Nehemiah 4:10-12The people had become tired from building the wall, and their morale was going down. Imagine how tired you might be from spending every day working endlessly to rebuild this massive wall. As your body is really feeling the fatigue, you start to hear about how your enemies are plotting together to attack you. I would imagine that you would start to feel scared, defeated, intimidated...  Read More

Nehemiah 4:1-5 The building of the wall was not easy for the builders. It was a physical burden, but one we saw they did together! This passage shows the mental anguish it must have been. We are given two names in this passage. Sanballat and Tobiah. The Jews are hard at work, rebuilding the walls, and these two men sit there and ridicule and do what they can to discourage them. The response to the...  Read More

If you ever attempt something big, you are guaranteed to experience pressure and pushback from people who either don’t believe in what you are doing or are actually against what you are doing. This is exactly what Nehemiah faced. Instead of panicking, he went to prayer. In fact, on multiple occasions when under pressure, he prayed (2:4, 4:4, 4:9, 6:9). He is the perfect example of a leader who sta...  Read More

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12Fifteen years ago, I found myself in uncharted waters. This unexpected storm of life stirred emotions of fear, grief, confusion, sadness, anger, and somehow numbness all at the same time. My two youngest children were feeling the effects of having their lives turned upside down.  I cried out to God, wondering how I was going to live; how I was going to make ends meet, how I was ...  Read More

Ephesians 2:10Growing up, I participated in sports. Baseball, basketball, football. I wasn’t terrible, but I certainly wasn’t a stand-out. Playing sports was just something boys in the mid-seventies did. My most active years were third through fifth grade, 1974-1977. My dad was in the Air Force, and we were stationed in Naples, Italy. The sports bus ran from my elementary school to the sports comp...  Read More

1 Corinthians 12:12-27As we continue through the book of Nehemiah and the sermon series Let’s rebuild something. I want us to imagine you are about to build your dream home. Whatever you can imagine your dream house to look like, you have the resources to make it happen. As you prepare to start the project, you realize you do not have the tools or the knowledge to make the right choices when it co...  Read More