Guarding What God Has Built

Introduction

Good morning!

Today we are finishing our time in the book of Nehemiah. I have been asked on a few occasions what the motivation was for choosing this book to preach from. After all, after 24 years as a believer, I have never been at a church that had gone through this book in a regular sermon series before. My honest answer is two-fold:

I asked the Holy Spirit for guidance and direction in which text to preach from…

The next day, my son, Nehemiah, asked if we could go through the book of Nehemiah.

When I considered the fact that I had never heard a series on it before, I read through the book and prayed on it and felt that it would be a great book to go through. It was a relatively simple decision that I believe the Lord has used in my life - and hopefully in yours as well - to help us see the applicability of all of Holy Scripture for believers. We began this journey through Nehemiah on October 26th last year - which was my first week back after my brain surgery. Today marks the 18th and final sermon in our series.

As many of you know, I am quickly approaching the end of my tenure as the pastor of Sprague Community Church. I believe it was in January when I approached the Board and let them know of my intention to resign at the end of April. There were some realities that were becoming more and more apparent to my family and I - realities of ongoing cognitive difficulties and areas of outright change in personality after my surgery that made us realize that I cannot be the shepherd the church needs at this time. I desperately desired to finish our series together as it was a source of encouragement and challenge for me - as much as I pray it has been for you as well.

The wall was finished in chapter 6, revival came in chapter 8, the covenant was renewed in chapter 10—but chapter 13 reminds us that what God builds must be guarded - unfortunately through an example of those who failed to guard what the Lord did. Nehemiah doesn’t have the typical happy ending that we have come to expect from much of the literature we read today, but that helps us see what God’s intention for the book of Nehemiah was from the beginning. Nehemiah was a contemporary of one of the Minor Prophets - Malachi: both ministering in the mid 5th century BC, which marked the end of the Old Testament writings and a period of roughly 430 or so years of silence before the incarnation of Jesus Christ. In a way, the sad ending of Nehemiah reminds the original readers that human’s capability to follow God in-and-of their own “free will” not possible.

Jeremiah came and preached that they should put away their idolatry and follow the Lord, being faithful to the covenant the Lord established with them in the days of Moses - but they failed to repent and kept on sinning against Him until He decided to send them into exile for their wickedness. But the Lord, knowing humanity’s inability to do right apart from Him, also declared this through Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 31:31–34 CSB

31 “Look, the days are coming” —this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”—the Lord’s declaration. 33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them” —this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.

From a New Testament perspective, we can see the Lord fulfill this promise through the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The author of Hebrews even quotes from this passage in Hebrews 8:8, because of what he says in verses 6 -7:

Hebrews 8:6–7 CSB

6 But Jesus has now obtained a superior ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been established on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second one.

God knew that the Law couldn’t save anyone, but was actually given to show need in humanity for a savior: humanity needed to see that they were incapable of being good enough to merit forgiveness from God on their own - they needed a savior who could fulfill the law on their behalf. The example we get from Nehemiah’s people is a lesson we need to continue to learn for ourselves, that Spiritual progress must be protected through ongoing faithfulness, or it will slowly erode.

Today, we are going to follow a simple outline:

Remove What Compromises God's Work (13:4-14)

Reinforce What Protect God's Work (13:15-22)

Protect What Shapes God's People (13:23-31)

Remove What Compromises God's Work (13:4-14)

Read with me, starting in verse…

Nehemiah 13:4–14 CSB

4 Now before this, the priest Eliashib had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was a relative of Tobiah 5 and had prepared a large room for him where they had previously stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the articles, and the tenths of grain, new wine, and fresh oil prescribed for the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, along with the contributions for the priests. 6 While all this was happening, I was not in Jerusalem, because I had returned to King Artaxerxes of Babylon in the thirty-second year of his reign. It was only later that I asked the king for a leave of absence 7 so I could return to Jerusalem. Then I discovered the evil that Eliashib had done on behalf of Tobiah by providing him a room in the courts of God’s house. 8 I was greatly displeased and threw all of Tobiah’s household possessions out of the room. 9 I ordered that the rooms be purified, and I had the articles of the house of God restored there, along with the grain offering and frankincense. 10 I also found out that because the portions for the Levites had not been given, each of the Levites and the singers performing the service had gone back to his own field. 11 Therefore, I rebuked the officials, asking, “Why has the house of God been neglected?” I gathered the Levites and singers together and stationed them at their posts. 12 Then all Judah brought a tenth of the grain, new wine, and fresh oil into the storehouses. 13 I appointed as treasurers over the storehouses the priest Shelemiah, the scribe Zadok, and Pedaiah of the Levites, with Hanan son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah to assist them, because they were considered trustworthy. They were responsible for the distribution to their colleagues. 14 Remember me for this, my God, and don’t erase the deeds of faithful love I have done for the house of my God and for its services.

In verse 14, Nehemiah (in a sense) defines a theme for this portion of the book: “Remember me Lord; I tried!” He is frustrated here because God’s priorities were displaced. He thought this for several reasons:

Tobiah (an Ammonite) was given a special room in the courts of the temple.

The portions of the tithe meant for the Levites had not been given - as they had committed to do, so the Levites had to leave the temple ministry in order to provide for themselves.

Why were these big issues? Because they represented a state of “laissez faire,” which is a policy or an attitude of letting things take their own course, without interfering. Nehemiah had gone back to the service of the King, and the people went back to their old ways of doing whatever seemed right to them instead of being true to the covenant they had with the Lord.

Tobiah was a wicked guy. First of all, he was an Ammonite. Secondly, he had established himself from the beginning of Nehemiah’s service to the Lord as an enemy of the Jewish people.

Nehemiah 2:10 CSB

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.

Nehemiah was careful to remind his readers in chapter 13 of the need to place boundaries between themselves and those born of different ancestry.

Nehemiah 13:1–3 CSB

1 At that time the book of Moses was read publicly to the people. The command was found written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, 2 because they did not meet the Israelites with food and water. Instead, they hired Balaam against them to curse them, but our God turned the curse into a blessing. 3 When they heard the law, they separated all those of mixed descent from Israel.

So not only was Tobiah an Ammonite entering the assembly, but he was being given a room to live in - strictly against what the Lord had commanded, and what they committed to the Lord to obey. I have heard to keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but I think letting him stay in the Lord’s house was a really irresponsible decision. Why would Eliashib do such a thing?

Eliashib and Tobiah had some familial ties through family marriages that likely point to a few things being true at the some time:

Perceived relational pressure

Abuse of authority

Political pragmatism

As the high priest, Eliashib had to walk a fine line of not allowing his personal relationships to dictate how he managed the temple of God. If Tobiah wasn’t a relative, I don’t know if any other priest would have opened the doors of the temple to him. That’s where the notion of Eliashib’s potential abuse of authority comes in. It is likely that he used his position as high-priest to do what ever he wanted in terms of giving a room to Tobiah. We don’t know if there was any resistance or push-back from other priests regarding this decision, but it’s likely that it was his authority as high priest that made it happen. Now, despite the fact that there were relational ties, it was also true that Tobiah, along with Sanballat had significant influence in Jerusalem at the time, so giving him such favorable accommodations probably had a bit of a political motivation as well.

So while all these things are probably racing through Nehemiah’s mind, he’s also seeing how the Levites were neglected to the point they had to leave in order to feed themselves. So not only was the temple being adulterated through this Ammonite, but the temple was also being neglected through the neglect of the priests commanded to serve there! The Levites were neglected to the point where they had to go back to their fields. What did the Levites do at the temple? They facilitated the corporate worship of the people! So because of Eliashib’s carelessness, God’s priorities were displaced, and worship suffered. We don’t often see people fall from grace through one bad decision, but most often through a series of soft compromises that quitely shift us from advocates of God to enemies of God.

I am a history buff and often go through times when I like studying different historical eras and topics. One of my favorite topics of late has been World War II. I have always thought it was interesting how and entire nation could be so grievously deceived into following Hitler’s Nazi-ism like Germany and Austria did. As painful as it is to try to get into the mind of a madman, understanding Hitler’s ideology and coming to power was less of a radical shift from where Germany was at the time, but rather a reminder of the greatness they had experienced previously, before the end of World War I. Their economy had been thrashed and the German people, a proud people, were forced to remember the embarrassing scars of defeat by the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler blamed a global conspiracy theory of a sort of “shadow government of Jewish domination behind the scenes” for wildly harsh and inflammatory scope of the Treaty that only served to continually oppress the German people (Remember - I am not saying I agree with him, just trying to understand how the people could be duped into following him).

This took place in an era before the Holocaust, before the Civil Rights movement, before racially-based hatred had really been seen on global stage for the evil that it really was. Antisemitism was a very normal, everyday thing in Hitler’s Austria, so when he publically blamed the Jews for everything and touted the possibility of restoring Germany to the previous greatness they once knew, his audience was a people who were broken in spirit and welcomed hope. Hitler gave them hope and gave them the opportunity to be proud to be Germans again.

In the course of a single decade, in the 1930’s, Hitler went from being convicted of High Treason in 1924 to being named Chancellor and eventually head of state after the death of Paul von Hindenburg (for whom the infamous zeppelin was named after that burnt up in 1937). It wasn’t a single decision that made Germany allow the holocaust to happen, it was a series of compromises that gently took Germany to a place where their allowance for such evil would exist. From accepting antisemitism in their political discourse to allowing the Nazi high command to terminate the Treaty of Versailles, to allowing the invasion of territory and country, until they were left with the worst war in human history with estimates up to 85 million people dying.

Little compromises compounded over time to allow a perfect storm of evil to come into the world a wreak the worst kind of havoc the world has ever known. The current world population is roughly 8.3 billion people. If World War 2 didn’t happen, it would be closer to 9.6 billion - between people killed and families having never happened that likely would have if people weren’t used as fodder in the Nazi’s plan for world domination.

Eliashib made several bad choices that gently guided his initial excitement and desire to follow the Lord to a place where he was being openly rebuked by Nehemiah for leading the people of God astray by neglecting and abusing his office as high priest. So Nehemiah threw Tobiah's belongings out, cleansed the temple and restored proper support for ministry. He acted decisively.

What does this mean for us today?

Sometimes faithfulness requires removing unhealthy influences, correcting misplaced priorities restoring neglected responsibilities and reordering what matters most. My suggestion is that if you find yourself in a place where you are feeling like things are falling apart around you and you need a reset, the worst thing you can do is to think it is too late. The beautiful thing about the Grace of God through Christ is that it is complete and it is there for those who would reach out to Him for it. Even Hitler, if on his dying bed would have truthfully in his heart reached out to Christ for the forgiveness of sin, I believe we would see him in heaven as a testimony to the extreme grace of the Lord. I’m not saying I believe that is the case by any stretch of the imagination, just using the example of the worst of humanity to show the extreme reaches of the grace offered to us in Christ. There are no mistakes you could have made that make you useless to God or that label you a complete and total failure to Him - and He is ultimately the only one whose opinion matters anyway.

Spiritual progress must be protected through ongoing faithfulness, or it will slowly erode.

Reinforce What Protects God's Work (13:15-22)

Read with me again, starting in verse…

Nehemiah 13:15–22 CSB

15 At that time I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath. They were also bringing in stores of grain and loading them on donkeys, along with wine, grapes, and figs. All kinds of goods were being brought to Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them against selling food on that day. 16 The Tyrians living there were importing fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah in Jerusalem. 17 I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil you are doing—profaning the Sabbath day? 18 Didn’t your ancestors do the same, so that our God brought all this disaster on us and on this city? And now you are rekindling his anger against Israel by profaning the Sabbath!” 19 When shadows began to fall on the city gates of Jerusalem just before the Sabbath, I gave orders that the city gates be closed and not opened until after the Sabbath. I posted some of my men at the gates, so that no goods could enter during the Sabbath day. 20 Once or twice the merchants and those who sell all kinds of goods camped outside Jerusalem, 21 but I warned them, “Why are you camping in front of the wall? If you do it again, I’ll use force against you.” After that they did not come again on the Sabbath. 22 Then I instructed the Levites to purify themselves and guard the city gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember me for this also, my God, and look on me with compassion according to the abundance of your faithful love.

In verse 17, Nehemiah defines his indictment against the Jews in Jerusalem - profaning the Sabbath. People were working and engaging in commerce, both of which are forbidden in Jewish law. In verse 18, he asks them sort of a rhetorical question - “Isn’t this the kind of thing your ancestors did that angered God in the first place?” Then, starting in verse 19, Nehemiah shows the city the way they are to observe the Sabbath - and oversees its implementation. Remember - they were under Levitical Law here, Sabbath observance wasn’t optional, but a required part of their weekly duty to the Lord.

This portion of our Scripture today may seem a bit foreign to us because we don’t have the same kind of legal requirements over us that the Jews did in terms of observing a Sabbath. Don’t get me wrong, Christians are commanded not to forsake gathering together and are strongly encouraged to not only attend church, but to get involved and serve in the church as much as possible.

In Jerusalem, while Nehemiah was absent, the Sabbath had become optional, commerce replaced worship - convenience replaced obedience. Does that sound familiar? In a world where consumerism runs amuck, people get the idea that they can be pragmatic about how they observe their faith, but here, God reminds His people that coming to Him requires that they come to Him on His terms, not theirs. When we incorporate our own ideas of how we should come to God, they are almost always self-serving and lacking in any meaningful contribution to our relationship with the Lord - mainly our own convenience.

The Sabbath was one issue that Jesus personally wanted people to understand its specific purpose, as it had been misunderstood and misapplied as a mere religious observation.

Read with me in…

Mark 2:23–27 CSB

23 On the Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to make their way, picking some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 He said to them, “Have you never read what David and those who were with him did when he was in need and hungry— 26 how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the bread of the Presence—which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests—and also gave some to his companions?” 27 Then he told them, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

Jesus set the stage for the Christian understanding of the Sabbath, but in Nehemiah’s day, the people were ignoring it completely, which was in violation of their covenant with God. People worked on the Sabbath, bought and sold goods and treated God's command as flexible or optional. When you’re under covenant with God, obedience isn’t an optional thing where you can observe as your own leisure - it is a baseline for how you are to conduct yourself, otherwise you are guilty of breaking the Law! That’s what got them exiled from the land to begin with, so Nehemiah is practically pulling his hair out at this point.

New Testament theologian, F.F. Bruce once said of the Sabbath:

It is not a day in which man is to do what pleases him, but rather one on which he is to do the will of God. God, not man, must determine how the sabbath is to be observed. Recognizing that the day is holy to the Lord will bring the true enjoyment of the promises.

Frederick Fyvie Bruce (Professor)

For the people camping outside the gate - wanting to lead people astray by selling their products to them on the Sabbath, Nehemiah said this - and I am going to read this time from the ESV because it does a little better job communicating the force of what Nehemiah was saying:

Nehemiah 13:21 ESV

21 But I warned them and said to them, “Why do you lodge outside the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath.

There are boundaries that need to be maintained for people to thrive spiritually. The purpose of the Sabbath, according to Jesus, was to help people not overwork themselves and to take the time they need for their minds, souls and bodies to rest.

So Nehemiah takes action! He shuts the gates, posted guards and enforced the boundary. It might seem to us, in our 21st Century American sensibilities that he is being controlling or legalistic, but remember - his goal isn’t to be liked, but to see the people of Jerusalem restored to God. He is not trying to control people—but to protect worship. He didn’t want Jerusalem to incur the anger of the Lord again because of the same sin their forefathers were guilty of and ignoring the covenant.

He reinstituted healthy boundaries.

Today, we need healthy boundaries too. Our souls need care as much as our physical and mental health needs care - if not more. So what are some ways we can ensure we are making the most of the example given to us in our passage today?

We ought to take seriously the priority of guarding time for worship. In our household, we do not see going to church as an optional thing, but make it a priority to be at church each week. Even before I served as the pastor here, going to church wasn’t something we would him and haw about, it was part of our routine as a family - to go to church.

Hebrews 10:24–25 CSB

24 And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, 25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

In verse 25, you see that going to church isn’t merely for you, but how the Lord might use you in the lives of other people at church. There are people who treat coming to church as if they are somehow doing the church a favor by being here, or even in some cases, act is if they are somehow doing me a personal favor by showing up. We shouldn’t see our involvement in the body of Christ that way - we should have an eagerness to gather together and worship the Lord each week.

Likewise, another healthy boundary we would do well to evaluate in our lives is protecting our family’s discipleship. Men - God has put a special call in your life to be the shepherd of your family. You are to be the spiritual leaders of your house, which means the responsibility of this ultimately falls to you.

There is a great little book by Voddie Baucham called “Family Shepherds” where he shows the need from the scripture for families to be shepherded with regular times of family worship. I will admit, I have read this book and felt intense conviction at my own failure in this area, and have not been able to establish a normal routine for family worship in our household. I am hoping with all the changes and transitions we are going through that we can figure out how to make that work - but the responsibility for it ultimately lands on me as the husband, the father and the head of the household.

Richard Baxter, a Puritan minister once said:

Let family worship be performed consistently and at a time when it is most likely for the family to be free of interruptions.

Richard Baxter (Puritan Divine)

Another boundary is something we’ve spoken about at length in the recent weeks: the idea of limiting influences. An influence can either bring us closer to the Lord or pull us further away from Him - we are, unfortunately, surrounded by negative influences that would be happy to know they are weakening our connection with Christ. Facebook, TikTok, X and the like are all influences that are designed to keep us using the platform beyond the reasons it was invented. They use addictive, short videos to sell ad placement and keep us scrolling - regardless of the impact it is having on society. Our job is to recognize when these influences are problematic and put limitations in place to make sure they don’t have an undo amount of influence in our lives.

Another way we create healthy boundaries for ourselves is through prioritizing spiritual rhythms. This is similar to everything we’ve discussed so far - going to church, having times of family worship and devotionals, personal times in confession and prayer, etc. Taking part in these spiritual disciplines is crucial for spiritual development. Getting used to healthy rhythms and routines is an act of discipline that pays huge dividends in life - the same way learning wise financial management habits, healthy eating habits or regular hygiene habits. When we prioritize spiritual rhythms, it helps us grow in discipline as believers - and being disciplined will always serve us well.

These things remind us of the spiritual principle, that what we fail to guard, we eventually lose.

Spiritual progress must be protected through ongoing faithfulness, or it will slowly erode.

Protect What Shapes God's People (13:23-31)

Nehemiah 13:23–31 CSB

23 In those days I also saw Jews who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 24 Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples but could not speak Hebrew. 25 I rebuked them, cursed them, beat some of their men, and pulled out their hair. I forced them to take an oath before God and said, “You must not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters as wives for your sons or yourselves! 26 Didn’t King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, yet foreign women drew him into sin. 27 Why then should we hear about you doing all this terrible evil and acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?” 28 Even one of the sons of Jehoiada, son of the high priest Eliashib, had become a son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. So I drove him away from me. 29 Remember them, my God, for defiling the priesthood as well as the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites. 30 So I purified them from everything foreign and assigned specific duties to each of the priests and Levites. 31 I also arranged for the donation of wood at the appointed times and for the firstfruits. Remember me, my God, with favor.

This is really similar to the end of our passage last week, where the Jewish people intentionally segregated parts of their lives from those born from different ancestry. Again, it wasn’t out of racism, but a desire to be obedient to the Lord and limit potentially damaging influences to their lives. Many will use a verse like this in the Old Testament to somehow claim that God endorses racism, but that is an ignorant self justification to remain in sin - not an intellectually honest reflection on who God is.

This is not an issue of ethnicity or ethnic superiority, but one of influence. God knew from the very beginning that the foreign people would have a negative influence on the Jewish people and commanded them not to allow their sons to marry their daughters or their daughters to marry their sons - He didn’t want them being influenced to worship the Pagan gods of those people, and He didn’t want the Jewish people to lose their heritage.

Already, we see that some of the children could not speak Hebrew, which was the historic language of the Jewish people. We know that problem never really went away as 430 years later, the common language in Jesus’ region was Aramaic. God didn’t want the people caving to influences that made them worship Pagan gods, He didn’t want the people to lose their identity and culture - He didn’t want them to dillute their relationship with Him. they had failed to guard what God had restored, and that was the core problem Nehemiah was addressing.

Notice how he points to the wisest man in history - King Solomon? He showed how ungodly influences even led the wise men astray.

1 Kings 11:1–4 CSB

1 King Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh’s daughter: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women 2 from the nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, and they must not intermarry with you, because they will turn your heart away to follow their gods.” To these women Solomon was deeply attached in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives who were princesses and three hundred who were concubines, and they turned his heart away. 4 When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods. He was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God, as his father David had been.

Family - we live in a time of immense cultural pressure to capitulate our faith on the altar of tolerance and pragmatism. Everything in our lives will influence us one way or another, and we must be on-guard to resist the devil at all costs!

James 4:7 CSB

7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Notice - that is worded as a promise!

It is one of the reasons why believers are commanded not to be unequally yoked!

2 Corinthians 6:14 CSB

14 Do not be yoked together with those who do not believe. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?

Spiritual progress must be protected through ongoing faithfulness, or it will slowly erode.

Conclusion

The greatest threat to the work of God in our lives is not opposition - it is neglect. God had done so much in the Jewish community, but toward the end of his ministry with the Jews, Nehemiah isn’t engaged in celebration any more, he’s rather pleading with the Lord to remember that he - at least - was faithful. “Remember me, O my God - despite the evil deeds of the people, for I have done what you have asked…” Notice how Nehemiah isn’t concerned with taking the blame off the people, but rather reminding the Lord that he was faithful in what was asked of him? It reminds us that we cannot pin the responsibility of our spiritual state on someone else, but rather we will be accountable to the Lord for how we conducted ourselves and whether we were faithful or not.

As we wrap us the series, by way of reminder, we have seen:

A burden for God's work

Courage in opposition

Leadership in crisis

Worship in revival

Commitment in covenant, and

Vigilance in maintenance

Now, we are seeing the moral or theme of Nehemiah: what God builds in a moment must be protected over a lifetime.

The walls were built, the city was restored, and the people made promises. However, the real work was never just building the wall - the real work was guarding the heart. That’s what lead the people of Israel away from the Lord originally - they failed to guard their hearts against anything that would come between them and the Lord.

My hope and prayer for all of us today is that we would remember the importance of guarding our hearts against anything that would try to come between us and the Lord. Sometimes that is outside influences, sometimes it is attitudes and sinful tendencies that emerge from within - but we should be sensitive to those things and fight against them with everything we have. We have some amazing things that the people of this day didn’t have though: namely, relationship with Jesus Christ as well as the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Nehemiah speaks more broadly to the community of God’s people rather than the individual. The community can’t function the way it is supposed to without the individual members of that community deciding for themselves to seek after the Lord individually. I strongly desire for Sprague Community Church to grow and thrive in the Lord, but I desire more that each of us - individually - become a powerful testimony of God’s power as we grow more and more in the likeness of Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Let’s pray.