Dear friends, yesterday (July 26, 2020), I was given another opportunity to preach at our home church, Littlerock Community Fellowship. We are moving through a series in the book of Nehemiah, and my passage was Neh. 2:9-20. I have included the video (below) of the message if you would care to watch it, and I pray it blesses you as we study, understand and apply God’s Word to our lives. I’ll include the outline here:
Backstory
Pre-arrival introductions (9-10)
Wise leadership includes:
- Diligent preparation. (11-16)
- Motivational vision-casting. (17-18)
- Problem
- Solution
- Support
- Agreement
- Overcoming opposition. (19-20)
- Opposition encountered
- Opposition countered
This story in view of the whole story.
Here are just a few general thoughts from the message:
We are watching a master leader at work in our text today, so we will learn helpful principles on preparation, vision-casting, and overcoming opposition. Keep in mind we are all leaders in some respect, whether as in family, in the workplace, or even as believers as the world watches our works that either lead them to glorify God, or not (Matt.5). But we will also briefly see how this passage fits into whole story of God’s plan thru all of Scripture to care for, restore and relate with His people.
We must be careful about making a narrative description into a moralistic prescription. “Be like Nehemiah, so you can rebuild your walls.” Is that the author’s intent? Certainly Nehemiah is an expert in leadership, and we can learn from him about preparation, vision-casting, and overcoming opposition. But Nehemiah is part of God’s story. Not only does God demonstrate each of these elements in a much bigger way:
- Preparing for arrival of Christ throughout the Old Testament, and for the eternal kingdom in the New Testament.
- Casting vision thru prophets and biblical writers, giving His Spirit so we catch and spread His vision.
- Overcoming the enemy of sin, death and devil in Christ’s death and resurrection with ultimate victory on the horizon.
Also, we see how God’s purposes are really what is being accomplished thru Nehemiah. This passage and book fits into the whole story of God’s sovereign plan through all of Scripture to care for His people, to restore His people – not only from Babylonian captivity but from captivity to sin through the atoning work of Christ, and to enjoy an eternal relationship with His people. All of this is for the ultimate purpose of God’s glory. We are part of God’s story, grafted into God’s people through faith in Christ.