#4 “Book of Nehemiah”
Series
"FIGHTING DISCOURAGEMENT!"
TEXT: Nehemiah
4:1-23
INTRO: Satan has
two very effective weapons against Christians, they are fear and discouragement
... both of these wear down the saints and destroy the foundations of faith.
The biggest battles you will face
as a Christian are not the trials themselves ... but the discouragement and fear
that trials can create in your heart. A
bunch of worn down saints are little threat to Satan and yield little fruit for
God!
Here are some of the things that can
wear down the saints:
a. A sense of insignificance,
you're nobody; or very unimportant.
b. Apparent unfruitfulness ...
with the emphasis on the word "apparent."
c. Sustained temptations often
wear down the saints of God.
d. Human weakness is a major
factor also; everyone has a tiring or breaking point.
e. Strife and discord in
relationships can wear down saints.
f. Suffocating pressures
of personal needs breeds discouragement and then fear ... this leads then to a
lack of faith.
g. Constant good deeds and
staying on top can even wear down the saints! This is what happens sometimes with
faithful ministers who suddenly crash.
So, how do you fight discouragement ...
Nehemiah in this passage reveal some important steps that must be taken to fight
against discouragement.
A starting point is focus, keeping our
eyes on God and not on us or our circumstances.
ILLUS: Gladys
Aylward, missionary to China more than fifty years ago, was forced to flee when
the Japanese invaded Yangcheng. But she could not leave her work behind. With
only one assistant, she led more than a hundred orphans over the mountains
toward Free China.
In their book The Hidden Price of
Greatness, Ray Besson and Ranelda Mack Hunsicker tell what happened: "During Gladys's harrowing journey out
of war-torn Yangcheng ... she grappled with despair as never before. After
passing a sleepless night, she faced the morning with no hope of reaching
safety. A 13-year-old girl in the group reminded her of their much-loved story
of Moses and the Israelites crossing the
"'But I am not Moses,' Gladys
cried in desperation. 'Of course
you aren't,' the girl said, 'but Jehovah is still God!'" When Gladys and the orphans made it
through, they proved once again that no matter how inadequate we feel, God is
still God, and we can trust in him. --
Jonathan G. Yandell. Garden Grove,
California. Leadership, Vol. 16, no. 1.
EVERY SAINT OF GOD WILL FACE
DISCOURAGEMENT MORE THAN ONCE IN THEIR LIFETIME ... SO LET’S LEARN SOME STEPS
FROM NEHEMIAH!
PROP.
SENT: God's Word will teach us that we are
not helpless in discouragement, there are some steps we can take that will help
us fight against discouragement and the negative traits that discouragement
ultimately brings into our hearts.
I. SARCASM
4:1-6
A. Tactics!
4:1-3
1. Discouragement starts with
jealous but vocal opposition!
a. Sanballat feels threatened
and jealous, and becomes quite angry.
b. His reaction to the Jew’s and
Nehemiah’s plans was to ridicule them!
c. Ridicule is often an
effective method of creating discouragement!
d. This is a tactic of Satan's
you will face frequently, sometimes this even comes from your own brothers and
sisters in Christ -- or worse yet ... FROM YOUSELF!
e. If you ridicule yourself
don't be surprised if you get discouraged!
2. Notice however that Sanballat
doesn't ridicule alone ... he does this with an entourage of other threatened
and negative people!
a. Critics and jealous people
tend to hang together! This
gives them a greater sense of right and power when they are
negative.
b. His associates were present
and so was the army of
(1. This creates real intimidation, another great tool of
discouragement Satan uses!
(2. Intimidation runs in packs ... this
is what gives it its power!
c. Notice the use of their
intimidating language, "THESE FEEBLE JEWS."
3. Discouragement, then
intimidation, now backed by heavy sarcasm, and finally ... EXAGGERATION – all
effective weapons for creating discouragement.
a. "Will they
restore their wall?" -- point was: "DO THESE FEW
FEEBLE BELIEVERS THINK THEY CAN ACCOMPLISH SUCH A HUGE OVERWHELMING
PROJECT!"
b. "Will they offer
sacrifices" -- point being: "ARE THESE
FANATICS GOING TO PRAY THIS WALL UP?"
c. "Will they finish
in a day?" -- translation: "DO THEY REALLY
KNOW HOW BIG A PROJECT THIS JOB REALLY IS?"
d. "Can they bring
the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble -- burned as they are?"
-- The point being: Exaggerating the extent of the damage done to the
blocks from the gates that had burned!
The truth was that most of the blocks were undamaged from the fire and
more than enough were still good to rebuild with!
e. Tobiah jumps in on the
exaggeration wagon and states, "What they are building, if even a fox climbed up on it,
the fox would break down the rickety walls of stones!" ...
translation: "You guys couldn't build a strong enough wall even if you
succeed in putting all those stones on top of one another … all the work will
have been for nothing!"
f. Their hope of course
was to simply get them so discouraged that they would do nothing, something
discouraged people often do,
nothing!
ILLUS: One day in
July, a farmer sat in front of his shack, smoking his corncob pipe. Along came a
stranger who asked, "How's your cotton coming?"
"Ain't got none," was the answer.
"Didn't plant none. 'Fraid of the boll weevil."
"Well, how's your corn?" "Didn't
plant none. 'Fraid o' drouth."
"How about your potatoes?" "Ain't
got none. Scairt o' tater bugs."
The stranger finally asked, "Well,
what did you plant?"
"Nothin'," answered the farmer. "I
just played it safe." -- James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton:
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 204.
B. Truth 4:4-5
1. The onslaughts of all this
discouragement makes an impact ... it creates a reaction alright, notice
Nehemiah's prayer: “Hear us, O our
God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of
captivity. Do not cover up their
guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in
the face of the builders.”
a. HONEST HOLY
ANGER!
b. This prayer is similar to
many of the imprecatory psalms that David and others wrote in moments of honest
anger against their enemies!
c. But there are some good
points to how Nehemiah chooses to respond that we can learn from in this
prayer:
2. FIRST: He prays instead of trying to argue with
his enemies! It is rather useless
to argue against discouragers! It
is better to run to encouragement ... GOD!
3. SECOND:
He is honest in the prayer about
how they all are feeling ... DESPISED!
4. THIRD: (this is the imprecatory part) He prays
for God to really do them in!
a. Before getting too upset
about this, Nehemiah is simply venting toward God rather than outwardly toward
his enemies, thus keeping himself under control, the whole point of an
imprecatory prayer.
b. This may seem rather bad at
first glance ... but it also reflects an important attitude in Nehemiah that
helps to deflect discouragement: “GOD YOU ARE IN
CONTROL AND ULTIMATELY ALL ENEMIES OF GOD WILL GET
THEIRS!”
c. The point is to get
perspective and not to create a pattern.
(1. As to following this pattern of
prayer, it isn't designed as great theology to teach you to pray for God to
really do horrible things to your enemies!
(2. As to realizing the perspective of
God in prayer that ultimately God does make fair the judgment of evil persons
... this is ok.
d. Nehemiah's prayer assumes
that if they don't change he hopes for justice!
5. At least his prayer is honest
... and the anger is NOT directed at the enemy in an open way ... he confines
his anger to an appropriate place ... PRAYER!
ILLUS: The
remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing
else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else. -- Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) - Edythe Draper, Draper's
Book of Quotations for the Christian World (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers,
Inc., 1992). Entry 3994.
C. Trust! 4:6
1. With his anger properly
directed and his perspective properly focused he now can deal simply with the
discouragement which has been lifted through these healthy
outlets.
2. Notice the simplicity of the
statement in verse 6: “So we rebuilt
the wall till all of it reached half its
height,”
a. This is important for
fighting discouragement: Instead of building sections all the way up while
others hadn't got theirs hardly going ... he works on all the parts to come
together into a full complete circle, even if only half way
up!
b. This would bring a sense of
completion and help for the people to realize that it can be
done!
c. He took a very practical and
balanced approach to try and build confidence against the
discouragement!
d. THIS CAN BE IMPORTANT IN
FIGHTING DISCOURAGEMENT, reach some realistic goals ... be balanced in the work
if your fighting discouragement; better to reach a lower goal and keep going by
accomplishing part of the task than get overwhelmed and quit before doing
anything!
3. In essence Nehemiah ignored
the discouragers ... but also carefully planned some realistic goals to help the
people see real accomplishments ... and thus be
encouraged!
ILLUS: Alexander
the Great was regent of Macedonia at the age of 16, a victorious general at 18,
king at 20-and then he died a drunkard before he was 33, having conquered the
then-known world. His father was Philip of Macedon, also a military genius, who
invented the famous "Greek phalanx."
While Alexander was still in his
early teens, Philonicus the Thessalonian offered to sell Alexander's father,
Philip, his horse, Bucephalus, a trained, but vicious horse. Philip took his son
along to see the horse go through his paces, but the stallion proved so
unmanageable that none of the men could even mount him. Alexander noticed that
he seemed to be afraid of his own shadow, so he quieted the horse by turning his
head toward the sun! Then Alexander mounted the horse, and let him run freely
for a while. Soon, by keeping him headed toward the sun, he got him under
control.
Millions today are "afraid of
their own shadow," the "shadow" of their evil deeds, the haunting "shadow" of
their own guilty conscience and the "shadow" of hundreds of fears and failures.
But let some faithful Christian point them to Christ, and their shadows
immediately fall behind them, for Christ is "the Light of the world" (John
8:12), and all who follow HIM "shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life." The closer one walks to Him the more light he has; and the
farther one gets from Christ, the deeper are the shadows. And he who is so
foolish as to walk away from Christ, in unbelief, walks ever deeper into the
shadows that will eventually plunge him into the eternal darkness. – Source Unknown
4. The point: ENCOURAGEMENT
REQUIRES SOME SERIOUS PRACTICAL STEPS to ward off DISCOURAGEMENT! Don't just sit around after praying and
wait for God to zap you with ENCOURAGEMENT!
II. SURPRISE!
4:7-14
A. Terrorize!
4:7-8
1. When the enemy realized they
had failed at discouraging the saints of God through ridicule and sarcasm they
try another tactic … FEAR!
a. More negative people are
added to the already negative crowd ... and they plot together a terrorism
strategy... surprise attacks!
b. If Satan's work of ridicule
and mocking doesn't stop us he will steep to another tactic, that of
fear!
2. Fear is usually quite
effective against most saints:
a. They fear they are not
capable.
b. They fear they can't make the
time.
c. They fear they will fail at
the task.
d. They fear the quality of the
job they might do.
e. They fear the opinion of
others.
f. They fear work that
will be involved is greater than they are ready to
handle.
g. They fear
failure.
h. They fear their
weaknesses.
i. Sometimes they fear
success ... AND the responsibility this will add to their
life!
3. Once a good dose of fear sets
in, little worry of ministry results!
ILLUS: There are
365 "fear nots" in the Bible -- one
for each day. Courage is not
the absence of fear; it is the mastery of it. -- Croft
M. Pentz, The Complete Book of Zingers (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.,
1990).
B. Two-Fold 4:9
1. Nehemiah’s response to this
new threat of fear was two-pronged:
a. First go to
God! He starts with praying to
God!
b. Second, he takes
practical steps to deal with the real fears!
2. The genuine threat here was
that a surprise attack would occur and demoralize the people from further work …
so guards were posted at the most likely places of
attack!
3. I can't emphasize enough how
important BOTH STEPS ARE
here!
a. Go to
God...
b. Do what you can do
also!
4. Some Christians are good at
going to God ... but don't take any practical steps to negate the real fear ...
God will do what we can't do, but will expect us to do what we CAN
do!
ILLUS: After
their long and weary exile in Babylon the people of Israel were set free to
return to their own land. Spurred on by Nehemiah, they began to rebuild the
walls of Jerusalem. This aroused the hostility of the pagans around them, who
threatened to undo their work. The people of Israel took two essential steps:
they prayed to God, and they posted a guard day and night. Even as they prayed
for God's protection and help, they did what they could. They knew that prayer
is not a way to avoid responsibility; it is not a shortcut to success without
effort. -- Ron
Klug, Bible Readings on Prayer. Christianity Today, Vol. 30, no. 6.
5. This showed the people a
healthy balance in dealing with FEARS, going to God first, then using your head
to do what you can do to minimize the fears!
a. Some people only do the first
and never the second, and they remain in fear!
b. Some people only do the
second and not the first, and they never have the peace of God that He will be
handling the parts that they can't deal with!
c. The balance is found in
BOTH!
C. Tired! 4:10
1. The enemy was making an
impact however, the people were getting tired!
a. Perhaps at this point they
were worn out by the project alone, and now they had to play army as
well!
b. They were feeling like this
project was turning into more work than they originally thought ... they hadn't
planned for playing the roles of guards as well as
building!
c. Tiredness comes for the
unexpected!
2. Tiredness drains the resolve
to work, which only gives slows-down to our work and so gives proof to the
belief that this is too much for me! ... Thus it becomes a vicious cycle that
feeds itself!
ILLUS: Martin
Luther once was so depressed over a prolonged period that one day his wife came
downstairs wearing all black.
Martin Luther said, "Who
died?"
She said, "God
has."
He said, "God hasn't
died."
And she said, "Well, live like it
and act like it." -- Robert
Russell, "Releasing Resentment," Preaching Today, Tape No. 136.
D. Trembling!
4:11-12
1. The tiredness allowed fear to
take hold ... evidenced here by their repeating the plans of the so-called
surprise attack!
2. The result of this fear:
TREMBLING!
3. It is also interesting how
the fear resulted in their own practice now of
exaggeration!
a. Notice their response about
the "SURPRISE ATTACK" plans!
b. Verse 12:
Their own brethren told them 10 TIMES OVER: "Wherever you
turn, they will attack us!"
(1. Repeat the worse scenario enough
times and you'll come to believe that it will happen!
(2. Aren't we funny ... we would rather
tell ourselves the worse will happen than to contemplate the possibility that
with God's help the best will happen!
ILLUS: Charlie
Brown: "I have a new philosophy. I'm only going to dread one day at a
time." -- Charles Schulz -- James S. Hewett, Illustrations
Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988), p.
407.
E. Therapy! 4:13-14
1. At this point Nehemiah
quickly steps in lest the whole project collapses!
a. It is interesting that at
this point he doesn't start yelling at the people or calling them lazy or
criticizing them, or complain about them ... this would have only driven the
discouragement deeper!
b. Understanding that even the
best can be discouraged he comes up with a plan that is both practical and
involves everyone ... and deals with the worse case
possibility!
c. It also communicates
confidence: WE CAN DO IT ... TOGETHER WITH GOD'S
HELP!
2. The therapy was quite
practical:
a. “REMEBER THE
LORD!” (and His
character: He is great and awesome!)
b. “fight for your
brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your
homes.”
c. How are your kids going to be
impacted if you give in to fear and discouragement, stop thinking just about how
tired you are and look at the long range picture!
3. This therapy included 2
things: GOD'S CHARACTER & POWERFUL MOTIVATION! If they couldn't be motivated for
themselves he appeals for the impact of the home now and for the
future!
4. This therapy will normally
work!
ILLUS: See the
possibilities. Here's a fellow who sold insurance, and he went after a
particularly difficult customer, a man that no one had been able to sell.
Eventually he sold him a fifty-thousand-dollar policy. Back in 1883 when this
occurred, that was a very large policy. He took out his pen and handed it to the
man to sign the contract. When the man tried to write, the pen wouldn't write.
He tried several times without success and finally handed the pen back with the
contract and said, "I'd better think this over a little while longer." The man
lost the sale.
He went home disappointed and
discouraged because he had lost the sale, and he determined right then and there
that he would never lose another sale because of a fountain pen that didn't
work. So he sat down and invented his own fountain pen. His name was Louis
Waterman, and the Waterman Fountain Pen became the premier writing instrument of
America for the next fifty years. Out of discouragement, great
possibility. -- Bruce Thielemann, "Dealing with Discouragement,"
Preaching Today, Tape No. 48.
III. STRATEGY
A. Thorough!
4:15-18
1. Notice the strategy used by
Nehemiah ... he leaks to the enemy the message of how God helped them to know
about the surprise attack thereby taking away from the enemy their sense of
power over them ... and he gives the credit to God!
2. Now Nehemiah is demoralizing the enemy ... the
enemy must have wondered how the plans had been leaked to the Jews ... in other
words, someone or several of their own people had warned the Jews about the
surprise attack, they had traitors in the camp of the
enemy!
3. This turn of events gave the
Jews new courage ... and new motivation!
4. BUT ... just in case,
Nehemiah thoroughly plans for the attack!
a. He establishes a just order
and fairness among all the people.
b. He equips them for battle
just in case! (EPHESIANS 6 corresponding idea in verse 16.)
c. The work had run into several
snags that originally weren't known but that is always the case when you do
something for God, you can't be shaken by the unexpected, just deal with it as
it comes!
ILLUS: Here's a
man sitting on his porch in Kentucky. He's only recently retired from the post
office, and he's sitting there when his first Social Security check is
delivered. He's very, very discouraged. He thinks to himself, "Is this what life
is going to be from now on--sitting on the porch waiting for my check to
arrive?"
He decided he wouldn't settle for
that, and so he made a list of all of the things he had going for him all the
blessings and the capacities, the unique things that were in him. The list was
long because he listed everything he could think of and in the list was the fact
that he was the only person on earth who knew his mother's recipe for fried
chicken. It used eleven different herbs and spices.
So he went to a nearby restaurant
and asked if he could cook the chicken, and they said yes. It soon became the
most popular item on the menu. So he opened his own restaurant, and then others,
and a string of restaurants. Eventually Harland Sanders sold the
He finally retired a second time
(all this happened, you remember, after he had retired from the postal service),
and he continued in the service of the company as a public relations
representative for a quarter of a million dollars a year till his death. Now
here was a man who did not allow himself to be defeated by discouragement. He
took a look at it recognized it was there, but then went on to look at what he
had with which to deal with it and used that. -- Bruce Thielemann, "Dealing with Discouragement,"
Preaching Today, Tape No. 48.
5. Fortunately Nehemiah didn't
lose heart with all the unplanned interruptions. He could have said, "Look God, when
I agreed to do this I didn't think it also included etc. etc.
etc."
a. He dealt with each problem
that arose AS it arose and kept the vision in sight!
b. He also affirmed his faith in
God as a priority with each obstacle that arose!
c. He came up with unique
solutions that were fair and practical!
B. Teamwork!
4:19-20
1. It is highly significant that
Nehemiah TRUSTED in God first but also called the people to work and fight as a
team!
a. Teamwork can lesson the
impact of fear and discouragement because of the whole not impacted equally at
the same point of weakness.
b. The nobles or the common man
were treated equally... all were to consider the rest as their equal and come
and fight if they needed help!
c. They would need each other
... not just Nehemiah, but each other!
d. Nehemiah couldn't possibly
alone meet all their needs, but as a whole they could minister to each other
collectively to all their individual needs!
ILLUS:
The
Franciscans were the first ones to systematically grow grapes in California.
They grew the Muscat grapes to make Muscatel wine. One year they had a terrible
drought, and the grapes withered on the vine. They thought they were going to
lose them all, but they took those grapes down into the towns and sold them as
what they called "Peruvian delicacies." That was the beginning of the Sun Maid
Raisin Company. -- Bruce Thielemann, "Dealing with Discouragement,"
Preaching Today, Tape No. 48.
2. Nehemiah had built a SPIRITUAL WALL around the Jews long
before they finished the physical wall around
3. Only teamwork would result in
the wall being complete ... and in such a short time
period!
C. Tenacious!
4:21-23
1. The final stage of beating
discouragement is unveiled … TANACITY!
2. This is the ability TO NOT
QUIT!
a. This is where so many
Christians lose the victory over fear, discouragement, and
ridicule!
b. We are too easily hurt ...
and too easily quit!
c. We are soft and selfish ...
and too often are unwilling to work as part of the
team!
d. The failure to work together,
to speak out can be costly!
ILLUS: Some years
ago Premier Khrushchev was speaking before the Supreme Soviet and was severely
critical of the late Premier Stalin. While he was speaking someone from the
audience sent up a note: "What were you doing when Stalin committed all these
atrocities?"
Khrushchev shouted, "Who sent up
that note?" Not a person stirred.
"I'll give him one minute to stand up!" The seconds ticked off. Still no
one moved.
"All right, I'll tell you what I
was doing. I was doing exactly what the writer of this note was doing--exactly
nothing! I was afraid to be counted!" -- James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton:
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 128.
3. It was fear that caused Peter
to curse Jesus before the cross.
4. It was discouragement that
caused the disciples to hide out at home day after
day!
5. It was ridicule and being in
the wrong crowd that got Pilate to condemn Jesus.
6. It was isolation that caused
Elijah to complain to God that he was tired and afraid after such a great
victory over the prophets of Baal.
7. It was anger that caused
Jonah to have one whale of a trial ... and a bitter spirit that robbed him of
the joy of one of the greatest spiritual revivals in
history!
8. King Saul got tired of doing
what was right and became a bitter quitter.
9. I won't lie to you ... you
have to have a TENACITY in your walk with God or you just won't get far or
accomplish much for God!
a. If they had quit the wall
would not have been finished, they would have been
finished!
b. Their tenacity with faith and
courage won the day however!
CONCLUSION:
Anything done for God will
face conflicts! And many conflicts
can be demoralizing – or they can be a time of dynamic growth. Fighting discouragement successfully is a
two-fold process:
(1. Trust in God's
power!
(2. Total genuine
participation on your part!
Survival of this process gives revival to the participant AND VICTORY OVER DISCOURAGEMENT AND FEARS!