Love Works 16

Text: Nehemiah 4:1-6

Read Nehemiah 6:3

Intro: Former heavy-weight boxer James (Quick) Tillis is a cowboy from Oklahoma who fought out of Chicago in the early 1980s. He still remembers his first day in the Windy City after his arrival from Tulsa. "I got off the bus with two cardboard suitcases under by arms in downtown Chicago and stopped in front of the Sears Tower. I put my suitcases down, and I looked up at the Tower and I said to myself, 'I'm going to conquer Chicago.' "When I looked down, the suitcases were gone."

"Sometimes God sends His mercies in a black envelope." --Charles Spurgeon

William Ward once said, “Discouragement is dissatisfaction with the past, distaste for the present, and distrust of the future. It is ingratitude for the blessings of yesterday, indifference to the opportunities of today, and insecurity regarding strength for tomorrow. It is unawareness of the presence of beauty, unconcern for the needs of our fellowman, and unbelief in the promises of old. It is impatience with time, immaturity of thought, and impoliteness to God.”

Ill.

Trans: Retell the Story

I. A Voice of Opposition

A. Sanballat has decided there will be no wall repaired in Jerusalem. This is really only the beginning of what he has planned for those Israelites.

B. He is directly opposed to the work in Jeruselam being completed so he stands against them with.

i. Wrath – Attitude of Intolerance

1. He mocked their strength

a. Feeble Means to be sickly or weak.

b. He was saying of these Jews that they lack the strength to even take on a task as big as completing this wall.

c. It was a direct attack against those that God had called to do the work.

2. He mocked their Endurance

a. A picture of this word fortify. There are two meanings here that have to be balanced, one is to loosen, and the other is to establish.

b. Use the mental picture of a young foal, a brand new horse. This foal begins just a short time after birth to attempt to stand he will get some nudging and prodding but before long he is moving farther away from mother and more out on his own. He is loosening his ties, Then he begins to put more trust in those legs and he is working the muscles at almost a screaming pace doing it on his own. So that within a few hours of birth he is walking.

c. What Sanballat was attacking was their ability to make it on their own. Doing a work like this may work for a while but to make it long term it won’t last.

3. He mocked their acceptability

a. Remember that just because Sanballat was a pain in the neck doesn’t mean he was a religious man. Sanballat actually took to himself a name that honored the Samarian God Sin. His name meant “god Sin is vivified” Sin or Nana was the god of the moon. Sanballat was a proud religious man. And understood the sacrifice in religion. This being said was a direct attack on whether or not Jehovah would even find this work acceptable. He was saying, “Don’t say this is God’s work, we don’t even know if he accepts you.”

4. He mocked their resources.

a. I am sure that this would have been a great time for Nehemiah to throw down the blank check he had gotten, but Sanballat was talking about the size and quality of the resources that they had available to them. But God took what they had and used it for His honor.

In an article titled: “When its cool to mock Christianity.” Kevin A Thompson writes:

Mocking Christianity is the latest American sport. Everywhere one looks, there are articles espousing the evils of faith, laughing at the irrationality of belief, and belittling Christian thought.

Some of this critique is deserved. (See: A Christian Response to an Atheist Billboard)

Many Christians have chosen actions contrary to love. Others have communicated a false doctrine or blindly espoused a weak faith. A few have even promoted evil in the name of Jesus.

All of these actions deserve rebuke.

Even when Christianity is properly displayed, intelligently communicated, and genuinely lived, it still can be fairly criticized. No one is forced to believe in God or the message of Jesus. Anyone is allowed to disagree and to fairly communicate their belief.

However, in many instances a fair critique has been exchanged for a petty mockery. Instead of debating the best, confronting the true teachings of the faith, and pointing out a different way to live, critics have failed to understand the Christian viewpoint, intentionally denied its strong points, and highlighted the worst among us.

I’m struck with how often I read an article about someone who has left the faith or who disagrees with the Christian viewpoint and I agree with their article. The faith they left or don’t believe is not the true Christian story. Maybe it’s religion or a political thought or some cultural ideal, but it has nothing to do with Jesus and true Christian belief. (See: Stop Whining About the Church)

There is a common characteristic with those who mock Christianity.

Critics are loud in the realm of politics.

They are everywhere on social media.

The voices are many in social issues.

But where are those voices when others are suffering?

I don’t hear them in the jails trying to help those who have made bad choices.

I don’t see them among the poor trying to feed, clothe, or house those who are without.

I’ve never run into one of these mockers at a hospital, a funeral home, or a courtroom.

It’s easy to mock Christianity on Facebook, but it’s hard for me to take the mockery seriously when all I see them doing is mocking and never serving.

Yes, many Christians are hypocrites.

Yes, Christians have made major mistakes.

Yes, many claim to do things in the name of Jesus that have nothing to do with Jesus.

But many other Christians are doing amazing things to help the poor, the hurting, and those in need.

Where is the cynic when the someone is dying?

Where is the skeptic in helping those with addictions?

Where is the doubter at the funeral home? (See: A True Picture of Justice and Grace)

I read, and sometimes even agree, with those criticizing aspects of Christianity, but I also see another side of the Christian story.

I see:

people bringing meals to a family on a nightly basis as a loved one is in the hospital, a man visiting the family of a dying patient hoping to bring them comfort even though he has never met them a pastor meeting with a couple whose marriage is in chaos, friends taking off work to sit with a family whose loved one is having surgery, yard work being done by young people for an elderly woman who lost her husband

All of these things are being done by people because their faith compels them to action. Are they perfect people? By no means. But they are people doing good work in response to their beliefs. And where did I get these five examples? They all happened yesterday by people I know.

II. A Task Without End

A. I love how Nehemiah starts verse 6 “so built we the wall” There was no slowing down or stop for a smoke break and a pity party.

B. There’s no one saying oh yeah our resources aren’t very many, or he is right we might not make it very long.

C. Please know that all that Sanballat said just washed off their back because Nehemiah himself was worried that the work was going to stop because of this mockery. In verse 4-5 Nehemiah calls out to God because of what this could do to the people.

D. And frankly the work is getting accomplished and they have at this point in the text repaired approximately 50% of the Project.

III. A Volition of Determination.

Exp: Their success all boils down to one phrase “had a mind to work”. When their enemy was attempting to get them to look at their weakness, resources, or even their sacrifice they kept their eyes on the work.

These people weren’t sacrificing and doing without. I am not talking about sacrifice like we talk about it. I mean in Scripture when people sacrificed they sold land and precious things. When God told them to build him a tabernacle they came out with Gold, silver, fine fabrics. Preacher today starts talking about cutting back our budget to have more to give to the offering, or more to give monthly to the building fund we start looking at the resources.

These people sacrificed not just do with out I mean gave all.

And the reality is that when a church attempts to do something great for God the first thing the devil does is gets upset. He starts trying to convice people they’re not strong enough, they won’t last long, they don’t have the resources, and God doesn’t care anyway.

And if we are not careful we will find our selves loosing a mind for the work.

It is this willingness to give in an community that overcomes the negative message from the world outside these walls.