On September 26, 2021, Gratia Church held a dedication service for its new location where it will hold Wednesday Service, Friday Prayer Meeting, Bible studies, and other fellowship activities. Gratia will continue to hold Sunday service at its chapel location which was previously dedicated, but held a special Sunday service for this day.
In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng spoke about rebuilding which was the situation of Nehemiah and the Israelite nation. In the same way, we are relocation and building a new location after a pandemic. All of us are also rebuilding our lives after the pandemic.
What we see from Nehemiah is concern after hearing about the devastation from his brothers that came back from Jerusalem. Nehemiah could have easily ignored it being around the grand palace, but he had a deep concern. For us, nothing will ever change if we don’t begin with concern for this fallen world and the restoration of God’s Kingdom.
Also, Nehemiah had conviction for God’s greatness, who is higher than even the kings of the world. In the face of God’s greatness, he humbly confessed his own sinfulness. This is the honesty of Nehemiah that it wasn’t someone else’s sin, but it is all of our sin. He didn’t try to blame anyone, but owned up to the problem.
In the final part of Nehemiah’s prayer, we see the confidence he has in God’s promise that God will do what He has already said. At the same time, Nehemiah was personally committed to God using him to complete His work. He didn’t pray for someone else to do it, but he prayed for himself to be used by God. May this prayer of Nehemiah strengthen us and may Gratia Church be a place of great prayer.
