Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Englewood
Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.
Thank you so much for tuning in to our podcast.
You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word
about important issues facing your life that can guide you
according to the Bible. Well, good morning, Englewood.
Turn to somebody sitting next to you and say, I'm just glad to
see you. Listen, we appreciate, we
appreciate the opportunity to gather again face to face.
For those joining us online, we welcome you as well.
Let me share a couple words as you turn to Nehemiah Chapter 6.
And we're going to dive into that and one, one or two words
very quickly. Just this next weekend is our
marriage conference. And on Friday night and Saturday
morning through noon, Doctor Danny Aikins, wife Charlotte are
going to come lead us. We have great crowd already
signed up, but we have room for six more couples, just 612
people, 6 couples. So if you want to come to that,
you need to sign up very quickly and that there may not even be
that much room left after the first service.
So if you want to sign up for that, you can go online on our
website or on our app and find a place to sign up for that.
Love to have you there. Great time.
You're going to get a wonderful meal, wonderful experience and
be blessed. Couple other things.
We have some mission trips coming up fairly quickly and one
of them is going to Uganda in in March, end of March and we could
stand one or two more people maybe if you have your passport
already. They're having information
meeting today at 4:00. And so surprise everybody and be
the person who showed up. Nobody was going to be, nobody
knew you were going to be there. Be great.
Then there's another one to the Middle East in April.
Pastor Gene Davis is leading that.
We need a couple more people for that one.
Still got a team. It's still going.
There's no danger of it not happening.
It's just we could add a couple more folks to that, just
probably about two to that. So think about that.
Listen, for those of you who are coming to the East Coast Men's
Bible Conference, that would be men.
We have men coming from about 9 states, probably more than that
this year, all up and down the Eastern Seacoast.
If you're new to Englewood, this is a phenomenon.
This room will be packed with men from all over the eastern
part of the United States. What I would love to see is for
the majority of those men to be from this area.
Now, I'd love for everybody come from out of town.
You're all welcome. Come on, come on and join us.
We'd love to have you. But I'd love to see you inviting
your friends, signing up and being here so that we can follow
up as a local church, get them involved, sharing the gospel
with them. So look forward to that.
So bring your bring them in. You see information about that,
you can sign up for it. Well, I want to talk this
morning in Nehemiah chapter 6 and seven as we continue in this
book, the the Message title has to do a struggle because
conflict can occur whenever God's people seek his
restoration. It's it's often that that's
going to happen. Now, those of you who are Duke
fans, some of you have experienced conflict in the last
24 hours. So both of you, I feel sorry for
you. The rest of the rest of you I
think are cheering, probably because I've heard that the
majority of you are not Duke fans, but that may not be true.
You can talk to me later. That's
c.taylor@inglewoodbaptist.com. I have a nine point sermon.
If you notice the back of your worship guide or you're looking
at the notes. I've missed you so much.
I feel like I just need to share everything with you so they
don't actually be OK. Listen, conflict is a serious
thing. This is not just going to be
about the church. It's about you, your life, your
family. At least seven times in the book
of Nehemiah, the enemy tries to stop Nehemiah from fulfilling
what God wanted him and the people to do.
It was a a common theme throughout these first chapters
of this book. And so if we say let us arise
and build, Satan says let us arise and tear down.
And that's just a common way the enemy works.
And so the schemes that Satan used against the folks in
Nehemiah's day are the same schemes that he will use against
you and your family and against our church.
And so we need to be aware of them.
So we're going to study a few of those, and we're also going to
study some strategies to help us combat those.
And so even though he's going to work, we can still find success
through the struggle. So Nehemiah chapter 6 beginning
in verse one. Now when Sambalad and Tobiah and
Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had
built the wall and that there was number breach left in it,
although up to that time I had not set up the doors and the
gates, Sambalad and Geshem sent to me saying come and let us
meet together at at Hakafarim in the plain of Ono.
But they intended to do me harm. And I sent messengers to them
saying I'm doing a great work and I cannot come down.
Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?
And they sent to me four times in this way.
And I answered them in the same manner.
The first scheme that we're going to see Satan use against
us, whether it's our church or whether it's you as an
individual or whether you and your family, is the scheme of
deceit and distraction. This is a common weapon he uses.
The walls were prepared, but the doors hadn't been hung on the
gates yet. So the enemy's getting even more
and more desperate. Time's getting close.
It's getting close. We got to even act stronger.
So the closer we are to fulfilling what God wants us to
do in our lives, whether that's if that's an individual or us as
a church, the more desperate, more intensely, the enemy's
going to attack. So we need to expect it in our
current blessing, the way God's blessing Inglewood right now.
Listen, I, I, I've heard of three people, I think you're
going to get baptized next Sunday.
And I had somebody after the first service come and talk to
me about that too. So we, we've got, I don't know
about seven or eight people lined up just in the next few
weeks who need to be who, who want to be baptized, who want to
testify of trusting in Christ and living for him.
God's blessing, God's working, God's growing.
And so we need to be aware of that.
And because of that, we also need to expect the enemy to
work. And he does, and he is.
So these enemies said they wanted a meeting with Nehemiah
to discuss some things. Let's sit down and talk about
this. It sounds kind of reasonable.
Stop doing what you're doing up there and come down here where
we are. Stop.
Stop that and come down here with us on the plane of oh, no,
that's a great word for it. Because that was a response you
ought to give. Oh, no, Because stopping the
work of God and sitting around the table of the enemy is a
dangerous thing. It's a dangerous thing.
As one author wrote, you don't have to attend every argument
you're invited to. You just don't.
And yet some people thrive in it, I feel like.
But the truth was, here's the truth of the story.
Stop so we can distract you and frankly, so we can destroy you.
We want to kill you. Quit focusing on what God wants
or has called you to do and waste your time.
Waste your energy on us down here, on our level.
Now, can't you have the world saying that That's what the
world says to us. Quit messing with that stuff.
Come down here and play with us. Come down here and sit around
the table with us. The enemy is going to whisper
these distracting things to you. So, so chase after, dwell with
anything other than what God wants, anything other than that.
So Nehemiah, of course, recognize, he's walking closely
with God. He recognizes the deceit and he
knew the truth. We're doing God's work.
Why should I compromise and come down there to you on your level?
He knew who these guys were. They were the enemies.
Now we love them. The Bible teaches us we love our
enemies. We seek for our enemies to be
saved. But we're also not naive about
their intentions and their desires.
We're not going to let them to fool us or distract us.
Don't allow anybody to divert you away from the great work God
has called you to do. By what?
By what they are going to falsely define as good or even
urgent or important. Listen, especially in our world
today, but probably always, humanity loves to create its own
truth. And then and then urgently
expect you to react to it. They, they expect you to live by
it. Because I think something's
urgent. Because I think something's
urgent. You got to stop everything
you're doing and you got to react to what I want you to
react to. That's how social media thrives.
It's expecting a reaction, it wants a follower, it wants to
influence. Think about the words that we
use. Sometimes it's good, sometimes
it's not. So they were persistent and so
these enemies posted. No, I I mean sent message after
message to stop God's work and come waste time.
See now Nehemiah, Nehemiah knew better.
So he wouldn't stop. He wouldn't be stopped because
the name and the promise of God was at stake.
This was about a fulfillment of what God wanted, what God had
called. So there's no time to stop.
There's no time to fall into the enemy's deceitful snares.
But if this doesn't work, if he can't get you this way, our
enemy never sleeps. He never relents, He never gives
up. He'll try something else.
Look at verse 5. Verse 5 says in the same way Sam
Ballot for the 5th time sent his servants to me with an open
letter. Don't miss that word open.
It's very important open letter in his hand in it was written as
reported among the nations in Geshem.
It's probably actually pronounced Geshem something like
that. And Geshem also says that you
and the Jews intend to rebel. That is why you're building the
wall. And according to these reports,
you wish to become their king. What?
What a claim. And you've also set a prophets
to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem.
There's a king in Judah. And now the king will hear of
these reports talking about the king of Persia.
So now come and let us take counsel together.
Then I sent to him saying no such things as you say have been
done, for you're inventing them out of your own mind.
For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking their hands will
drop from the work and it will not be done.
But now, O God, strengthen my hands.
So if deceit and distraction don't work, the next thing he's
going to try is slander and gossip.
You ever heard of that slander and gossip man?
He'll pull that out of the quiver when you when you
couldn't, when they couldn't goad him into some kind of
private debate. We'll, we'll, we'll turn the
public on him. We'll try to turn public opinion
against him. They send an unsealed letter
that they fully intended to be read by the people, fully
intended to be read by the other leaders in Jerusalem in order to
intimidate Nehemiah. And so Sambalit spreads rumors
that Nehemiah was actually doing this work to lead the people to
rebel against the Persian king. You're setting yourself up to be
king, Nehemiah. That's what you're really doing.
You're doing this for your glory, not for the glory of God.
And so he hoped others would read it.
He hoped others would read it and spread the rumors.
You can see friends, listen to me, whether it's in your
personal life, your family life, or the church life.
Gossip and slander are like that.
They don't like to be caged. They don't like to be
controlled. They want others to hear.
They want others to believe in them.
They seek to bully. They seek to intimidate, often
motivated by very selfish, selfish fears in the person
sharing them. But their their goal is to cause
fear. And now we have the digital
capacity to spread lies all around the world, to cyber
bully, to create false conspiracies, to try to cancel
people or shame people into things.
So destructive and accurate lies and slander.
But also labeled with this and coupled with this, married to
gossip and slander, are these impure or inaccurate motive
attributions? In other words, I know what
you're really doing. I know what this is really
about. And people have all kinds of
conspiracy theories about inaccurate motive attribution.
It's a curse. This is really why you're doing
what you're doing. I know, I know nobody else
knows, but I know when in fact you don't know anything.
There's no truth in that at all. And you really don't know, but
you're basing your truth on gossip you've heard or you've
read or by forming some unsupported opinion.
Back in the day when I was grading seminary papers in the
old school way, now you do digital comments and send them
digital copies with comments out to the side of the paper.
But in the old days, you actually marked on the papers.
And I was known, and I've shared this with some of you.
You know, some of the I was known as doctor red ink.
I've used an entire brand new red pen on one student's paper
from from beginning to end. And I would write and I had
codes for grading that my students all know.
And one of the codes was you owe it stood for unsupported
opinion. Because in academic writing, you
don't just say whatever you want to say.
You don't just escape state your own unsupported opinion.
You have to footnote, You have to reference some reliable
source from which you've got your information.
You can't just spout off what you think is true.
And so I do You owe. You owe especially in some of
my, you know, preachers are horrible at it.
Every church in the world. No, you don't know that.
You've never talked to every church in the world.
You owe. But sometimes in life I just
want to run around. Sometimes in church life, I just
went around going you owe. You owe because there might just
be more research taking place than you know.
There might just be more well educated conclusions taking
place than you perceive. OS Hawkins, who writes about
Nehemiah, says just watch. If a Christian is all out for
souls and has a heart for God, he most likely will become the
target for other people's tongues.
Or as Doctor Danny Aiken, he'll be with us this next weekend.
He's preaching next Sunday, by the way, too.
As Danny Aiken points out to us, naysayers don't have to be
right. They just have to be loud.
And in our world today, I find this to be true.
And sometimes your kids are exposed to these things, even
online. So don't be surprised when Satan
fabricates lies. If you're determined to fulfill
God's mission, remember this. Satan is the father of lies.
These lies are his children. These are his kids.
These are his offspring. He tends them.
He nurtures them. He wants them to grow.
This is who he is. A pastor friend of mine, Mike
Powers, was preaching through Genesis, and he reminded me that
some people are not seeking to make you better.
They're only seeking to build their own tower to their own
glory, like the people in Genesis building a tower called
Babel who simply sought to quote, make a name for
themselves. So Nehemiah knew how to respond.
He responds the same way consistently throughout the
book. He responds with truth.
He responds with prayer. Lies must be fought with
prayerful communication with the real source of real truth.
So when we speak truth, God can be glorified.
If we don't speak truth, God can't be glorified or he won't
be. So Nehemiah rejected their life.
He refused to waste time with them.
I don't have time for this. And they, you know, Nehemiah,
knew They have no strength over me.
They can't stop me. So Nehemiah wasn't as concerned
about what these men thought about him as what he was about
what God thought about him. He had one consuming passion to
fulfill the mission, to fulfill the calling that God had called
him to. So these enemies were seeking to
cause fear and doubt. But Nehemiah reminds the people,
he reminds the people in verse 9 that God strengthens for all.
They wanted to frighten us, thinking their hands will drop
from the work and it will not be done.
But now, oh God, strengthen my hands.
I believe in and I'm dependent upon what you say, Lord.
Therefore, I don't have to fear what they're saying.
I don't have to fear what others might say.
Inglewood, we must be defined by God's Word, we must be devoted
to prayer, and we must be absolutely dependent upon the
Holy Spirit. Those are our 3DS for living.
So let no one else, let nothing else define truth for you, not
for you, not for your family, not for this church.
So when we're fulfilling God's mission by living out the seven
essentials of discipleship by 100% participation in the core
ministries of our church, you will be far better able.
You'll be far better equipped to see and to sniff out the enemy
schemes. Your spiritual sensitivity and
discernment will be much more mature as you grow in the
maturity of your discipleship. We have to continue that path.
Look at verse 10. Now when I went into the House
of Shamaya, the son of Delia, son of Mehtabal, that's good
enough, who was confined to his home, he said let us meet
together. This is huge.
Let us meet together in the House of God within the temple.
Let us close the doors of the temple, for they're coming to
kill you. They're coming to kill you by
night. But I said, should have such a
man as I run away. And what man such as I could go
into the temple and live. I will not go in.
And I understood and saw that God saw that God had not sent
him, but that he'd pronounced the prophecy against me because
Tobiah and Sambala had hired him for this purpose.
He was hired that I should be afraid and act in this way and
sin and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me.
Scheme #3 very simply is self preservation and sinful choices.
If he can't work with deceit and distraction, if slander and
gossip don't get, what he's going to tempt you to do is to
to save yourself, to preserve yourself, to be safe and to make
bad choices. Never underestimate the length
that he will go. He'll use insiders, He'll use
people in the church, He'll use unregenerate church members.
Listen to what Second Peter wrote in chapter 2.
He said that false prophets also arose among the people.
Such as there will be false teachers among you who will
secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the
master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift
destruction. And many will follow their
sensuality, and because of them, the way of truth will be
blasphemed. So here's this man, supposedly a
prophet, he might even be a priest if his father's actually
the one mentioned in Chronicles. And he and he, he encourages
Nehemiah to come hide in the temple.
He goes, you're defeated, Nehemiah, you can't win.
You got to stop this work. You got to stop right now,
protect yourself, run and hide and retreat rather than
complete. That's going to be a challenge
in all of our lives to give up. Listen, for the last decades of
my life, I know churches and pastors, once on fire for the
Lord, now defeated and choosing to become safe little havens of
tiny groups of non disciple and Christians all across this
country, all across this county, across the state, and around the
world. And if we can't trick or shame
you, Nehemiah, maybe we can weaken you to make really bad
sinful choices. You can hear the snake
whispering, same thing you did to Eve.
Same thing he does to you and to me.
Think of yourself, you can't win.
Be safe. Listen to what Nehemiah says in
verse 11. But I said, should a should such
a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go
into the temple and live. I will not go in.
See, he knew this was a violation of the law.
It's a blatant violation of the Mosaic Law.
There was a provision that the court of the temple could be a
place of sanctuary for people fleeing others, but the law
clearly stated that only the priest could enter the building.
So Nehemiah had no right to go in and close the door.
In fact the the Old Testament would say that non non priests
who went there would die in the word of God.
So hiding in the temple was not where Nehemiah belonged.
Running and hiding is not our our strategy.
This false prophet was not declaring a word from the Lord,
but rather a word from the enemies who hired him.
He was a mercenary, and Nehemiah knew he sought to lead him to
choose sin, and frankly, this fraud would pay for it according
to God's word in the law. In Deuteronomy 18 it says, But
the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I
have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of
other gods, that same prophet shall die.
So don't pretend you're speaking for God when you're not.
Make sure that you're abiding in His word.
We must handle the word of God carefully and rightly.
This midweek, this Wednesday night, we've been doing a series
on engaging the Bible. This week we're going to talk
about how do I actually teach other people what I've learned?
We're going to do workshop style.
We've been talking about how we interpret and how we apply.
Now what do I do? How can I share what I've
gleaning out of God's word? This revelation God's given me
out of his word. How can I share that with other
people? Look at verse 14.
Remember Tobiah and Sabalot, Oh my God, according to these
things that they did, and also the prophetess Noah die and the
rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid.
Comfort, personal comfort is often not worth the price of
sin. It might cost you.
Once again, Nehemiah asked God to remember those who sought to
violate His Word. Satan doesn't want you to deny
yourself. Satan doesn't want you to grow
as a disciple. Satan doesn't want you to
fulfill the mission of God. He doesn't want you to follow
the Seven Essentials of disciple.
He doesn't want you to participate 100% in what we're
doing and what God's leading us to do here.
He wants you to be selfish. He wants you to be weak.
He wants you to be comfortable. In fact, He'll raise others up.
He will to convince you that that's OK, that that's the right
way, because it's normal. It's normal to be that way in
our culture today. It's normal.
He'll raise up others to convince you of that.
Cheap discipleship is very common.
It's normal, but that doesn't make it the right choice.
Easy Christianity. I, I I spent so much time with
thousands of leaders and hundreds of churches all around
this planet. Easy Christianity, easy church,
where all my felt needs are met the way and exactly when I want
them to be. Where all my itches are
scratched to my personal satisfaction.
But with no expectation of sacrifice, no expectation of
submission, no expectation of service.
These are very, very common defeated churches where you,
you, you can be nothing more than an attending spectator
consumer with no real personal or spiritual commitment.
No, no, no investment. These are prevalent.
This is normal. But I pray it.
By now you know that I'm seeking a new normal, a different
normal. In fact, these churches call me
for help. They still do Talk to 1 this
week, call me for help, and I show them the poor decisions of
defeat that they've made to put themselves into positions of
spiritual weakness and complete impotency.
And some of them learn, most don't.
So Nehemiah could not be persuaded to live in such
defeat. I pray that you protect your
families, I protect you protect your children, you protect this
church and and as leaders we have to do that.
And those Scottish pastor once said my my people's greatest
need, my people's greatest need is my personal holiness, my walk
with God. Now some of the most important
words in the entire book of Nehemiah are next verse 15.
So the wall was finished on the 25th day of the month in law, in
52 days, in 52 days. And when all our enemies heard
of it, all the nations around us were afraid and felt great and
felt greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that
this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.
Now I just want you to see what God does when His people focus
and unite to serve. He creates A glorifying
testimony to Himself and He fulfills His mission and and we
see the defensive walls of Jerusalem, which were in ruins
for years, finished in 52 days. Now that's amazing.
It's an incredible, but that's exactly the business of our God,
the amazing and the incredible. That's what he does with a
people who are focused. Never underestimate what he can
do with the church that cares, with the church that's seeking
to serve him. Never underestimate that in this
world of apathy, in this world of rebellion, God is looking for
a people through which to do the next new amazing and miraculous
thing. And his enemies were humbled.
It's interesting, isn't it? Turns the tables on them.
God does. They were trying to make
Nehemiah afraid. We're going to try to make you
all fear. We're going to make you all too
afraid to do the work. Instead, they're afraid because
they knew that God was at work. Just turn the tables on the
enemy and see what happens. But to the bitter end, He never
sleeps, He never relents, He never gives up.
Look at verse 17. Moreover, in those days the
nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah and Tobiah's
letters came to them and for many and Judah were bound by
oath to him because he was the son-in-law of Shekinah, the son
of Arah and his son Jeho. Jehoanan had taken the daughter
of Mushulam, the son of Berekaya as his wife.
Also they spoke of his good deeds in my presence and
reported my words to him. Tobias sent letters to make me
afraid. So scheme #4 unhealthy
relationships and influences. This is important for your
families. Tobiah had business dealings
with and or was related to people inside of Jerusalem, OK,
even some of the priests, the Hebrew wording suggests he had a
business agreement with them. And so the, the, the tribe of
Judah, the people of Judah had been telling the enemy all along
everything that was going on. These insiders were like spies.
And, and, and Nehemiah was even told how good Tobiah was.
And Tobiah is one from the very beginning, seeking to sabotage
the very work that God had called him to do.
A little fox will tear down that wall.
What do these Jews think they're doing?
And he was being told how great this guy was.
I mean, how disappointing that must have been to Nehemiah.
Your own people choosing to be close to the enemy.
The tribe of Judah, the lineage of Jesus was misguided by
unhealthy relationships and influences.
And remember, earlier in the book, these were the ones that
said the work was too hard. We can't do this for the enemies
around us. So we need to be very careful.
You need to be careful with your children.
You need to be careful with your families.
We need to be careful as a church with whom we have our
closest alignment. With whom do you align yourself?
Check. Check your loyalties.
Check your allegiances. With whom are your or your
children's closest relationships, and for who?
And for what are they living? How does God lead those
relationships right? Do they lead you closer to
fulfilling God's purpose for your life?
What is your level of dependency upon those relationships?
Because we're destined for failure if we're only dependent
upon man. I don't know if you know this or
not. We're all sinners.
If you're a Sinner, raise your hand now.
If you didn't raise your hand, you just lied and you just
sinned. So we're all sinners and we will
fail one another. I promise you, you will.
We will do things we don't like to one another.
We will say things we don't agree with.
I wish you hadn't done it that way.
All these things are good because we're sinners and we're
imperfect. This is going to happen.
So we've got to recognize that what binds us together is not
us. What binds us together is Jesus
Christ and the Spirit. We need to be driven by a
dependency upon Him. So Nehemiah then begins to
strategize for their next best steps.
So listen and learn from these strategies for yourself, for
your family, for the church. So look at verse 1 of Chapter 7.
Now when the wall had been built and I'd set up the doors and the
gatekeepers, the singers and the Levites have been appointed, I
gave my brother Hanani probably and Hananiah, the governor of
the castle charge over Jerusalem.
For he he was a more faithful and God fearing man than many
Strategy number one. Properly positioned leaders are
absolutely vital for your family and for the church.
Nehemiah knew they needed focused leadership for the
future. There was a reason they rebuilt
these walls. Don't miss this.
They were a testimony to God's faithfulness.
I promised you with prophets ahead of time, I'm going to
bring you back from the exile and, and this is being
fulfilled. You're going to be able to
worship me again in Jerusalem. So there's a fulfillment here
and there's a fulfillment of his promise.
But building the walls was not the ultimate goal.
Building the walls was just the beginning.
That's not what they're ultimately they had to actually
occupy the city and live and worship Yahweh to show the world
who he was, to be a light to the Gentiles.
So Nehemiah appointed godly men to oversee city life.
We have to develop. We have to empower the right
people in the right positions to help us live for him.
That's true in your family. That's true at the church.
Leadership development, leadership alignment have to be
prioritized. So I'm begging you, pray for
those who are in authority here. Pray for those who are in
service. Pray for those who lead
ministries here and thank them for what they do.
Thank the people right now who are working in these hallways
with children and preschoolers, teaching them, helping them,
discipling them so that you could be here in worship.
Verse 3 And I said to them, let not the gates of Jerusalem be
opened until the sun is hot, and while they are still standing
guard, let them shut and bar the doors.
Appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, some
at their guard posts and some in front of their own homes.
Strategy #2 We have to protect. We have to guard our families.
Our families must be guarded. Listen, Nehemiah appointed
guards over the most vulnerable places.
What good are the walls, What good are the gates if nobody's
watching them? So these guarded passageways and
even in front of their own homes, closely monitored, Who
could come in? Who was going out, right?
It's, it's Nehemiah's neighborhood watch.
And we need spiritual neighborhood watch in our homes.
We need it in our church to protect our most vulnerable past
and our most vulnerable people. How am I protecting my home?
One of the great strengths of Inglewood Baptist Church,
whether you believe this or not, those listening online, those
who are checking us out as guests, listen.
One of the greatest strengths of Inglewood's Inglewood Baptist
Church is the fact that this is a multi generational church.
It's an incredible strength, the fact that you have mature older
believers from which you can learn, you have young families
with children that you can see the next generation coming up.
And together we formed a true family, just like a family would
be multi generational family seeking to disciple, seeking to
grow. So our families deserve solid
theology. Our families deserve solid
discipleship. They also demand our care.
They also demand our protection. And so we have multiple
generations here to equip, multiple generations to raise up
for the future and to send out. But it's not enough to build for
God's future if we don't seek to protect it.
And so faithful men and women at the gates and on the walls,
guarding their families, guarding their homes, guarding
the flock, working together in community to encourage and
protect against the weak, discipleship or preventing the
enemy from sneaking in. Nehemiah even commanded that the
gates had strict rules about when the gates could be open or
closed. They can only be open during the
daytime, only in the light. The darkness was too dangerous.
It's when we sleep in the darkness that the enemy will
creep in. Look at verse 4.
The city was wide and large, but the people within it were few,
and no houses had been rebuilt. Then my God put into my heart to
assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be
enrolled by genealogy. And I found the book of the
genealogy of those who came up at the 1st, and I found written
in it. These were the people of the
province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried into exile.
They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his town.
Strategy #3 Our flock demand identification.
Here's what I mean. There was plenty of room, but
there weren't enough people. They needed more people to
occupy the city. So who is going to be allowed to
live in Jerusalem? Who is going to be allowed
inside the city? All those who occupied the land,
even the enemies who were around them, People who'd been there
forever, who weren't even Jewish in their background, who was
going to be in? So Nehemiah had to identify the
flock with proper identification.
He had identified the proper citizenship who belongs to the
congregation and who are members of it and but who are members of
the surrounding communities and not yet members of the
congregation. We're still in the same work.
In December, we tried to make over 1000 contacts of inactive
church members and guests who had visited with us over the
last two years through our Connect Group ministries through
REACH, and we were able to to reach many of them.
Some of you may be here now. Thank you for coming.
And so this isn't just some crazy idea.
God was behind it. Then verse 5 says, then God put
into my heart to do this. When spirit filled leaders seek
God, he's going to guide them to biblically identify the people
ready for his future. So Nehemiah clarified the
population with a list of exiles who had returned years prior.
This same list can be found in Ezra chapter 2 and they're
listed by bloodline. We need to keep careful track of
who our family is. We have to define membership.
We have to define church member accountability.
We have to define church member care.
These things matter. We must guard a covenant.
Church membership made-up of the truly saved people of God born
into his bloodline. See, I'm thankful that my
salvation is not based on some earthly genealogy.
Ewart, Ewart, Ewart doesn't mean a whole lot.
I'm dependent on being born again into the bloodline of the
King. The name Jesus means everything.
And that's the only reason I'm allowed to officially belong.
The only reason the new members that were presented today, thank
you so much for joining us. They all trust in Jesus Christ.
They've all been born again into the bloodline.
Now look at verse 66. I know I skipped.
We don't have time for all the names, but listen to this.
The whole assembly together was 42,360.
Besides, they're male and female servants, of whom there were
7337, and they had 245 singers, male and female.
Now, why in the world do I care about that?
I just want you to hear a simple message.
The message is simply this. It's not simply to count the
people. That's not what we're trying to
necessarily do here. The message is, is that every
single person counts. We don't want anybody to drift.
We don't want anybody to be inactive.
We want everybody to be an official member.
And so that way we can have them in a covenant relationship, we
can help them grow and they can help serve here.
So it's important to fully appreciate who is already here
and those who still need to come.
There's still so many on the way that aren't here yet.
Now if you're if you're visiting, if you're a guest or
you're listening online, I want you to speak with us about
joining. A young man came up to me after
the first service saying I want to be baptized and let's
encourage members who aren't here to get back here.
It's time. Come on back.
Now. Look at verse 61.
The following were those who came up from Telmala, Tell,
Harsha, Cherub, Adan, and Imr, but they could not prove their
father's houses, nor their descent whom or whether they
belong to Israel. Skip to verse 64 These sought
their registration among those enrolled in the genealogies, but
it was not found there. So they were excluded from the
priesthood as unclean. The governor told them that they
were not to partake of the most holy food until a priest with
Urim and Thummim should arise. So there were some who couldn't
trace their lineage back there, right?
And so they couldn't serve in the temple in the same way until
God made a decision about them. And in the same way, there are
understood expectations for those people who are officially
church members at Inglewood. We very much welcome all of you
guests every week. We hope you come and you always
be with us. But only those born into the
family through salvation in Christ and and who have
testified through biblical baptism can be official members,
and only official members can serve in certain places in the
church. It has to be that way.
Nehemiah also accounts for the resources.
Look at verse 68. Their horses were 736, their
mules 245, they're camels 435 and they're donkeys. 6720
somebody at a corner on the donkey market.
Now. Now some of the heads of Fathers
houses gave to the work. The governor gave to the
treasury 1000 derricks of gold of 50 basins, 30 priests
garments and 500 minutes of silver.
And some of the heads of Fathers houses gave into the treasury of
the work 20,000 derricks of gold and 2200 minutes of silver.
And what the rest of the people gave was 20,000 derricks of
gold. 2000 Minas of silver and 67 priest garments.
Now I want you to see strategy #4 you may not like it, but it's
important. Stewardship requires
recognition. Listen, this isn't just about
money. It's not just about giving
things, it's about life. The general economic status of
these people could be seen in the number of their animals.
That's why that number becomes important.
Some of them are in a very fragile, meager state, but God
was still blessing them, and they still graciously supported
the worship that needed to take place, the temple work.
After all that hard work, they wanted this new future to
succeed. So they gave to it, they
supported it, and they were expected to give a portion of
what God had entrusted them with as part of their worship in a
moment. We're going to pass offering
place like we're doing every week.
That's not just so we can get your money.
In fact, if you're a visitor here, don't you give a dime.
Put your Next steps card in there.
Put your prayer requests in there.
Everybody can put their prayer requests in there so we can pray
for you. But when we pass that offering
plate as an act of worship, it's an act of recognition.
Nothing's changed. Stewardship has always been a
part of our spiritual health and discipleship.
And it's born from this understanding that everything
belongs to God. Listen for a minute.
The question is not how much of my money I should give back to
God. It's how much of God's money I
should keep for myself. It all belongs to him.
How much of God's money am I allowed to keep and still be
useful to him? But I would say the same thing
about your time, about your energy, about your skills, about
your experience, about your focus.
All of these pieces are part of our stewardship.
And I just know this. He will care for me far better
out of what remains than what I might retain if I don't
faithfully give out of a joyful heart of worship and
Thanksgiving. So watch these grateful people
after such a long, hard journey, graciously give to their future.
Invest in it now. Two more verses will close.
Look back at verse 1 of Chapter 7.
Now when the wall had been built, I had set up the doors,
and the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had
been appointed. Now you go all the way to verse
73. So the priests, the Levites, the
gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple
servants, and all Israel lived in their towns, and when the 7th
month had come, the people of Israel were in their towns.
The last little strategy is God's purpose can bring success.
Through several attempts. They tried to stop Nehemiah, try
to pull him off the wall. You got to stop that Nehemiah,
you can't do this. They tried to stop the people,
discourage them, even lie about him, but they never stopped.
And now the people were in their proper places.
And my friends, revival is just around the corner for them.
You do not want to miss next week.
It's it's the climax of the entire book to where revival
begins to break out next week. Could happen in your life, could
happen in your family's life, could happen in our church.
I'm praying for next week in a big way.
A quote attributed to Sir Sir Francis Drake can't say it, but
I can read it. Sir Francis Drake in 1577 goes
like this. Not sure he really said it, but
we'll say he did. Disturb us, Lord, when we are
too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true,
because we have dreamed too little, when we arrived safely,
because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, with when, with the abundance of things we
possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life.
Having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of
eternity, and in our efforts to build a new earth we have
allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly to venture on wider seas
where storms will show their mass will show your mastery.
We're losing sight of land. We shall find the stars.
We ask you to push back the horizons of our hope and to push
into the future. And strength, courage, hope and
love. Remain diligent, Inglewood, with
your families as a church. It's time to rise and finish
building. They're just a few gaps to fill
in now. We're getting closer, but don't
look back. Don't look back.
You're not going that way. Quit looking back there.
Look this way because God has a plan.
And like Nehemiah, remain focused.
Stack one rock at a time and then find another rock and let's
continue to build. The work has to continue.
There's too much at stake. The lost world's at stake.
This lost city is at stake. So we need to seek the glory of
God in our lives, in the lives of our families, and join Him in
redeeming the nation's. SO as we close, all I can say is
I'm sorry, Satan. I believe Inglewood Baptist
Church will just keep moving forward in worship and the work
of our King Jesus. You lose Father.
Thank you to what you have called us to.
It's not a small thing. We all have life, Father.
It's all we get. We're all doing it for the first
time. And so, Father, we'll make
mistakes along the way. We pray you'll forgive us.
But Father, you have grand purposes for our lives.
For some here at Salvation this morning, right now, I pray your
Spirit would just move in their hearts to recognize that the
testimony of baptism are new members or the sermon or just
your word that they need you for others.
The recognition I need to be baptized.
I need to share this testimony to the world or I need to
officially join the church I've been visiting long enough.
I need to join. And so, Father, I pray, Lord,
that whatever you're leading people to do this morning, that
will simply respond, Father, I pray that they'll come forward,
that they'll come and, and kneel at these steps in prayer.
They'll take a pastor by the hand or they'll go to our next
steps room and talk to a counselor in a private, discreet
conversation where they'll pray together and just discuss what
you're laying on their hearts. So Father, there's all kinds of
avenues, even the Next steps desk in the lobby.
So Father, there's no excuse. It's just time for surrender.
So, Father, I pray that we'll come and we'll we'll respond to
your calling in Christ's name. Amen.
Well, let's stand together. The worship team's going to lead
us. Some of the pastors will be
here. Our next steps room is open
there. There's another one out in the
lobby. And so you come, and you share
with us what God's laying on your heart.
Thank you so much for listening today, and I also hope that
you'll go to ourwebsite@englewoodbaptist.com
as well as our app and find many other resources that will bless
you and your families. Thank you once again.