The wall is nearly finished when a reasonable-sounding invitation arrives—come down to the plain of Ono and talk. In Nehemiah 5–6, exhaustion, financial injustice, and relentless opposition pile up just before completion, confronting anyone tempted to step away with a searching question: when pressure rises and alternatives beckon, what keeps a worthy calling from being abandoned?
The following study questions and transcript are AI generated and may contain errors.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.
Nehemiah, again, chapter 5 and 6, we will cover those. But if you’ve come along in these last couple weeks under the teaching of the book of Nehemiah, we’ve learned of his broken spirit over the condition of the city. We’ve learned of his leadership and how he’s faithfully followed the Lord and the Lord’s leading in his life, to then seek out help from the king of that particular land and territory to get the permission that he needs to go to certain places, to gather certain materials.
We’ve seen the people come together and have a mind to work. We’ve seen the opposition step in and raise their ugly head to try to stop the work. They’re wrath, they’re angry. They mocked and scorned and laughed at the builders of this great building of the restoration of the protection of the city—the walls and the gates and everything that goes into restoring what was once there to protect the city. It was all rubbish and rubble everywhere to the point where it couldn’t even ride through it on the donkey that he was riding because there was so much debris and all of that. Even after getting halfway up on the wall as far as the building process.
Of course, again, the opposition they were facing was there, but the people not only had a mind to work, but they had a mind to pray and ask God for his protection while working. They would be watching and working, the trowel in one hand and the sword in the other, as old Charles Spurgeon talked about—prayer and protection and production.
The wall continued to be built. The prayers continued to go up, and the protection was in place as they had some watch and some work and some do both and some praying. Can you imagine together as a church family? If we consistently were watching, consistently praying, consistently working, how God could use all of that to accomplish what he wants in this one local New Testament church. Can you imagine? I do, that’s how I pray. And listen, I know I’m part of the problem, I get it.
In fact, when those guys came downstairs to the gym yesterday, I wanted to have to sign a nondisclosure agreement, you know? Like, don’t ever talk about this, and what you saw, you can’t reveal because I know who put all the junk there, right? I understand that.
But I still remember if I heard it once, I heard it a million times where I was in Tennessee: “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” And I’ll take that. I’ll take that responsibility. But I’m asking each and every one of God’s children to do the same because what he’s placed in your hands is that which you are now leading for him.
When we entered into chapter five, we won’t spend a whole lot of time there, but it’s interesting that as the wall is getting so close to being completed—it’s almost there—there is a chapter 5 before the completion of the wall. So what we read here, as we of course understand, is that anything we attempt to do for God will be opposed by evil, opposed by the devil.
We will look at chapter 6, just the set of verses, and then I’ll back up, and we’ll understand the necessity of the account of chapter five.
Nehemiah chapter 6, verse one says, “Now it came to pass when Sanballat, and Tobias, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall, and that there was no breach left therein.” Side note, though, at that time, I had not set up the doors upon the gates. That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me saying, “Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono,” but they thought to do me mischief. And I sent messengers unto them, saying, “I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and come down to you?” Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort, and I answered them after the same manner.
Again, Nehemiah showing true leadership in these moments.
Hold your place there and go to Psalm 37.
Psalm 37. Again, I can encourage you, you can encourage each other. You can be like David and encourage yourself in the Lord. But what we cannot do, until we enter into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ forever, is remove the enemy. The enemy’s always going to be there, whatever that enemy is in your life and whatever it looks like to you.
So even David, as the psalmist here in Psalm 37, speaks to these things, and I think if you could ever capture some psalms and hold them dear and near to your heart, this would be one of them, especially in the midst of the enemy. As verse one of this psalm says, “Fret not thyself because of evildoers. Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass.”
And when we read those things, we say, “But you don’t understand.” And I always say, you’re probably right. On a personal level, I probably don’t understand. But I always get down to verse 7 in this particular psalm where it says, “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.”
I would almost suggest that you keep that on your screen anytime you go to YouTube and watch something that is relevant to today’s particular current events. Or if you turn on the news, go ahead and stick that to your TV and say, “You know what, I understand all that’s probably true, no matter what media sources you know, giving it to you. We know there’s evil in this world.” And if we’re ever going to make it and face all our enemies, we must rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him.
Instead, we want to hurry past the Lord and hope that he catches up before we do something dumb, right? And try to solve something ourselves. But it starts with the “Fret not,” worry not, be anxious not, which is not easy in a world that creates anxiety. But with this, fret not, trust in, delight thyself, commit thy way, and rest in the Lord. We must get there. We must understand there is a purpose for our enemy.
And the greatest purpose of our enemy or opposition to anything we’re trying to do for the Lord is that we remain dependent on him, and that we trust in what he is doing, and we rest in waiting for him to do it. And it’s when we get in a hurry to resolve something or to act when he hasn’t led us to act that we cause more fretting, more anxiety, and less rest.
Again, God’s work should create rest, not unrest. It may create weariness, and we’re asked to not get weary in well doing, but it should not create unrest in our soul. So I said, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He says, “Learn of me.”
That’s what Psalm 37 is; it’s David being a student of who the Lord is, considering that even in the face of my enemies, I can rest in you, Lord—not rest from the work but rest in the work.
Is it overwhelming always? Is it ever going to be done? I don’t think so because there’s always going to be someone who’s sinning and rejecting the truth. It’s just part of it. But back to Nehemiah and understanding we’re almost complete with the wall being built and complete in the work that God has led him to do, and he’s rallied the people to trust God in the prospering of God’s hand in the work, and they’re almost there—all but the gates, he says in chapter 6.
That chapter 5 is sometimes overlooked but has an important identification of another enemy. So we read that in verse one, Nehemiah 5.
“And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews, for there were that said, ‘We are sons and our daughters are many; therefore, we take up corn for them that we may eat and live.’ Some also there were that said, ‘We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses that we might buy corn because of the dearth.’ There were also that said, ‘We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards.’ Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children. And lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought into bondage already. Neither is it in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and our vineyards.”
You see what they’re saying? We’ve been so busy at the work of rebuilding this that we’ve neglected our needs, and now our children are as slaves. We’re under heavy burden. We’ve mortgaged our lands for this. And that makes sense. They’ve committed themselves to the building, the restoring of this wall and the city, and in it, they started to recognize, “Man, we haven’t worked to provide for our families. We haven’t done any of the things we were normally doing before we started this project.” So now we’re like everyone else that is struggling, and we need to tend to our personal needs.
And it gets worse.
Verse six: Nehemiah speaks up and says, “I was very angry when I heard their cry in these words. Then I consulted with myself, and I rebuked the nobles and the rulers and said unto them, ‘Ye exact usury, every one of his brethren.’ And I set a great assembly against them.”
On top of everything else, they were being overcharged with 12% interest on all the money that was owed or borrowed, excuse me, and owed back. And so there was even extra financial pressure on them to take care of their own needs but yet have to pay back at a ridiculous amount. The nobles were putting that into place, seizing on their desperation. How sad. And the cry comes out. There’s unrest. There’s unrest among the people.
And I understand so often, and I said I’d talk about this a little bit just last week about how sometimes God works in a way that it creates something amazing that then has to be cared for, tended to.
And at the point where people get exhausted trying to take care of what we thought was God’s work—meaning the church—the everything about it, the structure of it becomes priority, and taking care of certain needs that were created under the guise that, “Hey, this is what God wants done.” So you have to exhaust yourself, and you have to just absolutely almost ruin your life in order to keep the ministry going. And so much of that has been preyed on, and we see the depths of some of the wicked things, of how evangelists and different people have preyed on people to almost like hit the lottery by buying this prayer cloth, you know?
And so much of the guilt and the pressure put on people: “Well, if you’re going to really serve the Lord Jesus, then you have to do it like this.” And you have to almost ruin your family at the expense of it because, you know, God said—Jesus said, excuse me, Jesus said, “Hey, if you’re gonna love me, you gotta hate your family,” you know? It’s not what he meant. That’s not what he meant.
And so you got to be willing to, you know, put your own marriage on the line, put your kids on the line, put all these things on the line for the good of the ministry, right?
I remember when I got hired, they said, “Hey, we’re going to pay you for 40 hours, the next 40 every week, or a donation to the ministry.” Do the math. And we almost equaled 80 hours every week, you know? And you still got to serve here, you’ve got to serve here, you’ve got to serve here, and you’ve got to be there, and you’ve got to be there.
I told my wife, had we not worked in buildings next to each other, we may never have seen each other, you know? I saw my kid because I fed him lunch because I was part of my job. I worked in food service, you know? And again, I learned a lot there. I always say that. I always try to be complete in my thought with that. I learn so much in how to serve the Lord and depend on him and trust him and see God do great things and change lives. And we can see that and we can do that, but it’s not at the expense of your harm.
Now don’t—now hang on. Don’t walk around, don’t walk away going, “See, I told you, I just need to go sit in a corner and hide and protect myself so I don’t get there,” right? No. There’s a completeness here. We’re to be complete in him. We’re to serve. We’re to do the work. I don’t think we’re to do it at the expense of our own health and family.
I believe in faith. That is why we call it faith promise. I believe extending beyond your means and trusting the Lord to provide. I absolutely do that. But I’ll never guilt you into some kind of desperate thought that, “Oh, God’s not going to love me if I don’t pay my electric bill instead of, you know, giving this week.” You know? Take care of your family. Take care of yourselves. Take care of your personal needs. Do all those things.
Wow. Trusting the Lord and your needs don’t have to be mutually exclusive. They can work together.
But these people, they’re exhausted, and now they look back and go, “Wow, that’s right. We’ve been here a while. We haven’t done laundry in 50 days,” you know? Whatever it is.
“We haven’t fed our kids, we haven’t done the things that we do that create provision for ourselves.” Do we trust the Lord to provide? Yes, because the Lord is the one who gives us the strength to do the work, to get the money, to get the food, to get the strength to do the work, right? To dig the hole, to get the money, to get the food, to get the strength, and you go back and dig the hole, right? That’s our life sometimes.
So we understand that. But what Nehemiah was furious with when he found out that there were people taking advantage of these people. And I never want to be that, and I’m not going to be that way. I’m not going to love people that way—to some kind of coercion or manipulation of guilt that, “Hey, God’s only going to love you if you’re absolutely collapsing every week and dragging your carcass in here on Sunday to be revived again, to be absolutely laboring yourself into a hole in the ground every week for the Lord.” I don’t believe in that.
What I do believe is that we can give our all as he has given us to do and still find rest in him. I hope I’ve made that clear.
I just told my wife yesterday, I almost attended something a while back that has now been discovered as some kind of manipulative way to use Christianity to get people to spend a lot of money on something they’ll never make the money back that they were promised.
The man, I thought that was a good thing. I really thought, I just wanted to go hear a certain couple of speakers that I would have enjoyed. And here it’s all coming out. It became like a high-pressure sales pitch, like a timeshare thing or something, you know? I thought, really? God’s not pleased with that. But as I told the teenagers, when I see something like that, the first thing I do is grab a mirror—not literally. I don’t want to see that for real, you know? Got to see it once a morning, that’s enough, you know? And go make sure you’re never that. You better stray as far away from that as possible in your mind and in your heart, even when times get tough, even in times of great blessing.
Nehemiah takes care of it. Here’s what he said.
Verse 8: “And I said unto them, We, after our ability, have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold unto the heathen; and will ye even sell your brethren? Or shall they be sold unto us? Then held they their peace and found nothing to answer.
Also I said, It is not good that ye do. Ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen, our enemies? I likewise, and my brethren, and my servants, might exact of them money and corn.
I pray you, let us leave off this usury. Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil which ye exact of them.”
Then said they, “We will restore them and will require nothing of them; so will we do as thou saith.” Then I called the priest and took an oath of them that they should do according to this promise.
And he says this: “Also I shook my lap and said, So God shake out every man from his house and from his labor that performeth not this promise; even thus be shaken out and emptied.”
And all the congregation said, “Amen,” and praised the Lord, and the people did according to the promise.
You said, “Hey, just like he—I’m assuming like this—he said, ‘You know what? God could do this to you, just like that. He could shake you out of your position of nobility, taking advantage of people. If you don’t promise and fulfill this oath, I hope God just shakes you out of here just like that, like I shake off the dust off my lap.’”
That’s how serious Nehemiah took that. I’m not interested in that, and I feel sorry for churches who are.
I don’t want to be that, but I do want to be a working church. I want to be a giving church. I want to be a faith-filled church that trusts the Lord for something above and beyond anything I could ever ask or think.
But it’s not about coercion and manipulation, and making people feel bad if they don’t.
And again, when we refocus back to where Nehemiah gets, I just understand that even in the midst of all that, and getting the work done and almost getting completed, and accomplishing what God has given them to do, and recognizing the beauty of all of it coming together like God promised, he stood up for the people, said, “You will not be taken advantage of.”
And he went to the nobles, went to the priest, so with that, he leans back into the wall and into the work and into the things that need to be done. And he’s just about done.
And here comes the enemy with a better offer, right? Don’t they always have one?
You’re doing something wonderful for the Lord. You’ve committed to do the work of God. You’ve committed to raise your family in a biblical worldview, opposed to the evil worldview. The enemy says, “Hey, you want to come down here and talk about this?”
But the first thing Nehemiah had was discernment. He had discernment. He says in verse number two, as I said, in chapter 6, that Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me saying, “Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono,” but they thought to do me mischief.
Now, they’ve already exposed themselves, so it probably was a little easier for Nehemiah to recognize what their intent was, right?
And again, sometimes we can misunderstand people’s offer of encouragement, if you will.
And I hope, as we recognize and understand the wall was completed and Nehemiah was the one in charge, that of course they went to him first.
And I don’t know how much they were paying attention to all that usury issue and how much maybe they were a part of or recognized that was going on, that there may have been some inner conflict. So maybe they thought, “Now’s the time to cease it. Now is the time to pounce,” right? Now’s just trying to discourage Nehemiah. He’s just fighting another battle while building this wall. He’s probably exhausted, now he’s emotionally exhausted. Let’s go after him now. Maybe he’ll want to reason with us and leave those gates undone.
Either way, in his discernment, he recognized that whatever they were going to talk to him about, whatever reasoning they wanted to do, they were not there to help him.
And I think it’s always good to understand that.
Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. We’ll come back, but let’s visit the New Testament here and look at Paul’s writings in 2 Corinthians 11.
He’s speaking to a group of people as well, of course. And in verse 10 of 2 Corinthians 11, he says, “As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia. Wherefore, because I love you not, God knoweth. But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them, which desire occasion that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. For such are false prophets, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.”
Again, the recognition that Paul is making here is that there’s going to be some who come in peace who are looking to destroy. They may represent even God, if you will, may even represent something positive, well-meaning even.
The old speaker back in the day would say, “What if my worst enemy put sugar in my coffee?” Well, you’d be okay. “What if my best of friends put poison in my coffee?” Well, you’d be dead, right? He always said, “Lesson one, guard your coffee.” And then he’d say, “It doesn’t matter the source, it matters the influence. Who’s given you what influence? Who’s giving you what influence?”
The devil will use anybody available. He’s a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
Same book, 2 Corinthians chapter 2. We make our way back, but we look here at verse 11. At this point, Paul is dealing with forgiveness or the lack thereof, or how to respond in certain manners. And he says, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us. For we are not ignorant of his devices.”
So may the opposite be true. May we be fully aware of his devices. This is his discernment.
Ephesians chapter 4: Stay here so we can get this down. I think it’s very important to understand. We covered this when we went through Ephesians. Verse 23 of Ephesians 4: “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another. Be angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Neither give place to the devil.”
That’s it. You intend that wording is, “Don’t give the devil any advantage.” He’ll take it and use it. He will absolutely do so.
First Peter chapter 5. We’ve read it or I said it, but let’s read it. 1 Peter 5: We’re going to start in verse six. Here’s how we do what God has asked us to do: We must first do this. “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: casting all your care upon him; for he cares for you.”
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
“But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever.”
How do we become strong enough to oppose the enemy? We humble ourselves. We become surrendered to the Lord. And it goes back to resting in him. It goes back to delighting in him, it goes back to trusting in him. And casting our care on him.
When does the devil like to seize most? When you’re heavily burdened. When the work is heavy, it could be almost done, but you’re so exhausted from the work that the devil steps up, “Hey, come on down. Let’s talk. I got something for you. Let’s discuss this.”
Nehemiah chapter 6 again. Nehemiah answers them, “I cannot come down.” He said it right before that, “I’m doing a great work.”
I truly believe—I’m just sharing my heart right now—I truly believe people quit because they don’t value God’s work.
I didn’t say, “No, I didn’t say, give some pastor all of your energy, time, and everything because he’s made something out of nothing that God had called to be done.” That’s not what I’m talking about.
Nehemiah recognized he was doing God’s absolute will in his life and that it was too great to come down off of to meet with these people, to have any conversation, because had he done that, the work would have ceased.
He could have looked back and said, “Yeah, I’m almost done, sure. I’m almost done. Let me come down, I’ll be right there,” and left it. And who knows what would have happened?
Could you imagine that’s how we would read the rest of this story? Nehemiah came down, got influenced by the enemy, discouraged all the people, and the work was never completed. Could you imagine?
That’s how we would read the rest of the story?
And they came again. So we recognize this devotion, not to himself. Oh no, man, they’re gonna build me a statue after this wall is done. I’m gonna be at the front gate. I don’t want to jeopardize that. I got a legacy to keep.
No. He said the work’s great. I cannot come down because he’s doing a great work. It was never about the worker. It was all about the work. Because the work was the Lord’s.
And if we find that to be true in our life, we won’t be discouraged by criticism, and we won’t be encouraged by an alternative option.
Do you remember what I said? We can either do our work our way, or we can do God’s work our way, or we can do God’s work God’s way.
How do we know what God’s way is to do God’s work? We read it here. We learn it. We experience it. We desire it. We pray and ask and allow him to speak in our life and in our heart and drive out ambition, drive out all our desires and delight ourselves in the Lord and allow him.
It doesn’t say, “Give us everything we want.” It says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
He will put in your heart what he wants you to desire. And you’ll find it strange that what he desires for you, though it may go against your flesh and not equal your actual fleshly desires, it will look a lot like the fruit of the Spirit. It’ll look a lot like loving your neighbor. And it’ll look a lot like giving your life for what he wants and for the reason he saved you.
And I’m telling you that can be so refreshing.
I don’t walk around high and mighty. “Oh hey, hey, hey, look how good I’m doing it,” being humble, right? “Look how good I’m doing it at God’s work. I’m doing better than you are.” Well, you’re right back in the beginning, and we gotta start all over, right?
But the ABCs.
Nehemiah looked at them and was never tempted to come down. These guys, they’ve been angry from the start. They were angry before the first stone was put back together, with another stone or cleared away so that they could build away. They’ve been angry from the beginning at the even thought that they could restore this wall. So they’re not going to change.
And had Nehemiah come down, had a conversation with him, he wasn’t going to influence them unfortunately. They weren’t going to come to some agreement.
Instead, they came again four times, it says in verse four, “Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort.”
And I answered them after the same manner: no. No, no. And oh by the way, no.
All right? Some of you are like, this is like a conversation with my kids. What’s going on, you know?
Right?
Is that always the answer? It is if it’s in your heart, if it’s in your heart because the Lord put it there. There’s never a day when the answer might be different. Does that make sense?
If it’s in your heart because the Lord put it there. Now, if it’s all about feeling and emotion, and how you woke up that morning, and how stressful and how anxiety’s kicked in, and how all these things, that the world is throwing at you left and right and throwing at you and throwing at you every measure, some higher, some lower, if it’s all of that, then everything would be based on how you feel, not your faith.
Our faith is in the Lord to do the work. And that’s where that depth comes in, that’s where we need to build depth in our Christian life so that we’re not tossed to and fro, but we’re anchored in him who is our anchor. And so our emotions don’t get the best of us.
So the messengers get rejected again and again and again. I wonder if the fourth time they go, “I know what you’re going to say,” but they sent us again. Yeah, here we are, Sanballat and us.
And Nehemiah’s like, “I know, go ahead. Go ahead. Give me your proposition, but you already know the answer.”
And I pray that’s how the devil views you. “I’m gonna try again, but I already know the answer. Maybe today, maybe today.” No.
Well, something really awful happened. Maybe today. No.
Oh man, they’re looking. Man, they’re sitting pretty now. God’s blessing them. Look at them getting comfortable. They’re enjoying the riches of God’s blessing on their life.
Maybe I’ll tempt them today. Maybe I’ll tempt them today.
Look how exhausted they are. They’ve been putting in the work. They’ve been doing God’s work. And somebody rejected them for it. Somebody said something mean to them, even though they were doing God’s work.
Maybe today’s the day they say yes. No.
Answer is no.
If we can have that spirit of Nehemiah, the depth in our hearts, four times, 40 times, do you always feel like saying no?
Is there a time where you go, just one day, God? Yeah, absolutely. If I could just blow up right now and get it out, Lord, I promise I’ll go back. Go back tomorrow and I’ll follow you and your spirit and yeah.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, temperance, gentleness, and self-control.
We’ll do that tomorrow. I’ll pick it right back up, you know, but not today. Let me have my moment. Let me tell him what I think.
But Nehemiah said no.
Why?
Because their proposition wasn’t good enough? He never listened. No.
Because the work was always greater.
It’s not about the offer. It’s not about what the devil has, and if he can sweeten the pot a little bit to get us to come back to the table. It’s that the work we’re doing is always going to be greater than the offer that we’re given.
Verse 15, chapter 6: “So the wall was finished.”
“So the wall was finished in the 25th day of the month, in 52 days.”
I want this for your life, and I want it for mine.
“I cannot come down. I’m doing a great work.”
So that when your race is run and all things are complete—and we don’t know when that is for any of us—will the work ever be finished? No, but your work will be finished if you trust and follow the Lord.
Someone will say they completed their race. They fought a good fight. They finished their course with joy. And they finished the work God has given them to do. And we that are left—and you know this when you go to a funeral for someone and they love the Lord and they serve the Lord with their life—we are the benefactors of them completing their God-given work. And I just want that for others who are touched by your life.
Let’s pray.
Lord, we thank you again for the spirit of Nehemiah in the face of opposition.
And Lord, I’ll never diminish those who have been in pain and hurt, even by a church or by others, or who struggle with anything in their life that would cause them to consider another option.
Maybe even in the work, they’ve been hurt.
Lord, I’ll stand on this, that I even recognize in my own flesh and faults that your work that you’ve given for my life is greater than anything else I could ever do with my life.
And that’s my prayer today, Lord, that we would all understand that.
It’s not the work of the Bible Baptist Church organization; it’s the work of your Holy Spirit in us speaking to us, giving us your will to do with our life, and collectively we do your great work.
I pray our hearts are, “We cannot come down. The work is too great, and it cannot cease.”
Help us where we need help, in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
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