Restoring the Whole Personality, Nehemiah Series V and VI

This is the third tape in the series Restoring the Whole Personality, a study in the book of Nehemiah by Pastor Jay Passavant of North Way Christian Community. This tape contains the fifth and sixth of six messages. Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their Jewish brothers and some were saying we and our sons and daughters are numerous. In order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain. Others were saying we're mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our homes to get grain during the famine. Still others were saying we've had to borrow money to pay the king's tax in our fields and vineyards. And although we have the same flesh and blood as our countrymen and though our sons are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. And some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless because our fields and our vineyards belong to others. And when I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials and I told them you are exacting usury from your own countrymen. And so I called together a large meeting to deal with this them and said as far as possible we have bought back our Jewish brothers who were sold to the Gentiles and now you're selling your brothers only to them to be sold back to us. They kept quiet because they could find nothing to say. And so I continued what you are doing is not right. And shouldn't you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain, but let the exacting of usury stop. Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves, and houses and also the usury you are charging them, the hundredth part of the money, grain, new wine, and oil. We will give it back they said and we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say and then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do what they had promised. I also shook out the folds of my robe and said in this way may God shake out of his house and possessions every man who does not keep this promise. So may such a man be shaken out and emptied and at this the whole assembly said let's say it Amen and praise the Lord and the people did as they had promised. There's something about us that always tends to go back to the fallen weakness in our lives. There's a young man that's a friend of a few of you here tonight, I believe, who's currently in one of our local prisons. He's been in and out of North Way a number of times over the last years. A really nice guy most of the time. Been in my home, and we've had many conversations together. But he cannot help from going back to the same sins that he'd been falling into for the last ten years. And so even though he'd spent time in prison he got out and he literally would say tonight that he couldn't help himself from going back to the same weaknesses and he's ended up in prison again. Dear ones, there's a great deal of difference between getting free and staying free. It's one thing to get free, it's another thing to stay free from the things that would pull us down, the things that would shake us in this world today. And I want tonight to just kind of touch for you some things that I feel we must receive in order to remain unshakable, to remain free in a time when things seem to be shaking. I want to help you tonight to not go back and fall in the same hole you just climbed out of. Y'all remember the picture of baby Jessica two weeks ago? I remember that. A little gal that fell in that tiny little well. I remember watching this story sort of after they had gotten her out and she was okay and in a doctor's care and they showed at the end of this particular program or news piece, whatever it was, they showed that little, wasn't it was an 8-inch? They showed it with a cap on it sealed and that someone had engraved on that her name and the date. And I looked at that, you know, it just said something to me. God help us to put caps on the things we keep falling into. So we won't keep going back to them and falling down the same hole and being stuck there. And I'm ready for that tonight, aren't you church? Now let's look and see what Nehemiah has to teach us about this because there is a lot in here and I have to say to you it's almost a confession. I'll never get through in a couple of months time the riches of this book. We're at a place where despite what you may have gone through if God has done a great work in your life and I can look out tonight and see some of you who've had a personal miracle in your life. You've had something God's done to really just and you're in a place you're at a new plateau of glory. But that little hole is waiting for you for you to fall into it again. And I tonight whatever we cannot build a life on an experience here and there dear ones we need to learn to build a life that's unshakable because it is built one brick upon another and when God puts the bricks in place and when he puts the mortar of his love between those bricks, you're not going to fall again. You're not going to be shaken when the trials and the tests come. You're not going to be one of the ones that's going to get shaken out of the folds as we read here. Now I have three simple points tonight. This won't be a long message, but I pray it will be helpful to some of you based on where you are in your walk with the Lord as it's been helpful to me. The first thing that we must receive there are three things we must receive to remain unshakable to remain free. These are called Ramos holder look-alike overheads. I'm tired of using the computer. I wanted to do Pen and scrawl and so that's what you're going to see tonight. I hope you can read it First thing we've got to receive is the rebuilding work of the Holy Spirit now This is a very simple thing. You say I know that of course I got it's kind of course That's true. But you know what I find dear ones is that because of who we are in our culture tonight Because of looking out over this congregation looking at men and women who have responsibility in business men and women who have positions of some significance or another with a Company or with your neighborhood or even with the people you grew up with I want you to know that it is difficult for us tonight To receive what the Holy Spirit wants to do in us How many people just be honest and say that there was a time when you thought if you gave all to God he'd ruin your life I'm serious If you really sold out to the Holy Spirit to what Jesus wanted to do you'd become a wacko freak of some kind that nobody wouldn't have anything to do with and that is still a hidden fear in many hearts of people here tonight even and Certainly of a Sunday morning crowd. The idea is if I really let go quote Then you know God's been waiting all along to hear that because he's going to ship me off to the darkest place on the other side of the world Or worse yet He's going to make me speak in tongues in my office and the whole place is going to fall apart and think I'm the weirdest thing it ever I know Listen here in Pittsburgh. We are we're unique in some ways and we have You know, we have some dignity around here and we've got some polish or is that Polish? We've got some We've got some roots and we've got some heritage and we are expected to act a certain way I was talking to fell the other day from a strong German Lutheran background now I bet most people in this place could describe the kind of guy this was Roy, would you like to give a crack at it? Roy Gunther was 30 years a German Lutheran Now he's just a German Who loves Jesus? But you see all of this background and all this stuff kind of confines us and makes us think that if we went ahead and stepped out and Really believed that the Holy Spirit wanted to do a work in us and receive that work That somehow it would change forever the way people perceive us it would change forever our acceptability in the culture You know, we'd have to paint the side of our car, you know Jesus saves or something strange like that, you know, and I I'm not I'm overstating it only because I know that for many of you It's there's kernels of truth in there that you can hang on to and you know that it's right Because we've all struggled with that Let me tell you what the Holy Spirit does we read about it a few weeks ago in Nehemiah 2 he comes in There's three things I see him doing all through this book Remember Nehemiah is a picture of the Holy Spirit rebuilding the walls of our personality if you haven't been part of this study I'm sorry. I'm jumping in the middle of it But we're looking at Nehemiah as a picture of how the Holy Spirit works to restore The walls of our human personality our soul how he makes us a whole person I heard something today I just want to reinforce for you holiness Is not some mystical spiritual waving Holiness isn't just somebody who always has a prophetic word for me holiness is being whole Give me a person who is whole Who is not Flustered at everything that happens who is not emotionally up and down who is not burdened by their past hurts and all their failings and failures and you know all the stuff that they did when they were kids give me someone who is whole and I'll show you a holy person a Person who responds with the character of Jesus. That's a holy person We have this mistaken idea. I think it's a carryover from the you know The early charismatic emphases on gifts that make holy means, you know weird this Holy means somebody who knows how to do things in a way that I've never heard said before That isn't it holiness the word literally if you study the etymology of it is a word that meant health Hail is the word from the English in the 8th century that the root of that we get health we get all those words whole I Want to be a whole person don't you body soul and spirit I want to be whole physically Do you pray for your body to remain physically? Well, you should you have the right that is because Jesus purchased your body To receive wholeness in your body You have the you have the responsibility Do you pray for your body parts to function correctly? Do you lay hands in your head and say please God, you know, don't let me lose anymore right God cares Some of you should have learned that a few years ago Pray for your body First thing you should do when you get a headache is not in a race to get the anisin That's God to heal And then if he's you know, if the Lord gives you that liberty then you go ahead and take the aspirin Pray for your soul pray for your emotion money. Well, God wants you to be whole I'm getting off on this because To me many Christians are crippled because they haven't realized that Jesus redeemed them body soul and spirit the whole person and a whole person is a holy person Sanctified unto God given over to him the Holy Spirit comes in. He's compassionate We see Nehemiah moving in tenderness toward his people. He's committed to them. He said let's do this together and He's working side-by-side with him. Listen, the Holy Spirit will not make you weird. He'll make you holy. He'll make you whole He wants you to be whole tonight And I'll tell you the North Hills and the city of Pittsburgh needs whole people. We have fragmented people Have you ever walked out into a conversation with a person a stranger? Maybe you're meeting in a marketplace or and you realize just right away that there's a part of that person. It's just not whole it's just like somebody came in the unseen and the and the non-physical realm and just Cut off a part of them and they need to be made whole And I remember Mario Rivera five years ago or six years ago here in this platform When we were renting a place here saying that once the church is moving in wholeness Then the whole world is going to be affected by the church needs to be whole And that's what the Holy Spirit is here to do tonight And so the first thing you've got to do is open to receive the Spirit of God Now this is interesting because it's so hard to put a finger on it and say what does that mean? Well Look with me in the scripture. I want to show you a few things that get in the way of you receiving the Spirit We saw sand ballot and to buy remember them pictures of the devil and demonic hordes Chapter Two at the end. They they're resisting the work of the Holy Spirit Look at chapter four in verse one when sand ballot heard that we were rebuilding the wall. He became angry and was greatly incensed dear ones Number one, it's difficult to receive all the Holy Spirit wants to do because the devil is standing in the way He is accusing you at every turn. Don't do that If you do that, you're gonna be strange And it would be very well for us tonight to just resolve that when we hear the lies We immediately respond and say that's not true What is true is God has sent his son What is true is he has said I am going to be the fullness of God in Christ Presented to the world the righteousness of God Romans 521 calls and so I say today don't listen to sand ballot and to buy Another thing he keeps us from receiving all the Spirit wants is this people People get in the way all through the book of Nehemiah People object to the rebuilding of the wall now follow the imagery again. We're talking about rebuilding our soul being whole people I'm telling you know who resists that rebuilding the devil Pictured by sand ballot and to buy and then secondly other people does anyone here ever Remember someone saying to you You're getting too serious about this Christian stuff. I Mean I believe in God and all that but you're really going freak. Oh, you're just it's that church You're going to it's making you like that No, it isn't the church. It's the Jesus that you're going to the real Jesus But you know people will come in the way and they'll I've had men here Tell me that they're gonna lose their jobs if they don't stop talking about this Jesus and that right Tom I've had people tell me you know People get in the way of receiving wholeness because they say to you if you do this I'm gonna punish you somehow for it a husband or a wife Another reason why we tend to resist receiving all the Holy Spirit wants to give us is because of look in for example chapter 3 and verse 5 in the rebuilding of the walls The men of Tekoa it says in verse 5 rebuilt the fishgate section But their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work and it says in chapter 5 and verse 7 The nobles and officials had been exacting from the people listen wealth and The lure of it all and the pursuit of it all to be noble to be wealthy can sometimes be an Impediment to receiving all the Holy Spirit wants to give you and by that I mean, it's just simply this we all have Wonderful blessings of God. I sometimes wonder if I could get any more blessed. Do you ever feel that way? I've got to get any more blessed than I am But the world's way of doing it is it's always to say that's not enough That that you just received that's not enough. Really. You're not as cool as you might think I mean if you were really moving this this was this is what you need to satisfy and Wealthy yeah, and you know, you can't do that and speak in tongues Or you can't do that and be full of the Holy Spirit That's another that's another thing that keeps you here's a fourth reason a fourth way that you're kept look at this one I thought this was interesting Wow, I gotta hurry along your own look at 614 Here's another reason why? We're reluctant to receive Remember to buy and sandbag. Oh my god because of what they have done and remember also the prophetess Noah Daya Has anyone ever heard of Noah Daya before and the rest of the prophets who've been trying to intimidate me? listen religious people false prophets Can also prevent you from receiving all the Holy Spirit once you know How many people here would just confess and say over the years? You've been held back from receiving all the God wants you to have by religion and by people in religious Garb and religious names and all that stuff. Well, don't let it happen anymore Receive all the Holy Spirit wants to give you so all of those are ways in which the walls of your Soul can be held down by not receiving the Holy Spirit. You've got to let your will get into it Let me just talk for a minute about the wherefores and how-tos of this thing All right, it's one thing for me to stand here and say receive all the Holy Spirit has for you You say well, how do I do that? Do I just stand up tonight and say I want to receive? one of the things that has been for me a watershed experience in receiving the fullness of the Spirit is when I determine that I would receive the Spirit of the Lord and speak The language that the Holy Spirit gave me to speak We do not spend a lot of time at North Way talking about the experience of the spiritual language or speaking in tongues because we know that for some churches that is sort of the badge of Unless you do this you were not really a part of us and there's been a lot of abuse And tonight I'm talking a few people have been hurt by churches perhaps where because you don't speak in tongues. You felt second-class. I Want you to know there's only one thing that makes your first class here And that's simply that you've received the gift of eternal life through faith in Jesus but but you need not be content simply to stop there and There is a profound link between releasing all the Holy Spirit wants to give you in Spiritual gifts and moving in power and love for Jesus and resisting the enemy and all those things There's a profound link between that and simply speaking in your prayer language And I want to tell you just let me speak first of all to the men tonight Men, don't be satisfied until the flow is coming from your lips Don't give up Don't be I believe with all my heart that every man Can speak the Holy Spirit can speak through you In a language that glorifies God and edifies you every minute I believe it comes with the package of the Holy Spirit But it's an important thing that you don't stop just because you've been discouraged a few times How many men here tonight received their spiritual language during Ray Mossholders visit anybody? I know some of the men did I want to hear tonight then How many this last year 1987 have received their spiritual language men and women? All right Brother you were just last week when that right just last week Hallelujah. Amen. Has it ruined your life? Have you lost your job? No Has God become just a little bit more real to you, right? It's a little bit more real more love. I want to say to you. This is not a little thing. It's a big thing And I want to encourage you tonight receive Be ministered to come up and let one of the elders agree with you in prayer and go on and move in the fullness of The spirit let me just stop on this point by saying this Why was it when the church was born? At Pentecost that God for the first time gave The spiritual language. Is that not a profound thing to you? Think about it For the first time in all of biblical history at Pentecost The Holy Spirit came the church was birthed and people began to speak in other times Now that says to me that God somehow wanted to relate the power of that experience the reality of the birthing of the church and the fullness of the presence of God with the spiritual language and If you're not moving in that flow dear ones You're in the right place Amen We want to pray we want to agree We want you to know all that God has and then move on every one of us and receive the fullness Of what the Holy Spirit wants to work praise the Lord I could stop right now and just minister to people to receive but I want to go on and touch these last two points Don't worry, it won't be as long The second one is that you need We must receive and it should be our responsibility to grow It's one thing to receive what the Holy Spirit what grace is doing. It's another thing to move in the responsibility that we have now When I broach this subject I get a little bit nervous wrong word, I just get a little concerned because When the minute you start talking to people about responsibility, there are just enough of you here for whom guilt and defeat and failure and being Rejected in other churches and other religious experiences makes you think that Oh God here comes now, you know, here it comes He's tying the weight on my back And I want you to know tonight that we are not responsible because we are motivated by guilt We're responsible because God has put love in our hearts and I know tonight that I can't go on living to please God unless I'm responsible to do what he's called me to do to grow. Let me just read for you a few scriptures Why don't you jot these down? These are indications of what the Bible says Hebrews 5 11 through 14 jot this down and look it up later For though by this time you ought to be teachers You need someone to teach you again the first principles of God's Word You need milk not solid food for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled and the word of righteousness for he's a child But solid food is for the mature for those who have their faculties trained by practice To distinguish good from evil Or how about this word? Philippians 3 12 not that I've already attained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own Because Christ Jesus has made me his own listen because Jesus gave you his best you can't give him any less That's what that verse You're called to grow you have a responsibility To grow to be all that God wants you to be Here's a scripture that I appreciate 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 5 Paul writes about what he does he says We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive Every thought and make it obedient to Christ, you know Jesus moved through the earth Living fully obedient to God the Father And dear ones, I want you to know he didn't do that by some cosmic little channel that he hooked on to himself You know, Jesus had to make a decision every time whether or not he would obey God just like you do Isn't that an awesome thought? Every time a temptation came like you face Jesus faced the same thing, but he didn't fall into it. He went after him. I Want you to know tonight that because the Holy Spirit lives in you you have the power to choose obedience every time You are not bound to fall back into that same hole But you have the Holy Spirit living inside who can say to you go this way You've got the strength do what God's calling you to do. Why do I know that because Jesus did it every time? And the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead now lives in you You can walk responsibly You can walk obediently and obey God now Nehemiah shows us and unfortunately because time slipping away Just look at it and you can study it later perhaps He goes through and lists all the problems that people are having and most of them listen now are financial Aren't you reassured by that? Don't you feel good about knowing that they had problems 4,000 years ago. Just like you do Not enough money. They had debt problems. They were exacting usury. That's a certain form of interest They had a problem and if we had time to look over Nehemiah 13, they had a problem with intermingling and mixing marriages Is there anyone here don't put your hand up but because at some point you got into a marriage situation with someone who wasn't a Christian and you've been living a very difficult life as a result, but you don't have to be the extreme case You might right now be in a business relationship Listen God's very serious about mingling with the world And he says to us do not be unequally yoked. And so therefore because the people of Nehemiah's Restoration because they disobeyed that they got into problems. They intermingled with the Gentiles and Then another interesting thing listen to this. They violated the Sabbath. They kept working seven days a week And They burned out And I want to say tonight dear ones Please don't let yourself fall prey to the lie that you've got to do this seven days a week in order to make ends meet That's not God and you will burn out and you will find yourself on the trash heap Emotionally because God intended for you to have a day of rest a day of refreshing a day of rejoicing Now the difficult part about this is that Nehemiah look at this just turn over and look at this so you can Catch the full impact of this Do you know that the people made a covenant with God saying that they would not Violate these things. I've just told you about they wouldn't intermingle. They wouldn't defile the Sabbath Look for example chapter 10 in verse 32 We assume the responsibility for carrying out the commands to give a third of a shekel each year for the service of the house of our God You see they had they ignored the needs of the people who served in the house of the Lord Therefore the temple fell into disarray the people knew it. They made a covenant and yet they broke it. Let me say to you today Every once in a while you need to have the pastor or another person of God tell you What your responsibilities are Just to remind you And if you're at a place where all you want to hear is gee, you know Get me blessed get me blessed get me blessed that I'm not being faithful to you Because I need to remind you that you have responsibilities before the Lord My soul followeth hard after thee early in the morning. I will rise up and see You'll hear me just keep urging you on to that even when you don't want to hear it Why because I know it's what we have been commanded by God to do dear ones You need a relationship with somebody who's going to challenge you to be all that God wants you to be to obey the commandment of the Lord And those can be hard words Have you ever had someone come up and say to him to you in love? This is a real weakness in your life, and you need to stop it You need somebody like that. I Hate it, but I love it when someone comes and says Jay. This is an area. That's really hurtful Do you have someone like that? Someone to help you be responsible. Well, that's what Nehemiah was being that's what Nehemiah was doing for his people I Could go on and just talk so much more about this Let me go on though and finish up by saying this the third thing we need to receive is the Word of God now Let's let's conclude This is powerful turn with me to Nehemiah 8. This is what enables you to live responsibly Nehemiah chapter 8 All right, the people had come together the wall was finished they were coming to celebrate And look what happens They told Ezra the scribe to bring out the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had commended for Israel So in the first day the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the law before the entire assembly And he read it aloud from daybreak till noon. We're only gonna be here an hour and a half Okay six hours they were reading the law and As he faced the square before the water gate in the presence of men and women others who could understand and he goes and he reads it all and Verse 6 says Ezra praised the Lord the great God and all the people lifted their hands and responded. Amen. Amen Well, they were They were pretty jubilant there Will be charismatic maybe and then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground and they went on And on and then look what happened The people began to mourn and to weep and at the end of verse 9 it says this for all the people began weeping as they listened to the words of the law and Then listen, how many of you would say if you went to a meeting and people started crying under the Word of God? It was a good meeting That's the conviction of the Holy Spirit. We need more of that. Look what Nehemiah does In Nehemiah said verse 10 go and enjoy Choice food and sweet drinks and send some to those who have nothing prepared This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve for the joy of the Lord is your strength Someone say something there. Amen All right Let me just touch on this in conclusion tonight What will keep you moving in responsibility What will keep you? Unshakeable and shaking times what will keep you free? Once you've been set free is the Word of God flowing in your life. I Want to conclude tonight by just giving you a demonstration You see I'm not talking here tonight about Memorizing the Bible I'm not talking about how much doctrine, you know, I want to ask you tonight Is this word living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword in your experience Are you hungry to get some of this into who you are and let it feed your soul? No, the Bible says of itself that heaven and earth will pass away, but this word will never pass away It's no wonder It's no wonder the powers of darkness sought to get the Bible out of our schools Because the power that's in It's no wonder the persecution and death follow people in many third-world countries Who seek to bring the Bible in the places where it's not permitted? Because this isn't just a book that someone threw together some collective poetry and old Old stories of a people of a bygone. This is the living Word of God And all I want to address tonight because time is gone is not you know, do you read your Bible faithfully or do you memorize scripture? I just want to ask you Is there a hunger in you men? For this to be in you Do you find your day incomplete if you haven't been in the word? Do you find that you'd rather get out of bed and go down to your living room or your study or whatever your kitchen and read? And let this thing get inside. Are you hungry to make it yours? The reason why Nehemiah said wait a minute don't mourn. He said rejoice was this He know he knew what I want you to know tonight That when the word comes It brings with it hope To fulfill what God wants to do in you one of the most exciting things you can experience is to read the scripture and Recognize in it a promise for your life Is there anyone here tonight? They give a testimony of a promise that you're holding on to in your life right now for your own self or for someone I'm not gonna ask you to but how many how many are doing that very thing right now? There's a promise that you're holding on to there's a word That you're not gonna let go and Nehemiah said don't weep for he said don't weep. He said rejoice because the word Has the power? To fulfill what God wants it to do there's hope in the Word of God there's a promise and Then secondly, I believe that the reason why Nehemiah said rejoice and not mourning grieve is this because when you do come to conviction When you do come to repentance, it will be based on the word and not on some emotional flip out Church I Can remember here on these very steps different meetings over the years when people have come up and just started you know sobbing and so on and Those same people three four weeks later. We're back in the same hole You know that repentance is only repentance when you change your mind and your actions And I believe that what Nehemiah did here was to say wait a minute Receive the word Then let your response be on faith in the word not on some emotional Kind of just flip out thing. Why do I say that? Well, look at chapter 9 Look at chapter 9 because the people then repented Do you see that? The people then opened their hearts and grieved before the Lord with sackcloth and ashes. They confessed their sins and they truly repented and Tonight I want to leave you with this if we could put those three points up again, please How can you walk unshaken? How can you stay free? Receive all the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life begin to move in your spiritual language second Accept your responsibility to grow God said to you. Hey, it's time to go on my son my daughter and number three Receive the Word of God with joy and the shadow of thy wings Lord. Will I rejoice? Because your word is bringing me the power to live pleasingly to you. I Don't know about you, but when I get a hold of this I Say to the challenges of life. I'm ready How about you? I don't know where you're going tomorrow Paul Bill I know what you're gonna face Kathy But I tell you this if you'll move in a full release of the Holy Spirit If you'll move in the full measure of your sonship As a son or daughter of Christ responsible to obey the command of the Lord and if you'll move in Accordance with the Word of God nothing's gonna move you let the stock market come all the way down Let somebody fire you on