"Nevertheless"
I want to tell you about the God of the “Nevertheless”. First, some background, then the point.
Last Sunday evening we were walking our way through Nehemiah 9. After God’s people longingly hear the Law of God (9:1-5) it brings them to a long confession of sin (9:6-37). In that confession of sin God’s people are fueled with hope and recount and confess: (1) God’s story from God’s own being, through creation to Abram and all the way to their moment. (2) God’s right to judge them and their forebearers for their faith-breaking. Thus they have no room for blame-shifting. And (3) God’s faithfulness, his faithfulness to justice AND mercy. You might want to listen to the sermon so you can have this outline filled in. If you have the ability to listen online you can find it here:
https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/heritagepca/sermons/32822153703708/
And in this long confession of sin we come to the highpoint of v.31. After acknowledging that they don’t deserve God’s goodness but rather deserve his justified condemnation – they did what was worthy of condemnation, no shifting the blame onto their spouses or neighbors or government or God himself – they come to the big surprise: “Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God” (9:31). Nevertheless!
God’s “nevertheless” explodes into their multigenerational, centuries-long faith-breaking actions. It’s the same “nevertheless” we hear in the New Testament, specifically in Ephesians 2: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins (…), children of wrath (…). BUT God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:1, 4-5). God’s nevertheless lifts our hopes and hearts! The “BUT God, being rich in mercy” draws our broken hearts and hopes out of the mirey pit and sets us up on a rock above the floods!
And what happens in Nehemiah 9, which happens to us if God’s “nevertheless” grabs hold of us, is that it makes these people of God honest and open with God and full of hope. It sets them, and us, free from wanting to blame others for our sins. Why? Because this God of the “nevertheless” is a God you can entrust yourself to! This God of the “nevertheless” is a God you can bare your soul to! This God of the “nevertheless” is a God before whom you can honestly lay out your sinful failures, your anger, your lusts, your greed! This God of the “nevertheless” is a God whose integrity beckons us to humbly own our sins as our sins, and not shift the blame onto any other! God’s mercy, God’s multigenerational faithfulness to mercy, God’s “nevertheless” fuels the engine of change! Oh friends, remember God’s “nevertheless”!
Pastor Mike
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