Nehemiah - Recap & Application

Nehemiah - Recap & Application

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I'm excited to kind of wrap up our Nehemiah series, we've been in it for like 13 weeks, so like a few months here. It's been great. I hope you've enjoyed it. I'll speak for Andre because he's not here. Andre's enjoyed it, I've enjoyed it, Pastor Lauren's enjoyed it, it's been great. But with this really cool story about God using a man who was just willing, a man who had a heart for the people of God and his tenacity, his grit, his willingness to just push through so many things that came at him. He didn't know when he signed up for the job. It was such a great thing for us. So we want to take a Sunday and actually make sure that we recap kind of what we learned and what we went through. So we're going to walk through some different themes this morning from the book of Nehemiah. If you don't know the story of Nehemiah, Nehemiah was a cupbearer to the king who was in charge of the region. They were technically under captivity under King Artaxerxes. You said that five times, man. Exactly. He basically was the test guy for the king. He would eat all the food, he would drink all the liquid and wine and juice and all that stuff just to make sure that nobody was poisoning kings. So a pretty high stress job if you think about it. And he has some people come visit him from Jerusalem and he hears about the state of the city. They had rebuilt the temple, but Jerusalem as a whole, the city was just in shambles. It was a mess. There was no security with the wall. And so he's moved by God through prayer to actually ask of the king to have a leave of absence to go to Jerusalem and to help rebuild the wall. And so the king honors his request, which is a miracle in itself, and he goes to Jerusalem and he starts rebuilding the wall. And he comes across opposition, he comes across people who don't want the city to be good, he comes against outside countries and nations that are trying to control Jerusalem. He comes up against sin in the city itself, the Israelite people aren't living the way God has called them to. But this man of God, who a prayer warrior, walks through this season and stepping out in a role that wasn't his role essentially. I mean, he was never really trained as a masonry or this wasn't his side business where he built walls because he loved to build walls. But he was just a man who said yes to God's calling in the season and stepped up. And we see as we wrapped up last week that he has not only rebuilt the wall, rebuilt the city, reestablished the city, reestablished the leaders and the temple priests and all this stuff. And in the end, you see this moment of a leader just exhausted. He's tired, he's worn out, but yet he has rebuilt the wall and he's reestablished the city. And we're going to walk through some themes this morning, some really cool ones with us today.

Yeah, so one of the first themes that we really picked out of Nehemiah that we felt was really important to hit home is the idea of prayer. And Nehemiah, you see it throughout the entire book, he is a man of prayer. It was always his first response. It was never a second thought. It was never a last resort. It was always his first response when he approached anything. I mean, you see in chapter one, when he hears about the wall, he immediately fasts and prays. So he's already just talking to God about this. And then after he feels like the Lord is calling him, the king asked him what's going on and what he needs. And before he even responds to his boss, the king, he prays. He prays and seeks out God. And then he goes into, when he goes to Jerusalem, he kind of just takes inventory and rides around the wall and rides around the city and is praying and seeking God. Even when he knows what his call is by then and he knows what his job is supposed to do, he's still continuing to pray. He's still continuing to seek out, okay, every step of the way, Lord, I need you to guide me. I need you to show me what is next. He was just so intentional with that. Even when he thought he knew the right steps, even when he thought he was sure of things throughout the book, he continued to come back to prayer, to kind of this like recalibration and check in with God and always seek him and always allow God to guide him. It reminds me of Romans 12, 12. It says, "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer." And Nehemiah exemplified all of these things. He was joyful in hope and he was patient in affliction, which he faced a lot of, but he was so faithful in prayer. He was so good to always make sure that that was a top priority for not only him, but for all the people. He led the people in seeking God, in how to go about all of this, in how to face the opposition, in how to actually do the job of rebuilding the wall. They constantly were seeking God. And really just the reality that we can take away is that it is helpful, obviously, to pray and to seek him, but it's just wise. It is a wise thing for us to look at prayer as a priority, to make it a priority in our life, to constantly seek the Lord, ask him to guide our steps. It's so easy for us to get out in front of God. We, "Okay, Lord, you showed me what I need to do. I'm going to go." And then we like run out in front of him. He was like, "Okay, I showed you the next step and you're like 15 steps ahead." So sometimes we need to take a breath and take a moment and really just be sure that we are seeking him every step of the way. 1 Thessalonians 5, 17 says, "Pray continually." Now that doesn't necessarily mean that we're like sitting in our closet or in our, you know, our prayer chair at home and just always praying and never doing anything else, but it's continuing this conversation with the Lord. If we claim to be in a relationship with God, we got to keep talking to him. I can't just stop talking to Chris and expect a relationship to continue. That won't work. We have to continue this conversation with God. He wants to have a relationship with us. He wants us to come to him with our concerns, with our prayers, with our praise too. Prayer can be a time of praise and adoration as well, but he wants us to continue to pray continually to be engaged in that conversation with him all the time

Yeah, absolutely. And Nehemiah faced loads and loads and loads of opposition and it came from most unlikely places. He had opposition from outside, which they had surrounding nations and cities that were competing for the area, which was expected. But then he also had opposition from within. He had his own Israelite people turn against him and to come at him and to judge him, to ridicule him, and even opposition from themselves. The Israelite people at times just got in their own way. I have so many times where God's like, "Hey, this is what I want you to do. This is where I want you to be." God is leading them and calling them and then they just get in their own way by making their own choices, living the way that they want to. But there's a specific moment when, I love this, in Nehemiah when he started to build the wall and there's this group of, we'll call them the elite, I guess. I don't know other way, but Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem. They basically come to Nehemiah and they're like, "Hey man, how about you come down the wall? We'll talk things out. We'll come up with a plan of what we're going to do here." And I love what Nehemiah says. He doesn't come down. He's like, "I'm too busy doing God's stuff," he says in Nehemiah 6.3. So I sent messages to them, the three bros. "I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?" Nehemiah knew his calling. He knew what he was supposed to do. And without a shadow of a doubt, he wasn't going to let anything get in the way. Even if it meant going against the "cultural norms" of the city that were established before he shows up, he pushes through. Even to the point where they have to begin to defend themselves by having a trowel for rebuilding the wall in one hand and a sword in the other after they were beginning to be attacked. Nehemiah wasn't going to let any threats, any other people's opinions, any outside influence, he wasn't going to let anything stop him from building the wall which God had called him to do. This is level of perseverance is just incredible.

It says in Romans 5, 3-4, not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings. Opposition wasn't fun. I don't know if you've ever been tasked with a project and somebody comes up against you. It's not the most joyous occasion. It's not that we hope to face when we feel like we're trying to walk the way God has us, but we know that there's an enemy too that doesn't want us to walk in the way that God has called us to. Also glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, right? Perseverance, character, character, hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. We have an assurance as followers of Christ that when we're given a task by God and we're called to fulfill that task, to live it out, to walk step by step where he has called us, that we know we have the Holy Spirit who partners in that with us. We're not doing this alone. Nehemiah wasn't building this wall alone. Yes, he had people around him from the city helping him, but he had God. He had God with him through all of that, and that gave him a boldness that was unlike anything that we had seen before. It's so evident in this book that Nehemiah knew his calling and he knew his purpose in this season. See, I think that's key right there. That wasn't his first job. That wasn't his perfect gift. I know he may have been a really bad wall builder, but he had YouTube to watch and learn how to build walls. No, I'm kidding. But that wasn't his calling, but it was his calling in that season. He was a cupbearer to the king. That was his first role, and he had to ask permission to go away from it, and we read that he actually goes back for a time as well and comes back to Jerusalem. But for the season in that moment, in that time, that was his calling. I think for some of us, we have different callings in different seasons. I have a calling in a season right now to help lead worship at Spring Valley. It's not my primary job. It's not my primary role, but in this season and in this time, this is what God has asked me to step up in faith. And so we step up and we faith. Lauren serves joyfully. Joyfully. I say gleefully is a little long, but joyfully in our children's ministry. That's not her calling. That's not her passion. She likes preaching in here to big kids, not little kids. But she does it because of the season we're in and where we're at. There's so many seasons and people that I look around this room that you guys are stepping up in this church in seasons, and it's amazing. It's a huge testament to your faithfulness to God. And for us to see an example like Nehemiah, who had the grit to stick through this project, through the thick and through the thin, even in the face of any opposition.

Well, and right along with that, the perseverance, despite maybe not being in his giftedness, was this idea of service. These people, these Jews were coming together for a common purpose of rebuilding the wall. And it said in chapter three that there were priests, goldsmiths, perfume makers, there was all kinds of people with all different skill sets, all different careers. And they all came together for one purpose. And it wasn't so much that they were talented or skilled in rebuilding the wall or in leading the people, but they were willing. They made themselves available to the service for God. And I think that a lot of the times we think that we have to be skilled in something, or we have to be especially gifted in something. And we believe the Holy Spirit gives us gifts for the purpose of giving to the body, of edifying the church. That is true. If you are a believer, you have been given gifts of the Spirit. But also there is a willingness that needs to be there, an availability that we have in our heart to be used however God sees fit. And here we see all of these names listed out in Nehemiah. And it makes you wonder, because they were available and because they were in service to God, they have their names in the Bible forever. They get to have that praise, I guess, for them to be able to say, "Yeah, I was there. Make note, take record of this. I got to be there. I was part of the group. I was a perfume maker. I never had built a wall in my life, but I got to be in service to God because I made myself available.”

Colossians 3:23-24 says, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." We would all love to have earthly rewards for the service that we do in the church and in the community. That would be wonderful. But that's not always a reality. There are certainly benefits and rewards that come from serving, but we are serving God. We are serving the Lord when we volunteer, when we show up, when we have a smile and a welcome to someone else. That is serving others and therefore serving God. And that is making yourself available despite your skillset, despite your passions, despite maybe what you feel like you're lacking. Making yourself available to God is the key. It is the obedience, not the results. And so we feel like that is a value here is serving in the church, in the community, where you are, where you live. And that is so important because we are doing it for the Lord, not for man. And there's an obedience part in there.

And it takes us to our big final theme that we had through Nehemiah, and that's holiness. It's this obedience to what God has asked of us. And there were times, multiple times in New Maya when the people read the book of God. They read the Bible, they read the scrolls, they read the Torah, and they realized through reading God's word that their lives weren't right. They took God's scripture and they took their lives and compared them side by side and realized these aren't lining up. God's asking me to live this way and I'm over here doing this thing. That's not right. That's not what God has asked us to do. And they weren't living their life the way God wanted. They were living the way that they wanted to, which I think we all at times struggle with, right? We end up living the way that we want to or the way that we want to in our choices, in our preferences, in how we have our calendars. We live the way that we want to. And for New Maya and Jerusalem, it was specifically they weren't obeying God's commands in the temple for worship. They weren't obeying the Sabbath with God commanded them all the way back to Egypt, coming out of Egypt to set a day aside and worship and praise to Him. They weren't obeying Him in their relationships. There was intermarrying going on, relationships that weren't centered on God, and things were affecting their daily lives. And in the final chapter we read in New Maya, we see him after he comes back to Jerusalem and going back to the king as a cupbearer, he shows back up and everything is in chaos. He had left certain people in charge and they had failed at their job. He had told people this is how we're supposed to live their lives and they just somehow forgot it. They just started doing whatever they pleased. And New Maya comes back and goes, "This isn't what God has called us to. This isn't the righteousness that God said we're supposed to live." And once again, he helps lead them back into right living and right standing with God. And New Maya could have easily said, "You know what? I built the wall. I did my job. Peace out, Jerusalem. Good luck." Not my rodeo, but he knew what was important. He knew that the wall and the temple and the health of the city was just a tool or a resource or a plumb line or a guide to what God wanted for them. And that was for them to have a heart after God. And they didn't have that heart. And so, New Maya didn't care, I think he cared, but not cared that the wall had been built and that the temple was good and that the city was set. He knew that those were good and great, but he knew what was more important and that was their heart living for God. He really knew that they needed to honor God with all of their self.

It says in 1 Peter 1:14-16, "Don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn't know better. You didn't know any better then, but now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the scriptures say, 'You must be holy because I am holy.'" Those are the words of God. But to do that and to live that out, it requires confession, it requires repentance. But also one of the things that I love about New Maya was that involves celebration. There were times where they had to repent for what they did. They had to grieve their disobedience, but it didn't stop there. They let God come into their hearts, restore them, change them, bring them back to life, and they celebrated that. I don't know that the church does that super well. Not enough. I don't think we do that enough to celebrate in God. We like to be hard on ourselves, go, "Oh, I messed up," or, "I'm not good," or, "God, you don't know the things that I've done." Well, first off, he does. He's been there the whole time. But you're just like, "God, you just don't get it. I'm a horrible person. I'm all messed up." And God goes, "Okay. I can fix you. I want to fix you, and I want you to celebrate. I want to bring joy into your hearts. I want you to celebrate this new life, to worship with joy and gladness for what God had done, has done, and what he is going to do and what he will do.”

So what about us? What do we take about this? What's our big number one thing we learn from Nehemiah? Well, I think a great question to start is, what is God asking of you right now in this season? What's God asking you to step up and do, to step up, to step in, even when it might not be our preference? Because that's true service right there. It's easy to serve when we want to, where we want to, how we want to. It's not much of a sacrifice. But Nehemiah uprooted his entire life, traveled far, sacrificed his years of service. There's times where he sacrificed income to feed people. He gave up of himself, probably not what he wanted to do, to answer the call that God had asked him for in that season. I think for us is, are we seeking God regularly? Are we taking time every single day in prayer, in scripture reading, in personal worship, silence, and solitude? Do we have a weekly Sabbath? Or are we living out this idea of walking with God in holiness, allowing him to come in and go through all the junk that we have, relinquishing control with the stuff that we have, letting him transform us into ultimately who he wants us to be, right? Do we keep prayer as the lifeblood of our lives? Do we pray as if our lives depend upon it? Nehemiah did. Nehemiah prayed like that was his only resource. I think that should be us too, that we should pray as if our lives depended upon it. And ultimately, are we trusting God to control everything, even in the midst of opposition? That we can persevere through life, we can make it through the next five minutes, an hour, the next day, next week, knowing that God's got our back, knowing that the Holy Spirit is there with us, interceding for us to God, praying prayers that sometimes we can't even pray ourselves because we're so overwhelmed in life from where we're at. Do we persevere?

Probably one of the key verses I love that comes out of Nehemiah, and a lot of people quote this and talk about this, but it comes from Nehemiah 8:10. And it says, "For the joy of the Lord is our strength." The joy of the Lord is our strength. Do we think about God as our joy juice? The one that recharges us? He gives us the breath in our lungs every morning when we wake up, right? He gives the energy to our bodies. He sustains our life. It's not us. It's not who we are. It's God. But do we look at it in a way of joy? Do we think about Mondays as joyful? I don't know. Some Mondays, it's a holiday. What if we saw every single day as an opportunity to let God's joy be our strength and to where His strength empowers everything that we do? I think our lives would look different. I think our lives would look a little bit more like Nehemiah.

Let me pray. Jesus, we thank You. God, thank You for Your servant, Nehemiah, who gave up everything for You, God. He gave up his plush job in the palace with the king, traveled to Jerusalem, faced ridicule and opposition, both inside and out, faced ridicule from people who were probably supposed to be the ones on his team, and yet they turned on him too. God, I urge us this week that we would make prayer the number one thing in our lives, just as Nehemiah did, to seek You in every single moment, in the joy, in the heart, in the twists and the turns of life that come at us so fast, God. God, may we stay connected to You in Your Holy Spirit. God, so when things come up against us, we can have this joy that is our strength to seek after You as You've called us to be a holy people. God, come into our lives today, in this moment right now. Remind us of Your sovereignty, Your strength, Your power, Your grace, Your love, Your patience, Your faithfulness. God, You're an amazing God, and I'm continually amazed, blown away, God, that You care about each and every one of us. God, maybe there's some people here today who would say, "I don't know this, Jesus. I haven't made a conscious decision to allow God to come into my life." And so, Jesus, I pray right now that in the quiet of their heart, they would just pray a simple prayer of, "God, I'm sorry. God, I need You. Jesus, come into my life. I give You what is the humbleness of my day-to-day, my family, my job, my whole being I give to You. God, cleanse me. Make me right again with You. Forgive the sins, the wrong things that I've done. Make me whole. I want Your holiness to come into my life to transform me so that I can live in turn the way that You've asked me to live. Jesus, I thank You for who You are and Your gift and Your sacrifice on the cross for my life to substitute for the death that I was facing. Or maybe we need to just make a decision right now in this moment to say, "I need to say yes to God again. I've been on my own thing. I've been running away. I've been angry at God maybe. Maybe I've been frustrated. You've been just let down, it seems like. Maybe we need to make a choice to say, "God, come back. I need You. I know You're my only source of hope, and I missed it. God, come into my life. Restore me. Remind me of who You are, and I may trust in You once again. God, we're so grateful for today. We're grateful for everything that You've blessed us with. God, may we continue to live out the calling that You have for us that may change in seasons from time to time, but God, may we joyfully serve and step up in those moments, knowing it's not going to last forever, but knowing that this is our calling from You right now. We love You, Jesus. We thank You. We praise You for who You are. In Jesus' name, amen.

Nehemiah - Chapter 13

Nehemiah - Chapter 13: Living a Life Pleasing to God

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Excited to be here. If I haven't met you, my name is Pastor Chris, I'm part of the team. And we are continuing in, actually in the last chapter of Nehemiah today. And we've been at it. You guys have gone, I don't know, how many weeks have we been in this thing now? Like 12 weeks or something? And we have been through good times, we've been through some hard times, and we're gonna wrap up the book today in the text. And next week, actually, we're gonna come back and we're gonna have, just 'cause it's been such a long time, we're gonna kind of tag through some of the main teaching principles that we learned from Nehemiah this past season. And so this chapter comes at right the end of Nehemiah's story. And it's kind of gonna have, heads up, it's gonna have a little bit of an abrupt ending to it. But I think there's some key things in there and intentionality with that, and some truths for us today. And so if we could, I'd love, I know we've been praying and we've been worshiping, I'd love to pray one more time before we jump into God's word together. Jesus, thank you for this morning. God, we are so grateful to be here in your presence. Jesus, we pray for those who aren't able to be with us. We know we've got some sickness going around, Jesus, we just pray against that right now in your name, that families would be healed and sickness would go away and we'd be able to bring everybody, our whole family, God, back together. Jesus, we thank you for this beautiful day this morning, I think for the cool, crisp fall air that we all shared in on our way into church this morning. God, thank you for who you are and your amazing creation that we get to enjoy. We love you, Jesus, we thank you, amen.

Well, Israel, or I'll say Israel as a general term, but Jerusalem and the people have finally started to obey God's word. Nehemiah came into the city, he rebuilt the wall, he had lots of opposition, different things happening to him, and he fights through all of that and the people rally and they get the walls built, they get Jerusalem secure again. So they're coming out of captivity, they've had the temple rebuilt, the wall rebuilt, the city is coming back together, things are going great, and yet there's still, there's something missing. And then they begin to read and open up God's word and they realize that they're not living the life that God has called them to. They're coming up short in how they treat one another, how they love each other, how they conduct business, how they live their lives, they're just, they're not up to what God has for his standard. And so they begin to change what they're doing, they get back into right worship in the temple, they start living their lives the way that God has called them to, they start being generous with one another, they're caring for each other, they're looking out for widows and orphans, they're living life to the fullest, and God's glory is just shining in on this amazing city and everything is just going so great. And so we have this moment where we think they did it. They finally did it. All of this text up here in this first half, up to this moment of when the Israelites kind of get it and then they fall off, and they kind of get it and they fall off, and they kind of get there and then they fall off, we think we finally got here, right? We finally arrived at this place where people are living right, they're worshiping right, they have right relationships, they are living righteous lives. Have you ever been around kids in the presence of a teacher or a parent or just someone in charge who's supervising? And all is good, right? All is good, I think we got some teachers in the room, you can attest to this, they're being kind with one another, they're sharing toys, they have their listening ears on, they're good and proper conduct, right? And then that teacher or parent or adult supervision just steps out of their presence for just one, even one second. What happens? Chaos, absolute chaos ensues. They're beating each other up, they're taking things from each other, they're starting to draw on walls, they just mass chaos, how does this happen? How does this happen? I don't get it, there's scientists out there that have studied this for generations and they still can't figure out how this happens. And we're gonna find ourselves in this place that Israel is living right, they're doing everything they're supposed to and everything is going great and they're walking with God and then it's gonna turn to chaos.

It says in Nehemiah 13, "Before this, "Elishab, the priest, had been put in charge "of the storerooms of the house of our God. "He was closely associated with Tobiah." Before all this happened, in the scripture we read that they had once again committed themselves to living the way that God had commanded them to live. And they're reading the word of God, verse one, it talks about the word of the Lord is being read. And all of this part of right living is set up in this place where they have proper leadership in place. This was Nehemiah's one final thing he did in the city of Jerusalem, he put all the right people, or he thought he was putting the right people in charge to make sure everything was gonna be run well. They had appointed a new high priest or senior or leader pastor over the city and that this priest and this pastor was needing a physical representation of God to the people and then the priest himself was a representation from the people back to God. And this is go between or liaison, a shepherd leading these people. And everything was set, everything was great in Jerusalem. And Nehemiah, we don't understand the terms of why, but he actually heads back to where he came from. He has to go back to his job under King Arxerxes and he heads back to take care of his duties that he had.

And it says this in verse six and seven, "But while all of this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, Nehemiah. For in the 32nd year of Arxerxes, King of Babylon, I had returned to the king. Sometime later, I asked his permission and came back to Jerusalem." I don't know if he had heard, I don't know if he just had that leader intuition, "I gotta go back." He had that dad nudge or that mom nudge of like, "Something's not right. I need to go back and see my people, see my crew." And so Nehemiah heads back to Jerusalem and when he shows up, it is absolute chaos in the city. People have lost their ever loving minds and are just doing whatever they want to do. And everything that he had set them up going, "Okay, do this. Okay, be at bright worship. Like be kind to one another. Conduct yourselves in your relationships like this." All this stuff, he literally comes back and it's the complete opposite of anything that's happening. Anybody watch the show "Community" back in the day? It was about the community college. Anybody? Well, there's this scene where the one guy leaves to go get pizza and all of his friends are hanging out, I think it's his apartment. And he comes back and he flings the door open and he's holding pizza and the whole apartment is on fire. And he was like, "I was gone 20 minutes." Like what happened? Like I can see Nehemiah like walking through the gates and just like, the city's not on fire, but like emotionally the city is on fire all around him. And he's like, "What is going on? The temple is being abused." Nehemiah 13, four and five. He said, "Before this, Elishib, the priest, had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of the God." Good. "But he was closely associated with Tobiah." Not so good. "And he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and olive prescribed for the Levites, musicians, gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priest." If we flip back just a few chapters near the beginning of Nehemiah when he's beginning to build the ball, Tobiah is like his arch nemesis. This guy was against Nehemiah rebuilding the wall. He was against God doing anything in Jerusalem. He was all against Nehemiah. And so this Elishib actually becomes his father-in-law of Tobiah, he marries his daughter. But in this, he ends up giving his father-in-law a house, an apartment within the temple. This is a big no-no. And on top of that, Tobiah is just walking around like an unlimited buffet in this place and going, "I'm gonna have a little bit of this. I'll go over here, I'll have a little bit of this." He's like that dude, like he's probably like walking around in his bathrobe and like the church is going on. He's like, "Hey, what's going on? Let me just get some grain and a little bit of wine this morning, get the morning off right." Like he's stealing from God. And his son-in-law, who's supposed to be in charge of all this under Nehemiah, just lets him do it. Absolute chaos. To the point that Tobiah is taking so much food that the people who are working in the temple who are fed and provided for from the tithes and offerings that come to the temple for God, that's kind of their paycheck. Like they're having to go find their own food because he's taking so much himself and not allowing the people who are doing God's work. So they're not even able to be around. And then they're off having to provide for their own families, doing their own farming and such.

Then Nehemiah finds out that Sabbath isn't longer being observed. Verse 15, "In those days, I saw people in Judah shredding wine presses on the Sabbath and bringing grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine and grapes and figs and all kinds of loads. They were bringing this all into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. The problem was with the influence on the outside of the neighboring cities and cultures. They didn't stop working on Sunday. They just kept plowing through. They wanted to make as much money as they could as fast as they could. And they realized, man, this city is huge. We got a great monetary business opportunity here, friends. And if the Jews are gonna stop working on Sunday, then all they got, we had no competition. So they start rolling in on Sunday, selling their stuff, price hikes, supply and demand, there's a lot of demand, there's a little bit of supply. Oh yes, here we go. And so they start selling their stuff. And then the Israelites are like, wait a minute, if they're selling, I'm gonna sell. So then they start selling. And then they're like, well, if he's selling and he's selling, I'm gonna get in on this opportunity. I'm gonna start selling. And so this Sunday where it was supposed to be a day set aside for worship in God's temple, turns into just another Friday afternoon in the city streets, hustle, bustle, trade, money being made all around. And then Nehemiah finds out that unholy marriage, ungodly marriage is happening. Verse 23, "Moreover, in those days, I saw men of Judah had married women from Asherah, Ammon, and Moab." After Nehemiah had gone through all this time setting right godly marriages, they just start marrying around. They're marrying these people over here who have all of these idols that they worship. And they're marrying this group over here that is not following God. And then they're bringing that into their house. And all of a sudden their kids are learning about different stuff. And God is in the center of everybody's marriage. And just like, just chaos is happening. These cults and these nations and all these outside religions are starting to influence even at the family level in Jerusalem.

The entire city has fallen into a place of living in sin. And just a short time earlier, they had gone through this time of repentance and grieving and asking for God for forgiveness to say we're not living the way that the Bible says. We're so sorry. We don't wanna live like that. We wanna live the way God, you said we're supposed to live and to be right with God. And it was just, seems like yesterday. Those thoughts and those convictions and those right moments of living righteously are just gone. And they're finding themselves in the place of complete opposite in total chaos. So Nehemiah starts getting to work. He kicks Tobiah out of the temple said, bro, you ain't living here. This ain't your place. This is not your home. Go find a home somewhere else. Stop stealing our food. He rededicates the temple and anywhere that Tobiah would have wandered in his bathrobe that week. He sends the people away from like selling on the Sabbath. He basically shuts down the market said, hey guys, we're not honoring God. We can't live like this. So he shuts down the markets. Well, they go around the corner. They start doing back alley deals and they're selling stuff out the backs of their carts and the backs of their archaic vans. They're making side deals. They're hustling. They're doing Facebook marketplace deals. Nobody knows secret handshakes. And so he says, fine. He goes, I'm gonna kick all of you out and I'm gonna lock the gates of the city. I'm not gonna let anybody in or out on the Sabbath. You guys can't come in here. And so people are traveling and they're like, oh, the gates are locked. Well, tomorrow's not the Sabbath. Nehemiah is gonna open them. We're just gonna hang out and spend the night. Then people start sneaking outside the city to make deals. People start coming around and they're still making deals outside. So Nehemiah runs them off, says, you guys get out of here. You can't even stay here anymore. He's like, oh my gosh, how can this be happening? And then he starts working on people's relationships. He's like, you guys married the wrong people. You're not honoring God with your marriage. And he just comes to this place of just frustration.

Three times we read this prayer that he prays to God in this chapter. In verse 14, Nehemiah says, remember me for this, my God. Do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services. This guy's beat up. He is exhausted. He says in verse 22, remember me for this also, my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love. And then we finish the entire book of Nehemiah with remember me with favor, my God. And this is how the book ends. That's it. But why does it end like this? Like what about the perfect storybook happy ending? Where's that? And the Israelites honor God with the rest of their lives and live joyfully and loving community with one another. The end, roll credits. No. Why does this story end like this? Well, it shows us no matter how good of a leader, there's still a human. And no matter what the greatest leaders can have in life and throughout the history of Israel, we all need a savior. People need a savior. And see, Nehemiah is just one of the names in a long, long list of faithful, God-honoring, righteous leaders in the history of Israel, from Moses to Aaron to Joshua to Deborah to Samuel to King David to King Solomon to Elijah to Isaiah to Jeremiah to Daniel to Zerubbabel to Ezra and now Nehemiah. None of these leaders, how great that they were, were ever successful in leading Israel back to restoration with God. And I think it shows us even today that we need a savior. We all need a savior. We all need Jesus. And that's why Jesus came. That's why he left the right hand of God in heaven, came in such a humble, serving way, and lived his life perfect and gave himself for us on the cross. And apart from God, history will tell us time and time and time again, left to our own devices and convictions, we will find ourselves living a life of sin.

And Nehemiah's close to the book of asking God, I tried, I really did, God, I gave it my all. And you might think, he did. He built the wall, he brought security and life back to the city of Jerusalem. This is a huge accomplishment, but I think Nehemiah understood what was more important, and that's the condition of the heart. That we can have everything, and if we don't have God's heart, it doesn't matter what we've built. It doesn't matter what we gain through life. What matters is a relationship with God. And if we're not in right standing with God, anything that we've built here on earth doesn't matter. We could be the biggest church with everybody in attendance. We could have the fanciest building. We could have the greatest facilities. We could do every ministry perfect. But if we don't have any life change in the name of Jesus, salvations, baptisms, discipleship, it's worth nothing. We made a commitment this summer to having a goal of 20 salvations and baptisms this next year. And this is our number one priority this next year. And this is why. 'Cause we could have everything as a church. And if we don't have people coming to Jesus and having hearts changed, it doesn't mean anything. We could have the biggest bank accounts. We could have all the stuff in life that we could dream about and need. We could have the car. We could have all the clothes. We could have the latest technology. We could have everything that we think we need in life. And without God being number one in that life, it's worth nothing. I've met some of the most successful people in life that are Christ followers. But they have kids and grandkids who aren't going to church, who don't know God for a myriad of reasons. And I would tell you right now, and I've had these conversations, that they would give it all up to have their kids and grandkids and generations after that be followers of Jesus. Because they know what truly matters. I'm telling you, some of these people are, they're set for generations with finances. And they would give it up in an instant to either have their kids sitting with them in church or to know that their kids are following after Jesus. That's some true wisdom right there.

So what about us? What about our lives? What about our priorities? See, I think something very subtle but powerful in the story of Nehemiah that we kind of might skip over is that he had to remove things, whether from the temple, whether from the city, whether from the people's relationships, and he had to cleanse them and to restore the proper, right-living, God-honoring way with actions, priorities, and relationships. Think sometimes, and maybe intentionally, maybe unintentionally, we've kicked God out of our lives in the rightful place of where he should be. We got stuff in our lives. We all need cleaning out, right? I do. Being up here doesn't mean I got everything cleaned out. We all got stuff that we need to have God come in and fully clean us out in order to make the right room where he should be in our lives. And it's not easy. This takes sacrifice, hard choices, putting aside what we want, but there's no other way. There's no extra way we can do. We can't just add on some extra room and go, "Hey, God, I'm gonna put you over here." He still wouldn't have our hearts. There's no shortcut to this. And if there was a shortcut or a life hack or a way to work around this, we'd end up just like the Israelites did. Eventually left to our own devices. Slowly, the devil works slow, man. He works so slow. And yet we find ourselves right back where we were. See, sin keeps us from experiencing God's best in our lives.

You ever try to break a bad habit or stop doing something that you shouldn't? You ever done that in life? It's hard, right? It is super hard. And there's two major parts to this. And I think that's where some of this stuff breaks down. The first part, which is the hard step, is you gotta stop doing whatever you're not supposed to be doing, right? The second part, which I think is just as important, maybe even sometimes even more important, is you have to replace that thing with the healthy thing that you're supposed to be doing. You can do all the research and all the study on this. I mean, scientists and psychologists, they have massive research on all this stuff. But the second step of replacing is sometimes even more important than just stopping doing the thing that you're not supposed to be doing to begin with. But people just stop there, right? I'm gonna quit smoking. You just like, I'm gonna quit smoking. And then eventually, because there's nothing else there, you find yourself smoking again, right? You find yourself just right back in this place. Maybe it's eating or not exercising or not being kind to somebody or specifically sinning in a really strong way. If we don't replace that with God, we find ourselves just back in that same place.

Came across this quote, and it says, "People don't decide their futures. They decide their habits, and their habits shape their futures." Have you ever felt like you wanted to be in God's word, reading his scripture more? But you just, I can't get there. Maybe we're good for a week or two weeks, and we think, I finally got, and then it just falls apart, right? Or maybe it's, I wanna pray more. I wanna make sure I'm talking with God, and I wanna, maybe I'm gonna get up early. I'm gonna pray. I'm gonna read God's word, and I'm gonna be in, just in lockstep with God, 'cause I know that's how he changes me, transforms, that's foundational. But you just, you can't get there. You gotta change some other stuff. Maybe it's, you gotta actually put it in your calendar. Maybe if you're like, I'm gonna do this first thing in the morning, pastor, this is what I wanna do. Okay, then you gotta be going to bed earlier. So you can't just kinda just shove this stuff in there, which I think the Israelites did. They just shoved this into their lives, going, here we go, I'm transformed. But their heart wasn't there. Maybe it's, I wanna be at church every Sunday. One of the greatest things I've ever heard from a pastor, tell me, is that church isn't a Sunday morning decision. Church is a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday decision for your week to be at church on Sunday. It isn't about just making sure the alarm goes off and you drag yourself out of bed on a Sunday morning. It's your decisions every single other day of the week that lead you to the place of making church a priority. Holy habits transform our hearts. And if that quote is true, then if we have holy habits, then those habits will begin to shape our future in God.

See, the Israelites wouldn't fully put away their selfishness, their greed, their lustful desires, their outside cultural influences. They would not fully put those away. And so in turn, before they knew it, they found themselves just right back in that place, living a life far away from God. So what about us? To experience God's true transformation, we have to let God fully in to our hearts. I've heard the analogy of our hearts are like a house. And we'll invite God into the living room, in the kitchen, can even use the guest bath down the hallway, but he ain't going to my closet. He's not going into that box. In the garage or the one under the bed. Like that's me. Like God can have everything else except for those places. And it's until we surrender that and give that over to God, every single square inch of every single thing in our hearts, in our homes, will we ever truly experience God's supernatural transformation in our lives. Is it a process? Absolutely. 100%. This doesn't happen overnight. This is a long, slow, step-by-step journey of following Jesus to get to that place. And it'll take a lifetime. I'll tell you, he'll go box by box, man. And when you think you're out of boxes, God goes, "Nope, not one in the back." You're like, "But God." He's like, "Nope." He goes, "I know the other ones you got hidden." We're going through those too, because he loves us. This isn't him trying to control us or put us in a place of shame. Like he loves us so, so much. And so we're gonna take communion together this morning, but I wanna do it a little bit of a different way. I want us to take a moment with the elements and just to pause our hearts. To take a moment and to just hand it over to God. To let him start going through the closet. To let him just have free reign. And some of us, we got something just sitting on the couch in the front room that God goes, "I see it." And some of us, we go, "I don't know." And we just gotta pray. God will tell us. Trust me, first experience there. You think you got the house cleaned up, it's all good. And God goes, "Oh, that's cool. What about that?" And he'll take us on this journey to find that place to fully surrender everything with him. So I wanna take us a moment, we're just gonna bow our heads. And I want us to go before God and just have open hands. To say, "God, search me, search my heart. Tell me what I need to hand over to you." I don't wanna be like the Israelites. I don't wanna be the ones that think they've surrendered everything, but are still holding on to stuff. Go before God right now. Go before God right now.

Jesus, we give you our whole heart. God, even if it may bring some anxiety or worry or hardship with this, God, we give our whole selves to you. God, we give you our anger or hatred towards others. We give you our lust, our worry, our pride, our greed, our envy, our gluttony, our drunkenness, our numbing mechanisms of drugs. Give you our thoughts, our thoughts towards others, maybe even our thoughts towards ourselves. We give you our selfishness, we give you our selfishness. Give you our gossip. Give you all of these things that we like to hide deep down inside of ourselves, but you see it, you know it, and you still love us. You're not scared by it, you're not put off by it, you're not afraid to give it away because all of a sudden something comes up. God, you already know what's there, and you want us to hand it over to you. You wanna set us free from this burden.

Nehemiah - Chapter 10-12

Nehemiah - Chapter 10-12: The New Committed In Israel

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I'm so glad to be in here again with you guys today. If you're watching online, welcome, we wish we could see your face, but we are glad you are tuning in. I feel like with a series like Nehemiah where it's so long and we are going chapters by chapters, we need a "previously on Nehemiah." We need a recap video or something. I'm going to give us a little previously on for us today just to catch us up where we've come from so we can know where we're headed. First, we know that Nehemiah was called by God to go rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. We took it to God in prayer. We learned that he was a guy that went to prayer first. That was his first response. And he got the endorsement and the support of the king that he served. So he went back and he faced a lot of opposition. He faced a lot of naysayers, a lot of people who did not want to see this wall rebuilt, but they persevered and they came together and the people really unified despite their differences, despite their different skills and abilities, God used them in order to rebuild this wall. And then after the wall was rebuilt, they brought out the scrolls and they re-read the scriptures. They read the law. They had celebrations and festivals and feasts. The ones that had been originally prescribed by God, they were rejoicing and celebrating. Then they got more somber and they confessed their sins. They mourned with sackcloth and ashes. Then last week, we saw how they recounted their history. They went through what God had done since the beginning of their nation. They looked at the sins of the generations before them and they even confronted their own sins, but they saw the faithfulness of God over and over and over again. Pastor Andre left us a little bit with a cliffhanger last week of now that they had been confronted with these sins, now that they had finished the wall and they had seen God's goodness, what was next? What were they going to do in response to his faithfulness? Well we're going to dive into that today, but first let's pray as we get started.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for who you are. We thank you for this time together. May you open our hearts and our ears to your word. Help us to hear what you have for us. We thank you for your faithfulness, for your goodness and your love. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Well we're going to be in chapters 10 through 12. I promise not to read every word of three chapters to you today, but before we do that, we actually have to take a quick step back into chapter 9. The last verse kicks us off. So we're going to look at verse 38 of chapter 9. It says, "In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it." So Israel was recommitting themselves to this covenant with God. They were literally creating this binding document, this contractual agreement with God. A covenant is serious business. You think about a marriage covenant. You think about this covenant between God and, or between the people and the God of the universe. It was a big deal. The thing is, God never wavered in his covenant. He originally had a covenant with Abraham and it continued through Noah and Moses and David and Jesus. It continued. We see it throughout scripture how time and time again the Israelites fell away. They failed, they messed up, but God was constantly faithful. The thing is, he knew going into this covenant, he knew that the humans would mess up. They were going to fall. They were going to ruin it. But because he is almighty God, because he is Yahweh, he also knew that he could keep up the end of the deal for both parties. He was big enough and powerful enough to keep the covenant intact for both himself and the people. So now we have Nehemiah and the people saying, "Okay, we're going to recommit to this. We are going to do this covenant and live up to the standards again." A covenant typically costs something. Usually in this time it involved a sacrifice or the exchanging of some material possession like a garment or gold or some sort of trade. So it costs the people something. In this case, for God, it costs him having to come down to us. He was God. He could just be in heaven and do his thing and he didn't have to interact with us, but he so badly wanted a relationship with his people that he stooped to our level. For the people, it cost them probably some material things like animals for sacrifices, but it also costed them their way of living, the way they want to live, their fleshly desires in order to follow this covenant and live in line with God. It's going to cost them something, but they're ready to recommit to this covenant.

So now we get to chapter 10 and we're just going to look real quick at verse 1 and 2. It says, "Those who sealed it were Nehemiah the governor, the son of Heculiah, Zedekiah, Zeruiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, and I will not continue reading the rest of these names." There are a lot of names in there. We're going to just, you can just skim over that, all right? But there's a lot of people and it was the leaders. It started with the governor, Nehemiah, the Levites, the civic leaders. It was them that they were going to seal this covenant. As the ones who were called to lead the people and lead them both physically and spiritually, they were the ones to lead into this new covenant, but it didn't stop with them. They needed to get the rest of the people on board. So we're going to jump down to verse 28. It says, "The rest of the people, priests, Levites, gatekeepers, musicians, temple servants, and all who separated themselves from the neighboring peoples for the sake of the law of God, together with their wives and all their sons and daughters who are able to understand, all these now join their fellow Israelites, the nobles, and bind themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the law of God given through Moses, the servant of God, and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations, and decrees of the Lord our Lord." So it comes from the top down as they seal this covenant, but it had to be fully acted upon by the entire community. The whole community had to be on board. Why was this? Well, there had to be unity. There needed to be an agreement with everyone, this unifying response to this covenant, because they all needed to have a unified purpose in moving forward. It created accountability. It created a corporate vision and purpose as they were walking in this covenant with God. Same with us. As the body of Christ, as the church, the local church, but also as the global church, there's got to be a communal commitment that we are committing as a group of believers to follow God, to follow in His ways, to become a follower of Jesus. That's an individual commitment. That's between you and God, but then as you engage in Christian community, it becomes corporate. We have unity within the body. We work together in moving forward to build the kingdom of God. So with this covenant that they were recommitting to, they were bought in. They were completely committed to being faithful.

Our oldest, Addi, she's 10, and she really, really, really wanted a guitar. She had this kind of cheap out of tune thing that would never hold a tune, and she really wanted to learn. So she asked us if she could buy a guitar. And so we decided that if she was really committed to this, that she should save some of her own money and pay for it. We thought, you know, if she has some skin in this game, if she is bought in, she'll be more likely to stay committed to learning, to taking care of it. So for like over six months, she saved. She had birthday and Christmas and chores and just saved up her money. And then her deal finding dad found a really great deal on a great guitar, and we were able to get it. And that was a lot of money for a kid her age. But she was so excited, and she was so proud of this thing. And she takes care of it, and she practiced it, and we saw that she was being more faithful than if it had just been given to her. Like I said, a covenant requires something of us. The people of Israel were choosing to engage in whatever the cost was going to be in order to be faithful and be bought into this. So in making this covenant, they separated themselves from the surrounding areas. They were agreeing to a standard of holiness that they had not been living up to up until this point. See, to be in a covenant with God requires us to be holy. God can't make himself less holy. That's not how that works. We must become holy as he is holy. So this new standard of holiness meant some changes for the people. They could no longer intermarry with people from the surrounding nations. They no longer bought and sold with other people on the Sabbath. They committed to taking care of God's house and what was needed for the sacrifices and the services. They committed to bringing their firstfruits and their firstborn of their flocks. And they continued in bringing their regular tithes.

So we're going to look at this a little bit more deeper here. In verse 30, talking about the intermarrying, it says, "We promised not to give our daughters in marriage to the peoples around us or take their daughters for our sons." So this is because it was causing them to take their eyes off God. When they were intermarrying with the people from other nations, they were taking on their beliefs. They were taking on their false gods. They were still worshiping Yahweh, but they were also worshiping other gods. And God said, "Do not have any other gods before me." So they needed to cut that off. They needed to stop this idol worship. And part of that was not intermarrying. Now, choosing not to intermarry didn't mean they completely cut themselves off and never interacted with anyone from other nations. Because we see right in the next verse, verse 31, "When the neighboring peoples bring merchandise or grain to sell on the Sabbath, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day. Every seventh year, we will forego working the land and will cancel all debts." So they were still going to market with these other people. They were still buying and selling. They were just recommitting to keeping the Sabbath holy as God had originally commanded it.

See, living a holy life, it means choosing to live God's way. It means choosing to look more like Christ every day. But it doesn't mean completely cutting ourselves off from the world. Jesus actually addresses this in his prayer in John 17. He says, "I have given them your word, and the world has hated them. For they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth." We are being made holy or sanctified, as Jesus says here, even while we're still living in the world. Even while we go to work or school or interact with nonbelievers or the grocery store and customer service, whoever you're interacting with, even through that, being in the world, you are being sanctified by the truth. So this covenant that Nehemiah and the people were making was not about isolating them. It was about insulating them. Holiness is not a call to isolation, but to insulation. So think about a coat. You put on a coat to insulate yourself, to keep you warm, to keep you dry, so that when you go out into the weather, the storms and the cold, you'll be protected. You weren't insulating yourself. You don't put on a coat and then sit in the house. You'd overheat. Don't do that. You need to go out into the world, and this coat protects you as you navigate the storms of the world. Same goes for our holiness. As we grow in holiness, we become insulated so that we are ready and protected and prepared as we go out into the world. So the people, they knew they had fallen away from the laws of God, and they were getting back to following His ways. They were doubling down on their commitments to live holy lives, to keep the Sabbath, to take care of God's house. They were ready.

There's this funny tale about a chicken and a pig, and this chicken and a pig, they wanted to open a breakfast restaurant together. And the chicken goes to the pig and he says, "I got it. I got the name of our breakfast restaurant, Bacon and Eggs." And the pig goes, "Absolutely not. We cannot name our breakfast place that." And the chicken goes, "Why not? It's a perfect name. Bacon, Eggs, Chicken and a Pig. Like, it's great." And the pig goes, "No, no, no, no, no, no. If we name it that, you're involved. I'm committed." The pig had to go all in on that name. Right? There was no going back. So the question for us is, are we just involved in our Christian life? Are we just involved in church, or are we committed? Are we committed to walking with Christ, to following His ways? Are we committed to being part of the body, to striving towards unity with each other, to growing in holiness? Because as Christ followers, we should be committed, not just involved. They remembered God's faithfulness by looking back. They saw who He was and how He had maintained His end of the deal. And they recommitted themselves to this covenant relationship. They said, "We are not just going to be involved. We're not going to be half in. We are committed." So then we get to chapter 11, and there's a lot more names that we're not going to read today. But here we see that they are now trying to repopulate the city of Jerusalem. They had been in captivity. They had been living in surrounding villages and areas, and there were some people in Jerusalem, but they needed to repopulate this city. Now that they had a wall to protect, then they needed to bring people to live here. So the list of names here is a record of those who were chosen to go live in this city. And this wasn't just like an easy thing. This was requiring something of them. They were going to have to rebuild. They were going to have to protect themselves because now they were a viable city that other people, as we saw, did not want this city rebuilt. And so they could have threats, military or political threats, come against them. They were really getting an opportunity to live out this covenant. Okay, are you all in? Here's your opportunity to go and live in the city. They saw, they had a chance right away to show their faithfulness.

And then we get to chapter 12. And guess what? There's more names. Lots more names. Here's another name. Here we see the heads of households, the leaders of the people. It's keeping record of who was there and what their roles were. But then we get down to verse 27. And this is where we have the dedication of the wall. So Nehemiah gathers up the Levites from all over because they were still scattered about. He gathers the Levites. The Levites were the priests. They were the ones who ran the services. They were the worship leaders. And he gathered them and they created two choirs. And they literally walked the walls singing and playing their instruments and worshiping God. Verse 43 says, "And on that day, they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away." Everyone was involved. Everyone was there. It was a party. And they were worshiping because he had restored their joy. He did restore their city, yes, but he restored their joy. They had been in captivity. They had gone through the struggle of rebuilding, of repopulating, of organizing themselves, and now their joy was restored. We can see here from these people and their experience in this story that when you have confession and repentance and commitment, it always leads to worship. It was only by God's grace and his provision that they could rebuild this wall, that their joy could be restored. It was only by his grace that they could even recommit themselves to this covenant. It is by his grace that we are saved, that we are restored, that our joy is restored. We can't do it on our own.

We can't save ourselves. But because we know that, because we know that it is him and by his grace, we can confess and turn in repentance and commit to him. And out of that, we worship him because he is so worthy of our praise. So just to recap a little bit here, we are called to a holy life and our holiness doesn't mean isolation, but insulation. As Christ followers, we are committed, not just involved. And number three, confession, repentance, and commitment should always lead to worship. Now lastly, I want to address all these names. I know we skipped over a lot of names today in this text, mainly because of time, but I encourage you, go back and look at them. Look over them, read it, even if you're just skimming it with your eyes because you don't want to try to pronounce them, that's okay. But there's a reason God included them in his scriptures. And honestly, as I was preparing for today, I was like, why are there so many names here? And I was, you know, I was researching it and asking God, like, God, why was it important enough to include these records, to include these names? And what I found is it was their heritage. It was their history, their records. They wanted to be able to trace back their heritage to Abraham to prove they were Jewish. They wanted it to be known that they were Jews because their identity as a Jew was so important. I believe it also was a record of what God had done, how he had moved, who he used, and how he used them. In a world where we're always busy, we're always going, and we have social media where there's posts that go, go, go, and Instagram stories that disappear after 24 hours, we should model after them about keeping record, about stopping long enough to take note of what God is doing, about who he says we are.

Pastor Andre and I work with our students, and we just finished up a series called "Who Are You?" And we dove into this idea of our identity in God and how we live out of that truth. See, the Jews, they wanted to keep this record so that they could show their Jewish descent because who they were mattered. And as Christ followers, whose we are matters. In our series with the students, we kept coming back to the passage in Ephesians where Paul talks about how we are God's workmanship. And in chapter 2 it says, "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do." God used Nehemiah and the people to rebuild this wall, to do good works. He didn't just use anyone, he used his chosen people. They restored the wall and they wanted to record it. They wanted to keep record of what God had done. And God restored their identity of who they were too. They had been in captivity. They had been scattered. They had been intermarrying, and God restored their identity. And by reinstating this commitment and this covenant, he was saying, "You are mine. You are my people." And they made sure to take note of it. I think that it would be worth our time to stop long enough to take note of who we are and who God says that we are. When we operate out of our identity in Christ, we can do the other things that were already talked about. We can be confident in the covenant we have with him because we are already his. We can live a holy life because we have already been given the righteousness of Christ and the covering of him to go out into the world. We can confess our sins and turn in repentance and stay the way, stay committed to his way because we know whose we are and we operate from that place. And out of all that, we can use our gifts and our abilities to serve others and worship God. So let us take note of this truth. Let us operate from this identity we have in Christ. Let's not forget his goodness and his grace and his forgiveness. And let us always, always give glory to God. Amen.

Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for this time. We thank you for that you are so big and so good and so holy that you will never fail us. You are always faithful. Help us to keep our end of the deal, to grow in holiness, to seek after you, to become more like you every day. We're so grateful for who you are and for what you've done in our lives. Help us not to forget. Help us to take note of it, to stop long enough, to remember what you have done in and through us, God, who you say we are. We praise you, Father. In Jesus' name, amen.

Nehemiah - Chapter 9

Nehemiah - Chapter 9: God’s Faithfulness

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Catch us up really quick. Last week Pastor Chris shared about the census that was taken in Nehemiah and the wall has been built. We've had chapters and chapters of all that drama and the good things that have happened. And again, Pastor Chris shared that census was taken and this was a transformative moment for the people as they were returning to Jerusalem and the law of the Lord was being read. And there was recognition that they weren't rightly living the way that God wanted them to, but before the leaders wanted them to get into that place of mourning, they wanted to celebrate. So last week we talked about the celebration and this posture of hearing God's Word. And now, just two days later, things shift again. And I want to walk through this chapter to see what the people of Israel do. So let's go ahead and I'm going to start by reading the first four verses here. You can turn in your Bibles to Nehemiah 9 or watch it on the screen.

Verse 1 says, "On the 24th day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads. Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors. They stood where they were and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God. Standing on the stairs of the Levites were Jeshua, Benai, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunai, Sherabiah, Bani, and Kanaani. They cried out with loud voices to the Lord their God." So we see them move from a posture of celebration to now a posture of mourning and repentance. Last week, Pastor Chris talked about the posture of the heart and how that makes its way out into a physical posture. And so now the hearts are remorseful and repentant and the physical representation of that is sackcloth and ashes on the head. You may have heard of this.

This is a traditional Eastern historical way of mourning and done either to mourn someone that you love or maybe even mourning a sin that is so grievous that you are considering yourself dead in your transgressions. This is so heavy, this is so... the weight of it is so impactful on you that you have to show it somehow. And so sackcloth, which is a very scratchy... all this just screams uncomfortable and on purpose. And so it was important to the leaders at that time to set the celebration at the people just went through and being in God's will. They returned, they built the city, that was what God had planned. They wanted to contrast that to the weight and the seriousness of their sin. They wanted to yes, recognize that God's will for them was to be in the city, but also just importantly, even more importantly, was that they would they were to live in this city in the way that God wanted them to, in the way that God called them to. And they were understanding that more and more as they were reading the laws. As more of the Torah was read in front of them, again, this greater understanding of, "Oh, we're not doing that. We are living in sin. Something needs to change." And so how did the leaders, the priests, get them to understand this? Was it by bashing them over the head over and over again, like, "You guys are terrible. You guys did it. You guys messed up." No, they tell a story, and they tell their story. They put the shame and weight of sin in its proper context, explaining for those who may know and teaching those who may not in that crowd, how this all came to be.

And now we begin in our passage, starting in verse 5, this synopsis of the whole Torah, the first five books of the Bible. And I love passages like these, because if you have read the Bible, you read Genesis, Exodus, there's some story in there, but there's also a lot of names. There's a lot of...it gets kind of...get bogged down in the details, and you're like, "I don't know what's happening. I don't know where we are and who these people are. I just read a hundred names I don't understand." And so a passage like this kind of takes us to a 30,000-foot view and just says, "Here is where everything happened, and here is...let us connect the dots in the way that God wants us to understand." So I love...this is what's going to happen in our passage today. It's going to highlight the grandest parts of the rescue plan of Yahweh, and it highlights, which is a phrase that we say a lot here, who God is and what God has done for the people of Israel. It's more than just a simple reminder. It emphasizes God's faithfulness in contrast to the people's unfaithfulness. It describes the work of God as he protected and guided Israel. It instructs and reminds the people of Yahweh's providence, and it helps them understand, "How did we get here to this place where we are rebuilding a wall of a once-great city? How did this all come to be?" If you're familiar with your Bible, you'll see the priests go in chronological order and really just, again, put the whole...what's happened in the first...all before this into just like 30 verses. So let's continue. Verse 5, it says, "And the Levites, Jeshua, Cadmiel, Bonnie, Hashabaniah, Sherabiah, Hodiah, Shabaniah, Pethahiah, said, 'Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is in it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.’"

So this first part is saying that Yahweh is the Creator God. This is going back to Genesis. Genesis 1, the creation account. Everything that they see, everything in the world comes from God. And they want the people to see that God is the Creator, that's the one who holds power over everything. Because they were in a world, and their history is that they love the allure of these false gods. This is the downfall of Israel's, that time and time again, the surrounding nations and the false gods that they worship always are a temptation for Israel. And so the Levites are saying, "Hey, this is the God we serve. None of those, it's this God, Yahweh, the one who created everything." They are reinforcing what Genesis teaches. You'll notice that they aren't just teaching this, they say, "Stand up and praise the Lord your God who is from everlasting to everlasting." They are leading the people and reciting it. There is power in our words. It's more impactful to say things out loud than to just think them. For example, when we worship on a Sunday, there are times when yes, we just are gonna stand there quietly and maybe think the songs in our head or sing them quietly to ourselves. But really, in general, the principle is that we want to be lifting all of our voices. And some of you are self-conscious, like, "God doesn't want to hear my voice. He did not bless me in that way." That's no. That God, whatever you sing, whatever, however it comes out, however it sounds, it is pleasing to God. And that is the point. We're not trying to impress anyone else. But as we unite our voices and sing, there is power in praising God. And so that's what the Levites are inviting all of Israel who is standing in front of them to do. Join us in praising God.

Let's keep going. It says in verse 7, "You are the Lord God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham. You found his heart faithful to you and you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and Girgashites. You have kept your promise because you are righteous." So the psalm now turns its attention to the covenant that God made with Abraham, which is a significant point in the rescue plan of God for humanity. It was going to be through a person and through a chosen people. It also mentions the faithfulness of Abraham. I think to help to remind the people of Israel right then of someone positive in their history. Someone who generally, not all the time, but generally got it right. Was an example of a faithful heart to God. Because in recent generations for the Israelites, it's more an example of a lack of faithfulness. What they did wrong. But if we think of Abraham and the biggest, most famous story from him that they would have thought about if they were hearing this, was the test that Abraham went through of having to offer his only son Isaac to God. And in that moment, Abraham choosing faithfulness to God. And so it shows this deep faith and trust that Abraham had. And also in these verses, the priests are reflecting on the promise that God made with Abraham to give his descendants a land. And now being on the other side of that, of this story, we see all the land that they actually took over. I love this because again, we're just gonna, as this plays out, as we read this, we're just gonna have a better understanding of the work that God has done in Genesis and Exodus and all the books that come before.

Verse 9 says, "You saw the suffering of our ancestors in Egypt. You heard the cry at the Red Sea. You sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his officials, and all the people of his land. For you knew how arrogantly the Egyptians treated them. You made a name for yourself, which remains to this day. You divided the sea before them so that they pass through it on dry ground. But you hurled their pursuers into the depths like a stone into mighty waters. By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire, to give them light on the way they were to take." We fast forward to the story. So we were at Abraham, and now we go to past Joseph, which was the great-grandson of Abraham. And Joseph, through miraculous circumstances, God-ordained circumstances, had been to Egypt and become number two over all of Egypt. And he brought his whole family. He's like, "Hey, I'm here. I'm in a good place. All my family, come with me to Egypt." But after he passes, the Pharaoh passes that was with Joseph and loved Joseph. Things turn. So Joseph's family begins to grow, grow, and grow, and grow. We just have to remember, Israel is not a nation yet. This is just a family. This is Joseph's family and his, you know, brothers. It's just a family gathering right now that moved to Egypt and started growing. And somewhere down the line, another Pharaoh saw how much Joseph's family was growing and said, "I don't like that. They could really cause some havoc for me.”

So he enslaves the family of Joseph, what they call the people of Israel, which was Joseph's father, Jacob. Jacob had his name changed to Israel. So the people of Israel, he enslaves them. And in another pinnacle moment in Israelite's history, they cry out to God. The first time they cry out to God. They are in need. They've been enslaved. They have tried. Nothing's working. They cry out to God and God answers them. He responds by providing Moses and Aaron as representatives to do signs for Pharaoh. And eventually, we know the story, Israel leaves Egypt. And in that exodus of God's people from Egypt, he performed mighty signs like parting the Red Sea. And as Pharaoh and his army tried to, you know, change his mind again and wanted Israel to come back, God closed that sea upon them. And God made a name for himself that the whole world at that time, Egypt and all the surrounding nations knew that whatever God, whoever this God is of Israel, this God's legit. He can do everything. He can do things that we've never seen before. And then once in the wilderness, he guides them. In the wilderness by a pillar of fire by night and cloud by day. We could spend all year here. This is so good, but we got to keep going. The point is God's faithfulness to his people, providing for them as only the God of the universe can.

Continue in verse 13. It says, "You came down on Mount Sinai. You spoke to them from heaven. You gave them regulations and laws that are just and right and decrees and commands that are good. You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses. In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock. You told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted hand to give them." This is all about how God made them into a people, into a nation. Again, remember before this, there's a very, very large family now. Huge family. Thousands and thousands and thousands. And all descendants, and they have certain ways of doing things, but there's no laws. You know, for example, when I got married, we had different dishwashing loading rhythms. I have since learned the correct way to do it, thank you for teaching me. No law about it, but we just have our own family customs that we do. And God was saying, "You guys are a family right now out in the wilderness, but I'm gonna make you into a nation. I'm gonna give you rhythms and laws and decrees and things to do, things to celebrate. I'm gonna give you a yearly rhythm of weeks of here's when we do this and we're gonna stop and we're gonna take a rest." All of it was good. And he gave it to them for multiple reasons, but a couple of the highlights are one, so that they can live a righteous and holy life the way that God intended for all of humanity to live. And also to distinguish them, saying, "This is how you're different. All these other nations, they live their way and really at the heart, they're serving themselves. They're very selfish, they're prideful, they're dealing with sin. You guys, Israel, you have the answer. You have me, Yahweh. It makes life completely different." And notice the priests here in our passage continue to recognize that everything that God did, including implementing these regulations, it was good. They're looking back in history and seeing things correctly. We don't always do that. We don't always look back and see it correctly. Sometimes we change history, we become victims in history, whatever it is, but they're looking back and saying, "No, God was the right, He was right the whole time." And they continue by acknowledging God's provision, not only with laws and rhythms, but also as they're in the desert, the barren wilderness with no food and no water, God provides. He gives them heavenly bread every day and He gives them water in miraculous ways from a rock. Again, it's telling us to look at what God has done and who He is, gracious and merciful. He's a provider who loves His people and wants to give everything they need to them. But as we continue, the psalm that they're reciting right now turns from praising God to an honest reflection of the Israelite people.

Verse 16, "But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked and they did not obey your commands. They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love. Therefore, you did not desert them. Even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, 'This is our God who brought you up out of Egypt,' or when they committed awful blasphemies, because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. You gave your good spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths and you gave them water for their thirst. For 40 years you sustained them in the wilderness. They lacked nothing. They're clothes did not wear out, nor did their feet become swollen." This is talking about that moment in Israel. They come to Mount Sinai, they receive the law, and as Moses comes back down the mountain, he comes to find them worshiping another God. This is one of the most heartbreaking moments in Israel's history. And he's saying, even the priests are saying, "Even then you did not desert your people." This section begins a bit of a confessional from the priests on behalf of the people, leading them through acknowledging the wrongs of the generations that went before them. Remember, they're sitting there and there's sackcloth and ashes on their head, and they're seeing now and they're hearing from the reading of God's Word and in this psalm that God is still generous. He's still patient and compassionate, abounding in love.

That section, verse 17, that's quoting Exodus 34, 6 through 7, which is the most quoted scripture by scripture, because that's God telling Moses exactly who he is. It's God telling the people of Israel for the first time in history, "This is who I am. I've done miraculous things, but I'm telling you, here's my bio, here's my, you want to know who I am? Here it is. Forgiving God, gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love. And even knowing all that and hearing all that, they forget this phrase again, "Who God is and what he did." They appointed their own leader, thinking they can do it all without God. Does that sound familiar, by the way? Does that sound like the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve were like, "Hey God, thanks for setting this all up. This place is beautiful. I think we got it from here. That fruit looks really good. I want it." It's that sin all over again. The priests recount, "Even when the Israelites made the new idol, God didn't abandon them. He was compassionate and sustained them for 40 years in the wilderness." What a better way for a people, a stubborn people, to learn who God is and what he can do, what he can do than to have to depend on him every single day for 40 years. I am not yet 40 years old, so it's my lifetime and a bit more that every day I would have to wake up and say, "I don't have anything. I have no food. I have no water. God, it's a new morning. Will you provide again?" Day after day after day, there is fresh food on the ground. There is water, fresh water there for them to live in a desert, in a barren wilderness, purely only by God. After all that, will they then understand? They've rebelled once in the desert and now, God, 40 years. Will they remain faithful to them? Well, we know, and they know.

Verse 22, "You gave them kingdoms and nations allotting to them even the most, even the remotest frontiers. They took over the country of Sihon, king of Heshbon, and the country of Og, king of Bashan. You made their children as numerous as the stars in the sky, and you brought them into the land that you told their parents to enter and possess. Their children went in and took possession of the land. You subdued them before them, the Canaanites who lived in the land. You gave the Canaanites into their hands, along with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with them as they pleased. They captured fortified cities and fertile land. They took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well nourished and reveled in your great goodness. But they were disobedient and rebelled against you. They turned their backs on your law. They killed your prophets who had warned them in order to turn them back to you. They committed awful blasphemies, so you delivered them into the hands of their enemies who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed, they cried out to you from heaven. You heard them, and in your great compassion, you gave them deliverers who rescued them from the hand of their enemies. Priests, now praise God for fulfilling this Abrahamic covenant, making Israel into a nation, and also giving them a land. So in the desert, they were made, "Here's your laws. Here's how you are a people. Now as a nation, you need a place to dwell. Wilderness is no place. I've been sustaining you, but it's not the permanent place. I'm gonna give you a place." He gives them the promised land, which is already set up for them. I love this connection. This is the first time we see this of wells that were already dug, vineyards, olive groves. Everything is already there. And again, we get this Eden picture of this is amazing. This is a place that has the full blessing of God, and it's there for them. They don't have to do the hard work. They don't have to dig wells or plant. It's all there. Even after all that, 40 years of miraculous food and water, just walking into the promised land, enemies fleeing from them, houses already set up, and vineyards, and wells, and water, and do they remain loyal to God? Do they see all this and see, "Man, we know who God is, and we know what he can do." No. Verse 26, "But they were disobedient and rebelled and turned their backs on God." Not just that, but even killing the prophets sent by God to warn them. That's a whole other kind of level of disrespect. The priests are talking about the very hardened hearts of Israelites, the hearts that knew the truth, knew what was right, and still chose to ignore God. Not just ignore, but in the most disrespectful way say, "God, I don't need you at all. Don't need it. We got this. We're going to do it our own way.”

And so in verse 27, it says that, "God allowed them to be captured by their enemies after multiple attempts from God to say, 'Hey, come back to me.' And them saying no, he's like, 'All right, I'm going to let you find out the consequences of your sin.'" And they get captured, and they get put in slavery, and then God would show them incredible passion and rescue them. And this would develop into this cycle of sin, crying out to God, God rescuing them, them following God for a bit before hardening their hearts. And there's a temptation for us today as we read this to just shake our heads at Israel and say, "You fools. You guys. Why? You're the worst." And it's true. They are the worst. But it's a mirror. It's a mirror for us to look at our hearts because we have the exact same tendencies. We who know God's word, know its truth, know how God wants us to live, can often say, "God, I hear you, and no, thank you. I'm going to do it my own way. In this moment right now, God, I know that your spirit is pushing me to do this, but I'm actually going to do this. I'm going to do it my way. I'm going to be selfish. I'm going to be prideful." So as we continue reading, let's not go to judgment, but rather let's pay attention to what God might want to say to us through this example of the Israelites.

Verse 28 says, "As soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemy so that they ruled over them. And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion, you delivered them time after time. You warned them in order to turn them back to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, of which you said, 'The person who obeys them will live by them.' Stubbornly, they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked, and refused to listen. For many years you were patient with them. By your spirit, you warned them through your prophets, yet they paid no attention. So you gave them into the hands of their neighboring peoples, but in your great mercy, you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are gracious and merciful God." This continues, that confession and that cycle. So live under God's law, become arrogant, turn your back. God will let them face the consequences, get captured, they would cry out. God would be compassionate and merciful and save them, and then we'd start all over again. And we know this period to be the judges and the kings and those books in our Bible where Israel had some good years, but mostly just terrible, terrible years. But what is great in this setting of Nehemiah in the city, is that the people are taking full ownership of that punishment. They're saying, they're looking at the consequences and saying, "God, you were right to do everything that you did. That was on us. We failed you. We were the ones who were sinful. We were the ones who were not faithful to you. We deserved that punishment." That's not what the generations who got captured would have said. They were the ones who were saying, "God, I don't want anything to do with you." But this generation right now is saying, "God, you were right. We were wrong." And they're seeing things in the correct way.

Lastly, in this last section, it says in verse 32, "Now therefore, our God, the great God, mighty and awesome, who keeps his covenant of love, do not let all this hardship seem trifling in your eyes. The hardship that has come on us, on our kings and leaders, on our priests and prophets, on our ancestors and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today, and all that has happened to us, you have remained righteous. You have acted faithfully while we acted wickedly. Our kings, our leaders, our priests, and our ancestors did not follow your law. They did not pay attention to your commands or the statutes you warned them to keep. Even while they were in their kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them in their spacious and fertile land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways. But see, we are slaves today, slaves in the land that you gave our ancestors so they could eat its fruits and the other good things it produces. Because of our sins, its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have placed over us. They rule over our bodies and our cattle as they please. We are in great distress. So we now move from this expression of acknowledgement of past guilt to present appeal for forgiveness and deliverance. They're crying out. They're ready to once again live in the way that God desires them to, according to his law, to be a righteous people, a holy people, set apart from every other nation. And the question is, will the cycle be different this time? They're in that spot of crying out to God to deliver them, to bless them. Will they be able to break the pattern of sin from the generations before? We're going to find out in the weeks to come.

But as we close, I just want to put into perspective some of the things that we heard today. I want to speak to some truths that were put on my heart this week as I was preparing the sermon. The first one is this. God is the faithful one. We need to see that God is faithful. It's important to recognize even in our own lives, as we look back, as I said before, we can be tempted to look back in our own lives and our own history and to change how things really happen. Maybe we're defensive. Maybe we're victims to our own stories. We rewrite history even to ourselves to say, "Man, someone treated me wrong. I was the right one in that situation. I didn't deserve to go through what I did." Now, some of that may be true, but it's important to see the example of the priests and the Israelites and recognize where God has been faithful. We just did this as a church with our celebrations a few weeks ago, looking back on the past year and saying, "This is where God has been faithful to us and the ways that he is blessing us." But it's also important to do this in our own lives, just individually. We tend to do this in our family around birthdays. We have family dinner with extended family, and we typically ask questions of, "How was this past year? What has God done for you? How have you been blessed?" Maybe you guys do this around New Year's. It's a natural time to look back on the past year that is about to end, and you just say, take inventory of, "God, what have you been doing? How have you grown me? What are the things that you've done?" Take moments to remember who God has shown himself to be in your life and what he has done for you in your life. It'll be encouraging. It will bring you peace and joy to see that it is indeed true that God is at work. And for a long time, go further back than a year. Just take time to look over your whole life and see the ways in which God has been faithful, even in the hardest of times, in hard seasons of your life. It's so important to see, especially those seasons, how God was faithful to you, how he was there, how he was present, how he provided for you. And I promise you that he has. Take time to see that God is faithful.

The next is this truth that generational sin is a reality. This has been relatively new for me, I'd say, in the last few years, and maybe more specifically in this last year of really getting into what this means. And let me tell you, so basically, we are all sinners, right? We all inherited sin from Adam and Eve. All of humanity is tainted by sin. We inherit the selfishness and the pride in the heart that wants to put itself above God. And the only way to be saved is by surrendering to Christ, asking him to save us and putting our full faith and trust in him. Now, a part of that sin that we inherit can be classified as generational sin. And what I mean by that is there are more specific sins that we inherit from our families of origin, your childhood environment, your circumstances. Like Israel, who kept running from God, becoming stubborn and generation after generation stiff-necked and arrogant. Each of you come from a family with maybe some solid strengths, some characteristics, habits that are good, but probably also some negative things, habits, mentalities, approaches to life, some of them sinful. Be it anger or pride or judgment to others, drunkenness, gossip, envy, dishonesty. You fill in the blank. You know your family. You know the situation that you came from. But often the roots of some of our deepest sins that we struggle with are the ones that have deep roots because they come from our family. And it's been ingrained in us and who this family is and how that family interacts with each other, how they deal with situations.

Pete Scazzaro, who's a pastor and author, writes, "God in his sovereignty chose to birth us into a particular family, into a particular place at a particular moment in history. That choice offered us certain opportunities and gifts. At the same time, our families also handed us other entrenched unbiblical patterns of relating and living." He goes on to describe that if we were going to live as the men and women that God created us to be, wants us to be, we must be prepared to break the power of the past that holds us back. We have the choice. You sitting here today have the choice and really the opportunity to do something about those generational sins. So let the Spirit of God come into your life and sanctify that area. Transform you. Transform your heart to stop that pattern from continuing on into the next generation. How? Well, that'll vary from whatever generational sin that you're dealing with, but a basic level, very basic, the first step is praying. Praying that God would continue that work in your heart, in your mind, that he would give you peace and a calm and a clarity over what it actually means to live like Jesus in whatever situation. To surrender to him that area of life and ask that he would transform you.

Now, there are more steps addressing those different sins, but again, step one is acknowledging it and then better understanding that sin. When does that happen? When that thing happens, that sin that I saw my parents do, I saw my grandparents do, and now I'm struggling with that same sin. When does that happen? Why does it happen? What's going on inside of me, in my heart, in my mind, when that sin is coming, when I want to sin in that way? We can make the effort to learn better practices, better solutions, better approaches, learn Christ-like habits and mindsets and behaviors. But it all starts with the surrendering and saying, "God, I don't want to do that anymore. I don't want to do what..." Again, fill in that blank. "I don't want to do that anymore. I don't want my kids to see that. I don't want my friends to see that in me. I don't want to pass that on." God is the only one who can truly make that difference. And yes, if you're a parent, you're thinking of your kids and they will deal with their own sin. They will still have sin to deal with, and maybe at some level, some of that generational sin. But at the very least, what an example it would be for them to see you working through it with God. Seeing the evidence of saying, "I know that this runs in my family, that we tend to be this, but I saw my parents, I saw them work very hard at surrendering that over to God. I've seen change in their life." The evidence that God is at work is powerful. We want to be that example for ourselves, for others. Generational sin is a reality.

And this last one ties right into that, which is, "Own your sin, seek forgiveness, and move towards Christ." Just like these priests were leading the church to the people of Israel through, we need to own our sin. We need to admit when we are wrong. And that means confessing our sin. 1 John 1.9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." Proverbs 28.13, "Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy." Confess our sin, own your sin, then seek forgiveness, repent. Ask God for forgiveness. You may need to ask others for forgiveness, that's good. But ultimately, every sin that we commit is an offense against God, first and foremost. So we need to ask forgiveness to Him. And then that final part, that repentance, is turning from sin and turn to God. Run towards Him, seek Him, strive for Him. That repent, that definition means to turn, literally turn from sin and head in the other direction. So we're turning from that, whatever that sin is, and we're heading to the cross, we're heading to God.

And I'll end with this. Our prayer is that as these things happen, in our own lives and even as a community of believers, as we confess our sins, seek forgiveness, and move towards Christ, dealing with generational sin, and looking back and understanding that God is faithful in all seasons, that He would use our lives to reach people, that it would be a light to the world around us, to the people around us, and that we could praise Him through all things that we go through, knowing that He is good, that He loves us, that He is faithful to us. You guys pray with me. God, thank you again for your word. Thank you for this chapter in Nehemiah that lays out your rescue plan in such a beautiful way to see that you are faithful in all situations. And God, I pray that that would speak to us today as we go through whatever we're going through. And I know some of us are going through heartbreak, we're being, feel like we're being dragged through the mud, and it is hard just to get through another day. God, I pray that you would make yourself so known to us that we would see how you are faithful to provide, to be there, to be present with us. And God, use the rest of us who are maybe in a better place to encourage and equip and stand alongside them. God, I pray that you would help us to deal with the sin that we have in our lives, deep rooted sin that we may have inherited from our own family. Help us to bring that before you and say, "God, make it stop here. Change this in me." We surrender all that we have to you, God. We love you and we pray this in your name. Amen.

Nehemiah - Chapter 7 + 8

Nehemiah - Chapter 7 + 8: Ezra Reads the Law

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

This morning, we're gonna jump through two chapters of Nehemiah. Hopefully you don't have lunch plans, and you'll be here to this... No, I'm just kidding. But Nehemiah chapter 7 and 8, the reason we're gonna do two chapters is Nehemiah chapter 7 is actually just the details of the census. Just the details of what's going on, so we're not really gonna focus in on that. We're gonna hone more in on chapter 8, but if you would, with me, I know we've prayed a lot already. If you would, just pray with me one more time before we get into God's Word. Jesus, thank you for this morning. God, we're so grateful to be here in your presence, in the presence of our family. Jesus, we are here to hear your Word. God, you have something for us today. I wholeheartedly, 100% believe that you have a Word for us this morning. So God, I pray open our hearts, open our minds, open us up to hear that this morning so that we would leave this place different than when we came in this morning. Jesus, we're here to worship you. We're here to give you praise, honor, and glory. And we are so excited to hear from your Word this morning in Nehemiah. We love you, Jesus. We thank you. Amen. Amen.

Well, in college, I really started getting into photography. And that's when I kind of bought my first camera, and I wanted the best of the best. And you probably, every week, you see Pastor Andre walking around with a camera. I'm going to take this from him this morning. And all cameras, no matter how fancy or expensive they may look, are basically the same. Every camera is—the technology is basically the same. It hasn't changed in forever. It went from film to digital, but the concept is the same. And that is that deep down inside of this fancy machine here is a sensor. And this sensor collects light. The sensor collects light. So everything that this lens does and what they call the body, there's different aspects to how much light the sensor is exposed to. So you have aperture. It means how wide the lens is. You have your shutter speed, which meant how long the barn doors are open before they close. You have ISO, which means how sensitive your sensor is to light. And everything is essentially the same. So you can have basically an old school camera, and it can take just as good pictures as a brand new, right off the shelf, top of the line, thousands and thousands of dollars equipment. You can take the exact same photo, sometimes even better photo with old equipment, if you have good light. When I started getting photography, I would go out and I would take photos, and I would just practice just walking around with my camera in my hands, just trying to learn how to take photos. And I realized quickly that it all depended on the light. You can have the best of the best, but if you don't have light, you're gonna have a bad photo. If you have really, really, really good light, but maybe you got a camera that's 10, 15, 20 years old, doesn't matter. You're gonna have a really good photo. Without the proper lighting, something just isn't right about your pictures.

And for Nehemiah and the Israelites in Jerusalem right now, everyone is getting settled in. In chapter 7, they finish the wall, they complete the job, the task, they're pumped. They did it, 52 days, they pulled it off, everybody's celebrating, and then it's kind of like, "Now what?" So Nehemiah gathers everybody together and says, "Okay, now that we're a city, we gotta act like a city." And so Nehemiah goes through and takes a census of everybody so he can kind of get an accurate count of what's going on, 'cause he's had people come to Jerusalem literally just to work on the wall. They don't even have a house yet, they haven't even been settled, maybe their family hasn't come yet, they went ahead to just build. And so Nehemiah says, "Okay, we're gonna get settled. We're gonna get settled, and we gotta have our people, we gotta have our temple workers, we have to have our priests, our Levites, our musicians, our gatekeepers, we gotta have security around the wall." And Nehemiah says, "Okay, everybody, now let's get settled. We're here, we did it, the wall's fixed. Awesome job, everybody, way to go. Now let's kind of get back to city life. We've kind of been living it out there, we've been in tents, we've been camping at our work site just to be able to hit it right at dawn." Nehemiah's like, "Get settled." So people go out and they start finding homes, and they're getting settled in their families. And everything seems to be going good, but then after a while, things just aren't right. Israel thought that if they just fixed the wall and they had the fixed temple, like everything was gonna be perfect. But they quickly began to realize that this isn't perfect. See, Jerusalem was a light to the surrounding nations, to the entire world. Jerusalem was this city, this physical presence that represented their spiritual identity. Remember Nehemiah talking about that at the beginning of the chapter of the book? And Jerusalem was this like physical manifestation, representation of God, the relationship of God with humanity, and specifically with God's chosen people, the Israelites. They were a light in the darkness. It says in Isaiah 60, verses 1 through 3, "Arise, Jerusalem, and shine like the sun. The glory of the Lord is shining on you. Other nations will be covered by darkness, but on you the light of the Lord will shine. The brightness of his presence will be with you. Nations will be drawn to your light, and the kings to the dawning of your new day." The problem with Israel, and Jerusalem specifically, the city, was they didn't have light. They didn't have any light.

See, the walls and the temple and the priests and the Levites and everybody are really representations. They're tools. They're catalysts. They're assistants to the main show, which is the light of God. And Israel thought, "Hey, if we just fix what we knew, what was broken, what we could see with our eyes what was broken, everything will go back to the way it was. God will come and dwell among us in the Holy of Holies. Like everything will just be perfect. It'll be like it was before the exile." But they didn't have light. I think for us, we can have it all in life, right? We can have the house, the car, the retirement plan. You can have the latest phone or Google Pixel, the smartphone with the latest AI technology. You can have the best TV, clothes, shoes, purse, watch. You can go on the best vacations. You can have the stock portfolio, the investments. You can have all the money in your bank account. You can have whatever you hope and desire and wish to have, and then some on top of that. But something would still be missing in your life. You'd still have just something still, this God-shaped hole inside of us that the world tells us we can fill with all this other stuff. But we would still be missing. I love what it says in Psalm. In Psalm, it says, "The Word of God," this Word, "is a lamp to our feet." It's the light to our path. Without God's Word and the light, you all be walking around, you're going to stub a toe. You're walking in darkness. You don't have the light of God. Something inside of us is missing. And for Jerusalem, there was something missing. Something just wasn't right, and something had to be done to fix it.

So it says, Nehemiah 7:73, it says, "When the seventh month came," so they've been settled now for seven months, "the Israelites had settled in their towns. All the people came together in the square before the water gate. They told Ezra, the teacher of the law," the priest, the pastor, "to bring out the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel." If we don't take a moment here and pause, we miss something really, really big. This is huge. This is huge for the Israelite people who just a short chapters ago, they had been fighting with each other. They had gone ripping each other off with loans, with exuberant interest. There was anger, hatred, cruelty, conflict. But after they get all this stuff done and they think, "Okay, this is how it's going to work, and God's going to come, and everything's going to be perfect, it's going to be great," and then there's seven months in, they're like, "Something ain't right." And they have the maturity. I don't know who was kind of the catalyst to this. It doesn't say in Scripture who started this, but the group of people came together and said, "Something's missing. We're missing something. We need to go back to the law. We need to go back to the Bible, and we need to double-check what's going on." They say, "Hey, pastor, come read us God's Word. That's pretty amazing.”

Continue on, verse 2. "So on the first day of the seven months, Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, which was made of men and women and all who were able to understand. He read it aloud from daybreak till noon, as he faced the square before the water gate in the presence of the men, women, and others who could understand." God begins to move in powerful ways among the people who have gathered together to hear God's Word. I want you to hold on to that, okay? And they don't just come together for a quick 20-minute sermon, a service for about an hour, four songs, announcements, offering, and then a benny real quick, a benediction. I'll call it a benny. They don't gather together real quick and go like, "That was it. That's what they needed." No, they gather together for four to six hours of just hearing God's Word read. How small is our attention spans today? There ain't no way. If I came up this morning, I was like, "All right, we're going to read God's Word for the next four hours." You would stand up, turn around, and walk out, be like, "Peace. See you, pastor. Enjoy that, buddy. I'm getting lunch." Right? But they gather together. They begin to hear the God's Word. They open up their Bibles or their scrolls and begin to hear Scripture read to them. We have a priority here at Spring Valley for the Scripture, for the Word of God. That's why you hear it read during worship. Our sermons are Bible-based in God's Word. We make it a priority to hear Scripture being read among us every single Sunday by having the words on the screen that we do, to the Bible in the row in front of you under the chair, to having handouts ready for anybody who wants to know more, to having our teaching of God's Word for our children, for our youth. The Word of God is a top priority for us here at Spring Valley. It's one of our core values. So why? Why the Word of God? Well, we believe that this book is more than a book. We believe that God's Word is divinely inspired and infallibly written. What does that mean? Well, it's a big fancy term that means we believe that it's directly from God through man for us today. And that God's Word instructs us and it changes us.

I love what it says in 2 Timothy 3, 16. It says, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness." There's this big term called hermeneutics, which means the study of God's Word. When we gather together and we read God's Word, something amazing happens. There's something special that happens when we collectively together as a family open up God's Word and say, "Jesus, teach us. God, give us your words, not man's words, not my neighbor's words, not my friend's words, not some words I read on social media, not some political figure words, but give me your words, God. Your words." And it's this beautiful picture of unity coming together of reading God's Word with one another. When we look throughout the Bible, there are times when people gather together to hear God's Word read. They didn't have the technology to print and to duplicate yet, and so what they had to do was they had to have somebody read the Word of God so that people could hear it. And then they could work on memorizing it. They could have it deep in their hearts. "I've hidden your Word in my heart, God, that I might not sin against you." There's something special about this reading, and when we look at Scripture, when God's people come together to read His words, something miraculous happens every single time. Every single time when they make it a priority to read God's Word together in community, God shows up. And He shows up in powerful, powerful ways, and there's nothing different here.

It says in verse 3, "All the people listened attentively to the book of the law." Another translation from the Hebrew might be, "They listened carefully." They were eager to hear. They were inclined to the Word of God. God's moving in this moment in Jerusalem. Verse 4, "Ezra, the teacher of the law," the priest, the pastor, "stood up on a high wooden platform built for the occasion." Nehemiah gets up so that he can be seen, he can be heard, and I think there's something, this beautiful illustration of just God's Word being read over the people and just like coming over them, covering over their hearts and their minds and their soul, and just God's Word just coding them in who He is. I think it's important and interesting here that God's Word is elevated. Something there we could learn right there itself, right? God's Word being elevated, a physical representation of its importance in people's lives.

Verse 5, it continues on, "Ezra opened the book, and all the people could see him because he was standing above them. And as he opened it, all the people stood up." This is not just a book. It's not just words on pages. There's something about God's Word that's different. We talked about this this morning in our huddle as all the volunteer teams come together. We were talking about how this book is different. It's different than something you could walk into Barnes & Noble and just buy off the shelf. It's different than anything you could order off Amazon. It's different than what you could go in in the most vast libraries and try to find something that could replace this. You're going to come up short 100% of the time. God's Word is special. It's powerful. It's divine. It's supernatural. And so they open up and they start reading. And this would have been traditionally a scroll that they would have opened up. And probably all the temple helpers are helping Ezra hold this up. And they just begin reading Genesis 1, verse 1, "In the beginning." And Ezra just starts reading. And it probably would have been a little laborious or tedious to have the scroll and try to move it. And then when they finished one, they hand it over and then they bring out the next one and they continue to read on. This is what they would call the original OG just scrolling. Just Ezra was just scrolling, man. And we read in this Hebrew going line by line and they had to be patient. This wasn't like they had somebody like really cool like voiceover and there was like visual effects as we hear the scripture and like the lined up so you could follow right along. The people had to, I can imagine people just their eyes closed, just like leaning in just trying to hear Ezra read the scriptures.

And I find it interesting that the people stand up. Anybody been to old school church? Yeah, you've been to old school church when we will read the word of the Lord, all rise. And everybody's like. This wasn't just a thing. This wasn't just an old school thing. I mean, this is where we get it in scripture, but the people are changing their physical presence to show reverence to the word of God. I think sometimes it's something that we've lost in church. We might call it high church where there is a physical change in our bodies when we begin, we show reverence. We go, oh man, that's the word of God. We're going to stand. We've, I've been guilty of it. We've watered it down and sometimes you don't like read all the scripture at the beginning of the sermon. And so like if we were to do this, you'd be standing up and sit down, stand up. But this is also a reason why we invite everybody to stand when we begin to worship through singing together. There's a physical change in our demeanor and our presence to go. We are worshiping God. We're not just here doing karaoke on Sunday morning together. Like we are worshiping the Lord Almighty. You never thought about that before that we just do karaoke every Sunday? It's basically what we do. If you think about it, you pull God out, we're doing karaoke. There you go. But we're worshiping God. We're changing our physical demeanor to say, Jesus, you, God, you are holy. You are deserving of our respect and our response. And so we rise to get, and it's a community thing. We get up and we stand together with one another, locked arms saying we are worshiping God. That's what the Israelites are doing. They're being moved. They're showing this reverence.

Verse 6, "Ezra praised the Lord, the great God, and all the people lifted their hands and responded." They're starting to worship. They're getting their praise on here right now in front of the Watergate. They're like, come on, Jesus. They're like, amen, amen. And then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces on the ground. Everybody hears God's word. They stand up. They raise their hands. They start praising God. They're getting a little charismatic up in here, right? Even these old stiff Israelites, man. The good, bad, bad, bad Israelites. I just picture this, some old grumpy people. And then like they start hearing God's word and they're like, oh, I'm going to stand. I'm going to praise God. Amen, amen. I think we can raise our hands and worship, right? If the old stiff Israelites can worship God with their hands up, we can raise our hands, right? Amen. Come on. I want to hear it this morning. But they raised their hands. They're worshiping God. They're in this moment when they hear the words of God come over them, they change. Not just in their minds and in their hearts, oh, quiet, God, I'm changing. But like their physical being changes. They shift. Not only have they been standing up since sunrise till noon, they raised their hands, but they're also moved to a place of bowing down, kneeling, and putting their heads down. I assume they don't have nice, mopped concrete to bow down on. They're probably sticking their faces in some dirt, but it don't matter. Why? Because they're worshiping God Almighty. They understand what is happening. The Holy Spirit, God, is just swirling and moving in this place. But it doesn't stop there.

Verse 7, "The Levites," I'll let you read those names, "instructed the people and the law while the people were standing there. They read from the book of the law, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understand what is being read." Not only is God's Word being read, but it's also being explained. It's also being broken down by the Levites to explain to the people, this is what God's Word means. This is the original exegesis, where they're digging into God's Word, and then they're explaining what it says. This is foundational. I think in our world, in our society, we may have been to three or four Bible studies, and we've heard a dozen sermons or so, and you're like, "I got to figure it out. I understand. I got it." But I could tell, I would bet all the money in the world that even the smartest, most educated person in this moment, God is giving them supernatural understanding. Through His Word, through the Levites, God is bestowing down upon them, a little old school right there, bestowing His grace and His mercy through God's Word and through the Levites in this moment. This is where we learn the fundamentals of who God is, right here. His Word. Everything that we need is right here. And when we dig through it, sometimes it gets hard, right? Sometimes you start reading a verse, and you're like, "God, I don't like that verse. That one's telling me I'm not living right. I'll just skip over that one. I'll keep moving. I want all the nice verses, the ones that feel, just give me the tingles inside. I want the easy stuff, the fluff, the nice verses." But that's not the Bible. That's not the Bible. The Bible is filled with stuff that's great. Yes, and encouraging, uplifting, gets us through hard times, reminds us of who God is, how He's moving, how He's acting, His character. But it also reminds us of ways that we're not living right. And there's hard stuff in there, but it doesn't mean we skip over it. The Israelites dig deep into God's Word. And you see what happens here? Something happens here.

Verse 9, "The Nehemiah, the governor, Ezra, the priest, the teacher of the law, and the Levites, who were instructing to the people, said to them all, 'This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.' For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the law." They found this place that they began to hear the Scripture read that they weren't living right. As they began to hear God's Word, they understand that their life did not match up with the life that God was calling them to. They were coming short of the expectation of God for His people. Scripture says this is the standard. This is God's Word. He tells us this is the standard, and you're down here. This is what they would call plumb line. This is true right here, and you're down here somewhere. Some of you are right here. Some of you are way down here. But you're not meeting the standard. And what happens? They're moved. They're weeping. They're crying. They're being convicted. They're realizing, "Man, I have so much to grow in. God loves me so much. God has this life for me, and I'm not living it. I'm wasting my life because I'm not living the way that God wants me to. The Word of God should cause us to pause. The Word of God should cause us to reflect, to take inventory of where we're at and to understand where we need to change and where we need to grow. And sometimes this comes with weeping and repentance and mourning for our shortcomings. And this is good, guys. This is good. Sometimes we don't want to go there because we're just like, "Ah, it's just too much. I don't want to go that far. I want God to just remind me of how true and faithful and He has a purpose and calling for my life." But in that, we have to change into His calling, right? We have to get in line with His purpose. This is that part of transforming. Remember 2 Timothy 3:16? His training, rebuking. "Oh, we don't like that word. Just tell me where I'm doing good, and I'll just keep doing that. Don't look over here." No, it's training in righteousness. I started working out again, praise Jesus, a little bit ago. There was one day where I was working out, and I was like, "I'll throw some air squats in." Oh. I limped around for probably three days. My daughter, who just turned one, was walking better in the house than I was. Sometimes our training hurts. I'm thankful for the bar here in the bathroom to be able to help myself up sometimes. Man, toilets are short. But it's training, and I'm getting stronger, and I have more endurance, a little bit. But I'm getting better. This is God's Word. Sometimes it causes some pain, but when we get through that, we realize, "Oh, okay. I can do this. Start doing this. Start growing. Start getting better." This is God's Word. And I love what Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites tell the people. It's like, "It's great that you realize you're sinning. It's great that you realize you're not doing good, but don't stop there." Sometimes we just get in that rut, and we're like, "I'm a horrible person. I'm a terrible Christian. I can't follow Jesus." God doesn't want that. God wants us to realize we got our shortcomings, where we're not doing good, but He wants us to move on. And everybody there tells them, "Replace your sorrow with God's goodness." Yes, be convicted. Yes, realize where you need to change. Do that. But then let the goodness of God come fill that in and wash that junk out. Let His grace and His mercy overcome us to get that out of our system so that we don't go back to it, and all we can think about is, "Man, I want more goodness of God." Right? Let the goodness of God come into your hearts, they say. Let His grace, His mercy, His love bring joy and celebration. There's a turn here in the story. Verse 10, Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food, sweet drinks, and send them to those who have nothing prepared." Share what you got with everybody. We're going to party. "This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." The Levites calmed all the people, saying, "Be still, for this is a holy day. Do not grieve." Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that have been made known to them. Sometimes in life, we just want to dismiss all of Scripture, because you're like, "It's just going to tell me how bad I am. It's just going to control my life. It's going to hold me back. It's just going to give me a bunch of rules I got to follow, and it's just going to push me down and control me." But I love the Scripture right here, because the Word of God brings life. It brings gladness. It brings hope. It brings deep, deep joy. And they celebrate together in God's Word. They bust out and start partying.

Verse 13, "On the second day of the month, the heads of all the families, along with the priests and the Levites, gathered around Ezra the teacher to give attention to the words of the law." They're like, "We've been partying. We want more Word of God. We just want more of it. We want more of his goodness. We just want it. Just keep bringing it into our lives." "They found written in the law, which the Lord had commanded through Moses," going old school here, "that the Israelites were to live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month." Huh? Celebration breaks out, and then they start reading God's Word, and they realize, "We're supposed to be doing something special right now." And this is what we call the Festival of Booths, or the Festival of Tabernacles, or Sukkat. It is commanded by God through Moses in Leviticus 23, that in this time of the season of the harvest, okay, that the Israelites to celebrate and to pause, to reflect on what God had done through Exodus and beyond. And what they were to do is that sometime around the beginning of October, so where we are right here, see? God, this is so beautiful. Right here, they were to gather together their family and their crew, and they were to go out and to make tents, tabernacles, booths. And by booths, I mean like a booth at the fair, like our pop-ups out there, four poles and a covering. Super simple. But this was a camping celebration trip, and it was for them to pause their lives, their busyness, or whatever they were doing in their life, their hustle and bustle, and for an entire week, they were to take time and to live in a tent, to remember and to reflect back on how God brought them out of Egypt and brought them through the wilderness, in tents, in booths, and brought them to their promised land of where they are in Jerusalem with their city and their walls. And they realized, "We need to celebrate this. This is what we need to do right now. Now is the time." And so as they were beginning the harvest, they were focusing in and remembering what God had done and to remind them that in the midst of them right now, God was doing something special. God was moving a celebration to bring together, along with their physical harvest, God bringing together, harvesting His people as one, united for God and by God. I see each Sunday as a mini festival for us, a mini time for us to pause our lives, to come together, to reflect on what God has done, to encourage one another. Sometimes that's included in meals. We're going to have one at the end of October, like chili cook-off, let's go. Have a meal together, share food, celebrate, laugh. Just be in the presence of God with one another. And when that comes together, and when we share in God's Word with one another, our light shines collectively brighter. Our light shines brighter, and we're reminded of where the source of our light comes from. That's God's Word given and blessed, handed down to us. And we're reminded of our lightness. I don't know if it's a word, I just made it up. But we're reminded that God's Word, as it says in Psalms, is a light into our path. We're reminded of the priority of God's Word, and then he says, "When you hide it in your heart, "the light now comes into us when we accept Jesus. "The light shines in us." And that ultimately we are the light of the world. That wherever we go, we shine bright for Jesus.

Jesus actually talks about this in Matthew chapter 5. He says, "You are the light of the world." Everybody who calls on the name of Jesus, accepted Jesus in their heart, is following being a disciple. "You are the light of the world. "A town built on a hill cannot be hidden." You've been in darkness, and you can see a light just like miles and miles away, just faint in the distance. It cuts through all the darkness. "Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. "Instead, they put it on its stand, put it up high." So they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. Ezra, standing up, reading God's word, going up high, light. "And in the same way, let your lights shine before others "that they may see your good deeds "and glorify your Father in heaven." This is what we're called to. We are called to dwell on God's word, to let it penetrate our hearts, and let that light shine in us so that then we can carry that light and go out and shine with the world and where we go, to bring this light wherever we live, learn, work, and play. This is our calling. Shine your light for the world. Shine your light for God, but it starts with us in God's word. Individually, yes, but also collectively, corporately, in community. And then the more that we are in the word of God, the more the light for God can shine, amen? The more that we're in this, the more that it lights us up, and then we start shining brighter and brighter, and people in our lives start looking at us and going, "There's something different about you. "What is that? "There's something, you're not the same "as this guy over here. "You're a different kind of person. "Why is that?" A camera is only as good as its light. The world wants a picture of who God is. The word of God has to be the light in our lives to light us up so that we can show him off effectively and effectually to the world.

Let's pray. God, thank you for this morning. Jesus, we thank you for this moment in time where you moved in the hearts and the lives of Israel. And for this season, God, there was praise, there was worship, there was honor, there was celebration, there was joy. The light of Jerusalem lit up like a Christmas tree. And it showed everybody around them, inside and outside Jerusalem, who you were and who you are, God. So Jesus, I pray that we would let our light shine by getting it lit up by being in your word, to let your word penetrate us first in our hearts, and then we can take our light into the world around us. We love you, Jesus. We thank you. We praise you.

Nehemiah - Chapter 6

Nehemiah - Chapter 6: Further Opposition

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I haven't met you. My name is Andrei. I'm one of the pastors here. Not to be confused with Pastor Chris, even though we wear the same color shirt. He also has a beard, so just that's the difference. And no sleeves. Yeah, I'm cold. Okay, well, it's good to be... those are, these are accidents by the way. We don't plan this. We might need to start coordinating to be like, "Hey, I'm wearing... I called green today." So just one announcement for you this morning. I want to put this in front of you again that we have a workday coming up in October, October 6. It's the first Sunday and we like to do these a couple times a year. One usually before Easter and then another before the holidays and Thanksgiving and Christmas, just to pay attention to our building and kind of clean it up. And so you're invited to join us in that. We'll provide lunch for your services. Thank you so much in advance for anyone who helps. And yeah, we just have a fun time cleaning up. Hopefully it's fun. If it's not fun, I'm so sorry. Let us know. We can make it fun. Well, we're gonna have a good time. Just clean. Yeah, we do like windows and washing a couple things. So you're invited. Just maybe bring a change of clothes and yeah. Thank you so much. If you have any questions about that, you can find someone with a green name tag afterwards and they can give you some more information. For everything else announcement related, I'd point you to the bulletin or to our website. Lots more coming up in the future here.

All right, as we turn our attention to our series this morning, we are coming to our halfway point. Halfway through, almost halfway through the book itself. And then we're gonna be taking a couple week break here after this week. Next week and the week after we have guest preacher coming in. And so and then we're gonna finish out the rest of our Nehemiah series. But so far in our series and in this book we've seen, this book has showed us the brokenness of God's people and the righteous response of prayer. It's shown us God's provision even through foreign political leaders. We've seen opposition to God's plan and to his people from outside of Jerusalem and even from within. And then we've also seen the unity of people coming together to build the walls, to build the gates. And we've even seen generosity through Nehemiah and everything that God has given him and the power that he has been given by God, by the other king, and using that for benefiting everyone else. And today in our passage we're going to return to the theme of opposition as we'll see these efforts from the enemies really intensify against specifically Nehemiah. And so as we get into this story, as we see this rebuilding project reach completion, it's also overshadowed by what happens when someone encounters personal and spiritual and emotional opposition. And doesn't allow it, thankfully, to distract them from the work that God is calling them to do. And we see it when someone clings to God's truth as they continue to follow him in obedience.

Let me go ahead and pray before we continue. You guys could bow your heads. God, thank you again for our time to gather this morning. As we come around your word, we pray that you would, through your spirit, reveal truth to us, bring us closer to you, draw us in, and may your spirit speak to us, encourage us, empower us, even convict where necessary. And God, after this, and we go about our days in this week, that we'd be able to see clearly how to live for you and give you everything that we have. We pray this in your name. Amen. All right, so in chapter 6, just before we really dive into it, we're gonna see this building effort come to its final stage. But this is when opposition, just as this is about to finish, opposition gets really intense. And Nehemiah's enemies try to lure him outside the city. They try to discredit him. They start going to all these tactics that they haven't used before to really try to put a stop to what is about to be done. And there's an overarching theme and thought which is, when one should be aware, we should be aware, that the enemy doesn't like it when we are living in God's will. When we are living a life of obedience to what God has called us to do, when we are who he has called us to be, that does not make Satan happy. He doesn't like it when we're obedient, when we're steadfast to God's calling. And in those moments, the enemy's attacks are strongest, maybe even loudest. So you're gonna try to pull us away from God to distract us a bit, even if it's just a whisper, to sow a seed of doubt, to feed into our pride, or whatever it may be. The enemy wants to keep us from living in the will of God. And that can range from outright slander against who we are, that is very, you know, affects all of our lives, to something as small as making sure that we're scrolling in the morning instead of reading God's Word. Whatever it takes, the enemy will do whatever it is to keep us from living like God wants us to. So let's see how the enemy is working against Nehemiah in our passage this morning.

We're gonna go section by section, and let's start by reading the first four verses. Chapter 6, verse 1, it says, "When word came to Sambalot, Tobiah, Geshem, the Arab, and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall, not a gap was left in it, though up to that time I had not set the doors and the gates, Sambalot and Geshem sent me this message, 'Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.' But they were scheming to harm me, so I sent messengers to them with this reply, 'I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?' Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer." So we'll pause right there.

Again, we see this distraction for Nehemiah intensify, and sometimes when we get to the end of something, be it a project or a paper or an assignment, like I said, the distractions get louder. And the next, maybe it's something like the next thing on your to-do list, all of a sudden you become more aware of it, and you're like, "I got this, I'm almost done with this, so what's the next thing that I'm gonna have to work on?" Or maybe it's catching up with relationships. You've been so focused and so diligent that you're like, "Oh, I've ignored some people, so I've got a little bit of time right now as I'm wrapping this thing up, let me go catch up with them, whether through text or social media." Or maybe it's just a lack of energy or doubt or insecurity or annoyance. Those feelings can be louder as we near the completion of something. I know for me, when I was in college and seminary, whenever I had to write a paper, and I often waited until a day or two before it was due, so that might be on me, but there was a lot of pressure and getting it started. And then as I was coming, you know, one o'clock in the morning or something, I'm finishing it up, I'd be like, "Man, I deserve a break. I'm almost done." And I'd be like, "I've been working so hard, let me just check the highlights of the latest game that I missed, let me go text some people or scroll social media." And then it was almost harder to finish my paper than actually start it. So finishing the project can be hard. I'll just say that it's not uncommon as we near completion, distractions intensify.

Now Nehemiah's distractions are less self-imposed than actually someone from the outside really trying to derail him. Sandbullet, Tobiah, and Gesher, remember, are these enemies that represent the surrounding nations of Israel, and they invite Nehemiah to a village to talk. And Nehemiah discerns that this is a trap. How did he know? Well, the city that they mentioned, Ono, is a day's journey away, and it borders the districts of Samaria and Ashdod, which were both, at that time, they were hostile regions. And so at best, this trip would have been a time-wasting effort, just slowing Nehemiah down, and maybe even given the opportunity that they all had spies and influences inside the city, they could, if Nehemiah was outside the city, they could really start to work on spreading some rumors and getting things sent. And so Nehemiah's like, "I don't want to do that." At worst, I mean, it could have been Nehemiah's life. This could have been a plot to kill Nehemiah. If he's outside the city, we can kill this leader who is doing stuff that we don't want to do.

So Nehemiah responds in verse 3, "I am working on a great project." Now this isn't like a prideful self-praise of like, "Hey, I'm too big for you guys. I don't have time to be..." No, this is just saying, "I am so focused on what God has called me to do. This is God. He's more important than you two. He has called me to do this. I have to stay here and focus on the task that God has put in front of me." So instead of letting his enemies distract him, he chooses to remain focused on the work of God. And Nehemiah could see what these leaders were trying to do, and he had the discernment and the wisdom to see, "Here's what God has called me to do, and this thing that they're offering does not line up with where God is calling me to go. It's going to distract me from what God wants me to do." Now I don't know what projects or enemies you have at home, but I don't think any of us are rebuilding city walls. But we do all have a God-given work, and that is to become more like Him, to live in obedience to God's Word, to live like Jesus and to bring Him glory in whatever we do and wherever we are. The most basic level we all have as Christians, that is a job that we have to do.

So I want to ask this, what distractions in your life are pulling you away from that work that God has called you to do? If you just kind of do a self-assessment, you evaluate what you have going on in your life, what's on your plate, what distractions are in your life that are pulling you away from the direction that God is calling you to go? What do you think would happen if those distractions were removed? Or what would happen if you chose to ignore those distractions and remain focused on the work that God is doing in your life? This might also mean having to discern whether you can clearly see first and foremost what God has called you to do, because that is necessary to know what is a distraction. You have to know what God has called you to do to understand what might not be in line with it. What distractions are pulling you away from God and His work? So you think about that, let's continue in our story.

Verse 5, it says, "Then the fifth time, Sam Bolot sent his aid to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter in which was written," unsealed, we'll come back to that, "It is reported among the nations, and Geshem says it is true, that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports, you are about to become their king, and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you and Jerusalem. There is a king in Judah. Now this report will get back to the king, so come, let us meet together. I sent him this reply, 'Nothing like what you are saying is happening. You are just making it up out of your head.' They were all trying to frighten us, thinking their hands will get too weak for their work, and it will not be completed. But I prayed, 'Now strengthen my hands.'" By the fourth time of asking for this meeting, Sam Bolot must have realized that his anxiety and his desire for power were beginning to show through in his efforts, and so he shifts tactics. He sends an open letter, ensuring that this malicious rumors would begin to spread, again hoping to undermine Nehemiah's authority, halt the progress of the wall, and retain whatever power and influence he has over Jerusalem. You see, most letters at that time were written with some kind of papyrus, and then they were sealed with some kind of wax and an insignia, and they would seal it, and that person receiving the letter would know, 'Okay, I recognize that. That is from this person. This is a real letter, and this is legit.' Now in open letter, scholars kind of think that this is maybe even made on some kind of big pottery, and this messenger is carrying it around so that everyone can read, like, 'Oh, I'm going to the king. Oh, you can see this message? Oh, I didn't know you could do that.' But really, they're trying to spread this information, and having everyone in the village or wherever it is read this to say, 'Oh, what's that say? Nehemiah wants to become king?' And so it's really just a smear campaign on Nehemiah, and he's like, 'What? What are you guys talking about? This is completely made up. I'm not trying to do any of this.’

But again, these tactics, this effort from the enemy is intensifying. It's an intentional way to spread lies and rumors and allegations that are completely false, not only for the people, but also hopefully by all this happening, it's going to sow further doubt and really test the resolution of Nehemiah. 'Do I want to keep doing this? Do I want to keep fighting these rumors and these people? I've tried to put it to bed before, but they keep coming up. That's tiring.' Some people say, 'That's it. I'm out of here. No one wants to seem to want this.' As much as it was to affect everyone else and their belief, it was also a personal attack about Nehemiah wanting to become king. It could have been so damaging to him emotionally, and further distracting him from what God wants him to do. It's damaging because it's clearly a lie. We know from chapter 1 that he has no desire to become king. He's good with the king. The king sent him and blessed him and said, 'Take what you need.' And he said, 'I'm gonna come back to you, king.' So he knows that that relationship is good. He's planning to return. But they are really trying to start a new narrative of why and what Nehemiah is doing, and it's simply not true. And Nehemiah, what did he do to confront these lies? Well, he spoke the truth. Whatever feelings Nehemiah was going through, we want to be careful. We don't know his feelings. He's writing this, but I think it's fair to say he had some kind of emotional response inside, whether he shared that with anyone or not. But there's a message circulating around accusing him of doing something that he is not at all doing, and you've probably been there at some point. Someone's spreading lies about you, and it is hard to just stand by and not say anything. Sometimes there's a point to say something, but when something is said about you that is not true, we have an emotional reaction.

So I'm imagining that Nehemiah might have felt infuriated, frustrated, angered, hurt, more doubt. But Nehemiah's response reveals what ultimately came out on top in his heart, and that is the truth of God. And maybe Nehemiah was telling himself this truth just as much as he was reminding everyone else around him, saying, 'That's not true. I'm not trying to be king. I'm doing God's work. Nothing that you're saying is true.' It's such a good reminder for us today that when we are confronted with lies and the emotions that we may feel and may want to act out of those emotions, the truth not only instructs our outward actions but our inward attitude. Say that again. The truth not only instructs our outward actions but our inward attitude towards that opposition, towards those lies. Pastor Eric Mason says we need to speak truth to our emotions because while they may be real, they don't always point us to the truth. Emotions that we feel are real, but they are not always pushing us towards the truth or to the true way of living as God wants us to, living like Jesus. What do I mean by that? Well, we're going through the generosity practice right now, and we just talked about greed. And we may have in our current situation talking about finances, we may feel stressed, anxiety, worry over not having enough, over finances being tight. But if we were to follow those emotions, those may lead us to be greedy. The opposite of what God wants us to be, which is generous. Instead of living in obedience, those emotions might drive us to acting not as Jesus has called us to. So our emotions are real. We do feel stressed. We do feel anxiety. But we have to speak truth to our emotions. Say, "I know I feel this, but God I know you're gonna provide. You are a generous God. I'm gonna have enough." Can't deny how we feel, but we can't let those emotions drive our lives.

So the question for us is, are you letting your emotions direct you away from God's truth in any area of your life? Again, do the self-assessment. Think about your life. Think about where you're feeling stressed, where you're feeling very emotional. Is there an area of your life today where your emotions are in the driver's seat? And are they pushing you to live like Jesus, to live as Christ? Or are they pushing you to be selfish, to be greedy, to be unkind, to be hateful? How might God's truth dictate what you should do in whatever situation your emotions are affecting you? Nehemiah is showing us the difficult task of staying focused on God's truth and not letting his emotions take over. And it is hard. I struggle with that weekly. I'm an emotional person. I feel emotions and I start to act out of it. I speak out of it and that gets me into trouble sometimes. And I need to tell myself, "I'm feeling this, but God I know your truth. And you say whatever it is, that I'm loved, that I'm important, that I'm worthy. Or God you say that you are going to provide. I'm stressed about finances. You are going to make sure that every day I am not needing anything, that I'll get through it." So are you letting your emotions direct you away from God's truth? And how might God's truth dictate where you should do in that situation?

Let's continue in verse 10. It says, "One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Deliah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, 'Let us meet in the house of God inside the temple and let us close the temple doors because men are coming to kill you. By night they are coming to kill you.' But I said, 'Should a man like me run away? Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go.' I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Samboleth had hired him. He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this. And then they would give me a bad name to discredit me. Remember, Tobiah and Samboleth, my God, because of what they have done. Remember also the prophet Naodia and how she and the rest of the prophets have been trying to intimidate me." This is on another level of scheming against Nehemiah. They are now paying prophets to try to get someone to sin. These prophets are supposed to be the voice of God, the voice of truth, and they're being paid to deceive. I mean, this is so corrupt. This should be infuriating to read this and be like, "How can a prophet be paid to intentionally try to commit someone or have someone commit sin?" Nehemiah, thankfully, knows the truth, knows the words of this prophet aren't lining up with God's words and the instruction to his people. You see, this invitation to come save himself by going into the temple was really an invitation to sin and to discredit him because a man of his status, which is not a priest, is not allowed in the temple. The last person to try that was King Uzziah back when Israel was one nation. And that king got leprosy from it. God punished him and said, "You weren't supposed to do this and you now have leprosy for the rest of your life." So Nehemiah knows, "Why are you inviting me into the temple? This is weird. This is not..." And apparently people are coming and he's putting all these pieces together. He's like, "No, I'm out. I'm not gonna do this." We've already talked about the importance of knowing and living by the truth, but there's another warning to us here, which is we should not, we need to be careful not to be like this prophet Shemaiah.

Now you're saying I will never take money to lie about God's Word. I hope that's true. That's good. But on an even lesser scale, we need to filter what we hear and what comes from our mouths, what we are internalizing and believing and sharing with others. There's a lot, this is very difficult in today's world, there's so much information being taken in by everybody every day, you know, whether from news outlets to other people sharing to news media to social media, the internet, just on top of we're hearing so much information. And on top of all that we're hearing, there's so many platforms for us to share, whether in person-to-person and we're just having conversation or posting on social media, to texting, whatever it is, are the words that we are sharing about whatever subject you were talking about, whether schools or politics or your neighborhood or whatever it is, are they words that are pointing others to God? Or are they actually pulling people away from God? Are they instilling fear? Are they instilling hate in someone?

In order to know what to filter and what is worth sharing, it means we have to be intentional to know the truth, to be feeding ourselves the truth through the reading and the hearing of God's Word, not just on Sundays but every single day. We need to know who God is and what his perspective is of how to live this life. Knowing the truth is so important, we have to make it a priority to be in God's Word daily. And I know that's hard, that's hard for me to be, to have, that takes self-discipline and routine and dedication, but that's what God wants of us. Dallas Willard, an author, a former pastor, he's passed away but he's written so many books, he says this, "Few things in life that are worth doing are pleasant in their early stages. Persistence is the prerequisite for a fruitful life in the kingdom of God." I love that, persistence is the prerequisite for a fruitful life in the kingdom of God. We need to persist in the daily reading of God's Word so that we know the truth, so that as we're hearing information, as we are sharing information, the filter that we have is one that aligns with Scripture and saying, "I know this is happening, that may be true, that could be facts about what is happening, but what I'm gonna share about it is gonna point people to Jesus, is gonna share that I have faith in God." We want a fruitful life in the kingdom of God, and when we know the truth, when we are dedicated and we are committed to reading His Word, it will help us from being deceived and then from even unintentionally deceiving others or keeping others from going to God or understanding who God is. We don't want to be a Shammai, a story was written about us, we don't want to be that person that said, "Then they encountered this person and they really said some things that really did not help the person but really led that person away from God.”

The other thing that Nehemiah does to combat this emotional and social spiritual attack on top of knowing the truth is that Nehemiah prays. In verses 9, we read that he said, "But I pray now, strengthen my hands," and in verse 14 he says, he's speaking to God, "Remember Tobiah and Sambal, my God, because of what they have done. Remember the prophets and how they've been trying to intimidate me." In another attempt at discrediting him, at further chipping away at his fortitude and resolution to follow God, he prays, "Strengthen me, God, and remember them." That "remember them" is not simply, "You're gonna forget God." It's saying, "God, I'm handing this over, you have to take care of them. Remember them, God. They're in your hands now. Your judgment, whatever you're gonna do, my hands are out of it, you take care of it. And I'm gonna keep working, God. I'm gonna keep doing what you called me to do. I'm gonna rebuild this wall, I'm gathering people, I'm uniting people. You have this project we're gonna finish.”

And so a question for us today is, what are our prayers in the midst of opposition? When we face emotional, spiritual, mental opposition to what God has called you to do, are you praying to God to do what he wants you to do? Pastor Mason again says, "Prayer is not the dictation of our will to God, but our alignment with his will." We're not saying, "God, I'm going through this, so you got to get on board with my plan to get out of it." We're saying, "God, I'm going through this. I'm with you in however you want me to get through this. Whether you're gonna rescue me from it, or I'm gonna have to endure, God, I'm with you in your plan." Prayer helps us align with God, not the other way around. And I think in our heads we know that. We say, "Yes, that's pretty obvious." But do we pray like that? Do the words we say in our prayer time actually reflect that approach? Even in the hardest of times, do we pray, "God, strengthen me to get through this. Give me what I need, Lord, that you know what I need to live a life that still honors you through the hardest of life's challenges." Or do we pray, "God, take this away from me. I don't want to do this. I think, God, we know what's best is that I don't go through this. So, could you rescue me? God, you're the great rescuer. Get me out of this. I'm out." I've prayed that prayer. And it's okay to pray that prayer, but don't end on that note. If you're processing with God, you're like, "God, I don't want to do this. God, rescue me." That's fine. But make sure that you're ending that prayer in a place of surrender, saying, "God, if this is what you have for me, then give me what I need to get through this." Just as Jesus prayed in the garden, "God, is there any other way? There's not. Give me what I need to get through this next 24 hours, to die on this cross." We've got to humble ourselves to the will that God has for our lives, even in difficult situations. We want to be aligned with His will and His heart, which we know are true and good and loving. Praying and knowing God's truth are the two key components in facing opposition in the Christian life. And Nehemiah has them on full display in this chapter, full of opposition to what he is doing.

Let's end our chapter starting in verse 15. It says, "So the wall was completed on the 25th of Elul in 52 days. When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God. Also in those days, the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and replies from Tobiah kept coming to them. For many in Judah were under oath to him, since he was son-in-law to Shekiniah, son of Arah, and his son Jehonin had married the daughter of Meshulam, son of Berekiah. Moreover, they kept reporting to me his good deeds and then telling me what I said, telling him what I said, and Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me." All right, a lot happening here.

First, super positive note, the wall is completed. This is great! It's completed in time and in a way that points clearly to God. Despite the opposition on multiple fronts, the wall is finished. And what a reminder for the people, and even for us reading it today, that nothing can stop God's plans. What God wants, what God begins, what God is behind, it will happen. It will come to completion. It will be done. God used all that attention that was on Jerusalem, all the attention from the enemies, all the attention from the people who were working on it, all the people from within who were opposed, and all the people from surrounding nations just having this eye on this is the current, you know, newest political thing that's happening. Jerusalem and the walls. That'd be like daily news for everyone. What's the latest with the walls? And God used all of that focus and attention for his glory. In the end, the city's rebuilding through the city walls being rebuilt. His power and his might are on full display. And the whole world's like, "Oh my goodness, look what just happened. The God of Israel is real. There's no way they could have done that without divine help. All attention is on Yahweh.”

Now despite this, sadly, opposition continues. This man, Tobiah, is clearly consumed and driven by power. And he's probably, scholars think that he's a fellow Jew, and so his connections are deep. Not only are his family ties providing a seed of influence in the community, but he also seems to have business contracts he's owed with other people. And so this is a man who is stubborn. He's not letting go of this desire to have influence in a broken-down and lesser-than Jerusalem. And feeling threatened, he's continually lashed out, attacked, conspired against the work and people of God. Mostly pointed at Nehemiah. And Nehemiah, so far, through prayer and the power of God, has been able to withstand those attacks. And the people, through the leadership of Nehemiah, have remained focused on the task. They remain focused on the work that God had called them to do, and they have done an amazing thing. I mean, some scholars look back and be like, "I don't know if this really happened. 52 days to rebuild a wall seems very unlikely." And however long it took, the fact is that through God and through the people remaining focused on the task, God was able to accomplish great things through those people.

So our question today is, "What can God accomplish through our church as we remain focused on the work that he has called us to do?" What can God accomplish through Spring Valley as we remain focused on the work that God wants us to do, is calling us to? We just met about our vision, and Pastor Chris shared this 2010 3-1. 20 new baptisms and salvations, 10 new families, 3 new ministry leaders, 1 united heart, church heart of gratitude for what God has done and what God will do. And we believe that God is calling us in that direction and that God will make it happen. And as we remain focused and committed to living like Jesus individually and also communally as a church, who knows what else is possible? But as we pray and read and know God's truth about living like Christ, we can get a lot done. If we stay focused, God can work amazing things through this church. In addition to those numbers, I just want to encourage all of us to also reflect, maybe this week, what might God be putting on your heart, your hopes and dreams for this faith community? This is your church. It's not just for Pastor Chris and I and the staff or the elders to be asking God, "What do you want us to do?" You, we want you to be asking that question too. God can stir in any one of us and if it's where God is leading, then as a church we'll rally behind and say, "God, if this is where you're going, then we're going with you.”

So our passage this morning serves as both a warning and a helpful exhortation. And as I close, I just want to say this, as we live in God's will, as we obey the call he has placed on our lives, we will face opposition. You've heard this a couple weeks ago from Pastor Lauren. You're hearing it again. You're gonna hear it more in this series. You will face opposition. Maybe you're facing it right now. Maybe you're not. And so right now is a season of gearing up, of knowing God's truth, of preparing for when you will. It may not look like the same opposition that Nehemiah faced. There's no one walking around Rocklin with an open pottery with rumors of any of you. But the enemy is still working hard to discourage you and to distract you from what God has called you to do. So will you be ready? How will you respond when that happens? Will we remain faithful to him, focused on what he has called us to do? Which means, are we going to be praying and are we going to be in God's Word to know his truth? And then this passage also provides an exhortation for us. We can know and be assured that God's plans are good and they will come to be. It's gonna happen. If God wants it, if God wills it, nothing will stop him. We can know and be assured that as we follow God, he will be faithful to carry out his work through us. And that work will be a testimony to the world around us, to the people around us, of who God is and what he does. As God works in you and through you, whether you're verbally sharing who God is or not, just that work that he is doing will be a testimony to other people. You may never know it. You may get to heaven and someone's gonna be, "Hey, I saw you live your life. I saw you go through that situation over months, over years, and it pointed me to Jesus. Every response that you had to that opposition, to that attack, I was blown away. And over time, your testimony and what God was doing, that drew me in. And my faith was strengthened, or maybe I came to faith because of how you lived." God will fulfill his work in you and know that he is doing work through you. And we just gotta come before him and say, "God, give me what I need. Give me what I need to do that, to be a part of your work." It's a joy to partner with him in his work. It's hard. It's very hard at times. But as we continue to surrender, we'll see God provide for us. We'll see him give us everything that we need. And in turn, we just turn around and praise him some more. "God, that was amazing. That was all you. Thank you for using me, for using my life to bring people to you." Amen?

Let's pray. God, thank you so much for your Word, for this example of Nehemiah, a man who was so faithful in times of so much opposition. I can't imagine all these rumors swirling around him, these lies. And God, because of his commitment to you, because of his steadfast knowledge of your Word and your truth, he was able to endure. That's such an example for us, God, as we are all enduring in this life. This life is challenging. It is hard. I know many of us are going through situations right now that are taking everything that we have just to get through another minute of another day. So God, I pray that you would fill us with what we need. Empower the people here. Equip us for these challenges. Encourage us, God, through your Spirit. May everyone who leaves today know that you are with them. You will not leave them, that you are going to give them everything that they need, whether they know it or not. God, you are continually providing for us. And so we just want to praise you again for that work that you're doing that we know about, that we see in our lives, and even for the things that we cannot see, for the protection that you give us, for the provision that you give us. God, thank you. We praise you. We want to honor you with everything that we have. We pray this in your Son's name. Amen.

Nehemiah - Chapter 5

Nehemiah - Chapter 5: Nehemiah Helps the Poor

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are continuing in our Nehemiah series, and I hope you guys have enjoyed this. I know it's been something that us as a teaching team has really enjoyed, really digging into scripture and a lot of the historical background and a lot of the context of what's happening in Jerusalem and in Israel and Judea and kind of the surrounding nations of what's happening during this time in history. And what I love is that we can look back on these situations and these stories, and we can see that God moved. That it didn't matter what was happening in the world, didn't matter what society and culture was saying, whether they were obedient or wanting to worship God or not, God still moved. God still blessed, God still provided victory, God still moved in the hearts of his people. And so if there's anything I think for us to take away from Nehemiah as a whole is that God is still moving. God is still up to something. God is working sometimes in the shadows and out of our, maybe our peripheral, and we think, "God, I don't see you moving. "Are you really doing anything?" And I wanna encourage you today, he is. He's moving, he's doing something, he's up, always going and making things happen. And so if I can encourage you in that today, please, please be encouraged.

So Nehemiah chapter five, Nehemiah has come back to Jerusalem. They're rebuilding the wall. He's moved by God when he hears about the state of the ruins that is the beloved city. And so he asks of his boss, the cupbearer that he is, to the king, "Can I go back?" And by God's grace, he grants him that wish to be able to go back to Jerusalem. So Nehemiah goes back and finds that the city is probably worse off than he ever thought it was, or the stories that he had heard. But that doesn't stop him. He's encouraged still to begin to rebuild the wall and he actually becomes governor of Judea, the surrounding region, and by the grace of the king to be in charge. And so he begins the rebuilding process. He calls people to say, "Hey, stop what you're doing. Stop with your businesses. Stop with the things that you're working on in your own personal time, but come take on a section of the wall with us." And we together as a group, we'll take on all parts of the cities, all the gates, everything. And we're gonna re-secure Jerusalem. The temple has been rebuilt after it was destroyed. And that is great, but the city of Jerusalem itself is still at exposure for attack. And so Nehemiah with his crew, they start rebuilding the walls. And what happens when we say that I'm gonna answer the call to God in our lives? What happens? The enemy rolls in, right? The enemy shows up 'cause he goes, "I don't like what you're doing. I'm gonna start messing with you." And so last week, chapter four, Pastor Lauren talked about this opposition that has come out of the woodwork to show up, to tell Nehemiah and his team of builders, "You ain't gonna do this. There is no chance that you, a bunch of jabronis, are even gonna be able to think about rebuilding this wall. You don't have the talent. You don't have the resources. You don't have enough people. You don't have what it takes to rebuild this." And so Nehemiah pushes back against this opposition to the point where attacks start coming. His people start being attacked as they're trying to rebuild. Nehemiah goes, "All right, that's what's up." He's like, "All right, team. Tomorrow, when you wake up, you're gonna go to work with a hammer and with a sword. You're gonna use the hammer in one hand to rebuild the wall, and you use that sword to push back anybody who tries to come and attack you." Nehemiah ain't messing around. Nehemiah has showed up, and he is like, "There ain't nothing that can stop us from doing the calling and the will of God for our lives and what we have been for this moment and this time." I love Nehemiah's just grit to just not give up.

And so we're gonna jump in chapter five, and everything is perfect now. That's a joke. That's a joke. Not everything is perfect. It's gonna get a lot worse before it gets better. So Nehemiah chapter five, we're gonna start in verse one. It says this, "Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews." Uh-oh. "Some were saying, 'We and our sons and daughters are numerous. In order for us to eat and to stay alive, we must get grain. There ain't no food.' Others were saying, 'We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our homes to get grain during the famine.' Still others were saying, 'We have to borrow money to pay the king's tax on our fields and vineyards. Although we are the same flesh and blood of our fellow Jews, and although our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.’"

A little context of what's happening here in this moment in Jerusalem. There's a couple of things that are going on. We open up in this scene of chapter five, and it talks about the poverty in the province of Jerusalem and Judea and the surrounding countries. And the problem is there's two causes. The first of which is that during this time, commercial and opportunity for commerce is actually cut off with their neighbors because of the conflict that they have. So this normal trading and selling and bartering and flow of money that usually happens within a large metropolis or city center isn't happening because they don't have anybody to trade with. And then on top of that, they have been asked by Nehemiah to stop what they're doing in their craft, their business, their trade, to come help rebuild the wall. And so what happens with that? Well, if they aren't doing their job, they're not attending to their fields, they're not running their business, they're not at their shop, they're not working their trade, they don't have any income for their family. And as we read here, they're in a time of where food is scarce. And so what do they do? Well, they go to their fellow brothers and sisters, those Jews, and basically they mortgage up their possessions for food, knowing that the rebuilding wall isn't gonna last forever, and that for the short term, they can borrow money to buy food to feed their families, and they'll get by, and then on the back end, when they start their businesses back up, they'll get the money to repay back those who have been generous with them. So their houses, their land, their orchard, and even their family are being put on sale to be able to just pay taxes to the Persian empire and to buy food.

This was not a good situation. By this point, when we hear this, that people are coming to Nehemiah, it's gotten real, real bad. So Nehemiah realizes he's gotta do something about this. So he continues on, verse six. "When I heard their outcry and these charges, "I was very angry. "I pondered them on my mind "and then accused the nobles and officials. "I told them, you are charging your own people interests." See, what happened in this time is that the more wealthy, the more well-off people in this situation were basically giving out loans to those who couldn't pay or have money for food and their taxes. And this was a good thing. These people are taking up of their own life and putting on paws and rebuilding the wall. And so this charity that's happening is great. This is what God wants. When we're in situations where we face hard times with one another in our family, God calls of us to help each other out. Sometimes that means throwing some Benjamins out there and saying, "Hey, I got you on this one. "Don't worry about it. "It's gonna be okay." But the problem is, is they're charging interest on these loans. You may think, well, what's wrong with that? Like that's life. That's part of how business and commerce works. Well, actually, charging interest on loans against a fellow brother and sister, a Jew, was actually against the Jewish law. It says in Deuteronomy 23:19, "Do not charge a fellow Israelite interest, "whether on money or food or anything else "that may earn interest." Nehemiah didn't have a problem with people helping each other out and saying, "Hey, here you go. "I got you. "We're gonna rebuild this wall. "We're gonna get it taken care of "and we're gonna get our city back up and running." The problem was where they were charging interest to their fellow brother or sister, that they own family. They were burdening them on top of the burden that they were already facing.

And Nehemiah is outraged. He's furious. And he goes, "This is just another example "of how far Israel was lost coming back after the exile." But there's this greed in here, this greed for these wealthy Jews that were leveraging the less financially stable brothers and sisters for their own personal gain. Which if you really think about it, these people are just trying to rebuild the wall for the city that everybody lives in, where everybody has their business, where everybody has their families. And these people are charging exuberant interest to the point of basically going, "Okay, if I take my oldest, Adeline, "and I go, 'Okay, Addi, "'Dad and the family needs food for dinner. "'You're gonna go work for Mr. Smith today "'and do whatever and clean his house "'and do his dry cleaning and run errands "'and do his grocery shopping and go pick up Uber "'and get in his food and bring into his lunch.'" Like basically going, "Mr. Smith, I need 20 bucks. "Here's my daughter. "And I hope in the end I can take my money "that I've earned on the backside "and buy my daughter back." Like this is what's happening. And Nehemiah is just so frustrated. He's like, "Are you kidding me? "Why are you letting this happen?”

Verse seven, "So he called together a large meeting to deal with them. And he said, 'As far as possible, we have brought back our fellow Jews who were sold to the Gentiles, original captivity. Now you are selling your own people only for them to be sold back to us.' They kept quiet because they could find nothing to say. So I continued, 'What you're doing is not right. Shouldn't you walk in fear of our God and avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? I and my brothers and my men were also leading the people money and grain. But let us stop charging interests. Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves, houses, and also the interest that you are charging, one percent of the money, grain, and new wine and olive oil.' They say, 'We will give it back,' they said. ‘And we will not demand anything more from them. "We will do as you say.’”

So Nehemiah gathers them all up and is like, "All right, we're gonna have a little "come to Jesus moment here right now." And he calls them on the carpet. He's like, "What are you guys doing? "Are you for real right now?" That's my loose translation. Knock it off! What are you doing? He's like, "We've gone through this time "where we ourselves were in captivity, "and we've done everything we can to bring back "as many as we know about to come back to Jerusalem. "And then just to turn around "and you do the exact same thing that you hated before "that the Babylonians and the Persians did to you, "you're now doing it not to just other people, "but your own family. "Stop it! "Why? "Why do you even think this is okay?" And he's like, "I get that people would do that around us, "like our enemies, the other pagan gods "and cultures around us, they don't know any better. "They just do that because they think that's what life is. "You guys know better! "You guys know that you shouldn't be acting like this. "You are the people of God for criminy's sake, come on!" I think Nehemiah used some choice words here that probably aren't appropriate for livestream. And what happens? They ain't got nothing to say, why? 'Cause they know. You ready to call somebody out for something? And they just sit there in silence? They know! They know exactly what they've done, they know exactly how they've treated their brothers and sisters, their fellow Jew. This isn't any surprise to them. And so thankfully they admit what they've done and they're like, "We're gonna do everything we can "to make it right. "We're gonna give it back, we're gonna bring back the, "like give 'em back the interest, "and we're gonna give 'em 1% on top of all that "for all the trouble."

Nehemiah continues on, verse 12. "Then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do what they had promised.” Nehemiah ain't messing around. He's not like, "Oh, well yeah, we'll do it." And he's like, "Okay, cool, have a good day." He's like, "No, no, no, no, no. "We're gonna bring in the officials here. "We're gonna make this real." He said, "I also shook out the folds of my robe "and said, 'In the same way, God, shake out of their house "'and possessions anyone who does not keep this promise.'" Woo! "So may such a person be shaken out and emptied. "At this, the whole assembly said, 'Amen!' "And praised the Lord. "And the people did what they had promised.”

I think it's really important to look at this chapter and this first section and to really see how you and I, as people of God and followers of Jesus Christ, are called to address and confront injustice when we see it. Unfortunately, we live in a world where this is sometimes polarizing in the church. And that really breaks my heart because this shouldn't be something that's polarizing in the church, right? This should be something that we see in the light in which God sees it himself. God is a just God. And I'm not going down the path here of politics or critical race theory. I'm not going down that road. What I am going down is a biblical road. When we look at scripture, we see how God sees injustice in our world. And we live in a world where there is injustice. There's injustice against the unborn. There's immigration injustice. There's injustice against women. There's racial injustice. And we live in a broken world. Probably didn't think I was going somewhere like this this morning, but here we are. And when we look at this word, just, it actually has its roots in the word critique. And really what here we're focusing on is that the word of God should adjust our lives correctly, rightly in the way that God desires for all humans to live and to act and to care for one another. To be this idea of shalom or peace in a chaotic, broken, selfish world. To be as Christ followers, we are called to reflect the imago Dei or the image of God in which we are created to the world around us, to reflect Christ to those around us. And if so, if God is a just God, then our actions, our behaviors, and how we treat one another should be just as well. Justice really means using the word of God, his word for us, to make right decisions, to make righteous decisions, to make truthful decisions, to be God honoring, to be reflecting of who God is and what he desires for us. So when Nehemiah hears of what is happening with his people, he cannot even believe it. He can't even realize what's going on and he gets so angry. And I think sometimes we have this thought process in our mind that when we hear of injustice, if we just get angry about it, then we've checked the box. Or maybe we make a social media post and say, "This is not right." And we go, "Okay, did my injustice work for the day, God? "Thank you." But I think there's more to it. And I'm not saying that doing that stuff is bad. I think that's a good, maybe a starting place or what God is asking or calling of you to do.

But I think there's so much more here that we see from Nehemiah that applies to our lives. The problem is that this isn't just limited to us today. When we read the Bible, even from the first book in Genesis, we see of injustice happening immediately after the fall. Why? Because we're selfish people. We're sinful people. We like to be God ourselves. We wanna be in charge, we wanna be in control. We want what we want. And so in that naturally happens the putting down of others because we think higher of ourselves. And honestly, when people are selfish and there's an opportunity for money, this gets cranked up to the max. It's the downfall of society since the beginning. And this is just the natural bent when we have someone who lives their life apart from Jesus, apart from the Holy Spirit. It's just the natural flow in which we go. But God expects us to live different, right? God expects us to treat one another in a different way because of who he is. And this isn't a political thing. This isn't because we find ourselves in this season right now, but the reality of when Nehemiah hears injustice, he knows that he has to move. Nehemiah hears the cry of the people and is moved. He can't sit back. He can't just let this go on. He can't just turn a blind eye. He realizes he has to act. And he moves in boldness. He doesn't just go, "Oh, you know, I'll give another week." It'll probably clear itself up in six months or so. If I just ignore it, it'll just correct its own path. Like, right? It'll be all right. Nehemiah, no. He realizes he has to do, so what does he do? He calls everybody together. He groups them up, says, "Stop it. "This is not how we care for one another. "This is not how we share the love "that God has shared with us, with each other. "How could we be doing this?"

And you think, "Well, you know what? "Nehemiah's in charge. "He's the boss. "It's not that hard." Have you read chapter four? Nehemiah has outside people coming at him, and now he's got inside people coming back at each other. Nehemiah can't walk through the city without somebody probably giving him an ugly glare. He's probably not the most popular person in town right now. Nehemiah is having it come at him from all sides, and yet what? He still moves in boldness. He says, "I don't care what other people think of me. "I don't care what others may do to me. "I don't care what the repercussions of this "is going to be when there is injustice. "I have to move." Nehemiah realizes that he is going to have to lead by example. He can't just sit and watch and let this happen. He has to act.

Verse 14, "Moreover, in the 20th year of King Arxerxes, when I was appointed to be the governor of the land of Judah until his 32nd year, 12 years in total, neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. But the earlier governors who preceded me placed a heavy burden on the people and took 40 shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people, but out of reverence for God, I did not act like that. Instead, I devoted myself to the work on this wall. All my men were assembled here for the work. We did not acquire any land. Furthermore, 150 Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from surrounding nations. Each day, guys, catch this, "Each day, an ox, six choice sheep, and some poultry "were prepared for me, and every 10 days, an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all of this, I never demanded the food allotted to the governor because the demands were already heavy on these people.”

Nehemiah leads by example. This wasn't a singular moment in the history of Nehemiah and his leadership reign that he just moved. It was a situation where it started way back when he became first governor, 12 years earlier. He made a choice to honor God above honoring himself. And I think for us, this is the example for our lives, that consistent behavior outshines a single moment or decision. For Nehemiah, it meant the past 12 years, he led different than the previous governors. He did not take and act in the same way that he had done by adding extra taxes, taking food allotments from the people, land seizure, or anything in the like. But not only that, even the nobles and political officials underneath him didn't do that as well, which was the usual day of culture. Nobody would have judged Nehemiah if he had acted in that way. Previous governors had done it, previous governors before them had done it, the officials underneath them had done it, everybody had taken their extra piece along the way and padded their pockets. But when Nehemiah showed up to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall, he knew his behavior needed to be different. He knew his behavior needed to lead in a way that was not like usual, in a way that was honoring God, not necessarily for the sake of the people, but out of reverence to his heavenly father. Nehemiah wasn't out here thinking, okay, well, I gotta build a wall and I need a lot of people, so if I just don't take from them, maybe they're gonna be more inclined to pick up a hammer and help out. No, Nehemiah made this choice himself to say, I'm going to honor God above anything else. And even though he could take and have personal gain and to have wealth and to build up what he wanted, he said, no, I'm not gonna do that and everybody underneath me will neither do that. We're gonna lead with integrity, we're gonna lead with honor and we're gonna lead with respect as a witness to God. I hear this sometimes and it kind of makes me chuckle because of it being overused in the church sometime, but Nehemiah had an audience of one and that was God. Nehemiah didn't care about anybody else, their approval, their popularity, their money, their wealth, whatever. Nehemiah cared about honoring God.

And not only that, every day Nehemiah opened up his home. Now I don't know how big this dude's house was, but if you're hosting 150 people every single day, you probably have a pretty good getup. But every day he fed 150 people, whether it was those working on the walls, it was the people in town, it was people that were using Jerusalem as a travel waypoint to get to the Persian capital city and the empire, whatever it was, every single day he fed 150 people with an ox, it's a big old cow, that's a lot of meat, six sheep, and not just the leftover sheep, the choice sheep, the best of the best, and birds. I don't know how many birds, but I think you probably need a few birds plus the ox, plus the sheep to feed all of those people. And even with all of that, providing that every single day, Nehemiah never took a dime extra for anybody in the city. It's quite an example. If you ask me, that's quite a witness of consistent behavior outshining a single moment or the decision. You might've heard that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. The relational equity that Nehemiah had built up after 12 years of daily inviting people in, of showing up at the wall, of putting himself on the line, he wasn't a supervisor. Nehemiah didn't wander the walls with a clipboard and an orange helmet. He was there working with a hammer and a sword right beside his brothers and sisters, rebuilding that wall. And yet he continued to serve them, to love them, to care for them. So when he hears of injustice, he realizes he has to move.

And what's his motive? It says in verse 19, "Remember me with favor, my God, for all I have done for these people." Nehemiah's boldness to step up, to take everything head on, and to address this economical injustice is a powerful example for us. It's a powerful example for you and for me and how God has called us to live our lives today. For how we see injustice in so many forms in our life today, and we too are called to respond. We are called to act just like Nehemiah did. And for Nehemiah, it was a daily consistent act of generosity in the way that he treated his fellow Israelites and anybody who traveled through the city. It was in small ways that he shared with them. It was in not taking extra that was even allotted to him, but in turn to give witness to God. It was through his living in lockstep with scripture that showed the people around him who was God.

So what about us? This past Wednesday, we started a study on generosity. I didn't mean for these to line up here, but here they are lined up. And we learned in our study that 25% of the teaching that Jesus gave here on earth was about money and possessions. That would mean if we followed in lockstep, every fourth sermon, you'd hear me talking about money. I don't know how many of you would last. You'd be like, I'm going to the church down the street. See ya. But this is pretty powerful if you think about this for a moment. That Jesus saw and thought of it to be that important that 25% of the time, he's talking about money and possessions. Why? Because he says this in Matthew 6, 22 and 23, which I think puts us all in perspective. Jesus says, "The eye is the lamp of the body. "If your eyes are unhealthy, "your whole body will be full of light. "But if your eyes are unhealthy, "your whole body will be full of darkness. "If then the light within you is darkness, "how great is that darkness." What does Jesus mean by this? Well, he means this. There was a Jewish understanding that the eye of the body was your perspective. And if you had an healthy eye, you had a healthy, good, right perspective on life. And if you were to say, "Oh, that guy has an unhealthy eye." That would mean that that person does not have a biblical, sound, healthy, righteous view on life. And so Nehemiah was a man who had a healthy eye. He had a healthy perspective and an understanding on what it meant to live life to honor God, to address injustice when he saw it and act boldly in the leading of God. But it started with him. I think sometimes we see justice in this world and we just think those people need to change. We see something and go, "Well, they're the one with the problem.”

But it starts with you and me. It starts with us. The people of Jerusalem were acting different than the surrounding nations in no way. Nehemiah says, "You're nothing different "than the people that we call our enemies "treat each other around us." How are we to live like this? The calling of generosity that God set in Jerusalem was for them to loan money, which was good without interest or extra stipulations to solely lend a helping hand to those who were working towards the rebuilding process in their efforts. Where they went wrong was when they were treating those with which they had loaned that money to, to power over them, to lord over them, to control them, to take extra from them. Sometimes I think the biggest obstacles to community is ourselves. The biggest thing that gets in the way from God moving in a group of people is themselves. And our willingness to own up our mistakes and to repent, to ask for forgiveness and take the necessary actions to correct it. When confronted by Nehemiah, the nobles and officials admit to their wrongdoings and agreed to restore what had been taken. I think this illustration shows, improves the importance of restitution and restorate, restorating, restoring, sorry, broken relationships to foster unity. Unfortunately, recent studies have shown that the church isn't a very loving and trusting place anymore. Now I think you might go, well, they didn't interview our church.

But I think the reality is that the world looks at the church and goes, you're no different than us. Just like the surrounding nations looked at Pete, the Israelites in Jerusalem and said, you're no different than us. But God says we're called to live in a different way. They're called to be witnesses. And you and I are called to be witnesses. Not only in this, our family inside these four walls, but outside these as well. Where people drive by every day at this stop sign and look at that church, what do they say? Do they say they got a jokester who puts jokes on the corner? Do they say that that's a caring, loving place? Do they say those people are a bunch of greedy haters? Would they think of coming through those doors when life hits them hard? To think that they would find something different than the world had promised them where they find emptiness. Would they find hope, encouragement, joy in this place? I hope so. That's my heart, that's my prayer. Pastor Andre talked about this all the time going, how can we become the greatest example and witness of Jesus at the corner of Sunset and Fairway? How can we do that? We too are called to live and act in this same way because our credibility comes in the consistency of the small things. To be a witness in our generosity, the way that we treat our fellow brothers and sisters both inside and outside of the church, to give to the poor, to the needy, to the hurting, to the lost, it starts with us. It starts with you and me having a consistent daily heart of generosity, living out and looking for ways in which we can care for others even when they don't deserve it. 'Cause what happened? Jesus came and gave of himself to death on the cross when we weren't deserving. That's the ultimate example of grace and mercy and love. And we want no love without Jesus on the cross. It says in Micah that we are called to act justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly before God just like Nehemiah did. So a couple questions as we close this morning. How is God calling you to a more consistently generous life? I think it starts opening our hands and living our life with what God has given us. And to say, Jesus is yours. You've blessed me with it. How do you want me to use it? And then the other question, where do you need to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before God this week? I mean, we all can get better at this. I'll be the first to raise my hand and say I need to be better at this. I got this on the schedule in this chapter. I was reading through it. I'm like, okay, cool, Nehemiah. And I started digging in deep and I'm like, oh, I don't wanna teach this guy. I don't wanna be the bearer of bad news. I wanna be the funny guy. But I think for us, it's to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before God every single day. To walk in lockstep with the Holy Spirit guiding our lives. And he will let us know how to move in boldness. I don't have time to get into the weeds of how we address injustice in our world, in our life today.

But when I look at Nehemiah's example of how he lived it out every single day for 12 years, I think that's where you start. And then when God says you need to move, you need to act, you need to step up, you've already practiced it for years on the daily. That'll be a natural movement. It's not gonna be awkward. It's not gonna be strange. It's not gonna be scary. You're gonna be, I'm just moving the way that God is asking me to move. How will we be generous today, tomorrow, and every day until we see Jesus?

Let's pray. Jesus, thank you so much for your word. God, thank you for your servant, Nehemiah. Jesus, that he moved in boldness. He stepped up and addressed the injustice. But it didn't happen in just a moment. It was a lifelong habit, a lifelong rhythm that he had built in for 12 years to act differently, to not take what he could have taken, to not lord over the people of Israel, but to walk humbly with you, God, his audience of one. So God, I pray for us today that we would trust you. We would listen for the prompting of the Holy Spirit in our lives to move. We would listen for the prompting of the Holy Spirit in our lives to move how you want us to move, to act how you want us to act, and to be generous, God, with everything that we have been given. Jesus, give us a healthy eye of the world around us and how we are to treat one another who are all created in the image of you, God. We love you, Jesus. Amen.

Nehemiah - Chapter 4

Nehemiah - Chapter 4: Opposition to the Rebuilding

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are in our Nehemiah series. So if you are here live streaming or you're listening later, welcome. Sorry you're going to miss out on the food, but we are diving into chapter four. So the first week, Pastor Chris talks about Nehemiah kind of set us up for the whole story and talks about prayer and what that looked like in Nehemiah's life and how he constantly turned to prayer first. And then in week two, Pastor Andre talked about being put in places of influence and how we can leverage those positions, whether it's at work or it's in our homes or even just our position in relationship with God and what that looks like to pray for other people and to leverage that relationship. And then week three, we talked about unity within the group, how the Jews had to come together and be unified and they had a common purpose of rebuilding the wall. And they were unified in that despite their differences, their different statuses, their different positions, their different jobs, they all had different skills. And so they came together and were unified in that. Well today, they are going to come up, we're going to see in chapter four, that they're going to come up against some more opposition. And we're going to talk about what it looks like when we come up against roadblocks and opposition and discouragement. So that's our main focus today. I realized as I was reading through this, I say the word discourage or discouragement a lot today. So if someone wants to keep a running tally, you know, if you're bored, you can just tally up and let me know how many times I say it, because it's probably going to be a lot today. But I think that there's a lot of truth in Nehemiah that we can draw from, that we see how he responds to it, how he encourages the people and how we can respond to it in our own lives.

So we're going to just start off in Nehemiah four. So if you want to turn there or scroll on your phones, it'll be up on the screens as well. But we're going to just start right at verse one. When Sambalat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews. And in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, "What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble, burned as they are?" Tobiah, the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, "What are they building? Even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones. Hear us, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders." So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their hearts. We were introduced to Sambalat and Tobiah in chapter 2, and they were from a nearby country and they had some feelings about this wall being rebuilt. They did not want it to happen. When the wall had been destroyed and the Jews were in captivity, the remnant that was there were pretty easily manipulated, and the idea of this nation becoming strong again threatened the way of life of these other surrounding nations. And so they did not want it to come to fruition. They did not want this plan to work out. So they started off of just dissenting to the idea, and then they turned to ridicule and criticism. They thought, "If we can discourage them enough, maybe they'll quit. Maybe they'll give up on this project." And we see here in verse 4, "Nehemiah didn't even give them the time of day." He did not engage at all. He went immediately to God. As he has done, as we've seen in earlier chapters, he's done in the past. He immediately goes to God in prayer. One commentary I read said he didn't debate. He didn't form a committee.

How many times have we done that? Try to get everybody else on our side, right? He didn't form a committee. He didn't even deal with the two enemies directly. He took it to God in prayer. See, he knew God was in on this project. It was God's idea. It was God's plan. So when he prayed for God to intervene, he said, "God, fight this battle for us. Come against our enemies." Some may even be shocked by some of the words that Nehemiah was using. He said things like, "Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity." That may seem a little shocking or aggressive, but it wasn't about revenge. It was about justice. Nehemiah was asking God to be God. He was asking God to be who he said he is. God is just. God is righteous. And he's saying, "God, be those things. Be who you are and go fight for us." God had this plan. So when the enemies were coming against the people of God, they were coming against God. So he had a reason to push back, which is why Nehemiah prayed the way that he did. And then in verse six, we see that the people just kept working. They kept their heads down and they kept working. Their work was not without problems. They came up against issues, roadblocks, problems within their own community. But we see right off the bat here that the was trying to discourage them.

And the enemy of our souls in our lives discourages, distorts, and distracts. He discourages with words, with circumstances, with trying times that we're going through, maybe even with other people in our lives, he discourages. And then he distorts the truth. He takes maybe kernels of truth and he twists it. He distorts it. And then he distracts us, whether that's through other things in our lives. Maybe it's through our phones. Maybe it's through, again, the circumstances we're going through. Maybe it's through just the discouragement itself. That's distracting enough as it is. If you look at the specific insults and criticism that Sambalat and Tobiah were giving, they were attacking them on multiple fronts with their words. They were talking about their ability. Can they even do this? The integrity, their skill, perseverance. Are they going to be able to even complete this wall? A fox will knock it down. They were trying to hit any and all insecurities and weaknesses that they could. And if you think about it, some of the things they were saying actually started in truth. They weren't all skilled in building a wall. They were kind of making it up as they went along and praying that the Lord just made it sturdy. But they had God on their side, so it didn't matter their skill level. So while maybe there was some truth in there, they twisted it just enough to distort what was actually true. When we are discouraged, when other people's words or our circumstances have even a kernel of truth, we're tempted to believe them. We're tempted to take that on as real and as truth in our own lives. Satan loves partial truths and to twist things around just to make them just enough that they're not true. Listening to these half-truths and these distortions can cause us to neglect the actual truth that God is with us. He's with us in our circumstances. He's with us in our trials and in our discouragement.

Deuteronomy 3:1 says, "He will never leave us or forsake us." So if we start to believe the lie that He's not in it with us, we know immediately that that is not a lie because it goes against what His Word says. Something else that I think Nehemiah knew and that we should consider is who's this criticism coming from? The people that were criticizing them were not allies, they were not friends, they were not trying to be helpful. When we come up against criticism and ridicule in our own lives, even from ourselves sometimes, we can ask ourselves, "Do we trust that person? Does that person trust God? Does that person have our best interests in mind?" Now, there is a time and a place where we need to be open and receive criticism and maybe course correct as needed. But we have to consider the source first. We have to think about who it is that is bringing this criticism so that we don't forget that it is actually God who equips us. It is God who's giving us what we need to do, what we need in order to do what He has called us to do. So instead of engaging with them or being distracted by it or believing these half-truths, Nehemiah prayed to God and he got back to work. Essentially, he was saying, "You have your opinion, but you just watch what my God can do." So we have discouragement. We have the truth distorted. We have distractions.

But the counteract to that is that we live differently when we live by faith. We can combat the discouragement and the enemy's tactics when we are living by faith. We will just behave differently when we live by faith versus living out of a place of discouragement. Ultimately, when we are operating from a place of discouragement, we become ineffective. We become ineffective in our Christian life. We become ineffective for the building of the kingdom. We are no longer pointing people to Jesus. It is no wonder that our enemy, our spiritual enemy, uses discouragement time and time and time again because it's an effective tactic. I mean, honestly, discouragement can lead to just apathy because you're just frustrated and tired of it. It can lead to stronger things like depression or just tapping out and saying, "I can't do this anymore," whatever this thing is. Satan's tactic of discouragement is to inhibit the Christian from working with all their heart like it said in verse 6. God didn't answer Nehemiah's prayer the way Nehemiah prayed it. Nehemiah had some strong words and some strong suggestions for God. And God didn't answer it that way, but what he did do is he gave the people a mind to work. He had them working with their whole heart. He gave them intention and focus. He gave them the ability to combat the discouragement by getting to work, by doing what he had already called them to do.

Deuteronomy 6:5 says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all of your strength." When we live in discouragement, when we just sit in it, we become divided in our own hearts. We may want to serve God, we may want to live for him, but we're so stuck in our discouragement that it divides our attention and we become ineffective. God helped the people work with their whole hearts, and he can do the same for us. Just like the enemy was hitting them on all sides with their verbal attacks and their ridicule, Satan loves to hit us on all sides. He knows our weaknesses, he knows where we're vulnerable, and he will exploit that. But when we trust God and we operate out of faith in him, we can combat the discouragement. So we see how the enemy, both in our story and in our own lives, uses discouragement. But when that stopped working, and they saw that it wasn't going to be effective, things started escalating.

So we're going to look in verse 7 here. But when Sambalat and Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the people of Ashtod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem's walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat. Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, "The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall." Also, our enemies said, "Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and we'll kill them and put an end to the work." Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, "Wherever you turn, they will attack us." So there's almost like a lot of dialogue happening here. Sambalat and Tobiah go from mockery to threatening, and they rally their people and the other nations and they make plots and threats against the people. Then you have the people of Judah who, they're doing the work and they're tired. They're saying, "There's too much going on. We're just exhausted." And then you have the other Jews who live close to the other countries, the other enemy lines that have heard these plans, and they're coming to Nehemiah and they're coming to the leader saying, "They're going to attack us on every side." You can hear the panic in their voice. It says they said it ten times over. "They're going to attack. They're going to attack. It's going to happen." Fear can be paralyzing. The threat alone were making the people afraid and it could have kept them from working. So now we have the enemy of the people making threats. We have the Jews getting tired and discouraged, and we have other Jews just panicking. Here's the thing though, nothing actually happened. There was no attack. It was just the threat of attack. How many times do we let our thoughts spiral out of control? We think about what could be, what might happen. How many of us, don't raise your hand, how many of us play out future conversations or scenarios? And we think, "Well, if they say this, I'm going to say this." We plan. Anxiety and spiraling thoughts are another really effective tactic of the enemy because it makes us ineffective. It keeps us from doing the work we've been called to do.

We talked about how the enemy discourages, distorts, and distracts, but he also, or he does this, he discourages us through fear, fatigue, and failure. Let me some alliteration. Fear, fatigue, and failure. The enemies used fear, threats. They didn't actually attack, they were just threatening it. But the fear was enough, the panic set in. The enemy uses fatigue. I don't know how many times people ask me, "How are you doing?" "Good, I'm just tired." Right? We're all tired, whether it's because of our life or our circumstances or the state of the world or whatever, we're just tired. And failure, even just the sense that we might fail or the fear of failure, he can use that too. And once he uses those things to tear us down and weaken us, he attacks us in our weakened state. It puts us in a really vulnerable place. So, we've got a half of a built wall, which means they're not fully protected yet. There were gaps in it, it wasn't tall enough yet. We have tired workers and panic and discouraged people. Being halfway done with the project might sound good, but they knew how much more work they still had to do on top of already being tired from the work that they did. Again, that can lead to being stuck, to quitting, just throwing in the towel. Can lead to the spiraling thoughts, the fear of failing, and so then we just do, we give up. So the thing is here, the Israelites had a lot to be fearful and tired about. They had enemies threatening attack. They had a lot of work behind and ahead of them. If you look at verse 10, the people from Judah were saying there was so much rubble that we can't rebuild the wall. It was taxing and it was hard work, but it had to be done. The rubble from the previous wall had to be removed before they could start building the actual wall, the new wall. The same thing can be applied to our spiritual lives. We have to clear out the junk before the Lord can rebuild anything in our own hearts. Maybe it's a sin issue or lingering shame from your past. Maybe it's beliefs that you have deconstructed that you grew up with or were put on you, and you need the Lord to clear those out before he can rebuild in you what is true. But we have to clear that out in order to have a clear and clean foundation and a solid foundation to build from. But that was really hard work for them.

So to combat some of the fear and fatigue and the failure, we have to allow God to clean out the rubble. Building the wall, honestly, was probably more fun or at least satisfying than the cleaning out part, than the removing and clearing out all the rubble. It was painstaking work. And honestly, a lot of these people were cleaning up a mess they didn't even make. A lot of these workers were born in captivity before they came back. They were even there when the wall fell the first time. There is rubble in our own lives that we didn't put there. Someone else caused problems. Someone else caused hurt. But thankfully, we're not the ones who have to clean it out. We just have to be willing to let the Lord do it. I don't know if we have any DIYers in here, but I've been threatening to repaint our bedroom furniture for a couple years now. And then I think about all the work that I have to do before I actually get to start painting and I don't do it. Because I think, "Okay, so then I got to take all the hardware off and I got to clean out all the drawers and I got to move it somewhere where I can actually paint it. Then I got to sand it and then I got to prime it and then I probably, I might need to prime it again." And all that time waiting for it to dry in between and then I get to paint it. That does not sound fun to me. Some of y'all are like, "Yes, that is my jam. Give me a project. I want to work." That is not my thing. I want the end result. I want the final coat of paint. You give me a paintbrush for the final coat of paint, I am your girl. So I can see the end result. But it's all the work leading up to it that makes me want to quick before I even start. It's the nitty gritty. It's the painstaking slowness of the process. See the devil doesn't have to completely take us out. He doesn't need us to completely renounce God. He just needs to make us ineffective. He needs us to say, "That's too hard. I'm not going to let God do the work he needs to do in my life. That hurts too much." And often that is just simply done through discouragement. We will stay stuck in discouragement and spiraling thoughts if we don't clear out the rubble and make room for the renovation. I'm going to say that one more time. We will stay stuck in discouragement and spiraling thoughts if we don't clear out the rubble to make room for the renovation. And when you are in a state of discouragement, that sounds even harder. But it's got to be done. So let's look at what Nehemiah actually did in order to defend against the discouragement so that we are equipped as well to combat the enemy and to be ready for when discouragement comes.

We're going to jump back to verse 9 because it starts up there. It says, "But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat." So the first thing he said, a guard. Then jumping to verse 13, "Therefore, I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families with their swords, spears, and bows. After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, 'Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord who's great and awesome and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives, and your homes.' When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to our own work. From that day on, half of my men did the work while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows, and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other. And each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me. Then I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, 'The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us.' So we continued the work with half the men holding spears from the first light of dawn till the stars came out. At that time I also said to the people, 'Have every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night so they can serve as guards by night and as workers by day.' Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes. Each had his weapon, even when he went for water." So he first set a guard, the very first thing he did. Now, setting a guard didn't mean that he lacked faith that God could protect him. He took action and he prayed for God's help. He did both.

One commentator I read wrote, "Our prayers do not replace our actions. They make our actions effective for God's work." We are conduits that God can use, but we got to get up and do something when we have a job to do. He set a guard day and night. This showed their commitment to not only the work, but also to protecting their city. It sent a message to their enemy that they and God would not be thwarted. Their plan would continue. It was a faith that was full of action. He had faith in God. He prayed to him. It says he prayed and set a guard. But he protected the weak spots. He made sure those things, those people were in place. He wasn't naive to their weaknesses. He didn't ignore them. He didn't say, "Ah, it'll be fine over there." He set the people in the weak spots to make sure they were protected. We too must set a guard. We have to know our own weak spots because the enemy does too.

Proverbs 4:23 says, "Above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it." Maybe those weak spots for you are you're just tired and overwhelmed. And when you're feeling that way, you're weakened. Maybe it's a particular struggle that needs some accountability put around it. You need to bring in some other people in on it. Maybe it's a particular relationship or person that needs some, you know that that's a weak spot for you and you need to be aware of that. Ask the Lord if you don't know or aren't sure, ask him to reveal that to you so that you can set up a guard against it.

Secondly, we must be prepared. The Jews who were working had a sword at their side and the other ones had a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other. They were working, but they were ready. Commentator David Guzik wrote, "The kingdom of God is built with both a sword and a trowel, a sword to come against every spiritual force of wickedness in high places and a trowel to do the work of building up the people of God." We have a work to do as the body of Christ. As the church, we've got work to do. Not only in our own family, our own church family, but in the people out there who don't know Jesus that we come in contact with every day, we have work to do. But we also must be prepared for spiritual battle. They were armored up. In order to be prepared, they had to have their weapons. They had to be carrying their armor. They had to be ready.

Ephesians 6.10 says, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." And then Paul goes on to list how we do that. Putting on the spiritual armor means protecting our minds and our hearts. It means knowing truth and wearing it like a belt. Being ready to move when he says, "Move," and to carry his peace with us wherever we go. It's having faith that protects us like a shield, and it's knowing the word of God so fully that we can use it to attack the enemy. We put our heads down to work, and we stay on the defensive. We let God fight our battles for us, but we are not caught unprepared. So Nehemiah set a guard. He protected the weak spots.

And lastly, he remembered the greatness of God. So for us, we need to remember the character of God. He didn't want his people to forget who God said he was. He said, "We have to remember this. We have almighty God on our side." There's some power there. First John 4.4 says, "He who is in you is greater than he that is in the world." We have a real spiritual enemy, but we know the end of the story. We have God on our side. Verse 14 in our chapter today says, "Remember the Lord who is great and awesome." And then later in verse 20, it says, "Our God will fight for us." We often forget who God is. We forget how big he is, that he is good, that he is just, that he is righteous, that he loves us, that he is kind, that he will protect us and be our defender. But when we remember God's character, we are more likely to break free from the discouragement that weighs us down. We're more likely to be set free from the fear that keeps us trapped and paralyzed and to get back to operating from a place of faith and trust in him. Guys, discouragement is going to come. Fear will stop us in our tracks from time to time. The enemy of our souls will exploit our weak spots if he's given the chance. But we have Almighty God on our side. So we need to always be ready. We need to always be on our guard. We need to be clothed in our spiritual armor, and we need to be reminding ourselves over and over and over sometimes, daily, minute by minute, who God says he is, so that we can be confident in that and build our trust in him.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for who you are. We thank you that you are a big and awesome God, that you care so deeply for us, that you will fight our battles for us, and you will equip us to come against the enemy of our souls that wants to destroy us, that wants us to become ineffective, that wants us to stay in a state of discouragement. God, I pray that you will help us to dig into your word, to dig into community, to rely so heavily on you that we will not be surprised by attacks, that we will be prepared, we'll be armored up, we will be ready. God, we thank you for who you are. We thank you for the things that you have given us to equip us to do the work you have called us to do. Pray a blessing over our family today. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.