From Small group meeting to Disciple-Making

 

  • Commitment Part 1 5th Jan
  • Commitment Part 2 12th Jan
  • Character 19th Jan
  • Calling 9th Feb
  • Charisma 16th Feb
  • Competency 23th Feb
  • Christ-Likeness 1st Mar

 

 

Character 19th Jan 2020

  • Qualify – Sharing this sermon does not mean I have arrived or I am perfect, but to encourage all of us to strive towards it.
  • If we go through the Bible looking at Kings, Prophets, disciples, etc., they are all not perfect people: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, King David, Apostle Peter, etc.
  • What comes to your mind when you think of “Character”? Honesty, integrity, courage, etc.
  • Character in the Greek is like an engravers tool leaving behind a mark.
  • It can be seen by everyone around us, especially our family members and friends.
  • Our life testimony and not our words, are the only “Bible” people read.
  • No one can rise above the limitations of one’s character.
  • Think of a highly successful or talented individual, falling apart when they reach a certain level of success? How and why? Character.
  • Success with Character as the foundation, ensures a continuation of good success.
  • Our character traits define who we are and all our choices, desires and actions derives from it.
  • We consider people to have good character when they have integrity, courage, loyalty, fortitude, honesty, and other important virtues.
  • INTEGRITY
  • Integrity comes from the word integer.
  • A person of integrity is whole, their lives are put together.
  • People with integrity have nothing to hide and nothing to fear.
  • Proverbs 10:9a He who walks with integrity walks securely
  • Just for laugh… I met a woman outside the mall crying, she had lost $200, so I gave her $40 from the $200 I found. When God blesses you, you must bless others.
  • How does one pick a plumber? A mechanic? A carpet-layer? An evangelist? A truck driver? The answer: By referral. What others are saying about that person.
  • Can people count on us?
  • Today we need to challenge ourselves to go beyond from good character to godly character.
  • Importance of having godly character:
  • Character is who we are when no one is looking.
  • Character development and not Image management. Every time we choose character, we grow more into the image of Christ.
  • Talent is a Gift, but Character is a Choice.
  • There are millions of Christians but not many Christ-follower.
  • Develop godly character and we will have great character.
  • Develop implies it is a continuous process.
  • That is what real character all about; being bigger on the inside.
  • How to develop godly character? The book of Nehemiah.

 

Background

  • The book of Nehemiah records the events of returning to Jerusalem and rebuilding the walls in 445 B.C.
  • In the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes in citadel of Susa, the capital city of the Persian Empire, Nehemiah was the cupbearer (he would taste the wine to make sure there is no poison in it).
  • Some of his brothers came to visit him to inform Nehemiah that his hometown Jerusalem is burnt and destroyed.

 

 

Roadmap

  1. Rebuild the walls.
  2. Resist the world.
  3. Remain worthy.

 

  1. Rebuild the walls – Fast and Pray.
  • Nehemiah 1 to 3 Nehemiah got this burden for his city; Saddened and burdened by the situation,
  • What was his response?
  • Nehemiah 1:4 So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
  • Life is tough and often our character is called to challenge and we falter here and there.
  • Like the walls of Jerusalem, some of us has cracks, yet others have big part of it destroyed.
  • Broken down walls of life puts our character to test.
  • Our relationship with God, your spouse, your children, your peers, your employer.
  • Crisis doesn’t necessarily make character, but it does reveal it.
  • Adversity in our lives is a crossroads where a person chooses one path – Character or Compromise.
  • There are a lot of things in our life that we have no control over – We don’t get to pick our parents, our upbringing, our talents, our IQ, but we do choose our character. In fact, we create it – every time we make choices.
  • People get used to the trouble and the disgrace that they no longer feel or have conscience about it anymore; like the people in Judah who has lived their lives under the ruins and the burnt down gates.
  • Discouragement often leads to indifference, numbness, pretentious, or simply succumbing to it.
  • Do you know people who are in trouble? Couples are on the verge of divorce? Parents heartbroken because of a wayward son or daughters? Children in distress because parents fights and quarrel daily?
  • No one wants to have a bad name because of bad character and so let us choose to stay in character.
  • Nehemiah weep… Do we feel the pain?
  • Nehemiah entered into a season of fasting and praying.
  • That is the answer when we have crack walls or damaged walls because of challenges in life.
  • We fail, we let people down, and we feel discouraged, etc.; go into fasting and praying.
  • Go to God because God has the answers; He is able and He wants to help us.
  • About four months later, Nehemiah appeared before king Artaxerxes to explain the condition of his homeland and how sad he was. So he requested from the king to let him go rebuild the walls.
  • The king granted his requests.
  • Rebuild: Keep praying against your weaknesses and be accountable to someone in these areas.

 

  1. Resist the world – Guard our hearts.
  • Nehemiah 4 and 5 In the course of rebuilding the walls, Nehemiah faced with tremendous oppositions.
  • Nehemiah 6 Not only that, he also faced with the enemies coming to tempt, distract and deceive him.
  • As Nehemiah led the people in rebuilding the walls, the progress was astounding, so much so it made two particular characters very angry: Sanballat and Tobiah.
  • Sanballat is described as “the Horonite” (2:10, 19; 13:28). This likely has reference to the Moabite city of Horonaim (Isa. 15:5; Jer. 48:5, 34), which suggests that Sanballat, in all probability, was a Moabite.
  • At the time he appears to have been the governor of Samaria (4:2).
  • Tobiah was an Ammonite (2:10, 19; 4:3) and possibly Sanballat’s servant. Both of these men were connected to the Israelites through unlawful marriages (6:18; 13:28).
  • Both the Moabites and Ammonites were distant relatives of the Jews, having originated from the incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughters (Gen. 19:36-38).
  • Nehemiah 4:7 to 9 But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it.But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.
  • So Nehemiah posts the people on guard and everyone who are able, will carry weapon on one hand and work with the other.
  • Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it springthe issues of life.
  • No matter what people say or do against us, we must not be afraid to stand up against them
  • The beginning of character repair is when we face our flaws, repent and deal with them. This is why so many Christians never get delivered. Repentance is a good thing.
  • Nehemiah Chapter 7 to 12 The wall is built and Nehemiah took census, allocated roles and responsibilities and re-establish the laws, etc. After which he went back to King Artaxerxes.

 

  1. Remain worthy – Committed.
  • Sadly, by the time we get to chapter 13, the spiritual state of the people were bad.
  • This reminds us that the most spiritual person, and the best church, can find its standards subtly eroded as we gradually accommodate to the pressures of contemporary worldliness.
  • 12 years later in chapter 13, Nehemiah once again request permission to go back to Jerusalem and to his horror, he realized that while the form (that is the wall, the setups, etc.) were there, but the spirit behind are all gone (that is the commitment to God, the act of worship, etc.)
  • Who has got in the way to distract the people from their course? Compromise
  1. Tobiah in the room
  • Nehemiah 13: 8 & 9 I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. 9 I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.
  • 1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
  1. Unequally yoked
  • The intermarriages has wracked the nation of Israel and is still wracking the lives of Christians today.
  • 2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
  • Colossians 1:10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
  • Worthy (Greek – Axios) Root meaning of balancing the scales. What we do is balanced off by what we receive. In the other words, what is our worth?