Built with Community

150 years in rebel, 52 days rebuilt for God's glory. And it wasn't because of their ability, cuz that would be impossible. It wasn't because they were so smart. It was because God united them in a miraculous way. And it happened because everyone was doing their part, buying in to the success of what God was promising. But this morning, we are diving in to Nehemiah chapter 3. So, if you have a Bible, uh, grab and go to Nehemiah chapter 3. This is in the Old Testament. And we are in week four of this series. And, uh, as we get in here, just to set the stage for you a little bit. Nehemiah's been burdened with he's heard in a far distant land in in Jerusalem. He's grown up his whole life in Persia that the walls of God's city have been torn down. And then they've been like that for a while. And he has this bird in his heart that something needs to be done. So, as he's praying about it, as God's moving in his heart, he gets this vision. And and last week, we got to where he went to Jerusalem and as he's inspecting the land, as he's casting vision to the people, all of a sudden they are ready. And and as we get to chapter 3, chapter 3 is a tough chapter because this is 32 verses of names you can't say, of gates you'll never see, and of things you never thought you needed to know. And as you hear this passage, and I and I'm going to be honest with you, as I was preparing for this, the thought that came into my head is, how do I preach this where people aren't just checking their fantasy score or scrolling social media the whole time? And then God's little conviction came in my heart. He's like, if I put it in my book, it's worth us reading. It's worth us preaching. And it's worth us seeing what it has for our lives. And in Nehemiah chapter 3, starting in verse one, let me just give you a little taste of what we will be diving into today. It says, "The high priest Elias Elishab and his fellow priests began rebuilding the sheepgate. They dedicated and installed its doors. After building the wall to the tower of the hund and the tower of Hanel, they dedicated it. The men of Jericho built next to Elishab and next to them Zakur son of Imry built. The sons of Hassani built the fish gate. They built it with beams and installed its doors, bolts, and bars. Next to them, Marramas, son of Uriah, son of Hakaz made repairs. Beside them, Mishulam, son of Bareric, son of Mashebila, made repairs. Next to them, Zadak, son of Bana made repairs. Verse 5. Beside them, the Tecoites made repairs, but their nobles did not lift a finger to help their supervisors. See what I mean? Bunch of names you can't say. as you go through, it's like you're reading a phone book. Anyone still know what a phone book is? Yeah, three of us. That's cool. Um, a funny story, as I was growing up in youth group, uh, one of the things we did to go to camp is we did a fundraiser and we delivered phone books. So, they dropped off pallets of phone books to our youth group. We filled our entire youth group. We had to sort these out, put five of these books in one bag that did not hold the weight of five phone books. We loaded them into a truck and the truck would go slowly down the street as we jumped in and out of the truck trying not to get run over or die. All right. All for like two grand for to send us to youth camp. And it was fantastic. But as we read this passage, we see these names, we see these gates, we see all that's happening and be like, "What does God have for us today?" Like, how am I going to see what that God wants to propel forward in my life? But here's the beauty of this passage and what we're going to see today is Nehemiah is starting to put the vision into practice that he has been preaching to the people last week in chapter 3 as he begins to lay out what God has placed on his heart. This burden that God has put in the pit of his stomach as he begins to tell the Israelite people of what God wants to do of restoring these walls and restoring what God is doing. All of the sudden, Nehemiah is fired up. And he starts and and as they respond and say, "Let's go. Let's start building. Let's be part of this." In chapter 3, we get to see the logistics of that start to happen. And as they get to lay it out, here's what we start to see this theme that goes throughout the book that is just has planted throughout it is we see how this vision that leads to victory. This theme throughout the book of Nehemiah be Nehemiah begins to take root. All of the sudden this vision that they had in their heads, this vision that is unspoken on their lips, the vision all of a sudden meets their hands. And as they start to dive in, they start this building project. And and here's what I love in this is this is where the rubber meets the road. This is where the talk becomes work. This is where this vision becomes a reality. And let me kind of paint your picture around this just for a second. Is here's a picture up here that kind of shows what this would look like. the walls around Jerusalem. And man, it was so hard to find a picture. I Googled this for an hour. I asked AI to make me a better picture. And it was worse than the picture that we already had from a textbook. All right. AI cannot do everything despite what we think. All right. Someone's excited about that. You don't want your job to get replaced. Whoever that was, they're like, "Yeah, they can't take my job." Anyway, um but these walls, this is about 2 and 1/2 mile stretch of wall around the city. And and as this kind of goes around what we're going to see that there's all these gates that come in and these gates were strategically located so that certain traffic could get certain. You have the water gate, the horse gate, you have the dung gate. You can fill in your mind for that. But you have all these things to make this city flow. And this was no small little project of like I got to go build a fence in my backyard. This was to protect a city. And as we dive into this text, here's the beauty of this is God is going to kind of give us, I think, four things we'd see through this text and through the leadership of Nehemiah and through the people of Israel that to do something great, God is going to show us some of the steps we need to take. And I want to read these first two verses again in chapter 3 that we read at the beginning. It says this, that the high priest Eleesab and his fellow priests, they began rebuilding the sheep gate. That's an important detail. And listen to this. They dedicated it and they installed its doors after building the wall to the tower of the hundred and the tower of Hanel. They dedicated it. The men of Jericho built next to Ellesab and next to this Zakur son of Imery built. Here's the first thing we see when we just start a project like this. When we start to put in a practice of vision that God gives us to build something great, we first need to seek God's movement. You notice who starts the work at the beginning of this chapter. It's not the construction workers. It's not the architect. It's not the engineers. It's not the people most qualified. It is the priests. I am a pastor. I have built things in my house that I have then had to call real people to then fix after I built it. All right? These guys were not experts on how to build things and they didn't even have a YouTube. I can build a little more because I have YouTube, right? That helps out. But he's like, these guys did not have all the answers. They didn't know what was in. But what why were they the first to start building is they built first because they were dedicating this project to God. And here's what's uh amazing is this wasn't just a building project. This was a spiritual mission. The first thing they start with is the sheep gate. The sheep gate is important because this was the gate closest to the temple. And this is actually where they brought in the lambs that they would sacrifice and that would then have them to pay penance for their sin or to pay the sacrifice for their sins so that they could then be in harmony with God. Which you think about this, you forecast this to the New Testament is Jesus did not enter through a lion gate. He didn't enter through any other gate. He entered through the sheep gate to be our sacrificial lamb so we could have communion. we could have a relationship with him. And and I love this because as they start it, they build this and the first thing they do is they dedicate it to God. I watch a lot of sports and and I'm a Arizona sports fan through and through. I'm a native cheer for the Cardinals, the Suns, ASU, and the Diamondbacks. And I am clinically depressed all the time. It's it's gotten ridiculous at this point. All right. Um like literally I watch a game ASU played Colorado last night. We were winning by four going in the fourth quarter. one of the worst teams in the entire country. And I'm like, we're going to lose this game. We deserve to lose this game. We ended up winning by 25, but I thought somehow we're still going to lose this game cuz we are ASU. It is what we do is we lose things in spectacular fashion. But what I love is when you watch sports and and you see those people who are believers and they're interviewed after and those who who have a faith in Christ and they say, "I want to dedicate this to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Now, sometimes that might be like their mom's watching, so they throw that on there so they're not in trouble. But you know when when there's sometimes those people that are genuine and you think about that is like did Jesus lift that receiver a little higher so he could catch that ball? Did Jesus strengthen the arm of the quarterback so he could throw it a little farther? Like I believe in miracles um that God can do. I don't think that miracle is happening on the football field. All right. But when they dedicate that to him, they're not saying that Jesus all of a sudden made them stronger. Jesus all of a sudden did a miracle. Jesus all of a sudden made them work out harder. What they are saying is that their life is motivated by Christ and it changes everything else they do. And here when they are dedicating this work to the Lord, they're saying, "God, you are the motivation for this project. Not our own strength, not our own security, not for our own good. We're not building these walls so all of a sudden we can become a prosperous nation. We're building these so we could ultimately glorify you." that God is the motivation of this project. And here's what this teaches us is before we build anything great, we have to seek God's movement in it. We have to acknowledge that apart from him, there is nothing that we can do. You know what I love about Cross Church is we don't create programs and then ask God to bless them. We seek the face of God first and then build a program as he moves us. Every Wednesday at 6:00 am I am in this room with a group of faithful people as we pray every Wednesday at 6:00 am. You are welcome to join us. We're not meeting this week before Thanksgiving, but next week come at 6 a.m. It's still dark outside. You're like, "Is it still night time?" But at 6:00 a.m. I prayed faithfully this last Wednesday with three of our elders as we seek the face of God and say, "God, how are you guiding our church and our personal lives?" What we prayed in here today, we believe prayer is a vital aspect of the church because we are not smart enough. We are not strong enough. We are not gifted enough to do this on our own. We must seek God. But this doesn't just happen corporately in our church. This also veers into the personal part of us. For you personally, what are you building in your life right now? Your marriage, your career, your your family, your ministry, whatever that is. Have you dedicated it to God? Have you sought his movement? Or are you just trying to make it happen under your own strength? You see, the priests, they didn't just build and then ask God to bless it. They dedicated it first. They sought his movement first before they started swinging the hammers. They made him the center of their motivation. But it continues on here. Not only do we need to seek God's movement, but go back to verse 5 that we read earlier. It says, "Beside them, the Takcoites made repairs, but their nobles did not lift a finger to help their supervisors." As the story continues where we're going to see throughout this chapter that all these people are just working away. They're just doing all this work, but except this one group of people. And as we seek to do big things for God, as we seek to do great things, first we need to seek God's movement, but we also need to silence God's critics, there will always be those people in our lives that are critical. I love this because as they get into this project, it it says the noble Takcoites, the Toide nobles, which is an important distinction that in this as the work started, they were like, "No, man, that's not me." like everyone else was doing things, everyone else was working, but they did not lift a finger. They either thought it was beneath them or they were too good for it. They did not want to get their hands dirty. There's a pastor that I heard say this and he quoted another pastor and I don't remember the pastor who said it and I think that pastor quoted another pastor so I could have taken credit for this quote, but I'll defer it broadly. But he he said this one time at a conference I was at. He says, "If serving is below you, the stage is above you. in our leadership. If we cannot stoop, there is no way that we can then lead people around us. And here these nobles when they saw the project, they're like, "No, I'm not doing that. I'm just going to stand here. I'm going to criticize you. I'm going to bow this one out. I'm not going to get my hands dirty." And guess what? They got put as the only people in this project in the holy scripture of God's word that has endured throughout time as the people who did nothing. And the funny thing is they're actually not heard about through the rest of this passage and throughout the rest of this chapter as all of a sudden they just kind of faded into oblivion. And here's what's also powerful is even though their leaders didn't uh lift their fingers, the Takcoite nobles, the Takoite people, they actually bucked this trend. If you go to verse 27, it talks about how the people from Takcoa, they not only did their section, but they repaired a second section. They're like, "Hey, we know our leaders are such deadbeats, so we're going to do some more work, too, to make up for them." And and God still worked from this. And these critics, they were not silenced by arguing with them. These critics were not silenced by telling them how wrong they are. They were silenced by just faithfully doing the work of God. Can I be honest with you? Every church has its critics. I I get criticized every now and then for being talking too fast or stumbling over my words or wearing really cool shoes. No, I'm just kidding. No one's ever said that. Um we all love Deepbook. It's like criticism will come and and sometimes in our lives if we're not criticized we got to ask am I on the right path because the Christian life there should be some sort of resistance there should be some criticism that comes our way. I think back when I was in high school and I've shared this before um I was 15 years old and I was called to ministry and I remember my junior year of high school at Centennial High School um and I grew up in the valley uh I had teachers and they're asking like what do you want to do when you grow up? So um I was like I I think I'm called to ministry. I want to be a pastor. And I remember having a teacher, this funny thing, he's he he laughed at me and then he told me, and I don't even remember his name. True story. He told me that I was too uh sarcastic and too rude to be a pastor. Little did he know that's the strength God would use, right? But what's funny is like this guy, he was so critical and he's I don't think he's a believer. I don't even remember his name. and he was not a friendly guy at that time. And I don't remember him, but I do remember their teachers. I remember Mr. Wnek, Mr. Schmidt, Mrs. Dunham. I remember the teachers who poured into my faith, who poured into me to educate me, to build me up. I remember the people who had memorable things that guided me and directed me. But I don't remember Mr. Grumpy Pants that was a critic at that time. And you see, there will be people that are critical of you. There will be people that try to criticize the church or criticize where you're going with your personal life and your walk with Christ. They will try to tear you down. But you, here's what we need to hear is don't waste your energy trying to defend yourself. Don't waste your energy trying to tear their argument apart. Instead, faithfully do the work and history will silence them through it. You see, to do something great, we need to seek the movement of God. We need to silence the critics by just keep faithfully building what God has put ahead of us. But check out verse three as we hit this verse again. It says, "The sons of Hessi, they built the fish gate and they built it with beams and installed its doors, bolts, and bars." As we continue on, this kind of is a launching pad into the rest of this chapter that names a lot of different people. And I love as we continue to do this kind of this next step in doing something great for God is we need to supply God's local people. Here's where they start. This is just like a really beautiful picture that we see in this passage. As you see the diversity of all those people that were working on this wall in verse three mentions the sons of Hassani. They were building the fish gate. You go to verses 21 through 23. It talks about people working on sections and I love the verbiage it use opposite their houses. They were working on things that were right around them. In verses 28 through31, it talks about priests and goldsmiths and merchants and perfume makers all working together. And do you see what starts happening here? This isn't just about getting the job done, but it's about supplying God's local people with purpose, with ownership, with a section of a wall to call their own, saying, "I built that." And I love the language that's used throughout. And I would encourage you to go read this throughout the week as your devotional time or if you need to fall asleep at night. All right, just read this chapter. It'll do right there. But some of the cool phrases that just leap off the page is it says these things like they did this next to them. They did this after them. They did this beside them. They did this opposite of their home or around their home. And depending on your certain translation, we're preaching from the CSB today. It uses those phrases a combined 40 times in this passage. And it's not an accident. That's Nehemiah showing us that everyone had their section and everyone's section mattered. The wall of Jerusalem, as we said, was 2 and 1/2 miles long. I know some great contractors. I don't know any contractors that can build something 2 and 1/2 miles long with by themselves all on their own. And if they are, they're a terrible leader and they'll probably die after they build the two and a half miles. All right. This took everyone being involved. And here's what I love is many people worked on the section that was right in front of their houses. They didn't wait for the perfect assignment across town. They didn't sit around wishing that they could work on a more important part of the wall. They didn't say like I want to be on the fish gate instead of the dung gate. I would have kind of I would have agreed with them there, right? But they didn't say like I want to work on this section instead. They just built what was right in front of them. You know, sometimes I think where we can fall victim and we can have uh we can sometimes have hesitation inside the church is that we believe that sometimes we can only do God's work if we go far away. And and we should go far away. The the Bible tells us is go make Jesus known. Go make disciples of all nations. And we're doing that at Cross Church. If you're a part of Cross Church, we do that. We have churches in Myamar, and the Philippines. We've done mission trips in Mexico. And we'll continue to do those and do more. and we should make the gospel known to the nations. But sometimes we're like, I'll start to tell people about Jesus when I get to go across the world. And God's like, why don't you go across your yard? Why don't you go across the street? Why don't you go across your living room in your house and make Jesus known? And they didn't wait to say like, "God, align everything. God, make it all right. God, show me my preferred section of the wall." Instead, God's like, "You see where you are?" are. Nehemiah's like, "You see where you are? Build that. Where you are, the sphere of influence around you, the section that God has placed you in, build there." And I love this cuz I think about our church is our church. We have this mindset of building where you are. We need people serving in kids ministry cuz that is a section of the wall that builds the church. We need people greeting on Sundays mornings and doing uh what did Kyle call that? A whale high five. he's doing in the back of the room right now. I don't even know. Or wave. I don't know. Uh dolphin wave. Never heard that before, but it's like Buddy the elf waving. I don't know. Anyway, um but it's like we need that's a section of the wall to greet, to love. We need people leading our small groups. That's a section of the wall. We need people faithfully loving the people through our ministries. That's a section of the wall. We need people sharing the gospel in their local context where God has placed them. That's a section of the wall. And here's the beautiful thing about this is I can't do your section and you can't do my section. God has placed us in an area for a reason to faithfully serve and build where he has put us. And when we do that, all of the sudden we start to see this beauty come forward. And and here's what I love is just we see kind of the diversity of this in this passage. We see priests. We see rulers. We see merchants. We see goldsmiths. We see perfume makers. What does a perfume maker know about building a wall? Probably not much. But they were available and God equipped them and God used them and God moved through them to do something great. Maybe you come in here today and you're like, I don't know if God can use me. I I don't know if I'm a great teacher. I don't know if I'm a great this. I don't know if I'm a great that. But you are gifted in ways. You are placed in a certain position. And God wants to use you, the person you are, to do his work for a reason. Here's the thing is we can show up. We can bring what we have and we can build the section that God puts in front of us. At the beginning of this year, we started and talked about this culture pillar that we wanted to see our church embodied. And we used this word word called uncomfortably hospitable. this phrase and we we're going to talk about the recap of that next week in our story. But we had this display where we were filling up pingpong balls in our lobby throughout the year. And we said the goal was every month to have all of our adults to either have someone over to their house to either take someone to a meal or invite them to church to step out of your comfort zone and engage the people around you. Well, recently we we every month we try to do an invite thing for our kids that whether we get to do a costume or harvest hangout like we saw last week. The last two times we have done that, my daughter Arya, 9 years old, she has written handwritten notes to all of her classmates inviting them to church. She puts each one of their names there. She has better handwriting than me so they can actually read it after. And and she does this. She's like she's like I got 20. Got a few more to go. Um, so we'll go like she does every single kid writes their name, writes a note, inviting them to church. And the coolest thing about that is this one of this last time we had two families come to our church who had never been to our church before from her classroom. What's your section that God has placed you in? Where has God put you to be able to share the gospel, to build the wall, to be a part of the work that he is doing? And it continues in verse 4 as he goes through this. He says this next to them. They're building this again. It talks about Marramoth son of Uriah son of Hos made repairs. Beside them, you see this language we're using. Messelum son of Barakos son of Machevo. He made repairs. And then next to them, Zadok son of Bana made repairs. You see, as we build through this passage to do something great, we got to seek God's movement. We got to silence the critics by just keep pressing forward, keep faithfully serving. We got to supply God's people. And this last one we see is we got to sanctify God's church together. I I love in here what happens throughout this passage. In verse four, it talks about how Marth was working beside other people groups. In verse 7-19, it it shows us some of the different people groups. It says there was governors and rulers working alongside common people. In verses 24- 27, it talks about Levites and priests working with all these other classes of people. And what you start to see here is there just this beautiful blend where we have high priests and perfume makers. We have a governor and a goldsmith. We have a ruler and a regular citizen all working side by side, all building together, all being sanctified through the work with one another. And this is what community looks like is not everyone doing the same thing, but everyone doing their thing side by side with one another. And the word here that we use sanctify, it means to set apart, to make holy, to dedicate to God's purpose. And that's exactly what we see happening in chapter 3 is these people aren't just building a wall. They're being built up as God's people. And when we serve together as the church, both here on Sundays and outside these walls, we are being knit together as brothers and sisters in Christ. Just as we sang throughout this and we prayed throughout this service that we talked about how we are part of this church family is when we are doing God's work together it is growing us closer to one another and growing us closer to Christ. What I love about the book of Nehemiah is in the original Hebrew language it was actually combined with the book of Ezra. And those two books were together because they're happening at the same time. And as Nehemiah, the bartender, the the uh one kind of leading the project of all this, that's kind of working in the secular field, if you will, of building the walls practically, Ezra is instead the priest who is building the people and pointing them back to God's law. And as these books work in conjunction together, God's people are being restored. God's people are putting down to him. Some commentaries argue that there are 41 different groups of people represented in this chapter. all working side by side of different backgrounds, different social uh uh skills, different social classes, all working side by side to achieve God's purpose in their life. And here's what I love is this is the beauty of the church. When we walk through these doors, when we gather, no matter our background, no matter our bank accounts, no matter what we do at work, no matter our skills that we bring to the table, when we come together, we are not only equals, but we're also family and on the same mission of what God has for our lives. It is the only place in the world that is like that. Everything else, our world loves to divide people. Divide them by nations, divide people by interest, divide people by classes, divide people by ability. But when you come to the church, it is this conglomeration. And you know what unites us? First, us seeing that we're all messed up people and have junk in our closets. But second, that we have a savior that saves us from that. And the beautiful thing about this and Nehemiah is that they had this horrible problem on their hands for 150 years. The walls were in shambles. But when God gave him this vision to unite them, this vision to rebuild something, the beauty in this is we're not seeing the end of the project in this chapter, but we will see it in the comingings is they ended up building this wall in 52 days. 150 years in Rebel, 52 days rebuilt for God's glory. And it wasn't because of their ability, cuz that would be impossible. It wasn't because they were so smart and all of a sudden they organized out nothing. It was because God united them in a miraculous way and it happened because everyone was doing their part, buying into the success of what God was promising. So, how does this apply to our lives today? And as you leave here and as we start to wrap this up, let me put a few questions in your head that I want you to think through this week that I want the Holy Spirit to convict you of. and either encourage you or correct you that first. Are you seeking God's movement for your life? Are you seeking where he wants you to move? Are you trying to do everything on your own? Are you paving the way in your career, in your family, in your church or whatever that is? Are you doing it under your own strength? Are you seeking God's movement in your life? When we answer that question, then it reveals that second one is where is the section that God has placed you in. What is he asking you to build? Where has he placed you uniquely? I am not in your home, in your neighborhood, in your workplace. God has uniquely and beautifully placed you and gifted you there to do his work. Where is the section that God has put you that he is asking you to build? And lastly, are you showing up to actually do the building? Are you like all the names we can't pronounce in here that are remembered in scripture, even if we can't say them in scripture, doing the work? Or are you the one name that's really easy to remember in here is the Doco nobles. We can remember them cuz those people were fools. And those people get to be known in scripture as the lazy ones who didn't do anything and didn't see the benefits and were forgotten in history because of that. Is are you showing up? Have you sought God's movement? Have you seen your section? And are you showing up to do the work? Cuz here's the beautiful part about Nehemiah chapter 3. It's just names. It's just sections. But every name mattered. Every section mattered. Everyone who showed up and worked faithfully, their contribution mattered. And the same is true for you. You may think your contribution is small of how you are building into the kingdom both at church and outside of these walls. You may think it's small when you're watching kids in nursery or you're greeting someone at a door. You may think it's small when you're handing out an invite and inviting someone to see what God is doing. You might think it's small when you're hosting a neighbor who is grieving and hurting inside your home and just hearing them in their brokenness. You may think it is small, but it matters. And God is using that for his glory. God is using that to build his church. In Matthew 16, when you fast forward to the New Testament, when Jesus talks about how we see the walls get built of this, he talks about a building project he had, but his building project was not physical. His building project was spiritual. And in Matthew 16, he says, "I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." You see, the church he was building was actually one that we see throughout scripture when he asks his disciples, "Who do they say I am?" And Peter says, "You are the Messiah. You are God." And he says, "Upon that rock, I will build my church." Upon the confession that Jesus is Lord, that he lived a perfect life. That he died on a cross in our place for our sins. That he rose again to forgive our sins. And when we call on his name, we can have a new life in him. Upon that rock, he has built his church. And the gates of hell will not prevail against it. But here's what he also did is he showed us what the truth is, the gospel, the foundation of the church. But then he invited us to be the church, to be a part of the church, and to build the church up. And when he gave his gospel mandate, he said, "Go." He said, "Go in in Jerusalem or Judea to the ends of the earth and tell people about this truth. you know, go share with those who don't know that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus saves, that Jesus protects, that Jesus does all this. Go be a part of building this church, of expanding the kingdom of God and being part of the work that God is doing. You see in Nehemiah 3, we see this beautiful clunky picture of names and gates and things that you're going to skip through just like you skip through a genealogy in the Bible when you do your quiet time. But in the heart of that passage is we get to see the movement forward. We get to see a community gather that is on the same mission, on the same purpose, aligned with the same vision that Nehemiah has to do something great for God. And it brings us to this foundational truth that applies to us today inside the church and in our personal lives is a God-sized project, something great as we have been exploring. A God-sized project requires all hands on deck. You see, they couldn't sit this out. They couldn't say, "Nhemiah, you got the rest of it. Good luck." Instead, they all had to gather together. They all had to work on their section of the wall. They all had to be allin. They all had to say, "Let's go. Let's be a part of this. Let's do something bigger than ourselves. Let's push forward. Let's go." So that people know how great and glorious our God is. And God invites us to do the same. this past Sunday night after I watched the Cardinals game and was super depressed and after all of a sudden I was like not in the mood. All of a sudden then my wife started bringing out totes of Christmas stuff cuz Thanksgiving is a day. Happy Thanksgiving this week but Christmas is a season. And as she started bringing out the tote, she's like, "It's time to decorate." And I'm like, "All right, let's decorate." And and as we got it all ready, then the kids, the the baby Alice got up and all the kids started coming out of quiet time and they were so excited that we were going to decorate for Christmas. Now, we could have just spent a lot of time and we could have all just done it by ourselves. And by we, I mean my wife could have just decorated everything by herself. But she did need me to lift up the tree to bring out and to stand on a ladder to put it up top. It's a 9ft tree. It's up there. But it became so much more beautiful when all of a sudden we started to make it a family project when all of a sudden Al Ara and mom they got on the fluffing the tree duty cuz I am not good at that and she fired me from it. So then I started going in the box and start taking the ornaments out. And as we got the ornaments ready, then we're starting to give to the boys and having the boys put them on the tree and then put them on the right part of the tree after that. But all of a sudden, this project that needed to happen in our household, we could have just done it by ourselves. But when we came together as a family, as a community, as working hand in hand together, it became something more beautiful, something to bring the season of joy, something to focus on the reason for why we gather and do this in the first place, and something ultimately to bring our family closer together. You see, God has placed you in a certain area. God has put you before a section of wall to build. He's called you into this room together with this church for a reason. And he's asking you, are you going to be a part of it? Are you going to be a name that is remembered? Are you going to be a part of a section that will be built and that will provide for those around you? Are you ready to be a part of a project that is bigger than yourselves? Cuz here's the thing. I firmly believe that just how we have this whole chapter of a bunch of names we don't know personally, a bunch of gates and things we will never visit, the legacy of this chapter reverberates throughout history and reverberates throughout the spiritual story of God. And maybe one day someone will read the history of Cross Church and they might hear about some cities that they know nothing about, some people that were involved that they never knew. But the legacy that we pass on, being part of the purpose and the mission and the vision that endures throughout time, it'll make an impact on future generations that we cannot see. And it all starts with us being ready where God is moving. Us being willing to do the work and us trusting that God will provide and God will make the path made clear. church. I hope that as our church family gathers and as we scatter throughout our week, whatever opportunities God presents, that we can just be like the people in Nehemiah's day and say, "Let's go build. Let's go be a part of what God is doing.