Date:   09/07/08

Text:   Nehemiah 11:1-12:26

Title:   Doing God's Work God's Way

Introduction:

  About 500 B.C. in Chinese history, there was a very beautiful woman by the name of      , Zhuang Zi told this story about her. One time ?? was troubled by some issues, and was walking down the street with a deep frown. You see, because she was ?? , even when she was frowning she was beautiful. In that village, there was another woman who was very plain. When she saw ?? , she decided to mimic her and walked down the street. But when the villagers saw her coming, they closed their door and refused to come out. The moral of the story is: don't try to mimic others, because we are different.

  This is how I sometimes feel about ministry. At different times, we have different trends, and we want to follow. In the 80's there was the church growth movement. We learned to organize the church ministry by everyone's spiritual gifts. So we had the Spiritual Gifts based ministry. At the same time, we learned that in order to grow a church beyond 150 people, the pastor, especially the senior or solo pastor, needed to function like the owner of a ranch, or like a CEO. He should just focus on the few top leaders. Such emphasis has certainly benefited many churches. Nowadays, the trend is that we don't want CEO type pastors, we want someone who cares for us, instead of ranchers, we want shepherds who are connected to the congregation.

  We like to follow the big and successful organizations and churches. There is much to learn from them. We need to learn from others' creativity and innovation when they approach ministry.

  However, it is good to remember that no two churches are exactly alike. Certain methods or styles may work well with one church, but a total flop in another church. Purpose driven can work well for some churches, but can leave another church completely confused and purposeless. My concern is that frequently in the process of following the latest trend, or the latest best seller, we may have missed out on God's Heart. I feel strongly that as a church that upholds the authority of God's written word, we want to make sure we are doing ministry, which is God's work, in God's way.

  In our study of this book of Nehemiah, we have learned numerous truths on how to build God's church and personal life as well. When we look at today's assigned text, it is again a long list of names, with few editorial remarks buried inside. Superficially, it appears to be a boring text. But when I look closely at this passage, and with the help of commentaries, especially by DA Carson and the book by Raymond Brown, it certainly opened my eyes to the many truths in this passage. Because of the length of this passage, I will divide this into two messages.

  Let's first take a look at what issue is at stake here. The rebuilding of the Jerusalem city wall was completed. But, there was a problem. Not too many people wanted to live in that city. A city, no matter how strong the wall is, without residents, is an empty shell. The reasons for not wanting to live in the city could be: First, this city was devastated and deserted for many years, most likely not a safe place. Secondly, for families that had been living outside the city, may have accumulated land holdings. To move into the city, they would have to give up their possessions.

  So the task before Nehemiah is: to repopulate the city. How did Nehemiah accomplish this task? By looking at Nehemiah, it also provides us with guidance regarding how we do God's Work.

I •  The Primacy of Holiness in doing God's work.

In vs.1, “ 1 Now the 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,….” We first want to focus on how Nehemiah described Jerusalem . “….. Jerusalem the holy city ….” In the OT, Jerusalem is rarely referred to as the holy city, except in few places in the prophetic books. Nehemiah wanted to emphasize that they were to repopulate God's city, the holy city.

In the book of Ezra, we read that the vessels and the priest in the temple are called holy (8:28). People were holy (9:2); the place was holy (9:8). Nehemiah described the gates as holy (3:1); and Sabbath was holy (9:14). Now, the entire city is holy. It was holy, because it is the dwelling place of the holy God. Nehemiah wanted his people to recall what God had told the Israelites when they left Egypt . In Deut 7:6, “ 6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God” You are a holy people because you belong to the holy God. But the Israelites failed miserably. Instead of being holy, different from the surrounding nations, they followed their gods. Consequently, the nation was destroyed. Now, after 70 years of exile, God wants his people to come and dwell in his city, and be holy again.

  Several hundreds years later, the apostle Peter reminded the followers of Jesus Christ, that we, too, are a holy nation. This means when we follow Christ, we are his holy people. When we come to this holy place of worship, when we relate to one another, when we serve, we are to reflect this holiness.

On the Texas AM campus is the Memorial Student Center . It is both a student center and a place to remember and honor the students who had given their lives for the country. To show proper respect, visitors are asked to take off their hats when inside the building and not to walk on the grass around the facility. Our behaviors need to be appropriate for that particular place.

  This holiness must be manifested in all areas of our life. However in the context of today's passage, I would like to focus on the ministry area. Just as Nehemiah was to repopulate the city in God's way, we, too, are to serve, to do ministry in God's way..

In a recent conversation, an individual expressed her disappointment with some leaders in some churches. To many non-Christians or new Christians, they see leadership positions in a church as high and noble. Therefore, when they see questionable behaviors, they are deeply disappointed and disillusioned. What kind of attitudes and behavior do we need to possess when doing God's work? I think of Jesus' expectation that we are to learn his humility and gentleness (Matthew 11:28). Humility and gentleness are the indelible hallmark of our ministry. This applies to every believer, especially to those who serve him. Humility and gentleness are manifested in how willing we are to submit to others. As I look at my ministry, I find that when others agree with me and I agree with them, humility and submission is a cinch. Basically there is nothing to submit, and be humble about, right?

  The true test of humility is this: when I strongly disagree with how you interpret certain guidelines, or hold a different way of doing things, I yield my conviction and submit to you, to do things your way. Of course, there is the understanding that it is not contrary to God's revealed will in the scriptures. Sometimes I find that it is easier for the congregation to submit to the leaders, than for the leaders to submit to one another, right?

  The longer I am in ministry, the more I desire and pray that we leaders, including me, learn to do God's work with the heart of Jesus: humble and gentle. I like this prayer of John Bailey very much: “ ……, give me to-day a heart like His-a brave heart, a true heart, a tender heart, a heart with great room in it, a heart fixed on Thyself;…” May our way of doing ministry truly reflect that we are serving a holy God in a holy place.

  Besides this primacy of holiness in doing God's work, there is also

II •  The Primacy of Submission to God's will.

How did Nehemiah repopulate Jerusalem ? Vs. 1-2, “ 1 Now the 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 the other towns. 2 And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem .”

In vs.1 we noticed that some leaders were already living there. They had set a good example for the people. As leaders they know that they won't ask their people to do things that they themselves would not do. this is good for all of us to remember. There is more.

1 •  Being drafted. In vs.1 we notice that besides the leaders who had moved into the city, they also cast lots and bring one out of ten from the people to live in Jerusalem . In those days, and even to the time before the NT church was born, casting lot was their method of discerning God's will. By casting lots, Jonah was revealed as the culprit who caused the big storm. After Jesus' resurrection, the 11 disciples, by praying and casting lots, decided that Matthias was God's choice to replace Judah . The underlying principle is that God's people obeyed God when they recognized God's will. This was one way Nehemiah repopulated Jerusalem . If the lots fell on you, then you were the one whom God willed to move into the city.

What does this mean to us? With the coming of the Holy Spirit, God's people depend on the Holy Spirit's guidance to discern God's will. In the book of Acts, we have this example in 13:2-3, “ 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.…..” in other words, in that early church, the Holy Spirit spoke through the leaders to send Paul and Barnabas into their first Missionary journey. Paul and Barnabas did not volunteer, but were submissive to the Holy Spirit speaking through the other believers. It is like some of the leaders approach Paul, and saying “the Holy Spirit told us that you are the one we should send” and Paul obeyed. God speaks to us through other wise and mature believers.

I think of a Korean church in Ca that is planting a church in a Texas city. They sent one of their pastors and several families and individuals to this city. Students would have to change schools, and adults have to switch jobs. This also happened in other countries. A church in Korea would send about 30 some families to live in Beijing in order to share the gospel and plant a church there. This is quite foreign to us in this culture where we focus heavily on personal choices and decisions. Who are you to tell me what to do and where to go? Certainly there will be danger and risk in this approach. The individuals who pray must clearly discern that this is from God (there must be earnest and sincere prayers, and not pay lip service to prayers). And the individual involved also needs to confirm this with thorough praying. We must not use the Holy Spirit to accomplish any personal or selfish agenda.

2 •  Volunteers. By casting lots, 1 out of every 10 families was assigned to move into Jerusalem . The other nine families would continue to live somewhere else. Yet, there is more. Vs. 2 tells us that there were those who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem . They were the volunteers who saw the need and offered themselves to move into the city. To them, it was a high calling, a privilege to serve the Lord by living in His city.

In St. Louis and Austin , there are families who willingly moved from the suburbs to the inner city area; places where many would want nothing to do with. Having moved into the city, one young man in St. Louis shared with me that hearing gun shots at night was normal. People saw the need and acted. This is happening in many parts of the country.

We can learn much just from these two verses. God sometimes works through drafting us, and other times through our own willingness. What does it mean to us? At different times, our church, and many other churches feel the strain of insufficient workers in different ministries. It is as if ministries are being sparsely populated. There are many empty slots in the children and youth ministries; empty slots in the outreach and adult education ministries. We still need at least 4 helpers for the Friday evening Awana, 6-8 in the Nursery department. When we see the empty spots, what is our response? Well, maybe we should hire another person to do the work. We feel that if we have money, it will solve the problem. How about this alternative? Oh, we, this church, my church, has a need for more children Sunday School teachers. There are many empty slots in the children and youth ministry. This ministry is still not well filled. Let me see what I can do to help. Let me see what I can do to fill the empty slots. From time to time, I share with the pastoral team that maybe our objective should be: to work ourselves out of a job.

Having said this, we also need to remember that God may use another person(s) to speak to you. There may be times, a minister may approach you and say, “we have been praying for a certain unmet need in our children or youth department. Several of us, after praying, all feel that you are the right person.” Instead of saying, “no, there is no way I can do this”; how about spend some time in prayer and then give that ministry a try?

Conclusion:   

  When I was younger in ministry, I tried to attend as many seminars and workshops possible. I wanted to learn how to counsel. I wanted to know how to lead the church with cutting edge concepts and methods. Nowadays, I still treasure the workshops I attended and the tools they provided me to become a better minister. However, lately I find myself less and less attracted to the cutting edge methods and am more interested in what the bible says on being a leader. What does God's word tell me about how to do God's work God's way?

Earlier, we have part-taken of the Holy Communion. This communion was a reminder of how God has loved us. Perhaps as a response to God's love, we need to do some reflection about ministry in this church. This church is God's dwelling place, therefore it's ministry which is God's work; it is holy. It is a high and noble task, and we must approach it with a holy attitude. This means that our behaviors must be without reproach. Our attitude must be that of our lord Jesus Christ: humility and gentleness.

  By reading the weekly bulletin, we are aware of different needs in this church. Have you considered volunteering some of your time, to serve in some areas? Did anyone ever approach you and express how they felt you may be the right person for some ministry? May be you need to honestly and earnestly pray over this matter. It is a high calling and privilege to serve this holy God.

Next week we will continue our study of this passage to identify more guidelines on how to do God's work God's way. During this week, I would like to ask you to spend some time to read through 11:1-12:26 and find out for yourselves, what are some other principles showing us how to do God's work God's way.