Nehemiah 6
Notes
Transcript
What do you do with a Chemist when they die?
Barium
I believe we live in some of the most divided times in the history of the world, and to be honest, I think there are many times in the history of the world people could have said this exact thing; the world is fighting. Look, turn on your nightly news and it is abundantly clear, “they” are the worst people in the world, “they” have no idea how people are supposed to truly live, “they” have no right making decisions for all of us; they are making the world a much worse place. You know what the crazy thing about whoever this “they” person is? Each side has one, everyone has a “they” they point to as the proprietor of all the bad things in the world, normally two people point directly at each other - I think its the best thing media has done for themselves in the last 50 years is to figure out a way to make everyone hate each other so they can always have some type of news to sell us, some reason for us to tune in so they can make money off their anger.
The point of all of that is to say we live in a world of uncertainty because of how things are going around us and it makes us talk. People spend so much time worrying about what is going to happen if one group or the other gets in charge and leads things that becomes what we talk about, “What are we going to do if..” and before long we are fighting with each other and consumed with whatever it is we see coming for us.
Here is the thing, as Christians we should be able to rise above any of the circumstances in this world and know we are not citizens of this world, as his followers we are citizens of his kingdom, and that is not an earthly one and we should know he has prepared a place for us. Listen, this world is nothing but a flash in the pan when it comes to eternity with Jesus, and we have to turn our minds more and more to him.
This morning as we join Nehemiah and his people they face this exact crisis; live in fear of what they see around them, or believe and hope on the promises of God.
So remember last week we talked about the opposition of Sanballat and Tobiah and all these other groups of people who came against them with insults and trying to get people rallied against their building. That wasn’t enough to stop the people they prayed and asked God to give them strength over their enemies, and as we wrapped up we saw they kept working and half the wall was built.
7 Now when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repair of the walls of Jerusalem went on, and that the breaches began to be closed, they were very angry.
8 All of them conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause a disturbance in it.
Now they are really mad, in fact so mad they have decided sticks and stones may break their bones but words will never hurt them, and know they have to get some sticks and stones now and are planning an outright assault of Jerusalem. Its like the old saying, “The time for talking is done.”
9 But we prayed to our God, and because of them we set up a guard against them day and night.
10 Thus in Judah it was said, “The strength of the burden bearers is failing, Yet there is much rubbish; And we ourselves are unable To rebuild the wall.”
So, they hear about it, they set up a guard to protect things from coming in day and night, and this would have taken an extra heavy load on the people, they would have been even more tired from the extra work, and vs 10, most scholars agree is probably a song the people were singing together s they were working; they are stressed and losing hope. The word failing we use there is the Hebrew word kasal and it really means to totter, so it is kind of showing these people are kind of stumbling under the weight of the load they are now having to carry.
So just kind of keep all of this in mind so far, they are worried about being attacked, and because of that they have to take extra shifts to keep guard, and so they are slowly starting to burn out from the weight of it all.
11 Our enemies said, “They will not know or see until we come among them, kill them and put a stop to the work.”
12 When the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times, “They will come up against us from every place where you may turn,”
So apparently the plan from Sanballat, Tobiah, and their buddies was to attack Jerusalem from all four directions at the same time, they wanted to make sure they could put an end to it quickly. They idea is lets make sure we don’t do it slow and give them a place to turn, instead, lets go at them all at once; we will rid all of Jerusalem at once. Look at what Nehemiah does in response.
13 then I stationed men in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, the exposed places, and I stationed the people in families with their swords, spears and bows.
Listen, there is a whole lot going on here we can talk about, Nehemiah has put people in every place they need to be, but there is one thing that caught my interest, it says he put families together. I know there is this misconception about the Sullivan rule in the US service, because of the 5 Sullivan brothers who died on the USS Juneau but its not a hard and fast rule, but here we see it is almost like he has put them there on purpose, and its no surprise because we know Nehemiah put families to work near their home so they could not have to go as far. So, putting families together it was almost like saying, We either live together or we die together, but one way or another, we are together.
The question I have for you this morning, is who are those people in your life, the ones you say we are in this together no matter what happens. I hope for most of you you can say your spouse, and your family, but that may not be the case for whatever reason, but we all need people who we are willing to go to battle for, or with and not going to run away when things get deep and ugly. Do you have any people like that in your life, and remember what we have been talking about over and over again, these people should be the ones who love you and love Jesus.
Look at what happens next….
14 When I saw their fear…
Its not surprising, right? Things are looking bleak for these people, four armies coming at them? No way! Standing beside my brothers with a sword to fight after I just got done moving rocks, this is crazy bro!
14 … I rose and spoke to the nobles, the officials and 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 houses.”
Nehemiah, basically stand up here and gives one of the greatest motivational messages he can give them at the time, he gives them two different things to remember here:
Remember the Lord who is great and AWESOME
Loaded statement to the Jews. Here is what he is saying to them; Remember when we were slaves but he raised up Moses. Do you remember how he was raised in the house of Pharoah, then he killed an Egyptian, and then he stood before a bush that was burning, but not consumed, who sent him to speak on behalf of God to Pharoah and I want you to tell Pharoah, “Let my people Go!” and Moses wasn’t so sure but he knew somebody had to do something, and he realized it might as well be me. So he went to pharoah and told him, “Let my people go,” and remember when Pharoah said, “no,” and God brought about ten plagues against the people and it turned the heart of pharoh. And so our people were able to leave, but Pharoah changed his mind and sent people after them to bring them back. And remember when our people were trapped, with the sea in front and the people of Egypt behind and it all looked bleak? Then, remember, God split a sea and they walked out across dry land. REMEMBER!
When I need encouragement, I think back to a night of revival at Asbury, when the presence of God was so thick, there was no other way to describe it. When there were people laying at the altar asking God to move in new and real ways in their lives because they had no doubt he was with them. It was a magical time that week as it just seemed the presence of the Lord had invaded and people were ready to listen to what God had for them. I think back to that time and I know he is with me; he has never once left me alone and he is ready to do it again.
I’m telling some of you, if are discouraged it’s time to think back when God showed you favor. THe second thing he wants us to remember in verse 13 is we need to:
2. Fight for your cause
We can’t just fight for ourselves, because if we are fighting only for ourselves the work will get so heavy, the opposition will be so loud, our bodies will get so weary, that we will give up; if we are only fighting for ourselves we will eventually just give up. No, instead fight for your cause, whatever that is, fight for someone who can’t live without you.
I don’t know what your cause is right now in your life that you need to fight for, for some it may be your marriage and you need to fight for it to keep it together because if you quit fighting its just going to fall apart. So you are fighting for your kids and your spouse because if it fails it all falls apart and you realize you have to fight to keep it together.
Maybe the opposition has tried to hold you back from that promotion in your office, they keep telling you you aren’t qualified, you don’t have the education or training to do the work, and when you have fought for yourself you’ve just believed them; you’ve quit fighting for it because you believe all the words they’ve told you about yourself so you quit. But why do you want that job? For the health of your family, so you can afford to buy all the things you need, and not just your family, but because you know you can make the workplace better if you get the position? Fight for it, remember the times God has been faithful, don’t listen to the words they are hurling at you as they tell you the person you used to be, remember who God calls you and the promises he has given you and go after it.
I think back to people I knew who were planting a church, they had heard the same old thing I am sure some of us have said, there are already too many churches why do we need another one, and their answer was always, because God called us to share the Gospel here. So they didn’t listen to the ones who were trying to stop them and discourage them, they fought for what God wanted them to do.
What is God calling you to? Are you willing to fight for it and believe the truths he has told you or are you going to sit back and give up?
Apparently, this enemies saw that their plan was known and the people had gotten back to work, and they decided they shouldn’t invade just yet.
15 When our enemies heard that it was known to us, and that God had frustrated their plan, then all of us returned to the wall, each one to his work.
Its as if the opposition saw the group come together, and saw they couldn’t be scared and they didn’t want to invade at the moment. So for a little while the opposition was over and must be gone, right, so its time to let your guard down and just get back to the work. No, the thing is sometimes in our lives when we can’t choose just to fight or work, there are sometimes when we have to do exactly what we see the people here doing, look at the next few verses:
16 From that day on, half of my servants carried on the work while half of them held the spears, the shields, the bows and the breastplates; and the captains were behind the whole house of Judah.
17 Those who were rebuilding the wall and those who carried burdens took their load with one hand doing the work and the other holding a weapon.
18 As for the builders, each wore his sword girded at his side as he built, while the trumpeter stood near me.
19 I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “The work is great and extensive, and we are separated on the wall far from one another.
20 “At whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.”
Once they knew what the opposition was they had a plan, and they continued to work, but with the tool in one hand and the weapon in the other, and the idea is if you’re coming at me from over here I will defend with this hand, and I will keep working with the other. We already know how to defend ourselves, we already know that you want to come against us and stop this mighty work we are doing and we are not going to let you bring us down from this wall.
And as I thought of how we could apply this to our lives today, there are so many different things we could talk about that are unique to each and every situation and cause you are fighting for, some of us will need a different weapon for defense. However, the defense most of us need when it comes to defending ourselves is the very word of God.
12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
It cuts through what people say about us and reminds us of what God tells us, it cuts through every attempt of the enemy and allows us to know exactly which direction we should be working. That is why it is so important for you to stay in your word and keep up with the daily Bible reading. You cannot focus on and use the word of God as a tool if you don’t know it - get into that Bible reading. Don’t worry about catching up, just pick whatever scripture we will be on and start there.
And Nehemiah goes on.
21 So we carried on the work with half of them holding spears from dawn until the stars appeared.
22 At that time I also said to the people, “Let each man with his servant spend the night within Jerusalem so that they may be a guard for us by night and a laborer by day.”
23 So neither I, my brothers, my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us removed our clothes, each took his weapon even to the water.
Nehemiah and all of his people, they didn’t even let their guard down when they were going to get water, they knew the enemy was lurking to take them out at any time. The same is true for us, he is prowling and waiting, look at what Peter tells us
8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
So, this morning the question is, what are you fighting for? Have you forgotten? What is your cause? It can’t just be you, because if its just you you will quit, who needs you, or maybe WHAT needs you, fight for them, or it, becasue without you its not going to happen.
Listen, we have talked a lot during this series about what God is calling us to as a church, and we are fighting because right outside these doors, according to the US Religion Census less than 35% of people in Vermillion county go to any religious group. And we need to change that.
And just like in the story of Nehemiah there is a place for all of us. Some of you may be thinking I can’t help you build the wall, I just physically cannot do the work of reaching our community anymore. And you’re right, but you can be our guard; you can sit and be the lookout and watch over so to speak, the ones doing the work in prayer and supplying resources for the fight. You can pray over the wounded ones as they come back off the wall to recuperate, you can cheer on the ones on top of the wall and encourage them to keep fighting.
What I realize as we sit here this morning is there are some of you with us who are looking for their part to play when it comes to the work of the church, and there are so many places you can find your position. You can sign up to help on rotation upstairs in children’s church or the nursery. You can sign up to prepare a meal for the youth we are having on Wednesday and Sunday Evenings, or come and help serve a couple times a month.
You can see Patti to signup to help sort and hang clothes at the clothing room as we try to make sure people in the community have the clothing they need.
You can see Mrs. Linda this morning to sign up to help with the Food Pantry each month. You can fill bags or hand out bags and help as we try to make sure people in the community aren’t hungry.
You could see Stacie or Lindsay about joining the worship team and sharing your talents with us on Sunday morning on stage or in the cube to run slides.
There are so many different places you could come and play your part.
Listen, this morning we are about to have a baptism, we are about to enter the water and see this new life in Christ, and I hope as this young man comes up out of the water we celebrate like Illinois has won the national championship, or insert your team here.
This morning if you don’t know Jesus, we want to give you the opportunity to come and give your life to him, and declare him as Lord. Because Jesus is greater than anything this world has to offer you and then we will go and you can get into the water and we can baptize you this morning. We have plenty of clothes in the back for you to change into so you don’t have to worry about getting yoru clothes wet if you are here and unprepared; don’t let that be the excuse.
Maybe you are here and you just need prayer to keep going.
Maybe you are here and you just want to praise him..
