Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Welcome to the Crematage podcast.
[00:00:08] Take a seat.
[00:00:12] I said first service. It's funny watching yourself on the screen.
[00:00:17] As you can see, Joel has got all his fashion sense from me.
[00:00:21] Just handed it down. I think he's doing a bit better with it.
[00:00:25] Just before we jump into.
[00:00:29] Oh, excuse me.
[00:00:31] Just before we jump into Nehemiah, let me just give you a few updates. Thank you. For everyone that came and prayed on Tuesday. We'll be praying again this Tuesday.
[00:00:42] We specifically were praying for the release of finance for our building.
[00:00:47] And again, I can't give you much information at the moment, but just by way of update, it really does look like there's been a significant breakthrough in release of funds.
[00:00:57] So prayer works and we'll pray again on Tuesday.
[00:01:07] We have a cut off, it's about the 14th of August, but just the way the diary works, we're going to give another opportunity for another offering for people that haven't given and also for people that have given but you sowed and now God has blessed you so you can give again. And we're going to do that on the 16th. And I know the cutoff date is the 14th, but solicitors tell me dates are a moving target.
[00:01:38] Okay, so I'm gonna go on that. So that Sunday, in two weeks time, we'll take another offering. But what I wanna say to you is keep praying, keep sowing. God is gonna do a miracle. Deal.
[00:01:55] Okay, that's update one. Update number two, our family has a little wedding this week which is Joel, who's leading worship, gets married. And you know, God can do miracles.
[00:02:15] So we're thrilled and just a few people mentioned to me, I just want to say the ceremony is here on Thursday at 12 o' clock midday.
[00:02:27] You're all welcome to come. You don't need a special invite to come to the ceremony. It's for family and your family. From the time we started this church, this church has been our family. And so you're very welcome to come along. So if you're around, you can celebrate with us on Thursday. If you're not, you can pray for us that all the blessings of heaven would come upon them. Okay, good.
[00:02:52] So we've been studying the book of Nehemiah and really because one, because I love this book and two, we're looking to build something. We've been going after this new site and Nehemiah is not just about revival but about people doing something, people accomplishing something.
[00:03:14] Rebuilding the walls, rebuilding the temple, restoring society, coming back to the ways of God and actually ultimately preparing the way of Jesus, because that's the next. The coming of Jesus is the next. Malachi is going to prophesy, and then there's going to be a period of silence for 400 years. And then John the Baptist is preaching and Jesus is on the scene. So everything that is happening here is preparing for the coming of Jesus. So I just want to read a couple of verses from Nehemiah. If you've got your Bible, find Nehemiah, chapter six.
[00:03:54] If you don't know where it is, I forgot to put my little red tag in it.
[00:03:59] It's just after Chronicles and Ezra.
[00:04:04] Nehemiah always feels like he should be a prophet, right? Should be in the prophet books, but it's in the history books. So why don't you stand again? And we're going to read. And we're going to read from chapter six, verse 15. And then I might jump and miss out some of the names. So chapter 6, verse 15.
[00:04:26] So the wall was finished on the 25th day of Elieu, in 52 days.
[00:04:36] So everything that Nehemiah has prayed for, everything he's gone for, the wall is finished. And in a remarkable time, 52 days. And it happened when all our enemies heard of it. All the nations around us saw these things. They were very disheartened in their own eyes, for they perceived that this work was done by our God. Remember, all the persecution, all the attacks, and suddenly God prevails.
[00:05:09] Okay, then we're going to jump. Let's just jump down to chapter seven, verse one. And then it was when the wall was built and I had hung the doors, when the gatekeepers, the singers and the Levites had been appointed that I gave charge to Jerusalem, my brother Hannah and Hanania, the leader of the citadel, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many. And again, let me just say, you know, in life, sometimes we don't know who we can trust.
[00:05:41] Who can we trust to do the important things?
[00:05:44] Who can we really rely on? And what Nehemiah says is he was faithful man and feared God more than many.
[00:05:56] And, you know, if you have a choice of somebody who fears men or fears God, pick the one that fears God. Because the one that fears men are very unpredictable.
[00:06:06] They'll just go all over the place. But the one who fears God is trustworthy. I am not talking about being scared. I'm talking about the reverence to God that we walk and we live our lives under God. So I fear is that his glory is over us. He's watching us. And so we Tread carefully, because he is for us and with us.
[00:06:29] And I said to them, do not let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot. And while they stand guard, let them shut and bar the doors and appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, one at his watch station and another in front of his own house.
[00:06:45] Now, the city was large and spacious, but the people in it were few and the houses were not rebuilt. Then my God put it into my heart to gather the nobles, the rulers and the people that they might be registered by genealogy. We'll just stop there. Thank you. Lord, would you speak to us this morning? Take a seat.
[00:07:07] So, as I said, the great news is the walls have been rebuilt.
[00:07:12] It is a miracle.
[00:07:17] The God has been talking about this and encouraging people for 140 years, and now they're finally rebuilt in 52 days. But there's a problem.
[00:07:32] The problem is the city was large and spacious, Nehemiah says, but the people in it were few and the houses were not rebuilt.
[00:07:42] The problem was the people were now reluctant to live in the city because they'd been building their lives outside of the city. So they were in all of the surrounding areas making a life for themselves and building houses.
[00:07:58] And what I want to say, and I mentioned this briefly last week. Jesus didn't die for clean air.
[00:08:04] If you're net zero and green, please forgive me, but he didn't die for clean air. He died for people.
[00:08:12] The reason Juliet and I live in this city is because people live here.
[00:08:17] You know, we love living by the beach out in the countryside.
[00:08:23] You know, it's really interesting, the different discussions that happen, you know, in the countryside. Do you know what the discussion is? Would you like a scone?
[00:08:34] Or scone, sorry, depending on where in the country you are. And would you like the cream on first and then the jam? Or does the jam go on first and then the cream?
[00:08:45] In the city it's will somebody get my demons out of me?
[00:08:50] It's a very different conversation now in the countryside. They still need their demons casting out, but they're talking about scones and not getting free.
[00:09:02] And disciples are made where people are in the cities.
[00:09:09] Jesus didn't die for clean air.
[00:09:13] He died for people like you and I.
[00:09:16] And we have a staff meeting on Monday and it was our all in one. And, you know, we often take some questions. And I said, you know, have you got some questions? And a couple of the pastoral staff said, well, these are the most common questions we're asked by some of our new believers.
[00:09:34] And the first one was, why do you talk about money so much?
[00:09:38] That's a really good question.
[00:09:40] And the second one was, I've given my life to Jesus. Now what?
[00:09:45] That's another really good question. And actually, they're both connected to each other more than you would think.
[00:09:53] You see, as we've been going through Nehemiah, we're talking about building. And you cannot build anything without resource. You know, whether you're building something small or you're building something big, you need resources to build.
[00:10:08] I remember when we started this church back in. I think it was 2008.
[00:10:14] And we don't tell the story very much, but I remember we opened up a house, and the first night, I think eight people came, and we made eight cups of coffee and we baked eight cakes. Well, I didn't bake any cakes, Juliet did. And we gave them eight cakes. And it was all really quite manageable. It was very lovely. We worshiped Jesus and we prayed for one another and we taught the Bible and they went home.
[00:10:39] And then the next week, 12 came and we made 12 cups of coffee. And in fact, I think we made four teas and we baked 12 cakes and we prayed for one another, and the spirit of God came and we taught the Bible.
[00:10:57] And then the next week, 20 came.
[00:11:03] So we made 20 cups of coffee, 20 cakes, and some wanted seconds.
[00:11:12] And then they said, well, what about our friends? Why? Because the spirit of God was there.
[00:11:19] What can we do with our friends?
[00:11:21] And so we said, well, we're going to. We'll throw a party.
[00:11:26] We'll do a barbecue.
[00:11:29] Have any of you ever been to an English barbecue?
[00:11:32] They're terrible.
[00:11:35] You know, I mean, we cannot barbecue.
[00:11:39] We go to the supermarket and we buy burgers and they're like this. And by the time they're on the burger, they're like a chocolate button. They shrunk. And then we get the sausages that look all good, and then they just.
[00:11:51] On the barbecue. Never go to an English barbecue that doesn't have a South African there, okay? Ever, ever, ever.
[00:12:00] Okay? So we didn't want to do that, so I said, why don't we get a pig? So we got a hog, a whole pig.
[00:12:11] And the day came and people were bringing their friends. And, you know, I woke up this morning. I've never been grateful for rain in Leicester, ever.
[00:12:22] But this year was a normal Leicester summer.
[00:12:25] And so we wake up and it's pouring down the rain. So we're running down to B and Q and we have to get tarpaulin, and we Covered our whole garden in tarpaulin so the pig wouldn't get wet.
[00:12:36] And not that the pig cared, but.
[00:12:39] And the pig arrived and it was all being roasted and all the sauce and the friends. And 70 people came.
[00:12:45] In fact, Paul was one of them. He's over at the sound desk. He showed up, he heard there was pig, and he was straight there. All the vegetarians, they go, oh, terrible. But, you know, we didn't let them in at the church at that time. It was just good old carnivores.
[00:13:01] And so they came. There were 70 people. And now we couldn't meet in our front room, so we hired a room over at the football stadium. And we just hired a little. It was only a little room. It wasn't one of the big rooms. It was just a little room. And we gathered there and people started coming, but it was starting to get expensive because it was fine when we just had to make eight cups of coffee and eight cakes.
[00:13:28] But suddenly now you're eating whole pigs and we're trying to hire rooms. And so what started happening is the men and women that came to this little church plant started to sow their tithes and their offerings into the church so that it could grow and we could build it and it could become what it has become today.
[00:13:57] And I will be forever grateful for those early people that saw a vision of what God wanted to do so that we could be in here and worship together. You see, without money, you can't do anything.
[00:14:15] You can have ideas, you can have great ideas, but without resource, you can't do anything.
[00:14:24] And people get a bit upset with money and church.
[00:14:28] I don't want to give my money, but that's nothing new.
[00:14:31] Do you remember Mary?
[00:14:33] She goes into the house of Simon. She brings her life savings, but it's an alabasca flask of perfume. And she breaks it over him and the room fails, and everyone's crossing.
[00:14:45] Well, what a waste.
[00:14:47] It's gonna be used on the poor. It's gonna be used here.
[00:14:51] What a waste of money.
[00:14:53] And I think what I wanna say is, you can invest in many things, but investing in Jesus is never a waste, because he takes. Yeah, and that's why we talk about it, because as we invest, he multiplies it. Question one. Question two.
[00:15:12] Now, I've given my life to Jesus. What should I do now?
[00:15:17] Well, the answer is, invest your time, energy and resources into the kingdom, and everything else will be added unto you. Matthew 6:33. You see, you become a disciple, not a believer.
[00:15:30] You see, we start as believers, I believe I put my trust and faith in Jesus, but then we become disciples. How do you become a disciple?
[00:15:39] And I was racking my brain, how do you become a disciple and think it's really simple? I could only think of two things to become a. I mean, Jesus kept it really, really simple. The first one is become a servant.
[00:15:56] Jesus makes this astounding statement in Mark 10. Whoever desires to become great among you shall become your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serv and to give his life as a ransom for many.
[00:16:15] You see, disciples serve.
[00:16:18] Jesus served. Before you can become a teacher or a leader, you need to be a disciple. And disciples serve and build. So you become part of the church family.
[00:16:31] You park cars, you put chairs out, you welcome people again.
[00:16:37] I don't tell these stories very often, but when we started church, I talked about everybody that comes here as a personal guest of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:16:44] You know, the Queen used to call me a lot, but the King doesn't call me, King Charles doesn't call me quite as much now.
[00:16:51] But every now and again, you know, in the palace, you know, they have a lot of people coming through and they would just ask, you know, and somebody would ask them about Jesus. I mean, the Queen was right on with the Lord and you know, and she'd go, she'd go to the butler and she'd go, where can we send them?
[00:17:06] This person's asking questions about the Lord Jesus. They want their lives changed, they want their lives saved. Where can we send them? So they would call me, call him church and say, I've got this person, we're going to send them up in the limo and can you just sort them out? And we'd get that call and we'd be in a panic. Oh my goodness, the Queen is sending someone to our church to get saved.
[00:17:27] So I'd check the roto and we'd check the no crazy people on the car park, that the best looking people were on the door welcoming people, that everyone was ready. Why? Because the Queen was sending someone. How much more? When King Jesus sends someone, you see, everyone here, every one of you, is a personal guest of King Jesus. He sent you here and that's why we serve and we put the chairs out and we make you welcome and we look after the youth and we take care of the children because the King has sent them to experience him here.
[00:18:08] And you know, our prayer is that everyone who walks through those doors would encounter Jesus just as we've encountered him.
[00:18:19] And as you serve, you become like Jesus in action because he served. He gave his life so that people could know what God was like. And honestly I've.
[00:18:34] I put out so many chairs in my life and I was part of a church plant. Oh my goodness, in the 1980s, not leading it, I was, you know, just serving.
[00:18:45] And my job was to pull the trailer, was to get the, to get the trailer with church in. So church was in the trailer and we would rent a venue and I had to be up early and we pulled it every week.
[00:18:58] That ended up to be Paul's job.
[00:19:00] The poor man, he was the only person that came to the party that had a tow bar on the back of their car.
[00:19:06] If you're ever part of a church plant, never buy a car with a tow bar, okay? Because you will be there at seven o' clock every single morning every single week because you're transporting the church.
[00:19:24] You see, you also serve people at work and at home. You know, the question now is, how do I represent Jesus wherever I go?
[00:19:35] And look, I know it's old fashioned to hold doors open for people.
[00:19:42] We hold doors open and say, God bless you.
[00:19:46] And sometimes they say God bless you back and go, I got one.
[00:19:50] And you talk to them, you know, can I help you?
[00:19:55] Let me pay for that.
[00:19:58] Back to money.
[00:20:02] Juliet bakes cakes.
[00:20:04] She's got a cake problem. She just bakes them, bakes them, bakes them, just gives them to people. But the cake just gets you into the house.
[00:20:12] Then you can pray for them, then you can tell them about the goodness of God. Someone's sick. So you take food round. The food's just got you in the house now heal them.
[00:20:23] You see, it's not just a church. It's about our colleagues, our neighbors, you know, God bless you, Jesus loves you. You see, you might not want to be a Bible basher, but you can be a Bible believer because this is what the Bible does. This is what the Bible talks about.
[00:20:42] You know, the family whose car limps into the church car park.
[00:20:47] You know, we've got two. Borrow mine or even better, have mine.
[00:20:52] You see, as you serve, you show you belong to Jesus.
[00:20:59] Now Nehemiah, he was first a servant to the king before anything else.
[00:21:08] And what I want to ask you is who do you serve?
[00:21:12] Where do you serve?
[00:21:14] Because disciples serve.
[00:21:17] The second thing I'm going to move quick is follow a teacher or find a teacher.
[00:21:26] The reason Nehemiah can build the walls is that he serves King Artax circuses.
[00:21:33] He is the cup bearer. He is the most trusted servant.
[00:21:39] And he asked the king for permission to rebuild the walls, but also for the resources to build them. Why would the king give him all the resources to build the walls of a foreign nation?
[00:21:53] Well, firstly, the favor of God was upon him because he prayed.
[00:21:57] Pray. It's really important.
[00:22:00] But secondly, he'd been faithful in the king's service.
[00:22:04] He's given his life to the service of the king.
[00:22:08] What does Jesus say? Well done, good and faithful servant. You who were faithful over a few things.
[00:22:19] A few things?
[00:22:21] I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of the Lord.
[00:22:28] So we are to become disciples and be faithful in the small things.
[00:22:35] And you might as well. Who's going to disciple me?
[00:22:39] A better question is, who is discipling you?
[00:22:44] What do you mean? Well, first you have to be a disciple. It's not the disciple's job to make you a disciple. It's your choice.
[00:22:55] And God will use the strangest people to disciple you.
[00:23:02] I mean, for instance, who discipled Moses?
[00:23:06] Pharaoh.
[00:23:10] And Moses led 1 million people from Egypt.
[00:23:17] Who discipled Joshua?
[00:23:19] Easier Moses.
[00:23:23] And he led the Israelites into the promised land.
[00:23:27] But do you know he holds the door open for Moses for 38 years.
[00:23:35] Who discipled David?
[00:23:38] Saul, he tried to kill him.
[00:23:42] Did you see a pattern there?
[00:23:46] But David becomes the greatest king.
[00:23:51] Who discipled Daniel?
[00:23:54] Well, probably not Nebuchadnezzar. Probably Ashbenez, one of the Chaldeans.
[00:24:03] And Daniel gets to advise four Kings that lead into Ezra and Nehemiah, that take the people from exile back into Jerusalem. Why am I pointing this out to you?
[00:24:19] Well, I think often we hope the person that disciples us will make us feel better, will stroke us and teach us the Bible.
[00:24:27] And some should. And if you find those that do, you should be grateful.
[00:24:34] But it looks to me that when God has the greatest jobs, he gives some of the hardest disciplers.
[00:24:42] You see, the onus is not on the discipler, but on the disciple to learn what God wants them to learn.
[00:24:54] You see, Moses learns the ways of Pharaoh, but right at the right moment has an encounter with God at the burning bush. But he's already learned the ways of Pharaoh. Why? Because he's going to lead a million people.
[00:25:10] Joshua stands at the door of the tabernacle. He witnesses the law.
[00:25:16] The glory of God comes.
[00:25:19] But for 38 years, he's just opening and shutting the door, opening and shutting the door, carrying Moses bags.
[00:25:27] David, you know.
[00:25:33] Do you know sometimes you don't come ready to worship, you're a little discouraged. Not discouraged.
[00:25:42] Distracted. That's the word I'm looking for. Anyone here ever comes to church distracted. You lie, as you all do.
[00:25:49] You know, you've had a heated conversation in the car, or the children have done something and you're coming to church, and sometimes the guys go. Worship was a bit hard this morning.
[00:26:06] Do you know how David learned to lead worship?
[00:26:10] A demonized king full of demons going with spears that he's throwing at. And Davis is on the harp, you know, just trying to get the right notes to get the spears down, you know, and we're complaining. We're complaining. Oh, I think the people were a little bit distracted this morning.
[00:26:28] How do you write? How do you. How do you disciple the greatest songwriter in the history of the earth?
[00:26:37] King David?
[00:26:39] The Lord gives him a demonized king to lead worship for.
[00:26:42] People thought about these things. Daniel refuses the riches of Babylon so that he can learn to walk humbly in the wisdom of God. And out lives the kings of Babylon and Persia.
[00:26:56] You see, all these men were servants before they were leaders. Disciples learned to serve, and through the service, the unusual, the anointing of God comes upon them. And he imparts wisdom often through those around us. See, all wisdom comes from God. Last week I said, don't bring the world into the church, but I didn't say don't learn from their wisdom.
[00:27:18] So your boss could be the person discipling you.
[00:27:21] Not in the ways of God. That's why you have the holy Spirit in you, but in the skills you need to become the head, not the tail.
[00:27:30] And so many disciples refuse to be discipled.
[00:27:34] And so they're never faithful in the little, which means they never received the more because they refused to serve, because they didn't realize that the hard situation they are in is a discipleship opportunity.
[00:27:53] I remember I worked for a church leader for 25 years, and he used to get me to prepare things. We'd be going to a meeting.
[00:28:02] I just want you to prepare this. You know, do a talk on healing or do a talk on restoring fallen leaders. Do this. And I'd do it. I mean, get to the meeting. He'd completely forget.
[00:28:11] I got all these notes.
[00:28:13] I was all ready to go. I thought he was going to give me a go.
[00:28:16] It's my time.
[00:28:20] He didn't forget. He was preparing me for the future because now I need them all.
[00:28:28] You see, that's not abuse.
[00:28:32] It's being discipled.
[00:28:34] It's learning.
[00:28:36] It's coming into the Classroom of the Holy Spirit.
[00:28:40] So you've given your life to Jesus, now what? We'll learn to live for him in every situation.
[00:28:46] The Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth. You know, one of your co workers appears sad and the Holy Spirit prompts you to speak to them and they're telling you their situation. And suddenly wisdom speaks starts coming out of you and you go, cool. I want to take notes.
[00:28:59] You know, that's the Holy Spirit working on you. You're learning to operate under the unction of the Holy Spirit. Your boss gives you an impossible task.
[00:29:11] Will you have the mind of Christ?
[00:29:13] Ask the Holy Spirit for the solution.
[00:29:17] Quit moaning and discover the impossible.
[00:29:21] Because he lives in you.
[00:29:24] You know, what about discipleship at church? I really am nearly done.
[00:29:28] Jonathan, over here.
[00:29:30] Poor man.
[00:29:32] He did a leadership year with me last year and I just. So we start. We had our first meeting. I said, I want you to go and park cars, but I want to be a pastor. You know, you'll learn more in the car park than you'll learn in church.
[00:29:50] Do you know why?
[00:29:52] Obviously not in this service, a 9:30 service. But people come to church and they can't find a parking space and it will be your fault and they're going to get cross with you. I know no one here would ever get cross.
[00:30:04] And you're going to have to deal with that.
[00:30:06] And you're going to speak to them and you're going to bring the peace of the Holy Spirit so that they can come in, not distracted and worship the Lord.
[00:30:16] And I said, go and build a team.
[00:30:19] And that's what he's done. And we would meet and he would ask questions and I would offer a few suggestions.
[00:30:25] And then he said, oh, I want to gather some of the guys together.
[00:30:29] I didn't really give him any help. I might have given him a little bit of guidance. Do you know that is now a thriving group of young men who've given their lives to Jesus, many of them, and they owe their lives to him because he's walking with them. You see, I'm a terrible discipler, but he's a good disciple.
[00:30:51] Do you get it?
[00:30:52] I'm terrible at discipling people. I'm just come, you know. How do I do that? Well, just go and park cars. That's where I learned. Come put some chairs out. But if you're a good discipler, the presence of God comes upon you.
[00:31:08] See, Nehemiah says, I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem.
[00:31:14] What has God put in your heart. What does he ask you to do?
[00:31:19] Become a servant, become a disciple.
[00:31:22] And you will get to do amazing things, the things he's put on your heart.
[00:31:29] But just in closing, I want to ask you to remember something.
[00:31:33] You are already part of something amazing.
[00:31:38] Jesus has rescued your life and forgiven your sin.
[00:31:44] Everything that happens here, every salvation, every healing, is on our cv.
[00:31:53] And when we stand before the Lord Jesus Christ on that last day, we stand together as a people.
[00:32:03] We, Lord, became your servants so that many could be ransomed.
[00:32:11] We chose to gather in the city among these people because we wanted to see deliverance, not afternoon tea.
[00:32:20] And together, Lord, we will become your disciples. We become your body, the body of Christ in your amazing kingdom.
[00:32:32] And together we will receive from our Lord Jesus Christ the crown of righteousness.
[00:32:42] Become a servant, become a disciple, and you will get to do something amazing.
[00:32:50] The things he has put on your heart.
[00:32:54] Deal?
[00:32:57] Sure.
[00:32:58] Stand up. I'm done.
[00:33:02] Thanks for listening to the Cromo Charge Podcast. If you enjoyed this message, you can like and subscribe. You can also join us in person or online every Sunday at Cromer Church. For more information about us, including our ministries, events, worship and how to donate, visit our website at Cromer Church.
