Our Fire-starter is do you have a cause to quit? Our Fire-starter comes from Nehemiah 6.

We are living in a day and hour where people are quitting. In a report I looked up said 38% of pastors are considering quitting. I also read where 57% of millennials have quit going to church. 

Why is that? There are many reasons I am sure why pastors leave the pulpit. Why young people are disinterested in church is because they lost sight of the cause. Can i remind you this morning pastor? if you have one in the service or five hundred in the service that is still a lot to be accountable for. 

The young people have lost interest because of the adults that have failed to keep the engagement. What do I mean by this? The reason many young people are not excited about church is because the parents have no interest in it and it has passed down from generation to generation. 

I was at a young preachers conference this pastor Friday night and I enjoyed being around people that loved preaching and loved old time religion. May i say this morning that we do not need a rock band to help get young people in, we do not need a famous new age preacher to draw a crowd. God never called us to draw a crowd. God called us to honor him by reaching the lost with the glorious gospel. 

The reason Nehemiah could not come down was he had a cause, he had a reason to be there. Pastor, don't quit! Sunday school teacher, don't give up. Church member, Do not walk out on God. Why? Because there is a cause, there is great work to be accomplished and there are people going to be affected by what you do and how you do it. 

I am around people that have stated they wished they could just quit. Can I ask this morning, what is your reason for quitting?

Well, you do not understand brother Justin, I am not the best person for the job. Someone else that is better than me can take it and do something with it. Friend, God didn't call someone else to do it he called you and if he called you stay with it and there will be cause for a crown one day. 

Quitters never get trophies!!! They go home in shame of why they quit. Do not get mad at the Lord for not giving you a good sportsmanship trophy because you were kind to those that kept going. you mark it down if you quit, you will be known for quitting and you will also be known for not caring about the cause!!!

Well, there is so and so that quit using the Bible, quit telling people about Jesus, quit praying, quit backing up his pastor, yep there is a quitter!!!!

 Nehemiah said I am doing a great work that I can't come down. Do you see what you are doing as great work? Remember any work that you and I do for the Lord is a great work. Little is much when God is in it!!!

Have a "Successful" Kind of Day!!!

Nehemiah 6:1,3-19 KJV
Now it came to pass, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein; (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates;) [3] And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you? [4] Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner. [5] Then sent Sanballat his servant unto me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand; [6] Wherein was written, It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel: for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king, according to these words. [7] And thou hast also appointed prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah: and now shall it be reported to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together. [8] Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart. [9] For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands. [10] Afterward I came unto the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut up; and he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for they will come to slay thee; yea, in the night will they come to slay thee. [11] And I said, Should such a man as I flee? and who is there, that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in. [12] And, lo, I perceived that God had not sent him; but that he pronounced this prophecy against me: for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. [13] Therefore was he hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me. [14] My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear. [15] So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days. [16] And it came to pass, that when all our enemies heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God. [17] Moreover in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters unto Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came unto them. [18] For there were many in Judah sworn unto him, because he was the son in law of Shechaniah the son of Arah; and his son Johanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah. [19] Also they reported his good deeds before me, and uttered my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear.