Bible Study Library

Now what?

In chapter 3, Nehemiah shows us how to eat an elephant, one bite at a time. Rebuild the city wall around Jerusalem? That sounds impossible. But lay this brick here and that brick there? That he could do. And so he broke down the project, gathered all the workers around him, and assigned them each a bite-sized task to complete.

Often the things God asks us to do seem huge, almost unmanageable. Take, for instance, Jesus’ commission to all of us to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel.” Huh? How am I going to do that? I have to be at work tomorrow. And besides, airlines tickets are expensive!

Now, think about it this way: If God said “Go into all of [Insert your city here] and preach the gospel,” does that seem more manageable? No? It still seems huge, doesn’t it?

But I did a little figuring, and here’s how that breaks down in my small town of Orrville, OH:

25 churches in Orrville (according to the Yellow Pages)
x 100 members each (my estimate, on average)
—————————-
2500 Christians

9000 people in Orrville
- 2500 Christians
—————————-
6500 people that need reached

6500/2500=2.6 people to reach per Christian!

 So, if each church member in Orrville was able to reach 3 people, the entire town of Orrville would be reached.

Does that seem more doable? I think so. Shoot, that could almost be done in a day!

Side note: For the purists among us, I do realize the “yeah, but…” weaknesses in the way I estimated and calculated this. But no matter how you slice it and dice it, it’s very doable.

Nehemiah’s leadership by giving each person small chunks of responsibility also taught us:

• Clearly defining responsibilities results in accountability
• Clearly defining responsibilities results in people taking ownership of the task
• Some people won’t live up to their own responsibility (3:5), but others will step in and cover them (3:27)

 In chapter 4, here are some things we looked at:

• 4:1 - Evidently Sanballat thought the workers would easily be swayed from their work. He got really ticked when he saw that they were proceeding in spite of his threats.
  • It’s shocking and puzzling to the world to see how thoroughly God’s people are dedicated to His purpose
  • It doesn’t make sense to an unbeliever when a Christian continues to perform selfless acts of service and ministry in spite of even extreme personal sacrifice or discomfort, and without concern for opposition or ridicule
  • People of the world do devote themselves to things, but without the comfort of depending on a God that is able to control every atom of the Universe, worldly people can only keep going when a task looks “possible”
• 4:4-5 - In the face of opposition by people more powerful than he was, Nehemiah again turned to God in prayer
  • His prayer may sound overly harsh toward his opposers, but compare that to the natural human reaction (revenge) and it looks gentle
  • Rather than seek revenge on his enemies, Nehemiah trusted God to deal with them.
  • God, of course, always has the option of granting or not granting our requests in prayer.
  • But it’s better to trust God to do something He will not do than to do something yourself that God wants you to trust Him to do (you might need to read that again J)
  • To Sanballat, of course, it looked like Nehemiah did nothing at all. Prayer sure isn’t nothing!
• 4:6-8 - Very quickly, half of the job of rebuilding the wall was done
  • This angered the opposers even more
  • They plotted to stir up so much trouble that the work would cease
  • What are some possible reasons people would oppose something so forcefully?
• 4:9 - So what’s Nehemiah’s response?
  • “We prayed to our God”
  • But that’s not all they did. They “posted a guard day and night.”
  • They gave God a vehicle through which to work

 From that, we drew the following action points:

1. Pray. Confess the sins of God’s people. Confess your own sins. Be specific. Mourn and fast.
2. Assess the situation. What needs done? What repairs need made, what bricks need laid?
3. Break tasks into parts. What are the small components of the whole task?
4. Gather workers, clearly define responsibilities of the smaller components, and delegate tasks.
5. Beyond assigning tasks, assign responsibility for the outcome to convey ownership.
6. Keep an eye toward application of the work. Don’t just build the wall. What will happen when the wall is built? What comes next? What’s the purpose?

And we committed ourselves to the following:

Increase your prayer life dramatically. Confess the sins of the church and confess your own sins, very specifically. Mourn and fast. Ask God’s blessing in the work you are about to undertake. Demonstrate your dependence on Him. Then set about the work. Define the task in detail, break it down, get people involved, assign responsibilities. Buy the end of the week have a specific plan and the people to work with.