10.05.2008 Nehemiah 2 - Joining God's Work

Audio

10.05.2008 Grace Summit Worship from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

10.05.2008 Small Groups at Grace Summit from Grace Summit on Vimeo

10.05.2008 Small Groups at Grace Summit from Grace Summit on Vimeo. 10.05.2008 Grace Summit Sermon - by Mike Marette from Grace Summit on Vimeo

I want to let you know that Rodney and Jody from Urban Vision will be here in 2 weeks on October 19th – Urban Vision is a mission to under-privileged youth – they have after school programs, Bible clubs on Saturdays, etc.

I wanted to mention that we are going to do a special “love offering” – a special offering at the end of the service for that ministry – I wanted to tell you that so you can be prepared. We don't regularly do special offerings...

I have an abbreviated message
Father, thank You for this day and all who shared – Lord, the encouragement to have those close, personal Christian friendships to challenge and hold us accountable that we might follow You. Help us to have those. That we might allow people to challenge our lives. Comfort us, strengthen us, give us the courage.

Sept. 14, 2001 – George Bush rallying the country because there is something that needs to be done. We have been looking at Nehemiah – and Nehemiah has a ‘finest moment’ –

Nehemiah 2:12 I set out during the night with a few men. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on. 13 By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Well and the Dung Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. 14 Then I moved on toward the Fountain Gate and the King's Pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get through; 15 so I went up the valley by night, examining the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered through the Valley Gate. 16 The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work
He rallies them together – you can see Nehemiah, well, we don’t really know what he looks like – but he probably looked like some Jewish guy 2400 years ago.

The need has reached critical point – the time to do the work
Nehemiah 2:17 Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace." 18 I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me.

God has been with me, now it is time to build the city – to rebuild the city. Nehemiah had his task. President Bush had his task – to protect the nation from terrorism. Just like Nehemiah – while we don’t have a wall to build, as Christians, we are making a call to rally the people. We have a building project God wants us to join in on – God wants us to rally to accomplish it.

Two times in verse 16, he talks about ‘the work’. The Christian life, when you boil it all down, is simply hard work. Never forget that – it takes daily hard work.

3 aspects –
John 6: 29 Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

We often think of faith as a feely gooshy thing. But it is a work.
It is a work to resist unbelief. Our natural tendency is to doubt. When things start to go haywire, it can grab and control us. It is work to resist that.

Ephesians – Paul talks about the armor of God – take up the shield of faith. You have to work at it. To grab it and take it up – that you might extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one.

This shield – like a giant piece of wood covered in animal fur – They would shoot arrows soaked in pitch – and would light them – and the arrows would often hit and the pitch would seep through the armor and burn them. The animal fur attached to the shield would extinguish the arrows.

We have mixed up simple faith (trusting in the gospel for our salvation) – with naïve faith. God wants us to understand our faith – to do the hard intellectual work of really knowing what we believe. Not just saying – 3 points and that is my faith. What does the Bible say – what does it mean to be a Christian? What is the gospel? It is not 3 points. It is written in a big thick book that thousands of books have been written about. We need to do the hard work. We have sound-bite faith – like presidential debates- there is no depth there.

Lee Strobel
Tim Keller
Rob Bell
Ravi Zacharias

Phil. 2: 12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;
This is not working FOR our salvation – but us becoming like Christ – that is work. It is a work that we must do. It is the disciplines of the Christian life. It takes work and doesn’t just happen by osmosis. The strength comes from God. He gives you the desire to do it. It is confusing. God is doing the work, but we are doing the work – Too often it is one or the other – “Let go and let God…” – but we have to work. He connects the two – we can’t explain how it is that God gives us the desire, the energy and the will – but in the middle here: “With fear and trembling” – with reverence and humility.

The third aspect of the work
Eph. 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.
Salvation is not a work, it is by faith = but then he says this:
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
You have been saved by grace, but you have been saved FOR good works. We are created – to do that which was prepared for us to do.

Eph 4: 11 And He gave some [as] apostles, and some [as] prophets, and some [as] evangelists, and some [as] pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;

There are good works for us to do and there is service we are to do in the church.

This past week, we had a ministry team meeting. I talked a little about our church structure – Sunday Morning stuff – that is one aspect of our church.
Small groups – all shapes and sizes. They are small. Not all sizes.

Ministries. Men’s, Women’s, Children’s
Outreach – Mission – both locally and internationally.
These are things we do – but it is not our work.
The purpose – maturing – becoming mature Christians, growing in our relationship with God and with one another. Sunday morning requires a lot of work – but the point is not to have a Sunday morning service, but that we might all grow. Same as small groups – not just to check it off a list. It is for our spiritual growth.

Lord, thank You – We ask You to help us – help us to focus our attention on doing the work – it is an important work. It takes workers who are willing to do the sacrifice – in Your name we pray.