Focused and Fearless
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Good Morning church! it is so good to be in the house of the Lord this morning, if you have your Bibles please turn with me to would like to speak with you this morning on this subject, FOCUSED AND FEARLESS.
Are you easily intimidated?
For those of you who would say no I am not easily intimidated let me ask you a follow up question.
Do you have people in your life, is there someone in your life that is attempting to control you, bully you, intimidate you. Either through their anger manipulation, fear whatever it might be.
If you are hear this morning and you are a Christian the answer to that question is YES, you definately have someone in your life that wants to intimidate you.
Heres the thing about people who seek to intimidate, if you allow them to intimidate you they will rob you of a tremendous amount of joy. Now heres how we know that you have someone in your life who wants to intimidate you.
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Ok so this tells us a couple of things
#1 We have an adversary
By the way nothing will stop a Lion from devouring its prey when its hungry.
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Now we talked a little bit about this last week about how we go through life not really thinking too much about the reality of this verse and others like it.
If we could put on these spiritual lenses and see the spiritual realities around us we would be terrified!
Not only do we have a spritual adversary as the scripture says, but you and I both know there are adversary’s in our lives that come in the form of people.
There are people who stand against us and oppose us, so for the last 5 weeks we have been looking at the life of a remakable man of God who lived in the 4th century BC, He was a man with a burden, vision, and an intense committment to get work done for the Lord.
No when you have a burden and vision, committment and you attach that to a strong relationship with your creator God you are unstoppable.
There is no telling what you will accomplish for God’s purposes when you have a spiritual burden, God grants you a vision, and you have the commitment to see it through to completion.
you are invincible until God calls you home
Nehemiah our man week in and week out he has faced opposition, ever since God put it within his heart to do something that hadn’t been done for the last 100 years, somebody should have taken the initiative and done it, someone should have cared enough to rebuild the wall surrounding the city of Jerusalem, so that it was safe for God’s people to live in and worship in.
But if you dont have a wall surrounding you have no security, no safety. In addition to wild animals roaming the streets of your city you have enemies who can just walk right in.
Nehemiah realizes this isn’t good he begins confessing his sin before God, He is like if were going to embark on this thing Lord then I gotta get my heart right.
Because God uses those whose heart is in tune with His heart, and so Nehemiah recognizes WERE IN THIS SITUATION THAT WE ARE WE HAVE BEEN EXILED FROM OUR HOMELAND BECAUSE WE HAVE BEEN DISOBEDIENT.
SO LET’S START THERE
GOD DOESN’T BLESS DISOBEDIENCE SO WE GOTTA GET OURSELVES RIGHT WITH OUR GOD So he does that and he waits and prays and waits and prays.
The opportunity comes he seizes it. He prays and ACTS. Remarkably the King who he serves as cupbearer gives him the opportunity to go back ot his homeland. gives him not only permission, but letters for safe travel, gives him the supplies he is going to need.
He gets there and almost from day one when he begins to do what god has called him to do he has faced tremendous opposition.
Remember when God’s people set out to do God’s work there will be opposition. he is opposed.
Here we see Nehemiah and he is standing face to face with a fear, and intimidator. How is he going to respond?
Naturally the way you or I would we really only have 2 options, and so does Nehemiah
When we are faced with intimidators or fears
We are either going to bow to that fear, we are going to bow to whatever is trying to intimidate you and you will be robbed of a tremendous amount of joy in your life
Or you will CONQUER THAT FEAR
So heres a point I wanna throw out at you this morning and were going to see this very clearly in this text in the life of Nehemiah and its a very important one.
Courage is Fear That Has Said It’s Prayers
Courage is Fear That Has Said It’s Prayers
There can be no courage without fear, there will be things in your life that will be fearful, how do you respond?
Nehemiah has this habit that we see time and time again, when he is faced with a fear or an intimidator what does he do?
He starts offering up these prayers, we talked about how Paul in the NT said pray without ceasing, your prayers dont have to be long to make you spiritual. Nehemiah offers up these quick prayers GOD HELP ME, GOD STRENGTHEN ME, GOD REMEMBER WHAT THEY DID TO ME
He succeeds and it is amazing
The opposition that we see this week comes in the form of some familiar people.
Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates),
That’s an important detail, because that tells you the task is about 98% done which is a remarkable task bc that wall was huge. But if you haven’t set the gates and the doors what that means essentially is that you are still unprotected right.
What good is a wall if you have gates that can’t be closed and doors that cant be shut to keep the enemies out, it’s about 98% completed but not totally completed and these are the same opponents who have come into Nehemiah’s life before and they have threatened him, they threatened to kill the workers, they have tried to spread lies about what they were doing.
So far with God’s help the people of God are making they are getting the task done, the enemies realize WE HAVE LIKE ONE LST CHANCE AT STOPPING THIS THING
Why do these guys want it stopped?
It human nature right? They rocognize there is a threat to their power and their authority these guys have all the political influence they are the high and mighty’s
Saballat was a governor of Samaria
He was a powerful guy back in the day, and if Nehemiah builds this wall, chances are, Nehemiah’s authority is going to be on the rise. all of these guys function in the same territories, they dont like it.
Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to do me harm.
There are so many things I appreciate about the life of Nehemiah but let me share one with you. Nehemiah refuses to fall into the approval or acceptance trap.
Let me explain this a minute
You and I have this huge desire to be accepted and its not a bad thing, but it can be badly misplaced. Put yourself in Nehemiah’s shoes here he is and he had been dogged by these guys,and they finally come to him and they say ok…let’s talk.
This is kind of like a peace keeping meeting, you have Saballat Tobiah, Geshem, and now… WHOA THEY ARE INCLUDING ME!!!
they are including Nehemiah, this is a big deal these are some ancient world powers right here and finally they reach out to Nehemiah.
Wouldn’t it be easy for Nehemiah to say ha ha finannly its about time I get to sit at the big boy table, you finally recognize my authority sure I’ll sit down I’ll join ya
I can be one of you guys, there is tremendous pressure in our world today, to cave in to make all kinds of personal sacrifices and compromises that do you no good in order to be accepted and approved by your peers.
I was speaking with a young woman once she was a single Christian woman, and she said to me you know I met this guy and he is really nice, very polite, succesful he has a good job but he doesn’t know the Lord yet.
I was thinking ok I know where this is going, she says you know he makes me feel good. he just makes me feel so wanted and I feel accepted. I get great affirmation from him, and I just know that one day he will become a believer in God, one day maybe after were married he will become a believer in God.
I know exactly whats going on there, and I get it, I am human too we all have this deep need to be accepted, but there is this tremendous pressure to be accepted and if you don’t know who you are, or better yet whose you are and what your purposes are here in this life you will fall prey to this trap.
Now Nehemiah is not biting on this bait, he is not falling for this lure, there is tremendous pressure in our culture to sacrifice truth for acceptence
Let me explain what I mean:
It often goes something like this:
“ALL RELIGIONS ESSENTIALLY BELIEVE THE SAME THING”
“ALL BELIEFS ARE THE SAME”
so shouldn’t we all just approve and accept and support one another?
Aren’t you for unity?
Sounds good doesn’t it?
But the only thing that brings true unity is TRUTH and what happens in those conversations if you think about it is very important.
Because your not being honest to say that all worldviews believe the same thing. THATS NOT TRUE ITS NOT THE FACTS
EVERY RELIGION SAYS FOLLOW THESE RULES TO GET TO GOD
CHRISTIANITY IS THE ONLY ONE THAT SAYS GOD HAS COME TO US
BUDDAH IS DEAD MOHAMMED IS DEAD BUT JESUS IS ALIVE
WERE NOT ALL SAYING THE SAME THINGS WE DONT BELIEVE THE SAME THING AT ALL!!
We can’t all be right!
So which one has the most evidence supporting their claims the answer if you seek it out for yourself is Christianity.
But there is this attempt in our world today to sacrifice TRUTH in the name of acceptance and approval.
So you say if there is somuch evidence then why don’t people believe because they dont wanna believe its true because if it true then they have to answer for their sin, then they have to admit that they are not their own GOD THAT THEY CANT DO WHATEVER THEY WANNA DO AND IT BE OK
Thats why people deny Christ
Surrender to Jesus Christ, Surrender to the one who died for your sins!
This is where true meaning and purpose in life is FOUND ITS FOUND NOWHERE ELSE ACCEPT IN THE PERSON OF CHRIST!
DONT YOU GIVE INTO THIS IDEA THAT WE ALL SERVE THE SAME GOD, WE DO NOT THERE IS ONE GOD AND HIS NAME IS YAHWEH, YESHUA HIS NAME IS JESUS WHO IS THE CHRIST
There is no contest
Christianity has history backing it up, science backing it up, eyewitnesses backing it up, GODS NOT DEAD HE IS STILL CHANGING LIVES THROUGH THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST!
Heres Nehemiah giving us the example I DONT NEED TO BE ACCEPTED I KNOW WHAT YOUR END GAME IS YOU WANNA DO ME HARM!
YOU NEED TO HEAR THIS ANYONE WHO SEEKS TO MAKE PEACE WITH YOU, WHO WANTS YOU TO GO AGAINST WHAT GOD HAS TOLD YOU TO DO DOES NOT WANNA MAKE PEACE WITH YOU, THEY SEEK TO DO YOU HARM.
Nehemiah says I don’t need your approval because I have God’s approval and when you have God;s approval, when you are a man or woman who stands firm in the approval that God has for you, you talk about living a life that is different.
Free from drama, safe and secure and ultimately one that will be unlesahed in God’s hands for good. That’s right where Nehemiah is.
And I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?”
Nehemiah
And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner.
It’s like what part of no don’t you understand. They say “hey come meet with us.... No”
“Come meet with us.... NO”
“will you come meet with us… NO”
“Come on man meet with us.... NO”
DON’T CAVE IN DURING TESTING TIME!
Heres the deal this is a waste of my time, I looked up the word distraction bc I wanted to get a real good definition for it.
DISTRACTION= A thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else
DISTRACTION= A thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else
Take it from me I got ADD, pray for Amy I am an extremely dis tractable person.
Amy will call through the house honey can you get me ...... I say sure
I get up and go to the fridge open the door and by the time I get there I stand there with the door open, hey what did want me to get?
What was it I can’t remember
It takes me 2 seconds… I’m gone
you know what I am convinced of OUR BIGGEST DISTRACTIONS DONT COME FROM OUT THERE.... THEY COME FROM IN HERE
We are our own biggest distraction
heres how it works… very subtle
When I retire then I will serve God
When I get that promotion then I will support the ministries of my church
Do you know what those are those are distractions folks.
Those are distractions that rob us of experiencing evrything God wants do in us and through us.
so Nehemiah says I aint even gonna be distracted that is a waste of time
Heres the point
When you know your PRIORITIES and PURPOSE you won’t even WASTE YOUR TIME with distractions
When you know your PRIORITIES and PURPOSE you won’t even WASTE YOUR TIME with distractions
What am I doing here on this Earth?
Ultimately it is to be a blessing to others around me and glorify and honor God so I am not gonna waste my time with things that are a distraction.
So the bad guys have to form a new plan of attack, and this is where it gets really sinister.
In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand.
Nehemiah
Heres what you need to know this is an insult. this is a way of bringing Nehemiah back down. An open letter is not the way officials communicated with each other.
Sanballat is a governor Nehemiah is a governor you do not send an open letter from one governor to another. THis would be like a flyer something you could nail to the door of the city, or plaster on the wall of the city and it was a sign of disrespect.
In it was written, “It is reported among the nations, and Geshem also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king.
Nehemiah
You see where they are going with this?
And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, ‘There is a king in Judah.’ And now the king will hear of these reports. So now come and let us take counsel together.”
This is interesting
Now they are becoming very targeted the Bible says to pray for your spiritual leaders, can I just ask you to pray for me and my family. Pray for Cory and Misty, pray for Amy and Todd would you please
Pray for your SS teachers
Pray for all of our volunteers
Please pray for us
What do you pray for? Spiritual protection, the fact of the matter is leaders have big ole targets on thier back because if a spiritual leaders can be taken down that causes a whole lot of colateral damage.
I gotta big target on my back, my family does as well
Pray for protection
What these guys do is especially sinister because they are making stuff up. they accuse the leader of things that simply are not true what do you do?
Nehemiah is the one who has been helping giving away his life to try to help the people of God there is no selfish interests in this thing for him. He has been making sacrifices and now they are going to turn around and accuse him of this stuff?
There are some of you that will return to schools tomorrow and your desire will be for God to use you I want you to know teachers school bus drivers faculty students you’ll have a big target on your back as well.
Employee. father business owner you try to honor God with your life and you will have a big target on your back. People will lie about you and speak falsely about you so what do you do?
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
But this attack is all about reputation, so let’s talk breifly about reputation.
The Bible tells us that we are to be above reproach, now being above reprach does not mean people will not say things about you, people say bad things about you especially if your in any kind of leadership position, they will say things about you.
to be above reprach means that you have lived your life in such a way that when those rumors when that gossip begins to be spilled concerning you. that people are going to have a tendency not to believe it bc of the way you have lived your life.
Falsehoods usually carry their own refutation somehwere about them, and sting themselves to death. Some lies have a peculiar smell, which betrays their rottenness to every honest nose.... Your blameless life will be your best defence, and those who have seen it will not allow you to be condemned so readily as your slanderers expect.
Charles Spurgeon
This is all about having a good reputation, the verse at the bottom says what?
YOU WANT A GOOD NAME ITS BETTER THAN RICHES
When people hear your name what do they think about you?
that’s what were after, ultimately we belong to Jesus Christ we bear the name Christian which means little Christ follower.
A Good Reputation Defends Itself
A Good Reputation Defends Itself
there will be times when things are said about you, you dont need to say anything in return the accusation has an odor to it to those who know you.
What do you do when an accusation is made about youwhen people spread lies about you?
FIRST OF ALL REJOICE
But also realize that sometimes you need to address it because some people will think that your silence is an admission of guilt
Look at what Nehemiah does
Then I sent to him, saying, “No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.”
For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.” But now, O God, strengthen my hands.
Now when I went into the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his home, he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night.”
Ezra tells us that this guy Shemiah claimed to be from the preistly line but he couldn’t produce the paperwork to back it up so he is a little sketchy character
But he claimed to be a preist why is he confined to his home we dont know, but he calls for Nehemiah and Nehemiah pays him a vists and the guy says heres what we need to do
We need to go hide out in the temple bc I had this prophetic insight from God they are coming to kill you its gonna happen at night, but if you come with me and we go into the temple we can close the door and be safe in there.
Right away Nehemiah says this seems kinda fishy bc I am not really a guy who is allowed to go into the temple thats really only for preists and secondly how is this gonna look to these people who I am leading to finsih this work?
But I said, “Should such a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live? I will not go in.”
And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.
Really important point here we need to get
it’s bc of Nehemiahs personal relationship to GOd and his intimate knowledge of God’s word bc of his personal relationship with God and his intimate knowledge of God’s word.... this allowed him to have discernment and determine the truthfulness of what was being said to him.
The content doesn’t seem right bc the Bible I am reading tells me not to go in there but your telling me to do something that God is telling me not to do, that doesn’t seem right.
GOD NEVER CONTRADICTS HIS WORD
Listen buddy I have prayed about this and it seems right I believe God’s ok with this..... but you know Gods word says otherwise
GOD NEVER CONTRADICTS HIS OWN WORD
And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.
For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me.
There is a healthy fear
(someone breaks in)
Nehemiah
But there is an unhealthy fear that will cause you to sin
So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
He says hey look its better for me to lose my life through obedience, than to save my life over disobedience.
So
For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me.
Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid.
Quick prayer for his enemies he takes them and leaves them at the feet of a just God.
GOD YOU DEAL WITH THEM
So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.
And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.
This phrase they fell greatly in their esteem means their eyes dropped
When they see God at work and realize they are on the wrong side of this fight they are defeated
It’s like man how are you getting this done, clearly God is at work for them and we have been fighting them to no avail.
Moreover, in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came to them.
For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah: and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as his wife.
these guys had alot of politcal and religious clout bc they had intermarried
So the people were like we understand there are alot of ugly things going on over here but we have alot to lose if we turn our backs on Tobiah.
So they start to tell Nehemiah hey you know Tobiah he is a good guy hes alright. They are saying that bc they dont wanna lose their paychecks they are saying hey Nehemiah you know go eays on him hes a good guy.
Also they spoke of his good deeds in my presence and reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.
Nehemiah says you wanna see the reality of who he is, and he pulls out the stack of letters
he wants me dead, he wants you dead he is not a good guy. But I understand your fear your afraid, your afraid to lose something and your a coward.
IF YOU FEAR GOD YOU WONT FEAR ANY MAN
BUT IF YOU DONT FEAR GOD YOU WILL FEARING ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING
Couple questions:
WHATS DISTRACTING YOU RIGHT NOW, FROM DOING WHAT YOU KNOW GOD IS CALLING YOU TO DO?
sin
fear
you might be pursuing good things at the cost of what is better
The Bible is full of stories of men and women who as they step out in faith and step into what God is calling them to, and they take risks in obedience with God
GOD SHOWS UP AND WORKS IN AMAZING WAYS
Please dont think you are ever too far away that Gods hand wont reach you.
You are incredibly valuable to God
(the cross)