FBC Morning Light – March 24, 2022

Well, a good Thursday morning to you.

Again, just a reminder of what's happening at our church on this coming Lord's Day.

Gordon Taylor is going to be speaking in the morning service.

He's spoken in our church before.

Of course, the services will be live streamed.

If you can attend in person, I encourage you to do that and to be here for Sunday

morning service.

If for whatever reason you're not able to get out to church on the Lord's Day, then encourage you to watch

the morning service at 1030 this Sunday morning, and Gordon Taylor will be speaking.

Again, next week, the morning light devotionals, I'm not sure what the status of

those is going to be and what they're going to look like if I'll be doing those somewhere while I'm on

vacation, or if you'll be seeing reruns or what.

I do intend to have the morning light continue next week, even though

I'm getting away for a few days of some rest and refreshment.

Today, we're again in the book of Nehemiah, and a couple of things stand out.

One of them in chapter three that really struck me when I read through that chapter,

and it may be one of those chapters that is tedious for you to read through because it's really a list of

names and where they worked and what part of the wall they worked on and they were

building, and they set up the gates in here and da -da -da.

That may seem a little tedious to work through.

One thing that strikes me about that is the point that God's

people, when a good measure of the unity of God's people is

when everyone, regardless of their so -called social status,

works together to accomplish that goal.

They do their part, they do what they can in that process.

That may be different for different people.

There may be, even in Nehemiah's rebuilding the wall, certainly there were people who had physical

limitations and were limited in how big a stone they could carry

or something of that nature, what exactly they could do in the construction process.

But everybody got involved in the way that they could.

That's a good indicator of unity among God's people.

It's always a blessing when you see that in the work of the Lord, how good

and how pleasant it is when brethren dwell together in unity, the psalmist says.

Indeed it is, to see people young and old, rich and

poor, come together and be united on a project

that needs to be done in the work of the Lord.

But as we've seen already in Nehemiah, even though that project is worthwhile and there's great

unity among God's people, it doesn't mean it'll be without opposition.

Because those who do not have a heart for God and really don't have a

heart for God's people and the welfare of the unity of God's people will do what they

can to undermine that unity and that project, that goal that is being

held out.

And again, we see this in Sanballat in chapter 4, when he

speaks before the people and he says, you know, what are these feeble Jews doing?

Will they fortify themselves?

Will they offer sacrifices?

And Tobiah joins in as well, and he says, whatever they build, even if a fox goes up on the wall,

it'll break down their stone wall.

You know, mockery can be a great

debilitating force.

To be belittled and be derided, it can be discouraging.

And this is, of course, exactly what Sanballat and Tobiah wanted to do.

Well, the question then comes up, how do we handle that?

What do we do when there are those who want to undermine the unity of God's

people and want to tear God's people apart and to stop God's people from working on

the project that is laid out before them, that God has given them to do?

How do we handle that?

Well, Nehemiah shows us.

Nehemiah says in verse 4 of chapter 4, here, O our God, for we are despised, turn their

reproach on their own heads and give them as plunder to a land of captivity.

In other words, what do we do?

We take it to the Lord.

We take it to him and let him handle it.

Vengeance is mine, says the Lord, I will repay.

We let him repay.

We let him deal with it.

Now, there may be occasions where certain things have to be done to protect God's people,

but only under the leadership of God's Word

and God's Spirit should those things be done.

In the New Testament, for example, there are plenty of instructions on what to do about

the divisive brother who wants to sow discord among the brethren and so forth, and how to handle them

and so forth.

But the thing is, God's given us instruction on that.

When these kinds of things come up, this kind of opposition comes up, we turn to God.

Lord, have you given us some instruction here?

What should we do?

How should we handle this?

If there is no clear instruction, no clear direction in that, then we hand it over to the Lord.

Just as another place, Paul says, I handed him over to Satan, that the body may

be destroyed, but maybe the soul will be saved.

You just turn that person over to the Lord.

This is what Nehemiah does.

He just turns that opposition over to the Lord.

Another thing to point out and just to be aware of, and we see this in chapter 5,

is that it seems that any good crisis gives an opportunity for

someone to take advantage of that crisis.

This comes out in chapter 5, verses 1 to 9, when some nobles are willing to

take advantage of the crisis for their own personal gain.

We see that even in our own world today, don't we?

How many times have we heard in the last couple of years this little idea, well,

so -and -so or such -and -such a group of people don't want to let a good crisis go to waste.

If I recall correctly, well, I won't even name the name because I'm maybe

not exactly sure of it, but I remember one top Democratic strategist, if I

can just use it generally like that, who made that very statement.

He said, we don't want to let a good crisis go to waste.

We want to take advantage of this crisis.

Some will take advantage of a crisis to the hurt and the oppression

of others.

That's exactly what happens in chapter 5.

For most of us, we just need to be aware of that potential that can happen.

For some of us, we need to be careful that we're not oppressors.

We're not taking advantage of other people when they face a crisis.

Instead, we want to come alongside them and help them out of that crisis and make their lives

easier in that crisis.

That's exactly what Nehemiah does.

We want to follow his pattern.

Some good thoughts to keep in mind from the book of Nehemiah today.

Let's ask God to bless them to our hearts.

Our Father and our God, we do thank you for these encouraging ideas from your Word

today.

We pray that we would not be discouraged by critics who want to undermine the unity of God's

people.

Instead, we as your people would rally around the work of the Lord and be

faithful in doing our part in it, regardless of who we are and where we are in life.

May we do our part.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Have a good rest of your Thursday, and may God bless you in it.

Good day.