God’s Great Work | Sunday, July 10, 2022

Welcome to Cross Connection Church online! We're so happy that you're joining us today. Before we get started, we want to let you know that if you want more information about Cross Connection Church and some of the things that we do, make sure that you check out our website at lifeandconnection.com.

Since you are joining us online, we would love to know more about you and see where you're watching from. Please send us a video with whoever you're watching with and let us know your location. You can send it to our text line at 760-814-1223.

Also, stick around to the very end of our broadcast this week to see some announcements about things that are currently going on here at our church. If you're prepared to give today, you can do so at give.lifeinconnection.com.

I once was dead in sin, alone and hopeless. A child of wrath, I walked condemned in darkness. Your mercy brought me life, and in Your loving kindness, You raised me up with Christ and made me righteous.

Lord, You are the light that broke the darkness. You satisfy my soul. Show me who I am and help me to believe. You have brought...

It has been several weeks since I have been here to teach, and it is truly great to be here with you this morning to share from the Scriptures. Before I do, I want to express my gratitude to our leadership team and to our staff here at Cross Connection Church. It is a tremendous privilege to pastor this church. I have had the privilege of pastoring Cross Connection Church for nearly 15 years, and I am so grateful for what we have here.

This summer is the first time that I have taken any real extended break or time off in all of those 15 years, and I have had absolutely zero concerns about what has been going on here from week to week. We have just a wonderful team of pastors and leaders who help lead this church, and it is a great blessing. Taking some time off has also been very refreshing. The last two and a half years have been a little bit tiring for me, and I think for everybody, so a break has been a good thing for my family and me.

I have also been very blessed and encouraged by the teaching that we have been receiving in the book of Nehemiah over the last several weeks. Pastor Mark taught for several weeks, and then my good friend Pastor David Guzik was here a couple of weeks ago. Pastor Garrett taught last week, and in a couple of weeks, we are going to hear from Pastor Jason and then from a really good friend of mine, Lance Ralston, who pastors Calvary Chapel in Oxnard. He will be down here at the end of this month to share from the Scriptures as well.

It has been really good to be encouraged, built up, and taught by some of the great teachers that we have here, as well as some of my friends from elsewhere. I hope that you have been encouraged as we have been going through the book of Nehemiah together. The story of Nehemiah is really a great story and one that I think is applicable for our times. I hope you have been seeing that as we have been studying through it together, as Pastor David Guzik shared a couple of weeks ago.

The Book of Nehemiah is fundamentally a story about a building project. In some respect, every single one of us has been involved with a building project of one sort or another. Not every person has been involved in actually building a house or a building, but you've built something in your life. You've built a life; you have built things when you did projects in school. You have built relationships in life, and you've built a marriage if you are married. You've also been building a family if you have one.

Any time we set out to build something, there are the tangibles and the intangibles, the knowns and the unknowns. There are things we are aware of when we are preparing to begin the project, and then there are things that take us by surprise. I'm sure you've watched those remodel project shows on TV. In those shows, someone buys a house that they're going to flip or a project house that they're going to remodel.

When they begin those shows, they always start with architects and engineers drawing up plans. Eventually, those shows typically feature design drawings and even 3D renderings of what the finished product will look like. They have animations where you can walk through the whole room and see everything as it will appear. Then, they establish a budget and a schedule.

When they get to the point of preparing to do the job, there are a lot of knowns. They have the design drawings, the 3D animations, the furnishings they plan to include, a timetable, and a budget. They have all those things already figured out. However, as is always the case in these shows, they need to inject some drama. The drama usually comes when they begin opening up the walls. Suddenly, they can see the unknowns: the problems with the slab, the need for new electrical work, or the reality that the plumbing is bad.

These unknowns add time to the schedule and cost to the budget, creating all kinds of drama for the show. It is the unknowns in life that often complicate our building projects.

Those shows that create drama often make things take longer than we wanted them to. Sometimes, if you knew all of the unknowns ahead of time, it’s very possible that you would rethink whether or not you were going to set out on that project in the first place. It is the unknowns that create drama, extend time, and add money to the budget. However, it’s also the unknowns that make it more likely that the big initiatives and projects will actually get done. Had you known the unknowns, you probably wouldn’t have started the big project in the first place.

I know for me, and for a lot of people I’ve talked to over the last couple of years, COVID has been one of those huge unknowns that took all of us by surprise. It wasn’t just the virus itself, but also the response to it by our policy and public health establishments and directors in our culture. It has been a long season of chaotic unknowns, and along the way, we have been trying to adjust and regroup around all of the drama that has come.

Now, when you begin a project, even with the prospect of unknown unknowns and the drama that will ensue from those unknowns, what is it that causes us to move forward on a project in the first place? What makes us want to begin that project? I want to suggest to you today that it is a vision of what could be, what should be, or what will be when everything is done on the other side of all of the hard work.

When we start a project—whether it’s getting ready to go to school to get a degree, setting out to begin a relationship, building a house, remodeling something, or starting a big project at work—there is a vision of how things will be at the end in the mind space of our imagination. We see a vision, and it is that vision that compels us to move forward and engage with all of the tasks that will be there.

When you have that vision, there are tons of unknown unknowns. It’s as if you’re standing on a high mountaintop and you can see in the distance the high mountaintop that you want to reach, but then between you and that high...

A mountaintop is a valley, and maybe that valley is covered by a whole bunch of fog and clouds. You're above the cloud line, so you cannot see all of the things that are in the valley—the unknown unknowns. You know that there are going to be issues down there, but you don't know what those things are. You just see the vision of where you want to go.

The vision that we see is what things will be at the completion of the task. We see that off in the distance; that's what we want, and so we move in that direction. However, we have no idea what is going to happen in between where we are and what it will be when we get there. In your mind's eye, you can see the room or the house finished. You can envision the paper or the project complete. When you're beginning to start a family, you might see that child, perhaps just as an ultrasound image, but in your mind's eye, you see them as a fully functioning adult one day.

This ability to see the end from the beginning, to imagine and envision something, and then move toward its creation or completion is, in a huge way, what sets you and me apart from other life forms on Earth. As far as we can tell, animals do not imagine or envision future states and then architect everything to move toward the completion of what they see in their mental image. They just don't do that.

In this, you are unique in creation. The Scriptures make it very clear that God, who also envisions and then creates, made you in His image and His likeness. You are able to take the things that He has made and create from those things as well. We all know that what moves us and compels us forward to a task is the ability to envision in our minds something that we see at the end state and then to move in that direction.

I was thinking about this last week, reflecting on recent happenings in my life, my wife's life, and our family. Four years ago, my wife Andrea and I set out to do some things that we had thought about for a long time, talked about, and prayed about for several years together and independently. At that time, four years ago, Andrea was...

Working as a critical care nurse prior to COVID, Andrea experienced a lot of craziness in the ICU during the pandemic. She had her bachelor's in nursing, but in the early part of 2018, she decided to begin the process of enrolling in graduate nursing courses and nurse practitioner programs to move out of the ICU and get out of the critical care unit.

As she started looking into different schools, considering what was available, the costs, and how long it would take, it got me thinking as well. Perhaps it was time for me to explore options for doing something similar and going to seminary to get my Master of Divinity degree. In August of 2018, both Andrea and I began these graduate programs. We did so because we had a vision in our minds of being done with those things.

When we started, it seemed like the end was really far away. It felt like it would never come, especially during the first few weeks of that first semester. What pushes you to set aside the time and money to really work on all these things and move in that direction? There is a vision of what it's going to look like. We had in our mind's eye a vision of looking to the other side, beyond the research, the classes, the study, and all the papers we would have to write. We saw a vision of where we wanted to be when it was all done, even though we couldn't see all the intangibles involved.

One of the biggest intangibles was COVID. Just like in the remodeling shows we've all seen on TV, there has to be drama in the story; otherwise, it just doesn't sell, and people don't watch it. COVID brought a lot of drama to our lives and to my family as we were in the midst of this. Like so many of you, when everything started back in March of 2020, our normal lives shifted and changed. Andrea was not only working in the critical care unit, but I was also working here at the church and managing other responsibilities. Suddenly, all the normal stuff of life became increasingly chaotic, especially with our four kids.

Longer were going to school every single day, so they had to come home. Now, all of a sudden, we are homeschooling our kids, and we're trying to do all of our work, take care of our family, and homeschool our kids while doing the school sort of thing on the side. It was kind of like extreme drama. I think if we had known in August of 2018 the drama of 2020 and 2021, how crazy that was going to be, we might have thought differently about beginning the process.

Like I said, if you knew all of the known unknowns when you started to set out to accomplish some sort of vision or task, you might put it on hold. You might say, "I'm not going to do that." But when we started in 2018, we didn't see all that stuff; we just had a vision of being done with it. In spite of all of the chaos, drama, and hurdles, Andrea, thank God, finished her degree last year in May, and I just finished mine this year in May. So that's all done.

I just have to throw in that Pastor Garrett, who shared last week, has been pressing forward, doing the exact same thing at the same seminary. He'll finish his master's degree in December, which is awesome. He's been doing the very same thing. But again, at the beginning, when you start these things, you just see a vision of the finished state. If you knew everything that was going to happen in between where you are at the starting point and where you want to be at the end, you might not start the project. All of the things that are going to come, all the crazy drama, might make you say, "No, I don't want it. I don't want to deal with all of that."

Now, I say all of that as an introduction to where we are in the book of Nehemiah today. If you remember back in Nehemiah chapter 1, Nehemiah prayed and fasted for four to four and a half months. He prayed and fasted because he heard a report from his brothers who had been in Jerusalem, where the work in the city had been stalled for nearly a hundred years. The report came back that things were not looking good, and Nehemiah was broken by all this. He began to pray and fast for four and a half months.

It was during that four and a half month period that he saw a vision. He had in his mind's eye a vision of something happening there in Jerusalem. He saw a vision of a completed wall in a safely inhabited city there in Jerusalem, which had not been the case for hundreds of years.

As he envisioned a safely inhabited Jerusalem, he began in his mind to come up with and construct a plan. Eventually, he was given the opportunity to implement his plan. Of course, as he began to implement the plan, we always start with that vision. That is what kind of begins us on the process of moving forward for a task; we see a vision of it completed in the future.

As he started that process, challenges, hurdles, setbacks, and drama arose. There are always challenges, hurdles, setbacks, and drama. You have to expect that those things will come, and that is what we have been looking at over the last several weeks. There were enemies that came against Nehemiah and the people of Jerusalem. There were attacks, conspiracies, and money problems, as Pastor David Guzik talked about a couple of weeks ago.

What was it that kept Nehemiah and the people of Jerusalem moving forward through all of the challenges? Again, I suggest it was a vision. You see, an optimistic vision of the future keeps us on track and moving forward through life's challenges and difficulties. We need to remember that this optimistic vision is really important. I think this is key. If you lose sight of that future, if your optimistic vision shifts, it is easier than you might think to become despairing and depressed.

There are some of you who are watching today who have experienced that. You have gone through that kind of despair and depression where your optimistic vision shifts, and now you no longer have that optimistic vision. If your vision shifts and you encounter challenges and difficulties, the spiral downward can be pretty severe and swift. It can happen much quicker than we sometimes realize.

This is one of the reasons that I have encouraged you many times over the years to take a break, a fast if you will, from social media and the corporate news media. I just want to say that here in the middle of the summer of 2022, it might be a great time for you to take that mid-year fast from social media and the corporate news media. You see, the media that you and I are bombarded with every single day through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram...

Tick-tock. We are bombarded every single day by various media sources, including CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, the Drudge Report, and Real News. This media is crafted in such a way that it makes us lose our optimistic vision of the future. It can be pretty pessimistic and despairing when we look at all the horrific things happening right around us—in our own community, in our nation, and in the world.

It might be a great time to mute it or shut it off for a week or two, or even six or eight, and just take a break from those things. But don’t just mute it; I want to encourage you to replace it with something far better—something that will enrich and encourage your heart, soul, and mind. Replace the time you would spend on social media and corporate media, even if just for a week, with the Scriptures. Spend some time in the Scriptures.

One of the values we have here at Cross Connection Church is that we want everything we do to be done with joy. This is actually our first value, which you can find on our website. I believe it reflects my heart for a very long time: we want to be a joy-filled people. When people see you, if you are a Christian, one of the things they should see in you is joy. The fruit of the Spirit, as mentioned in Galatians chapter five, includes love and joy. When people see you, they should recognize that you are a person filled with joy.

I think one of the greatest things that will increase our joy is that optimistic vision of the future. What is the optimistic vision of the future that we have from the Scriptures? Ultimately, we will talk about this more later, but it is Jesus Christ ruling and reigning for eternity with a righteous reign. That is our optimistic vision of the future.

We want everything we do to be done with joy because all the devastating things that could happen in this world pale in comparison to the glory that shall be when Christ rules and reigns. The suffering of this present world is not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed. Even though we live in a world that is groaning and looking forward to the manifestation of the sons of God, the creation of God is being fulfilled and fully redeemed. Even in the midst of all that groaning and those growing pains, we hold on to our hope.

If you will, we look forward to the coming of Christ. This is so important that we work to maintain that optimistic vision of the future. The best way to do that is to mute or shut off all the social media and corporate news media, and replace it, for just a period of time, with reading through the Scriptures. It is very important. Ultimately, as Christians, I just have to say it again: we have an optimistic vision of the future.

If you look at the headlines from this last week, you are probably going to feel pretty pessimistic and depressed. Mass shootings, increased inflation, rising gas prices, rising everything, rising interest rates, the beginnings of maybe a slowing housing market, slowing hiring, politicians in disarray, war in Europe, tensions in Asia—these are just challenging times that we are living in.

I was thinking about this last week, and as I reflected on all the crazy headlines, I was reminded of Psalm 46. Psalm 46:1 says this: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Therefore, we will not fear, even though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

Think about that. That’s what the word "Selah" means: pause and think about it for a moment. Just imagine the world in total chaos and upheaval, which feels like what is happening in our culture right now when you turn on the news. But in the midst of this, the psalmist says, as he pauses and thinks about all the chaos in the world, "There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God."

He sees a vision of the city of God in heaven, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High, the dwelling place of God. God is in the midst of this city of God; she shall not be moved. God shall help her just at the break of dawn.

Then he returns to the world: "The nations raged, the kingdoms were removed; he uttered his voice, and the earth melted." The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. There’s that second pause. You have the pause after thinking about the world in total chaos and disarray, and then the psalmist says, "But wait."

God is not all there is. He is at rest, at peace, in the city of God. And then He pauses and waits. Let's think about that for a moment. It is a refocusing of our attention. The Apostle Paul, in Colossians chapter three, says to set your mind on things above. This is what the psalmist is doing three thousand years ago in Psalm 46. He imagines, he sees, he envisions the city of God and says, "Think about that for a moment."

Then, in verse 8, he writes, "Come, behold the works of the Lord, who has made desolations in the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two

Happening there in Jerusalem, Nehemiah was depressed, brokenhearted, and distressed. In that month, he began to pray. He prayed for four and a half months. As he prayed and fasted, he sought the Lord. Nehemiah saw a vision; he saw a vision of a safely inhabited and rebuilt Jerusalem. In his mind's eye, he could see defensive walls rebuilt around the city.

Then we read where we are today, where Pastor Garrett left off last week, in Nehemiah chapter 6, verse 15. So the wall was finished on the 25th day of Elul in 52 days. The wall was finished in 52 days. A great work always begins with a great vision. If that is true, and I believe that it is true, then I want to ask you: What vision do you see or have? I want you to think about that for a moment. Maybe take some time this week to reflect on it.

Minus out all of the hurdles. Remove all of the obstacles and challenges. A lot of times, when we start to think about where we would like to be next year, or where we would like to be in five years or ten years, we see a vision of the future. What we tend to do is immediately calculate in our minds all of the problems, all of the reasons why that won't work.

So I want you to think for a moment: What vision do you have of the future, one year, five years, or ten years out, that you believe is just in your heart and mind? Where would you like to be? Then do your best to not add in all the obstacles, challenges, and difficulties. Minus out all the hurdles.

I have been pastoring now for 23 years, and for most of the first decade of my pastoral ministry, I worked predominantly with younger people—youth and young adults. I was a youth pastor for four years, and then I started teaching at a Bible college about 18 years ago. I taught at a Bible college for several years at the beginning of that period of time. I worked a lot with people who were youth, junior highers, high schoolers, and young adults, ages 18 to 25, just starting out in life. Many times, I've had...

Younger people often say to me, "I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with my life," or they'll express, "I wish I knew what God's will was for my life." This may be one of the biggest questions, or the most frequently asked question, that I received in youth ministry. As I was ministering among people at a college stage of life, I often heard, "I wish I knew what God's will is for my life," or "How do I determine what God's will is for my life?"

These are important existential questions. For 23 years, I have asked the same question dozens, if not hundreds, of times to people trying to navigate life at that point. I asked them this very simple question: If you could do anything that you wanted to do and nothing was standing in the way, what would you do?

So again, what vision do you see or do you have? If you could do anything that you wanted to do, what would you do? Exclude all of the hurdles, obstacles, challenges, and difficulties. If that question doesn't help you begin to isolate some sort of vision, then here's another question—perhaps a more fundamental one: What do you see at this moment?

You're sitting down, watching this on your tablet, phone, TV, or computer. What do you see that bothers you? What problem stands out to you that you wish was fixed? And then here's the key: What would it look like if it were fixed?

You see, that’s what Nehemiah was confronted with in Nehemiah chapter one. In the month of Kislev, the word came from his brothers in Jerusalem about what was going on there. Suddenly, he had a problem—something that bothered him—and he started to imagine what it would look like if it were fixed. That imagination of what it would look like if it were fixed is a vision.

You may not have all the answers to those questions just yet, but that is how you discover a vision. I think it is really important to recognize that every great work begins with a vision. If you are going to be involved in a great work—the great work of God—it always starts with that vision.

So, you've got to ask yourself these questions: If I could do anything I wanted to do and nothing was standing in the way, what would I want to do? What is the thing that is bothering me? What needs to be fixed? And then, what would it look like if it were fixed? It might take you some time to really explore these questions.

Think about that. That's how you get to a vision. There are a ton of intangibles, a lot of variables, and many unknowns between imagining the vision and fulfilling it. In that half-year space, or maybe even longer, a lot of things are going to happen. You must start with the vision because a great work always begins with a great vision.

Here is the crazy thing: do you realize that the things that bother you and the vision you have of those things being resolved might actually take less time than you realize? Notice that the Scriptures say in Nehemiah chapter 6, verse 15, "So it was that the wall was finished in 52 days." From the time that the refugees returned to Jerusalem until Nehemiah came to rebuild the wall was about 94 years. For nearly a century, the city languished. The people were disheartened, and the city was in ruin. The obstacles, challenges, and difficulties were abundant.

For 94 years, the city lay in waste, and they were unable to get a handle on it. Then, from the time that Nehemiah came to the city until the wall was built and finished, it took just 52 days. Ninety-four years versus 52 days—what changed? The people who built the wall were the same individuals who had occupied the city prior to Nehemiah's arrival. The city was still a mess, and there were still a whole bunch of problems. The obstacles, challenges, and difficulties did not go away.

So, what changed? What was the major difference? I suggest to you that it was one individual, a man named Nehemiah, with a vision. A great work always begins with a great vision. In 94 years, they accomplished very little, but in 52 days, just a tiny bit over seven weeks, they achieved so much. What changed? A man with a vision—one guy, through prayer.

And fasting gained an optimistic vision of the future. He spent more time—twice as much time—in prayer and fasting than he did working on the wall. Four and a half months of prayer and fasting resulted in 52 days to build the wall. I would suggest to you that it could have, or even would have, been accomplished in less than 52 days.

But remember, as we've been looking at in the story of Nehemiah, they had enemies that were attacking them. They had to divide up their construction force so that half of the people were defending while the other half were working. They were working part-time, if you will; they weren't fully engaged in this work. They could have accomplished the building of the wall in less than 52 days, despite having enemies coming against them, attacking, and facing money problems. They had all these sorts of issues, and they still accomplished it in seven weeks.

The individuals who built the wall with Nehemiah were not by trade wall builders. In fact, if they had been wall builders, then the wall probably wouldn't have gotten done in such a short time. The wall builders would have told them all the ways that they wouldn't be able to get it done or couldn't get it done in that timetable. They would have pointed out all the reasons why this was not going to work.

You see, it's often the experts—the people who know how things are done—who discourage the work. They say, "We just can't do it that way. It's not going to work that way." If you go back to Nehemiah chapter 3 and read through it slowly, you will find a list of all the people who were involved in building the wall. The people who built the wall were not masons or carpenters. I’m sure they had some masons and some carpenters, but the people who are listed are priests, perfumers, politicians, and jewelers. Those are the kinds of people mentioned in that passage.

Oftentimes, God uses the unlikely, the untrained, and the uninitiated to accomplish great works. In the New Testament book of First Corinthians, we read these great words from the Apostle Paul in First Corinthians chapter 1, verse 26: "For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are..."

It's not the mighty, it's not the smart, and it's not the strong that are called. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. He has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty. The base things of the world and the things which are despised, God has chosen, and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are.

Here's the key verse: that no flesh should glory in His presence. God has chosen the foolish, the base, the despised, and the weak. You know what those words mean? They mean that God can use you as well. I believe not only can God use you, but God wants to use you in His great work. However, every great work always begins with a great vision. So, what vision do you see or have?

Several hundred years before the time of Nehemiah, during the time of the kings, the northern kingdom of Israel was destroyed. The Assyrians came against the capital city of the northern kingdom, which was sometimes referred to as Samaria. The nation of Israel was divided into two kingdoms: the northern and the southern. The Assyrians besieged the capital city of Samaria, and the siege was so severe that the people actually turned to cannibalism.

In the midst of that horrible drama, the prophet Elisha saw a vision that God would deliver the city of Samaria. In spite of their sin, God was going to deliver them. Right after the prophet's prediction, we find a dramatic story in the passage that talks about this in Second Kings.

In Second Kings chapter 7, we read this: "Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate." These men had the disease of leprosy and could not be inside the city of Samaria, so they were outside the city. They said to one another, "Why are we sitting here until we die?" If you have a Bible, would you just underline those words? That's the key phrase I want to look at: "Why are we sitting here until we die?"

Then they said, "If we say we will enter the city, well, the famine is in the city, and we're going to die in the city of the famine. If we sit here, we're going to die."

Also, now therefore, come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, well, we shall only die. We're going to die anyway, so if they kill us, we just die quicker. They rose at twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians, and when they had come to the outskirts of the Syrian camp, to their surprise, no one was there. The Syrian camp that had been laying siege to the city of Samaria was completely abandoned. All the Syrians were gone, for the Lord had caused the army of the Syrians to hear the noise of chariots, the noise of horses, and the noise of a great army. They said to one another, "Look, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us." Therefore, they also fled at twilight and left the camp intact, with their tents, their horses, and their donkeys. They fled for their lives.

Now, I'm not going to go into all the details about that story in Second Kings chapter seven; you can read it later. The only reason I bring it up is for that really important question that these leprous men asked as they were sitting there while the city was under siege: Why are we just sitting here until we die, just languishing?

Listen, God has a work that He wants to do, and He wants to employ you in that work. He wants you to be involved in that work. So, why sit we here until we die? Maybe it is time for you to see yourself involved in God's work. Whether you believe it or not, or whether you realize it or not, God has called you to be a part of His work in some way, in some fashion.

Now, that could be serving in various areas here at the church, but it could also be serving in some capacity in your neighborhood. It could be that God calls you to be involved in kids' ministry here at the church. It could be that He calls you to be a part of the worship team, leading worship. It might be that He calls you to be praying with people after the service. It could be that He calls you to be a part of the security team, ushers, or greeters here at the church. It could be an outreach team or a short-term mission trip that God calls you on, or serving with the disaster relief program that we're connected to.

It could be ministering to your neighbors or your co-workers, joining some sort of chaplaincy corps. Whatever it is, the fact that God accomplished His work with the unlikely, the untrained, and the uninitiated proves that He can and will use you to do something that you don't think you can do.

Could it be that God would call you to be a part of children's ministry? You might say, "Oh gosh, I could never imagine doing that, not in a million years." Yet, God chooses the weak things of the world, the things that are unwise, and those who are not really gifted to accomplish great works. He accomplishes great works through them.

We continue in the passage here in Nehemiah, chapter 6, verse 15. The wall was finished in 52 days. Look at verse 16: it happened when all our enemies heard it. We will stop right there. All of the naysayers and antagonists heard the news. They got the tweet and started texting each other, "The wall is finished." They had conspired against the people in Jerusalem; they had mocked them, intimidated them, threatened them, and terrorized them. Then they heard the news: the wall was finished in 52 days. God's great work will ultimately subvert all of His enemies, and God wants you to be involved in this subversive work.

One of the most quoted Psalms in the Scriptures is a prophetic word from King David in Psalm 110, where we read these words: "The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.'" Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, is seated in a place of power and prestige at the right hand of glory. One day, He will reign over all; His enemies shall be under His feet, as Psalm 110, verse 1 says. This verse is quoted at least a half a dozen times in the New Testament.

That is an optimistic vision of the future. All those who commit injustice, all those who terrorize and mock, and all those who conspire against God and His work in the world will be destroyed and subjugated by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Scriptures declare in the New Testament, 2 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 12, that we shall reign with Him. Now, not only will God's great work subvert all of His enemies, but we also read, going on in Nehemiah, chapter 6, verse 15, that the wall was finished.

In 52 days, it happened when all our enemies heard it and all the nations around us saw these things. They were disheartened in their own eyes. God's great work will ultimately reveal the greatness of His glory to all nations. Again, the Scriptures declare that every eye will see the glory of the Lord. Matthew chapter 24, verse 30, says all the tribes of the earth will see the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.

All of the nations around Judah saw Nehemiah's victory over his mockers, scoffers, naysayers, and enemies. They witnessed the speed at which the wall was constructed, and they were humbled and downcast. Notice why they were disheartened. The end of verse 16 states that they perceived this work was done by our God.

At the end of the day, after all of the hindrances and obstacles, after nearly a century of delays, after mockery and threats, and after conspiracies and terror, a group of unlikely, untrained priests, perfumers, politicians, and jewelers completed a defensive wall around Jerusalem in seven weeks. The onlookers knew that such a feat was not only improbable but impossible. Yet, it was done.

And why was it done? Because the work was done by God. At that point, one might say, "Hold on a second. The work was done by God, but the work was done by Nehemiah and the people of Jerusalem, right?" Yes. In the same way that in the Book of Judges, Gideon and his 300 men had a victory over 150,000 Midianites, that work was done by Gideon. But was it really done by Gideon? Gideon played a huge part in it, and his 300 men played a huge part in it. Nehemiah and the people of Jerusalem also played a huge part in it. Their names are listed in Nehemiah chapter three, all these different people who worked on the wall. They all did the work, and I return to this theme often because the Scriptures remind us of it.

Regularly, God's sovereignty, human responsibility, and human ingenuity work hand in hand. God sovereignly works through the agency of humans to accomplish His will and His plan. It is God who is working in us to will and to do His good pleasure.

So the question arises: Is it God who did the work, or is it the people in Jerusalem and Nehemiah? Is it God who is doing the work, or is it me, or is it you? The answer to the question is yes. The challenge is that the great work won't get done if God doesn't show up, but it also won't get done if you stay home.

I kind of quoted it a moment ago, but my favorite passage in the Bible is Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13. It says at the end of verse 12, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to do His good pleasure." God is working; He is doing work, so you get to work. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is working in you to will and to do His good pleasure.

God is great, and He is awesome. I am quite sure that He could accomplish His work better without me or without you. He could do quite well on His own, independently of us. Yet, in His omniscient omnipotence, He has sovereignly elected to use you. So much so that I think it is true to say—and I realize that this is kind of an outlandish, maybe audacious claim—that God's great work is ultimately hindered only by me. His great work is ultimately hindered by me, or I say me, but you should say me when you write that down. If you write it down, it's only ultimately hindered by you and me.

Again, I know there are some who will hear that and really be bothered by it theologically, and I'm pretty fine with any sort of pushback because it is an audacious and kind of outlandish claim. But I think it's probably true.

What is holding you back? What is hindering you from engaging in the great work that God has prepared for you? Maybe you see all of the obstacles, all the intangible problems. You're calculating in your mind all the reasons why it can't happen. Do you realize that your hindrances are hindering God's work from getting done? You say in your mind, "I just can't. I'm not smart enough, talented enough, big enough, rich enough, strong enough, or well-connected."

Martin Luther, one of the important names in the Reformation 500 years ago, said, "Of whom shall I be afraid? One with God is a majority." You are empowered and enabled by God, just as Gideon's army was against the Midianites and just as Nehemiah was with the city of Jerusalem as they rebuilt the wall. With God, you are a majority. God empowers us to accomplish great things.

The Bible teaches us to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is working in you to will and to do His good pleasure." God uses unlikely outsiders to accomplish great works, for which those unlikely outsiders are often untrained and underprepared. Nehemiah teaches us that it is often the unlikely, the untrained, and the underprepared who accomplish such great works. They don't know what they don't know, and therefore they are able to do in seven weeks what the know-it-alls couldn't accomplish in a hundred years.

This story, the Book of Nehemiah, reminds us that God has a work He wants to accomplish, and His plan requires your engagement. This is something to think about, and I hope you'll take some time to reflect on it this week. Don't be a spectator; get in the game. God wants you to be a part of His work. It begins with a vision.

Set aside all the distractions. Turn off social media and the news media. Spend some time with the Lord and ask yourself, "If I could do anything I wanted to do and nothing was standing in the way, what would I do?" Consider what is really bothering you. What is that thing you wish were fixed? Then pray, and maybe fast, asking the Lord, "Lord, help me to have a vision and help me to move forward in faith."

Father God, I pray that You would do a work in us. May this story from Nehemiah challenge and encourage us. You are the one who takes the unlearned, the untrained, the uninitiated, and the underprepared. You empower and equip us and send us out to do things that we could not do on our own without You, so that You get the glory. Just as 1 Corinthians chapter 1 says, "So that no flesh will glory in Your presence." God, You get the glory in our lives. All the nations round about saw and proclaimed.

This work was done by God. God, work in Your people, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

I'll never be the same. My sin has been erased. I'll never be the same. You have brought me back with the riches of Your amazing grace. I'm saved by Your grace.

Thanks for joining us for our broadcast today. As we close, we would love to invite you to our services at Cross Connection Church campus at 8:30 and 10:30 every Sunday. Also, if you'd like more information about Cross Connection Church, go online at lifeinconnection.com.

Hey, Cross Connection! Our announcement for this week is VBS. It is VBS week, so we would ask you to pray for the kids, pray for the helpers, and pray for everybody involved. If you are involved, we would ask that you be prompt and on time. God bless you guys; we're super excited about it. So, VBS, pray for us!