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Message 4: “We Really Need Each Other”
Neh. 3:1-32
Intro – it’s that time of year, when we smell turkey cooking and see Canada Geese flying south…(picture)
Quick Canada Goose Quiz (Canada Goose in the Mississippi Flyway)
1. Average flying speed is 2. Known to fly non-stop
A. 30 mph A. 650 miles
B. 40 mph B. 800 miles
C. 50 mph C. 1000 miles
3. oldest Canada Goose was 4. largest species called
A. 15 years “The Giant” has a wing-
B. 24 years span of up to
C. 101 years A. 4 ft.
B. 6 ft.
C. 8 ft.
5. Why is one side of the V formation often longer than the other? because there are more birds on that side!
Some Interesting Facts About the Canada Goose
1. by flying in a V formation, members of the flock create an upward air current for one another. Each flap of the wing creates an uplift for the bird following directly behind. By flying in the V formation the whole flock gets a 71% greater flying range than if each goose flew alone.
2. the geese in the rear of the formation do the honking. Scientists are not entirely sure why. Maybe to offer encouragement to those up front, or to the whole flock to keep going.
3. those in the front of the V formation rotate their leadership. When the lead goose gets tired, it changes places with another.
4. when one goose gets sick or wounded, two fall out of formation and follow it down to support and protect it. They stay with it until it either recovers or dies.
There’s a great deal we can learn from the Canada Goose…
Connecting to Nehemiah
I’m telling you all of this to give you a picture of what we’re going to see in our passage today from Neh. 3…(open Bibles)
Today we are given a picture of what help, support and teamwork with one another in the body of Christ can look like. When it comes to the challenging task of rebuilding the broken places in our lives, we must realize that we can’t do it without the help of caring fellow beleivers…
-God has given us all the help we need by providing two amazing resources:
1.a partnership with the Holy Spirit, as we learned last week…
2. the support of other people as we work together to rebuild and strengthen our lives…
Prayer…
-let’s start reading at 2:18b…to get a preview of why the support and teamwork of our fellow rebuilders is essential in the rebuilding process…
-read 2:18b – 20…opposition is coming…God puts the necessary support in place before it’s needed…even before we know we need it…we ignore this at our own peril…
Now, when we come to ch. 3, you can see that the work on the walls and gates of Jerusalem is starting to take place…and ch. 3 is a detailed list of who is repairing what section of the wall…
…you can also see that ch 3 is one of those long chapters full of hard to pronounce names, describing places we’re not familiar with…quite frankly, one of those chapters in the Bible that we are tempted to skip over and get on to more interesting reading…
But, if we did that, we would miss something so insightful for our walk through this series in Nehemiah…
“next to him, next to them, the next section…”
-let’s scan ch. 3 and please notice how many times this phrase is used: “next to him, next to them, the next section”…
-I count 27 times…in just 32 verses!
This whole chapter is about God’s people working side by side either in pairs or in small groups or in family units, all kinds of configurations…each rebuilding one section of the wall...each group doing their small part so the whole job gets done cooperatively.
-what Neh. is picturing for us here......supportive relationships with fellow believers that keep us encouraged, motivated, focused, especially helped through the challenging rebuilding process…
We Really Need Each Other
You want to know something? We really need each other!
-the heart of this passage holds a call to open up to other people, share with them our brokenness and invite their help in rebuilding our lives…as well as offer our help to them…
The Holy Spirit is the primary Rebuilder in our lives....learned that last week. But He has chosen to use fellow believers as major players in each other’s lives.
We can’t become all that God has intended us to be without the input and involvement of other people.
Jack Hayford in his book on Neh. says, “In the process of rebuilding, our progress upward is proportionate to our openness outward.” In other words our vertical growth in Christ cannot be dissociated from our horizontal growth with people around us.
That’s one of the reasons God established the church family…brought us into loving relationship with one another…
We need help from people in our lives to become whole and healthy and spiritually strong and restored.
But, this kind of open and honest relationship with others is something many of us fear or resist. We don’t mind having friends, but when it comes to open, honest sharing of our brokenness and asking others to help and support us, we say, “No thanks, not me...I would never do that...”
For any number of reasons…Whatever the cause of our reluctance, we can find the courage to move into meaningful and supportive relationships through God’s initiative and invitation…perhaps we’ll find it when the need for healing becomes stronger than our need to stay hidden…
eg. I’ve had to learn to open up and trust people and let them into my life to help me along the path to healing and restoration…because of my father’s abandonment when I was 4 years old, I learned to go inward, self-protective, take care of myself, be reluctant to trust, fear rejection, building a high wall around my heart, shielding it from further hurt and disappointment…
…some of you can relate…when we do that we cut ourselves off from the very help God wants you to receive in the form of other people…
Gradually over the years, I chose to open up and trust the people God put into my life: Audrey, esp my group of fellow pastors…
God’s Holy Spirit wants to set you free to risk again, to open up, to love people and let people love you. Some will let you down -- expect it. But others will be the best gift God has given to you in a long time. The benefits far outweigh the risks.
The Question is: who is next to you? who is beside you in the rebuilding of your sp. life? who is supporting you? and who are you supporting? who is really beside you, sharing the work? spurring you on? holding you up? praying for you? giving you a hand when you fall down? helping you out?
It’s one of God’s great gifts to have someone or a few people like that in your life. Qtn is: do you? If not, why not? If not, are you willing to do whatever it takes to find someone?
Small Groups
You do realize what 4th century B.C. Nehemiah is modeling here for us in the 21st century A.D. don’t you? He’s modeling what we call small groups, or cell groups or home groups. Small clusters of God’s people who are committed to the project of building spiritual lives through love, learning, honest sharing, prayer and outreach....
Can you picture a church in which we are all united under one cause: the mission of building up one another’s lives…and bringing lost people to Jesus… building up and reaching out…
…and the way we go about that is by working together in supportive groups, side by side, different tasks, differing roles, but all contributing to the over-all goal of building a church body through restored lives…
-all ages working side by side…children, youth, young adults, middle aged, seniors…
There are a variety of forms these small groups can take:
• small group of 8-12 people....
• accountability partners...
• spiritual friends.....mentoring relationship.....
• children’s ministries, youth, young adult…
Point is....get connected....get into something beyond the Sunday morning service…if you have no idea how to do that, talk to PJ or one of the staff…we’ll gladly help…
And make sure your small group… stays open and honest…real…trend is to stay on the surface, play it safe…don’t let it…you be the one to risk going deeper and being real…people will thank you for it…
Conclusion
-so as you look up into the sky in this fall season and see those Canada Geese honking their way south…think about your part in the formation of our church as it progresses forward…and where you see yourself in relation to the people around you…
Prayer…Worship…