After the Walls are Built
Nehemiah Chapter Seven
I. Introduction
We reach a point now in the book of Nehemiah where the construction has been finished. The wall was built, and the doors and gates have been hung. The perimeter of the city is now in place.
I feel like we are at just such a place. The building we worked so hard on is built. We are beginning to see the fruits of that labor. We are at an important time in the church’s history I believe.
When things are accomplished and God blesses you, you have to make a stand to keep the blessings that God has sent. You have to consolidate the gains you have made.
2 John 8
8 Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward.
At this point in the journey, Nehemiah does a few things that tell me a lot about what we ought to do.
II. Nehemiah raised up leaders!
One of the greatest tasks of the leader of a growing work is to raise up new leaders. Why?
A. One cannot do it all-Moses father in law told him something important. His name was Jethro.
Ex 18:17-18
17 So Moses’ father-in-law said to him, "The thing that you do is not good. 18 Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself
B. There are leadership gifts within the body
Leaders must be raised up in a place or they will not stay in a place!
Notice that God had the people there already with the necessary gifts!
There were:
1. Gatekeepers- those who watched the gates
2. Singers-those that led in worship-mentioned at least 18 times in Nehemiah.
3. Levites- the priests that ministered before God
C. He raised up Godly leaders
His brother Hanani and then Hananaih.
Two qualities were mentioned:
1. He was faithful- the greatest ability is dependability.
2. He feared God- Man fearing leads to a trap. (Proverbs 29:25)
3. Hananaih was already proven in leadership. He was in charge of the Citadel, a fortress within the temple area.
Not everyone can or should be a Nehemiah, but God calls people around other leaders to help them build the work of God.
III. Nehemiah set a guard over the work
They kept the gates closed during vulnerable times.
You don’t welcome everything and everybody into your life!
Harvard University was founded to train ministers! Look where it has come to by letting anything come in!
We need to guard our:
A. Mouths
Ps 141:3
3 Set a guard , O LORD, over my mouth;
Keep watch over the door of my lips.
Ps 39:1
I said, "I will guard my ways,
Lest I sin with my tongue;
I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle,
While the wicked are before me."
B. Hearts
Prov 4:23
23 Keep your heart with all diligence,
For out of it spring the issues of life.
Matt 26:41
41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
IV. Nehemiah paid attention to the people.
A. We need to care about people!
Their names were listed as heroes who had gone before! God knows our names, we need to remember other’s names!
B. We need to know that people are in God’s family!
Genealogy was critical to these people. Your standing in society, your ability to worship were influenced by your genealogy.
Vs. 64 tells us that some were excluded from the priesthood because their lineage could not be traced.
The first group of Jewish exiles left Babylon in 538 BC. Eighty years later Ezra and another group left. 14 years later Nehemiah came and rebuilt the walls of the city.
C. We need to help people to leave a good legacy
John Maxwell spoke of a difficult man in his church He finally asked him, “ What kind of legacy do you want to leave in the next twenty years? The man changed and the question everyone had from then on was, “What’s happened to Jim?”
