It’s time. Time for what you ask? It’s time for a spiritual revival. It’s time to bring God back in to the lives of thousands of people. It’s time to step up and step out and be different than the rest of the world. It’s time to deliver the good news. It’s time for us as a group to go out and share the love of God to the souls that don’t know about it. It’s time to be that one person that makes the difference. The best part is though if you look around the room you’re surrounded by people who are willing to do the same. One group can make an impact. We can bring people back to God who have drifted away from him. That’s what Nehemiah did. He turned the heart of the people back to God. He turned a nation that was in ruin, a group of people that were in ruin back to God.
In Nehemiah chapter 1 we see that he hears of the destruction of Jerusalem and all the walls around the city are destroyed. And he gets this burden to go do something about it. So he goes to Jerusalem and he rallies the people to rebuild the city and rebuild the walls so that God had a place to dwell. But it wasn’t just the physical walls that needed rebuilding it was the spiritual walls of the people that also needed to be redone. With their spiritual walls in ruin it allowed the enemy to come in and destroy their faith. The people’s lives were in ruin and the temple was in ruin. So Nehemiah goes back and rallies the people to rebuild the walls around the city. And if you fast forward to chapter 8 you see that the walls have been built up, and the place for God has been reestablished. In chapter 9 we see them fasting and turning away from their life of sin, and all because of one man who said let’s build this thing let’s do this thing. God’s presence was reestablished in a nation and turned back to God. But it wasn’t just Nehemiah, if you look at chapter 3 because if you look at it, it’s often a chapter we skip over because it’s a chapter with a bunch of names we can’t pronounce. You know where you get to that part of the Bible and you go “oh my word” I can’t even understand what this is saying; they didn’t even teach me that in Bible school. But there is something significant in chapter 3 because it applies to us today. In chapter 3 Nehemiah begins to list every person that rebuilt the wall. Every person who rebuilt a gate, look at it “Then Eliashib the high priest and the other priests started to rebuild at the Sheep Gate. (3:1)The Fish Gate was built by the sons of Hassenaah. (3:3) Meremoth son of Uriah and grandson of Hakkoz repaired the next section of wall. (3:4) Shallum son of Hallohesh and his daughters repaired the next section. (3:12)” Why did Nehemiah go through the process of naming every person that was a part of rebuilding the walls around their city? Why did he do that? One simple reason, because everyone was critical to his success. Everyone was important to the walls being built back up. See the walls being built back up symbolizes that there would be life, security, and hope and that the presence of God could come back. We have found the same to be true of us today. When the walls, and the ways of God, the truth of God is built up back in our lives and our families. It allows the presence/power of God to flow through our lives. When those walls are not in place when the things of God are not being lived out in my life, or in your life, then we become weak and vulnerable to the attack of the enemy. And we end up as children of God living so far below what God has intended for us. We don’t experience his presence or his glory and we end up in defeat and destruction. That is not what God has planned for me and that is definitely not what God has planned for you. So were going to rebuild the walls in our life, in our community, in our region. Bring back the ways of God the truth of God. I often wonder what if Hassenaah had not rebuilt the fish gate. Who would have rebuilt it? Or if Shallum and his daughters had not replaced the wall around their house they would have been vulnerable to the enemies attack.
What God is calling us to do for this movement/transformation in our community, it’s going to take every one of us to build up the ways of God the truth of God in our lives, for us to experience this radical transformation. You and I we have to step up, and build up the things of God. The first thing we have to do is seek God in ways we have never sought before. When I look at Nehemiah the success didn’t come in 52 days, they built the wall in 52 days, but there were months of prayer and fasting that took place after the walls were built. God is calling us to seek his plan; he wants you to discover it. Second we’ve got to continue to continue to get the good news of Christ out. We have a story of hope, a story of life, a story that brings redemption and restoration. And we’ve got to share the gospel of Jesus. It’s what we’re about as Christians. The third thing God has called us to do is to raise an army of men and women, students, who are on fire for Jesus, who are committed and equipped, and ready to spread the good news, ready to share their faith, ready to evangelize. We want to go out and prepare others to do so while also learning how to best do it ourselves. I want you to step up and speak, because what better way to practice telling someone about the love of God then telling it to a room full of Christians. We may not even have our other Christian club next year because nobody is willing to speak. I enjoy speaking but every once in a while it’s nice to hear somebody else speak. These are student lead organizations and we’ve been blessed to be allowed to meet here in our school. to gather here as one group of Christians that can meet before school.
So I propose this to you and I’m trying to inspire you guys to step up, and I know some of you will. I propose that if you want to speak that all you have to do is let Mr. Niles or me know and we will do our best to make sure that you receive the chance to. Maybe some of you are scared to speak by yourself in front of a group. Well I also propose this idea. It’s a co-lead idea. If you ever want to speak but feel as though you can’t do it on your own I will be more than happy to assist you. FCA is about training people to go out and become leaders. And that is exactly what I want to see happen. I know that at the beginning of the year the group is fairly large and as the school year goes on the group starts
getting smaller and smaller till a select dedicated few come. I know people are busy with their lives but how busy do we become that we forget what really matters. I know this group can grow, I’ve seen several new faces that have appeared over this school year. I want to encourage you to continue to bring your friends. As a matter of fact I want to challenge you to bring at least one new friend with you in the next few weeks. I also am going to try and bring some of my friends. I know we meet early but I promise that the 30 minutes or so that you might have to wake up early will definitely be worth it. I also want to encourage those of you who have not joined our Facebook group to do so. Just type in K.H.S. Club121/FCA and join. We send out reminders for meetings and I know I try to give a little preview of what were going to talk about. I know that this group can step up and step out, and continue to win souls for God.
Thanks for reading even though you may not be part of my FCA group I still want you to go out and make a difference because I know you can.
~Remember there is only 1Way2Life and thats for Christ!~
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