No Limits
building beyond ourselves
Week 1 Rebuilding What Matters
SERMON SERIES– Book of Nehemiah
Week 1 January 24, 2021
OUTLINE/NOTES
Prayer
Rebuilding What Matters - chapters 1-2 (Tom and Bryan)
TOM
Passage background
IN ORDER TO REBUILD WE MUST BE . . .
AWARE
Nehemiah 1:1-3 (NIV) 1 The words of Nehemiah son of Hakaliah: In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, 2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem. 3 They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”
My response: I will ask God to open my eyes to the great need.
PRAYER
Nehemiah 1:5-7 (NIV) 5 Then I said: “Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. 7 We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.
My response: With a broken heart, I will confess sins to God.
Call the church to prayer
SHARE
Nehemiah 2:1–8 (NIV) 1In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before; 2 so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.” I was very much afraid, 3 but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” 4 The king said to me, “What is it you want?” Then I prayed to the God of heaven, 5 and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it.” 6 Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?” It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time. 7 I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? 8 And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests.
My response: I will boldly believe, look, and ask for every provision.
Nehemiah 2:9-20 – Care (Inspect)
CARE
Nehemiah 2:9–12 (NIV) 9 So I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates and gave them the king’s letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me.
10 When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites. 11 I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days 12 I set out during the night with a few men. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on.
Nehemiah 2:16–18 (NIV)16 The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work. 17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” 18 I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work.
Nehemiah 2:19–20 (NIV) 19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you rebelling against the king?” 20 I answered them by saying, “The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.”
My response: I will care enough to overcome any opposition.
Next step: Praying beyond myself – ask God daily to open my eyes to what needs to be done.
MANUSCRIPT
Prayer
Rebuilding What Matters - chapters 1-2 (Tom and Bryan)
Big Idea: Aware through prayer, of what God wants to do and becoming a part of it.
TOM
Story of Celebration
The check
The opposition
Good morning and welcome to Celebration Church. My name is Tom Bartlett, I’m glad to be one of the pastors here.
Today we kick off not just a series of messages but a life emphasis that we hope we revitalize your connection to God, and impact our community.
Have you ever wanted to see God do something awesome? Ever think of how cool it would be to see God show up and absolutely transform lives with sweeping change? I know that in my entire life and especially as a pastor, all I’ve ever wanted was to see God show up help people from a place of hopelessness to true purpose and impact. And, while I’ve seen that actually ha[pen right here at this church, I truly believe that God’s work through this church has merely begun.
Join me on a little journey and let me tell you some things that very few people in this room know. Pastor Bryan thought this would be very important.
• 2003 – we had a group of under 50 people meeting at the Wilkesboro, elementary school on school street. Actually 30 on my first day. No building, no money to speak of and actually in decline.
• By 2004 we witnessed 200 in a single event and kept growing. Some thought we needed to get a store front and stop the set up and mobile church thing. Our leaders wisely decided to focus on people and let God handle the property stuff.
• We offered a major evangelistic campaign here in Wilkes by renting the college auditorium. Hundreds came and hundreds made decisions to follow Christ.
• About that time we heard that the old Union School an elementary/middle school was going to auction and would take bids after about 9 months. Our team began to pray and ask God if this would be our place. After a leadership retreat and much prayer we as a group heard from the Lord the this truly would be our home. The problem was that we had no money. Still, we heard from God.
• When the time came to bid, we didn’t know how to proceed because the bid had to be accompanied with a check. A week or so before our first bid a man came t church, no outward appearance of means. I met him and his wife at the door. He said, “my wife is having some surgery tomorrow at the hospital, could you stop by and pray?” I said, sure, I’d be glad to. I prayed and sat there with him, he then asked about the building. He then took out his check book and asked me to write a check for $10,000 and said here’s to help with your bid on the Union school property. He said if you secure the building, I’ll write another one for $50,000.
• We began the process and immediately we were met with opposition. It started with other churches then our local association of churches.
• We faced one challenger to the bid and they decided to bow out once they knew a church wanted it. Then I got a phone call from a local person who proceeded to tell me that we should stop bidding because they had a man who had more money than God and we would lose the bid as the local association wanted it for a bible college. I told him, God had already spoken to us and that we would not pull back but would exhaust all the funds we had trying to purchase.
• I prayed and got in my car a drove to the office of man and began to tell him what was happening, I showed up unannounced. Little did I know that he was the driving force behind this opposition. He told me that people were on the way to the county to bid as we spoke and he couldn’t stop it. I said, why would a local ministry that our church is a art of bid against us and not even communicate? I told him that we had prayed for about a year and had confirmation that God said this would be our property. He said there’s nothing he could do. I walked out and I may have closed his door rather loudly. Before I got home, he called me and said, “here’s what we’re going to do. Celebration church should continue to bid, but if you fail to secure the highest bid, we will step in and buy the property.” I said that’s fair.
• We did secure the property for about $184,000 and we began a major upfit. There’s a lot more to the story, but people that have come before you believed God for this location.
Passage background
In the Hebrew Bible, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah go together as one book. Ezra wrote the book that is called Ezra and the same with Nehemiah. Nehemiah and Ezra worked together. Ezra was the Bible teacher and Nehemiah more of the administrator and overall leader.
Nehemiah had the trusted position of cupbearer. The cupbearers often became confidants and advisors to the kings because they were so trusted. God obviously used this when he gave Nehemiah the burden to rebuild the walls in Jerusalem, which was a 140-year-old problem. Nehemiah sacrificially left the king’s court to undertake the solving of this problem, which God supernaturally accomplished through his leadership in 52 days. Nehemiah displayed incredible leadership skills in completing this project.
Now in our series on Nehemiah, the slave who was put in the position of cup bearer to the king, Nehemiah hears a call from God through coming to see of the ruins of the walls around the city of Jerusalem.
He was a cup-bearer, in other words, if someone tried to kill the king with poison, he’d drink it first and die. No position of prominence, no resources, no skills to speak of yet God would use him to do something others would surely say was impossible.
Let’s pick it up in Nehemiah 1:3 where we see the starting point for any great change. This is true of personal life change, or a business change or a change in a marriage.
Before any change can be made, before great restoration, advancement, mending of a relationship, a dream, a building, whatever, there must first be an awareness.
You cannot fix what you cannot see or are aware of. Nehemiah had no clue to the condition of the walls in Jerusalem till his brother told him.
IN ORDER TO REBUILD WE MUST BE . . .
AWARE
The words of Nehemiah son of Hakaliah: In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, 2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem. 3 They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.” Nehemiah 1:1-3 (NIV)
Nehemiah is enjoying life and going on with his nice accommodations, good food and little to no needs and he becomes AWARE of something that absolutely wrecks him. What can he do? Well, before he knew nothing. Now, he has to respond.
How about you, what have you been walking past and not even realizing that there’s a disrepair or a need right in front you? Some times things deteriorate right in front of us and we’re so used to seeing it we don’t even realize the state of relationships, attitudes and buildings around us.
My response - I will ask God to open my eyes to the great need
So, what can you do about it once you’re AWARE? I think the very best first step is to do what Nehemiah did, he PRAYED to the God of heaven and he first considered that he was the problem.
IN ORDER TO REBUILD WE MUST pray. . .
PRAYER
Then I said: “Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. 7 We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses. Nehemiah 1:5-7 (NIV)
Nehemiah considers the problem of broken walls and people in distress a spiritual problem not a construction issue and that he is the first cause.
Have you ever considered that the problem is not everyone else? That the marriage issues you’re facing stem from you? That the lack of enthusiasm at your place of employment flows from how you operate?
Nehemiah’s first response was not, “O God, all those other terrible Jews have really messed up and now it’s a big problem.” No, he immediately owns the problem and sees it as a communal accountability. He lumps himself in as the problem.
Your spouse is not all the problem, your co-workers are not all the problem, it’s not everyone else who has overlooked the needy in this community, it’s you and it’s me. The best response after we’re aware is to PRAY. And if you’re truly aware of the great need, to allow your heart to be broken for the needs around you.
Nehemiah was wrecked by what he heard about.
What do you see around you? Do you see the hurting in this community? Do you see the needy? Do you see signs of hopelessness?
My response - With a broken heart I will confess sins to God
CALL THE CHURCH TO PRAYER
BRYAN
IN ORDER TO REBUILD WE MUST . .
SHARE
Nehemiah 2:1–8 (NIV) 1In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before; 2 so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.” I was very much afraid, 3 but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” 4 The king said to me, “What is it you want?” Then I prayed to the God of heaven, 5 and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it.” 6 Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?” It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time. 7 I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? 8 And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests.
My response: I will boldly believe, look, and ask for every provision.
IN ORDER TO REBUILD WE MUST . .
Nehemiah 2:9-20 – Care (Inspect)
CARE
Nehemiah 2:9–12 (NIV) 9 So I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates and gave them the king’s letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me.
10 When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites. 11 I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days 12 I set out during the night with a few men. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on.
· As you can and will see, God shows something, someone acts in faith about accomplishing what God has shown and someone will oppose it. Nehemiah gets to work on God’s plan and he asses the situation. He cared enough to go at night, in and out of the destroyed gates so he could make a plan to rebuild.
13 By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Well and the Dung Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. 14 Then I moved on toward the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get through; 15 so I went up the valley by night, examining the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered through the Valley Gate.
· We pick up the account in verse 16…
Nehemiah 2:16–18 (NIV)16 The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work. 17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” 18 I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work.
· Nehemiah made sure he stayed ahead of the opposition by getting momentum and buy-in from those who cared about the condition of Jerusalem.
· For many years God has put it on our heart that Celebration Church be at the forefront of revitalizing and rebuilding our community while spreading the hope and love of Jesus Christ. Last year God put it on my heart to start the process again and over the last several months we have been inspecting and making a plan.
· When God’s people start moving into acting upon God’s plan the “but” comes into the picture.
Nehemiah 2:19–20 (NIV) 19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you rebelling against the king?” 20 I answered them by saying, “The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.”
· We should always respond to opposition in our lives and as a church like Nehemiah did. The only success we care about is loving Jesus and doing His will. Out of our care for Jesus and our desire to obey Him, we with resolve say what Nehemiah says, “The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.”
My response: I will care enough to overcome any opposition.
Next step: Praying beyond myself – ask God daily to open my eyes to what needs to be done.
