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Advent Productions

Benjamin Ng

Rise and Build

Father in heaven, Lord I want to thank you.

Thank you for the rest that you've given to us.

Thank you for this time that we can come and study your Word.

Thank you Lord for preserving our life throughout this past week.

And now Lord as we come and seek and study your word together may you grace us with thy presence O Lord, fill us with your Holy Spirit and teach us and guide us into all truth.

As you can see by the title of the sermon, Rise and Build, you can probably already guess who we are going to be studying about this week.

And we're gonna look at this as a series over the next few weeks, we are going to be studying the book of Nehemiah.

And Nehemiah is a wonderful book that relates to our time and highlights issues and challenges and talks about how we can rise up and build and finish the work of God even in our generation and in our lifetime.

And the book of Nehemiah opens there in chapter 1 with a background of the situation of what was taking place not just where Nehemiah was as he was serving the king of Medo-Persia, but even what was taking place back home.

The Bible says, And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach.

The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.

Nehemiah was still in captivity in Medo-Persia, but news came to him of what was taking place back in his homeland, in his hometown, and the walls were broken down.

You know, the decree had already gone forth in the days of Cyrus and Darius to allow the people to go back and to rebuild Jerusalem, the temple and their houses and even the the streets and the walls but here at this point they had not been making progress.

The walls had been broken down and Nehemiah he was worried.

He was struck down with this news of what was taking place and look what happens in the next verse.

And it came to pass, verse 4 of Nehemiah chapter 1, when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

You know, he wept, he mourned for a few days and he began to fast and he began to pray.

This man of God was so concerned about the welfare of his people, about the work of God moving forward and being a blessing to people again, that for a few days he was troubled.

And then he began to fast and he began to pray.

And I want you to look at the prayer of Nehemiah.

This is what we are greeted with at the beginning of this book.

In this first chapter, look at how Nehemiah begins to pray.

And said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments.

Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel, thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee.

Both I and my father's house have sinned.

He knows that this God, He keeps his promises.

And the only reason why he has not blessed them and not kept his promise, so to speak, is because they have broken their side of the agreement, their side of the covenant.

He knows, he realizes that the children of Israel have sinned.

And not only that, Nehemiah identifies himself with his people.

He doesn't go, oh the sins that they have committed God they are so wicked, they have done this wrong, they are bad like this.

He doesn't identify the sins of everybody out there except himself, no friends.

He has a true conception of the reason why they are in this situation in the first place because he himself is in captivity as well.

He himself and his people have the houses are not built, the temple is not built, the walls are not built.

And instead of pointing out the sins of everyone else that are around him, he identifies himself with the people of God and says, we have sinned.

He lays a blame on himself and he identifies himself with this people.

And you know, friends, even though we are in our church here, there are factions, and I'm not saying within Dak and Sac, but you know, throughout our denomination, there are factions in the church.

And it's possible that sometimes we like to look for people to blame.

We like to look for people to blame as to why our church is not growing, why our church is languishing, why there are problems in the church and we like to blame the liberals or we like to blame the conservatives or those that are the Sabbath breakers in our church or that are just not believing the same as we do.

And we like to blame everyone and it's this person or it's that person and we like to blame the leaders and so convenient and easy to do so isn't it?

He identifies himself with the people of God And he knows the reason why that God has not kept his side of the agreement is because we broke our side.

When God doesn't bless, at least in this situation, It was very clear they had been in captivity for over 70 years already and Nehemiah knows the reason why he continues Nehemiah 1 7 & 8 We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandest thy servant Moses.

Remember I beseech thee the word that thou commandest thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations.

And you got to understand that he is a prophet.

He doesn't know it probably at this point.

You know, the words that we're reading is written by a prophet.

But even though he has been called by God to such a high place and to call to God to lead out in this point in time, he puts himself in the same boat with everyone else.

He, and along with everyone else, is in the same position.

And so his country is broken down and he has this great burden.

But before he can go and build, before he can go and help, He has to understand, he puts his hand on the pulse of the problem.

The true issue is because God's people had been sinning.

It's because God's people had been transgressing and God had borne long, hundreds of years through all the kings and what had been taking place and finally they got to this place where God said the only way that they can learn is if they are put into captivity and Moses is brought up here by Nehemiah he understands what was going on it was prophesied God had told them if you keep the commandments of God, if you stay close to me, I will bless you and make you a great and amazing nation that all the other people will come and look at you.

But if you do not, if you transgress, you become a byword meaning you become a saying as if you never existed and truly that is what happened and Nehemiah he knows it.

You know Moses talked about it in a few places, but he may have been quoting from Deuteronomy where Moses warns the children and he puts blessings on 1 side and cursing on the other side, and he lists it out in great detail.

And so it was very clear, very clear at least to Nehemiah why the children of Israel were in this situation in the first place.

And friends, you know, I think it's important for us to understand, have a clear understanding of our own situation, why we are the way we are.

The clear understanding of the situation in our church was scattered abroad.

The membership in Peninsular Malaysia is so small, Right?

At least compared to the population that we have.

And Nehemiah, he had a clear understanding of his situation.

And we also have transgressed the commandment of God.

The reason why there are so few baptisms even within our churches.

You know, DAC and SEC, we've not had a baptism in the past 2 years.

We got to really look at our own situation and I'm not going out condemning other churches or our mission but we have problem in our own church.

It's so important to make sure you hold up the mirror to yourself before you go and and use that mirror and turn it and point it at other people.

And this is the reason why we got to pray.

This is the reason why we've started prayer.

And not because the form itself is going to change anything, but prayer is going to begin to change us.

It's not just Peninsular Malaysia, it's even Dak and Sak.

And sure, we planted a church, but since then, what has happened?

Or more rather, why have they languished?

And it's important to have a clear understanding.

And it's possible that we've become proud or you know, we have not been seeking the Lord with all our heart.

And so like what the Psalmist says in Psalms 139, 23, search me, oh God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me.

Friends, it's important to go back and ask God, God why is this all happening?

Search my heart instead of looking and pointing at all the other people, oh they don't come for this and they don't do that.

We have to identify personally why the church is like that.

Not because of anyone else but because of me.

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Rise and Build

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