Nehemiah Summary

Nehemiah Summary

Pastor Aaron Jozwiak - May 17, 2015 Red Village Church

Initial Scripture Reading: 

Nehemiah 1:1-4; 13:31b


"1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah.

Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel, 2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. 3 And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.”

4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven."

"31b ... Remember me, O my God, for good."

Main Points:

1. God calls us to an impossible task.
2. There will be joy and sorrow.
3. There will be commitment and sacrifice.

Sermon Notes:

Nehemiah's purpose was to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem.  What is our wall?  People.
Ephesians 2:10 "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
As followers of Jesus, we are to walk in good works, proclaim the good news, and make disciples.

God calls us to an impossible task

You may be able to breeze through the New Testament, but when you get to the Great Commission, it's an impossible task.

Nehemiah was set with an impossible task.  He asked to be released by the king to leave for Jerusalem and was afraid to make this request before the king.  However, he was blessed to go on his quest by the king.  At Jerusalem, the city and its people were in terrible shape.  This rag-tag group started this impossible work.  They were threatened by others, and they were threatened from within when some were trying to get rich at the expense of others.  If God is not in control, the walls couldn't have been built and the Great Commission won't work.

We must pray together and plead with the Lord to do the impossible.
We are to make disciples and proclaim the Christ of the scriptures.
We must read the scriptures, sometimes together.
We must repent of our sins.
We all must be part of the team.  The Great Commission is a team project.

There will be joy and sorrow

Nehemiah was a roller coaster of fear, sorrow, joy, certainty, etc.

There will be sacrifice and commitment

The people of Jerusalem could not neglect the temple.  Nehemiah committed his entire life to the wall of Jerusalem.  These are our marching orders.

Red Village Church has only a existed for a short time, and already there are people, missionaries who are around the world who were members of Red Village Church.  The sun never sets on this congregation.

Additional Notes from Our Village Meeting

Philippians 2:16 "holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain."

People, Christians don't disciple, don't know how to pray.  We give up too quickly.  It took Thomas Edison about a year to make an inexpensive, commercially viable light bulb, that inventors had been working on for the last fifty years (HC.com).  In  Philippians, Paul was looking for people to labor for Christ.

How do you (or I for that matter) share the gospel?  

Churches want to harvest (supposedly), but no one is spreading the seed!  There is something wrong with our faith, if we aren't growing.