Thanksgiving 2
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You remember the story of Nehemiah? “Oh me oh my oh Nehemiah, what’re we gonna do?”
1 In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence.
2 And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid.
3 I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”
4 Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.
5 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it.”
6 And the king said to me (the queen sitting beside him), “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time.
7 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah,
8 and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.
The good hand of God was upon me.
Remember the prayer of Jabez? . Bless me, enlarge my territory, that YOUR HAND WOULD BE WITH ME.
When Joshua had led Israel across the Jordan, they set up a monument: that all the people of the earth might know THE HAND OF THE LORD, that it is MIGHTY
Even the proverbs tell us the hand of God controls the heart of man.
1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.
Then under the New Covenant, Peter encourages us to
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
The protection, provision and blessing of God is realized as the Hand of God on His people. And Nehemiah went to Jerusalem full of the confidence that ‘the good hand of my God was upon me’. And said as much when he shared his plan with those in Jerusalem.
Now when he got there, he found opposition from without, disunity from within. The odds were stacked against.
But the rebuilding and return had been prophesied by Zechariah and Daniel, so was inevitable, unstoppable, bound to happen.
That brings us to a very exciting question: what about the church in Elkhart is inevitable, unstoppable, bound to happen? That question is intimidating. Maybe even hard to answer. Why? Is it because God is the only source of the answer? And to get at it we have to get in front of Him! Humbled, surrendered, obedient.
I’d like to clue you in on part of the answer to that question. I find it in the affirming scripture God gave me when He made it clear we were coming to Elkhart. It is found in
1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;
3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.
4 They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
Obviously, this was fulfilled by Jesus. He said so in Luke when He was teaching on the Sabbath.
These are the things, when we are full of the spirit of God and obedient to the will of God, are inevitable. Unstoppable. Bound to happen.
Bring good news
Bind up brokenhearted
Proclaim liberty
Open the prison
Comfort the mourners
They will be oaks of righteousness. They will build up, raise up, repair the devastations of many generations.
When the body of Christ in this community becomes willing to be humbled, surrendered and obedient in front of the Lord WILL SEE Him make that happen. Nehemiah had them build from their dwellings out toward each other, one stone at a time. Sometimes with a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other. And the people of Jerusalem saw the will of God, in the form of a wall of protection, come up around them. IN 52 DAYS!
And then they gave thanks. They planned Thanksgiving.
8 And the Levites: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and Mattaniah, who with his brothers was in charge of the songs of thanksgiving.
Nehemiah 12:27-31
27 And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites in all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, with thanksgivings and with singing, with cymbals, harps, and lyres.
28 And the sons of the singers gathered together from the district surrounding Jerusalem and from the villages of the Netophathites;
29 also from Beth-gilgal and from the region of Geba and Azmaveth, for the singers had built for themselves villages around Jerusalem.
30 And the priests and the Levites purified themselves, and they purified the people and the gates and the wall.
31 Then I brought the leaders of Judah up onto the wall and appointed two great choirs that gave thanks. One went to the south on the wall to the Dung Gate.
43 And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced. And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.
Go ahead and start thanking Him for what He has started doing.