KEY TEXT
Nehemiah 4:1-15 (RSV)
V1- Now when Sanbalat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged and he ridiculed the Jews.
V2- And he said in the presence of his brethren and of the army of Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore things? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?”
V3- Tobiah the Ammonites was by him, and he said, “Yes, what they are building – if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall!”
V4- Hear, O our God, for we are despised; turn back their taunt upon their own heads, and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives.
V5- Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from thy sight; for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders.
V6- So we built the wall; and all the wall was joined together to half its height. For the people had a mind to work.
V7- But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry;
V8- and they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it.
V9- And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them, day and night.
V10- But Judah said, “The strength of the burden-bearers is failing, and there is much rubbish; we are not able to work on the wall.”
V11- And our enemies said, “They will not know or see till we come into the midst of them and kill them and stop the work.”
V12- When the Jews who lived by them came they said to us ten times, “From all the places where they live they will come up against us.”
V13- So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people according to their families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows.
V14- And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and terrible and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your homes.
V15- When our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan, we all returned to the wall, each to his work.
There are tons and tons of garbage that is being disposed in just one’s home.
Each person produces about 4.3 pounds of garbage a day. What more for the whole country of Philippines.
Floods that Philippines faces also start with the garbage that filled the canals from where the water should flow. Thousands of homes are being swept away by flood which resulted from garbage that had been thrown just anywhere.
Garbage kills a lot of people if it is mismanaged. Illnesses and diseases from garbage will not only kill the lives of the people but they will also lose money from it.
Waste management is really necessary to be able to resolve and even just to minimize the garbage and other problems of the country.
We have another instance in the Bible that resonates with the problem Philippines is facing over garbage – the inability of the Jews to continue building the wall of Jerusalem because of too many rubbish.
V10- But Judah said, “The strength of the burden-bearers is failing, and there is much rubbish; we are not able to work on the wall.”
Too much rubbish impedes the building of our city.
Too much rubbish impedes the building of our nation.
Too much rubbish impedes the building of the walls of our spiritual lives and ministry.
Today, I want to share a sermon that echoes Nehemiah 4:10 – GET RID OF YOUR RUBBISH!
(I) DEFINITIONS
The word “rubbish” is synonymous with “waste, trash, garbage, junk, litter” and they mean UNWANTED AND USELESS.
Today, if we continue to store up rubbish in our lives – those unwanted and useless things and emotions in our lives, we will then be unable to continue building the walls of our lives.
The walls in our key text refer to the walls of our salvation; the walls of our prayer and devotional life; the walls of protection; the walls of our ministry, the walls of support and the walls of our family and the walls of our career.
(II) BACKGROUND OF OUR KEY TEXT
When Nehemiah and the Jews were working on the wall around Jerusalem, Sanballat and Tobiah launched a war of words. They hurled insults, ridicule, taunts and threats in the hope that these words would demoralize the people. Rumors of attack were more unsettling to the Jews than the actuality might have been. Guards were posted on the wall, but the gossip and derision assaulted the minds of the people to the point they internalized the words of the enemy, causing them to say to Nehemiah- “The strength of the burden-bearers is failing, and there is much rubbish; we are not able to work on the wall.”
(III) WHAT IS THIS PILED-UP RUBBISH?
What is this piled up rubbish that causes the Jews to give up their building project?
DISCOURAGEMENT!
Discouragement is the piled-up negative emotion that cripples the service and resolves of the Jews for God.
Discouragement is an unwanted and useless emotion and if we do not get rid of this rubbish but allow it to pile up in our lives, we will be deterred from fulfilling the call of God in our lives.
(IV) HOW DOES THE RUBBISH PILE UP?
The rubbish comes from 2 sources:
1. EXTERNAL SOURCE
The wall workers were initially excited. They began the work with great anticipation and joy. It says of them in verse 6 that “the people had a mind to work.” Things were going well; the people were excited and the wall was going up. Then something happened.
Getting the work started on the wall was a major achievement, but keeping the workers working proved to be a much tougher assignment.
Where God is at work, the enemy is also at work. Rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem was certainly no exception to this.
When people take Kingdom priorities seriously, Satan stirs up agitators to block the work of God. These enemies used two types of external forces:
A. RIDICULE
V1- Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged and he ridiculed the Jews.
V2- And he said in the presence of his brethren and of the army of Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore things? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?”
This is the third time in the book that we come across Sanballat, who was Nehemiah’s stiffest opposition. Every time we read about him, he is standing against the work of God, rejecting and ridiculing everything that Nehemiah is trying to accomplish.
Someone has said that ridicule is the “language of the devil.” Those who can stand bravely when shot at, will collapse when they are laughed at. The enemy often insults the servants of God.
Goliath ridiculed David when he met the giant with only a sling in his hand (1 Samuel 17:41-47). The soldiers mocked Jesus during his trial and the crowd taunted Him while he was hanging on the cross (Luke 22:63-65, 23:35-37).
Sanballat and his cronies had begun to ridicule the workers even before the work started in 2:19, “they mocked and ridiculed us.” Here in chapter 3, he is making a speech before the army of Samaria, intensifying the power of ridicule.
Notice he called the workers “feeble”. That word means “withered and miserable.” Next he ridiculed the job they were doing by asking four taunting questions: “Will they restore their wall?” That must have made the Samaritan army break out into laughter. How could a remnant of feeble Jews hope to build a wall strong enough to protect the city from a mighty army? “Will they offer sacrifices?” Sanballat is saying that it will take more than prayer and worship to rebuild the city. “Will they finish in a day?” suggest that the workers had no idea how difficult the task was and would soon stop what they were doing. “Can they bring these stones back to life?” indicates that their building materials were so old and damaged that they couldn’t possibly be used to make a strong wall.
I believe many of you can still remember the killer quake that devastated the entire city of Szechwan. Until today, the government couldn’t do much to rebuild that city because of too many rubbles, too many old and useless stones.
In verse 3, it was Tobiah’s turn to ridicule the workers when he tried out a joke on them –“Yes, what they are building – if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall.” The workers became the punch line of every joke and everyone got a laugh at their expense. Tobiah hoped that his sarcasm would make the builders cast an apprehensive glance at their hard work and activate them within them an avalanche of discouragement.
Friends, whenever you attempt to get involved in the work of God, you will always face ridicule. Expect it and don’t stop working.
B. REPRESSION (OPPRESSION AND TYRANNY)
V7- But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry;
V8- and they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it.
The enemies have moved from being bothered by the Jews to BEING VERY ANGRY. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. They did not intend to actually take control of the city but merely to “create confusion” (v8) and to “cause the work to cease” (v11). Warren Wiersbe writes, “God’s people sometimes have difficulty working together, but the people of the world have no problem uniting in opposition to the work of the Lord.”
The references in verse 7 are to the four points of the compass: Sanballat and the Samaritans on the north; Ashdod on the west; Tobiah and the Ammonites on the east and Gershem and the Arabs to the south. The workers were surrounded and lived in constant fear of being ambushed.
So we can see that the external source of conflict that pressed against the Jews are various, combined, angry, wily and ruthless.
Brothers and sister, we must be prepared to fight as well as work. The enemies of our souls and of the Lord are various, numerous, determined and must be encountered.
2. INTERNAL SOURCE
Pressures from without often create problems within, and cause our rubbish to pile up even higher. Opposition outside the ranks can lead to depression on the inside (another garbage addition). It wasn’t the voice of the enemy that was the most pervasive; it was the voice of God’s own people. And just like today, it is so easy to internalize the words of the enemy and feel like giving up.
Notice the first part of verse 10: “But Judah said….”
This rubbish emotion called discouragement started first within the royal tribe of Judah. They had David’s blood in their veins and you would think they would have had more faith and courage than the rest of the people. They were looked upon as leaders and pacesetters. If the tribe of Judah was bummed out, then the other tribes would be more inclined to give up the project as well.
A. FATIGUE
The very first cause of internal discouragement was fatigue.
V10- But Judah said, “The strength of the burden-bearers is failing…….
Simply put, the workers were tired.
They were hitting it hard and needed some rest.
The phrase “failing” carries with it the idea of “staggering, tottering and stumbling.”
When you are physically drained, it is very easy to become discouraged at the slightest problem.
E.g. John Vernon McGee was the host of a Bible Radio Program. One day he received a letter from a young missionary couple serving in the jungle of South America. It was their first term of service and they were very discouraged. From their letter it sounded as though they were ready to come home. They said, “You do not know what it means to us to listen to your radio program late at night down here in this foreign land, among people whose language we do not yet understand.” The Devil, of course, was using his weapon of discouragement. Mc Gee himself confessed, “We too, were discouraged and were ready to take our program off that particular station in South America. Then the Lord undertook in a marvelous way and we were able to continue broadcasting the program. We were so glad, because we know that the Bible teaching is an encouragement to these young folks.”
The devil uses this useless and unwanted garbage called fatigue in our lives.
It is also interesting to notice WHEN the workers became fatigued and discouraged.
Verse 6 says that the wall was built to half its height. Many times when we start a new project, the first half goes quickly because we’re excited about accomplishing the goal.
But when the newness wears off and the work becomes routine and boring, then it is easy to become fatigued.
And when you are tired, it is easy to become discouraged and to begin to think that you will never finish the job.
Verse 10 says…. “we are not able to work on the wall.”
If you’re feeling fatigued today, watch out. Tiredness can lead to discouragement.
Remember what God did when Elijah was tired- he sent an angel to give him some bread and something to drink and then told him to go back to sleep. You cannot burn the candle at both ends on a long-term basis. Sometimes the most spiritual thing to do is to go to bed.
2. FRUSTRATION
Verse 1- continues by saying that there is “much rubbish” that they cannot rebuild the wall. They became discouraged because they were so aggravated with the situation.
I believe they were encountering old broken rocks, dirt, and dried-out mortar and other debris that was underfoot. This junk was everywhere and it was frustrating.
Just as the Jews lost sight of their goal, so too we can lose sight of our goal when we have too much garbage in our lives.
Hebrews 12:1 challenges us to get rid of anything that causes us to be frustrated in our pursuit of godliness… “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with endurance the race marked out for us.”
I don’t know what the rubble is in your life but it may be a TV, a computer; it might be a possession you are holding onto, or even an unhealthy relationship. Is there a sin you’ve been playing around with too long? Do you have a drinking problem or are you involved in some other kind of entanglements that is tripping you up? Something you’ve been doing in secret that you think no else knows about? As the writer to Hebrew says, “Throw it off so you don’t get tripped up.”
E.g. Though Bob is pathologically unfaithful to his wife, by all other accounts, he is a nice guy. He is a good provider, an excellent father and a regular at church. That said, the altar is a familiar place for him. When Bob’s knees hit the altar pads, everyone knows that he has, once again, fallen off the wagon and onto a flight attendant or bar companion. For one thing, Bob is simply a liar and a cheat. His transgression brings enormous confusion and pain not only to his marriage but also to his children, extended family and friends. And worse, the pattern is always the same: He goes months without any slip, only to suddenly find himself looking at an attractive woman across the brim of his champagne glass, which inevitably leads to a less than meaningful encounter. Afterward, he is always sorrowful, sad and penitent and he swears that it will never happen again. But it always happens one more time. Many people have advised his wife to leave him. Bob obviously cares more about his appetite for destruction than for a significant relationship. Bob carries around too much emotional garbage ever to change.
You see Bob had come from a broken home and had an abusive father. He had been the target of verbal and physical abuse since he was eight and he never developed a sense of healthy self-esteem. Not surprisingly, Bob descended into a pattern of self-loathing that good thing is almost impossible to accept or at least hold on to for any period of time. Bob’s deep seated need for approval, even from inappropriate sources, fed a craving in him that, gone unchecked had surfaced time and time again.
Bob had a lot of trash in his life that he had simply pushed deep within. He refused to let anyone help him, even his wife and thus he used this unhealthy behavior as a way of self-medicating his guilt, shame and pain. Yes, he knew what he was doing was wrong but he felt powerless against temptation.
While Bob could clearly identify the trash in his life, he could only stuff it, moment to moment into a dark corner of his hurting soul. No one had shown him how to bag it and get it to the street. Over time, it was easier for Bob to let the unhealthy pattern win. Bob discovered that, as the trash mounts, life becomes septic and his sense of a better way becomes paralyzed.
We all must decide to get our garbage to the street – bring our rubbish and sins to the open before Christ. When we don’t, we play into Satan’s plan. He does not care what the filth and the trash is, just as long as he can convince us to hold on to it.
3. FEAR
Another cause of discouragement is fear. The enemies of the Lord’s work had struck fear in the hearts of God’s people and they felt like giving up. Remember what they said in verse 10:”We cannot rebuild the wall.”
Did you notice in verse 12 who gets afraid the quickest? V12- When the Jews who lived by them came they said to us ten times, “From all the places where they live they will come up against us.”
Those most affected by fear are those WHO LIVED NEAR PESSIMISTIC PEOPLE. If you want to limit the depressing thoughts that bring fear into your life, then it is best to not hang around with negative people. It’s like the old saying, “If you are going to soar with the eagles, you can’t run with turkeys.”
Fear puts us in a frame of mind where not only we are discouraged, we also can be deceived.
E.g. In the book, “Scared to Life”, Douglas Rumford cites a study that shows why we shouldn’t let fear rule our lives:
60% of our fears are totally unfounded
20% are already behind us.
10% are so petty they don’t make any difference
5% are real but we can’t do anything about them
5% are real and we can do something about them
These are the causes of discouragement, the rubbish emotion in many of our lives – ridicule and repression can lead to fatigue, frustration and fear.
V. HOW TO KEEP THE RUBBISH OUT?
1. PRAYER
Prayer is to request God’s help.
Illustration: In the jungles of Africa, a man was being pursued by a roaring, hungry lion. Feeling the beast’s hot breath on his neck and knowing his time was short, he broke out into prayer as he ran like crazy, “O Lord, please make this lion a Christian. Please make him a Christian!” Within seconds, the frightened man noticed that the lion had stopped chasing him. When he looked behind him, he found the lion kneeling and moving his lips in obvious prayer. Greatly relieved at this turn of events, he got close enough to the lion to hear him pray, “And bless, Oh Lord, this food which I am about to receive.”
We are told in Nehemiah 4 that he prayed at two different times. His first prayer is found in verse 4-5: “Hear, O our God, for we are despised; turn back their taunt upon their own heads, and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from thy sight; for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders.” This is quite a prayer. He wasn’t praying for his enemies to become believers but instead for God to judge them. This prayer was not nice but it was understandable and honest. He knew that the enemies were really fighting against God and so he asked God to deal with them.
Here Nehemiah didn’t give a lecture to the workers, organize raiding parties against the enemies or create propaganda campaigns to put a different spin on things. Here’s a principle we can learn from Nehemiah: When people talk against you, don’t talk back. Talk to God. Verse 9 tells us that they prayed to God and posted a guard. When their enemies started talking, Nehemiah continued to pray and the people continued to work.
Watch and pray if you want to get rid of the piles of rubbish building up in your lives. Tell God your opposition; tell God about your enemies. In prayer, give to God those who are enemies of the gospel; only God can turn their hearts. At the same time, continue doing the work and the ministry of God. Nehemiah didn’t sit around waiting for God to do everything. He released to God what only God can do and then he fortified the city with fortified soldiers. At every point in which he implemented a defense measure, he depended on God as his true defense. In every situation, Nehemiah began on his knees before God and he ended with bold action. He clearly understood that God was eternal judge, the universal sovereign, the Holy one. He also understood that God had bestowed upon man certain responsibilities. The proper relationship between God and his creation is a joint interaction, a united purpose in which the Creator and his people work together.
Many times we pray about someone in need and leave it there. We should also do something to help meet the need – perhaps visit or call, cook dinner, or even offer financial gift. Prayer cannot be neglected in a frenzy of busyness but the hard work of service cannot be ignored because we are praying.
Pray, watch and work.
2. REORGANIZE YOUR PRIORITIES
V13- So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people according to their families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows.
Nehemiah had already organized the people in chapter 3 and they had finished half of their task. Now, however, a new situation had come about that required a change in organization. If the enemies were going to attack they would most likely do so at the weakest places. So Nehemiah put guards at all the vulnerable spots. This served two purposes: it discouraged the enemy and it encouraged the people because it dealt with their fear.
When we are discouraged, one of the things we can do is to reorganize our priorities. You can look at your life. You can adopt a change in approach instead of becoming so discouraged that you quit! Do you have a problem in your marriage? If so, don’t bail on your spouse! Change your approach. Adopt a new attitude. Get some help. Do you have a problem in your job? Don’t give up! Change your priorities. Do you have a problem in your walk with God? Don’t stop following Jesus! Reorganize your schedule so you can meet with Him on a regular basis. Plug into a small group. Don’t be overcome by discouragement. Do something about it.
In verse 16 the workers reorganized again by dividing responsibilities: half worked and the other half kept watch. Those who worked used one hand for pushing the wheelbarrow and with the other hand, they carried a weapon and they worked together as a team.
3. REMEMBER WHO GOD IS
V14- And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and terrible and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your homes.
Nehemiah knew, even in the face of opposition that the success of the wall was wholly dependent upon God, who inspired its beginning.
Verse 10 was true –the people could not rebuild the wall on their own. They needed to remember God and what He had promised.
It’s easy for me to forget God when things are tough. I need to be reminded that He is always there for me. How do you remember the Lord? By remembering that He will always be there for you. We are to remember that He is great and awesome. God is more than able to deal with your discouragement.
Illustration: “Remember the Lord” was to be the motto of the Jews, their rallying cry. As you may remember in the Spanish-American war, America’s battle cry was, “Remember the Maine.” In World War I it was “Remember the Lusitania.” In World War II, it was “Remember Pearl Harbor.” Napoleon always reminded his soldiers of some past history to stir them up to fight. When Paul the apostle wrote his swan song to a young preacher named Timothy, he gave him a rallying cry. The correct translation of 2 Timothy 2:8 is, “Remember Jesus Christ.” That is the rallying cry of believers today. “Remember the Lord” was the rallying cry for the Jews in Nehemiah’s day.
So when you are down, turn your attention from your rubbish emotion, discouragement, to the One who is able to do something about it. God has been faithful to you in the past. He is faithful to you today. And He has promised to be faithful to you in the future. Remember the Lord. Remember His promises. Remember His goodness. Remember His power. Our God is great and awesome. Remember Him.
The people complained about all the rubbish in verse 10. Question- Wasn’t the rubbish there in the beginning? Of course it was. The difference was that when they started the project they were focused on God and His character. Now, they had become rubbish-gazers. Friend, if you focus on all the rubbish and junks of your life and in the lives of others, you will become discouraged. Let’s determine to be God-gazers instead of rubbish-gazers.
Illustration: Our Security Net
At the time it was completed in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world. During the first phase of the project, 23 men fell to their deaths in the icy water. Things were going from bad to worse because they were very few safety devices. And so, when it was halfway completed, they decided to take another look and make some changes.
Do you know what they did? They reorganized and built the largest net ever made and attached it under the area where the men were working. Was it worth the cost and time it took to do this? Ask the ten men who fell into it without being injured? Not only did it save those ten lives, the work was completed in three-fourths the time because the workers no longer lived in fear of falling.
Friends, God’s great net of safety covers this globe. No matter where we live, no matter what we have done, no matter how discouraged we have been, He’s stretched out His everlasting arms beneath us. As a result we can live and work freely and without fear, knowing that we are protected, safe and secure. Discouragement can be defeated, this unwanted trash emotion can be gotten rid of as we request God’s help, reorganize our priorities, and remember who He is.
When you think about it, most of us are just halfway, if even that, in our Christian lives. We are well aware of the rubbish and the mess. And like the wall workers, it is so easy to get discouraged and not remember the Lord who is great and awesome. Great as “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world”. He has all the power to sustain his servants, to give them the victory and reward the victors. Awesome (terrible) as he has the power to subdue all your enemies.
Jesus knows that we have a built-in capacity to FORGET and that many of us default to rubbish emotion called discouragement. That is why He commanded us to celebrate the Lord’s Supper on a regular basis. We are to do it “in remembrance of Him” so that we don’t forget Him.
Could it be that today, you are unable to build the walls of your life because there are too many rubbish in your life?
All these rubbish pile up because of external sources like ridicule and repression of people. They pile up because of internal causes like fatigue, fear and frustration.
You have to get rid of the rubbish of your life- pray, reorganize your priorities and remember the Lord.
End of sermon
PREACHED AT EFC IC 1ST SV ON 29 JAN 2012
