4.7.34 7.11.2021 Nehemiah 6 Resources for Renewal

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Entice: Getting the job done requires commitment. Finishing requires determination. Completion requires tenacity. Cultivating habits of commitment, determination and tenacity has an affect like compound interest. It grows at a seemingly asymmetrical rate creating returns difficult to measure. What can be difficult during times of duress is finding the commitment, determination and tenacity. They don't just appear from no where.

Engage: In your experience what has contributed the most to developing these focused and transformative attitudes? I would suggest that we need to think in terms of the resources needed. Because Nehemiah was leading a construction project we might think that the primary resources he needed were material. Brick, lumber, stone, cement. These are the kinds of resources needed to build walls, erect houses, repair broken structures.

• These were not the only "structures" which needed work. The spiritual, social, cultural structures of Judah were being rebuilt as well. What had been Judah was being transformed into Judea. Morale needed built. The story needed reformatted for a changing world.

• Tenacity, determination, and commitment are the results of rebuilding spiritual structures correctly.

You will not have them if important foundations are not laid.

Expand: The most impressive element of story of Nehemiah is not the walls rebuilt but the social project of refocusing God's people. The work of Nehemiah as leader and Ezra as "preacher-teacher" created an environment in which people could experience a revival. Having experienced that revival the result was the kinds of internal resources which made it possible for God to work in ways that went far beyond the building of walls.

Excite: God didn’t provide the challenges of 2020 so that we could go back to business as it was before. The walls of complacency were torn down so that we can erect walls of tenacious, determined, committed ministry.

Explore:

Renewal Requires the right Resources.

Explain: God magnifies the resources our faithfulness releases for service.

Body of Sermon: Resources such as…

1 Confidence for our Commission.

Nehemiah 6:1–4 (ESV)

1 Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates),

2 Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to do me harm.

3 And I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?”

4 And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner.

1.1 Focus helps us avoid deception.

1.2 Focus helps us avoid distraction

Then there is the resource of the

2 Courage of our Convictions .

Nehemiah 6:8–14 ESV

8 Then I sent to him, saying, “No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.” 9 For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.” But now, O God, strengthen my hands. 10 Now when I went into the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his home, he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night.” 11 But I said, “Should such a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live? I will not go in.” 12 And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. 13 For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me. 14 Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid.

2.1 Prayer

2.2 Discernment.

The final resource which makes real renewal possible is…

3 Competence to Complete the task.

Nehemiah 6:15 (ESV)

15 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.

3.1 Good Matters.

3.2 Results Resonate.

3.3 Nothing succeeds like success.

Shut Down:

• We need men and women who are not afraid to succeed. Not because they are filled with pride. Not because they want fame or fortune. The Church needs people who answer the call with passion and purpose and ability. That is what sets Nehemiah apart. He was able to do what he was sent to do. He was able to accomplish the Mission. He was not a noble failure. He was a finisher.

• The church needs as much of these resources as we can possibly get. Confidence which does not collapse into haughtiness. Courage which is not defiant foolishness. Competence to deliver what is promised. When we have these resources commitment, determination, and tenacity will follow almost naturally.

• So what we need is you.

You becoming more confident in the mission.

You becoming more courageous in a narcissistic and schizophrenic culture.

You learning how to be good at what God has called you to do.

• This is how the walls of change get built. One equipped person at a time.