Do you ever feel that your work goes unnoticed and unappreciated? Do you ever wonder if what you're doing really makes a difference? If so, take a look at Nehemiah 3. It's a long chapter filled with unfamiliar names and uninteresting details -- just a bunch of people working on a wall. Yet those names and those details are recorded in Scripture for a reason. They remind us that in God's work, everyone matters!
Years ago, I remember watching a movie along with some other family members with my uncle Ted. As soon as it was over, the rest of us got up to leave but Uncle Ted just sat there, watching the screen. I said, “C’mon, Uncle Ted, the movie’s over!” He said, “Hold on. I want to watch the credits. These people worked hard on the movie and deserve to be recognized.”
Think of your favorite movie. You probably remember the main actors. You might even remember who directed it or who did the soundtrack. But do you remember all the other people who worked on the movie? Who designed the set? Who produced the costumes? Who worked in the makeup department? Who orchestrated the sound? Who created the visual effects? I looked up one movie that had 800 people working on the visual effects alone! Each of them had a specific job to do, and that was noted next to their name. Without them, the movie would not have been made. As my uncle said, such people work hard and deserve to be recognized. That is, after all, why they call them the credits. Nehemiah 3 is the credits of the Jerusalem construction project.
This text says a lot more about the God who wrote it than about us who read it. It reminds us that God is mindful of everyone who serves -- whether anyone else takes notice or not. "For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do" (Hebrews 6:10).
The title of my sermon on Nehemiah 3, "No Little People," was taken from the following quote by Francis Schaeffer:
We must remember throughout our lives that in God’s sight there are no little people and no little places. Only one thing is important: to be consecrated persons in God’s place for us, at each moment. Those who think of themselves as little people in little places, if committed to Christ and living under his Lordship in the whole of life, may, by God’s grace change the flow of our generation. And as we get on a bit in our lives, knowing how weak we are, if we look back and see we have been somewhat used of God, then we should be … “surprised by joy.”
It's a wonder that God would use any of us, let alone remember our work and reward us for it. But that's the kind of God we serve -- a God of infinite grace.
Shouldn't that motivate us to serve him all the more?