A Dislocated Heart

We kind of start this series that's going to be looking at the book of Nehemiah and the task. He went through and rebuilding the city of Jerusalem. And today's message. I'm going to ask a lot of questions. You don't necessarily have to answer out loud. But hey if you feel so moved go for it, but I'll ask a lot of questions in a lot of these are questions that we have to ask ourselves as individuals, but it's also questions that as we work at rebuilding things here. We're going to have to ask ourselves as a church. So keep that in mind as we talked about a lot of these questions.

You don't need a Maya's story. If you read it begins during a time when God's people and God's agenda in the world just seems hopelessly lost. Yeah, you know for Nehemiah he was living an extremely comfortable life and he was the cupbearer for the King which afforded him all the Privileges of living in the palace. Sino As I looked at that and I thought about a little the background of this story. I thought you know really it's not that much different than the situation that most American Christian find themselves stuck in we live relatively comfortable lives. But yet if you think about God's agenda and God's people in our nation, it seems that things are hopeless at times but let's begin by looking in Nehemiah chapter 1 verses 2 through 4. This is kind of Nehemiah speaking here. He's talking about his brother returning. Henna, dye one of my brothers came from Judah with some other man. And I question them about the Jewish Remnant that had survived the Exile and also about Jerusalem. They said to me those who survived the Exile and Are Back In The Province are in great trouble and disgrace the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its Gates have been burned with fire. But I heard these things I sat down and wept for some days. I mourned and fasted and prayed before the god of Heaven. You let me give you a little bit more background just to kind of paint the picture the scene is going on here. You know, like I said Nehemiah lived in the king's Palace and so he was surrounded by servants and satisfied with all the luxuries that came of living in the palace. Neo nehemiah's brothers and some others had went back from the land that they had been exiled to they went back to their Homeland to just see the condition of things And they brought back this news that broke. Nehemiah's heart when he heard it. Cuz you know even though everything in nehemiah's life was good. his hometown Jerusalem was in shambles and even though you know what was happening to those people there didn't have any direct effect on his personal life.

It made nehemiah's heartbreak when he heard their report and part of that reason that it made nehemiah's heartbreak was because he had a much deeper concern for God's agenda and Nehemiah knew that Jerusalem was a big part of that. So he knew that if there was problems there then God's will wasn't being carried out.

And you know this you look at nehemiah's story to me. I think it should be a real challenge to all Christians because you know, if we think about it, when was the last time that we heard news of something else going on in the world or something happening within the church? And we spent time praying about it morning about it fasting about it, you know when it actually physically upset us to know. The gods will wasn't being fulfilled in his church or buying his church. When if we allowed ourselves to be that moved by those sort of circumstances? I mean can you even recall when the last time was that you were actually emotionally disturbed when you heard about the suffering of other people? You know where when you heard a report of God's people operating in a way that was contrary to God's word. You know, we often hear it and we shake our head but does it really upset us to the point that we are going to take action?

You know, unfortunately we have become so desensitized to bad news. Especially the bad news that's always reported by our news media. That's so often. It doesn't impact us the way that it used to. You often if we see the commercials come on talking about feeding orphans in another country. Most commonly. We change the channel right flipped to something else. He wants to watch that and deal with it. You know her let's be honest. months and months ago when this pandemic started We didn't really care much of what we heard about it on the news. Did we? When we first saw reports of people wearing masks in China and other Asian countries as they dealt with this. We didn't really care. We didn't care until it started to directly impact us until it started to inconvenience us. And now it's all we hear about in our news media.

You know, so how do we begin to develop? What I call here today a dislocated heart a heart that is sensitive to the needs of those around us. Does he know really that's what led me Amaya to mourn in the way that he did over the news about Jerusalem.

How do we develop a heart that beats in time with God's for this community? How do we begin to see our community and the people in it in the same way that God sees?

No part of that means we have to open our eyes to what's really going on around us and it might even mean spending some time visiting people in places that we normally don't venture out into in our community to understand what those needs truly are. I mean, let's be honest how many of us know what the top three needs are in our community.

You know, I'll admit until I return to this community and spin a few years working for the Department of Child Services. I didn't realize how extensive the drug problem was in our community. Most of us probably don't understand how extensive it is or how big of an impact it has on families. But it's huge and we don't realize that or you know, we don't realize some of the services that are County doesn't have that other counties do have in order to help people a lot of that. We don't know. And if we don't know those things about our community if we haven't opened our eyes up to those things that are going on around us. How do we then as a church develop Ministries that help to address those needs?

You know, a lot of the public services that are in place used to be needs that the church dressed.

So there are a lot of places that we can step up and help you might be wondering why I'm talking about all these needs. Will I always remember a missions Professor that I had when I was in seminary his name was Mike rynkiewicz. And one thing that mike always stress to us. Instead. He said, you know, it's really hard for someone to focus on the beautifully eloquent gospel message that you've composed for Sunday morning when they can't hear you over the growling of their own stomach.

You know, he was talking about a lot more than just being hungry what he was talking about his you know, when people are struggling to have basic needs met. It can be hard for them to truly hear the gospel message. So sometimes when the church can step in and different ways and do whatever we can do to help meet some basic human needs. It allows people to hear the gospel message much more clearly. And that is why those two things so often go hand-in-hand.

You know all too often I think during churches were setting here. A lot of people are probably debating maybe not during the covid-19, but we set in church and debate. Okay, what restaurant do I want to go to today?

But for many that's not even the question. Their question is simply where or when is their next meal going to come? And you know what? We think about those things are we think about the drug issues in our own Community does our heart really break for those things? Or do we simply try to avoid them in stay out of those neighborhoods and away from those things? But we have to realize if we truly want to make a difference for God. We have to allow him to deeply move us when we hear about those things. We have to let those things impact us like they should.

You know, we need to somehow find a way that we can identify a personal connection with what God's agenda is for the world and not just be focused on our agenda. That's how we begin to develop a dislocated Heart Like Nehemiah hat. You know, he could have just said all that's too bad for all of them who moved back to Jerusalem and just stayed where I was and continue to live the good life in the palace, but he didn't he chose to do otherwise, you know, it was even a threat to his life to Simply ask the king to leave in to go there cuz Nehemiah was his cupbearer. So he was the one who tasted everything. He ate tasted everything the king drink to make sure no one had poisoned him. So when Nehemiah asked to leave he was leaving the king at risk the entire time he was gone. So for him to ask even the question, can I go? Was a risky thing, but he was willing to do that and then even willing to go a step farther to ask the king to help Supply the materials to rebuild it. But he was willing to face that risk cuz God and moved him so greatly. And you know, we have to realize that every great movement forgot every great project that's happened in God's name to relieve human need. Every one of those things has happened because one-man or one-woman her one student was so moved by the need that they saw. That they had to take action it started with them having a dislocated heart and you know that person may have understood that they couldn't totally resolved the situation that they saw. You know the food drive they were doing wouldn't eliminate hunger, but they were so moved. They realize that they couldn't simply do nothing. They had to do something to try to address the need and he knows we look at the needs of our community will see a lot of needs out there that are far greater than what we could fix on our own.

But we just sit by and do nothing about them. Are we at least be moved to do something to help relieve what we see?

Cuz you know what really is a dislocated heart, you know on the book. I talked about the Chip Ingram wrote he to find a dislocated heart as a god-given concern that propels us beyond our comfortable routine. It's a passionate concern for God's people and God's agenda that supersedes our own personal comfort and prosperity.

Now that's a hard thing for us to do to think Beyond ourselves enough.

Do you ever think that that could be part of the reason that this pandemic continues to go on?

God's trying to get us to a point where we will finally think about wearing a mask not for our own health and safety, but for someone else's or other actions that we can do. And cheese why is America seem to have the worst struggle with that?

People try to say it's political but I don't think it is. I think it's a heart issue in our nation that's being directly addressed by this whole pandemic.

We like to think that we have the right to pursue anything for our own happiness and no one can tell us we can't do anything, right?

yeah, so for us to be in a place where now every time we go out of our house every time we go into a public place every time we do anything it seems we have to be thinking of others. We have to be thinking of their health their safety their needs. Cuz we don't know what the health concerns are of someone else that we might encounter. We don't know what their challenges are. So to me I'd see this actually is a great opportunity for all of us to develop a dislocated heart to develop a heart that is more concerned about God's agenda and what God wants for people then we are concerned about our agenda and what we want for ourselves. and you know, in fact Our Savior himself modeled this Can you read about in Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 through 8? It says in your relationships with one another have the same mindset as Christ Jesus who being in very nature. God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather he made himself. Nothing taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross. And I can tell you that's far worse than having to wear a mask all day. Even though it doesn't seem like it's some days it would be. Because we have to realize that this whole idea of developing a dislocated heart isn't about doing something great for God. It's about letting God do something great in your heart. That's really what it's all about. You know God never does something great through us until he does something significant and us And that's what we have to realize with this whole rebuilding process that were talking about. It has to start with each and every one of us as individuals.

Cuz you know, we're not simply trying to do something great so that we can win God's favor or simply to serve other people. You know, what we're trying to do is cultivate a heart that deeply cares about other people. And what we're trying to do is call the beta heart and an attitude with in our church that you know deeply cares about other people that maybe you don't normally run into. the deeply cares about people that may not run in your same Social Circles, but people that we know God cares about people that God has concerns about you know, cuz the real question is, you know, how do we develop a heart that helps us to see people the way that God sees them?

cuz when you do I think it changes your whole perspective.

You know and it takes kind of a process for us to get there and their name for quick steps of how we get to have that kind of heart. It all begins with an honest personal self evaluation. You ain't got to look at yourself and realize you know, do I have that sort of heart do I really care about other people or what is my motivation most days? Nepal gave the Colossians kind of a dislocating command in Colossians chapter 3 verse 1 it says since then you have been raised with Christ set your hearts on things above. Where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. It all starts with having our hearts set on things above. Not just things on this Earth. Jesus seems to have had the same process in mind when in Matthew chapter 6 verses 19 through 21. He says do not store up for yourselves Treasures on Earth where moth and Vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal but store up for yourselves Treasures in Heaven or moths in Burma. Do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is there. Your heart will be also

Another part of this self evaluation means we have to ask ourselves some pretty penetrating questions.

It starts with do I really care about the people who are around me everyday? And what's the evidence of that?

Am I so wrapped up in the details of my life that other people are seen as interruptions rather than opportunities to serve Christ.

That's a tough one. Do we really see people that way? You know this morning is I was here and trying to get everything. I need to get done on a Sunday morning trying to prepare for my message. I get a phone call from the church on the other end of town. Saying hey if we have a guy here at our church, who? Need some help with some food. Can you guys help him out? Well, yeah, I can do that. Like well, okay full be right over so they come over. And lo and behold it's a guy who I helped just a few months ago. And actually I gave him a ride to Wapakoneta, Ohio and put him up in a hotel for the evening cuz he gave me a long story about his life. Well, guess what? Same story changed slightly of what he was going through if he's hitchhiking across the country again to try to get back to somewhere. Do you know is I was encountering him and I'm thinking about it. I thought okay. Am I going to see him as an interruption or an opportunity to serve this morning? Which way am I going to see him?

And you know, I did shoot Terry faucet who is with him a quick text after they left and said this guy was here a month ago. Give me a call later. We'll talk about it and you know went down got him some food talk with Terry Terry's going to driving towards where he wants to go in Ohio this morning during church. Cuz Terry says well, I guess it's easier for me to miss the church service than you I said, yeah, probably so. But as he did that and I came back to begin looking at and thinking about my message. I thought you know, that's one of those situations. And it's Terry was on the phone telling his wife that he's going to run this guy over to Salina. You know and I began talking to him and trying to hear more of his story and find out more about what was going on with him cuz obviously something is or I wouldn't have seen him a few months ago basically with the same request.

But you know after Terry and I prayed with him and turn him left. I really thought you know. That is really what it's about. That's what we're talking about. And I don't know if we changed anything in his life made a change, but it made me think of you know, how many other people in our community are lost in the same way. Experiencing some of the same things. I don't know his whole story only God does. But it's opportunities that are there. And if you know, we only see people as interruptions, we don't see them as opportunities to serve what needs to change. That's the question we have to ask ourselves. What do we need to do differently? You another question we have to ask ourselves, you know, does it matter to me what's happening in other places in the world? You know, it's really easy to see things happening on the news and to not even care about him to not even think about what's going on there. But you know, we can't allow ourselves to become desensitized. That way we have to be you know. Just as concerned with God's will being carried out there as we are with it being carried out here. You know, why else do we support missionaries? Why else do we do the things we do with missions? Are we just as concerned with what's going out there in the world as we are with what happens here?

You know most of us have to admit that unfortunately a lot of the time we don't care enough to do anything about it. She not goes back to that statement of we have to see those things and realize we may not be able to change everything about that situation, but we can do something. The first thing we can always do and I often think the most important thing is to pray about what we see going on there and just ask God. Is there something I can do to help that situation? Because you know a dislocated heart is a heart that responds to those needs when they see him.

the second step Is genuine repentance whenever we realize that there are those places that we're falling short in Repentance is a word you don't hear much of in our society anymore. We don't talk about it a lot. You know, what's a word that means to change one's mind is one of the dictionary definitions of it. You know for us in the church, we talked about it as being associated with deep feelings of sorrow or remorse. You got to put it simply. It means to see our lack of being in line with God's Will and to truly be sorrowful about it. In relation to what we're talking about this morning, it would mean that we see that we lacked a dislocated heart we lack a desire to see God's will carried out so much that. We're repenting of that. We're realizing it's time for us to be engaged with the needs of people in our community and to make sure we're doing something to address those things. And you know, it's beginning to realize that all too often. We can kind of get pushed into a mold in our society in our culture. We're we're just here to get what's ours and to do what benefits us and we aren't too concerned about others. But as Christians we have to fight having that sort of mentality. Because when we repent we realize that something has to change. And neither how we think are in how we Act. Yeah, that reminds me of Romans chapter 12 verse 2 that says do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve. What God's will is his good pleasing and perfect will

That starts with realizing you need to change. You know we keep talking about what Nehemiah did and his dislocated heart and you know, and I think what we have to realize is that nehemiah's approach wasn't taking the easy way out. mini Amaya's approach to addressing the need that he saw was something that was deeply challenging for him could have been deeply painful and costly to him. But yet in the end it was deeply rewarding and very freeing for him to do that. And I think as individuals as we allow God to open us up to see the needs around us and to do what we can to help those things. We will see that, you know to have that heart that beats after God's heart and his agenda will bring a new Vitality to our own lives as individuals and to our church as we continue to look for ways that God can use a snark community.

Another thing a part of this process is just a thoughtful consideration.

You know as we begin to develop this dislocated hard as we begin to think about some of these things, you know, there are some common fears that can come. That's where we have to think through this and think through how God would want us to react. Do you know? A common fear that often pops up for people as well. What if God asked me to do something in the financial Arena, that would be especially challenging for me.

You know, that's something we faced when everyone looks at us and says so, how are we going to raise the money to pay the district for that? You know, that's a challenge. I won't say that it's not. But I think we can do it and I think it's worth every penny and we can't allow something like that to be what stops us from pursuing God's agenda and God's will.

You know where another question that often pops into people's minds when they see a need and they want to do something about it. Another doubt that can come to them is what has God asked me to do something that I really don't want to do.

You know, that's always the problem, isn't it? If you ask God, you know, what do you want me to do here? He might ask you to do something. You don't actually like doing or want to do. You would have got asked me to go somewhere. Unfamiliar.

I guess that makes me think of a friend that Seminary who would often remind us that the safest place for us to be is in the center of God's will. That doesn't mean that you live in the same town or neighborhood is your family or even the place you grew up in but the safest place to be is in the center of God's will doing what God has called you to do. The place doesn't actually matter.

You know, what? If God overwhelms me with the needs of the world, you know, there's just so much need out there. So much going on. God does that then I say good. Because he's beginning to give you that dislocated heart. He's beginning to help you see that there is a lot of need out there and the only thing we can do. Is the call out to God and to ask God how we can be a part of doing what he's trying to accomplish in the world. We can't let our fears hold us back from doing the will of God. That brings us to the last part of the process, which is actually asking God to give you a dislocated heart.

New Gods created us to be his workmanship in to do his will and he wants to use each and every one of us in a way that's beyond our wildest dreams, but we have to be willing to submit to that. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10 reminds us for we are God's handiwork created in Christ. Jesus to do good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do. You know God has a plan and got actually has a plan for using each one of us to be a part of that plan. But he doesn't Force us into it. He allows us to make our own decisions in. So often we don't see how much more difficult we make things on ourselves when we try to choose our path instead of God's path. But we need to be asking God to give us his heart for other people to give us his heart for the things going on around us in the world so that we Can see what our part can be in that?

And I said that can be scary to open yourself up to new possibilities to what's going on. You know if they started the task of rebuilding Jerusalem, I have no doubt. There were a lot of scary moments in that. He has Connie said as we go through this process of kind of rebuilding and rebirthing ourselves as a church family. There's going to be a lot of scary moments there. But we have to trust God with that. As I thought about that it brought me back to the verse that was laid on my heart throughout the entire time that we were online with church Hebrews 10:39 the says but we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed but to those who have faith in our saved. Your Nehemiah was able to go forth and boldly do all the stuff you read about in the book of Nehemiah because he trusted God he had faith and what God could do. And it has to be the same with us.

You know think how many years the city of Jerusalem laid and ruin but yet they were able to rebuild it and do it and a time that astonished everyone. You know, it's no different for our own church. You know so much of the church in the United States has been in Decline for so many years to talk about trying to reverse that Trend anywhere seems impossible.

But I think it's only impossible when we don't trust God enough. My challenge to you as we begin through this series is to ask God to give you a heart to see our community the way God sees it to see the needs that he sees then ask him how we can be a part of addressing those needs. Please buy with me in prayer.

Heavenly father as we come to you today Lord. We thank you for the opportunities that you give us to serve. Learn all the opportunities you put in front of us and Lourdes. We pray that you'll forgive us for all the times that you put an opportunity to serve you in front of us. And we turned a blind eye to it. Lord I pray that you would help us to not do that any longer Lord that when you place opportunities in front of us you would help us to see those people the way that you see them. Or to see the opportunities that you're giving us to glorify your name. And Lord to grow our own faith in you. And Lord, I pray that you would just help us to be a light and this community for people to see us as a people who have a heart that beats in time with God the heart like God does for this community. And Lord, I pray that you'll just continue to bless us and guide us each step that we take on this path that you're leading us down your most. Holy name we pray. Amen.