Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] My name is Craig Jarvis. I'm the lead pastor here at Village Church East. And we get to go through our study in Nehemiah again. We're continuing our study and we get to chapter three. We're going to be jumping back and forth a little bit between chapter two and chapter three because of the theme of this morning, but I wanted to confess something to you from the get go. When I married Beth, I did so with a little bit of a personal pretense.
[00:00:31] When I married Beth, I gave her the impression that I could do anything. And I repented for that since. And she has come to understand that that's probably not true. When I first married Beth, it was like, yeah, the barbecue needs to be assembled, the car needs to be fixed, this addition needs to be put onto the house. Sure, Craig can do all that. And then as we got married, and now we've been married for 33 years, there'll be 33 this year. 33 years.
[00:01:01] She knows.
[00:01:03] She knows. She's discovered that's not necessarily true. I cannot do very many things. And if we do buy a barbecue now from Menards, we pay the extra to have the teenager assemble it in house so that when it arrives, Beth is not disappointed with her husband. Yet again, Nehemiah has taken on the job of wall building. To our knowledge, Nehemiah has never had a building wall session in his entire life. Not one class. And yet when the king asked him what he wanted, Nehemiah's response that we've already found out is, I want you to send me back to the place where my people are, across the desert into Jerusalem. I want you to send me back so that I can rebuild the wall.
[00:01:55] Interestingly enough, as we talked about this last week, there was a risk involved. Nehemiah was a slave to the king. He actually was a very disposable slave. He tasted the king's food to make sure that it wasn't poisoned. Any takers for that job? Would you like that job? Yes, I'd like to be a slave, but I'd like to work for the king and I'd like to be the one that. So the king looks at his food, he goes, excuse me. He looks at his food, he goes, yeah, that doesn't look right. Here, Nehemiah, taste this. Nehemiah, was the guy a disposable slave?
[00:02:31] And yet when the king asked him what he wanted to do, his answer to the king was, let me go free for a while. Send me back to go rebuild the wall. Give me the resources that I need to make sure that this job gets done.
[00:02:46] Building a wall around a city, I'm assuming, is not something that comes natural to all people. I, for instance, would not necessarily take on this job. I don't know if you would. But he was willing to simply do it no matter how daunting the job was, because he was the one who was going to be available. Nehemiah believed that God would enable him to accomplish whatever he burdened him to do. Somebody had to rebuild the wall. For 100 years it had laid desolate the Babylonians. Just to bring up to speed, the Babylonians had come in and they had taken all the inhabitants of Jerusalem captive. They take them over to Babylonia. They burned the city to the ground. They pulled the walls down, they destroyed the gates and they salted the the dirt because they didn't want anything to grow there. For years and years and years they take these people captive. They kill most of them. They only take the children captive. Those children now have grown up in Babylonia. Babylonia.
[00:03:53] Thank you very much.
[00:03:55] Thanks.
[00:03:59] Babylonia was captured by Persia.
[00:04:04] Cyrus comes in, he captures Babylonia. Cyrus has a couple of kings after him. Finally, we get to the king that we know as Xerxes. If you watch the Spartans, 300, that's the time period there, Esther. King Xerxes. King Xerxes has a son, Artaxerxes. Artaxerxes is the king when Nehemiah is his cupbearer. So it's been 100 years since Jerusalem has been laying in desolation. And Artaxerxes has sent group after group, remnant after remnant, small pockets of people back to Jerusalem so that they can get it back built up and start paying revenue back to Persia.
[00:04:44] Nehemiah's response after he hears that for 100 years they're living like rats among the rubble.
[00:04:51] His response is, he has a broken heart. He prays and. And he asked God what he should do. Praise and fast for four months.
[00:04:58] And finally when the king asked him, what is on your mind? Why is your face so sad? He said, my people are in ruin and somebody needs to help them.
[00:05:11] But God burdens Nehemiah to do this.
[00:05:14] And the thought that I had for this morning is, who is Nehemiah to think he can take this on? Like me thinking I can assemble a barbecue. It's not happening. But for him, he thinks he can take it on. And I came to a couple of verses and I want to just start with these verses. One verse that just pops into my mind is, you have not, because you ask not.
[00:05:39] It's kind of interesting. Maybe it should say, like, you have not because you think you can't do it.
[00:05:46] You don't think that you have the ability to do this. So you don't even ask for Second Corinthians 9, 8 says this. God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times. Don't you love that? How many alls are there? Having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. Do you kind of get the impression from this verse that you're invincible?
[00:06:14] Like, whatever God calls you to do, he is going to equip you to do it. He's going to give you the resources to do it. He's going to walk you through it. Abraham Lincoln said it this way. I've been driven many times, by the way. Abraham Lincoln. If you don't know his story, you should read up on his story. Three times he ran for president. I didn't know if you knew that or not. He wasn't elected the first time around. I've been driven by many times to my. He failed the bar, like, numerous times, too. Did you know that? Abraham Lincoln, the guy with the cap, the big hat? Yeah, that guy. He said, I've been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of those around me seemed insufficient for the day.
[00:07:00] I identify with Abraham's words.
[00:07:04] I bet you that Nehemiah did.
[00:07:08] And I thought of a story in Scripture where I bet there are other people that did.
[00:07:15] Have you ever heard of the feeding of the 5,000?
[00:07:17] You remember when Jesus was out on that mountainside and he had all these people that are gathered there, and all of a sudden he thinks to himself, well, they can't stay here. We have to feed them.
[00:07:30] And there were 5,000 men, plus women, plus children. So there were more than that. Jesus was a popular speaker in these days.
[00:07:39] This was all possible because Jesus and his disciples were able to feed these 5,000 people. And you wonder how they could do it.
[00:07:47] So in that afternoon, he looks at the people, he feels bad for them, and he says, we got to feed these people.
[00:07:55] And so he looks at Judas, who's the money bag keeper, right? He's the guy that keeps the money. And he says, dig out some money. He's going, dude, we got like, there's a couple of shekels in here, but that's it. We cannot feed 5,000 plus people.
[00:08:13] So he says, okay, call the Hebrew Nobles, those that are supporting our ministry. Make sure that we get money out of that fund, and we'll just do a big takeout order from Taco Bell and we'll serve the whole crowd. Doesn't happen because they didn't have the resources that they needed. However, there was one boy. You remember this? There was one boy who was willing to give what he had at the time, five loaves and two fish.
[00:08:41] Now, for all of us that have done life, how many people would five loaves and two fish feed?
[00:08:49] Have you had people over to your house for Thanksgiving or Christmas, Right? You got five loaves of bread. And these are not the big loaves you get from, like, Target, whatever it is. These are the little loaves. Little loaves and two fish.
[00:09:03] How many people could you serve? Take a guess. What do you think?
[00:09:09] Just me.
[00:09:11] Just me.
[00:09:14] This little boy ends up giving his lunch to the disciples, and they end up doing a miracle that's still talked about today. Here it is in John 6:5. When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, now I want you to catch this because the devil's in the details. He said to Philip, where shall we buy bread for all these people to eat right now? Did Jesus know how much money they had at the time?
[00:09:40] Yeah, he's got the benefit of being God. All right. So he does know how much is in the bag. And by the way, he knows how much Judas has been putting in his own pockets at the same time. But he knows how much is in there. He said to Philip, where shall we buy bread for all these people to eat? He asked only this way to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Don't you love that about Jesus? He already knows what he's going to do. He's just testing Philip. So Philip answered him.
[00:10:10] This had to be the funniest conversation in the world because Philip thinks this guy's really smart, all right? He's a disciple of this incredible rabbi. But maybe he's got no shekel smarts. Maybe he doesn't know how to do finances. Maybe. So Philip says to him, listen, Jesus, let me just clear this up for you, buddy. Eight months wages wouldn't be enough to feed all these people so that they could have one bite, all right? So Philip, he's the. What do you call this? He's the CEO of the finances. He's a cfo. So he says, basically, Jesus, I don't know how you're doing math in your head. This is not going to work.
[00:10:50] John 6, 8. Down in verse 8, another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up and said, here's a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish. Don't you love how the Bible includes the size of these things? How big were they? Church small. Here's a guy. Here's a boy, small boy, with five small barley loaves and two small fish.
[00:11:16] But how far will they go among so many? You can just see the disciples looking among the crowd going, does anybody have any food? Anybody have any food? So we can share it with everybody else. We don't want to send you away. Anybody have any food? And then a young boy walks up. And what I want you to see is the young boy simply saying, in his mind, this is all I have, but I will give it.
[00:11:39] There had to be a part of him that said, what's the use, right? I mean, even a young boy can figure out five loaves and two fish aren't going to go very far. But there's a part of this boy that says, here's all I have, but you can have it.
[00:11:57] Being too small to offer anything but looking down and realizing he had something.
[00:12:04] And the boy decided, listen, it was easier, and it was better to look foolish for offering than to allow the needs of the many to go unchecked.
[00:12:15] It was worth looking dumb.
[00:12:20] The story of the 5000 and the story of Nehemiah today are very similar.
[00:12:26] Nehemiah is taking this ragtag group of returnees. Some have just arrived, some have been there a while. They have all tried in the past to get this thing going before. They have pushed this boulder, hoping that they would gain steam. But every time they fail, they can't get any steam going. And so they resort to, let's just survive. We're not going to thrive here, but let's survive and hope that God brings a miracle. And a hundred years went by living that way.
[00:12:56] There was not one trained bricklayer among them that we know of. But today they're all willing to be used. So something happened today. Suddenly they're willing to try again with whatever they had. They're willing to give it one more shot.
[00:13:14] And so I have a couple of things that I'd like to bring out of the passage that God, I think, has laid on my heart, that I've just been thrilled about, and I'm hoping that you will be as well. Number one, doing great things for God requires a radical faith that drives us to see. Would you say that last word for me, please?
[00:13:35] Possibilities.
[00:13:37] The devil loves to take away dreams.
[00:13:42] The devil loves to squelch what you think are possibilities.
[00:13:49] Doing great things for God requires a radical faith that drives us to see possibilities. In the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus led the way with the disciples. Disciples to show them they could trust him to do more than they thought with their minds. Again, I take you to John 6 one more time. When Jesus looked up and he saw a great crowd among them, he said to Philip, I don't know why he's picking on Philip, but I think it's pretty neat. He said to Philip, philip, where shall we buy bread for all these people to eat? He asked this only to next two words, church, only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
[00:14:29] Jesus knows what's in the money bag. He knows his disciples. He knows they never provide dinner and a show. They always just provide the show.
[00:14:40] But Jesus wanted to show these disciples what's possible when somebody is just willing to see, willing to dream, willing to be used.
[00:14:53] Nehemiah 3, if you got your Bibles, this is where we're going. This is a great passage of scripture. If you don't, if you just read it from the get go, it'll bore you to tears. But today, Nehemiah 3, I'm praying, comes to life for all of us. Nehemiah 3, verse 1.
[00:15:10] There are a lot of names in here. I am definitely going to get wrong. Don't judge me. Here we go. Then Elisheb the high priest rose up with his brother the priests. And they built the Sheep gate. They consecrated it and set its doors. They consecrated it as far as the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Tower of Henanel. And next to them the men of Jericho built. And next to them Zechor the son of Imri built. The sons of. Here we go. Heshaniah built the Fish gate. They had its beams, they laid its beams and set its doors, its bolts and its bars. And next to them Meremoth the son of Uriah, son of Hakaz, repaired. And next to them Meshullum the son of Barakah, son of Mashaba repaired. And next to them Zadok the son of Benah repaired. And it goes on and on and on and on. The whole chapter is full of names and people that put their hands to the work. Every person seems to have bought into this vision of Nehemiah to try it again, to build the walls and build the gates. And my question to you this morning is what made the difference.
[00:16:31] A hundred years they're living like rats in the rubble. And now they're willing to try again.
[00:16:39] To understand this, we need to back up to Nehemiah. Chapter 2. Look, in verse 17, Nehemiah said to them, you see the trouble we're in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. And you can hear them going, no joke, Sherlock. We've been here longer than you have.
[00:16:56] Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem that we may no longer suffer derision. 18, 18, 18.
[00:17:04] And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good. And also the words of the king had spoken to me. And they said, let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for the good work. I love verse 18.
[00:17:23] Here's the difference maker. Nehemiah had a radical faith already in motion, already with momentum, so that they could now see possibilities.
[00:17:38] They needed somebody that they had seen the hand of God upon so that their faith could be restored.
[00:17:46] Nehemiah had already seen the powerful hand of God at work. He showed up with letters in his hand from the king himself. He showed up with an army, horses and soldiers. He showed up with building materials that had been given to him by the king's subjects. He knew Asaph. You remember the guy that owned the Menards. He knew the guy that owned the lumber yard. He knew all these guys. He had all of this stuff. And he shows up and he says, listen, let's get this job done. It wouldn't have happened had not Nehemiah had already had a faith in motion.
[00:18:19] People needed to see evidence that God had not forgotten them.
[00:18:23] And Nehemiah's fate became contagious. The workers needed a radical faith that God can use anybody to do great things. Nehemiah was not a bricklayer, and he was talking to people who weren't bricklayers. But he said, let's lay some bricks.
[00:18:39] He was willing to continue down the door. The road that God had opened for him with the door open, he just kept walking through and walking through and walking through. So listen, church, this world that we live in needs to see radical faith. And when I say radical faith, I really mean, like normal faith, faith that God is actually on our side, we're on his side, and he wants us to succeed. And he's got the power of the universe at his disposal. This world needs to see the church believing that. They need to see a faith that becomes contagious. Because no matter how much they mock the church, they need the Church number two. Doing great things for God requires a realistic faith that the work belongs to God and is accomplished through his family. This is probably my favorite point of the morning. You'll know why in about three seconds.
[00:19:37] I want to read to you verse one. Elisheb Eliashib, the high priest, rose up with his brothers and priests and they built the Sheep gate. They consecrated it and set its doors. Go down to verse eight. Next to them, Uzzael, the son of Haranhah, goldsmiths, repaired. And next to them, next to him, Hananiah, one of the perfumers, repaired.
[00:20:03] Can you tell me, what did Hananiah do for a living? He was a. What?
[00:20:08] Yes, he made perfume.
[00:20:11] Verse 12. Next to him, Shallum, the son of Halalush, ruler of the district of Jerusalem, repaired. He and his. Who else was involved there? That's one of my favorite verses of all time. He and his daughters. I love who Nehemiah was talking to. Not a bricklayer among them, but who did he have among them? Priests, perfume makers, fathers, nobles, priests, goldsmiths. What will they do? How will they buy into the vision? Will they see the need? Are they willing to do something different than what they are used to doing with their lives?
[00:20:51] Could they put a brick down? Priests, Levites, rulers, common people, pharmacists, merchants, temple broom sweepers, and even children. They're all listed in Nehemiah 3. And I love how God goes to great lengths for us to understand. These are normal people. These are just people that look down and they go, okay, what do I have? Well, whatever I have, I'm willing to use. I got hands, I got legs, I got strength, I can put a couple of bricks down. And they're willing to do it. Like the kid with the fish and the bread. Would they believe?
[00:21:25] Would they even risk looking foolish in order to accomplish the possibilities?
[00:21:32] This chapter never mentions one bricklayer, not one woodworker that we know of among the group. No matter what they did in the past, every person believed they had something to offer. This job needed done. It needed to get done. So their motto was, let's get her done.
[00:21:51] Every person believed they could have a part. Number three. Doing great things for the Lord requires joining a team. There are no lone wolves. If you read this chapter, you will find that it works in a very interesting way. In Jerusalem in this day, there were seven gates. Chapter three starts with the Sheep Gate and moves counterclockwise around the city until it gets back to the Sheep Gate. Hundreds of people are putting their hands to the work, and every part of that Wall is being addressed.
[00:22:27] Here's some teamwork principles I found in here. They all agreed to work together.
[00:22:32] If you're going to be a part of a team, literally, there's no I in team. Right? The team means we do this all together. Everyone was valuable in the project. This brings me back to one of my favorite verses, verse 12. Next to him, Shalom. The son of Helahesh, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired he and his daughters. I love that. Why does the Bible include that?
[00:22:57] It doesn't need to.
[00:22:59] Right. Why does it include that? Why does the writer, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, include he and his daughters? Why? Because every person is valuable to the team.
[00:23:11] When we do communion here, you know who fills the communion cups?
[00:23:15] Well, they used to. I don't know if they still do or not, but you will regularly see kids in the kitchen filling the communion cups.
[00:23:22] Nehemiah used every person willing to take a section and do their work. The sections were divided up into 40 different sections. There were 40 supervisors that oversaw the whole project. And suddenly the project became doable. Why? Because every person played a part. Listen, if you are saved by God, you are saved to serve, not saved to sit.
[00:23:47] Every person has a gift. God has gifted you for a reason. Because whatever gift you have, he intends for it to be used so that you can influence those around you. And you can be a part of a team that reaches out into the community where God has put you.
[00:24:03] No one is insignificant. God loves for every part to work. It doesn't matter if you're young. It doesn't matter if you're old. It doesn't matter if you're somewhere in between or you think you're young or you think you're old. It doesn't matter. What matters is you look down and you say, I've got hands, I've got feet, I've got strength. I can do this.
[00:24:24] First Corinthians 12 talks about this. For just as the body is one and has many members, all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ. In other words, I've got a hand, I've got an elbow, I've got a shoulder, I've got a knee, I've got feet. But they're all a part of Craig. They're all a part of this body, so it is with Christ.
[00:24:46] Every person in Village Church east is here for a reason. You're meant to be a part of the body of Christ.
[00:24:53] Verse 21. The eye can't say to the hand, I don't need you. Nor can the head say to the feet, I don't need you. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.
[00:25:06] Whatever part you play in this kingdom of God that we're building is essential.
[00:25:12] No one is insignificant in the great project of God to redeem this world.
[00:25:18] B number two. Being a part of a team means we agree on a timeline together. Nehemiah agreed on a timeline. There were no. There's no time for procrastinators. This is really interesting. The king had set Nehemiah free to get the job done. But Nehemiah has to report back to the king. You remember that Nehemiah said, you can go do this. When will you be back? And for all of us that think about slaves, we're thinking, I'm not coming back, Jack. But he says, yes, I'm coming back. I have a timeline.
[00:25:52] They're very aware, too, that the king might change his mind. He has done this in the past. And if they don't get the work done, he might change his mind.
[00:26:02] Nations around them were threatening them. They had for 70 years. Finishing quickly would limit the ability for them to be threatened. They had to get the timeline accomplished. So they finished in 52 days. Why? Because if somebody is going to go to the king and get the king to stop the work like they had done in the past, it would take more than 52 days to get to the king and back.
[00:26:27] So Nehemiah said, we're going to finish and we're going to do it fast. So the king, even if he changes his mind, it's too late.
[00:26:35] They had momentum now. If this job dragged on for months or even years, they would face the same discouragement that they'd faced in the past. If God calls you to do something, do it now.
[00:26:48] How many of you think you're going to be alive tomorrow?
[00:26:52] How many of you hope you're going to be alive tomorrow? But you don't know, right? So what are you waiting for?
[00:27:02] What would have happened in the first three? If the first three groups of the first few groups got busy, but the fourth group decided that they were going to sun themselves all day, they weren't going to do their work.
[00:27:15] They were going to do their own thing, play volleyball while everybody else worked? Well, there would be a gap in the wall. That city would be defenseless. If the enemy was going to come in. They wouldn't take the walls that are already built. They would go to the one that's not being built Everyone knew they were essential because there could be no gaps in the wall. And Church, you are here and you are essential. Otherwise you wouldn't be here.
[00:27:40] You breathe breath because God has a plan for you. Still.
[00:27:44] Let's get busy. Number three. They agreed to commit to the project together, regardless of a few. I love this next word. Sluggards. Do you know what a sluggard is? Have you ever met a sluggard? Have you ever worked with a sluggard? They are such a pain in the rear, aren't they? It's like, do your job. Why should I do my job? Because I can't do my job. Unless you're doing your job and you have these conversations. Sluggards.
[00:28:12] Sluggards often bring down the momentum and the excitement of the entire group. Let me read you a story of some sluggards on the wall. Verse 5. Next to them, the Tekoites repaired. But. But their nobles would not stoop to serve the Lord. Don't you love that?
[00:28:31] Their nobles wouldn't stoop to serve the Lord? Don't you? Get out of this verse. You're not the boss of me. I'm not doing what you tell me to do. You're not the boss of me. Who made you the boss? I'm the noble. I've been here for all of this time. You walk into town with all of your wood and your soldiers and your big plan. We've been trying this for days and it hasn't worked for years. It hasn't worked for us. These guys were not going to do the work that was beneath them.
[00:28:57] So you know what the other guys did? Look at this. Verse 27.
[00:29:02] These guys didn't deflate the work. They just worked around them. Verse 27. After him, the Tekoites repaired another section opposite the great projecting tower as far as the Wall of Ophel. Do you know what that means? The Tekoites not only finished their section with these sluggards around, but then they went to help another group finish their section. Don't you love that?
[00:29:28] What do you do with people who just refuse to put their effort into the vision? Love them and then work around them.
[00:29:37] Love them and work around them. There's work to be done. Don't get discouraged. Just go help somebody else.
[00:29:45] Finally, teamwork required them to persevere together in spite of obstacles. Verse 19 of chapter 2. When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite's servant and Gesham the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, what is this thing that you're doing, are you rebelling against the king? Remember, the king said, no more wall. We talked about that last week. Nehemiah comes back and he says, king changed his mind wall. Let's get it done before he changes his mind again.
[00:30:20] Some of the hardest obstacles we face, Church, are not financial or time constraints. They're people who intentionally or unintentionally get in the way of the work of God and it aggravates us.
[00:30:33] John Maxwell tells a story. It's a long one, but it's worth telling. Listen to this business. Professors Gary Hamill and another guy wrote about an experiment conducted with a group of monkeys.
[00:30:47] Four monkeys were placed in a room. Now follow this. Four monkeys were placed in a room that had a tall pole in the center.
[00:30:55] Suspended from the top of the pole were a bunch of bananas.
[00:31:00] One of the hungry monkeys started climbing the pole to get something to eat. But just as he reached out to grab a banana, he was doused with a torrent of cold water. Squealing he. He scampered down the pole and abandoned the attempt to feed himself. Each monkey made a similar attempt. Each one was drenched with cold water. After making several failed attempts, they all gave up.
[00:31:22] Then the researchers removed one of the monkeys from the room and replaced him with a new monkey. As a newcomer began to climb the pole, the other three grabbed him and pulled him down to the ground. After trying to climb the pole several times and being dragged down to the ground by the others, he finally gave up and he never climbed the pole again. Interesting, right?
[00:31:44] Gets worse.
[00:31:46] The researchers then replaced the original monkeys one by one with new ones. And each time a new monkey was brought in. They would be dragged down by the others before they could reach the bananas in time. Only monkeys who had never received a cold shower were in the room. But none of them would climb the pole. They prevented each other from climbing, but they didn't know why.
[00:32:14] Isn't that a crazy story?
[00:32:17] Doesn't that sound like your life?
[00:32:21] The Jews had attempted this and they failed. Several times they attempted to build a wall and they'd been ordered to stop. But now Nehemiah was deep in front faith knowing what was deep in the people's hearts. And regardless of the naysayers, Nehemiah said, let's climb the pole again. Let's give it another try.
[00:32:42] And I told them. It says in verse 18, I told them of the Lord, the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also the words of the king. He had spoken to me. And they said, let us rise up and build church. Who said, let us rise up and build?
[00:32:59] Did Nehemiah say, let us rise up and build? Who said, let's rise up and build?
[00:33:04] They said, don't you love that they said it? So they strengthened their hands to the good work. They wanted to succeed. They wanted the challenge. They needed somebody to stand up and say this was a task they could do together for the glory of God. And how did Nehemiah respond to the haters, to the monkeys? They kept on pulling all the other monkeys down. Verse 20. Then I replied to them, the God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build. But you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem church. What do you do with people who just become obstacles to God's plan for you in your life? Love them and find new friends.
[00:33:48] Make sure those who allow you to. Who you allow to speak truth into your life are getting it from God. Make sure that they get their truth from the Lord. I got a slide on that. That's really good. If you want to take a picture of it, Callie, that's right there. Make sure those who you allow to speak truth into your life are getting their truth from God. All right, so what. Here's some. So what's for you, number one on God's team? Every person has something to do.
[00:34:20] Every person has something to offer.
[00:34:23] Again, as far as we know, Nehemiah was not a wall builder or the son of a wall builder. He simply did whatever he could to the best of our ability.
[00:34:33] The question is not what can you do? The question is, what are you willing to do?
[00:34:41] William Booth is founder of the Salvation Army.
[00:34:45] Had a meeting with Queen Victoria, and Queen asked him, what is the secret of your ministry? And Booth simply answered, I guess the reason is because God has all there is of me.
[00:35:00] I wonder what would have happened if the little boy in the feeding of the 5,000 had thought, well, it's only five loaves and two fish. I'm sorry, only five fish and two. Whatever it is, who in their right mind would ever offer this up? Five loaves, two fish. Well, there would be no miracle. The disciples would not have received the lesson from Jesus Christ. And those people would have sat there still hungry on the ground, and we wouldn't be talking about the miracle. Today we have a tendency to look down and say, well, all I have is this. When in reality we should say, lord, all I have is yours.
[00:35:37] Could Jesus have created enough bread and fish out of the air? Church could he have created it from ex nihilo, from nothing. Did he need this kid's bread and fish? Seriously?
[00:35:49] No, he could have just. I mean, he made water into wine for goodness sakes. Right, sorry? Wine from water. Jesus could have created it out of thin air. Why didn't he? Because he wanted the boy's offering. And he wanted to show the disciples what's possible. Possible through a willing heart. He doesn't call the rich, the famous and the noble because he doesn't need their stuff.
[00:36:12] He just needs willing hearts and hands.
[00:36:16] So we start where Nehemiah started. Start with prayer. Pray and ask God right now, what do I have God that you can use? Start with prayer. If you're wondering to yourself, what should I be doing for the Lord, start there. Prayer. Start with fasting. God doesn't hide stuff from us. He'll tell you what he needs you to do.
[00:36:34] Number two, surrender your plans for whatever are his. Sometimes we don't know God's will simply because we say, okay, God, everything I have is yours. Pry my hand open and get it for yourself. When in reality we should be going, okay, Lord, whatever I have is yours. And we allow him to take whatever he needs and replace it with whatever he wants.
[00:36:55] And number three, join the team and participate.
[00:36:59] God does not call any of us to salvation so that we can stand alone. No.
[00:37:06] Do you know, in the end, Jesus is going to present not you before the Father. He's going to present his church before the Father. You are a part of his family. We serve together this local church or local church, like it, around the world in our community and around the world, those who serve Jesus Christ. We're all in the same family. We do this for the glory of God.
[00:37:27] So what's God calling you to do?
[00:37:30] Is it. Maybe it's prayer? Maybe through prayer God reveals to you that you need to give your life to Jesus. You need to start following him for the very first time. Take a step of faith. Give your life to Christ. You can do this at the prayer booth right afterwards. We would love to help. You know where you're at in your relationship with the Lord. Maybe. Maybe you need to be baptized. Maybe you're a little freaked out about the whole baptism thing. You don't understand it. We got a class coming up. You can join. That class will teach you what baptism is according to scripture. Maybe you need to take a step of baptism, step of faith there. Maybe you're not serving yet. Maybe God is telling you it's time to start serving. Whatever it is. When you start praying and you start saying, God, whatever it is, show me he will. But you've got to do it with a genuine heart. Number two, isolation is the devil's work. Unity is God's forte.
[00:38:20] On God's team, every endeavor is a group endeavor.
[00:38:24] Why would I say that?
[00:38:27] Well, even when you take a step of faith on your own, you consult someone on the team. You polish your gifts in a church family. You participate in efforts bigger than you could do on your own. You reach the world with the gospel through missionaries and agencies, Christian agencies. You pray for one another like we did today. Every effort that God calls us to is a group effort. We are in this together. And so I hate saying that we're in this together in a godly way. God calls us to serve as a family, as a church that exists here and around the world. And number three, there will always be haters.
[00:39:05] Don't join them.
[00:39:08] There will always be haters. Don't join them. The Bible says in John 15:18, if the world hates you, know that it's hated me before it hated you. This is Jesus speaking. If you are of the world, the world would love you as his own. But because you're not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Church. Remember, if you feel like your faith is being rejected by the world, that's normal.
[00:39:35] But God is using your faith in ways that you cannot see.
[00:39:41] So don't be a hater.
[00:39:43] Be a nehemiah. What are the possibilities? If God is for you, who can be against you? God has us here for a reason, and it's to bring glory to him with our lives. My guess is you probably already know what God's dream is for you.
[00:39:58] God has probably already communicated it to you in some way.
[00:40:02] He's probably asking you to do even something today.
[00:40:06] My guess is you've already faced opposition to that dream, but I want to encourage you. 1 John 5:4 says this. Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. Listen, we are here as a church to cheer each other on, to step up, to believe that God has something better, to believe in possibilities, that there's something greater planned for us just around the corner. Our goal here as a church is to bring everybody back to the reality that God is still at work in this world. And you may look around you and go, chaos rules.
[00:40:41] But that's why we gather, because we need a reminder that no matter how chaotic it seems, there is a ruler of this world, and that's the one that we love and we serve as Jesus Christ and. And he's still doing something great, and you can be a part of it. Dare we dream that God will use us here in Carroll Stream right now in our own neighborhood? I wonder what the possibilities are for us moving to this building. For us, it's not a permanent location. It's not somewhere where we can park and say we're gonna be here for the rest of our existence. It's a next step. We get to move to this place to grow so that we can have a 24 presence, 7 presence in the community, so that we can grow in number. We can grow in our ability to bring on missionaries, to extend around the world so that we can move to the next phase of what God has for us. And eventually that'll be a church building somewhere, I'm thinking. But as far as what we're doing right now, a door has opened and we're walking through.
[00:41:46] And we're walking through. Not because the building is the end game. It's the next phase to see what God can do through Village Church East.
[00:41:57] What can we do in 52 days?
[00:42:01] That's how long it took for Nehemiah to build that wall. 52 days. I wonder what we can do in the next 52 days. I'm not sure. But you know what, church? I'm glad I get to find out with you.
[00:42:13] This is going to be fun. Whatever happens over the next month, and there's going to be a lot of changes that we're thinking are going to happen over the next month. We may not be here anymore after 52 days, but whatever it is, we're walking through the doors because we simply think we're not a large church.
[00:42:34] Five loaves, two fish. But I wonder what God can do with our church. I wonder what his plans are for us. Whatever they are, we're just going to keep moving forward. We invite you to be part of the team. Let's pray.
[00:42:52] Father, I'm excited for the possibilities of what you have for our church.
[00:42:58] For us personally.
[00:43:00] Every person here has a faith that is somewhere, whether it's still a mustard seed or is still being fertilized or. Or like an oak tree that can't be knocked down.
[00:43:17] We're anxious to see what you can do with us.
[00:43:21] Simple people with five loaves and two fish just willing to see what you can do.
[00:43:28] Simple people that may not know how to build a wall. We may not know how to do what you called us to do. In ten years from now. But we're going to keep moving forward, believing that with you we can do all things.
[00:43:42] You strengthen us and the joy of the Lord is our strength. So as we move forward, Lord, give us the courage, the boldness, give us the team, give us the family that works together, the unity that would please you and Father. May we make a difference for your kingdom in the short time we're allotted on this planet.
[00:44:05] None of us are guaranteed tomorrow.
[00:44:08] So Lord, help us make the most of today.
[00:44:11] I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:44:15] We finish with communion.
