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God cares for you, has work for you to do, and has positioned you to leave a legacy. Join Pastor Wei E as he preaches his sermon entitled Registering the People from Nehemiah chapter 7.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Good morning, church. Today's scripture reading is taken from Nehemiah chapter 7, verse 4 to 7, and 66 to 73. Verse 4. The city was white and large, but the people within it were few. And no houses have been rebuilt. Then my God put into my heart to examine the nobles and the officers and the people to be enrolled by genealogy. And I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up at first, and I found written in it. These were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried into Exile. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his town. They came from Zerubabel, Joshua, Nanemiah, Ezariah, Rahamiah, Mahamani, Mordecai, Bishan, Meseraph, Bigaf, Nahom Bana. Verse 66. The whole assembly together was forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty, besides their male and female servants, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven. And they had two hundred and forty-five singers, male and female. Their horses were seven hundred and thirty six, their moose two hundred and forty-five, their camels four hundred and thirty-five, and their donkeys six thousand seven hundred and twenty. Now some of the heads of fathers' houses gave to the work. The governor gave to the treasury one thousand derricks of gold, fifty basins, thirty priest garments, and five hundred minas of silver. And some of the heads of fathers' houses gave to the treasury of the work twenty thousand dericks of gold and two thousand two hundred minas of silver. And what the rest of the people gave was twenty thousand dericks of gold, two thousand minas of silver, and sixty-seven priest garments. And so the priests, the Levites and the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple servants, and all Israel lived in their towns. And when the seventh month had come, the people of Israel were in their towns. This is the word of the Lord. Let's be good.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

Right, church. And we have kind of gone through uh six odd chapters of uh Nehemiah, right? Uh and we from chapter one all the way to about chapter seven, verse three, uh, it has been about the rebuilding of the physical walls. Right? This is uh the first part of Nehemiah, and we are about to step into the the second part of Nehemiah, which is the reformation of the people. But today we are kind of somewhere in between. Right? We're in between the rebuilding of the walls and the reformation of the people. So now we are at this juncture where the walls are rebuilt, the security is in place, but now Nehemiah has to deal with the next challenge, which is to repopulate the city. Um, verse 4, we read that the city was wide and large, but the people within it were few, and no houses had been rebuilt. Right, so so far most of the people who returned to the land have not actually moved into the city. Right? There were a lot of workers, builders, gatekeepers, guards, singers, and so on, right? Uh that were involved in you know the whole uh gatekeeping of the city after the walls was rebuilt. But most of them were staying actually outside the city, um, where there are stretches of greenfield where they had land to grow crops and um uh farm animals, right? And so now you might kind of have this problem. The city was in some sense rebuilt, but it was lacking in several ways, right? Um I can imagine that some of the infrastructures, the amenities were not quite there yet. But most importantly, it was lacking people to inhabit the city. Um, a modern-day example is actually quite close to our home, right? Uh, which is in in Malaysia. There is this place called the Forest City. And some of you might know about this, right? It's a mega project that promised to be an eco-friendly and smart city as well as an integrated tourism hub. Um, they were gonna spend a hundred billion dollars. Okay, a hundred billion dollars to fill up and and make and get like four man-made islands and to fill those man-made islands up with um all these residential and and um uh commercial buildings and all. Um they projected 700,000 residents. Right. Um they had a soft start at about 2016, uh 2014, but they officially started building in 2016. So that's almost almost 10 years ago, right? But until today, only 15% of the project has been completed with seemingly no new development, right? And the problem is kind of like what we read in Nehemiah chapter 7, verse 4, right? The people within it were few. So to be sure, many apartments were built uh now, and they are already built, there are amenities there and all. Uh, and yet instead of the hundreds of thousands of people they were expecting, today there are still only about 9,000 people uh residing in this forest city. Um not many people not many people want to go there and stay there, right? Uh especially the locals, the the Malaysians, because it's too expensive, it is too far from local employment, it is too risky, it is too dead.

unknown 6:26

Right?

SPEAKER_02 6:26

And very unfortunately, uh the media has kind of termed this place as the ghost city. Um I believe Malaysia has not given up on it, and I think from last year, recently there has been uh a push to revitalize the city, and they are doing all they can to attract people to come and stay in it. Because as we all know, without people, the city will not survive, much less flourish. And so Nahi Maya had a very similar situation now, right? There were few residents and uh there's no real housing in the Jerusalem at this point. For the future of Jerusalem, for it to not just survive but to flourish, Naehi Maya now has to put on the the hat of an urban planner and get people to come live in the city. So, like I said, most Jews were living outside the city, and they probably preferred living outside the city, like the suburbs, right? The the the where there's a lot of space, it's not congested, you know, the traffic is nice, uh, the the neighbors are you know, there are not so many people around us, you know, so so we're not cramped up, right? Uh most people were rather stay outside, and if I can have the next slide, we will later learn, and just jumping the gun a little bit, but we'll later learn in Nehemiah chapter 11, verse 1, that they had to call for volunteers to come and stay in Jerusalem. And that wasn't enough, so they had to cast lots. So one out of every 10 uh Jews will have to come and stay in the city, right? They had to try all sorts of ways to kind of get people to stay in the city. And so he was asking a lot to get the people to come out of their spacious land uh to live in a city, right? A city where currently no houses are built. No, and we can imagine the amenities are equally non-existent. But of course, we remember that this is God's city, it's not just any other city, it is God's city. Through the prophets like Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, God had promised that they would come back, and now God steps in and moves their heart to return to Jerusalem. And so God starts by asking Nehemiah to make a census and to register the people, and we see that in verse 5, right? Then Nehemiah says this then my God put into my heart to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be enrolled by genealogy. Right? As he goes about registering the people by their genealogy, we see that they he found the book of the genealogy of those who came up at the first. And I found written in it, and and so and on and on it goes. Right, and so this morning actually we are looking at a genealogy. Um the genealogy is there to prove that they were in fact really Jews, right? Uh, and thus could come back and own land, right? It is to trace their lineage, make sure you really are a Jew, uh, your your father's and your father's father, and your father's father's father has been a Jew, and so you have some stick, some claim in the land in the city, right? Uh, and through this, he finds the genealogy of the people who returned from exile together with Zerubabel. Right? So, this is a list that we can find in Ezra chapter 2, actually. When the first returnees came back with Zerubabel to rebuild the temple. Um and uh I mean scholars kind of are a little bit divided, but it seems that this list was around 80 to 90 years old and really contains a lot of names, right? And um the actually the huge chunk has not been read uh and and it's it's kind of on purpose because um it is a long list of names. And I just kind of give you a few verses, right? From verse 8 onwards, uh all it says is the sons of Perosh, 2172, the sons of Shifatiah, 372, the sons of Arah, 652, and on and on and on it goes. Right? Uh if you were just kind of staring at the screen while we had our scripture reading, you wouldn't have caught all these names. Right? But if you open your your Bible, whether digitally or physically, you will have seen names after names after names. A genealogy like this is something we often skip. Right? Uh because we think it is irrelevant to us. And honestly, I was seriously considering having uh the entire chapter read, but I don't think I can put uh Gary in the position to maybe read through all 73 verses of names, right? But if you were to um take into serious consideration why God left this genealogy, this list of names in scripture for us today, right? I think we can we can see why it is so important.

unknown 11:36

Right?

SPEAKER_02 11:36

It is important not just because these are administrative records, it is important because they tell us something about God and about us, about his people. And so I believe they're still they're still relevant to us today and they're still applicable to our lives. And here are at least three ways. Right? So, what does the genealogy that we find in Nahimia 7 tell us? And the first thing that it tells us is that God cares about you. So let me subtract a bit and just first of all, thank God for all the administrators in our lives, right? Especially for myself, like I am not I'm not strong in administration, right? Thank God for all the administrators, right? Someone had to do the laborious administrative task of counting and recording everyone and everything, including the animals, the donkeys, the the camels, the whatever animals, right? And including money and garment. Someone had to go through all of this and keep a record. And to keep a record well enough that Nehima can find it 80 and 90 or 90 years later. Right? Um sometimes we think administrators, their work, uh because it's not visible, it's not glamorous, uh, we often kind of just don't think twice about admin work, right? Um but all they do behind a desk, right? Uh well at this point, I don't think they have desks, but all in today's context, all they do behind a desk, right, making arrangements, balancing finances, managing bookings, keeping records, they are no less important in God's eyes. Not least because God Himself is known to keep records. Right? We we read from scripture that God keeps a record of all our names in his book of life. And if we can you know flash the next slide, um very quickly in Philippians chapter 4, verse 3, uh Paul says, Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. Um in Revelation 20, we also read about how those whose names are not written in the book of life uh they'll be thrown into the lake of fire. And in Luke 10, we read this rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Rejoice because God has written your name, your personal name, in heaven. Underlying the importance of genealogies is the fact that God cares for all his people, and he cares for them individually, not simply cooperatively as the people of God, but he cares about you and me as individuals. Um the psalmist in Psalm 56, verse 8, even says this uh God keeps account of our tossings, he puts our tears in his bottle. Are they not in your book? Has God not recorded now the number of times you have tossed in your bed late at night? The tears that we have shed because of hurts and hardship. Uh Jesus says something similar in Luke chapter 12, verses 6 to 7, right? I don't know, five sparrows sold for two pennies. Sparrows sold for next to nothing in his day, but not one of them is forgotten before God. But verse 7, why even the hairs of your head are all numbered? So fear not, you are of more value than many sparrows. And maybe that should be one of uh our relationship goals, right? Find find someone who will count the number of hairs on your head, right? But God loves us so much that He keeps a record of every single detail. No matter how minuscule, no matter how uh mundane, right? Or even kind of silly, right? But God keeps even uh God knows even the number of hairs on our head. Because God does not see us as just a number or just part of our statistics. Your name has been personally written in his book of life, and he cares deeply about you. Right? Even watching over you as you sleep and counting your tosses. When we first had our when we had our first first born, right, Sage, um my wife Beth was constantly worried about Sage, right? Um and especially because she's our first child, right? So uh at night when everyone is asleep, that is where Beth is the most anxious. Because what if like something happens to her but we're all sleeping, and then like she chokes on something, she flips over, cannot breathe, and then she passes on and all that. So we have a baby monitor, right? And the baby monitor will turn on and alert us if there's any sound, right? Just any sound at all, you will you'll turn on. And every time Sage will make a noise in the middle of the night, Beth will just immediately wake up. And she'll be checking the monitor and just making sure that Sage is okay. Right? There are days where she will just sneak into her room, put her hand on her chest just to make sure that she's still breathing. And then she can be at peace and then you know, leave the room and and and go to sleep. Right? That is the kind of care God has for each of us. And he has not uh just left us be, right? He personally wrote our names in his book of life, and he records every single detail of us. And so that's the first thing we can learn from the genealogy, which is that God cares for each of us as individuals, right? Number two, God caused us to work and to contribute. Um, in uh from verse 66 to I think 69, right, uh we kind of read that at the end after counting up all the people, right, the whole assembly together was 42,360, besides their male and female servants, of whom there were 7,337, then there are 247, 245 singers, male and female, horses were 736, males were 245, 69, uh, sorry, and their camels are 435, donkeys 6,720. Yeah, keeping counts of every single person and every every every uh animals there are, right? Um the genealogy here uh actually shows us these were all the people, including you know their cattle, their animals, and whatever, right? These were all the people who first came back to work on and to contribute to the rebuilding of the temple. Many of them who had been laborers and builders. If you go through the list, uh you will find that there were people who also uh designated as priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, temple servants, Solomon servants, right? Um rather descendants of Solomon's servants. Right? So all of this add up to about 50,000 people in total with all hands on deck to rebuild the temple. So not only do we have do we have a list of all these people who first came back to rebuild the temple, to work uh uh at rebuilding the temple, they were also contributing uh large sums of money to the work. Um and that's from 70 to 72. I will not read it out, but if uh the the slide can be flashed, yes. Um in about 3,000 dericks of gold, uh you know, 4,200 miners of silver, and so on and so forth, right? All of them will add up to about to be about uh I think more than 20 million dollars today. Right? And so besides the work that they were doing, they were giving generously and contributed financially. Um under Nahimaya's own administration, the people actually followed this pattern, right? Uh everyone was tasked to do different things. If you remember the couple of chapters uh back, uh people were laborers, they were builders, they were guards, gatekeepers, administrators, they were priests, temple servants, and singers. And Naeemaiah himself contributed financially out of his own pocket and refusing to take any money from the governor. And all this is to uh kind of point us to one thing, right? Anything we do unto the Lord, right, whether big or small, God sees and honors them. All these things are kept in record because God sees and honors all of our work and our contribution. He cares about this, he cares about our work because he is the one who gives us the gift and the grace to do the work in the first place. And so today, now I believe that God has called each of us to his work and to contribute, to edify one another and to build the church up. Um, this is how the apostle Peter puts it in uh first Peter, first in uh second chapter 2, uh 1st in chapter 2, verses 5 to uh 4 to 5, right? Peter says this as you come to him, as you come to Jesus, a living stone rejected by man, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, you yourselves are like living stones. Uh you yourself like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And then later on in verse uh chapter 4, verse 10, he will say this as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another. Another as good stewards of God's varied grace. God gives all of us grace to work and contribute, to see his purposes fulfilled within and without the church. And so, you know, just to run the service alone, actually, we have multiple ministries that are running concurrently, right? We have the hosts, the befrienders, the sacristy team during Holy Communion, we have the music team, we have the dancers, the lay readers, the scripture readers, intercessors, refreshment team, accounting team. And beyond the Sunday service, we have ministries for children, for youths, young adults, seniors. We have connect groups, we have prayer meetings, we organize yearly church camps and go on mission trips. We do home and hospital visitations, we meet up in accountability groups, we lend a listening ear to hurting brothers and sisters and offer help when needed. We pray for one another, we spur one another toward love and good works. Right? There is really much work to be done in the church. And on the on the other hand, right, there are times when we are called to contribute financially as well, whether to the work in YCCA or to the larger body of the diocese, right? To the chaplaincy work in our schools, to the care centers that we have under the diocese, or maybe even privately to support uh certain organizations, uh some uh either uh overtly Christian organizations or built on Christian values like World Vision, like Health Surf, right? And I want to say this whatever work and contribution we offer, God who gave us the gift and grace honors those work and contribution. So as we offer them up all to Him, He sees and honors them. In Hebrews 6, chapter, uh Hebrews chapter 6, verse 10. Um, the writer writes this for God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as still as you still do. Right? People may not see your work, right? People may not uh understand why you do certain things, even, but God certainly won't overlook. And so those are the two things, right? So far we have seen how the genealogy uh reminds us that God cares for each of us as just as he cared for each and every one of the people who returned from Ezra, right? And secondly, he called us to work and contribute to his church, just as he called the returnees to contribute to the rebuilding of the temple. The third thing we can see and we can apply to our lives today is uh how those who had gone before Nehemiah actually set an example and left a legacy. They left a legacy for their future generations to follow. Some 90 years after the first return, right, the people were looking back at the genealogy and learning about all these people, all their forefathers, right, who came back to do the work of God. So, on the one hand, while using the genealogy was uh was necessary to check and make sure everyone is legitimate, uh legitimately a Jew, you can occupy uh space in Jerusalem, right? Um, it was also a way for the Jews to understand that they were standing on the shoulders of the first ones who made huge sacrifices to come back from the exile. They came back not because there were promises of wealth, not because that there were better job prospects, or because there were promises of comfort. Right? They came back because they were the people of God. They knew that they were cherished by God, that God cares for them, and they knew that they were called to work and to contribute to God's work. And now in Nehemiah's time, as the same beloved people of God, they were now called to follow the footsteps of their predecessors. Our church, while I mean not very old, is not young either, right? Uh we began as Asian Christian Church Anglican on this plot of land in 1987. So it has been about 38 years uh since we have been here, right? Um and we we have many uh longtime members here, we have many seniors here in our church today, and they have been a blessing to this church. Um speaking to all the all the longtime members and all the seniors in our church, no, you have been a blessing to this church. You have been committed to this church in the early years, you have been coming faithfully, week after week, year after year. And many of you can say decade after decade. You come to be part of the church's life and of each other's lives. And I'm amazed and I'm really encouraged that you know today we still have people in their 60s and even their 70s, some pushing to 80, right? Still serving in various ministries of the church. Right? Your knees may be getting weaker, you may be getting more tired easily, uh, you may be even have accumulated hurts and grievances along the way. But your heart for this church and your desire to serve God hardly waned through the years. You'll be surprised, you know, church, that there are those amongst us uh who aren't who are not even considered that old, maybe 40s, 50s, right? But they have been serving for the last 20 or even 30 years, right? And you know, sometimes after you know, as I was writing this sermon, I was just kind of wondering maybe we should start interviewing all these people, the the longtime members, the seniors in our church, and keep a record of sorts. Um, because you have been present and you have been participating in the life of this church. You have been working and contributing in all sorts of ways. And many of you have made sacrifices, right? Some of you have moved to a much further location from Issue now, and yet you choose to come here every Sunday and call this your family church. Right? Some of you have stuck around even through YCCA's lowest moments instead of doing the convenient thing of just going to another church, right? There's so many churches around. There are a few churches even in issue, right? Why stay in YCCA? But you did, you stuck around. Right? Some of you have given up a lot of time, a lot of energy serving and running various ministries of the church. Even when we are lacking in resources and manpower, right? You continue pushing through, you continue serving the Lord the best you can. And I mean, to be to be honest and to be sure, like I can fully understand if people choose to change church for any of those reasons, right? You are saying, you're saying um too far away now, or like no, the church is going through a low moments, it's not quite meeting your needs, um, and you want to change church, you want to find somewhere else where you can be uh rooted in another community. There's nothing wrong with those reasons actually, right? And we have never really stopped anyone from uh finding a membership in another church. In fact, like if you can find another church where eventually you will be so rooted in the community that you can flourish, your spiritual uh uh maturity can grow and you can serve the church there, then that's also good, right? Um but just thinking about you know, all those who have stayed in YCCA for all these years, despite these reasons, they have stayed, right? And that that's precisely uh what makes it all the more encouraging, right? Where people in church today have stayed to build this church up despite the reasons to live. And so for the younger ones in YCCA today, and and I don't know how to draw the the the line now, who is young, who is not young. So you draw the line for yourself, okay? If you think you're still young, then now I'm speaking to you, okay? Um but for those who are still young now, young now in this congregation, look to those who have gone before us. Right? They have set for us an example, they have left for us a legacy. And now it is up to us, younger ones, to choose how we want to participate in YCCA. Right, whether or not we will fully step into the life of this church and leave behind a similar legacy for the next generation to follow. Um, there's an old song that popped into my head as I was uh kind of finishing up this sermon. I think we used to sing this in church, but I'm not very sure. Um, but the song is Find Us Faithful. Right? I don't know if you are familiar. We're pilgrims on the journey of the narrow road, and those who have gone before us line the way. Yeah, that's how the verse one goes, right? Um verse three goes like this After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone, and our children see through all we've left behind. May the clues that they discover and the memories they uncover become the light that leads them to the road we each must find. And the chorus goes, Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful May the fire of our devotion light their wake. May the footprints that we live lead them to believe and the lives we live inspire them to obey. Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful? All of us will leave something behind after we are gone. All of us, right? Maybe an impression, a mark in someone's life, a memory of our presence and service. Will the people who come after us find us faithful? Will we become an example and an encouragement for their own faithful living? And so those are the three things, right? That God cares for each of you, God calls each of us to work and to contribute. But thirdly, it's also about living a legacy for the future generation to follow. And I want to end with this question for us to ponder through the week. In Nehemiah chapter 7, verse 5, coming back to our text, we read that God was the one who put in Nehemiah's heart to register the people by genealogy and then by recalling the genealogy of the first returnees. Alright, so today he continues to put something in the hearts of people who know and fear him, who seek him and long to dwell in him.

unknown 33:26

Right?

SPEAKER_02 33:27

Today he's still putting something into the hearts of people who love him and who seek him? And so I want to encourage all of us to find some time to wait on the Lord and ask ourselves this question: Has God put anything in my heart?

unknown 33:48

Right?

SPEAKER_02 33:48

What is God calling me to do? What purpose is he calling me to pursue? What sacrifices is he challenging me to make so that I may participate in his work? And what kind of legacy has God put in my heart for all the people who will come after me?

SPEAKER_00 34:17

We pray that you've been ministered to by the word of God today. If you'd like to know more about Ish Christian Church, please visit our website at yccanglican.com. Have a blessed day.