Trust the Process | Nehemiah 4
Notes
Transcript
If you have your Bibles, and I hope you do, grab them and head on over to Nehemiah 4. It was great to have Jeremy here with us last week and I’m grateful for them serving us so well through the conference. The Lord has and is still using that for the good of the marriages of those who came.
As you’re headed to Nehemiah I just want to give a little heads up for what’s in front of us. Next week I’m excited to have our missionaries the Machs here. Please make an effort to be here during the SS hour to hear them present. If you can’t make it, then hopefully you can catch the service in which Bob will be preaching.
The following week Jordan & I are headed to the National Watermelon Convention and a guy from CityLight in Amarillo will be coming up to fill the pulpit that week.
So we’ll hit Nehemiah 4 this week, have a couple week hiatus from it, but then I plan to jump right back in 3 weeks from now. Just want you to be aware of what’s ahead.
If you’ve been with us before then you know that I don’t make much of sermon titles. I titled this one after one of my least favorite statements: “trust the process.” I don’t know why that one annoys me so much, but it just does.
I’ve primarily heard it used in relation to sports—mostly basketball. I’m coaching my oldest—Walker’s—basketball team. We had practice the other day and afterwards he asked me, “dad, when can we have a fun practice.” I said, “A fun practice?” He goes, “yeah, ya know one where you play games. All we do is drills.” “ohhhh” I said.
I told him this story, that he’s heard before, that I saw a reel this fall of Freddy Freeman’s pregame drills. He’s the first baseman for the LA Dodgers and one of the highest paid players in the MLB. Before every game he gets down on his knees and has a coach slow roll him like 10 balls to his left and then 10 to his right and then 10 right at him. Each ball he does the same motion.
I told Walker the reason he does that before every game is to develop muscle memory so that in the heat of the battle it just comes naturally to him. He trusts the process. That’s why we do drills in practice and it pays off in games. Trust the process.
Trusting the process, however, means he participates in it. He doesn’t just think it’s beneficial and worthwhile and would be cool. He actually participates. If he didn’t participate, then we’d all wonder if he really trusted it, right? Imagine if you went to Freddy Freeman baseball camp and asked him how we should get ready for games and he told you some drills and then you asked him if that’s what he did pregame and he said nope. Would you be ready to do the drills he just suggested? I wouldn’t. I’d want to do what he did.
Well this morning, Nehemiah doesn’t come to us with baseball drills. He actually doesn’t necessarily come to us with a list of do’s on how to live a better Christian life. What he does show us though in the midst of opposition is that deep trust leads to diligent effort. That’s our main point this morning.
MPS: Deep trust leads to diligent effort.
So let’s read all of Nehemiah 4, pray and then see how Nehemiah calls us to trust the Lord and live diligently.
Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. 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?” 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!” 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. 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.
So we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.
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. And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.
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.” And our enemies said, “They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work.” At that time the Jews who lived near them came from all directions and said to us ten times, “You must return to us.” 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. 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.”
When our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan, we all returned to the wall, each to his work. From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah, who were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other. And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me. And I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another. In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.”
So we labored at the work, and half of them held the spears from the break of dawn until the stars came out. I also said to the people at that time, “Let every man and his servant pass the night within Jerusalem, that they may be a guard for us by night and may labor by day.” So neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes; each kept his weapon at his right hand.
This is God’s Word for God’s people. Thanks be to God. Let’s pray
We’re going to swim laps across this passage this morning and see 4 different things. First, The first thing Nehemiah calls us to do is to
Trust God in the midst of oppression.
Trust God in the midst of oppression.
In chapter 3 the people were working side by side building the wall. Here in chapter 4 we see that Sanballat & Tobiah hear word of it and they begin to mock and deride the work of the people. Back in Neh. 2:10 we see their response to Nehemiah’s mission:
But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.
Here in chapter 4 they’re angry & greatly enraged because their loss of power over the Israelites and their prejudice towards them. They did not want to see the mission of God succeed or the people of God thrive.
Jesus promised the same thing should be expected for his followers.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
When you live on mission for Jesus you can expect that others will not only be against you in disposition, but will actually take steps to oppose you because they hate you and what you stand for. But it’s not only people that will oppose you, we looked just this past week in Men’s Bible Study at 1 Pet. 5:8. Satan is your adversary and he’s seeking to destroy you.
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Now, it’s important to notice that Peter, Jesus, and even Nehemiah aren’t talking about people who just identify as the people of God. The people who are persecuted are those who are actively on mission to see the kingdom of God being built. They are those who are working to tear down the strongholds of power that Satan, the prince of the power of the air, has established. This isn’t just persecution and oppression for the sake of persecution and oppression, this is slander and mocking for being engaged in mission.
Every time I encounter passages in Scripture regarding oppression, persecution, slander or mocking I have to ask myself, am I encountering those things? Thanks be to God that we don’t live in the time of Nehemiah or in a place in which threats to our well being are all that common. We do see it some, even in our country, but not like in other places around the world. Regardless of that, brokenness, sin, strongholds of power do exist in our own lives, families and communities. And when we live on mission we are taking the gospel of grace to confront those things and when that confrontation happens we will be persecuted. So I go back to the question, am I facing these same threats, attitudes, and actions because I’m living on mission?
If you’re like me, you have a tendency to avoid these things because I like comfort. But look at the hope we find in 1 Pet. 4:13
But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
When you suffer for the sake of Christ, you are participating with Christ in his sufferings. You share with him. Suffering for the sake of Christ then isn’t something to be feared or to avoid, but rather something to rejoice in because it is in suffering that we know the character of Christ more intimately and find the hope of Christ more deeply. You can trust God in the midst of suffering.
The second thing Nehemiah 4 calls us to do is to
Trust God in the midst of doubt & fear.
Trust God in the midst of doubt & fear.
The anger, mocking, and derision of Sanballat & Tobiah move from words to actions. The begin to plot about how they might come and destroy the work, the city, and the people. Alliances are made with the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites in verse 7. Sanballat would’ve been to the North and these other three would’ve been to the south, east, and west. In other words, Sanballat has surrounded the Israelites with armies from each nation. He’s cut off any escape route that might get word back to King Artaxerxes.
The workers didn’t all live just in Jerusalem, but in the surrounding cities. Now because of this there was risk that they might be taken or killed as the traversed each day back to Jerusalem. Not only that, they left their homes unprotected during the day. They were woefully unprepared & unprotected.
On top of that, the enthusiasm they had when they started building the wall was beginning to wane. They’re a few weeks into this project, they’re being mocked, threats are pressing in from every side, literally. The work is legit hard and they are piecemealing it together. Now their families are calling them to come home. Their enemies are preparing. The risk is just becoming too great.
I stumbled across a quote a couple weeks ago by Hudson Taylor, the missionary to the China:
“Unless there is an element of risk in our exploits for God, there is no need for faith.”
- Hudson Taylor
Faith inherently carries risk. When a farmer buys a seed he does so at the risk of not being able to pay for the seed, but he does so in faith that he’ll be able to produce a crop. Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” To begin the work, let alone carry on in it with outside pressure and internal doubt was only possible by faith and this at great risk to their own well being.
As I’ve considered our faith I’ve wondered where the risk lies? I know people and have stories in which their act of placing their faith in Christ has cost them families and homes. We support missionaries who live in places in which they call people to faith and in doing so are at great risk to themselves and the people they’re seeking to witness to. But here we sit in Dalhart, TX America. Is there any risk to our faith?
I would argue so. We live in the Bible belt culture in which the common assumption is that because we’re American, Texan or because we grew up at church or our grandma did or maybe even because we’ve been involved and a part of the church this whole time that we’re a Christian. But in reality, we’ve never placed our faith in Christ.. We’ve never trusted Him to save us from our sin because we think that based off of our heritage or works that me and God are ok. We’ve got our thing.
Friend, this morning hear me clearly, you are not a Christian unless you have confessed Christ as Lord and believed in him with your heart. The risk for you today is to actually step forward in faith and make this commitment. It’s to risk feeling like you’ll be judged—which, let me tell you, you won’t—and to step out after this service and come meet me and ask or to tell me that you need to be saved. Maybe it’s the risk of being obedient by taking a faith and being baptized. What’s really at risk for us isn’t our safety and well being, it’s our pride. I would ask you this morning, what are you risking in faith because of your trust in God? Do you really trust in him?
You may be going, how do I know if I trust in God? Well, Nehemiah doesn’t leave us wondering what that risk or that faith or that trust looked like for he and the Israelite people. He gives us multiple ways in which his deep trust in God is displayed and more than that, he shows us what that trust is really in. Our last two points this morning come in the form of questions…
What does trust look like?
What does trust look like?
I love the practicality of this book. Nehemiah doesn’t just call us to trust in God, he shows us what trust actually looks like in the midst of life’s really hard circumstances. Deep trust looks like diligent effort. First, it’s diligent effort in prayer. There’s two types of prayers we see here.
In the first 3 verses of this chapter we hear the jeers of Sanballat and Tobiah. Then in verse 4 we see Nehemiah’s response. Nehemiah cries out in what’s called an imprecatory prayer. He says,
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. 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.
This seems a little extreme and maybe even opposed to Jesus’ teachings, doesn’t it? Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 5:44?
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Looking back at Nehemiah’s prayer there doesn’t seem to be much love and the prayer doesn’t seem to be one of mercy, does it? So is Nehemiah off base here?
No. Nehemiah is actually praying in a way that is biblically faithful and demonstrated elsewhere throughout the Scriptures. Most imprecatory prayers are found in the Psalms. Here are just a few of them.
[Diligent effort in prayer. Imprecatory prayer. Ps. Ps. 35, 58, 59, 69, 70, 83, 109, 137, 140. FIX THIS SLIDE!!]
Scripture models and gives us a way to pray in the face of evil and injustice that is insurmountable and out of our control. That’s what an imprecatory prayer is. It is a “plea for justice and a cry for help in the face of evil.”
We love to see God as a God of mercy & love & grace, but we often fail to see him as a God of justice. While God is indeed perfectly loving and gracious and merciful he is equally and at the same time perfectly just. So our desire for justice is hardly wrong or less Christian. It actually reflects his character. As one author says, “Wanting justice means wanting the full manifestation of God’s righteous rule over his world. Imprecations express an awareness that God’s world is not yet the righteous way it should be.” Imprecatory prayer takes our desires for justice and places them in the hands of the God of justice. It puts the responsibility on him to deal with injustices and
What does trust look like?
Diligent effort
In prayer
Imprecatory prayer
Mt. 5:44
Ps. 35, 58, 59, 69, 70, 83, 109, 137, 140
Unified prayer (v9)
Reaction wasn’t to first solve the problem but to fall on their knees
They are depending on him
Prayer and action don’t oppose one another but go hand in hand
In action
Do the work (v6)
They built the wall from dawn till dusk
They did the thing they knew they were to do.
We grow as disciples
We follow in obedience
Be watchful (v9)
They set a guard
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Be ready to fight
The people were stationed with their families
When the threats subsided they worked with their swords strapped and their heads on a swivel.
Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
Together
Stationed with their families, fought for something greater than themselves.
Walk of the Christian is never alone.
“Do the stuff” Who are you linking arms with?
Who is our trust in?
Who is our trust in?
Who is our trust in?
Our God
Covenantal language — rooted in relationship
Not distant, but personal
Jealous for his name and glory
Perfectly just & loving
Protector
Watchful, doesn’t grow weary
Great & awesome
Frustrates the plans of the wicked
Fights for us.
Ultimately seen on the cross.
