2022-08-14 Retool - Nehemiah

When I was first pastoring in Reinland, south of Winkler, I worked elsewhere for two days a week. Some of that time I worked in the Décor Cabinet factory in Morden. Because I was only there two days a week, I worked wherever they needed me. Occasionally it was for maintenance, especially when they were replacing old equipment with new equipment and the production line would get adjusted. Since Décor Cabinets was a growing company, they were constantly shifting their equipment around and replacing equipment with newer equipment that would speed up the assembly line or improve the quality. They were always retooling. That’s what good companies do. When I talk to our son-in-law Richard about Kroekers potato farm, they are always getting new and better equipment, even redesigning their equipment so that it does the job better. They are always pursuing greater efficiency and greater productivity.

Retooling can refer to all kinds of things. The original and most natural meaning of the word has to do with getting new, literal, tools. However, it also speaks of learning new ways of doing things.

Nehemiah

That’s what we see with Nehemiah. As we learned last Sunday, Nehemiah’s job was to be the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes. A cupbearer’s job was to choose the wine for the king, taste it ahead of time to make sure it wasn’t poisoned and then serve it to the king. Sounds simple enough, but it was probably more complicated than we think. Certainly dangerous. It was also a position of high influence, after all, you were always in the presence of the king. You would need to be good and tasting wine and discerning which wine the King would want and good serving manners. But it really isn’t a skill that has much value anywhere else. Especially in light of what he proposed to King Artaxerxes in chapter 2. Let’s read the story and I’ll speak about it as it unfolds. (read 2:1-9) What Nehemiah is proposing is a radical departure from his normal duties. Later on, in Nehemiah 5:14 we find out that Nehemiah had also been appointed to be the governor of Judah by King Artaxerxes. How does wine tasting help you be a good governor? Here he is, in his normal job a cupbearer, now commissioned to build a wall and appointed as governor of a faraway province. It is also clear in the story that he was ready with a plan to present to the King when he had a chance. Was he just a natural born leader, or did he keep learning for the next task he was given? Likely both. Good natural born leaders keep learning so that they can continue to be good leaders.

It is quite likely that the description we have in chapter 1 of Nehemiah questioning his brother Hanani and his companions is a very brief description of lengthy conversations. I can well imagine Nehemiah asking them, not only about the current situation, but also about what it would take to rectify the situation. Based on the fairly detailed plan that he proposed to the King, it seems to me that Nehemiah had spent some of the time during those four months of mourning, fasting and praying in learning and planning should he be given the chance by the King to build the walls. King Artaxerxes was responsible for an entire empire. He made decisions all day that had major repercussions. He probably heard many half-baked plans that he denied. Nehemiah presented him with a clear plan, he knew what he was asking for; a definite time within which to build the walls, letters of authority to the governor of the region giving him safe-conduct, letters to get timber, likely from Lebanon, and the appointment as governor of Judah so that he had the authority to carry out his plan. He also received an armed escort. Officers and cavalry. This would have given him immediate authority as a representative of the King.

So off he went. (read 9-11a.) He’s arrived. Likely he’s presented the letters that establish him as the city’s new governor. But now he wants to build the wall. How should he proceed? Wisely Nehemiah checks things out personally before he presents his plan. (read 2:11-18) Nehemiah took the time to learn what the situation on the ground was really like. He had a heard a thorough report from his brother Hanani, but now he saw the situation firsthand. What could he really see at night? If it was a clear night with a full moon, quite a bit. Enough to find out that it was a daunting task. His horse couldn’t even get through the rubble at times. Everything was busted and broken.

Later on, when there was opposition to the building of the wall, Nehemiah learned about the threat and adjusted the building procedures, accordingly, placing guards and having people carry weapons wherever they went.

What we see is a man who kept on learning. He didn’t have the attitude that he already knew it all. He wanted to know as much as possible when he realized God was calling him to this big task of wall-building that he had no experience in.

Why did he keep on learning? Well first of all, I think it was part of his character. He was a wise person and I suspect he knew his scriptures. To learn from others is wise. (read Proverbs1:5, 6, 4:5-9) As long as you live, keep desiring to learn more so that you will have better understanding.

But why gain wisdom? Why pursue more understanding? What’s the purpose? There are many in life who keep learning information but continue to live unwise lives. Even worse, they continue to live purposeless lives. I love learning all kinds of things, but as I’ve said before, much of what I know is useless for everyday life and useless for the purposes for which God has called me.

For Nehemiah, his obvious purpose was to build a wall. But there was a much greater, deeper purpose. As I talked about last Sunday, he cared about the people of Jerusalem and Judea. He wanted them to have the security that the wall would bring. He also likely cared about the fact that the wall would protect the new temple of God, the place where God had chosen to live. It represented and was the focal point of the Jewish faith in God. That was where their offerings went and that was where the sacrifices that were prescribed in the books of the law were made. In 2:17 we see another reason. (read v17) In Nehemiah’s eyes, Jerusalem having a broken wall was a source of disgrace for the people of God and for God himself. He cared deeply about God’s reputation. In his prayer in chapter one, there is the implicit idea that if the temple and wall of Jerusalem were rebuilt, it would signify that God had forgiven them for the rebellion of their ancestors who had fallen into idol worship. His motivations were likely a combination of love for God and love for his people. Nehemiah had a vision for his people. A vision of his fellow Jews in Palestine living in a secure Jerusalem, worshipping God at the new temple and in the process, bringing glory to God. It was this vision that drove him to learn all he needed to know in order to bring it to fruition.

Growing your mind leads to growing God’s mission.

What is your vision? Your calling? What is our vision? Our calling?

You see, we have a calling on our lives. All of us have been called to love God with all our hearts, souls, minds and strengths. Then to love our neighbours as ourselves. These are high and noble callings.

We together as GFC have also decided on a mission statement. “GFC is a faith community, in a broken world, sharing the hope of freedom in Christ.” Why do we want to share the hope of freedom in Christ? Because to do so would be an act of loving God and loving people. If we truly believe that salvation is found in no one else than Jesus and that true freedom in life comes through worshipping and following him, we would do our best to share the good news about Jesus. True hope is found in him!

How do we carry out these callings? They are at once both simple to carry out and the most difficult of jobs. As we grow as people and as a community, we need to keep learning more and more what it means to love God, what it means to love people and what it looks like to communicate this good news to others.

Right now, Corrina and I are reading a book called Emotionally Healthy Discipleship by Peter Scazzero. It is a challenging book. It challenges us to follow Jesus as he really is; not the Americanized version. As we keep reading good books like this, they slowly but surely shape our thinking. Last year the Sunday morning LIFE Group worked through the book The Gospel Comes With a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield. Why? To learn how to use our homes to share the hope of freedom in Christ.

A big component of each of our LIFE groups is learning together. Not just for ourselves, so we’ll know more, but so that we will be able to more fully do the work of Jesus in this world. One of the unique things about evangelical Christianity compared to some other forms of Christianity is a strong emphasis on Biblical education. Wherever Evangelical Christians have gone as missionaries, they have started schools of all kinds, from kindergarten all the way up to Seminary and University. Much of the time our own missionary efforts in Bolivia have included an educational component. Currently we help to operate two schools in two communities of OC Mennonites who have fled their home communities because of the brokenness they experience there and for some, the persecution they encounter there when they turn to Christ. Why do we teach them to read and write? So that they will be able to read their Bibles and be strengthened in their faith. So that they will better be able to follow Jesus in their setting and fulfill the mission of the Kingdom of God where they live.

One key part of my Sabbatical this year was to take some online training that would help me as a pastor and help us as a church. I took a number of online courses with Carey Nieuwhof. Carey was a long-time pastor in Ontario who is now a blogger and producer of online training videos on leadership, both inside and outside the church.

The courses I took were;

At Your Best – focused on helping leaders become better at what they do

Art of Reaching – focused on helping church leaders lead their churches to reach more people.

Art of Preaching – all about preaching.

I took these courses for the same reason that I went to SBC in the first place, to gain more knowledge and wisdom so that I could better fulfill the calling God has on my life and, in this case, to help all of us fulfill the calling God has on GFC.

You see, as a Christian, Purposefully growing your mind, leads to purposefully growing God’s mission. It’s not about knowing more for the sake of knowing more. It’s about knowing more and gaining wisdom so that we can fulfill the mission God calls us to. Nehemiah learned and grew so that he could lead God’s people to build the wall so God would be glorified, and the people strengthened. Each one of us here at GFC has been gifted by God through the work of the Holy Spirit. We have been given these gifts so that the ministry of Jesus can carry on. There are things about GFC that discourage me. That’s been the same in every church I’ve been part of and in every stage the those same churches. However, there are things happening right now in GFC that are very encouraging. This past week we had a church board meeting with our new church board. Fifty percent of the board is new. We had an excellent board meeting! The wisdom and love for our church that I see in our board is amazing. They are ready to lead and it’s exciting to see them willing to use their gifts and wisdom for God’s kingdom. I think of our Community Ambassadors team. They have been dreaming and working behind the scenes for some time and now are leading us in serving those in our community who are on the fringes with the basic need of food. God is at work and he’s working in and through us. All of us.

So, what has God gifted you to do? What opportunities are right in front of you? What kinds of ministries is God calling you to do? Purposefully growing your mind, leads to purposefully growing God’s mission. I urge you to not just go with the flow. Seek out wisdom from God’s word. Seek out training that will enable you to do your particular ministry and task more effectively so that God’s kingdom will grow.

Again, we have a mission, ‘to share the hope of freedom in Christ’. Let’s never stop growing our minds so we can grow in our ability to do this.

Let’s pray.

Benediction: Ephesians 3:20, 21

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