Ready The Defenses!
Rebuilding • Sermon • Submitted
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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.
Today's title; Ready the Defenses!
Defend the Bible? I would as soon defend a lion! Unchain it and it will defend itself.
Charles Spurgeon
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.
19 And I said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall, one far from another.
20 In what place therefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us: our God shall fight for us.
21 So we laboured in the work: and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared.
22 Likewise at the same time said I unto the people, Let every one with his servant lodge within Jerusalem, that in the night they may be a guard to us, and labour on the day.
23 So neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard which followed me, none of us put off our clothes, saving that every one put them off for washing.
*opening prayer*
360 degree security.
That is the phrase that was drilled into our heads overseas.
Always establish 360 degree security....
While doing that, establishing and maintaining good communications is key to effective operations.
In the law enforcement world the same is true.
Effective communication is key, you don’t want to put too much information out, but you definitely don’t want to put too little!
Nehemiah utilizes the trumpet method.
An alarm system is established, the builders had to stand ready in case the an attack came.
While they are doing this, they must also continue to build… Continue with the work.
The mission did not change because of the threat of attack.
It merely expanded.
Today the church has a habit of completely abandoning their primary mission.
They get tunnel vision and refocus on things that are not nearly as important.
Are Church programs great?
Yes.
Is donating food and supplies really good?
Of course.
Is setting up ministries in nursing homes, hospitals, and shelters really important?
Absolutely.
And we should be doing all those things.
But, it should NEVER replace the primary mission of the church;
Reach lost souls and disciple the saints.
While we are looking at ways to expand our outreach this year with our mission statement, it is important to we don’t abandon the primary mission of the church.
While we talk about rebuilding our churches and ministries, we need to make sure we do not get tunnel vision.
Enemies do not always come from outside.
Challenges and opposition don’t always come from your enemies.
We need to be ready at all times
We need to be ready… at all times.
These guys did not even dress down unless they were cleaning their clothes.
They did not want to be caught not ready...
1 Peter 5:8 (KJV 1900)
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Jesus in the wilderness;
He was physically weak, tired, hungry.
Satan came at this moment;
How did Jesus respond?
“It is written”
Jesus brought His sword!
Nehemiah establishes 360 degree security...
Just like those men stood by at the ready, we as Christians should be at the ready, waiting to hear that trumpet sound, and we will gather together with our Lord!
This is the same enemy we face on a daily basis.
We know he is ever present in the world we live in today.
Your kids know him, your friends know him, your co-workers know him.
Satan is celebrated all around.
He is poised, ready to devour the world as we know it.
Satan hates the people of the world.
God loves them, even when they don’t love Him back.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
This is the spiritual battle we have going on all around us.
There is no time to rest… we have work to do.
14 Wait on the Lord: Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: Wait, I say, on the Lord.
Of course, we know this word wait means service. Not as in a matter of waiting around.
You may need to know, working for the Lord is not going to be a quick, little thing.
You had better be ready to make a commitment. A real commitment.
When it comes to defending our ministry, its not just attacks from the outside we have to worry about.
They can also come from within.
Today, we mitigate this risk by doing things such as establishing criteria for church membership.
But attacks can come from anywhere, and that is what we are going to see today.
Ready the defenses, because here we go...
1 And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews.
That didn’t take long did it?
Chapter 4 ended on a victorious note.
Don’t you just hate it when you have a sweet victorious moment, and then you don’t even have time to enjoy it.
All that work to stop the enemies from outside.... This chapter we appear to have a strife from within....
Whining and complaining...... it hinders the work.
It steals from the precious time God gives us.
He wants to bless us and use us… We steel from Him when we use our time to whine and complain instead....
Do we see this effecting the Church today?
The people within were not working in unity...
You see the word brethren there?
This attack was not from the enemies....
It became one group verse the other....
Clicks if you will, were born.
This could be the biggest threat yet.
Listen, today this applies to us in a big way.
Division among the brethren kills the Church.
While we are focused on out there, we are weakened from within.
Now what could it be that would cause such a response from the people?
Let’s read about it....
2 For there were that said, We, our sons, and our daughters, are many: therefore we take up corn for them, that we may eat, and live.
3 Some also there were that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn, because of the dearth.
4 There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards.
5 Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought unto bondage already: neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other men have our lands and vineyards.
What is it that could cause such an uproar?
Money.
Its like this book was written for the modern church....
Now let’s be clear, Nehemiah is not a book about money, its a book about rebuilding.
In the world we live it, that usually means money of some sort will be involved.
And of course we know money in of itself is not evil.
Its the love of money that causes trouble.
This particular case is interesting because the actually building project was funded by the king.
8 And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
Remember he even had guards paid for by the king...
9 Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.
The issues that Nehemiah is faced with here is not of building materials, or paying for guards to assist.
It is money problems from within the people of the city.
Spending time working on the walls caused a strain on working to provide the needs of their households.
To make matters worse, famine and taxes pushed them further and further into debt.
Whining and complaining replaced work and progress.
How frustrated do you think Nehemiah was at this point?
Look at verse 6.
6 And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.
It can be very frustrating when we try to get serious about our ministry, yet the people around us, the ones we love often the most, are the ones creating obstacles.
Lets look though at how he handled this situation.
7 Then I consulted with myself, and I rebuked the nobles, and the rulers, and said unto them, Ye exact usury, every one of his brother. And I set a great assembly against them.
8 And I said unto them, We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold unto the heathen; and will ye even sell your brethren? or shall they be sold unto us? Then held they their peace, and found nothing to answer.
9 Also I said, It is not good that ye do: ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies?
10 I likewise, and my brethren, and my servants, might exact of them money and corn: I pray you, let us leave off this usury.
11 Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil, that ye exact of them.
Nehemiah starts off with “ I consulted myself”
That means after thinking about it....
We see Nehemiah was passionate enough to get angry when things went ariah.
Yet wise enough to not act until he considered the matter closely.
Nehemiah had no issue standing up to the local noblemen and rulers...
He was no coward.
When people were in the wrong, he confronted them.
Why is it in Churches today we have such a hard time with this?
Leadership means dealing with problems head on
Leadership means dealing with problems head on.
We see one of the problems with money was usury.
In verse 10 that word is mentioned.
Basically that is interest on basic needs.
The people were getting greedy and trying to make money off of people in hard times.
Nehemiah asks him them to restore everything.
If money was unfairly taken, it needed restored.
12 Then said they, We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do as thou sayest. Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they should do according to this promise.
13 Also I shook my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labour, that performeth not this promise, even thus be he shaken out, and emptied. And all the congregation said, Amen, and praised the Lord. And the people did according to this promise.
Nehemiah, as uncomfortable as it may have been, lovingly told the hard truth.
After receiving their rebuke, we see unity being restored.
They agree with Nehemiah.
Having a teachable spirit, open to correction, should be every Christian’s goal.
Nobody likes to be wrong, yet when we are we need to be open to correction.
Nehemiah wisely follows through in verse 13.
It wasn’t enough that these men said they would correct everything, it had to be followed up with action.
Keeping ourselves accountable is a challenge in of itself.
Having an accountability partner is crucial in developing our walk with God.
When you make the commitment to work the ministry, don’t expect to make tons of money in the process.
God may bless you with money while you work a ministry.
But likely it you will be in a position to give up money, or opportunities to make more money.
Its part of stepping out on faith.
Remember we are supposed to carry our cross.
I love that God will be with us every step of the way.
He will meet your needs.
He will not put you in a position that can not be overcome.
The Problem is we often lack faith to trust him.
You may not like the way he does it, but if God calls you to do something, He will provide a way to make it happen.
Part of the repentance process is turning from my ways, turning from worldly gains and riches, and running, full sprint, toward Jesus!
Some of us are not ready to make the run.
Maybe it starts as a crawl.
If that is all you can do,
Pray God gives you the strength to stand.
If all you can do is stand.
Pray God teaches you to walk.
If all you can do is walk
Pray for the strength to run.
While you are running toward Jesus
Pray for the strength to endure!
Never settle for anything less.
What happens is too many Christians today stopped crawling
And are too busy getting comfortable,
or they are busy sleeping while they are down there.
Do not get comfortable wherever you are at with your journey to get closer to Jesus!
As Christians, we know Jesus knows us, We are eternally secured in his hands...
We want Him to know all about us and our situation, but we never seem to want to know about Him!
Run to Him today!
For the saints:
Know your calling.
Know your calling from God!
God called you into a ministry.
Here is where it gets tricky.
Your family may be calling you to something else.
Your friends may be calling you to something else.
Your sons/daughters/brothers/sisters/parents/co-workers/etc… may attempt to call you to something else.
Even Paul at the end of his life, while tired, and wore out, he once again, began to write.
This is what he said to young Timothy.
1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
6 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
If you are unsure of your calling right now, get ready to minister to someone.
If you are in here today and don’t know Jesus, can I encourage you today?
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
If you are trying to be a good person, or rely on a religious act or experience to get you into heaven, you will never make it.
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
It may be hard to here that, but it is out of love I must declare, you must be born again!
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.
Come to Jesus if you do not know him.
He is calling you to him.
Would you surrender to his call today?
*Close prayer*