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.

Who’s Your One?

Scripture Memory

Opening Scripture Reading

Introduction

I invite you this morning to open your Bibles to the sixth chapter of the book of Nehemiah.

Prayer for Illumination

It has been a long journey for Nehemiah—from Persia, where he first heard the report of Jerusalem’s devastated walls, where he left the comforts and security of his life as the king’s cupbearer, to come and be the revitalizing Governor of Jerusalem.

Much has changed since he made that solitary midnight ride to review the ruins.

The wall is almost complete and Nehemiah has the finish line in sight.

Only the doors and gates remain to be installed.

Now let me say that the idea of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem did not originate in the mind of Nehemiah, but from the heart of God.

Nehemiah was simply thinking God’s thoughts after Him.

This was not Nehemiah’s revitalization plan; it was God’s plan to restore His people.

And therefore, Nehemiah could say with Paul,

With firm conviction, Nehemiah faithfully proclaimed,

But every time the people of God said, “Let us ‘arise and build’ ” the satanic forces said, “Let us arise and destroy.”

When the people of God have a mind to work, the enemies of God have a mind to wreck.

Like Nehemiah, many of us are seeking to rebuild something in our lives that has been broken.

As we work to rebuild, to restore, to revitalize, Satan is going to attack us every step of the way.

Today, we are experiencing an attack of the adversary as we’ve never known before.

It is apparent that the very foundation and fundamentals of our faith are being challenged at every turn.

It seems as if the church can make progress for a season, but if we aren’t careful we often suffer setbacks to the enemy.

We cannot live off of yesterday’s blessings.

It is good to enjoy what the Lord has done through us in the past, but we must be vigilant and continue in our labor for Him today!

Today, I would like to consider the three biblical truths revealed from the work that Nehemiah and the Jews did in Jerusalem.

As we do, may we think on Nehemiah’s question: Why should the work cease?

There is too much at stake to be distracted from our work.

It is imperative that we stand strong and finish well the work the Lord has assigned to us.

We must be constantly reminded that God provides His people all we need to accomplish the work He gives us to do.

1. Christian, you are most vulnerable when you think your work is almost complete.

The wall is almost complete!

There are no breaches left in it for the enemies to invade through.

The only thing left are for the gates and doors to be installed.

While there wall is a physical presence, much has transpired that cannot be seen with our physical eyes, as God has been transforming hearts and minds.

For a people who have been in bondage for nearly a century, can you imagine the joy that simply building a wall brought to the people’s hearts?

They were finally getting to restore their homeland.

This was a work of hope.

We cannot place a value on what the Lord has done within the hearts and lives of His people.

God has brought His people a long way, but much remains to be done.

But be warned: this is the most dangerous point in any rebuilding process.

This is when the enemy comes along with one final attempt to divert us from our goal.

He would like to find a weakness to exploit.

He would love to come in and tear down the gains Nehemiah has made!

The same is true for us!

God has blessed us over the past year in many different ways, but make no mistake.

I’m certain that the adversary has his eye on us.

He would love to come in and tear down the gains we’ve made as we have trusted Christ to guide us!

If God reveals an area that needs our attention, we must respond quickly and biblically.

So here is Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem again.

Their goal all along had been to stop Jerusalem from becoming a fortified city once more, and already the walls were complete apart from the hanging of the doors in the great gates.

This was no easy task.

It would require special scaffolding and lifting equipment to be set in place, and the doors themselves would have to be custom made.

The three stooges had only a little time left to frustrate the work, and it is revealing to watch how they used it.

Overthrowing Nehemiah personally had to be their goal, for nothing less could stop the finishing of this project.

But how could this be accomplished?

They hoped to catch Nehemiah riding a wave of overconfidence and pride.

Sometimes when you are nearing the finish line, you lose sight of how closely your competition is to overtaking you.

If Nehemiah gets to confident, he could falter.

Video of young runner losing a race to overconfidence.

Christian, you are most vulnerable when you think your work is almost complete.

2. Christian, do not be distracted from your work by the snare of lethal compromise.

The very men who had opposed Nehemiah every step of the way, even threatening to kill him, now want to meet with Nehemiah.

The timing of this is very suspicious, isn’t?

As Dr. Boice points out, the gesture looked like a concession speech by losers in a political campaign.

He commented in his book, Nehemiah: Learning to Lead,

“Nehemiah, it is no use pretending that we have not been opposed to your project.

We have been … But you have succeeded in spite of us, and now there is no use to carry on our opposition.

For better or worse, we are going to have to live together, you as governor of Jerusalem and ourselves as governors of our own provinces.

So let’s be friends.”

Let’s get together.

Let’s negotiate.

Let’s have a dialogue.

Let’s meet on the plains of Ono.

They were saying, in effect, “Listen, Nehemiah, we may not have seen eye-to-eye recently, but let’s let bygones be bygones.

We don’t need to be angry with each other.

Come on, let’s be friends.”

Nehemiah’s success was flattering, and the invitation to work out a way of living together sounded advantageous and alluring.

Yet it was simply well designed trickery and deception with two primary goals.

a. Distract and Delay

This seemed like a good opportunity, but it was a distraction.

A more foolish leader bloated with his own self-importance might have thought to himself that this was an important opportunity to take time out from construction for diplomacy.

That is what Sanballat was hoping for.

He desired to lead Nehemiah away from the work he was engaged in.

Sanballat knew the determination of Nehemiah to finish the wall, but he hoped to delay his work.

b.

Deceive and Destroy

Because it was located about halfway between Jerusalem and Samaria, the plain of Ono seemed like a great location for such a meeting.