Connect

Announcer (Female): This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Thanks for joining us today. At Connect with Skip, we love helping you understand God's word and apply it to your life through clear, practical Bible teaching and real encouragement. And if you'd like help to keep growing in your walk with Jesus, sign up for Pastor Skip's free weekly devotional. You'll receive biblical insight, teaching highlights, and exclusive resources designed to help you stay strong in your faith, all delivered right to your inbox.

Signing up is quick and easy, and you'll be glad you did. Go to connectwithskip.com and join the list today. That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig.

Skip Heitzig: So the emphasis of the first part of the book is all about the project—Jerusalem, building it, securing it. The emphasis of the second part of the book is all about the people—making covenant, having revival, living in the city of Jerusalem. And that is because projects are important, but people are more important. What good is it building a city if you don't have people to live in it? So that's what they're doing.

Now that is not just a principle here, but it is a principle period in scripture. People are important to God. People are more important to God than projects. People are more important to God than even places. You know, we know this, but we know that this building isn't the church even though we say, "Let's go to church." Or even if I call my wife and I say, "I'm on my way to the church," or "I'm coming home from church." We talk about it as a place, but we know that's not true.

We know that you are the church. We are the church. The church is people. It's not really a place even though we typically designate it as such. It's always about the people. So you have a list of names of people. And this chapter, Chapter 11, as well as the other chapters I mentioned, is the equivalent of a list of names we have in the New Testament—the genealogy of Jesus Christ, Matthew 1; the other genealogy of Christ, Luke Chapter 3. A list of names, names, people.

It's also equivalent to Romans Chapter 16 where Paul closes out probably the most important letter he ever wrote, the book of Romans—heavy doctrinal awesome book. The last chapter is a list of names, 26 named individuals plus two unnamed individuals. It's as if Paul is saying, "Hey, before I close, let me tell you about the people that are around me. Let me tell you why I'm so successful in my ministry. It's not because I'm Mr. Awesome, it's because I have a team of people." So he lists several people who are his helpers in the ministry. I love that.

While I am standing up here speaking, I just want to remind you that we have technicians that are running the sound and the lights, cameras for other campuses and our online experience, radio ministry personnel, security personnel patrolling the parking lot to make sure that your cars are safe. I hope they are. Maintenance personnel on the grounds, assistant pastors, counseling teams, greeters, teachers for your kids in Sunday school, musicians and singers. These are God's people serving God's people. It's not AI serving God's people. It's people serving people because people are important. Projects are important, people are more important. The New Testament church was intensely relational, as it should be.

There's a book I read years ago and my wife actually reminded me of this book because I've quoted from it before years ago. I just want to tell you about it. The author's name is Donald Joy. Donald Joy was a professor of human behavior at a university. And he wrote a book—he wrote several books on relationships and bonding and things—but he's a Christian author. What I remember is the first chapter of one of his books. And the chapter was called, "Who's Holding Your Trampoline?"

In that chapter he describes our lives like us bouncing on a trampoline. Because you know, you bounce around in life. You have your ups and you have your downs. Your ups and you have your downs. And when you come down, you better make sure that somebody's holding each side of that trampoline or you're going to biff it. So what he says in the first chapter is you need four groups of people, at least 12 to be a healthy individual.

On one side is your family, your immediate family. They're there, they love you, they're holding your trampoline when you bounce up and down. Then on the next side you have your relatives, extended family. You need them as well. On the other side you have friends that you have from your life. And then finally you have associates, like at work or at church or in some hobby or club you're a part of. He says you need four of those groups holding your trampoline for you to have a healthy system.

And it's better if most of them know each other. That's a healthy system. But then he said this: A neurotic system is when you have less than 12, like 10 to 12, and only one-third of them know each other. Now you're in neurosis territory. A psychotic system has between four and five people who probably don't know each other. So that's very important because what it tells me is, first of all, you need people in your life because you bounce up and down. You need the right kind of people in your life because you bounce up and down. And if you're the loner type—I don't need people, I'm an isolationist—you're in psycho territory and you need help. You need humans, you need God's people around you because you will bounce up and down. Projects are important, people are more important.

Third lesson from this chapter: Ability is good, availability is better. Now we're just going to note a couple verses that describe able, capable people. Look down at Verse 6 and notice the little phrase "valiant men." Not just men, these are valiant men. Look down at Verse 14, "mighty men of valor." Now those are phrases that describe skilled warriors, people who are good at guarding cities. You want these people in town. These are your law enforcement people, able fighting men.

And many of these capable, able men were drafted. Right, it's part of a lottery. It's like you got the short straw officer, you're living in town. But I want you just to contrast that with look at Verse 2 now. Because you have leaders in Verse 1 living in the city. You have lots being cast in Verse 1 for 10% of the people to go in. But Verse 2, it says, "And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem."

This is a totally different group now. These aren't people who are drafted because they're capable. These are just people who showed up and raised their hand and said, "I volunteer to move into the city. I offer myself willingly to move to town." And according to Verse 2, everybody applauded it. Everybody affirmed it, like awesome, we bless you for that willing attitude to serve. In Isaiah Chapter 6, you know the story. Isaiah gets a vision of God seated on the throne.

And then God asks a question out loud and Isaiah hears the question. God says, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Remember what Isaiah said? "Here I am, Lord, send her." I'm bluffing. He didn't say that. He said, "Here I am, Lord, send me. Send me." I willfully, willingly offer myself for your service. Now there's an important principle: God is looking for volunteers.

He is not into forced labor. He's not going to say, "Hand behind your back, say uncle, say uncle, serve me." He's looking for willing volunteers. It's the Romans 12:1 principle: I beseech you therefore, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Present your bodies. Now that happens to be a word that's a technical Levitical term for a priest offering an animal sacrifice.

So you know what a priest would do. He would take an animal and what would he do with it? First thing he'd do with an animal sacrifice, anybody know? Kill it. You got to kill the animal before you put it on the altar to burn it. So they'd kill the animal, put it on the altar, and the flames would totally consume the animal. That's the term he uses. And the reason he uses it is Paul is saying God wants living sacrifices. You present your body to be holy consumed for the will of God. You are living your life consumed with the will of God. You have to do that willingly. Lord, I'm presenting myself to you.

There's a problem with a living sacrifice as opposed to a dead sacrifice. A dead sacrifice is dead; it's not going to get back up. You're going to put that animal on the altar, you could walk away, animal's not going to move. Not so with a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice can squirm off the altar. "Lord, I give you my life today." And then the next day comes... "I think I'd like to take it back."

Or you give your life to Jesus and you're following him, but six months later you're not following him, but then you come back to him, but now I kind of want to do my own thing. That's squirming off the altar. Present yourself to be totally consumed willingly for his glory. And fortunately, the Bible is chock-full of good examples of people who did just that—they yielded themselves to God.

Announcer (Female): You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Every day friends like you help bring clear, verse-by-verse Bible teaching to people searching for truth in a world that often feels confused, divided, and uncertain. And this month, we want to thank you with a powerful resource designed for times like these. When you give, you'll receive City in Shambles, Pastor Skip's complete 18-message study through Nehemiah on CD plus digital download.

In these messages, you'll discover how God works in seasons of spiritual and cultural collapse, how prayer and obedience become the starting point for renewal, and how ordinary believers can respond with faith instead of fear. We'll send this resource as our thanks when you give $50 or more to support Connect with Skip Heitzig. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com/offer. Now let's return to today's teaching.

Skip Heitzig: One was named Moses. Moses yielded himself to God and he became—Moses' mouth became essentially the voice of God to Pharaoh and to the children of Israel, giving them the law. David, young shepherd boy, presented himself before God and those hands defeated a giant named Goliath with a sling and some stones. Paul the Apostle yielded his body to God and God used his feet to bring the gospel to the world.

By the way, we're talking about before Uber, before airplanes, before trains, before buses. You know how many miles Paul put in, walked? 10,000. If you tally up all the missionary journeys, 10,000 miles. Yeah, he could have been on a boat for some of it or on a horse for some of it, but that boy covered, hoofed it, 10,000 miles and brought the gospel around the world to the center of the world, even to Rome itself. Availability. Volunteers are at the heart of God's work.

I'm pretty convinced that God is more interested in availability than he is in ability. Here's a lesson I've learned: If you take care of your availability, God will take care of your ability. Sometimes just showing up is a ministry. Let me put it another way: God's callings are God's enablings. If God calls you to something, he'll enable you to do it. Let me give you an example, I just talked about him: Moses.

Remember when God called Moses what Moses said? "I can't do it. I can't speak." He said, "I'm a man of uncircumcised lips." It's a very descriptive way to say I stutter. And so he goes, "God, I can't speak." God says, "I'm going to use you to speak to Pharaoh and to the children of Israel. You're going to be my spokesperson." And he did it. You know why? Because God's callings are God's enablings.

Here's another example. Name of the first king of Israel, anybody know who that was? First king of Israel? Saul. When Samuel the prophet found Saul and he goes, "You're the guy. You're the one that everybody's hoping for." Saul goes, "What do you mean, me? Me?" He goes, "I'm the least in my father's house, my father's house is the least in our tribe, and our tribe, the tribe of Benjamin, is the least of all the 12 tribes." "Yeah, I know, but you're the guy." Because God's callings are God's enablings. You take care of the availability, God will manage the ability part.

Write this down if you're taking notes, you can look it up later, I'll just quote it to you. 2 Chronicles 16:9 is a verse you need to know. Write that down, 2 Chronicles 16:9. Here it is: "The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him." God's just looking, looking, looking to find somebody who will say, "Here I am, send me. I'm available, use me."

One of my favorite little stories from World War II was about a French town that was almost obliterated totally by the bombs during the war. After the war was finished, the people went to rebuild the town, the buildings. But what they really wanted to rebuild was a statue. There was a statue in the center of their town, the town square. It was a statue of Christ reaching out to the people of the town.

Well, the statue was fragmented, looked like it was destroyed, but they found the pieces and they—I don't know—cemented it back together, patched it back together, assembled it. And they found every single part of the body of Christ, the statue of Christ, except for the hands. It was very important that they find those hands because nail-scarred hands reaching out to the townspeople. But they searched through all the rubble, through all the buildings, they could not find the hands.

And they were so distressed, but one morning one of the townspeople got up early and wrote on a plaque and put the plaque at the bottom of the statue and it read: "He has no hands but ours." Let that sink in. He has no hands but ours. He has no feet but ours. He has no mouth but ours. Tell me, what is one of Paul's favorite descriptions in the New Testament for the church? The body of Christ. We're his hands, we're his mouth, we're his feet. So just show up. Ability is good, availability is better.

Let me give you a fourth and final lesson and we'll close. Work is practical but worship is vital. Now this is interesting. I hadn't noticed this before, but I was reading through it. Look at Verse 22. It says also the overseer of the Levites at Jerusalem was a guy named Uzzi—not the gun, but the guy—the son of Bani, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Mattaniah—now you know why I'm not reading all the names—the son of Micah, of the sons of Asaph—you're familiar with him from the Psalms—the singers in charge of the service of the house of God. These are the worship leaders.

Now get this, Verse 23: "For it was the king's command concerning them that a certain portion"—that is of money—"be for the singers, a quota day by day." The king did this. Remember who the king was? Guy named Artaxerxes, the king of Persia. There's no king in Jerusalem, it has to refer to King Artaxerxes. King Artaxerxes, the pagan Persian king, decides to fund the worship in Jerusalem out of the royal treasury.

Now this would be frowned upon in our country in our day and age—separation of church and state. He didn't care. He's the king of everything. So he says, "I'm going to pay for out of my royal treasury to get singers and worshipers in Jerusalem." That was important to him. Now we don't know why. Probably he just wanted to ensure that they would be praying for him as their king. Certainly that's a biblical principle. But I see something else here: Work is practical. They came to build the city and they succeeded. But worship is vital because worship is what restores your soul so that when you are working, it's more satisfying.

I heard a story years ago. A mission leader in Nigeria—they were building a mission station in Nigeria—he came to the site. The carpenters were around and the carpenters were just sitting around for hours. And so the head of the mission said, "How come they're not working?" And the tribal chief said, "Yeah, for some reason the musician has been delayed." And the guy said, "I don't get it. We're building a mission station. These guys are carpenters. And you're telling me the musician has been delayed?"

Apparently they only work when the musician shows up and sings and has a steady beat of the drum to work to. Otherwise they don't work. That's how important it was. So I love this principle: Work is practical, but worship is vital. It's what restores your soul. And we're going to talk more about worship next week in the next chapter because that's very worship-centric.

But I don't know if you know this or not, but we are in part the result of the great Protestant Reformation under Martin Luther and several other reformers. The Reformation was a movement that brought music back into the church. And the reason it brought music back into the church—I'll explain that what that means in a minute—the reason they brought music back into the church is because they brought the Bible back into the church.

And next to the Bible in the Protestant Reformation, next to the Bible, the most important book for them was the hymnal. And why was that? Because for hundreds of years before the Reformation, nobody sang in church. They just listened to the choir sing to them. Martin Luther and others come along and said, "This is weird. We're not going to have a choir sing to you. You are the choir. We're all singing together."

And it was so important to them because they crafted worship songs that reinforced the great doctrinal truths of the Bible, so they wouldn't just listen to them in a sermon but sing them in their worship. And the first tracts that were given out—you know, like we give out four spiritual laws tracts—the first tracts they gave out were printed songs, song sheets that had words and music so you could sing it at home and at school and at church and out in the streets.

One writer during the Reformation said this: "One cannot go into the fields without finding the plowman at his Hallelujahs and the mower at his hymns." These people were worshiping while they work. Work is practical, worship is vital. That's why we open every service with worship. It's why we close every service with worship. We're not singing worship songs at the beginning for latecomers to get a parking space and come in. We're doing it because God is worth it, it's vital, it nourishes us, it restores us.

So let's take these four lessons home. Because some say we're living in a city in shambles. So while we're praying for our city, don't forget to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. That's Psalm 122. That's a commandment: pray for the peace of Jerusalem. By the way, you say, "Well, why should I pray for Jerusalem? They're on the other side of the world." Because that happens to be your future home.

And then number two: Don't let projects around you take precedence of the people around you. Third: Don't let your lack of ability hinder your availability. Just show up and present yourself to God. And then finally: Don't let worship take a back seat to your work. First and foremost, to know him, love him, worship him.

Announcer (Female): Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go, remember your generosity helps share God's word with people around the world, offering biblical truth and hope in a time when many feel discouraged or overwhelmed. And this month, we'd love to thank you for your gift of $50 or more by sending you City in Shambles, Pastor Skip's complete 18-message study through Nehemiah on CD plus digital download.

These messages will encourage you to respond to brokenness with prayer, repentance, and courageous faith and remind you that God still rebuilds what's been torn down. Give today at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888. See you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig.

Ready to go deeper in your faith and discover your calling? The School of Ministry at Calvary Church in Albuquerque is designed to equip you with practical Bible teaching, hands-on ministry training, and real-world experience. Whether you're called to lead, serve, or grow, this is your next step. Classes are forming now. Visit calvarysom.org to learn more and apply today. That's calvarysom.org. The School of Ministry at Calvary Church: your calling starts here.