County Line Congregational Christian Church

County Line
Congregational Christian Church
3913 Jonesboro Road
Hampton, GA 30228
(770) 478-2002
Dr. Michael Halsey, Pastor
Archie Pennington, Youth Pastor

"FINISH LINE FAITH"

INTRODUCTION

The war was not going well. Soldiers were starving. Battles were being
lost. Men were away from home. The cause, so noble was it going to be lost?

A soldier takes up his pen and writes what historian Ben Bailyn has called
the most brilliant pamphlet ever written in the English language.

"These are times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine
patriot may, in this crisis shrink from the service of his country, but he
that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny,
like hell, is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation with us, that
the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too
cheap, we esteem too lightly; 'tis dearness only that gives everything its
value." So wrote Tom Paine during the Revolutionary War.

Are you having a hard time? Is staying faithful to Christ getting hard,
maybe just a little too hard? Have you ever said, "You know, I'm saved, I've
trusted Christ as my Savior, but man, sometimes circumstances get tough.
Sometimes it seems like I have a herd of elephants charging me."

During WWII, the Allies were getting ready to make their biggest push and
attack of the war. Some time before the attack, the British came up with an
ingenious plan to distract the Germans. All they needed was a dead body and
some inventive thinkers. They concocted an idea to take the corpse of British
soldier and use it to deceive the German high command.

The soldier that they planned to use wouldn't be suitable if he'd died in
battle; it had to be death by a different cause. The body had to be in tact.
They found such a soldier. They contacted his father and brought him to
British headquarters. They told him that they couldn't inform him as to what
they would do with his son, but they assured him of two things: his son would
be used for a cause that could turn the tide of the war and that he would
receive a proper burial when it was all over. The father gave his permission.

The British then went to work. They gave the soldier a new name and created
new records, a new rank, for him. The put letters on him from an imaginary
girl friend that they created for him. In one of the letters, she refers to
something he'd written in one of his "letters" to her. In her letter she
referred to "Tuna" which the British hoped the Germans would take as a
reference to "Tunisia."

They put the body into a plane and crashed it off the Atlantic coast. The
body floated on shore and was turned over to the German military. They bought
it-they then diverted much of their personnel exactly where the allies wanted.

2400 yrs. ago, Nehemiah is closing in on God's grand purpose for his life.
The walls that have been down for a century in God's city, the city to which
the Messiah will one day come, the city that's a testimony to who God is.
These walls are now getting close to being finished and rebuilt.

What happens when a person gets serious about moving toward God's will? He
or she becomes the point of attack, satanic attack, and an attack that amazes
it with its ferocity.

I have this recurring dream-I dream that there's this dog. This dog has his
teeth wrapped around my forearm. I do everything to try to get rid of the
beast. I hold him up and shake my arm. He still holds on. I hold him up and
start beating him, he still holds on. He's tenacious. He won't stop, he
wont' let go.

Satan wants to destroy the Jewish people in Nehemiah's day because they're
the ones that the Messiah will come through. They're the ones to whom God has
given four covenants to be fulfilled. If they go, so do God's promises. Like
a dog hanging onto a forearm, Satan comes at Nehemiah and won't let go. His
main strategy is to get rid of Nehemiah and failing that, to distract him from
the work.

1. Strategy #1: THE PLOT TO KILL-vs. 1-4: Sanballet and Geshim invite
Nehemiah for a conference, but the conference is a long way from Jerusalem.
Nehemiah knows their intent is to kill him (Vs 2). He knows that if their
intent were for peace, they'd have come to Jerusalem. You know, let's face
it, if Satan could, he'd kill every believer who's serious about moving on in
God's will. If Satan could have his way, he'd crash down the doors of every
church that teaches the free grace of God. For him, there are no rules, for
him there is no "be fair."

2. Strategy #2: THE PLOT TO SLANDER-Vs. 5-9: "We've got this report," they
say, "that after the walls are rebuilt, you're planning to proclaim yourself
king of the Jews. You know this will upset the King of Persia who let you
rebuild in the first place. Come to a conference with us and let's work out a
way to protect you." Isn't it easy to get distracted when our character is
questioned? Isn't it easy to throw in the towel when they start talking about
us? Doesn't it hurt to be misunderstood? Rumors are fun, are they? And what
about what his own people would think about this report?

3. Strategy #3: THE PLOT TO DISCREDIT-Vs. 10-14: They find a man Nehemiah
trusts. They pay him money to get him to lure him into sin. (Madeline Murray
O'Hare has been seen in several yrs. Also missing are hundreds of thousands
of dollars from her Atheist Association. Recently her diary was auctioned
off. In that diary was this notation that she wrote to herself: "Discredit
Billy Graham for money.") Satan wants to discredit the believer serious about
moving on in God's will. He'll come at you to discredit you. The hired gun
locks himself in his house, an unusual move to get Nehemiah's attention. He
invites Nehemiah to come to his house for a meeting. Nehemiah comes and at
this meeting, the prophet tells Nehemiah of a plot to kill him. He tells
Nehemiah to go to the Temple with him for his own safety. But Nehemiah smells
a rat. Why would God want him to leave the work when they were so close to
the finish line? Why would God want Him to violate Num. 3:10 and 18:7, which
say that only priests can go into the sanctuary? Nehemiah knows that God will
NEVER lead contrary to His word. He doesn't go.

And now it's September. The work is done! In 52 days! The enemies of the
work now see that only God could have been in it for it to be done like this
was done.

In Col. 4:14, Paul says that there's this man with him, a good worker for the
gospel who's working, working with Paul. IN Philemon 24, he says, this same
man, Demas, is with me and he says, "Hi." In II Tim. 4:10, the last letter
Paul ever wrote, Paul says, "Demas has forsaken me, having loved the present
world."

But Nehemiah has finish line faith. He shows up ever day, all day to move
along with the work God has called him to do.

Woody Allan has said, " 80% of success is just showing up." Noel coward said,
"Thousands of people have talent. I might as well congratulate you for having
eyes in your head. The one and only thing that counts is: DO YOU HAVE STAYING
POWER?"

How did Nehemiah do this? How did he have finish line faith. Don't you want
that? I have a friend in the ministry who told me over the phone once, "I
want to finish up faithful." But there's all this stuff, all these kitchen
sinks coming at me like so many line drives and some of the line drives from
Satan I can't even see them until they're in my face. Did you see the film
clips of the basebrawl last summer? The dugouts had emptied and the players
were really going at it and I was enjoying it immensely. Then as one of the
melees was taking place in front of one dugout there was this one player who
was standing on the steps of the dugout looking to his right. All of a
sudden, out of nowhere comes an opposing player who hits the player right in
the face, right on the left jaw. He knocks the player down into the dugout.

Look at verses 17-19!!! Right inside Israel is a 5th column, Jews disloyal to
Nehemiah, who were related to Tobiah, (blood is thicker than the Spirit) one
of Nehemiah's enemies and they kept him informed about Nehemiah's movements.
Blindsided! Who'd have thought it! Right inside Israel. They probably had
trading contracts with Tobiah.

But HOW do you have a finish line faith? It's a finish line faith that
brings rewards in heaven --it's a finish line faith that will get you the
"We'll done thou good and faithful servant" from the Lord. How? Look at
verse 9c-Nehemiah prays, "Lord, strengthen my hands." How great that is!
He's not distracted; he gets down on his knees, prays and then goes and
punches the clock. Day after day. Week after week. For 52 days.

Is it getting hard? Take some time for knee time, pray and ask God to
strengthen your hands for the work. Get up and then show up.

Nehemiah was no summer Christian, no sunshine believer.

Take a look at CLC. We stand on the verge of great things for God. Look at
how God is blessing our ministry. Do you not think there'll come herds of
elephants to get us distracted? Look at the plans the architect's plans. A
dream on paper. Do you not think we should pray and ask God to strengthen our
hands for the work?

Now, I want to be clear here. I've been talking to the believer, but I'm not
now - I'm not calling on you for finish line faith. That's not your issue.
Your issue is a Person who was 100% totally obedient to God, to a Person who
100% finished the work that God sent Him to do. Jesus Christ came to the
earth and shouted from a Cross--"It stands finished!" He finished the work of
paying for your sins, He died and rose on the third day. It's done! It's
completed! You don't need to add anything to it. This work is free for the
believing, the receiving. Will you do it today? Just a faith the size of a
grain of a mustard seed. Then begins the faith-adventure of your life.

Will you make Nehemiah's prayer, your prayer?

So here it is for us now: "Lord, give us finish line faith."