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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 gave them a new leader. God didn’t allow Moses to enter the Promised Land, so He told him to appoint Joshua in his place. So Moses publicly transferred his leadership to Joshua and then went off to die. And Joshua gathered the people together and led them across the Jordan River to the place that God had promised them. No sooner had they crossed the river than they had an enemy to confront. They knew that the city of Jericho was awaiting them. They sent spies in. They planned what they were going to do. They prepared. And now that they crossed the river, their assignment to conquer Jericho was waiting for them. Of course we all know the story of what happened. God told them to do something that seemed impossible. He told them to march around the city once a day for six days. Then on the seventh day, march around it again. But this time, seven priests would blow trumpets. And when the priests blew their trumpets, all the people were to shout at the top of their lungs. It sounded crazy, but they did it. And when they did it, God accomplished the impossible through them. He leveled the city walls so they could go in and accomplish their assignment. And they did. But then what happened? Then they could just lay back and say that their work was done, right? They had accomplished a great task for the Lord. Now they were done, right? Wrong—they were just getting started. That was just the first assignment along the way. They still had a whole Promised Land to take. The problem was, they didn’t. Sure, they went on to conquer parts of it. They went on to tackle more assignments along the way. But by the time you get to the end of Joshua’s life, they still hadn’t completed the mission. They settled down in the places they had conquered and left whole parts of the mission unaccomplished. And because they only partly obeyed the mission that God had for them, they were completely disobedient to Him. Judges 2:2 says, “But ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?” That’s a good question—why would they have done that? The same reason we get tempted to do it. Sometimes a little bit of success can be the worst thing for us, can’t it? We can accomplish a task and think that we’ve really accomplished something. We can reach a goal and think that we’ve arrived. Has that ever happened here in the past? We got the sanctuary done—we’ve really accomplished something. We built an Activities Building—we’ve arrived. We bought some property—now we’ve got it made. We built an addition—now we’re done. Those are all great things, aren’t they? But Jericho was a great thing too. It was a great assignment. And it was a great thing when that assignment was accomplished. But just because an assignment gets accomplished, doesn’t mean that the mission is accomplished. There is a huge difference. And Nehemiah knew the difference. You see, it would have been very easy to think that building a wall was the remnant’s mission. All up till this point, the whole focus has been on building the wall. Building the wall was a tremendous assignment. But Nehemiah knew that it was only an assignment. And an assignment is only one part of the whole mission. The mission of the remnant was to be a witness for God to the nations. God told them to do that by standing as a unique nation amongst them. Their uniqueness was to be on display in the city of Jerusalem by the way they lived and worked and worshipped. The first assignment in renewing that witness to the nations was to be accomplished in the rebuilding of the wall. In a completely miraculous way, God worked through Nehemiah and the remnant to get the wall built in 52 days. But the mission wasn’t accomplished. It had only just begun. Just like our mission isn’t accomplished. We can have successful assignments along the way. This church has been blessed with many successful assignments. But every accomplishment we have… every victory we win… every step along the way… is just a step in accomplishing our mission of fulfilling the Great Commission. And just like with Nehemiah and the remnant, every successful assignment should cause us to do three things. First, it should cause us to review the present reality. Look at how Nehemiah did that in verses 1-3:
NEHEMIAH 7:1-3
Every time we have success, we need to review the present reality. Can you imagine what a relief it must have been to have finished the wall? Think about all of the hard work that they had done. Think of all the sacrifice. Think of all the blood and sweat that went into those 52 days. Really, it was even longer than that for Nehemiah. That wall had been the only thing on his mind for at least six months. It had been the main thrust of his prayers. It had caused him to change locations. It had caused him to change lifestyles. It had caused him to change careers. His whole life had changed because of that wall. And so had the people’s. But now they were done. The wall was built. The last thing to be accomplished was to hang the doors in the gates. And that was done. Singers had been appointed for the celebration. The Levites were appointed to offer sacrifices of praise. They were done! But as a leader, Nehemiah knew that just because the assignment was finished, the mission wasn’t complete. He knew that the wall was just one step along the way in accomplishing the mission that God had for the remnant. And because of that, he kept his eye on the present reality of their situation. That’s tough to do. As a leader, it’s tough to pull yourself back from the excitement of accomplishment and see what needs to be done right now. You see, the party is for what has just happened. But time moves on. And if your eyes stay focused on a past success, you will miss what the Lord has for you right now. Let’s use Bible School as an example. By all accounts, we had a successful VBS. It’s great to celebrate that. It’s wonderful to rejoice in the fact that the Lord used us in that way. But at the same time, we’ve still got work to do. There is no time to relax. That’s why Nehemiah didn’t stop. That’s why he kept moving. That’s why he kept his eye on the task at hand. He stepped back from the celebration and looked at the present reality. He assessed the present situation of the remnant and determined that they needed some additional godly leadership. So he gave it to them. And that leadership team immediately went into action. They decided that the security of the city was paramount. Their enemies were still at work. So they decided to protect themselves from them by limiting the time the gates were open. In other words, Nehemiah kept his eyes on the present reality. He didn’t sit back and look at everything that they had accomplished. He didn’t sit back and think that they were done. One assignment was finished. But there was more work to be done. Every day is an assignment for us. And whether we accomplish it or fail it—the fact is, it’s only one assignment. There is always another assignment waiting. We need to step back from the successes and failures and figure out where we are right now. Do you need to bring somebody else on board to help you lead in your burden? Do you need to move on to a new phase? Whatever it is that you need to do—you certainly don’t need to quit and rest in past accomplishments. Our mission isn’t done. There are plenty of assignments that have been completed. But there is still a world out there that needs to hear the Gospel. Assess where you are in accomplishing that mission right now. Review the present reality. Also, recognize the future need. Every successful assignment should cause us to recognize the future need. Nehemiah did that in verse 4:
NEHEMIAH 7:4
All throughout this study in Nehemiah, we’ve talked about the different burdens that God gives His people. He gives each of us a burden and He expects us to lead in accomplishing that burden. He gave Nehemiah a burden for Jerusalem. At first, that burden looked like a wall. But that was just a part of the burden. Because once the wall was complete, Nehemiah looked around and saw that something still wasn’t right. The remnant had a wall. They had a temple. They even had a city. But there weren’t many people there. The remnant was still very small. And not only was the remnant small, the buildings of the city were still in ruins. There was still a need. Spreading the Gospel to 100 children during Bible School was a wonderful thing. But there’s still a need. If the Lord brings us 100 more young people for Youth VBS in a few weeks… it will be a wonderful thing for them to hear the Gospel. But there will still be a need. When we participate in the area-wide crusade at the Mathena Center in September… and when we have our Fall Revival in October… if the Gospel is spread to thousands during those events, it will be wonderful. But there will still be a need. If we feed dozens of people with our food ministry, there will still be a need. If we preach God’s Word through every means available, there will still be a need. If the deacons visit everybody in this area, there will still be a need. Because the need is “large and great.” That’s why God’s burden doesn’t stop with completing a successful assignment. Once the assignment is complete, the burden doesn’t go away. It doesn’t go away, because the mission isn’t complete. Just because the wall was finished didn’t mean that the remnant was where they were supposed to be. Much more needed to be accomplished for them to be the kind of witness to the nations that God wanted them to be. Because God had given him the burden, Nehemiah could see that. He could see that the remnant needed to multiply. He could see that houses needed to be built and occupied. He could see that city infrastructure and buildings needed to be built. Even though they had just accomplished a miraculous assignment, he knew that they had a long way to go. Now, there are a lot of people who can look around and see all the stuff that still needs to be done. But there are two ways to deal with that. How could Nehemiah have reacted to what he still saw that needed to be done? He could have reacted like a never satisfied, never contented, gloomy gus. He could have completely ignored the wonderful work that God had accomplished through them. He could have “yeah, butted” it to death. “Yeah the wall is done, but look at the buildings.” “Yeah the people came together and worked, but there aren’t very many of them.” That’s one way that he could have reacted. And there are plenty of people who are willing to take that role. But that isn’t leadership. It’s depressing and it’s destructive. That’s not how Nehemiah reacted. Nehemiah reacted, not as a person who is never satisfied… Nehemiah reacted like a godly visionary. He saw that the need was large and great. But that didn’t cause him to discount the amazing nature of what had been accomplished. Otherwise he wouldn’t have appointed the singers and Levites to celebrate and give praise. What it caused him to do was to plan for the future. When he saw the need, he used the greatness of the need to form his vision of the future. He doesn’t talk about it here. As a matter of fact, he only unfolds that vision gradually throughout the rest of this book. And it doesn’t always work out according to his plan. But the point is, the successful assignment of the wall didn’t cause him to quit. It caused him to see the continuing need which he used to formulate his vision for the future. Whatever burden God gives you, when you step out and lead in accomplishing that burden… it’s not going to stop with the completion of a certain task. Because you’re still going to see needs. And when you see those needs, that’s when you need to develop a vision for the future. I have to be transparent with you. If many of you saw my long term vision for Brushfork, it might scare you to death. But the need is there. And just because we have certain miraculous successes along the way doesn’t remove the need of fulfilling the Great Commission. So, as leaders, we must recognize the future need. But that’s not all. We can’t just be people who are focused on the present reality. At the same time, we can’t just be people who have our heads way out in the future somewhere. No—because we must also be people who remember the past heritage. Every successful assignment should cause us to remember the past heritage.
It’s one thing to preach through a list of names. That’s tough enough. I’ve done it a few times, but it can be daunting when I look at it the first time to set up a sermon. But here’s what’s really tough. Preaching through a list of names that you’ve already preached through. You see, this list of names in verses 6-73 is virtually identical to the list of names that we already looked at in Ezra 2. So as I looked ahead, I worried about this passage. I thought—maybe I’ll just skip it. But there’s a reason that it is in both places. So, we just need to figure out why it’s here. And, of course, the key is in the context. And the context is that Nehemiah is gathering the people together according to their genealogy. And as he does that, he is listing the names of all those who originally came out of Babylon as part of the first remnant. He’s gathering the people together to remember their heritage. Nehemiah knew that there was no way that he could be standing looking at a completed wall, if good, godly people had not done a lot of work before him. He’d only been on the scene for less than six months. None of the people who worked on the wall came over with the first remnant. None of them came over with Zerubbabel or Jeshua. None of them shouted with a great shout when the foundation of the temple was laid. None of them were there to shed a tear or to shout with joy. None of them were stirred to action by Haggai and Zechariah. But their ancestors were. There are only a handful of people in this church who have been here from the beginning. And a lot has changed since then. A lot of names and faces have passed through here. Some we remember and some we don’t. But the Lord has used each one to contribute something to where we are today. History knows absolutely nothing about Mispereth or Zattu or Hariph or Hadid or Lod. So why did God take up precious space in His Word for their names? Because each of them was important. Each of them was significant. And they were all part of the heritage that built the wall. They were all the shoulders that the remnant stood on to accomplish an impossible assignment. Brushfork Baptist Church has a rich heritage. So many times people only want to dig up bad things that happened in the past. But there have been a whole lot more good things than bad things that have happened. Every time that the Lord allows us to accomplish a successful assignment, we need to remember that past heritage. We need to review the present reality. We need to recognize the future need. And we need to remember the past heritage.
So, where are we in accomplishing our mission? We’re a long way from it. There is a whole world of people who need to hear the Gospel. We have successfully completed some assignments along the way. But that success is not a reason to stop and admire our work. It’s a reason to keep pressing forward. No matter what your age or experience or personality… God has a burden for each of us. He expects us to step out and lead in that burden. And He expects us to keep on pressing forward until our mission is finally accomplished. The walls of Jericho might be down. But we’ve got a whole Promised Land to take. Let’s get moving.
