Week #5 in the “When the Walls Fall Down” Series…Celebrate the Victories 
Pikeville UMC
August 12, 2018

Review series

We have – for the last month – been following the journey of Nehemiah.  Born more than 450 years before Jesus, Nehemiah – a Jew living in exile – made a 1,000-mile trip to Jerusalem to repair its broken walls and help restore hope to a defeated Hebrew people.  

We have been looking at how Nehemiah was able to do what he did and how we can apply those principles in our own lives when we face challenges in our own journeys.   

The first step in Nehemiah’s journey was to pray.  You are probably sick of hearing it by now, but we have said that prayer is Nehemiah’s first option, not his last resort.  

Nehemiah not only prayed; he prepared.  When God opened a door for Nehemiah with the Persian King Artaxerxes, Nehemiah was prepared with an answer for what he desired to do and what he needed to do it.  

Nehemiah made the trip to Jerusalem, toured the city, called the people together and explained what he intended to do and how God has already provided for him to do it.  The people were inspired by Nehemiah’s vision and went to work rebuilding the city’s wall.

Last week, we noted that not everyone was pleased by Nehemiah’s efforts, though, and he encountered opposition.  There were those who went to great lengths to try to stop Nehemiah and the Jews from rebuilding the walls.  Change is difficult for some and they will oppose anything that’s different.  

In our lives – as individual disciples and as a church family – we are going to have times when the walls are going to fall down.  Jobs are lost.  We find ourselves in trying financial times.  And relationships experience challenges.  We experience grief and pain in life.  This six-week series is about what we do when the walls fall down.   We pray.  We prepare.  We get to work.  We preserve even in the face of opposition... just like Nehemiah.

Nehemiah 8: 1-10 (NIV)

¹…all the people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded for Israel.  ² So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand.  ³He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law. ⁴ Ezra the teacher of the Law stood on a high wooden platform built for the occasion. Beside him on his right stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah and Maaseiah; and on his left were Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah and Meshullam.  ⁵Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up.   ⁶Ezra praised the LORD, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, "Amen! Amen!" Then they bowed down and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.  ⁷The Levites--Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan and Pelaiah--instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there.  ⁸They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.  ⁹Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, "This day is holy to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep." For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.  ¹⁰Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."

Introduction

One of the most beloved figures in Louisville is Dawn Gee.  Dawn is a news anchor for WAVE-3, the NBC affiliate in Louisville.  She is well known to be a lady of deep faith with a tender spirit.  

As Nehemiah had his heart broken by the state of affairs in Jerusalem, Dawn’s heart was broken by the need of Nelson.  Nelson was a former coworker of Dawn’s at the television station, who had suffered a series of strokes and was confined to a wheelchair in his home that was not handicapped accessible.  He was basically a prisoner in his own home.

At a speaking engagement with a women’s group in Shelbyville, she shared of Nelson’s situation.  And, as God heard Nehemiah’s prayer, God heard Dawn’s as well.  One of the people in the crowd was connected to Shelbyville Centenary United Methodist Church, who said to her, “You know our church builds wheelchair ramps.”  

As so often happens in the Kingdom of God, one thing leads to another and a prayer request becomes a word of testimony.  One Friday morning a short time later, a group from Centenary arrived in West Louisville to help construct a ramp.  They were met by a group of employees from WAVE-3 – which included both on the air personalities as well as behind the scenes folks.  The best part, there wasn’t a camera in sight.  The people there were doing what they were doing because they loved Jesus and they loved Nelson.

I was asked to open our day in prayer and during the prayer I could hear Dawn praying, “Thank you Father. Oh, thank you.”  She was choking back tears.  As we said, “Amen,” I thought she was going to levitate.  She thanked us over and over.  Her family brought lunch for everyone.  She shared what a blessing she knew our experience would be to Nelson.

The work continued on the ramp throughout Friday and into Saturday, but on Sunday morning there were pictures being shown around the church of Nelson – coming out of his house in his wheelchair on a newly constructed ramp – with his friend Dawn and a huge smile on his face.

It was a wonderful blessing for all concerned and one worthy of celebrating.

Transition 

Victories are worthy of celebration.  Nehemiah and the Jews certainly had reason to celebrate.

In 52 days, during the heat of summer, and in spite of intense opposition, the task of rebuilding and connecting the wall was successfully completed.  Can you imagine how emotional of an experience it must have been for the Hebrew people?  Conquered and beaten down for more than 150 years, they were – at last – able to reclaim an element of their dignity and rediscover their faith in God.

Forty-five thousand Jews moved back into the city.  What once was a pile of rubble had become a vibrant, teeming city once again. According to the texts, Nehemiah said that the enemies of the Hebrew people “were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.” 

That’s an answer to prayer worthy of celebration.

Ezra, the priest, the righteous teacher of the law, had led a delegation of Jews from exile back to Jerusalem some twelve to thirteen years prior to Nehemiah.  He had led the effort to rebuild the temple and led the people in baby steps that would be very important to what Nehemiah would later accomplish.  Now, he came forward, climbed up on a wooden platform and for hours read from what we would know as the Pentateuch – what the Jews call the Torah – the first five books of the bible.  I don’t normally think of reading aloud passages from Leviticus or Numbers as being a particularly exciting time, but it was a meaningful experience for the Hebrew people.  With the help of other priests whose names we struggle to pronounce, Ezra reads and interprets the law for the people and they are deeply moved.

Chuck Swindoll in his book on Nehemiah entitled, “Hand Me Another Brick,” says this is the first revival in all of scripture.  The people hear from God’s word and are stricken to their core.  They begin to weep until Nehemiah tells them… “No, this is a good day!  The mistakes of the past are behind us.  The walls have been rebuilt.  Let’s party.”      

Let’s be truthful shall we.  We don’t often think of our time of worship as being a place for parties.  Oh, we have the occasional birthday party or wedding anniversary celebration, but they are usually confined to the fellowship hall.  We – sometimes struggle with the concept of throwing a good party at church.  Want proof?  Consider this question, “How many really good parties have you left after one hour by your own choice?”  Yet, if our party this morning goes on for more than an hour people are going to start to get a little antsy.  If it goes more than an hour and fifteen minutes, they’ll get downright hostile.

“Preacher you mean to tell me that you’re comparing a worship service to a party?  Isn’t that a little sacrilegious?”  Well, let me be clear.  There are many things that can happen during a time of worship:  perhaps we find ourselves in a time of community tragedy and need to be reminded that God is still with us, perhaps we are discouraged and need godly encouragement, perhaps we have sinned and need to repent, perhaps just need to life our voices and sing God’s praises for God is certainly worthy of our praise, but whatever God may have for us in our worship of God it does not preclude the possibility that we as God’s people can celebrate the goodness and faithfulness of our God.  

The principles from Nehemiah that we have been studying over these past few weeks are imperative in the life of faith.  The need to celebrate the victories of God in our lives is as important as any of the lessons we learn from Nehemiah.  

People who cannot celebrate are joyless, bitter and resentful.  We do not want to be like that.  Besides, God wants His children to be able to celebrate His faithfulness, love, mercy and grace.  That is important for us to hear, because we have a proclivity to lose sight of the big picture.

But what is the big picture?

The big picture is that, before we were born, God knew us and loved us.  When we were born God longed to be in relationship with us.  God woos us – draws us – to Himself.  God loved us so much that when we went in a direction contrary to God’s leading, God sent Jesus on the divine rescue mission to show us how we are to live.  Jesus laid down his life as a sacrifice for our sins so that we might be reconciled to God and rose from the grave that we would know that not even death itself was the final answer.  Disciples of Jesus have the presence of God’s Holy Spirit living within us to guide us, strengthen us, correct us and encourage us.  God has given us the gift of community – the Church – so that we would not have to take this earthly journey alone.  

No, life is not perfect.  No life is without pain.  No life is without sorrow, but we belong to God and God is our loving Father.  In the face of sorrow we can know the joy of the Lord and it can be our strength.  In despair we can find the presence of the One who reminds us nothing is too great for our God.  Why shouldn’t we celebrate

Conclusion

And celebrate is exactly what the Jews did.  From a Methodist point-of-view, they had Homecoming.  There was preaching, a great potluck and a great time of celebrating the goodness of God.  The temple had been rebuilt.  The walls around the city had been rebuilt.  The people had come home, and they had experienced the power and presence of God in worship.  It was time for them to celebrate.

Like Nehemiah and the Jews of Jerusalem so long ago, every now and then we need to stop and celebrate the victories and count our blessings.

Johnson Oatman Jr. lived in the 19^th and the early part of the 20^th centuries.  His father was a man of deep faith, a well-known vocalist and the owner of a successful mercantile business.  His son followed in his footsteps.  

At age of 19, he became a Methodist, was eventually ordained but never served a full-time appointment choosing instead to preach in many places and continue to work in the family business. 

At the age thirty-six, Johnson tried his hand at hymn-writing.  He was prolific going on to write at least 5,000 hymns in his lifetime.  One of them was based on Ephesians 1:3 which reads, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”

From that verse, he wrote a hymn still widely used today:   

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings, name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God has done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your many blessings, see what God has done.

Brothers and sisters, the God who empowered Nehemiah longs to empower us.  Not so we may win games of Bible Trivia or waste time polishing our spiritual armor, but so that we – like Nehemiah, like Dawn Gee – will see the needs around us, will have our hearts broken and cry out to God.  When we do that, God can, and will, use us as conduits of mercy and blessing to help make this world a little more like the Kingdom of God, to rebuild walls in our lives and in the lives of others – walls like those of Jerusalem – that will restore hope, dignity and renew our faith in Him. 

And when those walls are rebuilt… we celebrate!

Amen?

In the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, let us pray….