Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome

Good Morning!

I’m Pastor Wayne and I’d like to welcome you all to the gathering of Ephesus Baptist Church.

Why did you choose to gather today?

We believe we are a called people!

Called to worship and exalt our God among the nations in order that His glory may be spread over all the earth!

If you are visiting with us this morning, we want you to know that ...

We are all one family of faith: “giving our all to love God, love people, proclaim Jesus, and make disciples in our generation.”

We have a connect card in the pew in front of you.

I invite you to take one and fill it out!

If you have prayer needs, you can let us know about those as well.

I promise, our prayer team will lift you up soon.

You can place those cards in the offering plate when it comes around.

Scripture Memory

Opening Scripture Reading

Introduction

The Principle of Every Member Ministry

“United we stand, divided we fall”

According to wikipedia,

The first attributed use of this phrase in modern times is to Founding Father John Dickinson in his pre-Revolutionary War song "The Liberty Song", first published in the Boston Gazette in July 1768.

In the song Dickinson wrote: "Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all!

By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall!".

A little later, on December 20, 1792, the first Kentucky General Assembly adopted the official seal of the Commonwealth, including the state motto — United We Stand, Divided We Fall, as recent new members of the Union.

Patrick Henry used the phrase in his last public speech, given in March 1799, Henry proclaimed,

"Let us trust God, and our better judgment to set us right hereafter.

United we stand, divided we fall.

Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs."

While this adage is seared into our minds as a revolutionary war era motto, the truth is that the origins of this phrase date back much farther.

Jesus is said in the gospels.

He also said in Matthew 12:25

We love that old phrase, “United we stand, Divided we fall.”

But if we are honest, that is not how many of us live our lives.

We are divided on so many fronts in our society today.

We are divided by sex, by race, by political leanings, by social standing and income.

We are divided in our homes, in our schools, in our places of work, and yes, even in our churches.

The picture Nehemiah paints for us today is a very similar picture.

The people you will meet today were as divided as you can imagine before Nehemiah arrived, yet Nehemiah portrays them as a picture of a people united by a common cause: The Rebuilding of the Wall!

When studying this Old Testament book of Nehemiah, many readers find it easier to simply skip over chapter 3 and follow the narrative straight from chapter 2 to chapter 4.

That’s because when you begin reading Nehemiah chapter 3, you immediately notice that it is filled with one boring and unpronounceable name after another.

In fact, even some biblical commentators ignore this chapter of Nehemiah completely, some even recommending that for time’s sake it is better to skip this chapter.

But............This is God’s Word!

Every word of it is inspired and breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the child of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Every word! (2 Tim 3:16-17).

I would argue that this chapter is one of the most important chapters in the whole book.

Because here we discover a real secret to Nehemiah’s success.

Here we see what enabled the work of rebuilding a wall and a people which had lain dormant for decades, to be completed in just fifty-two days.

A people unified around a common cause.

A people who were willing to put in the hard work

and

A leader who was a master of delegation.

There are a lot of different attitudes demonstrated by the people of Israel in this passage.

Nehemiah understood that if God’s glory was to be reclaimed in Israel, the people had to unite!

Nehemiah understood that for the wall to be rebuilt and Jerusalem to be restored, it was going to require a large percentage of the people buying in to the cause and working together despite their differences to see the mission completed, the wall rebuilt, and God’s glory reclaimed in Israel.

The same is true in the church today.

When everyone roles up their sleeves and humbly, lovingly serve one another, that church is actually functioning as a well oiled machine.

When we fight to preserve our unity and work hard at fulfilling our purpose for being and our mission of making disciples we are actually protecting ourselves from spiritual deception and the disabling forces of spiritual apathy.

I want to show you a few personal attitudes you will find along the gates and walls of Jerusalem during Nehemiah’s leadership.

In Nehemiah, we get an awesome illustration of a group of people who are acting like a Church is supposed to act!

People and attitudes we find in an Old Testament Construction Site.

1.

A People Who Were Willing to Work When Given the Opportunity.

Whether priests or professionals, noble-born or common stock, single men or women—all are mentioned in the work.

The same goes for professionals and politicians, native residents and outsiders, construction crews and artisans—all who were willing to work were given jobs to do.

Some would repair the wall closest to their homes.

Others were commuters who were sent to various locations.

Some repaired existing walls while others started from scratch, using the blocks that had previously broken down.

Some of the workers labored on the different gates, with their massive hinges and bolts, while others picked up rubble and carted trash away.

Almost every member of Nehemiah’s team were willing to work!

God expects His church to function in the same manner.

J.I. Packer once said,

The old idea that spiritual ministry is the task of the clergy and some few specially zealous layfolk, while the rest limit themselves to praying, paying, and looking after the church fabric and church meals, is...Spirit-quenching in itself (though congregations have occasionally prospered despite it).

The biblical principle of every-member ministry in the body of Christ must be recognized, and a place must be found in the church’s life for every God-given gift to be used in God’s service.

We also find...

2. People Who Did Not Necessarily Know How to Do the Work but They Were Willing to Learn

It is interesting that the very first group of workers Nehemiah listed in his memoirs were the remaining priests of Israel.

Nehemiah planned for them to begin work on the area around the Sheep Gate.

This was the place where sacrificial lambs and sheep would enter to be offered for the sins of the people.

Since the priests performed the atoning services, this would be a significant wall to them—in fact, they may have considered it holy ground.

Can you see the significance of Nehemiah assigning them to work in this particular location.

They could not possibly have known that approximately four hundred years later, Jesus Christ Himself, the Lamb of God, would walk through that reconstructed gate to pray in a nearby garden called Gethsemane.

Later, He was most likely brought back through that same gate by the soldiers who arrested Him and led Him before the Sanhedrin.

He was, indeed, the final Lamb led to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7).

Priests do not typically work with stones and hammers.

However, this was not a typical situation, and they gladly set an example for the rest of the people.

Also look at Neh. 3:8-9

Imagine a politician, a goldsmith, and a perfume maker laying bricks!

What did they know about building walls and slapping on mortar?

It didn’t matter.

Evidently, Nehemiah provided them with additional workers who could show them how.

The person who says he cannot work because he does not know how should learn a lesson from a perfume maker who has exchanged sweet-smelling vials of delicately scented liquid for a pile of rocks and a trowel.

3.

People Who Were Able to Do More Work than Others

In each of these verses, there is an interesting phrase that Nehemiah repeated about the attitude of each of these people.

“Repaired another section.”

In other words, these people did the job they were asked to do, and then they did more.

What a tremendous testimony of people who went the extra mile!

4. People Who Were Willing to Work in More Difficult Places than Others

The Dung gate was the gate through which all the garbage, manure, and refuse was taken.

Nehemiah tells us that a member of the royal class was willingly working in a filthy place where he could smell the stench from the Valley of Hinnom below.

Compare his working conditions with the location mentioned in the next verse:

In other words, you have one official who willingly works near the garbage dump and another official who gets to work by the pool near the king’s flower gardens.

This emphasizes again that some of the people were willing to work in more difficult places than others—without complaining.