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.”
They are physically exhausted. They are weary. They are worn out. This is the number one cause of discouragement.
If we could take a poll in this audience today, we would probably be surprised at the number of sleep-deprived people we have in this room today.
If you have a baby, you are sleep-deprived. I think about my daughter Sarah. She has a one-year-old named Shep. (Show Picture) He struggles to sleep through the night because of a breathing issue. At a recent sleep-study, he woke up 26 times in an hour. Surgery is in two weeks.
Mother’s with babies never get enough sleep. People who work shift work seem to never get enough sleep. Students, especially medical students, never get enough sleep. People who binge on Netflix never get enough sleep. If you’re running on empty physically, you are going to be running on empty emotionally and spiritually too.
Maybe for some of you, the most spiritual thing you can do is just close your eyes and go to sleep. Don’t do it while I’m talking! Wait another 30 minutes or so.
When you are tired physically, you are going to be emotionally tired. You are going to find yourself worrying and fretting over things that may never happen. Put your trust in the Lord. With God’s help you are going to get through this, but you do need proper rest.
2. People tend to give up when they are frustrated.
When you get frustrated, discouragement is not far behind. Have you ever tried to clean out a big closet? Or clean out a bunch of files?
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to clean out my home office. I literally dumped everything on the bed. It was piled high. I started going through everything.
When you get about half way through, you feel exhausted. You are tired and you are frustrated and you get discouraged. Why is that?
It’s not that the work is hard, because it’s not. What you are discouraged about is the constant decision-making. What do I do with this? What do I do with that? The constant decision making discourages you. I processed about half of it and then I threw the rest of it back in the closet.
Nehemiah went to Jerusalem to rebuild a wall. I don’t think that the people were prepared for all of the debris that they had to deal with.
Nehemiah 4:10
10 …The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.”
When you are building a wall, when you are building a structure, a career, a family … there will always be debris. You can’t build anything without junk piling up.
You hear me say this a lot … you have to get the junk out of your life.
Maybe you need to clean out the closet. Sometimes you have to let the wrong people leave, so that the right people can come in. Maybe you need to clean out your schedule that you make time for those things that are really important.
What is the rubble in your life? The rubble in your life is anything that keeps you from doing what God wants you to do. It’s anything that keeps you from being what God wants you to be.
It’s the stuff you keep tripping over. It is the things that make you stumble. Here’s the third one.
3. People give up when they encounter failure.
As Nehemiah led the people to rebuild this wall, they thought their plan was going to go a certain way. They thought they would get done in a certain number of days. It did not work out like they had planned. It was overwhelming to them, so they concluded that it could not be done.
Nehemiah 4:10
10 … there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.”
Another version says “We will never be able to finish it.”
Sometimes life will not turn out like you thought it would. Most of the time, things take longer than you imagine. When Nehemiah’s project reached the half-way point, the people were over-whelmed. They did not think that they could finish the project. They lost enthusiasm. They lost hope. They felt like failures.
Nobody likes to fail or to feel like a failure. So many times, when we fail at something, we typically get angry and we blame someone else for the problem or we blame ourselves. This opens the door for discouragement.
Instead of blaming others or blaming yourself, accept the fact that it did not work. Everybody has failures. Everybody makes mistakes. We have all made wrong choices and done things that we knew were not the best.
God knew you would mess up before he called you. He knew we would get off course and at times give into temptation.
God did not base his plan for your life on you making perfect decisions. He has a plan even for your mistakes, and what you think is a failure., I know you think that nothing good can come out of this situation, but God has a way of making miracles out of your mistakes.
This failure seems like a setback, but God knows how to turn it around … your setback can be a set-up. God will help you clean up the mess you made, he will help you take your next step. Figure out what really happened. Learn from it. Move on.
As Nehemiah led the people to rebuild this wall, they thought their plan was going to go a certain way. They thought they would get done in a certain number of days. It did not work
4. People give up when they are afraid.
Here’s what happened in Nehemiah’s story. They went back to rebuild this wall and there was a group of people that did not want it to be rebuilt. They didn’t want things to change.
Two of the ring leaders were named Sanballat and Tobiah. They criticized Nehemiah and his people. They said, “What does this bunch of poor, feeble Jews think they’re doing? Do they actually think they can make something of stones?”
Not only did they ridicule them, that, but we see in verse 11, that they threatened to kill them. These threats stirred up a lot of negative conversation in the community. People would not stop talking about how bad it was.
When all you hear is bad news, you are going to live worried and afraid.
You will be thinking: "What if I get sick? What if my business doesn't make it? What if my child has an accident? What if I get the virus?" All these concerns are valid.
But, you need to remember that you are not alone. You have a protector, a defender, a deliverer, the Most High God is the guardian of your soul. That’s the message of:
1 Peter 2:25
25 Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls.
You don't have to be afraid, God has a shield around you, he knows how to keep harm away. If it does come, he knows how to heal you, he knows how to restore what was taken, he will rescue you from every trap.
God has protected you from things that you do not know about. He kept that car from hitting you, he pushed back that sickness, he thwarted plans of the enemy, moved people out of the way, that would have been a bad influence.
He's been guarding your soul since you were born. If you knew all the things, he has already kept you from, you would not worry about what you are facing now.
We have talked about discouragement, but what is the cure? When the people wanted to give up, Nehemiah did four things.
The Cure for Discouragement
1. Remember the Lord.
Nehemiah gathered the people together and challenged them,
Nehemiah 4:14
14 … “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome,
What was he communicating? He was calling a timeout. He rallied them together, and said, “Wait a minute. We need to huddle up.”
How many football games have you seen lost at the last minute because the coach did not properly use his time outs?
Nehemiah realized it was time to huddle. When he called the people together, they were tired and losing focus. “Look,” he announced, “Remember the Lord. Put your perspective back in focus. Look to Him. Listen to Him.”
Life is not fair. Everybody is going to have adversity. The only way to handle it is to take our eyes off our circumstances and put them on the Lord.” Remember the Lord.
2. Get together with family and friends.
Secondly, when you are discouraged, get together with family and friends. If you do not have family nearby, then turn to your church family. Join a small group.
In verse 13, Nehemiah posted by families. When people feel attacked, when they are afraid, they need a friend to stand with them.
Nehemiah brought people together. He put families with families and friends with friends.
When you are discouraged, find people who care for you to stand with and encourage you. We need the Lord, but we also need one another.
3. Look to the future.
Third, when discouraging times come, look to the future. Nehemiah did this in verse 15, “When it was known that God had frustrated their plan, we all returned to the wall…”
What we see here is that God handled the situation, and every person returned to work.
There is a fight for your future, but what I want you to see is: it's not your battle, God is fighting for you. God has already handled the situation.
The enemy may send the storms, don't worry because God controls the winds, he overrides every negative force.
There is no storm too strong that he canot calm, no giant too big that he cannot defeat, no fire too hot that he cannot step in and bring you out.
In your automobile, there is a big windshield in the front and a very small rearview mirror.
The reason the windshield is so large and the rearview mirror is so small is because what has happened in your past is not nearly as important as what is in your future. Where you are going is much more significant than where you have been. Look to the future. Here’s the last one.
Finally, to defeat discouragement, be productive.
4. Be productive.
Nehemiah 4:15
… we all returned to the wall, each to our own work.
Nehemiah knew that it was important for them to get back to work. He said, “Let’s Rebuild. Let’s get back to work.
He said, “This isn't our battle. This battle belongs to the Lord.”
He was saying, “I know that it is tough, but I also know that the greater the opposition, the greater the opportunity for our God to fight for you.
When your enemy shows up tomorrow and tries to slow you down, remember the Lord your God, and you fight for what God called you to fight for. Don't give up. Keep on building, one stone at a time, one brick at a time.
Nehemiah knew that it was important for them to get back to work. They worked through the night. They even slept in their clothes. Nehemiah led the way. He was persistent. He was faithful and He endured to the end.
Today, I am here to encourage you to stay faithful to the Lord. Don’t give up, but finish the task. Don’t give up on your marriage. Don’t give up on that child. Don’t give up on your school work. Don’t give up on your career. Don’t give up on your dream. Be faithful and finish what you started.
You can do this. Don’t let the voice or the power of any opposition stop you, slow you, deter you, or distract you because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
Closing Thoughts … then prayer
