Rebuilding Broken Lives Part 7 Nehemiah 4 Page 406 in Pew Bibles

1. Rebuilding Broken Lives Part 7 Nehemiah 4 Page 406 in Pew Bibles

2. Nehemiah 4:1-6 • When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious. He mocked the Jews • before his colleagues and the powerful men of Samaria, and said, “What are these pathetic Jews doing? Can they restore it by themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they ever finish it? Can they bring these burnt stones back to life from the mounds of rubble?”

3. Then Tobiah the Ammonite, who was beside him, said, “Indeed, even if a fox climbed up what they are building, he would break down their stone wall!” • Listen, our God, for we are despised. Make their insults return on their own heads and let them be taken as plunder to a land of captivity. • Do not cover their guilt or let their sin be erased from Your sight, because they have provoked the builders.

4. So we rebuilt the wall until the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had the will to keep working.

5. Rebuilding Broken Lives Nehemiah 4

6. Nehemiah • Was the key agent for rebuilding walls of Jerusalem • Was one of the key leaders in rebuilding the spiritual life of the people. • Gives us a pattern for rebuilding our personal lives and helping others in rebuilding theirs’. . >

7. Challenges You Will Face When You Do A Work for God Five Challenges And How to Meet Them

8. 1. You Will Face Ridicule • Vs. 1-3 “Sanballet… mocked the Jews before his colleagues and the powerful men of Samaria” • Thomas Carlyle called ridicule “the language of the devil.” • Warren Wiersbe: “Some people who can stand bravely when they are shot at will collapse when they are laughed at.” >

9. 1. You Will Face Ridicule • Scorners Need Friends • Vs. 2 “Before his colleagues and the powerful men of Samaria” • Attacks Them Personally • Vs. 2 “What are these pathetic Jews doing?” • Pathetic: Literally, weak, feeble, withered away. • Attacks Their Competence • Vs. 2 “Can they restore it by themselves?” >

10. 1. You Will Face Ridicule • Attacks Their Perseverance • Vs. 2 “Will they offer sacrifices?” • Attacks Their Enthusiasm • Vs. 2, NAS95: “Will they finish in a day?” • Attacks their Building Materials • Vs. 2 “Can they bring these burnt stones back to life from the mounds of rubble?” • Burnt limestone was weakened • But it was the gates that were burned; the walls were knocked down >

11. 1. You Will Face Ridicule • Attacks Their Work Product • Vs. 3 “Then Tobiah the Ammonite, who was beside him, said, ‘Indeed, even if a fox climbed up what they are building, he would break down their stone wall!’” • These walls were 9 feet thick >

12. 1. You Will Face Ridicule • Warren Wiersbe: “When the enemy laughs at what God's people are doing, it is usually a sign that God is going to bless His people in a wonderful way.” . >

13. 2. You Will Face Rage • Vs. 1 “When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious and very angry.” • Two words meaning: “He burned with anger and was so upset he lost it” • NLT: “Very angry… he flew into a rage” >

14. 2. You Will Face Rage • Vs. 7 “When Sanballat, Tobiah, and the Arabs, Ammonites, and Ashdodites heard that the repair to the walls of Jerusalem was progressing and that the gaps were being closed, they became furious.” • Repair progressing: Being bandaged up or healed up • Revelation 12:12 “The Devil has come down to you with great fury, because he knows he has a short time.” >

15. 2. You Will Face Rage • God is untouched by rebel rage. Psalm 2:1-4, ESV: • Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? • The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his anointed, saying, • “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” • He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. . >

16. 3. You Will Face Resistance • Vs. 8 “They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and throw it into confusion.” • “They all plotted together” • Samaritans on the north • Ammonites on the east • Arabians on the south • Ashdod on the west. • Jerusalem was surrounded by enemies . >

17. 4. You Will Face Resistance • Vs. 8 “They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and throw it into confusion.” • Plotting a special ops job to do in the restoration project by putting Jerusalem into disarray. • 1st Corinthians 14:33, KJV “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” >

18. 4. You Will Work the Rubble • Vs. 10 “In Judah, it was said: The strength of the laborer fails, since there is so much rubble. We will never be able to rebuild the wall.” • We can imagine the people singing this lament as they worked on the wall —New American Commentary >

19. The Restoration Blues • They are staggering under their load • The workers’ strength is failing • Working around the rubble makes the task too much trouble • We’re in over our heads, we won’t be prevailing • We’ve got those wall-building blues >

20. 4. You Will Work the Rubble • Mid-Project Crisis • Vs. 6 “So we rebuilt the wall until the entire wall was joined together up to half its height” >

21. Mid-Project Crisis • Physical Exhaustion • Enthusiasm of a new project is gone • The end is not yet in sight • It’s messy and seems too complex • We are proven to be inadequate… >

22. 4 Steps Through the Crisis • Excitement about the project • Distracted by the problems • Feelings of inadequacy • “We will never be able to rebuild the wall” • Fresh dependence on the Lord . >

23. 5. You Will Hear the Rumors • Vs. 11-12 “And our enemies said, ‘They won’t know or see anything until we’re among them and can kill them and stop the work.’ When the Jews who lived nearby arrived, they said to us time and again, ‘Everywhere you turn, they attack us.’” Quote >

24. J. I. Packer • “Few if any churches lack friends, of a sort, who feel it is their special ministry to impart negative assurances of this kind, and who never doubt their doomsaying is the most helpful contribution they could make. The factual information may, of course, be useful; but the… gloom they spread is unbelief masquerading as wisdom…” >

25. 5. You Will Hear the Rumors • Vs. 12 “When the Jews who lived nearby arrived, they said to us time and again, “Everywhere you turn, they attack us.” • Message: “The Jews who were their neighbors” >

26. 5. You Will Hear the Rumors • Mark 4:24 (NASB): “And He was saying to them, ‘Take care what you listen to.’” • Not only should you be careful who you listen to, you should be careful who the people you listen to listen to. >

27. 5. You Will Hear the Rumors • Vs. 12 “When the Jews who lived nearby arrived, they said to us time and again, ‘Everywhere you turn, they attack us.’” • Message: “If we heard it once, we heard it ten times” >

28. 5. You Will Hear the Rumors • Vs. 12 “When the Jews who lived nearby arrived, they said to us time and again, “Everywhere you turn, they attack us.” • Said to the group, not Nehemiah or the responsible military authority >

29. 5. You Will Hear the Rumors • Vs. 12 “When the Jews who lived nearby arrived, they said to us time and again, “Everywhere you turn, they attack us.” • Think twice before fearing an un-named, undefined “They” . >

30. Five Challenges • Ridicule • Rage • Resistance • Rubble • Rumors • It is not God’s will that we do His work the easy way. God’s plan is for us to become overcomers… and overcoming means obstacles. . .

31. Rebuilding Broken Lives