Build Back Godlier - Remember | Sunday, June 19, 2022

But it so happened, when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, that he was furious and very indignant, and mocked the Jews. And he spoke before his brethren in the army of Samaria, and said, What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish, stones that are burned? Now Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, Whatever they build, if a fox goes up on it, it will break down their stone wall. (Nehemiah 4:1)

When the enemy mocks God's work, remember: your Heavenly Father is right behind you, and the world has no idea He is there.

Setting the Scene: God's Work and Man's Work

Over the last few weeks we've seen the shape of Nehemiah's story. Chapter 2 is about what God did—the miracle of sending a servant who fasted and prayed, commissioned by a pagan king, to restore Jerusalem and its walls as part of the restoration of a covenant. Chapter 3 shows the personal responsibility and accountability the people took as they served God. Today, in chapter 4, we look at the relationship between God's sovereignty—what God does—and man's responsibility—what man does—and how the two interact and work together.

The enemy comes to threaten and discourage. This is a very real threat. Sanballat speaks before the army of Samaria, an audience he has invited to observe and engage in the conversation. He asks whether they will offer sacrifices—knowing they were not yet permitted to—insinuating a spirit of rebellion against the king. He references the burnt stones, likely limestone now unusable, physical symbols of the tearing down of the wall. This was not even the first time the wall had been burnt, so it was a graphic reminder of past failure. And the comment about the fox conjures up prophetic images, from Isaiah and elsewhere, of cities judged and abandoned, inhabited by jackals and foxes.

Point One: The Enemy's Threats Are Not Reality

The threats of the enemy are never a good representation of reality for God's people. The state of spiritual affairs is often exaggerated. I don't believe our own country is technically in rubble. The fact is that God is not losing. What is happening is not surprising Him; He is well aware of it. The bad-news narrative is generated by a minority that gets the majority of the airplay.

The enemy has limitations. One mistake we make as believers is classifying the devil as simply the opposite of God, with equal powers but evil. That is simply not true. The enemy can't change your future. He can't get inside your head and know your thoughts. He is very limited in scope and ability, and many of the things he uses against us are things we freely give him. We've seen recently, with the purchase of Twitter, that so much of what is posted on social media—the place we mistakenly look to for truth—is generated not by individual people but by computer algorithms. The bad news is repeated, and the more we see it, the more we are corralled mentally and spiritually into thinking God is losing. It simply isn't the truth.

We must also keep perspective on what looks like defeat. Sometimes what looks depressing is, in God's economy, victory. The day the disciples looked at the cross and a bruised and bloodied Jesus, then watched Him buried for three days, did not look like victory. It looked like failure, like the end, a cause for despair. It could not be further from the truth, because that grave could not hold Him. He rose in three days, and with that the victory of the cross is declared—the salvation made available to you and me, the greatest victory known to mankind.

A Father's Heart and the Lengths of God's Love

We forget how much God loves us, and how much His love is proven in that sacrifice. With His people, He honors His covenant and goes to great lengths of forgiveness and grace—and that says so much about His love.

It's Father's Day, so let me share an experience. My daughter was returning a friend's car, and I was following behind to pick her up. As we crossed Bear Valley Parkway onto Ash, the road narrows from two lanes to one, and a car passed us at over 80 miles an hour, narrowly missing me and then narrowly missing my daughter near the bike lane. She honked, and at the next light the man pulled into the center of the intersection, flung his door open, took his shirt off, and waved his arm around, threatening her and heading for her vehicle.

What he had no idea of is that her father was right behind her. I wish I could say I tried to lead that man to Jesus, but that wasn't the case. There was a visceral, uncontrollable reaction. In an instant he went from a child of God to an enemy of me and my family. I stepped out of the kingdom. As he approached the car, I was making very quick decisions—was I going to get out and confront him, or run him over with my truck? Thankfully, the light changed, she turned and left, this man stranded in the intersection, clearly out of his mind. I followed her, and it was over.

God has that love and that protection for His people. I believe He put that reaction in us—us men, us dads. And here is the proper perspective for doing God's work: many times we fear what's going on in the world, but the truth is, when the enemies of God come toward us to threaten us in their ignorance, they have no realization that our Heavenly Father is right behind us. What are the odds that a man threatens your family in an intersection, and that girl's dad happens to be right behind her? Astronomical. Our perspective should not be that we tremble before God's enemies. That's how the world should feel about us—they should have a healthy respect for the protection and the success God grants in His name when we are doing His work. Not because we are righteous or threatening, but because of the righteousness and the investment God has for us in that cross. You matter very, very much to God.

Point Two: Pray It Back, Don't Pay It Back

Hear, O God, for we are despised. Turn their reproach on their own heads, and give them as plunder to the land of captivity. Do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out before You, for they have provoked You to anger before the builders. So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. (Nehemiah 4:4–6)

Romans 12:19 says:

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

Point two: pray it back, don't pay it back. If the other kids are being mean, tell Dad. The people didn't answer back or fight back when Sanballat and his crew despised them, because they knew the real target was God Himself. So they did the best thing possible—what is called imprecatory prayer.

Normally when we pray for people, we pray for their well-being and a good outcome. Imprecatory prayer is different. Nehemiah takes God at His word and applies that word to the enemy. Notice the language—it comes from the Deuteronomic blessing and curse, the covenant agreement. Being despised, having reproach turned back on their heads, being given as plunder to a land of captivity, their sin not covered or blotted out but made known—all of this is covenant language. The people are recognizing that it is now the outside world breaking covenant with God, and they are putting back on their enemies what they once feared for themselves. It is cleansing, because they hand the fight over to God. And the prayer empowered them—the very next thing they did was build, getting the wall up to half its height.

Sovereignty and Responsibility Working Together

I love that Cross Connection will take a moment when Scripture explains a theological difference within God's community, and this is one of those places. For over 500 years there has been a difference among theologians about how we should react to the world.

One camp emphasizes God's sovereignty—God is all-powerful, everything happens according to His timeclock. Taken to an extreme, this can lead to spiritual laziness: if someone is going to be saved, they'll be saved, so why bother evangelizing? People sometimes say, "Well, I prayed about it; that's all I needed to do." The other camp emphasizes man's responsibility—God has done what He's done, and now it's entirely up to us. Taken to an extreme, this becomes a doer mentality that leaves no room for God to act, so we never actually commit things to the Lord in prayer.

The truth is that both sides hold a great truth, and they don't merely meet in the middle—they work together. This passage demonstrates it beautifully. The people faced an overwhelming, serious threat before the soldiers, their past heaped upon them. First, they recognized it as a spiritual matter and gave it to God in prayer. Then they looked at their responsibility in the covenant—and went to work. If we can learn these disciplines—taking things into the spiritual realm first in prayer, inviting God to use His sovereign power, and then under His direction taking the right action—it is one of the keys to Christian maturity.

Praying and Acting in Our Own Day

Consider where we are now. In California, November 8th is our election—the governorship and many other offices, about four and a half months from now. Coincidentally, that's about how long Nehemiah prayed before the king commissioned him with the finances, direction, and support he needed to rebuild Jerusalem.

So how do sovereignty and responsibility work here? When you're putting $7-a-gallon gas in your car—California has the highest gas prices in the nation—instead of grumbling, take that time to pray. Pray for the next four and a half months. Fast something. Appeal to God's sovereignty for your brothers and sisters who are living so close to the margin that they can't afford it. My heart breaks for them.

Then, practically, act. What a beautiful right we have to vote. I'll never tell you who to vote for, but vote for God's candidate—take your Bible, look at it, and move forward with that. When you hear of bills like making California a sanctuary state for abortion, write in. Politicians live for public opinion, and when they hear from people they take it seriously. Send those emails and let them know not only how you feel, but how God feels.

Pray for your representatives, who are often just a reflection of who we are as a people. Imagine if the governor of our state gave his heart to Jesus in a transforming way. If you don't believe that can happen, look at Saul of Tarsus—one of the biggest enemies of the gospel, whose heart God turned so that he became one of the greatest soldiers of the faith and wrote most of the New Testament. God can do that. You can change the world by praying.

Point Three: Remember Why We Fight

...there was so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall... And I looked, and arose, and said to the nobles, to the leaders, and to the rest of the people, Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses. (Nehemiah 4:7–14)

Point three: the best way to stay on course is to remember why we fight. The people were getting discouraged, slowing down, as the threats kept coming. Nehemiah reminds them, first, to remember the great and awesome Lord—their position, His sacrifice, His history of conquering threats and enemies. God's reputation and His love for us.

Then he tells them to remember their brethren—not just relatives, but neighbors and community. And their sons, daughters, and wives. To God's people, inheritance does not mean money; it means their families, their lineage. And finally, their houses—the place they live and what they own. In a nutshell: remember who we trust, what we love, and what we own. This galvanizes and transforms the people from a place of discouragement.

Physical and spiritual weariness was setting in. Even Judah—the tribe everyone looks to, the source of warriors and saviors—was putting out a negative, depressing narrative. Even the leaders were starting to fail. Dads, leaders: it is so important that this not be our narrative. Take heed; don't let the enemy control our hearts, attitudes, and minds.

Rest is essential. Sometimes you can't take the rest you want, so it takes the form of sitting and praying for a while. This summer Pastor Miles and other pastors will be taking rest, which we want to support. It's a season to sit back, consider the things of God, and be recharged before fall when the church gathers again. Enter into the rest of the Lord.

Trusting When You Can't See

There's a famous quote in my house: "The truer you hold your course, the quicker you get to your destination. You travel faster and farther in a straight line. When you know your heading, write it down and keep your eyes on the compass." It came from my own father, a merchant mariner and commercial fisherman.

We had a small 20-foot boat. When I was about 12 or 13, I started commercial fishing with my dad, sometimes 60 miles offshore. In those days there was no GPS for small craft—everything was done with paper charts, numbers, time, and speed, on a compass heading. My dad would tell me to steer super straight and watch that compass, because holding your heading gets you there faster, straighter, and with less gas.

One time we were tuna fishing off Mexico, some 50 nautical miles out in that little boat with only about 40 to 50 gallons of fuel plus a few five-gallon cans. Coming back, the weather turned very rough and foggy, and we were burning more fuel. We should have seen the Coronado Islands—about 14 miles from San Diego—by then, but we couldn't. We kept going, the fuel kept dropping, and my dad and I were looking at each other wondering what would happen. We never saw the islands. But about 45 minutes to an hour later than expected, the point of Point Loma came out of the mist. We were on course the whole time. We couldn't see the indicators—only the compass and the calculated fuel told us we were right. There was a cheer and a high five as we got the boat on the trailer with some albacore. Trusting when you can't see is a discipline we need—and, fathers, one we teach our children.

Point Four: The Length of Our Obedience

...all of us returned to the wall, everyone to his work. So it was from that time on that half of my servants worked the construction while the other half held the spears, the shields, the bows, and wore armor... Every one of the builders had his sword girded at his side as he built... Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us. So we labored in the work, and half the men held the spears from daybreak until the stars appeared... we did not take off our clothes; everyone took them off only for washing. (Nehemiah 4:15–23)

Not long ago I went with my son to Hell's Canyon in Idaho—aptly named, straight up and down, with a reputation as one of the hardest places to hunt in North America. Back home on my couch it seemed like a great idea. With us were one active-duty Marine and another who had just left the Corps—great, very physically fit guys. Once we arrived and saw the terrain, what had seemed like a great idea started to look daunting.

They say in Idaho, if you don't like the weather, wait fifteen minutes. We climbed to 6,500 feet to glass canyons 2,000 feet below, and in an hour and a half it went from rain to scorching sun to snow and fog. As wind blew off the snowbanks, it grew unbearably cold. After a couple of days, my commitment to the mission began to wane. We did harvest a bear, but it went from something I expected to be fun to something that was a real challenge—being a Southern California guy dealing with snow flying out of the sky.

Point four: the proof of our commitment is the length of our obedience. Long obedience. What you actually do is what you believe. If you work out consistently, it's because you believe it's a core value—we know because you do it. Doing the right thing for a very long time is a challenge. As a father, sometimes it appears there's no reward, no glamour—it can feel like drudgery, like being taken advantage of, if we look at it wrong rather than as the honor and privilege it is. But in the end we are measured by that long obedience, and that is what brings success with our families. Long obedience isn't exciting. It might seem like a good idea at the time, but it goes on and on, and being empowered to do it is very important.

The Sword and the Trowel

Picture three teenage girls dressed as if they're going out to lunch or shopping—except for the M16 carbines slung over their shoulders. I instantly knew it was Israel, where military service is compulsory and young people keep their weapons even off duty. It is a nation still very much at war, still living the sword-and-trowel mentality.

Remember this: the fight never stops. You pace yourself because it continues. By my best estimate, the wall would have been finished in half the time if the people hadn't had to carry weapons. Their attention was split between two worlds, the holy work and the fight, and it took time and focus from the building. Yet they still finished remarkably fast—people who were perfumers and goldsmiths, not professional soldiers, completing it in just over 50 days.

They carried weapons for a reason. God could have sovereignly protected them, but I believe there was a physical reason: having something to hold gave them comfort and showed they were prepared. Like it or not, 2020 was a worrisome, frightening year, and not coincidentally the NICS federal background check system received over 39 million requests—a record by about 10 million—with an estimated 10 million-plus from people who had never owned a weapon before. That tells you the level of fear people felt.

But the second reason is deeply spiritual. The enemy knew they would use them. Israel's history is littered with armies that came against God's people with greater numbers and better weapons, only to be defeated by people who were not warriors using very simple weapons—because God used them. The reputation became this: when the God of the Hebrews arms His people, you will be defeated.

A Word to Fathers, and Sheltered in the Storm

I've been a father now for about 33 years, and that job never ends. You're always a dad. I am still a father to my adult children—they still come for advice, and sometimes I give it even when they don't ask. It's a responsibility, a joy, and a mission that lasts a very long time. The same is true for moms. And the same is true in God's kingdom.

As we serve the Lord, we never simply arrive. We never reach a place of serenity where the fight is over and we look out over a placid lake at peaceful mountains. We never stop being part of the story. But as we mature, we recognize that peace is not found away from the storm or away from the fight—it's found being sheltered during the fight, sheltered during the storm. No matter how hard and scary it looks, we have peace as the world comes apart around us, knowing we have a Heavenly Father who loves us so much that He paid the ultimate sacrifice for our salvation in the New Covenant—the giving of His Son, and His rising for the forgiveness of our sins.

For you dads out there, I pray you have a blessed day, that your children adore you and treat you well—and that you don't have to pay for lunch today. And next week, be sure to tune in for Pastor David Guzik; I think you'll be blessed.

Closing Prayer

Dear Father, I thank You so much for our online congregation, Lord. For whatever reason they can't be there with us, but they are with us, and we care about them. So please, Lord, encourage them, lead them, and direct them. Thank You for letting me teach these last three weeks and go through Your Word. I've learned so much as I've looked at Your Word and Your promises—not only to Your people back then, but Your promise now. So Father, lead us and guide us. May we be missionaries to the world, to our neighbors and to our families. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.