Success Through the Struggle | Dr. John Ewart

Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Englewood

Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

Thank you so much for tuning in to our podcast.

You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word

about important issues facing your life that can guide you

according to the Bible. Well, good morning, Englewood.

Turn to somebody sitting next to you and say, I'm just glad to

see you. Listen, we appreciate, we

appreciate the opportunity to gather again face to face.

For those joining us online, we welcome you as well.

Let me share a couple words as you turn to Nehemiah Chapter 6.

Nehemiah 6 · chapter mention

And we're going to dive into that and one, one or two words

very quickly. Just this next weekend is our

marriage conference. And on Friday night and Saturday

morning through noon, Doctor Danny Aikins, wife Charlotte are

going to come lead us. We have great crowd already

signed up, but we have room for six more couples, just 612

people, 6 couples. So if you want to come to that,

you need to sign up very quickly and that there may not even be

that much room left after the first service.

So if you want to sign up for that, you can go online on our

website or on our app and find a place to sign up for that.

Love to have you there. Great time.

You're going to get a wonderful meal, wonderful experience and

be blessed. Couple other things.

We have some mission trips coming up fairly quickly and one

of them is going to Uganda in in March, end of March and we could

stand one or two more people maybe if you have your passport

already. They're having information

meeting today at 4:00. And so surprise everybody and be

the person who showed up. Nobody was going to be, nobody

knew you were going to be there. Be great.

Then there's another one to the Middle East in April.

Pastor Gene Davis is leading that.

We need a couple more people for that one.

Still got a team. It's still going.

There's no danger of it not happening.

It's just we could add a couple more folks to that, just

probably about two to that. So think about that.

Listen, for those of you who are coming to the East Coast Men's

Bible Conference, that would be men.

We have men coming from about 9 states, probably more than that

this year, all up and down the Eastern Seacoast.

If you're new to Englewood, this is a phenomenon.

This room will be packed with men from all over the eastern

part of the United States. What I would love to see is for

the majority of those men to be from this area.

Now, I'd love for everybody come from out of town.

You're all welcome. Come on, come on and join us.

We'd love to have you. But I'd love to see you inviting

your friends, signing up and being here so that we can follow

up as a local church, get them involved, sharing the gospel

with them. So look forward to that.

So bring your bring them in. You see information about that,

you can sign up for it. Well, I want to talk this

morning in Nehemiah chapter 6 and seven as we continue in this

Nehemiah 6 · chapter mention

book, the the Message title has to do a struggle because

conflict can occur whenever God's people seek his

restoration. It's it's often that that's

going to happen. Now, those of you who are Duke

fans, some of you have experienced conflict in the last

24 hours. So both of you, I feel sorry for

you. The rest of the rest of you I

think are cheering, probably because I've heard that the

majority of you are not Duke fans, but that may not be true.

You can talk to me later. That's

[email protected]. I have a nine point sermon.

If you notice the back of your worship guide or you're looking

at the notes. I've missed you so much.

I feel like I just need to share everything with you so they

don't actually be OK. Listen, conflict is a serious

thing. This is not just going to be

about the church. It's about you, your life, your

family. At least seven times in the book

of Nehemiah, the enemy tries to stop Nehemiah from fulfilling

what God wanted him and the people to do.

It was a a common theme throughout these first chapters

of this book. And so if we say let us arise

and build, Satan says let us arise and tear down.

And that's just a common way the enemy works.

And so the schemes that Satan used against the folks in

Nehemiah's day are the same schemes that he will use against

you and your family and against our church.

And so we need to be aware of them.

So we're going to study a few of those, and we're also going to

study some strategies to help us combat those.

And so even though he's going to work, we can still find success

through the struggle. So Nehemiah chapter 6 beginning

Nehemiah 6 · chapter mention

in verse one. Now when Sambalad and Tobiah and

Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had

built the wall and that there was number breach left in it,

although up to that time I had not set up the doors and the

gates, Sambalad and Geshem sent to me saying come and let us

meet together at at Hakafarim in the plain of Ono.

But they intended to do me harm. And I sent messengers to them

saying I'm doing a great work and I cannot come down.

Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?

And they sent to me four times in this way.

And I answered them in the same manner.

The first scheme that we're going to see Satan use against

us, whether it's our church or whether it's you as an

individual or whether you and your family, is the scheme of

deceit and distraction. This is a common weapon he uses.

The walls were prepared, but the doors hadn't been hung on the

gates yet. So the enemy's getting even more

and more desperate. Time's getting close.

It's getting close. We got to even act stronger.

So the closer we are to fulfilling what God wants us to

do in our lives, whether that's if that's an individual or us as

a church, the more desperate, more intensely, the enemy's

going to attack. So we need to expect it in our

current blessing, the way God's blessing Inglewood right now.

Listen, I, I, I've heard of three people, I think you're

going to get baptized next Sunday.

And I had somebody after the first service come and talk to

me about that too. So we, we've got, I don't know

about seven or eight people lined up just in the next few

weeks who need to be who, who want to be baptized, who want to

testify of trusting in Christ and living for him.

God's blessing, God's working, God's growing.

And so we need to be aware of that.

And because of that, we also need to expect the enemy to

work. And he does, and he is.

So these enemies said they wanted a meeting with Nehemiah

to discuss some things. Let's sit down and talk about

this. It sounds kind of reasonable.

Stop doing what you're doing up there and come down here where

we are. Stop.

Stop that and come down here with us on the plane of oh, no,

that's a great word for it. Because that was a response you

ought to give. Oh, no, Because stopping the

work of God and sitting around the table of the enemy is a

dangerous thing. It's a dangerous thing.

As one author wrote, you don't have to attend every argument

you're invited to. You just don't.

And yet some people thrive in it, I feel like.

But the truth was, here's the truth of the story.

Stop so we can distract you and frankly, so we can destroy you.

We want to kill you. Quit focusing on what God wants

or has called you to do and waste your time.

Waste your energy on us down here, on our level.

Now, can't you have the world saying that That's what the

world says to us. Quit messing with that stuff.

Come down here and play with us. Come down here and sit around

the table with us. The enemy is going to whisper

these distracting things to you. So, so chase after, dwell with

anything other than what God wants, anything other than that.

So Nehemiah, of course, recognize, he's walking closely

with God. He recognizes the deceit and he

knew the truth. We're doing God's work.

Why should I compromise and come down there to you on your level?

He knew who these guys were. They were the enemies.

Now we love them. The Bible teaches us we love our

enemies. We seek for our enemies to be

saved. But we're also not naive about

their intentions and their desires.

We're not going to let them to fool us or distract us.

Don't allow anybody to divert you away from the great work God

has called you to do. By what?

By what they are going to falsely define as good or even

urgent or important. Listen, especially in our world

today, but probably always, humanity loves to create its own

truth. And then and then urgently

expect you to react to it. They, they expect you to live by

it. Because I think something's

urgent. Because I think something's

urgent. You got to stop everything

you're doing and you got to react to what I want you to

react to. That's how social media thrives.

It's expecting a reaction, it wants a follower, it wants to

influence. Think about the words that we

use. Sometimes it's good, sometimes

it's not. So they were persistent and so

these enemies posted. No, I I mean sent message after

message to stop God's work and come waste time.

See now Nehemiah, Nehemiah knew better.

So he wouldn't stop. He wouldn't be stopped because

the name and the promise of God was at stake.

This was about a fulfillment of what God wanted, what God had

called. So there's no time to stop.

There's no time to fall into the enemy's deceitful snares.

But if this doesn't work, if he can't get you this way, our

enemy never sleeps. He never relents, He never gives

up. He'll try something else.

Look at verse 5. Verse 5 says in the same way Sam

Ballot for the 5th time sent his servants to me with an open

letter. Don't miss that word open.

It's very important open letter in his hand in it was written as

reported among the nations in Geshem.

It's probably actually pronounced Geshem something like

that. And Geshem also says that you

and the Jews intend to rebel. That is why you're building the

wall. And according to these reports,

you wish to become their king. What?

What a claim. And you've also set a prophets

to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem.

There's a king in Judah. And now the king will hear of

these reports talking about the king of Persia.

So now come and let us take counsel together.

Then I sent to him saying no such things as you say have been

done, for you're inventing them out of your own mind.

For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking their hands will

drop from the work and it will not be done.

But now, O God, strengthen my hands.

So if deceit and distraction don't work, the next thing he's

going to try is slander and gossip.

You ever heard of that slander and gossip man?

He'll pull that out of the quiver when you when you

couldn't, when they couldn't goad him into some kind of

private debate. We'll, we'll, we'll turn the

public on him. We'll try to turn public opinion

against him. They send an unsealed letter

that they fully intended to be read by the people, fully

intended to be read by the other leaders in Jerusalem in order to

intimidate Nehemiah. And so Sambalit spreads rumors

that Nehemiah was actually doing this work to lead the people to

rebel against the Persian king. You're setting yourself up to be

king, Nehemiah. That's what you're really doing.

You're doing this for your glory, not for the glory of God.

And so he hoped others would read it.

He hoped others would read it and spread the rumors.

You can see friends, listen to me, whether it's in your

personal life, your family life, or the church life.

Gossip and slander are like that.

They don't like to be caged. They don't like to be

controlled. They want others to hear.

They want others to believe in them.

They seek to bully. They seek to intimidate, often

motivated by very selfish, selfish fears in the person

sharing them. But their their goal is to cause

fear. And now we have the digital

capacity to spread lies all around the world, to cyber

bully, to create false conspiracies, to try to cancel

people or shame people into things.

So destructive and accurate lies and slander.

But also labeled with this and coupled with this, married to

gossip and slander, are these impure or inaccurate motive

attributions? In other words, I know what

you're really doing. I know what this is really

about. And people have all kinds of

conspiracy theories about inaccurate motive attribution.

It's a curse. This is really why you're doing

what you're doing. I know, I know nobody else

knows, but I know when in fact you don't know anything.

There's no truth in that at all. And you really don't know, but

you're basing your truth on gossip you've heard or you've

read or by forming some unsupported opinion.

Back in the day when I was grading seminary papers in the

old school way, now you do digital comments and send them

digital copies with comments out to the side of the paper.

But in the old days, you actually marked on the papers.

And I was known, and I've shared this with some of you.

You know, some of the I was known as doctor red ink.

I've used an entire brand new red pen on one student's paper

from from beginning to end. And I would write and I had

codes for grading that my students all know.

And one of the codes was you owe it stood for unsupported

opinion. Because in academic writing, you

don't just say whatever you want to say.

You don't just escape state your own unsupported opinion.

You have to footnote, You have to reference some reliable

source from which you've got your information.

You can't just spout off what you think is true.

And so I do You owe. You owe especially in some of

my, you know, preachers are horrible at it.

Every church in the world. No, you don't know that.

You've never talked to every church in the world.

You owe. But sometimes in life I just

want to run around. Sometimes in church life, I just

went around going you owe. You owe because there might just

be more research taking place than you know.

There might just be more well educated conclusions taking

place than you perceive. OS Hawkins, who writes about

Nehemiah, says just watch. If a Christian is all out for

souls and has a heart for God, he most likely will become the

target for other people's tongues.

Or as Doctor Danny Aiken, he'll be with us this next weekend.

He's preaching next Sunday, by the way, too.

As Danny Aiken points out to us, naysayers don't have to be

right. They just have to be loud.

And in our world today, I find this to be true.

And sometimes your kids are exposed to these things, even

online. So don't be surprised when Satan

fabricates lies. If you're determined to fulfill

God's mission, remember this. Satan is the father of lies.

These lies are his children. These are his kids.

These are his offspring. He tends them.

He nurtures them. He wants them to grow.

This is who he is. A pastor friend of mine, Mike

Powers, was preaching through Genesis, and he reminded me that

some people are not seeking to make you better.

They're only seeking to build their own tower to their own

glory, like the people in Genesis building a tower called

Babel who simply sought to quote, make a name for

themselves. So Nehemiah knew how to respond.

He responds the same way consistently throughout the

book. He responds with truth.

He responds with prayer. Lies must be fought with

prayerful communication with the real source of real truth.

So when we speak truth, God can be glorified.

If we don't speak truth, God can't be glorified or he won't

be. So Nehemiah rejected their life.

He refused to waste time with them.

I don't have time for this. And they, you know, Nehemiah,

knew They have no strength over me.

They can't stop me. So Nehemiah wasn't as concerned

about what these men thought about him as what he was about

what God thought about him. He had one consuming passion to

fulfill the mission, to fulfill the calling that God had called

him to. So these enemies were seeking to

cause fear and doubt. But Nehemiah reminds the people,

he reminds the people in verse 9 that God strengthens for all.

They wanted to frighten us, thinking their hands will drop

from the work and it will not be done.

But now, oh God, strengthen my hands.

I believe in and I'm dependent upon what you say, Lord.

Therefore, I don't have to fear what they're saying.

I don't have to fear what others might say.

Inglewood, we must be defined by God's Word, we must be devoted

to prayer, and we must be absolutely dependent upon the

Holy Spirit. Those are our 3DS for living.

So let no one else, let nothing else define truth for you, not

for you, not for your family, not for this church.

So when we're fulfilling God's mission by living out the seven

essentials of discipleship by 100% participation in the core

ministries of our church, you will be far better able.

You'll be far better equipped to see and to sniff out the enemy

schemes. Your spiritual sensitivity and

discernment will be much more mature as you grow in the

maturity of your discipleship. We have to continue that path.

Look at verse 10. Now when I went into the House

of Shamaya, the son of Delia, son of Mehtabal, that's good

enough, who was confined to his home, he said let us meet

together. This is huge.

Let us meet together in the House of God within the temple.

Let us close the doors of the temple, for they're coming to

kill you. They're coming to kill you by

night. But I said, should have such a

man as I run away. And what man such as I could go

into the temple and live. I will not go in.

And I understood and saw that God saw that God had not sent

him, but that he'd pronounced the prophecy against me because

Tobiah and Sambala had hired him for this purpose.

He was hired that I should be afraid and act in this way and

sin and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me.

Scheme #3 very simply is self preservation and sinful choices.

If he can't work with deceit and distraction, if slander and

gossip don't get, what he's going to tempt you to do is to

to save yourself, to preserve yourself, to be safe and to make

bad choices. Never underestimate the length

that he will go. He'll use insiders, He'll use

people in the church, He'll use unregenerate church members.

Listen to what Second Peter wrote in chapter 2.

He said that false prophets also arose among the people.

Such as there will be false teachers among you who will

secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the

master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift

destruction. And many will follow their

sensuality, and because of them, the way of truth will be

blasphemed. So here's this man, supposedly a

prophet, he might even be a priest if his father's actually

the one mentioned in Chronicles. And he and he, he encourages

Nehemiah to come hide in the temple.

He goes, you're defeated, Nehemiah, you can't win.

You got to stop this work. You got to stop right now,

protect yourself, run and hide and retreat rather than

complete. That's going to be a challenge

in all of our lives to give up. Listen, for the last decades of

my life, I know churches and pastors, once on fire for the

Lord, now defeated and choosing to become safe little havens of

tiny groups of non disciple and Christians all across this

country, all across this county, across the state, and around the

world. And if we can't trick or shame

you, Nehemiah, maybe we can weaken you to make really bad

sinful choices. You can hear the snake

whispering, same thing you did to Eve.

Same thing he does to you and to me.

Think of yourself, you can't win.

Be safe. Listen to what Nehemiah says in

verse 11. But I said, should a should such

a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go

into the temple and live. I will not go in.

See, he knew this was a violation of the law.

It's a blatant violation of the Mosaic Law.

There was a provision that the court of the temple could be a

place of sanctuary for people fleeing others, but the law

clearly stated that only the priest could enter the building.

So Nehemiah had no right to go in and close the door.

In fact the the Old Testament would say that non non priests

who went there would die in the word of God.

So hiding in the temple was not where Nehemiah belonged.

Running and hiding is not our our strategy.

This false prophet was not declaring a word from the Lord,

but rather a word from the enemies who hired him.

He was a mercenary, and Nehemiah knew he sought to lead him to

choose sin, and frankly, this fraud would pay for it according

to God's word in the law. In Deuteronomy 18 it says, But

the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I

have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of

other gods, that same prophet shall die.

So don't pretend you're speaking for God when you're not.

Make sure that you're abiding in His word.

We must handle the word of God carefully and rightly.

This midweek, this Wednesday night, we've been doing a series

on engaging the Bible. This week we're going to talk

about how do I actually teach other people what I've learned?

We're going to do workshop style.

We've been talking about how we interpret and how we apply.

Now what do I do? How can I share what I've

gleaning out of God's word? This revelation God's given me

out of his word. How can I share that with other

people? Look at verse 14.

Remember Tobiah and Sabalot, Oh my God, according to these

things that they did, and also the prophetess Noah die and the

rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid.

Comfort, personal comfort is often not worth the price of

sin. It might cost you.

Once again, Nehemiah asked God to remember those who sought to

violate His Word. Satan doesn't want you to deny

yourself. Satan doesn't want you to grow

as a disciple. Satan doesn't want you to

fulfill the mission of God. He doesn't want you to follow

the Seven Essentials of disciple.

He doesn't want you to participate 100% in what we're

doing and what God's leading us to do here.

He wants you to be selfish. He wants you to be weak.

He wants you to be comfortable. In fact, He'll raise others up.

He will to convince you that that's OK, that that's the right

way, because it's normal. It's normal to be that way in

our culture today. It's normal.

He'll raise up others to convince you of that.

Cheap discipleship is very common.

It's normal, but that doesn't make it the right choice.

Easy Christianity. I, I I spent so much time with

thousands of leaders and hundreds of churches all around

this planet. Easy Christianity, easy church,

where all my felt needs are met the way and exactly when I want

them to be. Where all my itches are

scratched to my personal satisfaction.

But with no expectation of sacrifice, no expectation of

submission, no expectation of service.

These are very, very common defeated churches where you,

you, you can be nothing more than an attending spectator

consumer with no real personal or spiritual commitment.

No, no, no investment. These are prevalent.

This is normal. But I pray it.

By now you know that I'm seeking a new normal, a different

normal. In fact, these churches call me

for help. They still do Talk to 1 this

week, call me for help, and I show them the poor decisions of

defeat that they've made to put themselves into positions of

spiritual weakness and complete impotency.

And some of them learn, most don't.

So Nehemiah could not be persuaded to live in such

defeat. I pray that you protect your

families, I protect you protect your children, you protect this

church and and as leaders we have to do that.

And those Scottish pastor once said my my people's greatest

need, my people's greatest need is my personal holiness, my walk

with God. Now some of the most important

words in the entire book of Nehemiah are next verse 15.

So the wall was finished on the 25th day of the month in law, in

52 days, in 52 days. And when all our enemies heard

of it, all the nations around us were afraid and felt great and

felt greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that

this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.

Now I just want you to see what God does when His people focus

and unite to serve. He creates A glorifying

testimony to Himself and He fulfills His mission and and we

see the defensive walls of Jerusalem, which were in ruins

for years, finished in 52 days. Now that's amazing.

It's an incredible, but that's exactly the business of our God,

the amazing and the incredible. That's what he does with a

people who are focused. Never underestimate what he can

do with the church that cares, with the church that's seeking

to serve him. Never underestimate that in this

world of apathy, in this world of rebellion, God is looking for

a people through which to do the next new amazing and miraculous

thing. And his enemies were humbled.

It's interesting, isn't it? Turns the tables on them.

God does. They were trying to make

Nehemiah afraid. We're going to try to make you

all fear. We're going to make you all too

afraid to do the work. Instead, they're afraid because

they knew that God was at work. Just turn the tables on the

enemy and see what happens. But to the bitter end, He never

sleeps, He never relents, He never gives up.

Look at verse 17. Moreover, in those days the

nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah and Tobiah's

letters came to them and for many and Judah were bound by

oath to him because he was the son-in-law of Shekinah, the son

of Arah and his son Jeho. Jehoanan had taken the daughter

of Mushulam, the son of Berekaya as his wife.

Also they spoke of his good deeds in my presence and

reported my words to him. Tobias sent letters to make me

afraid. So scheme #4 unhealthy

relationships and influences. This is important for your

families. Tobiah had business dealings

with and or was related to people inside of Jerusalem, OK,

even some of the priests, the Hebrew wording suggests he had a

business agreement with them. And so the, the, the tribe of

Judah, the people of Judah had been telling the enemy all along

everything that was going on. These insiders were like spies.

And, and, and Nehemiah was even told how good Tobiah was.

And Tobiah is one from the very beginning, seeking to sabotage

the very work that God had called him to do.

A little fox will tear down that wall.

What do these Jews think they're doing?

And he was being told how great this guy was.

I mean, how disappointing that must have been to Nehemiah.

Your own people choosing to be close to the enemy.

The tribe of Judah, the lineage of Jesus was misguided by

unhealthy relationships and influences.

And remember, earlier in the book, these were the ones that

said the work was too hard. We can't do this for the enemies

around us. So we need to be very careful.

You need to be careful with your children.

You need to be careful with your families.

We need to be careful as a church with whom we have our

closest alignment. With whom do you align yourself?

Check. Check your loyalties.

Check your allegiances. With whom are your or your

children's closest relationships, and for who?

And for what are they living? How does God lead those

relationships right? Do they lead you closer to

fulfilling God's purpose for your life?

What is your level of dependency upon those relationships?

Because we're destined for failure if we're only dependent

upon man. I don't know if you know this or

not. We're all sinners.

If you're a Sinner, raise your hand now.

If you didn't raise your hand, you just lied and you just

sinned. So we're all sinners and we will

fail one another. I promise you, you will.

We will do things we don't like to one another.

We will say things we don't agree with.

I wish you hadn't done it that way.

All these things are good because we're sinners and we're

imperfect. This is going to happen.

So we've got to recognize that what binds us together is not

us. What binds us together is Jesus

Christ and the Spirit. We need to be driven by a

dependency upon Him. So Nehemiah then begins to

strategize for their next best steps.

So listen and learn from these strategies for yourself, for

your family, for the church. So look at verse 1 of Chapter 7.

Now when the wall had been built and I'd set up the doors and the

gatekeepers, the singers and the Levites have been appointed, I

gave my brother Hanani probably and Hananiah, the governor of

the castle charge over Jerusalem.

For he he was a more faithful and God fearing man than many

Strategy number one. Properly positioned leaders are

absolutely vital for your family and for the church.

Nehemiah knew they needed focused leadership for the

future. There was a reason they rebuilt

these walls. Don't miss this.

They were a testimony to God's faithfulness.

I promised you with prophets ahead of time, I'm going to

bring you back from the exile and, and this is being

fulfilled. You're going to be able to

worship me again in Jerusalem. So there's a fulfillment here

and there's a fulfillment of his promise.

But building the walls was not the ultimate goal.

Building the walls was just the beginning.

That's not what they're ultimately they had to actually

occupy the city and live and worship Yahweh to show the world

who he was, to be a light to the Gentiles.

So Nehemiah appointed godly men to oversee city life.

We have to develop. We have to empower the right

people in the right positions to help us live for him.

That's true in your family. That's true at the church.

Leadership development, leadership alignment have to be

prioritized. So I'm begging you, pray for

those who are in authority here. Pray for those who are in

service. Pray for those who lead

ministries here and thank them for what they do.

Thank the people right now who are working in these hallways

with children and preschoolers, teaching them, helping them,

discipling them so that you could be here in worship.

Verse 3 And I said to them, let not the gates of Jerusalem be

opened until the sun is hot, and while they are still standing

guard, let them shut and bar the doors.

Appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, some

at their guard posts and some in front of their own homes.

Strategy #2 We have to protect. We have to guard our families.

Our families must be guarded. Listen, Nehemiah appointed

guards over the most vulnerable places.

What good are the walls, What good are the gates if nobody's

watching them? So these guarded passageways and

even in front of their own homes, closely monitored, Who

could come in? Who was going out, right?

It's, it's Nehemiah's neighborhood watch.

And we need spiritual neighborhood watch in our homes.

We need it in our church to protect our most vulnerable past

and our most vulnerable people. How am I protecting my home?

One of the great strengths of Inglewood Baptist Church,

whether you believe this or not, those listening online, those

who are checking us out as guests, listen.

One of the greatest strengths of Inglewood's Inglewood Baptist

Church is the fact that this is a multi generational church.

It's an incredible strength, the fact that you have mature older

believers from which you can learn, you have young families

with children that you can see the next generation coming up.

And together we formed a true family, just like a family would

be multi generational family seeking to disciple, seeking to

grow. So our families deserve solid

theology. Our families deserve solid

discipleship. They also demand our care.

They also demand our protection. And so we have multiple

generations here to equip, multiple generations to raise up

for the future and to send out. But it's not enough to build for

God's future if we don't seek to protect it.

And so faithful men and women at the gates and on the walls,

guarding their families, guarding their homes, guarding

the flock, working together in community to encourage and

protect against the weak, discipleship or preventing the

enemy from sneaking in. Nehemiah even commanded that the

gates had strict rules about when the gates could be open or

closed. They can only be open during the

daytime, only in the light. The darkness was too dangerous.

It's when we sleep in the darkness that the enemy will

creep in. Look at verse 4.

The city was wide and large, but the people within it were few,

and no houses had been rebuilt. Then my God put into my heart to

assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be

enrolled by genealogy. And I found the book of the

genealogy of those who came up at the 1st, and I found written

in it. These were the people of the

province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried into exile.

They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his town.

Strategy #3 Our flock demand identification.

Here's what I mean. There was plenty of room, but

there weren't enough people. They needed more people to

occupy the city. So who is going to be allowed to

live in Jerusalem? Who is going to be allowed

inside the city? All those who occupied the land,

even the enemies who were around them, People who'd been there

forever, who weren't even Jewish in their background, who was

going to be in? So Nehemiah had to identify the

flock with proper identification.

He had identified the proper citizenship who belongs to the

congregation and who are members of it and but who are members of

the surrounding communities and not yet members of the

congregation. We're still in the same work.

In December, we tried to make over 1000 contacts of inactive

church members and guests who had visited with us over the

last two years through our Connect Group ministries through

REACH, and we were able to to reach many of them.

Some of you may be here now. Thank you for coming.

And so this isn't just some crazy idea.

God was behind it. Then verse 5 says, then God put

into my heart to do this. When spirit filled leaders seek

God, he's going to guide them to biblically identify the people

ready for his future. So Nehemiah clarified the

population with a list of exiles who had returned years prior.

This same list can be found in Ezra chapter 2 and they're

Ezra 2 · chapter mention

listed by bloodline. We need to keep careful track of

who our family is. We have to define membership.

We have to define church member accountability.

We have to define church member care.

These things matter. We must guard a covenant.

Church membership made-up of the truly saved people of God born

into his bloodline. See, I'm thankful that my

salvation is not based on some earthly genealogy.

Ewart, Ewart, Ewart doesn't mean a whole lot.

I'm dependent on being born again into the bloodline of the

King. The name Jesus means everything.

And that's the only reason I'm allowed to officially belong.

The only reason the new members that were presented today, thank

you so much for joining us. They all trust in Jesus Christ.

They've all been born again into the bloodline.

Now look at verse 66. I know I skipped.

We don't have time for all the names, but listen to this.

The whole assembly together was 42,360.

Besides, they're male and female servants, of whom there were

7337, and they had 245 singers, male and female.

Now, why in the world do I care about that?

I just want you to hear a simple message.

The message is simply this. It's not simply to count the

people. That's not what we're trying to

necessarily do here. The message is, is that every

single person counts. We don't want anybody to drift.

We don't want anybody to be inactive.

We want everybody to be an official member.

And so that way we can have them in a covenant relationship, we

can help them grow and they can help serve here.

So it's important to fully appreciate who is already here

and those who still need to come.

There's still so many on the way that aren't here yet.

Now if you're if you're visiting, if you're a guest or

you're listening online, I want you to speak with us about

joining. A young man came up to me after

the first service saying I want to be baptized and let's

encourage members who aren't here to get back here.

It's time. Come on back.

Now. Look at verse 61.

The following were those who came up from Telmala, Tell,

Harsha, Cherub, Adan, and Imr, but they could not prove their

father's houses, nor their descent whom or whether they

belong to Israel. Skip to verse 64 These sought

their registration among those enrolled in the genealogies, but

it was not found there. So they were excluded from the

priesthood as unclean. The governor told them that they

were not to partake of the most holy food until a priest with

Urim and Thummim should arise. So there were some who couldn't

trace their lineage back there, right?

And so they couldn't serve in the temple in the same way until

God made a decision about them. And in the same way, there are

understood expectations for those people who are officially

church members at Inglewood. We very much welcome all of you

guests every week. We hope you come and you always

be with us. But only those born into the

family through salvation in Christ and and who have

testified through biblical baptism can be official members,

and only official members can serve in certain places in the

church. It has to be that way.

Nehemiah also accounts for the resources.

Look at verse 68. Their horses were 736, their

mules 245, they're camels 435 and they're donkeys. 6720

somebody at a corner on the donkey market.

Now. Now some of the heads of Fathers

houses gave to the work. The governor gave to the

treasury 1000 derricks of gold of 50 basins, 30 priests

garments and 500 minutes of silver.

And some of the heads of Fathers houses gave into the treasury of

the work 20,000 derricks of gold and 2200 minutes of silver.

And what the rest of the people gave was 20,000 derricks of

gold. 2000 Minas of silver and 67 priest garments.

Now I want you to see strategy #4 you may not like it, but it's

important. Stewardship requires

recognition. Listen, this isn't just about

money. It's not just about giving

things, it's about life. The general economic status of

these people could be seen in the number of their animals.

That's why that number becomes important.

Some of them are in a very fragile, meager state, but God

was still blessing them, and they still graciously supported

the worship that needed to take place, the temple work.

After all that hard work, they wanted this new future to

succeed. So they gave to it, they

supported it, and they were expected to give a portion of

what God had entrusted them with as part of their worship in a

moment. We're going to pass offering

place like we're doing every week.

That's not just so we can get your money.

In fact, if you're a visitor here, don't you give a dime.

Put your Next steps card in there.

Put your prayer requests in there.

Everybody can put their prayer requests in there so we can pray

for you. But when we pass that offering

plate as an act of worship, it's an act of recognition.

Nothing's changed. Stewardship has always been a

part of our spiritual health and discipleship.

And it's born from this understanding that everything

belongs to God. Listen for a minute.

The question is not how much of my money I should give back to

God. It's how much of God's money I

should keep for myself. It all belongs to him.

How much of God's money am I allowed to keep and still be

useful to him? But I would say the same thing

about your time, about your energy, about your skills, about

your experience, about your focus.

All of these pieces are part of our stewardship.

And I just know this. He will care for me far better

out of what remains than what I might retain if I don't

faithfully give out of a joyful heart of worship and

Thanksgiving. So watch these grateful people

after such a long, hard journey, graciously give to their future.

Invest in it now. Two more verses will close.

Look back at verse 1 of Chapter 7.

Now when the wall had been built, I had set up the doors,

and the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had

been appointed. Now you go all the way to verse

73. So the priests, the Levites, the

gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple

servants, and all Israel lived in their towns, and when the 7th

month had come, the people of Israel were in their towns.

The last little strategy is God's purpose can bring success.

Through several attempts. They tried to stop Nehemiah, try

to pull him off the wall. You got to stop that Nehemiah,

you can't do this. They tried to stop the people,

discourage them, even lie about him, but they never stopped.

And now the people were in their proper places.

And my friends, revival is just around the corner for them.

You do not want to miss next week.

It's it's the climax of the entire book to where revival

begins to break out next week. Could happen in your life, could

happen in your family's life, could happen in our church.

I'm praying for next week in a big way.

A quote attributed to Sir Sir Francis Drake can't say it, but

I can read it. Sir Francis Drake in 1577 goes

like this. Not sure he really said it, but

we'll say he did. Disturb us, Lord, when we are

too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true,

because we have dreamed too little, when we arrived safely,

because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, with when, with the abundance of things we

possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life.

Having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of

eternity, and in our efforts to build a new earth we have

allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly to venture on wider seas

where storms will show their mass will show your mastery.

We're losing sight of land. We shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back the horizons of our hope and to push

into the future. And strength, courage, hope and

love. Remain diligent, Inglewood, with

your families as a church. It's time to rise and finish

building. They're just a few gaps to fill

in now. We're getting closer, but don't

look back. Don't look back.

You're not going that way. Quit looking back there.

Look this way because God has a plan.

And like Nehemiah, remain focused.

Stack one rock at a time and then find another rock and let's

continue to build. The work has to continue.

There's too much at stake. The lost world's at stake.

This lost city is at stake. So we need to seek the glory of

God in our lives, in the lives of our families, and join Him in

redeeming the nation's. SO as we close, all I can say is

I'm sorry, Satan. I believe Inglewood Baptist

Church will just keep moving forward in worship and the work

of our King Jesus. You lose Father.

Thank you to what you have called us to.

It's not a small thing. We all have life, Father.

It's all we get. We're all doing it for the first

time. And so, Father, we'll make

mistakes along the way. We pray you'll forgive us.

But Father, you have grand purposes for our lives.

For some here at Salvation this morning, right now, I pray your

Spirit would just move in their hearts to recognize that the

testimony of baptism are new members or the sermon or just

your word that they need you for others.

The recognition I need to be baptized.

I need to share this testimony to the world or I need to

officially join the church I've been visiting long enough.

I need to join. And so, Father, I pray, Lord,

that whatever you're leading people to do this morning, that

will simply respond, Father, I pray that they'll come forward,

that they'll come and, and kneel at these steps in prayer.

They'll take a pastor by the hand or they'll go to our next

steps room and talk to a counselor in a private, discreet

conversation where they'll pray together and just discuss what

you're laying on their hearts. So Father, there's all kinds of

avenues, even the Next steps desk in the lobby.

So Father, there's no excuse. It's just time for surrender.

So, Father, I pray that we'll come and we'll we'll respond to

your calling in Christ's name. Amen.

Well, let's stand together. The worship team's going to lead

us. Some of the pastors will be

here. Our next steps room is open

there. There's another one out in the

lobby. And so you come, and you share

with us what God's laying on your heart.

Thank you so much for listening today, and I also hope that

you'll go to [email protected]

as well as our app and find many other resources that will bless

you and your families. Thank you once again.