me please to the book of Nehemiah. Those of us
who have been through the 40 days of purpose
remember Rick Warren's statement from his book
that says, it's not about you. We have begun
to understand that life does not circle around
us, that it's all about God really, and yet the
amazing thing is that God has created you and
me for a purpose. You are no accident. You are
not cosmic junk that God has simply thrown out
into existence. Your being in the world is not
meaningless. It has purpose to it. And while
it's not all about you, it does include you,
for you are his workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus for good works, which God has ordained
beforehand that you should walk in them. Life
is not about you, but God does have a reason
for you to be in the world. God has formed you
for a particular purpose. He has shaped you in
a particular way. He wants to use you. And your
task in mind is really, in one sense, very simple.
Your task in mind is to simply be available to
God. Now that's simple to say, and it's simple
to hear, but it's much more complex, isn't it,
in carrying it out? We want to be usable to God,
and yet there are so many things that often stand
in our way. One of those things is what I want
to talk about as we come to the book of Nehemiah.
The title to this series in Nehemiah, and it
won't be a long series, but the title of the
series is this, Living on the Edge. Because you
see, to be used by God, you must be willing to
risk. You must be willing to risk. Camping out
in your comfortable zone. really places you off
limits as far as God's intent is concerned. You
cannot play it safe or hedge your bets with God
and still be truly available to him. You must
be willing to risk yourself for God. Is that
where you are today? I'm not suggesting that
we should be risky in a foolish sense. but in
a deliberate sense of abandonment, giving up
the self -created security zones that we build
carefully into our lives. I believe that God
wants all of us to live on the edge. By that
I mean he wants us to live at the point where
we are no longer in control. We put ourselves
in a place where we risk it all if God doesn't
come through like he promised he would. If you
look at the Bible, you find that that's where
the heroes of the Bible lived on the edge. Abraham,
for example, had a wonderful comfort zone in
Ur of the Chaldees. But God said to Abraham,
come out from there, I want to show you another
place that I will give you. And based upon that
promise from God, Abram stepped out. He began
then to live on the edge. He left behind the
security zone of Ur of the Chaldees and he risked
it all based upon God's calling in his life.
Consider Moses. Moses who was raised in the glamour
and the power of the leadership of Egypt and
yet who willingly forsook all of that to live
on the edge with God. Now he got a little ahead
of God it seems when he was 40 years of age and
so God sent him back for a graduate degree that
took another 40 years. But eventually he stepped
out in faith and he stood before Pharaoh standing
right on the edge and he said, let the people
of God go. Or think about, for example, Gideon,
who was called by God to fight against this massive
army of about 135 ,000 allied Amalekites and
Midianites. 135 ,000 of them. He was able to
muster together an army of about 32 ,000 to fight
against them. He's already out here on the edge
because he's called this army together. And then
God says to him, too many Gideon, too many. You
need to send home everybody who is afraid. massive
departure of soldiers. They went every direction,
leaving him with only a fraction of what he had
to start with. And so God said to him, sorry
Gideon, still too many. So we're gonna go down
to the brook here and have a little test. And
the ones that lap up the water. out of their
hands, those are the ones that you want to be
in your army. And so Gideon went down there with
his calculator and he began to add all these
numbers up and pushed total and it came up with
300. 300. 300 against this army of 135 ,000?
God says now we've whittled it down to size.
What was God doing? God was saying, I've got
a mission for you Gideon. Here's what I want
you to do and I want to get the credit for it.
I want you to do something Gideon that nobody
can explain apart from me. And you know the story
and how it unfolds and how that as a result of
those 300 and what God told them to do, which
is so unusual, they didn't even have a sword
in their hand. But as a result of it, 120 ,000
of the enemy were killed. A great victory for
Gideon and for the Lord. And then I remember
the three friends of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego. These three Jewish fellows who
refused to bow to Nebuchadnezzar's image and
who because of that stepped out at the edge.
They left behind the comfort zone where everybody
else was kneeling and they remained standing
in this large plane, very visible to all. They
lived it right on the edge and because of that
they were thrown into the fiery furnace and they
didn't burn. They lived through it and the king
recognized the greatness of their God. I mean,
you go down the list, folks. And time after time,
you see that those that God blessed were people
who deliberately chose to live on the edge. And
I want to add another hero to that list. It is
the man whose name is Nehemiah. Nehemiah. Nehemiah
comes from the name Nehum. There's another book
in the Bible, another man, represented by that
name, but the name means comfort. When you add
the suffix onto the name, I -A -H, Nahum Ayah,
you add on the name for God, Yah, so it means
God comforts. Nahum Ayah, God comforts. God shows
us in Nehemiah, a man who was willing to live
on the edge. Nehemiah leaves you and me an example
of what this is all about, to live this kind
of a life. And what we wanna notice today in
chapter one is that living on the edge begins
with your vision. You see, vision comes from
God. God creates it. in our lives. Vision is
seeing the desired result, whatever it is, and
then beginning to form a plan as to how to get
there. That's what vision is. Living on the edge
with your vision means dreaming of something
that only God can do and then stepping out in
faith to work with Him. And we see Nehemiah doing
that. I'd like for Steve St. Mary to come back
up here for a moment. I didn't know Steve was
going to be up here earlier until I got here
this morning, because I've been gone this week,
and it's good to be back with you, by the way.
But Steve, I'd just like to talk to you a moment,
because you moved to this valley about 2000,
wasn't it? And you found Los Gatos Christian
Church about 2001 or so, and you've been very
involved in our ministry here. And by the way,
we thank you for your involvement in helping
us in outreach and with the ESL program and so
forth. And then you experienced what a lot of
the folks here have experienced, the loss of
a job in your field, which was, tell me again,
biochemistry? Biotechnology. Biotechnology. And
that field sort of has dried up in some respect
for what you do in that field. And so you went
through a period of what, a couple of years without
employment? It's been a little over three years.
Three years. And what did God do in your heart
during that time? Well, we had a little conversation
as I was looking for work. A little conversation
with God. That's good. Just to have a little
talk with Jesus. Yes, we did and he impressed
on my heart that I Shouldn't leave the area that
I had been starting to work with the church and
that I should continue that so I began looking
in the area and the assumption I had was that
I would work here for a few years and Then eventually
go to Russia because I've been thinking about
that for a number of years. I first visited in
95 But God had been laying on my heart to do
something with Russia since the 1970s So this
is a longtime dream Really that you've had and
eventually you plan to go Yes, but now here you
are unemployed thinking that you're going to
find a job in your area and Continue to work
toward that goal and God began to show you that
it was sooner than, rather than later. That's
what he did, all right, yes. And so how did the
ESL thing come together? What happened there?
Well, it happened right, like a month after I
lost my job, that the church wanted to begin
an ESL program. And so I had time available,
and there's an interest I had. I'd actually taught
English or language arts for a number of years.
but usually not to internationals. So I was really
intrigued by the idea. There was a good team,
and I said, yeah, I'll be involved. And since
I had a lot of time, I got nominated to sort
of lead it and spearhead it. Worked well that
way. And so as you got ESL experience, God began
to formulate this vision for Russia in a particular
direction, didn't he? Exactly. I had my idea.
It was to work and prepare some things and then...
learn the language, and then finally go. Well,
God said, wait a minute, I've been equipping
you with this fine ability. Go get a degree that
says you're official at teaching it, and I'll
make arrangements to get you over there. And
he kept his end of the bargain. I'll be going
this Wednesday. All right, we praise the Lord
for that. Steve, do you feel like you're stepping
out over the edge a bit here? Well, yes. I know
the answer to that, that's why I asked. Yeah,
it became obvious to me. About the fourth day
I was in the country looking for jobs that without
the language it was going to be difficult to
survive there doing the things I wanted to do
which is meet Russians and get involved in their
lives and Even shopping It's really really helpful
to know the language. So I'll be going there
You know somewhat crippled from the standpoint.
I won't be able to communicate as effectively
as one normally would like to But you can read
McDonald's, so you can find a restaurant, at
least. The stop signs all say stop. Oh, do they?
In Russian, but they say stop. Okay. Well, Steve,
what I'm seeing in your life is what we see in
Nehemiah. And this morning, thanks very much
for sharing a little bit of your journey. And
I'm glad we had prayer for you today as you head
off as a tent maker missionary, really. But what
we see and happened in Steve's life... is similar
to what happened in Nehemiah's life. You see,
there's a process to vision. It doesn't just
happen all at once, normally. There's a dream
that generates in the heart. It comes because
one makes himself available to God. And then
there's a period of listening and waiting and
praying. And after this process has been fulfilled,
God then makes the vision clear. Now I want you
to notice with me what happened in Nehemiah's
case. And as a result of watching him and walking
along with him in his experience, my prayer is
that you and I will be willing like him to step
to the edge in our lives. That we will be willing
to move out of the safety margins that we build
in to protect ourselves. Because you see, it's
only when we're willing to do that that God can
really use us. Now in Nehemiah's case, this process
of the vision begins with Nehemiah seeing the
need. That's true with you and me too. You see
the need. That's the first step in the process.
Vision doesn't happen in a vacuum. I think some
folks believe that a vision happens when you
get down on your knees and you pray for a vision
and God zap, zaps you in your imagination and
your mind and suddenly you have this vision,
but that isn't normally how it works. Nehemiah
saw the situation in Jerusalem. Let's read about
it. The words of Nehemiah, son of Hakaliah. In
the month of Kislev in the 20th year, while I
was in the citadel of Susa, Hanani, one of my
brothers, probably one of his blood brothers,
came from Judah with some other men and I questioned
them about the Jewish remnant that survived the
exile and also about Jerusalem. They said to
me, those who survived the exile and are back
in the province are in great trouble and disgrace.
The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its
gates have been burned with fire. Now we need
to have a little background in history here.
The people of God, the nation of Judah, had forsaken
the Lord, and therefore he had sent them into
bondage to Babylon. Through Jeremiah the prophet,
he said this bondage is going to last for 70
years. That 70 year period began with the Babylonian
assault on Jerusalem in 605 or 606 BC. Now Jerusalem
was not destroyed at that time, but the capital
was conquered and Nebuchadnezzar the king took
away some captives and he put the nation under
tribute or taxation to himself. And so the clock
on the 70 years began to tick at that point.
Tens of thousands of people over several years
were displaced to Babylon. A number of years
later, in 537, 538 BC, Cyrus, who had founded
the nation of Persia, conquered Babylon, took
over its territory, assumed the position of the
ruler of that vast region that today we call
Iraq, Iran, and so forth, parts of Turkey. Cyrus
was the mighty king of this whole area after
he defeated Babylon. And because he wanted to
ingratiate some of the captive peoples to himself,
he released a number of them, including the Jews.
And of course, that's what the Bible focuses
on. And so in these years, 537, 538, Cyrus decreed
that the Jews could return to their homeland.
Now, if you do the math, you see that that's
about a 70 -year period of time. If you want
to read his decree, you can read it in Ezra,
chapter one, beginning in verse two. He decreed
that the Jews who wished could return to their
land, and the leader of them was to be a man
by the name of Shesh Bazar, which was his Babylonian
name. He was apparently an elderly man. He, along
with a younger leader, by the name of Zerubbabel,
and a man who was acting as the priest of the
Jewish people, a religious leader by the name
of Jeshua, or Joshua, led a number of people
to go back from Babylon to the city of Jerusalem.
They were given the authority there to begin
to rebuild their temple. These first returning
exiles, laid the foundation for the temple building
in Jerusalem. Remember, it had been destroyed
by Nebuchadnezzar some 70, not 70, but less than
that, some 58 years or so, 56 years before this.
It had been destroyed. And so they came back
and they began to lay the foundation in 536.
There was some. opposition to their work by the
enemies of the Jews. And so it stopped for a
period of time and then it restarted. Another
foundation was apparently laid because some years
had passed. And finally the temple, a reduced
temple, not as glorious, but at least a temple
building was dedicated in March of 516 BC. Now
that dates about 70 years after it had been destroyed
in 586. So there's several 70s. It depends upon
which 70 you want to attach yourself to to see
which one Jeremiah may have been speaking about
by the Spirit of God. But the interesting thing
about this is that while the temple was reconstructed
in 516, the city itself, the walls of the city,
the gates of the city were not rebuilt or restored.
Many years pass. Interestingly, about 70 of them.
And in late November or early December of 446
BC, Nehemiah receives the information that we
have just read about in the first chapter of
this book. Now what did Nehemiah see as he heard
this report? Well, he saw some facts about the
people. and about the place. About the people
he heard that the exiles who had been living
there now for a number of years were in great
trouble and disgrace. Great trouble and disgrace.
Do you know that that's always the result when
we forsake the Lord? None of us can ever forsake
the Lord in our lives without experiencing trouble
and eventually disgrace. We need to learn that.
And regarding the place itself, Nehemiah saw
in his mind the fact that the wall of Jerusalem
was broken down and that its gates were still
burned after all of these years. The survivors
were weak and vulnerable because of that. Oh,
the temple, a temple had been rebuilt, but the
city was vulnerable to attack. They were really
the victims of their enemies still. This once
great people of God had been humbled and now
he learns that they were also defenseless and
something stirred inside of this man whose name
means God Comforts. He gained some information
here. He saw the need. I wanna ask you a question.
What do you see? What do you see? That's an important
question. Now the fact is that we all see what's
closest to us, and that's our own stuff, right?
We naturally see that, and there's nothing wrong
with seeing our own issues and needs and problems,
et cetera, et cetera. But God wants us to see
beyond ourselves. In Philippians chapter two,
it says each of you should look not only to your
own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ
Jesus, who looked to your interests and to mine.
You and I are bombarded with information every
day. We naturally set up certain filters in our
lives to screen out things that we don't have
time or interest in. What do you permit in the
inbox? of your life. What do you see? What filters
have you created to keep some things out? Right
now, all of us see the suffering of thousands
of people who are affected by Hurricane Katrina.
We are aware every day of the suffering of the
people in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama,
and the displaced people. and our hearts go out
to them. We see that, we have that information.
In fact, there's so much, it's almost an overload
of it, we may feel. You may also see a friend
who is hurting, perhaps someone that you work
with, or a relative of yours who's going through
a time of great crisis in his or her life, and
you see that, you see it. You may also see the
needs of lost people around you We are all going
to be reminded of this in a powerful way as we
get into the next month the the festival theme
for global outreach this year is To the ends
of the earth and it's based upon the psalm Psalm
22 and the verses 27 and 28 that say, all the
ends of the earth will remember and turn to the
Lord and all the families of the nations will
bow down before him for dominion belongs to the
Lord and he rules over the nations. And we're
going to be called upon once again to remember
not only our own needs but the needs of those
who are lost. in the nations of the world and
who need yet to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Do you see that? What do you see? This morning
we were reminded in this wonderful slide presentation
and the words about the opportunities right here
in our own area, in our own region, to reach
out to the lost. And we see what God is doing.
because the Anti -Christian Liberties Union may
hear about it and try to stop it. Now what's
happening is perfectly legal, but you can expect
that at some point there may well be a challenge
to it because there are people who don't want
this kind of thing happening in the public schools.
So we want to be very careful about that and
yet we want to be involved. Do you see how you
might be able to fit into that? Do you see the
opportunity that's involved here? This is absolutely
of God. There's no other way to explain God's
people being able to minister to the children
in all of these schools in our region for us
to be involved as a local church. What do you
see? Do you see the needs in our own ministry
here? The needs that are apparent in In children's
ministry, for example, or in your mid -sized
group, a place, a role that you can have there.
Do you see the opportunity for you to use your
gifts? Do you see? We're thinking here of a physical
need that Nehemiah sees. And it leads me to ask
the question, do you see the need that we have
as a church to improve our physical facility?
We're doing that stage by stage and I thank God
for what's happening. But you know what that
does? It creates a contrast, doesn't it? When
you go up and you see the renovated rooms and
then you walk into the other classrooms, you
see wow, these classrooms need help. When you
drive up to our church, what do you see? You
see a large building and a beautiful campus,
but you also see a building that that desperately
needs to be updated. God is doing a new work
in this church and we give God thanks for it.
He is stirring us up. He is creating health in
our congregation and the life that is apparent
here, and it is apparent, is so refreshing and
wonderful. I worshiped elsewhere last Sunday
in a congregation that Jeanette and I love. We
were part of it for a good number of years in
our lives. But I gotta tell you, it was so good
to be here and worship this morning and to sense
the Spirit of God free and doing work in our
lives and drawing us to the feet of Jesus. It's
a wonderful thing to see. The temple is being
reconstructed, but the walls, if I may draw a
parallel, the gates are burned. And we have a
building that needs to be updated. If we expect
to have a ministry that is going to be vibrant
and healthy and attractive to the people of our
community in five years or 10 years, then we
need to do some work here. And we have recently
learned that we do need to do some work that's
not even visible. We have structural problems
again in this worship center. which will bring
back memories or visions or dreams or nightmares
for some of you from a few years ago. And we're
still trying to understand what that means and
what it's going to entail of us. And we hope
to have that information soon. But do you see?
If I were to bring you to my house and you walked
into my garage, you would say, I thought they
left tornadoes in the Midwest. But you know,
I walk into my garage and I hardly see it anymore.
You know how that is? You just don't see it anymore.
And that can be the case with us in coming here
to church. Do you see our facility like the first
newcomer sees it, first time newcomer sees it?
Where they put their children and what the building
looks like and the doors and all of those things.
What do you see? Nehemiah saw in his mind this
information. Now I don't know what else was going
on in Nehemiah's life. I don't know if he had
a wife, the Bible doesn't tell us. Did he have
children? We don't know whether he did. Did he
have a one -horse chariot or a two -horse chariot?
I don't know. Was he short on hay? What did bales
of hay cost? in that day so that he could keep
his one horsepower chariot going. I don't know,
I don't know what his concerns were, but the
point is that Nehemiah looked beyond whatever
was going on in his life to see the needs where
God was pointing him over in Jerusalem. And he
saw the people. And he saw the physical situation
of the city. He saw. The second step in the process
is this, that you feel the pain of what you see.
Nehemiah felt pain in his heart because of the
information that God planted in his mind. What
he saw went right down into his very soul and
he felt deeply the reality of the situation in
Jerusalem and it moved him. It moved him to tears
and mourning. In verse four it says, when I heard
these things, I sat down and wept. For some days
I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God
of heaven. If a vision is going to come together,
folks, information must move us to compassion.
That requires that our hearts be sensitive. A
danger that we face is the loss of sensitivity
in our hearts due to multiple appeals. That can
even happen in a great crisis like this Katrina
disaster. We build up a callus to protect ourselves
and clearly we have to determine that we can
do this or we can't. We can't do that. We don't
have the capacity to do everything. But in our
hearts, do we feel the pain? God gives us the
ability to empathize. A question. Not only what
do you see, but what do you feel? Of what do
you see, what touches the emotional core of your
life? Years ago I heard somebody say that there
are three questions you can ask a person and
based upon the answers you will know their character.
Question number one, what makes you laugh? Question
number two, what makes you angry? Question number
three, what makes you cry? If somebody honestly
answers those questions they will tell you about
themselves. Nehemiah cried over Jerusalem. What
are you crying over this weekend? You say, well
it's the hurt that I feel because of what I'm
going through. God bless you. May He comfort
you. May He come alongside of you and lift you
up. But oh friend, you need to look beyond just
your own things. Out there, what do you see?
How do you feel about that in your heart? What
is touching the emotional core of your life today?
That's the second step of the process. Here's
the final step. The final step is this, that
you turn to God. You see, Nehemiah not only wept,
he prayed before the God of heaven. He put the
situation in its God context. The problem that
he saw and which touched him so deeply was completely
beyond what Nehemiah could handle alone. And
so he turned to the one who could resolve it,
his God. Does your vision take into account the
size of your God? Information that produces compassion
brings us to connection with God. We turn our
eyes above. Now, I'd like for us to track along
with Nehemiah's prayer, but we're out of time
to do that. But notice in verses five through
11, this wonderful prayer that wells up out of
his heart, and it focuses upon what he says down
in verse 11. He says, oh Lord, let your ear be
attentive to the prayer of this your servant
and to the prayer of your servants who delight
in revering your name. Give your servant success
today by granting him favor in the presence of
this man. You say, who's that? What's he talking
about? Well, we're gonna talk about that next
week. We'll see what he means. But here's what
I want you to notice. that through this season
of mourning and fasting and then prayer, turning
to God, a vision formed in Nehemiah's heart.
He knew he could not handle, this was bigger
than he alone could handle. He turned to God
and God not only showed him the need, caused
him to feel as he felt about it, But in his heart,
a vision began to form as to how that might be
addressed, and it involved him. And it involved
him stepping way out of his comfort zone. He
had to get out there on the edge of things and
risk everything. That's the way it is. if God's
going to use you. You say, well, I'm not a Nehemiah.
No, neither am I. But you are who God made you
to be. And right now there's something that God
wants you to see. Or if you see it, God wants
your heart to be broken by it. And if your heart
is broken by it, then God wants to hear from
you so that he can begin to plant into your heart
and mold in you a vision that will involve a
plan to address what you've seen. The result
of this process is that God births a vision in
your heart so that you can experience God in
ways that you would not otherwise. What I want
to exhort you to do today is to live on the edge
with your vision. And walk through this process
with God in your own life. And let God show you
things that you could never dream of on your
own. Let's pray together. With our heads bowed,
are you walking with God today? Do you know Him?
Do you know him as your Lord and Savior? Are
you in fellowship with God or are you like the
people of Judah? You had forsaken the Lord and
you're living in disgrace and trouble. Friend,
there's a loving and caring and patient and faithful
God who's opening his arms to you today and he
wants you to come to him. I hope you will. Come
running to him. Jump into his arms, he's ready
to receive you as a loving father. Oh, child
of God, may God give you the vision that fits
your life and fits who he is that will bless
the world. And Father, to that end, I pray that
you will give us the vision. the very first and
most important vision, and that is of yourself.
Be our vision. And as we focus on you, then create
in us that ministry vision, that outreach vision,
that involvement vision, that ministry vision
that you're calling us to. In Jesus' name, amen.