I've titled our sermon this morning Have faith in God when
Facing opposition. A lot of things in life have a
very good start, but sometimes a very hard journey.
For instance, a young couple gets married as a very good
start. They are happy, they're in love,
everything is good. But then as life moves on,
there's difficulties because there's opposition and it
becomes challenging. It can be a lot of things in
life, could be a job starts great, all is all, all is good.
But then as time goes on, there's all kinds of challenges
that come with it. In our sermon series this
morning, we're continuing in the story of Nehemiah.
We've seen in the in the previous sermons how he lived in
Babylon and he hears news about Jerusalem.
It's broken down, the walls are broken, the gates are burned,
and he's struggling with that whole thing.
It becomes a burden on his heart.
He agonizes, he prays, God lays on his heart to actually go and
do it, to make to condense the story.
He ends up going to Jerusalem. He takes on this huge task of
rebuilding the wall and to bring security and stability back to
the city of Jerusalem. And there's a lot of help.
The people are very united. They are very on board, but then
there's all kinds of challenges that come up.
They've had a great start, but a good start does not mean it's
always going to be good and last.
Nehemiah, last Sunday, we saw how Nehemiah did a great job at
organizing the building project and how it moved forward at a
rapid pace, How his leadership and his dedication and the unity
of the people brought forth good results from their labor.
They were committed. Most of them were helpful if you
weren't, but it was not all good.
Serious opposition rose up to threaten the work and the lives
of the workers. And in a few minutes we want to
turn again to Nehemiah and look at how he responded to the
opposition that was directed towards him.
But before we turn to Nehemiah and look at the opposition he
and his people faced and how they responded, I want to
briefly point out in another story of Scripture how this kind
of stuff unfolds and how it develops and how it happens.
This whole idea of opposition in the Bible is very common.
There's a lot of it. Opposition is a form of control
and we find opposition in all areas of life.
People do it right from childhood on.
Children oppose their parents and and husband and wife oppose
each other. There's all kinds of opposition
everywhere. And when 2 forces meet and they
can't come to an agreement, there's a victor and a loser and
on it goes. It can be long lasting, can be
deadly. In the Bible, there's a story of
two brothers, Cain and Abel, sons of Adam and Eve.
They grew up together into adulthood and each had their own
way of making a living. We find one was a farmer, he
raised crops. Cain, the older one, the younger
brother was Abel. And he, he had, he had flocks of
sheep, sheep and goats maybe. And one day they both decided
we're going to bring an offering to God from the flock, Abel from
the flock and came from his produce.
And it says that they both bought an offering, but God did
not look favorably at on Cain's offering, but he favored Abel's
offering. And here Cain had a problem and
he was angry towards God that God would not accept his
offering. God was not favorable toward his
offering. So Cain had a bad attitude.
God spoke to Cain and said, is it right for you and, and Cain,
he said to Cain, sin is at your heart store.
You must have mastery over it. Cain did not choose to change
his attitude. He did not choose to repent.
But in his mind his problem was his brother.
If he could get rid of his brother, his problem would be
gone. Actually, it was God who we had
a problem with, but He took it out on Abel because Abel was the
one who got favored. If could get rid of Cain, Abel,
then that would be gone. And so he figured he would get
rid of Abel. And he did.
And God held him accountable. Abel was gone, but God held Cain
responsible for what he did. You see, Cain's security, his
sense of well-being, his view of life revolved around himself at
the expense of others, in this case his brother Abel.
Abel had to be eliminated. So why am I telling this kind of
a story? As an introduction to the story
of Nehemiah and the opposition that Nehemiah faced?
Here's the reason. When a person's only way to
advance, to rise, to become strong, to be in control, when
all of that is based on how that person has to reduce others,
control others, reject others, disenfranche others, that person
or that society is headed for trouble.
They may succeed for a while, but in the end it always catches
up. Obviously Cain was self focused.
He could not accept that his brother Abel was accepted, but
he was not. Instead of saying what am I
doing wrong to get accepted, he said I got to get rid of him.
And so he took Abel's life. Some people only find their
security in what they can take away from the other person.
It comes in a lot of different forms.
When someone feels threatened by you, they may attack you in a
variety of ways. For instance, maybe your
credibility, character, defamation, slander, you have
it. It could be anything.
They may see you have opportunities for success
instead of supporting you, the scheme and plan and connive how
they can take that away, crippling you to elevate
themselves. They may see you succeeding in a
certain way and can't take it. And so we've got to sabotage
this. It's a painful place to be when
a person is doing their best, living at their calling, and
someone comes along, wants to destroy that.
That's what Nehemiah faced. When Nehemiah started to build
the wall, rebuild the wall, there were strong oppositions.
There were people who were bent and destroying and eliminating
this whole project and him as well.
This morning we will see how Nehemiah was used by God to
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Not because there was so much
support all around, No, the king supported him, the king
sponsored it. But in the area there was
communities around who had no use for Nehemiah and actually
wanted it stopped rebuilding the wall with the resource they had
and the limitations they faced. The project in itself was
daunting. It was huge.
But the physical part was not so much the real issue.
The bigger part was the opposition they would face from
some local communities in the area.
What's interesting about Nehemiah is that he never wants
so much as wavered. His was resolute.
He was determined and he was strong.
And he didn't wait to rebuild the wall until, OK, let's see if
we can get the community on board and let's see if they
agree with us. Maybe we can live side by side.
And no, this is what he'd been called to do.
The city of Jerusalem, King, the Arctic circus has has given the
go ahead. We're going to rebuild the wall.
But that did not exempt him from opposition.
So this morning let's read together Nehemiah chapter 4.
I'll read it out of the new King James.
Nehemiah chapter 4. But it so happened that when
Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, that he was
furious and very indignant and mocked the Jews.
He spoke before his brethren in the army of Sumeria and said,
What are these feeble Jews doing?
Will they fortify themselves? Will this offer sacrifices?
Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from
the heaps of rubbish stones that are burnt?
Now Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him and said, Whatever
they build, even if a fox goes up on it, he will break down
their Stonewall. Here, O God, our God, he praised
Nehemiah, for we are despised. Turn their reproach on their own
heads and give them as plunder to a land of captivity.
Do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted
out from before you, for they have provoked you to anger
before the builders. So we built the wall, and the
entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the
people had a mind to work. Now it happened when Sanballat
Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the ashrides heard
that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored and the gaps were
beginning to be closed. They became very angry and all
of them conspired to attack together, to come and attack
Jerusalem and create confusion. Nevertheless, we made our prayer
to God, and because of them we set a watch against them day and
night. Then Judah said the strength of
the laborers is failing, and there's so much rubbish that
we're not able to build a wall. And our adversary said they will
neither know nor see anything until we come into their midst
and kill them and cause the work to cease.
So it was when the Jews who dwelt near them came.
They told us 10 times, from whatever place you turn, they
will be upon us. Therefore, I position men behind
the lower parts of the wall. At the openings.
I set the people according to their families, with their
swords, their Spears and their bows.
And I looked in a rose and said to the nobles, to the leaders,
and to the rest of the people, do not be afraid of them.
Remember the Lord great and awesome, and fight for your
brethren, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your
houses. And it happened when our enemies
heard that it was known to that to us, and that God had brought
their plot to nothing, that all of us returned to the wall,
everyone to His work. So it was from that time on that
half of my servants worked at the construction, while the
other half held the Spears, the shores, the bows, and wore
armour, and the leaders were behind all the House of Judah.
Those who built on the wall and those who carried burdens loaded
themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction and
with the other held a weapon. Every one of the builders had
his sword girded at his side as he built, and the one who
sounded the trumpet was beside me.
Then I said to the nobles, the rulers, and the rest of the
people. The work is great and extensive,
and we are separated far from one another on the wall.
Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet rally to us there
our God will fight for us. So we labored in the work, and
half of the men held the Spears from Daybreak until the stars
appeared. At the same time I also said to
the people that each man and his servant stay at night in
Jerusalem, that they may be our guard by day by night, and the
working party by day. So neither I, my brethren, my
servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, took off
their clothes, except that everyone took them off for
washing. What a story of courage,
strength, resolve, determination despite a fierce opposition.
So what are we seeing here? Have faith in God when facing
opposition. Nehemiah had his hands full with
the building project. He was like he didn't need that
on the side. The building project itself was
challenging enough, never mind the opposition from the
community. So he had actually do some,
quite some multitasking there, keep things moving on the
building project and then to fend off or make sure the enemy
wouldn't come and over take them.
The Sambalot and his his guys. Sambalot was the governor of
Samaria and he did not see that this is his best interest of the
city of Jerusalem. He was governing the district of
Samaria while someone else was governing the district of
Jerusalem. And he felt threatened by this
project that was happening not that far away from his
territory. Commentators say it was about a
50 kilometer difference between the two.
Here's a chart that gives a little bit of perspective there.
So the dotted line is where they came from Babylon up north and
then to the to the West and down South past Damascus and then
Samaria and Jerusalem. Samaria and Jerusalem are right
neighbors each other. And those routes were trade
routes. They're from Egypt up to Babylon
were trade routes. And so commentators suggest that
it was really a question of how's it going to affect my
economy if that city gets built up again?
And so Sambalot, he did not want that.
Of course, King Arctic Circus had mandated it.
He'd give him the go ahead, but he was going to try to do his
best to stop it. Sambadat looked at the success
of Jerusalem as a threat to Samaria.
He didn't like it, and he had to do something to disrupt it.
And we read in verse one and two how he mocked, he ridiculed the
Jews and his his sidekick there as well to buy the Ammonite.
If a fox goes up on it, he'll break down their wall.
No, no, no, no respect, nothing. Stop the work, one commentator
wrote these words. He wrote Sambalot was a man of
this kind that he was not content with doing his very best
to make Samaria both prosperous and powerful.
He must also do his very best to keep Jerusalem downtrodden and
destroyed. Some people are not happy if
they're OK. I'm only happy if they're not
OK. Somebody else cannot be OK.
I want to be OK. They can't be OK.
They should not be OK. That's what's going on here.
And yet the Jews had a right to exist that everybody else did.
But he wanted them to remain downtrodden in subjection and
under his control. What a person is angry at or
angry about, that's a good indicator of what's inside.
We could ask this question. Would Sand Balat have been mad
or angry if Nehemiah had come from Babylon straight to him and
said, OK, Mr. Sand Balat, I know you're governing Syria.
So what can we do together? How can we cooperate?
How can we make a treaty? How can we work together?
I'll serve under you. Maybe it would have been a
different story, but that was not the mandate.
He was jealous, angry and afraid that this Nehemiah was going to
be a competition to him. People who are jealous, angry,
and afraid are dangerous people, dangerous character qualities.
If you mix that together, it's very, very unstable, may blow up
one person. Put it this way, when anger and
jealousy are mixed with power, they create a storm that can
destroy everything in its path, including the one who wields it.
Sandblock clearly demonstrated his character, gathered his
army, updated them. What are these guys doing, these
people? Jews.
His friend, his friend and ally, Tobiah the Ammonite joined him,
and then the other guys as well. If you're doing something for
the betterment of your community and it's perceived as a threat
by your culture, you will have opposition.
Sambalot did not want to see Jerusalem become successful as
it had been many decades earlier.
He needed to see Jerusalem in the state it was now.
He needed Jerusalem broken down and dejected and discouraged,
and he wanted to keep it that way.
Some people, when they see someone else have success, it
bothers them. They don't have they don't have
peace if someone else has a good.
They can only have peace if you call it peace as long as someone
else does not have it. As soon as life becomes better
for the other, their peace is gone.
It has been said that some people think it this way.
It ain't right if it ain't wrong.
And his mind, Jerusalem had to be wrong for he for him to have
a good time. He could only accept the
Jerusalem that was broken down, not one that was built up and
repaired. People reveal their character
when they devalue what another is doing in order to evaluate,
elevate themselves. It's interesting how some people
can only make themselves look good by criticizing and knocking
down anybody every else around them.
We need to expect that the world will not be our friend in this
in our lives. We need to expect the world will
do what it can to throw us down. The story in the Bible of
Daniel, as many of you know, he made it to the top, the top
administrator under King Darius in Babylon.
A bunch of other administrators were alongside with him and King
elevated him. They got jealous and decided
Daniel has to go. Daniel stayed true in his walk
with God and he had to face the lions for his obedience to God.
But in the end, God spared him and it was the jealous
administrators who then had to experience what they had planned
for Daniel. Sambalot and his people would
fail and Nehemiah would succeed. Daniel succeeded and the
administrators failed. Nehemiah was in many ways
similar to Daniel. He had a strong character.
He wouldn't bow to threats. So what's the best way forward
in a case like this? When you're opposed your works
belittled and ridiculed, mocked and downplayed, What then?
How should you respond? Fight back.
Let's go and attack them. Let's kill them.
Let's let's eliminate them, right?
Does that what Nehemiah does? How did Nehemiah respond to the
opposition? What did he do?
Well, let's keep going. Verse four and five, he says
here, O God, for we're despised, Turn the reproach in their own
heads. Give them as plunder to a land
of captivity. Nehemiah prays, that's the first
thing he engages in. Instead of lashing out towards
them and and even engaging them, he goes to God in prayer, a very
clear, decisive prayer. He calls out to God, tells God
what's going on. Not that God needs to know
what's going on. God knows what's going on.
But for Nehemiah, he's, he needed to say this to God for
his own sake. And the same holds true for you
and I today. When we pray, we do not pray to
inform God. He knows.
We pray to get ourselves aligned with God.
And when we're aligned with God, God can use us for the things he
wants for us. God never told Nehemiah go to
Jerusalem and then fight against the Samaritans or against the
against Sambalot and his his gang never said that.
And but Nehemiah prayed for protection from them and that
God would do work justice. And the question we could ask,
was it wrong for Nehemiah to pray for that kind of a justice?
Nehemiah lived under the Old Covenant of the Old Testament.
The Old Testament Exodus 21 is specifically is a clear outline
of how people in that time were supposed to deal with violence
and oppression and and warfare and so on and and whatever
criminal events and so on. But under the new covenant Jesus
model for us how to deal with those who hate us and oppose us.
We're not given liberty to deal with them in our own discretion
selfish ways. We're supposed to leave that to
God. And this is not to say law
enforcement is wrong. It's just that we as Christians
have a different mandate in the Gospels and Nepal in his
letters, he clearly specifies how do we respond to those who
press us and hate us. We love them, we don't persecute
them. And for Nehemiah, this is not
primarily about the wall even it was about God's name and he was
concerned about San Balat and his people were doing to the
name of God. The key reason for his prayer in
the end of the verse where it says they've provoked you,
meaning God to anger. We need always to check our
motives, the reasons why we're praying.
And so we were called to build a wall in God's name.
Does it bother us when God's name is mocked or when his work
is threatened? And Nehemiah's day, God's work
was threatened and he prayed about it.
Again. Nehemiah did not go on the
attack, try to kill them. He did weaponize his people, arm
his people for defence. They stood guard, but not with
the intent of wanting to cause pain and hurt.
So Nehemiah and his people continued to build.
They did not listen or pay attention to the threats of San
Balat and his men. They kept focusing on the work.
So where should our focus be? What should we focus on?
Well, when opposed, keep faith and faith keep moving forward.
We're sometimes told wait on the Lord.
That's a good advice. Wait on the Lord.
While that is true, we're not told to stop moving.
It's interesting how often one threat can just have a crippling
effect on a person. Nehemiah was not stopped by the
taunting, the mocking, the ridiculing.
He kept on working right through the threats as if they did not
exist. They did exist, he responded,
but he kept the working as if they didn't.
And of course they impeded it somewhat, but he kept going.
There's a story in the Bible that I want to quickly refer to,
the story of Elijah, a prophet in Israel.
And the nation of Israel was in such heavy idolatry.
God said to Elijah, go and tell the king it's not going to
reign, for till I say it will reign.
And Elijah prophesied and the famine came.
There was no rain. And finally, one day, Elijah has
this contest with the prophets of Baal and said, we're going to
have a sacrifice. You guys sacrifice, I'll
sacrifice. And the God, the God who answers
by fire is the real God. Can they have the sacrifice?
The prophets of Baal, they sacrifice, Nothing happens.
Elijah sacrifices and God answers by fire.
Then he kills all the prophets of Baal and now it's a great
victory. And he's so such a victorious
event. Well, Jezebel, the queen hears
about it and she said, I'm going to make you like one of those
dead prophets. And then Elijah hits a low spot.
He literally wanted to die. He was so weak, so tired, so
exhausted. It was a journey God had had
ordained for him, true, but he couldn't see his way through.
He said, God just let me die. I'm no better than my
forefathers. Nothing's working.
Just just Take Me Home already. He didn't get to die.
God didn't allow it, and his life continued.
He had a fruitful ministry afterward, but that was not
God's plan for Elijah. But so often people take that
route. I'm just going to give up, just
going to quit. I'm just going to lay it all
down. Nehemiah never had that.
Nehemiah kept right on going. That's what amazes me so much
with this guy. It says in verse 6, let's look
at it again. So we built the wall in spite of
everything that went on, and the entire wall was joined together
up to half its sight for the people who had a mind to work.
He did say, oh our Oh dear, our enemies, they don't like us,
they'll want us to stop. What do we do?
Chewing his nails, biting his
nails, nothing like that. He kept right on going in spite
of all the opposition. He says, so we built the wall,
the workers did not stop. Instead of in spite of being
mocked and ridiculed, someone has made the comments.
Sticks and stones, we break my bones, but words will never hurt
me. Words do hurt even though they
weren't physically attacked. Words have power.
And then Elijah was a was a victim of that and so can we be.
So how did Nehemiah stand against the danger of attack?
He didn't run. We know that.
He stayed true to his task. And so stand guard against
attacks on God's work. Stand guard in Modern Warfare,
sometimes said to a regiment or a platoon of soldiers and army.
No retreat. You have to hold your position
to the last man. What that means is the soldiers
not at liberty to retreat or abandoned his post if the
fighting gets hot and severe, even to the cost of his life.
And they do that. There's a similar parallel in
discipleship. It's an all out call for all out
commitment with no option for retreat.
Anyone who decides to follow Jesus is essentially saying that
for as long as I live, he's my number one, and in his honor I
will take everything that comes. We say that at baptism.
When we get baptized, we say we've said no to sin.
We've crucified our sinful lives, we've taken up our cross.
We're now dead to sin for the rest of our lives at the cost of
our earthly lives. We will serve Jesus.
It comes down to this. No matter what the cost, walking
with Jesus, living for Jesus, it's not negotiable.
The work must go on, and we find that when #7 now what happened
when San Balat, Tabayan, the Arabs, the Ammonites and
astronites heard the walls of Jerusalem were restored, the
gaps were being closed. They became very angry, and all
of them conspired together to come and attack Jerusalem and
create confusion. Nevertheless, we made our prayer
to God, our God, because of them.
We set a watch against them. Day and night didn't stop
building. They kept on going.
Their mockery, ridiculing, wasn't having an effect on them.
Instead of stopping the work, the wall just kept growing and
they got very angry and they knew what was coming.
If Jerusalem becomes strong, then they're not the top dog
anymore. Let's look at verse 8.
It says all of them conspired together to come and attack
Jerusalem and create confusion. That was their motive.
That was their objective. It's no different today.
What is to be done in war? How should Nehemiah respond to
this effort from the Samaritan governor?
He didn't go out and fight. He armed his workers, but not to
stop building the wall. And sure, it was slowed down
somewhat, but they kept on going and said they made their prayers
to God. They were continuing and ongoing
challenges. And there was other issues.
The strength, the strength of the laborers was failing.
There's so much rubbish and so on.
The adversaries say they will. They won't see, they won't know
who will come and destroy them. It was a much greater task than
we can see from our vantage point.
It was humanly impossible, so to speak.
They didn't have a trained army necessarily.
They needed support. So what does Nehemiah do?
He equips them, he says. So it was when the Jews who
dwelt near them, they came and told us 10 times from whatever
place you turn there will be upon us.
He said, therefore I position men, we're thirteen, behind the
lower parts of the wall, and he positioned these men there,
armed them with swords and weapons, and reminded them,
don't be afraid, the Lord will fight for you.
They've been told 10 times you'll be attacked.
But Nehemiah takes charge. He's a good leader.
He's a true leader, and he invites the people to follow him
and encourages people to stand strong and fight for their
families. And you know what the enemies
lost. That happened.
When our enemies heard that, it was known to us that God had
brought their plot to nothing. Then all of us returned to the
wall, everyone to his work. All that scheming and planning
and talking that those enemies did, nothing worked.
It tells us they, these workers, they held a weapon in one hand,
work with the other. So it slowed them down but
didn't stop them. It says they had, every one of
the builders had a sword girded as a side as he built.
And the one who sounded the trumpet was beside me, meaning
Nehemiah. So the odds against which these
leaders work were huge. These workers were doing 2 jobs,
actually guarding. That's a job.
And they were working. And the war alarm sound could,
could sound any time. So they, they, they were not,
you know, OK, we'll get ready when it happens.
They had to be ready if it happened.
So the labor in the work, half of the men held Spears from
Daybreak till the stars appeared.
And Nehemiah instructed them, stay in Jerusalem at night, be
on your guard and work during the day.
So they did night shift and day shift.
He says we didn't even take our clothes off except to wash them.
We're not immune from all of this.
Spiritually, the parallel is the same.
Our work may slow down because of attacks in our position that
comes our way, but that's something we can't control.
So we must be watchful, we must be ready, we must be in guard
whether we're in bed at night, whether we're out about during
the day, We're at work every all the time.
In Ephesians, the apostle Paul told the the the readers, this
Church of Ephesus to be guard, to guard themselves with the
armor of God. He says in verse 10, Ephesians
6, verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord, in the power of his might.
Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand
against the Wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against
spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be
able to withstand the evil day. And having done all to stand,
we'll be opposed. We are being opposed.
Opposition's going on. So how do we stand?
This is, how are we dressed? Are we ready when the alarm
sounds? That's not, that's not the time
to get ready. That's the time to be ready.
We must not allow evil to derail us from our call.
We must not allow evil to discourage us in our work for
God. When we're opposed, it's not
really us who's being opposed, it's God who's being opposed.
We're the vessels, and God wants to use us, use us for His
Kingdom. So what opposition do you and I
have to deal with today? We will and we do place
ourselves under someone or something.
Cain allowed himself to be controlled by his anger towards
God and toward his brother and brought him to ruin.
Daniel in the Bible stood strong in the face of opposition and
reaped a great reward. Nehemiah had a huge task before
him. To rebuild the temple, to
rebuild the wall, had a lot of different people working for him
under his leadership. It was a daunting task, but he
remains steadfast and achieved a very big milestone of victory in
his life. And so when Nehemiah and his
people in this project got mocked, ridiculed, they just
kept going. What does it take to discourage
you and I who are the sandbulots in our lives?
Nehemiah remained close to God in his faith, and he prayed in
confidence and trust. He made adjustments in the
program, armed. His work has kept on building.
One thing was clear with Nehemiah, he would not allow any
opposition to interfere with his calling or his work.
He was faithful to his call. He was not a man who quit.
No matter what opposition he faced, he overcame every
obstacle. Nehemiah believed.
Nehemiah lived what he believed. No mount could distract him or
derail him. We must think about this for
ourselves. If God would call you and I to a
task such as he gave Nehemiah, how well would we do?
How far would we get? Too often well meaning people
promised to just over pray about it.
We'll pray about it and that's it.
But then nothing happens. I want to read short in the
piece I read from Jay Vernon McGee.
Some of you know him from years back.
He wrote the following. He says when I was a pastor, I
asked a man to do something. He said, well, I'll pray about
it. He said, wait a minute, if
that's your way of saying no to me, say it right now to my face
and I'll find someone else to do it.
I don't think you need to pray about this matter.
Either you will or you won't. Which is it?
To tell the truth, he wouldn't do it.
He was just putting me off and our conversation enabled me to
find someone else for the job. There are many people today who
simply mouth pious platitudes, McGee continues.
He says Nehemiah could could have uttered a pious platitude.
You guys said we're trusting the Lord.
We won't do anything in other ways.
We'll just wait till it gets easier.
Less opposition. That's the easy way out.
That's what many people do today.
They said they're trusting the Lord.
No evidence. What are they doing?
If you really trust the Lord, you'll do something.
Nehemiah knew the enemy is plotting to come against him.
They were opposing him, so he said a watch.
That's what God expected him to do.
Of course we should pray, yes, and do a lot of it.
But our prayers need actions behind them, actions by us, you
and I. So what does this matter for you
and I today? Opposition will come, no
question. The reality is not will it come
this, what will we do when it comes?
So let's live as Nehemiah did. Let's not be like Cane or we got
to kill the opposition, really extend a lot less.
So we got to get rid of this these or even get discouraged
like Elijah did. Oh, I'm just going to quit.
I'm just going to quit. Rather be like Nehemiah, be like
Daniel, allow God's Spirit to work on our hearts and heat his
call. We want our lives to be holy,
dedicated, committed in spite of all opposition to this
faithfully, freely, and with integrity and devotion.
Follow our God. Let's pray.
Thank you Lord, for the book of Nehemiah and the work that you
did through him in this world. We can read of his experience
today and see how you were with him and how you guided him.
Lord, I pray that we would be sold out to You as Nehemiah was.
We be on fire with Your love, living out Your gospel in our
community so others may see you in our lives as Nehemiah did.
We ask, Lord, that Your Spirit will continue to draw us, equip
us to faithfully walk with You at all times.
We thank you, Lord Jesus, we pray in your name, Amen.