At the Outset

Nehemiah 2:6 CSB

The king, with the queen seated beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you return?” So I gave him a definite time, and it pleased the king to send me.

INTRO—

Ready! Set! GOOOOO!!!

The start of that race on the playground. The start of a dodge ball game.

Our race is certainly not a sprint—we’re gearing up for a marathon or major cross-country run. At times it might just feel like dodge ball…and the team we’re on is getting everything thrown at us.

Reading Nehemiah, I’m confident that he and the people of God who were with him felt like they were in a marathon…that they were the target of every dodge ball on the court.

Today let’s check the situation as Nehemiah prepared to and entered the blocks to begin his race with his team of God’s people…and let’s take away some encouragement and challenge for ourselves as God’s people today. What did Nehemiah do? What did Nehemiah encounter? How did they respond?

COMMUNICATE CLEARLY WITH THE COMMUNITY (Nehemiah 2.6-9)

Nehemiah 2.6 “The king, with the queen seated beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you return?” So I gave him a definite time, and it pleased the king to send me.”

Nehemiah 2.7-9 “I also said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let me have letters written to the governors of the region west of the Euphrates River, so that they will grant me safe passage until I reach Judah. And let me have a letter written to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, so that he will give me timber to rebuild the gates of the temple’s fortress, the city wall, and the home where I will live.” The king granted my requests, for the gracious hand of my God was on me. I went to the governors of the region west of the Euphrates and gave them the king’s letters. The king had also sent officers of the infantry and cavalry with me.”

In the days immediately ahead of us, we are going to engage our community (in one way I will mention momentarily, and another…) to ask (thus let them know) that we desire to be available (in as many ways as we can) to be a good neighbor to them.

To be intentionally present in our neighborhood seeking the best for our neighbors (who is our neighbor?) around us.

What OPPORTUNITIES lie before us??

LURKING OPPOSITION (Nehemiah 2.10)

Nehemiah 2.10 “When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard that someone had come to pursue the prosperity of the Israelites, they were greatly displeased.”

At the outset, alongside the opportunities (yes plural) we will likely experience opposition...

ONE, internal opposition = can I; can we do this?

TWO, external opposition =

Opposition is not honest questioning. There is a difference between those around us asking/saying: “I don’t really get what you guys are doing (or talking about…& so they ask questions)”…AND… “There’s no way way ‘you guys’ can do (or should even try) this.”

The latter is the attitudes we find from the governors of the region around and including Jerusalem...

Samaria— Sanballat the Horonite (Beth-Horon approx. 18 miles NE of Jerusalem); “The Man” in charge of the region.

Ammon— Tobiah the Ammonite official; a governor but also likely a subservient pawn/ally of Samaria; Tobiah’s dislike of Israel/Jews may go back to… Ezra 2.59-60 “The following are those who came from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer but were unable to prove that their ancestral families and their lineage were Israelite: Delaiah’s descendants, Tobiah’s descendants, Nekoda’s descendants 652” [for the record this would be papa or grandpapa Tobiah].

[[Keep in mind…these guys got the letters from Artaxerxes AND saw the military escort Nehemiah had as he came to Jerusalem.]]

SURVEY THE LAND (Nehemiah 2.11-16)

Nehemiah 2.11-12 “After I arrived in Jerusalem and had been there three days, I got up at night and took a few men with me. I didn’t tell anyone what my God had laid on my heart to do for Jerusalem. The only animal I took was the one I was riding.”

Nehemiah 2.13-16 “I went out at night through the Valley Gate toward the Serpent’s Well and the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. I went on to the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but farther down it became too narrow for my animal to go through. So I went up at night by way of the valley and inspected the wall. Then heading back, I entered through the Valley Gate and returned. The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, for I had not yet told the Jews, priests, nobles, officials, or the rest of those who would be doing the work.”

In Nehemiah’s case, LITERALLY. In our case, surveying the land means...

Our self-evaluation survey for each of us to complete. We will have a couple of weeks in February set up for us to complete a list of survey questions for our ReFocus team to use as Dr. Mathes leads us through the evaluation (where we are) part of the process.

Our community-evaluation survey to complete. We will go door-to-door; to the Village leaders; AND to local businesses for the second part (I left off earlier when talking about communicating with the community). We’ll be asking what they know about us and what we do, etc.

I am praying that honest responses to these surveys will give us a complete picture of where we find ourselves (not just where we think we find ourselves) at the outset of our Comeback journey.

COMMUNICATE CLEARLY WITH THE CREW (Nehemiah 2.17-18a)

Nehemiah 2.17-18a “So I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been burned. Come, let’s rebuild Jerusalem’s wall, so that we will no longer be a disgrace.” I told them how the gracious hand of my God had been on me, and what the king had said to me.”

Constant and consistent statements of progress and prayer needs along the path of our Comeback journey.

As we seek to rightly understand honestly where we are…AND looking forward to a renewed engagement of the hope-filled blessing that comes with complete faithfulness amid God’s promises.

DISCOVER DETERMINATION (Nehemiah 2.18b)

Nehemiah 2.18b “They said, “Let’s start rebuilding,” and their hands were strengthened to do this good work.”

Gauging from conversations I’ve had with church leaders and church family alike, I believe I know the heart answer to this question… “Claycomo Baptist Church, are we ready to start rebuilding, renewing, refocusing ourselves to be the church our Lord has called us to be?”

That answer being “Yes” (& true), I want us all to be praying for each other that all of us will have our “hands strengthened to do this good work.”

CONFRONT CHALLENGES (Nehemiah 2.19-20)

Nehemiah 2.19-20 “When Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about this, they mocked and despised us, and said, “What is this you’re doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” I gave them this reply, “The God of the heavens is the one who will grant us success. We, his servants, will start building, but you have no share, right, or historic claim in Jerusalem.””

Added to Sanballat and Tobiah is Geshem the Arab

He was a leader for the Northern Arabian kingdom which extended near to Judah/Jerusalem. He, too, had a vested interest in maintaining the status quo…as well as the historical animosity toward the Hebrew people.

This trio mocked, despised, & LIED (publicly) about Nehemiah and the work he was commencing to do.

Nehemiah and the crew responded! When we follow God’s call, HE alone WILL grant the blessing of success (kingdom success) for the glory of his name—historically, presently, future-ly, eternally!!

CONCL—

One question/emphasis left off (sorta) the radar thus far is: Comeback to what?

“The good ol’ days.”

“Back to when...”

Let me insert what we MUST have as our primary goal in our Comeback journey… To what God wants for us, Claycomo Baptist Church. In that we might see some ‘good ol’ days and back to when…but I also believe that we are going to comeback to a renewed emphasis on God’s calling for us…maybe like none of us have ever seen before. AND WON’T THAT BE COOL?! [YES!!!]

Nehemiah 2:20 CSB

I gave them this reply, “The God of the heavens is the one who will grant us success. We, his servants, will start building, but you have no share, right, or historic claim in Jerusalem.”