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How do you finish that title?

Hold on to your guess and we can get it at the end of the sermon today. End of the share and you can go up to someone and say, “I know what the end should be” and you can feel super smart.

Because I missed you and I want to get right into God’s word with you. We are making our attitude that of Christ Jesus and we need to get right in to the Bible where we find out how to do that.

We’ve been looking at the book of the Bible called Nehemiah.

At the beginning of Chapter 10 and a little bit at the end of chapter 9 a list is written of the people who were dealing with a problem. That is what Nehemiah is all about, one problem after another, because in life it’s one thing after another, but take Hope my friends because

God is in the Another.

If you’ve forgotten what I mean by that statement.

God is in the Another is the opposite of “Happily Ever After” thinking.

In fairy tales and popular stories, characters come upon a crisis, solve the crisis and then there are no more ever again. It’s really nice in the world of children to allow them enough peace to mature to become adults. But in an adult world, we find that we can have a crisis in our family, get it resolved, and then our car breaks down, we fix it, and then they change procedures at work and we have to learn a whole new way. And then a family member gets sick.

We look for Jesus and His Way.

Instead Jesus asks you to surrender the way you think you get to Happily ever after and all the frustration that comes with never, ever being able to arrive. The problems of learning adulting, become the problems of trying to have it all, to realizing you failed in areas of your life and your powerless to fix it, and all this world has to offer is if you like and subscribe they will tell you how you can organize it all and live.

Jesus offers a path of peace that goes with us in this problem and into the next problem.

Psalm 23:4 CSB

4 Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff—they comfort me.

This is the promise. This is the one we can live in. It takes time with God. God is with us and gives us direction.

John 10:27–29 CSB

27 My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

Why would Jesus promises us that no one can snatch us out of his hand? Because there are enemies trying to snatch us out of his hand.

Understand that a hard thing is coming. That things will try and draw you away from God. But if you abide in God, fancy word for staying with and in God, nothing can destroy you.

That is why we do not need to be afraid of the next hard thing. If you are in the midst of a trial, God is right here too, Hold on to him, follow his ways, and trust that He will carry you through.

That’s what the people of Nehemiah’s day did. They went from no walls, no security and trying to rebuild a whole community that had been destroyed. In it not only did they have to rebuild a wall, Nehemiah had to spy, motivate, be politically smart, be a general, be a contractor, economist, and a real estate broker, finally he got to get back to the whole reason he was moved to build the walls of Jerusalem in the first place so that the worship of God could happen. Each of those roles was a response to a hardship he faced. Each time he abided in God. He prayed to God and acted in accordance with the knowledge of God’s word, the Bible, what God has shown him, and his intelligence, who God made him to be.

Nehemiah went from one problem after another, but God was in the “another.”

The problem the people faced at the beginning of chapter 10 faced, is how do you follow God when most of the people around you don’t?

Following God when no one else does.

I’m sure that each of you knows exactly how to be a great Christian at your work or family all the time no matter what the beliefs of all of your coworkers or family members are right?

Or maybe you have seen or you yourself say I am a Christian, believe in Jesus, but in order to get things done, I have to do things my way. In other words, you leave God and come back to Him later.

In Nehemiah’s day the Jews, the people of God, which Nehemiah was one of, were no longer in charge of all of the laws. The Persian empire ruled their land, that’s why they had to go through all the problems of getting Jerusalem rebuilt. Yet, the law of God, given by God could no longer be enforced by the government. This was causing problems. There were many more opportunities to go against what God would have the people do because no army or king was going to stop people from doing or not doing what God said.

So this is what some, like Nehemiah, did in response.

Nehemiah 10:28–39 (CSB)

28 The rest of the people—the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, and temple servants, along with their wives, sons, and daughters, everyone who is able to understand and who has separated themselves from the surrounding peoples to obey the law of God—

29 join with their noble brothers and commit themselves with a sworn oath to follow the law of God given through God’s servant Moses and to obey carefully all the commands, ordinances, and statutes of the Lord our Lord.

They separated themselves. They took a purposeful different path. They would follow the rules that God gave the Jewish people through Moses. They had a choice, leave their faith, and embrace the culture around them. They could live by the laws of the land, and get on with life, or they could be different and follow God.

Most of us here are not Jews, we are adopted into the family of God by new covenant in the blood of Jesus, but we too are invited to be separate and in that take in the peace of Jesus Christ which comes from following Him

John 14:27 CSB

27 “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.

This peace continues as we follow Him.

John 15:9–11 CSB

9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

We are invited to keep Jesus commands.

Jesus’ commands are way different than what others do in our culture.

Some examples, Jesus tells us to love our enemies. Jesus tells us to bless and not curse. Jesus doesn’t reward us for being the toughest, the smartest, but the one who is the chief servant of others. This all comes from a love relationship with Jesus. There are more that we learn as we abide in Jesus. Followers of Jesus are just different from everyone else.

Are you different? Are you set apart?

As you take time in the Bible you will see that it wasn’t Jesus clothing that set him apart. It wasn’t How religious He was, it was that He and the Father were one. Jesus treated people as a loving God does.

We who follow Jesus are to be set apart from the world, we are to be different. It’s not enough to root for Jesus or like Jesus. All of us in this church are not followers of Jesus. Some have not committed to being set apart. First, your welcome to be here but know that if you claim Jesus as Lord than all of life needs to reflect that. As you are, not as someone else, not about personality or ability but that your seeking to follow Jesus in all areas of your life.

Can I give you an example of why? Being different matters. being set apart.

I like to buy name brand Imodium. It’s a drug. I am using my sermon to tell you about the drugs I like to buy.

Anyway, often the drugs that are sold in stores comes in a name brand like Imodium, Tylenol or Nyquil, right? But then right next to it, is the generic from. A Walgreens brand, CVS, whatever. The generic is way cheaper. I hope you know that on the label there is a listing of exactly the amount of drug in the pill or the drink. There is no difference except for one thing between the name brand and the generic. The generic is cheaper, exactly the same, except for one thing. Do you know what it is?

The packaging! Name brand stuff is so easy to open, so easy to rip that piece of paper off before you can push out the pill through the amazing tin foil of security, but generic, The little tear tab will break off, I’m running all around trying to find scissors that are no longer anywhere nearby or even on this plain of existence but when I do find them that packaging becomes scientifically impervious to scissors but it bends enough to break and then the pill breaks too so I do a line of tylenol of my fingers because that’s what the pill is now, it is drug dust. I have head ache trying to cure my headache. Yet I can wait and I can save money. I began this by saying I only buy name brand Imodium.

You know what it does? Imodium is for upset stomach and dierrhea and I’m not going through all that at that time in my life! I need something that is set apart, that is what it says it is. I need the name brand.

My friends, Jesus calls us to be different, not similar as great fans of an old religious teacher, not nice people, not good people as people say, but following Jesus Christ, learning to love God more and more each day that our actions show it. When the crisis of life comes I don’t want generic stuff that will fail when I really need Jesus!

Yes nice and good but not nice and good when everything is not nice and good. We are to be lovers of enemies, peacemakers, worshipers of God, followers of Jesus.

What actions need to be different for us to be brand name?

Those in Jerusalem who were set apart in Nehemiah’s day knew immediately what needed to be set apart.

30 We will not give our daughters in marriage to the surrounding peoples and will not take their daughters as wives for our sons.

Say what? Remember the Jewish people were different. They didn’t follow many gods and goddesses they followed one, the one true God. The one we worship. They knew what God wanted from them. They were to be a separate people and each generation needed to learn what it meant for them to be separate. If they were going to be separate they had to follow what God told them from the beginning, the family teaches the faith. The mothers are the first teachers of the family. In the ancient world, the wedding is political, its a way for the family to get richer and its about the next generation and It’s also about sex.

Through all of the Bible we find that God calls a nation to follow Him with all of themselves, every bit, every dollar, and every part of the body.

Religion is not something, we followers of Jesus, add to our lives. A relationship with Jesus is our life.

For the Jews the outward symbol of this was circumcision. You can’t get more special, more all of life, than to tell a man what he is going to do with what gets circumcised.

It is vital to point something out. In our day and age we have a lot of letter initials for all kinds of different sexual preferences. People who are devoted to each other in all kinds of ways. But here we see that even one of those initial groups, a cis couple, or a hetero couple, is not in God’s will. It isn’t about being hetero, It is about faith.

Faith that what God says is right is right.

It isn’t about psychology, it isn’t about politics, it’s not about desire, but commitment to follow God. Here heterosexual couples should not be married because it was against God’s law. It wasn’t because of some practical reason like preventing illness, no, it was because God said no.

That is as much as faith as accepting what God says yes to.

The Jews of Nehemiah’s day couldn’t keep the people from living in their land. The Persian empire controlled that but they could control their actions. You can’t control who you are attracted to but you do control who you give yourself to and what you do.

You can choose do I follow God or do I follow myself?

And no matter what letter you might state for yourself, God loves you, God offers peace and God offers a new way of life. A way where we say I surrender to God, I say yes to God and God’s peace.

It wasn’t just sex Nehemiah’s group talked about but they also talked about money.

31 When the surrounding peoples bring merchandise or any kind of grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or a holy day. We will also leave the land uncultivated in the seventh year and will cancel every debt.

Earlier in Jewish history the townspeople would have convicted a person selling on the Sabbath day but now they weren’t in charge. The Persian empire didn’t have a special one day off every week. The Jews worshipped God on the sabbath and didn’t work. But others would come and try to sell their stuff because hey no other shops would be open.

It would be easy to break God’s law because others were doing it. It wasn’t illegal. It was available. Those of Nehemiah’s group committed to being different. They committed to following God’s law.

We are not Jewish, we gather on the day Jesus rose again. Yet are their things in our lives that we know that everyone else does, but because we are followers of Jesus we should do something different? Yes it’s legal or common but it violates me being set apart as a follower of Jesus.

What about how we handle our money, what we buy, what our financial goals are?

Don’t believe that Jesus cares about your money?

Jesus said,

Matthew 6:21 CSB

21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

I can promise you that looking at how you spend your money is an excellent way to measure your commitments, your trust, what is important to you.

I can even tell you that a great rule of thumb for how you treat worship, is if you were getting paid to attend would you attend more? How much?

If you got paid $900,000 each worship would you ever miss? Than what is the Lord of your life?

The people of Nehemiah said no to money over God, even though they could buy things on the sabbath and get good deals, and nobody cares if we do or we don’t we are going to stay true to the law of God and not buy on the sabbath..

They kept going,

Nehemiah 10:32–33 CSB

32 We will impose the following commands on ourselves: To give an eighth of an ounce of silver yearly for the service of the house of our God: 33 the bread displayed before the Lord, the daily grain offering, the regular burnt offering, the Sabbath and New Moon offerings, the appointed festivals, the holy things, the sin offerings to atone for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.

There is more listed of what they will do.

Nehemiah 10:39 CSB

39 For the Israelites and the Levites are to bring the contributions of grain, new wine, and fresh oil to the storerooms where the articles of the sanctuary are kept and where the priests who minister are, along with the gatekeepers and singers. We will not neglect the house of our God.

Everything about all these words was about that last sentence.

“We will not neglect the house of our God.”

Up until this point the King of Persia was paying for the worship of God. How? He was providing the animals, the wood, the materials necessary to have worship of God. But that wasn’t what God intended. If something matters to you, then it is paid for. Even King David refused to have the land of the temple be donated or given to himself, 700 years earlier. He refused.

2 Sam 24:22 2 Sam 24:24

2 Samuel 24:22 CSB

22 Araunah said to David, “My lord the king may take whatever he wants and offer it. Here are the oxen for a burnt offering and the threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood.

2 Samuel 24:24 CSB

24 The king answered Araunah, “No, I insist on buying it from you for a price, for I will not offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for twenty ounces of silver.

This would later be the land that Solomon built the temple on.

My friends does worshipping God matter to you? Does this church matter to you?

I know many who struggle financially but will find the money, find the time for what they care about. This reveals our heart.

Do not treat giving to God as you would a school fundraiser, a red cross donation, or a go-fund me. Those are great ways to be generous with your money but this is where you worship God. Does this matter, than give like it’s your most important bill.

I could care less how much.

I want peace from you God!

God says I love you, I died for you, I provide your purpose and peace, come follow me, for my yoke is easy and burden is light.

Do we answer, coming Lord!

Or Do we answer, Let me pack first. Let me add to this my wish list. Let me add to this my ideas for a good time. Let me add to this what I think I really need to live my best life.

Matthew 11:28–30 CSB

28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Be SET APART! Trust God with your sexuality! Trust God with your money! Trust God and be different!