Several years ago, she used to sing a lot all over the country. And she sung once in Spurgeon's Tabernacle in London. And I don't know about you, but that's big time stuff in my opinion. And it is an honor to have her sing for us today. Now, we are studying the third chapter in the book of Nehemiah. I have given you an overview of the entire book. I have talked to you about the predicament of the land. I have talked to you about the prayer of the layman. And last month, I talked to you about the providence of the Lord from chapter two. Today, we're going to study the production line. Today, Nehemiah and the captives are going to build the wall of Jerusalem. There comes a time when you have to get up from the prayer meeting, get out of the strategy room, and get out there where the problem is, and commence with the work. And that's what Nehemiah is doing in chapter three. He is going to line the folks up. 42 different groups. circled around the wall in what I am calling a production line. And they're going to build the walls. Now, many of the commentators just skip Nehemiah chapter 3. Charles Swindoll In his book, Hand Me Another Brick, just simply passes over. Nehemiah chapter three, although he has a marvelous book written on Nehemiah. Many of the great scholars just skip over it. It's passe. They say you look at it and hear all of these names that only the Lord himself can pronounce. And so they're getting started building the wall, and they pass over it. I believe, however, that there are some wonderful, wonderful lessons for us to learn in Nehemiah chapter 3. Some of you who are gathered with us today are leaders in the church, Some of you are managers or administrators of businesses, of corporations here in the vicinity. There probably isn't a greater study in the dynamics of leadership than the book of Nehemiah, and specifically the man, Nehemiah. Now, it has been my modus operandi for years to memorize my scripture text. I don't know if any of you have noticed that. I try not to call attention to that. But here's a problem that I have today. This is a long chapter and I simply don't have the time to quote all of this for you. How many of you believe that? Actually, I did not attempt to memorize Nehemiah chapter 3, so no quoting of the scriptures today. Now, three points in the lesson. I want to cover at least two of them. First, I want to talk to you about the goals for building the wall. Why build the wall back. And number two, I want to talk to you about the groups, 42 different groups of people who were employed in the building of the wall. And then I want to talk to you about the gates in the wall. Now, the goal, why build the wall? Negatively, I want to tell you that Nehemiah did not want to build this wall for his personal aggrandizement, for any personal acclaim or advancement that it might bring to him. Preachers have to be reminded on occasion that we do not build great church buildings or programs for our personal advancement. We do it for the glory of the Lord God and for the advancement of the kingdom. I was in a large city a while back in the Mid-South. And some of the fellows were discussing what all was going on among the dozens of Baptist churches in the vicinity. How many baptisms they had had the year before. How large the church budget was. How much they gave to missions. How big the physical church plant was. And one of them spoke up and said, our church has the tallest steeple in town. I remember something Leon Kilbreath said in a Sunday school revival in this association nearly 20 years ago. He said sometimes churches need to decide whether they want the steeple or the people. Nehemiah is building this wall not for himself but for the glory of God. Did you remember from the lesson last week in chapter 2 verse 17 as Nehemiah is rousing the troops? He said let us rise up and build. Why? that we be no more a reproach. Jerusalem had once been a prominent city in the Middle East. Do you know what the psalmist said about Jerusalem? Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion in the sides of the north. the city of the great king. Jerusalem was the city which God had chosen to put his name there. It was the city of David. It was a magnificent place. The very name of Jerusalem conjured up religious thought. and memories of spiritual victories of the past. But now the wall has been broken down for decades and the people are in great reproach from their neighbors. They are the blunt of jokes. They are the objects of scorn and ridicule. All My friend, we are living in a time in a society when often the church of the living God is in reproach. It's the object of jokes and scoffing and scorn. Could it be that in our day we need a revival that would motivate the people of God to rise up and restore some walls. Walls of integrity. Walls of character. Walls of caring about essentials. Walls of compassion toward others. Walls of purity. and holiness, walls that stand for protection for the family of God and our personal families, protection against sin and immorality. That's what the church is about. But alas, too often the walls have been torn down and we're in reproach in our day. So these are the goals we're going to rise up and build that we be no more a reproach and that the name of God be exalted in this place. Does that make any sense for you? All right, let's see a second thing. Let's talk about the groups who built the wall. Now I wanna say four things here. First, the people. who built the wall are mentioned. And there are several things about these people. Number one, they were a diverse group of people. Priests, spiritual leaders are listed in verse one. Rulers are listed. Two rulers. in Jerusalem, each ruling a half part of the city are listed. Professional groups are listed. Goldsmiths, jewelers, apothecaries, druggists, pharmacists, merchants, professionals who probably had more time and more financial ability for contributing to the work, let it be said to their eternal credit that they put their hand to the work of their Lord. Not only these professionals, but bakers are not listed. And I just thought about that Out of all of this list of people, why weren't there some bakers listed? And I got to thinking about it, and here's what I came up with. These bakers couldn't get involved in the building. They were baking bread to provide for the workers. And you know, that's an interesting point. There are some things that some people cannot be busily involved in for working in the shadows, in the background, providing those essential things so that the workers can carry on with the job. Does that make any sense? All right, here's another group. Servants, nephenims. Do you remember the Gibeonites? deceived Joshua and the leaders when they came into Canaan. Do you remember them? And they were to be drawers of water and hewers of wood. Servants were involved in building the wall. Here's another interesting thing. Now sit up straight and look this way. I don't want you to miss this. women were involved in the construction of the wall. In verse 13, the daughters of Shalem, and by the way, Shalem was one of the rulers of half of the city, and his daughters helped build the wall. I like that. Don't you? Now, perhaps he had no sons. And in order to contribute to the work, he and his daughters worked side by side. I don't suppose there's anything in scripture that preempts or prevents a woman from doing some manual work. I know a few months ago when our church at Tumbling Shoals was building a new educational building. And we were doing it with volunteer labor that some of us men looked up and here was one of our dear ladies up on a ladder up high in the rafters putting insulation in. And we noticed a little further that she was doing it better and faster than any two men involved in the project. Praise the Lord. The women got involved. Now, several towns were mentioned. Groups from different towns. Outlying villages around Jerusalem. The folks came into town and joined in the work. Let me mention these towns for you. Jericho, Tekoa, Gibeon, Mizpah, Zenoa, Beth-Hakarim, Beth-Zur, and Kelah. Do you remember the little town of Kelah? Do you remember when David was fleeing from King Saul? He held up in the little town of Kelah. And do you remember he prayed and said, Lord, if I stay here, will they turn me over to King Saul and will he put me to death? And the Lord spoke to David at Keilah and said, if you stay here, the men of Keilah will turn you over to Saul and he'll put you to death. You ever thought about what that means about the knowledge of our God? It means God knows contingencies and possibilities, whether they ever even come to pass or not. That's the God with whom we have to do. Now these Citizens of these outlying towns have come into Jerusalem to help build the wall. Now notice this. The spiritual leaders set the example for the folk. In verse one, Eliash, the high priest, is mentioned. And they built around the sheep gate. It has been said, and accurately so, seldom does a congregation rise above its leadership. It is incumbent upon us, who are the spiritual leaders of the church, to set the example for the flock. And let me tell you, dear lay people, that is no small responsibility. It is no small burden to bear. Baptist preachers and other preachers from other denominations are no different from you. The old saying, they put their britches on one leg at a time, just like you do. Made out of the same kind of stuff, susceptible to the same kind of errors and mistakes. And while we leaders are to set the example, you lay people are to undergird us with your prayers and your encouragements. Thank God for these priests who set the example. Now, let me say something to you about these workers in a general sort of way. Some of these workers were lazy and uncooperative. Would you look at verse five? But the rulers of Tekoa put not their necks to the work. That's the King James Version. Evidently, everyone was not excited about building the wall of Jerusalem. And if that was not their problem, they were lazy, thinking it beneath them to do manual labor. But I want to tell you something, folks. There comes a time for spiritual leaders and rulers in the community to put their sermons and their addresses aside and get out there where the people are and where the work is and roll up their sleeves and get involved in the work. A lot that goes on in the church is work, just plain work. And these folk from Tekoa, these rulers, were stiff-necked and proud and unwilling to put their necks to the work. But let me tell you something. If you're going to be a leader, you cannot be thwarted, you cannot be put off or turned aside or delayed because everyone will not cooperate with you and everyone will not work hard. Now I have discovered after 29 years of being a Baptist preacher and nearly 25 as a leader among churches that Seldom, when there is work to be done, do you get 100% cooperation. But beloved, if you've got a vision from God about what needs to be done, just analyze the situation right up front and know that everybody's not gonna work with you. And so, don't spend your time trying to get those folk off a dead center. Just go on and do what God's called you to do and don't look back. The old timers used to say, you get more done in less time when you're plowing the field. If when you come to a stump, don't just keep running into it and running into it and trying to uproot it. Just plow around it and go on about the work. Now, I hope there are none of you listening here today who are like stumps in the field in your church, just unwilling to budge, unwilling to work. None of you would do a thing like that, would you? I didn't think so. All right, let me say something else about these workers. Some of these workers did more work than others. Some of these groups, did two segments. They finished with the segment assigned to them, and they looked around and saw that the whole project wasn't finished, and so they just moved over and worked on a second segment. I like that. You see, the work of the kingdom is not done just because I have finished my particular assignment. When I am done, let me join hands with the rest of the saints and help them until theirs is done. Does that make any sense for you? All right, let me show you another thing. Some of these folks worked near their homes. Several times in this chapter, you're going to read, and so-and-so repaired the wall in front of or by his house, by his home. Now I think there is a profound lesson here. Beloved, the work of being a Christian and building the kingdom begins not at the church, not in the community, it begins at home. And if more of us would give better attention to building the walls in our particular vicinity in front of our own houses than the work in general would fare a lot better. Does that make any sense to you folks? I want to tell you I come to the end of the day often and I have to say, dear God, Don't let me be guilty of preaching one thing to the people and living a different thing at home. I want to tell you the test of my religion and my preaching is not in front of you people. It's not what you think about me. It's not your evaluation of me. The real test of my religion is in my home, what my wife sees and what my son sees. And I want to tell you, if things aren't right there, what I do publicly will have little significance. You understand? So, these folk worked in front of their own home. Now, let me show you something else. Some of these folk had more zeal than others. If you look down to verse 20, you see that Baruch worked earnestly. He worked feverishly, fervently. Now, have you ever noticed that some of the people in the church just seem to have more zeal and enthusiasm about them than others? And thank God for these. Yesterday, I got up at four o'clock in the morning. Bill and I drove over to Myrtle, Mississippi. Four, four and a half hour drive. And I preached in a conference. 2,500 people present from all over this nation. Do you know what I saw in one of those worship services. I've heard about this but I've never seen it. A fellow named Tom Hayes from over on the east coast was preaching and he was preaching from that text in Hebrews, therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that you may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Man was he preaching. He was preaching the limbs right off the bushes. He's preaching the paint right off the wall. I'd never heard preaching like that. I was just sitting there in awe. And these folks just hollering, amen, amen, amen. Glory to God. And a fella just stood up, lifted his hand up, and said, glory. And I thought, well, man, I like that. And then he jumped up and stood in a pew, lifted his hand toward the heavens and said, well, glory. And then he put his foot on the front of the pew next to the one he was standing in and stood up a little higher and lifted his hand up and said, well, glory. And I thought to myself, well, glory. And that just began to happen all over the building. Now some folk work with a little more enthusiasm than others. You know what would happen on an average Sunday morning in an average Baptist church if that were to occur? A lot of our folks would go home with a crick in their neck because they turned around so quickly to see what in heaven's name was happening. And when you observe the workers on this wall, you're gonna find that Baruch and his family worked with great enthusiasm, with great fervor. All right, let me show you something else now. I'll talk to you about the people who were mentioned. Now let me tell you that the portions were manageable. Nehemiah looked at the wall. The wall is at minimum a mile and a half long and possibly up to two and a half miles long. And here's what he did. He broke the portions down into manageable size and assigned each of these groups a segment that they could handle themselves. Herein lies a significant lesson for leaders. For task specialists, break it down into manageable portions. Now, I'm gonna say more about that in just a minute, but let me move now to this idea that the practicality is magnificent. When you look at what was accomplished and how, you have to say, that made good common sense. Just practical stuff. Now, for example, Nehemiah didn't have the folks commute from one end of the city to the opposite end for their workplace. He had them work near their home. Doesn't it make good sense that folks would be more interested in building up the wall in front of their own house for the protection of their own family than they would traveling all the way across town to the other side? That was just good common sense. Here's another thing he did. He allowed them to work on sections that were of greater interest to them. For example, the priest built the sheep gate where the sacrifices came through. Doesn't it make good common sense that the priest should repair that section of the building? And furthermore, he encouraged the out-of-towners, those from Tekoa and Gibeon and Kila and other places who came to work, he encouraged them just to reside there in the city so that time was not wasted. I have wished as I have studied this chapter and looked at the dynamics of Nehemiah's leadership that we could get the Congress of the United States to study the book of Nehemiah and learn a little bit of practicality. Good common sense. What my mama would call common horse sense. Stable thinking. Just good sense. Now, let me share with you The fourth thing, I want you to see something about the profundity of the man, Nehemiah. And what I mean by profundity is this. He used his head. He thought the matter through. Remember now, Nehemiah, from Chislew to Nisan, the middle of December to the middle of April, prayed, fasted, mourned, and thought about his own involvement in building the wall. And I want to tell you something, folks. One of the things that is so desperately needed in our day in the family of God is for us just to Use our hands and think matters through before we commence with projects. Profound information. Now here's what he did. One, he envisioned the plan. He could see it unfolding in his mind's eye. He thought about it. as he traveled those weeks, those 800 miles from Babylon to Jerusalem. And as he thought about it, he could see the wall. And he could see all the different groups of people. And he began to formulize a plan. The old saying, when you fail to plan, you're planning to fail. Nehemiah knew that. Now, he envisioned the plan, then he initiated the plan. He informed the people and he inspired the people. If I am going to lead you in a project, I had better inform you of my vision. And I'd better break it down into sections that you can easily manage. Get your hands on and get your teeth into something that you can know about in your head and feel in your heart. But that's not all. He implemented the plan. He avoided a common mistake. He didn't underestimate the job. Have any of you ever volunteered for a job? And then a few days or a few weeks later discovered this is a major league job. Wayne Harvey has. Wayne volunteered or probably didn't volunteer, did you, Wayne, was coerced by friends here in town to be in charge of little league baseball. Never seen a man work harder in my life. Probably didn't understand all that was involved in that. I've done that. Have you? Nehemiah avoided that mistake. He knew the enormity of the task. Furthermore, he didn't procrastinate. He didn't waste time and he didn't put off till the very end getting started. Have you ever done that? What'd y'all say? Now if some of you don't wake up and pay a little better attention, I'm going to preach a long time now just to spite you. And here's something else he didn't do. He didn't start at the end before he had taken care of the basics. Now I have a tendency sometimes, I want to just get to the good part. Don't you? Nehemiah knew if he was going to get to the good part, hanging those gates up, seeing them able to open and close, that he was going to have to do the foundation work. He was going to have to do the basics first. And I'm telling you folks, the same thing is true in church life. There are basic things that have to be done first. So he implemented the plan. He kept a right relationship with his sovereign, never lost sight that he was working for God. He kept a right relationship with his superior, the Persian king Ahasuerus, or rather Artaxerxes. And he kept a right relationship with his subordinates. These people followed Nehemiah's leadership. If you want folks to follow, you've got to keep the lines of communication open. and you have got to maintain a right relationship with them. Now, how many of you think that in two minutes I can go through the ten gates? Well, you're wrong. There's no way that I can do it. So, I'm going to stop here and take up with the gates at the next meeting, okay? May the blessing and the benediction of the Almighty God be upon your life this day is my prayer for you. You're dismissed.