[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$felp3u9i2d4yy":3},{"_creationTime":4,"_id":5,"apple_episode_id":6,"artwork_text":7,"artwork_text_model":8,"audio_url":9,"content_type":10,"created_at":11,"description":12,"display_title":13,"duration":14,"episode_date":15,"id":16,"image_url":17,"link":18,"pub_date":15,"slug":19,"source":20,"speaker":21,"title":13,"transcript":22,"updated_at":31,"video_aspect":32,"video_id":33,"video_url":34,"chunks":35,"sections":1362,"transcript_status":1363,"topics":1364,"related":1365,"service":1366},1792413495426.1797,"k1743yq3prpeakfx74dm66gp0n8gjexn","1000797073508","","gpt-4o-mini","https:\u002F\u002Fanchor.fm\u002Fs\u002Fed0ce78c\u002Fpodcast\u002Fplay\u002F127716275\u002Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-9-19%2Fcbb29f8f-8b29-e876-cd8c-dd08cd4da80a.mp3","sermon",1792413495426,"Nehemiah 6","Pressing! - Pastor James Safrit","00:39:11",1792412577000,"83137feb-1517-47e1-8deb-9e41f408fe37","https:\u002F\u002Fd3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net\u002Fstaging\u002Fpodcast_uploaded_episode\u002F39670459\u002F39670459-1792412566690-5a69f6641e06f.jpg","https:\u002F\u002Fpodcasters.spotify.com\u002Fpod\u002Fshow\u002Fpleasant-grove-baptist\u002Fepisodes\u002FPressing----Pastor-James-Safrit-e3qo3fj","pressing-pastor-james-safrit","anchor","Pastor James Safrit",{"_creationTime":23,"_id":24,"created_at":25,"language":26,"model":27,"sermon_id":16,"source":28,"text":29,"updated_at":25,"word_count":30},1792414260633.2795,"jx73mbb5kef1frggzwjg0swyrh8gjena",1792414260633,"en","whisper-large-v3-turbo","whisper-local","Thank you for listening to Pleasant Grove Baptist Church Sermon Audio. For more information, please visit our website, pgbcronda.com, or visit on all social media platforms. That can be dismissed at this time. And if you have your Bibles, we're going to be in Nehemiah chapter 6. Nehemiah chapter 6 today. And I'm thankful for what God has done for us and that we can be a living testimony for him and for what he has done for us and through us. Guys, if this is going to be a problem, we can turn it off. And I'll just use a different mic. But we're thankful for what God has done over the years and that he's faithful to use us. We all have a testimony. We all have a story to tell. And I pray that we tell that story. Nehemiah chapter 6, we're going to look at all 19 verses today. The difficult part of homecoming is one of two things. I know we're going to eat afterwards. So if I go a little long, it's not going to be the end of the world. But we're all smelling that wonderful food that's coming up the hallway there. And so we want to get down and eat as well. And so I'll do my best to cut some of this stuff out. And we'll get down there and we'll have a great time together. But let's stand by the reading of God's word. We're going to read all 19 verses very quickly. And then we'll jump through the message today for what God has given us on this anniversary Sunday. The Bible says, Verse 15, Verse 15, Father, we love you. We thank you for the reading of your word. Help us to study your word properly and correctly today. Help us to grow in our faith as we look at what it means to press forward for you. In your name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. We get to Nehemiah chapter 6. We've walked through lots over the last couple of weeks. And if you haven't been here, I challenge you to go and re-listen to some of those messages and get caught up. I'm thankful for the ones that have come up to me over the last couple of weeks and just said, I have really appreciated the book of Nehemiah. I've never really studied it in this manner of just going verse by verse and chapter by chapter. And it's encouraged me in my personal walk. And I want to thank you for being faithful to preaching the word. And I do want to do that even today. But I want you to imagine this is something that I cannot. This road band is going to have to go. My ADHD is kicking in. I'm playing with it too much. So I want you to imagine. This is something that I have to imagine in my mind because this has never happened to me. Imagine a runner about going a marathon, about to train for months and months and months at a time. I know Logan does this. And early workouts, he told me the other day, he gets up at like 3.30 or 4 and runs every morning. And I don't understand that in my mind, why you would do this. Your sore muscles, not being able to walk around for days because your body is just aching. But then finally the race comes. The marathon comes. You run the race. You begin to go on this journey. And you reach the last mile. Now, again, this is all from people that have told me this. But you get that last mile. And your body gets heavy. Your legs get tired. Your body wants to stop. You get close enough to see the finish line. And you get there. And then all of a sudden, like your body is in this war with each other. Am I going to finish this race? Or am I just going to give up? And this is what's going on here in chapter 6. The temptation of the evil one is coming against them to tempt them to quit. They can see the finish line there. They can see the walls are almost done. And yet there is this overarching attack that is coming into Jerusalem because they're almost completed. They're almost where they need to be at. And oftentimes this ridicule can happen. We looked at a couple of weeks ago from the internal conflict that they had this challenge that was going. And now as they get so close, the opposition begins to intensify even more. And Nehemiah, he tells them, listen, there's going to be distractions. There are going to be people that discredit us. But we must continue to press forward. Church, this morning as we celebrate 173 years, we must have this same attitude that we are going to continue to press forward for God's goodness, for his greatness. That we're going to continue to be a place that worships. We're going to continue to be a place where the word of God is preached. We're going to continue to be a place where families can come and know they can raise their families here. Where we're going to reach out and serve our neighborhoods and our community and proclaim the gospel for the salvation of lost souls. Generations have come and gone as we looked at. Pastors have served. You can look out the back door here and you can see families after families and people after people have gone on to be with the Lord. Children have grown up here and they've taken their last breath here and they've raised their families here. And now we have this opportunity to say how are we going to continue on for the goodness of God as we live our lives. We can remember what we've done in the past and we're going to do that as I walk through the message today. But I want us to be consumed with not just saying the task is finished but how can we move forward. How can we say God I want to keep pressing on. The attacks are going to continue coming. The things that are going to continue to happen are there. And we haven't arrived and we haven't finished. And we must be faithful to what God has called us to do until as Jade was asking me this morning as we were driving to church. She said dad how do we know or what's it going to be like when Jesus comes back. Like are we going to see him is he going to be in clouds. And then she asked this this has to be an every girl question. What's he going to be wearing. I looked at her and I said you know Jade I don't think we're going to be consumed about what Jesus is wearing when he comes back. I think we're going to be so enamored by his goodness and the greatness and the majesty of who he is. Like we're just going to be totally oblivious to what he's got on. But often times we ask these questions and it can cause distractions in our life. And God is telling us hey remember the mission. Remember to preach the word. Remember to continue to practice hospitality. Remember to go into the darkness of our community and penetrate the darkness with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And as we walk through today we're going to look at how this can apply even in Nehemiah chapter 6. This is 3,000 years ago when this happened and yet Nehemiah is having the same problems that we have today 3,000 years later. The first one is this the distraction of the opposition. We can all ask ourselves and we can all look inwardly and we can all begin to ask ourselves you know. Oftentimes it is easy to get distracted from the work of the Lord. It is easy to get distracted even at work when you're at work. All right. You're sitting there at your dinner table with your family and a news media pops up if you're old school and you've still got the TV on during news time during dinner time. Or someone texts you on your phone or you get an alert from TikTok or Instagram or Facebook. And all of a sudden what happens? We pull it out and we look at it and we get distracted. Distractions happen. And even in this time the distractions were coming because they were attempting to stop the work of what was going on. And we have to ask ourselves we have to be vigilant and say God allow me to see the distractions. Allow me to recognize these distractions before they come in. Because ultimately when I am sitting at the dinner table with my family and all of a sudden my phone goes off or someone calls me or something happens. And I pick it up and I go to that phone or whatever that is. I am now telling everyone at that table that this is more important than them. And the distractions begin to happen. And Nehemiah said listen I am going to be so focused on what is going on here that the distractions that we are going to look at that come in. They are not going to distract me. Because I am going to be so focused on the work that God has called me to do. The first thing we see here is the invitation to compromise. The compromising distraction that comes in. Sam Ballett is with Tobiah and Geshem say you know what let's have a friendly meeting. Let's invite him to a good dinner at lunch or dinner at a good fancy restaurant over here in Ono. And let's bring him in and let's have this wonderful time. And Nehemiah could have said you know what they are going to pay for my meal. They are taking me out to eat. Like this is a pretty good deal. I am going to go and I am going to go hang out with these guys and see what is going on. Nehemiah in this moment through the discretion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through God working in his life with the Holy Spirit. Understood that this was a false invitation. This invitation was not there with true intentions. And the Bible tells us that they were there to ultimately harm him or stop him for what was going on. But the invitation seemed very nice. And we must have the same discretion in our life. We must have the same not distraction but distraction in our life to say you know what. I know this is right and I know this is wrong. I understand that if I take this opportunity it's going to lead to destruction and it's going to lead to the downfall of these people. Every opportunity deserves our attention. Everything that comes across our desk. Every invite that we have we should pray over. We should say God is this going to benefit me or is this going to harm me? This is what Nehemiah did. He understood this. And sometimes the temptation to compromise comes in because you can imagine Nehemiah. Think about what happened in the last couple of chapters. The attacks came from outside. He warded that off. The attacks began to come on the inside. He warded that off. Man the guy's tired. The guy's wore out. Nehemiah's like you know what I just don't know if I can keep fighting. I don't know if I can begin to do this. Maybe this is an issue that I can just overlook. Maybe this standing for this truth that is costing me time and energy and sleep and everything else. Maybe it's just not worth the problem. Maybe I can just compromise in this area and I'll make everyone happy and all the problems are going to go away because I just compromise in this one small area. Maybe he said in his mind if I stop doing what God has called me to do the conflicts are going to cease. Wouldn't it just be easy just to go through life without any conflicts? And I'm sure Nehemiah began to think you know what if I just if I just change this one area. If I just change this one small thing no one's going to know it's not going to be a big deal. And then we can just move forward. Nehemiah instead of those things in verse 3 he comes back and he says this. I am involved in a great work and I cannot come down. He shows us his priorities. He shows us that the work that he is doing is designed and dictated by God and he must obey God rather than man. Verse 4 says that it wasn't just a one time invitation. They came four different times and tried getting him to compromise four different times. They kept pressing him. They kept coming at him. They kept deciding hey we're going to do this. We're going to throw this in your way. We're going to give you more money. We're going to do this this and this and we're going to bring you in here to allow you to compromise. I want you to imagine just for a moment you're riding down the road. It's somewhat dark outside. Maybe it's early in the morning or in the evening and someone texts you and you look at your phone. That one distraction doesn't really change a lot. You look back and you see it and all of a sudden you get another text and you look down and before you know it you are so distracted that you almost cross the line and you almost hit the person beside you. Or you almost go off into the ditch or you didn't see the deer that was standing in the road and you plow right into it because of that little distraction. That came in that you thought wasn't a big deal but now all of a sudden it has taken your entire attention away from what was good and what was right in your life. The danger here isn't that the driver chose the wrong destination or chose not to look. The danger here was the driver in that vehicle chose to be distracted by something in their life that wasn't good, honorable, or respectable in their life. God has called us to do a great work church and he is telling us there are oppositions that are going to come and there's these invitations that sometimes seem small that we must be aware of. After he thwarts off the invitations and he stands firm, the enemy says, you know what, we've got to do something different. And so now they begin to slander him and the accusations of slander begin to come in. They change their tactics. The devil is a smart person. Listen, our enemies are smart when they come against us. They're saying, you know what, we're going to come at you this way. And if this doesn't get you, we'll come at you in a different way. And if that doesn't get you, we'll come at you. They're going to always try different tactics and we must be aware of these things. The Bible says that in verse 5 that the sand ballot sends an open invitation, I'm sorry, an open letter to Nehemiah. Now, we don't understand what an open letter is. Let me explain it in our 2026 modern lingo. They put a tweet out or a Facebook post out for everyone to read. Okay. So sand ballot said, Hey, have you heard the news about Nehemiah? He's not really listening lately. He's going to set up his own kingdom. And he said, I'm going to push posts so everyone can see it. An open letter was that these people went around and they began spreading these letters to everybody. Hey, here's a letter for you. Here's something for you. Here's what Nehemiah is doing. These are the things that began spreading these rumors all around the town. All these accusations began to come in. They were serious accusations. All right. All of a sudden he's like, you're doing this project for your own good. You don't have the right character. You don't have the right motives. And they begin to try to discredit him in what is going on in his life. Imagine if you can with me for a moment, if you go back to maybe fifth grade or sixth grade or seventh grade or middle school errors of your life, or maybe even today in your own life, when you go back and that one rumor gets started, where that one person says, hey, did you hear what happened to Brody? And they share this idea or this thing that wasn't true that no one knew about. And by the end of the day, sometimes by the end of the class period, like the entire school knows what's going on. And you're like, this isn't true. How did you hear about that? Who told you? Well, so-and-so told me and so-and-so told me. And we're changing classes. And this person came and told me this. Rumors spread quickly. And this is what's going on here in this passage. They're trying to spread the rumors, try to discredit what's going on, so that ultimately they're repeating something that's not true. Because they're trying to hurt someone else's integrity, someone else's intentions, and they're trying to cause harm in this situation. I want to give you a just sort of bring you into the counseling room for a moment. As we, as a biblical counselor, I counsel lots of people all the time. These are some practical things that you can do before you begin to believe or repeat something in your life. The first thing you have to ask is, is this true? Is what someone is telling me true? And this may involve you doing a little bit of fact-finding or understanding before you ever repeat or even absorb it into your mind. Number two, is it necessary? Is it necessary for me to hear this cause, hear this accusation, hear this thing? Do I need to know this information? And why am I even passing this information along? Number three, is it helpful? If I share this information, I may have to do it to protect someone. I may have to do it to resolve a genuine concern. Or am I just sharing it as a prayer request among the brethren to create suspicion, doubt, or complication? When we go through our life, these are some good things to ask ourselves as we walk through our own practical life. Number three, how does Nehemiah respond to all this? I mean, we've seen the invitations. We've seen the accusations. Now, all of a sudden, Nehemiah has this awesome opportunity. How is he going to respond? What is his behavior looking like? How is he going to handle these false claims? Notice he doesn't actually ever directly deny the false claims. He comes to the people. He doesn't accept the accusations. He simply tells them, listen, we must turn to God in prayer. He doesn't say, these guys are wicked and they're bad. They have no good intentions. He doesn't defend himself. He doesn't try to go at it any other way. He just simply says, I recognize what's going on. I recognize they're the enemy. And if I respond, it's going to hurt me. It's going to hurt them. It's going to hurt everything. I'm just going to step back and say, by now, God, you are my God. Strengthen my hands. Oh, this is such a powerful thing. He's saying, listen, I'm facing pressure. I'm going through some different things. And instead of me praying, God, take this difficulty away. God, go and wipe out my enemies. He says, God, strengthen me. God, help me remain faithful. God, help me to be true. Help me to be right. Help me to be just in your eyes. Help me to have the right mindset as I keep working and I keep doing the things that you've called me to do. We must continue to press on. We must continue to do what God has called you to do. We must do the right thing and not the wrong thing. Number two, the deception of opposition. Now the opposition changes their tactics. Before they tried to distract him, now they began to deceive some things that are going on. Every voice in our life has something to offer, whether it's spiritual maturity or whether it's a distraction. We have to be the ones that are able to flesh these things out and say, God, who is it that you put in my life? And how were they guiding me in my life? The first attack was an invitation. Hey, Nehemiah, I want you to come over here and hang out with us for a little bit. Let us influence the way you're thinking, what you're saying, how you're doing some things. We may even be able to help you in what you're doing. I'm sure they came at him in a graceful manner. The first one didn't work. And now the second attack comes as a accusation. And now the third way begins to come where they begin to infiltrate the people that had the most influence on Nehemiah. Look at the first thing here, the counsel of fear that happens in verses 10 and 11. Nehemiah visits the Shemaiah. This is the priest, the one that is trying to help him. And Nehemiah is saying, listen, my enemies are coming after me and they're trying to kill me. And he goes, hey, hey, why don't you come hide in the church for a little while? Why don't you come lock yourself in a door? Or don't worry about anything on the outside. And this is going to pass. And Nehemiah, in the ultimate beginning, he goes, this doesn't seem right in my spirit. This doesn't seem right in my soul. He's telling me, he's counseling me to live in a life of fear. God has called us not to fear, but to say, God is going to be the strength of my portion forever. And I'm going to trust in him. And all of a sudden he begins to say, you know what? I'm not going to allow this fear in my life to narrow my vision. When fear happens, we have this response where we're going to fight, we're going to leave, or we're going to freeze. And everything, all of our senses begin to be heightened. And we begin to narrow everything in and begin to see what's wrong. And he said, if I live in this fear, it's going to freeze me from being able to be effective for what God has called me to do. And he says, you know what? God is not asking me to do this. Fear says, what can I do to protect myself? Faith in God is telling me, what does God want me to do? What is God requiring of me to do? It may be stepping out of my comfort zone. It may be me reaching out to the person across the counter and just offering a prayer for them. But what is God calling us to do? We must never allow fear to be the authority of our decisions. We must be a person that is living a life that is trustworthy for the Lord. You know, this counsel that he got was a shortcut for safety. We lived in Idaho for four years. We took our teenagers up to a place called McCall, Idaho. It's up to the northern part of the state. If you look at Idaho, the little finger up at the top, it's up in the top. And they have this massive lake in McCall. And the McCall Lake froze over in like October because it got so cold. And it froze over so much that by November, December, when we were there in January, people were taking trucks, massive big trucks, and just driving straight across the lake. And this is what I was talking to one of the locals. And he said, yeah, he said the deceptive part is, is sometimes when you begin to get on this lake in vehicles, it's really thick at the shore. But as you get in, it gets thinner and thinner. And these guys have this deception in their life that, hey, we can just go out here and do this. And he said, there are many times where a truck will be going out in the middle of this river, in the middle of this lake, and it'll just break and the truck will just go into the middle. Because they were deceived into thinking it was good at the beginning. And so if I get to the middle or the end and I take this shortcut across, it's going to be good in the end. And in the end, they got halfway across and the safety that they thought they had gave way. And oftentimes, this is the same way in our life. We think, well, you know, God, I'm going to go this way and everything seems fine at first. And this must be the way I'm going because it seems fine. Nothing bad is happening. Are you really a God? Are you really doing these things? And so I'm going to keep going and keep going. And all of a sudden, you get so far into our sin. We get so far into our fear that we just lose track of what God is doing in our life. God is telling us there cannot be any shortcuts in our life. And we're tempted to obey something that is more difficult or easier in our life. So the first is the counsel of fear. The second is the discernment of faith. Nehemiah responds with this clarity that I pray that is my clarity, that I pray that is our church's clarity, that I pray that each and every man in here would say, this is how I want to respond. He looks and he says, why of a man in my position should I run away and I flee into the temple? He's revealing that, listen, I understand you're not from God. And he's evaluating all these claims that are coming by him. And he's saying, listen, God has called me to do this. God has provided for me. He's provided for the enemies. He's taking care of them. He's called safety to happen inside of our walls. Look at what he's done. How can I walk away from God when he has called me to do these great things? First John 4, 1 just tells us that as believers, we should test every spirit, every advice, every thought that I give you as your pastor. You should be testing them with scripture. And you should say, listen, are these things true? Are these honorable? Are they just? Are they the things that I should give my life by? In Acts chapter 17, we come across a group of people called the Bereans. And the Bereans were known for what they did because they examined the scriptures to determine what was right and true. Church, we should be Bereans who are saying, I want to examine what is right. I want to examine what is true. No personality, no person, no position should ever have the right that goes above scripture. And we should say that scripture is our final authority in faith and practice. And everything I'm going to do, I'm going to raise my kids according to the word of God. I'm going to live my marriage according to the word of God. I'm going to go to a church that biblically aligns with what God's word is telling us to do. Church, we must be a people and a position that we are saying, God, I want to give this you the glory and I want to have discernment of my faith. Number three, we must be looking at what Nehemiah gives this prayer for the future. Verse 14, I slowed down when I read it because I wanted us to understand. He closes this section by saying, God, remember those that were coming against me. He names these people. He's saying, God, don't allow me to have vengeance on them. Imagine the spiritual maturity that it takes for a believer to say, God, this person has ruined my reputation. They are trying to hurt my family. They're trying to invite me into compromise. And ultimately, the Bible says they were trying to kill me. And him to sit down and say, God, bless them. God, work in their life. God, would you go and help Tobiah and Sam Ballett? They're distracted right now. Imagine the maturity that it takes to step back and say, I'm going to take everything that I want to do and I'm going to put it before God's feet. And I'm going to say, God, allow me to take on this Romans 12, 19 principle that you are the vengeance. You are the judge and you're going to take care of these things. I'm going to trust in you. I may not see it in my lifetime. I may not see it in next week or next year, but I'm going to trust that you are going to take care of this problem in my life. Church, for 173 years, our church has navigated through changing times, different personalities, different sermons, different seasons, different pastors, different challenges. churches, and we should be thankful that a group of people stood back and said, you know what, we're going to remain faithful through all their seasons, through, as Peter said, through the Civil War, through the Great Depression, through 9-11, through COVID, through all these things. A group of people stood together and said, we're going to continue trusting in the Lord. And they began to say, God, we're going to depend on you not only for right now in the present, but also in the future. We're going to be faithful to who and what you have called us to do. The very last thing here in the last four verses is the demonstration of God's power. And I promise you, I'll be quick. The demonstration of God's power. When all this has been done, they step back and the Bible says that even those around them have to give the glory back to God. I think this is such a powerful, powerful moment because in verse 15, we see what all this has brought us to. It's taken us about 52 days, probably, if I were to do the math. This is my sixth or seventh sermon that I've preached in Nehemiah. This is sermon number seven. So you can divide that out. It's probably been roughly that time. So from when I started preaching on Nehemiah till today is about the time they began working on this project. And the Bible says in verse 15, the completion of the walls began to happen. And it records that the walls were completed in 52 days. Think about that. The ruins that was there, the ruins that had been brought in, the people were living in the ruins. The Bible says that the animals were just coming in and destroying everything. The enemies were coming in, destroying everything. And yet 52 days later, one man come in and said, listen, guys, we can't live like this. We can't allow the Lord's people and the Lord's city to be in this ruins. And we must work together to work in a determination to see God do remarkable things. Matthew Henry said it like this. They were determined to coordinate the labor to accomplish a remarkable amount of work in a short period of time. This requires commitment. This requires people to say, I am going to be committed to work on my section of the wall. I'm going to be committed that when my work gets done, I'm going to step over and help my neighbor. When they get done, we're going to go and we're going to help somebody else. And we're not going to worry about our own little things, but we're going to worry about simply saying, God, I want to see this project done. Church, as we celebrate 173 years, no one person did everything. It was a group of people that came together in all those different generations and saying, hey, can I help you? We're going to eat this wonderful meal in a minute. Not one person made every single thing down there by themselves. Okay. If they would have, they'd been cooking for the last two months. Okay. We all came together. We all brought something. We're all going to enjoy them all together. This is the picture of what Nehemiah is doing. He's saying, listen, you come and you bring what you can bring and you allow you to do what you can do and allow this great work to be done. We are coming together and we are seeing what God has done through generations of people. And understand that the people may change, that the things may change, the methods may change that we do, but always know that the principle of God's word will never change. And as long as I'm your pastor here, you may fire me after today. I hope not. I hope I'm here for another 70 years and I can die here as your pastor. But I pray that over the next years that we will be faithful to God's word and that we will develop a church that has a culture that says we're going to love God's word. We're going to love God's people. We're going to worship him with all heart and soul and mind. And we're going to give him all the glory for everything we do so that one day there'll be another generation that comes behind us that can say, I'm thankful for that generation that stood on the truth, that stood on the word of God. And they have established this church for me to step up and me to continue to go forward. Verse 16, look at what happens here. They complete the work and Nehemiah could have got up and said, look at what happens here. Look at how great I am. Look at me. But instead he said, look at the recognition of God's hand. Verse 16 tells us that when they surrounded nations, began to hear what was going on, that the walls had been completed that were once tore down, that they came in and looted and they came in and did these things. It says that they recognized that the work had been accomplished with God's help. The enemies attempted to stop it. The enemies were trying to slow it down. And yet they emphasize God's work and God's hand in all these things. Nehemiah could have stood up and said, look at how great of a leader I am. Look at how I took this misfit of people. I put them together. We didn't know what we were doing, but I was the guy that did it all. No, he steps back and he says, God is sovereign. And he is the one that has been working through all these things. It doesn't eliminate what we need to do, but it enables us to work and to do what God has called us to do. The success was not simply a monument of human effort. It was an evidence that God was providing providential help in and through their lives. And when they stood back and they said, I'm looking at the wall and it's completed. How in the world did this happen? And they all responded, it was because God was in it. Because God was the one that received the glory. God was the one that allowed these things to happen in their life. And God is the one that allows our church to continue to sustain for 173 years. When we look on paper and we say, I don't know how this is going to work. I don't know how these things are going to happen by God's glory, by God's vision. We're going to continue to press forward for what he has called us to do. We should be grateful for the past. We should be faithful in the present and we should be praying about the future that God has given us to say, God, you have given me this for a reason. The last thing we'll look at is the continuance of opposition. This is where if James Safer was writing the story, this is not how I would have been in chapter 16, right? Chapter 16, all these things are happening. The great things are happening. And then they finish the wall. They give God the glory. Like, end of story. Roll the credits. Story's over. We're good. What happens in verse 17? The enemies are defeated. The work is finished. And Tobiah still has influence. The relationship is constant back and forth. All of a sudden, the challenges are remaining even after the project is done. This should challenge us to say, just because we complete something doesn't mean the enemy's like, oh, well, we're done. I can't worry about them anymore. No. The enemy's going to come at us even harder then. Now we're unified. Now we're able to get up and we're able to have a celebration where we can say, look at what God did. And Satan's like, okay, who can I work on? Who can I come in and influence? And all of a sudden, the Bible says that Tobiah, one of the priests, still had influence and people were still going to him. People were still worried about these things. And people began to spread rumors because all of a sudden, this discernment in our life doesn't just end once we've arrived. The work of the church requires ongoing vigilance as we begin to work through things. It's continuing to say, God, give me wisdom. That's why every time I pray, I say, God, give me wisdom. God, help me to lead right. Help me to lead my family right. Help me to lead my church right. Help me to lead all the things in my work and in my friends. Help me to lead right and do well. Because we must be vigilant of all things in our life. As Terry comes, I want to conclude with some last things. The pressing idea that I want to give us here at the beginning. Nehemiah had every reason to become discouraged and to quit and to go home. If you remember back chapter one, Nehemiah was the cupbearer. He was sitting at the king's table. He was enjoying all the wealth and prosperity of the king. And all of a sudden, he had this vision, this desire from God after he saw and heard what was going on. And he says, you know what? I've got to go and help my people. He could have said, this is too much. This is hard. The distractions are coming in. The discrediting and the slander is coming in. But instead, he kept pressing. He stayed focused on what God had given him. And this amazing project was done in 52 days. Because one man challenged a group of people to say, let's stay committed. Let's stay committed to continuing to see what God can do. Let's just put God at his test and say, God, we're going to do this for your honor and for your glory. And when it's all done, when it's done, it's going to have to say that you did this, not me. Not Nehemiah. Not a group of people that were really good. But because God was the one that worked in their life. The same way for us, church. We have this celebration of history that we get to look back on. And we get to say, God, you were faithful before. You're going to be faithful again. And we're going to trust you in the opportunities that you lay in front of us to continue to be faithful in the future. Church, our community needs the gospel now more than ever. People are hurting. People are in search of the truth. People, families still need biblical truth. Families still need to say, we're going to build our life on the word of God. Children still need to be discipled in the truth. And people are still searching for the hope of the gospel found in Jesus every single day outside these walls. Are we going to have a church that continues to stay on mission? To be faithful. To tell others about him. To say, God, we want to be faithful to you. And we want to give you the glory when all of it gets done. Not so that we can look up and say how great we are. But so that we can give you the glory. And ultimately, this is one of my prayers. So that we'll have a generation that comes behind us. That can say thank you for being faithful. I was talking to, I think it was Pat or someone this morning. And she said, you know, these red carpets weren't here one day. These pews weren't here. The TV screens weren't up here. The speakers and the sound system. Someone had church in here before all this was there. And someone gave in order for this to happen so that we can have the, the, the, be the recipients of the blessings of someone else. What are we going to say? You know what, next generation? I want to leave this for you. I want to do this for you so that you'll be able to come behind me and say, let's just serve the Lord and press forward. Because someone that was before me was willing to pay the cost for me to be faithful right now in today's generation. What are we leaving behind for our next generation? A couple of questions and I'll be done. What is God calling you to do that maybe you've been putting off? Nehemiah could have easily said, I'm done with this. I'm going to put it off for another year or so. We'll come back to it later. Once everything gets squared away. He just said, we're going to keep doing it right now. Sometimes we've put some things off. What are the distractions in our life that we need to remove? And say, God, this, this area has been distracting me. Maybe there's a conviction in your life that you need to stand firm on. Maybe there's someone in here that says, you know what? I've been looking back at the history. I've heard what you've said, Pastor James. And I just feel like I need to do more. I need to, I need to be a part of that history. I need to be a part of saying, I want to do something. Not so that people can look at me and have my name up in light. So that I can do something for the next generation. So I can do something to help someone that's going to come behind me. 173 years from now and say, you know what? Look at the work in front of us. Someone was willing to do it 173 years ago. Man, I want to step up and I want to do what my great, great father did. I want to step up and do what my great, great grandmother did. And I want to be one of the ones that can step up and say, I want to help build the wall. I want to do something for the Lord so that we can look back and say, God, you're still faithful. You're still on the throne and you're still the one that leads in every area of our life. Father, we love you. Help us as we respond today. Help us be faithful to your word. Help us to honor you in all that we do. In your name we pray. Amen.",7515,1792415303839,1.7777777777777777,"Bn71nsfB-s8","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=Bn71nsfB-s8",[36,71,107,139,177,212,238,260,288,309,336,363,392,427,450,477,493,520,558,588,614,655,696,719,745,775,804,824,853,886,906,934,956,977,1004,1027,1051,1077,1100,1123,1166,1196,1225,1251,1276,1302,1333],{"chunk_index":37,"end_sec":38,"seg_offsets":39,"seg_starts":54,"start_sec":55,"text":70},0,57,[37,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53],71,93,119,174,210,280,306,446,506,541,631,656,685,721,[55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69],5.1,9.06,10.38,11.88,20.32,22.18,26.44,27.94,38.24,40.88,42.78,47.62,48.88,51.62,54.38,"Thank you for listening to Pleasant Grove Baptist Church Sermon Audio. For more information, please visit our website, pgbcronda.com, or visit on all social media platforms. That can be dismissed at this time. And if you have your Bibles, we're going to be in Nehemiah chapter 6. Nehemiah chapter 6 today. And I'm thankful for what God has done for us and that we can be a living testimony for him and for what he has done for us and through us. Guys, if this is going to be a problem, we can turn it off. And I'll just use a different mic. But we're thankful for what God has done over the years and that he's faithful to use us. We all have a testimony. We all have a story to tell. And I pray that we tell that story. Nehemiah chapter 6, we're going to look at all 19 verses today.",{"chunk_index":72,"end_sec":73,"seg_offsets":74,"seg_starts":89,"start_sec":90,"text":106},1,257.1,[37,75,41,76,77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88],55,162,241,285,339,402,448,496,596,612,632,653,696,753,[90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99,100,101,102,103,104,105],57.58,59.96,61.34,64.32,67.76,70.12,73.4,76.1,77.82,79.52,85.24,206.46,246.66,247.76,248.84,252.66,"The difficult part of homecoming is one of two things. I know we're going to eat afterwards. So if I go a little long, it's not going to be the end of the world. But we're all smelling that wonderful food that's coming up the hallway there. And so we want to get down and eat as well. And so I'll do my best to cut some of this stuff out. And we'll get down there and we'll have a great time together. But let's stand by the reading of God's word. We're going to read all 19 verses very quickly. And then we'll jump through the message today for what God has given us on this anniversary Sunday. The Bible says, Verse 15, Verse 15, Father, we love you. We thank you for the reading of your word. Help us to study your word properly and correctly today. Help us to grow in our faith as we look at what it means to press forward for you.",{"chunk_index":108,"end_sec":109,"seg_offsets":110,"seg_starts":123,"start_sec":124,"text":138},2,298.14,[37,111,112,113,114,115,116,117,118,119,120,85,121,122],22,28,47,77,134,245,388,485,529,595,691,730,[124,125,126,127,128,129,130,131,132,133,134,135,136,137],257.24,258.24,258.62,261.48,263.58,265.82,271.64,279.14,283.6,286.4,289.2,292.06,295.4,296.56,"In your name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. We get to Nehemiah chapter 6. We've walked through lots over the last couple of weeks. And if you haven't been here, I challenge you to go and re-listen to some of those messages and get caught up. I'm thankful for the ones that have come up to me over the last couple of weeks and just said, I have really appreciated the book of Nehemiah. I've never really studied it in this manner of just going verse by verse and chapter by chapter. And it's encouraged me in my personal walk. And I want to thank you for being faithful to preaching the word. And I do want to do that even today. But I want you to imagine this is something that I cannot. This road band is going to have to go. My ADHD is kicking in.",{"chunk_index":140,"end_sec":141,"seg_offsets":142,"seg_starts":158,"start_sec":159,"text":176},3,339.12,[37,143,144,145,146,147,148,149,150,151,152,153,83,154,155,156,157],30,56,147,247,271,370,433,452,525,558,578,629,658,718,746,[159,160,161,162,163,164,165,166,167,168,169,170,171,172,173,174,175],298.2,300,301.64,304.88,309.8,311.18,316.44,319.9,321.22,325.24,327.64,329.02,330.02,331.72,333.48,336.18,337.86,"I'm playing with it too much. So I want you to imagine. This is something that I have to imagine in my mind because this has never happened to me. Imagine a runner about going a marathon, about to train for months and months and months at a time. I know Logan does this. And early workouts, he told me the other day, he gets up at like 3.30 or 4 and runs every morning. And I don't understand that in my mind, why you would do this. Your sore muscles, not being able to walk around for days because your body is just aching. But then finally the race comes. The marathon comes. You run the race. You begin to go on this journey. And you reach the last mile. Now, again, this is all from people that have told me this. But you get that last mile. And your body gets heavy.",{"chunk_index":178,"end_sec":179,"seg_offsets":180,"seg_starts":194,"start_sec":195,"text":211},4,387.34,[37,181,182,183,184,185,186,187,188,148,189,47,190,191,192,193],21,46,91,110,183,215,246,293,406,551,592,633,740,[195,196,197,198,199,200,201,202,203,204,205,206,207,208,209,210],339.38,341.28,342.92,345.12,346.32,350.4,352.52,354.2,356.98,362.04,363.78,365.86,372.58,374.06,377.2,382.28,"Your legs get tired. Your body wants to stop. You get close enough to see the finish line. And you get there. And then all of a sudden, like your body is in this war with each other. Am I going to finish this race? Or am I just going to give up? And this is what's going on here in chapter 6. The temptation of the evil one is coming against them to tempt them to quit. They can see the finish line there. They can see the walls are almost done. And yet there is this overarching attack that is coming into Jerusalem because they're almost completed. They're almost where they need to be at. And oftentimes this ridicule can happen. We looked at a couple of weeks ago from the internal conflict that they had this challenge that was going. And now as they get so close, the opposition begins to intensify even more.",{"chunk_index":213,"end_sec":214,"seg_offsets":215,"seg_starts":224,"start_sec":225,"text":237},5,434.54,[37,40,42,216,217,218,219,220,221,87,222,223],158,305,324,382,455,562,744,765,[225,226,227,228,229,230,231,232,233,234,235,236],387.66,391.16,392.82,396.12,404.68,406.02,408.48,411.92,416.38,424.38,427.26,428.5,"And Nehemiah, he tells them, listen, there's going to be distractions. There are going to be people that discredit us. But we must continue to press forward. Church, this morning as we celebrate 173 years, we must have this same attitude that we are going to continue to press forward for God's goodness, for his greatness. That we're going to continue to be a place that worships. We're going to continue to be a place where the word of God is preached. We're going to continue to be a place where families can come and know they can raise their families here. Where we're going to reach out and serve our neighborhoods and our community and proclaim the gospel for the salvation of lost souls. Generations have come and gone as we looked at. Pastors have served. You can look out the back door here and you can see families after families and people after people have gone on to be with the Lord.",{"chunk_index":239,"end_sec":240,"seg_offsets":241,"seg_starts":249,"start_sec":250,"text":259},6,474.94,[37,242,243,244,245,246,247,248,50],109,227,335,435,482,524,583,[250,251,252,253,254,255,256,257,258],435.02,441.44,449.34,453.56,459.3,462.04,463.76,466.18,468.24,"Children have grown up here and they've taken their last breath here and they've raised their families here. And now we have this opportunity to say how are we going to continue on for the goodness of God as we live our lives. We can remember what we've done in the past and we're going to do that as I walk through the message today. But I want us to be consumed with not just saying the task is finished but how can we move forward. How can we say God I want to keep pressing on. The attacks are going to continue coming. The things that are going to continue to happen are there. And we haven't arrived and we haven't finished. And we must be faithful to what God has called us to do until as Jade was asking me this morning as we were driving to church.",{"chunk_index":261,"end_sec":262,"seg_offsets":263,"seg_starts":274,"start_sec":275,"text":287},7,519.28,[37,264,265,266,267,268,269,270,271,272,121,273],81,139,202,233,363,465,532,614,662,737,[275,276,277,278,279,280,281,282,283,284,285,286],475.18,479.72,482.78,485.64,488.36,493.46,499.48,502.54,507.42,509.9,511.5,513.8,"She said dad how do we know or what's it going to be like when Jesus comes back. Like are we going to see him is he going to be in clouds. And then she asked this this has to be an every girl question. What's he going to be wearing. I looked at her and I said you know Jade I don't think we're going to be consumed about what Jesus is wearing when he comes back. I think we're going to be so enamored by his goodness and the greatness and the majesty of who he is. Like we're just going to be totally oblivious to what he's got on. But often times we ask these questions and it can cause distractions in our life. And God is telling us hey remember the mission. Remember to preach the word. Remember to continue to practice hospitality. Remember to go into the darkness of our community and penetrate the darkness with the gospel of Jesus Christ.",{"chunk_index":289,"end_sec":290,"seg_offsets":291,"seg_starts":299,"start_sec":262,"text":308},8,565.42,[37,292,293,294,295,296,297,151,298],99,225,282,384,451,514,698,[262,300,301,302,303,304,305,306,307],525.94,534.08,537.58,543.1,546.96,551.08,551.78,560.1,"And as we walk through today we're going to look at how this can apply even in Nehemiah chapter 6. This is 3,000 years ago when this happened and yet Nehemiah is having the same problems that we have today 3,000 years later. The first one is this the distraction of the opposition. We can all ask ourselves and we can all look inwardly and we can all begin to ask ourselves you know. Oftentimes it is easy to get distracted from the work of the Lord. It is easy to get distracted even at work when you're at work. All right. You're sitting there at your dinner table with your family and a news media pops up if you're old school and you've still got the TV on during news time during dinner time. Or someone texts you on your phone or you get an alert from TikTok or Instagram or Facebook.",{"chunk_index":310,"end_sec":311,"seg_offsets":312,"seg_starts":323,"start_sec":324,"text":335},9,614.94,[37,313,314,315,316,317,318,319,320,321,322],34,90,111,230,328,390,542,603,682,720,[324,325,326,327,328,329,330,331,332,333,334],565.6,566.78,570.68,571.48,579.56,585.3,588.52,596.72,600.44,605.32,607.38,"And all of a sudden what happens? We pull it out and we look at it and we get distracted. Distractions happen. And even in this time the distractions were coming because they were attempting to stop the work of what was going on. And we have to ask ourselves we have to be vigilant and say God allow me to see the distractions. Allow me to recognize these distractions before they come in. Because ultimately when I am sitting at the dinner table with my family and all of a sudden my phone goes off or someone calls me or something happens. And I pick it up and I go to that phone or whatever that is. I am now telling everyone at that table that this is more important than them. And the distractions begin to happen. And Nehemiah said listen I am going to be so focused on what is going on here that the distractions that we are going to look at that come in.",{"chunk_index":337,"end_sec":338,"seg_offsets":339,"seg_starts":349,"start_sec":350,"text":362},10,657.06,[37,340,341,43,342,217,343,344,345,346,347,348],35,113,218,403,462,540,571,604,693,[350,351,352,353,354,355,356,357,358,359,360,361],615.08,616.54,620.76,624.28,627.36,634.14,640.24,643.68,646.8,647.88,649.3,654.08,"They are not going to distract me. Because I am going to be so focused on the work that God has called me to do. The first thing we see here is the invitation to compromise. The compromising distraction that comes in. Sam Ballett is with Tobiah and Geshem say you know what let's have a friendly meeting. Let's invite him to a good dinner at lunch or dinner at a good fancy restaurant over here in Ono. And let's bring him in and let's have this wonderful time. And Nehemiah could have said you know what they are going to pay for my meal. They are taking me out to eat. Like this is a pretty good deal. I am going to go and I am going to go hang out with these guys and see what is going on. Nehemiah in this moment through the discretion of the Lord Jesus Christ.",{"chunk_index":364,"end_sec":365,"seg_offsets":366,"seg_starts":377,"start_sec":378,"text":391},11,703.74,[37,367,292,368,369,370,371,372,373,374,375,121,376],54,151,253,290,340,428,475,610,652,738,[378,379,380,381,382,383,384,385,386,387,388,389,390],657.3,659.66,663.04,666.34,672.62,676.1,678.88,684.2,686.32,694.28,696.8,698.64,700.76,"Through God working in his life with the Holy Spirit. Understood that this was a false invitation. This invitation was not there with true intentions. And the Bible tells us that they were there to ultimately harm him or stop him for what was going on. But the invitation seemed very nice. And we must have the same discretion in our life. We must have the same not distraction but distraction in our life to say you know what. I know this is right and I know this is wrong. I understand that if I take this opportunity it's going to lead to destruction and it's going to lead to the downfall of these people. Every opportunity deserves our attention. Everything that comes across our desk. Every invite that we have we should pray over. We should say God is this going to benefit me or is this going to harm me?",{"chunk_index":393,"end_sec":394,"seg_offsets":395,"seg_starts":409,"start_sec":410,"text":426},12,749.58,[37,396,113,397,398,399,400,401,402,218,403,404,405,406,407,408],27,133,191,222,242,283,303,344,416,456,505,606,645,[410,411,412,413,414,415,416,417,418,419,420,421,422,423,424,425],703.8,704.98,706.76,711.88,713.78,716.5,718.16,720.34,721.82,723.36,725.18,727.66,729.1,731.78,738.04,739.94,"This is what Nehemiah did. He understood this. And sometimes the temptation to compromise comes in because you can imagine Nehemiah. Think about what happened in the last couple of chapters. The attacks came from outside. He warded that off. The attacks began to come on the inside. He warded that off. Man the guy's tired. The guy's wore out. Nehemiah's like you know what I just don't know if I can keep fighting. I don't know if I can begin to do this. Maybe this is an issue that I can just overlook. Maybe this standing for this truth that is costing me time and energy and sleep and everything else. Maybe it's just not worth the problem. Maybe I can just compromise in this area and I'll make everyone happy and all the problems are going to go away because I just compromise in this one small area.",{"chunk_index":428,"end_sec":429,"seg_offsets":430,"seg_starts":438,"start_sec":439,"text":449},13,794.8,[37,431,432,433,434,435,373,119,436,437],105,177,270,364,399,557,670,[439,440,441,442,443,444,445,446,447,448],750.44,758.34,762.26,767.36,772.14,774.92,779.2,783.44,784.94,792.16,"Maybe he said in his mind if I stop doing what God has called me to do the conflicts are going to cease. Wouldn't it just be easy just to go through life without any conflicts? And I'm sure Nehemiah began to think you know what if I just if I just change this one area. If I just change this one small thing no one's going to know it's not going to be a big deal. And then we can just move forward. Nehemiah instead of those things in verse 3 he comes back and he says this. I am involved in a great work and I cannot come down. He shows us his priorities. He shows us that the work that he is doing is designed and dictated by God and he must obey God rather than man. Verse 4 says that it wasn't just a one time invitation.",{"chunk_index":451,"end_sec":452,"seg_offsets":453,"seg_starts":464,"start_sec":429,"text":476},14,832.28,[37,454,341,455,456,457,458,459,460,461,462,463],89,138,185,224,260,362,431,459,559,609,[429,465,466,467,468,469,470,471,472,473,474,475],799.42,800.54,802.1,803.96,805.64,806.6,810.94,814.8,816.84,822.32,824.82,"They came four different times and tried getting him to compromise four different times. They kept pressing him. They kept coming at him. They kept deciding hey we're going to do this. We're going to throw this in your way. We're going to give you more money. We're going to do this this and this and we're going to bring you in here to allow you to compromise. I want you to imagine just for a moment you're riding down the road. It's somewhat dark outside. Maybe it's early in the morning or in the evening and someone texts you and you look at your phone. That one distraction doesn't really change a lot. You look back and you see it and all of a sudden you get another text and you look down and before you know it you are so distracted that you almost cross the line and you almost hit the",{"chunk_index":478,"end_sec":479,"seg_offsets":480,"seg_starts":485,"start_sec":452,"text":492},15,879.9,[37,481,482,79,483,248,484],19,175,427,775,[452,486,487,488,489,490,491],833.48,840.94,850.4,856.58,865.98,876.14,"person beside you. Or you almost go off into the ditch or you didn't see the deer that was standing in the road and you plow right into it because of that little distraction. That came in that you thought wasn't a big deal but now all of a sudden it has taken your entire attention away from what was good and what was right in your life. The danger here isn't that the driver chose the wrong destination or chose not to look. The danger here was the driver in that vehicle chose to be distracted by something in their life that wasn't good, honorable, or respectable in their life. God has called us to do a great work church and he is telling us there are oppositions that are going to come and there's these invitations that sometimes seem small that we must be aware of. After he thwarts off the invitations and he stands firm,",{"chunk_index":494,"end_sec":495,"seg_offsets":496,"seg_starts":505,"start_sec":506,"text":519},16,923.04,[37,497,498,499,44,500,244,80,501,502,503,504,222],68,154,181,267,450,534,651,700,[506,507,508,509,510,511,512,513,514,515,516,517,518],880.26,883.52,889.26,891.12,892.52,895,897.22,899.62,901.28,905.36,913.46,915.5,918.9,"the enemy says, you know what, we've got to do something different. And so now they begin to slander him and the accusations of slander begin to come in. They change their tactics. The devil is a smart person. Listen, our enemies are smart when they come against us. They're saying, you know what, we're going to come at you this way. And if this doesn't get you, we'll come at you in a different way. And if that doesn't get you, we'll come at you. They're going to always try different tactics and we must be aware of these things. The Bible says that in verse 5 that the sand ballot sends an open invitation, I'm sorry, an open letter to Nehemiah. Now, we don't understand what an open letter is. Let me explain it in our 2026 modern lingo. They put a tweet out or a Facebook post out for everyone to read.",{"chunk_index":521,"end_sec":522,"seg_offsets":523,"seg_starts":538,"start_sec":539,"text":557},17,973.62,[37,239,524,525,526,527,528,529,268,530,531,532,49,533,534,535,536,537],72,106,144,205,307,337,394,470,510,552,624,660,694,766,[539,540,541,542,543,544,545,546,547,548,549,550,551,552,553,554,555,556],923.5,924.34,927.78,929.24,931.08,934.42,939.08,940.56,941.68,942.84,947.5,949.82,951.5,952.02,955.48,956.7,957.8,963.48,"Okay. So sand ballot said, Hey, have you heard the news about Nehemiah? He's not really listening lately. He's going to set up his own kingdom. And he said, I'm going to push posts so everyone can see it. An open letter was that these people went around and they began spreading these letters to everybody. Hey, here's a letter for you. Here's something for you. Here's what Nehemiah is doing. These are the things that began spreading these rumors all around the town. All these accusations began to come in. They were serious accusations. All right. All of a sudden he's like, you're doing this project for your own good. You don't have the right character. You don't have the right motives. And they begin to try to discredit him in what is going on in his life. Imagine if you can with me for a moment, if you go back to maybe fifth grade or sixth grade or seventh grade or middle school errors of your life, or maybe even today in your own life, when you",{"chunk_index":559,"end_sec":560,"seg_offsets":561,"seg_starts":572,"start_sec":522,"text":587},18,1022.42,[37,562,315,398,46,371,563,564,565,566,567,568,569,570,571],41,369,383,430,458,497,520,570,705,841,[522,573,574,575,576,577,578,579,580,581,582,583,584,585,586],976.14,981.5,986.82,992.38,995.18,996.12,996.64,998.2,999.38,1001.04,1002.98,1005.38,1012.44,1019.6,"go back and that one rumor gets started, where that one person says, hey, did you hear what happened to Brody? And they share this idea or this thing that wasn't true that no one knew about. And by the end of the day, sometimes by the end of the class period, like the entire school knows what's going on. And you're like, this isn't true. How did you hear about that? Who told you? Well, so-and-so told me and so-and-so told me. And we're changing classes. And this person came and told me this. Rumors spread quickly. And this is what's going on here in this passage. They're trying to spread the rumors, try to discredit what's going on, so that ultimately they're repeating something that's not true. Because they're trying to hurt someone else's integrity, someone else's intentions, and they're trying to cause harm in this situation. I want to give you a just sort of bring you into the counseling room for a moment.",{"chunk_index":481,"end_sec":589,"seg_offsets":590,"seg_starts":598,"start_sec":599,"text":613},1071.32,[37,40,499,591,500,592,565,593,594,595,596,597,87,157],231,401,495,512,548,598,627,[599,600,601,602,603,604,605,606,607,608,609,610,611,612],1022.58,1025.74,1031.5,1033.8,1036.52,1044.2,1045.98,1050.58,1051.5,1053.32,1056.48,1058.54,1062.56,1065.54,"As we, as a biblical counselor, I counsel lots of people all the time. These are some practical things that you can do before you begin to believe or repeat something in your life. The first thing you have to ask is, is this true? Is what someone is telling me true? And this may involve you doing a little bit of fact-finding or understanding before you ever repeat or even absorb it into your mind. Number two, is it necessary? Is it necessary for me to hear this cause, hear this accusation, hear this thing? Do I need to know this information? And why am I even passing this information along? Number three, is it helpful? If I share this information, I may have to do it to protect someone. I may have to do it to resolve a genuine concern. Or am I just sharing it as a prayer request among the brethren to create suspicion, doubt, or complication?",{"chunk_index":615,"end_sec":616,"seg_offsets":617,"seg_starts":633,"start_sec":634,"text":654},20,1123.7,[37,618,619,527,267,620,621,622,343,623,624,625,595,626,627,628,629,630,631,632],116,169,294,322,357,467,491,526,587,642,672,699,741,791,822,[634,635,636,637,638,639,640,641,642,643,644,645,646,647,648,649,650,651,652,653],1072.44,1078.18,1081.02,1083.1,1084.4,1087.68,1089.98,1092.18,1095.3,1100.18,1101.68,1103.76,1105.92,1109.14,1111.96,1113.3,1114.66,1116.56,1119.62,1121.5,"When we go through our life, these are some good things to ask ourselves as we walk through our own practical life. Number three, how does Nehemiah respond to all this? I mean, we've seen the invitations. We've seen the accusations. Now, all of a sudden, Nehemiah has this awesome opportunity. How is he going to respond? What is his behavior looking like? How is he going to handle these false claims? Notice he doesn't actually ever directly deny the false claims. He comes to the people. He doesn't accept the accusations. He simply tells them, listen, we must turn to God in prayer. He doesn't say, these guys are wicked and they're bad. They have no good intentions. He doesn't defend himself. He doesn't try to go at it any other way. He just simply says, I recognize what's going on. I recognize they're the enemy. And if I respond, it's going to hurt me.",{"chunk_index":181,"end_sec":656,"seg_offsets":657,"seg_starts":673,"start_sec":616,"text":695},1171.86,[37,658,144,41,525,659,660,661,662,663,664,665,666,219,667,668,566,624,669,670,671,672],25,122,143,178,220,261,320,353,367,412,437,600,630,684,736,[616,674,675,676,677,678,679,680,681,682,683,684,685,686,687,688,689,690,691,692,693,694],1124.58,1125.88,1128.82,1130.12,1132.1,1133.62,1135.34,1137.12,1139.3,1143.04,1145,1146.44,1147.8,1149.72,1151.26,1152.24,1153.94,1161.52,1163.58,1166.32,1169.48,"It's going to hurt them. It's going to hurt everything. I'm just going to step back and say, by now, God, you are my God. Strengthen my hands. Oh, this is such a powerful thing. He's saying, listen, I'm facing pressure. I'm going through some different things. And instead of me praying, God, take this difficulty away. God, go and wipe out my enemies. He says, God, strengthen me. God, help me remain faithful. God, help me to be true. Help me to be right. Help me to be just in your eyes. Help me to have the right mindset as I keep working and I keep doing the things that you've called me to do. We must continue to press on. We must continue to do what God has called you to do. We must do the right thing and not the wrong thing. Number two, the deception of opposition.",{"chunk_index":111,"end_sec":697,"seg_offsets":698,"seg_starts":705,"start_sec":706,"text":718},1211.54,[37,699,115,116,622,700,701,702,463,703,704,376],42,398,434,517,663,711,[706,707,708,709,710,711,712,713,714,715,716,717],1172.1,1174.4,1179.8,1185.72,1190.52,1192.16,1194.18,1197.22,1201.24,1204.36,1207.28,1208.74,"Now the opposition changes their tactics. Before they tried to distract him, now they began to deceive some things that are going on. Every voice in our life has something to offer, whether it's spiritual maturity or whether it's a distraction. We have to be the ones that are able to flesh these things out and say, God, who is it that you put in my life? And how were they guiding me in my life? The first attack was an invitation. Hey, Nehemiah, I want you to come over here and hang out with us for a little bit. Let us influence the way you're thinking, what you're saying, how you're doing some things. We may even be able to help you in what you're doing. I'm sure they came at him in a graceful manner. The first one didn't work. And now the second attack comes as a accusation.",{"chunk_index":720,"end_sec":721,"seg_offsets":722,"seg_starts":731,"start_sec":697,"text":744},23,1259.3,[37,723,724,725,370,295,269,726,727,728,437,729,730],120,204,234,509,555,582,706,769,[697,732,733,734,735,736,737,738,739,740,741,742,743],1219.48,1224.38,1226.7,1229.4,1234,1237.46,1239.4,1241.18,1243.26,1248.14,1250.08,1254.86,"And now the third way begins to come where they begin to infiltrate the people that had the most influence on Nehemiah. Look at the first thing here, the counsel of fear that happens in verses 10 and 11. Nehemiah visits the Shemaiah. This is the priest, the one that is trying to help him. And Nehemiah is saying, listen, my enemies are coming after me and they're trying to kill me. And he goes, hey, hey, why don't you come hide in the church for a little while? Why don't you come lock yourself in a door? Or don't worry about anything on the outside. And this is going to pass. And Nehemiah, in the ultimate beginning, he goes, this doesn't seem right in my spirit. This doesn't seem right in my soul. He's telling me, he's counseling me to live in a life of fear. God has called us not to fear, but to say, God is going to be the strength of my portion forever.",{"chunk_index":746,"end_sec":747,"seg_offsets":748,"seg_starts":759,"start_sec":760,"text":774},24,1300.22,[37,749,750,751,752,218,753,754,755,756,534,375,757,758],31,84,149,266,392,519,547,580,681,716,[760,761,762,763,764,765,766,767,768,769,770,771,772,773],1259.4,1260.66,1263.2,1267.38,1273.2,1275.9,1279.86,1287.46,1288.54,1290.8,1293.32,1295.22,1296.56,1298.46,"And I'm going to trust in him. And all of a sudden he begins to say, you know what? I'm not going to allow this fear in my life to narrow my vision. When fear happens, we have this response where we're going to fight, we're going to leave, or we're going to freeze. And everything, all of our senses begin to be heightened. And we begin to narrow everything in and begin to see what's wrong. And he said, if I live in this fear, it's going to freeze me from being able to be effective for what God has called me to do. And he says, you know what? God is not asking me to do this. Fear says, what can I do to protect myself? Faith in God is telling me, what does God want me to do? What is God requiring of me to do? It may be stepping out of my comfort zone.",{"chunk_index":658,"end_sec":776,"seg_offsets":777,"seg_starts":788,"start_sec":789,"text":803},1347.08,[37,778,779,780,781,782,783,404,784,785,49,786,787,193],96,130,193,269,331,365,423,466,584,655,[789,790,791,792,793,794,795,796,797,798,799,800,801,802],1300.42,1304.76,1306.74,1310.48,1315.72,1320.6,1323.3,1326.22,1326.6,1328.28,1331.62,1333.46,1337.8,1342.38,"It may be me reaching out to the person across the counter and just offering a prayer for them. But what is God calling us to do? We must never allow fear to be the authority of our decisions. We must be a person that is living a life that is trustworthy for the Lord. You know, this counsel that he got was a shortcut for safety. We lived in Idaho for four years. We took our teenagers up to a place called McCall, Idaho. It's up to the northern part of the state. If you look at Idaho, the little finger up at the top, it's up in the top. And they have this massive lake in McCall. And the McCall Lake froze over in like October because it got so cold. And it froze over so much that by November, December, when we were there in January, people were taking trucks, massive big trucks, and just driving straight across the lake.",{"chunk_index":805,"end_sec":806,"seg_offsets":807,"seg_starts":813,"start_sec":814,"text":823},26,1389.92,[37,808,524,809,810,811,119,669,812],53,196,244,341,708,[814,815,816,817,818,819,820,821,822],1348.44,1350.96,1351.86,1360.3,1362.84,1367.6,1375.5,1379.24,1384.54,"And this is what I was talking to one of the locals. And he said, yeah, he said the deceptive part is, is sometimes when you begin to get on this lake in vehicles, it's really thick at the shore. But as you get in, it gets thinner and thinner. And these guys have this deception in their life that, hey, we can just go out here and do this. And he said, there are many times where a truck will be going out in the middle of this river, in the middle of this lake, and it'll just break and the truck will just go into the middle. Because they were deceived into thinking it was good at the beginning. And so if I get to the middle or the end and I take this shortcut across, it's going to be good in the end. And in the end, they got halfway across and the safety that they thought they had gave way.",{"chunk_index":396,"end_sec":825,"seg_offsets":826,"seg_starts":837,"start_sec":838,"text":852},1435.54,[37,827,828,829,830,831,401,832,833,785,834,463,835,836],50,142,200,226,248,330,380,527,646,686,[838,839,840,841,842,843,844,845,846,847,848,849,850,851],1390.82,1393.12,1397.54,1399.94,1401.32,1402.16,1403.1,1404.64,1406.76,1414.04,1416.94,1422.02,1423.46,1425.92,"And oftentimes, this is the same way in our life. We think, well, you know, God, I'm going to go this way and everything seems fine at first. And this must be the way I'm going because it seems fine. Nothing bad is happening. Are you really a God? Are you really doing these things? And so I'm going to keep going and keep going. And all of a sudden, you get so far into our sin. We get so far into our fear that we just lose track of what God is doing in our life. God is telling us there cannot be any shortcuts in our life. And we're tempted to obey something that is more difficult or easier in our life. So the first is the counsel of fear. The second is the discernment of faith. Nehemiah responds with this clarity that I pray that is my clarity, that I pray that is our church's clarity, that I pray that each and every man in here would say, this is how I want to respond.",{"chunk_index":112,"end_sec":854,"seg_offsets":855,"seg_starts":865,"start_sec":866,"text":885},1478.82,[37,778,856,662,116,857,160,782,622,858,460,859,860,835,861,862,193,863,864],159,275,407,508,586,689,717,761,776,[866,867,868,869,870,871,872,873,874,875,876,877,878,879,880,881,882,883,884],1435.74,1442.66,1445.6,1448.56,1449.64,1451.34,1452.78,1454.36,1455.6,1457.7,1459.2,1463.26,1468.24,1471.38,1473.04,1474.18,1475.36,1476.36,1477.08,"He looks and he says, why of a man in my position should I run away and I flee into the temple? He's revealing that, listen, I understand you're not from God. And he's evaluating all these claims that are coming by him. And he's saying, listen, God has called me to do this. God has provided for me. He's provided for the enemies. He's taking care of them. He's called safety to happen inside of our walls. Look at what he's done. How can I walk away from God when he has called me to do these great things? First John 4, 1 just tells us that as believers, we should test every spirit, every advice, every thought that I give you as your pastor. You should be testing them with scripture. And you should say, listen, are these things true? Are these honorable? Are they just? Are they the things that I should give my life by?",{"chunk_index":887,"end_sec":888,"seg_offsets":889,"seg_starts":893,"start_sec":894,"text":905},29,1525.12,[37,890,780,147,402,832,891,373,892,534,862],73,396,564,[894,895,896,897,898,899,900,901,902,903,904],1479.38,1482.64,1490.74,1494.62,1496.68,1498.94,1502.54,1506.96,1511.2,1513.56,1518.44,"In Acts chapter 17, we come across a group of people called the Bereans. And the Bereans were known for what they did because they examined the scriptures to determine what was right and true. Church, we should be Bereans who are saying, I want to examine what is right. I want to examine what is true. No personality, no person, no position should ever have the right that goes above scripture. And we should say that scripture is our final authority in faith and practice. And everything I'm going to do, I'm going to raise my kids according to the word of God. I'm going to live my marriage according to the word of God. I'm going to go to a church that biblically aligns with what God's word is telling us to do. Church, we must be a people and a position that we are saying, God, I want to give this you the glory and I want to have discernment of my faith.",{"chunk_index":143,"end_sec":907,"seg_offsets":908,"seg_starts":915,"start_sec":916,"text":933},1581.96,[37,750,216,77,909,294,218,753,245,531,910,911,463,912,835,913,914],264,515,575,621,697,727,[916,917,918,919,920,921,922,923,924,925,926,927,928,929,930,931,932],1526.08,1530.7,1534.14,1539.54,1541.64,1543.12,1546.26,1551.16,1553.96,1556.16,1558.68,1560.84,1563.54,1567.2,1569.1,1572.64,1574.96,"Number three, we must be looking at what Nehemiah gives this prayer for the future. Verse 14, I slowed down when I read it because I wanted us to understand. He closes this section by saying, God, remember those that were coming against me. He names these people. He's saying, God, don't allow me to have vengeance on them. Imagine the spiritual maturity that it takes for a believer to say, God, this person has ruined my reputation. They are trying to hurt my family. They're trying to invite me into compromise. And ultimately, the Bible says they were trying to kill me. And him to sit down and say, God, bless them. God, work in their life. God, would you go and help Tobiah and Sam Ballett? They're distracted right now. Imagine the maturity that it takes to step back and say, I'm going to take everything that I want to do and I'm going to put it before God's feet.",{"chunk_index":749,"end_sec":935,"seg_offsets":936,"seg_starts":942,"start_sec":943,"text":955},1632.06,[37,937,619,809,938,939,372,270,52,940,864,941],104,229,356,762,817,[943,944,945,946,947,948,949,950,951,952,953,954],1582.1,1588.66,1590.98,1592.3,1594.06,1600.8,1606.18,1610.86,1618.7,1624.04,1625.72,1627.78,"And I'm going to say, God, allow me to take on this Romans 12, 19 principle that you are the vengeance. You are the judge and you're going to take care of these things. I'm going to trust in you. I may not see it in my lifetime. I may not see it in next week or next year, but I'm going to trust that you are going to take care of this problem in my life. Church, for 173 years, our church has navigated through changing times, different personalities, different sermons, different seasons, different pastors, different challenges. churches, and we should be thankful that a group of people stood back and said, you know what, we're going to remain faithful through all their seasons, through, as Peter said, through the Civil War, through the Great Depression, through 9-11, through COVID, through all these things. A group of people stood together and said, we're going to continue trusting in the Lord.",{"chunk_index":957,"end_sec":958,"seg_offsets":959,"seg_starts":964,"start_sec":965,"text":976},32,1674.54,[37,723,960,857,961,962,531,756,408,963,630],189,309,343,712,[965,966,967,968,969,970,971,972,973,974,975],1632.16,1636.86,1640.88,1645.1,1646.68,1648.66,1656.58,1663.22,1667.74,1671.8,1673.48,"And they began to say, God, we're going to depend on you not only for right now in the present, but also in the future. We're going to be faithful to who and what you have called us to do. The very last thing here in the last four verses is the demonstration of God's power. And I promise you, I'll be quick. The demonstration of God's power. When all this has been done, they step back and the Bible says that even those around them have to give the glory back to God. I think this is such a powerful, powerful moment because in verse 15, we see what all this has brought us to. It's taken us about 52 days, probably, if I were to do the math. This is my sixth or seventh sermon that I've preached in Nehemiah. This is sermon number seven. So you can divide that out.",{"chunk_index":978,"end_sec":979,"seg_offsets":980,"seg_starts":988,"start_sec":989,"text":1003},33,1732.26,[37,981,982,293,294,160,983,435,984,119,985,121,986,987],38,148,326,478,617,777,810,[989,990,991,992,993,994,995,996,997,998,999,1000,1001,1002],1674.68,1676.12,1682.82,1687.26,1692.66,1693.76,1695.62,1699.68,1702.84,1704.82,1711.22,1716.88,1723.76,1725.28,"It's probably been roughly that time. So from when I started preaching on Nehemiah till today is about the time they began working on this project. And the Bible says in verse 15, the completion of the walls began to happen. And it records that the walls were completed in 52 days. Think about that. The ruins that was there, the ruins that had been brought in, the people were living in the ruins. The Bible says that the animals were just coming in and destroying everything. The enemies were coming in, destroying everything. And yet 52 days later, one man come in and said, listen, guys, we can't live like this. We can't allow the Lord's people and the Lord's city to be in this ruins. And we must work together to work in a determination to see God do remarkable things. Matthew Henry said it like this. They were determined to coordinate the labor to accomplish a remarkable amount of work in a short period of time.",{"chunk_index":313,"end_sec":1005,"seg_offsets":1006,"seg_starts":1013,"start_sec":1014,"text":1026},1773.08,[37,805,1007,1008,620,1009,1010,191,1011,1012,122,672],117,217,436,501,613,665,[1014,1015,1016,1017,1018,1019,1020,1021,1022,1023,1024,1025],1732.54,1734.72,1740.04,1744.04,1746.62,1753.74,1759.34,1763.96,1765.68,1767.46,1770.68,1771.12,"This requires commitment. This requires people to say, I am going to be committed to work on my section of the wall. I'm going to be committed that when my work gets done, I'm going to step over and help my neighbor. When they get done, we're going to go and we're going to help somebody else. And we're not going to worry about our own little things, but we're going to worry about simply saying, God, I want to see this project done. Church, as we celebrate 173 years, no one person did everything. It was a group of people that came together in all those different generations and saying, hey, can I help you? We're going to eat this wonderful meal in a minute. Not one person made every single thing down there by themselves. Okay. If they would have, they'd been cooking for the last two months.",{"chunk_index":340,"end_sec":1028,"seg_offsets":1029,"seg_starts":1037,"start_sec":1038,"text":1050},1819.48,[37,239,112,367,1030,1031,1032,1033,1034,1035,1036,504],98,145,286,376,550,616,628,[1038,1039,1040,1041,1042,1043,1044,1045,1046,1047,1048,1049],1773.24,1773.68,1774.74,1775.9,1777.4,1779.4,1787.72,1792.56,1801.96,1805.14,1806.04,1809.98,"Okay. We all came together. We all brought something. We're all going to enjoy them all together. This is the picture of what Nehemiah is doing. He's saying, listen, you come and you bring what you can bring and you allow you to do what you can do and allow this great work to be done. We are coming together and we are seeing what God has done through generations of people. And understand that the people may change, that the things may change, the methods may change that we do, but always know that the principle of God's word will never change. And as long as I'm your pastor here, you may fire me after today. I hope not. I hope I'm here for another 70 years and I can die here as your pastor. But I pray that over the next years that we will be faithful to God's word and that we will develop a church that has a culture that says we're going to love God's word.",{"chunk_index":1052,"end_sec":1053,"seg_offsets":1054,"seg_starts":1062,"start_sec":1028,"text":1076},36,1869.42,[37,313,1055,1056,1057,1058,1059,405,755,346,248,1060,87,1061],95,240,273,329,419,643,729,[1028,1063,1064,1065,1066,1067,1068,1069,1070,1071,1072,1073,1074,1075],1821.28,1824.06,1831.5,1833.4,1836.66,1841.98,1844.52,1849.46,1851.18,1853.3,1857.84,1862.34,1863.92,"We're going to love God's people. We're going to worship him with all heart and soul and mind. And we're going to give him all the glory for everything we do so that one day there'll be another generation that comes behind us that can say, I'm thankful for that generation that stood on the truth, that stood on the word of God. And they have established this church for me to step up and me to continue to go forward. Verse 16, look at what happens here. They complete the work and Nehemiah could have got up and said, look at what happens here. Look at how great I am. Look at me. But instead he said, look at the recognition of God's hand. Verse 16 tells us that when they surrounded nations, began to hear what was going on, that the walls had been completed that were once tore down, that they came in and looted and they came in and did these things.",{"chunk_index":1078,"end_sec":1079,"seg_offsets":1080,"seg_starts":1086,"start_sec":1053,"text":1099},37,1922.98,[37,1081,618,1082,243,1083,403,783,245,1084,1034,1085,963],82,157,302,484,657,[1053,1087,1088,1089,1090,1091,1092,1093,1094,1095,1096,1097,1098],1877.18,1880.24,1882.98,1889.14,1892.28,1895.02,1896.7,1900.72,1903.68,1907.68,1913.68,1917.56,"It says that they recognized that the work had been accomplished with God's help. The enemies attempted to stop it. The enemies were trying to slow it down. And yet they emphasize God's work and God's hand in all these things. Nehemiah could have stood up and said, look at how great of a leader I am. Look at how I took this misfit of people. I put them together. We didn't know what we were doing, but I was the guy that did it all. No, he steps back and he says, God is sovereign. And he is the one that has been working through all these things. It doesn't eliminate what we need to do, but it enables us to work and to do what God has called us to do. The success was not simply a monument of human effort. It was an evidence that God was providing providential help in and through their lives.",{"chunk_index":981,"end_sec":1101,"seg_offsets":1102,"seg_starts":1111,"start_sec":1079,"text":1122},1967.52,[37,750,1103,1104,1105,1106,1107,1108,151,1109,1110],118,172,221,288,368,442,599,635,[1079,1112,1113,1114,1115,1116,1117,1118,1119,1120,1121],1928.32,1930.94,1934.64,1937.24,1941.52,1947.52,1950.62,1954.96,1958.24,1959.9,"And when they stood back and they said, I'm looking at the wall and it's completed. How in the world did this happen? And they all responded, it was because God was in it. Because God was the one that received the glory. God was the one that allowed these things to happen in their life. And God is the one that allows our church to continue to sustain for 173 years. When we look on paper and we say, I don't know how this is going to work. I don't know how these things are going to happen by God's glory, by God's vision. We're going to continue to press forward for what he has called us to do. We should be grateful for the past. We should be faithful in the present and we should be praying about the future that God has given us to say, God, you have given me this for a reason.",{"chunk_index":1124,"end_sec":1125,"seg_offsets":1126,"seg_starts":1141,"start_sec":1142,"text":1165},39,2026.32,[37,1127,1128,1129,186,146,1130,402,1131,811,1132,666,1133,1059,1134,1135,1136,83,862,1137,1138,1139,1140],63,164,171,278,323,355,393,441,473,518,751,755,805,824,[1142,1143,1144,1145,1146,1147,1148,1149,1150,1151,1152,1153,1154,1155,1156,1157,1158,1159,1160,1161,1162,1163,1164],1968.18,1971.66,1977.64,1977.86,1981.36,1983.18,1985.26,1986.6,1988.22,1989.88,1991.04,1992.2,1994.46,1997.54,1999.92,2002.9,2006.36,2011.64,2017.22,2018.66,2019.14,2021.44,2022.66,"The last thing we'll look at is the continuance of opposition. This is where if James Safer was writing the story, this is not how I would have been in chapter 16, right? Chapter 16, all these things are happening. The great things are happening. And then they finish the wall. They give God the glory. Like, end of story. Roll the credits. Story's over. We're good. What happens in verse 17? The enemies are defeated. The work is finished. And Tobiah still has influence. The relationship is constant back and forth. All of a sudden, the challenges are remaining even after the project is done. This should challenge us to say, just because we complete something doesn't mean the enemy's like, oh, well, we're done. I can't worry about them anymore. No. The enemy's going to come at us even harder then. Now we're unified. Now we're able to get up and we're able to have a celebration where we can say, look at what God did.",{"chunk_index":1167,"end_sec":1168,"seg_offsets":1169,"seg_starts":1179,"start_sec":1180,"text":1195},40,2071.22,[37,1170,1171,1172,1173,146,1174,566,1175,1176,1177,1178,787,758,1137],43,76,125,201,372,503,561,589,622,[1180,1181,1182,1183,1184,1185,1186,1187,1188,1189,1190,1191,1192,1193,1194],2026.68,2028.78,2030.18,2032.86,2036.62,2038.06,2045.24,2052.36,2055.08,2057.88,2059.1,2060.56,2061.58,2065.3,2067.94,"And Satan's like, okay, who can I work on? Who can I come in and influence? And all of a sudden, the Bible says that Tobiah, one of the priests, still had influence and people were still going to him. People were still worried about these things. And people began to spread rumors because all of a sudden, this discernment in our life doesn't just end once we've arrived. The work of the church requires ongoing vigilance as we begin to work through things. It's continuing to say, God, give me wisdom. That's why every time I pray, I say, God, give me wisdom. God, help me to lead right. Help me to lead my family right. Help me to lead my church right. Help me to lead all the things in my work and in my friends. Help me to lead right and do well. Because we must be vigilant of all things in our life.",{"chunk_index":562,"end_sec":1197,"seg_offsets":1198,"seg_starts":1206,"start_sec":1207,"text":1224},2123.52,[37,1199,659,1200,458,1201,1132,461,1202,1203,1204,1205,407,86,671,1061,484],58,198,296,487,522,560,574,[1207,1208,1209,1210,1211,1212,1213,1214,1215,1216,1217,1218,1219,1220,1221,1222,1223],2071.34,2074.98,2079.18,2083.7,2087.04,2089.36,2092.42,2097.22,2098.4,2100.54,2103.04,2104.56,2107.16,2110.42,2112.64,2115.5,2119.5,"As Terry comes, I want to conclude with some last things. The pressing idea that I want to give us here at the beginning. Nehemiah had every reason to become discouraged and to quit and to go home. If you remember back chapter one, Nehemiah was the cupbearer. He was sitting at the king's table. He was enjoying all the wealth and prosperity of the king. And all of a sudden, he had this vision, this desire from God after he saw and heard what was going on. And he says, you know what? I've got to go and help my people. He could have said, this is too much. This is hard. The distractions are coming in. The discrediting and the slander is coming in. But instead, he kept pressing. He stayed focused on what God had given him. And this amazing project was done in 52 days. Because one man challenged a group of people to say, let's stay committed.",{"chunk_index":699,"end_sec":1226,"seg_offsets":1227,"seg_starts":1235,"start_sec":1236,"text":1250},2168.14,[37,1228,76,1229,781,1230,563,700,1231,1232,595,1233,914,1234],59,255,314,463,513,668,747,[1236,1237,1238,1239,1240,1241,1242,1243,1244,1245,1246,1247,1248,1249],2124.04,2127.98,2133.54,2139.44,2140.42,2142.16,2146.04,2147.38,2150,2152.86,2154.18,2161.9,2165.28,2166.62,"Let's stay committed to continuing to see what God can do. Let's just put God at his test and say, God, we're going to do this for your honor and for your glory. And when it's all done, when it's done, it's going to have to say that you did this, not me. Not Nehemiah. Not a group of people that were really good. But because God was the one that worked in their life. The same way for us, church. We have this celebration of history that we get to look back on. And we get to say, God, you were faithful before. You're going to be faithful again. And we're going to trust you in the opportunities that you lay in front of us to continue to be faithful in the future. Church, our community needs the gospel now more than ever. People are hurting. People are in search of the truth.",{"chunk_index":1170,"end_sec":1252,"seg_offsets":1253,"seg_starts":1259,"start_sec":1260,"text":1275},2213.28,[37,1254,659,1104,401,1255,434,318,701,1256,755,860,154,1257,1258],44,348,494,683,726,[1260,1261,1262,1263,1264,1265,1266,1267,1268,1269,1270,1271,1272,1273,1274],2169.04,2172.62,2177.16,2180.02,2186.78,2190.16,2191.44,2193.06,2194.88,2198.18,2200.9,2203.04,2205.56,2208.04,2211.16,"People, families still need biblical truth. Families still need to say, we're going to build our life on the word of God. Children still need to be discipled in the truth. And people are still searching for the hope of the gospel found in Jesus every single day outside these walls. Are we going to have a church that continues to stay on mission? To be faithful. To tell others about him. To say, God, we want to be faithful to you. And we want to give you the glory when all of it gets done. Not so that we can look up and say how great we are. But so that we can give you the glory. And ultimately, this is one of my prayers. So that we'll have a generation that comes behind us. That can say thank you for being faithful. I was talking to, I think it was Pat or someone this morning.",{"chunk_index":1254,"end_sec":1277,"seg_offsets":1278,"seg_starts":1285,"start_sec":1286,"text":1301},2260.28,[37,746,1279,454,1280,1281,44,1282,1107,1283,565,190,1284,53,863],64,121,156,342,400,669,[1286,1287,1288,1289,1290,1291,1292,1293,1294,1295,1296,1297,1298,1299,1300],2213.46,2214.38,2216.68,2217.76,2219,2220.98,2223.4,2232.9,2234.36,2235.76,2237.32,2243.5,2250.88,2255.58,2257.38,"And she said, you know, these red carpets weren't here one day. These pews weren't here. The TV screens weren't up here. The speakers and the sound system. Someone had church in here before all this was there. And someone gave in order for this to happen so that we can have the, the, the, be the recipients of the blessings of someone else. What are we going to say? You know what, next generation? I want to leave this for you. I want to do this for you so that you'll be able to come behind me and say, let's just serve the Lord and press forward. Because someone that was before me was willing to pay the cost for me to be faithful right now in today's generation. What are we leaving behind for our next generation? A couple of questions and I'll be done. What is God calling you to do that maybe you've been putting off?",{"chunk_index":1303,"end_sec":1304,"seg_offsets":1305,"seg_starts":1315,"start_sec":1316,"text":1332},45,2299.54,[37,808,1306,779,1307,1308,1309,1310,1311,1312,1010,345,248,1313,1314,1258],101,165,219,256,318,373,445,623,671,[1316,1317,1318,1319,1320,1321,1322,1323,1324,1325,1326,1327,1328,1329,1330,1331],2261.36,2263.62,2265.3,2266.68,2268.34,2271.58,2273.42,2276.34,2279.68,2283.6,2286.08,2288.44,2290.38,2292.48,2294.48,2297,"Nehemiah could have easily said, I'm done with this. I'm going to put it off for another year or so. We'll come back to it later. Once everything gets squared away. He just said, we're going to keep doing it right now. Sometimes we've put some things off. What are the distractions in our life that we need to remove? And say, God, this, this area has been distracting me. Maybe there's a conviction in your life that you need to stand firm on. Maybe there's someone in here that says, you know what? I've been looking back at the history. I've heard what you've said, Pastor James. And I just feel like I need to do more. I need to, I need to be a part of that history. I need to be a part of saying, I want to do something. Not so that people can look at me and have my name up in light.",{"chunk_index":182,"end_sec":1334,"seg_offsets":1335,"seg_starts":1344,"start_sec":1345,"text":1361},2340.16,[37,1336,659,1307,1200,400,1337,1338,1339,1340,51,1341,729,193,1342,1343],52,315,378,468,566,677,780,802,[1345,1346,1347,1348,1349,1350,1351,1352,1353,1354,1355,1356,1357,1358,1359,1360],2299.66,2302.38,2307.28,2309.44,2311.52,2314.4,2317.38,2319.68,2323.44,2328.22,2333.12,2334.12,2335.92,2337.72,2339.16,2340,"So that I can do something for the next generation. So I can do something to help someone that's going to come behind me. 173 years from now and say, you know what? Look at the work in front of us. Someone was willing to do it 173 years ago. Man, I want to step up and I want to do what my great, great father did. I want to step up and do what my great, great grandmother did. And I want to be one of the ones that can step up and say, I want to help build the wall. I want to do something for the Lord so that we can look back and say, God, you're still faithful. You're still on the throne and you're still the one that leads in every area of our life. Father, we love you. Help us as we respond today. Help us be faithful to your word. Help us to honor you in all that we do. In your name we pray. Amen.",[],"ready",[],[],null]