Why God Never Intended You to Do It Alone | Nehemiah 2–3 | Week 2

Everyone wants to make a difference, but too often we try to carry the weight alone.

In Nehemiah 2–3, we discover that God never intended His people to build His kingdom by themselves. As Nehemiah casts a God-centered vision, ordinary men and women come together to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem—each faithfully serving the section God placed in front of them.

This message reminds us that Christ is still building His people through His people. Whether you're leading a team, serving in your church, raising a family, or simply wondering where God wants to use you, this sermon will encourage you to trust God's vision, embrace your role, and build alongside others for His glory.

In this message:

Why God-centered vision inspires action
The power of ordinary people working together
Why every believer has a role in God's kingdom
How Jesus builds His Church through His people
What it means to faithfully build the "section of the wall" God has given you

📖 Scripture: Nehemiah 2–3

If this message encouraged you, be sure to like, subscribe, and share it with someone who needs the reminder that they were never meant to build alone.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

I am Rob Mancuso, and I serve here as your adult ministry pastor. So just want to again welcome you, whether you're here in person or you're joining us online. It is always a privilege and a joy to open up God's Word and study God's Word together. And this morning, we'll be continuing our foundations of biblical leadership series through the book of Nehemiah. And as Pastor David taught us last week, leadership can be defined as influencing people to bring about God's intended plan. Influencing people to bring about God's intended plan. Now, for those of you who may not know, I spent 25 years in the federal government. And over those 25 years, I saw some really good examples of leadership and some not so good examples of leadership. Now, I'm kind of a nickname person, so we'd always kind of have nicknames for the not so great examples. Such as the proc the perpetual procrastinator. Now, this is the boss that no matter what you asked for, he would give it to you late and then would ask you why something was late that you had to do. Ever work for somebody like that? The next one is the holiday hypochondriac. This is the boss who seems to tragically fall ill right before or after three-day weekends. Now, got a lot of giggles here, so the lastly, the lastly, and my personal favorite, is the master delegator. This was the boss who could give a master class TED talk on how to push their work on other people. It didn't matter how big or small the task was, they always found a way of coming up with a million reasons to let you do their work for them. Ever work with somebody who is a master delegator? Now, because of these bad examples that the especially the master delegator set, for me, I've always had a very unhealthy view of delegating. And to be transparent with you this morning, delegating has always been kind of a dirty word for me. I just something it's it's something I still struggle with. I'm I'm I love seeing problems and solving problems. I love getting stuff done. Now, in high school, I wasn't, this may be a shock, I wasn't very athletic. Okay? Too many laughs up here. I have no idea what it's like to score the winning touchdown or hit the winning home run. You know what I do know? What it's like to cross things off my to-do list. And I really assume there's really no difference between the celebration of those two things. So, as a person who takes responsibility seriously, why would I ever dump my job or my responsibilities on other people? Now I'm gonna be even more transparent as we're studying the book of Nehemiah. If I was in Nehemiah's shoes, I guess that means it would be the book of Rob. Now that's very scary. It would be a very, very short book. And this is how it would read. Identify the problem. The walls are down, they're in ruin. I come up with a solution, rebuild the walls, and then because I don't like delegating, I start the impossible task of rebuilding the walls by myself. And I get burned out and I get angry because no one else is helping, even though people are coming alongside saying, How can I help? But I don't want to burden them. Then I have a bad attitude and I leave a trail of hurt feelings. The end of the book. Very quick book. Now, let's be honest. Does that, I know there's some other doers out here, does that resonate with anybody else? Okay, I got a couple hands. Good, it's not just me. Now, although this story may sound funny, please don't ask my family how true it actually is. Now, another true story. When I first started working at Grace Church, several of my coworkers, especially my fellow pastors, encouraged me to delegate some responsibilities. Now, inside I scoffed at that. I'm like, why would I give my responsibilities to other people? I don't want to be in master delegator. I don't want anybody to ever call me that. But here's what I learned. By not delegating responsibilities, I was actually robbing others of joining in on kingdom work. Now, how? That's because my view of delegating was wrong. True delegating isn't throwing your responsibilities and tasks on others. This is what delegating is it's teaching them, empowering them, supporting them, and ultimately discipling them to do kingdom work. It's coming alongside people to expand God's kingdom. Well, why is this important? Well, this is important because God cares about multiplication for his glorification. God cares about kingdom multiplication for his glorification. When we fail to delegate, when we fail to bring others alongside us to helping kingdom work and accomplishing his work, what we're actually doing is prioritizing our own glorification at the sake, at the expense of God's glorification and kingdom multiplication. Now, the book of Nehemiah gives us an outstanding example of how God uses his people collectively to accomplish his intended plan. Which in this case was rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. But I want to be really, really clear about something this morning. This isn't, this sermon isn't a leadership talk about what we can do, what we can build, how we can accomplish great things. Yes, we can and we will learn things about leadership through the book of Nehemiah, but this book isn't primarily about Nehemiah, and it's not primarily about leadership, and it's not primarily about rebuilding walls. This book, since it's God's word, is about God. It's about what God does. It's about what God restores. It's about how God graciously uses ordinary people to accomplish his purposes and his plan. Ultimately, Nehemiah points us forward to something even greater. Because God restores his people through Christ, he invites his redeemed people, which are us, to build together, and not for our glory, but for God's glory. Amen? Amen. We're gonna pick up exactly where Pastor David left off last week. So please open with me, whether you have a Bible or a Bible app, to Nehemiah 2, and we're gonna start in verse 17. And I want you to listen to some of the words that I emphasize. Nehemiah 2, starting in verse 17. Then I said to them, You see the trouble we are in? Jerusalem lies in ruins. Its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. We will no longer be a disgrace. So and we will no longer be in disgrace. I told them about the gracious hand of my God on me, and what the king had said to me. They replied, Let's start rebuilding. So they began this good work. But when Sanbal the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Gishim the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. What is this you're doing? They asked. Are you rebelling against the king? And I answered them by saying, The God of heaven will give us success. We, his servants, will start rebuilding. But as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it. Now this brings us to our first point, which is God-centered vision inspires action. God-centered vision inspires action. Nehemiah understood that God was calling him to accomplish something absolutely incredible, and he did not attempt to accomplish this alone. Nehemiah clearly identifies and lays out the problem. Jerusalem lies in ruins. The walls are rubble. The gates are burned. And because of that, they're in disgrace. Was Nehemiah to blame for this? Well, no. He was in Persia serving the king. But he takes ownership over the problem and doesn't use accusatory language. Like, people of Jerusalem, how did you let this happen? Have you seen the wall? Instead, he uses inclusive language. Look at the uses of us and we. It's clear that Nehemiah's speech, it's not only honest, he doesn't sugarcoat the problem, but it's also encouraging and invitational. If we as Christians take Jesus at his word, and we do, then it means out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So what was the abundance, what was the overabundance in Nehemiah's heart? It's full trust in God. It's right there. And that's how godly leadership is. If we believe that God is who he says he is, and he can do what he says he will do, then we can be encouraged and inspired and share that hope with others through our words. Godly leadership doesn't lead through guilt or fear or pity or even worse, manipulation. Nehemiah didn't give his speech like Eeyore. You see the trouble we're in. Jerusalem lies in ruins. Let's rebuild so we're not a disgrace. I mean, how is that inspirational? Does that inspire you at all to do anything? How does that influence others to bring about God's intended plan? Not only that, Nehemiah just doesn't lay out the problem and just throw up his hands. Like, I'm Italian, I'm good with using my hands. Do we ever do that? He boldly lays out the solution. Come, let us rebuild the walls. And he supports the entire thing with godly vision. It's no coincidence that they respond with, let's start rebuilding after he shares with them how God's hand was at work throughout the entire process. Godly vision always proceeds, meaning it comes before action. We don't run in the direction and kind of ask God to catch up with us. We seek God through prayer and through fasting, exactly as Pastor David shared with us last week. We go in the direction that God is moving. Now, have you ever seen the movie Braveheart?

unknown 10:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Okay. I place this inspirational speech by Nehemiah right up there by the one with William Wallace. And I'm going to need your help here. Where he says, They may take our lives, but they can't take our freedom. Oh, that was weak. Come on, freedom, right? It's the 4th of July weekend. They can take our lives, but they may never take our freedom. Nehemiah's people responded likewise to his speech when they said, Let's start rebuilding. There was an excitement behind it. We see that Nehemiah understood the importance of shared responsibility and he couldn't do it alone. He doesn't say, I'm going to rebuild these walls, or you know what? You all are going to rebuild these walls. He uses the words, us and we, even in the face of adversity, Nehemiah encourages them with, who will be responsible and who will bring about the outcome? The God of heaven will give us success. Nehemiah understood that he wasn't called to do this work alone, but that he was responsible for leading, for encouraging, even correcting at times, the people to accomplish this God-given task. Now, before we get to our second point, I gotta ask us a very pointed question this morning. What do our words reveal about our heart? What do your words this past week in person, online? Hello? Reveal about your heart, reveal about the abundance in your heart. Nehemiah's heart was fully exposed, and in that moment we saw a bold and confident trust in God and a love of others. His words were an inspirational call to action. How about our words? Our words with our spouses, our words with our children, our words with our neighbors, our words with our coworkers. Do our words, like Nehemiah's, inspire others to bring about God's plan? Or do they tear people down? Do they discourage others? Now, if we struggle in this area and we do, I do, let's this morning, let's each of us repent of that and pray that God would bring about a deep heart change in that area. Amen? Amen. This leads us to our second point. God's people build together. Please flip with me to the third chapter of Nehemiah. And I just want you to take a moment to look through it really quick. I bet that when you see the third chapter of Nehemiah, it's easy to go, oh no. This looks just like numbers. It's another genealogy of names that I can't pronounce. And then press the snooze button until you get to chapter four. None of us have ever done that. Now we're going to read verses one and two and then seven through twelve. Eliashib, the high priest, and his fellow priests, went to work and rebuilt the sheepgate. They dedicated it and set its doors in place, building as far as the tower of the hundred, which they dedicated, and as far as the tower of Hananel. The men of Jericho built a joining section, and Zakor, son of Emri, built next to them. Now to verse 7. Next to them repairs were made by the men of Gibeon, and Mizpah, Melatiah of Gibeon, and Jadon of Marenith, places under the authority of the governor of Trans Euphrates. Uziziel, son of Harheah, one of the goldsmiths, repaired the next section, and Hananiah, one of the perfume makers, made repair next to that. They restored Jerusalem as far as the broad wall. Rephaea, son of Hur, ruler of the half district of Jerusalem, repaired the next section. Adjoining this, Jedeah, son of Harumath, made repairs opposite his house, and Hadish, son of Hashaboniah, made repairs next to him. Malachiah, son of Haram, and Hashab, son of Pehath Moab Moab, repaired another section and the tower of the ovens. Shalom, son of Haloish, ruler of the half district of Jerusalem, repaired the next section with the help of his daughters. Now, what's remarkable, and I strongly encourage you, read the third chapter of Nehemiah. Because what's remarkable is that in this book of Nehemiah, we don't see God outwardly or visibly perform a single miracle. We don't see seas parted or bricks come down from heaven to be built on the wall. We don't see any of that. But I argue that chapter three is truly miraculous. We see everyday people, we see priests, we see goldsmiths, we see perfume makers, we see officials and politicians and merchants and sons and daughters and entire families all working together to accomplish the task that God has set before them. We also read that builders came from Jerusalem districts, from towns across Judah and even further regional areas. This shows us that rebuilding the wall wasn't just a project for those living in Jerusalem. We see that proximity isn't required for participation. So that teaches us that godly leadership invites individuals from across the community, not just those closest to the need. What we see in Nehemiah 3 are people being obedient and being faithful to accomplish the task that God had laid before them. And we learn that God can also accomplish amazing works through consistent obedience rather than just spectacular moments. Now, the Bible is full of those spectacular moments, but this is a miracle that was done through consistent obedience. This repeated phrase through chapter three is the repeated phrase is next to him. This paints a picture of God's people working shoulder to shoulder, each accompanying or accomplishing, excuse me, their portion of the wall. There wasn't one person responsible for building the entire wall, but every person was responsible for building something. And what was the result? We see in chapter 6 that this wall was rebuilt in 52 days. Now that is truly miraculous. And let's not forget how this started. By Nehemiah seeking God's will by prayer and fasting, by him sharing godly vision with the people. Nehemiah's God-centered vision didn't just inspire emotion, didn't just make people, well, that's kind of really sad. I feel sorry about that. No, it created godly purpose, and godly purpose inspires action. When Nehemiah told them, Come, let us rebuild, he reminded them the God of heaven will give us success. He gave people a shared mission and a shared confidence in God's work so that everyone could take ownership of their section and keep on building one next to another. Have you ever been part of a project or maybe on a missions trip where you're working side by side to accomplish something for the kingdom? I remember one of my first trips to Boca Chica, Colombia, and we were building latrines and water filters. And it didn't matter how hot it was, and it didn't matter how heavy the bricks were. It was a joy to be working for kingdom purposes with kingdom people. You will see this extremely clearly. Well, you what you don't know is behind the scenes have been a team of people working for BBS, but starting right after the service, you can see that right here. This entire stage will be transformed for VBS. The entire hallway, when you come back next week, this entire church is going to be looking, is going to look differently. And what we have are kingdom people doing kingdom work, as Pastor Mike shared this morning, getting ready to share the gospel with hundreds of kids at VBS. We see this idea in the New Testament in Romans 12, where Paul says, For just as each of us have one body with many members, these members do not have the same function. So in Christ, though many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith. If it is serving, then serve. If it is teaching, then teach. If it is to encourage, then give encouragement. If it is giving, then give generously. If it is to lead, do it diligently. If it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. In Nehemiah 3, all people, different gifts, different talents, different age groups, all empowered and working together to accomplish God's plan. Was it easy? Absolutely not. In Nehemiah 4, 6 it says, So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart. We later read in Nehemiah 4 that the people were hungry, and there were constant taunts and threats by Sanbalat and Tobiah. Now Nehemiah led them, encouraged them, and defended them through it, and they kept on building. They worked side by side until the work was finished. Now we're not going to touch on this this morning, but this story, it also reminds us that when you're doing God's work, oftentimes that may bring hardship and persecution or opposition. Now, before we get to the last point, I want to address one thing because sometimes it's an important thing that we may miss. Why was it so important to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem? The broken walls weren't merely just an eyesore or a community problem. It pointed to a spiritual problem. Jerusalem was a city associated with God's name, God's promises, God's worship, and the coming Messiah. Its ruined condition was a reminder of the shame that exile brought and the consequences of years of ignored sin and God's judgment. What broke Nehemiah's heart wasn't that there was a city in ruins, although that was certainly part of it. What broke his heart that was close to 140 years, there was spiritual complacency regarding the city of God being vulnerable and disgraced, which leads us to our last point. Christ builds his people through his people. Christ builds his people through his people. So how does this story, which happened nearly 2,500 years ago, impact us today? As Christians, we're not called to go to a city of Jerusalem and walk through walls and gates and go to the temple, visit a physical temple to worship God and make sacrifices. By the time Nehemiah came to Jerusalem, the temple had already been rebuilt, and you can read all about that in the book of Ezra that comes right before the book of Nehemiah. Even though the temple was a real place of worship for God's people, it was always pointing us to something greater. God's presence in the people, excuse me, God's presence in the temple always, always reveals his heart to dwell with his people. All of the temple sacrifices, the blood of bulls and the goats and lambs, all pointed us to the final sacrifice. The final sacrifice of the perfect, spotless. Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. Now, this, my friends, this is the good news of the gospel. Jesus Christ, fully God, fully man, took on human form and lived the perfect, sinless life that we can never live. He willingly gave up his life and died for us on the cross. Not as the payment for his sins, he didn't have any, as the payment for our sins. And on that third day, his resurrection is the evidence and guarantee that that sacrifice was accepted and that we serve a risen Savior, not a dead one. Amen. So now on, on this side of the cross, worship isn't centered on a temple. Worship isn't centered in a city. Because of Jesus, the Spirit of God no longer resides in a physical temple, but dwells in each and every believer. For some of you this morning, the question isn't what are you building? The question is, do you know that apart from Christ, you're broken? Maybe this is the first time you've really heard the gospel. Maybe you've heard it a hundred times. But I want to invite you today to say yes to Jesus. Are you tired of striving to please God? Are you tired of trying to earn what only Jesus can give? The gospel tells us that there's absolutely nothing we can do to earn heaven, earn forgiveness, or earn God's favor. God's favor only works through the work of Christ. The Bible says if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. You can't build your way into the kingdom. You only receive the kingdom by grace through faith. Because Jesus already accomplished the work we can never do on our own. Now, if that's you today, I just want to encourage you to take the yes card that's in the seat pocket in front of you and fill it out and bring it to the next steps area right after service. We would love to give you a study Bible, and not only that, we want to celebrate this decision with you. Now, for others of us, we realize God isn't calling us to build a wall, but Christ is calling us to care for broken people and boldly share the gospel. And make no mistake, we're still called to build and we're still called to work side by side as a church to accomplish God's plan, but we don't build because we're trying to earn God's love or his favor. We build because we've already received God's love. We need to ask ourselves: has our understanding and appreciation for Christ and the gospel, has our appreciation of those so transformed us that we're willingly to join him in our work? It's not about information, it's about transformation. On multiple occasions, we see Jesus empower his disciples to accomplish God's plan. We see this in Matthew 10, where Jesus gives his disciple authority to drive out demons, to heal the sick, and he equips them, he delegates them, he sends them out to proclaim the kingdom of heaven. We see it again in Matthew 28, 18 through 20, in what we call the Great Commission. Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. Grace Church, notice where this great commission starts. It doesn't start with our authority. It starts with his. Jesus tells us, like Nehemiah told the people, God's hand is on us as his servants. He will give us success. We make disciples not because it's a good leadership principle. No. We do it because Jesus commands it. We baptize and teach because he's commissioned us. And we do all of this in obedience and confidence because he promises. He makes his promise. I am with you always. What an amazing, amazing promise. Now listen, it's easy to think, well, that commission is just for pastors or ministry leaders or overseas missionaries or the super spiritual. I'm sorry, but every single one of us have been given a section to build on this wall, so to speak. For some, the work is right across the street, like we saw in Nehemiah, where people repaired the section right near the homes. For others, maybe God is calling you somewhere overseas. Regardless of where he's calling you, we are called to be obedient. So, Grace Church, the last question I want to leave you with is who are we allowing Christ to build through us? Let's join Jesus in building people. Let's join Jesus in making disciples. Let's join Jesus in building families and leading small groups. Side note, if you want to be a small group leader, come and talk to me. We need them. Little advertisement there. Let's join Jesus in building relationships with neighbors and coworkers who desperately, desperately need the love and hope of Jesus Christ. Grace Church, let's strive to become a Jesus church. And as we build, let's remember this. Christ is the true builder. Christ is the cornerstone. Christ is our savior. Christ is our hope. Christ is the one who restores and rebuilds broken people. Christ is the one who takes broken people like me and like you and redeems us and fills us with his Holy Spirit and places us next to one another and says, Now go build for my glory. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we confess to you that oftentimes we are sometimes distracted by building our own kingdoms, Lord. Distracted by so many things of this world, Lord. Lord, I pray that you would put us on tasks to build your kingdom, Lord. Lord, I pray that we would look at needs and want to meet them, Lord. And I pray that we would do all of this, not in our strength, Lord, but by the strength of your Holy Spirit, Lord. Lord, help us to be an obedient people and help us to do all these things, Lord, because we just want to see you glorified. We want to see you magnified, Lord. We love you and we pray these things in your Son's name. Amen.