[Sunday School] Nehemiah12

Yeah.

Actually, this is we sort of before we dive here into I you know Nehemiah 11, I think just need to offer like do you have any reflections, you know, from your time in Europe that you feel the need to share that are hopefully not about torture chambers.

Which of which pictures you showed me before dinner on Wednesday.

I feel the need.

Oh, you're talking about the torture chamber.

Um yes, I was saying maybe don't talk about the torture chamber.

I was really prefacing that like if you felt the need to say anything upon your return that was hopefully not about the torture chamber.

Just a greater uh great appreciation for living in this century.

You know, the Lord puts everybody in history at a certain time, and I'm really glad he put us into this soldier versus the 1400s as the impaler, who was and not not in the good sense, right?

Not impaling in the good sense.

It's uh the bad kind.

Is there any good inhaling?

Yeah, that's what I was doing.

Well, no, that's up to you, but uh whatever it was, his was the bad kind.

So no, just uh it's good to be back, and you know, always look forward to wherever I'm going.

So and I'll almost uh called last uh Sunday at uh 9.55 and just uh you know have the alarm go off there.

But uh single which reminds me of the central alright.

I was wondering what happened while I was gone.

What did y'all learn?

Uh what did we learn while Al was gone?

Nothing.

No, no, just you knew that already.

You knew that already has nothing new.

What happened in Nehemiah chapter 10 and around?

Nehemiah 10 · chapter mention

Nine and ten.

Confession and covenant.

Indeed.

They did make a covenant, they began dedicating this wall and and confessing, and they made a covenant.

Why do people make covenants?

Sometimes they're not too smart.

So they're not too smart.

We wait, I I I even drug out the whiteboard last week.

Oh.

Yeah.

Apparently not to great effect.

Um what is a covenant?

A promise.

A promise?

I guess they made covenants in hopes that they would stick to it.

It's kind of like a pledge.

Binding.

A bond of blood.

Those who were here last week, what what was the nature of the covenant in Nehemiah 10?

They weren't gonna marry their kids off.

They weren't gonna marry their kids off, ever?

Well, to unlike foreigners.

Yeah.

People who don't believe.

I look back and saying, let's look at some of the reasons we have gone astray.

And one of the ways is like with our personal relationships, what we've done with our kids, it's like we have not kept ourselves a people of God.

They look back and they say, communally, we have had generational problems.

This community confession leads to community promise.

They also say, we're not going to neglect the temple.

We're going to follow the Sabbath, but we're also going to give God our first fruits.

They've not been faithful to God in their money.

They've not been faithful to God in their time.

And what they really do is they look back and they say, these really basics of the Mosaic covenant, which they basically are dedicating to follow, is we're going to make sure that the temple is taken care of.

All this we've worked rebuild.

We're dedicating God's day in the Sabbath.

It says when outsiders come in to try to sell things on the Sabbath, we're not going to buy from them.

We're going to keep the Lord's Day holy.

And we talked some last week.

It is the leaders sign it first, and they sign it very publicly.

They go in front of the teacher.

It's like, okay, we are signing this covenant, and you all can hold us accountable for this.

It's like the last people who are going to be buying and doing any commerce and making any money on the Sabbath is us.

The last people who are going to be marrying off and making and having relations with anybody else is us.

And this takes them into Nehemiah 11.

Because they still have a problem.

They still have a barely populated city.

Now, now, Al, you drove through, at least you've told me through, like some really isolated backroads of villages in Romania.

Now I have been in one officially certified ghost town in my life.

Sarah has a mug from it.

I know.

You know, the ghost town had like probably a number of people in it under than 10.

It was in New Mexico.

And it it was called chloride.

Well, it's still called there.

It's Chloride New Mexico.

And uh it was once a it was once a silver mine.

It was once a silver mining town, but then the price of silver fell.

So they mine silver, but it's called Chloride?

Yes.

I many questions, but um not a lot of people there to answer them.

Um and uh but when and started on vacation, we went we went to Chloride, the one woman sort of of in still in her 60s, and there kind of showed us around to the old town store, told us a little about it, and then we did uh Rick and Jan's marriage groups, which I think this is one of one of their questions, and yeah, yeah, one of their cards in a picnic table in the in this ghost town out in front of the store.

Um, but it it reminds me some of, you know, there were some of the trappings of the former ghost town.

They tried to keep up some of the former buildings in New Mexico, show a lot of the mining tools on display, but there's basically no people.

There's this one woman taking care of her elderly parents living across the street.

She keeps the store open for people wanting to come in and have tours.

There's a couple people in the back raising some goats, but that's that that's kind of it.

And here we have Jerusalem.

You know, it's it's a it's a city.

They've gone to great lengths to rebuild the walls, but they've had to bring the people in outside.

They've got some of the priests and the gatekeepers living in, but it's not.

There's no people.

It's it's like there's, you know, nobody remember wanted to be there.

All right.

Now, can we reflect on this?

Some why did people not want to be in Jerusalem?

Like, do you remember some of this from going back a couple weeks?

Well, with the wall day on, they were vulnerable.

So why do they need a wall?

To protect them from they were surrounded by enemies.

Yeah.

Yeah, even though all part of the Persian Empire, what we've had is every single community who also probably didn't like each other, but they all rallied against Jerusalem building this wall.

Uh St.

Balad and his cronies.

Other possible reasons people didn't want to live there.

The text suggests a few others.

When they go to rebuild this wall, the people not rebuilding the wall, they have opposition from their own families.

It's harvest time.

There are farming people.

The money to be made is not in the city.

There's not people there.

It's out in the villages, it's out in the towns.

That's where the commerce is.

There's nobody in the city.

It's that that's where the mischief is, that's where the problem is.

But the the money is out.

It's like to move into the city is is possibly an economic problem.

And so there's economic reasons to be out, and like the city's where the temple is, but we'll in Nehemiah 13, the temple itself is also like it's still only half functional.

You know, we'll relate it, you know, Tobias has been like, you know, using half of it for his own businesses.

Um it it's it's going to be a thing.

So but what was Jerusalem supposed to be?

Like in God's covenant promise.

What was it supposed to be?

The couple was there.

The couple?

The temple.

The temple was there.

Yeah.

The temple, no.

The heart.

The heart?

Explain the metaphor, Bill.

What do you mean by the heart?

It's supposed to be the heart of the nation.

The place where the focus is.

We are we are Israelites.

This is us.

This was the holy city of God.

And it's got a temple again, it's got walls, it looks like a city, except it doesn't have people.

I mean, I I you've traveled, I I've not been to Europe even nearly as much as you, but I've I've walked through some cathedrals there.

I've walked through in churches, some majestic ones.

I've walked through some very majestic and very empty churches.

Especially on Sunday morning.

Yeah.

Yeah, and I've done that in Germany and Austria.

And they're really pretty, but they're mostly museums and tourist attractions.

And that's kind of Jerusalem right now.

Where we are already, there's no people, there's no life in it.

Without the tourists.

Yeah.

You know, I grew up in a church that met in a hotel.

You know, they had to rent out unused rooms on Sunday mornings to have Sunday school and used a spare conference room to have worship center.

You know, it wasn't pretty.

You know, you know, it was a church, though.

You know, it had life.

You know, it did things.

You know, that's the entire opposite of this.

You know, except they've come back together as a people now.

They've confessed, and there's a lot more unity.

They've made a covenant, but they gotta fill the city.

You want to add something to this before we dive into some text?

No.

Okay.

I was gonna add about uh verse one when you mentioned holy city.

There's not many times when scripture talks about the holy city, and so I I love the emphasis that um that Nehemiah has, or the compilers here, who um who talk about that.

And they so before they talk about population, but they they give its purpose again.

Its purpose is to be holy, and the people themselves, as they did the oaths in the previous chapter, are to be holy.

That as well.

So which means it's it's devoted to the Lord.

So it's uh it's a big deal.

It is the whole thing.

I mean, we saw Kenny's sermon last week, you know, Jesus was, he reaches that point where he's intent.

His face was turned towards Jerusalem.

You know, the end goal is getting to the holy city.

It's where the business is going to get taken care of.

But it has to be filled with people.

The last time we recorded that he wept was over Jerusalem.

Yeah.

And what would happen to it?

Very sad.

Very sad.

All right.

Well, we got some names.

We had fun with me reading about Bunny and Bonnie uh last week.

Um they're gonna come back up again.

Um, so any anybody looking for baby names, I offer you a sh uh uh a Sheptia here today.

Um Shepataya?

Yeah, yeah, him.

Yeah, the guy.

Um, yeah.

And uh and call Jose, I th I think he's new.

Um so all right.

Uh Nehemiah 11.

Now leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem, and the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while nine out of ten remained in other towns.

And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem.

They were the chiefs of the prophets who lived in Jerusalem, but in the towns of Judah everyone lived on his property in their towns.

Israel, the priests, the Levites, the temple servants, and the descendants of Solomon's servants.

And in Jerusalem lived certain of the sons of Judah and of the sons of Benjamin.

Of the sons of Judah, Atiah the son of Azziah, the son of Zechariah, the son of Amariah, the son of Shepatiah, the son of Mahaleiah, the sons of Perez, and of Masaheah, the son of Baruch, the son of Kolhosea, the son of Hazaiah, the son of Adahiah, the son of Joiarib, the son of Zechariah, the son of Sheloanite, all the sons of Perez who lived in Jerusalem, were 468 valiant men.

And these are the sons of Benjamin, Salu, the son of Mesheholam, the son of Joed, the son of Pedaiah, the sons of Kolah, the son, son of Masaiah, son of Ithaliel, son of Jesahiah, and his brothers, men of valor, 928.

Joel, the son of Zachiri, was their overseer, and Judah, the son of Hasanuiah, was second over the city.

Of the priest, Jediah, the son of Jehoriaeb, Jacim, Sahariah, the son of Helikiah, the son of Meshulum, the son of Zadok, son of Meharioth, son of Hatiab, ruler of the house of God, and their brothers who did the work of the house, 822.

Adaiah, the son of Jehoiam, son of Palaya, son of Amzeh, son of Zechariah, son of Pashur, son of Machij, that guy.

And his brothers, heads of father's houses, 242.

Amashiah, the son of Azarel, son of son of Azai, son of Meshelemoth, son of Emir, and their brothers, mighty men of valor, 128.

Their overseer was Zabdiel, the son of Hagad Deon.

And of the Levites, Shemiah, the son of Hashob, son of Azarikum, son of Hashbaiah, son of Bunny, and Shabbatai, son of Josabab, and of the chiefs of the Levites, who were over the outside work of the house of God, and Mataniah, the son of Micah, the son of Zabdi, son of Asaph, who was the leader of the praise, who gave thanks, and Bakbuikiah, the second among his brothers, and Abdah, the son of Shemmuah, the son of Galal, the son of Jeduathun.

All the Levites in the holy city were two hundred and eighty-four.

The gatekeepers, Akob, Talm, and their brothers, who kept watch at the gates, were 172, and the rest of Israel and of the priests and the Levites were in all the towns of Judah, every one in his inheritance.

But the temple servants lived on Ofel, and Ziha and Gishbah were over the temple servants.

The overseers of the Levites in Jerusalem were Uzi, the son of Bani, son of Hashabiah, son of Mataniah, son of Meka, sons, and the sons of Asaph, the singers, over the work of the house of God.

For there was a command from the king concerning them, and a fixed provision for the singers, as every day required, and Pataniah, the son of Meshelabel, of the sons of Zarah, the son of Judah, was at the king's side in all matters concerning the people.

And as for the villages with their fields, some of the people of Judah lived in Cariabah Arba and its villages, and in Debon and its villages, and in Jechabazil and its villages, and in Jeshua and at Moalada, and in Beth Pellet, and in Hazarshula in Besheba and its villages, in Ziklak in Mekuna and its villages, in Enremon, in Zora, in Jarmuth, Zanua, Adulam, and their villages, Lakish and its fields, and Azika and its villages.

So they encamped from Bathsheba to the valley of Hinom.

The people of Benjamin also lived from Giba onward at Mikmash, Aija, Bethel, and its villages, Anatoth, Nob, Ananiah, Hazor, Ramah, Gitaim, Hadid, Zeboim, Nebalat, Lot, and Ono, the Valley of Craftsmen, and certain divisions of the Levites in Judah were assigned to Benjamin.

I asked Al on Wednesday if we really needed to uh to read the names.

Because I said you did say yes.

That's what he said.

He said yes with a big smile on his face.

He said You should do that.

What he said is what he said is I like the names.

That's what he said.

So names are good if you have something stuck in your throat.

I know.

I know.

Um so verse one.

You know, I think I've read Nehemiah a couple times in my life.

I I I I think this is one of the I think the most powerful verses for me, I I think honestly, in kind of my reread of this.

And it's not as much this, it is there's a certain spiritual spiritual dimension, but I I think I kind of keep coming back to it.

How did they decide how to get people to live in Jerusalem?

They drew straws.

They drew straws.

They drew straws.

Now, yeah, like I live in Lebanon, okay?

And Lebanon has a talent for growing houses.

It's like everybody wants to live in Lebanon and Mount Juliet right now.

It's just it's just just the houses pop up, and and you're either trying to live in Lebanon or complaining about the people trying to live in Lebanon.

Um, you know, it it's it's one of those two things.

And everybody is just trying to either like you're not you're either trying to build around the city, here you got Jerusalem and built this wall, and everybody's like, ah, free urban space.

No thanks.

Nope.

Nope.

Problems.

Um no.

And they cast lots.

One out of ten.

They take a tithe of people.

All right, people, we gotta fill the holy city.

It's like they've made a covenant, they're gonna offer their grain offerings to God, they're gonna offer their first fruits, and now they're going to bless all those who are willingly offering to go live inside Jerusalem.

What were they gonna give them, though?

Was that I mean, what are they gonna get to go live in Jerusalem?

I I assume a house.

Um rubble that they can make into a house.

Yeah.

They're going to leave the fields and they're going to go try to make a life for themselves and support this city.

Which I think is uh, you know, I mean, they're having family support.

I mean, I mean, this is Judah and Benjamin, you know, sending people from their tribes, you know, in into the City to go be there and populate it.

But this also means like it's not just going to be the spiritually elite living inside Jerusalem.

It's not just going to be the leaders.

But and then they they have to bless some.

And then they they say, you are blessed, those of you who willingly offer to go do this thing.

That most of us would frankly rather not do.

Did they have some volunteers to do this?

I think you know it it's doesn't really say any, does it?

No, but it feels like it feels like a continuation of the oaths and obviously the covenant and the timing and all that they were doing.

And it feels like almost they agreed as a group we need to populate it.

Okay, I don't really necessarily want to go, but somebody has to go, and the only fair way to do it is with casting lots.

And sometimes you cast lots, you have multiple reasons.

One is you just can't make a decision, like Matthias, and you know, for selection for the replacement for Judas.

Sometimes it's like, hmm, I um, you know, somebody gets the short straw to go storm the beach in uh Normandy, right?

And so um it feels like kind of a almost a combination uh of those two.

And so that and so it feels like that they they did volunteer, okay.

If a lot falls on me, I'm gonna go and support that.

But it's it also feels like in the back in chapter 10 that there was going to be support for these people and work that we're doing there too.

It seems like they went out of their way to record the names who went.

So I'm wondering if that was part of the deal.

We will record your names, they'll be in scripture, and 2,500 years from now, we're gonna be saying your names, right?

You know?

Yeah, I think that was that was in a missing verse, missing verse in chapter 10 there.

I think that's in the trying to say your name.

We are going to record your name for posterity.

Posterity.

Well, they were the draft to preserve their country.

They were in the country.

The draft that preserved their country.

Yeah.

They did not have an affirmative.

But but who's definitely in there?

The leaders.

They went first.

Yeah, they went first.

Yeah.

Um, also in there, the priests, like the people worshiping the house of God, and the gatekeepers that Nehemiah already got.

And you know, we had a lesson on the gatekeepers, like those 172 people who like knew the mission.

Uh, they weren't hired primarily for looking burly, they were hired because they knew what the city was going to be about.

You know, and verse two uh brings that out too.

So and the people blessed all the men who willingly offer, so they blessed them, and it may not be like, bless you, my child, you know, be warm, be filled, uh, go in peace.

You know, it's probably a little bit more than that, too.

And I'm um it feels like they might have blessed them, analogous to blessing a new couple uh getting married and you know, gifts and things like that.

Not for sure, but it feels maybe differently.

It feels that way to me, that it was a more than just words.

This is enough people to support the temple.

Well, yeah, and but then there's the city as well, and they got you know, so there's more than that, but at least the temple.

Does the fact that they were chosen there, verse one that says the rest of the people cast lots from one out of ten?

So if they were if they were chosen by casting of lots, doesn't that not imply that there was really no qualifications?

They were cast by, or do we assume that the lots that when the lots were chosen, the can't the lots were cast.

Can we assume that providentially God makes sure that the proper people were chosen?

That would be uh yeah, you're talking about a quote from uh Job.

The uh the lot is cast into lap, but the Lord determines the outcome of that.

So it seems we tend to think of casting lots as being a random choice.

But really, it's even even it's really God's determination as to how they come out.

Yeah.

Sometimes casting lots is maybe a good way to decide you can't decide something.

So I have personal stories about that, we'll talk later.

But how do we understand the word willingly goes to?

I think they all volunteered.

I mean, I think as it's a group like they did the oath in the chapter 10, everyone said part of the oath.

I think everyone is like, okay, we got to do this.

We're gonna use lots to decide how that goes.

I think I think they had to volunteer to do that.

I mean, I can't imagine somebody in the in the villages, no, I'm not going.

You know, it feels like they use it in a positive way.

I don't know for sure.

No, these are all the people there in the service.

They've they're joining in the covenant.

You know, on some level, you know, it it there could be a conscription, and and honestly, Bill, I think it's a good question, and I've I've wondered it, and I I don't frankly, for commentaries in, have have one who can say, are the people offering willingly, are these they took volunteers and then they cast lots on everybody else?

Did you volunteer for the lots?

I I don't know.

But the people who apparently don't fight it for whatever reason, that they are blessed by one else for taking on this service.

And you know, I I think it reminds me of like, you know, a church, you know, you're going to send out missionaries, you know, you put together a team to do something, you know, you know it's going to be hard work, you know.

You know, you bless those people, you know, show special honor on those people.

Um, you know, you're leaning into the work of God.

Yeah.

My question is, and it's probably just a loop room, but to me, it seems like when I've read, I've read through the Bible a few times, but blessings back then seemed like well, more important than they do nowadays.

I mean, blessing was a huge thing back then.

Yeah, like when Jason Blessing, because it was a big deal in generations.

Yeah.

And how the firstborn son was kind of guaranteed the blessing for the family.

And nowadays, I mean, I think a blessing is wonderful, but in general speaking, I think it was more important back then.

I think it was.

It felt like more than words to me.

Yeah.

More than words.

So when um Isaac blessed uh Jacob, he's got the firstborn son, he got a double portion.

Firstborn son got a double portion of everything.

Or when um Abraham blessed Melchizedek, they gave him a tenth of all he had.

And it was more than just, hey, like you, Melchizedek, it was it was it was strong.

I think your point is true, it's stronger than just that.

And it feels like too, this uh guaranteed a blessing, yeah.

You know, to me, would would have been very enticing that we well, yeah, then they were it was it wasn't necessarily as simple, but I think you're probably right with that.

But also feels like a continuation again of chapter 10.

You had all these oaths to um um about the service to God and the Sabbath and all that in the 10th, and as Jason mentions, one of the 10th that they might have continued on because they're talking about they were giving Drain of that too, is they're giving people to God's city as well.

It's it just feels almost feels like this could be a continuation, the first two verses a continuation of chapter 11.

Is that uh well, chapter 10 ends with we will not neglect the house of our God.

Right, and then they violate the city.

Usually when you see a list of names like this, it's significant, you know?

And so I'm wondering, are we throwing our you know 21st century thoughts on these guys?

I'm wondering if the one out of ten wasn't a oh no, I got picked, and it was praise God, God has found me worthy and has picked me.

And uh, and you look at how these this list, men of valor, mighty men of valor.

I mean, they're getting listed, they're getting, you know, these are significant people, so it could have been I praise God, I was the one who got picked.

I think it's a possible interpretation.

It was um um verse two that blessed all the men who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem, felt like they called out willingly specifically versus casting lots.

I mean, I I don't know.

I think it could be the one.

I think it's fair.

We just we just honor the whoever they are, we honor them by Jason reading the names.

I I think the so the names, you know, whatever it strikes me again, this is just a feature of Nehemiah we come back to because he, I mean, he doesn't mention himself, he mentions himself as being the first one, you know, who who agrees to the whole covenant in chapter 10, but it's like it took a lot of people.

It's like he's like, here were the gatekeepers, here were the singers, here were all the sub-priests, here were all the Levites, here were the people who supervised this group of people.

It's you know, in an age where we're often led to think of like influencers or superstars, it's like you know, you know, the house of God is really built up by just like here's all these people who came together to do this.

And it's it's like it's like here are the people of God.

It's like it's all these other people and who you're not gonna hear about again.

And and and this was this person's dad, and that was that person's dad.

And and and then and this person worked with this person, and then they were and they were assisted by this person, and they all worked together to do all of this, and that is the people of God in concert.

It's not, hey, I'm Nehemiah.

This place was rubbed.

I was in, you know, I was anointed by God.

I showed up and woo, we got a city now.

It's like buy my book.

And I got a podcast.

You know, it's um it's hey.

Now we find out Bonnie also had a kid.

He also got to work in the day, you know, it's uh um as opposed to it's like, you know, you're you're are you a person God is like you're on you're on God's list somewhere.

It's like you're you can do something.

It's like it's like all of us in the room here in the room.

It's like we are what build the house of God.

You know, none of us has a Tim Keller, you know, you know, has a has a Tim Keller Lislaw library.

It's like it's like that's the ridiculous exception, you know, for how God works.

You know, he's built off of normal people just being willingly to go live in Jerusalem.

Go guard the gate.

Go save it.

It's like the people have provision to provide for the sinners.

Go save it.

Go make sure there's bread in the town.

Which applies to us.

That culture, too, you know, we don't understand the whole concept of cathedral building in our culture today, where you would spend your life building something that you'd never see.

But it was for another generation.

But think about the pilgrims who came, you know, the people who came here from America to America wanting to build a nation for their children's children's children, you know, that they would never see.

And what they risked and what they gave, that was a whole different mindset that we've kind of lost that.

But the concept of the cathedral was, you know, well known that you spend your life to build something that's going to exist after you.

So they're building a city, they're building a nation, you know, a city that's going to exist after them.

So again, that mindset would be there, it wouldn't be with us because the house is, you know, we built a house in three months.

The house is built.

You know, where we're upset that it's taken four.

But uh, in that culture, it was it was a different mindset.

It was.

And they and they did, you're right.

And they also did build it to last.

I mean, the thing about the temples initially constructed, you know, the stones and how that works when they think about how houses in in Europe are built, how the churches are built, and um and the you know, just they they build it to last.

They also um uh in here they does point out the different groups populating specifically, the priests, the Levites, the temple servants, and Solomon's servants.

So, do you all remember the difference in those groups and what they did?

Robin, you look like you knew.

I don't remember.

Refresh.

So priests were the ones who could offer sacrifices, they were acting a media, mediating role, they they would do judgments as well.

It's kind of like each one kind of supported the group of the Levites, were managing stuff about the temple, maybe helping manage sacrifices and supporting priests, they could have done they collected the tithes, yeah.

Collected, yeah, yeah, that as well.

And then you had the the temple servants, and they're focused on the temple and managing that.

Then you had Solomon servants who possibly were like descendants of the guys that Solomon had to bring in that you know ran out his his empire and his houses and maybe the temple as well because he built up a whole lot of stuff as well.

So they they were clear about that that whole dissolution, uh, how to descend it out and um and reconstituting the city with the same type of people that was prescribed in the law back in the day.

So they're they really want to be observant uh for that.

So that was and and uh you remember they went through that that controversy of who was in the role or not, who was who was descended or not, could you prove it, could you not prove it?

So they were like really these are this is the beginning of being super diligent about following God's law, and there's a sad element to it.

You saw what it resulted in in Jesus' day.

It resulted in the Pharisees, it resulted in we're keeping the law, we're doing what God told us to do.

So there's joy in the city in the holy city, and then you think about oh, it could go wrong in a different way.

So just some uplifting thought, just some about that, about that.

So we had the we had those uh those purposes, and also those so they also had the leaders, and I don't know that these leaders were appointed, you know.

One might suspect that they were elected.

So they did have this element of there's the leaders of Judah and Benjamin.

Oh, we happen to have a map here.

Is it time for the map or you're not?

It's time for the map.

No, that's it.

Here, you know, here's maps.

Those people they need maps.

I don't think maps.

So we should put it in how many things can be fine here that you're recommending.

It is.

So some of the full map, and and it's also not I didn't create the map, I think it was somewhere else.

AI.

A L Greg says that they invented AI back there.

Oh, they uh question mark been around.

AI or L, yeah.

It's a lowercase.

AI back in uh back in the day.

Why is there a question mark after it?

Oh well they weren't positive, they kind of think it was there, but that's the not the or maybe they missed got the spelling uh kind of funny as well.

So uh a lot of the uh uh the folks for um I think Benjamin were towards the um towards the north and the and the west, and Judah was towards the south.

So if you had the historical, remember Judah and Benjamin were the two tribes that constituted the nation of Judah.

Those were the two, so that's they still had their historical uh villages and spread them out that way.

So you look in Jerusalem, you see, man, these guys are all spread out around there.

So they brought people from all over to populate the city.

In the upper left, you see towards Joppa, um, and technically Tel Aviv today is right next to Joppa.

They're looking for Tel Aviv on the map, right around Joppa.

And um remember Ono, I think was the was that the valley where they said, Hey Nehemiah, we got some folks want to talk to you.

Let's go to the valley of Onoh.

And you know what Nehemiah said?

Ono, I ain't going there.

That's what they are gonna remember that as well.

So they're they're spread out, and you see their enemies as well, the um Edomia, the Edomites, and the and yet Ashdod, the Philistines, you got the um Samaritans uh up on the top, and so it's a spread out place, and those people got selected to come from those villages to come live in Jerusalem.

It's a it's uh kind of a big deal, I think.

So, anyway, that's a fun uh historical thing.

Well, Jason, I have a personal story to relate.

Okay.

Um before we moved here, we lived in a suburb of Chicago called Wheaton, uh, which is uh let's just say a fairly nice uh suburb, and um it reminded us more of the South.

There were a bunch of churches in Wheaton.

It wasn't exactly southern, but there were a lot more churches, and so it felt a little bit more like home.

Not a large city, 50,000 or so, constrained by land.

Um, wasn't much else to develop there.

And we went to uh maybe the biggest church there called College Church.

Anyway, heard of Wheaton College, that's right next to Wheaton College, and um several folks' names you might know in Christian publishing and other stuff were there.

Ken Taylor, who did the Living Bible, was the elder who examined Brendan Leeds Lee to for membership.

And um there were a couple of the associate pastors there, and maybe others who had a, you know, they had a lot of big missions program, big church, you know, that was kind of cool.

But a few guys said, you know, we have this large city next to us called Chicago.

And Chicago is not very well represented with evangelical Christians.

We would like to have establish a church and have Chicago as our mission.

And they didn't just send a couple guys and you know start getting on the street and hey, hand out pamphlets and stuff like that.

They started a year or more in advance, and I'm not sure if it's 37 people or 37 families who started getting together, praying, talking about, oh, we're gonna go.

And they actually moved, they moved from this nice suburb into the city to have enough people to start a church and get it going.

I don't know that it ever became very large, started meeting in various places, but when I was doing some research on it today, um they had actually spawned other churches around the city and another church that's of a reasonable size as well.

So, what they've done since we've been gone, uh maybe that reason, I don't know, they uh uh they have grown and they've started spreading the gospel.

They went back to the city.

We're a nice big suburb, and you know, nice and everything's nice and happy there, very, very low crime rate, very peaceful.

Uh and they went back in to start to do that, which I thought was um interesting, maybe not exactly the same as.

These guys, but you know that that goal was let's let's start taking the gospel back to the city.

The city is um is a big important place.

We've heard about a lot of uh flight from cities, right?

I don't want to live in a big city.

Um I can visit big cities, but I live in a big city.

I want to say big city, I want life things to be safe.

But they they moved out of comfort zones.

They moved out to do that as well.

I don't know the example for Hickory Grove.

I don't know that we want people to go into Nashville and start a church.

I don't need that necessarily, but uh I think that uh it is analogous in some way for us to think about our our comfort zones.

And um how we're taking.

So what is the Lord's Prayer?

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is of heaven.

What does that mean?

Well, we want we're not gonna have heaven on earth without Jesus here.

I'm not saying that, but the world is for Christ.

And what does that mean if you could grow?

I don't have an answer for that, but I think it's a good question for us to consider as our church is growing as we're as we're moving.

How do we how do we kind of claim this area for Christ?

How do we continue to do that?

How do we enlarge the kingdom?

How do we take the city and populate it and make sure that it thrives with uh with resources and things like that?

It's part of the reason we're fasting.

If we don't have leaders, it will be difficult.

That's right.

Very good point.

Very good point.

Well, as we fast today, though, I mean, this is definitely something for us as a church to be thinking about God, what does growth look like for bicker growth?

How do you define growth for us?

We're talking about getting a new associate pastor, we're expanding our church.

You know, we've got a new, all these people moving in behind us here coming soon.

And so I think this is a perfect connection where they're calling people to build this place, this sanctuary for God, in this location where there's safety and security.

God, how do you want to make us?

What would walls look like that would make this a safe a safe place where people can come for protection, security, health, healing, wholeness?

What can you do here?

I think as we fast today, that's an amazing thing for us to be praying about.

God, what do you want to do with me in Hickory Grove?

How can I serve and bless the church that you've created, that you're building, that you're growing?

Great way to pray.

I think it is.

I think he just said our closing prayer.

Let's pray.

It's still a thunder, so let's pray.

Rick, you want to pray?

Oh, Father God, thank you that you are faithful.

Thank you for these men whose names have been recorded through history for us to recite, who said, Yes, I will go, yes, I will build, yes, I will leave what's comfortable and do what you're calling me to do, Lord.

And if you choose me to go, I'll go.

And Father, you've chosen us to be here.

You've chosen us to be a part of Hickory Grove and what you're wanting to do here.

Father God, and we say yes to you.

Yes, we will be a part of this covenant family, serving, loving, not just coming and taking, but seeing what we can do to help build.

Lord, this is your church.

This is your where you live.

Father God, will you define growth for us?

Today, as we pray, as we fast, as we focus on you, will you define how you want us to grow and how you want each of us to dig in, to commit, to covenant with this church.

What does that look like, God?

How can we help?

How can we serve?

How can we help build what you want to do, God?

And we're just praying that you would be glorified in this church, glorified in and through us.

And today, as we fast, Lord, I pray for healing in marriages and in relationships and families and real spiritual growth for us as a church.

In Christ's mighty name I pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.