Sermon Notes, October
13, 2013
Pastor Jan Sinozich
Pastor Jan’s
message, third in the series “Living Life On Purpose,” was titled “Remembering
the Purpose,” and was based on Nehemiah 4:1-23. In chapter 1, Nehemiah prayed for opportunity
and the king’s favor. In chapter 2, with
the king’s backing, God moved him to Jerusalem and his new job as master
rebuilder. In chapter 3, he and the wall
workers discovered that no one can do everything, but everyone can do
something. In chapter 4, things start
getting more complicated.
The problem was discouragement. There are two kinds of discouragement: one
set of problems comes from outside, the other set from the inside. First, we see the external causes of discouragement: Sanballat and company started
causing trouble. Where God is at work,
so is the enemy. Sanballat and Tobias
reject and ridicule everything Nehemiah and the Jews are trying to
accomplish. When that didn’t work, they
moved on to repression, plotting to come and fight against
Jerusalem. What did Nehemiah do? He prayed.
Then he planned a defense—arm the builders, place half the workers
around the wall as guards, and implement an early warning system, so all will
rally to defend whatever place is under attack.
However, there
were also internal causes of discouragement. The opposition of the enemy can cause
fatigue, frustration and fear. When
people are fatigued they can easily become discouraged: remember Elijah
after confronting the priests of Baal.
He was tired, and God fed him and told him to rest. That’s good advice today as well. Another cause of discouragement is frustration. There was so much rubble they lost sight of
the goal. They forgot God was with
them. Hebrews 12:1 tells us to get rid
of anything that gets in the way of our pursuit of godliness. Ask God to show you the rubble in your life
and get rid of it. Another cause of
discouragement is fear. The ones
most affected by fear are those who live near pessimistic people (v. 12), so
make it a point not to hang around negative people.
There are cures for discouragement. The first cure is to REQUEST God’s help: pray.
Nehemiah prayed and fasted before he started, he prayed while he was working,
and he prayed for God to deal with the enemies.
The second cure is to REORGANIZE your priorities. Nehemiah had already organized the people to
work; now he reorganized them by putting guards at the vulnerable spots and
arming the workers. This discouraged the
enemy and encouraged the people because it dealt with their fear. The third cure for discouragement is to
REMEMBER who God is. He’s the One who
can do anything about anything. He is
with us. He provides for us.
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