Then I said to them, you see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem that we may no longer suffer derision. And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for the good work. Amen, dear saints, you may be seated tonight. Verse 17 is in reference to those other leaders in Jerusalem. So he actually does address those officials and priests, nobles, who would actually then do the work, but also be an inspiration to all the people that were in Jerusalem that would work together. So before we do this sacred work of gospel ministry tonight, let's pray again. Father, we have before us wonders that the world could never understand or appreciate because they're blind and dead to it, but we have been brought to life in Jesus Christ. know that He is the bread of life. So feed us this manna again on this Sabbath day as we collect it for the week before us in the Word and then later in the sacrament as well. This we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Nehemiah shows himself under God's guidance to be a very effective leader in tonight's scripture lesson. The people who had been living in Jerusalem were really worn out, they were in a rut, and they were in a generally lackluster state of mind and being. All this until Nehemiah shows up, opens his mouth, and encourages them to a call to action. Sometimes even we find ourselves, I know I do and I suspect all of us do, rather inert, sluggish, depressed, and sometimes lagging in hope and energy. And when this happens, and of course as fallen sinners it does happen to us as fallen humans really, God sends to his church gospel messengers to brighten our spirits and embolden our lives. And that's a big part of Sabbath worship and the Lord's Day observance is to be reinvigorated for the week before us because tomorrow and for six days we're going to be in the Trenches, as it were, in the valleys of life, and it's not always easy down there. So in light of all this, let's make it our goal this evening to be encouraged to loving action through our faith in Christ. Looking at Nehemiah 2, 17 and 18, the inspiration of a leader. God's leaders moved the church from shame to dignity. The people of God, generally speaking, if you look at church history, you'll notice in Old Testament, New Testament, subsequent church history, are either in a down and out and in the dumps situation and seemingly irrelevant, or they are vibrant, thriving, revived, as we prayed about it in our song earlier tonight, and in control, essentially, of everything. And obviously, that's where we want to be. So God's leaders moved the church from shame to dignity. This is not achieved through passive self-pity, P-A-S-S-I-V-E, which means just not doing anything, sitting around. The answer to most problems in our culture today, quite frankly, is for the victim to feel sorry for oneself and to find fault in others by blaming them for their troubles. And that is the exact opposite of good leadership and good Christian living. Good leaders don't do that. They don't seek to encourage moroseness and self-pity, and they don't seek to pass the buck by passing the fault along to those who came before them. I actually think when I originally wrote this sermon, I was being reminded of that on a national level about ten years ago. And it just really was not a good situation. Now here's something I want to share that I think is really key. It's interesting to note in the Holy Book that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord and King of Glory, about whose cross and resurrection we have sung and prayed about, He never blamed the first Adam for his sufferings. You never see Christ saying, oh, Adam's sin thrust the whole human race into iniquity and depravity and to hell and death and damnation, and I have to come and clean up the mess, and it's his fault. You never find Christ do that. Instead, the Lord Jesus viewed his sacrifice for his elect church as his father's active will for him to achieve. And so this should be the attitude of all of us today. One gets the feeling that in Jerusalem at that time the people were pretty much standing around looking at each other, wondering who's going to make the next move, until God sends his man Nehemiah to them. And like them, rather than throwing a pity party and saying, woe is us for so many years of things not going too well, They, like us, should apply, we should apply our faith in Jesus at every level of life like they did, starting in the church and ending in the smallest areas of life, whatever they might be. So, this is not achieved through passive self-pity, moving from shame to dignity. Instead, grace propels us to positive action. And by positive action, I mean just that, positive rather than negative or reactionary action. In other words, instead of staging a sit-down strike, Nehemiah would have the churchmen gather lumber and nails and saws and tape measures and get to work on the city's walls and gates, in their particular case. And of course, that same principle can be applied in spiritual ways to every other need that the church ever faces in entire history. the world. So we might ask, how do we do that? Well, we start right here with Sunday church and worship, but then we take those same gospel principles into our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our families, our marriages, our schools, our environments, our associations, our privileges and responsibilities, and we apply them there. And we bring to bear Jesus Christ on everything that we possibly can. Will God bless His work in and through us? Sure He will, in His way and in His time. And even if we don't see the results in our lifetimes, we can trust that a God of covenant will indeed manifest those results in His perfect way, in His perfect time, for His own glory and honor. So let's look together at these two verses, 17 and 18, tonight, and consider together the stages of inspirational leadership. Now these two verses lay out very nicely as they provide us universal principles for both giving and receiving spirited guidance. So what are the stages of inspirational leadership? First, hope, Hope is ignited in the midst of despair, verse 17. Then I said to them, you see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem that we may no longer suffer derision. There's the first thing to notice here is that the situation in Jerusalem was really bad. and Nehemiah simply acknowledges the truth about the case. There's no sense in pretending that all is well when it is not, but the main key is that Nehemiah doesn't camp on that. He doesn't stay there. Things are horrible, things are bad, blah, and then he just stays there. No, instead, he immediately counsels an audacious, concrete solution to the problem. And this is where it gets interesting. He says, let us build the wall. By building that wall, this would start a process, a domino effect, that would affect everything, including the temple worship and the people coming back, and affect the whole world, all the way to us today. And why was the wall to be built specifically with regard to this part of church history here in Nehemiah? Well, it was so that God's people would, quote, no longer suffer derision. In other words, When the church or the people of God are in shambles, when they're not well-led, when they are looking at each other, wondering what to do, and others are watching this from the outside, it's a reproach on them, but worse than that, it is a reproach on the God that we serve, who has bought us with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. And that's the main thing that we should always keep in mind. We want to honor His holy name. And all of this problem gets rectified or solved by hope first. Hope. Even before one board is nailed onto another to start a wall, there's hope. There's encouragement. God's leaders bring the message of the gospel of Christ's free grace, and that good news in Jesus alone launches people into a state of action based on hope, and it leads to loving deeds that glorify God. So, the stages go this way. First, hope is ignited. Then, faith is placed in Christ and His encouragement, verse 18a. And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me." So this is really good, that Nehemiah doesn't share that just with himself and just keep it to himself. He tells them that the good hand of God was upon him. and that even the king had given him his blessing as well. Now, this isn't blind faith, by the way. This isn't like Nehemiah telling these officials, priests, and leaders in Jerusalem, let's just do this based on a hope that it will happen. It was based on a concrete reality of something God had already done, just like our faith is based on the historical facts of the cross and resurrection, of which we sang so beautifully a few minutes ago in our opening hymn. So it's content-driven faith based in the covenant and promises of God as they're passed on by his earthly servants, in this case, Nehemiah. The same thing is true today. God's pastors and elders don't dream up the direction for Christ's church, On the contrary, we convey it, it being founded on and in Jesus' blood, atonement, and glorious resurrection, and all in perfect harmony with the written Holy Scriptures. And note here also again that Nehemiah has no disharmony between God's immediate direction to him, the leader, Nehemiah, and the encouragement that arose from his earlier boss there in Susa, King Artaxerxes, who sent him to Jerusalem with the monarch's blessing. When God's people know that their shepherds have God's hand upon them, then they are both willing and able to follow them as they lead them into the paths of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in their case, and sometimes in ours, it's nice to know that the king or the civil authority is on our side too, but it must be hastened to say that doesn't always happen, and you know that's true. Without the aforementioned blessing of God, however, the work would never have gotten off the ground. And keep in mind that, and I'm not sure I referenced this except for maybe way back in the first sermon in this series, Jerusalem had been in a state of disarray for almost 150 years at this point, because that would have been the time from which the Babylonians had wrecked it and destroyed it in 586 BC. So, despite all this encouragement, however, and this is important too, because, you know, the Christian life is full-orbed, We've got all this encouragement, all this hope, all this faith, and yet, there's going to be a lot of opposition to this work, and we're going to see that, Lord willing, next Sunday night. First, hope is ignited, then faith is placed in Christ. Finally, love motivates activity for the glory of God, verse 18b. And they said, that is, these people up here in verse 16, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work, they said, let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for the good work. Isn't that wonderful? That's why we said that Nehemiah was an effective leader, because he uses these words that were true and holy and right based in the actual facts of what had happened to him and God's blessing. And the people say, let's do it. Let's rise up and work. He had said it in verse 17b, come let us build the wall, and now these leaders say this in verse 18b, let us rise up and build. So what made the difference? Well, a few things for sure. There's no doubt that God had already been preparing the people for Nehemiah's arrival and his challenge that he would give them to do the work, but clearly The words of encouragement of verses 17 and 18 put them on a firm footing and convinced them that this was the right thing to do at the right time. And that's always a good thing as well. But ultimately, at the end of the day, no one, dears, and this is the key to this point, no one puts their shoulder to the plow of ministry for Christ and his church who is not spurred on by genuine love for God. That's the real power and motive and energy behind it, is a love for, a devotion to, and affection for the Triune God in and through Jesus Christ. And that's what we see here. Now it's also very interesting to note that these people that Nehemiah was shepherding here were really for real. And they persevered to the end despite danger, hardship, threats, and discouragement. And there's a lot of it. I mean, Nehemiah gets these threatening letters from Sanballat and Tobiah, and the people do all they can to stop the work, try to strong-arm them, intimidate them, Satan's way. He never changes his strategy. But they persevered. And one of the great reasons for that was the way God worked through Nehemiah. You know that the Gospel message engenders faith in you and God's people, which leads you and me to love for Christ, which results, as we've often said it before, in obedient, willing, happy service and ministry that is the validity and proof of our faith. So let us, like those churchmen in Nehemiah's time, quote, strengthen our hands for this good work as we are on the cusp of a new decade and a new year and we've gotten off to a really, really good start and let's keep that good work going. all of your ministries in the church are important and be encouraged in them. You're doing wonderful work." Now this is what we saw them do and they did it immediately after assenting to God's good provision to them of Nehemiah and his comforting and counseling and wise words. But there's as always little more use put to this text employing it more, let's learn how this text relates to the church today. Now, you've heard me say it before, and I think like Nehemiah in verse 17 of today's text, it is good to assess the truth about situation. And generally speaking, the state of religion in our world, our country, the Western world in general, it's not like this in every part of the world, but it is, for the most part, like them, quote, walls broken down, unquote. And that is our situation. Again, like them, we don't camp on that, we don't dwell on it, we acknowledge it, and we go from there. That's all God's asking us to do. So let us now be encouraged by how this text relates to the church today. First, rather than bemoaning our situations, B-E-M-O-A-N-I-N-G, bemoaning children means to complain and murmur and carry on in a negative way, rather than bemoaning our situations. Now, there are several possible responses to the troubles that the church is in, in any age. In the apostasy, the heresy, and just the foolishness of so much stuff that goes on. And I would argue, and I think you'd agree, that believers choose one of these by default. So one of these options, and I'm gonna give you three of them. are before us. And I'll already give you a hint, the last one is the good one. First of all, we can despair. We can just say it's too big, people are too far gone, culture is just too down the tubes, it's just down the toilet, there's nothing that can be done. It's too hard. It's just impossible. But the problem with that is that's a faithless approach. Essentially, that's an atheistic position, saying, you know, the world's just stronger than God. It's just overcome him. And even God can't solve the problem, which is, of course, a horrible thing to think, let alone say. And so that approach only adds to the problem, and it just doesn't work. There's a second one, and many of our evangelical friends are resorting to this and have for a long time, and that is just to sit back and wait for the rapture, in the meantime doing little or nothing while we're here. And a lot of times they justify this with the old expression, why polish the rails of a sinking ship? Anyway, just sort of ride out the storm. After all, this world is just not worth anything. Anyway, it's Satan's world, and we'll just wait till heaven. Now we have lambasted that position many times from this pulpit, and rightly so, because it is a false gospel. and it is completely inadequate. One of the reasons for this is because our hope in Christ is in this world, at least as much as the world to come, and I would argue even much more, because this is where we need his hope and help. Or, dear saints, the last and proper approach is simply, by faith and love, get to ministerial work and start right where we are. And, of course, that is the way to go. Because as soon as we feel overwhelmed, intimidated, just completely flooded with impossibility, the thought that it can't be done, it's impossible, we are essentially defeated. And, of course, that's Satan's hope for us. Rather than bemoaning our situations, let us, last point, boldly advance Christ's kingdom in our lifetimes. And dears, let me ask you, why not? What more is there to live for? How many years is God going to give us to live? None of us know. I mean, who knows? We might not get home tonight. We don't know. But maybe we're given 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 years. Maybe more, maybe less. What more is there to do of value and virtue than to live for the Lord Jesus Christ in every possible way? Even as per our section of scripture this morning from 1 Corinthians 3, which teaches us that Christians actually will be assessed on the basis of their offerings laid on that foundation of Jesus Christ. Whether that's gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw. And so we ought to give it our very best. Jesus Christ set the example. He was all about his church. He died for us. He gave his life blood for us. He rose for us. He was about his gospel that we are preaching. And as we stay focused on his priorities, we will continue to transform the world around us one piece at a time. Our evangelism will continue to be credible through the year 2020 and the decade before us. Our worship, which is so precious and important to us, is pleasing to God. Our lives, by grace, are rich and full, though they are the targets of Satan's attacks. And not only will we rest our heads on our pillows at night with clear and clean consciences, someone will someday rest our bodies in the ground as we will await our corporal bodily resurrections in Jesus as well. But in the meantime, let us live and proclaim the good news, even as Nehemiah did, except he didn't have it in the fullness that we do now on this side of the cross and resurrection, that Christ rules and reigns, that he came to save sinners from death and hell, and that they are, we are, redeemed by grace through faith in his blood alone. So, dear saints, the inspiration of a leader goes far. All the way down to 2020 does Nehemiah's influence as we're feeling it even tonight in this holy section of scripture. The inspiration of a leader. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for Nehemiah's example and inspiration, but really it was you working through him. Christ, the eternal Word, speaking through him. Christ, the only begotten Word of God, infinite wisdom of God, working through him. The one who would be incarnated, coming and dying and living and rising for us, the ultimate leader, the head of the Church. May we follow him through this world and into glory. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.