(Re)Building Better: I choose to agree
Notes
Transcript
1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah.
It came to pass in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the citadel, 2 that Hanani one of my brethren came with men from Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. 3 And they said to me, “The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”
4 So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
(Let's orient ourselves to the text, Nehemiah Chapter 1.)
In our text God allowed another nation, the Babylonians, to take the Jewish people captive from the region of Judah. Jerusalem, a city of Judah, was (is) physically/geographically a special city of the Jews people—it was the location of the House of God, the temple; where God's presence dwelt. The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, left it in ruins, and exiled the Jews from it.
Later, the king of Persia captures Babylon, establishes the Persian empire and so assumed authority over the Jews. The king of Persia allows/sent the Jewish people to return home, to where they once lived. The Jews return in waves, not all at once, over more than 90 years. In the first group, more than 40k Jews returned to Jerusalem.
Nehemiah ends up leading a group of exiled Jews (the third or so group) back to Jerusalem. Nehemiah's efforts were 90 years after the first people returned to Jerusalem.
Now, in our text, (Nehemiah Chapter 1) we enter the scene 90 years after the Jewish people have been in Jerusalem and before Nehemiah makes his own trip there.
It is the month of Chislev--November or December.
Nehemiah is not in Jerusalem. Nehemiah is with the Persian king in Shushan the citadel--about 1k miles journey one-way to Jerusalem; would take at least 4 months to travel that distance (between Shushan and Jerusalem). Nehemiah is cupbearer to the Persian king, serving in the king's court. Nehemiah has a trusted and stable role in exile.
11 O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”
For I was the king’s cupbearer.
1 And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before. 2 Therefore the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart.”
So I became dreadfully afraid, 3 and said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?”
4 Then the king said to me, “What do you request?”
So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.”
6 Then the king said to me (the queen also sitting beside him), “How long will your journey be? And when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.
7 Furthermore I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of the region beyond the River, that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah, 8 and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel which pertains to the temple, for the city wall, and for the house that I will occupy.” And the king granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me.
9 Then I went to the governors in the region beyond the River, and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. 10 When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard of it, they were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel.
11 So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days. 12 Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem; nor was there any animal with me, except the one on which I rode. 13 And I went out by night through the Valley Gate to the Serpent Well and the Refuse Gate, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down and its gates which were burned with fire. 14 Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool, but there was no room for the animal under me to pass. 15 So I went up in the night by the valley, and viewed the wall; then I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. 16 And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done; I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the others who did the work.
17 Then I said to them, “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach.” 18 And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me.
So they said, “Let us rise up and build.” Then they set their hands to this good work.
(Re)Building Better
(Re)Building Better
Family, we are in a teaching series and our theme is:
When we think about living post-pandemic and having vision for what life will be, We are
1. looking out before us (into the future),
2. we are considering where we are today, and
3. we are considering what's behind us--what life was like before.
With these collective perspectives it is my desire that we are choosing to be a part of the work, a part of a solution, to build a better future for ourselves and those around us.
And indeed it is going to be work.
Meaningful success is uphill all of the way.
Better living is an uphill battle.
When Jesus says to people following Him, as recorded by John,
10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
I take God at His word. I believe God desires for us to have an abundant life in Him now and in eternity.
And all throughout scripture I see God partnering with, enlisting humanity, to cause God's will in heaven to be done on earth.
This is where our historical figure Nehemiah comes in. This is where you and I come in.
Nehemiah executed a vision to improve the wellbeing and living (culture, life) of a people, such that when a primary segment of the vision was complete--completed the rebuilding of a physical wall and entry system for their/a city--Nehemiah's enemies, the enemies of the people and of the restorative work, were undone.
15 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 And it happened, when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these things, that they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was done by our God.
There is something about God doing a work through you that silences every critic, strengthens resolve and sustains momentum.
When God is in a work we can be confident that
Isaiah 54:17 (NKJV)
No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue [which] rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This [is] the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their righteousness [is] from Me,” Says the LORD.
In addition to Nehemiah, we are talking about you and me.
We are talking about receiving and living out a vision for a better future...today (beginning now).
We are in a series (Re)Building Better we have had two conversations on being intentional (in what we choose).
The reason intentionality is important is because the world around you needs your vision; life before the pandemic was not all great, certainly not great for everyone. We need your vision because positive life change for others and for yourself does not come by accident...will not be sustained by chance. Intentional action can be life-giving.
I choose to lead
I choose to lead
The first Sunday we spoke about "I choose to lead". And to lower, perhaps, the apprehension around you being a leader, I modified my encouragement to have you to decide, "I choose to respond."
Nehemiah, the character in our text, requested and received news about his people and Nehemiah intentionally responded to this moment. And His next steps were a series of responses.
3 And they said to me, “The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”
4 So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
I choose God
I choose God
The second Sunday I encouraged you to decide, "I choose God."
God, without question, will be the best partner for everything that God calls you to do.
While every good work has opposition/am opponent, I remind you,
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Nehemiah wanted for his responses to include God's blessings. Nehemiah prayed:
Nehemiah 1:11 (NKJV) “O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” For I was the king’s cupbearer.
Nehemiah wanted and needed God’s favorable involvement.
I choose to agree with God
I choose to agree with God
Today, in our third conversation, I will encourage you to intentionally decide, "I choose to agree" ..."I choose to agree with God."
The reason I think agreement needs to be an intentional decision is because when we enter into a work that is bigger than ourselves-when we seek to walk out a sizable vision--it is often unknown to us what executing this vision will all entail. It can be helpful, in the middle of executing a great work, to remind ourselves that we pre-decided to be in agreement with God all of the way to the end.
Example: I think today about those of us who are in the middle of some new endeavor. For example, for those in an academic program, did you think that you would need this much technology to progress your degree, this much patience, this much refiguring of how you build relationships and cultivate community? Did your think your life would be arranged around safety from a virus? Yet here we are. It takes agreement and working together to get through to the other side.
Briefly, let's speak about what it means "to agree".
God poses this rhetorical question:
3 Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?
Here is a real question to be answered:
Q: You are standing in front of your residence: what does it take, how does it look for you and one other person to walk together?
Please write in the chat.
(Niphal)/ “agreed”
to meet
to meet by appointment
to gather, assemble by appointment
In agreement there is a meeting...an intentional joining together.
To agree is to align.
Consider the words of Jesus:
30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.
Well how does this look:
I take and align my internal life, dispositions, emotions, intellect, understanding, and abilities with Gods will.
It looks like Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane,
42 saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”
Before Jesus died for us, He died to Self.
Agreement looks like Jesus going the way of the cross to give us (another) opportunity to have a right relationship with God.
Jesus could have personally done without the crucifixion, but in alignment with God's will, because Jesus died, we can live.
Agreement brings divine progress, fluidity, strength, progress, effeciency.
Story: Some years ago, I recognized that one of the downsides of driving in a city like New Haven was the pothole density in the lanes of traffic. A big hole in the ground where I was supped to drive. If one tire hit a pothole then that wheel twisted a bit out of position. I would go to my mechanic. He would say, "OrLando your right tire is wearing down faster than your other tires because your wheels are out of alignment. You need new tires and I recommend you get an alignment (so all of your wheels are going in the same direction)".
Agreement is alignment. Disagreement wears down, slows down progress, if not eliminate progress altogether.
To agree is to walk together. To not agree is to walk separately, if at all.
Briefly, here are server also areas of agreement with God that I think you should know. There are more but these are a few where I think that you can get caught up, discouraged and potentially delay or give up prematurely on your vision...your vision for a better future:
# I choose to agree...
I choose to agree that I'm the one. I have a divine role in the vision I see.
I choose to agree that I'm the one. I have a divine role in the vision I see.
I have a divine role in the vision I see. Nehemiah faced opposition, but continued to walk in the authority given him. Nehemiah stayed the course until the wall was built.
I choose to agree with God that I am the one. I vigorously resist "Imposter Syndrome".
Imposter syndrome: recently, I heard someone point out that in the case of Moses, while Aaron was a better speaker and Joshua was a better leader, God chose Moses to lead. I agree to being part of the solution.
I choose to agree that He's the one.
I choose to agree that He's the one.
In walking and working with God, it may come into question whether God knows what He is doing, whether He is still with you and attentive, whether I need to mix some of my strategy with His strategy in order to get the job done?
May I remind us, or introduce to us, three things about God?
God's purpose gets accomplished.
Isaiah 55:11 (NKJV)
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper [in the thing] for which I sent it.
The things we may sometimes depend and idolize do not compare to God.
Psalms 115:4-9 (NKJV) 4 Their idols [are] silver and gold, The work of men’s hands. 5 They have mouths, but they do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see; 6 They have ears, but they do not hear; Noses they have, but they do not smell; 7 They have hands, but they do not handle; Feet they have, but they do not walk; Nor do they mutter through their throat. 8 Those who make them are like them; [So is] everyone who trusts in them. 9 O Israel, trust in the LORD; He [is] their help and their shield.
Our thinking and strategies and ways of seeing and understanding the world can be different from God's.
Isaiah 55:8-11 (NKJV) 8 “For My thoughts [are] not your thoughts, Nor [are] your ways My ways,” says the LORD. 9 “For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. 10 “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, 11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper [in the thing] for which I sent it.
I choose to agree that my purpose in/for this moment is my purpose.
I choose to agree that my purpose in/for this moment is my purpose.
Don't let your future self misguide the work you are to do today.
Nehemiah may not have seen himself as a builder, army commander, nor project manager, but that is what the present vision called for.
Jesus is the Son of God and King of Kings ...
Isaiah 53:5 (NKJV) But He [was] wounded for our transgressions, [He was] bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace [was] upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
I am so thankful Jesus did not say, "I don't do crucifixions. I am a King."
# That I'll accept whatever resources He sends my way. (However you choose to bless me?)
I choose to agree with God's favor.
I choose to agree with God's favor.
Favor can be an influencer...maybe a bargaining chip.
Favor is God's good hand upon you. Favor is God's tangible contribution to your relationship and alignment.
Things that don't work out for others do work for you. God spares you. You pay less than you ordinarily would. You receive more than you should.
And it is the unmerited part that can make accepting God's favor such a challenge...because we know we are blessed beyond our ability to naturally perform and live.
Nehemiah used God's instructions and favor and discern God's will--whether God was in favor of Nehemiah's vision to see his Jewish people and community restored.
Consistent favor can be a marker of God's alignment/agreement of the work being done.
Favor is the fuel to the engine, enabling progress.
Nehemiah 1:11 (NKJV) “O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” For I was the king’s cupbearer.
Nehemiah 2:5 (NKJV) And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.”
Nehemiah 2:8 (NKJV) “and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel which [pertains] to the temple, for the city wall, and for the house that I will occupy.” And the king granted [them] to me according to the good hand of my God upon me.
Favor is the bargaining chip in negotiations, enabling collaboration.
Nehemiah 2:17-20 (NKJV) 17 Then I said to them, “You see the distress that we [are] in, how Jerusalem [lies] waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach.” 18 And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me. So they said, “Let us rise up and build.” Then they set their hands to [this] good [work.] 19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard [of it,] they laughed at us and despised us, and said, “What [is] this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?” 20 So I answered them, and said to them, “The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem.”
Favor can be a display of God's approval and alignment, thereby marking you and the work as "within God's good grace."
Nehemiah 6:15-16 (NKJV) 15 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth [day] of Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 And it happened, when all our enemies heard [of it,] and all the nations around us saw [these things,] that they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was done by our God.
Favor gives divine attribute to the work and vision at hand.
What does God's favor do? Ultimately, God's favor makes the work Holy.
That the work is Holy, reverenced, meant to be respected/regarded as God's work.
Nehemiah 3:1-2 (NKJV) 1 Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests and built the Sheep Gate; they consecrated it and hung its doors. They built as far as the Tower of the Hundred, [and] consecrated it, then as far as the Tower of Hananel. 2 Next to [Eliashib] the men of Jericho built. And next to them Zaccur the son of Imri built.
"Consecrated it" meaning "they sanctified it"
(Piel)
to set apart as sacred, consecrate, dedicate
to observe as holy, keep sacred
to honour as sacred, hallow
to consecrate