Advertise on podcast: Faith Bible Church Sermons

Pastor Russell Johnson continued through the book of Nehemiah, covering chapter 5 and a crisis that came from inside the community rather than from its enemies. Pastor Russell opened with the story of American contractors from Vermont and New York during the War of 1812 who supplied two-thirds of the advancing British army because the profits were too good to refuse — "myopic, self-defeating, and imprudent at the deepest level." Before entering the text, he established Proverbs 9:10 as the lens for the chapter, defining wisdom as "the skill of living well" and the fear of the Lord as "a settled, life-shaping orientation toward God." He then walked through three layers of economic devastation inside Jerusalem — families unable to eat, landowners mortgaging everything to survive a famine, and families whose children were already enslaved to pay crushing debts — all caused by wealthy Jewish nobles exploiting their own people. Pastor Russell called it "what the absence of the fear of God produces — it makes you dumb and can even make you mean." He traced Nehemiah's response as wisdom in action: anger proportional to the wrong, deliberate reflection before speaking, a public assembly to confront a community-wide sin, and an immediate demand for full restoration. He then walked through Nehemiah's twelve-year record as governor — declining his food allowance, feeding 150 people daily at his own expense, refusing to acquire land — all driven by the fear of God rather than political calculation. Pastor Russell closed with an honest acknowledgment that injustice among God's people is real, a direct apology to those wounded by the church, and a Dallas Willard quote defining disciples as "people who are constantly revising their affairs to carry through on their decision to follow Jesus.

On Sunday, Pastor Russell Johnson continued through the book of Nehemiah, covering chapter 4 and the escalating opposition that met the builders as the wall went up. Pastor Russell opened with a story from his college days hauling hay with his father-in-law Ken, who taught him to always roll a bale of hay toward himself before picking it up in case something was hiding underneath. One day he rolled a bale back to find a nest of baby barn owls — wings outstretched, chests puffed out, beaks clicking — doing everything they could to look big and scary. Pastor Russell compared those puffed-up owls to Nehemiah's enemies: "lots of noise and bravado." He organized the chapter around a repeated pattern — the opposition hears something they don't like, there is anger and posturing, and that posturing is met with an expression of faith. In the first round, Sanballat rolled up to the construction site with a military escort and launched five mocking questions while Tobiah added his one-liner about a fox breaking the wall down. Nehemiah's response was not a clever comeback but prayer, taking the offense to God rather than retaliating. Pastor Russell noted that "the most powerful response to ridicule is not a witty comeback — it's continuing to work." In the second round, the coalition expanded to surround Jerusalem on all sides, and ridicule escalated into threats of violence. Worse, three internal voices — tired workers, threatening enemies, and frightened friends from outlying communities — began singing the same song: stop building. Nehemiah responded with both trust and action, stationing armed men at the vulnerable points and recasting the vision: "Do not be afraid of them; remember the Lord who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your houses." In the final section, after God frustrated the enemies' plan, Nehemiah did not relax but got more organized — splitting workers into builders and guards, assigning weapons alongside tools, posting a trumpeter beside him as a rally signal, extending the workday from "dawn until the stars appeared," and requiring workers to sleep inside Jerusalem. Pastor Russell emphasized the "both-and" of mature faith: "He organizes it because he trusts God and because he understands that God works through prepared and faithful people." He concluded with Nehemiah sleeping in his clothes, sword within reach, the wall half done and the work still going: "Don't be afraid. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome. And fight. Let's keep building."

On Easter Sunday, Pastor Russell Johnson explored Hebrews 10:10-14 through the powerful imagery of "3 Chairs"—asking the question that matters most: "Do you have a chair?" Pastor Russell opened with a humorous story about his mom and aunt getting in trouble at a nursing home over someone's chair, then pivoted to the profound truth that sitting down represents finished work. He walked through the Old Testament priests who had no chair because "their work was never complete"—standing daily, offering repeatedly, the same sacrifices that "can never take away sins." Pastor Russell connected this to the Ezra-Nehemiah series, showing how those books end with spiritual work still "unfinished" and pointing forward to someone who would complete it. Then Jesus showed up! Pastor Russell declared that Christ "offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins" and "sat down at the right hand of God"—the place of highest honor, authority, and approval. The stunning conclusion from Ephesians 2:4-6 is that because Jesus sat down, we get a chair too: "Seated us WITH HIM. Not someday. Not after you perform well enough. Right now!" Pastor Russell invited everyone to stop striving and rest in the finished work of Christ.

On Sunday, Pastor Lance Terry continued through the book of Nehemiah by covering chapter 3 and asking one central question: "What does it take to build?" Pastor Lance opened with the story of the Galveston seawall — how after the devastating 1900 hurricane, different groups came together to plan, fund, and construct a massive seawall while raising much of the city by fifteen feet, completing much of the work in just two years. He then connected that engineering feat to the rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls, walking the congregation through a visual reconstruction of the wall section by section, gate by gate, noting that more than forty sections were rebuilt by leaders from different backgrounds and professions — priests, goldsmiths, perfumers, officials, and homeowners. Pastor Lance drew out three things the people needed to recognize in order to build. First, they had to recognize it was not just a brick and mortar project — the high priest Eliashib consecrated the wall at the very start, setting it apart as belonging to God and dedicated to His glory, not their own comfort or fame. Second, they had to recognize where they were vulnerable by strengthening the gates, since gates determined what came in and out of the city and represented their most exposed points. Pastor Lance applied this personally, sharing his family's decision about cell phones for his children and his experience with Re:gen's repentance planning process. Third, they had to recognize it was a group effort, highlighting the repeated phrase "next to him" throughout chapter 3, which painted a picture of everyone working shoulder to shoulder in the same direction. He noted that people of different professions stepped outside their normal work to build, and that most sections were built by the people who lived nearest to them. Pastor Lance concluded by connecting the sermon to a church work day the previous Saturday, where people who were "overqualified to spread mulch" joyfully showed up to serve, and challenged the congregation: "Don't sit back and watch while other people build. Jump in with us. Get to work. Let's keep building."

On Sunday, Pastor Russell Johnson continued through the book of Nehemiah, covering chapter 2 and the remarkable sequence of events that followed Nehemiah's four months of prayer. Pastor Russell opened with a personal story from 2015, when he was leading a church plant in San Saba, Texas — "the Pecan Capital of the world" — and needed a teaching job to support his family of seven. He and his leadership team prayed specifically for a job matching his teaching certificate, for an interview despite having no experience, and for a house big enough for five children in a tiny town, and God answered every one of those prayers in rapid succession. Pastor Russell then walked through Nehemiah 2, showing how prayer, planning, and the providence of God work together. When the king finally noticed Nehemiah's sadness — four months after his initial grief — Nehemiah was "very much afraid," because displaying sadness before the king was a serious breach of court etiquette and he was about to ask Artaxerxes to reverse his own official decree halting the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Pastor Russell highlighted the split-second prayer in verse 4 between the king's question and Nehemiah's answer, explaining that "these normally are the overflow of sustained prayer" and that "we expect God to steady us in the moment of crisis if we have no time with Him before the crisis arrives." Nehemiah's bold, detailed requests — for permission to go, letters of safe passage, and timber from the king's forest — revealed that he had spent his four months not only praying but planning, because "clarity of vision produces clarity of request." After arriving in Jerusalem with a military escort, Nehemiah conducted a secret nighttime inspection of the walls before making his pitch to the people — naming the shared reality plainly, standing with them in it as "we" rather than "you," and sharing the testimony of God's providence. The people responded immediately: "Let us arise and build." When the enemies Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem countered with ridicule and accusations of rebellion, Nehemiah's response was short and decisive: "The God of heaven will give us success; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no portion, right or memorial in Jerusalem." Pastor Russell concluded by observing that "prayer, planning, and trusting in the providence of God produce boldness and courage.

Pastor Russell Johnson launched the book of Nehemiah, beginning with chapter 1. Pastor Russell set the historical context by explaining that Nehemiah's account picks up thirteen years after Ezra's arrival in Jerusalem, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes I (445 BC) — a king whose own father, Xerxes, had been assassinated in his bedchamber by a court attendant. When Nehemiah's brother Hanani arrived from Judah with news that "the remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire," Nehemiah's response was remarkable: he "sat down and wept and mourned for days." Pastor Russell challenged the modern assumption that emotional detachment equals strength, pointing out that "Jeremiah wept. Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Paul wept over the churches. And now Nehemiah weeps over a people he hasn't seen, in a city he only grew up hearing stories about." He walked through Nehemiah's four-month prayer — from Chislev to Nisan — showing how Nehemiah prayed the truth about God ("great and awesome...scary and dependable"), prayed the truth about himself by identifying with his people's sin rather than claiming personal exemption, prayed the promises of Scripture back to God from Deuteronomy 30, and finally prayed about his "one big thing" — asking God for favor before the most powerful king on earth. Pastor Russell highlighted that Nehemiah's prayer was not demanding of God but was a reminder to himself of what God had already committed to do. He concluded with the quiet revelation at the chapter's end — "Now I was the cupbearer to the king" — showing that God had been positioning Nehemiah for years, and that his comfort was never the point: "When the call came, Nehemiah was willing to trade his security for a dangerous mission on behalf of people he had never met, in a city he had never seen, because they were God's people, and that was enough."

Pastor Russell Johnson concluded the book of Ezra with chapter 10, the difficult resolution to the intermarriage crisis. The chapter opens with Shecaniah rising to encourage Ezra: "Yet now there is hope for Israel in spite of this... Arise! For this matter is your responsibility, but we will be with you; be courageous and act." Pastor Russell highlighted this as a model of how leaders sometimes need others to move them "from dejection to direction." Ezra then assembled all the people—standing in cold December rain, trembling inside and out—and confronted them directly: "You have been unfaithful." The people responded remarkably: "That's right! As you have said, so it is our duty to do." A three-month investigation followed, and the guilty were named publicly—priests, Levites, singers, and laypeople alike. Pastor Russell addressed the "elephants in the room": How does this fit with God's hatred of divorce? He explained this was "a unique situation in redemptive history" involving "the very survival of a faithful remnant," not a prescriptive pattern for today. The book ends somberly, with broken families and unfinished restoration—pointing us forward to Christ, who would come to "finish the spiritual work we could never do on our own."

Pastor Russell Johnson continued through Ezra, exploring chapter 9 and the crisis that confronted Ezra upon his arrival in Jerusalem. The leaders reported devastating news: "The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands"—they had intermarried with pagan nations. Pastor Russell emphasized this was not racial prejudice but a matter of covenant fidelity, noting that "the hands of the princes and the rulers have been foremost in this unfaithfulness." He applied leadership principles—the Law of the Lid, the Law of the Picture, and Tone at the Top—to show how leadership failure corrupts an entire community. Ezra's response was visceral: tearing his garments, pulling his hair, and sitting "appalled until the evening offering" before falling to his knees in prayer. Pastor Russell walked through Ezra's remarkable prayer, which confesses corporate sin using "we" and "our," acknowledges God's abundant grace (survival, stability, encouragement, constancy, providence, protection), and ends abruptly with no petition—leaving the people "on the brink." He concluded by challenging us to examine our relationships, warning that "who we align ourselves with has a sure impact on our lives."

Pastor Lance Terry continued through Ezra, covering chapters 7 and 8 and introducing us to Ezra himself—nearly sixty years after the events of chapter 6. Pastor Lance highlighted Ezra's credentials: his priestly lineage tracing back to Aaron, his role as "a scribe skilled in the law of Moses," and the repeated phrase that "the hand of the Lord his God was upon him." Most significantly, Pastor Lance focused on Ezra 7:10, which he called Ezra's "mission statement": "Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel." Pastor Lance challenged us to consider our own mission, noting that "few things are worse than feeling aimless in life." When Ezra faced a dangerous 900-mile journey with significant wealth and no military escort, he chose to fast and pray rather than request the king's protection—because "we've been telling the king that God's hand will be on those who seek Him." Pastor Lance concluded by urging us to identify our unique, God-given mission and to "set our hearts" on living it out.

Pastor Russell Johnson continued through Ezra, covering chapters 5 and 6 and the restart of temple construction after a sixteen-year delay. Pastor Russell used the "good cop, bad cop" analogy to describe how God sent two prophets—Haggai, who confronted the people's complacency and told them to "go to work," and Zechariah, who cast vision for God's future purposes and the coming "Branch." Together, their prophesying moved Zerubbabel and Jeshua to arise and rebuild. Pastor Russell highlighted the repeated use of the word "decree" throughout these chapters, showing that while Persian kings issued decrees, it was ultimately God's decree being fulfilled through them. He emphasized that "God's word is alive and active" and "energizes and works in those who receive it." The chapters culminate in the temple's completion and joyful celebration of Passover, prompting Pastor Russell to conclude with a powerful reminder: "We obey our way into feelings quicker than we feel our way into obedience."