Harbor Church - Mid City

Building a Great City—Through Responding to God

Neh. 7: 4-73 Oct. 17, 2010

RECAP: We’re in the book of Nehemiah, and if you haven’t been here, or took a little siesta, then I’ll catch you up to speed. Here is the story of Nehemiah. In 587BC the Babylonians invade Jerusalem, exile almost everyone. Nehemiah is one of those exiles and, as a slave, he works his way up to be the King’s wine-taster. Ordinary dude—drinks wine. His boss had given protection to a group trying to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, but then he pulled the plug, and the rebuilding effort was crushed. Nehemiah is devastated, fasts, prays, gets a crazy idea that he should go and tell his boss to reverse his foreign policy, appoint him to lead the rebuilding effort in Jerusalem, and that his boss should pay for it. He agrees. Nehemiah then rallies the Jewish people in Jerusalem, they start rebuilding the city, he faces all sorts of opposition from Sanballat & the boys, he cleans up the corruption in the city, and in 52 days he does what nobody had been able to do in 141 years. The wall is completed, the basic infra-structure is in place and this is where we pick up in Ch. 7.

Nehemiah gets this crazy idea from God to gather all the people together. He goes down into the historical archives and he goes deep into the rare books section and dusts off the genealogical records and he says, “Perfect.” This is what I am going to read to the people a list of names and numbers from the first return under Zerubbabel. He is pointing out to his people that, in 538 BC, there was a first group to return to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel. But, as I have mentioned to you, that rebuilding effort failed. Nehemiah comes along in 445 BC (a little less than a hundred years later) and think about this strategy hear.

Now, our chapter today. Let’s be honest. If you’re reading this at home, you skip this chapter. Bunch of names I can’t pronounce, and you just roll your eyes and skip over it. But there is actually a whole lot of gold to be mined out of this chapter. God thought it was important enough to put it into the Bible, so let’s don’t skip it.

READ SCRIPTURE:

This chapter is about responding to God: (1) personally, (2) as a family.

(1) Personally

v4 Now the city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it, and the houses had not yet been rebuilt. (Walls, Big City, No People). So my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles, the officials and the common people for registration by families.

My God, put it into my heart. My God….God is personal to Nehemiah. This isn’t his mom and dad’s god; this isn’t a force, a higher power; this is my God, who I am in relationship with. In fact, they are in such a close relationship that his God actually puts things on his heart. And look at what it is. You would think that if God puts something on your heart, then it should be something super-spiritual right, like start a Bible Study or feed the homeless. But what God puts on his heart is this: registration.

See here is the question that our text forces you to: do you believe in a personal God who is that intimately involved in the details of our lives? Take a step further—are you in relationship with Jesus Christ in such a way that he is leading you in the details of your life.

Some of you are not, and here is why: (1) Agnostics: you don’t believe in the supernatural. Some of you are here. You aren’t sure if God exists, and you tend to think that this world is all there is.

(2) Spiritualists: Then there are those of you who say, “No, I know there is something more going on than I can explain. When I am in nature, I realize this; when I am at the beach, I feel it.” But I also know that I am not in any sort of relationship with whatever that he, she, it is in a personal way

This is a view that talks a lot about fate, destiny. Meant to be, not b/c of the leading of a personal God, but b/c the universe just seems to be moving this way. This way of our culture in large part thinks about love. Why? B/c this is the script written for us by Hollywood. Let me show you by taking you on a little stroll through the romantic comedy aisle at Blockbuster. This is a new release—maybe not even at Blockbuster Yet.

“Eat, Pray, Love,”— Julia Roberts is a modern woman who is successful and has everything a modern woman should want. Money, marriage, great career—but she is totally empty. She can’t take it, so she divorces her husband and goes on this journey of self-discovery where she learns to eat in Italy, pray in India, and lastly, to love, in Bali. And the way it is set up is like every romantic comedy—she is riding her bike along the road and this Brazilian version of Richard Gere comes along and “accidentally” runs her off the road on her bike. Fate—smacked them together.

Pretty Woman (1990)—fate. It was meant to be that Richard Gere would be driving down the road in his Ferrari or whatever it was and pick up Julia Roberts.

Sleepless in Seattle (1993)—I don’t know what it is with Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan, but they love this plot line. Serendipitously, Tom Hanks son pours out his heart on the radio and Meg Ryan just so happens to hear it, and then there is this series of near misses, until finally, at the end, there is a twist of fate and they go back to the Empire State Building & there she is.

You’ve Got Mail (1998)—same thing. Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan. Fate brings them together. A serendipitous meeting in a chat room.

Some of you are like—dude, you really gotta get a life and get away from the Romantic Comedies. My wife told me about all these movies—I didn’t watch them. I simply want you to see how popular this narrative is in our world. We all gush over it; Hollywood rolls this same plot line out and over and over again that this is the way the world works and the way love happens. Twist of fate. Impersonal forces align.

Nehemiah says, “No, it isn’t. My God is personal. My God puts things on my heart. He leads me “himself” and it is often in ways that seem to go completely against fate or the “signs” that I seem to be getting in the world. Think about the story of Nehemiah. God puts it on his heart to rebuild the city of Jerusalem—he was a wine-taster for crying out loud. All signs seemed to say that he had no business rebuilding a city. He had no money, no experience, his boss would kill him if he asked him to do it, and his boss would look like a complete fool for reversing his foreign policy b/c his wine-taster told him to do so--but God put it on Nehemiah’s heart. If fate rules the day, then you simply accept the portion of the cookie that crumbles your way.

Isaiah 9:6 is a verse that we love to trot out at Christmas. “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and He shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father.”

Wonderful Counselor: This is how Jesus Christ is known—he is a wonderful counselor. Now let me ask you. Why do you go to counseling? B/c you need guidance. Yourself. Personally. Counseling always begins with what—you telling your story. Then you’re asking the counselor to listen and enter into your story and give you personal guidance. Isaiah says—that is what Jesus Christ does.

Mighty God: But I don’t care how good your counselor is, his or her ability to counsel you is necessarily limited (1) by their intellect, (2) by their experiences, (3) by the fact they are human and live in a particular culture in a particular time in history, so the advice they give will be imperfect. You must take everything they say with a grain of salt. But that is what is so unique about the God of the Bible—not only is a personal and wonderful counselor, but He is also a transcendent Mighty God, who is the Alpha & Omega, whose knows everything there is to know in the universe.

John 4 Samaritan Woman: There is no better illustration of how these two truths that are unique to the God of the Bible (his transcedence as a Mighty God and his personalness or immanence as a Wonderful Counselor) come togethert than in John 4 where Jesus is having a conversation with the Samaritan woman about eternal water. He has never met her, but he knows what she built her life around and it is men. So he asks her to go and get her husband so they can finish the conversation and she says she has none. Then he says to her“You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is that you have had five husbands, and the man you are with now is not your husband.” See there you have the immanence, the relational, personal side of Jesus of entering into her story and having a conversation about water, but then you see how He is also a Might God, b/c only a mighty God can know absolutely everything there is to know about her and say, “You have built your life around men and it isn’t working, is it.” Transcendence/immanence; wonderful counselor/mighty God, and

Everlasting Father: But just in case you miss it, Isaiah uses one more image to hammer this home: Everlasting Father. My kids are 4,3, & 9 months right now. They think Dad knows everything. They think I am Dadapedia. They pile on my back and they think I can do an infinite amt of pushups. But my favorite thing to do is to snuggle up with them at night, to lay down in bed and talk about their day and pray with them. There are very few relationships more personal and intimate than a father and his children. But this is not everlasting. This will fade quickly. I’m sure my kids will be asking me to drop them off around the corner at the movie theatre or just to duck real low when I drive by. It would be weird if me and my 21 year old son were snuggling in bed together. These things aren’t everlasting for us. But they are in our relationship with the God of the Bible. He really is Godapedia with infinite strength and knowledge who wants to listen to our day and draw us into His embrace. Everlasting Father.

School Search: Here is why this stuff matters. Let me give you a very practical example from my week. Ford starts kindergarten next year, so Bradford and I have been checking out the various options that are available for him. Now think with me how these 3 options I just laid out apply:

(1) Atheist/Agnostic: You can drive yourself nuts over this, stressing out and checking out every school in San Diego and thinking that his whole future depends on you as parents getting him into the right school. See if you believe that--functionally you’re acting like an atheist or agnostic—there isn’t a God who leads us, it is up to me.

(2) Spiritualists (fate): Or you can take the route of the spiritualists who leaves everything up to fate—Ford will turn out how he is fated to turn out by virtue of where we live, so send him to the neighborhood public school and let’s see how the cookie crumbles or the opposite is that you also are completely stressed out b/c you must make the fate of your kids.

(3) My God/My Heart (Wonderful Counselor/Mighty God/Everlasting): Or, the 3^rd way. Bradford and I are going on tours. We’re doing our part, but we’re responding to the leading of a Wonderful Counselor, a Mighty God who knows our son perfectly and knows the right schooling option to fit him. Why? B/c he is an everlasting Father—he is Ford’s daddy and my daddy and he is more concerned about Ford than I am. So, our shoulders relax, we do school tours and do our part, and we trust Jesus Christ, thankful that he will put on our hearts where is right for our son to go to school. As we sang on our tour of the Cambridge School—Tis so Sweet to Trust in Jesus.

(2) Families

Not only does he lead us personally as a Father, a Counselor, a Mighty God, but he also leads our families. When we are willing to courageously walk by faith and respond to his leadership in our lives personally, look at the impact on the family. Look at v5 “I found the genealogical record of those who had been the first to return.” This is what I found written there: v6 “These are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken captive (they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town, in company with Zerubbabel.

Now for most people, reading through genealogical records from the rare books section is far more effective than taking a Tylenol PM. Nehemiah’s cabinet members must be thinking, “You’re going to do what?”

Why is he doing this? Here is why. B/c he is trying to get them to think about their legacy. He says think about those who have gone before you—they left a legacy of faithfulness. Ordinary Joe’s.—barbers, mailmen, worked at the bowling alley or the sheep shop, but they left the comfort of Babylon and risked everything, including their life, to follow God. Parosh took the risk and followed God’s lead for his family to go back to Jerusalem and, as a result, so did 2, 172 of his descendants as a result. Shephatiah responded to God’s lead, and so did 372 of his descendants as a result. Arah put faithfulness to God above everything else, and so did 652 of his descendants. And Nehemiah just keeps going down the list reading legacy after legacy and how one family’s act of faithfulness shaped the generations to come.

Long-range thinking: Let’s be honest. Most of us guys are doing good to think past our next meal. Nehemiah says, “Don’t just think about your next meal; think about your legacy. When Bradford & I tuck our kids in at night we pray for them and we pray really simple prayers. After they are asleep, we come back and pray over them, and we’re typically praying for their legacy. We pray for 4 generations of followers of Jesus. We pray that through the 4^th generation my kids and their kids will seek first the kingdom of God. That they will be faithful to Jesus & to their spouse.

Busted Up Family Trees: Some of you are thinking about the legacy that you have stepped into and it isn’t a good one. Your family tree is so busted that it would be impossible to piece together. And there is no one above you who has faithfully followed Jesus. So here is what God is calling you to do this morning. To start a new line/legacy, a new legacy of faithfulness to Jesus Christ. Joshua—as for me and my house. He wants them thinking like Joshua.

Let me tell you how it happened in my family. My dad’s dad left him when he was 2 and he never heard from him again. My dad’s step-dad that he knew during his formative years was an alcoholic and ended up leaving him as well. So my Dad made a vow, “I am not going to do to my kids and family what was done to me. I am going to start a new line.”

But when my Dad made this vow, he wasn’t in relationship Jesus. He was a God-fearer, he believed in God and it had been apart of his family and would have called himself a Christian (well, b/c, that is just what you do in the South), but he had no personal relationship with Jesus. And neither did my mom, until she was 30 years old. And at 30 years old, she met Jesus. And, then, thanks to my mom, my Dad met Jesus (which is a story I see repeated over and over again how Jesus uses women). And my Dad will tell you to this day, “If Jesus hadn’t intervened, he would have ended up leaving just like his dad.” But Jesus got involved and gave him the grace of loving one woman and raising both of his kids to love and serve Jesus. He started a new legacy.

A new legacy all begins with meeting Jesus Christ personally. Let me tell you a story—a true story. There wasa woman caught in adultery who was brought to to Jesus by people who very proud of the religious legacy they were leaving in John 8. Jesus said, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” And there was a thump, thump, thump—one by one the religious people left, and here Jesus stands with a woman whose legacy didn’t look so hot.

And Jesus said to her, “Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir” she said, “Then neither to do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” Jesus says, “Go now and leave your life of sin.” Another way to put it is this—go now and make a new legacy. A legacy of redemption, that champions the grace of Jesus; Live faithfully, courageously, and turn from your sin and trust me and as you do I will make your legacy.

Think about the legacy of having your name written in the Lambs Book of Life, and because of your faithfulness, 8, 152 of your descendants names are also written in the Lambs Book of Life. Imagine that day, when the new heavens and new earth are here, and someone that you never knew here on earth, who came generations after you, comes running up to meet you and says, “I am so eager to meet you. I am your descendant and you started a legacy of faithfulness to Jesus Christ—thank you for trusting him.”

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