Nehemiah 3:15-5:13, 1 Corinthians 7:25-40, Psalms 32:1-11, Proverbs 21:5-7
Today is the 12th day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian coming to you from the steamy rolling hills of Tennessee, where we are in the thick of the summer. And it’s a great to be here with you today as we gather. Like every day, we gather around the Global Campfire move forward together. And, so, our next step forward leads us back into a book that we began yesterday, the book of Nehemiah. And, so, we’ll read from Nehemiah first before arriving back in first Corinthians, Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth. So, we are reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Nehemiah chapter 3 verse 15 through 5 verse 13.
Commentary:
Okay. So, when we were talking about the book of Nehemiah and getting going in the book of Nehemiah one of the things that I said is that if we just watch Nehemiah himself and the way that he conducts himself as a leader there’s a lot, a lot for us to take counsel in as we consider our own calling, as we consider the passions that we feel like our burning in her bones and as we seek the Lord’s direction. And, so, we watch this idea to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem materialize in Nehemiah. And then we watch Nehemiah pray and wait and plan and think and pray and then invite the king into the story and seek the king’s favor to go to Jerusalem, which he got. And then we watched him look the whole situation over in Jerusalem before he ever told anybody what was going to happen. And then he cast the vision and everybody working really really hard and things were progressing fantastically ahead of schedule even, which is what we would want, right, if we got this idea, and it starts to burn inside our heart and we pray and intercede and everything starts to fall in place and there’s like affirmation and permission to move forward and resources are there. And, so, we move forward. What we would want, everything to go smooth. And, so, things began smoothly, but anybody who has ever done anything probably knows like if you’re…if you’re on a long-term project of some sort obstacles are going to materialize in some way. Things aren’t going typically to just go all the way smooth, no problem. Let’s move onto the next smooth sailing win for us. Typically, we have to face challenges. And challenges did arise in Nehemiah’s story among the people. First of all, it’s just the taunting and ridicule and demoralization of the other people around who did not want to see this project up and move forward in any way and so they just start ridiculing and taunting people, intimidating people, right? And, so, they’re just out there going who do they think they are? They think they’re gonna build a wall? Even a fox could knock this wall over if it ran on top of it. They’re just like intimidating and demoralizing the people with their words. If you’ve ever been on a lengthy project that you are pouring your soul into, you are going for it with all of your heart and you have the words of discouragement all around you, that takes the energy, that takes the wind out of the sails and that was true for Nehemiah. Nehemiah didn’t go after the taunting people to get in a big big argument, a shouting match, all kinds of threats wasting all kinds of more energy. He turned to the Lord, basically saying, don’t forget what they’re saying. Like you sent us here to do this. Hear what they’re saying. He reaffirmed his dependence upon God for success, and they kept building. And that’s something for us to see. Nehemiah turned to God in the obstacles and kept moving forward regardless of the taunting and pretty soon they were half done. There was a wall around Jerusalem. It wasn’t a great wall, but it was half as high as it needed to be. They were halfway done. And then these taunting voices turned into threatening voices that…that they are…that…that that the enemies of the Jews who were rebuilding the wall will be attacked. And, so, the threat of just ambush and killing indiscriminately because people are spread out all around the city or the threat of a full on attack against the people in the city was actually a real thing. So, Nehemiah’s got a situation where they’re trying to rebuild this wall, but they could be attacked at any moment of any day at any time. And, so, Nehemiah turned to the Lord and then began to guard day and night the worksite. Nehemiah had to make some hard decisions because he needed to arm half of the workforce, while half of the workforce continued to build which means they had to slow to half pace, essentially, and everybody had to wear a weapon and be ready, which would slow things down further. And yet they were prepared if they were attacked, and they didn’t stop moving forward. So, they had obstacles coming against them that were real, even life-threatening and Nehemiah turns to God and arms the people to defend themselves and they keep going. Progress has slowed down considerably, but they keep moving forward. And then we saw this problem happening among the Jews, a demoralizing thing for a leader like Nehemiah to realize that…man, not only do we have threats from the outside, we have threats from the inside. Like everything is difficult. Maybe we have felt that at times, as we’re working toward something. Everything is difficult. Every step I take is hard on. Sometimes it’s like that. And we’re watching that in Nehemiah’s life. And in this case, people with money are exploiting people without money. They’re trying to build this wall. They’re trying to stay faithful to it. They’re also trying to feed themselves and their families. And there’s a famine. And, so, those with resources are exploiting those without resources and they’re exploiting their own brothers and sisters. And Nehemiah actually confronts his own people who are part of the same mission after the same goal. He confronts them, saying, look, look we’re doing everything we can to buy everyone back that we can and here you are like turning around and exploiting them and reselling them into slavery. Like, this is ridiculous. And once the perpetrators were confronted, when the light was shined upon the situation then they had to acknowledge what they were doing and they had to acknowledge that it wasn’t right and they had to agree to give back everything that they had earned through exploitation, which they did and to stop preying on their own people. So, basically in this rebuilding of the wall in the reading that we read today, we watched its leader Nehemiah face, taunting, ridicule, demoralization, the threat of attack, the need to create an armed force for security to protect themselves, the slowing of the project to half speed, problems from within the ranks, people going after each other inside this workforce, people exploiting other people. And Nehemiah is continues to turn to God and be devoted and to endure and to persevere because there is a goal in mind and that is that the temple of the most high God would be protected by a wall around the city. Watching Nehemiah should inform our aspirations may be convictions, dreams, goals, the things that we’re going after. What’s being modeled for us is character in leadership with a clearly stated goal and a willingness to endure to see that goal accomplished.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for the opportunity to have dreams and aspirations and goals, that we have the opportunity to take risks and move into things, and that Your spirit is here to guide us. May we learn from this story of Nehemiah. Because a lot of times we get a dream and the dream begins to fade when the dream actually becomes hard work and the dream fades more when we get discouraging words and the dream almost disappears when we feel threatened and the dream completely goes away when we feel betrayed from the inside, all things that we watched happen in our reading today. And yet we didn’t see the dream go away. We saw that it was continuing, and that Nehemiah was turning to You, and adjusting, adjusting and pivoting in such a way that things could continue to move forward toward the goal. Let that speak into our lives and into our situations we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hi, my name is Brooke I am calling in for the first time and I’m calling in because my family and I help a elderly woman who was previously homeless and, you know, we rent her a home and just try to help her to have some stability in her life and she struggles with mental illness and some other health problems. And anyway, it’s just very taxing because of her mental illness. You know, she just has very strong reactions to things and sometimes, you know, goes through spurts like right now where she won’t talk to me and she’s mad at me for things that I didn’t do and, you know, for not really reason at all. And anyway…and it just feels really hopeless sometimes. And I decided to call in because I just was thinking, you know, about her situation and other peoples situations with mental illness and how hopeless it can feel and I just know that it cannot be hopeless because God is capable of anything. And all of the ways that we fail and feel like we can’t help He can. And, so, I just asked that you would pray for my friend her name is Leda and just pray for her mental illness and for a miracle and that for hope, that there would be hope in this situation. Thanks. Bye.
Good morning beautiful dab family this is Latula from Los Angeles and I heard yesterday’s message August 7th and I was so touched by one of my fellow callers that called out the consistency and the commitment of the Hardin family how every morning they are for the last 13 years in her life speaking life, speaking words of promise, speaking words of wisdom and interpreting what the Holy Spirit has put into our brother Brian Hardin. And for the last year and a half…maybe almost two years I think I have been listening to the Daily Audio Bible consistently and I’ve grown. I feel myself just closer in my walk with the Lord and the long walk especially, the beautiful July 7th long walk. And I was so touched that she proclaimed, you know, like let us tithe, let us tithe into this ministry that is consistently there for us day and night the spoken word available and accessible to all. And that's…that’s something that touched my heart and I’m encouraged, and I’m touched and I’m going to act upon this call of action, and I plan to start tithing into this ministry. So, I encourage anyone who is also just getting pointed to, that we continue this beautiful G;obal Campfire. In Jesus’ name I pray. Thank you, Brian Hardin you are my pastor also, not just the one I go to. I do go to my pastor Justin and Marissa they’re amazing. Just so I love you all. Have a great day.
This is Larry from Iowa and today I come to you with…guys with sad and also a glad heart. It’s to do with part of my family. My…my sister passed away earlier this year. And at the same time my brother-in-law, her husband bond had cancer earlier and he went to chemo, and it went away. And this was about six months ago. And Bob is a firm believer in the Lord. And the cancer has come back now, and he just spent a week in the hospital taking chemo and the chemo wasn’t working. And, so, they returned him to his home and called in Hospice. And I just ask you to pray for Bob and let him have the peace that passes all understanding or heal him, whatever the Lord desires. I thank you. I listen to you every morning and I hear you guys pray. I just ask you to pray for Bob today. Thank you.
Good morning DAB family my name is Sandy I want to be known as I’m Rooted. I’m from Lancaster CA. I have a client, I’m a hairstylist, I have a client that has a sister, her name is Rasheeda. I’m so sad because she’s been missing since August the first. She was last seen with two guys and a girl. They found her car burnt up and she’s still missing. And I would like for everyone to pray for her, that she would be found real soon. She has two children and I’m just I’m just really sad. I did her hair for a while. But just to think that somebody has taken her and what they could have done to her. But I know God is in control of all things and that He will bring her home safe. So, I know with all of us coming together and praying that God will answer the prayers because His word says when more than one are in agreement that His will will be done. So, DAB family let’s come together and pray that Rasheeda would get home safe to her children. And that I pray for the young people that’s involved…that’s involved with this and I hope that God will put the right things on their mind and their heart to do the right thing also. Have a blessed day DAB family.
Hello, my name is Patrick from Calgary AB Canada. I’m just asking for prayer because I’ve been a sickly person ever since I was born and seems like one thing after another. I’m 62 now and I just keep getting sick. I keep ending up in the hospital, chronic sickness. And I know it’s an attack of the enemy. I know he wants to try and take me out but it’s not going to happen because greater is He that is in me than he is that is in the world. So, I’m asking for prayer that I will just experience freedom from chronic sickness. It’s gotta stop. It stops because the Lord says that He intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father. So…and I know that people are praying around the world and appreciate all the prayers for this to go and be done with once and for all. Because God has not given me a spirit of fear but of power of love and a sound mind. I have bipolar disorder too and I just want to be healed. I’m sick of this bipolar. Just tired of it. Just tired of the enemy’s attacks. And I know it says in James 4:7 to resist the enemy and he shall flee. So, I try to do that on a daily basis…well actually on a minute basis because he attacks my mind. But anyway, I appreciate all the prayers. Thank you so much DAB community. Bye for now.
Hello this is Maurice Woodson calling from Indianapolis IN and I’m calling about my pastor friend John from Pittsburgh. His wife of 48 years was called home to heaven a few weeks ago and he and his children sent her on a wonderful home going service. At this time I’m calling to request prayer for him and his family as they go through the grieving process of losing a mother and a wife. And I ask for John for prayer for him because he has to continue to be a pastor as he grieves the homegoing of his wife. God bless you.