1. Change Requires that we Choose.

Now maybe you have been stuck like the walls in Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s day.  The walls are tumbled down, and your life seems to be in a bit of ruin.  For others, you just look at the stuff in front of you and go, ‘I don’t know how to get out of this place.  I don’t know what to do next.’  There must be something different.  Here’s the thing: change requires that you choose.  We make choices all the time. We choose every day.  We choose to go into work or call in sick.  We choose what clothes to wear.  We choose whether to hug our dad or to shake his hand.  We do all kinds of choosing all over the place. We even choose some bad things, bad habits, and bad friends. We choose things all the time.  If you want to change, it requires a choice. 

In the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah goes on a journey to Jerusalem.  He’s going to set about rebuilding the walls.  We’re going to pick up the story in chapter 2 at the end.  Nehemiah decided that he was going to go out there and survey the walls of Jerusalem and the damage that was done.  He gets on a donkey and takes a few people with him, and he goes out to see what’s what.  The destruction that he sees is worse than he heard.  Jerusalem is lying in ruins and the Bible says, ‘and all the gates have been destroyed by fire.’  We are talking about a mile and a half to two miles worth of gates and walls destroyed.  They didn’t have equipment to move those gigantic stones needed to make the wall gates secure.  This was impossible.

1. Don’t allow people to steal the voice of the Holy Spirit.

But, here is what’s going to happen to you: Opposition.  How many of you have ever heard the words in your head, ‘You can’t do that!’  How many of you have heard the voice that says, ‘You’re not good enough?  There’s no way that you can do that. Just remember all the terrible things that you’ve done.  What makes you think that you can do that for God?’  Never mind the words in your head, but some of you know people who have come along and said that to you.  You’ve told your parents your dream, and they come up and told you, “Are you crazy?”  You told your best friend that you’re going to make a change and they said, “Nah, go slow.”  You had a dream for something great for God and it got squashed by someone with a reckless word and it just loss all its energy. 

What does Nehemiah do?  “The God of heaven is the one who will give us success, and we his servants are going to start building; but you have no share or claim or historical right in Jerusalem.” (v.20)  If God has called you to do something, then it’s time for you to step up into that moment and say, ‘That’s the devil speaking and I’m not going to listen.’  So many times, peoples’ dreams are squashed because they listen to that voice, they listen to that person, and step away.

• Find People to Go Along with You.

Now, Nehemiah is no fool, Nehemiah is taking on a huge task. This is something that is going to require the entire city to make happen.  It’s an incredible change and the lesson that I want you to hear in this message is the same message for you if you want to make a change in your life.  You’ve got to find some people to go along with you on that journey.  What does Nehemiah do?  He goes out and he looks at the walls and he shows up in front of a group of people, the administrators, the priests, the Levites, all the important people and he looks at them and says, ‘We will rebuild this wall together.  Let us rebuild the wall.’ This is a huge task, but the same principle is true in your life if you’re ready to make a change. If you are ready to end that romance because it toxic, if you’re ready to go to another job, if you believe that God is saying I want you to do this or that for me, I want you to tell someone.  Tell your spouse.  Maybe you’ve got kids and you’re looking at your family and you’re saying, ‘We just can’t go on that way anymore.  We need to change.’ Talk to your spouse, then talk to your kids and say ‘Look, change is coming.’ And, get some support in the journey. Nehemiah is no fool, he couldn’t stand up in front of that large crowd and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to rebuild the wall,’ and not expect that he himself was going to be involved in it, nor could he expect that he would do it all alone. 

1. Be a Change Agent.

We need to be change agents. We need to do these types of things where we say to ourselves, ‘God is calling me. I am going to tell someone about it.  I am not going to listen to the naysayers. But if I am going to be an agent of change, I need to believe that change is possible.’ Some people don’t believe that they can change. I know a lot of people who say, ‘I wish my marriage would get better.’ That’s not believing in change. I’m going to make my marriage better with the help of Christ. That’s what we need to hear.

We also need to be problem solvers, not problem analysts. I know, when people are faced with change, all they do analyze, analyze, analyze and they get stuck. They analyze things to death.  They are not problem solvers.  Nehemiah was a problem solver. He went out, surveyed the walls, came back, and said, ‘We got a big job ahead of us.’ He didn’t have all the plans laid out ahead of him, but he said, ‘We’re going to tackle the problem as they come.’ And the rest of the story of Nehemiah is one problem being solved after another. You will not have all the problems solved before we get started on your journey of change.

A change maker is also available to do something tangible that will bring about change. You must take a step, make a move.  If it’s in your spiritual life and you want to go to a Bible study and you say to yourself, ‘I’m going to do it. I’m going to make a change,’ and all the sudden you step back, and you say, ‘Oh, but wait a minute. I have all these things going on. I have work, I have kids. Really, with all those things I don’t have any time for Bible study.’ That’s just a matter of priorities. It’s a matter of stepping back and saying ‘Okay, I’ve got to reexamine where I’m at, and maybe step forward in a new way.’  Make a change by taking a step.

1. Turn a Negative into a Positive.

It’s also a life-long thing that we do together. Make it a positive one. If you’re going to make a change, make it a positive one. Some of you have had some bad experiences in your past. When you’re ready to make a change, all those bad experiences come flooding back and you want to pull from that experience into your future. If you want to pull from your past into your future, do it with the positive things that you learned and not the negative ones. 

But here’s the thing: Our journey of change is not going to end until we get to heaven.  From here all the way through to the time when Jesus comes back again, we are going to be changing.  This is the ultimate change, 1 Corinthians 15:51-53

“⁵¹ Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.”

Our hope is that one day we will get to that place where we have eternal life. We’re going to get to that place where we are going to get new bodies with an eternal life guarantee.  But until then, you will be changing.  We are going to look around that that day and say, ‘Praise God that things are as they used to be.’  We’re going to get to that day when we’re grateful for all that God has done to shape us and change us.

1. Church Changes.