Forward - wk1

"Forward in Faith"

Nehemiah 1

Dr. Gary Singleton

Has there ever been a time when you believed God was calling you to make a certain decision? You knew this decision would impact your future – but you didn’t know exactly how everything would turn out. Ultimately you had to make a choice to either ignore what you believed God was telling you to do, or move forward in faith.
 
When God calls us to move forward with Him, He seldom lets us see the outcome of our choice. God asks us to move forward with hope and conviction, and without having all of our questions answered.
 
We see this kind of faith in the story of Nehemiah. The walls that surrounded Jerusalem were in ruins. God’s people were discouraged. They were looking for the promised Messiah, but Jesus wouldn’t come for another 400 years. God’s plan to rescue His people depended on someone stepping forward in faith to rebuild the walls.
 
This Sunday we begin a new sermon series that we are calling “Forward.” We are going to take a look at the story of Nehemiah and how he followed God’s calling and stepped forward in faith.
 
I believe all of us at The Heights are faced with an opportunity to move forward in faith as a church – just like the people of God did in Nehemiah’s day. I hope you will join me Sunday as we learn from Nehemiah that obedience requires us to move forward in faith.