3.212 Arise and Build

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as savory salt.

Hello my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom you will serve.

Have you ever had that moment when someone else is making fun of you or mocking you or scorning you specifically in terms of your religious beliefs? How do you respond to that? I think today Nehemiah has some words of wisdom for us.

We are reading this week Ezra and Nehemiah, the books with specific chapters, but we're just going to keep it that way. And there is clearly a theme inside of Ezra and Nehemiah that I see at least on the concept of being willing to build specifically building with the Lord. But what does that mean in terms of the times when you harassed or being made fun of for your beliefs or perhaps for things you trying to accomplish that you feel like are good things you trying to do, yet there just seems to be those voices that continue to pull you down?

Well, we see that inside of Nehemiah chapter 2 as he goes and is basically sent to kind of survey the walls of Jerusalem. Now, walls at that time are super important because you've got so many combating armies and nations that are trying to overtake areas that, well, walls inhibit that and stop outside forces from coming in and taking over. Jerusalem had had its walls destroyed and its gates had been burned, and Nehemiah was sent to go back and rebuild them.

But as he goes back, he got some local antagonists. They see him as a threat to their power. And so in Nehemiah chapter 2, they make fun of him as he says I going to rebuild these walls.

They laugh at him to scorn, it says in verse 19. And then we get his response, which is the advice that I think you and I could take anytime we kind of get down and out because other people are talking badly about us. Our verse for today is Nehemiah 2.

Then answered I them and said unto them, "The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore, we his servants will arise and build. But ye have no portion nor right nor memorial in Jerusalem." I love this response. This response is full of faith, but it's also full of action.

First of all, you can see in his response the faith that he has in God. Sometimes when you're being made fun of for your beliefs, you tend to kind of jump on the doubt train with them and start to say, "Am I really believing these things?" Or, gosh, the way they make it sound, it's kind of lame or it sounds kind of weird. The Lord.

Nehemiah hears these things and instead responds with faith that God of heaven will prosper us. But he doesn't stop there. What else does he do inside the verse here?

Therefore, we as servants will arise and build. They go to work. They have faith that the Lord will help them and then they go into action and get it done.

I can think of specific. I not going to be able to accomplish that. And you know what it does?

It sets a fire under me to go to work to get it done and to say, "I can do this." Sometimes I can do this just to prove you wrong. But I want to do this because I know I able to do it. And I know the Lord can help me.

My friends, when you have those moments, when you're down and when you're out, come back to the words of Nehemiah. Turn to the Lord, see that he will prosper you as you follow Him, and then arise and build. Don't worry about what those other voices say.

Instead, turn to the Lord, arise, build, and see what you can create with His power behind you. That is all for today my friends. You and I have come here for such a time as this.

Step forward in faith and let's be savory salt. We will be here tomorrow and we hope