Month: January 2018

[These are the notes used by the speaker.  It is not a complete manuscript or formatted as prose.]

Nehemiah 13:17-18, 25a (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:17 |

“It’s interesting that Christians are the only ones in the worldviews around us that claim our transformation is supernatural.” –Ravi Zacharias)

Introduction

Today I am speaking about a builder of walls.  And I am not talking about the other builder of walls to the south of the border.  I am talking about a person by the name of Nehemiah.

Review

In the fifth century, Nehemiah served as a cupbearer for king Artaxerxes1 (sampled the kings’ drink to make sure it was safe) in Susa/Iran/250 km (1:11)

Being a cupbearer naturally put Nehemiah in a position to        speak to the king.

And one day Nehemiah had to speak to the king about something really important.

Nehemiah heard about the physical state of Jerusalem; he heard about its broken walls.

And this destruction broke Nehemiah’s heart, so he asked the king for permission to return to Jerusalem to rebuilt and the king granted him permission.

When Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem, he surveyed the entire city (Nehemiah 2:12-15).

Then, he enlisted the help of the people to repair the broken walls (52 days, 6:15).

And the walls were not only restored, but eventually spiritual lives were restored.

You know the people of Israel made a vow to change their lives with respect the temple, marriage and the Sabbath (Nehemiah 10).

Eventually the people of God had a joyful dedication of the wall (12:43).

The author of Nehemiah had every chance to finish on this high note.

But everything falls apart in chapter 13.

T.S. Elliot would say this story does “not end with a bang, but a whimper.”

Because of this, I seriously doubt that Hollywood would ever make a movie about Nehemiah.

Hollywood wants their happy endings.

What happened?

Nehemiah left Jerusalem, after 12 years, to ask King Artaxerxes permission to serve longer in Jerusalem.

Eventually Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem and he saw that the Jewish people let the world invade their lives.

They failed to live holy lives with respect to the temple, the Sabbath and marriage.

They broke their vows (Nehemiah 10); they went back to their old ways.

Temple: Tobiah, a non-Jew (2:19, 13:4) operated within the temple.

Sabbath: The Jewish people were working on the Sabbath (13:15-16).

Marriage: Jewish men married non-Jews (13:23-29).

The people of Jerusalem rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem.

But the moral walls broke down.

There is no happy ending.

But the story is real.

And we must ask what we can learn from this gloomy story?

Read chapter 13…

What do we learn from chapter 13?

We learn that we have to admit our ongoing struggles.

How do we admit to ongoing struggles?

The Jewish men did not admit their sin, marrying non-Jews

(vv. 23-29, cf. 2 Corinthians 6:14).

In response, Nehemiah not only confronted those who married non-believers, but he hit them and pulled their hair out.

“So I confronted them [Israelites] and called down curses on them. I beat some of them and pulled out their hair…” (Nehemiah 13:25a, NLT)

When there is sin, we cannot have a Nehemiah response.

Instead, we should encourage other believers to admit their sin to God (cf. Psalm 41:4).

How do we admit our ongoing struggles?

There are two aspects to admitting our sin to God:

The Hard News: We must admit how sinful we are.

The Bible says, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23; cf. Nehemiah 13:17-18a).

We have all sinned.

Because of this reality, we must admit our sin to God

Nehemiah reminded the Jewish people they have fallen short with the Sabbath.

And he warned them that God brought destruction on their ancestors when they didn’t observe the Sabbath (vv. 17-18a, cf. Jeremiah 17:19-27).

Even with the talk about judgment/reminded about sin, the people of God did not admit their sin of breaking the Sabbath.

We often don’t admit our sin.

1. We don’t admit our sin because there is pleasure in sin/hold on.

The Bible says, we “enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:25).

There is pleasure in sin, but it’s for a season; it is fleeting; it’s short-lived.

You can have a good time with drugs, with…

But this pleasure comes to an end; there is emptiness to it.

Even with emptiness, we sometimes won’t admit our sin, because we want the pleasure of sin.

1. We don’t admit our sin because we think sin is over there. We think sin is over in that situation; in that person; in that country. So often we spend time focusing on the sin of other people.

Someone once said, “We tend to be very good lawyers when it comes to our own mistakes, but very good judges when it comes to the mistakes of others.”

What would the world look like if we all spent our energy confessing our own sin rather than the sins of others?

Often we think sin is over in that person, in that country.

But Solzhenitsyn said that the line between good and evil isn’t just over there, in that person, in that country.

The line of evil runs right down the middle of our hearts.

Often we don’t admit sin because we think it’s over there and that we are basically good.

We are not basically good.

That premise is wrong.

We are sinners; “there is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10)

F.F. Bruce wrote,

“In the eyes of Christ, a person confessing sin is nearer to true goodness than a person boasting of [their] goodness.”

Story of two brothers: “As you all know, the departed stole and cheated. However, compared to his brother, he was a saint.”

1. We don’t admit sin because we trivialize our sin.

“Oh its no big deal, so I don’t need to admit it.”

What are some examples of trivializing sin?

1. a) When someone sins, we often say, “Well, you’re only human.”

This cliché frees us from admitting that we have sinned.

1. b) One Halloween, some dress up as demons or seductive fairytale characters.

When we do this, we are trivializing these realities.

We are treating these realities as though as though they are no big deal.

And we think since they are not a big deal, we don’t need to admit this sin.

1. c) We even see this trivializing with our food names.

Philosopher, Alvin Plantinga said “the word “sin” finds its home mostly on dessert menus: “Peanut Butter Binge” and “Sinful Chocolate.”

We should never trivialize sin.

Because all sin breaks the heart of God.

And Jesus died for all sin.

1. We don’t admit sin because we think truth does not exist.

The Bara Research Group discovered that 75% of all people deny the existence of absolute truth.

Only 8% of teenagers acknowledge there is truth.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky once observed when there is no truth, “the fences of morality area easily plowed over.”

If we don’t think there is truth, we will chase anything and we will think there is nothing to admit.

1. We don’t admit sin because we have doubts about certain sins in the Bible.

When certain sins are brought up in our discussions, sometimes we ask the question from Genesis 2: Did God really say that?

Doubts creep in our minds about morality in the Bible .

Did God really say I need to keep the Sabbath?

Did God really say that I need to honor marriage?

Did God really say to honor the church?

Did God really say these things?

 

If there are doubts, study God’s word in context, listen to credible scholars.

Often from this, there are good answers that will help us move from doubt to faith.

When we don’t doubt the Bible’s morality, this will help us to admit our sin.

 

1. We don’t admit sin because we don’t want others to see our sin.

We need to stop pretending everything is okay and admit our sin.

Example with children: quick to confess

A preacher wrote, “One of the by-products of true faith is the freedom to honestly acknowledge our weakness…rather than…conceal it.”

 

 

 

 

1. We don’t admit sin because we think we should just focus on love.

I remember seeing Billy Graham’s first crusade poster, “A sin smashing week.”

The Christian life is not all about holding hands and singing Kumbaya.

Someone tweeted this week, “Pastors are not cooks, but physicians and therefore should not aim to delight the palate, but to heal the patient.”

 

1. We don’t admit sin because we are busy majoring on the minors (i.e. entertainment, luxuries).

You know in the summer time, are we more obsessed with taking care of our lawn (our wall) than our character?

Are we more concerned about our house, than helping the poor? (The Isralites)

Gordon MacDonald wrote, “Don’t spend your life becoming very good at something that doesn’t matter.”

 

We don’t admit our sin for various reasons.

In other words, we often handle sin the wrong way.

Our passage was never about the wall.

The people of God handled sin the wrong way.

The people of God refused to admit their sin (cf. temple, Sabbath, marriage).

Now Nehemiah tried to forcefully change the people’s response, but he could not change their hearts.

I heard someone say once, “You can change laws, but you can’t legislate people’s hearts.”

 

So there is hard news: we must admit how sinful we are

But there is good news: We get to admit how sinful we are!

When we come to Jesus and admit our sin, we are forgiven, we became a child of God, we are justified.

Sir Walter Scott said the two most important words in the English language are, “not guilty.!”

And when we are “not guilty,” we are no longer condemned!

The Bible says, “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1; cf. Nehemiah 13:22b).

The CEV translation says, “If you belong to Christ Jesus, you wont be punished.”

In Nehemiah 13:22b, we see that Nehemiah gets to admit his sinfulness.

“Show mercy to me.”

 

We get to admit how sinful we are!

Being aware of God’s love/grace compels us to admit how sinful we are.

 

Do you realize how much God loves us?

He loves you when your mind denies it.

He loves you when your emotions don’t feel it.

Do you believe God loves you this moment “as you are and not as you should be?”

Dietrich Bonheoffer wrote, “God does not love some ideal person, but rather humans just as we are, not some ideal world, but rather the real world.”

When we realize God loves us, we realize we get to admit our sin!

 

When we come to God and admit our sin, God will build a people who love him and loves what he loves.

We see this spiritual building project in 1 Peter 2:4a, 5a.

“You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple…And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple.”

We are God’s building project.

God is building a people who love him and love what he loves!

Are you loving God; are you desiring him; are you placing him

first?

Are you loving what he loves? (i.e. the poor, Harvest House/1400, 1in 7 children go to school hungry)

• Often we don’t love God or love what God loves.

Instead we want to live in our comfort zones.

Dr. Craig Evans, my professor, describes what our lifestyle looks when we are living comfortably, “I find western Christians are very soft, cheese cake Christians. Soft and sweet. And melt under the least bit of adversity.”

 

Examples of our comfortable lifestyle:

1. There are people into the health and wealth prosperity gospel.

And they will say that if you have enough faith you will enter the good life, the comfortable life.

I often hear, “If you have enough faith, you won’t suffer, you will be healed.”

Christ prayed in faith that his suffering be removed, but he was crucified.

Did Jesus not have enough faith?

There was a lady that said to a pastor, “I was born blind. I don’t mind being blind, but I have some well meaning friends who tell me that if I had more faith I could be healed.”

The pastor asked her, “Tell me, do you carry one of those white canes?”

“Yes I do,” she replied.

“Then the next time someone says that, hit them over the head with the cane. Then tell them, ‘If you had more faith, that wouldn’t hurt.’”

Sounds like a Nehemiah response J

 

1. We want the grace of the cross, but not the life long response of taking up our cross.

Billy Graham, who turns 100 this year on November 7 said, “We have taken away the cross and substituted cushions.”

1. We often give a half-hearted response to helping others in need.

I often hear, “I did my good deed for today” as if they’re off the hook to do anything else.

When we have this mentality, we will often say no to the things God loves.

1. We also say, “I am too old to do these things.”

When we say we are too old, we say no to things God loves.

Pastor Craig Groeschel said, “If you’re not dead…you’re not done.”

 

Are you loving God?

Are you loving what he loves?

Or is comfort pulling you from this?

Someone wrote that, “Comfort is the enemy of achievement.”

If we only want to stay comfortable, the Christian witness in the west will continue to diminish and be less important.

And the future of the church will be more and more in the developing world; not here in the west.

Conclusion

“Let’s land this plane…” (Robin Mark, “When It’s All Been Said and Done”).

Malcolm Muggeridge was a Christian journalist, and when he graduated from Cambridge, he moved to India (Dave Morehouse) to teach English.

In his early twenties, he strolled down to the nearby river where bathing was common in India.

In those early evening hours, Muggeridge’s eye spotted the silhouette of a woman bathing on the other side.

His heart began to pound with what he called, “wild unreasonableness.”

Suddenly seized by his lustful imagination, he lunged into the water and crossed the river.

After he splashed over to the other side, he emerged face to face with an exposed woman.

And Muggeridge almost fainted.

Before him was a deformed, toothless woman who was wracked with leprosy.

Her eye-sockets were eroded and her fingers were stumpy.

Muggerridge threw himself back into the water, and drifted in the stream, shocked over the encounter.

Muggeridge admitted that the real shock that morning was not the leper.

Rather, it was the condition of his own heart.

Muggeridge said, “The diseases of the body is not nearly as hideous and grotesque as the disease in our hearts.”

One day a newspaper posed this question.

“What is wrong with the world?

G.K. Chesterton wrote a brief letter in response.

“Dear Sir. I am. Sincerely Yours.”

What is the problem with the world?

There is darkness in all of our hearts.

J.J. John stated, “The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.”

Billy Graham also said with conviction, “…the world is in such terrible danger right now. It’s not dangerous so much because we have atomic bombs, it’s dangerous because of the human hearts in back of the bombs, filled with envy and hate and strife and grief and lust and all the other things that could pull the trigger.”

This darkness in our hearts pulls us back to our old ways like the Israelite’s in Nehemiah’s day .

We follow what is popular than what is right.

We compromise.

If this is you today, education will not help, being self-reflective wont help, having rules will not help.

None of these things will change the heart.

The solution is (first step) admitting our sin/love of Jesus

I spend time working with people who are rejected, who are broken, who are hurt by addictions.

I know the answer to this problem lies not in knowledge or following rules, but in transformed hearts.

And this transformed heart begins with admitting our sin

This is the first part of repentance.

And we should have a lifelong practice of admitting our sin.

Then, take action!

Have you been skipping church? Start back.

Have you been breaking the Sabbath? Turn from the business and turn toward God.

Have you gotten away from God’s plan for marriage? Put God at the center.

Has your daily devotional life fallen away? Begin it as once.

J.I. Packer said that cars need periodic checkups.

And the Christian needs regular checkups to remove sin.

We need to open the rooms of our heart that have sin.
Then, we need to admit our sin.Then, we need to clean out our rooms with Jesus’ help.

Have you ever had a spiritual check up?

 

Prayer

Lord, thank you for being in the heart renewal business. I think you for promising to give your people a new heart. Thank you for doing this very thing in us.

Lord, we believe that we are new creation. The old has indeed passed away. Yet, a remnant of the old remains in and around us as we wait for the fullness of your kingdom. So I ask you to continue to renew our hearts. Where there is any bit of hardness, soften it. Where we are still inclined to resist you, help us to open our heart to you. Thank you that you are the giver of new hearts.

 

6 At last the wall was completed to half its height around the entire city, for the people had worked with enthusiasm.

7 But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs, Ammonites, and Ashdodites heard that the work was going ahead and that the gaps in the wall of Jerusalem were being repaired, they were furious. 8 They all made plans to come and fight against Jerusalem and throw us into confusion. 9 But we prayed to our God and guarded the city day and night to protect ourselves.

10 Then the people of Judah began to complain, “The workers are getting tired, and there is so much rubble to be moved. We will never be able to build the wall by ourselves.”

11 Meanwhile, our enemies were saying, “Before they know what’s happening, we will swoop down on them and kill them and end their work.”

12 The Jews who lived near the enemy came and told us again and again, “They will come from all directions and attack us!” 13 So I placed armed guards behind the lowest parts of the wall in the exposed areas. I stationed the people to stand guard by families, armed with swords, spears, and bows.

14 Then as I looked over the situation, I called together the nobles and the rest of the people and said to them, “Don’t be afraid of the enemy! Remember the Lord, who is great and glorious, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes!”

15 When our enemies heard that we knew of their plans and that God had frustrated them, we all returned to our work on the wall. 16 But from then on, only half my men worked while the other half stood guard with spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. The leaders stationed themselves behind the people of Judah 17 who were building the wall. The laborers carried on their work with one hand supporting their load and one hand holding a weapon. 18 All the builders had a sword belted to their side. The trumpeter stayed with me to sound the alarm.

19 Then I explained to the nobles and officials and all the people, “The work is very spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. 20 When you hear the blast of the trumpet, rush to wherever it is sounding. Then our God will fight for us!”

Introduction:

As we continue to discover how God wants to make a fresh start in our lives we now must ask the question – How do we stand against the pressure to quit?

Checking out is easy. There is less stress. And it is true that wisdom is needed when to say NO and when to persist and just GO!

Even if you are not a person of faith – we all find common ground in the observation that the secret of success is to simply outlast your critics.

I love pithy sayings! One of the earliest phrases I learned was an inspirational quote attributed to Vince Lombardi – famous coach of Green Bay Packers, “Quitters never win and Winners never quit!”

When he was seven years old, his family was forced out of their home on a legal technicality, and he had to work to help support them. At age nine, his mother died. At 22, he lost his job as a store clerk. He wanted to go to law school, but his education wasn’t good enough. At 23, he went into debt to become a partner in a small store. At 26, his business partner died, leaving him a huge debt that took years to repay. At 28, after courting a girl for four years, he asked her to marry him. She said no. At 37, on his third try he was elected to Congress, but two years later, he failed to be reelected. At 41, his four-year-old son died. At 45, he ran for the Senate and lost. At 47, he failed as the vice-presidential candidate. At 49, he ran for the Senate again, and lost. At 51, he was elected president of the United States. His name was Abraham Lincoln, a man many consider the greatest leader the country of the United States ever had. Some people get all the breaks.

How do we stand against the pressure to quit

… fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes… Then our God will fight for us!” (Nehemiah 4:14b, 20b, NLT)

The Story in Nehemiah is about the Jewish people rebuilding the broken the walls of Jerusalem. At a deeper level it is about restoring what God had intended for the people of Israel. But the conditions for the rebuilding project was fraught with difficulties and opposition.  

And in this story we see Nehemiah leading people who are facing the pressure to quit. What we see in this story is how Nehemiah led the people to fight; to battle through as they continued to build.

And we need to learn from this story in God’s Word how do we fight against the pressures that overwhelm us, how do we battle as we continue to build into our lives a faith in Christ that changes us from the inside out.

The first thing we learn in the inevitable reality of…

Hitting the Wall
Fear and fatigue can bring us to the quitting point.

At last the wall was completed to half its height around the entire city… then the people of Judah began to complain (Nehemiah 4:6,10, NLT)

The halfway point is a dangerous time for a lot of us. In this story we heard there had been plenty of enthusiasm. But now there was opposition. The old enemies of the Jewish people did not want them to emerge and re-establish themselves.

Now that the wall was half way built – the success they achieved activated more resistance. That is true at a human level and at a spiritual level.

When we carry out God’s will we must expect opposition. Jesus spoke of this opposition reality. Sermon on the Mount – God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Matthew 5:11

This opposition is rooted in the spiritual reality of Satan and the forces of darkness. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:11

What are the things that are opposing you – bringing you fear right now? Failure, shame, looking foolish, others backing away, critics, unexpected problems, spiritual warfare?

And the other factor when you get halfway in the work you believe God is calling you to do is tiredness. Listen to what is recorded in this story.  Then the people of Judah began to complain, “The workers are getting tired, and there is so much rubble to be moved. We will never be able to build the wall by ourselves.” Nehemiah 4:10

The rocks they were moving were huge when Brent and I were talking about this message. It is understandable that fatigue set in.

Boulder size tedium, tests, trials all tire us out. We are facing challenges that are not easily solved. We are fragile and we in our pride we overestimate our abilities and don’t want to ask for help. Where are you getting weary? What is contributing to your physical, mental and spiritual fatigue?

Enemies about – weariness within. Fear and Fatigue  makes us hit the wall…Nehemiah faced Psychological warfare – physical threats – personal discouragement. It would have been easy for him to say…

• I am done.
• I am finished
• It is time to quit

When you commit to live God’s way we have to face a simple reality of life and the path of faith –

When you hit the halfway point, brace yourself for troubles and commit yourself to continue.

Let us not get surprised when faith, obedience to the way of Christ gets hard. Let us not think that difficulties means God is not in it. Every single advance in Nehemiah’s mission is met by opposition, and there’s trouble. Every time he makes a little headway, there is more trouble.

I don’t know about you, but there’s a part of me that thinks: Life ought to be easy. If I try to do a good thing, I ought to get credit for it, and life ought to be easy.

Someone once remarked: “No soldier ever goes into battle and says, ‘Hey! They’re shooting at me!”

Transition: But in this story of Nehemiah we also discover how we keep going, how spiritually and practically we get our…

Second Wind
God’s power and presence overcomes fear and fatigue.

Then as I looked over the situation, I called together the nobles and the rest of the people and said to them, “Don’t be afraid of the enemy! Remember the Lord, who is great and glorious, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes!”… then our God will fight for us!” (Nehemiah 4:14, 20, NLT)

This source of strength for Nehemiah is another reality that we cannot avoid. To experience God transformational work in us we need to depend on God’s power and presence..

Nehemiah first and foremost depended on God. This was at the heart of Nehemiah. This dependence was demonstrated in his  prayers.

Chapter 1 – O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands, listen to my prayer!…“The people you rescued by your great power and strong hand are your servants.

Chapter 4 – “Hear us, our God, for we are being mocked. May their scoffing fall back on their own heads,

Chapter 5 –  Remember, O my God, all that I have done for these people, and bless me for it.

All throughout the bible the way of faith is one where we constantly lean into God. Every day in every way we practise the presence of God in our lives.

Hear God speak to us through his word…

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble Psalm 46:1

 

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31

But (Christ) he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Ephesians 6:1

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13

SideBar: Dependence on God lets us see how God always uses the good to foil evil.

Author J. R. R. Tolkien once wrote in a letter:

“…evil labours with vast power and perpetual success in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in.”

Chris Armstrong, “9/11, History, and the True Story”, Christian History Connection,

Dependence on God moved Nehemiah to a place of action. He rallied the people to return working on the wall. He reminded them to not let fear of the enemy distract them, and to be encouraged because the great and glorious God is with them.

But he also called them to fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes!”

Other people are depending on your spiritual choices, your faith, your love and service in the name of Christ. You are a light in their world. Giving up doesn’t just impact you but so many others around you.

So how do you and I fight and stand against the pressure to quit?

Remember that Almighty God is with us and he can renew our strength to overcome obstacles.

Shofar Moment – The Ram’s Horn – The Trumpet Blast

In the story we are told that Nehemiah gave the people these instructions – When you hear the blast of the trumpet, rush to wherever it is sounding. Then our God will fight for us! That trumpet was a ram’s horn – in Hebrew it was called a shofar.

So if you were at the wall of Jerusalem – this is what you would have heard…PLAY SHOFAR CLIP.

We don’t have ram’s horn today but we still those trumpet /shofar moments that alert to the spiritual danger, that God is with us and that we need each other.

What are trumpet moments – weekly worship, journey group, our times of reading scripture, a commitment to be a spiritual friend, a time of quiet and solitude.

Let’s have a trumpet/shofar moment right now. As Kevin comes I want to ask – If you are facing something in your life – the pressure to quit is strong – in your walk with God, in a friendship, in an attempt to reconcile, in an area of service, in your call that God is placing on your life, in your parenting, your marriage, your struggle to overcome an addiction. – raise your hand to say I need prayer – I don’t know what to pray.

Pray  – Lord I am hitting  the wall – I feel the opposition. Lord I know I am in a spiritual battle. I can’t overcome all these problems on my own. God instill within by your Holy Spirit the will to fight, to persist to persevere. To simply say in faith, “All right, God. I lean into you. I will walk with others by faith. I’ll be faithful. I won’t give up.”

At the end of the service – if you need a time of prayer Kevin/Seth will meet you at the front for a ministry time…

 

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Reflection Questions (Questions are based on Nehemiah 4)

 

 

1. Think of a time you wanted to quit because of fatigue (you had enough!) and another time you wanted to quit because your were afraid (of failure, leadership ability, etc.).  What are some differences and similarities between these experiences? 
2. The Jews had the wall half completed when the opposition began getting serious (cf., Neh 4:7,8). Why do you think this happened then? How can we better plan for opposition in the middle of our journey? 
3. Why do you think Nehemiah encouraged people to think of their family and neighbours as well as God? (cf., Neh 4:14)  How does this connect to Jesus teaching for us? How does thinking about God help you not to quit? How does thinking of your family and friends help you not to quit?   
4. Nehemiah used the trumpet (shofar) to rally the people together at critical times of threat. We are better together!  What are some ways Satan tries to divide us in difficult times? What can we learn from Nehemiah 4 to help withstand Satan’s efforts against us. 
5. Notice how the rubble was interfering with the work (Neh 4:10-12)? What types of spiritual rubble can make us want to quit? What steps will you do this week to clear the rubble for your life and push through the quitting point?

 

 

 

 

What will kickstart our decision to act?

17 But now I said to them, “You know very well what trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire. Let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and end this disgrace!” 18 Then I told them about how the gracious hand of God had been on me, and about my conversation with the king. They replied at once, “Yes, let’s rebuild the wall!” So they began the good work. 19 But when Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem the Arab heard of our plan, they scoffed contemptuously. “What are you doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” they asked. 20 I replied, “The God of heaven will help us succeed. We, his servants, will start rebuilding this wall. But you have no share, legal right, or historic claim in Jerusalem.” (Nehemiah 2:17–20, NLT)

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”  So quipped Mark Twain about his reality in the late 1800’s and we laugh because it is still true for us.  I think the people of Nehemiah’s day would have found some truth in it as well as they surveyed century old rubble that once marked the great protective wall of Jerusalem.  

Last week we looked at how we must face problems in our lives. We discovered that it is with a sense of humility and holy discontent — that we come to that place where we admit to our broken walls. Rather than whitewashing over them where we rationalize that our brokenness is manageable or even comfortable we come to a place, like Nehemiah, where we are weeping.

The hope we discovered last week was that when we see our broken walls, God meets us there with a real hope for a new beginning.

At the heart of God’s love for us was that Jesus went to the cross to deal with our broken walls. It was in our bleakest situation that God meets us through Jesus and deals with our greatest need, the need for a Saviour. That is the beginning of a fresh start.

Now that our heads are in the game so to speak, what next?  

Today we are continuing with the story of Nehemiah. Let’s remember we are looking at this story as type/a metaphor of our need for renewal – for deep change – for transformation – for a fresh start in our lives.

At this point in the story we see that the people respond to Nehemiah’s’ call to rebuild the wall with a resounding yes. “Yes let’s rebuild the wall.”

As we consider the fresh start God wants to do in our lives we must wrestle with our yes.

• “Will we say yes?”
• How does a fresh start begin with a yes?
• What will kickstart our yes?
• In other words what will kickstart our decision to act – to say yes?  

Yes is such a small word – but without it nothing happens. A famous poet E.E.Cummings wrote this interesting verse about YES:

“Love is a place

& through this place of

love move

(with brightness of peace)

all places

yes is a world

& in this world of yes live

(skillfully curled)

all worlds”

― E.E. Cummings

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.
Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality.
Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.
Yes we can heal this nation.
Yes we can repair this world.
Yes we can.

Half-hearted
a spiritual sloth which rarely starts and easily quits.

Now that we have seen those years go by and Obama’s era is over – we may feel a tinge of cynicism and sadness and wonder if a yes that is filled with hope really does make a difference.

We live in a world of what I want to call the half-hearted yes. People in their discouragement, lack of faith, disobedience, weariness are leery of giving a full throated yes.

So instead we express a half -hearted yes…

• Okay – if you say so.
• Really? Haven’t we tried that before?
• Yes until I get a better option.
• One I have heard in the last number of years – “Whatever!”
• A Fake Yes – A recent (2015) article in The Wall Street Journal points to new research that proves what many workers already know: employees fake a positive outlook when the boss is around, and all that fakery can be exhausting. The research, reported first in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, concluded that workers tended to put on smiles and fake happiness when higher-ups were in the room. By contrast, when workers hold meetings with peers or with lower-status employees, they tend to express themselves more honestly.

A Half hearted yes is dangerous for the Christian life. It reveals that we have given into a spiritual sloth. As it says in the teaching  – it rarely starts and easily quits.

What does spiritual sloth look like? Half-hearted people likely…

• spend no time seeking “eternal wisdom,”
• they say, “It’s useless to search for meaning.”
• they never wonder if they will go to heaven.
• “it’s not a major priority in my life to find deeper purpose.”
• There is a denial that God has a purpose or plan for everyone.

A term used in the historical church for this condition of being half hearted was called acedia. The Oxford Concise Dictionary of the Christian Church defines acedia (or accidie) as “a state of restlessness and inability either to work or to pray”. This spiritual sloth leads to minimal response to ultimate matters.  

But how is this half heartedness overcome? Perhaps staring at broken walls of Jerusalem for nearly a century possibly caused some half heartedness.

But listen to Nehemah… “But now I said to them, “You know very well what trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire. Let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and end this disgrace!”  (Nehemiah 2:17, NLT)

Do we not begin to overcome half heartedness with a stirring inside that God wants something more for our lives? That the day is not done and that we are called to the do the good works that God had planned in advance for us to do? (Ephesians 2:10)

Nehemiah was confronted by a situation filled with apathy, and his first step was to call the people to action. He was calling people to say yes to God and the implication was that they could not stay where they were.

When we say yes to God – we cannot stay where we are. And here is the hope that we get from Nehemiah’s story – God’s work in us starts with our yes to the mess!

When we look at where we are and recognize where God wants us to be is a different and better place and we sense God is there to make a way – is there not an enthusiasm that wells up within that God is at work in us?

Henry Blackaby observes the bible teaches that as we submit to God we see the truth “…that God can do anything He pleases through an ordinary person who is fully dedicated to Him”

Including working through the mess of life – whether that is in our relationships, our hurtful past, our addictions, our fears and pain and allsorts of other “disgraces”  

God’s work in us starts with our yes to the mess!

Kickstarted
a dynamic faith, rooted in God’s power, confirmed in our circumstances.

Our yes will be kickstarted  instead of half hearted when it comes from a dynamic faith, rooted in God’s power, confirmed in our circumstances.

How does this work itself out? Let us get practical – how do we move our yes from Half-hearted to Kickstarted?

Here in the story of Nehemiah we need to connect the dots between two important matters that impacts our yes!

 Then I told them about how the gracious hand of God had been on me, and about my conversation with the king. They replied at once, “Yes, let’s rebuild the wall!” So they began the good work. (Nehemiah 2:18, NLT)

For Nehemiah he was more than committed…he was submitted to what God wanted to do through him and the people in Jerusalem. God was giving a sense to Nehemiah what he wanted him to be involved in.  He sensed the presence of God – the gracious hand of God was upon him.

Nehemiah was sensing that God was calling -inviting him to join God where God wanted Nehemiah to be involved! God was at work in Nehemiah’s life.

Is God’s gracious hand on you? Henry Blackaby in his classic “Experiencing God” and other writings make these observations:  

• Anything of spiritual significance that happens in your life will be a result of God’s activity in you
• Where are you sensing God inviting you to join Him where He wants to involve you?
• God doesn’t want people to do what they think is best: he wants them to do what he knows is best – only God can reveal it”

Our yes is getting kickstarted when we get a sense of that God is at work in us. When we start to have a desire for God, start to questions about Christianity, when we are inquiring about spiritual matters, ultimate matters, when we start to wonder about justice, truth and meaning and where does God fit in to all of this – you are witnessing God at work!

But there is another part to our yes getting kickstarted. Nehemiah talks about his conversation with the king of Persia. God had already proved His power by working in the heart of the king, and the king had promised to meet the needs. Nehemiah had the resources and permission to go forward with the work. God was at work in the circumstances.

When we believe God is calling us to His work and will we must also believe God is working all around you and me. One more Blackaby quote: Whether you see Him at work is irrelevant to the fact of God’s presence in our world. He is actively and intimately involved in both the affairs of this world and the details of your life.

When you see heaven and earth agreeing, it is time to say yes to the mess! – Instead of being driven by our circumstances the challenge is to discern our circumstances.

For Nehemiah God was in this. His power was upon him. This took his faith by storm. And because the circumstances were aligning it allowed Nehemiah to put into place a definite intelligible plan to be carried out. God was saying yes…the king was saying yes and now it was time for Nehemiah for the people to say yes.

Application/Conclusion

Will God ever ask you to do something you are not able to do? The answer is yes–all the time!

We need God’s power to face our broken walls in ourselves, our families, our marriages, our churches, our communities. We need God’s presence and power at work in us to kickstart our decision to act.

Why? Because there will always be the no’s to our yes. There will always be opposition and ridicule when you decide to go God’s way. Jesus faced it and so will we. (Our Lord was ridiculed during His life and mocked while He was hanging on the cross. He was “despised and rejected of men” (Isa. 53:3). On the Day of Pentecost, some of the Jews in the crowd said that the Christians were drunk (Acts 2:13). The Greek philosophers called Paul a “babbler” (17:18, NIV), and Festus told Paul he was out of his mind (26:24).)

We need to be discerning the circumstances to see how God wants us to act in this moment. What is happening right now that is a confirmation for you to take the next step? How is God at work in the circumstances. If doors that were once closed now opening, if resources that were once not there now available, if people are now open to conversations that were once not happening, if people are willing to consider new things…are we wise enough to act upon the yes?  

• Recognizing God is not the same as coming to Him and saying yes!.
• Hearing God in your heart is not the same as answering with a yes!.
• Working for the kingdom of God does not mean saying yes to living in the kingdom of God.
• Christianity is not believing the truths of the Bible; it’s saying yes to them by living them out and
• When we allow God to guide our life we are saying yes to God.
• Will you respond  to God and make the choice to say Yes Lord and interact personally with Him.”

Think about the challenges – the needs – the broken walls. What is God revealing? Do you sense God’s hand upon you/ Are you discerning how God is at work around you right now? God’s work in us starts when we say yes to the mess.

Yes let’s rebuild the wall!

 

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Reflection questions / group questions

1. What are some examples of expressing a half hearted yes?  Why do we sometimes feel powerless to change? 
2.  Nehemiah had scoffers around him — those who criticized his plans. How do we give power to our critics? What are some ways we can resist the critics like Nehemiah did?
3. Acedia (a-SEE-dee-ah) is a spiritual sloth that makes us unable to make decisions that could change our circumstances.  Acedia is a half-hearted state of giving up. Why is being half-hearted a great danger for the Christian life? Are there areas of your life that are marked by acedia?
4. Nehemiah’s plans to rebuild the wall came from his sense of what God wanted (spiritual) and confirmation from the king’s willingness (practical).  Why do we sometimes fail to “connect the dots” between what God is saying and what God is doing around us?  
5. Saying “yes” in the face of our mess is saying ‘yes’ to God. Where are you going to say ‘yes’ to God this week?  Pray for the confidence of Nehemiah 2:20 – knowing that ‘the God of heaven will help us succeed” when we give him our ‘yes’.

1 These are the memoirs of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah. In late autumn, in the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes’ reign, I was at the fortress of Susa. 2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came to visit me with some other men who had just arrived from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had returned there from captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem. 3 They said to me, “Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.” 4 When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven. (Nehemiah 1:1–4, NLT)

I love the hope of our key verse in this series called Fresh Start. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  2 Cor 5:17

We all want to have a fresh start in those deep areas of our lives – where we are not simply surviving, hiding or blaming but becoming what God wants us to be.

Fresh Start is about experiencing a Holy Spirit Driven process where our internal world is remade, our inner beings – who we really are is changed in the likeness of Christ –

Our Fresh Start starts with deciding to follow Jesus – transformation happens the moment we believe. But God’s intent is now that we grow as a new creation – where we become great souls learning to be like Jesus, act like Jesus, love like Jesus…

But in this journey of understanding what a fresh start means we have to begin with some hard news.

• It is a willingness to face where we really are.
• To peer into who I really am.
• To honestly face what the conditions really are.
• A courage to understand what is broken, wrong and evil in my life.
• Though it is not a desirable thing to do we must be willing to look at the problems that are within in our lives.  

We are going to learn from the book of Nehemiah to help us understand what a fresh start looks like. The story of Nehemiah is not just the story of leadership, it is the story of brokeness and the struggle to overcome it.  Nehemiah’s leadership only comes to focus because of the bleak situation of Jerusalem.

I want to take you through a mini walk through the Bible to get a sense of where Nehemiah fits into the overall story of Israel. A quick timeline: Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt and slavery to the Promised Land. That took place sometime around 1300 B.C., give or take 100 years or so. Then they occupied the Promised Land. Then there came kings—first Saul, then David. When David becomes king, Israel reaches its peak. Then came Solomon, and then begins a long, slow decline.

Finally, Israel is pretty much finished off as a nation by the Babylonians around 587 B.C. At this point Jerusalem is wiped out, and many Israelites are sent into exile, especially the upper classes. Sometime after this, the Babylonian Empire is defeated by the rising Persian Empire. This is good news for Israel, because a significant number of Israelites are allowed to return to the Holy Land. They are allowed to go back to Jerusalem. That’s the setting for our story.

So now Nehemiah comes on the scene – he lives in Persia, in the capital city of Susa, around 445 B.C. Now it has been over a century after the Israelites had been sent into exile.

He is serving in the Persian government as the cupbearer to the king of Persia. It is his job to taste wine before it is presented to the king—not to make sure that the wine is good enough, but to make sure that the wine has not been poisoned. You never had to ask a cupbearer, “How did your day go?” If they didn’t die, things had gone pretty well.

He is someone the king trusts, someone who has a lot of access to the king. So Nehemiah was doing very well for himself. He was well connected to the king, and on a successful career path. His life was going pretty well, until one day:

Nehemiah learns that Jerusalem is in great trouble – Enemies surround the city, the walls are in ruins, and morale is in shambles.

But the part that really concerns Nehemiah is that God’s whole dream of redeeming the world—of forming a redemptive community and having a covenant with them, of letting everybody on earth know that there really is a God who created each of us and that the earth is part of his story—that whole idea seems to be at risk. Neh. 1:3-6 (NIV)

“Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”

[4] When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

Our Broken Walls: How do we respond to the problems in our lives? I want us to that for all of us we have a choice of 2 ways can choose 2 different ways.

The Whitewashing Way:

Until Nehemiah addressed the problem, the people of Jerusalem had accepted the broken walls.

The walls of Jerusalem had lain in ruins was not new news. It had been nearly 90 years since the people who had returned from exile. But any idea among the residents to rebuild was met with force — to the point that the residents of the city had given up. They consigned themselves to living as a broken people in a city of broken walls.  

We are not so different are we.  We have broken walls in us and around us. Relationships. Personal struggles.  We have tried to change before. . . maybe many times and the resistance was too strong. We stopped.

When you get use to broken walls I think the temptation is to cover up the mess. Slap a little whitewash on the mess to help us get used to it.

Jesus talked about this “Whitewashing Way”

27 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. (Matthew 23:27, NLT)

This is from a section of Matthew’s gospel devoted to “woes” that Jesus says to people who engage in hypocrisy.  Hypocrite is just the Greek word for “actor”– a person who pretends.  Pretend is a great thing for children and even for adults in particular contexts (role playing for training purposes)– but as a life-model, Jesus didn’t really favor that.  Listen to the words of Jesus:

When we have brokenness in our lives and in our relationships and we pretend that everything is okay, we are engaging in hypocrisy. We may excuse it because we are embarrassed and because we feel shame. Wanting to hide the reality of what is wrong is a natural reaction.  But it is unhelpful because it doesn’t lead us anywhere.

Illustration: We may do it to feel comfortable…but I wonder if pretending is comfortable.  Donna Freitas in her thought-provoking book The Happiness Effect, argues that the real downside of social media is that it demands fake happiness. She writes:

Because young people feel so pressured to post happy things on social media, most of what everyone sees on social media from their peers are happy things; as a result, they often feel inferior because they aren’t actually happy all the time … . students are becoming masters of appearing happy, at significant cost …. Many students have begun to see what they post (on Facebook, especially) as a chore—a homework assignment to build a happy façade.

A full 73 percent of the students she surveyed agreed this this statement: “I try always to appear positive/happy with anything attached to my real name.” Only 19 percent of respondents agreed that “I am open about my emotions on social media.”

Laura Vanderkam, “A Generation Living for Likes,” The Wall Street Journal (2-14-17)

It is hypocrisy because we are advertising to everyone that we have everything in order, when we don’t. We are saying we don’t need grace when we do. We are creating a false life instead of a new life.

John Ortberg calls this “image management”.  We want to look better than we actually are. In fact we place great importance on that in our lives.

When we prettify our problems it leads to Chaos & Confusion – The change we need most is not in our circumstances, but in ourselves. If we simply cover up we are going to end destroying what we want to keep.

The Weeping Way

When Nehemiah heard the report from Jerusalem, it overwhelmed him emotionally and made him spiritually aware of his need for God.

I sat down and wept…

Our Teaching Pastor, Brent Hudson observes:

This is the reason we don’t want to stare our brokenness in the face.   We know that when we truly see it — see it for what it is — our response will be like Nehemiah — Weeping and mourning.  A deep sadness from the deep wells of our hearts. It hurts too much…it feels us with pain…and we all want to avoid pain…especially emotional pain.

13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ (Luke 18:13, NLT)

When we see our broken walls, God meets us there with a real hope for a new beginning.

The wisdom we learn from Nehemiah is not about weeping and mourning — that is just the natural response to not looking away.  

The wisdom of Nehemiah is seeing his need for God and seeking him. Nehemiah’s lesson is clear.

When facing our brokenness,
don’t go to the whitewash, go to God.  

Forget about image management. Forget about what others might say.  Forget about everything else. Face the face that brokenness is bleak but in God, there is hope. But there is a self-awareness that is needed.  

Think again of the story of Tax Collector and the Pharisee the temple.  The Pharisee has employed the whitewash so well, he didn’t even recognize his brokenness.  Instead of weeping and mourning and fasting and praying as Nehemiah did, he thanked God he wasn’t as bad as others. But Jesus reminds us that it was not the Pharisee who enjoyed God’s favour.

“But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ (Luke 18:13, NLT)

When we see our ‘broken walls’ — really see them. See them as bleak and barren as they are.  See them as the destructive energy that they are — it is in this moment that God meets us.  It is in that honesty and helplessness of our broken walls that we finally have with a real hope for a new beginning…it is in that honesty of facing it that we discover something transforming. When we peer into the very heart of our brokenness we find Jesus on the cross — suffering with us and more importantly suffering for us so we can transcend the broken walls of our lives and experience new creation.   

New beginnings starts with broken walls

As we move into 2018, I challenge you to face-in to a challenge that is far more significant that diet or organizational skill.  Ask yourself…

• Where you are right now is that where you want to be?
• Where you are in our family, church, work is that where you believe God wants you to be?
• What is the new beginning God wants to begin.
• Where does the fresh start begin with you?

I challenge you, even as I challenge myself to open your eyes to the broken walls things that are really holding you back from a deeper more substantial experience of Christ in your life.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  2 Cor 5:17

 

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Reflection Questions

1. Why do we avoid or become complacent regarding our problems?
2. Is there an area in your life where you are whitewashing instead of weeping? What are some ways that “prettify” our problems?
3. Nehemiah didn’t just weep and mourn, he also fasted and prayed. What specific things are you doing to connect your emotional health and your spiritual health?
4. What is the connection between facing your deepest problems and having hope?
5. What steps can you take this week to honestly face your broken walls?