Pastor Jonathan Burgess
August 24, 2014 - W1434

If you were to approach me and ask me how I’m doing, I’ll say, “Glory hallelujah, I’m doing pretty good.  I’m fine.”  Then you may ask, “Really, how are you doing?”  It makes you think, how am I really doing?  Sometimes just that little question can make us stop in our tracks and make us realize I’m really having a hard time, I’m really struggling right now, you know I’m not getting along too well with my wife.  When you know that you have a listening ear and an open heart, then you usually are willing to open up your heart. 

 When there is unity, a coming together that you’ve never known before, in that moment you can actually experience a breakthrough.  That’s what I’m hoping to do today.  I’m hoping that we can just sit with our Heavenly Father as He looks us in the eye and asks, “Really, how are you doing?”

 Through the story of Nehemiah we will see how he took this ragtag group of people and how they came together with honesty and sincerity, and we can do the same.  Nehemiah is coming with his eyes wide open and taking an honest look at the state of God’s people, Israel and Jerusalem.  Read Nehemiah 2:11-15, “And so I arrived in Jerusalem.  After I had been there three days, I got up in the middle of the night, I and a few men who were with me.  I hadn’t told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem.  The only animal with us was the one I was riding.  Under cover of night I went past the Valley Gate toward the Dragon’s Fountain to the Dung Gate looking over the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken through and whose gates had been burned up.  I then crossed to the Fountain Gate and headed for the King’s Pool but there wasn’t enough room for the donkey I was riding to get through.  So I went up the valley in the dark, continuing my inspection of the wall.  I came back in through the Valley Gate.” 

1. HONESTLY?  I’m Broken.

 The walls around Jerusalem had been broken down for over a century and a half.  They had a place of worship but they had gotten used to the broken down walls, saying, “That’s how it is.”  It was dangerous in those days not to have a wall around their city, just as it would be dangerous for you not to have doors in your house.  It leaves you vulnerable and certainly the enemies around Jerusalem were taking advantage of it, taking whatever they wished.  Nehemiah came with fresh eyes and told them you don’t have to live like this anymore.  You need to come together and be honest about the situation to which you have become resigned for too long.

 The Holy Spirit wants us to think about the things that we have been tolerating by saying, “That’s the way it’s always been.  It’s always going to be that way.  It’s never going to change.” The Holy Spirit wants us to know it will change and it can change tonight, depending on how honest you want to be with each other.  So I’ll ask again, “How are you doing, really?’” 

 Your response might now be, “I’m broken.  Just like the walls around Jerusalem I’m broken inside.”  When we start breaking things around us, it’s because there’s something broken in us.  If we want to find healing and wholeness, we must be honest.  Sometimes it takes a spouse, pastor, or friend to see what’s going on in your life and ask, “You want to address it?” 

 Until we honestly look at the condition of our walls, we will not see the need to rebuild.  When

Nehemiah made an assessment and honestly looked at the situation he gathered the people around him and said in Neh. 2:17-18.  “But now I said to them, ‘You know full well the tragedy of our city.  It lies in ruins, and its gates are burned.  Let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and rid ourselves of this disgrace.  Then I told them about how the gracious hand of God had been on me, and about my conversation with the king.  They replied at once, ‘Good!  Let’s rebuild the wall!’  So they began the good work.”

 God is saying the same thing to us.  He wants us to rebuild the broken places in our lives, both corporately as a church, and individually in our hearts. Where are the places that have been burned and broken down?  What is the situation to which we have become accustomed when we say, “That’s how it’s always been and it’s never going to change”?

 How did Jesus describe the gates of our eyes?  Matt 6:22-23, “Your eyes are windows into your body.  If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light.  If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar.  If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!”

 The restoration that God wants to bring in our lives starts with honesty.  What gates in my life, my church, my city are wide open or have been burned down?  The sinful entertainment and websites, gossip, sinful magazines, substance abuse - all these are signs of brokenness all around us. 

 Cindy and I have Internet protection to keep our boys from being distracted with all the things that would pop-up.  The Holy Spirit wants to do that for us.  He wants to be that protection over our hearts.  He is saying, “Don’t go there.  Don’t do that.  It’s a place of brokenness and I’m trying to keep you from it.” 

 The Jerusalem walls had 12 gates that needed repair.  The eastern and southeastern side needed a whole new wall.   We are not talking about some skimpy walls.  Those walls were over 8 feet thick.  In other words the rebuilding that God wants to do in our lives will not happen on our own and it will not happen overnight.  We can rebuild tonight if we will be honest about our brokenness as the people of Israel did.  God wants to take us there.

 The next thing we will talk about is:

2. HONESTLY?  I’m Prideful. 

 It shows up every now and then.  I’ve never forgotten what Pastor Wayne Cordeiro said, “The test of a true servant is when you are treated like one.”  What Nehemiah was calling the people of Israel to and what God is calling His people to is “don the apron of service and create an inspired moment in each person’s day,” not just to the ones that treat you well and say thank you, but also to the ones that irritate you.  That’s what it means to put down our pride.  God has called us to serve a community that may or may not even want us there.  They may or may not even appreciate how God has called us to serve them so pride says, “No way I’m doing that.  Let someone else take care of that.”  You sometimes want to hand off what God has called you to do.  

 Nehemiah 3:1-5 “The high priest Eliashib and his fellow priests were up and at it.  They went to work on the Sheep Gate; they repaired it and hung its doors, continuing on as far as the Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel.  The men of Jericho worked alongside them; and next to them, Zaccur son of Imri.  The Fish Gate was built by the Hassenaah brothers; they repaired it, hung its doors, and installed its bolts and bars.  Meremoth son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz, worked; next to him Meshullam son of Berekiah, the son of Meshezabel; next to him Zadok son of Baana; and next to him the Tekoites (except for their nobles, who wouldn’t work with their master and refused to get their hands dirty with such work).”  Note the parenthesis.

 Nehemiah is describing an amazing organizational task with 40 different groups, working simultaneously on the gates and walls from every social and economic strata of life.  They have come to work together as never before “except the nobles.”  The Tekoites have a very illustrious history with Israel because of their position with the leaders of God’s people and they refused to lower themselves to work beside the likes of these.  We might say, “That’s despicable,” but if we are honest, there are some people we simply don’t want to serve with either which might be the very reason God may have placed us there. God may want you to ask yourself, “Are you stuck in pride?”  Thus, we have separated ourselves from the very thing that God has called us to; yet our own Savior said it this way in Matt 20:26-28, “Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant.  And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” 

 Wouldn’t it be amazing that no matter where we are, someone watching our conduct would say, “That person belongs to Christ”, or “that person is a Christ follower”, or “that person goes to New Hope, look at the way they are helping that person.”

 We have been given a Manual (the Bible) and the more we read the Manual the more we will learn how to put pride under our feet.  It will no longer keep us from the breakthrough that God has for us.  How do we do this?  Well, Pastor Wayne also says, “We become what we celebrate.”  What if we started a countercultural movement of celebrating those with a servant’s heart in a way that people would notice (whether we feel that person deserves it or not)?  We will become what we celebrate.

 Honestly, I need healing because I’m broken; honestly, I’m prideful and I need to start serving wherever God sends me, wherever He calls me to serve.  One of the reasons I don’t serve is 

3.  HONESTLY, I’m Insecure. 

 What does insecurity do?  Insecurity causes me to think about myself instead of Him.  It’s all about me and I’m insecure.  God wants us to be honest about our insecurity, honest about how many times we think about ourselves, and to humble ourselves and follow after Him.  Humility is thinking less of self and more of others. 

 Insecurity will take away the very thing that should make you jump for joy.  Our joy should be when others succeed in ways we never could because they are releasing their gifts and talents. Yet insecurity will make you resent what makes people great.   If you want insecurity to become really big, start comparing yourself with someone else.  God never compares his children; we do, and that brings division among those who should come together.  Someone once said, “It’s amazing how much we get done when we don’t worry about who gets the credit.” 

 Here’s a test that reveals whether you are dealing with insecurity:  When you can’t rejoice at someone else’s victory because you wish it had happened to you.  If we allow insecurity to define us, it will cause us to resent what makes us great. 

 Here’s a final example:  Neh. 3:8-9, “Uzziel, son of Harhaiah of the goldsmiths’ guild worked next to him, and next to him Hananiah, one of the perfumers.  They rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall.  The next section was worked on by Rephaiah son of Hur, mayor of a half-district of Jerusalem.”

 A mayor is working on the wall getting grimy and dirty and right next to him is a perfumer and right next to him is a heavy metal worker.  I just love this.  Picture this, it doesn’t say this but when I picture a goldsmith, I see someone who works with metal and fire on a regular basis, pounding it out.  He is brawny and burly, with a hammer, and his shirt barely fits, and next to him is a perfumer.  I love that God puts people who are so different right next to each other on the same section of the wall.  Just look at the people around you—all different?

 There is no reason we should be in the same room together because we’re so different, except that God has called us together to work on the same wall—for a unified purpose.  In fact, Jesus prayed in John 17: 20-23, “I’m praying not only for them but also for those who will believe in Me because of them and their witness about Me. The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—just as You, Father are in Me and I in You, so they might be of one heart and mind with Us.  Then the world might believe that You, in fact, sent Me.  The same glory You gave Me, I gave them, so they’ll be as unified and together as We are—I in them and You in Me. Then they’ll be mature in their oneness, and give the godless world evidence that You have sent Me and loved them in the same way You have loved Me.”  Who is he praying for?

 Wouldn’t it be awesome if for all the prayers that Jesus answered for us if we would answer one for Him?  What if tonight we came together in unity in spite of our brokenness, pride, and insecurity because we understand that Jesus prayed for unity as proof that He was sent by God?

We are to savor the people who are totally different from us. 

 If you put a goldsmith, a perfumer, and a mayor together, you get a wall to protect future generations.  If you put you, and you, and you together in the same room, you’ll see God move. There’s a reason we are here tonight, it’s because God is building something and He can’t do without you and He also can’t do it without the person next to you. 

 STUDY QUESTIONS:

1. What gates in my life, home, church, and city are wide open or have been burned down?

 2. What areas in my home, church, and city have I been reluctant to serve in?

 3. Who are some people in my home, church, and workplace wholly different from myself that I can befriend and learn from?