Staying the Course
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning!
I pray you all had a safe and happy New Year. This is our first gathering of 2026, and with it, we come back to our series in Nehemiah. To review, so far we have seen that God commissioned Nehemiah for the specific purpose of rebuilding the wall, fortifying the city which was meant to reassure them that their time of punishment in exile was over - God was not only bringing the people back to Israel, but bringing Israel back into their covenant relationship with Him. We got all the way to the construction of the wall, which brings us to our section today in Nehemiah chapter 4.
There are a lot of different themes in chapter 4 that could be the topic of many different sermons, but our hope is to discover what the author intended to convey and determine what that means for us as Christians in a 21st century context. There is a principle within the text that is timeless.
God’s people endure opposition through prayerful dependence, steady obedience, and courageous unity.
I will say, from the outset, that this has been a challenging week for me. We saw the neurosurgeon this week and confirmed their is still tumor tissue that was missed, roughly the size of a grape, or an olive. And even more than that - for the sake of honesty and transparency, certain deficits in how my brain functions have come to the surface. The part of my brain that was removed is in the right frontal lobe - that is where executive functioning is managed, as well as certain aspects of emotional regulation. It has made aspects of what I do very challenging and even daunting in some respects. To put as clear a point on it as I can, I mentioned last week or a few weeks ago that I have struggled in the past with varying degrees of depression. That has certainly been heightened through this. I’m not a person normally given to anger, but that has been much closer to the surface this week than I am used to. Simple tasks have become more and more challenging in regards to the emotional noise that makes it difficult to concentrate.
This is not to try and earn your pity or sympathy, but I do believe it is good to communicate where I am at in the spirit of honesty and transparency in the hopes that God will use what I am going through to perhaps offer comfort or perspective.
Todays sermon is on handling opposition and resistance - how do we do it, why do we do it and what should we expect in the midst of it?
For those of you who take notes and don’t have a bulletin insert, here is a basic outline of what we will be discussing today:
Expect Opposition (4:1-3; 7-8)
Respond With Prayer (4:4-6)
Stay Watchful (4:13-23)
Expect Opposition
Expect Opposition
Please read with me in…
1 When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious. He mocked the Jews
2 before his colleagues and the powerful men of Samaria and said, “What are these pathetic Jews doing? Can they restore it by themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they ever finish it? Can they bring these burnt stones back to life from the mounds of rubble?”
3 Then Tobiah the Ammonite, who was beside him, said, “Indeed, even if a fox climbed up what they are building, he would break down their stone wall!”
as well as…
7 When Sanballat, Tobiah, and the Arabs, Ammonites, and Ashdodites heard that the repair to the walls of Jerusalem was progressing and that the gaps were being closed, they became furious.
8 They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and throw it into confusion.
If there is one constant in working for the Lord it is that any kind of momentum is always met with resistance and opposition. Whether it is in the local church setting or in the context of the universal church at large - momentum is met by the enemy with resistance and opposition. This brings out the principle that Progress Provokes Resistance - Progress Provokes Resistance.
The resistance shown in this first group of texts begins as little more than mocking and anger. We’ve all been mocked before. As a pastor and as a musician, I have been mocked for what I say and do publically for a long time. Within my family of origin, there are no other believers in my family. But they have all been a source of mockery and judgement for what I do with the church for a long time. They look at it from the macro level of the unfaithful’s judgement against the faithful - saying that I am somehow less of a man because I love and follow Jesus; that somehow my inability to be 100% completely perfect somehow nullifies the entire pursuit of the Lord.
In a way, their judgement and ridicule is no different than that of Sanballat, Tobiah and the other groups surrounding Jerusalem at the time. The unbeliever will mock the believer for following God and trying their best to obey - and it will unfortunately only be to their own peril. So the first thing I want to encourage you in is that if you are meeting some kind of opposition or resistance from people in your life because of your faith in Christ, know that you are not alone and that it is to be expected.
Remember the words of Jesus -
18 “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you.
19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.
20 Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
21 But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they don’t know the one who sent me.
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now they have no excuse for their sin.
23 The one who hates me also hates my Father.
24 If I had not done the works among them that no one else has done, they would not be guilty of sin. Now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.
25 But this happened so that the statement written in their law might be fulfilled: They hated me for no reason.
Now, if you’re anything like me, the idea of being hated for no reason is a special source of cantankerous irritation that can never really be reasoned away. When we are maligned by someone and can honestly say, “I have literally done nothing to that person to deserve the treatment I am getting from them…” it carries with it a sense of personal attack that goes deeper than if their treatment was somehow justified. It is always good to give people the benefit of the doubt and ask, “Is there something I have done to offend you personally?” There are times we sin against God and offend others completely unbeknownst to us - unintentionally or perhaps the work you are doing interfered with the work they were doing and they took it personally. This doesn’t justify their treatment of you - because everyone is responsible for their own behavior - but perhaps it could enlighten their motivation for mistreating you.
When working for the Lord, in whatever capacity that may be, don’t be surprised when you encounter discouragement or criticism. Opposition is not a sign you’re doing something wrong, but it rather confirms that the work you are doing is important.
Since we should expect to endure certain amounts of opposition and resistance, how do we respond to those things as believers in Jesus Christ?
God’s people endure opposition through prayerful dependence, steady obedience, and courageous unity.
Respond with Prayer
Respond with Prayer
If we take the Jews example in our passage today, we get a great idea of where to begin. Read with me in…
4 Listen, our God, for we are despised. Make their insults return on their own heads and let them be taken as plunder to a land of captivity.
5 Do not cover their guilt or let their sin be erased from your sight, because they have angered the builders.
6 So we rebuilt the wall until the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had the will to keep working.
Nehemiah doesn’t get caught up in the drama of direct dispute because the people resisting him have done nothing to deserve such a courtesy. He was commissioned by God for a purpose and is focusing on what the Lord called him to do - which is what we should be doing as well! If God gives us a task to do, we should be more focused on that task than engaging with those who would only serve to kill the progress being made. Instead, Nehemiah prays to the God who commissioned him for protection and to be the one to cast judgement on those resisting the will of the Lord.
There is a sort of imprecatory nature of his prayer - that they would not find mercy or grace but would receive the full punishment for their sin. Similarly to what we spoke about last week, God wants us to bring our feelings and emotions to Him and allow Him to work through them.
But notice what Nehemiah says in verse 6 - that they kept working because the people had the will to keep working. Don’t hold up progress when it isn’t necessary to hold it up. There are times when discussions need to be had and when things need to be approached with a gentler and more diplomatic spirit, but in the case of the wall - God called them to build and their surrounding haters didn’t give them a good reason to slow down - so they kept working! They don’t argue, they pray! Their prayer reminded them that God was with them and it lead to perseverance! Prayer fuels action, but it cannot replace it! One of the things that we all run into is a tendency to put something on the back-burner, but spiritualizing it by saying, we are going to pray about this until God gives us a clear direction. That’s okay sometimes, but I think this happens far too often and encourages a lack of action on the part of believers and the church.
What part does prayer play in helping us do the work God has asked us to do? It steadies and calms us by reminding us to find our strength in the one who called us to the work in the first place, remembering that God full-heartedly equips those he has called to do the work He has asked them to do - If God has truly called someone to a task, He will equip them to accomplish it. The idea for me of being a pastor was very intimidating - as it should be! But I remembered that if God is truly calling me to this position, that His call will be accompanied by a special equipping for the task at hand.
2 Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving.
18 The Lord is near all who call out to him, all who call out to him with integrity.
There are ways Nehemiah could completely stall the progress he was making on the wall. I imagine one of those ways would be to stop working and engage with those raising trouble for him, but he refrains from doing that! He keeps working and prays for God’s protection and presence in the midst of it! That prayer lead to increased perseverance and progress. We learn from this that prayer steadies the soul so the work may continue. Prayer fuels action, it does not and cannot replace it.
God’s people endure opposition through prayerful dependence, steady obedience, and courageous unity.
Stay Watchful
Stay Watchful
13 So I stationed people behind the lowest sections of the wall, at the vulnerable areas. I stationed them by families with their swords, spears, and bows.
14 After I made an inspection, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the great and awe-inspiring Lord, and fight for your countrymen, your sons and daughters, your wives and homes.”
15 When our enemies heard that we knew their scheme and that God had frustrated it, every one of us returned to his own work on the wall.
16 From that day on, half of my men did the work while the other half held spears, shields, bows, and armor. The officers supported all the people of Judah,
17 who were rebuilding the wall. The laborers who carried the loads worked with one hand and held a weapon with the other.
18 Each of the builders had his sword strapped around his waist while he was building, and the one who sounded the trumpet was beside me.
19 Then I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, “The work is enormous and spread out, and we are separated far from one another along the wall.
20 Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us!”
21 So we continued the work, while half of the men were holding spears from daybreak until the stars came out.
22 At that time, I also said to the people, “Let everyone and his servant spend the night inside Jerusalem, so that they can stand guard by night and work by day.”
23 And I, my brothers, my servants, and the men of the guard with me never took off our clothes. Each carried his weapon, even when washing.
When I first began reading for today, my cursory reading had me wondering if this sermon was going to be on the value of arming ourselves as believers - the idea of self defense. Praise the Lord, I think the more time went by, the clearer and clearer the author’s purpose in the text became. This section of our text does speak to being armed for self defense and shows us a principle that defending ourselves is described in scripture. However, this passage as a whole is not about how Christians should be armed - it is about standing your ground and doing the work that God called you to do - especially when you encounter resistance and opposition. When faced with opposition, remember the Lord and His calling in your life for that task and stand your ground - don’t allow yourself to be intimidated by other people who will not help you accomplish what God has called you to.
Can you think of a time when someone tried to use intimidation to silence you or to keep you from doing a task you were commissioned to do? What does the Lord say in these situations? Stand your ground! Don’t get me wrong, we also need to bare a spirit of humility and be receptive to the possibility that we can be wrong or perhaps even needing additional wisdom to accomplish our goals, but the person you are ultimately responsible to is the Lord! So don’t let someone stand in your way of doing what the Lord has called you to do. It is better to be faithful to the Lord and offend every person on the planet than to compromise in what the Lord has directed you to do. Remember the Lord and stand your ground.
There is a balance we need to walk as God’s people - confident in Him, but humble enough to accomplish our goals with humility and a teachable spirit. Professor Jim Newheiser, when speaking of the value of wisdom in the Proverbs says this:
Those who are truly wise remain teachable and ‘increase in learning’ through continued disciplined study.
Jim Newheiser
There is a need for us to stand confidently in the mission God has called us to, but that doesn’t override our need to be humble. The last thing I would want is to get a phone call this week from someone saying that another person has gone off the deep-end, doing something wrong and sinful, using this sermon as their justification. God is not going to call us to do something that is sinful or contrary to his Word, but He will call us to be bold for Him and faithful to His calling in our lives. The point I am trying to make is that we can do that with both confidence and humility - it is a delicate balance, but being faithful to the Lord means acting under the guidance of all Scripture. We can’t ignore Jesus’ teaching on humility and meekness in exchange for confidence and believe we are being faithful as a whole.
On a personal note, one thing I never expected was to encounter resistance as much as I have in various ministry roles - both now and in the past - is regarding music. I was speaking with a dear friend this week, George Hippie, and he said something really interesting - “It’s amazing that something God designed to being us together, like music, can be used by the enemy to divide us so quickly and easily.” Going back into church history, music has been used by many in the church as a means of control and intimidation.
Musicians have faced manipulation from the church for centuries by being pressured to conform to norms and traditions that have nothing to do with the text. In the 1960’s and 70’s, the Jesus Movement saw a large revival in the US among the youth that was met with significant backlash because the people didn’t conform to how their parents and grandparents did church, but were more open to integrating certain aspects of their cultural norms into how they worshiped Christ. They were the first group to really normalize the use of a guitar in church services. I’m not going to pretend that they didn’t bring in things that would serve as drawbacks, but what I am going to say is that the way the religious people applied pressure on them to conform was not aligned with what God was trying to accomplish in that movement. The tricky thing that people often forget is that the Jesus Movement leaned much more theologically conservative - towards Christian orthodoxy, while simultaneously leaning more liberal socially - the church folks of the day didn’t know how to handle that! They received pressure and condemnation from the church on matters that didn’t concern theology, but rather culture - and God used them anyway!
I guess the moral of that lesson is to not let your cultural proclivities motivate you to stand in the way of what the Lord may be trying to accomplish - don’t be someone’s Sanballat because you don’t like what they’re doing when God may be blessing it! Don’t forsake something new for the sake of the traditional and call the new stuff sinful if you can’t prove that from the text. There will be some who hear what I have said and potentially take offense to it, so please hear me when I say that my goal is not to offend anybody - but my goal is to acknowledge that there are aspects of what I described just now alive and active within our church today and it is doing more harm than good. We cannot sacrifice reaching people on the altar of our own comfort and preferences.
(I can already hear my phone ringing…)
As God’s people - as His church - surely we can find enough common ground and Christian charity to figure this issue out in a way that honors and glorifies the Lord, can’t we? There is a conflict that I have found myself in the middle of by nature of the office I occupy, and I can see and sympathize with both sides, but I feel like I have to mention that this is not a theological issue until someone casts judgment on the other side or acts in a way that is outside the bounds of how Christian brothers and sister should be interacting with one another. To be honest, I don’t like being in the middle of this debate, but I feel it is my responsibility too God and to the church to ask that we approach how we do worship with a heart to serve one another instead of merely getting what we want - and that is addressed equally to both sides of the conversation. Those who want more contemporary music need to rethink their priorities when their desire justifies (in their own mind) their sin of gossip, slander and rudeness. Those who demand to keep things the same and assign that sense tradition some kind of theological value need to reassess your priorities as well - Does God need your songs of worship at all? Does He find music brought to Him with a guitar and sincere heart acceptable?
What else do we learn from our text today? If the occasion calls for it, it is perfectly appropriate to work with tools in one hand and swords in the other. If someone is threatening bodily harm against you, you have the right to defend yourself. Does that change the fact that people will be killed for their faith across the world? By no means! The unfortunate reality is that the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (CSGC) suggests that around 100,000 Christians are martyred every year around the world. Even in the end times, people will lose their lives for their testimony about Christ as we see in…
4 Then I saw thrones, and people seated on them who were given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and who had not accepted the mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
The people of God should be prepared for danger, but it doesn’t mean we should go looking for it. Scripture gives us the right to defend ourselves, but it doesn’t give us the right to be the aggressors. I am like many other American men and enjoy firearms and have one specifically for the purpose of self defense when I am out and about. There are some Christians who use this as a moral soapbox where they assign a moral value to carrying a weapon and using that as a justification for judging others - and this happens on both sides. I have met men who carry weapons speak of those who don’t as being weak or guilty of some kind of moral failing for not taking the initiative to protect themselves or those around them. Likewise, I have been the recipient of moral judgement from those who don’t carry weapons saying it is wrong for believers to do so.
The reality is that there isn’t a Scripture in the Bible that commands all believers to carry weapons or one that forbids all believers from carrying weapons. This is another gray area where people need to act based on their convictions and refrain from judging others who hold different views. If someone believes it is sinful to carry a weapon, they should refrain from it so as to not violate their conscience. The liberty another believer may feel to carry a weapon should not be cast upon a younger brother or sister before they are ready so they are not brought into a place where they are made to violate their conscience. If you’d like more information on this concept, I would encourage you to read 1 Corinthians chapter 8, where Paul talks about the principle of eating meat that was sacrificed to idols.
Another thing we see from this passage is that God is working in the background to fight for His people. It is reminiscent to when the Israelites were trapped by the Egyptians and Moses told the Israelites:
14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
I actually prefer the NIV’s translation of this verse because of how it communicates the idea of being at peace within yourself because of what God is doing - “you need only be still.”
So here are the Jews, they’ve been in the process now for nearly a generation of coming back to Jerusalem, they are now rebuilding the wall and being pressured and threatened by the people surrounding them - they pray for strength and safety and God keeps them safe - and they continue the work set before them. What we learn here is that faith and wisdom belong together - we must trust God (that is faith) and stay vigilant (exercising wisdom and discernment)!
God’s people endure opposition through prayerful dependence, steady obedience, and courageous unity.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Church - look around. The people you see with you are your co-laborers in Christ. When we face opposition, the people you see around you are the ones we should be encouraging to stay the course! These are the people who should be encouraging us to stay the course! God’s people are called to act on what He has called us to do, being vigilant in the face of opposition, staying engaged in the task but centered in prayer and trusting Him throughout the entire process. We are guaranteed to endure opposition because of the hatred the world has for the one whom we are serving.
As God’s people, we need to press into Him for endurance, for perspective and for the will to be tenacious. This will require that we be unified as a body. Don’t be the one opposing others who are doing what the Lord called them to do, but strive to partner with the church in a way that honors and glorifies the Lord until He comes back for us.
God’s people endure opposition through prayerful dependence, steady obedience, and courageous unity.
Let’s pray.
