What Will You Risk for God? | Nehemiah 11 | June 28, 2026 | Aaron T. Colyer

In Nehemiah 11, God fulfills His promise by bringing His people back into His city and honoring those who serve Him with courage. This message calls us to risk comfort, reputation, and safety for the Lord, trusting His faithfulness and living unashamed of the gospel.

Transcript

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Good morning. We're in Nehemiah chapter 11. I hope you turned there, especially because this morning we are going to be reading some unfamiliar names. If you have a Bible, please go to Nehemiah 11. If you don't have a written copy of God's Word, there's one right in the seat, and you could take that as a gift. Just take that home. We love giving Bibles out. We've got extras. We restock them. It's good to have a digital Bible. I use a digital Bible every day, but it's also good to have one you can take notes in. We're going to pray for a pastor. We've prayed for him before here at our church. His name is Zach Crook, and he pastors a church in Innis, Texas, Tabernacle Baptist Church. If you remember about Zach, he's been battling cancer now for 10 months. It's a long battle, and God has sustained him. He's met numbers. Treatments are effective. God has spared him from some surgeries he was trying to avoid, but bone marrow transplants and chemo and time in the hospital and time back at church and time with his family and time where he preaches, but time where he's exhausted has been heavy for him, for his family, for his church. And I let him know we'd be praying for him today. Here's a specific prayer request. Last Tuesday, he went back to the hospital, hopefully for the last hospital stay. It's eight days, strong chemo. They got to check on him all the time. But he is asking that this would be the last time that he is in the hospital overnight. And then everything else beyond here would be kind of radiation and scheduled treatments where he's not going to have to stay overnight in the hospital. So I'm going to pray and ask you to pray that God would do that. Amen? I'm going to ask that that God would uh heal his body, whether that's supernaturally or with medicine, and that some of the current things happening in his body that the doctors are worried about, the Lord would just heal that and sustain that. So let's pray for Zach. Let's pray for the church, our brothers and sisters out in Innis. And let's continue to pray that God would do a miracle. Amen? Let's do it. Lord, thank you for the morning that we've had already. Thank you for this picture of the gospel that we see in the Lord's Supper and the fellowship that we have to walk into a place like this and just be encouraged to be surrounded by our brothers and sisters in the faith. I thank you for that, Lord. I ask as we turn to this time where we're leaning into the scripture, won't you give us a spiritual insights? Holy Spirit, be our wonderful counselor. Give us eyes to see the things that we need to see right here from a chapter in Nehemiah 11. We also pray for Pastor Zach. And I pray, God, as he's finishing up, he's more than halfway through of this last hospital stay, God, that you would just sustain him, both physically, his strength, but also emotionally and spiritually, would he be getting very intense, sweet time where he feels your presence and he feels so close to you. Time in the word and time in prayer, time just singing your praise, whether that's people coming in and singing with him or singing to recorded praise and worship songs. God, I just ask that you would sustain Zach. And I do pray in Jesus' name that you would touch his body. And I pray that that cancer would go away and the doctors would be shocked. I pray, Lord, that some of the concerns he has about a blood clot would just be totally guarded, that you would just literally hold those things in his body and keep them from being affected by this chemo treatment in a negative way. Lord, we ask in Jesus' name that this would be the last time he stays in the hospital overnight. That the rest of his treatments would be scheduled and kind of maintenance treatments, and he would have a testimony two years and ten years from now where he looks back and says, This is exactly the time that God did a wonderful miracle in my life. Lord, he would point people to you and you would be honored and you'd be glorified. We ask that you continue to use him in his church, the way that he's glorifying you through the suffering and through this circumstance. Would that be a rich encouragement to the people that he's trying to shepherd? And I pray for the saints at Tabernacle Baptist Church. I pray, God, that they would be loving their lead pastor so well, that they'd be on their knees praying for him and his family, that they'd be sending notes of encouragement, that they'd be coming to see him where they can come see him. God, that he would feel a sense of true joy to be able to lead that church and be their lead pastor even through the suffering and circumstance and tough frustration of the cancer these last 10 months. Lord, I am confident that you still want to use that local bride of Christ to see your kingdom come and your will be done. And so do it. Do it for your honor and for your glory. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, here's a question to start this morning. What do you think about when you hear me say the word risk? Risk. A lot has been written about risk, a lot has been said about risk. Some might be thinking about a financial risk. Man, we went out on a ledge and we made this investment, and I'm not sure it's gonna pay off. Maybe you're worried about the real estate market and no one's buying, and rates are high, and there's risk. You might be thinking about a different kind of risk. Maybe a safety risk. I praise God that we live in a place like America, for one. I don't know if you've seen all the World Cup coverage. People from all over the world are saying, Oh my gosh, America's pretty awesome. Have you seen any of that? I don't know if you've been encouraged by that. There are unsafe parts of our country, but for the most part, we are pretty safe in this country. Many people, including some of my own family members, said, What are you doing taking a 15-year-old girl to Colombia? Don't you know that's risky? I said, Yes, I know it's risky. Trust me, one of the guys that's with us was a federal agent. He's gonna keep us pretty safe. The risk was worth it because we shared the gospel. Maybe you're thinking about a relationship risk and you're going out on a limb. I know we've got some teenagers in the room, and you gotta go out on a limb. I remember right before Krista and I started dating. I I took a risk. I said, Would you please join me for a coffee date? She said yes. A week later, she said, I don't want to have a boyfriend right now. I said, Well, great. I'll just wait. It's risk. I want you to know more than anything, we're gonna read some names here in Nehemiah chapter 11, but but mostly what I want you to see is that there were men of God willing to take a risk to repopulate the city. And how God might have used that so that thousands of years later we might know our Redeemer's story because they kept that story going. There's a risk. Nehemiah chapter 11. I'm gonna read verse 1 and 2. That's really where we're gonna camp out a lot, but I'm also gonna read these names. And if you listen to our podcast, our Daily Walk, Pastor Mike Gibbons did a great job explaining why names are important. So bear with me as I read some of these names. We want to honor them because they're the names of the people that went in to repopulate the city even when there was risk. Nehemiah chapter 11. I want to read through verse 18. Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem, and the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to live in Jerusalem, the holy city. That's going to become very important. They're casting lots, lottery system, drawing straws, who gets to live in the city, just 10%. While nine out of ten remained in the other towns. And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem. These are the chiefs of the province who lived in Jerusalem, but in the towns of Judah everyone lived on his property in their towns. Israel, the priests, the Levites, the temple servants, the descendants of Solomon's servants. And in Jerusalem lived certain of the sons of Judah and the sons of Benjamin, of the sons of Judah, Athaiah, and the son of Uzziah, the son of Zechariah, the son of Amariah, the son of Shephatiah, son of Mahalelel, of the sons of Perez, and of Ma'assei, the son of Baruch, the son of Kol Hose, son of Heziah, son of Adaiah, son of Joerib, son of Zechariah, son of Shilanite, all the sons of Perez who lived in Jerusalem were 468. Here's where you can underline something in your Bible. Valiant men. And these are the sons of Benjamin. Salu, the son of Meshulam, son of Joed, the son of Padaiah, son of Kolaiah, son of Ma'asseh, son of Ithiel, son of Jeshaiah, and his brothers, men of valor. 928. Joel, the son of Zikri was their overseer, and Judah, the son of Hasanua, was second over the city. Of the priest, Jediah, the son of Joerib, Jacan, Zeraiah, the son of Hilekiah, the son of Meshalim, son of Zadek, Zadok, son of Meriath, son of Aita, ruler of the house of God, and their brothers who did the work of the house, eight hundred and twenty-two, and Adaiah, the son of Jerehim, the son of Pelaliah, son of Amzi, son of Zechariah, son of Peshur, son of Malkesiah, and his brothers, heads of the father's houses, 242, and Ameshiah, the son of Azarel, son of Azaiah, Azei, son of Meshelemoth, son of Emmer, and their brothers. Catch it again. Mighty men of valor 128. Their overseer was Zabdiel, the son of Hagadolim, and the Levites, Shemaniah, the son of Hashib, son of Azrikim, son of Hashabiah, son of Bunai, and Shabbatheah, Thaed, and Josebad, the chiefs of the Levites, who were over the outside work of the house of God, and Madaniah, the son of Mekah, the son of Zabdi, son of Asaph, who was the leader of praise, who gave thanks, and Bakub Kaiah, the second among his brothers, and Abdah, the son of Shemua, the son of Galal, son of Jeduthan, all the Levites in the holy city were 284. Thank you so much for walking through that. No applause necessary. Why is that so important? It's so important because names matter. Names are a history lesson. I don't know if you've done ancestry.com. I don't want the internet to have my DNA. Alright, that's why I don't do it. But if you've done it and you've traced back your genealogy, maybe you've said, I'm related to someone important. This matters. That's what's happening right here in the book of Nehemiah. These people are important because they took a risk. God used the man, Nehemiah, to take a risk and return to God's place. And through opposition and ridicule, walls were built. God provides and his place was restored. Zerubbabel had already built the temple again. And so they have the temple, God's presence in God's place, but it's vulnerable because all the walls are broken down. And there's only small groups of people that have come back from exile. And so now we have God's place restored, the walls rebuilt, people formed by the word of God, Nehemiah chapter 8 and 9, people recommitting a covenant, Nehemiah chapter 10. And now it's time to bring people back into the city. We need people in this city. We need people to continue to protect the temple. So bring them in and get ready to celebrate. Let's remember how they got there. Chapter 7, verse 66 and 67. In this wave of people coming back from exile, there were over 50,000. They couldn't all fit in Jerusalem. Let me read it. Verse 66. The whole assembly was together. It was 42,360 besides their male and female servants, of whom there were 7,337, and they had 245 singers, male and female. So there's over 50,000 people. Who gets to go to the city? That's the big question. If you're taking notes, write this down. God moves the people into the city. They cast lots, there's a lottery, they draw straws, and one out of every ten moves back into the city. But I want to just remind you something that a scholar reminded me as I was prepping for this sermon. Back in Jeremiah's day, he was lamenting because the people weren't being faithful to God. And in Ezekiel's day, there were people in exile outside of the city. And Ezekiel had this prophecy in chapter 36, about 150 years before Nehemiah. So just to catch the context and the timeline, this is what God's man, the prophet, is saying about when God's going to restore his people back into God's place, which we see happening right in front of our eyes in Nehemiah chapter 11. Ezekiel 36. Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I'm about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them, and the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God. When through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. Now part of this prophecy doesn't get answered until the New Testament. Jesus comes, our Redeemer comes, our Messiah lives perfectly and goes to the cross, pays our penalty, goes to the grave, doesn't stay in the grave, has victory over sin and death and Satan, and then sends the Holy Spirit after his ascension. We have access to the Holy Spirit because Jesus. Amen? But did you know that before that happened, God restored the people to the land right here in Nehemiah? Ezekiel 36 is being partially fulfilled when these Israelites repopulate God's city in Jerusalem. Isn't that encouraging? God proves his faithfulness. I wonder what ways has God proven his faithfulness to you? And if you're looking for an example and you're a Christian, you can just say, well, he's answered the rest of this prophecy. I repented for my sin and I trusted in Jesus and I have a new heart. Isn't that good? Isn't it good to dwell on the faithfulness of God? What ways do you have a new heart today? What other ways have you seen God's promises to give you peace that surpasses understanding when you cast all your cares on him? And you don't walk in anxiety, but you you present your request to him with thankfulness in your heart, and then he gives you peace. Have you seen that promise fulfilled in your life? Or James chapter 4, resist the devil, he'll flee from you. Okay, I know that there's a way of escape. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. God, I've seen your faithfulness in my life, and I'm asking you to continue to show me how I can trust you. That's what's happening. Nehemiah chapter 11. God moves the people in, it just proves his faithfulness to the people. I'll remind you that it was 10% of the people. Go back to chapter 7, verse 4. This was the problem. It's in chapter 7, verse 4. It says this. The city was wide and large, but the people within it were few, and no houses had been rebuilt. So the temple's rebuilt, the walls are rebuilt, but there's no one in the city. What are we gonna do? And so they they cast laws, or they draw straws, and there's two schools of thought on this. Number one is everyone wanted to go in. I want my house to be close to the temple. And I can understand that sentiment. Maybe we answer this question ourselves. Would you make a sacrifice to be close to God? Would you put yourself in danger or at risk to be close to God? Everyone wants to go in, but most scholars actually think that they did not want to go in. Because if you live in Jerusalem, you are at risk. There's all these pagan nations that are already ridiculing Nehemiah for rebuilding the wall. The Persian king says, What's going on here? They're fortifying the city. We're gonna have to do something about it. It's at risk and vulnerable for attack. The temple's already been destroyed before their first exile. So if I live in Jerusalem, man, I got a target on my back. So what are we gonna do? I have an idea. Let's draw straws. Whoever gets a short straw has to go in and live in Jerusalem. Verse 2. And the people blessed all the men who were willingly offering to live in Jerusalem. These were people who rose their hand and said, I will take the risk. I'll take the risk. I wonder, when was the last time you rose your hand for the Lord and said, God, even if it's risky, I'll obey you. Even if I don't have the outcome, I'll obey you. Even if I don't know exactly what's gonna happen, here I am. Send me. It's by the way, no accident. I thought of this. I was praying, holy, holy, holy. I love that passage. It's all over the Bible, but it is in Isaiah 6. And I open this Bible. I like to preach with an open Bible. It's just that reminder to me that the power is in the word of God, not my words. I open to Isaiah chapter 6. It's that same place where God says, Who will go for us? Isaiah raises his hand and says, Here I am, send me. That wasn't even in my notes, people. The Lord just did that as I was praying. Who wants to take a risk for the Lord? I was so encouraged this week to learn that we have a church member, and I won't embarrass her by saying her name. She's in her 20s, she has a very flexible work situation, and so she loves to go to campuses, university campuses to share the gospel. And she's been going to Texas State almost every week for the last several months. She's been to the University of Texas, she's been to Texas State, and this week she got kicked off of campus at Texas State. Not quite kicked off. She was said, if you're gonna hand out Bibles and you're gonna hand out Christian literature, you have to go to this one little corner of the quad. And that's the only place we want you there because everything else is not public domain. You cannot be here. And she was discouraged. Can you believe we have a church member taking that kind of risk? I'm gonna share the gospel. I want people to know that the truth is in Jesus. He's the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through him. And I don't care what the risk is, they can kick me off if they want. I continued the conversation and said, Hey, look, maybe not bringing a whole case of Bibles saying, I'm here to give out Bibles. Put a few in a bag, put a few in your purse and say, Hey, is there any way I can pray for you today? Yes, you can be relegated to that one public space if you're doing some kind of like proclamation, or you can just go and buy a Starbucks and see who's in line with you and say, Hey, can I pray for you? Has anyone offered to pray for you lately? Do you have any spiritual beliefs? And you swing by the library and you can walk, walk along the quad and walk someone to class. Say, hey, do you mind if I just walk you to class? I like to come and pray for students. I like to be here on campus. She said, Man, you're a little more stealthy when you go, Pastor Aaron. She's taking risk. I wonder, I wonder what risk you'd be willing to take for the Lord and where he might be calling some of us as church members to make a risk. I cherish Romans 1.16, which reminds me I'm unashamed of the gospel. It's the power of salvation to those who believe to the Jew first and then to the Gentile. Paul says, I am unashamed. I just need to speak Jesus. And so here's one-tenth of the population moving in to a risky place. Why? Because I'm gonna honor the Lord. We gotta populate this city. God moves a people in. I think another thing we learn, especially in naming these names, is to show honor where honor is due. The reason these names are so important is it's a historical account of those that had served the Lord. This was kind of a milestone moment for so many people. Are we actually gonna do it? The temple's rebuilt, the walls are rebuilt, now it's time for someone to be bold and move back into town. Who's gonna do it? I'll do it. Okay, we're gonna put your name and we're gonna mark it down for history. We're gonna number you off, and we're gonna say, This is. The son of this person, the son of this person, they all went in and they lived in the land. It was 242 people. It was 848 people. I think there's a wisdom here about showing honor where honor is due. Let's remember these that that made the effort. Let's remember these that made the sacrifice. They took the risk. I wonder what what our New Testament application to that is. How can we show honor where honor is due? Well, first I want to show you a picture. I got to see this when I was about 13 years old, and it just shocked me. These are all the veterans that gave their lives in Vietnam. And that wall just goes on and on and on and on and on. Now, whether you thought we should have been at war in Vietnam or not, when those veterans came back, they were not honored. A lot of them were ridiculed and spit on. But they were willing to make a sacrifice for the freedoms that this country has. So they make this memorial, especially for those that gave their lives. Why to remember and to show honor where honor is due? I don't know if you've seen that, but if you haven't seen it, go to DC and check it out. It's a moving time. It will cause you to ponder, Lord, what really matters in life? What is that New Testament application? I asked the question. Romans 12 gives us instruction here. Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good, love one another with brotherly affection, and outdo one another in showing honor. No, no, no, brother. Let me honor you. No, no, no, sister. Come on over here. I want to honor you. Not about me, you. That Philippians chapter 2. Don't look to your own interest, but to the interest of others. Have the attitude of Christ. Outdo one another in showing honor. Don't be slothful in zeal, but be fervent in spirit and serve the Lord. I want to ask you this summer. There's a lot going on in all of our lives. We're super busy. My wife right now is traveling with a middle daughter. There's a lot going on, but how can you pause just to say to a friend or a family member or a neighbor or a coworker, this is something that I see God has given you as a gift. And I just want to call it out in your life and tell you, you make me happy when I see God work in you. That's using your words to bless others. That's showing honor where honor is due. Our student minister did a really good job of this at camp. If you have a high school student, you know, likely, I hope you know. If you don't, you should ask questions to your high school student. How did how did Bro Isaac do such a good job of this at camp? There were 71 people registered, 60 some on students, and throughout the course of four nights at church group time, every individual had a chance to sit in a chair. And then bro Isaac would say, Who wants to encourage or give affirmation to this person? And hands would go up all across the room. He'd pick three people. It's usually some of their good friends. It was always a sibling. I love seeing that where siblings got to encourage one another. And they specifically were told, What are the things that God is doing in their life that you want to call out or affirm or encourage? And it was so moving to me. I only got to see it for two nights because I made half the camp. But every individual sat in that chair and their friends, their family, leaders would say, This is where I see God doing something good in your life. This is where I just want to encourage you. When you do this, it makes me want to be more godly. Showing honor where honor is due. Isn't that something that we can learn even from a chapter in Nehemiah chapter 11? These names were listed because it was important. These were the men that took a risk. And they went to repopulate the city. Who can you encourage today? How will you use your words to be a blessing? Lastly, be known as courageous for the Lord. I want you to look at verse 6, verse 8, and verse 14. If you were really paying attention earlier, you might have underlined them all. Verse 6, 468 valiant men. Verse 8. Men of valor. There were 928 of them. Verse 14. And their brothers, mighty men of valor, 128. There is reason that this language is used for all of the people that went back into the city. They were known for their courage. There was respect given to them. These were mighty men of valor. They were willing to make a sacrifice. They were willing to continue to protect the city. If enemies would were to come around, yes, we have fortified walls, but these are the ones that are going to lay down their lives and say, we believe this is God's place and God's presence is here and it's worth protecting. They were known for their courage and they were honored for their courage. I got to leave high school camp knowing that I think pretty much every single one of our students made a commitment to share the gospel in the next 45 days. That was pretty encouraging. About a thousand students in the room, and you see them pop up, yeah, I'll I'll share the gospel, I'll share the gospel, I'll share the gospel. And you look around our group, it was like I think almost a hundred percent of them standing. I was so proud to be a pastor of these students. And they said, We we want to be courageous. We want to be brave with the gospel. In the next 45 days, we're gonna share the gospel. And then lo and behold, one of our charter busters got a flat tire, and we ended up at a What's in Sweetwater, Texas, for about four hours. And the students started getting restless, and there was a Starbucks close by. And there was a Walmart close by. Can we just take a little trip? Well, you need to have a leader with you. Well, can we take a little trip? We got 70 people in this water burger for four hours. Well, here's an idea that one of our leaders had. Okay, who's gonna share the gospel? And time after time, this commitment to share the gospel in the first 45 days was answered in the first day back from camp. On the way back from camp. There's some beautiful testimonies about gospel conversations that happened. One of the young ladies that graduated from Wembley High School, she came back in tears. That's the first time I've ever shared my faith. It's beautiful. And I know I'm making such a strong application to live on mission here because we're looking at two verses in Nehemiah about people that went back into the land and they showed courage. But the only thing that is most courageous in my mind about being a New Testament Christian is to use your voice to speak up about Jesus. Amen. There are lots of other things, but I do think that's the most important one. If I'm gonna be known as a Christian that's courageous, I want to make sure I speak the gospel. I want you to do the same. We have church members that are gonna be a part of the Fourth of July parade this next Friday, and we're looking for opportunities to speak the gospel. If you want to be a part of that, make sure you let us know. We'd love for you to be a part of that. So, all the way through this passage in Nehemiah chapter 11, God shows us faithfulness. For you this morning, can you say thank you, God, for showing me faithfulness? We see brave Israelites honored. How can you use your words to honor brothers and sisters in the faith? And we see people of courage that made a sacrifice and were men of valor to serve the Lord. How can you be more courageous as you walk with the Lord? Is there anything in any of those categories that needs to change in your life today? Answer that question as we pray and respond. Lord, thank you for this chapter, and thank you that there's there's things to learn, even when we would be easy to miss these things. God, I just pray for those that have gathered. I know we're getting excited about family being in and the celebration, and there's hustle and bustle in the summer, and there's many moving parts, but in a moment like this, help us just to quiet our hearts and say, Lord, what what do you want to change in my life? And then help us to act on that. Whether that's coming and praying with a pastor, whether that's asking someone sitting next to us, hey, would you just pray for me? Whether it's sending a quick text and saying, hey, here's something I want help with. Let's talk about it. Let's let's grab coffee sometime, let's go to a meal. I just want to ask that you would pray over me in this venture with the Lord. God, in this moment of response, help us. Help us to respond in such a way where we really are different. We're different than the way that we walked into church. I pray that in Jesus' name. Amen.