"WHEN THE GOING GOT TOUGH"

>>>Nehemiah is a special book/character to me-Craig G sermon.

*Moving up w/9th graders

*HBC youth pastor transition/COVID

*Surrendered to call to ministry

>>>There can be a lot of high points in life-especially in following God’s call.

*(Illust.) Camp high-full of worship/read entire Bible in two weeks/sensitive to HS

*School starts-things sometimes fall apart-what happened to what was learned at camp?

*What can start off as exciting/invigorating can quickly get difficult-become tough.

>>>Famous phrase: “when the going gets tough, the tough get going” (motivational/inspiring) Reality? “When the going gets tough, it’s tough/want to quit.”

*This is for anything in following God’s call-God lays a burden, ready to go, putting in the work, hardships begin to happen.

>>>This happens in ch.4 of Nehemiah (“When the Going Got Tough”).

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>>>Nehemiah is leading the people to do God’s work in rebuilding the wall. Ch.2-“Rise up and build!”/Ch.3-doing the work.

>>>Ch.4 is when things start to get tough-the beginning of adversity.

*Ch.4-discouragement; ch.5-division; ch.6-distraction.

Nehemiah 4:1–15 Now it came about that when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious and very angry, and he mocked the Jews. And he spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy people of Samaria and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Are they going to restore the temple for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish it in a day? Can they revive the stones from the heaps of rubble, even the burned ones?” Now Tobiah the Ammonite was near him, and he said, “Even what they are building—if a fox were to jump on it, it would break their stone wall down!” Hear, O our God, how we are an object of contempt! Return their taunting on their own heads, and turn them into plunder in a land of captivity. Do not forgive their guilt and do not let their sin be wiped out before You, for they have demoralized the builders. So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. 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. So all of them conspired together to come to fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. But we prayed to our God, and because of them we set up a guard against them day and night. And so in Judah it was said: “The strength of the burden bearers is failing, Yet there is much rubble; And we ourselves are unable To rebuild the wall.” And our enemies said, “They will not know or see until we come among them, kill them, and put a stop to the work.” 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,” 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. When I saw their fear, I stood and said 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.” Now 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.

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Nehemiah 4:1–3 Now it came about that when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious and very angry, and he mocked the Jews. And he spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy people of Samaria and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Are they going to restore the temple for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish it in a day? Can they revive the stones from the heaps of rubble, even the burned ones?” Now Tobiah the Ammonite was near him, and he said, “Even what they are building—if a fox were to jump on it, it would break their stone wall down!”

>>>(v.1) The wall was being built, and Sanballat heard of it-very angry.

*He was governor of the Samaritan region (Samaritans vs. Jews).

*His response was anger and mocking-very different from other responses tot the wall.

Nehemiah 2:10 And when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about it, it was very displeasing to them that someone had come to seek the welfare of the sons of Israel.

*Sanballat was already upset at the wall being rebuilt/someone seeking welfare of Israel-threatening his power?

>>>(v.2) He is in midst of brothers and wealthy/powerful and mocks the Jews.

*Calls them “feeble” (weak); really going to bring back worship? Can they even get this done? Can they really sort through all the “rubble” (come back later)?

>>>(v.3) Tobiah: wall is not built correctly-even a fox can knock it over!

WHEN GOD’S WORK BEGINS, SO DOES THE OPPOSITION TO IT .

>>>When doing whatever God calls us to do/doing for the LORD, expect opposition.

>>>Adversity/opposition ultimately comes from the spiritual reality of an ultimate adversary-Satan. It is always Satan vs. God.

*The devil does not want us pursuing what God has for us/move forward.

Nehemiah 4:4–6 Hear, O our God, how we are an object of contempt! Return their taunting on their own heads, and turn them into plunder in a land of captivity. Do not forgive their guilt and do not let their sin be wiped out before You, for they have demoralized the builders. So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.

>>>How does Nehemiah respond? Prayer. He prayed for God to stand for His people and His work He is doing.

>>>The other response? The people kept building the wall-progressing to half its height (making progress).

*The people had a “mind”/“heart” to work. Everything they had in them was directed to building the wall.

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Nehemiah 4:7–9 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. So all of them conspired together to come to fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. But we prayed to our God, and because of them we set up a guard against them day and night.

>>>Things now escalate. It’s not just Sanballat/Tobiah now-Arabs/Ammonites/Ashdodites all hear of the wall’s progress and are angry. They are other enemies of Israel.

>>>(v.8) The conspired w/each other to fight against Jerusalem and cause “confusion” in it.

*They are coming to battle the Jews-taunts are not working.

*“confusion” means “disruption”. They want to completely disrupt the work of the LORD the Jews were doing.

>>>(v.9) But the Jews prayed to God and set up a guard to protect against the enemies-spiritual and practical.

*Pray but also do.

*The Jews don’t seem shaken.

Nehemiah 4:10–11 And so in Judah it was said: “The strength of the burden bearers is failing, Yet there is much rubble; And we ourselves are unable To rebuild the wall.” And our enemies said, “They will not know or see until we come among them, kill them, and put a stop to the work.”

>>>Despite the prayers and protection, discouragement has invaded the people of God.

>>>One side of discouragement-the task itself.

*Strength of burden bearers is failing.

*There’s too much rubble to get through (Sanballat: “Can you get through all that rubble?”).

*“We can’t rebuild the wall”-only half its height

>>>The other side-fear of the enemies.

*They are coming to kill the people/stop the work of God (main goal).

DISCOURAGEMENT CAN HAPPEN FROM BOTH THE TASK AND THE ENEMY.

>>>We set out to do God’s work, yet discouragement hits us.

>>>We pray. We take the practical steps. We say “trust in God”/put on “spiritual face”. But nothing...

*We are praying for that family member to be saved-still not.

*Not seeing fruit from student/child investment

*Marriage is not getting better/family falling apart

*Fathers: becoming even harder to lead-no rest from the trial

*Every one step forward is another three steps.

*In a world of 6.2 billion different voices, the loudest one seems to be the one saying “You can’t do it”-“weak”-“you’ll die from this”.

>>>When the going gets tough, we want to give up...

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Nehemiah 4:12–14 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,” 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. When I saw their fear, I stood and said 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.”

>>>(v.12) The people were afraid and continued to report their fear.

>>>(v.13-15) Nehemiah broke everyone into family groups w/weapons (visual illustration).

>>>He saw the fear-stood in front of people and leaders.

*“Do not be afraid”-acknowledges/addresses fear

*“Remember the Lord (great/awesome)”-Trust in Him/remember His promise/calling.

*“Fight”-remember your families/reason for doing this-push through.

>>>Think about what the people saw/how they felt hearing Nehemiah.

IN TIMES OF OPPOSITION, REMEMBER GOD AND FIGHT!

>>>Nehemiah was human w/emotions-probably felt discouraged as well.

*Stepped above himself to lead the people-he had to remember and fight.

>>>We will be discouraged/face opposition. To overcome this, we need to go back to Who God is and fight for what He has called us to do.

*Looking forward involves a fight-pushing through out of remembrance of Who God is.

*There are times we have to be “Nehemiah” to others-strengthen them to push through.

Nehemiah 4:15 Now 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.

>>>The enemy saw God’s hand against them-“frustrating” their plan.

*God disrupted the disruptors.

>>>The people went back to work-worked w/guards and holding weapons.

*The best response to opposition/discouragement was to build the wall.

*Keep fighting and keep building!

Galatians 6:9 Let’s not become discouraged in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not become weary.

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>>>When we seek to move forward in what God calls us to do, there WILL be opposition.

*The task itself becomes hard/overwhelming-not seeing the results.

*The enemy taunts us/tries to get us to give up.

>>>What do we do when we face discouragement/adversity? Remember the LORD and keep pushing forward.

>>>Our fighting through the opposition is not rooted in our own strength but on Who God is.

*The God Who calls us to it will bring us through it-His plan will never fail.

>>>When the going gets tough, it gets tough/want to quit OR when the going gets tough, REMEMBER the LORD and FIGHT-keep building the wall.

*Keep praying/keep investing/keep leading-focus on the voice and call of God.

*Watch God disrupt the plan to get you off track/give the victory.