March 2, 2025 • 49 mins
In this installment of The Passion Project, Pastor Mark Medley dives into the account of Nehemiah’s mission to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls, revealing how a divinely placed burden can awaken profound purpose. Mark, known simply as Mark when he’s in teaching mode, points to Nehemiah’s reaction to the city’s broken condition—he weeps, fasts, and prays, allowing the heaviness of the situation to stir his heart. This story speaks directly to anyone who feels weighed down by circumstances, reminding us that the issues we can’t shake off might be exactly where God wants us to act.
Mark explains that the real strength behind rebuilding a city, or any broken aspect of our lives, lies in developing “a heart for the work.” Nehemiah’s approach highlights the power of prayer and unity. Faced with relentless opposition from critics, he refuses to be derailed by mockery or intimidation. Instead, he brings every concern to God, urging his people not to fear but to remember the Lord who fights on their behalf. This bold leadership sparks courage, showing us that words, when infused with faith, can build up those around us.
A key turning point occurs when the wall reaches the halfway mark—often the hardest stage of any project. Mark reminds us that the middle is where discouragement can take root. But with a clear vision and collective effort, Nehemiah and his team press on. They work with a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other, symbolizing the balance between staying on task and defending against spiritual attacks. Mark relates this to our modern challenges, from family struggles to career roadblocks, emphasizing that perseverance isn’t about ignoring obstacles; it’s about anchoring ourselves in God’s promises while we keep moving.
Finally, Mark poses the same question Nehemiah’s story raises: How do we measure success? Drawing from passages like Matthew 25, he affirms that God values faithfulness over worldly achievements. In the face of life’s rubble, Jesus is our ultimate builder, renewing what seems irreparable and inviting us to participate in His redemptive plan. By following Nehemiah’s footsteps—letting burdens create vision, forging unity with others, and trusting God’s guidance—we can find hope and purpose no matter what challenges arise. Discover how a heart for the work can transform not just walls, but entire lives and communities.
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Episode Transcript
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Mark Medley (00:03):
We are in Nehemiah, chapter 4.
Are you ready?
Are you okay if we read a lotof scripture this morning?
Alright, not gonna overwhelmyou with scripture.
Good, gonna read the wholechapter.
Nehemiah, chapter 4, verse 1.
Now, when Sanballat heard thatwe were building the wall, he
(00:27):
was angry and greatly enragedand he jeered at the Jews and he
said, in the presence of hisbrothers and of the army of
Samaria what are these feebleJews doing?
Will they restore it forthemselves?
Will they sacrifice?
Will they finish up in a day?
Will they revive the stones outof the heaps of rubbish, and
(00:51):
burned ones at that?
Tobiah the Ammonite was besidehim and he said yes, what they
are building.
If a fox goes up on it, he willbreak down their stone wall.
He will break down their stonewall.
Hear, o God, for we aredespised.
Turn back their taunt on theirown heads and give them up to be
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plundered in a land where theyare captives.
Do not cover their guilt andlet not their sin be blotted out
from your sight, for they haveprovoked you to anger in the
presence of the builders.
So we built the wall, and allthe wall was joined together to
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half its height, for the peoplehad a mind to work.
The Winstead and Ballot andTobiah, and the Arabs and the
Ammonites and the Ashdoditesheard that the repairing of the
walls of Jerusalem was goingforward and that the breaches
were beginning to be closed.
They were very angry and theyall plotted together to come and
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to fight against Jerusalem andto cause confusion in it.
And we prayed to our God andset a guard as a protection
against them, day and night.
In Judah, it was said, thestrength of those who bear the
burdens is failing.
There's too much rubble byourselves.
We will not be able to rebuildthe wall, and our enemy said.
(02:19):
They will not know or see untilwe come along among them and
kill them and stop the work.
At that time the Jews who livenear us came from all directions
and said to us 10 times youmust return to us.
So in the lowest parts of thespace, behind the wall, in the
open places, I stationed thepeople by their clans, with
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their swords, their spears andtheir bows, and I looked and
arose and said to the nobles, tothe officials and to the rest
of the people do not be afraidof them.
Remember the Lord, who is greatand awesome, and fight for your
brothers, your sons, yourdaughters, your wives, your
(03:03):
homes, your sons, your daughters, your wives, your homes.
When our enemies heard that itwas known to us that God had
frustrated their plan, we allreturned to the wall, each to
his work.
From that day on, half of myservants worked on the
construction and half held thespears, shields, bows and coats
of mail, and the leaders stoodbehind the whole house of Judah
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who were building on the wall.
Those who carried burdens wereloaded in such a way that each
labored on the work with onehand and held his weapon with
the other, and each of thebuilders had his sword strapped
at his side while he built.
The man who sounded the trumpetwas beside me, and I said to
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the nobles and to the officialsand to the rest of the people
the work is great and widelyspread.
We are separated on the wall,far from one another, in the
place where you hear the soundof the trumpet, rally to us
there.
Our God will fight for us.
So we labored at the work andhalf of them held the spears
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from the break of dawn until thestars came out.
That's a long day.
I also said to the people atthe time let every man and his
servant pass the night withinJerusalem, that they may be a
guard for us by the night andmay labor by day.
So, neither I nor my brothers,nor my servants, nor the men of
the guard who followed me, noneof us took off our clothes.
(04:34):
Each kept his weapon right athis side.
Father, thank you for your wordthis morning.
Thank you, lord, that you'realive and among us.
Thank you for your presencethat's here, and we ask you to
speak to us, lord.
Each of us individually speakto households and speak to us
(05:00):
all together as a body, and weopen our ears, lord, in Jesus'
name, amen.
Okay, the question of themorning for you At the end of
your life, how will you measureyour success?
I know it's a light question,it's, I mean, neil usually opens
(05:26):
with a joke, but I's a lightquestion.
I mean Neil usually opens witha joke, but I open with a
question At the end of your life, how will you measure your
success?
It's a really good question,because you don't get to the end
successful unless you thinkabout that question Now, and
maybe, I guess maybe, the thingthat comes to my mind and your
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mind maybe too, is if we couldhear, enter in good and faithful
servant.
That's a success.
Right, good and faithful.
And you know, good and faithfulthat's two things.
Good we're good only by thegrace of God and the blood of
Jesus.
Right, that's our goodness,that's God's part, that we can't
do, but our faithfulness,that's our part.
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And so faithfulness is like ayardstick that you measure
success.
I would say that God measuressuccess in your life.
Are you faithful?
That's the question.
Second question is how do Iknow what to be faithful over?
Right, this is like I don'tknow what is my thing, what is
the thing that I'm going to bestanding before Jesus saying
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this is what you gave me andhere's what I did with it.
And it occurs to me that a wiseperson is a person who is aware,
whose heart is aware, aware ofwhat God is doing, aware of the
things that God cares about andwants to join himself or herself
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to those things.
I believe a large part ofbecoming wise has to do with
paying attention.
It's being aware what is Goddoing in my community, in my
family, in my marriage, in myown life, and then joining
myself to that and having aheart for His work.
So we've had three greatsermons in this series.
(07:16):
So far I've been other placeslistening to these sermons but
they've really encouraged me andI think what I see, as we're
kind of gearing up to finishthis book we're starting off and
seeing what's going on is thatNehemiah was great because he
cared about what God cared aboutand his heart was aware of what
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was going on and he began tojoin it together with God.
So we kind of begin to seethrough these sermons that
there's two great needs at themoment.
The first great need is thefortress around the city had to
be rebuilt, but there wasanother rebuilding that was
happening too.
In the same way, the covenantwith God had to be rebuilt in
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the hearts of God's people.
They had fallen away.
That's why they were incaptivity.
So there's a wall being builtand there's a rebuilt and a
covenant being rebuilt in thehearts of people.
That's what the book ofNehemiah is about.
And Nehemiah is a trustedservant of the king.
He had a great gig, relativelycomfortable, in captivity, and
yet there was something in hisheart that was not right,
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because his heart longed for thethings of God.
He was concerned aboutJerusalem, and you remember.
And Kelly opened this up and hesaid he read the first chapter
where Nehemiah had this heart toknow about what is going on
with Jerusalem.
And when he heard it, when heheard the walls of Jerusalem are
broken down, his heart wasbroken down and he began to weep
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for the things that God wasweeping over.
He began to have a heart forthe work of God.
He was listening.
He was listening to what Godwas doing on earth, but he was
listening to what was going onin his own heart as well.
He had this nagging burden inhis heart and his questions
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about Jerusalem were becausethere was a heart for Jerusalem,
which means a heart for thethings of God.
What is God doing on this earth?
I really believe we're notgoing to be satisfied unless
we're joining ourselves withwhat God is doing on earth.
So he had these questions andhe heard that news and his heart
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was broken.
And there came this day when hewoke up one one man and he went
to bed a different man.
He woke up in one situation.
He heard some news in themiddle of the day and by the end
of the day his whole life waschanged.
Everything was different.
He couldn't keep living the wayhe was living.
He really heard the news andthe burden of God became the
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burden of Nehemiah.
He really heard the news andthe burden of God became the
burden of Nehemiah.
That's where it started.
And you remember, in chapter 2,when Sanballat, the enemy of the
project, the enemy of whatGod's doing on earth, at that
time heard it, he was very angrybecause someone had come to
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seek the welfare of the peopleof Israel.
He was mad because somebodycared about Israel.
There's always been this nastyanti-Semitic spirit in the earth
because the enemy, the enemy,the devil, wants to stop the
things of God.
And Israel is God's covenantpeople through which would come
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the Messiah who would bless allnations.
So there's always been thishatred and there always will be.
There's always a desire to, to,to in some way extinguish
Israel, but nobody's ever beenable to do it because God has a
covenant with them.
But the point here is thatthere's a man, nehemiah, who's
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concerned with what God'sconcerned about.
And it made me think ofPhilippians, chapter two.
You remember when Paul wastalking to the Philippians.
He was riding there from prisonand he said I want to send
Timothy to you.
And here's what he said I hope,in the Lord Jesus, to send
Timothy to you soon, so that Itoo may be cheered by the news
of you, for I have no one likehim who will be genuinely
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concerned with your welfare.
For they all seek their owninterests, not those of Jesus
Christ.
I know a lot of people, paulsays.
I know a lot of men, butthey're seeking their own
interests, not the interests ofJesus Christ.
But Timothy.
Timothy's different.
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He cares about what God caresabout.
He seeks the interest of JesusChrist.
So this sermon's for everybodyhere today.
But I really want to speak tothe men that are here, all of us
.
I'm lumping myself in with you.
Okay, I'm not speaking to you,I'm speaking to us today.
Are you concerned with thethings of Jesus Christ?
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Are you concerned with thethings that will outlive you,
the things that are importantnot only on this earth but for
eternity?
The things that are importantnot only on this earth but for
eternity?
I have made an observation overthe years, and my observation is
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a man who lacks purposedistracts himself with pleasure,
and a woman too, not just a man.
Anyone who lacks purpose willdistract themselves with
pleasure, and there's a lot ofpleasure to be distracted with
in this world right.
There's a lot and we're justkind of feeding ourselves with
the feed.
Whatever the feed, whateveryour social media of choice is,
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I don't know, there's pleasures,there's things that are
distractions, and that happensand those things are so empty.
And it happens because we don'thave a solid purpose for our
lives.
So I'm going to ask you guysespecially you guys, the men in
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the room will you allow God toraise the bar in your life?
Because He'll do it if youallow Him.
And maybe he's challenging youtoo Maybe he already has been,
maybe he's been speaking to youabout this To make you a man who
is genuinely concerned for thethings of Jesus Christ, a man
who's aware of what's going onin this world, what God wants to
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do in your community, in yourfamily, in your marriage.
It's important Burden comesbefore vision.
It's really important.
When he heard that the wallswere broken down, he was almost
paralyzed by this burden.
He was stopped in his tracks bythis burden.
He wept, but the first thing hedid was not go into action.
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He didn't immediately startdoing things.
His first response was to trulyunderstand what God was doing
and to feel the pain and theenormity of the burden of God.
That's the first thing he did.
I heard it and I wept for days.
That's what it says in chapterone.
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He wasn't afraid to let theweight of the situation sink
into his heart and then let hisheart sink up with the purposes
of God.
So when we feel this burdenoverwhelmingly and we feel it
deeply, then the vision can come.
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Burden precedes vision.
You don't decide what you wantto do with your life.
I mean, you can if you want.
It's not a great way to live.
It usually ends in a dead end.
What starts the whole thing isburden.
What is God doing?
What is on God's heart?
And then, who am I and what ismy part?
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And then what is the visionthat God's given to me?
We began to get a heart for thework, a heart for his work.
That's it, and it's not okaythat things stay the same.
We have to do something.
There's something that God hasfor us to do.
So, when it comes to what God isdoing around you, what does
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your heart tell you that youneed to pay attention to in this
season?
Maybe it's different indifferent seasons, you know, but
here we are this morning, rightnow, and you're in your season
and I'm in my season, and whatis it that God's telling you to
pay attention to?
Is it your family?
Is it friends who may not knowthe Lord?
Is it some kind of a socialissue that you're joining to
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that your heart is burdened for,or some kind of a ministry that
maybe you want to be a part ofhere at the church?
Is it missions efforts?
There's something, this thing,that you're feeling could be an
indicator of what God wants youto do in this season.
Burden comes first, and thenthere's vision.
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Okay, so why is burdenimportant?
Why is burden important?
Because the burden drives youto find the vision for how God
wants to use you to alter thesituation that you see.
Burden drives you to findvision.
Nehemiah felt it, and then heprayed, and then he watched and
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he listened.
He went and he made a touraround the city.
He got some people and tookthem with him.
He made a plan, he went to theking.
God gave provision.
This is what's going on.
And the second thing, thesecond reason that burden is
important, is because when hardtimes and opposition comes, it's
the burden that pushes youthrough.
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It strengthens you throughthose difficulties, because this
is important enough to endurehardship.
And if you're just living forthings that are not purposeful
they're just your own stuff,your own distractions hardship
comes and it can overwhelm youand it seems like nothing's
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really worth the fight.
But here this is what we'reseeing in this chapter.
The burden makes difficultthings less difficult, or at
least it makes it worth thedifficulty and one of the things
.
I'll just give you an examplefrom my life.
Recently, yuri and I were onthis trip, and this was a tough
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trip.
We were in the Himalayas and wewere driving up mountains and
these are the worst roads.
I thought I saw some bad roadsin my life.
These are the worst roads I'veever seen, and if you saw the
tires we were driving on, youwould say it is a miracle.
It's an absolute miraclebecause the tires not only were
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bald, but they had steel beltshanging out.
They had little wires hangingout both sides in the back.
Both of the back tires hadthese.
It's like I don't even thinkthis is going to get us down the
road at all.
And we're on these roads, whichare crazy, in the highest
mountains in the world.
I think eight out of the 10highest mountains in the world
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are in the Himalayas.
You can go ahead and show thosepictures and, uh, we're driving
up these, these roads and onthese tires, and we're praying.
We prayed, lord.
This is.
I took a picture because I saidwhen this, when we get back
home, this is my, this is mytestimony, this is my miracle
picture.
And I don't I don't have ithere with me, but these are the
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roads that we're on.
We're on these places and it wascold.
It was cold and we were inthese block house and it had no
insulation and it was.
We were like in four layers,plus a coat, plus two blankets.
We just wanted to go to bedbecause the only place it was
not cold was under the covers.
We were in bed like at 7 or7.30 at night.
I don't want to do anything.
Go to bed and the food I don'tknow.
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We ate things that I wasn'teven sure what we were eating.
Okay, and you might think that'sa hardship, but then when you
see the pastor and his familywho are living there, I mean I
go there and then I get to comehome and sleep in my bed and
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come to this church and be withyou.
It's not hardship at all whenyou see these guys who are doing
such difficult work in suchdifficult places so faithfully
for so long, sometimes withoutmuch fruit, visible fruit, and
they're pioneers.
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These are first-generationchurches.
They're pioneers.
In a land where it's 1.4%Christian, it's like they're
alone.
The roads, the food, theweather is nothing.
It's nothing when you look inthe eyes of these pastors.
These pastors are my heart, andto be able to give them
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anything that can help them,some kind of a relationship and
encouragement and resources andteaching, it's like you see what
I mean.
The burden makes the oppositionseem not so bad.
You understand, okay, and itapplies in your life too, which
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also includes raising yourchildren and your marriage and
your community and your job andyour school.
All of this you know.
The burden for the vision ofthe future, the vision for
what's doing, joining with whatGod's doing.
It strengthens you, so it makesyou courageous.
So remember, nehemiah was notbuilding a wall, but he was
rebuilding a wall, right?
So what was there before he wasraising back up again?
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And some of us are in a seasonof rebuilding something.
Some of us are building.
We're just building our walkwith Jesus.
We're brand new in this, but alot of us are rebuilding, and
maybe it's a season ofrebuilding for you, rebuilding
what was there before, but it'sbeen damaged for whatever reason
.
You rebuilding what was therebefore, but it's been damaged
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for whatever reason.
And maybe it's your personalwalk with God that's being
rebuilt, and maybe it's yourmarriage or strained
relationships, or it's a careeror it's a ministry something.
But God is in the midst ofrebuilding, midst of rebuilding.
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And here's what happens in thischapter Opposition.
Opposition from Nehemiah'senemies is so loud and so
consistent and so embarrassing.
It seems like it multiplies too.
But you know what.
We might as well expect thatthere's opposition too.
But you know what.
We might as well expect thatthere's opposition.
Life is not easy.
Either way you go.
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You might as well go toward theLord Amen, you might as well.
And if you have no oppositionin your life, it could be
because you're not doinganything of eternal consequence
for God, maybe.
What kind of opposition did theyface?
Well, there was angry people.
So what will you face?
Angry people will mock you.
They're rebelling against theking.
They're feeble.
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Can they restore these ruins?
What can they do with this?
If a fox walks on this wall,it'll fall down.
I mean, you know, weak men haveweapons, and their weapons are
words, words of accusation,words of shame, and they just
mock the efforts, and sometimes,though, that's all it takes.
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It just takes somebody mockingyou, speaking against you.
That's all it takes for you toturn back because you feel
ashamed or your reputation isimportant and people are
speaking against you, and thefear of man is a snare.
Fear of man is a snare.
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It snares you, it captures youand you stop.
Words are a weapon the enemyuses.
Look what he did, though.
Nehemiah prayed.
Okay, this is a pattern throughthis whole book, especially in
this chapter.
Here comes the words from theenemies, and here goes Nehemiah
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turning his words to the LordHear O God, for we are being
despised.
God, you fight for us.
We're going to remain focused.
So here's the pattern thathappens throughout this Give the
burden to God in prayer and befaithful.
Give it to God, be faithful.
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Give it to God, be faithful.
What do you do in opposition?
Well, this is pretty goodpattern.
Here.
You turn in prayer.
This is what he did, and it'sreally interesting to me.
It says the wall was restored tohalf its height and all of
these things started happening.
I mean outside opposition,inside opposition, from the
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Jewish people even and I thoughtabout that because half its
height, that's halfway, right,that's the middle point.
And it says that the people hada mind to work and that's why
it got built that big.
They all agreed this wasimportant enough.
But then the middle is the mostdangerous part of any endeavor.
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The middle is the hardest part.
Starting out, there's a lot ofadrenaline.
This is awesome.
Finishing is awesome.
The middle is long and tediousand hard.
Can I get any amen?
Okay, I see your faces.
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A lot of us are in the middle,aren't we?
The long middle is thetrickiest part of any endeavor
Middle of marriage, the middleof raising kids, the middle of
school You're not finished.
You're right in the middle ofraising kids.
The middle of school You're notfinished.
You're right in the middle ofit.
The middle of waiting through aseason of isolation where God
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is working inside of you so hecan make you into the person
that is capable of doing whathe's called you to do.
That's a long middle and it'shard.
And they rebuilt to half itsheight and here comes the
hardest opposition.
Sometimes right in the middleis the hardest opposition.
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Okay, so don't think it'ssomething unusual.
It's normal.
The opposing voices are theloudest right there.
So Sanballat heard.
He was very angry again.
He was a mad guy.
He plotted to come and fightagainst Jerusalem.
Okay, we're going to attack Allthese people together,
attacking the purpose of God,not just Nehemiah, but the
purpose of God.
Okay.
So what happened?
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Nehemiah prayed and he set aguard.
Give it to God, be faithful.
And he set a guard.
Give it to God, be faithful.
Give it to God, be faithful.
This is over and over.
And then the Jews who lived nearthem came to them because they
heard of this scheme to attackand they came and they said
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you've got to return 10 times,10 times.
They came and said you've gotto stop and come to us.
You've got to stop thisbuilding and come back to us.
You've got to stop thisbuilding and come back to us.
You've got to stop thisbuilding and come back to us.
You've got to stop thisbuilding and come back to us.
You've got to stop thisbuilding and come back to us.
10 times, over and over.
What do you do?
Not only from the enemies, butfrom your own people.
You get opposition.
Sometimes Wow, words are aweapon From the enemy, sometimes
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from your friends.
Words are a weapon and theyhurt sometimes, but Nehemiah
didn't panic, he was notparalyzed.
You know what he did?
He put courage in the hearts ofpeople with his words.
Words are a weapon both ways,you know.
You can put courage into thehearts of people around you with
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your words, every single day.
You can use your words to buildpeople up, man.
It's a great way to live, it'sa great way to live in the same
house together is buildingpeople up with your words and
putting courage in.
How can I put courage, how canI bless the people who are
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around me today?
And he did it.
He did it.
They were fighting, they werestruggling.
He said don't be afraid.
Remember the Lord, who is greatand awesome.
Fight for your brothers, fightfor your sons, fight for your
wives, fight for your daughters,fight for your homes.
Guys, I want to just speak toyou again.
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Fight.
If you're wondering what isGod's will for my life, here's a
good place to start.
Fight for your homes.
Fight for your sons and yourdaughters and your wives, your
wife I was speaking corporately,okay.
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Speaking personally, you onlyhave one, okay, fight, fight for
her man.
Start there.
Remember, remember chapterthree.
We saw that the wall was rebuiltby families.
Did you see?
You remember that?
Tyler had that last week?
It was a clan or a family builtfrom this point to this point
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and this family built from thispoint to this point.
It's a whole bunch of familiesbuilding the wall.
This is what the church is.
It's a whole bunch of familieswho are coming together and
doing their thing and the wholewall gets built up.
This is the way God worksthrough strong families.
So build a wall, guys.
Build a wall around your family.
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This is also if you're a singleparent and if you're the only
Christian in your household, man, fight for it.
Build a wall in prayer aroundyour family.
Build a sanctuary in yourhousehold where they are safe,
where your family is safe, whereyour family can worship, where
your family can learn about God,not just from Sunday school and
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they will, in Sunday schoolyouth group, they will.
But your home needs to be asafe place, it needs to be a
sanctuary, and your family istop priority, top priority, most
important thing God's put onyour plate.
Well, what are the weapons?
Nehemiah's weapons Number onewas prayer.
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Again, this is it.
Give it to God, be faithful.
Give it to God, be faithful,eat what's on your plate, leave
the stuff to him that only hecan do, and do what you can do
Prayer, prayer.
Let me just tell you a storyabout, uh, about my kids when
they were small.
Um, they were maybe, uh, six,seven, eight years old they were
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.
My kids are all close together,most of you know that, but they
were small and there was oneparticular child who had a real
issue, and if you know my kidsand you think you know who this
child is, you're probably wrong.
Okay, just tell you, don't tryto guess because you're probably
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wrong, and no names will beused here, nor genders, I hope.
But there was one particularchild who had a real struggle
with lying, just like sevenyears old, and this child just
lied all the time, I mean manytimes a day.
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Lying was the worst thing in ourhome, the worst offense,
because if you can't trust eachother, you can't have a
relationship, and so lyingcarried the greatest discipline
in our house.
So lying was just an issue andwe were careful to discipline,
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sometimes many times a day, andthis just kept going and kept
going and Melissa and I justlooked at each other one day and
just said what are we evensupposed to do with this?
So we prayed, and I know I'm apastor, I should have prayed
first.
I know that you don't have totell me that, but we did pray
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first.
But I mean, we got seriousabout praying.
We just we said this is, thisis spiritual, and there's
something here that's beyondnormal, and so let's, let's go,
let's go abnormal in our attackof it.
So we fasted and we prayed, andyou know why it took.
It took several weeks of beingfaithful and going to God in
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prayer and being faithful withdiscipline and talking and
explaining.
But you know, that thing wasbroken and this child is the
absolute, most honest of all ofmy children.
To this very day I'm not evensure that this child is capable
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of lying today.
But this is something that wasspiritual, you know, and it was
not even anything that we coulddo anything about.
We could be faithful, but ittook prayer.
So one of the weapons is prayer.
Give it to God, be faithful inwhat you're doing.
Second thing you know they haveswords in their hands, right,
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and I'm going to draw a metaphorhere which I think is
appropriate, because the swordof the spirit is the word of God
, and you remember that Nehemiahwas joined together with Ezra,
right?
This is like Ezra and Nehemiahare actually the same book in
the Hebrew Bible.
So Ezra and Nehemiah Ezra was ascribe and he was reintroducing
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the law of God, and so theywere working together.
So there's this weapon that wehave of the word of God, and
it's how we play defense andoffense at the same time.
You know, a sword is bothdefensive and offensive weapon,
and putting the word of God inour own hearts, reminding
ourselves of it, putting it inthe hearts of those around us
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that we love, it's like thetrowel that we build with.
It's the sword that we fightwith, the word of God.
So prayer, the word of God.
And the last thing that I seehere, which was such a powerful
weapon, was community, becausewhen you read this, you realize
there were people building.
There were people behind themholding weapons.
There were all the elders ofJudah behind them together and
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they said we're so spread outwhen the trumpet.
When you hear the trumpet,rally to your brothers, run to
your brothers.
When you hear the trumpet.
They were building together allof this.
This was not just Nehemiah,this was a huge project.
Clans, families, peopletogether, community.
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Don't be afraid to call out forhelp.
Sound the trumpet when you needto.
I need some help up in here.
We're not supposed to do thisalone.
It literally says we can't bearthe burden alone.
And we can't bear the burdenalone, and in the walls that
we're rebuilding, we need others.
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By ourselves, we will not beable to defend the wall.
It says in the passage, andthis is the truth.
We can't do it ourselves, butwe can do it together.
And so, nehemiah, what did he do?
Again, what do you think he did?
He prayed and he was faithful.
Okay, here's what he prayedthough he prayed God, get them.
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And he was faithful.
Okay, here's what he prayed,though he prayed God get them,
get them, get our enemies, lord,get our enemies.
Could you just stand againstthe enemies and you know what
God did?
He worked, but not in theenemies.
He worked in the hearts of thepeople and he brought the people
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together in the spirit of unity.
When he unified them aroundeach other and around the cause,
then the enemy stopped.
Isn't that interesting?
God didn't deal with the enemy.
God dealt with them and theirhearts, and when they got right,
the enemy stopped.
Interesting, isn't it?
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And we're praying God, strikedown my enemies.
And he's like okay, I think I'mgoing to start with the enemies
in your heart, which could bedisunity or bitterness or
something, whatever it is.
I think this is I'll fight yourenemies, I will.
It may not look exactly likeyou're thinking, but I'll fight.
Sometimes God intervenes Likesovereignly, he does what only
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God can do, and things change.
Sometimes he interacts with us.
Interacts means he's working,but we're working together with
Him, and things change.
And then sometimes Godinteracts, like he works inside
of us.
He's working with us and we'repraying God, change things out
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there.
And he's like I am, I'm goingto change things in here.
Here's where things change andthis is where it starts.
Okay, and Nehemiah overcame allthese oppositions by staying
focused on the task.
He said I don't have time tolisten to you.
And in a couple of chapterswe'll see, in chapter six, that
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you know Sanballat's up thereagain trying to call him away
from the work.
And he said I'm doing a greatwork here.
I have no time to fool with you.
I can't come to your conferenceto fool with you.
I can't come to your conference.
I'm building here.
Why should I stop the importantwork and come down to you.
Hear O Lord, he did it again.
Hear O Lord, listen, he keepsdoing this.
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This is amazing.
He's a project manager who prays.
That's not always.
That doesn't always happen.
You know, task-oriented peopleare so focused on the task.
They're not always.
That doesn't always happen.
You know, task oriented peopleare so focused on the task,
they're not always focused onthe prayer.
But he was a little bitprophetic, he was an intercessor
and he was a doer as well.
He's an interesting,interesting guy.
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Okay, he gave it to God and hewas faithful, okay.
Well, these are great insights,mark, fantastic.
Thanks so much.
But you don't understand whatI'm going through and you don't
understand how tired I am or howbusy I am or how crazy my life
is.
And I understand crazy I do.
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I'm actually pretty acquaintedwith crazy, and some of us are
in a season of busyness.
Some of us are in a season ofdrawing back or God's pruning
things.
That's okay, there's grace forthose kind of seasons.
But also you may just befilling your life up with
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busyness and pleasurablepursuits and just feeding your
soul cotton candy, you know, andall you're getting is lethargic
and sick and cavities andemptiness, leanness in your soul
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, right?
So maybe God's raising the barhere.
What if you had a heart for hiswork?
What if you joined what he'sdoing?
When you get to the end of yourlife, how are you going to
measure your success?
I'll just end with a littlestory.
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I was with this couple in Polanda couple of years ago.
Young couple, maybe 30 yearsold, couple of kids, and I was
just looking, I was on theirback porch and we were having
some tea and just talking, andthis young lady it's probably, I
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guess, they were 30 yearsyounger than me, and so I think
they were just looking for somekind of wisdom or something.
But she asked a question I'venever been asked before and I
wasn't ready for.
We're just having tea rightPleasant day.
She said if you look back overyour life, what are your
greatest regrets?
And I thought, wow, okay, theconversation just really changed
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.
Okay, so we're going to getserious here, aren't we?
This is great, great question,great question, wise question,
because our regrets are kind oflike a mirror into our soul and
we learn or we should belearning from our greatest
lessons, from our regrets, andI've lived longer than they.
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And so she's asking what areyour regrets so we don't make
those mistakes?
Basically it's things of whatshe was doing.
So I thought, wow, I don't okay, didn't know, it was a pop quiz
.
But top of my head I have a lotof regrets from before I came to
Jesus.
Yes, I made really stupiddecisions that hurt people and I
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really hate those things.
But those are under the bloodof Jesus.
Thank God, if any man's inChrist, he's a new creation.
Old things are passed away, allthings have become new, all
things are of God.
This is good news, isn't it?
This is what the gospel doesfor us.
I went back to people and askedfor forgiveness, made
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restitution.
That's past.
Thank God, we've got that.
And you know what?
I'm not generally a fearfulperson.
I don't.
I'm not driven by fears.
I don't deal with that a lot.
But there has been a littleconsistent, nagging fear
throughout my life from, like,maybe my twenties or something,
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and that is that I might get tothe end of my life and look back
and say I didn't, I didn't walkin all that God wanted me to
walk in, like I didn't takesteps of faith.
I was too.
I was too careful and I didn'ttake steps of faith, I was too
careful and I didn't fulfilleverything.
For some reason that's justbeen a thing.
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For me.
It's not a regret, it's justkind of a fear of having regrets
.
But I started thinking about it.
There's kind of big pictureregrets and small picture
regrets and by the grace of God,when I was saved, I began to
make better decisions, and thosedecisions I don't regret.
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And I think wisdom is justifiedby her children right, we
understand wise decisions by thefruit they bear.
But also there's a redeemer.
If we make a mistake it's okay,because God redeems all things.
So thank God for that.
But what I saw when I started wejust kept going deeper in this
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conversation.
I thought, man, I just cameover for tea and we're going
like this is philosophizing.
I thought there are thesesmaller regrets which are real
annoying.
But the smaller regrets areinterpersonal, like times when
I've been too harsh, especiallywith the people that I've loved,
and I've been judgmental, notwilling to hear somebody's story
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, judging them first, likejudging on outward appearance
instead of seeing that they'rean actual person with a real
soul and a real story and worthlove.
And I thought about that.
Those were the regrets, myregrets that I was listing out
on that patio that day were allrelational regrets.
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I wish I had loved better.
That's what it was, and I'm apastor and I've been at the
bedside of people who are dyingand all triviality completely
disintegrates when you're aboutto die and you get really real
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and you start thinking andtalking about things that are
real and I've never heardanybody say my regret is I wish
I made more money.
If I only worked harder at myjob and built that business more
, never, never.
But there are regrets of I wishI would have spent more time
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with my family while I had anopportunity.
I wish I would have gone deeperin those conversations.
That's where people have regret.
It's relationships, and doesn'tthat make sense?
Because all the law and theprophets come down to this love
God and love your neighbor.
It's loving people.
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It's all.
What really matters isrelationships and probably at
the end of your life yourregrets are gonna have to do
with relationships and maybe ifwe think about that now, we
won't have regrets or as manyregrets when we get over and
that life is short.
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You got to seize the day, butlife is long.
You gotta.
You gotta live day by day inthis long middle, making
decisions that are consistentwith what's important, and
that's with loving God andloving people.
That's how we build.
That's how we build.
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Okay, so this wall wasimportant because it was God's
purpose on earth, but it's a bigpicture.
It's not just a wall, it's abig picture.
It was a small story in the bigstory of Israel, which is the
big story of God's covenant, notjust with Israel, but with all
of mankind through Jesus,because through Israel would
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come the Messiah.
And I just want to end byencouraging you and reminding
you that Jesus is our Nehemiah,and Nehemiah was a builder.
And can I remind you that Jesusgrew up in a carpenter's
household and most likely helearned his father's trade.
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He was a carpenter's son.
Probably he learned that he wasa builder.
He created all things that wesee and don't see as well, and
he holds it all together.
He's a builder and he's asustainer, and he's building in
our lives right now, in ourpersonal lives, in our marriages
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, in our families, in ourcommunity.
He's building.
He's building and he's aredeemer.
And I read this week somethingthat encouraged me so much
Revelation 21,.
He that sat on the throne saidbehold, I make all things new.
He's a redeemer.
It doesn't matter where you'reat If you think the rubble of
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your walls is too much.
It's just too much.
It's overwhelming.
It could never be put backtogether.
It's broken and it's burnt andthere's nothing that could be
done.
Don't leave out the God factor.
He's a builder man.
Jesus is a restorer.
He redeems all things.
He makes all things new.
This is what he wants to do forall of us.
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Give it to God, be faithful,turn to him in prayer and then
turn to your work and do what.
You know what's on your plate.
Okay, let's stand, let's pray.
Thank you, father, lord, we'regrateful.
Thank you, lord, we're grateful.
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Thank you.
Thank you that you're a builder.
Jesus, you're the craftsman.
You're building my life and myfamily, and my church and my
community.
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Thank you, father, that you dothis through the gospel.
Thank you that you make newcreations, lord.
Thank you that when we are atthe end of ourselves, we can
come to you.
We can trust this message ofthe gospel that you, through
Christ, have paid for our sins.
You, through Christ, forgive us.
You, through Christ, redeem ourmistakes and make us brand new
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creations.
Thank you for the hope of thegospel, lord.
Thank you for Jesus.
Lord, help us to trust yourhands.
Help us to have a heart foryour work.
Jesus, help us rid the rubble.
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Build us into what you desirefor us to be, lord.
Don't stop when the wall ishalfway built, lord, build it
all the way.
Lord, help us, those of us whoare in the long, tired, tedious
middle.
Lord, would you give usstrength and would you give us
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grace to use our weapons ofprayer and the word and each
other, to give us strength,fortify us, lord.
There's a work that needs to bedone.
Lord, jesus, build and rebuildmy life today, not only in me
personally, lord, but buildthrough me.
Build through me, build throughme in those you have connected
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me to, in my family, in mychurch, my community.
Thank you, father, thank youfor a hope, lord, that, even
through opposition, all of thisends in a hope, and I pray for
your hope to be the strength ofour hearts, god, an anchor of
our souls.
Lord, in the name of Jesus,amen, amen.
We are in Nehemiah, chapter 4.
Are you ready?
Are you okay if we read a lotof scripture this morning?
Alright, not gonna overwhelmyou with scripture.
Good, gonna read the wholechapter.
Nehemiah, chapter 4, verse 1.
Now, when Sanballat heard thatwe were building the wall, he
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was angry and greatly enragedand he jeered at the Jews and he
said, in the presence of hisbrothers and of the army of
Samaria what are these feebleJews doing?
Will they restore it forthemselves?
Will they sacrifice?
Will they finish up in a day?
Will they revive the stones outof the heaps of rubbish, and
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burned ones at that?
Tobiah the Ammonite was besidehim and he said yes, what they
are building.
If a fox goes up on it, he willbreak down their stone wall.
He will break down their stonewall.
Hear, o God, for we aredespised.
Turn back their taunt on theirown heads and give them up to be
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plundered in a land where theyare captives.
Do not cover their guilt andlet not their sin be blotted out
from your sight, for they haveprovoked you to anger in the
presence of the builders.
So we built the wall, and allthe wall was joined together to
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half its height, for the peoplehad a mind to work.
The Winstead and Ballot andTobiah, and the Arabs and the
Ammonites and the Ashdoditesheard that the repairing of the
walls of Jerusalem was goingforward and that the breaches
were beginning to be closed.
They were very angry and theyall plotted together to come and
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to fight against Jerusalem andto cause confusion in it.
And we prayed to our God andset a guard as a protection
against them, day and night.
In Judah, it was said, thestrength of those who bear the
burdens is failing.
There's too much rubble byourselves.
We will not be able to rebuildthe wall, and our enemy said.
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They will not know or see untilwe come along among them and
kill them and stop the work.
At that time the Jews who livenear us came from all directions
and said to us 10 times youmust return to us.
So in the lowest parts of thespace, behind the wall, in the
open places, I stationed thepeople by their clans, with
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their swords, their spears andtheir bows, and I looked and
arose and said to the nobles, tothe officials and to the rest
of the people do not be afraidof them.
Remember the Lord, who is greatand awesome, and fight for your
brothers, your sons, yourdaughters, your wives, your
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homes, your sons, your daughters, your wives, your homes.
When our enemies heard that itwas known to us that God had
frustrated their plan, we allreturned to the wall, each to
his work.
From that day on, half of myservants worked on the
construction and half held thespears, shields, bows and coats
of mail, and the leaders stoodbehind the whole house of Judah
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who were building on the wall.
Those who carried burdens wereloaded in such a way that each
labored on the work with onehand and held his weapon with
the other, and each of thebuilders had his sword strapped
at his side while he built.
The man who sounded the trumpetwas beside me, and I said to
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the nobles and to the officialsand to the rest of the people
the work is great and widelyspread.
We are separated on the wall,far from one another, in the
place where you hear the soundof the trumpet, rally to us
there.
Our God will fight for us.
So we labored at the work andhalf of them held the spears
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from the break of dawn until thestars came out.
That's a long day.
I also said to the people atthe time let every man and his
servant pass the night withinJerusalem, that they may be a
guard for us by the night andmay labor by day.
So, neither I nor my brothers,nor my servants, nor the men of
the guard who followed me, noneof us took off our clothes.
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Each kept his weapon right athis side.
Father, thank you for your wordthis morning.
Thank you, lord, that you'realive and among us.
Thank you for your presencethat's here, and we ask you to
speak to us, lord.
Each of us individually speakto households and speak to us
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all together as a body, and weopen our ears, lord, in Jesus'
name, amen.
Okay, the question of themorning for you At the end of
your life, how will you measureyour success?
I know it's a light question,it's, I mean, neil usually opens
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with a joke, but I's a lightquestion.
I mean Neil usually opens witha joke, but I open with a
question At the end of your life, how will you measure your
success?
It's a really good question,because you don't get to the end
successful unless you thinkabout that question Now, and
maybe, I guess maybe, the thingthat comes to my mind and your
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mind maybe too, is if we couldhear, enter in good and faithful
servant.
That's a success.
Right, good and faithful.
And you know, good and faithfulthat's two things.
Good we're good only by thegrace of God and the blood of
Jesus.
Right, that's our goodness,that's God's part, that we can't
do, but our faithfulness,that's our part.
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And so faithfulness is like ayardstick that you measure
success.
I would say that God measuressuccess in your life.
Are you faithful?
That's the question.
Second question is how do Iknow what to be faithful over?
Right, this is like I don'tknow what is my thing, what is
the thing that I'm going to bestanding before Jesus saying
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this is what you gave me andhere's what I did with it.
And it occurs to me that a wiseperson is a person who is aware,
whose heart is aware, aware ofwhat God is doing, aware of the
things that God cares about andwants to join himself or herself
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to those things.
I believe a large part ofbecoming wise has to do with
paying attention.
It's being aware what is Goddoing in my community, in my
family, in my marriage, in myown life, and then joining
myself to that and having aheart for His work.
So we've had three greatsermons in this series.
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So far I've been other placeslistening to these sermons but
they've really encouraged me andI think what I see, as we're
kind of gearing up to finishthis book we're starting off and
seeing what's going on is thatNehemiah was great because he
cared about what God cared aboutand his heart was aware of what
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was going on and he began tojoin it together with God.
So we kind of begin to seethrough these sermons that
there's two great needs at themoment.
The first great need is thefortress around the city had to
be rebuilt, but there wasanother rebuilding that was
happening too.
In the same way, the covenantwith God had to be rebuilt in
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the hearts of God's people.
They had fallen away.
That's why they were incaptivity.
So there's a wall being builtand there's a rebuilt and a
covenant being rebuilt in thehearts of people.
That's what the book ofNehemiah is about.
And Nehemiah is a trustedservant of the king.
He had a great gig, relativelycomfortable, in captivity, and
yet there was something in hisheart that was not right,
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because his heart longed for thethings of God.
He was concerned aboutJerusalem, and you remember.
And Kelly opened this up and hesaid he read the first chapter
where Nehemiah had this heart toknow about what is going on
with Jerusalem.
And when he heard it, when heheard the walls of Jerusalem are
broken down, his heart wasbroken down and he began to weep
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for the things that God wasweeping over.
He began to have a heart forthe work of God.
He was listening.
He was listening to what Godwas doing on earth, but he was
listening to what was going onin his own heart as well.
He had this nagging burden inhis heart and his questions
(09:13):
about Jerusalem were becausethere was a heart for Jerusalem,
which means a heart for thethings of God.
What is God doing on this earth?
I really believe we're notgoing to be satisfied unless
we're joining ourselves withwhat God is doing on earth.
So he had these questions andhe heard that news and his heart
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was broken.
And there came this day when hewoke up one one man and he went
to bed a different man.
He woke up in one situation.
He heard some news in themiddle of the day and by the end
of the day his whole life waschanged.
Everything was different.
He couldn't keep living the wayhe was living.
He really heard the news andthe burden of God became the
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burden of Nehemiah.
He really heard the news andthe burden of God became the
burden of Nehemiah.
That's where it started.
And you remember, in chapter 2,when Sanballat, the enemy of the
project, the enemy of whatGod's doing on earth, at that
time heard it, he was very angrybecause someone had come to
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seek the welfare of the peopleof Israel.
He was mad because somebodycared about Israel.
There's always been this nastyanti-Semitic spirit in the earth
because the enemy, the enemy,the devil, wants to stop the
things of God.
And Israel is God's covenantpeople through which would come
(10:44):
the Messiah who would bless allnations.
So there's always been thishatred and there always will be.
There's always a desire to, to,to in some way extinguish
Israel, but nobody's ever beenable to do it because God has a
covenant with them.
But the point here is thatthere's a man, nehemiah, who's
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concerned with what God'sconcerned about.
And it made me think ofPhilippians, chapter two.
You remember when Paul wastalking to the Philippians.
He was riding there from prisonand he said I want to send
Timothy to you.
And here's what he said I hope,in the Lord Jesus, to send
Timothy to you soon, so that Itoo may be cheered by the news
of you, for I have no one likehim who will be genuinely
(11:29):
concerned with your welfare.
For they all seek their owninterests, not those of Jesus
Christ.
I know a lot of people, paulsays.
I know a lot of men, butthey're seeking their own
interests, not the interests ofJesus Christ.
But Timothy.
Timothy's different.
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He cares about what God caresabout.
He seeks the interest of JesusChrist.
So this sermon's for everybodyhere today.
But I really want to speak tothe men that are here, all of us
.
I'm lumping myself in with you.
Okay, I'm not speaking to you,I'm speaking to us today.
Are you concerned with thethings of Jesus Christ?
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Are you concerned with thethings that will outlive you,
the things that are importantnot only on this earth but for
eternity?
The things that are importantnot only on this earth but for
eternity?
I have made an observation overthe years, and my observation is
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a man who lacks purposedistracts himself with pleasure,
and a woman too, not just a man.
Anyone who lacks purpose willdistract themselves with
pleasure, and there's a lot ofpleasure to be distracted with
in this world right.
There's a lot and we're justkind of feeding ourselves with
the feed.
Whatever the feed, whateveryour social media of choice is,
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I don't know, there's pleasures,there's things that are
distractions, and that happensand those things are so empty.
And it happens because we don'thave a solid purpose for our
lives.
So I'm going to ask you guysespecially you guys, the men in
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the room will you allow God toraise the bar in your life?
Because He'll do it if youallow Him.
And maybe he's challenging youtoo Maybe he already has been,
maybe he's been speaking to youabout this To make you a man who
is genuinely concerned for thethings of Jesus Christ, a man
who's aware of what's going onin this world, what God wants to
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do in your community, in yourfamily, in your marriage.
It's important Burden comesbefore vision.
It's really important.
When he heard that the wallswere broken down, he was almost
paralyzed by this burden.
He was stopped in his tracks bythis burden.
He wept, but the first thing hedid was not go into action.
(14:08):
He didn't immediately startdoing things.
His first response was to trulyunderstand what God was doing
and to feel the pain and theenormity of the burden of God.
That's the first thing he did.
I heard it and I wept for days.
That's what it says in chapterone.
(14:31):
He wasn't afraid to let theweight of the situation sink
into his heart and then let hisheart sink up with the purposes
of God.
So when we feel this burdenoverwhelmingly and we feel it
deeply, then the vision can come.
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Burden precedes vision.
You don't decide what you wantto do with your life.
I mean, you can if you want.
It's not a great way to live.
It usually ends in a dead end.
What starts the whole thing isburden.
What is God doing?
What is on God's heart?
And then, who am I and what ismy part?
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And then what is the visionthat God's given to me?
We began to get a heart for thework, a heart for his work.
That's it, and it's not okaythat things stay the same.
We have to do something.
There's something that God hasfor us to do.
So, when it comes to what God isdoing around you, what does
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your heart tell you that youneed to pay attention to in this
season?
Maybe it's different indifferent seasons, you know, but
here we are this morning, rightnow, and you're in your season
and I'm in my season, and whatis it that God's telling you to
pay attention to?
Is it your family?
Is it friends who may not knowthe Lord?
Is it some kind of a socialissue that you're joining to
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that your heart is burdened for,or some kind of a ministry that
maybe you want to be a part ofhere at the church?
Is it missions efforts?
There's something, this thing,that you're feeling could be an
indicator of what God wants youto do in this season.
Burden comes first, and thenthere's vision.
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Okay, so why is burdenimportant?
Why is burden important?
Because the burden drives youto find the vision for how God
wants to use you to alter thesituation that you see.
Burden drives you to findvision.
Nehemiah felt it, and then heprayed, and then he watched and
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he listened.
He went and he made a touraround the city.
He got some people and tookthem with him.
He made a plan, he went to theking.
God gave provision.
This is what's going on.
And the second thing, thesecond reason that burden is
important, is because when hardtimes and opposition comes, it's
the burden that pushes youthrough.
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It strengthens you throughthose difficulties, because this
is important enough to endurehardship.
And if you're just living forthings that are not purposeful
they're just your own stuff,your own distractions hardship
comes and it can overwhelm youand it seems like nothing's
(17:25):
really worth the fight.
But here this is what we'reseeing in this chapter.
The burden makes difficultthings less difficult, or at
least it makes it worth thedifficulty and one of the things
.
I'll just give you an examplefrom my life.
Recently, yuri and I were onthis trip, and this was a tough
(17:48):
trip.
We were in the Himalayas and wewere driving up mountains and
these are the worst roads.
I thought I saw some bad roadsin my life.
These are the worst roads I'veever seen, and if you saw the
tires we were driving on, youwould say it is a miracle.
It's an absolute miraclebecause the tires not only were
(18:09):
bald, but they had steel beltshanging out.
They had little wires hangingout both sides in the back.
Both of the back tires hadthese.
It's like I don't even thinkthis is going to get us down the
road at all.
And we're on these roads, whichare crazy, in the highest
mountains in the world.
I think eight out of the 10highest mountains in the world
(18:32):
are in the Himalayas.
You can go ahead and show thosepictures and, uh, we're driving
up these, these roads and onthese tires, and we're praying.
We prayed, lord.
This is.
I took a picture because I saidwhen this, when we get back
home, this is my, this is mytestimony, this is my miracle
picture.
And I don't I don't have ithere with me, but these are the
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roads that we're on.
We're on these places and it wascold.
It was cold and we were inthese block house and it had no
insulation and it was.
We were like in four layers,plus a coat, plus two blankets.
We just wanted to go to bedbecause the only place it was
not cold was under the covers.
We were in bed like at 7 or7.30 at night.
I don't want to do anything.
Go to bed and the food I don'tknow.
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We ate things that I wasn'teven sure what we were eating.
Okay, and you might think that'sa hardship, but then when you
see the pastor and his familywho are living there, I mean I
go there and then I get to comehome and sleep in my bed and
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come to this church and be withyou.
It's not hardship at all whenyou see these guys who are doing
such difficult work in suchdifficult places so faithfully
for so long, sometimes withoutmuch fruit, visible fruit, and
they're pioneers.
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These are first-generationchurches.
They're pioneers.
In a land where it's 1.4%Christian, it's like they're
alone.
The roads, the food, theweather is nothing.
It's nothing when you look inthe eyes of these pastors.
These pastors are my heart, andto be able to give them
(20:19):
anything that can help them,some kind of a relationship and
encouragement and resources andteaching, it's like you see what
I mean.
The burden makes the oppositionseem not so bad.
You understand, okay, and itapplies in your life too, which
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also includes raising yourchildren and your marriage and
your community and your job andyour school.
All of this you know.
The burden for the vision ofthe future, the vision for
what's doing, joining with whatGod's doing.
It strengthens you, so it makesyou courageous.
So remember, nehemiah was notbuilding a wall, but he was
rebuilding a wall, right?
So what was there before he wasraising back up again?
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And some of us are in a seasonof rebuilding something.
Some of us are building.
We're just building our walkwith Jesus.
We're brand new in this, but alot of us are rebuilding, and
maybe it's a season ofrebuilding for you, rebuilding
what was there before, but it'sbeen damaged for whatever reason
.
You rebuilding what was therebefore, but it's been damaged
(21:28):
for whatever reason.
And maybe it's your personalwalk with God that's being
rebuilt, and maybe it's yourmarriage or strained
relationships, or it's a careeror it's a ministry something.
But God is in the midst ofrebuilding, midst of rebuilding.
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And here's what happens in thischapter Opposition.
Opposition from Nehemiah'senemies is so loud and so
consistent and so embarrassing.
It seems like it multiplies too.
But you know what.
We might as well expect thatthere's opposition too.
But you know what.
We might as well expect thatthere's opposition.
Life is not easy.
Either way you go.
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You might as well go toward theLord Amen, you might as well.
And if you have no oppositionin your life, it could be
because you're not doinganything of eternal consequence
for God, maybe.
What kind of opposition did theyface?
Well, there was angry people.
So what will you face?
Angry people will mock you.
They're rebelling against theking.
They're feeble.
(22:32):
Can they restore these ruins?
What can they do with this?
If a fox walks on this wall,it'll fall down.
I mean, you know, weak men haveweapons, and their weapons are
words, words of accusation,words of shame, and they just
mock the efforts, and sometimes,though, that's all it takes.
(22:55):
It just takes somebody mockingyou, speaking against you.
That's all it takes for you toturn back because you feel
ashamed or your reputation isimportant and people are
speaking against you, and thefear of man is a snare.
Fear of man is a snare.
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It snares you, it captures youand you stop.
Words are a weapon the enemyuses.
Look what he did, though.
Nehemiah prayed.
Okay, this is a pattern throughthis whole book, especially in
this chapter.
Here comes the words from theenemies, and here goes Nehemiah
(23:37):
turning his words to the LordHear O God, for we are being
despised.
God, you fight for us.
We're going to remain focused.
So here's the pattern thathappens throughout this Give the
burden to God in prayer and befaithful.
Give it to God, be faithful.
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Give it to God, be faithful.
What do you do in opposition?
Well, this is pretty goodpattern.
Here.
You turn in prayer.
This is what he did, and it'sreally interesting to me.
It says the wall was restored tohalf its height and all of
these things started happening.
I mean outside opposition,inside opposition, from the
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Jewish people even and I thoughtabout that because half its
height, that's halfway, right,that's the middle point.
And it says that the people hada mind to work and that's why
it got built that big.
They all agreed this wasimportant enough.
But then the middle is the mostdangerous part of any endeavor.
(24:41):
The middle is the hardest part.
Starting out, there's a lot ofadrenaline.
This is awesome.
Finishing is awesome.
The middle is long and tediousand hard.
Can I get any amen?
Okay, I see your faces.
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A lot of us are in the middle,aren't we?
The long middle is thetrickiest part of any endeavor
Middle of marriage, the middleof raising kids, the middle of
school You're not finished.
You're right in the middle ofraising kids.
The middle of school You're notfinished.
You're right in the middle ofit.
The middle of waiting through aseason of isolation where God
(25:23):
is working inside of you so hecan make you into the person
that is capable of doing whathe's called you to do.
That's a long middle and it'shard.
And they rebuilt to half itsheight and here comes the
hardest opposition.
Sometimes right in the middleis the hardest opposition.
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Okay, so don't think it'ssomething unusual.
It's normal.
The opposing voices are theloudest right there.
So Sanballat heard.
He was very angry again.
He was a mad guy.
He plotted to come and fightagainst Jerusalem.
Okay, we're going to attack Allthese people together,
attacking the purpose of God,not just Nehemiah, but the
purpose of God.
Okay.
So what happened?
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Nehemiah prayed and he set aguard.
Give it to God, be faithful.
And he set a guard.
Give it to God, be faithful.
Give it to God, be faithful.
This is over and over.
And then the Jews who lived nearthem came to them because they
heard of this scheme to attackand they came and they said
(26:27):
you've got to return 10 times,10 times.
They came and said you've gotto stop and come to us.
You've got to stop thisbuilding and come back to us.
You've got to stop thisbuilding and come back to us.
You've got to stop thisbuilding and come back to us.
You've got to stop thisbuilding and come back to us.
You've got to stop thisbuilding and come back to us.
10 times, over and over.
What do you do?
Not only from the enemies, butfrom your own people.
You get opposition.
Sometimes Wow, words are aweapon From the enemy, sometimes
(26:55):
from your friends.
Words are a weapon and theyhurt sometimes, but Nehemiah
didn't panic, he was notparalyzed.
You know what he did?
He put courage in the hearts ofpeople with his words.
Words are a weapon both ways,you know.
You can put courage into thehearts of people around you with
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your words, every single day.
You can use your words to buildpeople up, man.
It's a great way to live, it'sa great way to live in the same
house together is buildingpeople up with your words and
putting courage in.
How can I put courage, how canI bless the people who are
(27:37):
around me today?
And he did it.
He did it.
They were fighting, they werestruggling.
He said don't be afraid.
Remember the Lord, who is greatand awesome.
Fight for your brothers, fightfor your sons, fight for your
wives, fight for your daughters,fight for your homes.
Guys, I want to just speak toyou again.
(27:59):
Fight.
If you're wondering what isGod's will for my life, here's a
good place to start.
Fight for your homes.
Fight for your sons and yourdaughters and your wives, your
wife I was speaking corporately,okay.
(28:20):
Speaking personally, you onlyhave one, okay, fight, fight for
her man.
Start there.
Remember, remember chapterthree.
We saw that the wall was rebuiltby families.
Did you see?
You remember that?
Tyler had that last week?
It was a clan or a family builtfrom this point to this point
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and this family built from thispoint to this point.
It's a whole bunch of familiesbuilding the wall.
This is what the church is.
It's a whole bunch of familieswho are coming together and
doing their thing and the wholewall gets built up.
This is the way God worksthrough strong families.
So build a wall, guys.
Build a wall around your family.
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This is also if you're a singleparent and if you're the only
Christian in your household, man, fight for it.
Build a wall in prayer aroundyour family.
Build a sanctuary in yourhousehold where they are safe,
where your family is safe, whereyour family can worship, where
your family can learn about God,not just from Sunday school and
(29:27):
they will, in Sunday schoolyouth group, they will.
But your home needs to be asafe place, it needs to be a
sanctuary, and your family istop priority, top priority, most
important thing God's put onyour plate.
Well, what are the weapons?
Nehemiah's weapons Number onewas prayer.
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Again, this is it.
Give it to God, be faithful.
Give it to God, be faithful,eat what's on your plate, leave
the stuff to him that only hecan do, and do what you can do
Prayer, prayer.
Let me just tell you a storyabout, uh, about my kids when
they were small.
Um, they were maybe, uh, six,seven, eight years old they were
(30:11):
.
My kids are all close together,most of you know that, but they
were small and there was oneparticular child who had a real
issue, and if you know my kidsand you think you know who this
child is, you're probably wrong.
Okay, just tell you, don't tryto guess because you're probably
(30:33):
wrong, and no names will beused here, nor genders, I hope.
But there was one particularchild who had a real struggle
with lying, just like sevenyears old, and this child just
lied all the time, I mean manytimes a day.
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Lying was the worst thing in ourhome, the worst offense,
because if you can't trust eachother, you can't have a
relationship, and so lyingcarried the greatest discipline
in our house.
So lying was just an issue andwe were careful to discipline,
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sometimes many times a day, andthis just kept going and kept
going and Melissa and I justlooked at each other one day and
just said what are we evensupposed to do with this?
So we prayed, and I know I'm apastor, I should have prayed
first.
I know that you don't have totell me that, but we did pray
(31:36):
first.
But I mean, we got seriousabout praying.
We just we said this is, thisis spiritual, and there's
something here that's beyondnormal, and so let's, let's go,
let's go abnormal in our attackof it.
So we fasted and we prayed, andyou know why it took.
It took several weeks of beingfaithful and going to God in
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prayer and being faithful withdiscipline and talking and
explaining.
But you know, that thing wasbroken and this child is the
absolute, most honest of all ofmy children.
To this very day I'm not evensure that this child is capable
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of lying today.
But this is something that wasspiritual, you know, and it was
not even anything that we coulddo anything about.
We could be faithful, but ittook prayer.
So one of the weapons is prayer.
Give it to God, be faithful inwhat you're doing.
Second thing you know they haveswords in their hands, right,
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and I'm going to draw a metaphorhere which I think is
appropriate, because the swordof the spirit is the word of God
, and you remember that Nehemiahwas joined together with Ezra,
right?
This is like Ezra and Nehemiahare actually the same book in
the Hebrew Bible.
So Ezra and Nehemiah Ezra was ascribe and he was reintroducing
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the law of God, and so theywere working together.
So there's this weapon that wehave of the word of God, and
it's how we play defense andoffense at the same time.
You know, a sword is bothdefensive and offensive weapon,
and putting the word of God inour own hearts, reminding
ourselves of it, putting it inthe hearts of those around us
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that we love, it's like thetrowel that we build with.
It's the sword that we fightwith, the word of God.
So prayer, the word of God.
And the last thing that I seehere, which was such a powerful
weapon, was community, becausewhen you read this, you realize
there were people building.
There were people behind themholding weapons.
There were all the elders ofJudah behind them together and
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they said we're so spread outwhen the trumpet.
When you hear the trumpet,rally to your brothers, run to
your brothers.
When you hear the trumpet.
They were building together allof this.
This was not just Nehemiah,this was a huge project.
Clans, families, peopletogether, community.
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Don't be afraid to call out forhelp.
Sound the trumpet when you needto.
I need some help up in here.
We're not supposed to do thisalone.
It literally says we can't bearthe burden alone.
And we can't bear the burdenalone, and in the walls that
we're rebuilding, we need others.
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By ourselves, we will not beable to defend the wall.
It says in the passage, andthis is the truth.
We can't do it ourselves, butwe can do it together.
And so, nehemiah, what did he do?
Again, what do you think he did?
He prayed and he was faithful.
Okay, here's what he prayedthough he prayed God, get them.
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And he was faithful.
Okay, here's what he prayed,though he prayed God get them,
get them, get our enemies, lord,get our enemies.
Could you just stand againstthe enemies and you know what
God did?
He worked, but not in theenemies.
He worked in the hearts of thepeople and he brought the people
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together in the spirit of unity.
When he unified them aroundeach other and around the cause,
then the enemy stopped.
Isn't that interesting?
God didn't deal with the enemy.
God dealt with them and theirhearts, and when they got right,
the enemy stopped.
Interesting, isn't it?
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And we're praying God, strikedown my enemies.
And he's like okay, I think I'mgoing to start with the enemies
in your heart, which could bedisunity or bitterness or
something, whatever it is.
I think this is I'll fight yourenemies, I will.
It may not look exactly likeyou're thinking, but I'll fight.
Sometimes God intervenes Likesovereignly, he does what only
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God can do, and things change.
Sometimes he interacts with us.
Interacts means he's working,but we're working together with
Him, and things change.
And then sometimes Godinteracts, like he works inside
of us.
He's working with us and we'repraying God, change things out
(36:20):
there.
And he's like I am, I'm goingto change things in here.
Here's where things change andthis is where it starts.
Okay, and Nehemiah overcame allthese oppositions by staying
focused on the task.
He said I don't have time tolisten to you.
And in a couple of chapterswe'll see, in chapter six, that
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you know Sanballat's up thereagain trying to call him away
from the work.
And he said I'm doing a greatwork here.
I have no time to fool with you.
I can't come to your conferenceto fool with you.
I can't come to your conference.
I'm building here.
Why should I stop the importantwork and come down to you.
Hear O Lord, he did it again.
Hear O Lord, listen, he keepsdoing this.
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This is amazing.
He's a project manager who prays.
That's not always.
That doesn't always happen.
You know, task-oriented peopleare so focused on the task.
They're not always.
That doesn't always happen.
You know, task oriented peopleare so focused on the task,
they're not always focused onthe prayer.
But he was a little bitprophetic, he was an intercessor
and he was a doer as well.
He's an interesting,interesting guy.
(37:27):
Okay, he gave it to God and hewas faithful, okay.
Well, these are great insights,mark, fantastic.
Thanks so much.
But you don't understand whatI'm going through and you don't
understand how tired I am or howbusy I am or how crazy my life
is.
And I understand crazy I do.
(37:53):
I'm actually pretty acquaintedwith crazy, and some of us are
in a season of busyness.
Some of us are in a season ofdrawing back or God's pruning
things.
That's okay, there's grace forthose kind of seasons.
But also you may just befilling your life up with
(38:14):
busyness and pleasurablepursuits and just feeding your
soul cotton candy, you know, andall you're getting is lethargic
and sick and cavities andemptiness, leanness in your soul
(38:37):
, right?
So maybe God's raising the barhere.
What if you had a heart for hiswork?
What if you joined what he'sdoing?
When you get to the end of yourlife, how are you going to
measure your success?
I'll just end with a littlestory.
(38:58):
I was with this couple in Polanda couple of years ago.
Young couple, maybe 30 yearsold, couple of kids, and I was
just looking, I was on theirback porch and we were having
some tea and just talking, andthis young lady it's probably, I
(39:24):
guess, they were 30 yearsyounger than me, and so I think
they were just looking for somekind of wisdom or something.
But she asked a question I'venever been asked before and I
wasn't ready for.
We're just having tea rightPleasant day.
She said if you look back overyour life, what are your
greatest regrets?
And I thought, wow, okay, theconversation just really changed
(39:46):
.
Okay, so we're going to getserious here, aren't we?
This is great, great question,great question, wise question,
because our regrets are kind oflike a mirror into our soul and
we learn or we should belearning from our greatest
lessons, from our regrets, andI've lived longer than they.
(40:08):
And so she's asking what areyour regrets so we don't make
those mistakes?
Basically it's things of whatshe was doing.
So I thought, wow, I don't okay, didn't know, it was a pop quiz
.
But top of my head I have a lotof regrets from before I came to
Jesus.
Yes, I made really stupiddecisions that hurt people and I
(40:33):
really hate those things.
But those are under the bloodof Jesus.
Thank God, if any man's inChrist, he's a new creation.
Old things are passed away, allthings have become new, all
things are of God.
This is good news, isn't it?
This is what the gospel doesfor us.
I went back to people and askedfor forgiveness, made
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restitution.
That's past.
Thank God, we've got that.
And you know what?
I'm not generally a fearfulperson.
I don't.
I'm not driven by fears.
I don't deal with that a lot.
But there has been a littleconsistent, nagging fear
throughout my life from, like,maybe my twenties or something,
(41:17):
and that is that I might get tothe end of my life and look back
and say I didn't, I didn't walkin all that God wanted me to
walk in, like I didn't takesteps of faith.
I was too.
I was too careful and I didn'ttake steps of faith, I was too
careful and I didn't fulfilleverything.
For some reason that's justbeen a thing.
(41:39):
For me.
It's not a regret, it's justkind of a fear of having regrets
.
But I started thinking about it.
There's kind of big pictureregrets and small picture
regrets and by the grace of God,when I was saved, I began to
make better decisions, and thosedecisions I don't regret.
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And I think wisdom is justifiedby her children right, we
understand wise decisions by thefruit they bear.
But also there's a redeemer.
If we make a mistake it's okay,because God redeems all things.
So thank God for that.
But what I saw when I started wejust kept going deeper in this
(42:23):
conversation.
I thought, man, I just cameover for tea and we're going
like this is philosophizing.
I thought there are thesesmaller regrets which are real
annoying.
But the smaller regrets areinterpersonal, like times when
I've been too harsh, especiallywith the people that I've loved,
and I've been judgmental, notwilling to hear somebody's story
(42:49):
, judging them first, likejudging on outward appearance
instead of seeing that they'rean actual person with a real
soul and a real story and worthlove.
And I thought about that.
Those were the regrets, myregrets that I was listing out
on that patio that day were allrelational regrets.
(43:10):
I wish I had loved better.
That's what it was, and I'm apastor and I've been at the
bedside of people who are dyingand all triviality completely
disintegrates when you're aboutto die and you get really real
(43:33):
and you start thinking andtalking about things that are
real and I've never heardanybody say my regret is I wish
I made more money.
If I only worked harder at myjob and built that business more
, never, never.
But there are regrets of I wishI would have spent more time
(43:57):
with my family while I had anopportunity.
I wish I would have gone deeperin those conversations.
That's where people have regret.
It's relationships, and doesn'tthat make sense?
Because all the law and theprophets come down to this love
God and love your neighbor.
It's loving people.
(44:18):
It's all.
What really matters isrelationships and probably at
the end of your life yourregrets are gonna have to do
with relationships and maybe ifwe think about that now, we
won't have regrets or as manyregrets when we get over and
that life is short.
(44:39):
You got to seize the day, butlife is long.
You gotta.
You gotta live day by day inthis long middle, making
decisions that are consistentwith what's important, and
that's with loving God andloving people.
That's how we build.
That's how we build.
(45:01):
Okay, so this wall wasimportant because it was God's
purpose on earth, but it's a bigpicture.
It's not just a wall, it's abig picture.
It was a small story in the bigstory of Israel, which is the
big story of God's covenant, notjust with Israel, but with all
of mankind through Jesus,because through Israel would
(45:22):
come the Messiah.
And I just want to end byencouraging you and reminding
you that Jesus is our Nehemiah,and Nehemiah was a builder.
And can I remind you that Jesusgrew up in a carpenter's
household and most likely helearned his father's trade.
(45:44):
He was a carpenter's son.
Probably he learned that he wasa builder.
He created all things that wesee and don't see as well, and
he holds it all together.
He's a builder and he's asustainer, and he's building in
our lives right now, in ourpersonal lives, in our marriages
(46:06):
, in our families, in ourcommunity.
He's building.
He's building and he's aredeemer.
And I read this week somethingthat encouraged me so much
Revelation 21,.
He that sat on the throne saidbehold, I make all things new.
He's a redeemer.
It doesn't matter where you'reat If you think the rubble of
(46:27):
your walls is too much.
It's just too much.
It's overwhelming.
It could never be put backtogether.
It's broken and it's burnt andthere's nothing that could be
done.
Don't leave out the God factor.
He's a builder man.
Jesus is a restorer.
He redeems all things.
He makes all things new.
This is what he wants to do forall of us.
(46:48):
Give it to God, be faithful,turn to him in prayer and then
turn to your work and do what.
You know what's on your plate.
Okay, let's stand, let's pray.
Thank you, father, lord, we'regrateful.
Thank you, lord, we're grateful.
(47:09):
Thank you.
Thank you that you're a builder.
Jesus, you're the craftsman.
You're building my life and myfamily, and my church and my
community.
(47:29):
Thank you, father, that you dothis through the gospel.
Thank you that you make newcreations, lord.
Thank you that when we are atthe end of ourselves, we can
come to you.
We can trust this message ofthe gospel that you, through
Christ, have paid for our sins.
You, through Christ, forgive us.
You, through Christ, redeem ourmistakes and make us brand new
(47:51):
creations.
Thank you for the hope of thegospel, lord.
Thank you for Jesus.
Lord, help us to trust yourhands.
Help us to have a heart foryour work.
Jesus, help us rid the rubble.
(48:14):
Build us into what you desirefor us to be, lord.
Don't stop when the wall ishalfway built, lord, build it
all the way.
Lord, help us, those of us whoare in the long, tired, tedious
middle.
Lord, would you give usstrength and would you give us
(48:35):
grace to use our weapons ofprayer and the word and each
other, to give us strength,fortify us, lord.
There's a work that needs to bedone.
Lord, jesus, build and rebuildmy life today, not only in me
personally, lord, but buildthrough me.
Build through me, build throughme in those you have connected
(48:56):
me to, in my family, in mychurch, my community.
Thank you, father, thank youfor a hope, lord, that, even
through opposition, all of thisends in a hope, and I pray for
your hope to be the strength ofour hearts, god, an anchor of
our souls.
Lord, in the name of Jesus,amen, amen.
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