In Nehemiah 3, the message centers on building together through opposition. Explore Nehemiah 3–4 and discover how God’s people build together, face opposition, stay alert, and keep working when resistance comes. Rather than treating the passage as abstract theology, the sermon traces what these truths reveal about God, the gospel, and the way followers of Jesus are called to live.
The sermon follows the biblical text into practical discipleship, connecting doctrine with identity, character, and daily obedience. It challenges listeners to examine the assumptions shaping their lives and to allow the truth of Scripture to renew the way they think and respond. The emphasis is not merely on understanding the passage, but on becoming the kind of people whose lives are formed by it.
Along the way, the message engages themes including Nehemiah 3, building together through opposition, nehemiah 34 people build together, face opposition. These ideas help place the primary passage within the larger story of Scripture and show how its theology speaks to real spiritual formation. At its heart, the sermon helps answer questions such as: What does Nehemiah 3 teach about building together through opposition? It also considers how should building together through opposition shape the way Christians live?
For someone studying this passage, exploring the Christian faith, or looking for practical biblical teaching, this sermon offers a clear path from the text to everyday discipleship. The invitation is to hear what Scripture says, receive it with humility, and take the next faithful step in following Jesus.
What does Nehemiah 3 teach about building together through opposition? | How should building together through opposition shape the way Christians live? | How can believers apply Nehemiah 3 in everyday life?
Nehemiah 3, building together through opposition, nehemiah 34 people build together, face opposition, stay alert, keep working when resistance comes
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Uh we are in our week three of our of our series Kingdom Rebuild. And uh I just want to say I am so thankful that Jesus is a builder. He's not a destroyer. He's not a deconstructor. And of all the professions that Jesus could have had, he was a carpenter just like Joseph, right? He was a builder. Jesus said, "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not stand against it." Right? God is building his church and Jesus is building your family. He's building your life. He's building us up to be men and women of God following him. God is a builder. Amen. And and and not I don't want to soapbox it too long, but I'm I'm I'm tired of hearing people, especially on social media, tear down the church. This is this is not what Jesus would do. Like take the wristband, the WWJD wristband off. That's not what he would do. He's not here to divide and and and deconstruct. He He's called us to build something great for him. He's called us to build his church. And so my challenge to all of us is that we would pray like Jesus prayed. That we would fast like Jesus fasted and do miracles and trust God like Jesus did. And Jesus said that we would do greater things than even he did. And what did he do? He healed the sick. He cast out demons and he raised the dead. Amen. And in this new year, I've been talking to to several of you. I really feel strongly that we need more practical teaching on these things, on being active and moving in the Holy Spirit and equip people how to pray for healing. equip us how to deliver someone from a demon and how to start moving and walking in prophetic ministry. I think a couple years ago we we did this amazing series of of weeks called Thrive Nights and I'd love to bring that back in this new year because God God is speaking to his people >> and he's calling us to be prophetic. He has words of knowledge and words of wisdom that he wants to speak through us to people that are far from him. Like it Jesus used miracles, signs, and wonders to bring people to himself, to bring people closer to him. And so, shouldn't we be doing the same thing? Like, aren't you tired of like fighting someone intellectually into the kingdom? Right? Let's let's move in power. Like I we want we want people to encounter the heart and passion of Jesus in his people >> in us. So let's be kingdom builders. Amen. >> All right. The story of Nehemiah. I'm just going to give you a quick recap of where we've already touched in Nehemiah 1 and 2. It's an story of an amazing builder on a mission to rebuild the city of Jerusalem for God. He was a slave to King Ardis Xerxes of Persia and he was about a thousand miles away from Jerusalem at that time. And uh he hears about what's taking place and and begins to to pray. His first response is to pray and to fast. And then he begins to realize that he was positioned perfectly to someone of power and resource. He was positioned near this king and and then he he gets a moment where the king turns to him and says, "What's wrong? I can see something's off. And it's this perfect moment of favor from God and favor with the king that he begins to appeal to the king and then he lets him go. Not and doesn't just let him go, he gives him a passport stamping him all the way so that he's untouched as he's going through the wilderness to get to Jerusalem and gives him papers to get timber and wood from the king's resource stockpile. I mean, this is just like crazy amount of favor that's taking place in this. and he gets to go back and build the walls of Jerusalem and rebuild the scattered people. I was just I want to show you I don't know if you can if you can see it really quick this map. This is this is where he rebuilds. And if and when we look at Nehemiah 3, which we're going to we're going to look at it, we're not going to read all of it. You actually see all of these different gates and towers and walls named out by name that he was able to rebuild. Like it's this massive, massive undertaking to see this take place. And it's incredible work. I'm just I'm kind of taking it all in right now. This is awesome. It's it's so much that he was able to do and able to accomplish in such a short amount of time as well. And this is what I love about when when God burdens our heart for something, he makes a way to expedite it even more, right? When when God begins to burden your heart, maybe and maybe it's taking a a little bit longer than you had hoped for, but it's so much quicker than it should have happened because of the power of God in it, because of his of his favor. I love that. But as we as we get into this, I want to challenge us all. We're actually going to read chapter 4 before we look at chapter 3. I hope that's okay. There there's purpose to it. I want to challenge all of us and ask us as a church, are we building and making progress in the kingdom of God? Not just not collectively, but individually, are are are you making progress in building the kingdom of God? Are you building for him right now? My first point, if you're taking notes today, is opposition leads us to prayer. Opposition leads us to prayer. If you remember from if you were here last week, we we kind of mentioned a couple of these guys. Um, in Nehemiah 4, it says, "Now when Samuelot heard that they were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged." enraged and he jered at the Jews and he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, "What are they what what are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish and burnt ones at that?" Tobaya the Ammonite was beside him and he said, "Yes, what they are building, if a fox goes up on it, it will break down the stone wall." These are obviously petty remarks and complaints and accusations. Here's the thing, like loud liars get heard, right? Like the squeaky wheel always gets the grease, right? Opposition isn't always honest, but it's most likely always the loudest, right? When when when people get critical, when people come against you, it it it's so much louder than the voice that you're holding on to. When people are emotionally charged, they can seem like they're right. And and not to be political, but it's it's always interesting to me that the people that I found that are so in the wrong are usually the loudest, >> right? Sambula and Tobias were emotional, loud, critical, and they were cutting. They were just taking shots at at at the Jewish people. They were taunting Nehemiah and the builders that they were being selfish, hasty, doing bad work, building walls weak enough for a fox to break down. I mean, that's that's quite the the imagery there. And they they said a lot of things and it was offensive. I mean, if if somebody came into your workplace one day and started making remarks about your work like this, like I don't know about you, but I might bow my chest up a little bit and start flexing, you know? Like, let's go. like if you're going to keep talking to me like this, we're going to throw hands, right? But really, the beauty of this and and what it shows us is who cares? Who cares? Critics should not consume our thoughts and attention. Amen. >> That if God has spoken to you, we cannot allow these other voices to become louder than his and to to dictate what we're doing or to make us question what God has called us to do. I want to show you how Nehemiah responds to this opposition in Nehemiah 4:4 says here, "Oh our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight. For they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders. It's kind of awesome. What a prayer. Listen, there is opposition. There's going to be opposition. There's already opposition when you live for God and build for God. You're going to feel it. You're going to hear it. You're going to sense it. And sometimes it's right in here. It's your own voice. It's it's your past speaking to you and telling you this is not this is not it. This is not right or this doesn't feel right. So therefore it must not be God. There's going to be opposition when you're raising your kids to serve God. There's going to be opposition maybe in your own flesh when God calls you to give and tithe or help others that are in need sacrificially where you take that jacket off and you give it to someone else and now you're cold. There's going to be opposition voices online or again voices in your head telling you it's not worth it or that it's not necessary to live a life for God in this way. Or maybe you'll you'll hear things or feel like, "No, you shouldn't be associated with this movement or you shouldn't be associated with this person or that person." Or is that really the kind of Christian, the follower of God that you want to be? Why live so radically or sanctified when all of your friends at other churches aren't living that way? Again, people will say crazy, ridiculous things about you. usually not to you. You know, you you know that saying like, "Oh, your ears are burning. Somebody must be talking about you." My ears are burning all the time. So, you guys are all talking about me. It's great. Don't let the critics drive you crazy. Let the critics drive you to prayer. >> This is this is what Nehemiah did. He said, "Here, oh our God, he's praying in this moment this prayer." And it's like like God, would you just turn this taunt back on them? Like, can we just throw the Uno reverse card down right now and just like switch this like all of the stuff that they're saying? Like, can you just like dump it all on them right now, God? Like, that was his prayer in that moment. He's like, I'm not going to listen to this. God, would you just send it back their way because this is not what I want to hear. Again, I could tell you many stories about critics of this church, about critics online or critics in town that I've had conversation with with with people. when I tell them that I'm a part of full life church, they're like, "Oh, that church, you know," and it's like, "Oh, what does that church mean?" You know, is that what what what are you what are you what are you saying? And it's interesting because Franklin and and Nashville when we moved here 20 years ago, I remember I got I got accused of of handling snakes in in my in my elementary class. I'm serious. Like they were just like, "This is I I'm at a Pentecostal church. I'm at an Assemblies of God church." And they were just like, "Oh, when do you bring the snakes out?" And I'm like, that is not what we do. Well, you know, the previous pastor might have done that, but you know, yeah, he's over there. Again, Franklin and Nashville is predominantly Baptist and Church of Christ, which is not is not bad. Nothing wrong with that. But many times, many of those churches and movements tend to oppose the move of the Holy Spirit in this day. Not all of them, but they many of them say, "Well, the miracles are done." >> You know, that's just like it it died with the apostles, right? Like the the the Holy Spirit doesn't move in this way anymore, right? >> Come on, church. >> I've had people in their anonymous online comments. I love the anonymous ones where they do the weird name that's not really their name. Cowards. >> I had somebody put this on our our YouTube. It was so great. I was talking about like God had spoken to me. I was I was prophesying here in this church and he got on the comment and he said, "God doesn't speak to you. You're not special." I was like, "Oh, I guess yeah, you know, I'm not special, but God does speak to me." And then then he put something about, "You're insane." He used a lot of f-words. It was great. It was a great comment. Really grateful. Don't look for it. I deleted it. Okay. Again, I think it's insane to follow dead religion >> and believe the Holy Spirit isn't still active in this day. >> Sorry, but like we ain't going to be a dead church. Like, I can't read my Bible without the Holy Spirit. >> I can't. It's just a No, it's no offense to God. It's a dead book without the Holy Spirit. >> It's just a bunch of words. But he brings it to life for us and challenges my heart and calls me higher and speaks to me in deep ways. Like I can't pray without the Holy Spirit. I can't. It's like I it's if if if if me and the Holy Spirit aren't having a good day, like we got to get that right before I start praying because I'm I'm missing out on that connection that I have with the Lord. He came so that we would have power. The Holy Spirit is still active and moving here today. But again, the critics will say otherwise. other churches, other movements. And again, I'm not trying to turn us into a cult where we're better and we're whatever. Like, I want us to be in unity with the churches in this area. Like, I I I've talked to Baptist pastors in this area who believe in the same thing we believe, but there's a fear that's holding them back from teaching it in their churches. Can we start to pray against that fear as a as a church? Can we can we begin to see God move? Because revival is is is coming to Franklin. >> And it's not going to look like anything we've seen in in in Brownsville or Isuza Street or any of these other places. It God is going to do something unique and powerful here. Are we praying for that? Like come come to the 24 hours of prayer and pray with us for this city and what we're doing. Again, let the opposition drive you to prayer and keep moving forward. God is doing something in you and with you. Don't stop because of what somebody else says. Critics can criticize, but we will follow the Lord and we will build. >> Amen. >> This is so cool. So again, he just he just finishes this prayer. Nehemiah 44 4-5 and then verse 6 it says, "So we built the wall." It's like doesn't matter what they said. So we built it. We did the thing and all the wall was joined together to half its height for the people that had a mind to work. The people that had a mind to work. I love that phrase. We are building for God's kingdom. Like don't turn back. God is with us. We have to have a mind to build. His kingdom come. His will be done. Let the critics criticize Let's pray for the critics. >> Let we can we can, you know, we can play the reverse uno card like Nehemiah did, but but really my heart, I want to pray for those that criticize what God is doing in our lives. I want to pray that they come to a point where they get to experience what I'm experiencing. Talk about praying for your enemies. >> Like, like I I this is a whole another thing. Have you ever prayed that God would ruin someone else's life so that they would come to Jesus? >> That sorry, that's been my prayer, not for any of y'all, but for other people. [laughter] There's there's been moments when I've prayed, God, this person is driving me insane. They they've they've hurt me deeply and God, I want to love them, but Lord, would you ruin their life so that they could come back to you? Would you would you cause them to drop to their knees and begin to call you Lord and Savior? That that's that's my my heart because they need grace. They need the forgiveness of Jesus. But again, I love this phrase. If you have a mind to work, if you have a mind to work for God here in this church, join join a go team, serve in ministry, serve in kids ministry, serve in our hospitality and our and our worship team. We need we need more people on our worship team. Although I love when we we play our tracks and do all this stuff because we're we we've got an amazing team, but like we don't always have a bass player. We don't always have the guitar players. We don't always have the the the a drummer. And so we need more people like, and if you're only like halfway decent, that's okay. We're all really good and we can train you like, right? We can make you good. We can just turn you down and turn the track up. Like, just stand up here. Come on. Just turn your mic off. You know, it's whatever. It's all right. We only did that to Hannah the first Sunday that she led here. That that was that was it. But then we heard her and praise God. Let's go join and and lead a small group. We're we're launching our small groups here in February and this last year was was our last semester was incredible. We had we had we had all men, all women, but like there were so many of us. We really need to split up into smaller groups because this disciplehip happens when we're shoulder-to-shoulder, iron sharpening iron. This is how we grow together and we have we've got child care and we got all that stuff to take care of and we need some more people to step up to lead some groups. I would love and if if you feel God stirring you to do that, let's go. Like I'd love to see that happen and and walk with you in that way. Um again, go and prophesy and pray for people in the grocery store. If you have a mind to work, start treasure hunting. I think that's what the kids call it this these days where you you go around and just like pray that God leads you to people and and start praying for the sick. Start praying for those in need. Like like heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead. Let's build the kingdom, right? pray and intercede for God to move in our city, in our church. If if you have a mind to work, if you have a mind to build for the kingdom, like start praying that we can get a new building with enough parking spaces for all of our people, right? Like, like start praying that God gives us a building with a kids center that's bigger than our sanctuary, >> right? Because we're trying to raise up this next generation, right? And so we need more classrooms. We need more space to to disciple kids and do junior Bible quiz, which Junior Bible Quiz was was yesterday and it was amazing. If you have kids that want to be uh quizzers, we'd love to see that happen. Um it was a great day. Again, if God burdens your heart to do something for the kingdom, like do it. Don't wait until you have a title or a position or or whatever it might be. Just step out and do it. Like be proactive in this way. Like come and talk to me. like like as as prophetic as as as I am, I can't read your mind. >> And so if God speaks to you about about something to step into, like that doesn't mean he's spoken to me, too. >> Or I can go like, "Oh, yes, you're in. Like, you're the guy." And it's like, "Oh, that was the confirmation I've been waiting for for the last 5 years." No, don't wait five years. Do it now. >> Step in. Let's go. Number two. Y'all, I'm having so much fun today. This is such a good such a good day. Number two, we build for God and God fights for us. Again, God's calling us to build something great in our lives in this church, for his kingdom, and he's going to be with us as we do it. In Nehemiah 4:7-9 [snorts] says, "But when Samala and Tobaya and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashtodites, I didn't practice reading that one. Ashites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed. They were very angry and they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. and we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night. So, this is there's a lot of things happening here which is is really cool. Again, the these guys are getting ticked off that you're actually doing the work and that it's actually getting done. And again, you're going to you're going to tick some people off when you start walking in this way and doing what God's called you to do. There there's going to be offense. There's going to be people critical of it. and and you might get some people radical enough to do something about it and come against you and and and again go beyond criticism and begin to cause confusion. They heard from the Lord. They heard this was happening and they began to pray. And I just I just love this because they prayed and they set a guard. >> This is important. Like like take notes on this. Like Nehemiah had a spiritual reaction which was to pray. But he also had a practical reaction. Spiritual and practical. Again, the these guys are becoming real problems. And even after praying to God, they didn't stop the disruption. There was prayer in response to the criticism, but they still moved forward in in their plan to cause disruption and confusion. Nehemiah, he prays and then has a practical response to set a guard. They prayed for protection for God to protect them, but they also put out a security detail. When you build your life with Jesus, it's going to be spiritual and it's going to be practical. Write that down. It's going to be spiritual and it's going to be practical. Like, you should pray in worship, but you should also attend church. Right? There's a practicality to that. Like I know I know you're all like deep theologians and and you probably know way more about Jesus than I do, but like we come to church for the community. We come to church for the protection in numbers that God and God has created it this way because it's practical. Like you should read your Bible every day, but then you should also be in a small group. You should also be with with brothers and sisters that are discipling you and and helping you grow. Like don't don't just read solo. Like read with other people and and grow with other people in this way. When you center your your family on the things of God, you should be prayerful and you should be biblical in how you do this. Like follow the word of God and what it says. But but with that too, like you also got to keep the ungodly influences out of your house coming through on your phone and on your TV. That's just practical, right? It's it's like God, would you would you just protect us from all the darkness? And then you're you're watching, you know, basically like like gosh, you there's so much smut now on Netflix, it's like hard to watch anything without something nasty coming up, right? But then that stuff comes into your home and then you don't realize that you're actually creating connection to your children whether they're seeing it or not. There's spiritual entities that are connected to these things. And so it's important that we practically guard our homes, right? It's not being legalistic. It's being practical. When you commit to a life of sobriety, you should pray and trust God for healing. And then stop buying alcohol, >> right? >> That's that's practical, right? If that's what if that's what God is calling you to do, then then step into these practical areas. Like when you build your life for God, read your Bible and do what it says. That's called that's called obedience. That's not really practical. That's just obedience, right? And we we need to walk in this way. Like I I I've talked to so many people that they they've memorized the word of God, but they don't do anything that it says to do. >> In church, we pray for God to protect us. And we have a security team. Praise God. >> Amen. >> And they're packing. All right. >> Not just Bibles. One of my one of my proun buddies, he says this all the time. He's like, "God protects me." Yes. But he also gave me discernment and a brain. >> I'm not I'm not trying to get you to start carrying a gun, but like there there there's truth behind this. God fights for us and he can use you to defend your family in a tactical situation. >> Yeah. >> Right. Like we pray for God to protect our nation and we also thank God and we pray for those that are empowered to protect our nation. >> The men and women who lay their lives down every single day in our military. It's a godly assignment to serve our nation. God heals my body when I pray and when we lay hands on the sick, but he also called and raised up doctors. This is the last thing I'm going to say on this. And good food. Like we like doctors, you know, will perform surgery on your body, but like your blood and and the coagulation, all this stuff that that's a that's a work of God that takes place, right? God's still working. God can guide the hands of a surgeon, right? Like I I've talked to so many doctors when we have some in our church like they've seen more miracles than most of us have where [clears throat] somebody prayed and they come back in they're like I don't know you were going to die but now you're not. That's a miracle. >> Even Luke in the Bible who wrote the the the Gospel of Luke he was a doctor and he recorded the miracles of of Jesus. God gives us spiritual power and practical power. Nehemiah 4:14 it says, "And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people," do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes. We keep inviting people to our church to encounter Jesus. We keep building our homes and our families around his word, around worshiping him. All of this to remind us exactly what Nehemiah is doing to remind the people like we serve an awesome God. >> We serve an amazing God. Keep your focus on him. Don't worry about everyone that's coming around who's critical and trying to cause division or or break things up or m make you feel like you're not doing things in the way that that God has called you to to make you doubt. Don't don't don't worry about what they're saying. Remember that God is good and he's faithful. >> Remember that God is with you. That that your heart is connected to him. Look out for one another. Know that God is doing something great in your lives. Don't forget the work that he's doing in your heart and life. Nehemiah 4:15-17. When our enemies heard that it was known to us that God had frustrated their plan, we all returned to the wall, each to his work. From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah who were building on the wall. I love this in in verse 20. It says, "Our God will fight for us. Yeah. >> Again, God is with you. God is for you. And he will fight for you. >> And there's practical ways that we can go about doing the work that God has called us to do. Again, we've got security. We've got people in different areas in ministry here in this church and out in the community. There's a there's a strategy to it. Again, empowered by the Holy Spirit. So, we started in chapter 4, but I want to I want to go back now to to chapter 3 [snorts] because it's really powerful when when you read it. It kind of feels like you're going through the book of Numbers because it's just this list of all of these names of all these different people. I I'm not I don't have the scripture up here. You got to go look it look it up. But, it has all these names of all of these people and it's the behind the scenes. It's it's entire families and groups of people that are getting involved in the work with Nehemiah that are building the walls back up and it starts listing them all off. It's it's it's leaders and families, sons and daughters who were willing to get their hands dirty. And and when I look at this list, it reminds me of like almost like the credits in a movie. And so my my my third point this morning is God is taking notes, the final credits. Like I love I love movies. Um I love I love making movies and videos. It's one of the things that I I really enjoy getting to do and that I've had the unique opportunity to to do for for years. And um a few years ago, I had the privilege of getting to shoot a series of documentaries. Um it was it was a Christian documentary series. It was really cool. and I was one of the camera operators and we had multiple teams all around the country filming for this documentary. It was really cool. I actually never saw the movie. Um, but I saw the parts that I shot and it was great. Um, the stuff I did was good, but uh, no, the movies were great and uh, I got a text from somebody, again, this was this was years ago. I got a text from somebody saying that they saw my name in the end credits of of this movie at the theater. And I was like, man, that's wild. That had to have been like four minutes in that you sat there and read all the names of all the people. I don't know anybody else that does that. Like I know if you're watching like a Marvel movie, you want to wait till the end cuz there might be like an Easter egg like something that comes up. But like there was no Easter egg in this movie and and this this this person just waited for for at least you know 5 10 minutes you know before they saw my name. And uh the movie credits are are the list of all the people who helped make the movie, right? You've got your actors, you got your directors, producers, camera operators, colorists, editors. They even have like like sections for the people that made the food for the people on set, the stunt people, like all all these different positions, right? Nehemiah chapter 3 is the end credits for who built and rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. The families, the high priests, the worship leaders, fathers rebuilding with their sons and daughters. They fixed every part of the wall. They worked on every gate in the city. They all worked hard together to build. And if you if you read through this list, it's an impressive list. It's kind of like when I when I look at our list of all the names of people in our church that serve. The list of all the names of people that attend our church that call Full Life their home. Like I pray over this list. I pray over your names. And it's it's amazing to see how many people are a part of what God is doing here. It's an impressive list. I want to invite the worship team back up. If you look in your Bible and go to Nehemiah chapter 3 and look at verse five again, it starts naming off all these names, verses 1-4. And then after that, there's this one line that just like has shook me. And it says Nehemiah 3:5. says, "But their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord." But their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord. Again, it it's it's interesting because chapter 3, it's this long list of names of all the people that were that were building, but then there's like this half verse dedicated to show us that not everyone in Jerusalem was on board, that not everybody there was a part of the building process, not everyone was willing to to work. It says again, their nobles would not stoop down, stoop. Such a lowly word so demeaning that they wouldn't humble themselves from their noble position to build what God had called the people to build. They wouldn't stoop down to serve the Lord. [music] The same Lord, the same God who sent Nehemiah to build. [music] And if God were writing the end credits of this church, if God were putting together a chapter of all of the names of the people involved in building God's kingdom in our city, in our homes, in our schools, in our companies, in this church, if God were to have a chapter written about his kingdom was was built here in Franklin, Tennessee, would your name be on the Would your name be on the list? How would it be on the list? Because again, the builders were on the list. The critics also get a mention. And then this half verse for the nobles who would not stoop to serve the Lord. They also get mentioned because God's taking notes. [music] God is taking notes on who is a a part of building his kingdom. And and and I you you can you can take this word and you can even even the way I'm delivering right now, my heart just breaks that anyone would feel like this is meant to condemn or bring guilt upon anyone. That's not the heart of it. Cuz there's been seasons in my life where I'd been the critic. [music] There's been seasons of my life where I've been the noble. And I wouldn't stoop to that level. No, I'm called to the platform. No, I'm called to this position. No, no, no. I have to have this title if I'm going to do this. There's been seasons in many of our lives when we've been so fixated on building the kingdom of God and it's been beautiful. It's been powerful. But then for whatever reason, we start to criticize a little bit. We start to criticize how somebody else is building. We start to criticize how how how this church is doing this and and that church is doing that or or this family, man, I don't know what they're do. They even give? Do they even tithe? Like they're always doing this. are always doing like we start to play these games and
