Rebuilding our Jerusalem – Rebuilding our Covenant Place with God
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Rebuilding our Jerusalem – Rebuilding our Covenant Place with God Nehemiah
Good Evening! Tonight we will continue our Series of Victories in Rebuilding our Jerusalem - Rebuilding our Covenant Place with God. Many times we have that moment where we break open that relationship with God, but we go back less and less until Satan has been allowed to destroy our Jerusalem, Our Covenant Place of Worship with God. Let me ask a question tonight. Is your passion for the Lord more or less today than the day you gave your heart and life over to Christ.
There was a man named Rex and he was married to Jessie for 50 plus years. Rex loved Jessie but in the last year or so of her life Rex did all of the house work, all of the cooking, all of the everything because Jessie would only perk up when it was time to go to church. Rex and I got to talking about the moment Jessie passed. Rex remembered that he was cooking lunch. He had just asked Jessie if she was ready for lunch. She explained that she would be in the kitchen in a minute. Rex said the next thing he heard was Jessie’s bible hit the ground. He said when he heard that sound he knew there was something terribly wrong because Jessie was so careful with God’s word. He said he had never seen that Bible on the floor, let alone for it to drop. He said “Rich, she loved the word too much to mistreat it or drop it. Therefore I knew there was a problem.” Rex ran to Jessie only to find that she was gone. In just a moment Jessie had left her place of Covenant with the Lord to her Eternal place of covenant with the Lord. Rex said it was just that quick. In just a moment his life was changed. You see, even Rex knew the covenant love relationship that Jessie had with Jesus. He knew the day would come when Jessie would be absent from the body and present with the Lord. We also have to understand that Jessie had build that Personal Jerusalem, that place where she had covenant relationship, where she worshipped, where she prayed, where everything changed.
Tonight I want to challenge each of you here to work to build that place of Covenant with God. We are going to see how that Nehemiah worshipped and wouldn’t stop until Jerusalem was re-built. I beleive there are some here tonight that need to rebuild that place of covenant relationship with God. Jessie had a chair where she studied, where she prayed, where she worshipped, where she had communion with the Father. She had all of her tools around her, she had books, she had tablets she had written in, she had her bible that was so worn and so marked because she couldn’t get enough.
So, let’s look at Nehemiah
1 We should have a desire to rebuild our Jerusalem.
Nehe 1:1-4 “The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. It came to pass in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the citadel, that Hanani one of my brethren came with men from Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, “The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.” So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.”
Nehemiah had a passion to rebuild Jerusalem. The City of his fathers, the place where they worshipped. Jerusalem was the City that God had promised to Abraham and his descendants. It was there that Abraham offered Issaac. This was special to the Jews. It is where the “Akeda” or the “BInding of Isaac” took place. It is also, the place according to geologists where Jesus was cruscified and beaten. He was laid to rest just meer meters away. They had the rememberence. They had that special place in their hearts. That place of covenant. That place where they met God. You see I remember the times God showed up so powerful that it was undeniable. I remember when God showed up and changed my circumstance. I remember when His audible voice called out to me. I don’t know about you tonight but there is a special rememberance in my spirit for those places. Nehemiah had that rememberance. He was about to go from cubbearer in the King’s presence to a wall builder for the creator of the Universe. Do you remember that place of covenant between you and God? Have you had that place of rememberance? We know that Saul did on Damascus Road. Does your heart long for the place of covenant with God tonight?
2. He did something about it.
Nehemiah 1:5–11 (NKJV)
And I said: “I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations; but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.’ Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand. O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”
For I was the king’s cupbearer.
What did he do? He fasted and prayed. He began the rebuilding of the Place of Covenant on his knees. You see, when we begin on our knees to rebuild our relationship with the Father, then things begin to change.
“If” “My people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray” “Then I will hear from Heaven and heal their land. Then I will hear from Heaven and heal their place of covenant.
We know there are challenges.
We know that the Devil is out there to kill, steal and destroy.
So, what do we do?
Eph 6:10-18“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand theref ore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication f…”
Oh that we would see the need to spend time around these altars of prayer. Oh that we would see the need to “Pray Through”. I will never forget my cousin, a man no known for his relationship with God, decided he would stay home and pray a situation through and the next morning he died. I believe with all of my heart that he rebuilt his Jerusalem, he rebuilt that place of covenant relationship with God and God took him home. I’m here to tell you right now that God is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him. He is the rewarder of those who chase after relationship with Him. Where are you at tonight. Are you ready to rebuild tha altar of covenant? Are you ready to rebuild the place of covenant like what Nehemiah did?
3. He completed the Place of Worship
You see when we are doing the will of the Father, the devil will do everything in his power to try to stop you.
Nehemiah had to deal with a man named Sanballat. Sanballat tried to get others to help, he tried to wreck the walls, he spoke harshly. Everything that could happen to you when you are trying to rebuild your Jerusalem. It seems like every time we get moving forward that ole enemy of our soul pushes against us. He tries to destroy our walls if you will. He tries like Sanballat to oppress us and depress us. Whatever he can do to turn our gaze from what God has going.
Nehemiah 6:15-7:3 “So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days. And it happened, when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these things, that they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was done by our God. Also in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came to them. For many in Judah were pledged to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shechaniah the son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah. Also they reported his good deeds before me, and reported my words to him. Tobiah sent letters to frighten me. Then it was, when the wall was built and I had hung the doors, when the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed, that I gave the charge of Jerusalem to my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the leader of the citadel, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many. And I said to them, “Do not…”
So I am here tonight to encourage you, that though times may not be what you want hold on. Keep rebuilding your Jerusalem. Keep building your Covenant place with God. There isn’t anything that can stop you if God be for you.