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The hope of Mars Hill since the beginning is that Seattle is a great city and what it needs is a great city within that city, a city that loves Jesus, a city that believes Scripture, a city that lives for the good of the whole city, not just its own self‑interest. And so Mars Hill started off as an experiment to see if we could build a city within the city that would love the city and seek the transformation of the city as the city meets Jesus.

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We’re gonna be in the Book of Nehemiah tonight. We’re taking a good number of months and going through a very important book, looking at a very humble but greatly used of God man named Nehemiah. So if you’ve got a Bible, you could turn there. If not, you should have obtained something on the way in called The Loop. Those are the notes that’ll guide our course of study. Good to have you all with us. I’ll go ahead and pray and we will just get right to work.

Father, as always, we begin by thanking you for being a great loving God who loves our city and who loves our church and who loves us individually and has good plans for us and our church and our city. God, it’s my desire as we study tonight that you would give us your heart and your wisdom and your spirit to walk in the ways of Jesus. And, God, for that to happen, we’re gonna open Scripture, and we’re asking you to meet us there corporately and individually to speak to us, to lead us, guide us, convict us, instruct us as we need. And, God, we ask that Jesus would be the forefront of our discussion and the object of our affection, and we ask that you would have your hand of kindness on our time together because we ask it in his good name. Amen.

As we get started, I’ll get you up to speed on Nehemiah; great story. Maybe you missed the first two sermons or slept through them. It happens. Nehemiah is a guy who was working in the capital city called Susa. He’s from a hometown of Jerusalem. That town has been destroyed for 141 years. Looks kinda like New Orleans did after it was devastated, that kind of town, just destroyed. The people have left. The city’s abandoned. There’s just a handful of people that remain. The church is destroyed. The worship of God has come to an end, and it’s been that way for 141 years.

Nehemiah, though he’s 100 miles away, once he hears the news of the city – it’s not new information, but it hits him in a new way and God gives him the heart of Jesus for that city. So he spends three‑four months praying, fasting, seeking God, asking God, “What do you want me to do? How can we make a difference? How can we rebuild the city and the church?” And his heart is for both. And you need to know that one of the reasons I chose this book is that our heart is for both our city and our church, that our church would be a blessing to the city, that our church would love and serve the city, that our church would give to the city a gift. His name is Jesus. And that’s Nehemiah’s heart. It’s not just to have a church, but to have a church that blesses, loves, serves the whole city. And his heart is for both the church and the city.

After three to four months of praying and asking God what he should do, he gets an opportunity because he works for the king to ask the king for help. He asked the king to reverse 13 years of political policy, to allow the rebuilding of the city, the planting of a church in that city, to give him a promotion, to buy him a house, and to underwrite the whole project of the city building and the church planning. Miraculously, the king agrees. It’s just a total work of God. God pulls off a miracle, about the same size of the one we’re gonna need to really see change in our own city, that kind of miracle.

So then he prepares for his relocation effort, his move. It’s a big move from the capital city to Jerusalem, about 100 miles, big inconvenience. The moral of the story is if you really wanna serve God, you need to give up that other god called comfort. He’s just gotta go away ’cause the god of comfort is all about the path of least resistance, that which is of the greatest ease. For Nehemiah, there’s nothing easy or comfortable about what God is calling him to. But in faith, because he loves God, he leaves his well‑established city to go to a destroyed city, leaves a secure job to go an insecure job, leaves a situation where he has a really good life all things considered, to a place he’s gonna face a lotta hardship and opposition, even threats against his own life.

So this week we read a section of his journal, so it’s very personal and intimate. We’re gonna get to know this man from his own words, from his own diary. And this week, he’s gonna make the move finally from the capital city of Susa, down to the town of Jerusalem. We pick it up in Chapter 2, Verse 9. “Then I came to the governors of the provinces beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen.”

He says, “I did it legally. I got the king’s permission. I got the king’s covering. I got the king’s legal backing.” He comes with military escort. He’s safe. Otherwise, his life would have been in jeopardy making this trip. This would have taken three to four months to journey this 100 miles with supplies and such, a very major undertaking. And finally he arrives in Jerusalem. And who’s there to greet him? Well, it’s ain’t people with cookies and cakes and a banner, a welcoming committee. The bloggers are there to harass him in Verse 10. The bloggers show up.

“When Sanballat,” the blogger, “Horonite, and Tobiah, the” blogger, “Ammonite, servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.” He shows up in town, right? “I love God. I’m here to serve. We’re gonna fix the city. We’re gonna plant a church. And the bloggers made some signs, “We hate you.” Some people have the gift of discouragement. They’re very gifted with the use of that gift. And it’s amazing because the first thing he receives is opposition. It’s a test of his call, and this is just the way it is.

And the reason that these guys don’t like him, is these are sort of important influential men from other towns. And the reason they don’t like it is they don’t want God’s people to have a church, get together to worship. And he doesn’t know this. Jesus calls us to love God, to love our brothers and sisters, in the church, to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies. So we’re supposed to be loving people. But just because we love them doesn’t mean that necessarily people will not be our enemies. Jesus had enemies who spoke ill of him. We, as a people, individually and corporately, we experience this same opposition. And they opposed him. They’re displeased. You need to know that there will be opposition in our city as there was in Nehemiah’s because some people just hate religion in general.

The great theologian, Elton John, once said – he said, “I hate religion ’cause it turns people into, quote, ‘Hateful lemmings.’” Another great theologian, Howard Stern said, quote, “I hate all religions.” So he doesn’t discriminate. He hates all of them. Very open minded, tolerant and diverse.

The reason that some people just hate religions in general is they have their own view of sexuality and gender. They have their own view of power or money or God or life or death or sin or – they have their own vision for the city, or they have their own values that they wanna promulgate. But just by virtue of believing in the God of the Bible, Jesus, and reading the Bible and obeying the commands of God, that’s just naturally offensive to some people. Other people, it’s not religion in general, but it’s Christianity in particular that they don’t like, so they don’t want churches. They don’t want more Christians. They don’t want that. That’s true in our city. There are some who just don’t like Christians.

It was interesting. The Seattle PI did a little story on our West Seattle campus when we opened it a few months ago. It was just a very benign sort of media piece. “Mars Hill has a service;” 200‑300 people post on the Web site just talking, “I hate Christians.” It’s like, “Oh, nice.” And, “I hate Christians and I hate the Taliban.” It was like, “Dude, that is not even our team. That is not even our team. That’s a totally different team than ours. I mean we don’t blow stuff up. Some of us even recycle. We’re – it’s a different team.”

And some people hate Christians – some people just hate Mars Hill. Some people just hate me. So it’s personal. Some people hate me because of what I believe. Some people hate me ’cause of the way I say it. Some people don’t think I’m funny. I am. Not everybody thinks so. And so there’s gonna be all kinds of different opposition and displeasure. But at the end of the day, there will always be a backlash. As soon as we say we’re gonna – there’s this new church gonna be planted, new campus to be opened. There’s gonna be more people worshipping Jesus.

There are just some people who say, “No. We don’t like that idea. We don’t want there to be more Christians. We don’t want there to be more churches. That’s not something we’re for. We’re opposed to” – in our town, they’ll tend to work legally. They’ll tend to work through zoning laws. They’ve zoned out large churches in our city. I think it’s wrong, but it’s the way that it is, so we try to work around that and love our neighbor and love our city and love our enemies and try and make it all happen as graciously as we possibly can. But your need to know that there will be opposition. And there was displeasure by some, alright?

It’s amazing that the beginning of the work is opposition. You’re gonna see through the reminder of the book, this opposition grows. This opposition leads to death threats. It leads to pickets, protests. They need to get security. They have to hire Jack Bauer at one point. I mean things go really difficult through the remainder of the book.

It goes on, “I went to Jerusalem” – oh it – “and was there three days.” Now here’s what’s interesting, right? Months of praying and planning, months of traveling and journeying, he arrives in Jerusalem. He’s got a ton of work to do. First thing he does, takes a three‑day weekend. I read this the first time, I was like, ‘What? A three‑day weekend. What is this? Did they have unions in the Old Testament? What is that, a three‑day weekend?”

And I started thinking about it, and I was very convicted because Nehemiah has been praying and planning and journeying for months, and the first thing he does when gets to town is he doesn’t go immediately to work, he Sabbaths. He takes time for Sabbath. I wouldn’t have done this. I woulda pulled into town at 3:00 in the morning and went to work. That’s just how I am. I’m a fullback for Jesus. I just put my head down. I keep my feet moving, and I just proceed forward.

And what I tend to do is not take a Sabbath until I’m burned out, fried out. There’s certain indicators in my life that have hit that point. I’m driving very aggressively. I’m eating a lot of carbohydrates. I’m drinking a lot of caffeine, and I’m watching a lot of ultimate fighting. Those are, for me, sort of the indicators that it’s naptime, right? I need to chill. Anyone relate? You guys know what I’m talking about? You just work, work, work, work ‘till you’re fried out, burned out, frustrated, full of caffeine, wanna see someone get beat up. You go, “That’s probably not the Holy Spirit. I probably need a day of at this point.”

So anyways, he’s how I tend to work, though. I tend to just work until I’m fried, and then collapse and call it a day off. Nehemiah was very convicting to me because he’s had a long journey. He gives himself permission to take a three‑day Sabbath knowing that he’s gonna have a lotta hard work to do.

Americans, we work more than any other nation on the earth. Statistically, most of you will give back this year at least a couple days of your vacation time to your employer ’cause you’re not gonna use it. We work all the time. We don’t Sabbath well. And those of us who do Sabbath, like me, we tend to Sabbath as a last resort when we’re totally fried out. Yet, if you read in Genesis, it says that when God put together creation, the way God worked is there was evening first, and then morning, meaning that Sabbath and then work. Because when the sun went down in agrarian society, that’s when the work ended, you’d go to bed, and you’d get up when the sun got up.

And so God set up creation in such a way that you would Sabbath and work and then Sabbath and then work, and that Sabbath would in many ways prepare you for your work so that your worship would then continue into your work as part of your worship of God. And so Sabbath is first priority. Sabbath needs to go on the schedule in the calendar first. And I’m not saying I’ve totally figured this out. This idea came to me on Friday, so I’ve not fully implemented it, but I’m sharing it with you ’cause I find it deeply convicting and I am reorganizing my schedule. Do I plan my vacations? Do I plan my Sabbath? Do I plan my time with God for prayer and Scripture study and silence and solitude? Does that go on the calendar first, or am I always trying to squeeze it into the margins and the edges, and then there’s not time for it?

There was priority for Nehemiah. And some of you will say, “But I’m so busy, I can’t have time for Sabbath.” If you had Sabbath, you would be more focused. You would know what God had you to do and not do. You would be prayed up. You’d be read up. You’d be rested up. You’d be able to be more effective. And I don’t know if you’re like me, but fir me if I’m not prayed up and rested up, I’m not sure about what God has for me, and I haven’t had my Sabbath. I’m very tired. I’m burned out. I don’t think as clearly or as quickly. I’m not even as effective in my labors.

And we live in a world, friends, that doesn’t encourage Sabbath at all. You just need to know that, alright? I mean, Satan has created laptops and WiFi and cell phone and Blackberries. Seriously, if you watch a person with a BlackBerry‑enabled cell phone, they look demon‑possessed. They just do ’cause they’ll shake and it’ll buzz they’ll grab it, and they’re doing this a lot. I mean literally, they look – something’s wrong. I noticed this last night. As an act of faith – my wife was out town, too. She was at the women’s retreat. As an act of faith, I took my five kids to Red Robin – just me – and I forgot my wedding ring, so I’m sitting there and people were walking by and they’re like, “One, two, three, four “ – looking at me, and they’re like, “What happened?” Like, “No. I got a wife. Seriously, I just forgot the ring at home.”

And we’re sitting there with the five kids, and as I looked around the restaurant, honestly, almost all of the tables were filled with families with children, and every single one that I saw there was a father not looking at his children or talking to them, but pounding away on a keyboard with his thumbs like some highly trained monkey looking for a prize. It was unbelievable. Guys not even talking to their – doing this, working at dinner at Red Robin. I mean, it’s all‑you‑can‑eat fries. I mean if you can’t Sabbath there, you’re a broken, flawed human being. You know what I’m saying? I mean, it’s all the fries you can eat. It’s a happy place. They have balloons. I mean if you can’t chill there, you can’t chill.

It’s just – and next to us was a couple – younger couple. If you’re here, I apologize for talking about you. They – literally, I watched the guy. He never made eye contact with his girlfriend the whole meal. Just he would talk to her, but when she would talk to him, he was like, “Mm‑hmm, ah, yeah. Uh-huh.” Sorta to a man grunt, but it wasn’t really conversation. And he is literally just pecking away on his BlackBerry for the whole meal. I thought, “That’s a bummer.” I just wanted to go up to her and go, “Dump him.” I mean just – if the only way you could get to this guy is to text message him and he’s sitting there – but that’s the world we live in, always working, always plugged in. They say that we get interrupted by people or technology at work, once every eleven minutes. It takes 25 minutes to refocus. Our life is filled with bells and whistles and ringing and alarms, and it’s unnatural, and so we don’t Sabbath.

And I’ll be honest with you. I’m not a great Sabbath guy. It’s definitely a sin in my life. It’s been a weakness. I was reading Nehemiah and my first thought was, “You lazy bum. Three days off. Go do your job.” And I’m like, “Oh, it’s in the Bible, okay. I should repent. That’s what I should do.” Nehemiah’s wise, and sometimes I’m not. I love the fact he’s praying. He’s reading Scripture. He’s confessing sin. He’s reworking his plan. He is getting his rest. He is preparing to do a really good job.

I hope you think that through. And I wanna give you permission from God to take your day off, to make Sabbath a priority, to not think that taking a nap or reading your Bible or praying, if you’re also working hard, is wrong or that God is displeased with that, that God is a God who created Sabbath because he loves us and he knows that it is good for us and we need it. And Jesus practiced it often.

The Scripture says that Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to be alone with the Father. That’s Sabbath. Nehemiah’s deeply convicting – I can imagine if he came into town and just got criticized and went right to work, he would probably have burned out about halfway through the project. But as it were, he’s gonna sustain this long‑hard push because despite the critics, he’s got time with the Lord and he’s allowed the Lord to refresh and encourage him.

So then he’s gonna go investigate the city. “So then I arose” – Verse 12, “in the night.” So it’s nighttime. He’s going out at night so the bloggers and critics and the media and all the guys with the camera cell phones can’t bug him. He’s just going out to investigate the city and look for himself. “I and a few men with me” – just grabs a couple a guys who are good with spreadsheets and charts and graphs, administrative neat nick types. “And I told no one what God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem,” he says.

At this point, he hasn’t communicated his vision. So oftentimes, those of us who are in ministry or business your can articulate your vision too quickly. You let it out too fast. And then it doesn’t come to pass ’cause you don’t have it prayed up and planned up. The result is, you lose credibility because people try and it fails. I’ve seen probably 100 people try to plant churches in the Greater Seattle area in the ten years I’ve been in ministry here. And oftentimes, before they even show up in town, they start talking about all the things they’re gonna do. But they haven’t moved here. They haven’t figured it out. They haven’t got a plan. They haven’t prayed it up. I’ve seen guys blow $250,000.00 and never even get the church off the ground or open. I mean in the middle of Seattle, there’s a big wood chipper for church planners, and we just feed ’em in one right after the other and just body parts of God’s people come out the other end.

The key is Nehemiah knows this is a big deal to build a church and serve a city. You can’t just get everybody together with naïve optimism, sing a few songs, hand ’em a T‑shirt and go for a walk and say, “That’s it. We’re good now. It’s all gonna happen.” He says, “No. This is gonna take a lotta work, a lotta prayer, a lotta planning, a lotta fundraising, a lotta strategizing. And before we go out and recruit people, I’ve got to go investigate the whole city. I gotta figure out what the needs are. I’ve gotta make sure that the information I receive is accurate.”

Let me say this. If you’re a leader in business or ministry or whatever God may have you doing, there’s great leadership principles in – Nehemiah’s one of the greatest leaders in the Bible. There’s a simple point that those of us who lead organizations, we receive information about a need, and then we architect an organization to meet that need. But if the information we receive is wrong, we’ll architect the wrong organization and we’ll fail to do anything effectively.

And what can happen is that a leader can get so far removed from the information, that they relying on others to provide that information to them. I’ll give you a very sad example. I’ve got a buddy of mine, pastors a big church. He doesn’t watch TV. He doesn’t listen to the radio, doesn’t logon to the Internet, doesn’t do his homework, doesn’t visit the various parts of the city. He doesn’t talk to developers and bankers and see what’s going on. He relies on all the information to come from a few of his staff members who are wrong. They’re lazy. They don’t do their homework. The information that he gets is not entirely accurate, so he architects and built his church on false information. Can’t figure out why it’s plateaued, declining, struggling. It’s because he’s received the wrong information.

What I love about Nehemiah, he gets out of his office. He gets out from behind his cubicle. He gets off the phone. He unplugs his Internet, and he goes walking around the city – actually, riding around the city, and he’s just investigating for himself. What kind of condition are things really in? Where are people really at? Where’s the most strategic place to begin? How much will this really cost? How long will this really take? What kind of organization do I truly need to build? What kind of leaders do I need to recruit? What kind of dollars do I need to be raising? What kind of prayers do we need to be praying?

And for those of you who are leaders, I would assure you of this. There’s nothing better than‑first hand information. There’s nothing better than just getting out of the house and going to investigate wherever it is. If it’s in business, you have certain people you’re trying to market or reach. If it’s ministry, certain people you’re trying to serve, encourage, help, disciple. Whatever it is, there’s nothing better than first‑hand information being there, getting to know people.

This is actually one of my favorite most exciting parts of my job. I know the whole city. I drive through it all the time. I investigate all the nooks, crannies, neighborhoods, I love to talk to the bankers, the real estate developers. I’ll pull over at a job site. I’ll just ask, “How many houses were here? How many condos, town homes are being built? Who’s moving in? How much will it cost? Who’s underwriting the project? How many more are you doing?” I’m just a freak. I just love to know everything that’s going on. I just need to go from part of the city to another part of the city, because the myth has gotten out in Christianity that you can say something like, “We’re gonna change the city.”

You don’t change the city. You reach neighborhoods in the city, because the city is very tribal. There’s different groups of people. There’s different neighborhoods, different affinities, different styles, people who gravitate to different parts of the city for different reasons. You’re gonna see that here. He says, “There was no animal with me, but the one I rode. So I went out by the night to the Valley Gate.” That’s a neighborhood, okay? Think Fremont. Think Belltown, think West Seattle, think Shoreline, think First Hill, think Capital Hill, think Renton, think Kent, maybe. To the Dragon Spring, to the Dung Gate. Think Kent again. And I – oh, come on. Come on. You can blog about it.

“And I inspected the walls of Jerusalem, they’re broken down. Its gates were destroyed by fire.” He says the city is made up a lot of different neighborhoods. And they need to investigate each of those and see who was moving in and moving out and what was going on and what is the quality of living and what’s happening there. You need to know this about our city. It’s very tribal broken up by water and by freeways and such things, very tribal.

Many people live on hills in our city, First Hill, Capital Hill, up on Queen Anne Hill, Beacon Hill, people who live on the hill. You ever wonder why – hey, they’re not a lot of gas stations or movie theaters on the hill. How come? ’Cause they don’t want you to go there. You’re not welcome there. They don’t want you on top of the hill. They sit up on the hill and look down on you, right? They don’t want you on top of the hill.

Now most of the shopping and the transportation happens between the hills. That’s where most of the people are. So you wanna reach people who live on hill, probably gonna need to get a church up on the hill. You wanna reach the region? Well, you gonna probably get something off the hill. That’s how it works. And the groups are different, different tribes. Seattle is very, very, very tribal.

Fremont, it’s its own thing. And also Ballard’s its own thing. We’re over in West Seattle, totally different thing. You go south of I90, KidRockistan, that whole part there. It’s a lotta guys who change their own oil and swing hammers and work at Boeing and have construction jobs. That’s where I grew up. I know. And if you go let’s say to the east side, you’re gonna find guys who tuck their shirts in their pants. I’m not making that up. And they button all their buttons. They tuck their shirts in their pants. Their pants have pleats. They have jobs. These guys can read. They have parts in their hair and minivans and wives and cubicles. And that’s cool. Jesus loves them, too.

And if you go to Capital Hill, though, they’re not tucking their shirts in their pants ’cause they’re not wearing any pants. It’s just different. It’s just different. They’re wearing leather chaps and a vest. It’s just a different thing. It’s like this is a lotta cowboys here. I don’t see any horses. I know. Just a lotta leather chaps and no horses. I know. We’re praying about that.

So just different parts of the city, different tribes and groups, man. And I love that Nehemiah’s going out and he’s checking out all the tribes. And what he’s seeing in the different neighborhoods in the city, the city has the gate – the walls, rather, which are the protection or defense mechanism. But then there’s different gates that signify and identify different neighborhoods in the city. And what are the gates for? Well, the gates are to open up and to welcome people in ’cause the church is in the city so this is how you welcome people into meet God, through the gates. But the gates are what?

He says broken, burned, destroyed. He uses that language. Let me submit this to you. Basically, the church of Seattle is broken, burned, destroyed. He said, “Well, there’s a couple good churches.” I totally know there are and I love ’em and praise God. There’s certainly not a lot. One of the least church cities in America. Some churches are broken physically. The buildings are falling apart. Some churches are broken spiritually. The gospel’s altogether lost. Some are broken morally. The leadership is not qualified. There’s just a lotta burning that’s happened. There’s just a lotta broken that’s happened.

You drive by these churches all the time. Now they’ve zoned out big churches, but we can use the grandfathering clause of other churches that are preexisting. And our goal is to go to all the various parts of the city, help churches get planted, strengthen the churches that are there, also, start Mars Hills campuses. These are our various gates. We opened a door in Ballard. We opened a door in Shoreline. We opened a door in West Seattle. We opened a door in Wedgwood. Everywhere that God would give us an opportunity, we go there. We say, “If there’s a broken, burned gate, how can we rebuild that church? How can we reclaim that opportunity and open a door so that in that neighborhood, more people can come to Mars Hill and meet Jesus?”

He’s really thinking through a multi‑campus regional urban scattered view of ministry. And we live in an age where technologically, we can spread. It’s a wonderful gift and opportunity. But I love the fact that he uses language like broken and burned. He’s an honest evaluator of need. The worst thing you can do if you lead people is to say, “Well, if I tell ’em really what they’re up against, they’re not gonna go for it, so I’ll lie to them.” That means halfway through you’re gonna lose your credibility and they’re gonna burn out.

I’m not gonna lie to you. Seattle is gonna be a lot of work. It’s gonna take a lotta time. It’s gonna take a lotta money. It’s gonna take a lot of energy. And there will be a lot of critics and a lot of criticism and varying degrees of opposition. And all of that needs to be understood up front.

He says, “Furthermore, then I went onto the Fountain Gate” – another part of town. He went over to West Seattle –” to the King’s Pool.” I headed up to Shoreline where all the breeders are with all their kids and all their little league fields. He says, “But there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass.” What he says is, “The city was so destroyed, I couldn’t even examine the city ’cause there were parts that were not even habitable. But I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall. And I turned back and entered the Valley Gate, and so returned.

“And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing. I had not told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work.” He says, “I needed to investigate everything firsthand and make sure that the plan I was putting together for the organization and the mission was effective.” This is one of the most important things a leader does. They work on the organization, not just in it. They get good information to figure out how to architect the organization so that the people in resources can be maximized for the task set before them by God.

And he says, “I had not told them what God had given me to do.” You’re gonna see this about Nehemiah. He has a fortitude about him that comes from knowing that what he is calling people to join him in is nothing less than what God has called him to. You need to know God’s will for your life. You can know part of it by just reading your Bible and figuring out what his will is for you, okay? Through silence, solitude, prayer, study, the counsel of godly people, God’s will can be made known to you, can know your vocation, your degree, your marriage, your ministry, the things that God has for you. He’ll give you desires and then you can pursue them so that God’s will becomes your will and you don’t have this constant agony and tension and turmoil with God, but that God gives you his heart and you get to do what you want, and it’s also what God wants and so both of you have joy.

Nehemiah says, “God had laid something on my heart.” He said that previously, and now here he says, “And I hadn’t yet told the people about it ’cause I needed to double-check the plans. I needed to make sure that I had good firsthand information about our organization, where we were going and what we were doing.” And he said, “And then I was gonna tell ’em all the work we had to do.” I tell you this, ministry in Seattle is work. I know some guys don’t think that ministry is work. They think it’s an indoor job with no heavy lifting, so it sounds good. It’s work. It’s a lotta work.

The work set before these people was to rebuild first a wall. It was 15 to 20 feet high, 3 to 4 feet wide, 1 to 2½ miles in circumference, had been destroyed for 141 years, enormous stones scattered everywhere. They had to rebuild it. That’s a lotta work. Without the age of machinery, that’s a lot of physical, manual labor.

Once that was built, then they had to rebuild the gates. Once the gates were rebuilt, then they could rebuild the city and the church and then do the theological instruction, and evangelize people, and move people back into the city, and then have businesses and school system and sanitation – this is a big deal. This is an urban project of enormous proportions.

Now of the people have left the city. They’ve scattered. They’re in exile. Most of the people have heard over and over again, “Hey, let’s rebuild the city,” just like many of you have heard. “Hey, let’s bring Jesus to Seattle, one of the least church cities in America.” Those guys just blew right through town over the course of 141 years and never got the job done.

Nehemiah said, “You know, before I tell people what we’re doing, I better make sure it’s God’s will. I better make sure that I’m close to the Lord, that I’ve got the right information, that I’m raising the right resources, that I’m appointing the right leaders, that we’re engaging in the most opportune situations that God would set before us, that we’re beginning at the most strategic place.” All of these are management leadership decisions.

And then he’s gonna tell the people, “Here’s the work.” I tell you, we have a lot of work before us. We’re gonna continue to expand, continue to take real estate, continue to renovating, continue to start new campuses, to open new gates so that people can come into Mars Hill, people can come in to meet Jesus.” I’ll tell you one place we’re opening the gate right now. You could pray for it. It’s our West Seattle campus; $2.5 million of work is underway. We’re trying to get this old building renovated to open it up for Easter. Services started there in October. The settlers landed here in 1851. Denny landed on Alki. The city began in Alki. And the gospel never took root. The saloons and the brothels did very early on in Seattle’s history, but Jesus never really caught on.

And the city that was built from that point forward has never really been about Jesus. I feel like spiritually that’s the beginning place of a transformation for the city. And we were given a great building there. And right now, people are working like crazy to get it ready for Easter. If you have some time, we have some days coming up. You can go lift things for Jesus. Say, “What’s my spiritual gift?” Lifting. That’s your spiritual gift. Go exercise. You say, “I’m not very big.” We’ll give you a paintbrush for Jesus and you could do this for Jesus.

You could pick stuff up, help us get it ready. Help us get that gate open. Alright? Open that gate and then all of a sudden, people could come in and worship Jesus. There’s as many as 800 a week there right now. We just started services. We’re gonna continue to open gates. We’re gonna continue to take opportunities. We’re gonna continue to ask for your money and your prayers and your time and your talent and your treasure and your grunt labor to get the gates open, to take the burned and broken gates, to take the destroyed and devastated churches and to flip them over and to use them for God’s purposes. But it is work.

I love Nehemiah’s work. It’s work. So then he gets everybody together. He’s not a preacher, but he’s gonna preach. For those of us who are leaders, you cannot over estimate sometimes the importance of just getting your people together and looking ’em in the eye, getting their trust, telling them exactly what you’re gonna do and motivating the troops. Some things just don’t work well with e‑mail or memo. You gotta get people together and look ’em in the eye.

“Then I said to them, ‘You see the trouble we’” – very important word – “’we are in? How Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned? Come, let us’” – very important word us “’build the wall of Jerusalem that we’” – very important word – “’may no longer suffer derision.’ And I told them the hand of my God had been upon me for good, and also the words the king had spoke to me.” This is a very beautiful thing that Nehemiah does. He doesn’t look at them and say, “You have a lot of work to do. You have a destroyed city. Your church is a total wreck.”

What he says is, “We have a big project that God has set before us.” This is something for us to tackle together. This is something that we need to come together on. Okay? If at any point you’d been at Mars Hill and you feel like I or the elders have been saying, “You, you, you,” I apologize. Hear, “We, we, we.” Hear that we are in this together. Hear that we are alongside of you. Hear that we are for the city, that we are for the church, that we are for you.

I’m here for my whole life, because like Nehemiah was called of God, I was called of God. This is what he told me to do. This is what I’m doing. That’s cool. Love it here. Okay? My wife/kids love it here. My elders and their families love it here. We’re here. It’s we. It’s not you. It’s us. We’re in this together. To be the church, to serve the city, to give our gift to the city, which is God of the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s our mission.

He tells them, “We are in this together.” Now these people, again, had heard for many years by many leaders, “Hey, we’re gonna do a big thing for God.” He encourages them, though, by saying, “You know what? God’s already started. God’s already given the resources. We got the blessing of the king. We’ve got legal favor. We’ve got some financial backing.” He’s trying to encourage his people that he’s not calling them to do something that God has not already begun.

This is so key. I would tell you that what we are doing as a church is something that God has already begun. We’ve already been given real estate. We’ve already been given people. We’ve already been given favor. We’ve already been given opportunity. Like Nehemiah says that the good hand of God was upon him and the hand of God is upon us. I’m not saying we’re great. I’m not saying that we’re the coolest thing in town. I’m not saying that God isn’t working anywhere else. I’m not saying that God doesn’t love other churches. I’m not saying any of that, okay? I know that God is a good God and he’s at work in a lotta places. Just talking about our family here.

We are one of the, I think, 15 fastest‑growing churches in American in one the least church cities in America. I mean it’s 7:00. Look around. What are you guys doing? Don’t you have jobs? Don’t you have to get up tomorrow? I mean, this is crazy; 7:00. We’re full. I got people e‑mailing saying, “Can we do a 9pm?” “Oh, my gosh, 9:00.” We could do breakfast, too, I guess. We just could just keep going. What are we gonna do? I mean God has already done so much. God has already been so good.

And he tells that to the people, and I tell you that to say, man alive. We’re not asking you to do something that God’s not doing. We’re asking you to join God in something he’s already begun. Now the people have to respond. They’ve had 141 years of sales pitches, failed efforts, T‑shirts, rallies, and bracelets. But nothing’s ever really gotten done. And they respond. They said, “Let us rise up and build so they strengthen their hands for the good work.” They said, “You know what? We’re in. We believe God is in this. We believe God loves the city. We believe God loves the church. We believe that all things are possible. We’re trusting for the miracle. Count us in. Love these people.”

There’s not a lot of ’em. These are the few that have hope. The rest have all left town been taken in exile. And what’s the response? This to me is a very encouraging discouraging word. The critics come back. “But when Sanballat the Horonite blogger, and Tobiah the Ammonite blogger, and Geshem the Arab” – they picked up a third guy. Alright? Larry, Curly, oh, there’s Moe. I was looking for him. Now you got all three guys and it’s amazing how if God’s people say, “We’re gonna serve the Lord,” immediately people come together that would otherwise never come together, to oppose them.

Give you an example. Last year, had a little organization come in and do a protest to oppose me for being a fundamentalist. Met with ’em, put a little water on the fire. Went pretty good. And then a few weeks later – it was Christmas – I was thinking I’d get a break, I have a well‑known fundamentalist pastor taking shots on me ’cause I’m not a fundamentalist. So all of a sudden I have the Gay Rights activists and the religious right fundamentalist pastor on the same team. See, we’re a unifier, not a divider. That’s what we are at Mars Hill. We bring together the most interesting groups, right?

The fundamentalist pastor sitting next to the Gay Rights advocates going, “Let’s shoot Mark.” That’s freaky right there. That’s weird, man. It’s weird when groups come together. But it’s interesting that sometimes it’s the forward progress of God that brings together people who otherwise have nothing in common would and would actually be enemies. But they align together for the cause of opposing what God is doing in the city.

You’re gonna see that this group continues to grow. They get more vocal. But here they start with picketing and protesting and a little bit of jeering and making fun and snide little comments and funny clips on YouTube. That’s what it says in Hebrew. But it – they jeered at us and despised us. “What is this thing that your doing?” Are you rebelling against the king?”

Let me talk about critics. It’s here, okay? I can’t afford therapy. We’re all here, so let me just talk for a while, just vent. I’ll feel better. I’ll give you some stories, what it’s like to be constantly criticized. I have the privilege of preaching to a million download audience, write a few books a year, do my thing. There are certain groups it doesn’t matter what I say, they take it out of context. They send out things to the media. Then everybody calls and Jon Stewart wants you to fly out. (Makes Raspberry Noise) It’s just crazy. It just gets nuts after a while. It get totally frustrating and annoying.

Last year, it got so bad the week the Britney Spears got out of Paris Hilton’s car and she was kinda naked, that week on Technorati, they said the thing that was mentioned on blogs like No. 5 and 6 was me and the naked shot of Britney, me and naked Britney Spears. It was like, “That’s not where I wanna be.” Just weird stuff.

And it gets personal as well. I’ll tell you the story about the grandma who cussed me out at Lowe’s recently. I’m at – my three‑year‑old daughter –I’m going out to the hardware store to get something. My three‑year‑old daughter, Alexie says, “Daddy, can I go with you?” I said, “Yeah.” She says, “Okay. I also want to go to the pet store and Starbucks,” and that’s what we do.

Anyways, some people don’t think I’m funny. That gets me in all kinds a trouble, too. I’m funny. At least I think so. And so anyways, I took her to the pet store. Got her a little drink. I think she’s drinking a hot caramel apple cider. We go the Lowe’s home improvement center and we’re sitting in the aisle looking at stuff, and this grandma – cute old grandma – she comes up. “Oh, excuse me. Are you Pastor Mark?” I was holding my daughter’s hand. “Yes, ma’am.” “I went to your church on Sunday.” I said, “Well, thank you for visiting. That’s great.”

She said, “And I hated it and I think you’re evil.” I’m like, “Alright.” And so I’m thinking, “There’s probably a blogger around here with a camera phone, so I can’t punch grandma in the throat.” (Laughs) So I think, “Okay. I’ll be nice. I’ll be nice.” “Well, thank you for caring enough to give me feedback.” “No, really. I didn’t hear one thing you said that woulda got anyone closer to Jesus.” I said, “Not one thing?” She said, “Nothing.” She said, “I wondered if you were even a Christian by the time you were done.” And she just kept going. And Ashton Kutcher didn’t jump out. Nothing happened that I was hoping. “Come on. Rescue me.”

And I looked down at my three‑year‑old daughter. She’s awesome. She’s really cute and dramatic, big blue eyes. She looks at me and she just goes. She literally shrugged her shoulder like, “Mm‑mm‑mm.” (Laughs) So I just took it for as long as I could take it and then I said, “Well, we need to be going now. Thank you so much for your criticism.” I just grabbed my daughter’s hand and walked – I mean it’s just weird. You’re cussed out a Lowe’s by grandma. And my daughter, Alexi, who’s three, she says, “Daddy, why does she not like you?” I said, “She doesn’t like daddy’s preaching.” “Oh, is she not a Christian?” I said, “No, honey. She’s a Christian. They’re the worst. They’re the very worst sweetheart.”

I mean it’s just – and you will hear – okay, another thing you need to know. Not everything on the Internet’s true. It’s just not, right? I mean it’s crazy some of the stuff that’s on – “Mark said.” No. I’ve actually had pastors believe things that people tell them that they read on the Internet, and they call. Here’s some of the calls I get from pastors.

One was awesome. The pastor calls, “Mark, I’m just really worried.” I said, “Okay. What’s wrong?” He’s a friend of mine. I know him. He’s a good guy. He says, “Why are you encouraging premarital sex?” I was like, “First of all, I don’t really need to encourage it. It’s kinda got a life of its own.” It wasn’t like, oh, the single people in Seattle are like, “We’re bored,” and then I dreamt up this, “Hey, let’s sleep together,” thing. That wasn’t me. “Now look what you’ve done. You created this fornication thing and now look what you’ve –”

I said, “I don’t encourage – first of all, I don’t need to encourage it. But second,” I said, “I don’t encourage premarital sex. I discourage it every sermon. It doesn’t matter what I’m talking about, it’s always, ‘Put your pants on. Put your pants on. Put your pants on.’ That’s always my second point whatever the other points are.” I said, “Dude, I do not encourage premarital sex.” He’s like, “Well, I heard you did.” I was like, “Uh‑uh.” I got another – I said – I got another call.

True story. A guy calls me, since you’re here. We’re at a little 12‑step meeting here. He calls me up and he says, “Pastor Mark” – he’s a pastor, good guy. “Why did you say it’s okay for a husband to rape his wife?” I’m like, “Dude, what the, what the, what the, I, I didn’t.” He’s like, “Are you sure?” I’m like, “Yeah, I woulda remembered that. Dude, I am against rape. I mean do I actually need to like declare that? Is there a big group somewhere that’s for it that somehow my name got on the roster? What in the world? I’m against rape and fornication, okay?” For the record. It’s bad. I mean what the –

Another guy, pastor – love the pastors – he calls me up, “Why did you say it’s a sin for women to go to college?” I was like, “Dude, what? Did you not go to college? You’re so stupid. I didn’t say that. I write books for a living. I like people who read. I mean, come on. My wife and I went to college together. I have a college fund for my daughters.” I mean how did I get to be against reading and for rape? Like how did that happen? I mean don’t read. Just sleep together thus sayeth the Lord. I mean of course. Like what in the world? Did no one wear a bike helmet as a kid? What has happened. So frustrating.

It’s just one thing after another. So you need to – here’s the deal, okay? How we respond to our critics – how I respond to my critics is important for this next season. I actually think a lot of the future of Mars Hill is contingent on how we deal with the issue of criticism, okay? So let me tell you the deal. Some people just take religion. Some people like Christianity. Some people like Mars Hill. Some people hate ’em all. Those people are very busy. And let me say this, that as we continue to be a city within the city, there will be a minority who criticize us individually and corporately.

How we respond is so important because in the middle are the majority of people wondering if Mars Hill’s legit and if Jesus is worth considering. And how we conduct ourselves is really important. The name of Mars Hill really doesn’t mean much. The name of Mark Driscoll, sadly, doesn’t mean much. The name of Jesus, though, that’s really important. So how we conduct ourselves is not to get self‑righteous, defensive, proud, and arrogant, but to ask, “What would represent Jesus most truthfully and effectively in this moment?” and this is something individually and corporately that we must practice.

Let me talk about it individually. How many of you have already been mocked for being a Christian or going to Mars Hill? You’ve already gotten a bit of resistance? Raise your hands. Okay. Two of you haven’t. It’s coming. Okay? That’s what I’m saying. Now as soon as you say, “I’m a Christian,” there’s certain people, friends, family, coworkers are gonna go, “Christian? Bible thumper, Jesus? You just be” – they’ll mock you, jeer you. “Oh, you’re a born againer.” Some of you will say, “I’m not having sex till I get married.” You’re now the butt of all the jokes. Alright. Some of you laughed ’cause you know. Right? You know.

It would be like, “Virgin. (Laughs) Virgin? (Laughs) That’s funny.” It’s like, “Not to me. I love God and I wanna save myself for my marriage.” And some of you, maybe you had drinking buddies and you had friends with benefits and now you’ve met Jesus and you’re like, “Oh, sorry. I can’t do that any more.” They make fun of you, criticize you, jeer you. You’re the butt of all the jokes. It’s how it is, man. You’re gonna give you money, your time, your energy to Jesus, be reading your Bible. Say, “Sorry. I love you. I just can’t do that. I’m a Christian and that’s now how I believe.” People will mock you, jeer you, look down on you.”

“You don’t read that old book and worship that dead guy, do you?” “Actually, it’s a good book and he’s still alive.” “Oh, really?” Then it begins. How you respond is very important. How I respond, how we respond is very important, okay? Here’s the other thing I found about critics. Sometimes they’re right. I hate to admit that, but sometimes they’re right. And sometimes they are sent of God to show us sin, hypocrisy, folly in our life so that we might confess it as sin, we might demonstrate to them the gospel, that Jesus died and rose to take away sin, that Jesus brings humility and life, and to demonstrate the gospel, not just in word, but in deed.

Okay. I’ll tell you, for me, this is not my first instinct. I’m a scrapper. I grew up behind a strip club next to the airport, right? I grew up fighting literally, physically. I’m a scrapper. My first instinct is, “Beat them. Mock them. And put it on YouTube. That’s my first instinct, right? But 1 Peter 5 says, “God opposes the proud and he gives grace to the humble. So humble yourself up and he’ll lift you up when he feels like it’s a good time. Humility is absolutely key for the forward progress of Mars Hill. And it’s really key for me as well as one of the leaders of Mars Hill that, yeah, God has blessed us. Things are going pretty good. I’m pretty excited. We should be encouraged. We’re trying to open a lotta gates and to bring the good news of Jesus to a lotta parts of the city.

But the repugnant stench of religion and self‑righteousness and the holier‑than‑thou attitude that, “Well, anything you would say can’t be true because you’re not a Christian,” or, “I don’t like your attitude,” or, “You’re just bitter or frustrated or jealous.” Sometimes those things are true. And sometimes what people are saying that is criticism, is also true.

Some of the things that people have said about me are true. I shouldn’t a said that, shouldn’t said it in that way. We should be doing this. It’s more important than that. And you know what? The key is in those moments for you and I to demonstrate the humility that is only possible through Jesus to say, “You know what? You’re right. I’m wrong. That was a sin. I thank you for pointing that out. My God forgives me. I’m asking you to forgive me. And now that you’ve pointed that out, I’m asking my God to help me change so I grow and am sanctified and mature so that I can be different and continue to grow.”

Now even if people would oppose you, at that point, it’s really hard to criticize you because humility, humility is what allows the gospel of Jesus, the good news of the life, death, burial, resurrection of Jesus to go forth like nothing else. I really believe that humility is key for me and for us for the next season of our church, okay? What that means for me, frankly, pray for me. I get a thousand e‑mails a week from outside of the church, just people who listen in. Some are for. Some are against. I mean, the media, the critics, the bloggers, the protestors. I mean, it’s nuts. It’s just overwhelming some days.

But I’m constantly now asking God, “How can my critics become coaches?” That was the word of Billy Graham on a biography. I love Billy Graham. He’s a hero to me. I can’t believe some people criticize Billy Graham. It’s like of all the people on the earth, you criticize that guy. He’s really not the source of a lot of the trouble. Billy Graham’s a great man. He’s served Jesus faithfully his whole life. People still criticize him.

But he said in – there was a biography written on him called The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham. And in that book, they talked about when his most vocal critics would rise up, he would meet with them and humbly listen and take notes, and he would pray and ask God if there was anything in what they were saying that was true that he needed to hear. And if so, he would repent and ask their forgiveness and grow as a result of his critics. And he would turn his critics into his coaches. I was so convicted by that.

I thought, “Man, that is a lotta wisdom. That is a lotta wisdom from a very amazing man that God has used like Nehemiah in an extraordinary way.” I would give that to you as a gift. I’ve received it myself as a gift. How can your critics become your coaches? And sometimes your critics are like these guys and they just take Christians, and you realize, “The only reason they don’t like me is I’m a Christian.” Well, I just need to keep going and be nice and loving and gracious and kind, and just keep loving Jesus and doing what God has called me to do.

Other times they criticize and you say, “You know what? I’m not like Jesus. I’m not sinless and perfect.” The criticism against Jesus, the accusations against Jesus, they were false, but against us sometimes they’re true ’cause we’re sinners. I’m a sinner. And it’s receiving and humility the criticism, praying through where it may be true, and then repenting and proceeding with God forward from there. I need you to understand this as our church.

Let some things go. Let some articles go. Let some blogs go. Let some jabs go. Let some criticisms go. And if anything’s accurate, receive it and thank them for it. And repent and bring it to the attention of the leaders of our church and help us to do a better job so that we can not only be a great church, but we can be a city within the city that loves and serves the city to also make the city great. That’s our hope. That’s what Nehemiah’s working for.

Then Nehemiah gets the last word, in close, Verse 20. He doesn’t allow the critics to get the last word. That would be discouraging. “Then I replied to them, ‘The God of Heaven will make us prosper and we as servants will arise and build where you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem.’” What he says is this. “We’re not breaking the law. We have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom assembly. What we’re doing is perfectly legal you have no right to try and silence us and shut us down, tell us we can’t read our Bible, pray, worship God, have church, that we can’t serve the city, that we can’t vote, that we can’t participate, that we can’t air our opinions, that we can’t try to help shape the future of the city. We’re residents of the city just as much as anybody else. We have a right to the city just as much as anybody else.

“You guys live out of the city. You don’t even live in the city.” He says, “So we’re gonna continue to do what God has told us to do.” That’s what I would tell you. Never get distracted off your mission. Love Jesus, serve Jesus, follow Jesus, receive the criticisms that are true so you can learn to follow, love, and service Jesus more deeply, effectively, and efficiently. But never lose sight of your mission.

At this point had Nehemiah pulled over and said, “Let’s argue with our critics. Let’s exchange blog for blog and letter to editor for letter to editor,” they never would have rebuilt Jerusalem. You and I need to maintain a single‑minded devotion to the mission of the building the church and building the city, and seeing people come to know Jesus as we open gates of church plants and services and campuses through the various portions of the city, inviting people into Mars Hill, inviting people in to meet Jesus. That’s what really counts.

“And God,” he says, “will make us prosper.” It’s not that we’re great. It’s that God’s great. It’s not that it’s easy. It’s impossible. But with God, all things are possible. I believe that God has a plan to transform Seattle. I believe were are a part along with other Christians of that plan. I believe that humility is key to our forward progress so that we don’t just preach the gospel, but demonstrate it. And I believe that you and I have a wonderful opportunity to continue to see God prosper our work, and we invite you to it.

We invite you to give generously in a moment. We give you an opportunity to repent of sin and ask Jesus for forgiveness. We’ll signify that in communion, remembering Jesus’ body and blood that takes away sing. If you’re not a Christian, we invite you to become a Christian. The God of the Bible is Jesus. And if you’re living your life for anyone else’s approval or any other mission than Jesus, it’s in vain and we would invite you to Jesus.

And, lastly, we’re gonna sing and we’re gonna celebrate, and some of you are gonna wanna rush outta here and say, “I’m very, very busy. I have things to do. My Blackberry was going off during the sermon.” Sabbath, turn it off. Spend some time in prayer, contemplation. Read your Bible. Take communion. Give your tithes and offerings. Raise your hands and voices. Take a few minutes to just allow your soul to worship God, to allow your prayers to connect you to God, to allow God to speak to you and give you his will for you life. And give a little time for God. Take that moment of Sabbath that God has intended for us to take.

I’ll go ahead and pray and we’ll transition forward at this point. I’ve said it a lot lately, but I just feel compelled to say it again. I love you guys very much. My intent is to continue to be sanctified and repent of sin and receive criticism and keep Jesus as the issue. And I just am so glad that so many of you are giving and serving and caring and participating. You love this church in the city, too. For the rest, we invite you to join us. It’s a wonderful thing that God has us doing. It’s overwhelming. It’s exhausting. It’s fully beyond us. But the God of Heaven will enable us to prosper because this is the desire that he has placed upon our heart. I’ll pray.

Father, we thank you that you are a good God. We thank you for placing us in this city at this time. We thank you that we have an opportunity to build the church and also build the church in such a way that it loves and serves and blesses the city. God, we accept the fact that we will have critics. God, I ask that we would listen for the criticism that have validity for us individually, corporately, that where we have sinned or have foolishness, God, beginning with me, modeled by me, that there would be a Christ‑like humility to receive appropriate criticism and rebuke.

God, as well, we pray that as we give our hand to this labor, that we would begin with Sabbath prayer and Scripture reading and time with you so that our hearts and our minds and our lives are oriented toward you purposes and plans that you’ve put in our hearts. And, God, we thank you that because of you, we can prosper. Please strengthen our hands for this work.

Father, thank you for the encouragement we’ve already received, the blessing we’ve already enjoyed, and the future that awaits us as together, we continue to move forward, humbly on our knees seeking to do all we can to make the name of Jesus great. God, may we not labor for our name. May we not even labor for the name of our church. May we not labor for the name of anything or anyone. Maybe we labor of the name of Jesus, and may we do all we can to not only say that he is good, but show the good difference he’s made in our lives. That’s who we ask this in his good name. Amen.