Spiritual Development  Nehemiah 2:9-3:5, Pastor Daniel Reese

Hey man, if you have your Bible at Nehemiah chapter 2 is where we're going to be this

Nehemiah 2 · chapter mention

morning.

I think it's around page 399, 400 around there if you don't have a Bible and want to grab

one of the ones around you.

Now as many of you know I have four children, my oldest daughter, my only daughter is 15

and then I have three boys, 13, 11 and 8, my daughter.

Everything when she was born, everything was magical for us because she was the first.

We have 3,000 pictures of her first year of life.

She had all of our attention until Asher came and that was fun too because he was our first

boy and we had one of each.

Then we had two more boys and the wonder wasn't as strong as it was because you come to know

what to expect as you have more children.

We knew when they should be holding their head up, right?

We knew when they should start crawling, we knew when they should start walking.

We saw the development of all of our children and they were all pretty much at the same

level as time went on.

There were some things that Adalie did quicker than her brothers but then there were some

things that her brothers did quicker than she did.

Adalie was later to walk than the rest of my boys because she simply didn't need to.

We would carry her wherever she wanted to go.

She was always being held by somebody but our fourth riker, I mean that kid was on his

own.

I think before he was two, he was going around the house on a hoverboard.

He was on his own.

They're all kind of on the same trajectory and when we say trajectory, we're really talking

maturity and they're maturing.

Really, we're all on the same track moving away from infancy toward adulthood.

In fact, if you are a parent in here, if you haven't thought of it this way, let me try

to help you and your child out.

Your job right now as a parent is to train them not to need you.

That will make it easier for you to let them go when the time comes.

Your job is literally to train them to no longer need you.

An aspect of parenting is participating in this developmental process so that we can

get them out of our house.

That's the goal.

In regard to development, if your kid is not reading like your neighbor's friend's kid,

there's no need to panic.

There's no need to plug them into a summer reading camp, give it some time.

We have different gifts.

We have different abilities but we're all on the track of development.

Unless it becomes apparent that you have some developmental issues.

Some developmental issues are nothing at all.

They just require a bit more time.

Some kids are late bloomers.

Sometimes things click for them.

Maybe a little easier than other kids.

But sometimes there really are developmental issues.

When there are developmental issues, the more serious the developmental issues, the more

people get involved.

If you have some developmental issues, now all of a sudden maybe you have a physical

therapist.

Maybe you have a speech therapist.

Maybe you have to get doctors who are involved.

There are significant developmental issues.

Other people get involved in order to help the maturity process move forward as it can

and as it continues to do so.

All of us are on the same trajectory.

This physically lines up and it parallels with what should be happening to us spiritually.

When God said to us via God in the flesh through Jesus in Matthew 28, He says, go therefore

and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son

and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.

We know that verse if you grew up in church.

But He didn't say go make converts.

The goal isn't just new birth, although new birth is spectacular, isn't it?

There are a few things like going to the hospital to visit a friend who just had a baby or having

a baby on your own.

Those are spectacular days.

Those are fun days.

They are strange days and beautiful days all together.

But it's not over then, is it?

In fact, things are just getting started, are they not?

Now unfortunately, I believe in large swatches of evangelicalism, the idea is birth.

You're born great.

New convert.

Then you leave that person swaddling and sucking on a pass for the next 40 years when it is

the expectation of God that we continue to grow and mature.

This is called discipleship.

Now really the end goal of the Christian faith is from the moment of your birth, you're ever

maturing and you're ever growing.

Now I want to be real honest with you, most of the time you grow spiritually like we grow

physically.

What I mean by that is you are unaware that you're actually growing.

In fact, if you have children, you never see them grow, do you?

They just come down the stairs one morning and they're two inches taller and none of

their clothes fit.

Spiritual growth is a lot like that.

You can't really see what you're doing when you're doing it, but there are ways for us

to look at ourselves and judge whether or not we are maturing or whether or not we have

some spiritual developmental issues.

So I want to skip that in mind as we look at our text this morning.

I'm going to invite Wesley, wherever Wesley is.

Wesley's going to come read our text this morning out of Nehemiah chapter 2, starting

Nehemiah 2 · chapter mention

in verse 15.

I'd encourage you as we read this together that you stand and honor the Lord's word together.

Wesley, I got you a mic right here.

Wesley is pumped up, right?

Come on up here, buddy.

Pumped up to read.

Here we go.

Then I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall.

And I turned back and entered by the valley gate.

And so returned.

And the official did not know where I'd gone or what I was doing.

And I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who

were to do the work.

Then I said to them, you see the trouble we are in.

Had Jerusalem lies in ruins, if its gates burned, come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem.

But we may no longer suffer the division, and I told them of the hand of my God that

had been upon me for good.

And also of the words that the king had spoken to me.

And they said, let us rise up and build.

So they strengthened their hands for the good work.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for Wesley.

I thank you for his willingness to get out of his comfort zone.

I thank you for his willingness to read your word aloud.

I pray that you give him a strong desire to know you and your word the rest of his life.

Pray God that these words will seep into our hearts today.

We ask all these things in your name.

Amen.

Thanks, buddy.

Now, one of the reasons that I wanted to teach out of the book of Nehemiah is because there's

all these building blocks of development for the Christian faith.

There's all these building blocks for us.

There's all these kinds of pieces thematically in here for us to look at and go, okay, am

I maturing or do I have developmental issues?

So even if I could recap where we've already been, we watched that Nehemiah has this heart

of empathy and compassion for his brothers and sisters who belong to the covenant community

of faith with him.

We saw clearly in the Scriptures, it is God's expectation on you and on me that we would

interact with one another, especially in regard to our membership here at Cornerstone with

a great deal of compassion and empathy.

We do not avoid each other's troubles.

We enter into each other's troubles.

We don't avoid each other's sorrows.

We enter into those sorrows.

Then we saw what he did with that empathy as he began to cry out to God and believe

God to solve what was causing the weight on his heart, the empathy on his heart, the sorrow

that he had for his brothers and sisters.

So we watched Nehemiah pray and we watched him pray in kind of big block prayers where

he's really devoting himself to a particular time of his day.

And then we watched him pray in these like shotgun style prayers.

Now if you're going to have a vibrant relationship with God, you need both types of prayers.

You can't just shotgun prayers throughout the day.

God, I think you're great, but God, you've got to get this guy in the left lane out of

the left lane.

Or you're going to bed at night.

God, thank you for being with me.

I hope to spend more time with you tomorrow.

It has to be more than that.

You have to have these times dedicated to God in prayer.

So you can see these kind of elementary ideas, building blocks of the Christian faith, empathy

and compassion, relationship with God.

Those are building blocks.

These are new birth developmental types of ideas.

Then from there, from those two ideas to this idea that we'll spend our time on today.

So let's look at Nehemiah chapter two.

I'm going to read verse six real quick and then we'll jump in.

Here's the king's response to Nehemiah's prayer.

Verse six, And the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, how long will you be gone

and when will you return?

So please the king to send me when I've given in a time.

And I said to the king, if it pleases the king, let letters be given to me, given me to the

governors of the province beyond the river, that they may let me pass through until I

come to Judah and a letter to ASAP, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber

to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple and for the wall of the city

and for the house that I shall occupy.

And the king granted me what I asked for the good hand of my God was upon me.

Now we read that and that's there's an understatement in that text.

Nehemiah just asked the reigning king of Persia to not only let him go back and re fortify

the city that has already been conquered, but that the king would actually provide the

timber and the tools necessary to re fortify a city that's been ransacked.

Now keep in mind, Persia's already conquered Jerusalem.

Nehemiah says, hey, let me re fortify a city under your authority and will you provide

the timber for it?

Will you pay for all this?

The king is like, sure, how long are you going to be gone?

How long is this going to take?

That's the favor of God.

Where did Nehemiah get this boldness?

We talked about it a couple of weeks ago.

He got this boldness in the reality that the word of God said if the people of God turned

their faces back to God, he would reestablish the walls of Jerusalem.

So really, what brought about the confidence in Nehemiah's life are the promises of God

in the word of God toward Nehemiah and toward his house.

Now if you were to pick it up from there, now if you're not careful, the rest of chapter

two through verse five of chapter three, if you're not careful, you're going to get caught

up in a lot of names and a lot of wall building.

But here's the simple path I want to build for you.

And I want to once again affirm to you that this book is simply not descriptive.

This is not historically spanking, but it really, it is the expectation of God for you

and for me of really what the path of maturation looks like.

You have new birth that leads to compassion and empathy for a brother and sister, right?

That then leads to prayer that's rung out of the scriptures that then ultimately leads

to action.

That's where we are today.

So new birth creates empathy and compassion, which leads you to pray and then you pray

through the word of God.

And as you pray through the word of God, that leads to action.

We are not people who feel empathy and pray.

We are people who act upon the prayers as our confidence builds in our prayers based

on the word of God, where action or any of this starts to break down.

You will begin to have developmental issues.

You will not be developing spiritually where you have to begin is to build this type of

empathy and build this type of compassion for your brothers and sisters that leads you

to prayerfulness and glad submission to the scriptures.

How do we get there?

How do we feel compassion and empathy and then pray for them?

Well I want to answer it very, very simply.

The foundation of all discipleship, when all is said and done, is not gathering in a big

room like this.

The traction of live transformation occurs in smaller rooms, not larger rooms.

Because you can hide in larger rooms.

It's harder to hide in smaller rooms.

Can it be done?

Yes.

And some of you are great.

Some of you are like the Jason Bourne of Christians.

You just hide your identity embedded in with people who you walk with day in and day out.

But by and large, really, one of the baselines of maturity is in being known and in knowing

others.

Really, you and I grow and begin to mature when we enter into gospel-centered community.

And when we're talking about gospel-centered community, it is by the lens in which you

see your community.

Here's what I mean by that.

The people of God, Christians, will always be a gritty group of people to be around.

It's always going to be a little bit grimy.

And let me tell you why, because you and I, by our nature, rebel against God Almighty.

Even upon our salvation, even in our new birth, we are still going to wrestle and battle with

our flesh.

The gospel understands that.

Since the baseline of community should be that all have fallen short of the glory of

God.

We have to come to terms with the fact that all of us have fallen short of the glory of

God.

And we understand that.

That frees us to not pretend.

We don't have to pretend that we are more than we are because the gospel messages is

you're less than you think you are.

Since that's the root, then I don't have to fool anyone.

God has already said, this kid's jacked up.

He's messed up.

He has already declared about me and about you that you have fallen short.

Why would you pretend to not have fallen short when the Scriptures make it painfully clear

that you have absolutely fallen short?

See if you get this, then I don't have to perform for you.

I don't have to impress you.

I don't need you to think that I'm the greatest or I'm the worst.

I just get to be free in the Lord.

Why?

Because the gospel is the lens by which I see the world.

God has already told you that I'm messed up.

He's already told me that you're messed up.

I don't have to pretend I'm more of a mess than I am.

See it frees me up.

The gospel frees us to stop pretending.

Which is why it's so baffling to me.

Why it's so that so many of us continue to try to pretend that we are godly instead of

just pursuing godliness.

I mean isn't that absurd?

Surely you yourself know that that's absurd.

I'd really like to be godly, but instead I think I'll just pretend to be.

I'm going to learn some things and I'm going to rethink them things and I'm going to regurgitate

some really beautiful stuff that I've never experienced.

But at least people are going to think I'm godly.

At least people are going to think that I have my stuff together.

Well, you know you're going to die, right?

I mean I hate to be the bearer of bad news.

But we all know that we're going to die.

Do you think you're tricking God?

Do you think you're going to get to heaven and God is going to be like you and I were

like that down there.

You and I had this vibrant relationship.

You were so legit.

I am so lucky to have you on my team.

Come on in.

Come on.

Here's your reward.

Do you think we're tricking God?

We have to understand that all of us have fallen short.

I understand that about myself.

I understand that about you.

But do we understand that about each other that we've all fallen short?

I mean do you really believe what's happening here?

It's understanding that you fall short of the glory of God.

And then the next step is you let people know that are close to you that you are aware of

that reality.

Then marks the life of a believer because we see through gospel lenses.

And our community is built around that we have all fallen short of the glory of God.

Yet, Christ has delivered us.

Christ has saved us.

So then the celebration isn't how good we are.

The celebration is Jesus.

The celebration isn't us because the Christian context is so grimy.

And this is what I mean by grimy.

If the gospel message is going out and the gospel message is being declared, it's drawing

people out of darkness.

Then even upon our conversion, we're going to wrestle in our flesh.

In fact, in 1 John chapter 1 says, you want to know for sure if Christ lives in you.

1 John 1 · chapter mention

You want to know how the Holy Spirit is sealed in you.

You'll be aware of your sinfulness.

I mean think about that.

You want to know if you're a believer?

Have you ever had that wrestling doubt?

Am I really a believer?

If you want to know, you're aware of your sinfulness.

In 1 John chapter 1 verse 6 it says, if we say we have fellowship with Him, yet we walk

1 John 1:6

in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth.

But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one

another and the blood of Jesus, His Son cleanses us from all sin.

If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

So if you are saying, I have no need for confession, what the Bible just said is the truth is not

in you.

So what is the mark of having the truth in you?

You're aware of your need to confess your sins.

The Gospel says the church of Jesus Christ is a safe place to confess your sins because

we see through the lenses of all falling short of the glory of God and yet Christ loving

us rescued us anyway.

So then we can enter into group life.

Then we can enter into relationship.

We can enter into smaller rooms like life with men and women in proximity, seeing each

other often, checking in continually.

And we can walk into a room like that and go, man, here's what's really going on in

my mind this week.

Here's what I've had some dark thoughts this week.

And whatever those are.

Like I've walked into rooms and said, I really just don't like my kids.

I mean, I love them.

Nobody's getting hit.

But I really don't like my kids right now.

I've walked into rooms with people who know me and say, I am running on fumes with my

wife.

She's walked into rooms many times and said, I'm running on fumes with my husband.

I mean, that should be a safe place to go.

I have questions about how God is going to work this out.

I have some doubts.

I have some struggles.

I have concerns.

It's a place where we can confess these things to the Lord.

In fact, when Luther started the Protestant Reformation, he said, the Christian life is

marked by repentance.

All of life is repentance for the believer.

All of life is being in tune with our hearts and being willing to share that with our brothers

and sisters because of gospel-centered community.

And there's a key cog of confession that leads to accountability.

Now we're starting to move in the maturation process, right?

We're in gospel community.

We're confessing our sins.

We're repenting of where we have fallen short, right?

And then we have accountability.

Now I believe the gospel, right?

So if I believe the gospel, then I'm able to confess my weaknesses.

Now that I've confessed my weaknesses among others who understand the gospel message,

then now I have some accountability.

So if a man comes to me and says, hey man, my marriage is not in a good spot right now,

I have to put in the hard work of going after my wife's heart, of romancing her, of encouraging

her, of edifying her, of her gifting, of creating a pathway in which she can have time to really

grow and how God has gifted her.

And I just need to confess that to you guys.

Just help keep me accountable.

Now that's an invitation, right?

That's an invitation that they will probably regret because if they tell me, then I'm

freed up to call and be like, yo, what are you doing this week?

What are you doing with your wife this week?

How are you pursuing her?

How are you showing her the risk, right?

Like that frees me up.

It's an invitation.

And then the response is, I just booked a 10 day trip to Hawaii.

We got this planned getaway.

Then I'm like, oh, let's slow down.

You've done nothing for 10 years.

Let's not go into debt on some massive vacation.

How about you just write her a letter?

How about you just take her out to dinner?

How about you just ask her to forgive you where you've fallen short?

How about you take these smaller steps instead of going into debt over this, over the top

vacation, right?

Write her a note.

Own your sins.

Take her to a nice dinner.

Now all of a sudden there's accountability.

Now all of a sudden there's discipleship.

Now all of a sudden we are growing and getting better.

We're moving down that path.

And so I just want to be completely fair.

Because some of you right now might be raising your hand going, do you know what?

I don't buy it.

I don't buy what you're saying.

We tried to do this gospel centered community thing.

We've tried groups.

We've tried connecting like this.

It's messy Daniel.

It's not easy.

I left hurt.

You are over romanticizing this reality.

Whatever your argument is towards me, let me just say this, community is unbelievably

difficult work.

It's not natural.

Our culture doesn't even know how to do it.

We are a back porch private fence culture.

Are we not?

I mean not only that, we don't even really know how to enter into actual deep relationships.

Let me prove a point to you.

I want you to say this after me.

I do not have 800 friends.

Okay, say it.

I do not have 800 friends.

Listen to me.

Your Facebook friends are not your friends.

They're not really.

Their encouragement rings a bit empty.

And their congratulations ring a bit empty.

And I'll tell you why.

Because they're not in the mud with you.

My preference is actual relationships.

So cyber stalking somebody is not a relationship.

I'm not telling you to get rid of your account.

I'm not telling you to ban social media.

I'm telling you, you don't have 800 friends.

So someone who would say congratulations on the new baby will always ring hollow next to

the person who was with you in the hospital waiting room.

It will always ring hollow to the person who walked with you through your pregnancy, who

cried with you when you struggled to get pregnant, and prayed with you when there were complications

during that pregnancy.

This is life on life.

This is how transformation begins to occur.

Even then, it's messy and it's hard.

And our friend Dietrich Bonhoeffer will help us with this.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor theologian.

Okay?

And so Bonhoeffer, who was a guy who was in his head, I mean unbelievably smart.

He came over to the United States.

He went to an African American church in Harlem.

He watched them, that church, get after the Lord in a way that's celebratory.

We've seen it.

Some of us have experienced it.

It's so stirred his heart that he wanted not just the mind, but he wanted the heart.

And then Dietrich was actually part of an assassination attempt on Hitler during World

War II to kill the, but he was killed by the Nazis.

So a pastor theologian with an inflamed heart who wants to worship boldly, proclaim truthfully,

and kill dictators is my kind of guy.

Like I feel like him and I could be good friends.

So Dietrich writes of the Christian community like this.

He says, if we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have

been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much

weakness, small faith and difficulty.

If on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty

so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according

to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ.

Oh, he's just saying here, yes, it's hard.

There's sinners involved.

Will at times be paltry.

It will at times be petty.

It will at times disappoint you.

And you shouldn't be surprised when that happens.

You're there.

You're a sinner trying to connect with sinners for the purpose of sanctification.

It is at times lovely and at times ugly.

Iron sharpening iron is the biblical perspective.

And how are we sharpened?

How do you sharpen a blade?

You nick parts off of it, don't you?

Sparks begin to fly.

I mean, isn't that the process of sharpening?

That's what discipleship is.

And Dietrich here is saying, is all you're ever going to do, if all you're ever going

to do is complain about it, you're really going to inhibit the Lord's ability to sharpen

you and mature you.

If you're refusing to enter into gospel-centered community, you're having some spiritual developmental

issues.

Discipleship is hard, but we need to fight for it.

We need to invest in it.

And here's what I know about Cornerstone.

Many of you are plugged in.

Many of you are doing life deeply with one another.

I'm going to group myself.

We try to meet a few times a month as best we can.

And some of you do this well.

But here's what I know.

A lot of you are just mere participants here.

You go here, but you don't belong here.

You rob only you of what Christ has for you.

You're here because you either like the music or you like how I preach, but look at me.

That will not sustain you on your day of trouble.

It won't.

What you'll need in that moment on that day of trouble is a room full of people who know

you and you know them.

The words that come out of their mouths are not empty because they have blood with you

and they've been in the mud with you and they have cried with you and they feel the weight

with you.

How easy is empathy?

Because cancer is not that person over there.

But cancer is that person you meet with week in and week out.

That you have cups of coffee with.

That you're doing life deeply with one another.

You know their weaknesses and they know yours.

What about when their kid goes wayward and that breaks your heart?

What about when their marriage is on the rocks that's devastating to you as well?

That leads you to pray.

That leads you to search the Scriptures.

That leads you to encourage.

If you're detached and this is all you know on a Sunday morning, do you know a type of

impotent, weak, pathetic version of Christianity you're living out?

It's not the one in the Bible.

It will not sustain you on the day of trouble.

And here real quick, what you're looking for is not people who are just like you.

If someone gets on your nerves in a group, that's a sanctifying experience.

I'm guessing they're probably not big fans of you either.

You see how sanctification begins to occur?

It's iron sharpening iron.

If you're not walking with people that deeply, then that's a developmental issue.

And you should not be surprised that you struggle with sin like you do.

You should not be surprised that you feel distant from God like you do.

That you don't know the Scriptures like you would like to.

Because if you want to like the Scriptures, if you want to know the Scriptures, get in

a group of people who value the Scriptures.

If you want to learn them, get around people who love them.

You shouldn't be surprised if you're not walking deeply with others that you still wrestle

with the flesh like you do.

You shouldn't be surprised that you have the marital issues that you do.

You shouldn't be surprised that you're walking in loneliness and anxiety like you do.

It shouldn't surprise you because you're still in diapers.

And we need to get you out of the diapers.

It will always take one courageous person and a group of friends to be the first to go,

I'm struggling.

I'm doubting.

And you'll be surprised how much more your weaknesses compel people to godliness than

your strengths.

I mean we all want to be known as the guy that has the Bible memorized.

We all want to be known as the woman who has it all together, right?

Superwife, supermom, or super single woman.

I don't need no man.

Like we want to be known like that.

We want to be known as these kind of fake mirages instead of who we really are.

When we enter into who we really are then all of a sudden a group has a real shot,

a genuine empathy and compassion.

Because there's no need to have empathy and compassion when everybody's awesome.

There's no reason to feel for people when everybody has their stuff together.

So no way does everyone being awesome lead you to prayer in the Word of God.

Show your weaknesses.

So gospel center community leads to empathy and compassion that leads to prayerfulness.

It leads to seriousness of the Word of God and then that leads to action.

And this is how we are going to do life here at Cornerstone.

Get involved in a community of faith.

Not just with people you like, not just with people you get along with.

If you want to grow, if you really want to grow, get around people you just can't stand.

And understand that all of us have fallen short of the glory of God.

This is Nehemiah.

He has a heart for his people which leads him to pray.

Which gives him this boldness to ask for things that he probably wouldn't ask for.

Which then leads him to action.

Which leads him back to Jerusalem where he's doing life with these people and he's proclaiming

the goodness of God in his life.

That wall got built pretty quickly because of God was doing in the hearts of the people.

Can't wait to see what God does in the hearts of our church.

And there's no greater way for that to occur than to celebrate communion together.

So I'm going to invite the elders and deacons to come forward as we remember what he has

done for us.