Ingathering Sunday, Prophetic Look at Tomorrows

Thank you very much. You may all be seated. Thank you, choir and orchestra. We'll look forward to Wednesday night. I want to encourage you to come early, and if it's possible for you to park up at the offices or at the HOP lot, that would help us, because we know we're going to be very, very full. We've added some outdoor lights for the other part of the parking lot, but it still isn't going to be enough for everyone. So please come early and park as far as your legs can bring you without being an impediment. That would be great. We'd appreciate that. All right, thanks. If you brought your Bible this morning, turn with me to Nehemiah. If you don't have your Bible, we'll have some of the scriptures on overhead, but you can all take out your North Way notes, because there will be a number of references this morning that you're going to want to jot down. How many of you had an opportunity to put last week's message into application on patience? How many of you were whispering my name before the Lord this week more often than you normally do? Oh, God, why did He speak on that? Next week, we'll continue in this series on relationships as I speak about a biblical look at divorce and remarriage, and we're going to talk about faithfulness in relationships. But today, I want to talk to you, I want to share with you the message that was in my heart three weeks ago, and because the Lord moved so powerfully at Second Touch Sunday, I didn't have the opportunity to bring this message. And that was one of the few things that I thought was just a little bit dissatisfying about it, but I believe that's what the Lord wanted for that day. And I've been in thought and looking at the challenge that we face in this future, and by the way, again, I want to say to our guests, we don't normally give a full service for something as tangible, may I say, as a united project that we're facing, but today I know where to do this. And I've looked back through history, and I've kind of, from time to time, developed an affinity for some heroes in history, men who had the ability at certain times to look into the eyes of extreme adversity and with steady resolve declare to an enemy, I am not going to move. Men who, when it all came down to it, preferred courage over fear, and determination over defeat. One of my all-time heroes in terms of leadership, not because of the total tally of his character, but because of his leadership ability, was Winston Churchill. When he was being assaulted, when Britain looked like it was going to fall, he gave a number of speeches to try to bring the national focus around to the possibility that they could prevail against the Nazi war machine. Here's an excerpt from one of his speeches, he says this, We shall not flag or fail, we shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight in the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. Now, again, if you're aware, there's a serious lack of resources in Britain for this fight, but there's not a serious lack of leadership and motivation. He goes on, we shall fight in the beaches, we shall fight in the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we will never surrender. Later on in his speech, he says this, when I warned the French that Britain would go on, France was wondering, well, maybe we should just surrender and give in. He said, we're going to fight on alone, whatever they did. The French generals told their prime minister in his divided cabinet on the side, they said, in three weeks, England will have their neck wrung like a chicken. Later, Churchill was quoted as saying, some chicken, some neck. For those of you who are too young or haven't taken the time to study history, Britain prevailed, and largely, I believe, because of the leadership of Winston Churchill. And if you will, Nehemiah is a prototype of that kind of leadership. Nehemiah, to me, represents all of the leadership qualities I wish I could have. And I would pray for you as well. He's a biblical character with whom I identify, particularly in this time in our life as a church. And I only have maybe 30 minutes to do what would normally be an 8 or 10 week series. Some of you have already helped me to understand what you'd like to hear said today out of Nehemiah. I appreciate that. I probably won't get there. But I'm going to extract four specific things that Nehemiah has taught me. And I want you to follow with me, and I want you to try to get right in step with what we might glean from this for this morning. As an expositor of the Word, I don't believe there's a more powerful book speaking to a people who face a challenge. And as a man who's walked with Christ, by God's grace, for nearly 30 years, I don't think there's a more appropriate time for this in my life or in the life of a church. Now please attend carefully. The context, if you don't know it, is that Nehemiah has a great job. He's the cupbearer to the king. What does that mean? That doesn't mean anything to us. But what that meant was he lived in the king's palace. He waited on the king all the time. He sat at his table. He was the one that would test all the food and sip all the wine before the king ate or drank it. Why? Just in case, yeah, somebody tried to slip a little something in there. He'd be the first to go down. But he also had the privilege of having the king's ear. And any time Nehemiah would want to talk to the king, he'd wait for the appointment. And he could do that. It was an incredibly influential position. Think of someone like Chuck Colson of 20 years ago, just kind of being right beside the president, that kind of a thing. It was very influential. And he wasn't all that concerned about God's will. I mean, that was his job, just to be there for the king. And something very dramatic happened. Something unbelievably exceptional took place. Nehemiah wasn't looking forward, but his brother Hananiah showed up. And now let's flash, please, Nehemiah 1, verses 3 and 4. And if you're there, read it with me, would you? And they said to me, Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire. And when I heard these things, I sat down and wept for some days. I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. The first thing that I gleaned from this is that Nehemiah became affected by the need of God's people. Listen, for years, Nehemiah had known about Jerusalem. He had known that the city was in total disarray, was in shambles. It was burned to the ground. The walls were destroyed. And back in those days, the walls were the identifying mark of a people and of a city. And in this case, even of a nation. Nehemiah knew that the people were in disgrace. He knew that things weren't going well. It was all for him and awareness. But at this moment, and I don't really know why, his awareness, his intellectual awareness, emotionally affected him. Very important point. I don't know why it took place. I'm thankful that it wasn't a burning bush or a blinding light. It was just the Word. But somehow, Hanani, his brother, communicated with him in a way that it deeply affected him. Somehow, information became revelation. Say that with me. Information became revelation. And revelation changed Nehemiah's perception of the problem. I had an experience like this about seven years ago. I was sitting on the road, McKnight Road, at the new post office building in my little station wagon. Just sitting there on a Monday morning, 11 o'clock in the morning. A car came down McKnight Road. No horn, no brakes, no squeal. Smashed into the back of my car and drove us 300 yards down the road with my wife and my little son. I picked myself off of the steering wheel and looked back in the mirror. And here was this kind of dazed looking person slumped over the wheel. And that moment, my awareness of drunk drivers changed to being affected by them. And it changed my whole perception of the problem. You see, some things don't affect us until they impact us in a way we hadn't anticipated. And when it comes to church, when it comes to this church, this congregation, and when it comes to this project that we're facing, I want to ask you a very sincere question. Are you aware of what we're doing? Just aware of it? Or have you been affected by it? I'm deeply affected by the perception of the Church of Jesus Christ in the world today. We're perceived by and large, dear ones, to be somewhat irrelevant. We're paid sort of a token place of recognition in the press. And now and then someone will make reference to us. But basically we're seen as harmless at best and hypocritical at worst. And so when you see a television special with somebody on it, you know, who was a former high-profile leader who now basically is, you know, started their life in a different direction and sort of justified everything and made it all go away. No wonder the world thinks we're a bunch of hypocrites. See, it affects me when I have an experience like I did last Sunday. As I went to the dedication of a major new educational facility here in our area, and I sat and listened. It affects me when I hear people very carefully go through an hour-long ceremony and very carefully avoid mentioning the name of God. In a place where less than a generation ago God would have been honored in prayer and in song and probably even with some verbal acknowledgement of His grace and goodness. And I sat in amazement as I watched these very capable people. This is no aspersion against their character. Trying very carefully to avoid mentioning that maybe God had something to do with what had taken place. So that the best that they could pull out of their little bag of resource was to say, as I mentioned in the report that was in the paper this week, well, you know, all of this is here because of human learning and knowledge. And they held up the flag of knowledge with a little flame of wisdom that they attribute to goodness in mankind. And it affects me. And it was hollow and shallow to hear that the most inspirational music they could think of was going to take a sentimental journey. I mean, I don't fault them. I think the people were doing the best they can and they did it well. But I think even the most secular of people recognized there was something shallow about it. And I want to say to you, 30 years ago tomorrow, I was sitting in my 10th grade biology class. And about 11 o'clock in the morning, whenever it was, the announcement came over the PA system that President John Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. And I'll never forget our biology teachers saying, let's stop and pray. And we prayed for the president and we prayed for his family. And then we prayed for our nation. And I dare say, if the same tragedy should occur tomorrow, what would our teachers do? Would they turn to human goodness? Would they all say, well, tough break. Let's have a moment of silence to whatever power you think might be in control. Folks, make no mistake, these 30 years, we've seen a tremendous loss of focus in this nation. And I talk to my teenage kids and I want you to know, they're aware of the fact that their friends, most of them have no context in which to place God. It affects me. And it should affect you. And when we have our building dedication, we're not going to say, well, you know, it was the hard work of these people solely responsible for this great achievement. And it was human design and creativity. We're going to say all glory and praise and honor be to the Lord Jesus Christ. And to the God who raised this place up. It affects me. It affects me when I walk back here and look in these trailers. And I see your children kind of piled into classrooms. And I see the things are kind of deteriorated. And it should affect you to know that at any time, McCandless Township, who has graciously gone beyond the length of the permit we have, they could come back and say, we want those trailers out in 30 days period. We'd have no argument. Then you'd be holding your kids on your lap. That affects me. Because we couldn't offer them the kind of training they deserve. It affects me that our teenagers really have no place to meet. So 50 of them pile back in the family room on a Wednesday night in a crowded, hot little room. It affects me. It affects me that this morning, on this beautiful morning, the best inspiration many of your neighbors and friends will have will be to get up and try to get ready for the 4 o'clock football game. And that'll be it. They have no knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. No awareness of the kingdom of God. No sense of destiny. I'm not just aware of that. That affects me. And the reason why we're pressing ahead with this construction project is because we can make a difference. And if it doesn't affect you, my brother and sister, can I just ask you candidly today, why doesn't it? Are you too preoccupied with your little part of the world that you don't see the magnitude of the issues at stake? I want to exhort you to lift up your eyes and see what's going on. Nehemiah was affected. And it was the fact that he was emotionally affected that enabled him then to seek God. For the next 4 or 5 months, he sought God. Now, the Scripture doesn't detail it. All we know is that 5 months later, he went to the king, King Artaxerxes, the king of Persia, and said, I need to do something about this. I've been affected. And the king, by the way, who... How many of you know the king was not a great believer? He was a pagan king. He said, you know what? I think you're right. And he not only sent him off, he gave him a lot of provision. Because he somehow had been affected by Nehemiah's sincerity. Let's look at number 2. The second thing that happened to Nehemiah was that he assessed the need. Let's skip down now. If you have your Bible, you have to follow me carefully. Chapter 2, verse 11. I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there 3 days, I set out during the night with a few men. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on. Nehemiah gets permission. He is off to Jerusalem to check out how serious things are. And folks, we don't have all the details, but all we know is that he slipped off by the cover of night. It must have been a moonlit night because he could see the extent of the damage. Either that or he had a whole lot of candles on his helmet or something. I don't know how he did it. But he rode his mount by himself with a couple around him all around the perimeter of the wall, which if you're a historian, you know is about 2 miles around the city. And all he saw were burned and charred stones where the wall had been and an occasional place where a gate was burned and hung sideways on the iron hinges. The best pictorial image I can paint for you... How many of you remember the fires in Southern California a month ago? Remember seeing some of those shots of whole neighborhoods just leveled to the ground except for what? Yeah, a chimney or a fireplace here and there. That's what it must have looked like. It says later on in Nehemiah 4.10, there was so much rubble the people couldn't even get down to start rebuilding. And Nehemiah scopes this out at night. He doesn't want to be up front right away with it because he realizes that if he tells the people what he thinks he's going to try to do, they'll laugh at him, they'll ridicule him. They won't even give him an opportunity to share his vision. But in a spirit of true leadership, he does come back to the people. Look at Nehemiah 2.17. He says, Then I said to them, this is the officials and the leaders and the nobles and the priests, you see the trouble we're in. Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been burned with fire. James Montgomery Boyce, great expositor from the 10th Presbyterian Church out in Philadelphia says three things about this. He says, Nehemiah communicates, number one, the task was overwhelming. Number two, he was aware of the history of defeat. And number three, he sees that the people were heavily discouraged. Folks, three things. Overwhelming task, a history of defeat, and the people were heavily discouraged. And Nehemiah didn't really have a plan or a resource at that time. I want you to know what happens in a people when they're discouraged, when they've tried before to do something and it hasn't worked, what happens with them? Listen, people who get discouraged, people who've been defeated formerly, tend to want to believe that the abnormal is normal, that the ruins are the way it should be. And folks, that isn't the case. The status quo should not satisfy. Can I tell you that it's not normal to try to accommodate a ministry for 2,000 people in a facility like this? It's not normal. It isn't something we should try to do for very long. It's not going to work. So what does this mean to us? Well, follow me carefully, please. Make no mistake about it, the task that we face is huge. It's huge. Now, we've crossed numerous hurdles to get where we are, but listen, I'm going to say the numbers and I want you to form them on your lips, okay? 4.3 million dollars, say those words. Does anyone of you have that in your bank account that you could just... And that really is just for the bare walls. No carpet, no chairs. I mean, this place is not going to have gold-plated bathroom fixtures, okay? I mean, you're not going to be embarrassed and think, well, man, is this luxurious? I mean, this is nicer than my house. I mean, I'm hoping we have something there, you know, period. And the total project in phase one is 5 million dollars. Say it, 5 million dollars. That's a huge number. But lest you think it's a number off the wall, lest you think, well, who was ever responsible for this? What are they thinking about? I did a little study here in the last couple of weeks. The one school that I mentioned earlier serves about 700 senior high students. It was constructed by the same construction company that we're using for a total cost of 18 million dollars. 700 students, 18 million dollars. And there's another school in a different district just opened this September. It serves about 800 junior high students. Total cost, 19 million dollars. Now, how many of you were asked if you wanted to participate in that? Hello? How'd they build that? Where'd they get that money? They taxed you for it. That's right. If you don't know that, you will. We're building a facility that will serve, initially, approximately 2,500 people. Go ahead, put it up. For a total cost of 5 million dollars. And when the project is all complete, we'll be able to accommodate about 4,000 people for a total cost of 6 million dollars. I don't know how you see those numbers, but I think that the Lord has given us extreme wisdom in constructing something that's going to be functional and appropriate and something we'll be able to say with a measure of godly pride that we participated in, but it's not going to be impossible. It's not going to be off the charts. It's within the realm of something that we can do. But understand something, church. This won't happen. 5 million dollars is hard enough to say, let alone gather. And it won't happen unless something affects you today. When you realize that every one of us must do something to make this happen. It's so important that it gets past the awareness and it gets down into affecting our soul. You see, if we just sit back and hope that someone's going to come along and write a big check, we're going to wait a long time. If we just sit in our securities and our nest eggs and our collectibles and our valuables and our retirement funds and we just let it all sit there because we don't want to be putting ourselves in any risk, it's not going to happen. You know, right here in the front of the platform is something a lot of you have asked me about, the pretzel can. And most of you were here last year when one of our dear senior citizen ladies stepped up on the platform at Community College North and said, you know, God spoke to me. I didn't have anything to give. I'm a retired person on a fixed income. I don't have any securities. I don't have any retirement plan. But the Lord spoke to me that one thing I did for myself that I didn't need to do was to walk down to Hill's Department Store every day and buy a Diet Coke and a pretzel. And I could give that dollar and ten cents every day to the project. And it touched our hearts. And someone said, well, you know, that's a symbol to me. And let's put out a pretzel can because it's that kind of sacrifice that we need to see throughout this church. And she could tell you, that lady could tell you. I'm also looking out here at some people who are more up a secure position and you have a lot more money than that. It's not equal amounts, it's equal sacrifice. That's the principle we've always operated on. And that's the only way we're going to get there, folks. The only way. And we can't compare ourselves except in spirit. I don't know what anyone gave. But all I know is that the total number tells me that we're not even close to giving all that we could. Folks, this isn't going to be easy. It's a huge task. But can I tell you, so is this ministry. Let's take it up. Get the building off the platform for a moment and think about the ministry. We have chosen a very difficult ministry in this church. Would you please put up our mission statement, our vision statement? This is what we are about. This is who we are. We have decided not just to be a church where people are coming in and playing religious games and doing the church thing. Read it with me. This is our vision. To raise up a local body of disciples of Jesus Christ who will be loved, nurtured, and equipped to minister to God, to one another, and to the lost of the world and the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what we're here to do. That is much more difficult than playing church. I want you to know I know how to get a crowd together. God didn't call us to raise up a crowd. He called us to raise up an army of people, of disciples. And I want you to know most people don't even know what a disciple is. And Lord, I said, you know, it would be a lot easier if you gave me some better raw material. But you know what? Because so many of you are serving. So many of you are giving of yourself. So many of you are home group leaders and you're teachers and you're servants out there in the community. And you're here teaching our kids and you're meeting people at the door and you're in the parking lot. You are helping in the process of making disciples. You're making a difference. And this huge project of making disciples of people is becoming a believable, attainable goal. And I want you to know it thrills me when I see it. When I meet with 40 home group leaders like I did yesterday morning and hear the stories of people caring for people, reaching out to people, loving people, serving people. That's what makes disciples. And that's how the whole big task is getting accomplished. It's hard. Folks, it's a hard thing that we're doing here. It's hard to preach messages like this week after week. It's hard for us to get out there and share the gospel with people who many times just don't want anything to do with us. I know that. But how many believe it's worth it? You see, you'll only believe it's worth it if you believe at the end of the line it's either one of two things for every human being. One of two things. It's not a long sort of maybe continuum of righteousness. It's either heaven with God Almighty for eternity or it's hell with Satan for eternity. And when I look at a person and see them in that light, it changes my resolve to do what we're doing. And I believe it. Because I believe God's Word teaches it. And if you're affected by that, you'll believe it too. You'll put aside something of your personal priority. You'll get out there and serve in a way. And I want to just say again as we look into this coming year. Folks, get ready because things are really going to change around here. Just a little help for you. We have six more weeks of status quo life at North Way. Six weeks. Six weeks from now, everything changes. The new owner starts moving in the building. We start getting bumped around a little bit. We already have less parking if you didn't notice. Things are really going to change. Starting in 94, get ready because every day is going to be an adventure. Every time we're together. See, God is going to shake us up. And we have to decide just how serious we are about it. At the end of this message, I'm going to give you an opportunity to just say out loud, here's how serious I am. You can count me in on this thing, Jay. I'm ready to do it. I want to be part of the mission being fulfilled in this church. I'm going to draw a line in the sand in about five or ten minutes and I'm going to ask you, make a commitment. Get off the fence. Get up. The door that we put out here is specifically for you to have a place to write your name and basically to immortalize it because we're going to seal that door tight and it's going to be in a new building and every name on there is going to be able to say 5, 10, 15, 50 years from now, I was part of the sacrifice that brought to pass the fulfillment of the vision of this church. You can come up and put your green slip in this can or one of these boxes and say, I'm part of it. I'm going to find out who's kicking tires and who's out to buy and who's blowing smoke and who's really serious because it's time. Let me just say very quickly, number three, that Nehemiah affirmed the grace of God that was on him. He affirmed the grace of God. Look at verse 18. I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. And they replied, Let us start rebuilding. Folks, God has done so much to let us know that He's with us in this. And if you missed a couple of weeks ago when we listed those 10 miracles, there are so many ways that I could detail that we shouldn't be where we are. I mean, if PennDot had said, No, we're not breaking the barrier, we would have not been able to build this building because we wouldn't have got an occupancy permit. And if any of you are involved in state government, trying to get PennDot to break a barrier is nearly an impossible task. God did it for us. And I could go on and on. I could talk to you about so many different things. I believe God's hand has been on us from the beginning. The fact that we are now going to be moved out of this very innocuous, invisible position up onto the main artery in our community says to me, God has plans for us. Folks, make no mistake. For 12 years, we've been in incubation. 12 years. Most people don't know about North Way Christian Community. And if they do find us, they say, Well, what are you? And that's all going to change because the gracious hand of our God has given us a location. And when this building goes up, I want you to know, it is going to be a statement. It's going to be a big statement. You're not going to be able to drive by and say, I wonder what that is. I mean, it's even going to have a steeple. I've been compulsed and coerced into it, but we're going to have one. And people are going to know what we're all about. And I want to say, I have seen the gracious hand of God on many of you. And if you don't hear this, you may think, Well, gee, does he really appreciate what I've done? I want you to know, on behalf of the elders and the staff and the leadership of our church, all of you for the last three or four years have served by giving your resources. I want to say, God bless you and thank you. You have made an enormous difference. We wouldn't be able to do what we're going to do without you. You've been a wonderful support. And I know some of you have given up many personal things to get us where we are. Thank you. Now hang in there. And I want to say to the many new people, and there's probably a hundred new people in this service, we need you. Don't wait until you think, Well, maybe we ought to consider this. It's now that we need you. Because if we don't move now, when we move into that building, I kind of have a sense that we're going to want to bring our family and friends and the people in our neighborhoods and people who are out there asking, and we're going to have to kind of maybe just hang our heads a bit and say, Well, you know, we're hoping to get some seats. We want to move now to bring this to pass. We can do it. I want you to know, it can be done. It's within our grasp. There's no doubt in my mind. If you missed the prophetic word that was given, there's still copies out there. But the Lord spoke to us. He said this. He said, As you open your doors, men will bring the wealth of nations into you. Do not depend on any one man to supply the need, but trust that I am your provider. I will speak. Listen, my people will hear. The church will be built and paid for even before the time. Hallelujah. That's the word of the Lord to us, given and authenticated by our leadership. We can do this. Finally, number four, Nehemiah led the people and they acted on the challenge despite opposition. See, Nehemiah, I love it. He says, Folks, this is the case. We got a big job. He's saying, But the gracious hand of the king is upon me. And then they replied, verse 18, second part, Let us start rebuilding. And Nehemiah had a very clear methodology that I don't really have time today to get into. I just want to say, Folks, Nehemiah had a plan and we likewise have a very clear plan to accomplish this goal. We can do this without any one group of people bearing a burden that they can't support. Nehemiah did three things. Number one, he involved everybody. If you read chapter three, it's kind of like a genealogy and I have commentaries where the whole chapter has been jumped over because it doesn't look very important, but actually it's very important. Nehemiah involved everyone in the project. Look at chapter three, verse one. The high priest and his fellow priests went to work and rebuilt the sheep gate. Now, how many of you know those priests weren't probably very skilled in carpentry? I don't know what that gate looked like when it was done, but they were out there working on it. The leaders were out there doing it. We have leaders out there doing it even now. Verse two, visitors from Jericho came over, people who weren't even going to be in the city. They came and helped out. I want you to know, people in other parts of the city are helping us out. I got a check in the mail yesterday from a church on the eastern side of the city for $1,000 for opening our doors and saying they're praying for us and our building project. Verse eight, goldsmiths and perfume makers gathered around and took their place on the wall and started to work. Verse 12, look at this. Shalem son of Halosh and ruler of half district of Jerusalem repaired the next section of the wall with the help of his daughters. His what? He had his family out there working on the wall. Singles household, verse 23, went out and helped repair a section of the wall. Merchants came and they worked on the wall. The point is that the church of Jesus Christ requires everyone to do their part on the wall. If we're going to make disciples of men in this community, folks, we've all got to be on the wall. And if we're going to build this building, none of us can singularly do it. We all have to see our part and then do it with all of our hearts. Period. It's the only way that it'll happen. Right now we have about 65 to 70% of us who've signed on. I believe that's great, but I believe it's not quite where God wants it to be. And last night, as we concluded the service, as we're going through here in a moment, many individuals came up who said they had never made a commitment, but they knew now was the time. Now was the time to be involved. And notice this. Some people even did stuff they probably didn't want to do. Look at verse 14, chapter 3. The dung gate was repaired by Melchizedek. The what gate? Now in Hebrew, that word dung means what you think it means. It's not romantic. It's not pleasant. And it must have been pretty bad because if you notice in verse 13, Hanun and the residents of Zenoah did the val