Mark Medley: We are in Nehemiah, chapter 4.
Mark Medley: Are you ready?
Mark Medley: Are you okay if we read a lot of scripture this morning?
Mark Medley: Alright, not gonna overwhelm you with scripture.
Mark Medley: Good, gonna read the whole chapter.
Mark Medley: Nehemiah, chapter 4, verse 1.
Mark Medley: Now, when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged and he jeered at the Jews and he said, in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria what are these feeble Jews doing?
Mark Medley: Will they restore it for themselves?
Mark Medley: Will they sacrifice?
Mark Medley: Will they finish up in a day?
Mark Medley: Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?
Mark Medley: Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him and he said yes, what they are building.
Mark Medley: If a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall.
Mark Medley: He will break down their stone wall.
Mark Medley: Hear, o God, for we are despised.
Mark Medley: Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives.
Mark Medley: Do not cover their guilt and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders.
Mark Medley: So we built the wall, and all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.
Mark Medley: The Winstead and Ballot 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.
Mark Medley: They were very angry and they all plotted together to come and to fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it.
Mark Medley: And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them, day and night.
Mark Medley: In Judah, it was said, the strength of those who bear the burdens is failing.
Mark Medley: There's too much rubble by ourselves.
Mark Medley: We will not be able to rebuild the wall, and our enemy said.
Mark Medley: They will not know or see until we come along among them and kill them and stop the work.
Mark Medley: At that time the Jews who live near us came from all directions and said to us 10 times you must return to us.
Mark Medley: So in the lowest parts of the space, behind the wall, in the open places, I stationed the people by their clans, with their swords, their spears and their bows, and I looked and arose and said to the nobles, to the officials and to the rest of the people do not be afraid of them.
Mark Medley: Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, your homes, your sons, your daughters, your wives, your homes.
Mark Medley: When our enemies heard that it was known to us that God had frustrated their plan, we all returned to the wall, each to his work.
Mark Medley: From that day on, half of my servants worked on the construction and half held the spears, shields, bows and coats of mail, and the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah who were building on the wall.
Mark Medley: Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other, and each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built.
Mark Medley: The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me, and I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people the work is great and widely spread.
Mark Medley: We are separated on the wall, far from one another, in the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there.
Mark Medley: Our God will fight for us.
Mark Medley: So we labored at the work and half of them held the spears from the break of dawn until the stars came out.
Mark Medley: That's a long day.
Mark Medley: I also said to the people at the time let every man and his servant pass the night within Jerusalem, that they may be a guard for us by the night and may labor by day.
Mark Medley: So, neither I nor my brothers, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes.
Mark Medley: Each kept his weapon right at his side.
Mark Medley: Father, thank you for your word this morning.
Mark Medley: Thank you, lord, that you're alive and among us.
Mark Medley: Thank you for your presence that's here, and we ask you to speak to us, lord.
Mark Medley: Each of us individually speak to households and speak to us all together as a body, and we open our ears, lord, in Jesus' name, amen.
Mark Medley: Okay, the question of the morning for you At the end of your life, how will you measure your success?
Mark Medley: I know it's a light question, it's, I mean, neil usually opens with a joke, but I's a light question.
Mark Medley: I mean Neil usually opens with a joke, but I open with a question At the end of your life, how will you measure your success?
Mark Medley: It's a really good question, because you don't get to the end successful unless you think about that question Now, and maybe, I guess maybe, the thing that comes to my mind and your mind maybe too, is if we could hear, enter in good and faithful servant.
Mark Medley: That's a success.
Mark Medley: Right, good and faithful.
Mark Medley: And you know, good and faithful that's two things.
Mark Medley: Good we're good only by the grace of God and the blood of Jesus.
Mark Medley: Right, that's our goodness, that's God's part, that we can't do, but our faithfulness, that's our part.
Mark Medley: And so faithfulness is like a yardstick that you measure success.
Mark Medley: I would say that God measures success in your life.
Mark Medley: Are you faithful?
Mark Medley: That's the question.
Mark Medley: Second question is how do I know what to be faithful over?
Mark Medley: Right, this is like I don't know what is my thing, what is the thing that I'm going to be standing before Jesus saying this is what you gave me and here's what I did with it.
Mark Medley: And it occurs to me that a wise person is a person who is aware, whose heart is aware, aware of what God is doing, aware of the things that God cares about and wants to join himself or herself to those things.
Mark Medley: I believe a large part of becoming wise has to do with paying attention.
Mark Medley: It's being aware what is God doing in my community, in my family, in my marriage, in my own life, and then joining myself to that and having a heart for His work.
Mark Medley: So we've had three great sermons in this series.
Mark Medley: So far I've been other places listening to these sermons but they've really encouraged me and I think what I see, as we're kind of gearing up to finish this book we're starting off and seeing what's going on is that Nehemiah was great because he cared about what God cared about and his heart was aware of what was going on and he began to join it together with God.
Mark Medley: So we kind of begin to see through these sermons that there's two great needs at the moment.
Mark Medley: The first great need is the fortress around the city had to be rebuilt, but there was another rebuilding that was happening too.
Mark Medley: In the same way, the covenant with God had to be rebuilt in the hearts of God's people.
Mark Medley: They had fallen away.
Mark Medley: That's why they were in captivity.
Mark Medley: So there's a wall being built and there's a rebuilt and a covenant being rebuilt in the hearts of people.
Mark Medley: That's what the book of Nehemiah is about.
Mark Medley: And Nehemiah is a trusted servant of the king.
Mark Medley: He had a great gig, relatively comfortable, in captivity, and yet there was something in his heart that was not right, because his heart longed for the things of God.
Mark Medley: He was concerned about Jerusalem, and you remember.
Mark Medley: And Kelly opened this up and he said he read the first chapter where Nehemiah had this heart to know about what is going on with Jerusalem.
Mark Medley: And when he heard it, when he heard the walls of Jerusalem are broken down, his heart was broken down and he began to weep for the things that God was weeping over.
Mark Medley: He began to have a heart for the work of God.
Mark Medley: He was listening.
Mark Medley: He was listening to what God was doing on earth, but he was listening to what was going on in his own heart as well.
Mark Medley: He had this nagging burden in his heart and his questions about Jerusalem were because there was a heart for Jerusalem, which means a heart for the things of God.
Mark Medley: What is God doing on this earth?
Mark Medley: I really believe we're not going to be satisfied unless we're joining ourselves with what God is doing on earth.
Mark Medley: So he had these questions and he heard that news and his heart was broken.
Mark Medley: And there came this day when he woke up one one man and he went to bed a different man.
Mark Medley: He woke up in one situation.
Mark Medley: He heard some news in the middle of the day and by the end of the day his whole life was changed.
Mark Medley: Everything was different.
Mark Medley: He couldn't keep living the way he was living.
Mark Medley: He really heard the news and the burden of God became the burden of Nehemiah.
Mark Medley: That's where it started.
Mark Medley: And you remember, in chapter 2, when Sanballat, the enemy of the project, the enemy of what God's doing on earth, at that time heard it, he was very angry because someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.
Mark Medley: He was mad because somebody cared about Israel.
Mark Medley: There's always been this nasty anti-Semitic spirit in the earth because the enemy, the enemy, the devil, wants to stop the things of God.
Mark Medley: And Israel is God's covenant people through which would come the Messiah who would bless all nations.
Mark Medley: So there's always been this hatred and there always will be.
Mark Medley: There's always a desire to, to, to in some way extinguish Israel, but nobody's ever been able to do it because God has a covenant with them.
Mark Medley: But the point here is that there's a man, nehemiah, who's concerned with what God's concerned about.
Mark Medley: And it made me think of Philippians, chapter two.
Mark Medley: You remember when Paul was talking to the Philippians.
Mark Medley: He was riding there from prison and he said I want to send Timothy to you.
Mark Medley: And here's what he said I hope, in the Lord Jesus, to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by the news of you, for I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned with your welfare.
Mark Medley: For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.
Mark Medley: I know a lot of people, paul says.
Mark Medley: I know a lot of men, but they're seeking their own interests, not the interests of Jesus Christ.
Mark Medley: But Timothy.
Mark Medley: Timothy's different.
Mark Medley: He cares about what God cares about.
Mark Medley: He seeks the interest of Jesus Christ.
Mark Medley: So this sermon's for everybody here today.
Mark Medley: But I really want to speak to the men that are here, all of us.
Mark Medley: I'm lumping myself in with you.
Mark Medley: Okay, I'm not speaking to you, I'm speaking to us today.
Mark Medley: Are you concerned with the things of Jesus Christ?
Mark Medley: Are you concerned with the things that will outlive you, the things that are important not only on this earth but for eternity?
Mark Medley: The things that are important not only on this earth but for eternity?
Mark Medley: I have made an observation over the years, and my observation is a man who lacks purpose distracts himself with pleasure, and a woman too, not just a man.
Mark Medley: Anyone who lacks purpose will distract themselves with pleasure, and there's a lot of pleasure to be distracted with in this world right.
Mark Medley: There's a lot and we're just kind of feeding ourselves with the feed.
Mark Medley: Whatever the feed, whatever your social media of choice is, I don't know, there's pleasures, there's things that are distractions, and that happens and those things are so empty.
Mark Medley: And it happens because we don't have a solid purpose for our lives.
Mark Medley: So I'm going to ask you guys especially you guys, the men in the room will you allow God to raise the bar in your life?
Mark Medley: Because He'll do it if you allow Him.
Mark Medley: And maybe he's challenging you too Maybe he already has been, maybe he's been speaking to you about this To make you a man who is genuinely concerned for the things of Jesus Christ, a man who's aware of what's going on in this world, what God wants to do in your community, in your family, in your marriage.
Mark Medley: It's important Burden comes before vision.
Mark Medley: It's really important.
Mark Medley: When he heard that the walls were broken down, he was almost paralyzed by this burden.
Mark Medley: He was stopped in his tracks by this burden.
Mark Medley: He wept, but the first thing he did was not go into action.
Mark Medley: He didn't immediately start doing things.
Mark Medley: His first response was to truly understand what God was doing and to feel the pain and the enormity of the burden of God.
Mark Medley: That's the first thing he did.
Mark Medley: I heard it and I wept for days.
Mark Medley: That's what it says in chapter one.
Mark Medley: He wasn't afraid to let the weight of the situation sink into his heart and then let his heart sink up with the purposes of God.
Mark Medley: So when we feel this burden overwhelmingly and we feel it deeply, then the vision can come.
Mark Medley: Burden precedes vision.
Mark Medley: You don't decide what you want to do with your life.
Mark Medley: I mean, you can if you want.
Mark Medley: It's not a great way to live.
Mark Medley: It usually ends in a dead end.
Mark Medley: What starts the whole thing is burden.
Mark Medley: What is God doing?
Mark Medley: What is on God's heart?
Mark Medley: And then, who am I and what is my part?
Mark Medley: And then what is the vision that God's given to me?
Mark Medley: We began to get a heart for the work, a heart for his work.
Mark Medley: That's it, and it's not okay that things stay the same.
Mark Medley: We have to do something.
Mark Medley: There's something that God has for us to do.
Mark Medley: So, when it comes to what God is doing around you, what does your heart tell you that you need to pay attention to in this season?
Mark Medley: Maybe it's different in different seasons, you know, but here we are this morning, right now, and you're in your season and I'm in my season, and what is it that God's telling you to pay attention to?
Mark Medley: Is it your family?
Mark Medley: Is it friends who may not know the Lord?
Mark Medley: Is it some kind of a social issue that you're joining to that your heart is burdened for, or some kind of a ministry that maybe you want to be a part of here at the church?
Mark Medley: Is it missions efforts?
Mark Medley: There's something, this thing, that you're feeling could be an indicator of what God wants you to do in this season.
Mark Medley: Burden comes first, and then there's vision.
Mark Medley: Okay, so why is burden important?
Mark Medley: Why is burden important?
Mark Medley: Because the burden drives you to find the vision for how God wants to use you to alter the situation that you see.
Mark Medley: Burden drives you to find vision.
Mark Medley: Nehemiah felt it, and then he prayed, and then he watched and he listened.
Mark Medley: He went and he made a tour around the city.
Mark Medley: He got some people and took them with him.
Mark Medley: He made a plan, he went to the king.
Mark Medley: God gave provision.
Mark Medley: This is what's going on.
Mark Medley: And the second thing, the second reason that burden is important, is because when hard times and opposition comes, it's the burden that pushes you through.
Mark Medley: It strengthens you through those difficulties, because this is important enough to endure hardship.
Mark Medley: And if you're just living for things that are not purposeful they're just your own stuff, your own distractions hardship comes and it can overwhelm you and it seems like nothing's really worth the fight.
Mark Medley: But here this is what we're seeing in this chapter.
Mark Medley: The burden makes difficult things less difficult, or at least it makes it worth the difficulty and one of the things.
Mark Medley: I'll just give you an example from my life.
Mark Medley: Recently, yuri and I were on this trip, and this was a tough trip.
Mark Medley: We were in the Himalayas and we were driving up mountains and these are the worst roads.
Mark Medley: I thought I saw some bad roads in my life.
Mark Medley: These are the worst roads I've ever seen, and if you saw the tires we were driving on, you would say it is a miracle.
Mark Medley: It's an absolute miracle because the tires not only were bald, but they had steel belts hanging out.
Mark Medley: They had little wires hanging out both sides in the back.
Mark Medley: Both of the back tires had these.
Mark Medley: It's like I don't even think this is going to get us down the road at all.
Mark Medley: And we're on these roads, which are crazy, in the highest mountains in the world.
Mark Medley: I think eight out of the 10 highest mountains in the world are in the Himalayas.
Mark Medley: You can go ahead and show those pictures and, uh, we're driving up these, these roads and on these tires, and we're praying.
Mark Medley: We prayed, lord.
Mark Medley: This is.
Mark Medley: I took a picture because I said when this, when we get back home, this is my, this is my testimony, this is my miracle picture.
Mark Medley: And I don't I don't have it here with me, but these are the roads that we're on.
Mark Medley: We're on these places and it was cold.
Mark Medley: It was cold and we were in these block house and it had no insulation and it was.
Mark Medley: We were like in four layers, plus a coat, plus two blankets.
Mark Medley: We just wanted to go to bed because the only place it was not cold was under the covers.
Mark Medley: We were in bed like at 7 or 7.30 at night.
Mark Medley: I don't want to do anything.
Mark Medley: Go to bed and the food I don't know.
Mark Medley: We ate things that I wasn't even sure what we were eating.
Mark Medley: Okay, and you might think that's a hardship, but then when you see the pastor and his family who are living there, I mean I go there and then I get to come home and sleep in my bed and come to this church and be with you.
Mark Medley: It's not hardship at all when you see these guys who are doing such difficult work in such difficult places so faithfully for so long, sometimes without much fruit, visible fruit, and they're pioneers.
Mark Medley: These are first-generation churches.
Mark Medley: They're pioneers.
Mark Medley: In a land where it's 1.4% Christian, it's like they're alone.
Mark Medley: The roads, the food, the weather is nothing.
Mark Medley: It's nothing when you look in the eyes of these pastors.
Mark Medley: These pastors are my heart, and to be able to give them anything that can help them, some kind of a relationship and encouragement and resources and teaching, it's like you see what I mean.
Mark Medley: The burden makes the opposition seem not so bad.
Mark Medley: You understand, okay, and it applies in your life too, which also includes raising your children and your marriage and your community and your job and your school.
Mark Medley: All of this you know.
Mark Medley: The burden for the vision of the future, the vision for what's doing, joining with what God's doing.
Mark Medley: It strengthens you, so it makes you courageous.
Mark Medley: So remember, nehemiah was not building a wall, but he was rebuilding a wall, right?
Mark Medley: So what was there before he was raising back up again?
Mark Medley: And some of us are in a season of rebuilding something.
Mark Medley: Some of us are building.
Mark Medley: We're just building our walk with Jesus.
Mark Medley: We're brand new in this, but a lot of us are rebuilding, and maybe it's a season of rebuilding for you, rebuilding what was there before, but it's been damaged for whatever reason.
Mark Medley: You rebuilding what was there before, but it's been damaged for whatever reason.
Mark Medley: And maybe it's your personal walk with God that's being rebuilt, and maybe it's your marriage or strained relationships, or it's a career or it's a ministry something.
Mark Medley: But God is in the midst of rebuilding, midst of rebuilding.
Mark Medley: And here's what happens in this chapter Opposition.
Mark Medley: Opposition from Nehemiah's enemies is so loud and so consistent and so embarrassing.
Mark Medley: It seems like it multiplies too.
Mark Medley: But you know what.
Mark Medley: We might as well expect that there's opposition too.
Mark Medley: But you know what.
Mark Medley: We might as well expect that there's opposition.
Mark Medley: Life is not easy.
Mark Medley: Either way you go.
Mark Medley: You might as well go toward the Lord Amen, you might as well.
Mark Medley: And if you have no opposition in your life, it could be because you're not doing anything of eternal consequence for God, maybe.
Mark Medley: What kind of opposition did they face?
Mark Medley: Well, there was angry people.
Mark Medley: So what will you face?
Mark Medley: Angry people will mock you.
Mark Medley: They're rebelling against the king.
Mark Medley: They're feeble.
Mark Medley: Can they restore these ruins?
Mark Medley: What can they do with this?
Mark Medley: If a fox walks on this wall, it'll fall down.
Mark Medley: I mean, you know, weak men have weapons, and their weapons are words, words of accusation, words of shame, and they just mock the efforts, and sometimes, though, that's all it takes.
Mark Medley: It just takes somebody mocking you, speaking against you.
Mark Medley: That's all it takes for you to turn back because you feel ashamed or your reputation is important and people are speaking against you, and the fear of man is a snare.
Mark Medley: Fear of man is a snare.
Mark Medley: It snares you, it captures you and you stop.
Mark Medley: Words are a weapon the enemy uses.
Mark Medley: Look what he did, though.
Mark Medley: Nehemiah prayed.
Mark Medley: Okay, this is a pattern through this whole book, especially in this chapter.
Mark Medley: Here comes the words from the enemies, and here goes Nehemiah turning his words to the Lord Hear O God, for we are being despised.
Mark Medley: God, you fight for us.
Mark Medley: We're going to remain focused.
Mark Medley: So here's the pattern that happens throughout this Give the burden to God in prayer and be faithful.
Mark Medley: Give it to God, be faithful.
Mark Medley: What do you do in opposition?
Mark Medley: Well, this is pretty good pattern.
Mark Medley: Here.
Mark Medley: You turn in prayer.
Mark Medley: This is what he did, and it's really interesting to me.
Mark Medley: It says the wall was restored to half its height and all of these things started happening.
Mark Medley: I mean outside opposition, inside opposition, from the Jewish people even and I thought about that because half its height, that's halfway, right, that's the middle point.
Mark Medley: And it says that the people had a mind to work and that's why it got built that big.
Mark Medley: They all agreed this was important enough.
Mark Medley: But then the middle is the most dangerous part of any endeavor.
Mark Medley: The middle is the hardest part.
Mark Medley: Starting out, there's a lot of adrenaline.
Mark Medley: This is awesome.
Mark Medley: Finishing is awesome.
Mark Medley: The middle is long and tedious and hard.
Mark Medley: Can I get any amen?
Mark Medley: Okay, I see your faces.
Mark Medley: A lot of us are in the middle, aren't we?
Mark Medley: The long middle is the trickiest part of any endeavor Middle of marriage, the middle of raising kids, the middle of school You're not finished.
Mark Medley: You're right in the middle of raising kids.
Mark Medley: The middle of school You're not finished.
Mark Medley: You're right in the middle of it.
Mark Medley: The middle of waiting through a season of isolation where God is working inside of you so he can make you into the person that is capable of doing what he's called you to do.
Mark Medley: That's a long middle and it's hard.
Mark Medley: And they rebuilt to half its height and here comes the hardest opposition.
Mark Medley: Sometimes right in the middle is the hardest opposition.
Mark Medley: Okay, so don't think it's something unusual.
Mark Medley: It's normal.
Mark Medley: The opposing voices are the loudest right there.
Mark Medley: So Sanballat heard.
Mark Medley: He was very angry again.
Mark Medley: He was a mad guy.
Mark Medley: He plotted to come and fight against Jerusalem.
Mark Medley: Okay, we're going to attack All these people together, attacking the purpose of God, not just Nehemiah, but the purpose of God.
Mark Medley: Okay.
Mark Medley: So what happened?
Mark Medley: Nehemiah prayed and he set a guard.
Mark Medley: Give it to God, be faithful.
Mark Medley: And he set a guard.
Mark Medley: Give it to God, be faithful.
Mark Medley: This is over and over.
Mark Medley: And then the Jews who lived near them came to them because they heard of this scheme to attack and they came and they said you've got to return 10 times, 10 times.
Mark Medley: They came and said you've got to stop and come to us.
Mark Medley: You've got to stop this building and come back to us.
Mark Medley: 10 times, over and over.
Mark Medley: What do you do?
Mark Medley: Not only from the enemies, but from your own people.
Mark Medley: You get opposition.
Mark Medley: Sometimes Wow, words are a weapon From the enemy, sometimes from your friends.
Mark Medley: Words are a weapon and they hurt sometimes, but Nehemiah didn't panic, he was not paralyzed.
Mark Medley: You know what he did?
Mark Medley: He put courage in the hearts of people with his words.
Mark Medley: Words are a weapon both ways, you know.
Mark Medley: You can put courage into the hearts of people around you with your words, every single day.
Mark Medley: You can use your words to build people up, man.
Mark Medley: It's a great way to live, it's a great way to live in the same house together is building people up with your words and putting courage in.
Mark Medley: How can I put courage, how can I bless the people who are around me today?
Mark Medley: And he did it.
Mark Medley: He did it.
Mark Medley: They were fighting, they were struggling.
Mark Medley: He said don't be afraid.
Mark Medley: Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome.
Mark Medley: Fight for your brothers, fight for your sons, fight for your wives, fight for your daughters, fight for your homes.
Mark Medley: Guys, I want to just speak to you again.
Mark Medley: Fight.
Mark Medley: If you're wondering what is God's will for my life, here's a good place to start.
Mark Medley: Fight for your homes.
Mark Medley: Fight for your sons and your daughters and your wives, your wife I was speaking corporately, okay.
Mark Medley: Speaking personally, you only have one, okay, fight, fight for her man.
Mark Medley: Start there.
Mark Medley: Remember, remember chapter three.
Mark Medley: We saw that the wall was rebuilt by families.
Mark Medley: Did you see?
Mark Medley: You remember that?
Mark Medley: Tyler had that last week?
Mark Medley: It was a clan or a family built from this point to this point and this family built from this point to this point.
Mark Medley: It's a whole bunch of families building the wall.
Mark Medley: This is what the church is.
Mark Medley: It's a whole bunch of families who are coming together and doing their thing and the whole wall gets built up.
Mark Medley: This is the way God works through strong families.
Mark Medley: So build a wall, guys.
Mark Medley: Build a wall around your family.
Mark Medley: This is also if you're a single parent and if you're the only Christian in your household, man, fight for it.
Mark Medley: Build a wall in prayer around your family.
Mark Medley: Build a sanctuary in your household where they are safe, where your family is safe, where your family can worship, where your family can learn about God, not just from Sunday school and they will, in Sunday school youth group, they will.
Mark Medley: But your home needs to be a safe place, it needs to be a sanctuary, and your family is top priority, top priority, most important thing God's put on your plate.
Mark Medley: Well, what are the weapons?
Mark Medley: Nehemiah's weapons Number one was prayer.
Mark Medley: Again, this is it.
Mark Medley: Give it to God, be faithful.
Mark Medley: Give it to God, be faithful, eat what's on your plate, leave the stuff to him that only he can do, and do what you can do Prayer, prayer.
Mark Medley: Let me just tell you a story about, uh, about my kids when they were small.
Mark Medley: Um, they were maybe, uh, six, seven, eight years old they were.
Mark Medley: My kids are all close together, most of you know that, but they were small and there was one particular child who had a real issue, and if you know my kids and you think you know who this child is, you're probably wrong.
Mark Medley: Okay, just tell you, don't try to guess because you're probably wrong, and no names will be used here, nor genders, I hope.
Mark Medley: But there was one particular child who had a real struggle with lying, just like seven years old, and this child just lied all the time, I mean many times a day.
Mark Medley: Lying was the worst thing in our home, the worst offense, because if you can't trust each other, you can't have a relationship, and so lying carried the greatest discipline in our house.
Mark Medley: So lying was just an issue and we were careful to discipline, sometimes many times a day, and this just kept going and kept going and Melissa and I just looked at each other one day and just said what are we even supposed to do with this?
Mark Medley: So we prayed, and I know I'm a pastor, I should have prayed first.
Mark Medley: I know that you don't have to tell me that, but we did pray first.
Mark Medley: But I mean, we got serious about praying.
Mark Medley: We just we said this is, this is spiritual, and there's something here that's beyond normal, and so let's, let's go, let's go abnormal in our attack of it.
Mark Medley: So we fasted and we prayed, and you know why it took.
Mark Medley: It took several weeks of being faithful and going to God in prayer and being faithful with discipline and talking and explaining.
Mark Medley: But you know, that thing was broken and this child is the absolute, most honest of all of my children.
Mark Medley: To this very day I'm not even sure that this child is capable of lying today.
Mark Medley: But this is something that was spiritual, you know, and it was not even anything that we could do anything about.
Mark Medley: We could be faithful, but it took prayer.
Mark Medley: So one of the weapons is prayer.
Mark Medley: Give it to God, be faithful in what you're doing.
Mark Medley: Second thing you know they have swords in their hands, right, and I'm going to draw a metaphor here which I think is appropriate, because the sword of the spirit is the word of God, and you remember that Nehemiah was joined together with Ezra, right?
Mark Medley: This is like Ezra and Nehemiah are actually the same book in the Hebrew Bible.
Mark Medley: So Ezra and Nehemiah Ezra was a scribe and he was reintroducing the law of God, and so they were working together.
Mark Medley: So there's this weapon that we have of the word of God, and it's how we play defense and offense at the same time.
Mark Medley: You know, a sword is both defensive and offensive weapon, and putting the word of God in our own hearts, reminding ourselves of it, putting it in the hearts of those around us that we love, it's like the trowel that we build with.
Mark Medley: It's the sword that we fight with, the word of God.
Mark Medley: So prayer, the word of God.
Mark Medley: And the last thing that I see here, which was such a powerful weapon, was community, because when you read this, you realize there were people building.
Mark Medley: There were people behind them holding weapons.
Mark Medley: There were all the elders of Judah behind them together and they said we're so spread out when the trumpet.
Mark Medley: When you hear the trumpet, rally to your brothers, run to your brothers.
Mark Medley: When you hear the trumpet.
Mark Medley: They were building together all of this.
Mark Medley: This was not just Nehemiah, this was a huge project.
Mark Medley: Clans, families, people together, community.
Mark Medley: Don't be afraid to call out for help.
Mark Medley: Sound the trumpet when you need to.
Mark Medley: I need some help up in here.
Mark Medley: We're not supposed to do this alone.
Mark Medley: It literally says we can't bear the burden alone.
Mark Medley: And we can't bear the burden alone, and in the walls that we're rebuilding, we need others.
Mark Medley: By ourselves, we will not be able to defend the wall.
Mark Medley: It says in the passage, and this is the truth.
Mark Medley: We can't do it ourselves, but we can do it together.
Mark Medley: And so, nehemiah, what did he do?
Mark Medley: Again, what do you think he did?
Mark Medley: He prayed and he was faithful.
Mark Medley: Okay, here's what he prayed though he prayed God, get them.
Mark Medley: And he was faithful.
Mark Medley: Okay, here's what he prayed, though he prayed God get them, get them, get our enemies, lord, get our enemies.
Mark Medley: Could you just stand against the enemies and you know what God did?
Mark Medley: He worked, but not in the enemies.
Mark Medley: He worked in the hearts of the people and he brought the people together in the spirit of unity.
Mark Medley: When he unified them around each other and around the cause, then the enemy stopped.
Mark Medley: Isn't that interesting?
Mark Medley: God didn't deal with the enemy.
Mark Medley: God dealt with them and their hearts, and when they got right, the enemy stopped.
Mark Medley: Interesting, isn't it?
Mark Medley: And we're praying God, strike down my enemies.
Mark Medley: And he's like okay, I think I'm going to start with the enemies in your heart, which could be disunity or bitterness or something, whatever it is.
Mark Medley: I think this is I'll fight your enemies, I will.
Mark Medley: It may not look exactly like you're thinking, but I'll fight.
Mark Medley: Sometimes God intervenes Like sovereignly, he does what only God can do, and things change.
Mark Medley: Sometimes he interacts with us.
Mark Medley: Interacts means he's working, but we're working together with Him, and things change.
Mark Medley: And then sometimes God interacts, like he works inside of us.
Mark Medley: He's working with us and we're praying God, change things out there.
Mark Medley: And he's like I am, I'm going to change things in here.
Mark Medley: Here's where things change and this is where it starts.
Mark Medley: Okay, and Nehemiah overcame all these oppositions by staying focused on the task.
Mark Medley: He said I don't have time to listen to you.
Mark Medley: And in a couple of chapters we'll see, in chapter six, that you know Sanballat's up there again trying to call him away from the work.
Mark Medley: And he said I'm doing a great work here.
Mark Medley: I have no time to fool with you.
Mark Medley: I can't come to your conference to fool with you.
Mark Medley: I can't come to your conference.
Mark Medley: I'm building here.
Mark Medley: Why should I stop the important work and come down to you.
Mark Medley: Hear O Lord, he did it again.
Mark Medley: Hear O Lord, listen, he keeps doing this.
Mark Medley: This is amazing.
Mark Medley: He's a project manager who prays.
Mark Medley: That's not always.
Mark Medley: That doesn't always happen.
Mark Medley: You know, task-oriented people are so focused on the task.
Mark Medley: They're not always.
Mark Medley: That doesn't always happen.
Mark Medley: You know, task oriented people are so focused on the task, they're not always focused on the prayer.
Mark Medley: But he was a little bit prophetic, he was an intercessor and he was a doer as well.
Mark Medley: He's an interesting, interesting guy.
Mark Medley: Okay, he gave it to God and he was faithful, okay.
Mark Medley: Well, these are great insights, mark, fantastic.
Mark Medley: Thanks so much.
Mark Medley: But you don't understand what I'm going through and you don't understand how tired I am or how busy I am or how crazy my life is.
Mark Medley: And I understand crazy I do.
Mark Medley: I'm actually pretty acquainted with crazy, and some of us are in a season of busyness.
Mark Medley: Some of us are in a season of drawing back or God's pruning things.
Mark Medley: That's okay, there's grace for those kind of seasons.
Mark Medley: But also you may just be filling your life up with busyness and pleasurable pursuits and just feeding your soul cotton candy, you know, and all you're getting is lethargic and sick and cavities and emptiness, leanness in your soul, right?
Mark Medley: So maybe God's raising the bar here.
Mark Medley: What if you had a heart for his work?
Mark Medley: What if you joined what he's doing?
Mark Medley: When you get to the end of your life, how are you going to measure your success?
Mark Medley: I'll just end with a little story.
Mark Medley: I was with this couple in Poland a couple of years ago.
Mark Medley: Young couple, maybe 30 years old, couple of kids, and I was just looking, I was on their back porch and we were having some tea and just talking, and this young lady it's probably, I guess, they were 30 years younger than me, and so I think they were just looking for some kind of wisdom or something.
Mark Medley: But she asked a question I've never been asked before and I wasn't ready for.
Mark Medley: We're just having tea right Pleasant day.
Mark Medley: She said if you look back over your life, what are your greatest regrets?
Mark Medley: And I thought, wow, okay, the conversation just really changed.
Mark Medley: Okay, so we're going to get serious here, aren't we?
Mark Medley: This is great, great question, great question, wise question, because our regrets are kind of like a mirror into our soul and we learn or we should be learning from our greatest lessons, from our regrets, and I've lived longer than they.
Mark Medley: And so she's asking what are your regrets so we don't make those mistakes?
Mark Medley: Basically it's things of what she was doing.
Mark Medley: So I thought, wow, I don't okay, didn't know, it was a pop quiz.
Mark Medley: But top of my head I have a lot of regrets from before I came to Jesus.
Mark Medley: Yes, I made really stupid decisions that hurt people and I really hate those things.
Mark Medley: But those are under the blood of Jesus.
Mark Medley: Thank God, if any man's in Christ, he's a new creation.
Mark Medley: Old things are passed away, all things have become new, all things are of God.
Mark Medley: This is good news, isn't it?
Mark Medley: This is what the gospel does for us.
Mark Medley: I went back to people and asked for forgiveness, made restitution.
Mark Medley: That's past.
Mark Medley: Thank God, we've got that.
Mark Medley: And you know what?
Mark Medley: I'm not generally a fearful person.
Mark Medley: I don't.
Mark Medley: I'm not driven by fears.
Mark Medley: I don't deal with that a lot.
Mark Medley: But there has been a little consistent, nagging fear throughout my life from, like, maybe my twenties or something, and that is that I might get to the end of my life and look back and say I didn't, I didn't walk in all that God wanted me to walk in, like I didn't take steps of faith.
Mark Medley: I was too.
Mark Medley: I was too careful and I didn't take steps of faith, I was too careful and I didn't fulfill everything.
Mark Medley: For some reason that's just been a thing.
Mark Medley: For me.
Mark Medley: It's not a regret, it's just kind of a fear of having regrets.
Mark Medley: But I started thinking about it.
Mark Medley: There's kind of big picture regrets and small picture regrets and by the grace of God, when I was saved, I began to make better decisions, and those decisions I don't regret.
Mark Medley: And I think wisdom is justified by her children right, we understand wise decisions by the fruit they bear.
Mark Medley: But also there's a redeemer.
Mark Medley: If we make a mistake it's okay, because God redeems all things.
Mark Medley: So thank God for that.
Mark Medley: But what I saw when I started we just kept going deeper in this conversation.
Mark Medley: I thought, man, I just came over for tea and we're going like this is philosophizing.
Mark Medley: I thought there are these smaller regrets which are real annoying.
Mark Medley: But the smaller regrets are interpersonal, like times when I've been too harsh, especially with the people that I've loved, and I've been judgmental, not willing to hear somebody's story, judging them first, like judging on outward appearance instead of seeing that they're an actual person with a real soul and a real story and worth love.
Mark Medley: And I thought about that.
Mark Medley: Those were the regrets, my regrets that I was listing out on that patio that day were all relational regrets.
Mark Medley: I wish I had loved better.
Mark Medley: That's what it was, and I'm a pastor and I've been at the bedside of people who are dying and all triviality completely disintegrates when you're about to die and you get really real and you start thinking and talking about things that are real and I've never heard anybody say my regret is I wish I made more money.
Mark Medley: If I only worked harder at my job and built that business more, never, never.
Mark Medley: But there are regrets of I wish I would have spent more time with my family while I had an opportunity.
Mark Medley: I wish I would have gone deeper in those conversations.
Mark Medley: That's where people have regret.
Mark Medley: It's relationships, and doesn't that make sense?
Mark Medley: Because all the law and the prophets come down to this love God and love your neighbor.
Mark Medley: It's loving people.
Mark Medley: It's all.
Mark Medley: What really matters is relationships and probably at the end of your life your regrets are gonna have to do with relationships and maybe if we think about that now, we won't have regrets or as many regrets when we get over and that life is short.
Mark Medley: You got to seize the day, but life is long.
Mark Medley: You gotta.
Mark Medley: You gotta live day by day in this long middle, making decisions that are consistent with what's important, and that's with loving God and loving people.
Mark Medley: That's how we build.
Mark Medley: Okay, so this wall was important because it was God's purpose on earth, but it's a big picture.
Mark Medley: It's not just a wall, it's a big picture.
Mark Medley: It was a small story in the big story of Israel, which is the big story of God's covenant, not just with Israel, but with all of mankind through Jesus, because through Israel would come the Messiah.
Mark Medley: And I just want to end by encouraging you and reminding you that Jesus is our Nehemiah, and Nehemiah was a builder.
Mark Medley: And can I remind you that Jesus grew up in a carpenter's household and most likely he learned his father's trade.
Mark Medley: He was a carpenter's son.
Mark Medley: Probably he learned that he was a builder.
Mark Medley: He created all things that we see and don't see as well, and he holds it all together.
Mark Medley: He's a builder and he's a sustainer, and he's building in our lives right now, in our personal lives, in our marriages, in our families, in our community.
Mark Medley: He's building.
Mark Medley: He's building and he's a redeemer.
Mark Medley: And I read this week something that encouraged me so much Revelation 21,.
Mark Medley: He that sat on the throne said behold, I make all things new.
Mark Medley: He's a redeemer.
Mark Medley: It doesn't matter where you're at If you think the rubble of your walls is too much.
Mark Medley: It's just too much.
Mark Medley: It's overwhelming.
Mark Medley: It could never be put back together.
Mark Medley: It's broken and it's burnt and there's nothing that could be done.
Mark Medley: Don't leave out the God factor.
Mark Medley: He's a builder man.
Mark Medley: Jesus is a restorer.
Mark Medley: He redeems all things.
Mark Medley: He makes all things new.
Mark Medley: This is what he wants to do for all of us.
Mark Medley: Give it to God, be faithful, turn to him in prayer and then turn to your work and do what.
Mark Medley: You know what's on your plate.
Mark Medley: Okay, let's stand, let's pray.
Mark Medley: Thank you, father, lord, we're grateful.
Mark Medley: Thank you, lord, we're grateful.
Mark Medley: Thank you.
Mark Medley: Thank you that you're a builder.
Mark Medley: Jesus, you're the craftsman.
Mark Medley: You're building my life and my family, and my church and my community.
Mark Medley: Thank you, father, that you do this through the gospel.
Mark Medley: Thank you that you make new creations, lord.
Mark Medley: Thank you that when we are at the end of ourselves, we can come to you.
Mark Medley: We can trust this message of the gospel that you, through Christ, have paid for our sins.
Mark Medley: You, through Christ, forgive us.
Mark Medley: You, through Christ, redeem our mistakes and make us brand new creations.
Mark Medley: Thank you for the hope of the gospel, lord.
Mark Medley: Thank you for Jesus.
Mark Medley: Lord, help us to trust your hands.
Mark Medley: Help us to have a heart for your work.
Mark Medley: Jesus, help us rid the rubble.
Mark Medley: Build us into what you desire for us to be, lord.
Mark Medley: Don't stop when the wall is halfway built, lord, build it all the way.
Mark Medley: Lord, help us, those of us who are in the long, tired, tedious middle.
Mark Medley: Lord, would you give us strength and would you give us grace to use our weapons of prayer and the word and each other, to give us strength, fortify us, lord.
Mark Medley: There's a work that needs to be done.
Mark Medley: Lord, jesus, build and rebuild my life today, not only in me personally, lord, but build through me.
Mark Medley: Build through me, build through me in those you have connected me to, in my family, in my church, my community.
Mark Medley: Thank you, father, thank you for a hope, lord, that, even through opposition, all of this ends in a hope, and I pray for your hope to be the strength of our hearts, god, an anchor of our souls.
Mark Medley: Lord, in the name of Jesus, amen, amen.