Know who your enemy is, and who it isn’t, or you might focus on the diversion and be caught in an ambush.

Notes And Next Steps

Nehemiah 4:1-15 + Part 5 of the series “Nehemiah: Rise & Build"

“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?”

“What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!” (Nehemiah 4:2,3)

The enemy has power to bully you even when you’re alone. The real enemy is a trash talker, a ridiculer, his name means “accuser.” The real enemy uses truths that are your weak spots, half-truths stirring up confusion and doubt, and outright lies that make you afraid of God’s work in your life.

The Bible calls him “a liar” (John 8:44), “full of all kinds of deceit and trickery” (Acts 13:10), whose “schemes” (Ephesians 6:11) are a “trap” (1 Timothy 3:7) that take people “captive to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:26). He wants to break your resolve and would love to break your neck because he “holds the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14). His evil power “leads the whole world astray” (Revelation 12:9) and he “is filled with fury” (Revelation 12:12).

Do you recognize this spirit of ridicule?

“Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight” 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. (Nehemiah 4:15)

When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate … ‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. (1 Peter 2:23,24)

 

CROSSTALK

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Note the enemies of Jerusalem mentioned in Nehemiah 4:7. Ever feel surrounded? “Surrounded by you.”
            2. How to resist temptation. Ride the wave.
            3. “We need to be there when it happens. We need to be a soft place to fall … prepared in the full armor, not just pieces of it that we sometimes wear when its convenient … A vessel that needs to be adequately equipped at all times … a beacon of hope … Preaching gospel is the most crucial focus … the hard stuff, real New Testament doctrine.”