It Takes a Village - Nehemiah 3 | +Quigg Lawrence

Morning, friends. We're in a series called Nehemiah, and the first week was great. Nehemiah found out that his people in Israel, especially in Jerusalem, that the city was ruined. Of course, it was ruined. The Assyrians had annihilated the northern part of Israel, the Babylonians the South. They'd taken God's people away for seventy years as captured people, and then in God's mercy, he had the Persians come in and crush the Babylonians, and he gave a favor to the Jews through the Persian king. And he basically said, you guys can go back and rebuild your temple, and Ezra took the law back, but not all the Jews had gone back to the holy land. And so, eventually, we see Nehemiah. Here's the account that the city is still in ruins. The city is still in ruins, and he got the report, and he just wept. He got on his face and wept when he saw the ruins of his people and the ruins of his city. And so we studied that in one and two, but today is a hard chapter. Today is a hard chapter.

In fact, video man, mister video man, rather than read this to you because you wouldn't last fifteen seconds, I'm gonna play you. This is a tough section of scripture. See what you would preach on it.

The high priest and his fellow priests went to work and rebuilt the Sheep gate. They dedicated it and set its doors in place, building as far as the Tower Of The Hundred, which they dedicated and as far as the Tower Of Hananel. The men of Jericho built the adjoining section, and Zakur, son of Imri, built next to them. The fish gate was rebuilt by the sons of Hasanah. They laid its beams and put its doors and bolts and bars in place. Merimoth, of Uriah, the son of Hakoz, repaired the next section. Next to him, Meshulun, son of Berekiah, the son of Mechezebel, made repairs. And next to him, Zadok, son of Ba'ana, also made repairs. The next section was repaired by the men of Tekoa, but their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors. The Jeshena Gate was repaired by Joaida, son of Pessiah, and Meshulam, son of Besodeiah. They laid its beams and put its doors and bolts and bars in place. Next to them, repairs were made by men from Gibeon and Mizpah, Melatiah of Gibeon and Jadon of Moronoth, places under the authority of the governor of Trans Euphrates. Uziel, son of Harahiah, one of the goldsmiths, repaired the next section, and Hananiah, one of the perfume makers, made repairs next to that. They restored Jerusalem as far as the broad Stop.

Do you guys get the picture? I always wanna have scripture. That is the scripture for today. Your job is to say, what's the context? What does it say? What does it mean? How does it apply? How do you take a section that just talks about 42 different families building their section of the wall and get an application? It's pretty challenging.

Friends, it's right up there with some of the other tougher passages of scripture. We know that all scripture is God breathed. It's inspired by God, but we are also honest enough to say that it's not all equally inspiring. It's all inspired by God, but not all equally inspiring.

So when you read in Matthew and Luke the begats, do you know that? If you grew up with King James, you know that. So and so begat, so and so begat, so and so. It's a genealogical line. Friends, you need to drive a screwdriver through your eyeball by the time you get through that. It's in Matthew. It's in Luke. One takes it from Jesus all the way back to Adam, son of god. The other genealogy takes it back to Abraham. Two gospels, two genealogies, both pretty tough reading, tough sledding.

Then we read about Adam and Eve's progeny in Genesis five and six, another tough, long, dry passages of names that you can't pronounce. If you're a lay reader, you'd probably say, Dear Jesus, don't let me have to read that week. Then we have in Leviticus 13—this is interesting—we have leprosy, all about leprosy and the rules for handling them and testing them, and when they're unclean and when they're not unclean. Not the most exciting stuff.

How about Numbers seven, the book of Numbers chapter seven? It talks about mold for a whole chapter. Could you imagine in your devotions reading about how to deal with mold for three days?

So there are a lot of passages in scripture where you go, if I was putting together a Bible, I don't know if I would have put that in there. If I was the editor for the Reader's Digest version of the Bible, I don't know that I would have put those sections in there, but I'm not God.

But what I want to tell you is today, from what you just heard, there is something you can learn from something that appears so dry, so boring, so far away from you, and I hope I can pull it off. Okay.

So we start Nehemiah three, and we learn what?

That he calls a bunch of people together, 42 families, I think it is, and they're gonna rebuild the gates, and they're gonna rebuild the wall. It's over two and a half miles and about 200 acres of Jerusalem that they're trying to make safe from the bad guys. Okay? Trying to make safe from bad guys.

And so we start out and we read says this. Let me get there. Before we go to the text, let me share a story with you. Can I do it off here? And I just want to say parenthetically, how many of you guys have printers? Do you have printers? Oh, see, we're all alike. How many of you guys hate your printer? How many of you guys have had five printers in ten years? I lied, three years. Okay. And none of them print. Wake up this morning, they went home, it wouldn't connect, wouldn't air print. So I was like, after like nine tries, no problem. I'll do it at church. I come at church. We have a big printer. I mean, it's like a $100,000 printer. I don't know. It's big. I come here and I send the sermon to the printer. Do you have this problem? And it's not found. So Barbara says, hey, let's turn the printer off because sometimes if you do that, kick it, then miraculously, it comes back to life. So she turned it off and remind you, the first service is about to start. And the machine goes, shutting down in four minutes and I'm like, what do you mean four minutes? I don't have four minutes. I just want a sermon printed and eventually, after turning it off and turning it back on, we try it again and guess what? It wasn't there. But I have it on my phone. Thank Jesus. Okay. So here we go. Let's pull this up. It did kind of get me nervous. Okay.

So here's the story. You know those pretty tough and dry sections you just heard? Right? So maybe you, maybe I would go, that's really not for me. I just rather read anything else like a Sears catalog or telephone book. I'm going to tell you a story. A friend of mine about 1970, a guy named Al Perrott, has a PhD in history, really smart, but really geared to history. And one day he was smoking the devil's lettuce. Okay. His PhD in history, smoking the devil's lettuce. And in that state he was in, I don't know if he was in a hotel or where he was, but he opened up the King James Bible, and he started reading the genealogy of Jesus, the begats. So and so begats. So and so begats. So and so begats.

And do you know what happened in a section that I probably would have thrown away? God, the holy spirit, spoke to Al through his word, and it's like a light bulb went off, and he's like, oh my goodness. This is real history. These aren't make believe names like the book of Mormon or the Bhagavad Gita. No. This is real history. People rooted in history, going from Jesus all the way back to Adam. That day, Al Perot became a son of God. He became a Christian.

What's really interesting to me is that if I were God, I probably wouldn't go to a guy who's smoking the devil's lettuce. I just go to nice church people. But the Lord delights in going to lost people. And so Al gave himself to the Lord and to ministry. He ministered in the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil with little boys who were prostituting themselves, huffing glue to stave off the hunger. He was there faithfully day after day, night after night ministering. Today, Al's ministry is in five or six different countries, all because he read the begats.

The Big Takeaways from Nehemiah 3

Now, what are some takeaways? Because I mean, if I read Nehemiah three to you, the whole thing, again, you'd probably be scratching your head. But maybe from 10,000 feet. What are the big takeaways or teachings from Nehemiah three?

First, Nehemiah was a great leader. A great leader. He's a great visionary. He wasn't a manager. He was a leader. As Tim says, managers deal with stuff that is. Leaders deal with things that are not yet. They see into the future, a preferred future. And so we see Nehemiah was a great leader, but unlike Moses, he realized that this huge task of rebuilding the ruins of Jerusalem, of rebuilding the wall and keeping God's people safe, could only be done successfully if he delegated.

Do you know that word delegation? Joel, I know you know it. You gotta know it. Right? So a lot of times when you're given a job, you have a choice. You can do it yourself. You can abdicate it and just pretend it's gonna fly away. Right? You can dump it. Right? That's where you just say, hey, now monkey off my back, it's on your back. Or you can delegate.

And so, what Nehemiah did, this is leadership 101. What he did is he saw how big the job was. The ruins of the city, the people were ruined and he realized this gonna have to be all hands on deck, all believers on deck. And so we see him delegating the task, not dumping it. What did Nehemiah do?

Well, in chapter two verse 17, he said, "You see the trouble we're in? You guys can just see it?" It'd be almost like if I took you to the tower, the big tower down in Roanoke in the city—First Union, Wachovia, I don't know what it's called now. Changes names about every five years. But if I were to take you there and say, "What do you see?" And maybe I take you out of the tower and we go walk the streets and say, "What do you see in our city? Do you see the ruins? Do you see it?"

Like, there's nobody else hiding in the closet that God's gonna use. He's calling Christians. He's calling me. He's calling you. He's calling us. See the ruins of the city, and this is not a one-man effort. It's not for one guy. It's for the body of Christ to bring the kingdom of God. So Nehemiah delegated, delegated, delegated. He did not dump. He delegated. He said, "Come, let us build the walls of Jerusalem."

You know what Nehemiah was latching onto here is not unlike 1 Corinthians 12, which says:

We're the body of Christ and every part is important. The foot can't say that I have no need of thee. — 1 Corinthians 12

Even the parts that we think are the weakest—God particularly needs those and uses those. And so we are all members. If you're a Christian, you're a member of the body of Christ. And everybody's given a certain grace or gifting from the Lord for His kingdom to expand the kingdom and take away the ruins of the city.

Spiritual Leaders Lead

So that's the first point—part as you delegate. Number two: the second thing we get from Nehemiah chapter three is spiritual leaders. Spiritual leaders do what? All help, ma'am. Spiritual leaders do what? They lead. Imagine—they lead. So we preach to ourselves: spiritual leaders lead.

Do you know why I go downtown almost every week, even if I'm not preaching or reading lessons or whatever? Do you know why I go down there? Because if downtown is going to work, I have to be all in as a leader. I have to be in. I just can't say, "Peace, be filled, be warm, go."

And so we see from Nehemiah: not only delegation, but secondly, spiritual leaders lead. And you go, "Well, Quig, where did you get that?" Well, look in the beginning of verse one, chapter three of Nehemiah. It says we notice Eliashib, the high priest, the first one to answer Nehemiah's call, the first one to show up, to put his hand to the plow, was the high priest. That's a big deal. He was the first to rise up and respond. He, along with his brothers, were the first to act. And it says that the high priest and his brothers, who were all priests, they came and rebuilt the sheep gate that was used for bringing animals to sacrifice—the sheep that would be sacrificed for the people's sins at the temple.

So spiritual leaders lead. We noticed particularly that the high priest was there, and the first thing they did is build the sheep gate. Why is that important? Because God doesn't just care about walls. He cares about people. God doesn't care about walls; He cares about people. Right? And so it's not enough. We can have cities with beautiful walls, but the people could be in ruins. And so what Nehemiah knew is we must have sacrifice for sin. They didn't have Jesus yet, and the only way to deal with sin was to sacrifice animals. So the first gate that they built was the place where the sheep for sacrifice would come in, because God loves us and He wants to take our sin from us.

You'll notice they're mentioning the people from Tekoa, and the people from Tekoa were given a certain section of the wall to build. The scripture notes that basically the plebeians, the regular people from Tekoa showed up, put their hand to the plow, they worked. But the nobles of Tekoa did what? They were too busy. They're too busy.

And you might read that and go, "So what? That's a boring detail." No, it's not actually. You see, and I want to apply this to me, not to you. There comes a place in life at 62 years old when you maybe have more money in the bank and you're comfortable and you have your degrees and your house and you're all these things, and it's all very comfortable. It's so easy to check out. It is so easy at our age to check out and just assume somebody else is going to do it. But spiritual leaders lead. The leaders of Tekoa did not. The nobles were so immersed in their wealth and their comfort and the things they were doing, they couldn't join with the things God was doing. And so sadly, they missed it.

Strategic Leadership

Nehemiah—the fourth thing that I learned from Nehemiah—is that he was very strategic. So imagine two and a half miles of wall. He didn't just randomly say, "Hey, people from Tekoa, go to this section. People from this place, go to that section." What he knew—he was so smart—he goes, "People will pour their heart and soul into building the wall near where their house is." Right? Wouldn't you? Like, the bad guys are going to try to come in and kill you.

Would you not put your hands on the plow in the part of the wall that protects you and your family? So that's exactly what he did. He assigned people to the section of the wall right in front of where they lived.

Application for Today

So let's do some application. To be honest with you, this is a super hard chapter to make applications for Roanoke, Virginia 2021. But we know what? The first thing that Nehemiah did is he delegated. We know number two, spiritual leaders lead. Number three, we know that a lot of people, when they're comfortable and they're nobles, if you will, will refuse to show up to work for the Lord, and they're gonna miss the blessing. We also know that when you're gonna protect your family, your home, your people, you will show up and give it your all.

So what the Lord is calling us here is to have all hands on deck. When God calls us to the kingdom task, it's in the context of our spiritual family. Each person does his or her part. Do you realize how many people here serve? It's mind blowing.

I remember a decade ago, I'm like, "Hey, nobody around here works. We've got just like 5% of people doing anything." And so I called our staff together and called our vestry together and I'm really grumpy. "Nobody here is doing anything but me, poor little me trying to lead this group." And we sat down and we said, "Okay, let's go through every name in our church directory." And with all our staff there, what we found out is the people in this body serve. There's like 200 people. What we found out is that you guys, our body do love Christ and you do love serving and you serve. You serve.

Naming Names

Now, I'm gonna do something I don't like doing, but I'm gonna follow Nehemiah in this. I'm gonna follow Saint Paul in this. See, I don't like naming names because if you give a trophy to one person or plaque to one person to put their name on the building, one, it may puff them up. Two, they may lose their reward with Jesus.

Well, you have your reward on earth. — Matthew 6:2 (paraphrased)

But what I discovered is in the scriptures, while it says:

Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. — Matthew 6:3 (paraphrased)

You want to serve in secret. You want to be quiet. That at the same time, at the same time, guess what? Paul says, "Well, remember this person and that person because they've been a blessing to me." Right? He keeps naming names. He'll talk about the Macedonians:

Consider the Macedonians and their extreme poverty. He gave all that they had and they begged for the privilege of giving money in their extreme poverty. — 2 Corinthians 8:1-4 (paraphrased)

So we see friends that scripture has this tension in it, but we see Saint Paul and we see other places in scripture where they name names and basically they say, "You see this man or woman of God? Follow them. See their example. See their good and godly example." Not to puff them up but to be an inspiration, a real life inspiration.

So here it goes. If I don't name you, just know your rewards with Jesus. Just know. These are just a sampling, just a few people I thought of.

Examples of Service

What are some people in our body who've taken their part of the wall? They've seen the ruins and they've come together for God, for their family, for their church family to put their hand to the plow for the kingdom?

First, we start with our altar guild. Who even knows what that phrase means? Do you know there are a bunch of men and women who every Friday, Saturday, Sunday come here and they clean vessels and they prepare the wine and the grape juice and the bread? When we had bread that we could cut pre-COVID, it's a lot of work, you guys. It's so much work. They clean these fancy dresses we have. They do so many things. Humble, humble, humble. Thank God for our altar guild.

How about Mr. Jim Dillon? Do you know that for twenty-five years, he's made coffee for all seven hundred, eight hundred people that come here? Even during the week, do you know he gets up at five on Sunday morning? He's done that in season, out of season. No plaque, no reward, nothing. He's got a part in the wall. And you might think, "Coffee, what's that?" Oh, coffee. Jimmy D, thank you for serving Christ.

How about Uncle Milt? Uncle Milt was born a Jewish man, and he did not know the Lord till he went to Criseo. But when he met Christ, he very much understood that he is on mission. He could see the ruins, so he applied himself. Do you know he's volunteered here ten to forty hours a week for how much? Two decades? For nothing. For free. Because he loves Jesus. He loves the Messiah.

How about Ray and Helen? You don't say their last name directly. I asked Helen one time.

I'm like, Helen, how much time do you guys spend running Celebrate Recovery and doing step studies and meeting one on one with people? And she said, well, it depends on the week. It could be fifteen to forty hours a week as a volunteer snatching people from the grasp of addiction, depression, anxiety, whatever hurt hang up habit. They serve with a cheerful heart.

How about Steve Murray, man? When you think of a servant of God, do you not think of Steve Murray? Are you here? I can talk to him. He is such a cheerful servant of God. Again, is he preaching? No. Is he celebrating communion? No. But he is serving God. He is making this place the kingdom of God with his joyful service.

Let's go a couple others. How about the people that cook all those meals? Do you guys know how many meals we crank out of here in a week? It's absolutely in the hundreds every week. And we have Mister Bruce and we have Ruth and we have Tom and Aletha and a bunch of others who come in there and they spend all day Saturday cooking for a meal or all day Sunday or Monday for Celebrate Recovery. They do it because they love Jesus and they know their part on the wall.

How about Stoney Rutherford? Anybody remember Stoney? She's dead, we can brag about her. Stoney was a godly woman and with her arthritic knees. She's a widow. She didn't have much, but what she had was a passion for Christ and a love for people. And she would get on her arthritic knees and she would intercede and pray for people. And let me tell you, she could kick the devil in the eyes. She was tough. She would pray and pray and pray. And while she's there, she'd make you a bowl of soup. She just brought the kingdom of God.

How about the Leaks? You see them? They serve quietly in a hundred different places, and nobody ever notices because they don't call attention. They do it for Christ.

How about Joey and the finance team? Holy cow, y'all. To me, that is the most boring thing in the world. It's right up there with reading the genealogies. This whole accounting, gap accounting, I don't know. I figured, you know, just add it up. But these guys keep us straight, and they keep us accountable. They do a good job, and it's so many hours.

How about Susan? Susan, not only is she a great athletic trainer and a mom, but she also comes and she does weeds here. She cuts bushes. Don't ever say a woman can't do yard work or handyman work. Don't say that. She will bop you. She's tough. I don't even want to clean my own yard, rake my own leaves, cut my own thing. I hate doing that stuff. But this lady, because she loves Jesus, knows her part on the wall, she does this at a church of 15 acres in addition to all the other stuff she does.

Maybe a couple more. How about Bob, a former prisoner, thirty some years in prison. He came to Christ deeply and authentically. And for years, five to ten years, he was begging God, God bring Kairos to this prison. I want all these men to know Christ. And it didn't happen very quickly. But after a long season, God did bring Kairos. He really was the pastor of that jail. And he's out now, and God is using him in deep and powerful ways.

How about Ali and Sarah and Lisa and Sarah Lynn and Charlies in women's ministry? Amazing stuff, y'all. Amazing.

How about this is what I missed in the first service. How about Gary Kukin, MD, who for twenty five years taught Sunday school to little kids? Chad Young, Priscilla Whitson, the Murdochs, my sweet wife. I think my wife has taught Sunday school for what, thirty some years? Happy to do it. She knows her place on wall. She sees the city in ruins. She wants to see the kingdom of God come.

How about the Blacksmiths? I mean, not only was he a player at the FBI and write a book on Psalms, that's all fine and dandy, but you know what they do? They show us Jesus. I so love seeing them being like a little Trojan horse in South Roanoke, and they just keep loving people and reaching out and say, come for coffee, come for meals, let's take a walk. And God is using them to change that portion of the city that lay in ruin.

The Kairos team go to prison. They don't go one off. Hey, look at me. I went and visited somebody in prison. No. They go week, month after month after month. Not because it's sexy, not because it's fun, not because it's fancy or they get the applause of men, but because they love Jesus and know their place on the wall.

How about the praise team? You know, these guys, amazing. You guys come to the second service, but these guys have to sing at 08:00 in the morning. Is that unbelievable? Like, holy moly. Do you know they come here Thursday night for hours and practice? They practice on their own. Like so many hours go into that. And there's Sundays where they will play 30 songs in three services. 30 songs.

They do it because they love Jesus and they know their place in the wall. How about Bob and Kim Williams? This will be the last example.

At a time where their daughter, Catherine, had concussions and had some real health issues—like she couldn't even go to school—Kim got up every day the campaigners meet and made breakfast for about 40 kids. A big, healthy, lovely, nutritious, tasty breakfast. Not because she lacked something to do. She's a businesswoman, but because she loved Jesus and knew her place on the wall. She served.

How about Bob? Bob is a surgeon, but Bob has memory issues, and he had to be medically retired. It's the truth. So if that was me, I'd feel sorry for myself and just be grumpy. Do you know what Bob's done? He serves. He serves so many places. Do you know he kind of did a walk-off home run? I called him with Archbishop Quashi. I said, "Archbishop Quashi has cancer. He goes, I don't know how we're going to do it, but just tell him to come." Bob arranges it all—all the doctors and all the treatment. Here's a man who had to medically retire because he's losing his memory, yet he knew his place on the wall. He loved Jesus and said, "You know what? I'm not bitter. I want to serve the Lord."

The Call to Rebuild

Friends, what I want to tell you in closing is this: The call from Nehemiah 3, while initially seeming very boring, teaches us a lot of things. Nehemiah wants us to see the ruins of our city. Nehemiah says to you what Jesus would say to you: Come, let us rebuild this city. Let us. There's nobody hiding in the closets. If we don't put our hand to the plow, if we don't get on our section of the wall, no one is coming. But God has given us this privilege and this gift to serve him.

Nehemiah teaches us to be a servant. Take your place on the wall. Come, let us build together. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.