Nehemiah study 3-12-2023

Rebuilding   •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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“O God, Strengthen My Hands”

When God is our strength, it is strength indeed; when our strength is our own, it is only weakness.
Augustine of Hippo
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
Hebrews 10:24–25 KJV 1900
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 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 are in chapter 6 and we will be continuing where we left off, starting in verse 1.
Nehemiah 6:1–9 KJV 1900
1 Now it came to pass, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein; (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates;) 2 That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief. 3 And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you? 4 Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner. 5 Then sent Sanballat his servant unto me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand; 6 Wherein was written, It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel: for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king, according to these words. 7 And thou hast also appointed prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah: and now shall it be reported to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together. 8 Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart. 9 For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.
*open prayer*
At the end of chapter 5 we see again things appear to be going pretty well.
There was some internal struggles they finally were able to work out, and so back to work they went.
Then along comes Sanballat and the gang.
Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem who we have not heard about since chapter 2.
Nehemiah 2:19 KJV 1900
19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? will ye rebel against the king?
You all know though, the more you grow as a christian, the more we grow as a church, the more creative the enemy will get.
Lies and deception are usually the primary methods they will attack.
But there are many ways to apply these two wicked techniques.
James 4 tells us how to make the devil flee, but he won’t stay away for long.
James 4:7 KJV 1900
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Satan does not and will not stop his attempts to destroy your joy, your ministry, your testimony, and even your life.
Let’s review a few verses again before we get into the study today.
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:
Satan wants to devour you...
John 8:44 KJV 1900
44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Satan wants to lead you
Revelation 12:9 KJV 1900
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Satan's goal is to deceive the world.
Christ will free us from the bondage of sin. He makes us alive again.
Ephesians 2:1–2 KJV 1900
1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Quickened means to be made alive again.
BTW, there are a lot of Bible translations that take that first part out.
“you hath he quickened”- it means to be made alive again!
Under the bondage of sin, we were dead.
We would walk according to the desires of this wicked spirit, we call Satan.
Mark this spot in Ephesians, because we will come back here later...
Now we are ready to get back into Nehemiah.
In the first 14 verses, we will see Nehemiah is attacked in three phases.
We are going to look at two of them today.
The first 2 verses we see the snare of the enemies “friendship”.
Nehemiah 6:1–2 KJV 1900
1 Now it came to pass, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein; (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates;) 2 That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief.
When the enemies heard that the wall was almost finished, they knew it was a now-or-never moment, the wall will soon be done.
So here is the plain:
Step 1. They will pretend to conduct a friendly meeting.
Maybe to reconcile their differences, or even offer a much needed time of R&R.
Step 2. Ambush Nehemiah.
“they thought to do me mischief”
As we will see, Nehemiah used discernment to navigate these series of traps.
Discernment- the ability to judge with spiritual guidance and understanding.
Discernment- the ability to judge with spiritual guidance and understanding.
To view things according to how God views them and not man.
When we receive salvation, we know the Holy Ghost dwells inside of us. One of his roles is to give us guidance and direction.
We can resist His guidance, but it is for our benefit.
It is a skill we will develop as we walk in Christ.
Hebrews 5:12–14 KJV 1900
12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. 14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
We develop our skill of discernment by being in God’s word, and praying for guidance as we mature spiritually.
It is why discipleship is so critical with new Christians.
So many that are young in the faith were left abandoned in their own churches.
Likely there are folks like that in this room today.
Actual born again Christians, still drinking milk, get duped into thinking all churches are the same.
Or all Bibles are the same.
Or even all religions are the same.
They make these decisions based on what appeals to them in their eyes.
The problem is, young Christians often don’t know what they are looking at.
Even mature Christians can fall into this trap.
How many times do we judge situations by what we see?
That is when we get into trouble, because truth be told, there ain’t one of us in here that has this whole “life” thing figured out.
1 Samuel 16:7 “7 But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”
Christians today struggle with lack of discernment.
Sometimes we are too “nice” and get duped into things.
Nobody wants to be in the lions den, when you don’t have a reason to be there...
Sometimes we are “skeptical” and we choke out opportunities God gives us.
We rob ourselves of what blessings.
Is it possible Nehemiah knew Proverbs 27?
Proverbs 27:6 KJV 1900
6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
We need to be sober and vigilant.
Then judge situations accordingly.
Be careful who you listen to.
Let’s look at how Nehemiah responded.
Nehemiah 6:3–4 KJV 1900
3 And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you? 4 Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner.
Nehemiah avoided the trap and did not get distracted from the work!
Nehemiah avoided the trap and did not get distracted from the work!
Using discernment, Nehemiah did not only avoid getting lured into this trap, but he also did not let himself get distracted from the work.
Even if all they accomplished was to distract Nehemiah from the work of God, then they would have won a victory.
We cannot give the enemy one inch.
They will destroy the effectiveness of the work if you lose focus.
Another way they can do this is by slander....
Let’s read on.
Nehemiah 6:5–8 KJV 1900
5 Then sent Sanballat his servant unto me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand; 6 Wherein was written, It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel: for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king, according to these words. 7 And thou hast also appointed prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah: and now shall it be reported to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together. 8 Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart.
“It was reported”. The term we see in verse 6.
It starts by people saying what they heard other people supposedly say.
They usually don’t have a direct source, only what “those people” said.
Vague accusations....
Do we have this problem in the church today?
How about against other Christians?
Is this an issue that should be addressed in our “rebuilding” series?
What Sanballat accused Nehemiah of was clearly false...
Just enough truth to make it sound believable.
Look at verse 7. It is interesting that a King in Judah is mentioned, because the Jews did look forward to a coming King!
In fact Nehemiah is indeed paving the way for the future King…
He is just not there yet.
Nehemiah is not claiming to be that king either....
In fact we see the great lengths Nehemiah went to demonstrate he is not in it for self gain.
We explored some of reasons he had an unselfish style of leadership last week.
You know these lies had to outrage Nehemiah...
How could they not.
This is were i would definitely have fallen into the trap of distraction.
Sanballat clearly made a threat here.
He stated this will be reported to the king.
I would be tempted to get the army of soldiers the king sent with me and go straighten out this non-sense once and for all.
Nehemiah was a lot wiser than that.
You know our enemies know which things will “get to us” and which buttons to push.
Look at how he responded in verse 8....
Nehemiah 6:8 “8 Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart.”
He straight up calls out Sanballat for being a liar.
And the, continues with the work.
Nehemiah 6:9 KJV 1900
9 For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.
Fear was the tool at work here...
Slander was to provoke fear into the hearts and minds of the people.
The message was simple.... Your so busy with the work, that you are now weak. And your allies (the king) will turn on you when he hears what we have to say...
Nehemiah’s stance was simple, if our hands be weak.... Lord give me strength!
Wow! What a prayer!
We see the words of Isaiah in action here...
Isaiah 40:31 KJV 1900
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings as eagles; They shall run, and not be weary; And they shall walk, and not faint.
Of course wait here, in context means in the sense of serve. We have discussed this before, wait not in the sense of waiting around, but in the sense of a waiter or waitress that serves…
More or less it is this same idea that is the basis for Nehemiah's prayer at in verse 9.
How much better would our Christian walk be if instead of praying to remove obstacles, we prayed for the strength to endure?
We can draw that strength from the God we serve!
This was 2 of the 3 attacks.... Next week we will look at the third.
For now, lets go back to the verses we referenced earlier in Ephesians chapter 2.
Ephesians 2:1–9 KJV 1900
1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 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.
It is through Jesus Christ that we have strength.
He is life.
He is love.
He is the solid rock on which we stand.
If you do not now Jesus as your personal savior today, can I urge you, to come to Him today.
As we see it salvation is a gift...
not achievable by our works, but available only because of HIS works!
Christian brothers and sisters.
Are you in a position where the enemy is circling....
Can I encourage you today....
Know you have a great work in front of you.
We are all called to a ministry.
Pray for strength.
Just like what Nehemiah did.
Pray to remove distractions.
or
Maybe there is something or someone else on your heart today....
Can I encourage you to give it to Jesus today....
Let Him be your rock on which to stand.
*Close Prayer*
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