10000 BRICKS: Rise and Build
Nehemiah 2:9-20
#10000Bricks
INTRODUCTION… Ruined Floor (p)
Before Kelly and I moved to Indiana, we lived in a church parsonage for over a decade. If you do not know what a “church parsonage” is, it is a house that a church owns that ministers live in which is part of their pay. Most churches used to have a parsonage. It is not so popular anymore. The church I served in Florida wanted ministers to live close to the church so they owned houses in the area.
When our family moved into the parsonage in 2005, it had just been purchased. It also had just been renovated, which was nice. It felt like we were living in a new house sometimes. Pretty soon after moving in, we noticed that the wooden floor in our bedroom had some issues. It was warping in some areas, but we ignored it. We should not have. Eventually, the floor was taken up and the folks who renovated the house did not connect any of the drains in the kitchen to run out of the house so the dishwasher and sinks were draining into our bedroom under the floor. Fun times. Drain flies.
The whole floor had to be replaced and the plumbing in the kitchen re-installed correctly. I am not sure how it could have gone any differently, but I have always thought that I should have been more vocal about the issue with the floor. When we ignore a problem, it will either go away because it was no big deal or it will get worse because it needed fixing. That is probably true for most things in life.
TRANSITION / BACKGROUND ON NEHEMIAH
Today, we are continuing a series of sermons from the Book of Nehemiah all about some building efforts. In Nehemiah chapter 1, Nehemiah’s brother travels to him to tell him that Jerusalem is still broken down because the city has no walls or gates. He saw there was a problem that was not going away! It was only getting worser and worser. This wrecks Nehemiah emotionally, spiritually, and even digs into his identity as a Jewish person. He takes the opportunity given to him in the beginning of chapter 2 to make “the big ask” of King Artaxerxes of Persia. Nehemiah asked for time and the king’s money to go rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
I happen to think King Artaxerxes had every reason to say no: Jerusalem had a rebellious past, the project cost money, and Nehemiah was too valuable to lose. And yet he also had good reasons to say yes: stability, loyalty, and peace in a volatile region. Nehemiah prayed and God aligned the burdened servant with the Sovereign King of Kings by moving the heart of an earthly king. Nehemiah chose to do the risky, hard, and uncomfortable thing!
The reason we are looking at the Book of Nehemiah is because our church is beginning to think and pray about the funds needed for our proposed new sanctuary. This sermon series is part of that process. Right now, our leaders are praying about what they are able to sacrifice for the new building to lead the way. This process cannot be done overnight. The task of building a new sanctuary is not a small task and so there is much prayer, planning, and consideration going on right now.
What Nehemiah was proposing and what had been laid on his heart was also something that could be done overnight. He knew what he needed to do, but he had no idea what it would take, how long, and all of the practical needs. He just knew God had given him a holy burden to build the walls of Jerusalem. The first part of chapter 2 we saw Nehemiah make the big request of the king and was granted permission.
Today we will finish reading chapter 2.
Nehemiah arrives in Jerusalem with the king’s letters and an armed escort. This shows that he is officially authorized to build in Jerusalem. I think we also see that God’s good hand is indeed with Nehemiah which is his perspective all in chapter 2. As we will read in a moment, he arrives in Jerusalem and there are forces at work that want Jerusalem to remain in burned-out ruins. Make no mistake, sometimes when God moves and works it is upsetting. God often upsets the status quo.
Nehemiah does something surprising. He does not just start right away. I think I might have. He waits three days and then goes out on a stealth inspection tour to see what needs to be done. He needs to see for himself what the job requires. He has some preparation to do. Let me stop previewing it and let’s read from Nehemiah 2.
READ NEHEMIAH 2:9-20 (ESV)
“Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen. 10 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel. 11 So I went to Jerusalem and was there three days. 12 Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. And I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no animal with me but the one on which I rode. 13 I went out by night by the Valley Gate to the Dragon Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. 14 Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King's Pool, but there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass. 15 Then I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall, and I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. 16 And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, and I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work. 17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.” 18 And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work. 19 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” 20 Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we His servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem.”
The result of Nehemiah’s stealth inspection tour is that he realizes it is worse than he thought. He tells the people they are all in big trouble. He doesn’t blame anyone or sugarcoat anything but does communicate that God is making a way and that His good hand has been on him. God is in this work project and so God will bless the work of their hands. Nehemiah arrives on mission to Jerusalem and leads the way for the people of God to be in the will of God.
God opens the door, the leader inspects the ruins, the vision is shared, the people commit, and the opposition speaks up, but God’s work moves forward anyway. Nehemiah will find this to be a complicated job with obstacles. He goes out at night, sees the scope of the wall-job, and starts sharing the vision of what needs to happen for the walls of Jerusalem.
TRANSITION
This last part of chapter 2 has two key words: rise and build.
RISE
The word used in Nehemiah 2 that is “rise” and “arise” is a word that means: to stand up, to take a stand, to step into action, or to assume responsibility. Not to be silly, but the word is opposite of the idea of remaining seated, being passive, or being resigned to be comfortable.
The word is used often in the Bible in times when something significant is happening:
* God says “arise” to Joshua to take over for Moses as leader of Israel (Joshua 1:2)
* God commands Jonah several times to “arise” and go to Ninevah to preach repentance (Jonah 1, 3)
* Gideon hears the word right before a mighty victory with 300 men against the Midianites (Judges 6)
* Elijah wants to lay down and die, but God tells him to rise and eat (1 Kings 19)
* When the Prodigal Son comes to his senses in Luke 15 he says … “I will arise and go to my father”
* Jesus heals Jairus’ daughter in Mark 5 by commanding, “Little girl, I say to you, arise”
* Jesus tells the disciples to arise because the betrayer arrived with troops in Matthew 26
* And it is not the same, but the angels do say: “He is not here, for He has risen” in the Gospels
The word “rise” is an action word. The word “arise” is a command word. It is a word of transitions, obedience, courage, movement, new beginnings, and is often seen in the Bible in hinge moments. For Nehemiah and for the people of Jerusalem, they are living in a hinge moment.
TRANSITION
This last part of chapter 2 has two key words: rise and build.
BUILD
The word that is used in Nehemiah 2 that we translate “build” is a word that means: to build, to rebuild, to restore, to establish, and to make secure. I did a little digging on this word and it is often used of physical buildings, but it also always has a quality to it that means one is building something to last. What I mean is… it does not mean quick or cheap or haphazard.
The word is used a lot:
* Noah and Isaac both built altars to God to worship (Genesis 8, 26)
* The Israelites in slavery-built store cities for Pharaoh (Exodus 1)
* King Solomon builds the Temple for God (1 Kings 6, 8)
The word in the Bible is not just about construction or fashioning something, but it is about restoring, establishing, and securing what was broken or threatened in order to make it last. Nehemiah is there not just to slap together a small wall, but to build the walls around Jerusalem and rebuild the status of Jerusalem in the eyes and hearts of the people. He wants to build something that lasts.
TRANSITION
This last part of chapter 2 has two key words: rise and build. Neither of these words are complicated, but taken together, they are quite significant, I think. They were significant for Nehemiah in his time in Jerusalem and they are significant for us today. There is power in these words together.
Things that go together are often more powerful than they are separately:
Peanut Butter and Jelly
Mario and Luigi
Rock and Roll
Joker and Harley Quinn
RISE AND BUILD
“Rise” means “stand up, take action, and assume responsibility”
“Build” means “do the work of restoration so that it lasts”
Nehemiah has arrived in Jerusalem and the last portion of chapter 2 has him scouting out the needs and then communicating the needs to those who will help him build. The phrase “rise and build” and “arise and build” is the center part of this passage. Nehemiah has received the holy burden from the Lord and knows that he needs to “get up and do the work.” He casts the same vision for those around him.
This is not:
“Talk for days and days on end about building, but never build” which did happen in 2 Kings 12
“Complain, whine, and gossip about what should be done, but never build”
“Acknowledge the need and just let it be” (which happened with my floor in Florida)
We see the call to action in the Bible over and over. Being an Israelite is about reading God’s law, following God, and observing the Sabbath. In this instance, when Nehemiah arrived in town, being an Israelite was about restoring the walls and gates of Jerusalem to make the city safe and secure. As we will see in future chapters, being an Israelite after Nehemiah arrived in town meant building with a hammer in one hand and a sword in the other. Again, we see the call to action in the Bible over and over:
Noah, rise and build the ark
Abraham, rise and go to the land God will show you
Moses, rise and lead
Joshua, rise and cross over to the land and conquer
Elijah, rise and eat
Nehemiah, rise and build
Following God is not something that is passive. Being a Christian is not about sitting in a pew. Being a follower of Christ is not a spectator sport but is about following Jesus Christ with great intent.
APPLICATION
Last year our congregation spent time fasting and praying. The decision of the congregation at-large was that God was saying to us “rise and build.” The proposed sanctuary is in-line with the growth of the church, the trends of population in our area, and proportional to what the church built back in the 1970s.
We are to rise and build because Cincinnati Christian Church is outgrowing our current sanctuary. Buildings don’t grow ministries, people do, but buildings can limit or multiply ministry opportunities. When seating is tight, classrooms are full, or fellowship space is cramped, growth is constrained. A full building doesn’t mean the mission is finished… we are just getting started. God is sending more people than we can properly serve.
We are to rise and build because the church is called to prepare for the next generation. We do not build primarily for ourselves, but for: children not yet born, families not yet reached, and souls not yet baptized and discipled. Unlike Nehemiah, we are not repairing anything broken, but we are building what is needed for the future.
We are to rise and build because the worship space is a tool for the Gospel, not a monument to the past. A sanctuary is not about comfort or nostalgia. A sanctuary is a place for worship, a platform for preaching, a homebase for discipleship, and a launch point for our mission to help people find and follow Jesus. Every church is either helped by their space or limited by their space.
We are to rise and build because faith obeys before it sees the full result. Building anything always requires faith. Faith that people will come. Faith that God will provide. Faith that the work will matter long after we are all dead and gone. Like Nehemiah, the question may be: Are we willing to rise and build what we ourselves may not fully benefit from?
We are to rise and build because a church family that stops looking ahead often starts coasting. This isn’t about bricks… even though the building project is called… “10,000 Bricks.” It is about the vision of the church to reach the 6500 in Eastern Greene county who do not go to church and who do not know Jesus.
Churches that stop dreaming usually stop reaching.
Churches that stop reaching usually start shrinking.
Churches that shrink usually turn inward.
May we dream, reach, and look outward!
We are not proposing to build a new sanctuary because we are dissatisfied with the old one, but because God continues to send people the old one can no longer adequately serve. This is not about comfort, image, or ambition, but about mission, stewardship, and faith. We are building for the next generation, for future families, and for souls we have not yet met. We are making room for what we believe God still intends to do as we continue to help people find and follow Jesus.
TRANSITION
I want you to know that the command to “arise and build” is something we can do corporately but is also something you and I can do personally.
APPLICATION
Some words I said earlier for us corporately also apply personally.
We are to rise and build because a believer in Christ that stops looking to Christ often starts coasting. This isn’t about self, but about each of us growing up in our salvation. Don’t coast. Don’t just be a pew-sitter. Be active. Serve. Regularly stretch yourself.
A believer in Christ that stops looking to Christ usually stops reaching.
Believers that stop reaching usually have faith that starts shrinking.
Believers with shrinking faith usually is apathetic towards God.
May each of us look to Christ, reach, and take our relationship with God seriously!
CONCLUSION
After that floor in our Florida house was finally fixed, I remember standing in that bedroom. The new floor was solid because it was poured concrete. No sagging. No smell. No flies. No quiet fear that something underneath was rotting.
The problem with that floor didn’t start big. It started small. Quiet. Hidden. It only became expensive, disruptive, and urgent because we waited. And here’s the honest truth: Had we dealt with it earlier, it would have cost less, taken less time, and caused less damage.
Nehemiah does the most important thing a leader or a believer can ever do: he stops pretending starts praying and says, “Come. Let us rise and build.”
And here’s what I know about every person in this room: You have a wall somewhere:
For some of you, it’s a marriage wall.
For some, it’s a spiritual wall.
For some, it’s a habit, a calling, a relationship, a step of obedience you’ve been putting off.
You can feel the sag. You can see the cracks. You know something isn’t right.
Will you rise?
Will you stand up?
Will you stop coasting?
Will you stop postponing obedience?
Will you stop walking past what you already know needs to be addressed?
Because here’s the beautiful part: When they said, “Let us rise and build,” the Bible says, “They strengthened their hands for the good work.” God didn’t ask them to be strong first. He strengthened them after they said yes. And He still works that way.
So today, the question is simple:
What wall is God asking you to stop walking past?
What step is God asking you to stop postponing?
What work is God asking you to stop talking about and start doing?
Will you rise and build?
PRAYER
INVITATION
