Dover Assembly of God
As we mentioned in the last 3 chapters, Nehemiah had a burden to rebuild the walls and gate surrounding his home town of Jerusalem.
Even though he never actually lived there, it was the home of his ancestors.
He felt a burden from God to go back and start the process.
In the beginning, we see God’s favor on all his efforts. The king agrees to let him go, supply him with safe passage and give him the materials he needs to finish the job.
He arrives, gets the people excited to do this great thing for God, starts the long process and then we come to chapter 4.
Nehemiah 4:1 NIV
You can be sure that whenever you as an individual or we as a church start pressing into God and stepping out in faith to accomplish what God has called us to, not only might it be a difficult job, we will definitely face opposition from the enemy.
Notice that opposition didn’t occur until they started working. Sanballat didn’t really care until people started working for God. When the people were still living in squalor, with no protection, still weak and dependent, he left them alone.
But this change would now affect his position, wealth and influence. When the people set about to honor God and bring glory to Him, then the enemy rises up.
Warren Wiersbe says: “Opposition is not only an evidence that God is blessing, but it is also an opportunity for us to grow.”
Whenever we start something for God, we need to expect opposition from the enemy.
Opposition as Wiersbe says, give us a chance to grow.
Opposition can bring out the best in people, if we let it.
What happens when someone says to you, “you’ll never be able to do that”? How do we react? Most double down on the task to prove them wrong.
As we are attempting to rebuild from 2020, you can take it to the bank that we are going to face opposition.
Nehemiah 4:1-3 NIV
At first, he starts with ridicule.
Ridicule is always a first attack from the enemy.
David faced it with the giant.
Jesus faced it too.
1 Samuel 17:43-44 NIV
Luke 22:63 NIV
Luke 23:35 NIV
Some Old Testament heroes also faced it.
Hebrews 11:36 NIV
If we read some social media posts and other articles that are being written today, we are beginning to face more of that than I can remember.
Christians have always been objects of ridicule, long before the advent of the internet, but now it just seems to be ramping up and more visible.
We need to start getting a thick skin and realize that no matter what we attempt and how noble it might sound, it will almost always get ridiculed by those who oppose us.
Know that our work for the Lord does not go unnoticed.
When we look at the world around us now, this verse helps to keep my calm and full of faith.
Psalms 2:1-4 NLT
It may appear that we are not making any ground for God, but if we continue to work, and ignore the ridicule, God will prevail.
What was the response of those being ridiculed?
Nehemiah 4:4-5 NIV
They prayed. And let God handle it.
It would be easy to stop the work and go face off with those doing the ridiculing, but that in itself would do what they wanted-stop the rebuilding.
Whenever we face opposition, our first weapon is prayer.
God is the one who called us to rebuild after 2020, rather than fight against the world; we continue to fast and pray and keep working.
God will do the protecting and allow us to succeed. If we keep fasting, praying and working.
Nehemiah 4:6 NIV
What is the best way to defeat the ridicule and the enemy?
Keep doing what God called you to do. Keep living righteously, keep praying, keep studying, keep wanting to grow and mature, keep being involved in ministry.
Keep rebuilding what the enemy took from us last year.
But if you think that’s the end of the battle, that the enemy is just going to throw up his hands and say “oh well”, you are mistaken.
Nehemiah 4:7-8 NIV
The reason that God is so high on believers working together as one is because the world has no problem banding together against believers.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend”
People in the world who normally don’t get along with each other will come together against what God is doing.
What was Nehemiah’s response to this threat?
Nehemiah 4:9 NIV
He first prayed and then responding accordingly. Nehemiah was not blind to the opposition, nor did he ignore it.
The problem was real and he had to react accordingly. He did not stop working, but he took the necessary precautions.
When the virus hit, we closed down for a couple of months out of precaution. We cleaned and sanitized the church.
But now we have to continue what God has called us to do. Some precautions are still in place, but we are meeting together because that is what God’s word tells us to do.
We use seatbelts and have car insurance. We take precautions, but we don’t stop driving.
Nehemiah 4:10 NIV
Sometimes it seems that the task at hand is too big to finish. That we see no end in sight. It’s just impossible.
If we constantly listen to those who are ridiculing us, we will begin to believe what they say.
And we will become discouraged.
If we take our eyes off of the Lord and look only at the job God calls us to, it is easy to get discouraged.
Because all of what God calls us to is impossible in the natural.
Remember what was said about them:
Nehemiah 4:2 NIV
They attacked their ability (feeble), they attacked the scope of the work (heaps of burned rubble).
And without God behind them, they were right.
Discouragement is I think, the biggest weapon the enemy uses.
More preachers quit because of discouragement than any other reason.
People quit doing ministry, they quit marriages, they quit jobs because they are discouraged about something.
If the devil can get us discouraged with what is happening around us, if we see no progress, if we see no changes, if the wall seems too much to accomplish, then he has already won the battle.
Not only does the enemy bring discouragement into the picture, he then ups the ante and threatens their lives.
What does he do? He introduces fear.
Nehemiah 4:11 NIV
And doesn’t this sound like what is happening today.
Was the threat to kill the workers real? Yes!
Was it a real possibility? Even the Jews were giving into the fear.
Nehemiah 4:12 NIV
“Ten times” is an idiom meaning many times. How many times do we have to hear a lie before we begin to believe it?
A quote attributed to the Nazi’s during WW2: “A lie told once remains a lie, but told 1000 times becomes the truth.”
What lies is the enemy filling our minds with?
It’s one thing to have the enemy introduce fear, but when fear comes into God’s people, then faith leaves.
Matthew 8:25-26 NIV
Even the world acknowledges the effects of fear.
Thoreau said: “Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.”
FDR changed that up a bit “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Fear will paralyze us. It is also contagious. Fearful people discourage others and help the enemy to win.
The Jews themselves had become fearful and was spreading that fear among their brothers.
The threat was real, but fear was causing them to withdraw.
What was Nehemiah’s response to the spreading fear?
Nehemiah 4:13 NIV
He first went on defense.
Instead of giving into the threat, we went to meet it head on.
He wasn’t going to attack the people, but if they attacked them, they were ready.
What was he doing? He was stationing people at the most visible points on the wall. Putting them in places that the enemy would see. And the enemy would know that they were prepared to fight if necessary.
He armed entire families and had them build near their own houses. When a family comes together opposing a common enemy, what happens?
They are there to encourage each other and are able to protect each other.
God is greater than your fear. If your fear of ridicule, of people or the enemy is keeping you from what God is calling you to, then we need to do what Nehemiah says.
Nehemiah 4:14 NIV
Nehemiah rightly assessed the situation, acknowledged the reality of it, but reminded them to not be fearful, but to trust in what God had called them to do.
If they continued, and worked and were prepared to fight the enemy, “The Lord who is great and awesome” will bring the victory.
If fear is overwhelming you, we need to remind ourselves of the greatness of God. If we walk by sight and not by faith, we will always fail. But if we look at situations thru the eyes of faith, and knowing the greatness of God, we will succeed.
Nehemiah 4:15 NIV
Those building the wall didn’t only pray about it and do nothing.
James 2:17 NIV
They prayed and acted upon their trust in God. And they didn’t do it in secret. They made sure everyone knew they were prepared for battle.
Once people see us working out our faith in a tangible way that everyone sees, and not cowering in fear of what may happen, God will frustrate the plans of the enemy and He gets the glory.
But as we know, our fight never ends on this side of heaven.
There will always be opposition and because of that we need to always be ready.
Nehemiah 4:16-18 NIV
We can’t always stop the work of God for every little skirmish or rumor.
If we spiritualize this, we have half of the people doing physical labor, while the other half were praying on their behalf.
Not everyone is called to physically do something, but everyone is called to pray.
All of what you see happening on Sundays, only succeeds because people are doing the ministry and everyone is hopefully praying for it.
The ones carrying material are carrying swords and the ones building are also carrying swords.
It’s not enough to build, but we need to make sure the enemy doesn’t take from us what we build.
It’s one thing to start something, another to finish it.
Luke 14:28-30 NIV
To finish God’s work will always require prayer, battle and work.
Nehemiah 4:19-20 NIV
The wall was so large that you were not able to see your neighbor working on it and it might appear that you were alone doing all the work.
But Nehemiah wanted everyone to know that they were not alone.
Whenever someone needed help, the trumpet sounded and everyone rushed to their aid.
Whenever you feel alone in your walk with God, realize that you aren’t alone.
You may not see anyone near or with you, but first we know that God is with us.
And second, if you feel alone, sound the trumpet. In other words let others know you need help.
And I guarantee others will come to your side.
Nehemiah 4:21-23 NIV
The enemy does some of his best work at night, when we are alone in our beds. Or after a long successful day.
We need to always be on guard for the wiles of the enemy. Prepared to fend off any and all attacks.
1 Corinthians 15:58 NIV