Nehemiah 2 - Rebuilding and Opposition

yes good morning everyone for those who are here today and joining us online we welcome you to our sunday service it is a beautiful day outside uh thank you lord for the spring weather amen wow if you haven't gotten a chance to go outside and enjoy the spring weather go ahead and do so and enjoy the lord's creation while we have this weather right and today we have our ladies who are still at the women's retreat slash getaway slash staycation shelly just wanted to cover every single every single uh every single word there uh but we're hoping that you are having an amazing time of rest and relaxation and just a time of fellowship and we are looking forward to hearing stories from uh your time together and now church let us go ahead and begin our time of worship and with that if you are able please stand as we hear from the word of god today and this morning i will go ahead and read from psalm 35 verses 18 through 28 psalm 35 verses 18 through 28. feel free to follow along in your bibles or feel free to just listen to the word of god psalm 35 18-28 i will thank you and the great congregation and the mighty throng i will praise you let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes and let not those who wink the eye who hate me without cause for they do not speak peace but against those who are quiet in the land they devise words of deceit they open wide their mouths against me they say aha our eyes have seen it you have seen oh lord be not silent o lord be not far from me awake and rouse yourself for my vindication for my cause my god and my lord vindicate me o lord my god according to your righteousness and let them not rejoice over me let them not say in their hearts aha our hearts desire let them not say we have swallowed him up let them be put to shame and disappointed altogether who rejoice at my calamity let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore great is the lord who delights in the welfare of his servant then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long this is the word of god we can respond but thanks be to god this is the word of god and now church let us worship together and let's hear you sing these wonderful songs and let's praise him with with shouts of joy and gladness today [Music] is [Music] right [Music] christ jesus [Music] must win [Music] the prince of darkness [Music] [Music] his kingdom is [Music] let's sing our next song together praise to the lord the almighty [Music] is [Music] join me [Music] [Applause] [Music] shelters thee under his [Music] wings [Music] he ordained [Music] praise to the lord surely his goodness and mercy here daily [Music] what the almighty [Music] him [Music] him [Music] amen [Music] again gladly forever i just love those old hymns i just love those old hymns so rich and deep in their texts and their lyrics for example reading verse 1 again prays to the lord the almighty the king of creation o my soul praise him for he is thy health and salvation and this is what's great about connecting it to our study of nehemiah look at this third line i'm not sure if it's up there all ye who hear now to his temple draw near wow join me in glad adoration so as we continue to study the book of nehemiah just imagine yourself at that time around the 4 45 bc period going back into jerusalem to proclaim the lord's goodness because now you are no longer in exile in babylon but you are now back to your homeland and let's go ahead and sing our next song and as i was planning the i was planning the worship set this week this song came to mind because in emi chapter two sorry pastor kyle i'm gonna spoil a little bit of it so in nehemiah chapter two actually previously in nehemiah chapter one remember we were left in suspense he was going to ask the king to see if he can go back to where to jerusalem right and now in nehemiah chapter 2 it's the moment where he is about to go before king arthur exercise and ask for permission to go back to jerusalem to rebuild the wall and the gate but one thing for sure though is that he's not really going before king arthur xerxes but he's going first and foremost before the lord the lord god of abraham and he is pleading for favor that art of certainties will say yes but in god's divine providence we will see what happens and with that let's go ahead and sing the song together as we go before the throne of god and plead for him for his mercies today [Music] before the throne of god above i have a strong and perfectly a great high priest whose name is love whoever lives name is [Music] when satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the gift [Music] [Music] is [Music] my savior and my god with christ my savior and my god [Music] behold [Music] my perfect spotless [Music] [Music] me [Music] and now let us go ahead and be seated and we will now hear from pastor kyle all right well good morning everybody let me see if i got this on are we good yes perfect fantastic all right good morning everyone before we get started this morning i want to do a couple of announcements and quick updates uh the first is if you're new with us either in person or more likely joining us online just want to remind you we have our connect cards there's also a digital connect card love to get you uh or get your information so we can get you our information love to connect you with community groups which are starting to gather together again as the sun's coming out we're meeting outside and having a great time encouraging one another and reconnecting is so good so one of the things we like to say is church is more than an event it's a people and we want you to be part of the people of god so go ahead fill that out if you're able and we'll follow up with you i'd love to sit down have a cup of coffee with you and uh kind of explain what we're doing here who jesus is and what we are about um as uh ken mentioned earlier this weekend is our women's getaway the rvc women's getaway yeah give it a hand for the ladies i know many of you guys have been praying for them i've been getting pictures throughout the weekend of them doing arts and crafts sitting down talking laughing and uh just connecting and having a time of rest and refreshment which was our prayer for them uh one thing if you haven't kind of been up on the latest there is that um we had 23 ladies that went on or were signed up rather to go on the retreat unfortunately a bunch of our uh hope place gals were not able to go there was a another breakout and so they had to be on lockdown and they're not able to join us here or go on the retreat and so i want to do two things this morning i want to pray for our ladies who are out on the retreat this is their last morning together let's continue to pray that god would you know create new connections and friendships and strengthen them and refresh them let's also pray for our hopeless gals as they are on lockdown again and i know how discouraging and frustrating that can be this is i think the third time that this has happened so will you go ahead and join me in a word of prayer heavenly father we lift up the ladies of our church to you lord we pray first for the ladies that were able to go on the retreat father thank you for uh the smiles the rest the arts and crafts the time that they got together the good food the beauty of the creation that they got to go out and enjoy thank you for the good weather lord we pray that you continue to hear and answer our prayers we pray for deep friendships and connections we pray lord that um you would awaken spiritual passion in them lord we pray that iron would sharpen iron that they would grow together under your word we pray as they come back this afternoon lord that they would do so with fresh passion and energy and zeal for you and god i pray that that would bless um our families the kids our church family lord would you fill them up as they are so diligent to honor you and all that you've given them to do and lord we lift up our hope place women to you lord we pray for encouragement this morning as some are watching on their phones or in the tv over at the kitchen and they're on lockdown lord would you remind them that they are loved would you strengthen and comfort them would you give them great patience as they deal with yet another lockdown father we love them we pray a blessing on them we ask all this in jesus name and all god's people said amen amen all right um well let's get into it this morning if you have a bible with you and i hope you do we're going to continue our series in nehemiah so you can go ahead and flip in your bible over to nehemiah chapter 2 or on your phone app and um we'll go ahead and get started if you're new with us this morning maybe joining us online we are in a series we're calling nehemiah a season to rebuild i wonder why we titled that so what we see is some parallels between the story of nehemiah and the story that god has us in right now there is a light at the end of the tunnel lord willing for coven the vaccines are going out the numbers lord willing will go down and as we emerge out of the season of lockdowns and disappointments and rescheduling and difficulty and challenge we look around and examine ourselves in our church and our city and we realize there's a lot of work to be done there's a lot that has lapsed a lot that has fallen apart a lot that has become disorganized in ourselves in our families in our church and in our city and so we're taking um the next uh or this 11 week series rather to look through nehemiah to learn from what god does in his people to rebuild rebuild the people in a place for his glory and their joy and so that is kind of our heart and hope behind this series we want by god's grace to to continue to fulfill our mission and so our mission statement here at raynor valley church is because god loves us rainier valley church exists to glorify god to love one another and to preach the gospel of jesus christ as we serve our neighbors and the nations that's what we're aiming for and that's what by god's grace we will be about for as long as he has us here and so we started the story of nehemiah last week looking at nehemiah chapter one and we saw that nehemiah was a cup bearer to the king the king artaxerxes and what's interesting is that a cupbearer is kind of a very unique role pastor steve unpacked it for us yesterday or last week rather and the cupbearer would stand before the king it was a it was a position of service but it was it was a position of of influence and and honor as well and so we see that nehemiah is a cup bearer to the king in the palace the city of susa and what happens is nehemiah is from the people of god the people of israel and so this is the story of the whole bible god creates the world humanity sins against him wants to do their own thing wants to define good and evil for themselves wants to live life apart from god god then comes on a rescue mission through a family he chooses abraham abraham's family grows becomes the people of israel israel is not faithful to god israel ends up after you've probably heard of king david and then solomon in solomon's time the nation is split in half and then the nation becomes increasingly idolatrous and then the nation is taken into exile and so what happens is that nehemiah is one of these israelites one of these people of god but he's not where he wants to be he's not where he should be you see what happened was that god had promised that through abraham he would send the messiah he would send a new david he would send this king who would be ultimately the king of all nations he would send this blessing that would be a blessing to all nations and and as the promise grows as the story continues we get more and more details and a big piece of the the details that we see about this coming messiah is this city of jerusalem jerusalem is going to be where the messiah who uh often times that'll say in the scriptures and the prophets that talks about he'll be a branch he's like branch man he comes out of this root and he's in the city of jerusalem and all the people will listen to him and come to him and so nehemiah is far from jerusalem and he meets with uh some friends who have been to jerusalem recently he hears that the city is utterly destroyed think berlin after a world war ii uh just in ruins bombed to smithereens and then there's infighting politically over who gets it that's where jerusalem is now nehemiah is heartbroken because he knows the promises of god he knows the word of god he knows the goodness of god that he wants for the whole world and it and it doesn't happen the plan doesn't come to fruition unless jerusalem is the city that it needs to be unless god's people are the people that they need to be and so we looked last week at how nehemiah did this prayer where he he pleaded with god saying that um that god would keep his promises and and pastor steve had this really unique saying he said it at least twice he said nehemiah was pleading with god to remember to be god and that was a very challenging statement he was saying god keep your promises bless your people and bring your messiah and so what we find now is we start chapter two really on a cliffhanger what happened was nehemiah wants to go talk with the king nehemiah wants to do something nehemiah has been moved and nehemiah is terrified this is the king of all kings this is the absolute monarch this is the man that his word goes this is the guy that you want to please this is not the guy that you want to ask favors of and so we're going to learn through nehemiah's example in the people of god we're going to learn what it means to rebuild this morning's message i'm calling rebuilding and opposition and we want to learn three things about what it looks like for us now from nehemiah and the people of god's example we want to learn three things about what it means to rebuild we're going to rebuild with passion we're going to rebuild with courage and we're going to rebuild with strategy passion courage and strategy and as we are rebuilding surprise surprise we're going to experience three challenges so we want to rebuild despite opposition despite difficulty and despite criticism because anything worth doing is going to get some serious pushback and so as we get into the word this morning and you have nehemiah lane in front of you i want to remind you for a moment that what we're looking at is really a series of journal entries these are the private diaries of this man named nehemiah and these are the lessons that he learned these are the struggles that he struggled through these are the prayers that he prayed these are the blessings of god that he sees in his own life and now they are serving us thousands of years later so just on a practical note as we are coming out lord willing of coven would you take a moment if you haven't already done this whether you journal or you write or however you remember i just want to encourage you to remember and mark god's faithfulness to you in this season tell it to your kids and your grandkids because people will ask where were you and what happened with you during covet may we be able to open our mouths and speak of the glory and goodness of god in this season that we find ourselves in uh let me pray for our time in the word and we'll jump right in so heavenly father we invite you by your holy spirit to teach us we claim the promise of first john that your anointing the anointing of the spirit teaches us all things and so father take this story of nehemiah this inspired scripture of the word of god apply it to our lives and our hearts today lord help us to lay aside our spiritual apathy and indifference that has developed during coven that we are so caught up in politics and in relationships and in fears and anxieties that we have forgotten who you are remind us lord speak to us loudly god correct encourage strengthen rebuke whatever we need lord we come to you this morning needing a word from you speak to us father through your scriptures by your spirit may your son be lifted up and we ask this in jesus name amen amen all right so first we're going to learn to rebuild with passion to rebuild with passion it's interesting to me one of the things that uh pastor steve as he opened up our series last week one of the things he sort of touched on briefly but i just want us to think about it for a second do you realize that um the people of god were taken in exile and that that happened about a hundred plus years ago and so what steve laid out was that there have been waves of exiles that have returned and for a hundred plus years this city has laid in ruins and what's interesting to me about that you might be okay that's a long time i get that here's the interesting thing to me about that though it's nehemiah who is brokenhearted about it everybody else apparently had accepted it that's just the way it is that's the way jerusalem is that's the way this life is the fact that god isn't honored the fact that nobody really cares the fact that the place is in ruins the fact that people are spiritually indifferent that's just the way it is nehemiah says that's not good enough and he's heartbroken from it he has a passion that when he hears that people don't love god when he hears that people don't honor god when he hears that god's city lies in ruins he says that's not good enough he's broken-hearted he cries he pleads he fasts he prays and he prepares himself to speak to the king i wonder i wonder with you right now as you're hearing me as you're watching this maybe later in the week for the ladies who are at the the uh the women's retreat i wonder um what kind of holy discontent god has given you in your life because here's the truth being a christian yes it should mean that we have a contentment in the lord but not a contentment in this world things are not the way they should be this world is broken your friends your family your co-workers who don't love the lord don't care about the lord ignore rebel belittle god that is not the way it should be and not only does god deserve our praise but we are a more joyful more full people when we give the praise that god deserves we were made from him we were made for him and only when our life is lived to him does life really truly begin to make sense i love the way that the great saint augustine said it he said you uh our hearts are restless until they find rest in you and we live in a city we live in a country and we live in a time of great restlessness and here's the thing that's heartbreaking to me when covid began many of you who were here you might remember that my pre my plea and prayer to god has been lord bring revival as much pain as you have to bring bring it so that we turn to you because you are the greatest good you are what life is about not about the accumulation of money and wealth and title and position and power it is about you we were made for you if you have to bring pain so that we actually listen then do it and here's the heartbreaking thing to me is that there was a moment when kovid started maybe in the first months or so where it seemed like people were coming together people were supporting one another and people were beginning to turn to god and then everything just went sideways people started arguing people started being divisive and and all sorts of anger and frustration came in a moment where god could have brought about great revival and lord willing perhaps he still will instead we were arguing and we were debating and we were missing the moment pain has purpose and that purpose is that we would turn to the lord which is what we see nehemiah doing so it says in the month of nisan nissan and so many good jokes there but i'll skip it and the uh 12th year of king artaxerxes in this time um you know you you basically judged the time by the reign of the king that's how prominent that's how absolute the king was when wine was before him and if there's wine that means there's the cup bearer nehemiah i took up the wine and i gave it to the king we know that in nissan this is about four months after nehemiah's heard the news that jerusalem has been utterly destroyed so he's been praying he's been weeping and he's been preparing for this moment for this moment now i want you to kind of put yourself in the shoes in nehemiah we've all had that moment we've all had that conversation we've all had that super crucial moment where we had to ask the question and depending on what the response would dictate the rest of our lives that's where nehemiah is at says this now i had not been sad in his presence i had not been sad in his presence here's what nehemiah is doing he's risking he's taking a god glorifying holy risk and i want you to know something a lot of you come from an environment an upbringing a church culture where there was this sense of yeah like christianity is about being sort of happy and clappy or you know safe and comfortable and what i want you to see is that biblical christianity love for god devotion to god will sometimes take godly risk think about esther she needs to plead for her people she needs to stand before the king and she says those incredible words i will go before the king and if i perish i perish think about um think about shadrach meshach and abednego they say we will not bow down and worship this idol of political power we will honor god and he can save us even from the fiery furnace but even if he doesn't they're taking a risk we're going to honor god anyways that's what we see in nehemiah right now he's taking a calculated godly risk and i just want to ask you something is your christianity a little too safe when is the last time you took a risk to glorify god when's the last time you did something risky to put your sin to death to love and serve someone else to be generous is your christianity marked by a holy godly risk taking here's what nehemiah does nehemiah is sad and the king said to me why is your face sad now i want you to feel his nervousness we know most of us know how the story turns out but in this moment nehemiah didn't and he's taken a big risk in front of the king artaxerxes you had to be happy all the time right the king decides the culture the culture is you're happy and clappy in front of the king if you have a bad day if you're sad if you are not with it you smile anyways because the king wants you to be happy i don't know if you've ever had a boss like this i had um i had a boss one time it was interesting because she was so incredibly mean to all the employees but she demanded that we had to be like we always had to be having the best possible day we're doing great i'm so glad that you're our boss right it's interesting how the king or the boss sets the culture and in souza the king has to be happy and therefore all the people have to be happy so nehemiah taking a calculated risk why is your face sad seeing that you are not sick this is nothing but the sadness of heart then i was very afraid the king can can do anything and nehemiah is gone if he disses if he if if nehemiah displeases the king in the slightest bit it's off with his head so why are you sad the king ass and this is the moment this is the moment nehemiah has been waiting for this is the moment where the he's thinking of jerusalem the city is destroyed the walls are destroyed nehemiah is far from home god has given him this burden and this is the moment will he be faithful will he be faithful to speak what he needs to speak at this moment see here's the truth about christianity and the city of seattle seattle loves our good works but does not love our hard words and it has to be both we have to declare the glory of god and serve and love others and right now nehemiah could say well i'm just you know i'm preaching the gospel by my actions right like he can tell i'm a christian by the way i serve him i don't need to say anything i don't need to risk offense i don't need to take a risk i mean nehemiah is facing something far worse than any of us there could be a little bit of social ridicule somebody might make fun of us nehemiah his life is on the line but god's glory is on the line and so nehemiah is going to take this risk and i love though that it says he's afraid he's stressed he's had sleepless nights his heart is broken he can't stop praying and preparing he has this burden and here's the moment and he is terrified he's afraid and what i appreciate about this is there's this this image sometimes um in the culture and even in the church we're like well if you're a leader you're courageous you're fearless you're bold you have everything under control you've planned out for every possible thing that could happen and that's not the case he's scared it's scary it's scary to be part of a church to become a member to lead a small group to become an elder or a deacon you know this church is scary to lead i'll be honest with you guys marriages come together here doug and irene tim and stormy gabe and paulville even this last year doing coven we've gotten to to celebrate those blessings and those are new families think about on easter we had four little ones hudson jude hunter and zoe that were dedicated and we prayed over them and said we're going to help raise them we're going to set an example for them that's a weighty thing it's okay to be a little fearful it means you get what this is and what you're a part of and so um nehemiah shows us that we're to rebuild with passion we're to take risks and it's okay to be a little bit scared in fact if you're not a little bit scared you're probably not growing when you're scared that means you're right on the edge you're right where you need to be you're in that place where god honors blesses and grows you so we rebuild with passion we rebuild with courage this is the moment nehemiah is before the king here he goes verse three i said to the king let the king live forever it's a good move that's a good start right that is a lot of wisdom that's a lot you're going to you got to be you got to be careful you got to be careful and in particular uh we're in a time in a season where um things are so divisive and loaded right now in you know political discourse and so on and that's really gotten into the church and so there is one group of people that's like you're a compromised coward if you're not bold and you just say everything you think and feel right and i am for boldness we need to be bold we also need to be wise and these things need to go together so look at nehemiah setting an example of boldness let the king live forever wisdom he is honoring the king he's not just like look king here's the deal he's honoring him he's using both boldness and wisdom let the king live forever why should my face not be sad when the city now notice this and you can highlight or underline this the place of my father's graves lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire what what nehemiah is doing is very strategic very culturally attuned he knows that the king artaxerxes and that the culture cares a lot about honoring family about um caring for in particular the graves of family members and so what he appeals to it's interesting because he is about rebuilding the walls and reinstituting temple worship he wants the people of god to be the people of god that the scripture says they should be and yet what's interesting is that he's appealing to something he knows that the king will care about and you got to think about this you know he is he's putting himself out on the line here so the king said verse 4 what are you requesting what are you requesting and so i prayed to the god of heaven i love that it's just a little flair prayer i don't know if you've ever had these times but here's the truth in life we'd often like to like okay i need four months to pray about this i need to you know a bunch of time to make this decision and the truth is oftentimes life happens not on our timeline right and we need you can you can spend hours in prayer you can spend a moment in prayer i can imagine nehemiah right here lord help my words to land on an open heart god help me to keep my head i really don't want to get my head cut off lord how how well just a little fla flair of prayer he's praying he needs god's help so he shoots up a quick little prayer give me the right words help me let my words land on a generous heart and what's interesting is that when nehemiah one of the things that i think we miss here is the reason nehemiah prays is that and i don't know if you've ever been in these situations but nehemiah is not trusting his own eloquence his own skill or ability he is a cupbearer which means that he has been in all of these high-level discussions and talks he stood before the king he's probably very articulate we see that from uh later on in the story but he says all of my skills and abilities all of my eloquence and my passion and my plans are not enough i need god i need god and so in his courage he recognizes that god has to be the the changing factor the driving factor it's got to be god's grace not his eloquence and i said to the king if it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight that you send me to judah the city of my father's graves that i may rebuild it there's the request it's all out there nehemiah is humble he says if it pleases the king there's a big if in there he makes his request that he wants to go back and rebuild and now it all lands on the king how is nehemiah doing at this point he's been brave he's been passionate he's been courageous and what's interesting is that he stands before the king making this request and from the king's perspective he sees nehemiah and he's been faithful nehemiah has been a good worker he's done a good job and so nehemiah is asking the king to change to reverse his foreign policy he's asking the king to make nehemiah an ambassador and to give money authorization and time for nehemiah to rebuild this city and so nehemiah rebuilds with passion with courage and with strategy look what happens here nehemiah has put out the request and it's more than just a desire oh i'm so brokenhearted here's what i want king he's got details he's got all sorts of details he has a plan look what it says in verse six and the king said to me with the queen sitting beside him which is an interesting little statement some uh some theorized that perhaps nehemiah and the queen were good friends or perhaps the king was just more generous with the queen sitting next to him but this does seem very strategic he's rebuilding with strategy he's not just rushing in with a big heart or a bold mouth he has a very careful mind he's rebuilding with strategy how long will you be gone and when will you return so it pleased the king to send me when i had given him a time nehemiah was broken hearted but he wasn't just crying for the last four months he's been planning he's been very strategic very purposeful he has been planning and it's interesting jesus says in luke 14 whoever is going to build a tower has to first count the cost what you don't want to do is build half a building and then give up because you realize i didn't have enough money i didn't have enough resources and so we build and we build with a very much an open handedness because if you're like me god often changes our plans and we experience that in 2020 and covet it started with this is the year of vision here's all our plans and how we're going to take the hill and god's like yeah you know you need a reminder here and everything we thought strategized was off the plate but nehemiah has a plan he has a timeline he needs uh passports he needs building resources and he needs a house look what he says and i said to the king if it pleases the king let letters be given me to me to the governors of the province beyond the river that they may let me pass through until i come to judah and a letter to asia so he's saying hey i need a passport i need safe travel so i can get from souza to jerusalem says in a letter to asaph the keeper of the king's forest that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple and for the walls of the city and for the house that i should occupy and so nehemiah has prayed and now he has requested and he shows his plan and i love there is a pastor from texas that my mom goes to his church and he's got this great line where he says there's no place for a person who leans on a shovel and prays for a ditch the idea is god uses us as the active agents of accomplishing his will a lot of people look at god like he's just this sort of jehovah genie right i pray the right thing i rub my bible and then boom he answers my wishes the point is that you are an active participant matthew henry the bible commentator said it this way good theology strengthens us it doesn't slacken us which is an old english way of saying the more you know about god the more active of a participant you are in this world because you want to see his love and his life come to this broken city in seattle as it is in heaven in seattle as it is in heaven proverbs 13 4 says the soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing while the soul the diligent is richly supplied it's not enough to just desire that things to be better it's not enough to just want the walls to be revealed it's not enough even or rebuilt it's not enough to even just be passionate about the lord do you have a plan in place are you growing it's really easy to tweet our opinions it's really easy to join the outrage mob and it's really hard to be a faithful diligent disciple of jesus christ in a world gone mad seattle does not need any more virtue signaling what it needs is the people of god virtue embodying being the people of god and so he couldn't sit and do nothing um nehemiah makes the request he shares the plan and here's what happens it says in the king granted me what i asked for for you can circle or underline that the good hand of god was upon me so now the persian kings are going to be funding with their own credit card the upbringing of god or the upbuilding rather of god's people nehemiah isn't taking any credit for what just happened it had nothing to do with his brilliance it's all god and what's interesting is as we read through the book of nehemiah you'll see something kind of unique there are no miracles in this book nobody gets miraculously healed there is no multiplying of bread and fish there is no walking on water but never mistake the lack of the spectacular for god working in the background you see as christians we believe that god can and does do miracles i i know if i open this up for testimonies we could probably hear several now but here's the other thing that god does those that's his active miraculous hand but he's always working with his quiet providential hand in the background moving situations moving hearts changing and transforming this world for his glory and our joy and nehemiah says you know what i was brave i asked the king for what i needed and he gave it to me because god's good hand was upon me it was god so nehemiah's purpose in this book think about this for a second this is his journal his purpose is not biographical i was so scared but yet i was eloquent and he did what i said nehemiah's purpose is doxological meaning is to produce praise when you look at your life and you see the silent hand of god working in the background it is not about it's not about your education your skill level your talents it's about god's grace did we give him the glory do we see him working behind the scenes in our lives the reason that you got that call back the reason you were born into the family you were the reason that your dna and biology is in such a way that maybe you're quicker or you're faster or you're smarter or you're more beautiful it's all god behind it all do we recognize that and give him the glory do we recognize that and give him the glory now here's here's what's interesting verse 9 watch this so we we see that we're we we need to rebuild and then whenever we start rebuilding the first thing we're going to experience is opposition nehemiah is going to receive lots of opposition here he goes on his journey verse nine then i came to the governors of the providence beyond the river and i gave them the king's letters now the king had sent me with officers of the army and horsemen what i love about this is you have one paragraph you have like two sentences this is the whole journey this would have taken three or four months to get to susa to jerusalem don't miss this nehemiah and his whole group of rebuilders have traveled from susa to jerusalem in one paragraph nehemiah and what's interesting is that um he moves now from luxury to hardship from an established city to a destroyed city from a wealthy city to a poor city he moves from a really good life in the palace to a life of hardship and opposition nehemiah moved from comfort to god's calling and here's the truth if you are a follower of christ you will always have the option to worship two gods the god of the bible or the god of your own comfort and it turns out the god of your own comfort he can kind of sound like the god of the bible but he always says what you want to hear because he's actually our voice echoing back to us and so if you're going to serve god you have to give up that other god the god of comfort notice nehemiah doesn't even talk about it about how hard the trip was about what happened i mean we would go on and on and on in our journals pages and pages and pages but nehemiah's focus is squarely on the mission of god it's about rebuilding it's not about his comfort and as believers we will face a choice the god of comfort is about the path of least resistance the god of comfort is about that which is of the greatest ease but the god of the bible has called us to go and make disciples to pick up our cross daily and to honor him and so nehemiah and his crew roll into jerusalem and who's there to meet them the opposition but when sambala the horninite in tobiah the amorite servants heard this it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of israel here's the truth jesus said if they hate me they'll hate you being a christian is not a ticket for everybody to like you and the truth is that if you want everyone to like you you have to be very careful because what that means in your heart is you love nothing more than your own affirmation and praise we live for the praise of god and the truth is that god has enemies there are people in the city of seattle that hate christians i don't know if you've met them i keep seeming to run into them all the time there are people that don't like our values that don't like our lord that don't like our sexual ethics and and here's the truth jesus says woe to you if all men speak well of you who are the oppositions in your life we don't have to go around being contentious but the truth is the gospel is offensive and if there are not people that are opposed in some sense in your life perhaps you are not being faithful so it disturbed them that displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of israel so i went to jerusalem and there i was three days nehemiah wants to show up he wants to rebuild he wants to establish the worship of god and there are enemies that do not want him to do this why do they not want him to do this well there's a bunch of reasons spiritually they don't want jerusalem to be established they don't want the people of god to begin worshiping because they believe in other gods they have other value systems practically they don't want jerusalem to be established because then it will become a trade hub and everyone will go to jerusalem instead of through their suburbs and so they are going to oppose when we rebuild we will face opposition the christian life is often in the new testament they use the illustration of war it says the world the whole system and structure that is against god a way of thinking and laughing and being human there's a whole different way that is opposed to god the world the flesh there's a crooked twisted part of us that just wants to do our own thing and doesn't want to honor god and then the devil there's an active spiritual force that opposes us to rebuild we will face opposition how are you doing where's the opposition coming from where's the front line that they have against you how are they attacking you misleading you lying to you the christian life is not this sort of placid simple lake it's an ocean it's a storm it's an active fight and so we rebuild despite opposition and we rebuild despite the difficulty look what nehemiah was up against he goes out to inspect the city to assess the damage he's only heard stories now he's going to get face-to-face one-on-one time with the people and he's going to survey the ruined landscape so it says in verse 12 then i arose in the night i and a few men with me and i told no one what god had put into my heart to do for jerusalem so nehemiah doesn't bust in and it's like we're going to rebuild this city and everyone needs to follow me and hear all my great plans he said there was no animal with me but the one on which i rode so it's a very small group it's just nehemiah couple buddies they're going out at night said i went out by night by the valley gate to the dragon spring into the dung gate and i inspected the walls of jerusalem that were broken down its gates that had been destroyed by fire nehemiah is getting that firsthand information he's going from one part of the city to another part of the city he's surveying and inspecting how bad the damage is and notice he's looking at these different gates and it says that they were destroyed by fire gates were key to an ancient city it was key to your defense and it was key to your trade it's how you let people in and out it's how you uh it's how it's how as a city you were able to flourish and survive and the great gates are completely destroyed by fire and the gates the point of this was to welcome people into the city of god and so the gates in some sense are similar to what we would see as our churches like churches churches are to welcome people in to meet jesus and some churches especially here in the city of seattle are incredibly broken down in a time of coven there are many churches that are broken theologically it's about health and wealth if you love god he'll make all your dreams come true and it sounds great it feels good in the moment but it doesn't make disciples of jesus for the long term some churches are so thoroughly compromised in our city that it just sounds like anywhere else there's nothing distinct there's nothing that honors god and so i wonder if if we have the heart of nehemiah as we look out on the city of seattle as he looked down as he saw that the gates were burned down i look around and i just i weep at the state of our city and in particular the state of the church i know personally two churches in our area that have closed their doors and have shut down in 2020 they're no longer meeting and what's particularly heartbreaking to me is how many of the people in those churches never went to another church never got plugged in anywhere else and have just faded away because the truth is i think often in the church we're kind of like embarrassed to say this it's a lot easier just not to be a christian in seattle and so he looks around he says in verse 14 then i went on to the fountain gate into the king's pool there was no room for the animal that was under my feet to pass everything's such a mess everything's so destroyed you can't even get from one point to another point and and what's heartbreaking to me is to spiritualize this and to apply it in our time the church is such a mess right now people are broken people are hurting people need god people need hope people need faith in jesus christ and what so much of the church is giving is this theologically light fluff it's cotton candy that seems good in the moment if someone watches the youtube video and you wonder why the world doesn't think the church is essential things are broken down as they were in jerusalem he said then i went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall and i turned back and entered by the valley gate and so returned i have a sister who's an archaeologist and archaeologists actually love this passage because if you follow it it actually details out the shape of jerusalem and the ancient time but what's interesting is that even though there are parts of the city that were destroyed and he couldn't get to you can see in him that now there is this sense of okay i know that this ministry is going to be hard but i know exactly now what we have to do and ministry here in the city of seattle is hard and i don't want to sugarcoat this i want us to know exactly what we have to do he goes on and he says this to to make this happen to do something about all this he's got to engage he's got to build a team he's got to get some people behind him and so verse 16 said the officials did not know where i had gone or what i was doing i had not yet told the jews the priests the nobles the officials and the rest who were to do the work then i said to them so here's the moment he's surveyed he goes back to god's people and he says this you see the trouble that we are in i wonder for a moment let's just push pause do you see the trouble that we're in do you see the trouble that the church in seattle is in this is not the time to do whatever we want to do families are broken people are broken people are questioning god and deconstructing their faith and wanting nothing to do with christianity this is not the time to turn on netflix this is the time to come to church this is the time to disciple someone this is the time to open our bible in our heart and begin to pray and re-engage this is not the time to check out and and i want to say this um softly but firmly there are some who are here or watching or sort of loosely involved and what i want to encourage you to is the same words that nehemiah said you see the trouble we're in we need you we need your giftings we need your power and personality god has given you time treasure and talent to be invested for his glory the good of others and the building up of his kingdom this is the time for many of us when covet hit things got so crazy it was just about making sure that you know we could figure out our job and that our families could stay afloat but here's the truth that season is now changing and as we look out around us as many of us are going out for the first time because of the great weather the the church and the city are not in the place they need to be now is the time you see the trouble that we are in how jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned the church and the people of god are not what they should be not what they need to be not what they must be it's not okay to sit on the sidelines anymore he says let us build the wall of jerusalem let us build up the church let us use our gifts let us give generously let us love extravagantly let us push in it's not okay that so many people can live in the city and never have an encounter with jesus in word or deed god's people have become inactive its gates are burned down come let us build the wall of jerusalem that we may no longer suffer derision it's shameful this is a honor shame culture the fact that the the city and the temple and everything is in ruins this is shameful and i wonder do you have that type of sort of ownership of the church and the people of god that their welfare that their strength impacts you to that level it's not right that the church should be so weak right now spiritually it's not right that so many people do not care the waters of baptism should be stirred the hearts of faith should be awakened people should be coming to the lord in droves it is the time to push in it is the time to build it is a time to fight it is not a time to be passive and so we rebuild we rebuild despite the difficulty and then finally we rebuild despite the criticism so nehemiah calls the people of god to begin rebuilding verse 18 and i told them of the hand of god that been upon me for my good look at guys the fact that i'm here the calvary came in we got all these logs god's already at work and what i need some of you to hear i know that maybe this is coming off a little bit harder and sharper than i intended what i need you to hear though what i need you to see what i want to awaken you to is god is already at work think about our church for a moment think about all the amazing things that god has done we have a location we have people we have favor we have opportunity god is doing good things i'm not calling you to do something to start something that god is not already blessing and moving in the midst of and so whenever god is moving it's important for god's people to recognize that and to join in look what it says and they said let us rise up and build so and i love this term so they strengthen their hands for the good work are you strengthening your hands for the good work are you involved in the church our church a church are you regularly getting into the word of god are you praying are you connected with the people of god are you strengthening your hands for the work that god has for us god has given each and every one of you a spiritual gift god has given each and every one of you a mission god has called each and every one of you to make disciples how are you doing how are you doing are you strengthening your hands for the work now here's what happens so the people are ready to go the people are bought in and what happens when you take a stand for jesus here comes the criticism here comes the opposition here comes the enemies but when sambola the horna knight tobiah the amorite um and gresham the arab so they got a third guy now heard of it they jeered at us and despised us and they said what is this thing that you are doing are you rebelling against the king they are slandering and mocking nehemiah and the people of god and here's the interesting thing i've talked now with multiple folks this last week even it's interesting and providential that we should go on this verse of people who have been mocked and jeered and slandered for being a christian at their workplace or in their family or with their friends and so if you're one of those people or maybe this is true of you i just want you to hear jesus your lord i want you to hear these words that he spoke for you blessed are you when others revile you when they persecute you when they utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven here's the truth not everyone's going to love you we don't live for everyone's applause we live for the honor and the glory of god and the truth is as long as you're being faithful to him character wins out over criticism in the long term be faithful don't get angry don't get self-defensive don't be so frustrated with things that people are saying don't be so in a hurry to make sure everybody has the right view of you god will vindicate you god will raise you up and we see this in the example of nehemiah here's how he replies then i replied to them the god of heaven will make us prosper and we his servants will rise in build we don't get caught up in all the fighting and um just ridiculous division and criticism and argument we build we build i shared this with you that i'm part of a pastor's cohort and we were these are pastors all around the country and we were in discussion one of the questions that was posed what are the three commands the three most commanded things that pastors are given to do in the new testament and the very first one was to preach and teach the gospel the second one was to avoid controversy to avoid foolish talk in babel it is so easy for us to want to be vindicated to want to throw out our opinion and what's interesting is that nehemiah says you know what the god of heaven will make us prosper i'm not even going to get involved in that i'm busy he says his servants will rise up and build nehemiah doesn't have time to argue because he's got things to do he's got people to love he's got a ministry to build he's got a city that needs to get rebuilt and so it's interesting because we live in a time where we need to be reminded we have freedom of speech we have freedom of religion we have freedom of assembly people will say to us you can't worship jesus you can't serve the city you can't air out your opinions and nehemiah shows us by example that we don't have to give into the pressure of criticism we do not have to compromise and we don't have to fight he's just building he stays focused we need to maintain as a church and as the people of god a single-minded focus on re-building the church on inviting people to meet jesus on opening up community groups on loving folks on baptizing folks on discipling people on building leaders on establishing healthy disciples and families and marriages if we can get this right who knows what god may do but we need to be careful not to get distracted off the mission we love jesus we serve jesus we proclaim jesus that's our target everything else is a distraction and so i want us now to take a moment we've gotten a lot of story we've gotten a lot of conviction a lot of details and i want us to take a moment and allow the holy spirit to move in our hearts to convict us i want us to take a moment to respond in prayer and so we're going to respond in prayer this morning in a few moments to prepare our hearts to receive the lord's supper and in this time i want you to consider are there areas in which perhaps unlike nehemiah maybe you have been cowardly maybe you have overlooked what god has called you to do or perhaps god has given you a skill or a talent and you just haven't been using it to build up god's people would you take a moment would you do that hard work with the lord would you pray would you engage and then we're going to spend some time singing and rejoicing and loving the lord jesus [Music] i know some of us are still praying but when you have a moment if you want to go ahead and grab a communion cup there is the juice and the wafer in just a moment we'll partake if you're at home and you're watching us you can go ahead and grab those things in just a moment we'll partake together in the lord's supper [Music] brothers and sisters let us come to the table of the lord the high point of our services is not the pulpit but it is the table we remember christ crucified for us jesus said who do people say that i am and peter responded you are the christ and jesus said on this confession that he is the christ the messiah the king of heaven and earth that he's going to build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it scripture says for i receive from the lord but i also deliver to you that the lord jesus on the night when he was to be betrayed he took the bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and he said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me we remember his body broken the nails driven through his hands and feet the crown of thorns placed on his head he was raised up on the cross for us and our sins in the same way also he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and you drink this cup you proclaim the lord's death until he comes again let us partake in our new covenant for the forgiveness of sins he will build his church brothers and sisters we've come this morning we've heard the word of god we've sung his praises we have confessed our sins now i declare on the authority of scripture that our sins are forgiven praise the lord amen amen well christ will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it so let us sing and celebrate that truth [Music] thank you very much pastor kyle for that encouraging word and now church let's go ahead and respond in song and feel free to remain seated if you need more time to reflect and to pray and for those who are able please go ahead and stand and this song uh when i was reading through nehemiah chapter 2 the song came to mind because a lot of the times we don't know what situations we face and we don't know if we have to come to a crucial decision in our lives but it's amazing to know that god will always be with us regardless of the circumstances that he will always be there for us to provide and to guide us and to offer wisdom and just just to be close when when we need him so with that let's sing the song together in the valley oh god your name in the quiet oh god you're near in the shadow oh god you're near [Music] oh god will stand firm in my searching in my searching oh god your name [Music] is [Music] oh god your [Music] oh god you never leave by your love will stand firm through all my [Music] nor anything else could pull us apart we were joined as one by your blood [Music] hope will rise as we become more than conquerors to the [Music] nor anything else could pull us apart were joined as one by your blood songs oh god my love let me go ahead and pray for us father thank you so much for this day thank you so much for this time together to be in fellowship with believers here in the area and with that lord we give this day to you we know that you hear our calls for mercy you hear our calls for prayer and you know that in the darkness we are on our knees begging and praying for deliverance for for your abounding mercies and because you are god and you are god alone you are faithful and true you keep your promises and you never waver so with that lord let us be reminded that you are always with us from now until eternity happens oh god you never leave our side your love will stand firm through all our lives bless us today bless our families bless our loved ones keep us safe and be with us as we go to our respective homes and throughout the upcoming week ahead thank you again for this time together thank you again for the women's getaway and we pray that you will be with us through the rest of our days today we pray all this in jesus name and god's people will say amen thank you and quick announcement to uh uh the ladies will be back i believe at by 1 pm this afternoon 1pm and if you stick around uh i also uh for our group uh i also ordered some pizzas so there will be some pizza arriving in the next 10 minutes or so so stick around there will be some pizzas for lunch okay

Channel: Rainier Valley Church

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Id: RHDysuj_WKM

Length: 89min 42sec (5382 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 18 2021