A. Opening illustration: Anyone make New Year’s Resolutions?
B. Background to passage: 446 BC, Nehemiah the cupbearer, after a bad report, broken heart, deep prayer
C. Main thought: we want to share a couple of insights about a vision for the new year
1) A Grand Motivation (v. 4-5)
a. Nehemiah’s burden from the first chapter had turned into a large-scale plan for God. He was going to go rebuild the walls of an ancient city. Why was this so important? This is the place that God had chosen for his Name to dwell. The Name of God was the summation of all that He is. His name is his glory. The glory of God is the manifest fullness of his character traits, attributes, and being together. Jerusalem was to be a display of the glory of the Holy One of Israel. Its welfare reflected the favor, power, covenant love, holiness, majesty, worth, grandeur of God. The city as a whole, and temple specifically, were to reflect his glory. How the city operated was to draw the nations to the superiority and awesomeness of God. The feasts and the festivals there and all their components pointing to God and the highest and the best of all treasures.
b. Argumentation
c. Illustration: Paul displays the worth of Christ by counting everything else as loss for Christ’s sake. “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of Christ.” This means that the life that displays the worth of Christ — the unwasted life — is the life that uses everything to show that Christ is more valuable that it is. Money is used to show that Christ is more valuable than money. Food is used to show that Christ is more valuable than food is. Houses and lands and cars and computers are used to show that Christ is more valuable than they are. Family and friends and your own life are a place to show that Christ is more valuable than any of them. The way we display the supreme worth of Jesus in our lives is by treasuring Christ above all things, and then making life choices that show that our joy is not finally in things or even in other people, but in Christ….The reason you have life is to make Jesus Christ look great. There is one central criterion that should govern all the decisions you make in life and in death: Will this help make Jesus Christ look like the treasure he is?
d. We constantly be examining our motivation for doing all that we do. Even with activities that are the mundane or “necessary evils” in life, we are to do them for the glory of God. As we walk this road of faith, lesser motivations will subside, fail, wither, and fade away. The Glory of God is a motivation that will last for all eternity, so nothing done in its service will ever be lost. As you think about your grand motivation for life, start with today: Why are you here? Is it just a routine? Is it because it is expected of you? Is it to make you feel better about yourself? Is it to mend some brokenness? Don’t hear what I’m not saying, if you are not here for the right reason, then you should be somewhere else. Authenticity is an important value in our society. One thing it says is that you should be who you are! If you are simply expected to be here, it’s not who you are, so don’t be. I’m saying these lesser motivations are sinful, repent and believe the gospel that creation exists for his glory, the heavens declare his glory, the law and covenants reflect his glory, Christ came for his glory, died for his glory, rose for his glory, and saves us for the praise of his glory. Why did you come? Why do you work? Why do you study? Why do you have friends? How do you treat others? Does your pattern in life long for God’s glory? Edwards – 70 resolutions, begins like this: 1. “Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God's glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence,” Now, as a church we must be motivated by the same goal: the magnification of the glory of God. As committees we ask, what can to do that will bring the most glory to God? Is what we are doing bringing the most glory to God? As a church, do people look at us and declare: what a mighty God they serve? The little boy who said that he didn’t know if he believed what the preacher said, but that the preacher sure did. Are we living together, serving together, loving each other, ministering to the least of these so that God would be glorified, or just so that we can have a larger attendance? The result may be the same, but the motivation is key.
2) A Grand Design (v. 6-8)
a. He asked for permission, time, authority, and resources. Right off the bat, when the king makes one statement, Nehemiah lays out the full plan with all that he needs. I want to rebuild my home, and I need you to allow it, give me time off, appoint me in charge with rights of passage, and give me the building materials from your stockpiles. Now lest we give Nehemiah too much credit for being a wise leader/planner, or the king too much credit for being gracious and kind, Nehemiah gives the glory to God that his favor that was upon the situation.
b. Illustration: I’ve been reading this new book. It’s called, “What He Must Be…if he wants to marry my daughter.” “Everyone prepares their child for an academic future…However, little thought is given to preparing our sons to be husbands. Thus, they meander through life without the skills or of the mind set necessary to play this most important role until one day, having met “the one,“ they pop the question, set the date and — in rarest of cases — go to the pastor to learn everything they need to know about being the priest, prophet, provider, and protector of a household in four one-hour sessions. In the words of that great theologian Dr. Phil, “how’s that workin’ for ya?” Tell his illustration of the planting of the shade trees. “Kids, you must seek to become the kind of people who plant shade trees for others to sit under.” In 1900, A. E. Winship studied what happened to 1,400 descendants of Jonathan and Sarah by the year 1900. He found they included 13 college presidents, 65 professors, 100 lawyers and a dean of a law school, 30 judges, 66 physicians and a dean of a medical school, and 80 holders of public office, including three US Senators, mayors of three large cities, governors of three states, a Vice-President of the United States, and a controller of the United States Treasury. They had written over 135 books and edited eighteen journals and periodicals. Many had entered the ministry. Over 100 were missionaries and others were on mission boards. Winship wrote: "Many large banks, banking houses, and insurance companies have been directed by them. They have been owners or superintendents of large coal mines… of large iron plants and vast oil interests… and silver mines…. There is scarcely any great American industry that has not had one of this family among its chief promoters…."
c. What’s on tap for you in 2019? Got big plans? Got any plans? Do they include kingdom work? (saw that on a church sign yesterday). This doesn’t mean that we have to know all the details, but that you are ready for the details. God most often operates by leading us on a daily basis, not a calendar year, for we walk by faith, not by sight. So, we put ourselves in the position to receive the details. “Everything has its time, and the main thing is that we keep step with God, and do not keep pressing on a few steps ahead--nor keep dawdling a step behind. It's presumptuous to want to have everything at once” –Bonhoeffer, Nehemiah didn’t have a detailed strategy plan, that would come later when he got into town. However, he knew that to get to the goal, he would need to start here. We put ourselves in ready position by being in the Word regularly. It filters our lives, guides our thoughts, and is the main channel used by God to lead. Prayer keeps us in touch with the Spirit and his leadership. And if you know specifics about what you want to accomplish, pray the details. Christian fellowship, some of you need to get real about the time you spend with other believers, involvement here, attendance for and hour on Sunday morning will not advance your walk with Christ much on your own. Some of you need to commit through the Spirit of God to a SS class, or join the church, or to follow through with your baptism.
d. For the church, strategy will gradually come into clarity. There are some things on the radar that we need to ask God to help us rachet up our belt on in 2019. Priority number one is the asking itself. A prayer ministry that rings the bells of heaven is a must if God does anything in our church. We must rise to new heights in prayer. Also, we must begin some serious evaluation of our programs and ministries to see if disciples are being made. If the Spirit is satisfied that we are doing all that we can, we shall continue, but we must always be willing to stop one thing and start another or strengthen one thing and reorganize another. Are we making disciples? We have to find new ways to pierce the kingdom of darkness in Troup County. We will all have to man a post. It could be a laser focus thing, one good ministry. We are going back international! We will spread the glory of God across the globe in 2019. Get ready, we must get prayed up, saved up, pumped up, packed up, and gone for the spread of the joy of the gospel to the nations.
A. Closing illustration: Charles Finney is considered America’s greatest past revivalist. Church roles swelled in the wake of Finney’s revivals. Though it is hard to gather accurate statistics, he is often directly, or indirectly credited with conversions of around 500,000.” The time frame was in the 1830’s. It is said that his revival meetings transformed entire towns. It is said that in some towns after the meetings the bars would close down because there was no business for them and churches would spring up in their place. He stated in his message that he was to show what revival is.
Charles Finney made a significant impression upon the religious life of 19th century America, and his influence is still evident today. Called the “father of modern revivalism” by some historians, he paved the way for later revivalists like Dwight L. Moody, Billy Sunday, and Billy Graham.
Charles Finney brought revival and the presence and the life transforming power of God to America in the early 1800’s and it forever changed the hearts of 100,000 of people.
A. We live for his glory because of the joy found in the treasure. Therefore, we read, pray, come, spend time, work for, serve, go, give, not just for obedience, but because there is joy with it. There are infinite pleasures at his right hand forevermore. Our lives and service for his glory are driven by joy in Him.
B. If we can capture that motivation, and that passion, and willingness, we could change the world, starting in the seat that you are in. Do you believe that?
