Morning, brothers and sisters. Good to be with you in the Lord’s house on this day. It was a wonderful opening this morning.
Let us turn to the Word, beginning in Ephesians 4, verse 11.
And He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ:
till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;
but speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him, Who is the head, even Christ;
from Whom all the body, fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.—Ephesians 4:11-16
Then I am going back to the Old Testament, to the book of Nehemiah. I should have put this out yesterday to say that I would like to speak about this, but I want to read about eleven verses from this chapter, and I am going to skip around a little. I will give you a heads-up, okay?
Beginning in Nehemiah 3, my Bible has a little title that says, “Rebuilding the Wall.”
Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests, and they builded the sheep gate; they sanctified it, and set up the doors of it; even unto the tower of Hammeah they sanctified it, unto the tower of Hananel.
And next unto him builded the men of Jericho. And next to them builded Zaccur the son of Imri.—Nehemiah 3:1-2
Skipping down to verse 7:
And next unto them repaired Melatiah the Gibeonite, and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon, and of Mizpah, that appertained unto the throne of the governor beyond the River.
Next unto him repaired Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, of the goldsmiths. And next unto him also repaired Hananiah one of the perfumers, and they fortified Jerusalem even unto the broad wall.
And next unto them repaired Rephaiah the son of Hur, the ruler of half the district of Jerusalem.—Nehemiah 3:7-9
Then verse 12:
And next unto him repaired Shallum the son of Hallohesh, the ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, he and his daughters.
Hanun, and the inhabitants of Zanoah, repaired the valley gate; they builded it, and set up the doors thereof, the bolts thereof, and the bars thereof, and a thousand cubits of the wall unto the dung gate.—Nehemiah 3:12-13
Verse 15:
Shallum the son of Col-hozeh, the ruler of the district of Mizpah, repaired the fountain gate; he builded it, and covered it, and set up the doors thereof, the bolts thereof, and the bars thereof, and the wall of the pool of Shelah by the king’s garden, even unto the stairs that go down from the city of David.
—Nehemiah 3:15
Then verse 23:
After them repaired Benjamin and Hasshub over against their house. After them repaired Azariah the son of Maaseiah the son of Ananiah beside his house.
—Nehemiah 3:23
Verse 27:
After him the Tekoites repaired another portion, over against the great tower that lieth out, and unto the wall of Ophel.
—Nehemiah 3:27
Finally, verse 30:
After him repaired Hananiah the son of Shelemiah, and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph, another portion. After him repaired Meshullam the son of Berechiah over against his chamber.
—Nehemiah 3:30
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we want to thank You again this morning for being able to see Your Son reaching out to us, and You reaching out to us through Him. We thank You for that little story of Boaz, Lord, and the whole thing about Mephibosheth.
Lord, we thank You that You have called us to Yourself despite our weaknesses and our flaws. You have called us through the Perfect One, Christ Jesus. We bless You for that. We bless You for Him.
We come this morning, Lord, wanting to do Your will. We want to know how to be built up, and we want to fall into the place of what You are doing in our lives and in our assembly. Speak to us according to these things and instruct us.
Lord, we need Your Holy Spirit. We have Your Word, but we need the Word breathed out by the Spirit, Lord, so much. We ask for Him and His work this morning to help us understand Your will for us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, brothers and sisters, I am continuing from last week. Those of you who were not here, I think they have it on tape or whatever it is, so go get it. Buy it now.
The burden I had to share came from a topic given to me for a retreat at Mount Hermon: “Growing Together.” It stuck with me, and I felt that maybe the Lord had this for us.
Last week I gave a picture of it and looked at a basketball. No basketball this time, okay? No other sport either. You just get the plain, unadulterated stuff.
We talked about growing together in two ways, and we have to look at both. We do not want to look at one or the other; it is both.
Both emphases are there. The Lord brings that out. It is “two, two, two mints in one”—remember that old commercial?
I want to deal with this idea of every joint supplying, and I think you can see that by the passage I picked in Nehemiah.
Nehemiah is one of the post-exilic books. Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi all relate to that period. I want to apply this to Christians in general. Please do not think I am singling us out, but I think it applies to Christians generally.
When they came back from exile, Zerubbabel came first and rebuilt the temple. I think the first thing the Lord wants from us is worship. Even when we got saved, we were filled with joy and praise, praising the Lord all the time. The Lord wants that worship. He wants it back.
Then, after some years, Ezra came. Ezra was a scribe—a man who copied the Scriptures and taught the Word. So, after worship, the Word was restored.
Remember how many of us had Good News for Modern Man? It was written in a language we could understand, and it even had those little stick people to help us see what was going on. How many still have a copy? It was life to us, right? The Word was restored to us.
A lot of us may say, “Well, that is enough. We have worship and we have the Word.” But that ends the book of Ezra, and there is a book after that. Nehemiah was a builder.
When we look at the Lord restoring things, we may think worship and the Word are enough. We have fellowships, whether denominational or not, and they may be centered on those things. We come to meetings and do those things, but there is another part.
It is just as much a part of worship as the praise of our lips—the fruit of our lips, the sacrifice of praise. It is the matter of being built together.
This is a different sacrifice. It is not merely the sacrifice of our lips. It is the sacrifice of Romans 12, where we lay our bodies on the altar as a living sacrifice, which is our reasonable service. It is reasonable, and it is the next part.
I think a lot of us, even though we quote that verse, shy away here. We may think the meeting itself is our sacrifice, or going to some other thing is our sacrifice. But the Lord put Nehemiah in the Scriptures for a reason.
Nehemiah was not building the temple; the temple was already built. He was not bringing the Word; the Word had already been brought. Something was lacking.
It is not just the temple that the Lord is after. It is all of Zion. It is the whole city—the whole city of Zion. Nehemiah was rebuilding the walls, and those walls needed to be built.
Being built together is part of our worship.
As I was looking this up, I found that Nehemiah was building the structure of the city—the walls and things that gave structure to the city. I am not Kenny, so I had to look up the definition of structure.
Structure is the arrangement of and relations between parts of something complex.
That is the part being built up: the arrangement of and the relationships between parts. This is what we mean by growing together.
Nehemiah was the man in charge of the building. When I first got saved and began really walking with the Lord in 1974, some of you my age may remember the Second Chapter of Acts and Barry McGuire. They did a lot of singing and went to a church in Van Nuys, California, called Church on the Way.
The pastor of that church was Jack Hayford. He was somewhat charismatic, but he did a series on Nehemiah in 1974. He compared Nehemiah to the Holy Spirit, and it was a great series.
The Holy Spirit is behind this building. Nehemiah is the builder, but the Holy Spirit is really behind the building. Did Nehemiah do it alone? No, he did not.
He got people to go with him in doing this. It was Nehemiah, the master builder, and fellow workers participating in the building under his guidance. They were participating in the building.
I want to go back one chapter, to Nehemiah 2:17, where Nehemiah speaks before telling the people of Jerusalem about rebuilding.
Then said I unto them, Ye see the evil case that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.
—Nehemiah 2:17
Another translation says “desolate” rather than “lieth waste.” One definition that struck me was: it lies neglected.
As I thought about growing together, I realized this is often the neglected thing. We have worship. We have the Word. But what about being built together? Is that as important as having the Word and worship?
I think, according to the Scriptures, it is. Otherwise, there would not be Nehemiah. Nehemiah came to build and bring things together.
Nehemiah continued:
And I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me, as also of the king’s words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for the good work.
—Nehemiah 2:18
This is a good work. Let us press on.
I want to focus on every joint supplying and the building up of the body in itself. Ephesians says the body is built up within itself through the working of the Holy Spirit in us.
Who is involved in this building process? If we look at Nehemiah 3, we see a diversity of people. Not diversity for diversity’s sake; it simply happened that there was a diversity of people doing this work. We are not out to have quotas and say we need these people or those people. It was simply this way.
We had priests. Even the high priest was doing this. We had leaders—rulers over half-districts of the city. We had sisters: Shallum and his daughters were making repairs. Sisters were involved.
Then we had working people. It mentioned goldsmiths and perfumers. Those are regular blue-collar workers. Everybody was involved.
It was like when the Lord called people out of Babylon: everyone who was moved could come. You do not move people into this. The Lord moves people into this.
Remember, Nehemiah pictures the Holy Spirit. Everyone who is moved is going to join in. What about those who are not moved? They are not being built together. Sometimes, by being in that place of being built together, we provoke others to good works and draw them into these good things.
Who is in this work? Anyone who is called into it. It was like we heard this morning: anyone who was called. It did not matter whether you were Ruth, Mephibosheth, or Boaz. Anyone called can enter into the work.
“Whosoever will may come.” That is the Lord’s call to us: Come into what I am doing.
Ephesians speaks of every joint doing its part. Last week, I mentioned that the NIV says each part does its work. I like that. Each one has a job. Each one has work to do.
There is a cost in being part of this building process. It costs you something. Being built together is costly work.
Last week I talked about being on a team. It costs something to say, “This guy is my coach.” It may cost you time because you are going under his system. In the same way, being built together costs something.
Let us not think it will simply be easy and cool, like thinking about going camping. Then you get there and have to put up the tent, gather kindling, and do all the work. But when you come back, you have good memories. It costs you something.
Every joint doing its part—effective working—is what Ephesians says.
Some have smaller parts. Meshullam, the son of Berechiah, repaired in front of his dwelling. I do not know how large his dwelling was. Maybe he had an apartment on the wall, or one of those little houses. He repaired only a little portion, but he was faithful with the work presented to him.
Some did more, like the Tekoites. You find them in verse 5 and then again in verse 27, where it says they repaired another section. Some people do more. Does that make them better than someone else? No. They are simply being faithful to what they have been called to do.
Some worked as teams, like Benjamin and Hasshub. We have people who work that way. Paul and Barnabas were team workers. At PVF, it was often Jerry and me doing things together. Some people mesh together, work together, and do a work for which the two of them are needed. They are faithful to that calling.
The men of Jericho and Zanoah also came. I looked up how far Jericho is from Jerusalem. It is about an hour away. They came a distance. They probably did not go home every night, but they traveled there and said, “We want to be part of it.”
It cost them something to be away from home, but they did their part. They were counted as doing their part.
This is a great picture of every joint doing its work—supplying whatever is needed for the building of the city and the rebuilding of the walls.
The chapter keeps saying, “next to,” “next to,” “next to.” I do not particularly like the phrase next to, because I think it can take the humanity out of it. It can mean simply standing beside someone.
Some other versions say alongside. I like that better. When you come alongside someone, you are there to help.
It is not merely, “Here is my space, and I am doing my own thing.” Rather, I come alongside you, joining my work to your work, and we do it together.
We are all together in the building-up process. We are not all doing exactly the same thing, but we are building one thing with one goal: being built together.
Now comes the instruction. Brothers and sisters, this is not criticism. Do not take it as criticism, and it is not correction. This is instruction.
This is simply saying that if we are going to be built together, these are things the Lord says will have to happen. A lot of these things are already happening in our fellowship. I am not saying they are not.
Paul told the Thessalonians that they already knew they were to love one another, and they did; but he urged them to abound more and more. So some of these things are happening, but may they abound. May they flourish and not just trickle along.
This is instruction, all right? I will not test you on it.
Who is the first person in Nehemiah 3 who gets into the work? The high priest. It is not merely priests; it is the high priest, Eliashib, leading the priests.
We have a High Priest, do we not? Who is He? Christ. What is Christ doing now? He ever lives to intercede for us.
Part of the building up is to pray. When I speak of being built together as a group, it means praying for one another.
This is not generic prayer: “Lord, bless Christian fellowship,” or, “Lord, bless the older folks,” or, “Lord, bless the youth.” We do not want to blend everything together. The Lord has specific things He wants to do, and we need to be aware of them.
Remember that prayer meeting when we prayed for the youth, name by name? Do you remember the passion that came out in those prayers and the sense of the Holy Spirit being there?
The high priest wore stones on his breastplate, each bearing a specific tribal name. He carried them on his heart. He also bore the tribes on his shoulders—six names on one shoulder and six on the other.
Carrying people on your shoulders means they are weak and need to be strengthened. Carrying them on your heart means there is affection for them. It is not generic affection; it is name by name by name.
When you pray for your children, do you merely say, “Lord, help my kids”? Or do you pray for them by name? They have different needs and are at different places.
So this is not generic prayer where everything is blended together. Pray by name.
And not only in times of need. We tend to pray for one another when we know there is a need, and that is good. I am not saying we should not do that. But there should be more.
Do you think the Lord Jesus only prayed for His disciples in times of need? I think He prayed every day for those twelve—whether there was a crisis or not.
What can we pray when we do not know a specific need? Pray that the Lord blesses them. “Lord, bring Your blessing into their life. Let them know Your presence. Give them Your direction.”
I am not merely talking about the young people. We have a large group, but even in a smaller group, those people may become the focus of our prayer because we know them better.
We do not say, “Nobody is in need, so I do not have to pray for them.” We pray in good times and bad times, hard times and easy times. Pray for the brethren.
Pray for their blessing. Pray that they come into God’s will. Pray for strength in their inner person, direction in their lives, God’s will in their trials, protection in what they are doing, and grace to come through what they are facing.
There are plenty of things we can pray for. We simply need to make ourselves available and say, “Lord, I do not know how to pray for these people.” That is often what stops us.
Then begin by praying that God blesses them. The more you pray for people, the more the Lord shows you things to pray for. He makes you aware.
Something may be shared in a Friday night meeting, and you realize, “I did not know that.” Or you may be out to lunch with someone and learn something you did not know. As you come to know more about them, that is a connection. It helps bind us together.
We become aware of one another and care for one another in that way. Let us abound in prayer. I am not saying you do not pray, and I am not saying I do not pray. I am saying, let us abound in it.
If we want to grow together, we have to become aware of one another so we can pray for one another.
When I first got saved in 1974, we began a Tuesday night Bible study. Some of us would go aside and pray for everyone in the group. The group grew to about fifty people, but we made time to pray.
Nobody told us to do it. It was simply the Lord saying, “You have these folks here. You need to pray for them. They are My sheep. Let us take care of them.”
Let us know one another in our fellowships. Let us know one another by prayer. It is a good way to know people.
Secondly, you may have noticed that doors were repaired throughout Nehemiah 3. The doors were repaired, hung, and secured.
Doors can do two things: you can close them and keep things out, or open them and let things in.
I think most of us know how to close doors. We know how to keep things out. That is a specialty for many of us: the closed door.
But I think the Lord wants more open doors. He says, “I have set before thee a door opened, which none can shut.” When the Lord Jesus walked the earth, He was open—to sinners and to His disciples.
I think the Lord wants us as believers to be open to one another. I am not saying we simply accept everything, but we should be open in the sense that we are willing to let others come into our lives and speak into our lives.
They may bring light, strength, encouragement, and even correction when correction is needed. Are we open to one another in that way?
We cannot say, “That person is lower than me. He does not know what I know.” Or, “I am a white-collar worker; he is blue-collar. I cannot hear him.”
Is not Christ in all of us? Can I hear Christ if He is in a blue-collar worker and I am a white-collar worker? It depends on whether my door is open.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6:12, “Our hearts are open unto you; be ye also enlarged.” The Pharisees and Sadducees fell short here. The Lord was open to them, but they were not open to Him.
The Laodiceans were not open to Him because they believed they had everything they needed. “I do not need You. I do not need anything.”
The doors were repaired. I think the Lord wants doors repaired in our lives. Are we open to one another? Can we receive from one another?
Third, there are those who have responsibility. I am not talking about only four brothers. Ephesians speaks of pastor-teachers. The gift is pastor-teacher; the two go hand in hand.
In our groups, there are people who function in this way as pastor-teachers. To those who do, the Lord says, “Tend the flock.”
It does not say, “Rule the flock.” It says, “Tend the flock.” If I am leading a Bible study, I hope the brothers would tell me, “Hey, Jim, are you just telling us what to do, or are you going to let us share too?”
That is why we have groups: so that we can be aware of what is happening in the fellowship and within one another.
Sometimes I have gone to brothers with responsibility and said, “Did you know this is happening?” They may say, “Yes, we know,” or, “No, we did not know that.” It is a way of being responsible for the whole flock.
Some of the flock are wounded. Are we aware? Some have fears. Some are weak in faith. Are we aware? Are we going to attend to that? Are we going to minister to that?
Some of the flock are unaware of where they belong and need help finding the place where they should be.
I had no idea that I would minister the Word. I was happy being in a Bible study and participating. Then, when there was an opening for the Sunday morning Bible study, the brothers said, “How about Jim?” That freaked me out.
But those brothers were aware of something I had no idea about. Some people are not aware, and they need to be led into places of opportunity they do not even know are available.
The flock needs to be fed. What does the flock need to be fed? That is the question.
All Bible books are good to study; they are all the Word of God. But is there something for this time? Is there something particularly fitting for what we are going through and for what is happening in our lives?
The Lord may say, “I have something to say, and it is in this book. You need to look at this book.” Those responsible need to discern this and bring it out.
It is not that we only have vision; we must also have practice. The first three chapters of Ephesians are vision. The last three chapters are practical.
It is taking vision and putting it in shoes. Paul says, “Walk worthily, walk in love, walk as children of light.” It is all practical.
In Nehemiah 8, Ezra brought the Word, and the Levites gave sense to the Word. Nehemiah 8:7-8 says they gave sense to it. In other words, they made it applicable: How does this apply to me?
When many of us first came to the Lord, we listened to Chuck Smith’s Word for Today. He would give an application: “This is how this applies to your living as a Christian.” That was helpful to us.
We need to be in the place where the Lord shows us the need, and then we minister to the need. Even if our ministry is taking something to the brothers and saying, “We need to do something about this,” that is ministry. That is part of shepherding and tending the flock.
In Colossians 3:12-16, Paul writes:
Put on therefore, as God’s elect, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering;
forbearing one another, and forgiving each other, if any man have a complaint against any; even as the Lord forgave you, so also do ye:
and above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to the which also ye were called in one body; and be ye thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.—Colossians 3:12-16
We want to be built together. Be gracious to one another. Be kind to one another. This passage speaks about how we treat one another.
Paul gives this wonderful exposition concerning Christ as the Head, and then he comes down to the practical things: be kind to one another; be gracious to one another.
How is the Lord Jesus described in John 1? Full of grace and truth.
I do not think people would have received the truth of which He was full if it were not for the grace of which He was full. Some of us can give much truth without grace, and it simply bounces off.
The Lord Jesus was gracious. The Lord Jesus was kind. He told the Pharisees more than once, “Go and learn what this meaneth, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.”
He also said they neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith.
Micah says:
He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?
—Micah 6:8
All of this concerns how we treat one another. Even the Ten Commandments teach us this: do not murder, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not covet, do not bear false witness. Are these not matters of how we treat one another?
This is a big thing in the eyes of God. We need to consider how we treat one another—not becoming overly introspective, but praying, “Lord, if I am too hard, show me. Help me and give me grace. Make me gracious, even in correcting.”
Ephesians 2:10 says that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works. In the context of growing together, I am speaking about good works within the assembly—good works toward one another.
The Lord has prepared good works for us to walk in here in the assembly. Again, I am not criticizing; I am instructing.
Dorcas in Acts 9 is an example. What did Dorcas do? She made clothing and helped the poor among the fellowship. Is it not interesting that she gets ink in the New Testament?
The Lord noticed. He noticed a need, and He noticed a woman to whom He had given something to meet that need. She did it.
The Lord gives us gifts to minister to one another so that we can all grow. One of those gifts is hospitality.
Some people truly have a gift of hospitality. You go to their home, and you feel right at home. Others of us may struggle with it, but we can still show hospitality to one another.
Sometimes there are conferences and people come from out of town. We open our homes. At the winter retreat, many people opened their homes for the young people. That was a wonderful thing.
But what about normally? Are we hospitable to one another? How do we get to know one another?
Hiro Atashi comes to our Saturday morning breakfast when we have it. I have gotten to know him a little better simply because he comes. You might say, “Jim, that is not hospitality.” In a way it is, because it says, “Let us go out and do something together.”
Hospitality does not have to mean having someone in your home. You can invite someone out. The point is to connect.
Not every conversation has to be deeply spiritual. Sometimes we are simply discovering what one another is like. Then we find out someone is going through something, or we discover something about them that we never knew.
There are brothers who have come when they could, and I have developed a connection with them that I would never have had otherwise. It has been wonderful.
Hospitality includes visitation. Not merely socializing for its own sake, but inviting someone for coffee or dinner. Sooner or later, because we are Christians, something of the Lord is going to come out.
There will be building up. People may begin to open up because they have a connection. They may share struggles, confess failures, sometimes confess sins, tell you of a victory, or share something they have been reading in Scripture. It becomes like a small sharing meeting.
It is intimate. There is give and take. It is not disturbed by all the people in a larger gathering.
A few years ago, I had spoken a couple of times using The Great Divorce. Bob said, “Why do we not get a group together and read it?” We took two weeks to read it, then came together for dessert and discussed what we got from the book.
People who did not usually speak shared things, and your mouth dropped at what was in them and what came out. It was a wonderful time. It was a simple act of hospitality, but it was a great blessing.
We may say, “I did not know that person was that deep.” We find out how people think, and it is a wonderful discovery.
Visitation is also important in times of need. We recently had the situation of Ray passing away. People were at the hospital, visiting and praying. That is a wonderful thing.
But it should be normal for us—not only for us, but for all Christians. Hebrews speaks of serving and visiting those in trouble. This is part of building together and helping one another.
Sometimes people are moving and others come help. We need to be people who are not afraid to ask for help: “I need help. Can you help me? Can you give me a ride?” These simple things are wonderful.
Revelation 19:7-8 says that these kinds of works adorn the bride. They are like the adornments on the fabric of a wedding gown—the righteous acts of the saints.
There are good works to be done outside the assembly as well. I am not trying to limit them. But if we are going to grow together, there are good works to be done toward one another.
Now I want to close in a couple of ways. I hate to say this, but there are gaps.
We have generation gaps. We have younger people and older people, and we wonder how we get together. We have social gaps, socioeconomic gaps, and educational gaps. We have a lot of gaps.
The Lord has ways to fill them. The question is whether we are open to His ways.
Let me give you an example. When we started that Tuesday night Bible study, most of us were young—twenty-five or younger. We were scruffy. The girls were nice, but the guys were pretty scruffy.
We were not part of any particular fellowship. Some went to a charismatic church, some to a hippie church in the park, and some to a Baptist church. We were all going to different places.
When Floyd was asked to teach, he kept the older saints—and even some younger saints—from coming at first. It was wisdom. When you start a new meeting, everybody wants to go to it, but he said, “I do not think you guys can come yet.” They came later, but not at the beginning.
We were introduced to hymns by June. We would sing a hymn every time. We studied Luke first, and we sang “Down from His Glory.” The only reason we thought we could sing it was because the tune was “It’s Now or Never” by Elvis, so we knew the tune.
As winter came, we said, “We want to go Christmas caroling and pass out tracts.” Floyd had heard us sing and was not so sure.
Floyd and June prayed for us. I think they prayed, “Lord, we need help in this, and we need the right people to help.” They chose Mike and Jo Taylor, who were about thirty years old. To us, thirty seemed ancient.
They came to help us with the music. When we went out, Jo played the piano. She was very proper English. Mike had short hair, though at least he wore jeans.
We wondered, “Who are these people?” We had only been together in Bible study for about a month when they came out Christmas caroling with us.
But during those four weeks and the times we went caroling, a connection developed between us and Mike and Jo. They were older than us, but there was a connection. It was the Lord.
Mike was too straight-up for us, and Jo was so proper English. But they became big brother and big sister to Jerry, me, and some others. They really helped us. They helped us grow up.
When we decided to go to PVF, there were other people who helped us. I remember going to a prayer meeting where an older sister began to pray. She had no reputation or anything, but as she prayed, it was as though the presence of God suddenly came in.
I was frightened. I was afraid to open my eyes because I thought God would be there, and that would be the end. But her prayer was so simple and so sweet. She brought in the presence of God.
You wanted to know, “What does this person have?” Then there was encouragement. We were scruffy people, and our prayer might have been, “Oh, Lord, thank You. Just far out.”
Someone would come up at the potluck afterward and say, “Thank you for praying. I am glad you prayed.” I had only said, “Lord, You are far out.” But the encouragement that came was part of the building.
The Lord is the Master Builder. He knows how to put things in. Sometimes He has shepherds who pray, and they bring in the right people. Mike and Jo were the connection we needed to be built together.
These are the things that draw us together, build us, and bind us together. They are not merely theological things. They are very practical things. But do spiritual growth and spiritual connection come from them? Yes.
We are being built with one another into a dwelling place, into that city that is going to be built.
I want to end with Nehemiah 2:17-18 again, and then add the latter part of verse 20.
Then said I unto them, Ye see the evil case that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.
And I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me, as also of the king’s words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for the good work.—Nehemiah 2:17-18
Then the latter part of Nehemiah 2:20:
The God of heaven, He will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build.
—Nehemiah 2:20
The God of heaven will prosper us. It is God Who wants us to be built together. This is His will.
It is part of the eternal purpose of God that we be built together with one another in a local assembly, mirroring the greater city. This is not optional.
When someone is saved, worship begins first. Then the Word is opened up. Then that person is drawn into fellowship with other Christians. That is the supernatural, natural part of growing together.
You are opened to worship because you see God as He is and see God coming out to you. You want to respond to Him. He gives you His Word to guide you and help you know Who He is.
Then He brings you among other believers of like mind. Like-minded does not mean we believe every identical thing. It means we love the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus is our Lord.
Jesus must be Lord. That is the pinnacle. That is the key to everything.
If Jesus is Lord, then we become fellow workers with Him in the building up of the wall, just as Nehemiah and the people did. They said, “Let us rise up and do this good work.”
This is a good work. This is the work of God happening in us, and this is what He wants.
He wants a building fashioned together and interlocked with one another, where His character is expressed. His character is full of mercy, grace, and kindness. There is judgment in it also. It is all His character.
Christ is in us, and Christ will be drawn out of us as we are built together. Probably the thing that makes us stay together is seeing Christ in one another.
If Christ is lifted up, all people will be drawn to Him. The Lord wants us all drawn to Christ and to Christ in one another.
Let us give ourselves to Him in this way for His building up. He is the Master Builder. Let us participate with Him.
We want to grow together. I think we all do. But more than that, the Lord wants us to grow together. That is the bottom line.
May His will be done. Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we want to thank You for Your plans—for Your plan for us to be one in Christ and to be built up together through one another.
Lord, what a wonderful thing it is to think that there is something in each one of us that is going to build the other up and knit us together. Make this more apparent and more real to us.
Thank You, Lord, that this is so. Please help us to embrace the practical.
Lord, we are not asking You to show us where we fall short. We are saying, Lord, make us abound in the things that are already happening here. Make us abound in You.
Make us open to You for what You want to do in us and through others. Lord, we ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.