Nehemiah and the 7 C's: Collaboration

Well, good morning, everybody.

I hope you are like me, and this feels like fall to you, and you're it's not a dreary day, but it actually feels like a really exciting day because fall's here.

I'm so glad to be with you.

I hope you're excited to get to open up God's word today.

A number of years ago, when I was finishing up undergrad, I was enrolled in this course that you had to take your last semester of college.

It was called Senior Seminar.

And the point of the class was you would spend the majority of the class writing your thesis, but you were also in the class alongside the other people who were seniors within your course of study.

And so at about midterms week, you would begin the second half of the class, which was being a part of a group application project.

And so, as someone who was studying mathematics, it we got to some like really crazy theories, and it would be really challenging to try to figure out how this actually connected to the real world.

For some of you, that was just taking algebra, but like it does get a little challenging when you get up into all these weird, weird math theories.

Like, how does this actually play out in the world?

And I had seen over and over and over again through my time of being here at the school, everyone's projects of the people who had gone before me.

And I'd there were some really beautiful, even just replicas of what people had been able to prove and discover and how it was used in the real world.

And I mean, there was someone who was proving how math is used to clean the Eiffel Tower, like just really cool ways that whether you agree or not, math is cool and is useful.

And during um midterms week of my last semester of college, I got salmonella.

Perfect timing, right?

And so it's midterms week, which is the week that you pick the group that you're gonna do this project with.

And so naturally, I didn't get a chance to choose because I was out for a few days.

And so when I got back, I had been placed in the group that had the least amount of people.

And I came back to find out that I was in the group that decided that their life application project was going to be to set out to prove that every Hollywood actor or actress is indeed within six degrees of Kevin Bacon.

That was uh, some of you, that sounds like a great application project.

Not I.

And not only was that the group I had been placed into, it was all guys, and they had decided, kindly on my behalf, that they were gonna take care of all of the research.

They were gonna watch the movies, they were gonna sit on IMBD, they were gonna do the research side of things, and I could just handle the computation side.

So, so generous of them, right?

And this is hilarious in theory, but I can promise you, it was brutal in practicality.

It was it was miserable to be the one to have to sit there with data set after data set of just proving, and it is true, if you're wondering that every Hollywood actor or actress is indeed within six degrees of Kevin Bacon.

And isn't that just like Murphy's law of group projects?

Like, if there's a group project, you're gonna get in, you're gonna have the worst one, and you're gonna have the worst worst responsibility in the group.

See, collaboration, what we are gonna talk about today.

It is wonderful when it is done well.

It's that high school musical scene where you know you have the drama kids and the basketball players all synchronized, dancing across uh dancing across the basketball gym floor, singing we're all in this together.

Like it's it's wonderful and we love it when it's done well.

But when you get the short end of the stick, we hate it.

We hate collaboration.

And where we pick back up in Nehemiah this morning, it's kind of felt a little bit like high school musical up until this point.

Nehemiah gets a vision and a burden for the for the people of Jerusalem, and he does something about it.

He goes, and the king makes a way, and then you see the people begin to rally around this.

And Nehemiah chapter three, what we studied last week, everyone's on board.

They have started the rebuilding process, and so families, priests, rulers, craftsmen, perfumers, they're all stationed around this wall, and they're grabbing brick by brick and they're putting this wall back together.

And then, and so by the time we get to Nehemiah 4, where we're gonna be today, by the time we get to Nehemiah 4, half the wall has been built.

We read this last week, Nehemiah 4, chapter, Nehemiah chapter 4, verse 6, it says, So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.

Nehemiah 4:6

But when Sanbalat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the people of Ashdid heard that the repairs to Jerusalem's wall had gone ahead, and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry.

They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it.

See, up until this point, when you read their names throughout the Book of Nehemiah, they've just been a little bit like internet trolls.

Like a few nasty comments here and there, poking fun, making fun of the people of Jerusalem, but they haven't actually been a real threat.

They're just annoying.

But now they can see that half the wall is actually built, and so it's time for them to take seriously the fact that they don't want this wall to be built.

And so they actually create a plan of destruction.

We're not gonna allow the people of Jerusalem to keep building.

And so not only are they taking it seriously, now the people of Jerusalem have to take this seriously.

Because they can't just keep whistling hi-ho and you know, putting brick after brick.

Now some of them need to turn around from the wall.

They need to grab a sword and they actually have to fight for their lives.

Not only is the productivity of this wall cut in half, now some of them need to figure out how to not actually see the progress of the thing that they signed up for, the thing that they wanted to do, and they have to grab a sword, probably something maybe they have never even picked up before, and figure out how to defend the entire wall.

No longer can they just stand next to their besties shoulder to shoulder and be like, this is so fun, don't you just love getting to serve together?

Now one of them has to decide they're willing, if they're willing enough to take on a new assignment for the sake of the team.

Can I tell you how grateful I am that 47 years ago there were a group of people sitting in chairs just like these at a church not too far from here?

Pomona First Baptist, now called Purpose Church Pomona.

You know how grateful I am that a group of people sitting in those chairs were willing to take on a new assignment for the sake of the team, were willing to actually allow the Lord to break their heart and be moved in compassion, to do the really scary thing and step out in courage and leave their community behind so that you and I sitting in these chairs and you online could be able to worship God here at Hillside Community Church.

That they were willing to rip speaker systems off their walls every Sunday so that there could be an audio system here.

I mean, talk about taking on a new assignment for the sake of the team.

See, collaboration always requires a sacrifice of preference for the sake of the team.

It always working with God's people, it always requires stepping back, allowing the Lord to break our hearts, moving us toward compassion in such a way that we would be willing to lay down our preferential way of serving for the sake of the whole team that is the big sea church.

And what happens very quickly is you begin to watch here in Nehemiah 4, you begin to watch the community begin to crumble under the weight of this new plan.

It says this in verse 10.

Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there's so much rubble we can't rebuild the wall.

Then the Jews who lived them, lived near them came and told us ten times over, wherever you turn, they'll attack us.

Wherever you turn, can you imagine hearing that every single day?

Wherever you turn, they're gonna get ya.

Wherever you turn, they're gonna get ya.

Their lives are on the line, they're exhausted, and they are so ready to just throw in the towel, we're done.

And so Nehemiah in this moment has a decision to make.

He can either allow them to, they can surrender, half the wall is built, they tried, good for them.

Or he can go back to the people as the leader that he is, and he can find a way for them to shoulder the weight of the project differently.

Shoulder the heaviness of the burden that it is to get to be people united on a mission for the sake of God's kingdom and how to shoulder that weight differently.

And so he asks this question in verse 13.

He says, Where are we exposed?

Therefore, I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by their families with their swords, spears, and bows.

And after I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, Do not be afraid of them.

Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.

Then Nehemiah in this moment, he finds the vulnerable places, the places where danger and people could slip through the cracks, and he reminds them of the why.

Why are they there in the first place?

Not just because it's fun to build a wall.

They're there because it's what God desires for them.

It's there, they're there because this is the mission and the obedient thing do in response to the greatness and the awesomeness of the Lord.

And so he says two things.

He says, remember the Lord, and he says, fight for your people.

Remember the Lord.

That in this moment, they didn't need platitudes or a high five or a get back to work.

It's time to go.

In this moment, the people of Jerusalem, the only thing that was actually going to get them to turn back around, to ignore the, they're gonna, they're gonna get you, they're gonna get you to ignore the defeating reality of being attacked from all angles.

The only thing that was going to get them back on track was the strength of the Lord.

Was the encouragement that can only be found when our eyes are fixed on the one who designed us to be on mission in the first place.

Man, when a when a vision and when a mission is new and shiny, it is so easy to say yes.

When you see a crisis or when you see a need, man, sign me up, right?

But when you're like a year and a half out from that and you still are on that serve team, and you're just done and it's boring and you're tired and you're ready for a new one, those are the moments where the strength of the Lord and the vision of the Lord is the only thing that's going to keep you showing up day after day.

Then these moments they needed to remember the Lord, his greatness and his awesomeness, and keep their eyes fixed there and not on the enemy surrounding them from all angles.

He says, Remember the Lord, and he says, fight for your people.

Fight for your families, fight for this community.

He personalized it.

That they weren't just protecting a wall, they're actually protecting each other in this moment.

Steve Mathis, who leads our Next Steps class here, when he gets to the week on community, every time he repeats this sentence, he says, You don't know you need community until you need community.

But up until this point, they they could have probably been able to get through the rebuilding of the wall with their heads down and their airpods in.

But now, when they turn around and they start to build the wall, some hooligan is standing behind them holding a sword, probably for the first time, and they have to believe that that guy is actually going to do his job and save their life.

They have to fight for their people.

That collaboration is believing that you're not just wanted in community, but you're needed in community.

That the community, the the body of believers, God's people, is actually lacking without your participation.

You know what I always found really fascinating?

Genesis chapter 1 and 2.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

You read the creation of the whole world, and it is beautiful.

I mean, go there this week.

Read about what it looks like for God to speak, and things can come into existence.

And you read, you read, God, speak, and there is light, and he says it's good.

Speak and there is stars and it is good.

Speak and there is ocean and it is good, and then there's vegetation and it's good, and then there's animals and it's good.

And then you get to the seventh day, and it says, you get to this very end, and it says that God created mankind in his image.

And he says it's what?

It's very good.

It's very good.

That when you're reading Genesis 1 and 2, you get to see this beautiful image of how God has designed us to be and to dwell with him.

Before, remember, sin doesn't enter the picture until Genesis 3.

Before sin separates and destroys, and our world becomes fallen, before that, as he's looking out over creation, there's this crazy sentence in Genesis 2, verse 18.

Genesis 2:18

He's looking out over everything that he has just made that he has called very good, and it says, The Lord said, It is not good for man to be alone.

I will make a helper suitable for him.

That the very first time something in Scripture and creation is not good is isolation, is loneliness.

Very first time God ever utters those words is when he sees man alone.

So he says, I'm gonna make a helper suitable, this Azer Connecto, a strong support, a powerful aid, different but yet equal in value, that you guys are going to be designed to help each other.

And that you actually are going to need each other.

It's how I've made you.

And it isn't just in Genesis, you get all the way to 1 Corinthians 12, and Paul is picking back up the exact same idea when he says this.

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.

Now, if the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body, it would not for that reason stop being a part of the body.

And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body, it wouldn't for that reason stop being a part of the body.

If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of hearing be?

If it were an eye, where would the hearing be?

If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?

But in fact, God has placed the parts of the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.

To need each other, to actually need to rely upon one another.

To like Proverbs 27 says, to sharpen one another.

Or like Romans says, to share in our joy and our mourning.

Or like Galatians says, to bear one another's burdens.

That it's here, page after page after page, that it's not just a good idea to be in relationship, it is necessary and actually part of how we are designed.

To need to be helpers, suitable for one another.

There is a reality to the fact that God has gifted each and every single one of us uniquely for the sake of each other.

And it's the reality of this biblical reality that we're gifted differently that actually is what makes each of us necessary.

And that while this book is about rebuilding a wall, it's just as much about God rebuilding and restoring his people.

But let me pause right here.

Maybe you feel a little bit like I did when I first read Thur Nehemiah.

That from the outside looking in, this is Nehemiah is a great leader.

This is a really cool project.

I've never built a wall, so if I ever build a wall, like I'll come back and I'll consult this book.

Good idea.

We got some good teamwork.

Like this looks like a this looks like a good book from the outside.

And it's easy to cheer on the collaboration and the way that they serve one another in this book.

But it's a whole different ball game when you're invested in the project.

And I would venture out on a limb right now to say you probably do agree with me.

Because I would guess maybe 90% of you are still shuddering a little bit from when I said the words group project 20 minutes ago.

See, I am an eldest daughter.

I am very driven.

I, to my own detriment, I'm very aware, live for the next achievement in life.

I do.

And so you tanking my grade on a group project is my worst nightmare.

It is my worst nightmare.

And so I've developed this strategy, being in one too many group projects, where I will go in, guns ablazing, so excited to get to be a part of this project with you, and I'll convince you that I think group projects are a wonderful idea.

They're a wonderful idea.

And I tell you what part I'm gonna do, and and you'll pick up this is what you're gonna do, and then we'll you know we'll reconvene on this date to share all the progress we've made.

And then what I do is I turn around, I go home, and I do everybody's part.

Why?

Because you're not actually gonna do your part, or you're not at least gonna do your part correctly, and so I need to make sure that when it's time to present this group project, at least someone's put the whole thing together.

And you're laughing because half of you are me and the other half of you rely on people like me.

It's true, it's a reality.

We all we all do this.

Why?

Why do we do this?

Why deep down do we want this to be true?

Do we see it in scripture over and over again to be good and true?

But when it what but when push comes to shove and we actually have to rely upon someone, or we actually need to be a part of a team, do we crawl back into our hole of self-reliance?

Why do we sit here and nod our heads at passages like 1 Corinthians 12?

But then turn around and not actually live like it.

I would, again, I would go out on a limb to say it's probably because, like me, somewhere along the way of living in a fallen and broken world, someone or something has proven to you just how terrifying it is to trust people.

Just how terrifying it is to rely upon someone else.

And so you, like me, have built a different type of wall, brick by brick, and it's just one around yourself, making sure that you can stay safe.

If I don't need anyone and no one ever needs me, I only have to trust me and me alone.

And I know that because I was her for so long.

I sat in so many circles of people, and I was never a part of them.

I was present, but I wasn't known.

I would make sure that I was the only person I had to rely on, and no one had to rely on me so that I could stay safe.

I was her for so many years.

And it's it's the trap of individualism.

It does work for a while.

That's the danger.

I sat in so many circles, so many circles.

And the truth is, you didn't have to tell me I was missing out.

I knew it.

I knew deep down in my bones how much I needed the people around me.

I needed their wisdom, I needed their help, I needed their experience, their perspective.

I needed the people that God had put around me to actually help me carry the weights of the world and what I what I do believe God's asking me to do in this world.

And in the same vein, I knew that I was robbing my community of me.

I knew that by never buying in, by never being a part of the team and staying safe, I was missing out on what it meant to be a part of it.

That there were parts of me and how God has made and gifted and wired me that my community was lacking because I wasn't willing to be a part of it.

And I knew it, you didn't need to convince me.

Didn't know how to get there.

I was terrified.

And eventually I had to just hit a point where I had to weigh the cost.

See, biblical collaboration, being co-laborers alongside God's people.

It's more than just some sort of leadership principle.

It's more than figuring out how to do things more effectively.

It is learning how to love and be loved by people.

That that is that's the mission we are called to as believers.

Eugene Peterson in his book, Along Obedience in the Same Direction, has this beautiful quote.

He says, This every day I put love on the line.

There is nothing I'm less good at than love.

I'm far better in competition than love.

Yes, and amen.

I'm far better at responding to my instincts and ambitions to get ahead and make my mark than I am at figuring out how to love one another.

I'm schooled and trained in acquisitive skills and getting my own way.

And yet I decide every day to set aside what I can do best and attempt what I do very clumsily.

Open myself to the frustrations and failures of loving, daring to believe that failing in love is better than succeeding in pride.

That failing together is actually better, is actually safer, is actually more worth it than learning or figuring out how to succeed alone.

And this kind of love, this love that we're called and invited into, it is terrifying.

It's risky and it's costly to risk being known, to risk needing someone, to risk being disappointed, to risk someone else not carrying out their part perfectly.

And church, can I tell you, it is one of the greatest dangers of being a part of a big church.

You can be here for a really long time, and I pray it's not your whole life.

And you can sit in chairs and you can even be in circles, and you could never be known.

You can never put yourself in a situation to actually put love on the line, to step out in faith and do the thing that you're terrified to do, or rely upon God's people to actually walk in the ways that they're gifted and serve you.

It's possible.

It's why we repeat over and over and over again how important it is for you to be in community, to be in circles, how important it is for you to step up and actually use the gifts that God has given you to serve his church.

It's not just a good idea, it's how you're made, and there is a danger to just standing on the sidelines saying someone else will do it.

I promise you, scripture is so clear that the risk is worth it.

That God actually meant it when he said, it's not good for man to be alone.

And a life where no one can hurt you is likely a life where no one knows you.

A life protected by a wall around you is likely a life where you never have to learn how to love or be loved.

Nehemiah says this.

He says, I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places.

Friends, for better or for worse, collaboration's front door is vulnerability.

Allowing exposed places where people or things could slip through the cracks to be exposed.

And choosing anyway to tiptoe into the dangerous group project that is participating in the kingdom of God.

Living out and believing in the mission that we've been invited to to love God and love people.

Because as chapter four continues, they're gonna have to scatter.

Each one of them has to figure out how to do their own part.

The only way that this wall goes up and the people stay alive is if they all love each other enough to do the terrifying thing.

To take on the assignment that they don't want.

To step up to the plate and do the task that they have zero experience in, but it's what's needed.

To turn their back on the enemy, trusting the hooligan behind them will continue to do their part as they do theirs.

And being willing to fight for each other.

Verse 15, when our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, look at this, each to our own work.

And from that day on, half my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows, and armor.

The officers posted them behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall.

Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other.

And each of the builders wore his swords at his side as he worked.

But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me.

Then I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, the work is extensive and spread out.

And we are widely separated from each other along the wall.

Whenever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there.

Our God will fight for us.

See this wall, it needed builders, it needed guards, it needed someone to grab a bucket and go back and forth and back and forth and carry materials, and even someone who knew how to play a trumpet.

And as they all went back to work, they all had to carry their tool in one hand and their weapon in the other.

Why?

Because their assignment could change at any minute.

Maybe one day they were doing the thing that they were confident in, gifted in, shoveling.

But the next day, the assignment changes, and you know where the people of Jerusalem needed them?

On guard.

And so they're like, got it, shovel down, sword up.

The assignment could change at any minute.

But as they spread out, they needed everyone to be committed to the mission.

It was never the assignment that mattered.

It was what God had asked and invited them to do and to do together, each shouldering their own weight.

Serving a God that they knew, believed, and were sold out on believing, would continue to fight for them.

A God who, as you and I, people, God's also in the building, in the business of continuing to rebuild and restore, as you and I faithfully walk in our assignment, step up to the plate and say yes to the thing that we have no experience in, but it's what's needed.

As we're willing to sacrifice our preferences for the sake of the whole team and say, sure, I'll do that.

As you and I believe that God will continue to fight for us, get to see God do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine, according to his power at work in us when we do so together.

I've been really into dancing with the stars this season.

And I don't know what on my algorithm made me interested in it again.

I haven't watched that show since I was a kid, but this season I was I was all in before the premiere even started.

Catch me there on Tuesday nights.

And so I'm all in, and one of the one of the pros, not the pros, one of the um professional people who's learning how to dance on the show is uh an Olympic figure skater named Amber Glenn, and she's doing phenomenally.

And in her pre-dance interview before she goes out onto the dance floor for the first time, she's explaining how challenging it has been for her to go from figure skating to ballroom dancing.

And I was so confused because historically, what I remember from being a kid is that figure skaters are usually the ones who do the best, especially right away, because their body is used to at least moving in similar ways.

And so I was really confused because it feels like one of the most natural parallels between ballroom dancing would be figure skating.

But she says in this interview, she said, it is so challenging for me because I've always been my whole life a solo figure skater.

And so for the first time in my life, I'm having to learn what it feels like to share my center of gravity.

I'm having to learn what it feels like for someone else to do half of the movement and me have to rely upon them to tell me where to go.

And she said, I'm having to feel what it feels like for someone to be in my bubble.

And she says this phrase, she says, I can feel how good it is for me, and it's terrifying.

And I just thought in that moment, man, maybe terrifying isn't such a bad word.

Maybe, maybe doing the things that scare us, doing the terrifying things, is actually how we get to see God fight for us.

It's actually how we get to see, when we step out in obedience, when we say yes to the thing we're a little bit nervous to, when we are willing to step up to the plate and say, Here I am, Lord, put me in, coach, when we when we take that step and that leap, maybe that's just the place where we get to see God be exactly who he says he is.

Maybe stepping out in a little bit of scared face is the very place that we get to see and experience God in ways we never could doing life as a solo sport.

Because it's right there that compassion actually gets to be experienced, that we get to feel and receive the heart of grace and mercy that God has gifted to the people around us.

It's there where we're a little bit scared, but we're bought in, that we actually get to receive other people's courageous acts of service.

That courage isn't just a cool word, but it's actually something that is being formed in us as a collective group of people.

And community isn't just people that you hang out with, but it's actually a people you belong to so much so that you can't imagine not stepping out in faith for the sake of your brother or your sister.

That it's there that collaboration is no longer just an awesome idea, but it's something you are so sold out on for the sake of the mission and for the kingdom of God, you can't imagine not being a part of it.

It's why Paul, chained in prison, writes to the Church of Ephesus in Ephesians 3, and he is pleading with them to remain united.

Pleading with them to not let a grievance or a distraction or a disagreement between each other separate them.

He says, please, I'm begging you, keep your eyes fixed on Christ, keep your minds set on the desire to work together because you need each other.

And he writes this prayer in Ephesians 3.

He says, This for this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you, with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all of the fullness of God, and now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that's at work within us.

To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.

Amen.

That together with all the Lord's people, that together, us, a body of believers united on the same mission to love God, love people, being a part of his kingdom, together, we could actually be able to see him do immeasurably more than all we could ever ask or imagine.

How?

Because we had a Savior who went to a cross on our behalf, who did fight for us, who made a way for you and I to not just maybe decide to be a part of the same thing, or maybe have the strength to do it, but he made a way for you and I to have the spirit living within us to give us the power that we need, that when we step up to the plate, when we do the terrifying, courageous, scary thing of saying, put me in, coach, that his power could be made perfect in our weaknesses.

And that together, together, with the Lord's holy people, he could do immeasurably more.

Would you pray with me?

God, I thank you for who you are.

I thank you.

It's not lost on me that this isn't just a good idea that hopefully you'll show up, that your word tells us that as we seek you and as we join into your kingdom, that your power is on display, that this world has the ability to know you and to know love by your people being united after the same goal, loving each other, seeking to make your name known.

God, I thank you that we have the ability to remember you.

Our great and awesome God, page after page after page, you have proven yourself faithful.

That as we clumsily step up to the plate in obedience, you have proven to be faithful time and time again.

God, I pray for any person in this room that feels a little bit terrified, just like me, to do the thing that they're not good at, or to maybe sign up and actually get put in the thing that they're not sure if they'll be able to do well.

God, I pray that you would gift them the courage that they need to say, I am designed to be a participant in God's kingdom.

I don't want to just sit around in circles.

I want to be a part of the team.

God, what a beautiful gift it is to know that you walk with us, that you strengthen us, you empower us to live the life that you are inviting us into.

We love you.

We thank you.

We rely upon you.

And as in your precious and wonderful and mighty name we pray.

Amen.