10.12.2008 Nehemiah 4 - Battling Discouragement

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We ask you for many around the world who are persecuted for their faith. We have it easy here; we have freedom. For those who live in dangerous places, keep them safe and may their testimony and witness spread the gospel. May Your word run throughout the earth. With the desperate need, may this be an opportunity for Christ to shine. The fear, the discouragement, the anxiety – may they see that they need You working on their side.

Nehemiah. Just another week or two on this. Next week we will have Rodney and Jody from Urban Vision – you will really appreciate what they have to say. Also, we don’t normally do this – but we will have a special offering for Urban Vision next Sunday.

Nehemiah – a little before Psalms in the Old Testament. It is important to understand how to read the Old Testament. Too often, we plead to God, “God, show me something, I need to go to work!” If you do that, read a psalm – not Nehemiah. When you read the Old Testament – place yourself in the historical setting. Read it as if you were one of the ones it was written to. What was he saying – what was going on? How would the first people who read this understand it? What did they understand? What was being said? From that – and only from that – can you then apply it to you and how it relates to today. What did it mean then? From that, you can understand what it means to your own life.

Nehemiah is building a wall. “Oh yeah, I need to build that retaining wall in the back yard…” – that is not God speaking to you from Nehemiah, that is your wife, reminding you! BUT, the principles of Nehemiah can be applied.

On Nov. 4, 1976 I turned my life over to Christ. I had a roommate named Mark – he would lovingly remind me that I had the gift of discouragement. I was easily knocked down – and I have worked on it over the years – but occasionally it hits. The right circumstances and I get really down. I am quicker at getting back up. Even as Jeff prayed, these are trying times and you could get really down if you have your retirement in a 401K.

In Nehemiah, the people had given up. Nehemiah turns to God and He blesses him. They start building the wall to get their defenses up. Last week, we looked at how Nehemiah rallied the people to work. It is about work. We need to work and work hard to grow in our relationship with Christ.

In Chapter 3 of Nehemiah – it lists the different families – and what part of the wall they built.

We will pick up in Chapter 4.
Nehemiah 4:1 Now it came about that when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious and very angry and mocked the Jews. 2 And he spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy [men] of Samaria and said, "What are these feeble Jews doing?
As we make progress in the work that God has called us to do – either personal spiritual growth or in ministry – we must expect opposition. The more progress they made, the more opposition they experienced. If you look at the headings of these sections – from Chapter 4 on – opposition from this, opposition from that… Nehemiah is continually getting opposition from different angles.
"What are these feeble Jews doing? Are they going to restore [it] for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble even the burned ones?" 3 Now Tobiah the Ammonite [was] near him and he said, "Even what they are building-- if a fox should jump on [it,] he would break their stone wall down!"

The first attack is psychological – all these negative thoughts are being spread. Like turning on CNN and all you hear is the end of the world is here – negative thoughts flooding people’s minds.

Neh. 4: 4 Hear, O our God, how we are despised! Return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity
That is an okay prayer to pray! God wouldn’t have put a bunch of sinning prayers in the Bible!
5 Do not forgive their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out before Thee, for they have demoralized the builders.
That is the goal of the attacks – to demoralize the workers. If they can get them to think they are failures… or us as failures at this Christian life or having quiet times, or parenting, or whatever…You get discouraged and stop!
6 So we built the wall and the whole wall was joined together to half its [height,] for the people had a mind to work.
They kept working.
7 Now it came about when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the repair of the walls of Jerusalem went on, [and] that the breaches began to be closed, they were very angry.
The opposition mounts! The closer you get to the enemy’s camp, the more he is not going to like it and the more opposition he will bring into your life. That is the way it is in warfare – as you get closest to the capital the battle gets the fiercest.

8 And all of them conspired together to come [and] fight against Jerusalem and to cause a disturbance in it.
First psychological, then physical.
9 But we prayed to our God, and because of them we set up a guard against them day and night.

Nehemiah takes the prayer approach, which he does throughout.

10 Thus in Judah it was said, "The strength of the burden bearers is failing, Yet there is much rubbish; And we ourselves are unable To rebuild the wall."
It is one thing when the enemy is telling you you have failed, and it is another thing when those who are supposed to be on your side say it. It is much more difficult, isn’t it – when those who are supposed to be supporting you are becoming negative.

We see this discouragement - results from contemplating our troubles without considering God and His promises.

To stop or overcome discouragement, we need to look at our troubles in light of God’s presence and promises.

The key thing here – discouragement can lead to despair – and we need to be able to stop it before it gets there. We look at the difficulty – and it grows. In your mind it consumes your thought processes and your life. That sends you into despair and depression and you freeze and do nothing. That is the goal of the enemy. Discouragement leads to fear and despair. Fear causes you to stop it is paralyzing. I am sure you have been in that situation . I have three sources of discouragement.

2. 2 And he spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy [men] of Samaria and said, "What are these feeble Jews doing?
First source of discouragement? Failure. We get discouraged when we look at our own failure. We focus on our regret of things done wrong. For these guys - failure at accomplishing the task. For us, I’d like to look at moral failure. 1 Cor. 10:13 says that moral failure is common to all of us. If you struggle with something, others are struggling with it too. We all have moral flaws inside of us. You hear of those who have great ministries and fail – and it is because they don’t believe that they have this flaw in themselves.

In Men’s Fraternity – if you didn’t come last year, you can jump right in. We all have this suitcase, baggage – we carry. Some are locker chests, others are briefcases. He talks about the importance of opening it up and getting those flaws out. You have to open it up and focus on some of those things. We have to first acknowledge – confess – acknowledge before God and yourself that there are problems there.

Prov. 28:13 – He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper – we think we are the only one who has this problem. We look around and think that everyone else has it all together. We all have issues. There is a lot of concealing. But as long as you conceal, you will not prosper. But he who confesses and forsakes will find compassion.

We need to look at moral failure in light of the cross. Just as discouragement comes – we need to look at our failures in light of the cross – we must take them to the cross. What happened at the cross? Christ’s blood was shed. Transformation takes place at the cross. We were crucified with Christ – that we might live – but that takes place when we view everything in light of his death. At times we think there are certain failures His blood will not atone for. Calvinists talk about limited atonement – I won’t get into that – but we have a ‘practical limited atonement’ – that Christ died for most of our sins – but not the really bad ones.

WORK – confess, take it to the cross – and then work on it. It is not magic – you still have to work – effort – discipline – being accountable to someone in that area – having a program to make progress in that area. It is okay to get professional biblical counseling in that area. It might be an accountability partner to pray for you – You work; God works. It is not one or the other – but both.

Nehemiah 4: 10 Thus in Judah it was said, "The strength of the burden bearers is failing, Yet there is much rubbish; And we ourselves are unable To rebuild the wall."

Second – recognizing our inadequacy – having a sense of our inadequacy. Can we do it? They keep asking – maybe it is not enough skill or talent.

2 Cor. 3:5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as [coming] from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,

When the opposition is coming in and you think you are unable – that is probably true! You are unable – but God is able to make you able. God is able to make you adequate for the job! He does provide the ability for you to accomplish what He wants you to do. We have the ability through Him.

Next source.
The reality of the circumstance. They couldn’t go to Lowes and buy block – that was the reality – sometimes nothing looks like it will work – but it comes back – we look at those circumstances and fail to see them in light of God and His promises.

3 quick responses to discouraging circumstances.
Neh. 4: 4 Hear, O our God, how we are despised! Return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity.
First – Prayer – recognize that there is a spiritual component to our problem with a God-solution.
The solution – is found it God. There will be work and discipline but the solution is found in God.
Neh. 4: 6 So we built the wall and the whole wall was joined together to half its [height,] for the people had a mind to work.
Turn to God – and then, WORK!
Work in the mind – the mind is a work. Remember all the negative thoughts bombarding Nehemiah? Work at the mind – what do we listen to? It is hard to change that. Like the rut in a desk, you stay in the rut – but it takes work to create a new course. Like changing the flow of a river. You have to dam it up and carve a new channel. We as Christians should be active, pursuing what God wants us to pursue.
Neh. 4: 19 And I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, "The work is great and extensive, and we are separated on the wall far from one another. 20 "At whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us."
Look at our circumstances in light of God’s promises. He gives them a picture of the future that is positive – the enemies are about to come in and launch an attack – “Our God will fight for us.” He gives them a picture of the future that is good. We see the bad – Nehemiah is trying to get them to see something good.

Psalm 27: 13 [I would have despaired] unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living. 14 Wait for the Lord; Be strong, and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord.

He is saying – when discouraging circumstances come in – if we don’t believe at some point – God will step in – and for some, that might not be until we are with the Lord – and the future for all of us who have come to Christ is good. It may take until then to get to that – but for others, it will come in this life – in that circumstance – but for us – we must believe the future is good (Jer. 29:11) -