Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Welcome to the Karma Church podcast.
[00:00:08] Great, thanks.
[00:00:10] Take a seat.
[00:00:15] Great.
[00:00:16] Well, over the next couple of weeks, we're going to talk a little bit about responding to God. We talked a bit about this last week. It's really a run up to Presence and Promise.
[00:00:26] At the end of this month we have our. It was our annual conference. We did it a little differently last year, but we're running again this year. And the idea of Presence and Promise is four days in the presence of God and we're going to immerse ourselves in worship, teaching, ministry.
[00:00:42] And I can promise you two things. The first one is by the end of it, your bodies are going to be tired.
[00:00:50] But the second thing is your spirit will be alive and your spirit will be refreshed. So how many have booked in? Have some of you booked in?
[00:01:00] There's a handful. You need to hurry up and book in because we've already got 800 booked in. Okay, so sign up and we will have fun in a couple of weeks time. Anyway, last week we talked about testimony, giving thanks for everything the Lord is doing in our lives, and also a little bit about responding, learning to respond to what God's doing. Yes, some of you here. Yep. Good. Okay, so what I want you to do, I want to carry on, but I.
[00:01:34] Let's go into the Book of Nehemiah. So if you, if you've got your Bibles, find Nehemiah. But I'm going to give you a little introduction first. If you're not quite sure where Nehemiah is, it's around just after Chronicles, that kind of, that kind of area.
[00:01:49] So the setting for this story is Jerusalem has fallen and the Jews are in exile in Babylon, just as Jeremiah prophesied.
[00:02:02] But after 70 years of exile, Persia conquers Babylon, led by Cyrus the Great.
[00:02:13] And he has a change of policy which allows the exiles to return to Jerusalem just as had been prophesied. And the temple starts to be rebuilt under a governor called Jerobabel. And he is a descendant of King David.
[00:02:33] But the work is stalled because of opposition and political pressure.
[00:02:40] So we then have two prophets that are prophesying, Haggai and Zechariah.
[00:02:46] And they encouraged that the work should continue.
[00:02:50] And you'll know from Zechariah that sometimes there are famous verses that we quote that we bring to mind not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. And that's the prophet Zechariah. And then a scribe called Ezra comes and he starts to bring spiritual reform. And that's the book of Ezra and.
[00:03:17] But the problem is that the walls of Jerusalem are still broken down and the city is vulnerable for attack.
[00:03:26] And this is where Nehemiah enters. So if you've got your. If you've got your Bible, find Nehemiah. Chapter 1. Go and Stand up again and we will read this opening chapter.
[00:03:39] The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakalah. I don't know if that's how you pronounce it. It came to pass in the month of Kislev, in the 20th year, as I was in Shushan the citadel, that Hananiah, one of my brethren, came with men from Judah and asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.
[00:04:08] And they said to me, the survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach.
[00:04:17] The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down and its gates are burned with fire.
[00:04:24] So it was when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned for many days.
[00:04:29] I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven and I said, I pray, lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, you who keep your covenant and mercy with those who love you and observe you. Sorry. Observe your commandments. Please let your ear be attentive and your eyes open that you may hear the prayer of your servant which I pray before you now day and night, for the children of Israel, your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against you and both my father's house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statues, nor the ordinances which you commanded your servant Moses. Remember, I pray, the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the furthest parts of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for my name.
[00:05:42] Now these are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, I pray, please let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who desire to fear your name. And let your servant prosper this day. I pray and grant him mercy in the sight of this man, for I was the king's cupbearer.
[00:06:10] Amen. Sit down.
[00:06:11] He's talking about Cyrus.
[00:06:17] So my question to you today, and I realize we're short of time, but you know, the whole idea of gathering right is to be in the Lord's presence.
[00:06:27] So if he's here, we linger with him and I can just talk a little less. Not that you'd want that, of course.
[00:06:35] So my question to you today is, what do you do when you see something wrong?
[00:06:42] You know, we can all see things that are wrong.
[00:06:45] We can see what the government's doing wrong, or how about what the city is doing wrong, or sometimes what the church is doing wrong. We can always point out what is wrong.
[00:07:00] But we are children of the king.
[00:07:05] Jesus says we're salt Light Leaven.
[00:07:10] Paul says we have the mind of Christ, the thinking of Jesus.
[00:07:17] If that is true, we should be super people with superpowers.
[00:07:23] If we assault light leaven, if we have the mind of Christ, we. We have our temples of the Holy Spirit.
[00:07:33] We are super people because he is in us.
[00:07:38] There's a few nods. You know, is this a trick question?
[00:07:41] You know, are you just. Just hold your hands out a moment. Just go on. Humor me for a moment.
[00:07:48] Lord Jesus, make us your temples. Make us your people.
[00:07:55] With all of the power of the Holy Spirit in our hands, just as you did with the disciples and with the early church.
[00:08:04] Amen.
[00:08:09] You know, when we were at our last church in Southend, we spent about 15 years. We planted a church and it grew and lots were.
[00:08:21] People were saved and lives were changed. And as when we left, we got a letter from our MP and I put it there. And I treasure this. Just occasionally we would talk with our mp and a few times I got the privilege of going up to the House of Commons or Portcullis House, and he would say, come to my place. It's way more fun. And we would talk to him about what was going on in the city and how we could be a solution. And when we left, he wrote this letter to thank us for our service in the town of Southend. Now, he wasn't thanking us, he was thanking the church or this. But the reason I show you that is what we are here to make a difference.
[00:09:12] We are God's people, to serve this city and to see God's plan of redemption break out.
[00:09:21] So how do we bring change to our surroundings?
[00:09:28] Especially when things are going wrong.
[00:09:30] Because if we were just saved for heaven, he could just take us to heaven now. But in fact, we're still here. Means he's got a plan for us. Enoch was walking with the Lord and He took him home. He was closer to heaven than home. We are still here. And Nehemiah realizes that walls of Jerusalem are still in rubble. And this is 70 years after the exiles are returning. So the temple has started to be built, but the walls are still in rubble. So what can we learn from him? Because he chooses to do something.
[00:10:04] He says, I'm going to make a difference. I'm going to change what is wrong. So I've got five things and I'm going to move really quickly. The first thing he does is ask questions, not complain.
[00:10:17] You know, he asks the people, how are the Jews? How is Jerusalem? You know, we can complain all we like. Everyone has an opinion on how things can be done, but few are willing to be the solution.
[00:10:33] You see, when we complain, especially when we're complaining to people about what they're not doing right, the walls tend to go up. But when we ask questions, we start to get the information we need to bring change. You know, when we were planting the church, and I mean, not often now, but occasionally some would come up to you, do you know there's not enough kids workers in the children's work?
[00:10:57] And I'll go, oh, thank you, you must be volunteering.
[00:11:02] And they go, but that's because we are the solution. You see, moaning or grumbling leads to exile. But when we ask questions, instead of us sharing our opinion, we start to open doors of change.
[00:11:19] 2. He prays and fasts. You want to see change? Start with the Lord. Not by might nor by power, but by spirit. We need the mind of Christ, not our mind. Proverbs 25:2 says, it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings to search out a matter. Who are the kings and queens? We are.
[00:11:40] It is our job to search out the will of God for our lives and for our cities and for our nations. You see, everyone today has an opinion.
[00:11:52] They post it for everyone to like on social media. But I want to humbly say, who cares?
[00:12:02] Who cares? Do you remember Pac last week? We killed him. You know, the dead pack on the floor. I don't know if he's here this morning.
[00:12:11] And you know, we laid him out in there and he's completely dead.
[00:12:16] You see, what we were saying is we've died to our old lives and our old opinions.
[00:12:23] Now we have new lives that are clothed with Christ.
[00:12:27] So any change we might want to see around us, we don't want our opinion, we want his opinion.
[00:12:36] Let me give you an example.
[00:12:38] Do you remember Brexit? Do you remember, we were all voting. Do we stay in Europe or don't we stay in Europe? Do we stay? Don't we stay? And now we don't know what we're doing. But, you know, we were all voting, all right? And I, on the whole, I thought. I said, I don't want to stay.
[00:12:50] I want to be able to buy bent bananas, and I want to be, you know, govern our own city. I think we should govern from our own government. So I thought, I'm going to vote to leave. But as all the kind of talk went on, my spirit became uneasy and it became quite a racist narrative. And the Holy Spirit said, told me, I want you to vote to stay.
[00:13:15] And I went, I don't want to vote to stay. But anyway, I voted to stay. And then I lost.
[00:13:21] And I'm like, lord, why did you make me vote to stay? Just to lose.
[00:13:28] And I remember he spoke to me as clear as anything. He said, because I want your obedience, not your opinion.
[00:13:33] Because my ways are higher than your ways.
[00:13:37] And it's time to come under my ways, not your ways. You see, my opinion needs to die so I can search out his opinion.
[00:13:46] So we ask questions, we pray, and fast. The third thing we do is humble ourselves. And what Nehemiah does, verse 5 is he identifies with the people. And he says, lord, please forgive us of our sins. He doesn't say, please forgive them of their sins. He says, please forgive us of our sin. Me of my sin, and my father has sinned. We've turned against you. It isn't them, it's me. Lord, will you have mercy? You see, it's easy to throw stones at people you think are making mistakes or getting it wrong. But Jesus says, every stone you throw is like a boomerang. It comes back at you. The measure you use will be the measure you used against you.
[00:14:25] So every time we throw, you need to duck, okay? Because it will come straight back. And let me. I just want to just say something to you as our family here. If you're part of this church family, I want to ask something of you. And for some of you, this will be really easy. And some of you, this will be really hard.
[00:14:44] But I want to ask you not to throw stones on the Internet. I'm not saying don't have an opinion. It's okay to have an opinion as long as it's dying and his opinions coming up. But would you not criticize any leader, any Christian, or even a politician on the Internet?
[00:15:06] Because Jesus says, you will be judged by the same Measure. And. And what I want to say to you is, don't you think there were some people that hated Cyrus the Great? The gate, the Great, he's just taken Babylon.
[00:15:22] Some people would have loved him, some people would have hated him. But Nehemiah finds favor with him.
[00:15:30] You see, under Zerubbabel, the building of the temple halts. And Haggai addresses him, my servant. And that word, my servant is how you would address a king, like David. The prophet corrects him, but doesn't condemn him.
[00:15:48] This is really important. Do you know why? Because he had done something.
[00:15:53] He wasn't sitting at home on his computer throwing stones. He had led people.
[00:15:59] And the building of the temple had started, but the work had halted because the people wanted to build paneled houses. They'd stopped working on the Lord's temple because they were building there.
[00:16:11] And I think Zerubbabe would have just got fed up and tired of all the complaining. And so Haggai the prophet comes to him. And do you know what he does when the prophet comes to him? He says, yes, sir.
[00:16:23] Why? Because the prophet addressed him my servant.
[00:16:28] Don't give up.
[00:16:30] Keep going. Because you're going to bring change.
[00:16:33] And I want to. If you're a prophet here, please remember, you might be bringing the word, but it's us doing the work.
[00:16:41] Deliver it well.
[00:16:43] Deliver it well. And you see, your boss might be up the wall, the government might be getting it all wrong.
[00:16:51] But Lord, the reason we are in rubble is because of my sin and my father's sins. All this has happened on my watch. Would you forgive me and make me the solution?
[00:17:06] Because God uses humble people.
[00:17:10] And then really quick, remember his promises. The next thing Nehemiah does with the Lord. So he's asked.
[00:17:16] He's asked questions, he's praying and fasting.
[00:17:22] He's humble. He's humble. And then he reminds the Lord of his promises. And again, do you remember last week we were talking about, you know, sometimes we can be a little English and a little reserved and it almost feels rude to go to God and remind him, as if he's forgotten. And it isn't the fact that he's forgotten, it's the fact that he wants to know that we know.
[00:17:48] And so Nehemiah says, lord, you said that when we turn from you and we sin and we turn from your ways, you would scatter us. But. But you said, lord, if we would come back to you, if we would love you, if we would seek your presence, you would come in our midst. And even if we were Scattered to the furthest corners, you would draw us in, you know, Lord, you said that if we do what you say you would do what you said you would do. And it's a bit like for us, Lord, you said if we were to seek your presence, if we got our thinking about money right and we went after salvation, you would soar to building now, Lord, will you come and do it?
[00:18:29] You see what is our response to God when we see things that are wrong, remind him of what he's promised.
[00:18:36] Isaiah does this. He says, you know, instead of bronze, I'm going to give you gold. Instead of iron, I'll give you silver instead of wood, bronze instead of stones, iron. I'll make your officers peace, your magistrates. Righteousness, violence shall no longer be heard in your land. Neither wasting nor destruction within your borders, but your walls will be called salvation and your gates praise. You know, whenever you walk past the police officer, pray the peace of God on him because they're peace officers. You know, I often see our rubbish guys on Wednesday morning I'm out walking the dog and I always say, thanks guys.
[00:19:10] That's why we're not Birmingham.
[00:19:14] I mean it. Thank you, thank you for what you do.
[00:19:19] And then last thing, number five, get assistance from favor. I think the most remarkable part of Nehemiah's story is where the help comes from. He served the king as a cupbearer. He's one of the king's most trusted servants. You see, if you have no favor or track record, you cannot make a difference. Let me say that again. If you have no favor or track record, you cannot make a difference. Jesus tells us to be faithful with what we have and more will be given to us.
[00:19:45] He's not just talking about money, he's talking about the whole of our lives.
[00:19:49] Don't you think Nehemiah is pleased that as a teenager he wasn't posting about the abuse of the king of Persia?
[00:19:57] Think about it. He wasn't sitting in his bedroom typing how abusive the king of Persia is. No, he ends up in his court like Daniel. He has served and built favor. So when he stands in the presence of the king, he has something to say. Say and a nation is changed.
[00:20:18] And it came to pass in the month of Nissan, on the 20th year of King architect services when the wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I have never been sad in his presence before. Therefore the king said to me, why is your face sad since you are not sick, this is nothing but sorrow of heart. So I became dreadfully afraid.
[00:20:40] You were scared of kings, government officials in these days, and said to the king, may the king live forever.
[00:20:51] But why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's tombs, lies in waste and its gates are burned with fire?
[00:21:01] And the king said to me, what do you request?
[00:21:06] You see, when you've done something, when you served someone, you have earned the right to make a request.
[00:21:14] But until you've built something, keep humble. And I would suggest, even when you've built something, keep humble.
[00:21:21] Because God loves the humble. And he says, if it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's tomb, that I might rebuild it.
[00:21:35] Friends, something's wrong with our nation.
[00:21:38] The walls are in rubble. Someone must do something.
[00:21:42] Nehemiah challenges his countrymen to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, despite opposition from within and without.
[00:21:52] And they are rebuilt in 52 days.
[00:21:57] By contrast, the task of reviving and reforming the people of God takes the rest of his godly years and leadership.
[00:22:06] You see, when you give your life to Jesus, you commit to a life of service.
[00:22:12] So when the moment of opportunity comes, you have the favor of God upon your life to make a request that will change a nation.
[00:22:25] Jesus is calling you to himself, but not for our own purposes, but for his, that we would see what is wrong. Pray and fast to know his mind. Humble ourselves, because all of this has happened on my watch.
[00:22:41] But then remind him of his promises.
[00:22:45] And so his favour comes upon us, and the miraculous assistance comes from the most surprising of places.
[00:22:55] And my question is, would you respond to the call of God on our lives? Humbly seek his face?
[00:23:02] And would we be the solution?
[00:23:04] You are salt, you are light, you are leaven.
[00:23:09] And it's time to change a nation.
[00:23:11] Amen.
[00:23:13] Stand up. I'm done.
[00:23:15] Thanks for listening to the Chroma Charge podcast.
[00:23:18] 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.
