Working Together

Nehemiah 3:1–32 NASB95

1 Then Eliashib the high priest arose with his brothers the priests and built the Sheep Gate; they consecrated it and hung its doors. They consecrated the wall to the Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel. 2 Next to him the men of Jericho built, and next to them Zaccur the son of Imri built. 3 Now the sons of Hassenaah built the Fish Gate; they laid its beams and hung its doors with its bolts and bars. 4 Next to them Meremoth the son of Uriah the son of Hakkoz made repairs. And next to him Meshullam the son of Berechiah the son of Meshezabel made repairs. And next to him Zadok the son of Baana also made repairs. 5 Moreover, next to him the Tekoites made repairs, but their nobles did not support the work of their masters. 6 Joiada the son of Paseah and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah repaired the Old Gate; they laid its beams and hung its doors with its bolts and its bars. 7 Next to them Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah, also made repairs for the official seat of the governor of the province beyond the River. 8 Next to him Uzziel the son of Harhaiah of the goldsmiths made repairs. And next to him Hananiah, one of the perfumers, made repairs, and they restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall. 9 Next to them Rephaiah the son of Hur, the official of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs. 10 Next to them Jedaiah the son of Harumaph made repairs opposite his house. And next to him Hattush the son of Hashabneiah made repairs. 11 Malchijah the son of Harim and Hasshub the son of Pahath-moab repaired another section and the Tower of Furnaces. 12 Next to him Shallum the son of Hallohesh, the official of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs, he and his daughters. 13 Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired the Valley Gate. They built it and hung its doors with its bolts and its bars, and a thousand cubits of the wall to the Refuse Gate. 14 Malchijah the son of Rechab, the official of the district of Beth-haccherem repaired the Refuse Gate. He built it and hung its doors with its bolts and its bars. 15 Shallum the son of Col-hozeh, the official of the district of Mizpah, repaired the Fountain Gate. He built it, covered it and hung its doors with its bolts and its bars, and the wall of the Pool of Shelah at the king’s garden as far as the steps that descend from the city of David. 16 After him Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, official of half the district of Beth-zur, made repairs as far as a point opposite the tombs of David, and as far as the artificial pool and the house of the mighty men. 17 After him the Levites carried out repairs under Rehum the son of Bani. Next to him Hashabiah, the official of half the district of Keilah, carried out repairs for his district. 18 After him their brothers carried out repairs under Bavvai the son of Henadad, official of the other half of the district of Keilah. 19 Next to him Ezer the son of Jeshua, the official of Mizpah, repaired another section in front of the ascent of the armory at the Angle. 20 After him Baruch the son of Zabbai zealously repaired another section, from the Angle to the doorway of the house of Eliashib the high priest. 21 After him Meremoth the son of Uriah the son of Hakkoz repaired another section, from the doorway of Eliashib’s house even as far as the end of his house. 22 After him the priests, the men of the valley, carried out repairs. 23 After them Benjamin and Hasshub carried out repairs in front of their house. After them Azariah the son of Maaseiah, son of Ananiah, carried out repairs beside his house. 24 After him Binnui the son of Henadad repaired another section, from the house of Azariah as far as the Angle and as far as the corner. 25 Palal the son of Uzai made repairs in front of the Angle and the tower projecting from the upper house of the king, which is by the court of the guard. After him Pedaiah the son of Parosh made repairs. 26 The temple servants living in Ophel made repairs as far as the front of the Water Gate toward the east and the projecting tower. 27 After them the Tekoites repaired another section in front of the great projecting tower and as far as the wall of Ophel. 28 Above the Horse Gate the priests carried out repairs, each in front of his house. 29 After them Zadok the son of Immer carried out repairs in front of his house. And after him Shemaiah the son of Shecaniah, the keeper of the East Gate, carried out repairs. 30 After him Hananiah the son of Shelemiah, and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph, repaired another section. After him Meshullam the son of Berechiah carried out repairs in front of his own quarters. 31 After him Malchijah, one of the goldsmiths, carried out repairs as far as the house of the temple servants and of the merchants, in front of the Inspection Gate and as far as the upper room of the corner. 32 Between the upper room of the corner and the Sheep Gate the goldsmiths and the merchants carried out repairs.

INTRO: I want to ask you to use your imagination with me for a minute. Picture this: You are famished… starving! You’ve been out of the country for the last ten days, and you haven’t eaten a good meal since you left. But here you are, seated at the table with a feast prepared and sitting before you.

Fork in hand, you prepare a good-sized bite of tender pot roast, maybe running it through the mashed potatoes and then, as you attempt to bring this bite of heaven to your mouth, you realize you have a problem: Your arms will not bend at the elbow. You cannot get the food from the plate to your mouth! You look around, and learn that everyone of you has the same problem. Nobody can taste this feast unless he decides to plunge his face directly into his plate.

But then, Charles gets an idea. He reaches down with his fork and prepares a giant bite of food. With his stiff arm, he swings it over into his neighbor’s mouth. His neighbor reciprocates and soon everyone is feeding one another and enjoying the banquet.

That’s a somewhat rough picture of how God’s people should function. We are individuals for sure. But we are also interdependent. The church is many members, but one body. God desires for us to work together, and the reality is that none of us can accomplish God’s plan without the help of others. But, that’s easier said than done.

How can we do it? I believe the 3rd chapter of Nehemiah gives us an illustration of just that.

Now, to be perfectly transparent, this passage isn’t the easiest one to preach. Some preachers have chosen to use allegory and draw out meaning from the names of the gates; Others focused on the builders who built by their homes to highlight the importance of the Christian family. Frankly, many preachers just give the chapter a nod and move right on to chapter 4.

But I believe that God has a purpose for this chapter that we are intended to see. This chapter is an account of how the labor was divided in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.

While I don’t claim to have an infallible approach, I do believe that we can make some observations from this chapter and apply them in a way that will help us to see how we can work together at LRBC.

We are going to work from a single statement that is demonstrated through this text:

God’s leaders lead willing people to work cooperatively toward a common vision.

In our time together, we are going to break down this statement, observing from Nehemiah’s record and then making application right here. The sermon is titled “Working Together”.

There is a handy sermon guide inside your bulletin for you to take notes and follow along. Let’s dive in.

God’s leaders lead:

Willing People

If you noticed, there are a lot of names listed in this chapter… and very few of them are easy to pronounce!

But, each of these folks volunteered and worked willingly. You may remember that it was the collective voice of the people who said, “Let us arise and build.” (2:18)

Here in chapter 3, we see that they were not just blowing smoke. They didn’t just sign up, they showed up and went to work. Now, let’s make some observations together:

This group included men, women, and probably even some children. (2, 12, etal)

This was a group effort. Everyone jumped in to do the work.

Sure, some were stronger or more skilled, but this work belonged to all the people. We don’t see anyone sitting on the sidelines saying- “that’s for someone else to do.”

This group included people with varying gifts.

There were priests, goldsmiths, perfumers, and probably a lot of farmers, as well as some carpenters, blacksmiths, and masons.

The point is that a lot of folks had to step out of their comfort zone in order to accomplish this goal. I’m sure not all these folks were good with a trowel, but they could carry water, clean up rubble, ensure other workers had what they needed and encourage them along in their work. (Build that wall!)

The group was made up of folks who lived inside the city and folks who came in from the villages to help.

We can easily understand the ones who built near their home- after all, this was going to give them protection and peace of mind. But there were those outside the city- these evidently cared enough about the people and the project to commit themselves to the work as well. (Did I mention none of them were paid?)

There were people in this group who carried out undesirable jobs.

There was a gate, called the refuse gate or the dung gate. This heads out toward the Kidron Valley where people brought their waste and trash to burn… use your imagination if you dare. (14) This took great humility… and great willingness to do what was necessary for God’s glory.

They were all willing workers. Nehemiah’s job was not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but the people did not have to be coerced to work. And I think that is one reason Nehemiah goes to such efforts here to record their names.

Their willingness and obedience in this moment, though not for this purpose, was forever recorded in God’s Word. Most of these folks are not mentioned anywhere else… we know nothing about their education, their salary, their home, what kind of camel they drove or if their sandals were name-brand… but what they did for God was preserved.

This gives us a picture as well. When we willingly put our hands to the work of God for His glory, that work will be what stands the test of fire in our day before the Lord.

1 Corinthians 3:11–15 NASB95

11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

CT Studd said “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last”

Let us willingly put our hands to the good work- to build, to encourage, to provide.

As we continue to examine this statement, we see that

God’s leaders lead willing people to:

Work Cooperatively

I want you to notice how organized this effort was. Every group had a role; a section of the wall or gate.

Notice how Nehemiah just walks us around the whole city saying “Next to them.... or after him...” It’s all very ordered and methodical - kinda reminds me of the genealogy sections of Scripture.

We need to back up and understand something here: These are the same folks who were in the city before Nehemiah got there. But at that time, they were not organized and working together.

ILL: Picture a basketball team where, instead of the players working together to score points, they continually kept trying to take the ball away from each other. Instead of cooperating, they were competing.

So Nehemiah comes in and organizes them. He gives them specific areas of responsibility, he no doubt assigns a few supervisors to help oversee areas of work (17-18), and he ensures that each group has the resources they need.

This cooperation meant that groups were not sneaking over and stealing stones or beams from other groups. They weren’t trying to undermine each other, but saw one another as co-laborers.

In particular, you might have noticed how the goldsmiths and merchants all came together (32)- these guys were likely competitors in the marketplace, but cooperated here.

Here’s my point: We can all have the best intentions for building God’s Kingdom, but unless we come together and cooperate, we will not accomplish what God desires.

We must not look at the various ministries as competition for budget money or volunteers, but instead step back and ask “How can we best work together here?”

The nursery isn’t ‘stealing your Sunday School class members’ - we are working cooperatively to provide child care so that young parents can be equipped by God’s Word.

We aren’t pitting ministries against one another for budget dollars. We are all on the same team.

1 Corinthians 12:18–20 NASB95

18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. 19 If they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now there are many members, but one body.

It should not be that any committee or ministry team is in competition with another- but this cooperative work is only possible in so much as we have the same priorities. That leads us to the final point:

God’s leaders lead willing people to work cooperatively

Toward a Common Vision.

Truly all that we have discussed must be rooted here. Why were the people willing to do the hard work of rebuilding the wall? Because they had a common vision. And listen, the vision was not simply to have a wall around the city. The vision was to make the people ‘no longer a reproach’ (2:17)

IOW, the vision was to restore the purpose of the Jewish people- to be set apart by God; different than the world. God’s people are to seek His ways, to worship Him, commune with Him, and be a light to all nations.

The Israelites had been scattered from their land for generations and to some degree had been integrated into the secular society. The point of the wall was to re-establish worship of Yahweh; Those inside the wall would be a set apart from the rest of the world.

The vision helped people to realize their purpose and give them a visible path to glorify the Lord… not as individuals, but as a collective people. Thus, they were not only willing to do the work, they recognized the necessity of cooperating together in order to accomplish the goal and reclaim their identity.

They were God’s people and the common vision and even short-term goals helped them to come together.

You know, so many of us in the American church have individualized our faith and lives so much. We come together on occasion, but if the truth be told, few are the actual workers. I fear that there are a number of folks like the Tekoite nobles (5) who did not support the work of the builders.

What we must have is a common vision. That vision is simply that we would be the authentic Christ followers that Jesus has called us to be - this is revealed as we bring the world to follow Him with us!

You and I who call ourselves Christians are called out by God and set apart from the world. Our lives should look different. The identity of the church must be different than the world.

One of the ways we distinguish the church from the world is through our own boundaries or walls.

We have the wall that is called church membership that sets forth values and calls members to a covenant with God and one another.

We have the wall of our witness- that our lives lived in public would stand in contrast to the darkness of the world.

And we build up one another so that we can press forward to the mission of the Church.

I want to take just a minute and show you how we organize this at LRBC: This is our organizational strategy:

GATHER, GROW, GO!

GATHER - We gather in worship on Sundays & Wednesdays to be reminded of God’s worthiness to be worshipped. To encourage one another and to learn. We gather as a visible reminder that we are one body on one mission, set apart for God’s purposes. Christ is our head and this time of gathering helps us to assimilate or align with God’s values.

GROW - We grow as we get into small groups, serving teams, and discipleship relationships. These more intimate groups allow us to discover our gifts, ask hard questions, and begin to lead ourselves in walking out our faith and identity. We grow when we begin applying God’s Word to our everyday lives.

GO - We go out to share the good news of Jesus and help others to follow Him. This happens in organized mission trips, outreach events, and as we go about our daily routines. We go when we shine forth our light into the darkness. This going allows opportunities for us to bring others with us to GATHER, to GROW, and to GO.

I like to think of it like a coffee maker - don’t look at me like that - there is a whole book in the Bible titled HEBREWS! Hang with me for a sec:

We GATHER together like water in the reservoir, GROW together as we pour through God’s Word and become transformed by it, and GO into the cups of our neighbors to fill them with the warmth of God’s love… and the aroma of our obedience is pleasing to the LORD!

From there, we simply invite them to join us back in the reservoir… ok so the analogy kinda breaks down at the end there, but you get the idea! Each step is important.

So, where does this leave us? God’s leaders lead willing people to work cooperatively toward a common vision.

What I am asking of you today is that you consider your place here. Some of you might be simply attending, and I’m glad you are here, but maybe you are attending and not putting your hand to the good work. What will it take for you to willingly, cooperatively join in?

This morning I want to challenge you to work together by taking your next step so you can grow and go to the glory of God.

[PRAY]

Discuss: How can you assist others in finding their place in the work?

Discuss: What is your role in the work? How can you support others?

Discuss: Talk about the strategy of “Gather, Grow, and GO.” What is your next step?