Facing Opposition | Nehemiah 4:1-23

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Good Morning, good morning. We talked the whole that through.

Good morning, good morning to you and you and you.

I wish I could help with that, but hell, no

one wants to be singing, but Jeff, though. We need

to get Jeff singing more often, is what I'm thinking.

We need to get him more.

Hey, last week he actually sang a couple of different times.

He said mail bags, and I was like, I was like, dude,

he's got a good voice.

Oh you mean like with Wesley. Yes, maybe it's personal.

Yeah, no, no, no, he just he says he doesn't want

to sing because I'm the singing guy.

But anyway, listen, Hey, good morning, how about that?

Good morning, good morning.

Welcome to the Bible guys. I'm Christ This is Kyle

jeffs out of town. So today we're the Bible guys,

and we are going to dive into in a minute

Neami chapter four, chapter where Neamiah has just began. We're

actually skipping over chapter three, which by the way, is

an incredible chapter. It's just kind of boring with the details,

but it's incredible in that Nami recruits all different walks

of life of people, right, he recruits like, you know,

masonaries and engineers and soldiers even and commoners and farmers.

But he recruits people from all different walks of life.

He organizes everything, He gives them assignments. He asked them

to start rebuilding the wall, and that took place in

chapter three, and then it's going to continue through today's.

Chapter as well.

But before we get to that, we have a segment

by Desiree called would you rather?

Would you rather?

Okay, yeah, so it looks like I've got five would

you rather questions for you?

You got five for me.

Oh no, no, no, we both have the same five with

the same five. Yeah, so you do it.

Just take turns of reading them and then we'll just

sort of take a guess on answering them.

All. Right, here we go, I'll lead the way here.

Number one, would you rather have to communicate using only

emojis or speak in pig Latin for a week?

So I'm assuming that means you would have to be

silent for a week because you'd have to type emojis

everything up.

But but pig Latin, you can actually speak out loud.

I gotta be honest. I think i'd go emojis. I

think I would.

I inc they at a I would weigh and lay

or a week way.

Could you imagine everywhere you go doing that?

Oh my goodness, every every time you go through the

Starbucks line.

That's how you order your drink, your wife at dinner.

You're trying to have a conversation by miney is.

You couldn't go anywhere by yourself. You'd have to You'd

have to bring an interpreter.

You know, like, did you know what I just said? Yeah,

I'm assuming you said I would speak in pig Latin

for the week. Yes, yes, but did you did you

understand it? Though I would not, It's yeah, it's it's okay.

So like so like, uh okay, oh yeah, ok lay

I lay a feree ray no.

Nothing, referee oh referee at the end, I'm assuming you

say that it look like a rep read it.

That's correct, that's good, that's hilarious. Okay. So so yeah,

I just think it would be hard to be quiet

for a week.

Yeah, that would be tough. I'm gonna go with mojiso. Okay,

we're different on that one, all right.

Number two, would you rather have an adventure in Narnia

or explore Middle Earth from the Lord of the Rings.

Well, this is a crazy question.

Well, I would say, Man, the listeners are gonna hate

me for this, but I am like, not a Lord

of the Rings or a Chronicles and Narnia guy.

So this one's for you, Bud Well.

I gotta be honest, it's it's it's shocking to everybody

because I love movies so much, but I didn't love

Lord of the Rings really Okay. I thought it was epic.

I thought it was done really really super well. I

thought like it was it was true to the book.

I thought it was in every way great, except for

I don't think it was written for anybody besides the

book people.

I think that you.

I think that Harry Potter, for instance, did a fantastic

job making the movie for people who knew nothing about

Harry Potter. But I think the Lord of the Rings

uh sort of, uh, sort of didn't take the time

to bring along people like me. I never read the books,

and so I think it just sort of ran through

all these references and names and cities and stories and

back back plots, and what they did was they didn't

give the time to bring people carry people along. So

it's like it's like they just kept on going from

thing the thing, the thing the thing, almost in my mind,

assuming that people knew what they were talking about, and

and it's and it's and I just thought to myself,

I'm like, hey, the director did a great job making

this movie for the fans. But they but I don't

think the director, honestly, in my opinion, did a good

job making that movie for the people who don't know it.

And somebody just shows up on a Friday night at

the theater, they may felt it might feel lost.

Well, I mean, I've talked ab If you google it

right now and say what's the big complaint about the movies,

you'll you'll read that you'll read that it was hard

to understand. So I would say Narnia, because I think

Narnia was prettier and more beautiful interesting than Middle Earth.

Okay, go ahead and let let us know your comments

on YouTube. What you think about Chris's assessment of Lord

of the Rings.

Yeah, And by the way, I would say, I would

say most people loved Lord of the Rings.

Yeah, loved it.

I have a friend who every year he gets together

and they watch all the Lord of the Rings. They'll

do like a Saturday and they.

Watch them all. They'll do it with Star Wars as well.

Man.

Yeah, and by the way, it wasn't It was fifteen

years later when I said something like the enemy was

the enemy?

Was that wizard guy right like sore In or whatever?

Wasn't it?

And then somebody says, no, the enemy was the Tower?

And I go what I was like, if that's unclear

that that's a bad movie.

Right, that's a bad movie.

So anyway, Number three, would you rather have to wear clowns?

Would you rather have to wear clown shoes every day?

Or a jester hat with bells that jingle constantly? Oh geez,

this is forever too, by the way, that's every day.

Those are two bad choices.

Yeah, this is like, oh, man, the lesser of two evils.

I'm gonna go with clown shoes.

Me too. Clown shoes too, It's easier to deal with. Yeah,

and imagine driving though they're on your feet. Uh yeah,

that's that's rough.

There's some rough.

Yeah, they're not I'm saying that out. There's some rough

scenarios with the clown shoes.

But can you imagine with your hair?

Yeah, you're just a joke the rest of your life.

Yeah, yeah, it's well, I mean you'd be a joke

about what. Listen, let's be clear, there's no way you're

not a joke.

Yeah, yeah, all right.

Number four, would you rather have a family camping trip

or a family cabin getaway? And obviously in Michigan where

we're at, this is uh, this is cabin season, Spartan,

you know, cabin camping season, desiree big camper.

Do you know that about Desiree? I did a huge camper? Yep.

Yeah, So there is no question, uh, you know, just

like shotreck me checking Ago King, we are not even

careful to answer you. We don't even have to debate.

It is a cabin get away from me because I hate.

Camp Okay, So I got to actually, really it's kind

of like, yeah, I feel like when you mentioned heaven

people referring to hunting as heaven, this is probably like

the opposite of that.

The hell would be the camping.

So we actually, my family and I we actually a

few years ago we bought a camper. We actually did

the pop up then we bought a travel trailer and

that was so much fun. We had a lot of

fun with it, you know, for the last few years.

But then last year my brother actually bought a cabin,

a family cabin up north, and comparing them literally in

the last couple of years, it is not even closely

cabin for sure, because our cabin get away, because we're

able to go up there, we're able to experience some

of the same things of camping. But then I go

and sleep in a queen size bed.

Afterwards when I can shower and you know, things like that.

So currently living the US right now, and I will say,

in my opinion, I'll go with the family cabin getaway, Okay.

And then last one is would you rather have the

voice of Mickey Mouse or the fashion sense of a Minion?

Oh?

Wow, the Menya just wore those little suspenders right, yeah,

little blue jeans.

I honestly think I would do Minion, yeah, because that's rough,

but Mickey Mouse would be even rougher.

These are two horrible choices.

Yeah, they're really bad. You're stuck with a voice forever.

Well, your style sense, let's let's just say that maybe

maybe maybe blue.

Gene overalls come back back around every fifteen years, and yeah,

you're you're, you're, you're in.

Styles though that's rough. Well, hey, that's the art time

for the segment.

So let's move on to ne and Maya chapter four,

and uh, we're gonna find out that there's some enemies.

Yeah, and even then chapter two, for those who didn't

listen yesterday, he was met with some opposition, one of

them being sent SAand Blot. And then Neamiah Ford says,

this sam Blot was very angry when he learned that

we were rebuilding the wall. He flew into a rage,

and he mocked the Jews, saying, in front of his

friends and the Samaran army officers, what does this bunch

of poor feeble Jews think they're doing? Do they think

they can build the wall in a single day by

just offering a few sacrifices? Do they actually think they

can make something out of stones or something of stones

from a rubbish heap and charred ones? At that to Buya,

the Ammonite who was standing beside him or marked that

stone wall would collapse if even a fox walked along

the top of it. And then the Neami respond says,

then I prayed, hear us, our God, for we are

being mocked. May their scoffing fall back on their own heads,

and may they themselves become captives in a foreign land.

Do not ignore their guilt, do not blot out their sins,

for they provoked you to anger here in front of

the builders. At last the wall was completed to half

its height around the entire city. For the people had

worked with enthusiasm and sand. Balot and Tobaia and the Arabs,

Ammonites and Esdodites heard that the work was going ahead

and that the gaps in the wall of Jerusalem were

being repaired.

They were furious.

They all made plans to come and fight against the

Jalem against Jerusalem and throw us into confusion. But when

we prayed to our God and guarded the city day

and night to protect ourselves, then the people of Judah

began to complain. The workers are getting tired, and there's

so much rubble to be removed. We will never be

able to build the wall by ourselves. Meanwhile, our enemies

were saying, before they know what's happening, we will swoop

down on them and kill them and end their work.

The Jews who lived near the enemy came and told

us again and again they will come from all directions

and attack us. So I placed armed guards behind the

lowest parts of the wall. In exposed areas, I stationed

the people to stand guard by families armed with swords,

spears and bows.

Then, as I looked over the situation, I.

Called together the nobles and the rest of the people

and said to them, don't be afraid of the enemy.

Remember the Lord who is great and glorious, and fight

for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and

your homes. When our enemies heard that we knew of

their plans and that God had frustrated them, we all

returned to our work on the wall. But from then

on only half my men worked, while the other half

stood guard with spears, shields, bows and coats of mail.

The leaders stationed themselves behind the people of Judah who

are building the wall. The laborers carry down their work

with one hand supporting their load and one hand holding

a weapon. All the builders had a sword belted to

their side. The trumpeters stayed with me to sound the alarm,

which is pretty sweet visual right there. Then I explained

to the nobles and officials and all the people.

The work is very.

Spread out, and we are widely separated from each other

along the wall. When you hear the blast of the trumpet,

rush to wherever it is sounding. Then our God will

fight for us. We worked early and late, from sunrise

to sunset, and half the men were always on guard.

I also told everyone living outside the walls to stay

in Jerusalem way they and their servants could help with

guard duty at night and work during the day. During

this time, none of us, not I, nor my relatives,

nor my servants, nor the guards who were with me,

ever took off our clothes. We carried our weapons with

us at all times, even when we went for water. Okay, yeah,

well chapter there.

Yeah, and uh, well there's there's a lot there. And uh,

poor poor Nehemiah, I just what a task, right, He's

not given like pure soldiers, he's not given an army,

so he has to use the people. And and it's

sort of like, you know, it reminds me, did you

ever see that movie The Patriot with Yeah, yeah, So

he's mobilizing and training farmers, you know, with pitchforks right

to uh, to become soldiers, and turns out that they

were pivotal in history for our country. Those uh, those militia.

But anyway, that's sort of what's happening here. Uh.

Nehemiah is, you know, tasked with.

Protecting the city because he's hearing of people's plans to

come and tear down the wall and attack them.

And you know what's so great, this is a word

picture of how we should live our lives. You know

what it reminds me of is I'm doing.

Some cross referencing here, but the story of Gideon in

the Bible where God says, hey, have other people drink,

and the people who stick their head down and lap

like a dog get rid of them.

But were the people who cut the water and bring

it up to them? Keep those people?

And I learned through study that it's the people who

went for a drink and who still were on guard,

and they didn't make themselves defenseless.

They stood upright, they sat up.

Right on their knees, and they brought water to their hands,

you know, from their hands to their face. They were

able to still have a sword in their hand, and

they were still to be on guard. Those were wise

and prudent people. The people who just ran to the

river threw their sword down and stuck their face in

the water. God said, get rid of those because those

people are ready. Yeah, they're they're not prudent, They're not

you know, they were defenseless, right, They didn't have that wherewithal.

They didn't have that wisdom of being on guard. And

if you think about it, it's sort of the way

that God calls us to live our lives. Right, So

we should always uh, you know, be on guard to

protect our families at the same time we're doing tasks

at hand.

It also reminds me of.

The spiritual realm, right, so we were busy about doing

things recognizing that there's a spiritual realm that could attack

us at any minute. We should be on guard spiritually.

It's just it's a great prudent look on how we

should be as leaders who run our home, how we

run our businesses. Right, we should always be busy and

at the same time be aware of what could happen.

That that includes preparations, that includes future planning. It's it's

all those things. It's just a great big word picture.

Oh that's that's really good because if you think about it,

I mean, Niamiah trusted that God was going to provide.

He really did.

He believed that the that there's an end goal here,

there's an end game that God was going to provide.

God already had provided and open up doors. But yeah,

you're right, he still was prudent. He still gave them

and wanted them to have these tactical ways to defend

themselves because, as it mentioned at the beginning, you kind

of alluded to the patriot says, what does this bunch

of poor feeble Jews think they're doing. So he didn't

qualify or he didn't He didn't call on the people

who were those soldiers, those military warriors leaders. Instead, he

just gave them a practical wise step. One of the

things that stands up to me is it says when

it said the laborers carried on their work with one

hand supporting their load and one hand holding a weapon.

I know you kind of alluded that as well, but

isn't that wildly but like one hand you're trying to

do the work, one hand you got your weapon ready

to defend yourself.

And you're right, that is the way we need to live.

We need to be on guard, we need to be

wearing that protection from the enemy, wearing protection even from

ourselves and the things that go on in our lives.

But also I think there's one of the things that

mentioned in the Life Application Study Bible as it relates

to this verse. It says that the workers were spread

out along the wall, so Niamiah devised the planet offense

that would unite and protect his people. Half the men

worked while the other half stood guard. Christians need to

help one another in the same way, because we can

become so afraid of possible dangers that we can't get

anything done. By looking out for each other, we'll be

free to put forth our best efforts, confident that others

are ready to offer help when needed. So don't cut

yourself from others. And I think that's so important because

even here he's alluding the fact that essentially one person

was watching while one person was working, and it's a

reminder of how we need people in our lives. There

was none of this could have been done on their own,

and instead we need to people. And you see in

military times even how because it's very I don't know

why it's bringing up military thoughts here, but the fact

that a lot of times when guys go into a place,

they go back to back you know, it's like the movements,

Like a lot of times when they say military people

and they're going in, they're taking over a place. The

way they stand back to back, the way they they're

essentially not even thinking about themselves. They're trusting the person

has their back behind them, and there's a lot of

trust that's in that.

And in the same way, I think.

We need to live our lives with other believers and

other people in our lives in the same way, letting

them like trusting them, letting them them watch our back

and help us out when we can't help ourselves out.

And uh, you know what's interesting is that so I

love this where it says, uh, first of all, they're

mocking by asking these questions. Yeah, uh, they say, do

they think they can build the wall in a single

day just by offering a few sacrifices?

In other words like delusions of grandeur?

Right? And then he says, do they actually think they

can make something of stones from a rubbish sheep and

charred ones at that? Which means that what the what

the people are doing is they're taking the rocks that

we're already there that are charred, and they're using them

for the wall. And then they're also using random rocks

from rubbish heaps, right, just just anything, so they're not

taking their time to construct. Perhaps you know, you know,

the the Babylonian Empire or the Persian Empire or the

Roman Empire later on would would come along and say, hey,

we're gonna fashion rocks and cut them and fit them

and fashion them together like this fortified wall.

They're literally taking, you know, just random rocks. They're not

These aren't calculated things.

They're throwing together from rubbish heaps, and they're trying to

place together as best as they can.

Now, here's what it's interesting is that it actually says.

Tobia, the Ammonite, who was standing beside him, remarked that

stone would collapse even if.

A fox walked along the top of it. Here's what's

interesting is that parts of the walls of Nehemiah are

still standing today. Did you know that?

So actually, think about this, Think about this. So here's

here's a wall that that they're making fun of. That's saying,

this isn't even a wall. Even if fox ran across,

they would fall. And yet here we have, two thousand,

five hundred years later, parts of me and I's wall

is still standing today, and most scholars, I would say,

the majority of almost all scholars believe that this is

and I's wall based on its location and then also

based on its construction, because the construction is uh, it

looks exactly like that. In fact, if you've ever seen

a photograph of Nemia's wall, other walls from Jerusalem look

very polished right in modern Jerusalem, right, but but an

old Jerusalem, it's actually uh uh you can see, you

can see they're all jagged and it looks like it

looks like a hodgepodge wall. And yet I believe that

it's God's sovereignty. It's his, it's his, uh, you know,

it's a statement about who he is and about Nemiah's

uh you know, uh mission, and about God's faithfulness.

Yeah, we're thankful when our when our building stay up

over one hundred years here, right, and you know in

our in our state, we're like, oh man, it's over

one hundred year old building, and that feels old.

Yeah. I believe that God has allowed parts of the

and I's wall to stand.

That's crazy because of this, and so it's just really

interesting how you know, niam I does something in faith

I'm sure that as they're getting mocked, they feel inadequate.

They're not masonaries, at least most of them. They're not professionals,

and they're probably thinking, you know, I wonder if what

I'm doing is going to last?

Little did they know? Yeah, that's so cool that it's

still today. You know, it makes me think, you, yeahts

of it? Have you ever been to the Heidelberg Project

in Detroit?

Huh, it's like a it's basically a street and a

half in Detroit, in the neighborhoods of Detroit that that's

basically just an art constellation type thing where basic artists

came in ten fifteen plus years ago in a very

rough neighborhood and there's all these abandoned houses. Essentially he

bought the properties and turn it into this art project.

Or you go down, Oh, I have seen it. It's

a little wonky like it's.

Definitely like there's like arts in the trees, there's.

A bunch of stuffed animals. There's old cars but they're decorated,

there's pieces of art. It's when you realize what they

did is it essentially did this in a way where

they took charred, broken down torn up things.

And made it into something beautiful, and you'd on that street.

And I remember when I first went there, and it

might have been fifteen, like when Detroit, I mean, Detroit

has made a huge comeback, but this was a time

when it was like there were there wasn't a lot

of hope. There wasn't a lot of beauty even to

be found. After you know, the the bankruptcy and whatnot.

It was a rough time for the Steve Detroit remember

going down there and just thinking how cool it was

to take something that had been broken and make it

beautiful out of the ashes, right, to see that street

come alive. In fact, it's it's still a very popular

tourist destination for people who go down to the city.

But I think it's actually a picture of our lives too.

Write how God works, right. He takes the charred, He

takes our past, our our history, our mistakes, our breakups,

our family land, like all the things that we think

are broken, and he makes it whole and complete.

And you know, the whole Gospel of Jesus. Even at

the time when when.

Jesus was first the name of Jesus was being spread,

they're like, like, don't worry about it. Like where was

it where they said, if if this is from God,

we won't be able to stop them, like that, likes

you said about Jesus, if this is a movement of God,

we will not be able to stop them. And here

we are with this wall. If this is from God,

We're not gonna be able to stop it. And you're

like you're saying to twenty five hundred years later, still standing.

It's amazing.

Yeah, I've always liked that passage that that was Gameleia.

I said that on the on the Sanhedrin. So yeah,

that's just incredible. So what other sermons do we have.

We're approaching our time, we see enemies are opposing us,

and maybe this is another sermon.

Maybe we should talk about this.

And that is when you decide as a Christian to

take a stand for what is right, even if you're

the only one, and even if there are people who

mock you, and there are people who will try to

publicly humiliate you. I remember, for instance, there was this

one conversation where there's this person I was with in

a group setting admitted that they were still a virgin,

and they said, oh yeah, I'm I'm a ver and uh,

I believe that God created sex for marriage, and I

believe that I want to wait for these kinds of things.

And they were in a group of people who, in fact,

I think there were probably even some believers in that group.

And one of them even said, uh, you know, isn't

that a little bit old fashioned idea?

You don't actually believe that that's, you know, something that's

in the Bible, do you?

And and and the people who weren't Christians, which were

most of them, made fun of them, and uh, and

I remember feeling bad in that moment, but then I

only felt bad for a split second because this person

had such confidence and such resolve and did not care

at all what anybody said when they were mocking them,

and said, well, absolutely, it's what I believe. And I know,

I know that I'm right, and I know that because

that's what God says. And so yeah, I love the

fact that I'm that I'm that I'm doing this. I

just remember thinking to myself, god lye like, I didn't

even have to speak up. I didn't even have to

come to this person's defense because this person had that

much confidence. And uh, and so listen, if if somebody

around you is making you feel smaller because of your faith.

Don't don't ever back down because of it. Be confident

because because Nehemiah and this feeble group of Jews could

have easily been intimidated, they could have easily had their

spirits broken, they could have easily lost hope. But they

didn't do any of those things. Instead, they diligently move forward,

confident and believing what Neamiah said about God.

Right, God will be with you.

God is gonna God is gonna be with you because

he said these things. These are the promises of God.

So let's not let's not ever doubt that.

That's good. That's good. Great challenge too.

Yeah cool.

So that's all our time together. So hopefully we will

see you tomorrow on the Bible guys see