Pastor Nate continues our study through the Bible in the book of Nehemiah.
[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: I want to start off today's teaching by saying that it is beautiful when anyone, even if only a few people experience God's renewal in their lives.
[00:00:15] [SPEAKER_00]: It's just one of the coolest things to watch a person experiencing.
[00:00:20] [SPEAKER_00]: God's reviving hand and presence upon their lives.
[00:00:25] [SPEAKER_00]: What it feels like you're watching is someone who is waking up from a deep slumber.
[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_00]: It's just a beautiful thing.
[00:00:32] [SPEAKER_00]: And it is beautiful as it is to watch it happen to one person or to a few people.
[00:00:38] [SPEAKER_00]: It's incredibly beautiful when it happens to a congregation or when it happens to an entire generation of people.
[00:00:47] [SPEAKER_00]: In this passage today we're going to observe and think about
[00:00:52] [SPEAKER_00]: God's renewing hand in impacting all the people in Jerusalem during Nehemiah's day.
[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_00]: In other words, in this passage what we're going to see is that God did not do the work without them but God did the work through them.
[00:01:10] [SPEAKER_00]: God invited them into his best for their lives.
[00:01:14] [SPEAKER_00]: And because the vast majority of people in Nehemiah's day responded to God's invitation,
[00:01:22] [SPEAKER_00]: accepted God's invitation and a brief period of time.
[00:01:26] [SPEAKER_00]: The walls went up in Jerusalem, the gates were rebuilt in Jerusalem and the worship of God began to thrive
[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_00]: in God's holy city once again.
[00:01:35] [SPEAKER_00]: The people of Israel were revived in part because they accepted the invitation that God had given.
[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_00]: And this brothers and sisters is part of the process of experiencing God's renewing hand.
[00:01:52] [SPEAKER_00]: This is only our third week looking at the book of Nehemiah,
[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_00]: but we've thought previously about two specific ways that God revives his people.
[00:02:01] [SPEAKER_00]: In the first movement in Nehemiah chapter one, God began by depositing his burden in Nehemiah's heart.
[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_00]: There was a gap between what should have been in God's holy city and what was in God's holy city and God showed it to Nehemiah,
[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Nehemiah wept and fasted, mourned and prayed over the condition of things in Jerusalem.
[00:02:26] [SPEAKER_00]: And God answered his prayer by bringing him before the most powerful man in the world,
[00:02:31] [SPEAKER_00]: a man named King Artixerx, he said yes to Nehemiah's request to have all the supplies and provision and protection and permission
[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_00]: to go rebuild the city of Jerusalem.
[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_00]: And with that news, Nehemiah went to Jerusalem for step two in God's renewing plan.
[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_00]: He deposited the burden in Nehemiah, but now he needed to awaken the hope inside of his people.
[00:02:59] [SPEAKER_00]: These people who for decades had just co-existed with brokenness and decay and things not being as they should be.
[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Thinking that was the new normal among God's people, Nehemiah with all the provision and supplies and permission had to come in
[00:03:16] [SPEAKER_00]: and tell them no, God wants to take us from that old normal in into something fresh and new and he's provided everything required to do so.
[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_00]: This is another part of God's process of waking him home within his people.
[00:03:32] [SPEAKER_00]: But here today we come to this third crucial stage.
[00:03:36] [SPEAKER_00]: God is through Nehemiah and inviting the people of Israel into this process and they said yes to the rebuilding effort.
[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_00]: We already saw it last week that they strengthened their hands for the work of rebuilding.
[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_00]: And you guys, God is inviting us today.
[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Every one of us and this is a vital step towards renewal.
[00:04:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Without it, what happens is that some will watch renewal happen for others without experiencing for themselves.
[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Or so few will respond to God that renewal will only be felt by a small handful of people and the larger work will never get accomplished.
[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Basically, to say it succinctly, the more people respond to God's invitation and allow him to dispatch them into his work.
[00:04:36] [SPEAKER_00]: The more renewal will be felt in our lives individually, but also in our lives corporately together.
[00:04:46] [SPEAKER_00]: So what did God invite these ancient ancient Israelites into?
[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And by extension, what work is God inviting us into today?
[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_00]: I want to think about this from three direct angles, three invitations that God is giving to us in this passage.
[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_00]: And the first one is this, if you're taking notes, you should write this down.
[00:05:06] [SPEAKER_00]: God invites us number one to protect the sacred space.
[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_00]: God invites us number one to protect the sacred space.
[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Now I realize that probably very few of us would sit down to read, neemiah chapter three, read this long list of names that are difficult to pronounce.
[00:05:27] [SPEAKER_00]: And tell ourselves, you know what it's real clear. That's what God is doing. God is inviting me to protect the sacred space.
[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_00]: But what I want you to know is that that is precisely what the people of Israel along with neemiah were doing during those days.
[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_00]: They were protecting the sacred space of God.
[00:05:46] [SPEAKER_00]: You see Jerusalem was not just any random town or any random city. Jerusalem in that era was God's city.
[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_00]: It was the place that the temple of God dwelt.
[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And inside the temple of God was a room called the Holy of Holies.
[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_00]: And in that room was the ark of the covenant, and for the people of Israel, that was the place that God's presence was most strongly felt.
[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Where God in his glory dwelt in the most significant and substantial way.
[00:06:18] [SPEAKER_00]: And the people of Israel were meant to censor themselves upon that room that was inside of that temple that was on that temple mound that resided inside of that city.
[00:06:31] [SPEAKER_00]: So if the walls of Jerusalem were broken, if its gates were burnt with fire, then that holy space would not be what it was meant to be.
[00:06:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Because it was not protected.
[00:06:45] [SPEAKER_00]: An unprotected city meant it was an unprotected temple.
[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And an unprotected temple meant that it was an unused temple.
[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_00]: So when neemiah rolled into town and invited them to rebuild, he was inviting them to build a structure that would protect the house of God within the city.
[00:07:07] [SPEAKER_00]: This is hinted at in some of the verses that Janine read to us this morning.
[00:07:12] [SPEAKER_00]: In verse one, notice that all of this kicks off with a priest, the high priest named Elias Sheeb, and then he rises up with his brothers, the other priests, and they built the sheep gate.
[00:07:23] [SPEAKER_00]: What this tells us is that the priests understood the significance of this moment.
[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_00]: They got things started because they knew that the health of the walls and the gates would lead to the health of the worship that they were meant to oversee.
[00:07:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And they knew that this was a holy moment, that's why it says in verse one, that once those priests repaired the sheep gate, they consecrated it and set its doors.
[00:07:48] [SPEAKER_00]: That's not something that's repeated throughout the chapter.
[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_00]: It's just something that the priests did at the beginning. It was a holy thing. They would consecrate different objects to God's use and purposes. And they knew that this gate and those walls, they were there set apart unto God for the protection of God's temple.
[00:08:10] [SPEAKER_00]: To them there was a direct correlation between the strength of those walls and the flourishing of the temples worship.
[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, at this point some of you, your eyes are glazing over your LIGO. Okay, Old Testament temples and sacrifices and all that kind of stuff.
[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_00]: That what does that have to do with me and the situation I'm in today? Many of you know that when Jesus came, he fulfilled all of that Old Testament sacrificial system.
[00:08:40] [SPEAKER_00]: The blood of bowls and goats that were offered in the Old Testament era. They all pointed to Jesus and his perfect blood and sacrifice.
[00:08:50] [SPEAKER_00]: John the Baptist called Jesus, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
[00:08:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Hebrews 8 verse 13 tells us that the old system is now obsolete today.
[00:09:02] [SPEAKER_00]: It says in speaking of a new covenant, God makes the first one obsolete and what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_00]: The temple was still around when the book of Hebrews was written but it's around no longer. I think this is God's testimony signifying to the nations.
[00:09:21] [SPEAKER_00]: I know longer want to be approached that way. I want to be approached by the blood of my only begotten son.
[00:09:28] [SPEAKER_00]: But if the temple has been abolished, if all of those sacrificial systems have now been fulfilled in Jesus, here's the question.
[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Does any temple of God exist today?
[00:09:44] [SPEAKER_00]: And here's where I want you to really pay attention because the answer is yes. The Bible teaches that the new temple of God is God's people.
[00:09:54] [SPEAKER_00]: You and me as individuals and collectively before God. The Bible says things like this, Ephesians 2 verse 22,
[00:10:02] [SPEAKER_00]: In Christ, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
[00:10:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Or verse 2 verse 5, you yourselves are like living stones being built up as a spiritual house.
[00:10:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Part of the reason I picked those two verses because they're emblematic of the usual mood of the new testament when talking about us as the temple of God today.
[00:10:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Oftentimes, as American Christians will highlight the individuality of that experience individually on the temple of God.
[00:10:39] [SPEAKER_00]: And that is true, biblically. But the emphasis of the new testament is not on the individual nature but the corporate collective nature of God's people together.
[00:10:49] [SPEAKER_00]: We are built being built up as a spiritual house. Each one of us is a stone within that structure.
[00:10:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Ephesians 2, 22, were being built together into a dwelling place for God.
[00:11:01] [SPEAKER_00]: So what this means is that you and me, we don't have a sacred physical space to protect like me and myah had.
[00:11:13] [SPEAKER_00]: But we do have a sacred space. It's us. We must protect and defend and guard ourselves, last the worship of God come to a grinding halt within our lives.
[00:11:29] [SPEAKER_00]: And just as God invited the Israelites to work hard to rebuild the protections of that ancient sacred space, God invites us today to work hard to protect the worship of God in our lives.
[00:11:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Today, what are some of the ways that God might be asking us to build the walls that might protect the sacred space that is us?
[00:11:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Well here's one that just very practical is just kind of a boring application. But you have to protect your time.
[00:12:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the reality is that the lives that we're living today can so easily become so overrun that we just don't even have time or space for the worship of God.
[00:12:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Our schedules can often crowd out the most important thing in life, our devotion to Jesus.
[00:12:19] [SPEAKER_00]: What we're going to see in the book of Nia Maya is that a lot of the Israelites struggled with this very same thing. Once they were fully revived and occupying the city, they made a covenant with God.
[00:12:29] [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to do what you told us to do, God. And one of the things God told them to do was keep the Sabbath. One day, each week set aside for the Lord.
[00:12:38] [SPEAKER_00]: But they struggled to keep that Sabbath over and over again. They backslid into a life of non-sabbit keeping. For some of the same reasons that we struggle today, financial commitments, other desires, other interests, commercial opportunities,
[00:12:55] [SPEAKER_00]: cause them all to fudge on their time for God. And in our fast pace, but also our highly entertained and distracted world, I think it requires a level of determination to protect time for God.
[00:13:12] [SPEAKER_00]: It takes determination to protect what we're doing right now. There's other stuff that we could all be doing on the Sunday morning.
[00:13:18] [SPEAKER_00]: There's things that are even more fun to do on a Sunday morning. There's distractions all around us. We live in this beautiful place, this beautiful space, there's stuff we could do it.
[00:13:29] [SPEAKER_00]: And it takes determination to schedule a portion of each one of our days not for public worship, but for private devotion to God.
[00:13:38] [SPEAKER_00]: But it's a work that is worth it if you want to experience God's renewal.
[00:13:45] [SPEAKER_00]: But there's also, I think, another great application of this. We should protect the sacred space by protecting our body.
[00:13:55] [SPEAKER_00]: See, the Bible says that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.
[00:13:58] [SPEAKER_00]: And another way that the sacred space is harmed is when we allow our bodies to engage in behavior that is unbecoming of God.
[00:14:07] [SPEAKER_00]: We're his dwelling place. So, so we shouldn't drag these bodies into activities that God deems unhealthy for our lives.
[00:14:17] [SPEAKER_00]: To say it frankly, I'll quote from Paul the Apostle who said this in the context of living out faithful biblical sexuality to the current the church.
[00:14:27] [SPEAKER_00]: He said to them, flee from sexual immorality. You know, run from it. Don't try to fight it directly, don't but flee from it.
[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Every other sin he said that a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sends against his own body.
[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_00]: This is probably commentary on the modern thought that as long as there's consent, then it's just fine. Here he's saying, no, there's something that you're doing to yourself or verse 19,
[00:15:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God? You are not your own.
[00:15:09] [SPEAKER_00]: So, what we need to know this morning, brothers and sisters is that God has turned Jesus Christ and his gospel has turned us into a new sacred space.
[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_00]: And God wants to engage with us there. There's no holy of holys that God's presence is felt. God wants to meet with us individually.
[00:15:29] [SPEAKER_00]: But we've got to protect that sacred space, just as the people of Israel were protecting the sacred space of the temple.
[00:15:39] [SPEAKER_00]: But a second thing that I want to show you this morning is that God also does this thing where he invites us into engaging our portion of the work.
[00:15:51] [SPEAKER_00]: He's not just asking us to protect the sacred space, but here in this passage I think it points us to the reality that he invites us to engage our portion of the work.
[00:16:04] [SPEAKER_00]: To me, this chapter is just an incredible feat of organization. Some of you guys are really organized people and you read a chapter like this and you get all geeked out because you love how near-mires,
[00:16:15] [SPEAKER_00]: just taking all these different people and he's directing them to be exactly where they need to be, the right place at the right time.
[00:16:23] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's Nehemiah. He actually doesn't even appear in this chapter. There is a person named Nehemiah that's listed about halfway through the chapter, but that's not Arnehemiah.
[00:16:36] [SPEAKER_00]: It's just another Nehemiah. It was a common name. Arnehemiah isn't mentioned at all, but he's the ghost in the machine. Everybody knows that his fingerprints are all over this chapter.
[00:16:49] [SPEAKER_00]: He had a clear administrative gift and he organized and deployed God's people on that wall.
[00:16:56] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, it took planning to do what he did to dispense the 40 sections to all these different groups and families of people.
[00:17:06] [SPEAKER_00]: It took planning to make sure that nobody had too short of a section or too long of a section. I mean can you imagine the complaints? These were the Israelites after all.
[00:17:17] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, Nehemiah had to know which part of the wall was mostly standing or which part of the wall was mostly ruins.
[00:17:25] [SPEAKER_00]: It had been super unfair for him to give one group of people a really long, terribly broken down portion and another group of people are very short but pretty much standing still portion of the wall.
[00:17:38] [SPEAKER_00]: So he planned it out and he delegated accordingly. And I think that when Nehemiah did this, he's not just standing out to us as a good example of organization and delegation and something that if you're a leader, you should emulate Nehemiah.
[00:17:52] [SPEAKER_00]: I think that Nehemiah was emulating Jesus. The Bible points to Christ and I think that Nehemiah was displaying the spirit of Christ. Jesus is incredibly organized. Jesus has an incredible plan. Jesus is an incredible administrator of his people.
[00:18:10] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you know this, but Ephesians chapter 4 teaches us that when Jesus rose from the dead after 40 days walking the earth and appearing to his followers, he ascended to the right hand of the Father.
[00:18:23] [SPEAKER_00]: And it says in Ephesians 4 that one of the first things Jesus did in his new position at the right hand of the Father or his renewed position, I should say, is that he poured out gifts upon the church.
[00:18:35] [SPEAKER_00]: He did eventually pour out spiritual gifts upon the church on each one of us individually, but there are Ephesians 4 that specific gifts that he gave to the church were offices, word-based communicators, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, Paul says, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.
[00:19:00] [SPEAKER_00]: And Paul then said it like this, he said the reason that this has happened is so that we verse 15 of Ephesians 4 can grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ.
[00:19:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Paul's vision of the church is this, he's like it's like a body, like a human body. Jesus is the mind, the head, the brain.
[00:19:25] [SPEAKER_00]: His will is what the body is meant to live out, but the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers connect us to the mind so that we can live out more effectively what the mind Jesus wants for us to live out.
[00:19:43] [SPEAKER_00]: This is really important. We're to increasingly grow in this level of understanding, knowing the mind of the Lord.
[00:19:52] [SPEAKER_00]: You know when you're out and about and you're needing to do something on your phone and you pull it out to see what kind of connection do I have right now?
[00:20:01] [SPEAKER_00]: And you know if you've got like one or two bars, if you're trying to watch a video or send a message or load a page, it might take a little while for that to be loaded.
[00:20:11] [SPEAKER_00]: But when you've got a really good connection and everything's fast, full information is flowing. Here's the goal as Christians were trying to mature so that our connection to Jesus and his mind is more broadband than dial-up.
[00:20:27] [SPEAKER_00]: We're trying to be a little bit more full bar Christian than like a one bar Christian, you know walking around like I'm just kind of doing my own thing.
[00:20:36] [SPEAKER_00]: I barely know what Jesus wants for me. I'm kind of connected to my head. I got one bar right now.
[00:20:44] [SPEAKER_00]: No, we want a full connection. That's what was happening here.
[00:20:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'm not connecting everyone because there was a connection to their leader just as we need to be connected to Jesus.
[00:20:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Now another thing that Nehemi did in inviting the people to their portion of the wall that is similar to what Jesus does is Nehemiah stationed people who lived near Jerusalem.
[00:21:07] [SPEAKER_00]: He stationed them near their homes. It says in verse 10 that Judaya repaired opposite his house.
[00:21:17] [SPEAKER_00]: It says in verse 23 that Benjamin and how chubed did the same thing.
[00:21:21] [SPEAKER_00]: It says in verse 28 that all the priests who lived near the horse gate repaired in that area each one opposite his own house.
[00:21:30] [SPEAKER_00]: There's even a guy named Mesulum and chapter, or excuse me, in verse 30, who repaired opposite his chamber.
[00:21:37] [SPEAKER_00]: That probably means he was a single guy with a studio apartment and he was building close to his home.
[00:21:44] [SPEAKER_00]: And this is brilliant from Nehemiah. He decided to direct them into the work, but he was wise enough to get them building near their homes.
[00:21:55] [SPEAKER_00]: This would be beneficial on a lot of levels. First of all, you'd have the benefit of motivation, right?
[00:22:02] [SPEAKER_00]: There you are rebuilding. You're like right outside your house. You're excited. This is going to impact my everyday experience and life.
[00:22:11] [SPEAKER_00]: But there was also a strategic reason. You know, for one, rather than having people stationed on one side of Jerusalem walk all the way around the city to build on the other side and waste all that commute time that they could be building traveling.
[00:22:26] [SPEAKER_00]: He just gets on near their homes so they don't have to commute and they're just able to pour themselves into the work.
[00:22:31] [SPEAKER_00]: But also there was a defensive wisdom with all of this. They were under opposition this whole time. So as they're rebuilding, they'd be less tempted to run for the hills when attacked when they're near their home.
[00:22:46] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm under defend my home. I want to defend my turf.
[00:22:51] [SPEAKER_00]: And then finally, there was the benefit of there were families that engaged together in this rebuilding project.
[00:22:59] [SPEAKER_00]: If you read through this chapter, you'll see that there were even individuals that all their kids came out of were helping with a building which would have been harder for them to do if they were stationed on the opposite side of the city from where their homes were located.
[00:23:13] [SPEAKER_00]: And to me, this speaks of our Lord inviting us into our portion of the work.
[00:23:21] [SPEAKER_00]: We have lives and families and churches to build for His glory. Listen to me now, we cannot work on everything there is to work on in God's kingdom.
[00:23:34] [SPEAKER_00]: It's just not possible. But we can work on our portion of His kingdom, our portion of the wall and our portion begins with our personal lives.
[00:23:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And I hope you can see how this invitation to build our portion, it impacts not only us but it impacts everyone else in our church community.
[00:23:56] [SPEAKER_00]: One of the gates or one portion of the wall remained and disrepair, the entire city in the MISD would have remained vulnerable.
[00:24:07] [SPEAKER_00]: And in the body of Christ, when members decide to adhere to the will of the head, everyone else in the body is benefited.
[00:24:16] [SPEAKER_00]: And conversely, when someone decides not to listen to the head, everyone else is hurt.
[00:24:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Even our personal lives, a decision we make about our time and energy and priorities affect everyone else.
[00:24:31] [SPEAKER_00]: So God invites us to engage in our portion of the work.
[00:24:36] [SPEAKER_00]: But let me wrap it up by saying one last thing that God invites us into. He invites us as one people, a unified group of people. He invites us as one people.
[00:24:50] [SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of the clear emphasis of the whole passage. The idea of teamwork is really strong here in NeoMaya Chapter 3.
[00:24:59] [SPEAKER_00]: The most repeated words about the whole chapter over 30 times are the words or the phrases next to them and after them.
[00:25:09] [SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of like if you see a relay race in the Olympics, you know, as the sprinters are rounding the track, they're just handing the baton to the next runner.
[00:25:19] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's kind of the idea of NeoMaya Chapter 3, the next builder, the next family, the next gate repairer. Everyone was doing their part.
[00:25:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And this oneness is demonstrated in the very type of people that built in NeoMaya's day.
[00:25:37] [SPEAKER_00]: When you go through NeoMaya Chapter 3, you see that NeoMaya is faithful to record lots of details about these people.
[00:25:43] [SPEAKER_00]: He records where they lived, many of them. He records many of their social ranks that they held in Israelite society. He records their occupation and some of them he gives their specific assignments.
[00:25:57] [SPEAKER_00]: And in reviewing the list, it's clear that every segment of society was represented on that wall. Everybody got to work.
[00:26:08] [SPEAKER_00]: For instance, though every professional guild was probably working on this wall, NeoMaya points out a few of them that I think he found especially noteworthy.
[00:26:18] [SPEAKER_00]: He said in verse 8 that a guy named Yuziel, who had a family of goldsmiths, they built on the wall. Next to them in verse 8, a guy named Hannah Naya, who was a perfumer.
[00:26:33] [SPEAKER_00]: He built on the wall. And then NeoMaya goes on to say that the merchants and the rulers also rebuilt the wall.
[00:26:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I think NeoMaya's listing all of these types of people out because to him he was pleasantly surprised by the buy-in of even people like these.
[00:26:52] [SPEAKER_00]: It wouldn't have been as much of a shock for NeoMaya to say, you know, the carpenters rebuilt. He's like, yeah, that's what they do. They're about it. They're down. But the perfumers.
[00:27:06] [SPEAKER_00]: They chose that occupation for a reason. The goldsmiths, the merchants, these were the people who usually had means in that society and NeoMaya is making the point that no one felt that they were above the work.
[00:27:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Except for us, we read earlier one group. It says in verse 5, the tecoite nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord.
[00:27:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Man, to have your name recorded and holy scripture for that is a stunning statement, total cooperation. Everybody all in except for it's like the record scratch.
[00:27:48] [SPEAKER_00]: The tecoite nobles would not stoop to repair. It would not stoop to serve their Lord.
[00:27:56] [SPEAKER_00]: It shows us that even in the most enthusiastic movements of God's spirit, there was still be someone who's not willing to go with the congregation.
[00:28:11] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, if you continue that imagery of a relay race, these tecoite nobles were fumbling the exchange. They were dropping the baton.
[00:28:24] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, as Christians we believe in a doctor and called the priesthood of all believers.
[00:28:31] [SPEAKER_00]: What that doctor and teaches us is that every Christian, if you're covered by the blood of Jesus, have already been talking about this today,
[00:28:39] [SPEAKER_00]: and you have direct access to God. We don't have to, as believers in Jesus, appeal to a string of priests with varying degrees of authority.
[00:28:53] [SPEAKER_00]: And access to God we don't have to appeal to saints, dead or alive.
[00:28:57] [SPEAKER_00]: We obtain the access that Christ has to the Father by the blood of Jesus. Amen. It's part of the priesthood of all believers.
[00:29:09] [SPEAKER_00]: But this doctor and also has attached to it a responsibility as God's priesthood, each one of us has an assignment.
[00:29:18] [SPEAKER_00]: As one man we must join together to fulfill the assignment that God has given to us.
[00:29:25] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, one attribute that a lot of employers will look for is an all in spirit.
[00:29:31] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I look for it here at Calvary when we're bringing somebody on board is this potential staff member are they all in or they divided
[00:29:39] [SPEAKER_00]: And I ask it of myself and others are we all in or are we divided.
[00:29:45] [SPEAKER_00]: But there's a benefit to this all in spirit and attitude that these people displayed.
[00:29:52] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, one benefit is pretty obvious it's just the speed of progress that is made.
[00:30:01] [SPEAKER_00]: These people rebuilt this thing that had been sitting there for 150 years and disrepair they rebuilt it in 52 days.
[00:30:08] [SPEAKER_00]: It's incredible because of that collaboration and that unity a lot got done very quickly.
[00:30:14] [SPEAKER_00]: And progress comes more quickly to a church where most people engage in the work.
[00:30:21] [SPEAKER_00]: But there's also the benefit of enthusiasm induced momentum.
[00:30:27] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if that's the right way to describe this, but they were all all in on the project and that enthusiasm it was contagious.
[00:30:35] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think enthusiasm is that way and so as a lack of enthusiasm it's contagious.
[00:30:41] [SPEAKER_00]: We have an effect on the people around us.
[00:30:44] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, recently the new Spider-Man movie came out because it heard about it's really big deal they're making gobsome money.
[00:30:51] [SPEAKER_00]: They're doing really well but it's a popular movie.
[00:30:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And I used to I used to hate all the Marvel movies when I was a youth pastor and stuff all the kids in the youth group would go watch these superhero movies and I'm just like I got better things to do with my time.
[00:31:04] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not doing that but then my kids grew up and they're like, that you got to do this.
[00:31:10] [SPEAKER_00]: So even though I'm Star Wars, full life I'm into these Marvel movies so on the opening weekend we went to go see Spider-Man.
[00:31:20] [SPEAKER_00]: And you know it's really popular so you couldn't just walk up and get five tickets for a family.
[00:31:26] [SPEAKER_00]: You had to order them ahead of time and so what that did is it meant that the theater on that opening weekend at least was just packed.
[00:31:34] [SPEAKER_00]: With real fans.
[00:31:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And it was so exciting to watch the movie like that.
[00:31:42] [SPEAKER_00]: They were laughing at all the right points.
[00:31:45] [SPEAKER_00]: They were gasping at all the right reveals.
[00:31:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And at crucial moments in the plot they would cheer just like a innovation, just a pause, bustling out in the theater.
[00:31:57] [SPEAKER_00]: It was so much more exciting than being there at two o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon with like seven other people watching the movie.
[00:32:07] [SPEAKER_00]: There was just something cool about that enthusiasm.
[00:32:11] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that when a church is enthusiastic in its worship, in its service and its attendance and its engagement it is contagious.
[00:32:27] [SPEAKER_00]: You ever try to get down in worship when a bunch of people are like,
[00:32:35] [SPEAKER_00]: It's real hard you're like I gotta do this for the Lord but you're not helping.
[00:32:40] [SPEAKER_00]: You know kind of thing, but the enthusiasm that's a blessing.
[00:32:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And of course the greatest benefit of all this all in attitude is that the worship of God is flourishes.
[00:32:53] [SPEAKER_00]: When the temple was lit up with sacrifices and praise, God's glory descended and reverberated throughout Israel.
[00:33:02] [SPEAKER_00]: And eventually the nation's learned that God was there.
[00:33:05] [SPEAKER_00]: And I believe that this kind of all in spirit helps us tell our community about our Lord.
[00:33:13] [SPEAKER_00]: And I wanted to say that all of this, this big invitation that God is giving to the people of Israel and that He's giving to us.
[00:33:22] [SPEAKER_00]: This invitation is God's grace you guys.
[00:33:26] [SPEAKER_00]: It was definitely grace for them.
[00:33:29] [SPEAKER_00]: These people should have been building way before Nehemiah got there.
[00:33:34] [SPEAKER_00]: For decades they let that city lay in disrepair.
[00:33:39] [SPEAKER_00]: They did not deserve to get to be on the front lines of God's special plan.
[00:33:45] [SPEAKER_00]: But Nehemiah rolled into town and he didn't say you don't deserve to do this.
[00:33:50] [SPEAKER_00]: He didn't roll into town and say you need to take a time out.
[00:33:53] [SPEAKER_00]: He didn't roll into town and say you blew your shot.
[00:33:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Instead he rolled into town and said you know you might have been wasting decades.
[00:34:02] [SPEAKER_00]: But God, He is inviting you today into a brand new work.
[00:34:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Will you partake of it?
[00:34:13] [SPEAKER_00]: You know Nehemiah's name means comfort of God.
[00:34:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Comfort of God.
[00:34:18] [SPEAKER_00]: I think that name should remind us of the Holy Spirit who in the New Testament is called God's Comforter.
[00:34:26] [SPEAKER_00]: So often we want to throw ourselves in Nehemiah's shoes when we read the book of Nehemiah.
[00:34:30] [SPEAKER_00]: It's just kind of our natural inclination when we read passages of scripture.
[00:34:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I'll Abraham did this and so I'm like Abraham and what must I do?
[00:34:37] [SPEAKER_00]: But the Bible points to Jesus.
[00:34:39] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that Nehemiah in some ways in the book of Nehemiah, if you're wondering where we are, where with the people.
[00:34:48] [SPEAKER_00]: That's who we are.
[00:34:49] [SPEAKER_00]: God is Nehemiah.
[00:34:51] [SPEAKER_00]: The Spirit is Nehemiah.
[00:34:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is like Nehemiah coming in and saying you know you might have been for a long time now.
[00:35:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Wasting precious moments that I've given to you.
[00:35:06] [SPEAKER_00]: But by my grace, I'm inviting you right back into my best plan for your life.
[00:35:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Come into it.
[00:35:16] [SPEAKER_00]: One of my favorite phrases in the Bible comes from the book of Ezra.
[00:35:19] [SPEAKER_00]: It was a different rebuilding project years before Nehemiah.
[00:35:23] [SPEAKER_00]: The people of God were trying to rebuild the temple in that episode.
[00:35:26] [SPEAKER_00]: And they were kind of discouraged because they were up against some obstacles and they were discouraged because the temple used to be better than the temple they were trying to rebuild.
[00:35:35] [SPEAKER_00]: But in Ezra chapter 3 verse A it says,
[00:35:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And the people made a beginning together.
[00:35:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I think that's one of the coolest lines to just make a beginning to just say you know what?
[00:35:50] [SPEAKER_00]: I should have been.
[00:35:51] [SPEAKER_00]: It should have been.
[00:35:52] [SPEAKER_00]: I should have been doing, but I'm going to make a beginning.
[00:35:56] [SPEAKER_00]: And this is no like positive self-help kind of thing that everybody wants to partake of.
[00:36:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Like it's a new day just be your new self or whatever.
[00:36:04] [SPEAKER_00]: This is a message that only the gospel of Jesus enables.
[00:36:09] [SPEAKER_00]: It says in Philippians chapter 3 that we can forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead.
[00:36:18] [SPEAKER_00]: This is only possible because of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[00:36:23] [SPEAKER_00]: We are a people, gospel possessors who are able to make a new beginning because that's what the gospel gives to us every day of our lives.
[00:36:36] [SPEAKER_00]: I think part of what I want to say is I really land this plane.
[00:36:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Is that I pray that we as a church could make a new beginning not just for our own lives individually but corporately collectively together.
[00:36:51] [SPEAKER_00]: These last couple of years have been.
[00:36:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Narlie.
[00:36:55] [SPEAKER_00]: They've not been enjoyable on a lot of levels.
[00:36:59] [SPEAKER_00]: People ask me all the time, what's it been like, pasturing during COVID you know?
[00:37:04] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, fun.
[00:37:08] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that the enemy you know clearly is tried to take many of the elements of our time to tear the church apart.
[00:37:17] [SPEAKER_00]: But we got a good thing going.
[00:37:20] [SPEAKER_00]: We love Jesus.
[00:37:21] [SPEAKER_00]: We might not agree on every other thing there is but we love Jesus.
[00:37:25] [SPEAKER_00]: We're about the essentials and I pray that we could forget what was behind and press forward together.
[00:37:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Let's be all in on being a renewed church that pursues Christ to the absolute fullest.
[00:37:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I got the blessed opportunity recently we restarted the Jesus famous podcast and one of the things I'm doing there is I'm just interviewing people that I find interesting and I love their story about God is doing through their lives like this last week.
[00:37:57] [SPEAKER_00]: I had Pastor Tommy Kota share his testimony and life more fully.
[00:38:02] [SPEAKER_00]: But I've been recording a bunch of these interviews with people and recently my father came to town to visit and I asked him if I could interview him because he pioneered this church in 1979 a little you know,
[00:38:15] [SPEAKER_00]: bunch of old hippies that left the commune.
[00:38:19] [SPEAKER_00]: They're like we want a pastor and he's like, well I don't like hippies very much but I could pastor you.
[00:38:24] [SPEAKER_00]: And they like started this little church together and they were portable you know, renting facilities and stuff until the mid 90s when they bought the first part of the property here and they built this room.
[00:38:35] [SPEAKER_00]: They were in right now and he passed it for another 10 years in this location.
[00:38:39] [SPEAKER_00]: And I just wanted him to kind of tell the church's origin story because you know we have a lot of people who don't know the church's origin story.
[00:38:48] [SPEAKER_00]: You weren't around in those days and I wanted you to hear that some of the main tenets and drives and passions that the church began with still exist today.
[00:38:59] [SPEAKER_00]: But I also was conscious of the reality that those previous generations of our church were just moments where they had to make a new beginning.
[00:39:08] [SPEAKER_00]: There were just moments where they had to have collective faith together.
[00:39:13] [SPEAKER_00]: And as he just told these stories, he told stories of times when they try to acquire a property or try to acquire land or get permits or do a fresh and new thing.
[00:39:23] [SPEAKER_00]: And at each stage it just required this spirit of collectively saying you know what we believe God for that.
[00:39:31] [SPEAKER_00]: In times of renewal came at each one of those new beginnings that God instituted.
[00:39:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And so I think I'm asking on a personal level but also on a collective level.
[00:39:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Well each one of us except God's invitation and build the portion of the wall that he has asked us to build.
[00:39:58] [SPEAKER_00]: And if we do I think that we can experience like these people did generations ago.
[00:40:05] [SPEAKER_00]: The same kind of renewal that God is always trying to produce in his church, in his people.