The Reality Of Opposition Series

The Bible tells us to love our neighbors and also to love our enemies; probably because

the are generally the same people. This was certainly true in Nehemiah’s time. His arrival

in Jerusalem was a threat to those leaders and tribes and nations around him. A strong

Jerusalem would endanger the balance of power in the region, and it would also rob

Sanballat and his friends of influence and wealth.

We find ourselves about at the halfway point in the rebuilding of the wall. As a matter of

fact in 4:6, Nehemiah even recorded that it as “joined together up to half its height”. As

the work is being accomplished and the people are honoring God with their efforts, we

find that there were thundering voices of doubt all around Nehemiah. He was getting

reports of plans to kill him and was even starting to hear the rumblings of grumbling from

within his own ranks. I am sure that He began to have a few doubts as to the ultimate

success of the building project, was probably fearing for his own life and for that of his

workers and also was having to expend great amounts of time and energy to “shore up” or

to encourage those around him.

What about you? What will you do when you begin to doubt? What will you do when

others come against you and ask you to quit what you are doing for God? What will you

do when there are opponents in life? When you attempt to do something for God, when I

yearn to live for God, when you strive to serve God, when we long to honor God with

everything that we are and with everything that we do you had better expect opposition

along the way and I had better opposition along the way, we had better expect opposition

along the way.

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Any cause worth doing is also a cause that someone will feel they need to criticize! Any

cause worth doing is also a cause that someone will feel that they need to criticize! All

great causes have had great critics. It was Aristotle who said, “You can avoid opposition

by saying nothing, doing nothing, being nothing!”

We learned a little last week about the effect of the Big Mo and how when something is

starting to move and to gain speed and to be effective for God that others see it and want

to be a part of it. Well when the wheel of the Big Mo starts to move it creates friction.

That friction creates heat, and that heat is the opposition and obstacles that we come

against in life. That friction and that heat will be the opposition and the heat that we will

come against as we attempt to honor God in developing this church into the church that

He desires for her to be. that friction and that heat is what Nehemiah found himself

coming against as He rebuilt the wall to Honor His God!

An interesting thought here, when we come against opposition, when you come against

opposition, when I come against opposition maybe we need to look at it as a direct result

that the wheel of momentum is moving and that we are being effective for God.

Opposition will hit all of our lives. I saw a bumper sticker the other day that summed it

fairly well, it said, “Some days you are the windshield and some days you are the bug”. I

think that is a kinder, gentler way of saying, “Some days you are the monument and some

days you are the pigeon”. When I view opposition through the lens of being effective for

God, it suddenly changes not only what I see but also how I actually view it, for with

God all things are possible! Especially when we are in line with His will and plan for our

lives.

Opposition is going to happen. There are accounts recorded throughout God’s word of

opposition that the greats of the faith faced. Moses faced 40 years of griping and

complaining. It of course started with Pharaoh and his army but probably even worse was

the constant griping and complaining from within his own ranks, the Israelites, the ones

whom he was leading. He faced continual conflict and continual criticism. Remember the

shepherd boy David as he came against Goliath and how Goliath “trash talked” him and

made fun of not only David but the entire nation of Israel. Jesus especially had critics and

he had them to the point of death! Opposition is going to happen!

I could not print all of today’s text, however I have listed on your sermon outline the

references for today so that you can do some study on your own and hopefully be able to