Restoration, Rebuild, Rededicate 1

Courage to take our Kuleana

Restore, Rebuild, Rededicate

We would like to begin a new series, on the book of Nehemiah

This series is about Restoration, Rebuilding and rededicating

We will start with the first chapter of Nehemiah

The message for this morning is

Courage to take on our kuleana

As we asked the Lord for our first series in 2022, we believe we were led to the book of Nehemiah

The story of restoring, rebuilding and rededicating of Jerusalem begins in the book of Ezra also written by Nehemiah.

God in His love and mercy began to warn Israel and Juda about their sinful behavior, he sent prophets with a clear message, repent and change your ways or you will end up in exile. They didn’t listen and they and end up into exile, Jeremiah had prophesied 70 years of exile.

In exile the people begin to cry out to the Lord,

God raises Cyrus

Cyrus the Great, Persian King, He was the monarch who ended the Babylonian captivity. He reigned from 559-530 BC He was also known as Cyrus II.

150 years before Cyrus was born Isaiah the prophet, prophecy about him by name. Later Jeremiah also prophesied about Cyrus,

Isa 44:28 "It is I who says of Cyrus, 'He is My shepherd (ruler), And he will carry out all that I desire--' Saying of Jerusalem, 'She shall [again] be built,' And of the temple, 'Your foundation shall [again] be laid.'"

Isa 45:1 This is what the LORD says to His anointed, to Cyrus [king of Persia], Whose right hand I have held To subdue nations before him, And I will ungird the loins of kings [disarming them]; To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:

Isa 45:2 "I will go before you and level the mountains; I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.

Isa 45:3 "I will give you the treasures of darkness [the hoarded treasures] And the hidden riches of secret places, So that you may know that it is I, The LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you (Cyrus the Great) by your name.

In the first year of his reign God led Cyrus to decree that the Temple in Jerusalem should be rebuilt

Ezr 1:1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia [that is, the first year he ruled Babylon], in order to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah [the prophet], the LORD stirred up (put in motion) the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying: [Jer_29:10-14]

Ezr 1:2 "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, 'The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build Him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

Ezr 1:3 Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his God be with him! Let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel; He is God who is in Jerusalem.

Ezr 1:4 In any place where a survivor (Jewish exile) may live, let the men (Gentiles) of that place support him with silver and gold, with goods and cattle, together with freewill offerings for the house of God in Jerusalem.'"

Ezr 1:5 Then the heads of the fathers' households of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites, all those whose spirits God had stirred up, arose to go up and rebuild the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem.

Ezr 1:6 All those who were around them encouraged them with articles of silver, with gold, with goods, with cattle, and with valuable things, in addition to all that was given as a freewill offering.

Ezr 1:7 Also King Cyrus brought out the articles of the house of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem [when he captured that city] and had put in the house of his gods.

As a result 42.360 Israelites went back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city under the leadership of Zerubbabel and other leaders. Some say around 50 thousand

They began the work, and took their time rebuilding Jerusalem, by now news comes to Nehemiah The governor Persian Judea and the cup-bearer under King Artaxerxes of Persia.

This is several years later,

Report from Jerusalem

Neh 1:1 The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year [of the Persian king], as I was in the capitol of Susa,

Neh 1:2 Hanani, one of my brothers, and some men from Judah came; and I asked them about the surviving Jews who had escaped and survived the captivity, and about Jerusalem.

Neh 1:3 They said to me, "The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach; the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its [fortified] gates have been burned (destroyed) by fire."

I would like for us to pay attention to Nehemias response to the news he received

Jerusalem’s restoration was God’s promise to them, that everything was going to be well, that God Was going to live among them, their promise of peace wellbeing. To hear that the walls were broken, and the gates burned, this was not right, or safe, a city with broken walls cannot protect themselves, they are vulnerable and at risk. They can suffer an attack at any time from their enemies this is a bad situation.

What about if I begin to read the reports of 2022 to you, Covid-19 has killed almost 5.5 million people, worldwide, that in Hawaii 1098 died, crime is getting worse, we are not able to take care of our homeless or the mentally ill, we don’t have enough foster parents or enough money to take care of families in need. Our beloved church still under construction. How this news impacts you?

I’m very tired of hearing and reading this kind of news, I’m ready to do something about it. Are you?

My prayer is for us to look at our conditions, the same way Nehemiah saw what was going on around him, yes he was far away from Jerusalem, he could blame the enemy or question God’s character and His ways, but Nehemiah showed us how to respond.

He took the courage to take responsibility, yes it was his kuleana.

He could blame others and circumstances but instead he came before God

And prayed, let’s pray

1 First he acknowledges the character God and his faithfulness

Neh 1:5 And I said, "Please, O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments,

We need to acknowledge and remind ourselves of the character, of God, He is always the same He does not change, He is loving and kind always, he is just a God of compassion, a God that is for us and wants to bless us, a forgiving God.

If we are breaking His laws and commandments, yes there are consequences, we actually don’t break God’s law when we disobey Him, we hurt ourselves.

Just like the law of gravity, the force that attracts a body toward the center of the earth, or toward any other physical body having mass. if I jump out of my window, I’m not breaking the law of gravity, I’m just illustrating how it works.

In the middle of a crises, run to the one who loves us and have mercy on us.

2 He confessed his and his family sin.

Neh 1:6 please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You, day and night, on behalf of Your servants, the sons (descendants) of Israel (Jacob), confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have committed against You; I and my father's house have sinned.

Neh 1:7 We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. [Deu_6:1-9]

Neh 1:8 Please remember the word which You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful and violate your obligations to Me I will scatter you [abroad] among the peoples; [Lev_26:33]

Neh 1:9 but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered are in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen for My Name to dwell.' [Deu_30:1-5]

When we come in repentance before God

We are taking responsibility for our sins and the sins of our fathers, we need to go back to where the corruption began, then we repent from it.

When we are going before God to ask forgiveness, for our family and nation, we need to acknowledge their sins.

Crime is increasing in our streets because evil is finding a platform in our cities, this platform begins in our hearts,

we need to ask our Heavenly Father is there anything in our hearts or our family, that condones evil? If so we need to depart from it so God can change the course of history.

3 Receive the forgiveness of God

Neh 1:10 Now they are Your servants and Your people whom You have redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand.

Neh 1:11 Please, O Lord, let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and the prayer of Your servants who delight to [reverently] fear Your Name [Your essence, Your nature, Your attributes, with awe]; and make Your servant successful this day and grant him compassion in the sight of this man [the king]." For I was cupbearer to the king [of Persia].

Yes our Heavenly Father hears us and He is very attentive to our cry, when we repent with all our hearts and make things right He will listen to our prayer and will respond

Understand that in every city God is always looking for his servants,

In the old testament we read about Sodom and Gomorrah, the outcry because of their wickedness reached Heaven, God send two angels to destroy the city, but before they got there they stop to see Abraham and Abraham had this conversation with the Lord, Lord if there are 50 rights people there will you destroy the city? Genesis 18:23, the Lord said not for the sake of 50 people , Abraham continues and ask what about 45, he went all the way down to ten and the Lord said if He would find ten people in the city who were righteous He would not destroy it.

The Lord did not find anyone besides Lot and his family, so He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

Eze 16:49 Behold, this was the sin of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters (outlying cities) had arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy.

Eze 16:50 They were haughty and committed repulsive acts before Me; therefore I removed them when I saw it.

What God saw as sin during Abraham’s days, still sin today, reinterpreting what sin is will not bring God’s forgiveness.

1Jn 1:9 If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just [true to His own nature and promises], and will forgive our sins and cleanse us continually from all unrighteousness [our wrongdoing, everything not in conformity with His will and purpose].

In the middle of Crises, Nehemiah gave us the answer.

Take Courage to take our Kuleana

1Take responsibility

2 Repent

3 Receive God’s forgiveness