why don't we all stand and we're going to read God's word together we're going to look at and read together Nehemiah chapter 6 and we're going to read verses 15 and 16 nehemiah chapter 6 verse 15 and 16 so the wall was finished on the 25th day of the month of Elul in 52 days and when all our enemies heard of it all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God let's pray father thank you for your word that brings light and life thank you for the privilege of being together together to look at your word and to study it and then to obey it and I pray that Holy Spirit you would anoint our time that you would use the gifts that you've given the body for the furtherance of your kingdom and the for the building up of your people and we humbly ask this in your name in Jesus name amen all right go ahead and be seated so in our text tonight we basically have three introductory words to three different sections and we're actually going to teach through verse 4 of chapter 7 so we're going to start in chapter 6 verse1 15 and we're going to move all the way through to chapter 7 verse 4 and there's three different sections that really come to light as we look at this verse 15 starts with the word so it's kind of a kind of an introductory word so the wall was finished then verse 17 starts off with moreover and then verse one of chapter 7 says now and so those are that's going to be our general outline for tonight so if you're taking notes or if you work mentally with like linear things and and outlines that's going to be our outline so the first one is so God's plan was successful the second one is moreover the enemy never rests so God's plan was successful moreover the enemy never rests and the third one from from chapter 7 verse one now and the title of that out part is protect what has been done so starting in verse 6 verse 5 or chapter 6 verse1 15 so the wall was finished on the 25th day of the month of Elul in 52 days so if we look at that that month for us would correspond with the month of October and this was 445 BC and it was literally about 6 months from the time that Nehemiah's brother came in to the capital of Persia till the time that the wall was completed it was about 6 months and only 52 days of actually building from the the from the first prayer to the final bolt was about 6 months and I just want to remind you guys you've probably heard me say it before but I want to remind you of what these walls were it was about 1.5 miles around the city 1.5 to two it's kind of a general general idea of of the wall around the city and they were three to four feet thick in some places eight but three to four feet thick and 15 to 20 feet tall and I know I've said that before but I want to I did some math i'm a contractor and I did some math and I broke it out that is 18,000 cubic yards of rock and mortar what is a cubic yard how do how do we how can I visualize that you say well a normal dump truck takes about 10 to 12 cubic yards and so if we take the very least 3 feet wide by 15t tall that's the very least doesn't account for the 8ft things doesn't account for the 20 foot tall that would have been 1,500 standard dump trucks of material 52 days and I'm not even referencing the archways and the gates and the extra work and the and the idea that there were 41 groups along this wall which would have been about every 200 ft there was a group of people working and probably there was a group of people cooking for those people that were working and there was guards guarding it this is such an undertaking it's hard to even fathom that it happened and this is the enterprise that was completed in 52 days by civilian workers who were most of them not masonaries or or or masons or wall builders we read that there were some of them were perfumemers some of them were jewelers and add to that they were literally fighting for their life they were holding a sword in one hand they were thinking about who's going to attack us they were staying up late they were sleeping in their clothes add to that the rich people were trying to sell their kids into slavery the taxes were through the roof and so they're having to mortgage their homes in their fields and they still built this wall in 52 days it's absolutely crazy let me put a different word on that impossible this isn't just unfathomably complex and difficult it's impossible and everyone around the Jewish workers knew it was impossible it was unmistakable that they had been aided in their efforts they had help they had assistance their enemies had surrounded the city remember on all sides they were surrounded by enemies and cut off earthly aid but it was useless for them to attempt to intercept the heavenly helper says there in verse 16 "And when all our enemies heard of it all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God." The King James version I love it in this sense it says what God hath wrought that's the idea of God's help what God hath wrought that's also the first Morris code message that was ever sent in the United States what God hath wrought or what God hath done and it is a fact that when God's enemies and therefore our enemies as well see the miraculous work of God accomplished by and through his people they are in awe and their own self-confidence falls their eyes are cast down that's the idea they they they almost don't feel like they can look up i want you to think with me for a second about the the country of China can you imagine what the CCP thinks about their 76-year campaign to stamp out Christianity in 1949 there were 300,000 Protestant Christians in China and if you go back even further to 1904 there's a there's estimated by Asia Harvest that there were 124,000 Protestant Christians in China 124,000 people who would say "I'm a Christian." Today although exact numbers are hard to determine various Christian research and church planning ministries report 85 to 100 million Christians in China the communist government reports on their white sheet that there are at minimum this is from the Chinese government 52 million Christians can you imagine how they feel it's the exact same way Sand Ballot the Hornite and Tobaya the Ammonite felt about this their eyes are cast down they're like "How can we stop this?" They're probably sitting around a table right now somewhere in Beijing going "We got to figure this out derek Kidner he's one of the gentlemen that I read his commentary for this he writes this "Their respect for the Jews and their God was increased and their so own self-esteem diminished." Listen to this part so the very size of the circle which San Ballot had managed to draw around Jerusalem brought all the wider recognition of God's power what a perspective think of the Israelites of old when Rahab was talking to the two spies in Jericho before it was destroyed she said this in Joshua 2:9 i know that the Lord has given you the land and that the fear of you has fallen upon us and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you like wax so for we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea when you came out of Egypt that's what happens to God's enemies when God works think of the early church after the radical preaching of Peter where 3,000 people were saved we read in Acts 2:43 it says this "And awe or fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles." God was helping his people and that's the only way this wall got built 1,500 dump trucks in 52 days so remember our verse starts out with so so God's plan was successful fellow believer Christian this is the testimony of the Bible this is the testimony of history this is the testimony of the church and this is the testimony of you these people had a mind to work remember when we read that verse and not just work though they worked accomplishing God's plan it was God's will that his people be brought back into the land of promise it was God who had placed this plan to rebuild the walls in Nehemiah's heart and mind verse verse three of Nehemiah I'm sorry chapter 3 11 of Nehemiah says "And I told no one God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem." God had put his will in Nehemiah's heart to build the walls do you think that there could have been failure someday Jesus Christ was going to walk within these walls and he would be arrested and crucified right outside of the walls as part of the overarching work of redemption so this work was always going to be successful why because it was God's sovereign design and will and God would underwrite it and give the power and the strength to accomplish the task it was the prophet Zachchariah writing about this time when he wrote "Not by strength not by might but by my spirit says the Lord." There was success guaranteed because it was God's work god's plan always succeeds i want to say that again god's plan always succeeds we just don't know what point we're looking at and it can feel like failure and it can feel hard and it can feel like sand ballots wanting to murder you just like it did the Jews and it can feel like the the burdens and the debris are too much just like it did for the Jewish people when they cried out and said the burdens are too heavy but we're only seeing a sliver of God's plan at that time think of Isaiah writing about God's plans in chapter 46:es 9-11 he says this "Remember this and stand firm recall it to mine you transgressors." It's all of us remember the things of old for I am God and there is no other i am God and there is none like me verse 10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done saying "My counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose i have spoken and I will bring it to pass i have purposed it and I will do it." Those are the words of God it was God's will that the wall be built 1500 uh dump trucks later and 52 days later they celebrated the building of the wall so Christian believer friend at foundry when we align ourselves with God's plans we will succeed this is not a promise of comfort or ease or even prosperity or numbers it really isn't but it's a promise of heavenly victory and spiritual fruitfulness it's a guarantee of a life welllived cororum deo and corormo is a Latin phrase that means before the face of God it's not always easy to be a parent it's not always easy to be a spouse it's not always easy to be a Christian but when we live like we're living before the face of God we are guaranteed success because we're living according to his plan it might not feel like success in the moment it certainly didn't in parts of this time in the build but I want to ask you do you want to be successful as a parent you want to be successful as a homemaker or as a man or woman that goes out to work outside of the home or perhaps as a student consider God's plans and align with yourself with them and do not fear you see fear is the tactic that our enemies use to misalign ourselves from God's plan that is revealed in scripture nehemiah knew that it was God's plan to rebuild those walls not only from God putting it into his heart but because God's promises through the prophets were to rebuild those walls and draw the Jewish people back but think of Nehemiah and the Jews who were building when Sand Ballot and Tobaya were enraged at the building of the walls and were plotting to murder them Nehemiah tells us in chapter 4 "Do not be afraid of them remember the Lord who is great and awesome in chapter 6 verse 13 of Nehemiah when enduring the personal attacks from the hired hitman Nehemiah says this for this person he was for this purpose he was hired that I should be afraid and act and sin 6:14 we read that the false uh prophet wanted to make Nehemiah what afraid and finally in our text tonight verse 19 we read that Tobias sent letters to make Nehemiah afraid the goal of our enemies it's listed four or five times the goal of our enemies just like Nehemiah's enemies was to fment fear so that we quit doing God's work we fear it we we we say things like "God could never redeem this how could God use this how could I How could I trust that I'm in God's will all these things of fear look at throughout all of Nehemiah the whole point of Nehemiah's enemy's attacks was to cause fear but because the Jews didn't quit because Nehemiah did not retreat he didn't back down what's crazy is it was their enemies who ended up afraid verse 16 again and when our enemies heard of it all the nation arounds us were afraid the very thing they were trying to do to the Jews and when you align yourself with God's plans not only you promised success but you are promised that every weapon formed against you will not work and the very one that shot the enemies that shot the very dart at you of fear will be returned back to him that's what it means to live in God's plan in God's will the hard part is it always it doesn't always feel like we're in God's will when it's hard but Satan and this broken and perverted world fears a man or a woman who perseveres in God's work because they're unstoppable there are moms in this room who empty their lives out on a daily basis to raise and rear children there's unmarried people in this room who want to refrain from sexual sin and and do what's right and find the right spouse and and there's men and women who go to work and and and live not to be and work not to be enslaved by money or climbing the ladder there's students in this room who'd rather live for God than go with the flow there's retired people who want to give up recreation to labor in the kingdom and there's Christians who pour out their energies and their lives and their abilities for the kingdom of God and listen you're promised success you're promised success and your life when you live in God's plans punctures and deflates the big fat lie of fear and when Satan finds a successful Christian he's afraid and all we need to do is live in God's plans revealed in scripture and I'm going to close this point by reading a quote from Ji Packer and he's that sage pastor and theolog theologian who passed away in 2020 he was 93 years old he says this "Those who seek God's strength will find it satan will be thwarted and the church built up and the God through whose help all the work is done will be glorified." What a promise what a promise to us so just like we start in our verse so God's plan was successful period next point in our outline moreover and that's starts our verse 17 moreover the enemy never rests moreover the enemy never rests so starting in verse 17 there moreover in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobaya and Tobaya's letters came to them they were pen pals for many in Judah were bound by oath to him because he was the son-in-law of Shechaniah the son of Ara and his son Jehoan and had taken the daughter of Mashulam the son of Beck Barakiah as were his wife also they spoke of his good deeds in my presence and reported my words to him and Tobias sent letters to make me afraid it's always his goal make him afraid so these nobles these these Jewish people of high standing were found to be easy targets for Tobaya the wall had been built and so no frontal physical attack would work anymore but the enemy now burrowed in to the Jewish community like a mole does unseen and unnoticed at first and the work of Tobaya really was a soft war against God's work and in part it was successful because of the personal attachments that these nobles had to Tobaya not only was Tobaya related by marriage to some of these nobles that we're going to find out he was related by marriage to the high priest Elias and in chapter 13 we read that Elias actually moved out some of the stuff that was supposed to be in the temple and made this man Tobaya an apartment and he would just come and live there part-time so Tobaya had infiltrated the ruling and spiritual class rulers of Israel and his words and his speech were effective because he he found these people were more committed to earthly things than heavenly things and we read that they took an oath that they were bound by a promise to Tobaya and this probably was like some sort of contractual agreement some sort of financial uh contract with the outside world and these important people in Jerusalem they needed money they were rich people but they needed to keep their riches going and Nehemiah had already dinged their checkbook remember chapter 5 where he calls out the rich rulers and says "Hey you guys are charging interest you're doing those things." But they needed to maintain their income and prestige and so they bound themselves to God's enemy Tobaya even the very people who had worked so hard building the wall were impacted mashulum who is recorded twice remember in chapter three there was a list of all the people that built mashulum is mentioned twice he actually in this small list of people that built was listed twice because he had done so much work his daughter and son-in-law were part of tearing down the walls that had been built by their own father or at least attempting to stop God's work and here's the crazy thing just when there's such victory just when there's such uh good things that are happening in these Jews lives or or perhaps our own lives just when there's like success on one level we see that the enemy never rests the stone and mortar walls with their thick good or thick wooden gates hey they protected them from physical attack but the power of destructive words now loomed large it was words that were going to be used now and these nobles clearly in word only and not in character they would chat they would chat about our good brother Tobaya remember it says that in verse 19 also they spoke of his good deeds in my presence and reported my words to him they would they would say oh our our good friend and good brother Tobaya and they'd always say it in earshot of Nehemiah and then they would constantly complain about Nehemiah to Tobaya and just say this governor is so strict he closes the doors early he built this wall we can't go out and trade like we used to he won't let us charge interest on the brothers we're not able to traffic people anymore and then they'd come back to Nehemiah and go "Oh Tobias he's such a generous guy he's he's always got the latest chariots you know and he's such a great man of business and so generous he does so much for our community don't you think Nehemiah are you kidding me can you imagine what Nehemiah's giving up to build and these people come back and go "Hey you know the guy that's trying to murder you he's such a great guy." The very person who was undermining and attacking Nehemiah was now praised and Proverbs 28:4 says "They that forsake the law praise the wicked but such as keep the law contend with them or fight against them." We don't want to be praised by the wicked this has to be painful for Nehemiah when you're leading and sacrificing so much and so hard and then the very person who has caused so much pain and so much stress and so much destruction and is clearly against God's word comes in and he's being praised you're like you got to be kidding me what am I doing this for but why would they do this why would they undermine these nobles who lived within the walls why would they undermine the building of the walls wh why would they undermine Nehemiah's work and why would they align themselves with God's enemies after the walls are done and and I like I said before certainly they were angry about losing money they were certainly angry about the fact that Nehemiah humiliated them in public remember chapter 5 he brings them before the whole nation of Israel and just says "These people are stealing your money and your children we're going to stop it." But I think there's something more insiduous i I actually think there's something more destructive going on and corrupting in these people's lives you see the walls were not an end and of themselves and surely they were for protection certainly we've we've talked about this for weeks now the walls went up to protect them but the walls were also for separation the walls weren't just for protection they were for separation god wanted his people to be separate from the the heathens that were without who worshiped false gods or or even worse the Samaritans who mixed the the worship of Yahweh with the worship of false gods and God he wanted not only to protect physically his people but but he also wanted to separate his people from false worship and these nobles wanted the benefits afforded to the ruling class of the Jewish people but they did not want the cost of separation separation from certain people separation from potential contracts and and money-making opportunities outwardly they were Jewish claiming to be God's people and wanting protection but inwardly they longed for the outside world they longed and lusted for what lie beyond the confining gates of the city of God and they were determined to keep an open door for the enemy and they did so with subversive words and deceitful things and they praised the wicked and maligned the righteous this wall might physically separate from Tobaya and the ungodly but there was no separation for them in the spirit they wanted the protection but not the separation and the saintly Scottish minister Andrew Bonar wrote quote "Let us be as watchful after the victory as before the battle." I hear kids it's great get your energies out that way they'll sleep well tonight and I think tonight when we when we when we go through this this time what an encouragement the first section was right so God's plan was successful but I think this second part is a warning moreover the enemy never rests the enemy never rests he might go undercover he might mole himself into and burrow himself into a different way of attacking you but as Christians we must be ever vigilant to not open the door for the enemy in our lives or in our homes or at foundry because of a desire to stay connected to the world and all of her tempting and alluring benefits it's interesting one of the ways that that that scripture tells us that the door can be left open is is through anger and anger kind of leaves the door open for Satan to come in friendships and relationships with an unsaved person who now of course we want to be friends with people who are unsaved right we how else would we actually communicate the gospel to unsaved people but but friendships and relationships with unsaved people without a purpose to live as a beacon of hope and godly compassion are certainly going to have an impact on your personal sanctification and that word sanctification is the New Testament word for separation from the world and sin so unseparated or carnal Christians lead to disunityity in the home and church but I want to bring some practical things to this warning the first one is these Jews stayed connected they stayed connected and I think it's important for us to ask the question how do I disconnect from the things that tether me to the world that could be social media that could be entertainment that could be politics i don't know what it is in your life and I certainly you probably don't know what it's in my life but I think we can ask the Holy Spirit where how am I opening the door for the enemy how am I staying connected because those Jews were unwilling to be disconnected from the carnal unbelieving world the second thing is they were bound in an oath they were bound in an oath and so I want to encourage you especially young people but older people too choose your friends choose your business partners choose your dates carefully 2 Corinthians 6:14 says this "Do not be unequally yolked with unbelievers for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness this certainly is not befriending people who are unsaved i hope we all get to do those things but this is this is something where you get attached to people in such a way that you no longer can actually speak the truth because of the relationship that's there the third thing is is they praise the wicked and we might say to ourselves I never praise the wicked but man I have heard some very uh very flowery words towards music artists or entertainers who are clearly positioned against God's work and Christians will oh I just love listening to her and oh I just love going to that concert and I just and and we actually start to lump praise onto people who we shouldn't be praising and so we have to be careful of that so God's plan was successful the enemy never rests and third protect what God has done and I want to read chapter 7:es 1-4 now when the wall had been built and I had set up the doors and the gatekeepers the singers and the Levites had been appointed I gave my brother Hani and Haniah the governor of the castle charge over Jerusalem for he was a more infaithful and God-fearing man than many verse three and I said to them let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot and while they are still standing guard let them shut and bar the doors appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem some at their guard posts and some in front of their own homes the city was wide and large but the people within it were few and no houses had been rebuilt i'll never forget hiking in King's Canyon when I first moved to California we were we were hiking in King's Canyon in the Sequoia National Forest and we were hiking with this guy that had never hiked before and my friend and I Brody at the time we had been pretty avid hikers and and so we would we would be we'd get to this point where we thought we could see the summit and we'd get to that point and and he'd be like "Oh my gosh I can't go on." And we'd realize as soon as we got to that summit there was something ahead of us that was another actual more realistic summit and then and then we get to that summit after really encouraging him it got to the point where we had to literally pick him up off the ground and like put water into his mouth i have never been with an adult male like that in my life but he said he would he would literally get to the point where we because we'd say "Oh there it is there's the top." And we'd get there and he'd be like "You guys are lying to me." But they were false summits and long story short he uh he actually said "I'm done with you guys." and left and we found him about 8 hours later looked like he was saw a ghost and he said "There are wild animals out here." And come to find out there was some cattle that ranged through that area and he thought that the cows were going to bite him so he ran all the way back to us poor guy but a good man's work is never done or another way to say that is a mother's work is never complete it's kind of a proverb there and that is certainly the case in the service of God not until heaven so as God's plan was successful the enemy never rests protect what God has done in the first six chapters of Nehemiah we read and considered all the things that had been done to build the wall and now we hear hear the walls done you'd think it'd be the end of the book but it's not it's the middle of the book it's the middle of the book because there's so much more to do and this last point I think the application is going to be most obvious for the context of foundry we complete one major milestone or we we complete one major development one that has taken so much collective effort and so much energy and so much focus and with pain and with strain and and afterwards there's rejoicing and we look around and we can go man there was like there was like 40 kids in the class and and and we had the check-in working and our app works and when you look on the Apple maps it's there and and we we wrote content for the website and there's all these things happening and I am so honored to be a part of this i really am but it soon becomes clear that it was just a jumping off point it it really was just a stepping stone to the next task just like that fall summit we get there we're like "You liar we had all this ramp up to to plant foundry and have our first Sunday and here now you're telling me we got to ramp up for this thing and then we're going to ramp up for that thing." It's true it's true what looked like was the summit was just a fold in the terrain and this is the familiar feeling in families isn't it you get through one kid and then you're like "Ah." and and then wedding and or life experience or life moment it can be business as well that happens like this but it's never so particular and exhausting as it can be in the church there's always more to be done there's always things that need to be looked at and thought of and considered until we go home to be with the Lord and so of course we take a moment to rejoice in what God has done and we look around and see what he's doing and what he wants to do but I would I would suggest tonight that God wants to do in our lives and in the life of foundry the same thing that he wanted to do in Nehemiah's day in the Jews the work that lay ahead of Nehemiah was the transformation of hearts the spiritual maturing of God's people and the rest of the book chapters 7 through13 are going to be things that that that Nehemiah implements and reforms that he does and things that he does so that that God's people could mature and there's discipline and disciplehip and there's hard things and there's there's correction and there and there's frustration on Nehemiah's part we've spent all these chapters talking about the build and then the rest of it is going to be about maintaining and protecting what God has done and and now that the walls were built that which was within the walls needed to be protected and a and not only protected but it needed to be moved forward and what was true then is true now we must not leave off after the big push we can't let our guard down simply because God has worked and given us wonderful successes to do so would stop short of God's purpose and also render all of the hard work that's been happening for the last almost year and a half if you started during the prayer nights completely exposed and prone to decay and I think we see two wonderful steps that Nehemiah takes to do just that the first one is he deals out responsibility and the second one is he distributes authority verse one of chapter 7 says 'Now when the wall had been built I had set up the doors and listen the gatekeepers the singers and the Levites had been appointed verse two I gave my brother Hani and Haniah the governor of the castle charge over Jerusalem deal out responsibility that's the first step that Nehemiah takes and we see that the wall was done and now Nehemiah knowing the tasks and work that lie ahead he begins to appoint people to certain tasks the gatekeepers were as you suppose to protect the gates what good are gates left unattended what good are doors if there's no control of who comes in them and who goes out and then he appoints singers and Levites no doubt for worship and finally in verse three he appoints guards for the certain areas along the walls and then also in front of their own homes this is essential if any organization is going to grow in a healthy manner it is imperative if all the work it's it's imperative if all that the work if we're going to actually do all of work that's going to come at us it needs to be spread out leaders must deal out responsibilities and the goal at Foundry is to do just that and we have a number of people who have volunteered already to take on so many responsibilities for the welfare of this church you can just look around even tonight on a Wednesday night when it's just us there's just a small group of us mike has taken on the role of service coordination michelle his wife oversees video lee has helped you guys can raise your hand lee has helped in so many websites with Google listings and websites and getting docs sent up jacob the Sansson's son has has offered to help with printables and images judy who's not here go God bless her soul um excuse she does the greeters and oversees the greeters and she works so much administrative things ryan and Taylor are doing worship along with other people taylor's overseeing the children's ministry arlene does the coffee and hospitality you've seen the stamp on there that says F jeff is on the board and oversees setup and tearown paul security dennis and Kathy are overseeing prayer and opening their home once a month they've signed up to help do some premarital counseling those Amy's doing projection and overseeing projection juan does everything and so many more and if I haven't mentioned your name and you're doing something praise the Lord raise yeah raise your hand most of you in this room are taking on responsibility for the welfare of this church and are working to protect what's what what what we've worked so hard to plant this is what's happening and what needs to happen more and I think it's just such a timely verse and passage of scripture to for us to go through it says that he gave his brother Haniah and Haniah the governor of the castle charge over Jerusalem for he was more faithful and god-fearing or they were more faithful and god-fearing man than many so in addition to responsibility being dealt out authority needs to be distributed as well and Nehemiah picked his brother who is the one if you remember in chapter 1 verse three is the one that came to me Nehemiah and said we have a really big problem god's people are devastated and they are exposed and vulnerable and then there was also Haniah he was a ruler and a leader and he had worked on the wall as well and so we can see three attributes of these men that we do well to consider as we move into a season of distributing authority and dealing out responsibility here at Foundry you know on Sunday morning there's about 200 to 230 people here including kids if you would ask any nor like any typical church like what the infrastructure of that should be it would be like one to three paid pas or pastoral or or people who are serving in a in some sort of leadership role we don't have any we got to get them we've pushed hard to get here and it's been wonderful but now it's time for us to go Lord who are you raising up and distribute that authority and we see three things that we have to be looking at and have to be looking for first of all Hani his brother had a heart and eyes for God's people didn't he he's the one that came to Nehemiah and said "Our people are devastated." And that's what drew Nehemiah into this mission so these men and women who are going to have authority have to have a heart and eyes for God's people secondly they have to be faithful i'll quote one pastor that said "The greatest ability is dependability." Men and women have to be faithful if they're going to lead in the church jesus speaking in a parable in Matthew 25:21 said this his master said to him "Well done good and faithful servant you have been faithful over a little i will set you over much enter the joy of your master." Faithfulness is essential to lead God's people the third thing is God-fearing a man or woman is most visible who fears the Lord because he or she is blessed he or she is wise we know that the fear of the Lord leads to wisdom and knowledge he or she loves God's word i want to read to you Psalm 112 i know we're running out of time and I apologize psalm 112 says this it's it's really a chapter about the the person who fears the Lord [Applause] praise the Lord starting in verse one praise the Lord blessed is the man who fears the Lord now it gives us a description of that man who greatly delights in his commandments he loves God's word his offspring will be mighty in the land his family is maintained the generation of the upright will be blessed wealth and riches are in his house and his righteousness endures forever light dawn in the darkness for the upright he is gracious merciful and righteous it is well with a man who deals generously and lends who conducts his affair with justice for the righteous will never be moved and he will be remembered forever verse 7 he's not afraid of bad news his heart is firm trusting in the Lord his heart is steady he will not be afraid until he looks and triumph on his enemy finally he has distributed freely he has given to the poor his righteousness endures forever and his horn is exalted a man or a woman that loves the Lord is generous loves God's word love God's people and and when we we think about men and women who are who are going to help lead and be deacons and and the men who are going to be elders this is who we're looking for and the word now introduced this section didn't it it was so God's plan was successful moreover the enemy never rests now protect what God has done and we cannot protect without distributing authority and it's my hope I'm going to close with this it's my hope that by the end of this summer we're going to have a dine and define once a month which is the process by which people become partners and it's my desire that by the end of this summer we've had a a number of people move through that partnership process so that we can appoint leaders in specific areas of service and delegate authority that's my that's my goal we can't we can't we can't do it without that let's just be honest this has been wonderful and I love it but I don't want to cheat you i do not want to cheat you of what God's going to do in the next seven chapters of Nehemiah or Foundry and that those those next chapters require people to lead and we must protect what God has done and it requires you as much as me because it will be the partners who say yes I approve and confirm that elder that's who will approve elders here it's not just a word or a like the word partner isn't just like something you don't sign something but what you do is you participate in leading this body i'm going to close in prayer i have more notes but I'm gonna be in trouble if I don't close in prayer i do think it's a word for us though and I'm gonna ask you guys to be praying that the Lord leads in this next season of our life at Foundry to truly deal out responsibility and distribute authority in a way that allows us to protect and maintain what God has miraculously done up to this point at Foundry let's close in prayer father we come before you in Jesus name and Lord what a joy and privilege to study your word and what a timely word for us at Foundry we picked this book and I I could have never known that on in this section would be the encouragement and the exhortation to to really raise up the leadership that we need but Lord we are so so grateful for it and so thankful for it so we pray tonight Lord that you would impress upon us the guaranteed success of your plans in areas of our life that we're longing for success in and don't quite see it lord help us to be bold as lions believing that your plans will be successful bold as lions Lord lord help us not to be foolish and to think that the enemy has rested just because we've built the wall or planted the church or started Sundays lord help us to be vigilant in protecting ourselves from the attacks of the enemy and Lord please appoint and anoint and raise up leadership in this body so that we could spend the next season continuing the work that you have planned in Jesus name amen