Planning and Zoning

Sermon Summary:

In this powerful message, we’re reminded that rebuilding is a crucial part of our spiritual journey. Drawing from the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, we explore the process of rebuilding the temple and walls of Jerusalem as a metaphor for personal and communal renewal. The key lessons include the importance of prayer, honest assessment, and careful planning. We’re encouraged to embrace resolve as the ‘secret sauce’ in our rebuilding efforts, recognizing that setbacks are normal but shouldn’t deter us. The message emphasizes that as believers, we’re not alone in our rebuilding process – we have divine guidance and community support. This resonates deeply with our own experiences of overcoming challenges and renewing our faith. By connecting ancient biblical narratives to our modern lives, we’re inspired to approach our own seasons of rebuilding with hope, determination, and faith in God’s transformative power.

Watch The Service Here

Sermon Points:

Lessons for Re-Building (or Building)

       -Kneeology: We must begin with prayer!

       -You Are Here: We must accept an honest assessment! 

CONTEXT: In Ezra 3, Zerubbabel and Joshua led Israel to begin the re-construction of the Temple in Jerusalem. They gathered materials and assembled the construction team. After the foundation was laid, opposition to the project mounted and the work ceased for 16 years. Finally, the re-building project began again! In Nehemiah 2, Nehemiah inspires the leaders of Jerusalem to come together and re-build the wall around the city.

LESSONS TO BE LEARNED

1. “Resolve” is the secret sauce in the journey of re-building. 

2. As believers, we draw upon the wisdom, guidance, and inspiration we receive from our God.

3. Re-building requires individual tenacity as well as community support.

4. Re-building is not a seamless enterprise —– we should expect setbacks.

5. A dream is not a plan. Re-building requires careful planning and implementation.

Download a copy of the “Together…for the Future” Devotional Book – HERE

“Resolve” is the secret sauce in the journey of re-building.

Key Takeaways:

• Rebuilding starts with prayer and honest assessment
• Resolve is crucial in the journey of rebuilding
• Believers should draw upon God’s wisdom and guidance
• Rebuilding requires both individual tenacity and community support
• Expect and overcome setbacks during the rebuilding process
• Dreams must be coupled with careful planning and action

Watch other Sermons Here

Scripture References:

• Ezra 5:1-2
• Nehemiah 2:17-18
• Various passages from Ezra and Nehemiah

Stories:

• The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the city’s subsequent rebuilding
• The story of a church member who overcame alcoholism and became a faithful servant
• Michelangelo’s Pieta being damaged and restored
• The rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem under Zerubbabel and Joshua
• Nehemiah’s efforts to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem
• Personal anecdote of a businessman who had a heart attack and began reading the Bible with his wife
• The story of William Kerfoot, who quickly reopened his business after the Chicago Fire

Transcript

Well, you know our theme here at First Baptist Arlington for 2024 is together. If you’re new to us, we’ll let you know that today. If you’ve been with us for a while, then you know that’s our theme. And so we have spent this entire year walking through various facets, exploring what it means to be together.

We’re now in the fall of the year, so our theme is together for the future. And what we’ve been doing is we are reading through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. And as we have learned in the original Hebrew scripture, that’s actually just one book with the name Ezra. But in our Bible, it is divided into two separate books. And we are reading through them, learning some valuable lessons.

And the lessons are really built around rebuilding or building, if that’s where you happen to be in your life. But we’ve already learned some lessons for rebuilding. And we’re going to go all the way through the end of October. So we have numerous lessons in front of us to continue to learn. But let me just remind you of what’s already happened. We have begun by stating the obvious in what I call neology. That means that we are supposed to be people of prayer. We pray whenever we encounter these seasons of life where we need to rebuild.

And remember I shared with y ‘all how already just in that message how important prayer is. We’re to be people of prayer. And that we pray about everything. As I shared with y ‘all, we we pray about everything. We pray about everything. We pray about everything. We pray about everything.

We pray about our life on Sunday morning. I pray about the messages that I’m going to share. They’ve asked you to pray for me. And I want to thank you for your prayers. Remember I shared with y ‘all I had several speaking engagements this month last week. Thank you for your prayers. I preached at Criswell College, preached chapel there. Thank you for your prayers.

I told them I wish my daddy could have seen it because W .A. Criswell was one of my dad’s all -time heroes. He loved Dr. Criswell. When daddy and mother came to visit Cindy and I years ago when we’d just come to seminary, daddy wanted to go to church at First Baptist Dallas. Well that was before we had GPS and all that. All I had was a maps go. Didn’t know my way around. So I told daddy, I said, you know, I’ve never been to First Baptist Dallas. I’m not sure I know how to get to First Baptist Dallas. He said, it’s the largest church in America. Just follow the crowd. That’s where we’re going.

And some of y ‘all remember my dad. And he bought me a Criswell study Bible and brought it to me. And I said, for that very trip. So we went to First Baptist Dallas, met Dr. Criswell. Daddy asked him to autograph the Bible for me, which he did. I didn’t even know Dr. Criswell wrote the Bible, but I have an autographed Criswell study Bible. And I just know that last Tuesday, my daddy somewhere in glory was clapping that his son got to preach there.

Today, a little more challenging message. I’m going to leave here today when this service is over. And my best friend, from seminary, died Saturday night last week. And they’ve asked me to share some and speak at his funeral today in Bridgeport, Texas. And so I’m going to leave here and head there. A lot of things I thought I would do in ministry, speak at his funeral was not one of them, but I’ll appreciate your prayers for that.

And on Tuesday, I’m going to speak at the men’s fish fry at Riverbend. I’ve been to it numerous times, but I’ve never spoken there. So we’ll have several hundred men gathered from across Texas. for that meeting. And so I’m looking forward to that. Then on Thursday, I’m going to be at Hardin -Simmons and I’m leading a training seminar for some young pastors in West Texas on preaching. So I’d appreciate your prayers for that. The point is, that’s where we start. Pray. So when you encounter a time in your life where it’s an opportunity for you to rebuild, assess, we start by praying.

Second lesson was last Sunday. That’s where we have to accept an honest assessment of where we are. So we have our third lesson today. We’re going to talk about planning and zoning here in just a moment. But in October, 1871, October the 8th, a huge fire broke out in a major metropolitan area in America. It was called the Great Fire of, does anybody know? Chicago. That’s right. And how did that fire start? Do we, do we actually know?

You know, there was a, a man who wrote a story about it. He confessed right before he died that he made it up, but the story was so prominent. It’s the story everybody tells. We know that the fire started in the barn of the O ‘Leary family, but y ‘all remember what he wrote? He said, the reason the fire started is because a cow kicked over a lantern in Miss O ‘Leary’s barn. And ultimately it started this huge fire. Miss O ‘Leary was interviewed later and she said she was actually asleep in the house when it occurred. So she had no idea how that would have happened because nobody was in her barn. But nevertheless, that’s the story that was told. And that is where the fire began. Got a photo of it, I believe. If you can see the devastation of Chicago, this was taken a couple of days after the fire. The city was devastated. The fire became a conflict. Immigration is what firefighters call it. It covered 3 .3 square miles. It destroyed 17 ,500 structures. 300 people died. Over $220 million worth of damage. Would y ‘all not all agree that all of a sudden Chicago was in a time of rebuilding? They had to assess the damage, try to decide what to do in response to that. This massive tragedy. Well, I’m not sure where you are in your life, what it is that you find yourself facing. But I want to talk to those of you who are in a season of rebuilding. And perhaps you know someone who’s in that season and this would be some encouragement you could share with them. But I would also say to you, if you’re not in a season of rebuilding in your own personal life, stay tuned. Because more often than not, we’ll encounter those seasons somewhere along the way. So today, I want us to talk about our third lesson in the journey, and I’m calling it planning and zoning. And the text, as we have done customarily in this series, comes from two different books, both Ezra and Nehemiah. Our together in word reading this week will be in Jeremiah, but the narrative reading will be a continued journey through Ezra. Because if you do the narrative readings that are in your devotion to God, by the time we get to the end of the fall, you’ll have read both Ezra and Nehemiah. So with that said, let’s look at this text. Ezra 5 is where we’ll start today. And I’ll encourage you, if you have your Bibles, your copy of the Old Testament, just keep it open because we’re going to look at some other passages. But let’s start with this one. So the fifth chapter of Ezra says this, Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, a descendant of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews in Judah, and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them. Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel and Joshua, the son of Josedach, set to work to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, supporting them. Now if you’ll turn over just a couple of pages to Nehemiah, Nehemiah 2. We read some of this last Sunday, but let me just connect it for us today. Nehemiah 2 verse 17, Nehemiah says this, Then I said to them, You see the trouble we’re in. Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace. I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me, and what the king had said to me. And they replied, Let us start rebuilding. So they began this good work. Now what I’d like to do this morning is set the context, and then we’ll get to the next chapter. And then we’ll get to the next chapter. we will look at some lessons about rebuilding. So let’s just remind ourselves of where we are in these two stories. Last Sunday morning, we read Ezra 3. Well, in Ezra 3, Zerubbabel and Joshua led Israel to begin the reconstruction of the temple in Jerusalem. They gathered the materials. They assembled the construction team. And after the foundation was laid, opposition to the project mounted. And so the work ceased for 16 years. Finally, the rebuilding project began again. Then in Nehemiah 2, if you fast forward, Nehemiah inspires the leaders of Jerusalem in Nehemiah 2 to come together and rebuild the wall around the city. Now let’s explore that a little more deeply, just so we’ll understand what’s going on in these two stories. And in 538 BC, Cyrus released the Jewish captives, those who wanted to, to return to Jerusalem to rebuild. Zerubbabel, Joshua, who was a priest, made their way to Jerusalem. We read last Sunday morning where they rebuilt the altar. That’s where they started. Then, if you have your Bible still open, if you go back to Ezra 3, beginning in verse 7, they started the work. They collected the money. They had a blueprint. They realized that they needed supplies because they didn’t have what they needed. The original temple that Solomon built was built from the cedars of Lebanon. And so, Zerubbabel and Joshua felt like if they’re going to rebuild the temple, they needed to follow suit. So they ordered the cedars of Lebanon to be delivered to Jerusalem. They put a construction team together. They hired the masons, the engineers, architects. And also they realized they needed to feed the workers. So they had the farmers. Grow food to provide for the work project. And the work began. And they decided the first thing they needed to do was lay a foundation. So they laid the foundation. In other words, they laid out the new temple. It’s kind of a fascinating story. So if you get to, again, in Ezra 3, if you still have your Bible open, verse 11, sorry, here’s what happened. Foundation was finished. In other words, this is going to be the new temple. Okay? Ezra 3, verse 11. With praise and thanksgiving, they sang to the Lord. He is good. His love toward Israel endures forever. And all of the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads who had seen the former temple wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid. While many others shouted for joy. And then a really interesting verse, verse 13. No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping because the people made so much noise. So they laid the foundation and the older people came and looked at it and said, this is not what we had hoped for. Solomon’s temple was bigger than this. And they began to weep. The younger people said, can you believe we finally got a temple? And they began to celebrate. And Ezra says, they made so much noise, you couldn’t tell who was crying and who was celebrating. It’s a very fascinating intersection of these generations. And then all of a sudden opposition mounted and they stopped. The entire rebuilding project took a break and they stopped building. As a matter of fact, if you just flip over in your Bibles there, Ezra 4, verse 24 says, the work on the house of the God, in Jerusalem came to a standstill and they stopped working for 16 years. That’s how long it took. Finally, you come to our text, chapter 5. Haggai, Zechariah were preaching. Zerubbabel was leading. Joshua was the priest. They finally decide to begin the construction project again. And the rebuilding began. Very fascinating journey. They would dedicate the temple in 515 BC. So it would take them a few years to finish it. Well, if you fast forward almost a hundred years, you come to the story of Nehemiah. Nehemiah arrives from Persia because he was told by his brother that the Jews who lived in Jerusalem were scared. They were scattered. There was no wall around the city. The temple had been rebuilt, but they felt vulnerable. They had no leadership and they were in chaos and disarray. Nehemiah arrives, presumably has, some meetings with the elders of Israel. He then takes a survey and he makes his way around the city. Remember we talked about that last Sunday. Looked at the walls. The gates that were supposed to be there for their protection had been burned to the ground. The walls of the temple, the great, I mean the wall, the stones rather of the wall that once stood strong and mighty have now been strewn. And there, many of them are down in the valley all around the city. If you’ve ever been to Jerusalem, Jerusalem sits on a hill. And so he’s viewed the rubble. He’s looked at the gates. He’s made an assessment. And he’s decided it is time. Let’s rebuild this wall. God has his hand on us. We can do it. And the people rallied around Nehemiah and they said, let’s rebuild this wall. So, just think about yourself for just a minute. I have no idea where you are in your journey as an individual. Are you at a point in your life where you’re in a process of rebuilding your life? There are all kinds of reasons that happens. We face crises. Sometimes there’s just a change that occurs in our lives or around us. You remember last Sunday, we talked about how also it can be of your own doing because of mistakes that you’ve made, poor decisions that have lined up in a row. And now you find yourself in a place where you’ve just got to be rebuilt, rebuild your life. Sometimes the situation’s beyond your control. I mean, think about it. Some cow in some barn may kick over a lantern and the next thing you know, you’ve got to rebuild it. You’ve got to rebuild your life. It may have nothing to do with anything you’ve done. It may be things that have just changed all around you. Or it could be that you’re just in a season of life and you have felt prompted, guided, inspired to rebuild for the next season of your life. It happens. So maybe that’s where you are. You know, it also happens in the lives of churches. Churches have to be rebuilt. There are times of transition that happen in the lives of churches. Sometimes the context of ministry around churches changes. Sometimes churches just sense God’s direction into a new season. And so when that happens, what we do as individuals, what we do as a church is some of what we’ve already talked about. We pray first. What’s God saying to us? Then second, we assess. We do an honest assessment. And then today’s lesson. Then we start planning. Because after you, after you evaluate everything, you’ve got to formulate a plan for the future. You have to decide you’re not going to remain in your ruin. Whatever it is. You’re not going to be mired in the malaise of your life. You’re going to begin to take proper steps to move beyond where you are. And you’re not going to be defined by your brokenness. Y ‘all remember a couple weeks ago I shared with y ‘all that story about how Michelangelo’s Pieta was damaged. You remember? And the Vatican decided we’re going to have to put this back together. And they put a plan together. They were honest in their assessment. They realized how much damage had been done. But they put a team together to rebuild it. You remember last Sunday morning we talked about Thomas Terrence. Remember him? And how he found himself in a season of rebuilding because of his own mistakes. But he realized when he was in prison there in Mississippi, if anything was going to change, he was going to have to be the one who began the journey of change. So I guess the question I have is for you this morning. What about you? Is that where you are? Are you ready to start making a plan for your future? What about us as a church? Are we ready to make plans for this new season of ministry that God has in front of us and keep learning? That’s the challenge. So let me give you just a few minutes of what I would consider some lessons to be learned. Okay? And if you’re new with us, it’s usually my custom whenever I do something like this and I start numbering, I tell you how many they are so you don’t get nervous so you know when we’re almost at the end. So there are five of them. So just get ready. All right? Not ten, just five. Okay? Here’s the first lesson I believe that has to be learned. Resolve. I’m convinced that resolve is the secret sauce in the journey of rebuilding.

Nehemiah, Zerubbabel, Joshua, they embraced the situation. The temple needed to be rebuilt. The wall around Jerusalem needed to be rebuilt. Well, Zerubbabel and Joshua began the work and they were resolved. They laid the foundation. They began the journey and then came to a dead end. And they had to wait 16 years is how long they had to wait. But you know what? They didn’t give up. That resolve stayed with them and they continued to think, to plan, to pray, and eventually the time arose when it was right and they began the process of rebuilding again. Nehemiah had a galvanizing presence in Jerusalem. He got there and he looked at everybody and he said, we can do this. You can do this. And maybe this morning what you need to say is, I can do this. Well, let me encourage you. You can. Very first church that Cindy and I pastored years ago was in a little town called Jimtown, Oklahoma. Group of peanut farmers. Some of them worked at the Unirole Tire Plant up in Ardmore. And we had a man in our church, big man, humble, sweet as he could be, and the whole time I was pastoring there, he never missed a Sunday. He had perfect attendance. In fact, for the last 17 years, if I remember correctly, he’d had perfect attendance, not missed a Sunday. He came to the church early every Sunday morning, made sure the heaters were on if it was cold, made sure the air conditioners were on if it was warm, cleaned up the trash out front, made sure chairs were set up where they were supposed to be. Just a humble, gentle, big man. So one day I was talking to him about it and I said to him, I said, you know, you’re such a faithful servant at our church. Nobody asks you to do this. It’s what you do. He said, well, preacher, you don’t know my story. And I was new there and I didn’t. I said, well, what’s your story? He said, well, he said, you know, I work up at Unirol. I work nights, work the evening shift half or a long time. I said, yeah, I know that. He said, well, I’m historically been a pretty heavy drinker. He said, so when I get off my shift early in the morning, I’d usually drink, make my way home, said hard time in my family, wasted a lot of money and had some really hard, challenging days with my wife and my children or my wife actually at the time. He said one morning I was on the side of the road. I woke up. My car was running. Somehow I was in park. I wasn’t sure where I was. Wasn’t sure how I got there. Wasn’t sure why I was there. He said, but I’ll never forget that morning. He said, something rose up inside of me. And I said to myself, I’m not going to live like this anymore. I’m going to get help. with the Lord’s help, I’m going to live a different life. And he said, preacher, I want to tell you, I hadn’t had another drink since that day. He said, I got saved. I joined this church. And he said, I’ve had perfect attendance for the last 17 years. He said, I’m so grateful for what the Lord did for me on the side of that road that day. This little bit that I’m doing is really nothing.

Well, there’s something about resolve, isn’t there? Because when it rises up inside of you and you’re in it, you realize you have an issue you need to deal with, whatever it is, and you’re willing to tackle it, it’s amazing what you can do. And that’s what you’re looking for. We talked about it last Sunday morning. When you evaluate and you assess, here’s what you’re looking for. You’re looking for resolve to emerge in you. You can accomplish some incredible things when you’re resolved. Second lesson, as believers, we don’t just do this on our own. We draw upon the wisdom, the guidance, and the inspiration we receive, from our God. You look back at this text. Look at Ezra 5 again. Notice what was happening with Zerubbabel and Joshua. They weren’t just by themselves. They were hearing messages from God, from Zechariah, from Haggai. They were listening to the Word from God. Because as believers, we have that resource. In Nehemiah, what does Nehemiah say in Nehemiah 2 verse 18? He says, the hand of God is on us. What we can do is we can do this because we have the right resources. We’re the people of God. When you start rebuilding your life in that season of life, you’re not by yourself. We are God’s people. We’re spiritual people. We have spiritual resources. As we read the book of Nehemiah, make a note of it as you go through. Over nine times, Nehemiah prays. There are special prayers recorded about Nehemiah because Nehemiah knew he needed to ask God to reveal himself. God will give you the strength. This week, I was talking to a businessman here in our community. I hadn’t seen him in a while. I hadn’t been to his business in a while, but I stopped by there. He and I have had conversations before. He knows I’m the pastor of this church. We’ve had some spiritual talks. He comes walking up to me. He says, Pastor, you’re not going to believe what’s happened to me since I saw you last. I said, what happened? He said, I had a heart attack. I said, really? I said, well, I’m sorry. He said, no, it’s okay. He said, I’m okay, but I had a heart attack. I said, okay. He said, you know what? I’ve got to change my life. I’ve got to make some changes in my diet. I’ve got to make some changes in my exercise regimen. I’m going to do it. He said, but you know what else? He said, my wife and I, we’re at a Bible reading plan now we’ve joined at our church. He said, we’ve started reading the Bible faithfully. He said, you know what? He said, my wife and I were talking about this just yesterday. This plan I’m on, every day when we read this Bible together, every day we look at each other and say, this is a word just for us. He said, can you believe that? And I said, yes.

Of course I can believe it. Because that’s how God works. God is trying to encourage you. You’re not by yourself. You’re not just mustering up the strength in your own resolve. You’re a follower of Jesus. And I promise you, He wants to give you what you need. You don’t do this just on your own strength. We’re not lost people. We’re Christians. We have spiritual resources that are available to us in Christ. Access them, particularly when you’re rebuilding. Third lesson, rebuilding requires individualism and individual tenacity, I would say, as well as community support. I’ll just tell you, you’ve got to be tenacious if you want to rebuild because it’s not easy. If it were easy, everybody would do it.

Everybody would just do it. It’s just not easy. Zerubbabel, Joshua, man, they were tenacious. They started this rebuilding project then all of a sudden, 16 years later, it’s still not happening. You know, you read that in the Bible and that’s no big thing. But let me ask you about you. Where were you 16 years ago? A lot happens in 16 years, true? And so, that’s how long they had to wait. But they were tenacious. They didn’t give up. Nehemiah, he didn’t give up. Ezra, Ezra’s going to lead them in a spiritual revival. He didn’t give up. We’ve got to, we’ve got to be tenacious but it requires more than just our own individual tenacity. We need, we need people around us. In, in Ezra 6, let me read this to you. Ezra 6, verse 14. They start rebuilding. So, the elders of the Jews continue to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah. In other words, these people that joined the building project, they were still seeking the wisdom and the counsel of God and they were doing it together. In Nehemiah 3, Nehemiah, you start reading what happens in Nehemiah and all of a sudden, he starts assembling people, craftsmen, and builders and they start working together. They, they start looking at what needs to happen on various projects all the way across the span of the work because the deal is we need one another. You don’t do this by yourself. That’s the beauty of the church, y ‘all. Come on. That’s why we’re here together. We need each other. Right now, we can stop right now and ask a bunch of y ‘all just to get up and tell us a testimony about when the church supported you during a hard time in your life, couldn’t we? We all have those stories. We say, man, pastor, you’re not going to believe. We were going through this in my Sunday school class. They just took over our life for a while. They just made sure we have, I mean, that’s what the church does. You just, you have to have some tenacity on your own but you need the people of God around you. Now, here’s where it gets dicey. This is what’s hard. Rebuilding is not a seamless enterprise. We should expect setbacks. I’m just going to warn you. If you’re in the middle of rebuilding, you need to know tough times are ahead because it’s hard to do. It’s up and down journey. Ezra records that story. They’re just setbacks. Things happen. The work stopped. They have opposition. It’s easy to get distracted. Here’s what I want to encourage you. Whenever a setback occurs, acknowledge it as a setback. Don’t let it overwhelm you. Don’t be discouraged by it. Don’t be overly stressed by it. Take them seriously keep rebuilding. I mean, can you imagine how Zerubbabel and Joshua failed in Ezra 3? Got the foundation laid. They’re all excited. Let’s have a day of celebration. Let’s acknowledge what we’ve done. And the older leaders show up and just start crying.

And look at them and go, seriously, this is it? This is what we’re going to have? The younger people show up and they can’t believe it. They’re celebrating. Well, it was difficult. Setbacks are going to happen. They’re inevitable. So if you’re in the middle of rebuilding right now, here’s what I would tell you. Don’t be discouraged. Don’t be overcome when things sometimes seem like you’re going in the wrong direction again. I think that’s just part of the journey. Just don’t quit. Don’t give up. And then the final lesson I would give you is this. A dream is not a plan. Rebuilding requires careful planning and implementation. There’s nothing wrong with dreaming. And I’m not talking about when you go to bed at night. I’m talking about visioning, dreaming. I like to dream, to imagine what could be a But dreaming is fine. And it can be helpful. It’s just insufficient for change. A dream has to be connected to some action. You’ve got to make some decisions. Zerubbabel. Ezra 3. All right, we’ve got to rebuild the temple. Okay, we don’t have enough. We don’t have the right kind of wood. We’ve got to order it from Lebanon. It’s going to take a while to get here. We’ve got to get the Masons together, the people who know how to do this. We’ve got to make sure we have a blueprint here. We’ve got to feed all these workers. We’ve got to order the food. We’ve got to organize this building project. It’s not just going to happen. Zerubbabel. I mean, Nehemiah. You read Nehemiah 3. All of a sudden, here’s what Nehemiah says. He says, look, these gates that are all around the city, they define us. The gates are entry and exits for this city. They’re purposeful. They’re in a certain position for a reason. Let’s get the gates repaired. So those of you that know how to do that, get the supplies together. Let’s build the gates first. Get them situated. Then we’ll build the walls. up to the gates. But let’s go ahead and have a plan here and a strategy. We’re not just going to dream about it. We’re not just going to talk about it. We’re actually going to go do it. And then we’ll lay a foundation of this particular wall. And when you read Nehemiah, Nehemiah helps us archaeologically because he helps us understand the definition of the city of Jerusalem that we have studied ever since. And our research there documents some of the work of Nehemiah. Because when you’re rebuilding, you’ve got to have a plan. You can’t just talk about it. It takes time. It takes energy. It takes resources. Somebody has to do something, right? Somebody. You know, years ago, we used to have a lady in our church named Edna Goodyear. Some of y ‘all remember Miss Edna. One time I was talking to Edna about things that happened in our church and she said, yeah, I used to bother Dr. Wade all the time because I’d say, somebody needs to do something about this. Somebody needs to do something about that. She said, the next thing, you know, I must be somebody because I kept finding myself doing it. Well, praise God. You know, I remember when we decided to do we needed to address our ministries and our campus and what we felt like we were able to offer this community. And we put a master plan together. And do y ‘all know that new preschool children’s building? It didn’t just show up one day. That’s not how it happened. We had to plan for it. We had to think about it. We had to engineer for it. The renovation of this room and all the, this entire campus, it didn’t just happen. We had to actually make a plan. And then implement that plan. And guess what? You did all that. You did it. As a church, we did it. And then right as we’re coming to the end of it, guess what happens? COVID. And now all of a sudden, here we are. Renovated facilities, some state -of -the -art children’s building. It’s incredible what we have in our toolbox. But now we’re encountering a changing context, if you will. A complex ministry environment. And we’re in a season of evaluating. Praying. Assessing. And what we’re praying for is for the Lord to lead us, having conversations with leaders in our church about this next era of ministry. And what we’re praying for is for resolve.

Resolve to step into this new era of ministry. Whatever it is, I’ve told you, I’m not even sure what it is yet. But I can feel it beginning to take shape. It’s gonna require change and planning and implementation. We’re not just going to dream about a new future. We’re going to engage in a new future. That’s what we’re going to do. And we’re gonna find our way through it with the Lord’s help. And we’re gonna continue to rebuild. Knowing that it’s hard. You know, oh, William Bross was the editor and owner of the Chicago Tribune. After two days of a raging fire, he somehow managed to publish the Chicago Tribune on the third day. And the headline read, Chicago will rise again. That’s what he said. And so, it started small. Just little snippets. Just a little bit of progress. Let me show you one of the very first things that happened the day after the fire. Let me show this photo. These two men started a little business, a pop -up business. Okay? They sold cigars, tobacco, grapes, apples, and cider. And you know what people said about it? It wasn’t what they were selling. It’s that they were selling. It’s that somebody just said, the ground was still hot. And somebody said, we’re going to keep working and show Chicago we can keep working. It’s not going to be easy. One of the most famous folks who started to help rebuild Chicago was a guy named William Kerfoot. Let me show you this photo. He built this little structure to let everybody know he was back in business. It’s the very first business to reopen in Chicago. You know what his signs said? You can’t read it from here. All gone but wife, children, and energy.

And he had a realty company and he said, we’re going to rebuild this town and I’m going to help us do it. He’s a real estate agent. His business is still in business there in Chicago. Let me show you a photo from a year later after the fire. They started to rebuild. Now they had different fire codes. Duh.

They had to make some changes. Right? They had to. But some of y ‘all have been to Chicago recently. Let’s see this one. Did they rebuild Chicago? Turns out they did. Yeah. But it wasn’t a dream. It wasn’t magical. It’s because tenacious people started selling grapes and cigars. A realtor said, I’m going to reopen my business and we’re going to start redeveloping this land and helping people find a way into the future. And they brought their time and their energy and their resources together and guess what? They rebuilt. I just want to encourage you. If you’re in a season of rebuilding, pray. Make preparation and then put a plan together. This is what I’m going to have to do if I’m going to live into a new future and start working that plan and give God a chance to give you what you need to make it become a reality. Amen. And amen. To be continued is what I want to say. Let me pray for us. Lord, we love you. We thank you, Lord, for seasons of life. We don’t always understand why we find ourselves, Lord, where we are. But we want to be good stewards of what you put in front of us. And so right now, within the sound of my voice, Lord, there are people who are trying to rebuild their lives. And they’re in various stages of it. And so, Lord, I just want to lift them to you. Lord, if they need resolve,