Youth Fall Camp

Nehemiah

I grew up playing athletics

Loved basketball and football

ran track a little

played a little baseball and soccer at times

But I really loved football

I remember my senior year we went to a school called moore haven to play them. It was the first divisional game of the year

Now, you have to realize that my freshman and sophomore year we were terrible

I mean getting just beat down every game

My junior year we had a decent year but we had a lot of Juniors that had now played ball together for several years and we knew that senior year was going to be the year.

We started the year out 3-0 I think we were at this time and we were scoring 50-60 a game, just destroying teams like they had once done to us

But this was our first real test

Moore haven was undefeated as well and they had a running back that was averaging over 200 yards a game and couldn’t be stopped

So, we were pretty excited for the game but you know, it’s just another game, we didn’t really think much of it.

They had done a lot of trash talking about how this kid was gonna run all over us and we wouldn’t be able to stop them and all this so we were probably a little more fired up than normal

But, we pull up in our bus and we all get out and the Moore haven team is standing on the sidewalk watching us

We get out and get our stuff and head to the locker room and they are in a straight line as if we are about to go to war and they are staring down their opponents

Our coaches get us all into the locker room and they are the last one’s in

Now, to this day, I don’t know if this part was made up to get us even more jacked up or not

But our coach came into the locker room and said...

“I went to shake one of the players hands and wish him good luck and he looked at me and said ‘I don’t need luck’ and preceded to then call him an ungodly name.”

And when he told us that, everything changed. We were locked in and we were ready

Needless to say, we beat the brakes off of them, the RB had less than 30 yards rushing and most of their starters faked injuries so they didn’t have to play us

Now, I don’t know what would have happened had he not said that or had they not trash talked or had any of the situation been different

What I do know is, we were going about our normal business until we heard some news that changed our course of how we treated the game

And doesn’t this sort of thing happen in life to us?

It may not be something silly like a football game

But we are just going about our business as usual, skating through life and all of a sudden

out of the blue something happens to us, we get some news and in a moment it alters the rest of our lives

Maybe you can think of some moments like that in your own life, for the good or the bad. Life can be so unexpected sometimes. And in a moment things can change.

There’s a story about a man in the Bible named Nehemiah and this very similar thing happened to him.

He was a cupbearer to the king

Meaning that he would taste every drink that was offered to the king to make sure it wasn’t poisoned in an effort to kill the king

And although there was definitely risks involved with his job, there were also some luxuries.

The cup bearer normally lived in the palace, he was able to live really well.

He was never in need

Often, they were trusted and close to the king, some even had the ability to speak into some of the kings decisions and decrees

And as long as he did his job his life was set

But Nehemiah received some news that would alter the rest of his life

As he was doing his job one of his brothers and some other men came to visit in chapter 1 of Nehemiah

They tell Nehemiah about some news from Jerusalem

That there had been destruction and trouble and disgrace brought upon them

The wall of Jerusalem had been broken down

And its gates burned up with fire

You see, Nehemiah was from Jerusalem, and his home town had been destroyed

And we see here, by Nehemiah’s response, that he was aware that God was calling him to something new.

That his life was about to completely change

And his commitment to the Lord, drove him to change

We have all been presented with the gospel of Jesus

You know what the word gospel literal translation is?

Good news.

So, here is what this means.

Our understanding of what Christ has done for us should drive us to change

You cannot grasp the gospel and begin to follow Jesus without changing.

So, what does this look like?

What changes?

Let’s read Nehemiah’s prayer

And this is before Nehemiah does anything

So what we should see through this is that commitment starts in the heart

Before Nehemiah does anything, we can see his commitment to the Lord by the way he pours his heart through prayer

Nehemiah 1:5–11 NIV

5 Then I said: “Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, 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. 8 “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, 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.’ 10 “They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. 11 Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.” I was cupbearer to the king.

First we ought to see that Nehemiah was committed to prayer and that committed disciples are committed to prayer

Over and over again we read about Nehemiah’s prayer’s to the Lord

His life was marked by prayer

A committed person submits, recognizes, and worships Jesus

Nehemiah starts his prayer with “Lord”

This is the admission of submission

This is Nehemiah’s verbal commitment to the Lordship of God over his life

So for us, Jesus isn’t just prophet, he isn’t just teacher, he isn’t just a friend

Jesus is Lord and a committed believer declares that truth

With their words but also with their lives

It’s not enough to say that He is Lord because if He truly is Lord of your life it will also greatly affect the way you live your life.

If we are committed we will submit to the Lord

Next he says, “God of heaven.”

Nehemiah is declaring that the God he serves was and is creator and sustainer of it all

So, he doesn’t start his prayer with Enki God of water

and Enlil the god of wind and air

And Baal the God of fertility

He just says God it’s actually in the Hebrew

Yahweh, the elohim of heaven

It really just means “my God, the God.”

So, there is recognition of God

It’s stating that He alone is worthy of it all and nothing and no one compares to Him

If we are to be committed, then we are called to recognize the holiness of God

The fact that He is perfect and set apart. That there is nothing and no one like him.

Which then ought to lead us to what we see next

He says “Great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments.”

Nehemiah submits, recognizes, and then worships

A committed life is marked by worship

And I don’t mean someone who sings a lot of christian songs

I mean a person who’s heart and affections are flowing with gratitude and thanksgiving so much so that they live in awe of who Jesus is and what He has done.

Committed people are worshipping people

Nehemiah continues on

Nehemiah 1:6–7 NIV

6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, 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.

Committed people are repentant people

We realize as holy and worthy as God is, we are unworthy

And notice that Nehemiah’s repentance prayer is prayer day night

There is a repentance for salvation in what we would call justification

But there’s also repentance in our sanctification

Meaning, repentance isn’t a one and done

Committed people have repentant hearts

It’s who they are

But look what he says in verse 8 and 9

Nehemiah 1:8–9 NIV

8 “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, 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.’

What a picture of the gospel.

Yes, if you are unfaithful you will be scattered

But if you return to the Lord, if you repent of your sins

Even if you are as far away from God as you could be, there is grace

God will gather you up and bring you into His loving arms

And it’s Nehemiah’s remembrance of God’s Word that sparks this truth in His mind.

Here he is remembering what God told Moses back in Deuteronomy chapter 4

Committed people are committed to God’s Word

It’s there that we remember the promises of God

It’s there that we see the character of God

It’s there that we learn the kingdom of God

If we are to be committed to God we will be committed to His Word

Romans 12:2 NIV

2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

The heart cannot love what the mind does not know

In order to love God and therefore be committed to Him, we must know Him and in order to know Him we must know His Word.

Nehemiah ends with this

Nehemiah 1:10–11 NIV

10 “They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. 11 Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.” I was cupbearer to the king.

Committed people aim to glorify God

Everything we do, ought to be done, to the glory of God

Nehemiah’s aim was not to make his name great but to make the Lord’s name great

Everything he did was in effort to glorify the Lord

Now, I won’t read the rest of the story for you this morning but just some cliff notes

Nehemiah goes to the king and gets permission to go back to Jerusalem

He begins to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem

He rallies the people behind him

He opposes some of the Jewish nobilities who were charging excess interest on loans to help the poor

He completes the wall

He fights and defends

He assigns people to positions to sustain what he did

Exiles return, the city is rebuilt and people prosper because of Nehemiah

Committed people, change people

People who are committed to the gospel of Jesus change the people around them

I encourage you to continue to read Nehemiah’s story

Because what you’ll see is that he was committed to the Lord and he was committed to the calling and purpose God on his life, and because of that, people around him were changed

When we receive the gospel of Jesus and we are committed to the expansion of the kingdom of God

We do not sit back on our heels and hope someone else does it for us

The gospel is too good and too sweet to do nothing with

We are called and commissioned by Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit to go into the world and make disciples of all nations

Committed people change the world

When we look at the story of redemptive history it is clear that this is how God ordained His kingdom to expand

The gospel goes out, the kingdom of God expands through the means of gospel changed hearts and kingdom minded people

You see this as Jesus teaches and commissions His first disciples

And I don’t know how much you know about those guys but they are just a rag tag group of guys

Nothing real special about them

Skillset wise, not much to offer when it comes to spreading the gospel

But their experiences with Jesus, and then the depiction of love and grace on the cross and the revelation of a risen Savior solidifies in their minds the fact that Jesus was the messiah, He is God, and He is Lord and King

And upon that realization, they go on to change the world

We see it in the early church, in the historic church, in the current church

We see it in individuals today

God has designed His kingdom to expand through the lives of His people

God may never ask you to go and preach to thousands and save millions

But He is calling you to change the world of those around you

And when you change their world with the gospel you change the world with the gospel

So, no matter how you look at it, you are called to be committed

And committed people change people

And changed people, change the world

They change the world by taking the gospel with them every where they go

And you can change the world one person at a time

Who is your one? So who is your person?

Take these next few minutes and think about it

Maybe it’s someone in your family

Maybe it’s someone at your school

Maybe it’s an old friend

Ask God to show you and grant you the opportunity to speak the gospel into their lives

Your commitment to the Lord should affect the world

For Nehemiah it was an entire city and people

Who’s world are you called to change with the power of the gospel?

Because our commitment has the power to do it