The Noble Volunteer: Sacrifice vs. Self-Reliance

• Theological Claim 00:04:34 ▶️ 📄
  > God does not forget the work and labor of love done in His name, even if unseen on earth.
• Application 00:11:13 ▶️ 📄
  > Failure in the past does not mean God cannot do something in the future for individuals or corporately.
• Stagecoach Travel and Class Systems 00:17:27 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the historical context of stagecoach travel, where ticket class determined physical labor (staying seated vs. pushing), to illustrate spiritual service.
• Nehemiah's Call to Action 00:18:54 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor highlights Nehemiah's declaration to 'arise and build' as a model for the church's mission.
• Family Involvement in Ministry 00:19:57 ▶️ 📄
  > Using Shalom and his daughters as an example, the pastor emphasizes that ministry is a family project requiring everyone to 'get out of their royal clothes and get into overalls.'
• Music as Worship 00:22:32 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor asserts that music is not merely an attachment to worship but is worship itself, citing the reformation of the choir before the national revival.
• Voluntary Service vs. Draft 00:25:16 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor contrasts the drafted population with the 'noble ones' (nadav) who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem, defining true Christian service as voluntary sacrifice.
• The Necessity of Volunteers 00:28:03 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor argues that while God does not need humans, He chooses to use volunteers, and without them, the church becomes an 'abandoned city.'

• Sermon Illustration 00:00:42 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy of movie credits to illustrate how people overlook those who work behind the scenes, comparing this to the many unnamed individuals in Nehemiah's journal who contributed to rebuilding Jerusalem.
• Sermon Illustration 00:06:46 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares a humorous anecdote about a poem regarding Chevrolet trucks versus Ford trucks, and a counter-poem about a red canoe and Carolina blue, to illustrate division and competition among people.
• Sermon Illustration 00:13:59 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor recounts a story about the Abbott Downing Company's stagecoach, detailing the 'jump seat' experience, the danger of bandits, and the origin of the term 'riding shotgun,' to illustrate the hardships and rules of travel.
• Sermon Illustration 00:16:27 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about traveling in India where a sleeping passenger's arm lopped over his chest, illustrating the discomfort of travel.
• Sermon Illustration 00:17:05 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor recounts an old rule about stagecoach travel: if the horses run away, don't jump out; sit still and take your chances.
• Sermon Illustration 00:17:48 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains the stagecoach class system where first-class passengers stayed seated, second-class walked, and third-class pushed, using it as an analogy for Christian service.
• Sermon Illustration 00:19:30 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor describes Shalom, a ruler of half Jerusalem, and his daughters getting out of royal clothes to work in overalls, rebuilding the walls together as a family project.
• Sermon Illustration 00:26:18 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor contrasts the desire for comfort (retiring to a farm) with the call to sacrifice and move into a 'city of rubble' to impact future generations.
• Sermon Illustration 00:27:50 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the image of tumbleweed rolling across the courtyard to describe what the church would look like without its 2,000 volunteers.

• Pastoral Charge 00:03:12 ▶️ 📄
  > Read Nehemiah chapters 3, 7, 10, 11, and 12.
• Pastoral Charge 00:30:11 ▶️ 📄
  > Actively volunteer and sacrifice for the church's mission to be remembered by God.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:00] Well, we've had a lot of individuals involved in this celebration of 40 years.
[00:00:06] A lot of staff, members, a lot of volunteers. Thank you, Gary, for that wonderful composition.
[00:00:12] And John, everybody else, Aaron, choir, orchestra, why don't we just thank all of the people involved in this celebration.
[00:00:26] It's easy to overlook all of the individuals who work behind the scenes, laboring in love.
[00:00:33] And frankly, part of our fallen nature is to take one another for granted.
[00:00:40] I mean, think about it.
[00:00:42] When's the last time you attended a movie and then decided to sit there and read the credits as they scrolled along?
[00:00:50] You know, Indian Scout number 47, Animation Voice number 27, whatever.
[00:00:55] Typically, it's, hey, the show's over, and let's go to the next thing.
[00:01:00] Well, I thought of that and all the people involved in this celebration.
[00:01:06] In fact, when I think about what God has done in our church for 40 years and now that we're on the threshold of a new chapter of faith, I'm grateful that this adventure of faith is not all of the past tense.
[00:01:20] In fact, you're here now and there's an adventure of faith we're going to take together as we trust the Lord.
[00:01:27] I'm more convinced than ever that any work of God is not moved forward by the mighty pushes of a few people up front, but by many pushes of many people, many who are unseen behind the scenes.
[00:01:45] That has really brought my attention back to the journal composed by Nehemiah as he records that great adventure of faith.
[00:01:55] and it isn't necessarily just a record of something he might have said or a few well-known people but a lot of people involved in doing something so remarkable and for that reason in this journal
[00:02:13] you have really one verse after another one chapter after another nothing more than names.
[00:02:23] It's like the credits keep rolling.
[00:02:26] of what God has done through so many people. Today, the analogy stands our projects, our next step of faith, our building. It's really more than building facilities. It's really all about building our faith and our trust, our surrender, our sacrifice
[00:02:48] for what God has in store. And like in the past, beloved, we're not building to get bigger. That's never been our goal. We're building the disciple better. Those whom God has brought every age and the generations to come. So I want to return your attention here to Nehemiah as we go back
[00:03:12] into this text one more time. You'll find if you read through it in chapter three, which is where I want you to turn. Chapter 7, chapter 10, chapter 11, chapter 12. It's more than a hundred names.
[00:03:29] More than a hundred names. Many of them we can't pronounce. Dozens of individual projects.
[00:03:37] Why bother with recording all these names? Well, for one thing, if you look deeper, You discover that this is really the revelation of the heart of God.
[00:03:53] And the revelation is timeless.
[00:03:56] Whether it's an Old Testament construction site to any New Testament church today that labors and sacrifices, it's never about a building project.
[00:04:09] It's always about building people.
[00:04:12] the writer of Hebrews by the way clarifies as he refers to all the people behind the scenes he says God will not forget your work and the labor of love that you have done in his name Hebrews chapter
[00:04:34] six verse four what you do and how you serve how you sacrificially give to the work of Christ might go unseen on earth. It does not go unseen in heaven. That's because God is not keeping a list
[00:04:51] of celebrities. He's keeping a list of servants who will serve him. So we're in chapter three for just a little while. It reminds me so much of the work of Christ even to this day. Now,
[00:05:13] Obviously, this building project in Jerusalem is not a construction site for a church sanctuary or educational facilities.
[00:05:21] I don't want to torture the text to, you know, move Jerusalem to the corner of Tryon and Holly Springs.
[00:05:26] Right.
[00:05:27] But the analogies are timeless.
[00:05:30] The applications to any faithful congregation to this day, it has reminded me as we observe here, there are 17 different categories, frankly, that are mentioned. We're going to mention just two or three, by the way. They're all different. These people are going to come from everywhere,
[00:05:53] as I'll point out. Just as today, you've come from everywhere, haven't you? I mentioned last Lord's Day, we had the largest greenhouse class, and I have all these languages represented, five or six languages all the countries people coming here from south east west north
[00:06:15] moving here because they want to understand what springtime is like and what a fall season looks like well you're going to really love it around here now that we're past allergy season well not quite yet but you're going to really love it once we get past that you have all these different
[00:06:32] preferences all these different tastes where you work what your job is would you wear would you like to eat after church is over when you drove here in i remember poking fun at you know there's
[00:06:46] always this competition between chevy trucks and pickup in ford pickup trucks i made fun one sunday i said you know i heard i learned a little poem someone gave me that goes like this oh you can't
[00:06:56] get to heaven in a chevrolet because you're going to run out of gas before you get halfway way. Well, I had the Ford people all happy about that. I've owned Chevys, by the way, and I love
[00:07:08] them. But I had a guy come up to me, must have been a football game. He was not a state fan, not an NC State fan. And he said to me, he hollered out in the parking lot, he said,
[00:07:19] you know, hey pastor, here's how that poem ought to go. And he said, here's how it goes. You can't get to heaven in a red canoe because God's favorite color is Carolina blue. He's attending
[00:07:34] another church now, by the way. See, there's such division in here, and I've just stirred it up here. Well, last Lord's Day, I mentioned these priests. You noticed them in verse one. We just sort of dropped in and noticed how they were building the sheep gate and how wonderful that
[00:07:54] was because that's going to be the gate 400 years later that Jesus, the Lamb of God, is going to enter the city after he's arrested. Now, I want to just very quickly mention verse 2. We're told
[00:08:08] here that next to them, that is the priests, the men of Jericho built the wall. That is that section of wall next to the priests. That's being built by men from Jericho. That's a startling phrase.
[00:08:29] In fact, I've preached through this book twice and never really focused on that observation.
[00:08:39] 1,400 years earlier, you may remember God had caused the walls of Jericho to collapse.
[00:08:50] And now, irony of ironies, people who live there, citizens of Jericho, no doubt a Jewish majority, Yet, no doubt, members of the Canaanites, those that had left the city before it was destroyed, now resettling back there, they've descended from them.
[00:09:04] Imagine descendants of a city that had seen its walls come tumbling down are helping Nehemiah rebuild the walls of Jerusalem back to their original stature.
[00:09:21] Let me tell you, nobody had forgotten Jericho.
[00:09:24] nobody had forgotten the battle of Jericho to this day 4,000 years later we still haven't forgotten we teach children to sing that little song Joshua fit the battle of Jericho and the walls came what?
[00:09:44] Tomlin down and all the kids fall down I learned that when I was a kid love that part where you fall down Jericho is synonymous with walls falling down. Nobody forgot that. Now here they are. In fact, that so intrigued me. I dug into
[00:10:06] this. Didn't get much help with the resources I had, so I called Doug Bookman, our professor of Old Testament. I said, hey, Doug, I'm looking at this text. What do you think? He wrote back. He
[00:10:21] said, isn't it interesting? You had Jews settling in the area. No doubt some Canaanites had become followers of God associated with Jericho who had defied God. Don't miss this. Where are they assigned to work? Next to the priests. So these priests who had descended from priests, who'd led
[00:10:50] the march around Jericho and then blew their trumpets and the walls came tumbling down. Now these two groups of people are working together to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. How great is that? There's a message in here somewhere that failure in the past does not mean God can do
[00:11:13] something in the future. Not only corporately, but individually. You might be a first generation Christian today. Maybe you're the only person in your family to follow after God. And maybe the enemy whispers in your ear, you know, he's not going to do much with you. Look where you've
[00:11:39] come from. You didn't belong to the right family. You didn't come from a long line of believers.
[00:11:49] Imagine being from Jericho. You're from Jericho. We know about that city. Now here they are just like you, using what you have in surrender to God as he builds through you a generational future for his glory. They're not the only ones. In fact, throughout this chapter,
[00:12:19] there are others who arrive from distant cities. You've got in verse 5 the mention of Tekoa. You've got Gibeon and Mizpah here in verse 7. You've got people from Zenoa, verse 13 and more, and you can
[00:12:34] keep going. These are individuals, by the way, that I think would have grumbled or could have argued the most, this isn't our hometown. This isn't our city. We belong to God, but this really isn't my problem. This isn't my challenge. God had worked in their heart to claim this as their
[00:12:58] project, their city. Just like that principle to this day where he works in your heart and you say, this is my church. This isn't just a church. This is mine. This is my challenge. This is my
[00:13:21] adventure of faith. God does a work in someone's heart to be able to say, you know, that project, I'm going to make that personal to me. That's going to involve my sacrifice. I'm going to be
[00:13:38] part of the solution. And I know we have people in here who are going to leave, or maybe you've come from another service. You're going to go to the next and you're going to serve.
[00:13:47] Just a lot of little pushes behind the scenes. Some time ago, I was given an article by one of our staff members, a fascinating article about the early days of the stagecoach during the early
[00:13:59] 1800s. It intrigued me. I did a little more reading, researching and reading on this some time ago. The number one company in the market was the Abbott Downing Company. They built a nine-passenger stagecoach, and they named it the Concord, which would be picked up later on,
[00:14:21] of course. They built a nine-passenger coach. It was really the best the country had to offer.
[00:14:27] It had three rows, three different seating options. The best seats were in the front row.
[00:14:36] That's where you felt the least amount of jostling when you hit the bumps. The worst seats were in the middle bench. It was called the jump seat. That's because every time you hit a puddle,
[00:14:46] you jumped. And the only support you had in the back were the knees of the other passengers.
[00:14:54] Every 10 or 15 miles, there were stations along the road where you could get out and stretch and eat a meal provided by the company. The greatest danger was being held up by bandits. One out of
[00:15:09] four stagecoach trips was delayed by bandits. And that's because stagecoaches carried the mail and they carried money from bank to bank. 300 stagecoaches were typically robbed every year.
[00:15:30] So the company started sending along another guy to sit up there on the bench. He was called the shotgun. And that's because he used it. And there were famous men who earned their keep early on.
[00:15:44] Names like Bill Cody and Wyatt Earp started out as shotguns. We still use that phrase today when you sit in the front seat of your vehicle, you're riding shotgun. Well, I came across a list of
[00:16:00] original rules for writing. And then there are many rules. I'm going to whittle it down to just a few. One of them I thought was interesting. Here was a rule. This was a rule. Wash your feet
[00:16:10] before starting a journey. That was, I'm sure, for the benefit of the other passengers. Don't swear nor lop over on your neighbor when sleeping. I actually had that happen to me on an airplane.
[00:16:27] I was traveling in India several states, and one night flight, the guy's arms came right over the seat and lopped right over my chest. He was sound asleep. I tried to move him aside, and
[00:16:36] they'd move for a while and come right back over. Made me want to swear. No, I'm teasing. I didn't.
[00:16:44] Here's one I enjoyed. If the team of horses runs away, don't jump out. Nine times out of 10, you will be hurt. I love this. Sit still and take your chances. Here's another. Don't ask the driver
[00:17:00] how far it is to the next station.
[00:17:03] Some things never change.
[00:17:05] One more, expect discomfort and hardship.
[00:17:11] If you do not experience discomfort and hardship, thank God.
[00:17:22] Now, after all of that, I wonder who'd want to travel on a stagecoach.
[00:17:26] Well, they did.
[00:17:27] If you decided to risk your life and travel that way, and thousands of Americans did every year, you had three ticket options first class second class third class those tickets didn't decide where you sat they decided what you did if the stagecoach got stuck in a muddy road which was
[00:17:48] very common if you had a first class ticket you got to stay inside seated if you had a second class ticket you had to get out and walk along if you had a third class ticket you had to get out
[00:18:00] and push. You can imagine that third class ticket holders prayed for a drought, but I thought what an illustration of life. Success means what you get to stay seated and everybody serves. It means you get to avoid getting dirty, getting mud on your shoes, maybe a splinter in your hand.
[00:18:31] I'm convinced that the church today more than ever needs Christians who are willing to travel third class who get out and push. I can't imagine how thrilling it was. I mean, chapter two, Nehemiah's declared, this is what we're going to do. We're going to arise and build.
[00:18:54] It was a startling declaration. He doesn't know he's going to show up, but God is moving in the hearts of people. And he would have seen then over the next days, cartloads of people, hundreds of people walking up the ascent to Jerusalem
[00:19:13] saying this is going to be our mission we're going to be part of the solution I love the inclusion of one particular leader he's mentioned here in chapter 3 he evidently went all out in the project
[00:19:30] he's a ruler of half the city which is another way of saying he's the last person you'd expect to get out and push but I want you to look at verse 12 It says, next to him, Shalom, the son of Halosh, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem.
[00:19:50] Repaired, now get this, he and his daughters.
[00:19:57] Let's do this together.
[00:19:59] It's to become a family project.
[00:20:01] And it made me wonder, what do these girls know about masonry and chipping rock and mixing mortar?
[00:20:08] Probably no more than their father did.
[00:20:11] They had to get out of their royal clothes and get into overalls.
[00:20:19] They learned together.
[00:20:20] And I can only imagine, by the way, beloved, that they will tell their children and their grandchildren for the rest of their lives how they worked with others to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
[00:20:32] And they probably had a little family tour every year or so.
[00:20:34] That's where we worked.
[00:20:36] And that's what matters, that you're a part of an adventure of faith that's bigger and beyond you.
[00:20:45] None of us are going to get older and sit around and tell our children, let me tell you how much money I made. Let me tell you what my name was on that door. Hey, let me tell you what I drove.
[00:21:01] Who cares? Oh, but to be part of an adventure of faith. And to say, you see that? You see that project, we sacrificed. We got involved. We made that happen by the grace of God.
[00:21:25] We survey this passage in the chapters beyond as I have. You're going to find people volunteering for everything, picking up trash, moving rubble, cleaning. There are people skilled in music.
[00:21:35] Quite an interesting focus on that. They're going to form choirs. They'll be paid for by gifts of those that can give. Being in the choir in these days was a vocation. Constantly writing and composing like we've heard today. In fact, after the walls are finished, Ezra is going to
[00:21:57] lead the nation. He's going to expound on the word for hours. You'll find that in chapter 8 and a revival breaks out. It's interesting to me that before the revival breaks out, the choir has been reformed and the musicians put in place for this nationwide revival.
[00:22:17] The descendants of Asaph are there to lead the way. And that's because, beloved, just as we've experienced again today, this is not a coincidence, music is not an attachment to worship.
[00:22:32] Music is worship. Well, the walls are finished. Let me take you to another critical event.
[00:22:44] here as we survey this, if you turn over to chapter 7, if something doesn't happen, frankly, these rebuilt walls aren't going to mean anything at all. And the problem in chapter 7 and verse 4
[00:22:56] is given to us. Here it is. The city was wide and large. All right, now you got walls around it, but the people within it were few and no houses had been rebuilt. Yeah, these walls basically
[00:23:11] around piles of rubble. Just a few lived within it. So what you've got is a secure city, but the Jewish people have settled elsewhere. And the proselytes are living elsewhere. Gentiles who are now followers of God. Nobody's moving back in. They're heading back home. And you can't
[00:23:37] blame them. I mean, it's one thing to take 52 days out of your year and go rebuild the city, but we got schedules. We got school. We got our businesses. We got our cattle. We got our farms.
[00:23:50] You can't expect more from us than that. It's time to leave. Nehemiah recognizes that if there isn't vibrancy inside, if people aren't rebuilding the infrastructure, if they're not moving their businesses, their cottage industries back inside, if they're not developing commerce and life,
[00:24:12] It's not going to be long before these walls are going to surround a forgotten city.
[00:24:18] It's going to be desolate.
[00:24:21] So if you turn to chapter 11, you're given the solution.
[00:24:26] Chapter 11, it's easy to miss.
[00:24:29] Yet it is so critical to the life of this city.
[00:24:35] There's a two-phase solution.
[00:24:37] The first phase is a draft.
[00:24:40] that casts lots, and one out of every 10 Jewish family is drafted to move into Jerusalem. I'm sure there are draft dodgers. They're going to become university professors and presidents of the United States. I digress. But you've got draft dodgers, no doubt, in these hills of Judea.
[00:25:04] But there are many who come. But then what you have in verse 2, which is what I want to focus on, It's this great text Nehemiah records, and the people blessed all the men, that is men and their
[00:25:16] families, who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem. They're not drafted. That your translation might read, they volunteered. It's a wonderful Hebrew word for this, nadav. It means to be internally compelled to step forward.
[00:25:41] I love that.
[00:25:42] It would later be translated to refer to someone who's simply called noble.
[00:25:50] These are the noble ones, the ones who step forward.
[00:25:56] We're not given the volume behind this, but evidently they talked it over with their wives, families, children.
[00:26:03] They decided, hey, look, we're not finished.
[00:26:08] Let's accept the inconvenience. Let's sacrifice financially. Let's sell that estate, that farm.
[00:26:18] We intended to retire there, live out our lives. Let's uproot everything. Let's move into a city of rubble, and let's make it worth every effort. Let's impact a generation to come. Let's accept the noise and the activity and all those people, they were noble ones, weren't they? Let me tell
[00:26:53] you, beloved, in any work of God, there is a movement of noble volunteers. It's a timeless truth in every work of God. It's true in our church today. We have 70 staff members. That's all, nearly 2,000 volunteers. Without volunteers, the work they accomplish, the ministries they
[00:27:28] lead, and I know I'm speaking to many of you here, the lives you touch, the unseen tasks you perform, without you, you can just picture this church, an abandoned city, desolate. Just picture tumbleweed rolling across the courtyard out there
[00:27:50] toward Tryon Road.
[00:27:55] There is no movement of God without volunteers.
[00:28:03] And the amazing thing is he doesn't need us.
[00:28:07] But by his mercy and grace, he's allowed us to be involved in something bigger than ourselves, an adventure where we sacrificially see what God does through the faith he gives us and the excitement, so that though he does not need us,
[00:28:22] he has chosen to use us, to use us.
[00:28:32] You know, people ask me all the time, did you ever think, and I know where they're going, and I'll be thinking, no, are you kidding?
[00:28:42] To this day, I feel like a little boy standing on a sidewalk watching a parade go by.
[00:28:51] It's thrilling what God has done, and he's done it through a movement of volunteers.
[00:29:02] Nehemiah will go on and he will register. He's even going to count the number of family members if you take the time. Heads of households, gatekeepers, singers, custodians. He records their names. He counts them numerically. Why count them? Well, let me tell you. They were counted by
[00:29:22] God because they counted to God. There's every moment in history where somebody's been interested in the credits. Somebody who's reading the credits. He is the original author of the credits.
[00:29:48] He is God himself. He knows your name. He's moved in your heart. And here we are entering a new movement by his grace. Beloved, make sure that you will write your name into the credits.
[00:30:11] sacrifice inconvenience stand as one of the noble ones you'll be willing to get a little mud on your shoes maybe some splinters in your hands for the advancement of the church for the glory of God