The Village Church
At Peace with Limitations - Audio
Well, if you have your Bibles, open them to Nehemiah chapter 6. You want to apologize after Tamara, because I cut her short and didn't even know it. So let's do one more song. You can pray for your pastor. Nehemiah chapter 6, you're going to be looking at verses 10 through 19. The last time we were in Nehemiah, I have a lot of feedback here. All right, the last time we were in Nehemiah, he was once again dealing with a lot of attacks. Again, a lot of issues from outside threats and inside threats. And if you've been reading the book and keeping up with Nehemiah, you know that ever since he got to Jerusalem, he's been receiving a combination of issues, a combination of threats from outside enemies, from inside enemies. All of them trying to prevent him from fulfilling his purpose for being there, which was to rebuild the wall. That was why he was in Jerusalem. And as you know, that is a repetitive theme throughout these first six chapters of the book. They do something on the wall, the enemies come in and try to hinder it. It's like they go back and forth, back and forth of him moving forward and the enemies come and they try to prevent it. And yet in the midst of all this, in the midst of all that he's went through, we have seen the Lord move mountains on Nehemiah's behalf. Right? We've seen the Lord answer prayer. We have seen the Lord sustain him. We've seen the Lord make a way for him to continue with the work. We have seen Nehemiah stand firm against enemies. We have seen him take charge to deal with some of the moral issues within his own people. There is also another theme sprinkled throughout these chapters of Nehemiah. It's one that can often be overlooked, but it's still there. What is this theme? It's a theme of limitations, knowing your limitations, which is seen in Nehemiah's life during his time in Jerusalem. We know he went there to rebuild the wall and as we saw last time we were in the book, the wall is almost completed. The wall is almost done, but as he labored on the wall, as he worked on the wall, he could not help but to notice there was other issues there among his own people. There was other brokenness there. That was beyond the wall. He couldn't help but see it. You see, the more you minister to other people, the more we minister to one another, the more we're going to see how broken we are. The more our brokenness is going to come up to the surface, the more we spend time with each other. You're going to see it. Is this going to happen? We're going to see it. This is what happened to Nehemiah in Jerusalem. He started to see. There's more going on here than there's a broken wall, there's more going on here. And in chapter five we got a glimpse of it, right? What happened in chapter five? You have the wealthier Jews taking advantage of the poor Jews, right? That's an internal issue. That's an internal broken issue. And Nehemiah, he stepped up to the plate, he dealt with that issue, but he also had limitations. He could not fix and solve every single issue that came up. This is something all of us here have to accept this morning come in terms with. I believe Nehemiah grew at being at peace with his limitations and not letting his limitations take him to a place of despair and endless hopelessness. He could be at peace with his limitations because he was at peace with a God who was not limited. A God who is not limited like we are, a God who can do more than what we can do. And the same is true for each of us who have a personal relationship with Christ. We can be at peace, no, no, we can't fix every single issue, every single problem, because we have a God that can. He can do it. We can't. Are you at peace with those types of limitations in your life? In Nehemiah chapter 6, verses 1 through 10, 10 through 19, Nehemiah came to face to face with two issues of brokenness among his own people that he could not fix. He didn't even try to fix it. So look at verse 10 of chapter 6. Now when I went into the house of Shemiah the son of Eliah, the son of Mehathabel who was confined to his home, he said, "Let us meet together in the house of God within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night. But I said, should such a man as I run away, what man such as I could go into the temple and live? I will not go in, I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because the Tobiah and some ballads had hired him. For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin. So they could give a bad name, give me a bad name in order to taunt me. Remember Tobiah and Sam ballad on my God, according to these things that they did. And also the prophet, prophetess, Naiah died and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid." Verse 15, "So the wall was finished in the 25th month of the month of Elu in 52 days. When all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work was accomplished with the help of our God. Moreover, in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah's letters came to them. For many in Judah were bound by oath to him because he was the son-in-law of Shekania, the son of Erah, and his son, J. O. Hainan, and the daughter of Mechelum and the son of Barakiah, his wife. They also spoke of his good deeds in my presence and reported my words to him and Tobiah sent the letters to make me afraid. Please pray with me." Father, we come before your scriptures, your word, that it's true, that they are holy and Lord, we must handle them with great care. And we pray that your spirit will come, that he along with your word will be able to take this to our hearts, Father, that you would take my words and apply these words to my heart and the hearts of your people. Preaching is nothing without the spirit, Father. He is the one, Father, that makes it what it is. And he has to be the one, Father, to come, and I beg of him to come, that we may receive a word from you. Your word may touch the depths of our soul and convict us and encourage us, whatever we need to hear this morning, your spirit will teach us. We're all in different places, we're dealing with different things, and I pray that these words will reach each and every one of us in where we are, and Christ in my prayer. Amen. The first internal broken issue that Nehemiah dealt with is seen in verses 10-13. In those verses, Nehemiah, simply, he reported on an internal broken issue, and that issue was a broken prophetic office. The prophets were broken. And to support this, he gave one example of his experience in dealing with the prophets in Judah during this time. He goes into the house of a man named, thanks to Jeremiah. We have no way of knowing the relationship between the two, but at least they knew of each other, they had to come, Nehemiah knew his father, he knew his great father's name, his grandfather's name, and his father's name. So they're more than just strangers, they're at least all their acquaintances, they know something about each other. So when Nehemiah goes into this man's house, he says, "Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, let us close the doors of the temple, for they your enemies are coming to kill you, they are coming to kill you by night." Now on the surface, does anything appear to be wrong with that? Those words there? On the surface, it's like, thanks for the head up, bro. Thank you. I mean, you look, you got a brother's back here. Thank you for giving me the inside school, but what my enemies are doing. On the surface, that's what it seems like he's doing. He's making a prophecy on Nehemiah's behalf, but is it really on his behalf? Does he really have his back? He doesn't. It's actually a false prophecy disguised as helpful advice and wise counsel. You see, it takes discernment, it takes wisdom, it takes faith to see through the fake appearances of other people, because everybody are not who they say they are. They're not, they're just pervasive, and it takes wisdom and discernment and growing your faith to be able to distinguish that. Nehemiah exercised discernment. In verse 11, he said to him, "Such a man as I run away, and what man should I, should live in the temple, I will not go in. I will not go in." Does Nehemiah been ungrateful? Is it like ungrateful and rude? No, he's seeing right through what this man is trying to do. He's not looking out for his welfare. He is trying to entice Nehemiah to give him to his fear and run and to do something that the Lord forbid, because we all know that only one group of people were allowed to go to the temple, and who was that? It was the priest. It's Nehemiah's priest, he's a politician, he's a governor, he's not a priest, and so you have a prophet trying to tell Nehemiah to do something that goes contrary to the word of God. Why he knew this, because he knew the word of God, if you don't know the word of God, how you're going to know truth, how you're going to know what's alive, if you don't know the word for yourself. He says in verse 12, "I understood, and so that God did not send him, he had announced the prophecy against me, because Tabiah and Sebastian had hired him. For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, so they can give me a bad name in order to taunt me." He was hired by the enemies to make a false prophet. Nehemiah's own people now are working with the enemy. More than that, it shows that the office of prophet was broken, that the office of prophet was now being used for evil purposes, to hinder the work of God, to hinder the work of God, that God sent Nehemiah to do. Now, how many of you would have believed this if you were in Nehemiah's place? Because if someone says they're a prophet or a pastor, then everything they say must be true, because they have the title. How many of you would have been fooled? How many of you would have went into the temple? Here's the lesson for all of us, titles alone do not equal legitimacy and faithfulness. Just because you got the title does not equal legitimacy, does not equal faithfulness. You can have the title of pastor, elder, deacon, wife, husband, father, mother, teacher, student, or whatever, and you not function as such. It's just a title. You have to be more than just a title, and this is why it's important for us to pray for discernment and to know God's word for ourself, so that you can be able to discern what people tell you. Because all counsel isn't helpful, it's not, and you got to be able to discern that. So, Jeremiah here in our text is really a wolf in sheep's clothing. He's a pretend prophet. He's a false prophet, which is an abusive office. You see, if you know anything about usual history, prophets had a very important role. If you read through the Old Testament, you know prophets had a very important role. They functioned as spokesman of the Lord. They brought the word of God to the people, but also in that history, false prophets rose up too, and those false prophets led to people's strength. Say, Jeremiah, he talks all about it, how the false prophets led God's people's strength. Jeremiah 23, in there you see the Lord says to the false prophets, "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy out to you, filling you with vain hope. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord." But if they understood in my counsel these prophets, they will help proclaim my words to my people. They would have, and Shammaya here is functioned as one of those prophets. He didn't understand the counsel of God, and so he's leading people astray, even Nehemiah. Because the Lord did not send him, the Lord was not speaking through him, it was a lie. Everything he told Nehemiah was a lie. And what I notice here, that Nehemiah does not call them out on it. I'm like, why? Why doesn't he call them out? We saw him deal with the enchoptify, we saw him deal with the oppression that the Jews were having to war on another, but now he's dealing with a prophet, a spiritual leader, and a text that will say anything about him calling them out on it, he doesn't challenge him. Why? He had to be frustrated, he had to be disappointed to see one of his fellow Jews being drawn to the help with the enemies, especially when it was supposed to be the spiritual leader of the community. But how did he respond, he tried to fix it, he didn't. Once again, he turned it over to the Lord and prayer. Remember to bowel it, remember to bow you and send bowel it on my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess, Nordiah, and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid. When I first read it, I was like, what? The prophets tried to make him afraid, and then I'm realizing that Nehemiah had other encounters with these prophets that he doesn't bring up in the letter. This isn't the first time he had a dealing with a false prophet, it's like they were conspiring against some things he got there. He just gives us an example of one of those instances here. Do you have false prophets, supposedly the spiritual leaders of the community in legion with the enemy, helping the enemy? What's the point of this? The prophetic office was broken, corrupted. Prophets were spiritual leaders, but they were not functioning as such, they were not. So a broken prophetic office is one thing we see, and then there's one more brokenness, one more brokenness, one more office that was broken, make it verse 7, 17. He said, moreover in those days, the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobias, and Tobias letters came to them, for many in Judah were bound to him by oath. Historically, what's unique about the tribe of Judah, what's unique about them, what's their role in the history of Israel, they were the Kingly tribe, they were the Kingly tribe, that was their role historically. And so what you have here, you have Nehemiah showing us that the Kingly line was broken as well, broken. So broken, they are in a merit with Gentiles. No longer fulfilling their role, there's not a king in Judah anymore, there's no longer a king there, so it's broken, it's broken as well. The office of prophet, the office of king in Judah are broken in Nehemiah chapter 6. And what we see from Nehemiah is that he doesn't try to fix them. He doesn't call the nobles out, he didn't call the false prophet out. He simply reports, this is how bad things are, this is what's going on, this is what's going on in my community, this is what's going on in Jerusalem at this time, this shows us a deep spiritual brokenness was still in Jerusalem, beyond the wall, for which Nehemiah did not have the power to fix, he could not fix it, he could restore the wall, which he did, but he could not restore people's spiritual, neither can we, neither can we, he gave it over to the Lord, he was at peace with this because he knew the Lord was limitless, the Lord can do what he cannot do. These things show us there's still a need for a greater prophet, there's a need for a greater king with a better kingdom, are you at peace with your limitations, are we at peace with our limitations as a church, we've ministered to each other, we've ministered to others, we are serving to rebuild communities, we're serving to rebuild schools and families and whatever, we're serving, but we are still limited because we cannot restore people spiritually, all we can do in that regard is tell them about the one who can, and we have to do that, and whatever we do and have we serve, we do, we have to get to a place where we bring Jesus in and share with them the good news of the gospel, because he's the only one that can do that, that can heal people spiritually, and so if we all are broken when you think about it, this world we live in, your pastor's broken, the men who are going to serve you as elders and deacons are broken men, limited men, and they're going to fail a lot, they're going to make mistakes, you need to realize that before you elect them, you're not electing and calling perfect leaders, they're broken and so are you. When I was in, I spent a summer in South Africa, most of you know that in college, and every, I think I shared this with you before, you know, the way America advertises itself around the world is a lot different than what we see, because every conversation I got into with one of the natives over in South Africa, it was man, I want to go to America, but you guys hang out with movie stars, you guys, you guys hang out with all those people, and they were asking me, do you hang out with the movie stars or you're like real close, like those people have nothing to do with me, man, no I don't hang out with them, no, their view of America is that everybody is rich, there are no poor people in America, everybody has it together, and I told them, your view of America is not true, because if you came here, you would see brokenness, we try to hide it, but there's brokenness here, there's broken that brokenness, we know that everyone has issues, everyone has brokenness, and everyone needs Jesus, everyone needs Him, but in the midst of brokenness, in the midst of our limitations to heal all the brokenness, we know we have a God, we believe in a God who is not limited like us, that He can go in and do what we cannot do, because in verse 16 we see that the wall was completed in just 52 days, 52 days, what did that show, what did that communicate, it communicated that God had not abandoned His people, He was still working, and for the first time in the EMI, we now see the enemies are now the ones who are afraid, they are afraid when they heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and felt greatly in their own esteem, why? Because they perceived that the work was accomplished with the help of who, our God, our God was in this, who was faithful, who was great, and all He did was with, all that He did there, all the enemies saw it, they traveled with all they might to hinder the wall work, to work on the wall, but it could not, they could not do it, they couldn't prevent Him fulfilling His purposes on behalf of His people, and they were afraid that now God was going to turn the Jews back into a powerful nation, that's what they were afraid of, you see all God always wins, there's nothing in all creation, nothing in all creation that can stop Him fulfilling His purposes in the world, if you look at the church, look at the church, it's messy man, but yet He holds it together, historically, countries and governments had tried to destroy the church, but did it destroy it? No, the more they tried to destroy it, the more it grew, they could have the church in China, it's a persecuted church, but yet it's growing leaps and bounds, He holds together what we can, and He has the power to, and notice here that Nehemiah, Nehemiah, he sandwiched this statement about the wall being completed between those two things that were broken, did you notice that when you read it? Did you notice that? It's like, well the wall was completed completely for the two days, that's a big thing, but it is in the middle, sandwiched in the middle, or two things that are broken, which reinforces the fact that our God is not limited by brokenness, He still works, He still moves, and Deuteronomy 18, God made a prophecy, He made a promise through Moses to His people, you know what that promise was? One day I'll rise up from them a prophet like you from on their brothers, and I'll put my words in His mouth, and He just speak to them all that I command Him, but as we see in the end of my six, that prophet was not here yet, he hasn't come yet, he hasn't arrived yet. It was still to come, who is this prophet that has no limits, no brokenness, isn't it Jesus, isn't Him, isn't He the one true prophet of our God who is not broken, who doesn't sigh with the enemies? Jesus is the only one who perfectly fulfills the office of prophet, and in the short of catechism says, He institutes the office of prophet and then revealing to us about His Word the will of God for our salvation, that's what He does for us as a prophet, and that salvation is what heals people broken, heals people's spiritual brokenness, salvation in Him, because before Christ we all were broken, we all were lost, we all were dead in our trespasses and sins, and Jesus reveals to us that His life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension came to fulfill that, to heal that, and so if you're broken spiritually and you don't know Him this morning, you can know Him, you can receive Him in saving faith, there's no other way that you can be healed, there's no other way you can get into glory, there's no other way you can be saved, you can't ever be good enough, you can't heal yourself, you don't have enough money to buy your way in, God has all the money in the Word, doesn't need yours, there's only one way into glory is through Jesus, through Him alone, He is the prophet that shows us the way the salvation, no one else does, and if anyone comes, you show you another way, it's alive, it's Jesus and Jesus alone is the way in our true prophet. Also in 2 Samuel 2, 16 the Lord made a covenant with King David before He died, and He says to David, "And your house and your kingdom shall be made forever before me, your throne will be established forever, and near my six, do we see that?" There's no King in Judah near my six, there is no King, the King in line is broken, they are in treated with the enemy, so did the Lord fail, is this kingdom not going to be established forever? No, that King had not come yet, the King was still to come, and as we know, that King is Jesus as well, the one true King. He executes the office of King, how? He sedues us to Himself, He rules, defends us, He restrains and conquers all of His and our enemies, and He does not join them, He defeats them as our King. Who is your King? Who is your King? Yes, it's not America, there's no party, there's not our ethnicity, we have one King, it's Jesus, and He has overcome the world, He has overcome the enemy, He has overcome sin, He has defeated death, so that we don't have to, so that we don't have to, we are limited, but He is not, who here can defeat sin, who here can defeat death, who here can heal their own brokenness, no one, no one, and so we go to another, and we lead people to that one person. He brought restoration to the office of Prophet, He brought restoration to the office of King, and He is the one that can only bring true spiritual restoration, Jesus and Jesus along, He is our Prophet, He is our King, let us pray. Lord Jesus, I thank You Father that, that we have a Prophet who is not false, we have a Prophet that does not leave people astray, that He is the one true Prophet, we have a King who conquers enemies and not join them, don't make a truce with them, but He defeats them, and He did, and we thank You in praise You for that Father, that for our Lord Jesus and we pray also Lord for those here who don't know Him, for those here who haven't received Him in seventh faith, we pray that Lord is Spirit, we are working on their hearts, working on their hearts Father, and we pray for those here who know Him, but are struggling Lord, who are beat up and frustrated and tired, that they will receive strength and encouragement Father, that they would know that they are not alone in this, that their God is with them and they forward them, He comforts them, so Lord bring healing to all of us, because we all need Jesus and we need more of Him every day, and Christ Him, I pray, amen. 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