Leadership in the Face of Opposition part 3

Well go ahead and take your Bible and turn with me to Nehemiah chapter 4. If you've not done that already, Nehemiah chapter 4. Like I said earlier, we'll start in verse 15 and we'll go down to verse 23. We will conclude the chapter. Now if you have a good memory, you know that we have had two messages so far in chapter 4. This will be the third obviously. And we will finish the chapter and we will move away from this theme of opposition, but only for a little while. Only for a little while. So if you're a little tired of opposition, I have to apologize. It runs deep through this book, this little book of Nehemiah.

But I want you to notice that we have seen so far in the chapter two parallel themes running throughout all of the chapter. I'm telling you from verse 1 all the way to verse 23. First theme is opposition and the second theme is leadership. That's why I chose the title. The title isn't flashy. The title might not be that catchy, but the title is accurate to what we see in the chapter. That is leadership in the face of opposition. And those are the themes, those parallel themes that we see running through the chapter. I do this from time to time. You don't necessarily have to write these things down because you've written them down.

This is a little bit of a review, but I want you to get this in your mind. Just take a step back and I want you to notice the opposition. We saw in chapter 2 verse 19 the first opposition, Sanballat and Tabiah, they came and they confronted the people of God, the Jews under Nehemiah, as they were coming back to be a part of God's work. And what did they do? They were mocking. Now the scripture doesn't say they were laughing, but I have to believe that they were laughing. They were making fun, but they were mocking God's people. You know, maybe they were saying things like this.

You mean to tell me that you group of people, you ragtag Jews are going to rebuild the wall? Maybe your laughter just erupted among the whole group. Then we saw in chapter 4 verses 1 through 3, we saw opposition in the form of ridicule, but we see that it escalated to anger. They were literally angry. Maybe before they never thought that this would come about, but now they're angry because they are being successful in the work. And then later on in chapter 4 verses 7 through 8, we saw the opposition, it comes in the form of threats. They threaten them with violence. Now I want you to see how it's escalated, how it's grown.

That's what God's people are facing. It started off as mocking, and now it is physical threats, and they are literally, literally scared for their lives. That's why we saw, last time we were in the chapter, we saw how they did battle with discouragement because this was a real and legitimate threat. And then let's take a step back, and I want us to notice this other theme, this parallel theme of leadership. In chapter 2 verse 20, we saw Nehemiah state that God had called them to the work, and he had separated them from those half-breeds, those half-Jew, half-Gentiles, those who were not included in God's work. Isn't that what Nehemiah did?

Nehemiah said to those mocking men, Tabiah and Sanballat, he said, "You are not a part of this work. God's called us to this work." That was their reaction to that mocking. And then we saw in chapter 4 verses 4 through 5, Nehemiah prayed. When that angry ridicule, when those men became angry in their face, all he did was pray. I think we really needed to see that because most of the time if we react, we will react in our flesh first before we react in prayer, especially us leaders. And then we see in chapter 4 verses 10 through 14, we saw that Nehemiah led them even in the face of discouragement because discouragement did come.

What did Nehemiah do? He met them where they were. And what am I doing? I'm using some review to show you these parallel themes that run throughout the book. But it is important for us to see how opposition works. How opposition works. Many times in the life of the church, there will be people who will mock and they will ridicule and they will bring about threats against God's people, the men of the God in the church who are leading. They will use words and accusations and it will be nothing more than threats unless God allows them to move on those threats. It's nothing more than hot air. I was reminded of that about a week ago.

Many of you know that I traveled out of state and I went to a little small preaching conference. I enjoyed that and I met some people, ministers, different places and different churches in different states. I met a gentleman who was a pastor in the state of Louisiana and he began to tell me how he spent 15 years in a bivocational ministry situation. But he began to tell me how the church just had lots of problems and there was lots of opposition in the church. I just listened but he told me that there was one night before he went up to preach. Now get the picture. He's the pastor, been pastoring the church for 14 years.

And before he steps up behind the podium, the pulpit, we call it a holy desk, before he can step up, a lady in the church stepped up behind the pulpit and she began to call out accusations against the man of God, the pastor of the church. Now the sad thing is there weren't men in the church who stood up and took care of the problem but she began to make accusations and all of a sudden he said that they had some people in the church step up and they called a quick business meeting. See they have that plan. They called a quick business meeting and real quickly what did they do? They brought about a vote to try to vote the pastor out.

Well it didn't succeed. He said to me, he said, "Well I guess I should have stood up and voted them out." My first thought was no, you should have tackled her right out of behind the pulpit and then voted them out. It's just threats, ridicule. You see? And then he began to talk about how when it didn't go their way men would stand up and use foul language. It is exactly like what we see here, opposition to God's work. That stuff is real. But we need to see in application the characteristics of Nehemiah's leadership that run all through this story.

He was a man of God who led the people of God and who headed up the work of God in the face of real serious opposition. Now we're going to finish up this portion of the chapter. Like I said, chapter 4 verses 15 through 23 and the title of the message is "Leadership in the Face of Opposition, Part 3." I said earlier it's not really a catchy title but it fits. And if it fits I think we should stick with it. We're going to look at verses 15 through 23. We're going to look at the success of the people. Then we're going to see Nehemiah's leadership position. That's going to be interesting for us.

And then we're going to see continued success in the work. I have used these main truths all through the book. You'll go back and look at these three messages. I've used the success of the people, continued success of the work all through the chapter. So that's the themes that we see running all through these verses. Let's go back and look at the verses together starting in verse 15. "And it happened when our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan, then all of us returned to the wall, each one to his work.

And it came about from that day on that half of my servants carried on the work while half of them held the spears, the shields, the bows, and the breastplates. And the captains were behind the whole house of Judah, those who were rebuilding the wall and those who carried burdens took their load with one hand, doing the work and the other holding a weapon. As for the builders, each wore his sword, girded at his side as he built, while the trumpeter stood near me.

And I said to the nobles and the officials and the rest of the people, 'The work is great and extensive and the work is great and extensive and we are separated on the wall far from one another. At whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.'" Verse 21, "So we carried on the work with half of them holding spears from dawn until the stars appeared. At that time I also said to the people, 'Let each man with his servant spend the night within Jerusalem so that they may be a guard for us by night and a laborer by day.

So neither I, my brothers, my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us removed our clothes, each took his weapon even to the water.'" So let's dive right into the message. I want us to see truth number one, the success of the people. We see the success of the people. Now that's out of verses five through the beginning of verse 18. Now if you have a good memory you will remember that in our last message we ended with verse 15 and I used verse 15 to communicate the success of the people just like I will do that later on in this message. But the success in verse 15 can be seen throughout the next two and a half verses.

That's why I went back and grabbed it and pulled it back in. It does not always track, this success does not always track continuously but we see success all through these verses, this ongoing continued success. It does not just go up, up, up, up. Sometimes it goes up, sometimes it goes down. In their case they did take a dip in verses 10 through 14. Remember there was the discouragement but we see in the big picture the success of the people here. Now I want to make two observations here out of these verses. I want us to see that the workers, the work of building and defending is split up. The work of building and defending is divided up.

Look at verse 15. We've seen that verse, verse five that talks about how they've gone back to work but notice what happens. "And it came about from that day on that half of my servants carried on the work while half of them held the spears, the shields, the bows, and the breastplates, and the captains were behind the whole house of Judah." So we see here in verse 16 a very interesting note here. We do not see it as much in the English translations but in the original there is a difference between these two men or groups of men in verse 16. It seems that these were set apart as guards.

They were a special group of guards or helpers or bodyguards. They seem to have arranged them in a particular order. Some were posted behind the workers and they represented another group of defenders. Some of the Bible commentators that I read say that this could have been Nehemiah's personal armed men. So what do we see? There are some that are building and there are some that are guarded and there are some that are even standing behind the whole work. Maybe Nehemiah's personal elite bodyguards. But we see the work of building and the work of defending is divided up. And then second I want us to see the workers were still armed and ready.

The workers, they were still armed and ready. See in verse 17, those who were rebuilding the wall and those who carried burdens, see those are the ones bringing materials, they took their load with one hand doing the work and the other hand holding a weapon. So notice that division. Some were not working, they were guarding. But we see some who were working, they were working and they were armed and ready. It seems that we have varying degrees of readiness. It seems that those who carried building materials could carry a weapon while those buildings seemed to need both hands for the work.

Those who were working with two hands still had a weapon on their side. So here we see the continued success of the people, but things have changed. In this success we see the beautiful balance between two things. Trusting in God's sovereignty and being busy with man's responsibility. What do we see at the end of verse 20? Nehemiah said, "Our God will fight for us." He is trusting in the sovereignty of God, but yet he is leading them to be responsible by being ready for the work and ready to defend. So this is a beautiful balance between trusting in God's sovereignty and being busy or responsible with the work.

Nehemiah had a very deep trust in God, but he also saw that he needed to make wise, sensible precautions and plans. They trusted in God, but exercised their responsibility and no doubt it was under the leadership of God as God led Nehemiah. Now you might not have seen that in these verses if you've studied ahead, but we see the success of the people. And it is continuing and we see their success grow and change as we see the building and the defending all divided up here. But I want to make a few points of application here that can speak to us probably in a greater way than you know. We have to strike a very similar balance.

We are waiting on God to do things that we cannot do. We are praying for the lost. We are praying for souls to be saved, but yet on the flip side it could be that God is waiting on us to go and share the gospel. We could pray that God would draw them to Christ, but yet it could be that God is waiting on us to go share the bad news of the gospel and the good news of the gospel. It could be the instrument to bring your lost loved one is you. We have to be careful here. We can't just pray and pray and pray and wait on God to do something that he wants us to do. But we cannot strike out in the flesh.

We cannot strike out ahead of the leadership of the spirit and we cannot get ahead of the work of God. I give you a good example. It is a negative one, but it fits. I never forget one of the former churches that I served. There was a particular man. He was a deacon in the life of the church and it is kind of one of those negative stories. The names and faces change, but the story is the same. He was leaving his wife. None of the leadership in the church seemed to want to go see him and confront him.

I knew him and I began to pray and I began to pray and I began to see that no one was going and dealing with this man properly and biblically and I prayed over a period of a few days knowing that I needed to go pay him a visit. And I'll never forget one night the burden of the Lord hit me like a ton of bricks. I went to two or three places that night where I felt like I could find him. He was not there and I'll never forget riding in my car saying, "Lord, I've gone everywhere I know. I have a piece to go home, but I know I have to talk to him." Well, the next morning I had an appointment at eight o'clock.

It was an appointment at the local hospital and I went in and I made that visit. When I walked out the front door of the hospital, there he was. I was trusting in the sovereignty of God to lead me, but I had to exercise my responsibility. And you know, as it applies to the life of the church, we're expecting God to grow the church. We're expecting to reach people. We're expecting to grow the saints, but yet the work is entrusted to you. You might say, "I can't do anything. All I can do is keep the nursery. That's part of the work of God. I had a man come to me and say, 'I'll be glad to help you, Brother Chris, with Vacation Bible School.

All I can do is get the kids across the road.' I said, 'Praise God, that's serving the Lord.' You might serve in a capacity that you think is small, but yet it does matter. It is the responsibility of serving. Did you know that as we grow, there'll be a day, and Brother Keith and I have been praying earnestly about this, there'll be a day when God will bring other elders in the life of the church. God does not desire the church to stay just like it is. There'll be a day when we will have to pray and appoint Deacon leadership, because you have Deacon leadership and Elder leadership.

That is putting the work of the church in the hands of the people and being responsible. As the ministry grows, there are things we used to just leave off. Now we can't leave off anymore. We are responsible. There are certain things we've got to deal with in the next days to come. Now these are things that Brother Keith and I see that need to be done. You will see these things being fleshed out, thus being responsible. You see? And the plans that Nehemiah made in these verses were different than the plans that Nehemiah made before. It was under the leadership of the Spirit, but still under the sovereignty of God. That beautiful balance.

You might say, 'Well, Pastor, how does this go on a little further and apply to me?' Listen, you pray, you walk with God, and you make yourself available. You make yourself available to the Lordship of Christ. And I promise you, if you have an earnest desire to be used in the life of the church, that service that is designed for you will find you. Trusting in God, but yet knowing the responsibility of the church is put in our hands. Now, one more thing of application before I move on. You pray for me. You pray for Brother Keith. You pray for us diligently.

You pray that we will have the heart of Nehemiah, and we will make the proper decisions as we grow. Let's move on. I want us to notice truth number two, Nehemiah's leadership position. Nehemiah in his leadership position. There's a transition in verse 18. I'm going to read all of hers. As for the builders, each wore his sword, girded at his side, as he built, two hands working hard. Wow, here's the transition. While the trumpeter stood near me. And I said to the nobles and the officials and the rest of the people, the work is great and extensive, and we are separated on the wall far from one another.

And at whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us. Now notice that according to these verses, Nehemiah was right in the middle of the work. He wasn't behind the lines, he was right in the middle. He wasn't back in comfort, he was right in the middle. We find him alongside the trumpeter in verse 18, alongside the builders in verse 18, alongside the nobles and officials in verse 19. We know that the enemies of God, if I can use this language, they were just over the hills waiting to attack. And remember, this was a violent attack.

We know that they have been escalating in their opposition, but we find Nehemiah in a certain position. That's why I chose the title of that point, Nehemiah's leadership position. He is right in the middle of the work. Now there are two observations I want to make here out of these verses. First I want you to see that Nehemiah led the people to take risks. Nehemiah led the people to take risks. I'm going to take these verses out of order, but you'll see how they fit together. Look at verse 19.

"And I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, 'The work is great, it's extensive.' What that meant was it was stretched out, is they had to build the walls all the way around the city. And we are separated on the wall far from one another. Whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. We see the extensive work. It is spread out. The walls are stretched out over a great distance. The officials and the workers were at great risk. Earlier in verse 11, the enemies had made threats to swoop in and attack them.

And in verse 13, remember, Nehemiah had led the people to take up strategic places where they would have been a deterrent to the attack. But now it changes. Now it seems the work demanded that they take a risk that they did not take before. They seemed to have been congregated before, and now they are spread out. And remember, this is under the leadership of Nehemiah. Second, I want you to see that Nehemiah made preparation for protection. He made preparation for protection. That comes out of verse 18 and in verse 20.

What does it say? 'While the trumpeter stood near me.' See right in the middle of the work, there's the trumpeter and there is Nehemiah. Then verse 20, 'And whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. God will fight for us.' Now that might sound strange for you to hear that there was a trumpeter, but the trumpet was a common tool used to sound the alarm and to summon troops for battle. Archaeological reliefs depict Egyptian and Assyrian soldiers using trumpets in battle. So this was a common thing among the pagan enemies, the pagan armies, and it was a common tool among the Jewish people.

But this was a precautionary measure. This was a plan for perpetual readiness. They were on the alert, they were ready, they were working, and if the sound of the alarm was blown, what did he say? 'You come running and God will fight for us.' So here we see Nehemiah's leadership change in one way. Whereas before, he was seemingly cautious in verse 11. What did he say? 'Let's get together by family groups in strategic locations to be a deterrent.' And now he is leading the people to spread out and to take risks. But notice that he is right in the middle. He is right in the middle.

He is taking a risk as well, and he is making plans for protection. He is making plans and has a perpetual readiness for the work and for the people. And he is right in the middle of the work. Now an application, I want you to see the roles that I must take. This has become one of my life verses. This is one that I have meditated on, I come back and forth to it. You can write it down, I would like you to write it down, I would like you to read it and study it. But 1 Peter chapter 5 verses 1 through 3. When I read this, you are going to see some similarities.

Peter says, 'Therefore I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder.' Now many of you, you have been here long enough to know that Brother Keith and I are biblical elders. Ministers, pastors, fulfilling the role of an elder. He says, 'I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed.' Now here are the roles. Shepherd the flak of God among you, exercising oversight, here is the motivation. Not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God, and not for sordid gain or selfish gain. But let me show you.

Notice the multitasking job, shepherding the people and overseeing the people. You know the imagery here is of a shepherd tending to his sheep, and a shepherd would get among the flock and walk among the flock and lead the flock. He knew each sheep by name. He knew their propensities to good and bad, but yet there were times he would ascend to a high hill and oversee the flock. And he would look for the predators, maybe look for green grass and water. That is a great picture of what a pastor does.

It is my job to be with you, to walk through life with you, to walk through those heartaches with you, to walk through those marriage difficulties with you, to celebrate when your children are married, to celebrate when you have those babies, to come and celebrate when you have family who are getting married, to pray with you when you have difficulties in your job. You name it, it just goes down the list. We are to shepherd you and live among you, but then we are to oversee you and lead you into the truths of the word of God. So it is this two-fold work and we see Nehemiah doing the same thing. He's overseeing and he's shepherding.

He's in the middle of the work. And that is my heart and that is Brother Keith's heart and that is what we have exemplified before you for so long. And listen, God could lead us to take risks. What if God leads us to send one of our own children around the world to a very dangerous place as a missionary? What if God calls you to go on a mission trip one day where you may risk your life? That's nothing new to God.

What if God were to call us one day to do some very great and ambitious things in the life of the church and the outside world would laugh at us and sneer at us and say, "How can you, a little small church, take these risks?" But I want to show you something. Not only did Nehemiah lead them to take risks, Nehemiah protected them. Let me go back to the example that I gave earlier. Do you remember my friend who battled with that insurrection in the life of this church? You know why that insurrection was able to succeed even just for a second? It was because the church was not structured and functioning properly.

It is the elders who oversee the work of the church. And I'm thankful that if something like that were to happen here before I could address it, Brother Keith would address it. And before we could address it, they're laymen, men in the life of this church, who would address it? And Nehemiah protected the work. And that is one of our jobs as we grow in the life of the church. We must set up the church to be protected. Nehemiah protected the work. Sometimes you'll hear me talk about things such as church bylaws, church polity. You know those things can be good and those things can be bad. Those things are meant to be parameters, protections.

It can all be built on one or two men because what happens if those men are gone? Nehemiah was busy pouring himself into those nobles and those officials, you see? So Nehemiah's leadership position, he was right in the middle, taking those risks but leading them and also he was protecting them. You know from time to time we hear these stories of these churches, things that go on. What galls me the most is when there are no men to protect the flock. Where are the pastors? Where are the elders who have the guts to stand on the Word of God and to protect people just like you? I have been in your position.

I've been in the pew where there were no men to protect the work of the church and I was run roughshod. I was abused and I was cheated. Nehemiah had not done his job. What would have happened to those workers who were on the farthest portions of the wall? If Nehemiah had not done his job, what about those nobles and officials? How would they have been treated? You see? Nehemiah's leadership position was extremely important. Let's move on. I want us to notice truth number three. I want us to see the continued success of the work. Again, I've used this so many times but it fits starting in verse 21.

So we carried on the work with half of them holding spears from dawn until the stars appeared. That's day like the dark. At that time I also said to the people, "Let each man with his servant spend the night within Jerusalem so that they may be a guard for us by night and a laborer by day." So neither I, my brothers, my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us removed our clothes. Each took his weapon even when to the water. Here we see this continued theme of success in the work even with opposition on the horizon.

It seems that the enemy is silhouetted as he stands on the hills watching them work and ready to pounce on them at any time. They are successful. Three observations I want to make here. First I want us to see they worked from dawn till dusk. Isn't that what we see in verse one? So we carried on the work, half of them holding spears from dawn until the stars appeared. Here we see that the work that was according to their earlier allotment starting in verses 16 through 17 and we see that they are working hard. Some have spears, some do not, but all are working hard. Remember now Nehemiah is right here in the middle.

Nehemiah, the noblemen, the officials, and the workers all set an example before the people and the enemies who were watching them. So they worked hard. Nehemiah says they were ready when they took their lunch break. Then verse 22 we see they protected themselves and the work. They protected themselves and the work. Verse 22, "At that time I also said to the people, 'Let each man with his servant spend the night within Jerusalem.'" Nehemiah's instruction to the workers is to move inside the protection of Jerusalem after dusk for two reasons. First, they offered protection for them.

The walls were not finished, but there was safety in their numbers. And second, their collective force provided protection for the still fragile state of the walls. The enemy could have possibly destroyed the walls had they not been there. So this is a two-fold protection. Protected the troops, it protected the workers, it protected the leaders, and it protected the work. And then I want us to see third, they were ready 24 hours, 7 days a week. This verse communicates a constant readiness for work. What does it say?

"So neither I, my brothers, my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me," he's right in the middle, "none of us removed our clothes and each took his weapon even to the water." This verse communicates a constant readiness for the work. They were always dressed for the work. They were always dressed for the possible battle. Even when their guard was expected to be down, when they went to water, they were ready. They were in a constant state of readiness, and yes, Nehemiah is right in the middle. So here we see a success in the work, but we see a readiness within this success, a heightened level of readiness.

They were always dressed for the work. They were always ready. If trouble was to approach, they were ready. And in the midst of it all was Nehemiah. His position was that of an overseer, if I could use that New Testament language, and a shepherd, if I could use that language, and a worker. Now an application, I want to say this to you. The work of ministry and the work of the church is hard work. I resent those ministers who all they do is preach. Now that's hard work in and of itself. But the work of the ministry is hard work.

In all of the years that I've been in ministry, I've never known any other way than to attempt to pour 100% of my life into the ministry. That is my heartbeat. That is my wife's heartbeat. And I think that as God has allowed me and my wife, our family, we have exemplified that to you. There have been many times some of you have come to me and you have said, "Are you sure you need to do that? Are you sure you have time for that?" Some have come and said, "Well, I'm worried about your wife. She's working pretty hard." Some have come to me and said, "You know, do you need a break, this, that, and the other?

What am I trying to show you?" Ministry is hard work. But what we see as ministry is an investment of the life. I had this mindset when I was a layman. I mean, when God began to stir in me to be a part of the work of the church and to make myself available to the work, I began to pour more and more and more of my life in the work. I never forget when I was a layman, when I was asked to volunteer. Remember this was volunteer work. I remember turning down opportunities I had for hobby. I was needed. I was needed in the work. I asked to volunteer. And you know, it's not just hard work for the minister. It's hard work for you.

It's hard work to teach that class, not just once. It's hard work to teach it once and do it right. It's hard work to teach that class day in and day out, every week, every week, January, February, March, April. It's hard work to pick up people. It's hard work to minister to the down and outers. It's hard work to counsel. It's hard work to sometimes help people with problems. It's hard work to roll up your sleeves and preach week in and week out. It's hard work to build the church. You know, I've told people, especially minister friends, I've never started the church, but Nola was about as close as you could get. It's not easy.

But it's glorious and wonderful work. I'm not lamenting. I'm rejoicing. I wouldn't do anything else. I am not lamenting and pouring my life into the work and helping you through your problems. It is what my heart beats for because listen, I don't care what you've been through. There are others that have been through it and I've had my fair share of difficulties. But ministry is hard work and I want to make further application by saying this. As our church grows, the church will need you. The church will need your gifts and your abilities and your talents. There are things that you can do that I can't do.

And we will need you to be ready spiritually and to be able to invest your life. Now as I move away from the body of the message, leadership in the face of opposition, what do we see? We see the success of the people. It's a different success now. They begin to take risks and spread out. Circumstances change. Nehemiah right in the middle and we see a continued success. There is a new level of readiness and commitment to the work. There's risk involved in a new way but Nehemiah is right in the middle. Success of the work. Now I want to move away from the body of the message. I want to pose a question. This is not one that you can answer.

You know we have those rhetorical questions. I kind of laugh Wednesday night when Brother Ed asked a rhetorical question and one of our children answered it. And I loved how he picked right up with that little girl and went right on with it. It's beautiful. Affirming her in that. But here's the rhetorical question. What does the future hold for the Nola Baptist Church? I don't know. You don't know. I don't believe it stays the same. I'm going to be honest with you. I want as many people as we can get. Not for the roles. I want as many people as we can get to hear the gospel. Now don't be selfish.

You know there are people out there just like you and they need the gospel. There are people out there just like I was and they need the gospel. You know there are Christians out there hurting because they're in sick churches. I was visiting with a lady this week. My work put me in her life and she was sharing with me how sick her church is and I felt so sorry for her. You know there are Christians out there needing a biblically healthy church, a church that functions as it should. I'm going to be honest with you. I want all the people we can get. I want all the families we can get. I want all the children we can get.

I want all the teenagers we can get. I want all that we can get so that if they're not born again God can save them and God can get glory and if they're saved God can grow them and be part of a biblical church and therefore God can get glory and then we can do greater things around the world. Now God can use us no matter how sized we are. I don't know what the future holds but I've got to put my ideas and my dreams and my aspirations on the altar and I've got to say Lord I want you to help us to reach our potential and expand our potential.

You realize that this little rag tag group of people never could have built those walls unless God helped them? Now I want to issue you a challenge as I close. I heard this from another pastor so I'm borrowing it. I heard a pastor say it like this one time. You know if a pastor quotes something he quotes it, I heard so and so say this. Well the second time he quotes it he says well I've always heard and the third time he says well I've always said. I heard a pastor say it like this. He had some of the people in his church come and ask him said, pastor do I have time for this ministry? Do I have time for that ministry?

Do I have time for this pair of church ministry and that pair of church ministry? I mean ministry is outside of the life of the church. He looked at them and he said yeah it might be good and it might be okay but don't forget you're part of the bride of Christ. Christ Jesus is the bride groom and you are married to this thing called the church and I want you to see that Nehemiah was married to the work. He was in it wholeheartedly.

These men, these women, these noblemen, these officials were in this thing wholeheartedly and we are part of the body of Christ and we are married to Christ and we are married to one another and we are married to this work and we need to examine our lives and examine the time that we have, the energy that we have and the limited amount of opportunity that we have before us and be willing to pour all that we have in the work. So what? So that we can be successful at this thing called the church even if opposition should come. As we conclude with chapter four I'll make a deal with you.

You pray for me, brother Keith and I'll pray for you and we'll look forward to what God is going to do. And I believe God will use us to do something that we can't do. Let's pray.