Rise Up Week 3 - Fight The Right Fight
Read
Nehemiah 4:1-20 Christian Standard Bible
4 When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious. He mocked the Jews 2 before his colleagues and the powerful men of Samaria and said, “What are these pathetic Jews doing? Can they restore it by themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they ever finish it? Can they bring these burnt stones back to life from the mounds of rubble?” 3 Then Tobiah the Ammonite, who was beside him, said, “Indeed, even if a fox climbed up what they are building, he would break down their stone wall!” 4 Listen, our God, for we are despised. Make their insults return on their own heads and let them be taken as plunder to a land of captivity. 5 Do not cover their guilt or let their sin be erased from your sight, because they have angered the builders. 6 So we rebuilt the wall until the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had the will to keep working. 7 When Sanballat, Tobiah, and the Arabs, Ammonites, and Ashdodites heard that the repair to the walls of Jerusalem was progressing and that the gaps were being closed, they became furious. 8 They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and throw it into confusion. 9 So we prayed to our God and stationed a guard because of them day and night. 10 In Judah, it was said: The strength of the laborer fails, since there is so much rubble. We will never be able to rebuild the wall.
11 And our enemies said, “They won’t realize it until we’re among them and can kill them and stop the work.” 12 When the Jews who lived nearby arrived, they said to us time and again, “Everywhere you turn, they attack us.” 13 So I stationed people behind the lowest sections of the wall, at the vulnerable areas. I stationed them by families with their swords, spears, and bows. 14 After I made an inspection, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the great and awe-inspiring Lord, and fight for your countrymen, your sons and daughters, your wives and homes.” 15 When our enemies heard that we knew their scheme and that God had frustrated it, every one of us returned to his own work on the wall. 16 From that day on, half of my men did the work while the other half held spears, shields, bows, and armor. The officers supported all the people of Judah, 17 who were rebuilding the wall. The laborers who carried the loads worked with one hand and held a weapon with the other. 18 Each of the builders had his sword strapped around his waist while he was building, and the one who sounded the ram’s horn was beside me. 19 Then I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, “The work is enormous and spread out, and we are separated far from one another along the wall. 20 Wherever you hear the sound of the ram’s horn, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us!”
Summary
Welcome back to Community Group, I pray all of you are having a good week. I would like to take this time to welcome our new groups from Alice, Corpus and McAllen. Please continue to pray for each other, and know that I am praying for you. This week, we find ourselves in Nehemiah 4:1-20. This week our focus is on opposition. The this we need to remember when facing opposition is that it may be coming from something we are not seeing. That is why the sermon was entitled “Fight The Right Fight”.
Nehemiah didn’t worry about the opposition because he had prayed boldly to God about them. He had a job to do a responsibility to build and restore. He did not have time to go back and forth with an enemy that was interrupting the work he needed to do. To fight the right fight, we need to be aware of four areas: identity, purpose, worship and restoration.
Sanballat attacked Nehemiah’s IDENTITY and that of all the Jews. Nehemiah wasn’t concerned about his reputation, because he knew where his identity came from. Having been made in the image of God gave him worth, dignity and value. When God made his covenant with Israel, He didn’t do it because they were great and strong. He did it because He was great and strong. Our identity should be grounded in who God says we are, not in what the voices around us are saying. Jesus didn’t build the church based on what people said about his identity, He built it based on what the Father said of him.
The second are we looked at was PURPOSE. Nehemiah and the people were rebuilding the wall to honor God, it spoke to God’s desire to build up His people and his place. The purpose of rebuilding was to glorify God. We don’t rise up and build for our glory, we rise up and build for the glory of the one who has called us and saved us. Discouragement only comes when we take our focus off our purpose.
WORSHIP is our third area. As Nehemiah focused their attention back to God, Sanballat asked “will they worship.” Our enemy ask that same question, “will they worship.” Will we case in the face of opposition, or will we lift our voices to God, who is great, strong, and better than the opposition.
The chapter ends with RESTORATION, our fourth area. The need for restoration is a universal human need. Nobody is good enough to not need restoration. Our enemy wants us to think that we are beyond restoration.
So how do we fight the right fight? Our IDENTITY in Christ is what defines us. Our PURPOSE needs to be clear and we must be committed to it. We need to WORSHIP even when things are on the line. Our joy needs to come from God, not from our situations. We have been RESTORED, so we need to act restored.
Discussion
When did you first understand that your identity is found in Christ?
How does having your identity in Christ change the way you view life?
What purpose does God have for you at this point in your life?
Do you find it hard to worship while you are being opposed?
Has the Lord restored you after a time of opposition?
Announcements
Continue to pray for our CG leaders.
Help us pray for new CGs to be formed.
Our CG Leadership gathering has been scheduled for Sunday, July 17th. More information to come through Whatsapp.
Pastor Isauro Medina
Isauro.medina@bt.church
Cell: (956) 984-9380
