Transcript December 26/27, 2015 Rise and Build: Rise and Build Matt Hessel Nehemiah 2:9-18 Merry Christmas Traders Point! I hope your Christmas was fantastic. I hope you got to spend it with friends and family. If you ve got kids I hope you got to sleep past 6:00 on Christmas morning. Let s be honest. I doubt that actually happened. I can assure you that didn t happen for me. So today is a little bit different for us as a church, but this is meant to be a gift first and foremost to our volunteers. So many of you serve so faithfully every week to remove barriers so that people of all ages might be able to hear the Good News of the gospel and also grow deeper in their faith in Christ. So, as a church, we just want to say, Thank you to you. I also want to encourage you to keep going. Just keep going. We also want this to be an opportunity. I hope now you are gathered with family or friends or as a Life Group to worship together and then to discuss this to sharpen each other. I hope you ve taken that opportunity. Today, even though we re not gathered on the Northwest campus, we re still the church. We re just scattered. We will always be a church that gathers and scatters. Next weekend we ll take that to an entirely new level. Next weekend will be the first time in our church s 181 year history that we will be one church in multiple locations with the launch of the North campus. What I want to do today, I just want to take a few moments to look at what might be coming for us in 2016, to look what God might have for us to do, and to look at what we can actually set our sights on regarding mission as a church. So if you ve got a Bible with you go ahead and open it up to Nehemiah 2. Nehemiah is in the middle of the Old Testament, right between Ezra and Esther. While you are getting there, let me give you a little background. So Nehemiah is part of the historical account of the Jews returning to Jerusalem after they were in captivity in Babylon. What happened was, Jerusalem was completely overrun and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. He was the King of Babylon at that point in history. Nebuchadnezzar came in, he completely tore down the walls of Jerusalem, he burned them to the ground, he destroyed the city, he killed most of the Jews and then the ones who survived he took back with him to Babylon as captives. They ended up staying there for 70 years. That would be like being taken captive by ICIS and then being taken back to Iraq and Syria and having to stay there until 2086. That s kind of hard to imagine. Then finally, after 70 years of captivity, the new King of Babylon, Artaxerxes, says to the Jews, You know what? You guys have been here long enough. Go. You can go home. You are free to go back to Jerusalem. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.
Rise and Build: Rise and Build December 26/27, 2015 That was actually prophecy being fulfilled. God had warned His people that they would be taken captive and be in captivity for 70 years. That s exactly what happened. And now through God s providence and His sovereignty, using Artaxerxes, He is saying, It s time to go home. It s time to go back. That s what s going on to setup Nehemiah. So what I want to do is read from verse 9 through verse 18 and then I want to look at just a few things that jump out. So look at verse 9. Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that s Judah, and gave them the king's letters. Like their passports. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel. So I went to Jerusalem and was there three days. Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. And I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no animal with me but the one on which I rode. I went out by night by the Valley Gate to the Dragon Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King's Pool, but there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass. Then I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall, and I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, and I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work. Then I said to them, You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision. And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for the good work. Having your walls destroyed and your gates burned down was really the most drastic and obvious display of the people s trouble, their pain, and their shame. I mean no walls, no gates; that meant no security. That meant no establishment. That meant no identity. And it also meant very little, if any at all, hope. I mean, in the context to have your walls destroyed and burned to the ground was one of the greatest humiliations you could suffer as a people because it meant you were nothing. You had no hope. You were completely helpless. And to have another people come in and tear down your walls, to burn them, to destroy your city, to kill most of the inhabitants and then to take the survivors captive, that meant that you were nothing. That s exactly what s going on here. But what we can see now that God s people couldn t see at the time is that the walls would be rebuilt. God s people would be redeemed. They would have a mission to fulfill. And Nehemiah knew this because God had laid it on his heart. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 2
Rise and Build: Rise and Build December 26/27, 2015 But what does this mean for us? How does this parallel us today? Well first, Nehemiah went out and walked all around Jerusalem inspecting walls. What he was doing was he was assessing the situation. We ve got to do the exact same thing. We ve got to look at what s going on around us. We can t just stick our heads in the sand. We just came out of our series called Camelot is Burning, and one of the things we said was we ve got to be real. We ve got to look at what s really going on in our lives, and our homes, and our church. We ve got to look at what s really going on around us. There are certainly good things that are going on around us. There re probably good things that are going on in our lives, and our homes. There re probably some good things that are going on in our church. There re good things that are going on around us in the world. But have you ever noticed that the news is usually dominated by bad news as opposed to good news? I understand that is a sales tactic. I get that. You certainly can t believe everything that s on the news. But that might be a really good barometer of what s actually going on around us in the world. Here s the current situation. Right now there are 1.7 million people in Indianapolis who are not connected to a local church. And right now in the United States the fastest growing religious category is no religion at all. All around us it seems like families are falling apart. Human trafficking has become a global pandemic. Racism right now is almost as volatile as it was in the 1960s. Every year more and more kids grow up without a father. Mass shootings and terrorism have become commonplace. God forbid, there re almost expected now. Right now there are 16 states that have more people in prison cells than in college dorms. I think it s safe to say that in our communities, in our city, in our country walls have been broken down. And we re right in the middle of it. But unlike God s people when they return to Jerusalem from captivity with a sense of hopelessness, we know we still have hope. We know that Jesus will redeem and restore. We know that as bad as it is right now, and even when it gets worse, Jesus will still be victorious. He will still make all things new. Even though the darkness is thick around us, that s the chance for the light to shine all the brighter. And just like God s people returning to Jerusalem having a mission, we ve got a mission too. So here s the question we ve got to ask ourselves in 2016: What are we building? And what we build as a church starts with what we build as individuals. Are we trying to build our own personal Camelot? Or, are we trying to build and be part of something that s much bigger than ourselves? If we are trying to build our own Camelot, all we re doing is building an illusion. It s something, at best, that is temporary. But if we re building God s Kingdom that s real, and that s eternal, and that s what the mission is. Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 3
Rise and Build: Rise and Build December 26/27, 2015 commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. That s the mission. And that sounds an awful lot like what the people said in Nehemiah 2. Let us rise up and build. So it s easy for us to get wrapped up in our own lives. It s easy for us to get wrapped up in ourselves and not be able to look beyond ourselves and see what God might be calling us to do on a much greater scale. It s easy to do that. I get it. It s easy to try to build a kingdom based around our own lives. I m guilty of that. And that s probably a tension we will always have to manage; to keep ourselves in check to see what we re really focused on. Am I focused on myself or am I focused on the Lord? Am I focused on myself or am I focused on the mission? Whenever we focus on building our own kingdom, we re never really satisfied. We re never fully content. We always feel like we need more stuff, and money, and affirmation. We feel like we have to take it to the next level. A couple of weeks ago I was watching the sequel to Wall Street, which is all about building your own kingdom. One of the characters who was worth billions of dollars and had created this massive empire for himself was asked what his number was. What number, specifically, monetarily, what number would he need to get to in order to stop building? I think his answer was very telling and it might be very true of us at times if we are not careful ourselves, maybe to different extents. He said the number he would reach in order to stop building was more. His number was more. At first glance, the ambition and work ethic with that might seem a little admirable, but then we realize it is greed. Then if you really look at that, if you really pull back the layers on that, that s exhausting. That s depressing. Here s what I ve learned, and I ve had to learn this the hard way at different times. Building my own kingdom is exhausting, but building Christ s kingdom is exhilarating. There s always far more joy attached to building Christ s kingdom as opposed to my own. Are we building for the Lord or are we building for ourselves? Because when we build our own kingdom we are never fully satisfied and we re always exhausted. But when we build God s kingdom, when we re on mission, yes it will be hard and yes it will be tiring, but it will be exhilarating. We serve a God who wants us to have joy. Whenever we re on mission, whenever we re trying to build the Lord s kingdom, there s always joy attached to it. That s how great and gracious our God is. We get joy from building His kingdom, not necessarily our own. And if we re on mission, if we re building God s kingdom, then that could be a little overwhelming just looking at the current situation. There are 1.7 million people, that number is hard for us to wrap our minds around. That s a big number. Global initiatives and needs, human trafficking, racism, where do we start? That s kind of overwhelming. Here s what we need to remember: You build a wall one brick at a time. That s one invite to coffee at a time, one conversation at a time, one sacrifice at a time, one act of service at a time, one explanation at a time, one encouragement at a time, one person at a time. We build a wall one brick at a time. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 4
Rise and Build: Rise and Build December 26/27, 2015 That takes a lot of intentionality. It might even scare us a little bit because it makes us think we need to add more to our schedules. We want to guard our schedules. I get it. But ask yourself this regarding your schedule: Am I busy or am I building? There can be a difference between the two of those. Is my schedule just busy with activities, even good things, but lacking in intentionality? Or am I busy building, wherever I m at, whatever I m doing? At home, at work, at school, at practices, with friends, family, wherever I m at or whomever I m with am I building? Am I being intentional? God is building His kingdom and we not only get to be a part of it, but He called us to the job. So don t get overwhelmed by looking at the magnitude of the wall that has to be built. Don t get overwhelmed by it. Just take it one brick at a time, one person at a time. Every day the most important person is the person right in front of you. Be intentional. Build. 2015 was a great year for us as a church. Over 350 people were baptized. Eighteen different short term mission trips were sent all over the country and all over the globe. We were able to serve over 300 adults with special needs at the starry night prom. Right now there are just under 3,000 individuals in Life Groups going on. Our age level ministries are exploding. We were able to give over $1 Million outside of our church to the community and all over the globe. We re getting ready to launch a new campus next weekend. This was a great year for us. This is fantastic. And God gets all of the glory. But as amazing as those things are and they are incredible, awesome things, it s not enough. It s not enough. There are still more who need Jesus. There re still more who need to hear the gospel. There re still more who need to be served. There is still more that needs to be given. There re still more who need to be connected in and to the church. There re still more places to go. There is still more that needs to be built. Our number should never be more for ourselves; our number should always be more for God s kingdom. The minute we step back and sit down and are satisfied with the work that s already been done, that s the minute that we ve taken ourselves out of the game. And make no mistake, there are no bench players, there re no bench warmers in God s church. There re none. There are only starters. We all play different positions but we re all called to be in the game. And if there are players who are sitting on the bench, the whole team suffers. So if you are not in the game get in the game in 2016. And as a church the more people we have in the game the further we get to go. And yes we should praise the Lord and thank Him for what He has done. We should reflect on what God has done and be in awe of Him, not ourselves, because He is the One who did the work, not us. But we can never be satisfied, not yet. We ve got to keep going. Whenever we are on mission we can expect to face opposition. As soon as Nehemiah and God s people started to rebuild the walls, opposition came almost immediately. As a church, we ve faced opposition in the past. We have. And we will face it in the future as long as we re on mission. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 5
Rise and Build: Rise and Build December 26/27, 2015 But here s the thing we ve got to keep in mind. Everyone wants to be part of a movement as long as it looks great and it costs little. But a true movement has a steep price, and it will face opposition, and those who are a part of it will recognize the immeasurable value of it. So let s count the cost. Let s expect opposition. Opposition is going to come in different forms to you as an individual and it will come to us as a church. Let s be prepared by it, don t be discouraged by it. In fact, take it as an encouragement because if we re not facing any form of opposition it might be a good indication that we re not building anything that s eternal. Nehemiah said that God s hand was on him for the good. That s what our prayer should be as individuals and as a church; that God s hand would be on us because if God s hand is not on us our work will be in vain. It will. We are very important to God. The cross is the greatest proclamation of our importance to God. We re loved deeply by Him and He has called us to be on intentional mission. But on our own we have neither the ability to fulfill nor the power to distribute God s plans. We just don t. The power to complete the mission, the power to build God s kingdom, is not the result of our hands but it s the result of God s powerful hand on us. So, for 2016, as individuals and as a church, here s what we can pray for. Number one: Let s pray for God s hand to be on us. Let s pray for God s power and His favor so that more people would come to know Christ, that more people would grow, that more people would be connected, that more people would get served, that more campuses would be launched, that more people would be sent out, and that more of the darkness that we see in the world would be conquered by the light. Let s pray for God s power, let s pray for His favor. Number two: Pray for boldness. Boldness to do what God has asked us to do, boldness to build the wall, boldness to stand on truth with grace, and boldness to go where He has asked us to go. Number three: Let s pray for urgency. Let s pray for the urgency that s attached to the gospel because right now there are people who are facing a Christ- less eternity who don t know what they can have in Christ this minute. This might be the last New Year for you; this might be the last New Year for me. It just might. So let s pray that we have the urgency to live in 2016 like it s our last. Let s pray for God s direction. Let s pray that we would follow His direction, that it would be clear to us, and that we would not follow our own direction. And let s also pray for strength, that we would have the strength to do what He s asked us to do. But, more importantly, let s have the strength to be who He would ask us to be. Let s have the strength to face the opposition that s going to come for us. Let s pray that we have the ability to strengthen each other, that we could strengthen our hands for the good work. I want to finish by reading something to you. This is really meant to be a benediction for the New Year and also to start off 2016. This is Numbers 6:24. Here s what I want to bless you with. The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 6
Rise and Build: Rise and Build December 26/27, 2015 Traders Point, I can t wait to serve with you as a church in 2016. It s going to be so amazing for us to stand shoulder to shoulder on mission and build the wall one brick at a time. I love you. Have a great New Year. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 7