Pastor Nate continues our study through the Bible in the book of Nehemiah.
[00:00:00] Well the book of Nehemiah is often taught or thought of as a book all about leadership because Nehemiah was an incredible
[00:00:09] leader within 52 days
[00:00:12] Upon arriving in Jerusalem Nehemiah will lead the people of Israel to rebuild
[00:00:18] The walls of the city and repair the gates of the old city of Jerusalem
[00:00:23] And there are certainly incredible things to learn about leadership about courage about taking a step of faith
[00:00:29] By looking into the book of Nehemiah
[00:00:31] But what I want you to think about as we go through this book is that Nehemiah is although
[00:00:36] He's the main character of the book
[00:00:38] He's not the main figure of the book the main figure mover the one who's doing things in the book of Nehemiah is God
[00:00:47] So many of the books of the Bible are about the Lord what the Lord is doing how God feels what God thinks what God is
[00:00:55] Pursuing and this is no different in the book of Nehemiah. We get to learn about God
[00:01:00] God of course, we know loves his people all the way back in the book of Genesis
[00:01:06] God called a man named Abraham to leave a place called Ur of the Caldees
[00:01:11] And in faith believe that if he left and went to the land that God showed him that God would give his
[00:01:18] offspring
[00:01:19] Not just a land but that they become a nation that would be a blessing to the whole world
[00:01:25] Abraham believed that promise of God and he left Ur of the Caldees and
[00:01:29] He pursued God's best and plan and will for his life and after the people of Israel grew to
[00:01:36] numerous multitude of two to three million people in
[00:01:41] Slavery in Egypt God rescued them from their slavery through the book of Exodus the actions of the Exodus and brought them
[00:01:49] into the promised land
[00:01:51] But after that point once they were established in the land though God made a covenant with the people of Israel the people of Israel
[00:01:59] Struggled to be obedient to the covenant that God had given to them. They were meant to be a light to the nations
[00:02:08] They were meant to be a nation for the nations
[00:02:11] They were meant to broadcast the glory of God to the world around them
[00:02:17] God had said to Abraham through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed
[00:02:24] But because of their disobedience their light was dimmed and the nations could not see
[00:02:30] God's glory now God had said in his covenant that if they persisted in long-term
[00:02:36] Rebellion against him he would be forced to do something that the Bible calls his
[00:02:41] unnatural or his strange work
[00:02:43] He would be forced to discipline them forced to judge them and eventually after
[00:02:49] 500 years nearly of
[00:02:51] Resistance to God in his word resistance to God's prophets and messengers
[00:02:56] God's judgment came upon the people of Israel in the form of King Nebuchadnezzar
[00:03:02] Who brought especially the southern kingdom into captivity in Babylon God said for 70 years
[00:03:10] You will live in exile in Babylon
[00:03:13] But God also predicted that a king named Cyrus would arrive arise after
[00:03:20] Nebuchadnezzar who would commission Israel to go back into
[00:03:25] Jerusalem and Israel to rebuild God's holy city and just as God had said Cyrus by the time of Nehemiah
[00:03:33] Had a reason he commissioned the return of God's people in the rebuilding of God's temple
[00:03:39] But though the people of Israel tried here and there to rebuild the city and not just the temple
[00:03:46] They never truly rebuilt the city as we learn in our text here this morning
[00:03:52] Threats from enemies and letters from foreign kings stop them time and time again
[00:03:57] Dead in their tracks and rather than courageously push
[00:04:01] Through the difficulties to get the clear will of God done the Israelites settled
[00:04:08] It settled for a meager temple inside of a broken down city on a hill the city
[00:04:16] Jerusalem that was meant to be a lighthouse
[00:04:21] Penetrating the darkness with God's glory was reduced
[00:04:26] To a crumbled and uninhabitable wasteland
[00:04:30] some people could have even looked at
[00:04:33] Jerusalem and come to false conclusions about
[00:04:38] Jerusalem's God that God was also weak and
[00:04:43] Unable to thrive in those modern times
[00:04:46] So God began doing what God does
[00:04:50] He started renewing his people and what we just read here in Nehemiah chapter 1 is the beginning of that work
[00:04:57] Stirring up the heart of Nehemiah so that Nehemiah could be used by God to renew the people of God
[00:05:04] So that they could get after the work that he had called them to do and this is always
[00:05:10] God's work. God is always interested in renewing building strengthening his people in the
[00:05:17] Book of Matthew in the New Testament
[00:05:20] There's an episode where Jesus is walking with his disciples in Caesarea Philippi
[00:05:25] Maybe even near some of the idols of that territory and he asks the question
[00:05:29] Who do people say that I am and they give some answers and then they say who do you say that?
[00:05:33] I am and Peter said you're the Christ the son of the living God
[00:05:37] but Jesus in response to Peter and all the disciples announced to Peter and the disciples that he
[00:05:44] Would build his church and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it
[00:05:50] That in a sense is what the book of Nehemiah is about
[00:05:53] God
[00:05:54] Building his church Old Testament Israel people of God, but God
[00:06:00] Building his church because guess what they needed to be built
[00:06:05] They needed to be strengthened
[00:06:07] They needed to be renewed and God would be the one doing that renewing
[00:06:12] You see this is an important work that God is gonna do here in the book of Nehemiah
[00:06:16] And it's an important work that God will do in our lives today
[00:06:20] When they lived without gates and walls in their capital city
[00:06:25] They were not what God meant for them to be
[00:06:29] They weren't the city and the people that broadcast God's glory to the world
[00:06:34] And so God dealt with them and in a similar way when God's church and
[00:06:39] God's people are not what we are meant to be God's glory is not broadcast into the world as it should be
[00:06:46] So God works hard like he has in every generation to renew his people and the book of Nehemiah is gonna show us
[00:06:52] How or some of the ways that God accomplishes that renewing work before I move forward
[00:06:58] I just want to ask the question how many of you today might feel a little bit of a need for renewal in your own life
[00:07:06] I mean these last couple of years have been super easy, right?
[00:07:11] Just a blessing. You know, they've been they've been a challenge. They've been difficult
[00:07:15] even if you haven't been directly
[00:07:18] impacted like so many
[00:07:20] Millions of people have been directly impacted by these last couple of years
[00:07:24] Even if your life has just kind of gone along fairly normally
[00:07:28] It's still kind of like driving with the emergency brake on or living life with this background migraine headache
[00:07:34] You can't shake the division and change and shifting that has occurred
[00:07:41] We might not even be able to put our finger on what's wrong
[00:07:44] But we know that we could use God's renewal
[00:07:48] And I'm convinced that the church Jesus is church
[00:07:53] That we're in need of renewal as well
[00:07:56] You know individually we might need that renewal
[00:07:59] But I think as we come together to form God's church. We need renewal together
[00:08:05] Corporately, I believe God wants to take us as a church family into a year of renewal
[00:08:14] a renewal of understanding that only his presence and his purpose nothing more can satisfy us that we need God
[00:08:23] So I'm really excited about getting into the book of Nehemiah together to talk to you about how God
[00:08:29] Renews his people now in this first chapter the way I wanted to say is that God
[00:08:34] Renews his people by revealing his burden to us. He reveals his burden to us
[00:08:39] He shares his perspective the way he sees things with his people. It's kind of the start of
[00:08:47] Experiencing that renewal with the Lord
[00:08:49] You see the first thing that God does in this passage or in this book is he reveals to Nehemiah a gap between what is and a gap
[00:08:57] Between what is and what could be I think God does that he'll he'll reveal that gap in our lives
[00:09:05] Nehemiah starts the story those first few verses by giving us a time stamp. We're in
[00:09:12] December likely or late November the winter month of Kizlev
[00:09:17] We're in the 20th year. He tells us that means it's the 20th year that King Art Exerxes was the king at that time
[00:09:24] And Nehemiah was with Art Exerxes in his winter palace in a place called Sousa
[00:09:32] And what this means is that this book that is all about God
[00:09:37] Rebuilding Jerusalem and renewing Jerusalem's people it starts a thousand miles away from Jerusalem
[00:09:45] You see sometimes God is doing a work that he has a destination
[00:09:50] He has a purpose, but he's got to start far away many steps away in
[00:09:55] Order for his ultimate will and purposes to be accomplished
[00:09:59] Nehemiah was far from Jerusalem living in and serving the Persian Empire
[00:10:04] In the book he will become the governor of Jerusalem
[00:10:09] But the story starts with Nehemiah as the cup bearer to a persian king in a land far far away
[00:10:18] And while he was there far away from Jerusalem one day
[00:10:22] Nehemiah's brother this guy named Hanani or Hanani
[00:10:27] He shows up
[00:10:28] With some men from Judah. That's where Jerusalem was
[00:10:32] And Nehemiah asked them about the remnant of Israelites in the land and he asked them about the condition of Jerusalem
[00:10:39] I want you to note that he asked the question so often God
[00:10:44] depositing his burden his vision his insight
[00:10:47] Him showing us how he sees things that begins with us
[00:10:51] sincerely
[00:10:54] In a spirit led way asking the question
[00:10:58] What's reality?
[00:10:59] God, what do you see?
[00:11:01] Where are things actually at?
[00:11:04] And Hananiah's reply broke Nehemiah's heart
[00:11:08] He said in verse three the remnant there in the province
[00:11:11] Who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame
[00:11:14] The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire
[00:11:20] There's no sugar coating
[00:11:22] this
[00:11:24] Answer it's it's not good. It's terrible. It's it's a worst case scenario
[00:11:29] But Nehemiah is hit with the truth in this moment
[00:11:33] And I believe this whole encounter even Nehemiah's question Hanani coming from Judah
[00:11:38] The interaction the question I think there were all an outworking of God's providence. God was in control. God
[00:11:45] brought Hananiah to Nehemiah
[00:11:48] God stirred Nehemiah to ask this question
[00:11:52] God had an appointment for these two brothers together
[00:11:55] God worked in Nehemiah care and concern for the city and for the people
[00:12:02] And for God to renew us
[00:12:04] We have to see the need for renewal amen
[00:12:07] I mean
[00:12:08] God designs
[00:12:11] Because of this ways
[00:12:13] To share his burden with us and to show us what he sees
[00:12:17] And with Hananiah's reply Nehemiah was hit with the truth the glorious city of Jerusalem
[00:12:23] A city that he'd read about in the bible in the Hebrew scriptures
[00:12:28] A city that he day dreamed about well in a foreign land
[00:12:32] It was nothing but rubble and ruin
[00:12:35] And the people the people there the people who could do something about it. They were doing nothing about it
[00:12:42] The city that david captured and that's Solomon
[00:12:47] Built in a full glory
[00:12:49] It's just an ash heap of crushed dreams
[00:12:53] And God was showing it to Nehemiah that day
[00:12:56] You guys it's good
[00:12:58] Gracious of God to reveal the gap between what could be and what is at times
[00:13:05] Think about it like this
[00:13:07] A doctor will at times
[00:13:10] Run lab work on their patient's blood. I don't know if you've ever gotten one of those reports before
[00:13:15] You know you get a printout or whatever. I have no idea what i'm looking at
[00:13:19] I can't even pronounce half of the things that they tested and then they have numbers, you know like
[00:13:25] Only it would work for me if they like gave me like a b c you get a d minus on this one
[00:13:30] You know or whatever, but they just give you these numbers, but then next to them
[00:13:34] What do they give you they give you a reference range that range is meant to demonstrate
[00:13:39] What could be or what should be in comparison with where you are
[00:13:45] It's helpful to those of us who need that information
[00:13:50] And God also diagnosis our condition
[00:13:53] And he'll show us at times the gap between ideal and reality
[00:13:59] You know God is described in romans 8 verse 27. I love this. He's described as he
[00:14:04] Who searches hearts can you relate to god as that?
[00:14:08] The one who searches hearts
[00:14:11] That passage goes on to say that if you're in christ if you're a believer
[00:14:16] The spirit of god is residing within you and he's the one that is searching your heart
[00:14:21] He he knows you in and out
[00:14:26] And then what it says and this is phenomenal to me. He then takes what he discovers
[00:14:32] And he forms
[00:14:34] prayers
[00:14:35] For you to your father in heaven
[00:14:40] So the spirit of god inside of you figuring you out
[00:14:44] Then brings that information to the father and intercedes on your behalf
[00:14:50] Now this is the third person of the triune godhead. We're talking about so the father is ready
[00:14:55] to hear that intercession
[00:14:58] And sometimes the spirit is asking
[00:15:02] I want to wake them up
[00:15:04] I want to wake them up father. I want to show them this gap that exists
[00:15:11] You see god will do this in so many ways
[00:15:14] He might reveal the gap between what could be and what is at times by allowing you to fail
[00:15:20] We ever had that experience you lash out at someone who clearly
[00:15:25] Doesn't deserve it and you feel terrible afterwards like what happened. Why is that me? Why am I acting this way?
[00:15:32] What gap exists inside my heart?
[00:15:35] He might reveal the gap by allowing emptiness into your life
[00:15:39] He might reveal the gap by exposing sins that you've quietly justified maybe even for decades, but once
[00:15:46] Others see and know them you become mortified
[00:15:49] He might reveal the gap with a still small voice
[00:15:52] He might reveal the gap by snapping you into a vision of his holiness
[00:15:57] Which helps you leave or exit the pattern of just comparing yourself with other people and you begin
[00:16:04] Seeing yourself in the light of his holy nature
[00:16:08] But one way or another god will reveal the gap when a gap exists
[00:16:13] And this is his mercy
[00:16:15] and his grace to wake us up from the matrix of
[00:16:20] numbed self-congratulatory existence
[00:16:23] and into
[00:16:24] Reality and by the way, this is our father in heaven doing this
[00:16:29] He never does this to decimate us if he wanted to decimate us guess what he would do. He would just decimate us
[00:16:38] He does this so that he can bring us into life
[00:16:43] He wanted Saul in the Old Testament and Judas in the New Testament and Micaiah and Deimos and Samson
[00:16:51] Biblical figures. He wanted them to respond well once they realized the gap that God showed them
[00:16:58] He wanted them to respond like Peter and Mark and Isaiah and David did when they realized the gap in their own lives
[00:17:05] See part of receiving God's renewal is living
[00:17:09] with the joy of God's pleasure
[00:17:12] on your life
[00:17:15] simply because
[00:17:17] you're in Christ
[00:17:19] Combined with the knowledge
[00:17:23] That there is a gap between who you are today and what you will be glorified to become
[00:17:28] Tomorrow a gap between your existence now and what God is working hard to remake you to be in the future
[00:17:37] We're satisfied with God's pleasure and smile on us because we're simply in Christ
[00:17:44] but we also
[00:17:46] Rejoice knowing that he wants to grow and transform and change us to be more and more like Jesus
[00:17:53] In other words, we should not be comfortable
[00:17:55] with the gap
[00:17:58] Kind of I am who I am spirit
[00:18:01] But we should be comfortable in
[00:18:03] The gap. Yeah, there's a gap, but God is remaking me
[00:18:08] God is doing some real work in me. He's shown me that gap, but he's changing and transforming my life
[00:18:15] We have to become comfortable in that place
[00:18:18] comfortable with a continual
[00:18:20] discovery of our limitations weaknesses
[00:18:24] frailties failures and sins comfortable with the spirit
[00:18:28] Bringing specific conviction into our lives. You guys none of us has arrived. Amen
[00:18:35] Let me think about it. I heard one pastors say it like this, you know, when you were when you were 10 years old
[00:18:41] You thought seven year old version of you was just ridiculous
[00:18:45] You know, like I can't believe I thought that when I was seven then when you were 15
[00:18:49] You thought 10 year old version of you was ridiculous
[00:18:52] Then when you were 21 you thought 15 year old version of you was ridiculous
[00:18:56] Then 35 year old version thought 21 year old version of you was ridiculous
[00:19:00] And i'm 43 years old now and so I know that that means as I look back
[00:19:04] Oh man, 35 year old version of nate was ridiculous. I just didn't I didn't have it figured out. What does that mean?
[00:19:10] That means when i'm 50 i'm gonna look back at
[00:19:12] 43 year old nate holders and go man that guy did not have a clue
[00:19:16] All right, so we're all trying to
[00:19:19] In christ grow into what he wants us to become we've got to be comfortable with that continual discovery
[00:19:25] All this is what made neomia pray the way that he did
[00:19:29] He was not driven from god when he heard the condition of the city
[00:19:35] Didn't say oh that's embarrassing. I could never talk to god about that
[00:19:39] Instead he ran directly to god
[00:19:42] It says in verse 4 that he sat down and he wept and mourned for days
[00:19:46] He fasted and he prayed before god
[00:19:49] And a major part of his prayer was confession. Look at verse 6. It says that he confessed
[00:19:54] The sins of the people of israel and then he took it a step further at the end of verse 6
[00:20:00] He said israel's sins were his sins. He says we have sinned against you
[00:20:06] Even i and my father's house have sinned we have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments the
[00:20:13] Statutes and the rules that you commanded your servant moses when neomia saw that gap
[00:20:20] Between god's ideal and their reality. He confessed
[00:20:24] There and his own sins to god. You see that city did not need to be lying in ruins
[00:20:32] God said it would be judged and that for 70 years it would have to lie in ruins, but
[00:20:38] Those days were well over with neomias
[00:20:41] around 150
[00:20:43] Years living 150 years after that initial
[00:20:47] destruction of jerusalem
[00:20:50] So the people of israel could have rebuilt this many times
[00:20:53] But they'd not done it. And so he confesses his sin. He thinks he's even negligent himself
[00:20:58] There's something about his own life that he was ashamed of
[00:21:03] So when he saw the gap he confessed his and the nation's sins to god
[00:21:09] And I just wanted to before I move off of this point. I want to highlight the importance
[00:21:13] Of developing this kind of practice and community
[00:21:17] in
[00:21:18] your own life
[00:21:20] Where you see the need for and the possibility of
[00:21:25] ongoing confession
[00:21:27] The need should be obvious, right? We're not yet fully reformed into the image of jesus
[00:21:33] So there's going to be stuff that we do say think feel
[00:21:36] An experience that is out of line with his best for us
[00:21:42] Right. So none of us has got it all together. So we've got to
[00:21:45] That's the need for confession
[00:21:47] But the possibility of confession is provided for us by the gospel itself
[00:21:51] It's a message that teaches us to acknowledge and bring our sins to god that he might deal
[00:21:59] With them and part of this is through confession
[00:22:02] James said in james 5 verse 16 confess your sins
[00:22:05] To one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. That's just a beautiful community to me
[00:22:13] John said in john 1 first john 1 9 if we confess our sins
[00:22:16] He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness
[00:22:22] And the salamate said it like this in the old testament era psalm 38 18. He said I confess my iniquity. I am sorry for my sin
[00:22:32] And I think when we speak to god like this
[00:22:35] And when we speak to one another like this, we're shaping our identity in line with the gospel
[00:22:43] And when we don't have this in our lives the temptation is to walk around in
[00:22:47] pharisaical self-approval
[00:22:49] But when we can honestly share with the right people in our lives our weaknesses and imperfections
[00:22:56] This confessional community will keep us dependent on jesus
[00:23:01] And free listen to me now free from the burnout that so many people experience
[00:23:07] In their church life
[00:23:09] You see we're not called to walk around acting as if we have it all together
[00:23:15] The pressure to be perfect is impossible to bear
[00:23:19] But because many people never discover a healthy gospel oriented community like i'm describing right now
[00:23:26] They burn out eventually in their christian life
[00:23:28] Had no one to talk to no one to say hey man. I don't have it all together. I'm really struggling in this area of my life
[00:23:36] We got to be like me amaya. We got to see the gap and
[00:23:39] confess
[00:23:42] but
[00:23:43] The second thing I want you to see here is not just you know
[00:23:46] That's the big thing that god will show us the gap but in showing us the gap he refreshes us in his own nature and promises
[00:23:55] See there's no way that we would turn to god when that gap is revealed if we had the wrong ideas about god
[00:24:02] You know if you don't think that he'll receive you do something for you help you you'd never run to god in a situation like this
[00:24:08] But nea. Amaya fortunately he knew god
[00:24:11] He starts quoting to god all these passages from the bible that god wrote
[00:24:15] And nea. Amaya's prayer he says to god in verse five. He says god. You're the lord god of heaven
[00:24:21] The great and awesome god who keeps covenant and
[00:24:25] steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments
[00:24:28] So he's highlighting god's nature. He's highlighting god's love and then in verse eight through nine
[00:24:34] He says you know god you told moses
[00:24:37] You know this is a thousand years earlier you told moses
[00:24:40] That if israel was unfaithful you would scatter them among the nations but
[00:24:46] That you would gather them back to your holy place if they returned you and kept your commandments
[00:24:50] So nea. Amaya's expecting he's like that's what i want to do
[00:24:53] I want to lead a revival god so that you can bring us back into your place and we can get that momentum
[00:25:00] Once again, but at that moment the things that nea. Amaya had read about god in the book of deuteronomy and elsewhere
[00:25:07] They were coming to life
[00:25:09] It's like god. This is who you are. You're a covenantal god a covenant of love. You're a promise keeper
[00:25:15] You said you would cause us to come back if we repented and turn and walk with you and this is what god does today
[00:25:22] For those of you who know him
[00:25:24] There's something about seeing
[00:25:27] Our gaps that reminds us of who god is
[00:25:32] You know, we know that god is powerful because we read all about it in the bible
[00:25:36] We know that god is love because we've read all about it in the bible
[00:25:39] We know that god is a promise keeper because we've read all about it in the bible
[00:25:43] But when we come face to face with our limitations weaknesses the gap between what should be and what is
[00:25:50] When he shows us his vantage point
[00:25:54] God also
[00:25:55] Refreshes us in his nature in promises
[00:25:58] He wants us in that moment to say man. I feel weak. I need his power
[00:26:03] I feel ashamed. I need to receive his love
[00:26:08] And I feel like I'm out of step with what he wants from me. I need to walk in his
[00:26:13] Promises to help me shore up these gaps
[00:26:16] You see it's it's an odd thing about us
[00:26:19] It seems that god becomes the most real to us
[00:26:23] When we're face to face with our own
[00:26:26] limitations
[00:26:28] It's like we're in amazement
[00:26:31] Of what he's like when we really come face to face with what we're like
[00:26:38] You know in fiction or in literature
[00:26:41] When do various figures most want to be saved? When did Frodo?
[00:26:46] Most want Gandalf's presence
[00:26:49] Every time you know on the on the road to mortor it's
[00:26:53] When he's afraid when it's nighttime. He's in a haunted forest. He feels afraid and scared. He's conscious of his own limitations
[00:27:01] When did the Narnians crave aslan when everything was good?
[00:27:05] No in the wintertime when they were feeling the pressure
[00:27:08] When did Luke Skywalker most miss obi-wan Kenobi?
[00:27:12] And when it went in situations where their limitations
[00:27:15] Were felt strongly
[00:27:18] The psalmist said it like this. Maybe you've felt this way before he said
[00:27:22] When I thought my foot slips
[00:27:26] You ever felt that way?
[00:27:28] Like man, I was cruising
[00:27:30] But my foot is slipping right now
[00:27:32] I'm not on stable ground like I used to be
[00:27:35] He says when I thought my foot slips your
[00:27:39] Steadfast love. Oh lord held me up. What was happening there was god's steadfast love distant remote remove from the
[00:27:47] Psalmist as he's cruising along through life then he starts to slip and god's
[00:27:51] Covenantal love comes in no his covenantal love was always there
[00:27:54] He just didn't know feel experience it like he did once his foot began to slip and he realized
[00:28:01] And there's god with his safety net underneath me
[00:28:04] You might remember in the life of peter there was that moment where jesus walked on the sea of gallally past the disciples
[00:28:11] They were in the boat and they saw jesus and when peter recognized that it was jesus
[00:28:15] He said lord if it's you call me to come out and walk to you. It's always been a little bit of a mysterious
[00:28:24] Like logic to me like if it was a bad guy and he's like yeah, i'm jesus come on out, you know
[00:28:31] But jesus says yes, it's me. He gets his permission peter gets out of the boat
[00:28:35] He starts walking on the water to jesus. It's amazing
[00:28:39] But then he saw the wind and the waves the text says
[00:28:43] And he was afraid and started to sink
[00:28:46] And he cried out to jesus in that moment lord saved me
[00:28:50] And i think peter's story is often our story
[00:28:53] We're cruising along
[00:28:55] We're thinking pretty highly of ourselves
[00:28:58] Then we see the reality around us and inside of us
[00:29:02] And we start to sink
[00:29:04] But it's in that moment when our foot slips that the lord becomes big to us again
[00:29:10] Peter looked at jesus at that moment. He saw the difference between himself
[00:29:15] And his lord i'm sinking
[00:29:18] You're standing on the top of the water
[00:29:22] And when we slip we have a chance to see the nature the true nature of our god
[00:29:28] And neomia's day he became conscious
[00:29:31] That the foot of the nation had slipped and maybe in your own life or maybe as you look at the church you realize
[00:29:38] Man, i've slipped as well
[00:29:40] We're not the
[00:29:43] Lighthouse broadcasting god's glory as we should be
[00:29:47] But in the slippage there's god no matter how far down his people tumble. He's unshaken and unchanged
[00:29:54] His love remains
[00:29:56] But let's close with one last thing
[00:29:59] The lord gives us this burden by showing us the gap and showing us his nature, but he also reminds us of our
[00:30:06] identity in the light of who he is
[00:30:10] That's an interesting thing about this process
[00:30:12] And i don't just mean our identity in the sense of seeing the gap between what could be and what is
[00:30:19] It's that gap to help neomia come to the conclusion. This ain't right
[00:30:24] We are the people of israel
[00:30:26] We are called by god
[00:30:29] We are god's chosen people
[00:30:31] We have a destiny that is so much different than what we're actually
[00:30:35] Living out right now neomia becomes conscious
[00:30:39] Of who they were because of their relationship with god look at verse six
[00:30:45] He starts calling israel god's servants
[00:30:49] Then look at verse 10. He says to god
[00:30:53] They are your servants
[00:30:55] They are your people
[00:30:57] Whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your
[00:31:03] strong hand
[00:31:05] though the exodus
[00:31:07] Was ancient history at this point neomia envisioned all of their history as these moments of gods
[00:31:13] Over and over again deliverance for his people
[00:31:17] He even told god that the scattered israelites. He says in verse nine. They're your outcasts
[00:31:24] They all belong to you. They're yours. We're yours neomia was conscious of it's like he was jolted in this moment
[00:31:32] And we're god's people we're meant for more than this
[00:31:35] We have a greater purpose and destiny than this and i think neomia was saying i want back in on god's plans
[00:31:41] I want back in on god's best. I want him to renew us
[00:31:47] All this got at the heart of what god had exiled them for in the first place
[00:31:53] you see
[00:31:55] before they'd gone to babalon
[00:31:58] for
[00:32:00] Centuries they were doing what they wanted to do and they were disconnected from their identity that they had in god
[00:32:08] But in exile they were meant to ask the question because babalonian culture was not the kind of culture they could be
[00:32:14] Living in safely they were to ask the question. Who are we and how should we live and last year as a church?
[00:32:21] We studied first peter together thinking about peter's proposal of what exile
[00:32:27] Christianity looks like what does christianity look like in environments that are not conducive to that christianity
[00:32:36] And it's in exile that many times we
[00:32:39] Come to a realization afresh of what it's really all about
[00:32:44] Of what we really are in christ what the essential
[00:32:48] things of our faith
[00:32:50] should be
[00:32:51] In the book of acts at the end of the book there's a story about paul the apostle he gets on a boat
[00:32:57] He's a prisoner and he's being taken away with hundreds of other
[00:33:02] Passengers on board this ship to roam
[00:33:07] And they're out in the middle of the Mediterranean sea and this terrible storm comes upon them. It's in the winter time
[00:33:13] It's dark. They can't see the stars for a number of days and everybody begins to think we're gonna die
[00:33:19] But god gives to paul a vision and speaks to him nobody on this ship is going to die
[00:33:25] And so paul tells everybody he's like hey if you guys listen to me, we're not gonna lose any life
[00:33:29] I've been comforted by god about this
[00:33:32] And so they're just trying to get through they want to run aground
[00:33:36] On an island, but they're trying to make their way
[00:33:39] And in the process they start throwing everything overboard
[00:33:43] And everything overboard all the people stay in but everything else goes overboard pretty soon the ship starts breaking apart
[00:33:49] What you have at the end of the story is just all the people floating on boards
[00:33:54] To the island all the essentials were gone
[00:33:59] Everything else was thrown overboard all the extraneous stuff. I mean was gone
[00:34:04] But the essentials the people remain
[00:34:07] And when we begin to see things as god sees them when we receive god's burden when we discover the gap
[00:34:12] Between what should be and what is we have an opportunity to get in touch again with the essentials of our faith
[00:34:20] We have an opportunity to see again who we are and nea mai has said man
[00:34:24] We're god's servants whereas people he has a plan for us and a broken city and feeble worship is not that plan
[00:34:33] It was a beautiful thing that nea mai realized
[00:34:35] And that sense of identity that he had it was firmly rooted in what nea mai understood about god
[00:34:42] When god's children know god they begin they begin to know and understand themselves
[00:34:48] Eugene peterson said it this way he said my identity does not begin when I begin to
[00:34:53] understand myself
[00:34:55] Now there's something previous to what I think about myself and it's what god thinks of me
[00:35:02] That means that everything I think and everything I feel is by nature a response
[00:35:09] To god
[00:35:10] God is the definer of who we are if we're in christ jesus and this is cool because we live in a world
[00:35:16] That is pursuing self achieved identity
[00:35:19] But our identity is god's children. It's not achieved. It's given to us through christ
[00:35:24] This is crucial
[00:35:26] Because the self achieved identity must also be self sustained
[00:35:31] If you've earned your identity you have to maintain your identity
[00:35:37] But in christ I our identity is secure nea mai wasn't shaken at all
[00:35:42] He's like we haven't performed well. We haven't done the right stuff, but we're still yours
[00:35:47] We still belong to you and it's time for a revival to take place
[00:35:52] This refreshed identity is what made nea mai's
[00:35:56] Last action and words in the episode of fitting one. Let's close with this. He said in verse 11
[00:36:01] Oh lord
[00:36:02] Let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name
[00:36:08] And give success to your servant today
[00:36:11] And grant him mercy in the sight of this man
[00:36:14] And then a little note now. I was cup bearer to the king to this last little moment
[00:36:21] That we're let in on what nea mai was doing there with king art exertsies
[00:36:26] He was his cup bearer. This means at the very least that he was like the poison tester
[00:36:31] You know the food would come in the wine would come in and nea mai would have a little bite
[00:36:35] And then they kind of watch him like you know, all right nea mai made it
[00:36:39] So now king art exertsies can't eat it
[00:36:42] But by that time this position had likely developed into something even more prestigious than just that a lofty position of
[00:36:50] power and influence in the courts of the king and certainly that position had attached to it wealth
[00:36:57] and ease
[00:36:59] And nea mai will learn next week prayed this prayer for months
[00:37:03] And he became so in touch with his identity as one of god's children that he eventually prayed this prayer of
[00:37:11] Volunteerism, that's what he's doing here. He's volunteering himself
[00:37:15] He's so in touch with who he is in god that he knows man. I got to lay my life down
[00:37:21] What I mean is that nea mai is willingness to get uncomfortable to sacrifice it all
[00:37:26] To leave his position of prestige so he could help god's people flourish. That is a biblical attitude
[00:37:32] Like abraham who left his position of comfort to launch out into the unknown with god or moses
[00:37:38] Who considered his position in pharaoh's courts as nothing in comparison to having god or ester who realized that it would be
[00:37:46] Better to perish for god than to retain the throne without god nea mai became like them willing to lay down his life
[00:37:55] But this attitude and all of their attitudes. It's not just a biblical attitude. It's the gospel attitude
[00:38:01] All those figures from the old testament era prefigured jesus the one who truly left it all for the sake of god's people
[00:38:10] And as nea mai got in touch with his identity as god's child listen to me now
[00:38:15] As he got in touch with his identity as god's child
[00:38:19] He began behaving like god's son
[00:38:23] He thought about the position that god had given him cut barret of the king and he realized
[00:38:27] He was supposed to use that position for god's glory
[00:38:31] The same should occur in us
[00:38:34] As the spirit reveals the gap in us between what could be and what is
[00:38:39] We should consider first the love and the promises of god the nature of what he's like
[00:38:45] And as we turn to god in humble confession
[00:38:48] And adopt a daily posture of dependence on him
[00:38:53] He'll remind us over and over again of who we are in christ and soon with the identity that god gives
[00:39:00] Fresh in our minds. We will realize that the one that the bible calls the firstborn
[00:39:07] Of the brethren in other words jesus is our older brother
[00:39:11] We'll realize that jesus laid down his life for us
[00:39:15] And we will want to lay down our lives as well
[00:39:18] We'll want to do what we can and god's strength and in god's power to see renewal
[00:39:24] Starting with being about shoring up the gap that exists