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Sunday, June 18, 2023

“If It Pleases the Lord!”

Scripture:   Nehemiah2:1-10, 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

 Throughout the two books that our series is based upon, we read of several Persian kings – Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, to mention a few.  Ezra had led a contingent of Jews back to the Promised Land 50-75 years before Nehemiah began his journey.  In those days, kings didn’t always hold the throne very long, due to internal changes and opposition, as well as external attacks and conquest by foreign armies. 

 In our own country, we’re used to having changes in our Presidency every 4 to 8 years, so a constant turnover may not seem so strange.  But in the days of Nehemiah and Ezra, changes in leadership were due to violent actions, from both external as well as internal sources. But for Nehemiah and Ezra, they had another Leader who never changed – their Almighty God Jehovah.  They were captives in a far away land, so they were forced to also acknowledge the authority that the worldly king had over them.  Life wasn’t all that great, but depending on the position that was assigned to you, it could have some advantages.

 But in both of these books, God was still working to their benefit through their worldly masters.  The Lord doesn’t bring praises and glory to the worldly, but He will use them to help His people through a crises, or to fulfill His own plans for the people who believe and trust in Him.  And so it will be in today’s message.  The Persian kings get no praise or other benefit for their own actions. But God’s plan to rebuild His people and their nation came to fruition because the Persians did as He told them.

 Read Nehemiah 2:1-5

 Nehemiah takes a risk during a huge state dinner, and asks the king for permission to return home to begin a restoration project.  At these royal banquets, it was, upon occasion, a tradition for the king to grant a few requests from his guests, but it is doubtful that his servants were blessed to receive the king’s generosity.  But we should also note that Nehemiah doesn’t mention the name of his city, as the king had received a letter from the governors and commanders of that region, complaining that the people of Judah were a rebellious lot, and that their troublesome nature was the reason that the city had been destroyed in the first place! (Ezra 4:6-24)

 But for Nehemiah, the king grants his request to return home to provide restoration for the city and the people.  We should also note that our man never stopped praying to the righteous and true King in his life.  When we stay close to the ways and desires of the Lord, He will see that even the pagans will refrain from throwing up road blocks that prevent the Divine’s plans from being carried out. 

 But what happens to those ungodly plans to oppose God’s people?   As we know all too well, and as the people of Jerusalem were finding out, the world’s opposition and hostility never ends, even as the Lord continues to make a way for His will to be carried out.  Even as persecution and oppression continue to plague the faithful, God will not be deterred when the completion of His ways is important for the plan that points us toward eternity.

 Read Nehemiah 2:6-10

 King Artaxerxes asks for a time schedule for this proposal, and without actually disclosing the answer for us, Nehemiah gives the king a date, and receives permission to go.  Then, several additional requests are offered, which the king also grants.  Letters of safe passage, signed and sealed by the king, would ensure that the journey goes smoothly, and that there would be no restrictions or other opposition raised up against the travelers.

 A second letter is requested to provide for supply of construction materials in the rebuilding of the gates and residences.  But does Nehemiah rejoice that he has been able to persuade the king to be so generous?  No – he freely acknowledges that the generosity came solely from God, and that it was the Lord who inspired the king to provide all that was necessary for the project to be completed safely and successfully!

 Interestingly, even the temple is now mentioned, which would have given the king a hint as to which city it was that would soon be rebuilt!  But even with the availability of that information, Artaxerxes never withdraws his permission or provisions.  We don’t always see the ways that God works, or understand the means that are applied to potential opposition that allows God’s people to continue and thrive.  But we can always trust that He is at work for our good.

 Twice during Nehemiah’s conversation with Artaxerxes, he makes the comment “If it pleases the king …”!  On the surface, it would appear that he is leaving the decision up to the human king, but I think that we all can understand that it is the pleasure and desire of the King of heaven and earth that Nehemiah is working to please!  After all, shouldn’t it always be the pleasure of our Almighty God that we should be working for? 

 Read 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

 Paul begins this passage by reminding each of us just how insignificant we were before we responded to Christ’s call on our life!  Even from a human perspective, we were ignorant, and ineffectual, and worthless while looking to the world’s ways to give us purpose and position!  The problem with the world’s standards is that it is always hierarchical!  Think about the appearance of a pyramid for a moment.  It is broad at the base, showing that the base is the support for all that appears above, while as the structure extends ever higher, it gets narrower and narrower.  The world’s wisdom and elevated positions are never distributed evenly among its people.  But in Jesus’ parable of the workers (Matthew 20:1-16), each received the same wage, regardless of their contribution, because Jesus made them equal.  And so He does for us.

 The Lord has chosen us, even as our worldliness is completely contrary to His ways.  But by surrendering our human desires and plans, and accepting the divine offering that comes from the way of Jesus, we have the best of all that God has to give.  He gives wisdom to build us up, He gives glory to provide us with hope, He gives presence where there once was nothing, He has, by faith, become our victory where once there was only death, and where we once had failure, He has now given “righteousness, holiness and redemption”!

 Nehemiah had taken a huge step to move beyond what he could only do by himself, and through prayer, allowed the Lord to take the lead in his life.  This is what following the Lord is all about – accepting a secondary position to Him, and not trying to govern our own life.  In John 5:30, we read Jesus’ words “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but Him who sent me.”  The Lord’s servant Nehemiah knew his own limitations, and gave all that he had to please his Lord God Jehovah.  Sometimes, our gift to God involves the type of risk that would never gain the world’s accolades, but then, how important could the world’s opinion ever be for our life?

 May our life’s choices always be made with our Lord’s pleasure being foremost in our heart and mind and soul.  May every day be our heavenly Father’s Day!

 

Sunday, June 11, 2023

“The Power of Prayer”

 Scripture:   Nehemiah 1:1-11Mark 11:22-25

 Today, we begin a new series of messages for our time of worship, which will be based on the Book of Nehemiah.  Ezra and Nehemiah tell of the people’s return from exile, and their rebuilding of both the city of Jerusalem and their lives as people freed from slavery in Babylon.  The Lord God Jehovah can be seen at work in their lives right from the start, but as we all know, that, in no way, guarantees that a new and renewed life will be free from struggle, or conflict, or opposition, or any other means of attempting to halt and reverse the current course of events.

 And now that our church has been approved to leave the United Methodist church. and to join the Global Methodist Church, I believe that the lies and other misinformation that have been so prevalent recently will continue to barrage us from the progressive side, trying to discourage and challenge us as we move toward new and true opportunities in faith.  The lessons that we read about in Nehemiah and Ezra will, I believe, be well worth our time, as their approach to rebuilding the city, the temple, and their personal lives should give us encouragement in our efforts to also begin anew.

 Today, we discover that Nehemiah had begun to hear stories about some new struggles that the people back home were experiencing.   He has the feeling that he is to help them in some way, but he is in Babylon as an exiled slave.  How can he possibly do anything for those who are in a home so far away?

 But when we have faith in the Lord, there is always a way, whether we understand it at first or not!

 Read Nehemiah 1:1-11

 Nehemiah knew that his only hope of getting assistance back to his family who were hundreds of miles away, was to turn control over to his God.  Jerusalem had no walls, no gates, no temple, no homes, no security, no protection, and no hope whatsoever!  What’s left?  Only the Lord God Almighty!

 So what does Nehemiah do?  We read that he mourned for the plight of the people, that he fasted as a way to deny his own strengths and abilities, and he prayed – not just during 1 morning or even 1 day, but for several days.  And in the prayer that we just read, we see several aspects of his prayer that should become integral within our own prayer times.

 1.  He gave honor and glory to his great Jehovah by proclaiming Him to be great, awesome, honest and loving.  A prayer that begins with adoration for our true and mighty God will always set the tone for the conversation that follows.

2.  The man then asks that the Lord be aware and understanding of what is about to be asked of Him.  In John 14:13-15, Jesus tells us that whatever we ask in His name will be granted.  Nehemiah didn’t know Jesus back in his day, but the truth is that when a prayer was lifted up in the precious name of Jehovah, Jesus was already being included.

3.  The servant then identifies the One who he is praying to, in order to proclaim the One who he looks to, who he trusts in, who he knows intimately, and who is the only hope for the people, and no other.  This is how we can reassure ourselves as to who we are truly depending upon!

4.  He then confesses the sins that have come from him, his family, and the nation.  The confession is fairly general in nature, but be reassured that God knows the honesty that holds our confession, and never doubts its sincerity, if indeed, it is.

5.  He remembers God’s command in Leviticus26:27-35, that if we are unfaithful and turn away from His grace and glory, that the Lord will return evil to them many times over.  I’m sure that the man was thinking about the years that they had been living in exile, so much so that his repentance was surely honest and heart-felt!

6.  But to Nehemiah’s credit, he also remembers God’s promise that when we return to His ways, that even the exiled will be gathered up, and returned to the life that the Lord has prepared for them (Deuteronomy30:1-10).

7.  From Deuteronomy 9:27-29, he remembers the Lord’s promise that they had become God’s people through the redemption that saved them while they were captives in Egypt, and presumably, even while they had been sent into exile to suffer Persian oppression in Babylon.

8.  And finally, Nehemiah asks once again, that Jehovah God would listen to all that he had said, and to be responsive to the faithful who had turned back to Godly ways.

 Nehemiah remembered just who it was that could bring about the help that the people of Jerusalem were in such dire need of.  And in his remembering, he recalled just how it was the unfaithful lives they had been living that had gotten them in this mess to begin with, and that if they would simply return to faithful and obedient living, God would keep His promises to restore and reaffirm them in His ways.

 And just in case you are wondering why I spent so much time in discussing Nehemiah’s prayer today, it’s because it is the perfect model that all of us should be following whenever we, or those who are closest to us, are struggling through in times of great trial, and we come to the realization that it is God and His merciful grace who is the only one who can get us out of the mess that we have created.

 The key to the Lord’s redemption, will always be our repentance, and our return to accepting and obeying the commands that our God has sent down - not as  punishment, but as a blessing for our benefit.

 Read Mark 11:22-25

 The point that Jesus is making in this passage is the same understanding that Nehemiah had come to hundreds of years before, and that is, that the prayer of a solidly and truthfully faithful person will always be answered, even the impossible and improbable prayer that a mountain could actually throw itself into the ocean, when we truly believe that it would happen just as we prayed that it would.

 Jesus then goes on to say that when we pray, whatever we may be asking for, if we truly believe that it not only can happen, but has already begun to happen, it will be done just as we asked.  But the Lord offers two caveats for our consideration – first, in the passage we just read, that we must be clean of our own sin before we begin to pray or worship, and second, from Matthew18:19-20, that when we pray as a body, we must believe and pray in unity.

 These verses that we have lifted up today are their own proof that divine power will answer our requests through prayer that we offer in the name of our Lord and Savior.  And in Nehemiah’s case, during the next several weeks, we will begin to see just how powerfully faithful prayer can work to our good, if we just trust and obey the word that God has handed down to us.

 Remember our time of prayer during Sunday worship.  As we lift up praises, we all should be rejoicing in what God has already begun, as well as what He will continue to do through our faithful walk with Him.  And when we pray for comfort in the lives of those who have lost loved ones, and for healing in those who are suffering illnesses and injuries, and for the general prayers that we lift up for situations that impact our lives and those of others, prayers in unity will always go much further than prayers that are divided and uncertain in the lives that are involved.

 Nehemiah knew this.  Shouldn’t we?

Sunday, June 4, 2023

“ONCE BROKEN, NOW COMPLETE”

Scripture: Jeremiah 31:31-34, John 15:1-8

In our previous series regarding the 7 Churches of Revelation, we saw the Lord Jesus at work in two separate ways – first in proclaiming what those churches had chosen to do that separated them from Godly ways, and second, in His recognition and acknowledgment of the Godly ways that they were living in that were bringing praise and glory to their Lord.  As we read of Christ’s evaluation of their lives, we discover that He was offering them both his hurting heart as well as his divine glory, both his love and his disappointment, both His judgment and his joy.

 In the verses preceding our opening passage for today, we see God offering the same judgment and the same restoration that He does in Revelation.  From those verses in Jeremiah 31:27-28, we read “Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the LORD.”  In these few words, the Lord tells the Israelites in exile, as well as the oppressed church of today, that there is far more in the love that He has for His people than they could ever fully know. 

 God knows that we will always have problems living a life of perfection in His commands and laws, and that we need His ways to be rebuilt and renewed within us after we fall away from living in His perfection. 

 Today, we see the plan that God has created to accomplish that very thing – and that it will be accomplished through His New Covenant of forgiveness.  And as we take just a moment to reflect on the renewal and fulfillment that will be ours by faith in Jesus, His new covenant should become clearer and firmer and more vital in each and every heart that is given to the Christ of life.

 Read Jeremiah31:31-34

 God reveals the problem that overwhelmed us in the former covenant – that when we broke the promise of God, our insufficient and inadequate sacrifices were the only way to work our way back into the Lord’s good graces – and they were never enough.  So the Lord would provide a new and perfect means to rebuild, restore, and pardon us through His grace and mercy.  The prophet doesn’t describe this process in very much detail, except to say that it will be based in the fact that we will know God, and will never have to obey an unknown quantity ever again.

 It doesn’t mean that God’s commands are going to be taken away, that we will finally have free rein over our personal lives.  Divine law has been instilled within us, written on our heart and filling our mind.  Of course that still doesn’t preclude many folks from simply ignoring the Lord’s will, in favor of their  own!

 And why do we now know God?  Because He has now become one in us!  Jesus came to this place, not simply as the divine Being from heaven, but who is also “fully human”, just as we are.   We can easily come to know another person, if we just spend some time with them, and rejoice in all that their experiences, their knowledge and their wisdom can come to mean for our lives. For when we know Jesus, we also know God the Father, as well as God The Holy Spirit.  And the humanity of Jesus actually has an additional benefit that comes through our relationship with Him.

 Remember all those sacrifices that people used to have to do to earn God’s forgiveness for all the sins and failures that we have so intently committed during this lifetime?   Human sin required a human’s sacrifice if it was to mean anything, and it had to be offered over and over again.  So the human side of the Lord Jesus did what we could never do on our own! He gave up His own life on the Cross, so that His human brothers and sisters could know the forgiveness that Christ’s divine love and mercy has always been so eager to grant to each and every one of us.  And his sacrifice was so perfect, that it only had to be offered once, not over and over again.  And all that we are asked to do is to name the sins that we want the Lord to forgive within us.

 Jesus has done all that needed to be done, that we might not only know Him, but that we would know His blessed forgiveness, too!  And when God forgives, it is so complete that our sin passes from God’s presence and into the darkness of yesterday.  Praise the Lord for His goodness!

 Read John 15:1-8

 This “I AM” saying lends additional credence to our getting to know Jesus as a friend, and not simply as an unapproachable divine Being.  This gives us a glimpse into the “giving” nature of the Lord Jesus as we consider how a vine or stalk supplies nourishment, strength, and support to the fruit that it bears.

 So how is Jesus “the Vine” for our lives?  He enables our life to have meaning beyond anything that we could envision on our own; he provides guidance for us in this existence that we might have direction and vision for a life founded in His holy name, one that will always bring glory to the Father; He shows us how our obedience to His word will be nourishing and strengthening for our walk with Him in faith; and the spiritual fruit that grows, as defined in Galatians 5:22-23 - “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” – will fill us and supply us with the desire and focus to pour it all out for the needy of this world.  And as the fruit of every plant contains seeds that go to produce even more plants and fruit, so does the fruit that comes from our faithful service.

 And Jesus shares the difference between cutting and pruning that the Gardiner does on our behalf.  Dead branches are just a burden and a distraction, and have no useful purpose whatsoever – the only thing they actually accomplish is to get in the way of new and vital growth in the plant.  So the only action that is needed is to remove it and destroy it to keep from its passing on disease and death to others. 

 But pruning, on the other hand, is the removal of good and living growth, with the purpose being to direct more nourishment to fewer pieces of “fruit”, so that while there may be less fruit in numbers, each one that does grow will be larger, healthier, and more pleasing to the Gardiner.

 So how does this fit into God’s “new covenant” that He prepares as a blessing for all who love him, and serve him, and follow him?  It enhances the life we live, and as we walk and grow and produce for the glory of our Lord, more and greater fruit begin to grow, and the covenant that is founded in our relationship with Jesus, will empower and fulfill those words from Jeremiah – “I will be your God, and you will be my people”. 

 And what is our part in living God’s “new covenant”?  To follow joyfully, to allow the Lord to shape us, and prune us, and to remove the “dead wood” that develops in our lives, to repent of our bent to preserve the “dead” branches that clutter up our lives, to share the fruit that Jesus the Vine produces within us for the benefit of others, and to give God the glory for whatever comes from our faithfulness.

 Just as Jesus gave his all in faithful joy for our benefit, our walk with Christ must also be one, in that same kind of blessed and hopeful joy, for others.  And as we continue in acknowledgment and commitment to this New Covenant in Jesus’ name, may we be renewed and strengthened in faith and obedience to Jesus, and no other.

 Whole and healed and right again - not by our efforts and will, but solely because of God’s.