Sunday Setup – Nehemiah 3

Hey, Cross Church. Welcome to the Sunday setup. This is our time where we digitally gather together as a church every Thursday at 2:00 across our social media platforms to pray through the piece of scripture that we'll be studying this Sunday to prepare our hearts to set up our souls to see what God's word has for us and how it calls us to practice it this week. Today we are continuing on in our series through the book of Nehemiah. And we'll be in Nehemiah chapter 3. And this is a long chapter and a chapter that to be fully transparent is not very exciting and readable. As you go through this, it's like reading a genealogy. It's like reading stuff that's hard and just kind of parsing through. And we're not going to read every verse in this today, but as we do, and I and I would encourage you to do this during your week, but as we read a few of these, uh, we're going to talk through and kind of read the front half and the back half of this passage. And it starts here in Nehemiah chapter 3, starting in verse one. It says, "The high priest Elishab and his fellow priests began rebuilding the sheep gate. They dedicated it and they installed its doors. After building the wall to the tower of the hundred and the tower of Hana Hannanel, they dedicated it. The men of Jericho built next to Elishab and next to them Zakur son of Emry built. The sons of Hannes built the fish gate. They built it with beams and installed its doors, bolts, and bars. Next to them, Marramoth son of Uriah son of Hakaz made repairs. Beside them, Mishulam son of Bereki son of Mashibasil made repairs. Next to them, Zadok son of Banana made repairs. Verse 5, beside them, the Techites made repairs, but their nobles did not lift a finger to help their supervisors. You see, as we dive into this, we see they're starting to rebuild the wall. And each person is doing their section and from verse 6 all the way through verse 27, we hear about these different areas. And there's these great connective words that next to them and after him and beside him and in front of their house. They're doing this as a community. They're doing this as the people of God joining together being united in a purpose. But verse 28, as God starts to outlay all these different names, all these different people, all these different occupations, working on some part of this job, in verse 28, as we finish out this chapter, it says, "Each of the priests made repairs above the horse gate, each opposite his own house. After them, Zadok, son of Ammer, made repairs opposite his house. And beside him, Shemi, son of Shannonai, guard of the east gate, made repairs. Next to him, Hanihai son of Shaame and Hannah and the sixth son of Zalf made repairs to another section. After them, Mashulam son of Barerica made repairs opposite his house. And we continue to go on. Next to him, Malahi, one of the goldsmiths, made repair to the house of the temple servants and merchants opposite the inspection gate and as far as the upstairs room in the corner. And I love you to see here all these different people. And there verse 32, the goldsmiths and merchants made repairs between the upstairs room and the corner. in the sheepgate. You see, there is just so much practicality in this chapter is all these names and some of these names you'll never hear again. Most of these names make no sense in our culture today, but they were working on a project together. And we see even when there was some opposition from some people, God still pushed forward. God was still doing his work. And I think a few things that we can reflect on as we prepare this week. First, as it starts this chapter, immediately as the priests start building, they are dedicating the work to God. And I think there's a worship moment in here for us for us to pray back to God is here's our prayer prompt that we start with this heart of worship is God, you are worthy of our dedication because God, you are worthy of our dedication. Not only dedicating our time but dedicating our work to him is God. You are worthy of our dedication because pray those prayers of worship to our God. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. God, you are worthy of our dedication because you are our creator. God, you are worthy of our dedication because you are holy. God, you are worthy of our dedication because things you make are good. because the projects that you are a part of are good. God, you are worthy of our dedication. Because you give purpose to our life, Lord, let us worship you in the work we do as we dedicate our time to you, but as we dedicate the stuff of life that are meaningful to you, but we see not only is God worthy that things were dedicated to him, but that also work was continually being done. And there's these connecting verbs in between all these uh these kind of landscapes of the sheep gate and the fish gate and this type of wall and in between the names that we could barely say or barely understand in this time. There's all these connecting words these next to them after him beside him across from his house. There was this just model in this spirit of everything was done side by side. And there is this co-laboring with the people of God together to accomplish something big. And for us as we reflect on that, as we do stuff with the church, beside the church, next to the church, as the church, and as we see the big church of other brothers and sisters in Christ, is here is our prayer is God, let me work beside the church in God, let me work beside the church. The church being local churches, but also being the big church, other brothers and sisters in Christ. God, let me work beside the church and sharing the gospel and feeding the poor and helping my neighbors. God, let me work beside the church and pray that prayer to our God. Heat. Heat. God, let me work beside the church in sharing the good news of Christ. God, let me work beside the church in just meeting the needs of those who are broken and hurting and longing for something more. God, let me work beside the church. Let us work beside the church. And God, just bringing forth your kingdom, doing the things that we are announcing that Christ came the first time, but is coming again. And we are yearning to know and see pieces of your kingdom coming here, of building up what you have us to build, but knowing that ultimately you are the true builder. You are the true creator, the savior, and what ultimately sustains and and gives us greatness in our world today. God, let us just work beside the church, beside your spirit as you move. And God, just bring us together as a community. God, we thank you for this time. We worship you and we also work for you. And we see all this and we lift all this up in Jesus building in his loving in his amazing name. Amen. Thank you guys for joining us today. We'll see you Sunday.