Feast or Famine?

“The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence.” -A.W. Tower

This weekend we continued our series "I Am" as one of our deacons shared a message from John 6 as Jesus says, "I am the bread of life..." As we examined the passage & its implications, I thought of this quote. The world is dying in its sin and too many have never heard the message of the Gospel from the Church. At the same time, too many congregations are dying and closing their doors because they've forgotten the message & ministry of the Gospel.

As Jesus invited people to come and feed on the Bread of Life. He not only promised that this Bread would give them life, real spiritual life, but He also showed Himself to be the sustainer of that life. He is the Source & the Sustainer. The Gospel is what bring us to life in Christ, & it's the Gospel that transforms us to live as Christ. But somehow too many of us have forgotten this. So our salvation becomes an event rather than a way of life. The Gospel becomes something that happened to us at a particular moment rather than the very life blood of our existent. And along the way, in a very slow, subtle, unintentional way, we forget the Gospel. As Jesus said in Revelation 2, we forget our first love. As we forget our first love, we also forget to do what we did at first, namely pursue Jesus & pursue the lost. So in the end we not only neglect the Gospel, we end up neglecting the Great Commission.

As a result, the world begins to starve for the knowledge of God because the vehicle for that message of God's loving, gracious pursuit of sinners has been starving for God's presence. When we stop walking in the Gospel, it won't be long before we stop sharing the Gospel. 

"Consistently & Faithfully Following Jesus Means 

Continually & Faithfully Feasting On Jesus."

How are we supposed to feed on Jesus? Let me share a couple of verses to guide us. John 1:17 says that "the Word became flesh & dwelt among us." The eternal, preexistent Word of God, the very Word of creation, the very Word of revelation, put on flesh & lived among us, & His name was Jesus. So again, how do we feed on Jesus? We feed on Jesus by feeding on the Word because He is the Word. Then what? Well, let's consider what Ezekiel 3:1 says. In this verse God commands His prophet to eat the word & then speak the word. Sound familiar? It should. As believers we consume the Bread of Life, Jesus. He gives us life & salvation. As we experience the work of Christ, we're moved to advance that Good News of life, hope, & salvation in Christ. We consume the Word, then we speak the Word so that Jesus is magnified & lives are saved. If we want the world to have knowledge of God & therefore live, we must feast on Christ & His word so that we're moved by the Gospel to advance the Gospel. 

So let me ask you, are you in a season of feast or famine? If you're feasting, is it leading to action? Are you eating the word & speaking the word? If you're in a season of famine, come back to the table. Jesus has invited you to come & dine so that you will never have to hunger or thirst again.

Adopted By The King

This weekend we began a new series at Zebulon to celebrate Easter. This new series is called "Family Matters," & over the next few weeks we want to talk about things that are important to families because families are important. However, we don't want it to just be a list of tips & techniques to be a better spouse, parent, child, etc. Instead we want to demonstrate how embracing the truth of the Gospel & living the Gospel life will transform every part of your life, including your family.

So we began our series with the issue that matters most to us & our families. Before our families can be all that we want them to be & all that they could be, we first have to be a part of God's family. And the good news of the Gospel is that in Christ we're not only offered the gift of salvation we're also invited to accept the gift of a new identity.

"In Christ, God Doesn't Just Accept Us. He Adopts Us."

Romans 8 is one of the most beautiful chapters in all of Scripture, & in verse 15 Paul tells us that when we accept the truth of the Gospel, not only are we forgiven but we receive what Paul calls "the Spirit of adoption." It means that we are brought into God's family with full rights. It means we become co-heirs with Christ to the Kingdom of God. It means that our old identity is gone. Our old debts...gone. Our old obligations...gone. Instead Paul tells us in verse 12 that we have an obligation, but it's not a slavish obligation. It's an obligation to our Father, & it's an obligation to our family. It means we have a responsibility to be about what our Father would be about, namely loving & reaching the lost & making disciples out of sinners.

In Christ, we've been adopted by the King of the universe. We've been made sons & daughters of the Most High God through the life, death, & resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yes, when we turn to Christ in faith, trusting Him alone to save us, our sins are forgiven, & we are justified before God. However, in addition to that, we also are brought into a new family with all the rights, privileges, & responsibilities that come with it. Now that's Good News.

Orange 2015 Reflections

Last week I was able to take a couple of our key volunteer ministry leaders with me to attend The Orange Conference in Atlanta. If you're unfamiliar with Orange, you need to check them out at thinkorange.com. I wanted to share with you just a little from 3 days of incredible content presented by Reggie Joiner & the incredible team of leaders he assembled for this event. Here are a few quotes & some of my takeaways from the event.

-This year's theme was "It's Just A Phase...So Don't Miss It." Too often we're focused on what is to come that we miss out on what's right now, especially when it comes to kids. Slow down recognize & appreciate the opportunities that you have right now to impact a young man or woman's life.

-"You can fast forward childhood but you can't rewind it." Jon Acuff

-Remembering that every child is made in the image of God changes everything. It reminds us of the potential that's locked up in every kid & that we get to play a part in helping them discover who they could be in Christ so that in Christ all that potential is unleashed.

-"Kids are receiving mixed messages about sexuality." Jim Burns

-If we as parents & leaders don't engage kids on the issue of sex & sexuality (in a constructive, age appropriate way), culture will & by the time we think they're "ready" to talk about it, they've already formed their worldview on the topic.

-"When Nehemiah's heart was broken, he paid attention to his broken heart...So what breaks your heart?" Andy Stanley

-"Years from now what do you want people to line up to thank you for?" Andy Stanley

-"We're having to have answer questions previous generation haven't had to answer." Joshua Gagnon

-"Senior Pastors, elevate your leaders, & when they succeed, elevate them more." Brad Lomenick

-Jenni Catron is one of the smartest people I've ever heard speak. She never fails to make you think. Incredible role model for young ladies going into ministry to look to.

-"God hasn't blessed your church with success. He's blessed your church with potential." Jeff Henderson

-"Say 'yes' to your community." Jeff Henderson

-"Pastors, you need to be the voice of the people who don't come to your church but who should." Jeff Henderson

-"All 100 sheep are valuable, but there's a priority on the 1 sheep that is lost." Jud Wilhite

-"My music+my preferences+my style of service=Our church's funeral" Perry Noble

This is just the tip of the iceberg. I loaded Evernote down with notes from main sessions & breakouts. If you & your ministry team are looking for a conference that has something for everyone, Orange may be the right fit for you. For too long our ministries have been disjointed islands. Embracing an Orange strategy will help bring your ministries into alignment with one another so that they build on one another & better disciple our children so that they are prepared to face the world as an adult & as the future leaders of God's church.

Good Kid, Bad Kid

We just started a new message series at Zebulon Baptist Church called Prodigal. The thing about Jesus' "Parable of the Prodigal Son" is that most of us have heard it (or some version of it) so many times that it's kind of gotten stale. Let's face it, if you were reading through the Gospel of Luke, when you got to chapter 15, you'd at least be tempted to think, "I know this story inside & out, so I'll just skim through to get to chapter 16." It's totally natural. It's why movies that we've seen over & over begin to lose their punch & books that we've read over & over begin to lose their appeal. Familiarity may not always breed contempt, but it does lead us to a "been there, done that" attitude, even about the Bible.

The problem with that mindset is that we end up missing out on the depth that is present in so much of God's word, but especially in this parable. After all, most of us think that the parable is about a punk bratty kid who demands his inheritance, blows it on a wild lifestyle, humbly returns home, & is greeted by a forgiving father who restores him to the family. That's almost always the way this parable is portrayed both in the church & in pop culture. However, when you dig beneath the surface, you'll start to realize that his part of the story isn't even the point. The part of the story we've romanticized is basically a vehicle Jesus uses to get to the real point. The real point Jesus is trying to make is centered around the older brother who stayed home, not the younger brother who ran away.

Take some time this week to go back & read this parable in Luke 15. When you really read it, you discover that these brothers aren't that different. Neither of them were interested in their father. They wanted their inheritance, but they didn't want their father. The younger son simply was open & honest about it. The older brother, on the other hand, was much more subtle & manipulative. He didn't dare ask for his inheritance early. Instead he would simply hang around, do what he was supposed to do, so that he could eventually get the pay off. In the end all either of the brothers wanted was the payoff. You see it in the older brother when he scolds his father for welcoming his brother home. After all, the younger son is the bad kid; he doesn't deserve all the fuss, but he, the older brother, was the good kid. He did everything he was supposed to do. He "slaved away". Therefore he deserved good things. 

At the end of the story, the son who is "lost" isn't the bad kid who came back home. It's the older son who never left, but who assumed that his good, obedient behavior put the father in his debt. Jesus had a powerful spiritual truth He desperately wanted His audience of "sinners, tax collectors, & Pharisees" to understand.

"You Can Be Just As Lost In Your Goodness

As You Can In Your Badness."

Look at this way: Both of these brothers were trying to make their own way in the world. The younger son was going to make his way by rebelling against his father, wishing him dead, & taking his portion of the inheritance so that he could make his own way. The older son, although he stayed home & did everything he was supposed to do, was still trying to make his own way. He viewed his relationship with the father as a slave/master relationship. "I do A, B, & C for you, therefore, you need to do X, Y, & Z for me." In the end the older son was trying to secure his own way in the world. 

Spiritually, most everyone does the same thing. Many of us run away from God, tell Him we don't want to have anything to do with Him (unless an emergency pops up), & set out to live our own life by our own standards. Then there's the rest of us. We're religious. We embrace traditional, Judeo-Christian morals & try to be "good people." And somehow we think that the pursuit of being good people puts God in a position of debt toward us. We've been good. Therefore, God has to bless us, & ultimately God has to forgive us for those few times we weren't good people. All that is is another attempt to make our own way in life. We've just chosen a moralistic path, but we've never submitted ourselves to our Heavenly Father. In the end, both paths are dead ends. Whether you're a wild child or the good child, if you reject the Father, He has no choice but to reject you as well. That's why self-righteousness is so dangerous. It subtly leads us to believe we're in a right relationship with our Father, but the truth is that we're trying to manipulate Him. When we think that practicing our religion or good morals somehow puts God in debt to us, it only blinds us to our own debt to Him.

Who are you in the story of two lost sons? Are you the good kid or the bad kid? How have you tried to make your own way or manipulate God? Here's the good news: our Heavenly Father is the same loving, gracious, pursuing father we see in the parable. He graciously welcomed the rebel back home while also pursuing the self-righteous son to finally embrace their relationship as father & son rather than thinking he somehow had to work for the father's love & blessings.

What's Your Reward?

In our current series, we've been looking at the things that you constantly hear people refer to when they talk about how God has grown & stretched their faith in Him. One of the things that you inevitably hear people refer to is the moment in their faith where they began to take some personal responsibility. They began to cultivate private spiritual disciplines like prayer, giving, Bible study, or fasting. There's no doubt that these disciplines play a powerful role in our spiritual growth, but they can also be dangerous. After all, if our faith somehow moves from being in Jesus to being in our faithfulness to practice these disciplines, our faith has shifted to something that has no power on its own. Even Jesus scolded the Pharisees for their diligent study of God's word, not because of their study but because they assumed their faithfulness to study would somehow save them. The opposite was the case. God's word was given to reveal His character & nature while pointing to the coming of Jesus, & somehow in the middle of all that studying they still missed the Messiah. So in Matthew 6, Jesus gives us a stern warning about the dangerous nature of misplaced faith in one's spiritual disciplines.

The funny thing is that when Jesus starts talking about this issue, He starts by talking about rewards. His warnings all center around the fact that if our spiritual disciplines are about being seen or recognized by others, we'll miss the real reward that God wants to give us. We'll get the reward we want: people's recognition, but we'll miss the reward God offers: Himself. You see, when we come before God in prayer or in His word, our goal shouldn't be that we can then share with everybody about our incredible prayer time or Bible study. Instead it should be an opportunity for us to spend some time with our Father. The reward when we're faithful to give & invest in God's Kingdom isn't that we're "sowing a seed" & that somehow God will send us payback. Instead it's a personal, private declaration of trust in our Father, & our reward is His presence & the assurance that our Father provides for us. God's presence is the reward, & it's infinitely better than any pat on the back from someone who only sees what we let them see.

"It's Better To Get God, Than To Get Anything Else We Want."

There's no doubt we want to be recognized. We want people to approve of us, maybe even to admire us. However, if that becomes a driving motivation, we've made that need for approval our god. Instead we should utilize prayer, personal Bible study, giving, & fasting as spiritual disciplines or habits that bring us into God's presence & declare our trust & reliance on Him as our Heavenly Father. Spend some time over the next few days to read Matthew 6:1-18 & take a hard look at your private spiritual disciplines & your heart. Why do you pray? Is prayer how you bring God your "to do" list? Do you only pray when other people are around so they can hear you? When you give are you hoping someone notices & gives you credit? If you stopped getting a tax write off would you stop giving? Examine your heart, examine your motives. What reward are you really after when you practice these spiritual disciplines? Are you looking for approval from people, or are you simply looking for God?

Strong Faith Doesn't Really Matter

Ok, now that I got you to click the link with my provocative title. Let me explain where I'm going with this. We just started a new series of messages focusing on growing our faith. Lots of people start the new year wanting to get closer to God or grow in their faith. So they dive into church & religious activity, but it usually lasts about as long as their diet plan, & before they realize it, they've slipped back into the previous year's rut. Why does that happen if they sincerely want to grow in their faith? Why doesn't jumping back into churchy & religious things not automatically grow your faith? Here's my thought: Perhaps this happens because we're putting our faith in the wrong things. Perhaps we put our faith in our religious activity or in simply showing up to church. We think that's what makes us closer to God. We're not putting our faith in Christ. We're really still putting our faith in ourselves & our attempts to draw near to God. The Bible clearly tells us that doesn't work, but we fall into that trap over & over again, especially when the trap is baited with nice, religious stuff. Here's an important truth that we have to grasp first before trying to "grow" our faith.

"The Object Of Your Faith Is More Important

Than The Strength Of Your Faith."

If your faith is in the wrong place, it doesn't really matter how strong your faith is. In fact, if you have strong faith in the wrong thing, you actually become more hopeless. Simple faith in Jesus that says, "Lord I believe, help my unbelief," is still infinitely more powerful than ardent faith in something other than Jesus. So as you or someone you know enters 2015 looking to grow in their faith or to get closer to God, make sure your pursuing the right thing & that your faith is in the right person: Jesus Christ. Start there. Then you can begin to take advantage of the things God uses to grow your faith in Him.

You Are Invited

This weekend we started our Christmas message series at Zebulon Baptist Church. In this series we're looking at what a lot of people consider to be one of the more boring sections of Scripture. However, if you dig into it, you'll discover it's one of the most fascinating. In Matthew 1, the gospel writer is working to establish Jesus' bloodline in order to assert that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. However, as Matthew records Jesus' family tree, he includes people that for one don't have to be included, & secondly, that you wouldn't want to include if you didn't have to. These people are shady, scandalous characters lurking in Jesus' heritage. As you look you discover that Jesus' pedigree is filled with scandalous, sinful people. And these folks aren't run of the mill sinners. These people are monumental, award winning kind of sinners. So why would Matthew include these people if he didn't have to?

The answer to why Matthew included these people in Jesus' story is found in Matthew's story. Because you see, Matthew lived that kind of scandalous, shady life. He was a religious & social outcast because of the life he chose. In fact, Matthew's level of sin had its own category in his culture. Imagine "those people" that you sort of set aside because of their sin & set them apart from the rest of us sinners; well, that's who Matthew was. Then we see something happen in Matthew 9 that would have shocked everyone, including Jesus' disciples. Jesus invited Matthew to follow Him. That's right, Jesus, the perfect, holy, sinless Son of God, invited Matthew, the tax collector, the outcast, the irredeemable, to follow Him, to be a part of Jesus' inner circle. When you think about that, all of a sudden it becomes clear why Matthew would choose these scandalous characters in Jesus' family tree: Matthew understood them. Matthew was one of them. To him it made perfect since to include the scandalous & shameful in Jesus' bloodline & thus in the Christmas story.

"Sinners Are A Part Of Jesus' Story 

Because They're The Point Of Jesus' Story."

Matthew didn't leave out the scandal that surrounded Jesus' family because most of us have some sort of skeleton in the closet as well. Most all of us have backstories we would rather not talk about. Some of us have family scandals, & here's the good news. Jesus had that stuff lurking in His backstory too. Jesus came for all those scandals & all the skeletons that we have in our closets. All the mistakes, all the foolish decisions, all the sin, that's why Jesus came. He came so that your backstory could have a happy ending. He came so that those shady, scandalous lives could be redeemed through His perfect, sinless sacrifice. It's only natural that a man like Matthew would understand & make sure that from the beginning of his gospel that everyone who read it would realize that Jesus came from a long line of sinners, but He came for those sinners. That means we are all invited, just like Matthew, to trust & to follow the perfect, sinless Son of God. How will you respond to that invitation? 

That Awkward Moment...

We've all been in awkward situations. Blind dates, first dates, getting caught in a lie, wearing the same outfit as someone else at an event, they're all examples of when things get awkward & the tension goes up. In fact, we're all so worried about awkward situations or conversations that we've come up with some social rules to try to keep us from getting into one of those weird, awkward, tense moments. 

Here are just a few examples:

"Never talk about religion or politics."
"Never assume a woman is pregnant."
"Never ask a woman her age."
"Never ask a woman her weight."

Notice how some of these that I just thought of off the top of my head revolve around not asking women sensitive things? That's because most of us men are too oblivious to realize there are some things you just don't do. Therefore rules had to be made to keep us out of trouble. Well, there's a similar rule that is at play in a lot of churches. It's an unwritten, even unspoken, rule, but it's alive & well in most places because it's an issue that always ramps up the tension & makes everyone feel a little awkward. So we end up ignoring this issue, but in ignoring we also ignore an issue that Jesus, whom we claim to follow, talked about a lot. Doesn't it seem weird to avoid a subject our Savior talked about so much & therefore miss out on what He had to say about it? So what is this issue? What is this thing we don't really like talking about, even if it means completely missing out on what Jesus had to say about it?

It's money.

That's right, money. Nobody likes talking about it, not pastors & certainly not the people the pastors are talking to about it. It makes us all a little uneasy. However, not talking about it may cost us more than actual wading into a tense subject.

When Jesus was confronted with the issue of money, politics, & religion in Luke 20:20, he didn't focus as much on money as we might think. The point He made was this, "Give to God what belongs to God." He used the money as a vehicle to teach a powerful truth. The coin was made in the image of Caesar. Humanity is made in the image of God. The lesson: If Caesar asks for the thing made in his image, give it to him, but more importantly make sure you give to God the thing made in His image. In that little exchange Jesus taught us a powerful lesson about money, faith, & the biblical concept of stewardship.

"Stewardship Is Not About Your Money. Stewardship Is About Your Life."

Jesus had an opportunity to go in depth about money in this moment, but instead He chose to look at the big picture. The truth is that it doesn't really matter who you dedicate your life to if you dedicate your life to the wrong thing. God has made us in His image. Therefore, everything about you should be leveraged to glorify Him: your day to day life, your family, your relationships, your work, your ministry, & yes, your money & stuff. As followers of Jesus, we are not only made in God's image, we've been bought with a price by the blood of Jesus. Therefore, we must seek to live a life that in every way declares our faith in Him rather than in ourselves or in the things of this world. Stewardship isn't about money. It's about a journey of faith where we seek to live a life that is constantly more & more devoted to trusting in our Heavenly Father, His Son, & His word.

What step of faith have you been resisting? Reading God's word more consistently? Becoming the godly parent your children need? Being the spouse you're called to be in Christ? Serving your congregation community? Trusting God with your finances? No matter which one of these you're wrestling with, they're all stewardship issues. After all, stewardship is not about your money. It's about your life.

The Breakthrough Of Brokenness

This weekend I began a new message series at ZBC. I've been hearing a lot lately about the need for revival in America. However, what I actually hear people talking about & praying for is not revival. What they're recognizing the need for is another great gospel awakening in America. Sadly, many church members & believers pray desperately for an awakening in this nation, yet we're often unwilling to confess our own part in the problem of sin. See, revival is necessary, but it's not for the lost. Revival is for those of us who follow Jesus. According to Scripture when we come into this world, we're spiritually still-born. There is no life in us. You can't revive that. Revival is for the one who once was living but has become unconscious. When God supernaturally invades the lives of His people & renews them spiritually for Kingdom ministry, then revival happens. God does a work of of renewal in us so that we are reinvigorated & released to take the Gospel to a lost world. In fact, when you look back through history the great gospel awakenings of history were sparked by revival in the lives of God's people. In addition to that, the revival among God's people was sparked when they came to grips with their sin & were broken over it.

"In Order For Revival To Break Out,

We Must First Be Broken Over Our Sin."

We see this principle radically on display in the life of David as he cries out to God for mercy in Psalm 51. David had been confronted with his sin with Bathsheba, & he was genuinely broken over his sin. He cried out to God for mercy not based on his past goodness but because of God's unfailing, covenant love. He knew he needed to confess his sin, not try to manage it. He knew that the only hope he had was for God, in His grace & mercy, to expunge his record & to restore David to Himself. Before David could be used by God, he had to be reconciled to God, & only God could bring about that reconciliation.

The same is true today for God's people. If we want to see the lost come to faith in Christ, then we must take the Gospel to them. However, if we want to be used by God to reach the lost, we must walk in fellowship with Him, & the thing that will keep us out of fellowship with God is our sin. It's only when we're hit with the depth of our sin & are broken over our sin that we can truly repent of it. Our sin is an assault on God & an attempt to usurp His authority, yet in His grace He has made a way to forgive the rebellious usurpers.

Walking through the valley of brokenness is the first step to climbing the mountaintop of revival. We are all wrestling with self & sin. We have a simple choice: to be broken over our sin or broken by our sin. When we allow the Holy Spirit to convict us & break us over our sin, we are renewed & revived, but when we run from God's conviction we will eventually be broken by our sin & its consequences.

Be Aggressive

This week at ZBC we wrapped up our summer message series in Nehemiah. If you like happy endings, Nehemiah 13 is not for you. After 12 chapters victory, revival, & renewal, we fast forward several years into the future to find that Nehemiah has had to return to Persia to serve the king before making a return visit to Jerusalem. What he finds is depressing to say the least. The people have descended back into the same lifestyle that had cost them in the past. The same temptations had brought them down again. The same things they had identified as chronic problem areas in Nehemiah 10 had reared their heads again, & the people had succumbed to the temptation. In Nehemiah's own words he was "greatly displeased." His confrontation of both the leaders & the people of Jerusalem seems overly harsh to some people, but there is something we have to remember: Nehemiah had invested years of his life into leading these people to honor God.

His frustration was directly connected to his sense of responsibility for these people. He knew what God could do in & through them when they submitted themselves to God's will, but He also knew what would happen if the people chose to rebel against God & pursue their own ways. There was a lot at stake. Most importantly, God's glory revealed & reflected through His people was at stake. Nehemiah took on the leaders in really aggressive ways. When the people violated the Sabbath by continuing to conduct business, he put the city on lock-down. When Nehemiah found out that his old enemy Tobiah had been given a place to live INSIDE of the Temple, he literally threw Tobiah & all of his things out. After years of leadership, instructions, & correction, the time for a soft warning had passed.

"Aggressive Temptation Requires Aggressive Accountability."

These chronic problem areas had been handled too softly for too long, & while getting physical like Nehemiah did probably isn't the best way to confront someone you care about, we should have the same sense of urgency & responsibility for one another. After all, how many of us have watched people we care about begin to drift away from God, but we hid behind phrases like "Who am I to judge?" The truth is that if the two of you are followers of Jesus, you are brothers or sisters in Christ & have a responsibility to protect one another from the dangers of sin & temptation. Our enemy is relentless & aggressive. Should we be just as relentless & aggressive in guarding one another & seeking to rescue or restore one another from his attacks?

Who do you need to reach out to in love in order to guide them back from a path that will lead to their own self-destruction? Be proactive, be aggressive, don't assume that they'll figure it out or learn their lesson. Rescue them. Perhaps you need to invite this kind of accountability into your life. Perhaps you are stuck in a cycle of defeat by the same temptations that take you down all the time. Who can you invite into your life as a sort of spiritual bodyguard? Do we really care about one another enough to confront one another in love in hopes of rescuing one another from the relentless, aggressive attacks of our enemy?

Looking Back So We Can Move Forward

The past is a tricky thing. We all look back fondly at "the good ole days" & think about the good times in our past, but at the same time, we're also prone to get stuck in the past. Looking back & celebrating the good times is great, but when you get to the point that you try to recreate or live in the past, you have a problem. On the other hand, if you have some past hurt in your past that you can't seem to move on from, that past hurt will impact almost everything about your future. The past is a great place to go back to & visit in our memory to celebrate the good time, to mourn the bad times, & to learn from it all, but living there or trying to export the past into our present is dangerous.

In Nehemiah 12, Nehemiah & the people are about to dedicate the newly reconstructed wall around Jerusalem. If you've ever been to a dedication, ribbon cutting, or grand opening ceremony, you know those events are extremely future oriented. It's all about the excitement of what the future holds for a new facility, organization, or business. However, Nehemiah begins this section of his memoirs by looking back. He looks at a couple of generations from the past. One generation led the initial return from exile back to the Promised Land. They resettled the land & rebuilt the Temple. They were bold, courageous, & faithful. Then Nehemiah looks at the next the generation, the one that immediately preceded his. This group of people weren't necessarily bad or evil people. They were just negligent. Their lack of faith stands in stark contrast to the generation preceding them who rebuilt the Temple & the generation that followed them who rebuilt the wall. It's not that they did anything overtly bad; they just did nothing. Perhaps they were content with the fact that the Temple had been rebuilt. Perhaps no one was ever bold enough to say, "Let's rebuild this wall & city." No matter what was going on, it's clear this was a part of Israel's past that needed to be learned from but not celebrated. Nehemiah then turns his attention to his generation & those who would come after him. Those generations had already demonstrated their faith, but there was so much potential for the future too. As they looked forward to the future, they needed to look back: to celebrate & to learn.

There's something really important we can learn from this passage that can be so important for us in our faith, our families, our ministries, & our communities.

"Learning From The Past Can Direct Our Future,

  But Living In The Past Can Destroy Our Future."

Our past is going to play a part in our future. We can't escape our past, but we don't have to be imprisoned by it. We get imprisoned by the past when we either choose to live there because those were "the good ole days," & there's no way God could have anything else in store for us or when we choose to live in the past & be defined by some of its hurts & defeats. The truth is that if you're a follower of Christ, you should assume your best days are ahead of you. God is still at work. Your past is filled with things that you can celebrate & things you can learn from, but God is leading you to take those things & follow Him with bold faith into the future.

What things in your past are you holding onto that are actually holding you back? They may be past victories or past defeats, but either way, their in the past. What can you learn from your past so that you can follow God faithfully into the future.

Surrender Means Submission

As we have continued through Nehemiah in our current teaching series at Zebulon, we have come to Chapter 8. Chapter 8 is a huge turning point in the story of what God was doing through Nehemiah in the lives of the people in Jerusalem. As the chapter opens, there's a big assembly of the people in the shadow of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. As the people gathered the presence of the Temple would have been unavoidable. Then the priest & scribe Ezra climbs up on a platform & unrolls the scrolls of the Law & reads...& reads...& reads. Six hours into this, Nehemiah & the other leaders have to calm the people down because as Ezra has read God's Word, the people have been deeply convicted of their sin & lack of faith because their history had been one of great spiritual victory followed by massive failure. That cycle spanned hundreds of years & dozens of generations. Does that feel kind of familiar? However, Nehemiah's message isn't one that focuses on the people's sins. Instead, Nehemiah encourages the people to celebrate because of God's faithfulness. They send the people home with instructions to celebrate & throw a party in their homes in response to God's goodness & faithfulness to His people.

The next day something else amazing happens. The men come back. After 6 hours of Bible study, the men come back for more, & as they continue to listen to God's Word, they learn that there is a festival  to be celebrated that they knew nothing about, & it was supposed to be celebrated that very month! What happens next demonstrates that these people were really in the process of being changed & transformed. They discovered that their lives were not in alignment with God's Word, so they went out & did something about it. They brought their lives, their families, their society into alignment with God's will in God's word. They celebrated that festival like it hadn't been celebrated in generations. Israel's history had been a story of taking a step forward spiritually only to take two back. If these people wanted to break that cycle, they knew they had to be different, so they made sure their lives were surrendered to God, even if it seemed strange, even if it was inconvenient. There's a powerful spiritual truth on display in the lives of those Israelites in Nehemiah 8.

"Surrender To God Is Reflected In Submission To God's Word."

Christians often talk about being fully surrendered to God. One of our classic hymns is called "I Surrender All." However, what we say & what we sing is often very far from where we live. So how can we know if we're surrendered? How can we recognize whether or not we're really surrendering our lives to our Heavenly Father? The answer is found in this question: When was the last time God's Word changed your mind, your behavior, & your life? If you can't point to a time where your will came into conflict with God's will revealed in His Word, there's a good chance you're not spending much time in God's word. If you've encountered those places but you haven't changed your mind & behavior to submit to God's will in His Word, then you aren't surrendered to your Heavenly Father. You're still a slave to your will & your desires. Instead of talking about surrender, let's all begin to take a look at whether or not we're really submitted to God's Word. 

Where are you out of alignment? Are you so far out of alignment that you're not even reading God's Word, much less submitting to it? How can you start bringing your life & your family into alignment with God's Word? The longer you stay out of alignment, the further you will drift off the path that God would have you follow.

Your Place On The Wall

As we continue our series in Nehemiah at ZBC, we come to Chapter 3 where we see an important
shift. Chapters 1 & 2 are focused on Nehemiah & the vision that God gave him to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall. However, in Chapter 3 the focus shifts dramatically away from Nehemiah & onto the people who got behind the vision & then got to work on the wall. The list of workers includes everyone from the priests & Levites, even the High Priest himself, to city officials, to perfume makers. The construction crew even included people who weren't from Jerusalem but who recognized that God was doing something, & they wanted to be a part of it.
Everyone on that wall may not have been qualified to work on the wall,
but they were willing, & that was what really mattered.
They understood this vital principle of following God.

"God Has Done A Great Work In His People; 

Now He Wants To Do A Great Work Through His People."

The vision God gave Nehemiah was too big for Nehemiah to complete on his own, & God wasn't going to magically start stacking stones around Jerusalem. Instead, God in His grace chooses to use His people to reflect His glory. Scripture is filled with examples of how God chooses to involve His people to reveal His glory to the world. Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, & Paul are just a few examples of how God uses people to fulfill His plans. The problem is that sometimes we forget that God wants to use US. That's right, God wants to use you individually. He has a place for you on the wall. It's up to you to discover that place & then get to work. The work God wants to do through your local congregation is too big for any one person or small group to fulfill; it needs you on the wall. God's work needs all of us on that wall doing what we can to reflect & reveal God's glory through our lives to this world. 

Where is your place on the wall? God is going to reveal His glory; are you going to be a part of that?

Godly Vision Needs Godly Wisdom

Currently at ZBC, we are in a teaching series in the book of Nehemiah. In the series we're looking at the vision God gave Nehemiah not to simply rebuild the wall around Jerusalem but to restore God's glory among His people & the nations. The vision that Nehemiah had was undoubtedly from God, but in Nehemiah 2 we see Nehemiah also exercise godly wisdom as he pursued God's vision. We see that godly wisdom played out clearly in three ways:

1) Prayer
Nehemiah soaked this vision from God in prayer. Nehemiah 1 is almost completely a prayer. In Chapter 2 when Nehemiah has the chance to finally present his vision to the king. He paused to pray before speaking. We also see that he took 4 to 5 months to pray for God's guidance as he prepared to present this vision to the king.

2) Planning
Nehemiah didn't just pray however. He planned. He asked God to give him an opportunity to speak to the king & to give him favor with the king, but it was up to Nehemiah to be ready to present the vision & the plan that would help the vision become reality. Prayer & planning aren't in opposition. They work together. Prayer asks God to do what our planning cannot, but planning helps us to be ready to do what we can.

3) Perspective
Nehemiah prayed & planned, but when he arrived in Jerusalem, he took some time to get the proper perspective of conditions on the ground. His plan may have been great, but it had been put together without having actually seen the city, the wall, or the people. So Nehemiah didn't just march into Jerusalem as if he had all the answers. He took time to get a grip on reality before bringing his vision & plan to the people.

All of this teaches us an important principle:

"A Godly Vision Must Be Directly Connected To Godly Wisdom."

You may have a vision from God for where you want to lead your family, or where you want to go in your career, or how you want to handle your finances, but are you pursuing that godly vision with godly wisdom? Why is this so important? It's important because typically the shortest distance between where you are & where you want to be involves compromise, & what's important is not merely wanting to get to the fulfillment of that vision, it's also to honor God along the way of pursuing that vision. Pursue God's vision for your life, your family, your career, & your ministry with passion, but make sure that passion is guided by godly wisdom so that God is glorified in your life with every step along the way.