Planting the Vision (Part 2 of 2)

The Bible teaches that whenever we set out to do God's work, God's way, we should be ready to face doubters from within. Today on Truth for Life we'll find out why and learn how to be prepared with a response. Alistair Begg is teaching from Nehemiah chapter 2 looking at verses 11 through 20.

He's had his relaxation and he's now completed this investigation or examination and he is now at the point of exhortation. Then I said to them, verse 17, you see the trouble we are in. Now pause there for a moment, because the fact of the matter is they didn't. The people who had taken the night journey with them had seen nothing new. They just saw what they'd seen before.

Rex Harrison sings, I've grown accustomed to your face, where, you know, the girl, whatever her name was. And these people were essentially singing, I've grown accustomed to disgrace. Because as long as you live with disgrace, I mean, if your bedroom is full of clutter, the first day it gets full of clutter, it's like, oh, my bedroom is full of clutter. The second day is full of a wee bit more clutter. And eventually at the end of the week, it's not a bedroom anymore.

It's a wasteland. And someone comes in and says, I can't believe the state of this room. And the person says, this room is good. This is a nice room. What's wrong with this room?

I'll tell you what's wrong. You've grown accustomed to disgrace. You've grown accustomed to disgrace. And that's what had happened to these dear people. They were planting flowers in the broken-down walls.

They were having picnics on the site. And Nehemiah comes around and says, we had a major problem here. The interesting thing is, he didn't just say, you've got a problem. He said, we've got a problem. And not only do we have a problem, but I've got a solution under God.

And that's the real test of leadership. Now, if you think for a moment that this was an easy challenge facing Nehemiah, or if I think that, I'm really at odds with the understanding of it. Because Nehemiah was confronted by insurmountable odds. Can you begin to imagine how big these stones were that the wall was built with?

Have you ever been to Jerusalem and seen the foundations for the temple of David? I mean, these things are unbelievable. Nobody on a women of fancy would suggest this.

That's why he wasn't on a women of fancy. And he was confronted by a group of people who were presumably thinking along all kinds of different lines. There were doubtless some in the group who were saying, you know what? This is out of our league. We can't do this. Every time that leadership leads, there'll always be a group of people saying, we can't do this. This is out of our league.

And the task of leadership is to show how we may under God make progress there. Some of them were saying, we tried this before and it didn't work, because that was exactly what had happened. And there are always people like this.

Oh, we tried it once. You can't do that. Or perhaps most debilitating of all, to send a word around, this is how I feel and a great number of people feel the same way as me. You never know who these people are, incidentally. It's always a great number of people feel as I do. And they look over the shoulder of the person to see where they are. They're non-existent.

It's the imaginary friend of the seven-year-old girl multiplied to the nth. But anyway, and the problem is they say that we're just not excited about this. And until we get excited about this, we would really like simply to maintain the status quo. The status quo? What is status quo? What is status quo when we're surrounded by communities that think religion is an esoteric interest and have no notion of standing before the benchmark of the holiness of God? We know not status quo. There is only forward or backwards.

There is no standstill. And now am I, in exercising leadership, faced the challenge that comes with that. Now, clearly, think it out. So somebody says, This is out of our league. Somebody says, We tried it, and it didn't work. Somebody says, We're not excited.

Ask yourself a question. You've just come up to Jerusalem. You've come nine hundred miles. You've been praying for four months about coming.

And this is what you get. Do you not think you get sufficient reason to high-tail it back to Susa? Goodness gracious, working for the king was easy compared to this.

I'm out of here! Why did he stay? Because God had put it in his heart to do. Why did David Brainerd stay all these years amongst the American Indians? Because God put it in his heart to do. How did Carey labor for 18 years in India without seeing a convert? Because God had put it in his heart to do.

Why did Gladys Aylward, four foot nine or ten inches tall, take a train all the way to London into mainland China and bury herself as the little woman amongst the children of China? Because God had put it in her heart to do. And I ask you again, what is it that you are doing, and you're doing it because God put it in your heart?

Are you in this world to do something, or are you in this world for something to do? Now, all of that exhortation is a chronicle of despair unless you have some solid information to back it up. And of course he did. Verse 17, come on, he says, let's rebuild the wall of Jerusalem.

We won't be disgraceful anymore. Sensing the response of some, he then adds quickly this piece of information. Verse 18, I told them about the authority of heaven that was attending the project, the gracious hand of my God, and I told them about the authority of earth, what the king had said to me, and doubtless what he had given to him. He hadn't shown up in Jerusalem to say, You've got a problem. He'd shown up in Jerusalem to say, Hey, we've got a project. God had moved the heart of the king.

That's what we discovered last time in verses 7 to 9. The king had given his blessing to it all. He'd helped in the most practical of ways. And as he began to share this with the people, it began to inspire confidence in them. They began to think, Oh, well, you know, maybe you're not as crazy as we thought at first, Nehemiah. Well, that's interesting we didn't know that. And suddenly the word begins to take root in their hearts, and God is sowing and planting a vision within them. Oh, I never thought of it like that before. Oh, I never conceived of our being able to do that. You know, it never occurred to me that we could reach out with a gospel in that way. You know, I never saw myself as an individual in that way before. What changed? Exhortation plus information leads to application.

It's the sixth word. There was going to have to be careful planning of the tasks, specific delegation, as we're going to see. But the interesting thing is that in verse 18b, they replied, Let us start rebuilding. And so they began the good work. In other words, they went straight into action.

There was plenty of rubble to clear up. And so they started. At the grassroots level, where exhortation stands up and leads, the people follow.

It's true in all leadership, in the Bible and beyond. I brought one of my favorite leaders in the world with me this morning. Here he is. Yeah, I have to stand up close so you can see.

I give you his profile. It's the cigar that is sticking out of the front of his mouth. Churchill. Insurmountable problem.

1940. Gets on that little microphone in a dungeon in London. He was born with a stammer, born with a severe lisp.

The lousiest natural speaker that ever hit the streets of his city. Takes hold of the microphone and says, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. What is our aim? I can answer in one word, victory. Victory at all costs. Victory in spite of terror.

Victory. No matter what we face. And suddenly, down at the grassroots level, people are saying to one another, You know what? I think Churchill thinks we can knock these Germans back. Do you know that? Do you know he's actually suggesting that when you come home from your work, we could get a little deal going and now on the south coast, we could get some sticks and shovels and implements of destruction, which is a quote from Ellis's restaurant, and we could stand against the possible onslaught. So at the highest level from parliaments level, the leader speaks.

You want it in one word? Victory! And at the grassroots level, they start to sing. I'm not going to sing for you. I wish I'd bring someone up who could sing it.

This is what they start to sing. In a Cockney accent, Who do you think you are kidding, Mr. Itla? If you say Old England's done? We are the lads who will stop your little game. We are the boys who will make you think again. Mr. Brown goes off to town on the 831.

Half past three, he's home for tea and ready with his gun. Who do you think you're kidding, Mr. Hitler, if you say Old England's done? Now, what was that? That was leadership. These people had no concept of what was facing them. But the man with conviction and information and readiness stirred a nation to stand against the onslaught they would face. Do we need leadership like that in our days?

Loved ones, it is such a crying need on every front. Nehemiah, what an illustration. For without victory, says Churchill, there will be no survival. Without victory, says Nehemiah, there will be no wall. There will be only disgrace. There will be shame. There will be scoffing.

And that's exactly what there was. Because the second-last word is the word opposition. Opposition. As soon as they begin the good work, we come to the unholy trinity in verse 19.

Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem. All of these folks had a vested interest in making sure this didn't happen. Reminder, here's the principle. Whenever God's work is being done in God's way, opposition is inevitable. Leadership must always learn how to face and deal with the accompanying criticism and discouragement which will always attend the work of the gospel.

We need to be prepared to suffer abuse and scorn and mocking and ridicule. You've got to be crazy. You actually believe that the pivotal event of world history was the death of a Galilean carpenter called Jesus of Nazareth? That is exactly what I believe. You actually believe that there is a triune God and that by the power of the Holy Spirit, he redeems people's lives from destruction and makes them see what otherwise they couldn't see? That's exactly what I believe. You're really telling me that that book is inerrant and it is all-powerful and authoritative for all of life? That's exactly what I believe.

You've got to be totally crazy. It'll never happen. We'll knock your wall down. We will be here long after you're gone. You see, the task of the gospel is no place for the faint-hearted. The challenge of living for Jesus as a high school teenager is not for the weak and the mamby-pamby. It's for the tough. It's for the strong. It's for the brave. It's for the true. It's for the person who can stand against the tide.

This is the great need in our day, loved ones. Not a lot of back-clapping, happy, charlie junk pumping one another up with vague platitudes, but a realistic understanding of the world in which we live, an honest dependence upon the power of God, a complete commitment to the Scriptures, and a radical desire to make an impact for God and his glory. There is no time left for casual soldiers.

It is all committed infantry, and only the committed may apply, and only the committed may sustain it in the battle. For the opposition is intense and increasing. Without a major turn in the tide in this country, it is only a matter of time before churches such as ours will be forced to make radical decisions that are of public import concerning the way in which we do ministry. I am convinced of it.

There will be on the part of government the means to deny places their tax-exempt status if they will not comply with this or with that, and I guarantee where it will come first, it will come in the matter of human sexuality. And we will live to see it without a turn in the tide. So if you're thinking at all about being involved and being committed, understand this. The leadership knows that when God's work is done God's way, that all hell will let loose to pull down the walls in the moments of construction. The final word is the word affirmation. Affirmation.

Finish on a positive note, and so we do. They came and mocked and said, Are you rebelling against the king? And Nehemiah declares his dependence. He says, Listen, the God of heaven will give us success. In other words, if you think that this motley crew that's forming around me here is the key to the future of Jerusalem, you've got another thing coming. And that's the thing we must always remember, because we look around at one another and we say, What? With this group?

We're gonna take on the world? Look at these people! Well, you see, the thing is that God does extraordinary things to ordinary folks who are prepared to trust him.

That's the exciting thing. Not many of you mighty, not many of you noble, not many of you particularly well educated, not many of you phenomenally wealthy, because God has chosen that which is small to bring down the mighty, that which is weak to compound the strong, that which is foolish to show the wise how daft they really are. So he declares his dependence, and he illustrates with this great distinction. He says, Listen, guys, you don't have any place in Jerusalem. You don't have any share in it. You don't have any right to it.

You don't have any historic claim to it. Get out of here. Oh, can you imagine how the little people must have felt when they heard him saying that stuff? Because they'd been all around here all this time. They thought they were going to live and die with all this rubble. They thought this was as good as it was going to get. And Geshem and Tobiah and Sanballat, these folks were the influential. And they came up and they said, We're going to shut this down.

And Nehemiah stands up to them, says, Hey boys, out on your way. You have nothing to say in here. Okay? You say what you like about your state, why don't you come telling me about our church? Because this is church. We actually have something to say to your state, but your state ain't got nothing to say to our church. You have no historic claim. You have no right.

You have no place in these things. In May 1940, the German troops break through the French resistance. They skirt around the Maginot Line. Those of you who are historians of the Second World War, they get around the Maginot Line, they break down the French resistance, and they drive the troops out onto the beaches at Dunkirk.

They've got them. In the mind of the German, it is over. All they need to do now is blitz those people on the beaches, hundreds of thousands of them, and they will vanquish them, and they'll be able to proceed directly across the channel.

But they didn't. And the British Air Force fought at an odds of five to one against the German Luftwaffe and the bombers, and engaged them in the air for long enough for 300,000 British and French troops to be evacuated across the English Channel. An amazing intervention in history and the providence of God without question. June the 4th, 1940, Winston Churchill stands up in Parliament to explain the evacuation of Dunkirk. He makes this amazing speech, and those of you who have read his speeches will recall part of it, I think, because he concludes with these words, "'We shall not flag or fail. We shall keep on to the end. We shall fight in France. We shall fight in seas and oceans. We shall fight with increasing confidence and strength in the air. We shall do whatever it takes to preserve our island.'"

Now, people are listening to this with the threat of intervention across a stretch of water that is so small. And then you have these momentous words, "'We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets.

We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.'" "'And even if,' he said, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our empires from across the sea would carry on the task, armed and guided by the British fleet, until such time as the new world would rise to the rescue and liberation of the old.' And a nation rose to its feet and said, "'Let's go for it.'"

It was one week after Italy had declared its part in the war that Churchill made that speech, and it was one week seven days after June 4th that Franklin D. Roosevelt committed the United States materially and manpowerly to the task of the Allied forces in the Second World War. And what was the key? Under God, one funny little guy smoking cigars in a basement in London. And what was the key to the building of the wall? Some little guy called Nehemiah, crazy enough to believe that he could do unbelievable things with God. Can I ask you in conclusion this morning, as an individual, what are you trusting God for in your life that is so unbelievable in its magnitude that when it happens, it will be really clear that only God did it? And what about our church? Do you have any rivers you think are uncrossable?

You got any mountains you can't tunnel through? God specializes in things thought impossible. He can do just what no other can do. He is Nehemiah's God. He is our God. Let us serve him. Powerful, passionate message from Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. He's titled the message Planting the Vision.

Alistair returns in just a moment. As we're learning from Nehemiah's example, prayer ought to always precede any work we do for God. It's vital for work, but it's also essential for our day-to-day relationship with God. And yet many of us struggle to know what to say when we pray. Well, today we want to encourage you to download a free audiobook that gives you a pattern for prayer.

It's Alistair's book titled Pray Big. As you listen, you'll be inspired to pray like the Apostle Paul prayed. He prayed often. He enjoyed praying.

He found it exciting to ask God to move in bold ways to build his kingdom. You'll learn how to pray with the same hope and conviction today. The audiobook is only available for free during the month of October, so download Pray Big today at truthforlife.org slash pray big. And if our study in the book of Nehemiah has you excited as we see how God does extraordinary things to ordinary people, let me encourage you to watch the documentary we're offering today. It's called Revival, The Work of God.

And the film is yours when you donate to Truth for Life at truthforlife.org slash donate, or call us at 888-588-7884. Now here's Alistair with a closing prayer. Facing a task unfinished that drives us to our knees, a need that undiminished rebukes our slothful ease, we who profess to know him declare before his throne the solemn pledge we owe him, to go and make him known. Fill our hearts, Lord, with the same kind of dependency that Nehemiah showed, the same kind of humility, the same kind of vision, the same kind of drive and initiative. Grant that the overwhelming forces of evil and the unbelievable challenge that we face might be responded to in the power of the Spirit, in confidence upon the Scriptures, uniting for victory. Fill our souls, lead us in the paths of righteousness, and may grace and mercy and peace from Father, Son, and Holy Spirit rest upon and remain with each one today and forevermore. Amen. I'm Bob Lapine. While each person's faith is personal, tomorrow we'll see why it's not meant to be practiced in isolation. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.