Nehemiah chapter 11 Nehemiah chapter 11 we are advancing and Through the book of Nehemiah. It's been a blessing We have more lists and of names amen So we praise the Lord for this but we find a theme here tonight and And that is sacrifice for the sake of the ministry. Here we find them sacrificing for the sake of the city. I almost had a whole message on reaching our cities. Maybe someday that will come up. There's a lot of vision here to reach our cities, what we need to do. we find in this chapter also a difficulty, a situation that's different from ours because we have cities that are overflowing and they had a city that was nearly empty. That was not easy. Let's go through this chapter and get God's word in our minds and our hearts tonight before we get into the message Nehemiah chapter 11 verse 1 sacrifices for the sake of the ministry sacrifices to reach cities amen and the rulers of the people dwelt at Jerusalem the rest of the people also cast lots to bring one of ten to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city, and nine parts to dwell in other cities. And the people blessed all the men that willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem. Now these are the chief of the province that dwelt in Jerusalem. But in the cities of Judah dwelt everyone in his possession in their cities. To wit, Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the Nethanims, and the children of Solomon's servants. And at Jerusalem dwelt certain of the children of Judah, the children of Benjamin, the children of Judah, Athiah, the son of Uzziah, the son of Zechariah, the son of Amoriah, the son of Sephathiah, the son of Mahalaleel, of the children of Perez. And Messiah, the son of Barak, the son of Kal-Hosei, the son of Uzziah, the son of Adiah, the son of Joirib, the son of Zechariah, the son of Shiloni, All the sons of Paris that dwelt in Jerusalem were four hundred, three score, and eight valiant men. And these are the sons of Benjamin. Saul, the son of Meshulam, the son of Joab, the son of Padaiah, the son of Goliath, the son of Messiah, the son of Ithiel, the son of Josiah. And after him, good-bye. Gab-bye, not good-bye, amen? Good-bye. Selah in 928. And Joel, the son of Zichri, was their overseer. And Judah, the son of Senua, was second over the city of the priest, Jediah, the son of Joarib, Jachin, Saraiah, the son of Hokaiah, the son of Meshulam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meroth, the son of Ahithah, was the ruler of the house of God. And their brethren that did the work of the house were 820 and 2. And Adaiah, the son of Jehoram, the son of Pelaliah, the son of Amzi, the son of Zechariah, the son of Pashur, the son of Malkiah. And his brethren, chief of the fathers, two hundred forty and two, and Amishai, the son of Asriel, the son of Ahasi, the son of Neshlemoth, Neshlemoth, the son of Emer. And their brethren, I like these, characterizations here mighty men of valor 100 120 and 8 and their overseer was Abdiel the son of one of the great men also the Levites Shammai the son of Hashim the son of Azraqam the son of Hashemiah the son of boonie the son of Shabbat I and Jehoshaphat, and the chief of the Levites, had the oversight of the outward business of the house of God. And Mattaniah, the son of Micah, the son of Zabdi, the son of Asaph, was the principal to begin the thanksgiving and prayer. And Bacchus, the son among his brethren, Abda, the son of Shemua, the son of Galo, the son of Jeduthun, all the Levites in the holy city were two hundred, four score and four. Moreover, the porters, Ac of Talmud, and their brethren that kept the gates were one hundred seventy and two. And the residue of Israel, of the priests, the Levites, were in all the cities of Judah, every one in his inheritance. But the Nethanims dwelt in Ophel, and Ziah, and Gispa were over the Nethanims. The overseer also of the Levites at Jerusalem was Uzzi, the son of Bani, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Micah, of the sons of Asaph. The singers were over the business of the house of God. For it was the king's commandment concerning them that a certain portion should be for the singers due for every day. And Pithiah, the son of Mesha, wait, let me get this right, Meshezebel of the children of Zareph, the son of Judah, was at the king's hand in all matters concerning the people and for the villages with their fields and some of the children of Judah dwelt at Kirjath, Kirjath Arba in the villages thereof and at Dibon and in the villages thereof and at Jekabsel, in the villages thereof, and at Jeshua, and at Molida, and at Bethphilet, and at Hazarshual, and at Beersheba, and in the villages thereof, and at Ziklag, and Mekona, and in the villages thereof, and at Anramon, and Zeriah, and at Jarmath, Zenoah, Adalim, and their villages, and at Lachish, and the fields thereof, at Azekah, and in the villages thereof. And they dwelt from Beersheba unto the valley of Hinnom. The children also of Benjamin from Geba dwell at Michmash, and Ijah, and Bethel, and in their villages, and at Anatoth, Nob, Ananiah, Hazor, Ramah, Hittayim, Gittayim, Hadid, Zeboam, Neballet, Lod, Ono, the Valley of Crasmen. And of the Levites were divisions in Judah and in Benjamin. Now I think it's time to end the message now. That is a mouthful and the list keeps going on in the next chapter, so we'll have to deal with that again next week. What is going on in this chapter? We know that Nehemiah was a man who saw, he has a great vision. He was a man seeking the will of God. He was rebuilding Jerusalem, the city, and God was using him in a great way. And so we see that one of the things that he had to face after this great revival, remember, what God was doing spiritually, now he had to fill up the city. He had to populate Jerusalem. And this was no easy task. In chapter 7, jump back there, hold your finger, just read one verse, chapter 7 verse 4 to give you a picture of what it looked like. Now the city was large and great, the people were few therein, and the houses were not built. Do you see that? Large, the city was large and great, the people were few, the houses were not built. So meaning, this was gonna be difficult. Now remember, the city had not been occupied for a very long time and for a number of reasons. For one thing, it was without a wall for 142 years, that's a long time. This meant there was no, it was defenseless, It was dangerous to live there. Who would want to live in a city without walls back then? In case of an invasion, a family living in a country could run away and hide. But in the city, you're just caught in there. You're walled to the back. And they were stuck there. It was easy to attack because there was few people, few defenders. And so we know that In the time of the captivity, the city had been ravaged by invading armies. It was stripped of anything valuable. There was much rubble there. It was abandoned. The houses, as well as the walls, were destroyed. So can you get the picture? A war-torn city. And so probably grass and trees and all kinds of weeds were overgrowing the city, so it was difficult. And it was even more difficult to make a living. You have to think about this, all the things that they faced to do the work of the ministry, to do the work of God. There's a lot of application for us today, and I hope that we will find it in this message. I know just preaching about and telling you the history will not touch our lives, but I believe their example should touch our lives, and the sacrifices we need to make today. Because whatever we do for God is going to require sacrifice. Amen? It's not going to be easy. Especially in the day and age in which we live. So I find, first of all, tonight, I didn't take you through my list. Hopefully my list is there. First of all, we need to sacrifice to live where God wants us to live. They had to make that decision, verses 1 and 2. We have the example of the rulers of the people, and I think this is a great example. Look at verse 1. And the rulers of the people dwelt at Jerusalem. So aren't you thankful tonight? There were leaders, principal men of the country. They realized their responsibility and they set the example. Isn't that what we need today? To lead by example. Amen. but then the rest of the people not only the rulers the rest of the people was mentioned here it says the rest of the people also cast lots to bring one of ten to dwell in Jerusalem the holy city and nine parts to dwell in other cities so they had a draft they were drafted and not saying that They were going against their will. You know, some people would reject that draft today. I'm not saying that. But there was a system here. So one in ten had to be drafted to live in Jerusalem. They cast lots to pick one out of ten who would move there. And that means their families had to move. See, they were already back in their inheritances. That's what we're seeing. And so, even though they had 1 in 10, the city would not be overpopulated like we would think of a city, but it would be a vast improvement over its present sparse population. So we see a couple of examples here, the drafted, but we see also the dedicated. This is found in verse two. It appears that there were those who willingly volunteered. Isn't that what we like? You know, people just to step up. and willingly and do and make a sacrifice for God. That's what we find here. Verse 2, look at this. And the people blessed all the men that willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem. You see, there's a price for dedication. And this price means sacrifice. They had to give up their homes. They had to move. They had to build a home in Jerusalem. And they had to live in a city that was going to be more likely to be attacked than where they used to live, because it's the capital city. So they offered themselves. They willingly made this sacrifice. But then, not only is there a price, there's praise, amen? You know, when you're serving God, you're not to praise yourself, but let other people praise you. You know, and then you just take that praise and say, praise God. But it says right here in this praise, and the people blessed all the men that willingly offered themselves to dwell in Jerusalem. And so, notice this, that the praise came after they volunteered. not before amen and so we do know this praise is not always the experience for one for the ones dedicated to honoring the lord and we must not base our commitments in the ministry or in the service of god to praise, the basis of human praise. You know, it would be a sad thing if we only do things to be seen of men and to be praised for what we're doing. And that's the wrong motive. So we have here, based on these number of men who moved to the city, 3,044. So that means there are about 10,000 moving to the city with a total population of about 100,000 in the land. So this is an inconvenient and a less desirable place to live. Where would you rather live, in the city or in the country? Most people say, I'd rather live in the country. But they had to go where God wanted them to live. You understand? It's not always convenient where God wants you to live. And you have to have that sacrifice to do that. And I believe, and I'm gonna bring up this question now, because I believe this should be the heart of the people of God. And I know it's not popular, but it is possible. What would happen in the average church if 10% of the congregation were asked to relocate in order to strengthen and extend the work of the Lord? What would you do? That's what they were doing. They were doing all this for the ministry. They were doing all this for the work of the Lord. And that's how important the work of the Lord was. I think of our dedication to God. Amen. We need to dedicate ourselves to the Lord and go to Romans 12. Hold your finger here. Don't think that Paul is not asking us. Well, God through the apostle Paul is asking us in the power of the Holy Spirit to make the same sacrifice today. Are you willing? to live where God wants you to live Romans 12 1 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service brethren are we willing to do the work of God you know what this is talking about is your life amen your life being present Never underestimate the importance of simply being physically present in the place God wants you to be. Men, women, and children. They were serving their city, the city of Jerusalem. Men, women and children were populating that city. They were serving their God. They had to put their lives on the line. They had to step out by faith. And God is asking us to do the very same thing today. And the truth of the matter is, you may not be asked to do some dramatic ministry. But simply being there is a ministry. You know, simply being present is so important to God and to the church. And so, we must sacrifice to live where God wants us to live. We must sacrifice to serve where God wants us to serve. Amen? Here we are again, reading list. Nehemiah likes his list. Amen? But as we ponder these lists, of course, we're not going to go through every name, but we do pull out some principles. Everyone on that list, every person had a role, a different role, but each role was vital to the entire purpose, the entire cause. Do you see that? Everyone was important. Everyone had to be in their place. Everyone had to serve their sphere of service. What God called them to do for everything to be accomplished to the glory of God. Isn't that so much true in the church today? You see here we have heads of families in Jerusalem, verses 3-9. We have the priests in verses 10-14. We have the Levites in verses 15-18. The gatekeepers and the temple servants from verses 19-21. You have some officials that were appointed by the king of Persia, verses 22-24. And then you have all the people who lived outside the city, verses 25-36. What a list! but each served in his respective sphere for the effective operation of the city and the nation. What a wonderful picture. You see, those who lived outside the city, they had to farm the land and provide the food for those in the city. Everyone was working, serving in their sphere of service. You know, some of them had to move to the city. Some of them had to stay out there and farm the lands. Everyone had a place. Isn't that the picture of the body of Christ? Go to 1 Corinthians 12. We all have a place of service. And I know this keeps coming around because we talk about gifts. Amen. In the body. Wednesday nights. This is a wonderful passage. We've come to this so much and I don't know how many times over the last year or so in preaching about the body function. and how that every member, every organ, every part of the body is vital for the overall functioning of the health of the body. Can you understand, you know, just think about our organs in our body when one stops functioning or when one organ malfunctions, how do you feel? It's not any fun, is it? I'm going through that right now. Hopefully everything gets back online again, amen. with God's help. But let's look at this picture. I know we refer to it a lot, but let's read it. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were the hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members, every one of them, in the body, as it has pleased Him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet one body. Amen? And it goes on and on and on. So brethren, we see that one purpose. We're to be one body. But we all have different roles. And we're all to be serving in this body. And we're all to be bringing glory to Jesus Christ by our service in the body. In the church, we need to learn to coordinate and complement each other without friction or rivalry. You think about the body, the physical body. Problems often develop because the I looks at everyone from the perspective of the I only. Isn't that how we do things? We like, we're the I, so we look at the I and everyone should be the I. No, not everyone is the I. So they can't look at everything the way you do all the time. It's like it is in marriage, amen. There's different perspectives and we ought to respect that and also glean and learn from it, amen. The hand views everything from the perspective of the hand. And so the eye should value the hand, the hand should value the eye. You know, one preacher made this observation, the things in the church that people usually complain about reveal the person's area of spiritual gift. Well, this isn't a caring church. Well, if it's not a caring church, you probably have the gift of mercy, if you see that. Well, this church doesn't overly emphasize outreach enough. Well, maybe you have the gift of evangelist, evangelism. You know, and The guy who says the church is a disorganized mess is probably gifted in administration. But what is the solution? Not to sit around criticizing everyone for what's not being done in your area of giftedness. What's the answer? Get involved. If you have the gift of mercy and you don't see people care for someone, go care for them. Do your part. Amen. Don't complain that everyone else is not doing it. You go do it. And then, you know, if there's something that needs to be, if we need to reach more souls out here in the community, then you be here on the forefront. Don't complain about it. Get out there and knock doors and bring people to Jesus, amen? And if there's some areas of disorganization in the church and you have that keen eye and that ability, then just go do it. Well, talk to the pastor first, amen? Just don't go tear up the whole church and get everything. Go through all the files and organize them. But if you want direction, I'll show you what files need organizing. Amen. And so that's the way it works. Amen. God made us all differently. But we all are to work as one body. And when we do that, we're working in our sphere of service. And then we affirm others in their sphere of service. And we're all Completing that goal of oneness and unity and purpose of the body of Christ to glorify Christ. Amen. And that's what they were doing by Nehemiah chapter 11. So we thank God. But we also learn this. We need to sacrifice to serve without a claim. You know, we shouldn't be looking for praise. Do you realize, we read this list. Okay, go back to Nehemiah 11. How many of these names really mean something to you? You may recognize a few, you know, through Bible study and what we've been studying about here. But really, these names mean nothing to us. And do you realize? that some of these in these lists were just lumped together. They weren't even named. I think of, think about these 128 valiant men, these warriors, they weren't even named. But it didn't take away the fact that they were brave and valiant warriors. And just because they weren't named, they didn't stop being valiant warriors. See what I'm saying? And that's what every group here, And I believe the church needs people like that that are not named. You know, they're just doing things for the Lord. And obviously we want those to be recognized. We're not saying it's wrong to recognize people. I'm not saying that. But you'll see so much going on behind the scenes of churches by faithful people who serve God You'll never see them up front, and you may not even know what they're doing. But you know what? They're just like our vital organs. You don't see them, do you? I don't think I want to see them, you know, walking around with transparent skin, you know, and seeing your body. That would be scary, amen? Thank God for skin, amen. And but your vital organs, you know, you never see them. But when one of them shuts down, you're in big trouble. Amen. And that's the way it is in the church. So we see the principle is this, I believe it's faithfulness, not fame. That's the issue. Just be faithful. Just serve God with faithfulness, not because you want to be recognized or really, you know, just because someone recognized you, now you're going to keep doing it. No. Motive is what matters. Amen. I believe this. When we are trying to gain esteem or recognition in the church, then we're doing it for the wrong reason. Now get this, if you're doing it for the wrong reasons, then you will fail. Get this, you most likely will fail. And secondly, all your efforts will go unrewarded in eternity. So motive is what matters. Why are you doing what you do? and do it for the right reasons. What does Jesus say in Matthew 6.1? I didn't write it out. Sorry about that. Go to Matthew 6.1. Some of us maybe know that by quoting it. But I think it's very clear that there were some wrong motives here in Matthew 6 for doing things. and that we ought to protect our hearts from these motives he says take heed that you do not all your arms before men to be seen of them otherwise you have no reward of your father which is in heaven right there it can't be any clearer than that when you do it for the praise of men you lose your reward in heaven but on the other hand brethren what we see in the list in Nehemiah 11, God notices everything you do. And God notices us when others do not. Amen. They may overlook you, but God's not overlooking you. So God saw fit to record these names that mean absolutely nothing to us. Why? Because they mean something to God. And that's what ultimately matters in life, amen? You mean something to God. So if you're getting upset because no one in the church notices all that you do, your focus is on the wrong place. Look to the Lord whom you are serving. Go to Hebrews 6.10 in the New Testament. This is a great verse to keep tucked away in your memory when you're serving God. It says, For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. God never forgets your work and your labor of love. And that's who's going to reward you in eternity is God. Amen. So let's serve without a claim, without worrying about this. And let's sacrifice to put people first and program second. Again, the list. What do we learn from the list? People are important to God. People are important to God. That's what we understand by these lists. People are important to God. Even these strange, hard to pronounce names. They all represent a person whom God loved and knew. Amen? Jesus said that the good shepherd calls his own sheep by name. And his sheep follow him because they know his voice. Amen? Listen, Jesus knows you. I think of a This whole thing about importance of people and God's sight. To know this, that everything we do in our church is about personal relationships. Personal relationships. One, your relationship with God. Love God with all your heart. with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength. And then personal relationships with one another. Love your neighbor as yourself. Listen, it's all about relationships and God. People are important and relationships are important and we ought to apply that in ministry. Programs should be the vehicle through which we minister to people. And you can lose that sometimes in churches and in ministry. If a program is not doing that, we need to axe the program. and replace it with something that ministers God's Word to people. I really believe, and this is my conviction, I know, and that means I'm going to rearrange some things from time to time in the church, but I just have to do it by conviction. I don't think you would disagree with me. I believe when we come together at this church, the Word of God needs to be opened up. At every activity. At every activity. We need to minister the Word of God. So that's what we do. So if we did things differently in the past, we're going to rearrange it. And when we come together, we're going to open the Word of God. We're going to minister the Word of God. We're going to receive the Word of God. I'm not saying there's times to get together outside the church function, and as families, well, it may be good to read the Bible together anyway, right, and pray together, but I'm not saying you have to do that everywhere you go, but certainly ought to pray together, amen, at least do something spiritual, right? But, you know, relationships, is what it's all about, not programs. People, not programs. And what I mean by this is, I know we get so busy and we start thinking about, well, we got our Sunday school, let's run the Sunday school, then we gotta run the service, and then we gotta run home to get lunch, and you forget about people. You didn't take time to say hello to someone. You didn't take time to minister to someone, to encourage someone at church, to say hello. to try to find out how people are doing. It's about people, it's not just about, hey, let's get to church, all right, let's do this, let's do that, let's go home. No, let's minister one to another, let's build relationships. Make visitors feel welcome here, introduce them to others. You can't get acquainted with everyone, I realize that. But you know, we ought to do outside of church, set up a time to go get coffee together, have a meal together and get to know people. Ministry takes place through relationships. Ministry takes place through relationships. Amen. That threatens some people because it's much safer and easier to work in a program. or to be involved in maintaining the building, where you can keep your distance from people. But God isn't saving buildings and God is not sanctifying programs. God is saving people and sanctifying people. And He does that through people who love others and reach out to others. And that's what ministry is all about. And it may take some sacrifice on your part to do that, because it's not your nature. So get over it. Get over yourself and sacrifice for Jesus. You see what they were called to do? Building that city was not going to be easy. Repopulating that city was not going to be easy. But aren't you thankful they were committed to do that and they were committed to sacrifice? Because they knew God's purpose. They knew God's glory, God's calling, God's ministry through the nation of Israel and the coming Messiah and they had to be there and they had to be in the right place and they had to be faithful to God. I think there's some overarching principles here. I think one of them is this, we must serve in the most needed places. Do you know there's all kinds of needs within the church? I'm really, I understand and I know we're getting there and we're gonna get there, but I think of this city we live in and There's so many broken people that need help outside this church. But you know what? If we ever get there in these ministries that really reach into our community, it's going to take some sacrifice of your time beyond the services of this church. I believe when we start our hope ministry, it's going to open a lot of doors. And when that door opens, we may even put a sign out here and publish it around. And we may get a bunch of people in here that need help. And I, as a pastor, ain't going to be the only one. I'm not going to be able to help all of them. That's where you're going to have to extend your hand and help them. And it's even in this body. I hope you understand that there's real needs of real people in this body. And maybe you're just so far on the fringe outskirts of the church that you don't even understand or you even had had any insight about these needs to try to meet them. I'm not saying it's like that because we're a small church. But we need to grow in this. I think of when we look at our world, you know, and you look at everything that's going on out in our world, we see that there's so many needs in our society. It's like, it's mind boggling. It's mind boggling what's going on. It's never ending. Think of the orphans. I mean, I think of these, you know, these programs and Rescuing children, you know, from abuse and trafficking of children and women. There's some people dedicated to really going around this country and rescuing these people, these lives. They give their life doing that. You know, they sacrifice a lot. Think of widows and widowers in our community. Prisoners, the broken hearted, the backslidden, the diseased, the suffering, the hungry, the dying, the lawless, the abusers, the addicts, the violent within society. Listen, there's a lot of needs in the city. I know it feels overwhelming. Sometimes I feel that way. You know, it's like going to the mission field and you're like maybe one and only of that kind of ministry that you're doing or that kind of doctrine and you're preaching to this vast sea of people. And you're like, man, this is how am I ever going to reach these people? But God gives you a ministry, man, when you're faithful, you stay with it and you keep loving on people and God starts saving souls and things start happening and Think of all the people in our society have no relationship with God and they're without Christ and that weight is overwhelming sometimes when you really measure that. But you know how these needs get met? Just like they got met in Nehemiah chapter 11 is when Enough people step forth to serve God in the most needed places. Amen? What does God say about this? He says, Let your light shall shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your God which is in heaven. Jesus said, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labors are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labors into His harvest. Jesus said, for I was in hunger and you gave me meat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. Naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came unto me. You see, it's all about people. It's about relationships. And we need to be a part of that in a bigger way, in a greater way. God can enlarge us, but this is the way. Right here, what we're reading is the way this work gets done. There's no other way. Alright, let's have a word of prayer.