Sermon Central
-
Now Strengthen My Hands Series
Contributed by Steve Lawson on Jan 5, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: When you’re bruised and bloodied by life, press on; your creator did not send you here to start the race, but to finish it!
“Now Strengthen My Hands” – Nehemiah 6
100 Greatest Moments in Olympic History.”
The Apostle Paul, in I Corinthians 9:24, says, “Run in such a way as to win the prize.”
When you’re bruised and bloodied by life, press on; your creator did not send you here to start the race, but to finish it!
The Enemy is a Liar!
Avenues of Deception
1. Compromise (vs. 1-4)
James 4:4 - You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
Nehemiah’s response to compromise:
“I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?”
One of the most helpful things that we can do to resist temptation is to remember that God has called us to a great task.
Oh, children of the Great King, let us pray that we may know the grandeur of our position before him, the high calling with which we have been called, the vast responsibilities with which we are entrusted, the great work of cooperating with God in erecting the city of God. Heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ, called to sit with Christ in the heavenlies, risen, ascended, crowned in Him, sitting with Christ far above all principality and power. How can we go down -- down to the world that rejected him, down to the level of the first Adam from which at so great cost we have been raised, down to the quarry from which we were hewn and the hole of the pit whence we were digged? No, it cannot be. - Dr. F. B. Meyer
2. Slander (vs. 5-9)
1 Timothy 5:19 - Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses.
Nehemiah’s response to slander:
“Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.”
3. Deviation – (vs. 10-14)
Nehemiah’s response to deviation:
“Should a man like me run away? Or should one like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!”
4. Disappointment (vs. 17-19)
Nehemiah’s Admonitions
“Watch and Pray” (4:9)
But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.” (6:9)
Eric “the swimmer”