What does it mean to truly contribute to God's work in our lives and community? Are we ready to step out of our comfort zones and embrace the vision He has for us? Join us as we explore Nehemiah 7 and discover how we can actively participate in His mission. Let's dive in together!
Prayer Prompts
Use these prompts to guide your prayer time as we prepare our hearts for Sunday.
We come before you, Lord, asking that you enlighten our minds and hearts as we prepare to hear your word this Sunday. Help us to recognize the ways you are calling us to action, whether it be through caring for our families, serving our community, or seeking deeper understanding in your scriptures. May we be attentive to your voice and open to the vision you have for our lives.
As we reflect on the contributions of those who returned to Jerusalem, we pray that you inspire us to actively participate in your work. Let us be generous with our time, resources, and energy, and encourage us to invite others into our church family. May we not settle for comfort, but strive to push back darkness and share your love with the world around us.
Hey, Gra Church. Welcome to the Sunday
setup. This is our time every week that
we digitally gather together to look at
this Sunday's upcoming text from God's
word to be able to spend some time
praying through it in order to prepare
our hearts for this weekend. Today we're
going to be in Nehemiah chapter 7. And
Nehemiah chapter 7 is an interesting
chapter. Uh one, it is by far the
longest chapter in the book of Nehemiah.
Uh but it is also one that is filled
with a bunch of names that uh you
probably cannot pronounce but are there
for a reason. And and today as we pray
through this uh we'll we'll do so in a
little different way. Um just for sake
of time and clarity, we'll skip some of
these cuz there is some repetition in
here. Uh but we're still just going to
pray for how God would prepare our
hearts to hear his word on Sunday and to
call us into action to practice it
through the week. But we'll start uh
where we left off. A little bit of a
recap overlap from last week. We're
going to start in chapter 7 starting in
verse 4. And it says this, this is after
the wall has been completed. It says,
"The city was large and spacious, but
there were few people in it and no
houses had been built. Then God, this is
Nehemiah talking, put then my God put
into my mind to assemble the nobles, the
officials, and the people to be
registered by genealogy. I found the
genealogical record of those who came
back first, and I found the following
written in it. These are the people of
the providence who went up among the
captive exiles deported by King
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Each of them
returned to Jerusalem and Judea to his
own town. They came with Zerubbabel,
Jesua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Rami, Nahama,
Mori, Bishon, Mispth, Biggav, Nihham,
and Bonai. the number of the Israelite
men included. And from here, Nehemiah
runs off a list of all these people that
came back. But verse 39, here's an
important distinction as he's reading
these different tribes of people. Then
he says, "But then the priests included
Jedodiah's descendants of the house of
Jesu and gives a number for them." You
keep going down in verse 43, he mentions
the Levites. In verse 45, uh is the
gatekeepers. In verse 46 is the temple
servants. uh we see these different
descendants in 47 and beyond and even in
57 the descendants of Solomon's servants
that are recorded when you keep going
you see more and more and more
descendants and in verse uh 60 it says
all the temple servants and the
descendants of Solomon's servants and it
gives in number 392 and the following
are those who came from Tamil and this
is an interesting group it says but they
were unable to pro prove that their
ancestral families and their lineage
were Israelites.
But as he continues, verse 64, this is
important as we kind of head towards the
end. It says, "They searched for their
entries in the records, but they could
not be found. So they were disqualified
from the priesthood. The governor
ordered them not to eat the most holy
things until there was a priest who
could consult the Uram and Thumb. But
the whole combined assembly numbered
42,360."
Zip down to verse 70. all these people
that had come back in this exile years
before which we'll get into more detail
on Sunday. It says some of the family
heads in verse 70 contributed to the
project. The governor gave 1,000 gold
coins, 50 bulls, and 5330 priestly
garments to the treasury. Some of the
family heads gave 20,000 gold coins and
2200 silver menace to the treasury for
the project. The rest of the people gave
20,000 gold coins, 2,000 silver menace,
and 67 priestly garments. the priests,
the Levites, the gatekeepers, the temple
singers, some of the people, temple
servants, and all Israel
settled in their towns.
You know, in chapter 7, it's really a
chapter of transition. It's
transitioning from this project that
they have been focused on, this project
that they've been pouring their time
into to focusing on the people that this
project was designed to do something
for. And the people that are listed here
are actually people from the past. But I
think there's a few things that we need
to see here and that I think that we can
God calls us to action with as we think
about this. And I first want to start
and it was this this verse we left off
on at the beginning of last week. It
says, "Then God put into my mind is we
have a God who speaks to us. We have a
God who talks to us through his word,
through our prayers, and through his
church. And as we start this and we we
approach maybe a difficult chapter many
times, I want us to ask God for
enlightenment and ask God for movement
in here. And just here's our prayer
prompt straight through scripture. Write
what we see is God put in my mind to God
put in my mind. Maybe it's to search
your scriptures deeper for what you have
for my life. God, put into my mind how I
can care for my family better. God, put
into mind how what opportunities I might
have at work to better glorify you. God,
put into my mind. Pray that to our
father.
Heat. Heat.
God, we know that you are a God of
vision for the future, a God of giving
projects into of our lives. A God of
giving us opportunities to explore. A
God of pushing forward and showing us
that we should not be comfortable with
where we are. Just like they were not
comfortable in exile, but we should be
striving to be a part of your kingdom
and pushing back darkness. God, put into
our mind how you would use us. But
here's what's important as that was put
into Nehemiah's mind. In verse 70, we
see a important verse is some of the
family heads contributed to the project.
And here's the crazy thing is not even
everyone contributed. And isn't that
true of our world is so many inside the
church right now, so many Christians are
not contributing to what God is doing,
are not contributing to sharing their
faith, are not contribute to faithfully
giving to their church, are not
contributing to being on mission for
what God has. But we do not want to fall
into that trap. Instead, may we be the
families listed here that contribute to
the projects that God are doing,
contribute to starting new things that
God is doing, contribute to pushing back
the lostness in the darkness in our
world. And and here is our second prompt
as we ask God to put a vision into our
hearts of putting into our mind of where
we should go is God let me contribute to
your work by God let me contribute to
your work by maybe that's faithfully
giving um inside your church family. God
let me contribute to your work by
inviting people to church. God let me
contribute to your work by sharing the
gospel. God, let me contribute to your
work by maybe it's signing up for a
mission trip this summer. Whatever that
is, God, let me contribute to your work
by pray those prayers for our God.
Heat. Heat.
God, let us contribute to your work by
being generous with our time, being
generous with our energy,
being generous with our resources, and
Lord, being generous with our family.
God, let us contribute to what you're
doing. Not settle for uh what is
comfortable for us. Not settle whatever
is easy with us. Not just settle for
what the world has for us, but God, let
us have the vision put into our mind
that you give us. And Lord, let us
contribute to it, God, freely,
generously, greatly, and passionately.
God, we thank you for this time. and we
just ask that you prepare our hearts for
as we come and join together this
Sunday. And Lord, uh we just praise you
along the way. We lift all this up in
Jesus name. Amen. And thank you guys for
joining us today. We are excited to
gather this Sunday as we get to dive
into God's word. And we hope you have a
great rest of your week. See you Sunday.
Heat. Heat.