Determined: I Am Doing A Great Work
“Why should the work stop while I leave it and come to you?”
–
Nehemiah was building a wall, and his enemies didn’t like it. They thought that he and the Jews were planning on overthrowing leadership, and that he intended to take the place of kingship. So his enemies sent messengers to try and persuade him to meet with them outside of his now-safe city, with the likely intention to ‘do [him] harm’ (, ESV). Reading this story we get the image of a leader sitting on a wall, a wall that he has helped his own people build, and comically shouting down to the messengers below. We don’t know if he was actually up on the wall himself (though how awesome would that be?), but we know that he was involved in the construction. He knows that his enemies are trying to accomplish two things – distract him from the task at hand, and lead him to his death. (Or, at the very least, severe harm!)
But he’s not having it. Nehemiah is so focused and determined on what he is doing, and so sure that it is the right thing to be doing, that he 
refuses to be swayed from his task. How great is this, that a man would have such faith in what he feels that he has been called to do that he can fight back against distractions and attempts to sway him? And that he would do it with such vehemence! The writing goes on to tell us that he turned away the messengers not just a few times, but 4 more times – his enemies were insistent and persuasive…. yet he carried on, without swaying. He stayed focused and intent on what he felt was right.
We, too, should be this way in our endeavors. We are called to “do a great work” – not a work of glorifying ourselves, but glorifying God. Be motivated by Him, by God, so that you can say with sincerity: “I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down.”
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3 And I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” (ESV)
2 Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to do me harm. (ESV)
The Fruit of the Flesh
The Passions of the Flesh
We are in our very nature sinful beings. We lust after that which does not improve us; we seek our own glory, we look to momentary happiness, run after fleeting shadows of righteousness, and there is no hope in these things. They will not satisfy our most deeply felt desires.
“19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” [–21, ESV]
At first glance, this passage indicates that ‘getting into heaven’ is an act of works: resolve yourself to not do these things, and you will inherit the kingdom. Seems simple right? Just be a good person, and you will be good to go – right on your way to salvation and great things. That’s not really what Paul is saying here, he goes on to say, after sharing the fruit of the spirit, “24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ” [, ESV]. God does a work in us so that when we become His children, these signs of the world slowly lose their hold over us. We begin to eschew the common signs of men after their own desires, and, instead to put on the robe of righteousness, again, through no merit of our own. Ephesians makes that clear “4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” [, ESV]
So, what does it take to shed the fruit of the flesh, and emit the fruit of the spirit? Faith in Christ, and submitting one’s whole life to Him. When we belong to Christ, it’s through God’s grace – getting what you don’t deserve; a dead person has no power to raise himself from the dead. We are made alive in Christ, through the grace of God, which gives us the ability to have faith.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
– [ESV]
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19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, (ESV)
24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (ESV)
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (ESV)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (ESV)
Knowledge Versus Wisdom
What’s the difference?
Rolling around the internet now is an image of a man wearing a shirt that says:
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.
Taken completely at face value, it’s a pretty funny statement, it redily brings to mind the idea of sitting down to enjoy a fruit salad full of grapes, strawberries, apples… and tomatoes. How awful would that be? You’d certainly assume the creator of that salad was, at the very least, unwise.
It’s often said that “those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” This is a wonderful statement, but I’d like to expand it a little bit here for a moment. Just because a person is aware of something doesn’t mean that he is going to act on that awareness, therefore it may be more accurate to rephrase the old adage as such: “He who doesn’t know history is doomed to repeat it; he that knows it and lacks wisdom, even more so.” Wisdom is the ability to act on the knowledge that you have.
The Bible provides wise counsel for many situations, and simply being well versed in it’s writings is often enough to know how to deal 
with situations as they arise – God has provided us with a pretty good instruction manual to live in his Word. Reading and studying the collective writings of generations of God’s people as they listened to Him, learned from their wrongs and dealt with enemies thousands of times more powerful than they, is about the best way to know what God would consider wise, and we also know that He provides wisdom to us directly. It is wise to study that which is given us to make us wise.
Be careful, though, that you do not simply read for the sake of knowledge. Knowledge is a powerful tool, but it’s completely useless without the wisdom to wield it, and even more dangerously, being full of knowledge without wisdom can lead to arrogance and pride.
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You Are What You Worship
We must be owned by something.
It doesn’t matter if it’s work, or family, a car, or the dog; maybe it’s your house, or it could even be your cell phone… The point is, there will always be something in your life that ranks as the most important. Maybe it’s Jesus. Maybe not. See, we as humans, we were made to worship something, and we will find something to worship. There’s not really any way around that. An executive (I’m thinking mid-80’s power broker, actually. It’s entertaining) might worship money, and that provides the drive he needs to focus on that pursuit completely, neglecting his family. His life becomes an image of what he worships – expensive cars, a huge house, wife with diamonds everywhere, a fat wallet, and easily impressed ‘friends.’ His outward appearance reflects what his heart desires.
Here’s another perfect example: Michael Jackson. When he died, people were wailing in the streets. When he touched some people, they 
would faint or freak out. I’m not saying it’s a special case – sure, plenty of musicians have experienced similar situations. But none has had the entire world enraptured quite as effectively as The King of Pop. And he was their King. They wore clothing to honor him. They folded their lives around concerts and appearances. And when they had nothing left, when he died, they lost a part of themselves. Their outward expression reflected their obsession. Some believe he is still alive.
Many things can be worshiped, and what you worship defines you. There’s a reason that the Bible states that “No one can serve two masters” [, ESV], there can only be one overarching obsession in your life. We should be so infatuated with Christ that He is working His way into every aspect of our lives, to where we are exemplifying Him in every facet of our lives.
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24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (ESV)
Hubris – The Danger of Excessive Pride
The dangers of excessive pride.
Pride is a dangerous beast. When we become prideful – when we allow ourselves to become the center of our own affection, we leave no room for God.
“Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;
a stranger, and not your own lips.”
This article has proven to be possibly the most difficult one I’ve had to write yet – I can never seem to get started on it, the draft has languished at the bottom of the drafts list for a month, and every time I do get started on it, something either comes up, or the content is so shallow and insincere that it’s just worthless. Pride is a difficult topic – it’s so easy to get to a place where we are completely blind to how full of ourselves we really are, and it’s even harder to write about because it’s not unlike picking at a just healed wound; it hurts and 
likes to bleed.
I think that’s why there’s so many warnings against it in the Bible – God knows how susceptible we are to pride and warns us often of the damage that it can do to us! Pride can quickly lead to a hardening of the heart; it’s easy to become so self-righteous that we can see no wrong in ourselves at all. Take Pharaoh for example; while his pride was more in the vein of “I won’t believe that your God has any rights over me,” he stuck with that idea for entirely too long. He was so obsessed with his right of rightness that he refused to see any reason when it came to the fact that his people were suffering and miserable. His arrogance and pride got in the way, all the way up to the death of so many children. I’m not saying that letting his entire labor force go was a decision to be taken lightly, of course not, his economy had grown to rely on them, but I’d like to think that it would only take one or two plagues before I saw reason were I in his position.
But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened (), and through that hardness he was stubborn, and unwilling to listen to reason. He was full of himself, and the power that he perceived that he had, and there was a very, very high price to pay for that impudence. Pride kills; it kills relationships, it impedes personal growth and ambition, and it tears us away from God.
I’ve compiled a list of passages that deal with pride. You can find them here: Pride passage list.
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2 Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;
a stranger, and not your own lips. (ESV)
12 But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses. (ESV)
Sing a New Song!
More than Just Tradition
1 Oh sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all the earth!
2 Sing to the LORD, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!
[ESV]
What a powerful passage! Sing to the Lord – we’re alive, we rejoice in His provision, bless His name, for He is great! The Israelites wrote many Psalms – or songs – to chronicle how great God was to them – to thank Him for His deliverance from Egypt, and generally for just being so awesome. This particular one – – was likely written by David as he was restoring the Ark of the Covenant, but the idea of singing a new song to the Lord is nothing new – it’s also mentioned in , , , and just to name a few. One thing is for sure – Israel was not afraid of singing new songs!
There is absolutely something to be said for remembering the old (, ), we are to reflect on the good things that God has done, and praise His name for salvation, deliverance, grace and mercy. We are to remember what His promises are, who He is, but that does not mean that we have to simply repeat the same songs that were sung in the past! Or God is a God of creativity! He gives us ways to express the work that He has done in us, through us, and throughout history! It’s important to be able to speak to a new generation – and coming up with new ways to speak to the current generation can glorify Him immensely.
If we hold on to the old songs, if we sing only the Psalms, then we are worshiping our God, yes. But we also run into the risk of doing things out of rote repetition, out of a sense of tradition. An argument could be made that rigidly holding onto a tradition’s whose very words contradict itself could fall more into a gospel of works than a gospel of Grace.
Rejoice, and Sing a new song to the Lord!
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96:1 Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth! (ESV)
96:1 Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!
4 For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
7 Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!
8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering, and come into his courts!
9 Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth!
10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!
Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.”
11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
12 let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
13 before the Lord, for he comes,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness,
and the peoples in his faithfulness. (ESV)
3 Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. (ESV)
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the Lord. (ESV)
98:1 Oh sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things!
His right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him. (ESV)
149:1 Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise in the assembly of the godly! (ESV)
7 Remember the days of old;
consider the years of many generations;
ask your father, and he will show you,
your elders, and they will tell you. (ESV)
9 remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me, (ESV)