How to Keep Going When They Want You to Quit | Nehemiah 6:1–19

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Good morning everybody, and welcome to the Bible guys.

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picture of the hitting like like a steel sound.

You know, it was against the thing.

The Bible is bigger, of course, because it's the word. Hey,

welcome to the Bible guys. And I'm Chris. This is Jeff,

and we are delighted to be here with you today.

We have a great series that we're wrapping up this week,

and it is we've been in this series for how long.

A bunch of weeks, A bunch of weeks. I was

only here for two of them. Ohlat week in this week, Okay,

in the first one, oh yeah, in the first week. Yeah,

and so spend like five weeks. I don't know, I

wasn't been there.

And it's dangerous prayers. And today we're launching into this

week's theme, which prayers of perseverance.

Right to persevere, persevere, yes, and so before favorite words

it is perseverance.

Yeah, well I like to persevere.

Me too, big fan.

I'm a big fan of perseverance. And so we're gonna

do a segment. However, beforehand, it called Who's most likely?

And it helps you to get to know Chris and

Jeff whether you like it or not.

That's right, and then we're going to jump into today's

topic is how to keep going when you want to quit?

Yeah? Yeah, yeah, which is an important topic.

I like it. Okay, So who's most likely?

Chris, I don't know, go ahead and read the first one.

Who's most likely to order food and then steal bites

from everyone else's?

Well, I got to be honest. That is that has.

Become a thing in our family, that's yours.

But but we don't steal though.

Yeah, so it does say steal. I don't know about steal,

but we are definitely a Can I have a bite

of that?

Can I have a bite of that?

Yeah?

I mean, like without question, So everybody around the table

orders something different, but then you want to taste everybody

else's stuff.

So so hey, just nobody cares about tell you this anyway,

My son in law came from a family that did that,

and then he brought it. He sort of introduced it

to our family.

And so now now you guys have been infected.

We've been infected to the point to where it's a requirement,

like it doesn't it doesn't not not happen.

Oh well, so let's just printend.

We go to a fancy restaurant or something different, we

will automatically say, who wants a bite of this? To

try the dish? Wow, And because we discovered like that

is a brilliant thing, Like why would you not want

to try all these dishes?

Well, because sometimes things aren't as good as what you're eating,

and now it just it messes up your palate.

Really is it a long lasting Sometimes?

So my wife and I were with some friends in

a swan in Egypt, and it was a really fancy

restaurant Agatha Christie ate there, which is kind of cool, right,

and so super fancy restaurant, butler's at every table all

that kind of stuff, right, it's really neat. And I

loved my meal, and then my wife offered me a

bite to hers and took a bite and I didn't

like it, but that taste was in my mouth the

rest of the time. I ate my What I'm not

joking to do I didn't like it.

Of course, But but all you gotta do is like

swig of water.

Yeah, I'm just telling you it ruined, Jeff, it didn't.

I'm just saying it stuck. I don't know. I don't

buy it anyways. Okay, so you are most likely because

I'm not that guy. I don't want what other people

are eating. I want what I ordered some Yeah.

Number two.

Who's most likely to sell everything and live in a van?

Oh?

Me, Yeah, that's definitely.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm a van life guy. I'm all about

that van.

Life in the seventies. Been that guy.

Well, it's really popular right now, is it. Yeah, yeah,

the whole van life thing. Yeah yeah, okay. It's most

likely to eat food off the floor.

Oh it's me, is that you? Oh yeah?

Yeah? Five second rule, five second roll all the time.

Do you remember the episode in Seinfeld where George Costanza.

Ate the Eclaire out of the trash.

Yes, yeah, it was right on the top. Yeah, it

was right there.

It's right there at the top. It wasn't it wasn't infected,

that's right.

And then and then somebody caught him.

It was so, I mean, it would depend on what floor.

But if it was like the floor in our house

and I dropped a donut or something, I'd grab it

real quick.

Yeah, okay, all right, I've done it too, but okay,

I'll give that one to you too. So so so

far it's me you you, okay, who's most likely to

walk in the wrong restroom.

I have done this just recently.

Oh well then you yes, because I've done it before,

but not recently.

Yeah, I have actually walked in the wrong restroom.

Where was I at?

I was at Green Bay. I was at Green Bay Stadium,

and I had discovered that when you walk into this restroom,

you know sometimes when you walk in, the walk out

place is like way down, like it's really far. Well,

this was around a corner. So when I walked out

the opposite end of the men's bathroom, it was like

it turned a corner and I was like, this is

not where I was. I was totally confused.

I was like, where am I.

This isn't even like the part of the stadium that

I was in. So I turned around to walk back in.

I'm like, I'm just going to walk through the men's

restroom and go out the other door where I came in,

and I walked in the women's restroom.

Oh no, And I.

Literally walked and I turned the corner, walked all the

way around and actually got to the place where all

the mirrors were there, and all the ladies were, you know,

looking in the mirror or something, and I was like ooh.

I turned back around and then there was a policeman there,

not like a security guy, and he goes, hey, man,

And I said, my bad.

Did you ever hear Ken Davis, the comedian Ken Davis.

He's also a leadership guru. It's really funny. Anyways, years

ago he had a thing and he said he was

on a airline flying to South America and he said,

I don't speak Spanish. He said, so I walk up.

He said, I have to. You know, I'm sitting on

a plane all this time. I need to use the restroom.

I don't know, he said, walk up. And he said,

funny thing. I didn't know what acua pado means. And

he said, apparently what acupado means is when you opened

that when you open up that door, some little spanley

he's gonna punch you in the face and say a

capado slam the door.

That is so funny.

Yeah, Okay, so that's you. Then, so it's it's two

and two. So who is most likely to leave their

drink on top of the car and drive away?

I did this yesterday.

Yes it's you.

Granted it was only a bottle of water, but I

was coming out of the HfV and I had and

I had all my arms full. So I set the

drink on the back of the truck and then I

opened the door, and then I just got caught up

and doing something different. I was like unzipping things and

shuffling things, forgot the drink and then drove away. And

then I was like, oh, I want to sip in

my water. And I was like, where's my water? I

was like, oh, it's inherited, parked a lot.

I did that several years ago. I had one of

those what is those those coffee cups that you sit

on things and they just stay warm, you know what

I mean? No no, no, no, no, no, that you said,

and it stays exactly the right temperature. It's electric. Those

they're expensive coffee cups.

Oh.

So I walked out, set it on the roof of

my car several years ago and drove away with it

and just never found it. Oh yeah, but I think

it's more you than me, Chris, because it happened to

you just recently.

So I went, when when you win when?

Yeah, well you know what, it takes courage, Chris. It

takes courage to admit, oh, when you have these certain weaknesses.

Yeah right, yeah.

And you know who else had courage?

Wow?

Wow?

Neamyah? Neamyah had courage.

He did and uh he was talking about weaknesses of

sabotage and intimidation.

Yeah, that's exactly right. So how do you keep going

when you just want to quit?

Yeah?

Right right, that's really what we're talking about.

So the context of Niamayah. Have we covered this recently

and not lately?

No?

Yeah? So so Neamiyah, you know, the Jews were exiled

from their land. You know, they were they were they

were taking captive, they were you know, they were gone.

And then uh, in exchange of regime regimes happened and

the king allowed people to go back to Jerusalem, to

go back to their homeland, and.

Some people did, but some people did try to rebuild

the city.

To rebuild the city.

Yeah, And Neamayah was actually a cup bearer, which is

an honored job to the king, and so he lived

in the palace, he had he had influence. He actually

uh you know, knew the king personally, that was his job,

but he was a Jew and uh, and word got

back to Naemiah that the walls of Jerusalem were burned

and uh the rubble they were in rubble or they

were rubble, and uh the city therefore was unprotected. And

so Niamayah actually, oh we did cover this. It was

in one of the Dangerous prayers week because because Namayah said,

grant me favor to go in front of the king.

Oh okay, yes, you know, because that's absolutely you did

cover that when I just wasn't here for that one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So bottom line is is uh so Neamiyah then goes

to the king asks the king to allow him to

leave and go rebuild the wall and take and take

charge of this. So the king grants his wishes and

gives him a bunch of resources. Right, so it's a

big deal.

So they get to Jerusalem to start rebuilding the walls.

But a lot of the enemies all around Rusalem they

didn't like this idea, so they start trying to intimidate them,

threatening to invade wipe them out. So Niam I had

to build this thing quick. Yeah, I had to get

built quick. So I think we were only supposed to

read the first nine verses, but I think I might

read this whole chapter.

You rebel, I know you know why. You know why

you want to read the jet why it's your favorite?

It is my favorite. This is one of my favorite

stories in the Bible. It's true, it is one of

my favorite stories of I know. Okay, So the bad guys,

the guys who are I know, Jeff, I know the

guys who are trying to intimidate uh Nehemayah and the

other the builders are Sam Ballot Tobia, Right, they're the

kind of the bad guys. So here's what it says,

Sam Ballot Tobia, Geesham, the Arab and the rest of

our enemies found out that I had finished rebuilding the

wall and that no gaps remained, though we had not

yet set up the doors in the gates. So Sam,

Ballett and Gesham sent a message asking me to meet

them at one of the villages in the plane of

ono ono Is, where Yoko's from. But I realized they

we are plotting to harm me, so I replied by

sending this message to them. I'm engaged in a great work,

so I can't come. Why should I stop working to

come and meet with you? And four times they sent

the same message. Each time I gave the same reply.

The fifth time, Sam Bellit's servant came with an open

letter in his hand, and this is what it said.

There is a rumor among the surrounding nations. And Gsham

tells me it is true that you and the Jews

are planning to rebel, and that is why you are

building the wall. According to his reports, you plan to

be their king. He also reports that you have appointed

prophets in Jerusalem to proclaim about you. Look, there is

a king in Judah. You can be very sure that

this report will get back to the king. So I

suggest that you come and talk it over with me.

I replied, there is no truth to any part of

your story. You're making up the whole thing. They were

just trying to intimidate us, imagining that they could discourage

us and stop the work. So I continued the work

with even greater determination. Later I went to visit Shemaiah,

son of Della Ayah and grandson of Mahede bel oh

that one, because I wasn't s which Szemaiyah was. Yeah,

so it helps. Yeah, grandson of Mahadabelle, Yeah, who was

confined to his home. He said, let us meet together

inside the temple of God and bolt the door shut.

Your enemies are coming to kill you tonight. But I replied,

should someone in my position run from danger, should someone

in my position enter the temple to save his life? No,

I won't do it. I realized that God had not

spoken to him, but that he had uttered this prophecy

against me because Tobia and Samballet had hired him. They

were hoping to intimidate me and make me sin. Then

they would be able to accuse and discredit me. Remember, oh,

my God, all the evil things that Tobaia and Sambalat

have done. And remember Noadiah the prophet and all the

prophets like her who have tried to intimidate me. So

in October second, the wall was finished, just fifty two

days after we'd begun. When our enemies and the stronging

nations heard about it, they were frightened and humiliated. They

realized this work had been done with the help of

our God. During those fifty two days. Many letters went

back and forth between Tobia and the nobles of Judah

for many and Judah had sworn allegiance to him because

his father in law was Sekhnaiah, son of an Era,

and his son Jehoahan Jehoe Hannen je Johannan. How you

said sure was married to the daughter of Meshelim, son

of Berekayah. They kept telling me about Tobia's good deeds,

and then they told him everything I said. Tobia kept

sending threatening letters to intimidate me. So this is such

a great story.

Well, I mean, Neami is the man.

Yeah, he is the man. He's like, can not intimidate me.

I got a great work to do, leave me alone.

Well, I mean, there's there's like this shrewdness to him.

There's a there's an incredible amount of discernment.

You know, he is very keen.

It makes you wonder, like what kind of upbringing did

he have where it's almost like he has sort of

military training, right, Yeah, because you know these are like

strategic things that you would do in war, isn't it. Yeah,

where you you know, try to deceive someone and try

to either you know, overcome them or you know, in

this case thwart their work. And I just think that

it's pretty awesome. And by the way, it doesn't necessarily

say that Neami was right, but isn't the implication that

Neami was absolutely humpset right?

Yeah, he could see through what they were trying to do,

and I think that's the implication is he could see

what they were trying to do and he didn't give in.

So this is so cool because, like you said, he's

kind of this general kind of a guy. It's not

the role he had. There's no indication that this was.

He just was a good leader and then he was

following God's instructions. But there was a point where the

other leaders they were really interested in what sam Ballet

and Tobio were saying, and they were starting to drag

their feet, and then they were a little intimidated and

they didn't want to work. And there's a passage that says,

then the nobles did not want to put their next

to the work. This was said, right, So what happened

was the leaders of the rest of the group of

the Israelites, they didn't want to work. They were like

princes and they were like, we don't you know, we're

not going to work, and he's he's like, we got

to build this walls fast we can. Our enemies are

going to wipe us out. We put a sword on

one hand and a tool in the other hand. We

got to get back build the wall for your children

and for your your your wives and your daughters. And

this is why we're doing this. And he's constantly casting vision.

Halfway through about twenty six days, they all get discouraged.

They don't want to do it. When the when the

princes and the elders don't want to do the work,

he grabs them by the beard. Remember that. Yeah, Yeah,

he grabs him by the prayer, gives him a tug,

and he's like telling them, threatening to rough him up.

He's starting to beat him up. You get back to work.

I'm gonna pick you up, right. And he was in

a hurry to get this job done because the enemies

of the people of God were starting to surround the

city and they were gonna they the enemies knew we

need to stop you before you get this wall built,

or we won't be able to defeat you later.

Ye right, And I think I said this last time

that we talked about this prayer or you know, his

other prayer. But but it amazes me. I have to

say this because I can't think about this story without

saying this. It amazes me that the Wall of Nehemiah,

part of it is still up today.

Oh yeah, yeah, because you know you knew that, right, Yeah.

Because you can tell how how shody it looks like,

like it really truly doesn't look like anything.

It looks like pros built it.

Yeah, it looks like they threw it up in fifty

two days. Like you can tell. It's like if you

were to just just all by yourself, not knowing the story,

you know, and just uncover two walls or actually you

can uncover one hundred walls.

You can go, uh, Namai's wall.

Yeah, you can totally tell, right, Yeah, It's like, uh,

it's like Indiana Jones, Right, this is the cup of

a carpenter.

Yeah, you can just totally tell it's true.

Ye.

So so they get this wall built. And one of

the things I love about Niamiyah, so you talk about

the prayer that Neamiah prayed before he goes to see

the king. It's only like what two or three sentences

the in chapter five when he's all done.

Actually it's more than that, because he actually acknowledges the sin,

the sin of his nation.

Yeah, you're right.

Yeah, And then he says, he says, hey, we have sinned,

and you know it's pretty it's pretty powerful.

Actually yeah. It's about five verses. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But then you find him when he's working, he's going

one hundred miles an hour. In chapter five, it's one sentence, remember,

oh God, all that I've done for these people, and

bless me for it. That's it. You get to this

one and he says, remember, oh God, all the evil

things to buy and some ballad have done, Remember Noadiah

Prophit and all the prophets like Kuru tried to intimidate me.

He gets back to work. What I was going to

point out is he's not going into these deep theological prayers.

Oh for sure.

He's not right for sure, because the work is so important,

and so he's got to keep going, he's got to

keep building. And so in the one he's like, Lord,

I've been working hard and I just need your blessing.

And then this one, Lord, you know, I've got some

enemies who hate me, and hey, what I'm trying to do,

so you take care of him, right, right, So he

knows that they're baiting him into trying to intimidate him,

to make him fearful that, hey, we're going to slander you,

were going to gossip you. You know this was cancel

culture before cancel culture. Hey, it'd be a shame if

the king happened to hear that you were thinking about

setting yourself up as king, if you don't come out

and give us the respect we need. Because the sam

Ballot and Tobia already knew and Gusham, they already knew

that the other princes were really kind of attracted them

interested Neamiah was a stronger leader, so they were afraid

to go against Niemiah, but they were flirting with sam

Ballet and Tobia. So if sam Ballat and Tobia had

gotten him to submit and be intimidated and he'd walked

out to meet them, it would have elevated them in

the eyes of all those princes that were thinking about

leaving him strategically right, and so instead he established I'm

strong enough, I don't I'm not intimidated by you. I'm

not gonna be afraid. You go tell the king whatever

you think you need to tell him because it's not true.

And then he goes back to work. I have a

great work to do. I don't have the time to

come out and meet with you. And then he just

throws up a quick prayer of God, you see what

they're doing. I need you to deal with that because

I got to finish building this wall that you told

me to build.

Yeah.

So the theme is perseverance and Niamiah certainly as them as that.

And so you have to start with the fact that

that that you know, is this a mission?

That is a God mission?

Uh Neamiah clearly has stated that this is something God

has asked him to do.

Right.

He felt it all the way in Babylon. When he

approached the king, he felt it. Then he said, this

is what I think that God has called me to do.

Please allow me to go to Jerusalem and build the wall.

And when he got there, he gave a great, big speech.

Member he rallied everybody, you know, workmen, you know, the

blue collar workers, the white collar workers, you know, people

from every trade and he rallied them up in an

incredible way. And everybody rallied because of the mission. Right,

so they're not going to rally, you know, out of inspiration,

or I guess they could rally out of fear. You know,

without a wall, we can be overcome, you know, these

kinds of things. But but Niamiah didn't do just that.

He actually gave a speech and said, you know, this

is what God wants us to do. We are we

are His chosen people and h and he adds the

spiritual component to the mission. So everybody rallies, and so

I guess my point is this is that if you

know that you're on a mission, and you know that

it's a God mission, you know that God wants you

to do something, and you clearly know this is this

is a God thing. I'm only doing this because I

believe this is what God wants me to do. Once

that is established, once that is absolutely crystal clear, then

to have perseverance like Nihemiah is uh, it's it's it's

a lot easier to understand, like, hey, God is going

to have to show up here, right because if God

has sanctioned this, if God has blessed this, then you

know the obstacles that I have to overcome, God is

going to get me through. And that's Niemiah models for

us the what it takes to say no, no, no, no no,

this is this is what God has asked me to do,

and there's nothing more important. And I shouldn't stop what

I'm doing to do this other thing because this is

this is what God has me to do. And then

what does God do? God then blesses it. And then

that's why Niemiah praised. And it sounds like he has

absolute confidence. Right, Hey, I'm on mission for you God.

I got these enemies. I just want you to take note. Yeah,

take care of them, take care of them for me,

because we're on mission. And the perseverance factor is so high.

Yah. Yeah. And then you have Shemaiah comes and it's

the son of dalla Ayah, that one.

It's not the other one.

Yeah, yeah, the grandson. I'm ahead of it.

I thought it was the guy with the big noe.

Yeah. So anyways, sama Ayah comes and goes and says, hey,

I'm a prophet and the Lord told me that they're

going to come and hurt you, so let's go hide

in the temple together. And Niamyah realizes, hey, this is

an attempt to get me to sin, because Niamiah knew

he's not a priest. He's not able to go into

the temple, and so what does he do. He tests

the professed words of a professed prophet against the established

words in God's word. Right, So there is a temptation

on occasion. If the devil can't intimidate us, the devil's

going to try to give us a false word from God.

Somebody there. Hey, I had a young leader one time

that I had to confront about sin, and he was,

I think you were part of that. And he came

back to me and his rebuttal was, look at all

this evidence I found online to prove that my decision

was a good decision. It's perfectly acceptable. Right, Well, man,

you can find anything online. You can find anything online.

There's all kinds of false words. But here's what I know.

When I take the totality of God's words, He's really

clear on almost every topic.

Right.

And so for Nehemiah, he tested the verbal proclamation of

a supposed prophet against the established words of God, and

it protected him from sinning if he had sinned. There's

many times where God takes his hands off and doesn't

protect people who decide, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to sin.

And because they weren't for God's word, right is it true?

And so in this situation, Neemiah also has this wisdom

to compare what is Schemayah saying versus what does God's

word have to say? It prevented another catastrophic sin. So

in so many ways, Neamaiah is just so wise. And

I think it's partly because these like and what I

was pointing out is a lot of his prayers, not all,

but a lot of his prayers are one sentence prayers

or two sentence prayers. I think he's like in constant

conversation with God. Yeah, Paul says, pray, always pray without ceasing.

And so it's not these big giant devotional prayers, We're

gonna pray for an hour kind of thing. It's just, hey, God,

you see my enemies, I need you to take care

of that from because I'm still trying to build your

wall for you. Right, Hey God, you see I'm working

hard for you. I just need your blessing on this.

And he has this constant conversation with God going and

God just continues to intervene and gives you more and

more wisdom and ultimately great success.

Yeah, it's the Billy Graham story. Yeah, yeah, and just

as I am. Because at the end of the night,

the guy's thing with the hotel says, oh, I can't

wait for Billy Graham to have this great, big prayer

at the end of the night. As we're getting into

the hotel, and you know, they had two separate beds,

and they're getting ready and and and Billy Graham just

jumps into bed and he goes, good night Lord. Yeah

that's all he said, and and and the guys like

the guy's like, what is that? And then they had

a conversation about the next day and he's like, what,

I've just been.

In constant communication with the Lord all day.

I'm praying all day.

I'm praying all day. And he said, I don't need

a big prayer at the end of the night, you know.

Yeah, when you've ignored the Lord all day, you got

to pray for an hour. Yeah. But if you've been

talking to him all day long, it's it's like, Okay,

we're done. See tomorrow.

Ye yeah, that's right.

See in the morning, he's just great, so great, Well,

that looks like that's our time, so hopefully we will

see you tomorrow.

On the Bible guys,