Nehemiah 7

Nehemiah 6:15 So the wall was completed.... in fifty-two days.I Thought We Were Finished? It would have been very easy to think that building a wall was the remnant’s mission. All up till this point, the whole focus has been on building the wall. Building the wall was a tremendous assignment. But Nehemiah knew that it was only one part of the whole mission.

let's look back at another scene in biblical history. Think back to the time when Israel first entered into the Promised Land. They had just wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. They stood on the banks of the Jordan and God gave them a new leader.God didn’t allow Moses to enter the Promised Land, so He told him to appoint Joshua in his place.IT WAS Joshua WHO led them across the Jordan River to the place that God had promised them. No sooner had they crossed the river than they had an enemy to confront. They knew that the city of Jericho was waiting them FOR THEM. They sent spies in. They planned what they were going to do.They prepared.

And now that they crossed the river, their assignment to conquer Jericho was waiting for them. Of course we all know the story of what happened. God told them to do something that seemed impossible.He told them to march around the city once a day for six days. Then on the seventh day, march around it again. But this time, the priests would blow trumpets.And when the priests blew their trumpets,all the people were to shout at the top of their lungs.And when they did it, God accomplished the impossible through them. He leveled the city walls so they could go in and accomplish their assignment. And they did. But then what happened? Then they could just lay back and say that their work was done, right? They had accomplished a great task for the Lord. Now they were done, right? Wrong—they were just getting started. That was just the first assignment along the way. They still had a whole Promised Land to take.The problem was, they didn’t DO IT EXACTLY THE WAY GOD TOLD THEM TO.. .Sure, they went on to conquer parts of it. They went on to tackle more assignments along the way.But by the time you get to the end of Joshua’s life, they still hadn’t completed the mission. They settled down in the places they had conquered and left whole parts of the mission unaccomplished. And because they only partly obeyed the mission that God had for them, they were completely disobedient to Him. Judges 2:2 says, New International Version (NIV) ...’ Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? That’s a good question—why would they have done that? The same reason we get tempted to do it. Sometimes a little bit of success can be the worst thing for us, can’t it? We can accomplish a task and think that we’ve really accomplished something. We can reach a goal and think that we’ve arrived.

Has that ever happened here in the past? We got the new school built, the parking lot is being paved —we’ve really accomplished something. We have some property—now we’ve got it made. We built and—now we’re done. Those are all great things, aren’t they? But Jericho was a great thing too. It was a great assignment. And it was a great thing when that assignment was accomplished. But just because an assignment gets accomplished, doesn’t mean that the mission is accomplished. There is a huge difference. And Nehemiah knew the difference. You see, it would have been very easy to think that building a wall was the remnant’s mission. All up till this point, the whole focus has been on building the wall. Building the wall was a tremendous assignment. But Nehemiah knew that it was only one part of the whole mission.

But the mission wasn’t accomplished. It had only just begun. Just like our mission isn’t accomplished. We can have successful assignments along the way. This church has been blessed with many successful assignments. But every accomplishment we have… every victory we win… every step along the way… is just a step in accomplishing our mission of fulfilling the Great Commission.

And just like with Nehemiah and the remnant, every successful assignment should cause us to do some things things.

1. it should cause us to review the present reality. Look at how Nehemiah did that in verses 1-3.

Every time we have success, we need to review the present reality. Can you imagine what a relief it must have been to have finished the wall? Think about all of the hard work that they had done. Think of all the sacrifice. Think of all the blood and sweat that went into those 52 days. Really, it was even longer than that for Nehemiah. That wall had been the only thing on his mind for at least six months. It had been the main thrust of his prayers. It had caused him to change locations. It had caused him to change lifestyles. It had caused him to change careers. His whole life had changed because of that wall. And so had the people’s. But now they were done. The wall was built. The last thing to be accomplished was to hang the doors in the gates. And that was done. We reach a point now in the book of Nehemiah where every thing is in place. ....the construction has been finished. The wall was built, and the doors and gates have been hung. The perimeter of the city is now in place.We may fell that we are at just such a place. The building we worked so hard on is built. We are beginning to see the fruits of that labor. We are at an important time in the church’s history.