Chestnut Mountain Church

We all have a desire to belong. Since the beginning with Adam and Eve, they even had a desire to belong to God. God designed us to desire to belong. God created us with a God-sized hole in our hearts knowing that only He could fill it. Because of our sin, there is no way we could cover ourselves, so He began His rescue mission through His Son Jesus. God desires for us to belong to Him and to the f...

If Nehemiah had ended in chapter 12, it would have been like a fairytale ending. However, some time has passed between chapters 12 and 13. By chapter 13, Nehemiah has returned to his former cupbearer job and has requested leave from the king to return to Jerusalem. Upon returning, he finds the people and Jerusalem have turned from God and turned from what had been rebuilt. The people have even hou...

Life is full of responses. In Nehemiah 10-12, we are going to see a response to God’s love, the placement of God’s people, and the impact of God’s work through His people. In view of the children of Israel realizing their wickedness and seeing God’s faithfulness and love despite their failures, they take an oath and make a commitment to follow God. Listen to this sermon in Nehemiah about what we c...

In Nehemiah 9, the children of Israel are preparing and gathering together for The Feast of the Booths to celebrate what God has done in the past and look forward to what God is going to do in the future. During this, they read the Word, confessed their sin, and they worshiped. Seeing what they did during this week, we see that reading the Word produces the conviction, the conviction produces conf...

In Nehemiah 8, we see the wall completed and now the people gathering for the reading of the Law. While Nehemiah is mostly known for the building of the wall, what if it’s not just about the wall? Would God go to all the trouble just to bring people back into a right relationship with Him? Yes, because we see this in chapter 8. After the reading of the law and understanding it, Nehemiah reminds th...

Nehemiah 7 concludes with a long list of names that records the genealogy, the same genealogy recorded in Ezra too. While it may be easy for us to skim over these names, it reminds us that these names mattered to God. God knew them. It reminds us of the importance of belonging and that we were designed to belong. When we belong to God, we are known. How do we know that we are known by God, though?...

Nehemiah was a sturdy hero to the Hebrew people. Similarly, we have heroes in our country as we near Independence Day, and we also have generations of heroes within our Chestnut Mountain Church family. All of these heroes point to how it really matters in how we run our life race, and that everyone has an appointed place. In Nehemiah 7, when the walls were built, Nehemiah appointed people. There i...

Nehemiah is a called man of God. He has been set apart by God. He has been given responsibility by God. Nehemiah prepares to do what God has called him to do. Nehemiah is unafraid to put forth effort to accomplish what God has called him to do. Even though the enemy continues to attack, the work of God is not hindered. In Nehemiah 6, the wall is nearly finished, and the enemy is looking for a way...

In Nehemiah 5, It appears that everything is getting knocked out, and the work is getting accomplished. However, the enemy has begun to attack from the outside to hinder God’s people and the work of God. With the outside attacks not working, the enemy moved to the inside. The enemy is attempting to use God’s people against God’s people to create division between each other to disrupt the work of G...

The people that God has assembled to be the builders are not the people you would think would be selected. They are engaging in mental warfare to be stopped from what God is calling them to do. The work of God will always be met with opposition. Nehemiah is praying for God not to let the people trying to stop His plan to prevail. Similarly, when we are walking in what God has called us to, we will...

After receiving instructions from God to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem, he goes out to inspect the wall, and he was introduced to the task that God had given him. He was introduced to, in his mind and his eyes as he observed, what seemed absolutely impossible. Nehemiah has literally gone from the mountaintop moment of watching God move, and now all of a sudden, he went from being obedient to God a...

We see Nehemiah, although devastated about the news in Jerusalem, although he’s in private clothing himself in sackcloth and ashes and praying and fasting, he’s still working unto the Lord in public as cupbearer to the king. Nehemiah knows what God has impressed on his heart to do. Nehemiah is also being faithful to where God has placed him in the here and now. He’s in a season of waiting. He’s wo...

As we begin our walk through the book of Nehemiah, we see that Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the king. He was to take care of the king. We don’t know a lot about him, but we know his role. He was hard-working, responsible, and trusting, and God was going to use him in a big way for Jerusalem. Just like Nehemiah, we all have a role in building the Kingdom of God. In Chapter 1, Nehemiah learns about...

As we celebrate Mother’s Day, we look to the Old Testament to learn from the example of a mother about having a heart of worship. Hannah was unable to have children, but despite this, Hannah continually ran to the Lord. As she ran to God, she ran to Him with persistence. She cried, begged, and pleaded with God to allow her to have a child. When we face difficult circumstances and storms in life, w...

It’s easy to rally together around us against the world, but the danger in rallying together is taking on the mindset that we are going to hate the world more because the world hates us. Jesus came to save those people too. While it may be us against the world, we must go and continue to testify just as Jesus said. A testimony of Jesus and about Jesus is simply what Jesus has done in your life to...

The truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that hope isn’t found in anything that this world has to offer but hope is found only in Him. Hope isn’t found in the temporary things of this world but found in the eternal things of Jesus. It is us against the world. We will face persecution in different forms. Our identity is not found in how much this world loves us but found in the shed blood of Jesu...

The disciples’ hearts are troubled because their expectations are about to be shattered. However, Jesus reminds them to not let their hearts be troubled. Similarly, when our hearts are troubled, Jesus is ready to meet you in the midst of your uncertainty, your pain, and your frustrations. Jesus is our counselor. Jesus is able to meet your right where you are. God’s love for you is unconditional. G...

As we continue our journey in looking at Jesus’ final words to His disciples, we look to John 15 where Jesus is still challenging His disciples to produce fruit so that God gets glory. Our purpose is to bring God glory. Jesus references the vine dresser as God the Father, He as the vine, and us as the branches. There are a lot of vines that we try to find our identity in, but Jesus is the true vin...

The resurrection is astonishing and the resurrection is true. We all have a different response to the resurrection of what we come to celebrate today. There are those that believe in the resurrection but just reject it. When Jesus asks, “Do you love Me,” are you going to reject the invitation or are you going to repent? The resurrection is astonishing and true, but the question is, “What will you...

As we enter the start of Holy Week on Palm Sunday, we look to Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. His entry was a coronation, but not like the lavish ones we are accustomed to for royal families across the world. This is a different one because our King is different. Jesus entered in on a donkey only to be crowned with thorns at the end of the week. This was an uncommon coronation because our K...

We all long for peace. Jesus' disciples and even Jesus Himself longed for peace. In light of their troubled hearts, Jesus told the disciples that He was giving them His peace. The way to His peace is through keeping His commandments. While the world does offer peace, The only peace that this world offers is circumstantial and temporary. The peace that the world offers will not last. Peace is n...

As Jesus is continuing to try and provide comfort, peace, and settlement to the hearts of the disciples, He reminds the disciples to keep all of His commandments in His absence. We, too, must heed this, but many times this piece of Scripture is misconstrued to two extremes of thinking that Christianity is just about following a lot of rules to earn God’s love or that it’s a pass to keep sinning. K...

As Jesus continues talking with the disciples in John 14, He tells them that they are going to do greater works than Him in His absence. The goal that Jesus is trying to accomplish here is not make the disciples that they are going to be greater than Jesus. Jesus is saying that it’s the ministry location that is going to be bigger and broader for the disciples than what His was during His earthly...

After telling His disciples that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Jesus tells His disciples that by knowing Him, they have known God and have seen Him. Philip, one of Jesus’ disciples, begins questioning Jesus to show them the Father and to know God. Through Jesus’ words to Philip, we know that we, too, can know God. We can not only know about God but can also know Him personally and relati...

We all face times in our lives when our hearts are troubled. When we acknowledge these troubles, struggles, and trials, we are giving God an opportunity to show who He is. After telling His disciples to not let their hearts be troubled, Jesus tells them that He is leaving to go Home but that He will return. When our hearts our troubled, we are to be comforted that He is coming again. These are wor...