Building the Right Way
Building for the Right Reasons
February 18, 2007
Building for the Right Reasons
How the Walls were Ruined…
About 1,000 years before Jesus was born, David became king of Israel.
After David, his son, Solomon was king,
and after Solomon, the kingdom was split in half:
the southern half became known as Judah
and the northern half was still called Israel.
Well, both these kingdoms had bad king after bad king. Both kingdoms were worshipping other gods and living immoral lives but the northern kingdom was a little bit worse than the southern kingdom, so God allowed the Assyrians to conquer the northern kingdom, but not the southern kingdom.
But even after the northern kingdom was disciplined by God, the southern kingdom still didn’t learn their lesson, so God allowed them to be conquered as well — about 130 years later.
Nehemiah: Cupbearer to the king
But by that time, the Assyrians had been conquered by the Babylonians. So it was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon who carried the southern kingdom away into exile.
Well, 47 years later, the Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Persian Empire under King Cyrus.
So the Jews, who had been the slaves of the Babylonians, now became the slaves of the Persians.
Cyrus is the king that we read about in the book of Ezra who allowed the Jews to begin returning home again.
51 years after Cyrus, the king of Persia was a man named Xerxes, who we read about in the book of Esther.
His son, Artaxerxes, is the one we’re going to be reading about in the book of Nehemiah.
So the events of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther took place during the same period in Jewish history.
Actually, in the Hebrew Bible, Ezra and Nehemiah are the same book because they’re basically telling the same story: Ezra tells the beginning, Nehemiah tells the end, and the story of Esther takes place in between.
In fact, if you remember the story of Esther, she was Queen of Persia and king Xerxes was her husband.
In the book of Nehemiah, the king of Persia is king Artaxerxes, who was the son of king Xerxes and quite possibly the son of Queen Esther as well,
which would account for his kindness to the Jews that we’re going to see in the book of Nehemiah.
So, just so we’re clear, the Jews were carried away into captivity by the Babylonians, but were allowed to return by the Persians.
And they returned home in three waves or groups:
The FIRST GROUP of Jews to return to their homeland was led by SHESHBAZZAR.
The SECOND GROUP was led by ZERUBBABEL, who rebuilt the Temple.
(Haggai and Zechariah were both prophets during this time)
The THIRD GROUP was led by EZRA,
but when they encountered difficulty in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, Nehemiah came to help.
Whew… I hope you got it all! Now we are up to our story of Nehemiah.
Report from his brother Hanani about the repatriation of Jerusalem and how things were going. The report was not good. In fact it was pretty bad. The city was being rebuilt but it wasn’t safe. There was no security.
This is the story of how Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in just 52 days. Not in 52 years. Not in 52 months – 52 days. No cranes, no backhoes, bull dozers or land crawlers. There was nothing yellow like a caterpillar or green like a Deere in sight – this was done all by hand and animal power. And all of it was done with the constant threat of attack by those who did not want the wall built.
But before we get to how Nehemiah completed this wall we need to start with why.
Why did Nehemiah build the walls and by extension I want to have lingering in your mind the question why are we wanting to build the walls at 2600 Bennett Avenue?
Broken Walls and Burned Out Gates
3 They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”
Nehemiah 1:3
Nehemiah immediately identifies two serious and troubling problems.
Trouble
First, those who have survived the exile and are now back in the promised land are in serious trouble.
misery, suffering, i.e., a feeling or attitude of anxiety or distress
What is that serious trouble? There city was not safe and secure. There were no walls to keep out the marauders and those who would rob and intimidate the people. Walls were a way to protect their families and their lives.
The second was that the fact that their walls were broken and gates were burned was a matter of great disgrace.
Disgrace
disgrace, contempt, i.e., the state of dishonor and low status
We like to have nice places to live. Human kind is not slovenly. Some years ago Donna and I traveled to Venezuela and visited the barrios of Caracas. The men folks carried sacks of cement down the side of a hill and to pour a concrete floor one afternoon while the women folk worked at helping out in some of the houses – little more than tin roofs over packing boxes.
The remarkable thing was that even in this place of abject poverty there was a desire to fix the place up. They used magazine pages as pictures that were hung on the walls of their homes…
Yet in Jerusalem they were living in a place that was disgraceful. It was unkempt and in ruins. It’s tough to be proud and feel good when you are living in a place that is run down and a mess.
We are Building Walls of Joy & Excellence
Front elevation
Walls of Joy
We have walls here. And they aren’t terrible. Our trouble isn’t one of fear from attack and misery from worry that enemies will come in and destroy us. Our distress is more in just not having walls that are safe, secure and permanent.
We’ve had a good relationship with the schools over the years but I worry about a change in the guard, a change in the policy, a change in the rental fees, a change in the people we work with.
I always think about the people of Joseph who entered into the land of Egypt as favored guests and left as scorned slaves.
Folks… look around you… this is Egypt. And in some ways, just like when the people of Israel left it was a difficult trip, our journey will be hard and harsh at times. There will even be some who oppose our move but at the end of our wilderness wandering (Hopefully a lot less than 40 years) we will come to a promised land of milk and honey.
Walls of Excellence
Our God is a God of excellence.
Do you see anything in the universe that would indicate anything else?
Listen, As comfortable and spacious as these walls here at CMS are it is really hard for us to minister here with the kind of excellence that God deserves.
Certainly we aren’t filled with shame and there is no disgrace in being in a school but… We can’t decorate and it isn’t easy to take pride in what God is doing here.
I long for – you would not believe how much I long for walls for us to gather for worship that is focused on giving glory and honor to God. How wonderful and exciting it will be to have walls that are decorated Bible stories and are steeped with the message of love from God. I want walls that are a place of teaching, encouragement, and joy for our children and the kids in our community.
Overcoming Sin
I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you. 7 We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.
Nehemiah 1:6 –
Nehemiah understood the history of his people and the damage that had been done to his nation – because of their refusal to honor God.
Instead they had become a nation focused on their own ego-centered lives. They had chased the success myths of their age and it had led them into captivity and slavery.
Our nation has become a society and a culture that is so besotted with sin that we have called accepted evil as normal, lust as love, violence to be expected and greed as good.
On January 23, 1996 a minister of the Central Christian Church by the name of Joe Wright was asked to pray in the house of the Kansas Legislature.
Everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but what they heard was quite different.
The response was immediate. One of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest.
But in the 6 weeks following, Central Christian Church logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church received requests for copies of this prayer from all over the world including India, Africa, and Korea.
Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on "The Rest of the Story" on the radio and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.
Prayer of Joe Wright
"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says ’Woe to those who call evil good,’ but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We confess that.
We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it Pluralism.
We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.
We have endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.
Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of Your will.
I ask it in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen"
Walls that Honor God
Front Elevation
We are building because we have come from a life of captivity and slavery and now we want to honor God
When I think of what I have done and where I have been and the fact that Jesus did what he did for me… I’m filled with a desire to honor God with my life!
Many Cathedrals have been built to point to this very fact.
That is one of the reasons we are building a worship room we can play in and not a play room to worship in – there is a difference!
We have limited space on this piece of property and we must use it effectively. I’m excited about what we can do in this building that brings honor to God! Volleyball, youth lockins, and all kinds of childrens ministry.
Why to bring honor and glory to a God that loved me so much that he cleansed my soul from the stain of sin.
I can never pay God back and that’s not the point. It is simply a hunger in my soul to become all that God planned for me to be.
An Exiled People
9 but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’
Nehemiah 1:9-10
Israel had been destroyed. It’s fields ruined. The best and the brightest of the population had been dragged off into slavery. The rest had been left in complete and utter ruin. All they had were memories of a beautiful city set on a hill. And in the center of that city was a temple where God lived.
Jerusalem was like a brilliant light that attracted all of its children to come home in the days of Nehemiah. It still is today.
We’ve seen the same attraction in our own time. As recently as 1949 Israel was established as a nation and the Jewish people have been going home ever sense.
It’s still a difficult task. There are still those who oppose Israel and seek to destroy it – just as in the days of Nehemiah as we’ll see in the next few chapters.
But Israel is drawn to Jerusalem as it’s holy city.
Jerusalem is still an image today of the beautiful city of God.
Walls for All People
elevation
The church is the only organization in the world that does not exist for itself. We are building a beautiful city of God.
We are not building a club house for the members of the club. We are building a center of ministry, praise, and power. We are building walls that will be open to all who would come to be fed spiritually.
We are building these walls in this community so that we can invite them home – not just for a few earth years – but for all of the universe’s infinite eternity.
I spoke recently to one of the neighbors about our project and I was surprised at their interest in our church body. They wanted to know what we believed, what we were about and why we wanted to build these walls. I was pretty well grilled for over 20 minutes and asked point blank, what about people who are gay? I told her that it didn’t matter what people did whether it was homosexuality, adultery, greed, murder, stealing, lying, or gluttony – we accepted everyone and introduced them to Jesus. And Jesus transforms lives. He changed me and he will change those who come – every one of them.
So why are we building?
Let me introduce you to another prophet who came a few years later. He spoke to the people after the temple had been rebuilt in the days of Nehemiah but then fell into disrepair from neglect. Haggai speaks words of great power that answer the question better than I can.
2 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come for the LORD’s house to be built.’ ”
3 Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”
Haggai 1:3-4
We are building because it is time. We have been Egypt far too long. We are building to have walls of Joy and excellence. We are building walls that honor God and are for all people.
Will you come and make these walls a place of joy and excellence?
Will you come and worship in these walls?
Will you invite others to these walls?
Will you give offerings and help build these walls?
With your Help and God’s Favor we will build these walls!
Close – come to prayer
