March 8, 2014 - Church at Worship

Sermon: "Rumors, Lies, and Other Joys of Life - Part 6 - Nehemiah: Of Bricks and Prayers" - Randy Roberts

Pastoral Welcome: Dustin Aho
Alumni Welcome: Roger Hadley, SM ’74

Scripture Reading: Nehemiah 6:1–4, 9,  Kenneth Kelin, SM ’641, John Elloway, SM ’643

Note: Child Dedications and Baptisms are on the extras section of the dvd.

Sermon Notes:

How can it be that Nehemiah, in today’s chapter, is back to facing opposition again?! It’s amazing, isn’t it?! This is the third section of Nehemiah in which he talks about the opposition to the project he is pursuing. Pretty soon we get the message—italicized, underlined, capitalized, and in bold: IF YOU’RE GOING TO DO SOMETHING GREAT FOR GOD, EXPECT OPPOSITION!

What he faces this time is more like guerilla warfare: lies, innuendoes, gossip, rumors—all the things that are very hard to confront. And yet, confront them he does! In fact, it is in today’s passage that Nehemiah gives voice to one of the statements for which he is the most famous. When invited by his opponents to a conclave (where, by the way, they planned to do him harm), Nehemiah responded this way: “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it to come down to you?” (Nehemiah 6:3, NRSV).

Are you so passionate about and focused on the call of God in your life that to any other distraction you would say, “I’m doing a great work, and I can’t stop now?”

I hope Nehemiah’s zeal is contagious!

Randy Roberts
Senior Pastor