Getting Out of A Rut
PPT 1 Message Title
Today we are going to use the story of the book of Nehemiah to talk about getting out of a Rut.
If you remember the Jews had started worshipping idols, God punished them by having the Babylonians overrun them and take most of them to Babylon as slaves. They destroyed Jerusalem and the Jewish temple which Solomon had built in the process. Then the Assyrians took over...
70 Years goes by and God arranges by miraculous means for many of them to return to Israel and restore true worship.
They rebuilt the temple, but in general the city remained in ruins, the main reason for that was they never rebuilt the walls that would have afforded them the protection they needed to prosper as a nation.
Here is the rub, and the reason for today's message, they had gotten comfortable and accepted the ruined city as the way their lives would always be. 87 years had gone by, and nothing changed. God sends a man named Nehemiah and walls that had been in ruin, symbolic of the spirit and effort of the people, were miraculously rebuilt in 52 days. God had freed them from an 87 year long rut.
So how did that happen? Are there any principles we can use and apply to ourselves and others we care about? Let's read a small portion of the book of Nehemiah;
PPT 2-3 Text
Nehemiah 1:1 The memoirs of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah. It was the month of Kislev in the twentieth year. At the time I was in the palace complex at Susa.
Nehemiah 1:2 Hanani, one of my brothers, had just arrived from Judah with some fellow Jews. I asked them about the conditions among the Jews there who had survived the exile, and about Jerusalem.
Nehemiah 1:3 They told me, "The exile survivors who are left there in the province are in bad shape. Conditions are appalling. The wall of Jerusalem is still rubble; the city gates are still cinders."
Nehemiah 1:4 When I heard this, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God-of-Heaven.
This will be our launch pad for today's sermon on how to get out of a rut.
Let me begin with a question. How are you doing spiritually? Are you growing? Are you daily being challenged by God? Does the word of God still burn in your heart and move you to change? Have you plateaued? Did you know you can be in a rut on a plateau, just as easily as in a valley?
There are principles here in the book of Nehemiah we can apply to break free from a rut.
PPT 4 text
Here they are:
1. Water the ground
2. See with Fresh Eyes
3. A promise to fight by
4. Confirming tokens of God's favor
1. Water the ground.
PPT 9 text
Nehemiah 1:4 When I heard this, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God-of-Heaven.
A couple years ago I was visiting a niece who lived in Florida, and in her yard she pointed out to me a large tree that had recently fallen down. Because she lived in Florida I asked if a hurricane or large storm had caused the tree to fall. She told me that wasn't the reason, what caused it was several days of intense rain so softened the ground that a slight wind was able to easily push it over. The tree fell over easily because the ground was saturated.
Hurricanes can snap trees in half, but most that fall over are because of a combination of rain and wind. The more rain, the easier it is to knock a strongly rooted tree over. Are you seeing a spiritual lesson here? Nehemiah will be used of God to get his nation out of an 87 year rut. That is a strongly rooted tree. Chapter 1:4 says he fasted and prayed, we learn from chapter 2:1 that he did that for about 4 months. the whole time he is watering the ground with prayers and fasting. So that by the time he got to Jerusalem the tree of inaction was ready to be knocked down.
My wife and I were recently on vacation in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands and I noticed something very interesting. It rained almost every day, but it was just a sprinkle here and there. A couple of times there was a short outburst of heavy rain, but it only lasted a few minutes. The grass around the complex we were staying at was brown for lack of rain. It wasn't that there wasn't any rain, it was that there wasn't enough consistent rain. In Luke 18 Jesus taught a parable that men out to pray and not faint. In Galations 6:8 it says that we will reap if we do not faint. Consistency of the prayer (rain) is the key to toppling strongly rooted trees. A little deluge now and then won't get the job done.
When the soaking rain of prayer, combines with the wind of the Holy Spirit mighty trees can fall!
In this case it was a tree of inaction, and apathy, a spiritual rut.
2. Fresh eyes.
There are businesses who will come to a church or a business, and will look at your facilities, parking, greeters etc. and give you an evaluation for improvement based on what they saw. They look at things with fresh eyes and their insights are often quite revealing. The Jews had grown complacent and blind to the bad situation they were in, and had come to accept it as normal.
The horror and dismay of the way Nehemiah saw the situation I think shocked them into the realization they needed to change.
In Nehemiah chapter 1 this is the report Nehemiah got about the situation:
Nehemiah 1:3 They told me, "The exile survivors who are left there in the province are in bad shape. Conditions are appalling. The wall of Jerusalem is still rubble; the city gates are still cinders."
I think if he would have asked the people of Jerusalem how they saw things, they probably would have said they weren't too bad, because they had come to accept their poor condition as the way it would always be.
In the U.S. there is a tv show about hoarders. People with a mental illness that won't allow them to throw anything out, consequently their house is filled with garbage and is in a disgusting state. One method to help them is for hoarders to see the shock and horror in they eyes of others about their situation to snap them out of their hoarding.
Another illustration, suppose your front screen door was in bad shape, you can get used to seeing it that way. One day a visitor stops by, and says, "You really need to fix that door, it is about to fall off it's hinges." Seeing the condition of the door through someone else's eyes can stir you to finally doing something about it. Here is that truth illustrated in the book of Nehemiah:
PPT 5-8 text
Nehemiah 2:12 I got up in the middle of the night, I and a few men who were with me. I hadn’t told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. The only animal with us was the one I was riding.
Nehemiah 2:13 Under cover of night I went past the Valley Gate toward the Dragon’s Fountain to the Dung Gate looking over the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken through and whose gates had been burned up.
Nehemiah 2:14 I then crossed to the Fountain Gate and headed for the King’s Pool but there wasn’t enough room for the donkey I was riding to get through.
Nehemiah 2:15 So I went up the valley in the dark continuing my inspection of the wall. I came back in through the Valley Gate.
Nehemiah 2:16 The local officials had no idea where I’d gone or what I was doing— hadn’t breathed a word to the Jews, priests, nobles, local officials, or anyone else who would be working on the job.
Nehemiah 2:17 Then I gave them my report: "Face it: we’re in a bad way here. Jerusalem is a wreck; its gates are burned up. Come—let’s build the wall of Jerusalem and not live with this disgrace any longer."
Nehemiah 2:18 ... They said, "We’re with you. Let’s get started." They rolled up their sleeves, ready for the good work.
The text tells us several things. We know that Nehemiah already knew how bad things were from chapter 1. Here in v.12 it speaks of what God had put in his heart to do - rebuild the walls. So when Nehemiah is inspecting things he is not looking for what's wrong, but with eyes of faith what has to be done to fix the situation.
Note also he didn't tell any of the officials in Jerusalem what he was doing because Nehemiah didn't want to be compromised by their the reasons why it couldn't be done. When he tells them what he sees and that they should build the wall, they immediately agree to do it, and something that had languished for 87 years was completed in 52 days. God used Nehemiah to get them out of an 87 year rut, and this second way he did it was to get them to see the situation through fresh eyes: It's bad, but we can do it.
Sometimes we need to see things through the eyes of others, others that have not been compromised by our negativity in order to see change in our lives.
3. A Promise to fight by
A promise of God can carry you through rough times, it will give you hope, something solid to base your confidence on. Something sure that will help you in the difficult moments. Getting out of a rut will have difficult moments. Notice what happened immediately after they decided to rebuild the walls:
PPT 10
Nehemiah 2:18 ... They said, "We’re with you. Let’s get started." They rolled up their sleeves, ready for the good work.
Nehemiah 2:19 When Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they laughed at us, mocking, "Ha! What do you think you’re doing? Do you think you can cross the king?"
Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem are enemies they will face over and over again. It this case they tried to hinder them going forward by mocking them. Whenever you want to do something for God, or something that advances his kingdom, don't be surprised if outwardly or inwardly their are voice that mock what you are trying to accomplish. The devil has stopped many a good project with ridicule and discouragement.
The second thing they did was try to stop them with fear. They intimated that the Jews were planning an insurrection. Do you think you can cross the king? In the previous book of Ezra the exact same tactic was used, the Jews enemies even wrote a letter to the Assyrian king and stated that if the Jews rebuilt the walls and temple they would stop paying taxes and be a rebellious colony. The king fell for the ploy ordered the reconstruction to stop and the work was delayed 15 years. The threat of crossing the king was not an idle one, and it may have instilled fear in the hearts of the Jews and discouraged them from building the walls. Fear of what might happen is another tactic of the enemy to discourage kingdom building.
So how do you overcome both fear and ridicule? The best way I know is to get a promise in the bible to fight by. I can't prove it, but I think Nehemiah may have found such a promise in the book of Daniel.
A promise in the word of God will carry you through the difficult moments. Look at this amazing verse in the book of Daniel:
PPT 11
Daniel 9:25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
The Wall will be built, even in troublous times. A negative person will look at that verse and focus on the troublous time, but a person of faith like Nehemiah will focus on the portion that says, " The wall shall built," "The wall shall be built! I can see him quoting that verse every instance where the enemy caused a troublesome time, "The wall SHALL be built, the wall SHALL be built.
A Promise from God will anchor you through all the storms the enemy may bring.
4. Confirming tokens of God's favor
Previously I shared chapter 2:18, but I left off the first part of that verse because I didn't want to discuss it till now. Here is the full verse:
PPT 12 Text
Nehemiah 2:18 I told them how God was supporting me and how the king was backing me up. They said, "We’re with you. Let’s get started." They rolled up their sleeves, ready for the good work.
Nehemiah told them how the king was supporting them. Here is the scripture portion that details that support:
PPT 13 - 16 text
Nehemiah 2:1 It was the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king. At the hour for serving wine I brought it in and gave it to the king. I had never been hangdog in his presence before,
Nehemiah 2:2 so he asked me, "Why the long face? You’re not sick are you? Or are you depressed?" That made me all the more agitated.
Nehemiah 2:3 I said, "Long live the king! And why shouldn’t I be depressed when the city, the city where all my family is buried, is in ruins and the city gates have been reduced to cinders?"
Nehemiah 2:4 The king then asked me, "So what do you want?" Praying under my breath to the God-of-Heaven,
Nehemiah 2:5 I said, "If it please the king, and if the king thinks well of me, send me to Judah, to the city where my family is buried, so that I can rebuild it."
Nehemiah 2:6 The king, with the queen sitting alongside him, said, "How long will your work take and when would you expect to return?" I gave him a time, and the king gave his approval to send me.
Nehemiah 2:7 Then I said, "If it please the king, provide me with letters to the governors across the Euphrates that authorize my travel through to Judah;
Nehemiah 2:8 and also an order to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, to supply me with timber for the beams of The Temple fortress, the wall of the city, and the house where I’ll be living." The generous hand of my God was with me in this and the king gave them to me.
Nehemiah 2:9 When I met the governors across The River (the Euphrates) I showed them the king’s letters. The king even sent along a cavalry escort.
So let me quickly list all the king did:
He gave letters to authorize travel. (v.7)
He gave timber from the forest. (v. 8)
He gave a Calvary escort. (v.9)
So when Nehemiah rode into town, he didn't ride in alone.
Can you see Nehemiah and the convoy arriving with him! In front was a detachment of the army, and behind was wagon load after wagon load of lumber.
Nehemiah wasn't simply encouraging people to build the wall, he brought tangible evidence that God was behind the whole thing and supporting it in miraculous ways. There is a movement called prayer evangelism, and it works this way: While witnessing to someone you ask if they have any prayer needs. You then pray for those needs and expect God to meet them, as He does He will leave an indelible mark and testimony of His love for the person in their life. The bible says that God demonstrates His love for us (Romans 5:8), God is willing to demonstration His love. Paul says that his preaching was not simply enticing words of man's wisdom but came with demonstration of Spirit and power. People who get tokens of God's favor are much easier to get out of a spiritual rut.
Seeing the army, seeing the convoy of wood , can't you see how those tokens of God's favor instantly snapped a people out of a rut and said "we're with you, let's get started! And they rolled up their sleeves to work.
Let me recap: 4 things to get out of a rut
1. Fresh eyes
2. Watering the ground with prayer and fasting
3. A promise to fight by
4. Tokens of God's favor.
Close: Near the beginning of this message I started with a question? How are you doing spiritually? You are either going down, coasting in neutral, or growing in Christ, which is if for you?
Has God used this message to see your life through different eyes? Be encouraged God is moving on your behalf.
3 things you can do with a rut: 1. Stay in it. 2. Be encouraged and motivated out of it. 3. The dynamite method. God has to blow things up. I didn't speak on that 3rd method, that is for another day, today I believe God wants to encourage and challenge us out of ruts.
Do you know someone who is in a spiritual rut? Saturate the ground for them. Pray consistently, pray for them to have fresh eyes, find a promise to fight by, and ask God for tokens of His favor.
Close in pray for those who are in a rut. Pray for loved ones they know who are in a rut.
