Sermon Series

• All sermons

Speaker: Rev. Shine Thomas
Posted on: 2011-05-22
Series: Nehemiah

Introduction

Have you ever painted anything like a door, a room, or a house? Did you keep track of your time from when the need arouse for the painting to the time when the painting really got done? Did you notice that you spent most of your time in preparation and purchase and that the process of applying paint actually went pretty quickly?

We are all leaders in our own capacity. You may be an employee, a self employed person, a housewife, a student, or a minister of God. Whatever our role maybe in life we are our own leader and we have to take leadership roles to reach our God-given destiny.

This morning we are going to see the biblical principle of handling initiatives, decisions, and responsibilities in life.

Brief History

Nehemiah was staying in Babylon and he was concerned about the broken walls of Jerusalem. Finally after 5 months of praying and fasting Nehemiah gets the permission from his king to rebuild the walls. Now, Nehemiah travels 2500 Km from the capital of Persia and arrives at Jerusalem.

Now, how would we approach a project if we have everything set in place? If there is a job to be done, I am usually quick to say, "Let's get on with it! If it needs to be done, let's not waste any more time let's do it!" How did Nehemiah get started?

Nehemiah 2:11 I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days - Now, Nehemiah has all of his paperwork in order. He has the King's permission to rebuild the walls. More importantly he is carrying the king’s letter authorizing him to take the timber needed from the forest to get the job done. Incidentally Nehemiah did not do anything for the first 3 days.

1. Prepare

Spend time in solitude preparation. Prepare well before any startup.

Nehemiah spent his time in preparation. Evidently, during those 3 days Nehemiah didn't do any of those things that we would have expected him to do. He didn't call together the leaders of Jerusalem and show them the letters of authority from the King and tell them about his plans to rebuild the wall. He didn't check to see how many stone masons or bricklayers there were in Jerusalem. He didn't even start ordering the materials even though he had a target time to get the work done. Why? Before any activity took place Nehemiah wanted to spend time in preparation. We must approach every work, every ministry with adequate preparations. Never do things hastily.

What were the preparations in Nehemiah’s case?

a. Rest. The journey probably took four months and it would have taken its toll on Nehemiah. He was probably suffering from a ‘camel lag’! Nehemiah needed rest. As individuals we cannot overwork, we need to rest.

Joke: A man had been driving all night and by morning was still far from his destination. He decided to stop at the next city he came to, and park somewhere quiet so he could get an hour or two of sleep. As luck would have it, the quiet place he chose happened to be on one of the city's major jogging routes. No sooner had he settled back to snooze when there came a knocking on his window. He looked out and saw a jogger running. "Yes?" "Excuse me, sir," the jogger said, "do you know the time?" The man looked at the car clock and answered, "8:15". The jogger said thanks and left. The man settled back again, and was just dozing off when there was another knock on the window and another jogger. "Excuse me, sir, do you know the time?" "8:25!" The jogger said thanks and left. Now the man could see other joggers passing by and he knew it was only a matter of time before another one disturbed him. To avoid the problem, he got out a pen and paper and put a sign in his window saying, "I do not know the time!" Once again he settled back to sleep. He was just dozing off when there was another knock on the window. "Sir, sir the time is 8:45!"

Understand we cannot do things when we are overworked and tired. Maybe many of you have been tirelessly working and planning things out for a long time or maybe you are working on your job and business and things are not going that fine. Maybe you need to take rest. Physical rest is vital for us.

Jesus too emphasized the need of rest. Matthew 11:28-29 AMP 28Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. (I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.) 29Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls.

Now, here Jesus is speaking about rest for our soul not of our body. It is not that we do not need physical rest, we do need physical rest. Our body is designed in such a way that even if we do not go out for a vacation for rest everyday we get adequate rest in sleep. But understand you can rest physically and never rest your soul. Soul is our mind, will, and emotions. You can lie down and your mind just keeps going everywhere. You lie down and yet you are still very upset. May be you have a troublesome marriage, a child whom you are bothered about, a project which is not finishing in time, targets not met and so on. See physically we are resting but our soul is busy worrying and thinking. Jesus said if you are upset about something - come to me. I will give rest for your souls.

As we continue in our roles and responsibilities in life it is important that we get adequate time of rest. See we all need physical rest but what tires us more is the unrest of our souls. Only when we have rest in our inner soul can we rest physically well.

Now what is that wears us out inwardly in our souls? Too many thoughts, too many decisions to make at a time, too much multitasking, worry, fear, excessive concern about what people think about you, insecurity; all these take a toll in our life. We cannot do anything or accomplish anything by being tired.

There are people here today who needs rest in your souls. You are very worried, overworked, maybe you are taking all the burden on yourself. God loves you, come to him. He wants to give you rest.

In the story where Jesus and his disciples went to Mary and Martha’s house we see Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus whereas Martha was distracted with all the work and preparations. So Martha came complaining to Jesus and said, “Lord don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me.” Jesus said, “Martha, you are worried and upset about many things.” See Jesus never addressed her physical work. Jesus never said you are tired working. Jesus addressed the unrest in her emotions. In other words Jesus is telling Martha see you are so worried in your soul and you cannot not do a thing worrying, look at Mary, she is at my feet. She is resting at my feet.

Understand all the concerns we have may change or may not change. So there is no point worrying about them because we cannot do anything to change them, but what we can do is we can change the way we approach our problems. The world is not going to change, the devil and his tactics are not going to change, people probably may change or may not change, but we can change the way we approach our problems. I have decided to change.

Taking rest gives us a fresh start. Here’s a biblical principle: Don’t try to make major decisions when you’re tired. When we are short on sleep or when we are busy on something else we are not usually very sharp and end up making wrong decisions. Experience has taught me that I need to just wait and be fresh before I make decisions. Nehemiah rested before he could start his project.

b. Time with God. Rest also gives us quality time with God. If you cannot stay calm or rest you cannot hear from God. Nehemiah 2:12 I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. I understand during the journey and these 3 days Nehemiah spent quality time with God.

It is only when we rest our body and mind can sometimes God talk to us. It is very usual that when you rest you will find more free time from our busy schedule which leads us to spent quality time with God. We will find that suddenly our prayers are getting intimate with God, our devotion becomes more powerful, and God will in fact start revealing himself to us. He will give you new ideas and strategies for the future.

Illustration: I remember the time we took a break and went to Pondicherry last year. It was a great time where we could just get way from our busy schedule and rest. We could get closer as a family and more importantly we found God in our company. God spoke to us. We got new directions for our family, we got new strategies for the church and by the time we came back we were ready to continue where we had left.

Rest brings us closer to God and it is very important we rest ourselves. Let’s see what Nehemiah did after he rested: Nehemiah 2:12-15 12 I set out during the night with a few others. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on. 13 By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Well and the Dung Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. 14 Then I moved on toward the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get through; 15 so I went up the valley by night, examining the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered through the Valley Gate.

2. Investigate

Investigate before your initiate

Now Nehemiah has got a project at hand but even before he begins he is investigating about his project. Nehemiah knew that in order to lead this project, he would need a firsthand picture of what needed to be done. So he sets out in the night. This moonlight journey is one of the most dramatic scenes in this book. Before Nehemiah began, he was determined to know the worst. Sometimes, we are very hasty with our decisions and we do not consider the pros and cons of our action. Nehemiah was never like that. He investigated the situation. He wanted to know exactly what he was up against.

Why do we investigate? We need to get clear in our mind as to what exactly the task is. Only when we investigate and know the task can we set goals - long-term, mid-term, and short-term. While others slept, Nehemiah was wide-awake. He diagnosed the situation and surveyed the walls.

It is important to note that while investigating not to talk to anyone about what you have in mind. Nehemiah 2:12 I set out during the night with a few others. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem.

Nehemiah 2:16 The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work.

Nehemiah surveyed the wall with a few others but he never told anyone the reason for his trip. Before you start something it is very important to keep quiet. Do not share your information to everyone and if at all only share it to the key motivators of your life.

Remember, vision doesn’t always require immediate action. The walls weren’t broken in a day. They won’t be rebuilt in a day. Do some in-depth investigation first. Do your walking before you do your talking. Do some fact-finding. Don’t let yourself be driven by the emotion of the moment. Yes you’re excited about your plans? Great. But keep a level head.

See the phrase about Nehemiah - in the night and at night. Nehemiah was awake when others were sleeping. Leaders are often awake when others are asleep, and working when others are resting. Nehemiah made a careful examination of the walls. Investigate before you initiate.

3. Motivate

Be self motivated and then motivate others

Finally, the time has come to motivate the people of Jerusalem to rebuild the wall. Nehemiah prayed and listened to God, inspected the damage and planned the work. Now he is ready to stand before the people of Jerusalem and tell them his plans and what would have to be done.

Listen carefully to his speech. It is a masterpiece of motivation. Nehemiah 2:17-18 17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” 18 I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me.

Notice the words he used "we" and "us" and "we". You see, Nehemiah is motivating the people towards work and he is identifying himself with their situation. Nehemiah never said, "Well, folks, you sure got yourselves into a mess. Your wall is a disaster. You need to get busy and rebuild that wall. And I will be in my office if you need me." He said, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” He identified himself with the people and he motivated them.

There are two ways we can motivate ourselves or motivate others; external and internal.

Illustration: It is afternoon and we say to our children, "It is time to take your baths." "Oh! Mom we don't want to take a bath." So we come back with a little external motivation: We tell them if they take bath and scrub from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet we'll buy them their favorite chocolate. So off they go to take their baths. That is external motivation.

We go out into life, and our salary becomes that external motivation. The boss says, "You're doing a good job. I tell you what, if you continue like this I'll give you a 10% raise" - external motivation. External motivation is not always good – the standard of external motivation gets higher and higher until we cannot handle it. It never stops - it keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Notice what Nehemiah did: He did not offer one piece of external motivation. He could have said, "Folks, we need to rebuild this wall. I tell you what - if we complete the job in less than 3 months we’ll charter 5 or 6 buses. Then we will all travel down to the Dead Sea for 2 weeks of fun in the sun.” He could have done that and maybe it would have worked - but it would have worked for only a brief period of time.

But what did Nehemiah do? He did not offer any external motivation - what he offered was all internal. He said, "You see the desperate situation we are in. We’re in trouble. We’re a disgrace." He gives them reasons for rebuilding the walls. He made them realize their condition.

Jesus used internal motivation. He challenged people and said, "Take up your cross and follow me." "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19 And there were results! We see it in the lives of the apostles, and we too are his followers until death because we are motivated internally by Christ.

How did the people respond to Nehemiah? Nehemiah 2:18 “I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. They replied, ‘Let us start rebuilding.’ So they began this good work.”

To be the leader of our destiny we need to be good motivators – self motivation and motivate others. But I must warn you, whenever people are highly motivated to do something there will inevitably be those who oppose what is being done.

4. Boldness

Be bold to face any opposition

Nehemiah 2:19 “But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. ‘What is this you are doing?’ they asked. ‘Are you rebelling against the king?’”

The moment Nehemiah shared his vision to the people there arose opposition. There were people to mock, ridicule, and question Nehemiah. Nehemiah was never discouraged. He was bold to face any opposition.

Nehemiah 2:20 "I answered them by saying, 'The God of heaven will give us success. We His servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.’"

Nehemiah does not lose his temper, he never got angry or upset but he said, “"We are servants of God. This is God’s will, and God will see that it is a success no matter what you may say or do."

Many of you are facing stiff opposition in different areas but if you want success, be bold to face oppositions that are against the will of God. But before you are bold to face and oppress your opposition do the hard work of preparation and investigation. Some people just think and in no time jump into action. Then someone may say, “I don’t think it will work and you get all worked up and discouraged.” Better listen to them because you have neither prepared nor investigated. Remember at such times the warnings are given by God. But then there are some of you when you have done your homework, you still find people discouraging and opposing you. At such times be bold to face oppositions.

Conclusion

You are a leader in your capacity. Maybe you are tied in your soul and need rest, maybe you have started something and you are getting to a roadblock, or maybe you do not know what to do. This morning you have the capacity to overcome your situations. Come to God and he will give you rest. Prepare well – rest, spend time with God; investigate well, be highly motivated, be bold to face any opposition. God is with you. Amen and God bless you!