foundations 26

We are in chapter three of Nehemiah this week. This is one of those chapters that we love to practice speed reading on. But if you can get past the repetition of basically the same thing being said 32 times and get to the heart of the matter then it begins to come alive somewhat, at least for me.

I believe that this passage is an Old Testament picture of Ephesians chapter 4 and the building up of the body of Christ. Listen to Ephesians 4: 11And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 14As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

That is a picture of us. You and I are all parts of the body of Christ don’t think that because you don’t have one of the gifts listed that you don’t have to worry about building the body of Christ. We have all been placed into the body for a specific reason. We are all gifted specifically to build the body of Christ. You see the whole body is fit and held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part. You are a vital part of the body of Christ because the thing that you provide causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Without you being who you are supposed to be, without you fleshing out your calling to the Lord the body will not grow as it should. That is how important you are to the body of Christ. That is how important you are to Immanuel. God has called you here to help grow us up to what we are meant to be. That is a high and glorious calling that each and every one of us shares.
Now I’m going to read at least part of Chapter three but I am going to make some changes in it so that it will be more meaningful to us. “Then Jesus Christ the high priest arose with his brothers the priests and built the Sheep Gate; they consecrated it and hung its doors. They consecrated the wall to the Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel. 2Next to him the men of Portland and Franklin built; and next to them the Butler’s built. 3Now the Burysek’s built the Fish Gate; they laid its beams and hung its doors with its bolts and bars. 4Next to them the Jeff Johns family made repairs. And next to him the Jimmy Johns family made repairs. And next to him the Flick’s also made repairs. 5Moreover, next to him the Barnes’ made repairs. The Neff’s repaired the Old Gate; they laid its beams and hung its doors with its bolts and its bars. 7Next to them Hammonds also made repairs for the official seat of the governor of the province beyond the River. 8Next to him the McGee’s made repairs and next to them the Whiteheads made repairs, and they restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall. 9Next to them the Stephens made repairs. 10Next to them the Sercy’s made repairs opposite their house. And next to them the Spoons made repairs. The Nettles repaired another section and the Tower of Furnaces. 12Next to him the Bigbees, the official of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs, he and his daughter.

I could go on but I think you get the idea. Each one of us has been called to rebuild a section of the body of Christ, right where we are. I believe this may be one of the most neglected aspects of the Christian life in our day and age. We’ve turned our focus away from nurturing the church to full maturity toward turning it into a giant day care that we can fill with spiritual infants. But a house run by newborns will not last long.

Our calling as members of the body of Christ is to use what God has given us to grow the body up to full maturity. When the body is wounded God causes various smaller parts to come and repair the damage. That is our calling. We are to be ministering to the body of Christ repairing the damage by building each other up in Love which is keeping the commandments and staying on the path of life. You don’t have to have special skills to build up the body of Christ, you have to be humble before God, willing to do all that he asks, and walk on the path of life with your brothers and sisters. As you walk the path of life in your area, where you live then God will bring healing. God will begin to, in the words of the prophet Joel restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. The destruction that is in our lives comes from not being humble before God. God sent that destruction like an army to either destroy us or drive us to repentance.
If we humble ourselves, pray, seek the face of God and turn from our wickedness then God promises to restore to us the years that the locust has eaten. We build the body of Christ by humbling ourselves before God and letting him do the restoration. You see the Psalmist says: 1Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain that build it: unless the LORD keeps the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. 2It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he gives his beloved sleep.

While we are created to build up the body of Christ we must remember that while we labor it is God who does the real work. Unless he builds the house we labor in vain. This is why I called us last week to begin to ask God how to rebuild one small section of the body of Christ. He does the building. He knows how that part of the body is going to look like in the end. We don’t have a clue. It is my heart’s desire that God pour out his grace and mercy on this one section of the house so that we may all witness what restoration at the hands of God looks like. Our call is to build where we are at while at the same time making sure that we know that it is God who is doing the building.

Now what should we expect as we try to walk on the path of life and rebuild the wall? Trouble and discouragement. Look at chapter 4 of Nehemiah. 1Now it came about that when the enemy heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious and very angry and mocked the church. 2He spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria and said, "What are these feeble Christians doing? Are they going to restore it for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble even the burned ones?" 3Now another one of the enemy was near him and he said, "Even what they are building--if a fox should jump on it, he would break their stone wall down!"
I want you to understand that the enemy doesn’t have to be outside of you. The enemy can be right in your own head. How many of you when you’re doing something and you screw up just beat your selves up? Do you ever say things like Idiot! To yourself in the midst of doing something. How about stupid or even worse things that I won’t say here today?
How about when you’re trying to walk on the path of life? Do you hear things like “I can’t believe you’re trying to be good. You can’t do this. There’s no way. You’re too messed up to do this right. You’re only going to bring everybody else down with you. What ever you do isn’t going to be good enough. You’re feeble attempts are just going to come crashing down all around you.” Sometimes, maybe most of the time, the old us is the worst enemy we have.

That is a part of the struggle of the Christian life in this age. There are two of us living in the same body the old man who is dying and the new man who is just starting to grow. The old man is not going to go without a fight. He is going to do everything he can to slow the growth of the new man. He is going to fight you every step of the way. But it is important that you understand that it is God who has called you to this task. It is God who says that you are holy and righteous in Christ Jesus. It is God who says that your sins are forgiven and that you are white as snow. If you are humbled before God then he holds you in his hand and no one can pluck you out. You were called before the foundation of the world to walk the path you are on and God will do everything to make sure you get to the destination and hear: Well done good and faithful servant.

You are his even when you screw things up. He will not let go of you. You cannot mess things up so bad that he will stop loving you. Now if he does love you, if you are his child you can expect a loving father to discipline you when you leave the path of life. He does that because he cares about you; because he wants what’s best for you. But the enemy cannot touch you unless the Lord gives him permission and even that is for your own good to humble you before God when you get out of line.

That criticism you hear in your head is nothing but lies. The construction that you do, the building up of the body of Christ that you do is good because in reality it is God doing the work- he just happens to be using your hands to get the job done.
One of the biggest and hardest parts of building the body of Christ is learning to hear the voice of the father and stop listening to the voice of the enemy.

We must remember that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. If we keep that in mind then it should be easier for us to pray the prayer of Nehemiah in verses 4 and 5 of chapter 4: 4Hear, O our God, how we are despised! Return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity. 5Do not forgive their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out before You, for they have demoralized the builders.

It’s important to understand that because our enemies are spiritual beings who have rebelled against God it is ok for us to pray that they not be forgiven. It is ok for us to pray that they be sent to hell because that is their destiny. There is no redemption possible for Satan and his followers. So pray against those voices that try to beat you down: that God would destroy them at the source.

For too long we have believed in a God that does nothing. A God that spoke once; long ago. A God that did miracles; long ago. A God that has given us a book and left us on our own with no hope of anything except a last minute rescue out of a wicked world. The church over the last 100 years has really become more deist than Christian. Even our conservative theology tells us that God doesn’t do anything any more. We won’t allow him to.

Oh sure we pray but we don’t expect much when we do. When our prayers are answered we say it was God’s will and when our prayers are not answered we say it was God’s will. We don’t expect God to actually intervene in our lives. At least not when it comes to causing us to stop sinning or changing our lives in any meaningful way. We have resigned ourselves to serving an impotent God. Sure we talk a good talk but look around at our culture: Does it reflect the fact that the church believes in a big and powerful God? No. It reflects that fact that we believe in evil being overpowering, wickedness being cool, godlessness being the way to get ahead. It reflects the fact that we believe lies instead of the truth.

I have ears; I heard and saw someone gasp last week when I said we needed to pray until something happens. Are we so used to nothing happening when we pray that we think the mess we’re in is all God wants for us?

The writer of Hebrews tells us that: All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. 12Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, 13and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

I am praying that God would pour out his grace and mercy upon us that our hands would be strengthened that we might be able to build the body of Christ. I am praying that our knees would be strengthened so that we may be able to walk on the straight and narrow path of life. I am praying that lame limbs will be healed.

Theology is not our hope. The bible is not our hope. Truth without the Spirit is dead. Faith without works is dead. Unless God takes us out of our heads and into life in the real world, the real messy, dysfunctional world and begins to heal it then we are only playing games. Until God starts to get personal and invade your space and convict you of your sin HE’s NOT YOUR GOD. The real God of scripture changes people. He doesn’t let them make friends with their dysfunction. He doesn’t let them pal around with the demons that have become their best friends. He saves to the uttermost. The Real God of scripture is not safe for the whole family. God is not safe but he is Good. And that is what we need. We need God to be good to us and do whatever it takes to stop us from playing around with our pet sins. The majority of people are not serious about putting an end to the sin in their life they prefer to micro manage it. As long as it doesn’t get out of line everything’s ok.

I want you to understand something if you are trying to put a leash on your sin then you are delusional because what has happened is that your sin has put a leash on you. It is controlling you while letting you believe that you’re in charge. Until you are solely on the leash of the God of scripture you are a slave to wickedness. God has called us to be slaves to righteousness. Slaves to life. How long will we play with death? How long will we keep pretending that everything is ok when our lives are falling apart on the inside.

These things are why I have called us first to humble ourselves before God and second to pray for Ian. We need a reference point of what God can do in the world. For most of us reading the miracles in the word of God has no more impact and is no more real that reading a novel. We have already convinced ourselves that those things don’t happen today. But the question is this has the mature come? Is the body of Christ mature? Because that is what the passage in Corinthians really says when the mature has come not the perfect. When the mature has come the gifts will cease. You take a look at the church today and tell me that it is mature with a straight face. If you do I will be glad to call you a liar. We need the gifts that each individual part of the body brings because we are anything but mature. The building up of the body of Christ is focused on one goal: maturity being the full stature of the man Jesus Christ. Until the church is the living, breathing image of Jesus Christ on the earth then we need all the help we can get.
We need the power of god because words alone are dead and meaningless. That is why I asked you to ask God for words – for something specific – because I believe that God will speak to us if we ask and listen. I expect God to give you words on how to pray. I expect God to be God: The same God that he was in the Old Testament: The same God that he was in the New Testament. He is the same now and forever. He is the one who said: I am the Lord I change not. If your God is not the same powerful God who does powerful things in the midst of a broken people then who has changed? Don’t let your theology get in the way of serving a living and active God. Don’t let your hard heartedness dictate what God can and cannot do.

I am asking you to continue to pray about what we should be praying for Ian. I’m going to ask you to do that for the rest of the month. There is no need to be in a hurry on this. It is better to hear what God has to say and act on it than it is to pretend we heard and be totally mistaken. I’m asking you to persevere in this asking. Like the woman before the wicked judge. That is where the ‘pray until something happen’s idea comes from. Get on God’s last nerve until he answers your request. If you feel like you need more then fast again. God honors men and women who humble themselves before him persistently.

Let me remind you of that Parable by reading it to you: Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, 2saying, "In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. 3"There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, 'Give me legal protection from my opponent.' 4"For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, 'Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, 5yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.'" 6And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge said; 7now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? 8"I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?"

I want you to understand that the son of man has come to Immanuel Baptist church and he is looking for faith. Will he find it in your heart? I pray that it be so.

Let’s pray: Oh Father, teach us to pray, show us what to pray, give us the perseverance to pray without ceasing until you answer our prayer. You are a good God and not an evil judge. You long to give us good things. We ask father that you would speak to us throughout the rest of the month those things that you would have us to pray for Ian. Have mercy on us oh Lord. Jesus please intercede for us. Holy Spirit intercede for us for we don’t know how to pray as we should. It is in Jesus’ power and authority that we ask these things. So be it. Amen.