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Thanks for listening. This podcast is a ministry of Mariners Church, and everything we do to serve you, our communities, and our global family happens because of your generosity. Your financial support in the month of December is vital as we prepare for the next year of ministry. Everything you give equips us to reach our world with the hope of Jesus and serve those around us in his name. To give now and partner with us, visit marinerschurch.org give or click the link in the show notes. Thanks for your generosity and God bless you. Welcome to Mariners Church Weekend Message Podcast, inspiring people to follow Jesus and fearlessly change the world. Discover your purpose and get connected by visiting MarinersChurch.org or click the link in the show notes. Well, good morning, church. Good morning. It's a joy to be with you. If you haven't met yet, my name is Steve Bailey. I'm one of the pastors, and I hope you all had a wonderful, amazing Thanksgiving. Hey, quick show of hands. Any of us love when sudden, unannounced change happens in our lives? Any of us just love when the rug gets pulled beneath us? I didn't think so. Now, ice cream. We like puppies. You love change? Not so much. In fact, some of us, I would argue you would rather take a punch to the face than experience some kind of unforeseen change. And you would not be alone. In fact, there was a change I experienced about 10 years ago that I never saw coming. And I said it would never happen. In fact, if you told me this change was coming, I would have fought you tooth and nail. And. And yet this change still happened in my life. Now, before I share with you what this change is, I wanna give you a little bit of context about myself. I believe that I'm a highly adaptable person. I believe I can handle change. So my wife, Angela and I, we got married when we were 23 years old, five years ago. And. No, no, we got married over 16 years ago. When we were 23. We were graduate students, her in medical school, me studying theology. And during graduate school, we became parents for the first time. So a baby showed up in our lives. Then during her residency years, crazy years working 80, 90, 100 hours a week, two more babies suddenly showed up on our lap. It just magically happened. And then, of course, in the most normal year possible, the year 2020, baby number four showed up as we were launching a Mariners congregation. During our 16 years of marriage, we moved 13 times. And so I just share all that to let you know, I believe I can do change. I think I can do it. And yet this change surprised me. It took me by. I was completely shocked by it. I never saw this change coming. You wanna know what it is? We bought a minivan. We bought a minivan. I became a minivan. Dad. This is partially a prayer request, but how. How in the world did this change come about? Well, my wife, Angie, somehow, brilliantly tricked. I mean, convinced me to get a minivan. How. How did she bring about that transformation? And how do you and I lead others to and through change? Whether it's an individual, a team at work, the team of kids at home, or the. The organization that you lead? Now, you might be saying, hey, this sounds like leadership stuff. I'm not really a leader. Well, the reality is that if you are a follower of Jesus, you have already been sent into the world by Jesus to influence the world. You're already a leader with or without a title. And it's possible that you may already be leading others to and through change. The question is, are you doing it well? Are you doing it well? Cause leading others to and through change, it's. It's really hard. It's challenging because of one massive tension. And this tension is what you see as the leader versus what everyone else sees. Let me unpack this for a moment. Here's what you see as the leader. You see the promise of change. You see the fruit on the other side of change. You see the future good that people will enjoy that they're not experiencing. In fact, this is kind of a profound truth. But almost every good thing that you enjoy, it is actually on the other. It's the byproduct. It is the downstream effect of some kind of change in your life. Change is critical and necessary for growth and flourishing. And you see that. You see the promise of change. Now, everyone else, that's not what they see. Everyone else, they don't see the promise of change. They see the pain of change. Why? Because every time there's change, there's loss. And with loss comes grief. None of us like to grieve. Not a single person in this room likes to grieve. This is why studies have coined terms like the status quo bias, which shows that actually people prefer the status quo, even if it's a painful one. Cause we don't. Why we'd rather live with the pain we know than the pain we don't know. This is why frameworks have been created. Frameworks like the Kubler Ross change curve, which shows the different stages that people go through. I went through this when my wife first pitched the idea of the minivan. I first started here with shock and denial. I said, a minivan? How could you? And then of course, I moved into the next stage, which was anger. I said, how dare you? A minivan? A minivan in my life, me driving a minivan. Then I moved over into the next stage. I started bargaining with myself. I said, well, maybe if we drive a cool model, then I could fit in with the other cool dads and maybe be accepted into the minivan WhatsApp group. I was struggling. I was struggling. And then I just, I felt sad. I felt sad. But it's okay. Today I have fully moved into acceptance. I have accepted the reality that I will feel depressed. So that's where I am. Everyone sees the pain of change, but you as the leader, you see the promise of change. So how do we do it? How do we navigate change or transformation? Well, well, we have to look at the life of Nehemiah because Nehemiah really led through some incredible transformations in his life and ministry. If you brought our series magazine, we will be on page 120. That's where you can take notes. But Nehemiah led through four changes or four transformations. Here's the first one. Nehemiah, he transformed rubble into a rebuilt wall in the city of Jerusalem. Just to give you some perspective, this wall, it was about two and a half miles long, up to 40ft high, and in some places in the wall, it was eight feet thick. This wall had really been in ruins for almost 150 years. And yet this wall was fully rebuilt in just five 52 days, under two months, with hardly any untrained workers experiencing great internal struggle and external opposition. A remarkable, remarkable feat. This was really significant, by the way, because any city with a broken down wall, that was a disgraced city. But Nehemiah was helping God's people to reclaim their identity and privilege as the people of God. A rebuilt wall. But as amazing as that transformation was, the next transformation was even more impressive. Nehemiah would transform an empty city into a repopulated one. In fact, notice the description of Jerusalem in the earlier chapters in Nehemiah 7. The city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it and no houses had been built yet. So the city, there were a couple of leaders who lived in it, but for the most part it was a vacant city. But notice a few chapters later how radically the city changes. Chapter 11. Now the leaders of the people stayed in Jerusalem and the rest of the people cast lots for one out of 10 to come and live in Jerusalem. The holy city, While the other nine, 10 remained in their towns. The people blessed all the men and their families who volunteered to live in Jerusalem. So this former empty, silent, vacant city was suddenly a living, vibrant city. The very city which was quiet was now bustling with the screams and the laughter of little children running around and playing. The city which was empty and felt dead now, the shops were open, people were eating together, and the neighbors, they were doing life together. This is an incredible, remarkable change. I mean, look, it's one thing to recruit people to do construction work to rebuild the wall, but asking people to uproot their lives, asking parents with young kids to now send their kids to a brand new school in a brand new city, that's really challenging. And yet Nehemiah brought about this transformation. He repopulated. Assay this next transformation, though even more impressive, Nehemiah would help transform a disobedient people to become a recommitted people. A people whose hearts were far from God, now became a devoted people. They experienced what's been called repentance, which is a changing of mind and heart towards God and towards the things of God. Notice what we read in Nehemiah 10. The rest of the people, the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers and temple servants, along with their wives, sons and daughters, everyone who is able to understand and who has separated themselves from the surrounding peoples to obey the law of God, join with their noble brothers and commit themselves with a sworn oath to follow the law of God given through God's servant Moses, and to obey carefully all the commands, ordinances and statutes of the Lord, our Lord. Do you notice all the language of obedience, commitment to follow? In fact, if you read on in the 10th chapter, you would find that the people would make three commitments, three specific commit commitments as an expression of their holistic recommitment to God. The first commitment, they commit to no longer intermarry with surrounding cultures. This was not on religious grounds. It was completely on religious convictions. Because in their day, to intermarry with another culture meant that you were gonna worship their God. And so this was God's people, their way of saying, no, we wanna wholly devote ourselves to God. That was the first commitment. The second commitment was to honor the Sabbath by resting one day of the week. This was a sign of radical trust in God. See, they were saying, our security does not come from us toiling under the sun. They were saying, we choose to believe that our security will come from the Creator of the sun, because who provides for us and so we will trust Him. Sabbath. Second commitment. The Third commitment that they make is generosity. They choose to honor the temple of God through their generosity, through their financial giving. Now, if you think about these three commitments, don't they really make up the totality and the sum total of one's wholehearted devotion to God, one's energy in relationship and marriage and their future direction and all that energy? The stewardship of time in honoring the Sabbath, the stewardship of one's money in generosity. These three things really make up the totality of one's commitment. And God's people were transformed from people who were disobedient to now saying, I will wholeheartedly, holistically, in totality, recommit to the Lord. It's an incredible transformation. The fourth one, the people's posture and disposition moved from a despondent one to now a renewed attitude. In fact, when the news is first shared with Nehemiah about the broken wall, notice the tone of despair and defeat in which we read this text. In Nehemiah 1, they said to me, nehemiah, the remnant in the province who survived the exile are in great trouble and disgrace. Jerusalem's wall has been broken down and its gates have been burned. You notice just the tone of sadness and defeat. But after the wall is rebuilt, the city repopulated, and the people recommitted to the Lord, notice now a total contrast in their posture and disposition. Nehemiah 12 at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sent for the Levites wherever they lived and brought them to Jerusalem to celebrate the joyous dedication with thanksgiving, giving and singing, accompanied by cymbals, harps and lyres. On that day they offered great sacrifices and they rejoiced because God had given them great joy. The woman and children also celebrated, and Jerusalem's rejoicing was heard far away. This is a day and night difference. You know how we know that? Their posture. They have a brand new attitude about what God was doing in their city and in their nation. Cause they're singing publicly. And those who are despondent and ashamed, they don't sing publicly. And here they are shouting with great joy. A rebuilt wall, a repopulated city, a recommitted people, and a renewed attitude. These are radical, incredible transformations. In fact, you could easily make the case that each subsequent change was harder than the last. You could make the case that the rebuilding of the wall, as challenging and as impressive as it was, was actually the least impressive. Because it's one thing to put stone on top of stone, but to transform the hearts of stone, to ask those with Hearts of stone. To repopulate a new city, to make a new commitment to their God. To have a brand new attitude about what God was doing in their nation and in their city. Incredible. So how? How did Nehemiah do it? Well, to see what he did and to learn what he did, we first have to agree on what he did not do. Because isn't it true that often in life what we decide not to do is just as important as what we decide to do? There are a couple of things Nehemiah did not do. Number one, Nehemiah did not start by announcing some grand, big change. He didn't make some grand announcement. He didn't show up and say, hey, guys, there's a new sheriff in town and today marks the beginning of a new day. He didn't do that. Why? Because Nehemiah is wise. Wise leaders know that change is rarely made simply with an announcement. In fact, you and I, we can't even change ourselves with an announcement. Isn't true. Do you remember. Do you remember the announcement that you and I made about 11 months ago about the New Year's resolution? Resolution goals? How's that going, by the way? Oh, boy, a lot of shame in the room right now. Can I go another step? The workout goal. How's that going? As of this week, not well at all. Not well at all. We can't even change ourselves. This is why Nehemiah doesn't begin with some grand, major announcement. But he begins by focusing on one specific concrete thing. The wall. Notice what he says. Nehemiah 2. So I said to them, you see the trouble that we're in? Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been burned. Come, let's rebuild Jerusalem's wall so that we will no longer be a disgrace. See, Nehemiah is wise. He recognized that really, the wall was symbolic of the larger issue of the repopulation of the city, the commitment of the people and their attitude. But all those things will be really challenging to change. And so Nehemiah begins with just the wall. And to do that, he did not make some grand announcement. Secondly, Nehemiah doesn't minimize the issue. He doesn't minimize it. Notice the text that we just read. It did not read. It did not read. So I said to them, you see the trouble that we're in? Honestly, guys, I've seen worse. Hey, should we all head over to happy hour to discuss why we should feel better about ourselves? Nehemiah did not say that. He did not minimize the issue. Instead, he, as has been said, he defined Reality. And he gave hope. He didn't minimize it. Third, he didn't catastrophize it. Nehemiah did not say in the text. So I said to them, you see the trouble that we're in? It's all over, you guys. There's no way we're coming out of this alive. What are we gonna do? Nehemiah did not crash out. He didn't crash out. He defined reality and he gave hope. Fourth, Nehemiah did not passive aggressively throw previous leaders under the bus. The text did not read. You see the trouble that we're in? Well, we're here because, you know, previous decisions which were made, which I was not in the room for. Nehemiah didn't do that. Why? Cause Nehemiah was a humble leader. And humble leaders are secure leaders who can take ownership. See, secure leaders, because we've already been approved by Jesus. We don't need to play some silly games of trying to one up ourselves by disparaging previous leaders. We don't need to play that game. Secure leaders unite not through negativity, but through humility. So Nehemiah doesn't play that game. Fifth, and lastly, Nehemiah, he doesn't take shortcuts. He doesn't take shortcuts to simply import learnings elsewhere. The text did not read. You see the trouble that we're in. You know, Persia has this great wall building technique. He did not do that. He didn't delete his team and import his team from Persia. Not that we can't ever do that. Nehemiah recognized what was most important, which was the identity of God's chosen people. And so instead of taking shortcuts, he knew speed and efficiency was not the highest value. He wanted to help them reclaim their identity. Okay, so those were the things Nehemiah did not do. So what did he do? Here's what he did. Nehemiah nurtured two beliefs and behavior. Belief. This is what someone thinks, what they are convicted about on the inside. Behavior. These are the external actions, what we decide to do with our will and hands. If you want to experience the fruit of transformation, we must cultivate the twin roots of changing behavior and belief. If we go back and look at the four transformations that Nehemiah made, we find him cultivating both of these things. Let's go back to the rebuilding of the wall. To rebuild the wall, Nehemiah cultivated belief. He started by pointing them to God's faithfulness. Notice what it actually says in Nehemiah 2:17. So I said to them, you See the trouble that we're in. Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been burned. Come, let's rebuild Jerusalem's wall so that we will no longer be a discreet. I told them how the gracious hand of my God had been on me and what the king had said to me. In other words, he's stirring their conviction about God's presence and faithfulness. He's saying, I know it looks bad right now, but God is with us. In fact, God gave us favor. He gave me favor. Through King Artaxerxes. He stirs their belief, but also behavior. He then invites the people to corresponding behavior. So he recruits leaders and he gives them a portion of the wall to rebuild. So how was the wall rebuilt? Nurturing both belief and behavior. We see the same with the repopulation of the city. If you read on in Nehemiah 7, you would find that after the wall is rebuilt, Nehemiah assembles the people according to their genealogical records. Why he was stirring, he was awakening them to the reality of who they are as God's people. See, genealogical records, I can tell that you're not excited. Genealogical records, super boring for us, for them, super exciting because it reminded them of who they were as a people. Their tribes, the allotment of the land. In other words, he was stirring and awakening them to the reality that you are God's people in Jerusalem. That's a special, special place. He nurtures their belief, but also behavior. He then invited them to corresponding behavior. He asked the leaders to live in the city of Jerusalem. Then they cast lots so that 10% of the people would come and live. How was the city repopulated? Nurturing belief and behavior. The same with the recommitment of the people. If you read in Nehemiah 8, you would find that Nehemiah reached to the people of God. The law of God. The law of God points to the story of God. The people were reminded that God had chosen them. God had called them. God had rescued them with a mighty hand from Egypt. And despite all their sin and rebellion, God was pursuing them in love. There was a relentless push pursuit of God the Creator for them. They are so shell shocked by his kindness and his love that his kindness leads them to repentance. Because they're awakened now to the reality of their sins, that they have stepped away from God. They weep, they mourn. And over the course of that month, they confess. They confess their sins. Belief, but behavior. Nehemiah would then write a formalized written commitment. He would sign it first, declaring that they would Be committed to the Lord. Then he invited the leaders of the community to also sign that as well. Belief. Behavior. We also see this with a renewed attitude. Belief. Nehemiah pointed them not towards themselves, to focus on themselves. He pointed them to the Lord to be God focused. Nehemiah 8. Do not grieve, he told them, because the joy of the Lord is your strength. He's saying, don't be self focused. Don't be self centered. Be godward and focused. Look at God. Belief, but also behavior. The people had abandoned their annual practices of feasts and celebrations. And so Nehemiah reinstituted through behavior the celebrations that the people of God were supposed to throw every single year. And so we find in Nehemiah that they would throw three parties, three celebrations. Here's a description of two in Nehemiah 8. Then all the people began to eat and drink, send portions and have a great celebration. The Israelites had not celebrated like this from the days of Joshua, son of Nun, until that day, for a thousand years. Every single one of these transformations, Nehemiah cultivated the twin roots. Belief and behavior. You need both. You need both. If you only have belief but no behavior, over time, nothing will get done, nothing will change. Because it doesn't matter how passionate you are, it doesn't matter how many great thoughts you have, if you will not lift a finger, nothing will change. But if you have behavior, if you have all the most disciplined calendared behavior and action orientedness, but no belief, over time, even that behavior will fall apart. Because if it's not undergirded with greater convictions, you will lose steam. You need both belief and behavior. This is how my wife got me. That's how the minivan thing happened. She's so brilliant. She started with belief. You know what she appealed to? Safety. She appealed to. She said, babe, we have a baby now. You can't drive your car anymore. It is unsafe. Your car is fast, it is reckless, it is dangerous. It is not a safe for our new child. And by the way, here's a picture of my old car. This is what I used to drive. Just, yeah, not safe at all. Just going 35 miles an hour. Belief, but also behavior. I remember it clear as day. It was Monday, Sept. 7, 2015, Labor Day Monday. We went to a car dealership and we said, we would like to test drive a minivan. And so there I sat down and I said, well, we'll see how this goes. But as I started to drive that miraculous minivan, I said, wow, this thing drives a lot better than I thought. It would. Wow, this thing turns really well. Look how spacious it is. They got me. They got me. Sure enough, that day we left that parking lot with the minivan in tow. And now, 10 years later, here's our family enjoying the fruit of transformation from nurtured belief and behavior. So what's the thing that you're stewarding right now that requires change? What is the thing that you are holding right now that you're leading others to and through change already? Maybe it's something really big. You're leading a reorg or you're implementing a new strategy for your team. Or maybe it's just as big, but it just feels closer home. You're leading your team of kids through a change. Or maybe you need to have a conversation with a loved one, a spouse, a dating relationship, or a close friend. What is that thing? Will you nurture both belief and behavior? I wonder what it would look like if you just took out a piece of paper, split it right down the middle and on one side you wrote belief, the other side you wrote behavior. And you just literally started to jot down specific beliefs and specific behaviors and use this not as a cruel master over your life, but simply as a tool. I wonder if this might be helpful for you. Now, someone here may be asking, but which one do I start with? Do I start with belief or do I start with behavior? Well, there's a lot of compelling research that shows both. For me personally, as a follower of Jesus, I default towards belief first. Because really the story of Christianity is the story that God does not invite us to behavior modification first. No, he invites us to trust him first. And out of that belief there's the overflow of corresponding obedience. So I default towards belief first. But I wonder if wisdom would simply say, it really depends. It depends on the circumstance. I want to share with you about a recent example of a change that my wife and I led through where we actually started with belief. So, the month of October, four members of our family celebrate our birthdays in an 11 day span. It's so much fun. It's so stressful. It's so stressful. And two of those birthdays are our oldest son, Isaiah, who's 13, he's a teenager, and Liz, our 10 year old girl who rules our family with an iron fist and it was their birthday. And the grandparents on both sides who loved them so much this year they went all out. Both sides of the grandparents gave these kids straight up cash for their birthday. Just gangster in an envelope, just boom, sliding it over. And as you can imagine. They're so excited. They're so thrilled. And my wife and I, we were so happy for them as well. And, well, you know, one of the values in our home, it's generosity. We want to be a generous family. We want to train our kids. We want to raise them to be generous people, not only because it's commanded in the scriptures, but because we believe it's the best, happiest, freest way to live. And so we wanted to help them and walk with them towards greater generosity. So we started with belief. We started with belief. We sat them down and we said, hey, guys, we got. We got an important update. We are going to get a new minivan. That's. That's not what we shared. That. That's not what we shared at all. No, we started with belief. We. We said, hey, you know, your. Your God, he's powerful, he's gracious, he's wise, he's all those things. Did you know that your God is also a generous God? He created the world, but not only did he create the world, and you're so good and generous that he's also recreating your heart. And to do that, he sent Jesus for us. That's the kind of God you have, a generous God. We started with belief, and then we moved over into behavior. We said, why don't we take 10%, give it to God's church, take another 10%, let's save it. Which is our short way of saying, mom and dad will take it, and then the rest, you can spend it and have fun. We started with belief, then we moved into behavior. So for you, what do you need to start with? What needs to go first? What needs to go first? And I wonder, for some of us, as you hear that question and as you think about the childlike faith of those kids, I wonder if there's a part of you that's thinking, gosh, I know what needs to go first. It's not some belief or behavior in some thing I'm trying to change over there. It's not that team over there. Maybe there's a part of you this afternoon that thinks you know what needs to go first. My heart. My heart needs to be changed. Maybe there's a part of you today where things have been busy and you just feel distracted. Your mind is going in a million different places, and God just seems like the furthest thing from your mind where you know it's not true, but there just feels like there's this invisible wall between you and God. There's no Awe, there's no wonder over who he is. I mean, you might be doing all the ritualistic things, but God just feels far off. Maybe there's a part of you today where you think, you know, I've kind of stepped back into some old patterns that I didn't want to. And I just, I feel like a failure this morning. I need change. My heart needs change. Can I invite you to remember an important truth? Your God, he is not far from you. He's right there with you now. Oh, he hasn't forsaken you. He hasn't abandoned you. That's not who our God is. In fact, that's really big picture. The story of Nehemiah. The story of Nehemiah is that God's people ran as far away from God as they could in rebellion, sin and failure. But God was revealing himself to be the kind of God who runs after his people in love. That even if you run a million miles away from him, you will find him chasing you down. So your God hasn't abandoned you. In fact, he has pursued you to the extent of entering our world and climbing on that cross for your sin and my sin. That's your God. He's the pursuer. He's pursuing you now. That's your God. He is the God who pursues his people with relentless love. Will you believe that belief? Belief. But then can I also invite you to some corresponding behavior, two behaviors that we saw God's people in Nehemiah do? Here's the first one. I want to invite you to, to generosity. Now you might be saying, I don't know what generosity has anything to do with this whole thing. What if I told you it has everything to do with it? See, it's no coincidence that when God's people recommitted their hearts, they recommitted how they spent their energy in marriage, stewardship of time and Sabbath and also their money and generosity. See, God knows how you're made, that whatever we give towards our emotions, commitment and devotion will all follow suit. Jesus put it this way, that where your treasure is, there your heart will also. And so I wanna invite you to be a people of generosity. You know, this is the holiday season. You're being bombarded so many different ways in which you can step into generosity. And I wanna invite you to prayerfully consider the ways that you can be generous to the people in your life and around you. In this season, I also wanna invite you to be generous to your church. You know, our church right now, we're in the year end Giving season, it's a critical time in the life of our church. And I want you to know that your giving, your generosity, it fuels every single thing that we do. And I believe that as you do that, your heart in turn will also be fueled. We want to make it easy for you. On your way in, you got this envelope. And so you can use this as a specific, easy way to step into generosity. I want to invite you. Let's be a generous people, as the people in Nehemiah's day were also generous. But here's the second behavior. Confession. Being honest with God. You know, I wonder if some of us, maybe you've gone through the motions lately. Maybe you even said the Thanksgiving prayer. But I wonder if some of us, we really haven't been honest with God in a really long time. I'm talking really honest, like the 1% that you haven't talked to him about. About. Here's why confession is beautiful. You're not telling God something he doesn't know he knows. But when you confess, you are bringing your heart to God in a way that you didn't bring to him before. That's why confession is beautiful and powerful. Can I give you a word of encouragement? Your God, he can handle it. Whatever you share, he is not intimidated by your mess at all, not one day. But he wants you to come before him with full honesty. So at this time, as we respond in song, I want to invite. Could we stand as the people of God and as we begin to sing, I want to invite you in this moment, as we begin the song, will you pour out your heart to him? It could be one sentence of brutally honest truth, but will you bring your heart to Him? Let's do that now as the people of God. All right, Extend your hands, please, and let me pray a prayer of blessing over you as we go. Jesus, I pray you'd bless your sons and daughters this week that you would remind them that you are gentle and approachable and that you love them. Cause your face to shine on them. I pray they will experience your mercy and your joy this new week. In the name of the Father, the Son and and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Go in peace. Have a great week. Thanks for tuning in to the Mariners Weekend Message podcast to support the ministry of Mariners Church. You can click the link in the show notes or download the Mariners app at your favorite app store. If you've been navigating God's wisdom with us through this year's annual read and would like to hear personal reflections from pastors in your community, check out the Gospel Every Day podcast. Imagine feeding your heart, mind and soul with the kind of practical wisdom that will change your life. If you haven't picked up the annual read yet, visit MarinersChurch.org or download the Mariners app for more information on where to find it. Sa.