Just as Nehemiah finishes chapter 3 talking about the great triumph of getting all the people to work together, then comes chapter 4. Here we see opposition. The enemies of this project start to rear their ugly heads and speak out against Nehemiah. In Nehemiah 4:1-5 we see their evil plans of attack. We also see Nehemiah’s response. Nehemiah doesn’t have a pity-party or a breakdown. He doesn’t go and complain to anyone and everyone. He prays. He takes his anger and frustration and shares it directly with the One who can do something about it. God wants to know our frustrations. He wants to be the one who carries…

As we read through the rest of Chapter 3 of Nehemiah, starting in verse 3, we see an amazing thing happen. Everyone works together. As the writer goes through the list of all the people helping to rebuild the wall, we see a cross-section of pretty much everyone that would have been in the area. We see leaders and rulers, we see servants, we see working-class individuals, we see women. Every single person had a part to play and everyone was involved in the work that needed to be done. They all worked together, side by side, to complete the section that they had. When we consider all of the…

In Nehemiah 3:1-2, we see an exciting truth. Nehemiah has shared his call by God and his plan. The first to respond? The priests. The leaders of the church responded first and set the example. Now remember, this wasn’t about rebuilding the church. This was about rebuilding the wall around the city. They stepped out, saw that God was doing something exciting and they led the way in responding. As leaders in the church, our calling is to follow God and to build God’s glory, not to follow ourselves and build our own church’s glory. Sometimes we forget that in today’s success-driven world. Where is our focus and what are…

Today, in the United States, we celebrate our independence day. It seems fitting, as we read in Nehemiah chapter 2, verses 17 through 20, we see Nehemiah making an Declaration of Independence of sorts. Nehemiah finally shares his grand plan with the people and explains his purpose for coming. He wants them to know that God has given them all a job to do and they all need to work together to fulfill it. Of course, there is opposition. Those people who do not want to see God’s work done begin to speak against it. Nehemiah comes out and explains, very briefly, exactly what it is that he’s doing and…

Nehemiah maintained single-minded focus. As we look at the next section in Nehemiah chapter 2, we look through verses 9 through 16 and we see that even though Nehemiah was coming with a great plan, he still was facing opposition. He has enemies and people who do not want to see him succeed. More than that, he didn’t even tell the people why he was there at first. He went out and did his surveying alone and in secret. Why? Nehemiah didn’t want anyone to distract him by telling him how impossible the task was or how hard things would be. He didn’t want anybody to get in his way.…

Nehemiah had a plan. As we continue in Nehemiah chapter 2, we look at verses one through eight and we see that while Nehemiah had spent all of the last chapter praying, he had also be formulating a plan. He had no idea whether he would have an opportunity to do anything with his plan, but God worked things out so that the King was the one who brought up the situation and the King asked Nehemiah what he was like to have happened. When we are praying, we should expect that God is going to utilize us to be part of the answer. Now, this doesn’t always happen, but…

As we look at the remainder of Nehemiah chapter 1, we see in Verses 4 through 11 that Nehemiah has taken the information that has been given to him and begins to pray. He is deeply moved by the situation that his brother brings to him. He’s so moved that he fasts and prays for days and these 8 versus share the core of his prayer. He pours out his heart to God, burdened by the situation that he was told about. When we find ourselves faced with difficult circumstances or when we see people in need, how do we respond? Are we deeply burdened to the place where we…

Today, we’re going to move to a new book. We’ll head back to the Old Testament and to the book of Nehemiah. As we start out today, we’re looking at chapter 1, verses 1 through 3. These verses really set the stage for the entire book of Nehemiah. As you read through these versus, we seen Nehemiah going about his daily life. He encounters his brother and some of his brother’s friends who have just returned from Jerusalem, so Nehemiah asks them about Jerusalem and the people there and how things are going. His brother gives him a very disheartening report of the state of events for the people in…