Building A Great City (Through Your Work)
- Sep 26, 2010
- Series: Building a Great City
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Buidling a Great City (Through Your Work)—Nehemiah 6
Mid-City Sept. 26th 2010
Watch Stephen as he gives the Sermon as Video --> http://vimeo.com/15473002
in a series where each week we’re looking at different components that are required to build a great city, because, from our inception, that has been one of our core convictions, that Harbor is to love our neighbors and Jesus in such a way that the great bi-national city of San Diego & Tijuana becomes great in every way. And what we’re doing is that each week we’re looking at different things Nehemiah did to make Jerusalem into a great city. This week we’re going to focus on the role that hospitality and authenticity play. Intro or launch right into story?
For those of you that haven’t been with us, let me recap the story of Nehemiah with you so that you are updated for today. 587 BC the Babylonians wipe out Jerusalem and it lays in ruins for 141 years. There are a number of rebuilding attempts that all fail. Nehemiah, who is a wine-taster for the King, is called by God to rebuild the city, and the King, in a remarkable act of the gracious hand of God, decides let him go, appoints him as governor and pays for the whole rebuilding effort. Nehemiah rallies the people, they commit, Sanballat and Tobiah from the WWF come flying in off the top ropes to oppose them in ch. 4, then Nehemiah has internal problems in ch. 5 where his people are acting unjustly and he perseveres and rallies the people to be ones who seek justice and right the wrongs that they were causing of enslaving the poor through exorbitant interest and sexual exploitation. Nehemiah repents, confesses that he was charging interest, leads the people in repenting and righting the wrongs that they caused, giving back land and money and interest, freeing the sex slaves, and then we saw Nehemiah’s hospitality & authenticity in chapter 5.
V1 When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies. Now when Nehemiah sees this, my guess is that he probably starts singing, “The boys are back in town.” Here we go again. The peanut gallery is lined up. “that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it—though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates.”
“Not a gap was left in it” Nehemiah is really proud of the work that he has done. If you go back to chapter 2 you see that the wall so was destroyed, there was so much rubble laying around, that Nehemiah couldn’t make it around sections of it on his horse during his covert scouting operation under the cloak of night. Now, 52 days later, he says proudly, “Not a gap is left in it.”
And now he is about to have the ribbon cutting ceremony. Setting the doors in the gates is akin to a ribbon cutting ceremony because it would mean that now the city is fortified and businesses can open, homes can be built & protected. It is the finishing touch. And Nehemiah says, “Not a gap. God called me to build a wall, & I have done the work God called me to do with excellence.”
Nehemiah understood how important it was for him to live into his calling at work. Here is why this matters. According to sociologists, Americans now spend roughly 70% of our waking hours at work. 70%. And for many Americans, Jesus has very little to no involvement in that 70% of their day. That is a travesty.
And I don’t mean that you should take your Bible to work and be reading on company time. No. I am talking about taking pride in your work like Nehemiah did—not a gap left in the wall. See Nehemiah understood that he was an image bearer, and as such he was to bear the image of God at work in the way that he worked.
Think about how God worked in creation. For six days he labored and the song of creation had a chorus. At the end of every day God said, “And God made the land, and it was good.” “And God made the stars, and it was good.” Then, in the height of his creation, God makes mankind, and he says it was very good. God is proud of his work—it is done with excellence.
God has called you to the work of being a mom. Well over 70% of your waking hours are spent being a mom. Like Nehemiah, you don’t want there to a gap left in the wall of character that you are building in your children. Pursue your calling with excellence.
Your in education—whether it is SDSU, USD, Helix, Ybarra, Hoover. God has called you there to bare his image. 70% of your waking hours are there. Not a gap left in the wall of your work. Take pride in it—do it with excellence. You’re not just there to make a buck—but you’re there to improve the quality of education in our city, to provide kids with a first-rate education to help them succeed (could give Miles Davis example).
V2 “ 2 Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: "Come, let us meet together in one of the villages [a] on the plain of Ono." This is like Ben-Ladin inviting Obama to a cave in the mountains of Afghanistan, saying, “I know we had a little disagreement in the past, but cmon down to the cave and let’s work things out. But they were scheming to harm me; 3 so I sent messengers to them with this reply: "I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?" Nehemiah says, “No, I am busy. God has called me to this work, and I don’t care about your media requests, blogs, emails. I am staying on point and nothing is going to distract me from what God has called me to do.
4 Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer. Persistent. This is like the boyfriend that you dump and the guy just won’t go away. “I love you.” Yeah, but I think you’re a creep. Go away. I’ve said the same thing every time. You’re a creep. Go away.
5 Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter. So the custom of the day was to seal the letter so that you knew it was confidential. An unsealed letter meant this, “I want the world to know.” So your creepo boyfriend tweets, post on facebook, writes on his blog complete lies about you. Your colleague at work circulates a memo, a company email, to everyone with information that isn’t remotely true.
6 in which was written: "It is reported among the nations—and Geshem [b] says it is true—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king 7 and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: 'There is a king in Judah!' Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us confer together."
8 I sent him this reply: "Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head."
Nehemiah says, “What are you smoking?” Seriously, Geshem is the best source you can produce for this bold-faced lie. Remember, Geshem was Sanballat’s WWF wrestling team that we saw with Tobiah back in chapter 2 that tried to overthrow Nehemiah. So let me give you a modern day equivalent. MAYBE TAKE OUT & INSERT LOTTERY This would be like breaking a news story in the Union Tribune that Arnold Schwarzennegger was going to lead CA in secession from the United States of America so that he could challenge Obama and become president and eventually take over. And do you know the source that Tribune gave? The Enquirer. I read it on aisle 3—it must be true. That is about how reliable Geshem is. Nehemiah says, “Nonsense.”
Pt: what is the point of all this. God has called Nehemiah to work with excellence and, as always, the enemy opposes this work. You will face opposition at the office if you do your work with excellence. “Dude, what are you trying to get us all fired. Chill. Don’t work so hard. Or it may be like what Nehemiah encounters. Outright lies about who you are and what you are doing, and you’ll have to confront the lie just like Nehemiah did. That is the first step of Mt. 18—go to the source and confront the lie.
But don’t get sidetracked what the work that God has called you to be about. V9 “They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.” Scare tactics—we’re not having it.
V10—you knew this was coming if you have been following Nehemiah. One liner, office prayers. Here he goes again, “But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.” Here Nehemiah remembers, “This isn’t about our weak and feeble hands. In prayer, he remembers the righteous right hand of the Lord. Give ud your hands, Lord, to build this city. Put your strong, righteous, right hand in our hands and make em sing.
Most of you know that I like Bono. Bono is one who understands that he is called by God to do the work that he does with excellence. And yet Bono gets grace—that his feeble hands can’t do the work that he is called to do. And he actually sings a song about this. It is a song I have mentioned to you before, entitled, “Yahweh.” The song is a prayer to Yahweh. Yahweh is a tranliteration of the Hebrew name of God used in the Old Testament.
Now, in this song, Bono is praying, to Yahweh, through song, and he is praying about what we do when we face opposition in our work. And he is actually talking about the work that all of us are doing, collectively, to build a great city, a city within the city of San Diego & Tijuana that reflects the glory of the heavenly city. Let’s listen…
Take these hands
Teach them what to carry
Take these hands
Don't make a fist
Take this mouth
So quick to criticize
Take this mouth
Give it a kiss
Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh
Still I'm waiting for the dawn
Still waiting for the dawn, the sun is coming up
The sun is coming up on the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean
Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, tell me now
Why the dark before the dawn?
Take this city
A city should be shining on a hill
Take this city
If it be your will
What no man can own, no man can take
Take this heart
Take this heart
Take this heart
And make it break
So he begins his prayer, like Nehemiah, with his hands. “Teach them what to carry. Help me carry the load, and don’t let me make a fist and go seek vengeance on those who opposing the work of city building. Instead, show me how to kiss or love my enemies.
Then he talks about the pain that is involved in living out your unique calling at the office in building a great city. Always pain before a child is born. We’re trying to give birth to a great city. To build a great church that is making the heavenly city known—that is hard. The way we love our neighbors, the way we love God, it feels like a drop in the ocean. The challenge, the opposition is huge.
Then he closes with the city. Yahweh, the work of our hands is to build a great city. To see people love you, to have your light shine in them. Nobody owns this city but you. So take our hearts, and make em break for the city and your glory in the city. Nehemiah knew it, Bono knew it. Excellent work that leads to a city on a hill only comes through weakness, dependence, & prayer.
After Nehemiah prays, he faces more opposition. 10 One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, "Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you—by night they are coming to kill you."
So Shemaiah gives Nehemiah a false prophecy. He says, “The Lord told me to tell you that they are coming to kill and you should go hide inside the temple.”
11 But I said, "Should a man like me run away? Or should one like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!" 12 I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. 13 He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.
Nehemiah says, “NO! You are a false prophet, and here is how I know it. You’re telling me to do something that is supposedly from God but it directly contradicts what God has said in the Bible in Deut. & Numbers. See the sanctuary of the temple was reserved for priests b/c of its proximity to the Holy of Holies. And Nehemiah says, “I am not a priest, so God is pretty clear here.” I am going with the Bible.
So here the opposition comes from someone who claims to be a Christian and what they do is play the God trump card. “The Lord told me to tell you,” and then their message is completely contradictory to what you know God said in his word. So if a Christian author, Christian pastor, Christian friend tells you to do something that is inconsistent with God’s word—tell them to take a hike. Nehemiah says, “No, I am trying to build a great city, and a great city is one where people love God’s word and hold it up as their authority. He is my authority; not you who claim to speak for him. Friends, to make it, to sustain excellent work at the office and participate in this long-haul of building a great city, we simply must be tethered to God’s word.
And, in the end, in v14, Nehemiah turns his enemies over to the Lord and says, “You remember them for what they have done.” Rather than seeking vengeance, he turns them over to God, who is both loving and just. Some of you are not Christians, and one thing you tell me all the time is that you like the fact that God is love, but you don’t like to talk about a God of justice. But Nehemiah knows that God is both. He knows he is loving because he didn’t destroy him when he confessed his own sin of being involved in the interest scandal, but he knows he is also just. That somehow his God will account for his wrongdoing and the wrongdoing of his enemies.
And we, sitting in 2010, know how God is both loving and just because of the cross. See, on the cross, Jesus’ enemies are opposing him just like Nehemiah’s. They spit on him, mock him, intimidate him—he has an army of Sanballat’s and Tobiah’s and Geshem’s opposing him. He even has posers who claim to be Christians like Judas who betray him just like Shemaiah did.
But, to go back to Bono, it is here that you see how Yahweh answers Nehemiah’s prayer and Bono’s prayer. He didn’t strengthen his son’s hands like he did Nehemiah’s, but he nailed them to a cross. Just as Bono sang, “Take this heart, and make it break.” Why was Jesus’ heart broken and his hands nailed to a cross? So that Nehemiah’s wrongs, Sanballat’s wrongs, Tobiah’s, my wrongs, your wrongs could be accounted for, so that justice could be satisfied. And that is the good news—that b/c the demands of justice have been met, we can know the love of God and the love of God can pour out over our city. But you won’t know the personal, saving love of God apart from Jesus Christ. Because if you aren’t in Him, then you still have a debt to pay.
-Not a gap was left in it (work done with excellence)
-I am SDSU, USD trying to give kids an excellent education in this city. Why? Not to make a buck, but b/c God has called me, like Nehemiah.
-I raise kids with excellence. Why? Not b/c women should be barefoot & pregnant, but b/c God has called me, whether you are a man or woman
-Give a few other vocations
-Give Denise’s stat in quotes bank about people making the faith/work conversion
-v5-Open letter everyone could read (web site, chat rooms, blogs, smear campaign, every effort to discredit
-v6Geshem says it is true (like that is a real stamp of authenticity—I talked to my buddy who hates you and is trying to overthrow you with me, and he said that you aren’t a good guy).
-v7Basically says he is going to lie to his boss about him revolting against King Artaxerxes and try to get his boss to come squash him
-v8 bold faced liar
-colleauge at work who is out to destroy work of your hands
-Film Lottery where woman outright lies to oppose work
-v9 pyschological warfare (
-v10 “But I prayed” (Nehemiah knows where his help comes from). Reminds me of scene in LOR where Gandolf says look for help on the dawn of the 5th day look to the east. Just when all feels lost, the Lord strengthens the work of your hands.
-v10—false prophet tries to get Nehemiah to sin (get him to go into temple proper, where only priests could go) to discredit him
-Guy must have had some credibility for Nehemiah to go there (written some books. He tells him they are coming to kill you tonight. Nehemiah says, “It is the 4th quarter (sorry, football season is in, so get ready for a fall of football illustrations)
-Cmon, let’s go to the strip club—won’t hurt (give other illustrations)
-How you know when someone is trying to harm you?
1. Encourage you to do something contra-Biblical
-Non-Christians, and I always know they have absolutely no knowledge of the Biblical story when they think of me, as religious guy, as sinless. B/c if you read the Bible, it is the religious dudes who don’t get it. So, anytime I have to prove to someone that I am sinful, then it helps me know how little of the Biblical story they know. Anyway, here I am giving him a dirty laundry list. Mentioned how the church can become a bad thing, and he actually told me to tell my wife to suck it up. That is just part of the sacrifice. And I said, “No one is sweeter than my wife, but she will, very gently, knock you out coal if you say this to her.” And we laughed—dude, you can’t be serious.
-v14—God you take care of my enemies. I will not seek vengeance (get em).
Driscoll
Very strategic day coming up. Day you become a Christian, get engaged, get married, have kids—have far-reaching consequences. That is what this day is when the wall is completed. When the wall is completed the city is fortified and safe and people can move back in, businesses can open, churches planted. This was like putting a front door on the home. And true to form opposition rose up: diversion, deception, discredit.
V1—Want to get Nehemiah diverted from his mission. When God gives you a call (you have a burden, that this is what I need to be about). If Satan can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy. Husband volunteering for everything and overlooks .
--Hey buddy, we’re friends, let’s talk (no, we’re not)
-Nehemiah says, “No, I need to stick to my priorities)
