Thank you so much. Choir, quartet, how exciting.
What a great number, huh? Steve, I think you're
right. We touched all the bases today. If you
didn't hear your style of music today, don't
let me know about it. Well, today we're going
to talk about somebody who faced mountains, and
maybe you do too. We're going to turn in the
book of Nehemiah and continue on the series of
living on the edge today with obstacles or we
might say with mountains. Do you ever feel like
you're in deep trouble and you don't know what
to do about it? Well, you might want to take
the advice that's on the screen right now. Look
at it closely. Sometimes trouble comes to you
and to me because of our own foolishness and
sometimes it comes because of what we've done
right. The greatest adventure that you can have
is to live on the edge with God, to do things
right. To do that, you have to make choices in
your life. You have to leave behind the soft
cushions of your comfort zone and stand at the
precipice of risk. not careless or foolish risk,
but faith -filled risk, the kind of risk that
believes that God exists and that He rewards
those who earnestly seek Him. That's the edge
of life where you and I will gain God's approval.
Some imagine that when you take a step like that,
it will result in painless, unchallenged progress.
They imagine that. They think that since it's
God's vision that they've responded to and they're
stepping on the edge for Christ's sake, everything
from that point of decision is now going to be
smooth and effortless. One word for you. Hello?
The lights may be on, but is anybody at home?
You see, it just doesn't work that way. That's
not the biblical view of reality. In fact, the
Bible tells us that any God -given task in your
life will be ferociously opposed. Why is that?
Well, Peter says it this way. Your enemy, the
devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking
for someone to devour. Resist him. standing firm
in the faith because you know that your brothers
throughout the world are undergoing the same
kind of sufferings. Peter is saying to you and
me that life is a battleground, not a playground.
Now because when you and I step to the edge of
our lives and we are then ferociously opposed,
we must be strong. We must stand. Firm in the
faith as Peter has told us. Paul continues saying
the same thing. Finally be strong in the Lord
and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor
of God so that you can take your stand against
the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not
against flesh and blood but against the rulers.
against the authorities, against the powers of
this dark world, and against the spiritual forces
of evil in the heavenly realms. Nehemiah lived
on the edge, and it brought him opposition. Nehemiah
had to deal with stuff, just like you and I have
to deal with stuff in life when we're going to
live for God. By looking at the text in Nehemiah
today, I want us to see some of the weapons that
are commonly used by our enemy, the devil, to
thwart, to disrupt, to discourage you in the
work that God has called you to do. The first
weapon that was used against Nehemiah and is
sometimes used against you is ridicule, ridicule.
Look in chapter 2 and verse 19, when Sanballat
the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and
Gesham the Arab heard about it, that they're
rebuilding the walls, they mocked and ridiculed
us. What is this you are doing? They asked. Are
you rebelling against the king? It continues,
chapter 4 verse 1. Are you able to see okay?
Is it too dark in here for you to read? Some
of you say fine, others of you, I notice we have
some lights out, so if you can't read, just lift
your hand, we'll turn the lights up a little
bit. Chapter four, verse one. 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
in 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?
Notice the ridicule here. Charles Simon Simmons
said, ridicule is the first and last argument
of fools. It's commonly used, isn't it? We hear
it a lot today. Perhaps because it is such, it
seems the weapon of choice, especially among
the leftists in our country. From politicians
to late night talk shows to entertainers, ridicule
is the weapon of choice. Now it is one thing
to disagree thoughtfully and to bring a reasonable,
intellectual argument for your position. But
because the left in this country is absolutely
bankrupt of such arguments, it resorts to mockery
and derision. I've never seen anything like it
in my lifetime. Now derision and mockery have
been used in the past, to be sure. In fact, 150
years ago, it was worse, believe it or not, in
politics than it is today. But in my lifetime,
I've never seen so much ridicule being used against
leaders in our nation, and especially against
our president. In the last five years, he has
faced an amount of ridicule that would make most
men cringe and crawl back into a place of safety.
I admire him for pressing ahead. Ridicule is
not a new tactic, though. Don't think it. Don't
think it. James Bernadeli, writing a review of
Patrice Lacan's 1996 French movie Ridicule, describes
ridicule in these words. He says, the pen, or
rather the word, is truly mightier than the sword.
In late 18th century France before the advent
of the guillotine, wit was used as often for
pain and humiliation as it was for pleasure.
Those who had mastered the art of ridicule could,
with one turn of a phrase, strip a less adept
opponent of pride and position. The humor in
ridicule, he's talking about the movie, such
as it is, is exceptionally savage. Laconte and
screenwriter Remy Waterhouse have not designed
this film to offer inconsequential laughs, as
in another film they had. There's calculated
malice behind each barbed riposte. But while
nearly every comic aspect of ridicule is mean
-spirited, it's difficult not to appreciate the
intelligence behind the most vicious strikes.
Now do you see some of the words that are used
there to describe this movie? That's what ridicule
as an art and a science is all about. It's wit
that is used for pain. It's intended to humiliate
the object of it. The turn of a phrase can strip
an opponent of pride and position. It can be
exceptionally savage. There's calculated malice
behind each of the barbed comments. That's why
perhaps ridicule might be spelled ridicule, cruel,
because you see ridicule is a dagger that is
cloaked in a pillow of humor, using laughter
to humiliate and destroy someone else. In First
Corinthians, Paul tells us that the gospel of
the crucified Messiah was ridiculed by the Gentiles.
To them it was absolute foolishness to think
that a savior would die on a cross. It's illustrated
in a piece of Roman graffiti which comes from
the second century A .D. This was found on Palatine
Hill, and it shows Christ being crucified, only
his head has been replaced with the head of a
donkey. Before the cross stands another person
with his arm upraised in worship and written
underneath, in Greek are these words, Alexomenas
worships his God. To the creator of this piece
of second century graffiti, To worship Christ
was to worship a donkey. Today you and I face
similar kinds of ridicule. A piece of modern
art places the crucifix in a jar of urine and
it's applauded by the elite in the art world.
There is a stereotypical depiction of Christians
in entertainment as bumbling and ignorant. and
obscurantists. The media has bias and it slants
its stories subtly against those who are believers
in Jesus Christ. We see the same bias in what
is presented publicly in the media regarding
intelligent design, where some states and school
districts have said that intelligent design should
be taught equally as a theory with Darwin's theory
of evolution. That very idea is ridiculed mercilessly
in the press. And this last week we've had a
Supreme Court nominee who horrors of horrors
believes that the Bible should be interpreted
literally. While you would think that the world
is coming to an end, that such a narrow -minded
person would be considered for the Supreme Court,
this is how ridicule works. It is a very common
tool of the enemy. Nehemiah faced it almost immediately
when he went to work, and so do you. If you take
a stand for Jesus Christ that isn't politically
correct, or if you determine not to defile yourself
with the same activities as your peers in school,
or if you step to the edge of your life in obeying
God, the enemy is going to come at you and he's
going to come at you from unsuspected places
and sometimes with ridicule. It can come from
family members. It can come from parents. It
can come from people at work. It can come from
fellow students. They will make fun of you, seeking
to humiliate you. How do you remain strong in
the face of ridicule? Follow Nehemiah's example.
Look in chapter four and verse four. After the
ridicule of the previous verses, he says, hear
us, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their
insults back on their own heads. Give them over
as plunder in the land of captivity. Do not cover
up their guilt or blot out their sins from our
sight, for they have thrown insults in the face
of the builders." What did he do? Nehemiah gave
the insults to God, and he says, God, you deal
with it. And he has some suggestions here as
to how God might deal with it. That's what you
and I can do as well when we are mocked and ridiculed
for the name of Christ. We ought not to mock
and ridicule back, but rather we ought to give
the insults to God and let him deal with it.
Believe me, God can deal with it a whole lot
better than you and I can. There's not only ridicule
the devil's arsenal. There's a second that we
see that takes shape against Nehemiah. It is
force. If ridicule doesn't work, if words don't
work, then there will be force and intimidation
in chapter four and verse seven. When Sanballat,
Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the men
of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem's
walls had gone ahead and 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. Do you notice
that? In Nehemiah's time, even natural enemies
became friends to oppose him. There was this
strange alliance of people. The ridicule and
the disdain did not discourage the workers, and
so Satan... roared like a lion by coalescing
some enemies to bring an intimidating threat
against Nehemiah and the workers. He will not
be easily put off this enemy of yours. You as
one of the people of God face increasing persecution
in our world today. We see it coming through
judicial actions and through legislative decisions
through the fiat of despots and all kinds of
subtle coercion in the workplace to stand down,
to back off your convictions. What did Nehemiah
do in the face of force? Well, he goes on to
say in our text, verse nine, but we prayed. to
our God and posted a guard day and night to meet
this threat. There's an example for you as to
what to do. First of all, pray. When you are
intimidated, when you are threatened with some
action, when there is a force that has gathered
against you, commit it to God, first of all.
But Nehemiah also takes a practical action. He
posts a guard. And sometimes there are practical
actions that you and I need to take in the form
of legal action ourselves. Or doing whatever
we practically can to defend ourselves in the
face of the force that gathers against us. But
the devil didn't stop with this. Nehemiah countered
the weapon. And so the devil tried another tact.
In verse 10 it says, meanwhile the people in
Judah said, the strength of the laborers is giving
out and there is so much rubble that we cannot
rebuild the wall. Also our enemies said, before
they know it or see us, we will be right there
among them and we'll kill them. and put an end
to the work. Then the Jews who lived near them
came and told us 10 times over, wherever you
turn, they will attack us. What's happening here?
Discouragement. Discouragement, one of the favorite
tools of the devil. One author said, every great
work, every great accomplishment has been brought
into manifestation through holding to the vision.
And often just before the big achievement comes
apparent failure and discouragement. Discouragement
is a great tool that the devil values very highly.
In World War II, there was discouragement upon
Britain because of the fierce attacks that came
from the Nazis. But because one man was courageous
and stood, the nation stood. And as you know,
if you're a student of history, his name was
Winston Churchill. As early as 1942, Winston
Churchill returned to Harrow College to speak
on an occasion. The war had just broken out not
long before this, a couple of years. Churchill
had been to the same college a year before. And
now he comes back to speak again. The months
in between his two speeches had seen catastrophic
events in the war, including the attack on Pearl
Harbor, so that now the United States was engaged
with Britain in fighting their common enemies.
It was in this speech at a difficult time of
World War II when Churchill made the following
comments to the students who were gathered before
him. You cannot tell from appearances how things
will go. Sometimes imagination makes things out
far worse than they are. Yet without imagination
not much can be done. Those people who are imaginative
see many more dangers than perhaps exist. Certainly
many more then will happen, but then they must
also pray to be given that extra courage to carry
this far -reaching imagination. But for everyone,
surely what we have gone through in this period,
surely from this period of 10 months, this is
the lesson. Never give in. Never give in. Never,
never, never, never. In nothing, great or small,
large or petty, never give in. Except to convictions
of honor. and good sense. And so this man stood,
and because he stood, a nation stood. How did
Nehemiah respond in the face of discouragement?
Well, we notice that he addressed the fear by
posting a guard so the people would not be afraid,
and then he stood up and he gave the workers
two reminders that we find in verse 14. He says
to them, Don't be afraid of them He says remember
the Lord who is great and awesome and Fight for
your brothers your sons and your daughters your
wives and your homes Two reminders in the face
of discouragement number one the Lord is great
and awesome Yes, indeed the threats may be very
real The rubble may be piled deep around you
in your life right now, and you feel like giving
up. May I remind you, as Nehemiah reminded the
people of God in that day, the Lord is great
and awesome. He's bigger than that pile of rubble
that you're trying to deal with. The Lord is
great and awesome. Take your eyes off of the
rubble and put them on your God. But then Nehemiah
also says, remember this too, the end is worth
the fight. He says, if you don't fight at this
point, remember what you're going to lose. The
people you love and your very homes will be destroyed.
When you and I are discouraged, sometimes it's
good for us also to look at the alternative.
If we give up here in midstream, what's going
to be the result of it? And we will usually find
that that end makes the fight, even with discouragement,
worthwhile. I hope that our government can remember
that as we get pressure from the leftists of
this country to withdraw immediately from Iraq.
Whether or not you agree that we ought to be
there, the fact is we are there and there is
a fight and we had better finish it to the end,
or the end is going to be far worse than we could
ever imagine. The consequences are just too great
to give up. It's worth pressing on. That was
true in World War II. It's true in our nation's
history right now and, my friend, it is true
in your life. It is true in your life. Do not
give in to discouragement. But the devil didn't
stop there. He is piling it on, isn't he? He
knows how to do that very, very well. For next
he comes up with a plan of discord. It's in chapter
five. You see, if the devil can't succeed from
the outside in your life, he'll open up an offensive
from the inside. The inside of your team, the
inside of your congregation, the inside of your
nation. The truth is that discord is one of his
most effective tactics. If he can get you, as
a child of God, distracted by fighting with somebody
else, His work is 90 % done. He'll go sit down
in the easy chair and watch you slug it out and
enjoy the fight. The devil loves discord among
the people of God. The outcry in chapter five
surrounded a basic unfairness that was taking
place. It's somewhat similar to the early church
in Acts chapter six, the first dissension that
occurred in the church. The poor were being oppressed
by a wealthy few. The point here is this. The
devil was trying to distract Nehemiah and the
builders from their work by this dissension,
by the discord among the people. Nehemiah had
a problem on his hands. How was he going to handle
this? How do you be strong and deal with discord
in your home? or discord in your workplace, or
discord in your fellowship, discord in your group.
How do you be strong and deal with that? Well
the answer to it is simple, and yet sometimes
complex. It is this, you be a part of the solution,
not a part of the problem. You choose to be a
part of the solution, and not the problem. In
Nehemiah's case, he corrected the wrong that
had been done against the poor. He was part of
the solution in that he himself conducted himself
with honor and integrity. And then he continued
the work. He pressed right on ahead as verse
16 tells us. I devoted myself to the work on
this wall. All my men were assembled. there for
the work we did not acquire any land, talking
about the issue that had taken place. And so
he pressed ahead. He dealt with the injustice
and then he united his troops and he went on
with the work. But the devil didn't stop there.
He had yet another tactic. It is one that is
closest to his heart of all. It is the tactic
of deceit. The devil is a liar and he loves to
use lies. It's the essence of his character to
be a liar. In Nehemiah's situation, there's a
series of developments, deceptive attempts to
distract or to frighten or discourage or discredit
perhaps even to kill him. We don't have time
this morning to read the narrative in detail
in chapter six, verses one through 13, but you
can read about it. There is this attempt to deceive
him, to get him to come down to a certain location
on the plain of Ono. Now, when they invited him
to come to the plain of Ono, they made a tactical
mistake, because they immediately planted in
his mind the response that he should make, Ono.
I'm not coming down. Oh no. Oh no to oh no. And
so he didn't go down. He knew what they were
up to. They wanted to do him harm. Other attempts
here to deceive, even some of his own people.
What is a strong response to deceit that you
can have? Deceit that is used against you. Deceit
that is used to try to distract you or to discredit.
you in your life and your God -assigned task.
Well, let's put it in two phrases. Number one,
speak and act on the truth. That's what Nehemiah
did. When lies were used against him, for example,
in verse eight, he says, nothing like what you
are saying is happening. He says that is not
true. You're just making it up out of your head.
You see, he uses the truth to defuse the lie.
He speaks and he acts, as the text goes on, he
acts on the truth. And then in verse 14, he does
something else that's important for you and me
to remember. He says, remember, he's praying
now, he says, remember Tobiah and Sanballat,
oh my God, because of what they have done. Remember
also the prophetess Noadiah. and the rest of
the prophets who have been trying to intimidate
me. What does he do? Nehemiah lets God deal with
the liars. He lets God deal with them. Nehemiah's
example in this text challenges you and me to
live on the edge. We have one life, only one.
Let's not waste our lives. by sitting back in
the comfort zone. Let's not allow ourselves to
think that if we just take it easy and we don't
press too much, if we don't live on the edge,
we won't have any problems, because that's not
true either. You will have problems. What set
of problems do you want? Do you want the set
that comes from taking it easy in your life and
just kind of floating through it? or do you want
the kind of problems that come because you're
living on the edge for God and your life means
something? Well, any thinking person, any child
of God for sure will say, I want to live on the
edge. And though there are problems with that,
though there are obstacles, though the devil
has weapons he will use against me, and we've
looked at five of them today, I will stand on
the edge with God rather than sit in my easy
chair. Someone has said if you're not living
on the edge, you're taking up too much room.
When you're already living on the edge though
and then you run into obstacles like these, when
you're attacked for doing what you think is right,
you may feel vulnerable and dispirited and overwhelmed.
What I want to say to you today is this, be strong
in the Lord as you courageously press ahead.
in the assignment that God has given you in your
life. You get your vision from God when you move
to the edge. You get your resources in play when
you live on the edge. You have obstacles when
you live on the edge, but be strong in the Lord
and do not be afraid, but press on. Many of you
know and respect and hear Dr. Charles Stanley.
who is a pastor in Atlanta and is the speaker
on the In Touch radio and television series.
Dr. Stanley's father died early in his life.
He had very little memory of him. But his grandfather
had a tremendous impact upon him, and he tells
about his grandfather in one of his books. His
grandfather had a profound impact, especially
during a week -long visit. that Stanley made
to his grandfather's home when he was 16 years
of age. He says, after my grandfather started
to preach, he decided to buy a tent and begin
preaching in it. The cost of the tent was $300,
and he had no idea where he was going to get
that much money. You see, his grandfather gave
him the example of living on the edge. He knew
that God had called him to do this. He ordered
the tent, but he had no idea how the cost of
that was going to be met. He had a vision while
he was praying, and he saw a little house with
a fence around it. He recognized it in his vision
as a place he thought he had seen one time during
a visit to a little town not far away. The next
day, he went into that town and he walked up
and down the streets until he found the house
he had seen in the vision. At that point, he
got scared. You see, the enemy came against him.
He got scared. Still, he knew that God had something
to do with it and so he finally got up his courage
and he knocked on the door. A woman answered
and said, why? Mr. Stanley, I've been wanting
to talk to you. She invited him in, and after
they had talked a few minutes, she excused herself
and said, I've got something for you. She came
back in the room and handed him a brown paper
bag. In it were 300 $1 bills. She said, God told
me to give this to you. And then Dr. Stanley
concludes with this thought. I thought about
that later and put that experience into these
words. Words that he puts into the mouth of God.
He says, you trust me and I'll provide all your
needs. Don't look to anybody else. Look to me.
Where are your eyes today? What's your vision?
Are they on the problems, are they on the obstacles
and the discouragement and what people are saying
and all those other things the devil can throw
in your way? Then put your eyes on Jesus and
be strong in him. Let's bow together. Father,
this morning there are some Christian soldiers
who are here, some of your children who have
stepped to the edge, some even in recent days
and perhaps already they are feeling the wrath
of the enemy. My prayer is that you will strengthen
them, that they indeed would call upon you, that
they would handle those obstacles like Nehemiah
did, and as a result of it, they'll build the
wall, they'll accomplish the task, they'll achieve
the vision you've put in their hearts, and bless
them, I pray, in the process, and may all of
us keep our eyes upon you. It's in Jesus' name
that I pray this. Amen. Amen.