Don't Give Up! Series

Let’s Rebuild #3

Don’t Give Up!

Dr. Marty Baker | February 7, 2021 | Nehemiah 4

My name is Marty Baker and I want to welcome you to Super Bowl Weekend at Stevens Creek. The odds are pretty high that if you own a television, you will be watching the Super Bowl this weekend with the Kansas City Chiefs taking on Tampa Bay Bucs.

The winner will receive the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Coach Lombardi believed that football was not an individual sport, but a team sport. He knew that teamwork was the real key to winning games. He said, "People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society."

Teams come in all shapes and sizes. If you’re married, you and your spouse are a team. If you are employed by an organization, you and your colleagues are a team. If you volunteer your time, you and your fellow workers are a team.

If you are in a small group here at The Creek, you are a team. If you would like to join a small group, you can sign up at StevensCreekChurch.com or stop by the People Matter wall in the lobby.

Every day in some way, you are a part of a team.

Today, I want to take you to the Old Testament and introduce you to an ordinary guy named Nehemiah. He was one of the most effective team builders in the Bible.

He understood the importance of working together. Nehemiah understood that when you are faced with a challenge or a problem, you do not need to go through it alone. You need the support of other people.

Nehemiah was the cupbearer of the King of Persia which meant that he was the modern-day equivalent of a butler and security guard. It was his job to protect the king.

The cupbearer protected the king’s food and drink from being poisoned. He would actually taste the king’s food before the King would eat. Being a cupbearer to a king meant that you were among the most trusted people in the land.

As the story opens in Nehemiah chapter one, we meet Nehemiah’s brother. He traveled from Jerusalem to Persia to visit Nehemiah. In the course of conversation, Nehemiah asked him about the condition of Jerusalem.

His brother said, “The wall is broken down.” In ancient times, when a city’s walls were lying in ruins, it was saying that they were in deep, deep trouble. When a city’s walls were down, thieves and bandits from outside the city could invade the city. When a city’s walls were down, the city was vulnerable to every conceivable kind of evil.

Nehemiah knew that something had to be done. He made a very courageous decision. He went to the King and asked for three things: a leave of absence, a military escort and timber from the King’s forest.

Nehemiah took a huge risk, but the gracious hand of God was on his life. When the people of Jerusalem heard Nehemiah’s story and recognized that God’s hand was on him, they said, “Let’s start rebuilding.” So they started this good work.”

When they started building the wall, everybody was enthusiastic. Their heart was into it. Everything was great, but when they reached the half way point of the project, they got discouraged. The project seemed too big. It was too hard. It was too difficult. Nehemiah had to convince a group of people who wanted to quit to keep going.

There are some of you today that want to give up and quit. You feel as though you have fought long and hard and nothing has changed. There could be another group that you are dealing with someone who wants to give up on something. I believe that everyone of us can learn some lessons from Nehemiah’s story that will help us stay in the game.

What makes a person want to give up when they are half way through a project? What makes a person want to give up on a career or even more importantly a relationship when they have invested years into it? There are at least four causes of discouragement in Nehemiah’s story.

1. People tend to give up when they are physically exhausted.

When you’re physically exhausted, when you’re physically tired, you are going to become discouraged. In this story an entire nation was trying to rebuild these giant walls around the city of Jerusalem. People were all in.

Nehemiah 4:6

6 So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.

When they reached the halfway point, they just ran out of steam. They were tired.

Nehemiah 4:10

10 Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, “The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.”