Roles Of Ministry - Where Do I Fit In? Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: February 14, 2013

Date Preached: February 17, 2013

Where Preached: OPBC (AM)

Sermon Details:

Series Title: Building with God

Sermon Title: Roles of Ministry – Where do I fit in?

Sermon Text: Nehemiah 7:1 [ESV]

1After the wall had been rebuilt and I had set the doors in place, the gatekeepers, the musicians and the Levites were appointed.

Introduction:

When most people think about the story of Nehemiah, they think that the story ends when the wall is finished, but in reality the wall is but a small part of the story! In fact, Nehemiah’s journey is only beginning when the wall is completed.

Nehemiah had come to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall, but also to do MANY other things! He came to complete the plan God had for him…

Now what we DO know is that the wall was completed in 52 days, and that Nehemiah led the group to accomplish this task! BUT did you know that Nehemiah stayed in Jerusalem for 12 years?

This verse implies that Nehemiah not only directed the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem, BUT he also set out to rebuild the nation and to strengthen its morality.

His work does not stop with the rebuilding of the wall, but we find that he was extremely careful to follow up with regulations and direction for the people that were calculated to help the development of the nation.

The principle of completing your task is clearly taught in the 2nd half of the book of Nehemiah. We can seek in the 1st half of Nehemiah (chapters 1­6) it is all about the physical rebuilding of the wall under the leadership of Nehemiah.

However, this morning we begin our look at the 2nd half (chp 7­13), and we find that it is more about the spiritual rebuilding of the people than the physical rebuilding of the city… The rebuilding process though is still led by Nehemiah.

As your pastor, I believe this is similar to where we are as we enter the 2nd month of this year! We have accepted God challenge to rebuild our church!

We have seen God begin to build our fellowship. We have a baptism scheduled and another possible baptism and we have seen 6 people join our church since the 1st of the year.

We have seen God bless our efforts so far… in the children’s, youth and young adult ministries and we can see that He is beginning to bless our fellowship in the worship service as we have seen MANY new people at our services!

HOWEVER, I have also seen the hearts of so many of our members begin to change…FOR THE GOOD! Also like I just mentioned, we have witnessed, because of God’s blessing, so very many things that are happening NOW that were NOT happening a mere 6mo ago!

We can see that God has set us on a path and out of our obedience we have started to see God begin to move in our fellowship which is a great thing! It is so refreshing to see these things happening AGAIN here at Oak Park!

However, just as Nehemiah knew what he needed to do, I believe God is moving us in that same direction! The work has started here, but it is just beginning!

Yes we have overcome a great barrier in our fellowship by so many of our members being willing to submit and surrender to God, as represented in them coming forward to sign up to serve these past 2 Sundays… I see us as a church beginning to surrender totally to God’s calling on our lives!

BUT, as I have said, there is SO much more to be done and at this point the rebuilding of our church has only just begun! NOW we are at the point of appointing the people to their assignments like Nehemiah is doing in this chapter!

Now when you came in this morning you MAY have seen several lists posted out in the foyer. These lists are for those who have signed up to serve… we have divided all these people into teams in the particular areas of ministry that you have been agreed to serve.

SO, just to let you know that if you have come forward over the past 2 weeks and have put your name on one of these tables focusing on a particular emphasis of ministry…

You need to find your name on the list for each ministry emphasis table you signed! But to make sure you understand we are going to also follow up with you with an email or a regular letter regarding what each ministry area will be doing.

In other words, we are going to let you know what is expected of you in whatever area you chose to serve. So get ready, the 1st part of March is when this is all going to kick off!