If God is always at work in your life, we can expect the enemy to be at work as well. While he was tirelessly trying to complete the work God called him to finish, Nehemiah faced three enemies that attempted to delay, derail, and destroy this work. These three enemies are the same enemies that we face on a day to day basis as we walk with Jesus and lean into the things God calls us to step into and finish. What are these enemies, and how do we respond to them?

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God is always wanting to speak to us. However, we are not always listening. The bible says that God is spirit (John 4:24), and that He is so grand even the highest heaven cannot contain Him (1 Kings 8:27). He is also the Creator of all known and unknown things. He always was, is, and always will be. This is His nature, and because God is all of these things and we are not, how then can finite ears hear infinite words? How can we really and truly hear from God? How can we discern whether what we are hearing is from God or our own imaginations? Does God use our imaginations to speak to us? How does God speak, and how can we listen rightly?

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God is always speaking, but we are not always listening. We may be putting in effort to hear, but are we truly and honestly listening to the voice of the good Shepherd? In this episode, Ben teaches out of 1 Samuel, showing us what listening to God's voice looks like and how we can hear Him more clearly. We pray this message richly blesses you and pushes you closer to Jesus!

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Standing proud before the veil in Moses’ Tabernacle was the Altar of Incense. For the Old Testament Priests, this altar was an image of continual and fervent prayer to God. Just as the fragrant incense ascended up towards where God is, so do our prayers. Today, this imagery symbolizes Christ interceding for us before the presence of the Father. Not only that, however, it is also a picture of the fragrant aroma that we, as followers of Jesus, carry as He sends us out in the world to preach the gospel of His kingdom and make disciples of Him. What does God “smell" like, and do you carry His aroma so that others around you may benefit from it?

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Put yourself in the shoes of an Old Testament Levitical High Priest. The day is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It's the day all of Israel makes the necessary sacrifices and festivities to ponder about and receive forgiveness from God, who has rescued you from slavery and is promising you a land to call your own. Upon donning yourself with your priestly garments, you approach the gates of the Tabernacle with the animals that you must sacrifice on the altar. The blood shed is finished and you make your way to the laver to wash yourself of the stains. With fear and trembling, you then turn toward the tent of meeting. You take a deep breath as everyone behind you watches you stand before its entrance. You step in…

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After the priests sacrificed animals on the altar in the outer courtyard of the Tabernacle, they’d move on to the Laver. This was where washing happened, symbolizing cleansing, purification, and reflection. These ideas aren't just ancient rituals—they continue into the New Testament and are meaningful today. They point to what Jesus has done and is still doing through His Holy Spirit to make us clean and pure like He is. Just as the priests couldn’t skip washing at the Laver before worshiping God, we shouldn’t overlook chances to purify our hearts. This helps us worship God genuinely and wholeheartedly. By doing so, we align ourselves with Christ's purity and holiness.

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Altars. They are a major theme in both the Old Testament and the New. Where there’s an altar, there's sacrifice. In the Old Testament, God required animal sacrifices on altars so atonement for sins could be made. In the New Testament, Jesus sacrificed Himself on the altar of the cross so everlasting redemption could be made possible - but why altars? Why blood? Why sacrifices? Can’t God just forgive without the mess and suffering? There’s much more to altars than we could ever assume.

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The Temple Gate was the first thing the priests saw when approaching God's Tabernacle. It was THE WAY they could access Him. Now Jesus is THE WAY to God. We follow His life and teachings through faith, producing the fruit of the Spirit. It is very hard to walk this way, but the reward is great.

Small Group Sermon Guide