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8/29/21 Message Notes Series: Return, Rebuild, Renew Sermon: #2 Overcoming Opposition Date: Sunday, August 29, 2021 Bottom line: I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why is it that when we want to do what is right we face opposition? Think and Reflect: What is one thing that God has been prompting you to do lately? We know that whenever we try to do something that honors God, we will face spiritual ______________________ that will discourage us. But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you rebelling against the king?” (Nehemiah 2:19) When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, “What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?” Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!” (Nehemiah 4:1-3) 1 Think and Reflect: When it comes to doing what God is prompting you to do, what inadequacies do you encounter that make you feel incapable? Even though others from the outside saw tangible inefficiencies with Nehemah and his team, he knew that His God would be sufficient in the intangibles that no one sees. When Facing Opposition… 1. Nehemiah prayed Hear us, 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.(Nehemiah 4:4-5) So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart. But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. (Nehemiah 4:6-8) “Wherever you turn, they will attack us.” (Nehemiah 4:12) Think and Reflect: Who are the people that criticize or distract you from what you need to do? What are the obstacles or fears that make you want to give up on what God is asking you to do? 2 2. Nehemiah remembers what God had called him to do “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, Who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.”(Nehemiah 4:14) 3. Nehemiah revises his plan based on the obstacles at hand When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to our own work. From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. (Nehemiah 4:15-18) When God prompts you to do something will you follow through with what you know to do? Will you do what you can do and trust God to do what you can’t do? When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it—though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates— Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.” (Nehemiah 6:1-2) “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer. (Nehemiah 6:3-4) Think and Reflect: What distracts you from what God wants you to do? 3 “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” (Nehemiah 6:3) So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self- confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God. (Nehemiah 6:15-16) What is one thing that God has been prompting you to do lately? What is God prompting you to do missionally? The local church is the hope of the world and the church, meaning the people, becomes the hub that brings real hope and real answers to a broken world. Your Next Steps: 4.
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