The race isn’t over till it’s over
Nehemiah 6:1-19
Tanguy Pepiot should have been famous for his athletic achievements. Instead, if you Google him, he’s more famous for his premature celebration and loosing on the line. In 2015 the Frenchmen was streets ahead in the 3,000 metres steeplechase final.  As he entered the last 200 metres, with the crowd roaring, Tanguy began to respond, egging the stadium on to cheer even louder.  With 100 metres still to go, he took his eye off the finishing line – and on to the crowd.  He was clearly revelling in the moment. But what he didn’t know was that, as he worked the crowd, US athlete Meron Simon was closing the gap – fast. Tanguy only became aware of his presence as Meron pipped him on the line, beating him by 1/10th of a second. The crowd hadn’t been cheering Tanguy, they’d been trying to warn him. The hard lesson Tanguy learnt that day was, the race isn’t over until it’s over.
2,500 years ago, back in the Book of Nehemiah, by Chapter Six, the people of Jerusalem were almost there. They too were in the home straight. The wall was essentially built - done.  OK, the doors weren’t on yet, so there were still gaps in the wall, but at least the basic structure was now complete. What had once been just an aspiration, had, through vision, serious graft, and a bit of clever planning, become a reality.
The goldsmiths, the perfumers, the merchants, had all played their part. Out of their comfort zone and skills-set maybe, but, nevertheless, they’d done it. The wall was now in place.
But Nehemiah wasn’t celebrating. That time would come – but only once the Project was finally completed, in full. Any celebrations now would be premature. This was not the time to be taking the foot off the gas. Nehemiah knew what Tanguy now knows, the race isn’t over till it’s over!
Once again, Nehemiah’s story sounds a bit like our story too. OK, our current buildings project is nothing like the scale of Nehemiah’s. It’s not as if we’ve been tasked with building a wall around our city of Birmingham, not even around our 5 mile radius. Or even around our beloved Erdington and Sutton Coldfield.
To be honest, what we’re doing now is not even anywhere near as big as the works done by this church in previous years.
2005 – in the church’s Centenary Year, our fabulous Foyer was built – creating the space for our Café - which, by the way, we’re calling Crossroads Café. Yes, we’re by a crossroads and it’s in our logo, but also because people often find themselves at a crossroads in life. Just read Jeremiah 6:16 - and significant work was undertaken to enhance the worship area, including reversing the direction of the way in and out.
1989 – new lounge, kitchen, and toilets (what did people use before?!)
1962 – the Bevan Jones Memorial Hall was built
1928 – the Primary Room was built
1913 – the church was finally completed
1905 – faced with delays to the building project, the can-do church built a temporary structure, the ‘Tin Tab’
1899 – land was purchased at the crossroads of Chester Road and Boldmere Road - £397 10 shillings
So, what we’re doing at the moment is small by comparison. But, nevertheless, we believe it’s going to have impact for our mission and ministry. We wouldn’t be doing it. But a wall with no doors is no protection. It’s a folly. So, they – and we – may be close to the finishing line, but we’re not over the line yet. The race isn’t over till it’s over.
Nehemiah found that, once in the home straight, the distractions increased. Sanballet, the long-time sworn enemy of the people of Jerusalem, said, “let’s have a meeting”. In fact, let’s meet halfway between Jerusalem and Samaria, on the Plain of Ono. That would have taken Nehemiah away from the project.  And, in any case, it was pretty obvious to Nehemiah that Sanballet’s motives were suspect. It says, 
“But they were scheming to harm me; so I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?”
Have you experienced that in your work? On the one hand, it sounds reasonable, “Let’s have a meeting. And another meeting. And another.”. But really, it’s not a meeting to resolve things, it’s a meeting to wind down the clock, to delay things as much as possible.  Maybe, you’ve seen that in your extended family, where the same arguments are started again and again. Actually, no-ones listening, no-ones wanting to resolve matters, they’re simply adding fuel to the fire. 
When that didn’t work, Sanballet did that old classic – he sent someone else on his behalf. And that someone said, “and Geshem says it’s true”. Or, put another way, it’s when people say, “And, what’s more, other people think the same.” Do you ever hear that? You don’t know who these ‘other people’ are? You don’t know whether it’s one person, ten people, a hundred people, a thousand people. “But ‘other people’ are saying...” But, actually, you just want that person to say, “This is What I think. I want to own my own thoughts and I want to be open and honest with you - this is what I think.” You don’t want them to hid behind the smokescreen of what ‘other people’ may or may not think. 
What’s more, this person came with an “unsealed letter”.  2,500 years ago that was the equivalent today of an email copied in to anyone and everyone, or a social media post where someone hinds behind the anonymity of the Internet to make their point. 
Even worse, they were twisting things to suggest that the people of Jerusalem, and Nehemiah in particular, were plotting against the civil authorities, and that they were doing it simply for their own gain or power-grab.
Nehemiah responded, not with anger at them, but with a defiant prayer. In verse 9: “I prayed, ‘now strengthen my hands.’”
Some years later, in Acts chapter 4, Peter and John had been arrested and threatened and intimidated by the authorities. When they were eventually released, Peter and John joined the rest of the Believers with their on-going prayer meeting. And they all prayed, NOT, Lord, make this threat go away. Not, Lord help us get away. No. Lord, enable us to speak Your Name with even greater boldness. That thing we’ve just been arrested and threatened over, God, help us do it even more. 
Nehemiah and the people of Jerusalem prayed such a prayer. Yes, we’re tired; yes, we’re threatened and intimidated, so, Lord, let us build all the more.
Do you need to pray a defiant prayer right now? Maybe, again in your work context, “Lord, strengthen me. Don’t let me give in to intimidation.” Or, “Lord, don’t let me give in to racist attitudes. Help me to rise above, help me to stand true and proud, to be the person you have made me to be.”  
Then, thinking that maybe Nehemiah could be brought down by inflating his ego, they tried tempting him with privilege, power, and position.
Five hundred years later, in Matthew chapter 4, Evil would try the same trick on Jesus. It didn’t wash with Jesus, it didn’t was with Nehemiah, and you know it doesn’t wash with you either.
Instead, it’s about being faithful God, faithful to the mission and ministry God has called you and us together. Things go a bit squiffy when we take our focus off Jesus, and on to the trappings of privilege, power, and position. That’s religion, not Kingdom. Let’s keep pressing on. The race isn’t over till it’s over!
There was one final group that Nehemiah was wise to. They didn’t think hew was aware of them. They were ‘men under Oath’, men who had sworn an oath to one another. They were passing secret messages back and forth, all with the aim of thwarting what the people of Jerusalem were called to do.
And Nehemiah’s response to all this? The race isn’t over till it’s over. Their focus was on Jesus and fulfilling His mission and ministry. Just as he had in Chater 4, so again, Nehemiah response was simply to crack-on. Get the God-given job done. The best answer to distractions and opposition is to press on, to keep doing what God has called us to be and to do. And that’s what we’re doing too!
So, verse 15 simply says: “So the wall was completed.” What an answer!
By the way, it was completed in just 52 days. What a project! What a challenge! Can you imagine the scratched heads, “you want to do what? In how long?” Can we really do this? Are sure? But they did and in just 52 days.
That’s not too dissimilar a timescale to us. OK, I know our project isn’t anything like as big!
•	In November 2020, we floated the idea and said that we were going to talk about it; 
•	in January 2021 we discussed it; 
•	in March we decided to go for it; 
•	and in May 2021 we started it. 
And here we are, almost mid-June, and we’ve completed the basic structure. Our level floor is now in place. OK, it’s not finished, we’ve got completing works to do over the next two weeks. But we’re now in that “final two hundred metres”, the home straight. The important thing to remember though is, the race isn’t over till it’s over!
So, we’re not going to be like Tanguy and start celebrating prematurely. Instead, we’re seeking to be more like Nehemiah and, despite the occasional distraction, we’re pressing on to win the prize.
Paul said in Philippians 4: 
“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” 
The prize is not a levelled floor, it’s not even flexible, comfortable seats (as good as they are). It’s Jesus! The race that we’re in is the mission and ministry that Christ has called us to.
 Let’s keep our eyes firmly fixed on Him, Jesus, the author and perfector of faith. As we keep doing that, everything else will fall into place. The race isn’t over till it’s over!
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                					DannyBrierley@ChesterRoadBaptist.org.uk