Nehemiah 3 - Faith and Work

Church, as I said, we're in Nehemiah chapter three.

The bulletin says three and four, and that's not accurate.

It's just chapter three.

If the Lord allows me, we'll pick up in chapter four in a few weeks.

A couple weeks ago, or a few weeks ago now, actually, we were in chapter two of Nehemiah.

And Nehemiah, just a reminder, he gets this news from Jerusalem.

He's in Babylon, and he gets news from Jerusalem that the walls have been torn down.

There's the people are ashamed.

They're kind of in a very vulnerable place.

There's a lot of danger from their enemies, all these things.

And Nehemiah gets the word from this, and his heart is broken about these things.

He's never been to Jerusalem, but this is where his people are from.

He is an Israelite, and his heart's broken.

And he begins to pray and to fast about what he should do.

Now he's in a position of great authority and power.

He's a cupbearer to the king, so he has the king's ear, and he begins to pray and fast.

He does that for four months.

But what should he do to help the nation of Israel?

And we see how he is courageous, asking the king if he can go to Jerusalem and serve the people, asking the king for letters, giving him permission, asking for resource, and all these things the king grants him.

And so he then takes a voyage back to Jerusalem.

He's kind of given all this authority from the king, and he shows up and everyone's kind of wondering what's going on.

And he's taking all these risks for the kingdom of God.

Great risk talking to the king.

Great risk leaving a place of authority, a place of privilege, a place of comfort to go to the city that's in ruins to a bunch of people who he doesn't even know how they're going to respond to him.

And he goes and he meets the people and he inspects the walls.

They're all torn down.

He comes back to the people and he says, Hey, we need to do something about this.

He tells them what the king has done for him.

And he says in chapter 2, verse 18, let us rise up and build.

What a charge he gives them.

And so they build.

And chapter 3 is all about who built what.

Now, this is not a comparison of like this person did more, this person did less, and this person did more, this person did less, but it's a record of what person built what part of the wall.

And as you just skim through chapter three, I'm actually not going to read all of chapter three, but it begins like this.

Then Elisha the high priest rose up with his brothers, the priests, and they built the sheep gate.

They consecrated it and set its doors.

They consecrated it as far as the tower of the hundred, as far as the tower of Henanel.

And next to him the men of Jericho built, and next to them Zachar, the son of Imri, built.

And that's pretty much the whole chapter.

It just goes on and on.

And they built, and the sons of this person built, and they hung the gates, and they rebuilt the towers, and they built, and they built, and they built, and this person built, and this person built.

And so that as you just kind of walk through this chapter, skimming from top to bottom, you're hearing a record of the walls of Jerusalem being rebuilt by people being faithful to what God had called them to do.

Now, this is one of those kind of odd chapters in the Bible where you're like, well, what does this mean?

It's just a bunch of names, weird names at that.

Talking about a section of a stone wall and gates.

That's it.

And you get to the end of the chapter in verse 32, in between the upper chamber of the corner and the sheep gate, and the goldsmiths and their merchants repaired.

That's it.

It's just a record of people repairing things.

This morning, what I want us to see is that these people were faithful to just do the work.

They were not, the vast majority were not skilled.

This wasn't kind of their life's calling.

This wasn't what something they were excited about.

This wasn't something that, man, they're just gonna kind of share with their families and kind of live on the adrenaline of it for years.

But this was something that they needed to do and that God instructed them to do.

God had provided just literally materials for them to do, and a leader to guide them in it, and they were to do the work.

The second thing I want us to look at is what is the work that is before us?

What's the work before us?

So, to the first point, that they're just called to work.

I want to just look at a few verses with you and see how these are people with different skills.

Different skills, different abilities, but the same task before them.

So we see in verse 8 of chapter 3, this guy, Uzel, the son of this other guy, he's a goldsmith.

He needs to repair part of his wall.

And the next guy is a perfumer, right?

He makes cologne essentially, and he's here to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

And then even down into verse 12.

Next to him, this other brother builds with his daughters.

He and his daughters rebuild.

And so quickly you begin to feel, man, this is just a group, this is a small group of people in the city, and they're here to rebuild these walls.

Now, if you're you kind of have a map in the back of your Bible, you kind of know somewhat the layout of the walls around Jerusalem.

They did not rebuild the same exact wall that was there before uh Nebuchadnezzar came in and destroyed everything.

But they did, they built the wall, rey built the wall again around the city of David and the mount of the temple.

So still a very substantial amount of wall they had to repair and rebuild.

But they're not skilled for this.

They're just doing the work that is before them, the task.

So many times we think about what we're called to do, and what I'm gonna do.

I just, I'm not skilled with that.

I'm not skilled with evangelism.

Like someone else can do that.

I'm not really skilled with cooking, somebody else can do the cooking, I'm not really skilled with hospitality, somebody else can kind of be a greeter.

I'm not skilled with these things, I don't do those, I'll stick with my skills.

But here you have people who are who are not skilled in these things, and they're commanded to work to rebuild the walls.

And there's also different quantities, but the same responsibility.

They didn't all have the same measurement of wall to rebuild.

Some had to repair walls, some had to repair gates, some had to repair walls and gates.

Now just imagine with me for a moment if we all showed up next week here at the armory, which is a great space, praise the Lord.

We're happy to be here, even though it's is what it is.

And we're like, hey guys, the armory fell down.

We all just gotta pitch in, we gotta rebuild it.

And um, you know what?

Kevin's gonna get this section, and Wes is gonna get this section, and Andrew, you got this section, we know you're pregnant, it doesn't matter, you got the task, get to work.

And we're just like, what?

Like, how are we supposed to like who's to do the work?

That's not what we do.

What we do in our culture is we just call up what we call professionals.

They're pros, they're professionals, they do this for a living, and they come in and they redo the work, right?

And normally that would be a wonderful ability, a wonderful answer to the situation.

Sometimes you just have to do the work that is before you.

You just have to do the work.

And we're not, we're not, they're not rebuilding things to kind of so everyone can be like, man, this section of the wall looks really good.

They're rebuilding the wall for one reason and one reason only, so that they can stay alive, so that their way of life is protected, so that they're not worried about their enemies coming in and killing them.

See, it changes things when things become so immediate and necessary in our lives.

Proverbs says that a man without discipline is like a city without walls.

And so often in our lives we we think, well, I'm responsible for a few things, but I can't be responsible in my own life for all these things.

Sure, there's some areas of discipline in my life, but most areas like I just can't do that much work.

And so we leave ourselves exposed to the attacks of the enemy, our own flesh, the things the world offers us.

See, these brothers were responsible, and ladies were responsible for rebuilding the wall.

And some had a tremendous amount of work to do.

Yards and yards of wall to repair.

Some people had a small section, but they had to be faithful to do the work and repair it.

And then there were different attitudes in the group.

People had different attitudes, but the same benefit.

The benefit was the walls can be safe or done and we will be safe.

But their attitudes kind of vary.

We see this in verse 5.

And next to them, the tokotes repaired their no their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord.

Let me read that again, hopefully clearer.

And next to them, the Tekotes repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord.

So what was happening is there were people coming in from other areas within the surrounding kind of villages and towns.

And this is a group that came in to help rebuild.

But you know who didn't come in?

Their nobles.

The leaders of that, those people.

Like, yeah, you know what?

We'll send our kind of blue-collared people in there.

They can take care of it, but we're not coming in to do the work.

So there's these kind of attitude differences.

And imagine, you know, everyone's probably not like, rah, rah, this is awesome.

I can't wait to build my section of the wall.

Like, where's the where's the trowel?

Give me a hammer.

But they all benefited from the work.

They all put their hands to the work and we're able to see the wall completed.

And sometimes when it comes to tasks that God gives his people, we become so singular.

Well, I just need to make sure that we have enough people in the nursery.

I Amy's never said that, by the way.

Just, but if anyone wants to volunteer for the nursery.

Or I just we just need more people to help with food, which we do.

We um the pattern here.

But the reality is when we can become silent.

Like I just don't like that song.

I just didn't like that message.

You know, that sermon just wasn't that good.

Well, maybe it wasn't about you.

You know?

Or maybe it was about you.

The reality is, although our attitudes are different, and we're not all kind of like just humming along, whistling our way to work, we are called to do the work.

Called to do the work that is before us.

And so you see just a picture of these people's faithfulness.

And it's good to remember, like these are literal people.

They ate, they slept, they worked, they died, they buried their kids, they buried their parents, just like us.

And they had a tremendous task before them.

And they were faithful to just do like literal physical, hard work.

They did the work before them.

My challenge to us as a church is just to do the work that is before us.

Just do the work before you.

Which is pretty easy, I guess, to say that, right?

Just do it.

The wall needed to rebuild.

No one person could rebuild it.

Everyone did their bit, everyone pitched in, and the wall was rebuilt.

It was rebuilt in 52 days.

We'll get to that in chapter 6.

But in 52 days, not even two months, they organize, they got in supplies, and they do the work.

And we'll talk more about kind of how they got all that done in chapter four.

But this is a wonderful picture for us of the church, of the bride of Christ working together.

God has called us, his church, to work hard, to work hard, to sweat, to serve one another, to help build his kingdom.

Now, when I say that, it's not like God's like struggling.

I just wish I had some help.

I can lend you a hand.

You know, let me help you out with that.

That's not the situation.

But what is going on is he said, I will build my kingdom, and I will use my church to do that.

It is through his church, the bride of Christ, and local expressions of the church, that he builds his kingdom.

The great commission has been given to us in Matthew 28.

Go and make disciples.

That is the work the church is called to.

This requires us to give much.

To give financially, we give emotionally, we give of our time, we give of our energy, we give of our comfort.

All these things are required for us to faithfully function as a church.

Everyone must not just kind of pitch in, but gladly, with a joyful heart, give to the work of the Lord.

Be a part of the work of the Lord.

When the church gathers together on the Lord's Day, Sunday is the Lord's Day, it takes a lot of work.

And we strive to keep things pretty simple.

I don't know if you've picked up on that, but we don't, we don't really kind of do big, flashy things here.

We're not offering a bunch of programs, we don't offer lots of classes.

Um it's kind of simple.

Probably more simple than some people like, but to be honest, it's so, it's as still as simple as it is, it takes a lot of work.

People who come in and set up, people who have to tear down, people who have to cook food, people who have to prepare sermons, people who have to pray and read and do music and prepare for all those things.

Watch kids.

Like it just takes a lot to make this happen.

But what a blessing it is to gather as the bride of Christ.

I want you to hear me on this if you've never heard this before.

The church is never more the church than when we are gathered together on the Lord's day.

We're never more the church.

Gathered together on the Lord's day.

Now, when we scatter from here, yes, we are the church.

Yes, we need to act as the church and be the church.

But we're never more the church than right now, assembled together under the headship of Jesus Christ, worshiping, adoring, proclaiming Him.

Because this is what we will be doing for eternity.

This, not exactly like this, not with me up here or in the armory, praise the Lord, for sure, but it will be good.

So it takes work and effort to do this, but it is worth it for us to gather.

It's commanded for us to gather.

That's why we say this is the most important part of your week.

The church is called to do hard things, to give and to serve and to love.

But much of that happens outside of here.

When you're at your jobs or with your families and your homes or whatever you're doing with all the hours you have throughout the week, we're called to serve and to love and to give.

Called to love our neighbors well.

This is the work that's before us.

Love your neighbor.

J.I.

Packer, the famous theologian, and has a pretty heavy quote about loving our neighbors.

He says, unless you've explicitly shared the gospel with your neighbors, you have not loved them.

That's some strong words.

If you have not shared the gospel with your brothers, can you really say that you have loved them?

We're called to love our neighbors.

We're called to evangelize the lost.

Literally to go out and seek lost people and pray for them and share the gospel with them.

This is a command on you from Christ.

You're commanded to evangelize the lost.

Again, Matthew 28, the Great Commission.

2 Corinthians 5, 18 through 20 says, All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That is, in Christ, God was reconciled to the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us, entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore, because of that, in light of that, we are ambassadors for Christ.

God making his appeal through us.

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

What an amazing inheritance as Christians.

What an amazing call.

What an amazing work before us.

And because Christ has reconciled us to him, because Christ paid the price for our sin on the cross, so we were no longer living in sin and death and going to hell.

Because that's a reality for us, we then are to be ambassadors for Christ, sharing the gospel with others and saying, then we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

This is what you're made for.

That is the work that is before us.

Colossians 4, 5 and 6.

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time we were given.

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Or to be prepared and ready to share the good news with others.

Walking in wisdom, trying to make the best use of our time, stewarding relationships, people around us, so that we can share the good news with others.

We're called to evangelize.

Maybe you're not sure who you should evangelize.

I want to help you by giving you some categories or some things to think about, some suggestions.

So who should you evangelize?

Well, your neighbors.

Right?

Literally the people who live close to you.

Most of our congregation does not live in city limits.

Most of our congregation lives out in the country, and that creates its own uh unique opportunity there.

But those, that's right, you can start there.

People who who live somewhere around you.

Your coworkers, your family members, your friends.

And maybe you're like, man, I work from home, my family's all Christian, I don't have friends who aren't Christians.

Well, places that you frequent.

Are your kids in sports?

There's some lost people there.

Do you visit a store or a coffee shop regularly?

There's probably lost people there.

Do you go to the doctor's office regularly?

There's probably lost people there.

See, the reality that there's just like, well, there's just nothing many lost people in my life anymore.

I mean, and I get it.

We we live in a pretty Christian area.

And sometimes we have kind of insulated lives.

But let me assure you, there are lost people all around you.

I will I'll tell the story.

This was um last fall I was um well, I just met a couple in in Danville who had knew nothing about Jesus Christ.

They knew about Jesus, like they'd heard the name Jesus, but they didn't know anything about the cross.

They said, What's this story about um Adam and like sin?

They knew nothing.

They didn't know about Adam and Eve.

They'd never heard, obviously, about anything in the Old Testament.

They just knew about someone named Jesus.

Born here, raised here, knew nothing.

And although we we always kind of trumpet, let's go reach the nations, I think it's a good thing.

I want to remind us there are lost people all around us.

And not just lost, but they have never heard the gospel.

They've never heard it.

And there's a lot of people who've heard a false gospel.

So there are plenty of lost people around.

So lost people in the areas you interact with.

Also, praise the Lord, there's tons of ministries in Knox County that you can get involved with and surrounding counties.

There's wonderful ways to just meet lost people, or do you just disciple those who are who are young in their faith?

On Friday nights, there's a ministry here called the Escape Zone.

They just, it's an outreach to teenagers.

They're always looking for help.

Friday evenings, 7 o'clock, 7 to 10.

There's a building full of lost people right there.

I'm sure there's some who are saved, you know.

There's a ministry in town called Starting Point.

They work with uh people in crisis pregnancy situations.

It's a wonderful opportunity to come alongside those who either don't know Jesus Christ or they're struggling in their faith.

There's homeless shelters that you can, or homeless shelter you can work with or volunteer with.

Um there's a wonderful, two wonderful ministries I know of.

One that works with guys who are battling with drug addiction called Lazarus Life Ministries.

Great place there.

You can volunteer, serve with, encourage the brothers there.

There's also a thriving thrift store in Danville called Risen Thrift.

I don't know if you guys have heard of it, but it's a great place.

They're looking for volunteers.

So the excuse that there's just no one around, there's no way to kind of interact with lost people, that's just not a good one.

There isn't a good like answer to that.

There's no like, oh, that does make sense.

You live on an island.

And then as you go through just all even the ministries I mentioned, not that everyone there is lost or has never heard the gospel, but what an opportunity to us to serve and to evangelize or to make disciples.

Because we are called to evangelize and we're called to make disciples.

What is discipleship?

Now, I gotta give you a little bit of a backstory.

There's kind of a running joke among Ron and Jimmy and I and our family about this question: what's discipleship?

And early on in the church plant, before we even started gathering as a church, we were talking about this, and it turned into this like whole like conversation and like a wringing of hands and a tearing of clothes and sackcloth and ashes.

But we just kind of go, like, what's discipleship?

We're called, we're commanded to make disciples.

So, what is this discipleship thing that we're talking about?

Let me give you a very simple definition.

It's a very true, helpful, and hopefully a good one.

I do, I believe it to be.

Discipleship is helping believers follow Jesus.

Discipleship is helping believers follow Jesus.

So, what's not discipleship?

Well, evangelism isn't discipleship, right?

It's evangelism.

They're not believers, so we're evangelizing them.

Discipleship is helping believers follow Jesus.

Believers follow.

Doesn't mean we're we're trying to make people claim something.

Well, well, they they made a profession of faith.

Praise the Lord.

We don't know where they're at, though.

They're making a claim.

Well, well, they they they went on this mission trip.

Okay, cool, they did something.

But let's see, this isn't just a claim or a title or one act.

We want to see them following Jesus.

Not just a moment in time kind of a thing.

I came up to the altar and I prayed a prayer, and I shook someone's hand, or even I was baptized.

But rather, are they following Jesus?

As those who have been saved, as disciples of Jesus, are we helping other believers follow Jesus?

Following them.

The primary way this happens, discipleship, by God's design, is to the gathered church on the Lord's day.

This is the primary means of discipleship.

The church gathered together, singing songs of rich theology, praying together, going through scripture together, hearing the proclamation of the word together.

This is our primary means of discipleship.

God's bride gathered together.

If you're not a Christian, we're not discipling you.

We're evangelizing you.

And we're happy to do that.

We pray for you.

If you're not a follower of Jesus Christ, we're glad you're here.

We're glad that you're hearing the word, that you're fellowshipping with us.

We pray that you would repent of your sin.

And just the death that it brings, you'd see that.

That you would follow Jesus Christ and give him your life.

Surrender all to him.

But our primary method of discipleship is through the gathered, the church gathered on the Lord's Day.

The second way discipleship gets done is through just intentional relationships.

So this is this is community groups gathering together.

This is guys gathering together to go through the word and prayer together, ladies gathering together to go through the word and pray together.

Just kind of seeking out intentional ways to build one another up.

And sometimes it's a clearly defined kind of relationship.

I'm discipling so-and-so, or so-and-so is discipling me.

And sometimes we're just discipling one another.

Like we're just encouraging one another.

We're helping one another follow Jesus.

It's kind of the through the word, the gathered church, then intentional relationships.

And then there's just like this third category, which sounds kind of funny, but it's it's the random discipleship.

What I mean by this is you're this isn't like, okay, we're going, we're getting in the car, we're going to gather with the church, and this isn't like, hey, we have this intentional kind of regular time where we meet up and pour in into one another.

But this is like you're sitting at the table breaking bread together, and someone says, you know, they bring up a theological thing they're they're they're wrestling with.

You're like, oh, well, you know, you know, here's a verse in the Bible that helped me with that.

Or they bring up an issue in their life and they're struggling with those things, and you're just stepping in saying, Well, you know, this is what helped me.

That's just kind of like one-off discipleship.

Just something happens, and you have the opportunity to help that person follow Jesus more faithfully.

That's discipleship.

So, in this question, what is discipleship?

There's kind of some uh the third one, especially is broad, but it's the church gathered together.

And then it's the church scattered and intentional relationships, and then kind of randomly.

But we are called to make disciples, to pour into other people.

Think about the blessing it is to have people pour in to us.

Oftentimes we will just assume things.

We just we assume everyone knows how to read their Bible.

Everyone knows how to pray, they're here.

They grew up in the church, of course they know how to read the Bible.

We make these assumptions that as one another, we're just kind of doing well as Christians.

And if we just take one glimpse around our kind of society, the churches around us, it's easy to see.

I don't think people like everyone's reading their Bibles, and I don't think everyone's praying as they should.

There is a tremendous lack of discipleship.

Here we are, as the church, called to step into these things.

For most people, no one sat down with you and said, Well, this is how you read the Bible, this is how you pray.

And what a blessing that would have been.

What a blessing to have someone, when you're a brand new Christian, to just say, Let me help you to this this huge book of 66 books.

Let me help you make sense of this.

Let me help you navigate that, let me help you to pray.

But most of us, we just that just didn't happen for us.

But by God's grace, we were able to kind of see people doing these things.

This is the way that like a lot of discipleship happens.

You see it happening, and so here we're doing it.

That's in why we're intentional with the gathered body with what we do from the front.

We want to handle God's word rightfully.

We want to anchor the word.

What's it saying?

Well, what's the context?

What's the historical context?

What's going on?

We don't just kind of pluck out a passage and twist it around for to say whatever we want it to say.

That's not us rightfully handling God's word.

We want to be faithful to the work before us.

We have to know how to handle the word well.

We don't want to misapply it.

We want to understand what's the overarching narrative of Scripture.

Well, the overarching narrative of Scripture is that everything leads to Jesus Christ and his redemption of his people, setting all things right.

So everything we teach, it's gonna connect back to Jesus.

And the true Jesus, not the Jesus we make up in our head.

We don't want to get sidetracked by kind of hobby horse doctrines and just things where we just kind of get on a soapbox and we just go and go about that one thing.

We're gonna preach all of God's word, the whole book.

We want to handle God's word well.

We want to pray well.

Well, that's one of the elders or a member.

We aimed to pray the prayers that we see with Paul praying in the New Testament, prayers that glorify God and give him praise, making our requests to God in humility, but with faith, knowing he hears us and loves us.

Praying that God that we would rest in his sovereignty and his goodness.

So we our aim is that by what we're doing here, you are being discipled.

You're being discipled.

That's why we always sing the songs that we sing.

As I mentioned a few minutes ago, theologically rich songs.

And hopefully singable, ones that we're all can sing because there's a command in Colossians 3:16 that we're to sing one to another, and to sing with thankfulness in our hearts.

Colossians 3:16

So the way we sing matters.

And our fellowship matters.

The breaking of bread together.

This is an important part of making disciples.

This was clearly modeled through the book of Acts.

You just, I mean, these people just ate all the time.

They're gathered, they're eating.

They're getting together, they're eating.

And we're we kind of early on, we're like, hey, we see this happening in the New Testament, and we like to eat, so let's try to let's try to do that too, you know?

So this time we have a fellowship time after the service.

It's a wonderful time for us to just encourage one another, build relationships, do some discipling.

Again, that takes a lot of time.

Takes a lot of money, takes a lot of energy, takes a lot of work to eat together.

You know, we we have five community groups, five small groups, and we have just over 80 people in those groups, and they all eat.

Okay?

We eat on Sunday mornings.

We eat.

Right?

Like we're we're eating together a lot, we're fellowshipping together a lot.

Why?

Because we want to be in each other's lives, we want to spur one another on in the faith.

Man, love Jesus.

We'll encourage you.

Man, so many of so many people in our church are young parents.

And if there's anything that young parents need, it's parents who are just a little bit older who just say, hey, keep at it.

Just keep with it.

It's gonna be okay.

And sometimes you need older parents to say, hey, you know what?

You might want to reconsider this.

Maybe you want to do it this way.

Or here's what's been helpful for us.

You need that.

You need one another, discipling each other.

Breaking bread is a wonderful thing.

Even gluten-free bread.

We we offer that.

We we try to do that so that we can gather together well.

Reading the Bible together, singing together, praying together, studying together.

And RCG, we're in the book of Revelation.

I'm just gonna tell you right now, it ain't going so well.

Okay?

As Wes can attest.

We're glad we're there.

There's something to be gleaned from Revelation.

We're not dispensational, so it's a little bit more frustrating, but we're convicted on that.

But we're happy to gather together, to open the word, and to ask the Holy Spirit to give us an illumination, an understanding.

We're gathering together.

This is discipleship church.

So many times we want a program.

And I get it, it's easy.

Just tell me where to show up on a Saturday for a few hours and I'll do it.

Just tell me where to be on a Tuesday night and I'll do that.

Just give me the stuff and I'll do it.

But what Christ has called us to, what he's called his people to, is to a life of work before them.

And they can't do all the work.

We can't disciple everyone, we can't evangelize everyone.

You can't just be a loving neighbor to everyone.

But there are people in your lives.

There is work to be done before you.

And it's your responsibility.

You think, well, well, someone else will get to them.

I mentioned this several weeks ago.

God will fulfill his mission.

He always fulfills his mission.

But he has chosen to do that with his church.

And you can be obedient to that and enjoy the blessing of that, because that is the work that he has given, has been given to you to do.

Again, we're to evangelize.

That takes courage, that takes boldness.

We should be praying for those people, praying for the lost, praying for our own heart to be bold, make disciples, help believers follow Jesus, intentional with that, inviting people into our homes, sharing information and resources with people, sharing our own testimony and struggles with people, make disciples, help for believers follow Jesus.

But again, it's all overwhelming.

It's overwhelming.

Sometimes we just want to pull back.

It's not my skill set.

It's not what I'm good at.

That's why we pay you.

It's your job to do that.

Someone else will do that.

I'm just too overwhelmed.

I already have all these things going on, and you know, between just all the extracurricular activities and what's going on in our life, and I'm just not sleeping well these days, and I have health problems, all very legitimate things.

We do not use their circumstances in our life as excuses to not obey Christ.

Now, sure.

Your capacity might be to hear.

Well, then that's your section of the wall, brother or sister.

You be faithful to that.

You work on that.

It feels overwhelming.

Feed people.

Feed 80 people on Sunday.

Feed 80 people through the week.

Get more involved with community groups.

Do the things around here.

Serve with kids.

Do this, do that, do this.

Love your neighbor.

Reach the lost people.

Read your Bible more.

Pray more.

Memorize scripture.

It all becomes, it just adds up, and it adds up, and it's overwhelming to us.

But again, the division of labor has been set.

Your wall is before you.

Not to kind of use a hokey metaphor, but why don't you use a hokey metaphor?

This is the work before us.

It's not glamorous.

We're not doing it so that we can kind of go around and start inspecting each other's section of the wall.

Isn't it pretty good?

And well, you know, hopefully that holds up.

We'll see.

We're called to this.

It's amazing how quickly life fills up.

You know, you there's a weird thing in our culture where we have a calendar and we open our calendar or we open our phone or it's on the wall, and we get to kind of fill in things to our calendar.

And that kind of gives us the idea that the month is before us, the day is before us.

And we're going to kind of put it in what we want.

But that's not how life works.

You're given usually a calendar and it's maxed out, it's filled up.

And you have to be intentional saying, what will I keep?

What will I not keep?

What am I going to commit to?

What am I getting rid of?

Because God has called me to this work.

So we choose with our time, our energy, our money, where's it gonna go?

What's it gonna do?

There are two things I want you to hear and remember.

I'll pray.

God has called you.

He's called you from death to life.

He's called you from being an orphan to being his child.

He's called you from a life of ignorance and meaningless to now know him and to walk with him.

He's called you, and he's called you to faithfulness.

You can't do it all.

He's not expecting you to.

He's expecting you to just be faithful.

What is before you, be faithful.

Focus on the work that is before you, and by his grace, work hard at that.

Let's pray.