So, good morning to you all, especially if you're new, you're here for the first time.
We're delighted that you're here.
My name's Tommy.
I'm the rector here.
So, on behalf of our church, welcome.
This is a Sunday where we are focusing, and you'll see a little bit more of this later
in the service, we're focusing on the various ministries of our church, all of the various
ministries that many of you serve in and some of you lead in.
And so, we're going to hear some testimonies a little bit later from people and the way
they've been impacted by your ministry in this community.
And so, it would make sense to preach a sermon that is inspirational, right, that talks about
the ministries in a way that inspires people.
But here's the thing I really want to say.
Ministry is hard.
Some people, especially people who have not really ever done ministry in the name of
God, or people who have not been a part of a church, might be prone to think that, well,
you know, they'll say something along the lines of, well, if you're doing ministry in the name
of God, shouldn't that mean that God's going to bless you?
And wouldn't that mean that your life's actually going to be easier?
Because God is blessing you because of all the things that you're doing for Him.
But the truth is, when you're committed to doing work for God to glorify Him, when you're
committed to living out the gospel in your relationships, in your job, your career, in
your neighborhood, when you're working to reach people with the gospel and encourage them to
grow in their faith, when you're serving and caring for those in need and dealing with
all the incredible complexity there, when you're doing the work of reconciliation and peacemaking,
when you're working to build a church in the heart of a city like Washington, D.C., it can
sometimes feel like an uphill battle.
It can sometimes feel like you're taking one step forward and five steps back.
You can sometimes feel like Sisyphus rolling the boulder up the hill only to watch it roll
back down again.
You inspired?
You excited about what's coming?
In our study of Nehemiah, we come here to chapter four.
And what we're actually going to see in chapter four of Nehemiah is that there's a reason why
ministry in God's name is so hard.
God calls Nehemiah and blesses him to go and lead in the rebuilding of Jerusalem.
So Nehemiah leads this palace that he's been living in in Susa.
He travels to Jerusalem.
He surveys the walls.
He gathers the people together.
But in chapter four, as soon as they start to build, they encounter fierce resistance.
And it does not let up.
So here's what we're going to look at this morning.
Why is ministry so hard?
And then what can we do about it?
How do we persevere?
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you for your word.
And we thank you that because it's timeless, it is always timely.
Lord, that this story that is 2,400 years old can speak into our lives right now.
And it's only able to do that because of you.
Because it's not just written words, ink on paper.
It's a living word through the power of your spirit.
You can speak to us, Lord.
You can comfort those who need to be comforted.
You can challenge those who need to be challenged.
Convict those of us who need to be convicted, Lord.
You can bring life where there is death.
You can bring hope where there is despair.
Lord, we pray that you would do your work through your word in us for your glory.
In Jesus' name, amen.
So first of all, why is ministry so hard?
The story of Nehemiah essentially is this.
He lives in 445 BC.
He's living in the Persian palace, Susa.
He's probably grown up there.
He works for the king, very important government job.
He hears that Jerusalem, the city of his ancestors, the city of God's people, lies in ruins.
The people are scattered.
They're destitute.
God calls Nehemiah to leave the palace and to go bring renewal.
Physically rebuild the city of God.
Spiritually begin to rebuild the people of God.
As I said a moment ago, as soon as the work starts, so does the opposition.
It starts with one antagonist, Sanballat.
And Sanballat hears that construction has started and it says he is furious when he hears that news.
That's in verse 1.
By verse 7, more enemies have come to the table.
Maybe Sanballat was key in recruiting them.
We have a list.
We have Sanballat.
We have Tobiah and the Arabs.
We have the Ammonites and the Ashtodites.
So this list, now that's not an arbitrary list.
If we had a map in front of us, it would make a little more sense.
Does anyone know where these enemies are located relative to Jerusalem?
Yeah, the list literally goes north, east, south, west, right?
All around Jerusalem, there are enemies who oppose this work.
They're literally surrounded.
Jerusalem is facing an existential threat.
And the attack starts to come in.
And the attack comes from these enemies in various forms.
First, there's an enormous amount of mockery and ridicule.
Sanballat says, what are these feeble Jews doing?
Tobiah says, yeah, what are they building?
If a little fox goes up on it, it's going to crumble down.
This is ancient Near Eastern trash talk.
They're being sarcastic.
They're being belittling.
They're being condescending.
As we go forward in the chapter, we see there's a lot of slander.
There's character assassination.
You ever heard this?
If people realize that some people, when they want to control or manipulate you, if they can't control you, what do they do?
They go and they try to control what other people think about you.
And that's exactly what we see here.
They can't control Nehemiah, but they try to control what other people think about Nehemiah.
So we see character assassination and slander.
They're spreading all kinds of lies and misinformation.
They set out to cause as much confusion as possible.
They even threaten violence.
In verse 11, we learn that they're actually planning a surprise military attack.
And this is skipping ahead a bit to chapter 6, but it's important to note the opposition doesn't just come from outside, from the non-Jewish world.
In chapter 6, we see that there were a bunch of nobles in Judah who were actually loyal through marriage to Tobiah.
So these nobles in Judah are people that Nehemiah assumes are with him, but they're actually acting as double agents.
They're acting as informants.
They're reporting everything that Nehemiah is saying and doing to Tobiah.
So he's not just got problems outside, he's got problems inside.
And then we see the people themselves, they're experiencing profound discouragement and hopelessness and fear and despair.
In verse 10, 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.
If any of you have ever been involved in ministry, if you've ever been involved in trying to solve some of the most complex issues, right,
these issues of homelessness or poverty or racial injustice or all of the various things that we, many of you are passionate about and try to work on,
you know, problems that you're working on in the developing world.
Those of you who work in other parts of the world trying to bring development and increase the welfare of people in other societies,
you know these incredibly thorny, complex problems.
It's so common and easy to look around and just be like, there's too much rubble here.
Like, I don't even know where to start.
It's just, why even try?
This is way beyond our ability.
That's exactly how they feel.
Now, there are some surface-level reasons why these groups would oppose Nehemiah.
There are political reasons.
There are economic reasons.
The stronger Jerusalem becomes, the weaker their hold is on the area.
But the point we really need to focus in on is this.
There's a much deeper reason why there is such opposition to this work being done.
The real enemy, as we take the story of Nehemiah and situate it in the larger story of Scripture,
the real enemy is not Sanballat.
It's not Tobiah.
It's not even the nobles who have betrayed Nehemiah.
The real enemy is the same enemy who has always opposed the work of God.
The same enemy who has always opposed the people of God when they're doing the work of God.
The enemy that we see from the very beginning of Scripture,
the enemy is Satan himself, the great adversary,
working through these groups, working through these individuals to oppose the work of God.
Now, they might not even know that they're instruments of that greater evil,
but they've been folded in nonetheless.
You know, you think about these nobles.
Very likely, they believed they were doing God's work.
They believed maybe that they were doing what was best for Jerusalem,
what was best long term.
But here's the thing.
There's a lot of people maybe in the church
who believe that they're doing the right thing for the right reasons.
But if you look at your actions
and you realize that you're participating in things like gossip or slander,
assuming the worst about other people's motives without knowing all of the facts,
right, imputing motives,
if you catch yourself using Satan's tactics,
it's worth asking whether you're doing Satan's bidding.
Right?
So there's this real spiritual enemy working in the background.
The Apostle Paul names this in Ephesians chapter 6,
for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,
but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the cosmic powers over this present darkness,
against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
That's the real enemy working through these human agents.
Jesus himself says to his disciples in chapter 5, verse 11,
no one likes this verse, if you really think about it,
if you're a Christian.
Nevertheless, here's what Jesus says.
Blessed are you when, not if,
when others revile you and persecute you
and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
That's exactly what's happening to Nehemiah.
Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward is great in heaven,
for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Jesus is saying,
God's people have always been reviled,
they will be reviled,
and that will continue until I come again.
It will continue into the renewal of all things.
Blessed are you when others revile you.
So Nehemiah cries out in verse 4,
hear, O God, for we are despised.
Jesus is saying, hey, if you associate with me,
you're going to be despised.
It's almost a rule.
2 Timothy 3, verse 12 says it just as clearly,
all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
He doesn't just say, most of you, or odds are.
He says, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
The principle is this,
the enemies of God always oppose the people of God
when they're doing the work of God.
If you don't want to be persecuted,
if you don't want to be opposed,
if you don't want to be reviled,
don't say anything,
don't do anything.
But the minute you begin to try to pursue the work of God for the glory of God,
you will meet opposition,
and it won't let up.
What are the implications of this?
Satan wants us to feel hopeless.
Satan wants us to feel discouraged.
He wants us to feel like the people in Judah felt.
The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing.
It's fading.
Many of you are bearing burdens right now,
and you feel like, I'm not enough.
I'm not up to this.
I just want my life to be easier,
to be more convenient.
I don't want to have to suffer so much.
I don't want it to have to be so hard all the time.
Satan wants us to be divided.
He wants us to be angry.
He wants us to be bitter.
He wants us to be depressed.
You see this again and again and again in Scripture.
King David, the man after God's own heart,
Israel forever looked back and said,
that was our high point of our nation.
It never got better than that, right?
He struggled with long bouts of depression.
He struggled with deep envy of his enemies.
He struggled again and again and again,
if you read the Psalms,
with feeling like God had abandoned him,
turned his back on him.
Elijah, right after his major victory
over the prophets of Baal,
right after, I mean, you would think
if you called fire down from heaven
that consumed everything,
after the prophets tried and tried and tried
and they did nothing,
and you just pray to God and bam, fire comes down,
and everybody's like,
whoa, this guy, you know,
and then he immediately
falls into a deep, deep, deep, deep depression.
It gets so bad that he wants to end his own life.
He's suicidal.
People like Hannah, Naomi, Jeremiah, Moses,
they all struggle with self-doubt,
discouragement, inadequacy, despair,
all throughout their ministry.
And some of the greatest theologians
and pastors and missionaries
and thought leaders throughout history,
same thing, Martin Luther,
Hannah Allen, David Brainerd,
William Cowper, Charles Spurgeon,
Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr.,
all struggled with deep depression
and discouragement all through their ministry.
It's no coincidence.
It's what the Bible says is gonna happen.
You know, in January of this year,
for those of you who were here,
we planted a flag of sorts.
We closed on a building in the Shaw neighborhood.
We're gonna make good on our commitment
to love the city long term.
We're taking the ministry that has been happening
and we're looking forward
and we're doing what we can
to establish a multi-generational ministry
that will outlive all of us
and continue to be a center
of gospel proclamation and worship
in the heart of the city,
in the heart of a city that touches
all the cities of the world.
It is no coincidence,
in my opinion,
that this has also been
the hardest year of ministry
since we started the church.
I'll just be totally honest.
I have never personally felt
more discouragement
in almost 18 years of ministry.
I have, in the last year,
several times come to a place of thinking,
I don't know if I can do this anymore.
It's been that discouraging.
And I know many of you,
maybe the majority of you,
are also feeling discouragement.
One way or another,
because of the things
that you're dealing with in your life.
I know that there are relationships
that have broken down.
I know that there has been gossip
and slander,
people assuming the worst
about people's motives.
I know that we've endured
some of the most complicated
and painful situations
we have ever faced as a community.
Make no mistake,
Satan does not want us to exist.
And if we do exist,
he wants us to be inert,
passive,
peacekeeper,
not peacemaker,
but peacekeeper.
Just go along to get along.
He wants us to give up.
He wants us to believe
that this is too hard.
He wants us to be overwhelmed
by the rubble.
He wants us to spend
all of our time
fighting each other
instead of him.
Why is ministry so hard?
Because we have an adversary
who prowls around
like a roaring lion
looking for someone to devour.
That's why ministry is hard.
Now what can we do about it?
How can we persevere?
This is where Nehemiah chapter 4
isn't just a hard text to read
because it tells us
the hard truth
that we need to hear,
but it also offers
a profound vision
of perseverance
in the face of adversity.
So we're going to draw out
a few things
that I hope and pray
will help us
in this season
of our life together.
Number one, this.
Understand the relationship
between divine sovereignty
and human responsibility.
Understand our job
and then understand God's job.
This is a theme
that shows up
all throughout Scripture.
It's one of the major themes
in the book of Nehemiah.
Verse 9 captures it.
And we prayed to our God
and set a guard
as a protection
against them day and night.
And I love that.
We prayed to God
and we set a guard.
We did both.
You know, we have a tendency
to think,
shouldn't it be one or the other?
In other words, you know,
if you're praying
and you're trusting
that God's going to protect you,
why do you need
to set a guard?
Why post a watch?
Don't you trust God?
And if you post a watch,
does that mean
you didn't really believe
that God could do anything?
Does that,
can you do both?
For that matter,
why do we even need
walls around the city?
Why not just build our houses
and live in them
and trust that God's
going to keep us safe?
Why do we need walls and gates?
This dichotomy,
this binary way of thinking
is very prevalent.
But it's not representative
of what Scripture
actually shows us.
All throughout Scripture,
we see a much more
beautiful, nuanced view.
We see this intertwining
of divine sovereignty
and human responsibility
and how they work together.
How at the same time,
God is in control
of everything.
God is in control
of the outcomes.
And yet somehow,
our choices matter
and our actions matter.
And there are real,
live consequences
that result from our actions.
You know,
it's interesting,
in places like Isaiah chapter 38,
you see this interplay.
King Hezekiah
becomes very sick,
presumably because of
an infected boil.
And Isaiah comes to him
and says,
King,
you need to put your affairs
in order
because you're going to die.
And Hezekiah is desperate.
He prays to God
to heal him.
And God,
through Isaiah,
says to him,
okay,
I'm going to heal you.
And I'm going to actually
extend your life
for 15 more years.
And then God tells Isaiah
to make a poultice
out of figs
and apply it
to the infected area.
And Hezekiah is healed.
And he praises God
for healing him.
But God works through
the poultice to do it.
And you say,
well,
was it the fig poultice?
Fig,
that was a common medicinal
remedy back in the day,
right?
Was it the figs
or was it God?
The Bible would say yes.
Yes.
Right?
God has such control
over history
and yet He is so intimately
involved in our lives
that He's able to work
through our actions
without being constrained
by them.
See,
some people say,
well,
God's already made up
His mind anyway.
It doesn't matter
what we do.
God's going to do
what He's going to do.
That's not what
the Bible says.
The Bible says not
God works despite
our choices only,
nor does it say
that God is constrained
by our choices,
as though God's kind of
biting His nails
saying,
I hope they make
the right choice
because if they don't,
there's nothing I can do.
It says that God
is able to work
through our choices
somehow in a way
that doesn't thwart
His will.
His outcomes
are guaranteed and sure,
but they come through
our choices.
When it comes to
dealing with opposition,
here's what this means,
that we should pray
continually,
we should pray
continually,
trusting that God
is with us,
and we should also
take whatever measures
necessary to care
for ourselves
and our families.
Right?
As Jesus says
when He sends out
His disciples,
we should be innocent
as doves, right?
Trusting in the Lord,
relying on the Lord
to provide everything.
We should also be
wise and shrewd.
They're not opposed
to one another.
So you look at Nehemiah.
He prays
and he posts a guard.
He says,
I want you to work
with one hand
and I want you to hold
a weapon with the other.
He splits them up
so some of them
are keeping watch
while others build.
And all the while
they're praying.
They're praying,
they're praying,
and every time
he gets a chance,
Nehemiah is saying,
it is God
who is keeping us safe.
It is not us.
God is the one
that we trust in,
not ourselves.
And you see this
beautiful balance revealed.
So listen,
if you're severely depressed,
pray.
Pray every day
for God to heal you.
But also consider
going to a competent therapist.
And there's some
really great medication
out there
that could make
a huge difference
in your life.
and you should
thank God it exists.
It saves lives.
If you want to be able
to contend for your faith
when people question you,
you should pray
and maybe consider
studying and learning
apologetics.
There are some
great arguments
out there.
I remember when I was
a clinician in Boston
before I came down here
and I remember
I was the only counselor
in my outpatient clinic
and they gave me
an opportunity
to present as a Christian
my vision of counseling
as a Christian therapist.
And I remember
I stood up in front
of the entire clinical team
during a staff meeting
and I opened my mouth
and I got two sentences out
and then a guy
in the front row
who was an atheist,
none of them were Christians,
a guy in the front row
just comes at me
and he throws
every argument
he possibly can at me
for why everything I believe
and then everybody else
started joining in too
and they started coming at me
with what about this
and what about this
and what about this, right?
And I remember looking around
and thinking I'm overwhelmed.
That was the thing
that inspired me
many years ago
to start digging into
what is the reasonable foundation
for the things
that we believe?
Is this a blind leap of faith
or are there actually meaningful?
And I begin to discover
actually this is an incredibly
thoughtful faith
that has been
a great source of hope
to some of the smartest people
throughout history
and there's a wonderful
treasure trove
if you're willing to dig in
that helps us connect
mind and heart
in our faith, right?
Now if you do that,
does that mean
you don't trust God
as he says
to give you the words
when you need them?
No.
It means God works
through all of it.
If you want to do ministry
in the city,
we pray.
We need to pray every day
that God is blessing
what we're doing,
that God is with us,
that God goes before us.
But we also should be working
to develop the absolute
best strategies
we possibly can
for doing effective ministry
in a place like D.C.
in 2024.
Not the same strategies
that worked in the 1970s
or the 1920s, right?
Or the mid-1800s.
Strategies for here and now,
for this win.
So we need to trust
in the dual reality
of divine sovereignty
and human responsibility.
I remember this came up a lot
when in the early days of COVID,
we were all being told
to wear masks, you know?
And there were some Christians
who were like,
well, if you wear a mask,
you're not trusting God,
you know?
And I'm like,
well, if there's a chance
that I'm going to get somebody
next to me sick
and they're going to die,
I'm going to wear the mask.
It doesn't mean
I don't trust the Lord,
you know?
I'm going to put on
the fig poultice,
you know?
And I'm going to trust
and hope and pray
that if God wants to work
through that means he can.
They don't have to be
opposed to one another.
Divine sovereignty
and human responsibility.
Number two, fear God,
not other people.
How do you persevere?
Fear God,
not other people.
A lot of opposition
these days,
in our society,
thankfully,
most of us don't have to worry
about physical violence.
Praise God for that.
But a lot of the opposition
that we face
is going to come through mocking,
through ridicule,
through threats
from other people.
I love Nehemiah's encouragement
to his people
when they are filled with fear.
He says,
do not be afraid of them.
Remember the Lord
who is great and awesome.
Do not be afraid of them.
Remember the Lord
who is great and awesome.
In other words,
he's saying,
remember how big God is
and how small they are.
That's what he's saying.
Excessive fear
is a sign typically
that our view of God
has gotten too small.
And if you're afraid
of other people,
it means that your view
of them has gotten too big.
Right?
There's a great book about this.
When people are big
and God is small,
we have excessive fear.
That's typically
what's happening.
Nehemiah's saying,
listen,
in those moments,
you need to remember
the bigness of God,
the greatness of God.
He's bigger,
he's more powerful
than anything you might fear.
For those of you
in leadership,
especially if you are here
and you lead
a ministry of some kind,
you're a leader
in your organization,
you will never
make everybody happy.
It will never happen.
If you have more than one person
in your organization,
if it's you
and two other people,
one of them will love you.
One of them will profoundly
disagree with what you're doing.
It's a guaranteed principle.
Even Jesus himself
could not please everybody.
What makes us think
we can do any better?
Jesus never chased
after anyone's approval.
Again and again and again,
people said false things
about him.
They falsely accused him.
They would misrepresent him.
They would walk away
and tell other people
horrible things about him.
He never once tracked
any of the Pharisees down
and said,
I heard what you said about me
and I just want to set
the record straight.
That's not what I said.
That's not what I did.
You cannot control
what other people
think about you.
Listen,
you need to learn this
if you don't know it.
You cannot control
what other people
think about you.
If someone does not like you,
if someone does not like
what you represent,
it is not your job
to try to change
their perception of you.
Their internal world
is their responsibility.
It's not your responsibility.
Actually,
what other people
think about you,
that is not your business.
business.
It's their business.
Mind your own business.
For all you know,
their thoughts and opinions
of you have nothing
to do with you.
For all you know,
they are projecting
things onto you
that have way more
to do with them
than they do you.
But you don't know
because it's not
your internal world.
You can't know.
Don't waste time
and energy
trying to manage
somebody else's
internal world.
If you're a leader
and you go around
chasing everybody's approval,
you're never going
to get anything done.
You're going to create
an insecure system.
People are not going
to trust you.
And things will probably
get worse
in your organization.
You know,
my favorite definition
of leadership
is this.
Leadership is the art
of disappointing people
at a rate
they can handle.
Leadership is the art
of disappointing people
at a rate
they can handle.
Commit yourself
to doing the work
that you believe
God has called you
to do.
Commit yourself
to loving and serving
and pleasing Him
and Him alone.
And as Nehemiah says,
remember the Lord.
Some people
will be with you.
Some people won't.
It's not up to you
to change their perception
of you.
So that's the first
two things.
Divine sovereignty
and human responsibility,
number one.
Number two,
fear the Lord
and not other people.
Number three,
the final one.
Trust in the Lord
who fights for us.
Trust in the Lord
who fights for us.
Verse 20,
we see in Nehemiah's
ultimate source of hope.
He says,
keep working
no matter what.
Keep going.
Keep building
because we know
that our God
will fight for us.
That is so fantastic.
But what we need
to understand now
at our point
in the story
is that we read
this differently
than the way
Nehemiah did.
Even though he says this,
Nehemiah had no way
of knowing
how true
that statement would be
and how it would
ultimately be applied
to God's people
because at this point
in history,
Nehemiah still believes
that the Jews
are the good guys
and the greatest enemies
are the non-Jews.
They're the other people
who oppose the Jews
and they oppose God.
So their world
is still divided
into good guys,
the Jews,
the God's people
and everybody else.
And so that's why
Nehemiah prays
and says in verse 5,
hey,
do you hear
what they're saying
about us?
Lord,
don't cover their guilt.
Don't forgive them.
Don't even give them
an opportunity
to be restored.
He says,
let not their sin
be blotted out
from your sight.
He says,
remember what they said
about us
and about you
and bring justice.
Smite them.
He prayed for God
to fight the evil
out there,
the enemies of God
in the world.
It would take
hundreds more years
before the Jews
would learn the truth.
The Apostle Paul,
one of the most exemplary
Jewish religious leaders,
figures,
if you ever wanted
a person to,
an example to live by
in terms of moral excellence,
it's hard to beat
the Apostle Paul
in his early years.
Here's what he writes.
In Romans chapter 3,
both Jews
and Greeks
are under sin.
As it is written,
none is righteous,
no,
not one.
He's saying,
you know,
it always said this
in the Scripture,
we just missed it.
No one understands,
no one seeks for God,
all have turned aside,
together they have
become worthless,
no one does good,
not even one.
same realization hit
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
when he was,
he thought he was
one of the good guys
and then he got caught
criticizing Stalin,
he ends up in a gulag
and his world breaks down.
He used to think
he was a good guy
and all those people
over there
were the bad guys
and his life
was transformed
when he found himself
numbered among the wicked.
And he writes,
the line separating
good and evil
passes not through states,
which is what he used to think,
nor between classes,
nor between political parties
either,
but right through
every human heart,
through all human hearts.
In other words,
the God that we truly need,
friends,
the God that we truly need
is not a God
who will fight for us
against the evil out there.
The God we need
is the God
who will fight for us
against the evil in here.
In us.
But you understand
the paradox of that, right?
How can God fight for us
if he's fighting evil in us?
How can God fight for us
if the evil is in us?
And that's why we need
to understand
that the entire story
of Nehemiah
actually points to this
even greater story.
Someone much greater
than Nehemiah.
Who didn't just leave
a palace
to come and rebuild a city.
He left the throne of heaven
to come and restore
and renew the world.
And not only is he
the God who fights for us,
he's actually the God
at our point in history
who fought for us.
The real battle
has already been fought
and won.
On the cross,
Jesus Christ fought
the greatest battle
ever staged,
ever waged
against the true enemy.
Satan and sin
and death,
taking the sin
of the world on himself,
dying in our place,
and through that defeat,
he won.
He achieved victory.
He defeated Satan.
He defeated sin and death
once and for all.
The cross tells us
that the greatest battle
has already been fought
and won.
And it tells us
that the victory
is ours.
It is the outworking
of that victory
within which we live now.
And one day,
the good work
that has been begun
in us
and in the world,
according to the apostle Paul,
will be brought
to completion.
So now,
God is able
to offer forgiveness
and renewal
not only to people
like Nehemiah,
but even people
like Sanballat
and Tobiah.
Even people
like us
who realize
that apart from
the grace of the gospel,
we are numbered
among the enemies
of God.
So for those of us
in ministry,
for those of us
who are currently
in ministry,
leading in ministry,
who maybe after today
will decide to join
a ministry,
because I know
you're raring to go
at this point,
keep going.
Keep working.
Keep,
no matter how hard
it gets,
if you believe
that God has called you
to do the work
that you're doing,
then keep going.
We labor for a God
who fights for us.
And because he fought
for us,
we know the victory
and the fruit
are secure,
even if we don't see it
right this moment.
Let's pray.
Lord,
we thank you
for the finished work,
the battle you fought
for us on the cross,
and we pray
that that would be
the foundation
of our hope,
that we know
that as we labor
in your kingdom,
Lord,
as we may feel overwhelmed
by the rubble
in our lives
around us,
Lord,
we pray that you
would remind us
of the assurance
we have in the gospel,
Lord,
that no matter
how hard things get,
no matter if we feel
like we need to see
no fruit now,
that Lord,
one day all of this
good work that you
have begun
will come to completion.
One day we will see it,
one day it will make sense,
one day all of the
brokenness of the world
will be eradicated.
Lord,
we pray in that hope,
we pray in the name
of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Beweg bin.
Amen.