Grace Thoughts

Guest (Male): Hello friends, welcome to Grace Thoughts, the radio ministry of Grace Connection Church with Pastor Tim Kelley. Grace Thoughts has been dedicated to preaching a clear gospel of grace for over 20 years. Here is Pastor Kelley.

Tim Kelley: These are the memoirs of Nehemiah, son of Hacaliah. In late autumn, in the month of November, and in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes' reign, I was at the fortress of Susa. Hanani, one of my brothers, came to visit me with some other men who had just arrived from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had returned there from captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem.

They said to me, "The things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down and the gates have been destroyed by fire." When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned and I fasted and I prayed to the God of heaven for days.

Then I said, "O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love and has mercy on those who love him and obey his commands, listen to my prayer. Look down and see me praying night and day for your people Israel. I confess that we have sinned against you. Yes, even my own family and I have sinned." It's pretty amazing.

"We have sinned terribly not by obeying the commands and decrees and regulations that you gave us through your servant Moses. Please remember what you told your servant Moses: 'If you are unfaithful to me, I will scatter you amongst the nations. But if you return to me and obey my commands and live by them, then even if you are exiled to the ends of the earth, I will bring you back to the place I've chosen for my name to be honored.'

The people you rescued by your great power and strong hand are your servants. O Lord, please hear my prayer. Listen to the prayers of those who delight in honoring you. Please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me. Put it into his heart to be kind to me." In those days, I was the king's cupbearer.

It's amazing passion you can see here in this butler. In a sense, that's what he was. He would taste the king's food to make sure it wasn't poisoned. So that's sort of what his role was. The first thing we see is a burden. This is one of the first things you'll notice to discover your purpose. You'll have a burden.

When God takes up a man and uses him for service, the first thing he shows him is his own utter inadequacy, insufficiency, and unworthiness for the task. This was Nehemiah's preparation. If you'd known me when God called me to preach and to see me now, the thought of me getting up in front of people and speaking... I was the least public, most shy, self-conscious... I still have that stuff in me.

But the thought about me being a public speaker would have been laughable by anyone that knew me. And what do I do? Now I sleep with a microphone. I just don't feel comfortable unless I say, "Honey, just stay here so I can preach to you while I go to sleep." Sometimes that doesn't happen, really.

Nehemiah heard the report from his brother that the renovation of Jerusalem was not going well and the walls lay in ruin. I just want to go back up a little bit because I'm just sharing my own story, and this is my frame of reference. When I talked with God three and a half years ago or so and God had made it clear to me that he wanted me to stay in the ministry and keep doing what I was doing, one of my arguments was, "God, but I'm not the same guy. And I'm weak, very weak. And I'm very broken and I'm very shattered and you want me to still do this but what about the people? Because the people... I'm not the same guy. They're used to me like this, and this is who I am... I'm a shattered man."

God was very clear to me again. He didn't speak to me much in those days, but this is one of the times he did. He said, "Tim, they are not your people. They're mine. And I don't need you to do anything but show up and be available. That's all I need you to do." I've shared that before, but this is important because the purpose is God's problem, not ours. Equipping us for the purpose, the fruit of the purpose, that's all on God, not on us. It's not on me. It's not on me to bear fruit. It's on me to be faithful so God can bear fruit through me.

Functioning in God's purpose is getting the maximum out of God's life, whatever that means. Let me read this quote by Redpath: "You cannot just slip into Christian work as a kind of hobby. You will fail terribly if you do. Before you attempt any service for God, I care not what it may be, how comparatively small, however much behind the scenes, however apparently insignificant, before you begin any service for the Master, I urge you first to survey the ruins around you."

This is his commentary on Nehemiah. So basically he's saying, "Wow, this is the job, this is the call, this is what it really is all about." And to go into it open-eyed. There's a job to do that needs somebody with a passion and a burden to take on. Nehemiah was not qualified. He was qualified to taste food. That was his qualification. He wasn't qualified to run a building project, especially with volunteer help.

And a big building project using building materials that are 170 years old and burnt. He didn't have a lot going for him. There were no Home Depots back then. They didn't come for another 50 years. There were no Home Depots to go to. Everything, the timber, the lumber had to be chopped down and made as they needed it.

So many are afraid of leadership. So many are afraid of going beyond their comfort level because God may be calling them and beckoning them, but they instantly disqualify themselves. They say, "I can't do that. That's not me. I don't have time for that. I don't have the gifts for that. I don't have the patience for that. I don't even like people." We instantly disqualify ourselves for what God may be asking us and calling us to do.

Just because we don't necessarily feel comfortable with what he's asking us to do, it doesn't mean he's not asking us to do it. Once we take that first step and we show up and we say, "Okay God, here I am, send me, whatever that means," then he can maybe breathe on us and give us the ability to fulfill that purpose, whatever that purpose is.

One of the biggest needs in churches, every church that I've ever been known of or in our own church, is Kids Connection teachers, Sunday school teachers. And you mention to some people, "Will you consider teaching the kids in Sunday school?" and they break into a cold sweat. Some pass out. Some need to be resuscitated. We have paddles, we bring them back because the very thought of teaching children, especially our kids, is just horrifying to them.

Yet you know that God is asking some to do it because they need somebody to do it. God is moving on the hearts of some people to do this and they're going, "Too busy, not gifted, too freaked out, not enough time, overwhelmed, occupied," whatever it is. And God's saying, "No, I don't hear you. I don't want to hear you. I will not hear you." Because you know for every need, God raises up somebody to meet that real need. Now that person doesn't have to obey, but you know that somebody's being raised up.

We will never get started unless we see the burden. We'll never feel the passion or the burden to teach the children unless I see the need to teach the children, unless I get a burden for the children, unless I understand that I'm pouring foundation for the future, that I'm giving a capacity for whatever the future holds in their lives, our church's life. I'm a generation giving another life to another generation. Unless I see the scope of that, then it's just me locked up in a room with them. It ain't going to happen. But when I see the bigger picture, then you can maybe hear the call.

The next point after you hear a burden: guaranteed there will be warfare. A dear friend of mine... this was years ago now, I'll never forget it. We had a particular hard Sunday morning service and he rededicated his life to Christ. It was a sincere man. He went home that Sunday and we talked and he wanted to turn over a new leaf and just really get going with God again.

Then he got bronchitis. Two weeks, three weeks on his back, pretty sick. When he got off his back, that Sunday morning that was two or three weeks ago was just a distant memory. So he was never really able to act upon the moment when God was nudging him to get to another level. He could never make those decisions and act upon it and then three weeks later, it was like it had never happened.

This is a quote, I think this is Redpath; I got it from a couple different sources: "Whether you be concerned primarily with building the wall in your own soul or with building the wall of your church or with building the wall of the kingdom of God throughout the whole world, you'll discover that there is no winning without warfare. There is no opportunity without opposition and there is no victory without vigilance."

Ezra and Nehemiah both faced great warfare and opposition not only from the neighboring people that we know of, Tobiah, Sanballat, and Geshem, but also from the Jews that went back that no longer were that passionate. They just wanted to settle in, they didn't want to strap the swords onto their belt, they just wanted to raise their cattle. They didn't really care about restoring the wall. They didn't really care about getting the temple functioning as it was. They didn't care about supporting the Levites and the priests. Their own lives became the center of their universe.

That's an important sentence: their own lives became the center of the universe. One of the ways that Nehemiah battled here was through prayer. Real prayer engages in a battle. Nehemiah asked God for help. When we speak about warfare, it's not just the guys in the countryside threatening you. Warfare comes from places that most of the time you'll never expect: loss of friends, external pressure, finances, sin... anything to keep you out of God's purpose where you would find your greatest effectiveness.

The devil knows where I find my greatest effectiveness. So if he can frustrate Tim Kelley in his marriage, if he can get Tim Kelley freaked out about his finances, if he can take Tim Kelley out of the knees, then maybe he can get Tim Kelley out of his purpose. And fill yourself into that equation. Again, warfare, I don't want to paint it with pink here. It's not fluffy. Sometimes it's nasty and really, really painful from different angles.

You make decisions for God when you were on the sidelines. Maybe you're on the sidelines and say, "You know what, God's stirring my heart. I want to go all the way with the Lord. I want God's best for my life. I want to know him greater tomorrow than I do today. I want my life to count for the kingdom of God." You make that decision, you make that decision publicly. Put your belt on. It's going to get hairy. It's going to be a ride and it will come from the most unsuspecting places. You can find your purpose, my friends, limping, crippled, and in a wheelchair as long as you keep moving.