Sermon Tone Analysis

Outline

Introduction

I. Nehemiah Fixed His Focus

II.

Nehemiah Found the Facts

III.

Nehemiah Formed a Fellowship

IV.

Nehemiah Fortified His Faith

V. Nehemiah Faced the Foe

VI.

Nehemiah Fulfilled His Function

A. The Pattern

B. The People

C. The Places

Conclusion

Priming the Pump

We are not going to read the entire passage, my hope is that each of you took time to read it on your own.

We will however, go deeper into chapter 2 and just a smidgen into 3.

Like I said in the email, this is a full teaching that will definitely span 2 Sundays and I’m hoping for great discussion and revelation on our “walls” and what needs to happen in each of our lives as we begin to assess and rebuild these walls.

So let’s “Arise and Build!”

Introduction

“Let Us Arise and Build.”

This is the story of the rebuilding of the walls around about Jerusalem under the leadership of God’s man, Nehemiah.

We will pick up where we left off two weeks ago—chapter 2, and verse 11.

Nehemiah

That is, there was so much rubbish and so much debris and so much rubble, that he could not even get past.

Now here me on this.

We are talking about “reparing” the walls of our Faith.

We first identified what was causing the crumbling to take place.

For some of us, it was a complete Jerecho moment…complete devestaion of our walls of faith.

However, I want each of us today to see that these principles will be true in the building of your lives.

You have a family to build, and these principles will be true in the building of your family.

You have a business to build, and these principles will be true in the building of your business.

We have a church family and a church fellowship to build, and these principles will be true here.

These are great, eternal, vital principles.

Now, I will share with each of you the three things to look for when you study any passage of Scripture:

number one, what it meant then;

number two, what it means now; and,

number three, what it means to me personally.

Let’s continue to keep those three in our forefront for the remainder of this study keep those three in mind, because if you will take any verse of Scripture and ask, first of all, when you read it, “What did it mean then?”

and study it in its context, and then ask, “What does it mean now?”

and see what it means in our current day and age, and then go one step further and apply it to your own life, the Bible will just burst wide open in your hands.

And the truth of it will leap up off the page down into your heart and will fuel you.

Now Nehemiah has received a commission from the Lord to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem that were decayed and broken down and fallen, leaving the people of God without defense, and leaving the people of God in despair.

I want you to notice six principles that Nehemiah practiced in building the walls.

I. Nehemiah Fixed His Focus

The very first thing he did was to fix his focus.

Look, if you will, in verse 12 of chapter 2. Nehemiah says here,

Nehemiah had a mandate from God.

Nehemiah was a man who knew how to get alone with God.

And remember, he fasted, he prayed, he wept—and God had told him what to do.

Have you done that?

Have you gotten leadership from the Lord?

Are you just wandering aimlessly like a ship without a rudder, like a ship without a compass, and a ship without a sail?

Are you just putting yourself in neutral and letting life push you around?

Or do you have a focus?

Do you have a goal?

Do you have an aim?

Question:

“How are you allowing God to fix your focus?”

I want to share with you, God has a plan for your life.

God has something that He wants you to do.

You are special to God.

God made you special, just like He wanted you.

And God has a job for you to do.

And the same God who has called you is the God who has equipped you.

You can’t do what I do.

I can’t do what you do.

You can’t do what they do.

They can’t do what you do.

But I want to tell you, God has a job for everyone.

God has a plan for every life.

Both mine and Kerry’s prayer is for each of you to get alone with God and fix your focus on that plan to find the will of God for your life!

Too many people are simply drawing their breath and drawing their salary.

They don’t have a plan, a goal.

They get up in the morning, gulp down a cup of coffee, fight the traffic to work, go to work all day, come home, plop down on the couch, binge watch some tv, eat their dinner, watch a little more television, and go to bed.

The next day, it starts all over again.

That’s their life.

Oh, my dear friend, God has something greater for you.

God has something more wonderful for you.

What are you doing?

Have you fixed your focus on the purpose of God?

God has something greater for you.

God has something more wonderful for you.

Have you fixed your focus on the purpose of God?

Nehemiah said, “God had laid something on my heart.”

And if you’ll listen, God will lay something on your heart.

And I want you to focus on it.

I want you to say like the Apostle Paul, “But one thing I do.”

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Symbolism of the Rear-View Mirror (Kerry Shares/Explains)

Do you really have a goal in life?

If not, why not?

God has a purpose for your life, and your goal ought to be that purpose.

II.

Nehemiah Found the Facts

Now, the second thing he did: Not only did he fix his focus, but he found the facts.

I want you to notice, as he goes out on a tour of inspection—notice here in verse 13:

What is he doing?

He’s out there reconnecting.