tonight in our series Nehemiah chapter 3 wall-to-wall workers wall-to-wall workers it's amazing there's really more to this chapter and I'm still praying about if I want to preach another message next week but God knows and I'll be praying about that Nehemiah chapter number three, we did realize all these verses speak about all these families, all these people, all these workers rebuilding the wall. Amen. It's amazing. What we see in God's word and. And. There's so many people here. That we mentioned I don't know if I have it at the onset of this, the message last week, I know it was in the outline that we talked about, but if I'm not mistaken, we'll get to it tonight, if I can't find it quickly here. 38 workers and 48 different groups are all named here, 38 workers all cooperating and working together to build their city and its walls. It's an amazing work. It's an amazing work. And so tonight we're going to Go back through a few of the lessons or verses, and we'll just begin reading tonight. Just read the first section of verses as we get back into the message. We'll go from one down to verse 12. And I want you to pay attention to how many people, where they were working, and what they were doing, and then we'll get to our outline tonight, just to finish up the second part of this message. Then Eliashiv, the high priest, rose up with his brethren, the priest, and they built it up. They built the Sheep Gate. They sanctified it and set up the doors of it, even unto the Tower of Mea. They sanctified it and the Tower of Hananiel. And next unto him buildeth the men of Jericho. And next to them buildeth Sacchor the son of Emory. But the fish gate that the sons of Hasina build, who also laid beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof. Next unto them repaired Merimoth the son of Uriah the son of Chaz. And next unto them repaired Meshulam, the son of Berekiah, the son of Mishaz Abil. And next unto them repaired Sadok, the son of Banna. And next unto them, the Tekoites repaired. But their nobles put not their necks to the work of their lord. Moreover, the old gate repaired Jehoiada, the son of Passiah. And Mashulam, the son of Besoadiah, they laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, and the locks thereof, and the bars thereof. And next unto them repaired Melatiah the Gibeonite, and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gabayan and of Mishpah, and unto the throne of the governor on this side, the river. Next unto him repaired Uziel, the son of Harhiah, of the goldsmith. Next unto him repaired Hananiah, the son of one of the apothecaries. And they fortified Jerusalem unto the broad wall. And next unto them repaired Rephiah, the son of Hor, the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem. And next unto them repaired Jedi, the son of Haramath, even over against his house. And next unto him repaired Hattish, the son of Hashibaniah. Malchijah, the son of Haram, and Hashib, the son of Pahath-Moab, repaired the other piece. and the tower of the furnaces. And next unto him repaired Shalem, the son of Haloash, the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem, he and his daughters. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, tonight we just want to thank you for the work that's going on in this chapter. Father, help us to glean some principles for our lives tonight as a church. Father, we know the principles of work, the principles of unity and cooperation and diligence and sacrifice apply to us today. So Father, help us. Speak to us through the power of your Holy Spirit. And Father, minister to our hearts. We want to thank you, Father, for everyone that's here, and we pray for those that cannot make it. Father, you know their needs. You know, Father, where they're at tonight, what they're doing. We just pray your hand upon them and your protection upon them. So, Father, bless now as we receive your message. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So as we just look back over the outline, if this thing will work. We saw last week the purpose of the work, and we can find this principle throughout the Word of God there. And also in Nehemiah's life, it was the glory of God. And God loved the city of Jerusalem. God was working there. We see the purpose of our church is to do everything for the glory of God. And we're following Jesus, who his ministry was all to the glory of God, everything that he did. And we found that God has a task for all of us. So we see the purpose here is the glory of God and all of us getting involved for the glory of God. And then we we saw some of the people here and just some broad principles here over this chapter. And we'll try to get some more specifics tonight. But we do know, aren't you thankful God uses all kinds of people? Amen. And he wants to use everyone. And I hope that you can't say, you know, God doesn't want to use me. Yes, he does. He wants to use everyone here tonight. And then we see as Nehemiah and the leaders of this chapter, Nehemiah being one of them, but the priest and the spiritual leaders and the political leaders, all these leaders had to set an example in the work. Amen. They had to be up front doing God's work. But sadly, we find that some people will not work. And this is the nobles there for one reason or the other, their pride maybe. And we realize they were, their politics, you know, maybe they're living away from Jerusalem and they didn't want to lose authority. And so they didn't want to, you know, stir things up and cause themselves any pain in this. So they just decided they're not going to work. And we do find many today for one reason or the other that they don't want to work for God. We find in this chapter some people want to do more work than others. And this is where you start seeing that they're going an extra mile. They're doing they're doing another piece, another piece, meaning they did this. Now they're going to add to it and they just keep doing more for the Lord. And then. Uh, we do find those who are doing their work at home and, and, uh, that's another principle there. They're building their neighborhoods. Amen. They're working there close to home. And, and we know that's a principle in God's word. We ought to start in our own house. Amen. And doing the work of the Lord. And then we find that some. Do more or work harder and we're gonna get to this principle tonight is as we go to the last part of our Outline in this chapter. There's a pattern here There's a pattern for the work that we are going to do here this is set out by these workers in our chapters tonight and And I want to give some broad principles as you look at the walls, the different walls. We find the northern wall. That's the first verses, the north wall and its gates. And what do we learn from these workers? Well, if you go back over verses 1 to 12, you're going to find that they worked in the spirit of unity. Isn't that so needed today in the work of God? And we'll get to that in a moment. Go back through some of these verses. Verses 1 and 2, you have the priest working together. The high priest with his brethren, the priest. And then the men of Jericho are building the next section in verse 2. So you next unto them, you see, they're all working in a spirit of unity, one next to the other in the work that they were called to do. And then we see verses three to five, the fish gate. And then you have, again, the family of Hasina. You have the sons, you have the family there building the fish gate. And then, there were several families here. In verse four, you have Merimoth and Meshulam. So next unto them, it says in verse four, they repaired. So you have, again, families working with families. in the spirit of cooperation to do the work. Now the word repaired is repeated, is it not? Building and repairing. And the word is a very strong word. It means to be strengthened. to be made strong, to be made firm, to withstand attack. So, brethren, when we find this work being done, it wasn't a half-hearted work. It was, they were doing their best. What they were building was strong and firm, amen? And they were committed to doing their best, and that's so important in the work of God, too, today. doing your best. You know, we ought to do that. And we find in verse four that the Tekoites, sorry, in verse five, you have the Tekoites, and we did learn that the common people there, it says next unto them the Tekoites repaired, verse five, but their nobles did not work. So even though, you know, how many times get the idea that, OK, they're not doing it, so I'm not going to do it. How easy would it be for the people of Toccoa to say, well, our leaders are not leading the way, so we're just going to stay home and not work? No. They cooperated fully. They committed themselves totally to the building project despite their leaders. In fact, they built two sections of the wall because they're mentioned in verse 27 later in the chapter. Then we see in verse 6 you have the old gate. Moreover, the old gate repaired Jehoiada, the son of Passa, Meshulam, the son of Besodiah. And so here we have again different families, different workers, different people working together. You're going to find this common thread. Look at verse 7. So you have the men of Gibeon, the men of Mishpah, under the throne, meaning even the governor. Even the governor. So you have all these different people working in specific sections of the wall. They were cooperating, they were committed to this project, even the governor supporting them in the work. Verse number eight, you have the goldsmiths, some tradesmen, some leaders in verse eight. And, uh, it's amazing. Even, uh, verse nine, you have, uh, all kinds of business leaders, all kinds of political leaders, and they're all working together. Then we find in verse 10, you have, uh, You're working near your house. You're you know think about that wouldn't you want to do the best work right near your house? And where you're gonna live on the wall next unto them verse 10 repaired Jediah the son of Haramath Haramath the oh even over against his house and next unto him repaired haddish the son of Hashab Anaya so we have Those working together in their neighborhoods, amen? How important that is. Working in your neighborhood, doing your best to be the best neighbor that you can be, amen? Verse 11, now there's a tower. The tower of furnaces is being built in verse 11. These were ovens. and two men. Two men are working together there. Hashib and Malkijah. So we see these men working together in verse number 11. And then as we go throughout, as I mentioned, Throughout this whole construction project, we have everyone that was assigned a very specific task and everyone cooperated together in a unified effort. Now how do we do that? Each person kept his eyes on their task and doing the best to their ability, using that gift. Some of them were gifted workers. They were using that gift that God had given them. So 38 workers, 42 different groups are named, all cooperating and working together for the glory of God, to build their city, to build its walls. Think about everywhere you are today, whether it be the job site, your home, the school, a team, wherever it is, a family, we need, nothing's gonna be accomplished unless there is unity, unless there's a spirit of cooperation, everyone working together for a common goal. This is how things get done. Can you imagine if everyone's going in a different direction and doing their own thing and pulling against each other? What's going to be accomplished? Nothing. The only thing that's going to be accomplished is dissension and division. And we know dissension and division rips apart families. friends, workers, classmates, athletes, businesses, social organizations, churches, communities, political parties, nations, and a host of other relationships. So dissension and division is what the devil wants to sow, but God wants unity. We find some of these principles in God's Word. And you know what? There should be a slew of verses there. And I'll just have to read them to you. I have them on the next point. But I want you to think about what the New Testament says about unity. And for us, just go through a few verses. You want to hold your place here? Go to Romans 12 and verse number five. We have to work together. This is the pattern set for us. If we're going to accomplish anything for God, we need the spirit of unity, the spirit of cooperation. Romans 12, 5 says, So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and all members have not the same office. And we see the different parts of the different body here. It'd be good for you to read the whole chapter and the different gifts. Go to 1 Corinthians 1 10. What was the problem there? He says, Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing. And that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together. How in the same mind, in the same judgment? You know, he was calling for unity in the church there at Corinth. Go to Ephesians, chapter four, what a wonderful chapter about unity. In the book of Ephesians, and we have a few verses here, In chapter 4, verse 3, it speaks about endeavoring. Brethren, that's a work that we need to do. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body. So what does the Holy Spirit want to do? He wants a spirit of unity. He wants a spirit of cooperation. He wants us to have one mind, one spirit, working for that common goal. And we need to endeavor to keep that unity because He's going to produce it. Amen. Now go down to verse 13. Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Brethren, that's God's goal in us. Amen. He wants us to come to the unity of the faith the fullness, the maturity that we all should have in Jesus Christ. God is working in us. And so we see we need to work in the spirit of unity and cooperation. But then in verses 13 and 14, we need to work in a spirit of humility. Go back to our text, notice. Not all the wall. was glamorous, not all the work was in the limelight and desirable. You know, there's some jobs that are difficult and less desirable and even filthy and dirty jobs, amen? But they have to be done. And God's gonna put that spirit of humility in his people to take up You know, I think, really, there should be nothing beneath us in the house of God and in the work of God. We shouldn't say, you know, well, let someone else do that. You know, I don't do those things. Not us, amen? We should be willing, if it's God's work and God's house and God's ministry, we should be willing to take on the difficult jobs and even Even those jobs that others would say, you know what, I just don't want to do that, but we should humble ourselves and do that. And here we find in verses 13, the valley gate, the dung gate. How would you like to be working over on Wilson Road, you know, in the dump? That's what they're doing, they're building the doors that lead to the dump of the city and where they burned all the trash and the stench was coming up all the time, that smell. Maybe that's where, no, I'm saying, we won't put our church building over there so that we have to smell that every time we go in. Just so we can be humble, amen? No. But what we see is there's some men that God raised up in the same spirit. He says, verse 13, the Valley Gate repaired Hanun, the inhabitants of Sanoa. They build it, set up the doors there of the locks there of in the bars there of in a thousand cubits on the wall unto the Dung Gate. But the Dung Gate repaired Malachi, the son of Recab, the ruler of part of Beth, Hakerim, He built it and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof. Now, the amazing thing, it starts giving us the amount of this project, the amount of work they had to do. This was the west wall, and it was an enormous project that included two gates and over 500 yards of wall. 1,000 cubits or about 1,720 feet. So both the Valley Gate and the 500 yards plus of wall were rebuilt by a man named Hannon. And this is a long section. Could you imagine the commitment that he had in doing this project? And then the Dung Gate. That was located on the southern part of the city and set above the Valley of Hinnom. This is where the rubbish and the garbage dump was located. And the stench from this constant burning of garbage must have been unbearable doing this work. So this part of the wall was the most undesirable, this part of the project. So these men, humble themselves to take on the undesirable job that maybe others overlooked. Brethren, life, at times in our lives, we're going to face these unpleasant and undesirable tasks that must be done. and how we approach these distasteful or lowly task reveals about our character and our attitude. You know, how do we feel when we have to do it? That's showing us our heart. Because the truth of the matter is pride is an enemy to us and pride is an enemy to God and to the work of God. So if you feel like you're too important or you're too intelligent to be doing these things, then you have to realize that's the wrong attitude in the work of God. Amen. Some people don't want to dirty their hands with common labor. But that is not should never be the attitude for God's people. Amen. Jesus, as I said, what was he a carpenter? Did he ever get dirty hands? Amen. The truth of the matter is, by nature, by nature, we think too high of ourselves. We feel that we are better. We feel that we are more superior. We feel like we have more value than others. But what does God's word teach? Go to Matthew 18. What does Jesus teach? I think even in salvation, we have to humble ourselves. Amen. Matthew 18 for whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. So he's talking about this humility and then Remember the disciples were arguing, go to Luke 22, who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom? So we know how they were feeling about the work, amen? They wanted to be in the in the best position possible. What did Jesus have to teach them? Luke 22, 25. And he said to them, the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so. But he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger and he that is cheap as he that doth serve. So he's saying, you know, be humble. Put yourself in a position to serve others. Amen? Go back to, go to Romans 12. I think in several of these principles, we go back to Romans 12. That would be probably a good chapter, a parallel chapter to be reading with Nehemiah chapter 3. But look at verse 3. For I say, though through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. Amen? We naturally think more highly of ourselves than we should. But to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. So do not think so high of yourself In fact, Philippians, go to Philippians chapter number two. It tells us to put on the mind of Christ, does it not? And what is the mind of Christ? When you put on the mind of Christ, when you have thoughts like Jesus and you want to be like him. Says in chapter 2 of Philippians verse 3, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but how in lowliness of mind Let each esteem other better than themselves. Look, not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And then it goes on to talk about how he humbled himself and became obedient even unto death, the death of the cross. So we need to be like Christ, amen? And take on a lowly mind. and be and humble ourselves and be obedient unto the Lord. So these are principles we need in the work of God. There's a pattern set. We need the spirit of unity. We need the spirit of humility. And then last of all, we need another spirit of diligence and zeal. Diligence and zeal, verses 15 back in our chapter. And for sake of time, I'm gonna try to pull out a few examples here. Now the work on the East Wall included the construction of five gates, and they're named in scripture here. And we find from verses 15 on that you have diligent workers, zealous workers, in all these different verses. So we go, just to give an example, go to verse 20. And I mentioned this last week, how the Word of God brings us out. So here's a man who's earnestly who is working with diligence, working with zeal, a special zeal to do the task that is given unto him. God can give us that same zeal. God can give us that same spirit of diligence, that spirit of zeal in the work of God. Look at verse 21. after him repaired Merimoth, the son of Rajah, the son of Kos, another piece, remember, another piece from the door of the house of Elisha, even to the end of the house of Elisha. So these men are not just doing one thing. They just keep going. Amen. They're going to say, you know, I'm going to do a little more. Go down to verse 27. Remember, that's it to Koites, I said that They did the work of God in spite of their leaders not doing the work. Then it says in verse 27, after them the Zechoites prepared another peace over against the great tower that lieth out, even unto the wall of Ophel. So here they are working with diligence, working with zeal. And so We see hard, diligent workers here, a heart filled with zeal, simply being responsible and doing all things well. Remember, that word repaired is a word that is saying doing a strong, strengthened, firm work, a work of excellence. That's what they were doing. It was a work of excellence. And they did it with diligence and zeal. And do you know that's the duty of all of us? No matter what we're doing in life, we ought to do it that way, with zeal, with diligence. God can give us that spirit, amen? And what is that spirit? You're doing the best you can do before the Lord, because brethren, the New Testament is teaching us, teaching that we're not doing it for eye service, we're not to please men, but we're serving the Lord. And that applies everywhere in life. It applies on the work, you know, on the job site. It applies in the classroom. It applies on the sports field. It applies in the church everywhere. We are to do everything to our best ability to make it acceptable unto the Lord for the glory of God. Guess where we're going. Romans 12. Romans 12 again. I told you. Maybe we ought to all go home and read Romans 12 after reading Nehemiah 3 and just kind of let it settle in in our hearts and our minds and meditate on it sometime. Verse 11. He says, not slothful in business. Amen? Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Brethren, think of that exhortation. How are we to work for God? Well, let's not be lazy. Let's be fervent in spirit. Let's be zealous. Let's be boiling over, amen, in spirit, serving the Lord. There's so many other exhortations Go to 1 Corinthians 15.58, what a wonderful, someone, I think brother. West mentioned the resurrection this morning, and this is the resurrection chapter, and you think of being buried in the likeness of his death and raised in the likeness of his resurrection. Well then, what does that mean in our lives? Well, think of 1 Corinthians 15, 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye what? Steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Amen. God sees everything that you're doing. God is overseeing the work and he wants us to have the same spirit of diligence. The same zeal and fervency in the work of God. Go to one more verse. Colossians. Colossians 3. in verse 23, and whatsoever you do, what does that mean? That means everything, amen? Not just a few things. Whatsoever you do, do it heartily. What does heartily mean? Wholeheartedly. Brethren, let's not be half-hearted in the things of God. Let's be wholehearted, amen? Because we're doing them as to the Lord and not of men. And it says right here, the motivation, knowing that of the Lord, ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. Amen. Thank God. Brethren, what a great work that we find in this chapter that no one person, could you imagine one person trying to do the work? It's impossible. One person can't do it. And so it took Nehemiah, it took the leaders, working with all the people, all the families, working with each family, all the laborers, all the craftsmen, and everyone doing their part, cooperating, and having that spirit of unity, having that spirit of humility, and having that spirit of diligence and zeal in the work of God. And everyone has a place to fill and a job to do. And that's what it is in the church today. We must work together. I think of what Jesus said that always comes back to me. I have glorified thy name on earth. I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do. Brethren, we have a work. It's defined. It's called the Great Commission. It's real. It's defined. This is the work of God. This is the work of the church. And we glorify the Lord as we diligently fulfill his work on this earth. And as we cooperate in the spirit of unity, and as we have humility, amen, as we do the work of God, God is going to get the glory. And we're going to be seeing in chapter four, that great verse, So they finished the work because the people had a mind to work. Amen. The walls were finished. God did a great thing because the people had a mind to work. And we thank God. You know, God's going to put that same spirit in us today. Same spirit you see in these men and ladies. Remember, there's daughters, there's women, there's families, there's, everyone was working, brethren. And God's gonna put that same spirit today in our church and each of our members to fulfill the work of God that he's called us to do here. So I'm thankful for this book. I hope you continue reading and studying the book of Nehemiah and seeing what God's gonna do with our church. It's gonna be great. as we fulfill these principles. Amen? Keep the spirit of unity. Keep that spirit of humility. And keep that spirit of diligence in the work of God. And God's going to do great things with us if we do that before Him. Let's all stand and have a word of prayer.