On the twenty-fourth day of this month the Israelites assembled; they were fasting, wearing sackcloth, and had put dust on their heads. Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors.

Nehemiah 9:1-2
[quote]Sin is failure to reflect the image of God in attitude, thought, or action.[/quote]

[quote]Every human is an image of God, and sin is a failure to love God and others by not treating them with the honor they should be. It tells us to act for our own benefit at the expense of others. Not only that, but we deceive ourselves to redefine some of our bad decisions as good ones. We have an inability to discern if we are succeeding or failing. When we sin, we don’t just fail to hit a mark, we separate ourselves from God and grieve his heart, as well as hurt people. – Tim Mackie[/quote]
While they stood in their places, they read from the book of the law of the LORD their God for a fourth of the day and spent another fourth of the day in confession and worship of the LORD their God.

Nehemiah 9:3
Then the Levites — Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah  — said, “Stand up. Blessed be the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting.” Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You, LORD, are the only God. You created the heavens, the highest heavens with all their stars, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them, and all the stars of heaven worship you. You, the LORD, are the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and changed his name to Abraham. You found his heart faithful in your sight, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and Girgashites — to give it to his descendants. You have fulfilled your promise, for you are righteous. You saw the oppression of our ancestors in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea. You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, all his officials, and all the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly they treated our ancestors. You made a name for yourself that endures to this day.

Nehemiah 9:5-10
[quote]Righteousness is God’s own perfection in every attribute, attitude, behavior, or word. Thus God’s laws describe His own character and the line by which He measures human righteousness. – gotquestions.org[/quote]
But our ancestors acted arrogantly; they became stiff-necked and did not listen to your commands. They refused to listen and did not remember your wonders you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love, and you did not abandon them.

Nehemiah 9:16-17
You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it; you are not pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God.

Psalm 51:16-17
[quote]Confession
– Alertness
– Name explicitly, don’t minimize
– Illuminate in community[/quote]
But they were disobedient and rebelled against you. They flung your law behind their backs and killed your prophets who warned them in order to turn them back to you. They committed terrible blasphemies. So you handed them over to their enemies, who oppressed them. In their time of distress, they cried out to you, and you heard from heaven. In your abundant compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the power of their enemies. But as soon as they had relief, they again did what was evil in your sight. So you abandoned them to the power of their enemies, who dominated them. When they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven and rescued them many times in your compassion.

Nehemiah 9:26-28
Here we are today, slaves in the land you gave our ancestors so that they could enjoy its fruit and its goodness. Here we are — slaves in it! Its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have set over us, because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and our livestock as they please. We are in great distress. In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement in writing on a sealed document containing the names of our leaders, Levites, and priests.

Nehemiah 9:36-38
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances.

Ezekiel 36:26-27
Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thoughts. They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts. They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more. But that is not how you came to know Christ, assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.

Ephesians 4:17-24
[one_third_first]Recognize[/one_third_first] [one_third]Confess[/one_third] [one_third]Turn[/one_third]
[one_third_first]God’s Word
Seeing God clearly[/one_third_first]
[one_third]Alertness
Name it, don’t minimize
Illuminate in community[/one_third]
[one_third]Repent
Renew[/one_third]
[quote]Repent: a changing of the mind or purpose after being with.[/quote]

[quote]Renew: Completing an upward process with intensifies to a new level by God’s power.[/quote]