Wednesday Evening Services 7 PM - Nehemiah 5-6, Fighting Battles and Building Walls, Pastor Ryan Nic

Oh, this world, just give me Jesus. You can't this world, you can't this world.

Yes, it's working. All right, good evening, church family. I'm so glad you're here. Glad you could make it out on this hot day. Amen, you guys can go and have a seat if you like.

Lord God, I just pray that we would desire you more than anything. Lord God, more than possession. More than possessions, more than health or anything, Lord God. More than our own family, Lord. I just pray that we would desire you first and foremost. When we wake up in the morning, Lord. Lord God, and when we lay down at night. And when we come to the end of this life, I pray that we would desire you most of all, more than anything.

Father, tonight as Pastor Ryan comes, I just pray that you bless him. Lord, let your Holy Spirit move mightily this evening. Let your word go out with power. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Good evening. If you have a Bible, if you would open up to the book of Nehemiah, chapter five. Nehemiah, chapter five. Well, so far in Nehemiah, a lot of good things have taken place. Nehemiah had a holy ambition and that holy ambition was to was to come back to the land because he had heard that the walls in Jerusalem had been torn down. Sure, there was a temple, but there was there was no walls to protect it.

And so so he heard about it. He was broken hearted over. So he spent four months. And so he spent four months praying about what to do. And at the end of those four months, he was given an opportunity to ask the king for some things. And what he asked the king for was, first of all, that he would be able to go back to rebuild the wall. Second of all, that the king would help fund the fact that they were going to rebuild the wall.

Third, that he would get letters letting everybody know exactly what this was going to be and that he would have letters of authority even in the land to be able to do this. And the king said, done. So he goes back and he begins to. Survey the situation to see what needs to be done with the wall. And as he surveys the situation and gets everybody excited about it, there's two fellows that don't like what's going on.

And of course, their names are Sanballat and Tobiah. And they're sort of the thorn in his flesh through this whole time. Them and everybody that followed them were sort of the thorn in his flesh every time he would do something. Well, they started the work and everything was going great. We went to all of the different stations and all of the different gates around the city and the wall was being built.

But in the process of the wall being built, of course, first of all, they were met with with discouragement from from those two enemies. Then they were met with death threats from those two enemies. But then they were met with the overwhelming feeling that they were not ever going to be able to get this finished. The job was too great. They were tired. And quite frankly, they were starting to believe the lies of the enemy.

And so Nehemiah steps in and he reminds them of who God is. And he reminds them that God is greater than their enemies that they face. And they got back to building the wall. And so things are going great. But tonight we find a situation of finding more battles and building more walls. Starting off in chapter five, verse one, it says this. Now, there was a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.

For there were those who said, we, our sons and our daughters are many. Therefore, let us get grain that we may eat and live. And there were others who said. We are mortgaging our fields and our vineyards and our house that we may get grain because of the famine. And there were those who said we have borrowed money for the king's tax on our fields and our vineyards.

Now, our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers and our children like their children. Yet, behold, we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves. And some of our daughters are forced into bondage already. And we are helpless because of our fields and vineyards belonging. And I was angry when I heard their outcry and these words. So, money problems are the next thing that they face.

So, most of the people building the wall were the common people of the land. They were the average folks, right? And so, they needed to pay their bills still. But there were three things that were causing money problems in the land. The first is that there were economic issues. There were economic issues. The word that's used here is famine. And that means that it didn't.

It did not rain for a very long time. And they were not able to produce the crops that they normally would. Therefore, they didn't have money to not only buy grain but even to maintain their houses. So, there was an economic downturn. Matter of fact, they had tried to build back better. And now, they were facing inflation because of past policies. Which brings us to the next thing.

The taxes were way too high. Does it feel like we're talking about today? Does it feel like I'm reading the newspaper right now? So, I read this commentary and it said, If you don't believe that the Bible is for today, then you have not read the Wall Street Journal recently because that's exactly what this feels like it's talking about. The taxes were too high.

The king was exacting taxes on the people and they were struggling to pay their taxes. As a matter of fact, in their struggle to pay their taxes, they were having to borrow money from other people and that money was being lent out with too high of an interest rate. We're going to find in just a moment, he's going to tell them to stop charging usuries, the word that's used. But that idea, there's interest.

And so, these three things are causing major issues for the people. And you know as well as I do, that it's hard to be focused on the work in front of you when economic issues are causing you so much stress. Especially economic issues that are being caused to be worse through the selfishness of other people. And so, this is what we see going on here right now.

And of course, Nehemiah's like, Really? I'm used to dealing with all of the issues from the people on the outside. I now have to deal with the fact that you're charging interest to your own brothers and sisters, to your own family, to your own countrymen, and preventing the work that needed to be done. Ultimately, at the heart of what was going on, I wrote these three things down.

Ultimately, at the heart of the issue that they were facing was three things. Number one, the people had ignored the law. The people had ignored the law. Do you know that in Leviticus chapter 25, you didn't think I'd reference Leviticus again, did you? In Leviticus chapter 25, verse 36, it says that you are not to charge a fellow Israelite interest. That's actually in the law.

And they were ignoring God's standard and doing what they wanted to do. And in so doing, we're causing great economic issues for their brothers and sisters. So number one, they were ignoring the law. Number two, there was no love for their neighbor. Which, interestingly enough, is actually ignoring the law as well. Because if you look in the book of Deuteronomy,

you will find that the law is all summed up with this one statement. You should love your neighbor as yourself. Many people think that that was Jesus' interpretation of the law, but that's actually in the book of Deuteronomy. That you're to love your neighbor as yourself. And what they were doing is they were ignoring the aspect of loving their fellow citizen.

And number three, they had lost sight of the goal. In a desire to make money, in a desire to build their own kingdom, they had forgotten that what they were doing was building a wall to protect God. To protect God's kingdom. It's kind of interesting because these are three things that we can struggle with in our culture as well. Sometimes we ignore what God has to say.

And when we ignore what God has to say, we find that it not only affects us, it affects the people around us as well. And it causes issues within our household and within our church and even within our community sometimes. If we don't have love for each other the way that we are supposed to, it begins to show in your household. It begins to show in your church.

And it begins to show in your community. And quite frankly, when we as believers lose sight of the goal that our goal is not to build our kingdom, our goal is to build God's kingdom, then it's hard for us to stay focused on the work of the kingdom because I'm too focused on the work of my kingdom. And so all of these things are going on within the land. Nehemiah hears about all of it.

Nehemiah was sort of a hot-headed dude. Have you noticed that so far? He's going to really get fired up soon. But he gets a little bit fired up here. He says, And then I was very angry when I heard their outcry in these words. I want you to notice what he does next in verse 7, though. I consulted with myself. I don't know why I think that's the funniest part

of this entire story, right? He goes, And so I said to myself, I said self. Listen, Chuck Swindoll points out something very interesting in his commentary here. He says, Nehemiah does the first most important thing that we have to do when we are angry at a situation at hand. He stops to think about what he's going to say. He consulted. He consulted with himself.

I think one of the greatest things that we can do is when we are about to fire off on somebody, consult with ourselves and think, is what I'm about to say going to be constructive or is what I'm about to say going to be destructive? Because there is a place for righteous anger, but can we all be honest and say that we struggle to make sure that our anger is actually righteous? And so he takes this moment to sort of soak in and say, okay, is what I'm about to say going to be helpful? I used to always joke, way back in the day when people were tweeting all the time, do you X now?

I don't know how you do that anymore. Do you still send out a tweet on X? I'm not on that anymore. So anyway, but when people would tweet, they would tweet out the most awful things in the world and then they would have to go and then you have to delete it or they'd have to retract it or they'd have to offer an apology to it. And I said, social media needs to institute a button.

That button will be called, are you sure? And it has a 30 second timeframe on it so that when you hit post, it says, are you sure? And you cannot answer for 30 seconds. Our texting should have the same thing. Have you ever cathartically typed out an entire text? Like, I've learned to do that in my notes. You cathartically type out a text and you're like, you go to hit delete and you accidentally hit send.

I did that one time. My wife read it. She goes, oh yeah, you can't send that. And she went to delete and she hit send and she was like, oh, and I was like, oh. Couldn't take it back at that point in time. We just had to deal with the repercussions. But sometimes we need to stop and consult with ourselves and say, is what I'm about to say going to be good? Is it going to be constructive?

So he consults with himself and then it says, and I contended, verse seven, with the nobles and the rulers and said to them, you are exacting usury interest each from his brother. Therefore, I held a great assembly against them. After he thought about what he was going to say, he said, this is what needs to be done. And I love that it uses the word contended.

He said, so I contended with the nobles and those in charge. In other words, we were going to have a little conversation and it might even be a battle, but it was necessary. It needed to be done and it was going to be done properly. And so he calls them in, calls an assembly. And I love that it's not an assembly with them. It's an assembly against them. I said to them, verse eight,

we, according to our ability, have redeemed our Jewish brothers who were sold to the nations. Now, would you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us? Then they were silent and couldn't find a word to say. Listen, that's how you know that the words that you just spoke were from the Holy Spirit. Is when you can speak it and people are just quiet. That's how you know the Holy Spirit's doing the work

that needs to be done in someone's life. You know, we're told that the law is for the proud and grace is for the humble. But the law has to first humble the heart before we can come in with grace and say, now, let me show you what needs to be done. In this. In this moment, the law humbled them. He said, verse nine. And again, I said, the thing which you are doing is not good.

You should walk. Should you not walk in the fear of God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies. And likewise, I, my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Please let us leave off this usury. Please give them back this very day, their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, their houses, also the hundredth part of the money and of the grain,

the new wine, the oil that you are exacting from them. He says, I want you to give it all back. I want you to give them back the money that you charge them in interest. I want you to give them back the land that you've taken because they couldn't pay you back. I want you to give them back their sons and their daughters who are now indentured servants to you.

I want you to give all of that back because it's not being loving. It's not following the law. And quite frankly, you have lost sight of the goal of what we're doing. We can't focus on building the kingdom because they're too focused on their anxieties over their friends and family. I want you to notice how they respond. And they said, we will give it back.

And we'll require nothing from them. We will do exactly as you say. So I called the priest and I took an oath from them that they would do according to this promise. Also, I shook out the front of my garment and I said, may God shake out every man from his house and from his position. Even if they have no possession, he will not fulfill this promise. Even thus may he be shaken out and emptied.

And all the assembly said, amen. And they praised the Lord. Then the people did according to this promise. And I got to thinking about this. And I thought, I wonder why they were willing to respond the way that they did. But I want to remind you of what's going on. A man who is a contemporary to Nehemiah at this point in time. As a matter of fact, his name's gonna show up

towards the end of the book. His name is Ezra. Do you remember when Ezra said, one of the things Ezra was doing while he was there in the land, when he came back after the rebuilding of the temple, Ezra was going around teaching people the law. He was going around teaching them the truth. And so these people were being fed a good, steady diet of God's word.

And so when they were confronted with conviction, because they had received a good, steady diet of God's word, they received that convicting word and were willing to respond. You see, sometimes we can hear God's word and we can apply it to everybody else, even though we're hearing it, even though we're taking it in, our hearts are being softened by it. We're still applying it to everybody else until God uses someone in our lives to say, hey, by the way, you need to pay attention to that too. And if our hearts are being fed with the truth of the word of God, then when confronted with something convicting like that, we don't bow up and say, no, that's everybody else. No, we say you're

right. That's an area. I have sin in my life and I need to deal with that. That's the ultimate goal is that as you are fed the truth of the word of God, when a convicting word comes into your life, you don't push it away. You soak it in and say, okay, Lord, what's from you? And what do you need me to do? Because I want to follow the truth. And this is what they do. It's a beautiful moment where he gets to deal with

sin in the camp and they deal with it the way that they're supposed to. Nehemiah then points out his own personal example. That he had shared with, that he had shown the people in the way that he lived his life. Moreover, from that day, verse 14, I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah from the 20th year to the 32nd year of King Artaxerxes. For 12 years, neither I nor my kinsmen have eaten

the governor's food allowance. But the former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people and took from them bread and wine besides 40 shekels of silver. Even their servants domineered the people. But I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah from the 20th year to the 32nd year of King Artaxerxes. And I did not do so because of the fear of God. I also applied myself to the work on the wall.

We did not buy any land and all my servants were gathered there for the work. Moreover, there were at my table 150 Jews and officials besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us. Now that which was prepared for each day was one ox and six choice sheep and also birds were prepared for me. And once in 10 days, all sorts of wine were furnished in abundance. Yet,

for all this, I did not demand the governor's food allowance because the servitude was heavy on his people. Remember me, O my God, for good according to all that I have done for this people. You see, after he has this confrontation, after he holds this assembly against the people, he makes sure that he lives it out himself. And listen, this is important for us as believers in Jesus Christ. If we are going to be ones who speak forth the truth of the word of God, even if it

means conviction, our lives need to back up what we've said. Our lives need to back up the claims that we make. And that's what he did. And he did it, showed it in three ways. Number one, he showed that he did not exact any of the king's tax, if you will, from the people. He had the right to, other governors before him did, but he did not want to, not because it wasn't his right to do it, but because he knew

that would be the best way to set the example. And again, if we as Christians are to be leaders in our community, and we need to understand something, we as Christians are leaders in our community. There is not a person sitting in here this evening, there's not a person that shows up here on a Sunday morning that claims the truth of the word of God and says, I'm a believer in Jesus Christ, that has not now made themselves a leader in the community. You can say, I don't want to be a leader, but you are, because people are watching your life. Because once you claim, I'm a believer

in Jesus Christ, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, you've become a leader in the community. You've become a leader in your home and in your community, because people are watching your life now. And if as leaders, our lives don't match up what we claim, people will start to notice that too. And so the first thing is he, he's willing to set aside his right to the king's allowance. The second, I love

this, I've had this underlined. He says in verse 16, I also applied myself to the work on the wall. In other words, he wasn't going to tell everybody else to do the work, but not him. He listened, I will, I'll be over here overseeing to make sure that the work is done, but I don't plan on touching a brick for myself. I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that there's two types of bosses in the

world. There's bosses that tell you what to do, and there's bosses that show you what to do. And everybody would rather work for a boss that shows them what to do instead of a boss that tells them what to do. Because we always respect the guy who's willing to roll his sleeves up and get dirty right alongside us. Amen? And that's exactly what he is. The third thing is that he generously gave

to us, and that's what he did. He gave generously to us, and he gave generously to us, and he gave generously to others. That dude had 150 people coming to dinner every single night, right? I can only imagine him. We don't read about Mrs. Nehemiah, but if there was a Mrs. Nehemiah, and he's like, here's the thing. I've invited some people over for dinner. How many? Listen, listen, before you

get mad, let me just tell you, this is necessary for our witness. How many, Nehemiah? I mean, like one. Oh, that's not bad. One hundred and fifty. What? A hundred and fifty? People? I can only imagine how that conversation went. We don't read about that. I added all of that, so I don't know what that does for me. But anyway, I was just kind of wondering, 150 folks showing up. That's a bunch of people. But he generously gave to others. Why? Because

he had that kingdom mindset. It's not about my kingdom. It's about God's kingdom. It's not about me. It's about loving the people that are around me, and it's about maintaining what God has called for me to do, to love my neighbor as I love myself. So, we now move on to chapter six. Surely everything's good now. I don't know about your Bible, but my Bible labels this the enemy's plot, which would indicate that maybe things are going to be rough

again. I've labeled this distractions and accusations. Now, when it was reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, to Geshem, the Arab, and to the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall, and that no breach remained in it, although at that time I had not set up the doors and the gates, then Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to me saying, come, let us meet together at Shephraim in the plain of Ono. But they were planning to harm me. Everybody say, oh, no.

Nothing from that. I sat in a Bible college class with 150 other 19-year-old kids, and the teacher said, say, oh, no. And we all did. The valley of Ono, say, oh, no. That's better. All right. So, so they give him this opportunity. We want you to come to the plain of Ono. Why have Sanballat and Tobiah now invited him to the plain of Ono? Why would they have done that? Well, obviously because

they want to do him harm, but you can't send a message that says, we would like to kill you at noon. And so if you could show up slightly before then so that we can be in place, that would be great. Show up at the valley of Ono at 1145. We will kill you at noon. We will go on with about our days after we have eaten. Lunch. They're not going to give him a message like that. No, they probably said, listen,

we didn't get off on the right foot, right? But like things didn't start great between us. You've been working really hard. You deserve a break. Why don't you come up to our little retreat up here in the, in the valley of Ono and everything's going to be great. We'll give you a relaxing time. That's probably what they said. And so I want you to notice how he responds. This is

a distraction. From the work that he is doing says, so I sent messengers to them saying, I'm doing a great work and I can't come down. Why should the work stop while I leave and come down to you? And they sent messages to me four times in this manner. And I answered them in the same way. Remember they were planning to do him harm. He says, listen, I'm doing an important job right now and I can't come see

you. Brothers and sisters, sometimes we have to be willing to say no, because not only is it something that could potentially harm us, but it's something that's going to distract us from the work. We have to remember what is the work in front of me? What's the work in front of me right now? And we have to choose what is the best as opposed to what's also good. Saying no to the things that are good,

or in some cases could ultimately be harmful is always a good thing to do so that we can stay focused on the work. He says, I've got a job to do and I'm not going anywhere until the job is finished. There will always be something that wants to distract us from the work at hand. Anybody in here struggle with distractions or is it just me? Right? I mean, I got people inviting me to the Valley of Ono all

the time. I'm like, oh man, oh no. See what I didn't use it again there, right? It comes in pretty handy. People are always trying to distract me and I have to decide what's something I'm supposed to do. want something I'm supposed to say no to? What is something that is genuine and what is something that is harmful? How did he know that this was going to be bad? Well, he first of all knew because

of their history, but he also knew because of that discernment of the Holy Spirit that was at work inside of him. He knew that no matter what, he had to stay focused on the work because the most important thing he could do is the work that was in front of him. And brothers and sisters, again, we have to identify what's the work and how do I stay focused on it? And so they keep sending him messages over and over again. When he doesn't give into the distraction, they're not done yet.

Verse five, then Sanballat sent his servant to me in the same manner in the fifth time with an open letter in his hand. And in it was written, it is reported among the nations and Gashmu says that you and the Jews are planning to rebel, that you are rebuilding the wall, you are to be their king, according to these reports. You have also appointed prophets to proclaim in Jerusalem concerning you. A king is in Judah and now it will be reported to the king according to these reports. So come now, let us take counsel together. So the next thing that they

do is they bring false accusations. It says he came with an open letter. Basically, that means he put out an ad in the newspaper. He posted it as publicly as he possibly could. And he slandered Nehemiah. He said, first of all, it has been reported. And I want you to notice who it says among the nations. Oh, and Gashmu says it has been reported. And we're not the only ones that have said this. There's other people, too,

that the people are trying to rebel. That's why you're building a wall that you are going to be the one who has made the king. And you've even hired prophets to go and proclaim all of these things. He sent all of the land. At this point in time, Nehemiah has a choice to make. He can now set up a campaign of protect Nehemiah. Make sure that everybody knows that this open

letter that, listen, it means lots of people have probably read it. Lots of people have probably seen the accusations. He now could potentially go around and make sure that everybody knows that this is not true. That could be one thing that he could do. But what will that do if he now spends all of his time on this open letter? He could now go around and make sure that everybody knows that

this is not true. That could be one thing that he could do. But what will that do if he now spends all of his time going around trying to correct the report of this open letter that's been put out in public? What will stop? The work will stop, right? He can't be building a wall while he's also trying to maintain his reputation. That would be the wrong thing to do. We have to know

something. If you're going to be a leader, again, we all are. Leadership is an invitation for false accusation. You just have to know that. Leadership is also an invitation to be misunderstood. You have to know that. You have to know that. You have to know that. You have to know that. You have to know that. If you are going to be someone who takes a strong stand, someone's not going to like it. And

they're going to make up stories about you. And they're going to say things that are false about you. And they're going to try to impugn your character and say what you've done wrong. And they're going to criticize you. And you'll have a choice to make. You can either try to put out all of the fires that may or may not have started, or two, you can stay doing the work. Nehemiah chose

the better thing. He chose the better thing. He chose the better thing. He chose the better thing. He chose to keep doing the work. As a matter of fact, I love the way he responds. He basically was like, uh-uh. It says, verse 8, then I sent a message to him saying, such things as you are saying have not been done. You're inventing them in your own mind. That's it. That's all he said.

He's like, uh-uh, you made it up. And then he went back to building a wall. Brothers and sisters, you have to know something. It doesn't matter how old you are, how young you are, someone's always going to make something up. Someone's always going to make something up. Someone's always going to tell a lie about you. And the best thing you can do is let your character prove to be true.

Keep doing the work. Keep doing what God has called for you to do. We're told in the book of Psalms, Psalm 37. If you've never read Psalm 37, I encourage you to spend some time in Psalm 37, because it is a great psalm. And there's a lot of great, there's a lot of wealth in Psalm 37. But one of the things it says in Psalm 37 is that he is able to, bring forth your righteousness like the noonday sun. That means that, that you commit those

things to the Lord and you let God be your defender. Because if you let God be your defender, you can stay doing the work and eventually everybody else is going to look foolish. Eventually everybody else is going to look like they made stuff up and your character will continue to stand strong. And so this is what he does. He says, listen, you've made these things up. I'm not

even going to deal with it. I'm not going to deal with it. I'm not going to deal with it. I'm not going to deal with it. He moved on. Notice what it says in verse nine, for all of them were trying to frighten us, thinking they will become discouraged with the work and it will not be done. But now, oh God, strengthen my hands. And this is the way we have to look at all of the distractions

and all of the attacks that come our way. It is someone, usually the enemy, trying to keep us from doing the work. The greatest thing that the enemy could do in your life is to get you to sit down, shut up, and quit moving forward. That's what he ultimately wants to do in your life. He will try to do it through bringing temptation to get you to sin and make

you feel like you can't be used by God anymore. He will use discouragement of people trying to tell you your work's never going to be worth anything or be any good, whether that actually be people telling you that or just the lies that the enemy plants in your mind. He will send discord within your family to try to keep you from doing the work. He will try to keep you from doing the work.

He will even sow discord sometimes within the church to try to keep from doing the work. But what you have to do is take all of those things to the Lord and say, God, this is what they're saying. This is what I know is true. You defend me. They're trying to keep me from doing the work. That's exactly what he does here. He says, oh God, strengthen my hands. Because he knew

he had to get back to the work that was at hand. And brothers and sisters, I have watched the enemy try to do this. For me personally, quite often, he tries to bring discouragement into my life. He tries to sow discord. He tries to do all kinds of things to keep me from doing the work. And I'm just going to be honest with you. And I'm speaking for every single pastor and every single church all throughout the

world. Every single pastor goes through this every week. They say, I don't know if I can do this again next week. Because I don't know that anything that I'm doing is worth anything. And it's not just pastors that do that. There are parents who are raising kids right now that are trying to teach the truth. And they're like, man, I'm pouring all this stuff into my kids and my kids are still a

knucklehead. I think I'm just going to stop. And you can't. You've got to keep going forward with the work. Because the enemy wants to tell you, what you're doing won't work. Stop what you're doing. I don't want to expose anybody in this church, but there's a lot of, that sounded really dangerous, didn't it? I'm about to tell you about something crazy right now. You all just had a look

on your face. It was like, I got a lot of kids. I'm going to expose them. I'm going to expose them. I'm going to expose them. And I love that. Matter of fact, one of these days, I want to gather all of them and just take a picture and say, these are all kids that I got to minister to. I love y'all, but when you were knuckleheads, right? And when we weren't sure if you were actually

going to be walking with Jesus at some stage in the ballgame. And as a youth pastor, sometimes I would be tempted to say, probably only Jesus can change their heart. Because I'm having any effect in their life right now. Because I just poured every ounce of who I am into their life. And I just watched them make all of the wrong decisions. And I have watched some of those

kids now come to this church and hug me and tell me thank you for what I did in their life. And I'm like, it's not me, it's Jesus. But I'm just glad that God used me to do it. And in those moments, this has been one of the greatest gifts to me. And in the moments when I can feel myself going, I don't know if it's worth it, I remember all those kids that are here that aren't kids anymore.

You're all grown up with your own kids. That makes me feel old, but that's neither here nor there. And I go, it is worth it. And that's a lie from the enemy. And so this is what he has to do here is he has to say, they just want me to not do the work. But now will God strengthen my hands? And so again, if you're in a place where you're going, what I'm doing doesn't matter.

All the work I'm pouring into my kids or my Sunday school class or my small group or, or the guy that I work with or the lady that I see at the store that I want to show the love of Jesus to all the time. None of it's doing any good. That's the enemy. And he wants to discourage you from the work. You need to pray that God would strengthen your hands. We call that an arrow prayer,

right? Sometimes you've got time to sit down and just absolutely lay it all out to before God. And you've got that 45 minutes or whatever to really pray. But more often than not, you've got 30 seconds and you got to shoot something up real quick to God. And God hears those two. And this is exactly what he does. Now you would think he's done. That's it. Now we're

focused. There's one more thing he's got to deal with. He says in verse 10, when I entered the house of Shemaiah, the son of Deliah, the son of that guy who was confined at home, he said, let us meet together in the house. God within the temple and let us close the doors of the temple for they are coming to kill you. And they're coming to kill you at night. But I said, should a man like me flee?

And could one such as I go in the temple to save his life? I will not go in. And I perceived that surely God had not sent him, but he uttered his prophecy against me because Sanballat and Tobiah hired him. He was hired for this reason that I might become enlightened and act accordingly in sin so that they might have an evil report in order that they could reproach me. So one last thing that he faces, the last thing that he faces is

a false prophet. Somebody who comes to him and says, listen, here's the thing, buddy, they're coming to kill you and they're coming to kill you tonight. Now I don't know about you, but if I hear that report, I immediately get mildly nervous in my life, right? I'm like, well, that feels like something I should pay attention to. My life is being threatened and there's a timeframe on it. It's good. It's going to be tonight.

But he says, but you need to go into the temple. Let's go together. We'll go into the holy place and we'll hide ourselves in there. He answers by saying two things. Number one, he says, should a guy like me flee? In other words, if I'm a leader and I'm doing a job and I've made a stand, do I need to run every time I'm threatened? Listen, if my wife were here right now,

when she were looking at me, she would say, yes, you do need to run every time you're threatened, but she knows I'm not gonna. And so she supports me. When I say no. But he said, should a guy like me run? I can't run from every threat that comes along. Not only that, should I sin in that way? Whoa, sin. Why is hiding a sin? Where did he just ask him to go? To hide himself in the holy place. Who was allowed to go into the holy place? Not the

most holy place, but the holy place in the temple. Only the priests were allowed to go in there. You know what happened last time? A king decided he was going to go into the holy place when he wasn't supposed to. He got leprosy. He got leprosy from it. Because he went somewhere he wasn't supposed to go. And he said, I can't do that, not only because I've made a stand and I need to stick with the stand that I've made,

but that would be sin. But then there's this interesting statement that's made. It says, but then, verse 12, I perceived that God had not sent him, but he uttered his prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. For a third time, he perceives, he deceives, he deceives, he deceives, he deceives, he deceives, he deceives, he deceives, that something's not right with what's being said. Have you noticed that all three of the times

we've talked about the importance of discernment in the life of Nehemiah? That should indicate something to us that if God wants to use us, and he does, that we need to develop discernment in our life. One of the most dangerous things as a believer with no discernment, because it's described in the Ephesians as someone who is tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. Have you ever been around somebody like that?

Every time the new thing comes out, they are fully invested into it. They are fully involved in it. Listen, I'm going to call one out right now, and I don't know who I'm going to offend with this, but I'm going to say it anyway. If y'all are reading Jesus Calling, go ahead and get rid of that book because you realize that she's writing that through automatic writing, which is a spiritual thing. She basically,

it's like Jesus is telling me the exact words to say, and I'm not even the one writing it. It's Jesus writing. Like, that's weird. And most of the stuff that she says is pretty off base. So just go ahead and get rid of that because it's pretty off base. Now, I tell you that because sometimes it's easy to be tossed around by winds of doctrine. You see the next new thing come out,

and you're like, oh, it's so good. It makes me feel so good. And yet, you have to know at some point in time, something's just kind of off with this. That's discernment. And you need to listen to that discernment. How do you develop discernment? How did Nehemiah have discernment in order to know what was right and what was wrong? Well, there's three ways that you

develop discernment. Number one, discernment comes through knowing the Word of God. Discernment comes through knowing the Word of God because God is never going to violate His Word. God is not going to say one thing in His Word and then something different somewhere else. So number one, you need to know the Word of God because that begins to develop discernment in your life.

Number two, there is no substitute for maturity in developing discernment. Remember what he said in the book of Hebrews? We who have through use have developed the discernment or developed our understanding through the use of the Word of God. You see, the more you walk with Jesus, the more you understand what He sounds like. Let me give you a for instance. If somebody came to me and told me,

hey, Ryan, I talked to your wife and she wants to go to the Chiefs game, I would say, that's a lie. My wife never one time in her entire life has said, I want to go to a Chiefs game. That's just all that there is to it. That's the biggest lie I've ever heard. That was not her. How do I know that? Well, I know that because of knowing her for all this time. We were looking at her for all this time.

Some stuff back here in the back. She's helped me quite a bit with picking things out because I have zero design ability and he was asking me about hardware. And I said, well, usually she'd want this, but she's kind of on a this kick right now when it comes to hardware. So we'll just have to ask her. So I go home and I asked my wife, I'm like, so Kelly was asking me about hardware back

there. So what do you want to do? And she goes, well, normally I would go with this, but I'm kind of on a this kick right now and I really like it. And I was just like, yes. Right. You see, through my knowledge of her, I can tell you, I can discern what she's going to do. Is it because I'm that discerning? No, I just know her that well. That's the way our relationship

with Jesus Christ is. The more you know him, the more you go, that's Jesus. That's not him. He wouldn't say that. Number three, it truly is a spiritual gift. You should ask God for the gift of discernment because God can give you that gift. Some people will have it in a greater measure than others. My mother is someone that has the gift of discernment, or at least she did when I was a teenager. I think she probably still has it,

but she definitely did then because, because she just knew stuff. Right. And this wasn't just like mom stuff. This was like, have you been reading my mind type stuff? Right. And she had that gift of discernment. And, and it's important that we have that and you can pray and you can ask God, give me that gift of discernment. Because it's necessary in our lives. And God blessed Nehemiah with that ability in the moment

to discern right from wrong. So, so he discerns it and says, um, no, I don't think that that's from God. I think that that's from Sanballat and Tobiah. And I want you to notice what it says in verse 14. Remember, oh my God, Tobiah and Sanballat, according to these works of theirs, and also Noadiah, the prophetess and the rest of the prophets who were trying to

frighten me. In other words, he's like, Lord, you deal with them. Well, we go on from there and the wall is going to get finished. It says in verse, verse 15. So the wall was finished. You see what I did there? It's really creative. So the wall was finished on the 25th of the month of Elul in 52 days. Y'all 52 days that I would show you a picture of Jerusalem, but I have failed

to get it sent over. It was huge, right? Huge. Probably the greatest wall ever. Oh man, I didn't mean for that to happen either. I was just going to mock President Trump for a minute, but that fits too. Anyway, it's a huge wall, right? Probably the greatest wall ever. Only, can he have foreign government? Anyway, um, that's just, I got to stop right now as this is being recorded. Um, but 52 days,

can you believe that? Listen, there is a construction project going on in this town that could really, probably stand to learn a little something from, from Nehemiah right now, because 52 days, two and a half years, right? I want you to notice something before, before he showed up, Nehemiah prayed for four months and then he was finished in 52 days. If you will do the prayer, the work of prayer beforehand, then the work gets completed efficiently.

When you are, moved through the power of the Holy Spirit, because you first did the work in prayer, then it's amazing how even the greatest attacks that come against you can be overcome because you laid the groundwork through prayer says, and when all our enemies heard of it, I love this. When all our enemies heard it and all the surrounding nations saw it, they lost their confidence for they recognized that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. And isn't that, the truth that when we see God do something when it's truly a work of the Lord, people sit back and they go, that had to be God because ain't no way anybody could get that done the way that they did. And that's one of the ways that, you know,

this is truly a work of the Lord because, because the whole world has to step back and say, this is, this is God, right? I think one of my favorite parts of the movie, Jesus revolution is the, the guy that the, the reporter for time magazine, that's that's writing the article and he just had to sit back and go, this is truly just a work of God because you can't explain how an old bald guy can stand up in front of a bunch of teenage hippies and they all come to Jesus. And now all of a sudden their lives are completely transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's no explanation for this.

The ugly Bill Cosby sweaters he wears had nothing to do with it. It was just a work of the Holy Spirit. They lost their confidence. It says in verse 17, this is sort of like the trailer for the next episode, right? Also, in those days, many letters went from the nobles of Judah to Tobiah and Tobiah's letters came to them for many in Judah were bound by oath to him because he was the son in law of Shekinah,

the son of Iran. His son, Joe J. Ho Hannon had married the daughter of mushroom, the son of Berkaya. Moreover, they were speaking about his good deeds. In fact, they were speaking about his good deeds, in my presence and reported my words to him until bias and letters to frighten me trailer for the next episode, right? We'll see him again towards the end of the book.

But isn't it beautiful that even when you're fighting battles, you can still be building walls because the work of God will not be stopped. Amen. Father, we come before you and I just thank you for the time that we've had in your word tonight. And as always, Lord, I just say, may only the words of you remain in the words of me that need to disappear, which is simply escape people's minds.

And so, uh, father, do your work in our hearts and in our lives and keep us close to you. And father, I pray that you would bless us with the discernment that we need or to discern good from evil to discern better from best and to know how to keep our eyes focused on the task at hand and to build the kingdom for the Lord. We just thank him. We praise you in Jesus name.

Amen. Be blessed.