Wednesday Evening Services 7 PM - Nehemiah 3-4 - Swords and Trowels - Pastor Ryan Nichols

If you brought a Bible with you, open up to the book of Nehemiah, chapter 3. Nehemiah, chapter 3.

As we jumped into the book of Nehemiah last week, we looked at it under the overall heading of reconstructing the self-destruction. The children of Israel had gone back to rebuild the temple, which was awesome. They had got the temple rebuilt. They were reinstituting worship within the land. But a guy by the name of Nehemiah, who was the cupbearer to the king.

Back in Persia, heard that the walls of Jerusalem had been torn down. That they've got this beautiful temple there, but there's no protection for it. The walls had been destroyed. And when he heard about the state of affairs, of the way things were within the land, the way things were within Jerusalem, it broke his heart. And God gave him in that moment a holy ambition.

And the holy ambition that God gave him was to go back and to lead a group to rebuild those walls. To reinstitute the structure of the nation. So that they could be who God had called for them to be. And be protected from their enemies. The first hurdle that he had to overcome was getting a commission from the king to go back and do so. And so he spent about four months praying about what God would have him to do.

And after praying for four months, God gave him an open door to request to the king some really bold requests. To request that he be able to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls. That the king would send a guard with him to protect him. That the king would send letters of authentication. To say, hey, this guy needs protection when he comes through their land.

And to provide everything that he needed, materials wise, in order to rebuild the wall. A really big ask. But remember, Nehemiah had been praying. And even when the king said, what do you need? He prayed. And in that moment, that quick little prayer he shouted to the Lord, God gave him the wisdom that he needed. And he also gave him favor in the eyes of the king.

And so the king said, go. And so that's what he did. He traveled back to Jerusalem. And the first thing he does is he gathers the people. Because he knew the job was too big to do for himself. So he had to assemble a team. And so the first thing that he did is he, without anybody knowing it, gathered a small group of people that he could trust. And he walked around the city in the middle of the night when no one else knew about it.

So that for himself, he could truly assess the damage that had taken place there. And when he assessed the damage, he gathered not only his trusted group of men together. But he gathered the children of Israel together. And he said, it's time to rebuild the wall. And he presented the case. He presented the mission. And they wholeheartedly welcomed him. But in the meantime, there was a couple of men who were leaders in the area.

Though not Jewish leaders in the area. Leaders in the area who didn't like that he was coming back to rebuild the walls. Their names were Sanballat and Tobiah. And we will find that these two are going to continue to cause issues for Nehemiah and the rest of the group that's going to be rebuilding the walls. So now he has his mission. He has his materials. He has his commissioning from the king.

And he has the backing of all of the people. And now they're ready to get to work. And so I've entitled the message for chapters 3 and 4, Swords and Trowels. And so as we pick up in chapter 3, what we will see is the rebuilding begin as everyone has a job. It says in chapter 3, verse 1, it says, Then Eliashib, the high priest, arose with his brothers, the priests, and he built the sheep gate.

And they consecrated it and they hung its doors. They consecrated the wall to the tower of the hundred and the tower of hundreds. Hananel, and next to him the men of Jericho built. And next to them, Zekur, the son of Emri, built. And the sons of Hassanah built the fish gate. And they laid its beams and they hung its doors with its bolts and its bars. And next to them, the Merimoth, the son of Uriah, the son of Hacaz, made repairs.

And next to him, Meshulam, the son of Berkiah, the son of that guy, made repairs. And next to him, Zadok, the son of Baanah, also made repairs. Moreover, next to him, the Tekoites made repairs, but their nobles did not support the work of their masters. Now, listen, I'm going to be up front with you about something. I should have said this before I started reading it.

This is probably not the most interesting chapter in the world to read, okay? What I just read to you, we're just going to copy and paste with some different names throughout the rest of the chapter. We are going to go through it because there's some things that I want to point out to you. But you kind of just copy and paste. But I think when we finish, there's some points I'm going to bring home about chapter 3 that are really important for us to pay attention to.

As we begin here, I want you to notice who started the building. Remember, Nehemiah had laid out the mission. He laid out the vision and said, this is what we need to do. And so the high priest, who is already in charge of the temple, he is the guy that started. And I think that that's kind of interesting because you find that when God moves the hearts of the priesthood,

when God moves the heart of the spiritual leaders, everybody else seems to follow that, right? And so this is what he did. He moves the heart of these spiritual leaders. And the first thing that they repair is they repair the sheep. You may have noticed that it said that in, let's see, that would have been verse 2, I believe, that they repaired the sheep gate.

Why is that important? Well, because the sheep gate is where all of the sheep that were used for sacrificing were brought into the city of Jerusalem. So if they're going to restore sacrifices, then they've got to restore the sheep gate. And so they begin, first of all, by restoring that gate. And then it goes on to talk about some other men who joined them to build the wall.

And then some other, look at verse 4, some other men that joined to do something else. It says,

And we're going to find that this word is used often throughout this chapter, this they made repairs. Some men will be in charge of a gate. Some men will be in charge of a tower. Some will just be simply men who made repairs. Now that word for repairs is a very interesting word because that word for repairs in the Hebrew means to strengthen. Or to encourage or to make stronger.

And I think it's interesting that that's what they're going to do with the walls. They are going to strengthen those walls. They're going to make those walls stronger. But there's also an aspect of encouragement that comes along with that. And may I say that as we, fellow workers in the body of Christ, with a job that is laid before us, with a mission and a vision that is laid before us to not only help to build the walls of the body of Christ,

but also to bring others into the body of Christ. We also need to make repairs. We need to make repairs in our own lives. And we need to make repairs in the lives of others that are around us. We are to encourage and to strengthen and to make stronger. And again, there's two ways that we do that. It's interesting because there's a story of David. And David found that his entire camp had been raided by an enemy army.

And all of the wives and the children. And all of the goods had been stolen. And now all of his mighty men looked at him and they were very angry. Because they were very angry with David. All of the people were gone. And all of the goods were stolen. And not only had David lost everything in his life, but now some of the toughest warriors he's ever known in his life are looking at him and looking for someone to blame.

And they're ready to kill him. And we're given this very interesting line in 2 Samuel there. It says, But David strengthened himself in the Lord. And from that moment on, David was able to regain the trust of the men to go and bring back the goods and to bring back the people. And ultimately, that was the last step right before he became the king. But it started with him strengthening himself in the Lord.

And brothers and sisters, sometimes our walls as believers get torn down. Sometimes our lives get rocked by the things that are around us. And the first thing that we need to do if we're going to make repairs in the lives of others, we need to repair our own lives. We need to strengthen ourselves in the Lord. What does it look like to strengthen yourself in the Lord?

Well, to strengthen yourself in the Lord, you need to identify the weak spots, and then you need to rebuild those with the truth of what God's Word has to say. I've said it before and I'll say it again. If you want to build strength in your life, you need to believe the truth of what God's Word has to say. Because as you begin to believe the truth of what God's Word has to say, it has a strengthening effect in your life.

Because the enemy wants to tear you down with lies, and quite frankly, that's why you find yourself weakened to begin with. It's because you have believed the lies, and it has either just affected you emotionally, or it has also led into physical sin in your life. And now you need to go back to believing what God's Word has to say. So that it can, first of all, rebuild the emotional walls, and then it can rebuild the temptation walls in your life, so that you can stand firm against the attacks of the enemy.

But the second thing that we need to do, once we have strengthened ourselves in the Lord, when we choose to believe what God says, we now need to edify the body of Christ. That word edify means to strengthen or to build up. That's what we're told in the book of Ephesians, why God has given us gifts, is to edify the body of Christ. And that's why we show up on a Wednesday night.

That's why we show up on a Sunday morning. That's why we show up to a small group. That's why you show up with other brothers and sisters in Christ, to grab a cup of coffee, or to grab some lunch, or when you run into other people in the community that are a part of the body of Christ, is we build each other up. Because we are to build up the structure of the church, and we do that brick by brick.

And you and I, we're the bricks. And we just keep building each other up. And we keep pouring the truth into one another. Not only by being a listening ear, by being a caring friend, but also by speaking the truth of the Word of God into someone's life. Yeah. Some people take this verse way too far, and I don't want to take this too far, but I do think it's important to say,

in the Proverbs it says that the tongue has the power of life. No, excuse me, in James. The tongue has the power of life and death. And some people take that to say, you know, you have to be careful because you can actually speak life. No, God can speak life. But I can speak the life-giving truth of the Word of God. And that's what I can speak into the lives of people.

And as I do so, it builds people up. And so these men are making repairs in the walls so that the wall will be strong, so that the city will be secure. And sometimes we need to make repairs in our own walls to strengthen ourselves in the Lord and then to edify the body of Christ. Now, there was one other note I wanted to point out in these first few verses.

It says in verse 5, Moreover, next to him the Tachylites made repairs, but their nobles did not support them. They did not support the work of their masters. You know what that means? That word support literally means to bend the neck. In other words, they would not bend their neck down to do the work that needed to be done. These nobles found that they were a little bit above

the physical labor that was in front of them. They found themselves in a place where they were a little bit above the work that needed to be done. And they said, that's your work. That's not our work. And whatever that looked like, they would not support the work that was going on because they would not submit themselves to what needed to be done. And quite frankly, the job was great enough

that nobody could be too big to work at this point in time. Nobody could be too big to serve at this point in time. And can I just say, there's a really good leadership principle here. If you're too big to serve, then you're too small to lead. If you're too big to serve, then you're too small to be in the body of Christ. Because the body of Christ is made up of servants,

people who do bend their necks. People who bend their necks to do the work of the service that needs to be done. But these men found themselves not in that place. It goes on from there to say in verse 6 in Jehoiada, the son of Phaseah and Meshulam, the son of that guy, repaired the old gate. Nobody had anything to say about the old gate. I always wondered, what is that gate?

Like that gate's been there a long time. What do you call that? The old gate. That makes sense. They repaired the old gate. They laid its beams and they hung its doors with its bolts and its bars. And next to them, Melatiah, the Gibeonite, and Jadon, the Maranothite, and the men of Gibeon and Mizpah also made repairs for the official seat of the governor of the province beyond the river.

Next to him, Uziel, the son of Harhiah, the goldsmith made repairs. And next to him, Hananiah, one of the perfumes, made repairs and they restored Jerusalem as far as the broad wall. Now, I found this kind of interesting because here you have, too, what I would call delicate craftsmen, right? You have two groups of men who are goldsmiths and perfumers. In other words,

the jeweler and the guy that makes the perfume, I would call those delicate crafts. I'm not trying to say they were delicate people because as has been mentioned before, I think any normal guy living in the nation of Israel in ancient times is tougher than the toughest guy today because they had to walk somewhere just to get their water every single day and it doesn't mean to the fridge. That being said, these were not the construction men of the time. And yet, they laid aside their delicate job to do the hard work that needed to be done because no one was above the work that needed to be done.

And so, we go on from there and it says, let's see, verse nine. Next to them, Rephiah, the son of Hur, the official of the half district of Jerusalem, made repairs. And next to them, Jediah, the son of Haramath, made repairs opposite his house. And next to him, Hattush, the son of, man, that's just struggles, made repairs. And Malkijah, the son of Haram, Hashub,

the son of, it's just a struggle, Pahath, Moab, repaired another section in the tower of the furnaces. And next to him, Shalom, the son of Halahesh, the official of the half district of Jerusalem, made repairs. He, did you notice what that said? He and his daughters, right? Like this wasn't just men's work. Everybody got involved in the work. Even the ladies were like,

you know what? I'll hand me a brick. Let's do this thing because the work needs to be done. So he goes on from there to say, where did his daughters go? There they are. Hanun and the inhabitants, verse 13, of Zenoa, repaired the valley gate. They built it, hung its doors with its bolts and its bars, and a thousand cubits of the wall to the refuse gate. Malkijah,

the son of Rechab, the official of the district of Beth HaKerim, repaired the refuse gate. He built it, hung its doors with its bolts and its bars. Shalem, the son of Kol HaZeh, the official of the district of Mizpah, repaired the fountain gate. He built it, covered it, hung its doors with its bolts and its bars, and the wall of the pool of Shelah, the king's garden, as far as the steps of the ascend from the city of David.

After him, Nehemiah, different Nehemiah, the official of the half district of Beth Zer, made repairs as far as the point opposite the tombs of David, as far as the artificial pool and the house of the mighty men. After him, which by the way, that was probably David's mighty men in their original barracks that they lived in. Verse 17, And after him, the Levites carried out the repairs under Rehum, the son of Bani. Next to him, HaShabiah, the official of the half district of Keilah, carried out repairs for his district.

After him, their brothers carried out repairs under Bavai, the son of Hinnadad, official of the other half district of Keilah. Next to him, Ezer, the son of Jeshua, the official of Mizpah, repaired another section in front of the ascent of the armory at the angle. And after him, Baruch, the son of Zebai, zealously repaired, and he was at it, zealously repaired another section from the angle to the doorway of the house of Eliashib, the priest. After him, Meramoth, the son of Uriah, the son of Hakoz, repaired another section, by the way, this guy's now taken on a second section, from the doorway of Eliashib's house, even as far as the end of his house.

After him, the priests, the men of the valley, carried out repairs. After them, Benjamin and Hashub carried out repairs in front of their house. After them, Azariah, the son of Maaseah, the son of Ananiah, carried out repairs beside his house. After him, Benui, the son of Hinnadad, repaired another section from his house of Azariah, as far as the angle, as far as the corner.

Palal, the son of Uzziah, made repairs in front of the angle and the tower, projecting from the upper house of the king, which is by the court of the guard. After him, Padaiah, the son of Parash, made repairs. The temple servants living in Ophel, Ophel made repairs as far as the front of the water gate, there's another one of the gates, toward the east and projecting, and the projecting tower. After them, the Techoites repaired another section in front of the great projecting tower as far as the wall of Ophel.

Above the horse gates, the priests repaired, carried out repairs each in front of his house. After them, Zadok, the son of Emer, carried out repairs in front of his house and after him, Shemaiah, the son of Shechaniah, the keeper of the east gate, there's another gate, carried out repairs and after him, Hananiah, the son of Shalamiah and Hanan, the sixth son of Zaleph, repaired another section. After him, Meshulam, the son of Berechiah, carried out repairs in front of his own quarters and after him, Malkijah, one of the goldsmiths, carried out repairs as far as the house of the temple, as far as the house of the temple servants and of the merchants in front of the inspection gate and as far as the upper room of the corner. Between the upper room

of the corner and the sheep gate, the goldsmiths and the merchants carried out repairs. Congratulations, we did it. We made it all the way through the chapter. Now, there's five things I want to point out to you about chapter three. It's interesting. One of the commentaries that I read told a story of a missionary. I do not remember where he was a missionary to

but this missionary had a great job that he had undertaken. He said his favorite chapter of the Bible was Nehemiah chapter three because that chapter let him know that though the job was great, it was possible when God's people worked together. It's kind of an interesting way to look at things, right? So five things I think that we can take out of a chapter like this that are important to pay attention to.

Number one, the work of God is for everyone. The work of God is for everyone. Did you notice it didn't matter who they were? They were the priests, they were the high priests, they were merchants, they were Levites, they were goldsmiths, they were perfumers, they were daughters, they were fathers, they were sons. The work of God was for everyone and I point that out to us

because of this. This is what we tend to do in the 21st century church. We go the work of God is for everyone but me. The work of God is for all of them to do. My job that I do is I show up to church. That's what I do. That's my job. No, that's not your job. And listen, we're blessed here because a lot of people serve. A couple of years ago we did a servant's dinner

and we absolutely blew out a restaurant because they couldn't even hold all of us because we have a lot of people that serve. But we can never stop reminding ourselves that the work of God is for everyone. That there's no one that's too big for the work of God. There's no one that's too small for the work of God. There is no one unqualified for the work of God.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, God has a work for you to do almost from the word go because he wants to use you in powerful ways. Number two, the greatest qualification is a willing heart. Everybody wants to know the same thing. Ryan, am I, am I really qualified to do the work of the Lord? If you're willing, you are. Because once you say, God use me,

he begins to qualify you for the service. He begins to give you everything that you need in order to serve God. Now you need to make sure that God's called you to that area of service. But once he's called you to that area of service, he gives you everything that you need. Let me give you a for instance. When God called me to be a teacher of the word of God,

I was like, Lord, that's somebody else's job. I don't want to stand up in front of people and do that all the time. And God was like, that's funny because that's what I've called you to do. And so God continued to work that into my life as much as I tried to run from it. Now I could then have a willing heart and say, God, I would also like for you to use me

on the worship team. And he says, but that's not what I'm going to qualify you for. She was like, Amen. So it's like you'd have to be called to it. But once you're called, God qualifies you. What he really wants from us is a willing heart. Lord, I will be used wherever you want to use me. And then he will begin to give you the heart, the holy ambition and everything

that you need in order to be used in that way. Number three, there are no unimportant jobs. We need to know this. There is no such thing as an unimportant job in the body of Christ. There is no such thing as an unimportant job in the body of Christ. Because everybody fills an incredibly important role. One winter when I was working construction, we got really,

really slow and he didn't want to lay us off for like three weeks just to call us all back. So my boss did something incredibly generous. He brought us all in and he put us through some construction school. So he brought us all into the office and we'd gather around the table every week and we would just kind of talk about different jobs and hey, what's the proper way to handle this?

And the first thing that he asked all of us was this. Now, I'm going to go and say I'm a mildly more intuitive thinker than the average guy that was on our job site. Not intuitive in that I'm smarter but intuitive in that I overthink things, right? They all just answered really quickly. But he asked everybody this, who's the most important person on a job site?

And I remember I'm sitting there with my pen and I'm like, perhaps it's the superintendent because he tells everybody what to do. And I thought, well, that's probably not that important. It's probably the carpenter laborers, the guys that are doing all the individual jobs. They're probably the most important. Well, no, because if nobody ever gave them a job,

they wouldn't really be all that important on a job site. It must be the estimator because the estimator is who makes sure that we get the jobs. I bet he's the most important. I scratched that out and everybody else is annoyed with me this one time. You should know that. I scratched that one out and I thought, well, maybe it's the owner of the company that makes the work.

And finally, I wrote down my answer. I wrote, nobody's the most important. And that's one of the biggest lessons that God has taught me is that nobody's the most important because every job in the body of Christ is important. There's a wonderful story in the book of Exodus about the very first battle that the children of Israel fight. The very first battle that they have to fight,

I believe it was against the Amalekites. And they go out to battle and God tells Moses something very specific. He says, Moses, here's what you need to do. As long as you are holding up your staff, you guys will win the battle. If that staff drops, you will lose the battle. So he puts Joshua as the field general. He's also got all of the soldiers out there.

And then there is Moses holding up the staff and Aaron and Hur are standing right, Hur, H-U-R, not H-E-R. Aaron and Hur are standing right next to him, right? And so in this moment, we realize there's no one important jobs because there's got to be soldiers that fight the battle. Otherwise, he can hold his arms up as much as he wants to. He's going to get run over,

right? There's got to be a field general telling the soldiers what to do. But then Moses has got to have his arms up. Well then, what are Aaron and Hur doing? Have you ever tried to hold your arms up for a really, really long time? Not just holding, just holding nothing, right? Okay, so like if you're an arm raiser during, if you're a hand raiser during worship,

right? You get like, maybe like a song or something. I'm going to have to go low field goal here for just a little bit before I can go back to praise Jesus, right? Low field goal, praise Jesus. And the reason why is because your shoulders get a little tired, right? Well, Moses is holding up his staff for like hours. And finally, he starts getting tired. So Aaron and Hur

hold his arms up. And then they realize his legs are starting to get tired. So they back him up to a stone. He sits down. He holds his hands up. They support him. No one important jobs. Make sense? I don't need to go off on all that. Felt like I needed to. Next thing, number four, the only thing that will disqualify you is a heart that won't submit to God. A neck

that won't bend to what God wants you to do. The moment that you tell God I'll do anything but that, it disqualifies you from service. Because at that point in time, your plan is now more important than God's. And I'm here to tell you something really, really important. Your plan is more important than God's. That's the one thing that will disqualify you. Number five,

we can accomplish more together. We can accomplish so much more together than working on our own. Did you notice how many different people were doing things and they were mainly stationed around the gates? Even though some of them were like, hey, I'll work. I want to work closer to my house. That's fine as long as you're building a wall. I don't care where you do it,

build a wall. Can you imagine how hard that job would have been for just Nehemiah? He's at one gate. He's going to be at that one gate for a really long time. But if he's got people stationed and working around all nine, that's how many gates there are, around all nine of the gates, then you get some work done. Brothers and sisters, we accomplish a whole lot more

together than we do by ourselves. Lessons from chapter three. Now we move on to chapter four, overcoming some obstacles. Everyone's building a wall. Life is happy. They are making up brand new wall building songs at this moment. Perhaps they're remakes of old songs. Maybe they're brand new songs. I bet there was a harp player somewhere. Everyone's excited about the building

of the wall, right? Until this. Chapter four. Now it came about when Sanballat, boo, heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became, I love the wording here, he became furious and said, very angry. I feel like either one of those would have been a good qualifying word, a good descriptive word for how Sanballat felt. He is so mad that he is both furious and very angry,

right? Some people are very angry. Some are furious. He's both, right? I picture his head being red, steam shooting out the top. If he has hair on the top, it's gone already because it's been burned off by his anger. It says in verse two, and he spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men and gathers all of the really important people of the area together

because he wants to go against what they are doing. He says, what, what are these feeble Jews doing? Are they gonna restore it for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble even the burned ones? Tobiah the Ammonite was near him and he said, even what they are building if a fox should jump

on it. it, he would break their stone wall down. These two men begin to speak in both a mocking and a degrading tone. And initially we hear this and we go, this is going to discourage them. Have you ever been mocked and degraded for anything that you've done? You know what the first thing that you do is? You go, you're probably right. That's what we all do because we care about the opinions

of other people. Listen, when we are doing the work of God, there will be two ways that the enemy will come against us. The first is that he will come against us with attacks from without. People on the outside, people of the world that will come against what you have to do. They will say, what do you think you're doing? What do you think you're going to do? How are you going to change?

Whose life or whose heart are you going to change? Let me tell you about my bad experience with church. I bet that's exactly what it's going to be for you. And they will completely try to tear you down. And this is exactly what happens here is, is they begin to speak discouraging words. They begin to speak mocking words against the children of Israel. And the

biggest problem that we have when the enemy comes in and begins to discourage us is the first thing we tend to do is believe it. The first thing we tend to do is go, you know what? You're right. What am I doing? It's what I do. I have a tendency to believe those things. And I go, you're right. The stuff I do doesn't matter. This isn't important. You're right. It is just going to fall

apart. You're right. This is going to be nothing. I remember the first time we tried to hold a fields of faith a couple of years ago. And, um, listen, I don't have very much faith. You just need to know that. I'm working on it. Okay. I'm working on bigger faith. The first time we, we held this thing and, and, uh, my, my good friend Branson from up in Winfield, he's just going, Oh God's

going to fill up this stadium. God's going to fill up this stadium. He's going to fill up this stadium. He does have a lot of faith. Okay. He's God's just going to fill up this day in my, eh, I mean, I'll be happy if there's 50 people there. Right. And so, so that's what I'm listening to the lies of the enemy at this point in time, he's going, nothing's going to come of this. It's going to

be dumb. No one's coming. Just hang in there, finish up what you got to do and then be done and move on with your life. Don't ever do it again. I was like, you're right. And then that very first one, we got 700 people that show up and I spend an entire night just praying for an entire line of people, not just me, but a whole bunch of other people as well. All just praying for people. I was so overwhelmed that I couldn't even sleep

that night because I was so overwhelmed at what God had done. I'm like, why did I listen to the enemy? I should never listen to the lies of the enemy. And then it comes last fall. And I was like, we won't do it again. This is how this works. It's not going to happen again. That's just all that there is to it. This time we had 1200 people and I'm like, why do I listen to it?

This is dumb. And yet that's what we do. The best thing that we can do when the enemy comes against us with lies like this is do exactly what Nehemiah did. Remember when Nehemiah had established in chapter one, he was a man of what? He was a man of God. Shout it out. He was a man of, thank you. He was a man of prayer, right? That's what he did over and over again for two chapters. Every time he said, I'm going to get you guys to be a really

good class. Eventually that's, that's what he did over and over again. So what does he do? I love first four and five here. Oh, our God, how we are despised return their reproach on their heads and give them up for plunder and a land of captivity. Do not forgive their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out before you for they have demoralized the builders. I love this. He goes straight imprecatory on him, right?

Like he's like, you know what, God, listen to what they're saying and jack them for it. Listen to what they're saying and turn it on their own heads. Listen, people have opinions on imprecatory Psalms and praying imprecatory things. I'm going to give you my, one guy that I read goes, obviously as new Testament believers, we, we wouldn't pray an imprecatory Psalm on this. I'm praying an imprecatory Psalm against a judge in Kansas right now, who,

who the minute that we realized no longer were we going to have an opportunity to elect judge, elect judges already removed. Abortion restrictions. I'm praying them against him. Do I want him to get saved? A hundred percent. But do I want God to deal with him right now? 100%. I think sometimes as the body of Christ, we need to realize there's a place for mercy and grace, and there is a place for God to deal with

things. And it's okay to pray that God would destroy the work of the enemy because that's what we need to do. I just, Oh, you know, it's new Testament. Believers. We wouldn't pray like that. Listen, I'm going to pray that he gets saved while he's in prison, right? That's what I'm going to pray for him because I want him dealt with. This one might get me in trouble, but at some point in time, brothers and sisters, we got to start getting

real with this. We better pray for the state of Kansas. That's all I have to say is because we have become an abortion destination. And what we did yesterday without being able to elect judges now is we are going to continue to get people like that. We are going to continue to get people like that. We are going to continue to get people like that. We are going to continue to get people like

that appointed who are going to continue making jacked up laws. And it's going to continue to cause Kansas to be a state that God is going to judge. That's why I posted that verse from Jeremiah and Jeremiah chapter seven. God says, listen, in the Valley of Topheth, you have been burning your sons and your daughters. That never even occurred to me. That never even came into my

heart. And because of that, I am going to continue to get people like that. We are going to continue to make your land desolate. I will be surprised if we don't have rain for the next five years in Kansas. Because at some point in time, we got to realize what's going on here. And we as the body have got to start making a stand. Listen, I want all these people to get saved. Understand what

I'm saying. But if they're going to continue to make laws that damage children, I want them dealt with. Remember what Jesus said? He said, listen, you start hurting kids, and it's going to be a whole lot better for you if we tie a millstone around your neck and drown you in the bottom of the sea than for you to have to deal with me on the day of judgment. If that doesn't send a shiver down your spine, you don't know who God is.

And so he prays for these guys. He says, Lord, turn it on their heads. May they get dealt with. And then I love verse six. He says, so we built the wall, and the whole wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a to work. After all of the degradation, after all of the mockery, after all of the things that they're doing to come against him, he says, so we prayed, and then we built a wall.

We got back to work, and we did what needed to be done. But did you notice how high the wall is at this point in time? It's halfway done. You know what the most dangerous place for us to get to in the work of God is? Halfway. You know why? What happens at the halfway point? Well, let's look and see. It says in verse seven, now when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, and the Ammonites, and the

Ashdodites heard that the repair of the walls of Jerusalem went on, and that the breaches began to be closed, they were very angry. I guess that's better than being furious and very angry, but they're definitely very angry. And all of them conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem to cause a disturbance in it. But we prayed to our God, and because of them, we set up a guard against them day and night. Halfway done.

He's not done attacking. But also halfway done is when we not only face attacks from without, but that's when we begin to face attacks from within. Verse 10. Thus in Judah it was said, the strength of the burden bearers is failing. There is much rubbish, and we ourselves are unable to rebuild the walls. Our enemies said they will not know or see until we come among them, kill them.

Verse 11. Thus in Judah it was said, the strength of the burden bearers is failing. There is much rubbish, and we themselves are unable to rebuild the walls. Our enemies said they will not know or see until we come among them, kill them. Our enemies said they will not know or see until we come among them. Verse 12. We put a stop to the work, and when the Jews who live near came and told us ten times, they will come

up against us from every place where you may turn. I stationed men in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall. They exposed places, and I stationed people and families with their swords and spears and bows. So what happens? Halfway through, everybody was excited for the first half. A little attack came, no problem. We prayed about it. We're going to keep going. Now death threats have

arrived. Now it starts to get a little scarier. But not only have the death threats arrived, but we're getting worn out. We're getting tired from the work. That's what happens halfway through is you've put a lot of energy into it to get to where you are now, and then you want to quit. Anybody got any half-done projects at home? Right? My old boss used to always have a saying. He said,

everyone gets excited when the circus comes to town, but eventually elephant poop starts to stink. That's kind of what happens halfway through, right? And so what happens? Well, there's a handful of things that happen. It says, first of all, number one, our strength is failing. They were tired. Listen, we need to know that when we get tired, the enemy loves to come and attack us.

Because when we get tired, the second thing that happens, there is much rubbish. We get really overwhelmed. When we get tired, we get overwhelmed at the immensity of the task, right? There is so much garbage in the way. There's so many things we have to do. We're never going to get finished. And so they're tired. There's much rubbish. They're overwhelmed. But number three, they are hopeless. We are unable to build the wall. And then number four,

they begin to believe the lies of the enemy. The enemy will kill us. This isn't the enemy saying this. This is the people saying this. We're tired. We're overwhelmed. We feel hopeless. And it's easier to believe what the enemy says right now. You ever been in that place halfway through a job? You ever been in that place halfway through your walk? Halfway through what God's doing in your

life? Halfway through the year of trying to read through the Bible? Halfway through the small group that God gave you to lead? Halfway through the study that you're trying to prepare? Halfway through you name the thing. And all of a sudden you go, I'm tired. I'm overwhelmed. I'm starting to believe what the enemy has to say. And quite frankly, I just don't think we can do it anymore.

I want you to notice what happens. The first thing he does is he says, I stationed people to protect them. We'll deal with the protection thing. But notice what he says in verse 14. He says, when I saw their fear, I rose and I spoke to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people. Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome.

Fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, your houses, when our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan, then all of us returned to the wall, each one to his work. I love this motivational speech that Nehemiah gives. But I want you to notice what prompts the speech. What's the first thing that he saw? Look at that verse again. It says, when I saw their fear. He said it was discernment

on his part. He heard their words, but what he saw was their fear. He heard that they were overwhelmed. He heard that they were tired. He heard that they were tired. He heard that they were believing the lies of the enemy. He heard that they were hopeless. But what he saw is that behind all of it was great fear. So what did he do with their fear? He reminded them of the one who was

greater. He said, he said, I saw their fear. And then I told him, don't be afraid. Remember the Lord. Don't be afraid. Remember what God is about to do. Do you remember what we talked about in the last chapter? We need to strengthen ourselves in the Lord and we need to strengthen ourselves in the Lord. We need to strengthen each other in the Lord. This is the perfect example of it that Nehemiah

gives us right here. As he sees that they're ready to give up. And when they're ready to give up, he comes and he says, don't forget about the Lord. Don't forget what God is able to do. We're talking about the creator of the heavens and the earth. The one who parted the Red Sea. We're talking about the one who preserved us in Babylon. The one who brought us back from Babylon. The one who helped

us build the temple. The one who helped us build the walls the way that it is right now. He didn't fail us before. He was able to do it. He was able to do it. He was able to do it. He was able to do it. He won't fail us now. Remember the Lord and fight for your family. Listen, some of us in here need to gain that discernment to where when we see our brothers and sisters and fear is starting to grip

their life and they're overwhelmed and they're tired and they have all of the things going on to be able to then speak the truth of the word of God into their life. To tell them, remember the Lord. I've said it before and I'll say it again. A well-placed, well-placed word from God changes everything. A well-placed word from God changes everything about what's going on in our lives. Sometimes we have to be able to be available to each other

enough that we're not only there physically, but we are also with them spiritually and emotionally and we can see past what's going on in their life and go, you've got an issue. Let me speak the truth of the word of God into it. And it's amazing how when we accept that word then, we get back to work. Remember the Lord and get back to working. Remember God and go back to

fighting for your family. And he speaks that word of encouragement into their life and they get back to work. But it's not just a word that he speaks. There's an action that he takes. Notice what it says. From that day on, verse 16, half of my servants carried on the work while half of them held spears, shields, bows, and breastplates. And the captains were being carried on the work.

Behind the whole house of Judah. Those who were rebuilding the walls and those who carried the burdens took their load with one hand doing the work and the other holding a weapon. As for the builders, each wore his sword girded at his side as he built while the trumpeter stood near me. First thing he does, he says, okay, change of plans. We're going to start switching off. Half

of you are going to build. Half of you are going to guard. But the half of you that are building, you need to do this. You need to do this. You need to do this. You need to do this. You need to do this. You need to know something. You're going to have a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other. Because you need to be ready to do the work that needs to be done. Whether it's the work of

building a wall or whether it's the work of fighting a fight. You need to be ready. So he tells them, keep these things with you always. He sets up the guard because that's the wise thing to do. But he tells all of the workers, you prepare yourself as well. A sword and a trowel. And can I say, if you want to do the work of God, you need to learn to carry a sword and a trowel. Now listen, I don't want to see anybody show up

with a sword and a trowel on Sunday, okay? That is not, we're talking spiritually speaking here, okay? Anybody shows up with a sword, I'm going to ask you to leave and go take that thing back to your car because that's weird. But I do want you to come with one particular type of sword and trowel. And it's this. Do you know what this is called? We're told in the book of Ephesians that

the one weapon that we have is the sword of the spirit, which is the one weapon that we have. The word of God. But what else is, or we told about the word that the word is able to build us up into a building of God because that's what the word of God is able to do. This is a sword and this is a trowel. You have to know when to use which one. Sometimes you need to be able to

use the trowel to do the building. And sometimes you need to be able to use the sword to do the fighting. And when it comes to the temptations of the enemy and the lies of the enemy, you better be able to use the sword to fight. But when it comes to building up the body of Christ, and building up your life, you better be able to use the trowel to build. Whether it's your family,

whether it's the small group that you're a part of, the people that you're around, you need the discernment to know the difference. But you need to carry a sword and a trowel. That's how the work of God is done. The work of God done by the people of God, who carry the right weapons and the right tools with them all the time. And then he says, and also the trumpeteer was with me. He says,

verse 19, And I said to the noble, to the officials and the rest of the people, the work is great and extensive. And we are separated on the wall far from one another. At whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet rallying to us there, and our God will fight for us. So we carried on the work with half of them holding spears from dawn until the stars appeared. And at that time,

I also said to the people, let each man with his servant spend the night within Jerusalem so that they may be a guard for us by day or by night and a laborer by day. So neither I, my brothers, my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us removed our clothes. Each took his weapon even to the water. Do you notice what they were always ready for?

They were always ready for the battle. He said, everywhere we went, we took a weapon with us. Everywhere we went, we were ready for the battle. And may I say, brothers and sisters in the world, that we're living in today, you'd better be ready for the battle. You'd better be ready for the battle anywhere you go because you do not know what the world holds for you. You don't know what

you're going to face on a daily basis. And if you're not ready for the battle, then the battle is going to take you out. But brothers and sisters, greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. What a great leader this man was. Amen. Keeping the people ready for whatever God had next. Father, we come before you. And I just thank you for the word that has been given to us. And Lord,

I pray that you would keep our hearts ready to serve and that you would keep our minds ready for action. And God, that we would have the discernment to use the sword and the trowel as you see fit. Lord, so that we can fight the battle against the enemy and that we can build up the body. So Lord, continue to do your work in our hearts and lives. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Blessed.