First Things First

Good Morning, if you have your Bibles turn with me to Nehemiah were going to be in chapters 7-8 this morning.

This morning I’d like to speak with you on this subject FIRST THINGS FIRST.

Now we have been studying Nehemiah and we have seen that Nehemiah was a very Godly man, one of the things that made him so Godly was that He had the ability to look beyond Himself for the glory of God and the betterment of other people.

We learned that God had given Nehemiah a calling, Gods city was laying in ruins. The people did not worship God in the way God had commanded, because they couldn’t remember the city was unguarded and unprotected and anyone or anything could enter the city.

Seeing the need for the people of God to be protected and able to worship Him in the way He desired..God put it in Nehemiah’s heart to rebuild the wall.

So Nehemiah goes before the King and asks if he can go home and rebuild God’s city, and much to the surprise of everyone the King not only grants his requests but provides letters for Nehemiah to have safe passage through enemy territory, and also provides him with security guards, and the materials he needed to get the job done.

If you would look at how things were panning out you would say man everything is lining up Nehemiah is in the center of God’s will and god is providing for him.

However everything would not be smooth sailing, we learned that even when you are in the center of God’s will, no especially when you are in the center of God’s will you will face opposition of some kind.

First these guys Sanballat and Tobiah come and they try to intimidate Nehemiah into stopping, now these men were Jews they should have been overjoyed the wall of the city was being rebuilt but they weren’t, they weren’t happy because they knew that if Nehemiah succeeded they would lose some of their power and authority.

So they began scare tactics trying to get Nehemiah and the people of God to stop rebuilding the wall, once those didn’t work they were so incensed with anger they decided to kill the people of God who were working for the Lord.

I mean these were some sick people.

Nehemiah faced attacks from outside the people of God, and he also faced attacks from within as the people became afraid.

But we all know what happened, as Nehemiah kept his eyes fixed on the Lord they persevered and the wall was completed.

WHEN GOD CALLS YOU TO DO A TASK, IT WILL NEVER GO SMOOTHLY AND BE DONE QUICKLY BUT IF YOU KEEP YOUR EYES FIXED UPON HIM AND STAY DETERMINED TO ACCOMPLISH WHAT HE HAS CALLED YOU TO DO, YOU CANNOT LOSE.

So at the end of chapter 6 you see the wall is completed, the city is now safe, they have won this particular battle! Everyone cheers, everyone is happy, the city is safe God has done through the people what nobody thought could be done!

So now what?

The battle to obey God is over right?

Not even close.

You see in the Christian life some of your most vulnerable points come after great victories.

You know God is telling you to do devotions with your family and you have never done it. You begin to do it and face all of the challenges that come from that.

But you persevere and it becomes a pattern in your home to glorify the Lord!!

It is a great feeling and great accomplishment that god is moving and has moved to help you overcome and if your not careful you can become complacent.

This is when trouble comes

God calls you to quit some particular sin, you pray and you go through the pain of getting that sin out of your life and everyone sheers and praises God when you get past it!!! A great victory has been won!

But if your not careful you can become complacent.

ETS: IT’S NOT ONLY WHAT YOU DO TO GET VICTORY THAT MATTERS, IT’S WHAT YOU DO AFTER THE VICTORY THAT MATTERS EVEN MORE

Some of the Christians life’s lowest valleys come after some of the highest mountain tops and your priorities have to remain the same if your going to walk in the victory God has helped you receive.

There is always a moment of decision, for example we make a decision to follow the Lord in some area of our lives and we become passionate about prayer, passionate about following after God, we fast we pray, we spend time with the Lord but after we get what we prayed for, how do we respond?

What happens after the victory matters, what you focus on after God answers your prayer matters.

Think about it after God saved Noah from the flood he had a a window right after they came off the ark, where he messed up big time!

Got drunk

After David has killed Sauls tens of thousands and is known as a great warrior for the Lord he had a choice and he became lazy which is why he ended up making the mistake with Bathsheba!

Over and over again story after story God gives the people a great victory and either they become complacent and fail, or they stay vigilant and continue walking in God’s favor and blessing.

This is what we learn from our text today what should our spiritual priorities be for all of life.

If we make these things a priority in our lives then it will safeguard us from forgetting our Lord.

Deuteronomy 8:11 HCSB

“Be careful that you don’t forget the Lord your God by failing to keep His command—the ordinances and statutes—I am giving you today.

Deuteronomy

When you get into the land in houses you did not build with land that you did not buy..... DO NOT FORGET THE LORD THY GOD!

When you get into the land in houses you did not build with land that you did not buy..... DO NOT FORGET THE LORD THY GOD!

How could god be forgotten?

Well it’s easy to remember the Lord when your in desperate need of something but when things are going well it can become easy to go through life not remembering how much you need him!

So let’s remember Him let’s be like Nehemiah

What does Nehemiah do after God has worked miracles and the wall is finished?

Nehemiah 7:1 ESV

Now when the wall had been built and I had set up the doors, and the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed,

“When the wall was built and I had hung the doors...”

This meant the wall was completely finished remember the last thing to do was to hang the doors.

So the initial task God called Nehemiah to was complete, but what would Nehemiah do next?

We can learn alot about Nehemiah’s priorities by watching these next few words.

He appointed gatekeepers, Nehemiah set up security to protect the perimeter from attack. This showed the shepherds heart of Nehemiah. He desired the safety and security of His people because he loved them.

So he set up security to watch the gates and protect from a threat, the idea of a church having security is not a new idea to protect those from outside coming in and harming those inside worshipping, this was a top priority for Nehemiah. He desired for God’s people to worship in peace and security.

He didn’t want them distracted by the thought of some enemy coming and attacking them.

He appointed singers and Levites and the Levites were the preists and together they one purpose for the people of God do you know what it was?

To restablish the worship of God, listen the walls were not built so that the people could sit back and go… whoaa alright check out this wall did we do a great job or what?

The wall was built to establish the worship of God back in their lives, its been over 100 years since they were able to worship in freedom.

the walls are built now what?’

guess what everybody we get to worship God together we’ve been scattered all over the place right? but now our temple is back in our city.

This should be a priority in your life as well.

THE WORSHIP OF GOD SHOULD BE A PRIORITY IN YOUR LIFE

Now we hear this and we say wow that was deep, but no seriously we live in a day and time where church seems to be optional, and it is I mean you can pick and choose what you do with your life but I am here to tell you, to choose to not go to church tells us something about our hearts.

God is all about us gathering together with all of our imperfections and coming together for the sole purpose of bringing Him glory, this is His priority!

But in our churches today when we hear the word worship we only think about one piece of the worship pie. When someone asks who does worship at your church you think about music.

That’s one piece of worship but its much bigger than that, when you hear the word worship the word literally means to ascribe worth.

Every single person alive is a worshipper, the things that you worship are the things you count as very worthy. EVERYBODY IS A WORSHIPPER

Don’t ever let anyone fool you into thinking they worship nothing everybody worships something and if someone says they don’t worship anything what they are really saying is that they worship themselves.

This is truly why when someone asks you if you enjoyed worshipped its really a total misunderstanding about what worship actually is!

It doesn’y matter at all if I like worship, because by worshipping I am not ascribing worth to me, I am ascribing worth to the one I am singing to and about.

His name is Jesus, thats why if a song is theologically correct and speaks about the actions of God or His attributes or His character we should not be quick to criticize because whether we like it or not does not matter because we come ASCRIBING WORTH TO OUR LORD NOT SEEKING TO ASCRIBE WORTH TO OURSELVES OR ASCRIBING WORTH TO ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE GOD WE SING ABOUT!

You worship whatever you ascribe worth to, if you wanna find out what you worship look at where you spend your time, talent and treasure and you will see what you ascribe worth to, by finding what you ascribe worth to you see what you actually worship with your life!

For the Christian the ultimate aim of their worship is to honor the creator God and His Son Jesus.

But for you to really understand worship fully you have to understand what Paul says

Romans 12:1 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

This is a crazy thing to think about!

What is a sacrifice?

Well there is an altar and then you would take the animal and lay it on the altar and kill it, take its life and the loss of that life atoned for the sins of your family. Well now since God has been so merciful since He has chosen to instead of kill us He has chosen to sacrifice His own Son in order to save you from your sins.

But once you understand that the son of God was crushed and beaten and broken for the payment for your sins in light of that mercy it is completely reasonable for you to lay your life down as a sacrifice in service to Him!

What you put to death is your sin, and your selfish desires, your personal wants and goals and you lay your life upon that altar and by laying it there here is what your saying God this breath in my lungs is yours, this blood coursing through these veins its yours, this beating heart in my chest its yours.

IT ALL BELONGS TO YOU GOD THEREFORE YOU HAVE FIRST DIBS ON MY LIFE, MY LIFE RUNS THROUGH THE FILTER OF HOW DOES THIS BRING HONOR AND GLORY TO JESUS!

This is your acceptable form of worship to God. It is whenever you have some free time do you surrender that free time to the Lord, or do you always take that free time for yourself?

When you have a little extra money, do you rush out and spend it on yourself or do you rush to the prayer closet to see where God would have you spend it?

Do you offer up time to be in God’s house?

I ascribe so much worth to you God that I am willing to put down my will for your will Lord. The things that matter to God should be what is most important to me, and the things that are the most important to God are the things I am going to pursue.

Paul says crawl up on the altar everyday, lay your life in the hands of the Lord He gave His life for you, will you lay your life down for Him?

Nehemiah 7:2 ESV

I gave my brother Hanani and Hananiah the governor of the castle charge over Jerusalem, for he was a more faithful and God-fearing man than many.

Nehemiah 1:2 ESV

that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem.

Great leaders give their leadership away

You remember Hanani he was Nehemiah’s brother who this whole story started with. He was the guy who showed up and knocked on Nehemiah’s door and told him that there was not anything being done about rebuilding the Temple.

He was the first one who had a heart for the people and the plan of God. So Nehemiah says he is qualified to co-lead with him. so what is so great about Hanani that Nehemiah picks him to be co-leader with him?

Was it his great managerial skills?

Was it his great strategies?

FOR HE WAS A MORE FAITHFUL AND GOD FEARING MAN THAN MANY

Do you know what the greatest leaders have?

THE FEAR OF GOD

If you fear God you will fear nothing else, but if you dont fear God then you will be afraid of anything that comes your way.

Do you know how dangerous that is as a leader?

Because people will pressure you to do what they want you to do, things that are in their best interest but it might not be in God’s best interest.

This about character and integrity.

He says you know what this is a dude who fears God and if you give me 30 men to serve with and they can have all the great skills and charisma and intelligence, but I’ll turn them all down for just one man who fears the Lord and seeks to obey Him.

I know Hanani since he fears the Lord is not going to Lord his leadership over the people, he’s not going to go after his own status and his own interests, he is not out to make himself look good he is going to look out for God’s people and this is what makes great leaders!

Nehemiah 7:3 ESV

And I said to them, “Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot. And while they are still standing guard, let them shut and bar the doors. Appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, some at their guard posts and some in front of their own homes.”

in other words he says we don’t have a lot of time here, we under high alert right now. Were going to have a real tight security force, those doors arent going to be open but just for a short amount of time.

Nehemiah 7:4 ESV

The city was wide and large, but the people within it were few, and no houses had been rebuilt.

these people are still living in tents.

Because he chooses these men of integrity this is going to work

Nehemiah 7:5 ESV

Then my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be enrolled by genealogy. And I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up at the first, and I found written in it:

Whats he talking about?

If you flip in your Bibles just a couple pages to the left to the book of Ezra your going to find a list of the people who had been exiled first. Nehemiah found that record because those are the people he wanted to bring back to their city.

Nehemiah 7:6 ESV

These were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried into exile. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his town.

then you get this long list of names I am not gonna read them to you but heres what i want you to know these are some pioneers right here.

they have been in Babylon for years and years they had set down some pretty deep roots they had it good in babylon.

But they are willing to exchange a comfortable life for a blessed life.

There are alot of people who wanna be settlers but there are very few people who wanna go first. We are risk scared we dont wanna take risks.

We dont like to do things that do not make sense on paper because we like everything in control, but by living this way we actually never do anything where god has to step in to make it work.

Are you living life on faith, saying to yourself ok God this is going to fail if you dont help me.

Do you know whats really fun about being around people who are willing to step out and step out into the unkown? They get to see God do amazing things through them.

God steps into situations where people are willing to believe that He is going to have to act on their behalf as they are obedient.

Jump over to verse 70

Nehemiah

Now let’s talk about some of these dudes who make the journey back home to their homeland at a time when we would say listen I am retired, I have retirement plans, my time is my own, my money is my own.

Here these dudes go with their arthritic knees and there gray hair they make this massive journey home to live in a tent, simply because they wanna worship in God’s house.

You know what else they do?

They continue to serve as an example by giving their money to the Lord.

Nehemiah 7:70 ESV

Now some of the heads of fathers’ houses gave to the work. The governor gave to the treasury 1,000 darics of gold, 50 basins, 30 priests’ garments and 500 minas of silver.

Hey were coming back but there’s still alot of work to do, and this governor serves the people by giving a ton of money to make sure people had homes to live in.

Nehemiah 7:71 ESV

And some of the heads of fathers’ houses gave into the treasury of the work 20,000 darics of gold and 2,200 minas of silver.

Nehemiah 7:72 ESV

And what the rest of the people gave was 20,000 darics of gold, 2,000 minas of silver, and 67 priests’ garments.

Nehemiah 7:7

Nehemiah 8:1 ESV

And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel.

The people say bring the book, bring the bible we wanna hear God’s word!!!We need to get together and read understand and apply God’s word!

Reading and Understanding and applying God’s word should be a priority in your life.

Nehemiah 8:2 ESV

So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month.

Nehemiah 8:3 ESV

And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.

6 hour sermon???

Nehemiah 8:4 ESV

And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand, and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand.

Nehemiah 8:5 ESV

And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood.

Nehemiah 8:6 ESV

And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

Nehemiah 8:7 ESV

Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places.

WE SEEK TO KNOW WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS

Nehemiah

2 Timothy 3:14–17 ESV

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy

The movie OVER COMER

Who are you?

describe the scene

Heres a couple questions as we close:

Is coming to church to ascribe worth (worship) to God a priority to you?

Is reading and understanding God’s word a priority for you?

Are you giving the Lord everything you’ve got?