Nehemiah Part 7: You Can Always Return
...but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.' Nehemiah 1:9
If you return to me...let us return! You can always return. It is never too late. God says I have given you a chance. Today some of you are getting a chance. You need to take that chance. We are probably all getting a chance in some area. It says you need to return. It says “if” - that is God. God always has that “if.” If you will just do it, if you will just be obedient. If you will show up, if you will just stay, if you will just do it. God is not asking much. I mean, he is and he isn’t. It is just that “if.” One of the saddest things about being a pastor, you see so many people that have such great potential, so many things that they could do, but they don’t take that “if.” They don’t return, they don’t do it.
This like some of us. We were scattered, but God has brought us here. Sometimes we look like David’s mighty men who were all just losers, but then they became David’s mighty men. It says here they were scattered. How many people do we have here that are even from Gainesville? Just a few. Most people came from somewhere else. They just sort of appeared here. God just gathered them.
There are some people here that grew up 5,6,7000 miles from here, but God did it. Sylvia is from Hamburg, Germany. I am from Cape Girardeau, Missouri. That is worlds apart in many ways. Worlds apart - culture, language, miles - worlds apart. How does something like that happen? How is that possible? There are only supernatural things like that with God. He said, even though they are scattered everywhere, if they will just be obedient, if they will just return to me, I will gather them from everywhere.
He says I will gather them and bring them “to the place.” I have spent 30 years as a missionary and I never did like the place. I never did like Europe. An awful place - humanistic, hates God, hates the Bible, bad weather, tons and tons of people everywhere, every body living on top of everybody else - an awful place, a terrible place. But you have to be where God puts you. If God puts you here, this might be for you at times an awful place, a terrible place, a place you don’t like, but it does not matter, because where God puts you, you had better stay, or you will be in big, big trouble.
It says he will bring them to the place that “I have chosen.” There again, it is God. You do not choose. We must forget the false doctrine of America: free will. You do not choose. God chooses for you and you, you say yes. God chose, God chose the place and your job is simply to say. “Yes” - an easy job. Also a job of humility. You don’t get to choose, you don’t get to think, you don’t get to make your decision, you don’t get be asked. He tells you and you just say, “Yes.” You just become a godly “Yes man.” You say, Yes God. There is no such thing as, No God. There is also no such thing as No Lord.
"They are Your servants and Your people whom You redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand. Nehemiah 1:10
This was a man of faith. He believed it could be done. He reminded God - these are your people, these are your servants. he said God, you have redeemed them. don’t let them go now. God, we have come this far. Hold on to us. Keep a hold of us. Don’t give up now! Look how far you have come. You have saved them, you have redeemed them by your great hand. Don’t give up now. Don’t run off now. Don’t quit now. It is like it is too late. You know what I mean? You have gone too far. You can not turn back. No matter what! You have so much invested, so much time and energy, so much done, you just can’t turn back. It says, “God you have redeemed them.” Don’t turn back. Don’t turn away.
"O Lord, I beseech You, may Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and the prayer of Your servants who delight to revere Your name, and make Your servant successful today and grant him compassion before this man " Now I was the cupbearer to the king. Nehemiah 1:11
Nehemiah was the servant of God. How was he the servant of God? Because he served God. He did not serve himself. He served God. How do you serve someone? You do what that person wants, what that person needs. If you go to the restaurant and someone comes and serves you, what do they do? They say, “Look at the menu, what do you want?” What would you like to eat? What do you want today? Do you want some more water, some coffee? Do you want some more iced tea, a piece of pie? They are there to serve you. We need to serve God. That means we do not think about ourselves first. You see that waiter, that waitress is not thinking about themselves. Oh, they might be thinking about that tip, but they are there to serve you.
They say, “What do you want?”
You say, “I would like to have a hamburger with french fries.”
They say, “Oh no, don’t you eat no hamburger! Don’t eat no greasy hamburger. That is not good for you. You can have a salad. You can have a salad, no dressing, no roll. It will be good for you!”
But they don’t do that because they are there to serve you. They are there to do what you want. A servant of God does that. He does not think about himself, what he wants. He is there He is there to serve God. He is called a servant of God. That is why he gave up everything he had, he gave up his job, laid it all on the line, put his life on the line, fought the battles later, worked hard, in order to rebuild the temple and to serve God.
Who delight and reverence your name - respect! Respect God! Respect God and respect the church. We have to return to respecting the church. The church is not some place where I just come and go. Come when I want to, come when I feel like it, come if I like it. The Bible says respect, I should respect God. In respect there is obedience, that attitude, there is respect. he needed favor. He knew he had God on his side. We have God on our side. If you need a job, you need a place to live, you need something, - he needed the favor of the King. he could not just go. He was in captivity, the cupbearer, the slave, the servant. He could not just up and go. It says, God give me supernatural favor. When I share the vision, when I share what God has put on my heart, give me favor.
We believe that. No matter how mad people get at us, no matter how many signs we put up, no matter how much we want to see people saved, no matter how many thing they write about us in the newspaper, we believe that God will give us supernatural favor because we must never forget that God is God and the heathens are the heathens.
