Nehemiah 3 (Part 2) Bible Study (Rebuilding the Wall) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Turn with me in your bibles, please, to the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah chapter four is the chapter of our focus this evening. And as you're turning there, I'd love for us to pray one more time for God's help. We need his help whenever we come to the scriptures. Nehemiah chapter four.

Father, we thank you. Lord, we bless you, and we are so grateful that you've given us this opportunity to be in your word again. But, Lord, we confess gladly that apart from your grace and your help and your wisdom, this will be a futile meeting. We need your assistance. We need your help, and we submit gladly to the leadership of the Holy Spirit with every verse that we will unlock.

We need you to illuminate our minds, and we need our hearts to be engaged. So, Lord, prepare us to receive from you. Help us believe at this very moment now, we will hear from you for us, and that we will leave here knowing that your will is clear and that your love is yes, it is a true love and that your plans for us are good and that your glory is more glorious than we've ever imagined. We thank you. And we trust you.

We pray that every other voice would be muted, every other opinion will be silenced, and only the pure, unadulterated word of God would be heralded and declared into our hearts. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Nehemiah chapter four. Let me remind you that in Nehemiah chapter three, we have the record of the commencement of the rebuilding of the walls in Jerusalem.

And it is absolutely crucial for us to understand that chapter three emphasizes the beginning of that great work. Why? Because in Nehemiah chapter four, we are going to be reminded that Satan does not wait for God's work to be completed before he attacks it. He will not delay his assault upon a group of people or an individual who seeks to serve God with all their hearts. And as we come to this chapter, we're also going to be reminded that we can never determine when Satan's attacks will come our way.

But there is a pattern in the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation, we see this consistent habit of the evil one that he tends to throw his strongest and sharpest darts when a work of God begins or when it reaches a point of great progression. And that is certainly the case of what we have here. The timing of satanic warfare is not the only thing that we're going to be confronted with. But what's also going to be revealed to us in these verses are the wide attacks in terms of the the scope of Satan's weaponry that he wields against those who are committed to serving God in their respective ministries.

And that is exactly what we are going to take away from this. How to identify Satan's works, his opposition when we work for God. And more than that, in the coming weeks, how to respond effectively, how to overcome. And this truth is going to be modeled for us through the exchange between Judah's ancient enemies and Nehemiah who's going to lead God's people through these attacks and help them overcome. There's a lot to say from this chapter, but tonight, we're only gonna focus on the first three verses, and you'll see why in a moment.

But let's begin by simply reading. Nehemiah chapter four beginning in verse one. Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, what are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves?

Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish and burn ones at that? Tobiah, the Ammonite, was beside him, and he said, yes. What are they building?

If a fox goes up on it, he'll break down their stone wall. This is not the first time that you and I have been introduced to these characters, Sanballat and Tobiah. Nehemiah introduces us to them in chapter two. And this devilish duo did not hesitate to spew out their discouragement and to create intimidation for Nehemiah and his new team. It's not explicitly stated, but it's very likely that Sanballat and Tobiah were political officials who were given authority for the neighboring regions of Judah.

And so when they heard of Nehemiah's arrival to Jerusalem and with that, the permission from the king of Persia to rebuild the walls of the holy city, they met that with great hostility. Why? For two reasons. One, because of their unjustified hatred for the Jewish people, and secondly, they perceived that a fortified Jerusalem was a threat to their selfish interest. This is a danger to their political and their economic ambitions.

And so they tried to, as quickly as possible, put a stop to this. And at the end of chapter two, we actually get the the first words and the first actions of this devilish team before the people even began rebuilding in chapter three. But what we see here in the first verses of chapter four is a much more aggressive approach after you and I have studied the great efforts and the great investments made by the Jews in chapter three in restoring their surrounding barrier. And as we heard earlier, these verses that we just explored reinforce the truth that Satan often meets God's work early in the process with his obstacles and his challenges and his confusion and his threats. And this is important for us to always keep in mind, especially as we seek to multiply and advance what God has entrusted to each of us.

And that's not to make us pessimistic. It's meant to prepare us. It's meant to equip us for what lies ahead, because it is inevitable. When God does something significant, Satan is right there to try to put a halt to it. But I wanna say that there is more to learn from these guys that might be strange to hear at first.

I think there's actually an attitude here worth imitating. What do I mean by that? Well, think about it this way. If men like Sanballat and Tobiah were so quick and so urgent to attack the blossoming of something righteous around them, how much more should you and I be swift to stop evil in our midst? More importantly, when we recognize evil rising within us.

You know, I find that it is common among believers that they take sin seriously only when it has done considerable damage to them or to others. When all the while, they could have stood up to it while it was still in seed form. Why is it that as believers, we take our time with iniquity in our lives and allow it to become a stronghold when we could have stomped on it when it was still larva? And so I I look at the tenacity of these wicked men in their unrighteousness, and I'm convicted. Because it's a challenge each of us in our pursuit toward holiness.

We're often too relaxed when we need to be urgent and pressing and aware and discerning. So here's how that might look. Why not fast and pray while those thoughts about somebody who's not your spouse are still thoughts before they become words or actions. Why not as a husband or as a wife who recognizes the daily ongoing tension in the marriage. Take the initiative to to sit down your significant other and calmly discuss what you sense to be walls being built between you before they get thicker It requires much more counseling and much more intervention and much more history to break down before you can even consider the possibility of forgiving and loving one another like you once did.

Why why wait? Why in your spiritual inactivity, you don't look for the opportunities to serve in the here and now and seize them instead of continuing to justify that condition and allow for weeks and months and years to go by where you look back and think and realize, I did nothing significant for the Lord. I did nothing of worth for the kingdom of God. I look at these men, and I see how they perk up, and they're ready to go to war against something that is holy and good. And I look at myself and say, am I just as willing to bear arms and take dangerous sins and attitudes and mindsets in my own life, never mind others, in my own life, in my own world, in my own home, and go to war with it before it gains more ground and builds higher walls and gets stronger than I thought it could be.

Now we can move on and read these next few verses, but the reason why we're only looking at the first three is because when you consider what Sanballat and Tobiah say, their their arguments and their questioning is extremely insightful concerning how Satan works, the ways of the evil one. You and I have to remember that according to second Corinthians chapter 10 verses three and four, we learn that the main arena for spiritual warfare is the mind is the mind. He tells us in that passage that the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. And then he goes on to describe what those strongholds are. Arguments, lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

Now think about this carefully. Arguments, opinions, thoughts. What do all of these things have in common? They are connected to one's perception and processing of false and untrue notions. You see how Paul defines strongholds.

I know that there are many people in different parts of Christendom who identify and define strongholds in different ways. But if you wanna go with what Paul believes about strongholds in somebody's life, a stronghold is a fortress that has been developed that takes somebody spiritually hostage created by a concept that contradicts God's truth. That's a stronghold biblically speaking. And when you have that kind of framework of mind concerning something that combats what God has revealed, then that ultimately determines how one lives and behaves and reacts. And it also shows us that one of the ways, the main ways that Satan weighs down and demoralizes Christians is by getting them to think a certain way.

And so he uses clever words, clever ideas, convincing lies. And this is what we find here in Nehemiah chapter four. There is no physical weapon raised, though there will be threats later on in this story. There is no siege. What you have here at the outset are words.

And in the same way, the lord Jesus has ambassadors who speak the truth. Satan has his emissaries who spread lies, both human and demonic. And in this case, Sanballat, with his rhetorical questions, represents perfectly what any true servant of the Lord can experience as they try to be steadfast and faithful to the work that the Lord has called them to. And that's what I want you and I to explore together. But before we do that, we have to look at where it all started.

This is not the first time that these men speak. It's back in chapter two before the the project, this enterprise actually began. Go to chapter two quickly. Look here with me in verse 19. These are the first recorded words of this opposition in the story.

Nehemiah two verse 19. But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the Ammonite servant, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, what is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king? So the intent of this confrontation is quite clear, isn't it? They are trying to instill fear in the Jewish people.

How How do we know that they're implementing fear tactics? Because they mention and they bring up the king, and they don't wanna deal with the king of Persia. Remember, they don't have total independence here. Medo Persia is ruling the known world, and they are subject to their governance. Now what's also important to understand is that Nehemiah, before this, already comforted the people, and part of his testimony of getting them excited about his plan and his leadership was that he received permission from the king.

And Sempila and Tobiah, they knew that, but they also knew what the human heart is capable of. And so by mentioning the king and and them potentially rebelling against them, what they're trying to essentially do is create hesitation, to second guess, to delay. Fear oftentimes does that. When we're at the threshold of obedience or stepping out in faith, Satan wants to make you scared. Do you understand how this can be interpreted?

Do you understand what kind of trouble you'll get yourself into potentially? But here's the thing, and I praise God for this. It didn't work. Fear did not work for this group of Jews under Nehemiah's leadership, but that doesn't mean that Satan doesn't have other weapons. His arsenal is deep, and that's what chapter four is about.

I highly encourage you tonight to take note of these five hazardous thought patterns that Satan would love to instill in each of us. Because what we're about to explore here are false persuasions that any of us can encounter, and if we're not careful, can ultimately believe to our own peril. Five hazardous thoughts. Five dangerous lies, half truths, concepts that can cripple you and me as we seek to serve the Lord. And the first one is this.

The enemy the enemy will often point out our weaknesses. Go back to Nehemiah chapter four. Look here in verse two. And he sat in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, that is Sanballat. What are these feeble Jews doing?

Not just the Jews, feeble Jews. What does the word feeble mean? Weak. What do these weak Jews think that they're actually doing? What are they trying to accomplish?

And here's what we have to understand. Before the enemy will minimize what we do for the Lord, he will often minimize us. Before he criticizes the work, he will assault the worker. And he does this in many ways, and some of you can relate to this. There are times when he will haunt you and I with our past failures, and he will cause you to reflect on embarrassing moments, maybe even in ministry, foolish decisions.

For what reason? To make you feel unqualified or to make you afraid to make those same blunders again. Other times, he will even bring to mind deficiencies in your own gifting or abilities. And you begin to sense that you're unprepared, or maybe you're not gonna be as effective as you once thought. And so you think that maybe the Lord hasn't really called you to this, or maybe this isn't providential.

And you begin to wonder if this is something actually from God. More than that, he can even cause you to compare yourself to somebody else who's serving the same area of ministry as you. But, oh, you recognize that they're so much more gifted, and they seem to be so much more appreciated. And then you compare and you look at yourself and you think, I'm not sure if I can produce similar results. If anything, I'm not sure if I can do anything of significance for the Lord.

And if you and I are not careful, you and I can rehearse our past and present shortcomings so often that we begin to lose faith that God can actually do anything with our lives. And if you don't quit right away, what begins to happen is you develop a joyless mindset because you're looking at your own weakness, and you're looking at your own strength, and you're looking at what you're missing, and that begins to translate in how you serve the lord. It taints it. It impacts it. And then, eventually, it might leave you altogether reluctant to do anything for him at all.

What are these feeble Jews doing? I I wanna share truth with you that helped me early in ministry. Help me to to combat and to shut down these unhelpful self evaluations. Scrutinizing and and looking at yourself to the point where you're so discouraged instead of looking at the one who empowers us in our weaknesses. Did you know this?

Did you know that the might the apostle Paul was called weak by his opponents? I mean, I can't think of a stronger Christian in all of church history. And yet, just as we see here, there were agents of Satan in the New Testament in the life of the apostle Paul that tried to convince him that he was feeble. Not impressive, unimpactful. You have to see this with your own eyes in second Corinthians.

Paul is trying to rescue the Corinthians from a group of false teachers who have infiltrated the church. And one of the ways that they are trying to win their allegiance is by discrediting the apostle Paul, and they got real personal. They got downright dirty. They were nitpicking little things about him, and one of the things that they tried to actually highlight was what you find here in second Corinthians chapter 10 verse 10. Notice what Paul says.

As word gets to him about what his opponents were saying about him in the presence of those that he want to Christ. In second Corinthians 10 verse 10, Paul says, for they say his letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech of no account. You have to remember the Corinthians were Greeks, and the Greeks put such a premium on oratory ability and rhetorical skills. And, apparently, Paul didn't make the cut in their estimation. So they admitted, you know, when Paul writes his letters, man, he's strong.

He's bold. He's convicting. But when he comes to the town to be the guest speaker for that Sunday service, not very impressive. He doesn't have a commanding presence. Kinda get lost when he talks.

How do you think Paul reacted to this? Well, one of the things he says is what ministered to me to this day. And this was years ago when I first encountered this in my own personal reading starting out in ministry. I don't wanna get into everything he says, but notice one thing he brings up in verse 13. But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us to reach even to you.

You see what Paul is saying? I have no right nor do I have the ability to boast in anything of myself. Because anything that I even do that is good, any influence that I may possess has been assigned to me by God. Notice this way of thinking. Even the breadth of my influence in my gospel ministry has been determined by mighty God, and I will not boast beyond that.

What do you learn from this? Your skill and how how many people it may reach, your influence, your gifting, not only is that from God, right, the gift itself, but the impact is also fixed by God. The size of your church is determined by sovereign God. The people in your Sunday school class is determined by God. Who may know your name or not know your name?

That's all determined by God himself. Paul admits it. God assigned this to me. Now you have to be careful. Does that mean that we don't ever believe God for more and trust him for greater fruit and more souls and more disciples?

Absolutely not. Look here at verse 15. In the same breath, look what Paul says. We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others, but our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged. So in one verse, Paul says, say whatever you want.

Whatever influence I may have, God determined that. He assigned that to me. And also he said, but I'm hoping that he will broaden it. I wanna see more fruit. I wanna see the gospel reach to more lands.

And I'm hoping that through your obedience and your ministry in connection to mine, that would happen. So you see this beautiful melody. You see this wonderful harmonization of contentment and faith. A rested soul, but also one that wants more. So, yeah.

They are feeble. That's partly true, but they serve a mighty God. He's the one who's gonna energize them to build this wall as we were gonna find out in a moment here. But Satan loves to point out our weaknesses and when he does, remember that your personality, your abilities, even the area of your influence is determined by him, by the Lord. Rest in that while believing him to multiply your gifting and your fruit.

The second thing that we see here in Sambalat's sarcastic onslaught that reflects the enemies is that the enemy questions our motives. The enemy loves to accuse and question our motives. Come back to Nehemiah four verse two. And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, what are these feeble Jews doing? Now look at the second question.

Will they restore it for themselves? Will they restore it for themselves? Now what is Sanballat getting at here? Well, when you consider the broader context, we see that the opponents of the Jews constantly and slanderously assume that the reason why they are repairing these walls is because they wanna regain their independence and ultimately rebel against the king of Persia. We read it earlier in Nehemiah two verse 19.

Did we not? What are these things that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king? They're doing it here, and it will reappear in a couple of chapters. Let's look at it quickly.

Look at Nehemiah six just to prove this point. Nehemiah six. Look at verse five. In the same way, Sanballat, for the fifth time, sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. Pause.

This this man will not go away. Five times sending the same servant with the same thoughts? Welcome to spiritual warfare. But look at verse six. In it was written, it is reported among the nations, and and Geshem also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel.

That is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports, you wish to become their king. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Nehemiah's sacrifice, Nehemiah's character proved otherwise, but that did not stop these adversaries from spreading these lies. And what I find so amazing is that they are repeated lies.

They just come again and again and again and again throughout the story, showing us what? That the enemy of our souls loves to slander our character, loves to make you doubt your own self about your motives in serving the Lord in order to cause you to reconsider. And Satan sometimes uses people to do that. Like Sanballat, who sent his letters, you may get some emails from time to time. You may even have somebody who's audacious enough to give you a face to face comment or two that questions your sincerity, your humility, and if you're really doing this for the glory of God or for people to praise you.

Can I use the apostle Paul as an example again? Did you know that his his motives were questioned as well by the same enemies who called him weak? The reason why I bring this up is to show you that this is not an isolated incident. This is a repeated pattern we find in the in the Bible, and we must not be ignorant of Satan's devices. You know what?

Let me just say this. Here's what's so amazing about this. Sanballat and Tobiah and those other awful people, they could not take liberty of going to war, physical war with the Jews. You know why? Because they had the backing of the king of Persia.

So what are they relying on? What's their main ammunition here? Discouragement, disheartening, draining their hearts from courage and hope to get them to give up. And that's the same with you and I. If he can't downright persecute us and show up at our front door with weapons and terrorist threats, then he'll just whisper in your ear long enough for you to throw in the towel yourself.

That's why this is so crucial. He wants you to give up. He he wants you to stop fighting and stop having that zeal and passion and commitment. Pay attention to what the Lord is saying. I want you to see what Paul had to endure.

Let's come back to second Corinthians. Look here at verse 12 chapter 12 beginning at verse 16. Second Corinthians chapter 12. In second Corinthians 12 verse 16, Paul writes, and he's writing sarcastically here. But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit.

Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you? I urged Titus to go and sent the brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps?

What's happening here? Well, early on you learn that Paul was being critiqued and even condemned by these false apostles who came into the church of Corinth and said, hey, I want you to know. Listen. Paul's a grifter. Paul's in this preaching thing for your money, and there were people who would come into town for that for that reason.

Paul wasn't one of them. So Paul makes a defense. Right? Sometimes you do have to defend yourself, and he does that earlier on in this book, and he lets him know, do you not understand that I have reserved my right as an apostle to be paid for the gospel in order that I might not create any obstacle between you and I? I could have demanded something from you materially, but I didn't.

I didn't wield that right because I want you to be safe. And he says even early on in this text, I am here for you, not for what you have. But look how scary this is. The Corinthians could not deny that Paul did not make any demands on them. They they they say, okay.

We understand. You never asked for any payment. You didn't ask for any personal donations. You didn't fleece us. You didn't exploit us.

We get that. But the false teachers convinced the same group. Yeah. Paul Paul never did that, but he's much more cunning. You see?

What's happening in Corinthians? One of the things that are happening is that Paul is making an appeal to the same group of Christians because he wants to raise funds for these suffering poor Christians back in Jerusalem. And so he's good going to these different churches and they all made the pledge, we'll give this much. Other church say, we'll give that much. The Corinthians were hesitant.

They said he will sign us up, but they didn't end up giving the donation. So Paul is making this appeal to them to actually live up to their promise. And it could be that one of the things that these false teachers did was inform them as much as Paul is actually seeming to raise funds, it's for his own profit. Wow. And and and listen to this, you Corinthian Christians.

We're we're here for you. Look at these false shepherds. We're here for you. Notice what Paul does. He didn't come outright and say, I need your money.

He sent one of his own co ministers. He sent Titus and the other brother. It's all a cloak. He's creating these degrees of separation so that you don't think that it's him actually asking for the money. He's doing it through his partners.

And Paul comes here and says, are you serious? You gotta admit, this is impressive. This is an impressive lie. This is sophisticated, and Paul had to deal with it. And if you serve God long enough in the church, you will have to deal with it.

People coming up with these crazy theories and ideas about why you do what you do for the Lord. And you and I have to be prepared for it. And here's the thing. The hidden danger in this strategy is that it goes beyond just bothering us what people say or think about our character, about our ambitions, or about our motives. Those lies can eventually cause you to doubt yourself, especially when they stem from your own thoughts.

I'm not sure if you can relate to this, but maybe you have thought things like the following. Am I really doing this for God's glory? Am I doing this for people to like me? Am I really doing this to please the Lord? Am I doing this to make me feel a certain way?

And listen. There may be times where such self examination is necessary, but if you're not careful, you can enter into the realm of analysis paralysis, where you so drill into your own heart trying to figure out how pure your heart is and how intentional you are of doing this for the right reasons, where you end up becoming so exhausted that you you even begin to think, maybe I shouldn't enter into serving God at all just so I can avoid the temptation of becoming proud. He's a clever foe. Be careful. And we see here, as much as I would love to unpack how to deal with those nagging and confusing thoughts that come through, the best solution, the best defense of preventing yourself from being sabotaged and held hostage by these recurring ideas is to cultivate a personal communion with the Lord.

If all you do in your Christian life is serve, serve, serve, serve, serve, serve, serve, which is wonderful, which is great, but it's not flowing from individual hidden private love for Christ and adoring Christ and knowing the heart of Christ, this will become a greater temptation in your life. Because what that communion with the Lord does is it gives you a way to be able to take all the praise of man. You can't control what people say about you, whether it's good or bad. And even your own heart posture that you're confused by, some days you feel holier than the next. No matter how you feel that day in your service, oh, Lord, you can come before Christ and shut that door behind you and say, oh, Lord, the praise of man this day or this week, they belong to you.

Those flowers are yours. Those crowns are yours. And, Lord, my heart you know my heart. I I wanna do this for your glory. And sometimes I feel that that pride trying to captivate me and take a hold of me.

But, Lord, I pray that you subdue it. You you weaken it in my heart. And you go on and you serve him and let the Lord deal with you. He's faithful to do it. But you see, Satan constantly wants to whisper and accuse you of your motives.

So So the best thing to do is to go to the one who knows all things and ask him to cleanse those motives and to keep you from arrogance and to keep you even from discouragement. Thirdly, as we come back to Nehemiah four two and consider five hazardous thought patterns that can cripple us in our service to the Lord. Let's read these questions again in verse two. And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, what are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves?

Here's the third question. Will they sacrifice? Will they sacrifice? If you're taking notes, then jot this down. The enemy, thirdly, the enemy ridicules our dependence on God.

The enemy ridicules our dependence on God. Will they sacrifice? What does he mean by this? Well, you could look at it this way. Semballat understands that at the other side of accomplishing this project, there will be a thank offering made.

And that was something that you saw throughout the old testament, that there is a thank offering to to express gratitude to the Lord for for a testimony or for deliverance or for a miracle. And so it could be that Sanballat is saying and mocking, really, if they will ever even reach that point. Will they sacrifice? Will this actually bring them to a point where they will thank God and glorify him for this this great feat? But I'm reminded what Nehemiah said to these same men back in chapter two that I think offers greater clarification and the true intention behind this question.

Go back to Nehemiah two again in verse 19, but look now at verse 20. We'll read it from verse 19 just to get the flow of thought here. But notice what Nehemiah does early on in the story with these men. In verse 19 of Nehemiah two. But when Sanballat, the Horonite, and Tobiah, the Ammonite servant, and Geshem, the Arab, heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, what is this thing that you are doing?

Are you rebelling against the king? Then I replied to them, the God of heaven will make us prosper, and we, his servants, will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem. I love this man. He unashamedly declares in the presence of his opponents that God will be the reason for their success. God will make us prosper.

And with this background in mind, it could be that what Sanballat is saying when he asked, will they sacrifice, is that he was questioning and even scorning the sacrifices that would be performed by the Jews in order to inherit God's favor and blessing upon their efforts. The protocols of of devotion and love and dependence on God in order to have his blessing and have his hand upon what they perform in his name. In other words, this wicked individual is essentially saying, do they hope that through their worship and prayers at the altar, God is going to hear them and help them? What vain hope? What silly superstition?

What a waste of time. Satan is no different today. You always cause the people of God to wonder if fasting really works. Does praying really work? Does living holy really work?

Does seeking God and waiting on God really work? And look how cunning the enemy is. If he can't stop you from working, then as we see here, he will cause you to potentially abandon the true source of your strength and success in your work. Will they sacrifice? Will they call upon God?

Will they actually rely on a transcendent force that will enable them to do this. And whenever such thoughts rise in our minds where we begin to think, is depending on the Lord in this way really effective? You know exactly where those thoughts are coming from. King Solomon, who in his day did much for the city of Jerusalem, and with all the wisdom that he was granted, declared joyfully in Psalm one twenty seven. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.

Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stay awake in vain. And Nehemiah, who is leading a new effort to rebuild these walls, believed the same thing as Solomon. God will make us prosper. It's amazing. We touched on this in Nehemiah two.

When Sanballat and Tobiah said, are you rebelling against the king? You know what Nehemiah could have done in that moment? No, actually, and reach into his back pocket and say, we have permission from the king. You didn't know this? But he doesn't appeal to the king of Persia.

He appeals to a higher king. God will make us prosper. He understood that down deep inside, apart from God's blessing, we will not know true success. We will not reach these goals. Yes.

Satan frequently will cause you and even ridicule your dependence on God. Get up from your knees. It's not doing anything. Stop starving yourself. What is that gonna produce?

Haven't you waited long enough? Look at you. You're only getting older. If God wants to use you so badly, why isn't he hurrying up? Will they sacrifice?

Be careful. Trust God's word. As we just as you just heard, where else will we go? If we believe this is God's church and God's kingdom and God's gospel, then we need God's help. There's no other way around it.

And I know today, people are coming up with more clever ideas and people are producing this and that, but nothing will ever replace the Holy Spirit's presence and power in his church. I don't want any other alternative. I don't want any cheap substitute. I want God. And the only way to access them is to do it according to God's way.

Will they sacrifice? Praise God. Nehemiah ignored that one. But we come to the fourth tactic that the enemy will use to hinder the people of God from going forward and serving God. And it's found in the fourth question of verse two of Nehemiah four.

Let's read all of them again. And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, what are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day?

Santoleta and the spirit at work behind him is not done yet. He still has two more arrows to shoot, and what we just read here is the second to last one. Will they finish up in a day? What is he communicating by that? No doubt, the Jewish people, as we saw in chapter three, had great enthusiasm and fervency to to rebuild the walls.

It was palpable. You can imagine the energy in the air. You can imagine the buzz in the streets of Jerusalem. Clearly, he got the attention of Judah's foes. And so when Sanballat steps up with his army from Samaria and his bullies, he does not hesitate to argue that the excitement of the people has blinded them from the enormity and the difficulty of the task ahead.

And that is the fourth strategy Satan is being exposed for here. He seeks to deflate our joy by magnifying the challenges of of God's work, the work that we are a part of. And the aim here is to so overwhelm the Jews that they simply throw in the towel thinking to themselves, you know what? You may be onto something. Are we actually going to get this done at a reasonable time?

Did we did we get a little too hyper here? I mean, all it took was Nehemiah to give us a little speech, and we said, sign us up. But is this really going to be worth it? How long is this actually gonna take us? Are we even going to be around long enough to enjoy the fruit of the labor?

Is there actually going to be lasting results from our investments here? What do you guys think? You're gonna finish in a day? Understand how great of a project this is? Look at you guys, all excited and praising God and singing your hymns while you're building.

You have no clue what's ahead of you. Listen carefully, please. If you serve in the church long enough, you will inevitably encounter difficult people and challenging circumstances that Satan will use to convince you of the same thing. And in moments when you feel the urge to just give up for whatever reason, you have to remind yourself that serving God is hard work. To believe otherwise is unrealistic.

It is hard work. But with that hard work is incomparable joy, and God's blessing upon that work. You and I can never determine the the results of our efforts for the kingdom of God. You can't. That's just true.

But you have to also believe that it is never in vain. And let me prove that here. We're gonna look at these passages more carefully in the coming weeks, but let's take a quick peek at them. I want you to see briefly how Nehemiah and the Jews responded to what he says here. You think you can actually finish in a day?

Scroll down here to verse six of chapter four. So we built the wall, And all the wall was joined together to half its height for the people had a mind to work. The enemy tried to get them to to not work, to stop the work. And what did he do? I love this.

I love the language here. So we built the wall. It's like, okay. You can say whatever you want. We're building.

But notice the attitude. Notice the internal heart posture. They had a mind to work. They were determined. They were devoted.

Hands to plow, white knuckled, not looking back. That's the kind of grit. That's the kind of conviction that is needed in each of us if we're gonna see not just God's work blessed, but overcoming those that would hinder what we wanna do for the glory of God. But notice, they had a mind to work. And you fast forward to chapter six, and notice this commentary at the completion of the walls being built.

Look at Nehemiah six verse 15. So the wall in Nehemiah six fifteen, so the wall was finished on the twenty fifth day of the month of Elul in fifty two days. And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. Do you see this? God met the hard work of the people with his divine help in such a way that even the enemies of God's people couldn't deny it.

But what if Sanballat convinced them? What if he made them droopy? What if he caused them to to to just think? I don't know if this is really gonna go anywhere. I don't know if this is worth it.

Don't let Satan ever persuade you that what you do, that diligent, sacrificial service, is not worth it. If God is with us, then the impossible can be done. You'd be amazed to know what he can do when we work hard for him. The people recognize this is more than just hard work. This is something from heaven.

And they stopped talking for a little while. But that's not all that Sanballat said. We come to the final thought, the final tactic, the final persuasion that he wants to sow into our hearts. Come back to Nehemiah four two with me. And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, what are these feeble Jews doing?

Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish and burned ones at that? The final mental dart that the enemy will launch in our direction is that he will draw attention to our lack of resources as we seek to serve the Lord.

And this is dangerous, especially for leaders, but for all of God's people. You have to remember that Nehemiah here is not working with new inventory. He he did not receive a fresh supply of limestone. He's actually willing to recycle the stones that were destroyed many years ago at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, who brought those walls tumbling down, and some of them were even burned. And in like manner, the enemy of our souls does not hesitate to amplify what a church does not have, or perhaps the inferior quality of what we do possess.

Or as we're trying to just work with what we have, he belittles it, and he minimizes it to the point where it convinces you that you you think that you can never build anything of excellence for the glory of God. And it's at this point that Tobiah, Sanballat's friend, chimes in. Look again at verse three. Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, yes. What are they building?

If a fox goes on it, he will break it down. He'll break down their stone wall. Imagine that. We don't even need an army to dismantle this thing. All you need is a little fox to run across it, and it will come down like a house of cards.

So recall this now. Earlier, Sanballat attacked the workers, the feeble Jews. What do they think that they're doing? Now both Sanballat and Tobiah are pointing the finger at the work itself. And what's what's the warning here?

I believe it's twofold. First, you and I must not despise the days of small beginnings. They're just starting. Are they not? I mean, verse six, we read here that they'll reach the halfway point, but they're not even there yet.

And listen. There are many people who serve with skepticism, especially at the start of a new work for the Lord, because they constantly struggle and wrestle believing that God can actually bring about something good from this. And this is a common temptation usually with those at the initial phase of any kind of work. They look at the lack of funding. They look at the lack of volunteers.

They look at the lack of enthusiasm. You only have a handful of people. Everybody else seems distracted and disinterested. And then you begin to sense there's even on top of this, the lack of testimonies, and all of that creeps in and begins to suffocate your faith. But remember, if the Lord is with you as he was with Nehemiah, he can do miracles with whatever you have at your disposal.

And as I was meditating on this the other day, actually, earlier today, it came to me. It just naturally sprung up in my mind as we've come here on a Friday night for yet another bible study where this all started. In a living room owned by a church that was connected to a kitchen of all things, with a small little camera at the back on a stand that didn't have sufficient memory sometimes in it. So that some of the Bible studies to this day are who knows where. And while we're having Bible studies, somebody dares to make pizza, so that people can smell pizza while we're trying to understand the book of numbers.

And somebody doesn't just want water. They want the ice from the dispenser in the fridge so that while you're teaching on a prophecy in Isaiah, you hear the clunking of ice in a glass. And you wonder, what are we gonna do? Where is this going to go? And here are people sitting in foldable chairs and some of them were picnic chairs.

And there was a pool table in the back, and there was chairs surrounding the pool table. And we realized, okay, we need space. So we got rid of the pool table. And then once the pool table was gone, we realized we need a bigger building. And so we went to the actual church building.

And after that happened, we needed a new new church altogether. And in that new church, we realized that people are still coming to the services at 1PM of all times with no parking. And here we find ourselves in Barrington, Illinois in a room that I'm still trying to understand has been granted us by almighty God. Thank God there is no fridge here with an ice machine. I am so grateful for that.

And I'm so grateful for food, but I don't think smelling pizza during bible study is helpful. That's where it all started. And you can so easily begin to think to yourself, I mean, okay. We're we're doing this week by week, and it's great. It's wonderful, but where can this actually go?

And the Lord says, watch me. The enemy would love to tell you, look what you don't have. Look at the lack of support. Look at this and look at that, and he he makes you look at the things that are burned and the things that and yet even the things that seem disappointing at the moment, even people that you thought would never actually get serious and come alive in Christ, like these burn stones, God does miracles. Just stay faithful.

Stay committed to what God has called you to do. No matter who your audience is, no matter what kind of support you have or don't have, just stick with it. Don't give up. That's exactly what he wants. So do not despise the days of small beginnings.

But there's a second thought. I mentioned there's two things that we can draw from this fifth and final tactic of the enemy. And it is this, so crucial, so important, so life giving when you believe it. The enemy from time to time will tell you directly or even through others how insignificant your efforts are for the kingdom. No matter how pure, no matter how devoted, no matter how sacrificial your work for God may be, your worship is to him.

He will find a way to minimize it, to scandalize it, to make it seem so small in your eyes? Do you remember what Judas and the disciples said when Mary of Bethany came into that house and took her ointment and broke the neck of it and poured it and anointed the lord Jesus with it. It started with Judas, and the disciples joined them. They said, what kind of a waste is this? This could have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor.

It's amazing. The disciples determined that what Mary of Bethany did in that act of worship was a waste. And my favorite part of the story is that Mary doesn't even defend herself. In Mark 14 verse six, Jesus defends her, and He says, leave her alone. You can imagine the sight right there.

There's Mary on her knees. There's Christ sitting there. There are the disciples surrounding her with that aroma of perfume filling the air, and yet this this stench of slander and accusation and self righteousness competes with that wonderful perfume. And Jesus says, leave her alone. Why do you trouble her?

She has done a beautiful thing to me. What was seen as a waste in the eyes of others was a beautiful thing in the sight of Christ. And you may look at your own ministry and think, I think this is kind of a waste, actually. You haven't heard a thank you in years, maybe. And there doesn't seem to be this escalation, this this growth.

It's kind of fluctuating. One day, it's like this. One week, it's like that. One season's like this. And you're wondering, is this a waste?

Maybe you even heard it from others. Why are you doing this? Just stop wasting your time. And all the while, Christ himself says, this is beautiful. It's moments like this where you have to not even depend on your own estimation of the work that you're doing, but look from Christ's eyes and his heart and let that be the final say.

What does he say of it? What does he think of it? What reward awaits you at the end of that race? Why did we go through all of these questions one by one? Let me end here in this final verse of Nehemiah four.

Come down to verse 11. This is where we'll close. It says here in Nehemiah four verse 11, and our enemies said, they will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work. Those three last words. This whole chapter is about these enemies who wanted the Jewish people to stop working for God.

And I wonder if at this Bible study filled with people who serve the Lord from their hearts, you feel that temptation. Because more than ever, what's the loudest in your thinking, in your meditations is your weakness. Or perhaps you wonder if you're doing it for the right reason, and you're ready to just step away because the enemy has convinced you of something that's not true about your ambitions and your character. Or perhaps you are about to disconnect yourself from the very life that's gonna keep you in this for the long haul, and that is all depending on God daily, looking to the Lord, receiving from him his strength, his wisdom, his power. Maybe it's not any of that.

Maybe it's this is getting so difficult. You had that initial excitement, and now you're realizing, actually, this is a battlefield, and I didn't know how ugly people can be, and I didn't know how demanding this was. And I thought that this could be easier. I thought we can finish this sooner. I thought I can actually get to my goal at this point, and it's not.

And you're you're you're you're fearful. Or maybe as you've been entrusted with a ministry or as you've been joining a new church, you look around you and you think, I don't know if we're gonna actually make an impact for God's kingdom at this point. Wherever you're at today, don't stop serving God. Don't. That's exactly what Satan wants.

And as we come together next week, we're going to see how Nehemiah and God's people responded to these very attacks and how they were able to overcome. For now, let's thank it for what we heard. I actually I would love I would love for each of us, without rushing, to genuinely pour out our hearts before the Lord, and to speak to the Lord about our ministries, our service to him, our commitments to him, and ask God to fortify you again. Ask the Lord to give you a fresh joy. Ask him to renew that enthusiasm.

Ask him to make his voice louder than any other voice. Believe God today. And if you're strong today, if you heard all this and you're like, praise God. I know what that's like, but I'm not there. Wonderful.

Give him glory for that. But be prepared for those attacks. So So let's do that. The praise team can come. Come praise team.

Join us. Prepare us in singing in a moment here. Let's not rush. Let's speak to God tonight. Let's fellowship with God tonight.

You're here tonight. Don't leave so quickly. Respond to his word and ask him for that grace. I'm gonna join you tonight. How we need you, Lord.

Father, in this place, we thank you for every person who serves you. We thank you for the commitments. We thank you for the long nights. We thank you for the prayers that have been prayed in private. We thank you for the dreams and the hopes, the sacrifices that have been made.

We thank you for where you brought us as a church. Lord, we understand that there is an enemy who hates seeing God's work being built. And, lord, not just for Maranatha Bible Church, but for every ministry represented here, we pray that we would leave here with a a sense of strength from above. Hope, Lord. Bring fresh hope.

Bring faith. Renew us. We pray that you would renew us, father, by the power of your holy spirit. Lord, we pray for any pastor who's listening to this today, who has been truly called by you, and they feel like, I don't know if I can do this anymore. I don't know if I can do this anymore.

I don't know if my family can handle this anymore. Lord, speak to them now. Speak to them now, Lord. We need more godly pastors in this land. Mute the voice of the enemy in their lives.

Those who serve voluntarily, who do not have any kind of financial compensation, but they work as though they they should be paid. They've never done it for money. They've never done it for accolades. They've never done it to be presented before the congregation. But, Lord, they're getting weak and tired.

Lord, we pray that you infuse in them a resilience and a love for you that will be their ultimate fuel to go on. We pray for those who have started something fresh and there seems to be so little fruit And they're frustrated because they hope they really believe that you are the one who told them to do it, and they're thinking, but where is where is the results? Where are the testimonies? Lord, may they not despise the days of small beginnings. May they keep serving you and leave the results to you.

Overshadow us with your grace tonight, Lord. And even as we sing these songs that we would know we would know that your word is true and that we'd be able to identify the lies of the evil one with greater clarity and confidence. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Let's stand together. Let's stand in worship, Lord. Let's thank him for how he has spoken to us. I feel like we're a group of soldiers in here that just heard from our commander in chief. He is for us.

He is with us. Let's thank him for it together.