Nehemiah 4:1-14
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INTRODUCTION: Hurricane prep? How many of you are actually prepared? We all know that hurricane’s will come . We should be prepared.
Spiritual storms and attacks. This is your prepared kit.
When The Enemy Attacks, We:
When The Enemy Attacks, We:
1 Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews.
Sanballat - Second time he is mentioned. He is one of the leaders of the people in the surrounding area.
angry and greatly enraged - HAHA like when news comes out in Brooksville they are going to build anything.
Jeered at the Jews - He starts to mock him and make fun at him.
2 And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?”
he said - He said it publically. He was mocking them publically. This hurts doesn’t it.
army of Samaria - This is concerning, much more than just making fun of someone, instead there is now an army that would love to take over them and they were hearing about how weak they are.
feeble Jews - weak Jews.
Clarifying that they did use the bricks, but obviously not all of it.
ILLUSTRATION: Being made fun of. ............ Matthew Joel Hastings Bigboy - show ben’s gift.
3 Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Yes, what they are building—if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall!”
Home alone pic.
Tobiah - The sidekick. The guy that jumps in on a joke to late. Like when you think of the perfect joke while laying in bed. Good one little buddy.... fox pooping picture from colorado
Married into a beliving family, yet wanted the work of God to be stopped. Inside job. This hurts worse when the people attacking you are part of the church.
When the enemy can’t stop you, it will discourage you.
When the enemy can’t stop you, it will discourage you.
If its God’s will, Satan can’t stop it, but he can discourage you into giving up.
Notice, the only reason they were making fun of them is becaues of the progress they actually made.
HAHA Unlike when people made fun of my braces. …No mom, I don;t think they are jealous of my braces and glasses.
4 Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. 5 Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders.
Hear o God - Starts prayer. Abruptly. Which was confusing, but also a good reminder. Go immediate to prayer.
Prayer condemn them. - Prayer for justice. Prayer that God would do what he promised. I don’t pray that very often because you want to be sure that your on the right side. HAHA - imagine praying that in comminity group. Lord, they said mean things so I pray cursing over them....Kids pray that all the bad guys go to jail.
Pray: Our primary weapon is prayer.
Pray: Our primary weapon is prayer.
When the attack comes don’t go to anxiety/worry/fighting, etc. Go to God.
6 So we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.
so we built the wall - Love this, just like, so anyway. We built the wall. They didn’t care. They just kept building.
Half the height - 20 feet high. This is 12 feet in here. So pretty high.
People had a mind to work - If only we could get people today to get this mindset.
Obey: Keep obeying while your waiting.
Obey: Keep obeying while your waiting.
God doesn’t answer the prayer immediately. So what do you do if you keep facing an attack?Keep obeying. We are in spiritual warfare. We will face opposition.
7 But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry. 8 And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it.
They could not stop them, but it made them angry.
Satan doen’t like what is going on here. We have baptized over 60 people the last few years. Over 100 have made professions of faith. Satan hates it. He is going to cause confusion. He is going to divide.
When the enemy can’t stop you, it will try to confuse you.
When the enemy can’t stop you, it will try to confuse you.
9 And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.
10 In Judah it was said, “The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble. By ourselves we will not be able to rebuild the wall.” 11 And our enemies said, “They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work.”
V9 - We prayed and we obeyed. We prayed and we acted.
day and night - this is hard now. This is 24 hours a day.
V10 - They start listening to their enemy and internalizing. I can’t do this. Im not worthy. God’s words aren’t true.
by ourselves - you weren’t be yourself. God was there the whole time.
Don’t Panic:We panic when our eyes are on the problem instead of the provider.
Don’t Panic:We panic when our eyes are on the problem instead of the provider.
God had brought them this far, he will bring them through. The same is true for you. he won’t forget about you know.
12 At that time the Jews who lived near them came from all directions and said to us ten times, “You must return to us.” 13 So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people by their clans, with their swords, their spears, and their bows. 14 And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”
V12 - Jews around them saying give up. Why bother - Job’s wife?
10 times!!! - Have you ever had someone tell you you can’t do something. Beth and I both have something inside of us that if you say you can’t do it, everything inside of us wants to prove you wrong..... work in my favor, can’t make a cake????
Stand Firm: We stand firm when we remember who is on our side.
Stand Firm: We stand firm when we remember who is on our side.
CONCLUSION:Tornado - hiding in him.
Nehemiah - half time speech. Free throw talk.
1 Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews.
Sanballat - bad guy. Didn’t want them to build.
building the wall -
he was angry and greatly enraged
jeered at the Jews - if satan can’t stopped what can be done he will often turn to mocking.
2 And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?”
army of samaria - the samaritains - they are going to hate each other.
What are these feeble Jews doing. - that was a good description. They were weak, but God was strong.
revive the stones out of heaps of rubbish - that is exatly what they werwe doing, but to correct what I said last week, they likely sstill had to do some stone masonary.
3 Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Yes, what they are building—if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall!”
Tobiah - if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall - This wall did not instill confieidnce, if you were heare last week it was purfumers. that were building.
4 Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives.
we aer despised -
Turn back their taunt on their own -
5 Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders.
The exact opposite what our prayer is for ourselves. - compare to nehemiah 1
But God is a God of justice.
6 So we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.
so we built the wall. Notice, this was before God answered their prayer. God hadn’t answered their payer yet, but you know what they did. They kept building.
- and wall was joined together to half its height. - it ended up being almost 40 feet tall. So it would have been closed to 20 feet. The roof here is 12 feet tall. They were all working.
People had a mind to work -
7 But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry.
8 And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it.
They were actually doing it!
Peru ...
Picture of gate at sidewalk -