Sermon Tone Analysis

In the first half of this book, the people existed for the walls; but now the walls must exist for the people.

God was preparing a city 400 years before His Son would arrive.

I. Appoint Positions (1-4)

A. Guards (1, 3)

neh 6:15-

neh

A. Guards (1, 3)

1. Gatekeepers

2. Wall Guards

Failure of the Great Wall of China

In the end the Great Wall attained a colossal scale.

It averaged 22 feet thick, with enough room on top for five horse soldiers to ride side by side.

The wall thus served as an elevated highway for soldiers and traders.

In addition, guards in the beacon towers could send signals -- using drums, smoke from smoldering wolf dung, or cannon blasts -- all the way down the line to the emperor in Beijing.

Paradoxically, the wall wasn't a fully effective line of defense.

Various invaders managed to breach the barrier.

Every sentry was a potential weak spot, because sentries could be bribed.

In the mid-1600s at a well-fortified mountain pass near the Yellow Sea, a turncoat general simply let Manchu horse soldiers ride through.

B. Singers (1)

C. Worship Leaders (1)

D. Administrators (2)

The citadel was a fortress in the temple area, guarding the north wall of the city, which was especially vulnerable to attack.

Qualifications:

1. Faithful

2. God Fearing (2)

Fallen Seminaries, Fallen denominations, Fallen churches who don’t preach the gospel, Fallen families whose children or grandchildren have stepped away from the Lord.

The United Church of Canada has decided to retain Gretta Vosper as a minister in the UCC despite the fact that she is an atheist.

Two years earlier the UCC had declared that Vosper was unfit for ministry because she could not affirm her vows or the UCC confession.

Yet now in a joint statement between the UCC and Vosper’s church, we learn that the “Toronto Conference, the Rev. Gretta Vosper, and West Hill United Church have settled all outstanding issues between them.”

Yet Vosper still denies God’s existence.

The UCC released a statement on November 7th assuring its readers that “This doesn’t alter in any way the belief of The United Church of Canada in God.”

On the other hand, The Methodists took a stand recently

America’s second-largest Protestant denomination, the United Methodist Church, is set to split, as the church’s top policy-making body voted Tuesday to maintain prohibitions on homosexuality and to expel gay pastors.

Today’s vote at the UMC’s General Conference in St. Louis—delayed by filibusters, amendments, and other tactics by progressives—comes after two compromise options were rejected by narrow margins.

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One, the “One Church Plan,” would have let individual churches and regional bodies decide whether to ordain and marry LGBTQ members.

That plan was backed by a majority of the church’s Council of Bishops, but was rejected by a vote of 53% to 46%.

Another, the “Simple Plan,” would have simply removed all mentions of homosexuality from Methodist doctrine, recorded in its official ‘Book of Discipline.’

It, too, was rejected.

Only the anti-LGBTQ “Traditional Plan” won a majority of delegates, prevailing by a vote of 56% to 44%.

That plan maintains the Book of Discipline’s statement that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching” and that “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” cannot be ordained as ministers or be married in the church.

II.

List the Citizens (5-73)

A. Leaders (5-7)

neh 7

neh 7 8-

Zerubbabel — in the lineage of Jesus Christ.

B. Families (8-38)

C. Priest (39-42)

C. Priest (39-42)

D. Levites (43)

neh 7 4

E. Singers (44)

D. Gatekeepers (45)

E. Temple Servants (46-56)

F. Solomon’s Servants (57-60)

G. Undocumented (61-65)

Tobiah — Maybe the reason he didn’t get along with Nehemiah?

Part of the nation, but limited.

Like non-church members.

Saved and part of the universal body of Christ, YES.

But, limited because they don’t “prove” through membership that they are a part.

H.

Other Numbers (66-73)

Application:

1. God Remembers Faithful Servants

2. God servants Have to be counted and counted upon.

3.

Only those who could prove their genealogy could serve.

What is your spiritual genealogy?

1john 5:

concern (Neh. 1) led to construction (chaps.

2–3) and conflict (chaps.

4–7); and now it was time for consecration (chaps.

8–12).

Today’s vote at the UMC’s General Conference in St. Louis—delayed by filibusters, amendments, and other tactics by progressives—comes after two compromise options were rejected by narrow margins.

ADVERTISEMENT

One, the “One Church Plan,” would have let individual churches and regional bodies decide whether to ordain and marry LGBTQ members.

That plan was backed by a majority of the church’s Council of Bishops, but was rejected by a vote of 53% to 46%.

Another, the “Simple Plan,” would have simply removed all mentions of homosexuality from Methodist doctrine, recorded in its official ‘Book of Discipline.’

It, too, was rejected.

Only the anti-LGBTQ “Traditional Plan” won a majority of delegates, prevailing by a vote of 56% to 44%.

That plan maintains the Book of Discipline’s statement that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching” and that “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” cannot be ordained as ministers or be married in the church.