“Pressing on into the New Year”

Cooper’s Cove Baptist Church

January 11, 2009

“Vision for Change”

Nehemiah 1:1-11

Last week we discussed the passing of 2008 and the birth of 2009.

We said 2008 was in the history books now.

2009 was ours for the making!

We talked about the upcoming events of 2009 for our church.

Dedication services, baptisms, movie night, and all the ways God would use us to minister in Cooper’s Cove.

I shared with you a New Year’s resolution that I wanted us all to pray about and commit to do:

“To reach out and touch those around us who are not in church.”

I said that with this resolution in mind we must:

Define our goal for 2009. Seek God’s leadership in achieving it.

I believe in order for us to do that we must first catch the vision.

Catch the vision of being led by God to do wonderful things for His glory here at Cooper’s Cove Baptist Church.

For the next few weeks we will be hearing about a vision for CC.

When I think about vision I am drawn to the account of Nehemiah.

**Let me take a moment to introduce Nehemiah**

In 597BC Jerusalem, the capital city of the Jewish people, surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar who packed the King and a few thousand Judean nobles and craftsmen off to Babylon as “hostages” to assure that the rest of Judah’s people would behave themselves. They did not and in 586 BC Babylon sent a second attack on Jerusalem. This time they completely destroyed the city’s walls, the citadel and the temple and carted off a second load of the Judean upper class. A few years later there was a third exile. In all, Babylon made off with about 30,000 of Judah’s best and brightest.
Their exile to Babylon was not like the exile to Egypt. They were not slaves and even retained their own Jewish community and faith. They had become prosperous land owners and businessmen.
Fast forward about 50 years. A new world power, Persia, is on the scene and they defeat the mighty Babylonians. Having no need for them, or any desire to use them, the Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem. About 50,000 did.
Many did not because there was nothing to return to in Jerusalem. The economy was shot all to pieces. Their land and homes had been taken over by those of the lower classes who were left behind. The gates and walls were destroyed so there was no security and safety for their families. There was nothing that made Jerusalem attractive to some of the Jews. Those who did return were those who had not become prosperous in Babylon and they saw the return to Jerusalem as a new start and a chance to do better. Or they were those patriotic Jews who believed there was no place on earth like Jerusalem and were dedicated to its rebuilding.
One of those who stayed in Babylon was a man named Nehemiah. He had risen to a very high position in the Persian court. He was the cupbearer. He was the one who was in charge of the preparation and tasting of the King’s food and drink. He was a very trusted “right-hand man”.
He had no thought of Jerusalem. He thought only of his life in Susa. He was climbing the corporate ladder and had designs on an even better position. His roots were in Babylon, not Judah. His future was in Babylon, not in Judah. He did not even know anyone who lived in Judah.
Then one day, things changed.

Nehemiah’s heart was saddened with the news of his father’s land.

He felt the need to go “home” to a place he had never been.

It was “home” to his ancestors.

Why was Nehemiah heartbroken over a place he had never been and a place he knew little about?

I believe it was because the God of heaven had instilled in him a vision – a vision of change.

I believe he had passion in his heart for a brighter future, a passion of doing God’s work for God’s people.

For Nehemiah to have this vision he had to have passion for it.

A vision must have passion to live!

A vision without passion is like a glove without a hand, useless.

It is like an elephant without a trunk, unable to survive.

It is like a trailer without a truck, stuck where it is, going nowhere.

See, passion is the fuel that drives our vision!

God gave Nehemiah both, vision and passion.

I want to point out that Nehemiah received this vision 4 to 5 months before he told the king. (Neh. 1: vs. 1 “…in the month of Kislev”; and 2: vs. 1 “…in the month of Nisan…”)

Kislev would be the 9th month, or September, and Nisan would be the 1st month, or January to us.

I point this out to say, “Vision is a clear mental picture of a preferable future”.

In other words, we must see it before we can build it.

A homeless person has a vision of being in a warm home eating a hot meal.

A prisoner in jail has a vision of being released to freedom.

A drowning man has a vision of a life boat!

A gardener planting seed has a vision for the harvest.

Members of CCBC must have a vision for reaching out in 2009!

But to this “vision” there is a natural phenomenon;

We must first become dissatisfied with the present in order to change the future!

Did you hear what I just said?!? (REPEAT statement. ^)

See the gymnast who just won gold doesn’t dream of anything better – however the one who came in 4th place does!

The millionaire living in the plush Penthouse doesn’t dream of a better future – the man living under a bridge does!

Friends we don’t begin to dream of a better future until we FIRST become dissatisfied with our present.

Have you become dissatisfied with your present?

Are you interested in changing your future?

Nehemiah was not dissatisfied with his situation, he liked it.

He was the cup bearer of the king!

He was working his way up the ladder.

He was in the prime stages of success right where he was.

Being the cup bearer of the king, he had it made.

He had a good life style and was very satisfied, that is why he stayed in Babylon and did not return to his father’s homeland with the others.

What we learn from this passage is that God sometimes has to make us dissatisfied before He can use us.

And sometimes this process is painful!

God had to make Nehemiah dissatisfied so he would respond.

And I guess that is what I want for us – to become dissatisfied!

We all think pastors want to make us feel good and comfy.

Pastors want to get patted on the back and have people that feel good say they enjoyed the sermon. We all like compliments!

But I must say my job as the pastor is to make you unhappy from time to time and to make you dissatisfied about how things are.

I bet you never thought you would hear that!!

Think about it, as long as we are satisfied and happy we see no need to change anything. We just want to keep things status quo.

Well friends I am here to tell you things are changing and we must become dissatisfied with how some things are and begin a vision of how we are going to embrace the change and grow with it.

It is good to hear people talking about not having enough space for Sunday school classes.

It is good hearing people talk about not being able to find enough people to help out in the nursery.

It is good to hear people unhappy with having no youth leader and no choir director.

Do I want our church to be without all of these things? NO!

Do I want our church to be dissatisfied with all of these things? Absolutely YES! That is when things change, people step up!

Why do I want our church people dissatisfied? So we will dream of a better way!

***When we become content with how things are we begin the process of a slow death.***

When we become dissatisfied we begin to develop a vision for a better future. We develop a vision of reaching out to others in CC.

It took four months for Nehemiah to become dissatisfied with the situation in Judah… to the point that he was willing to make some changes… serious changes… sacrificial changes.

Nehemiah became so dissatisfied with how things were in Judah that he decided to leave the cushy lifestyle and the security he had.

We read in the 4th verse he was saddened by the news and wept.

But look what else he did – he fasted and prayed to God.

Before any decisions or changes can be made we must pray to God for direction and discernment in His will for our situation.

It is my prayer that we will become dissatisfied with some areas of our church and our lives so we may develop a vision of change.

We must be careful; there are two ways to become dissatisfied.

1- To become wholly dissatisfied – by being negative about everything and only see the bad things.

2- To become holy dissatisfied and be positive of the changes for God’s glory and to see opportunities for service that is pleasing to God.

When Nehemiah became dissatisfied, his dissatisfaction had hope!

The first 7 verses of chapter 1 are filled with dissatisfaction.

Right in the middle of dissatisfaction is verses filled with hope!

Read verses 8-11.

Nehemiah understands those who do wrong will be punished. (vs. 8)

He also understands that to those who are faithful to God and obey His commandments, He will bless them. (vs. 9)

God’s people have hope, the hope of redemption! (vs. 10)

We can see that in the midst of dissatisfaction there is HOPE.

CCBC needs a HOLY dissatisfaction that only comes from God that helps us see what needs to be made better.

We need to step up in prayer, step out in faith, and step in to serve.

We are on the edge of reaching more people for Christ in 2009.

But first we must understand we can’t be comfortable with how things have always gone.

We must embrace the changes of 2009 and develop a passion for the vision of going forward in the ministry of God’s church.

You say how do we do that?

1- We must first become dissatisfied with how things are.

2- We must go to God in prayer seeking his guidance.

3- We must take ownership in the ministry of CCBC.

4- We must step up and use our spiritual gifts for Him

****Closing Prayer****

Perhaps someone here is dissatisfied with living without Christ.

If you don’t know Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, today is the day you can give your life to Him.

Maybe someone here is dissatisfied with not being involved in the ministry of CCBC.

Today you can decide to serve Him fully.

Maybe someone here is searching for a church home and you feel CCBC is where God is leading you, come.

Whatever the decision God is laying on your heart, don’t let this opportunity pass you by.

Stand with me as we sing hymn #:_______________________

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