You Are Important To This Body
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The Outline Bible Section Outline One (Nehemiah 1-3)
IV. THE REPAIRS (3:1–32): The work is divided up by the 10 various gates, each assigned to certain leaders.
A. The Sheep Gate (3:1–2)
B. The Fish Gate (3:3–5)
C. The Old City Gate (3:6–12)
D. The Valley Gate (3:13)
E. The Dung Gate (3:14)
F. The Fountain Gate (3:15–25)
G. The Water Gate (3:25–27)
H. The Horse Gate (3:28)
I. The East Gate (3:29–30)
J. The Inspection Gate (3:31–32)
Introduction
Look at map as I read the text.
British humorist Jerome K. Jerome said, “I like work, it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.” When it comes to the work of the Lord, there is no place for spectators or self-appointed advisors and critics; but there is always room for workers.
Be Determined Chapter Three: Wall to Wall Workers (Nehemiah 3)
British humorist Jerome K. Jerome said, “I like work, it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.” When it comes to the work of the Lord, there is no place for spectators or self-appointed advisors and critics; but there is always room for workers.
British humorist Jerome K. Jerome said, “I like work, it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.” When it comes to the work of the Lord, there is no place for spectators or self-appointed advisors and critics; but there is always room for workers.
Be Determined Chapter Three: Wall to Wall Workers ()
Be Determined Chapter Three: Wall to Wall Workers ()
What is the Hearer’s problem?
And if you are in Christ - a beliver - you are a valued worker on behalf of your Savior.
Nehemiah had a goal to repair the walls of Jerusalem, but there was no way he would accomplish this monumental task by himself. He would need an army of volunteers who loved God, to pull this off.
God, in His infinite wisdom and knowledge has made it so His people can participate and grow by working for him! No work for God, no growth in God. Work for God and you will grow in ways you never dreamed possible.
What do the hearers need to know?
Main Textual Idea: Nehemiah grew in his leadership and the people grew in their love for God and their skills to serve Him!
The people of God make a difference!
Main Idea: When God’s Work Needs to be Accomplished, You Play an Important Role in Achieving the Goal!
Who me? Yes, you! You are fearfully and wonderfully made, not for your purposes, but His!
There are many principles we can draw on from this chapter. I will focus on three...
God’s Work Has a Glorious Purpose!
God’s Work Follows a Wise Plan!
God’s Work Empowers His People!
Body
1. God’s Work Has a Glorious Purpose!
Lead in... I have addressed this over the past few sermons. Why in the world would Nehemiah leave the comfortable position of Cupbearer - the most trusted position in the entire kingdom of Persia, to become a building contractor for a delapitated and disrepaired wall some 800 miles away from his very comfortable position?
Why would he care about this? Why would he even give his brother’s report a second thought?
Because, he loved God and was passionate about His glory!
3 And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.”
Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.”
And God’s city was a tangible place in which God’s glory was to be on display for all the nations to see!
1 Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain, 2 beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King.
1-
And, by the way, God loves his city very much...
1 On the holy mount stands the city he founded; 2 the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. 3 Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God. Selah
So this begs the question, if God loved His city and His gates so much, why were they in such horrible condition? Because the Jews lost the vision of who God is! And so God was about to do a great work - through Nehemiah - to have his city be restored to its former glory!
Text -
We never need to worry about God’s glory being diminished. It can’t be - He will see to that!
Explanation -
But we have a responsibility to do our part to give Him all the recognition we possibly can!
When you look at a beautiful painting, after admiring it, where do you place the credit for the painting? In the paint? In the canvas it lies upon? In the museum in which it hangs? No, the glory goes to none other than the painter who used his talents to create the beautiful work! When we appreciate a masterful painting we are glorifying the master painter!
Nehemiah had the vision to repaint the landscape of God’s Holy Mountain and restore the glory and grandure of God’s precious city! He desired to see God’s glory restored to that city on this hill! The Temple was the place where God showed up and tabernacled among His people!
Since that time, Christ came and dwelt among His people as well. However, Christ’s time here living among us was for the purpose of His death on the cross to pay for the sins of the world and then rising from the dead. This is the gospel.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
Argumentation -
1 Corinthian 15 1-4
And those who understand and believe this message have the hope of eternal life.
However there is something else worth noting. Just as God tabernacled among his people in the temple in the Old Testament, so now He tabernacles or lives in all who are His.
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Now I want you to see the correlation here. The same God who dwelt in the Temple now dwells in you.
And the same glory that Nehemiah desired to have restored to the Temple and the City, needs to be apparent in you!
We are individually “mini-temples!” A glory bilboard, if you will...
We are corporatly the temple of God! We are the City on the Hill!
Both individually and corporately, we are to reflect the glory of God in everthing. Our thoughts, words and actions are to make God look good!
So the question is this for you and for us as a corporate body of believers...
Do I / we make God look good with how we live our lives? Are people looking at us and thinking, “Wow, there is something really different about that person.” or are they seeing a bunch of broken down walls and burnt gates?
For almost a century the Jews didn't do much until Nehemiah came along to spur them on to accomplish an amazing feat for God’s glory.
Just like Nehemiah set out to restore the glory of God in the city of God, so Jesus, once you are saved, sets out to conform you to His image! In other words, the more you look, act and think like Christ, the more glory or fame He receives.
This is our privildge as believers in Christ! You get to glorify Jesus with the life He has given you - This is the highest call you can get from God!
Application -
31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
So how are you doing with this exceedingly important work? Restoring the glory to the city of David was very important! Nehemiah gave himself wholly to this task.
You becoming more and more holy and reflecting the character of Jesus is the MOST IMPORTANT WORK OF YOUR LIFE! Are you giving yourself wholly to this as well?
Review - When God’s Work Needs to be Accomplished, You Play an Important Role in Achieving the Goal!
God’s Work Has a Glorious Purpose
2. God’s Work Follows a Wise Plan!
Lead in...What is the tension here? As we grow to understand our friend, Nehemiah there are many admirable attributes he has. He is a man of faith and prayer. He is a man who isn’t afraid of hard work. And, he is a man with a plan!
Nehemiah is a planner par excellence!
It’s great to be a visionary, to see what could be in the future! It’s exciting to imagine what what may come to fruition. However, if you are a visionary and you have no plan on how to accomplish the goal - sorry to say - your vision is DOA, dead on arrival!
Nehemiah was gifted by God to be both! He had a vision of restoring the walls and a plan (as well as the management skills) to make it happen! Nehemiah was a “make it happen” kinda leader!
And one of the most difficult challenges about being a visionary leader isn’t just visioning and planning, but it is to get everyone on board with the plan!
And this is exacly what he did. Warren Weirsbe said, “Thirty-eight individual workers are named in this chapter, and forty-two different groups are identified. There were also many workers whom Nehemiah did not name whose labors were important, and each worker — named and anonymous — was assigned a place and a task.”
Let me tell you, to direct this many people to accomplish this monumental task (in 52 days, by the way) took an enormous amount of thought and planning!
I’ve heard it said and believe it to be true. “Everything rises and falls on leadership!”
We have the benefit of knowing the rest of the story — that the people of Judah finished this project. Why? Because they followed the plan of the leader. They obeyed Nehemiah’s voice! They ALL kept their focus on the prize! They ALL passionately pursued the same goal. They were of the same mind. It’s amazing what a group of God fearing, bible saturated, Holy Spirit filled, people can accomplish for God!
It’s interesting to note that the word “built” is used six times in and it means “rebuilt.”
George Morrison says, “that for this restoration no new material was needed. In the debris of the ruined masonry lay all the material required … and it seems to me that is always so when the walls of Zion are rebuilt” (Morning Sermons, London: Howder and Stoughton, 1931, 249).
Weirsbe adds, “It is not by inventing clever new things that we take away the church’s reproach, but by going back to the old truths that made the church great in ages past. They lie like stones in the dust, waiting for some burdened Nehemiah to recover them and use them.”
There is another important word in this chapter - “repair” and it is used thirty-five times. It means “to make strong and firm.” Nehemiah wanted this fix to be excellent and long lasting! They didn’t want it to fall apart in a week. They were building to the Glory of God! And God’s glory deserves our best effort! To help each person do an excellent job, would require a ton of planning on Nehemiah’s part.
If you remember from , we learned that the gates of Jerusalem were destroyed by fire. He had already made a plan with the king to rebuild those gates with the timber from the king’s forest. Restored gates would mean restored safety for God’s people as well as the temple. Restored gates meant they could control who would go in and out of the city! God loves his gates!
2 the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.
One more thing Nehemiah had to plan for - Locks and bars (, , ). This is mentioned 5 times.
The point is this. All of these things and a host of other things needed to be planned for!
And God’s work must follow a wise plan. God is a God of order, not of chaos! We, His children are to do things decently and in order!
It takes vision to see what can be, it takes work to make a plan and follow it! Don’t fly by the seat of your pants for the Lord!
Nehemiah was burdened! And his burden led him to do something!
Nehemiah was burdened! And his burden led him to do something!
Matthew West has a powerful song about this idea. Guess what it is called?
DO SOMETHING!
I woke up this morning
Saw a world full of trouble now, thought
How'd we ever get so far down, and
How's it ever gonna turn around
So I turned my eyes to Heaven
I thought, "God, why don't You do something?"
Well, I just couldn't bear the thought of
People living in poverty
Children sold into slavery
The thought disgusted me
So, I shook my fist at Heaven
Said, "God, why don't You do something?"
He said, "I did, yeah, I created you" (now listen)
If not us, then who
If not me and you
Right now, it's time for us to do something, yeah
If not now, then when
Will we see an end
To all this pain
Oh, it's not enough to do nothing
It's time for us to do something
Text -
Nehemiah did something! He moved off dead center! He Prayed, he planned and he went and did!
The Outline Bible Section Outline One ()
IV. THE REPAIRS (3:1–32): The work is divided up by the 10 various gates, each assigned to certain leaders.
A. The Sheep Gate (3:1–2)
B. The Fish Gate (3:3–5)
Text -
C. The Old City Gate (3:6–12)
D. The Valley Gate (3:13)
E. The Dung Gate (3:14)
F. The Fountain Gate (3:15–25)
G. The Water Gate (3:25–27)
H. The Horse Gate (3:28)
I. The East Gate (3:29–30)
J. The Inspection Gate (3:31–32)
Explanation -
I wonder what God is burdenint you to accomplish for him! Pray about it! And then make a plan! Then run after it! It won’t be easy. But if it were easy, everybody would be doing it!
As a church, it is our burden to not rebuild something, but to build a building for the glory of God. It is our vision that...
Illustration -
It would be a...
“Hospital for the Sin Sick People in our Community”
“An Equipping Center for the Saints!”
“A Launching Pad for Church Planting and Church Revialization for this community and beyond!”
This all takes a ton of work and planning! What are you willing to do with your time, talents and money to see this vision come to a reality?
By the way, this is why we are doing a Capital Campaign - so we can wisely plan for the future building. After all, we need to count the cost before we turn the dirt!
Argumentation -
I know you are praying about what role you will play in all of this!
Application -
Review - When God’s Work Needs to be Accomplished, You Play an Important Role in Achieving the Goal!
God’s Work Has a Glorious Purpose
God’s Work Follows a Wise Plan
3. God’s Work Empowers His People!
God’s Work Empowers His People
Lead in...What is the tension here? What could be more empowering than the thought that God wants to use you to accomplish something great for Him?! Nehemiah’s task was so great! It was going to take a ton of work!
“A great many people have got a false idea about the church.” said evangelist D.L. Moody. “They have got an idea that the church is a place to rest in … to get into a nicely cushioned pew, and contribute to the charities, listen to the minister, and do their share to keep the church out of bankruptcy, is all they want. The idea of work for them — actual work in the church — never enters their minds.”
We know better here at ABC! We value hard work! And we recocognize that each person is important and has been “fearfully and wonderfully made” to work for God and Glory! Believer, you are gifted by God for His work! And the more you work your gifting, the more you grow in Christ!
There are some great priciples we can learn here...
God uses a variety of People - Rulers and priests (vs 1, 12-19), men and women (vs. 12), professional craftsmen (vs 8, 32), and people from outside the city (vs. 2, 5, 7). Everyone had a place to serve...
God expects leaders to take the lead - The priest of that time were to be taking the lead in there service and giving. Eliashib, in verse one, does just that! He “rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the Sheep Gate.”
God knows some will not work - Tekoa was a town about eleven miles from Jerusalem. Some of the people that lived there came to help repair the walls. However, their nobles refused to do any work (). Why? There is no clear answer, but we know this, Paul worked as a tent maker () and Jesus, our Lord, worked as a carpenter ().
Some of God’s People do more than others -
Some
Text -
Explanation -
The Outline Bible Section Outline One ()
THE REPAIRS (3:1–32): The work is divided up by the 10 various gates, each assigned to certain leaders.
The Sheep Gate (3:1–2) - This was the gate that the animal sacrifices were brought through into the city.
The Fish Gate (3:3–5) - This was located to the west of the Sheep Gate. Merchants would bring their fish through this gate to sell in the city. It was a key entrance to the city.
The Old City Gate (3:6–12) - Or the Corner Gate. Or the Mishnah Gate meaning “second quarter” or “new quarter” So the Old Gate led into the New quarter.
The Valley Gate (3:13) - Located at the southwest corner of the wall about 500 yards from the Dung Gate. Both opened into the Valley of Hinnom.
The Dung Gate (3:14) - was located at the southernmost part of the city near the Pool of Siloam. This was the garbage gate. The word gehenna mean Vally of Hinnom. Jesus uses this as a picture of Hell in . “Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.”
The Fountain Gate (3:15–25) - on the east wall just north of the Dung Gate. This was near the Pool of Siloam, the old City of David, and the water tunnel built by King Hezekiah (). The Gihon Spring was located near there and was a very imporant souce of water for the city.
The Water Gate (3:25–27) - led from the old City of David to the Gihon Spring. Most large cities in ancient history were build by large rivers, Jerusalem was not so it depended on reservoirs and springs for its water.
The Horse Gate (3:28) - This became an important part of Jerusalem's defense system
7 Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots.
The East Gate (3:29–30) - This led directley to the Temple and is most likely known today as the Golden Gate. Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord depart from the temple at the East Gate (), and the Lord will return to the city in the same way (43:1-5).
The Inspection Gate (3:31–32) - This is where the army was reviewed and registered. This gate was located at the northwest corner of the city - which was the most vulnerable side to attack. A good place to have the army!
It took many people in many positions to get the great work accomplished. And, by the way, this was no cake walk. It was a difficult, dirty and sacrifical job! We will see this more clearly in the chapters ahead!
The very clear point is this. God’s work empowers people. It gives His people something worthy to accomplish - together!
I see a very simular opportunity happing here at ABC. As we construct this new facility on Lake Michigan Drive, there will be an army of people necessary to see it come to completion.
Of course we will need a great participation to raise the funds - from collecting pop cans to
We will need continual prayer coverage
We will need people going on site to participate in the actual construction and clean-up. The more people who are able to help, the quicker it will be completed.
There will be so many things that will need to be accomplished - and it is going to be a joyful experience for all of us to participate together!
This project will draw us together for the glory of God!
Argumentation -
Warren Wiersbe - “No one person could have accomplished the work of reparing the walls and restoring the gates. It took leadership on Nehemiah’s part and cooperation on the part of the people. Each had a place to fill and a job to do. So it is with the church today: We must work together if we are to finish the work to the glory of God.”
Application -
Review - When God’s Work Needs to be Accomplished, You Play an Important Role in Achieving the Goal!
God’s Work Has a Glorious Purpose
God’s Work Follows a Wise Plan
God’s Work Empowers His People
Conclusion
Friends, we have a lot of work to do. And it’s a lot more than simply building a building. We have the opportunity to partner with God to build His church - individual stones that are built up together into God’s house. This is our long term plan! This is our long term goal. We are to invest in individual lives with the message of the gospel. This is the glorious work that God has given us! And there is nothing more meaningful that you can do with your life...
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Action they should take
Land the Plane
Connection Group Reflection Questions
God’s work has a glorious purpose. How can work bring glory to God?
Nehemiah was a great leader, in part because he was a great planner. Why is planning an important aspect of good leadership? Is God a planner?
In God’s kingdom, is some work more important that other work? Why or why not?
How does God’s work empower you?
What can we learn from the way the wall was rebuilt?
Please take time to pray that the Lord brings in the necessary funds to build our building for His glory.
Be Determined 1. The Purpose of the Work
For the most part, the world today ignores the church. If it does pay any attention to the church, it is usually to condemn or mock. “If you are the people of God,” unbelievers ask, “why are there so many scandals in the church? If God is so powerful, why is the church so weak?” Whether Christians like it or not, we are living in a day of reproach when “the glory has departed” (1 Sam. 4:21).
IV. THE REPAIRS (3:1–32): The work is divided up by the 10 various gates, each assigned to certain leaders.
A. The Sheep Gate (3:1–2)
B. The Fish Gate (3:3–5)
C. The Old City Gate (3:6–12)
D. The Valley Gate (3:13)
E. The Dung Gate (3:14)
F. The Fountain Gate (3:15–25)
G. The Water Gate (3:25–27)
H. The Horse Gate (3:28)
I. The East Gate (3:29–30)
J. The Inspection Gate (3:31–32)