Even though we only read the first 3 verses of chapter 11, our passage tonight goes all the way through verse 26 of chapter 12. So what all is contained in this passage? It’s just another name list. It’s a list of plain, ordinary, everyday people. I don’t know anybody like that, do you? The fact is, we’re all just a bunch of plain, ordinary, everyday people. If someone was to find our membership roll a few generations from now, what do you think they’ll find? Just a list of names. Miranda and I went through a box of her grandmother’s stuff a few months ago. She had saved newspaper clippings that we have no clue why she saved them. She has pictures in that box of people we have no idea who they were. I don’t want to depress you, but 100 years from now, nobody’s going to remember us. Look through this list of people. If you’re lucky, you might recognize a couple of names. So if we don’t recognize any of these names and can’t pronounce most of them, why are they important? Because all of these people on this list were regular everyday people just like we are. And God loves everyday people. As a matter of fact, God has chosen to work His plan through everyday people. If I was God, I would have only chosen to use the best and the brightest people. I would have only chosen extremely gifted and talented people to execute my plan. But I’m not God. And 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 describes His plan. “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” God has chosen to accomplish His mighty will through the use of weak and frail vessels. He has chosen to blow the minds of so-called wise people using simple people. He has chosen to use people who will not even leave a smudge in history books to build His eternal kingdom. That’s what He did with the remnant. And that’s what He’s doing 25 centuries later, here at Brushfork Baptist Church. This long passage shows us that God has chosen to work His plan through everyday people in three ways. Through the calling of everyday people, through the placement of everyday people, and through the ongoing work of everyday people. First, let’s look at the calling of everyday people. Go back to Nehemiah 11:1-2:
NEHEMIAH 11:1-2
God works His plan through the calling of everyday people. You remember back to when the remnant had just completed the wall in chapter 7. Nehemiah makes a comment in 7:4 that sheds some light on what was going on in our passage. He said, “Now the city was large and great: but the people were few therein, and the houses were not builded.” They had just completed the wall, but their work was not finished. Jerusalem was uninhabited for the most part. When all the workers went back to their farms, its streets were empty. The houses and infrastructure were still in ruins. Somebody needed to live there to make it a viable and thriving city. That was the problem. The question before them now was how to solve that problem. How do you get people to leave their rural family farms to move to the city? Not just moving to the city, but moving to a city that was still in ruins. You’re house in the country is nice and has been in your family for two or three generations. Now I want you to move to Jerusalem and start restoring a pile of rocks to live in. Oh, and by the way, you’re going to lose your farming income. While you’re at it you’re going to have to come up with a new way to make a living. Everybody didn’t need to pick up and move. They only needed 10% of the people to go. God didn’t ask for everyone to go, He only asked for a tithe. So that’s who He called. There are several things we can notice about this call. The call wasn’t spectacular. They didn’t look for miraculous signs from God or listen for bells and whistles to go off. Do you know what they did to decide who would go and who would stay? They drew straws! Well, okay, the text says that they cast lots. We can get into a big long discussion about casting lots, but the point is that God called these people to their different positions using very ordinary means. Now, I have no doubt that God can call people in all sorts of ways. I think that rarely, He might choose to be really dramatic about it. But if anything, that is the exception to the rule. Most of the time, God calls everyday people using everyday methods. He might call you through the use of the nominating committee. He might call you through the use of a vacant position you hear about. He might even call you through your dissatisfaction about the way things are being done in a certain area. Most of the time God calls everyday people through very unspectacular means. The call was unspectacular and it involved sacrifice. As I said before, can you imagine being asked to leave your well-established home and move to a new place? So, let’s list all of the advantages to moving to Jerusalem. You’re going to lose your income. You’re going to lose your well-established house. And you’re going to have to live in rubble for a while until you can your new place all fixed up. I would say that the call involved sacrifice. And with that sacrifice came willingness. Here’s what I find amazing. Everybody was willing to make that sacrifice. This goes back to the way they had to choose who went and who stayed. The only reason that you would have to cast lots is if more than 10% of the people volunteered. Would we ever cast lots in this church to make a decision? I would love to. Say that we needed 30 people to work in AWANAs. Now, imagine if 75 people volunteered but we could only handle 30. I would be the first one to stand up and cheer the fact that we had to draw straws to decide who would get to work. That’s what they were doing. Everybody volunteered to make the sacrifice of living in Jerusalem. Nobody had to sell them on the idea. Nobody had to guilt them into it. They all raised their hands and said, “I’ll go.” And because of that, everybody celebrated. They celebrated and blessed those who got to go. God calls everyday people. His call is rarely spectacular. It always involves sacrifice. And it works best and is cause for celebration when everybody is willing. That’s how God works His plan. He works it by calling everyday people like you and me. He also works it by putting everyday people in the right place. Look at verse 3:
NEHEMIAH 11:3
Now skip down to verse 20
NEHEMIAH 11:20
God works His plan through the placement of ordinary people. Verse 3 that we just read introduces a list of all the people who packed up their belongings and moved to Jerusalem. That list runs all the way through verse 19. Verse 20 that we just read, introduces a list of all the people who lived outside of the wall. Remember that was 90% of the people. Now, here’s what would happen in most churches today. If most churches were to come up with a list of names, it would still be broken up into the 90%-10% groups. But the 10% group would all be the workers and the 90% would be the watchers. I thank God that we don’t really have that problem here. It seems like most folks here are doing something. We might not see all of it, but most folks are. That’s the way this remnant was. Even though 90% of them were outside of Jerusalem, they all had a place of service. God doesn’t ever call anyone to sit on the sidelines and be a watcher. Christianity is not a spectator sport. Somebody has compared the scene at most churches to football games. At a football game, you have 22 people on the field, badly in need of a rest. And you have 65,000 people in the stands badly in need of exercise. That is not how Kingdom work is supposed to be. In Kingdom work, there is a place for everybody. Not everybody was called to live in Jerusalem. For some reason, God only called 10% of the people to live there. But He still had places and positions for the other 90%. There were jobs for everybody. As you look through these lists, you can see what some of those jobs were. Notice that there was one overall leader of the people. That was Nehemiah. That was his special calling from God. God gave him the gifting, He gave him the temperament, He gave him the position. There was also one preacher. That was Ezra. His gifts were different than Nehemiah’s. His temperament was different than Nehemiah’s. And His calling was different. There were also a handful of “special positions. There were priests and Levites to do the work of the temple. There were singers and Nethinims. Nethinims were temple servants who did the menial tasks around the temple. There were all kinds of special positions. And God called people to fill those special positions. But was that it? No—in reality, that was still just a small portion of the people. Because the vast majority of the people were just quietly regular workers. They didn’t have titles. They didn’t have positions. But when something needed to be done, they were available. They brought in the money. They brought in the manpower. Even though a handful of jobs had titles, there was no such thing as an insignificant job. Everyone was needed. God had a place for everyone. Just like He has a place for everyone in His church today. There are a few positions in our church that have biblical qualifications and requirements. Those are the pastor and the deacons. On top of that, the way our church government is set up, we have committees and departments. Several people in the church serve on those committees. Our committee chairmen and department directors lead those groups to do the work the church calls them to do. But that’s not all there is. Because God’s work is done through everybody. Nobody is called to sit in the stands and do nothing. When God saves you, He saves you into His church. His church is manifested on earth as the local church. He gives you gifts in order to build up and edify that local church. When you sit on the sidelines and don’t exercise the gifts and talents God has given you, it cripples His body. Everyone has a place. Everyone has work to do. Jesus saved you and placed you in this place for a reason. That reason is that He works His plan through the placement of everyday people, just like you. He works His plan through the calling of everyday people and He works His plan through the placing of everyday people. He also works His plan through the ongoing work of everyday people. Skip down and look at 12:1.
NEHEMIAH 12:1
The list of names in this section is different than the last two. In the last two, Ezra gave us a list of names who were living at the time. It was a list of people who were currently going to move to Jerusalem. And then a list of people who were currently going to stay outside the wall. But here, the list is different. First, it’s a list of only priests and Levites. Second, it’s a historical list. It’s a genealogical list. It’s like a family tree for all the priests and Levites from the first return of the exiles up till that point. He starts with the priests and Levites who returned to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel and Jeshua. That’s the ones we talked about all the way back in the first chapters of Ezra a long time ago. And then Ezra moves all the way up until his time, which was the present. That means that the call of God was an ongoing call. You see, what God is doing here at Brushfork didn’t die with Clifford Compton. It started with him, but it didn’t die when the Lord took him home. And do you know what? What God is doing here at Brushfork will not end with you. And it will not end with me. Each person who has served here throughout the years has been used by God to accomplish His will. You have no idea how doing your job today will impact God’s work three generations from now. Just like Zerubbabel and Jeshua had no idea how their actions would impact Ezra and Nehemiah three generations from them. When Zerubbabel saw the altar being placed in the middle of where the temple foundation was supposed to be, do you think he could have envisioned what the completed wall would have looked like? But what would have happened if all the everyday people around Zerubbabel and Jeshua would have just sat back and been spectators? What would have happened if they had not heard God’s call and gotten busy doing His work? What would have happened if they would have been satisfied with setting the altar and building the temple? By the time three generations passed, everything they did would have crumbled and turned to dust. God’s work continues. It is ongoing. It builds. It grows. It changes. It marches on. What was done even just a generation ago will not stand on its own. It must either be built on or it will crumble. And the only way for what was done in the past to be built on is for everyday people to build on it.
I can’t help but draw the comparison between the people that God called and the wall that they had just finished building. I don’t know if God intended it to be an object lesson, but I think it was. Look at the material that the wall was built out of. All of that material was “called out” from what it had been before. All the wood was just trees before. All the stone was just rocks in the ground. All the mortar and brick was just dirt. But it was called out from the way it was. And when it was called out, it was shaped and molded and hewn to take on different textures and appearances. It was reformed and changed for different uses. And then those raw materials that had been shaped and molded and hewn were taken and placed in just the right spots. Some were joined together to build plain, ordinary sections of wall. Some were used to make gates. Some were even joined together to build magnificent towers. But they all came together to build a wall. Despite the differences of each piece of raw material, they were brought together for a purpose. And when they were all fitly framed together, they accomplished that purpose. Where are we tonight? Are we fitly framing together? Ephesians 2:19-22 says, “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” Are we fitly framed together and growing into a holy temple in the Lord? Why not? Could it be that you are waiting for somebody else to do something you’ve been called to do? 1 Corinthians 12:18-20 says, “But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body.” We have got a great task ahead of us. We are called to a great mission. Jesus has saved you and God has placed you here for a reason. You are everyday people and He uses everyday people. There is a place for you. There is work for all of us to do. He has gifted you to accomplish that work. The question is, are you going to do it?
