Good evening again. Would you open with me your
Bible in the Old Testament book of Nehemiah?
We've been studying through the book of Nehemiah.
We find ourselves tonight in chapter 4 and just talking with
somebody this morning, and each time that I study a book of the
Bible, I find myself saying it's my favourite book.
It's my favourite book and I'm definitely enjoying our study
through Nehemiah. God's Word is so wonderful, so
amazing, so pertinent and applicable and relevant to our
lives today. It's the living, breathing Word
of God. And that's why we honour God's
Word. That's why we open it and have
him teach and speak to us through His Holy Spirit.
And so Nehemiah chapter 4 tonight, the title of the
message is building through the battle.
So it's how you and I as God's people are able to overcome
opposition and discouragement because here's what you've
probably discovered just as much as I have.
And that is that when you have commenced or begun something in
your what with God, with a, with a real passionate and a real
desire to serve him in and through it.
Maybe it's a fresh start in your marriage.
Perhaps it's a renewed commitment to prayer.
And we're about to have a new year upon us and we'll make many
New Year's resolutions, a new ministry idea maybe, or even
just a a personal resolve to, to break a sinful habit, to be free
from that in your life. And no sooner does that desire
birth within you, then it seems that there is opposition and
resistance against that. No sooner do you seem to try to
rebuild some area where everything almost seems to push
back and work against that in your life.
And you can guarantee that no sooner do you begin to become
serious about something with God that the enemy desires to
counteract that, to block that, to, to resist that, to bring an
end to it. You may or may not know this in
1937 during the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge in San
Francisco. And I've been there personally.
It's just this massive engineering feat.
And some of you have probably visualised it in person.
Certainly you've seen it in movies or in pictures, but the
first half of the project of this building was marred
terribly by tragedy. 23 workers fell to their death during the
beginning parts of the construction.
And so you can understand as a consequence of that, that morale
amongst the workers was pretty low.
Fear dominated the site. Then halfway through the
project, something changed. That attitude changed that work
ethic and approach. Engineers built a large safety
net, the largest ever made, and suspended it under the workers
as they were completing their task.
And it saved 10 more lives. So 10 fellows fell and landed in
that net, and they would have been so grateful and thankful
for that, you can imagine. But the most remarkable outcome
of having that safety net in place now was that the project
finished some 75% faster than they had anticipated because of
the consequence of that net being there.
Why is that, do you wonder? I would submit and it's
something that we're going to lead into in our passage
tonight, is that once the fear was removed for the workers that
they now built with greater confidence as a consequence,
desired to put their hand all the more to the task, knowing
that they were safe from having fallen to their death as a
consequence of the task before them.
So Nehemiah chapter 4 Now moving to that is the story that will
read of God installing what we could call his own safety net
for the workers of the wall of the city of Jerusalem and his
people here. They're going to encounter fear
and opposition. We've already had hints of that,
but it really intensifies in the chapter before us tonight.
And it's not that God removes the opposition for them.
It's not that that is eliminated and that they conduct the
business of the rebuild of Jerusalem with without any
opposition. No, that's not the case.
But what is the case is that God strengthens them in the midst of
their task and the work before them and the opposition that
they're experiencing. Again, the Jews, they're
rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.
The goal is to restore security, to re establish the identity of
God's people in the land. The the worship of God
ultimately leading towards the temple being rebuilt and of
reclaiming an identity as God's people representing him and
loving him and being a point of attraction to the surrounding
nations. But at this point in time in the
history of the people of Israel, there are a land and a people of
derision, and it flows on to the God that they purport to be of
and to serve. But now as Nehemiah has come
onto the scene and there's this sense of revival stirring up
amongst the people, and they put their hand to the work of the
task that we looked at last week in chapter 3.
The work is moving forward beautifully.
In verse 6, we see of chapter 4. And if we were to have it be
etched in film, you could imagine the type of musical
score that's at work here and just this sense of optimism and
hope in their midst. But then suddenly conflict
arises, opposition intensifies and discouragement starts to
spread amongst the people and fear begins to take root in
their hearts to the point that many are ready to abandon the
task altogether. It's all too hard, it's all too
difficult. Let's stop this.
The enemy comes against them and seeks to frustrate the plans of
the people of God at this point in time.
But what we'll see by the end of the chapter when we get to it,
is that the people somehow stand firm, somehow the work
continues, and somehow the enemy's plans are frustrated.
So we want to look at what that somehow is or who that somehow
is. So here's the main idea of the
passage before us and the message tonight.
When God's people engage in God's work, they will face real
opposition and deep discouragement, but by God's
strength, God's truth, and God's help, they can persevere with
courage and finish the work. So that's that's up on the
screen for you if you're taking note.
And here's how we're going to move through this chapter.
As we look at the verses ahead, we need to, if we have any kind
of opposition, any kind of discouragement, take a hold of
us when we're desirous of, of just moving ahead in the things
of God in our lives and just living for him and honouring
him. Then when that comes, we need to
recognise the reality that there will be opposition and and not
see it as altogether foreign or or weird that it's happening
that secondly, we need to identify what those routes of
discouragement are and we'll see them through and I think we'll
relate with the common causes of discouragement that came upon
them because they come upon us importantly.
Lastly, we won't want to be able to apply the remedies for
victory, to be able to overcome the opposition, to overcome the
discouragement that sometimes takes root in our hearts, and to
be able to to live for the Lord and honour him with our lives.
So let's walk through these together.
Let's consider the first in verses one through to 8 to
recognise the reality of opposition in our lives.
It's so important, but it so happened.
Verse one, I'm reading from the New King James Version when Sam
Ballot, we've been introduced to to this fellow already, He's the
head honcho of the opposition for the people of Israel.
Now when Sam Ballot heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he
was furious and very indignant and mocked the Jews.
And he spoke, verse 2 before his brethren and the army of Samaria
and said, what are these feeble Jews doing?
Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices?
Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from
the heaps of rubbish stones that are burned?
And his words here, you can tell, are just dripping with
mockery. And then verse 3, Tobiah is like
that, that dorky sidekick that we so often see in the movies.
Yeah. And you can imagine him popping
up here after Sam, Sam Bell has said these things.
And he's. Yeah, whatever they build, if
even a fox goes up on a, he'll break down their Stonewall.
That's how I picture this guy talking here.
Oh, God. Now, Nehemiah responds, verse 4,
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. 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, verse 6,
and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height.
So that's some significant progress for the people had a
mind to work. Now it happened, verse 7 when
Sam Bellot Tobiah, and then it says now the Arabs, the
Ammonites, the Astridites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were
being restored and the gaps were beginning to be closed, that
they became very angry. And all of them, verse 8,
conspired together to come and attack Jerusalem and create
confusion. So now it's escalated from words
and mockery to to now physical expressions of we've got to
attack them and defeat them to stop the work.
So let's consider this and our point again.
Recognise the reality that opposition, if you're a follower
of Jesus Christ, if your desire is to live your life according
to God's word and what he has outlined in it, you are to
expect opposition. There will be resistance and
challenge to that. To grow spiritually, to repair
broken areas of your life, to again strengthen your marriage
to to raise your children after the things of the Lord, or to
allow faith to take hold in your life where you consider ministry
seriously, you must expect resistance.
In fact, Jesus told us that, didn't he?
He said, look, to paraphrase, they were against me and they
will be against you. He said to his disciples and the
flow on is to you and I as his disciples today.
In other words, Jesus says to you and I tonight opposition is
a given. It's a guarantee expected.
They had opposition here in Nehemiah 4 and there's this very
predictable pattern all through the scriptures whenever God is
at work, Satan just doesn't go Oh that's great God.
I'll I'll give you a Barley's I'll allow you you to, you know,
have your people work in and through this.
You know, the enemy attacks seeks to stop it to stir up
opposition. And it's very common what we
experience as to what they experience.
Often opposition comes through words, through mockery and
through ridicule. San ballot here we read of him.
It says that he effectively explodes with rage.
That's the description, verse one.
The Hebrew words indicate that this anger that he has is like
this boiling, kind of snorting, fuming anger that's come on him.
You ever had somebody do that when you've expressed the name
of Jesus to them and there's just been this almost like
volatile physical reaction in the way that they've articulated
the words. Don't say there's Jesus near me.
This is Sam Bell. And then he stands before his
army of Samaria and he mocks the Jews.
What are these feeble Jews doing?
Will they restore the wall? Will they offer sacrifices?
He cries out. Will they finish in a day?
Can they revive the burn stones? I mean, look at the building
material that they're trying to use.
It's just burnt out rubble. He's pointing out all of these
things and using his voice and mock mockery and ridicule.
And as I said to Bayer, that the sidekick just pipes up and
throws out this line with reference to the Fox boxes.
And so really what is in these words, in this ridicule is, is
targeting the people of Jerusalem in these ways, their
identity. They're feeble.
Look at these feeble, weak Jews. Their skill.
What do they know? Look at them trying to build the
wall. They can't do it.
They can't even tie their own shoelaces.
You can imagine all of those sorts of things being thrown
out. The words attack their faith.
Will they offer sacrifices? Is that what they're trying to
do? They're trying to restore
worship in the land. He attacks with his words, their
resources. Look at these burned stones that
they're trying to build these walls up with.
And then he attacks the future. They think that this wall is
going to last. This won't even last a day.
It's the idea behind it, ridicule in your, in my, in
their lives. Haven't you found that's often
Satan's first weapon against us? It's the language of the devil.
It's what's coming through here in this opposition.
I don't know about you, but I would hazard a guess that if I
would ask, have you ever been mocked?
Have you ever been ridiculed for being a follower of Jesus?
You don't believe that Bible nonsense, do you?
I mean, who can trust it anyway? I mean, it's just all inventions
of man. And it's so antiquated and so
outdated. And maybe if you've been
desiring to honour God with some of the life choices that you're
making as you read the Word and you want to be obedient to him
and somebody points out and says, you, you, you're trying to
change your life, that'll last a week.
Now all of a sudden you think the Bible's real and you're
going to live that out and be obedient to that.
And it, and it hurts this, this ridicule, this scorn because it
seeks to mock our insecurities and cause us the doubt and the
question. But then if that doesn't work,
what happens is what we see happen here is it escalates and
opposition intensifies and can become physical.
But certainly what will happen is that there's this thing where
where if if an enemy in their goals to attack isn't
successful, what do they do? They start to bring in others
and find others who agree with them, and then all of a sudden
these people who were at once enemies become united in their
opposition against you because of your, your obedience to
following Jesus Christ. And that happened here, verses 7
and 8. The conflict, as I say,
escalates. We have the Samaritans in the
north, we have the Ammonites in the east, the Arabs in the
South, and then the Astridites from the West.
So Jerusalem is fully surrounded by those who are in opposition
against them. Sounds eerily similar to today.
You know, groups it's so common that are normally opposed to
each other often unite to stop the work of God.
Warren Wisby observes this. He says God's people sometimes
struggle to work together, but the enemy never seems to
struggle to unite against God's work.
It's an interesting observation. So we will encounter opposition.
It might be words at it, it may be physical, it might be a
united front of opposition that comes against us.
But what are we to do with that knowledge?
I want you to tonight to to see it as a sign not that you're
doing something wrong. It's often evidence that you're
finally doing something right, that God is working in you and
through you. You know when you decide to
rebuild your faith, the enemy becomes furious.
When you start wanting to repair your marriage, you can expect
resistance and opposition in that.
When you take holiness and desire to live a pure life in
obedience under God, you take that seriously.
Whispers of you'll never change. You're kidding yourself.
They'll rise up. And when a church strengthens
its ministry efforts in certain areas, you can you can
understand and expect that new tensions will emerge.
The devil is perfectly happy with a lukewarm Christian at the
moment you decide to rebuild what sin has broken.
Oh, his rage is ignited. And that's what's going on here.
So what do we do? What we do is we imitate
Nehemiah. What does Nehemiah do when this
opposition arises and escalates again, verse 4 hear us, O God.
He takes it to the Lord in prayer.
He prays not argues against them.
He doesn't get onto his social media and I'll show them and and
retaliate to every every jibe and Barb that's been thrown at
them. He talks to God, not to his
critics. He talks to the Lord about it.
Hear us. Oh God, I bring you this
situation and what is going on. And he mentions, you know, what
is taking place. No doubt.
I, I imagine Sam Bellot's name pops up in Nehemiah's prayer and
Tobiah and, and again, and, and that's what you and I need to
do. When that opposition comes, we
bring it to the Lord in prayer. So expect opposition and take
that opposition to God and see what he does with it as we move
ahead. I want us to be able to identify
something that happened here because it happens in our lives.
Because many times when opposition comes, we'd like to
think that we're very stoic and brave and and admirable in our
conduct against that. But you know what happens when
conflict comes, when resistance comes against us, we take a hit,
don't we? We get discouraged, we get
deflated. And so I want us to be able to
identify the roots of that discouragement in our lives
because they're they're evident here in the people's response to
this opposition. Verses 9 to 12.
Nevertheless, we made our prayer to our God and because of them,
we set a watch against them day and night.
And then Judah, now Judah, anytime Judah is mentioned, this
is the the tribe that is to be understood as kind of the the
best of the best. And if Juda is impacted, if the
leadership of Juda is starting to become discouraged or
fearful, then it's indicative of of that having spread amongst
the rest of the people. It's kind of like the captain of
a team starting to doubt whether they can be a premiership
contender. If we were to put it into
sporting terms, you know, when those interviews happen and they
asked, you know, So what do you think of your chances this year?
And if the captain of the team said, yeah, I don't think we're
going to to win very much. And that's going to be a thing
where Right. So now if Judah pipes up and
says, as they do here, the strength of the labourers is
failing and there is so much rubbish that we're not able to
rebuild the wall. Verse 10.
And our adversary said they wouldn't either know nor see
anything till we come into their midst and kill them and cause
the work to cease. And so it was verse 12 when the
Jews who dwelt near them came, that they told us 10 times from
whatever place you turn there will be upon us.
So the external opposition here, as we pause for a moment,
triggers internal discouragement in the people.
It's then verbalised from the tribe of Judah in particular.
Just as it happens in our lives, you know, we get pressure from
the outside. And often it produces despair on
the inside. We might not express it and,
and, and word it, but you know, people will look at us and go,
what, what's wrong with you? And why are you sort of down
and, and, and, and our visage takes a hit.
Our body language expresses that something's going on with us as
a consequence of the opposition. Verse 10, I think is one of the
most honest statements in the whole book.
Here it says the strength of the labourers is giving out.
There's so much rubbish that we cannot build the wall, they say.
So I want us to see four roots of discouragement that surface
here in the text and for us to be aware of in our lives too.
Because I think if we're, if we're honest, we would see that
yes, that that happens to me and I and it annoys me that it does.
And I want to change that. I want to be better able to to
live my life for God without this taking a hold of me in such
situations. So in verse 10, the first thing
and again these notes are up on the slide, is that fatigue can
often be a cause and a route of this.
They're they're exhausted. Here it said that the strength
of the labourers is giving out. You imagine having built the the
way that they have up to verse 6 where it says that half of the
wall is complete. And it's like this almost 24/7
effort that's been going on the families and maybe eating on the
run and just the the perspiration and the endeavour
and the effort and, and it all started with this wonderful
bang. And yeah, we can do it.
Let's rebuild the wall and, and everybody's just chipping in
and, and putting their hand. And this adrenaline of the new
beginnings has now faded for them.
And in our lives, I think this is where many of us as
believers, we hit the halfway point of things and we quit as
fatigue takes a hold halfway through a marriage repair,
halfway through again, you know, New Year's resolution.
I'm going to read the Bible every day and, and man, we get
fatigued. You know, we, we restart work
after the holidays and the grind of the 9:00 to 5:00 and I'm just
so tired the halfway through a recovery or halfway through a
ministry involvement. I'll sign up, sign me up for
that. I'm I'm all about serving the
Lord and then I'm just tired. I'm just worn out and or halfway
through parenting challenges, Man, we just really need to just
help our son or our daughter in this and this, this way.
And, and things go good for a while and we build the wall to
the halfway point. And then all of a sudden what
was working is not and it's oh, it's all too hard and fatigue
says I just can't do this anymore.
You ever had that ever experienced that?
And because they're fatigued, you know what they do instead of
looking at the the wall halfway built and celebrating that they
go, we can't go on. And they're discouraged.
And that discouragement now that fatigue starts to lead to
frustration. There's so much rubbish they say
in verse 10. And now, instead of seeing the
progress made, all that they see is the rubble that's left still,
You know, before completing any of the building, they'd have to
remove broken stones and the hardened mortar and all of the
debris and everything that's lying around in these ruins.
But now the debris looks far bigger than any progress that
they've made up until this point.
The debris was a challenge. And, yeah, we can do it.
Let's move this out, and let's use that to rebuild this wall.
And now they're looking at the rubble going.
I quit. I'm done.
I'm through. I'm finished.
There's so much rubbish, you know, in the Christian life.
What does rubbish look like? It looks like unresolved sin.
You know, I just feel like I'm, I'm praying to God and I'm
confessing this sin and I promise him I'll never do it
again. I'll never do it again.
And sure enough, I do it again. And, and the rubble of that is
all that we see of unhealthy relationships or of cluttered
schedules and the busyness of life, especially at this time of
year and emotional baggage or, or past wounds that we carry.
And you know, here's what happens in those circumstances.
And, and when that discouragement is what's taken a
hold of us is when we focus on the rubble, we lose sight of the
Redeemer, we lose sight of God and we're discouraged through
the frustration that's maybe come about as a consequence of
fatigue. And and then it flows on into
failure for us. We can't rebuild the wall, they
say in verse 10. And these same people who in
verse six said that they worked with all of their heart.
Now they declare we're not able where one time they felt that
they could do it and everybody was on board.
Now the next day this this opposition, these challenges
have come upon them and we can't do it anymore.
And what they've done here is they've agreed with the lies of
the enemy, they've internalised the mockery, and they've allowed
that that wording to now become a part of their identity.
Yeah, we're they're right. We, we can't build the war.
And we're just kidding ourselves if we think we're going to be
able to offer sacrifices and worship God.
And we are just feeble Jews. And Sam Bellot's right.
And we're just stupid for continuing this work and let's
just stop all together. I knew we shouldn't have tried.
And they believe all of these lies of impossibility.
And this happens in our lives too, doesn't it?
When we when we start to measure the task ahead by our own
strength. And the reality is that we can't
do it in and of ourselves. We need God's help.
And we forget the calling and the promises of God and we start
to compare ourselves to others and maybe we expect instant
results. And so this failure thinking
starts to paralyse any progress. And then lastly, fear takes a
hold. Wherever you turn, wherever we
go, they're going to attack us. Doesn't matter if I'm going down
to the marketplace or down to the river to draw the water or
or whatever. You know, they'll, they'll come
upon us and we're, we're doomed and we're done for.
Many times fear multiplies faster than faith in our lives.
And it's said that the Jews living near the enemy repeated
the rumour 10 times. This is what fear does often.
It exaggerates threats, minimises who God is.
It amplifies uncertainty. It freezes obedience in our
lives. And so in reality here, with
this fear gripping their hearts, here's here's what's true.
Satan didn't need to attack them because fear was causing them to
stop. So in your, in your life, in, in
my life, ask as we think of this and opposition's come to us, you
know, am I, am I tired, am I fatigued?
Am I, am I physically just drained and worn out?
Am I frustrated by the rubbish? Am I being governed by fear?
And sometimes discouragement can be like that.
And it's very common to us, and it's certainly the case here.
And wasn't something that they just dealt with once only.
Yeah, we can be discouraged and you can say, yeah, I was
discouraged once. No, you'll be discouraged again
and again. It's a it's a recurring thing
that we constantly have to deal with.
It can be contagious, too. Oh, you're discouraged.
Yeah, I'm discouraged too. Let me tell you about what's
going on in my life. Oh, that is bad.
We start to just accelerate it all the more.
And. And haven't you found others can
buy into discouragement pretty easily?
But here's the last thing for us, discouragement is also
curable and and they they obtain victory through God's hand and
help in this. We're going to read now from
verse 13 through to the end of the chapter and finish on this
last point. With that, therefore, Nehemiah
speaking, I position men behind the lower parts of the wall at
the openings, and I set the people according to their
families with their swords, their Spears, and their bows.
And I looked verse 14 and arose and said to the nobles, to the
leaders, 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, your
daughters, your wives, and your houses.
And it happened, verse 15, when our enemies heard that it was
known to us and that I've underlined this, that God had
brought their plot to nothing, that all of us returned to the
wall, everyone to his work. And so it was from that time on
that half of my servants worked at construction, or the other
half held the Spears, the Shields, 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.
That's pretty awesome. It's like the sword in one hand
and the trowel in the other. Every one of the builders had
his sword, verse 18, girded at his side as he built.
And the one who surrounded the trumpet was beside me.
Then I said to the nobles, verse 19, the rulers, the rest of the
people, the work is great and extensive.
We're separated far from one another on the wall.
So whenever you hear the sound of the trumpet rally to us
there, our God will fight for us.
So in other words, if it happens that they attack us over here
and you hear the trumpet come and let's all gather together
and, and resist and fight over there and vice versa.
So there's all these plans and processes put in place by
Nehemiah here. And so, verse 21, we laboured 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, Let each man and his servant stay at night in
Jerusalem, that they may be our guard by night, and a working
party by day. So neither I, my brethren, my
servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, took off
our clothes, except that everyone took them off for
washing. In other words, they lived, ate,
breathed with their boots on, constantly ready for the work
and the possibility of attack should it come.
So, Nehemiah, what's his response in this?
And how is the victory won in this opposition that's
encountered? No, Nehemiah, he's not panicked.
He hasn't withdrawn from his responsibility.
All right, see, everyone, I'm. I'm off.
Back to Persia. That's me.
Done. This cupbearer business sounds a
whole lot better than what I'm dealing with here.
No, there's none of that. And at this point in time, he
doesn't rebuke the people. He leads with this God infused
clarity, this conviction of the call that God has upon him and
the remedies that are evident here that I want us to to focus
on and highlight are I think a spirit filled pattern for all of
us tonight. There's a reordering that
happens. It says I position men verse 13
and by the families. So he's reorganising the people
having the families serve together.
The the weapons are assigned and the vulnerable points in the
wall are reinforced and and guard duty has established very
practical things put in place here.
But what I want us to understand in, in this, in what's going on
in the application, the connection to our lives is this
when discouraged, don't quit. If God's calling you to
something to to focus in to press into the things of God
more deeply and more more earnestly and more urgently in
your life and, and discouragement's coming and, and
you're tempted to go, well, see, I've tried all of this and it's
not working. No, don't be discouraged, but
instead take a, a lesson out of Nehemiah here.
Reorganise your life around what matters.
It may be practically that that you, as a consequence, need to
rearrange your schedule in your week or in your day to protect
spiritual disciplines. You know, instead of me doing
this at this time, I'm going to set that time aside to be in
church. I'm going to set that time aside
to open up God's word or to to listen to those message podcasts
or to turn on the worship music and and have that take my
discouragement away and further can convict in my life the call
that God has placed upon me. It might be the re establishment
of family rhythms of worship and of devotion in the home or the
removal of distractions in your life or the invitation of
accountability. Hey, what would you, would you
as a friend just sort of ring me every day and, and just call me
and say, Hey, have you read your word today?
Have you read God's word today? And would you be a, can I be
accountable to you in that way? And, and these are ways that you
reorder your life to be about the importance of living life
for God and do not allow discouragement to take a hold
again. Sometimes the issue is not the
size of the task, but the structure of our lives.
So Nehemiah, he reorders the people, sets them up practically
in different parts and spots. And then I love this next one.
He says, remember, remember what?
Take your eyes off the rubble. Take your ears away from what
the enemy is saying. And here's what I want you to
do. Remember the Lord, remember God,
who it is that that we're called to be a part of what he is
doing. Remember the Lord who is great
and awesome. Verse 14, and I think this verse
is the heart of the chapter. He shifts their eyes again to
focus not on the rubbish, not on the enemies, not on their
threats, not on their lack of strength or the enemy's apparent
strength. But here's what he says.
Focus on God. Remember God, remember the Lord
who is great and awesome, He says, and I think that echoes
Deuteronomy 10, verse 17, a reminder of the mighty deliverer
that woke you up, didn't it? And so for you and I and allies,
we need to remember God's power, the God who spoke the earth into
existence and the heavens were made and the earth was made.
That's the God that we need to remember, the God who performed
miracles in the Old Testament, of Jesus in the New Testament,
who rose again three days later. Remember his promises.
Think of all of the fulfilled prophecies throughout Scripture.
We we learnt of some this morning.
It's the same God that is alive and real today.
Remember that God remember his past faithfulness specifically
in your life where God has miraculously intervened in
individual circumstances in your life and go, OK, if he's done
that in the past, why won't he do that into the future.
His covenant of love and that he is a God of his word.
You know what happens is discouragement starts to shrink
in your life when God begins to grow in your sight and becomes
your focus and then he calls them to resist, fight for your
brothers, your wives, your homes.
Verse 14 and Nehemiah's call here is one of holy resistance.
This isn't a passive waiting, not a a resignation or a thing
of defeat here, but an engagement to courageous
perseverance that he's calling them to.
And you know similarly, we're encouraged to fight to contend
as believers to contend for the faith.
The scripture says to contend, to fight for our marriages, to
fight for our children's faith, to fight for our purity, to to
fight for our church unity, to fight for our gospel witness to
have these been be things that we're we're firm on our
conviction to be solid in and we do this, this this fight through
what? Through scripture, through
prayer, through holiness, through obedience, through
humility, through community, through endurance and
perseverance. James 4, verse 7 comes to mind
on this point and it commands actually it says resist the
devil, submit yourselves to God, resist the devil and what he
will flee from you. And then lastly rely our God
will fight for US. Verse 20, you know the trumpet
system that Nehemiah set up, Yeah, that's going to unite them
and bring them together. But it also expresses their
faith that when we blow the trumpet, know this, God's going
to fight for us. And this is the theology of
Nehemiah 4. God doesn't remove the battle
from them. God joins his people in the
battle. The result we read it verse 15
is that God frustrated the plans of the enemy, brought them to
naughty the plot to nothing and God bless what they did.
And we see that the builders, they held a trail in one hand, a
sword in the other. They were constantly ready.
They they slept with their clothing on in, in the case that
the enemy might attack in verses 22 and 23.
And the idea was that that building and battling were
happening at the same time, that working and watching were taking
place, that praying and persevering in what God had
called them to was all a part of them.
And so Nehemiah's people here in verse 9, they had a heart to
pray in verse 6A, mind to work in verse 9, an eye to watch in
verse 20, an ear to hear. Isn't that cool?
And it's no wonder that the work succeeded when God was in it in
this way. So Nehemiah 4, as we finish,
calls us to recognise that opposition is a reality in our
lives and not to be seeing that as foreign or weird that it's
happening in our lives. But then to identify if
discouragement comes as a consequence of that and the
roots of that in our lives and and apply God's remedies out of
his word here in Nehemiah 4 to that.
Again, the chapter and all through this I'm going to take
us back to Jesus. Nehemiah is not the hero, though
as admirable and individual as he is, and we can certainly
learn lessons. The greater rebuilder is Jesus
the Christ. And so, like the people in
Jerusalem, Jesus faced mockery, didn't he?
Jesus was surrounded by enemies. Jesus was ridiculed by crowds.
Jesus bore the weight of sins, rubble and the destruction of
humanity. And Jesus entered the battle for
our souls. But unlike them, unlike you and
I, here's what Jesus didn't do. He didn't grow weary.
He didn't lose focus. He didn't surrender confidence
or bow to fear. And on the cross, Jesus bore the
ultimate opposition and discouragement, not to rebuild a
wall, but to rebuild broken people.
That's you and I. And so through his resurrection,
he now fights for his people. Through his spirit, he
strengthens his people. For his promises, he steadies
his people through his presence. He stands with his people.
So if you belong to Jesus tonight, your life has a safety
net far more secure than that of the Golden Gate Bridge.
It's his everlasting arms that are beneath you and around you
and will protect you forever. I'm going to give a final
application for you this week before we pray.
Maybe this week, identify one area of opposition that you're
facing, be aware of it and bring it to God in prayer.
And then secondly, spot the root of discouragement.
Is it fatigue? Is it frustration?
Fear of failure? I quit and then choose a remedy
that we see in Nehemiah. Maybe it's the reordering of
some things, setting up some structures in place that you
certainly need to remember God, resist the enemy, rely upon the
Lord's strength, and trust that God will frustrate the enemy's
plans as you keep building that which God has called you to.