Everybody Has A Part Series

Everybody Has a Part

Series: When It’s Time to Move FORWARD

Brad Bailey, May 16, 2021

Intro

Welcome… new and old alike. I am so glad that you are connecting... as I believe it is such a significant time to be coming together... whether in-person or online…as we are in a unique and extended season of emerging from a pandemic. So this season we are focusing on the nature of what is involved when it’s time to move forward.

And we’re allowing God to speak to us through the Biblical Book of Nehemiah.

Nehemiah is a part of the Old Testament history. Nehemiah works as the cup bearer of the king of Persia. Nehemiah is himself part of the Jewish people... and he gets news that his own people’s sacred city of Jerusalem is in ruins… and it’s people are in a bad way. After a time of grieving and praying...he comes to a point of stepping out in risk ...asking the king for help. The king of Persia grants him the time and resources to make a long journey to the land of Israel.... to restore the city.

Soon after arriving he goes out at night and does an assessment. It had to be rather overwhelming.

Here we see a representation of the city and it’s extensive wall and gates. {Pic of city ]... This is the city which had been destroyed

We can imagine Nehemiah seeing section after section of rubble... [Insert “Nehemiah walls 2”]

and gate after gate destroyed by fire.

Only after he has faced the reality of what needs to be restored does he gather the people – leaders of every facet of life. And he writes...

Nehemiah 2:17-18

Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me. They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work.

Those words represent a major transforming moment. Consider what these people had been through. Decades of living in exile. And now years of living as a people who felt defeated... because despite returning to their holy city... it was in ruins. With these words... “Let us start rebuilding”...the people are beginning to overcome the paralyzing nature from years of trauma... they are making a shift from the past to the future. It is a vital moment of recovery... of recovering their identity...their lives...and their purpose.

Let me take a moment to recognize that each of us may be in a process of recovery. That word “recovery” may sound like a strange or strong word…but I think what we have been through this past year has left some trauma that may be hard to grasp. I think some of us may find that it’s hard to just move forward... as if we can just go back to some reset point in the past. As I talk to people... I sense that some feel a strange type of exhaustion…after managing a year of change in their working responsibilities… operating in rhythms that may have appeared to involve less... but actually demanded more.

Some have experienced some significant isolation … perhaps added to by divisions within families …friends… and even fellow followers of Christ. And that can take a toll that is hard to recover from. So I want to recognize that going forward is not simply about going back to what was.

But what we see here... is that we each must look at the rubble... and realize that it’s not the place we want to stay and live in. We each may need to look at the rubble and say... let us start building.

So I encourage you to look at the rubble of things lost... but let it be a part of recovering the call of God…a call to a new season.

Something powerful begins when people unite in saying: “Let us start rebuilding.”

In those words... “Let us start rebuilding”... comes the shift from looking back to looking forward...from living as a consumer to living as a co-builder...a shift from the rafters to the roster.

And this leads to the question of how? How could they engage in something of such devastation …something of such massive proportions. This is what we discover in chapter 3.

Now let me prepare us to hear what is essentially is a report. In fact… the entire chapter reads like a summary work report ….so I am going to have us hear only the first portion that will help us understand what is happening. Let’s hear what Nehemiah shares with us… by way of a NARRATED READING WITH TEXT.