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There are 168 hours in a week. We spend over 40 of those working, 50 hours sleeping, 10 hours a week on social media. How many hours a week do you spend in the presence of God? This Sunday, join me, Pastor Richard, as we learn what it means to practice the presence of God in the ordinary.

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Today's scripture is taken from the book of Nehemiah, chapter 3, verse 1 to 4, and Colossians chapter 3, verse 23 to 24. Nehemiah chapter 3 verse 1. Then Elisha, the high priest, rose up with his brothers, the priests, and they built the ship gate. They consecrated it and set it doors. They consecrated it as far as the tower of the hundred, as far as the tower of Hanana. And next to him the man of Jericho built, and next to them Zakah, the son of Imri built. Verse 3. The son of Hassan built the fiscate. They laid his bead and set its doors, its bolts and its bars. And next to them Mermot, the son of Uriah, son of Hakosh, repair. And next to them Mesulam, the son of Barakiah, son of Messiabel, repair. And next to them, Zadok, the son of Bana, repair. Colossians chapter 3, verse 23 and 24. Verse 23. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

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And uh my wife, of course, encouraged our daughter, stand up, stand up. And so they stand there to uh to make the pledge together, even as it's on the television. But you know, it it was something that made me wonder. We have a national pledge, but we're also part of the kingdom of God, not a political kingdom, a spiritual kingdom, but where where is our pledge for this kingdom? The kingdom of God. I uh the thought just came to me. So I just I just wrote something because I felt as the thought came to me I'd best respond to it. And I hope each of you have that practice when you you sense God is somehow saying something to you, don't delay. Right away, do your best to respond. And so this is this is the pledge you don't mind, I share with you. This is the pledge that that came to mind. I pledge allegiance to God, creator of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen, and to the kingdom He has established and is establishing, a spiritual kingdom that lives in the hearts of men and women, and to the values of that kingdom, to love God and to love our neighbor, to produce the fruit of the Spirit, and to welcome the gifts of the Spirit. I pledge to make your ways my ways, to love what you love, to hate what you hate, to be your hands and feet and voice in this world. All to the glory of Jesus Christ our Lord, who lived and died and rose again. This is my pledge. Church, we we know Singapore does not allow dual citizenship between two countries, but in a sense, we are dual citizens. Uh yes, we are in a national sense, we are a citizen to a nation, but also in a spiritual sense, we have entered into the kingdom of God. As we have professed our faith in Christ to save us from our sins, to transform our lives, we have entered into that kingdom. And we need to continually to pledge our allegiance, to pledge our heart to God. Amen. Well, today we are uh we have a message here to speak to those who feel invisible, to those who wake up, they clock in to work, they wash dishes, they answer emails, care for children, uh tend to aging parents, fill out spreadsheets, clean floors, uh drive a grab car, all without recognition or applause. And this message is for you. What if I told you your faithfulness in the ordinary is not overlooked by our Lord? That your daily obedience is a fragrant offering to him. The sacred isn't always found on a mountaintop, but it can be found in the service yard, hanging laundry. It can be found in a quiet office cubicle. So today we're going to explore what it means to live with purpose even when life feels painfully plain. Church, shall we pray? Precious Lord. Would you speak to us right now, your people gathered here to hear your voice? Lord, that we would be reminded how to live a life with purpose, that we would be more aware that you see all that we do, especially the ordinary things. We pray you continue to transform us, to draw our hearts to you, and to advance your kingdom even through us. Lord, would you speak to us now? We pray and ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Today is all about faithfulness in the ordinary. Faithfulness in the ordinary. And so in Nehemiah chapter 3, uh, the rebuilding of the walls and the gates, it begins. There's actually 32 verses in the chapter, but this morning, uh just as a sample, we we had the first four uh read for us. So who is it that does the rebuilding? Well, we've got the priests and Levites, we've got the temple servants, we have the district rulers of Jerusalem itself, we have district rulers of both nearby and distant towns. There are goldsmiths, perfumers, merchants, and regular people, a lot of regular people who are involved in the work. In section by section, uh they begin the rebuilding efforts one stone at a time. There's no big fanfare, there's no banners, there's no television announcement going out that this rebuilding is starting. Each one just quietly gets to work. And many of them, they just work to repair what is near their homes or their shop fronts. Whilst there are some others that take on uh much longer stretches of the wall. So, just how much work did it take? Do you have any sense of how how long the wall was surrounding Jerusalem at that time that they were rebuilding? Uh I think many of us are familiar with North Point Mall, right? Uh some of us maybe a bit too familiar, go there for shopping a bit too often. If you were to walk around the outside perimeter of the mall, all the way around, around the bus depot, all the way around, it's about one kilometer. Okay? The section of wall, as best we can tell from scholars, was about four kilometers. So it would be like building around North Point four times. It was the height of about two and a half double decker buses stacked up. All right? It was not uh it was not a little like a hedge wall. This was a big wall. And the thickness was about 2.4 meters on average. And so this is uh almost the same width as if you get into the bus. If you take the bus somewhere, the width of that bus, that's about how thick the wall was. So we begin to see wow, this was a lot of rebuilding. This wasn't a little decorative thing uh out in front. This was a serious wall. It was big, it was thick, it was going to be big enough that up top uh people could go across it as well. This was a big rebuilding project. And it was undertaken by unskilled workers, right? Uh and there was no foreman with experience engineering these large projects, but each one they just put their hands to the work side by side, shoulder by shoulder. And they didn't post their Instagram or Snapchat updates. They just got on with it. Theologically, I find it significant that the chapter begins with this sheep gate. And maybe we can have the next slide. Thank you. And so the sheepgate uh is at the very beginning of the chapter, and all the way at the end of the chapter we see it again. So one loop around the city, seeing the wall uh work beginning. And I found it philologically significant because uh there is a reason it's named the sheepgate. This was the gate uh that was near to the temple in which the sacrifices would be brought in. The sheep for sacrifice would be brought in through that gate. And so it kind of frames this entire rebuilding effort. Uh the rebuilding began at the place of sacrifice to the Lord, and it finds its completion in sacrifice to the Lord. So today, what is it that we're going to learn from this chapter? If you take your time to read through, it's all a list of names and who built which section. What's the big idea? The big idea is this. And so if you like to take notes, uh, this is the center, think of a mind map. This is the center thing. We've got one point today. The point is this God honors work done quietly and consistently unto him. God honors work done quietly and consistently unto him. Take as an example David. Okay, the scripture's full of examples of people being faithful in the ordinary things of life. Consider David. He was the youngest of the family, he spent a lot of time outside as a shepherd watching over the sheep. Scripture says he had a ruddy appearance. That means it was very red from a lot of sun, all right? And long before David was made king of Israel, he just spent his nights out in the fields with the sheep, day after day. Um, if you ever have a chance to go camping, tent camping, you know it can be a fun experience. For David, this wasn't going off on a trip. This was this was his life growing up. He was a shepherd. And so this quiet shepherd boy, he wasn't looking to make a big a move to the big city. He wasn't looking to make a name for himself. He was just faithful with a family's flock of sheep. He quietly and faithfully tended to them. He spent many nights probably wrapped in a cloak to keep warm. Once in a while a predator would come for the sheep, and David would have to fend them off. It's quite quiet, quite ordinary. And his faithfulness pleased God. And when God looked at David, he said to himself, Now there is someone with potential. God honored David for his faithfulness in the ordinary. We can also take Joseph as an example. Joseph didn't start off as some superstar, right? He was disliked by all his brothers. They sold him into slavery. Instead of being this high flyer, he served in very ordinary ways as a slave. He was falsely accused, he was imprisoned, and so he quietly and faithfully served in a prison in a very ordinary way. And God looked at Joseph and he said to himself, here is someone with potential. And so God honored Joseph for his faithfulness in the ordinary. There's lots of other examples all throughout scripture of people being faithful in the ordinary. We have Daniel, right, who remained faithful in his daily prayer routine. We have Mary who quietly carried the Messiah in her womb without big fanfare. Quietly. Again and again we see that God honors work done quietly, consistently, and with devotion. And here's the truth for us: faithfulness is not found, uh is not made in the spotlight. It is formed in silence. Faithfulness is not made in the spotlight. It's formed in silence. God sees the work that you do when no one else sees it. Nicholas Herman, he's a Frenchman born around the year 1610 in France, and he was a soldier during the Thirty Years' War between France and Spain. And he received an injury that was near fatal to him to his sciatic nerve as a young soldier, and it left him crippled and in chronic pain for the rest of his life. And having been discharged from the military, he spent a time in wilderness living, almost reminiscent of earlier Christian times when those we called the desert fathers, they'd go out and intentionally separate themselves from the world for the purpose of pursuing God. And so at some point after this, Nicholas Herman was educated by a parish priest named Lawrence. And when he reached midlife, Nicholas entered a monastery in Paris where he became a cook for over 100 members. And he continued as a cook there for 15 years, every day in pain because of his injury, serving in the kitchen. After that 15 years, he became a sandal repairman. Okay, in this monastery, uh there was over 100 members, so he is responsible for 100 pairs of sandals. That was his job. And it was at this monastery that he took a new name that we're much more familiar with today, Brother Lawrence. You may have heard of Brother Lawrence. He's well known for his collected writings that are entitled Practicing the Presence of God. Practicing the presence of God. Brother Lawrence, he discovered the secret of faithfulness in the ordinary. Despite serving in the kitchen and later being entrusted with that sandal repair for over a hundred people, people would come to him for guidance. Or they would write him letters because there came to be an understanding that there was something different about Brother Lawrence. Somehow he seemed to be always having joy, always at peace. And so they come to him for spiritual guidance because he'd learned how to practice and remain in the presence of God, whether cooking, whether repairing sandals, uh, in all things. And one of the quotes uh which is on the screen here, which I feel is really sums his life up. What he learned is this it's not necessary to have great things to do. I turn my little omelet in the pan for the love of God. He learned that. And I would say there's three lessons that we can learn from Brother Lawrence that would benefit us. The first is that to love God is to be faithful in the ordinary. Washing dishes, answering emails, creating spreadsheets, doing laundry, uh, completing school assignments for those school-aged, the very ordinary things of life. To love God is to be faithful in the ordinary. It talks about surrender, surrendering our life to God. The second is that lasting contentment is found in practicing God's presence, not external things. Lasting contentment is found in practicing the presence of God. We all know that for a time we can find contentment in things. Well, new phone came out. Look at my phone, look at the photos it takes. It's so bright, it's so wonderful. I feel good every day. Well, keep the phone clean. No fingerprints, no wash it off. Um maybe I find some contentment for a while in that thing, but time goes on. I let the fingerprints last a bit longer. Maybe I wipe it off once a week. Time goes on. Wow, did you hear the news? There's a new iPhone coming out. Time goes on. External things they can bring temporary contentment, but not lasting. Or for those of us who uh love coffee, not naming any names, um, you know, finding a good batch of coffee beans, grinding them up. I must say, uh quite often in the office, I hear the sound of beans being ground up and carefully pouring the correct amount of water and the smell that comes out. And you know, there's great contentment found in that. Uh it's really nice. But lasting contentment, contentment that lasts, is found in practicing the presence of God. And one final thing, I think a lesson we can learn from Brother Lawrence and his life, is our attitude about our daily activities can shape our character. Our attitude about our daily activities can shape our character. Um for me, we have kind of a guideline in our home. One person cooks, the other one washes. All right, that's how it works for the dinner meal. If you spend all the time preparing the meal, well, then the other one is going to help wash. Uh sometimes, depending on the amount of dishes, uh I step into the kitchen and I'm very inside. I hope I keep it inside. Can ask my wife later. Uh feel very resentful at how much time I'm gonna have to spend. Washing these dishes. Can't it just get over faster? Thinking about the five or ten things I still want to see happen before I go to sleep. And yet, in learning to surrender to the Lord, I also learn, just slow down and live in the moment. You know what? I can't make the dishes disappear. So I might as well just slow down, do it to the best of my ability, make sure they're very clean, get them all lined up nicely so they're gonna dry well. Just do the job well. Maybe put on some worship music in the background and just slow down. Our attitude about our daily activities can shape our character. We see this in the life of Brother Lawrence. He didn't have resentment about having to work, even he was in constant pain every day from that injury during the war. He didn't resent that. He didn't resent cooking for people day after day, probably without any recognition. He didn't resent having to repair all these sandals. Well, sandals you wear every day become very smelly. They become worn out. He didn't resent it. According to all the writings we have about him, he did it with joy. And he did it as worship to God. You know, there was a time where I was doing some theological studies in the States. I went to visit an abbey, all right, where there were monks there. And the majority of them, of course, they had they taken a vow of silence, but they had one or two people when some would come to visit, uh, they were allowed to speak for that time. And so they devoted their life there to um prayer for the world. That was the mission for their order that they were monks of. And as I visited and uh looked around, experienced, asked a few questions, I realized compared to them, what do I know of the word contemplation? For people who day after day, uh, they have all the times during the day, the different offices where they'll come together for prayer, come together for worship, a lot of time spent contemplating who God is. What do I know of contemplation? They worked very hard there. They had bread that they would make and bake and sell called monks' bread. And it continues to be a way that they fund themselves till today. And their mission is just to pray for the world. And so I suppose that learning to be content with God's presence, not with external things, not with great accomplishment, is something we have to be very intentional about. We have to learn to be faithful in the ordinary. We can do things without being faithful. We can do things just because we have to. But when we take hold of it and we turn it into something as worship to God, it becomes something sacred. According to Brother Lawrence, it is not the greatness of the work which matters to God, but the love with which it is done. And I see that even in our passage of Nehemiah chapter 3, there is faithfulness among ordinary people to just do the work. To just do the work. Now, looking in Colossians, Paul speaks to the believers, many of whom they have been slaves and servants, reminding them that whatever they do, it is to be done for the Lord. No task too small, no assignment too unnoticed. Colossians chapter 3, verses 23 and 24. Umester read it for us a bit earlier. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men. Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. And so faithfulness, it's cultivated in repetition, not in recognition. God sees the work you do when no one else does. And so when you you clean your flat, you launder your bed sheets, you you do all the ordinary things that we must do, it can be turned with faithfulness, it gets turned into worship to God. And so, my brothers and sisters, whatever work we do, we must do it with all of our soul, with all of our life, with all of our attention onto the Lord. Do it with excellence. When you need to do the washing up from dinner, my friends, do it with excellence. It will go better for you, and it will be something pleasing and valuable to the Lord. As believers, we must learn to be single-minded, not simple-minded, single-minded, focused on pleasing him. We're surrounded in a culture that values multitasking, um, but instead we must learn to stand out as single-minded people. Not looking for always the great accomplishments, the fanfare, but being faithful in the ordinary things. Nehemiah chapter three, verse one, it says, Then Eliashib the high priest, he rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the sheep gate. They consecrated it and set its doors. They consecrated it as far as the tower of the hundred, as far as the tower of Hananel. They didn't just do the work, they consecrated it. They took ordinary work, something done with the hands, and they set it apart for the work of the Lord. They turned it into something sacred, and that's something we can do. We can do it on the road for those who drive, not just looking to get from A to B as quickly as possible, but driving with excellence, taking care, being aware. This is something that could be done onto the Lord. Lord, today I'm getting in the car. Would you help me to be patient? Would you help me to be compassionate to others even if they don't deserve it? Would you help me to honor you in all that I do? I give one last example before we come to our closing. A perfect example of this is our refreshment team, the refreshment ministry, even here at church. Their work isn't done up front, you don't see them up here on the stage, and yet week after week after week after week, they're there serving us. They do it quietly, they don't, they're not looking for big recognition, they're not looking for uh something very grand, but they're serving week after week. They're being faithful in what might be considered something ordinary. And it's pleasing worship to God, and it's a blessing to all of us. Again, the big idea if you take nothing else away today, take this. God honors work done quietly and consistently onto Him. Just like the athlete doesn't walk out onto the pitch and at the closing 30 seconds score the winning goal. Nobody does that. What they do is they train day after day, week after week, year after year, so that when the time comes, it's not some extra special effort, it's what they've been practicing all along. We must learn, my dear brothers and sisters, to be faithful in the ordinary. I just close with one last quote from this brother Lawrence. He says, Were I a preacher, I should preach above all other things the practice of the presence of God. Those who have the gale of the Holy Spirit go forward even in sleep. When we let go of selfish ambitions, when we surrender ourselves fully to the Lord, those who have the gale of the Holy Spirit go forward even in sleep. Church, do you desire this? I desire this. We pray that you've been ministered to by the Word of God today. If you'd like to know more about Ishun Christian Church, please visit our website at yccanglican.com. Have a blessed day.