Father, we just uh we love you. Just as we sang, we thank you for uh for loving us so much. It's hard for us to even imagine it, but just how you've adopted us as your very own children, we praise you for that. And Holy Spirit, we thank you for being our teacher and our counselor and our guide. And please teach us this morning, take take just what uh what I say and what your word says, and just uh um speak to each of our hearts so we could each leave, knowing that uh uh we're leaving with with a direct word uh for our lives from you. And Jesus, thank you for for reconnecting us with our Father, for showing us what our Father is really like, for being our Savior, for being our friend, and we praise you and thank you for that. Jesus, it's in your name we pray. Amen. Well, we're looking together at one of the greatest books I think that's ever been written. It's about achieving incredible things together with God. Um if you've been here over the last few weeks, you know that it's an autobiography. It was written 2,500 uh years ago. It's the book of Nehemiah and the Old Testament. And 2,500 years ago, it seems like, oh, you know, that would be uh dry and ancient, but uh it's so practical. You know, we've we've already seen so much. If you if you haven't been here, we've got uh there's a free podcast of uh of uh of each message on on Sunday, but there's so much about uh you know work and relationships and just different things that that we can apply um to our lives. Uh Nehemiah lived uh when Arta Xerxes was king. If you saw the movie 300, that was kind of a fantasy historical type uh movie, but it was at the same time period. Uh Xerxes was the king of Persia at that movie. Arta Xerxes was Xerxes' son. Arta means son, so the son of Xerxes, and uh that's who Nehemiah worked for. And he lived in a city called Susa, which was about 800 miles from Jerusalem. It was uh the capital of Persia. Right now, that city is uh in modern day Iran. Well, one day Nehemiah's brother and some of his friends come from Jerusalem to see him in uh Persia, and they tell him about the terrible conditions that are in Jerusalem. And Nehemiah won us says, They said to me, Things are not going well for those who return to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire. When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven. The wall around Jerusalem had been destroyed. It was four and a half miles long, it was uh twenty feet tall, sixteen feet wide, and it's basically just rubble, piles of stone, burnt uh wood, and it was so critical to their lives because it was their only real source of protection to have this wall. They lived in very dangerous times. And so without that wall, they didn't have any peace, they didn't have any joy, they didn't have a real future together. As Nehemiah's brother said to Nehemiah, that they were in terrible, in great trouble and disgrace. Well, six months later, from when Nehemiah first heard about it, the wall would be completely rebuilt. They literally would be dancing in the streets. And so we're learning from Nehemiah how to build and rebuild with God in such an amazing way. You know, not so much we're learning about the wall of Jerusalem, we're learning about our own lives. You know, how can how can we rebuild in our lives? How can we build in our lives? And we might be in trouble and disgrace ourselves. There might be part of our lives that's broken down and uh and ruined. But sooner than we think, we can be the ones dancing in the streets. We can be the ones that are full of joy. You know, with with our loving Father, everything's possible. It's one of the biggest things that he does. He restores, he renews, he rebuilds. And it might be that we're not in a rebuilding mode. You know, maybe God's done a great thing, but we just want to build on what he's already done. Well, we learned that from uh from Nehemiah 2. Well, Nehemiah hears about uh the problem in Jerusalem, and he decides that uh enough is enough, that uh that wall has to be rebuilt. And so he asks God for his help. Um he waits and he plans, and then at the right time he asks uh the king for his help. And God makes the king's heart this kind to Nehemiah, and so he gives him more than uh he'd even asked. And so he heads to Jerusalem, inspects the wall, gets everybody together, and they start building. You know, they face opposition, and there's people against them, and there's people threatening them and mocking them and lying about them and all this type of stuff. But it doesn't take long, and the wall is already halfway done. And that's where we're gonna start uh this morning. Nehemiah 4, starting in verse 7. But when Sambalat and Tobiah and the Arabs, Ammonites and Ashdites heard that the work was going ahead and that the gaps in the wall of Jerusalem were being repaired, they were furious. They all made plans to come and fight against Jerusalem and throw us into confusion. Okay, it's these same guys again, you know, coming and causing trouble. But you might notice now there's more. It was two, and then it was three, and now there's uh there's more. And the first time Nehemiah just ignored them. The second time he told them, you know, it's none of your business. And so this is the third time that this opposition has kind of uh risen up against the people as they're they're building the wall. But we prayed to our God and guarded the city day and night to protect ourselves. Then the people of Judah began to complain. The workers are getting tired, and there's so much rubble to be moved. We will never be able to build the wall by ourselves. And what Nehemiah shows us in this one kind of small section is that of all the enemies that they're gonna face in this amazing project they're doing together with God, the biggest enemy is going to be discouragement. It's gonna be discouragement. It's contagious. You know, first it's a few people, then it's more people, and now it's the people themselves. We can't do it. It's too hard. We'll never make it. Discouragement was gonna be their biggest enemy. That's because it has an effect. It works in a way. See, nothing bad has happened yet. It's just people talking. It's just people lying, people talking. Nothing bad has happened. But Jerusalem, they're ready to give up. They're ready to quit. It's too hard. We'll never make it. We can't do it. And so, kind of the troublemakers, they just pile on. Meanwhile, our enemies were saying, before they know what's happening, we'll swoop down on them and kill them and end their work. The Jews who live near the enemy came and told us again and again, they will come from all directions and attack us. And so this is the crisis point. In the whole story, what we're looking at this morning is the crisis point. It's right now. What are they gonna do? They've already come so far. You know, the wall is halfway done. But there's something about discouragement, there's something about discouraging people that's contagious. And they want to quit. Nothing's happened, nobody's attacked. Just words, fearful thoughts, lies, and they're ready to give up. Oh, is it because they're weak people? No. No, they're just like us. They're just like us. It's just that discouragement is that big of an enemy. The discouragement's destroyed more dreams than actual attacks that we ever have. It's a real enemy. We have to fight it like a real enemy because it is. Anything that can make us quit is a real enemy. So we're gonna build and we're gonna rebuild. And you're gonna rebuild your life and build your life. You'll get out of debt, you'll overcome addiction, you'll have an unbelievable marriage, you'll get that new job. But we've got to take this discouragement thing head on. We've got to treat it like a real enemy. You know, we're reading Nehemiah's autobiography. It doesn't really feel like it now, at this point now in the story, but this is the one of the greatest success, amazing God stories in the history of the world. It demonstrates how much God can accomplish in such a short time. Have you noticed how often so far in the story that the obstacles, discouragement? Three times already, as Nehemiah is writing what they went through. The main thing they went through so far has been discouragement. In every great success story, uh in our lives, our stories, there's gonna be times of discouragement. There's gonna be moments of discouragement, there's gonna be times when it seems too hard, there's gonna be times when the obstacles seem too much. You know, the Israelites were were freed from Egyptian slavery in this, you know, amazing, supernatural, miraculous way. They travel pretty much directly, a very short trip to the land of uh Canaan. They get there, twelve people went over to check out the land. Ten come back and say, it's too hard. I mean, we can't do it. We'll never make it. Two said, we can do it. God's fighting for us. Of course we can do it. Look what he's done already. You know, they were about halfway done. They'd been freed from Egypt, you know, they'd crossed the Red Sea, they'd get to the land of Canaan. They're probably about halfway done, similar to where the Jewish people hear on the wall of a wall around um Jerusalem. See, the two guys were right. They could have done it. They would have made it. But they quit. They quit. And so 40 years later, their kids fought a battle that they should have fought at that moment. Forty years later, they won what they should have won right then, right now, but they quit. We can't quit. We just can't quit. That's why Paul says, if God's force, who can be against us? Discouragement is a real enemy. In many cases, it's the only real enemy. So we just have to fight it. There are four things that Nehemiah does that uh that we can do. You know, the first thing he did was pray. Probably the single most effective weapon we have to fight against discouragement is uh is prayer. Because it's just a supernatural thing. You know, there's been uh so many times when I've been very discouraged or or scared that I've just laid down on the floor and prayed. And usually, I wish that was just like always my natural reflex. But you know, I let it go on and on and and and try everything I can think of, and finally I'm out of ideas or whatever. And it's then that I lay down, and usually I'm laying just flat like this on the floor. God help me. I need you. This is too much. And every single time when I get up, I feel so much better. I feel so much better. I know that God's fighting for me. I know it's gonna be okay. I know that I'm gonna make it. I know that we're gonna do it. It's the first thing Nehemiah did. It's the most important thing that we can do, is uh just to pray. We have a prayer team, um, we have a great prayer team, and every Sunday we have prayer during the Lord's Supper, but afterwards there's a prayer room right on the left if you're going out these doors and kind of go in the main hallway, and then there's a door there and and uh and someone to uh greet us, but but there's a team there, and this morning there's gonna be a team for an hour afterwards. And if you are discouraged this morning, you don't have to uh leave discouraged. In fact, I I guarantee you, I guarantee that if you'll take 15 minutes and pray with someone, that you will leave feeling so much better. Where in the world could someone promise that? Fifteen minutes. Free. I guarantee you you will leave feeling so much better. Because prayer is our biggest weapon against discouragement. But Nehemiah doesn't stop there. Verse 13. So I placed armed guards behind the lowest parts of the wall in the exposed areas. I stationed the people to stand guard by families, armed with swords, spears, and bows. And now he's protecting. He's protecting. You know, in some ways, this whole section, Nehemiah, kind of sums up the uh, you know, following Jesus, living living the life. You know, we're praying and God's fighting for us, but we're but we're taking action. We're we're protecting. So Nehemiah's action is to protect. You know, he's he's a leader, which doesn't mean that he's a boss. You know, it means that that he saw something he cares about. You know, and he's taken responsibility and he's given himself, and he's serving, and and and he's helping. And we're all in that role in some capacity. We're serving, we're helping, we're changing, we're we're influencing. And there's times where we just have to protect. You know, we we protect those around us. You know, the um there's times in in Susan and I's marriage where if I had understood how big of an enemy discouragement is, I would have protected. You know, with Susan, you know, more times than not, I'm probably the source of the discouragement. But uh I try not to be, but that's just how it is sometimes. But but you know, I think back in like the first ten years of our marriage, and uh we would go on uh my my folks don't you know they live in Oregon, where I where I grew up. And so we don't see them that often, but we do, you know, major holidays and that type of thing together. And it was kind of, I guess, my parents really are are nice people, but uh I don't know if it's the daughter-in-law thing, I don't know exactly what it is, but uh they would kind of pick on Susan, you know, just like small comments and uh you know, about how she was handling the kids or or just you know, just kind of showing mild um disapproval. So I was always trying to be the big peacekeeper, you know, because I wanted everybody to get along. And uh it took me a long time to realize that uh I wasn't going home with my parents, you know. And my job should have been to protect. I mean, every big family get together, she's supposed to leave discouraged. No. You know, and so um, you know, we set some some ground rules and and and you know created some some distance. But just because we're family um doesn't mean we have to be discouraged. And I'm not sure I don't want to create any big deals because you know, Thanksgiving and and the holidays are coming up. Um but we need to protect each other. And we might need to set some ground rules, or we might want to say, hey, this this year we're doing Thanksgiving by ourselves, because I'm not gonna allow my family or my kids or my spouse to be discouraged. It's a real enemy. That's the thing, is that we've got to view it as a real enemy. It's not just something that's a part of life. Well, that's the way it is when you get together. You know, it's just no, you don't have to get together. Yeah, I mean, you don't. We have got to protect each other from discouragement. You know, it's true as uh it's true as parents, protecting and and encouraging uh our kids, um, protecting each other. You know, a lot of times we need to uh protect ourselves from ourselves. You know, the the person who's the most negative, critical, and discouraging person to me is me. You know, I don't know if you've experienced that, but I'll say things to myself that no one would ever would ever say to me. And uh, you know, we just need to to, you know, it's like Paul talked about taking those spots captive. You know, we we just can't be saying, oh, I'm an idiot, I'm a screw up, I'll never amount to anything, I'll never change, because it's not true. You know, it it's the lie. I mean, we will change, we're not idiots, you know, and so now if I do something, I'm like, oh, I'm an idiot. I'm like, no, that's not true. You know, I try to take that thought captive, if you will. I say, no, that's not true, I'm not an idiot. That was stupid. Or that was, you know, a bad choice, or that, but I'm not an idiot, I'm God's son. You know, and we we've got to protect ourselves from ourselves. And just uh look at this discouragement thing. He has a really big deal. In Proverbs 18, 21 says, Words kill, words give life. They're either poison or fruit. You choose. You know, sometimes we need to protect ourselves from uh from other people. You know, there's there's people that if you just hang around them, you just feel like the life drain out of you. You know, it could be that they're negative, it could be they're critical, it could be that they talk about other people. Have you ever noticed if you're with someone and they're talking bad about somebody else, that when you're done, you know, if you don't know what to say or how to stop it or whatever, that you feel terrible yourself? It's discouraging. People can be um discouraging. And so we need to develop friends and relationships. We can't choose all those. You know, we go to work and we, you know, that kind of stuff, and we're we're put in situations, but the people we choose to be around shouldn't be discouraging people. It's a real enemy. You know, people that are positive, people that are full of life, people that that uh share the same values, I guess. People that are encouraging, not discouraging. Um, one super important thing if we're gonna be proactive and we're gonna fight discouragement is to be in a great church. I know that sounds self-serving because we're at church. Um but have you ever thought why go to church? I mean, I think that's a good question. A lot of us have wrestled with that, a lot of us have chosen not to, you know, for a while. Why, you know, why go to church? Is it something we're supposed to check off our list? Is God mad at us if uh we don't? You know, one of the main reasons Jesus, in his love and wisdom, gave us the church is so we can stay encouraged. And so we don't live discouraged. In Hebrews 10.25, some people have gotten out of the habit of meeting for worship. But we must not do that. We should keep on encouraging each other, especially since you know that the day of the Lord's coming is getting closer. You see, that's one of the main reasons we get together to encourage each other. You know, I mean, so much happens. We have God's presence and he fills us up, but one of the main reasons is to be encouraged. That's why we can't stay away too long. It's because this discouragement thing is a real enemy. It's what's going to make us want to quit, and so we've got to fight it. That's why a church that is discouraging, you know, where you go and you get beat up all the time, is exactly the opposite of what Jesus intended. You know, it's not that we come to church, we pay our penance, and then we get beat up and okay, and we go back out of the world. It's just the opposite. We go in the world, you know, and it's a fight, and life is hard, and we and we're doing our best, we're pouring ourselves out, and we kind of run out of gas, and then every week we get together and get filled back up. We encourage each other. That's one of the main reasons Jesus and his love and wisdom gave us each other. And so we can stay encouraged, so none of us uh will ever quit. Discouragement is such a huge enemy. So Nehemiah prays and he protects. And then in verse 13, then as I looked over the situation, I called together the nobles and the rest of the people and said to them, 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. This is the only time in this entire amazing God project that they take a time out. Of all the enemies they're gonna face and that they Have faith. This is the only time that Nehemiah says, wait, let's stop for a moment. Let's all get together. Why? Because discouragement was the enemy. It was the one thing that was going to stop them. He couldn't let it stop them. And so they prayed, they protected, and then he said, Remember. Remember. Remember that God, the great and glorious God, is fighting for you. God's on your side. Remember that. Remember why we're fighting. It's our families, it's our sons, it's our daughters, it's our spouses. And that's so true when we're rebuilding our own lives. I mean, we're fighting for important stuff. It's important. You know? Our marriages are important. Our kids are important. Beating an addiction is important. We're fighting for our kids and our families and our spouses. Remember what it's about. We can't quit. It's important. So when we get discouraged, remember, remember, God's on your side. Who could be against you? And it's important. What we're building, what we're rebuilding is important. And so they prayed, they protected, they remembered, and then they got back to building. And in Nehemiah 4.15, when our enemies heard that we knew of their plans, that God had frustrated them, we all returned to our work on the wall. But from then on, only half of my men worked while the other half stood guard with spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. The leaders stationed themselves behind the people of Judah who were building the wall. The laborers carried on their work with one hand supporting their load and one hand holding a weapon. All the builders had a sword belted to their side. This is probably the most famous image in all of Nehemiah. You know, they're working with one hand and they got a sword in the other hand. Building, protecting, building, protecting. And again, it's such an image of what it takes. You know, rebuilding, especially, is hard. It's hard. These guys aren't going to be building forever. I mean, this is a project that they're going to get finished, and then life's going to get easier. But this is important, and they can't let down. And so they're building with one hand and they got a sword in the other hand. I mean, can you picture that? Remember who the builders were? I tend to think of Nehemiah. You know, okay, Nehemiah, he's got, you know, a trowel or a block in one hand, a sword in the other. But these builders were everybody. You know, they were shop owners, jewelers, perfume makers. They were grandfathers with their grandsons. They were fathers with their daughters. Families, every one of them with a sword strapped to their side. Building and protecting and fighting together. They weren't messing around. This was serious stuff. It was a whatever it takes type of moment. And they're all in. And they keep building. They prayed and they protected and they remembered. And they did one last thing. In verse 19, the trumpeter stayed with me to sound the alarm. Then I explained to the nobles and officials and all the people. The work is very spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. When you hear the blast of the trumpet, rush to whatever it is sounding. Then our God will fight for us. See, the last thing they did is they fought as a team. I mean, they were a team. What a great plan. They couldn't have everybody in front of every section of the wall. And so they worked and they protected. But if they needed each other, they put out the call. And everybody rushed to that spot to help. They had each other's back. That's how we're going to build, as a team, having each other's backs. It's, you know, it's it obviously as a church, and that's I think one of the things that we just uh love. It's a beautiful thing how everybody just pitches in and how we're so willing to just jump in and help each other. And we know someone's got got our backs. But it's not true just here. It's true in our marriages, it's true in our families. We've talked about it before, but we have got to build as a team. In our marriages, if we can just change how we see our marriage and realize it's a team. It's not me against my spouse who's depressed. It's me and my spouse against depression. Right? We're a team. And so if one of us is struggling, we're rushing to help. You know, it's not me against my spouse who got us into debt. It's me and my spouse against debt. We're a team. We're rushing to help each other. It's not me against my son who's got bad grades. See, my kids are out of school. But uh it's not me against my son who's got bad grades. It's me and my son against bad grades. You see, we're a team. And so we rush to help each other and we look and we're aware. And one of the main things we can be aware of is discouragement. We can't let each other get down. We can't let each other get discouraged. It's a real enemy. Anything that will make us quit is a real enemy. And so we've got to be ready to rush, to encourage, to speak life, to help, to build as a team. You know, we fight as a team. It's 13 verses, is all we've looked at this morning. But there are 13 key verses because this is where the story could have stopped. This is where a lot of stories do stop. The moment it gets so discouraging where we think we can't go on, we think we can't do it, where we want to quit. They didn't quit. They prayed, they protected, they remembered, they worked as a team, and they didn't know it, but they were three weeks away. Three weeks. The wall would be finished, they'd be full of joy, they'd be dancing in the streets, they'd be having the biggest party Jerusalem would see. Three weeks. Thank God they didn't quit. We can do all those things. We can pray. We can protect each other. We can remember that God's for us. We can remember why we're in the fight. We can work as a team and we won't quit. We can't quit. It's too important. We'll do it God's way. He'll fight for us and we won't quit. And so if the worship team will come up, we will pause there and then keep going next week. Let's all stand. We'll get ready. We'll sing one more song together. You know, God is a builder. I don't know if you've ever thought about that way, but God is a builder. You know, and he's got a building project of his own. He's not going to stop till it's finished. It's going to be done perfectly. It's one of his most important things. His building project is us. It's us. In Philippians 1 and in verse 6, I am certain that God who began the good work within you will continue his work until it's finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returned. See, his project is transforming us. In Ephesians 2.10 it says, for we are God's masterpiece. We are his masterpiece. He's created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. He won't let us down. He'll never quit. He finishes everything he starts. And he started with us. We just have to get connected with him. We just got to get connected with him. It's simple. We just turn to him in our own words, whatever we would say to him. I give up. I need you. I'm sorry. I'll trust you. Thank you for loving me. Whatever it is. In our own words, we turn to him. And then something inside of us changes. Our spirit comes alive. And then he takes over and he helps us and he strengthens us. He teaches us. And then we start building and rebuilding our lives. You can do that anytime. It doesn't have to be now, but it could be now. You know, the sooner we get connected, the sooner we start building and rebuilding, the better. And we will, we won't quit, will we? Now we'll protect and we'll remember and we'll be a team and we won't quit. Let's pray. Father, thanks for being such a great God. Thank you for loving us, adopting us, your children. Holy Spirit, thank you for being our teacher. And encourage us, fill us. Help us not to quit. Give us the strength. Give us the strength. Jesus, thank you for saving us. Thank you for being our friend. We trust you. We need you. We love you. And Jesus is in your name, great name we pray. Amen.