You
All right, good morning everyone.
Welcome to First Works Baptist Church.
Let's all find our seats.
As you find a seat, grab a song book,
turn to song number 66.
["Song Number 66"]
Song number 66 as our first song this morning at Calvary.
Let's all stand together for this first song if you're able.
Song number 66 at Calvary.
We're all together nice and strong in that first verse.
Years I spent in vanity and pride,
caring that my Lord was crucified.
It's all about
And grace was free, but in there was multiply to me.
There my burdened soul put liberty at Calvary.
Now I've given to Jesus everything.
Now I gladly owe him as my king.
Now my raptured soul can only sing of...
grace was free. There my burdens over liberty at Calvary." Great singing, let's start off our
service with a word of prayer. Lord God Heavenly Father, we just thank you for
giving us another day that we come here to your house and hear the preaching of
your word. We thank you for everyone that's here this morning.
And we ask that you please bless our service,
every aspect of it, the singing,
that it would be pleasing to your ears,
that it would prepare our hearts for the message, Lord.
And most importantly, please feel past me here
with your spirit as he preaches unto us.
Give us your spirit and the congregation as well.
Give us ready ears to hear, Lord,
so that we may leave here changed.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
You may be seated.
Please turn your song books to song number 372.
Song number 372 let the lower lights be burning all together nice and strong on that first verse
Of the lights along the shore
Let the lower lights be burning
Send a gleam across the wave
Some more fainting, struggling sea men
You may rescue, you may save
watching longing for the lights along the shore.
sea man you may rescue you may say
All right, great singing.
Welcome to First Works Baptist Church.
Just a few announcements here.
Before we sing our next song, which would be song number 100.
If you want to get that ready in your song books,
day by day, song number 100.
If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand.
One of the ushers can get one for you.
Some important information on there.
Of course, we welcome you to come back tonight
for our Sunday evening service.
and tonight I'm going to be preaching on the subject of false prophets and so if that subject
interests you we do welcome you to come back tonight we are a family integrated church and so
infants and children uh stay with their parents in the service
Excuse me, but for your convenience, the Mother Baby Room is located in the back of the building and there are
changing tables, screens, and speakers there, so you can still tune into the preaching and come back in at your discretion.
You have the so many times and teams there in the middle and if you'd like to learn how to preach the gospel,
you can see me after the service to be placed on the team to learn
how to communicate that. You have the list of expecting mothers if you can keep them in prayer
and then today is the birthday breakfast for the month of May. So who, whose birthday is in May
on this section? Anybody over here?
One there for the run, got one here, one there, okay, for those A, anybody else over here for the Rick, okay, for Melissa, anybody else?
Okay, wow, we got a lot, alright, anybody over here? Nobody over here, you guys are against May, okay.
Alright, well we're gonna sing Happy Birthday, we're gonna embarrass you real quick and sing Happy Birthday to you, those of you in May.
Lift it up together, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday God bless you.
Happy birthday to you.
All right, happy birthday to you all.
Hope you enjoyed those healthy muffins.
And then you have the first work stats there
for Salvation and Baptisms for the month of April.
Great month there on the right hand side.
Today after the service is Ms. Jenny's baby shower.
That'll be after the AM service.
And ladies, if you have any questions about that,
you can see my wife for more details.
But of course, all the ladies are welcome
to participate in that.
It will be in the former fellowship hall,
which is this section right here.
They're gonna clear that out.
and prepare that for the baby shower.
Next week is our Soda Seed Offering Sunday for our members.
So let me just go over a couple things regarding that.
And in preparation for that, just a couple things here that I want to mention.
Number one, pray that God would give us a generous offering to kickstart our saving for a new building.
And a growing church has growing needs, and of course, as we continue to grow,
we're going to end up outgrowing this building.
And so the plan is in the coming years to purchase our own building that will facilitate our growth.
Secondly, please participate by giving a one-time gift.
Consider giving monthly to our building fund so to help us to reach that goal number three
You can give through PayPal
but preferably give through Zell and of course you can give in the offering plate on Sunday as a check or as
You know cash, whatever it is. Do you want to do but if you do give online?
I do recommend people to give through Zell just because PayPal does tax you quite a bit
Zell on the other hand does not do that if you have any questions you can talk to brother
there though. But there will be offering envelopes with a designated section for the building offering
that's going to be placed in the bulletin next week and so that's going to be if you're going to give
monetarily on that day like physically into the play just make sure you put it into that offering
envelope so we can allocate that count it and know what is going where. And then lastly please
This is more like a long term thing where we're going to be doing this for a couple of years in order to, you know, prepare to purchase a building, put a down payment on a building and pray that we'd be able to get that.
You know, it's exciting that we are growing and it's obviously a good problem to have that we're running out of space.
And so, but we need a plan for the future. And of course, we got a lot of little ones in our church.
And in the next 10 years, we're going to have a lot of teenagers, so we do want to prepare to have a church for them as well in the coming future.
And so pray to that end. Now, I do realize I made a mistake when we did the offering Sunday and I put it on May 11th, and May 11th is also Mother's Day, amen.
And so we're still doing Mother's Day, of course.
We're going to have a gift for all the moms that come next week,
and there will be a photo corner in the former foyer there.
And so we're still excited about that,
and we want to encourage you to bring your moms on that day
to receive that gift and take some pictures.
Next here is the TJ Mission Strip coming up on Saturday, May 24th,
meeting at the building at 9.15.
If you'd like to participate in that, just make sure you bring your passport and talk to brother Ulysses Hernandez.
Of course, the expenses are paid for. We always have a great time, get a lot of salvations there, eat a lot of tacos, and it's a great trip.
And then lastly, we're going to have a graduation ceremony on Sunday, May 25th.
The kindergarten ceremony will be on Sunday morning, and then the high school graduation will be on Sunday night.
We'll give you more info on that.
as we approach.
And that is pretty much it for our announcements.
Please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching
so as to not be a distraction during the service.
And that is it.
Let's go ahead and sing our next song.
Song number 100, Day by Day.
Altogether, nice and strong on that first verse.
Day by day and with each passing moment
Strength I find to meet my trials here
Trusting in my Father's wise bestowment
Come to each day what he deems best.
Lovingly it's part of gain and pleasure, mingling toil with peace and rest.
Every day the Lord himself is near me with us best.
special mercy for each hour.
All my cares he feigned would bear and cheer me,
in whose name is Councilor and power.
The protection of his child and treasure
strength shall be in measure, this the pledge to me he may.
Help me then in every tribulation.
So do trust.
Thy promise, O Lord, that I lose, not faint, sweet consolation.
from a father's hand. One by one, the day's the moment's fleeting, till I reach the promised land.
Amen. Wonderful singing. At this time, the ushers will come forward to receive the offering.
You can turn your bibles to Nehemiah chapter two. Nehemiah chapter number two.
Nehemiah chapter 2, the Bible reads,
And came to pass on the month Nyson in the 20th year of our exertions to the king,
The wine was before him, and I took up the wine and gave it unto the king.
Now I had not been before time sad in his presence,
Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy accountant sad, seeing thou art not sick?
This is nothing else but sorrow of heart.
Then I was very sore afraid, and said unto the king,
Why should not my countenance be sad when the city, the place of my father's sepulchres,
life waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Then the king said unto me,
For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven, and I said unto the king,
If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favor in thy sight,
That thou would assembly unto Judah, under the city of my father's sepulchres,
That I may build it. And the king said unto me, The queen also sitting by him,
For how long shall thy journey be, and when wilt thou return?
So it pleased the king to send me, and I said him a time.
Moreover, I said unto the king, If it pleased the king, let letters be given me
to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over until I come into Judah.
And a letter unto Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber
to make beams for the gates of the palace, which I pertain to the house,
and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into.
And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
Then I came to the governors beyond the river and gave them the king's letters.
Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.
When Saint Ballot the Horror Knight and Tobiah the Servant the Ammonite heard of it,
it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.
So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days.
And I rose in the night, I and some few men with me.
Neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do with Jerusalem.
Neither was there any beast with me, say the beast that I wrote upon.
And I went up by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well into the
Dungport and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down and the gates thereof
were consumed with fire.
Then I went on to the gate of the fountain and to the end of the king's pool, but there
was no place for the beast that was under me to pass.
Then I went up in the night by the brook and viewed the wall, and turned back and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned.
And the rulers knew not whether I went or what I did, neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work.
Then said I unto them, You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
Come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more reproach.
Then I told them of the hand of my God, which was good upon me as also the king's words
That he had spoken unto me and they said let us rise up and build so they strengthen their hands for this good work
But when sand ball at the horror night and to buy at the servant the Yemenite and gisham the Arabian heard it
They laughed us to scorn and despised us and said what is this thing that you do?
Well, he rebelled against the king
Then answered I them and said unto them
The God of heaven, he will prosper us.
Therefore, we his servants will arise and build.
But ye have no portion, no right,
no memorial in Jerusalem.
Let's pray to the Lord God.
Thank you for your word.
Thank you for this opportunity to hear it preached.
Just ask that you would fill a passenger here
with your Holy Spirit now.
And please bless the preaching for our edification
and the Jerusalem we pray.
Amen.
Okay, we're in Nehemiah chapter 2 this morning.
Look down at your Bibles at verse 18.
It says, Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me, as also the king's
words that he had spoken unto me.
And they said, Let us rise up and build, so they strengthen their hands for this good
work.
And the time of my sermon this morning is, Let us rise up.
They are committing the grievous sin of forsaking the Sabbath, which is a major thing in the
Old Testament.
And it's for that reason that God ends up punishing them as well
by allowing a foreign nation known as the Babylonians
to come and take them into captivity.
So King Nebuchadnezzar comes, he goes into Jerusalem,
he destroys the temple, he takes all the instruments
of the temple and he takes the people
and takes them into captivity.
Now this is something that we see prophesied
in the book of Isaiah, okay?
If you're here on Thursday nights,
we're studying through the book of Isaiah
and we see just this continuous
decree of God's people being destroyed by a foreign nation known as the Babylonians.
And in the book of Jeremiah, we actually see Jeremiah prophesying of how long that captivity
would be for.
And he specifically tells them, you're going to be gone for 70 years, okay?
So in order to give the land rest, so he punishes them by allowing them to be deported and
for 70 years.
And he tells them, you know,
I know the thoughts that I think of you,
thoughts of peace and not of evil,
to give you an expected end,
you're gonna come back to the land after those 70 years.
However, get comfortable in Babylon.
And one of the messages that he preaches,
he says, hey, make sure you dig some wells there,
build houses, dig vineyards,
you know, get comfortable in Babylon
because you're gonna be there for a very long time, okay?
Have kids, just start a new family there,
is basically what he's telling them.
because you're gonna be there for a long time.
And really what God wants is that he wants
a new generation to rise up after that captivity
that we'll believe on the Lord
and that generation will essentially come back to Jerusalem.
And that's exactly what happens.
And so what we have in Babylon is they get taken over
by the Medo-Persian Empire.
So the Babylonian Empire falls apart,
they're taken over by the Medo-Persians,
and you have this very famous historical character
known as Cyrus the Great.
And he's very famous, not only historically,
but just biblically in general, he's very famous.
I mean, he's mentioned by name in the book of Isaiah
a hundred years prior to him taking over Babylon.
He's a servant of the Lord.
Obviously, there's a lot of debate
whether he's saved or not.
I think he potentially was.
He believes on the God of the Bible.
And God places it in his heart
to release the children of Israel back to Judah,
to reconstruct the temple.
and to return those instruments of the house of God
back to its former place, its rightful place.
And so he does that.
And now a lot of people think,
well, when the children of Israel returned to Judah,
it was just like in one wave, but it actually wasn't.
It was in three waves that they returned.
And it was over a span of about a century or so
that they returned.
And so the return of those of Judah back to Jerusalem
took place under the leadership of Zerubbabel
and Ezra and Nehemiah, okay?
So when they come back, they reconstruct the temple.
This is what the book of Ezra is all about.
It's about the reconstruction of the second temple.
The book of Nehemiah, on the other hand,
is about the reconstruction of the wall
that protects the city from which the temple is located.
So Ezra and Nehemiah are all about reconstructing that which has been torn down, that which has been burned, right?
Ezra focusing on the temple, Nehemiah focusing on the wall that protects the city where the temple is located.
Everyone understand? Pretty simple, right?
So these books are historical books, just like the book of Acts would be considered somewhat of a historical book.
And the major and minor prophets of the Old Testament are kind of like the epistles.
of the New Testament, right, essentially talking about in real time what's taking place during
those captivity and such.
And so that's where we find ourselves in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah.
Now obviously in the New Testament we don't worship in a temple, okay, and in fact, you
know, any physical temple that claims to believe in the God of the Bible is not a legitimate
temple, it's not a legitimate institution set forth by God because the Bible tells us
First Corinthians 6.19 says,
What? No, you're not.
Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost,
which you have of God, and ye are not your own.
That we're bought with the price.
So just as that physical temple was essentially
the house of God in the Old Testament,
our bodies are the housing of the Holy Spirit
once we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
So we don't need a synagogue,
we for sure don't need a synagogue.
We don't need a temple, a tabernacle.
And in fact, the New Testament says
that we are also the tabernacle, right?
It's more of a spiritual emphasis in the New Testament.
So, you know, stop funding that third temple over in Israel.
Fund what we got going on here, amen.
You know, don't fund that third temple
because this is the temple of God.
And of course, each and every one of us
collectively makes up a church, understand?
Now, we're going to extrapolate some principles from both of these stories and how do we apply
that to our Christian lives because here's the thing is that these principles of constructing
and reconstructing the temple can be applied to us as well.
You know, we can apply this in a sense of each and every one of us are called to construct
ourselves in the Lord, build ourselves up in the Lord.
But you know what?
Maybe you were punished by God,
and maybe your temple was destroyed as well.
Well, now you gotta come back and reconstruct that temple.
Build up those walls again,
build up that second temple again.
Maybe you gotta start from scratch again
in order to start serving the Lord
and honoring God once again.
Which leads me to my first point,
regarding these two stories,
these two books, shall I say,
and that is that the King decrees the reconstruction.
The king decrees the reconstruction.
Look at Ezra chapter one, verse number one.
It says, now in the first year of Cyrus King of Persia,
that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled,
the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia,
that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom,
and put it also in writing saying,
Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia,
The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth,
and he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Who is there among you of all his people?
His God be with them and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah and build the house of the Lord God of Israel
He is the God which is in Jerusalem now by the way verse 3 is
Somewhat the evidence that it's possible
You know it's possible evidence that Cyrus was saved because he says that the God of Israel he is the God
And obviously an argument can be made, well he's just kind of recognizing the God of the Bible as being the God which is in Israel because he says that towards the latter end of the verse.
In either case, we know that God is working in this leader to essentially decree for them to return and build up the work once again, right?
Well in like manner, you know, our King commands us to reconstruct as well.
You know, our King Jesus Christ has commanded us to build our lives on the word of God,
to build up people, to build up disciples, to build up converts, to build up our spouses
and our families.
That's our responsibility.
And in fact, Jude 20 says this, but ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith,
praying in the Holy Ghost.
Now let me just explain something when it comes to building a spiritual life.
It sometimes needs to get torn down first.
You know, you're like, well, I know everything there is to know about the Bible, but then you come to church and you realize
there's a lot of things you got to work on and the preaching of God's word tears you down.
It tears you down that you may be built back up, right?
And you know something, this is how it works even with exercise. In order to build muscle, you got to tear down the muscle.
Eat the protein to build that muscle back up and make it stronger well in like manner
You know sometimes we do need to get torn down and you know what there's churches out there
They only want to edify only want to build up but hold on a second
What if you're building up on a on a faulty foundation though?
You know, we need to make sure that we appropriately build ourselves up using the word of God,
that we build up ourselves on our most holy faith, that we forsake old ideologies that
are against the Bible and build some new ideologies that are actually biblical.
You know, maybe you have some preconceived ideas about the Bible and about church and
about Christianity.
That stuff needs to get torn down, and we need to build up ourselves on our most holy
faith.
Why?
Because Jesus Christ, sorry, there's a bug there.
That wasn't a part of my illustration.
1 Corinthians 3-9 says this,
For we are labors together with God,
year God's husband, Dree,
listen to this,
ye are God's building.
According to the grace of God,
which is given unto me,
as a wise master builder,
I have laid the foundation,
another build that they're on,
but let every man take heed
how he buildeth thereupon.
You know, the problem is
with a lot of churches,
they're so focused on building
an actual building,
they don't actually build a people.
And, you know, a building is important.
Obviously, we live in the United States of America.
Buildings are necessary.
They're a necessary evil.
But never at the expense of actually building something
of substance within the walls of this building, right?
We never want to just have a large building
of people, number one, that are not saved.
Or number two, maybe they are saved,
but they don't know the Bible.
Or maybe they do know a little bit about the Bible,
but they don't do the work.
We want to make sure that we produce save people who know the word of God who are doing the work of God
Soaning preaching the gospel obeying the Lord doing things that are pleasing in his sight
We are God's building and we need to recognize that God has commissioned every single one of us to reconstruct ourselves
To rebuild ourselves to build up this temple this tabernacle in order to glorify God
You're an Ezra chapter 1
Let me give you another principle here, and that is that when we construct or reconstruct ourselves in the Lord, you know what it requires?
Sacrifice of our resources. Look at verse number four. It says,
And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth,
let the men of his place help him with silver and with gold and with goods and with beasts
beside the free will offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. Go to chapter 3 if you would, chapter 3 and
verse number 5.
Constructing or reconstructing ourselves in the Lord
requires sacrifice of our resources.
Ezra chapter three, verse number five says,
in afterward, offer the continual burnt offering,
both of the new moons and of all the set feasts
of the Lord that were consecrated,
and of everyone that willingly offered
a free will offering unto the Lord.
Hold your place in the book of Ezra,
go to 2 Corinthians chapter nine,
2 Corinthians chapter nine.
You know, you're out of your mind
if you think you're gonna grow in the Lord
and not sacrifice something.
Something always has to go. It's going to cost you something. It's going to cost you time, talents, treasures.
It's going to cost you, you know what? Maybe sometimes it costs you family.
Maybe sometimes it costs you friends. Maybe sometimes it costs you the admiration of the people who you love the most.
It's going to cost you something. You have to pay something in order to grow in the Lord.
You know, you've got to pay something in order to learn the Bible.
You're not to pay something in order to win people to Christ. You can't expect to grow and build a building without actually
Sacrificing something and he's saying here these people brought of their own offerings silver and gold in order to build the house of God
Look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 9
Now, let me just get put a little plug in for the offering Sunday, man, since we're on the subject of sacrificing,
you know, 2 Corinthians 9 verse 3 says this,
Yet have I sent the brethren, let's start boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf,
that as I said, you may be ready.
Let's happily, if they of Macedonia come with me and find you unprepared, we that we say not ye, should be ashamed in this same confident boasting.
Therefore, I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren that they would go before unto you and make up beforehand your bounty,
whereas you have noticed before that the same might be ready as a matter of bounty and not as of covetousness."
Now, what is he talking about here?
Well, the apostle Paul is...
collecting an offering for the churches
and he's like, he goes to the Corinthian church
and he says, hey, you guys talk the big talk.
So I just wanna make sure that you walk the walk as well.
So I'm gonna send some guys beforehand
to go and collect that offering for you
because you said you were gonna give that offering.
And he says here in verse number six,
but this I say, he which soweth sparingly,
shall reap also sparingly.
What does that mean?
You get what you put into it.
That's right.
Right?
And this not only applies financially,
this just applies spiritually, period.
I don't know in a Bible, well you get into it
what you put into it.
You get out of it what you put into it.
If you sow sparingly, you're gonna reap sparingly.
Well I don't get anybody saved.
Well you get out of it what you put into it.
He says, he which sowed sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which sowed boundtively shall reap also boundtively.
Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give. And again, this is in context of finances, right?
This offering that they're taking. And you know what? I hope that today, you know, you purpose in your heart what you're gonna give on that day.
Purpose in your heart, and so let it give. Now, here's how you do it though, because God not only wants you to give,
He wants you to do with the right attitude.
He says not grudgingly or of necessity for God. Love it a cheerful giver
You know don't be crying when you're throwing that thing into the optimum play like
You know just like it just hurts you it should be cheerful a man
Because you are in vet. It's not necessary even a sacrifice. It's an investment
God loveth a cheerful giver and it says in God is able to make all grace abound
toward you that ye always having all sufficiency and all things may abound to
every good work so in other words you know what you sacrifice God is able to
make up the difference God can provide for you God can use you in a great way
he can provide for your needs you can never out give God in other words right
And what is this telling us?
This is showing us at the end of the day
that if we want to serve God, it does cost us something.
Not just in resources, but in relationships,
in time, and in talents.
You being here on a Sunday morning costs you something.
Maybe it costs you some gas.
For some of you, it costs you a lot of gas.
You know, driving two, three hours to get here to church,
you know, it's gonna cost you something.
But you know what?
You reap the benefits because of it.
and you can't expect to serve God
and you can't expect to be able to serve him
at an optimal position and reap all these benefits
without the process of actually sacrificing
and investing something, right?
No one can make you grow.
You have to sacrifice to make yourself grow.
You know, we can preach the sermons, we can exhort you,
we can guilt trip you, but at the end of the day,
you have to pay the price to actually grow as a Christian.
You have to pay the price in order to get that for yourself
You have to choose to do the right things. You have to choose to go soul winning
You have to choose to learn how to preach the gospel
You have to choose to learn how to read the Bible
You have to choose to wake up in the morning every single day crack open the Word of God
Read the Word of God walk with God pray you have to sacrifice that. Oh
Man, I just want a godly family. Well, guess what? It's gonna cost you something. I want a godly marriage. It's gonna cost you something
Hey, if you want to get right with God, that's going to cost you something, too.
And you know what? At the end of the day, it has to be of your own free will.
Just as we see the offerings in Ezra chapter 1 and chapter 3,
they were a free will offering in a like manner.
It has to come from your own voluntary will to do so.
You can be in an environment conducive to spiritual growth.
You can have the best types of Christians around you.
You can have the best pastor. At the end of the day, though.
None of us can make you do what you're supposed to do.
You have to choose to sacrifice, you have to choose to invest in order to reap the benefits of God's blessing.
The Bible tells us in Matthew 16 verse 24,
then said, Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.
And what does this mean? It means that it's going to cost you something to follow the Lord.
Now there's a lot of weird teachings going out there
regarding this verse of these pastors
and they're just like, well, you know,
when it says take up your cross,
it doesn't mean take up your cross,
it doesn't mean, so what does it mean then?
A cross is an instrument of death, right?
That's what it is.
A crucifix is an instrument of death.
And you know, what this pastor's trying to get at is that,
you know, you don't have to gift things up
to serve God or something.
Oh really, then what does the cross represent then?
What do we what are we talking about here exactly and you know
I'm sick and tired of pastors telling you what something doesn't mean and not telling you what it does mean
That's frustrating right there. It's just like yeah, it doesn't really mean that if I have enough time
I'll go over there just a bit. It's like you have an hour
Say it in two minutes
It's not hard my friends here. Let me tell you what take up your cross means. He means you're gonna die
And let me cross-reference that I die daily
Let me cross reference that the Bible says I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice
Holy acceptable and to God which is a reasonable service
That's what it means to take up your cross
Because just as Jesus Christ went to the cross to sacrifice himself in like manner if we want to serve God
You know except the corner we fall to the ground and die and abide at the loam, but if it dies it bears much fruit
That's just a little you know side I just chased a rabbit there
But the point that I'm making is that serving Jesus Christ will cost you something you have to die to self
You know, it's gonna sometimes it costs some of our most valuable relationships. Let's just be honest
You and I can both agree that being a Christian has cost us some pretty, you know close relationships in our life
But at the end of the day, it's always worth it to serve the Lord and we know and we understand that the Bible teaches that if we're
Gonna construct or reconstruct our lives in the Lord
It's gonna require some some form of sacrifice go back to Ezra if you would
You know don't ever think that the sacrifice you're made is in vain it's never in vain
Like oh man, I lost all these relationships. Maybe I lost this job opportunity
Maybe I lost this this the the opportunity to make this amount of money, but it's never in vain
The blessing of the Lord to make it rich and he added no sorrow to it. It's always worth it to
Sacrifice for the Lord okay, especially if we're trying to construct or reconstruct ourselves in him now
Let me give you another a requirement here when we construct or reconstruct ourselves in the Lord
And that is number three that it requires a team
Let me just remind you that in the Christian life,
there are no Ronan Christians.
There's no lone Christians.
I can just do this on my own.
I just know these things on my own.
I can just be successful on my own.
There's no I in team.
I know that's cheesy, but it's true though,
if you know how to spell.
You know, there's no I in team.
At the end of the day, God wants us to depend on others
to spiritually grow.
And if you are going to build yourselves up on your most holy faith,
if you're going to get right with God,
guess what it requires?
A pastor and a church to aid you in doing so.
And no one is their own just self-made man success story.
We are a comp- our success is a compilation of the investment of God and others.
That's what it is.
It's the investment of your parents.
It's the investment of your brothers and sisters in Christ,
of your pastor, of people who have taught you
the word of God and brought you along.
That is what's needed in order to grow.
And this is why it's important, folks,
that if you're an online listener,
you need to get into a church eventually.
That's great that you get to watch online and everything
and drink your soda and eat your chips
as you're watching a sermon or something like that.
But eventually, you need to get your rear end in church.
And you know what, thank God for the internet,
we can reach hundreds of thousands of people,
get the word of God out there,
but just nothing beats actually being in person
in a local New Testament church.
And look, I'm gonna tell you right now,
the messages are different when you're actually in person.
Like when you watch online,
you're just like, man, that was a good sermon,
but then when you're in person, you're like,
oh man, I think that sermon's about me.
You know that's true.
And yeah, you run the risk of getting preached against for sure, but man up, you know, we all do
You know in order for us to construct or reconstruct ourselves in the Lord
We need people to help us and aid us along the way to exhort us daily, right to continue in the faith and look
We all go through problems
We all got issues
You all got issues
Y'all got y'all drama
It's true, we're all, because we're humans.
And you know, we need people to either encourage us
or rebuke us.
Sometimes we just need someone to come along
and help us to get right with God.
And look, sometimes we just need people to tell us
what we need to hear, not what we want to hear.
You know, we need people to tell us like,
hey, you need to start preaching the gospel.
It's time for you to start going soul-warning.
You know, it's time for you to start reading your Bible.
You're not reading your Bible.
You know what, brother?
You need to start reading your Bible.
Hey, you need to start coming to church more often.
We need people to exhort us in that manner.
Because how do we get better
if we don't have someone correcting us?
Look at Ezra 1 verse 5 says then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and
The Levites with all them whose spirit God hath raised to go up to build the house of the Lord
Which is in Jerusalem so we see that it's not just the common folks who are getting involved in the reconstruction of the second
Temple we see that the chief fathers meaning the the ancients
of June and Benjamin, we see that the religious leaders,
the priests, and the Levites are also getting involved.
It's a team effort, and you need your pastor,
but you also need other godly leaders
to help you along the way as well.
Car is a team, and I know how some people are.
You know, some people are just, they're so introverted,
it just kills them to have to have me friends
with people or something, it just kills them.
And the reason you're chuckling is because it's part of you.
You're just like, I don't know about that, you know?
Sorry, but you're a Christian though.
And this is God's model.
God's model is for you to develop close relationships
with people in church.
Why? Let me tell you why.
Because iron sharpeneth iron.
And you know what?
If you come to church with no help, you're just dull.
You're just a dull instrument. You're a dull sword. You need someone to come and sharpen you up a little bit in your doctrine
Sharpen you up in your soul winning sharpen you up in your Christian living so that you can be effective for the Lord
Meet for the master's use in preparedness every good work
The Bible says in Philippians chapter 1, verse 27, you don't have to turn there.
Only let your conversation be as it become at the Gospel of Christ.
Go to Ecclesiastes chapter 4.
Only let your conversation be as it become at the Gospel of Christ
that whether I come and see you or else be absent,
I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind.
I want you to notice this striving together for the faith of the Gospel.
So you know, in order for us to be effective
in reaching the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ,
we need to strive together.
We need to fight together, not with each other,
but we need to band together
in order to reach people for Christ, right?
And you know what?
We can't really depend on the churches around here.
I'm not saying that they're not doing soul winning
in our area.
I just don't know.
I just know what's going on here.
And you know what?
We need to preach the gospel
as though we're the only ones who are preaching the gospel.
We need to have a sense of urgency and realize, you know what?
No one else is going to go to Mexico.
We need to go to Mexico and go preach the gospel, you know?
We don't have any other, I don't know if there's Mexicans
going across the border to go preach the gospel.
Wait, they're going across the border,
but I don't know if they're going to preach the gospel.
We need to send the Mexicans here
to go and preach the gospel, right?
We need to send Spanish speakers here.
Why?
Because it's our duty, it's our responsibility.
We need to work together in order to get the work done.
Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 4, verse number 9 says,
For you lone rangers out there, it says here in verse 9,
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.
You know what that means? If you really want to be rewarded in the Christian life,
you can double your efforts by laboring with someone else.
Having a co-laborer in Christ. Why? Because two are better than one.
He says in verse 10, For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow.
Now that's important right there.
because we go through seasons where we stumble we fall we're discouraged we're not as strong as a
Previous season and we need someone who is strong in the Lord and the power of his might to lift us up when we fall
Right to say get up. Come on. We can do this. I got your back. Let's go to church. Let's go. Let's go
So any you know, I'm here for you. I'm gonna call you call me. Let's text. I'm here for you
We need someone to lift us up when we're down
He said, for if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow,
but woe to him that is alone when he falleth,
for he hath not another to help him up," the Bible says.
Now, let's just be honest. Here we've got more than two.
Amen. Yeah.
We've got an entire church!
Verse 11 says, again, if two lie together, then they have heat.
But how can one be warm alone?
And if one prevailed against him,
two shall withstand him,
and a three-fold chord is not quickly broken,
the Bible says.
What does it say?
There's power in numbers.
And if you want to succeed for the long run
as a Christian in everything that includes being a Christian,
whether it's your family, your marriage,
soul-winning, serving God,
you need a team to aid you in that process.
That's a fact.
You will never be a success story in God's book
if you don't.
Get the help from other Christians. It's a necessary thing
You know a lot of times people don't want that because it requires humility to say that you need help
And I get that she's like man. It's kind of embarrassing to say that I need help in this area
Yeah, but I rather be embarrassed get the help and succeed
Then you know allow my ego to get in the way and not succeed and fail miserably
When we construct or reconstruct ourselves in the Lord,
it requires sacrifice of our resources.
When we construct or reconstruct ourselves in the Lord,
it requires a team, a church, to help us and aid us
in the ways of the Lord.
Go to Ezra chapter three, Ezra chapter three.
Number four, when we construct or reconstruct ourselves
in the Lord, it requires the right foundation.
The right foundation, look at Ezra chapter three
It says, when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests
in their apparel with trumpets and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with symbols to praise
the Lord after the ordinance of David, king of Israel.
So we see here that the builders are laying the foundation of the temple of the Lord.
And of course, the foundation of our church is Jesus Christ.
The foundation of our church is the word of God.
So here's the thing folks is that we need to make sure that when we construct ourselves on the Lord. It's not just on the emotion. I
Just feel the presence of God here
Well, let's see when you say that when I preach a hard sermon against your sin if you still feel the same way about that
You know what let's see what happens when I preach against feminism. Let's see if you actually still feel that same way thereafter
You know your feelings can deceive you
And, you know, a good thing God doesn't say, like,
hey, base that sermon off of your feelings.
It's supposed to be based off of whether it's true or not.
Right?
Because here's the thing, folks,
is that the word of God goes against
our natural inhibitions, our natural desires.
And the reason it does that,
because he wants us to conform to his ways.
But at the end of the day, that's why we need to make sure
that the foundation of our church,
as for us as individuals, is the word of God.
Now let me just chase a little rabbit here just to explain the context of what's taking place
You know they they build this foundation and then they construct the temple
the second temple and
In this particular story, you know the people who came from the Babylonian captivity who were like born in
Babylon but came here or came to Jerusalem. They see the temple. They're just like this is great
This is awesome.
And they're excited, they're crying,
they're just thrilled to death,
but then the old cauders,
the ones who saw the first temple,
they're crying not because they're happy
because they think the temple sucks.
They're just like, what is this?
The old one was better.
I can't believe it.
So you have two groups of people,
they're both crying.
But one's crying because they're excited about what's going on.
The other one's weeping because they're just like,
this is just this pales in comparison to what we used to have.
Look what it says in verse 12, it says,
But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers
who were ancient men that had seen the first house
when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes,
wept with a loud voice and many shouted aloud for joy.
So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people
For the people shouted with a loud shout and the noise was heard afar off now
We're not going to turn there, but in Haggai chapter 2 who's a prophet who's preaching it around this time
He actually records what takes place during that whole debacle
And he talks about the fact that, you know, people are just really sad.
They're just like, this is just not like in comparison to what we had before.
And Haggai says, yeah, but you got to realize that this second temple though,
the God of the Bible is going to walk into the second temple.
Because the second temple is where Jesus Christ went into.
read the Word of God in, sacrificed in.
So, you know, yeah, the previous building
was far more impressive and glorious,
but the second temple is actually more impressive,
not because of what it looks like, but because who's in it.
Jesus Christ went into that second temple.
And this is the verse in Haggai chapter two
when it talks about the desire of all nations shall come.
It's referring to the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ
in the first century AD would end up coming there
and serving the Lord in that particular temple.
So who cares how it looks?
Jesus Christ is going there, right?
And the principle that we can apply for us
in the New Testament is who cares how our building looks?
We just wanna make sure that Jesus Christ
is preeminent here.
People people take beef with like, you know, oh you guys meeting in the office in the store or whatever
You guys don't really have a nice of Basilica
You know, you don't have a really nice building. Yeah, but hold on a second. You're buildings full of dead men's bones
Full of all in cleanness and iniquity
It's it's a wide. It's sepulcher which indeed indeed appears beautiful on the outside
But inwardly they're full of dead men's bones and all wickedness
You know, I rather have, and we're, you know,
I'm not saying that we should just trash the place.
I think we should have a spirit of excellence.
But far more important is what's the foundation
of that, what's inside that building.
Is the Lord Jesus Christ preeminent in that building?
Is doctrine being preached in that building?
Are red-hot sermons being put forth in that building?
Are people getting saved and baptized
and being turned to righteousness in that building?
If that's the case, who cares what it looks like?
Yeah, the first temple might have been really nice, but you know the second temp temple is even nicer on the inside
It's on the inside recounts
Don't apply that all across the board, but you know
It's true. It's a certain degree, you know
The point that I'm making here is the fact
that we need to make sure that we build our lives
upon the foundation, which is Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, whosoever heareth these saints of mine
and do with them, I will liken him unto a wise man
which built his house upon a rock.
And the rains descended and the winds blew and the floods
came and it beat upon that house and it fell not
for a sound that upon a rock.
Who cares how the house looked like?
It's just not gonna fall if it's built
You know, and you know, I don't want a Basilica for a church
What's the what's the point of having all high steeple with no safe people?
It's important for us to have the right foundation to build ourselves upon the word of God
And you know what what you bring people in with is what you got to use to keep them
That's the fact and anybody who's been to these liberal fund centers knows that that's a fact people go there because of the bells and whistles lights and smoke screens
You know and all that all the theatrics whereas if people come back here. It's because of the preaching
Not to say we don't offer anything else, you know
I'm gonna take a picture of you and your mom next week and give her a gift and all that
But hold on a second. It's this preaching that's of substance. It's what really matters, right?
When we construct or reconstruct ourselves in the Lord we need to make sure that we have the right foundation
Go to Nehemiah chapter 4 Nehemiah chapter 4 if you would
Nehemiah chapter number 4, talking about constructing or reconstructing ourselves in the Lord is
decreed by our King to make sure we do so.
It requires sacrifice.
We need to make sure that we build upon the right foundation, but let me also say this,
you know, it requires a team, but let me say this, is that it requires a work ethic.
And Ezra's a pretty good, you know, he's a good guy.
I like Ezra.
He's a nice guy.
But I really like Nehemiah, though.
Nehemiah's a little rough.
And, you know, they're like contrasting characters
in Ezra and Nehemiah, because Ezra,
when the people sin, he plucks out his own hair.
He's just like, ah, you know, you know, some parents,
you know, your kids make you just pull your hair out,
you know what I mean?
You guys know what I'm talking about, right?
Am I the only one?
No, I'm just kidding.
He's plucking out his own hair, whereas Nehemiah is like,
no, I'm going to pluck out your hair in chapter 13.
When they sin against the Lord, he's like,
I'm not going to mess this thing up.
I'm plucking your hair out, and that's exactly what he does.
Well, Nehemiah focuses primarily on the reconstruction
of the wall.
And the wall is important.
Because it protects the city where the temple is laid, right?
And we can apply that and say, you know, it's the convictions,
it's the standards that we have in order to protect the temple of God, right?
The protective barrier that we place in our lives in order to protect our convictions.
But at the end of the day, both works require a work ethic, okay?
And let me just say this, like, when they constructed the wall,
they did it in 52 days.
I mean, that's impressive, right?
Look at Nehemiah chapter 4 and verse number 6 it says so built we the wall and all the wall was joined together
Until the after of for the people had a mind to work. I love that phrase
You know, why was it done in 52 days? Why was it done with such excellence? Why were they able to accomplish it so fast?
I'll tell you why it's because the people had a mind to work
You know why we got over a thousand salvations last year. I'll tell you why because the people have a mind to work
You know why we get so many baptisms every single month. I'll tell you why because the people have a mind to work
You know what people are being disciple why the house of God is being filled
I'll tell you why because people have a mind to work
They realize it's time to work, you know, and we come here to fellowship. We have a great time eat muffins
But at the end of the day, what are we here for we're here to work
We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus into good words, which got it before our name that we should walk in that and
We want to make sure that we produce laborers
Not lazies, right?
That we're laboring for the Lord look at verse number seven
It says but it came to pass that when sand ballad and so by and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashtadites
Heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up
And I want you to notice this, and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth.
What is a breach? It's a hole. It's a chink in the armor.
You know, the purpose of a wall is to protect you from invaders.
Nehemiah was responsible for not only reconstructing the wall once again, but he sealed up the little holes where the enemies can get in.
And you know what, we as God's people,
that's exactly what we want to do as well.
We want to seal up the breaches of doctrinal errors.
We want to seal up the breaches of conduct.
We want to make sure that there's no hole available
whereby the enemy can infiltrate
and disrupt the work of God here.
Oh, you guys emphasize doctrine so much.
You guys talk about doctrine so much.
Why so much about doctrine?
I'll tell you why, because we're stealing up the breaches
that the previous generation left behind.
You know what, we as God's people
need to develop an appetite for doctrine.
Well, I just want a TED Talk.
You're not gonna get one here.
Every once in a while at FIE, you know,
I'll encourage you, of course I will.
You know, right before I tear you down, I'm just kidding.
Of course we edify here, but hold on a second,
it's my responsibility to make sure
we seal up the breaches though, that we teach doctrine.
That's what a church is supposed to be for.
And somewhere along the lines over the last couple decades,
churches have lost that vision.
They no longer emphasize doctrine.
They think that's boring to people,
that people are not gonna like it.
But let me just tell you, we gotta stop
trying to condescend our doctrine
to men who don't wanna hear doctrine
and help men come back up to that standard of doctrine.
Help people develop the appetite for doctrine and the teaching of God's word seal up the breaches
Okay, you know Jesus when here's here when he was here on this earth. He had a mind to work
He said my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work
The night cometh when no man can work he says right?
So we need to make sure that when we construct
or reconstruct ourselves as a Lord,
we have a good work ethic.
We need to make sure that we put in the labor
and the work to actually accomplish what needs to be done.
And let me just put it in practical ways.
You know, some of you need to start learning
how to preach the gospel.
You're in a church where we preach the gospel.
You need to start learning.
And let me tell you what it's gonna require.
You putting in work.
You need to start memorizing the verses.
You need to start practicing your introductions.
You need to tell your team leader,
Hey, there needs to be a deadline and say you know what in four months
I want to be a full-fledged soul winner leading people to Christ
It can be done
Four months easy if you put in the work
Four months you hit that PR as long as you have a mind to work
Four months you can accomplish a lot in four months if you are determined in your mind every single week
I'm gonna improve two percent three percent in this particular area
But you know if you just hit and miss though
That's not a mind to work.
You know, if you don't go to the gym very often,
you're not gonna make a whole lot of progress.
If you just miss here and there,
forget about PRs.
You know, let's just get you in the habit
of going to the gym.
But you know, if you're already in the habit
of coming to church, let's get you to the next level
and actually get you to start preaching the gospel
so that you can go on a missions trip
and get people saved so that, you know,
aside from a sanctioned church winning window of time
where you go preach the gospel,
you can preach to your friends and family.
So that you know if you are at a gas station at a restaurant and the opportunity presents itself
You don't need a physical Bible. You're just spitting facts. You just got the verses already memorized
You can just pull out the sword right then and there start wielding it
That's the goal
Now look we use the Bible when we go out and preach the gospel every single time
But you know there's gonna be instances where you don't have the Bible and at that point you got to be like
You know you got to be able to spit the gospel
Off the top of your head at the drop of a hat like what if someone just comes to you and says what must I do to be
Saved you're gonna watch this video
I'm all for the videos, but you're walking video though
You know how about you memorize the video
right
That just seems like a lot of work
Yeah, it is a lot of work
But you know what once you build up that wall you realize it was worth putting in all that work
It takes work ethic a good work ethic to accomplish to construct or reconstruct ourselves in the Lord
Go to chapter 4. I'm sorry. Go to chapter 2 of Nehemiah
Let me also say this is that when you construct or reconstruct yourselves in the Lord
You know it requires sacrifice it requires a team we see that we need a lay of foundation
We see that we need a good work ethic,
but let me also say this is that when you construct
or reconstruct yourselves as a Lord,
it attracts opposition.
When you're trying to actually serve God,
you know, when you're like living sinfully
and you're just kind of like out there in the world,
no one's fighting against that.
Everyone's happy that you're not succeeding.
Everyone's happy, they're just like,
ah yeah, you know, what's up here every once in a while,
you know, nothing's gonna happen,
but it's actually when you start serving God.
Now people are like oh, now you're going to church every Sunday. Oh
Oh, now you're reading the Bible now you want to go so you get a little radical there
You're getting a little too crazy with this Christian stuff
You know, oh, you're starting to wear skirts now. Oh, that's a little craze. That's a little radical. Oh
Oh, you know, oh brother. What is it? What is that? You know?
You'll get opposition
And sometimes the opposition is extremely hard.
Sometimes it's just petty.
People are just petty, you know what I mean?
Oh, you comb your hair now?
You know?
Oh, you're wearing a suit to church now?
Oh, wow, look at this Christian guy, you know?
You'll get mockery.
Opposition, why?
Because some people are just haters, that's why.
It's a world filled with haters.
They just hate to see a man succeed.
It's hate to see people make progress, but you expect it.
There's always opposition when you progress
in the Christian life.
Look at Nehemiah chapter two, in verse 18,
it says, then I told them of the hand of my God,
which is good upon me, as also the king's word
that he had spoken unto me.
And they said, let us rise up and build,
so they strengthened their hands for this good work.
But when San Bal the Horonite and Tobiah the servant,
the Ammonite,
And guess how the Arabian heard it, they laughed us to scorn and despised us and said,
what is this thing that you do?
Will you rebel against the king?
So by the way, what are they saying here?
They're creating a straw man.
Because the king commissioned for them to go and do this.
Are you doing this because you want to rebel against the king?
No, I'm actually being obedient to the king by doing this.
Verse 20 then answered I and them and sent them to them the God of heaven
He will prosper us therefore we his servants will arise and build but ye have no portion
Nor right nor memorial in Jerusalem. So he's saying I'm gonna rise up and build you're just basically jealous that you don't have what I have
And you know a lot of times when people see you progressing in the Christian life is because they're envious
That you are improving your life and their life sucks
Because you know what, any life outside of Christ is inferior.
Any life outside of living the principles of God's word is an inferior life fact.
And sometimes people don't like it when you're succeeding.
They see you living out the principles of God's word and succeeding at your job.
Succeeding with your family, succeeding with your marriage.
You know what, they just don't like that.
So what do they do? They mock, they scorn.
But what do they might say? Well, you don't even have a portion in this.
You know you don't even have these blessings.
Go to chapter 4 if you would, chapter 4.
By the way, Ezra also saw the same opposition
when he was constructing the temple.
It talks about, let me read to you from Ezra chapter 4 verse 1.
It says,
Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah
and troubled them in building
and hired counselors against them
to frustrate their purposes
all the days of Cyrus king of Persia
even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
What does it show us?
It shows that sometimes people are just going to oppose you for the rest of your life.
You have family members that probably will not like that you're a Christian for a very
long time.
You know, I've had family members that just did not like me being a Christian, living
out the Christian life for a very long time.
And you know what?
Eventually they came around and eventually they're like, okay, this is not a phase.
This is something that's legitimate in his life.
But the point that I'm making is to expect opposition.
Don't give in to opposition.
Don't start lowering your standards as a Christian
because you want to please your unsafe family members.
Don't start lowering your standards of going to church
just because you want to please your unsafe family members
who don't read the Bible.
Or your safe family members that do read the Bible.
Keep the standard high, amen.
Build that wall high.
I'm building the wall on there just like,
oh, look at this wall.
Well, I'm going to build it even higher now.
Look at Nehemiah 4 verse 1, but it came to pass that when Sandball had heard that we build the wall
He was wroth and took in a nation and mocked the Jews
And he spake before his brethren in the army of Samaria and said what do these feeble Jews?
Will they fortify themselves?
Will they sacrifice?
Will they make an end in a day?
Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?
Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him
and said even that which they build
if a fox go up he shall even break down their stone wall.
What is he saying?
Even if they successfully build a wall
you put a fox in that thing and that thing will fall apart.
Oh, what are you gonna do?
So you're just gonna go to church
for the rest of your life?
Yeah, once the wrong woman comes into your life,
once the wrong man comes into your life,
you're just gonna fall apart.
Once a job opportunity comes,
you're just gonna fall apart.
Once a trial comes, you're just gonna fall apart.
This is what the opposition does.
Tries to discourage you from actually building the wall,
reconstructing your life.
You gotta just ignore it.
You have to ignore it and proceed to build regardless of the mockery regardless of it. Look at verse number
Skip down to verse six. It says so so built we the wall and all the wall was joined together into the haftura for the people
Had a mind to work
Skip down to verse 14
It says and I looked and rose up and said into the nobles into the rulers and to the rest of the people be not ye afraid of them
Remember the Lord which is great and terrible and fight for your brethren
your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.
So obviously, you know, the people are listening to all these threats,
they're listening to all the mockery,
and you know, it's a little discouraging.
And, you know, they get up and basically tell them like,
hey, ignore it, God is powerful,
and you need to make sure that you fight for the future of your kids.
He says, fight for your sons, fight for your daughters,
fight for your wives, fight for your houses.
You know, do this not to please those who don't want you
to be in the house of God.
Do it for those who need you to be in the house of God.
Do it for your kids.
You know, one thing that I believe is good
is when parents decide to just get serious
about the things of God for the sake of their children.
Even if they're just like, man, I just don't feel
like being here, but I'm here because I want my kids
to just make sure they grow up in church.
I'm all for that.
I think that's a righteous reason because eventually you'll end up liking it yourself
Right you'll end up
Developing an appetite getting on fire for God being zealous for the things of God. I think it's a righteous thing to desire
To serve God, to fight for your wives, your sons, your daughters, your houses.
This is what the Bible says here.
Look at verse 15, and it came to pass.
When our enemies heard that it was known unto us, and God had brought their counsel to not,
that we return all of us to the wall, everyone unto his work.
So, you know, once they realize all these people are determined,
our counsel is just going, it's not affecting him, you know, eventually they back off a little bit.
The point that I'm making here is that you need to expect opposition from your friends and family members and just people around you
It's gonna happen
Don't let it deter you discourage you from serving God
Hey young people if your parents get out of church you keep coming to church if they allow you of course be obedient to your parents
But you know if they're good with you coming to church you keep coming to church you keep serving God
Why do it for your for your father and your mother's sake?
You're in chapter 4, you know, the Bible tells us that when a great and effectual door is open unto us, there are many adversaries.
I promise you, once we continue to grow, we get into a building, there's going to be a whole new set of problems.
I preached this sermon years ago and it's called this, New Levels, New Devils.
And that's a fact.
You want to grow in the Christian life?
All right.
New Levels, New Devils.
All right, new levels, new devils.
What am I saying?
There's always going to be opposition.
The ops.
The ops are always gonna be there.
I'm trying to reach out to my Gen Z crowd, so.
I'm losing them, so I gotta, you know,
I gotta speak in their language, all right?
The ops are always gonna be there,
and we need to make sure that we oppose them.
Don't give in to their you know mockery and threats or whatever it is
You know if you're at home, and they're just constantly making fun of you for reading the Bible
They're making fun of you for being a Christian. Just let it go in one year and out the other
And which leads me to my to my last point and
That is that when we construct or reconstruct ourselves in the Lord it requires a fight
You got a fight can't be weak
You know, you don't really win a boxing match
just defending yourself.
Defense is only a part of the equation.
You need to like knock someone out.
Not physically, which is all spiritual.
It requires a fight.
You're gonna have to do something about it.
Look at Nehemiah chapter four verse 16.
He came to pass from that time forward
that the half of my servants wrought into work.
And the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the Haburgians,
and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah.
They which build it on the wall, and they that bear burdens with those that laid it,
everyone, excuse me, everyone with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other,
hand held a weapon.
So they're just like, ding, ding, ding, ka, ka, ka.
They're fighting on both ends.
They're building their families as they're fighting the enemy.
We don't want to just make sure that we're fighting the enemy and not building
We want to make sure that we're deciphering people in church all the while we're fighting false doctrine
You know, I'm building the congregation today by preaching an edifying sermon on how to construct your life
But I'm gonna fight false prophets tonight
It's got to be a balanced diet, right?
And we need to make sure that we realize hey
I need to make sure I'm building myself up by reading the Word of God
But I also have to make sure that I earnestly contend for the faith as well
and fight to stay right with God,
fight the flesh, not give in to the flesh,
fight the world, fight the devil,
fight the world coming into the church.
These are the things we have to fight.
Because the moment you decide, well you know,
let's just build then the enemy comes
and makes more breaches in the wall.
Now that just sounds like a lot,
like a hammer and then we're fighting here.
Yeah, but it makes life exciting though.
Keep things lively.
And you know what this is what God requires of us even in the New Testament. I'll go to Nehemiah chapter 13 Nehemiah chapter 13
1st Timothy 612 says fight the good fight of faith layhold on eternal life
We're unto thou are also called and as professed a good profession before many witnesses
Of course, he goes on to say in 2nd Timothy 4 7. I have fought a good fight
I have finished my course and I have kept the faith
Now this is the reason why I really like Nehemiah
Because obviously he's building
But he's also fighting the opposition, but he's also fighting his own people sometimes.
Look at verse 19, it came to pass that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath,
I commanded that the gates should be shut and charged that they should not be open until after the Sabbath.
Some of my servants said I at the gates that there should be no burden be brought in on the Sabbath day
So what's the problem here? You know the Israelites are not really obeying the Sabbath
So even when they're coming back, they start like not observing the Sabbath
This is like guys, don't you know that this is the reason why we're in this mess in the first place?
Take the commandments of God seriously
Nobody should be at the gates. No one's bringing in burdens. We're not working on the Sabbath
He says in verse 20,
so the merchants and sellers of all kind of wear
lodged without Jerusalem once or twice.
Then I testified against them and said to them,
why lodge-y about the wall?
If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.
That's leadership.
He's like, why are you hanging about the wall?
If I see this again, I'm gonna whoop you.
Now, he probably had guys that can go lay hands,
but he's like, no, no, no, I wanna do this myself.
This is a good verse to put on your wall, amen.
I will lay hands on you.
And he's not talking about ordaining them, either.
He's not talking about ordaining them to be a pastor,
sending out a church.
He's like, I'm gonna kick your behind,
your hinder parts, if you do this again.
He says, I will lay hands on you.
From that time forth came they no more on the Sabbath.
Oh, that's not the kind of leadership we need.
You know, I kept them from actually going there
on the Sabbath.
Cause guess what?
Fearing works.
Skipped down to verse 23.
So he's building the wall.
He's fighting the opposition,
but then he's also fighting to keep his people in line
as well.
He's like, hey, no work on the Sabbath.
And if I catch you here again, you're getting a whoopin.
Look at verse 23 in those days also saw I Jews they had married wives of Ashtad of Ammon and a Moab and
Their children spake half in the speech of Ashtad and could not speak in the Jews language
But according to the language of each people so he's really mad about this and you can see why because God forbade
The mixing in of other cultures because the Ash didites and these he then don't worship the God of the Bible
And this is the reason why the Northern Kingdom
became apostate, right?
Because they're mixing in with all these false religions.
They're forsaking the God of the Bible.
And so Nehemiah is just like, why are you doing this?
You're making us go back to square one once again.
We're going back to the drawing board because of you.
And you know, he's like, your kids don't even speak English.
Look at this.
This is America.
We speak English in America.
I'm kind of giving like the modern interpretation
of this, right?
Verse 25.
And I contended with them and cursed them
and smote certain of them.
So he's like arguing with them.
He's cursing some of them.
He's like smacking some of them around.
And plucked off their hair.
So he's just like, pssh, pssh, ah, you know.
But you gotta you gotta read the whole book of Nehemiah though because the man is tender-hearted. Don't don't know
I'm just highlighting his how gangster it is, but in the beginning, you know, he's like burdened over the wall
He's tearing. He's like he's sad and he's under authority
He's asking the king for permission to come to Jerusalem. You know the man has a heart for God
But you know, he hates it when people disobey the Lord
And he's like, you know as we're over here plugging his own beard. I'm gonna plug your hair out
He says, and made them swear by God saying,
you shall not give your daughters into their sons,
nor take their daughters into your sons, or for yourselves.
Now that's pretty hardcore.
You know, he's like, say it!
Say you're never gonna do this again, you know?
And they're just like, I'll never give my daughters
into the heathen.
Cause you know, Nehemiah obviously sees
the long term consequences of these actions.
And you know, I'm sure there's people
that were existing during this time
They're like seriously you're gonna pluck off the hair off my husband. He worked so hard to grow those three strands of hair
You're really gonna do that, you know
Someone someone in those days had some Filipino jeans and they had a couple hairs and he just plucked them all out
In one swipe or whatever, you know, he's like man, this is a little exact, but you know what it's because Nehemiah
Recognizes the long-term effects of it
And you know what, if you feel that sometimes I get a little overboard or I exaggerate
a little much in my sermons, in my preaching when I'm preaching hard against it, just remember
this, I just see the long term effects of certain things that you do.
And sometimes I have to get up here and pluck out the hair.
Sometimes I have to get up here and curse, not cuss, curse.
Sometimes I have to get up here and contend.
Why?
Because we don't want to dig ourselves in that same pit from which we came out of.
He's like, hey, we just got back.
Can we just obey the Lord?
We're reconstructing the temple.
Can you not do the things that God has
done this mess in the first place?
What is he doing?
You know, he's recognizing that if we're gonna
reconstruct this thing, we need to make sure
we do it right and avoid the actions
that God has done this mess in the first place.
You know, you're back in church.
Praise God.
Well, now I'm gonna preach on the things
that you did that got you out of church.
Why?
To impede you from making those same mistakes once again.
I'm gonna have to pluck out the hair to make a point
so that you don't get involved in those sins again.
Point that I'm making here is that
if we're gonna rise up and build,
if we're gonna construct or reconstruct,
it's gonna require a lot of steps.
But let me just say this, once it's built,
once the foundation is laid,
then we can glorify God.
Because the end game is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ through our lives and through our church, right?
Point that I'm making here is that hey, let's rise up and build
You know, we don't want to be a museum
We want to be a a worker be type of church where we're accomplishing the work of God, but it takes work
To build up our lives to build up other people's lives to make sure that we're serving God winning souls to Christ and
Doing this for generations to come and just keep in mind
You know you're building your life upon the word of God because it's gonna teach your children
How to build our lives on the word of God as well. I want my kids to grow up in this church
I want my kids to grow up with you guys
I want my kids to grow up with your kids.
I want my kids to be influenced
by the golly influence of your kids
and your golly influence.
I want them to be here hearing the preaching of God's word,
hearing the hymns,
desiring to be preachers and missionaries
and so oners and servants of God
because when I'm gone,
I can't, the night comets when no man can work.
Parents, let me just remind you,
the night comets when no man can work.
We gotta put in the work right now
And all that lasts is the convictions
that we instilled within them
because we built the house.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for this day.
Thank you for these books, Lord,
and the principles that we learned thereof.
I pray that you'd help us as your people
to construct and reconstruct, Lord.
And I pray that you would help us to keep these principles in mind and recognize that it is gonna cost us something
We do need a team Lord. We need a strong foundation. We need a mind to work
There is gonna be opposition and we need to fight and I pray Lord that you would bless us
May you flow us all with your spirit and your power
And help us to be prudent and discerning to see the long-term effects of the good decisions we make
but as well as the long-term effects of the bad decisions that we make as well.
Help us, Lord, to continue to succeed as a church, to win souls to Christ and to honor and glorify you.
We love you. We thank you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Please turn your song to song number 465
Song number 465 the 99
Song number 465 all together nice and strong in that first verse
10 her shepherds care Away from the 10 her shepherds care
Lord thou hast here, thy ninety and nine Are they not enough for thee?
But the shepherd made answer, this of mine Has wandered away from me
I go to the desert to find my sheep But none of the ransomed ever knew how deep
were the waters crossed Nor how dark was the night that the Lord
He heard its cry, sick and helpless and ready to die, sick and helpless and ready to die.
Lord, whence are those blood drops all the way that mark out the mountain's track?
him back.
So rent and torn, there pierce to-night by many a thorn, there pierce to-night by many
a thorn, but all through the mountains thunder and up from the rocky steep, there arose a
Rejoice, I have found my sheep, And the angels echoed around the throne.
Rejoice for the Lord brings back his own, Rejoice for the Lord brings back his own.
Amen.
Wonderful singing.
You are dismissed.