Fighting for the Work!
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Our theme for this year is “The Church and me in 2023”. We will be focusing on Church outreach and our involvement in God’s Church.
The Church and Me in 2023
24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
We are in a series simply titled “Rebuilding”
Through this series we study Nehemiah and his mission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
With this we will see how to apply the techniques and lessons learned in Nehemiah to our lives today.
How to rebuild, restore, and renew our lives, our ministry, our church, and our relationship with Christ.
We need to be effective ministers to one another.
Remember, minister simply means- to attend to the needs of someone.
Something we need, even when faced with fierce opposition.
Lets take a look at Nehemiah chapter 4.
7 But it came to pass, that when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth,
8 And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.
9 Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.
10 And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.
11 And our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease.
12 And it came to pass, that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us ten times, From all places whence ye shall return unto us they will be upon you.
13 Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall, and on the higher places, I even set the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows.
14 And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.
15 And it came to pass, when our enemies heard that it was known unto us, and God had brought their counsel to nought, that we returned all of us to the wall, every one unto his work.
16 And it came to pass from that time forth, that the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah.
17 They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon.
18 For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me.
*Open prayer*
The title of the message today is fighting FOR the work, not fighting through the work.
Those are two entirely different things.
That concept may sound odd, why would you want to fight to do something...
But as we explore this study today, I hope that the message becomes clear,
When we are talking about the work of God, that is a work worth fighting for.
Let’s break down this passage.
7 But it came to pass, that when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth,
Last week we spoke about how Sanballat and Tobiah were not in a position to physically stop the work, certainly not legally anyways. They had no grounds to state their claim, so they resorted to discouragement.
This week they are going to cross a line of what they are permitted to do and watch as they attempt to put themselves in a position to physically stop them, by force.
They are past the point of desperation at this point.
As their anger increased, their plans escalated.
They began enlisting an alliance of Jerusalem’s enemies to surround the city.
The Samaritans on the north, the Ammonites on the east, the Arabians on the south, and the men of Ashdod on the west.
Note: Since the time of the Assyrian conquest of Palestine, the Philistine territory had been a separate province and was called Ashdod.
Listen, when you are talking about the work of the Lord… be prepared for the enemy to surround you.
Satan today has the modern Church exactly where he wants it...
They look big and strong, but the second their is just a hint of opposition, they fold like a house of cards.
Brothers and sisters we are not called to be cowards.
We call ourselves Christ-like...
Christ was no coward, He was bold like a lion!
Unlike Christians today, who don’t like making waves in the world today.
We need to get out of this mediocre mindset of accepting the status quo. That things are fine the way they are and we can just relax at the whole “being a Christian thing”.
Christ calls us to be soldiers of the cross.
24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
It is time for us to get serious about Church again.
Its time for us to get serious about the work of the Lord again.
Quit thinking and worrying about “whats in it for me” and start worrying about others!
Time to take up our cross.
Its time to fight for that privilege, to carry our cross. Its time to revive our calling as a Church!
Let’s look at verse 8
8 And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.
Commentary:
Just how serious Sanballat’s supporters were about actually fighting is not clear; they could have destroyed all the people and sent an excuse to the king that Jerusalem was rebelling. (They would have had the precedent of Ezra 4:19–22, where Artaxerxes had issued a command to stop building.
Their only hope was to do something quickly and completely, thus avoiding Persian reprisal. Or they could have influenced the Persian king to make another decree similar to Ezra 4:22.
The Jews also remembered that occasion; so the whole plot would have made them think that continuing the building was useless.
All right Church, we see signs of increased trouble brewing.
What is our go to?
Does anyone remember our recipe for success we talked about a few weeks ago?
1.Pray
2.Plan
3.Trust
Let’s see if Nehemiah sticks to this winning formula.
9 Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.
Underline, highlight, memorize, what ever you have to do, so that you see what Nehemiah did.
“we made our prayer unto our God”
Nehemiah, a man of action...
A man of prayer!
10 And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.
11 And our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease.
12 And it came to pass, that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us ten times, From all places whence ye shall return unto us they will be upon you.
We see the people are beginning to get discouraged....
They are repeated warned, no matter where you turn, you will be attacked!
The rumors of the impending attacked added to the discouragement that all ready is present.
One commentator says this
Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (3) Internal Opposition: Discouragement and Fear (4:10–15)
External pressure amplifies internal weakness.
External pressure amplifies internal weakness.
The world hates it, when you desire to live Christ-like!
In fact, they honor evil and despise good.
Did you guys see what happened at the grammys?
No I do not watch or endorse Hollywood as it is, but what happened this year was satan on full display.
And they are unashamed about it.
I am not going to show you what all happened, but satan was on display.
Here is an article from The Christian Post, apparently CBS deleted their tweet, but they literally said this...
Here is the tweet
Let me share a quote from TMZ.
David Harris, magister for the Church of Satan, tells TMZ ... Sam and Kim's performance was "alright" and "nothing particularly special."
Remember last week we talked about the word “hate”.
The world does not just hate Jesus, and His children,
but they actively celebrate, openly might I add, evil.
20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; That put darkness for light, and light for darkness; That put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
We act like everything is fine, while the world around us is being packaged up with a bow, heading straight to Hell.
The enemies are all around us, putting themselves in a potion to attack us from every direction.
In chapter 4 we see Sanballat’s gang are making grounds.... but Nehemiah has God behind him!
Step 1 Pray.
Step 2 Plan.
13 Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall, and on the higher places, I even set the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows.
14 And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.
Therefore.... Really what would you have done in this situation?
Would you be the worry wart?
Would you be the one that says “well we will just have to trust in God”, and then do nothing?
I think the best answer is somewhere in the middle.
We should trust God to get us through, but often does that by giving us opportunities and abilities to get through.
Today, it seems, so many of us Christians treat God like if he is a source of magic we can tap into and make all of our problems disappear.
Even when the Israelites conquered Jericho, God did all the work, but Joshua and the army still had to march around the city… they still had to put forth work on their end...
If we have learned anything thus far, it is instead of removing the mountain, He often simply gives us the strength to climb.
Therefore, be plans for and builds up defensive positions all around the city.
What did the workers bring with them to continue the work?
Swords, spears and bows.
Swords, spears, and bows.
Nehemiah commanded them to bring our their armour.
It is time to get serious about doing the work of the Lord!
They had to prepare to fight with every resource they had.
Do not fear was the message he sent!
He further gave the reminder of why they must fight.
For the sake of our brothers, sons, daughters, wives, houses...
It is the same reason we must put on our armour today, and be ready to fight!
We are in a spiritual battle for our brothers, sons, daughters, wives, our families!
The enemy may be surrounding us from all sides but the only question that matters, church, is what are we going to do about it?
Are we to stand by, and watch as the world consumes our families? Our neighbors? Our loved ones?
Or should we rise! And get ready to build!
Let’s look at how God works this situation.
Step 3 Trust.
15 And it came to pass, when our enemies heard that it was known unto us, and God had brought their counsel to nought, that we returned all of us to the wall, every one unto his work.
Weather you realize it or not, you are being watched.
Not just by those around you, such as family and friends, but by enemies as well.
What happened when the enemies saw the workers adopting a defensive fighting position?
“O, these guys must be serious”
God brought their counsel to nought.... that means they began to abandon their plans.
The enemies backed off, at least for the time.
And if front of God and all those present, they got back to work building the walls.
No doubt this took some extra time to accomplish, but they never took their sight off the goal.
To build this city.
16 And it came to pass from that time forth, that the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah.
17 They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon.
18 For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me.
Part of the job we Christians are tasked with requires us to have a weapon in one hand, and building tools in the other.
What is our sword?
IT IS THE WORD OF GOD!
We are talking about rebuilding.
Our Churches, our ministries, our relationship with Christ.
While we are doing so, do not forget we must always stand ready for attacks.
They will come weather you are ready of not.
Complacency will kill the church.
Complacency is where the modern church is most comfortable.
We must break that cycle.
It is a privilege to fight for the work of our God.
Let us never forget that.
12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you
We have something the rest of the world does not.
We have a God worth fighting for.
The world searches for a god that glorifies them.
Work is traded for convenience.
Conviction is traded for acceptance.
Maybe you are in hear today or watching from the internet, and you never met a God like the one Nehemiah trusted in.
Maybe you know Jesus by name only.
Maybe you said a prayer once, maybe even baptisted, yet you never established a real relationship with him.
I beg you, do not deceive yourselves.
Look what Jesus says in John 3.
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? 5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
You must be born again.
Paul tells us how.
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
*I surrender all video*
If you don’t know Jesus, would you come to him today?
Christian brothers and sisters, are you truly ready to surrender it all to him today?
*invitational prayer*