Sermon Tone Analysis

Good Morning, if you have your Bibles turn with me to Nehemiah were going to be in chapters 7-8 this morning.

This morning I’d like to speak with you on this subject FIRST THINGS FIRST.

Now we have been studying Nehemiah and we have seen that Nehemiah was a very Godly man, one of the things that made him so Godly was that He had the ability to look beyond Himself for the glory of God and the betterment of other people.

We learned that God had given Nehemiah a calling, Gods city was laying in ruins.

The people did not worship God in the way God had commanded, because they couldn’t remember the city was unguarded and unprotected and anyone or anything could enter the city.

Seeing the need for the people of God to be protected and able to worship Him in the way He desired..God put it in Nehemiah’s heart to rebuild the wall.

So Nehemiah goes before the King and asks if he can go home and rebuild God’s city, and much to the surprise of everyone the King not only grants his requests but provides letters for Nehemiah to have safe passage through enemy territory, and also provides him with security guards, and the materials he needed to get the job done.

If you would look at how things were panning out you would say man everything is lining up Nehemiah is in the center of God’s will and god is providing for him.

However everything would not be smooth sailing, we learned that even when you are in the center of God’s will, no especially when you are in the center of God’s will you will face opposition of some kind.

First these guys Sanballat and Tobiah come and they try to intimidate Nehemiah into stopping, now these men were Jews they should have been overjoyed the wall of the city was being rebuilt but they weren’t, they weren’t happy because they knew that if Nehemiah succeeded they would lose some of their power and authority.

So they began scare tactics trying to get Nehemiah and the people of God to stop rebuilding the wall, once those didn’t work they were so incensed with anger they decided to kill the people of God who were working for the Lord.

I mean these were some sick people.

Nehemiah faced attacks from outside the people of God, and he also faced attacks from within as the people became afraid.

But we all know what happened, as Nehemiah kept his eyes fixed on the Lord they persevered and the wall was completed.

WHEN GOD CALLS YOU TO DO A TASK, IT WILL NEVER GO SMOOTHLY AND BE DONE QUICKLY BUT IF YOU KEEP YOUR EYES FIXED UPON HIM AND STAY DETERMINED TO ACCOMPLISH WHAT HE HAS CALLED YOU TO DO, YOU CANNOT LOSE.

So at the end of chapter 6 you see the wall is completed, the city is now safe, they have won this particular battle!

Everyone cheers, everyone is happy, the city is safe God has done through the people what nobody thought could be done!

So now what?

The battle to obey God is over right?

Not even close.

You see in the Christian life some of your most vulnerable points come after great victories.

You know God is telling you to do devotions with your family and you have never done it.

You begin to do it and face all of the challenges that come from that.

But you persevere and it becomes a pattern in your home to glorify the Lord!!

It is a great feeling and great accomplishment that god is moving and has moved to help you overcome and if your not careful you can become complacent.

This is when trouble comes

God calls you to quit some particular sin, you pray and you go through the pain of getting that sin out of your life and everyone sheers and praises God when you get past it!!!

A great victory has been won!

But if your not careful you can become complacent.

ETS: IT’S NOT ONLY WHAT YOU DO TO GET VICTORY THAT MATTERS, IT’S WHAT YOU DO AFTER THE VICTORY THAT MATTERS EVEN MORE

Some of the Christians life’s lowest valleys come after some of the highest mountain tops and your priorities have to remain the same if your going to walk in the victory God has helped you receive.

There is always a moment of decision, for example we make a decision to follow the Lord in some area of our lives and we become passionate about prayer, passionate about following after God, we fast we pray, we spend time with the Lord but after we get what we prayed for, how do we respond?

What happens after the victory matters, what you focus on after God answers your prayer matters.

Think about it after God saved Noah from the flood he had a a window right after they came off the ark, where he messed up big time!

Got drunk

After David has killed Sauls tens of thousands and is known as a great warrior for the Lord he had a choice and he became lazy which is why he ended up making the mistake with Bathsheba!

Over and over again story after story God gives the people a great victory and either they become complacent and fail, or they stay vigilant and continue walking in God’s favor and blessing.

This is what we learn from our text today what should our spiritual priorities be for all of life.

If we make these things a priority in our lives then it will safeguard us from forgetting our Lord.

Deuteronomy

When you get into the land in houses you did not build with land that you did not buy..... DO NOT FORGET THE LORD THY GOD!

When you get into the land in houses you did not build with land that you did not buy..... DO NOT FORGET THE LORD THY GOD!

How could god be forgotten?

Well it’s easy to remember the Lord when your in desperate need of something but when things are going well it can become easy to go through life not remembering how much you need him!

So let’s remember Him let’s be like Nehemiah

What does Nehemiah do after God has worked miracles and the wall is finished?

“When the wall was built and I had hung the doors...”

This meant the wall was completely finished remember the last thing to do was to hang the doors.

So the initial task God called Nehemiah to was complete, but what would Nehemiah do next?

We can learn alot about Nehemiah’s priorities by watching these next few words.

He appointed gatekeepers, Nehemiah set up security to protect the perimeter from attack.

This showed the shepherds heart of Nehemiah.

He desired the safety and security of His people because he loved them.

So he set up security to watch the gates and protect from a threat, the idea of a church having security is not a new idea to protect those from outside coming in and harming those inside worshipping, this was a top priority for Nehemiah.

He desired for God’s people to worship in peace and security.

He didn’t want them distracted by the thought of some enemy coming and attacking them.

He appointed singers and Levites and the Levites were the preists and together they one purpose for the people of God do you know what it was?

To restablish the worship of God, listen the walls were not built so that the people could sit back and go… whoaa alright check out this wall did we do a great job or what?

The wall was built to establish the worship of God back in their lives, its been over 100 years since they were able to worship in freedom.

the walls are built now what?’

guess what everybody we get to worship God together we’ve been scattered all over the place right?

but now our temple is back in our city.

This should be a priority in your life as well.

THE WORSHIP OF GOD SHOULD BE A PRIORITY IN YOUR LIFE

Now we hear this and we say wow that was deep, but no seriously we live in a day and time where church seems to be optional, and it is I mean you can pick and choose what you do with your life but I am here to tell you, to choose to not go to church tells us something about our hearts.

God is all about us gathering together with all of our imperfections and coming together for the sole purpose of bringing Him glory, this is His priority!

But in our churches today when we hear the word worship we only think about one piece of the worship pie.

When someone asks who does worship at your church you think about music.

That’s one piece of worship but its much bigger than that, when you hear the word worship the word literally means to ascribe worth.

Every single person alive is a worshipper, the things that you worship are the things you count as very worthy.

EVERYBODY IS A WORSHIPPER

Don’t ever let anyone fool you into thinking they worship nothing everybody worships something and if someone says they don’t worship anything what they are really saying is that they worship themselves.

This is truly why when someone asks you if you enjoyed worshipped its really a total misunderstanding about what worship actually is!

It doesn’y matter at all if I like worship, because by worshipping I am not ascribing worth to me, I am ascribing worth to the one I am singing to and about.

His name is Jesus, thats why if a song is theologically correct and speaks about the actions of God or His attributes or His character we should not be quick to criticize because whether we like it or not does not matter because we come ASCRIBING WORTH TO OUR LORD NOT SEEKING TO ASCRIBE WORTH TO OURSELVES OR ASCRIBING WORTH TO ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE GOD WE SING ABOUT!

You worship whatever you ascribe worth to, if you wanna find out what you worship look at where you spend your time, talent and treasure and you will see what you ascribe worth to, by finding what you ascribe worth to you see what you actually worship with your life!

For the Christian the ultimate aim of their worship is to honor the creator God and His Son Jesus.

But for you to really understand worship fully you have to understand what Paul says

This is a crazy thing to think about!

What is a sacrifice?

Well there is an altar and then you would take the animal and lay it on the altar and kill it, take its life and the loss of that life atoned for the sins of your family.

Well now since God has been so merciful since He has chosen to instead of kill us He has chosen to sacrifice His own Son in order to save you from your sins.

But once you understand that the son of God was crushed and beaten and broken for the payment for your sins in light of that mercy it is completely reasonable for you to lay your life down as a sacrifice in service to Him!

What you put to death is your sin, and your selfish desires, your personal wants and goals and you lay your life upon that altar and by laying it there here is what your saying God this breath in my lungs is yours, this blood coursing through these veins its yours, this beating heart in my chest its yours.

IT ALL BELONGS TO YOU GOD THEREFORE YOU HAVE FIRST DIBS ON MY LIFE, MY LIFE RUNS THROUGH THE FILTER OF HOW DOES THIS BRING HONOR AND GLORY TO JESUS!

This is your acceptable form of worship to God.

It is whenever you have some free time do you surrender that free time to the Lord, or do you always take that free time for yourself?

When you have a little extra money, do you rush out and spend it on yourself or do you rush to the prayer closet to see where God would have you spend it?

Do you offer up time to be in God’s house?

I ascribe so much worth to you God that I am willing to put down my will for your will Lord.

The things that matter to God should be what is most important to me, and the things that are the most important to God are the things I am going to pursue.

Paul says crawl up on the altar everyday, lay your life in the hands of the Lord He gave His life for you, will you lay your life down for Him?

Great leaders give their leadership away

You remember Hanani he was Nehemiah’s brother who this whole story started with.

He was the guy who showed up and knocked on Nehemiah’s door and told him that there was not anything being done about rebuilding the Temple.

He was the first one who had a heart for the people and the plan of God.

So Nehemiah says he is qualified to co-lead with him.

so what is so great about Hanani that Nehemiah picks him to be co-leader with him?

Was it his great managerial skills?

Was it his great strategies?