You Are Here!

Sermon Summary:

In our journey of faith, we often encounter seasons of rebuilding or starting anew. The stories of Ezra and Nehemiah teach us valuable lessons about facing these challenges. First, we must bathe our situation in prayer, seeking God’s wisdom and guidance. Then, we need to honestly assess our current state, embracing the reality of where we are – even when it’s difficult. The phrase ‘You are here’ becomes a powerful reminder that we can only move forward from our present position, not from where we wish we were. As we acknowledge our circumstances, including our fears and doubts, we allow space for godly resolve to emerge. Just as the Israelites rebuilt their altar despite opposition, we too can take courageous first steps towards renewal. This message encourages us to trust in God’s transformative power, reminding us that with faith and determination, we can rebuild and grow stronger in our spiritual lives.

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Sermon Points:

• CONTEXT: In Ezra 3, both Joshua and Zerubbabel acknowledged the reality of life in Jerusalem without the Temple. They began by simply rebuilding the altar. In Nehemiah 2, Nehemiah took time to assess just how much damage had been done to the wall around the city. He acknowledged the devastation and communicated clearly to the leaders of Israel.
• LESSONS TO BE LEARNED:
  1. Before we can begin re-building anything, an honest assessment must be taken.

   

  2. After the assessment, we must accept the reality of the situation.

   

  3. Acknowledgment of reality must be holistic – emotional responses, accepting responsibility, experiencing the full brunt of the situation — all are necessary to build a new future.

   

  4. Once we have embraced the reality of our situation, acknowledged the need to rebuild —– resolve must begin to emerge.

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Anchored in Faith, Aimed at the Future: Rebuilding with Ezra and Nehemiah

Key Takeaways:

• Prayer is the first step in any rebuilding process
• An honest assessment of the current situation is crucial
• Accepting the reality of one’s circumstances is necessary for progress
• Acknowledging emotional responses and responsibilities is part of the rebuilding journey
• Developing resolve is essential to move forward and rebuild effectively

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Scripture References:

• Ezra 3:1-6
• Nehemiah 2:11-17

Stories:

• The rebuilding of the altar and temple in Jerusalem under Zerubbabel and Joshua
• Nehemiah’s assessment of Jerusalem’s walls and his call to rebuild
• The transformation of Thomas Terrence from KKK operative to Christian apologist and president of the C.S. Lewis Institute
• The parable of the Prodigal Son, focusing on the moment he “came to his senses”

Transcript

And we have spent this year already exploring various facets of that theme. What does it mean to be the people of God together? And for the fall, our theme is together for the future. And you know that we are studying Ezra and Nehemiah in this journey this fall. You remember last Sunday morning, we are having this conversation about rebuilding or building. And we talked about the very first lesson, and that is to pray. You remember last Sunday, we talked about neology. What does it mean to pray? Asking God for wisdom and guidance and perspective and power. And it is the right posture for the people of God. To pray when we find ourselves at a season of rebuilding or building. Well, I want us to look at our next lesson that we can learn from Ezra and Nehemiah. The first one is when encountered with these situations, we pray. Here’s the second lesson this morning. I’ve entitled it, You Are Here. And as we’ve done, we’ve looked at a passage from Ezra and Nehemiah. Remember, they’re just one book in the original Hebrew Old Testament. So look with me at Ezra 3. And we’ll look at the first six verses. This is before Ezra actually arrives in Jerusalem. Even though this part of the book has his name on it, it is about the season prior to his arrival. So in Ezra 3, verse 1, the text reads, When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the people assembled together as one in Jerusalem. Then Joshua, the son of Josedach, his fellow priest, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, and his associates, began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it in accordance with what is written in the law of Moses, the man of God. Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and evening sacrifices. Then, in accordance with what is written, they celebrated the feast. The festival of tabernacles, with the required number of burnt offerings prescribed for each day. After that, they presented the regular burnt offerings, the new moon sacrifices, and the sacrifices for all the appointed sacred festivals of the Lord, as well as those brought as freewill offerings to the Lord. On the first day of the seventh month, they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, though the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid. Now, I feel, fast forward about a hundred years, just a few pages over in your Bible, to Nehemiah 2. By this time, the temple has been rebuilt, and yet the wall has not yet been restored around Jerusalem. So, Nehemiah 2, verse 11, Nehemiah records this in his journal. I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days, I set out during the night with a few others. I had not told anyone what, my God, had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on. By night, I went out through the valley gate toward the jackal well and the dung gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. Then I moved on toward the fountain gate and the king’s pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get through, so I went up the valley by night, examining the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered through the valley gate, and the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work. Then I said to them, You see the trouble we’re in. Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire.

I’m entitled to this message today, You Are Here. Sometimes we find ourselves in very, very challenging circumstances. I don’t know if you know the story of Thomas Terrence or not, but I have a photo of Terrence, and this photo is from the late 1960s, and he had been arrested because of his activity with the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. He was arrested several times, actually. The last time he was arrested was the result of him being radicalized by an organization called the Ku Klux Klan. He was not only KKK leaders, but numerous other leaders at the time in the deep south. He’s a native of Mobile, Alabama, and after he had joined several radical groups, he became convinced that America was being destroyed primarily by Jews, that Jews were fueling the communist movement in America, and that Jews were behind the civil rights movement in America that had been going on for many, many years. that had as its face Martin Luther King, Jr. And so he became dedicated to what he called the calls. And he became an undercover operative for the KKK. And finally, in June of 1968, he and his accomplice, it was a lady named Kathy Ainsworth, they made their way to a prominent Jewish civic leader in Meridian, Mississippi, under the cover of darkness. And he unloaded a bomb that he planned to put right next door to the bedroom window of this Jewish leader. What he didn’t know was, is that the FBI had been tipped off. And the police department of Meridian and the FBI were waiting on him, and they ambushed him and his accomplice. She was killed. He was wounded. He wounded several police officers himself. And he was killed. And he was finally arrested. And he admitted to those who arrested him that he hated Jews, hated communism, and hated black people who had been duped by the Jews. He was arrested, and he was pronounced as the most dangerous man in Mississippi. And in 1968, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. When he found himself in prison, obviously, it was a time to question his life and his views. When he found himself in prison, obviously, it was a time to question his life and his views. Perhaps an opportunity to rebuild, wouldn’t you think? Well, we all find ourselves in places sometimes, maybe of our own doing. Sometimes it’s because of things that have happened to us that we’ve had no control over. Things that have happened around us that we’ve had no control over. And we’re in a season of rebuilding. Maybe it’s a job change, grief because of the loss or death of someone that we’ve lost. Maybe it’s a marriage that has failed. Maybe it’s a physical situation. Maybe it’s just you just have a sense that it’s time to reevaluate and enter into a new season in your life. Well, whatever it is. Or it could be that you’re just beginning. You know, in our next worship service, we’ll have a whole host of college students that will fill up this whole section. Their whole life is just starting. So they’re not really rebuilding anything. Because they hadn’t built anything yet. But it’s an opportunity to build. So whether you’re building, maybe it’s a new marriage or a new job or earning your career. Or you’re rebuilding for the future. Let’s talk about this lesson for today. The first one is to certainly bathe your situation in prayer. And then secondly, I would say the lesson is you are here. So we’ll talk about that. Let me give you the context for our conversation today. In Ezra 3, both Joshua and Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel have acknowledged the reality of life in Jerusalem without the temple. They weren’t ready to rebuild the temple just yet. So they began by simply rebuilding the altar. Fast forward to Nehemiah. Nehemiah 2. Nehemiah took time to assess just how much damage had been done to the wall around the city. And he acknowledged the devastation. And then he communicated that to the leaders of Israel. In other words, Zerubbabel. And Joshua said to Israel, you are here. Maybe even better, we are here. Nehemiah said a hundred years later as well. So if you think about Ezra 3. Joshua’s the priest. Zerubbabel’s the leader of the people. 538 BC. These men have arrived in Jerusalem. The temple has been destroyed. And they are feeling led to rebuild the temple. They’ve got the blessing of Cyrus, king of Persia. And the text tells us. In Ezra 3, they had a meeting. And I love how it’s worded in verse 1. They assembled together as one. What a beautiful statement. They came together with the same heart, the same mind, the same desire. And however, if you’ll notice in verse 3, they were afraid. They were fearful. What I’ve discovered in seasons of rebuilding, there are always those who will oppose it. And they were fearful. And they were fearful for those who were going to oppose what they were feeling led to do. And yet, they went ahead and started. I’m sure they were filled with questions. Can we do this? Can we rebuild this temple? Do we have what it takes? Will it work? So they decided instead of starting on a grand scale, they would just simply rebuild the altar. And then assess the need in front of them. It was a season of assessment. They went ahead and celebrated the festival of tabernacles. Which I think is quite appropriate for them. Because the tabernacle, if you remember that festival, is built around the journey of Israel in the wilderness. And how God provided for them. Well, these people had been living in Babylon. And God had provided for them. So there was a connection between where they had been and where the people of God had been during the Exodus. And so they assessed their situation. And decided that they would embrace the reality of it. Nehemiah, 100 years later, the temple’s been dedicated. It’s already been rebuilt. But the people were still vulnerable. They were still scattered. The city was surrounded by rubble. And so Nehemiah, when he arrives to Jerusalem, he spends three days maybe resting, gathering, maybe meeting with leaders. And then one night he decides to just go look at it himself and take his closest associates. And he says, we just started around the city. And he kind of describes exactly the tour that he went on. And scholars are grateful for this because it describes the city of Jerusalem in detail. In a way that no one else has ever done for us. And Nehemiah and this small group of people went around, looked at everything. They saw all the rubble lying down in the valleys around the city of Jerusalem. And once they recognized the devastation of it all, they called a meeting of the key leaders of Jerusalem. And they said, this is where we are. And it was quite disturbing. So this morning, I have no idea where you might be in your life. Is it a season? Is it a season of rebuilding for you? As I’ve said to y’all already, I think a couple of times, maybe it’s not. But you may know somebody who’s in that season. And more likely than not, if you’re not in a season of rebuilding, there’s one on the horizon. Because we just go through this so often in our lives. So if these are lessons to share with someone else or to pack away for yourself or to live into right now, we’ll just let the Lord help you figure that out. So this morning, I want to talk about the lessons to be learned. And as I would like to do, as I told you last week, when preachers start numbering things, it makes me nervous because I don’t know how many there are. So today, there’s just four. Okay? So that way, you’ll know when we’re getting close to the end. All right? So let’s start with the first one. Before we can begin rebuilding anything, an honest assessment must be taken. If you’re in a place where it’s time to rebuild, then praying is where we start. And then we’re going to pray. And then we have to assess the situation. And here would be my counsel to you and to me. We can’t be afraid of the truth. We just can’t be afraid of the truth. I’m going to ask you this week, and you’re together in word readings, to read Haggai the prophet. And you may be wondering, I thought we were reading Ezra and Nehemiah. Why are we reading Haggai? Well, I’m just afraid you’re going to run into Haggai in heaven, and he’s going to tell you he wrote a book in the Bible, and you’re going to say, man, I never read it. At least you’ll be ready if you happen to see him along the way. But the reason I want you to read. I want you to read Haggai is because Haggai was a prophet during Zerubbabel’s leadership in Jerusalem, rebuilding the temple, and they hadn’t started yet. And when you read Haggai, here’s what he’s going to say in Haggai 1. I’ve noticed, this is what God is revealing to me. I’ve noticed that all of y’all live in really nice houses. But what about the Lord’s house? That’s his question. And somehow you feel okay about it, that the Lord’s house is in ruin, and you’re living in these fine homes. It’s time for us. Let’s do something about it. So Haggai was used by God to speak honestly in the situation. I would just tell you that honest assessment is crucial to any journey of rebuilding. You think about it. Whenever you’re in a season of assessment and you go to the doctor, one of the things that medical doctors do is they conduct tests. Any of y’all ever had a medical test? Why do they do that? Because they’re assessing the reality of the situation. And if you’re going to a counselor, a counselor sometimes will lead you in a season of assessment. The reason is, if you really want help, then you need somebody to speak honestly in your situation. Is that not true? As bad as it is, as hard as it is, just tell me the truth. Let me see what’s really going on. So assessment is not delaying, it’s not denying, it’s not detouring. It’s a crucial step. It’s a crucial step in the journey of building or rebuilding towards a new future. These people, whether you’re in the season that Zerubbabel lived in or the season that Nehemiah lived in, it was a time to honestly assess the situation to see whether or not they had the wherewithal to rebuild. Do y’all remember back in 2022, our theme was re-dot-dot-dot? You remember that? And we talked about re-everything. Well, the reason we did that is because it was a time to re-build. It was a season of just re. We believe God was working to lead us out of this pandemic. And it’s so consistent with who God is because God is restoring His creation right now through the people that He’s redeeming, people like us, so that we can be reconciled to Him, His purpose, His glory. And along the way, there are times when you’ve got to rebuild. So I would say we start with an honest assessment. Second. And here’s the one that I think is… It’s really difficult. After the assessment, we must accept the reality of the situation. And I think that’s what’s really hard. I think it’s one of the biggest challenges. After the assessment, you are here. No, I’m not. Yes, you are. No, I’m not. That’s not where we are. Yes, you are here. But there’s just something about us sometimes. We just don’t want to admit it. But you are here. Y’all know, many of you who’ve been hanging around here for a while know that it’s one of my favorite statements, you are here, and I’ve said it for many years. And y’all remember my friend Dick Weir was a truck driver at the time, and Dick was on a trip somewhere, and he found a rug that says, you are here. And he brought it to me. It’s in my office. If you need to come stand on it during this time of rebuilding, come on. I’ll invite you to come on and just stand on it with me because I do it all the time. I’ll just stand on it and go, Dennis Wiles, you are here. It’s just a good reminder. In the journeys of the… I mean, the lessons. From the sacramental journey that I shared with y’all years ago, orientation is so important. You know, when you go into a place where you don’t know where you are, and you see that little dot that says, you are here, you then can get oriented to what needs to happen. Here’s what I’ve learned through the years as a pastor. One of the struggles that we face and one of the realities we need to accept. You cannot start from where you wish you were.

You have to start from where you are. One of the reasons people… One of the reasons people don’t do anything is because they just don’t know how to start. And so I just want to encourage you this morning. Go ahead and embrace the reality of your situation, whatever it is. Nehemiah and Nehemiah 2. Look what Nehemiah did. You go back and look at verse 17. He said in verse 17, y’all, hey, do y’all see the ruin? Do y’all see what I see? Do you see all this rubble laying down in the valley around Jerusalem? Do y’all see the gates that used to be here? Here for our protection all burned down? We’re in ruin. I mean, Nehemiah gave an honest assessment. There are all kinds of situations we find ourselves in when we need to assess. Thomas Terrence, he was in prison. And when he went to prison there in Mississippi, he was in solitary confinement. And you know what he says about that era in his life? I was stuck with a poisoned mind. That’s all he had. A poisoned mind. And there he sat. Would he rebuild his life? What a great question. But sometimes where we are is not necessarily because of anything we’ve done wrong. It’s just because we sense that maybe God’s leading us to the next chapter. Back in 2006, I began to sense God’s direction for us as a church to take a step toward personally committing ourselves to the Great Commission. And perhaps even getting ourselves prepared to start sending our own cross-cultural workers. To live across the world. Y’all remember all that? Guess what had to happen? We had to have a time of assessment. We looked at everything we were doing missionally. We brought in people like Keith Parks, Bill O’Brien, Mike Stroop, some of the most respected missiologists in the Baptist family. And asked them, do y’all think we can do this? Is this something you believe that we as a church can live into and accomplish? We took an honest assessment. I will just tell you. These past few months, as your pastor, my sense is God is leading us into a new era of ministry. I’m not exactly sure what it’s going to be. But what I want you to know is already behind the scenes, we’re beginning to do an honest assessment. Where are we now? We’ve been here 150 years. Where are we right now? What are we supposed to do now? How do we do this? How do we make these decisions? How do we address these particular situations? In other words, we’re beginning a process and a journey of assessment. Taking an honest understanding of where we are. So what about you? Are you at that point in your life where you need to assess? Here will be my counsel to you. As you engage in the assessment process, be willing to accept the reality of it. Whatever it is. Third, I would also add to that. The acknowledgement of reality must be accepted. Holistic. Emotional responses. Accepting your responsibility. Experiencing the full brunt of the situation. All are necessary to build a new future. That’s what had to happen to these people. In these two stories. Once you realize and embrace and acknowledge the reality of your situation. Here’s what I’ve discovered in my own personal life in doing this. All kinds of issues and factors begin to emerge. It just seems like they’re… They start cascading. You go back and read in Exodus 3. When the story is being told. Ezra records how Zerubbabel said, Okay, let’s… He and Joshua. Let’s rebuild the altar. But they were afraid to do it. There was opposition all around them. There were people who did not want them to rebuild this temple. They did not want them to restore this altar. There were questions about whether or not they could actually do it. They did not want them to do it. They had the wherewithal to accomplish it. And so that emotion of fear began to rise up in the ranks of the people. And so Ezra records that in spite of that fear, they acknowledged it. They went ahead and took the next step. What I’ve discovered is in this journey, we face real issues when we’re trying to rebuild or build. You know, rebuilding is not easy. That’s why a lot of people just don’t do it. They just stay where they are. Because it’s hard. And you have all kinds of questions that come. Doubts that linger. Fears that we have to face. It can be really challenging. We can be overcome with emotion. We can be sad. We can be angry. We can be regretful. We can be hurt. But sometimes, sometimes we have to accept responsibility for where we are. Sometimes we have to look at our lives and say, You know what? I’m going to have to rebuild right now. And one of the reasons I’ve got to rebuild is because of the decisions that I’ve already made. That have gotten me to where I am. Are y’all still with me? Sometimes that’s just the way it is. Sometimes we just have to repent. We’ve got to say to the Lord, I’m sorry. I don’t want to live this way anymore. I don’t want to be in this situation. Thomas Terrence. You know what happened to him while he was in prison in solitary confinement? He started reading.

Not what he had been reading. What he had been reading landed him where he was.

Somebody gave him, his grandmother, gave him a Bible. King James Version only.

Now, the good news is he was born and raised and educated in Alabama. So, he was prepared to read anything, right?

He said he had a hard time with the King’s English. He’d been to church his whole life. But, you know, he hadn’t really read the Bible per se. And so, he struggled with it. But he… He started reading it. He started asking questions about it while he was in prison. He was trying to figure out why he had gone to church as a boy. And somehow, had all this hatred inside of him for Jews primarily. And black people on top of that. And why he felt like he had to do something violent to somehow resolve the anger inside of him. And he couldn’t reconcile it. And so, he began to seek counsel. And the Lord brought Christian people. Into that prison. Who began to speak to him. And help him to find a path that would perhaps lead into a different kind of life. And the light started to come on. And he said that he finally accepted his broken, misguided mind. And he told the Lord he was sorry. That’s step one. Pray and assess. Embrace the reality. Sometimes… The embracing of all those emotions is just a… To say to yourself, okay, this is going to be hard. This is just going to be hard. But I’m going to do it. That leads me to the last lesson. Once we’ve embraced the reality of our situation. Acknowledged the need to rebuild. Here’s what you’re looking for. Resolve.

Resolve must begin to emerge. I love that Ezra 3 tells the story the way it does. I love that the writer of Ezra 3 tells us the people were scared. But they went ahead and did it anyway. They were scared to build the altar. But they went ahead and built it. They went ahead and took the first step. They didn’t rebuild the temple. Not yet. They weren’t ready for that yet. But Joshua and Zerubbabel said, you know, we need an altar first. We got to call these people to worship. Even if we don’t have a temple. Let’s get the altar built. Well, not everybody thinks we can do it. And there are people who are against it. I’m not sure if we can even manage them. Well, you know what? We still need to do it. Resolve. That crucial first step. You look in the story of Nehemiah. Nehemiah tells these leaders, y’all, look at the ruin. And I’m sure Nehemiah was thinking, y’all have been walking by these stones down in this valley every day. For years. It’s time. It’s time now to be honest about what needs to happen. And I love what happens next in Nehemiah 2 verse 17. He says this. He says, come, let’s rebuild this wall. Now, time out. That’s next Sunday’s sermon. Okay? But resolve started to grow up inside of these people. Godly resolve. I told y’all, I think last Sunday, that I always struggled when I was a young preacher with the story of the prodigal son. Remember me telling y’all that? But you know my favorite part of that story? The Bible says, Jesus says this. When he came to his senses.

What a great line.

How many mamas and daddies are still waiting on that?

When he came to his senses. You know what that boy said? He looked at his situation and resolve. And he said, I’m going home.

I’m gonna go home. Well, sometimes we pray. We assess. And then resolve starts growing inside of us. As I told you, when I look at our church, like I said, we’ve been here a long time. I’m so grateful for all of our history and heritage. But I’m being honest right now about our situation. Asking others, leaders in the church, to join me in this evaluation of our context. We’re 150 something years old, which is awesome. But what’s next for us? Let’s evaluate all we have. How we engage in ministry. And I want to tell you as your pastor, I’m resolved to lead us into this future. The Lord has for us. I can feel that resolve in me. Resolve is powerful. It’s powerful. We need to pray for it. Well, oh, Thomas Terrence. Do you know his story at all? Ever heard of him? Wonder what happened to him? Well, what happened to this radical KKK operative who decided that assassinating a leading citizen of Meridian, Mississippi, was a good idea just to send a message, as he said, to the Jews across America? Well, in that prison cell, after several years, he was miraculously converted to Christ. I’ll show you a photo of him today. made it through his prison sentence. After eight years of a 30-year sentence, because of who he had become, because of the man that he had become, because of the trust that he had engendered from rebuilding his life inside a prison cell, eight years later, he was allowed to leave.

Anarchy. And a family in Oxford, Mississippi adopted him and gave him the right to come and live in Oxford. And he went to Ole Miss. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree. He went on to get a master’s of divinity degree. He went on to get a doctorate of ministry in spiritual formation. He’s actually written a book entitled, Consumed by Hate, Redeemed by Love, How a Violent Klansman Became a Champion of Racial Reconciliation. In 1998, 30 years after… 30 years after being arrested for attempting to kill a Jewish civic leader in Meridian, Mississippi to send a message to all the Jews across America, he was named the new president of the C.S. Lewis Institute in Washington, D.C. And he has become, for the last, since 1998, however long that’s been, one of the chief apologists for Christianity in America. He’s produced materials along with the C.S. Lewis Institute. You can look them up and read about them. Resources for churches. Churches training people how to follow Christ, how to understand the teachings of someone like C.S. Lewis and take the gospel and apply it to a world that we live in today. He is now the president emeritus of the C.S. Lewis Institute. And he tells his story quietly and humbly and honestly and is a shining example of what it can mean to rebuild a broken life. Can you rebuild? Yes. Yes. Yes, you can. Give God the opportunity. We start by praying. Secondly, we honestly assess our situation so we can better understand how that resolve needs to begin to make changes in our life. So let me encourage you this morning. Let’s pray for each other. Let’s pray for our church. Let’s pray for family members, friends that we know that need to rebuild. Or perhaps this morning, you need to pray for yourself that God will give you wisdom and resolve to begin this journey. Let’s pray together.