Nehemiah's Godly Ambition

Well, good morning, if I haven't already said so to you.

For some scheduling reasons, I needed to fill a one week gap in our preaching schedule.

! And so, I would like to speak with you about a topic that has been on my mind on repeat lately.

Ambition.

Is it okay to be ambitious, to desire to achieve?

The Puritan Thomas Brooks once called ambition, quote, a gilded misery, a secret poison, end quote.

Scripture often agrees, warning against selfish ambition that breeds conceit and disorder and vile practices.

Philippians 2.3, James chapter 3.

James 3 · chapter mention

However, the Apostle Paul states that he was himself ambitious.

In Romans chapter 15, verse 20, he declares,

Romans 15:20

I make it my ambition to preach the gospel.

So, where's the balance?

If ungodly ambition is characterized by conceit, disorder, and vile practices, what characterizes godly ambition?

I want to do my best to answer that question by considering Nehemiah's godly ambition.

So, will you join me at the beginning of the book of Nehemiah?

And turn there with me in your Bible, and I'll pray for our time together.

Father, we ask this morning as we take up your word and think about this idea of ambition,

that we would rightly think about what godly ambition is.

That you'd help us to learn from your word without error.

We would rightly apply what it says to us in our lives.

That we would honor the Lord Christ in our time together.

We pray this in his name.

Amen.

I find we, myself included, are often far too ignorant of the books of the Old Testament.

I once heard a pastor tell the following story.

Quote,

A preacher made the mistake of showing two boys the text he would be preaching from that Sunday, the previous Saturday afternoon.

When he turned his back, the boys glued some of the pages of his Bible together.

So, on Sunday, when he stood to read, he read,

And Noah, when he was 120 years old, took unto himself a wife, who was, then turning the page,

300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high, built of gopher wood and pitch within and without.

Puzzled, he paused, read it again, and then looked up at his congregation and said,

I have read the Bible through many, many times, but this is the first time I have ever read this.

Yet I believe the Bible to be true from cover to cover, so I accept it as truth that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Perhaps we ought to be a bit more familiar with the text than this.

So, as we peel apart the pages of Nehemiah, let me give you some brief background that will be necessary for our study this morning.

The book of Nehemiah takes place near the end of the Old Testament story.

It's not ordered that way in our modern Bibles, but that's where it takes place chronologically.

More than a century earlier, the Babylonians had destroyed Jerusalem, burned the temples, tore down the walls, and carried the people of Judah into exile.

By Nehemiah's day, the Near East power had shifted to the Persians.

There are some Israelites still in the land.

Some have returned.

The temple had been rebuilt.

We read about that in the book of Ezra.

But the city still lay exposed.

Its walls still broken down.

Its gates were burned.

And God's people who were in the land lived in shame and reproach.

Around 445 BC, Nehemiah was serving as cupbearer to Artaxerxes, the king of Persia.

When he heard about Jerusalem's condition, he wept, fasted, prayed, and acted.

Nehemiah ambitiously sought to remedy a problem.

We will note in just a moment why this news was so troubling to him as we consider the first and most important characteristic of godly ambition.

And I have five for you this morning from the story of Nehemiah.

Now, first and most important foundational godly ambition seeks God's glory.

Look at chapter 1, beginning in verse 1.

The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakala, something like that.

Now, it happened in the month of Chislev in the 20th year, as I was in Susa, the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah.

And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem.

And they said to me, the remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame.

The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.

As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days.

And I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

And I said, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.

Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel, your servants.

Confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you.

Even I and my father's house have sinned.

We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses.

Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples.

But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the earth,

from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen to make my name dwell there.

Now I'm going to pause for a second at the end of verse 9.

He says at the beginning of verse 8, remember to God.

Of course God remembers, but God is very pleased when we pray to him, his promises.

So what he prays is an amalgamation, but a clear place you can find it is in Leviticus chapter 26.

Leviticus 26 · chapter mention

I'll begin reading in 38 and then following.

There God says, and you shall perish among the nations and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.

And those of you who are left shall rot away in your enemies lands because of their iniquity and also because of the iniquities of their fathers.

They shall rot away like them.

But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery and they that they committed against me and also in walking contrary to me,

so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies, if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity,

then I will remember my covenant with Jacob and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham.

And I will remember the land.

So Nehemiah is biblically informed, right here.

He's praying back to God a promise that God had made.

And then first 10 back in Nehemiah chapter one.

They are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand.

Oh, Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name.

And give success to your servant today and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.

Referring to the king, Artaxerxes.

Now I was cup bearer to the king.

Why is Nehemiah distressed by this news that he hears?

Because the people who are in the land and those who have returned to the land, God's people, the remnant there in the province.

Are not doing well.

They're in great trouble and shame.

Jerusalem is in shambles and cannot provide protection for dwelling and commerce.

And therefore, in Nehemiah's correct estimation, God's glory was being profaned.

Now, before you think for a moment that the aim of our time is to convince you to build something, let me be clear.

That is not what I'm hoping to accomplish this morning.

I will not roll out blueprints at the end of our time together.

Under the old covenant, the glory of God was directly tied to the well-being of his people.

Come and see, cries the old covenant.

Go and tell, cries the new.

However, ambitious people build things.

Families, businesses, communities, cultures, and yes, churches, which do meet in buildings.

Godly ambition does so for the glory of God.

This is the great concern of Nehemiah, the heartbreak.

Not just that his fellow Israelites are not doing well, but that God's glory is being profaned.

Godly ambition seeks to make little of self, to forget self, and to make much of God.

Notice the foundation of Nehemiah's concern, right?

He knows his Bible, and he knows the promises that God has made.

Promises that he seems to not be keeping.

Nehemiah prays with confidence because he knows that God is a promise-keeping God who is zealous for his glory.

Even as he grieves the condition, he goes to God in prayer because he knows that God cares about his glory.

This is the most foundational characteristic of godly ambition.

Nothing else I will say this morning matters if we don't get this one right.

If our ambitions don't aim at God's glory, they are misguided and they are trivial.

Often, our ambitions mirror the world's aimed at success, security, significance.

But scripture calls us to aim higher.

2 Corinthians 5, verse 9.

2 Corinthians 5:9

So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please God.

As C.S. Lewis once said in your bulletin quote,

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in.

Aim at earth and you will get neither.

Ungodly ambition is not too big.

It is too small.

As concerns ambition, we can err in two ways.

First, which has been mentioned, ambition can be self-serving and not seek God's glory.

It can be about our glory.

But also, secondly, it could just be altogether lacking.

No ambition whatsoever.

However, I think apathy is the opposite of ambition.

No concern.

May we not be apathetic on the one hand or have selfish ambition on the other,

but be energized to see God magnified in everything that we do.

Godly ambition, firstly and most importantly, seeks God's glory.

Secondly, godly ambition thinks and asks big.

Thinks and asks big.

I am saying to you that we ought to be ambitious

and that that ambition ought to be aimed at God's glory

and therefore it ought to think and ask big.

Now look with me at the beginning of chapter two of Nehemiah.

Here we see recorded in the month of Nisan in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes.

When wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king.

Now I had not been sad in his presence.

And the king said to me, why is your face sad?

Seeing you are not sick.

This is nothing but sadness of the heart.

Then I was very much afraid.

It's not supposed to appear sad for the king.

He seems to have made every effort not to appear sad before the king.

His own record is that he had not been sad in his presence

and the king sees through it.

And he was afraid for the way his countenance was before the king.

Verse three, I said to the king, let the king live forever.

Why should not my face be sad when the city, the place of my father's graves,

lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire?

Then the king said to me, what are you requesting?

So I prayed to the God of heaven.

And I said to the king, if it pleases the king

and if your servant has found favor in your sight,

that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's graves,

that I may rebuild it.

And the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him,

how long will you be gone and when will you return?

So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time.

And I said to the king, if it pleases the king,

let letters be given to me,

to the governors of the province beyond the river,

that they let me pass through until I come to Judah.

And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest,

that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple

and for the wall of the city and for the house that I shall occupy.

And the king granted me what I asked,

for the good hand of God was upon me.

I believe that we are meant to note the date in verse 1,

as we were also told the date in chapter 1 and verse 1.

Chislev or Kislev to Nisan.

About four months have passed from the time that Nehemiah received the news

of Jerusalem's state until we see this encounter in chapter 2.

Four months have gone by since in verse 4 of chapter 1.

He says,

As soon as I heard these words,

I sat down and wept and mourned for days.

Four months worth of days.

And I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

The conclusion I believe we ought to draw

is that Nehemiah has been troubled all this time.

He has been in mourning and fasting with prayer.

The prayer of chapter 1 is an example prayer of the prayers that he prayed.

It was the substance of what he was praying across this time.

And I think that during this time,

he has considered a remedy to the problem.

He is troubled by this.

How might this trouble be solved?

The confidence of Nehemiah's prayers expresses confidence

in a God who can accomplish whatever he desires.

But Nehemiah's actions evidence that he knows

that God doesn't despise the means used to accomplish his will.

Nehemiah thinks big.

I'm imagining here, but in this time frame,

I think he's going,

maybe I should go lead the rebuilding of the wall.

The rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem was a massive task.

The wall was 1.7 miles in circumference.

It was 6 1⁄2 to 12 feet thick,

depending on the place of it,

and an estimated 20 to 25 feet high.

This is a huge, huge project.

There is no natural reason for Nehemiah to think

that he would be the instrument of God's choosing

to rebuild Jerusalem's walls.

He's not a builder of walls.

That's not what the chapter tells us at all.

That's not what he was trained to do.

He's a cupbearer.

He's been living in captivity.

He's the servant to King Artaxerxes.

He selects wine,

and he drinks from the king's cup before the king

to ensure his wine hadn't been poisoned.

This is the role that he played.

He is trusted as the cupbearer.

Often throughout history,

cupbearers gave counsel to the king

because they were always around,

because they were giving their life,

perhaps for the sake of his.

Sometimes the question would be asked,

what should I do in such and such circumstance?

So he is there.

He is trusted.

He is in a position to speak to the king,

but he is just a cupbearer, a servant.

Why does it enter his mind

that he could have this kind of ambition

to go back,

to ask that God would restore the wall,

and I'm saying perhaps use him to accomplish it?

It's because of his confidence in this God, right,

who upholds his own glory,

and we cannot know exactly what's going on

in the mind of Nehemiah, right?

Again, I think it's imagination here,

but I do think it's reasonable to think

that he, being troubled by the news,

being persistent in prayer,

is convinced in that process

that given the opportunity

that he should act.

I believe that he asks big things of God,

and then, when the time is right,

big things of the king.

He asks massive things of this king.

The king says to him in verse two,

why is your face sad,

seeing you are not sick?

This is nothing but sadness of the heart.

Then I was very much afraid.

I mentioned already,

this was not okay to be in front of the king forlorn.

So what does he do?

He responds,

the city is destroyed.

Why should I not be sad?

And the king asks him,

what are you requesting?

And notice what he does in verse four,

so I prayed to the God of heaven.

I just imagine as he goes,

Lord, help me.

I'm about to open my mouth,

and I'm going to ask for something big of this king,

a thing that the king could have lopped his head off for.

If it pleases the king,

verse five,

if your servant has found favor in your sight,

let me go.

Let me go rebuild the wall.

And not only does he request to be freed

from his duty to the king,

but also for an armed guard

and a blank check

to gain the resources that he needs for the project.

It is a huge ask.

That's ambitious.

Charles Spurgeon once said,

this is the quote on the children's bulletin section

of your bulletin.

A little drawing that's there.

He once said,

prayer pulls the rope below

and the great bell rings above in the ears of God.

Some scarcely stir the bell

for they pray so languidly.

Others give but an occasional pluck at the rope.

But he who wins heaven

is the man who grasps the rope boldly

and pulls continuously

with all his might.

Do we think and ask big?

Are we ambitious for the glory of God

in all the areas of our life?

Let's not just ask that God would save our children.

I hope we do.

But that he would save them

and that he would shape them

into mighty citizens of the kingdom of heaven

for his glory.

Let's not just ask that God would bless

the work of our hands,

but that he would bless abundantly our labors

that we should spend and be spent for his glory.

Let's not just ask that God would give our church influence

in our homes and in our neighborhoods,

but that he would give us

a little feeble group of people

that he would use us

to have a measurable influence

for generations

and to the very ends of the earth.

Let's be ambitious for his glory.

Think and ask big.

Godly ambition seeks God's glory.

Godly ambition thinks and asks big.

And thirdly,

godly ambition plans diligently.

Notice verses 11 through 16 of chapter two.

So I went up to Jerusalem

and was there three days.

Then I arose in the night

and a few men with me

and I told no one like God

to put in my heart to do for Jerusalem.

There was no animal with me

but the one on which I rode.

I went out by night

by the valley gate

to the dragon spring

and to the dung gate

and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem

that were broken down

and its gates

that had been destroyed by fire.

Then I went on to the fountain gate

and to the king's pool

but there was no room

for the animal

that was under me to pass.

Then I went up in the night

by the valley

and inspected the wall

and I turned back

and entered by the valley gate

and so returned.

And the officials did not know

where I had gone

or what I was doing

and I had not yet told the Jews,

the priests,

the nobles,

the officials,

and the rest

who were to do the work.

Notice the repetition

in verses 12 and 13 and 15.

Then I arose in the night.

I went out by night.

Then I went up in the night.

I take this to mean

that the three days

mentioned in verse 11

was the time it took

for him to inspect the wall.

It would not take three nights

to travel 1.7 miles

around the circumference

of the dilapidated wall.

So what is he doing?

I believe he is making

diligent plans.

He's looking at each section.

He's plotting out

a course of action.

Now let me say again,

God who created the world

ex nihilo from nothing

does not despise means.

He uses his people

to accomplish his purposes.

So once we have ascertained a path,

godly ambition plans diligently.

Sees a destination

and makes a plan

to reach that destination.

I have found

that I accomplished

nothing meaningful

without planning to do so.

I never bumble my way

through the right thing.

We do well not to ask,

what do I feel like doing?

But rather,

what am I supposed to do?

We will not be able

to answer that question

without a plan.

Whatever the ambition may be,

how will you accomplish

that godly ambition?

What is the path

to get there?

Men,

I know that right now

you feel like you're surviving

with littles in your home.

Those days are coming

to a completion

sooner

than you think.

What is the plan

to raise up your children

in the fear

and instruction

of the Lord?

I never do well

when I'm bumbling

my way through it.

Plan,

follow through.

How do you intend

to accomplish

the goals at your job?

Witnessing to your neighbors.

Any of these things

require diligent planning.

So godly ambition

seeks God's glory,

thinks and asks big,

plans diligently.

Fourthly,

godly ambition

works hard.

Nehemiah chapter 2,

Nehemiah 2:17

verse 17 and 18.

Then I said to them,

following his inspection

and his diligent planning,

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.

Now,

I don't know exactly

what that phrase means.

There may be somebody

who knows their Hebrew

better than I do.

It doesn't seem to me

like they go to work up

some calluses

on their hands,

but they're making a decision.

They're strengthening

their hands.

They're getting ready.

There's a big work

ahead of us.

We will be ready

for that work

to be accomplished.

And then Nehemiah chapter 3,

Nehemiah 3 · chapter mention

which is a summary

of the builders

and their accomplishments.

You get this list

of all of these

different people,

a bunch of different names

that are very difficult

to pronounce.

I'm just going to read

a few of them for you.

Here's what they accomplished.

Here's the work

that they set themselves

to beginning

in verse 15

of chapter 3.

And Shalom,

the son of Kol Hosei,

ruler of the district

of Mizpah,

repaired the fountain gate.

He rebuilt it

and covered it

and set its doors,

its bolts,

and its bars.

And he built the wall

of the pool of Shalah,

of the king's garden,

as far as the stairs

that go down

from the city of David.

After him,

Nehemiah,

the son of Azbuk,

ruler of half the district

of Beth-zur,

repaired to a point

opposite the tombs of David,

as far as the artificial pool

and as far as the house

of the mighty men.

And it goes on

and it goes on

for the entirety

of the chapter.

This is many hands

at hard work,

resetting massive stones

and beams.

You have heard it said,

many hands make light work.

We like to adapt

that saying to say,

many hands make

ambitious work possible.

We would do well

not to underestimate

the difficulty

of this task

that they set themselves to.

These men, though,

had godly ambition.

They saw God's favor

on Nehemiah.

They said,

surely the Lord

is with us

in this work

and so we will

work hard.

We're going to wait around

for the stones

to levitate themselves

and the wall to appear.

They went to work.

They were seeking

God's glory,

thought of a task

worth accomplishing,

right?

So they strengthened

their hands

for the good work.

They had Nehemiah's plans

and his oversight

and they took up

their part

of the work.

Not one man

built the entire wall.

They shared

in this large task.

In total,

it only took them

52 days

to rebuild

the wall.

What a work

that was.

What might be accomplished

if you

strengthened

your hands

for a good

work?

what might you

see

get done?

What might

we

be able

to build?

Godly ambition

seeks God's glory,

thinks and asks

big,

plans diligently,

works

hard,

and lastly,

expects

opposition.

Expects

opposition.

There's a common

sentiment

in today's church

that seems

averse

to opposition.

It seems

to be framed

up theologically

like God

couldn't possibly

ask us to do

anything hard.

If we encounter

some difficulty,

perhaps we have

strayed from God's

will,

goes the thinking.

Just because

something is difficult

doesn't make it right.

But I can attest

that everything

good that I've

ever seen

accomplished

was accomplished

with difficulty.

there were

oppositions.

There were

things that

could have

shut the

whole work

down if

people weren't

willing to

push through.

Beloved,

you sit in a

congregation this

morning that

would not

exist

if countless

people,

including you,

didn't work

hard in the

face of

opposition.

Nehemiah

faced opposition.

They expected

it and they

put themselves

to the work

all the

same.

This

opposition is

introduced to

us in chapter

two.

The weight

of this

opposition

verses nine

and ten.

He says,

then I came

to the

governors of

the province

beyond the

river and

gave them

the king's

letters.

Now the

king had

sent with

me officers

of the

army and

horsemen.

But when

Sambalot,

the Horonite,

and Tobiah,

the Ammonite

servant,

heard this.

And these

guys,

Sambalot and

Tobiah are

trouble and

trouble and

trouble.

It displeased

them greatly

that someone

had come to

seek the

welfare of

the people

of Israel.

A Horonite

and an Ammonite

that were

profiting off

the land

were troubled

that someone

came to

seek the

welfare of

the people

to whom

the land

belonged.

After the

plan is

made,

and the

decision to

rebuild has

been established.

They've

strengthened

their hands

for the

good work.

Verse 19

tells us,

but when

Sambalot,

the Horonite,

and Tobiah,

the Ammonite,

servant,

and Geshem,

the Arab,

heard of it,

they jeered

at us and

despised us

and said,

what is this

thing that you

were doing?

Are you

rebelling

against the

king?

Then I

replied to

them,

the God

of heaven

will make

us prosper

and we,

his servants,

will arise

and build,

but you

have no

portion or

right or

claim in

Jerusalem.

Right?

Bold,

bold words.

Then chapter

three gives us

the record of

work going

on,

that this

large task

being accomplished,

but chapter

four tells us

more about

the opposition.

I'm going to

read it to

you in

large part.

Verse one,

now when

Sambalot heard

that we were

building the

wall,

he was angry

and greatly

enraged and

he jeered at

the Jews and

he said in the

presence of his

brothers and of

the army of

Samaria,

what are these

feeble Jews

doing?

Will they

restore it for

themselves?

Will they

sacrifice?

Will they

finish up in a

day?

Will they

revive the

stones out of

the heaps of

rubbish and

burned ones at

that?

Tobiah the

Ammonite was

beside him and

he said,

yes,

what they are

building?

If a fox

goes up on

out,

he will

break down

their stone

wall.

And then in

response here,

oh,

our God,

for we are

despised,

turn back

their taunt on

their own

heads and

give them up

to be plundered

in a land

where they

are captives.

Do not cover

their guilt and

let not their

sin be blotted

out from your

sight for they

have provoked

you to anger

in the presence

of the builders.

Verse six,

so we built

the wall and

all the wall

was joined

together to

half its height

for the people

had a mind

to work.

I love that

phrase.

But when

Sambalat and

Tobiah and

the Arabs and

the Ammonites

and the

Ashdodites heard

that the repairing

of the walls of

Jerusalem was going

forward and that

the breaches were

beginning to be

closed,

they were very

angry and they

all plotted

together to come

and fight against

Jerusalem and to

cause confusion

in it.

And we prayed

to our God

and set a guard

as a protection

against them

day and night.

In Judah,

it was said,

the strength of

those who bear

the burdens

is failing.

There is too

much rubble.

By ourselves,

we will not be

able to rebuild

the wall.

And our enemy

said,

they will not

know or see

till we come

among them

and kill them

and stop the

work.

At that time,

the Jews who

lived near them

came from all

directions and

said to us,

ten times,

you must return

to us.

So in the

lowest parts of

the space behind

the wall,

in open places,

I stationed the

people by their

clans with their

swords, their

spears, and their

bows.

Remember the

Lord who is

great and awesome

and fight for

your brothers,

your sons,

your daughters,

your wives,

and your homes.

When our enemies

heard that it was

known to us and

that God had

frustrated their

plan, we all

returned to the

wall, each to

his work.

From that day

on, half of my

servants worked on

construction and

half held the

spears, shields,

bows, and

coats of mail.

And the leaders

stood behind the

whole house of

Judah who were

building on the

wall.

Those who carried

burdens were

loaded in such a

way that each

labored on work

with one hand and

held his weapon

with the other.

And each of the

builders had his

sword strapped at

his side while he

built.

The man who

sounded the trumpet

was beside me,

and I said to the

nobles, the

officials, and the

rest of the

people, the work

is great and

widely spread, and

we are separated

on the wall far

from one another.

In the place

where you hear

the sound of

the trumpet, rally

to us there, our

God will fight for

us.

So we labored at

the work, and

half of them held

spears from the

break of dawn till

the stars came out.

I also said to the

people at that

time, let every

man and his

servant pass the

night within

Jerusalem, that

they may be a

guard for us by

night and may

labor by day.

So neither I,

nor my brothers,

nor my servants,

nor the men of the

guard who followed

me, none of us

took off our

clothes, each kept

his weapon at his

right hand.

Godly ambition

expects opposition

and, we will do

well to see,

responds appropriately

and presses on.

They didn't stop the

work, but for a

moment.

They heard an

attack was coming,

they all got ready

for the attack, and

the text tells us,

and they returned

to work.

They expected it, and

they just pressed on.

So be ambitious.

Don't be apathetic, but

have godly ambitions.

Pray that God would

work in your godly

ambitions for your

home, your work, your

community, your

culture, and for our

church.

I hope that you will

find yourself reflecting

on lessons from

Nehemiah's godly

ambition.

Godly ambition

seeks God's glory,

thinks and asks big,

plans diligently,

works hard, and

expects

opposition.

I will close with the

doxology from this

morning's call to

worship.

This is from

Ephesians 3, verse

Ephesians 3:20

20 and 21.

Now to him who is

able to do far more

abundantly than all

that we ask or think,

according to the power

at work within us, to

him be glory in the

church and in Christ

Jesus throughout all

generations forever and

ever.

Amen.

Let's pray together.