Sermon Central
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Fitly Framing Together
Contributed by Jim Drake on Jan 3, 2009 (message contributor)
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1. Driving Nehemiah
Contributed on Jan 3, 2009
Why are you where you are right now? God has placed you there for a purpose. What is stopping you from leading the way to accomplish that purpose?
http://brushforkbanner.blogspot.com As you remember, we finished Ezra back in the first week of July. So it’s been 6 months since we spent time with our remnant. I miss them. As we’ve talked about before, Ezra and Nehemiah were originally two parts to the same book. Ezra wrote it, but he ...read more
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2. First Response
Contributed on Jan 10, 2009
How do you respond when you’re hit with distressing news? Do you respond in anger? Do you respond in fear? Do you respond by immediately jumping up and trying to fix the problem? None of those responses were Nehemiah’s first response.
http://brushforkbanner.blogspot.com A few years ago, I remember sitting in my office in Asheville, NC, one quiet Tuesday morning. Of course I was in uniform. As an Air Force recruiter, I spent most of my time in uniform. But as my office partner and I sat there that morning taking care of ...read more
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3. Leadership Traits
Contributed on Feb 8, 2009
What do you picture when you think of a leader? What traits do you think a leader should have? Our passage today tells us what Nehemiah’s leadership traits were, and they might surprise you.
http://brushforkbanner.blogspot.com/ It’s time for us to rethink our picture of leadership in the church. And, by the way, when we talk about leadership in the context of Nehemiah, we’re not talking specifically about pastoral leadership. If anything, Ezra is the model for pastoral leadership. ...read more
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4. Introducing Opposition
Contributed on Feb 14, 2009
Anytime you step out in leadership, you will face opposition. Since that is the case, it’s important to know what you’re up against and how to overcome it.
http://brushforkbanner.blogspot.com/ Some people will tell you that there are no guarantees in life. Well, I’m not going to do that. I will make you an iron-clad guarantee tonight. This guarantee is as sure as I’m standing here. I’m not a betting man and I wouldn’t want you to make bets. ...read more
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5. Plan The Work, Part 1: Develop The Plan
Contributed on Feb 21, 2009
As with any project, before you can get anything done, you have to plan. Planning isn’t just a one-time step, it happens continually. Even as the work is being accomplished, planning is still happening. In this passage, we see three steps Nehemiah engaged
http://brushforkbanner.blogspot.com/ Tonight we’re starting an exciting section. It’ll take us a few weeks to get through it, but this is the section where Nehemiah gets to Jerusalem and gets to work. I originally wanted to cover this in one message, but there’s just too much here to do it ...read more
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6. Plan The Work, Part 2: Communicate The Plan
Contributed on Mar 16, 2009
Now that Nehemiah has fully developed his plan, it’s time to communicate it to the people.
http://brushforkbanner.blogspot.com/ Jesus said that where two or three are gathered, that He would be in the midst of them. But do you know what else happens when two or three are gathered? Communication problems. Whether you’re talking about a church or a business or a team or a classroom, ...read more
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7. Plan The Work, Part 3: Defend The Plan
Contributed on Mar 21, 2009
When a leader knows, through prayer and the confirmation of God’s people, that he is in the will of God, he must defend his plan against ungodly opposition.
One of the great lessons we get from the book of Nehemiah is that opposition is not a onetime deal. It would be nice if we could just deal with opposition once and be done with it, wouldn’t it? But we can’t. Because as long as we are doing the work that God calls us to do, we will have to face ...read more
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8. Sticks And Stones
Contributed on Apr 27, 2009
Just as a tiny spark has the power to start a devastating fire, one word has the power to devastate lives, homes, churches and communities. Words can tear down but they also can build up. How do you think the Lord would have us use our words?
http://brushforkbanner.blogspot.com/ We have all either heard or used the phrase, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” Is that true? We’ve had kids all over this church who have broken bones in the past year or so. Things like that happen. People get hurt. ...read more
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9. Dealing With Discouragement
Contributed on May 4, 2009
Have you ever been discouraged? Are you discouraged now? You don’t have to be. As we examine our passage today, we will discover the causes of discouragement. But more than that, we will find the cure.
http://brushforkbanner.blogspot.com You know how much I love to watch college football. How many times have you seen a huge underdog go into the home stadium of a football powerhouse and play them very close the first half? It seems like it happens every Saturday during college football ...read more
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10. Eternal Vigilance
Contributed on May 18, 2009
When you have the right tool for the right job, you can accomplish what you set out to do. In order for the remnant to accomplish the job that God had called them to do, they needed the right tools. They needed the tools of vigilance.
http://brushforkbanner.blogspot.com Remember last week we saw how there were two kinds of enemies who were coming against the remnant. There was an outside enemy and an inside enemy. One rule of combat is that you have to deal with the most imminent threat first. In other words, you have to ...read more
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11. Responding To Injustice
Contributed on May 23, 2009
We are constantly surrounded by injustice in our world today. It has been that way since the fall and will continue to be that way until Christ returns. So how should we deal with it? As a leader, you are called to respond to injustice like Nehemiah di
http://brushforkbanner.blogspot.com You don’t have to look very far to see examples of injustice in the world, do you? Just the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen car dealerships being arbitrarily shut down. When you hear the stories of what’s happening, one thing comes to mind—it’s not fair. ...read more
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12. All In
Contributed on Jul 6, 2009
If we want to do God’s work in God’s way, we won’t have any parade leaders. We will only have real, committed leaders who are burdened by God, are committed to the Great Commission and are not distracted by discouragement or opposition. We will only have
http://brushforkbanner.blogspot.com/ Leadership is a tricky thing, isn’t it? Leadership is one of those things that is hard to define and quantify. Sometimes good leadership isn’t recognized when it is present, but it sure is easy to see when it’s not there. One thing about leadership—we all ...read more
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13. Dirty Tricks
Contributed on Jul 6, 2009
When Satan comes against God’s people, he doesn’t use a rule book. The Bible describes him as the father of lies. He is a liar. So why would we expect a liar to fight fair? In our passage today, we can see four dirty tricks of the enemy.
http://brushforkbanner.blogspot.com/ Believe it or not, I used to be pretty rough as a kid. We moved around a lot. And one of the things that can happen when you move a lot is you can get in a lot of fights. People want to see what the new kid is all about. They want to see how he fits in. ...read more
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14. A Job Well Done
Contributed on Jul 6, 2009
“Well done, good and faithful servant…. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” That’s the testimony of a job well done. In today’s passage, we see another testimony of a job well done that gives us a wonderful picture of what we will see in that day when
http://brushforkbanner.blogspot.com/ In 1660, a Baptist preacher named John Bunyan was put into prison in England. What was his crime? His crime was simply that he was a Baptist and was preaching the Gospel in England. At first, his sentence was only three months. At the end of those three ...read more
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15. I Thought We Were Finished?
Contributed on Jul 20, 2009
How do you feel when you finish accomplishing a task for the Lord? When you finish that task, does it mean that you’re mission is accomplished? Every accomplishment, every victory, every step along the way is just a step in accomplishing the mission tha
http://brushforkbanner.blogspot.com/ I want to take you for a few minutes back to another scene in biblical history. Think back to the time when Israel first entered into the Promised Land. They had just wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. They stood on the banks of the Jordan and God ...read more
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16. Understanding God's Word, Part 1: The Message
Contributed on Aug 18, 2009
This is the first of four messages titled, "Understanding God"s Word." Today, we will see that in order to understand God’s Word, we must have the right message.
I have looked forward to this chapter ever since I started preaching in Ezra, two years ago. When we were in Ezra, we looked at what I consider to be my life-verse. Ezra 7:10 says, “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and ...read more
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17. Understanding God's Word, Part 2: The Method
Contributed on Sep 1, 2009
In order to understand God’s Word, we not only have to have the right message, we have to use the right method. What is the best method of teaching the Bible in a way that people will understand it? Today’s passage gives us timeless principles concernin
This is our second week of looking at what it takes to understand God’s Word. Last week we looked at the right message. In our passage, as Ezra stood before the remnant and taught them God’s Word, He taught them the right message. As you can tell from what we just read, we’re still in the same ...read more
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18. Understanding God's Word, Part 3: The Response
Contributed on Sep 1, 2009
It not only takes the right message and the right method to understand God’s Word. It takes the right response. Do you want to understand the Bible in such a way that it will be sufficient for all of your life’s needs? Then you must have the right resp
Understanding God’s Word is not an optional thing for us. Understanding God’s Word is crucial. If we want to live our lives in the way that we were designed to live them, we have to understand how to do it. And the only way we can do that is to understand God’s Word. So, the question that this ...read more
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19. Applying God's Word
Contributed on Sep 7, 2009
In our last three messages in Nehemiah, we’ve seen what it takes to understand God’s Word the way He would have us to. The fact is, most of the time our problem isn’t understanding God’s Word. Most of the time our problem is applying all the things that w
We have spent the past few Sunday nights talking about what it takes to understand God’s Word. The first 12 verses of chapter 8 have given us one of the best examples in Scripture of God’s primary design in making His Word understood. In that text, we’ve seen how it takes the right message for ...read more
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20. Everyday People
Contributed on Nov 16, 2009
As you look at our passage today, you will notice that it is just a list of names—names we don’t recognize and that we can’t pronounce. So why are they important? Because all of these people were everyday people just like we are, and God loves everyday pe
Even though we only read the first 3 verses of chapter 11, our passage tonight goes all the way through verse 26 of chapter 12. So what all is contained in this passage? It’s just another name list. It’s a list of plain, ordinary, everyday people. I don’t know anybody like that, do you? The ...read more
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21. Celebration!
Contributed on Nov 16, 2009
What do you do when somebody in your family has a birthday? What about if you have an anniversary? You have a party! You celebrate! Are there ever times in the church when we should celebrate? Of course there are! In our passage today, the remnant w
What do you do when somebody in your family has a birthday? What about if you have an anniversary? You have a party! You celebrate! Are there ever times in the church when we should celebrate? Are there ever times when we should have a party? Of course there are! We shouldn’t spend all of ...read more
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22. The Continuing Celebration Of Support
Contributed on Nov 16, 2009
After the remnant completed the impossible task of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, they did what most of us do when we complete a great accomplishment—they celebrated. But their celebration didn’t just end when the party was over. Today we’ll see a very
Today is October 11th. Do you know what that means? It means that there are only 74 shopping days till Christmas. Now, for me, that’s not really that big of a deal because I have been known to do my Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve. But for many of you, that’s a big deal. The question is, ...read more
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23. Remember
Contributed on Nov 16, 2009
How can this great book on leadership end this way? This chapter is a reflection on everything that has gone on up until this point. But it’s not a rose-colored reflection. It is an honest look at how quickly the remnant fell away and it demands an hones
That was a lot to read, so I want to briefly give you an overview of what’s going on here. Sometime, either before the chapter, or after verse 3, Nehemiah leaves town to fulfill the promise he made to the king back in chapter 2. We don’t really know exactly how long Nehemiah was gone. It could ...read more