BIG IDEA:
Starting is always easier than finishing a job. If we are to finish the work God is calling us to do we must apply the 3 actions that Nehemiah used to finish the work.
INTRO:
What do you think is easier: Starting a job or finishing a job? Although there are challenges to just getting started I believe the greater challenge is in actually following through and making sure the job gets finished. We see this in home improvement projects all the time. I have a friend who recently told me how much he loves to get projects started around his house – so much so that he has a whole list of halfway completed projects in and around his home. In order to get the jobs done he actually went out and hired a friend to get those tasks completed. Smart man!
When it comes to fulfilling our mission as a church of changing the spiritual landscape of our community, or when it comes to following the ways God is calling us to change the status quo of our lives – it is always easier to get started than to finish the job.
But that’s nothing new. We’ve been studying the first few chapters of the book of Nehemiah, and in it we’ve learned about how Nehemiah was called by God to do what seemed almost impossible and rebuild the wall of Jerusalem which had been laying in rubble for over 100 years. We’ve learned how God gave Nehemiah favor with the King of Persia in order to go and do the work and how, because he prayed and waited for the right time, God gave him success in organizing the people for the hard work. We’ve learned also that doing the work invited ridicule and opposition from others and even made the people get tired, weary, and afraid. But through it all Nehemiah reminded the people to keep their focus on God, and as we learned last week, he instructed them to “Remember the Lord who is great and awemsone, and FIGHT!”
This week we’ll see how Nehemiah continues to wade through the obstacles his enemies place in his path, and how he manages to do what seems so difficult for us – how he finishes the job!
Nehemiah 6
1 When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it—though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates- 2 Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: "Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono."
But they were scheming to harm me; 3 so I sent messengers to them with this reply: "I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?" 4 Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.
5 Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter 6 in which was written:
"It is reported among the nations—and Geshem says it is true—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king 7 and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: ’There is a king in Judah!’ Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us confer together."
8 I sent him this reply: "Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head."
9 They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, "Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed."
But I prayed, "Now strengthen my hands."
10 One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, "Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you—by night they are coming to kill you."
11 But I said, "Should a man like me run away? Or should one like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!" 12 I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. 13 He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.
14 Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who have been trying to intimidate me.
15 So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.
1. Refuse to allow distractions to derail us. (6:3)
Nehemiah has a couple of types of distractions. First he has this persistent messenger from Sanballat trying to get him to stop the work and come down and talk with them.
Then after that tactic failed 4 times, they send the messenger one more time with a trumped up story that they threaten to send back to King Artaxerxes about how Nehemiah is actually plotting to revolt against the King.
Then after that he is told by a supposed “man of God” that what he should really do is quit working and go into hiding to save his skin.
But through all these distractions Nehemiah’s response is the same. "I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?"
And
"Should a man like me run away? Or should one like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!"
here we see that his enemies were trying everything possible to distract Nehemiah’s attention from the job he was trying to accomplish. And he could have wasted all sorts of time going down and talking with them, trying to convince them that he wasn’t really trying to revolt, and just plain hiding out to save his skin.
But he refused to be distracted.
He just said “No.”
Friends – when we as a church try to get moving and change the status quo we can be sure that one of the tools Satan will use against us is the power of distraction.
It’s been called the “tyranny of the urgent”. As soon as you make a commitment to do something for the Lord, or to make a change in your life you will be inundated with STUFF to do. All of a sudden problems will crop up that seem to need all of your attention and energy.
This is a scheme of the devil – and we must be aware of this fact!
How do we defeat the devil when he tempts us to leave the work we’re doing to take care of distractions? Keep the main thing the main thing.
What is the main thing? Loving God with all your heart soul mind and strength. Loving your neighbor as yourself.
Here at Christ the King Church we believe there are 3 main things:
Worship
Outreach
Small Groups.
These are the ways we believe we can leverage the limited amount of time and energy we have for the greatest impact for God’s Kingdom.
That’s why we want you to be in a small group. That’s why I challenge you in the name of the Lord to lead a small group and reach out to people who aren’t yet in a group. That’s why I challenge you to make it a priority in your life this fall, before all the urgent and busy activities crowd it out.
Keep the main thing the main thing. Make Psalm 86:11 your prayer:
Psa. 86:11 Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.
TRANS: So if you want to make it to the finish line of the work God is calling you to do – first refuse to be distracted from the main thing. But in order for this to be possible, you’ll need to…
2. Rely upon the strengthening of the Holy Spirit. (6:9)
9 They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, "Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed."
But I prayed, "Now strengthen my hands."
As in so many other places – Nehemiah realized that he could not do the work on his own. He went to the Lord in prayer and says “Strengthen my hands”.
We’ve got to make the same realization. We will be powerless to complete the work God wants us to do – to create this authentic Christian community that effectively reaches out to unchurched people – without the power of the Lord.
Zech. 4:6 ¶ So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.
How will we get the work done? By His Spirit. All across our church we need people who understand they are weak, but who are leaning into the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish great things for the Kingdom!
I pray that the Holy Spirit will blow upon this congregation and give us evangelistic passion, prophetic insight to encourage and inspire us, the anointing of the spirit to bring wholeness and healing. For it is not by might, nor by our own power – but it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we will change the spiritual landscape.
When we allow the Spirit to work through us
CONCLUSION:
Because Nehemiah refused to be derailed by distractions and
Relied upon the power of the Holy Spirit, there were two results:
1. The work was completed! (6:15)
2. Their enemies started to fear THEM! (6:16)
15 So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.
This reminds me of what James 4:7 teaches:
James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
The devil is going to do what he can to stop you and to stop this church. But if we fully submit ourselves to God and RESIST him – eventually there will come a time when he will FLEE from us!
So don’t give up in your struggle. Keep fighting. Keep praying. Submit yourself to God, resist the devil’s schemes – and see the victory come into your life.
PRAYER:
Maybe there are areas you have not submitted to God. These are a foothold for the devil in your life. Renounce them.
Maybe you’ve not asked for the anointing and empowering of the Holy Spirit in your life. You’ve been doing it on your own. Call out to God and ask for supernatural power.
Lord do your supernatural work to allow us to know the joy one day of seeing the work you’re wanting us to do come to completion.
