Remember | Nehemiah 13 | February 15, 2026 | Rev. Jake Medcalf скачать в хорошем качестве

Remember | Nehemiah 13 | February 15, 2026 | Rev. Jake Medcalf

This past Sunday, Rev. Jake Medcalf finished the Nehemiah series by teaching from Nehemiah 13, where Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem after about a year and a half to two years away and became angry when he found people working and doing commerce on the Sabbath. He explained that the issue was not that making wine, selling grain, or buying fish were inherently sinful, but that the people were desecrating the Sabbath, which Scripture repeatedly called them to keep holy (including Jeremiah 17). He described the Sabbath as a spiritual “litmus test” that revealed trust in God rather than devotion to production, accumulation, and accomplishment, and encouraged practicing a weekly 24-hour period of rest, worship, and enjoyment of God’s creation as a countercultural rhythm. He connected this to the New Testament by noting that all Scripture is God-breathed, that Jesus practiced Sabbath and taught that it was made for humanity, and that spiritual drift happened because people stopped remembering God’s faithfulness. He emphasized building rhythms of remembrance—gathering in worship, Scripture, and communion (“Do this in remembrance of me”)—and invited the church to make a covenant to practice remembrance and Sabbath trust. As a tangible tool, the congregation was asked to come forward and take a river rock engraved with “remember” to place somewhere visible as a reminder of God’s faithfulness, and he closed in prayer for the community to avoid spiritual drift and live out God’s commands.