From Vision To Commitment

Good morning church!

And Happy Mother’s Day!

I know Mother’s Day can be a sensitive topic, as can Father’s Day and many other dates that are highlighted on the calendar, but we do want to honor mothers today, past, present, and future, so ladies, whether you are currently a mother or hope to be one some day, we do have a gift for you as you leave later today.

Last week we talked about when Kingdom opportunity knocks and how that should prompt us to take action on the opportunities God provides to us for Kingdom building and restoration.

This week in the latter half of chapter 2, we are going to take that opportunity and transition from the vision that we receive as individuals and transition that to commitment.

Our main point for today is:

Main Point: When planning for restoration, an authentic assessment must be taken to be committed to hard work in dependence on God.

When we plan for restoration, we must take a honest, authentic assessment of the situation so that we can be committed to the hard work of dependence on God.

And while today’s message is talking primarily about planning for restoration in the city of Jerusalem and in the church, there is some shared principles to restoration in our households or in our lives as well. Individually we sometimes need restoration in our lives for various reasons, it could be the workplace, it could be the family, it could be our marriages, and when we depend on God for His faithfulness and we trust Him and His Word we can have that restoration. And it is our dependence on God that gets us through as we assess and make hard plans towards restoration - personal restoration, family restoration, friendship restoration, and the church restoration.

Every time that I returned from a deployment, I desperately needed restoration. I had been away, in foreign territories, and I needed restoration. My family needed restoration. A lot of times my home or our vehicles needed some restoration. And spiritually, after having been wearied in my travels, or in war torn territories, I needed restoration.

But before returning home, a plan was discussed with my wife, and there was a re-deployment brief to be received. We had to take an authentic assessment of the situation, as a unit, as a family, and we had to plan for that restoration and then we had to stick to that plan.

Nehemiah, he gets to Jerusalem, and you know, last week he got there and there was already some opposition forming, today he’s been there a few days and it’s time to assess. In chapter one he receives this bad news from his brother, then last week in chapter two we saw a period of four months of praying and fasting and weeping, we saw this opportunity present itself, and Nehemiah jumps at the opportunity.

Today, he’s there, and it’s time to get a real understanding of the bigger picture.

He knows things are bad, but he needs to know what is really going on so that he can develop a plan of action that people can follow.

Beginning in verse 11 we read:

Nehemiah 2:11–20 CSB

11 After I arrived in Jerusalem and had been there three days, 12 I got up at night and took a few men with me. I didn’t tell anyone what my God had laid on my heart to do for Jerusalem. The only animal I took was the one I was riding. 13 I went out at night through the Valley Gate toward the Serpent’s Well and the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. 14 I went on to the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but farther down it became too narrow for my animal to go through. 15 So I went up at night by way of the valley and inspected the wall. Then heading back, I entered through the Valley Gate and returned. 16 The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, for I had not yet told the Jews, priests, nobles, officials, or the rest of those who would be doing the work. 17 So I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been burned. Come, let’s rebuild Jerusalem’s wall, so that we will no longer be a disgrace.” 18 I told them how the gracious hand of my God had been on me, and what the king had said to me. They said, “Let’s start rebuilding,” and their hands were strengthened to do this good work. 19 When Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about this, they mocked and despised us, and said, “What is this you’re doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” 20 I gave them this reply, “The God of the heavens is the one who will grant us success. We, his servants, will start building, but you have no share, right, or historic claim in Jerusalem.”

Prayer.

Nehemiah arrives and he spends three days getting settled in to the city. Then it’s time to get to work on the mission he has been sent for.

He heard the bad news, he prayed, weeped, and fasted, and he took advantage of the opportunity before him with the king. The king allows Nehemiah to go and rebuild the city walls and gates.

And now Nehemiah is taking a look for himself and making a plan.

He’s got the vision to rebuild the walls and gates and to restore Jerusalem, now it’s time to begin implementing the vision.

To do that, Nehemiah is going to show us three steps or actions that he takes to go from vision to implementation.

Three steps to going from seeing the vision to implementing the vision. The first step that Nehemiah takes is a:

1. Careful ASSESSMENT with confidence in God’s faithfulness, vv. 11-16.

Nehemiah arrives, he takes these three days to get settled, then he goes out and takes a walk, at night, without telling anyone. He takes a few men with him, presumably a security detail or some others to help him assess, a few that were going to be non-biased or non-complacent because they hadn’t been there, and he doesn’t take any additional animals to make any noise.

He doesn’t tell anyone what God has laid on his heart to do. He had a vision, now he’s taking a look and seeing what it’s going to take to rebuild.

Most of us have started that new job or something like that where it’s a new group, or a new church, or a new town, and there’s that person who is ready to tell you everything about the town and about the people around the place.

Years ago I arrived at my first duty station, and as I’m walking up to the pier another sailor asks me if I’m new and then he asks me where I’m going. I told him the name of the ship, and he tried to tell me to turn around and run. Quite the first impression.

By the way, that was probably one of my best duty stations, because instead of listening to what others said or complained about, I chose to assess the situation for myself. That sailor was always in trouble, because he couldn’t adapt to the Navy lifestyle, so if I had listened to him, I would have been allowing his experience to influence my assessment.

For three days Nehemiah has probably been hearing all the whining and all the complaints.

Those people over there won’t leave us alone. That person won’t pull his weight.

Then he’s been hearing the complacent people - eh, the walls aren’t that important, we only lose a few people a day to raiders. Eh, the church doesn’t need protection, it’s just a minor difference in doctrine between us and them.

Nehemiah has probably heard it all. Now it’s his turn to go and see what is really taking place and what the real state of the city is.

And he takes this trip around the southern wall and gates of Jerusalem. He begins at the Valley Gate and ends at the Valley Gate. He takes a look at a section of the wall to assess the full extent of the work that needs to take place.

Church, we need to take an assessment of ourselves and of our churches.

When we are trying to figure out if we should buy a house or a car, we should be carefully assessing our finances to see if we can afford it. When we want to remodel something, we have to have all sorts of plans and inspections and paperwork before we can begin a home renovation.

When things are bad in our marriages and in our homes, an assessment of the situation that is realistic must take place for true restoration in our relationships.

The same is true in our churches. If we cannot assess the problem in the church accurately, then we are going to aim our plans at the wrong target. We must accurately assess the problems in our church and we must always be paying attention when even little things come up, otherwise we could end up like Jerusalem here in the early chapters of Nehemiah - defenseless, helpless, and disgraced.

So Nehemiah goes and he takes this assessment. He knows what God has called him to do, he knows the vision, he knows that God is with him and is faithful to his word, and now he has seen the actual situation with his own eyes.

Now that he has seen the wall and has seen the gates and he knows what is taking place in the city he is better prepared for the next step that he must take.

Step two - Nehemiah must obtain:

2. Cooperative COMMITMENT with confidence in God’s faithfulness, vv. 17-18.

Now that he has seen and accurately assessed the situation, he’s ready to present the information to the people. In verses 17 and 18 Nehemiah presents the information to the officials.

Nehemiah 2:17–18 CSB

17 So I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been burned. Come, let’s rebuild Jerusalem’s wall, so that we will no longer be a disgrace.” 18 I told them how the gracious hand of my God had been on me, and what the king had said to me. They said, “Let’s start rebuilding,” and their hands were strengthened to do this good work.

Now I’m pretty sure that Nehemiah didn’t present them with death by powerpoint, but what he was able to do was take the information that he had and convince the officials that rather than just being complacent and letting things be, they needed the wall and the gates to be repaired.

You see the trouble we are in. He says look around you and actually see the problem for what it is. Don’t try to sugar coat it, don’t try to cover it up with a band-aid, but actually look at the problem.

Our city lies in ruins.

It’s just a wall and some gates the people may have been saying before, but Nehemiah says Jerusalem lies in ruins.

Many of our churches today lie in ruin because they fail to take an accurate assessment, and even when they do they will come out and say it’s not that big of a deal.

Now I’m not saying everything is crisis mode because if everything is a crisis then nothing is as the saying goes.

But church, we know we have a problem when we stop hearing children in the church, or when we stop caring for the elderly or the widowed - or when we don’t attend church or participate in the fellowship of the believers because it isn’t convenient to us.

And if we fail to recognize the severity of the situation we are going to fail to act according to the actual situation and perhaps we are going to sugar coat it or just sweep it under the rug as some non-concern.

Many of our churches lie in ruin for one simple reason that we discussed last week - the church has grown complacent towards reaching others with the gospel. And then the once vibrant church becomes an aging church.

We must be reaching every generation for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Nehemiah says come let’s rebuild the wall and the gates so that we will no longer be a disgrace.

Church, we are the walls and the gates, and we need to be constantly building up the wall of the faith by bringing in the new generation of believer and providing them with the resources that they need to reach their generation and the next generation after them for the gospel.

We don’t build physical walls, we’re building Kingdom walls that glorify God, and it is the responsibility of every believer here to advance the Kingdom of God.

But Nehemiah doesn’t stop there, he tells them about the gracious hand of my God. That’s that Elohim God in the Hebrew, the Supreme God - my supreme God’s gracious hand was with me.

He tells them about everything God has done for him - he shares his testimony, in this case - and he tells them how the king responded.

Pastor Jeremy I’m too scared to share my testimony. They may tell the boss or someone in power, and then it’ll be all over, they’ll think I’m some Bible nut job who thinks that they are going to hell, and I’ll lose everything.

That’s ok, the Supreme God of the universe, He must not be that powerful in your life, His gracious hand must not be upon you, so you know, God didn’t command you to go and make disciples and baptize them in His name so that they won’t be going to hell.

Oh, wait, the Bible does say that Jesus gave us this commandment to go and tell people so that they won’t have to spend eternity in hell, but you know, your comfort is what’s most important.

No, Nehemiah says look, here’s what happened - I prayed and I fasted and I wept for months, and one day I went before the king and I was sad - I had never been sad in his presence before, but that day I just couldn’t hide it and I was sad in his presence. He asked me what was wrong and I was scared like there was no tomorrow, but I told him about Jerusalem being in ruin, and he asked me what I wanted from him. And it was awesome.

So then I asked him to send me to Jerusalem to rebuild it, and he asked me how long I was going to be gone, and when I gave him an amount of time he said yes!

By that time I knew God was with me and I asked for him to send some letters with me to the governors and to the king’s lumberjack and he said yes again, and he sent some of the officers of the calvary and infantry with me!

He says God is with me, let’s rebuild these walls and gates!

And what do they do - they agree and say let’s rebuild!

You want to rebuild the church? Figure out how to tell people that they need Jesus and why. You need Jesus and here’s why - because I needed Jesus.

Some of you all here today may need to figure out why you needed Jesus, or remember why you needed Jesus.

I needed Jesus because I knew where my life was going without Jesus. I needed Jesus because I was a sinner who would have been chasing after the sin of money or sexual impurity or both and it would have destroyed me because I would have done almost anything to get those things.

I needed Jesus because I had seen the places that having those things would have taken me.

Countless others have shared their testimony and will tell you where they were before Jesus, how they met Jesus, and how Jesus changed their lives. That is an awesome way to share the gospel - that is what Nehemiah does, and he does it to rebuild the city, we do it to continually build the church.

The third action or step that we need to be familiar with is:

3. Confronting INTIMIDATION with confidence in God’s faithfulness, vv. 19-20.

Verses 19 and 20 Nehemiah tells us what those around him thought of them rebuilding the city.

Nehemiah 2:19–20 CSB

19 When Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about this, they mocked and despised us, and said, “What is this you’re doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” 20 I gave them this reply, “The God of the heavens is the one who will grant us success. We, his servants, will start building, but you have no share, right, or historic claim in Jerusalem.”

Nehemiah tells us that the other governors and officials didn’t like that idea. You sort of get this sense of jealousy going on here, but they hear about how the city is going to get rebuilt, they have the letters from the king, and so they do what they can do - they mock them and ridicule them. It says they despised them.

They had the letters, they knew it was the king’s decision, but that doesn’t stop them from mocking them.

The king had sent Nehemiah on the mission, so they were powerless for the most part against this work of rebuilding the wall.

And so they start with some mocking. What are you doing? Are you rebelling against the king?

In essence, they were trying to make their voices louder than the voice of God and than the voice of Nehemiah to the people.

We are going to have those that are outside the church that are going to be against the church. They don’t want the church to have victory. They would rather that the message of truth that we are all sinners separated from God by our sin be silenced. They would rather remain in that sin for a season than hear that God loves them and has called them to repentance.

They would rather remain in that sin that hear of the grace and the mercy and the faithfulness and righteousness of our Supreme God.

Why?

Because being confronted with their sin they choose to remain in that sin instead of being changed by God to walk in repentance and in righteousness and in newness of life.

Because they don’t know the awesome power of our God - but we do, Nehemiah does, and in verse 20 he tells them “the (Supreme) God of the heavens is the one who will grant us success.”

We have the awesome power of God on our side. That power that can move mountains. That power that can free the captive. That power that can save, the most awesome power in the world because that is a power that belongs to God alone and it flows through us and has saved us from the sin and death of this world!

And to those that do not have this power, Nehemiah tells them that they have no share in what is taking place there in Jerusalem.

And if you don’t know Christ today, that, my friend, is you.

Right now if you don’t know Christ, you have no share in the Kingdom of Heaven.

But the Good News is that Jesus Came to save sinners.

He did all the work for you.

He came, He lived a sinless life, He was violently killed as a sacrifice for our sins, and then He rose again three days later with victory over death, hell, and the grave.

The resurrection power of Jesus can rebuild the broken church, the broken family, the broken marriage, and most importantly, the resurrection power of Jesus Christ can save you.

But you have to believe that and follow through.

If you’re here right now and you don’t know Christ, you’re new to church or you’ve been faking it or whatever, if you are here and you don’t know Christ today, that can all change today. Come talk to me, talk to the person who invited you, fill out the connect card - we’d love to pray with you and show you what the Bible says about believing in Christ as Lord and Savior.

We must be committed to our dependence on God to be a restored people reaching others for the gospel of Christ.

Prayer.

Questions for the Week ‌1. What is one thing that stood out to you from this week’s message?

2. What is your assessment of the church? What is the assessment of your neighborhood or your workplace?

3. Are you committed to the mission and vision of Harmony? Are you pursuing that outside of the walls of the church?

4. Are you rooted in the confidence of God’s faithfulness enough to confront those who are against His plans?