Nehemiah's Perseverance in the Work

If you would, go ahead and take your Bible. And I know we've already turned there because of our scripture reading. Turn to Nehemiah chapter 6. Nehemiah chapter 6. Before we really dive into the message, I want to challenge you to keep up with our study here in Nehemiah. I know that that can be hard sometimes because we do cancel from time to time. Next Sunday we won't have our evening service because of our first Sunday fellowship. Like June we were out a lot. I hated that. Sometimes when that happens we struggle with that continuity. It might do you some good to go back and listen to some of these messages.

It might do you some good to go back and study your notes. I'll give you an example. The two messages that we looked at in chapter 5 really go together. When you listen to them and study them together, you really get all that the Lord wants us to see in chapter 5. So it is sometimes some discipline to keep up, but it is worth it because I do believe that God is speaking and working in our study here. Nehemiah chapter 6 will be in verses 1 through 9. Now before we jump in here and read these verses, I want to take a step back. Similar to what I did this morning in our study of John. And I want to give you a little bit of an overview.

A little bit of an overview chapter by chapter in how we have learned how this is all fit together. Now if we go back and we start in chapter 1 and we go all the way to chapter 2 verse 10. Those chapters, those verses are about Nehemiah leaving the king's palace to come to Jerusalem for the work. If you remember he was serving the king of Persia. The people of God had been overrun. They were in judgment. They were in exile. He was in a foreign land serving a foreign king, but he was under the lordship of Christ if I can use that New Testament language. And he was right where God wanted him to be.

And as he was serving there in the king's palace, it was the Lord himself who came and chose him for this work. And so these chapters, these verses, chapter 1 to chapter 2 verse 10 are about everything that God did in Nehemiah to bring him to Jerusalem, to the work. Then in chapter 2 starting in verse 11, all the way to chapter 4, those chapters, those verses are about Nehemiah leading the people to this work. Now we know that this comes on the heels of what God did through Ezra. The book of Ezra and the book of Nehemiah are really one story.

But these verses, chapter 2 verse 11 to chapter 4, they teach the consistent work of God's people in the face of opposition. When they came back, they began this work. It was under the leadership of Nehemiah and those men. And they faced opposition from the beginning. They were ridiculed at first, and then that ridicule ultimately turned into violent threats. So they literally did the work of God with the fear of losing their lives. But they need not fear because they were under the sovereign protection of God's hand. Then in chapter 5, we see that things change. We learned that there was a great family crisis.

I use that language family on purpose because these were the Jews, God's chosen people. They were God's people, and they were a family. They were the family of God. That's why we saw language like brothers and sisters because this was a great family crisis. They had been experiencing external difficulties and opposition. Now they were in the midst of a family crisis. These were serious. God used this man, Nehemiah, to iron out and fix all of these internal problems that they were facing. Now, the highlight of what we've learned so far is what we see in the leadership of Nehemiah.

Not only are we seeing the story of God's people being called out of captivity, called back to engage in this work, we are seeing God bring to the forefront this man, Nehemiah, as the man of God, the leader of God for this time. The success of the work seems to have been primarily put on the shoulders of Nehemiah. Now we know there were other men. We know there were others who rallied around behind him and beside him and with the work. But so much seems to have been dependent on Nehemiah. Now I want you to see some wonderful things about Nehemiah. First of all, Nehemiah, he followed God's call. Remember he was in comfort?

He was in Susa in the king's palace and he was doing a great work there because he was living according to God's sovereign plan for his life, but he followed God's call in his life. Then as he engaged in this work, we see that Nehemiah became a man who could get the job done. I mean, think about it. He didn't have construction experience, but he was able to get the job done. Now we see that he was not only a man who could get the job done, but he was a man who could face external opposition. He went from ridicule all the way to violent threats, but in the midst of that he could still get the work of the kingdom done.

And then we see that Nehemiah was able to tackle internal difficulties, family problems. And then we see that Nehemiah, he could serve God's people sacrificially. Didn't we learn that at the end of chapter five? He sacrificed and sacrificed and sacrificed. He put the work of God and God's people ahead of himself. So what do we see here? This is a wonderful man of God. And look at this. Doesn't this go back, doesn't this remind us of what we learned last Sunday on Father's Day? This man, a Paproditis, that came alongside Paul and he enabled Paul to further kingdom work there in that imprisonment in Rome. And what am I trying to show you?

We need men like Nehemiah, men like a Paproditis, to be a part of the work of the church. And just that overview of Nehemiah's life alone is powerful. He followed the call of God. He could get the work of God done. He could do this in the face of external opposition and internal difficulties. And he even did it sacrificing the whole way. Whoa, the church needs men like that today. We need men like Nehemiah and men like a Paproditis today. If God were to give us men like this today, what in the world could the church do for the advancement of the kingdom and to take the gospel around the world?

Now, tonight I want us to see that we're going to circle back. I've already told you, told you before we got into chapter 5, that we're going to circle back to this great and continuous external opposition. At the beginning of chapter 6, we're going to see this familiar language, these familiar names and a familiar scene. We're going to see Sandballat and Tabiah and Gisham the Arab and we're going to see that Sandballat and Tabiah have led into more opposition. Now we got a break from that opposition in chapter 5, which to me was refreshing, but here we go right back to this external opposition. Let's look at verse 1.

We're going down to verse 9 tonight. Now it came about when it was reported to Sandballat, Tabiah and Gisham the Arab and to the rest of our enemies that I had built or rebuilt the wall and that no breach remained in it, although at that time I had not set up the doors and the gates that Sandballat and Gisham sent a message to me saying, "Come let us meet together." They're at the plain of Ono, but they were planning to injure me or harm me. Some translations say injure. Verse 3, "So I sent messengers to them saying, 'I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.

Why should the work of God stop while I leave it and come down to you?' They sent messages to me four times in this manner and I answered them in the same way. Then Sandballat sent his servant to me in the same manner a fifth time with an open letter in his hand." Verse 6, "And it was written." Now this is that open letter. "The Jews reported among the nations," and Gishu says, "that you and the Jews are planning to rebel. Therefore you are rebuilding the wall and you are to be their king according to these or their reports. And you have also appointed prophets to proclaim in Jerusalem concerning you." A king is in Judah.

And now it will be reported to the king, talking about the king in Persia according to these reports. "Come now and let us take counsel together." This was part of that open letter. Verse 8, "Then I sent a message to him saying, 'Such things as you were saying have not been done but you were inventing them in your own mind. For all of them were trying to frighten us, thinking they will become discouraged with the work and it will not be done. But now, O God, strengthen my hands." Now, the title of the message tonight is rather simple. It's Nehemiah's Perseverance in the Work. Nehemiah's Perseverance in the Work.

We're going to break these verses down in three ways. We're going to look at the great success in the work, the great opposition to the work, and the great response to the situation or the situation at hand. Great success, great opposition, and a great response. You see how these will be broken down, these verses. I challenge you to take notes. If you have difficulty with that, we can get you the notes. We want you to take your notes so that you can study them during the week and just let the Lord teach us during the week as we take what we learn on Sundays into the week with us. So let's look at our first main truth.

Number one, the great success in the work. Go back to verse one. Just work one verse here with this main truth. "Now it came about when it was reported to Sanballat and Tobiah and to Gishim and to the rest of our enemies that I had built the wall and that no breach or no opening remained in it, although at that time I had not set up the doors in the gates." Now here we see a testimony. We see a testimony to the ongoing consistent work on the walls. Here we have a good report. If I can use this language, we have a progress report. Now that was not the intent of the verse necessarily to give us a progress report, but that's what we have.

Now note in the verse what the verse reads. It says that "I have built." Go back to the verse. "It had been reported to these men, Sanballat, Tobiah and Gishim, the Arab, and to the rest of our enemies that I had built the wall." Now that's a little misleading. It's not that Nehemiah was the one taking credit for 100% of the work. That's not the case. This was a report from those who were in opposition. And so we have some words that seem to convolute the situation. It wasn't that Nehemiah was taking credit. It was just that he was on the forefront of the work.

But I want us to see that this is the community of God's people involved in the great success of God's work. Now two observations I want to make here. First of all we see that they had reached a great milestone. They had reached a great milestone. Here we see that the construction of the walls was complete. No matter what translation you have, it reads virtually the same thing, that no breach had remained in the wall. Previously there were different breaches in different places and different individuals and families assigned to those breaches, but now the wall was complete. So they had reached a great milestone.

Now remember what it was like before? The rubble from the walls was so bad that Nehemiah couldn't even inspect the walls in certain places. It was terrible. But now they have reached a great milestone. Second, I want you to see that they had more work to complete. Because if you go back to the verse, "There was no breach in the wall, although at the time I had not set up the doors and the gates." Or the doors in the gates. Here we see that the doors in the gates were not complete. So we have the picture here. The walls were built, but the openings are still there where the doors and the gates would be. So what do we have here?

What do we see just in this verse, verse 1? "There was great success. They had reached a milestone. I called it great success in the work, but the work was not complete." And we need to see that. This was no time for a celebration. As God's people, they were still very vulnerable in many ways. The enemies of the work, and we know many of their names, could still freely come in and out of the city for whatever purpose they had in their minds. They were not protected. They were open to the world. They were open to the enemies of God and the enemies of this work.

And when the walls and the gates are completed, they would have total protection from the world. They would be protected from these men like Sanballat and Tabayet and Gisham and others. But now, they are vulnerable. But when the work is complete, they would have to resort these enemies to an outright frontal attack to attack them. So what do we see? Great success. They'd reached a wonderful milestone, but the work was not complete. Now, there's something that is very important for us to see here. Nehemiah gives a very sober and accurate assessment of their situation. And this sober and accurate assessment was vital to their health.

It was vital to their protection. One commentator that I read described it like this, talking about the accuracy of this assessment. He said, and I quote, "He has eyes to see both the good progress and the necessary work that remains to be done." Now that might not seem very overwhelming, but we see how sober and accurate he is. Now this leads us to a question. What would have happened to the work had Nehemiah not viewed this work accurately? What if they would have had a big celebration because the walls were complete? What if they would have had a big festival and stopped in the work to celebrate that the walls were complete?

They would have been vulnerable. They would have paused the work of God. But what we see here is that Nehemiah sees it in balance. The walls are complete, but the job is still not done. And him being the leader that he was, had he not seen and led the people to complete the work, what do we see in verse 3? He wouldn't pause or come down. And had he done that, they would have given the enemy a crack in the door, if I can use that language, to step in and destroy the work. Now how might this apply to us today? We don't live in four to five cities. We're not the Jews. We don't need walls and gates and such to protect us.

Now you got to remember the purpose in all of this. They were God's chosen people and they were set up to be a nation, a lighthouse to the Gentiles. And they literally would build walls and have gates to protect them from the outside world. But it was also to signify that they were different from the world. So how does this apply for us? We must see that their walls, their parameters, their protections in the life of the church that are meant to differentiate between us and the world. And they protect the church. I'll give you an example that will help you with this. One of them is church membership.

Now church membership has been degraded in our day. Church membership has been watered down. It's been changed. It's not like it is that we find in the scriptures. We spent quite a bit of time in our past dealing with church membership. I was talking with a leader in the church. This particular church here a while back. And he was talking about the huge discrepancy in the church role where he attends and the people who attended and the leadership in the life of the church. He talked about how they had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds on the role but only a few, only a fraction come. Why? Because church membership isn't what it should be.

And what's happened in most churches is anybody can come in and anybody can join the church. Anybody can sit in the pew and seemingly seem right with God and right with their supposed brother and sister in Christ. But that's not the case. And what happens is when church membership isn't what it should be, then we allow the enemy to come in and we treat them like a brother or a sister. And then we wonder why it happens when one day they become a ravenous wolf. Truthfully that's one of the things in the life of our church that we need to complete. Brother Keith and I have discussed this, prayed about this.

It's one of the things that I've been working on. And that is to continue the work that we have sought and engaged in to reform church membership. I'll give you another example. Things like church polity and bylaws. Now I've heard horror stories about these types of things, but you have to see that there are things like bylaws that are set up to protect the church. I was having a discussion with one of the men of the church here the past month and I was talking about that. And he looked at me with a very sober look on his face and a very serious look in his eye and he understood what I was talking about. These are parameters. They're walls.

And where do we get these things? Where to come from God's Word? That's our job. It was Nehemiah's job to build the walls and set the gates, have the doors. Why? To protect the people and protect the work. And we seek to do this thing called the church according to the scripture to protect you, to protect me, to protect the work. So we see that there's great success in the work. Now here's the challenge for us. It's not enough to look back at where we've come from and rest and celebrate and be glad because we're not like we were yesterday, no?

We must look at this thing accurately and biblically, sober judgment and look to the future and look to God's Word and continue to work hard until the church is as it should be. And that work will never end. So let's continue on. Truth number two, I want us to see the great opposition to the work. The great opposition to the work. Verse two, "Sambalit Geshim," they sent a message to me, that's Nehemiah, saying, "Come, let us meet together. Come down to the plain of Ono." But they were planning to harm me. Some translations say, "Inger." And then what do we see in verse three? So I sent messengers to them saying, "I'm doing a great work.

I cannot come." And then we see, starting in verse four, they begin to send message after message after message to try to bring Nehemiah to the table. So here we see the depth of this opposition. They didn't just make one statement. Now we had seen earlier, starting in chapter two, verse 19, that it started with mocking. It started with just laughter. It started with ridicule. And now it has come to the threat of violence. These enemies of God have meant to harm men like Nehemiah and the people. The King James reads mischief. All the modern translations read harm. Now I want to examine how they opposed. I want you to see their strategy here.

First of all, they said they wanted a meeting. Look at verse two again, "Sambalit Geshim," they said, "Come, let us meet together. Come to the plain of Ono." Here they are saying that they want a diplomatic meeting while their true or secret intention was for harm or violence. Nehemiah tips us all to the intent of their heart. Now, if you do a little study in the geography, this place that they wanted to meet was some 25 or 30 miles away from where they were working.

Now some of the commentators that I reference or look at speculate that their plan was to draw Nehemiah far away from the work, far away from his support to make him more vulnerable. I don't have a problem believing that, but what do we see? They said they wanted a meeting. They said they wanted to sit down at the table. Let's just be diplomatic about this thing, but really they wanted to harm them. Second, I want you to see they repeatedly sent messages to Nehemiah.

We've already seen in verse 3 what Nehemiah said back, but verse 4, "And they sent messages to me four times in the matter." Here they were persistent in trying to draw Nehemiah into danger. They would not give up in trying to harm him. They said over and over, "Let's sit down. Let's talk. Let's discuss these matters." So they repeatedly sent messages to Nehemiah. Third, I want you to see they resorted to open shame. Notice how it changes in verse 5, "Then Sanballat sent his servant to me in the same manner a fifth time with an open letter in his hand." Seems to me like before it was private and now it was open.

So here we see Sanballat, who is one of the leaders, if not the leader, has an open letter full of false accusations. Now, notice the details of their attempt to openly shame Nehemiah. I'll run through these rather quickly. First, they accused him of a rebellion. Isn't that what we see in verse 6? Remember, they were still under the authority of Persia. They were still under the authority of that Persian king. And in verse 6, "He is accusing Nehemiah of leading a rebellion against Persia." And that was not the case. Any second, they accused Nehemiah of a personal rebellion. I want to go back to the verse.

In it it was written, it is reported among the nations that you and the Jews are planning to rebel. In other words, you are rebelling. So they are accusing the people of rebellion. They are accusing Nehemiah of rebellion. And then now, or next, they are accusing them of a spiritual rebellion. Verse 7 says, "And you have also appointed prophets to proclaim in Jerusalem concerning you." In other words, they are saying you've spiritualized this rebellion. And then last, they threatened them with report to Persia.

In other words, they said, "We're going to tell the king, the king in Persia, all that you are doing." So this open letter, the purpose was open shame. Now what do we see here? This desire of the enemies, Sanballat, Gisham, the Arab, Tabiah, and all of their followers, their desire was to harm, was to destroy Nehemiah and to destroy the world. They had an elaborate and a persistent plan. Now notice two things. They had an open reason to meet. What did they say? "Come let us sit down at the table." So they had a private plan in their heart. We see that all through the Scripture.

I'll never forget studying in Numbers, Chapter 14, that great rebellion by Korah against Moses in the work of God. He had a reason, a public reason why he wanted to rebel, but there was a private reason in his heart. And that's what we see here. They had an open reason to meet, but they had a private plan in their heart. And they said they wanted to meet in a diplomatic manner. Let's sit down like men. Well they simply, privately wanted to destroy Nehemiah and they wanted to destroy the world. Now how might we learn or understand and see how this works today?

Sad to say, but I have known friends and I've seen situations where there have been open rebellion and open anarchy in the life of the church. I told you this story before, I'll refer to it again because I think that many of you can relate to it. I met an individual, he's a pastor a little older than me. Pastor's in Louisiana, North Louisiana. I don't even remember the town, but he was telling me his story of 15 years of bi-vocational ministry in a particular church. He had children in the life of the church poured his life into the church.

And he described to me a situation where after 15 years of ministry, before he begins to stand up and preach the word of God on a Sunday night, lo and behold a lady in the church gets up behind the pulpit and begins to bring all these accusations against him. Now my first thought was why didn't you tackle her out of the pulpit? Or why didn't some other men of God jump up and take care of it? Evidently they were fearful, maybe they didn't have enough backbone, but she began to spew out accusation after accusation after accusation. Lies! Then another man and some other people stood up and they brought it to a vote. They vote the pastor out.

Well the vote didn't win. The next thought that came to my mind was why didn't you lead a business meeting to vote them out right then and there? But what do we see? Many of you have heard those stories. Some of you maybe have experienced things like that. That is great opposition by men like to buy and sign by it who are in the church who are opposing the work of God and the sad thing is that that does go on in the life of the church. I remember my home church in my early days when God first saved me. They were always men who were trying to oppose the work of God, oppose the pastor and he would not let them oppose the work of God.

As a matter of fact, he would oppose them. And what we need to see is if we relax on things like conversion, if we relax on things like church membership, if we do not do our job as elders to oversee and protect the work of the church, we will allow men just like Sanbalat and Tabayat and Gishim, we will allow people like that to come in and sit in the pews like brothers and sisters and put them in positions of leadership and lo and behold at the right time they will lead a rebellion just like this. That's why we have to be diligent to do these things right. That's the way the enemy works. We see it all through the scriptures.

So we have this great opposition to the work. And then the third truth, our third main truth I want us to see is the great response to the situation. We see that early on in verse 3, verse 2, they wanted to come and meet there at the plain of Ono. Come let sit down. Very diplomatic manner, Nehemiah. Verse 3, "So I sent messengers of them saying, 'I'm doing the great work. I cannot come down. Why should I stop? Why should I put down the work of God to come meet with you?'" And then we go on down in the middle of all of these different accusations we see his response.

So just as we have seen before, now we are seeing Nehemiah deal again with external attack. Nehemiah, God's man, called for this work. He is doing a great job here. And it is very important for us to see how to react to external opposition. This is key. Now four observations I want us to make here in Nehemiah's response to this situation. First of all, he recognized these men for what they were. We see that early on in verse 1. "Now it came about when it was reported to Sanballat Tabiah, to Gishim, the Arab, and to the rest of our enemies." Just that phrase, "our enemies." Our enemies.

Notice he used that word, "our enemies." All of the translations use the word "enemies." He did not call them brothers. Remember, it was speculated that they might have been half Jew, half Gentile. They said in the beginning they wanted to help with the work. But he did not call them brothers. He did not call them good guys. He didn't say they needed discipling. He called them enemies. So he recognized these men for who and what they were. Second, I want you to see that he remained true to the work. Go back again to verse 3. "So I sent my messengers to them." Nehemiah didn't go see them. He sent a messenger.

"I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work, the work of God, stop while I'll leave it and come down to you?" His response was classic. His response was perfect. He refused to come down and meet because the work of God was more important than meeting with regional leaders there in the area. Remember these men were important men. They would have been men of stature in the region. They would have had resources at their disposal. Most men in that day would have allowed them to assist in the work. Remember they would have had plenty of assets. They would have had the right connections.

Most men would have met them and tried to work out a peaceful resolution right here, but not Nehemiah. He understood that nothing, nothing and no one could take him away from what God had called him to do. He remained true to the work. Third, we see that he refused to meet with them. Not just in verse 3, but all along this persistent opposition over and over, "Come meet with us. Come meet with us." And again and again he refused to meet even when they began to make slanderous, awful accusations. And then fourth, he ultimately responded by calling them out. Look at verse 8 with me.

"Then I sent a message to him saying, 'Such things as you were saying have not been done, but you were inventing them in your own mind.'" What is he saying? "You're a bunch of liars. For all of them were trying to frighten us thinking they will become discouraged with the work and it will not be done." So what does he do? He is calling them out. He is revealing their intentions. He's just not exposing their actions. He's revealing the meditations of their hearts. He is exposing their intentions and their actions. So he calls them out. So what do we see here? Nehemiah had great godly wisdom to see these men in their activity as it truly was.

He was God's man with God's call, engaged in God's work and he refused to disengage. Now I want to think just for a moment. Let's use our imaginations. What would have happened if he would have wavered in any of these four observations? Let's think about that for a minute. What if he would have wavered in calling them enemies? What if he would not have seen them for who they were? What if he would have said, "You know, it's just hard to call them enemies. Maybe they are half brothers. Maybe they are half Jew and half Gentile and maybe we can work out a peaceful resolution." He would have fallen prey to their plot.

He would have compromised in allowing them to even come into the work. What if he would have refused or somehow would not have allowed himself to call them enemies? What if he would not have remained true to the work? What if maybe after the fourth time they sent a message, he would have looked at his helpers and said, "Well, maybe the work of God can be put on hold just for a little while so I can go down and work on this peaceful resolution." What if he had looked around at his men and said, "This external opposition is weighing really hard on our people. When women are struggling, it's having a very stressful effect on our families.

Maybe I need to postpone the work to come down and meet and see if we can work on a solution." What if he would not have called them out and exposed their intentions? What if he would have just kept the peace? What if he would have said, "You know, they are good guys. I just hate to be slanderous like they are." Then the people of God would not have seen these men's true intentions. You see where I'm going? See how this great response was classic? He had great and godly wisdom to expose them for who they were and stay true to the work.

Now an application for you and for me, we must see, we desperately need to see that we need men of God in the life of the church who will be exactly like Nehemiah was here. If opposition arises, if people come along and they want to propagate bad theology, if people come along and they want to propagate things in the life of the church that should not go on, listen, we need men of God who will handle the work of God properly and we need men of God who will roll up their sleeves and dedicate their life to this work. Now I want to say something here and I want to ask you a question. Rhetorical, you don't have to answer.

What if the church has men of God, pastors and ministers and they will not remain true to the work of God? Listen to what he said, "So I sent messengers to them saying, 'I'm doing a great work, I cannot come down.'" What happens when the church has ministers who will not remain true to the work? Maybe they get involved in all kinds of things in life. Let me tell you what happens. The work of the church suffers and we need men of God like that. That's what we seek to be. That's what I seek to be.

As my wife, as my witness, I want to roll up my sleeves and stay true to the work of the church and we need men of God who will respond when opposition comes exactly like Nehemiah. Expose them for who they are, not call them in as brothers and just stay true to the work. Now, as we move into the conclusion, I want to remind you of the title of the message. Nehemiah's Perseverance in the Work. Now, if we really pay attention, that title can describe Nehemiah from the very beginning. Starting from the very day that he leaves the king's palace, he perseveres and he perseveres and he perseveres.

He perseveres with external opposition and with internal difficulties, he perseveres. But even though we can notice how successful he is, how gifted he is, how wise he is, how he seems to do this just right, there's one little verse that gives us a glimpse into his heart. Look at the end of verse 9. "Oh God, strengthen my hands." What's he saying? "God, I cannot do this work unless you help me." Humility. He's a humble man. Very successful. Done a very good job. Listen, he has led the people in the work of God. It seems like it's been flawless. But don't we see a pattern?

Every now and then we see Nehemiah humbling himself before God in prayer and what is he always saying? "Bless me, help me, strengthen me." Why? Because he knew that he was just a man. And let me tell you something, Nola. When you have God's men to lead you, they will always be humble no matter how successful they are. No matter how much we grow, no matter how many families we reach, no matter how many children we may touch, no matter how many souls are saved, no matter if God enables us to take the gospel around the world, we will always, and we always need men who were humble just like Nehemiah, "Oh God, strengthen my hands because I cannot do it without you." Now how do I close?

To be honest with you, I struggle in how to close a message. And I think it's fitting that I close it like I have several times in asking you to pray for me and Brother Keith that we will be this kind of man. That's what I seek to be. That's what I desire to be. To be honest with you, studying through this and studying through this and going back through, it always calls me back to the same place. God always calls me back to the same place. This is the kind of man and the kind of pastor, the kind of elder, the kind of preacher, the kind of overseer that I want to be.

Listen, not just for you, but for him, and for the work that God has given us. Nehemiah's perseverance in the work. Let's pray.