Good evening, everybody. Welcome to I think that'll work. There we go. All right. We're going to ask the Lord's blessing upon our time together, and then we will be in Nehemiah at the very end of Chapter 2 and beginning Chapter 3 this evening. So let's pray together. Our Father, we are thankful for the opportunity we have to gather together on a Wednesday evening in spite of the cold, in spite of the snow, that, Father, we have an opportunity to come together to worship, to study the Word of God, to fellowship around the Word of God, And then, Lord, to spend time in prayer. Father, we know that always it is important that we study your word and spend time meditating upon it. But, Lord, we also acknowledge tonight just how important prayer time is. It's not simply an addition to the service to while away the time. It is one of the hearts, one of the main reasons that we come together on these Wednesday evenings. So, Lord, bless our prayer time. And I pray that Our hearts would be drawn closer to you, not only through the Word, but through our prayer time as well. So bless us here, be with the teens, be with the clubs. Lord, help us to honor you tonight, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. It's been three weeks since we were last here in the Book of Nehemiah together since I was here on a Wednesday night. It's been an eventful three weeks and a couple thousand plus miles that I was able to drive and needed to drive, but we're glad that we're here with you this evening and we look forward to our time together. I'm going to read the very last verse in Nehemiah chapter 2. And what I wanna do tonight, we're gonna close out looking at chapter two. So really just a very quick synopsis with the additional thought that we haven't yet touched upon. And then we wanna start chapter three and I'll wait until we get there. Chapter three is an interesting chapter in your own Bible reading. Perhaps you've come to chapter three and like some other passages in the Bible, you may have been tempted to say, oh, okay, that's there and then move on to chapter four. Chapter 3 is important in its own right. We'll get to that in just a moment. Nehemiah 2, verse 20 says, "...then answered I them," this is Nehemiah speaking, "...and said unto them, The God of heaven, He will prosper us, therefore we His servants will arise and build." that ye have no portion, nor rite, nor memorial in Jerusalem. Chapter 2 deals with a person with a burden. Remember, chapter 1 was all about how the Lord uses those who have burdens. Those who respond to the need that the Lord brings to their attention with a burden, that they're praying, they have a desire, they have a burden for God to do something. And we find Nehemiah so moved and praying, and then God answering that prayer some four months later by saying, you're right, Nehemiah, somebody does need to do something about that. How about you? Now, I'm kind of paraphrasing, but that's really what happened, isn't it? Nehemiah becomes the answer to his own prayer. Chapter 2, we then see him At the beginning is when the Lord says, Nehemiah, you're the one going through the conversation with the king. And then he gets to the land and he is interacting with the people who were there. And what we find in chapter 2 then is how the Lord uses that person who has a burden in service, but it's recognizing the realities of that service. It's not easy, but the major lesson that we gain from this chapter, and this is why I just want to make sure we touch upon this. Chapter 1, you respond to the need that God brings to your attention by taking that need to the Lord in prayer, the burden that the Lord develops in your heart, moving you to being willing to do whatever God might choose to do, Chapter 2, responding then to the opportunity that God brings to you in answer to your prayer, in answer to the need, and then infecting others with that burden. So what happens? Well, what we find, I think, and to me, this is the real lesson that comes out of Chapter 2. The practical parts are important, but the real lesson is that Our circumstances will not always be perfect. In fact, rarely will our circumstances be perfect. In fact, most of the time living in this world, we find that circumstances are imperfect, right? We have problems. And there's not a one of us here who's been around the barn more than a half a dozen times who would not say, my life has had problems. I have faced difficulties. It's part of living in a sin-cursed world. Not saying that we walk around with sad faces and saying, woe is me, but it's recognizing the realities, which is why we see chapter two this way. But here's the point. In those circumstances, we learn that we can trust God. He will fulfill His promises. And that fills our hearts with hope. So yes, we have problems. And our service for the Lord is not immune from problems. Serving God brings its own set of problems sometimes, doesn't it? But we learn as we face these difficulties that God will fulfill His promises and therefore we respond with hope. We have hope in the Lord. And here's the kicker. As you and I respond to the difficulties of our life with this hope that God is going to fulfill His promises, then the Lord helps us to inspire others who may have grown weary in well-doing. Nehemiah is facing difficulty. I mean, he had a... as much as you could say a man could have a perfect life in this world in that day, Nehemiah would have had that life. I mean, he lived in the palace with the king and he enjoyed all the comforts that came with that. Now he's in Jerusalem and he's in decidedly a different circumstance. Life is not perfect. There are problems and he's the guy tasked with fixing the problem. It's one thing to say, hey guys, we got a problem. And something else to then say, well, since you saw there was a problem, why don't you take charge of fixing it, right? That's one of the things that tongue-in-cheek you're taught in leadership classes is anytime somebody comes to you and points out a problem, turn it back around and say, great, I point you to be the one to fix the problem. Then nobody will ever bring problems to you. I say tongue-in-cheek, because that's not really the point, right? But that's exactly what happened here. Nehemiah is the guy God tasks with fixing the problem, but he's going back to a people who have been there now. These are the children of the children of the exiles who returned, and life hasn't been easy for them. And Nehemiah is taxed with getting them to do the job that they could have done almost a hundred years before. And they've been there, this is 444, they came back in 538. So you're six years shy of a hundred years. And they haven't gotten the job done yet. You think that might sound a little daunting to Nehemiah? How can I get these people excited? But here I think is the point. His enthusiasm, facing those problems, trusting in the Lord, the hope that he brought to the table inspired those who had been losing their hope. Those who were weary in well-doing. To me that's the lesson, the big picture as I look at Nehemiah. He saw the need. He prayed. God called him to fill the need and now he is inspiring others who need to be involved in fixing the problem. Alright? Now having said that then, the service wasn't easy. So what were the big lessons we learned in chapter 2? Service involves waiting. Waiting is hard. What do we do while we're waiting? We pray. We should go without saying, and yet we have to say it. We pray. We develop patience. God is using that patience to grow us up, to help us become mature. And we need to make a plan. That during that time of waiting and that time of praying, we can be planning. This is how this needs to happen. This is what I'm going to need. If God is going to use me to do this, this is what I would need to do it. Then we find that Nehemiah, his service involved working with people, he worked with an unbelieving king, and how did he move the heart of the king? What did he do to move the heart of the king? Did he come to the king with a big sob story and say, oh king, I'm so burdened and upset about my people? No, what did he do for four months? He prayed. And His prayer moved the heart of the king. Isn't that an encouragement for us? Our hope and our trust is not in a man. It's not in a political party. It is in the God of heaven. And He can move the heart of the king. That's what He does in this passage. It is God who responds to the prayer of Nehemiah. Nehemiah is able to work with the king. Now, he does it in a careful manner, et cetera. We talked about that, but prayer was the primary thing. He worked with discouraged believers who had lost their hope. And how did he do that? This is all building up really to chapter three. That's why I didn't want to just ignore this. How did he do that? Well, he stated, here's the problem. I mean, he didn't, he didn't kind of go, you know, beat around the bush and say, well, you know, I'm back here to help you guys. What is it that, you know, we, he said, guys, there's a problem. He identified what the problem was, right? We must rebuild these walls. And more importantly, we must rebuild the walls because they're reflection upon our God. So there's the spiritual side of the problem that he is pointing out. So he identified himself with the problem. He didn't say this is your problem. You've been here almost 100 years and you guys haven't done the job. He said we have a problem. That's what leaders are supposed to do, right? Not with a whip saying you guys are worthless. He is identifying himself with them. He didn't blame them. and say, this is all your fault. But he didn't gloss over the fact that there was a real problem. And he appealed to the need that they all felt. We need to fix this so there's no longer a reproach. And again, that's the spiritual aspect of how their testimony or the testimony of God was at stake. And they responded, they sensed, verse 10 says, There came a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel." These were the enemies who actually said that. They recognized that Nehemiah actually cared. And if the enemies understood that Nehemiah actually cared, do you imagine that the people In Jerusalem and the areas around Jerusalem, do you imagine they came away with the same feeling? He cares. He really cares. They didn't know him. We look at this and say, well, they knew who Nehemiah was. How would they have known Nehemiah? I mean, we're a thousand miles away and they didn't have television and the internet and all the means of communication we have today. Nehemiah would have been a faceless, nameless person who came from the King of Persia. They don't know who he is. They just see him traipsing into town one day with all these soldiers and all these horses and they don't know why he's there. But He is able to convince them, to demonstrate to them that He cares for them. that He is one of them. We have a problem and the glory of God is at stake. And we need to rise up and we need to build these walls that we can bring glory to our God. So they came to understand that He cared. And then thirdly, He dealt with the enemies. This is where we were three weeks ago. And how did He deal with the enemies? Sanballat, he was a Samaritan. Tobiah was the ruler of the Ammonites. But it's a Jewish name. Interesting. And then Geshem was the leader of the Arabs. They didn't care about the Jews. They had no desire to benefit the Jews. They didn't want the Lord to be exalted in Jerusalem. Their whole desire was to somehow plug up or gob up the works. so that they couldn't accomplish Nehemiah's purpose for which God had called him there. And Nehemiah demonstrated wisdom and courage. He courageously confronted them. He drew a line between God's people and the enemies. He said, you will not help us in this because we're not gonna let you sabotage the work. And instead of appealing to the letters from the king, which gave him the authority to do what he came to do, Do you remember what he appealed to? We just read it in the last verse. You have no portion, no right, no memorial in Jerusalem. Why? Because the God of heaven will prosper us. We don't need your help, you pagans, because the God of heaven is the one who will prosper the work. And so we don't need your help. We're gonna get the job done because you have no portion. they were not going to be allowed to come in and create confusion among God's people. And we noted that any time you rise up and build, the enemy will say, let's arise up and stop them, right? You can count on it. Anytime we step out to serve the Lord individually, your family, you make decisions as a family, as a church, we come together and in communing as brothers and sisters, we step out to do something for the Lord. Our enemy isn't going to sit by quietly and say, oh, guess I lost that battle. No, he's going to redouble his efforts, isn't he? To trip up us each as an individual, to cause discord in our families, to cause discord in our church. So we have to recognize that these are realities. And that brings us number three, to finish the chapter, Service not only involves waiting and dealing with people, but it involves wrestling with problems. And we've already touched upon this, but just to kind of tie it in a bow, I hope. Anytime you try to do anything significant for God, there will be problems, because the enemy will see to it that there are. We've seen how Nehemiah dealt with the problems of the enemies, but that wasn't the only problem he had. What was the other problem Nehemiah had? Not just the enemies who wanted to stop the work, But he had the problem of a people who might not really have been all that enthusiastic. We've talked about how he came and demonstrated that he cared and his enthusiasm becoming infectious to them. But there's another problem. What is the more practical problem? The wall. I mean, what's he there to do? To rebuild a wall that has been in ruins Since five, these dates, there's three dates. I wanna say 98, it's not 98. 586 BC. 140, almost 150 years that wall has been lying broken. That means it's not just Everything's just where it once was and it's just a matter of using some mortar, you know, patching up some places. This wall is destroyed and they need to get in there and fix it. But how do you do that? Where do you start? Well, what did Nehemiah do? He began with a realistic first-hand appraisal. Earlier in chapter 2, what was the first thing he did? Remember, he got there. He didn't tell the people what he was there for. What did he do in the middle of the night? He surveyed the wall. They didn't know he was doing that. They're all asleep in bed, but he's out there with some of the guys he brought with him. In fact, it was so bad that at one place, the horse that he was riding couldn't make it through the debris. because the wall was in such poor shape. But the point is, he surveyed the wall. He took note of what had to be done. He had to know exactly how bad it was before he could come up with a realistic, practical plan to fix it. I mean, isn't that common sense? I mean, how could he fix it if he really didn't understand how bad it is? And he can't go to the people and say, let's fix it and then have them start throwing things at him. And he's, oh, I didn't know. Oh, I didn't realize it was that bad. Oh, I didn't know it was... He couldn't be surprised. He had to do his homework. He did his homework. He didn't gloss over the problem. He described it in these verses as a bad situation. But he needed to see and he needed to provide leadership. And here's the point. As I've said, Nehemiah is often used as a book to teach leadership principles. And I've already touched upon some of that. But here's something just to kind of think about. Some leaders are so sanguine that they refuse to acknowledge how bad things are. Well, it's not really that bad. And what is the response of people who know how bad it is when the leader says it's not really that bad? They lose confidence in the leader, don't they? I mean, this guy really doesn't understand how bad it is. So how can we trust him to lead us if he can't see what's right in front of his eyes? And so they lose confidence. It undermines leadership. Others are so engulfed by the problem, they lose hope. I mean, isn't that kind of one of the worst things a leader can do is to say, oh, it's just so bad. I don't know what we're gonna do. It's just, it's impossible. What kind of leadership is that guy going to provide? Because it's going to be, he doesn't know what's going on either. If he's lost all hope, then I guess we've all lost all hope. Nehemiah realistically saw the problem. He broke it down into manageable units. And then he got to work to get the job done. And the remarkable thing is, and we've said this many times already, in 52 days, from the time they started, that wall was rebuilt. That is, from a human standpoint, you'd be like, oh no, there's no way you could go and rebuild those walls in 52 days. Less than two months. But he got it done, because he was providing the leadership but that leadership was born of his faith in God and his response to God and his love for God's people and for the city that God had said he would place his presence within. And so that city was important to him. Now, having said all that, that brings us to chapter three. So chapter one, God uses the man who has a burden. Chapter two, God responded to the prayer of a burdened man by calling that man to be a part of the answer and then used his enthusiasm to raise up the enthusiasm of those who had perhaps grown weary in well-doing. Chapter three, here's my title. What a team. What a team. See, here's the thing. Chapter 3 is a hard chapter to preach. If you've ever read through it, you know what I'm talking about. Let me give you an example. This is pretty much representative of the whole chapter. Verse 1. Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren, the priests, and they builded the sheep gate. They sanctified it and set up the doors of it, even under the tower of Miah. They sanctified it under the tower of Hananiel. But the fish gate did the sons of Hazaniah build, who also laid the beams thereof, and set the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof." Verse 6, they laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, and the locks thereof, and the bars thereof." Verse 13, "...the valley gate repaired Hanan, and the inhabitants of Zenoa. They built it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and a thousand cubits on the wall under the dung gate. But the dung gate repaired Malchiah, the son of Recab, the ruler of of Bethahacherim. He built it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, the bars thereof. But the gates of the fountain repaired. Shallan the son of Kohauza, the ruler of Mishpah, he built it, covered it, set the doors thereof, the locks thereof, the bars thereof, the wall of the pool of Siloam." Verse 28, from above the horse gate repaired the priests, everyone against his house. Verse 32, and between the going up of the corner and under the sheep gate repaired the goldsmiths and the merchants. Did you kind of get the point of what chapter 3 is recording? Here are the names of individuals and here's where they worked on the wall. Isn't that exciting? You see why it's kind of like, how do you preach from this chapter? We got a lot of people and they're all working. Yeah, okay, that's good. What is the point? And this is where tonight I'm just gonna give you the introduction now in the next few minutes and we'll pick up on this next week. But I want you to see, at least as I see it, the flow here. News comes to Nehemiah chapter one about these very same walls and how bad things were in Jerusalem and for the Jews who'd return. He has a burden. He prays. For four months he seeks the face of God while he does his job and does it well. God opens the door for him to be the answer to his own prayer. And he willingly yields himself and demonstrates that for four months he's been saying, if I did this, I would need X because immediately he has an answer when the king says, well, what do you need to get the job done? He doesn't say, oh, I need to talk to some experts and figure it out. Here's what I need to get the job done. He's been thinking and planning while he's praying. And then God uses him to fire up the enthusiasm of his people. And chapter 3, what are they doing? They're getting busy. They're building the wall. They're responding. We have a team. That team didn't just happen. They were weary and had lost hope. And in a matter of days, they have done a 180. because of the man that God had raised up to come and get the job done. But it was a response to prayer. It all begins with prayer. And here's the point. God has made each one of us as individuals. Isn't that a good thing that we're not just all cookie cutter? That we're all different? I mean, actually, it's very encouraging that each one of us, even when you have a family with multiple children, and you have the same mom and dad, aunts and uncles, grandma and grandpa, you still have those kids who are different. Right? I mean, they're going to share certain characteristics because of the family, but each one is still different. We all are individuals and we're different. We should thank God for that. But, at the same time, God has made us interdependent individuals. So yes, I am unique I am made in the image of God just like everyone else. Every other person is made in the image of God. But I am unique in myself. There is no one like me and never has been one like me. But I'm not an island in the middle of the sea. I need other people. God made us social creatures. And we are many members, but we are one body in Christ. So this is an Old Testament passage, but it really is an illustration, isn't it, of this New Testament truth. Each one of us is an individual. They all didn't work on the same part of the wall at the same time, but they each took what they could to build their part of the wall, and in 52 days, they got the job done. And that's the lesson for us. We are members of the body and we must learn to work together. Think of it this way. God is a trinity. One God consisting of three persons, each fully God. One God in three persons who are in perfect unity and harmony, right? What does that mean? Well, God wants us to reflect His image. And that means that it is God's desire and God's purpose that in the church, you and I exhibit His image in the unity and harmony that we share as believers. Unity. I mean, don't you see that throughout the Word of God, throughout the New Testament? The whole idea that we're to love each other, and through our loving each other, we demonstrate to the world that we know God who first loved us. Because it's not something common to the world that we have the kind of unity and harmony that should exist in the body of Christ. Here's an illustration of this very idea. At first glance, it's difficult. Let me just, give me a couple more minutes, all right? This is such a difficult passage that here's how some people have dealt with it. Some people have said, well, you know, I think we have to look at this passage as an allegory. Here's an example. The sheep gate refers to Christ, the good shepherd. The fish gate is a picture of Christ as the fisher of men. The old gate, well, that is a lesson for us to reject the modern newfangled ideas and get back to the old paths. Now, do I believe he's the good shepherd and the fisher of men? And do we believe in what we would call the old ways? But is that what's in this passage? No, but it's a demonstration that people of good faith come to the passage and say, well, I don't know how to deal with this. All scripture is given with the inspiration of God and is profitable. Why did God give us this passage? Why do we need to know the names of these people and the parts of the wall they worked on? What does it matter? I mean, all that really matters is Nehemiah came, he had a plan, they acknowledged the plan and responded to him and they built the wall and praise God, 52 days it was done. Why do we care who built what part of the wall? I think it's included in Scripture for that very purpose. They worked together. What do I mean by that? Well, think about this. Did they not have to agree on how they were gonna rebuild the wall? What would happen if each one of these work groups, because they're all working simultaneously, what would happen if each one of them starts building their part of the wall, but they all have a different vision on how the wall's supposed to come together? And what kind of wall they're building? I mean, I think it should be decorative. And you know, I want to have all these nice things in here. Oh, it's a beautiful piece of art. I just want a wall that's going to be good and thick. It's going to protect us from our enemies. And you put those walls together and wait, that doesn't fit. They had to work in their separate places, but they had to have a unified vision of what they were there to do. And that is the first point, and we'll build on this more next week, but if we're going to accomplish God's purpose, we need to have a common vision. What is the purpose that each one of us has been called to accomplish for the glory of God? We have a wall to build, What is our vision, and how do we determine that vision? So we'll get into that further next week, but I think that as we come to the passage, that's the beauty of the passage. These people are all working together, and they accomplish a great task in a short period of time because they had a common vision. They are all working to accomplish the same thing, and they're not working at cross purposes. I think that maybe part of the reason the church today has lost some of the power and the influence that we once had is because we work at cross purposes. And we're not working in a unified way to accomplish the purpose for which God has called us because we've all kind of decided they're more important things, right? But we need to get back to what the Bible says. We'll build on that, Lord willing, next week. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the opportunity that we have to look at passages like this. Lord, I know we're looking at historical books, historical narrative from the Old Testament. Doing so, we may be tempted simply to read it like a history book and consider that the only benefit we have is simply knowing some facts from history. Lord, we perhaps could take it and spiritualize it into allegory like some have in this passage, or we can simply look at it and acknowledge that it has been given to us, recorded for us, for our benefit. so that we might profit from it. And Lord, simply looking at it and trying to decide what is this passage actually teaching? What is it demonstrating? And Father, I think this chapter demonstrates the unity that these folks had in response to the vision that drove Nehemiah. They caught that vision and working together, they accomplished something very dramatic in a short period of time. Lord, help us to learn from that, how we as a church need to have a vision, a common vision, how moms and dads need to have a shared vision in their home and in raising their children. And that, Lord, if we lack the common vision, then we're working at cross purposes with each other. So help us to gain this insight as we continue our work through this chapter. For your glory, we pray this in Jesus' name.