In this sermon, Paul Thompson reflects on the power and compassion of God as described in the stories of Nehemiah and Isaiah. He focuses on the significance of the word 'but' in Nehemiah's story, and how it contrasts the actions of God and his people. Through his meditation on Scripture, Thompson also draws attention to the symbolic significance of rain and its relationship to spiritual revival.

Well, I give you greetings as well from the West. In 1974, a stuntman by the name of Evel Knievel, only the gray hairs in the room will know this, His name was spelled E-V-E-L, so don't think I'm going to go weird on you. Evel Knievel made an attempt to jump on a steam-powered sky cycle, the Snake River Canyon. I say attempt because he was unsuccessful. He failed off of the launch.

His parachute came out and eventually crashed on the same side of the canyon that he launched from, never even crossing the river. So I come from the west, and in the west, it's kind of lonely at times. And so I'm saying I'm giving you an invitation to come to Twin Falls, Idaho. The only thing you have to worry about is if dad gets in the garage and starts building a steam-powered sky cycle to come out west. The good news is you can take the bridge and you can come and visit us.

Another really unique thing about the West is, from my vantage point of where I live, is it rains so little. Much of my meditation in Scripture, and that which bears fruit of burning in my soul is usually related to rain. I asked my wife before I came out here for her to check the weather forecast because I've never been in North Carolina in the springtime. It looks like tomorrow's forecast is rain, and Saturday's forecast is rain, I think. See, in Idaho we measure a two-inch rain differently than I think you do here.

A two-inch rain in Idaho means you get a tape measure out and you measure how far it is between the raindrops. And a two-inch rain is a big rain. We measure our rain in the one hundredths of an inch, not by the tenth of an inch or by the full of an inch. So whenever I read in scripture about rain, it captures my attention, it captures my interest. In Nehemiah, in the ninth chapter, the people of God have come home from captivity.

And he pens this glorious story of the way God's people are acting and reacting and interacting and how really the The the theme of the story is not so much how God's people are acting but really how God is acting We know we live in a day where many many people think that the God of the Old Testament is so harsh and so mean and so irrelevant and uncaring and without any compassion, but I mean, I don't know about you, But I know when I read the Old Testament, I read about a compassionate God. In the ninth chapter of Jeremiah, Jeremiah begins to say these things about God. He's retelling the story of creation. You alone, O God, are God. You made the heavens and everything, everything everywhere God has made.

God chose Abraham from the land of the Chaldeans. He called him out of his idolatry and put his name on him. God has done everything. He's, God has planned what man intended to be for evil. God intended it for good.

Egypt, unbeknownst to them, would be used to save God's people and then they would turn on God and they would afflict God's people. And Nehemiah would record that our fathers, when they left the land, that God covered those afflicting Egyptians with mud in the sea. See, Nehemiah is speaking about how when God spoke, his power was on display. When God acted, nobody denied that it was God. God spoke to their fathers.

He fed their fathers in the desert, in the wilderness. He brought forth a river from a rock. And then there's this stunning word in Nehemiah's descriptions of the power of God and the glory of God, and it's this word, but. But our fathers acted arrogantly. They became stubborn and would not listen.

They refused to listen and appointed a leader amongst themselves so they could return to Egypt. And then that word, but, shows up again to contrast how God behaved toward them. But you are a God of forgiveness, Nehemiah says. You're gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness, and you did not forsake them. Even when they made a calf of molten metal and said, this is your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and they committed great blasphemies.

So in response to the compassion that Nehemiah describes about God, shows up this word again in the 26th verse, but as soon as they became disobedient and rebelled against God, that God would cast their law off and kill and they cast God's law off and they killed his prophets and so God gave them to their oppressors. And then that word but shows up again in the 27th verse. But when they cried to you in their distress, you heard them, and according to your compassion you delivered them. And then in verse 28 of Nehemiah chapter nine, that word shows up again. But as soon as they had rest, they did evil again.

So you admonished them and you abandoned them in the land of their enemies. Many times Nehemiah would record how God rescued them according to his compassion, to his mercy, many times. In the 31st verse, Nehemiah would say, you are a gracious and a compassionate God. Do not let all this hardship seem insignificant before you. To the people he would say, our God has been faithful.

We are the ones who have acted wickedly. And then in verse 35, there's that word again. But, because they've acted wickedly before God, committed great blasphemies, they in their kingdom with God's great goodness they would stop serving or in other words they would stop worshipping God. Behold Nehemiah would say in verse 36 we we are slaves today in the land that God gave to us and the land is in great distress because of all of this we are putting our names to a statement of repentance. This is the sound of revival.

This is what Isaiah would mean when he, in the fifth chapter in the vineyard, the song of the vineyard, when Isaiah writes about the same thing Nehemiah is writing about. He's speaking about how God did everything, and everything that's created everywhere, God did that. And he brought his people into a garden, and he put the choice vine in the garden, and he put water in the garden, He put a barrier around the garden to preserve it and to protect it. And there's that same word in that song of the vineyard in Isaiah chapter 5 that we find in Nehemiah chapter 9, and that's that word, but. Where God expected the vines to produce good grapes, but the grapes that were produced on this vine were only worthless grapes.

And then as that song concludes in Isaiah chapter 5, he says this, God speaking, that he will command the rain clouds to rain no rain. Now to a guy in the desert west, the high mountain desert west, I know we're about to leave our rainy season. So from January through May, we get about an inch and a half of rain. That's our rainy season. From about June till somewhere around September or October, we start measuring out, will this be another record-breaking no rainy season?

For God to command the rain clouds to rain no rain I know what it looks like on the horizon to see a rain cloud that will not rain but when it rains can I tell you it is glorious? As Isaiah concludes toward the end of Isaiah, that epic story of the glory of God, Isaiah will say of God that he will command the heavens above to rain down righteousness again. So the heart of man lives perpetually in a desert, doesn't he? But it is a good day when God brings rain. It may look pretty hopeless at the moment.

But one thing that is consistent as Nehemiah told the story is that in their distress they would cry out to God. And that God would hear their distress and he would send rain. Isaiah says of God, You, O heavens above, rain down my righteousness. Let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open up.

Let salvation spring up. Let righteousness flourish with it, for I the Lord have created it. I don't know what it's like to live in a place where it rains as much as it does around here but may I encourage you when it rains you would rejoice in the Lord that it reminds us of how good it is when God reigns righteousness from heaven. May it reign.