9:30 AM - "Whatever" - Nehemiah 1:11 - 2-7-21

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning would you stand i hope that you got communion elements as you were coming in if not head back and there's a little tables by the doors you can grab the communion elements if you're watching with us online joining us on part of our online congregation get some bread and some juice and get ready for communion which we're going to have a little bit later on wednesday excuse me friday night the supreme court of the united states found in favor of some churches down in san diego that the state of course you know had said no meeting indoors the supreme court found in favor 6 3 that churches in california can meet indoors uh but they said at the same time that the state does have the right to be able to limit the amount so 20 of capacity by the way we're we're still under 25 percent of capacity but they said no singing and no chanting well the chanting we don't really have to worry about but we are going to sing and we are going to sing because the word of god enjoins us to sing and when it comes to obeying god or man god always wins listen let me share let me just you might say well where does it say that it says it right here let me read it to you in ephesians chapter 5 see then that you walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil therefore do not be unwise but understand what the will of the lord is do not be drunk with wine in which is dissipation but be filled with the spirit speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your heart to the lord giving thanks always for all things to god the father in the name of our lord jesus christ we understand the state's concern that we do not spread the virus that is why we have taken the measures that we have we sanitize this building with special spray that lasts for an entire week then we come through a couple times a week and we spray everything to make sure that the surfaces are safe we have air blowing through the building so that we don't have stagnant air we understand the concern about you know singing because you're going to be projecting that's why you're wearing a mask to date we don't know of a single case of kovid that was contracted through our services here not one we have lots of our members that have come down with kovid we've investigated where did you get it how did you get it every single one of them everyone got it either from a family member from someone at work or from a source they do not know but they could say categorically i did not get it through the services of calvary chapel so here we are we are going to worship and to praise our god i am convinced one of the reasons why we saw the unrest that we did last summer was because the church of christ was not gathering to worship and sing together a wall was dropped evil came in it's our duty to be salt and light so we are going to worship and we are going to praise our god and you're going to have to sing doubly loud to get through that mask so let's go [Music] i searched the world and i searched the world but it couldn't fill me a man's empty praise treasures the faith are never enough but you came along and put me back together and every desire is now satisfied here [Music] better than you but there's nothing nothing is better i'm not afraid [Music] friends [Music] there's not a place won't find me again [Music] [Music] nothing is [Music] you give beauty for ashes [Music] [Music] highway [Music] better than you there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing nothing is better [Music] nothing is better than you [Music] dancing [Music] you're the you're the only one you care you lord all things are possible when we believe old chains are breakable when we receive yah away you keep your promises if you said it we believe it if you said it if you said it we believe it [Music] if you said it we believe it cause you're a man of your word if you said it we believe [Music] all things are possible when we believe old chains are breakable for when we receive your way you keep your promises if you said it we believe it if you said it if you said it we believe it [Music] [Music] we [Music] you finish what you started [Music] god you have never failed you won't start with me [Music] cause you're a man [Music] cause you're a man of your word we have this confidence you'll finish what you started god you have never failed you won't start with me [Music] you won't start with me [Music] god we believe that you will accomplish everything that your word has given us god we can trust you completely as we look to your word this morning amen amen we're going to continue to worship uh with music but this morning we're also going to dedicate our ties and offerings to the lord so if you have a tithe or authoring you can drop it in the back after service or you can give online in the ways below also we're going to do communion as pastor lance message so if you have not gotten a communion cup get that ready we're going to do that in the next couple of songs as we continue to sing i've heard thousands [Music] whisper love [Music] [Music] it's who i am [Music] says [Music] who i am [Music] you are perfect in all of your ways [Music] is [Music] hello [Music] peace [Music] [Music] is [Music] to you [Music] is jesus lord we come to worship you this morning some hearts may be heavy but lord we trust you and we rely on you father god we love you lord we love you lord walking around these walls i thought they'd fall by now [Music] but you have never failed me yet waiting for change to come [Music] but you have never failed me [Music] your promise still stands great is your faithfulness your faithfulness i'm still in your hands this is [Music] me i know the night won't last [Music] your words will come to pass my heart will sing your praise again jesus you're still enough keep me within your love my heart will sing your praise again your promise still stands great is your faithfulness your i'm faithfulness in your hands this is [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] [Music] where there was no way i'll see you do it again [Music] but but you will do it lord you'll move that mountain you will make it away for us hallelujah [Music] yes lord your promise still stands great is your faithfulness your faithfulness [Music] i'm still in your hands this is my confidence you never fail me yet hallelujah [Music] never fail me yet one more time never fail me thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus we love you lord halloween halloween oh god we thank you that you have never can never and will never fail us amen that we can look at your track record your perfect unfailing track record and know that we can stand on the truth of your word that you your word cannot fail you cannot fail you are perfect in all of your ways amen well if you're here with us in person go ahead and take a seat for a few minutes we're going to come to the lord's table and we had somebody this last week one of our viewers online uh mentioned specifically that they they love taking communion with us but they don't fully understand what it means and so for those of you uh church veterans that have been around for a while bear with us just as we unpack that a little bit and explain what it is that we're doing when we partake of those elements the bread and the cup so in luke chapter 22 we see jesus gathering with his disciples to eat of the passover feast so the passover feast was a feast that god had commanded them to observe every year in remembrance of what he had done when the israelites were slaves in egypt if you recall the nation of israel had been brought into egypt and they became slaves they were slaves there for 400 years until god raised up moses to lead them out of slavery in egypt and into the promised land and not surprisingly the egyptians were not super eager to give up their slaves and so they didn't want to let the people go so god had brought a series of plagues against the nation of egypt each one progressively uh more terrible and they still weren't willing to let the israelites go until the passover took place so what happened in the passover is god warned the nation of israel to do some certain things so that the judgment that he was going to bring against the egyptians would pass over them so god commanded that they gather in households that they observe a feast that they find a lamb without spot or without blemish and that they kill that lamb that they spread its blood on the door frame of each of their homes and that they observe that feast together the night of the passover and what would happen is when god passed over egypt to slay the firstborn of every household he would see the blood on the doorpost and his judgment would pass over each of those households where the blood had been spread over the doorpost and so the passover feast was observed every year by the israelites by the jews to remember god's deliverance of them from slavery and how his judgment had been passed over because of the blood of the lamb that had been applied to each of their homes well jesus gathered and he instituted a new feast with his disciples as he gathered for this passover and i think it's significant that not one of the gospels mentioned them eating a lamb at the passover feast that jesus had with his disciples and i believe it's for this reason jesus was making clear to them that he was the lamb of god that would take away their sins that he was the lamb of god that would cause the judgment of god do them for their sin to pass over them because of the blood of the lamb shed on their behalf and so jesus gathered with them for this feast and we're going to read in luke chapter 22 what he did he said after taking the cup he gave thanks and he said take this divided among you for i tell you i will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of god comes this is interesting the last time that jesus observed this feast with his people was that night with his disciples and what he means when he says he will drink it again when the kingdom of god comes is what is spoken of in revelation chapter 19 the marriage supper of the lamb that's when every believer will gather together with jesus and celebrate his victory together with him in glory as we begin the thousand-year reign of christ so he said it says that he took the bread and he gave thanks and he broke it and he gave it to them saying this is my body broken for you do this in remembrance of me so we're going to take the bread and as we do we're remembering that jesus died on a cross his body was pierced and broken and battered for us the gospel can really be summed up in four words and it's this jesus in my place when jesus died on the cross he died your death he died my death his body was broken for you and for me for the death that we deserved for our sin so as we take the bread let's remember what he's done for us when he died on the cross [Music] in the same way after supper he took the cup saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you [Music] so as we take the cup this morning what we're doing is we're remembering that jesus the lamb of god that takes away our sin died on a cross and it's his blood that washed away our sin and gives us the ability to have a relationship with god and we remember and we celebrate that let's take the cup let's pray oh god we thank you that you paid the highest price for us that your word says in romans chapter 5 while we were still sinners you demonstrated your love for us and that christ died for us lord we thank you for your body broken for us and your blood poured out for us so that we could have a relationship with god we remember that today we celebrate that today lord it's the basis of our worship today we worship you because you died for us you loved us first so we pray as we continue to worship this morning lord that we would feel your nearness your presence your love your grace your mercy on us as we worship you we pray in jesus name amen let's go ahead and stand again this morning and to continue to worship friends of heaven king of all [Music] he descended from his throne into the world this son of god was born in my frame [Music] he bore the cross despised the shame closed in sin his robe was stinged and by his blood now i am free [Music] now i am saved for my jesus paid the highest price the lamb of god was crucified and he deserves my love he deserves my life for jesus paid the highest price [Music] prince [Music] into the world this son of god was born in my frame [Music] before the cross spies the shame clothed in sin this robe was stained and by his blood now i am free now i am safe [Music] for my jesus [Music] my life for jesus made the highest price oh if there's no greater sacrifice [Music] greater sacrifice [Music] sacrifice i surrendered all of heaven held its breath and creation [Music] mourned his death but then jesus rose and now that he lives i am alive [Music] mourned his death but then jesus rose now that he [Music] paid lives highest price the lamb of god was crucified when he deserves my love [Music] he deserves my life for jesus christ jesus thank you for being willing to pay the price for us we are so grateful and god we don't want to just take that gift and sit on it we want to take advantage of all that you've done for us on the cross the new life that you've given us and as we enter into this study god i pray that you would inspire and spark in us the faithfulness that you're calling each single person in this room and watching online into that we would not just be partakers but we would give back and we'd be conduits of your grace that you have given to us we pray this in your name jesus amen amen say hello to a few people that are around you this morning if you're online say hello in the comment section maybe shoot someone a text or an email let's fellowship for a moment hey calvary oxnard fam claraville here with this week's announcements we'll be hosting a blood drive with red cross on thursday march 4th from 10 am to 4 pm at our family ministry building your gift of blood can help up to three people and save lives it's important to know blood drives have the highest standards of safety to help with social distancing we will be staggering appointments and no guests or children will be allowed masks are required to donate blood go to redcrossblood.org and enter the sponsor keyword calvary oxnard in the find a drive box on the website our video production ministry is looking for those faithful and dedicated volunteers to help cco to continue to serve its members and community if you have any video production experience or you were a student who took the video production class at calvary christian school and are willing to be trained in the technical aspects of video production you can contact sandin at sandin calvaryoxnard.org as many of you know our brother mark gonzalez recently went to be with the lord family mark your calendars for his celebration of life service on saturday february 13th from 11 a.m to 12 30 p.m in the cco sanctuary if you are able let us join together and honor the faithful life he lived for christ and lastly whether in person or from home we want to remind you to stay plugged in and connected with your church family during this season we know that god is still in control so let's remind each other of the lord's promises if you need prayer during the week please contact us and we would love to pray with you over the phone we love you church family now let's prepare our hearts for the faithful teaching of god's word good morning turn your bibles please to colossians chapter three that's where we're going to start this morning good to see you all each week it seems a few more people come on out return to fellowship it's good to see you all sort of see you it's good to sort of sin i want you to turn in your bibles to oh i already told you that didn't i that's right how to remember what part of the service i'm in let's stand we're just going to read two verses this morning verses 23 and 24 in preparation for our study in nehemiah the apostle paul says here in colossians 3 verse 23 and whatever you do do it heartily is to the lord and not to men knowing that from the lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the lord christ father i prayed this morning that as we look at the the example of this in the life of nehemiah that we would be encouraged to whatever we do wherever we are whatever our calling or as we seek you for our calling the lord you would find us faithful in this field right now lord remind us of the privilege that we have of living in this moment find us faithfully serving you we pray in jesus name amen go ahead and have a seat and turn please to nehemiah chapter 1 nehemiah chapter 1. we're going to go about our our study a little bit differently today i prefer to teach expositionally which means we read a passage we explain the passage we want to get at the meaning of the passage and then look for an application and we just work our way through the entire bible that way this is our fifth time through the bible in the almost 40 years that we've been meeting as a church and so we just work our way through the entire bible and we're going to do that this morning we're going to continue to do expositional teaching but of a very short sentence that we find here at the end of chapter one most of our time is going to be spent in application this morning because we have a truth that is set before us that is something that i think all of god's people each of us need to really ponder and to consider now before we dive in i need to set the scene and the context of what we're looking at 200 years before this the babylonians defeated the kingdom of judah then destroyed their capital of jerusalem the city was leveled that gorgeous temple of solomon was reduced to rubble and the entire population of judah was deported by the babylonians into exile leaving the land a wilderness several decades later the persians conquered the babylonians and reversed their policy of transporting populations that they had conquered and they allowed the jews to return to judah to rebuild their land after 70 years of exile the first group of about 50 000 of them returned and they set themselves to their first and most important task rebuilding the temple there in jerusalem but they really didn't do much of the rebuilding they rebuilt the temple and basic homes and then because of harassment from their neighbors they left off rebuilding the rest of the city eighty years after that first return ezra led a much smaller group of about five thousand his vision was for a spiritual renewal and rebuilding of the people by teaching them god's word as we come to the book of nehemiah it opens back in the persian capital of shushan and it's 12 years after ezra had led the second return like ezra nehemiah worked in the persian royal court one day he's going about his duties and he hears that a group of his fellow jews have returned from jerusalem with a report he wanting to hear an update news it's been years since he's heard anything about what's happening back in jerusalem and he's gravely concerned about what's happening with with the city where my heart is and so he goes and he asks them oh what's happening they give him a report it's not good the city of jerusalem is still mostly ruins rubble and especially distressing to him was news that the walls of jerusalem had not been rebuilt which meant that the people living in the city were being constantly harassed by their neighbors that were coming in and giving them a hard time and nia's my nehemiah's reaction to this news was well it was quite frankly a lot like ezra's that we saw last week you may remember when ezra heard that the people of the land especially the leaders and some of the priests were marrying pagan wives it ruined him he was destroyed emotionally and he sat down and he wept nehemiah's reaction at hearing that jerusalem's walls are still in ruins was much like ezra's he was devastated he was broken and he devoted himself to a time of fervent prayer asking god for help for the city and then what happened was as he prayed the burden got heavier my brothers and sisters in christ listen to me you know what it means to have someone tell you about a need you hear about the need maybe it's a friend it might be a family member somebody at work and they tell you about a need and and you feel a burden oh god needs to work in that and so you pray now oftentimes what happens is we hear about a bird we hear about something we're burdened and we sense a call to pray and we'll even say i'll pray for you and having prayed the burden lifts because guess what that's all god wanted you to do was to pray but there are times you hear about a need and you pray and as you're praying the burden just increases it gets heavier god is telling you the spirit is telling you i want you to pray more it's not just a casual prayer like most things i really want you to to spend some time in praying for this and you persevere in prayer and sometimes of those special kinds of prayers the burden just gets heavier and you realize the lord may be calling you to get other people involved in prayer or maybe to fast for a time and so you begin to fast and you begin to pray and you share with your small group hey here's a need and you pray together now listen for most of those things after that the burden lifts that's all god wanted you to do with nehemiah he does all of that he prays he prays more he fasts and prays and guess what the burden only increased and so nehemiah realized god was telling him to do more than pray more than fast god was calling him to do something about the need that he needed to go and to lead in the project of rebuilding jerusalem's walls the problem is his position in the persian court wouldn't allow him to he had a job to do if he just got up and said i quit and he left the king would have killed him and so he says he begins to pray four months he prays during that time god gives him a vision for what to do a plan on how to get it done and he begins to pray for permission now his prayer is recorded for us in verses 1 through 11 of chapter 1. and it ends with look at verse 11 he says oh lord i pray please let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who desire to fear your name and let your servant prosper this day i pray and grant him mercy in the sight of this man now what man is he referring to whose favor is he asking god for well that's where we find these last words of verse 11 for i was the say it with me king's cup bearer and folks that's what i want to focus on this morning those words seeming offhand comment that he makes penned so that we would know who the this man was that he was asking favor with because those words for i was the king's cup bearer set an important truth before us you see we we know something about cupbearers in the persian court the persians elevated the idea of royal majesty to its historic peak its historic zenith there have been periods of history where kings have sought to impress people with their wealth and their power we think of the some of the chinese emperors and the majesty that attended their throne some of the roman emperors that even demanded people worship them as god but know this no people elevated the idea of their king to the place of majesty more than the persians there displays of wealth and power were obscene they literally basked in the lap of luxury from the majesty of their crown to their wardrobe the majesty of their throne and their court to the incredibly lavish parties they threw everything screamed excess some of their parties that they threw to impress people went on for weeks with a never-ending supply of cheetos and soda i'm not kidding you a never-ending supply of food and drink the royal cup bearer oversaw everything having to do with the king's table he set the menu he oversaw the kitchens plural he was responsible for the royal vineyards that grew the grapes and the entire wine making process from the king's perspective the cupbearer's most important role was ensuring the safety of the food they ate and beverage they drank historically many conspiracies to replace a king used poison as a tool of assassination the cub bear ensured the safety of what the king ate because they would eat it or drink it first imagine having that job you thought your job was tough imagine being a cup bearer and the persian court food is set out the drink is set there and the king says okay go ahead you take a little bite you know of some of the food you take a little drink and the king's just going to wait for a little while to see how you do if you're still upright after 20 minutes the king digs in because of the trust that was invested in a cup bearer he became one of the king's closest confidants now we know the persian king actually had seven official counselors they were drawn from the nobility they functioned as kind of our our president's cabinet but the the king knew that these seven official counselors being nobility would often give counsel and advice based on their own self-interest and so he would often listen to and ask the advisor counsel of his cupbearer because he knew his cupbearer had one concern the welfare of his boss and so he became very close a trusted advisor that's why nehemiah tells us that he was king artaxerxes cup bearer it meant that he had special access to the king to make his request but because of how much the king depended on him getting permission to leave would be especially difficult artaxerxes would have been especially reluctant to let nehemiah go since his father the previous king xerxes had been murdered in a palace conspiracy and the replacing of a cub bear was a prime opportunity you know to get forces that were against the king to insert one of their own agents in there so nehemiah knew getting permission was going to require god's help now how neo in the persian court is a fascinating story artaxerxes stepmother was the jewish beauty queen esther the second wife of artaxerxes father xerxes you remember the story when i say she was a beauty queen literally she was a beauty queen and she had become the second wife of king xerxes if you don't know her story hang on we're going to be there in just a couple of weeks as we get to the book of esther now no doubt esther had reminded her stepson king artaxerxes how loyal his jewish subjects were and what excellent administrators they could be and so artaxerxes had appointed skilled men like ezra and nehemiah to key positions in his court he had already sent ezra to jerusalem 12 years before now nehemiah prays for an opportunity to ask permission to return to jerusalem to lead in the rebuilding of its walls in chapter two after four months of fervent prayer during which god gave nehemiah a vision and a plan the opportunity to ask for permission to go finally came one day artaxerxes is just going about his regular job excuse me nehemiah he's just going about his regular job king artaxerxes sees that something's not right with him that there's something that's troubling him he's not his usual cheerful self and so art deserves he says nehemiah what's going on obviously you're distressed nehemiah then carefully coaches his words in a way to gain artaxerxes sympathy and it worked the king asked him what what do you want to do nehemiah then asked permission to lead in the rebuilding of jerusalem and though the prospect of losing him wasn't something that artaxerxes was real excited about he gave him permission along with whatever authority and resources that he would need to accomplish the task now i want to back up in the story just a little bit it's not hard for us to figure out why the first group of jewish exiles that had returned almost 100 years before this was led by a man by the name of zerubbabel that first group of fifty thousand was led by this man named zerubbabel because he was of the royal line of david and everyone knew it quite frankly he was in the lineage to be judah's king and that's why the people followed him now the persians couldn't call him a king because they were in control so they made him a governor and so he's obviously the one to lead this group that returns first ezra was a priest and a scribe he knew god's word intimately the perfect leader of a group that returns to lead in a spiritual renewal and rebuilding but what were nehemiah's qualifications he's not nobility no royal blood flows in his veins he's not a priest we would call nehemiah a manager an administrator i wonder if in the days before he heard of jerusalem's distress nehemiah asked himself what he was doing i wonder if he ever thought is this the rest of my life is this what i'm going to be doing to my grave menus and grapes is that my life is my destiny to stand around making sure there's enough high quality snacks for a bunch of rich spoiled people really is this my life sure being artaxerxes cup bearer is a privilege of course being a close confidant an advisor to one of history's all-time most powerful men is an honor but deep inside nehemiah knew that he was made for more than that he felt it in his bones not knowing what it was in the days before he heard that report about jerusalem he faithfully did what was before him trusting that as he did god was doing something to bring him to the place that he was created for and then he heard of jerusalem's distress and everything began to fall into place he realized that was what he was made for that was his calling during the next four months he came to see how god had been at work for a long time setting everything up that god had secured nehemiah a special favor with king artaxerxes had taught him the skills that he would need to oversee a huge project had given him contacts to secure the resources that he would need to accomplish rebuilding of a city his years as the royal cupbearer prepared him for the task ahead had he not had that job he never would have been in a position to secure all that was needed for the rebuilding friends please hear me god is really good at preparing his people for the task that he has assigned them a generation before nehemiah god put esther in the persian court so that she could save the jews from destruction and and do you remember where her story begins with a beauty pageant with a beauty pageant something that seems so worldly to our minds and yet that is what god used to put esther in a position where she could save her people not only save the jews from genocide but but to set the stage for both ezra and nehemiah to become trusted officials in the persian court i want to ask you to consider the life of joseph who comes to egypt with all of the skill that he needs to save not only his family but thousands and thousands of egyptians as well from famine the path of joseph's training was a hard one a brutally hard one it meant betrayal at the hands of his own brothers being sold into slavery by them you think your family's dysfunctional how would you like to have your brothers throw you into a pit talk about how they're gonna off you and then decide ah let's make some money out of it instead and sell you into slavery that's joseph and then he gets sold into slavery and he goes to potiphar's house where he becomes a slave there and because he's faithful as a slave he gets elevated to become the chief steward over potiphar's whole house where his wife then tries to seduce him and because he won't give in to her wiles she accuses him of trying to rape her and so he's now thrown into prison you ever been treated unjustly unfairly and joseph's in prison now why because he remained faithful to god and there in prison he learns what he needs to and he makes contact with someone who is later going to see him brought out of prison and elevated to the second highest position in the world's greatest empire at the time egypt during all that time imagine how how bitter joseph could have become but he never did he trusted that god was doing something though he could not see it joseph knew he was destined for greatness he knew it he looked at being a slave and being a prisoner and he said this is not what i was made for how did he know it because when he was a young man he had had a couple of dreams that saw his elevation and people bowing down to him and he knew those dreams had come from god he knew that they were god's call on his life and so he said though i don't understand what god is doing i will trust him and god built into him what he needed so that when he was eventually elevated to become second only to pharaoh he would have the skills and the heart that was necessary to save thousands and thousands of lives so much so that when his brothers appeared before him many years later afraid that now that he's in a position of power he's going to use it to get back at them he says this to them what you meant for evil god meant for good it's easy to say that looking back joseph lived it looking forward by faith consider moses though he was educated in the best schools of egypt he didn't know how to lead yet leader was his destiny it was his calling and so god took him to the wilderness classroom where he spent 40 years tending sheep you know why it took 40 years because he was a slow learner god only keeps us in the lessons as long as we need to learn them once he had a shepherd's heart and the skills of a shepherd god took him back to egypt where he led god's flock out of bondage early on moses knew that he was destined for greatness but he wasn't ready for it proved by the fact he committed murder i wonder how how often during those years of tending sheep in the wilderness alone did moses wonder what is going on what is happening though it was hard to see at the time he was learning how to lead and god was at work back in egypt getting egypt ready for his return david is another who learned how to lead god's people by being a shepherd peter andrew james and john learned how to catch men by first catching fish matthew learned the skills he needed to write that story of jesus's life that chronicle called the gospel of matthew by sitting in a tax book to tax booth keeping tax records friends please hear me god trains his workers he grooms his servants he prepares us for the work that we're made for and called to and sometimes that that preparation seems to us a waste of time it seems petty because we don't recognize it for what it is we sense that we are called to something important we sense that there is a greatness that is uniquely our own but we look at what we did yesterday and what we're doing today and it seems vain like we're missing something we'll learn the lesson that nehemiah teaches faithfully serve wherever you are because god is faithfully getting you ready for your calling ecclesiastes 9 10 says whatever your hand finds to do do it with all your might and listen if you can't do it with all your might is to the lord you shouldn't be doing it bloom where you're planted because tomorrow's mission is rooted in today's faithfulness i've shared this before let me just briefly share my story lynn and i moved here in 1980 as a job transfer i was working in fast food management and there was a unit here that they needed someone to supervise so we moved from the bay area we'd just been married not long and we moved here and uh so yeah i was a literally taco bender back in those days we actually made our own taco shells so i was a taco bender i'm not just saying that i was that was me i was a burger slinging taco bender i manage fast food for 13 years and lynn is now pregnant and i'm driving i'm not now i'm not saying now i'm saying back back then since listen let me just be clear she's like wait i am uh that's news to me so it's 1980 we've been living here for a little while now and lynn's pregnant and i remember driving north on victoria and thinking about is this my life and a depression settled over me that it made me physically ill my stomach started to churn because i could see nothing but being a burger slinging taco bender for the rest of my life there was nothing else i had no degree i had no vocational training this is all i knew and it was all i could see and the thought of being a a well i was at that time thinking gray-haired wrinkly fast food manager just it i can't even put it into words little done i know i wouldn't have any hair eventually and i'd be a bald wrinkly fast food manager and the thought that that was my life just ruined me and i cried out oh god please no and as quickly as that despair had settled over me at the prospect of the only future i could see that quickly as quickly as it came with that prayer was a profound peace is that just since the holy spirit say your future is in my hand trust me at that time being a pastor and a bible teacher was nowhere nowhere on my horizon but a year later that idea of of teaching the bible and being a pastor began to be the call that i began to realize that the what the lord was calling me into that's my story your story is different but the point is whatever your story is know this you have a calling it likely isn't to be a pastor it might be but you have a calling we are all called to be ministers of the lord jesus christ every single one of us to be a believer is to have a calling and no your calling your title may not be pastor it might be assistant manager it might be line worker it might be research it might be maintenance it might be i.t whatever your title is you don't work on a church staff but you work for the lord and whatever you're calling is you need to hear me your calling is vital nehemiah was not a religious calling his task wasn't religious he was a construction supervisor he was a manager and he fulfilled that with such excellence because he was faithful to it how important was nehemiah's calling to the overall plan and purposes of god absolutely essential he rebuilt jerusalem's walls and reestablished safety for the people of god so no you're not called to be on a church staff maybe your title isn't pastor or bible teacher your your title is mom your title is dad you're called to a holy calling to raise godly children and bequeath to the future a godly generation how important is that my task is to stand up here and to teach the bible this is this is the church that we do on sunday mornings and wednesday nights but the church is wherever you are doing whatever god has called you to do and while i'll teach the bible here from this stage behind this pulpit you are the only bible some people will ever read and ever see at your job at your home if you don't know what your calling is please hear me seek god he will reveal it to you in his time but trust him he is at work right now preparing you for your calling so as we began today in colossians 3 and whatever you do do it heartily as to the lord and not to men knowing that you are serving the lord jesus christ amen would you stand father i pray for my brothers and sisters that lord you would fill them with a sense of that greatness to which they are called each of us have been created in your image to bear your likeness to know your love to be transformed by your truth to share that message and the power of that truth with those that have yet to hear the lord find us faithful as we wait upon you looking with anticipation into the days of head days that your word has has told us are coming oh lord prepare us for the challenges that lie ahead find us faithfully serving and loving you we pray this in your name amen if you need prayer we have people up front to minister to you in prayer if you need prayer maybe helping to discover your calling we'd love to pray with you come join us and let us pray for you god bless you as you go in christ amen [Music] you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Oxnard

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Id: Y5sfj7NgRFY

Length: 82min 56sec (4976 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 07 2021