Building The Walls And Hanging The Gates

I was not able to find anything about Nehemiah’s death, but we know much of his life. We have watched him carefully and closely, and there is one thing which we cannot fail to have noticed, and that is that Nehemiah was emphatically a man of prayer.

In every trouble, in each anxiety, in all times of danger, he turned to God. Standing behind the king’s chair, Nehemiah prayed; in his private room in the Shushan palace, he pleaded for Jerusalem; and all through his rough anxious life as a reformer and a governor, we find him constantly lifting up his heart to God in short earnest prayers. When Tobiah mocked his work, when the Samaritans threatened to attack the city, when the people were inclined to be angry with him for his reforms, when he discovered that there were traitors and hired agents of Sanballat inside the very walls of Jerusalem, when he brought upon himself enmity and hatred because of his faithful dealing in the matter of the temple store-house, when he had to encounter difficulty and opposition in his determination with regard to the observance of the Sabbath, and when he still further incensed the half-hearted Jews by his prompt punishment of those who had taken heathen wives, and by his summary dismissal of Manasseh; in all these times of danger, difficulty, and trial, we find Nehemiah turning to the Lord in prayer. There was one prayer of which he seems to have been especially fond, three times over does Nehemiah ask God to remember him. ’Think upon me, my God, for good,’ v. 19. ’Remember me, O my God,’ xiii. 14. ’Remember me, O my God, for good,’ xiii. 31.

There are over 17,000 souls within a small radius of Penn Yan, and many more as you branch out. For this next year lets try to reach some of them. If we only reached one tenth of one percent we would have an increase of 17. To grow this church and make it flourish will have to include prayer and a lot of prayer, but while we pray, and as we pray, lets survey our situation, choose the right people and set about to build the walls and hang the gates.

Thanks to the support of the district the forceful leadership of Pastor Carol and the hard work of all of you, much of the physical work has been done. Now it is time to ask God to direct us to those that He has claimed for This Penn Yan Church.

Lets know that God has each of you here for a reason and lets fulfill His calling in your life. Let me close with this story from Rick Labate

King Henry III grew tired of court life and the pressures of being the king so he applied to a monastery to be accepted for a life of contemplation. The religious superior said to him, “Your Majesty, do you understand that the pledge here is one of obedience? That will be hard because you have been a king.”

Henry replied, “I understand. The rest of my life I will be obedient to you, as Christ leads you.”

“Then I will tell you what to do. Go back to your throne and serve faithfully in the place where God has placed you.”

Like King Henry, we sometimes often tire of our role and responsibility. But we need to remember that God has called us to be faithful where we serve no matter a plumber, accountant, mother or teacher.

We don’t have to change our lives, who we are, we just have to let God work through as to bring about His will for this church.