20180311 keep walking
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How do we live our calling and deal with that which aims to distract us?
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20180311 keep walking
- 1. Keep Walking
- 2. Eph 4:1 NKJV I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,
- 3. THE SANBALLAT SPIRIT Partisan - prejudiced in favor of a particular cause.
- 4. THE NEHEMIAH CAMPAIGN THREE STAGES • Starting • Walking • Arriving
- 5. STARTING – NEHEMIAH 4:1-6 The Threat – Possible Change The Response – Ridicule The Strategy – Hand them over
- 6. WALKING - NEHEMIAH 4:7-23 The Threat – Success The Response – Aggression The Strategy – Watch but keep moving
- 7. ARRIVING - NEHEMIAH 6:1-17 The Threat – Real Change The Response – Harm The Strategy – Stay on Course
- 8. Keep Walking
Editor's Notes
- Keep Walking in your calling
- Calling – We often use this word to describe people that do their vocation with a sense of passion and commitment, we understand that to be called is different than just to work for money. All believers have a general calling, to love God and to to live a life that glorifies Him. Every believer must seek first the Kingdom of God. Every believer must receive the wealth of Christ and then walk worthy of that position. Every believer must live a life separated unto the Lord. 2Ti 2:4 No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. So, then, ‘ye see your calling, brethren.’ A life that is ‘worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called’ is a life that conforms to the divine will, that is ‘fruitful in all good,’ that is progressive in its acquaintance with God, (Mclarens Expositions) This general call forms the foundation of our specific call, the specific task we have been called with that will serve God’s Kingdom. Later in Ephesians 4, Paul refers to the specific gifts of the five fold ministry. The specific call is secondary to the general call. Before the believer get’s concerned with gifting and specific calling we must first accept and live out the general call. People can get so caught up in wanting to know their calling or purpose that they do not do the basics of the general call first. An example from scripture of a person that lived like this was Nehemiah. As you read the book of Nehemiah you realize this guy loved God and lived a life separated unto the Lord. He was with most of the Israelites in Exile in Babylon but still loved God and lived an honourable life so much so that He became cup bearer to the king, an high ranking and must trusted position that afforded one a great deal of influence. Instead of getting entangled in the struggles of being in exile, he just lived out his calling to love God. When he received news from his brother about the state of disgrace Jerusalem was in and how the Israelites that returned there where suffering he became very distraught. Eventually King Artaxerxes noticed and asked what was wrong with him, Nehemiah told the King of his concern for Jerusalem, this lead to the King making him the governor of Judea and sending him to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. The King even gave him letters to explain that he was backing Nehemiah and that he would provide the timnber needed for the task. Nehmiah’s general call was to love God and to walk worthy but his specific call was to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. It was both of these callings that together provided him the strength to finish the task despite the opposition he received. Not only did he have to do the task of rebuilding the wall but he had to see of the opposition of Sanballat.
- Neh 2:19 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard it,they mocked us and despised us and said, "What is this thing you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” Whether you are living out your general or specific call you will face ridicule. Right now in the world Christians that stand up often face being ridiculed. In this post modern world with its aggressive belief in subjective truth those that stand for truth that comes from outside of man face ridicule. In 2012 at a rally for secular people in Washington DC Richard Dawkins, the famed Atheist, called on atheists and agnostics to "ridicule and show contempt" for the religious and their doctrines. The strategy: How do we deal with this response? Neh 4:4-6 NASB Hear, O our God, how we are despised! Return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity. 5 Do not forgive their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out before You, for they have demoralized the builders. 6 So we built the wall and the whole wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. Nehemiah did not give it much attention, he deliver them over to the Lord and asked God to deal with them, he kept focusing on the task at hand.
- Neh 4:7-23 NASB Now when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repair of the walls of Jerusalem went on, and that the breaches began to be closed, they were very angry. 8 All of them conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause a disturbance in it. 9 But we prayed to our God, and because of them we set up a guard against them day and night.
- Neh 6:1-2 NASB Now when it was reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, to Geshem the Arab and to the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall, and that no breach remained in it, although at that time I had not set up the doors in the gates, 2 then Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to me, saying, "Come, let us meet together at Chephirim in the plain of Ono." But they were planning to harm me. The Center for the Study of Global Christianity, an academic research center that monitors worldwide demographic trends in Christianity, estimates that between the years 2005 and 2015, 900,000 Christians were martyred — an average of 90,000 Christians each year. Open Doors monitor the official documented deaths of Christians which reached it’s height in 2015 with 7000 deaths. In 2017 there were 1,207 Christians who were killed around the globe for faith-related reasons during the 2017 list’s reporting period. This is a conservative estimate since it only includes documented cases and does not include statistics from North Korea and large areas of Iraq and Syria. Of the lists procured, these are the Middle Eastern or Muslim-dominated countries where Christian deaths occurred during the same time period: 1. Pakistan: 76 2. Syria: 24 3. Somalia: 12 4. Egypt: 12 5. Afghanistan: 10 6. Yemen: 4 7. Libya: 2 8. Iraq: 1 Neh 6:3 So I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?"
- You and I have been called to walk in a manner worthy of the wealth we received in Christ. That calling also will be manifest in specific places where we are to build God’s Kingdom. In a sense we like Nehemiah are to rebuild the walls. We live in a broken world and because we love God our hearts are broken like Nehemiah and we accept the mission to rebuild the walls. In our nation we see walls that need rebuilding. After a long period of our nation being plundered by corruption we need our walls rebuilt. We need people that can help find solutions to the land issue so that we can build a nation where God’s plan for all people can be lived. You are rebuilding your life for God’s glory. As you are responding to the call to walk in a manner worthy you will face opposition, when you are stepping out in your gifting and calling to build the kingdom, you will face opposition. The enemy wants to entangle you in distractions and issues but we focus on God and set our hearts to do His will.