Living Behind Broken Down Walls
PPT 1 Title Slide
Study in the book of Nehemiah part 1
PPT 2 Text
Ne 1:1 ΒΆ The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in the month Chislev, [in] the twentieth year, while I was in Susa the capitol,
Ne 1:2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, and some men from Judah came; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped [and] had survived the captivity, and about Jerusalem.
Ne 1:3 And they said to me, "The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire."
Ne 1:4 Now it came about when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
Today we begin our series in the book of Nehemiah and we are going to talk about restoring and rebuilding and about Making Good with, Second Chance.
I'm glad I serve a God second chances.
PPT 3
The Prodigal Son Got a Second Chance.
David got a second chance.
Saul of Tarsus got a second chance.
Since God is in the business of giving people a second chance, so should we. Does anyone come to your mind when I say, "second chance," and your first reaction is "no!"
Perhaps God is speaking to you today. "If I had a second chance I would be home."
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A second chance is a better choice than failure, judgment, condemnation.
The background to the book of Nehemiah is that 90 years earlier the Jews returned to Israel from Babylon after being there for 70 years as a judgment from God. They rebuilt the temple but their city remained in ruins, and little by little the sins that brought the first judgment were creeping back in and taking over. God sends two men, one a priest and one a layman to bring revival, to give them a second. He sent Ezra, the priest and Nehemiah the layman. Ezra arrived 13 years earlier than Nehemiah and they joined forces and their second chance was successful.
Nehemiah is the story of their second chance.
So today as an introduction to the series I want to talk about living behind broken down walls as we read about in our scripture text. I want to talk about what walls represent, and what the impact is in our life when we live behind broken walls.
Today I hope by the help of the Holy Spirit we can examine the state of our spiritual walls, and begin rebuilding where necessary.
The great thing about building is it is only 1 brick at a time. How heavy is one brick?, everyone can handle 1 brick. (illustrate with some bricks)
OK Lets talk about walls, their function and purpose, and what they spiritually symbolize.
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First of all walls define space.
That is they declare what a space is about. For example a post office is a place with walls, the outside of which let us know it is a post office. Walls define the function and purpose of a thing. This is the kitchen, this is the bathroom. This is Luke's bedroom. Walls set an atmosphere. This is a Christian home. It is the walls you have in your spiritual life that define whether or not yours is a Christian home. It is the walls you have that set the atmosphere in your home.
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Secondly walls, Limit access.
Walls keep things out you want kept out.
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3. Walls provide protection.
From the elements for example.
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4. Walls set boundaries.
They limit behavior, proscribe where and what activities can take place, give us guidelines, keep cars on roads. This will be our main focus today.
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5. Walls declare Ownership
Welcome to NY. (Pay toll). New York owns this place. The McCarthy home, walls show that something is owned. It is not public space, or open space, it is owned space. Having spiritual walls show that you belong to God. Living differently than the world is one of the proofs you belong to Him.
OK so now that we have that as a basic understanding of walls what did it mean for the Jews or for us when we are living behind broken down walls.
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1. It means that the enemy has had a breakthrough in our life.
Usually when we speak of a breakthrough it means we have a victory. In this case it means a defeat. Your walls have been breached, and the enemy has gotten the upper hand.
2. It means you have had a loss of identity.
3. It means you are focusing on repair rather than growth and expansion. Some people live here.
4. Your ability to resist has been greatly diminished and may be almost non-existent.
5. Your boundaries are in the process of decay and ruin.
Boundaries are our convictions and rules of life.
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I want to show a video from a show called hoarders, and then talk about it a little bit.
Hoarders are people whose boundaries have been destroyed little by little till they no longer exist.
My family and I watched an episode of this show the other day, and the best thing you could say about it was, that it was disgusting. But that is what happens when people don't have walls or boundaries. Did you see in the video where the rooms where completely overrun? The particular show we were watching a young girls room was completely overtake by her mothers hoarding, actually the whole house was overtaken. The father had abdicated his authority to the mother's illness, and the illness took over the house. If the dad had put up walls and borders to mom's hoarding it would have never gotten to the place where their life was being destroyed. You see, if you don't have walls the enemy will run right over you. A toehold, becomes a stronghold, and a stronghold becomes a stranglehold. That is what sin does, and that is what the lack of borders in Israel had done.
Let me give you an example:
PPT 12
A company buys a piece of property near your house. That is a toehold.
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They build a factory on it. That is a stronghold.
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The factory begins taking all the available water for its own needs leaving you with none, or leaving you with polluted water. That is a stranglehold. That is what hoarders do. That is what things and activities can do to your spiritual life, they want to suck up all your time and energy. We need to protect the spiritual space in our life
We have to have walls, and borders, and access denied spaces in our life or disaster will come.
The problem here is that both the woman and her husband and daughter had lost their walls or more properly in this case, their boundaries.
Jerusalem was in ruin because it had no definable borders.
We need border or boundaries in two absolutely critical areas of our life.
1. Sacred space.
2. Convictions.
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Sacred space
By sacred space I simply mean time allocated to God.
There are things in this life that will try to hoard your time.
Sports, entertainment, family events, baby showers, television and internet. The pursuit of money.
What is happening to the border of your sacred space. Your personal prayer time, devotions, attendance at the house of God?
PPT 16
Jesus told a parable about the cares of this life, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and make it unfruitful. It doesn't make the word non-existent, it makes it unfruitful. How is the word said to be fruitful? When it is challenging and changing us. When it is encouraging and convicting us. When it is prized and sought by us.
What are the deceitfulness of riches. They trick you into thinking they should be the #1 priority in your life. The more stuff you have to pay for, the more you have to work to pay for it. The more you have to work, the less sacred space you have for God.
How are your devotions doing? How is your prayer life?
Compromise - a happy middle ground, or giving up sacred space to the enemy?
What are you willing to trade in order to get what you want in life?
What is it that you value? What is it that determines your
priorities?
2. Convictions
Are your boundaries under attack?
Is your invisible fence being moved?
What are your convictions based on?
Mt 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Mt 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, [even] unto the end of the world. Amen.
As a pastor God has commanded me to teach you to obey all the things Jesus commanded. Our morals and mores are to be based on what the bible says rather than what we "feel" is right and wrong.
Close: The enemy has made breakthrough in my life. I am convicted about things that are crowding out God. My convictions have slipped from where they ought to be.
