The walls of the city of Jerusalem lay in ruins for more than a century. A city wall in ruins was a bad thing in those days. Not only did it leave the city open to attack, but it also prompted ridicule from neighboring powers.
With Jerusalem, the un-repaired wall also gave foreigners a reason to scorn God whose holy city it was.
Nehemiah literally wept, mourned, fasted and prayed when he heard the news of the walls condition. There needed to be a time of restoration.
I believe with all my heart that God has a plan of restoration for our city. A city that is proud to call its self the city of churches has very little spiritual influence any more.
It seems churches are looking to the politicians to solve the woes of our city.
You hear me tonight, it’s not another politician we need, its not more laws that need to be passed. We need God to restore His church in our city once again.
I believe that God has a plan for New Joshua Full Gospel Church. It’s been an exciting first year, but it’s important that you understand that God has more for you than what you’re experiencing right now. You’re not at a stopping place, you’re just beginning your journey into the Miraculous, and you’re just beginning your journey into being the repairers of the breach.
Not only does God have more for our church, but I also believe that God has more for each of you. More blessings, more victories, more joy, more peace, more faith, more hope, depth in your experience with Christ.
If you’re relationship with God isn’t deeper today than it was a year ago, than there’s something you’re not doing. Because it’s God’s will for you to grow stronger, and for your experience to deepen with Him.
If God’s people not are growing spiritually, then neither will the church they attend.
How many knows tonight that God wants to expand the influence of your church in this community?
How many knows tonight that if we’re not affecting the community that we’re in then we’re terribly missing Gods will for our church?
God wants to use us to help birth people into the kingdom of God. God wants to use us to help bring healing and deliverance to our city.
God is giving us an awesome chance, an awesome opportunity to make a difference where we live, where we Worship and where we work.
God literally wants to partner with you to see this church become the Church that He desires for it to be.
1 Corinthians 3:9 “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.” NKJV
Let’s see the example in Nehemiah that God gave us if we want to see the work of God restored to what God desires it to be.
First, we must have a mind to work
Nehemiah 4:6 “So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.”
Let me share with you a plain and simple fact, if we don’t care it isn’t going to happen here. If we don’t pursue with all our heart the invitation that God’s given us as a church, God will either take His plan somewhere else or raise another group up that will be willing to carry out His will.
I’ve never seen an aquarium fill up with fish, by them jumping into it.
When I was little, we had an aquarium and I bought an African frog, and it wanted to jump out.
Wheat in a field doesn’t just come running to the barn, but someone must go out and bring it in.
We’re right in the middle of a spiritual harvest field, we can do one of two things, we can watch the harvest pass us by, or we can become harvesters for the Glory of God.
We must be willing to throw away that which is not needed
Then Judah said, “The strength of the laborers is failing, and there is so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall.”
There are times that we as individuals and churches have to get rid of those things that clutter our lives, so we can rebuild.
If you don’t remove the rubbish, you can’t take the next step. There are things in all of us that we need to turn over to the Lord, areas in our life that keep us from being effective for Him.
The more we refuse to deal with the junk, the more it accumulates in our lives, when we go to deal with it, it’s almost overwhelming because of the amount of rubbish in our life.
The same goes for churches too. They don’t want to change because we’ve always done it another way, or we’ve never done it that way before.
The simple fact is, if after a long period of time, if a church isn’t growing then we must be willing to try something else because if we always do what we’ve always done, we’ll always get what we’ve always got.
Sometimes we must get rid of the junk before we can be restored.
One of the biggest pieces of rubble that we need to get rid of is our resistance to change.
Resistance to change will always keep you down. I’m not talking about changing just for changing sake. I’m talking about doing what it takes to allow us to become the Church that God intended us to be.
There’s no room for sacred cows in the church, if you want sacred cows, become a Hindu.
Some churches want to be like Jesus, they’re the same yesterday, today and forevermore.
But the truth is if we want to effectively reach our community, it’s going to require us to look at some of the things we’re doing, and be willing to change them or improve on them.
People outside the church are looking for a church that’s relevant to their needs and we must realize that sometimes it’s going to require our methods to change, but the message of the Gospel never changes.
So we must be willing to remove the hindrances to our restoration.
Next, someone had to invest in the materials in order to rebuild the walls
We must be willing to give what ever it takes to help reach the harvest.
People give to God like they’re throwing money away, and never going to see it again.
There’s no greater investment that anyone could make outside of investing in the Work of God. But I’ve found that a lot of Christians don’t understand giving. I’m going to take the month of May and share with you a series of messages on “Take God at His Word.”
The truth is a lot of Believers haven’t made up their mind that God’s word really does work.
When I hear people talk about “I wondered if God hadn’t forgotten about us and put us away in some back corner.”
Those kinds of statements let me know you’re not real sure if the Word is real or not, and that’s why people have trouble when they give to God.
We’ve heard all the scriptures, and we’ve heard testimonies how God’s blessed others, but in the back of our minds we wonder will God’s word really work for me?
If you can’t take God’s word concerning giving, we can’t take God’s word concerning salvation. I know giving is a sensitive subject for some, and some really get upset when you preach about it, mainly those who don’t give.
But I’m here tonight to share with you, if we’re going to be the church God wants us to be, we’ve got to be willing to invest in reaching the harvest.
Don’t listen to the voice of discouragement
Listen to what the scriptures said… And our adversaries said, “They will neither know nor see anything, till we come into their midst and kill them and cause the work to cease.”
There will always be voices that will try to discourage the work you’re trying to do.
We must fulfill our place in the Body of Christ
Nehemiah 4:17 “Those who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon.” New King James Version
This is an important key, every one of us has a place in the body of Christ, and in order for us to rebuild we must fulfill our roll in the body of Christ.
You need to find your calling and fulfill it. We need workers in every area of our church, but if no one is willing to work, then change will never happen.
It’s going to take some fighting to be restored
Nehemiah 4:17 “Those who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon.” NKJV
One of the keys to receiving our breakthrough in the church, we’ve got to get on the same page in our praying.
I told my church Sunday night that there’s a hostage situation going on in Fort Wayne. Satan is holding people in this neighborhood hostage, and God wants to use you to set them free.
We need to bombard heaven, and attack hell with a mighty force of prayer. There’s something that happens when we move as a mighty army in prayer when were’ focused in prayer. The prayer of agreement is a mighty force.
Matthew 18:18-20 “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.19 “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.20 “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” NKJV
Here’s what we need to understand, we’ve got to be willing to fight.
I know there are all kinds of teachings out there about spiritual warfare and not all of them are solid, but here are some givens that Dutch Sheets shares in his book “Intercessory Prayer”
“We are in a very real war; we are soldiers in this war;
We are to wrestle against all levels of the kingdom of darkness; We are to resist the devil; We are to tread on Satan and his demons; We are to cast out demons; We have the authority to bind (forbid) or loose (permit) when dealing with the agents and gates of hell; We have powerful weapons designed to overcome the kingdom of darkness”
The enemy will always try to stop God from restoring, and bringing things to life. I guarantee you Satan is trying to do everything he can to hold this Church back.
But tonight it’s time we offer ourselves up as a church that’s willing to do whatever God desires, to bring restoration to our city.
