Skip to content Episode 8 | Nehemiah: I'm Doing a Great Work, and I Cannot Come Down Aug 24 · 29 min ...more
Episode 8 | Nehemiah: I'm Doing a Great Work, and I Cannot Come Down
August 24, 2026 · 29 min
Series Nehemiah August 24, 2026 · 29 min · Nehemiah
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Nehemiah's Background and Great Work Begins 0:00 Welcome to Cascade Hills. I'm so glad that you are here, and what fantastic music we have enjoyed. As always, and those of you online, let me welcome you as well, and thank you for being a part of our0:12 service. If you would, hit that share button for us and let your friends know about this worship because I believe I've got a word for you today that you're gonna enjoy and that all of us are gonna benefit from. And for0:23 all of us today, we know where we're going as we go through this book we're studying today because For the last several weeks, we've been talking about Nehemiah, both the life and the book of Nehemiah. Pastor Brent0:34 concluded last week on chapter 5. And we talked about there about getting things right with 1 another so that God can bless us. Now prior to this, here's the background just bringing you up today.0:46 Nehemiah was the cup bearer to the king of Persia. His job was to taste the food before the king ate. That was in case somebody wanted to poison the king. Nehemiah would be able to filter that and he'd give his life for0:57 his king. He had to be trustworthy. He had to be loyal. He had to be a person that the king knew he could count upon, and he was that man. Then 1 day, Nehemiah hears this word. He hears the word that his homeland1:09 has been burned with fire. The gates are destroyed. The people are hopeless and devastated. After Nehemiah hears that, he gets such a burden that for 4 months he begins to pray and lay awake at night thinking. And1:20 then finally, God burdens his heart that you're the 1 that put the burden on, so you gotta go do something. So Nehemiah goes to the king and asks him for permission to go back, rebuild the wall, and to give his people1:31 hope and a nation again. And the king's heart was turned. I love how the Bible even tells us, the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord. He turns it any way he wills. God turned that king's heart when Nehemiah1:43 began praying for him for 4 months. That ultimately the king turned to him and said, you go do it, Nehemiah, with my blessing and also with my resources. So Nehemiah gets up and he goes back to the homeland.1:55 He's trying to rebuild. He's rallied the people. They're doing a great job and like anything, when you start doing well and heaven opens up its gates to bless you, it seems like hell opens up its gates to blast you. Fact2:07 is that Nehemiah is now gonna find some critics. And he found a few originally, but that group just keeps growing. The whole book of Nehemiah really is about life transformation. In fact, I like2:19 the way the pastor Brent said it. He said it like this, this is a story not about building a wall. It's about God building a leader who would then build a group of people, who would rebuild a culture, who would follow2:30 God in a world that didn't. And in that concise statement, you get a great summary of what the whole book and the life of Nehemiah is about. Now at this stage, I wanna show you a little bit about what I see. Okay? Right2:41 off the bat so that we can notice. I noticed this that you're gonna always find your critics on your road to success. When you start growing and going and moving and making a difference,2:53 that's when you're gonna find out where your friends are and where your enemies are. Chapter 6 where we pick up today. Okay? Nehemiah chapter 6, and the scripture reads like this. Now it came about that when we it was3:05 reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies. You notice how the group has grown, that I had rebuilt the wall. That is at this time, they had finally completed it. 52 days it3:17 took, and they had finished this entire wall around the city. And he said so that there was no breach that remained in it. Now what it means by that, you remember the comment that was made at 1 point when they said, why3:28 even if a fox were to get on that wall because you're not contractors, even if a fox got on it, it would it would collapse. It's gonna be shoddy work. These people are perfume makers and jewelers, and they're not3:39 contractors. So even the work they build to build the wall is not gonna remain. And so Nehemiah is making sure right here that we understand there's no breach. We did great work. And then he says after that, he said,3:50 we've not yet put the doors up, but that was the finishing touch. That was on his punch list. And then he says in verse 2, when that happens, Sanballad and Geshem sent a message to me saying, come and4:02 let us meet at Shephraim in the plain of Ono. But they were planning to harm me. That is the critics now decided instead of standing on the outside criticizing you, what we're gonna do is we're gonna ask you to come and4:13 have a meeting with us. We wanna have a dialogue. We wanna have a discussion, and that's what they wanna do. I like the fact that Nehemiah basically is saying, I'm not going there. Okay? Here's what you'll notice. In4:24 chapter 5, he had enemies that tried to intimidate him up until that point, and they had failed, and then he had to get the people together. And now the enemies regroup, and they come back, and they're gonna give him4:36 4 different strategies to try to slow him down. Number 1, here's what they do. They try to bring him distraction. They wanna distract they wanna break his momentum by drawing4:48 him into a dialogue and a discussion. They think Nehemiah is doing so well. If we could just get you to sit down with us, let's have lunch together, Nehemiah. Let's talk about what you're doing. He already knows the4:59 heart, and now he even knows they're out to hurt him. And so Nehemiah basically is saying this, they they say, come down and meet us in the plane of oh no. And and and Nehemiah is saying, oh no. I'm not going. I likeOvercoming Distraction and Discouragement 5:11 that because Nehemiah is saying, I'm not wasting my time. Now let me help you with something. You don't have to meet with everybody who wants a meeting. Do you get that? Your time ought to be valuable. Your5:23 life ought to be important. And not everybody that wants a meeting needs to have a meeting. Okay? You spend all your days meeting and meeting and meeting, you'll probably never get nothing done. And so Nehemiah is5:33 saying, I'm not going down there. He knew their motives. They wanted to harm him, he says. So Nehemiah said, we're not there for discussion. They want death. And and I like the fact that he was saying, I'm not gonna hang5:44 out with them. I'm not gonna be around them. And here's what I love. The statement he uses here is what I won't even make the title of the message about. In verse 3, you'll notice this phrase, so I sent messengers to5:54 them saying now look at his response. I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you? Now, here's what I6:06 love. Nehemiah says, I'm doing a great work and I cannot come down. Literally what he's saying is, I'm busy doing something worthwhile. I'm on a purpose. I'm on a mission. And I don't have time to dabble6:18 or to discuss or to dialogue about what I'm doing. And and what I like is he's basically doing what every good parent's gotta do at some stage. 1 time on a mother's day, I actually spoke about this and6:30 I used that phrase, I'm doing a great work and I cannot come down. Some of you that are parents, you're doing the very best you can with your kids. You can't be at every everybody wants you to be because you're busy,6:42 neck deep, with your sleeves rolled up, being a good parent. And when you get invited to everything else but doing your primary job, you need to say like Nehemiah, I'm doing a great work and I cannot6:53 come down. When you're focused on a mission or doing something worthwhile, you get a lot of opportunities. There are a lot of distractions. And it's at that stage, you gotta stop reminding yourself, what am I doing? And7:04 and sometimes you just have to tell yourself like Nehemiah, I'm doing a great work and I cannot come down. You don't need to be on every committee and every meeting and doing everything. You need to figure out what the7:15 good work is you ought to do and give 110 percent to that. That's what Nehemiah shows us. In fact, if you think about distraction, you're gonna notice this. The more you serve God or go out all out for God, the more7:26 distractions you're gonna get. You'll get the devil will give you a lot of opportunities to get sidetracked, keep you from going further in your faith or making a real difference for God.7:41 Miracles. And after you've done it, they came and said, we want to make you a king. And they tried to make him, you know, do some good earthly things. They want to set him up so he'd have a great following. But Jesus,7:53 the bible says, had set his face like a flint toward Calvary. That is, he knew where he was going. And he was not letting anything, even a good cause, get in the way of the right cause. And so the 1st thing I8:05 noticed was they brought distraction. They wanted to draw him off sides, and you're gonna face that at times. Now, when that didn't work, you'll notice this, they came back now. And and when they came back, it8:17 says this, that they came back in verse 4, 4 different times in the same manner. That is, they wouldn't go away. They said, Nehemiah, come meet with us. He said, I I I I'm not. Oh, come meet in the plane of oh no. He8:28 said, oh no, I'm not going. And they said, Nehemiah, we gotta talk to you. He said, I'm doing a great work. I can't come down. And now it says in verse 4, you'd think they'd walk away. No. Look what it says. They sent8:40 messages to me 4 times in this manner, and I answered them the same way. You know what they were doing? They believe that persistence beats resistance. They think,8:52 yeah, you can you can say no, but we're gonna keep on and on and on. We're gonna press you until you ultimately cave or give in. You ever seen people that did that in life? They think, if I just keep9:04 talking long enough, I can persuade you, or if I keep holding this ground long enough, you will change. And sometimes children will do that to get their parents attention and get what they want. But it's sad when a9:16 child grows up, becomes an adult, and they're still playing the same game. And so the bottom line is this, you've got to understand their game is who can last the longest, and your game ought to be, I'm not even gonna9:27 play it. I'm doing a great work, and I cannot come down. So that's the 1st thing they try to do is get him in a meeting. 2nd thing they do though, besides this the, the distraction is they try discouragement.9:40 You see, if they can't get you on the outside to use your time and your energy in something else, They'll get you on the inside to make you feel as if what you're doing is not worthy or not worthwhile. So they're gonna9:51 create some false rumors about him. And they think if I can create false rumors about him, I can get him to slow down and try to dispel the rumors, and then he won't keep building the wall, and then we'll ultimately getResisting Disloyalty and Trusting Discernment 10:03 them. So that's what he tried. I want you to notice what he said in verse 5. Then Sanballat sent his servant to me in the same manner a 5th time with an open letter in his hand. Now an open letter is10:15 is what's called a sign of disrespect in those days. It's really not a letter to the person. It was a letter that was written so everybody could see what was said, so they could accuse or do what they want, And then it10:24 would it would already plant the seed of doubt in the minds of everybody that read it. So he comes and he says, I wanna bring you this open letter, Nehemiah. And it pretends to be so serious. In verse 6, he says, and it10:36 was written, it's reported among the nations, and Geshemus says, that you and the Jews are planning to rebel. You see the lie? Nehemiah wasn't planning to rebel. He was friends with the king. He he's just going to10:47 rebuild the wall, but they started a rumor. They said, oh, we know why you're building the wall. You're building this because you're gonna rebel. You're gonna be a king yourself. You're gonna turn this nation toward you.10:57 And and they planned that. And they said, and you're gonna be their king according to these reports. You have also appointed prophets to proclaim in Jerusalem concerning you. A king is in Judah. And now it will be11:09 reported to the king. He said, we're gonna go tell the king you're trying to create a revolt. And they said, so come Nehemiah, we gotta talk. We gotta he says, let's take counsel together. Nehemiah, so far you're getting11:20 a bad reputation. We know it's not true, but people are saying you're trying to be the king and build something for yourself. So Nehemiah, we need to talk about this. You see this 5 times. They keep trying to slow him11:30 down. Nehemiah, there's rumors about you. 5 times they keep persisting. We gotta meet. We gotta talk. If I can have your time. And the fact is Nehemiah is on this, trip of I'm doing a great11:42 work, I'm not coming down. And he basically said, look, I want you to know something. You may, in your own mind, imply that I'm power hungry, But I know my heart, know my motives. And he said, so I'm not11:54 gonna meet with you. I mean, you can shame me, you can defame me, you can say what you want. I am not coming down. What I love about Nehemiah is he stays focused and he calls it out. I like how verse 8 he says this to12:05 him. Then I sent a message to him saying such things as you're saying have not been done. He's saying, you're making up these lies. He said, but you're inventing them in your own mind. He's saying, I'm the king12:17 on good terms. You're the 1 saying these rumors. You're the 1 calling calling this to be true, and it's not, and you know it. So Nehemiah said, I'm not coming down. We're not having a meeting.12:29 Let me tell you what that tells you. A clear conscience will keep you from being concerned about what other people think or say about you. There's nothing better than a good12:41 clear conscience. You'll be able to sleep well at night with a clear conscience. Let me illustrate like this. Suppose somebody came right now and they told you, I know what you've done. Nobody else knows, but I know the12:51 big secret about you, and and you're a little concerned. What does they know? And then they say, you you took 10000000 dollars and you got it in a bank in the Bahamas. Now, would you look at that and say, oh, no. I'm13:02 caught. Or would you laugh at that and say, what? If I had 10000000 dollars I'd be in the Bahamas with it. Are you kidding me? When you have a clear conscience, you know you didn't do anything. You don't have to answer.13:11 That's what Nehemiah does. Nehemiah says, I'm not chasing the rumors. I'm not trying to prove my innocence. I'm not trying to let everybody know how I haven't done what they're saying I'm doing. Nehemiah is basically13:22 saying, listen, I know some principles of life you need to know. Let me give them to you. There are 2 of them. Remember this. Your friends don't need an explanation. Your friends don't need13:34 an explanation. Number 2, your enemies won't believe 1. Your friends will never need it because they know you. And your friends will never believe it because they don't want to believe anything good about you.13:46 So Nehemiah is showing us how you handle the criticism. How you respond to the adversity. He's saying, don't chase all the rumors. Don't come down to me. Don't try to13:57 defend yourself. You just keep doing a great work and don't come down. And so they tried distraction, and and and that didn't work. And they tried discouragement, and that didn't work. They're14:09 gonna try a 3rd thing now. They're gonna try disloyalty now. This one's gonna come out. What happens is, that there's an old friend of Nehemiah's who's basically gonna be hanging out with14:21 Sanballat and Tobiah and the others with his enemies. Now this is a friend of Nehemiah's who's hanging out with the wrong crowd. And because of that, he's gonna try to persuade Nehemiah to listen to14:33 them. In verse 10, it says, when I entered the house of Shemiah, the son of Delilah, the son of Metabol, who is confined at home, he said, let us meet together. You notice how they just14:45 keep on having meetings? Let us meet together, this time in the house of God, within the temple, and we'll close the doors of the temple. He said, Nehemiah, come down from the wall. This time, you don't have to meet with14:55 them somewhere. Meet in the temple. Let's let's go to the temple. And that sounds good. It sounds like it's of God. And he says, and and we'll close the doors for they're coming to kill you, Nehemiah. They're coming toCutting Ties with Fence-Straddlers 15:05 kill you at nighttime. Now when he tells Nehemiah that, I love his answer again. I mean, this guy, every time I read about his responses, he goes up higher in my book. Verse 11, he said,15:17 should a man like me flee? I I love that statement. Should a man like me flee? Nehemiah said, I've done nothing wrong. My conscience is clear. I am not running. I'm15:29 not answering. I'm not discussing, and I'm certainly not gonna hide. The other night said, I'm gonna keep doing what I've been doing regardless. Folks, there's a word for every 1 of us there. Too15:41 many of you may be listening to everybody else. You're letting other people decide and dictate the direction of your life. You wonder what everybody else thinks before you make a decision. And I'm gonna encourage you to15:51 do something. Find out what God wants you to do, what God's gifted you to do it, and do it whether anybody likes it or doesn't. That's what Nehemiah does. That's what sets him apart. So he says,16:03 should a man like me flee? And should 1 like me go to the temple and save his life? He says, I'll not go in. Then I perceive surely that God had not seen him. Now here's what I like. Nehemiah16:15 exercises something all of us have, his discernment. Question. Have you ever listened to your own intuition?16:27 I believe a lot of people would be in a lot less trouble if they'd learned to listen to their own intuition. I believe God's given to all of us a little bit of discernment and insight. Some people are much higher,16:39 and maybe they practice it and learned it. Some of may not be as high, but you still got it. I really believe that every 1 of you ought to learn to listen to your own instincts. You'll you'll know if16:51 something sounds right or wrong. You know. You'll you'll know if it sounds off. You'll know if it's truth. And and and the further you grow in your faith, the more you'll learn that. But I encourage you, start17:02 listening a lot to your own instincts and your own discernment. Don't negate that. Don't suppress that. Be willing to at least listen to it. Nehemiah was listening to what this17:14 man was saying, and he was thinking, he's trying to lead me wrong. He's trying to put me on the wrong path. He's trying to put me in a place of danger. And so Nehemiah recognized it. And then he said, and I'm not going17:25 in. He said, I'm not going to temple for for another reason. He knows and I know that I am not a priest, and only the priest was allowed in the temple at that time. And he's saying, if I went there, I would have broken17:37 the law. Once I did that, they would have had legal ground to now arrest me and then all of the hope of the nation would have been over. So Nehemiah said, I'm not risking17:48 that. I'm not putting myself in a place where it hurts everybody else. And he said, I'm just not gonna do it. Basically, I'm doing a great work, and I will not come down. That's what he says. Now, I noticed18:00 something else about him. Now he reaches a place where Nehemiah, after 5 times of the enemies trying to discourage, of trying to dis dishearten, of of trying their best to distract,18:12 of doing everything they could including disloyalty. What does he do now? He does his best defense. How do you stay on course? He prays. Verse 14, he comes back. Nehemiah is without a doubt 1 of the most spiritual18:24 men in all the bible. He said, remember, oh my God, Tobiah and Sanballat according to these works of theirs. And also, Noether, the prophetess, and the rest of the prophets who are trying to frighten me. He18:36 had a host of critics, and they were relentless night and day, constantly keeping the fires going to discourage the people and hurt Nehemiah. Yet Nehemiah is18:48 talking to God about him. And verse 15 says, so the wall was completed on the 25th month, 25th of the month of Elul in 52 days. It's literally that 6 months from the time Nehemiah18:59 left the king of Persia and came over, and they rebuilt that wall. In 52 days, they accomplished it all. And it says, and when it was done, our enemies heard of it. The nations surrounding us saw it. They lost19:11 their confidence for they recognized that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. Now in 6 months time, from the time that Nehemiah had left Persia and come over, they've completed the walls. 5219:23 days, which is a miracle, they have finished that wall. And now you notice something. You notice that when God's hand is on someone or something, it's obvious. When When God's hand's on it, you're19:35 not gonna stop it. Some of you have a destiny and a calling and a purpose or a mission that God's put in your heart and life. And I wanna encourage you, if you have that, you know what God's doing in your life, you see19:46 what God's doing, you see God's hand in your life, you keep following God with your life and don't worry about the finish. God will do the finishing. God will take care of the obstacles. God will take care of19:58 all of the enemies if you will just keep your eyes on him and do what you're called to do. Nehemiah is gonna prove it. Now you would think that after the the the time of of it beingAdopt the 'I Cannot Come Down' Spirit 20:09 completed and all the people saw it and the enemies were discouraged now that it was built, you'd think the battle is over, but it's not. In fact, there's some people that are what I call fence straddlers. They're20:21 they're always your friend, but they're always friends of your enemies too. And they they never draw a line. They they basically say, I wanna hold hands with the people that hate you, and I'm gonna hold hands with you.20:31 Can I do that? Because I get the benefit of both. And that's what some of them did. Some of the people that helped build the wall, some of those within Judah's tribe had been holding hands with20:43 and friends with Sanballad and Tobiah and all of those before. And the whole time they were critical of Nehemiah and the project, and yet this group had 1 foot in Nehemiah's camp20:55 and 1 foot over there with them. And and they were spending their life thinking, I just wanna have friends. I wanna have those over here that may hate Nehemiah, but I wanna have Nehemiah because I know God's hands on21:05 him, but I gotta have them. What happens if I lose my friends? And so they were playing the game all for themselves, and they never made a clear break. And some people, as I call their fit straddlers,21:17 they just never can turn and make the break. Now, I'm gonna tell you, if you're gonna go far with God, you're gonna have to sometimes cut some people out of your life that you know have no more voice or place in your21:28 life. You can love them. You can love them from a distance. But the truth is is you know that when I'm around them, if I'm constantly having to put out fires and constantly having to defend my friends, there21:40 comes a time you gotta say, I gotta stop this and make a clean break. God will never bless you until you make that break. And so what's gonna happen here is these people are like that. Verse 17 says this, also in those21:52 days, many letters went from the nobles of Judah to Tobiah. And and Tobiah's letters came to them. That is, they were contacting. In our day and time, it'd be like they're texting back and forth every day. For many in22:03 Judah were bound by an oath to him because he was a son-in-law of, of of someone important. And he'd married a daughter there that was important. So he these were the enemies of God, but they were married to some of the22:14 Jews. Speaking about the good deeds in my presence and reported my words to him, then Tobias sent letters to frighten me. And what they're doing is they're bringing to Nehemiah22:26 a stack of letters. And them. They're good people. Nehemiah, we built the wall but and I know they hated on us and they criticize us and I know they said a lot of negative22:38 and rumors about you but Nehemiah, they're good people. We're friends with them. We we do things together. Nehemiah, would you give him some grace? I love the fact that Nehemiah was not no. The fact is, you22:50 get on 1 side of the other. I like the fact Jesus would say that all the time. He'd say, you're gonna serve God or money. You can't serve both. Or he'd say, when you come to him, you're gonna have to walk away from some23:01 things to come to him. Some people never go far with God because they're never willing to give up to go up. I'm telling you, you'll have to make some hard calls23:13 at times. And there are many people that love people more than they love God. And it's always that test where they're gonna fail it. And that's what happened here. And I forget Boston Rob. I used to watch this show23:24 called Survivor. Boston Rob said it this way. He said, show me who you go with and I'll show you who you are. And if you wanna hang out with that crowd, that's really who you are. So there needs to be a clear23:36 separation between us and some people if we're gonna go far. Now, what I know is this, despite a distraction, disloyalty, discouragement, Nehemiah was23:47 basically saying, I'm doing a great work and I'm not coming down. So I wanna challenge you today. Those of you today that you're here and you're saying, look, pastor, I've been serving God, living for23:59 God, praying, working, doing all I can, but you know, I'm discouraged, or I'm I'm going through a valley, or I'm I'm disheartened, or I've got a critic, or I've got some24:11 opposition. I wanna I wanna encourage you today. I want you to take up a Nehemiah type spirit. The kind of spirit that says, I'm doing a good work. I'm not coming down. I'm a lead my family24:22 toward God. I'm a lead my friends toward God. I'm a live my life toward God. I am not gonna quit doing what I've done. I give this illustration. When I when I 1st became a24:34 Christian, I'd only been saved 6 months. I didn't know anything about the Christian life. I I I didn't know this book. I didn't I didn't know much at all. I would come to a little country church and I would sit in the24:45 back row, and then I'd take notes. I swear I'd write all over my Bible. I'd I'd wear it out. Somebody asked me if they said, you need to get a new Bible. It is new. It's all about a year old. And so but they in those24:56 days, I'd really wear out a Bible. And so in the process of doing that, I I had this guy that kept inviting me to his home. He said, all the college students meet at my home on this particular25:08 night. You need to come. You need to come. And that was 1 of the 1st Christians I ever met. And I didn't go. And then 1 morning, I went to church, and they got up and made this horrible announcement. They got up and25:19 said, the guy who is the leader of the singles group, of the college group, we found out that all of those college students, he was bringing them over and he was molesting them, and and there was some bad things going25:31 on. And the church was devastated. There's a little church about 50, 60 people. And I remember when I got in my car that day, I went home and I'd never been in a church where I'd seen a hypocrite. I just I'd never been25:42 in church. And I remember that day, I went to a particular park. I was in Meridian, Mississippi. I went to a particular park, and I just parked my car, and I got out under a tree. And25:54 I just said this. I said, God, I've only been a Christian a little while and I know I don't know much. And I know a lot of people are devastated at the church I went through today. But God, I'm gonna make you a promise26:06 today. If everybody in the world turns their back on you, I won't. I know what you did for me. I know how you saved me. I know how I have nothing, and you changed my life. So God, if I have to be the only 126:18 in the world, I'm gonna do it. If I have to die living for you, I'm willing to do it. Now I was only about 19 years of age at that time. I I didn't know all I'd go through, but I remember watching people fall26:30 out of the faith during the early stage and thinking I'm gonna walk this walk alone. Now, that's kind of what Nehemiah had. That's what you're gonna have to have. I'm doing a great work. I'm not coming down. I'm26:40 determined to make this make this journey of mine a walk for God, to live for God, and go all out for God. If I have to do it alone, if everybody wants to go with me, fine. But if they don't, that's fine too. I'm gonna26:52 live for God so that 1 day I'll meet my master. And when I stand before him, he will say the words you wanna hear more than anything. If you went to this whole world and nobody applauded you, and you get to that 1 and he27:04 says, well done, good and faithful servant, that's what you're living for. You're not living for the applause down here. You're living for 1 up there. And if you'll keep that in mind, I think it'll keep you going through27:14 the storms of your life and the adversity that you get. So that's the goal for you. Let's go to the Lord and pray together for a moment. Father, I wanna thank you today for the good work you began in us. You promised us,27:26 in Philippians 1 6, you began a good work in us, and you will perform it until the day of your coming. And father, I just pray in the name of Jesus for every 1 of us today that we would buckle down in our27:37 faith, and we would decide that our faith is more important to us than any other aspect of our life, and that we would choose today like Nehemiah to say, Lord, you've saved me, you've changed me,27:49 you've blessed me, and I will be loyal to you with my last breath. I owe it all to you, so I'm gonna live for you. And I pray that we would say, I'm doing a good work28:01 and I'm not coming down. Let that be our spirit. But then if you're here today, maybe you're listening online and you've never asked God in your life, and you've been looking for peace and forgiveness,28:15 loves you. He's sent his son to die for you. His name is Jesus, and he lived a sinless life, went to a cross and died in our place for all of our sins. And Jesus says, I want to28:27 forgive you. And the Bible tells us if we will believe that he lived a sinless life, went to the cross, died for us, and rose again, if we will repent of our sin and ask him in our life, God will forgive us,28:38 give us a new family forever in him, and he'll give us a future. So that down here on earth and in heaven, we spend our life with God. I wanna encourage you today,28:50 if you've never done that, I invite you today to ask him into your life. Come to know this God that loves you. Make it your prayer from your heart. Hear the words to it. Say, dear29:02 God, thank you for loving me. Enough to send your son to die in my place for my sins. I repent of my sins.29:14 I turn my life over to you. I ask you to come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Save my soul. Fill me with your spirit that I might live for you. And29:26 I thank you for hearing my prayer today.In this video 0:00 Nehemiah's Background and Great Work Begins5:00 Overcoming Distraction and Discouragement10:00 Resisting Disloyalty and Trusting Discernment15:00 Cutting Ties with Fence-Straddlers20:00 Adopt the 'I Cannot Come Down' Spirit
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