The Charge

Stephen Johnson

Nehemiah • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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Church, I want to begin by saying thank you for stepping into this Nehemiah journey with Sonia and me. It has been an act of faith on our part to pursue some powerful lessons on faith, obedience, joy, and leadership. We believe that God appointed this time for us and for you to look at some key areas where we need to “step up our game” as a church, as families, and as individuals…and I can honestly say that starts with me. And I want you to know that Sonia and I, but I’ll speak primarily for myself, are taking this charge from the Lord to heart.

As we’ve participated in our Nehemiah Small Group, I’ve had opportunity to share some of the lessons that I’ve been learning. Those moments have been invaluable, as I’ve received feedback from the other members of the group. I’ve talked about my fears as a leader, some of my failures, and the ways in which I needed to trust God more as I call out the vision of THRIVING that God sets before us in the Bible.

I shared in the last sermon or maybe 2 sermons ago that I believe that our church is a Nehemiah church, or more directly that our church has been in a “building the wall” phase for some time now. I’m astounded to see what God has done, and what you and other faithful followers of Jesus who’ve been here over the years have done to restore the church after a series of difficult situations.

But we’ve only built the walls halfway.

We are not yet the church God has called us to be. In some ways, we have only scratched the surface of what we can be in Christ. But what would it look like for us to take to heart - in the most full and direct way - the lessons of Nehemiah?

Regain our passion for the Lord and the broken world

One of the lesser seen needs our church has is for passion. When hard times come, it can be easy to lose our passion for the Lord and his mission. We’re just surviving. But the hard times have no true power over our passion. I’ve seen some of you get it back, or are getting it back. What a joy that is! But we need, collectively, to cultivate our passion for the Lord and the world.

Nehemiah is about nothing if it isn’t passion for God and the broken world we live in. Nehemiah weeps for his hometown. He fasts for days seeking the Lord. He cries out to God from beginning to end and puts his life at risk to follow his passion for a restored Israel. There is nothing ho-hum about Nehemiah. And the people, once they’re finally roused from their spiritual and national slumber, begin to do the same. They pray, they fast, they mourn, they work, they risk their lives…all for the mission of God and the glory of God.

Do we do that? That’s in our identity statement, because we know that’s what God says we are. That is a statement made from faith, not from sight. Because I don’t see that as the defining characteristic of our church. I sometimes look at us and see a reticence to do hard things. I sometimes look at us and see a strong desire for comfort. I sometimes look at us and see fear to strive for the big mission God has given us. Not all the time, mind you. And not that everyone looks like this. But as a whole, I see these roadblocks sometimes when we God is calling us to move and we end up staying still. And church, I say this not to make anyone feel bad, but to urge us forward because I know we can be so much further along in our journey, and reaping all the benefits of the joy, healing, and vitality that will come with it.

It draws my mind to the churches in Revelation 2 & 3. Jesus speaks a word to seven different churches, either commending hem or condemning them. Two stand out to me when I think of our church. The first is the Church of Ephesus, who lost their first love. They were a persevering group. They followed the right doctrine, endured and overcame false leaders, and came through difficult hardships intact. Does that sound familiar?

But they had one big problem. They lost the zeal they had for Jesus. He said they had forsaken the love they had at first.

That doesn’t mean they abandoned Jesus. Not at all. In that, they stood firm. But their passion was gone. They no longer were eager to be with him. They no longer were being led by him. They did the right things but without the right kind of intimate relationship. I see this in effect here in Fellowship. We need to fall in love with Jesus again. God warned the Ephesians that he would take their lampstand away from them if they did not regain their love for him.

In a similar way, the Church of Laodicea lived a lukewarm faith. They weren’t hot or cold. While in our modern parlance we associate hot with good (I’m on fire for the Lord) and cold with bad (I’m getting the cold shoulder from Janie), what we should be thinking of is a drink that would either be refreshing if it were cold or invigorating if it were hot. Maybe like coffee and iced coffee. It almost doesn’t matter which one you get, as long as it’s not room temperature coffee! This is another call for passion. It’s about standing for something, about casting off comfort (the church in Laodicea was keen on physical provision) and going all in on the Lord in one direction or another. God says if they don’t either heat up or cool off, he’ll spit them out of his mouth.

I don’t know what it feels like to be spit out of God’s mouth, but I can tell you that I don’t want to find out! Taking away the lampstand and being spit out of God’s mouth, at the most basic, mean the same thing. It means that sometimes God is done with a church. And unfortunately, that is a story we know all too well in New England. Churches that once preached the Gospel have abandoned the truth for a more socially acceptable message have fallen by the wayside. But it’s also true that churches who maintained their message of truth have also fallen away as their members became complacent or, as we discussed last week, didn’t persevere through challenges.

I don’t want that for our church, or any church. At the core, we need our first love, we need to stand for something important. We need passion. The only way I know to cultivate passion is spending time with Jesus. It’s listening to the Holy Spirit. It’s paying attention to what desires God has put in you. It’s opening yourself up to what God is showing you in the world, especially if it’s hard, scary, or sad. It’s listening to other believers’ hearts. Basically, it’s about a time spending time with God in prayer and the Word, surrounding yourself with passionate believers, and overcoming the fear, shame, and sin that holds you back from giving your heart in a powerful way to the Lord.

Doesn’t that sound easy!?! I know it’s not, but it’s necessary. We must not lose our passion! If we lose it, we lose the best part of our faith and we lose our church.

Work/fight for what matters

What happened in Ephesus and Laodicea is these churches stop fighting for what matters. That’s what happens for all the churcehs that fall away. They don’t expend themselves, a phrase the Apostle Paul uses, for the Gospel anymore. They are in preservation mode. And I can tell you right now, they worst thing you can do to preserve your church is to work to preserve your church! God never asked us to preserve our churches. He told us to follow Jesus! Churches that zealously follow Jesus are preserved by God. Churches that try to save themselves cannot also zealously follow Jesus, and those are the ones that lose their first love and are lukewarm. Those are the churches who have lost their passion.

And when passion has waned, you cannot fight for what matters most - the battle between two Kingdoms working to either destroy or restore humanity after the great divide of sin. Why is passion so important in that battle? Because fighting a war is tough, it brings injuries, and there are casualties. In short, it hurts! How can you sustain your efforts in that mission without passion? Passion for God, and passion for the world/mission.

Nehemiah shows us that we have to fight for what matters most. He had people holding trowels in one hand and spears in the other as they were building the walls. We don’t need trowels (well, we are trying to fix the bricks on the front of the church so somebody needs trowel) and we don’t need spears (I pray that no one needs spears) to fight our battle. But we do need prayer. We do need imagination and ideas. We do need our work and labor. We do need a tight knit community to support one another in the effort.

What Nehemiah shows us is that there are many opportunities for distraction of giving up. Nehemiah never let anything that wasn’t his mission get in the way. Anything that did get in the way, he took care of directly so he could get the nation back on the mission. We need to remember what that’s like. That laser focus on God and his work in the world is only something that can be sustained when we understand the importance of the call and when we have the resources we need to keep going.

The importance should be clear. We’re in a cosmic battle for the souls of men and women, including our own. Strong churches make strong walls against our enemy. Strong Christians make strong walls against our enemy. We need to be strong people in strong communities if we’re ever going to participate in this grand story. And if we do have these strong walls, we will become more fruitful in all that we do. We’ll experience the joy of victory more often. We’ll see the hand of God at work on our behalf more frequently. We’ll know the presence more of God more acutely. It’s just a truism that the people on the front line get the most resources. There’s no other reasonable way to equip people.

We sang earlier that we carry on in weakness and rejoicing. What a powerful insight. We don’t need to have one or the other. In Christ, we can tired, we can be weak, we can be out of resources in ourselves, but the joy of God steps in to empower us, along with all the comfort, rest, and other resources we need. Yet not I, but through Christ in me!

So church, we cannot be afraid of the battle. Sonia and I have seen in our own lives that the biggest trails come when we’re most overwhelmed. They come when we’re fighting for something important. But God always shows up big in those moments. He gives us relief. He gives us comfort. He brings provision. He brings healing. There is no lack from Him when we’re going to him for help in this fight. But when we’re either not really in the fight, meaning we’ve taken our eyes off of the mission he’s given us, or when we look for our provision elsewhere, the big miracles don’t show up, or at least not as often since God is still gracious even in our disobedience. But the design is for us to follow him and for him to provide for us. That’s where the best results are found. But sometimes, our disobedience gets in the way.

Give our presence, time, and money sacrificially/Become radically obedient

Because when passion has waned and the fight is too much, disobedience always follows. What is obedience, but the great insistence on doing what God says, no matter the cost. You need emotional, relational, and spiritual energy behind that calling! Because the cost will sometimes be more than we think we can bear. And yet, God, in his grace, will see us through if we would simply love him enough to trust him. And it love that we need most. Remember the church that lost their first love! Love of God, and love by God, will get us through anything.

The problem is we often accept a substitute for this love. We’re willing to take doctrinal purity (or thinking the right things) and submission (doing the right things) in the place of love. We put our outward actions ahead of the joy and delight of knowing Jesus. One problem with that, and there are many, is that you can’t sustain that kind of pseudo-faithfulness without the love and joy of God to empower it. It either becomes an exercise in futility or the train wreck of self-righteousness. Either you will fail over and over again to meet even your own standards, much less God’s, or you will think you have met God’s standards when all you have done is managed to create your own standards in the image of what you can accomplish on your own.

Church, you don’t want this!

However, when we step out in faith, in love, and in the joy of the Lord that Nehemiah spoke about as our strength, we can live lives of radical obedience that will lead neither to futility nor to self-righteousness. This is the kind of radical obedience that leads to victory and humility. It is the kind of obedience that quietly fulfills God’s call without attracting attention to itself.

But sometimes we need to prime the pump of obedience. Have you ever primed a pump? Old wells used to have hand pumps. But if you pumped the handle and no water came out, it was because there was only air in the line, which would get you nowhere. You had to pour some water into the pump system in order to clear out the air so you could get water out of the system. The same principle applies when siphoning gasoline. You have to suck the air out first so the gasoline will run through the line.

So when you prime the pump of obedience, you’re choosing to take certain actions out of sheen will so that you can initiate the sequence of joy-empowered obedience that can last a lifetime. It means taking a step of faith when you don’t feel like it so you can see God’s faithfulness and begin to feel like it.

This means giving our presence, time, and money sacrificially.

Pray for our church and community (as close to daily as possible. Pray for me, Sonia, and our family. Pray for all the leaders. Pray for each member of our community. Pray for yourself as a part of this community. Ask the Lord to help us collectively to be faithful.)

Be Present with one another and with the community (Irony of talking about physical presence while on Zoom, but also I’m on vacation and I care enough about this message to log on after driving for two days because I think this is important enough for our congregation. I’m passionate about it this so I don’t see this as a huge sacrifice. How could I not? Your presence is just as important, week to week.)

Tithe (10%) I asked Beth...

Serve at church and community (everyone in our church can do something for the Lord both here at church and wherever you are. We each have a calling in both of those arenas.)

Welcome people at church and at home (hospitality means so many things, but it all boils down to making people feel welcomed. I want every person who visits our space to feel so warmly welcomed that it verges on being too much! Never let it be said of us that we didn’t try to connect with people. But not only new people, look around that room. Look at the names and faces on this zoom call. There is no reason you couldn’t know every one of these people over the next 3 or 4 weeks if you wanted to. And knowing people is a necessary step to loving them and being passionate about their situation enough to pray for them)

Be ruthless in our continued restoration

This may seem like a lot, and it is. But it all really comes down to this. If we cultivate a passion for the Lord and his mission, all of these things will come together. Our time given will not feel like a burden, nor will our financial giving. Reaching our lost neighbors will be an eager anticipated outcome rather than a fearful chore. Every step into new areas of obedience will be a victory rather than an unwelcomed challenge. We will experience such great joy and connection with God and one another that we’ll wonder why we ever wanted to live another way.