Re-Build - Joy

Father, thank you for today.

Thank you for uh just us being with you and your presence here.

Thank you for for everyone that's here this morning.

Holy Spirit, please just uh fill us with you, um, guide us and teach us, give us all something that we can leave that we know is for us from you.

And Jesus, we just thank you for reconnecting us with our Father, for showing us what He's like and being our friend and Savior.

And we uh we trust you, and it's in your name we pray.

Amen.

Well, this morning it's been seven weeks.

We've been looking at a story that's 2,500 years old.

It's an it's an autobiography.

And this morning we get to see the conclusion of uh of this great story.

It uh it's a book, uh, it's Nehemiah in the Old Testament.

Um, it's about achieving incredible things together with God.

Uh it's also about how quickly our lives can completely turn around with God.

Uh just a quick recap.

You know, at the time that Nehemiah lived, Persia was the world power, basically controlled everything.

Artaxerxes was the was the king of Persia.

Nehemiah worked for Artaxerxes.

He was his uh wine steward.

They lived in Susa, which was the capital city of Persia.

Um it's in modern-day Iran, it's about 800 miles from Jerusalem.

So Nehemiah's brother and some of Nehemiah's friends come to visit him in uh Susa.

And this is what they tell him.

It's in Nehemiah 1.

They said to me, Things are not going well for those who return to the province of Judah.

They are in great trouble and disgrace.

The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.

When I heard this, I sat down and wept.

In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven.

The destroyed wall in Jerusalem was four and a half miles long, completely around the city.

It was twenty feet tall and sixteen feet wide.

To give you an idea, the floor to ceiling here is about 40 feet tall.

And so about halfway that high, 16 feet wide, huge, uh, huge wall.

It was the protection.

And it's just in rubble, it's in in um in ruin.

I mean, they needed that wall.

It was their protection.

You know, they were living in dangerous times, and without that wall, they were hurting.

They were uh they didn't have a moment's peace, they were constantly under attack, they didn't have any joy, they didn't have any excitement about the future, they were mocked and and and laughed at.

As Nehemiah's brother said, they were in great trouble and disgrace.

And so Nehemiah decides, you know, enough is enough.

Something has to be done.

It's time to rebuild the wall.

So he asked God uh for his out for his help.

He asked God to make the king, Artaxerxes, uh kind toward him.

Then he waits to just the right time, and he talks to the king, and the king gives him more than uh than he would have even hoped.

And he heads to Jerusalem and he inspects the wall and he gathers the people and they and they built.

And they face opposition, they face struggles, but they work together, and soon they're they're already halfway done.

But then the opposition got stronger, and they get attacked, you know, and the negativity was kind of contagious, and they got so discouraged, uh, they felt like quitting.

But they didn't quit.

They remembered what they were fighting for, they remembered who they were fighting for, that this just wasn't about them.

It was about their children, and it was about their families, and about about their future.

And so they kept on building, and they helped each other, and they grabbed swords and they strapped them on, and they they built and they fought side by side together.

And we're learning a lot from Nehemiah, just about how to build and how how to rebuild and how to do great things with God.

But we're not really talking about the wall around Jerusalem.

What we're talking about is our own lives.

How do we build and how do we rebuild in our own lives?

And thankfully, not all of us are in a uh rebuilding stage.

You know, some of you are simply building on what God's already done.

But many of us are.

You know, when we get together on Sundays or any time, you know, and everybody's kind of scrubbed up and and and looking good, and and you know, we're struggling, and we have we have things that we're fearful and worried about, and we think maybe we're the only one, but it's not true.

It's not true.

There's a bunch of us struggling, there's a bunch of us needing to build and to um rebuild in our lives.

There's times where it feels just like the people in Jerusalem that we're in great trouble, we're in great disgrace.

It can be anything.

It can be our marriage, you know, where we feel helpless or or hopeless.

It can be other relationships with friends or or with uh our children, our grown children or or uh our young children.

It can be health situations that are overwhelming.

It can be addictions, it can be financial troubles, sometimes just paying our bills, sometimes the debt is so much we can't see how how we can possibly get out of it.

It feels impossible, but it's not.

It is not impossible.

God is in the rebuilding business.

You know, there's proof all around of us, or all around us, there's proof all around us in this room.

People's lives have been completely changed, completely transformed in short periods of time.

And there's proof 2,500 years ago in Jerusalem.

In Nehemiah 6 is where we start today.

So on October 2nd, the wall was finished.

Just 52 days after we had begun.

When our enemies and the surrounding nations heard about it, they were frightened and humiliated.

They realized this work had been done with the help of our God.

Fifty-two days and they finished the wall, four and a half miles long, sixteen feet wide, twenty feet tall, fifty-two days.

Six months before that is the first time Nehemiah had even heard about it.

You know, and so he prayed and he planned.

Then he inspected.

You know, the wall was totally ruined.

You remember?

He couldn't even ride a donkey around it because of the big piles of rubble.

Fifty-two days.

Remember back in Nehemiah the second chapter?

The city officials did not know I'd been out here or what I was doing, for I had not yet said anything to anyone about my plans, had not yet spoken to the Jewish leaders, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or anyone else in the administration.

But now I said to them, You know very well what trouble we are in.

Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire.

Let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and end this disgrace.

Then I told them about how the gracious hand of God had been on me, and about my conversation with the king.

They replied at once, Yes, let's rebuild the wall.

And so they began the good work.

Fifty-two days before this, no one in Jerusalem knew anything about Nehemiah.

Imagine that.

Fifty-two days before this, say 53 days before this, a typical family, grandparents, you know, a husband and a wife, children, their lives are so hard.

They're living in rubble.

Constant fear, fear for themselves, fear for their future, fear for their children.

Defenseless against criminals and against armies and everybody around them.

You know, how are they gonna make it?

Can they even make it?

And then they woke up that morning and it was the day.

It was the day.

God was gonna help them.

He'd enlisted Nehemiah to help him too.

It wasn't gonna be done for them.

It was gonna be done with them.

I mean, they would have to pray and uh they would have to work.

And the whole family, grandparents, parents, kids.

They'd work together, they'd reorganize, you know, their uh their finances, they'd be generous, and they'd be honest, and they would work as a team, and they would fight, and they would trust God, and even when they got discouraged, they wouldn't let each other quit.

They'd remember that who it was for.

It was not just them.

It was for their families, it was for their loved ones, it was for everyone around them.

It was important.

And so they built and they built and they did it.

God helped them and they did it.

52 days, less than two months, and their whole life was changed forever.

And that is exactly how God works.

In Proverbs 13, 12 it says, unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick, but a sudden good break can turn life around.

You know, some of us need a sudden good break.

It's coming.

You know, if you're the one in great trouble and disgrace with part of your life in ruins, don't give up.

Don't give up.

God can turn our lives around so fast.

You know, for Jerusalem, it was ruin and rubble.

Fifty-two days later, it was strength and it was victory and it was joy.

The people around them saw it and they knew it was God.

They knew it was God that was on their side.

He is on your side.

God is on your side.

Jesus started his public life by reading this proclamation.

He said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord's favor has come.

What God did in Jerusalem, He will do with you.

See, these people had worked and prayed and trusted and worked some more for 52 days.

And the wall was finished, and but they still had one more thing that they needed to do.

What they needed to do was plan a party.

A party.

And it was a big invitation list, too.

They invited all those around them who had been exiled from Jerusalem, and they came pouring back in to live a whole new life.

And soon they were all in the city.

They're surrounded by this wall, this beautiful new wall that they had built.

Twenty feet tall, 16 feet wide.

Nehemiah asked Ezra, who was the priest, to read the old law to them.

When they heard it, they had an interesting reaction.

They were brokenhearted.

It broke their hearts.

Because they'd realized that God had never left them.

They realized that they had left God.

Maybe you've been there.

I've been there.

You know, where how did I get so far off track?

How did I let this happen?

What was I thinking?

You know, I brought this on myself, just wishing I'd done things God's way.

Feeling like I'd ruined everything.

That's where they were at.

Brokenhearted.

How could we have done it?

How could it have gone this far?

Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were interpreting for the people said to them, Don't mourn or weep on such a day as this.

For today is a sacred day before the Lord your God.

For the people had all been weeping as they listened to the words of the law.

And Nehemiah continued, Go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks, and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared.

This is a sacred day before our Lord.

Don't be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

For the joy of the Lord is your strength.

But I think only after studying Nehemiah together can we really absorb the power of what he is saying.

See, Nehemiah is standing.

As he's speaking, he is standing in front of the huge wall that with God's help they had just built together.

They have a new security.

They have a new strength.

And it's not the wall.

It's not the wall.

It's their new relationship with the living God.

The joy of the Lord, of the Lord is their strength.

See, that wall could fail them, but God won't.

And they've been reunited with Him.

And it's the same for us.

In Romans 4, it says, Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight.

Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin.

Is there something you've done or or not done that has you mourning and weeping instead of singing and dancing inside?

Yeah, we think God can't forgive us.

You know what I did was too bad, or I've done it too often, or I keep saying I'll change, then I don't.

That God's given up on us.

It's not true.

It's not true.

It doesn't matter what it is.

God's forgiven you.

So the question is, will you forgive yourself?

What's keeping us from that joyful relationship with God is us.

Can we forgive ourselves?

Nehemiah said to the people in Jerusalem, This is a sacred day before our Lord.

Don't be dejected and sad.

For the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Don't be sad.

God doesn't hold anything against you or me.

He adopts us as his own children, his very own kids.

See, that's the joy.

That's the joy that we don't deserve it.

That's the joy.

That even though we've gone our own way, even though that we've forgotten about God at times, it doesn't matter.

We're reunited.

He's forgiven us.

That is the joy.

We don't deserve it.

He loves us.

He loves you.

We're building and we're rebuilding.

And we're gonna finish our walls.

We are.

But after our marriage is healed, after we've gotten out of debt, after we've rebuilt our career, our children are doing well, we've overcome addiction, we will have accomplished a lot together with God.

We will have done amazing things with God.

But we'll have something besides a changed life.

Strength.

Strength to do anything, strength to face anything.

Our real security is not what we're building.

It's in our real relationship with our loving God who forgives us and is for us.

That joy is our strength.

In Romans 8, it says, so what do you think?

With God on our side like this, how can we lose?

If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing Himself to the worst by sending His own Son, is there anything else He wouldn't gladly and freely do for us?

And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen?

Who would dare even to point a finger?

The one who died for us, who was raised to life for us, is in the presence of God at this very moment, sticking up for us.

Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us?

There is no way.

What's going to get you?

What's going to stop you?

Nothing and nobody.

You'll withstand everything.

You'll get through anything.

We'll triumph in this life.

And we'll live forever in this amazing life to come.

And it's the joy of the Lord that's our strength.

And so they had a party.

It was really cool the way they they started this party.

They got up on the wall.

Twenty feet tall.

You know, 16 feet wide.

And so they all got up on the wall.

They had this huge choir and they had musicians.

And half of them, they got up at the same time.

Half of them went one way.

Dancing and singing and shouting.

And Nehemiah led the other half, and they went the other way.

This massive prey on top of the wall around the city of Jerusalem.

Two and a quarter miles.

You know, they went all the way around the wall.

And then they met together on the opposite side.

And they parted.

It says, that day they offered great sacrifices, an exuberant celebration, because God had filled them with great joy.

The women and children raised their happy voices with all the rest.

And Jerusalem's jubilation was heard far and wide.

God can do anything, you know, more than we can possibly dream or imagine.

He did it in Nehemiah's day.

He'll do it today with you.

You know, we're going to finish this morning by joining the party.

You know, if the worship team will come up, we'll get ready to dance and sing and shout our uh ourselves.

You know, we've got one more song together.

In fact, if you'll stand.

Yeah, what a story.

What a comeback.

You know, what a comeback for these people.

What a God.

Six months from sorrow, disgrace to unimaginable joy.

Joy that's heard really throughout the land.

And Nehemiah shows us how they did it.

You know, they prayed and they trusted and they fought.

And they were honest and they were generous and they had each other's backs.

And when they got discouraged, they just remembered.

They remembered that what they were doing was important.

It wasn't just for them, it was for their families.

It mattered.

And so they fought together.

And they built and they built and they built.

And when they got done, they had a wall.

But they had something much more important.

They had a new relationship.

They were reunited with their father who loves them.

Thanks to Jesus.

It is so easy for us to reunite with our Father that loves us.

We just have to turn to him in our own words.

You say, you know, I'm going to follow you.

I'm going to trust you.

Please take over my life.

And he does.

And he fills us with his spirit, with his joy, with his strength.

And then he transforms us from the inside out.

You know, God is so good to us, he gives us so much.

One of the things he's done is preserved Nehemiah's autobiography for 2,500 years.

To show us how we can do it.

How we can build and how we can rebuild and how we can do great things with God.

And we will.

You will.

We'll do it together.

We'll build.

But more than what we build, more than what we've changed, we've got a life-giving relationship with our God who loves us.

That's our strength.

That's how we will get through everything.

Let's pray.

Father, you are such a great God.

We do love you.

We thank you for adopting us as your own children.

Help us build.

Help us rebuild.

Fill us.

Fill us, God, with your joy.

Fill us, God, with your spirit.

Fill us, God, with your strength.

We thank you.

We trust you.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.