Keep the Change
“Defeating Discouragement”
Nehemiah 4
Perhaps you have heard of Murphy’s law. His most famous law was this: if anything
can go wrong, it probably will. There are other laws that are attributed to Mr. Murphy as well. Here are a few:
* left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
* if everything seems to be going well, you have probably overlooked something.
* you will never find a lost article until you replace it. Then it always shows up.
In our text today, everything seems to be going wrong all at once. Mr. Murphy shows up and he reminds Nehemiah that when everything seems to be going great, then you must have overlooked something. It reminds me of a situation that took place several years ago when Edith, a mother of 8 children came home when Saturday afternoon from her neighbor’s house, only to discover 5 of her youngest children huddled together in the LR very focused on something. As she slipped in behind them to see what they were doing, she could hardly believe he eyes. Right in the middle of her kids were several baby skunks. She screamed at the top of her voice, “kids run!” So each child grabbed a skunk and ran to their BR.
If anything can go wrong, it will. Right now across our country there is a plague that is spreading. It’s not the flu, it’s not a virus but it’s an outbreak that is as deadly as the most dreaded disease known to man-it’s called discouragement. There are at least 3 things that make it a huge problem right now. (1) It’s universal. All of us have been discouraged at one time or another. None of us are immune. (2) It’s recurring. Being discouraged once doesn’t suddenly make you immune to this disease. (3) It’s highly contagious. In fact you can be discouraged because others are discouraged.
I think there are 2 main types of discouragement. One set of problems come at us from the outside, the other set attacks us on the inside. Those who were working on the wall in Jerusalem were very excited, at least @ first. They started with a lot of hope. Verse 6 says the people worked with all their hearts. Things were going well, the wall was going up and suddenly Murphy’s law kicked in. You see when God is at work the enemy is also at work. And that was the case with the wall of Jerusalem. Satan used 2 types of external forces to cause them to be discouraged.
(1) Ridicule. Look at verses 1-2. This man Sanballat was opposed to Nehemiah’s effort. Every time we read about him he is standing against the work of God...ridiculing Nehemiah. Someone has said that ridicule is the language of the devil. Goliath ridiculed David, the roman soldiers ridiculed Jesus while he was on the cross. Sanballat had started to ridicule the workers before the work even started in 2:19. Now in chpt. 4 he is doing to again. He ridiculed the job they were doing by primarily asking them 4 questions. Look at them. (1) Will they rebuild the wall? How could this small group build a wall strong enough to protect a city? (2) Will they offer sacrifices? It will take more than their efforts to do this. (3) Will they finish in a day? Do they realize what a big job this is? (4) Can they bring these stones back to life? The materials were old and they were damaged...it won’t work! Then in verse 3 Tobiah starts to ridicule the workers and he makes a joke...their humor was different but try to follow this.....v. 3 foxes. Portions of these walls have been uncovered..the walls were 9 ft. thick so it would take more than a small fox to knock them down. But Tobiah and the others hoped their sarcasm would cause them to cave in to this disease called discouragement.
2nd cause was repression. Verses 7-8. The enemy is now angry. They were all plotting together to stir up trouble. Warren Wiersbe said God’s people sometimes have difficulty working together but the people of the world have no problem at all uniting against God’s work! The references here in v.7 are 4 points on the compass. Samaritans on the north. Ashdod on the west. Tobiah on the east. Arabs to the south. They were surrounded. And when we are surrounded we get discouraged. Then there were internal causes. Pressures on the outside ofetn begin to cause pressures in the inside. Look at verse 10. Now God’s people have started to internalize the voice of the enemy.
1. The first source of this discouragement was fatigue. V. 10. Simply put, the workers were tired. When you are physically drained it is very easy to become discouraged, to be irritable. V. 6 says the wall was built to ½ its height. Ever notice when you are excited about a project that the 1st half of the project goes very quickly-because of the excitement. But then the newness wears off, the work becomes routine, we get tires and then discouragement sets in. It happens because we begin to get overwhelmed and we start thinking I can’t finish this. It’s too much!
V. 10 we cannot rebuild the wall. Now these are the same people who in v. 6 were working with all their heart. Let me give you a bit of warning here...if you are feeling fatigued today, watch out! Fatigue will always lead to discouragement. In the OT when Elijah was tired he sent an angel to give him some bread and something to drink and then told him-go back to sleep. Sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is get some sleep/rest.
2. Another cause is frustration. V. 10. There is “so much rubble” that they cannot rebuild the wall. The rocks were broken, the mortar dried out, debris everywhere. All of us have rubble in our lives, debris we need to get rid of and we have to take care of it because it can cause us to be discouraged.
3. Another cause is fear. The enemy had struck fear in the hearts of God’s people and they felt like giving up. V. 10. We cannot rebuild the wall. Look in v. 12. Notice who gets afraid 1st. Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us 10X over wherever you turn they will attack us. Who was most affected by fear? Those who lived closest to the ones who were pessimistic. Listen one of the best ways to limit depression in your life is to not hang out all the time with negative people. If you’re going to soar with the eagles you cannot run around with turkeys.
You see the ending of this story is that all of their fear was unfounded. If you read the entire book you learn that the enemy never actually attacks Jerusalem. Douglas Rumford says this about fear:
60% of our fears are totally unfounded
20% are already behind us
10% are so petty they don’t even matter
5% are real but we can’t do anything about them
5% are real and we can do something about them.
Listen, the good news is this. Discouragement can be cured. There are 3 ways to do it so listen carefully.
1. Request God’s help. In the jungles of Africa a man was being pursued by a roaring, hungry lion. He could almost feel the lin breathing down his neck he was so close...he knew his time was short so as he ran like crazy he prayed O Lord please let him be a Christian...please let him be a Christian. Within seconds the man noticed the lion was no longer chasing him. When he looked back he saw the lion was kneeling, his mouth was moving and it was obvious he was praying. The man was greatly relieved...he then moved close enough to hear the lion pray...bless Oh Lord this food I am about to receive. Nehemiah asked for help in chpt.1. Then in chpt. 2 he prayed again. Then in chpt.4 he prays 2 different times. Look at verses 4-5. He wasn’t praying for his enemies to become believers, he was actually praying that God would judge them. Now here is an important principle to learn. When people talk against you, don’t talk back, talk to God.
2. Reorganize your priorities. In v. 13 Nehemiah said... He had already organized the people in chpt. 3 and they were halfway finished. Now he was facing a different problem. This required change. So he posts guards at their weakest spots. When we are discouraged one of the things we can do is to reorganize our priorities. You can look at your life and you can either quit or you can make the necessary changes.
Marriage? Get a new attitude. A new approach. Get some help. But don’t give up. Walk with Jesus? Reorganize your schedule to make more time for HIM. Get in a small group in 2009. But don’t by any means drop out. In v. 16 the workers reorganized again by dividing their responsibilities. ½ worked-the other ½ kept watch. They pushed a wheelbarrow with one hand and carried a weapon with the other and they all worked together as a team.
3. Remember who God is. Let me ask you, have you perhaps forgotten what an awesome God we serve? After looking everything over and sensing the discouragement within his team he called his troops together in v. 14 and said...
You see Nehemiah knew something very important even in the face of opposition, the success of the wall was completely dependent on the same God who inspired them to get started. When God starts something, he finishes it. V. 10 was true. They couldn’t do it on their own. And you can’t either. They complained about all the rubble in v. 10. Question. Wasn’t it there in the beginning? Of course it was. The difference was when they started they were all focused on God. Now they were staring at the rubble....all the junk. If you focus on all the junk in your life you WILL get discouraged! Our focus has to be on Him. Him alone.
At the time it was completed in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world. During the first phase of the project 23 men fell to their death. There were very few safety devices and things seemed to be going from bad to worse. So when it was halfway completed they decided to take another look and to make some changes. Here is what they did. They reorganized and they built the largest net ever made and attached it under the area where the men were working. Was it worth the cost and the time it took to do that? Well just ask the 10 men who fell into the net!! Not only did it save the lives of those 10 men the work was actually done sooner than planned because they no longer lived in fear of falling.
