Dove World Outreach Center

We are looking at Nehemiah, the rebuilding of the wall, of the Temple. Sometimes it takes a lot of work. We American’s, we in general are kind of lazy, and we have gotten lazier. I mean, we do not even want to get out of our car to eat a hamburger. We just go though the drive through. We are not even moving! Sometimes it takes a lot of work to actually do something. We want it, you want it, I want it the easy way. I like the easy way. I like it when it works smooth and easy. Sometimes that happens, sometimes it does not happen.  Sometimes it takes a lot of work, a lot of energy, a lot of believing to see a job, to see the will of God accomplished. 

Nehemiah got a vision from God. What did it cost Nehemiah? Oh, it did not cost him two hours on a Sunday morning. It did not cost him a couple of bucks in the offering. It cost him everything. It cost him his job. It may not cost everyone his job, but it cost him his job. He had to give up his job as the cupbearer to the King. He had to somehow get to Jerusalem. he was not even free. He could not just take off and go. He had to get permission. He couldn’t travel from this land to this land to this land to get to Jerusalem. He had to get permission to pass through the land. It was not easy. He had plenty of excuses not to do it. 

Are we not sometimes the master of excuses? Oh, I can’t do it. I don’t have the right equipment, I don’t have the right tools, I don’t have this, I don’t have that! Nehemiah isn’t making excuses. Nehemiah had plenty of opportunity for excuses. He had no money, he had no timber, he had no way of getting there to do the job. But Nehemiah had a word from God and he knew that that word from God would provide everything he needed. 

So Nehemiah asked the King. He said, “I need letters, I need wood, I need help.” And that is what the King granted him. The King said to Nehemiah, “What do you want?” What would you do? If someone asked you, and they were the king, they had the power and ability to give it to you, to actually complete those words, Nehemiah was asked by the king what do you want? What would you say?

Do you know what most of us would say? Most of us would say, “I’d like to have a new car, I’d like to have one of those Z1 Corvettes with about 450 horsepower. I would like to have a new house, I would like to have a better paying job. I would like to be happy.” 

But that is not what Nehemiah did. Nehemiah said, “Let me go. Let me fulfill the vision of God.” I believe, and I believe it is in the Bible, if we will put God first, if we will put his Kingdom first, the Bible says and promises us, he will add all other things to us. (Matthew 6:33) We always try to add the things and fit God in. It doesn’t work that way. 

We see in Nehemiah 2:10, this is what always happens. If you want to make people mad, you don’t have to rob a bank, you don’t have to start a fight, you don’t have to do anything except really, really obey God. Now I am talking about really obeying God. I am not talking about some Sunday morning thing. The Sunday morning thing is great, but Sunday morning is only the start. It is the beginning of the week, it is the Word of God, it is the thing that gets us moving. If you want to really make people mad, obey God with your whole heart.

When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about it, it was very displeasing to them that someone had come to seek the welfare of the sons of Israel.   Nehemiah 2:10

Here the enemies of God are mad. Islam is of the Devil. Should that be a surprise? Well, of course not. Many things are of the devil. That just happens to be one of them because Jesus Christ is the only way. We could say Buddhists, we could say Mormons, we could say humanists, we could say nice people… Nice people are of the devil! Because there is only one way. Even in Christianity we have lost that, it makes people mad. It should not make people mad. I mean, they should be happy here. Someone is concerned about Jerusalem. Someone is concerned about rebuilding the walls. They should be happy, be happy there is a Dove World Outreach Center who want to see Moslems get saved and not go to hell, who want to see nice people get saved and not go to hell. People should be happy but they are not. They are mad because someone wanted to do something.