Sermon Tone Analysis

Can’t Do It

It’s fun having a 3-year old in the house discovering and learning what goes on and what she can and can’t do.

She’s “helped” bring firewood in before and build the fire in the wood stove.

So, now, every time we do it she wants to help again.

I was watching the other day and Jason was doing all this and Edris wanted to help.

So, he let her.

He’s stacking the wood in the cubby and she’s got her hands on it but he’s carrying the bulk of the weight.

She wants to do it by herself.

So, he lets go.

She’s done it before and it didn’t work, but this time, surely it will.

No.

She dropped the log.

Too heavy.

So, she resigned to just watch her daddy finish the job.

At first she’s gung-ho, even though last time it didn’t work, she’s got a do-over, this time maybe, but then she quit.

Couldn’t do it.

Even as adults, when we get a do-over, we can react the same way.

Another chance.

A new opportunity.

A 2nd chance in marriage, w/ a child, in a ministry.

We start out just like we did before, it gets hard, we listen to the voices around us and inside our own head, then we quit.

Here’s the message today:

When God gives you a do-over, don’t quit.

He will provide whatever you need to finish what He led you to start.

Don’t listen to the voices.

We have an enemy who will lie to you, exaggerate and try to overwhelm you.

Sometimes it comes in voices from around you.

Sometimes it comes for the voice inside you.

Don’t listen.

Those voices will say,

You’re not worth it.

You don’t deserve it.

You can’t do it.

So, just quit.

There is always a little truth mixed in w/ the big lies of our enemy.

No you don’t deserve it.

You messed up.

You’re guilty.

Convicted.

What are you worth?

You are worth what someone will pay for you.

Who paid what for you?

Jesus graciously gives us do-overs.

Can’t?

True, you can’t.

But God will provide whatever you need to finish what He leads you to start.

In , Israel is in the middle of their great big do-over back in the PL.

They built the altar first.

Now, they are building the temple around it.

Inevitably, opposition arrises.

It gets hard.

What did they do?

Infiltrate & Harass

Infiltrate

At first, their enemies tried to infiltrate.

Sabotage from the inside.

One of the things the Assyrians did when they destroyed the northern kingdom like the Babylonians did when they finished the destruction of the southern kingdom was to dilute and pollute the religious and political influence in the region.

They killed and exiled all the strong leaders.

They left the homeless and indigent Jews in Jerusalem.

Then, forced strong leaders from surrounding nations to relocate into Jerusalem.

So, their religion and politics were meshed together w/ the Pagans of the region.

It would have been easier to repopulate an unpopulated area than it would have been an area heavily populated but culturally diluted.

So, the Judahites, Jews, were coming back to a heavily populated area but culturally diverse.

And, God had commanded that they be holy, separate, pure.

So, you see a problem.

The enemies are right there.

And, they are offering to help.

The Jews could use help so they would be tempted to accept the help.

It’s expensive, time-consuming, hard work.

But, they know God had commanded that they do this on their own.

Well, He would be their provision.

But, on their own.

So, they turned them down.

Their enemy’s strategy was obvious.

Get involved in the work and sabotage it.

The Jew didn’t fall for it.

This didn’t stop their enemies.

They just changed strategies.

Harassment

They got in their faces and harassed them.

You see some of that going on w/ our politicians today.

Harass them.

And, it can be scary when the families are threatened.

Harass them.

And, it can be scary when the families are threatened.

The emotional and mental drain now piled on the physical strain of the construction project.

They had to get permits like we do.

Import tariffs.

Taxes.

Gov’t red tape.

So, the gov’t officials who took payments and gave permission were bribed and made it almost impossible to continue the work.

They wanted the Jews to appear on the wrong side of the King’s law.

They hired professionals, like PR people, to mount a propaganda campaign against them.

Public opinion was weighing heavily on them.

Their supply lines were long and exposed, vulnerable to attack and easily interrupted.

It was physically hard and now hard for so many other reasons.

For 16 years they stayed strong.

Though the work slowed down because of their enemies, but they kept working.

Finally, they wore down.

They caved to the pressure and stopped building in 520 bc.