Rebuild-Start with Great Decisions

Start with Great Decisions

(Talk a manager)

Actually, a manager needs the ability not only to make good decisions himself, but also to lead others to make good decisions. Charles Moore, after four years of research at the United Parcel Service reached the following conclusions:

1. Good decisions take a lot of time.

2. Good decisions combine the efforts of a number of people.

3. Good decisions give individuals the freedom to dissent.

4. Good decisions are reached without any pressure from the top to reach an artificial consensus.

5. Good decisions are based on the participation of those responsible for implementing them.*

In this series we will look at things like dealing with the Naysayers, Developing the Leader within you and topics like that but today we are beginning with, It starts with Great Decisions as we rebuild.

We are all trying to rebuild something in our life, our faith, our finances and our relationships.

Ill. George Marshall ( Tech Note: Show Picture) wins the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953.

He was a Leading General, he built and directed the largest army in history.

He was the Secretary of State under Truman. When World War II was done American Celebrated, Europe needed to be rebuilt.

All the Battles were fought elsewhere, Europe was substantially destroyed, 60 million people died. There was victory in 1945, but there was a still devastation. So George Marshall had to shift gears from a Wartime General to a peace time rebuilder.

George Marshall needed to rethink himself before he became a rebuilder.

Here is our key Idea today as we look to rebuild.

You have no idea what that impact of a single decision can be.

Ill. (Tell a story about a decision making an impact on something.)

Testimony about decision moving from apartment to homeless teen shelter.

The principles we learn from Nehemiah teach us how we can rebuild our lives, and our faith.

This is true whether it is starting something new or fixing something what is broken.

This book of the bible is aptly named after Nehemiah, who is the narrator and tells us his story and really the story of God in his life.

Nehemiah, was not a

Prophet,

Priest,

Pastor

or King,

but an ordinary person, put in a position where he could make a difference.

So I think who better to learn from as we try to live lives of significance and impact.

Nehemiah takes some small, and then bigger steps of faith that I think you will find inspiring and instructive. It is my contention, our life and our faith works, best when we take that same posture.

This is true for you and me every day, but also as a church as we live out this mission with Jesus.

See God has a call on our lives individually, but also as we live life together.

You are like the twelve disciples, and I know some of you are like, no not me…and some of you are like, I get that…I wonder who is Judas.

A little history about Nehemiah...

Nehemiah takes place around 445 BC. The walls have been broken for 140 years around Jerusalem, the political, economic and spiritual capital of the nation of Israel. I will explain why this is significant in a moment. Yet, I want you get what we are going to talk about today.

God uses people who have a passion to fix what is broken and to see what could be better.

That is why Timberlake church was started 32 years ago, not just so their could be another church, there are a lot of churches many of them with lots of room. But, so that those who tend to live in this part of the country, smart people…but smart irreligious people, could connect with God and have a life with him that really make sense.

Before we get into Nehemiah’s story, I want you to see how it connects with our story as a church and how God meet us today, in this place, in our lives right now.

Let me set the context in Discovery channel moment.

This is a post war society. A once great nation that had come to ruins, they basically said God, we want to live life on our own terms, and God says, ok, and over time it does not work out well and the nation comes to ruin. The people lived like ghosts in the ruins for 85 years and they appear to be heading the way of many other ancient people we don’t hear much about today, but God touches the heart of one person, who God uses to make a difference.

Let’s just read the first part….

Nehemiah 1:1

The words of Nehemiah son of Hakaliah: In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, Nehemiah 1:1

Nehemiah lived in the royal city of Susa, the winter cabin of Artaxerxes, the Persian king.

Judah, the homeland of Nehemiah, was a thousand miles away.

Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the king. A cupbearer held a position of great responsibility.

At each meal, he tested the king’s wine and food to make sure it wasn’t poisoned. If he died, then the king wouldn’t. Sounds like a great job.

He had access to the king, so he had a lot of influence. The cupbearer was like a chief of staff. That’s Nehemiah. Here is what we read…

Nehemiah 1:2

Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem. Nehemiah 1:2

So Nehemiah knows about what is going on in the land he is from, he knows the destruction that happened and so he asked how is it going. Yet, here is the difference between Nehemiah and many of us.

When we ask how things are going, what we really mean hi.

The last thing that we are expecting is someone to actually tell us, and if they do, we are like…don’t you get it, I was just saying hi. And now that you are telling me I am going to say bye.

Yet, that is not Nehemiah’s heart here. We read…

Nehemiah 1:3

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.”

So he gets some bad news, he hear that things have not gotten better, but actually have gotten worse. There is so much more wrapped up here than simply broken down was, this represents physical security, economic productivity,

Most of us know that bad news can be just bad news, or it can be a catalytic event that brings opportunity.

The context for positive change is often a crises.

Yet, sometimes we can sit in our crises and refuse to step into the change that God would have for us in the middle of it.

That is not what we see Nehemiah do.

We see him react in a way that I think we can learn from, how people like you and me be ordinary people, who in are own way are world changers, it may be something huge or maybe just the corner of the world we in habit.

What do we learn from Nehemiah….

We learn...

HOW TO REBUILD WELL

1. Let your heart be Broken

Back to the biblical account. So Nehemiah gets the report and this is his response…

When I heard these things, I sat down and wept… Nehemiah 1:4

Is there something in your life that is broken or maybe I would ask what Brokenness has God allowed you to see… like

- Special needs kids and families, who feel like outsiders

- Homeless people who are trying to make it, and need help and real guidance spiritually

- Children in places like Haiti, the Dominican republic who need someone not only to help, but to care

And now the question, is what you are going to do about it. Will this be a moment for quiet reflection or decisive action.

Can I be frank with you –, Raising awareness or having a discussion group does not change the world.

It is someone who like Isaiah in the Old Testament, Says here I am send me.

Ill. Dwight Moody – He heard a sermon where someone said, what would it look like if there was a person, fully devoted to God, he said I want to be that man.

Sometimes because we feel deeply about a situation or talk about it we can delude ourselves into believing we have done something about.

Now get this, because I think some of us have been taught the Bible incorrectly here, that almost without exception that reflection in and of itself is never the end game in the bible, it is a prelude to action.

Saying, God here I am, put me, my time, my talents and resources in the Game. That is what Nehemiah does. Yet, as he does this another principle is played out.

2. Prioritize Spiritual Life

When I tell people I am a Pastor I get

- Apologizing for swearing a few moments earlier

- Tell me about their grandma who is very religious

ILL. Greg Laurie Crusade. Drug dealer, puts pager at the alter. He handed a pager and brought it down front. Some of you are younger and you do not what a pager is, a pager is a thing that people could call to let you know that they wanted to talk to you and so you would go to a pay phone and call them back.

(Let me explain, a payphone is this thing…

He was making a clean break with his past. Is there anything you need to leave being.

Leave behind an old boyfriend or girlfriend because they are toxic. Maybe it is some old dreams so you can get some new dreams.

Hold tight to God, but loose to everything else.

Lets look at

James and John sons of Zebedee.

He had plans for them to take over the family business.

Parents, what if your kids give up on the dream you have for them and passionately serve Jesus?

Ill. (Story about my life going into ministry and leaving family behind)

There is an old Hymn, I have Decided to Follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back. The Cross before me, the World behind me, No Turning back, no turning back.

A big situation is at hand, what does Nehemiah do, lean in spiritually

We read…

For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Nehemiah 1:4

To mourn fast and pray, what does that mean?

Mourn – Express your hurt.

The word for mourning, means to show your emotions. If you don’t express your hurt to God, you will end up holding on to it, not just for a week or a month, but you can drag it on, year after year.

Maybe that has been you. You have come to embrace an identity that is grounded in our hurt, rather than in God’s work in us.

For some of you, your hurt has become your franchise. God says, express it and then expect God to meet you there. Then…

Fast – Focus your heart.

This simply is when you take the time that you would spend eating or preparing a meal and spend a little more time focus on God and then…

Pray – Ask for help.

This is about Nehemiah, and who he was. He was a leadership genius and he strategized, built a team, worked hard and this was all covered by intense and intimate prayer.

In fact this is the first of 12 different mentions of prayer in Nehemiah! Prayer is showing we have the intelligence to ask for help.

You may be facing some walls that are broken, in a marriage, with moral boundaries, in your finances or faith and it—looks impossible!

But With God all things are possible!

That leads to number 3…

3. Resist fear and Fatelism

Sometimes problems are opportunities in deep cover. Rebuilders reframe the problematic

Ill. Shark Tank – A problem

If someone benefits from your brokenness, they will fight your freedom.

Ill. Any of you have a Yeti? The Origin of Yeti is a gap story. You can find it online. It was founded by Roy and Ryan Cedar. Two young guys from Texas and they were reps for a Cool company. The cooler company wouldn’t do it. They founded a company that is now worth 500,000.

Nehemiah does this and it is sort of funny, he reminds God of them as well. He says…

Nehemiah 1:8-9

Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful,

I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands,

then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon,

I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my name.

Nehemiah says, remember God where you promised that when we find our self in a hard place and maybe it is not even circumstance, but it is our own fault, it is our own fault and not our first time around in this place of sin of failure, we knew better, but went our own way and the results have not been good. God remember you said that even in that place or hurt of shame you would meet us there, I am counting on that God.

And maybe the reason you are here today has very little to do with our mission together or your calling to be used by God, but so you could hear that God made a promise back then, he repeated it throughout the scriptures and he brings it to you today. God says, like he did elsewhere in the bible in II Chronicles 2:17

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 2:17

I realize not every marriage works out, it takes two willing hearts. I know that not everyone is delivered from cancer in this lifetime, that we live in a world where we experience the profound effects not only of our sin, but of other people’s sin against us as well. Still, in the midst of all that, God has some promises for you. To Restore the wasted years, to heal your broken heart, to bring renewed sense of purpose, of purity.

God does not spend a lot of time in the details of the why it happened here, but more in that what God wants to do. Maybe your world is broken down like Nehemiah’s, God might be saying to you. Now is time to rebuild.

That leads to number 4…

4. DON’T LET THE START, STOP YOU

Ill. With a Baby, we get so excited to see a small step, we don’t say hey get up looser when a baby falls. God applauds you when you take a step toward him.

Often the first step is the scariest step. Maybe there is a first step that God is calling you to take, that would change the world, not maybe for everybody else, but for you and your family.

Maybe it is asking your husband or wife, can we go to marriage counseling

Maybe it is asking your pastors, how can I get connected to a recovery group

Maybe it is asking a friend about being your accountability partner by introducing a content filter on your computer.

Maybe taking your time, your money your dreams and making them fully available to God.

Now we are going to get into this part more next week, but Nehemiah does take action to make things better, and face some great personal risk to himself.

Nehemiah 2:5 (NIV)

“If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it.”

Nehemiah, is like somebody has got to do something— It might as well be me.

I'm not going to send other people, I'm not going to whine about it. I'm not going to sit around and complain.

Why won't somebody do something about this?

Somebody has got to do something about this, it might as well be me!

I am an ordinary person that God has called to an extraordinary task.

Many other problems were in the world at that time—Nehemiah chose this one.

You can’t do everything—but you can do something. Here is one thing I don’t want you to get confused about as you are at Timberlake Church.

Although we have made a massive investment in helping those at margins, like at no other time in the history of this church, we are making a commitment to special need youth, we are sending out more missions team this year than in the entire first decade of the church, and so much we can be proud of, but it is all based in making more and better disciples of Jesus Christ. It is based in the heart of Jesus.

Jesus said this to his disciples…

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:36-38 (NIV)

Can I tell you who I want to be and I want us to be in the next 32 years, is a group of people who are not trying to compete with other churches, or to get involved in things that are good, but not eternal, but that we would be people who would say, God when you want to have people create a place in the world where people will know you, send them to us or us to them. .

One of the things I like to do every once in a while is to read some of the e-mails that come in that I save. Here some that I received in the last months.

Some of you have built this church in such a way, where people who felt far from God and now moving towards him.

Ill. Thank you for making Timberlake what it is, it has been such a healing spot for me. Just 3 years ago I honestly was fearful to walk into any organized religious entity and even more so to walk into a Christian church. I am So very glad I did!

Ill. Before I came to your church, I had been in a crisis mode for a long time. I was spiraling out of control from cancer, (my husband), divorce, too large of a home with money and finances, etc. I started seeking out churches, and any place that I could find for comfort and had no peace about anything. Matters got worse, and my life became a deep hole that my only escape was through entertainment and work... I kept praying for God to help me understand and to find his presence in my life and a feeling of some type of understanding for what I needed, or where I should be. One Sunday I was invited to Timberlake. When I entered the grounds, people were smiling shaking my hand, welcoming me! I was overwhelmed with gratitude that someone cared. As I left there that day, for the first time, I felt it was real and God was there in the midst.

It has been a long dark road that has led me here and I am more than blessed to continue this journey. There is a whole lot more to my story than this, but thank you pastor for what you and all of the others are doing there at the church.

Maybe today is about your Journey with Jesus. The one you were created and designed for, will you pray with me.