Nehemiah: Start Participating in God's Purposes
Pastor Fletcher preaches from Nehemiah 2:1–20. Discussion points: Nehemiah was bold in his request to the king and his prayers to God, we participate in God’s purposes with whatever God has given us, Nehemiah’s work and experiences point forward to Jesus rebuilding the people of God.
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Scripture reader: [Nehemiah 2:1–20] In the month of Nisan, in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. And the king said to me, "Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart." Then I was very much afraid. I said to the king, "Let the king live forever. Why should not my face be sad when the city, the place of my father's graves, lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire?"
Then the king said to me, "What are you requesting?" So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, "If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's graves, that I may rebuild it." And the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, "How long will you be gone and when will you return?" So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time, and I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province beyond the river that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah, and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple and for the wall of the city and for the house that I shall occupy."
And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me. Then I came to the governors of the province beyond the river, and I gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen, but when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel. So I went to Jerusalem and was there 3 days.
Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me, and I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no animal with me but the one on which I rode. I went out by night by the Valley Gate to the Dragon Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. Then I went on to the Fountain Gate into the King's Pool, but there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass. Then I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall, and I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate and so returned, and the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, and I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work.
Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build a wall of Jerusalem that we may no longer suffer derision." And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good and also of the words that the king had spoken to me, and they said, "Let us rise up and build." So they strengthened their hands for the good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, "What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?" Then I replied to them, "The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem."
This is the word of the Lord.
Preacher: All right, good morning, everybody. It's good to see you all. My name is Fletcher. I'm the lead pastor of the church here. If I haven't had a chance to meet you, I'd love to get that opportunity.
Last week we started a series in the book of Nehemiah, and Nehemiah tells the story of how God gave a vision to one man to do a great thing for his kingdom. In chapter one, Nehemiah is described as someone who is the cupbearer of the king, that means he's an official in the king's,in the king's court. And in chapter one, his brother shows up, tells him that the walls of Jerusalem have been destroyed, and Nehemiah responds with deep lament. He responds by weeping, and he pra and he fasts and he prays, he prasts as you put those together. He fast and he prays for 4 months. And so that's what's been happening as we lead up to Nehemiah chapter 2.
And in Nehemiah chapter 2, we see Nehemiah take those prayers and that fasting and put it to action. He sees the place that God has put him in, the place that God has positioned him, and he says, I'm going to take action. I'm going to live out God's purpose for where I am positioned currently. And so I'm just going to go ahead and tell you what the main point of this sermon is as we walk through, and it is just this idea that no matter where you are, God has a purpose for you. No matter where you are, God has a purpose for you.
Whether you're a student or a stay at home mom. Whether you are a board member of a high ranking company, or you are nearing retirement. Whether you are a single father or a young professional, whether you are just trying to get the kids out of the bed and out of the bed into school, or you just can't get yourself out of bed in the morning. God has a purpose for each other. And I think many of us That that's a truth that rings true for for most of us that you we know deep down God does have a purpose for each of us. But we spend so much of our lives trying to figure out what that purpose is.
I remember as a young man, I would oftentimes try to think through what is God's calling upon my life? What does he have for me? And I think that the mistake that most of us do is when we think about God's purpose for our life is we usually think about. Something like what is God's purpose in my career? What is God's purpose in my family? And that's what we usually think about with purpose, with spouse, career.
But the big idea here is that God has primarily called us to participate in his purposes. And how would that change your life if you stop thinking through what's God's purpose for me? And instead, you just thought of what is God's purpose? And how do I live for His purposes? And so that's what we're going to see as we walk through this. We're gonna walk through this passage in three acts. And the first act is God prepares us to participate in His purposes. And the second act is going to be God's people enter the mess together. And the third act is we participate in God's purposes with whatever God has given us.
So first, God prepares us to participate in His purposes. As I walk through these three acts, we're just going to walk through the whole story. I know that when you read a long chapter. Chapter like that, like a history. Sometimes it's easy to just kind of,I'm lost, you know, as you go through it. And so that's OK. I'm going to just read the read each verse and we're going to walk through it and explain what's happening. Actually, this is an incredible passage for us today. Nehemiah has been praying for months and now we come to chapter 2, chapter 2, verse 1, once again, in the month of Nisan, which isn't the month after Toyota and before Honda. It's just March, OK? In the month of March, in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, he, I took up wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence.
So Nehemiah 2 starts at a party. The king is throwing a huge party. So think palace, ancient palace. 2600 years ago, something like that, ancient palace. Big party, lots of wine, and Nehemiah's job is to taste all the wine before it goes to the king. So it's not a bad job, you know, the best wine is going to the king, he's tasting it, making sure it's good to go to the king. He's making sure that the party is going. Nehemiah's at work though. He's like the king's personal sommelier, and he's working this party. And here it says that Nehemiah had not been sad in the presence of the king. It was extremely offensive to be sad in the presence of the king, you, there was just something you didn't do, especially at a party. It might harsh the vibes if you're sad in the presence of the king.
In fact, in ancient Persian art, people had to be very careful with how they approached the Persian kings, and some of the ancient art, you would see people approach the kings while covering their mouth. And the reason why they would cover their mouth is because they didn't want to offend the king with their bad breath. See, there's things that all of us can learn in ancient literature on a Sunday morning, especially me.
Verse 2. And the king said to me, Why is your face sad seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart. Then I was very much afraid. So the king is basically like, Nehemiah, what's wrong with your face? And Nehemiah is like, oh, because he knows that better men have been killed for lesser things than being sad in the king's presence. We've all heard of gentle parenting. Yeah, Nehemiah did not participate in that. He, he was not a gentle ruler, not Nehemiah. King Artaxerxes did not participate in the gentle parenting of ruling. Nehemiah had been fasting and praying for 4 months, and now he knows that this is his moment though. The king is asking him what is going on Nehemiah?
And so what does Nehemiah do? He takes a moment. And he is very afraid, but he goes to the Lord and he says, verse 3, I said to the king, let the king live forever. You have to say that or you're gonna get your head chopped off with King Artaxerxes. Why should not my face be sad when the city, the place of my father's graves, lies in ruin and his gates have been destroyed by fire. Now Nehemiah has a lot more reasons to be sad about Jerusalem being crushed than just this, but he is saying these things because he knows that these are things that the king will appreciate. The king understands what it means that you care about your ancestral homeland. And so because he cares about his ancestral homeland, he's saying, please let me go back and take care of the place where I come from.
Then the king said to me, verse 4, what are you requesting? So I prayed to the God of heaven. So the king Artaxerxes, he knows that Nehemiah's got a big request. So he's like, what, what do you want? What do you want, Nehemiah? And Nehemiah, he just takes a moment. He's already been praying for 4 months, but now the moment's come, and he doesn't pray out loud. He just takes one of those quick inhale prayers. You guys ever do those? Where it's like, here I go. And he just says, I trust you. He just says a quick prayer, and then he asked the king. And I said to the king, If it pleases the king and your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's graves, that I may rebuild it.
Now this is a bold request, because Judah is 600 miles from Susa, excuse me, more than that, it's 900 miles from Susa. Judah is a long way from the capital of the Persian Empire. It's Iran to Israel. And the, the nothing political in this sermon, it's just, the passage. Those two have not always, you know, they've always kind of been the way they are. So this isn't just Nehemiah asking for a weekend off. He's basically saying, I need to make this 900 mile journey. That's going to take probably months. And then I need to be there to rebuild the city wall, and then I need to come back.
And so, The king said to him verse 6, how long will you be gone? And when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time. Now it doesn't even tell us what time Nehemiah asked for, but he asked for, he, he gets bold. He doesn't just ask for time off. He asked for more than that. He asked the king to send him on official duty from the king, to send him with an army for protection, to send him to and fund the whole endeavor.
Verse 7, and, and I said to the king, if it pleases the king, let letters, these are like ancient permission slips, be sent with me. Be given to me, to the governors of the province beyond the river. That was basically everything west of Iran here, and they that they may pass through until I come to Judah, and let a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest. That he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple and for the wall of the city and for the house that I shall occupy. I like how he threw that one in, you know, and I'd like a house while you're at it, you know, give me all the other stuff, pay for the, the rebuilding of the wall and a house, please.
Continuing, and the king granted me what I asked for the good hand of my God was upon me. Now when we read Nehemiah, sometimes it can really feel like God is in the background in Nehemiah. God does not speak in the entire book of Nehemiah, but here we see that just because God is in the background, just because he's silent, doesn't mean that he's absent. Because the good hand of God is upon Nehemiah in this moment. Nehemiah reminds us that God's silence does not mean God's absence. So, let's continue the story. That's chapter one. That's the first, first part of this. God prepares us to participate in His purposes.
The second point, the second act here that we're looking at is God's people enter the mess together. God's people enter the mess together. So Nehemiah, he sets off on his trek, going all the way to Judah. He's trekking through the long expedition with all of his letters and his army that the king has sent with him, and he's going from what is modern day Iran to modern day Israel, and he eventually makes it to Jerusalem, and what's the first thing he does? What would you do if you've been trekking for months? He takes a break, he takes 3 days off, and he rests for 3 days. And then after that, he actually does something quite amazing. He wakes up in the middle of the night. Because he wants to get a lay of the land. He wants to inspect everything. You, a man such as Nehemiah could have arrived and started giving speeches. And start motivating the people to get to work. Instead, Nehemiah arrived and he says, I need to take good accounting of what is happening here.
And so what he actually does is he wakes up in the middle of the night, verse 12. Then I rose in the night, I and a few men with me, and I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no animal with me, but the one in which I rode. And the reason why he only took that one animal is because animals make a lot of noise. If you have a whole bunch of horses, I don't know what that's called, but if you have a whole bunch of horses that are going to. Herd, yeah, OK, thank you. A herd of horses going through the city to inspect the wall. It's gonna cause some people to listen, but instead he just took one animal, surefooted, and went to inspect the walls. And what he found in the middle of the night is that the walls, they're in shambles. The walls are all torn down in Jerusalem, and he knows that the city of Jerusalem cannot thrive without walls. You need walls in an ancient city, not only to protect the city from invaders, but also so that the people within the city can live a life of security and safety, so that the people inside the city can live and have economic freedom, so that the people inside the city can have a political system that might work. None of that works without walls, because an invader can come and just take you out in a moment. You live in fear. You have to have the security around you.
And so Nehemiah knows that if Jerusalem is going to thrive, and Jerusalem needs to thrive, if Messiah is going to come in his mind, he needs to rebuild these walls. So after he inspects the wall, he calls the who's who of who's living in Jerusalem and invites them to participate in God's purposes. Now a few people have already come back to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is starting to be reinhabited by the Jewish people once again, and he calls all the priests and all the different people. The landowners, and he calls them, and he basically, he gives a speech. But there his speech is amazing because the way he does it. He doesn't point fingers, but he identifies with the mess of the people.
Verse 17, then I said to them, Come see the trouble we're in. How Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem that we may no longer suffer. So do you notice how he starts this meeting? He doesn't start with Hey, you guys have really caused a mess here. You've really messed things up. It's really terrible around here. What have you done? He includes himself in the mess. He says, then I said to them, you see the trouble that we are in. He doesn't supervise from a distance. He identifies with the people, their problems are his problems. He enters the issues of those he's trying to help. It's a good leadership principle. Nehemiah is not primarily a book of leadership principles, but there are some, and just don't ever give someone else a work, a job that you're not willing to do yourself.
And we see Nehemiah, he enters in the mess. Most of us as Christians, we love the idea of helping people. I don't know if there, you'd be a bad person if you didn't love the idea of helping people. But for most of us, if we're honest, we love the idea of helping people as long as it's not too inconvenient. We'll give money or maybe take a mission trip as long as we're staying in a nice hotel. And we don't get too involved in what's happening. Not Nehemiah. The community's problems are his problems as well. He didn't have to do anything. I want you to know that. Nehemiah was living in relative luxury, living in the palace of the king. He had a good job, but yet, God said, I have a purpose for you in this position. And Nehemiah lived out the purpose that God had for him. He chose to enter the mess of his people at the risk of his own life.
Here, Nehemiah reminds us of Jesus. Who was seated throughout all eternity at the right hand of God. Yet, He entered into our mess. He didn't have to, but he took on our mess. He bore our sins on the cross. We don't worship a God who remains removed from his people. We worship a savior who gets his hands messy. We worship a savior who sympathizes with us, who's willing to suffer alongside of us, one who knows what it means to suffer, one who knows what it means to be tempted. Not only did he suffer alongside us, but he actually suffered for us. By dying on the cross, he bore the sin of the world, so that we might enjoy the same privileges of what it means to be a son of God that he has enjoyed in the throne room of God throughout eternity past. Jesus Christ, he enters the mess so that we might enjoy fellowship with God for eternity. He died for our sins and was resurrected on the third day. He walked the earth for 40 days, appearing to over 500 people, and at the end of the 40 days of appearing to people, he ascended back into heaven in front of his followers.
And before he ascended back into heaven, he actually left his people with a job to do. He said in Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 to 20, and Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. And so do you see what happened here? Nehemiah enters the mess of his people, and he says, come, let us build. And Jesus likewise enters the mess of his people. He pays for their sins himself, and he says, come, let us build. Nehemiah was rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Jesus has given us a different kind of building project, making disciples of all nations and building up his church.
Which leads us to our third point, which is this, we participate in God's purposes with whatever God has given us. We participate in God's purposes with whatever God has given us. Nehemiah continues verse 18, and I told them of the hand, and he's giving, remember, he's giving his speech to the who's who of Israel. He's trying to motivate them to rebuild the wall, and this is what he says. He says, and I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me, and they said, let us rise up and build. So they strengthen their hands for the good work. Nehemiah He recounts the story for them. He tells them of how good God had been and how God's hand has been upon them. And then he challenges them to rise up and build. They do it with him sometimes.
What, and, and we're kinda in one of these seasons as a church right now, where there's a lot of people who they might, you, you might be here and sometimes this happens regularly, where someone will be at our church for a few months. And they might say like, I really like what you guys are doing here. And every time, like, I should probably just say thank you, but I want to say, I probably do say thank you usually. I'm not usually snarky to guests, but I want to say, why not we? Why, why do you see it as you guys? Why not we? Why is it something that we're doing together? Why are we not seeking God's kingdom together? The church is a family. It's not just something you attend, it's not just something that you consume as a consumer and then you go home, but it's a family. We're called to do this together. You don't sit around like a spectator, you get involved.
And if you're a part of a family, that means you have a job. There's something that I'll say to my kids on occasion, and they usually don't like it very much, but it's, it's just, you eat, you work. We got any supporters of you eat, you work in here? Yeah, a few, a few supporters, you know. My kids are like, I don't wanna do dishes. I'm like, you ate. You work. Like, we, we take turns, you know, you eat, you work, that's just kinda how it is. You're a part of a family and that means that you have a part of the work to do.
And so I'm, you know, I'm not gonna go to the normal place that I would go to with this because I think that a lot of times when I might preach you eat you work here, it would be like, so we need volunteers, and we do, but that's not the main point here. I, I think that before I want you to think about. Working, I want you to think about eating. And I want you to think about, are you a part of the family? And if you are a Christian, you are called to not just go to a church, but to be the church and to be a family. And so if you need to take that step, I challenge you to take that step, and here is the best way to take that step today. It's easy.
Next week, we're launching our community groups. And so before you start thinking about taking on the work of the family, think about just being a part of the family, and the best way to do that is to get into a community group. After the service today, we're going to have, meet the CG leaders, you can meet someone, and the community groups is not the solution to being family. It's not like you join and then you're instantly family, but it's like it gives you that opportunity to start to meet people and to start to build those relationships. And so I would challenge you, if you haven't done that yet, we haven't had groups going during the summer, I would encourage you to take that step. Because it's how our value of family gets played out.
So chapter 2, it ends with some opposition, verse 19. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king? I just love that they jeered at him because I just, I just imagine these like three guys standing outside going boo. Oh, like it just sounds ridiculous to me, but I wasn't there. I'm sure it was more epic than that, and they say this, this, what is this thing that you've done? What is this thing that you were doing?
And that's a question that when it pops up into the Bible, there's an insinuation that what you're doing is really terrible. Like if I walked into a room, there's a difference between saying. What are you doing? And what are you doing? It's more the latter than the first one. It's the same question that God asked Adam and Eve when he comes down. He says, what is this thing that you've done? He asked a question to elicit an answer. It's the same question that when Abraham takes. His wife and gives her to Pharaoh in Egypt, and Pharaoh comes back once he figures it out, he says, what is this thing you've done? This evil. It's the same thing that happens with Isaac giving away his wife, Rebecca, to Abimelech. And Abimelech responds in the same way that Pharaoh responded, what is this thing you've done? When Laban rips off Jacob, and by giving him Leah instead of Rachel, Jacob goes to Laban and says, what have you done? You see, this is an insinuation that not only a wrong has been occurred, but a great wrong.
And so these opponents of Nehemiah, they are the governors of the foreign enemies of the ancient enemies of Israel. They don't want to see Israel rebuilt. They're anti-Israel people in this ancient time. And so they're saying, Nehemiah, you are leading a rebellion against the king. Little do they know that the king's actually made Nehemiah the governor. We don't actually find that out until like chapter 4 or 5. Little do they know that the king has endorsed all of this work, that the king is paying for all of this work, that the hand of the Lord is upon Nehemiah, that they are trying to make Nehemiah out to be the bad guy, which just reminds us that answered prayer and favor does not translate to a lack of opposition. Sometimes when you have a calling from God, you have to remain faithful to that. Even if it means that you're opposed.
Now it doesn't mean that we walk around and that we're jerks to people, OK? I think that some Christians translate persecution. When they're really just being a jerk. And they should be nicer, like Jesus, you know, told us to love our enemies. But sometimes you can be the nicest person, resembling Christ in every way. And people will just be opposed to it. And friends, we have to expect that. We have to expect that.
So there you have it. Nehemiah chapter 2. After a season of prayer and fasting, Nehemiah uses the position God gave him to participate in God's purposes. And as Christians, when we read Nehemiah, we don't stop at Nehemiah, but we go all the way to Jesus, because Nehemiah points us toward our greater savior. Nehemiah left the palace to enter the ruins of Jerusalem. Jesus left the throne room of God to enter the ruins of humanity. Nehemiah came to rebuild a city. Jesus came to rebuild a people, and having saved us, now Jesus commands us, come, let us build. A universal question that we all ask.
Every person has asked this question, is this, what am I supposed to do with my life? What is my life for? How am I supposed to be using my life? It's really this what it is? Like I wake up, I go to work, I have kids, but like, is that it? How do I use my life? The answer isn't necessarily find the perfect career, find the perfect spouse, but rather God calls us to look where God has us. That's your first step. Maybe the Lord is calling you to take a greater step. Maybe the Lord is calling you to do that greater thing. Maybe he is calling you to the mission field. Maybe he is calling you to start that business. But right now, look around and see where does God have me. And a lot of that might be less attractive to you, but who else is gonna do it? Where has God got you? With your family? Where does God have you in your workplace or in your schooling? How can you participate in God's mission right where you are?
And I know God's mission is vast. I mean, Jesus told us to go and make disciples of all nations. And so, so he's going to call some of us to go and make disciples of all nations in other places. But just because God has has called us to such a vast mission, just because it's so big, sometimes we can feel daunted like we can't do anything. But just because you can't do everything doesn't mean you can't do anything. And you have to look at where God has you right now and say, what can I do right now? And maybe that is really simple. Maybe that's just loving your children, maybe that's just loving your elderly parents. Maybe that's just caring for this one co-worker. Maybe it's just being nice, when you live your normal life, maybe it's sharing the gospel with your next door neighbor. Maybe it's taking that step of faithfulness.
Wherever God has you, how can he use you? This church was born out of this conviction. I know that City on a Hill Somerville cannot reach the world with the good news of Jesus. Yet our vision is that everyone everywhere will experience the good news of Jesus. But we do what we can right here. Everything we can to reach the people in Somerville, we're going to do that and beyond. We want to send people throughout the globe. And so this church, when we started this church, we knew we couldn't do everything, but it didn't stop us from doing what we could.
Several years ago, like around 10 years ago now, my wife and I, we felt pain of friends moving from the city. And we recognize that, one of the reasons why they moved is because they just weren't getting good gospel centered counseling that they needed to hear someone who loved Jesus be able to connect their problems with the real news of Jesus. And so what we did, and it just felt like it landed upon us. It wasn't like we had this big dream. It was just like, well, I guess we have to do this. Cause we then went and started a counseling center that now sees like 1000 people every year, if not more. And the Boston Center for Biblical Counseling was just burst out of this. This is where God has us. I have connections with the counseling world. I have connections in the pastor world in Boston. I'm not a counselor. I'm just gonna use the connections God's given me to start a counseling center. And the God, God did it. It wasn't anything about us. It was just he, right, right place, right time and listening and being faithful.
Tell you a couple of more normal stories. There's, well, kind of. There's a guy who used to be a member of our church who just said, Where's God got me and how can he use me? And this guy's name is Jonathan McLatchie, so some of you guys know Jonathan. Jonathan has a PhD in evolutionary biology., he studied in the UK. He's from Scotland. And he got a position, like a biology professor position at a local university here in Boston, but while he was here, what the Lord had really laid on his heart was like this joy for apologetics because what he had seen is that so many people rejected the claims of Christianity without even thinking about them. And so he said, I have to do something about this. So we started getting networking apologists all over the country, people who are experts in their field, who can really defend the cause of Christ. And what he did is he just started a simple website called Talkaboutdoubts.com. And with with that website, there's like a dozen people every week who fill out a form, get connected with an expert in the field that they have questions about and have their questions answered. He did this great thing for the kingdom. By just doing what he can right where he was with the opportunities that in front of him.
I'll give you another illustration, maybe one that's a little bit easier. I have a friend who's an architect, he went to Boston Architectural College, so he just started from the ground up here. He's a member of a different City on a Hill Church. He, he was really faithful at his company for a long time. He was eventually promoted, promoted, promoted until he became a principal, and then a couple of years ago, he became the principal of the company. He bought it out from his co-owners. So now he owns this architecture company that makes schools. That's what they do. They design schools. But he also has a big passion for the church. And so he uses his skills to bless local churches and church plants to think about how to renovate their space or build new ones. And so it's just a way that God has used him. To be able to build the kingdom. It's a unique gifting that he has.
Friends, do you have a vision for how God could use you to build his kingdom? You may think, I don't have a position of leadership, I don't have any leverage. What could I accomplish? But God has commissioned all of us in this vision to reach the nation.
Let me tell you one more story before I close here, and it's the most simple of all of them. It's a story of a janitor at a local company in Cambridge. And this is not someone of power or prestige, it's just someone who cleaned buildings. When one day someone walks in and is in tears. And he sees that sad face the same way that the king Artaxerxes saw a sad face. And he says, What's wrong? Can I pray for you? And that sparked in the life of this person. New life, a curiosity about how Christians can live. They saw the joy of Christ on the face of this just this janitor in their building. That simple interaction led this employee to give their life to Christ and to follow him faithfully. As a member of our church today, and I won't give away the, the secret of who, who I, I don't want to embarrass the person.
So, but Nehemiah had influence in the palace. You might be in a position of influence in the boardroom. You might just clean the boardroom. But God can use you where you are. The question isn't how much influence you have. The question is whether you're willing to use whatever God has given you for the sake of his kingdom. Because you don't have to do everything. You just have to be faithful where God has put you. We're gonna end with a little bit of prayer. And let you seek. God, how, how would you like me to follow you today? How would you like me to live out this mission with my family, with my roommates, with my coworkers? With maybe this dream that I've been putting off. Would you join me in prayer?
God, I pray that you would place on our hearts here today. Visions big and small. That you would give some of us a vision just to live the Christian life in a consistent, thorough way. That we can deny ourselves, pick up our crosses and follow you. And that for others of us that you would help us to take that step of obedience. For that calling that you've been bringing to us for many years now. God, would you give us courage to take these steps. We trust in you. We thank you. We pray that the mighty hand of our God would be upon us as well during this time.
Let's take a moment to confess our sins together, church. You'll see the words on the screen, the underlined portions, you can read along with me. Heavenly Father, you've placed us in this world with a purpose. You have given us gifts, resources, and relationships to participate in your work. But we confess that we often fail to see them as gifts from you. We complain about where you have placed us. We envy the gifts and opportunities you've given to others. We convince ourselves that we have too little to offer. We wait for some great calling while ignoring the people you've placed right in front of us. Forgive us, Lord.
God does not ask us to build His kingdom so that we might earn his love in Christ, we have already been loved, forgiven and welcomed into the family of God. Jesus Christ entered into our mess, bore our sin on the cross, and rose again so that we could be reconciled to God. And now because we belong to him, we are free to participate in his work, not to prove ourselves, becau but because we are already his children. Thanks be to God. Amen.
On the night that he was betrayed, Jesus took a loaf of bread and he broke it. He said, This is my body broken for you. And he took a cup and he said, This is my blood shed for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And so each week at City on a Hill Somerville, we participate in a sacred communion meal that reminds us that the good hand of God is upon us. It reminds us of the gospel that his body has been broken for us and his blood has been shed for us. Let us stand if you are able as we prepare our hearts for the communion meal.
God, as we come to your table, we pray that you would meet with us again. That you would take my feeble words and use them for your purposes. That you would help us to hear from you again, that we would live into the calling that you've given to us, that we would not deny what you have for us right where we are. That you would help us to take those small steps of obedience that lead to big steps of obedience. And we ask these things in Christ's name, Amen.