Drive Like a Pro
Nehemiah 2:11
I enjoy playing golf. The most important shot in golf is the tee shot. Every hole is a new begin¬ning. At each hole, you step up on the tee and hit your first shot, which generally determines how well you will do on the hole. If you drive the ball in the woods, you have to "scramble" with two or three other shots in order to get to the green. If you drive the ball out of bounds you are penalized an additional shot. However, if you drive the ball straight down the fairway and position yourself for the second shot to the green, you are well on your way to finishing the hole strongly.
Many never score well in golf because they spend most of their time trying to make up yardage lost by poor tee shots. Getting started right is essential, whether we are playing golf or painting a room.
If Nehemiah had been playing golf… his drive would have been about 300 yards long and laying dead in the middle of the fairway… because when it came to rebuilding the walls… Nehemiah started right.
What did he do?
1. He Made an Honest Evaluation.
So many people are just not able to do this. They look at themselves and they just don’t see the same problems that everyone else is very aware of.
It is like you have this huge mole on your cheek and everyone sees it… except you. Like this (show clip from Austin Powers, Gold Member “moley, moley”)
Nehemiah did not take other people’s word for the situation. He was told, “the walls are destroyed, the gates are burned with fire and the people are a reproach.” He went out at night, made a complete tour of the walls and gates, looked at every inch of the situation and then returned and said, ““the walls are destroyed, the gates are burned with fire and we are a reproach.” Yes, what he found was exactly what he was told… but HE HAD TO SEE IT FOR HIMSELF.
Many people today will never rebuild their walls… in a failing marriage, a habit that has them hostage, a declining spiritual life, out of control sexual practices or thoughts… because they will never take the time or endure the discomfort of making an honest evaluation.
I could camp out here for the whole sermon because some of you here are just like Jerusalem… your walls are broken down.
Jerusalem in ruins is a picture of a life that has lost its defenses against attack and lies open to repeated hurt and misery.
We as believers we have walls of spiritual protection, spiritual security, that we put around ourselves in the disciplines that we’re meant to exercise as God’s children.
I could name a whole lot: the reading of God’s word, prayer daily before God, witnessing, fellowship, the breaking of bread, the prayer meeting - we could go on and on and on and talk about the many exercises that are encouraged for our spiritual well-being in the New Testament. They are there for our protection and cultivating of our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are some of us here today that need to examine the state of our own spiritual walls. How are they? How is your communion with God? How are your quiet times of retirement with God? How is your prayer life with God? How is your testimony and witness with God?
Are you being influenced by the world? Are there are some gates that you have left open for the enemy to slip through? Has neglect of something loosened a brick or a stone, exposing a gap for the enemy to squeeze through? Have the roots of the weeds of compromise grown into the foundation walls, and are almost ready to tumble them down?
The book of Nehemiah is designed to teach us that only with God’s help can we actually change ourselves and recover from the damage and ruin of the past. That is the central lesson of this book.
You look back on your life and you see there are places where the walls have been broken down. There is no longer any ability left to resist destructive attacks. You have fallen victim to sinful habits that you now find difficult, if not impossible, to break. That is the kind of ruin that is described here:
There may be some who feel unable to stop wrongful sexual practices. You have gone along with the ways of the world. You have fallen into practices that the Bible says are wrong. You know they are wrong. But you have difficulty stopping them
Perhaps your drift began innocently. You did not realize you were forming a habit, but now you no longer can stop it. Your defenses are gone.
There are parts of your life you cannot talk about. You do not want anyone to know. You have a sense of great personal distress and are feeling reproach and disgrace. Your have been scarred emotionally.
No one may know about it. To others you appear to be a success. They think you are doing fine, but inwardly you know you are not. As you examine the walls and the gates of your life you find much of it in ruins. How do you handle that?
The first thing we must do, if there is to be any hope of rebuilding those walls is to BE HONEST with ourselves and with God… make an honest evaluation.
Then do what Nehemiah did… fall on your face before Almighty God and PRAY… confess… fast… weep!
Then ask God to help you to rebuild.
As a church, we too must make an honest evaluation. We must be willing to face the fact that we are not all that we could be or should be.
I am not saying there is any specific sin which our church has committed and needs to confess, but I can assure you that after 200 years of existence, hundreds of volunteers who have worked so hard and millions of dollars spent… we could… and should… be more, be doing more and be getting more.
I do not believe every church is called to be a mega church. I don’t believe every church will be.
But I believe a church is like a wood shop… GBC is small yes, but has the basic tools and equipment and could be turning out some pretty good stuff.
I don’t believe we should be a mega church and turning out the type of stuff they should but we should at least be turning out better than we are.
I believe when God sees what we are doing. I think it is kind of a reproach.
We must make an honest evaluation of where we are.
In our vision meetings, we tried to do an honest evaluation.
We recognized that…
1. The majority of our people have grey hair.
2. There are no young families.
3. We don’t have young singles.
4. We don’t have youth
5. We are not seeing visitors
6. We are not seeing decisions
7. WE NEED NEW BLOOD
I know, that is not news to any of you. But like Nehemiah, we had to evaluate it for ourselves.
We are honest… our gates are in ruin, in places, and our gates are burned.
WE NEED WORK!!!
Nehemiah made an honest evaluation.
2. He Started With A Goal In Mind
Nehemiah had a goal before he even went before the King.
You can tell it because when the king asked, “What do you want?” Nehemiah did not have to say, “well, uh, I uh… I’m not sure, let me think about it for a few days and I’ll get back to you on it.”
He had only dreamed about this for months. He already had a goal, “Send me to Jerusalem so I can rebuild the walls and replace the gates.”
He even had a timetable for the work, a list of materials and knew what permits were required.
I’ll bet the King was surprised by the level of detail.
Nehemiah had a vision, a dream, a mental picture, and a passion.
And it was not vague… it was on paper.
The reason most churches are not doing more, not accomplishing more and not receiving more is very simple…
THEY LACK A GOAL AND A PLAN.
EX: Michael Jordan averaged 32 points per game over his 15 years in the NBA. A reporter asked him how he was able to maintain such a high average and he replied, “I simplify the matter. It takes only takes 8 points per quarter to score 32. I find a way every quarter to simply get those 8 points.”
HE HAD A GOAL.
Thank goodness he had education too. 32 divided by 4 equals 8… At UNC that is known as long division.
Successful people, teams, businesses, churches all have one thing in common… THEY START WITH A GOAL!!!
In our vision meetings one of the first things we did was each person wrote down 5 things they wanted to see our church do or be.
Then I grouped them in groups of 4 and had them narrow their answers down to 4.
Then they got in a bigger group and came up with a list of four.
Then they had to bring it all down to one… ONE GOAL.
We started with a goal. Tonight at 6:30 you can hear the goal. Or you can wait until next Sunday’s sermon.
The next thing Nehemiah did, and this church will have to do is…
3. Move Out of Your/Our Comfort Zone.
This can be the hardest step, stepping out and doing something new or MORE than you have been.
(Show clip of fathers gagging while changing a diaper)
Two weeks ago I discussed how Nehemiah was living in the lap of luxury and had a posh job. He had it made in the shade and life was good.
It would have been very comfortable for Nehemiah to stay right where he was.
Sure, Jerusalem was in ruins and the people were in danger… but he was living on easy street.
Why should he get involved in other people’s problems? He did not owe them anything. He had it made. Why leave?
How many people out of a hundred do you believe would have made the move out of their comfort zone and entered into the mess in a foreign country?
Would You?
Here is the good news: I’m not going to ask you to leave your home and move to a foreign country.
I’m not going to ask you to give up your job and volunteer in some faraway place.
HOWEVER… I will tell you that this church has a goal… a vision. That vision is GROWTH!!
That goal is to invest more, to give more and to receive more.
And I can promise you that if this church is going to be more, do more, accomplish more or receive more… WE are going to need you to step out of your comfort zone and step into the SERVICE ZONE… out of the comfort zone and into the WORK ZONE, out of the comfort zone and into the GIVING ZONE, out of the comfort zone and into the VOLUNTEER ZONE.
If we are content to do what we have done for 20 years then we don’t need more. But if we plan to do more, we will need to get more from more people.
We will need you to STEP UP and ask, “Where can I help?”
We will need you to STAND UP and fill in where we have a vacancy or where one person is overloaded.
We will need you to GIVE UP some of your time that you are giving to other things and give that time to the church.
We will need you to OPEN UP your wallet or checkbook and invest in what God is doing here.
WE will need you to SPEAK UP and tell people what we are doing here, advertize our church.
We will need you to MOVE UP… move from a member of a group to a leader, from an attender to a worker, from observer to participant.
We will need you to LIFT UP those who are in leadership and worker positions. Give them a pat on the back and a word of encouragement. Tell them “Well done.” Everybody needs that. But remember, the greatest words of encouragement are, “I’m right here with you, you can count on me.”
We need you to BREAK UP your fallow ground… take those talents and abilities out of moth balls, dust them off and PUT THEM TO WORK!!!
Some of you had positions of service in this church in earlier years. But you either burned out, or thought you had done your fair share or got upset and walked away. Some of you have not been more that an observer for years. Some of you have never been more than an observer or bench warmer.
If this church is going to do no more than it has done for 20 years, we don’t need you to do more. WE have been doing without you. I guess we can go on doing without you… If we are just going to go on doing what we are doing.
Some of you have not been giving anything financially, or very little. We have been doing without you… or with very little from you. I guess we don’t need you to give any more that you are… if we are going to go on doing what we are doing.
But if we are going to rise up and do more… if we are going to be more than we have been, accomplish more for God, make a greater impact in this community, win more people to Christ, see more marriages strengthened and saved, see more of our members rooted more deeply in Christ and bringing forth more fruit for His kingdom, if we are going to see this church rise up and flex its muscles for Christ…
WE NEED EVERY ONE OF OUR PEOPLE TO STEP OUT OF THEIR COMFORT ZONE AND GET IN ON THE WORK!!!
Ezekiel stood in the valley of dry bones. God spoke to him and told him that the bones would live again because God was going to put muscle and sinew and flesh upon the bones and breathe life into them.
And HE DID!
In some ways, our church is like those dried bones. Yes, our church is alive and there are many good things about our church. But in some areas, we are like dried bones… we lack life.
Youth, children, young adults, families… there are dried bones.
WE need flesh on them.
I believe God will give flesh and life in those areas.
But I believe he is going to put flesh on them THROUGH US
F Faith We must have faith to follow God wherever He leads us, even if it is through uncharted paths or difficult terrain.
L Love We will need love for God, love for his church. love for his people, and love for the lost. There will be times when we will be asked to give much, and only love will cause us to continue
E Effort It will not be easy. Change and rebuilding are never easy. There will be times you will be tired and feel that you are carrying more of the load. There will be times when you think you are giving all you can and will be asked for more. Nothing comes easy. It is uphill. But the destination is worth the journey.
S Stewardship
The kind of vision we have will take more than we have. Programs, equipment, materials…they call take money. The members will be challenged to give to the church. The church will be challenged to let go of the purse strings. Individually and as a church, we will be challenged to give.
H Higher Power
If we can do this in our own strength, it is no vision, it is not from God. God will cause us to trust him for this vision. He will challenge our trust. He will expect us to bathe this whole thing in prayer. We will need EVERY MEMBER PRAYING EVERY DAY.
We are going to sing "Higher Ground" with some words I have written just for our church. This will be our theme song for the next couple of weeks. As we sing the words, make this your commitment to God.
