The Hills Church Live | October 3, 2021 | 10:00am

[Music] she's [Music] [Applause] it starts to break [Music] [Music] she's [Music] breaking down [Music] fall [Music] me in the [Music] all [Applause] [Music] [Music] to the one who breathes inside of us [Music] [Music] oh him sing it out tonight [Music] fill up the sky with your praises [Music] praise [Music] [Music] fill up the sky with your praises [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] fill up the sky [Music] [Applause] [Music] up [Applause] [Music] fill up the sky [Music] [Applause] [Music] praise god from whom i'm blessed [Applause] praise him [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] fill up the [Applause] [Music] feel [Music] [Applause] [Music] fill up the sky or fill [Applause] the sky [Music] jesus [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] we lift you up [Music] foreign [Music] with your crazy [Applause] [Music] i make time for what i want i choose my priorities and jesus you're my number one so i will make one for you i will prepare for two so you don't feel that you can't live here please [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] so i will make room for you i [Music] will you don't feel that you can't live here please i will [Music] show you [Music] that you can't live please [Music] [Applause] please [Applause] [Music] you can move [Music] you can move [Music] it's whatever it is it is [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hey church let's rise to our feet [Music] when times get hard in life when times are really good there's something that stays the same and that is god is faithful no matter what and no matter what happens in life he is worthy to be praised that's what this song is about so i hope you'll join us as we sing [Music] i count on one thing the same god that never fails will not fail me now you won't fail me now the same god who's never late is working all things out you're working all things out [Music] yes i will bless your name yes i will sing for joy when my heart is happy all my days oh yes i will [Music] this is [Music] the same god [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh yes i will i choose to praise [Applause] [Music] [Applause] i choose [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] to glorify glorify the name of all names but nothing can't stand against [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] when my heart is [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh yes i will [Music] that hello weapon may be formed but it won't prosper and when the darkness falls it won't breathe because the god i serve knows only how to try oh my god we'll never fail it's in the line again i hope my god will never [Music] [Music] belongs to you [Music] [Music] this [Music] so i'm not backing down from any giants because i know how this story is [Music] victory [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] victory [Music] i'm gonna [Music] you turn it forward [Music] [Applause] you turn it forward [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] victory [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] if you turn it back [Music] [Applause] [Music] again [Music] oh [Music] amen amen amen this place it's already been a great weekend at this church because before you even walked in this morning uh we had a women's conference this past weekend how many of our ladies here in the room went to the conference this weekend yeah it was really awesome and i was um and very thankful on behalf of some of the guys that are up here we got to be a part of the praise team and got to experience how amazing it was the speakers the times of worship the times of testimony the times of prayer and i especially want to show honor and thanks to charity young it takes so many teams and ministries from av to worship to um so many that i can't even go off listing from a time standpoint but charity young she she did a lot of worship planning in terms of helping plan from all three campuses um which of our ladies would come and serve and lead and also the song selection so i'm not sure if she's in the service but even if she's not let's give her a hand there were some new songs that we did at the conference and one a couple of them i thought man i can really hear us singing these on a weekend so i especially need all of you ladies that were at conference we sing a new song called believe for it and um it's a little new but it's really awesome it's great to sing with and i love the truth that it reminds me of is we can be bold to ask god but when we when we ask god for something when we're asking him for a miracle when we're asking him to move and we're asking for more of the spirit on our life it's a first step to be bold enough to ask but it's also very important in our spiritual maturity that we believe when we ask that when we ask something that we believe that he can do it that we believe that he will provide that we believe that he is a father who gives good gifts and so i love that this song reminds us of the truth that we can believe for it because we have a god who has done incredible things and will continue to do so so sing the song with us [Music] but they don't know you like we do there is power in your name [Music] we've heard that there is no way through we've heard the tide will never change they haven't seen what you can do there is power in your name so much [Music] [Music] we'll see a miracle god we believe god we believe forever [Music] we know that hope is never lost [Music] god we believe no matter what there is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] believe foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] says [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] god we believe [Music] [Applause] [Music] god we [Music] let's praise our god he's able and he is mighty [Music] amen go ahead and be seated please i love that believe for it what a great message that is you know it's important to what we believe in it's important who we believe in too i remember a while back when i was watching a movie with my wife and kind of the way that hollywood did it somebody was going to a a preacher or a priest for some counseling and he gave a lot of good advice but it was lacking any discussion about god he was not in the equation at all and it just reminded me again man if if we're going to give the deepest moments of counsel to people and we leave out god it is sorely lacking isn't it it's important who you believe in and so i was thinking as we we're going to commune together now and just thinking what do we believe we believe that god is perfect he is holy he's the creator we believe that he sent his son to die for us that his son came and lived on this earth a perfect life and we believe that his blood on the cross fully atoned for our sin and we believe that he's gone jesus to prepare a place for us one day in heaven because he conquered the grave we firmly believe that so when we take communion each week this is a time when we believe for it we say jesus we believe you we trust you so let's take this together right now and express our beliefs so jesus we we praise you for who you are we praise you for um how much you loved us and how that love and its perfection brought us salvation we believe in that now so thank you for this bread in this cup that remind us of your body and blood and the sacrifice that you made it's in jesus name your name that we pray amen so [Music] i hear the savior say thy strength indeed is small child of wingness watch and pray finding me thine all in all jesus paid it all all to him i own sin had left a crimson stain he washed in white as snow [Music] you're now [Music] [Music] call to him [Music] he was [Music] [Applause] [Music] shall still sin had left a crimson stain [Music] he washed in white as snow he washed in a white snow yes we do believe that had his semitone and he washed us white as snow so let's all stand up as the redeemed of god we're gonna cry this out with all the zenith oh praise the one who paid our debt let's sing this out here we go [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] is [Music] [Applause] jesus [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] man let's praise [Music] him morning church you can grab his seats my name is ross i'm one of the pastors here it's fall still like in the 80s but we're getting weather-wise to the fall and i love this time of year but also this time of year is just it feels busy right like i got family little kids going around all week um one of the things that that i do here at the church is i help with um what we're doing digitally so even marketing connecting with people outside of our church and one of the things interesting that i've found is i've done some research on what people online are searching for they go to google type in the browser some of the most researched things that are in our local community dfw are anxiety help depression help fear uncertainty so i don't know where you're at today maybe if you're new here you've been here for years but it's easy for us to just get our own headspace and let the anxieties the fears of the world cascade in our heart and our minds and i love that we can be together as a church as a family to hit the pause button on all the chaos and worship jesus amen so if you're new here just know you're you're loved no strings attached you don't have to like do xyz to be included be loved here just know you're loved right where you are and what i love about our church is if you look around right now you're going to see people all different ages we've got a lot of kids in here so we're going to have our first through fifth graders head to their bible classes and i believe our sixth and seventh graders we have um a spot for you as well to connect together and so if you're in that age group feel free to pop up find someone with a green t-shirt head to those classes and while our kids are doing that one of my favorite rhythms each week that we highlight every single service every single week is where we we talk about generosity in our church and why is that one of my favorite moments well i think it's because god has challenged me and our family to be generous even when it's a little bit uncomfortable even when i don't feel like being generous because i've found that it's one of the most catalytic ways in my own personal life to come closer to god when i say god even though i feel like i gotta take care of my finances in this way or this way i want to be generous i want to give to you because you've given me so much and all of a sudden i feel kind of a weight lifted off of my shoulders as i do that and so we challenge everyone who comes to the hills to be generous because it's not only good for our church our community and what we do in the world through those funds but it's good for your soul it's good for your own intimacy with god and so thank you for those of you who've been so generous to this church you can you can express that through giving online or as you leave today through the stanchions as you walk out by the doors and as we worship together as we get together there's also times occasionally where we mourn together and a dear college age woman mandy mosley passed away yesterday in a car accident and so we want to give sympathy to her mom to her family renee and just be in prayer for those that are going through really difficult times right now because we are a family we are a church that loves each other and so keep renee and the family in your prayers and uh luke during the the worship set mentioned or women's conference any ladies attend that come on let's hear it my wife went yeah my wife when she had a great time the theme was get up and walk and i feel like so many of the women in our church are taking some powerful steps to be empowered to say the spirit of god is in me it's moving and i'm going to be on board with god's vision and our lives and it's not just gonna impact me but it's gonna impact my family my community my neighborhood wherever god has you so women let's go let's keep it going grateful for what god did this weekend through a women's conference if you've been around the last month we've been talking about nations and generations this big vision that god has for us but not just nations and generations but asking boldly asking god to do powerful things so last week we kicked off a 40-day prayer journey as a church we made it easy for you if you go to the website nationsgenerations.org you're going to get a downloadable pdf where every day you can follow along with what we're corporately praying for in our community it's day seven and uh we're thinking it globally today i was reading through it and we're talking about this unreached people group called the bill people in india about 17 million people who don't really know jesus at all hardly any of them have heard the gospel and so we're challenged as a church to pray to ask god for the spirit to move in places like with the build people in india 17 million people and so get into that prayer journey with us it's not too late to start you could actually go to that url nations and generations.org and find a podcast as well so for you i feel like me i like to like wash the dishes and listen to a podcast or as i'm driving to church or work wherever you are you can listen to it to encourage you to get involved that way one of our annual rhythms is having a harvest weekend and speaking of praying for unreached people groups we actually fund so many missionaries church plants around the world around our country so in a couple weeks we're going to have our harvest weekends and we're excited about what god's gonna do in our church as we move towards generosity that weekend and speaking of generosity as i have a few times today already so many of you so many of you have given faithfully in our courage campaign which ended last year we were able to fully fund our new campus our west fort worth campus and we made some massive improvement on where we're going with our south lake campus and uh chris hatchet's going to give us an update on what's going on over there check out this video i wanted to give you a couple of updates today on our new campus as you can see behind us we've gotten our building permits and things started moving in august in fact today they're working on the dirt for the addition that we're building and then on the inside demolition is mainly completed and walls have started going up today and so we're on track for a spring move into this new campus and i want to thank you for your courage donations that have helped made this campus a reality the other thing that i want to let you know about today is that when we move into this new campus it's no longer going to be the south lake campus it's going to be the keller campus we're doing that primarily because the address is in keller it's in keller city limits but additionally we wanted to do something new as as god is doing something new in this area and for our campus we wanted a fresh start and as we talked about a fresh start we can still honor the past of being the south lake campus for almost 11 years and before that the south lake church before our merge but it's time for a new thing and a new work that god is going to be doing and so we're so excited we covet your prayers for our keller campus well to everybody joining us in person and online or later on podcast welcome to the hills my name is taylor i'm one of the teaching ministers here and man it is an exciting season in the life of our church to see what god is up to at the uh the new keller campus in addition to that to be able to host our first in-person conference for the first time in a year and a half and i heard great things about women's conference but then on top of that this last month we got to launch a brand new five-year vision to ask for nations and generations now god's got got a lot going on in our church i was talking with our senior pastor rick actually and as he and i were talking about this last last month we were just sharing with each other how grateful we are for how how this launch went how we started to see this sense of shared energy and buy-in and momentum with so many of you as we talked and communicated and heard about how excited you were about what god is up to with this new vision to ask for nations and generations so i just want to say thank you thank you for affirming this new vision thank you for jumping in buying and thank you for praying with us during this 40-day journey of prayer and thank you for thinking about how you can be a part of specific goals inside this vision one of those goals that we're so excited about is the call to become a multi-ethnic church in the next five years now we believe that this is god's call on our church locally specifically as a witness to our community but also as a foretaste of heaven in which every tribe and tongue will be worshiping god together because jesus is for everyone everywhere hill's members say amen and so we want to reflect that by becoming a multi-ethnic church and right now today we're going to take a small but important step in that journey so live at our campuses everybody i want to ask you to get out your phones i want to ask you to to be ready to take part in a very short survey now i'd be the first to say surveys are not perfect but they can be helpful see we believe god's calling us to make progress in becoming a multi-ethnic church and it's hard to make progress if you don't know where you are so here's we're going to ask you to do uh if you will you're gonna see this qr code up on the screen and just like you would at a restaurant with a menu if you will uh scan that live at all of our campuses if you are with us online we would ask that you take part in this survey if you are a local member of our church that would be most helpful for us and in seat backs around you if you want to go old school uh and there's there's a paper version of the survey that you can do that but we're going to take time a little church family meeting right here right now for you to be able to take part in this survey with us it's that important that we kind of just take this moment and so live with us right now we're just going to let you engage with that real quick so as revelation 7 9 says there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation tribe people and language standing before the throne and before the lamb that is our eventual destination in eternity and in the meantime we are going to work together to take steps towards reflecting that right here god's kingdom breaking into earth so thank you for taking part in that if you if you did the paper survey and you're in person when service is done we'd ask that you dropped that in one of the generosity boxes as you head outside the room cannot tell you how tempted i was to have us play the jeopardy theme song while we were doing that but we're streaming live and we couldn't afford the rights so all right church family meeting over if you got your bibles go ahead and turn to nehemiah chapter 2. last week we started a series called building a future and as rick explained we are going to follow the story of nehemiah and the people of israel and it's going to be a little bit of a platform for us to talk about the future we feel called toward in this new vision as we begin in chapter 2 i want to give you just a little bit of a calendar reference inside this book last week as reek rick preached from nehemiah chapter one i want to want to show you these two two uh month references in chapter one verse one there is the month of kislev this happens in the winter this is november december this is actually when uh the holiday hanukkah takes place so it was in the winter that nehemiah gets a report about the city of jerusalem god's holy city of peace that has been decimated its walls have been destroyed he is wracked with grief begins to pray and then four and a half months later we have the month of nisan that's in the spring so there's been four and a half months in which nehemiah has seemingly been able to do nothing he's right back where he started the beginning of the chapter and yet today all of that is about to change starting in verse one of chapter two in the month of nisan in the twentieth year of king artaxerxes when wine was brought for him i took the wine and gave it to the king i had not been sad in his presence before so the king asked me why does your face look so sad when you are not ill this can be nothing but sadness of heart i was very much afraid now the reason that nehemiah is very much afraid is twofold the first is because as cup bearer to the king he would have an expectation that he needed to have a put on a good face every time he went in front of the king that wasn't just like hey have a good attitude at work it's partly that but it's also that in persian custom if you were around royalty you needed to smile you needed to look like you were happy because it was said that the king's very presence should bring joy to your heart so for nehemiah he has been showing up for work for the last four and a half months inwardly grieving and yet outwardly he's he's he's bringing his best to work and yet now he finally lets his emotions show in doing this it couldn't just cost him his job it could potentially cost him his life so that's reason number one that he is very afraid reason number two is because of what he is about to say i was very much afraid but i said to the king may the king live forever why should my face not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire all right to us that may not seem like a big deal but i can just about guarantee that in the persian royal court that day it got uncomfortably quiet when this cupbearer says this to the king and the reason is because nehemiah just brought up the city of jerusalem he doesn't name the city and the reason he doesn't even say the city's name he just calls it the cities where his ancestors are buried is because king artaxerxes has a history with the city of jerusalem we read about this in the book of ezra in which a group of subjects loyal to the persian king found out that some israelites were trying to rebuild the city of jerusalem this happened years earlier in his reign and so they wrote a letter to king artaxerxes part of the letter read this city is a rebellious city troublesome to kings and provinces a place with a long history of sedition that's why this city was destroyed they write to the king loyal to him and saying look there's a reason that we destroyed jerusalem you better not let this be rebuilt well the king responds with this letter the letter you sent us has been read and translated in my presence i issued an order and a search was made and it was found that this city has a long history of revolt against kings and has been a place of rebellion and sedition jerusalem has had powerful kings ruling over the whole of trans euphrates and taxes tribute and duty were paid to them now issue an order to these men to stop work so that this city will not be rebuilt until i so order be careful not to neglect this matter why let this threat grow to the detriment of the royal interests so king artaxerxes put out a decree that jerusalem was never going to be rebuilt unless he said so because that city was rebellious and that city worked against his interest and the cup bearer to the king just showed up with a bad face at work and brought up that very city that's why there were some tight lips in the persian royal court that's why it was an awkward silence and in verse 4 the king said to me what is it you want now that may sound like it's an opportunity it's an open door okay but as i was researching this passage scholars note that sometimes kings would ask questions not to show that they actually cared about what the subject was saying but as a test it's just as possible that king artaxerxes is baiting nehemiah but for nehemiah this is the open door this is the moment he has been waiting for praying for for four and a half months finally the king asked what is it that you want and then nehemiah in verse two says in chapter two then i prayed to the god of heaven now he's been praying for months and yet even now as he gets this opportunity he throws up one more quick prayer in the words of dr tony evans he is talking to one king but he is praying to the king because he knows and after this quick prayer he takes a deep breath and he answers and i answered the king if it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight let him send me to the city of judah where my ancestors are buried so that i can rebuild it so if you're tracking with the story the cupbearer to the king just brought up a city in front of the king that the king previously decreed needed to stay destroyed and the cupbearer then asked the king if he could reverse his decree and let him go rebuild this city that supposedly is rebellious and dangerous to the persian empire what's the word for that stupid bold risky faithful i don't care what you call it it was for sure an act of faith and today we're going to highlight a few what i'm going to call faith mantras that we see in nehemiah chapter 2 that as a church i believe we're going to need this kind of faith as we move into this new season so if you're taking notes here's the first mantra faith is willing to say it's worth the risk what nehemiah did was incredibly risky he's risking his job he's risking his very life he's risking that even by bringing up the city of jerusalem that the king is going to do work do harsh things to the israelites or to the region but faith says if it's the right thing it's worth the risk if it honors god it's worth the risk and yet i wonder how many of us connect the idea of faith with the notion of risk i remember going through a hiring process a few years ago trying to recruit somebody to join our team here at the hills they uh they were working a corporate job they were getting they were making significantly more than uh than what we were able to offer them as a non-profit church and on top of that they were going to lose some vacation time if they decided to accept this job so basically that meant that my pitch to this person was come work more for less pay you can imagine how well that initially went over the numbers were not on our side but god was working in that individual's heart that for for that whole household they came to this place of agreement of saying yes we need to and on the phone as i was talking with them and they were beginning to accept the job they said you know i just think this is going to be a little bit more of a step of faith than i wanted it to be that's somebody who understands that active faith always involves some level of risk you have a faith where you're going to actually share about jesus with others man in today's world at your job around your friends at school that's going to involve some risk and yet active faith is willing to say it's worth the risk it's worth the uncomfortable silence and as a church we want to be a church who says it's worth the risk some of the goals we've set in this new vision they are unquestionably risky we are supporting missionaries that i'm not allowed to name in countries i'm not allowed to reference while we're streaming online because if that information got into the wrong hands it could be very dangerous for them and yet those missionaries have all said where they're going it's worth the risk if we can share the gospel we know that there's a chance that some of the church plants we will support won't even make it past their second anniversary but we still say it's worth the risk we know that launching campus four and five locally will cause us to have growing pains as a church and for our launch teams it may be a burden if we if we're doing set up tear down in some kind of an auditorium for the first year or so who knows but you know what we we believe it's worth the risk it was worth it for nehemiah and look at the king's response as nehemiah records it it pleased the king to send me so i set a time that on its own is like that that's god 100 there's just no way that a king makes that reversal for a cup bearer except that god did something that would have been enough and yet nehemiah then decides he's going to continue the conversation verse 7 i also said to him just pro tip if you make it out of a conversation with a king who could kill you and he just did you a huge favor maybe don't circle back and ask for more i also said to him if it pleases the king may i have letters to the governors of trans-euphrates so that they will provide me safe conduct until i arrive in judah and may i have a letter to asaph keeper of the royal park so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residents i will occupy that's a list i mean nehemiah just went from will you give me permission to do this to will you fund the project that's a big jump and yet it's clear in this moment nehemiah knew man this is my opportunity it becomes very clear as nehemiah hits this very detailed list very thought through that nehemiah hasn't just been praying for four months he's been planning he knew exactly what this would take even if he knew he wasn't the one to be able to get it and yet when he makes this request as he records it in verse 8 and because the hand of my gracious god was on me the king granted my request and this brings us to our second faith mantra plan like god can handle it even before god opened the door even before god provided nehemiah was planning in faith man let's get real sometimes sometimes we're like nehemiah in chapter one our hearts are broken we're concerned we pray but sometimes we pray with no plan for what we would do if god actually answered our prayer i remember very early in my ministry being in a at a little community church in louisville kentucky they were in between ministers at the time and i was going to be in an interim role for six months i was the part-time interim associate minister here on the pecking order day one i i show up the biggest sunday we ever had was 65 people and normally was about half that day one i show up i meet the lead interim minister whose name is ron it was his first day too and we were meeting bob the one elder at this church little church had one elder i've never seen him before he tours us around the facility shows us this auditorium beautiful kind of turn of the century uh and and then shows us some some kind of dingy classrooms in a basement little kitchen and then the last part of the tour he takes us to the baptistry well it was covered up we had to uncover it i'm a preacher's kid and i saw for the very first time in my life a dry baptistery bob explained and baptisms were really infrequent at this little church and it was kind of a hassle and even an extra expense to have to keep fresh water in the baptistry and so it had been dry for some time we were a church with a dry baptistry that's a sad sentence now pause for a second if you had asked anyone in that little church do you pray for more people to come to christ they would have said yes of course but the baptistery was dry are you asking god for something right now that you're not ready to receive standing there that day i remember ron on his first day as the lead interim minister the very first thing he said was well first thing we're going to do is we're going to get water back in that and he didn't know it but he taught me a lifelong lesson about active faith that day active faith says i prepare god provides active faith says you know what there's some things that are beyond me if it's beyond me it's on god but there's some things that i can do and ron showed me we couldn't change that church overnight we couldn't magically grow attendance by sunday we couldn't guarantee that somebody was going to get baptized that day but you know what we could put water in that baptistery we could be ready in case god moved oh and by the way live at all of our campuses we have wet baptistries they're wet every week we don't always have baptisms every week but we are always ready for god to move and we recognize just like nehemiah we'd be quick to say when when somebody responds to the gospel that's not just because oh well there's a there's a good sermon happening or worship was really great or or boy what an incredible hospitality or a kids team like we try to do the best that we can with what god's given us in our hands but when somebody responds to the gospel that's because god has moved in a powerful way by the holy spirit and the gospel of jesus christ the gracious hand of god gets all the glory and all the credit amen [Applause] and so that's what we're trying to do with this new vision we're quick to say we've been planning we've been preparing we've been maybe some of you are even part of some of the teams that have been built to work on different parts of these goals but we would be quick to say it's going to be the gracious hand of god that will actually bring this about because if the hand of god moves nothing can stop it no king with a grudge no system with issues no no political landmines none of those things can stop when the gracious hand of our god moves and no plan is substitute for the power of the holy spirit nehemiah understands this he's prepared and now he's about to put his plan into action because he gets from the king everything he asks for fully comped there's even an armed guard that's going to take him there we'll pick up in verse 11. i went to jerusalem and after staying there three days i set out during the night with a few others i had not told anyone what my god had put in my heart to do for jerusalem pause for a second this is not the main part of the message but we got we got a pit stop real quick look back at that sentence as nehemiah recounts this is something that god had put in his heart for jerusalem the things god puts in our heart are rarely just for us nehemiah knows this this isn't just my vision this is god's vision in my heart this isn't just for me this is for jerusalem man i i have talked with our senior pastor and he has said in front of me in front of our staff in front of elders this isn't my vision this is god's vision this isn't even the hill's vision we believe this is god's vision put in our heart as a church for the world and our community it's not for us we believe that god has worked to put this vision in our hearts and my prayer is that for every single one of us as we begin to own this vision it is that god puts it in our heart to carry it with that burden to then pursue it for the sake of the world to pursue it for the sake of people trying to get out of the cycle of addiction to pursue it for the sake of foster kids to pursue it for the sake of asylum seekers to pursue it for the sake of the next generation to pursue it for the sake of marriages that need help that's what we're doing when we ask for nations and generations we believe as humbly as possible this is god's vision that he has put in our hearts for the world and so nehemiah goes to finally survey what he has heard about to go see how how do the walls and the gates really look continuing in verse 13. by night i went out through the valley gate toward the jackal well and the dung gate all the middle schoolers can giggle now examining the walls of jerusalem which had been broken down and its gates which had been destroyed by fire then i moved on toward the fountain gate and the king's pool but there was not enough room for my mount to get through so much rubble can't even get his horse through so i went up the valley by that night examining the wall finally i turned back and re-entered through the valley gate the officials did not know where i had gone or what i was doing because as yet i had said nothing to the jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work so he's taken his survey now he's finally ready to speak on it with all those influential people in jerusalem gathered then i said to them you see the trouble we're in jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been burned with fire come let us rebuild the wall of jerusalem and we will no longer be in disgrace i also told them about the gracious hand of my god on me and what the king had said to me they replied let us start rebuilding so they began this good work that's a pretty that's a pretty good pep rally to kick things off but just as soon as that's happened look at verse 19. but when sanbalot the horonite and tobiah the ammonite official and geshem the arab heard about it they mocked and ridiculed us what's this you were doing they asked are you rebelling against the king and i answered them by saying the god of heaven will give us success we his servants will start rebuilding but as for you you have no share in jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it nehemiah finally sees for himself how things are and it's bad in fact it's worse than bad it's a mess the walls and gates are destroyed he hasn't even actually gotten started on the rebuilding project and there's already influential opposition against what he's doing we're going to see more of some of that that crew that will criticize nehemiah they and some others are likely the reason nehemiah needed some coverage from the king and safe patch passage through the region it's bad but here's the thing works of restoration only begin in broken places no matter the conditions of things here's mantra number three it's not too messy for god nehemiah saw how bad jerusalem's walls were but nehemiah knew how good jerusalem's god is so he knew man it's it's burned down it's torn down it's so bad i can't even get my horse through some of those areas and it's a disgrace but guess what it's not too messy for god the god of heaven will give us success and we believe that no matter the situation it's not too messy for god god pursues us in his love and reminds us through his grace we are never too far gone for him to redeem us so there's somebody listening to me and you may have come in or maybe you've joined online and when you think about the kind of people who follow god in your mind they're a lot more put together than the walls of jerusalem and you may feel like man i'm coming in in my shambles i mean i i personally believe that that is the enemy working against god's grace to help you understand it's not too messy for god my marriage is falling apart it's not too messy for god but i've hurt so many other people in my life it's not too messy for god i'm flunking out of school and lying to my parents about it it's not too messy for god i don't even know if i believe in god anymore it's not too messy for god it doesn't matter if it's doubt if it's insecurity if it's sin if it's something else to borrow language from our celebrate recovery ministry whether it's a hurt a habit or a hang-up nothing is too messy for god to come into our lives and work a renewal project in our hearts that's who our god is he's a real he's a rebuilder he's a redeemer which means people of faith are unafraid to look at the reality of the situation because if it's not too messy for god we can be honest about it so for half a second let's just when we look at this new vision we're heading towards let's just survey the wall like nehemiah for a second and the work that needs to be done and we've launched this celebrate recovery ministry and yet we also know that last year the cdc reported some 13 of all americans started increasing drug and alcohol intake in order to cope with the stress of the pandemic recovery and freedom are desperately needed earlier this year the dallas morning news reported that this last april 282 kids slept in cps offices because there was no bed for them going across the atlantic livingston international university is still in an extremely difficult season due to pandemic restrictions in uganda they need our prayers brand new church plants that we are working with right now are facing unexpected financial and cultural challenges and they need our support more than ever locally and when we walk the wall we are launching a new vision in 2021 with approximately 2 500 fewer people attending our church in person then in 2019. the pandemic has created a bizarre scenario through online outreach in which we are ministering to maybe more people than ever but we are baptizing fewer people than we have in years there's work to do we have a goal for serving kids and students and yet the reality is many of our kids volunteer teams have struggled week by week since coming back to in-person services launching a new vision in a pandemic is messy but it's not too messy for god you remember what i said at the beginning of this sermon about that sense of momentum that sense of buy-in that's just as real as everything we just talked about and that's how it was for nehemiah and that crew when they're looking and behind him are the ruins of the walls of jerusalem and yet everybody around says man let's get started hills church we're feeling that that sense of god you are moving in our midst there's a sense of that momentum again we believe that you can do this nehemiah's way of saying it was the god of heaven will give us success but i'd like to quote a different renewal leader who said with man this is impossible but with god all things are possible now that renewal leader was not talking about a vision or a preferred dream for a church jesus was talking about salvation nehemiah is a great leader to learn from and i'm glad we're studying his story but the reason that i have a faith that says it's worth the risk and i'm going to plan like god can handle it and that it's not too messy for god is not because of nehemiah it's because of jesus christ he is the renewal leader who came into this world and just think about this for a second jesus didn't leave some throne room in persia jesus left the throne room of heaven and came fully god and fully man into our midst and jesus knew in becoming one of us man he could be hurt like never before he could be spat upon lied about betrayed beaten whipped and then dragged out to a hill where he could be nailed to a cross and yet jesus for the salvation of the world said it's worth the risk scripture says for the joy set before him he endured the cross scorning its shame why are there missionaries willing to risk their life for jesus because jesus already gave his life for them and for those unreached peoples it was jesus who showed it is worth the risk but then jesus when they laid him on that crossbeam he extended the gracious hands of god nailed to the cross where he paid for our sins his body broken his blood poured out and as he died what jesus said was father into your hands i commit my spirit jesus knew god can handle it and he died to pay for our sins died the death that we would have deserved they put him in a tomb and as far as his followers were concerned his movement was over people are running left and right lying about whether or not they even know him the whole thing is a mess but it wasn't too messy for god no grave is sealed enough that the hand of god can't move the stone back three days later jesus rose from the dead in power showing that no matter what we're going through even if we face death itself it won't be too messy for god to redeem because we are a people who don't just believe in restoration works right here right now we believe even if we fail and we die through faith in christ there will be a renewal project of a new heavens and a new earth the kingdom of god fully reigning on earth that's why we ask for nations and generations because that is where eternity is headed with jesus sovereign and so like israel and we together we get to say let's begin this let's put our hands to this good work let's go not overconfident like we've got this but fully confident that god is trustworthy no matter no matter what happens no matter the the the things that come up the obstacles in our way the pushback no matter the ways that we may screw up and then go okay we're going to learn and go this way we believe that jesus the great redeemer the great rebuilder the great renewer of lives and of societies and of this world will give us success let's pray together god you're so merciful you're so gracious you're so good jesus thank you thank you for not just risking your life but giving your life to redeem us and save us thank you that you didn't just try to help us from a distance but you came into the ruin and rubble of a world wrecked by sin and you came up close to bring salvation and hope and freedom would you increase our faith for the season ahead for the work ahead confident believing and yet humble knowing that any success will be from you we pray this in the powerful name of jesus amen i'm going to invite you to stand at this time we're going to respond in worship and as we do we've got a prayer team who are ready to pray with you and we believe not only in the power of prayer but also that prayer man prayer is a gift we extend it every single week or maybe you're ready to respond in faith and say you know what i want to put my faith in jesus christ now we got we got a wet baptistry we would love to celebrate that with you but whatever god's doing in your heart while we worship come [Music] but walking around these walls i thought by now they fall [Music] but you have never failed me [Music] waiting for change to come [Music] your promise still stands great is your faithfulness your faithfulness i'm still in your hands if this is [Applause] [Music] i know the night won't last your word will come to pass and my heart will sing your praise again [Music] [Laughter] [Music] jesus you're still [Music] keep me [Music] [Music] your promise still sits [Music] [Music] this is [Music] is [Music] i'm still in your hands this is [Applause] [Music] [Music] and [Music] i see [Music] you made see [Music] but there was no way [Music] again i see you do it again [Music] all right church uh thank you so much for being here this is our oldest son gracie and i this is dre [Music] and uh dre what's the best time family time who's got better than us nobody nobody that's right so this is dre and uh he's decided he's been on us for about three years so this has been like a three year journey he's been studying with his big paw uh kim mallette has a great book that he wrote years ago uh that he's been studying with dre and we've been coming back and studying it and they had a good talk the other day so dre why are we here today why are we getting baptized because i felt like this was uh how i taught how to honor god and um i feel like i'm ready amen all right so jay we're going to baptize you in the name of the father son and the holy spirit for the forgiveness of your sins [Applause] [Music] hey good morning church family uh my name is ryan sigmund this is my oldest son mason uh we've been a part of this great church for the past eight years and i know mason has just loved the fellowship that he's had with so many of you through mission trips uh church camps and church retreats and certainly through his student group uh you know earlier we sang about seeing a victory and we're certainly seeing one today uh and for all of those of you that are around thank you for constantly pointing him to jesus mason so proud of you son so proud of you proud of how you love others we're proud to see the work that god's done within you the man that you are the man that you're becoming and i've had a front row seat certainly for this past year and seeing how you've poured in to your relationship with the lord and how you're seeking an intimate and intimate relationship with him uh and lately you've talked about the feeling of unworthiness and the need to to be made perfect in the eyes of god and here's the great thing we know that you're not too messy for him he loves you we love you we're so proud to see you live your faith out loud today mason we can't wait to see all the great things that he has in store for you and today is symbolic it's symbolic of the death of of your former self and a new life in jesus so mason do you do you believe okay do you believe that jesus was both fully god and fully man and he came to earth to live a sinless life okay a sinless life to die on the cross for all your sins yes and do you accept jesus as the lord of your life for the rest of your life yes mason it's my greatest honor to baptize you in the name of the father and son and holy spirit [Applause] all right what a party huh you're not too messy church you're not too messy for god two quick things before we leave today if you're new here we have a number on the screen where you can text it and we just want to start a conversation right we use our phones like 90 of the day so we feel like that's a good way to do it so text that number and we'll just say hello and see how we could come alongside you and lastly hey if you're a young adult if you're college age or 20 something we've got a sand volleyball night tonight at five to seven we're gonna cook some burgers so feel free to come join us get to know some of other young adults in the church everyone have a great week let's live on purpose for god this week amen [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The Hills Church

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Id: GW5IgyVUK20

Length: 92min 37sec (5557 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 03 2021