Men's Luncheon - Pastor Greg Addison - September 7, 2026

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

How you guys doing?

I'm just I've decided we're gonna arbitrarily go with good afternoon.

I mean, noon is kind of noon, but you guys have already plowed through uh meat and pie, so that makes it an afternoon, right?

So good afternoon, good to see you guys.

Uh before I pray, uh, just if you haven't heard, we our special brother Wayne Haver, that usually sits right back there, uh, and uh he has graduated to heaven, if you hadn't heard that news, and uh Friday morning is the funeral service 11.

I uh it's here at the church.

They're working through the final details.

It'll be here Friday morning, and so uh you can, if you want to know, we send on emails or you can call the church and check.

And I know he's a person that we all love and and uh and will miss, but uh I know that the words of the psalmist are accurate for heaven on Sunday morning when it said, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of one of his saints.

And uh so we uh we love him and pray for Jan and the family.

Also, Friday morning early, so you can make both, is the mayor's prayer breakfast.

And that will be uh at the ACHE Research Campus Ballroom on Chad Collie.

Great speaker there, great to support uh in our community when we have the opportunity to uh be an influence for Christ in those moments.

Let me pray for us and we'll get started.

Lord, thank you for today.

Thank you for uh Wayne, thank you for his influence and how he's touched so many of our lives in so many different ways through the years, and pray you'll be with his family.

Um be with us now as we come to your word.

Uh we thank you for lunch.

We pray your blessings on uh those who've made it for us, and we pray that you will bless them for how they blessed us.

We pray for this food that you'll use it to the strength of our bodies to serve you, as we'll look at uh from the example of one of your servants today in the book of Nehemiah.

In Jesus' name we pray, and everybody sit.

All right, a little program note, as you know, as a church, uh we are reading chronologically through Scripture.

We're using the Bible recap platform.

There are a number of those that are good, and not just the one we're using.

Uh, and so over the next, we're kind of marching to the end of the Old Testament here, Old Testament period.

And so we're gonna do kind of a tag team sort of approach to finish this out so we've got enough time uh globally as a church to do the New Testament reading.

So, what'll happen on Sunday mornings, starting this Sunday, for the next three weeks, I'm gonna do a study on the book of Daniel.

So we're gonna kind of do an overview of Daniel, and I've had to skip so many other books, I've decided I'll skip some to get three weeks in Daniel.

So on Sunday mornings, we'll be doing Daniel.

Here in the luncheon, we're gonna be doing Nehemiah.

And on Thursdays at our 60 plus luncheon, uh, Pastor Dave is doing a study on Ezra.

So between the three of us and those uh those three platforms, uh, we're gonna try to cover this period of the end of the exile and as some of the children of Israel and the remnants are brought back into uh into the land of Israel.

And that'll lead us towards when we start the New Testament uh in October.

So that means I get some time here with the book of Nehemiah.

And so, since we've taken care of those other books, I get to dig in in the book of Nehemiah because I love the book of Nehemiah.

When I get to heaven after I've spent a few thousand years with Jesus, and then I get around to some of the guys who also love Jesus that I want to have coffee with, Nehemiah is at the top of my list.

Uh, he is an incredible, incredible character.

Actually, these two guys, Daniel and Nehemiah, are two of the guys at the top of my list.

Fascinating in history when they fall, who they were, what they did, how God used them in the context of incredibly pagan environments.

And so it's really an amazing thing.

Just to give you a little bit of background here, Daniel, who we'll be talking about, was a contemporary with Jeremiah and Ezekiel, uh, and obviously men like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Daniel uh and uh was living in exile along with Ezekiel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and some of these other Bible characters.

Uh, when Judah, the southern tribes, were fought, were finally conquered, and multiple times the nation of Babylon would come, conquer apart, you know, oppress apart, or whatever, and then they would take captives off.

And they took three major groups of captives out of Israel back into Babylon.

And then over the course of the next following years, uh there were a number of regime changes in the world at that time, and you went from Babylon into these other kingdoms, and so we find ourselves now where Babylon is no longer in charge of Israelites who've been uh taken out and captive.

We are now dealing with uh King Artaxerxes and all of that deal.

So we've changed over regimes.

Daniel's fascinating, as we'll talk about on Sunday mornings, because he survived in the government through multiple national regime changes.

Nehemiah was raised in captivity, not in Israel, and actually had risen to prominence, as we'll read in a moment.

He becomes a cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, who was an evil, horrible king and an evil, horrible people, and all of that.

One of the things that's fascinating about Daniel, that's interesting about Ezra, it's really fascinating about Nehemiah, it's fascinating about Esther.

How many people that were God's people that he put in prominent positions in pagan governments to be able to advance the narrative of the gospel, to protect the Jewish people, to keep intact his people that he created as the funnel to bring Jesus into the world.

It's pretty fascinating when you think about it.

And it gives these characters a lot of applicability for us in modern life because these are God's people who functioned well, maintained their biblical integrity, and were used by God for the advance of the gospel in pagan cultures.

And that's pretty much where we find ourselves in modern America and modern earth today.

And so as we look at these characters, these are people who are God is elevating them and using them, and they are maintaining their integrity in cultures that have absolutely nothing to do with the people of God.

And yet they are godly people with a heart for the Lord and in a way that he can use them.

And so Nehemiah is one of those men, and that's one of the things that makes him an incredibly fascinating character.

So as we go through Nehemiah, what we're going to be talking about are the decisions and the character of a godly leader, because that's who Nehemiah is.

He's a leader in the court of this pagan king, and then God elevates him and makes him a leader of the remnant of Israelites and sends him back to do some significant things in Israel.

And in all of that, you see the juxtaposition of character and decisions.

Character and decisions.

And so with Nehemiah, you see a great example of how that works.

How those two things are working constantly in concert together.

And I think when we figure out what is applicable from these lessons from Nehemiah in today's culture, it's how we have a character for God as we function in a culture that needs more people who have a character for God.

But the culture around us in many ways is against having a character for God.

And when he raises us up in positions of influence, of positions of making decisions, places where we can advance the gospel, when we make ministry decisions, how is it that we develop and maintain a character that allows us to do that in our culture?

And so Nehemiah is an example of that.

And so what you see right here is we start this journey of decisions and character.

I just want to introduce you to Nehemiah and we learn who he is here in chapter 1.

The Bible tells us in Nehemiah 1, verse 1, during the month of Chiselev in the 20th year, when I and Nehemiah is relating this story.

Nehemiah 1:1

So this is first person, I, Nehemiah, was in the fortress city of Susa.

Now, a little bit of knowing that, what that means.

That's the capital city, as we'll see again in a moment.

He is the cu he is one of the cupbearers to the king.

So literally, the way you became king in that world is you killed the guy who was the king and you got to be king.

And one of the ways that you kill the king is you poison his food and his drink, right?

So here Nehemiah is the guy who is to taste it and make sure.

And so what happens is he'll eat that food in front of the king, and the king will look at him real closely, and if he keels over dead or starts to throw up or whatever, then they're gonna go kill the chefs and they're gonna order some different food, and the king's not gonna eat that.

And your attempt to uh assassinate the king isn't gonna work.

So, how's that for a job description?

Try this 50-50 shot, whether you make it or not through dinner, right?

And uh, so there you go.

So that's his job, that's what he's doing.

He's in the capital city.

Uh, because of the generations that have passed from captivity, we understand that Nehemiah was born and raised in captivity.

It's over 800 miles from this capital city to Jerusalem.

So 800 miles in that day, those are months and months and months of a journey.

If you figure they cover 10 to 12 miles a day, that's a pretty strong journey.

So you can do the math on how long it takes to go over 800 miles.

So he most likely had never been to Jerusalem.

I mean, never even been there before.

So here he is.

He's in a pagan country, in a pagan government.

He is in a position of authority for a pagan king.

His nationality or race is Jewish, Israelite, but he's never even been there.

And what he knows about it is he was raised in captivity because they had walked away from God and it was destroyed.

And so that's the perspective as you begin to read the story.

And then he says, one of his brothers arrived with men from Judah.

Now, most likely that means they were probably captives.

So they had been brought back in some captivity or something related to that, because this is a crushed, opposed, and conquered nation.

So this is not like tourists and oh, you guys are from so-and-so.

Man, I'm from so-and-so too.

You know, it's not that kind of a deal.

And he seeks them out and he says, I question them about Jerusalem and the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile.

And as you read this, I question them.

This is not some random conversation.

This is not you bump into somebody from, you know, whatever and go, oh man, yeah, like, you know, that's, yeah, I got a friend over there.

Yeah, how things go on there.

It's not that kind of conversation.

He sought these guys out.

He knew they were there, and he's going to interrogate them because it is important to him to understand the condition of Jerusalem.

And so you begin to get some insight into his heart for the Lord and the things of the Lord when you realize where he is and the context of this, and he goes and finds these men to find out what's happening.

They said to him, The remnant in the province who survived the exile, so most people were taken out in these three captivities, and basically there's just a literally a remnant is all that's left in this poverty-stricken, destroyed city and area.

So they say, the remnant in the province who survived the exile are in great trouble and disgrace.

Jerusalem's wall has been broken down and its gates have been burned.

Now, let's stop for a second.

When you think about at the end of this 70-year period that God told them that they would be in exile, and they began to send people back.

I don't know what just happened there.

I hit a button somewhere.

Um, anyway, they sent them uh back, they started sending them back.

Ezra, the book of Ezra, is the first major group of people who go back, and they go back to work on the temple.

In that journey, the Bible tells us in the book of Ezra, they tried to work on the wall, and the enemies of Jerusalem, the enemies around them, uh would fight them, battle them, oppose them, would not let them uh rebuild the wall of Jerusalem.

So there was already at least one attempt to work on rebuilding the wall, and it was unsuccessful.

That's how significant and difficult this journey is.

And so the Bible tells us that they specifically mention that the walls are broken down.

Then uh then this is his response.

Nehemiah responds at verse 4 When I heard these words, I sat down and wept.

I mourned for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Uh, and I said, and then we get the beginning of this long prayer that goes on throughout most of chapter one.

But I just included it so you would see his heart as a man of prayer.

Yahweh, the God of heaven, the great and awe-inspiring God, who keeps his gracious covenant with those who love him and keep his commands, let your eyes be open and your ears be attentive to hear your servants' prayer, that I now pray to you day and night for your servants, the Israelites.

And so he begins that prayer and he begins to pray for the remnant, he begins to pray for the nation of Israel, he begins to pray for Jerusalem because of this report he's received.

So here's a couple of things I just want you insight into his care.

Oh, I forgot I can't do that.

Uh but you have your seats here.

The first thing you'll see is that he is serious about spiritual matters.

He is serious about spiritual matters.

Now I want you to think in our culture, in our first world, affluent culture, one of the most frustrating things for a pastor is Jesus gets our second best and our leftovers all the time.

That's a world we live in.

For example, First Baptist Church, folks, this is what we do.

We know you cannot count the sanctuary here on Sunday morning to get a count for the worship deal until after the third song.

Because if you start counting at the announcement time after the first song, a third of the people are not there.

Just the truth.

I come in after, like I know that uh church starts at 10:30.

They're not supposed to give me the pulpit between 10:55 and 11.

So usually I come pulling in about 10:45 out here in the parking lot, and there are cars emptying and people bringing their children into church to drop off in the nursery before they go to service.

Right?

Sunday school, here's what happens in Sunday school.

They Sunday school starts at 9.15, right?

And our church folks get here about 9.25.

So this is kind of how church works.

And those of you who are not First Baptist members, don't tell me your church doesn't work this way.

Because most of you are going to Baptist churches, and this is how it works.

Visitors get online and they look at the church and they think, oh, Sunday school starts at 9.15.

Let's try that out.

I don't know where to drop my kids off.

I've never been there before.

So they figure out if it starts at 9.15, I'm going to get here between 10 till and 9 so I can figure out where I drop my kids off, figure out where to park, what door to come in and get my bearings.

And so they come in at 5 till 9, and all of our Sunday school teachers and everybody else come blowing in about 9.25.

That's kind of what happens, right?

And then you go and you talk to somebody and you go, What's happening, man?

Why can't you guys get here on time?

Oh, we just have kids, we got three kids, and all that kind of stuff.

And I'll say, Well, let me were you late to baseball practice those three days this week?

Well, no, because then the coach won't let them play or make them sit the first three innings.

So you made baseball practice on time, right?

You made football practice on time.

Yeah, we did.

Yeah, you made cheerleaning practice on, yeah, yeah.

How late were you this week?

You had five days of school this week.

How late were you?

How many days were you late to school, and how late were you on those days?

Right?

Does that make sense?

Business guys, man, we're business, we're busy, we got stuff going on, we got business going on, and uh, and you know, we're working on that, and we put our brains into that effort, and we put our creativity into that effort, and then somebody comes and says, Hey, where's your love list?

You bring somebody to church, well, I was busy this week.

I was busy this week.

Right?

And Jesus gets the leftovers in most everything that we do, and that's kind of the way modern affluent church life works.

Whereas here, what you have is a man who is so invested in his position as a member of the people of God.

He's never been there, he's never seen it, and every day that he does his job, he is at risk of dying.

And he seeks out these men when he finds out they're from Jerusalem because he's desperate to know what's happening to the people of God.

What's going on in Jerusalem, what's happening with the people of God.

He is so invested in the spiritual things that are happening at church that are in our culture, church that we would say.

He's so invested in his identity as a person of God that those things are breaking his heart.

He asks and he wants to know.

And then when he finds out it's difficult, what you also get is he's mourning over the condition of Jerusalem and the people of God.

It breaks his heart.

I had a chance a number of years ago when I was young and didn't really know any better how these things are supposed to work.

I was pastoring in Cabot, and they asked me to speak at our associational, like annual meeting.

You know, it's kind of like the convention and all the churches in the local associated that go there and all that.

So we're talking about it.

And I actually preached from this pastor of scripture, and I was talking about being serious about spiritual matters.

And so I just I just didn't know any better, so I just started meddling.

So I just went in and started talking about, hey man, you know, one of the things that we need to know as an association is how many lost people there are in our community and how many people we need to reach, and how many people we're not reaching, and you know, we need to count our baptisms and all that.

And I said actually out loud in the course of that sermon, I said, listen, if your church hadn't baptized anybody in in X number of days and all that kind of stuff, what you need to do is sell your organ, you need to buy puppet stages, and you need to turn your Sunday morning into vacation Bible school every week until you actually start baptizing somebody again.

They never asked me to preach one of those again.

But here's the point how is that wrong?

I mean, a great Commission is the Great Commission, right?

Then what matters is reaching people, impacting our community in a way that we're creating gospel ministry.

If our identity as a person of Christ is reaching people and spreading the gospel and touching lives and doing all that, then as a person who is a leader in a culture of a lost world that needs Jesus, part of our being serious about spiritual matters ought to be that these spiritual things matter to us more than our job.

Not saying our job's not important.

Scripture teaches about our work was given as a gift of God.

He tells us that if you don't provide for your family, you'd be worse than a pagan infidel, uses that word.

I mean, there's all kinds of places where he talks about work and there's a great theology of work.

But listen, God didn't give us our work to distract us from spiritual matters.

He gave us our work to be a place where we are fulfilled and flourish in the gifts that God has given us in a context of a place where when we do that in that workplace, it causes people to ask us, why did you do that?

How does that work in your life?

What's going on in your life that's not in mind?

Why are you fulfilled?

Why is that flourishing?

And then as the Bible tells us, we're to be ready to give a defense and an answer for the hope that is within us.

That's how that's supposed to work.

And so that means in that setting, we're supposed to see it as a spiritual setting and what we're doing as a spiritual matter, and we are to have our hearts and lives affected even in the workplace of our spiritual matters.

Now, if you think I'm just ranting and raving and trying to make a point and all that, here's what happens.

We've just read that Nehemiah is mourning over the condition of Israel.

And here's what the Bible says.

The last sentence in chapter 1 is, now I was the cupbearer to the king.

And that's how we find out his job.

And then the Bible begins in Nehemiah chapter 2, verse 1, in the month of Nisan, in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes.

Nehemiah 2:1

Now, what he's telling us is this is a matter of months that his heart has been breaking over the people of God.

This is not a one-time meeting and he clucks his thing and all this is sad and whatever, and then goes off to figure out whatever.

Months have passed now, and the Bible says, uh, when the wine was before the king, I took up the wine and gave it to the king.

Now I had not been sad in his presence.

Why does that matter?

Because if you taste the king's food and you're the taster and you look weird, you look like you're about to die of poison, and he all of a sudden is paying attention to that.

And if you're doing this and you're looking weird and you're distracted and all that kind of thing, and it wasn't poison, the king's gonna get sick of you and he's gonna send you to jail because you're freaking him out every time your countenance gets weird because he's looking at you to see if he's gonna die from his food.

Does that make sense?

And so it's important that I'd not been sad in his presence.

And the king said to me, Why is your face sad, seeing you're not sick?

In other words, he's looking at him going, now you didn't fall over dead, and you're not puking your guts out.

So this is not poisoned food.

Why are you freaking me out with this countenance deal here?

This is nothing but sadness of the heart.

Then I was very much afraid.

Yeah, because the last guy that did this, he put him in jail or cut his head off, right?

And so then the Bible says that he said to the king, How in the world can I not be heart sick when my people and their capital lies in ruins?

You get this picture?

This is a guy who is so serious about spiritual matters that he carries it for months.

It burdens him for months.

He's cratering under this to the point that it affects his very life and livelihood in front of the king.

I mean, the seriousness of spiritual matters, the people of God are his priorities above everything else.

And so that is a sensitivity and a lost culture that God uses to acclimate us to opportunities to advance the gospel, to a calling to advance the gospel, to opportunities to step into ministry, to the passion to be an example of the people of God.

And so that is that first point.

I'll let you guys have the second two because my time is up.

He is serious about prayer.

You'll see this repeatedly all throughout Nehemiah.

He prayed, he fasted, he mourned.

Less than 20% of the river valley comes to church.

Fasting, mourning, that calls us to prayer.

That's serious about spiritual matters, it calls us to prayer.

And then it's serious about taking action.

He begins to take action.

He talks to the king at the risk of his life.

He leaves and goes as you read the story.

He goes back and he takes on this incredible project that's already been failed at least once in the book of Ezra of rebuilding this wall.

And so all of that begins with that character about being serious about spiritual matters.

And so I think that is really an insight into Nehemiah that God gives that sets the stage for how He uses Him.

Let me pray for it.

Lord, we thank you for today, and I thank you for the opportunity to study scripture like this and the application that you give us and the details.

It's just interesting to see how you call us to these moments.

You give us months so we can chart times and you get this description of he's never been sad.

And the king says, You didn't drop over dead, you're not sick.

This must be a heart matter.

And we get those details so that we can really understand what it means to be serious about those spiritual matters.

And I pray, Father, that you'll use that to stir us, to challenge us, for us to chew on that and carry that with us and think about that.

Even just that being serious about spiritual matters, that we're that we're wondering through that.

Do I care enough?

Do I see enough?

Do I own that enough?

And so, Father, I pray that you'll take this example of Nehemiah and just stir all of us to that sensitivity and that seriousness about the things of the Lord.

Father, I pray you'll bless these guys as they go out, as they function, as they do all the things that they do.

And I pray, Father, you'll use them the way you use Nehemiah in this book.

We thank you most of all for the gift of salvation that comes through Jesus and the fact that we know that you walk in our lives and walk through our lives with us and talk to us and point things out, and you have a plan for us.

All of that flows from the gift of salvation in Jesus.

And so we are so grateful and thank you for Jesus.

In His name we pray, and everybody sit.

You guys have a great afternoon.