Nehemiah 3

He tells us that in this very same place, there was a sheep gate.

If you remember Nehemiah 3 verse 1, this is the introduction where God instructs Nehemiah to build the sheep gate.

Amongst many other gates, fish gate, valley gate, and so on.

And we are told that this gate was built by a high priest, Eliashib, whose name means God shall restore.

You guys ready? All right, point number one, holy work in ordinary hands.

Nehemiah 3.8, Yaziel, son of Harahiah, one of the goldsmiths, repaired the next section, and Hananiah, one of the perfume makers, made repairs to next to that.

They restored Jerusalem as far as the broad wall.

I've thought about this like if you were a foreman, if you grew up like as a foreman of a construction site or you were a manager in a company and you're getting ready to hire people and you're hiring them to do masonry work, right? And you walk up to the person, they come up to you and they're next in line and they're like, okay, what are your skills? I make perfume.

And you're getting this understanding of we lock arms to do what it is that God is calling us to do.

Number three, when some won't stoop.

Nehemiah 3.5, the next section was repaired by the men of Tekoa, but their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors.

These guys were the pastors, you know, that refused to stack chairs.

Everyday people who are goldsmiths, their merchants, their perfumers, their daughters, just helping out building the wall.

So today in Nehemiah 3, we're going to consider the beauty and the significance of these nobodies fulfilling their duties under God's commission to build the And as we ourselves consider how this relates to us, as we under Christ building His church are called to build good works, build good households, build by spreading the gospel, build by serving faithfully.

Let us put ourselves in this text if we can and consider that many of us are nobodies.

I put my hand up as a nobody as well.

And so they're giving a call for anyone who is able to build who's willing to be faithful to just get going with this task of building the wall.

Now, brothers and sisters, often I would say Our task within the church under God's kingdom does not require speciality, but simply faithfulness.

So we see brothers and sisters here in Nehemiah 3 just stacking brick upon brick, stone upon stone.

Sometimes the work of God's kingdom, as we do week in, week out, is stacking chair upon chair, setting them out, stacking book upon book for people to then pick up and sing from.

So Nehemiah had a wall to build and you also have a wall to build when you're starting your business.

Now, if you're looking at the list and you feel overwhelmed, I want you to hear me out because the people in Nehemiah 3 didn't finish the wall by staring at all of it.

They did it one section at a time and then the next section and then the next.

And you'll do the same.

Um, fun story.

So I, the reason that I, I got kind of tapped here at the, uh, last second to do this is couple of years ago, I was asked to speak at a, a Bible, uh, Bible school and, uh, do a week-long, uh, lecture series on Ezra, Nehemiah, Zechariah, Haggai, and Malachi, so the post-exilic kind of prophets.

And so I spent a few months kind of prepping and writing notes and all of this kind of stuff, and, uh, this would've been, I think, 2022, if I remember correctly, [smacks lip] the fall of 2022.

And, uh, it was in Brazil, actually, where I was supposed to go was a Bible school in Brazil.

So I did it for about 15 months, and by the time it was all over, I had, like, 150 pages of stuff and just...

You know, 'cause I'm a nerd that way.

And, um, so Aaron texts me, "Hey, you basically wrote a book on Ezra/Nehemiah-

[laughs]

We don't stick around long enough to figure out what the real thing will be.

In our passage today, Nehemiah 3-6, with a little bit of chapter 7, page 398 of your pew Bible, God's people face opposition.

They have been exiled for their sin.

They have returned as God promised.

He does not forget.

At the back of the West Hall over there are the names of the 32 people who started this church back in 1878.

That's our version of Nehemiah 3, as we seek to remember those who have sacrificed for us.

So the people build.

We get so caught up in these denominations, right? And theology does matter a lot and it matters within each church, right? But we belong to a big, big family.

And while the wall was being built in Nehemiah 3, we learned that people watched, served, and opposed.

So what is your role in the church? And finally, I'd ask you all to pray for God's mission.

Jesus is the greater Esther.