8: Great story. Great story. You know, Helen Keller once said, alone,
we can do so little, but together we can do so much.
On June 6th, 1944, uh,
the world witnessed one of the most unified military operations and human
history when the Allied Forces stormed the beaches of Normandy and World War ii.
Uh, it's arguably one of the most pivotal and future altering, uh,
events in our history, known by most of us as D-Day.
And if you don't know the story, uh,
Germany was trying to establish this totalitarian empire dominated by a master
race. And, uh, it's estimated that by 1944,
approximately 6 million Jews had been killed by the Nazis as a part of the
Holocaust. And the watching world was saying someone has to do something.
And the allies determined that freeing the continuity was gonna require this
massive assault on the heavily fortified Atlantic wall along France's,
Northern coast. But to pull off and to plan for an invasion like this,
like it was gonna require military leaders from multiple nations,
it was gonna require intelligence on the ground. Uh, naval support, infantry,
paratroopers. It's gonna require medics, uh, even civilians. And,
and many of who knew that like, if we really jump into this battle,
for a lot of us, this is gonna be our last day on earth.
But by the end of the day,
156,000 troops had landed on the beaches,
and the allies established a foothold. And Normandy and D-Day set in motion,
a chain of events that actually led to the unconditional surrender of Nazi
Germany on May 7th, 1945. Alone, we can do so little,
but together we can do so much. Uh,
what we're gonna see in God's word when we open it up together is God's people
actually living into and living out this truth together.
And so we're in week three of a series that we're calling a fresh start. Uh,
really what we're looking at is the book of Nehemiah. And you see God's people,
the Israelites, getting a fresh start going back to the land, uh,
that was promised to them by God after they had been exiled out,
living in a foreign country for almost a century. If you missed, uh, the, uh,
the first couple weeks, I do wanna encourage you to go back and check it out.
You can go to our website and see the messages.
You can go to our YouTube channel. Uh,
but just for a quick high level review in Nehemiah chapter one,
you've got Nehemiah. Um, I'm learning from his brother that, um,
that the Israelites back in Jerusalem, like things aren't going well. Uh,
the city's destroyed the wall around the city's burned by fire. And he,
he learns like, man, they're in trouble. They're in sh they're feeling shame.
And so Nehemiah does a couple things to align his heart with God for a fresh
start. Uh, he asks some questions. He takes inventory. Uh,
when he finds out what's going on, he actually sits in the brokenness.
He allows himself to be broken and to,
to sit in the implications that moves him to this humble prayer before God.
And then through that humble prayer, it takes him to a place of confidence.
Like, Hey, I've got to do something and I can do something.
That's Nehemiah chapter one. Uh, you get to Nehemiah chapter two,
and we see this truth that all of us really naturally know in our lives,
like making a decision on day one. That's the easy part.
What comes after day one is day two, and that's when the opposition sets in.
And so we saw Nehemiah see all this opposition, opposition through waiting, uh,
opposition through, uh, the naysayers. Remember Sam b and Tobias,
like bringing out the haterade, foreign it out all over the place. Uh,
so he faces opposition there,
and then he faces the opposition of just flat out seeing all the brokenness like
face to face. But what he,
what he showed was that when we're aligning ourselves with God for a fresh
start, we trust in God's time.
If we recognize the gut's calling in our lives is greater than the rumblings of
man, um, we recognize that our God is bigger than the brokenness.
But when we left off in chapter two, Nehemiah had just given his best,
Mel Gibson Braveheart speech to the Israelites.
And all of the Israelites that were there came together in chapter two,
verse 18 and said, let us rise together and build.
So we kind of left off at this moment right before they were gonna start
building the wall. We're gonna jump in into chapter three.
We're gonna see how we can be encouraged. If you have your Bibles, Nehemiah,
chapter three, verse one, I'm gonna tell you right outta the gate,
a lot of Jewish names here. All right?
I don't spend a whole lot of time talking about Jewish names,
like these types of names. So I'm gonna give this my best go,
and we're gonna act like we're nailing it. Okay? So here we go. Chapter three,
verse one. Then Elias, the high priest rose up with his brothers, the priest,
and they built the sheep gate. They consecrated it and set its doors.
They consecrated it as far as the tower of the hundred,
as far as the tower of Hannah Nell. So you have Elia, he's a high priest,
okay?
Essentially what that means is he's the leader of all the other priests having
the priest involved as critical in particular for making sure that this is built
back in line with God's commands. Uh,
I want us to see this is not just the story of like a physical renewal of a
wall. Like this is a story of a spiritual renewal for God's people.
This was the fresh start on their identity as the people of God.
They had lost their identity when they were in exile. And Babylon,
what's the sheep gate? Uh, the sheep gate, most likely near the Temple Mount.
Uh,
it's the gate that's used for bringing in the sheep to the temple for sacrifice.
Uh, you got a note here. Uh,
you've got priests who might not be known for their subcontractor skills,
okay? So if you need somebody to come over to your house and do trim work, um,
you might not want ask a pastor. Uh, if you ask me, I,
I actually grew up in a custom cabinet shop with my dad, so you'd actually,
if I can make it and get it on my calendar, I'd be happy to come help you out.
Most of the time, that's not the case.
But these guys are responsible for the work that needs to be done.
I was talking to Jay Jennings, one of our elders right before I came out here,
and he said, man, sometimes it seems like when the movement of God happens,
like it's just all hands on deck, right? And that's what we see when you,
and so what we see in Nehemiah chapter three,
when we align ourselves with God for a fresh start,
everybody has a role to play. Everybody's got a role to play.
Sometimes it's in our area of gifting, right?
For the priest in the consecration of this stuff,
like making sure it's done God's way, that's their wheelhouse. Um,
sometimes it's not like the priests aren't builders, but there's clearly a need.
And so everybody's got a role to play. Uh, jump into verse two, and next to him,
the men of Jericho built, and next to them, zakour, the son of Emery,
built men of Jericho, uh, referring to people from the city of Jericho,
which is actually located for you guys,
it would be this way east of no east of Jerusalem, all right?
And so the mention of these guys knowing they're actually not from Jerusalem,
it shows that people even outside from outside of Jerusalem,
still a part of Israel,
like they're showing up and being involved in the reconstruction of the wall.
Like there's a unity amongst God's people that's selfless.
And if you've ever been on a team that's like, had that we over me attitude,
and they just understand, Hey, this is about me.
This is about what we're trying to accomplish, special stuff happens.
And that's what you see what's going on right here in verse one.
You see the priests like they're handling something that directly impacts them,
right? The temple, uh, they're consecrating it, they're doing their thing.
But in verse two,
you see folks coming from another town to do something just because it needs to
be done. Uh, just last week, uh,
if you're listening online and you don't actually live around North Carolina,
we had a terrible snow storm. I mean like three feet of snow and ice.
We had to shut everything down. Um, but at our Northwest carry campus,
they actually couldn't get to their trailers to set up at Panther Creek High
School. And our Garner campus delayed their start until 1115,
but Quay was still gonna meet on time. But because of the snow and stuff,
we had some volunteers that couldn't get over there.
So like our Northwest carry campus folk and some of our Raleigh campus folk,
gay pants, campus folk, they went over there and helped them out. I mean,
when you're a part of a church family, that's, that's just what you do.
Like you're not just looking to do what serves your own needs.
So everyone's got a role to play. It said,
next to the minute of Jericho was the co who was the cour, uh, from this,
we don't know much about him, to be honest with you.
What we do know is that he wasn't from Jericho like these other guys were,
but he was working with him. And that could seem insignificant,
but it's worth noting, like clearly he cared enough,
clearly they were broken enough over what needed to be done,
that they were willing to come together and put in the work that needed to be
done. Everyone has a role. Verse three,
the sons of Senna built the fish gate. They laid its beams.
They said it's doors, it's bolts, it's bars.
This is just telling you of yet another family that's jumping in. You know,
we talk a lot about the church being a family of families.
Like you're seeing this right here before our eyes. Uh, you get to verse four,
and uh, here we go with the names. And next to them, MIMO, the son of Uriah,
son of Kakas repaired, and next to them, Ulam,
the son of Barak, son of Bel repaired. And next to them, Zac,
the son of Banner repaired. Notice here, verse four,
how it says not only Mary Moth's son of Uriah,
but then it also adds like the son of Haas to the end of that,
that's telling us that that mimo,
he actually probably came from a pretty significant family lineage.
Like it's this, and this is from his dad,
but like that they really came from this, these people.
Same thing when it mentions Lum, the son of Baraka, the son of
mesh, Isabel, yeah, right? So, but look, I mean,
this is like saying in today's world, like they were, yeah,
they come from like the Rockefeller family. This is like saying, uh,
for our younger audience, like, oh, they're related to Mr. Beast, okay? Like,
this is a, this is a big deal. But what this is saying is like,
this is not just regular citizens playing a part.
Like everybody's all in their involvement in the building process.
It shows the breadth of participation. Like everybody's in, uh, priests,
everyday citizens, people with a big name, blue collar workers, you name it.
Everybody's in it together. Because when we align with God for a fresh start,
everybody's got a role to play. And this is probably,
if you know anything about Nehemiah chapter three, um,
or if you've just been paying attention this far, which I hope you have,
you're probably tempted to ask, uh,
is this whole chapter just gonna be about you going through names that you're
having a difficult time pronouncing and then telling us what it was to they did
to build the wall? And, uh,
the answer to that question is yes. Uh, that's exactly what chapter three does.
The whole thing tar up by literally the entire chapter. Uh,
so I'm not gonna read the whole thing, all right? Uh,
but there is one more verse that I wanna point out.
We're gonna go through verse five, and then I'm gonna be tell you, hey,
the rest of the verse, uh, chapter is just rinse and repeat.
So go back and read it on your own. But verse five is so interesting, it says,
and next to them, the teko whites, they repaired,
but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord.
The Teko whites, you could probably guess this, they come from the town of Koa,
uh, that was located in the southern part of Judah.
But look at how the verse finishes.
Their nobles would not stoop to serve the Lord,
in case you miss it.
This is Nehemiah 100% throwing shade at these guys for not wanting to get their
hands dirty. I mean, he's calling 'em out right here. It's recorded. Now,
the NIV, it translates it a little bit differently.
If you have an NIV translation, it says,
but their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work under their
supervisors. It's a little bit different than the Lord,
but that's because the Hebrew word, it technically can refer to a God, uh, to,
to our God, to the Lord God, or to human leaders. Uh,
most scholars do agree though that it's referring to the Lord because, uh,
they were viewed the rebuilding of the wall as like an act of worship,
as an act of obedience for God's plans and purposes for his people,
because they understood God's covenant to his people. Uh,
I'm gonna deliver you to a promised land. Uh,
you're gonna be blessed to be a blessing.
So they believed they were a part of this,
so this really was an act of worship for them. But either way,
the Bible also tells us that no authority has been placed over us,
such that has been allowed by God. And so if that's the case,
the picture's really the same. So God's people are called into a fresh start,
right? Into living out his plans and purposes in these men.
They're not engaging in their part.
And so what you really see is a lack of humility.
Like what you really see is this excess of pride in these guys' lives.
And so Nehemiah is saying with, uh,
I wanna let you know with a not very appreciative tone, , he's saying,
these men are acting too good to do the work that God's called them to do,
when clearly the people around it need their help.
And so we gotta ask ourselves this question, you know,
and we will get to some application here in a minute,
but are there areas in our lives where God's calling us to act,
but we're tempted to maybe act like one of these nobles?
Do we have those here in our lives? Men?
Are we at the house knowing that something needs to be done, but we're like,
well, this isn't what I do.
Are we at our house being passive, uh, women? Are there things that we, uh,
that we you see in your husband's life where, you know what,
there's an area that I could probably encourage my husband that I could be a
helper to my husband, but the truth is he just ought to be better. Like,
do you have those areas? But if you do, by the way,
I want you to know he needs your encouragement. He needs your help.
Do,
do you find yourself on a school project or at work or in your church thinking,
Hey, somebody else is gonna do it.
When we align with God for a fresh start, everyone has a role to play.
It's not about our preferences, it's about what God's plans and purposes are.
I'm gonna say that again. It's not about our preferences,
it's about God's plans and purposes.
We see that all throughout the Old Testament, God created, he had a people,
he had plans, he had a purpose, he had a covenant. That's what it's about.
We see the same thing. And then two testament, okay, we're gonna switch gears.
That's the first five verses of Nehemiah chapter three.
If you keep reading what you should go home and read, I am telling you,
you're gonna see the same thing over and over and over again,
just with other names that you might not know how to pronounce. So,
but so as opposed to reading that what, what we're gonna do,
same thing we did last week.
We're gonna pull out some things that we can actually apply to our lives that we
see.
And then we're gonna see how Nehemiah three really fits into the overarching
narrative of scripture. So, few principles that I wanna highlight for us,
I want you guys to know I really did get an email. So I drink sparkling water.
Okay? Sorry, it sounds a little bougie. I'm really not a bougie guy.
Someone really emailed me and asked if I had a Rolling Rock on stage on the
bottle. 'cause the bottle's kind of green. It's not.
This is sparkling water promise. Okay?
No idea why I just told you that. Alright, a few principles.
I wanna highlight three things that jump out when it comes to God,
when it comes to what God has for his people. Everybody has a role,
chapter three of Nehemiah. You've got,
you've got 40 different groups of people who worked on the wall. Priests,
Goldsmiths, merchants, uh, even families came together, uh, from,
from other places to work. Some families just worked on the, the, the,
the sections of the wall closest to their home. But no one was too important.
No one was too insignificant for the work.
When God calls his people to participate in his work. It,
it doesn't matter your background, it doesn't matter your skillset,
it doesn't matter your title. It doesn't matter. Your bank account,
the family is strongest when every member contributes within the family of God.
We all have roles and responsibilities. Everyone has a role. See it clearly.
Secondly, when it comes to what God has for his people, uh,
rebuilding often starts at home. A lot of families were repair,
were repairing the wall. If you go through and read,
you'll see they're repairing the wall near their homes.
Like Nehemiah's strategy was incredibly intentional.
Rebuilding starts with what's closest to you.
And so if you're looking for a fresh start in your life,
I gotta say it's gotta start at home. Like before,
like if the church is a family of families,
before we can build a healthy church,
before we can build a healthy community around us,
we've gotta strengthen our relationship with God. Uh,
we've gotta be willing to address the brokenness in our own lives,
and we've gotta be willing to address the brokenness in our families.
It starts at home. And lastly, when it comes to what God has for his people,
it is we over me. It's we over me.
Some folks that were working on that wall, they weren't,
they didn't even live in the city,
but they understood this is imperative for God's plans and for God's purposes.
They understood that God had a desire for, for their people to thrive in Israel.
And this was a part of actually bringing that to life.
And the temptation is to go through life and think this someone else will do it.
That's not my skillset, that's not my area of passion.
I'd rather give my time and energy and resources somewhere else.
But we've gotta be careful not to be like those nobles.
Like we've gotta realize the call on our lives that we were created to live out
is bigger than ourselves. It's we over me.
So that's the application from Nehemiah chapter three. Um,
I'm gonna come back towards the end and I'll sum it all up again. But I want,
I want us to see how it fits kind of through a New Testament lens.
So I wanna take a look at this,
how it fits into the bigger overarching narrative of scripture.
I told you last week, Nehemiah is not really a story about Nehemiah.
I mean it is, but it's really a story about God.
Like this is a story about God's faithfulness to his people and the covenant
that he made with his people, right? The covenant that he would be their God,
they would be his people. They would live out his plans and purposes,
and then they would be blessed to be a blessing to the world around them.
Like this is a story of how God called and worked in and through his people
for his covenant. But guess what?
Even though they get the wall built,
they still turn around and start messing things up again.
Like if you remember from chapter one, uh,
the Bible tells us all through the Old Testament prophets,
this was going to happen. If you don't turn back to God, if you don't stop,
stop rebelling against God, this is gonna happen. Well now,
like the prophecies come through, they've got back the promised land,
they get the wall built, and then they start messing things up again.
Nehemiah does realize this. He freaks out.
I don't know if we're gonna cover this in our, uh, uh, uh, in our series.
It's not necessarily the most politically correct thing to talk about,
but Nehemiah literally shows back up, sees them getting things wrong,
and starts pulling out people's beard. I mean, it's pretty intense. Uh,
but like, even though that happens, he gets 'em straight for a little bit.
But that's short lived. And that's really the story of the Old Testament.
Like it's God's got this covenant with his people, they pursue God,
then they start jacking things up, they pursue God,
they start jacking things up, they pursue. I mean,
it's just over and over and over and over again.
And so what you see after Nehemiah is you start transitioning into the New
Testament, is God has a bigger plan.
And so you get to the New Testament,
Jesus shows up on the scene and through his life, death and resurrection,
God institutes a new covenant. So old covenant with the Israelites,
the family of God or the Jewish people, new covenant says, no, no, no,
you no longer have to be an Israelite to be a son or daughter of God.
Like this is now open up to every man, woman, child.
You simply just have to believe that Jesus was the son of God,
that he's the Messiah that the Old Testament prophesied about and accept that he
paid the price for your sins on a cross, and that he rose from the dead.
And if you believe that you're a part of the family of God,
and now you will be blessed to be a blessing if you live out God's plans and
purposes for the world.
Jesus referred to this as the kingdom of God.
And I think it's crazy like the church in the West, like in America,
we don't talk about the kingdom of God all that much.
And it sounds kind of spooky and crazy. And what does that really mean? Uh,
we talk about getting saved and that type,
but we don't talk about the kingdom of God,
which is nuts because Jesus talks about the kingdom of God all the time.
Like he teaches in parables. The kingdom of God is like this.
The kingdom of God is like this. The kingdom,
the guy was only on Earth three years.
I promise He wouldn't be telling stories about what the kingdom of God was about
if it wasn't important. In fact, mark chapter one, verse 15, uh, this,
this is right when Jesus starts his ministry,
the first thing he really comes out and says, he says, the time is fulfilled.
The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.
Believe in the good news of the kingdom. So I want you to understand,
just because the old covenant is gone,
like God's heart is still for his plans and purposes to advance throughout the
world, like the New Testament is not start a new relationship with Jesus,
so I can get to heaven and that's it.
Like one day Jesus will come back to this earth, okay? And,
and he'll establish a new heaven and a new earth and talk about building a,
a new city. He's gonna put all this back together again. But until then,
our call as the family of God,
as Jesus's church is to live out the kingdom of God,
to live out God's plans and purposes in the world around us.
And I'm not saying that is, that's what,
like our salvation is contingent upon that.
I'm just saying our life and Christ and the life that God has for us is bigger
than just a salvation moment.
And I want you to see this very clearly. Like this should kind of be like a,
like, okay, that makes a lot of sense, just putting the,
the scriptures together. Old Testament, new Testament,
while we see Nehemiah being used by God to build a wall, uh,
it's really a picture like it's, it's really a symbol.
It's a glimpse of how Jesus came to build his church.
You know, Nehemiah is using these broken,
beat up burnt stones to rebuild this wall.
And then now you've got Jesus, and I don't know about you,
I'll just speak for myself, but using this beaten, broken down,
shame filled man to somehow play a role in building his church,
which is gonna be a part of expanding hische. I mean, it,
it doesn't even make sense. But that's what Jesus came to do. And we,
how we play a part in Jesus building his church. It's really no different,
uh,
for us as the New Testament Church than it was for Nehemiah and the Israelites.
In Nehemiah chapter three,
I want you to look at what Paul wrote to the church in Rome.
This is a New Testament. Just in case you don't know, Romans chapter 12,
verses four through eight. It says, for his in one body, we have many members,
and the members do not all have the same function.
So we though many are one body in Christ and
individually members one of another, that means we're interdependent.
Like you can't separate it, right? Like we're all in this thing together,
having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. Uh,
some of the,
our guys on our worship team like Sam Cannoli and Rob Jones and Aaron Pelosi,
these guys are clearly given a bit more, um,
grace to the gifts that they have than the rest of us. Um,
I can grow a good beard. That's about it. Uh, having ,
having the gifts that differ according to the grace given to us,
let us use them if prophecy and proportion to our faith,
if service in our serving, if the one who teaches and is teaching,
if the one who exhorts in his exhortation,
if the one who contributes and generosity, the one who leads lead with zeal,
and the one who does acts of mercy, do so with cheerfulness, Paul's saying, Hey,
if you're a part of the family of God,
you have a role to play play it well. He's like,
you have a role to play in living out God's kingdom.
You have a role to play in living out God's plans and purposes and for this
world, for it to come to life.
You have a role to play and bringing healing to your family.
You have a role to play in,
like in bringing mercy and justice and compassion
to a world that desperately needs it. You, you have a role to play and man,
and bringing the love of God to people's lives who desperately
need it,
who truthfully are still sitting right in the midst of their sin and brokenness.
But that's our responsibility, that's our call. And it takes all of us,
like every single one of us have a role.
And so we say at hope that we're a family
who loves God follows Jesus and shares hope, but I want you to, man,
those aren't just words that we throw up on a wall.
Like that's not things that we put on a t-shirt. There is a so that,
and it's so that we can display in part the kingdom of God to a broken world
that desperately needs to experience it. Ultimately,
that's why we don't go to heaven.
The moment that we believe in Jesus is our Savior, like we have purpose.
And so through the gospel of Jesus, the good news of the kingdom,
the application is really the same.
It's the same thing that we saw in Nehemiah when it comes to what God has for
his people. Rebuilding often starts at home.
Bless you. Look, look,
none of this really matters if you don't have a personal relationship with God
through Jesus. Like this would all just be self-help stuff.
Chicken noodle soup for the soul. Like it,
it's not va like all this is imp this is valuable because of who Jesus is and
what he did for us on the cross and through his resurrection. Um,
I've got a friend, uh, Jaren Holmes. He goes to the Apex campus.
He posted on Facebook earlier this week. He said, just a reminder,
there is a distinct difference between knowing about God and
knowing God. Man, you, I'm just telling you,
you could get up here and preach sermons on the Bible and actually not know
God just because you know about God. And so we gotta,
everything starts at home. Everything starts with us.
And so if you've never made that decision to start a relationship with God
through Jesus Christ, and I'm just telling you,
I I'm praying that you just sense that prodding of the Holy Spirit,
like you will not, I i just don't believe you.
I know you're not gonna find the hope and the peace and the joy and the love
that actually comes from living in this,
living out this kingdom of God life that we're talking about.
As you know, we talk about the church being a family.
It's really a family of families. And so, but those individual families,
your individual family is important.
God's heart is for your individual family to thrive. And it starts in the home.
And so I do want to tell you, if you're saying like, man, I am married,
but I know my marriage could do some work. Um, I've got some kids,
my parents who could do some work.
We've got a couple classes I wanna tell you about really briefly, uh, reengage.
It's our marriage class here at Hope. Uh, Dave Nuity is our marriage pastor,
he and his team, and they do a phenomenal job.
This is not just a class for somebody whose marriage is on the rocks and like
you're on the brink of divorce, though, if that is you,
I would tell you that it still would be a great place for you.
I've never heard anybody go through this class and not come out and say,
that's the best thing I've ever done for my marriage. Uh,
hope for parents. If you're a parent, you're trying to figure out, Hey,
what are God's plans and purposes for my life as a mom, as a dad,
for us as parents,
raising kids the way that God's word would have us raise our kids hope for
parents. Great class. I believe registration goes live this Sunday.
I know your campus host is gonna talk to you about it after the service. So, uh,
rebuilding office starts at home. Secondly,
when it comes to what God has for his people, everyone has a role.
We saw it in the Old Testament with Nehemiah. Uh,
we see it in the New Testament. And I, I we've talked about this,
the whole message. I don't feel like I have to put a lot of time on this,
but look, you have been gifted and called by God, and it is for a purpose.
Um, if you're looking for your role, please let us help. Um,
it just so happens, just as you see in the Old Testament, the old covenant,
God wanted to bless the world through blessing the Israelites.
It's the same thing within the church. So God's plan, uh, to live out, to,
to see his kingdom lived out,
his plans and purpose lived out is through the church. And so you say, Jason,
does that mean you're telling me I gotta serve in a ministry, uh,
on the weekend at a campus at Hope? Um, I think you should . I mean,
if this is your church family, I think you should do that.
I think it'd be good for you to go to a service and then serve, give back.
But it's not just that. Like we live out this kingdom where we live, learn,
work, and play. And so you've been gifted, you've been called.
Everyone has a role. And then lastly,
when it comes to what God has for his people, it's we over me.
You may very well have an assignment, uh, on the wall, ,
or a role to play that is not your personal preference.
You might be called to serve in an area that's not your backyard. Uh,
that's not your primary gifting. We see that on the wall.
We see that in the New Testament. Uh,
there are times that we do ministry simply because ministry needs to be done.
I'm telling you, I have loved my last 14 years back at Hope,
man. There have been seasons like,
I don't know if this is the place on the wall I wanna be working right now. Um,
but man, when God calls you to it, you, you step in like it's all hands on deck.
You do what God has.
There's times where God's plans and purpose is called for sacrifice.
That's what families do for each other. That's what Jesus did for us.
So here's what I wanna do.
I wanna celebrate with you a way that you've already been a part of what we're
talking about right now. So in January of 2014, uh,
we as a church family at Hope, we pa we partnered, uh, with a Haitian pastor,
pastor John EK's Paul in Haiti to launch what, uh,
we affectionately refer to as hope's International Campus Agape Church. Uh,
over time, agape has really become our, our deepest, uh, global partner. I mean,
we, we, we invest, they invest in us. Uh,
hope is invested in Agape growth through things like ministry trainings, uh,
staff development. Uh, we support their annual women's conference.
My wife actually was a part of helping them launch a SPA v, which is a ministry,
uh, for rescuing vulnerable women, uh, giving them job skills,
getting them back on their feet. We've invested in their kids camps. We've sent,
uh, mission trips. We've sent mission teams over, uh,
to help with their kids camps. We've given financial resources,
special projects,
including things like helping raise funds to build a new community center that's
really a lot like our Apex Campus.
Like something that's 24 7 can invite some folks in from the neighborhood.
From its outset though, agape rented a space in the community.
When 2018, uh, a team from Hope,
we had the privilege of actually going over to Haiti and to pray over the land
that was purchased for this dreamed Agape Community Center.
I've walked that property with John Leaks, we've held hands, we've prayed,
we've trusted in God for what he's gonna do in it and through it. Well,
as you know, like it's been a rough season in Haiti,
but God's enabled agape to move forward with the construction despite the gang
violence. Um, despite the food and supply shortages,
the mass exodus of people that have left and spite the, of the government, uh,
being overthrown by these gangs. And then Sunday,
January 12th,
we couldn't tell you about this before because of security reasons,
but last Sunday, listen to this Agape Church in Port-au-Prince,
they got to celebrate their 11th anniversary of God's faithfulness here.
11th anniversary is being a church inside of the new Agape Community Center.
Over 3000 people were able to come together and celebrate God's goodness and
what he's done. I mean that
Yeah, you wanna talk, you wanna talk about, um, diverse backgrounds and people.
I mean, these are people from different countries.
Some of you have given financially, you're never gonna go.
Some of you have gone over, I don't know if you've given or not,
but I I mean you've gone for training, you've gone to, to, to,
to invest in kids. But, um,
one thing I wanna point out is the recruitment of child soldiers there right now
is up 70%. So with the gangs kind of overthrown everything.
They're taking these kids, they're finding 'em in places of danger and they're,
they're, they're guaranteeing them a sense of belonging and purpose,
and they're kidnapping them and they're giving them a gun and pulling 'em into
the gangs.
You wanna talk about building a wall for the sake of protecting God's plans and
purposes. This community center that you all,
that we together as Hope Community Church are seeing come to life,
is going to create a safe place for these young people to really come to know
what God's plans and purposes are for their life.
I want us to see this is an example of what can happen when God's people dream
big, like when they have faith and what it is that God calls us to.
And everybody plays their part. And seeing this come to life,
I started this whole time together referencing June 6th, 1944 D-Day.
We saw a clear picture of a war changing course because people realize alone
we can do so little, but together we can do so much.
The Bible tells us in Ephesians chapter six,
that we actually don't wrestle against flesh and blood. Okay?
So it's not the same type of war, uh, but against rulers, against authorities,
against cosmic powers over this present darkness against spiritual forces of
evil in the, in the heavenly places.
We know our world is a hurting and broken place. I mean,
there's clearly some beauty, right? That's for certain. But understand this,
we are in a war. We are in a war,
and we have an enemy.
And he wants to rob everyone who will ever live of the kingdom life that God has
for us, period. And there's hurt and there's emptiness,
and there's searching for identity and belonging and purpose.
And right now
the suicide rates in middle school and high school are higher than they've ever
been in the history of our nation.
Enough's enough.
And there's one thing and one thing alone that can combat what's going on in the
world. And it's the church.
It's the family of God coming together and saying,
let us arise together and build. And not to build a wall,
but to be a part of building God's kingdom and our own lives and our own homes,
and our church, and in our community. But everybody's got a role to play
in our differences, in our diversity, in our giftings,
in our weaknesses.
My prayer is that we will be a church that is unified and that will stop at
nothing to share the hope that we have in Jesus.
11: Um.
8: The truth is, I know we will be. I know through the spirit of God,
that is who we are. That is who you are.
That is who we are as Hope Community Church, um,
alone. We can do so little
But together we can do so much through the power of the Holy Spirit.
That's a work in us. Let's pray together. Father, we, um,
I thank you for your word. I thank you for Nehemiah for chapter three.
I thank you for an opportunity to get up on a stage and try to say a bunch of
names that I have trouble pronouncing for the sake of helping us
understand what it really means to be a part of your family,
to live out your plans and purposes. Um,
I talked about Jay Jennings earlier and another thing that he says all the time,
it's following Jesus is not it's a team. It is, it's a team sport Lord.
It's all hands on deck.
It's the body of Christ coming together to live out together collectively what
it is that you've called us towards. Lord,
I pray that this text that we studied, um, I pray that the text in Romans,
that it would,
it would not just be words on a page that through the power of your spirit,
it would come to life and our hearts, Lord. So one,
one of the key things for the church to be the church is there has to be a
brokenness over what's going on in the world around us. Lord, there's hurt,
there's brokenness. There's families that are falling apart. There's a,
a longing for, for belonging, for purpose, for hope.
Lord,
I pray that you would break our hearts and that you would do whatever needs to
be done for our hearts to be awakened to being the church that you would call us
to be. Lord, I thank you for how we're getting to see it.
How when we, when we do step out in faith, like what we see in Agape,
like we're seeing in some of our ministries, Lord,
we actually do see your spirit at work.
And we thank you for it and we pray and we beg you for more of it. Lord,
we love you. Father,
we thank you in advance for what it is that you're gonna do in our church family
and through our church family, ultimately for your namesake and for your glory.
We pray all these things in Jesus' name and everyone said, amen. Yes.