March 23, 2025 • 43 mins
Join Pastor Tyler Lynde in The Passion Project series as he unpacks “Starting Over” from Nehemiah chapters 6 and 7—a moment where ancient wall-building meets profound heart-restoration. While Jerusalem’s walls were completed in a miraculous 52 days, Tyler shows that this physical accomplishment was merely the gateway to a more significant spiritual renewal. Enemies like Tobiah and Sanballat couldn’t stop the work, but the real test came in maintaining faithfulness after the wall’s completion.
Tyler outlines four key practices for those longing to rebuild what’s broken in their own lives. First, he highlights the importance of being watchful, paralleling Nehemiah’s appointment of guards at the city gates. Vigilance is crucial when temptations, doubts, or discouragement threaten to undo our progress. Second, being worshipful redirects us from our obstacles to the greatness of God. As Psalm 126 reminds us, joy fills our mouths and hearts when we recognize how the Lord has worked on our behalf.
The third practice is accountability. Nehemiah entrusts Jerusalem’s oversight to godly individuals, underscoring how spiritual mentors and healthy leadership keep us anchored. In a culture that often underestimates church roles, Tyler reminds us that biblical authority can guide us toward lasting transformation. Finally, being counted involves a personal decision to align with God. Tyler cites the genealogical record Nehemiah compiles and connects it to Revelation 20: the ultimate “roll call” is about having our names written in God’s book of life. We can’t rely on external successes alone; genuine renewal demands a heart fully surrendered to Christ.
Throughout his message, Tyler acknowledges the inevitability of opposition. Whether it’s the negativity of others, internal fears, or the relentless nature of life’s challenges, starting over isn’t a smooth road. Yet Tyler points to God’s unshakable faithfulness, a theme that runs from Nehemiah’s day straight into our own. Every believer can tap into the same grace that empowered Nehemiah’s team to overcome obstacles and build something enduring.
If you’ve been feeling like your faith is on shaky ground, or if you’re wondering whether it’s too late for a fresh start, Tyler’s insights from Nehemiah offer hope. Starting over is possible because God’s heart is always for renewal. With watchfulness, worship, accountable leadership, and a personal connection to Christ, you can discover that your broken walls aren’t the end of the story—they’re just the beginning of a redemptive journey with God.
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Episode Transcript
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Tyler Lynde (00:04):
They were continuing our sermon series on
the book of Nehemiah, called thePassion Project, and, as you
know, the Jews had been incaptivity for a long time over
160 years in total with severaldifferent waves of opportunity
for them to come back to thehomeland, to their motherland,
to Israel, and some of them hadreturned to Jerusalem.
(00:25):
The temple had been rebuilt,but the walls surrounding
Jerusalem were still in disarrayand the gates themselves were
destroyed completely.
We've seen how Nehemiah, afterreceiving word of the condition
of things in Jerusalem, wasdistraught, began to cry out to
the Lord and ask for help, andGod intervened and gave him a
plan, and also King Artaxerxes,the Persian king, gave him
(00:50):
permission to go back and evenfunded the project of rebuilding
the wall.
And we've seen Nehemiah do allof these great things with the
people of God.
By the way, the greatestresource in the kingdom of God,
besides Jesus himself, are thepeople of God, and that's what
we have seen over these lastweeks, as God has chosen to use
the people of God to rebuild thewalls of Jerusalem.
(01:13):
And you know, scott did a greatjob last week of talking about
different temptations and waysthat we can confront those
things, and he also read theverse that said that the wall
was completed.
And he also read the verse thatsaid that the wall was
completed.
So the book of Nehemiah is aboutrebuilding the wall.
So we should be done right.
Seems like that would beaccurate.
So what was the point?
(01:34):
There's seven more chapters.
There's seven more chapters togo.
The wall's built.
So why are we still talkingabout this?
See, god wasn't just interestedin rebuilding walls, he was
interested in rebuilding people.
He was most interested inrebuilding the people of God.
(01:55):
So the title of today's messageis starting over, starting over
.
I'm going to start this messagewith a few verses from the end
of chapter 6, and then go into afew verses from the beginning
of chapter 7.
So let's start in 6.15.
So the wall was finished on the25th day of the month Elul,
(02:15):
which probably was sometime inOctober, in 52 days.
And when all our enemies heardof it, all the nations around us
were afraid and fell greatly intheir own esteem, for they
perceived that this work hadbeen accomplished with the help
of our God.
Moreover, in those days, thenobles of Judah sent many
(02:37):
letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah'sletters came to them, for many
in Judah were bound by oath tohim because he was the
son-in-law of Shekiniah, the sonof Arah, and his son,
jehoahanan, had taken thedaughter of Meshulam, the son of
Barakiah, as his wife Don'tjudge.
(02:57):
Also, they spoke of his gooddeeds in my presence and
reported my words to him, andTobiah sent letters to make me
afraid.
Now, when the wall had beenbuilt and I had set up the doors
and the gatekeepers, thesingers and the Levites had been
appointed, I gave my brotherHananiah, and Hananiah, the
(03:18):
governor of the castle, chargeover Jerusalem, for he was a
more faithful and God-fearingman than many.
And I said to them let not thegates of Jerusalem be opened
until the sun is hot, and whilethey're still standing guard,
let them shut and bar the doors,appoint guards from among the
(03:38):
inhabitants of Jerusalem, someat their guard posts and some in
front of their own homes.
The city was wide and large, butthe people within it were few
and no houses had been rebuilt.
Then my God put it into myheart to assemble the nobles and
the officials and the people tobe enrolled by genealogy, and I
(03:59):
found the book of the genealogyof those who came up at the
first and I found written in it,and from that point, we have
about 70 verses of names, so I'mgoing to encourage you to read
through the rest of thatwhenever you have the time to do
.
The names are important becausethe names represent people,
(04:20):
right, and the people, againvery important in God's
perspective especially.
So let's pray, father, we thankyou for this time together.
We thank you for your sweetspirit that has already
infiltrated this place.
We thank you, lord, that welook at you and we can call you
by your many different names.
Just as Mark was praying, lord,we ask that you would open our
(04:43):
eyes, that we could see you asthe one who gives us the ability
to start over.
You are the God of newbeginnings, you are the God of a
fresh start, and so, lord, wepray for faith to rise on the
inside of each of us for thatvery thing today, and that we
would see the areas in our lifewhere we need to start over.
(05:04):
And we thank you for it and weask you for these things in the
mighty name of Jesus.
Amen.
I don't remember my life withoutJesus.
I came to know Jesus at a veryyoung age and I am so grateful
that all of these years 52 yearsI was saved when I was about
five, so about 47 years I haveknown Jesus as my Savior and
(05:29):
Lord and I am so grateful forthat.
When I graduated high school, Igot involved in a relationship
that was not right.
She was not a believer in JesusChrist.
Friends, and young peopleespecially, I want to tell you,
missionary dating is not a goodthing.
It does not work out the waythat we intend for it to work
(05:51):
out.
I thought that if she wasaround me enough and around my
family enough, that she wouldcome to know Jesus as I know
Jesus and that she would lovehim as I love him.
But that did not occur.
Instead, what began to happenwas a steady progression of me
walking further and further awayfrom God, until two years later
(06:12):
, I found myself feeling like Iwas on an island, all by myself.
Nobody really knew fully whatit was that I was experiencing
on the inside how dead I felt,how worthless I felt, how
extremely just, destitute anddesperate I was.
(06:37):
We had moved to Cleveland,tennessee, by that time, and
there was a Christian dramacompany called New Life Drama
Company, and some of the leadersfrom that ministry reached out
to me and asked if I wanted totravel with them for the summer,
and so I, trying to be ashonest as I could, expressed to
them my scenario and where Ifound myself in my relationship
with the Lord, and, instead ofshowing me the exit door, they
(07:00):
said to me is it possible thatGod might actually use this time
in your life to bring you to apoint where you could have a new
beginning, a fresh start, whereyou could start over.
So that summer became 18 monthsand within that 18 months, I
can honestly say that God did arenovation project, a
(07:25):
restoration project in my heartand in my life that has never
been equaled before that andsince then and I am so grateful
that God is a God of newbeginnings, the end of that
story God introduced me to ayoung lady named Amy French and
(07:48):
by his grace yeah, whoo, that'sright by his grace her dad said
yes.
When I asked if I could marryher it's a whole other story, we
don't have time to go into thatbut he said yes and she said
yes, and 32 years later, nextmonth, we have seen the
faithfulness of God in our lives, in our family's life, in the
(08:11):
ministry that he's called us to,and it all began with me with a
time in my life when God wasfaithful enough to give me a
second chance.
How many of you could say thatpart of your story includes
something very similar?
God is the God of a second andthird and fourth chance.
(08:34):
And this morning I believe thatGod is going to speak
prophetically to some of you,that this is your day, that
today is the day of newbeginnings, that this is your
day, that today is the day ofnew beginnings, that today is a
day that God is calling you tobegin again, to start over.
And that's exactly what'shappening here.
(08:55):
Very similarly, god is usingNehemiah to give the people of
God a chance for a redo.
It's easy to look at theirsituation and to call them
victims.
They've been oppressed, they'vebeen held in captivity.
But how many of you know, aswe're reading through the Old
Testament, what do we discoverabout the nation of Israel?
(09:15):
They're kind of like us.
They have very high moments andhigh points where they're
following after God andlistening to his voice and
serving him.
And then those high moments arefollowed by what?
Deep, deep low points wherethey move away from God and they
(09:35):
follow after idols and theyturn away from the very God that
is with them and has providedfor them every single thing that
they have need of.
And so what does God do?
In his goodness, he doesn'twipe them off the face of the
earth.
Instead, he causes nations torise up that would take them
captive so that he could performdiscipline in their lives, not
(10:00):
to ruin them, not to destroythem, but to bring them to a
point where he could bring asecond act, a third act, a new
beginning, a starting over intheir lives and in their nation.
His plan was to restore muchmore than buildings or walls.
His heart was for the people tostart over.
(10:23):
You see, starting over beginsand ends with the faithfulness
of God.
It begins and ends with thefaithfulness of God.
In our passage this morning,it's so interesting to me how
the nations around the nation ofIsrael recognized that there's
no possible way that they couldhave done the work that they did
(10:44):
and finished it in 52 days onthis wall and rebuilding the
gates, unless what God was withthem.
It says that the nations wereeven filled with fear and pulled
back because they saw the handof God at work within the nation
of Israel.
Isn't it amazing how sometimesit's harder for us to see the
(11:06):
hand of God moving in our livesthan it is for other people
around us.
Isn't it amazing, sometimes inyour workplace, when somebody
will come to you and they'll sayto you how is it that you have
so much peace when you're goingthrough such difficult
circumstances?
How is it that you can befilled with joy when there's not
a reason to be joyful?
My friends, sometimes thosearound us, those who don't even
(11:31):
know Christ, see evidence orfruit in our lives when we don't
see it in ourselves.
The hand of God was working inthe nation of Israel.
The nation saw it.
It was impossible.
I mean, finishing the wallitself was difficult enough To
finish it in 52 days impossible,impossible.
(11:54):
And we read the list of thepeople that worked on the wall.
There weren't that many Twomiles of wall and all of the
gates.
We read I think there were 12gates that were rebuilt.
This was a project like noneother.
This was amazing.
Make no mistake about it.
The God of Israel is mighty andhe is faithful.
(12:16):
He is faithful.
His faithfulness was on displayin creation.
His faithfulness was on displayafter the fall, when the first
thing that he did was hepromised that there would be a
seed of a woman that would come,the enemy would attempt to
crush or to bite at his heel,but that the seed would crush
(12:37):
the head of the enemy.
The faithfulness of God, evenat the point of man's fall in
the garden.
How about calling Abram to bethe father of many nations?
The faithfulness of God in theExodus from Egypt.
The pillar of fire by night andthe cloud by day.
How about manna from heaven,the giving of the law through
(12:58):
Moses, the words of the prophets, the tabernacle and the temple,
the promised land that wasentered into by Joshua we just
read about that in our Biblereading plan and now the
rebuilding of a wall.
How faithful is our God?
Is there anything that's toodifficult for him?
(13:19):
Well, most things are not toodifficult for him.
But you don't understand thecondition of my life, the
condition of my soul, thecondition, the things that I've
done, the sins that I'vecommitted.
I'm too far gone.
(13:39):
Come on, cindy said never.
Cindy said never.
Cindy said never.
Amen.
As long as you are living andbreathing in this life, how many
of you know, we have anopportunity for the faithfulness
of god to be displayed in usand through us.
Psalm 36, 5 says your steadfastlove, oh O Lord, extends to the
(14:04):
heavens, your faithfulness tothe clouds.
It fills the atmosphere.
The faithfulness of God fillsthe very atmosphere.
The air that we breathe is aresult of the faithfulness of
God.
Is there anything too difficultfor him?
Whatever area of your life andin my life that we need to start
(14:28):
over, god is faithful and weneed to put our faith in a
faithful God that is giving us achance to start over.
He's doing that this morningand I believe that faith is
rising on the inside of each andevery one of us as we talk
about these things this morning.
Now, how many of you know thatjust as faithful as God is that
(14:51):
there is always resistance tostarting over?
Let's not fool ourselves.
Let's not pretend like it's allroses and butterflies.
Anytime that we begin to movetoward God and we begin to
respond to the grace of God,there's an enemy of our soul
that attempts to knock us out atthe knees, to do anything that
(15:12):
he possibly can to distract us,to pull us away, to create other
pathways, to show us what wouldlook like greener pastures in
other directions.
We must be aware of thesethings.
One of the reasons that Israelwas judged by God was because
they didn't obey his commands toeliminate the inhabitants of
(15:33):
the promised land.
We just read about this inJoshua.
When the Gibeonites and oneexample is when they showed up
like they had traveled from along distance, and you know,
they begged for the to be shownmercy and to be given a place,
and so they gave that to them,and then they realized they're
just from down the block,they're just from down the
street.
Wait a minute, didn't I see youin Walmart?
(15:55):
I think I know you.
So the children of Israel, asgreat as Joshua, did as a leader
, and he did some great exploits.
God used him tremendously, butthey didn't fully obey God and
it wasn't just about eliminatingnations for the sake of killing
people.
How many of you know?
God was interested inpreservation.
(16:15):
He was interested in preservingthe line of Jesus Christ, the
lineage of Jesus as we read theOld Testament.
Jesus Christ, the lineage ofJesus, as we read the Old
Testament.
Don't lose sight of the string.
There's a pathway.
There's a reason why all ofthese people are being talked
about over and over again.
It's not just because of whothey were.
It's because of who would comefrom them Jesus, the savior of
(16:40):
the world.
So one of the reasons, again,that Israel was judged by God
was because they didn't obey hiscommands.
They didn't eliminate theinhabitants of the promised land
and they also intermarried withthem.
They intermarried with thenations and with people from the
different nations.
Why did God not want them to dothat?
Why was he concerned about that?
(17:01):
Why did he give specificcommandments about that?
Because God understood thepropensity of fallen humanity to
stray away from God and hisways.
We, if we're not careful on theinside of us, we are idle
factories.
We love to worship other gods,we love to bow down, and we may
(17:25):
not literally bow down, but welove to find places that we can
grab a hold of, that seem likethey're more close or more
relevant or more important to usat times than God himself.
And God knew that the people ofGod would, if they were given
the opportunity, stray away andfall into idolatry.
(17:47):
Many times Israelites did this.
They fell into idolatrous waysbased on being wrongly aligned
with pagan cultures and in thisstory, the nobles of Judah Judah
, the very line that Jesus wasgoing to come from had an
unhealthy alliance with a mannamed Tobiah, because he was
related by marriage to them.
They made an oath with him thatthey were holding up and above
(18:11):
the oath that they had made withGod himself.
And how did they handle this?
Even while some of them werelisted among those who worked on
the wall, they would say toNehemiah oh, tobiah is great.
We really love Tobiah.
He's amazing man.
He threw a party at his houselast night.
You should have been there.
Nehemiah's like.
I didn't get an invite.
(18:32):
I don't think Tobiah likes me.
And then they would run back toTobiah and they'd say you
should have seen what Nehemiahdid today.
It was amazing.
It's incredible the work that'sgetting done on the wall.
He's just, he's so, he's sogreat.
And Tobiah's like oh, really,he's great.
(18:53):
I think I need to write aletter.
And so, while all of this wasgoing on, unaware, as unaware as
the nobles of Judah were,tobiah was writing letters,
death threats to Nehemiah.
Because Tobiah was about Tobiah,nehemiah was about the people
(19:14):
of God.
We have to be careful with howwe are aligned.
They will talk with him again.
Like I said, all of this thatwas going on, the influence and
this was an attempt to plaguethe progress of the people of
God, to stop them in theirtracks Again, to stop them with
(19:36):
the wall being completed, andthen they say, okay, project
done, go back to normal, livelike you were living before.
God wasn't interested in themliving like they did before.
He had better things in storefor them.
So, having that as a kind ofthe backdrop, let's look at four
(19:57):
ways that we can help in theprocess of starting over.
So number one starting overlooks like being watchful.
Being watchful Four generationsof people.
Think about that.
160 years, four generation ofpeople had grown accustomed to
living outside the bounds ofGod's ultimate design.
(20:19):
They had grown used to it.
They had grown accustomed to it.
They were living outside ofJerusalem.
They were living with brokendown walls.
They had become accustomed toit.
It was normal to them.
Nehemiah's task was to setthings in place that would
retrain the people of God tolive as the people of God.
(20:40):
How many of us need to bereminded of what it means to be
the people of God?
We are his chosen people.
He has given us such an amazinggift in filling us with the
Holy Spirit, and he has given usthe ability to choose, to live
differently than the rest of theworld and, in so doing, to have
(21:05):
the nations be able toacknowledge there is a God.
Nehemiah's task was to setthings in place, and he did that
.
One of the ways that he didthat was by giving each of them
tasks related to the protectionof the city.
So there would be gatekeepersthat would stand at each of the
gates.
The gates were only to beopened when the sun was hot.
(21:28):
What time is that?
Maybe noon, something like that.
It was to be open when they hadclear sight lines, when there
was no doubt that anybody couldsneak in or anybody could pose a
threat.
We want to be able to clearlysee everything that's going on,
and when you can see that, thegatekeepers need to position
(21:50):
themselves in front of the gates, and then only can they open
the gates.
And then the gates needed to beclosed and locked before the
sun set on the horizon.
And so you had those people,the gatekeepers.
And then he also designatedpeople that would be on the wall
, who would be all around thecity and they would be watching,
(22:11):
not to keep people out,necessarily.
They would be watching so thatthey could be a warning system
to all of the people who wereinside of the walls of Jerusalem
Danger, danger, watch out, payattention, be vigilant, be
watchful, be ready.
And not only that, there's athird layer.
Everyone was supposed to takepost in front of their own home,
(22:35):
beyond the gatekeepers andbeyond those who were on the
wall.
You also were supposed to bevigilant and be watchful over
your own house.
Boy, could we take this in alot of directions.
I don't have the time to do itall, but you can see it.
You can see it if you considerit and think about it.
This may seem like overkill.
(22:57):
Why did they need so much?
There's barely anything withinthe walls of Jerusalem.
Why did they need so much?
Why so much care?
Nehemiah understood thatstarting over required radical
vigilance in order to maintainthe ground that had been retaken
.
They had to be radicallyvigilant, they had to retrain
(23:19):
themselves.
They had to learn again what itmeant to live like the people
of God, again what it meant tolive like the people of God.
You and I also face enemiesfrom within and from without.
We wrestle against the flesh,which is our own desire, that
(23:40):
oftentimes finds itself againstthe desire of God, against the
purpose of God.
Also, we have the world and theculture of this world, that
continues to scream at us thatwe should do anything that's in
opposition to who Jesus is, whathe says.
And then also we have the devilhimself.
We are called, as the people ofGod, to radical watchfulness.
(24:04):
If you want to start over, payattention.
1 Peter 5 says it this way Besober-minded, be watchful.
Your adversary, the devil,prowls around like a roaring
lion seeking someone to devour.
Resist him, firm in your faith.
(24:24):
Some of you need to hear thatthis morning.
Stand up and resist the enemy.
He has no authority over you.
Jesus Christ, if he is yourLord and Savior, is Lord of all,
including Satan.
He is Lord of all.
Satan has no power over JesusChrist.
(24:47):
We are to stand firm and we areto resist him, firm in your
faith, knowing that the samekinds of sufferings are being
experienced by your brotherhoodthroughout the world.
And after you have suffered alittle while, the God of all
grace come on, who has calledyou to his eternal glory in
Christ, will himself restore,confirm, strengthen and
(25:12):
establish you.
Who was ultimately responsiblefor their protection?
The God of Abraham, isaac andJacob?
But God was looking to partnerwith them in this relationship,
and so he asks them to do somethings in that vein and it's the
same with us.
My friends, do not give up yourfight of faith.
(25:35):
Your victory is on the horizon,your victory is on its way.
So if we want to start over,first of all we must be watchful
.
Secondly, starting over lookslike being worshipful.
Being worshipful After ensuringthe security of the city of
Jerusalem, nehemiah then doessomething radical he places
(25:59):
worshipers and Levites aroundthe city.
Worshipers and Levites aroundthe city.
Worshipers and Levites aroundthe city.
Why is he doing that?
Because he understands that theheart of the people needs to
reconnect with the heart of God,and one of the greatest ways
for that to happen is for themto continuously be hearing the
song of the Lord being raised up.
(26:21):
How many of you get slimed ifyou walk into a store and you
hear a song on the, whateverit's not a radio?
How many of you get slimed Ifyou walk into a store and you
hear a song on the, on thewhatever the it's not a radio,
but whatever on the intercom?
You hear a song, and then youyou walk out of the store and
you find yourself singing thatsong.
Anybody, some of you are soholy that even if you heard
Elvis singing a song somewhere.
(26:42):
That's just for a few among ushere.
But if you heard whatever DollyParton, whatever it was, if you
heard Rocky Top right, marksaid that earlier and some of
you in your head were bump, bump, bump, it hits you.
You were overtaken.
There's something powerful aboutsinging songs and listening to
(27:05):
songs.
Music moves us in ways that ispowerful.
My friends, don't lose theworship in your lives.
Don't shut it down, don't turnit off.
If all you're listening to ishow your truck's broken down and
your dog ran away, no wonderyou're so depressed.
(27:33):
Let's listen to some, as mygranddaughter says, cc whiny
inans.
Let's listen to some good oldgospel music, some worship music
.
And that's what Nehemiah did.
He set up worshipers andservants of the house of God
around the city of Jerusalem,within the walls.
Man, it's so amazing to me themasterful strategy of all of
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this.
See, the antidote to thecounterfeit, the hearts of men
being drawn to idolatry, was forthem to magnificently display
the character and nature of Godthrough worship and service.
You, being overwhelmed by thisworld, lift Jesus a little
higher.
Lift him up a little higher.
(28:20):
Have his name be the first nameon your lips.
We have the benefit of one ofthese songs being recorded for
us in the book of Psalm, psalm126.
This is one of the songs thatthese worshipers, these very
worshipers around inside thewalls of this city of Jerusalem,
would have been singing whenthe Lord restored the fortunes
(28:42):
of Zion.
We were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled withlaughter and our tongue with
shouts of joy.
Then they said among thenations the Lord has done great
things for them.
The Lord has done great thingsfor us, we are glad.
(29:08):
Restore our fortunes, o Lord,like streams in the Negev.
If we want to start over, wehave to change our focus,
bringing his sheaves with him.
If we want to start over, wehave to change our focus, and
one of the easiest ways tochange our focus is to change
the attention of our hearts, andworship is one of those ways
(29:32):
that we can do that.
Worship is more than a song.
It's a state of mind thatunderstands that God is greater
than anything else, includingmyself, and he alone is worthy
of all of me.
Can you imagine if we lived ourlives with that truth at the
(29:53):
very forefront?
God is worthy of our worship,and if you want to start over,
we must be worshipful.
Starting over looks like beingaccountable.
It's eerie to me how muchNehemiah acts like Jesus.
It's very, it's a littleoff-putting, and as we read the
Old Testament we understandthere are so many shadows, there
(30:15):
are so many things that pointto who Jesus is and who Jesus
would reveal himself to be, andNehemiah is one of those figures
in the Old Testament that justpaints so clearly an image, it's
a foreshadowing, of what was tocome.
Nehemiah understood that thecondition of the nation usually
rose and fell based on the typeof leadership that was in place.
(30:37):
So what did he do?
He chose very carefully thosethat he would put in charge over
this fledgling, this newbeginning, this starting over.
He chose Hanani, which meansgracious and remember.
Hanani was the one in chapterone that met with Nehemiah and
told him of the condition ofJerusalem and the condition of
the walls.
They shared a burden for therestoration, for passion to be
(31:02):
restored right, and so Nehemiahremembered that and he placed
Hananiah as one of the leaders.
He also placed Hananiah Maybethere was something about that
name, I don't know but Hananiahand Hananiah.
Hananiah means God is gracious,yahweh is gracious.
He was not classified as beingsmarter than the rest.
(31:25):
He wasn't better looking, hewasn't more eloquent or the most
talented among them.
What was said of him?
He was more faithful andGod-fearing than many others.
What did Nehemiah understandfrom history?
He understood that the peoplerise and fall based on
(31:45):
leadership.
Accountability is somethingthat's very, very important.
I know that the current trendin our culture and society is to
dismiss the church and thosewho are in authority as
antiquated and unnecessary atbest, and I understand and I
grieve with the rest of you thatunfortunately we have seen the
(32:06):
very public undoing of leaderswho failed miserably in their
own need for accountability.
It is unfortunate, it is sad,it is a scourge on the body of
Christ, and I understand that.
But the truth is the truth isthat God has still ordained the
(32:27):
church to be his vessel, hismeans of offering new beginnings
and starting over.
God loves his church.
The truth is that another,greater than Nehemiah, gave his
life for his church, and he isthe one who sets things in order
.
In Ephesians 4, it says now,these are the gifts Christ gave
(32:47):
to the church the apostles, theprophets, the evangelists and
the pastors and teachers.
Their responsibility is toequip God's people to do his
work and build up the church,the body of Christ.
God still has in his heart andin his mind that the church
would be the vessel that he useshere in the earth.
(33:08):
We, as church leaders, arecalled to lead, to care for, to
protect and to feed the body ofChrist, and we take that.
The eldership here takes thatvery, very seriously.
Do we always get it right?
Absolutely not.
If you follow me around longenough, I'm going to disappoint
(33:29):
you.
I'm not going to try todisappoint you, but I'm going to
disappoint you.
You know why?
Because I am not perfect.
I put on my jeans just like youput on your jeans, and I have
to be a Christian.
I have to choose to live as aChristian, just as you have to
live as a Christian, and I facethe same resistance and all of
those things.
The things that I'm telling youthis morning are not things
(33:52):
that I don't have to exercise inmy own life, and accountability
is one of those things.
Who are you accountable to?
I'm accountable to God, I'maccountable to my wife, I'm
accountable to my family, I'maccountable to the elder team of
this church, I'm accountable tothe oversight team and I'm also
(34:13):
accountable to each and everyone of you who are partners of
Trinity Community Church.
Those are the layers ofaccountability in my life.
If we want to start over, wemust be accountable, and let's
finish this up.
Starting over looks like beingcounted.
God put it on Nehemiah's heartto count the people of God who
(34:34):
had returned to Israel duringthe different generations that
were allowed by their oppressorsto return.
This would also provide what Ameans of deciding who it was
that would be allowed to moveback in within the walls of the
city of Jerusalem, people thatwere of the people of God, that
could trace their genealogy andcould discover through that,
(34:57):
through the things that had beenwritten down because all of
their names were written in thebook of genealogy and could
discover through that, throughthe things that had been written
down, because all of theirnames were written in the book
of genealogy, they coulddetermine for sure that these
were the chosen people of Godand that they would have the
right to enter Jerusalem andeven to rebuild homes and to
live within the walls of thecity.
These were the covenant peopleof God.
They were the ones to be giventhe rights as God's children.
(35:22):
How many of you know thatthere's another book that the
Bible speaks about, called thebook of life.
In it are all the names ofthose, throughout all of the
generations, who have put theirfaith and hope and trust in
Jesus the Messiah.
They believe that he was sentfrom heaven, that he was born of
a virgin, that he lived aperfect life, that he spoke
(35:45):
about the kingdom of heaven andbacked up what he spoke by
displaying signs and wonders andmiracles in the earth and
confirming his word.
He willingly took the wrath ofGod upon himself as he took our
sins to the cross.
He was buried for three daysand yet he rose again.
(36:05):
He ascended to heaven and isseated at the right hand of God
and he has been given the namethat is, above every other name,
that at the name of Jesus,every knee should bow and every
tongue should confess that JesusChrist is Lord.
(36:27):
Is your name written in the bookof life?
Are you counted among those whoare chosen by God as the people
of God?
Revelation makes it very clearin chapter 20, verse 11.
Then I saw a great white throneand him who was seated on it.
From his presence, earth andsky fled away and no place was
(36:49):
found for them, and I saw thedead, great and small standing
before the throne, and bookswere opened.
Then another book was opened,which is the book of life, and
the dead were judged by what waswritten in the books, according
to what they had done, and thesea gave up the dead who were in
it.
Death and Hades gave up thedead who were in them and they
(37:12):
were judged, each one of them,according to what they had done.
Then death and Hades werethrown into the lake of fire.
How many of you know there willbe an end to the enemy that we
face currently?
This is the second death, thelake of fire, and if anyone's
name was not found written inthe book of life, he was thrown
(37:37):
into the lake of fire.
Let's not sugarcoat it.
This is not something that youcan just count on.
Your parents' salvation or yourgrandparents' salvation.
You can't say well, I've goneto church my whole life.
How many of you know that justgoing to Chick-fil-A every day
all of your life doesn't makeyou a cow.
Standing in the garage dayafter day doesn't make you a car
(38:00):
.
We need to be transformed, weneed to be changed, we need to
have a chance for a newbeginning, for a fresh start, to
start over, and so, if you'rehere this morning, or if you're
listening to this via internet,I beg of you, I plead with you,
I implore you, I ask you toconsider carefully the condition
(38:24):
of your soul.
Have you chosen, as an act ofyour will, to put your faith,
hope and trust in Jesus Christ?
Have you acknowledged your ownneed and recognize the fact that
you are a sinner, that you haverebelled against God, that you
have gone in your own ways andthat you recognize that there is
(38:47):
an enemy that wants you to stayin that place?
He wants to take you to hell?
And will you this morningacknowledge, with thousands and
millions of people throughouttime, that Jesus Christ is the
Savior and Lord that all of us,whether we know it or not, have
(39:09):
been wanting and looking for?
In all of the things that we'vetried, in all of the things
that we've embraced, we'vereally been just looking for one
thing, and that is Jesus.
And how many of you know?
He didn't leave us in the dark,he didn't leave us hiding.
He came to rescue us.
(39:32):
Let's pray together.
Thank you, jesus.
(39:53):
Father, god, we thank you thatyou care so deeply.
We thank you that you love withan everlasting love.
We thank you that John 3.16says that you love so much that
(40:18):
you gave your only son thatwhoever would believe in him
would not perish but haveeverlasting life.
And, father, I pray that youwould give, by your spirit, the
faith that's needed for peoplewho don't yet know you, who have
not been counted yet theirnames have not been written in
the book of life.
I pray that today would be theday of their salvation.
(40:43):
And if that's you, this morning,I ask you, just in your own
words, just call out to God,just acknowledge to him that you
can't do it, you've tried andyou failed and ask him to save
you and transform your life, himto save you and transform your
life.
And, lord, for all of the restof us.
(41:03):
There are areas in each of ourlives where we have lost passion
for the things that you arepassionate about, where our
focus has been on ourselves oron our circumstances, or on the
world, or on the world or on anyother thing except for you.
And so, father, I pray in thename of Jesus, and especially
(41:26):
Lord, as we go into this time ofprayer and fasting.
Would you use this window oftime to awaken our hearts, to
cause us to see that you'regiving us a chance to start over
, to begin again, to stir up thecoals that seem like they're
(41:49):
out, lord, but there's stilllife in the coals.
We ask that you would breathethe breath of God on the coals
and cause them to burn Light thefire again within each and
every one of our lives.
Lord, and I start with me, Iconfess to you that I have been
dry and weary at times and, lord, I pray that you would help me,
(42:10):
father, to refocus, be watchful, be worshipful, be accountable
and to be counted as those whoare found faithful, enduring to
the end.
And, lord, we pray for all ofthose that are outside of this
(42:33):
room, our family members andcoworkers and friends, and even
people that we have a hard timewith.
Lord, would you reach them withyour kindness and compassion,
your mercy and your love?
Just show them who you are anddraw them close to yourself.
In Jesus' name.
(42:53):
Thank you, lord, amen.
They were continuing our sermon series on
the book of Nehemiah, called thePassion Project, and, as you
know, the Jews had been incaptivity for a long time over
160 years in total with severaldifferent waves of opportunity
for them to come back to thehomeland, to their motherland,
to Israel, and some of them hadreturned to Jerusalem.
(00:25):
The temple had been rebuilt,but the walls surrounding
Jerusalem were still in disarrayand the gates themselves were
destroyed completely.
We've seen how Nehemiah, afterreceiving word of the condition
of things in Jerusalem, wasdistraught, began to cry out to
the Lord and ask for help, andGod intervened and gave him a
plan, and also King Artaxerxes,the Persian king, gave him
(00:50):
permission to go back and evenfunded the project of rebuilding
the wall.
And we've seen Nehemiah do allof these great things with the
people of God.
By the way, the greatestresource in the kingdom of God,
besides Jesus himself, are thepeople of God, and that's what
we have seen over these lastweeks, as God has chosen to use
the people of God to rebuild thewalls of Jerusalem.
(01:13):
And you know, scott did a greatjob last week of talking about
different temptations and waysthat we can confront those
things, and he also read theverse that said that the wall
was completed.
And he also read the verse thatsaid that the wall was
completed.
So the book of Nehemiah is aboutrebuilding the wall.
So we should be done right.
Seems like that would beaccurate.
So what was the point?
(01:34):
There's seven more chapters.
There's seven more chapters togo.
The wall's built.
So why are we still talkingabout this?
See, god wasn't just interestedin rebuilding walls, he was
interested in rebuilding people.
He was most interested inrebuilding the people of God.
(01:55):
So the title of today's messageis starting over, starting over
.
I'm going to start this messagewith a few verses from the end
of chapter 6, and then go into afew verses from the beginning
of chapter 7.
So let's start in 6.15.
So the wall was finished on the25th day of the month Elul,
(02:15):
which probably was sometime inOctober, in 52 days.
And when all our enemies heardof it, all the nations around us
were afraid and fell greatly intheir own esteem, for they
perceived that this work hadbeen accomplished with the help
of our God.
Moreover, in those days, thenobles of Judah sent many
(02:37):
letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah'sletters came to them, for many
in Judah were bound by oath tohim because he was the
son-in-law of Shekiniah, the sonof Arah, and his son,
jehoahanan, had taken thedaughter of Meshulam, the son of
Barakiah, as his wife Don'tjudge.
(02:57):
Also, they spoke of his gooddeeds in my presence and
reported my words to him, andTobiah sent letters to make me
afraid.
Now, when the wall had beenbuilt and I had set up the doors
and the gatekeepers, thesingers and the Levites had been
appointed, I gave my brotherHananiah, and Hananiah, the
(03:18):
governor of the castle, chargeover Jerusalem, for he was a
more faithful and God-fearingman than many.
And I said to them let not thegates of Jerusalem be opened
until the sun is hot, and whilethey're still standing guard,
let them shut and bar the doors,appoint guards from among the
(03:38):
inhabitants of Jerusalem, someat their guard posts and some in
front of their own homes.
The city was wide and large, butthe people within it were few
and no houses had been rebuilt.
Then my God put it into myheart to assemble the nobles and
the officials and the people tobe enrolled by genealogy, and I
(03:59):
found the book of the genealogyof those who came up at the
first and I found written in it,and from that point, we have
about 70 verses of names, so I'mgoing to encourage you to read
through the rest of thatwhenever you have the time to do
.
The names are important becausethe names represent people,
(04:20):
right, and the people, againvery important in God's
perspective especially.
So let's pray, father, we thankyou for this time together.
We thank you for your sweetspirit that has already
infiltrated this place.
We thank you, lord, that welook at you and we can call you
by your many different names.
Just as Mark was praying, lord,we ask that you would open our
(04:43):
eyes, that we could see you asthe one who gives us the ability
to start over.
You are the God of newbeginnings, you are the God of a
fresh start, and so, lord, wepray for faith to rise on the
inside of each of us for thatvery thing today, and that we
would see the areas in our lifewhere we need to start over.
(05:04):
And we thank you for it and weask you for these things in the
mighty name of Jesus.
Amen.
I don't remember my life withoutJesus.
I came to know Jesus at a veryyoung age and I am so grateful
that all of these years 52 yearsI was saved when I was about
five, so about 47 years I haveknown Jesus as my Savior and
(05:29):
Lord and I am so grateful forthat.
When I graduated high school, Igot involved in a relationship
that was not right.
She was not a believer in JesusChrist.
Friends, and young peopleespecially, I want to tell you,
missionary dating is not a goodthing.
It does not work out the waythat we intend for it to work
(05:51):
out.
I thought that if she wasaround me enough and around my
family enough, that she wouldcome to know Jesus as I know
Jesus and that she would lovehim as I love him.
But that did not occur.
Instead, what began to happenwas a steady progression of me
walking further and further awayfrom God, until two years later
(06:12):
, I found myself feeling like Iwas on an island, all by myself.
Nobody really knew fully whatit was that I was experiencing
on the inside how dead I felt,how worthless I felt, how
extremely just, destitute anddesperate I was.
(06:37):
We had moved to Cleveland,tennessee, by that time, and
there was a Christian dramacompany called New Life Drama
Company, and some of the leadersfrom that ministry reached out
to me and asked if I wanted totravel with them for the summer,
and so I, trying to be ashonest as I could, expressed to
them my scenario and where Ifound myself in my relationship
with the Lord, and, instead ofshowing me the exit door, they
(07:00):
said to me is it possible thatGod might actually use this time
in your life to bring you to apoint where you could have a new
beginning, a fresh start, whereyou could start over.
So that summer became 18 monthsand within that 18 months, I
can honestly say that God did arenovation project, a
(07:25):
restoration project in my heartand in my life that has never
been equaled before that andsince then and I am so grateful
that God is a God of newbeginnings, the end of that
story God introduced me to ayoung lady named Amy French and
(07:48):
by his grace yeah, whoo, that'sright by his grace her dad said
yes.
When I asked if I could marryher it's a whole other story, we
don't have time to go into thatbut he said yes and she said
yes, and 32 years later, nextmonth, we have seen the
faithfulness of God in our lives, in our family's life, in the
(08:11):
ministry that he's called us to,and it all began with me with a
time in my life when God wasfaithful enough to give me a
second chance.
How many of you could say thatpart of your story includes
something very similar?
God is the God of a second andthird and fourth chance.
(08:34):
And this morning I believe thatGod is going to speak
prophetically to some of you,that this is your day, that
today is the day of newbeginnings, that this is your
day, that today is the day ofnew beginnings, that today is a
day that God is calling you tobegin again, to start over.
And that's exactly what'shappening here.
(08:55):
Very similarly, god is usingNehemiah to give the people of
God a chance for a redo.
It's easy to look at theirsituation and to call them
victims.
They've been oppressed, they'vebeen held in captivity.
But how many of you know, aswe're reading through the Old
Testament, what do we discoverabout the nation of Israel?
(09:15):
They're kind of like us.
They have very high moments andhigh points where they're
following after God andlistening to his voice and
serving him.
And then those high moments arefollowed by what?
Deep, deep low points wherethey move away from God and they
(09:35):
follow after idols and theyturn away from the very God that
is with them and has providedfor them every single thing that
they have need of.
And so what does God do?
In his goodness, he doesn'twipe them off the face of the
earth.
Instead, he causes nations torise up that would take them
captive so that he could performdiscipline in their lives, not
(10:00):
to ruin them, not to destroythem, but to bring them to a
point where he could bring asecond act, a third act, a new
beginning, a starting over intheir lives and in their nation.
His plan was to restore muchmore than buildings or walls.
His heart was for the people tostart over.
(10:23):
You see, starting over beginsand ends with the faithfulness
of God.
It begins and ends with thefaithfulness of God.
In our passage this morning,it's so interesting to me how
the nations around the nation ofIsrael recognized that there's
no possible way that they couldhave done the work that they did
(10:44):
and finished it in 52 days onthis wall and rebuilding the
gates, unless what God was withthem.
It says that the nations wereeven filled with fear and pulled
back because they saw the handof God at work within the nation
of Israel.
Isn't it amazing how sometimesit's harder for us to see the
(11:06):
hand of God moving in our livesthan it is for other people
around us.
Isn't it amazing, sometimes inyour workplace, when somebody
will come to you and they'll sayto you how is it that you have
so much peace when you're goingthrough such difficult
circumstances?
How is it that you can befilled with joy when there's not
a reason to be joyful?
My friends, sometimes thosearound us, those who don't even
(11:31):
know Christ, see evidence orfruit in our lives when we don't
see it in ourselves.
The hand of God was working inthe nation of Israel.
The nation saw it.
It was impossible.
I mean, finishing the wallitself was difficult enough To
finish it in 52 days impossible,impossible.
(11:54):
And we read the list of thepeople that worked on the wall.
There weren't that many Twomiles of wall and all of the
gates.
We read I think there were 12gates that were rebuilt.
This was a project like noneother.
This was amazing.
Make no mistake about it.
The God of Israel is mighty andhe is faithful.
(12:16):
He is faithful.
His faithfulness was on displayin creation.
His faithfulness was on displayafter the fall, when the first
thing that he did was hepromised that there would be a
seed of a woman that would come,the enemy would attempt to
crush or to bite at his heel,but that the seed would crush
(12:37):
the head of the enemy.
The faithfulness of God, evenat the point of man's fall in
the garden.
How about calling Abram to bethe father of many nations?
The faithfulness of God in theExodus from Egypt.
The pillar of fire by night andthe cloud by day.
How about manna from heaven,the giving of the law through
(12:58):
Moses, the words of the prophets, the tabernacle and the temple,
the promised land that wasentered into by Joshua we just
read about that in our Biblereading plan and now the
rebuilding of a wall.
How faithful is our God?
Is there anything that's toodifficult for him?
(13:19):
Well, most things are not toodifficult for him.
But you don't understand thecondition of my life, the
condition of my soul, thecondition, the things that I've
done, the sins that I'vecommitted.
I'm too far gone.
(13:39):
Come on, cindy said never.
Cindy said never.
Cindy said never.
Amen.
As long as you are living andbreathing in this life, how many
of you know, we have anopportunity for the faithfulness
of god to be displayed in usand through us.
Psalm 36, 5 says your steadfastlove, oh O Lord, extends to the
(14:04):
heavens, your faithfulness tothe clouds.
It fills the atmosphere.
The faithfulness of God fillsthe very atmosphere.
The air that we breathe is aresult of the faithfulness of
God.
Is there anything too difficultfor him?
Whatever area of your life andin my life that we need to start
(14:28):
over, god is faithful and weneed to put our faith in a
faithful God that is giving us achance to start over.
He's doing that this morningand I believe that faith is
rising on the inside of each andevery one of us as we talk
about these things this morning.
Now, how many of you know thatjust as faithful as God is that
(14:51):
there is always resistance tostarting over?
Let's not fool ourselves.
Let's not pretend like it's allroses and butterflies.
Anytime that we begin to movetoward God and we begin to
respond to the grace of God,there's an enemy of our soul
that attempts to knock us out atthe knees, to do anything that
(15:12):
he possibly can to distract us,to pull us away, to create other
pathways, to show us what wouldlook like greener pastures in
other directions.
We must be aware of thesethings.
One of the reasons that Israelwas judged by God was because
they didn't obey his commands toeliminate the inhabitants of
(15:33):
the promised land.
We just read about this inJoshua.
When the Gibeonites and oneexample is when they showed up
like they had traveled from along distance, and you know,
they begged for the to be shownmercy and to be given a place,
and so they gave that to them,and then they realized they're
just from down the block,they're just from down the
street.
Wait a minute, didn't I see youin Walmart?
(15:55):
I think I know you.
So the children of Israel, asgreat as Joshua, did as a leader
, and he did some great exploits.
God used him tremendously, butthey didn't fully obey God and
it wasn't just about eliminatingnations for the sake of killing
people.
How many of you know?
God was interested inpreservation.
(16:15):
He was interested in preservingthe line of Jesus Christ, the
lineage of Jesus as we read theOld Testament.
Jesus Christ, the lineage ofJesus, as we read the Old
Testament.
Don't lose sight of the string.
There's a pathway.
There's a reason why all ofthese people are being talked
about over and over again.
It's not just because of whothey were.
It's because of who would comefrom them Jesus, the savior of
(16:40):
the world.
So one of the reasons, again,that Israel was judged by God
was because they didn't obey hiscommands.
They didn't eliminate theinhabitants of the promised land
and they also intermarried withthem.
They intermarried with thenations and with people from the
different nations.
Why did God not want them to dothat?
Why was he concerned about that?
(17:01):
Why did he give specificcommandments about that?
Because God understood thepropensity of fallen humanity to
stray away from God and hisways.
We, if we're not careful on theinside of us, we are idle
factories.
We love to worship other gods,we love to bow down, and we may
(17:25):
not literally bow down, but welove to find places that we can
grab a hold of, that seem likethey're more close or more
relevant or more important to usat times than God himself.
And God knew that the people ofGod would, if they were given
the opportunity, stray away andfall into idolatry.
(17:47):
Many times Israelites did this.
They fell into idolatrous waysbased on being wrongly aligned
with pagan cultures and in thisstory, the nobles of Judah Judah
, the very line that Jesus wasgoing to come from had an
unhealthy alliance with a mannamed Tobiah, because he was
related by marriage to them.
They made an oath with him thatthey were holding up and above
(18:11):
the oath that they had made withGod himself.
And how did they handle this?
Even while some of them werelisted among those who worked on
the wall, they would say toNehemiah oh, tobiah is great.
We really love Tobiah.
He's amazing man.
He threw a party at his houselast night.
You should have been there.
Nehemiah's like.
I didn't get an invite.
(18:32):
I don't think Tobiah likes me.
And then they would run back toTobiah and they'd say you
should have seen what Nehemiahdid today.
It was amazing.
It's incredible the work that'sgetting done on the wall.
He's just, he's so, he's sogreat.
And Tobiah's like oh, really,he's great.
(18:53):
I think I need to write aletter.
And so, while all of this wasgoing on, unaware, as unaware as
the nobles of Judah were,tobiah was writing letters,
death threats to Nehemiah.
Because Tobiah was about Tobiah,nehemiah was about the people
(19:14):
of God.
We have to be careful with howwe are aligned.
They will talk with him again.
Like I said, all of this thatwas going on, the influence and
this was an attempt to plaguethe progress of the people of
God, to stop them in theirtracks Again, to stop them with
(19:36):
the wall being completed, andthen they say, okay, project
done, go back to normal, livelike you were living before.
God wasn't interested in themliving like they did before.
He had better things in storefor them.
So, having that as a kind ofthe backdrop, let's look at four
(19:57):
ways that we can help in theprocess of starting over.
So number one starting overlooks like being watchful.
Being watchful Four generationsof people.
Think about that.
160 years, four generation ofpeople had grown accustomed to
living outside the bounds ofGod's ultimate design.
(20:19):
They had grown used to it.
They had grown accustomed to it.
They were living outside ofJerusalem.
They were living with brokendown walls.
They had become accustomed toit.
It was normal to them.
Nehemiah's task was to setthings in place that would
retrain the people of God tolive as the people of God.
(20:40):
How many of us need to bereminded of what it means to be
the people of God?
We are his chosen people.
He has given us such an amazinggift in filling us with the
Holy Spirit, and he has given usthe ability to choose, to live
differently than the rest of theworld and, in so doing, to have
(21:05):
the nations be able toacknowledge there is a God.
Nehemiah's task was to setthings in place, and he did that
.
One of the ways that he didthat was by giving each of them
tasks related to the protectionof the city.
So there would be gatekeepersthat would stand at each of the
gates.
The gates were only to beopened when the sun was hot.
(21:28):
What time is that?
Maybe noon, something like that.
It was to be open when they hadclear sight lines, when there
was no doubt that anybody couldsneak in or anybody could pose a
threat.
We want to be able to clearlysee everything that's going on,
and when you can see that, thegatekeepers need to position
(21:50):
themselves in front of the gates, and then only can they open
the gates.
And then the gates needed to beclosed and locked before the
sun set on the horizon.
And so you had those people,the gatekeepers.
And then he also designatedpeople that would be on the wall
, who would be all around thecity and they would be watching,
(22:11):
not to keep people out,necessarily.
They would be watching so thatthey could be a warning system
to all of the people who wereinside of the walls of Jerusalem
Danger, danger, watch out, payattention, be vigilant, be
watchful, be ready.
And not only that, there's athird layer.
Everyone was supposed to takepost in front of their own home,
(22:35):
beyond the gatekeepers andbeyond those who were on the
wall.
You also were supposed to bevigilant and be watchful over
your own house.
Boy, could we take this in alot of directions.
I don't have the time to do itall, but you can see it.
You can see it if you considerit and think about it.
This may seem like overkill.
(22:57):
Why did they need so much?
There's barely anything withinthe walls of Jerusalem.
Why did they need so much?
Why so much care?
Nehemiah understood thatstarting over required radical
vigilance in order to maintainthe ground that had been retaken
.
They had to be radicallyvigilant, they had to retrain
(23:19):
themselves.
They had to learn again what itmeant to live like the people
of God, again what it meant tolive like the people of God.
You and I also face enemiesfrom within and from without.
We wrestle against the flesh,which is our own desire, that
(23:40):
oftentimes finds itself againstthe desire of God, against the
purpose of God.
Also, we have the world and theculture of this world, that
continues to scream at us thatwe should do anything that's in
opposition to who Jesus is, whathe says.
And then also we have the devilhimself.
We are called, as the people ofGod, to radical watchfulness.
(24:04):
If you want to start over, payattention.
1 Peter 5 says it this way Besober-minded, be watchful.
Your adversary, the devil,prowls around like a roaring
lion seeking someone to devour.
Resist him, firm in your faith.
(24:24):
Some of you need to hear thatthis morning.
Stand up and resist the enemy.
He has no authority over you.
Jesus Christ, if he is yourLord and Savior, is Lord of all,
including Satan.
He is Lord of all.
Satan has no power over JesusChrist.
(24:47):
We are to stand firm and we areto resist him, firm in your
faith, knowing that the samekinds of sufferings are being
experienced by your brotherhoodthroughout the world.
And after you have suffered alittle while, the God of all
grace come on, who has calledyou to his eternal glory in
Christ, will himself restore,confirm, strengthen and
(25:12):
establish you.
Who was ultimately responsiblefor their protection?
The God of Abraham, isaac andJacob?
But God was looking to partnerwith them in this relationship,
and so he asks them to do somethings in that vein and it's the
same with us.
My friends, do not give up yourfight of faith.
(25:35):
Your victory is on the horizon,your victory is on its way.
So if we want to start over,first of all we must be watchful
.
Secondly, starting over lookslike being worshipful.
Being worshipful After ensuringthe security of the city of
Jerusalem, nehemiah then doessomething radical he places
(25:59):
worshipers and Levites aroundthe city.
Worshipers and Levites aroundthe city.
Worshipers and Levites aroundthe city.
Why is he doing that?
Because he understands that theheart of the people needs to
reconnect with the heart of God,and one of the greatest ways
for that to happen is for themto continuously be hearing the
song of the Lord being raised up.
(26:21):
How many of you get slimed ifyou walk into a store and you
hear a song on the, whateverit's not a radio?
How many of you get slimed Ifyou walk into a store and you
hear a song on the, on thewhatever the it's not a radio,
but whatever on the intercom?
You hear a song, and then youyou walk out of the store and
you find yourself singing thatsong.
Anybody, some of you are soholy that even if you heard
Elvis singing a song somewhere.
(26:42):
That's just for a few among ushere.
But if you heard whatever DollyParton, whatever it was, if you
heard Rocky Top right, marksaid that earlier and some of
you in your head were bump, bump, bump, it hits you.
You were overtaken.
There's something powerful aboutsinging songs and listening to
(27:05):
songs.
Music moves us in ways that ispowerful.
My friends, don't lose theworship in your lives.
Don't shut it down, don't turnit off.
If all you're listening to ishow your truck's broken down and
your dog ran away, no wonderyou're so depressed.
(27:33):
Let's listen to some, as mygranddaughter says, cc whiny
inans.
Let's listen to some good oldgospel music, some worship music
.
And that's what Nehemiah did.
He set up worshipers andservants of the house of God
around the city of Jerusalem,within the walls.
Man, it's so amazing to me themasterful strategy of all of
(27:59):
this.
See, the antidote to thecounterfeit, the hearts of men
being drawn to idolatry, was forthem to magnificently display
the character and nature of Godthrough worship and service.
You, being overwhelmed by thisworld, lift Jesus a little
higher.
Lift him up a little higher.
(28:20):
Have his name be the first nameon your lips.
We have the benefit of one ofthese songs being recorded for
us in the book of Psalm, psalm126.
This is one of the songs thatthese worshipers, these very
worshipers around inside thewalls of this city of Jerusalem,
would have been singing whenthe Lord restored the fortunes
(28:42):
of Zion.
We were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled withlaughter and our tongue with
shouts of joy.
Then they said among thenations the Lord has done great
things for them.
The Lord has done great thingsfor us, we are glad.
(29:08):
Restore our fortunes, o Lord,like streams in the Negev.
If we want to start over, wehave to change our focus,
bringing his sheaves with him.
If we want to start over, wehave to change our focus, and
one of the easiest ways tochange our focus is to change
the attention of our hearts, andworship is one of those ways
(29:32):
that we can do that.
Worship is more than a song.
It's a state of mind thatunderstands that God is greater
than anything else, includingmyself, and he alone is worthy
of all of me.
Can you imagine if we lived ourlives with that truth at the
(29:53):
very forefront?
God is worthy of our worship,and if you want to start over,
we must be worshipful.
Starting over looks like beingaccountable.
It's eerie to me how muchNehemiah acts like Jesus.
It's very, it's a littleoff-putting, and as we read the
Old Testament we understandthere are so many shadows, there
(30:15):
are so many things that pointto who Jesus is and who Jesus
would reveal himself to be, andNehemiah is one of those figures
in the Old Testament that justpaints so clearly an image, it's
a foreshadowing, of what was tocome.
Nehemiah understood that thecondition of the nation usually
rose and fell based on the typeof leadership that was in place.
(30:37):
So what did he do?
He chose very carefully thosethat he would put in charge over
this fledgling, this newbeginning, this starting over.
He chose Hanani, which meansgracious and remember.
Hanani was the one in chapterone that met with Nehemiah and
told him of the condition ofJerusalem and the condition of
the walls.
They shared a burden for therestoration, for passion to be
(31:02):
restored right, and so Nehemiahremembered that and he placed
Hananiah as one of the leaders.
He also placed Hananiah Maybethere was something about that
name, I don't know but Hananiahand Hananiah.
Hananiah means God is gracious,yahweh is gracious.
He was not classified as beingsmarter than the rest.
(31:25):
He wasn't better looking, hewasn't more eloquent or the most
talented among them.
What was said of him?
He was more faithful andGod-fearing than many others.
What did Nehemiah understandfrom history?
He understood that the peoplerise and fall based on
(31:45):
leadership.
Accountability is somethingthat's very, very important.
I know that the current trendin our culture and society is to
dismiss the church and thosewho are in authority as
antiquated and unnecessary atbest, and I understand and I
grieve with the rest of you thatunfortunately we have seen the
(32:06):
very public undoing of leaderswho failed miserably in their
own need for accountability.
It is unfortunate, it is sad,it is a scourge on the body of
Christ, and I understand that.
But the truth is the truth isthat God has still ordained the
(32:27):
church to be his vessel, hismeans of offering new beginnings
and starting over.
God loves his church.
The truth is that another,greater than Nehemiah, gave his
life for his church, and he isthe one who sets things in order
.
In Ephesians 4, it says now,these are the gifts Christ gave
(32:47):
to the church the apostles, theprophets, the evangelists and
the pastors and teachers.
Their responsibility is toequip God's people to do his
work and build up the church,the body of Christ.
God still has in his heart andin his mind that the church
would be the vessel that he useshere in the earth.
(33:08):
We, as church leaders, arecalled to lead, to care for, to
protect and to feed the body ofChrist, and we take that.
The eldership here takes thatvery, very seriously.
Do we always get it right?
Absolutely not.
If you follow me around longenough, I'm going to disappoint
(33:29):
you.
I'm not going to try todisappoint you, but I'm going to
disappoint you.
You know why?
Because I am not perfect.
I put on my jeans just like youput on your jeans, and I have
to be a Christian.
I have to choose to live as aChristian, just as you have to
live as a Christian, and I facethe same resistance and all of
those things.
The things that I'm telling youthis morning are not things
(33:52):
that I don't have to exercise inmy own life, and accountability
is one of those things.
Who are you accountable to?
I'm accountable to God, I'maccountable to my wife, I'm
accountable to my family, I'maccountable to the elder team of
this church, I'm accountable tothe oversight team and I'm also
(34:13):
accountable to each and everyone of you who are partners of
Trinity Community Church.
Those are the layers ofaccountability in my life.
If we want to start over, wemust be accountable, and let's
finish this up.
Starting over looks like beingcounted.
God put it on Nehemiah's heartto count the people of God who
(34:34):
had returned to Israel duringthe different generations that
were allowed by their oppressorsto return.
This would also provide what Ameans of deciding who it was
that would be allowed to moveback in within the walls of the
city of Jerusalem, people thatwere of the people of God, that
could trace their genealogy andcould discover through that,
(34:57):
through the things that had beenwritten down because all of
their names were written in thebook of genealogy and could
discover through that, throughthe things that had been written
down, because all of theirnames were written in the book
of genealogy, they coulddetermine for sure that these
were the chosen people of Godand that they would have the
right to enter Jerusalem andeven to rebuild homes and to
live within the walls of thecity.
These were the covenant peopleof God.
They were the ones to be giventhe rights as God's children.
(35:22):
How many of you know thatthere's another book that the
Bible speaks about, called thebook of life.
In it are all the names ofthose, throughout all of the
generations, who have put theirfaith and hope and trust in
Jesus the Messiah.
They believe that he was sentfrom heaven, that he was born of
a virgin, that he lived aperfect life, that he spoke
(35:45):
about the kingdom of heaven andbacked up what he spoke by
displaying signs and wonders andmiracles in the earth and
confirming his word.
He willingly took the wrath ofGod upon himself as he took our
sins to the cross.
He was buried for three daysand yet he rose again.
(36:05):
He ascended to heaven and isseated at the right hand of God
and he has been given the namethat is, above every other name,
that at the name of Jesus,every knee should bow and every
tongue should confess that JesusChrist is Lord.
(36:27):
Is your name written in the bookof life?
Are you counted among those whoare chosen by God as the people
of God?
Revelation makes it very clearin chapter 20, verse 11.
Then I saw a great white throneand him who was seated on it.
From his presence, earth andsky fled away and no place was
(36:49):
found for them, and I saw thedead, great and small standing
before the throne, and bookswere opened.
Then another book was opened,which is the book of life, and
the dead were judged by what waswritten in the books, according
to what they had done, and thesea gave up the dead who were in
it.
Death and Hades gave up thedead who were in them and they
(37:12):
were judged, each one of them,according to what they had done.
Then death and Hades werethrown into the lake of fire.
How many of you know there willbe an end to the enemy that we
face currently?
This is the second death, thelake of fire, and if anyone's
name was not found written inthe book of life, he was thrown
(37:37):
into the lake of fire.
Let's not sugarcoat it.
This is not something that youcan just count on.
Your parents' salvation or yourgrandparents' salvation.
You can't say well, I've goneto church my whole life.
How many of you know that justgoing to Chick-fil-A every day
all of your life doesn't makeyou a cow.
Standing in the garage dayafter day doesn't make you a car
(38:00):
.
We need to be transformed, weneed to be changed, we need to
have a chance for a newbeginning, for a fresh start, to
start over, and so, if you'rehere this morning, or if you're
listening to this via internet,I beg of you, I plead with you,
I implore you, I ask you toconsider carefully the condition
(38:24):
of your soul.
Have you chosen, as an act ofyour will, to put your faith,
hope and trust in Jesus Christ?
Have you acknowledged your ownneed and recognize the fact that
you are a sinner, that you haverebelled against God, that you
have gone in your own ways andthat you recognize that there is
(38:47):
an enemy that wants you to stayin that place?
He wants to take you to hell?
And will you this morningacknowledge, with thousands and
millions of people throughouttime, that Jesus Christ is the
Savior and Lord that all of us,whether we know it or not, have
(39:09):
been wanting and looking for?
In all of the things that we'vetried, in all of the things
that we've embraced, we'vereally been just looking for one
thing, and that is Jesus.
And how many of you know?
He didn't leave us in the dark,he didn't leave us hiding.
He came to rescue us.
(39:32):
Let's pray together.
Thank you, jesus.
(39:53):
Father, god, we thank you thatyou care so deeply.
We thank you that you love withan everlasting love.
We thank you that John 3.16says that you love so much that
(40:18):
you gave your only son thatwhoever would believe in him
would not perish but haveeverlasting life.
And, father, I pray that youwould give, by your spirit, the
faith that's needed for peoplewho don't yet know you, who have
not been counted yet theirnames have not been written in
the book of life.
I pray that today would be theday of their salvation.
(40:43):
And if that's you, this morning,I ask you, just in your own
words, just call out to God,just acknowledge to him that you
can't do it, you've tried andyou failed and ask him to save
you and transform your life, himto save you and transform your
life.
And, lord, for all of the restof us.
(41:03):
There are areas in each of ourlives where we have lost passion
for the things that you arepassionate about, where our
focus has been on ourselves oron our circumstances, or on the
world, or on the world or on anyother thing except for you.
And so, father, I pray in thename of Jesus, and especially
(41:26):
Lord, as we go into this time ofprayer and fasting.
Would you use this window oftime to awaken our hearts, to
cause us to see that you'regiving us a chance to start over
, to begin again, to stir up thecoals that seem like they're
(41:49):
out, lord, but there's stilllife in the coals.
We ask that you would breathethe breath of God on the coals
and cause them to burn Light thefire again within each and
every one of our lives.
Lord, and I start with me, Iconfess to you that I have been
dry and weary at times and, lord, I pray that you would help me,
(42:10):
father, to refocus, be watchful, be worshipful, be accountable
and to be counted as those whoare found faithful, enduring to
the end.
And, lord, we pray for all ofthose that are outside of this
(42:33):
room, our family members andcoworkers and friends, and even
people that we have a hard timewith.
Lord, would you reach them withyour kindness and compassion,
your mercy and your love?
Just show them who you are anddraw them close to yourself.
In Jesus' name.
(42:53):
Thank you, lord, amen.
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