In his sermon 'Preappointed Times and Boundaries,' Jason Dohm explores the themes of divine sovereignty and community cooperation in Nehemiah 11. The sermon examines how God strategically placed people in Jerusalem and its surrounding areas, emphasizing the sacrifice and dedication of those who chose to live in the Holy City despite its challenges. Dohm ties this historical context to the New Testament, specifically Acts 17, where Paul speaks of God's control over times and boundaries. The sermon highlights the need for a diverse community working together for God's kingdom, underscoring how each person's unique role contributes to the collective mission. Through historical examples and scriptural references, Dohm encourages believers to recognize their God-given purpose and to actively engage in their communities to glorify God.

The sermon text is Nehemiah 11, 20 through 36. And the rest of Israel, of the priests and Levites, were in all the cities of Judah, every one in his inheritance. But the nethanyim dwelt in Ophel, and Zihah and Gishpah were over the nethonym. Also the overseer of the Levites at Jerusalem was Uzziah, the son of Bani, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Mataniah, the son of Micah, of the sons of Asaph, the singers in charge of the service of the house of God. For it was the king's command concerning them that a certain portion should be for the singers, a quota day by day.

Pethiahiah, the son of Meshazzabel, of the children of Zarah, the son of Judah, was the king's deputy in all matters concerning the people. And as for the villages with their fields, some of the children of Judah dwelt in Kurjath Arba and its villages. Dibon and its villages. Jacobzeel and its villages. In Jeshua, Meloadah, Beth-Polet, Hazar-Shua, and Beersheba and its villages.

In Ziklag, in Mekona, and its villages. In Inriman, Zorah, Jar-Moth, Zenoah, Adulim, and their villages in Lakish and its fields in Azekah and its villages they dwelt from Beersheba to the Valley of Hinnom. Also the children of Benjamin from Giba dwelt in Micmash, Aija, and Bethel and their villages. In Anathoth, Nob, and Aniah. In Hazor, Rama, Getaim.

In Hadid, Zaboyim, Nebelat. In Lad, Ono, and the Valley of Craftsmen. Some of the Judean divisions of Levites were in Benjamin. The title of the sermon this morning is Pre-Appointed Times and Boundaries. It's actually a phrase that's taken out of a mini sermon that Paul gives to the leaders in Athens in Acts 17.

So we'll get there, but the sermon does come from Acts 17. Pre-appointed times and boundaries. Last week Our text was primarily about two things. The first thing it was about was those who had been dwelling in Jerusalem. So of course, Nehemiah is about the rebuilding of the wall and then the strengthening and the repopulation of Jerusalem.

So before talking about the repopulation effort, which our text did get to, our text put before us the names of those who had been dwelling in Jerusalem during bad times. Nehemiah opens up with a report coming that the people in Jerusalem are in great distress and reproach. So The people in the early verses of Nehemiah chapter 11 are those who had lived through the times of great distress and reproach. They had actually sacrificed security and had sacrificed prosperity to live in the Holy City. And so I believe one of the reasons why they're captured and recounted in Nehemiah chapter 11 is to honor them because they had made sacrifices to be in the Holy City when it was not safe to live in the Holy City.

And it was not prosperous to live in the Holy City. Because they had enemies pressing on every side. We've seen that throughout the course of Nehemiah. So there were priests who had been living there, and Levites, and gatekeepers, and descendants of Judah, and descendants of Benjamin. About a little over 3, 000 are mentioned.

So there have been about 3, 000 families living in Jerusalem. Maybe 12, 000 people or something like that. If you marry off some of them and give them an average number of children, you probably end up with something like 12, 000 people living in Jerusalem. That's nothing! It's a big city, it's a capital city.

During the time of Jesus, the population of Jerusalem is around 200, 000 people. So it's an area that can hold so many more than are there. It's a weak city. The picture is the picture of a weak city. So Nehemiah and the people are determined to do something about the weakness of the city.

So there's a casting of lots. From that, one out of ten families throughout the rest of the province of Judea are selected by God through the casting of lots to come and strengthen the city by living there, one out of ten, and then nine out of ten are left in their inheritance where they've been living. And the text from last week actually says that the people Rise up and bless those who did this willingly. Though there was a casting of lots, at least some of them willingly, joyfully embraced it as the will of the Lord, and they wanted to see the Holy City no longer in great distress and reproach. They wanted to see it strong and glorifying the Lord.

And so they came willingly and the people rise up and call them blessed. That was last week's text. In this week's text, We get a very little bit more about those with specific roles in the temple. So we're going to see some, a little more, of those who God has given things to do in the ceremonial law, in the temple worship that has been prescribed. And then also we get the inhabitants of the surrounding areas of Judea.

So roughly speaking, The first half of the chapter is about those who have been dwelling or will be dwelling in Jerusalem, the holy city. The last section of the chapter is predominantly about those who are inhabiting the rest of Judea, the rest of this province of the Persian Empire. As we go to the text, let's go to the text in prayer. God, You are sovereign. Nothing escapes your notice.

Everything comes about to fulfill your will. God, we are living in this time because You have given us our lives in this time. It's not a game of chance. God, we are living in this place because You have planted us in this place. It's not a game of chance.

It is you at work in history. Thank you that we see this in our text today. But I pray that this truth would grip our hearts and we would have such a sense of destiny, of Your sovereign hand in all of history. And we would own that You have put us here in this time and in this place. We would know that it is for purposes that are to bring glory to You.

And we would long to bring glory to you in our time and in the place where you've planted us. Use this text for these purposes, I pray. In Jesus' name, Amen. So the First part of our text, verses 20-24, are about those who serve in the temple. So if you've got a handout and you're filling in blanks, it's serve and temple.

Those who serve in the temple. This section makes perfect sense if you think about how the duties of priests and the duties of Levites and the duties of others who work in the temple work. And Here's what I mean by that. In 1 Chronicles chapter 24, you have the priest and the Levite being divided into groups. The priest In 1 Chronicles chapter 24, it's said explicitly, right there in black and white, that the priests are divided into 24 different groups by family.

So again, in 1 Chronicles 24, There's a casting of lots to see what the will of the Lord is. The lot falls to one family, they're the first group. The lot falls to another family, they're a second group. So on and so forth up until the lot falling to the last family and they're the 24th group. These groups are to become rotations on the schedule.

So your family has the first slot on the schedule, and your family has the second slot on the schedule, and so on and so forth, until The last family has the 24th slot on the schedule. Two families per month. So the duties are divided up that way. And it means that, and by the way in 1 Chronicles 24, the Levites are also divided up also by the casting of lots into different groups for the same purpose. There would be a schedule that has a rotation.

And that means that not all priests have to live in Jerusalem. Because there's half a month that they're going to be doing their duties, not every month. It means that not all Levites have to live in Jerusalem for the same reason. There is a rotation and you have your slot on the rotation. This is exactly what we see in Luke chapter 1.

If you'll recall the beginning of the Gospel of Luke, an angel is appearing to Zacharias, who is going to be the father of John the Baptist. So Luke chapter 1 records what is happening to Elizabeth and Zacharias, the mother and father of John the Baptist. And here is what we see in Luke chapter 1 verses 8 and 9. So it was that while he, Zacharias, was serving as priest before God, in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. So it's almost certain that Elizabeth and Zacharias did not live in Jerusalem, but they were a priestly family and they had their slot on the schedule because of the family that they were a part of.

And in Luke chapter 1, it's Zacharias' turn to go into the temple and offer incense. So that's how the priesthood is working and the Levitical duties are working. Families are divided so that there can be a rotation on the schedule. Now back to verse 20 in Nehemiah. Here's what we see.

And the rest of Israel, of the priests and Levites, were in all the cities of Judah, everyone in his inheritance." So this again is not the people who are living in Jerusalem, but the people who are living outside Jerusalem. And that can include priests and Levites because they don't have to live there all the time. If you look back just a few verses to verse 3, this is picking up on verse 3. You see almost exactly the same words in verse 20. So we should see a direct link between verse 3 and verse 20.

Look at verse 3. These are the heads of the province who dwelt in Jerusalem, parentheses. But in the cities of Judah, everyone dwelt in his own possession in their cities. Israelites, priests, Levites, Nethanim, and servants of Solomon's servants." The parentheses here tells you that though the immediate text is about those who are going to live in Jerusalem. Parentheses, there's going to be talk about others who are living in the rest of the province.

And it will be the rest of Israel, priests, Levites, and the sons of Solomon servants. And that brings us to verse 21 after our author is finished talking about those who are living in Jerusalem. Now it is talking about the rest. So that is the flow of the chapter. We see in verse 21, but the nethonym dwelt in Ophul.

You'll recall that many of the good English translations render the word that we see as nethonym here. They translate it differently. They translate it as temple servants. I believe both NASB and the ESV translate it as temple servants. It is an excellent translation.

Both are fine. But that is their function. They are temple servants. And our text says that they dwell in Ophul. So recall how temple service works.

You have the priests who are given the duties primarily around the sacrifices. And They have people to help them. God has actually appointed people to help the priests. It's their brothers of the tribe of Levi. The Levites help this family of Aaron within the tribe of Levi.

They helped them with their duties. And then there are others who helped the Levites, called the nethanyim, or the temple servants. So the nethanyim helped the Levites to help the priests. That's how it works. So there is a lot of work to be done.

There is a lot of help that is needed. And that is the structure that God has given them. Now, Ophul is not outside of Jerusalem at all. It is inside Jerusalem. When you look at Jerusalem, any picture that you have of Jerusalem in the back of your Bible is going to have the Temple Mount at the northernmost point of the city of Jerusalem.

It is the high point. The southern slope just below the temple is Ophul. It is the closest land in Jerusalem to the temple. The temple servants, the nethineim, live there, which makes perfect sense. In chapter 3 verse 26, remember back to Nehemiah chapter 3, it was about which group worked on which section of the wall.

So chapter 3 was all about the 52 days that it took to repair and rebuild the two miles of wall around Jerusalem. And there were 40 teams working on 42 sections of wall. And one of the teams were Nethanim, who lived in Ophul, who were repairing a section of wall. And that's what we saw in chapter 3 verse 26. And what chapter 3 verse 26 says is primarily two things.

One, that the temple servants did dwell in Nephilim on the southern slope just below the temple, and that they made repairs on a section of wall so that they were actively engaged in the rebuilding and repair of the wall. Our text today says that two men are given the oversight of the Nephilim, Zihah and Gishpah. They don't appear before or after. But again, we continue to see what we saw last week, which was among the Lord's people, there is their structure and authority. God has made it so that His people would be well ordered.

And so in every group of people that is mentioned in chapter 11, we keep seeing the same thing. There is structure and authority. There are men that God has raised up to help order the people for the activities that God has given them to do. In verse 22, we see the same thing. There is an overseer of the Levites.

He lives in Jerusalem. His name is Uzi. I am probably slaughtering the pronouncement of that name, but we will call him Uzi for now until we know better. His genealogy is given and he is said to be of the sons of Asaph, the singers in charge of the service of the house of God. This is so consistent with what we see in the Old Testament.

Asaph was appointed In the time of King David, he was appointed by King David, he's a Levite, and he was assigned to be over the singers who would be in the presence of the Ark of the Covenant, and they would sing and praise all the time. I always like to have that job. The job of singing and praising all the time before the Ark of the Covenant. And now, the descendants of Asaph have the same duty to be singers and also to be in charge of the service of the house of God. And then in the very next verse, in verse 23, we see that these singers, these descendants of Asaph, have been given a daily allotment by the king.

This is not said of any other group in chapter 11, but it is said of these singers, they have been given a daily allowance of food by the king. So I want us to turn back a few pages to Ezra chapter 7, just to remind us how consistent this is with what we saw in the second part of Ezra chapter 7. Remember the people have come back in three waves from Babylon, from captivity. The first wave came back with Zerubbabel and Joshua. About 50, 000 came back.

It's almost 100 years since King Cyrus sent the first wave back. Then 85 years later, roughly, Ezra comes back with another group. It's a much smaller group. Something like 7 or 8, 000 come back with Ezra. And Then another 13 years later, so basically 100 years from the start of Ezra, Nehemiah brings very few people back, but he is to lead the effort to restore Jerusalem.

Now in Ezra chapter 7, this is right before the second wave. This is right before Ezra comes back. So it's about 13 years earlier from where we are in Nehemiah chapter 11. And it's the same king. The beginning of Nehemiah, we learn that it is King Artaxerxes and it is the twentieth year of his reign.

Well, Ezra chapter 7 is already in the reign of King Artaxerxes. We are not sure what year, but it has got to be a smaller number than 20. Now, I want to read a few selective verses that show how Art Xerxes giving a daily allotment to the singers is consistent with what we've already seen. So, Ezra chapter 7, first look at verse 12. Artxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law of God of heaven.

So, This is the introduction to the letter that Artxerxes provides to Ezra. He identifies himself and he says he is the king of kings. That is true. He is a king over other kings in the Persian Empire. It is written to Ezra who is becoming his deputy.

Now look at verses 14 and 15. Here's what our art exerxes says in verses 14 and 15. And whereas you were being sent by the king and his seven counselors to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem with regard to the law of your God which is in your hand, and whereas you are to carry the silver and gold which the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem." And then it continues on. But the point of verses 14 and 15 is to make clear that Not only is King Artaxerxes allowing Jews to come back from Babylon to Jerusalem, but he is also sending riches, like a lot of riches. The king and his counselors are sending treasures back as an offering to the God of the Jews.

And we see this continued in verses 20 and 21. Now skip down to verse 21. I'll read verse 21-23. And I, even I, Artaxerxes the King, issue a decree to all the treasurers who are in the region beyond the river, that whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of God of heaven, may require of you, let it be done diligently, up to one hundred talents of silver, one hundred cores of wheat, one hundred baths of wine, one hundred baths of oil, and salt without prescribed limit. Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it diligently be done for the house of the God of heaven.

For why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?" I think that last sentence gets right at the heart of the matter. For why the King of Persia, the King of Kings of this empire, would provide wealth and provide for the temple worship of God, and now even to the twentieth year of his reign providing a daily allotment for the singers, it's because the king of this empire wanted the gods of the people of his empire, he wanted their favor. So That is exactly what we see at the end of verse 23. For why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons? Even to the twentieth year of his reign, he is providing a daily allotment for the singers who are to worship before the Lord on a continual basis.

So in verse 23 we have the King's provisions for the singers. And now in verse 24, so we're back in Nehemiah chapter 11 now, I hope you're back with me. Now in verse 24, we have the king's deputy. So 23 is the king's provisions. 24 is the king's deputy.

In all matters concerning the people, and his name was Pethahiah. When we see the word King's Deputy, it literally means King's Hand. This man, Pethahiah, is the King's Hand. So he is acting on behalf of the king, probably splitting time between the capital of Persia and Jerusalem. He is acting on behalf of the king.

And we see that this man is a descendant of Judah. So I think that's significant. The king's hand, the king's deputy, the one who acts on the king's behalf is a descendant of Judah. And this is a reminder, This is an important reminder that Israel is not completely free. They have been sent back out of captivity.

They have been blessed in many ways. They are enjoying many freedoms now, but they are not totally autonomous. There should be a descendant of Judah on the throne. It shouldn't be the king's deputy, it should be the king. And it's their sin that makes it the king's deputy and not the king.

It is their rebellion against God that resulted in them going into captivity. And Now this is a sign that though they are enjoying many freedoms, they have been allowed to come back from captivity, but it is a reminder of their rebellion against God and that not everything has been restored yet. Now here is the point, I think, from verses 20-24, when we see those who serve in the temple. The central point of these verses, I believe, is that everything is accounted for. Everything is provided for.

Everything is in place regarding Jerusalem, the holy city, and regarding the worship of God. You have the priests. They're needed. They're in place. You have the Levites.

They're needed. They're in place. You have the Nephilim. They're needed. They're in place.

You have those who were appointed to keep order and to oversee these different groups. They are needed and they are in place. God has made provision for the holy city to be strong again. Now let's consider verses 25-26. Lots of names of towns, cities, and villages.

Here in verses 25-36 we have the inhabitants of Judah and Benjamin outside of Jerusalem. So again, it is locations outside of the capital but still in the province of Judea. And it's where the descendants of Judah are living and where the descendants of Benjamin are living. First, are the descendants of Judah, and verses 25-30 lists the cities and the surrounding towns that they occupy. There are 17 of them.

17 cities and surrounding villages. They are population centers for the family of Judah, the tribe of Judah. And the summary of this is right at the end of verse 30. Here is what you see right at the end of verse 30, the section of Judah and their descendants and where they live. It says, they dwelt from Beersheba to the valley of Hinnom.

So if you look at a map, what you're going to find is Beersheba is the very south of the province of Judea, and the very south of where the tribe of Judah lived before that. It's at the southern border. And that the valley of Hinnom is right at the southern edge of Jerusalem. So if you're looking at a map of Judea, Beersheba is going to be at the southern border. It defines the southern border of the province.

The valley of Hinnom goes right up to Jerusalem on the southern side. And that is the territory that would have been Judah before it became Judea, when this region became part of an empire, of a foreign empire. And so This is exactly what you would expect to find. The end of verse 30 is exactly what we would expect. South of Jerusalem, up unto Jerusalem, is where the descendants of Judah live.

Then in verses 31-36 we have the descendants of Benjamin. There are 15 cities and surrounding villages. So Judah, the descendants of Judah were in 17 cities. The descendants of Benjamin are in 15 cities and their surrounding villages. And these are exactly what we would expect to find because of where the tribe of Benjamin lived before the captivity.

Almost All of these cities are north and west of Jerusalem. That's exactly where the tribe of Benjamin were located. And then in verse 36, we see that pockets of Levites are sprinkled throughout all of the people. So there are divisions of Levites, Judean Levites, who are living in Benjamin. That's exactly what we would expect to see from the rest of the Old Testament.

What you see is the other tribes have their geographical area, but it's not the same for the Levites, right? Instead of a possession, God is their possession. God has given them cities within each of the other tribes. And the reason is they are to know and to teach the Word of God. And that is not consolidated at Jerusalem.

God intends for His Word to be explained, taught, preached within everywhere where his people lived. So there are pockets of Levites that are sprinkled throughout Benjamin and throughout Judea. Now, the big picture. That's a brief explanation of the verses that we've been in. Now let's talk about the big picture.

If you're taking notes, that's the third section. Big picture fills in the blank. It's easy to stop just processing the facts. We've got a bunch of facts. We've got city names, and we are learning something about priests and Levites and Nephilim, or temple servants, and where they fit in.

And it's interesting, but you can stop at that level. Say, okay, we've processed the facts. Now on to chapter 12. But I don't think we should do that. I think we should ask the question, what is God doing with the facts?

What do the facts mean? We got the facts, what do they mean? So I think they mean two things. I think two things sort of form the big picture here that we should attach the facts to. The framework that we should attach the facts to.

Here's the first part of the big picture. This is the real history of what a sovereign God has done. What we have in Nehemiah chapter 11 is the real history, a real time, a real place, real names of what a sovereign God has done. So you can't just process the facts and say let's move on to chapter 12. You have to see through the facts and say God did this.

In a point in time, at a real location, a real GPS coordinate, with real people who lived real lives, had real children, real houses, and God did that. He did it for his own purposes. This is what we have in this text. We have real historical people who lived in real historical places. God knows every one of their names and God put them All in those cities.

17 cities for the descendants of Judah. 15 cities for the descendants of Benjamin. God put them in those cities. God did this. Turn to Acts 17.

I told you that the title of the sermon, Pre-Appointed Times and Boundaries, came from a mini sermon that Paul gives in Athens in Acts 17. So I want to look at a portion of that. Acts 17, beginning in verse 16, it talks about Paul in Athens. He's walking around this idolatrous town. They worship any kind of God you can think of, they are worshipping in Athens.

And it says in verse 16 that his spirit was provoked as he is walking around and seeing all this idolatry. And he is preaching, he is publicly preaching the Gospel, and he is called before the leadership of Athens, a group called the Areopagus. And He begins to address them. And then here's what he says in verses 24-28. So hopefully you're with me in Acts 17.

Now I'll be reading 24-28. Paul says this, God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he worshiped with men's hands as though he needed anything since he gives to all life, breath, and all things. And he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, for we also are His offspring." Paul is preaching to these pagans, and he declares something very interesting.

He declares that God has formed the nations of the world. God is actually the one who is responsible for what nation you are born in. And that He has pre-appointed, He has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings. In other words, you have these billions of people on earth, but God decided what time they would be born, and where they would be born, and where they would live during the course of their lifetime. God determined that.

It seems to us as we move from one place to the other that we are doing that, but that's not what Paul says. Paul contradicts that. Paul says that this is actually the working of a sovereign God in the world. That you live now because God wanted you to be alive now, to give you your life now, in this time. And that you live in this place because God wants you to live in this place now.

He has determined your pre-appointed times and the boundaries of your dwelling. This is what we see in the text. All these names of cities should take us to Acts 17 where Paul says God did that. God put the descendants of Judah in these seventeen cities and in that time. None of that is a game of chance.

It's just like the lots that we've been seeing in the text. The casting of lots the last couple of weeks. That's not a game of chance. This is a sovereign God determining things and putting you in time in the place where He plants you. Secondly, so that was the first thing that I think is the Big picture for our text.

This is the real history of what a sovereign God has done. Here's the second thing. The Kingdom of Heaven requires a multitude of people in different functions working together. I'll say that again for the note takers. The Kingdom of Heaven requires something.

The Kingdom of Heaven requires a multitude of people in different functions working together. A lot of people, different jobs, working together. This is how the Kingdom of Heaven forms and advances. I have to start here. I have to start with my next statement.

We're not talking about working harder. We're not talking about gift inventories and then diligence. It might include that, but when I say the Kingdom of heaven advances through a multitude of people with different functions working together. I'm not talking about, let's do a gift inventory and see what you're good at, and then get busy, get working. It begins with crossing over the line from one kingdom into another kingdom.

This is not a work harder point. This is a, has God shown you your desperate condition point? It all starts here. If God hasn't shown you your desperate condition, so that you felt the crushing weight of what you deserve, so that you have fled to the cross for mercy and cleansing, then this point has nothing to do with you. It must start with the work of Jesus Christ that takes a sinner and presses the consciousness of that sin on the sinner so that he is being crushed, She is being crushed by the desperate condition.

They lived lackadaisically a whole life long up to that point. And they never felt it. It all felt like it would just work out somehow in the end, but then something changed. Something changed. And when it happens, it can't unhappen.

It's the pressing of guilt and the weight of sin on you to force you to Jesus. The law of God, you really just, it never felt heavy to you and then one day it was crushing. And you had to have relief. And God showed you that the relief comes through the blood of Jesus Christ, and only through the blood of Jesus Christ. And you went there and you were free and you were cleansed.

And now, and now he begins to knit you together with other people who can be described exactly the same way. There might be a thousand different stories about how you got there, but fundamentally it is, I felt the weight of my sin, I knew my state to be desperate, and I fled to Jesus Christ for cleansing and relief. And we've all got the same story. You're part of the Kingdom of Heaven and that's the story. And then He begins to knit us together.

And we find out that He's made me good at these things, but not so good at these other things. But He's made you good at these other things and not so good at the things that I'm strong. And he begins to knit us together. And we can work together to advance his kingdom. This is what we see in this text.

There are people in the capital, Jerusalem, and there are people in the countryside. And there are leaders, and there are priests, and there are Levites, and there are gatekeepers, and there are nethineh, and there are singers. We've seen all of these groups. None of them doing the same thing, but all of them indispensable in God's economy. They are part of His Kingdom and He is knitting them together and causing them to advance together in ways that none of them could do on their own.

You can't just have priests and get it done. You can't just have Levites and get it done. You can't just have gatekeepers and get it done. You can't just have nethineh or temple servants and get it done. You can't just have singers and get it done.

They are all needed. The ones in Jerusalem, the one out of ten families that have been brought to make the Holy City strong. It's not the super spiritual. And then everybody else is just sort of on the periphery and not really needed. No, they're needed as much as the tenth that comes into Jerusalem.

The nine out of ten that are left in their cities are planted there by God too This is how his kingdom worked in the Old Testament, and this is how his kingdom does work in the New Testament We might think it would be splendid to have a host of people with the skills to be the high priest. How splendid. God has made us all ready to be high priests. No, it's not splendid at all. That's a monster.

It's disastrous. That's a monster. It's disastrous. Turn to Romans 12. We've been memorizing and reciting Romans 12, 1 and 2.

I want you to see the larger context of the first half of Romans 12. Romans 12. I'm going to read verses 1 through 8. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

For I say through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you, not to think of themselves more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, So we being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. Or ministry, let us use it in our ministering.

He who teaches in teaching. He who exhorts in exhortation. He who gives with liberality. He who leads with diligence. He who shows mercy with cheerfulness.

This also reflects the sovereign hand of God at work among us. To give us exactly the gifts that we need in this local church, in our families, to do the work that God has given us to do. So The big picture, two parts to it. The first part, this is real history of what a sovereign God has done. He put those people in that time.

He put those people in those places. None of it was a game of chance. All of it was the hand of God at work. Number two was the Kingdom of Heaven requires a multitude of people in different functions working together, Romans 12, one body, many parts. All necessary.

Now, here's the application and it's completely obvious. As we present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, this is not a nebulous idea. That's not just state of mind. Presenting yourself as a living sacrifice is not just a state of mind. It starts with a state of mind, but it works out in real, practical ways in the hours of your day.

How you spend your time, what you work on, what you invest in, mean specific things. It acknowledges that God Himself has put me and our family in this time and in this place. He's put you, he's put your family in this time and in this place for very specific purposes. And we should be working to discern why this time, why this place, God, why was I born in 1970 and then brought to Youngsville in 2015? Why?

Why here? Is it just a game of chance? Somebody just rolled the dice and that was where the roll of the dice led. You're going to have to decide whether you think that is how this world operates or not. It either is that or it is a sovereign God guiding everything.

The scriptures say it's a sovereign God. So if we believe that, then we want to know, God Why? What did you have in mind when you put me in this time and in this place? Whatever it is that you had in your mind, I want to go do that with all my heart. I want to know as best as I can know why you put me in this time, Why you put me in this time?

Why you put me in this place? And then I want to pursue the reason for that with all my heart. Our family, okay, we live in Youngsville. Youngsville is where a sovereign God has placed us. Why?

Show us God and help us to do it with all of our heart. Why have you given me the neighbors you've given me? Why the co-workers? Why in this community? Why with these relationships?

Why with these issues? Okay, We're in the middle of the abortion debate that's happening. We're in the middle of the homosexuality debate that's happening in our community. This is the time that He put us in. Don't pine away for another time.

Don't pine away for another place. Don't wish you could have been in the time of the Puritans. God wanted you here now To be in these fights and have these neighbors and coworkers. God wanted it that way. God wants you to recognize the gifts that He's given you, the things that He's good at.

He wants to knit us together and he wants us to advance his kingdom. And I do see this here. I do see people recognizing what they're good at and serving in it. So this isn't, we're not inventing anything here today. This is in process.

But here's the encouragement from me. Excel more and more. Abound more and more. Increase more and more. I think we do have a sense that God has put us here.

Okay, more. Further, faster. May God Use this text to do that. By the way, abounding more and more, excelling more and more, increasing more and more, things that Paul says in 1 Thessalonians. We're going to 1 Thessalonians next.

Start reading 1 and 2 Thessalonians, because when we get done with Nehemiah, That's where we're headed next. Let's pray. God, how kind it is that You've given us lives. You've sustained us to today, provided everything for us that we needed. And Lord, we want to have a sense of why You have us here.

We want You to point us to certain things in the life of this community where we can have an impact for your glory that Jesus Christ would be known and lifted up and seen as great. Pray God that you would make it so clear to us, so apparent, what we could labor at over a period maybe of decades in order to bring you glory and to push forward the boundaries of your kingdom that we would see so many people over those decades across the line from a kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of your marvelous light and to know you and to also be knit together with us in this life. God, you are all wise. It is your wisdom that has us living in this time and in this place. Help us to be faithful.

Help us to rest in you and trust you. In Jesus' name, Amen.