what just stood out to me was how they always knew God to be God and how they always had a time to recall God's faithfulness. He's a merciful God and they just didn't let that part go. They held on to that and that's pretty much what drove them to pray this prayer, just having the faith that God would would continue to be God for them.

Yeah, and these weren't recent testimonies.

When they're looking back and they're talking about how he provided bread or divided the sea, that's the time of Moses.

I mean, we're now many, many, many hundreds of years later.

And so it is important that we don't forget our testimonies even if they weren't ours personally.

Does that make sense?

Yeah.

And I think I think that was really neat that there's some things that God does he means to be echoed throughout generations.

When you look at this passage, and hopefully you guys go back and read it, we're in Nehemiah 9, 5 through 38, I believe it was. When you look at this passage, I like that they say things like, "Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us."

In verse 33, "For thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly."

I think that when it comes to repentance, and that's where they're headed with this, it is important to get to the place one where you remember God, but two where you say, "You're right, I'm wrong." Even the consequences, whatever it is, you're right, I'm wrong.

I don't know that you can repent without that.

What do you think? I don't think you can because repentance, I feel like it's not even just a feeling. I know that you have to it's you admitting that you're wrong and that you need God's help to get it right. And that's why I feel like it's kind of funny. I was thinking about how this is actually the longest prayer of the Bible and it's them just confessing their sins. And so sometimes that's really just what we need to go into prayer with the mindset of just God, I need your help because I've fallen short.

And I was connecting that a little bit more to chapter eight because as you said when they heard the law, they mourned, they were sad. But it's Nehemiah who said to them, you know, basically, "The joy of the Lord is your strength."

He turned their attitude.

And a lot of times we use that scripture to just like shout off of, "The joy of the Lord is my strength, woohoo!"

But it was their repentance, it was their mourning, it was their response to the word where he was like, "Don't get caught up and feeling all bad.

I want you to go ahead, follow God, walk this thing out and be strengthened, be excited God corrected you." So if you had to tell the people something from Nehemiah chapter nine from this prayer that they should take away and carry forth as they're praying, as they're learning God's, what would you tell them?

The biggest thing I would say is to remember who God is.

And some people you may not have the type of relationship that you want with God, but you do have to start somewhere.

And so I'd just say remember who God is and we know who God is first off by reading his word. And so I would say as you go to prayer, just remember what his word says about him because he is the word. And so I say just take into prayer knowing that God is going to continue being the same God that he has been even from them for them. It's been years since the law of Moses came and they're still knowing God to be the same God. So I just tell you, want to encourage you to just remember who God is. And Canaan, you're 20.

Correct.

How did you fall in love with the word of God?

Because I would say you have a serious reputation.

Canaan's Canaan's salvation is goals for some people.

How did you fall in love with God like that and his word?

For me, it was actually one specific moment. It was a couple weeks after I got saved, we were doing consecration.

And so I asked God, like I really want to understand your word because I do know that you are your word. So I always felt like as a kid, I could never just understand it.

And so after the Holy Ghost, after being baptized, I started taking it serious.

I was like, you know what, I want to understand it.

And so after we fasted and everything like that, ever since then he's continued to give me understanding and now I get to see how his word is really playing out in my life and how his word really is true and is what works and it will never fail. So that's how I fell in love. That's amazing.

One last word to leave the people with.

How would you encourage whoever's listening?

I'd just say to go into prayer with the attitude that God hears you, that God is able to move on your behalf, and to remember who God is and to remember that he's going to continue being the same God that he's always been and that his word is who he is. So if you want to look for him, if you want to hear from him, you will find him in his word and his word will never lead you in the wrong path.

And all I have to add to that is and remember that prayer reaches every single situation.

We will be back next week.

God bless you.

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Did you know that when you are quiet, your voice is missing to God's ears?

I know some of us have prayed and we're wondering, "How long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if God already knows?

How will I know God is answering?

And what do I do when I feel like God's not listening?" But God is listening for your voice.

It's too quiet in this world for the troubles we have.

You have to raise your voice and God wants to hear from you. It's Too Quiet, a book about prayer, is designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith.

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