Are you ready to face opposition while building something great? How do we respond to challenges that threaten our purpose? Join us as we explore Nehemiah 4 and discover how to stand firm in faith, even when the odds are against us. Let's dive in together!
Prayer Prompts
Use these prompts to guide your prayer time as we prepare our hearts for Sunday.
We come together, Lord, asking for Your strength to respond to challenges with grace and holiness, just as Nehemiah did. Help us to lean on Your justice in moments of opposition, so that our reactions reflect Your love and righteousness, rather than our own anger.
As we prepare our hearts for the work ahead, we pray for readiness to endure the hard tasks You set before us. May we be willing to carry our burdens with joy and serve Your kingdom, even when it is uncomfortable, trusting that our efforts bring glory to Your name.
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Hey church family, what's up? Hey, happy
Thanksgiving. Uh we are recording this
uh early so you guys can uh spend time
with your family, but this is the Sunday
setup uh where we read through our
passage that we're going to go over on
Sunday and then we pray through that
passage as well. So, we hope that you
guys enjoy this. We hope you enjoy your
time with your family. It's going to be
a great time and uh yeah, let's just
dive right in as we start the Sunday
setup. So, here we go.
We're going to be in Nehemiah 4 1-23.
I'm super excited, super honored just to
to read this passage with you guys and
to go through this passage with you on
Sunday. But as we go, here we go. Uh
Nehemiah 4:1
and we start. When Sambalt heard that we
were rebuilding the wall, he became
furious. He mocked the Jews before his
colleagues and [music] the power and the
p and the powerful men of Samaria and
said, "What are these pathetic [music]
Jews doing? Can they restore it by
themselves? Will they offer sacrifices?
Will they ever finish it? They can they
bring these burnt stones back to life
from the mounds of rubble?" Then Tobaya
the Ammonite who was beside him said
indeed even if a fox climbed up when
they are building he would break down
their stone wall. Listen our God for we
are despised. Make their insults return
on their on their own heads and let them
be taken as plunder to the land of
captivity. Do not cover their guilt or
let the let their sin be erased from
your sight because they have angered the
builders. [music] So we rebuilt the wall
[clears throat] until the entire wall
was joined together up to half its
height for the people had the will uh to
keep working. When Sambalt, Tobaya, and
and the Arabs,
Ammonites and Ashelites heard that the
rep the repair of the walls of Jerusalem
was progressing and
that the ga the gaps were being closed.
They [music] became furious. They all
plotted together to come and fight
against Jerusalem and throw it into
confusion. So we prayed to our God and
and stationed a guard because of them
day and [music] night. In Judah it was
said the strength of the laborer fails
since there is so much rubble. We will
never be able to rebuild the wall. And
our enemy said they won't realize it
until we until we're among them and can
kill them and stop the work. When the
Jews who lived nearby arrived, they said
to us time and again where everywhere we
turn, everywhere you turn, [music] they
attack us. So I station people behind
the lowest sections of the wall at the
vulnerable areas. I station them by the
families with their own swords, spears,
[music] and bows. After I made an
inspection, I stood up and said to the
nobles, the officials, and the rest of
the people, "Do not be afraid of them.
Remember the great and awe inspiring
Lord, and fight for your countrymen,
your sons and daughters, your wives and
homes."
When our enemies heard that we knew
their scheme and that God had frustrated
it, [music] every one of us returned to
his own work on the wall. From that day
on, half of my men did the work while
the other half had spears, shields,
bows, [music] and ammer and armor.
The officers supported all of the people
of Judah who were rebuilding the wall.
The laborers who carried the loads
worked with one hand and held a weapon
with the other. Each of the builders had
his sword strapped around his waist
while he was building. And the one who
sounded the ram's horn was [music]
beside him. When I said to the nobles,
the officers, and the rest of the
people, "The work is enormous [music]
and spread out, and we are separated far
from one another along the wall.
Whenever you hear the sound of the ram's
horn, rally to us there. Our God will
fight for us. So we continue to work. So
we continued to work while half of the
men were holding spears from daybreak
until [music] the stars came out. At
that time I also said to the people,
"Let everyone of his servants spend the
night inside Jerusalem so that they can
stand guard by night and work by day.
And I, my brothers, my servants, and the
men of the guard with me never took off
our clothes. Each [music] carried his
weapon even when washing."
[panting] H guys, as our first prayer
prompt, um I just want to highlight,
man, how do we respond? We see Nehemiah
when he's hearing all these these um um
attacks against the Jewish people, when
he hears all these attacks towards them,
um he doesn't respond in his own anger.
He responds with the Lord's anger. And
and that's what I kind of want to pray
through right now is this is um God
Jesus um God Jesus, [music] how do we
respond in um how do we respond in
kindness? [music] How do we respond in
God's justice? Uh how do we respond in
his holiness? Um it was God's holiness
that that Nehemiah leaned on of how he
was going to respond to every objection,
every oppression that was happening
there. um how are we going to respond
like Jesus? So let's take that time
right now and say Jesus help us to
respond in help us to respond in. Let's
do that right now. [music]
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Heat. Heat.
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>> Um, as As we move into the second um
prayer response, I I want to highlight
um towards the end of this chapter, a
little bit of what we're building up
towards and what we're seeing from
Nehemiah. Nehemiah was always ready. And
I just love his attitude. I just love
how he's always ready to do the Lord's
work. How he's always ready to be a
servant for [music] God. How he's always
ready no matter what comes his way. He's
always willing to suffer for Jesus and
and just endure those things. do the
things that that Jesus would ask him or
that God would ask him to do. And uh
guys, I just I want to pray about this,
man. How how are we going to be ready?
How are we going to be ready to do um
things that are hard? We see at the end
of this chapter, man, that man, they
were dirty. They didn't take off their
clothes. They carried their weapons in
their wash areas. Sometimes following
Jesus is not the most pleasant thing.
And um I just want to pray through this.
Man, we're going to face a lot of
opposition in our life when we follow
Jesus. It's not going to be the coolest
thing all the time, but man, how can we
be ready to suffer for Jesus? How can we
be ready to do the things that are
uncomfortable? How can we be ready to go
endure for him and go suffer for him, go
do his kingdom work? And that's the time
I just want to spend right now, man.
Lord Jesus, how can we be ready to
blank? Jesus, how can we be ready to
blank? Let's play pray through through
that right now. Let's pray uh about that
of just how we can get have a ready
heart to go do hard things [music] for
his kingdom. Let's pray right now.
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>> Heat. Heat.
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>> Jesus, uh just help us to be ready for
whatever you ask us go to go do um you
ask us to do amazing things for your
glory for for [music] your kingdom. And
God, I just ask you to please bless us
as a church. Put on our hearts to be
ready to go do the things that you're
going to ask us to go do. And sometimes
it's not it's not going to be the most
pleasant thing to do. It's not going to
be the most comfortable thing to do, but
it is going to be the most glorious
thing we could ever do. And that is
proclaiming your name, proclaiming your
heavens, proclaiming your [music]
gospel, proclaiming your son Jesus
Christ that died on the cross for our
sins so that we could have eternal life.
And that he is alive today and he wants
to be in the lives of many people. God,
help us to be ready to go do hard things
for you and just to [music]
embrace whatever you call us to do. We
love you, Lord, and we're just thankful
for everything you do for us each and
every day in Jesus' name. Amen.
Guys, super excited to join you this
Sunday. We hope to see you there. Have a
great Thanksgiving and we'll see you on
Sunday. Peace. [music]
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