← ArchiveSunday, July 26, 2015DateJuly 26, 2015Speaker—Text—Passages in this sermonNehemiah 16:56Nehemiah 216:48Matthew 1841:47Acts 250:27Acts 554:25John 17:2159:58TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00Greg, my wife said she really did appreciate that, reminded her of going back home. And so, Reggie, I don't believe you that you've never, that's number two, right?0:21No, you've gone to some place and rehearsed that, I believe. Let me go to the Lord in prayer real quick. Lord Jesus, thank you so much once again, Lord, for your body coming together as a church. I pray, Lord, that you would decrease me, Lord, so that you may increase.0:47I pray, Lord, my words would be yours. And so, Lord, move me out of the way because I have nothing good to say, but only through your word. And we thank you, Lord, for what we're going to hear today. And Lord, I pray, Lord, we would leave excited. I'm going to do something right quick. Somebody messing with me right here.1:16That's for y'all, because if I don't see that by the way it's a clock, if I don't see that, we won't get out here until this afternoon. Nehemiah, turn with me to Nehemiah. We're going to go Old Testament this morning. Again, if you don't know who I am, my name is Brad Tolleson. I'm on staff here. My title has changed to so many different times. I'm not sure what I do anymore. So, last I checked, I was the associate pastor, youth pastor.1:45And so, I just love Jesus and love serving him. And it doesn't really matter what they call me as long as I get to serve him in a capacity where I can love on people and preach his word. So, Nehemiah, we're going to kind of bounce around a little bit. Let me kind of explain where I'm at here in my goal for this sermon. My goal for this sermon is for you to leave here this morning with a better understanding of where you are in your walk with Jesus.2:06That's my goal for you this morning. For you to leave here this morning with a better understanding of where your walk is with Jesus. Now, hopefully that will catapult you into an area of service. And we're going to kind of get into that in a little bit.2:35I took our students to a beach retreat. And I know a lot of you are like, oh man, that's awesome, Brad. You take them to a beach retreat. It's really getting after it for Jesus there, man, at the beach. But no, we took a group of students, and mainly our core group students that we actually took. And the Lord put this message on my heart. And so they kind of heard a lot of this. But I'm actually expounding on a whole lot more for the church and everything because I think there's an incredible message here that we can actually hear from Nehemiah.3:00Nehemiah was a Jewish man. And we are not sure if he had ever been to Israel. He was working for King Artaxerxes of Persia. And he begins to write this journal. And this journal, of course, is Nehemiah. And so just to give you a little bit of a time and some background here. A thousand years after Moses led God's people out of Egypt.3:27590 years after David defeated Goliath. 160 years after Daniel was exiled to Babylon. 141 years after Jeremiah prophesied in the destruction of Jerusalem because God's people would not forsake their wickedness. And God used the Babylonians to level the city of Jerusalem to burn the top of the walls and destroy the temple. 33 years after Esther was made queen of Persia.3:57And then 13 years, I'm sorry, Esther was made queen of Persia. And then 13 years after Ezra led a second group of exiles back to Judah. And the book of Ezra and Nehemiah kind of go corresponding along with each other. Just to give you a little bit of history there. Ezra basically tells how the temple was rebuilt. Nehemiah tells us how the walls were rebuilt. So it basically kind of happened almost at the same time. As a matter of fact, Ezra is a little bit further along than Nehemiah.4:27Because at different points in time, as we see there, the temple was constructed while these walls were being built. Here's the theme of Nehemiah. Here's the theme of Nehemiah. Nehemiah teaches us how God works in and through his people. And so Nehemiah is really, really important to see how God works in and through his people. Nehemiah is a story of God reviving and reforming his people so that they have courage, conviction, and most importantly, clarity in their step forward, both to pray and act as people of God, for the glory of God.4:56Now, Nehemiah takes place in what is called the Jewish exile. About 600 B.C., the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem. That is the southern part of Israel. Jews were scattered all over the place. As a matter of fact, Jews were all over the world at that point in time. And so some were taken into captivity. As we hear about Daniel, he was taken into captivity.5:24That was part of that. And so about 70 years go by, and the Persians conquer the Babylonians. And so this is where we kind of get where the Persians actually let all the Jews go back into their homeland. And by the way, for that to actually happen, for the Persian king to let all the Jews go back to the homeland is a God thing in itself. Now, you would expect that this would have been a great thing for all the Jews to go back to Israel, to go back to Judah.5:51But it really wasn't because guess what? The entire land was destroyed. By this point in time in history, Jerusalem was laid waste. They didn't have really a good economic status there. The real estate wasn't that great. They had no walls. Walls at that point in time was a very important part of the defense mechanism of a city. If you didn't have walls, you didn't have defense.6:21As a matter of fact, an invading country could easily just come in and just wipe it clean if there was no walls there. So here we have this place called Jerusalem that had no walls. It had absolutely no walls whatsoever. And so here we have Nehemiah. About 90 years later is when we meet Nehemiah. And so for about 70 years, the nation of Israel was basically shut down. It was just completely shut down. And so 70 years go by.6:50The Persians conquer the Babylonians. And so years later, we meet Nehemiah. Let's read Nehemiah chapter 1 starting there. The words of Nehemiah, son of Hekelah. Now it happened in the month of Chislev. And that's about November, December, the 20th year. As I was in Susa, the citadel. Let me explain a little bit about Susa. Susa was basically the Persian capital. It was an extremely rich area. It was a very flourishing area. And so here we have Nehemiah.7:20He's in this area, the citadel. And then in verse 2, it says that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And listen to this. It says, I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, concerning Jerusalem. So Nehemiah asked this question to some of his brothers. He's concerned. He's like, hey, what's going on with Jerusalem? What's happening there? And this is what they said to him. The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble.7:46The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire. And so these guys come along. Nehemiah asked the questions, what's going on there? And they tell him, that man, the place is messed up. The gates are destroyed by fire. And in verse 4, it says, as soon as I heard those words. This is what kind of a pivotal point here in the whole entire story. As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days.8:14And I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And then he kind of goes through some petitions here. Verse 5, it says, and I said, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who kept covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments. Verse 6 says, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant,8:40that I now pray for you day and night for the people of Israel, your servants. Confessing sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you, even I and my father's house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, the rules that you commanded your servant Moses.9:06Verse 8, remember the word that you, and this is really interesting here, I want to stop for a second. He's basically, he's praying this prayer and all of a sudden he stops in this prayer and he's going, hey, do you remember? He's asking God if he remembers. And so he's really praying in such a way where he's starting to get almost agitated with his prayer. This is what he says.9:36Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses saying, if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples. And that's exactly what has happened here. Verse 9 says, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place I have chosen to make a name, make my name dwell there. They are your servants and your people,10:04whom you redeemed by your great power, by your strong hand. Oh Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayers of your servants who delight to fear your name and give success to your servant today and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. And this is really interesting what he states here. I was cupbearer to the king.10:31Now I want to explain to you what a cupbearer is. You don't want to be that guy. That guy tastes the wine and the food, everything that the king actually is going to eat. That's what he is supposed to taste. The reason why he's tasting it before the king does is because just in case the king is poisoned, you're out. And so, there's the con, okay?10:59If you was doing pros and cons of being a cupbearer, there's the con, I could die. The pro is, man, I get to live in the palace. I get to drink the best wine and eat the best food. And so, you kind of have to take the con and go, you know, that could happen. But, you know, people know that I'm doing this as a cupbearer, so maybe they won't, maybe this is not the way they'll kill the king. Hopefully. Maybe not. Maybe they will try. But anyway, he was, he had it made.11:29Okay, this guy had it made at this job. Nehemiah was, again, eating the best food. And so, I was cupbearer to the king. Here's the question I want to ask you. It's the same question I asked our students on our retreat. And it's going to be the resounding question throughout this sermon. is what breaks your heart? What breaks your heart?11:59As we've read here, when Nehemiah heard that the walls were destroyed and the gates were burned, he wasn't, I want you to key in on this, he wasn't necessarily so concerned about the walls and the gates as he was for the people and the nation. And so, he says his heart, he said he basically stopped right there and he wept. His heart was broken.12:29And so my question to you is, what breaks your heart? It's a very dangerous question. And here's some things that we need to look around us. What needs to be done around you? What captures your emotion? What needs to be changed for the good around you? Think about the city that you live in, whether it be Odenville, whether it be Margaret, whether it be Moody, even Birmingham or Leeds. Think about the city you live in. Think about your job. Is there something there that breaks your heart? Think about the people you do business with. Think about the friends you have.12:58Think about those in your family. Do any of those things break your heart? Most of us would say, well, I can't do anything about that, Brad. What can I do about that, really? I mean, I really don't have any kind of cloud. I'm not really that sharp. I don't know the word that well. I'm too young or I'm too old. I'm not educated enough.13:28And here's how most of us pray. God, would you please send somebody to change that? God, would you please send somebody, do something to intervene there. Would you please send someone to change that thing over there? I mean, guys, I've prayed that prayer before. I'm just going to be honest with you. Lord, there's nothing I can do about that. I mean, I'm not in control there. So, you know, I'm going to pray that you would send somebody to do that. Then we start the blame game about our burdened heart.13:57We start the blame game. It's my parents' fault. It's the teacher's fault. It's the president's fault. It's the government's fault. It's the governor's fault. It's the pastor's fault. We haven't even called the guy yet. And it's his fault. And so we start to blame everybody. We have this burden. And guess what? If we don't get on our knees before the Lord and start to really go before him about it and let him instruct us, it could cause bitterness in our heart.14:22So what breaks your heart? What if we ask the question, what can I do about the community and the world around me? If you are a Jesus follower in this room, then you must be active at some level in your life that is bringing about change around you.14:45Let me say that one more time. If you are a Jesus follower in this room, because you are a Jesus follower, then what's around you should be changing. Because you're a Jesus follower.15:13And so your heart's burdened about something, and we complain and we grumble about it instead of going to the Lord about it. Or we just don't even want to deal with it. That's not my pay rate. I don't get paid to do that. I don't get paid to mess with that. So I'm just going to let someone else take care of that. Devotion to God is measured in terms to obedience to others.15:42Devotion to God is measured in terms to devotion to others. And so if you want favor with God, then pay attention to how you serve others. Because Jesus was really concerned about serving others. Jesus didn't feel compassion. He just didn't feel compassion. He acted on that compassion. Always. He always acted on that compassion.16:12And let me just say this. Most of us in this room have no idea what hangs in the balance about the decisions we make when we serve others. We have no idea what hangs in the balance. You could be the catalyst that starts a new ministry that serves other people in different kinds of ways. So what breaks your heart? What really breaks your heart?16:48Let's go to Nehemiah 2, chapter 2, verse 6. We'll start there. Let me kind of give you a little bit of background on what just happened from where we ended to there. Basically, there was a lot of different, a couple of things that happened there. He petitioned the king, and we're going to get into a little bit of that there in verse 6. Here we go. Nehemiah 2, verse 6. And the king said to me, with the queen standing beside him, How long will you be gone? And will you return? So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time.17:18And so basically what happens here is, Nehemiah goes to the king and said, Hey, man, there's people here that are desolate. They're my people. I have a burden about them. As a matter of fact, later on in chapter 1, the king even asked him, Why are you so sad? And so he's able to tell him what happened to his people. And so the king sends him. Now let me just say this. That's a God thing because God controls the kings.17:48He is ruler over the kings. This king of Persia, even though this guy didn't sack Jerusalem, the Babylonians did. But I guarantee you, this guy don't want to see Jerusalem rebuilt. Just because he is an enemy. But something happened in his heart. And so guess what? He lets him go. And then in verse 7, it says, So here's the deal.18:13He lets him go, but then he starts asking for other stuff. Would you send letters? And then in verse 8, it says, And a letter to Asphev, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple and for the walls of the city and for the house that I shall occupy.18:42And the king granted me what I asked for the good hand of my God was upon me. So he just didn't say, hey, king, would you let me go? I want you to provide the timber. You didn't ask the king for anything. The king did all the asking in that day. This was risky. This was bold. This was a step that Nehemiah was taking that could possibly get him killed.19:09Because he's asking, he's petitioning the king, hey, you know what? I want to be let go for a certain amount of time. And I want to go and rebuild this city. And would you send letters to the governors? Let them know. And by the way, can I have some wood so I can go build this city? Sure. Go ahead. You go take care of that. Just come back. That's a God thing. That's favor with God. The question is, where did that boldness come from?19:39Where did that boldness come from? He got the boldness and the reality that the word of God said, if the people, if God's people turned their faces back to God, he would establish the walls of Jerusalem. So he got his boldness from where? God's word. So you may be asking that question, what has my heart broken over? What breaks my heart? And if you're kind of like, man, I'm not sure what breaks my heart, my challenge to you20:08is get in God's word and find out. And if you have that thing that's breaking your heart and it's really just bothering you, you have a burden for that particular person, that thing, then here's my challenge to you. Gain boldness by the promises of God's word. By the promises of God's word. By the promises of God's word. That's where Nehemiah got his boldness. And so that brought about confidence in Nehemiah's life.20:37We walk around so defeated oftentimes as believers. We just kind of, well, there's nothing that we can really do about that. Yeah, there is. If we just step forward and do and go and serve. God will meet us there.21:11Nehemiah found his boldness in God's word. Speak up in 17, chapter 2, verse 17. Then I said to him, to them, and he's in Jerusalem at this point, and he's walking with some of the people there in Jerusalem. And he's basically asking them some questions and everything. He's going around checking the gates. And he's basically making an assessment is what he has done. He gets to Jerusalem and he kind of makes this assessment. And he talks to some nobles there.21:40And he talks to the people at different gates. And then I said to them, verse 17, you see the trouble that we're in? How Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer dissension. In verse 18, and I told them of the hand of my God that has been upon me for good. And also of the words that the king had spoke to me.22:10And they said, let us, let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for the good work. Nehemiah's broken heart, listen to me. Nehemiah's broken heart moved him to prayer and fasting, to seeking out the scriptures, to boldness, and then ultimately leading to action. We oftentimes stop at prayer. I'm just being really honest with you guys.22:38For the most part, we stop at prayer. Every now and then, we'll kind of get out and, okay, I prayed about this, and the Lord's giving me direction. I'm going to step out. And then all of a sudden, we get slapped by this world. And we go, I'm out. I'm going to pray for somebody else to handle that. And God the whole time is going, no, you need to go. It's your burden. You take it and go. I don't know if you guys have caught on this or not, but I don't have it happen often anymore.23:08People would come to me, students involved, and even adults. Brad, man, I have this great idea. And I think we should start this ministry. And it's just, I think it'd be awesome. And this is what's happening here. They're looking at me going, I think we should do this, Bill. And, man, I think this would be a great idea. And so, man, just get after it.23:36They kind of walk off. And I'm going, does anyone want me to do this? Then they get an email. Later on, they're mad because I didn't do it. So this is what I say. When you come to me and you say that, guess what I'm going to do? Take care of it. Go after it. I'll be praying for you. If you need me, I'll help you. I will use any method I possibly can to help you with that ministry. God put it on your heart, not mine. You go after it.24:06We've got to get out of the seat. We've got to get to the point to where we've prayed, we've heard from God. Now let's go. Let's do. Let's go. Let's do. So what breaks your heart? A multitude of things. I actually passed out pieces of paper to our students and asked them, hey, what breaks your heart? I want you to write down what breaks your heart. And then I devised four different areas of youth ministry that need work.24:35And I asked them, name one or two of those areas in youth ministry that you feel like needs to be shored up. In other words, those walls need to be rebuilt. I was really surprised at some of the things that they wrote down at the bottom. I was expecting the big ones. You know, the whole gay marriage issue. You know, I had one of those. But I was really surprised at some of the issues that they named. Most of them were local.25:04And so hopefully because of this word, your students are going to start acting out and see change in their school, their neighbor, and their family. And we can do the same. You can see Nehemiah growing in his faith here.25:33Again, Nehemiah, his heart was broken. Moved with prayer and fasting, seeking out the scriptures to boldness and then ultimately leading to action. We're all on this path to maturity. At least we should be if you're a follower of Jesus. Our physical maturity should almost line up with our spiritual maturity. Okay, now let me kind of explain that. Let me say that again. Our spiritual maturity should almost line up with our physical maturity.25:59And what I mean is when you are a new believer, you're a what? A babe in Christ. Right? When you're a new believer, you're kind of a babe in Christ. And so your walk with Jesus was new. And as you mature spiritually, you begin to run this race, as Paul would say it. In other words, you're kind of walking with Christ. In other words, our little boy, Lane, just now started walking.26:27Okay? And he really looks like a drunk. Stupor. Just kind of, you know, he's... And you're kind of afraid. You're like, okay, you're watching him walk and everything. And then he's got a four-year-old brother that, you know, you're just really worried. He's just going to jerk the rug out from underneath him just to watch him fall and laugh about it. And so you're just concerned about his walking. And he's just kind of tumbling a little bit. He gets bruises. And so that is a really great representation of a new believer in Christ. We, the church, kind of watch and we kind of grow.26:57And as you mature, you begin to run. Later on in the New Testament, Paul talks about it. We run this race with endurance. We run this race and we're actively pursuing ministry. When a baby is born, it just doesn't stop growing at birth. They don't stop growing at birth. It grows. And it's the same with followers of Jesus.27:24Jesus said, go and make disciples, not new believers. I think that's where we kind of get mixed up. We're going around saying, well, we should just make converts. He said, go make disciples. Guys, let me tell you something. It's easy to stand before a crowd and present the gospel and people get saved. It's easy for that to happen.27:52What's hard and messy is making disciples. And oftentimes we kind of shy away from that as the church. We kind of, ah, man, that dude, he's just, I don't know about him. His theology is all messed up. And we say that and we go, well, who taught him theology? Because he's a new babe in Christ. He's new. Jesus invites us to a life of growth and action. It is the expectation of God for us to grow and mature spiritually.28:21It's the expectation of God. And in a lot of churches, there are people that have been, quote, Christians for 20 years and growth never seems to happen. Amen? Growth never really seems to happen. And you can kind of go, oh, hey, yeah, I don't know exactly who those people are. I've seen them. They're just those that kind of grumble and they have babies all the time.28:49Never doing anything but showing up, causing trouble. And I want to be honest with you. Most of the time you grow spiritually all like you grow physically. And so there's something that we can see there. There's fruit. Nehemiah gives us some great building blocks as to how we grow spiritually. Together. As believers.29:18As believers. Together as believers. Because your devotion to God is authenticated by love for others and love for others will cost you some time and life. Love for others will cost you time and it'll cost you some life. To make this community and world a better place. You don't have to quit your job. You just need to be faithful in your job.29:50Stay at home moms. To make this community and world a better place. Just be a good stay at home mom. A godly stay at home mom. Raising kids up the way they should go. Students, you don't have to be an A plus student. To necessarily make an impact for the Lord. Just be a good student.30:19Just be an outstanding student for Jesus. And so we need to take care of what's in front of us. We need to take care of those things around us to make this community a better place. So in other words, you don't have to become a missionary and leave the country for that to take place. You could do it right now. Here. In this place called Bethel Baptist Church.30:56The church is the light of the world. It's where people find community, safety, and life. If God is inviting and prompting you to do something, say yes to him. Say yes to him. Find a way to take that burden that you have and see action. Get on your knees before the Lord and pray. Fast. Let that move you to the scriptures.31:25Man, I'll tell you what. I love God's word. I mean, I read God's word and I'm like, man, this is just amazing. You know, I've only read Nehemiah probably three or four times. We went to a leadership class and everything in seminary and it was our main text and everything. But I've never really marinated it in it. What I mean by that, I never really soaked into it and actually looked at the principles of Nehemiah.31:51If you read all 13 chapters of this book, you start in one where his heart is broken. You start, you're starting in two where the challenge is made. Three, you're going to read a lot of names. Okay. You're going to read a whole lot of names. Chapter four, guess what happens? He hits opposition. He hits those people grumbling. What are we changing this for? Why are we doing this? Why are we doing this?32:22Why are we building these walls up? We liked it the way it was before. Nehemiah goes, you could get destroyed. Chapter five, he goes through some other things. And then in chapter 12, man, they're dancing on the walls. All because of one man. Broken heart, led to action. He's dancing on the walls. The entire area, the entire city of Jerusalem. And then in chapter 13, they get lazy. This book ends really weird.32:52I'm just going to be really honest with you. It has a strange ending. You're almost looking for the second part of it or something. Maybe a plan B, an alternative ending. Because when you read 13, it's like, wait, is that it? He basically pulls people's hair out in the end. Because they got lazy again. So just imagine, you have this big celebration. The walls are built and everything. And everything is great. And the Christians or the believers there, they get lazy again. So Nehemiah goes around pulling their hair out. Numb school, get back to work.33:21Get busy. So oftentimes, we need to take a checkup. We need to evaluate ourself. And look at where we're at standing with the Lord. And what breaks your heart? Let me just say this. If you're a believer in here, something should break your heart. Something should break your heart. One day, soon we're going to look back on this entire year.33:49And you'll have spent your time somewhere doing something. Spend it where that matters. Spend it somewhere where that matters. So how do you develop a broken heart? How do you develop this broken heart for others? How do you do that? How do you, how does that particular, how does that happen? How do you get around people and you get to know people and you start getting a broken heart for other people? How does that happen?34:19It's very simple. The foundation, I want you guys to really tune in on this. The foundation of all discipleship does not happen in a large group like this. Okay. The foundation for all discipleship does not happen in big church. It don't happen. It happens in smaller groups. The foundation of discipleship happens in terms of doing life with smaller groups of people.34:43Whether that be your Sunday school class. Whether that be your group of friends. That you're close to. Family. That's where discipleship happens. Doing life with each other. That's where you begin to have burdens for other people. One of the catalysts of maturity is being known and in knowing others.35:11You and I grow and begin to mature when we do gospel-centered life with each other. It's the way it happens. It's the way we grow. It's the way we grow. It's the way we grow with each other. Who can you partner with that can be your base or platform to change your community? Who can you partner with to change this world? Who can these students partner with to change their school?35:41I'm just going to be really, it's real simple. Other believers. Other believers. The church. The church. We were created to enjoy life in him but also experience life with each other. When you do life like this. When you do life like this. When you walk with each other.36:12When tragedy and sickness occurs. When death takes place. When you lose your job. That leads you to prayer. That leads you to search the scriptures. And it leads you to encourage others. When your kids go wayward. That breaks your heart. When your marriage is on the rocks. That breaks your heart. When you lose your job. That breaks your heart. If you are detached. Let me just say this. If you are detached.36:41From a group in this church. If you're not involved. In a group. In this church. Of believers. A small group. And that's. Then this is all you know. You come here. And this is all you get. You're shortchanging yourself. And you're stunning your growth. As a believer. We don't like them people in there. You know what? Truth be known. They probably don't like you either. I mean I hear.37:09The students are the world's worst. For this. I don't like them. Why don't you know. If you ask them. They might not like you either. Get to know them. And guess what? Listen to me. When we have opposition. With each other. That creates growth. That's part of the sanctification process. Because. When I disagree. What have I not disagreed in here with? What have I not disagreed in here with? When I disagree with Shane.37:39Okay. When I disagree with that brother over there. About something. Whatever it is. Guess what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to get together. And work that thing out. And if we get together. And we work that thing out with each other. Whether it be an issue at school. Whether it be an issue that I have an issue with. Theologically or whatever. We work that thing out. And we leave the table. Loving each other more. Because we just went to. We just.38:09We just. We rubbed. Christian people. Guess what? Newsflash. Christian people can be very grimy. And greedy group of people. Because we're all sinners. Saved by grace. We're all in this process. We're all in this process of maturity. And some of us are walking at different levels. Some of us kind of help each other up a little bit. Some of us are a little rough around the edges. And we need some smoothing a little bit.38:38Iron sharpens iron. And that takes place in the area of getting to know each other. It doesn't happen in here. I'm not anti-church. I'm pro-church. I'm pro-discipleship. I'm pro-people getting out of the seat of the pews. And going and doing. And it happens in the context of getting to know each other. Regardless of whether we disagree or not. The one thing I learned.39:06If you're not walking with people deeply. Then that can be a developmental issue for you. You should not be surprised when you struggle to. You should not be surprised. Let me just put it this way. Try not to be so brash. Because my wife says sometimes I'm rough. She's afraid we're going to get run off one day or something.39:36Which would be fine with me. When you're not walking with people deeply. And having those kind of relationships with others. That in itself can be a pride thing. So there's issues of sin that we may need to deal with. And so there's areas of sin we need to deal with on an individual level.40:05And then we need to get with other people. And that's called accountability. And we start to grow. As believers. We start to grow that way. We start to grow in such ways that we would have never thought before. If we attach ourselves to a group of people. You should not be surprised. When you do hang around people. That struggle with sin like you do. And then you feel distant from God.40:34Because you haven't faced those issues. You've masked them. You're not going to get involved in the scriptures. When you don't hang out with people that love the scriptures. More than you. And so find a group of people. That love and value the scriptures. And if you want to learn the scriptures. Get around people that love the word. Get around people that love the word.41:04You should be surprised if you're not walking deeply with others. That you will wrestle in the flesh. When you're not attached to people. If you're not attached to a group here. Or a life group off campus. Which we're fixing to talk about. When you're not attached to that. Guess what's going to happen? You'll stunt your growth. You'll stunt your growth. Guys listen. Jesus sent the disciples out in twos and threes. It's his model.41:34There's no such thing as a long-ranger Christian. We're supposed to walk with each other together. And if you have issues with me. Or if I have issues with someone. The first thing we do. As it says in Matthew 18. Is we go and work those things out. We work those things out. As brothers and sisters. And then we move on. Because there's bigger issues than us. There's bigger issues than us.42:03We should be more concerned about the hungry. The 12,000 hungry people in our community. Than we should be us. And so if that breaks my heart. Guess what? I'm going to deal with things. Then I'm going to move on. Because the word leads me to action. And what's even awesome about this. Is then I attach myself to a group of people. And we go to war together. In that small group. We do battle together in that small group.42:33A burden of broken heart leads to compassion. That leads to prayerfulness. And a seriousness about the word of God. And that leads to action. And let me tell you this. It's happening on different levels. In this church. It's an awesome thing to see. It's an awesome thing to see this take place. In biblical counseling. In Celebrate Recovery. In Backpack Buddies. In the Food Bank. In the different things we have forgotten. The Forgotten Initiative. And so this is happening on different levels in this church.43:04And that is what we're fighting for. And as this works itself out. It grows. It spills over the walls. And into the community. This is the lot. We are supposed to be the light of the world. That's what we do. Last Sunday. I'm going to brag on one of our Love Surge projects. Just for a second. I wasn't going to do this. Last Sunday. One of our Love Surges. If you've been on the site. It's called Laundry Love.43:34And it's one of the lame brains idea that I had. Wasn't sure if it was going to work or not. Did some research and everything. From some areas. Up north. Some humanitarian places. I had not. The church had not really taken this. And really ran with it. Other than maybe some local areas. But what we did was we set it up. I called the laundromat in Odenville. Okay. And this is just me doing this. I called the laundromat in Odenville. I said, hey. Has anybody ever came in a church. And just loved on folks.44:03What do you mean? Has anyone paid for people's laundry? Yeah, we've had that happen a couple of times. Really? How does that work? So she told me the whole thing and everything. She set the date up. I got it. And I put it out there. Just threw it out there. And then I had a bite. Joe West and some other people from his class and outside the class came to me and said, hey, man, we're really interested in this.44:31And I was really anxious to see how this was going to work. And I called the manager. Hey, look, we have a group coming. And then they had that whole thing set up. And it was a huge success. We did ministry. Listen to me. That group did ministry. Took care of people's laundry. Ministered to a homeless man.45:02That's right, homeless. St. Clair County. Odenville. They're here. Was able to pray with people. Give them information. What church do you guys go to? We go to Bethel. Man, this is awesome. On a Sunday morning. Do you think Jesus was happy about that? Yes, he was. Because someone just looked on the love service page and said, you know what?45:31Joe West has done a lot of laundry in his life. Am I right? He came to me, I can do that. And I'm like, yes, you can. Had a burden. Had a blessing. That's what it's all about. Let me show a little bit about what's coming up of some people that had a burden. For some other things that we're about to get started.46:01Hi, I'm Chris Wright. I'm Carissa Wright. And we're excited to come to you to talk about our life group. Our first Bible study will be studying Ephesians in a study called Connected. And one of the things I like about it, it helps us understand what it is for the privilege to be in a church home. Paul writes to the church in Ephesus and tells them about what it is to be the body of Christ. Each one of us has a role and each one has a job to do.46:28There's so many things that we can get out of the church. There's also many things that we need to give the church. And we each have a role and we need to understand what that role is and how we fit in to the church body. I think this is like the perfect Bible study for the beginning of a new life group so we can see our role and learn how we fit into the church and our role is how we fit in our life group. Hello, my name is Bill Bill. I have a burden for those that are caught up in habitual sin.46:58There's a group of us within Bethlehem that have formed a life group called the Addiction Support Group. The object of this group is to help those that are struggling with addictions such as gambling, pornography, sexual addiction, cutting, and many others. Come join us. Hello, I'm Tyler Kempsey. I'm Elizabeth Kempsey. I'm Christy McCullough. And I'm Matt McCullough.47:28This September we're starting a life group called Financial Peace University. And the reason we're starting this life group is because we have a burden to see our other brothers and sisters in Christ take control of their finances and get out of debt for the burdens of God's kingdom through missions and giving. Tyler and I took the class last year and we are so excited about leading the class. This time it has completely changed our lives, obviously, for the better.47:55And we just want to see other people benefit from this like we have.48:10Is this thing on? Is this thing on? It is on now. All right. Good morning. My name is Bill Weathington and I am very excited to be here and talk to you about life groups. I've been a member of this church for a little over 12 years. And I believe that if we do it correctly, life groups can be the single most important program that we have ever undertaken. You know, to some of us, this idea of life groups is a new idea.48:35It's a new concept. But it's really not new at all. In fact, this is the model that was established by the very first church back in Jerusalem. Following Jesus' ascension, there were a group of believers who came together with the apostles there in Jerusalem. And remember, Christ instructed them to remain in Jerusalem until the Comforter comes, until the day of Pentecost.49:04And the first chapter of Acts tells us that there were 120 believers there together. And following Pentecost, it says that God added 3,000 people. 3,000 people. Can you imagine 3,000 people being saved here at Bethel Baptist Church one Sunday morning?49:33Can you imagine 3,000 people being saved here at Bethel Baptist Church in one year? If you do the math, it takes about 58 people per week to have 3,000 people saved in a year. Can you imagine 3,000 people being saved over a 10-year period here at Bethel Baptist Church?49:55I don't think that's ever happened before. I don't think that's ever happened before. And if you do the math, it takes about 6 people every week being saved over a 10-year period to reach 3,000 people. And in fact, really, as we look around, can you imagine 3,000 people here, period? How did the early church do it?50:23If you look at Acts chapter 2, it says they devoted themselves to four things. They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles. They devoted themselves to fellowship. They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread. And they devoted themselves to prayer. Every small group should use that as the model.50:54Every small group, life group, should use that as the structure for how that life group is operating. Let me read to you Acts chapter 2, starting at verse 42. It says, They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer. Everyone was filled with awe.51:24Many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. And all the believers were together. And all the believers had everything in common. Every day, they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes. They ate together. They were glad. They had sincere hearts. They praised God and they enjoyed the favor. Of all the people.51:54And as a result of devoting themselves to those four things, there was a result. What was the result? In verse 47, The Lord added to their number daily those who were saved. Now, I tried to emphasize. Let me point it out to you. They met daily. They met daily in the temple courts. They met daily in their homes. They ate together. They fellowshiped together. They broke food together. They were all in one accord.52:23They came together. Again, that is the model that we hope to attain is everyone coming together every day. Notice, I didn't read to you the scripture that says you can only meet on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. Okay? That wasn't the model, was it? They did it every day. Every single day.52:52And that is important because this idea of the life groups, if David Hawkins has a life group meets on Tuesday, and I have one that meets on Thursday, and somebody else, the ones you saw, Bill Dill and various ones that have their groups, I can go to something every day. I can be blessed every day. I can have today's experience every day of the week. If I can fit it into my schedule, I'll have an opportunity.53:21So, the idea, again, it's not something new. It's not something radical. It's really returning to our roots, returning to the base. Also, I want to reiterate one thing, and that is, in verse 44, it says, all the believers were together, and they had everything in common. They weren't fractured.53:50They had everything in common. Now, I teach a Sunday school class. I've been teaching one for three years. I intend to continue teaching that Sunday school class. The small group is something additional. It's something that I will do in addition to my Sunday school class. So, I encourage everyone here to participate, to embrace this idea, and let's all make it work.54:14Let me read to you, in closing, Acts 5, verse 42. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, notice, in the temple courts here in the sanctuary,54:34and from house to house, other places, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. If you believe, as I do, the Great Commission tells us to go and to make disciples. We can go here at home.55:03We can make disciples here at home. And we can make better disciples, and we can better make disciples if we do it in these type groups, and if we do it on a daily basis, and if we follow the model that works. I'm sure all of you have heard Albert Einstein. Einstein said the definition of insanity is what? Continue doing what you're doing and expect to get different results.55:29Well, we have a model. And the opposite of Einstein's statement is also true. If you follow a successful model, you can expect to be successful, too. And we can expect this program to work. As Brad talked about Nehemiah, God will do for us what God did for Nehemiah if we are like him, if we're concerned, we have a broken heart, and if we're willing, if we're willing, and if we'll get up off our duffs and do something about it.55:55So, I invite you again to participate in the life groups, find a life group, find several life groups, and let's make Bethel not only a successful church, let's make Bethel a disciple-making church.56:18Let's make Bethel a soul-winning church. Let's make Bethel be all that God intends Bethel to be. Thank you. Thank you, Bill.56:48Bill and I have been meeting on a regular basis, and the guy's pretty smart. He has a burden. And when I find out that someone has a burden for something that I have a burden to, guess what I'm going to do? I'm going to partner with that guy, and we're going to make this thing work.57:17And so, there's a couple of illustrations that I was going to share. But I want you guys to understand something. We're not adding anything to your busy schedule. We're not saying, go here, go here, go here. It's simply connect. Connect with a group of believers and do life together. Do life deeply with one another.57:47Everything flows out of that. Everything flows out of that. So, really, the Christian life is one of faithful presence. A win is for you to be deeply rooted with a group of believers for an extended period of time who are serious about the Word of God. You may have some questions. When is this going to start up? Our launch date is September, first week. And as of right now, we've gotten several. You just saw three of them. Right now, we've got about seven that are on the fringes of doing this and getting curriculum to them and getting some training done.58:15There's a movie that came out years ago called The Band of Brothers. And it was about the 101st Airborne. And a really interesting thing that happened in the interview process of those interviewing these World War II veterans, which I have so much respect for. One of the guys said that he was more devoted to his band of brothers than he were his own wife.58:42He was probably married for 50 years. And you think about that for a second. How do you get to that point where you're more devoted to a group of men than your own family, than your own wife? It's because they did life together.59:14They went to war with one another. They rubbed elbows together. And so when you're deeply rooted with a group of people, and you share sorrows with one another, you have those growing moments with one another, and you participate in life, then naturally, you're going to be drawn, and you're going to grow as a believer.59:40My wife and I are joining the Financial Peace University. We're really excited about that. She's going part-time, and so guess what, we need that in our life. We need that in our life. In John 17:21, you don't have to turn there. John 17:21 says this, "The glory which you have given me, I have given them, that they may be one, just as we are one."1:00:02This glory in the Old Testament could only be experienced in the temple. Jesus prays, "I am going to give my glory to them." So wherever you meet together, the glory of God dwells, because where two or more are gathered, He is there. The church doesn't just take place on Sunday mornings. It takes place wherever you are.1:00:30So when you have a burden, and you take that burden, and you go after that, and you pray about it, and you search the Scriptures, then you're the church wherever you are. This building does not make this church. In 1998, this building was completely destroyed. Those of you who remember that, we were scattered all over the city. We grew more spiritually and numerically than we ever have when we were meeting at homes on Sunday morning.1:00:57I was meeting at Stuart McCullough's house on Sunday mornings. Teresa would cook breakfast for us, and we'd do life together on Sunday mornings. It's a growing time for my life, and I know it's a growing time for other people's life. If we are confined to this building, we will never impact our community for the glory of Christ.1:01:22If we only are confined to this building. When is the last time you intentionally met with someone to invest your life to disciple that person? When is the last time that happened? When is the last time you attached yourself to a group of people, and you not gossiped, but you did life together, and you studied the Bible?1:01:47When is the last time you were taught? And teenagers, you don't have 400 friends on Facebook. I'm sorry. You don't. But you can have friends in a small group that you can do life together that's going to be more concerned about you. That's going to build you up.1:02:16Christianity was never intended to be in isolation. If you're not connected to others in a life group on or off campus, you will stall in your growth as a believer. Nehemiah's heart was broken. His heart was broken. He built walls in 52 days. 52 days. People in our community need hope because their lives in the world is hopeless.1:02:43Their walls are broken down. We, the church, are change makers. We are the light of the world. We've got to make an impact. This is where it starts, and we go out from here, and we change our world of what's in front of us. Will you pray, search the scriptures, and let's go do life together.1:03:12Let's pray. Lord Jesus, well, thank you so much, Lord, for Nehemiah, Lord, his wisdom, his insight. And what I pray, Lord, right now, Lord, that as we evaluate, Lord, what breaks our heart. What I pray, Lord, that we would prayerfully get on our knees, Lord. We would seek out the scriptures, Lord, and we would go and act.1:03:42I pray, Lord, with every head bowed and every eye closed. If you're here this morning, and man, you just, you have a need. You're like, man, Brad, I'm burdened for this particular thing. Here's what I'm going to ask you to do. I'm just going to ask you to simply pray. But I'm going to ask you to do more than that. I'm going to ask you to step out and pray. And if you're like, man, Brad, I've prayed about this.1:04:11Man, I've prayed about it, and I've prayed about it, and nothing's really tracking, nothing's happening. Then I'm going to encourage you to go to the scriptures, but find a group of believers to help you. And maybe you have it on your heart to act. Maybe you've prayed, and you've gone to the scriptures, and now you're like, man, I want to do this. I want to see this happen. We want to hear from you.1:04:40We want to partner with you in ministry to see that take place. And there's so many different things that we have to offer here. Feeding the community. Simply helping each other out. So in a moment, I want to ask us to stand up. And if you're here this morning, and you're like, man, I want to be plugged into a church, and you don't have a church home. I'm a little biased, but I believe this is the best church in the county.1:05:10And so would you come? I'm a little biased, and I'll see you next time.
