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LaunchPad: Day 21 · Equipped: A Podcast Platform for the Equip Ministry of Cuyahoga Valley Church

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Our God is a God who does great things.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: He is all wise and all powerful.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, when our God does these great things, he works in and through people.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: In the story of Scripture, we don't often hear about God reaching a giant hand out of the sky to move things around the way that he wants them, or exclusively working through the prestigious and powerful.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, he often works in and through ordinary people like you and me.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, God is able to bring about his purposes through anyone, but he delights when ordinary people willingly and faithfully participate in his purposes.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: God could have done this himself, but he chose to work through people.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: This account from Nehemiah specifies that we built the wall.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: This was a community project that people joined together to do.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Folks would have different responsibilities, they'd play different parts, but they worked together to see the job done.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: As they worked together, the wall got half built very rapidly, and it's said to be because the people had a mind to work.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted to do something that God was behind, and then they did it.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Their hearts were willing and their hands were able, so they set themselves to do what God had laid on their hearts.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't know all that this would entail, but they trusted God with the details by putting their heads down and working.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: The people had waited and prayed, and now the time had come to work.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Building a wall was no small thing.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: It was a momentous task.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: It would often be challenging and difficult work.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: And in this verse we see that there would still be more to do, it's only half done.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: But God's people had accomplished so much already they had done incredible things when they were faithful to him.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that same God still accomplishes incredible things today.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: He seeks to work his will in your life and in mine.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps the tasks he's invited you to are challenging or intimidating.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: There could very well be opposition and difficulty.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: What does it look like for us to have a mind to work out God's purposes?
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't always look dramatic or as impressive as a wall being built.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Faithful participation in God's purposes often happens in regular places through ordinary acts of obedience.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes God's purposes are accomplished through the gifts and abilities He has given us.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they are accomplished through simple faithfulness in things that seem remarkably ordinary.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: God's works can be enormously impressive like starting a new church, or providing drinking water for a community without any, or providing for a family in need when they have nothing.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: God's works can also be quiet and intimate, like patiently loving your child, sitting with someone who is hurting, or sharing forgiveness with someone who has wronged you.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: God is a God who accomplishes his purposes through ordinary people as they faithfully submit to him, and he is seeking to do that in you.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Today I want to invite you to consider where is God calling you to faithfully participate in His purposes?