Nehemiah 2:11-18

One of the challenges we face as modern Christians is what I will call the “point of identification” challenge. Here is what I mean by that: when we come to the Bible we are dealing with a book that affirms itself, how do we know that the Bible is relevant and necessary and transformative for us today? It’s own witness affirms that. the Bible is in fact a living and active word, according to the witness of Hebrews 4:12 and what it ought to do is judge our thoughts and attitudes and as we come to this word what we should be prepared for is that it will change us, it will transform us.

But the point of identification challenge also addresses the practical reality of the cultural, social distance we have from when it was written. These things that happened, happened in real time and real space in human history but the happened in real time and real space in a time in history that it is hard for us to identify with. So if you are finding it challenging to identify with what we read in scripture, I understand where you are, but I also know we have the ability to move beyond that. People have been growing in the grace and knowledge of God for centuries the church cannot be stopped and the purposes of God cannot be stopped, but we have to bring our heart and our attitude to the table and lay it bear before God. Paul gave us this witness in Philippians 2:12-13 (ESV) 12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

So what we bring is an attitude of being willing to put in work. If you are here today as a new Christ follower, knowing Jesus deeper and more intimately doesn’t just come, you’ve got to put in work. For older believers we’ve still got a lot to learn, we’ve got to put in work and if you are here today or watching on our livestream and you have not yet entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ, first I want to thank you for taking a bold step to at least listen to what we have to say and considering what it is we believe as Christ followers and you also are going to have to put in work keep coming and keep listening. But here is the joy as we put in work as we work out our salvation with fear in trembling, God is working, he puts in work, he puts in the work that we can’t in order to open our hearts and our minds to know him, to experience him more fully.

As we continue our series Everyday Leaders, Biblical Leadership Principles for Every Christian we are focusing on individuals who have done that, they put in work. They are men and women who we see working out their salvation with fear and trembling and we see God working in their lives. But what see is that although God worked in them to do amazing things, things chronicled for every human being to see throughout history in the pages of scripture, what we also see is everyday people. People we can identify with; part of this series is giving you a context for overcoming the point of identification challenge. These are real people who had real jobs, real failures, but also characteristics about them that made them great leaders, with leadership characteristics that all of us can replicate no matter what our lot in life is and today we will look at a leader who was a civic employee. Today we are looking at the bold leadership of Nehemiah. Open your Bible with me to Nehemiah 2 starting at verse 11.

To help set up where we are studying this morning, the events that happen in the book of Nehemiah occur after the Israelites have been in captivity for about 150 years. They were conquered by the Babylonians, who were later conquered by the Persians and the reason that’s important is because that in the time period we are reading about there had been generations of Israelites who were born in captivity, living in Jerusalem wasn’t their reality, li