The book of Nehemiah keeps pressing a single truth deeper into our hearts: God can rebuild what looks irreparably broken. By chapter 10, revival has taken root among God’s people. They have heard the Word, they have confessed their sins, and now they make a public, joyful, costly commitment. They want their whole lives to reflect the glory of God.

That is the heartbeat of Nehemiah 10. The question underneath the chapter is simple but searching: Who deserves your best

Scripture’s answer is clear. God deserves our first and our best.

Unfortunately, the fact that God deserves our first and our best is not always our instinct. If we are honest, most of us know how easy it is to offer leftovers. We give the best of our energy to work. The best of our attention to our phones. The best of our affection to hobbies or habits or people. And then, when we reach the end of the week, we tell God, “Here’s what I have left.”

Nehemiah 10 confronts that gently but firmly. Revival is not merely emotional. It reshapes priorities. It produces obedience. It leads God’s people to say, “Lord, you get the first and the best because you are worthy of the first and the best.”

Renewed Commitment: A Sign of Real Repentance

As the chapter opens, the entire community—leaders and citizens, men and women—bind themselves to a renewed covenant. They “enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s Law” (10:29). They are not negotiating with God. They are surrendering to him.

Here is a core truth every believer must understand: Committing is part of repenting. Repentance is not only turning from sin. It is turning toward obedience. It is not only stopping the wrong direction. It is choosing, intentionally, the right one.

Israel publicly declared, “We want to live God’s way.” They put their names on it. They put their hearts behind it. And then they identified the places where obedience had been breaking down. They were not guessing. They were naming the exact areas where compromise had crept in and where their hearts had drifted from God.

Their commitments were targeted, and they did not make vague promises about “trying harder.” They named the exact places where compromise had gotten a foothold. They went straight to the pressure points: marriage, rest, and giving. And if we are honest, those are still pressure points for us today.

1. Bringing God Their Best in Relationships

First, the people of Israel promised not to intermarry with those who worshipped other gods (10:30). This was not about ethnicity. It was about devotion. Scripture had warned them that marrying someone with a different object of worship would turn their hearts away from the Lord.

The point for us is this: obedience in relationships requires trust. God calls us to enter marriage with someone who shares a covenant with him. That protects unity, future children, finances, spiritual direction, intimacy, and mission. It is one of the clearest ways we give God our best.

If you trust God, then trust that his way for marriage truly is best.

2. Bringing God Their Best in Rest

Next, they committed to honoring the Sabbath and practicing rest even when economic opportunity tempted them not to (10:31). They were not just obeying rules. The people aren’t just committing to the law but to the spirit of the law.

This distinction matters. God wants more than technical obedience. He wants hearts that love his ways. Rest requires faith. It says, “I believe God will provide even when I stop producing.” Rest reminds us that our identity is not in our work but in God’s work. For many of us, the deepest spiritual battle is not over doctrine but over pace. We refuse to rest, we refuse to unplug, and we refuse to trust. Nehemiah 10 invites us back into God’s rhythm.

3. Bringing God Their Best in Giving

Finally, Israel committed to bring offerings, tithes, wood, sacrifices, firstfruits, and even their firstborn sons to the Lord (10:32–36). They were binding themselves to generosity, and they were binding themselves to worship. Their giving was not a tax. It was a declaration that God came first.

And this renewed generosity did not emerge in a vacuum. They had watched their leader model it. Nehemiah had already refused the governor’s food allowance, absorbed personal costs, and put the mission above his own comfort. His life had shown them what devotion looked like. The mark of Nehemiah’s commitment to the mission was his generosity. Nehemiah did not give God the scraps. He gave God the first, the best, and the costly.

When we think about bringing God our best today, it is not about Old Covenant taxation. It is about the posture of the heart. The question is simple: Do I offer God my best or what remains after I have satisfied myself? Most of us instinctively know the difference. When guests visit, no one serves leftovers from the week. We bring out the ribeyes. The first choice. The best cut. God deserves no less.

Why Can We Give God Our Best?

All of this leads to the climactic gospel question: How can people like us give our best to God when we so often fail? The answer is in the pattern of redemption woven throughout the chapter. Verse 36 reminds Israel that parents were to bring their firstborn sons to the Lord. But unlike the pagan nations around them, they were not to sacrifice them. They were to redeem them. A price was paid so the child could live. That principle was preparing God’s people for something greater: the gospel.

In the gospel, Jesus paid the price to redeem the people of God. We are the ones who deserved judgment. We are the spiritual firstborn who should have stood condemned. But God sent his Son, not to be redeemed, but to be the price. He laid down his life so we could be brought into God’s family. If God gave us his first and his best—his Son—how could we not respond with joyful surrender?

Bring God Your Very Best

Revival is never merely emotional. It always shows up in how we live. Nehemiah 10 asks us to examine our priorities:

  • Is God getting your first energy or your last scraps?
  • Is worship the anchor of your week or an afterthought?
  • Is rest shaped by trust or stolen by hurry?
  • Does your giving reflect faith or fear?
  • Does your calendar reflect commitment or convenience?

This is not about earning God’s love. It is about responding to it.

Application: Bring God Your Very Best.

I want to challenge you to bring God your very best today. Not because you fear punishment, but because you have been redeemed. Not because you are trying to impress God, but because he has already given you his best in Christ. May we be a people who gladly offer God the first and the best in every part of life. He is worthy of nothing less.

Watch the full sermon from week eight of our Rebuild series here:

Andrew Hopper