Back To Work
Back To Work!
"We returned all of us to the wall, every one unto his work." Neh.4:15
These words seem very simple, but there is something very heroic about that statement.
This was to be the business of rebuilding those ruined walls.
The difficulties were increased by the fact that there were enemies on every hand,
watching the builders with intense hatred.
The work of building was in a stage which is often the most difficult stage of all.
It is so with every creative work.
It is so with warfare.
It is true of all life.
There is a middle period in everything which is most perilous and most discouraging.
It is the time when the early enthusiasm has died down into the light of common day.
This is certainly true of our churches.
When you have a new pastor or staff member, or when you go into a new building,
enthusiasm and excitement is usually extremely high.
The only way to bring our days of gloom into the sunshine is to trample under foot
all the moods and feelings, and get on with our task in spite of them.
It is getting back to the job, of taking things up again to those things that we should be doing.
We need the spirit of Nehemiah's workers when we come back to our duties after we have been away for a vacation.
It is not easy to get back to work after enjoying a time of leisure.
It is difficult to come back to school or to the office or to the shop after having an enjoyable vacation.
Like Nehemiah's workers, we must get back to the task.
We must get back to the the work of re-building the wall.
The workmen of Nehemiah's were more enthusiastic when they returned to their work.
After being enriched and refreshed, we should also be ready and enthusiastic about returning to the work of our Lord.
Nothing should excite us more than having the opportunity of serving our great God.
We also need that spirit after a time of sorrow.
After going through hours of sorrow, getting back to work is not a very pleasant or easy.
It is often very difficult, when the heart is hurting, to come back to the daily drudgery again.
In such darkened hours, we must remember to imitate Nehemiah's workers.
We are not to brood upon our sorrow.
We are to feel that God is with us through them all.
We are to turn again, out of the darkness, to the burdens of everyday life.
We must turn again, just as the builders of Nehemiah did, to their work of rebuilding the wall.
We need a spirit of excitement our churches.
We are intensely tossed about by the events of the common day.
We know not what an hour may bring.
In the hour of uncertainty, it is endurance and faith which is required of us.
We must see to it that we are not wanting.
In daily and un-eventful drudgery, let be twice faithful.
Through personal sorrow and family anxieties, through tidings of victory or of disaster,
our duty, till the break of day, is for us to be found faithful.
To take up the sword for the battle may be a difficult task.
To take up one's cross may be even more difficult.
To follow the example of our Saviour we must patiently take up the sword every morning.
In the face of all the troubles and problems of the day, we must just keep on trusting in our Lord.
Look at Christ!
Look at the quiet, courageous, and unfaltering perseverance Jesus exercised in the way of the duty
and on the way to the cross.
May we, as servants of God have the grace we need to follow in His steps.
It is the only road to peace of mind and victory over all that would try our souls.
Through sorrow -- joy -- troubles -- burdens -- unexpected trials, let us return to the wall of duty
that God as for us to do.
Sermon by Dr. Harold L. White
