24 - NEVERTHELESS (NEHEMIAH)

Text: “Nevertheless, David captured the stronghold of Zion, that is the city of David” (2 Sam. 5:7, NASB; cf. 1 Chron. 11:4-9; 2 Samuel 5:1-10; cf. Neh. 6:15).

Theme: You can face the impossible because God’s face shines on you.

Intro: The Jebusites said it was impossible for David to capture the stronghold of Zion. They said to him, “Even the lame and the blind will be able to turn you away.” They thought, “David cannot enter here.” Yet, the Jebusites did not calculate into their equation the God-factor. They didn’t realise that about one thousand years before David, God promised the land to Abraham. Joshua took most of the Promised Land. However, there was one main stronghold remaining: Zion, also known as Jerusalem. It took David’s faith and courage to rise up, resist the voices of negativity, and reach hold of God’s promise.

1) We are people of the ‘nevertheless’ (2 Samuel 5:7).

God’s Davidic children are a ‘nevertheless’ people.

We hear the voices saying ‘no’ all around us. We hear the world chanting, ‘you can’t’.

Nevertheless, we hear God’s voice above every other voice, even our own voice and fears.

Nehemiah completed the wall despite all opposition (*Neh. 6:15).

When we are shaken and confronted with the enemy’s resistance, we go back to the written Word of God.

We find out what God has promised in Scripture and stand on that.

This is a time in history where we as God’s children need to say, ‘Nevertheless!’

This word came to me at 3am Monday morning.

God’s people look at the insurmountable stronghold, they face the impossible and declare, “Nevertheless!”

He said to me, “I am raising an army of widows and orphans––the rejected and the broken––to confound the wise.”

He further said, “I do not leave them as widows and orphans––I marry them and adopt them as my own children––they are mine.”

Let’s ring with the cry, ‘Nevertheless!”

For example, you may have been divorced, nevertheless you are married.

I may have been rejected, nevertheless God has taken me as his own.

You may have been an orphan, nevertheless God has chosen you and he is the best Father.

The world may be saying I can’t, nevertheless if God says I can, I can.

2) Like David, we are warriors that capture strongholds (1 Chron. 11:5).

The promises of God often don’t fall into your lap; you need to fight for them.

Remember, Joshua fought for the Promised Land.

It was promised, yet they still had to make war.

David also had to fight for Zion/Jerusalem.

His hardest battle became his headquarters.

Our story of the Holy Fire Centre.

Earlier in David’s story, Goliath’s sword became his sword.

What the enemy has used to attack you, becomes your testimony. And now you use that testimony against him. The enemy’s sword becomes yours.

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:3-5).

Remember, we don’t fight like the world fights. We don’t use bullying and force. We don’t rip into those who don’t believe what we do. We don’t use physical weapons and shout at unbelievers.

Instead, we fight through prayer.

We inherit the earth through meekness toward God and others.

We speak the Word of God, the Gospel.

Not the Gospel of anti-vaccination or the Gospel of ant-masks, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We fight through acts of kindness and expressions of love

These are the ways we bring down strongholds.

When it comes to God’s will, never say never.

“As for me, I said in my alarm, ‘I am cut off from before your eyes;’ Nevertheless, you heard the voice of my supplication…” (Ps 31:22).

“When my heart was embittered And I was pierced within, Then I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a beast before You. Nevertheless I am continually with You; You have taken hold of my right hand. With Your counsel You will guide me, And afterward receive me to glory” (Ps 73:21–24, NASB).

“Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders; They did not remember Your abundant kindnesses, But rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of His name,

That He might make His power known” (Ps 106:7–8).

3) It’s never the less for us. It’s alway more of the Lord and his Kingdom.

Don’t settle for less than God’s fullness.

Observe how David grows more and more (1 Chron. 11:9).

Once you gain ground, you cannot settle down. You keep walking and growing (*Romans 8:31-39).

When God is with you, you continue to walk, progress and grow. You go from glory to glory and strength to strength.

What does the Lord want you to capture? What has he promised that has not been fulfilled? What has God given to you to build up?

These are Davidic kinds of questions.

Conclusion: Yes, the world is in turmoil, nevertheless we will be more than conquerors.

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