“Fulfilling Our God-Given Mission”
Nehemiah 4
Sermon Series: “Change Your World In 52 Days”
Introduction: Acts 13:36 says, “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption.” I believe that God has given each of us a purpose to fulfill in this life. We are called to be on mission with Him. Nehemiah is a great example of this truth. As we have seen previously in this series, he was used by God to solve a 140 year old problem in 52 days. What principles can we learn from his example about fulfilling our God-given mission?
1. We have a God-given mission. We have been talking about burden and mission a lot in the early part of this book. I want to help you see that every Christian has some God-given missions, such as (you may not have all of these but will have some):
A. Becoming like Jesus through walking with God (Romans 8:29).
B. Building a Christ-honoring marriage (Ephesians 5:22-33).
C. Striving to raise Christ-like kids (Luke 2:52).
D. Vocation (Colossians 3:23).
E. Building up God’s Church (Ephesians 4:12-13).
F. The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).
G. A special burden or calling (like Nehemiah).
2. Our mission will be opposed. Warren Wiersbe writes, “If you start building, you will soon be battling: so, be prepared!” Satan works through people (as was happening in this case), but our battle is ultimately a spiritual battle. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” We are battling the:
A. World (1 John 2:15-17).
B. Flesh (Galatians 5:16-17).
C. Devil (1 Peter 5:8).
3. Our mission must be fulfilled (v. 21-23). We are called to have a sacrificial, do what it takes kind of attitude that puts the Lord Jesus and His mission for us ahead of everything else in our lives.
4. Our mission will be fulfilled by: Dave Kraft writes, “It seems to me that in most leadership issues it is always a matter of combining what God can do with what I can do. I didn’t (and don’t now) believe that resting, trusting, and believing are opposed to working, sweating, and trying. The best leaders are those who carefully and prayerfully combine the best of trusting and working, of waiting and moving out.” We see this balance exemplified in Nehemiah 4. They fulfilled their mission by:
A. Praying and working (v. 1-9).
B. Building and guarding (v. 9-13).
C. Individual responsibility and team effort (v. 13-16, chapter 3).
D. Fighting and trusting God to fight for us (v. 16-20).
Conclusion: Are you doing what it takes to fulfill the mission Jesus has entrusted to you? We will all have to answer to our commanderin-chief for how we steward our mission.
