Oct. 10, 2021
We’re in part three of our four-part message series, “Doing Good,” about an ordinary guy named Nehemiah doing a good work. Next week is the final message, “Shut the door on distractions.”
Today we’re in Nehemiah chapter 4, and we’re talking about standing strong n the face of opposition. Because anytime that God leads you to do something meaningful, to make a difference, something that is generous and benefits someone else, something that is lasting, you can, unfortunately, expect opposition. You can count on roadblocks. There will be spiritual resistance to slow your work.
If you look at the Bible, you can think of Adam and Eve living according to God’s ways, and the evil servant comes to take them out of God’s will. Moses had Pharoah in his way. David had a giant, Goliath, in front of him. Jesus had all sorts of obstacles: King Herod, the Pharisees and other religious leaders, Judas, the devil, demons, the hometown crowd, and Pilate. Batman had joker! There’s always someone to come and cause you trouble.
Nehemiah, had Sanballat, Tobiah and others who opposed his work.
If you’re just jumping into this series, to catch you up, Nehemiah was an ordinary guy who was a cup-bearer or servant to King Artaxerxes of Persia. Nehemiah heard about the plight of his people, where his ancestors came from, in Judah, 600 miles away. The city of Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Babylonians, and rebuilding had come to a standstill. Nehemiah seeks God’s help in prayer, and he asks his boss, who is the king of the largest empire the world has ever seen at that point. King, can I go and rebuild my ancestral city?
Nehemiah has a burden in his heart for Jerusalem. And so many things fall right into place for him: the king said, ok, go build up the city, but come back when you’re through! And the king sent building supplies and soldiers with Nehemiah, so he could make it to Jerusalem safely. Nehemiah focused on the city wall, which was huge! He worked on rebuilding the gates: the sheep gate, the fish gate, the valley gate, the horse gate, the water gate, the dung gate: no joke, there was a watergate 2000 years ago! Ordinary people helped him. They stayed at the building site and slept in the city of Jerusalem at night instead of going home. They were builders and nightwatchmen, security men. They didn’t even change their clothes for 50 days; they were so dedicated! Has anybody ever done that? That’s a spiritual practice you may not have tried before! Looks like no one has, so we all can thank each other for changing clothes!
So, they rebuilt all of the wall around the city to half its height. They were making progress! People felt more hopeful!. They thought, we just might finish this! But the governors of other provinces saw this rebuilding and they were angry! Who was this Nehemiah guy? Why did the Persian king favor him? These enemies surrounding Israel were also part of the Persian empire. They don’t like seeing Nehemiah do well. They plot to come fight against Jerusalem. Sanballat the Samaritan says, what are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore things?… Will they take stones out of the heaps of rubbish—burned stones, and build a wall with them? Tobiah the Ammonite says, “That stone wall they are building—any fox going up on it would break it!”
When you decide to do something that glorifies God, spiritual opposition is going to show up.
Maybe that is true for you. Maybe you’ve been moving in the direction of doing something that makes a difference. And then opposition comes along. Maybe you decide to go to church for the first time in a long time, and just as you try to leave home the car doesn’t start, and you get in a fight with your spouse, and worship doesn’t happen. Of it could be you’re trying to get out of debt, you’re going to pay off these bills. Then your car breaks down and you have a $700 repair bill. Or you feel that call from God to serve, and you help with Sunday school. You’re the substitute and the kind just run around the classroom and hid. I was that substitute! It’s a struggle to keep on.
It could be you tell someone; this is something I feel I should do, a God thing, and they say, who are you to do this? You don’t know what you’re doing! And they shoot down your idea.
When I finished college, I felt God wanted me to go serve somewhere. So, I signed to go out to serve in a homeless shelter in Seattle, through the MVS. One of my friends says to me, before I left, “I could never go that far away, where I didn’t know anybody.”
It was far, and I didn’t know anybody. But I spoke on the phone with the administrator of the shelter I was going to work at in Seattle. She said, “Do you know Maureen Miller?” No. I didn’t. “Well, she knows you.” It turned out it was someone I knew from college. I knew her by her maiden name, before she got married. We’re both Maureen. Both majored in Russian language. We were both the youngest in our families. I knew her husband from college too. So, it turns out Mike and Maureen were on the night staff of the shelter I was going too!
It was a God message: when someone says to me, “How can you go to a place where you don’t know anybody?” Then God sends me far away, to a place where I didn’t know it, but two of my friends work!
Then someone in my family says, “Why go volunteer in a homeless shelter? Why not get a job? You need to pay those student loans!” The moment you seek God and try to do something significant, people object. They criticize.
God is calling some of you to step up, to serve, to give, to pray, to invite, to show love, not just in the church, but as the church in the world. And the moment you do you’ll have critics.
How do you respond to critics? Most of the time, you don’t. You won’t convince them. They won’t stop criticizing. You ignore them, you keep doing the work of God.
You say to yourself, “I’m not going to be moved by what people think. I’m trying to be moved by what God thinks.” Nehemiah knows better than to try to answer or argue with his critics. It’s tempting to answer or argue. If you’ve been on Facebook, and argued with someone there, how many arguments on Facebook do you win? Zero! So don’t go there!
Instead, Nehemiah prays, “Hear us our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads!” I like that prayer! Nehemiah doesn’t argue with his critics. Don’t tell your critics what you really think, but you can tell it all to God! When insulted, Nehemiah prayed, then he got back to work! Nehemiah ignored his critics. He shows us what to do about criticism. When the voices tell me I’m not good enough, I’ll remember who God says I am. Who is Nehemiah? A servant of a mighty God, a God who can do all things.
At first rebuilding is going well. Then, not so well. The people are discouraged. They say, we’re tired, there’s too much rubble in the way of our work. And their enemies threatened, “We will kill them and stop the work!” It’s hard when people criticize you. And really hard when they threaten you! But the worst criticism comes from yourself. It comes from inside. Insecurity raises its head, and says, “you’ll never be able to finish this! You don’t have what it takes!”
Nehemiah makes sure the enemies from outside the wall can see soldiers at the wall with weapons, protecting it. Then Nehemiah says, “Do not be afraid of the critics, or our enemies. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome.”
Nehemiah takes the focus off himself and puts it on God. We don’t need to be afraid of what people say. Because God is great. Remember the Lord, who is awesome. We are humans, we have our limits. But our God is great and awesome. So don’t be afraid!
When the voices tell me I’m not good enough, I’ll remember who God says I am! Who are we? We are servants of our mighty God! The battle belongs to the Lord. Our God is with us, and our God will never leave us. Repeat that: Our God is with us… and our God will never leave us.
Nehemiah remembered, God was with me when I prayed to God for Jerusalem for two months, and God was with me when I asked King Artaxerxes for help, and God was with me when I journeyed to Jerusalem, and God was with me when I asked the people to help rebuild the wall, and when they said yes. I remember when I came and the wall was all broken down, and now it’s halfway done. Nehemiah remembered: he serves a mighty God who makes the impossible happen!
I remember when I was going to serve the homeless, and I knew nothing about helping homeless people. And I went and learned so much, some of it was heartbreaking, but I grew and helped some people. And at first, I didn’t have a friend in Seattle, and then I found out I really had two, and soon many more. And I remember when God called me to go to seminary and be a pastor. And some of my family didn’t want me to be a pastor. But they got over it. Remember the Lord your God. Don’t be afraid of the critics.
My challenge for you this week is, if you know someone who is experiencing obstacles and critics, encourage them that God will support them and fight for them!
Whatever your challenge, remember the Lord your God! Continue to believe he can get you out of debt. Remember the Lord your God and keep the dream alive that God gives you. Follow that calling. Remember the Lord your God and his passion for reaching out to all who seek Him. Don’t be afraid. Nehemiah wasn’t. He ignored the haters, kept on working, and got that wall built! So, keep on building, one stone at a time, and you, with God’s power, can rebuild the broken places.
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