Sunday's is becoming my favorite day of the week. My connection class at FBC Euless is designed for seminary students. We have an absolutely great class, and my close friends all are apart of it. Today Chris from Alabama taught and he taught on Nehemiah 6. See the cool part, is we have a brief study of what Pastor John is going to preach on in big church. Our class is unique as we are all seminary students, so we dive deeper into the material. I wanted to share a little of church today and also provide a link so you can see what our church is doing for Easter. We are in the book of Nehemiah, a book that is familiar to me, as my home church recently did a series over it. The sermon series is named the "The Power of One" today message was the power of one focus. Little background on Nehemiah is that he was cupbearer to the king, King Artaxeres. Nehemiah prayed a great prayer to God, a prayer that the walls of Jerusalem would be rebuilt. In chapter 2 we see that God does answer his prayer and the King, allows Nehemiah to travel with an armed escort to go to the city. Today's message Pastor John was focusing on distractions that we will face when we surrender to God and live pro-actively for him. The first of the four distractions is an Internal Distraction (5:1-2) Now there was a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. For there were those who said, "We, our sons and our daughters are many; therefore let us get grain that we may eat and live." We see an outcry of hungry people, they have given up their lively hood, to go now they must pay double, they are forced into part-time slavery, just to get something to eat. What we can learn from this, is when a conflict presents itself, we must act immediately and deal or fix it. (See Acts 6) John used a great illustration here. He talked about a hurdler he watched at one of his sons football practice, the track team was practicing on the track. A hurdler goal is to get to the finish line first, and to be successful at this, you must not brake your stride. You must never take your eyes of the finish line, you must deal with individual obstacles as soon as they arise. The Second distraction was Good verse Great (6:1-4) Good is often the enemy of great. The walls were built, only gates were left off, it could of been done great, but it was only good. John used another example here of a missionary who was very successful at what he did. So successful that a company offered to double his salary if he would come, the missionaries response was, its not that the salary was to small, but the job itself was to small. Do not continue to do good, but get going on doing something GREAT. Remember that God, he will lead us to great things, it is up to us if we respond. The third distraction that we face in our lives is slander (6:5-9) in v.6 we see that you and the Jews are planning to rebel: this was a false and malicious statement that damages are reputation. Once you proclaim Christ, people will try to distract you. In v.6 we also see a personal attack, a fabricated story with great detail. In v.7 a threat to others and how it will be reported to the King. See Proverbs 10:18 He who conceal hatred has lying lips, And he who spreads slander is a fool. Psalm 101:5 Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy; No one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure. 1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. Look what I got from this, and yes I sat there in my seat feeling conviction, I am guilty of this, I admitted that to my Lord, and prayed he would forgive me. The fourth and last distraction that John shared with us was a safety and security distraction. (6:10-11) it reads... When I entered the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Mehetable, who was confined at home, he said, "Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, for they are coming to kill you, and they are coming to kill you at night." But I said, "Should a man like me flee? And could one such as I go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in." What I understood this to mean is that if we walk by faith, walk with God, we must do this towards him not in retreat. Should we be safe, or be obedient? When opposition presents itself, do not flea, but stand strong. When you read the book of Nehemiah you will not find pride attached to him. You will find a man who is faithful, obedient, and actively in pursuit of God. SAY YES TO GOD, no to distractions.
I wanted to share a link, on how our church plans to celebrate Easter... Its a short video... Enjoy
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