The end, but why?

Introduction

I stand before you with immense power, in this bag I can lead people to learn things they never thought they needed to know. Things like how to read, how to speak, how to write, how even to get along with others.

It might be a fanny pack to you but to me, it is the reason most of my kids do the work that they do. It is their motivation. Inside here I have a whole lot of candy. I have toys. I have weird things like gloves. I have stuff to mess with and I tell you my students love what’s in this bag. They will work hard for it.

Most of you will do a lot for paper. I’ve seen people hurt for paper. It’s weird I hand out paper to my students all the time and sometimes they tear it up and give it back.

But I have seen grown adults refuse to attend church because they have opportunity to get more paper.

If you haven’t figured it out I’m talking about money. In the Bible we learn about motivations

We all have motivations. Why do you do, what you do?

This is really important to figure out, because what you take from here, from our time of worship of God, this time to celebrate God and our whole reason for existence, what you do the rest of the week will be determined by why you do what you do.

You and I are not children but still most people in around us are motivated by green paper. Or their motivated by what others think of them. Others so that important people don’t hate them.

Today though, we said together we want to take on

the attitude of Christ Jesus

which has a lot to do with our why, so we go looking to the Bible to take on that attitude of Jesus.

This Sunday, we wrap our adventure in the book of the Bible called Nehemiah. We have talked about Nehemiah since February and today on our last day in the the book, we are learning what Nehemiah was working for.

Let’s remember that Nehemiah is a part of the Bible that occurs many years after God’s people, the Jews, were punished by God through an invasion by foreign enemies. Jerusalem and the Jewish kingdom were destroyed. About 70 years later, Nehemiah became a leader in the Persian empire. The empire that now controlled Jerusalem and the land of the Jews.

Through amazing acts of faith, through prayer, acts of God and Nehemiah’s willingness to use the intelligence and gifts God gave Him, He lead the people of Jerusalem to rebuild. first with it’s city walls and then restoring the organized worship of God. This wasn’t easy, people lost their lives as enemies of the Jewish people didn’t want to see Jerusalem get stronger. Lots of politics, lots of threats, and even at times Nehemiah’s own people were caught mistreating their own. Yet Nehemiah kept following God and leading. And by God’s grace the walls were finished.

Then Nehemiah was able to allow the Jews to return to worshipping God as God had directed them to do many Hundreds of years earlier. We went over all of this amazing story of conquest, decisions, and God sticking with and Nehemiah sticking with God.

We saw that

when bad things happen God is still there, and when another thing happens, and another, God is still in the another.

Yet today is our last Sunday in Nehemiah and here we see the reason why Nehemiah does what He does.

Like most of Nehemiah we see a faith lived out in a real action. Nothing half-way. It’s not easy stuff either, Nehemiah allows faith to touch all of life including the very essence of relationships

Nehemiah 13:1–3 CSB

1 At that time the book of Moses was read publicly to the people. The command was found written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, 2 because they did not meet the Israelites with food and water. Instead, they hired Balaam against them to curse them, but our God turned the curse into a blessing. 3 When they heard the law, they separated all those of mixed descent from Israel.

The book of Moses was the first five books of the Bible and the part of the Bible that they read was Deuteronomy 23:3-5. It clearly states that these groups of people were never allowed to enter into the assembly of God, also known as the Temple of God. For centuries and especially since Jerusalem had been destroyed people had heard God’s law and then did what they thought was best. God’s direction to the Jews was like advice, some advice you take and some ignore. But that doesn’t treat God as God. The Jewish people were told that God would protect them if they kept his commands, not protection if you thought God’s advice was cool.

In fact most of the people around the Jews had no problem worshipping the Jewish God. They could just add the Jewish God to the many Gods they worshipped like everyone else. But our God is one and only. Everything else is false.

Exodus 20:1–3 CSB

1 Then God spoke all these words: 2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. 3 Do not have other gods besides me.

God is to be the only one followed. The only reason why. Many in Nehemiah’s day could accept God as one of many gods like the Persians themselves did. They became fans of god among other gods. It’s not an old problem that went away!

Lots of people still do this today! God is cool. I like Jesus and everything. People might say I like spiritual things. But when deciding who to trust or what to do about a problem,

for a fan of God figuring out why, God is the last reason

But when Nehemiah’s group reads what God tells them to do, they just do it. God said separate the people so they separated them.

Part of the Holiness and worship of God for the Jewish people is to stay pure. A lot of what Nehemiah experienced is different for us. Because you might be thinking I didn’t think God wants us to be seperate from other races of people. Your right but why? Because we don’t like it. No because God told us something when Jesus, God himself came, things changed.

I hope you can stay tuned because this is hard core doctrine. This is big time meat, for you to chew on. The why Jesus changed everything.

Romans 5:15–17 NLT

15 But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. 16 And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.

Adam brought sin to all of humanity. Jesus Christ brought God’s free gift of salvation to All of humanity including you and me

So much changed. My Dad preached last Sunday about the first followers of Jesus speaking in many languages through tongues given by the Holy Spirit. Those same first followers of Jesus started seeing the same miracles in people who were not Jews. Peter first saw it with Cornelius and learned that Jesus and worship of God wasn’t just for Jews

Acts 10:34–36 CSB

34 Peter began to speak: “Now I truly understand that God doesn’t show favoritism, 35 but in every nation the person who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 He sent the message to the Israelites, proclaiming the good news of peace through Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all.

You and I, non-Jews are welcomed into God’s kingdom by His amazing sacrifice. We are adopted into God’s family. We are brought in by that same attitude we are to Have, the Love of Jesus. The love of Jesus caused him to die for our sins and it is the same way we are to act towards others.

Jesus even called on us to love our enemies. If we let our faith determine our relationships than we have to actively love those who can’t even benefit us or even like us.

LOVE, those like us and not like us. Do unto them as we would have others do for us. Love, not resent. Love, forgive. Love in such a way that we do not make enemies with God too.

Yet, we can not fall into another error, the last error I mentioned. We see this error with many who are struggling to follow Jesus in our day and age.

They can excuse sin by saying we are just trying to love others. We can not say that sin is OK or that it is good. We can not let it be home in our lives. We cannot say this sin is OK because others sin “worse.” Nehemiah shows us that we need to trust God and not take short cuts. We let God determine what is sin and then we follow God.

Nehemiah had to take specific action in his own time because people were accepting of sin.

Nehemiah 13:4–14 (CSB)

4 Now before this, the priest Eliashib had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was a relative of Tobiah

5 and had prepared a large room for him where they had previously stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the articles, and the tenths of grain, new wine, and fresh oil prescribed for the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, along with the contributions for the priests.

I have to stop us right there because Nehemiah dropped a huge fact that most of us missed. One of the Jewish priests who was in charge of running the worship at the Temple in Jerusalem, gave up space in the temple, a place completely reserved for the worship of God, he gave space to a person like it was his place. Maybe Tobiah had turned it into a place to live, maybe he had turned it into like a suite for when he came to the Temple. Like Tobiah was the Taylor Swift watching the stuff in the Temple.

Unlike Football no space in God’s house was for being given out for suites. God said the Temple was for the worship of God!

Giving space up was bad in itself. What God had said this is mine and mine alone, a priest gave away. What is even worse is Tobiah was one of the guys actively fighting against Nehemiah and Jerusalem being a city again.

Nehemiah 2:10 CSB

10 When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard that someone had come to pursue the prosperity of the Israelites, they were greatly displeased.

Nehemiah 4:3 CSB

3 Then Tobiah the Ammonite, who was beside him, said, “Indeed, even if a fox climbed up what they are building, he would break down their stone wall!”

Tobiah was insulting. This guy was not even a Jew but had broken God’s law, got a child or someone married into the family of a priest who let him stay in the Temple. He wasn’t even allowed in the temple as a non-Jew. Yet he had his own space!

He actively fought against Nehemiah doing God’s work even to the point of paying for people to conspire against him.

Nehemiah 6:12 CSB

12 I realized that God had not sent him, because of the prophecy he spoke against me. Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.

All of the good that Nehemiah had led the people of Jerusalem to do. All of the actual fighting and struggle. And someone in authority gave his known enemy the ability to commit sin after sin by being hosted in the nicest place in the city, a place they should never be, in the Temple of God.

How? Nehemiah kept going ...

6 While all this was happening, I was not in Jerusalem, because I had returned to King Artaxerxes of Babylon in the thirty-second year of his reign. It was only later that I asked the king for a leave of absence

7 so I could return to Jerusalem. Then I discovered the evil that Eliashib had done on behalf of Tobiah by providing him a room in the courts of God’s house.

8 I was greatly displeased and threw all of Tobiah’s household possessions out of the room.

9 I ordered that the rooms be purified, and I had the articles of the house of God restored there, along with the grain offering and frankincense.

10 I also found out that because the portions for the Levites had not been given, each of the Levites and the singers performing the service had gone back to his own field.

11 Therefore, I rebuked the officials, asking, “Why has the house of God been neglected?” I gathered the Levites and singers together and stationed them at their posts.

12 Then all Judah brought a tenth of the grain, new wine, and fresh oil into the storehouses.

13 I appointed as treasurers over the storehouses the priest Shelemiah, the scribe Zadok, and Pedaiah of the Levites, with Hanan son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah to assist them, because they were considered trustworthy. They were responsible for the distribution to their colleagues.

14 Remember me for this, my God, and don’t erase the deeds of faithful love I have done for the house of my God and for its services.

God created through Nehemiah a safe place of Jerusalem for his people to worship Him once again. One leader, allowed sin in his life by allowing Tobiah to be part of his family. Then the sin became bigger and bigger until the sin was back in the temple.

Nehemiah didn’t tolerate it at all. He threw it all out.

Now today, we don’t have a temple. The church is not like the Temple, as we can worship Jesus by gathering together anywhere. Yet our body is like a temple. Jesus told us that demons can be removed, and if we don’t allow the Holy Spirit into our lives by believing in Jesus than 7 more can return to the space.

In our own lives when God transforms our lives, saves us from sin, often that frees us up. It frees us up from some great struggle. Maybe we stop wasting our money on sinful things because God stopped that in our lives. Do we then dedicate all our money to God or do we go searching for a new sin?

Friends, recently I had one of the scariest experiences of my life. I’m thankful to God that people allowed God to take action and didn’t make room for sin.

An anonymous person, was reaching out to people in this church saying I was doing horrible sins. Sins that were not crimes but were very immoral. In no way were these sins at all true. I reached out to you about it a few weeks ago.

This church stood up and followed what God would have it do. You gave me the respect that leaders in the church deserve.

1 Timothy 5:19 CSB

19 Don’t accept an accusation against an elder unless it is supported by two or three witnesses.

What we didn’t know was that this person was telling lies to other churches. Thanks be to God that the pastor in the other church followed what Jesus told them to do. The other pastor with the help of a pastor who knew me well, came to me with a heart of compassion to confront my sin, not allow it in our city, and to help me turn back to Jesus. Thankfully, there was no sin on my part but because they had a heart for Jesus they were open to me proving that this was not true.

Even more, because of the Christ focus of these men, the Holy Spirit made them aware that in fact this person who was spreading lies about me was a liar in their own life to them. We had proof and what came to light was that I knew this person from 20 years ago in ministry. This person was actively lying to their current church to get extra care. They were starting to make home in a new church and steal the love of the church. That church would have loved them anyway but they told extra lies to get more help. Thanks be to God we lovingly tried to confront this person. Sadly they denied it, even though we had proof.

We walked away but God cleaned His house.

When we follow God’s teaching; God sized victories happen.

Sin didn’t have a place in our lives and God got the victory. Let us not make space for sin in our lives.

Jesus is our victory and the Holy Spirit is fighting for us even when we have no idea what is going on.

This is why it is so important to get involved in knowing how God fights for us. Learn the Bible. Join EJ or Helen or Pastor Jerry for Bible Study.

Let’s go and see God work because if you did you would learn that the whole reason Nehemiah did what He did was something none of you, who follow Jesus need to worry about,

We see Nehemiah’s whole reason in verse 14

Nehemiah 13:14 CSB

14 Remember me for this, my God, and don’t erase the deeds of faithful love I have done for the house of my God and for its services.

Nehemiah will act quickly and fast to be remembered for faithfulness to God

Nehemiah 13:15 CSB

15 At that time I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath. They were also bringing in stores of grain and loading them on donkeys, along with wine, grapes, and figs. All kinds of goods were being brought to Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them against selling food on that day.

Nehemiah 13:19 CSB

19 When shadows began to fall on the city gates of Jerusalem just before the Sabbath, I gave orders that the city gates be closed and not opened until after the Sabbath. I posted some of my men at the gates, so that no goods could enter during the Sabbath day.

Nehemiah 13:22 (CSB)

22 Then I instructed the Levites to purify themselves and guard the city gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember me for this also, my God, and look on me with compassion according to the abundance of your faithful love.

Jews were not allowed to buy or work on the sabbath but foreigners were coming in to Jerusalem and selling on the sabbath. The Jews were giving into temptation and not being separate, not trusting God. So Nehemiah followed God, but look at why he did.

it’s in verse 22

He calls on God to remember Him.

He goes on to tell about fighting against corruption in the religious leaders of His day. Nehemiah knows what God desires and He does it. Even when it’s hard, even when it’s unpopular, He puts His faith in God first.

Nehemiah 13:30–31 (CSB)

30 So I purified them from everything foreign and assigned specific duties to each of the priests and Levites.

31 I also arranged for the donation of wood at the appointed times and for the firstfruits. Remember me, my God, with favor.

Nehemiah desperately wanted to be remembered by God.

But your God knows you.

You were chosen

1 Thessalonians 1:4 CSB

4 For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you,

1 Peter 2:9 CSB

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Jesus was God come to earth to deliver us from our sins. He became one of us, Yes God was one of us. He chose us for that forgiveness of sins. All who call upon His name, all who believe and put his as Nehemiah did, first in their lives so that He is Lord of their life, or that God is over their decisions. Jesus came to us and He gave us the Holy Spirit to guide us.

John 14:16–18 CSB

16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. 17 He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.

God never left us. You must understand this. The same God worshipped in the Temple by Nehemiah, was the same God who came as a person in Jesus hundreds of years later than Nehemiah. Jesus is the same God, who yes remembered Nehemiah, and knew us, and loves us by dying on the cross for our sins. Our good acts can’t make us right, God’s great act of dying on the cross and then rising again, that same God rose on that Sunday that we celebrate every Sunday and especially on Easter. That same God is the Holy Spirit, given to us when we accept Jesus as our Savior. That same God remains in us. He guides us into how to follow God. He heals us. He is the one that delivered my mother to us for more time here.

The Holy Spirit who we worship today is the same God worshipped in the Temple. And He resides in you, if you know, that you are a follow of Jesus.

You are so blessed that you do not have to wonder if God remembers you because He is with you, always.

Matthew 28:19–20 CSB

19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

You who follow Jesus are known by God. And those of you who would want this in your life, can call on God right now, and give your life to Him.