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Rebuilding the Ruins of Your Life | Sunday Message

A New Beginning / Greg Laurie
The Truth Network Radio
January 19, 2025 3:00 am

Rebuilding the Ruins of Your Life | Sunday Message

A New Beginning / Greg Laurie

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January 19, 2025 3:00 am

Nehemiah was someone who saw need and did something about it. We should be the same way.

Notes:

Focus verse - Nehemiah 2
 
#1 We need to help God’s people when they are hurting.
1 Corinthians 12:26

The church is a family. Scripture says the church is the body of Christ.

#2  There is a time to pray then there is a time to move.
 
#3 Nehemiah had a plan.
 
Read Nehemiah 2:7–8
 
Nehemiah was dependent upon God, and he continued to pray.
 
It is important to understand how the spiritual and the practical work together.
 
When the time for intercession has passed,
The time for intervention has come.
 
Read Nehemiah 2:11
 
The Hebrew word for view means to closely examine.
 
#4 When we are doing the will of God we will face opposition.
Nehemiah 2:19
 
Whenever you are pursuing a divine opportunity there will be opposition.
1 Corinthians 16:9
 
Nehemiah 2:19
 
Our primary enemies are the world, the flesh, and the devil.
 
The world is the external enemy.
The flesh is the internal enemy.
The devil is the infernal enemy.
 
“Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
James 4:7
 
Read Nehemiah 3:1–4
 
#5 We need to find our place in the work that God is doing.
 
Every one of us has a vital part to play.
Ephesians 4:16
  
Faith in God and love for fellow Christians are the evidence of your faith.
Ephesians 1:15–16
 
Let every one of us volunteer and serve.
1 Peter 4:10
 
Let every one of us give an offering,
2 Corinthians 9:7
 
Nehemiah 3:5

There are two kinds of people that come to church: Participators and spectators.
  
#6 The problem with faith breakers is they want to discourage faith makers.
Nehemiah 2:19
 
Nehemiah 3:20
 
The word zealously means to burn or to glow.
 
Baruch did not just build the wall, he did it with passion.
 
Jesus left the glory of heaven and came to this earth.

Send help and hope to SoCal

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Greg Laurie here. You've heard about these devastating fires that we're experiencing right here in our backyard in Southern California. These fires are moving so quickly and they're 0% contained. So what should we do? Pray. Pray for these firefighters. Pray for their protection.

But we need to step into this situation. So we've created the Harvest Relief Funds for situations exactly like this. If you would like to send some support to help people in need, you just go to our website, harvest.org slash relief. We want to bring help and hope to people in the name of Jesus Christ. I'm reminded of the passage that tells us that God can bring beauty out of ashes. Thank you for your prayers and let's pray that this fire is contained and stopped and that lives are spared and most importantly that people come to put their faith in Christ.

Thank you so much. Hey there. Thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie encouraging you.

If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org. Good afternoon everybody. Let's pray together. Lord, you are worthy of it all. And we come with gladness today to your house, to meet with your people, to look at your word and to hear your voice. Lord, we think of the horrible damage in lives that have been impacted by these fires up in LA and we pray for your hand of comfort to be with those who've lost loved ones.

And your hand of provision for those who have literally lost their homes and their livelihood. So we just pray, Lord, that as a church we can do what we can to help and to show your love in a tangible way. So we commit this service to you now and ask your blessing on it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well you can all be seated.

Why don't you grab your Bible and turn to Nehemiah chapter 2. Wow. Has this year ever gotten off to a crazy start? We begin the year by a terrorist attack in New Orleans. And now we have these horrible fires that have caused so much damage up in the LA area. And so it's an interesting thing that earlier this week I gave a title to my message before the fires and it was rebuilding the ruins of your life. And now we have tragically a living illustration of that for people that are doing that very thing.

But we look at our own lives and maybe that is a picture of how our life looks, so to speak. A fire of sorts has wreaked havoc in your life and you're looking at a pile of rubble. Things are going along reasonably well or so you thought and then an explosion of sorts hit. Maybe your spouse said to you that they're done with the marriage or your child is leaving the faith or suddenly you're facing a health crisis of some kind.

Or some other event has happened and you have no ability to fix it whatsoever. Well that was the state of Israel in the text that we're going to be looking at right now in the book of Nehemiah. The city of Jerusalem was lying in rubble and ruins. The once proud walls that surrounded the city were now just charred and weeds were growing over them.

And it was a picture not just of a city but of the people as well. So of course what happened was the Israelites kept turning to false gods. God warned them to the prophets that they would face repercussions for that. They ignored the warnings of the prophets and they were taking captivity to Babylon for 70 years. Ruled by Nebuchadnezzar then later by his wicked grandson Belshazzar. But then Cyrus and the Medo-Persian forces come and conquer Babylon and Cyrus frees the Jews to go back to their homeland again.

And so that's where we sort of enter the narrative. And so Artaxerxes is on the throne of Persia at this point. And Nehemiah, the title of the book and also a principal character in our story, is the cup bearer to the king. And to be a cup bearer meant that you were in a very high ranking position of affluence and influence. You had the king's ear. Some think he was the second most powerful man in the kingdom. Before the king would eat the food, Nehemiah would taste it first. So something happened one day that changed everything for him.

He found out that the city of Jerusalem was lying in ruin after he had asked how were things going back there when someone came from Jerusalem. And that's where we pick up our message. And so if you're taking notes, please proceed. And afterwards tell me what an oit is. I'm very interested.

If you're taking notes, here's point number one. We need to help God's people when they are hurting. We need to help God's people when they are hurting because we are the church and we are a family. And the Bible compares the church to a body, specifically the body of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 12 26 it says, If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, then all the parts are glad.

And so just as the human body is interconnected, so is the body of Christ. I mean, if you injure yourself, your whole body notes it, even stubbing your toe. Oh, I hate to stub my toe. You know, you hit something and there's the initial pain, but you know the big pain's coming in a moment. Or have you ever bitten the inside of your mouth? Am I the only one?

I'm just talking, all of a sudden I go, what was that all about? And now it's a little swollen and you bite it again. And because it's swollen even more, you bite it again, so now you're eating your food, holding your cheek out.

Has this happened to anybody else? Raise your hand. I'm glad I'm not the only one. I've had it happen when I'm speaking like crazy. So you're very aware of it. If you stub your toe, you're compensating for it. You're kind of limping. So in the same way if one part of the body of Christ is hurting, in effect we all are hurting. And maybe our natural inclination is if someone is in pain, we want to walk the other direction.

But in reality, we should try to help them. You know, I've been a pastor now for 50 years. And some things I love and some things are very hard. For instance, it's very hard for me to speak to you. I don't enjoy it at all.

No, I'm joking. This is actually the part I enjoy the most is speaking. I'll tell you what's hard, honestly. It's funeral services. And the hardest funeral services are for children. And for all the many years I've been doing this, I've done many services, unfortunately, for children. And you're trying to find the right words to say because it's so hard to look at a casket of someone you knew.

But then when it's a small little casket and you think of that little child, it's very hard to deal with. And I've always done my best to try to bring comfort and help to families who are mourning the loss of their loved one. Then one day, I found myself in the front row of the church, not as the pastor but as a grieving father. Pastor Chuck Smith spoke at my son's funeral service. And it changed everything for me.

It changed the way I looked at things. And suddenly I found myself in a position I'd never planned on being in, which is someone who helps families who've lost children. I didn't ask for this ministry.

I didn't really want this ministry. But I accepted that God let this happen to me and I did not want to waste my pain. And I found that people would listen to me because I had suffered the loss of a child. And not only people in our own church, I've talked to people all around the country who reach out to me. Would you call this person? Would you talk to that person? I've had families of 25 people at a time come in asking me to talk to their whole family and try to help them through it.

And I don't have any magic words for them. But what I can tell them is this is going to be very hard. You're going to mourn this for a long time. But I want you to know that you're going to experience joy again down the road.

That happiness will return. But this will also always be a pain in your life, especially your child. You never get over it. Never ask someone who's lost a child, are you over it yet? They'll never be over it. They're just getting through it. They're in different stages of getting through it. But I've tried to do what I can to help people in that position.

As I said, I don't want to waste my pain. So the Bible tells us weep with those that weep. So Nehemiah heard bad news. He goes, I've got to do something. God's put me in this position as the cupbearer to the king.

I have the ear of the most powerful man on planet earth and I've got to go to him and I've got to appeal to him. So yes, we are to weep with those that weep. You know, it's interesting, the Bible says weep with those that weep and rejoice with those that rejoice. I think it's easier sometimes to weep with someone who weeps than it is to rejoice with someone who rejoices.

Let me illustrate. Someone calls you, oh man, I just lost my job. Oh, I'm so sorry. Then another person calls you, oh, I just got promoted and I'm making 20 times what I made before. And you're like, oh, praise God. A little jealous.

I can weep with that guy over there, but this person here, it's a little harder to rejoice with the one who is rejoicing. So Nehemiah heard about the walls of Jerusalem lying in rubble and he wanted to do something because walls mattered to them back then. Walls obviously protected this city.

They were a symbol. Walls matter now too. For instance, the walls of faithfulness protect the marriage. The walls of marriage protect the family. The walls of the family protect our nation. The reason our nation is experiencing so many problems right now is the breakdown of the family. As I've said many times, you can look at all the stats that supported almost every problem in our culture today is due to the breakdown of the family.

If the family was stronger, the nation would be stronger. And so we find that the walls come down and the other things begin to happen as a result. So Nehemiah hears this and he prays. He prays for four months. Lord, you've got to show me what to do.

So this is a real example of what to do when you're facing crisis. Let's pick it up in Nehemiah chapter 2 verse 1. Early the following spring in the month of Nisan.

That's right after the month of Toyota. During the 20th year of King Artaxerxes reign, I was serving the king his wine. I never appeared sad in his presence. So the king asked me, why are you looking so sad?

You don't look sick to me. You must be deeply troubled. Then I was terrified, says Nehemiah. But I replied, long live the king.

How can I not be sad? For the city where my ancestors are buried is in ruins and the gates have been destroyed by fire. The king asked, how can I help you with a prayer to the God of heaven? I replied, if it please the king and if you're pleased with me your servant, send me to Judah to rebuild the city where my ancestors are buried. The king with the queen beside him asked, how long will you be gone and when will you return? After I told him how long I would be gone, the king agreed to my request. What a powerful narrative that is. That brings me to point number two. There is a time to pray and there's a time to move.

There's a time to pray and there's a time to move. So here's Nehemiah looking sad. And by the way, a cupbearer was supposed to be a cheerful person, an encouraging person. Someone the king would want to have around because of the close proximity to the king. You really weren't supposed to ever be sad in his presence.

So I think you can conclude from the way this story goes is that normally, Nehemiah was a pretty upbeat person, a pleasant person to be around. Not everyone is pleasant to be around. We all know a Debbie Downer or a Bobby Buzzkill or worse, a Karen. I'm sorry if your name is Karen. I did not coin the name Karen. I'm sorry. It's not fair in many ways.

But you know, those people, they can be very difficult to deal with. You couldn't be that if you were the cupbearer. But I think Nehemiah was a godly man and a happy man.

And that's a good thing to be said about a Christian, that they're cheerful, they're helpful, they're encouraging, they're always offering to help, do something a little extra and so forth. So that's Nehemiah. So it was noticeable to the king, the change in his countenance and his expression. He goes, hey man, why are you so sad?

I mean, you don't look sick to me. Something must be going on. And that brings us to point number three, Nehemiah had a plan. He was praying, Lord, open the door for me now. Open the door to have a conversation with the king. Show me the right moment. So the king asked him, he thinks, that's it.

That's the right moment. So Nehemiah prays in Nehemiah chapter two, verse seven. I said to the king, if it please the king, let me have letters addressed to the governors of the province west of the Euphrates River, instructing them to let me travel safely to the territories on my way to Judah. And please give me a letter addressed to Asaph, the manager of the king's forest, instructing him to give me timber. I'll need to make beams for the gates of the temple fortress, for the city walls and a house for myself. And the king granted these requests because the gracious hand of God was on me.

I love this. This is so practical. Nehemiah had already been down to Home Depot. He already figured out what he needed. He's got the whole plan. He's got the whole list.

Okay, well since you asked, here's what I need. He was dependent on God, but he was praying. And he gives God the credit.

For he says in Nehemiah 2 18, the king granted these requests because the gracious hand of God was on me. You know, sometimes we go to two extremes when it comes to wanting to see God work in our life. One extreme is we just worry and fret and we don't pray about it.

The other is we pray, but we don't take practical steps. I heard a story about three men that came to a raging, violent river and they needed to get to the other side. So the first man prayed, God, give me the strength to cross the river. And poof, suddenly he had bulging biceps and muscular legs and he dove in and began to swim and he almost drowned. But after a couple of hours he made it to the other side.

This is a true story. So the second guy watching this says, God, give me the strength and the tools to cross the river. And poof, a rowboat appeared and he was also muscular and strong. So he got in the little rowboat and paddled over, capsized twice, but after about an hour made it to the other side. The third guy says, God, give me the strength and the tools and the intelligence to cross a river. And poof, he became a woman.

And she pulled out a map and walked 100 feet and crossed the bridge to the other side. Did you girls like that? Did you guys like that joke? Just totally threw you and me under the bus. See, what I like about that story, don't make too much about a man becoming a woman there, it's just a joke, okay? That's not what I'm referring to. A man is a man, a woman is a woman, okay?

It's a joke, right? We got that. But there's the spiritual and there's the practical. This is illustrated in the children of Israel standing on the brink of the Red Sea with the Egyptian army in hot pursuit.

They were between the devil and the deep blue sea. And Moses is freaking out and he's praying, oh God, help. And God's saying, why are you praying? This is not a time to pray, this is a time to move.

Hold your staff out over the Red Sea and cross over on dry ground to the other side. And that's exactly what they did and sometimes we've got to just make the move. The time for intercession has passed. The time for intervention has come. It's time to take action. Let's say you're having trouble in your marriage and you're praying, oh God, save my marriage, it's falling apart.

Lord, do something. Okay, that's good, pray that. But are you just doing your part, husbands? Are you seeking to love your wife as Christ loves the church as the Bible tells you to? Or wife, you might be praying for the same thing, but the Bible says wives respect your husband.

Like make sure you're doing your part while you're praying for your marriage. Or maybe you find yourself saying, Lord, that person, they need the gospel, they need to believe in you. Lord, just save them. I'm praying you'll just show them their need for Jesus.

Amen. Good, now go preach the gospel to them. It's good to pray, but have you preached the gospel to them yet? Or there might be someone you need to forgive. Lord, give me the strength to forgive this person.

Good, pray that. Now just go forgive them. Whoa, I'm not feeling it. What, do you need to feel it? The Bible says be tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you.

It doesn't say make sure you feel it first, then do it. One of my favorite stories is of a lady named Corrie Ten Boom who lived in the days of World War II and she was a Dutch lady along with her family. They hid Jewish people in their home from the Gestapo and they were eventually all sent to concentration camps and Corrie ended up in a camp called Ravensbruck and her sister Betsy died in that camp.

And there was a particular commandant who treated Betsy and Corrie with horrible cruelty. So fast forward now, Corrie got out of that concentration camp and she's speaking now, telling her story. And she's at a church in Germany and she gave a message on how God delivered her and what God did in that camp and how she was changed and now at the end of the service a man walks up to her and says, Fraulein Ten Boom, I wanted to thank you for your message. I too am a Christian and I actually worked at Ravensbruck and suddenly she remembered him. She remembered him in that Nazi uniform.

She remembered this was the man in particular who had treated her so cruelly. He extends his hand and he says, please forgive me. And she looked at his hand and said, I couldn't shake his hand. And she said, in an act of obedience I took his hand and shook it and said, I forgive you my brother.

She said, like a current of electricity went through my arm and I felt it. But first she did it, you see. So we can pray all day long for God to give us the strength to do something. Sometimes I've got to just do it. Just take that little step of faith.

The emotions and the feelings will catch up. So Nehemiah has the plan. Okay, I prayed for four months. Now it's time to do something. And we see it all coming together. Go to Nehemiah chapter 2. So now he's arrived in Jerusalem. He's heard about how bad it is.

Now he's going to check it out for himself. So I arrived in Jerusalem. Three days later I slipped out during the night, taking only a few others with me. I had not told anyone about the plans God had put on my heart for Jerusalem.

We took no pack animals with us except the donkey I was riding. After dark I went to the valley gate, past the jackal's wall, over to the dung gate, the view of the broken walls and burned gates. We'll stop there so he's checking things out. The word used here for view, when he says I viewed it, means to closely examine it.

It's a medical term used for a surgeon giving an intense examination of a wound. He's doing his homework. He's plotting his course, putting together the idea of how he's going to resolve this. And I love how the story continues on because if this was a fairy tale it would have just stopped. He got permission to go back to Jerusalem.

Everything is great but now we see conflict, end of the story. Reminding us the Bible is not a fairy tale, it's a true story. And God puts all of it in there for our instruction.

Bringing me to point number four. When we're doing the will of God we will face opposition. When we're doing the will of God we will face opposition.

Verse 19, Nehemiah 2. When son Balaat, you can underline that name. Tobiah, underline that too. And Geshim the Arab, I'd underline that as well, heard of our plan. They scoffed contemptuously saying what are you doing? Are you rebelling against the king?

And the conflict only escalated from there. Listen to this, whenever God's people say let's rise and build, the devil's going to say let's rise and oppose. I think sometimes we think when we're in the will of God it's going to be blue skies, green lights, and singing birds. You know when I have all the time in the world all the lights are green. When I'm late for something every light is going red.

What does it deal with the lights in Irvine, California? Does it seem like they're just time to make us wait for years of our life? It seems that way to me. But you know we think it's going to be easy but the reality is, and sometimes it is, sometimes things just cruise along nicely. But so often there's conflict. Sometimes conflict or opposition from unexpected sources. But that's what happens when there's a divine opportunity there's going to be opposition. I should expect it.

Not only should I expect it, I should count on it in many ways. But there's no success without risk and there's no success without opposition. Because Satan hates what God loves. Now who are these guys? Three of them are named. We have Sanballat, we have Tobiah, and we have Geshem. So Sanballat was a leader of Samaria. And he was threatened by the presence of Nehemiah, the return of the Jews. He didn't want these Jewish people rebuilding their walls.

So it threatened his livelihood, it threatened his authority. And it's interesting because he's leading the Samaritans and the conflict continued until the day of Jesus. Remember when Jesus met with the Samaritan woman at the well?

And she was surprised and said, why are you talking to me? Don't you know that Jews have no dealings with Samaritans? So that conflict continued on. So here we have Sanballat, the primary opponent. And then we also have Tobiah, a leader of the Ammonites, and Geshem, an Arabian leader. So three enemies were facing Nehemiah. We have three enemies too. They're the world, the flesh, and the devil. So the world with its enticements is the external enemy. The flesh with its vulnerabilities and appetites is the internal enemy.

And the devil with the world and the flesh is our infernal enemy. Now I love how Nehemiah responded to this. They come, they ask him these questions, what are you doing? He doesn't even respond to them.

He doesn't give them the time of day. So when the devil comes to you with his temptations, here's what the Bible says you should do. Have extended conversations with the devil, find out what he's offering, and then say no.

Right? Have you read that verse? It's not in the Bible.

Here's what the Bible says. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Resist him.

Don't take his free offer, don't try his free sample, and don't take a test drive of anything he offers. Have you ever been to a Krispy Kreme donut? How many of you have been to Krispy Kreme?

All the overweight people, interesting. I'm kidding. Not really.

No, I am. Well, I've been there many times. Not for a long time, actually, but... And sometimes they give you a free sample. You notice that here, you want a free donut? Who's going to say no to a free donut?

Especially one that was just made. Why do they do that? Because they love us. I don't know, maybe they do. But they know if you eat one, you're going to want two, and if you eat two, you're going to want three, and you're going to order a dozen, and on it goes. I know this from personal experience. So that's the devil.

Here's free sample. Just try this thought on verse five. Do this, being the great man or woman of God that you are, but just try it out for a test drive. Take a trip to Fantasy Island. If you left, you're old. That was an old TV show.

Remember Fantasy Island? The plane, the plane. Never mind.

Really dated references that are lost on most of you, which is probably good. But... No, don't give him the time of day. You can't stop an impure thought, an ungodly thought, an evil thought, from knocking on the door of your imagination, but you don't have to invite it in for tea, okay? It's been said you can't stop a bird from flying over your head, but you can stop him from building a nest in your hair.

And in my case, that bird better bring his own materials, because there's nothing here to work with at all. But the idea is, I can't stop the impure thought, I can't stop the evil thought, I can't stop the temptation, but I can resist it. It'll come, I say, no, not gonna go there. So, Sambalat and Tobiah and Gershom come, hey, we wanna talk to you, we don't like this. Nehemiah's like, yeah, whatever, I'm gonna just keep doing this work God's called me to do.

Go to Nehemiah three. And then Eliashib, the high priest, and the other priest started to rebuild up the sheep gate and dedicated it, dedicated it and set up its doors, building the wall as far as the Tower of the Hundred, where they dedicated and the Tower of Hanani. Now he just goes on and lists a bunch of names, a bunch of names and locations of people and where they were building their walls. So it was sort of like, it's sort of like the closing credits at the end of the movie. You know, the movie's ended, now the credits are rolling.

I always say, Kathy, let's go, let's beat the crowd. She's like sitting there, you don't know these people. So we have this chapter filled with all these names of people that we don't know about, they're not familiar names. We think, why are they even in there?

Because all scripture is given by inspiration of God. And they're in there so we'll see how these people heroically obeyed God and did their part. Everyone did their part, bringing me to point number five. We need to find our place in the work that God is doing.

The phrase next to him and after him is mentioned 28 times in this chapter. Everybody had something to do. And these are just regular people, they're not construction people, they're just folks helping out, doing their part. There's priests and goldsmiths, perfumers, merchants, young people, old people, men, women, everyone was working. And that reminds us that church is not only a family, it's also an army. And we all have a role to play.

Ephesians 4 16 says the whole body fits together perfectly and each part does its own special work and helps the other parts grow so the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. Nehemiah was a really organized guy. I love organized people. Maybe it's because I'm not that organized. But I like people that have schedules and notes and here's what we're going to do, then we're going to do that. And that's who Nehemiah was, he was a detail guy.

It's a two and a half mile wall divided into 41 segments. Everyone's got to do their part. And that's how this church runs. On any given day when you come to Harvest, there are at least 900 people volunteering on one of our campuses. So after the service today, when you see one of those volunteers, I want you to thank them. So you pull your car into the parking lot and they say you can park over here. That's a volunteer.

You come to the front door, someone gives you a bulletin. That's a volunteer. Someone helps you to your seat. That's a volunteer.

You pray and want to accept Christ and we say go over here and talk to one of these counselors. There's another volunteer. You take your child to Sunday school and someone checks him in. Again, it's a volunteer. We have security people walking around, keeping an eye on our precious children. Those are volunteers. That's how we do what we do. When we have a Harvest Crusade at Angel Stadium, listen to this, we have 2,500 volunteers. Think of that. That's a lot of people helping out.

Excuse me, I'm wrong. 3,500 volunteers. And then we talk to you about small groups all the time. We have over 500 people serving as small group leaders and assistants to the leaders. That's how we get this all done because people have found their part in the church and they're volunteering. Isn't that great?

Yes. Nehemiah is putting a team together. BC Forbes, the founder of Forbes Magazine once said, you spell success as follows. T-E-A-M-W-O-R-K. Teamwork. Someone once said, coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Thinking together is unity. Working together is success. There are two evidences that you are a Christian. Do you know what they are? A very large Bible and a lot of Christian bumper stickers on your car.

No, those are not, those could be evidences. But according to the Bible in Ephesians 1, the two evidences that you are a Christian is your strong faith and love for God's people. Paul writes, I heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and your love for the people of God. Everybody finds their role. We all have a part to play.

In Romans 12 it says, we being many are one body in Christ, everyone members, one of another, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. It continues on and it says, if you're a teacher, teach well. If your gift is encouraging others, well, be encouraging. If your gift is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership, ability, then take that responsibility seriously. If you have a gift for showing kindness, do it gladly. These are gifts of the Spirit, encouraging others. You know, I've never found a gift of discouraging others. But some people seem to think they have that gift. Well, I just want to keep you grounded.

No, you're just Debbie Downer or Bobby Buskill or Karen, I don't know. Always a negative thing to say, always a criticism, never a compliment. Now there's a place for criticism. But there's also a place for encouraging.

And there's a gift of encouraging others. We all have something to do. We all need to participate. Let's start with worship. You know, when we worship, we should all engage. And we should all sing to the Lord and all lift our hearts in praise to God. Every one of us should seek to volunteer and serve. 1 Peter 4 says each of you should use whatever gift you've received to serve others as faithful steward of God's grace in its various forms. Every one of us should give in the offering.

2 Corinthians 9 says each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion. So everyone worked. Nehemiah 3, 5 says next to them the Tekawites made repairs and their nobles did not put their shoulders to the work of the Lord.

Now here's the problem, the nobles. Well we can't, you know, get our fingernails dirty. We don't need to do that. Everybody needs to work. And we've done this many times. We've had work days at our church.

I remember when we were building our building in Riverside, we had a work day. And I am not good at anything to do with home repair or construction. If I'm walking around the house with a hammer, my wife is alarmed. Like, what are you going to do?

Whatever I try to fix gets worse. I'm not kidding. So one day we were cleaning up the church in Riverside and I was trimming a hedge. And so it was plugged into the wall, I'm trimming the hedge. And I just went a little too hard and cut right through the cord.

So it was like. So I looked to the right, I looked to the left, I set it down and I walked away. I didn't tell anyone what I had done. I was embarrassed, humiliated. What kind of a man am I?

They might ask me to turn my man card in. And so 30 years later some guy says to me, you know we had that work day at the church, you were trimming a hedge. I'm like, yeah. I saw what happened. You're still a Christian?

Amazing. Sorry I let you down. When we were building our church here at Orange County, we had to do demolition. So we had to knock down the wall.

I got a sledgehammer and that's about all I'm good for. But the thing is everybody needs to participate. Everybody needs to do their part. But these guys didn't want to work.

And it comes down to this. There are two kinds of people that come to church. Participators and spectators.

Or another way to put it, workers or shirkers. Participators want to engage. Spectators want to just watch. And I think that we miss out on so much when we're merely a spectator.

Now look, if it's your first time here, you're a spectator, that's okay. Checking it out. I kind of like this church.

Preaching, but everything else, very good, you know. You're evaluating, deciding if you want to come back. I welcome you here.

Please come back. But then maybe you've been coming a month, you've been coming six months, you've been coming a year. You need to be one of the volunteers now.

You need to move from spectating to participating. And that's what's happening here at the wall. Some people didn't want to work, but everybody needed to do their job.

Because there's so much to get done. And I'll tell you, it's the faithfulness of people in the past that have given us what we have right here, right now. You know, there's an old generation of people that invested in this church. And we've been here, I told you, 50 years, as a ministry in general. And somebody else said, hey, we believe in this, and so we have a roof over our head, and we have seats, and we have sound systems, and we have all these things.

Somebody else helped that, helped make that happen. And now we ask the question, oh, what are we going to do for the next generation, right? How am I going to help the future generation, younger people, and the ones to follow? So the question is, are you a wall builder or a wall breaker? Are you a faith maker or a faith breaker?

And that brings us to point number six. The problem with faith breakers is they want to discourage faith makers. Nehemiah 2.19, when Sambalah, Tobiah, and Geshem the Arab heard our plan, they scoffed contemptuously, what are you doing? People will oppose you. You know, you get serious about your Christian life. I'm going to go to church every Sunday, and I'm going to join a small group, and they say, come on, man, lighten up a little bit. You were more fun when you weren't doing all that stuff.

You know, you don't need to be so committed, but they don't understand the joy of serving. And that's what these people were like. Now, there's one other person I find really interesting. In direct contrast to the so-called nobles, there's this guy named Baruch. Probably never heard his name before, Baruch. Check him out, Nehemiah 3.20. Then there was Baruch the son of Zabal, who zealously repaired another section from the angle to the entrance of the house of Eliash of the high priest.

I love how this is put in there, and we're talking about it thousands of years later. Yeah, there was this Baruch guy that zealously did his job. There's this one guy that worked harder than anybody else, and so he's commended in the pages of Nehemiah for us to pay attention to today. Are you a Baruch, so to speak? Are you one of the nobles? Do you serve, or do you want to simply be served?

Are you a servant, or are you a slacker? The walls of Jerusalem needed to be rebuilt. The wall of our life needs to be rebuilt. We all have a part to play.

Let me tell you a secret. You want to see your experience, so-called, of church get richer and deeper and more fulfilling. Start getting involved personally, and start building your part of the wall. And then as we all work together, we see great things accomplished, and we see God glorified as a result. So you pray about the role that you could play. So let's close now and pull the camera back for a moment.

Look at the bigger picture. This is a story of a man named Nehemiah that saw a need and did something about it. A man named Nehemiah that came to the city of Jerusalem and wept over it, and after his weeping came working, and after his despair came determination. And who else do we know that wept over Jerusalem? Well, it was Jesus. He looked over Jerusalem and said, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I would have gathered you together as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not listen.

It broke his heart. And then Jesus died on a Roman cross outside of the walls of Jerusalem. He died on that cross of the sin of the world. He died on that cross for your sin and for mine, because there was no other way to connect us to a holy God that we have all offended through our sin. But God loved us so much, He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to pay that price on the cross for us.

And if we'll turn from our sin and believe in Him, He will forgive us, and we can enter into a relationship with God. Maybe you come here today with troubles in your life, and I'm just glad you're here. I know sometimes we need a wake-up call, and it gets us to pay attention, but as far as I'm concerned, anything that moves you toward God is something that God can allow and use for His glory. And maybe you come here because you have a problem. You come here today because your life is a mess.

You come here today because you have this addiction or you have this challenge or whatever it is. You've come to the right place, and you've come to the true and living God who loves you and will forgive you if you'll turn from your sin and put your faith in Him. So what I would like to do is close with a prayer, and it's a prayer that you could pray if you want Jesus to come into your life, a prayer that you could pray if you want your life to go from ruin to revival, from rubble to restoration. It's a prayer where you'll be asking Jesus Christ to come into your life to be your friend, your Savior, your Lord, your God. He's just a prayer away because He wasn't just crucified. He rose again from the dead three days later, and He's alive, and He's here with us right now, standing at the door of your life, and He is knocking, and He's saying if you'll hear His voice and open the door, He'll come in. If you've not opened the door to your life yet, to Christ, do it right now as we pray.

Let's all pray. Father, thank You for Your word to us. Thank You for sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sin.

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming. And now we pray that any person who has joined us or is listening or watching, wherever they may be, if they don't have this relationship with You yet, let this be the moment they believe and draw near to You and call on You. Now while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying, if you want Christ to come into your life, if you want your sin forgiven, if you want to go to heaven when you die, I want you to pray this prayer after me, right where you are, just pray. You could pray it out loud if you like, but just pray these words after me. Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, but I know that You're the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I turn from my sin now and I choose to follow You from this moment forward. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. God bless each one of you. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to harvest.org. And to find out how to know God personally, go to harvest.org and click on Know God.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-19 04:05:37 / 2025-01-19 04:23:17 / 18

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