Our ‘Yes!’

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

Remember the former President Obama’s campaign slogan in 2008? YES WE CAN? There was a video made with alot of stars and singers – here is a portion of the lyrics made from Obama’s speech:

 

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!

 

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’.