Rev. David Holwick ZL Nehemiah series
First Baptist Church (very well received)
Ledgewood, New Jersey
November 26, 2006
Nehemiah 4:8-21
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I. Which would you find more persuasive?
In the 1850s the greatest moral debate in America concerned
slavery.
Southerners believed they had a God-given right to own slaves.
Northerners believed they had a divine obligation to outlaw
slavery.
The politics on this issue were intense, especially since the
United States was still adding new territories.
Each new addition carried the possibility of tipping the
political balance from one side to the other.
No territory was more decisive in this struggle than Kansas.
In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska Bill had decreed that Kansas could
become a free state or a slave state, depending on how the
people of Kansas voted.
Surrounding territories rushed to push their voters into Kansas,
and did their best to kill the voters on the other side.
The territory was soon called "Bleeding Kansas."
Surprisingly, some of these political immigrants came all the
way from New Haven, Connecticut.
Before this group of Yankee abolitionists left, Professor
Silliman, of Yale University, pledged $25 for a Sharps rifle
for the group.
Then Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, the famous minister from Brooklyn,
pledged that his church would give the money for 25 rifles if
the audience would give enough for another twenty-five.
The people responded so enthusiastically that another 27 rifles
were paid for.
Beecher supported his decision by saying there was more moral
persuasion in one Sharps rifle than in a hundred Bibles.
To emphasize this point, the first shipment of rifles to Kansas
was put in a box labeled "Bibles" and Sharps rifles were
called Beecher Bibles from that point on.
#33615
A. It's practical -- but is it spiritual?
1) Paul says Christians don't fight with weapons of the world.
2) But most of us would agree that a bullet seems more
persuasive than a Bible.
B. Nehemiah was a Beecher preacher.
1) He was a strong believer in God, no doubt about it.
2) But he also believed in practical measures.
3) To me, there is no contradiction between the two.
II. What a difference some inspiration makes.
A. After decades of despair and inactivity, the Jews get to work.
1) It was a religious undertaking.
a) First group mentioned is the priests.
b) Everything they built, they dedicated to the Lord. 3:1
2) It had a practical organization.
a) Many of them were building the portion of the wall
nearest their own home.
3) Everyone did their part.
a) Variety of groups: family, professional, regional.
1> Rich and poor.
2> Men and women.
b) The only slackers were the princes. 3:5
B. Cooperation overcame the inertia.
1) Individually they had accomplished little.
2) Together, they rebuilt their city in record time.
3) The greatest accomplishments are usually cooperative ones.
III. Progress brings confrontation.
A. Their enemies ridicule them.
1) Will they finish in a day? (the rapid progress was evident)
2) Even a fox could knock it down. (the quality was a little
lacking)
B. Nehemiah responds with a personal and emotional prayer. 4:4
1) Christians are charged to pray differently.
2) At least Nehemiah was praying rather than killing.
a) Recent carnage in Baghdad shows results of a
retaliatory mindset.
C. The opposition -- and magnitude of the task -- took its toll.
1) Note the range of attitudes:
a) The builders worked with all their heart. 4:6
b) Onlookers saw the obstacles rather than the
accomplishments. 4:10
2) Fear was also eating at them.
a) Predictable misery was preferred over unpredictable
success. 4:12
b) Nehemiah counters this with action.
1> He posts guards at weakest points.
2> Religious reminders.
A> Nehemiah - "Remember the Lord." 4:14
B> Paul in 2 Timothy 2:8 -
"Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead..."
3> Fight for your own families and homes.
A> Personal motivation is often the most effective.
D. Guarding the gaps.
1) Divide the labor.
a) Half guarding, half building.
1> Even workers were armed. 4:17
b) Further division: work by day, guard by night. 4:22
2) Multiply the strength.
a) Trumpet to rally reserves. 4:20
b) God will help, too.
3) Maximum effort.
a) Dawn-to-dusk effort. 4:21
b) No vacations or off-time. 4:22-23
IV. Spirituality should be wedded to practicality.
A. Christians need a hard-headed faith.
1) Our faith is not just other-worldly.
2) We need to function in this world, here and now.
B. The danger of fatalism.
1) Falsely assuming that God has sealed our fates.
a) Example of evangelicals and tornadoes.
The United States has more tornadoes than anywhere
else on earth.
Hundreds are killed by them each year.
But researchers have found an interesting anomaly:
death rates from tornadoes vary by region.
Southerners are most likely to be killed, whereas
Midwesterners are less likely.
Why?
Researchers believe it is because the Bible Belt
is more fatalistic.
Billy Bob the Baptist sees a funnel cloud and calls
out, "Mary Lou, get the kids! We're going to meet
Jesus!"
In the Midwest, Marty the Methodist sees a funnel
cloud and calls out, "Mary Ann, get the kids!
Get them in the basement before it hits!"
After the storm, the Methodists come out and bury
all the Baptists.
Joking aside, I think there is some truth to this.
Because their lives are in God's hands, evangelicals
pay less attention to consequences than they should.
#33860
2) Learning from an atheist.
In 2004's harrowing mountain-climbing documentary movie,
TOUCHING THE VOID, two English climbers take on an unclimbed
route up Peru's 21,000-foot mountain, Siula Grande.
The route was steeper and more icy than they anticipated and they
were exhausted when they finally reached the summit.
As they began their descent, 25-year-old Joe Simpson fell and
shattered his left leg so that his femur bone split and was
shoved up over his knee, causing excruciating pain.
They had no choice but to lower Joe down the sheer slope by rope.
Simon Yates carved out a small seat in the ice and lowered Joe to
the end of the rope, then climbed down to him and repeated the
process.
On one such segment, the rope approached its end but did not go
slack.
Unknown to Simon, Joe had slid over the edge of a cliff and was
hanging in the air.
For an hour and a half Joe twisted, unable to raise himself back up
to firm ground.
Simon's perch was precarious, and he was freezing.
So he made a fateful decision - he cut the rope.
Joe dropped 150 feet into an icy crevasse.
A small hole at the top of the crevasse showed where he had broken
through the thin icy covering.
He was in tremendous pain and unable to climb out of his prison;
below him yawned a dark pit.
Simon was nowhere to be seen and as Joe examined the rope he
immediately knew what had happened.
His predicament made him furious, but he also examined his options.
One option he rejected -- he didn't turn to God.
He had been brought up Catholic, but he rejected it now.
He was going to rely only on himself.
Simpson's only option was to descend deeper into the crevasse.
Eventually he found himself on a "floor" but beneath him he could
hear ice falling away.
He also saw a glimmer of light and carefully crawled toward it.
It was an opening to the outside.
Now he found himself on a steep and fractured slope that melded
into a glacier.
With tremendous pain, and grim determination, Joe tumbled and
crawled back to the base camp where his cries were finally heard.
Joe's and Simon's experience is a legend among mountain climbers.
Joe's determination to survive is truly inspiring.
#28460
Would you have survived this ordeal?
Of course, no one can know.
But I think too many Christians give up in such a situation.
We would reason, well, I'm going to heaven anyway.
Instead, we should charge on through thick and thin.
We need the willpower of an atheist, AND the faith of a Christian.
Don't give up.
God has given you the resources to survive incredible odds!
3) Assume your time is not up yet.
a) God may have it all figured out already, but he
hasn't divulged it to you yet.
b) Figure out what a wise person would do in such a
situation, and try to do it.
C. The danger of grace.
1) Over-emphasis on God's free grace can hinder our effort.
a) Baptists are so against "works righteousness"
we look down on any human effort. This is wrong.
b) Our efforts DO make a difference.
c) They cannot save us from hell, but our efforts
can make a difference on earth.
-6-
2) We are created to do good works. Eph 2:10
a) Don't slack off and assume it doesn't matter.
V. Take charge of your life.
A. Get educated.
1) Apply your smarts to something worthwhile.
More than 70 years after she started school, a 94-year-old
Kansas woman will soon be the world's oldest college
graduate.
Nola Ochs, who is 95, first went to college in the 1930
but dropped out to get married and have a family.
Recently she decided to complete what she had started.
If all goes well, she will graduate in the same class as
her granddaughter.
Asked for some words of wisdom, Ochs simply said, "I give
thanks to the Lord and try to live day by day.
I try to do whatever is pleasing to Him.
That's what I want to do."
It's never too late to sharpen your mind! #33865
2) Education does not have to be a danger to faith.
3) God has given you a mind and you need to use it for his
glory.
B. Work hard.
1) The example of Ireland.
Ireland used to be one of the poorest nations in Europe.
They figured, "We are put down because we are Catholic."
Or, "God is angry with us and this is his punishment."
A new government had other ideas.
They encouraged business and lowered taxes.
In one decade they turned Ireland's economy around.
They now have a prosperity they never experienced before.
2) What can you do to turn your own economy around?
a) Have a plan for improving your skills.
b) Be the best you can be.
C. Invest for the future.
1) Believe as if Jesus were coming today.
2) Plan as if he is coming in 10,000 years.
a) I have met Christians who have no retirement plan
because they believe God will let them work until
they drop dead.
I think it is more likely they will work until they
can't work any more, then they'll starve to death.
b) It is not a sin to prepare for the future.
D. Coordinate with others.
1) History of immigrants (esp. Jews) who helped each other
and gained great success.
2) If you are doing well, what are you doing to help someone
else?
a) Help your own kids, by all means.
b) Help other believers.
c) Help anyone who needs help.
E. Serve your God.
1) Nehemiah made a difference for the glory of God.
2) The glory of God outshines the glory of man every time.
A recent article in Discover magazine examined what would
become of Earth if all the people disappeared.
It turns out it wouldn't take long for nature to reduce
even New York City to rubble.
Repeated freezing and thawing would split cement within
ten years.
Weeds would fill the cracks and sidewalks and sewers would
be soon be unusable.
Groundwater would fill Manhattan from the subways up.
As a matter of fact, within 20 years the steel supports
under Lexington Avenue would collapse into the subway
and the street would become a deep river.
Tons of leaf litter would fill the streets, clog the sewers
and cause fires that would devastate most of the city.
Guess who would fare poorly?
Rats and cockroaches.
The rats wouldn't have any garbage to eat and cockroaches
wouldn't like the cold apartments.
A few stone buildings may leave vestiges of themselves even
after a few thousand years.
However, three times in the past 100,000 years, glaciers
have scraped New York clean, and they would do so again.
Everything in the city would be ground to powder.
Human achievements are grand but limited.
Only what is done for Christ will last.
What have you done for him? #33864
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#28460 "Crisis In A Crevice," by Joe Simpson, from the movie "Touching The
Void" (2004).
#33615 "Beecher's Bibles," by David Holwick, adapted from the Kansas State
Historical Society: http://www.kshs.org/portraits/beecher_bibles.htm
#33860 "The Fatalism of the Bible Belt," by David Holwick. I read this in
a magazine in the autumn of 2006 but I can no longer identify the
source. I believe it was The Week magazine or The New Yorker
magazine.
#33864 "How Long Would Our Monuments Last?" by Alan Weisman (adapted by
Rev. David Holwick), The Week magazine, condensing an article in
Discover magazine, December 1, 2006, pages 44-45.
#33865 "The World's Oldest College Graduate," Associated Press,
http://www.wtopnews.com, November 20, 2006.
These and 30,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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