“The Prosperity of the Wicked” – Psalm 73

SEASON'S BEATINGS!
KENTUCKY MALL BRAWL KICKS OFF VIOLENCE...
BRUTAL FIGHTS ACROSS AMERICA...
WOMAN STEALS VEGGIE STEAMER FROM CHILD, WRESTLES MOTHER...
SANTA STAMPEDE...
Swarms raid discount TV display; Cop punched...
Man caught trying to snatch shopper's child at WALMART...
Top day for theft...

Those are the top headlines I woke up to Friday morning.  Yes, the day after we all sit around and tell all our family and friends what makes us thankful…this happens.  Black Friday!  How many of you dared to venture out to go shopping Friday morning?  How many cops did you punch?  No?  Not everybody does that, huh?

It’s no wonder that 1 Timothy 6:10 says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”  Now, I know that some people just like the activity; the sport, if you will, of shopping.  I can’t understand that.  It’s sort of like how I know some people like jazz music.  I don’t want any part of either one.  I go to Walmart when I think the fewest people will be there.  I go in and get what I need and get out.

But while some people like to shop and some don’t, we all feel that urge sometimes that we need some more, newer, better stuff, right?  There is something in all of us that makes us want a bigger, better TV or a newer car or nicer clothes or the latest purse and why is it that your neighbor, you know, that guy that never goes to church and has such a foul mouth and is just flat mean…how is it that he can afford all the cool, latest stuff?

Has anybody ever noticed that?  Why does it seem like the vilest people all have nice stuff?  You know what I’m talking about.  The drug dealer down the street that got that new Starcraft Deckboat?  That’s not fair.  Your heathen uncle who cheats on his taxes just got a Patek Philippe watch that tells time in 7 time zones and he never leaves Wise County.  That’s just not right.

You work hard.  You’re a good person.  You’re a Christian and you can’t afford a Timex.  You give to the church.  You donate to the food pantry.  You packed a couple of shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child and yet you struggle with your finances.  You struggle physically.  You struggle with relationships.  You struggle mentally and sometimes you just want something new and nice like other people have.  Is that so wrong?

Don’t respond out loud but do you ever feel that way?  Do you ever feel like this world is upside down and that all the people who are the least deserving seem to have the best stuff?  I mean, who are the Kardashians and what have they ever done to benefit society?  I don’t know but evidently they are crazy rich.  That doesn’t seem to be very fair, does it?  I know that if you were God, you would do things differently, wouldn’t you?

Well, you are not the first one to feel that way.  I don’t know how Asaph would have felt about the Kardashians necessarily but he definitely had a problem with how the least deserving always seemed to have the best stuff and the least problems.  You know, sort of like how you feel sometimes.  Asaph wrote Psalm 73 to address this problem he had and how he came to look differently at it.

Asaph was a musician and author and a contemporary to King David in the Old Testament.  You might say that Asaph was the music minister while David was the preacher in the temple of Jerusalem.  Poor Asaph didn’t get what he deserved back then and probably still doesn’t.  Most people know David wrote most of the psalms in the Bible and I have told you before that when I’m just reading through the Psalms for fun that when I see on that says, “A Psalm of Asaph” I usually just skip it and go find one written by David because I know David.  I grew up reading David.  David is a friend of mine.

But I don’t know much about Asaph.  I do know that the poor guy is having a bad day and that I’m glad he wrote about it because it helps me when I sometimes feel the same way he was feeling.  I appreciate his honesty and candor in writing a song about it so thousands of years later a little church in Lake Bridgeport can see and understand truth from it.

Turn to Psalm 73 if you haven’t already.  It’s on page 414 of most of the Bibles in the pews.  Psalm 73 starts the third book or section of the book of Psalms and I would love to be able to hear Asaph sing and play this song one day in Heaven.  Can you imagine that?  David will play the harp.  Moses and Abraham will sing a verse or two.  Peter, Paul and Mary will join in and I don’t mean the folk singers from the ‘60’s.  Then we will all be able to sing along with them at the end.  I can’t wait.

But today, you’ll have to settle for me just reading it and I know that there are parts that are lost in translation but it is still a beautiful and yet practical piece of literature.  Read along with me as I read Psalm 73. 

Surely God is good to Israel,
    to those who are pure in heart.

² But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
    I had nearly lost my foothold. ³ For I envied the arrogant
    when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴ They have no struggles;
    their bodies are healthy and strong. ⁵ They are free from common human burdens;
    they are not plagued by human ills. ⁶ Therefore pride is their necklace;
    they clothe themselves with violence. ⁷ From their callous hearts comes iniquity;
    their evil imaginations have no limits. ⁸ They scoff, and speak with malice;
    with arrogance they threaten oppression. ⁹ Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
    and their tongues take possession of the earth. ¹⁰ Therefore their people turn to them
    and drink up waters in abundance. ¹¹ They say, “How would God know?
    Does the Most High know anything?”

¹² This is what the wicked are like—
    always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.

¹³ Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure
    and have washed my hands in innocence. ¹⁴ All day long I have been afflicted,
    and every morning brings new punishments.

¹⁵ If I had spoken out like that,
    I would have betrayed your children. ¹⁶ When I tried to understand all this,
    it troubled me deeply ¹⁷ till I entered the sanctuary of God;
    then I understood their final destiny.

¹⁸ Surely you place them on slippery ground;
    you cast them down to ruin. ¹⁹ How suddenly are they destroyed,
    completely swept away by terrors! ²⁰ They are like a dream when one awakes;
    when you arise, Lord,
    you will despise them as fantasies.

²¹ When my heart was grieved
    and my spirit embittered, ²² I was senseless and ignorant;
    I was a brute beast before you.

²³ Yet I am always with you;
    you hold me by my right hand. ²⁴ You guide me with your counsel,
    and afterward you will take me into glory. ²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you?
    And earth has nothing I desire besides you. ²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is the strength of my heart
    and my portion forever.

²⁷ Those who are far from you will perish;
    you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. ²⁸ But as for me, it is good to be near God.
    I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge;
    I will tell of all your deeds.

The problem with Asaph is he had bad eyesight.  Not his physical eyes but his spiritual eyes were distorted.  He was looking in the wrong direction for the wrong reason and so I want us to see this morning the way that Asaph was looking and where he should have been looking and the outcome of looking correctly.  In your bulletin insert you will see that Asaph was looking outward when he should have been looking upward and it would have changed how he looked inward.

I love how Asaph starts this prayer.  The word “surely” or “truly” can also be translated “nevertheless”.  Asaph has these doubts and fears that are making him miserable and so he goes to God to ask Him about them and starts out by saying, “Nevertheless” or “No matter what answer you give or don’t give, I know that God is good.  I don’t understand you but I know that you are good.  Now here is my problem.”

We have talked before about the kind of prayer that God wants to answer and I just picture God hearing Asaph start like this and God leans out to the edge of His royal throne and says, “I’m listening, dear one.  I’m listening.”  I don’t know about you but I would give anything in the world to know that I have the undivided attention of the Creator of the universe for even just one minute and that is exactly what happens when we approach God in the right way.

Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”  It’s one thing to go to God like Job did and demand a hearing and to demand answers and say, “I don’t know Who you think You are!”  It’s something else entirely to say, “God, I don’t understand.  I have questions.  But even if you don’t answer them I know you are good.”

In the next verse, though, Asaph shows that he was looking outward.  He says in verses 2 and 3, “But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.  ³ For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”

I often make mention of how this church looks outwardly and not inwardly.  You have shown that you are not as concerned about yourselves as you are other people and that is the way we are supposed to be but the problem comes when you look at other people and start comparing your life to theirs.  When you start seeing all the ways it looks like they are blessed compared with how you are blessed it is easy to think that God is unfair and that is like walking on a sheet of ice.  Asaph says his feet had almost slipped.

I think it is important for us to consider what Asaph really means when he says his feet had almost slipped.  What does it mean when any Christian slips and falls like he is talking about here?  He is talking about slipping into sin by envying the wicked.  When we slip and fall into sin do we lose our salvation?  No, of course not.  The Bible says in several places that nothing can snatch us out of God’s hand once we are there.

The problem is that most of us take it to the other extreme.  We don’t really worry about a little slip and fall into sin most of the time but Asaph seemed to understand what it meant to slip out of God’s favor and out of God’s will and out of God’s fellowship.  He understood the consequences not only to himself but to others around him if he were to be found slipped away and so he goes to God with this prayer and with this song, praying that God would help him not to fall just like Jesus taught us to pray by saying, “Lord, lead me not into temptation.”

Historian Shelby Foote tells of a soldier who was wounded at the battle of Shiloh during the American Civil War and was ordered to go to the back. The fighting was fierce and within minutes he returned to his commanding officer. "Captain, give me a gun!" he shouted. "This fight ain't got any back!"   Daily Walk, July 10, 1993.  That’s how we should be when it comes to temptation.  There ain’t no back.  There ain’t no safe place.  God please keep me from it and give me the strength in your name to resist it.


Asaph goes on to say how the wicked seem to not have any struggles.  They are healthy and strong and because of it they get proud and they wear their pride like a necklace. (Verse 6)  Asaph doesn’t seem to understand that what he is seeing is part of the answer to his prayer.  God despises pride so much that He won’t tolerate it in His children so often times He allows us to struggle to keep us from being proud.  But because Asaph is looking outward all he sees are people that are proud of themselves for what they have and he admits to being envious.


In verses 8 and 9 Asaph relates that the wicked “scoff, and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression.  ⁹ Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth.”  Dr. Carl Sagan was a scientist, astronomer, astrobiologist and astrophysicist.  In other words, he was a pretty smart guy.  You know, I started to do some of that myself when I finally got out of Junior College but I decided not to. 


Anyway, Sagan was known for his brilliance and intelligence especially in relating to the cosmos.  He published more than 600 scientific articles and authored nearly 20 books and in his words, “I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, remembering, feeling part of me will continue.  But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.”  That is laying claim to heaven with tongues taking possession of the earth and people all over the world hear that and think that if Carl Sagan said it, it must be true.


When Asaph was looking outward he saw and heard the wicked and he had to admit that their lifestyle and their philosophy were starting to look pretty good.  In verses 13 and 14 he says, “Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure.  ¹⁴ All day long I have been afflicted.”  All day long I suffer while the wicked are having a good time!  You can just almost see his feet start to slip.  He is tottering and about to fall trying to figure out why it is that while he is trying to do the right thing it seems like he is being punished and the wicked people thrive and prosper.


Then we get to verse 17.  Verse 17 is the hinge on which all of this turns.  It is the verse that sheds light on the darkness of Asaph’s thinking; it is the key that unlocks the door.  He was confused, oppressed and feeling punished until that moment he started to look upward - “till I entered the sanctuary of God, then I understood their final destiny.”


The question is, “Where is the sanctuary of God?”  I need to know because, like Asaph, I sometimes have doubts and fears and I don’t always understand why things are happening.  Where do I need to go to understand?  Is it this sanctuary?  We call this room the sanctuary of God but honestly just being in this room, while I know it is holy and special, it does not always give me understand just being here.  Do I have to go the sanctuary in Jerusalem where Asaph worshiped?  If so, I’ll buy my plane ticket today.  Let’s go!  I have questions.


Actually, this word “sanctuary” here means a consecrated holy place set apart for God and while it is sometimes used as the name of the place of the temple, here it is used not in the physical sense but in the spiritual sense.  1 Corinthians 3:16 says, “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple?”  It is a spiritual place in our heart where God abides and when our heart is pure and our hands are clean we can go there and have an audience with the King.


Charles Spurgeon said that Asaph stood where the thrice holy God stands and he gazed within the veil.  Asaph came before God.  He didn’t go to a place.  He humbly brought all of his concerns and doubts before the great I AM and left them at His feet with a new understanding of Who God is and who he was with his eyes focused upward and everything started to make sense.


What was unfair to Asaph, he now understood to be the will and work of the sovereign Creator.  What was tempting before now he saw as futile and ridiculous.  What was inviting was now disgusting and horrible all because he looked upward.  You see, when we look outward, it changes and distorts how we look upward but when our look upward is clear and pure it changes how we look inward.


Now, looking inward, Asaph saw himself and the wicked as God saw them.  He saw that the wicked were the ones on slick ice.  In verse 18 he says, “Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin.”  He sees that God purposefully put these people in prosperous but treacherous positions, not to bless them but just the opposite.  Their position was dangerous and so God did not put his friends their…but His enemies.


I love the word picture that Asaph draws in verse 20.  “They are like a dream when one awakes; when you arise, Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.”  In a dream your circumstances seem so real and so important sometimes to the point of scaring you but how many times have you thought that dream was so real and now that you are awake you can’t even remember what it was about?  That’s the way the wicked are to God.  They won’t even be remembered.


Continuing to look inward, Asaph says in verses 21 and 22 that when he was grieved and bitter it was like being a senseless animal; like a cow whose eyes only see the grass and never the sunshine.  Before God, Asaph felt like a fool for feeling the way he had.

In verses 24 and 25 he spells out the benefits both here and now and in heaven later on.  He says that earth has nothing I desire except You.  When we meet with God and do business with Him we realize how foolish it is to chase after worldly things; how foolish it is to want more and more stuff, bigger TV’s and newer cars.  None of that matters in light of Who God is and just being in His presence.


He says in verse 28, “But as for me, it is good to be near God.”  Can you say that?  Does the thought of being near God scare you or fill you with dread?  Yes, we are told to fear Him and that it is true but when we come to God with our doubts and fears and problems and lay them before Him we have nothing to fear.  David said in Psalm 51, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God You will not despise.”

It is time this morning to come to God with a broken and contrite heart and lay down your doubts, confessing your sins and repenting of those sins and coming before Him with clean hands and a pure heart and when all of that has been done, as Asaph says in the very last sentence, then “I will tell of all your deeds.”  Let me end with one last quote from Spurgeon.  “He who is willing to declare the works of God shall never be silent for lack of wonders to declare.”

“How to Find Joy” – Nehemiah 8:1-12

Well, we are officially kicking off the holiday season today with our Thanksgiving meal.  How do you feel about that?  It seems like just a few weeks ago that we were just doing the same thing, doesn’t it?  That means, of course, that Christmas will be here in like 30 minutes and I know that through every bit of it you will be singing “Joy To The World”, aren’t you?

As you wait in line to buy those presents you’ll be singing “Joy To The World”.  As you swipe your smoking credit card or filling out that check you will be singing “Joy To The World”.  Paying those bills and singing “Joy To The World”.  Fighting traffic and singing “Joy To The World”.  You will be singing that because since it is the holiday season we don’t have anything to worry about, do we?

We don’t have to worry about bills as we go shopping.  We don’t have to worry about our friends and family that are sick.  We don’t have to worry about what is happing in Syria or Paris or Washington D.C. or anywhere else.  “Joy To The World”!  We don’t have to worry about the poor, the addicted or the incarcerated.  All is well.  “Joy To The World”, right?  Not so much.

There are plenty of things that we could worry about.  We know we shouldn’t worry and that it kills our joy but there is so much that we could choose to worry about.  Did you know that Jesus tells us in John 15 that He loves us and because He loves us He wants us to have joy and that He wants our joy to be complete; mature; perfect?  Sometimes during this time of year that is hard to do.  So, how do we find joy?

First, it is vitally important to realize that there is a difference between joy and happiness.  You will probably be happy on Christmas morning, at least for a little while, when you open up your Christmas gifts.  Happiness depends of your circumstances.  We are never commanded by God to be happy.  In fact, not a whole lot is even said about our happiness.  God will always be more concerned with your holiness than your happiness.

But we are commanded to have joy.  James 1 says to consider all things as pure joy.  Well, how is that even remotely possible in this nasty, cruel world in which we live?  How can we find joy?  Well, while happiness is based on your circumstances, joy comes from your outlook; your vision; what you see in spite of the circumstances.  You might say that joy comes from having good vision.

As your outline says, joy comes from seeing Who God is, seeing who you really are and from helping others.  Why do I say that?  I say that because I read that in Nehemiah chapter 8.  Yes, we are going back to Nehemiah just briefly.  We just finished looking specifically at the prayers of Nehemiah and we saw that through prayer we can expect God to give us everything we need to do what He has called us to do.

I love the book of Nehemiah.  It is just so practical and applicable to us at Christ Fellowship today.  I get so much out of it and I was not terribly surprised to read that W.A. Criswell said Nehemiah chapter 8 was his favorite chapter in the whole Bible.  It’s in the 8^th chapter that the focus of the book begins to change from wall-building to life-building.

It’s easy for us to forget that these were real people and that this is a real story not a fairy tale.  They had real lives with real jobs.  They had financial and physical problems just like some of us do.  They had newborn babies with colic.  They had teenagers with bad attitudes.  Their roofs leaked and their backs hurt.  So, you can imagine that it was hard for these people to find joy sometimes.

So, before we read chapter 8, verses 1-12, I want you to picture what is going on and I think you will really be able to relate to what is going on.  In the fall of the year all the people gathered together for a Bible study.  Most of them probably couldn’t read and if they could they would have been able to read and understand only Aramaic.  So, Ezra, the spiritual leader of the nation, brought out what had been written so far of the Bible.  This would have been the first five books of what we call the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.  They call this the Pentateuch.  It was all written by their forefather Moses and it would have been written in Hebrew.

Chapter 7 tells us there were 40 thousand-something people at this Bible study.  You know, sort of like how it is at Christ Fellowship on Easter.  J  Let me just say real quickly that while this is a beautiful passage of scripture there are long lists of names that I can’t pronounce and I was torn between trying to read them because it is scripture but I’m afraid it would be too distracting from what the passage is trying to say so I will reverently just call them “these men” if you don’t mind.

Let’s read it.  Nehemiah 8:1-12.  It’s on page 347 in most of the Bibles in the pews.

All the people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel. ² So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. ³ He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law. ⁴ Ezra the teacher of the Law stood on a high wooden platform built for the occasion. Beside him on his right stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah and Maaseiah; and on his left were Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah and Meshullam. ⁵ Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up. ⁶ Ezra praised the Lord, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. ⁷ The Levites—Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan and Pelaiah—instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there. ⁸ They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read. ⁹ Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. ¹⁰ Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” ¹¹ The Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, for this is a holy day. Do not grieve.” ¹² Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.


The last time I preached at the biker church I heard two ladies talking as they were walking out the door.  The first one said, “That guy sure does preach a long time.”  The other one said, “No he doesn’t.  It just seems like it!”  Well, if you think I preach a long time you wouldn’t have liked Ezra.  It says in verse 3 that he read from daybreak to noon.  The thing is most of these people had probably never heard any of this.  They had been slaves and prisoners and had just recently gotten back to their homeland and this was the first time they had ever heard scripture read.


If you notice, that second long list of names were the guys who were explaining what was being said.  Evidently they were translating it from Hebrew to Aramaic and also explaining the meaning of it.  I’m sure Ezra had to stop reading pretty often and let everybody catch up and understand and the beautiful thing is when they did understand…it was life-changing. 


Truth has that effect on people.  I say often that truth is enough.  Truth is enough to bring joy, which the very last verse says they had.  Truth is enough to save you.  It is enough to change you and when you hear truth it will open your eyes to see Who God is, who you are and how we get joy from helping others.


Verse 8 says, “They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.”  We don’t know what passages exactly were read.  I don’t know if 6 hours is even enough to read the whole Pentateuch when it is also explained to a crowd like this but I’m sure they got through most of it.


I have an idea that they definitely hit the high spots in Genesis and Exodus.  Can you imagine adults hearing for the first time about the power of God in the creation story in Genesis 1?  They had always wondered how things were created.  They must have known that there was a Creator just by seeing what was created.  Now they know the truth of God’s awesome power.  They begin to see Who that Creator is.  They begin to see Who God is.


Then they hear about the sovereignty of God as the story of Adam and Eve is read and explained to them.  Then the story of Noah reveals how God could grieve over the sins of man and will eventually punish that sin.  The story of Abraham must have been fascinating to them.  They had grown up hearing some stories about him but now they see that the stories are not as much about Abraham as they are about the love of God for His chosen people Israel and how God made a promise that His people would always be blessed and that anybody who did not stand with Israel would not be blessed.


They started to develop a vision of Who God is and it must have been eye-opening.  They get to the end of Genesis and into Exodus and they hear those incredible stories about their ancestors being in slavery in Egypt and they hear how God’s power brought plague after plague until finally Pharaoh let the people go.  They see that only God is sovereign and no earthly king can stand up to Him in any way.


God loved His chosen people so much that He went to great lengths to protect and provide for them as they left Egypt and wandered in the desert.  Ezra and the others explained how creative God is and how loving and merciful and generous the King of Kings is and it had to have opened their eyes to see God in a new and life-changing way.  What joy it must have given them to hear and understand that the All-Mighty, All-Powerful, All-Knowing, All-Seeing Creator of the universe was not just powerful but also that He loved them so much that He had provided a way out of their worst trouble.


Verse 6 says they praised the Lord, the great God.  They all agreed by saying “Amen!” and they all worshiped.

They began to see Who God was and it brought great joy.  The early church leader Augustine was once accosted by a heathen who showed him his idol and said, "Here is my god; where is thine?" Augustine replied, "I cannot show you my God; not because there is no God to show but because you have no eyes to see Him."  These early Bible students were developing their vision of God based on the truth of scripture and it brought great joy.


But then they moved into the books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy; those books most of us dread reading through because there are so many lists and names and laws that we can’t relate to but can you imagine hearing this with the ears of somebody who had never heard it before and had never known what God expected of them?  Can you imagine always wondering what was right and what was wrong?  How would you know without scripture?  How would we know even today if we didn’t have the Bible?  That is what the Law was for.  The Law, as found in those books, would have shown the people how to please God, much less how to get along with other people.  That had to bring joy!


But can you imagine?  For the first time in your life you have seen Who God is and now, through the Law, you start to see who you really are and how far the gap is between you.  No wonder verse 9 says they were all weeping as they listened to the words of the Law!  No wonder they had fallen on their faces and were crying, mourning and worshiping.  When you see the truth of Who God is and who you are, you will be changed. 


You cannot be proud when you see that.  You can’t be hard-hearted and stiff-necked.  When you see Who God is and what He expects and then you see who you are, it will bring tears but it will also bring joy.  He ought to scare you because of His power and sovereignty but He will also bring great joy because you know that when God gives a law it is because He wants to protect you, not hinder you.


It should bring you joy to know that when God tells you to do something, even when it seems like it will be uncomfortable or even painful, that He gives the power to do what He has told you to do.  It should bring you joy to know what God expects and when He says we are to be holy, we should do what Nike says:  Just do it!  Be holy.  Be different.  Be peculiar and set apart.


Nehemiah left his comfortable position in the king’s palace to go thousands of miles to build a wall – because God told him to – and God provided everything he needed the whole time.  Ephesians 3:20 says that God “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”  I don’t know about you but I believe that and it brings me great joy!  It brings me great joy even in the midst of my greatest problems.


I can have joy when our leaders in Washington stray away from what is biblical and condone homosexuality and abortion because I know that Romans 13:1 says that the authorities that exist have been established by God.  That doesn’t mean that He is pleased with them or that I should vote for them but I can have peace and joy because I know God is in control even when I don’t understand how.


I can have joy in ministering to the poor, addicted and incarcerated because I know that God has called this church to do that just like He called Nehemiah back to Jerusalem and I know that God will provide.  Why should we worry?  This church, like that bunch of Bible students so many years ago in front of the Water Gate, sees Who God is and who we are and we have joy.


Now, real briefly, let me point out one more thing that will bring you joy.  Look again at verses 9 and 10.  Tell me this doesn’t apply to us today.  Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. ¹⁰ Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”


Woohoo!  Time to eat, right?  Food brings us joy too, doesn’t it?  Yes, it does but do you know what is even better?  Some of you can relate to this better than others.  Some of you know the cure for depression and the cure for the holiday blues.  You know the joy that comes from giving to somebody that doesn’t have anything.  When God gives you something and you are able to turn around and give it to somebody in need, that’s a great feeling!


We are going to do just that today.  We are going to go eat our Thanksgiving meal right after this.  Not much longer, I promise.  I hope you will eat all the choice food you want.  Notice that nothing is said of vegetables there.  We’re talking about joy after all.  And I don’t know if they had tea back then but it says to drink the sweet drinks so they must have.  So, eat all you want and drink all the sweet tea you want and then we are going to take whatever leftovers we have to some of the people here in our community who may not have as much as we do.


So remember that this day is holy and sacred.  It is a different day and we are a different people.  We have a vision; we see some of Who God is and who we are and we have great joy just like those people in Nehemiah’s day.  We as believers in Jesus have great joy because we see the truth in the book of Romans that says we are all sinners and we all deserve hell because of it and yet we see that God has provided a way out of our worst trouble just like He did for the Hebrews.


That way out is a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ and if you don’t have that way out; if you don’t have that relationship with God through His Son Jesus then I need to talk with you and pray with you right now.  Ask God to be Lord of your life.  Ask Him to forgive you of your sins and then repent of those sins and the Bible says that all who confess God as their Lord will be saved.  Do that today and know great joy!

Prayers of Nehemiah – Ch. 13:14, 22 and 31

When you look around you, what do you see?  Do you see your friends and neighbors sitting in church listening to a sermon?  Maybe if you get a little better perspective you might see a church meeting together in the middle of their community.  Pull back a little further and your perspective might allow you to see this as the body of Christ being obedient.  With one more lens adjustment your perspective might include seeing this as the bride of Christ preparing for the coming of the Bridegroom, the perfect Lamb of God, Jesus Christ…or maybe all you can see is a short, fat and bald guy yapping about something you don’t really care about yet.  It’s all in your perspective.

A man read an ad in the newspaper, "Hunting dog for sale, $2,500.00, but well worth it." He called the number and the man told him that he had to see the dog in action. The next morning they met and went hunting early. The dog flushed two birds from a clump of bushes and when they fell into the water, he walked on top of the water, grabbed the birds, and walked back on top of the water. The man was amazed, and bought the dog on the spot. The next day he persuaded his brother to go hunting with him. They flushed a couple of birds and the dog again walked on top of the water, retrieved the birds, and walked back to their boat on top of the water.  He asked his brother what he thought of the dog and the brother replied, "So, you bought a dog who can't swim." Source Unknown.

A shoe manufacturer who decided to open the Congo market sent two salesmen to the undeveloped territory. One salesman cabled back: "Prospect here nil. No one wears shoes." The other salesman reported enthusiastically, "Market potential terrific! Everyone is barefooted." Source Unknown.

Perspective is what allows us to continue doing what God has called us to do when the market potential looks nil to some people.  Some will see us as a little church with few resources trying to do an overwhelming job in the face of not only great adversity but also of little concern to the very neighborhood we are trying to serve.

Perspective is what keeps us going when the world sees us and thinks, “Well, you’re not making any money.  You’re not growing like this church over here and I don’t see any stained glass or million dollar fountains so you must not be doing it right.”  But because Christ Fellowship has a God-given, biblical perspective, we can see that God has called us to serve and minister to the poor, addicted and incarcerated and we don’t see in the Bible where stained glass is going to help us do that.

We don’t even see that we are supposed to try to impress another church or another group or another association.  Our perspective allows us to see that we are called to make disciples as we go and not much else and we do that…for the glory of God’s Kingdom, period.  Other churches may have a different perspective because only this church is called to minister to Lake Bridgeport.

We are the only church in the world called to minister to this community.  We know from reading Acts 1:8 that we are called not only to Lake Bridgeport but also to Wise County, Texas and the world but nobody else is called to this little community and so we do that with the resources God has given us, with the knowledge and wisdom and patience that God has given us and we do it all for His glory and for the sake of His Kingdom.

Our perspective allows us to see that everything we have, including the desire to witness, the ability to make friends, and the opportunities to serve all come from God and so all we say is “Lord, please hear us.  Please strengthen our hands.  See what we are doing and trying to do and, Lord, please bless this work for our sake and for the sake of this community and the world and for the sake of your Kingdom here and in Heaven.  Lord remember us.”  We pray that because our perspective is biblical.  We see in the book of Nehemiah that Nehemiah prayed the same thing.

Is it wrong to pray for yourself?  I sure hope not.  Jesus prayed for Himself and we see in the last chapter of Nehemiah that Nehemiah prayed for himself too.  Turn to Nehemiah 13 and let’s look at three verses where Nehemiah asked God to remember him and to show him mercy and favor.  We will look at verses 14, 22 and 31. 

At this point the wall around Jerusalem was complete.  We see that God had given Nehemiah wisdom, discernment and courage to be able to lead the people in the rebuilding and while not everything was perfect in the world of Nehemiah, he has done what God has called him to do.  It has taken great sacrifice for Nehemiah.

Do you remember how the book started?  Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the king of Persia.  While technically a slave, Nehemiah has a pretty good job.  He had everything he needed.  Things were working out pretty well for the guy.  He could have kept doing what he was doing and nobody would have blamed him and his life would have been pretty good and pretty comfortable.

Don’t you hate it when everything seems to be going fairly well in the scheme of things and God decides to make you uncomfortable in your comfort?  Have you ever been there?  God puts something on your heart and it just gets stronger and stronger and pretty soon it keeps you from sleeping in your big, comfortable bed.  Pretty soon your plentiful and delicious food starts to lose some of its flavor and in the back of your mind (at least you try to keep it back there) you can’t help but think that God has something different for you?  It’s called perspective.

That was Nehemiah and so he did what God wanted him to do and all the way God provided everything Nehemiah needed to get the job done.  You’ve heard it said that where God guides, God provides.  Nehemiah is proof of that and now we see that he has completed the wall and got done what needed to be done.  Let’s see how he prays in verses 14, 22 and 31.

Leading up to verse 14 Nehemiah had righted some wrongs that had been done and so he prays, “Remember me for this, my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services.”  Between 14 and 22 Nehemiah gives some orders that keep some people from not keeping the Sabbath day holy and then he prays, “Remember me for this also, my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love.”  Then between 22 and 31 Nehemiah sees the people reverting back to some old habits.  It’s interesting to see in verse 25 that it took taking a whooping from Nehemiah for some of them to shape up but he did what needed to be done and so he prays this one last prayer, “Remember me with favor, my God.” 

Remember me.  Remember me.  Remember me.  Was he in danger of being forgotten by God?  No, of course not.  The original Hebrew word is “zakar” (zaw-kar’) and it means to earnestly be mindful.  God remembered Noah.  God remembered Moses and Abraham.  God remembered His covenant and every time God remembered these, He did something.  He saved, He used, He provided, He blessed…He remembered. 

Nehemiah prayed in chapter 1, verse 8 that God would remember the instruction He had given Moses and based upon that remembrance Nehemiah was asking favor.  He was asking God to do something.  Is it selfish or self-centered to ask God to bless you for doing something?  I’ll be honest with you.  I struggled with this question for a long while this past week.  How is it that in a book like this that, from the front cover to the back, talks about how God wants to reward us and God wants to give us good things and how God loves us so much that He sent His only Son to die for us that we can read all of this and still have a problem asking God to remember us for what we have done?

The problem is that we don’t have a real grasp of who God is.  The problem is that we put ourselves into this equation too much and we put God into the equation too little.  In this day of false teachers and preachers preaching the prosperity Gospel that teaches that if we do the right thing the right way that God will bless us with health and wealth, it is easy to want to get away from that and to think that all Christianity consists of is me working for God.  I know my reward is in Heaven and so all I’m going to do here is work for God.

We have the mistaken idea that we are working for an absentee boss who wants us to do our job and every so often we should send in our progress report so He can pay us a little stipend when He chooses.  The problem with that thought is that it’s not close to being true.  Joshua 1 says, “for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”  Deuteronomy says, “for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”  Even the Great Commission in Matthew 28 that tells us to go make disciples says, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Yea, Todd, I know that but it still feels like Christianity is about me working for God.  Is it not?  Again, this thinking is based on a misunderstanding of God.  That same God that is with us is doing the work through us.  It’s not us working for Him.  He is working through us.  It is why we can do all things through Christ Who strengthens us and why we can’t seem to do anything without Him.  Philippians 2:13 says, “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

We misunderstand that it is Him working through us but we also misunderstand God because we think of Him like an earthly father and there are some real good parallels there but ultimately, I don’t care if your father is as rich as Donald Trump and as godly as Billy Graham, your father is not comparable to our Heavenly Father.

We read passages like Psalm 50:10 that says He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and we subconsciously think, “Well, that’s only a thousand.”  We think at some point God is going to start running low on blessings because we just can’t fathom that God owns everything.  God owns the cattle but He also owns the hills, the cowdog, the cowboy and the horse he rode in on!  He is the owner and the author.  He is the perfecter.  He is the giver of all good things.

James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”  Nehemiah knew that God was always with him and that God is loaded (as we like to say around here) but he also knew his motivation was pure.  In verse 14, he asks God to remember him for what he did “for the house of my God and its services.”

Nehemiah gained nothing personally for all the work that he did.  His right perspective allowed him to see that the work God wanted to do through him was going to take him out of his comfortable job at the palace thousands of miles away where he was going to have to work and fight and struggle for everything and he did all of it, not for himself, but for the sake of God’s Kingdom.  His motivation was pure.

A little boy told a salesclerk he was shopping for a birthday gift for his mother and asked to see some cookie jars. At a counter displaying a large selection of them, the youngster carefully lifted and replaced each lid. His face fell as he came to the last one. "Aren't there any covers that don't make any noise?" he asked.

Unlike that little boy, Nehemiah had pure motives.  He gained nothing by all that work but he knew it was God’s will and he knew that there are blessings of obedience just like there are consequences of disobedience.  In the church it’s real easy to do some good thing and to do it in just the right way so that somebody notices.  Right?  If I do this at just the right time or in just the right way, it won’t look like I’m wanting anybody to see but I know they will.

Nehemiah put all that foolishness aside and just did the job God called him to do and he did it knowing that if his good deeds outweighed his bad deeds that he would go to Heaven, right?  Surely that was it.  Surely Nehemiah wanted God to remember him by taking him to Heaven for those good things he had done.  Is that what he was thinking?  How did people in the Old Testament get to Heaven since Jesus had not come yet?  They got there the same way we get there; by grace and through faith.  It has nothing to do with working our way there.

That’s not what Nehemiah was asking at all.  Nehemiah wasn’t asking God to remember him to Heaven.  He wasn’t asking God to give him health and wealth.  His right perspective had allowed him to see what needed to be done and with God working through him, he did what he was called to do and so he went to the One who owns all things, who gives all things and who knows all things (including motives) and simply said, “God remember me.  Whatever that looks like, God, remember me.”

Here at Christ Fellowship we don’t worry about what other people see in us as long as they see Jesus.  It’s nobody’s business how many people go to this church or how much money we give.  If some person or organization is impressed or not with who we are and what we do, we care not a lick.  But we come to God right now through His son Jesus and because of Who He is and not because of who we are and we cry out to the One gives all good and perfect things and we say, “Lord, remember us.  Be earnestly mindful of us today.”

We come to you because there is no other. We come to you because we know that all we have and all we need comes from you.  Yes, Lord, we want to be remembered in Heaven but we can’t grasp what that is going to be like.  But Lord we want you to remember us right now as a church and as individuals and that you will give us everything we need to do what you have called us to do and when we have done that we ask that you would remember us and give us our next task to do for the glory of your name and for the sake of your Kingdom.

Lord if there are any here today that don’t know you personally we ask that you would remember them especially right now and that you would show them Who you are and how you work and that you would draw them to you and we ask these things in the name of Jesus and for their sake and the sake of your Kingdom, Lord.  Amen.

 

What now?  What is your part to play in our church doing what God has called us to do?

 

Prayers of Nehemiah – Chapter 6

11/1/15  Christ Fellowship

Prayers of Nehemiah – Chapter 6:8-13

A preacher’s son graduated from high school and the preacher kept asking his son what he was going to do. Go to college or maybe go on to the service. He kept asking his son, but he just could not make up his mind. One day while his son was out, he decided to perform a simple test. He went into his son’s room and put 3 items on his desk - a Bible, a silver dollar, and a fifth of whiskey.  The pastor thought if he picks up the Bible he will be a preacher like me. If he picks up the silver dollar he will be a business man if he picks up the fifth of whiskey he will be a drunk.

He heard his son coming, so he hid behind the door to see what his son would do. His son looked at the three items. He picked up the Bible and put it under his arm. Then he picked up the silver dollar and put it in his pocket. Then he picked up the fifth of whiskey and took a drink!

The preacher said “Oh no…my son is going to be a politician!”

If you are hoping that whoever replaces our current president is going to make everything all better, I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed.  Politicians are going to be politicians and while I believe we all need to stay informed about the state of our country and know who to vote for that will be the best for us, our country has gone off the cliff morally and financially and I don’t believe it can ever recover unless God allows and provides for a mighty miracle and a great revival.

Do you want to know how far over the financial cliff we are?  I’ll give you a rough example.  You know what a $100 bill looks like.  Some of us have seen them.  Fewer of us have owned one but we all know what it looks like.  Well, if you stacked up $100 dollar bills into stack of $1,000,000 (1 million) you could put that in a grocery sack and walk around with it.

But if you stacked hundreds into a stack of 1 billion it would fill up this stage up to about waist high.  Can you picture that?  Now, how much room do you think a trillion dollars would need?  A trillion dollars is a 1 with 12 zeros behind it and if you started stacking pallets up to about six feet high the width of this building with one hundred dollar bills the stacks would reach to at least Highway 380 from here.

That’s one trillion dollars and according to the government’s own website, our government’s debt…is nearly 19 trillion dollars…and getting worse every day.  It’s not getting better.  It’s getting worse.  Nobody expects us to ever recover.  It’s just a matter of time before somebody wants more than an IOU and then our economy will start to collapse.  It may happen tomorrow or it may be 10 years.

Morally we have gone over the cliff as well and do I need to give you any example of that?  I think we can probably fit 6 Miley Cyruses, 4 Madonnas, and a Hillary on this stage.  Not that I want to.  This country and our world and even our county and community need a mighty miracle and a great revival.  It’s the only thing that will stop us from being that nation that, you know, used to be over there between Mexico and Canada.

We have the answer.  John 10:10 says that Jesus came that we might have an abundant life.  That rarely means financially abundant but it doesn’t mean 19 trillion in debt.  2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.”  People that come to have a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ don’t act like the rest of the world anymore and when people change, circumstances change.

So, what are we going to do about it?  Are we going to sit around and wait for them to wander into church?  How’s that working out so far?  Kinda slow, isn’t it?  Well, since we just happen to be going through the book of Nehemiah, let’s talk about how prayer will help us to rebuild the fallen walls of decency, democracy and doctrine in this country like it helped Nehemiah rebuild the physical walls around Jerusalem.

Turn to the Old Testament book of Nehemiah.  It’s between Ezra and Esther and is on page 346 of most of the Bibles in the pews.  Let’s look at a short little prayer that Nehemiah prayed in chapter 6, verses 8-13.  We have already seen that Nehemiah is a man of prayer.  He knew that the first thing you do when you have a problem of any size is you pray about it.

He knew that when you pray back to God God’s own Word and promises that God is anxious to answer those prayers.  He also knew that prayer was the answer, the only answer, when people – or Satan - try to hinder God’s people from doing God’s will.  For Nehemiah, though, he had a big job to do with few people and few resources and the people trying to hinder the work were getting more and more numerous, powerful and threatening.  So, what do you think Nehemiah did?  He prayed, of course.

In this passage we see that his adversaries have completely made up some negative criticism about Nehemiah hoping to at least distract him if they can’t get him to stop.  So, let’s see his prayer in Nehemiah 6:8-13.

I sent him this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.”  ⁹ They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.”  But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.”  ¹⁰ One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you—by night they are coming to kill you.”  ¹¹ But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!” ¹² I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. ¹³ He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.

What a great response Nehemiah has to the people that were accusing him of doing all kinds of things that he was not doing.  They were just trying to stir up trouble for him by saying that he was doing this and saying that and that he was claiming to be king and a bunch of other nonsense and so Nehemiah just replies back, “Y’all are making that up.  Now be quiet!”  That is the perfect response.  He knew they were trying to keep him from doing what God had called him to do for whatever reason.

He knew they were hoping that he and the others would get all involved trying to clear their names and make themselves look good and the work of rebuilding the wall would suffer.  So Nehemiah prays those 4 words, “Now strengthen my hands.”  Why do you think he prayed that way?  Were his hands and fingers tired from all the work?  Well, they probably were but that’s not really what he is asking for here.  He is simply asking God for the ability to continue doing the work that God had called him to do.  “God, help me rebuild the wall.  God, give me what I need to continue being obedient to you.”

Do you think God wanted to answer that prayer?  God wanted to answer that prayer for Nehemiah just like He still wants to answer that prayer from us today when we sincerely pray that God will give us everything we need to continue doing His work here in Lake Bridgeport and around the world.  I know God wanted to answer that prayer because of the next few verses.  Some people might not see that it was God answering Nehemiah’s prayer but if you look close you will see that God didn’t just give him strong hands, He also gave Nehemiah wisdom, discernment and courage – things Nehemiah might not have even known he would need but God did.

Look at how God gave Nehemiah wisdom.  I think you can even see it in the answer he gave before he even prayed for it.  He had the wisdom to know how to answer his adversaries that would not make the problem worse.  He didn’t have to go anywhere or spend any time defending himself.  He didn’t have to argue his innocence or holler or scream.  Y’all are making that stuff up.  Now hush!  That’s all he had to say and it was a wise answer.

Doug Larson said, “Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you would have preferred to talk.”  J.I. Packer said, “Wisdom is the power to see and the inclination to choose the best and highest goal, together with the surest means of attaining it.”  I like the simple definition I heard one time that wisdom is making the choices that God would make. 


I heard the story about how an angel appears at a faculty meeting and tells the dean that in return for his unselfish and exemplary behavior, the Lord will reward him with his choice of infinite wealth, wisdom or beauty. Without hesitating, the dean selects infinite wisdom.


"Done!" says the angel, and disappears in a cloud of smoke and a bolt of lightning. Now, all heads turn toward the dean, who sits surrounded by a faint halo of light. At length, one of his colleagues whispers, "Say something."


The dean looks at them and says, "I should have taken the money." Betsy Devine and Joel E. Cohen, Absolute Zero Gravity, Simon & Schuster.


Nehemiah prayed that God would strengthen his hands and God answered by giving him wisdom.  Nehemiah was praying that God would give him what he needed to finish the job and God knew that Nehemiah needed wisdom more than he needed hands that were physically strong.  So many times we pray for the wrong thing to solve our problems.  We think we need more money or more time or for people to just listen to us since we know so much more than they do (J) but God knows we need wisdom to be able to use the time and the money that we have better.


Do you know that I never pray that God would give this church more money?  I don’t think I have ever prayed that.  I don’t see anywhere in scripture that somebody prayed for more money and God answered that prayer.  Even Jabez, who prayed for more territory was praying, not just for more stuff, but that his influence would be greater for the sake of God’s Kingdom.  So, I don’t pray for more money or more stuff or a bigger church with more people and a bigger budget.  Jesus told us to go and make disciples and so I pray, “Lord, give us what we need to do that job you have given us to do.  Strengthen our hands, Lord, whatever that looks like.”


God gave Nehemiah wisdom about how to answer and how to do what he was called to do.  He also gave Nehemiah discernment to be able to get the job done.  Look again at verse 10.  That whole story about people coming to kill Nehemiah turns out to be a lie.  I’m sure there were some people that wanted Nehemiah dead.  I’ve heard it said that if you don’t have any enemies by age 30 you’re not doing something right.


I don’t know if that’s true but Nehemiah was doing it right and he had enemies but this guy Shemaiah who was supposed to be a prophet and was supposed to be on Nehemiah’s side had been paid to say this so Nehemiah would do something wrong and they would have something bad to say about him.  Titus 2 says, “7in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, 8sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.”


These people couldn’t find anything really bad to say about Nehemiah so they tried making it up and that didn’t stick so they then tried to trick him into doing something wrong and that didn’t work because God gave him discernment to see that this guy Shemaiah was not a real prophet.  If Nehemiah had gone to the temple, being a layman and not a priest, that would have broken a law and Nehemiah would have gotten into trouble.


Discernment is the skill that enables us to differentiate. It is the ability to see issues clearly. We desperately need this spiritual skill that will enable us to know right from wrong. We must be able to distinguish light from darkness, truth from error, best from better, righteousness from unrighteousness, and purity from defilement.  J. Stowell, Fan The Flame, Moody, 1986, p. 44.


If Nehemiah had known that all this was going to happen, I’m sure he would have prayed for wisdom and discernment but all he prayed for was strong hands; to be able to finish what God had called him to do.  But God knew what he would need and so when he prayed for strong hands God also gave him wisdom and discernment.


He not only gave him wisdom and discernment but I want us to see and know that God also gave Nehemiah courage.  You need all three when you have a job to do.  You need wisdom, discernment and courage.  A friend of mine told me he got home from work the other day and found his wife staring at the full length mirror and she didn’t look happy.


He asked her what was wrong and she said she looked old, fat and ugly.  Wanting to cheer her up, he said, “Well, at least your eyesight is still good!”


See, he had courage but he definitely lacked wisdom and discernment.  He was probably praying for healing after that, too.  Nehemiah prayed that God would strengthen his hands and God gave him wisdom, discernment and now we see also that God gave him courage.


See, anytime anybody tries to do the right thing, there is somebody that is going to try to keep that from happening.  It’s human nature.  It’s what Paul described as “the old man” or “the flesh” and the old man doesn’t want there to be a new man.  You remember that verse in 2 Corinthians 5 that says, ““Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” 


The old creation doesn’t want there to be a new creation and they will always fight so long as we are on this earth.  It’s why 2 Timothy 3:12 says, “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”  Maybe that saying about how if you haven’t made enemies by 30 you’re not doing it right is correct after all.  If you are not being persecuted maybe your life is not different enough from the old man that he should care.


But there are other things that one might be afraid of besides battling the old man that is within us, or the old man that is within somebody else.    When it comes to rebuilding our walls of decency, democracy and doctrine we know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ being born, his life, death, burial and resurrection has the power to do it.  The Gospel alone, by itself, has the power to change lives and circumstances. 


We also know that as believers we have been called to go and make disciples as Jesus said in Matthew 28 and the biggest hindrance to doing that is our fear.  Nehemiah probably had some fear but he didn’t let it affect him or the job he had to do.  He probably did have people who wanted to kill him but God gave him great courage.


Our fear today is not that somebody is going to kill us.  Our fear is based on not wanting to say something wrong or being asked a question we don’t know.  Sometimes we might be afraid of rejection and the awkwardness that will follow if somebody does reject us.  For whatever reason we have fear, God wants us to have courage.


The first thing God does to give us courage is to be right there with us.  Don’t you doubt it either.  Paul says in Philippians 4:6, "The Lord is near. Don't be anxious about anything."  The Lord told Gideon, "Go in the strength that you have." What strength did Gideon have? The Lord answered him: Your strength is the fact that "I am with you."


We were talking last Wednesday night at Bible study about the man who was blind but Jesus healed him in John chapter 9.  He had been born blind and after Jesus healed him the Pharisees kept badgering him about who it was that healed him.  “Where did He go?  What’s His name? How did He do it?” and all the man could say was, “I don’t know any of that.  All I know is I was blind but now I can see.  Praise Jesus!”


That should be our witness too.  We may not know everything there is to know about God or the Bible but you have your own testimony about what coming to know Jesus has meant in your own life.  Tell that.  You need to know how to back it up with scripture but until you do just have the courage to say, ““I don’t know any of that.  All I know is I was blind but now I can see.  Praise Jesus!”


Do you have that relationship with Him today?  You can.  You can have God-given wisdom to make the choices God would make.  You can have great biblical discernment to know right from wrong in whatever situation you are in.  You can also have the courage to tell others about those gifts you have been given as well as the greatest gift of all – eternity in Heaven as a child of the King!


All you have to do is believe that Jesus came from Heaven, died on the cross to pay for your sins and then resurrected and is alive today.  Repent of your sins and ask God to forgive you of those sins.  Jesus said in Matthew 10:32, "Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.”  Don’t wait.  We are not guaranteed another day or even another breath.  Today is the day of salvation.