Text: Nehemiah 11:1-12:26, Title: Intentional Impact, Date/Place: NRBC, 1/20/08, PM
A. Opening illustration: Tell about Armitage Baptist Church reaching out to Muslims in the city in the aftermath of 9/11. “If one percent of evangelicals living outside the inner city had the faith and courage to move in town, evangelicals would fundamentally alter the history of urban America,” Dr. Ronald Sider, Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Someone asked me about those passages full of names the other day…
B. Background to passage: After the covenant renewal ceremony the focus of Nehemiah turns back to governmental and societal matters. But of course with biblical theology, there is no huge gap. Faith impacts every iota of life. And so flowing from the revival, their commitment having been renewed, their kingdom focus causes them to act to take steps to secure the future of Jerusalem now that it has newly repaired walls. Remember that Jerusalem was very integral to the spiritual life and religious practice of the nation, and therefore to the kingdom. Our cities are just as important today to reach and fortify for Christ. Charles Lyons calls them socio-cultural hilltops from which all trends and influence flow. And by and large, evangelical Christianity has taken their little plastic Jesus, who couldn’t take the heat, and left. And thus our cities are putting for the most vile and sinful influences that have come into our smaller towns like Tifton.
C. Main thought: In the text we will see how Nehemiah’s crew intentionally impacted Jerusalem
A. Seeking the Lord (v. 1)
1. The people used a fairly common OT method of determining God’s will—lots. Explain lots. They knew that they needed to repopulate the city with faithful men and women. They wanted God to be involved in every part of their lives, including decisions about government and about where a family should live. This is what true revival brings about. And no doubt they sought the Lord on how to strengthen the city in the first place.
2. Isa 30:1, Hos 4:12, Ps 2:8,
3. Illustration: tell about Katie’s mom and dad visiting churches in and around Charlotte so they could decide where they wanted to live, the IMB website allows you to pray for large urban centers in the world. India has over 20 cities with 20 million residents a piece, tell about the list of questions for evaluation at the end of each chapter in the book on being a missional church, and about the question that it asked this week about whether or not our church is transforming the community around us,
4. We must not compartmentalize faith any longer. Your faith and worldview should impact every area of your life. And we must live consistently with that worldview. We must impact our city for Jesus. If we want to have the greatest impact on our culture or our country or our county we must start in the urban centers of the world. And the first step in beginning that process is prayer and seeking the Lord. We must ask the Lord to give us a vision and a plan for how to transform our community. Then we must be willing to adapt and carry out the ministry in our town so that God’s will be accomplished.
B. Making Willing Sacrifices (v. 2)
1. The text states that these men who had been selected (which are tediously named below), made this decision to willingly move their families, their belongings, their businesses, their aging parents, their everything into a city which they do not know. This would have been a really big commitment, but they were willing because the kingdom is at stake and God had spoken through his man. They were committed to the advance of the kingdom at any cost! They would be satisfied as long as God is in it. They knew that this would be the plan to reestablish Jerusalem, and more importantly the faith in the One true God for the next several generations.
2. 1 Chron 29:9,
3. Illustration: Fifteenth century, Albrecht Durer & Albert rose and said softly, "No, brother. I cannot go to Nuremberg. It is too late for me. Look what four years in the mines have done to my hands! The bones in every finger have been smashed at least once, and lately I have been suffering from arthritis so badly in my right hand that I cannot even hold a glass to return your toast, much less make delicate lines with a pen or a brush. No, brother, for me it is too late." tell about FBC Woodstock getting two year commitments from 100 people to move from Woodstock to Las Vegas to be the core group for the church plant there. Pastor Dan Eidson of Victory Baptist signs his emails with “Anything for the Kingdom, Everything for the King,”
4. Ask yourself the question if you would be willing to uproot your family and move to another city for the sake of the kingdom? And if you were told to do it by God, would you go forth willingly? Where is it that you draw the line as to how far you would go for the Kingdom? What if we asked some of you to commit to a new church plant for two years here in Tifton, where you would attend, tithe, and serve until the plant in up and running on its own? Would you as a church be willing to escrow the tithes of those committed to the church plant for a year to launch the church? Would you be willing to financially support a church plant so that we could better reach Tifton if it meant cutting some budget items like the flower fund, churchwide fellowships, yard/building maintenance, or SuperWOW trips?
C. Refusing Excessive Segregation (v. 3)
1. Remember that this list of people was chosen by lot. They are listed kinda like an honor roll list in the Gazette, but remember they are all moving to Jerusalem together. The priests, Levites, gatekeepers were going to live right alongside the regular families. There was not a separation of ages, or classes, or races, or occupations except for the purpose of the list. The only division that we see is by family or tribe. This is because the family is prioritized in scripture. They all lived together as the family of God. They all learned together using the family structure as the primary means of discipleship.
2. Titus 2:4, Acts 20:9,
3. Illustration: one of the main issues that keeps coming up in the Task Force meetings is the generation gap that exists between the young and the old, Dr David Black has written the only book that I know of that deals with biblical age segregation, The Myth of Adolescence, there are groups of Baptists, even groups of Southern Baptists that are planting new churches that are completely family integrated, you can usually tell in the Gazette the average age of people based on what there thoughts are,
4. It is hard to be the family of God with the segregation that we have self-imposed. As soon as families come through the door, they all go different ways. We have activities for the youth, for the seniors, for the pre-teens, for the middle aged, for the singles, for the divorced, for the soon to be, but not quite yet older than middle aged but pre-retirement once-removed. And we feel like if we are not specifically invited to a ministry it must not be for our age group. Is it any wonder there is a generation gap and disunity in our churches and associations? Our young don’t respect, neither do the old. To really achieve community, we are going to have to come together and lay down all the little factions and groups. The church should be different from the world. Young and old can work together to accomplish a common goal. And I am not saying that we should scrap the whole age-graded structure (although it is hard to find a biblical justification for it), or get rid of the Youth group, SSs, or Senior ministry, but that we must begin to think outside this structure and not require and all ministry be done for a specific age group. And not be so selfish as to always requiring the church to do ministry for you. And be willing to learn about the old times, and new times, and get involved with those of other generations so that the glory of Christ might be furthered, and the wisdom of age and the vibrancy of youth is not overlooked.
A. Closing illustration: Changing Consumer Landscape These top 20 trends compiled by Social Technologies Organization are listed in no particular order. 1. Cultural Flows—the spread of ideas, media, products, brands, and lifestyles to new places—are increasing as the world becomes more interconnected. These expose new ideas, products, and ways of thinking. 2. Time Pressure. Most of us feel we have less time to manage mounting levels of activity, information, and choice, and the resulting accelerated pace of life. 3. Cultural Multipolarity. The ability to produce and disseminate culture in its modern forms is rising in more places around the world. These new cultural power centers are driving the emergence of cultural multipolarity. 4. Asia Rising. Asians are strengthening their economic and cultural clout and boosting their world prominence. 5. Media Spread. Mass media is accessible to more people. 6. Social Freedom. Globally the range of personal, political, and economic options open to individuals is growing. Political change, economic growth, and information flows, spread individualism and expand consumer choices. 7. Transparency. The increasing ability to gather, store, and share information makes it easier to know about people, products, companies, and governments. 8. Monetization. As more people equate time and money, more choose goods and services that offer convenience and save time. 9. Rising Mobility in emerging markets impacts lifestyles and fuels demand for mobility-related goods and services. 10. Migration. International and internal migration continues at high levels and affects many aspects of life. 11. Networked World. Information devices are spreading, enabling new connections between organizations, objects, and people; allowing more information to travel faster. 12. Consumerism is an option for more people than ever before due to globalization and rising incomes. 13. Changing Families. Falling fertility rates and smaller families drive the aging of the world population and change the structure many of societies markets. 14. Women’s Power socially, politically, and economically is growing globally. 15. Electrification changes life’s pace, including how people cook, work, and access entertainment and information. 16. Aging. By 2050, the median age will rise by 10 years, to 37. Result—2 billion people aged 60 and over. 17. Ethical Consumption. More buyers consider ethical, religious, political, and other beliefs in their purchase decisions. 18. Population Growth. Every decade adds hundreds of millions of people earth’s population. 19. Middle-Class Growth is unfolding in emerging markets. 20. Urbanization. The number of people living in urban areas has risen from roughly 1 billion in ‘60 to 3 billion now. Lives change when people move to cities.
