Don't Quit
Don't Quit • Sermon • Submitted
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Lament or grief is a super hard subject to approach. As I teach, I can often feel the emotions of the room. When I mention things like quitting and telling God I quit, the emotions are strong as in don’t go there and don’t think like that.
I appreciate this. I sometimes express my weaknesses for the purpose of showing that I am not perfect and Jesus is our Savior. Jesus has sustained us and strengthened us.
I was talking with my brother this week and he was telling me about his 5 year olds baseball practice...
So we spent two weeks on lament and grief and this year we talked about the feeling of failure. The Lord has led me to a place of Nehemiah and how do we build a people who DON’T QUIT. Turn to Nehemiah 1.
I want to start a study through Nehemiah and not go verse by verse but pull out some of these themes as we go throughout the book.
Israel God’s chosen People. These people in our history help us to understand our relationship between God and us by looking at their relationship with God.
God promised Israel that if they obeyed God then he would bless them as a nation and people.
If they did not obey, then he would judge them and cause them to be taken into captivity.
Solomon did not obey God as King of Israel and he married many foreign wives and worshipping their gods. (1 Kings 11)
So because of this disobedience the kingdom was split in 931 B.C. You had 10 Northern tribes and 2 southern tribes (Judah and Benjamin)
Both the northern and the southern tribes continued in idolatry and immorality. Because of this God warned them that they would fall into judgement because of their sin.
The Northern Kingdom fell first and the people were taken into captivity by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.
The Souther Kingdom fell to the Babylonians in 586 B.C.
The Northern Kingdom was absorbed into Assyria and eventually into other cultures.
However the Southern kingdom remained intact in Babylon and after the power of Babylon was broken by the Medes and Persians in 539 B.C. many Jews were able to return to their homeland.
(Video)
1 The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: During the month of Chislev in the twentieth year, when I was in the fortress city of Susa,
2 Hanani, one of my brothers, arrived with men from Judah, and I questioned them about Jerusalem and the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile.
This would have taken about 3 months and they traveled 900 miles.
3 months for them to get to Nehemiah and 3 months for Nehemiah to return. That is half a year just to get to where God is going to use him.
We can’t imagine this today. We are in a society that social media adjust to our likes so we don’t have to think about it.
You watch one video then they will start giving you more videos like the one you just watched. It is all centered around you.
Tim Elmore in his book Generation Z Unfiltered describes how this prescripted technology causes our children to lose the ability to cope and make decisions. The internet is making decisions for them. When this is taken away, then anxiety increases because they have to make their own decisions.
Can you imagine 6 months of travel just to do the work that God has called you to do?
When we talk about not quitting we must know that God is patient. Many quit simply because it doesn’t happen fast enough for them.
Many years of training without the Lord and living in opposition to the Lord does not change totally over night.
The enemy does not quit. It is when Jesus comes back that the enemy is dealt with. The enemy will be present. Jesus does not quit and has conquered the enemy so may we not quit when we don’t immediately get what we want.
3 They said to me, “The remnant in the province, who survived the exile, are in great trouble and disgrace. Jerusalem’s wall has been broken down, and its gates have been burned down.”
Acknowledge it
The last two weeks we talked about how essential it is for us to acknowledge the things that cause us to lament or grieve or make us angry or frustrated.
We must not ignore these things. To ignore them, causes us greater anxiety or fear. We must stop and tell the Lord that yes Lord to me this is a problem that I can’t shake.
This is a big deal to Nehemiah as you will see. His hometown is in ruins. This shakes him.
Now you may not think its a big deal if your hometown is in ruins but it was a big deal to Nehemiah.
Your problem may not be everyone else’s problem and everyone else’s problem may not be your problem.
It is key to understand that if it is a big deal to you then God loves you and cares about your concerns.
Jesus didn’t suffer on the cross so that you would have to endure your problems on your own. He refused the first wine and took the second wine to have empathy for that which brings you pain.
Stop ignoring that which is frustrating you and take it to Jesus.
The key to this is take it to Jesus. The encouragement is not to acknowledge the problem and then tell everyone you know that you have a problem with it.
The encouragement is that in order to not quit you acknowledge the problem and then take the problem to Jesus
Some quit simply because they acknowledge the problem and then tell everyone but Jesus about it. People don’t give you the response that you want and so you quit.
Before you quit you acknowledge the problem and take it to Jesus.
Show Empathy
4 When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
Nehemiah hear’s about his hometown and he weeps and mourns. His knees are taken out from under him and he sits down and weeps. He fast and prays before the God of heaven.
I don’t know about you but it is so much easier for me to fast when my heart is broken. I just don’t feel like eating.
Empathy: the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
And don’t confuse it with the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” As George Bernard Shaw pointed out,
“Do not do unto others as you would have them do unto you—they might have different tastes.” Empathy is about discovering those tastes.
So was Nehemiah just some unique individual that showed empathy for his people in Jerusalem. Is this just telling us about Nehemiah or is Nehemiah setting an example for us?
He is setting an example for us to follow. We see this in other parts of scripture
1 The Spirit of the Lord God is on Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners;
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of our God’s vengeance; to comfort all who mourn,
3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion; to give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, festive oil instead of mourning, and splendid clothes instead of despair. And they will be called righteous trees, planted by the Lord to glorify Him.
8 The word of the Lord came to Zechariah:
9 “The Lord of Hosts says this: Make fair decisions. Show faithful love and compassion to one another.
10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor, and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.
12 Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them—this is the Law and the Prophets.
12 Therefore, God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,
Scripture not only instructs us to be empathetic, but empathy is essential as we share Jesus with others.
In order to empathize with someone’s experience you must be willing to believe them as they see it and not how you imagine their experience to be
Brene Brown
Imagine that your child came home from school this past week and told you they had a horrible day. You start to ask them why their day was so bad and they tell you it was because they struggled to get their locker to open.
Empathy is a key component of Biblical parenting. Notice I didn’t say that sarcasm is a key component of Biblical parenting.
Sarcasm says are you kidding me a locker ruined your day. How many bills were inside that locker when you did get it open like my mailbox had today?
Empathy causes a parent to put their phone down and look at their child(Nate Godley) to hear their concern about the locker. Empathy is listening intently on the child’s feelings. It’s being willing to believe them as they see it and not how you imagine their experience to be.
Nehemiah listened as they described the state of Jerusalem
3 They said to me, “The remnant in the province, who survived the exile, are in great trouble and disgrace. Jerusalem’s wall has been broken down, and its gates have been burned down.”
Nehemiah’s response
4 When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
Entitlement is a barrier to empathy. When we believe everything is owed to us (entitlement), we fail to sit and listen to others.
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins
2 in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler who exercises authority over the lower heavens, the spirit now working in the disobedient.
3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us,
5 made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!
6 Together with Christ Jesus He also raised us up and seated us in the heavens,
7 so that in the coming ages He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace through His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—