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The Gusty Cliffs of Opposition | Land of Blue

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What do you do when following God starts to feel exhausting?

In the Land of Blue, we’ve reached The Gusty Cliffs of Opposition—a place where ridicule, doubt, and resistance threaten to push us back. In Nehemiah 4, God’s people face mockery, fear, and internal discouragement while rebuilding the wall. And yet, they keep going.

This message explores how Christians can stay emotionally and mentally strong when opposition comes—whether it’s criticism from others, internal doubt, or spiritual resistance. Opposition doesn’t mean God has abandoned you. Often, it means the work matters.

If you’ve ever felt worn down, questioned your calling, or wondered if it’s worth continuing, this sermon is for you.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so we're talking about spiritual vigilance in the face of opposition. And I'll just it hurts. It can really hurt. People can really hurt us. It can feel like, how can this person be so intentional about wounding me? Maybe it's a family member. And they just like they bring it to you, and it it would crush any relationship normally, but you have to stay with them because they're family or something like that. Or there's someone that you, you know, you don't even know them very well, but you know they're they say they're a Christ follower, but then they write something about you online or they react to one of your posts, and it just feels like how can you even like say that publicly, claiming the name of Jesus? And so it hurts, I know it hurts, we all know it hurts. Sometimes when we're receiving that kind of opposition, it can mess with our brain a little bit. We can start to wonder, is this like God resisting me? Is the Lord trying to tell me to stop? Is the Lord trying to tell me to back up or to get out of here? Because the truth is, I thought it would be easier than this, but I've got folks coming against me. Does that just mean sit down? I've got folks complaining about me, talking about me. Does that is that my am I supposed to take that as a sign? Like, hey man, you're just not cut off for this. Should I go hit the bleachers again? Is that what is trying to be told of me? It feels like this is taking forever. And I I'm just wondering, did God already walk out? Like, is He done with this and done with me? Should I agree? Is there truth to what the hateful things people are saying about me? Is that true? Spiritual vigilance, this is the definition that I wrote down. It's a mental, emotional, and spiritual toughness. Somebody say toughness. Toughness that is ready to meet opposition and keep a good attitude. Let's hear it again. It is a mental, emotional, and spiritual toughness that is ready to meet opposition and keep a good attitude. And it's formed when things get hard. There's some spiritually vigilant people in the scriptures, right? There's Moses, okay? So he's like old and he's leading all these people out of slavery, and all they can do is complain about him, and he bears with him. He keeps on going. You know why? Because he's spiritually vigilant. You got David, he's running away from his own father-in-law who repeatedly tries to assassinate him over many years. But you know what? He doesn't become vengeful. He doesn't become someone who just wants to get back at him. No, in fact, he keeps honoring the king. You know why? Because he's spiritually vigilant. We talked about Esther for a long time. Here's a gal who's spiritually vigilant because she keeps poise and composure in the face of dramatic unfairness, mistreating her and all kinds of people, and yet she has the wherewithal to keep moving forward with exactly in the tough place that God has called her to be, to keep moving forward faithfully. Opposition, we're gonna find, you already know this. It's often, my friends, it's gonna come at very inopportune times. It's often when we're tired already. Right? It's our it's often like, dude, I just like I'm like six months of trial and I got this now. I'm supposed to take this with me. And so if we're going to become people that are spiritually vigilant, we've got to ask first the question: what has to happen on the inside of a person for them to become that spiritual tough person, that Jesus tough kind of a person. We're gonna look back to Nehemiah chapter four today. We're still in the land of blue. This is an entire series that really talks about sadness. We're walking through the difficulties. You know, it's kind of like middle of winter for us here in the Midwest, and so it's appropriate. Some of us are just a little sadder because there's less sunlight. So we're walking through this land of blue, and we've been to these different lands, and the land that we're in today, it is the gusty cliffs of opposition. It's the gusty cliffs. And you gotta be careful on the gusty cliffs because you can just be blown right off. You can just decide to back out, you can decide to quit. And that is exactly what our spiritual foe wants. And it's tempting sometimes, ma'am. So, Nehemiah, just to give you the big picture story, then we're gonna pull up little pieces of it. Nehemiah's the leader of these Jews that are coming back to Jerusalem. So let's just pretend, let's let's get in the thinking of this. You are coming back to a land you've never been to. It's your homeland, but you've been in another land your whole life. And you're coming with your parents and grandparents. And your grandparents told you a little bit about this place because 70 years ago, they and their parents were there, but they were really, they were kicked out of their own land because they wouldn't obey God's commands. So God says, all right, time out. You guys are on the timeout. I'm gonna send a nation in, they're gonna tear down your entire city, they're gonna take you out and make you live in their land for 70 years, and then I'm gonna bring you back, and hopefully by then you'll learn your lesson. But you're gonna come back, and now you've got to rebuild everything that was destroyed. So they come back to the ruins of Jerusalem, and he has you gotta know one, they're they're not an army. They're not soldiers, and yet they're gonna have to fight in a minute. They're not necessarily all carpenters, and yet they have to rebuild this wall. This wall is the wall that's gonna be around the city that that would be necessary in the ancient Near East because you've got to keep people from coming in and just taking your stuff and your people. So the wall's torn down, they've got to rebuild it. That's like the assignment Nehemiah is gonna lead them into it. It's important for people to have a wall, but not everybody likes the fact that these Jews are back in town and they're gonna, what are they gonna do? They're gonna rebuild this wall? That means they're gonna be a power in the land. That means if you are from Samaria or you're from another nearby land, you're gonna say, this is gonna cut into our trade. This is a major trade route right here. We can't have this. Oh no, they've been gone too long. We're gonna, we're gonna come against them and come hard. And so they start to come against these band of people that came here to do a construction project. They start to come against them. And Nehemiah, at first, he just prays, God, I need you to just step in and give these people a new heart. Because mostly at first they're just ridiculing them. They're just saying, ah, you guys are horrible, and we'll look at that in a second. And prayer works at first, but then they come back ready to fight, and they do fight. And Nehemiah goes back and he prays again. And essentially, even as the threats increase, he says, God, I need you to help our people keep building and trust God. Let's say it again. Keep building and trust God. And your God, as you keep building and trust God, even though there's gonna be a fight to it, your God will defend you and will fulfill his purposes. I hope you're ready. I hope you're ready with a lot of amens, because here we go. Now it happened that when Sanbalat, this is a major, this is the governor of Samaria, okay? So Samaria is ruled by Persia now. He's the governor, he's a guy in charge, and he has a lot to lose by this. So when Sanbalat learned that they were rebuilding the wall, he became very angry. And he flew into rage. He mocked the Jews. He spoke in front of his friends and the Sumerian army officers and said, What does this bunch of poor, feeble Jews think that they are doing? This word feeble, it means like a plant that is withering away. It's barely alive. And he's making fun of them, he's mocking them. He's saying, You guys are nothing. What do you think you're doing? Do you think, do they think they can rebuild the wall in a single day just by offering sacrifices? Do they actually think that they can make something of stones from a rubbish heap and charred ones at that? He's saying, You guys are in over your heads. You don't know what you're doing. You think you're just gonna like God's just gonna bless you. Your puny little selves are gonna be able to do this, and God's just gonna bless it because you offer some kind of a sacrifice? That's not gonna work. He's saying, You guys are in over your heads, you don't have the tools, you don't have the character, you don't have the guts, you are unqualified in every way to be attempting this thing. Let me say it again so we hear it. You are unqualified in every way to be attempting this thing. Who do you think you are? Get out, sit down, move. That's the voice of the enemy. This is one of the clearest places in scripture, by the way, where we see the personality of the enemy. He's living through these people. This is what the enemy of our souls thinks about them, and it's what he thinks about us. Now, Tobiah the Ammonite, here's another Persian administrative guy, the Ammonite, was standing beside him, and he said, That stone wall they're building. If even a fox walked along the top of it, it would collapse. He's saying, How are you guys gonna keep out enemies? A fox would knock down your pitily little thing. You're woefully unprepared here, guys. That's what they're saying. And what are they trying to do? They're trying to bring shame on them. They're trying to say, guys, you're not a people. That was taken away from you. You're not a people, and what you do isn't going to matter. Because you are not of God, picked the wrong people for this, if it was God at all. We're jumping down to verse 7, which we can just see how they're coming against these folks. Now it happened that when Sanbal at Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the people of Ashdod, that's those are the descendants of the Philistines, and they're getting a big coordinate. This is all the lands coming together. They're gonna oppose the Jews coming back to Jerusalem. They heard that the work was going ahead and the gaps in the wall of Jerusalem were being repaired. They were furious. All of them plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. How do we develop spiritual vigilance in the face of opposition? Here's the first thing that we do. We expect pushback and don't panic. We expect pushback and don't panic. We need to stop taking hardship as a sign that God is not in something. We need to recognize that the cost of something is actually more related to the meaning of it. So if it's costly for you to stay in the game, it's because it's a meaningful end that you're aiming at. God has invited you into something that is very, very difficult, but very, very important. And it's important that we keep pressing on. Okay, so let's say, not everybody has to do this, but let's say you do. Let's say you have to take the toll way into work. Okay, you've got to get on the toll way, 94, you're gonna go down toward the city. Now, what happens is you start to see this sign that says expect delays. Okay, right at that moment, you probably don't say, Well, you know what? It's probably not God's will that I work at this job, I'll just go home. No, you've accepted the reality that part of you doing what you're supposed to do, you're gonna sometimes have to expect delays. It's gonna shut you down, it's gonna be frustrating, you're not gonna want to deal with it, but delays are a part of the deal if you're going to work there. And God says, opposition, people coming against you, misunderstanding you, hurting you is part of the deal. It's part of the game for kingdom people. Opposition is part of it. We sometimes get away from the idea we we we forget that the enemy's real and he's gonna use people. He's even going to use other Christians. Okay, so let me just I want to clue everybody in. I want the Lord to bring my voice to your mind later on when you've forgotten this. Young ones, listen to this one especially. The church is awesome and Jesus loves his bride, but church people will hurt you. Yes, they will. Number one, because the enemy wants to make sure of it. Number two, because according to Jesus, there are tares alongside the wheat within the church. Meaning there's people that are really God followers, and there's people that are not God followers. But the not followers are with the people that are. And the Lord's gonna wait until the end of the age and separate the two. But that means they're gonna hurt you right now. Also, and this is encouraging, it's part of his grow-up plan for you. In other words, it's part of your Jedi training that you have to deal with people coming against you and hurting you and you recovering from it. So we don't want to be naive about this. Open doors often attract opposition. Okay, so you start going to church, you're like, this is the year we're gonna start going to church. And then suddenly you have a thousand things to do at exactly this time on Sunday morning. Or you tell your relatives and they're like, Going to church, what are you talking about? You idiot. You need to do this or do that, or I can't. Oh, what are you? Righteous more than everybody else, you should just stay home. Or your friends give you a hard time about it. That's opposition that's coming at you. You say, Oh, I think finally now, you know, I'm gonna serve. Well, just be aware. I try to tell folks this anytime they sign up to serve, be aware you're going to experience opposition now. It won't kill you. But it's going to come because the devil doesn't like that you did that. And he knows, dude, it doesn't take much. Just discourage them a little bit. Just try to get him offended about something. Just make him say, Oh, it's so hard here.

unknown:

Like on the magic road.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's right. Guys, we should expect opposition, but we should expect to push through it. See, on top of the gusty cliff of opposition, there is the red dragon of ridicule. The red dragon of ridicule. Now, he can hurt your feelings really bad. Here's the good news he can't actually hurt you. He looks scared, he looks scary, and he he can hurt your feelings, but he can't actually hurt you. He's the red dragon of ridicule, meaning if you just like get a stout heart and get a spiritually vigilant spirit, you can walk right up to him. People are ridiculing you, ridiculing you, ridiculing you, and you can walk right past it. And you just skipped the red dragon of ridicule. All you have to do, precious listen, it's it's it's hard but it's simple. It's hard, but it's simple. All you have to do in the midst of ridicule is keep walking. Just keep walking. Just decide I'm not getting taken out like this. This is not how I go. So when your faith maybe is being mocked, let's all just accept part of living for Jesus is there's occasionally going to be a time where I feel awkward that I'm standing up for Jesus. Let's accept it. That's what spiritually vigilant people would do. That's part of faithfulness. When I've got all kinds of heavy things that are causing me to panic, I'll just remind myself, no, this doesn't mean that it's too hard and I should get out. It means faith uh meaningful things are costly. So I'm going to be faithful. When I'm tempted to buck and run because I'm not being appreciated like I think I should be. You know, I get that, dude. Like everybody wants to be appreciated, but can we just own you don't need to be appreciated to be faithful? You don't need to be appreciated to be faithful. Your appreciation is coming, but it's coming in the kingdom to come. It's coming the moment you walk into heaven. It's like, Jesus, let's go. All right, I'm ready now. I'm ready for the war, but it ain't here. And so we've got to just understand if if I need to be always applauded for every right thing I do, you know what, dude, that's more of a trade. That's not really you serving God, that's you trading him. I'll take applause, you take this service. No, that's that's not the deal. The deal is he's the king, and it's a privilege to serve him. And so we got to have this pastoral advice that is so good. I heard it from one of my pastors once, and I just want to give it to you. And you gotta hear it in spirit of love because that's exactly what it is. But every one of us, we need we need to recognize when we come to moments like this, honey. I understand that you got hurt, I understand that it doesn't feel good, it doesn't feel good at all, but also buck up. Buck up, yo. That means don't just sit there and feel sorry for yourself. That doesn't help anybody. It doesn't help you, it doesn't help the people around you. Like, you are made of stouter stuff than this. Who is your savior, by the way? Is he not the very one that walked up Calvary with shreds in his back, trying to carry this cross? Well, his spirit is on the inside of you, so I think you can take it. You can take it. So why don't you keep on going? So we expect pushback and we don't panic and we pray until our perspective changes. We pray, number two, until our perspective changes. That's what Nehemiah does. So I've got these sunglasses that I often I'm wearing in the car, okay? So it's it's you know, it's it's a bright day. And then I don't even necessarily notice because maybe it happens fast, but it starts to get less bright. In fact, it starts to get cloudy. And even maybe it starts to rain or something. And for a half a second, my brain hasn't clicked over and said, Oh yeah, it's raining or it's getting cloudy. I was like, doggone, it's dark. What's happening? I don't see anymore. Now I could start to complain in that moment. So, God, uh, why is it so dark? Can you just fix the dark for me, Lord? Can you just make this a brighter situation for me? Can you take away the ridicule? Can you take away the opposition? I just don't, I'm I'm getting opposition now and I just don't want it. I could do that. Or I could just listen to him as he says, just shift your focus. Switch your lenses. Don't look at the dark stuff in here. Look to the sun who is bright. In other words, it's similar to the lemon illustration that we did at the beginning of the series. We said, sometimes you're believing lies, and so the lemon looks green, but it's really yellow, and you have to remind yourself, no, no, no, no, no, that's a lie. The lemon is yellow. This is similar, only now we're looking at God Himself. We're saying, it feels like all hell is breaking loose against me, but God is big, God is powerful, God is glorious. But often, listen, you can know that, but it often only gets true. It only gets real, it only sinks in. It's when, it's when the pancakes absorb the syrup. That's what we're that's what we're trying to get to. That's what happens when we get in prayer and we say, God, I know this, but I don't know it yet. Would you cause me to know it? And then I'll be a whole lot better. That means even when I'm in trouble like this and I go to go to get counsel from somebody, I'm praying. Lord, I hope they give me good counsel, but would you, God, would you bless that moment so they're giving me your direct counsel and in a way that I can receive it. God, I know that that I know that you're my defender, but help me know that for real. Let that let the syrup get into the pancakes all the way so when I get a text at 9 p.m. that is pretty passive aggressive, I can say, no, no, no, there's no reason to respond right now. Because my God is my defender, and my God tends to give me wisdom in the morning more than at 9 p.m. So I'm just gonna postpone that thing and come back later. By the way, I just want to give you a little hack in life, okay? So did you know that for most of our phones, you can have like a status or a focus where only certain people get in at a certain time. They only certain people can text in a way that you'll receive it, you'll see it. Only yeah, only certain people are able to get that phone call through. If you just said it, so I've got I've got a status called family only, okay? That means, hey, if one of my kids is in trouble, my wife's calling, or something like that, it will alert me. But everybody else, family only. That means whoever I'm worried is gonna break into my life and say, hey, here's a big crappy problem. Well, we'll see tomorrow because they can't get in now. So a little life hack for us. We put justice in God's hands. Now listen, verse 4. Then I prayed, hear us, O God. So he's praying against this little federation of people that are coming against him. Hear us, O God, for we are being mocked. May their scoffing fall back on their own heads, and may they themselves become captives in a foreign land. Don't ignore their guilt, don't plot out their sins, for they've provoked you to anger here in front of your bill of the builders. Why can he say that? Like, isn't it ra wrong to put like pray bad things on the ones that are coming against us? Here's why, because in his time he knows the covenant that God has made with the people of Israel. And he knows God himself has commanded them to rebuild this wall. And the covenant says, Whoever curses me, whoever curses you, I will curse. That's what God says to the people of Israel. And so he's just calling God, hey, remember your covenant? These guys are really giving us a hard time right now. Why don't you fulfill your covenant, God, and get them out of here? We've been away in captivity. Why don't you send them away? Because they're really jacking up your plan. Well, the new covenant's a little different than that. Okay, so if you're a Christian, you're in the new covenant. And that means part of that covenant is Jesus has covenanted to forgive your sins. But that means if you're in a conflict with someone who's a Christian, uh-oh. He's also covenanted to forgive their sins. Rats. So how do I get around that? Here's how we get around it. We say, Jesus, okay, there's two covenantally connected people to you right now. Both of us might need to be corrected. And you've covenanted to be a father to us. So would you correct both of us wherever we need it to happen? And it can be hard, man. It can be super hard with Christians sometimes. But if we leave the justice in God's hand, we can then respond and try to gain that confidence in God. Verse 14 says, Then I looked things over and saw their fear. This is the people's fear. So I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, Don't be afraid of the enemy. Remember the Lord who is great and glorious, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes. He says that for them to fight. And then in verse 20, a couple verses later, he says, And then our God will fight for us. We're gonna fight, and God will fight. And he started the whole thing with prayer. That means prayer and action are not against each other. They go hand in hand. If I want God to move, I gotta be willing to act, but I've also got to be willing to pray. And sometimes we're asking God, I want you to stabilize this outcome, and then I will be happy, then I will be calm, then I will be peaceful. Would you stabilize this thing, God? And God says, no, I usually do it the other way. Let's stabilize this, let's get you chill no matter what happens. And as you get chill, I'll work out the thing for you. But I'm seeking to bring the kingdom of God within you, not just outside of you. And that means you're gonna have to calm down. I don't want you just always go through resistance, or I don't want you to go around resistance, I want you to go through it. I want you to pass right through and not worry about so so real practical. Let's say that you you're wanting to date somebody and you're asking them out, you're hoping it's gonna go good. You you think it'd be a great deal to be with them, but you're so attached to their rejection that it's just gonna crush you if they say no, or if the date doesn't go good. Well, instead of that, how about would you say, God, would you give my make my my heart so stabilized and so positive that, well, you know, that'd be nice. But I've got God, and he approves of me and he likes me. And by the way, um, he's got like four billion other ladies on this planet, so I'll be just fine, me and God. How about that? Or you're going to the job interview and you really, really want to, and you're knocking on all the doors and you're doing everything that you possibly can, but there's also a little glimmer in your eye because you're like, well, you know what? I mean, I'm giving it all I got, but my God directs my steps, He brings me to the right places, He opens the right doors and gives me the right opportunities, and that's an in thing here, in inside thing here. That's what that is. That's the syrup in the pancakes when you can say that. It doesn't mean you try any less hard. It just means you're walking from a different posture. That's what we decide. Here's the thing. This isn't just a like, this isn't just a don't quit message. This is a when things get tough, when people are opposing you, what story are you gonna tell yourself? Are you gonna tell yourself this was expected? I'm gonna cry out to God, I'm gonna get his power, we're gonna make it through this, we're gonna go through this, and by the way, it's going to make me better, which leads us to number three. Purpose to move forward in wisdom. Purpose to move forward in wisdom. This is what he did, verse nine. But we prayed to our God because of them, because of the enemies, we set up a guard against them day and night. We prayed, but then we did something smart that we weren't doing before. We prayed and then we did something smart. Wisdom grows often when we just take a moment to just to pause instead of react. It hurts, I want to react. Then I want to go over to their house. I want to like written their neck. That's what I want to do. But instead, I want to get on online and just tell everybody what a mook they are. But no, instead I'm gonna pause. Okay, God, but yeah, but but but what would be wisdom? So Nehemiah, they all prayed to strengthen their hearts, but then they kept moving forward. Listen to some of the things that Nehemiah asked them to do, by the way. Okay, so remember, these aren't, this is not a military force. But Nehemiah tells them, okay, first of all, we've got to station everybody up. There's got to be a guard all the time, day and night. Also, I know you you're you're kind of getting used to building the wall now, but from here on out, you have to have your sword with you while you're building. Because people are just gonna come up and attack you. By the way, here's what I want to do. Let's put you all by your families, because you'll probably fight harder if your family is threatened than if just the, you know, the wall is threatened. By the way, also, if we're we're gonna have like a trumpet system. So if one family or one group of families gets attacked, we're just gonna blow the trumpet and everybody else needs to run over to them and start killing our enemies. Could you imagine if that was your job? Like, that's the job description. You're just like walking onto the job site. They're like, well, here's a sword, because people are gonna attack today, and you're gonna have to kill them. And here's your daughter, so like stay close. Like that, that's that's the job. And yet that's exactly what Nehemiah is asking. Because he knows this will be wisdom. You gotta rearrange. So, in other words, my friends, as we've prayed, as we've gotten confident in the Lord, we're also just saying, God, is there just anything wise that I should do? Is there anything maybe that I'm missing? So I conflict with this young woman. We were both in her early 20s, she was part of you know the church that I was a part of. And we had conflict together. And she had said some things about me, and I had said some things about her, and it was really hurtful. It was like, oh, come on, come on. And I'm asking the Lord, okay, what do I do? What do I do about this girl? God, what you gonna do about this girl? And he's like, go repent. I'm like, nah, repent. God, I would be down a little bit to repent if she came to me and repented first because she's more guilty than me. And guys, it was just like a doesn't matter, I'm telling you to go apologize and ask for forgiveness. Well, you know, obedience is always wisdom. Like, whatever, so so if there's something like that's outstanding that the Lord's like, yeah, you still haven't done this yet, that is wisdom. That'll be part of your solution. That'll be part of pressing through uh through that red dragon of ridicule. If you'll just do that, you you never know what he might bring along. It's wise when we need that wisdom to go to mentors, to go to people that are just beyond us because they're outside of our trial and they can just tell us, well, here's what I think though. Maybe you're you're too close to it to see well. I went to a mentor one day. I said, here's the conflict. It was called like people coming coming against me. Hurt. What do I do about this? And his counsel wasn't, he was right because he could see outside of it. It was, bro, you need to let go. You're trying to like force this thing and you need to let go. Well, years later, I came to another mentor in a similar situation, receiving a lot of opposition. But he could see this new situation from outside of me, and he said, You need to hang on a little longer. Don't don't bail now. Like God is gonna move. Do it for Jesus, don't do it for them. Yeah, they're hurtful. Do it for Jesus, don't do it for them. So we've prayed, we've we've tried to get our confidence in the Lord. We maybe sought some counsel to rearrange and do some things differently. And at the end of the day, maybe we've even healed in the presence of God some. But as we've processed our emotions, which is yeah, that really hurts, you shared it with Jesus. At some point, that's all that you can really do, and it's time to get back to work. In other words, don't get off here in this little whirlpool of like just thinking about how bad you've got it. Honey, I I know, but you're not gonna get any better now. Like, get up, heal on the way, get back in the game, get back to work and see what God might not do. Because that's what the Israelites did. It was like, okay, these people are coming against us, but we still have to build this wall. And we need to keep on building. And one of things we can ask, we can ask, and I'm asking it because we see it here in the text, in verse 14. And fight for your brothers and your sons and your daughters and your wives and your homes. It can be helpful when we're trying to like get back into it, but we don't really want to. It can be helpful to say, Who else benefits from my faithfulness? Take take a little inventory. Who else benefits from my faithfulness? It may be that it's others, it may be your kids, it may be your grandkids, but you sticking with it not only models character, but it might even be making money for some. It's holding the thing together. They need it. There are a lot of times in my early jobs, dude. I've got, I don't know, the Lord just set me up. Like he wanted to train me in this to a good degree. I had bosses half the time that were like, they couldn't just leave me. Like they were always nitpicking every little thing I did. And I so often wanted to just walk off the job. But you know, I was like, I got a little girl at home that's hungry. I need to feed her. This is the only shot. So this is what I've got to do. You can just remember, but but who, what's at stake for this? It might even be just for your own character's sake, so that you can know I passed that test. I failed that before and it wasn't good character. I'm gonna pass it now. I'm gonna do it for my own self-esteem so that when I get to the next trial, I can look back not on a failure, not on an abandonment, not on a quit, but on a perseverance and an opportunity to give God praise because he ended up being the faithful God exactly as he said he would. Come on, somebody. You know it's true. Let's do one more hidden point. I got a hidden point for you. Are you ready? Here's the hidden point. Jesus is the true Nehemiah. Jesus is the true Nehemiah. Nehemiah built a good wall. In fact, archaeologists claim they have found pieces of his wall in the ground at Jerusalem. You can see just pictures of it online. It was a good wall, but its time is over. Nehemiah was faithful, and that's great. You have maybe things that you're committed to, wins that you're supposed to get. And it's really important that you do in your generation, in your time. But there's gonna come a time when all that blows away and all that's gonna be gone. And there's another city that only the people who have trusted Jesus Christ to be their forgiver and their king get to enter. Now, the awesome thing about this city, there's never ever anybody coming against you. There's no one antagonizing you, no one has a bad thought about you. It's always loving, it's always affectionate, it's always thoughtful. We see it in Revelation 21. It says, verse 2 and 4, 2 through 4. And I saw the holy city, this is the future. The holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne saying, Look, this is the fulfillment of the new covenant. Look, God's home is now among his people. He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them, he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever. And the reason anybody gets to enter that after they've been a sinner on earth, the only reason anyone ever could is because Jesus Christ was mocked. And he was rejected, and he was hated always unfairly, and then he was crucified for you and me, so he could take away our sin and give us his obedience, so that you can spend forever with him in that new city that is always guarded and nothing bad ever gets in. Jesus bought that for us. So we're gonna go into a time of communion. If you don't know what that is, it's kind of like it's it is a ritual of sorts, but think about it more like it's performance art where we're saying, Jesus once had a supper with his disciples, and he told them, Someday you're gonna eat this again with me in the kingdom of heaven. And we're to do it in remembrance of the fact that we're going to eat again with Jesus in the kingdom of heaven. So as we take communion, that's what I want you to think about. We're making a prophetic declaration here on earth in the time when it's still dark, saying, No, no, no, this is not all there is, and this is not how it ends. I'm gonna be at the table with my Jesus and all of God's people, and we are going to feast over the victory of Christ. It's not that day, but it is coming. That's what we're doing with communion. What I want to do first? I want us to ask God for forgiveness because there's tests that we didn't really pass. There's times we responded in hate and we never went back and asked for forgiveness. There's times when we weren't faithful with what God had asked us to do. There's times we slander people, we hurt people, we criticize people, and the truth is we might have been foolish about it, but it wasn't fair and it wasn't right, and we did it. So before we take communion, we'll take it in a second, but let's bow our heads and we're just gonna take a moment, we're gonna ask for forgiveness for all the ways that we have gotten this wrong. God, we just want to come to you and it's true things have been done against us. But we also have done things against others. Sometimes not even meaning to, but we still did. We have not represented you perfectly, we have not represented you to the planet perfectly. We should have been glorious sons and daughters of Christ, but sometimes we behave more like the devil. There's wounds we have from other people, and we're asking you to take them now and heal them. And we're praying for them. Would you heal them? Would you convict them of anything that they need to be convicted of? And God, would you convict us of any way that we've hurt somebody that we can still apologize for, that we can still do something about? We agree with you, Lord. And now we trust the Savior, we trust the cross. Thank you for forgiving us. We trust you're gonna work this together for our good and your glory and the good of others. God, I know opposition comes. Help us to embrace it with a spiritually vigilant heart. If you got your look, if you want to grab that, we're gonna start with the bread side and crack that open. For this is what the Lord Himself said, and I pass it on to you just as I received it. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Let's take the bread. You are my life, and I will eat again in the kingdom with you. Go ahead and carefully flip that upside down, and let's get the juice ready. In the same way he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant between God and you, sealed by the shedding of my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it. Let's take the cup. Lord Jesus, we thank you so much for making us a people. Thank you that you are the wall of guard around us. And we thank you, and now together, we defy the spirit of the world. We defy our spiritual enemy, and we say there's nothing you can do to stop God from being faithful and having the victory in our lives because we have trusted Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name.

unknown:

Amen.

SPEAKER_00:

Alright, folks, that's all the time we have, but thank you so much for listening to this sermon. If you got a lot out of this, feel free to share this with somebody who might need it. Also, there's a ton more content on our website, on our YouTube channel, on our Instagram channel, on our TikTok channel. Feel free to check all that kind of a thing out. Also, if you're interested in leadership type stuff, go ahead and check out another podcast or any other blogs or videos or anything over at BibleLeadership.com. And whatever else you do, make sure that you believe God for something big today.