Build Back Godlier Again | Sunday, June 5, 2022

Hello, Cross Connection. Pastor Mark here. I'm the executive pastor at the church. This week, Pastor Miles is taking some well-deserved rest and relaxation, and he's asked me to pick up where he left off in Nehemiah chapter 2. Today, we're going to be in verses 11 through 20. If you have your Bibles out, you're ready to go.

Let's pray and invite the Lord to join us and teach us by His Holy Spirit. Dear Father, we thank You so much for the opportunity to go through this book, Lord—a story that has such impact on us today as we struggle with challenges in our own nation. Father, I ask that You would lead us and teach us. Help us to listen intently to what You would have to say to us. We ask for Your hand to be upon us and for You to teach our hearts. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

One thing you need to acknowledge is that this is a Jewish story. It is unique to the Jewish people, and many times it gets appropriated for other things, like building projects. However, this is a story of the cause and effect of the Jewish people's obedience to the covenant made in Deuteronomy. God is going to take a nation that is in peril and use a man, Nehemiah, to help restore the covenant of Deuteronomy.

This is a process. Nehemiah has this experience, and to the best of my knowledge, he had never visited Jerusalem. He had never been there. It wasn't like he was going to restore his hometown or that he had fond memories. It was simply him sitting at the feet of the Lord, praying, and God stirring his heart. He began asking questions about the temple and about Jerusalem, wondering how the people were faring. They were on his heart; it was a burden, and I believe it was put there by God.

He is answering this call and this burden, and he has this unique experience with God where he needs to fulfill this mission. If we're not careful, we can look at this story and see only the surface.

Restoring a wall, restoring buildings, restoring a way of life, and restoring a nation is more than just a physical endeavor. This is really the process of how a covenant is restored, not because God did not keep His end of the deal, but because God's people had not kept theirs. All the promises in Deuteronomy came true when they did not do the things they were supposed to do and went after foreign gods. We are going to witness part of the restoration of the covenant between God and Israel.

The overview of this story is that Nehemiah is a cupbearer in Babylon, working for King Artaxerxes. Some people might think that being a cupbearer is a bad job, considering the risk of being poisoned. However, if people know that the king has a cupbearer and he is well-known, they might be deterred from attempting to harm the king. After all, no one wants to face the consequences of killing the cupbearer and attempting to kill the king. So, depending on the reputation of the cupbearer, it could be a pretty good job. The living standards in the palace were decent, and being around powerful people often meant being viewed as an advisor and a friend.

Nehemiah is in this position, and we know from chapters one and two that when the time comes for him to give an answer, he is uniquely prepared. When he finally shares his concerns about the condition of Jerusalem, his conviction shines through. After four months of prayer, he speaks to the king at just the right moment, and the king agrees to his request. By a miracle, Nehemiah is sent out on a mission to research and restore Jerusalem.

This is actually the third attempt to make Jerusalem great again. Zerubbabel made the first attempt and restored part of it, and Ezra also made a run at this under the blessing of King Artaxerxes.

The temple is built, even though some people lament that it is not as great as it used to be. However, the temple is unprotected, so they really can't bring all the artifacts in and worship God properly. The temple gets ransacked; it has no defenses. As a result, the people living around there are discouraged and despondent. The work has been going on for approximately a hundred years, but there has not been as much progress as they think should have happened, and so they feel defeated.

There are people who are not doing well; they are discouraged. The broken walls and the rubble are symbols—physical symbols of what is going on spiritually. Nehemiah clearly repents for this, both for himself and for the people. He takes the falling away of the covenant in Deuteronomy upon himself and apologizes to God for it.

When we see the rebuilding of the relationship and the rebuilding of the temple, I believe the rubble and the walls, while very practical, are also largely symbolic of the hard work it sometimes takes to rebuild relationships—not on God's part, but on our part. We are looking at the restoration of a covenant. God stirs Nehemiah's heart and gives him the desire to fix both the physical and the spiritual state of his people.

Since this is not our story and our country and neighborhoods are not specifically mentioned in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, we cannot try to make the Jewish story our own. However, what can we take away from this story that is beneficial? Why are we reading this book? We are going to learn something from a story that is not ours.

What should the righteous person's reaction be? A person who loves and follows God—what should their reaction be to the state of affairs in our place, the place we live, our neighborhood, our state, our country, and the things we see in the media? What should our reaction be to our fallen world?

Let’s pull out our Bibles and start in chapter 2 of Nehemiah.

In verse 11, please read along with me. It says, "So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days. Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem, nor was there any animal with me except the one which I rode. Then I went out by night through the valley gate to the serpent well and the refuge gate and viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down and its gates which were burned with fire. Then I went on to the fountain gate and to the king's pool, but there was no room for the animal under me to pass. So I went up in the night by the valley and viewed the wall. Then I turned back and entered by the valley gate and so returned. The officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done. I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the others who did the work."

It must have been quite a scene and must have had a lot of people talking. On one hand, Nehemiah rolls in, and the lumber trucks are there. Obviously, there's equipment and people, and something is going on. There's supply, so he's up to something. But then he quietly surveys the situation. He goes out at night to avoid attracting attention. He only takes a very small band of people with him and one animal to minimize visibility. Possibly, it was some of the engineers he was going to be working with, or maybe there was part of his inner circle that knew the plan. I don't know how that worked, but we know that it was kept very small and very quiet.

It must have been quite a scene to visit these places he had heard of and perhaps never even seen. I believe he had never seen them before. For the first time, he witnesses the complete failure of the people, the rubble, and the destruction of a once-great city. As Nehemiah goes through this part of the city, he sees all this, and his heart must be humbled. The scene has to be completely sobering for him; it has to be emotional. Not only does he see a city in ruins, but as he is there for three days, I believe he is deeply affected by what he observes.

Probably with his character, he was talking to people, asking questions, or viewing the people. But I know he was praying because he was a man of prayer. It says that he prayed for over four months before he even started this whole story, before he addressed the king. He sees a downcast, defenseless people—people that could be robbed at any time. They were unprotected, and it has to break his heart because it calls him to action. The one word that I can think of is sobering. He is so sobered in his thought that he is considering the intentions of God and what God has for His people.

That’s not a bad place to be. Point one in your outline: We must assess and react to the state of our world with a sober mind. Throughout the Bible, especially the New Testament, we are cautioned and encouraged to have a sober mind. Titus 2:6 says, "Likewise exhort the young men to be sober-minded."

What should our reaction be to a broken world with broken people? Just so happens, I received an email today from the California Fish and Game. I am drawing my deer tags this year, and they congratulated me that it was going to be Father's Day and Pride Month. We were going to celebrate those two things. What a combination to have together—to get an email from the state.

It got me to thinking: when I hear of Pride Month, what does that stir up in me as a believer? As a man who wants to be righteous, what should that stir up in me? I think of Pastor Billy Graham's quote when asked about the condition of America. So many times, we are conditioned to think that everything in America is pretty good; it’s just a few crazy people that are causing all the trouble. He starts to name off all the sins of America, and this quote will never leave me: if God does not judge America, He owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.

A very powerful statement. Still to this day, even after his death, polls show that he is one of the most respected and admired men in recent history.

How do we be righteous and think righteously, but not fall into sin when it comes to sin? As we look around the landscape of what's going on in our news, we hear about things that, according to biblical standards, are an abomination. How do we react to that? How should we react to it? When we react, does it become us versus them, or is it a reaction that is full of empathy? Knowing that somewhere deep inside, these people who are doing things that are an abomination to the Lord are loved by God and desired to live a life that honors Him, to walk with Him, and one day go and be with Him, is part of the job of the church.

How do we react to that? Sober-mindedness. To explain that, many would think it means just not using drugs or alcohol, and those certainly fall into that characteristic. Sober-mindedness, if you look it up, literally means, in both the biblical definition and in Webster's, to not be under the influence of anything.

If I were to say that one of the convictions we have, myself included, with the modern church at times, is that we are under the influence, I have to say that in the last few years, it's been very disappointing to see that the drug of choice, so to speak, the alcohol of choice for us as the church, where we are not sober-minded, where we are drunken and not thinking straight, is in the area of politics.

It seems to be one of the things that is splitting and causing division in the church. It is ruining the church in many aspects, causing division, and taking away the peace and unity of the church. The sad thing is that many of us were looking to come up with a solution through politics to a spiritual, God-sized problem, and in doing that, we are actually dishonoring God.

Actually turning away from God, we are saying that this is the solution. It's sad because if we were to be sober-minded, if we were to think like God, and if we were to have perfect clarity when we address these problems and issues, we would take these political parties and figures into account.

If we were to look at them with a sober mind, I can be really honest with you: there is not a president in recent memory who meets the qualifications of being an elder at Cross Connection Church. Yet, I can look out on a Sunday and see literally dozens of people who meet those qualifications. The people we think are going to solve this problem by simply electing one person or another are not the solution to this God-sized problem in our country. If we look to them and think they are the answer, we have it wrong because those are not the men and women that God called to fix this issue.

This is a God-sized problem. Nehemiah is a sober-minded person. He is thinking of the task at hand with God's mission in mind. He is not posting on social media, stirring up arguments, or going down political rabbit trails. He is actually a man of action and a man of God. You can tell that there is a peace and calm to his spirit as he addresses some pretty intense situations.

He is not just bathed in God's word and in loving the Lord; he is marinated in it. It has seeped into his soul and is who he is. It is a challenge to watch as Christians become distracted, thinking we can solve something by sending out an inflammatory post or a text to people. That is really not what God is looking for, in my opinion. A person like Nehemiah, or a woman who is like Nehemiah, will get their hands dirty. They are people of action and not just words. They are doers of the word.

They are not just hearers. They are not repeaters. They are doers of the Word. They're going to put God's power to the problem, and we're going to talk about that problem.

Recently, I saw a video with Andy Stanley, and he was discussing the condition of the church in America. I thought it was rather interesting that he stated many people had turned to more political organizations instead of the church they were in and were happy with until now. The church wasn't political enough for them. It was sad. Andy Stanley made a very striking comment, and I think he assessed it well. He said everything on the far left and everything on the far right sells. It stirs people up, piques their interest, tickles their ears, and gets them excited. However, there are no solutions on the far left, and there are no solutions on the far right. The solutions are in the middle, and it's not that it's lukewarm or done halfway. It's that the solutions are made in the middle, where there is agreement. That's where God is. As those people on the right and those on the left move towards God, we move to a solution, but we're not there.

We are going to see how Nehemiah is that kind of man. He did not get distracted by opinions on the right or opinions on the left. Let's read Nehemiah 2:17-18.

Then I said to them, "You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach." I told them of the hand of my God, which had been good upon me, and also of the king's words that he had spoken to me. So they said, "Let us rise up and build." Then they set their hands to do this good work.

Point two in your outlines: The testimony of God's people should be God's good work, not one of reproach. Reproach is an interesting word. It basically means disappointment. You see, the very purpose of God having a covenant with a certain people, in this case, the Hebrew people, the Jews, was that they would be an example to all the nations. They would literally be known; when they talked about their God, they would say the people.

Of the other nations, some would refer to the God of the Hebrews or the God of the Jews, but it was the God of the Hebrews who was quite famous in the Old Testament. Even the pagans knew that there was a God of the Hebrews. In Deuteronomy 7, verses 6-8, God lays out what He expects of His people. He says, "For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the people on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people. For you were the least of all peoples, but because the Lord loves you and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out of the mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt."

The Hebrew people were to be an example of what happens when a group of people is obedient and walks in the ways of the covenant of God. They were to be a model. People were to look at them and see their success, their protection, and their conquests, recognizing how their God was always part of their victories. This was meant to serve as an example. Conversely, people also understood that in their failures, they would be unprotected and that God would turn His back on them. All the promises of the Deuteronomic covenant would also come true, including the negative ones, where they would be taken away, experience loss, and face captivity. All the nations around them were aware of this.

Now, Nehemiah is a good leader, a very good leader, and he does something very important here. He uses personal language, referring to "we" and "us," which makes it personal. He is not saying "they" and "them." He takes responsibility for the people's actions, even though he wasn't part of the original crowd that started to draw away and worship other gods and idols. By taking responsibility and blame, he forms a bond with the people as he speaks with them, demonstrating the implications of the covenant and their collective situation.

Reproach is not someone else's reproach. Nehemiah didn't blame it on anybody. He could have very well said, "Look at those stinking Babylonians; look what they did to us." He could have blamed it on the conquerors, but he plainly acknowledged that it was their reproach. Reproach literally means disappointment. They disappointed God, and so they fulfilled the negative parts of the Deuteronomic covenant.

He addresses them with their reproach, creating an immediate connection. He put himself in that same place of disappointment and discouragement, which allowed him to communicate effectively with them. As a result, they had an affinity for what he had to say.

To illustrate this, I’ll take a quote from one of my favorite movies. Maverick says, "We need two miracles," and that is what had to happen to make this story a victory, so to speak. Nehemiah needed two miracles. The first miracle was that the king had to send him on the journey. That was the beginning of the miracle. The king had to ask the question, send him away with a blessing, and give him the power and the tools to make this happen. The physical needs, so to speak, were met. The practical needs were met.

The second thing that had to happen was the people. The very people for whom God wanted that covenant restored had to want to build those walls. They had to desire to restore and get back into a right relationship with God. That had to be their heart's desire.

As a pastor, I know how hard that can be sometimes—to motivate people to enter into that relationship—because so much of it has to come from within. They need to look at their surroundings and their predicament while seeking God for answers. I also understand that part of this process involves having empathy for people and remembering what it was like to be in that position. This connection is crucial.

The second miracle, which I believe is the greatest miracle of all that I have ever seen in ministry, is when someone's heart changes and they give their life to the Lord. Many of us have experienced that miracle: a man's heart would change or a woman's heart would change.

People would change and take everything they value, everything that they feel is important, and lay it at the feet of the cross. They would begin to do things God's way and be sober-minded to change their lives. That is a miracle, and that miracle happens in these people. It takes them out of despair, despondency, and depression—whatever you want to call it. It pulls them out of a bad situation, a hundred years of a long, slow, spiritual root canal for the people. They start to get hope, they begin to have focus, and they want to restore the covenant.

Further on in the series, we'll delve a little deeper into this, but we are given a covenant, you and I. That covenant is the marriage covenant. It's one we are allowed to enter into, and it's a promise between, in my case, myself, my wife, and God. It's part of that covenant, and it's a pretty serious commitment. God takes it very seriously, and we should too. God always gives us natural things to demonstrate spiritual things.

As we continue to go through the book of Nehemiah, I think you're going to hear more about marriage because it has so many elements that relate to this. There is rubble in marriage, the breaking of covenants, forgiveness, and the hard work of restoring covenants. Keep these components in mind as we go through the book of Nehemiah.

Now we turn to Nehemiah chapter 2, verses 19 through 20. What happens when God's people start to turn? When things actually start to happen and there is physical evidence? We will see that. It says in verse 19, "But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us, and said, 'What is this thing that you're doing? Will you rebel against the king?'"

So I answered them and said, "The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore, we His servants will arise and build. But you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem." He told it like it was.

Point three on your outline is one of my favorite quotes, and I think about it many times over the years: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." One of my favorite bumper stickers reminds me of this truth. It says, "A green environment starts in your own front yard." There is a great deal of truth to that in the Christian life.

You see, we know that when the church, and in this case God's people, are defeated and not doing anything, nobody really cares or notices that much. People may take an occasional jab or make fun, but overall, it goes unnoticed. However, when God's people unite and begin to do good work, all of a sudden, the enemies of God surface. They start to disrespect and despise us, spread rumors, and claim that there are motivations in our hearts that simply aren't true.

The lesson for us is that there are different stages in a Christian's life, and the enemy is particularly involved in not wanting us to come to Christ. That is a battle. But after we have come to Christ, that battle is over, and I believe the enemy's tactics change. If we can be a sleepy Christian or a do-nothing Christian, we fall into a mindset that the enemy is quite comfortable with. He will take second best, and while he might not send you to hell, he can certainly make you ineffective and sleepy.

You can come to church two or three times a month, put an offering in the bucket as it goes by, attend a Bible study once a week, and read your Bible, yet still be an ineffective, sleepy Christian because you are not necessarily doing anything.

Anything outside of your own sphere can be overwhelming. There are so many things we can engage in to be doers of the Word and not just hearers. We can have a sense of sleepiness about us, and this is not a time in our country, in this time period, where we can afford to be sleepy Christians. We should not be able to live with ourselves if we are. We should have some conviction about what we're doing or not doing.

I believe we are in a time where God wants players. He wants people on the field; He is not looking for fans. As we consider this, remember that this is a personal call. A nation is not going to be saved or transformed by events or things like that. A nation will be transformed in the same way the gospel was given to others: one person at a time. It requires a personal conviction that people need Christ and are willing to follow Him. You and I are the players, the people on the field, who are going to do that, and we will do it one person at a time.

How do you do that? It seems like a pretty big call. It can be uncomfortable and may put us in a position where we might be despised, made fun of, or accused of things. I suggest that it starts very small and is actually quite natural. Your position today is that you are a mom at home, teaching your kids and pouring into them. You are doing a work right now. We do not need to sit in a pulpit or talk to a thousand people to be doing the work of the Lord.

It might be that you find one person to take under your wing. That could be the kid down the street who maybe doesn't have a dad and has never been fishing, hunting, taught how to ride a skateboard, build a kite, or fix a car. It could also be the girl down the street from a single-parent family who doesn't know how to cook, pick out clothes, or do all these things. Perhaps there is a lady who could get involved in that and help.

There's the person down the street, maybe someone you never got to talk to, or someone in your apartment complex who is considering an abortion because they're so afraid. It seems so inconvenient and expensive, as drastic as that. Perhaps you are the person willing to jump in financially and coach that individual, encouraging them not to do something they might later regret.

The opportunities to minister to people, to be sober-minded, to do the things that God wills for us, and to exhibit His heart are limitless. It just requires that we be out there and actively doing it. Now, I guarantee there's a strong possibility that you will be laughed at for that. You could be despised or accused of having the wrong motives, being a goody two-shoes, or a public servant. People can say things about you.

I encourage you to take this thought into captivity and really dwell on it, marinate on it. Nehemiah had a good answer for his accusers, and I think it would be wise to give the same answer he provided. He talks about the God of Heaven Himself. He says, "I answered them and said, the God of Heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore, we His servants will arise and build, but you have no heritage or right or memorial."

I think the modern-day version of that for you and me is when we are called to give a reason for the hope that lies within us. Our God in Heaven requires that of us, and we do it to bring people to Him.

I thank you so much. I pray that as you study this book, it becomes a treasure to you, a guide to you. I hope you are either convicted and encouraged to action or perhaps affirmed by this book this morning. I pray that you are living a blessed week. Go with God.

Until next week.