The First Sunday Morning Worship

Reading the Book of the Law

"all the people assembled with a unified purpose at the square just inside the Water Gate. They asked Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had given for Israel to obey.

So on October 8 Ezra the priest brought the Book of the Law before the assembly, which included the men and women and all the children old enough to understand. He faced the square just inside the Water Gate from early morning until noon and read aloud to everyone who could understand. All the people listened closely to the Book of the Law.

Ezra the scribe stood on a high wooden platform that had been made for the occasion. To his right stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah. To his left stood Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam. Ezra stood on the platform in full view of all the people. When they saw him open the book, they all rose to their feet.

Then Ezra praised the Lord, the great God, and all the people chanted, “Amen! Amen!” as they lifted their hands. Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground."  Nehemiah 8:1-6

I know, I tend to write long and I know most people tend to quit reading or tune it out when it gets too long. But I also know that God's Word will not return void and also one of these days His Word and your need will collide and then wonderful things shall start to happen in your life. Praise God.

Are you still there? Ok, so let's proceed, Nehemiah is one of those lesser known personalities in the Old Testament, and worse He is often overshadowed by Ezra the Scribe. But believe me, once you really study him, you will be amazed as to how it directly relates to us (the Sunday Team) and to our walk with God.

If  you are interested in learning a little bit more about him and to learn something new, then you can read on. Otherwise I would just encourage you to read the verses above again or better yet on your free time later on to read the book of Nehemiah and if you wish the book of Ezra.

Anyway, if you are a little bit curious, then let's continue, this shouldn't take long. Nehemiah was a cupbearer in the Persian court of King Artaxerxes I. He was among the many Jews who were captured, taken from their motherland and lived and was born on exile.

Nehemiah being a high official in the Persian court asked and eventually got permission from the king to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their city and its fortifications.

Nehemiah wasn't a priest, he wasn't a prophet, he wasn't a doctor, lawyer or a space engineer, he was in fact just a normal working man, much like us. But he had the heart to come back home and to make things right.

He studied the problems his people were facing, he enlisted volunteers from the people living there, and he appointed leaders each to lead a team of workers tasked to oversee the repair of a section of the wall. Some were placed as guards against their enemies as the others worked. With huge gaps and holes in their walls, they were virtually defenseless against attacks from their enemies. And that was their first mission.

The verses above, from Chapter 8 of the book of Nehemiah, was 52 days after they started work on their wall.

On that day, the wall was finished and they were again safe from enemy attacks, the first order of business was done. The people then assembled at one place (on the morning of the first day of the week--a Sunday). They asked Ezra to read to them the book of Moses, which was their holy book or their bible at that time. They all stood up during the entire reading of the book. It took them the whole morning (until noon) to finish. Then they had the Levites and their worship leaders lead them in raising their hands to God and bowing down to Him in reverent worship. Thus officially becoming the first Sunday morning worship service. Fast forward today, we are doing virtually the same thing. We do the ministries behind the scenes to recreate the same Sunday morning service experience where God's people can be safe, where they can hear His Word and where they can worship Him without fear or worry.

Our aim is to have them experience God, find Hope and be the persons God designed them to be. And all these starts with us -- the Sunday Team. We need to be the first one's to experience God, we need to be the one's who know our purpose, why we are here and why we do what we do. We need to be full of hope, full of peace, joy, and God's favor and blessings. We need to be full of the Holy Spirit and God's anointing, that it overflows from us and through us, so we can be like a not so well known, normal and ordinary Nehemiah and his team of unknowns, who did the extra ordinary and changed their lives and of their people forever. We can do it. God and history is on our side.