Nehemiah: Living in Preservation and Gratitude

We are in Nehemiah chapter 12 in the Old Testament.

Nehemiah 12 · chapter mention

The temple and the walls in Jerusalem have been rebuilt at this point.

The first 26 verses of chapter 12 is a genealogy of priests and leaders, name after name after name.

And here's the point.

Point number one.

God has preserved generations of his people, and God will preserve you.

Imagine you have a jar of honey.

I love honey.

I put honey like on my yogurt in the morning.

I don't know what you put honey on.

And because it's in the Bible so much, the calories don't count with honey, by the way.

So you can just use as much as you want.

It's free, free calories.

Imagine you use some honey and you seal it up, right?

You put that top on, you put it in the pantry.

That honey is gonna stay preserved in that.

Now imagine you use some jam, like strawberry jam.

I like strawberry jam.

So say you use some strawberry jam and you put it on some toast, and then say you put it on the counter and you forget to put the top on it and you forget to put it back in the fridge.

Well, while the sealed up honey is preserved like new, the jam is gonna end up looking like this, not long, this picture here of spoiled jam.

Just mold creeps across the top.

The sugars ferment, it is ruined.

That's what will happen to it over time.

Now, okay, now listen to what Jude says in the New Testament about you being preserved.

Jude 1, 24.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.

Right?

So Jude's saying, Beloved, you are preserved.

Like you're you're the honey.

You are preserved by Jesus.

And you may have difficulty, you may have struggle.

It's Father's Day, maybe you weren't a good father, maybe you didn't have a good father.

But it's not about your performance, it's not about your circumstance.

This preservation of you, who you are as God's beloved, is not by your work, it's by Jesus' work for you.

Now let's jump into Nehemiah 12.

We're gonna jump in at verse 27.

So the walls are built, and now they're gonna dedicate these walls.

They're gonna have a service of gratitude and worship.

Look what the Lord has done, type of thing.

Verse 27.

And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought the Levites in all their places to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, with thanksgiving, with singing, with symbols and harps and lyres.

And the sons of the singers gathered together from the districts surrounding Jerusalem and from the villages of the Netaphathites, also from Beltgitgal, and from the region of Giba and Asmaveth.

For the singers had built for themselves villages around Jerusalem.

And the priests and the Levites purified themselves, and they purified the people and the gates and the wall.

Point number two is this as we rest more in God's love for us, we don't need to use things to define us, and we can be thankful for whatever we have.

That's what we see with the Nehemiah people.

They're not just moving on to more and more and more and more.

They're looking at the very thing that God has provided, and they're pausing to be thankful.

In verse 27, the point of view changes.

It's easy to pass over this little thing in the text.

For the first time in five chapters, the point of view changes in the passage.

Nehemiah switches it back to first person.

It's his way of saying, I am thankful for this wall.

And I am thankful to God for this wall.

Last week we went over to some friends' house and I noticed they had a four-car garage.

And say, I only have a two-car garage.

And I was like, man, that looked awesome.

I don't know if you got a four-car garage or one-carage.

Like, I like garages, and I thought a two-car garage was awesome until I saw the four-car garage, and I was like, no, that's that's awesome, is the four-car garage.

And then I looked over in one of the garages and I saw this vehicle.

I just pulled this from online.

That's what that's what they had.

And what's and I was like, Ian, like I need that.

That's what I saw and I was like, yes, like a four-car garage, jacked up bronco.

I can just feel my 20-year-old self on a summer night with Dave Matthews man blurring.

I can feel it.

I can feel that.

I can be a Bronco guy.

I can feel this.

I have it in me to be a Bronco guy with a four-car garage.

And because I know, I just know if I had it, I um I wouldn't stress about sermons anymore.

And like whether you like my illustrations or not, and I wouldn't get anxious anymore.

I probably wouldn't have any health issues anymore.

Um, my family and my finances would be totally fine, there'd be no stress there because I'm a Bronco guy, because I have a Bronco and a four-car garage.

Right?

We're all being pursued with a promise of a new life.

All sorts of things are pursuing our hearts with this promise, I can give you a new life.

Right?

Every time I see a cool bronco, so it's telling me, I'll give you a new life.

Just get just if you could give me.

Right?

If only I could be like that, then my problems would go away.

Then I would be thankful.

And it's sort of the opposite of what these people are doing in this passage.

These people in this passage are pausing and not just saying, I want more and more and more and more.

Like there's this pause of thankfulness.

But maybe you're like me and maybe you get duped very easily.

And I really need Jesus' words, right?

Matthew 6, like, don't treasure stuff, like shiny stuff that will rust.

Don't just don't treasure it.

Not because it's not useful, not because you can't have fun in it, but because it's just gonna rust.

Like that's why.

Paul expounds on this idea, this idea of joy and thankfulness and peace.

And Philippians 4, 4 through 6.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again I will say, rejoice.

So it's for our joy.

But real joy is going to be in the Lord, verse 5.

Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

The Lord is at hand.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be known to God.

So Paul's saying, pray for the desire under all that new shiny stuff.

Like pray for love and joy and peace.

And then verse 7, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

And what we see in Nehemiah 12 is we see a people just not moving on to the next thing, but pausing.

Like, do we pause?

Do we live slow enough to be grateful for the walls, the gifts, the things in our lives that are good and they're gifts, and we should be thankful.

Verse 31.

Then I brought the leaders of Judah up onto the wall and appointed two great choirs that gave thanks.

One went to the south on the wall to the dungate.

Now the text keeps going in the 32 through 36, and it gives the names of bunches of people that go this place and this place and this place, all the people that went to the dungate.

Then verse 37 we read where some others went.

Verse 37, at the fountain gate, they went up straight before them by the stairs of the city of David at the ascent of the wall, above the house of David to the water gate on the east.

The other choir of those who gave thanks went to the north.

And I followed them with half of the people on the wall, above the tower of the ovens to the broad wall.

So there's more details of who went where.

What we learn is there's two processions, a procession of people.

Point number three is this as we grow aware of God's faithfulness in our lives, pause, slow down.

We will overflow with worship to Him.

In verse 31, the phrase, two great choirs that gave thanks.

Maybe your Bible says companies which gave thanks.

There's a similar phrase in verse 38 and verse 40.

The key word in the Hebrew is to doat or thanksgiving or confession.

Now, what's interesting about this word is it conveys the people are not just singing thanksgiving, they are thanksgiving.

So it's more profound than a behavior.

It's actually who they are.

They are people of gratitude.

It's more than words.

The words is an overflow of a heart, a person who's grateful.

And they're grateful for the walls that were built, for the protection it gives them.

But the focus is clear, and we see it in verse 40.

So both choirs of those who gave thanks stood in the house of God.

So the processions of worship and thanksgiving, we're going to give thanks to the walls, but the center, the focus, the end becomes the house of God.

My college roommate's dad just passed away two weeks ago.

I became friends with my college roommate and one of my longtime, lifetime best friends, John, when we were in ninth grade.

And I met his dad.

And his dad, Dick Waterworth, on the left, that's my buddy John on the right.

And his dad was always outside every time I went over his house.

They lived on land.

He was a successful businessman.

He was a Christian.

He loved his family.

He loved the outdoors.

And he loved theology.

He was the first person in my life that I knew that cared about theology.

He loved Jesus and he loved that people love Jesus, but he actually also knew that what you believe about Jesus matters.

And he wanted to talk about that.

So he not only wanted to know if you love Jesus, he wanted to know about, like, hey, what do you believe about Jesus?

And he was always teaching us.

One time, my friend Kevin and John, they were over there.

I wasn't there this evening, but night came and the moon came up, real bright moon this night.

And Dick, John's dad, takes them out into the middle of the pasture.

They're in high school at this point.

He says, Come on, boys, come on.

This is the kind of thing he would do.

Come on.

Walks out into the middle of the pasture.

They lay down in the grass and look up at the stars and the moon.

And Dick Waterworth says, Isn't it amazing we have all of this?

And then he says, so that we can see how awesome God is.

Now, theologically, he was teaching them the purpose of natural revelation, which is amazing, how he would teach all different good theology, like at the right life stage.

Right?

The good thing, here's what he's saying.

The good thing we have is not the ultimate thing.

But a step to the best thing.

Isn't it amazing we have all this?

But it's here so that we will see how awesome God is.

See, maybe you'll see something amazing this summer.

I hope you do.

Maybe you see the ocean.

Maybe you'll see a mountain.

Maybe you'll see the moon.

But the point is not the ocean or the mountain or the moon.

As amazing as those are.

See, the Jerusalem walls are wonderful, but they end up in the house of God.

And we know this side of Jesus, God's presence is not bound to a building, but the point is God's presence.

Beloved, we let the good thing, let the good things in your life that we will be grateful for, let them send us on.

Don't stop at the good thing.

Let them send us on to awe and worship of God.

Nehemiah 12.

Last part of chapter 12, verse 44.

On that day, men were appointed over the storerooms, the contributions, the first fruits, and the tithes to gather into them the portions required by the law for the priest and for the Levites, according to the fields of the towns.

For Judah rejoiced over the priest and the Levites who ministered, and they performed the service of their God and the service of purification, as did the singers and the gatekeepers according to the command of David and his son Solomon.

Point number four is this the future of the church, any church, the church, rests in God's faithfulness through the generosity of his people.

After the dedication, Nehemiah ensures that the people continue the support and the work and the worship of the temple.

It's that important to him.

Nehemiah cares so much about worship.

He wants practical provision to be provided.

To make sure this continues for these people and for the next person, the next generation.

Now, the New Testament assumes that you and I are generous.

It just assumes this.

To keep the church going, to keep your church, our church going, to keep another, to keep the church going for you and your family and the next person and the next generation.

All of that is built on God's faithfulness through your generosity.

There's no secret God endowment that funds all the churches of the world.

All these churches are funded by the generosity of the people.

The next generation, the church exists for them because of our generosity today.

2 Corinthians 9, 7 says this each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

The future of our church, any church, rests, it rests in God's faithfulness through the generosity of his people.

And Nehemiah understood that sustaining work required ongoing support.

He takes the time.

This guy was an incredible leader.

He takes the time.

Let's have a worship service.

Let's have a movement.

And then it's like not only movement, not only worship service.

Now I'm actually going to do the work of creating a method by which that can continue.

He does the work, the leadership, to provide a system of giving and receiving and get the money out to where it needs to be paid to provide for these priests and the worship that it would continue to be provided for the people.

Now in verse 45, it speaks of purification.

The people had to purify themselves before they could worship.

That's an Old Testament thing, a pre-Jesus thing.

But it makes me think about those baptismal pools that were built around the temple.

We've looked at these before.

They're called mikvas.

We got a picture of a mikveh.

We can put that picture up there.

This is a mikvah.

These were built around the temple.

And at the Jewish religion at the time, you cleansed yourself.

You cleansed yourself by you going down into the water.

You went into the mikveh.

I love saying mikveh, by the way.

It's just a good word.

Like how many times can I say it in three lines?

And they did this ritual bathing before they worshiped as to purify themselves.

Their work, their tradition purified them.

Now in the New Testament, we we know we need to be purified.

But we also know we're never quite purified enough by what we do.

And so Paul says this in Romans 6, 3 and 4.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Paul is saying, yeah, we need to be purified.

It's just not by our work, it's by Jesus.

Our secure relationship with God is based on Jesus' work for me, not my work for him.

So my ability to come before God to thank him for something, to worship him is not based on me getting everything together or obeying the right things.

It's me trusting what God has provided for me.

Point number five is this we live with gratitude and worship because God preserves us.

We don't live with gratitude and worship so that God will preserve us.

In Jesus on the cross, our sin is put upon him, we're fully forgiven, his righteousness is given to us, we're fully righteous.

Because we're already this, we live lives of gratitude and worship.

I just love this image of preserve because I usually feel like the moldy jam.

I don't feel like the perfectly preserved honey that's just like it's just there for you.

I feel like something that's just like never quite got it put together.

Like I get one part together, and then I realize, oh my god, I can't believe I'm such a mess in this other area.

I'm not as thankful as I should be, right?

Like the whole first half of the sermon, I'm not as thankful as I should be.

I don't slow down enough to pause and be thankful for everything I should be.

I I take, I overlook so much that I should be thankful for.

I need help.

Like I need help being preserved.

If I'm gonna be preserved, it's gonna have to be done by something more than my effort.

I grew up hiking in the Great Smoky National Park.

Here's a picture of the Great Smokeys, it's just you know, north of us, a few hours.

This land was once heavily logged.

Companies were clear-cutting it without any plan to replant.

This is back in the early 1900s.

This clear-cut, ripping through the land, just demolishing it.

And people were watching the land all around them just be destroyed.

So an effort began to preserve the land.

Beginning in the 1920s, land began to be bought up.

By 1934, 522,000 acres of land was put into a national park.

And it was preserved.

That's what's great about these national parks.

They're preserved for us.

Preserved from destruction.

Meaning it is held safe.

You can go up to the Smokies all around it.

There's resorts.

There's more like kind of junky motels.

You've been to Pigeon Forge, right?

We've all been to Pigeon Forge.

It's an adventure.

It's junky, it's fun.

You know, drive a go-kart, go pup hunting, and then you drive into the park, and it's it's beautiful.

It's preserved.

Beloved, that's an image for you of your heart, even though we are not always the great procession of thankful worship choirs, being thankful for everything perfectly.

We're still preserved because we're not preserved based on how thankful we are, how worshipful we are.

We're preserved based on Jesus' word for us.

We are preserved people in Jesus.

You are held safe.

You are held safe because of Jesus.

You have a question about this sermon or you'd like to be prayed for?

I'll be down front afterward.

I'd love to pray with you.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, thank you that you preserve us while you call us to pause and slow down.

Help us to do it more.

Help us to pause longer, to linger longer, to slow down, to be grateful, to see the good gifts you've given us, to be thankful and to let them send us on to how good you are.

Let us see the beauty around us and be thankful for it.

And let us be sent on to you as creator.

Father, thank you that our worship, our gratitude is not the basis by which we are seen as righteous.

Thank you that we are preserved, a preserved people generation by generation.

Us and Marietta this morning, because of Jesus' work, your covenant to your people through the death and life of Jesus.

Help us to trust all the more, rest all the more in Christ's sufficiency.

That all the purification we ever need is in Jesus alone.

And may our hearts overflow with worship and gratitude for Christ's health.

Amen.