Rebuilding the Wall
Rebuilding the Wall
9/29/2001 and 9/30/2001
Turn to Nehemiah 1
Prayer
The Story:
The Northern 10 tribes of Israel had been taken captive by the Assyrians never to be heard from since. Judah in the south turned away from God as a nation and so they were turned over to their enemies the Babylonians. They were taken captive and we read about Daniel praying for the return of the exiles to Jerusalem. It happened. King Cyrus had allowed some people to go back to rebuild the temple. That story is in the book of Ezra. (originally Ezra and Nehemiah were one book) That had taken place 49 years before our story. Jerusalem is still in a mess. They couldn’t finish the work and the place was still in a mess.
Nehemiah was a cupbearer for the King of Persia. He was a very trusted man. That is like being chief of security. Some kinsmen, possibly a brother, came to him and reported the state of things in Jerusalem. It touched his heart but he knew he needed to do more than worry about it, HE NEEDED TO ACT.
-I knew I was going to preach this message for some time now and I was going to primarily relate it to the FULFILLING THE DREAM emphasis.
-I didn’t know that before I could preach it we would be at war.
1. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WALLS
-In an ancient city walls with strong gates surrounded it. The gates were the places of business. At night the gates were shut and the wall protected the city.
Psalms 61:3 “ For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe.”
Proverbs 18:10 “ The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.”
Proverbs 25:28 “ Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.”
Isaiah 58:12 “Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”
-In the time this was written they were talking only about physical walls.
-The Scriptures liken the walls to character qualities, like self-control.
-In our personal lives and in our country we have walls like:
CHARACTER
MORALS
INTEGRITY
RIGHTEOUSNESS
WRONG RELATIONSHIPS
-There are things that provide walls of protection around your life and nation.
-If those walls come down you are open to the enemy.
-I don’t want to attack America. I love this nation and the freedom that we have. It is easy to jump on the “I TOLD YOU SO” bandwagon.
-Tragedy brings out the flies. Everybody is a prophet now!
-Let’s focus on how to change things.
HOW DO WE REBUILD THE WALL?
1. PRAYER
Nehemiah 1
1 ¶ The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa,
2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.
3 They said to me, "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire."
4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.
5 ¶ Then I said: "O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands,
6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's house, have committed against you.
7 We have acted very wickedly towards you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.
8 "Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, `If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations,
9 but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.'
10 "They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand.
11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favour in the presence of this man." I was cupbearer to the king.
-Nehemiah had to be honest about the situation.
-HE WEPT OVER THE RUINS.
-He prayed until God gave him a plan. He didn’t just pray; he received a plan to go before the king because he asked for favor with this man.
-He prayed desperately because he knew he would have to put his life on the line.
-We are experiencing a great move of God in the church and in the nation. It is the direct result of prayer.
-The season of prayer for the FTD has had a huge impact on every area. (200 plus youth for SYATP and 165 last week. We are seeing lots of children receive Jesus on the bus ministry.)
-The time of prayer for America has been helpful but now is the time to turn up the heat.
-NEHEMIAH CONFESSED SIN.
-He identified with the people who had sinned, just like Daniel did in his prayers.
Chapter 1
6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's house, have committed against you.
7 We have acted very wickedly towards you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.
-We need to be honest if we want to receive the blessing and protection of the Lord.
-We need to repent as a nation for abortion and pornography on the computer. Part of the reason that the Arab world is against the US is the decadence of the movies and stuff we send around the world. They think the typical American is a sex maniac. We have to be honest that we are pumping filth around the world.
-We have to stop watching it in order for it to go away.
-I wanted to preach on Nehemiah and relate somehow to the 52 days it took to rebuild the walls.
-America is having a time of prayer (50 days of faith). We are having 52 days and calling it REBUILDING THE WALL.
(LOOK AT INSERT)
-We are also having a Wednesday night video and discussion series about America’s way back to God.
-It is called “RED SKY AT MORNING”.
-This is a pivotal point in our nation and our church.
Ezekiel 22
30 "I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so that I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.
-That is the same word as Isaiah 58- breach.
-Who can make a difference?
2. NEHEMIAH GOT A PLAN AND A VISION
Nehemiah 2
16 The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work.
17 Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace."
18 I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. They replied, "Let us start rebuilding." So they began this good work.
-Nehemiah had seen the ruins and told the people what needed to happen.
-He knew he couldn’t do it without them.
-He said LET US START.
-He focused on NOW.
-People are waiting until something goes better before they will be a part of the FTD.
-What do you have in your hand?
-What are you prepared to do NOW?
-So they started. They began the work.
-They believed they could make a difference so they began.
-I believe the Lord was speaking to me in the Wednesday prayer meeting to get ready for the harvest. The summary was basically that we could affect all we would prepare for.
John 4:35 “Do you not say, `Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.”
-Ask Orville or anyone who farms. When it is time to harvest, it is time to harvest. You may not get a second chance.
-I hate what has happened to America, BUT I AM VERY EXCITED ABOUT WHAT COULD HAPPEN TO AMERICA AS A RESULT OF IT.
Nehemiah 4
“6 So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.” (NIV)
“….for the people had a mind to work.” (KJV)
-You have to have a mind to work before you can work.
-Example with load of topsoil. I had to set my mind to do it before I started.
-We have to set our hearts to expand and get ready for more people.
3.THE PEOPLE DIDN’T LET ANY OPPOSITION STOP THEM
-As soon as you make a commitment you transmission goes out etc.
-I joke about it but it isn’t a joke.
-When you step out as a church false prophets and naysayers come out of their holes. They’ve got a word of doom for you.
-Nehemiah and the people experienced that as well.
Chapter 1
19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. "What is this you are doing?" they asked. "Are you rebelling against the king?"
20 I answered them by saying, "The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it."
Chapter 4
1 ¶ When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews,
2 and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, "What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble--burned as they are?"
3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, "What they are building--if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!"
4 Hear us, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity.
5 Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.
6 So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.
7 ¶ But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem's walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry.
8 They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it.
9 But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.
10 Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, "The strength of the labourers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall."
11 Also our enemies said, "Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work."
12 Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, "Wherever you turn, they will attack us."
13 Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows.
14 After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."
15 When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his own work.
16 ¶ From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armour. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah
17 who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other,
18 and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me.
-That is a great picture of praying and working together.
Chapter 6
1 ¶ When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it--though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates--
2 Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: "Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono." But they were scheming to harm me;
3 so I sent messengers to them with this reply: "I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?"
4 Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.
5 Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his assistant to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter
6 in which was written: "It is reported among the nations-- and Geshem says it is true-- that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king
7 and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: `There is a king in Judah!' Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us confer together."
8 I sent him this reply: "Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head."
9 They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, "Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed." [But I prayed,] "Now strengthen my hands."
10 ¶ One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, "Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you--by night they are coming to kill you."
11 But I said, "Should a man like me run away? Or should one like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!"
12 I realised that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.
13 He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.
14 Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who have been trying to intimidate me.
15 ¶ So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.
16 When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realised that this work had been done with the help of our God.
3. AFTER THE WALL IS REBUILT, STRENGTHEN YOUR POSITIONS
-In chapter 8 they got into the Word like never before.
-In chapter 9 they confessed their sin.
-They cut off relationships with people who were against God.
1Corinthians 15:33 “Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."
(NIV)
-In other words, they guarded the gates and the wall.
-Someone has said eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.