Finishing Faithfully | Jason Gore

Yeah. I'm telling you, if you have never had the privilege,

the opportunity to go and check out the Watoto Children Choir,

do everything that you can do to be at the Apex campus, uh,

the afternoon of March night. I mean, uh, I'm telling you, uh, a couple of our,

our campus, uh, family folk, uh, Dawn Stride,

our Apex Campus Pastor Doug Stride, used to be on staff there.

We have an incredible partnership with them.

And you want to talk about a group of people that love God,

follow Jesus and share hope with the world around them. I mean,

these are incredible partners. Do everything that you can do to check it out.

Hey, listen, we're gonna jump into a message this week.

We are wrapping up a six week study, uh,

on the book of Nehemiah that we're calling a fresh start.

We know a lot of us beginning of the year, we're looking for a fresh start,

looking for some new beginnings, uh, as a church family.

God's calling us in this new direction he's calling us to,

to chase after a fresh start as a church community together. And so we thought,

Hey, let's spend some time walking through the book in e Miah,

see how this can apply to our lives. James Clear, he's an author.

He wrote a book called Atomic Habits. And, uh, I talk about the book a lot,

but it,

he has an illustration in this book where he talks about at the beginning of a

hundred meter race,

all of the runners show up on the starting line and they all have the same goal.

What's the goal to win the race? Right? And second question,

does every runner that lines up on that starting line with that goal?

Does every runner win the race? No. Everybody does it. And so he points out,

it's not the goal that makes the difference,

it's actually the steps that you take leading up to that. So like,

how do you train? How do you eat? How are you sleeping?

Are you able to finish the race strong?

And so what we're gonna see is that while God does offer us a fresh start in our

lives, um,

the starting line isn't the destination like finishing strong is the

destination,

the steps that we take along the way that's gonna dictate how we finish.

And so what we're gonna see is when God gives us a fresh start,

what he desires from us is a faithful finish.

And so how do we chase after that in our lives?

That's what we're gonna be looking at in our time together this week. Uh,

so if you would turn in your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter six.

We're gonna pick up there in verse one. Somehow in our planning, uh,

we've covered one chapter a week through Nehemiah weeks one through five.

And now I am stuck covering chapter six through 13 in one setting. So, uh,

buckle up. We're gonna have a great time, uh,

just to kinda catch you up to speed. Uh, in case you've not been with us, uh,

in Nehemiah, what you have is you have God's people,

the Israelites who were in Jerusalem, who were in Israel,

they're overthrown by the Babylonians, they're exiled out,

they're held captive in Babylon.

And then the Persian empire overthrows the Babylonian empire.

They tell the Israelites, you can go back to your homeland if you want to.

Some go. A lot don't. And then at some point, some 70 years later,

this Israelite by the name of Nehemiah who stayed behind,

he kind of works his way up in influence and in political power.

And he's serving as the cup bearer to the king of Persia, king Art de Xerxes.

And then his brother, Hanani, who was in Jerusalem,

he comes back to him to give him a report on what's going on in Jerusalem.

And he says, listen, it's not good.

Like I know our people have been there for a long time,

but the city's still in ruins, uh,

the wall around the city for protection that's broken down. And our people,

Nehemiah, they're, they're in shame. And so Nehemiah,

like he has this conviction before God, like, I've gotta do something.

I've gotta be able to help my people get a fresh start.

And so he goes before King Art Xerxes and he says, if it pleases the king,

I would love for you to,

to grant me permission to actually go back to Jerusalem and to help them rebuild

the wall. And so we've just been following along with them.

Each week we're seeing things like,

what does it mean to go to God in humble prayer?

Like to recognize maybe our own actions have led to the brokenness that we're

experiencing around us in our lives.

What does it mean to have the faith to trust that God is actually bigger than

the brokenness that we see in our lives?

What does it mean to to have the faith that man's calling on our lives is

greater than man's rumblings? What does it look like to go through opposition?

Uh, and last week we saw when Dwayne walks us through, uh, and then Doug,

if you were at the Apex campus, walked us through chapter five,

we saw that one of the greatest challenges to the movement of God can sometimes

be the people of God. Like sometimes we just get in our own way.

This week we're gonna pick up in chapter six and look at how we can finish

faithfully. So chapter six, Nehemiah verse one, it says,

when sandal and tobiah and ham,

the Arab and the rest of the enemies heard that I had built the wall and that

there was no breach left in it, although up to that time,

I had not set the doors in the gate. So they've almost got this thing built.

They're almost finished sandal and gsem sent to me. So these are the enemies,

these are the bad guys. They sent to 'em saying,

come and let us meet together at Haem and the plane of Ono.

But they intended to do me harm.

And I sent a messenger to them saying,

I am doing a great work and cannot come down. Why should I stop?

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

And so the first thing I want us to see, like to finish faithfully before God,

we gotta stay focused on the work of God. And you see ne amiah right now,

like he has this uncompromising focus on the work that God's called him to.

And I know we've all been there in life.

We're doing the thing that we think God's called us to.

And then we've got these voices and we've got these distractions. You're like,

what in the world is going on around me? And I want you to remember this line.

Like if you've got folks coming to you,

distracting you from the work of what God's calling you to remember this line,

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

And I'll just tell you like in my life, like personally,

there have been times over the last few years in my life where there have been

people that have come to me and I'm, and I'm just,

you just know in the back of your head that this is from the enemy.

Like this is a distraction from the enemy. Now,

I'm not saying carry yourself with arrogance and pride and don't have people

that are close to you that you can listen to and that you can trust.

But you know, when you're in that place, you're like,

this is blatantly against what I believe God's calling me to.

We have to have the confidence to not get caught up in that emotional distress

and say, no, no, no, I'm doing a great work. I can't come down. No justifying,

no explaining, no defending, stay focused on the work that God has for you.

You get to verse four.

And they sent to me four times in this way and I answered them in the same

manner. And in the same way,

Sam ballot for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his

hand. And in it was written, it's reported among the nations.

And Ham also says it that you and the Jews intend to rebel.

That's why you're building the wall. And according to these reports,

you wish to become their king.

And you've also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you,

concerning you in Jerusalem, there is a king in Judah.

And now the king will hear of these reports.

So come now and let us take counsel together.

Every bit of this is lies and conspiracy, right?

And you've been in these places in your life, and if you're not careful,

you will get caught up in this wash.

Like we can use so much emotional energy getting caught up in what's going on

around us. Look, people write narratives.

People are gonna write narratives about you.

Sometimes it is with malicious intent. Sometimes it's not.

Like sometimes people just don't understand the full truth.

And we just have this tendency as humans to actually go to the worst case

scenario and make assumptions. And so you're gonna hear things.

It does not mean that it's worth giving your emotional energy to.

You've gotta stay focused on the work that God's called you to.

We gotta keep our hand to the plow. You get to verse eight, it says,

then I sent to him,

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.

Look at what he says. But now, oh God, strengthen my hands.

What does Nehemiah do to maintain this uncompromising focus?

The same thing he's done in chapters one through five. He goes to God in prayer.

And we're gonna find ourselves in these places where we're gonna hear voices,

we're gonna have distractions. And we're gonna wonder, man,

am I supposed to continue down this path that I believe God's calling me into?

And I don't know what that could be. I mean,

you could just be in the workplace and you have a supervisor.

You don't feel like's giving you credit for what you're supposed to be doing.

You could have a coworker jabbing you in the workplace. Look,

you're not responsible for their behavior.

You're responsible for carrying yourself the way that God's called you to carry

yourself. We gotta learn this. You've seen it throughout the story.

We gotta pray the prayer. God strengthened my hands,

strengthened my mind to finish faithfully.

We gotta stay focused on the work that God calls us into.

We're gonna jump to verse 15. You get to verse 15, chapter six,

the wall's complete. So this whole story, like we've,

we start out the wall's down, Nehemiah's convicted,

I gotta go help build this wall. We gotta provide protection, uh,

for God's people. You get to verse 15, and it says,

so the wall was finished on the 25th day of the month of Allah in

52 days, less than two months. Um,

I pointed this out a couple times throughout the series. Um,

God's people there have been a, a portion,

a remnant of God's people back in Jerusalem for 70 years.

And the wall hasn't been built, but this man, they said, no, no, no,

I'm gonna go to God in prayer.

I'm gonna trust that he's bigger than the brokenness.

And we're gonna see what it is that God can do.

This is probably a good time to remember that Nehemiah spent more time in prayer

before he went to the king than it actually took to actually get the wall built.

And I wonder sometimes in our lives when we face something that seems

insurmountable, do we spend more time in worry and in working

than we do in worship and prayer? I mean,

if we really believe what this says,

if we really believe the stories that are in scripture,

like we would stop what we're doing and we would stop the panic and we would go

to God in prayer. And we,

we've gotta do business with this like in our own lives.

We need to be honest with ourselves.

With whatever circumstances or situations that you find yourself in right now,

are you spending the appropriate amount of time before your God in prayer?

And I don't ask that as like a belittling comment.

I i just ask it because from what I see in God's word, like until we get there,

it ain't gonna happen. And it's not that God can't do it,

but it's that God wants to get us to a place to where we realize we depend on

him. We need his strength. Are we going to God in prayer? You get to verse 16,

and I can kind of stop right here and kind of move off from this focusing on the

work of God. But um, look what happens here. It says, and when they heard this,

all of our enemies heard it,

all the nations around us when they heard the wall was built,

all the nations around us heard and were afraid and felt greatly on their own

esteem,

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

Um, something we gotta recognize here,

when God's people do God's work God's way,

God gets the glory. And we gotta be aware that like oftentimes,

like there's work that that's in front of us.

God's called us to something that looks improbable, but by, by a watching world.

But man, if we can stay focused God's way, if we can do things God's way,

people are gonna see that God's gonna get the glory. And so that happens.

The wall gets built and you think at this point, okay, the wall's built,

that's what Nehemiah went to go do. The enemies are gonna run,

everything's gonna get easy, right? Verse 17. Moreover, in those days,

the nobles of Judah sent letters to Tobi and Tobias's letters came to them.

You jumped to the end here in verse 19 and it says,

and Tobias sent letters to make me afraid.

And I read that because I want to give you a word of encouragement.

If you're giving yourself to the plans and to the purposes of God,

there's not going to be an end to the plans and schemes and attacks of

our enemy. It's just a very real thing. Like we have an enemy.

He wants to steal, kill, destroy, he wants to devour.

And so he's not until Jesus comes back like, we're not finished with this.

And so oftentimes we've gotta recognize like the finish line in our faith is

really just a new starting line.

Like it's going to require this uncompromising focus on the work of God.

But how do we stay focused when we know like it's just gonna be one thing after

another? The second thing we've gotta take into account, uh,

to finish faithfully,

is to anchor our minds into God's word on us to jump to chapter

eight and all the people. So now the Israelites,

the walls built right, all the Israelites,

they come together inside the city of Jerusalem. It says,

all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Watergate.

And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses that the

Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra, who's the chief priest, Ezra the priest,

brought the law before the assembly,

both men and women in all who can understand what they heard on the first day of

the seventh month, seventh month. Small detail here.

There's probably about three generations of Israelites here who have actually

never heard God's word preached out loud, alright? It's probably been, uh,

somewhere like 140 years. So they've never heard it.

So these are people that they have no idea their identity,

they have no idea God's plans and purposes for them. Uh,

they have no idea what it is that God has done for them, uh,

for thousands of years leading up into this point.

And so you get to verse three and it says,

and he read from it facing the square before the Watergate,

from early in the morning until midday. So for hours,

he's reading from the word of God and the presence of the men and the women and

those who could understand.

And the ears of all of the people were attentive to the book of the law.

So you guys think sometimes like a 30 minute sermon is a long time.

Like Ezra opens up and for hours he's just reading and people are sitting there

and listening. You get to verse five, it says,

and Ezra opened the book and decided of the people for he was above all the

people as he opened it. And they stood verse six,

and Ezra blessed the Lord the great God, and all the people answered, amen.

Amen. Lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord,

worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

When's the last time that we just opened God's word?

And it just drove us to a place of worship?

We get to verse nine. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra,

the priest and the scribe and the Levites who taught the people,

said to all the people this day is holy for the Lord this day is holy to the

Lord your God.

Do not mourn or weep for the people wept as they heard the words

of the law. Why in the world were they weeping?

They're weeping because as a people,

like they've been living in shame with no identity. And they're,

when you read God's word,

like it's really talking about the Old Testament pre Nehemiah.

But what you see is that God created them like God created man and woman

and had a plan and a purpose for their life.

You see God's faithfulness to his people to fulfill his covenant regardless of

their rebellion against him.

And so they're seeing this and they're learning like, wait a minute,

we are the people that God wrote about. We are the people that God adores.

We're we're the people that God wants to bless in our lives.

That's God's faithfulness that God us to this point. Uh,

when I was 30 years old, uh,

my mom called me and my younger brother was actually at a church plant

out of hope at this time and called us into,

they were at our Sunday morning church service. And so in between services,

she calls us into my office and she says, Hey,

I want to need to talk to you guys about something.

When I was in high school, um,

I had a child and my mom didn't want anybody.

Her mom, my grandma didn't want anybody to know.

And so she sent her off to a pregnancy camp for unwed mothers and told

her, you're going to give the baby up for adoption. And she said, that night,

um, the night that I delivered, um, my first son, uh, the nurses were in there.

I delivered the baby, they took him away. I was never to see him,

never to be able to hold him. I heard him crying that night. She said,

I got up and I ran in the room and I picked him up,

and then a nurse found out that I was in there.

And so she ran in there and took him out of my arms.

And I've never talking to him again.

I've never talked to him again or never seen him again. Um, and she said,

until about two months ago, I got a letter in the mail.

And so he had tracked down our family and she said,

so I want you to know I met with him, I met his wife, I met his kids,

and I'd like for you to meet him as well. And we met. And um,

it's like in so many ways we're exactly alike. Um, one of the,

pretty much the only difference is he's way better at shooting guns than I am

. Um, but I'm way better at hand to hand combat.

So it kind of bounces out. We're both devilishly handsome and, and bald.

Uh,

but like what happened in that moment was like I realized there was a part of my

identity.

He realized there's a part of his identity that he had never experienced before.

My mom had never experienced before.

But when you come to places like that in your life, you're like, oh my gosh,

there's a part of me I never knew that existed.

And so what they're learning is how God's been faithful to them despite their

sin. Uh, they're realizing what they've been rescued from.

They're learning how God created them to live.

They're being convicted of their sin. They're like,

for years we've lived in a way that we did not know that we were supposed to

live. And, and they're moved to repentance.

And what you start to see when they get into God's word,

what we realize when we read in this story is in the eyes of God.

This was not just about a physical renewal of a wall,

but it was about a spiritual renewal for God's people.

Like they're rediscovering their identity.

And I just wonder how many of us are at a place in our lives, we're like, man,

you know what we need to do?

We need to discover or rediscover our identity before God.

You get to chapter nine and,

and one of the most beautiful worship services that you'd ever see just breaks

out amongst the people, it says in verse one. Now,

on the 24th day of this month,

the people of Israel were assembled in fasting and in sat cloth and with earth

on their heads, they put dirt on their heads. Like that's just a symbol,

essentially mourning. They're praying, they're fasting,

they're mourning over their sin. Verse two.

And the Israelites separated themselves from all the foreigners,

and they stood and they confessed to their sins and the iniquities of their

fathers. And verse three,

and they stood up in their place and they read from the book of the law of the

Lord their God for a quarter of the day. And for another quarter of the day,

they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God.

When you spend time in the word of God,

it transforms your heart and mind. Like if,

if we're gonna finish faithfully the start that God has given to us,

we've gotta anchor ourselves in the word of God and it moves on.

And what happens at this point is the priests come up and they start praying

these prayers of thanksgiving really for what it is that they've read, um,

through scripture. And it doesn't really say it this way,

but if you really pay attention to the text, you can see that they're like,

they're worshiping God as creator. Like this is what we celebrated in Genesis.

They're worshiping God for the covenant that he made with Abraham and how he was

faithful to Abraham to create a nation that they were a part of.

They worship God for being with them and calling them out of slavery in Egypt.

And they get to the Red Sea and God parted the Red Sea for them to move through.

They celebrate about how, how,

how God's provision for them in the wilderness came through manna and through

water and through guidance, they celebrated, uh,

God's faithfulness to actually deliver them to the promised land in Israel

initially. And then they talk, they, they pray and recognize God's repeated,

uh, display of mercy in their lives despite their act of rebellion.

And they acknowledge actually over and over again like,

this is what we have done, God, we we have, we have turned our back on you.

And it's put us in captivity, whether physical or spiritual.

We've turned to you. You've heard our cry. You've came and rescued,

and then we've turned our back on you again,

and then we've cried out to you and you've come to us and you've rescued us over

and over and over again. But listen, this is why we have to get into God's word.

Because we have to be reminded that this is the God that we serve.

This is our God that created us. Like when we, when we get into God's word,

it transforms us into the image of Jesus Christ

because we see the goodness of our God, we're moved by his faithfulness.

And that moves us to faithfulness ourselves like we see when we look at

scripture. No, no, no. When we drop the ball, when we fall short,

when we mess things up in our lives,

we know that we have a loving God who's there, who's ready to forgive,

to finish faithfully. We've gotta be anchored in God's Word.

Chapter nine.

It essentially ends with them being so moved that they start their own covenant

with God. They actually write out their own covenant with God. See,

when you're a part of the family of God,

it just says it moves you to repentance. Like it moves you to act,

it moves you to change some things.

And so I'm gonna walk through these next few chapters very, very quickly. Uh,

chapter 10, it's really a picture of spiritual renewal coming to life.

Like what happens when spiritual renewal comes to life within the family of God.

And so, uh,

they make commitments before the Lord on things really in their everyday life

like who they're gonna marry. Um,

God's word calls God's people to only marry people inside the family of God,

how they work. Like we're gonna work diligently, we're gonna work faithfully,

but we're also gonna obey the Sabbath. You,

you've commanded us to take a day to rest and your goodness to us.

And so we're gonna be obedient to that, how they worship, uh,

how they can tithe and how they tithe and ensure that ministry happens. In fact,

the whole thing culminates with them saying,

we will not neglect the house of God.

Like there is a responsibility as a part of the family of God to make sure that

the ministry of God can move forward. So that's chapter 10.

You get to chapter 11,

this is really all about who is actually gonna stay in the city,

who's gonna stay in Jerusalem, uh, because the city is still being rebuilt.

It's kind of a hardship on people to actually live inside the city gates at this

point.

And so they come to a decision that essentially a tithe of the Israelites,

a 10th of them are actually gonna live in the city.

The other 90% are gonna live in the outside cities.

They're gonna be responsible for the farming,

for making sure their supply lines to Jerusalem.

But what you see is God's people, and we talked about this a couple weeks ago.

You see God's family recognize, no,

we have this interdependent relationship with one another where it requires a we

over me attitude. So you see that in verse 11 and then, or chapter 11,

then you get to chapter 12.

And chapter 12 is really like the culmination. You know,

we thought it was about a wall, chapter six. Um, then you see this phys,

this spiritual renewal. And so when you get to chapter 12,

it's really the culmination of the physical renewal and the spiritual renewal of

God's people. And so they get together really to dedicate the wall.

But what it really is, is this celebration of God's faithfulness to his people.

It's about celebrating this rediscovered identity that they have is the people

of God. Remember in chapter one, uh, his brother Heini comes to him and he says,

our people are filled with shame. Like this is them celebrating.

That's not where we are anymore. Like God has rescued us.

He's restored to us our identity. We know who we are. And when you,

when you read it, which you should go back and read it,

but you see choirs singing,

you see people giving generously to the ministry of God. You see children, men,

women, husbands, wives, families,

all singing together and celebrating about the goodness of God.

And if it were me,

it would seem like this would be a great place to end the story. Chapter 12,

12 chapters of Nehemiah, uh, we're done. Uh,

like kids are singing, running around,

parents are singing choirs, angels fade to black, the whole thing's over.

Um, but people are involved and it doesn't really work that way.

And so what we see, really the third action step,

if we're gonna finish faithfully,

is we've gotta guard our hearts against spiritual drift.

Here's what happens in chapter 13, Nehemiah actually goes back to king art,

art Xerxes. Like if you remember way back in chapter one, the king asked him,

how long are you gonna be gone? He's been gone for a while.

So he goes back to see the king. We don't know exactly how long he's gone.

Historians kind of disagree on this. We know it was a few years. Some say two,

some say as much as 10. But you would think that when Nehemiah goes back,

that things would be at least the way they were,

maybe they've even gotten better, right? Uh, but people are involved.

Remember what Dwayne said last week?

One of the greatest hindrances to the movement of God can sometimes be the

people of God. So here's some things that happen when Nehemiah gets back. Uh,

Tobiah, remember the bad guy that we heard about earlier.

One of the priests has given him a place to live inside of the temple. Uh,

this is not only bad because Tobiah was like one of the greatest, uh,

men of opposition against the plans and purposes of God.

Tobiah was also an ammonite. Um, God's word says that Ammonites, um,

should not be with the assembly of the Israelites when it comes to worship.

Also, the temple is set aside for holy purposes.

It has no place to be used for personal use. And so more than anything,

what's happening here is a compromise on God's law or is called for his people,

essentially for a political alliance

like that could preach like a different sermon around election time. Uh,

he also sees people,

he finds that people haven't been tithing to the priests and the

priests have had to go back to actually farming their fields just to take care

of themselves. They're not making this up. Verse 10, it says,

I also found out that the portions of the Levites,

the Levites for the priest had not been given to them.

So the Levites and the singers who did the work had fled each to his field.

Look, this is something they just made a covenant about together,

a written covenant before God. But that's a compromise on God's law.

Spiritual drift. Uh, he finds people working on the Sabbath,

not obeying God's command to just arrest and enjoy his provision,

a compromise on God's law, spiritual drift.

He finds that people are intermarrying and that half of their children aren't

even speaking the language of Judah. A compromise on God's law,

spiritual drift. And so Nehemiah, uh, being the man of God that he is,

who constantly just goes to the Lord in peaceful prayer, um,

what do you think he does?

He legitimately throws tobias's stuff out in the street.

He calls the people who aren't tithing and who aren't caretaking for the tithing

the correct way. He calls them to repentance.

He puts over their overseers in place. He said, listen,

this is a part of God's plans and purposes for his people.

He threatens to lay hands on people who are selling on the Sabbath.

I'm not kidding. I wanna read this verse 21. But I warned them and said to them,

why do you lodge outside the wall?

They're lodging outside the wall so they can sell stuff if you do so, again,

I will lay hands on you. He's not talking about like in the prayerful way.

That's not what he's talking about. Like he's heated.

And look at this in verse 25,

this is what he says to the ones who are intermarrying and not raising their

children in the ways of the Lord. Verse 25.

And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and

pulled out their hair. Um,

I don't do this to people in our church. I just want you to know that. Um,

that's why I have Dwayne Calvin. Um,

he takes care of that kind of dirty work for me. So former military guy,

he handles that stuff.

Why do you think Nehemiah's so Ben outta shape outta over this?

It's because he knows that small,

he knows that small compromises have big consequences.

Like he's seen this already. He knows why they were in exile to begin with,

right? Like you look at verse 18, this is what he says to them. He says,

did not your fathers act in this way and did not our God bring all

this disaster on us and on this city?

Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.

What Nehemiah knew is if you're gonna continue this fresh start,

you've gotta have a faithful finish. In order to do that,

you've gotta guard against this spiritual drift and the temptation, man,

it's just a record thing. Well, it's just a small thing here.

It's just a small thing there. We think, well,

my lack of obedience here won't matter all that much.

My lack of generosity,

it's not gonna stop the ministry of the church going forward,

me playing my part,

whatever role or responsibility that is to serve in a ministry or to live out

what it is that God's calling me into.

Like that's not gonna impede on the ministry of the church.

Me not spending time in God's word,

like it's not gonna make a big enough difference to really matter in my own

life. And it's so insidious.

And we've gotta reckon we are so prone to wander and this stuff adds up and this

stuff adds up. And it's not what God calls us into.

It's not his plans and purposes. So to finish faithfully,

we've got to guard against spiritual drift.

Okay? We gotta wrap up. Nehemiah, uh, congratulations.

You just made it through eight chapters in about 30 minutes. So well done. Uh,

what do we see when God gives us a fresh start?

What he desires from us is a faithful finish. And hope,

I want you to hear me say it like we can be a church that thrives.

We can be a church that,

that both experiences and shares the the life that Jesus

came to make available to us. Like Jesus says,

I came that you may have life and that you may have it abundantly,

but it requires us to be faithful to the things that He's called us into.

It requires us to stay focused on God's work.

We can't let distractions and oppositions and fears and outside voices pull

us away from what it is that God's calling us into.

We've gotta anchor ourselves in God's word. Listen,

revival and transformation, it happens when we return to the Bible.

And if I wasn't clear on that, in Nehemiah chapter eight and chapter nine,

Romans tells us we need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

And something happens when God's people listen,

when we stop playing church and we get in God's Word and we apply it

tos and we remember the goodness of our God and what he calls us into,

and we allow it to bring conviction, and it drives us to our knees to pray.

And we go to God with this humble dependence on him, confessing our sins,

and we say, God, whatever it is your word says,

and whatever it is that you want to do, I'll wanna see it come to life. And so,

God, we pray break prayers.

We've gotta guard against spiritual drift. We,

we've gotta keep our commitment to what it is that God's calling us into.

And again, that happens through prayer. It happens through obedience.

We heard last week, it comes through accountability. But hope,

God, God is calling us into this fresh start, into this new beginning,

to to live into and to live out this identity as a family, a family of families,

families care for each other. They serve one another,

a family who loves God, who follows Jesus and who shares hope.

I mean, could you imagine if we were a family that just had this,

this prayerful dependence who just prayed these big desperate prayers,

not just for our lives, but for the lives of other people in our community,

inside of our church family, could,

could you imagine if we just fully embrace like Jesus,

we know that you came here to make a new life,

a new kingdom,

a a new plan and a new purpose for us available if we believe that,

and if we lived our lives like we believed it. But to do that,

we've gotta anchor ourselves in God's word.

We've gotta be willing to get on our knees before God and humble ourselves.

That's why this next series that we're gonna go into,

we're doing a three week series on prayer and dependency on God.

We're gonna have 21 days of prayer. And I, I'm, I'm encouraging you,

I'm challenging you do everything you can do to be as involved and this is you

possibly can, but that's what I hope it does. I hope it drives us to our knees.

It's like, God, I don't wanna play games. I want to know,

just like the Israelites found out,

I want to know the identity that I really have.

And I really want to live out your plans and purposes for me and my life and for

my family's life and for my neighbor's lives, and for my coworkers lives,

For our brothers and sisters in Haiti, for our brothers and sisters in Uganda.

But that's the church that God is calling us to be. Father, I thank you.

I thank you for your work. I thank you for the book of Nehemiah, uh,

that we can see.

What.

It means to not just trust you for a fresh start. God,

we thank you for the gospel. We thank you that each and every one of us,

no matter where we've been,

we are not too far from you through what your son Jesus did for us on a cross

and through his resurrection. But God,

I also thank you that your word is clear,

that you also desire from us a faithful finish.

And we know your word tells us that he who started a good work will be faithful

to complete it. But God, we have a role to play in that as well.

And so I pray that we would be a church that is faithful and that people

could look at and do. 'cause we saw today,

if God's people live out God's plans and purpose is God's way,

God gets the glory

By their help us to be the church that you've called us to be.