Nehemiah 1 (Part 1) Bible Study (Introduction / Report from Jerusalem) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Series)

I'm so excited to invite you to turn with me now to the book of

Nehemiah. You're probably already there,

and if you're not, Nehemiah is right after the book of Ezra.

Hopefully that's helpful. And once I hear those pages

settled, I'd love for us to pray one more time.

Can we do that together? Blessed Lord, thank you for a

room every week that is filled with people who love your word.

We pray that you would go before us in this new journey.

You've been with us year after year, month after month, week

after week, and we trust that you'll be no different as we

faithfully come to this new text.

We pray, Lord, that tonight as we are introduced to Nehemiah,

his story, his mission, his message, that you'd use these

truths to weaken our attachment to the world.

And we pray that you would energize our holiness.

You would supply greater grace to trust you, to love you, to

adore you, To know that everything that we learned in

this session means that we can know you in the same way that we

can relate to you and experience you because you are the same

God, the same God as Nehemiah served.

So Lord, we do ask that you would protect this, this opening

service from error, from confusion, frustration, and

especially distraction. Lord, subdue any rebellious

thing that would try to rob us from the experience of your

voice through your written word. We bless you Lord, we love you.

Lord, in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

The book of Nehemiah. I'm not sure if you've been in

church circles long enough, but I have been to know that

Nehemiah has developed an interesting reputation.

And that reputation is that it is a narrative that many

churches draw inspiration from, especially when that ministry is

looking to enter into a new building campaign.

Maybe you sat through such a series.

Maybe you've heard Nehemiah quoted when there is a

construction project being proposed to a group of

believers. And Nehemiah is often referenced

to see how things such as building or renovating or

renewing can be done in remarkable timing.

But I'm here to tell you with great joy that there is much

more that Nehemiah has to offer than finding such inspiration.

Like Ezra, we will see and learn about godly qualities concerning

leadership, how to overcome various persecutions and

pressures and adversity. We will notice the beauty of

unity among believers. We will see again the power of

prayer. We will look at some of the

character traits that are necessary for longevity and

serving God, and much, much more.

But before we consider these things, let us take a moment to

situate ourselves by reflecting and clarifying some background

information. Nehemiah's story begins 13 years

after Ezra enters Jerusalem from Babylonia.

We know this because in Ezra Chapter 7 verse 8, Ezra tells us

Ezra 7:8

that he arrives at Jerusalem in the seventh year of King

Artaxerxes who is the Persian king at the time, while Nehemiah

Nehemiah 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 verse one, it is recorded that Nehemiah received

permission from the same king in the 20th year of his reign.

So 13 years go by as we open this new book.

And as many of you already know, Nehemiah will be raised up by

God to be the leader who will guide the third movement of

restoration for the Jewish exiles.

Approximately 90 to 100 years earlier, God stirred the heart

of a man named Zerubbabel to help rebuild the temple.

Later, God summoned a man named Ezra to rebuild the community,

the actual people, spiritually through the teaching of the law.

And now, as we come to this new book, this new account, we will

discover how Nehemiah will come alongside Ezra.

Yes, Ezra and Nehemiah are actually going to work together

to not only rebuild the walls, but to actually stabilize the

people of God in their relationship with the Lord.

Nehemiah is an important figure and his purpose and mission

therefore make this book a natural sequence to what we have

studied in Ezra. So much so that there are many

people who believe that Ezra is the author of the book of

Nehemiah. And though you may find some

similar parallels or qualities, we will actually see that

Nehemiah is in fact the author of this book.

There's stronger evidence for that than anything else.

Now, as I was meditating on on this new study, I could not help

but think how difficult it must have been for the activities

that were under Zerubbabel and Ezra without city walls all

those years. This is staggering if you think

about it. Over that timeline, the people

of God did so much with so little protection and security.

In fact, the vulnerability of the people of God during this

time may have been greater than most of us actually think.

Isn't it interesting that the last things that we read in the

book of Ezra are how the people of God committed a great sin,

namely the sin of interfaith marriage?

While the first thing that you and I encounter and face in the

opening of Nehemiah is a reminder of how the city walls

were still broken down. Now, I'm not suggesting that the

primary cause for the people intermingling with idolaters was

because there was no physical barrier.

But it makes you wonder whether that contributed to the

unregulated interaction of the surrounding world, if this

allowed outside influences and forces to easily invade the

space of the righteous, and if it overall weakened their sense

of distinction and separation. In other words, Nehemiah appears

to have this insight that the condition of the walls

threatened more than just the dignity of the Jewish people.

There was more at stake here. Nehemiah will show us that these

walls actually offered practical help, safeguards for the

sanctification of the people of God, in the same way that we

have practical instructions in the New Testament to help us

guard our own hearts and to avoid certain temptations and to

secure an undivided devotion to the Lord.

In fact, there is an example of this in the book of Nehemiah.

Now we're there, the 1st chapter, but I'd like to ask you

to go to chapter 13, which is the last chapter, just to

reinforce this point. Look at Nehemiah 13, verse 20.

Nehemiah 13:20

This is long after the walls and the gates were resurrected.

Notice what happens here. This is one among many

instances, unfortunate instances.

In the MI 13 verse 20, we read then the merchants and sellers

of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice.

But I warned them and said to them, why do you lodge outside

the wall? If you do so again, I will lay

hands on you. From that time on.

They did not come on the Sabbath.

So this is a glimpse of of some of the lurking temptations that

await the people of God even after the walls and the gates

were rebuilt. Here you have merchants and

sellers lingering outside the city, and they're seeking to

entice the people inside the city who have barred themselves

from any kind of trade or business deals because they are

honoring the Sabbath. And yet you have these vultures.

We're trying to tempt them with their presence and take

advantage of the proximity to try to pull them away from

obedience to God, namely in regards to the Sabbath.

And although the wall didn't completely deter these

influences, it did serve as a buffer.

It provided separation between the pressures and the people of

God that the community here. And so this is just a an

illustration really of how what we have here, this enclosure

offers much more than just protection against weaponry or

some kind of siege. No, this actually provided a

measure of protection for the people's hearts.

It would preserve Judah's distinct way of life.

And this is just, again, a small preview of the kinds of insights

and instructions that we will unfold and discover that will

help us in our own walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.

So with that in mind, let's come back to Nehemiah chapter 1,

Nehemiah 1 · chapter mention

turning to this opening scene by reading and studying the first 3

verses together, the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakalaya.

Now what happened in the month of Kislev in the 20th year, as I

was in Susa, the citadel, the 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 Exiles in great

trouble and shame, the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and

it's gates are destroyed by fire.

In this study, I'd like for us to organize our thoughts with

three simple headings. We're going to consider three

things tonight. One, the person, the person

Nehemiah. Secondly, there is the

preoccupation, the preoccupation in this man's heart and his

mind. And lastly and briefly, we will

look at the problem. The problem.

Let's look at the person. Right at the outset, we are

introduced to Nehemiah himself. And interestingly, unlike

Zerubbabel, who is of royal descent and like Ezra who is

from the priestly line, we do not have much data about

Nehemiah's family background. Some assume and claim that he is

from the tribe of Judah, but there's no conclusive evidence

for that. All we know about Nehemiah is

that he was a Jew and his father's name was Hakaliah.

And the limited information that we have about this may can

actually be more encouraging, depending on the way you look at

it. Think about it, up to this point

in the storyline, we have seen how the Lord raised up certain

men that we would expect for him to use.

Zerubbabel, who had David's blood running through his veins.

I can see why you would use a man like that.

And you have Ezra, who is from that ancient priesthood.

But then you come to a man like Nehemiah and he doesn't have any

kind of pedigree. There isn't any significant

heritage that he represents, but from time to time, you know what

the Lord does. He often surprises the world and

even his own people by whom he chooses to use to do great

things for His name. And Nehemiah is one of those

surprises. And if you are completely

convinced that you want to live for the glory of God, you may be

surprised yourself of how God can use your life.

Nehemiah may not have known how the Lord was going to use him as

a governor, as a reviver of sorts, but I wonder if his

parents had high hopes for him, saying where do you get that

idea from? By the fact that Hakalaya and

his wife named their son Nehemiah.

Do you know what Nehemiah means? The Lord comforts.

Isn't that a beautiful name? The Lord comforts.

Now, I'm sure that in part they named Nehemiah this because his

presence, his birth, his entrance into their world indeed

brought comfort to them, especially because they were in

exile. But I also wonder if they hoped

and long for Nehemiah to be an extension of God's comfort to

others. And what we're going to see

early in this study is that Nehemiah is going to live up to

that name. He is indeed going to be a

conduit. He's going to be a vessel used

by God to bring comfort to a hurting, despairing, and

distressed people because of his leadership, because of his

conviction, because of his drive.

We're going to see in a moment how that's the case, but we

learn more about the person of Nehemiah.

His character shines through even in the fact that he tells

us where he was at the time of the introduction of his memoirs.

Look here at the second part of verse one.

Now, what happened in the month of Kislev in the 20th year, as I

was in Susa, the Citadel. Now the month of Kislev

corresponds to November or December, so we're in the winter

months here. But notice the location as I was

in Susa, the citadel. Does that setting sound familiar

to any of us? Where do you find the setting

and other portions of the Old Testament?

You can you can say it out loud if you have an idea.

Esther, Very good. Anybody else?

Let me read this verse without giving you the quote and tell me

who you think it is. And I saw in the vision, and

when I saw I was in Susa, the citadel, which is in the

province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I

was at you lie at you lie canal. Daniel.

So you had Daniel who was in Susa.

You had Esther who became a queen in Susa.

So that tells us at least two things #1 Susa and the citadel,

the fortress, the palace. There was the winter residence

for the kings of Persia. But #2 we also learned that

whoever operated in that kind of a setting must have been a

high-ranking official or someone closely associated with those

and upper levels of government. So what does that tell us about

Nehemiah? Nehemiah may not have come from

a notable family tree, but he did become somebody very

important. And that's confirmed further in

this chapter in the very last verse.

Look at the last sentence of verse 11 of Nehemiah 1.

He writes, Now I was cup bearer to the king.

Now, in our modern context, that might not be very impressive.

That may sound like a Butler of some sorts, but history teaches

that a cupbearer was a much more impressive and respected role

than we might imagine. You see, one of the dangers that

a king would face was what poisoning among many other

dangers. And so a cupbearer would be

recruited to taste the wine before it was consumed by

royalty, so that if it was contaminated, then that man

would die instead of the king. So cupbearer put his life on the

line every single day. And you would think then with

such a responsibility that you would require a trustworthy

individual to fill it, which indicates that Nehemiah must

have been a man of impeccable character.

A cupbearer would be one of the closest people to the king in

all of the Kingdom. And though, yes, he would serve

the drinks and the foods, ensuring that it was safe to

consume, but more than that, they would be trusted friends to

some extent. There would be conversations.

Sometimes even the king would inquire and seek advice or have

just, you know, a developed sense of growing love and

admiration and respect. And so Nehemiah was somebody who

developed a character of integrity and reliability and

really a blameless testimony. And I think that's important for

us to consider because we mentioned earlier how God can

use anyone in the sense that he will never hold against us

things that are outside of our control.

Nehemiah could not control which parents he was born to, which

family line he came from. But you know what?

Nehemiah could control who he was as a man.

And so, yes, God can use anyone, but God has a standard, a

standard that's achievable for any of us.

And before Nehemiah even enters into his ultimate calling, we

learned that he was a man of great character.

That's what prepared him to win the trust and even the favor of

the king. We're going to see that

especially in Chapter 2. Had Nehemiah been sketchy, had

he been inconsistent? Had he had been someone that was

not really respected or trusted or make you wonder how that

would jeopardize this potential mission.

But instead we find a man who was strong with his walk, with

his work ethic, with his history, and that won him a

calling. And so this is what we see about

the person of Nehemiah. Not much information, but enough

for us to be inspired. And more of his God honoring

character shines in the next part of our analysis.

We looked at the person, but let's consider the

preoccupation. At this point.

We may have some fresh questions springing up in our minds about

Nehemiah. One of them might be the

following How did somebody like Nehemiah arrive at this role?

That's a legitimate question. Or why didn't Nehemiah join Ezra

a few short years earlier when he called the Exiles in

Babylonia to come back with him to Jerusalem?

That's what I was thinking, and we can't spend too much time

entertaining the possible answers.

Instead, I want to look at what's obvious and what's clear

here. That although Nehemiah was a man

who enjoyed unique privileges and advantages, really being so

near to royalty and having interaction and and relationship

with those of nobility, his heart was still set on the

people of God and the place that represented God's glory.

Look again at verse 2, 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. Again, we don't have much

insight about what led to this interaction between Nehemiah,

his actual blood brother Hanani, and some of the men that came

back from Judah. But it's telling, isn't it, that

when they come and visit their friend, the brother, he's the

one who initiates the inquiry? What is going on back in

Jerusalem? What is happening with the

people of God? What condition is the city in?

I don't know about you, but this is a strong reminder and it's

really an encouragement that it is totally possible.

Like Nehemiah proves to be somebody who is promoted in

different arenas in society and who operates in prominence and

yet still have a love for the Lord and still be concerned with

the purposes of God being advanced and honored.

Nehemiah did not lose that. You know what makes that even

more staggering? Nehemiah was not born in

Jerusalem. He was not born in the Promised

Land. He had never seen the holy city

with his own eyes. He never tasted of the milk and

honey that Moses spoke of all his life.

Nehemiah only heard, and he was certainly taught, and he had a

grasp on the truth of God's Word.

And with everything around him, with all the opportunities he

had, with the promotion that he had here, even now he still had

this deep burden. This is instructive for us

because one of the ways that you and I can determine if our souls

are healthy in the midst of success is if you can honestly

identify a genuine, sincere concern for that which God cares

about. Nehemiah proves to us that it is

absolutely possible. Now.

He was not a prophet. He was not a king.

For all we know, he was a layperson, and yet he possessed

an authentic love for what God loved.

And notice here the order of his inquiry.

Look at verse 2 again. And I asked them concerning the

Jews who escaped and would survive the exile and concerning

Jerusalem. Nehemiah asked first about the

holy people before the holy city.

This is a true leader in the making.

This is a true minister being molded here.

You know, I've even met many, many people who really champion

and sacrifice and love the church and ministry in the

church for different reasons. And sometimes those reasons

don't include the people being served.

Some people like to preach because of how it makes them

feel, the purpose that it gives them, the honor that they

receive. Some people like to play because

of the musical element. Some people like to come just

because fill in the blank. But you know what Nehemiah shows

us? This whole thing ultimately is

about God's glory. And we glorify God by loving the

people of God. We minister, we serve, we take

up opportunities, we volunteer, we sacrifice, we get for what?

The well-being of God's people, the welfare of the Saints, the

strength of the church through the people of God being

strengthened. So he asked about the people

before he asked about anything else.

Now, you and I heard earlier how character is vital in order for

us to be positioned for God's calling.

But there's something else we have to be mindful of.

As valuable as character is, God uses men and women who have real

concern, real desires that are aimed at the right things, real

passions that are in agreement with what makes God and his

heart move. God does not, and He cannot use

somebody who does not have the ambition and the right motive in

serving Him. You know, many people miss this.

I'd like to give you another example.

Moses. Where did Moses calling begin?

You know how many people think the burning Bush?

Although that was his official commissioning, this man was

being prepared long before he heard a voice from a burning

Bush. Can I tell you where it started?

It's in Acts Chapter 7. Notice what I said about Moses

Acts 7 · chapter mention

in Acts 7. Acts 7, verse 22.

Acts 7:22

You'll notice that there's some similarity between Moses and

Nehemiah. It reads here in Acts 722.

And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and

he was mighty in his words and deeds.

When he was 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his

brothers, the children of Israel.

It came to where his heart, something was birthed in this

man's heart to check on the well-being of his brethren.

This is where it all begins. And I want you to see here that

both Moses and Nehemiah were born in a foreign land.

Both held positions of influence.

Both interact with people of power and prestige, and yet both

had the welfare of the people of God burning in their hearts, and

that is why God used them. And so you and I have to ask

ourselves at this point, especially for those who are

more inclined to relate to men like Moses and Nehemiah, you

can't really maybe understand Ezra's whole thing because he

was a priest, he was a minister, he studied the Word of God 24/7.

So here you are now with Nehemiah before you as an

example. And I'd like to ask you this,

Can God find a concern for his people and His purpose in your

heart? How do you feel about the

church? What does it do to you when you

hear the church at large or even on the local level is not doing

well or has many needs or suffering?

Or are you completely wrapped up in your career?

Are you completely consumed with your personal agenda?

If you can't find it in your heart to say I I want to do what

I can to help build up God's work, especially God's people.

You are limiting yourself and you are hindering a possible

ministry being born in and through you.

Moses had it in his heart. Nehemiah asked what is going on,

and he did so from the place of a genuine care.

And this is all showing us that how necessary it is to be

connected with the Lord internally before we do anything

for him externally. This is the preoccupation of

this man. I'd like to offer another hope,

another note of inspiration. Come back with me here to verse

2. Notice who it is that is named

among the group that came to Nehemiah and Hanani, one of my

brothers. Now that's not a spiritual

brother. This is his actual brother, his

kinsmen. They share the same blood.

So I thought if they named Nehemiah the Lord Conference,

what does Hannity mean? And I discovered that it means

gracious. Now we don't know much about

Nehemiah's brother here until you go later on in the book of

Nehemiah. And I want you to see what is

said of this man in Chapter 7, verse 2.

Can we go there? Look at Chapter 7 verse 2.

Nehemiah writes I gave my brother Hanani and Hananiah, the

governor of the castle charge over Jerusalem for he was a more

faithful and God fearing man than many.

Notice how careful Nehemiah is. He didn't say that he elected

Hanani because he was his brother.

That's nepotism where you give favor towards relatives, though

they don't merit that position or that authority or that

ministry. No, he says Hannity was promoted

because he feared God than most of the others.

Now, we'll talk more about that when we arrive to Chapter 7.

But for now, I want to show you how encouraging this is.

God can do a great work in households.

God can do a great work through siblings, spouses, husbands and

wives, entire families. And I looked at this and I

meditated on it and I thought, it's possible.

It's possible for brothers to serve God in the ministry

together. It's possible for sisters to

have an equally yoked devotion and love for the things of God.

It's possible for husband and wives.

I mean, think about some of the apostles.

They were brothers. Did you know that?

Think about some of the couples that God used in the New

Testament to to have churches in their homes.

So you might be sitting there tonight thinking, I wish I had

that with my sibling. We barely get along.

And May God do a work in your heart and in their hearts.

But should you become a leader in your own home, Should you

become a mother who raises more than one child, believe this for

your family. Believe this for your

descendants. Believe this for your children.

It's a little thought, but it means so much to me that

Nehemiah is not working solo here.

Yes, he had a group supporting him, but he even had his own

brother in his corner. And when we see God working in

families in the local church, we should celebrate that.

We should love that. We should say, I want that for

my own house. I want that for every house.

Is there concerns in ministry when when there's family members

serving in a capacity of authority?

Absolutely. But Nehemiah shows us, and

Hannity is a qualified man. He wasn't where he was because

he was Nehemiah's brother. He was where he was because he

loved God and feared God more than anything.

The preoccupation. But now we look at the problem.

Look at verse 3 again with me. 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.

It doesn't take much to understand how disappointing it

is to learn that after all these years, the Exiles were still

unable to restore their sense of stability and security.

Whether they attempted to rebuild over those years is

unclear. Whether prior attempts, it's not

obvious to us, it's not indicated.

However, the current condition of the city was a perilous 1,

one that disturbed Nehemiah, as we're about to find out.

So much so a city without walls in biblical times was so

unthinkable that it actually became an illustration or

proverb of a concerning spiritual condition.

Did you know that? Let me give you one example in

the book of Proverbs. Go to Proverbs 25 with me,

Proverbs 25 and verse 28. A man without self-control is

like a city broken into and left without walls.

You see that? How is it that a man without

self-control is like a city left without walls, or like a city?

In that state you become totally vulnerable to the enemy.

You become an easy prey for foes and predators.

The temptations and the impulses of the flesh of the world will

have a much easier time invading the soul and seizing whatever

good remains in US. In other words, the Holy Spirit

teaches us here that that self-control is like a wall

around the heart and it provides resistance against anything that

was seek to subdue us and control us and dominate us.

And so we understand here that Nehemiah knows the value of

physical walls absolutely, but he will also show by way of

examples that there are protocols that we must make for

our own souls, that we must raise up safeguards in order to

protect our testimony and our ministry.

And perhaps this is a good place to land and making this

connection between a broken city with no protection and a

vulnerable heart, in the same way that there were years after

years being spent without knowing the fullness of the

grace that could have been known with walls.

I'm afraid that there are many people even in the church who

have not tasted what they can know in their walk with Christ

because they have not considered how to build the right barriers

around their own hearts. And one of the things that we

have to understand when we consider this proverb is that

the place to start is with the help of the Holy Spirit.

When we think about the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the last item

mentioned is what self-control meaning as much as you think

that those urges and those habits and those tendencies are

virtually impossible to overcome and conquer, you will never be

able to know what God wants to know without God himself.

And so as we look at this tonight, I'd like for us to

pause and ask the Lord to help us looking at our own hearts.

It may not mean much to us to look at this historical account

and think about a wall without a city without walls.

But let's look at our own, our own lives and ask the Lord to

help us to know the spiritual protection that He can offer for

desperate and concerned enough like Nehemiah is.

So be honest and pinpoint in your own life what it is that

you feel like has mastery over you.

Then ask yourself, what kind of walls am I building to protect

myself from such influences? What kind of investments have I

made? What kind of plans like Nehemiah

is going to show us here? What kind of efforts have I made

with others to ensure that I am not so easily arrested and

controlled by these things and believe that God is willing and

waiting to do something in that very area?

All it took was one man, as we're going to see, who realized

the seriousness of this state to bring change and actually shape

history, not just for himself, but for the people of God.

And like manner, it's going to take a level of burden, not

guilt, not condemnation, but God inspired burden to see similar

change in our own lives. I remember the story in seminary

in our spiritual discipleship class, where they encouraged us

to have an accountability partner for that semester.

And the professor gave an example of a real story of two

classmates who were working together, and one of the

classmates kept falling into the same sin over and over and over

again, had dealt with his sexual lust.

And I don't advise that you say this unless you're absolutely

confident in your observation and your conversation with such

a person. But this individual who was

holding this friend accountable eventually looked at this, this

brother in Christ in the eyes and said, it seems to me that

the reason why you are not overcoming and you will never

overcome is because you don't hate your sin enough.

You actually love it, you enjoy it.

And that individual who received that observation was honest

enough to say you're right. And he prayed differently.

He began to get before God and asked God for an awareness of

how heinous and destructive and of how poor of a condition he is

because he is just allowing the sin to eat away at his life.

And over time, God changed his heart.

God gave him the strategy, and that was the turning point in

his walk with the Lord. You see Nehemiah here showing

us, as we're going to see in the next verse, that there are

certain things that should bring us to our knees, not just out of

an emotional reaction. Keep in mind here when Nehemiah

introduces us to his story in the month of Kislev, because

there's going to be another time stamp that's going to show us

that Nehemiah's reaction to this whole thing wasn't just a

spontaneous emotional eruption because he was surprised by what

his brother and his friends said.

It was something that sat with him.

It was something that made such an impression on him.

And it was that kind of impression that birth something

that would restore Jerusalem and the people in Jerusalem.

Let's pray and thank God for these truths.

Father, we thank you for this introduction to this book.

And Lord, those though these were just a few verses, we

believe that they will prepare us for what you have in in store

in the coming weeks. Thank you that You are ready to

use anyone, and yet there is a responsibility in our end then

in the waiting, in our faithfulness, in whatever area

we find ourselves in, to allow Christ's character to be moulded

and pressed against our own hearts.

Thank you Lord, that before anything can actually gain

traction, before anything can actually be done effectively, it

needs to be birthed in the heart.

We need to have a perception and an awareness and a connection

with your heart in order to engage with it successfully.

And Lord, as we're about to see, thank you for the reminder that

not just physical walls, but spiritual walls are important.

And one of the layers of protection that you remind us of

is self-control. And Lord, if we lack that, that

may we partner with the Holy Spirit to see those bricks being

built up in a way that we've never known before.

And Lord, if we have no motivation to that end, give us

a sensitivity that Nehemiah had when he learned that the gates

were burned and the walls were in rubble.

In other words, may we not be so satisfied of being defeated in

any area where sin is having its way with us.

Maybe with instead with the great excitement believe that

things can change. So Lord we we praise you now we

sing these songs and Thanksgiving for these truths.

In Jesus name we pray, Amen. Amen.

Let's stand and worship the Lord together.