1. Welcome To Our Services This Morning
January 9, 2011
"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth"
(Jesus of Nazareth from John 4:24)
This morning's Scripture reading is...
Nehemiah 4:9-23

3. Brief OT History 722 BC northern tribes of Israel fall to Assyrians
Assyria falls to Babylon BC
586 BC Solomon's temple destroyed by Babylon
539 BC Babylon falls to Persia (Cyrus)
decree of Cyrus (Ezra 1:1-4)
Zerubbabel, Jeshua etc (Ezra 2)
516 BC temple in Jerusalem rebuilt (Darius I)
457 BC Ezra the priest returns to Jerusalem
Artaxerxes king of Persia
444 BC Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem
Nehemiah 1:1-3, 2:13-16

4. Plea of Nehemiah (Neh. 2:17)
how did the people respond?
the people worked! (Neh. 3)
the secret of their success (vs.20)
Plea of Jesus (Matt. 28:18-20)
the people worked! (Acts)
the secret of their success (Ro. 1:16, 10:14)

5. Problems of Nehemiah Problems of Jesus
enemy working against them (Neh. 4:1-11)
they fought the enemy! (Neh. 4:13-14, 19-20)
they won the battle but kept fighting (Neh. 4:15-23)
Problems of Jesus
enemy working against us (Eph. 6:10-20, 1 Pet. 5:8)
fight the enemy! (1 Pet. 5:9, Jam. 4:1-7)
win or lose, keep on fighting (1 Jon. 4:1-6)

6. Problems of Nehemiah Problems of Jesus
manpower vs. work to do (Neh. 4:19)
Jerusalem acres
less than 50,000 people available
limited in effort available (Neh. 4:16-17)
Problems of Jesus
manpower vs. work to do (Mat. 9:35-38)
Beaufort County sq. miles (land)
2010 population - 155,215
members of this congregation - 51
limited in effort available
jobs, school, eat, sleep, family, study
phone, , snail-mail, weekends!!

7. Solution of Nehemiah Solution of Jesus
the walls didn't build themselves (Neh. 4:6)
Solution of Jesus
people don't convert themselves (Rom. 1:16, 10:14)
Jesus doesn't ask us for miracles
Mat. 25:14-15, Eph. 4:11-13, Rom. 12:6-8