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I.
What is leadership?
a.
Leadership = Influence
b.
Harry Truman referred to leaders as "People who can get others
to do what they don't want to do and make them like it!"
II.
Nehemiah's greatest trait - motivation
a.
Someone said of Theodore Roosevelt "Mr. Roosevelt, you are
a great man!" He
replied "No, Teddy Roosevelt is simply a plain, ordinary man
- highly motivated."
b.
Lincoln has been described as a man to "hold against the world,
a man to match the mountains and the sea." An ordinary man?
With Godly influence
c.
When God motivates people to leadership, their comparison will be
that of mountains and seas.
d.
Nehemiah was an ordinary man, but motivated by God to do a work
for him.
III.
Historical background
a.
After King Solomon died, the nation of Israel divided up into 12
tribes. 10 settled
north and 2 settled south.
b.
In 722 B.C. the ten tribes were attacked and destroyed by the Assyrians,
and only a few of the northerners escaped to the south.
c.
In 586 B.C. Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar invaded Jerusalem and
took all the people captive.
In the process they burned the temple and broke down the
walls around Jerusalem.
d.
The Persians over took the Babylonians and took all of their slaves
as their own.
e.
During this time the Persian king was influenced by God and said
in 2 Chronicles 36:22-23 for all of God's people to go and build
his house in Jerusalem.
f.
The book of Ezra reports how the house of God was rebuilt but without
protection
IV.
Nehemiah chapter 1
a.
Vs 1-3 Nehemiah was concerned for his family and friends, and asked
how they were doing.
b.
Vs 4-11 Nehemiah's prayer of confession, and request that God hear
his prayer.
V.
Nehemiah chapter 2
a.
Nehemiah the Cupbearer.
i.
What is a cupbearer? a person who had a very intimate relationship
with the King, someone who could influence him second only to the
King's wife.
ii.
Vs. 1-2 Nehemiah presented the King with wine, and was said to be
saddened with heart.
iii.
Vs. 3-6 Nehemiah requests to go and to rebuild the walls of his
city (Jerusalem). The
King asks how long he will be gone, and they agree upon a time.
iv.
Vs. 7-9 Nehemiah boldly asks the king to supply all of the tools
necessary for rebuilding the walls, and letters of safe passage
to and from the area, and an army just in case.
b.
Nehemiah the Builder
i.
Vs. 11-16 Nehemiah sneaks out at night and inspects the walls and
discovers the state of their ruin.
ii.
Vs. 17-18 Nehemiah inspires the people of Jerusalem to rise up and
build the walls.
iii.
V. 19-20 Nehemiah encounters the first obstacle of Sanballate and
Tobiah, who say that Nehemiah is going against the King
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