From Building to Preserving
Notes
Transcript
Prayer
Good morning church family. Today we are a a transitional chapter in the book of Nehemiah.
Before we begin today, I’m hoping you can finish this statement for me...
The church isn’t a building it’s __________. (People)
Many of us know that, and many of us believe that. It’s one thing to know and believe something to be true, it is a whole other thing to live out in reality.
It saddens me greatly to hear of church buildings closing up because the people have all passed on. It breaks my heart to know where there once was vision and passion, now there are empty pews and rotting roofs. It makes me weep when I think of the baptisms and celebrations that once took place in churches all across our state and nation that are now being sold off to the highest bidder and turned into offices, rentals or worse case scenario, left to rot and fall apart.
And it makes me think. How can we make sure that we don’t loose sight of what God has for us in our generation?
How can be faithful to the call of God right now so that this church and all of its rich history doesn’t fall into the same pages of sad history. How do we ensure a legacy that outlives us?
That is what we are looking at today. Because I don’t believe we are a dying church. I don’t believe that God is done with us. I don’t believe that we are called to maintain the status quo until Christs return.
No, I believe there is a rich and bright future in front of us even though our days of building have slowed down considerably.
So let’s recap where we have been so we can look here at Nehemiah 7 with some fresh eyes this morning.
So far we have examined this journal of Nehemiah and looked at themes and teachings about how God works within people to accomplish his purposes.
We looked at how God broke Nehemiah’s heart for the state of Jerusalem and the state of his people who were suffering there.
We talked about the courage that it takes to step out in faith and do what God asks of us.
We examined how to count the cost before we begin the good work that God calls us to.
We then took a few weeks to examine the opposition that comes against us each time we begin working for the Lord. How the enemy tries to attack us and distract us. We looked at internal conflict. We took a week to talk about the true marks of a good leader and then last week we talked again about how the enemy of our souls will want to shut down the work by coming against God’s appointed leaders.
But the work pressed on and we heard last week that...
15 So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.
The work was done…or is it?
So turn with me to Nehemiah 7, starting in verse 1.
Empowering Leaders (Nehemiah 7:1-3)
Empowering Leaders (Nehemiah 7:1-3)
1 After the wall had been rebuilt and I had set the doors in place, the gatekeepers, the musicians and the Levites were appointed. 2 I put in charge of Jerusalem my brother Hanani, along with Hananiah the commander of the citadel, because he was a man of integrity and feared God more than most people do. 3 I said to them, “The gates of Jerusalem are not to be opened until the sun is hot. While the gatekeepers are still on duty, have them shut the doors and bar them. Also appoint residents of Jerusalem as guards, some at their posts and some near their own houses.”
Here in Nehemiah 7 we see a shift from the work of building to the work of preserving what God has done and what God wants to continue to do.
It says, “After the wall had been rebuilt...” Nehemiah was called to build the walls and now the walls are built, what’s next?
Because that was an amazing feat. God worked through him and Israel was rallied around the mission and purpose to build. But the wall wasn’t the end goal. The building project can never be the end goal. It lead us to a place where we are able to do what God is calling us to really do.
Illustration: I was listening to the Carey Nieuwhof Leadership podcast this past week and something caught my attention. In it he quoted a statistic that made me think, wait what!? He said that on average, 40% of pastors will leave their church after a major building project.
While I have no idea where that number came from it made me start to think. I wonder why?
And so I did a little research and I came across and article by Thomas Rainer on from Church Answers.
And he wrote...
pastors sometimes leave in the aftermath of some seemingly big accomplishment, such as the construction of a new building, the adoption of another church, or the meeting of a major financial goal. Why? Why do they leave when things seem to be going so well?
We asked pastors these questions. They gave us one or more of these four responses:
The pastors were burned out. The accomplishment took every ounce of their energy and then some. They were burned out and worn out. They simply did not have the energy to resume a more normal ministry.
The pastors’ families suffered. Because the pastors spent so much time and energy on the successful project, their families were neglected. One pastor told us he had to resign to save his marriage. He had neglected his wife. “When the building program was over, I went home at a normal time,” he reflected. “We felt like strangers in the same house.”
The pastors lose their zeal for normal ministry. “We took two years to finally adopt a church near us,” a Florida pastor shared with us. “The process was both challenging and exhilarating. I wasn’t burned out, but I lost my motivation to do the things a pastor is supposed to do. Preaching and pastoral care no longer gave me fulfillment.”
The pastors lose their connection with the majority of the congregation. A pastor in Indiana shared with us his neglect of most of the church membership. He was so focused on a major building program that he gave all of his attention to the few members leading the fundraising and providing leadership for the construction of the facility. He felt disconnected from other members once the project was completed and celebrated.
There is wisdom here in Nehemiah 7 that God gives us on how to preserve the work that he has already completed.
And the first thing is that in order to preserve the work of God, we need to Empower Leaders...
As soon as the work was completed Nehemiah began the worship…He empowered the worshipers to begin leading praise to God.
The singers and the Levites were there to lead the people in worship; the walls were not rebuilt so the people of Jerusalem could look at nice walls. They were rebuilt so they could worship God with greater glory and freedom than ever before.
Likewise, no church building is built for the express purpose to look nice. No it is built with the purpose to provide a safe and comfortable place for the people of God to gather and worship their God!
When a church shifts from its purpose of being a place of worship and praise, do not be surprised if the Lord allows it to die.
Nehemiah not only empowered the worshipers, he empowered gatekeepers. - Ushers. Watchmen who can protect the flock.
The next area where Nehemiah empowered leaders was in Verse 2.
2 I put in charge of Jerusalem my brother Hanani, along with Hananiah the commander of the citadel, because he was a man of integrity and feared God more than most people do.
Hanani- his brother.
Hananiah- the commander
men of integrity and feared God.
1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” 5 This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. 6 They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
It is imperative that the church raise up men and women who are filled with the spirit of God, who are men and women of integrity and who fear God to continue on the work of God.
Because this is ultimately where I believe most churches die. They fail at raising up the next generation of men and women of integrity who fear God and are filled with the Spirit of God and therefore the churches ultimately close.
So the first step in preserving the work of God is empowering leaders to continue pressing into what God is calling them to do. The second step in preserving the word of God is found in verses 4-69, yet for the sake of time, I am only going to read verses 4-7.
Prioritizing People (Nehemiah 7:4-69)
Prioritizing People (Nehemiah 7:4-69)
4 Now the city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it, and the houses had not yet been rebuilt. 5 So my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles, the officials and the common people for registration by families. I found the genealogical record of those who had been the first to return. This is what I found written there: 6 These are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken captive (they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town, 7 in company with Zerubbabel, Joshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum and Baanah): The list of the men of Israel:
Nehemiah recognized that the work that God had called him to do was to build a wall of protection so that God could bring his people back in. It was never about the wall. It was about the people. But we have such a tendency as people to make ministry all about the wall. All about the building project or all about the building. Yes, the wall is important, yes the building is important, but it’s nothing without the people.
Chapter 7 and the list of names recorded here is a stark reminder for us that the work is not about the building but about the people.
Church should not be about using people to build brick and morter buildings. Church should be about using brick and morter buildings to build people.
Because what happens when the building becomes the focus? Eventually the people begin to tire, they pass away and the buildings begin to deteriorate as well.
i. The walls weren’t all that important; what was important was the benefit the walls provided for God’s people, enabling them to live in peace and security.
ii. The building work wasn’t all that important; what was important was the benefit the building gave to God’s people. The building work taught them to work hard, to work together, to work through adversity and attack, and to work till the wall was done.
I understand this illustration isn’t going to resonate with a large crowd here but it will resonate with some of the younger crowd, so bear with me.
In one of Marvel’s Thor movies, Ragnarok…the home planet of Asgard was destroyed in an apocolytic event. Thor, wrestles with causing the event but is reminded twice during the film that Asgard is not a place, it’s a people.
I think the writers of the Thor movies understand something very profound that the church sometimes forgets.
The church is not a building it’s PEOPLE.
The People were the reason that God wanted Nehemiah to build the wall.
The People of this area were the reason that God wants Community Alliance Church here. For those people out there who have yet to come into this building. But it’s not about getting them into the building. No it’s about getting Jesus into them. They need Jesus, because without him in their lives, they will spend eternity in separation from God.
Church, our mission is to vital to sit idly by week after week, just trying to make ends meet and pay for the building and keep the electric on and the heat bill paid.
That is not the reason we exist.
We exist because 106 years ago, Rev. A.N. Salvie from Pittsburgh came all the way up here to little old Pottersdale and held some evangelistic meetings at which a young Mary Lucas was saved.
For 15 years Mary prayed and petitioned the Lord for Him to begin a work up here and in 1932,
As the result of her prayers and deep concern, Rev. William Warren from Coal Run, Pennsylvania, was called to conduct evangelistic meetings. The Spirit of God was moving in the community and approximately sixty-five persons professed salvation at that time.
And 35 of them got baptized that very same year!
What a move of God! But it all happened without a building. The buildings came later to steward the work that the Lord has done and he has done amazing things in and through these buildings. There is no doubt that each and every one of you in here this morning is blessed because of the faithfulness of Mary who prayed for 15 years that the Lord would do His Good Work here in Karthaus Township.
We exist here to steward the work of the Lord in this place. He who started a good work is faithful to complete it. And we get to be a small part of leaving a legacy that outlives us.
My part of the story...
Lastly, in oder to preserve the work of God we need people engaged in sacrificially giving to the Lords work.
Sacrificial Giving
Sacrificial Giving
70 Some of the heads of the families contributed to the work. The governor gave to the treasury 1,000 darics of gold, 50 bowls and 530 garments for priests. 71 Some of the heads of the families gave to the treasury for the work 20,000 darics of gold and 2,200 minas of silver. 72 The total given by the rest of the people was 20,000 darics of gold, 2,000 minas of silver and 67 garments for priests. 73 The priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the musicians and the temple servants, along with certain of the people and the rest of the Israelites, settled in their own towns. When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns,
When we give during the service we do so to the Lord. We understand that we need to give and keep the building up but we do so not for the buildings sake, we do it for the sake of the people.
There are people that the Lord still wants to draw near to his heart, and he has raised us up at this time church to be the ones who give and reach out to them with the love of Jesus. He has given us the privilege to be the hands and feet of Christ here in our region.
And so as we look towards the future… especially tonight as we gather back together for the installation service, will you join me in the call to preserve the work of God that he has done and wants yet to do?
Will you join with me in raising up and empowering the next generation of sunday school teachers, childrens church workers, servers in the fellowship hall. Will you join with me in raising up future elders, future bible study teachers, future prayer warriors. Will you join with me in raising up future missionaries and pastors?
Will you also commit to serving with me in preserving God’s work by continually reminding ourselves that our call is to people. We are to serve and love the lost. We exist because of Mary’s heartbeat for the lost people in Pottersdale, and we now exist for the heartbeat for the lost people in Frenchville, Karthaus, Pottersdale, Keewaydin, Pine Glen, Croft, Sinnemahoning, Grassflats, and beyond. The lord has more people that are a part of this church, they just don’t know it yet, and its our job to go out and share the love of God the Father through his Son.
Will you commit to preserving the Work