Shovel & Spear

Nehemiah 4:16–18 ESV

From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah, who were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other. And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me.

Introduction

I’ve learned that over the years that we can be wounded by an event from our childhood, or early adolescence, and carry the effect of those wounds for years. I was recently listening to a podcast where a Pastor shared that he traced his innate pace of work to an experience he had when he was 11 years old. He had an experience when he was 11 that drove him for the rest of his life to carry a propensity to work at a rate that could destroy his marriage and his family. He carried it until he was in his 30’s and then learned where this unhealthy drive came from.

Similarly, I’ve shared this story in the past, and I want to share it again, about my struggle with affirmation. I go back all the way to when I was in 6th grade and the teacher was handing out the paperwork for the GATE program at school. When the teacher passed me up for GATE I stopped her and asked where my GATE paperwork was, to which she replied, “ehhh”.

My God, your face is “ehhh”!

That’s what I wanted to say becuase I hadn’t given my life to Jesus just yet.

But that response put something inside of me that I thought that I was always just “ehhh”.

I remember one year I played baseball and made the All-Star team as a catcher. The next year, I broke my wrist in a quad accident and I couldn’t try out for the team. I was about to make that leap from playing little league, to playing some serious ball. The league called my Dad and said that I couldn’t age up with the rest of the kids my age because I hadn’t tried out. My Dad explained to them that I was an All-Star the previous year. I was ready for what was next, and yet the league said he doesn’t get to move on. That’s when I stopped playing baseball because I processed that rejection as not being good enough. Just like I wasn’t good enough for GATE.

Fast forward to High School, and I’m in my junior year waiting to meet the new English teacher our school had just hired. My first two years of High School went kind of “ehhh,” becuase I was an “ehhh” student.

When the new teacher arrived, I got close to him. He was cool. I enjoyed talking to him. He was down to earth and listened to great music in the class.

One day he stops me and asks me why I don’t put more effort into my school work. He told me that I was articulate and bright and I just wasn’t even trying.

In that moment something snapped. Someone saw something in me, that I used to believe about me, and he woke me up to my academic potential.

From that point forward, I carried a 4.0 GPA for the rest of High School, and I went on to take honors classes with the kids that I thought were smarter than me.

All it took was for someone to believe something about me, that I stopped believing in myself.

TRANSITION

Here in the text, I want you to see what I see as we dive into Nehemiah 4.

What is Your Enemy Saying?

Nehemiah 4:1–2 ESV

Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?”

Sanballat, who was their enemy, had a full view of what building the wall meant. He knew that building a wall to simply build a wall wasn’t the end goal. He knew, through his questions, that the wall would restore them as a nation, they would restore worship together and the stones would be revived.

I honestly think there were some Jews that didn’t even believe that about themselves. We read in Ch. 3 that there were some Jews who didn’t even help. To them, this was just a wall. Not a big deal.

But their enemy knew exactly what this meant. This would life the shame off of an entire nation.

Could you imagine living without shame, and without the stigma that they were a people without a city?

Most of them didn’t see it, but Sanballat saw it. He knew their potential. He knew what they could become.

Sometimes your enemy believes more about you than you believe about yourself.

Your enemy will know more about your assignment, he’ll know about your anointing, he’ll know more about the grace of God on your life than you do.

This is exactly why your enemy will start to speak negative words to you, because he sees the authentic and tries to sell you a knock off.

Come on, how many of you know what a knock off is? How many of you ever bought a knock off?

The enemy knows that you are original and tries to see you a knock off:

He sees that you are loved, but whispers in your ear nobody loves you.

He sees that you are anointed, but whispers in your ear that God cannot use you.

He sees that you have a purpose, but whispers in your ear that you are worthless.

This is what he does becuase he is the father of lies.

Where we mess up as Jesus followers is we start to believe what he says about us rather than believing what God says about us.

God doesn’t make knock offs, he only makes originals. You were fearfully and wonderfully made.

Let me give you the best way to overcome the negative voices you are hearing from the enemy.

Becuase he is the father of lies, and no truth dwells in him, the opposite of everything he says to you is true.

He says your weak becuase he knows that your strong.

He says that you’re too far gone becuase he knows that you are loved.

He says that God won’t use you becuase he knows that you have a hope and a future.

Get this in your spirit Lighthouse. You get to chose the voice that you listen to. You can listen to the voice of God or you can listen to the voice of the enemy, but you can’t listen to both.

Make a decision that today, I am going to listen to what my God and his word says about me. I am going to listen to his promises. I am going to listen to his unchanging word. I am making a decision that today, I only allow the voice of God to speak into my life.

You Got This

Here is what I also want you to know. Becuase the enemy knows who you are, and he knows the authority that you have, YOU GOT THIS.

Often times we view the attack of the enemy as the absence of God, rather than the presence of God.

We know that God will not put more on you than you can bear, so when God allows the enemy to attack, understand that God already saw the attack and said, “he’s got this.”

If it was something you couldn’t handle, our God would step in and handle it for us. But because God formed you and knows you, he’s allowing you to enter a fight that he built you to win.

He will never put you through a fight that he didn’t think you are capable of winning. So whenever the enemy comes in, just know that God has already seen the outcome. He’s already seen your victory. He’s already seen your miracle. He’s already seen your breakthrough. He steps to the side and allows you to fight becuase he’s made your hands to war.

Now that doesn’t mean that it’s not going to be easy. That doesn’t mean you aren’t going to have to fight. That doesn’t mean that you aren’t going to have to endure. But you need to know that if he brought you to it, he will bring you through it.

Make a Prayer, Set a Watch, And Remember God

So let’s go deeper into what Nehemiah did as I believe we get some incredible insight.

Nehemiah 4:9 ESV

And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.

Pray First

We believe that prayer is not our last option, but it is our first resort. Lighthouse, if there was something that I could give you that you must develop for yourself is a posture of prayer.

Nehemiah set the nation to pray. Too many of you make a decision before having a conversation with God.

Here is what we believe here at Lighthouse,

James 5:16 (NIV)

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

If you have a tool that is both powerful and effective, why wouldn’t you use it?

Psalm 3:3–4 (NLT)

But you, O Lord, are a shield around me;

you are my glory, the one who holds my head high.

I cried out to the Lord,

and he answered me from his holy mountain.

God is never too busy to hear from you.

God never gets tired of hearing from you.

Don’t neglect your ability to get the attention of heaven when you are in need.

Moving heaven and earth to get to his child is the very nature of God.

Set a Watch

After Nehemiah prayed we read his strategy to complete the wall.

Nehemiah 4:13 ESV

So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people by their clans, with their swords, their spears, and their bows.

He identified the weak areas and made sure to secure those locations. He knew the areas were he was exposed and he made sure to cover those areas.

What an application for our lives as well.

We all have our strengths, and we all have our weaknesses. Your job is to identify your weak areas and be proactive about protecting those places.

Do you know your weaknesses? You need to!

If you don’t know where you are weak, how are you going to stay ahead of our enemy.

What do we know about our enemy?

He is like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. And if he knows your strengths you better believe he knows where your weaknesses are. He knows and he will exploit them.

So what do you?

Set a watch.

Nehemiah didn’t put a person in that weak area by themselves, but he put a team of people in the weak area.

Likewise, you need to have some people in your life that you can be real with. People that you can share your weaknesses with so they can come around you and help protect you. If you know you have a weakness and you are trying to walk that out alone, you are going to die alone. You need people.

Everybody needs somebody.

This is why we push Connect Groups and the Dream Team. Some of you have joined the church and you have no friends in the church. We’re trying to help you with that. I’m not saying you abandon all your old friends. As a matter of fact, we highly recommend you bring them to church with you! But you are going to need to be around some people who have “been there, done that” and start doing life together with them.

If you find yourself alone, get to the church and get around some people who are going to love you and help you!

Remember God

Nehemiah 4:14 ESV

And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”

I love this part here. We pray, we watch, and we remember. Tell your neighbor, remember.

You remember by thinking back on the lat time you found yourself in trouble and how God got you out. You remember that experience!

You need to remember how God helped you to overcome that sickness that the Doctor gave you little hope over.

You need to remember how God was by your side when you left that difficult relationship and you felt like your world was going to end.

When you remember, you are changing the narrative in the situation you are facing.

Instead of going from, “oh man how am I going to survive this?”, you go to “the same God who delivered me before is going to deliver me from this.”