"the God Of "how And When" Series

“The God of “HOW” and “WHEN”

Nehemiah 2

So let me begin with a story that goes back 25 years ago. My wife and I were feeling led to start a brand-new church. We were serving here , locally in a larger church where I was associate pastor. The church we were serving owned some property in a different part of town and they were hoping to start a new church on that very spot. Made sense. Actually, we thought, what an opportunity that might be for us. But along the way the lead pastor made the decision to give it away to another church. He was friends with a pastor whose son wanted to start a church there as well. So long story short, the property went to him. For free. Seven acres of property.

A couple of years later, we still felt led to start a new church, so we started the adventure. The first place that was offered to us was a funeral home on Ridge Road. My initial reaction was nope, not a good idea – we want to build something that speaks life into people. A funeral home just doesn’t do that. 24 hours later God completely changed my mind. That became the first of three buildings we would eventually meet in – all on Ridge Road.

Fast forward to 2000 and 21 and the pandemic was here. Things were difficult for everyone- financially and otherwise. We had continued all those 20 years to look for a place – we easily looked at 50 different places during that time before one reason or another God was not in them. In our previous building, our landlord had raised our rent, and he told me he would do it again and basically, we would just have to deal with it. So, I already had it in mind to move and I told him so – but he never believed we would. Because he didn’t think we had any choice but to stay there. In the midst of all of this God was at work in a powerful way. Now as I said last week,

Whenever everything is taken away from you,

God is not finished.

In fact, He is just getting started.

Seemingly out of nowhere the director of the Florida Baptist Convention called me and said, “David I know you’ve been looking for a long time for property to relocate and I have an idea. There’s a piece of property that is about 10 minutes away and it’s now for sale. I think you should consider it and if you decide to move, you should move on it fast.” So, we did. Six months later we moved into this property. Now here’s the part you may not know. The property that was given away over 20 years ago to another pastor – the one we really wanted – is the very place we are sitting on today.

Whenever everything is taken away from you, God is not finished.

In fact, He is just getting started.

20 years was a long time for us, but it wasn’t for God. What’s 20 years after all to him? I heard of a man who was taking it easy, just laying out in the grass, looking at the clouds and decided to talk to God. He says, “God, how long is a million years? He says well just like a minute. He says oh well how much is $1,000,000? God says to me it’s a penny. The man said, well can I have a penny? 😊 God says, sure in a minute. 😊It Is a mistake to put God on our timetable but don’t ever give up on your dream – because God is just getting started.

Nehemiah is beginning to see that. Jerusalem has been burned down –-- it has been in ruins for literally decades, but Nehemiah still has a vision; he still has a dream. Now those dreams can seem impossible at first. After all this property was given to someone else. I wasn’t thinking about this property as much anymore and if God is in it, that’s what really matters, right? Look at this.

From the beginning, just about every vision God gives us seems impossible.

Why? God’s ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. And when we don’t feel capable, He is capable. Here’s some Good news. When you have this vision, it sort of fills you up and you just must share it and when you do there can be some interesting responses. You share the dream, and they sort of look at you like, “well that’s an interesting idea.” Shaking their head no. Means that’s never happening. So perhaps that’s why Nehemiah kept his mouth shut for so long. Nehemiah was a slave. He worked for the king. The temple had been torn down; the city had been destroyed – this had all happened for a reason. Because they didn’t pose a threat to anyone, now. Add to the fact the walls have been down for about 150 years. So, it seems impossible.