Sermons

Blessed Builders: Nehemiah’s Critics  Opening Illustration: Carry The Donkey A father, son, and their donkey were traveling from one village to another. The boy walked while the man rode the donkey. The father overheard a bystander say, “That’s a shame. Look how that man is making that poor boy walk.” Not wanting to be the object of criticism, the father and son changed places. The boy rode the donkey while the man walked. He then heard a woman comment, “Look how that boy on the donkey is making that poor man walk.” The father and son both climbed onto the donkey. As they traveled down the road, someone said, “Look how that man and boy are making that poor donkey suffer.” They both got off and walked. The people remarked, “Look at that stupid man and boy. They’re walking when they could be riding that donkey!  When they entered the next village, the boy was walking and the man was carrying the donkey! No matter what you do, someone will find fault. Openi...

Blessed Builders: Potential In Broken Walls Opening Introduction: A boy told his father, "Dad, if three frogs were sitting on a limb that hung over a pool, and one frog decided to jump off into the pool, how many frogs would be left on the limb?"  The dad replied, "Two."  "No," the son replied. "There’s three frogs and one decides to jump, how many are left?"  The dad said, "Oh, I get it, if one decides to jump, the others would too. So there are none left." The boy said, "No dad, the answer is three. The frog only DECIDED to jump." Point: Frogs are a lot like people right? It is easy to decide to do something but never do it.  How many of us have decided to lose weight but here we are…still chubby?  How many of you have decided to save money but here we are…the same balance in our checking account?  How many of you have decided to pay off your credit card debt but here we are…still in debt?   ...

Blessed Builders: Nehemiah’s Burden For The Broken God Doesn’t Call The Q ualified , He Q ualifies The Called! Background of Nehemiah: Nehemiah (“Jehovah comforts”) is a famous cupbearer, who never appears in Scripture outside of this book. As with the books of Ezra and Esther, named after his contemporaries (see Introductions to Ezra and Esther), the book recounts selected events of his leadership and was titled after him. Both the Greek Septuagint (LXX) and the Latin Vulgate named this book “Second Ezra.” Even though the two books of Ezra and Nehemiah are separate in most English Bibles, they may have once been joined together in a single unit as currently in the Hebrew texts. New Testament writers do not quote Nehemiah. Though much of this book was clearly drawn from Nehemiah’s personal diaries and written from his first person perspective (1:1–7:5; 12:27–43; 13:4–31), both Jewish and Christian traditions recognize Ezra as the author. The events in Nehemiah 1 com...