So look at Nehemiah chapter six verse number nine.
It begins by saying, for they made us afraid.
They made us afraid.
And if you look at this chapter,
one of the major themes in this chapter,
you'll notice that at least four times,
twice it mentions fear,
twice it mentions being afraid.
And so the title for the sermon tonight, brethren,
is Responding to Fear, Responding to Fear.
You see, the enemies of Nehemiah
trying to drive Nehemiah to fear
so they would not finish or accomplish the work
that God has for Nehemiah to do there.
So let's start there in verse number one.
It says in Nehemiah chapter six verse number one.
Now it came to pass when Sanballat,
so you guys should know these names now
as we go through the series,
Sanballat and Tobiah, Tobiah is his servant,
and Gisham, we've seen Gisham already as well,
the Arabian, these are obviously the enemies of Nehemiah.
All right, so they're back on the scene once again
here in chapter number six.
It says, and the rest of our enemies.
So obviously it's these three main guys,
and then there's other enemies
coming from the land of the Samaritans,
but also you can see here Gisham's an Arabian.
It says, heard that I had builded the wall
and that there was no breach left therein,
though at that time I had not set up
the doors upon the gates.
And so we're further in the development
of the construction of the walls of Jerusalem.
There's no breach left.
You know, all the walls are set up.
It's almost finished.
The project has really accelerated.
They've gotten busy.
All that's left is for the doors to be put on the gates.
All right, so we're nearing the end of the construction.
And now we have the enemies of Nehemiah coming once again.
You may recall that in chapter number four,
we saw the hand of these enemies.
They tried to cause the work to be stopped.
They tried to cause a lot of problems.
They tried to set up an ambush against Nehemiah,
but Nehemiah heard about it.
He planned ahead.
He instructed the men to get ready
with weapons of warfare.
They had one hand with a shovel,
basically one hand working,
another hand with a sword.
And so the ambush was not successful.
But here they are again.
Once again, the enemies,
they're trying to get under the skin of Nehemiah.
They're trying to frustrate him.
They're trying to eventually cause him to fear
to not accomplish the work that God has for him.
Let's keep going there.
Verse number two.
That sent ballot and Gisham sent unto me,
saying, come and let us meet together
in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono,
but they thought to do me mischief.
Okay, so they tried to set up an ambush.
They tried to go to war
and they've been unsuccessful, right?
The ambush failed.
So now they've got another plan.
Well, let's just, let's have a conversation.
Let's not be enemies, Nehemiah.
Let's not go and have combat with one another.
Let's not fight.
Let's just sit down together.
You know, I know you're busy in Jerusalem,
but come to the plains here of Ono.
And the plains of Ono, by the way,
it's not, obviously it's not Jerusalem.
It's a place in Benjamin.
So it's still part of Israel,
but it's away from Jerusalem.
They're trying to pull Nehemiah away from the work,
away from Jerusalem.
And Nehemiah's not stupid.
He says, look, but they thought to do me mischief.
Now that word mischief in the Bible can mean several things.
Of course, they're trying to harm him.
They're trying to prevent him.
Mischief can also, if you look in the Bible,
it can also refer to death.
They might be trying to kill him.
Maybe not directly,
but perhaps cause him to fall into some type of mischief
and lose his life.
And Nehemiah knows, hey, these are my enemies.
Yeah, they make it sound like
we're just having a meeting, just a discussion.
Just me as the governor of this part of the land.
They're the governors of Samaria.
And we're just sitting down talking politics
and making truces and agreements between us.
Nehemiah's wise, no.
They're pulling me out of Jerusalem.
I mean, in Jerusalem, he's got the protection.
He's got his workers.
He's got, you know, everybody knows Nehemiah.
You know, he's safe and secure in Jerusalem,
but they're trying to pull him away from there,
trying to cause some type of harm.
You know, Nehemiah, excuse me, Nehemiah,
Nehemiah trusts his instincts.
No, they mean mischief.
And, you know, this reminds me,
just a long time ago, many years ago,
I was doing this self-defense course.
It wasn't, it was just by DVD.
It was just on the television.
You put the DVD course.
And before the trainer, you know,
I started to teach you how to punch
and how to defend or anything like that.
The first thing he said basically was
to trust your instincts,
to understand you've got this ability within you.
I think you all know what I'm talking about.
Certain feelings at times, just things don't seem right.
And many times we get trained to ignore our instincts
or to ignore our gut feelings about a certain situation.
And, you know, the idea there is basically that, you know,
you may be in a place, in place A, for example,
and someone may want to hurt you.
Someone may want to rob you.
They may want to do some type of,
they may want to steal from you, whatever it is.
And what they tend to do, people that want to hurt you,
is to pull you from point A and bring you to point B.
They'll say, well, you know, I need to have a conversation.
You know, I'm going to show you something.
Can you come over here?
You know, pulling you away into an area
where they can cause you harm.
And the instructor said, look,
this is the most important thing.
Before you can even defend yourself
is to trust your instincts.
When you sense that danger,
don't be pulled out of point A.
You know, don't go to point B
because there, they've got a trap for you.
There, they might have an extra person
who might strike you from behind.
You know, just stay exactly where,
you want to have a conversation with me?
Then let's have a conversation right here, right now.
You know, don't get dragged away
and let me tell the children as well, you know,
don't let some adult drag you away
from a, to a different place.
Oh, I've got to just show you something.
Oh, I just, you know, I've got a little dog over here.
Come and have a look at the little dog.
Or, you know, I've got something, you know, no, no.
Don't get dragged away from these situations.
Trust your instincts.
You know, quite often when you get dragged away
from point A, it is some type of mischief.
I can think back to my life.
You know, just some basic, some examples in my life
where, you know, I remember I was working in a job.
It was lunchtime.
I was with some friends or some colleagues, I should say.
And we're just enjoying lunch.
And we had a couple of guys come up to us and say,
hey, look, we just want to show you some things.
We want to sell you some things over here.
Do you mind coming so we can just show you?
And my colleague was like, yeah, yeah, let's go.
And, you know, I kind of,
I guess I gave into the peer pressure where it was
and I followed up with my colleague
and then we went to this van.
You know, they opened up the back of the van
and then they were selling us stolen merchandise.
So trying to sell us, oh, you know, we've got this,
you know, HiFi, we've got these speakers,
we've got all this stuff, you know.
And to me, I just, there was something within me
that said, look, don't go, don't go.
But again, I just didn't listen to my instincts,
didn't listen to it.
And they were trying to sell stolen goods.
All right, I mean, there are different things
that can happen in your life.
You know, there might be situations
where you might find yourself,
well, can you please come on?
You know, I experienced this in the workplace.
Sometimes when I was at work,
I would have to travel to different places
and I'm with different colleagues.
I'm not with my family, I'm not with my wife.
And you know, you might get just, you know,
not thinking clearly, you know, can you come over here?
Can I show you something over here?
And then you get dragged away
and you're all of a sudden alone with another woman
that's not your wife.
You know, I mean, that's not a good place to be.
Okay, you need to remove yourself.
Just trust in that instinct.
Don't go to point B, trust that instinct of yours.
You know, it might be a place I've experienced this as well.
You know, after a meeting,
after a meeting at work with people
and I'm just using my examples,
you can probably think of your own.
And it's like, oh, you know, we've had a hard time.
You know, we've worked hard, we've spoken a lot.
Hey, come out here, you know, we'll have a bit of a chat,
a bit of an informal conversation.
And there I am before I know it,
you know, getting alcohol offered to me.
You know, let's have a drink, you know,
buddy and all this kind of stuff.
And it's like, you're being dragged
from one place to another.
And you just, there's just something within me
before it even happened,
that inside of me I said, don't go.
You know, there's mischief.
There's something here that's going
to cause you harm or problems.
And we need to be aware.
You know, Nehemiah is aware.
He knows these guys are bad guys.
This is not just some conversation on politics.
They're trying to drag me away to cause mischief.
All right, let's keep going to verse number three.
Verse number three.
It says, and I sent messengers unto them saying,
look what he says, I am doing a great work.
The work that I'm doing with the construction of this wall,
this is a great work.
It's an important work so that I cannot come down.
Nehemiah says, look, I've got more important things to do.
I've got things that are of a higher priority
than coming and meeting with you, Sanballat and Tobiah.
Okay, and then it says this,
why should the work cease whilst I leave it
and come down to you?
Why should I come to you?
So Nehemiah, like he knows,
he knows that there's a problem here.
And he says, look, I just don't have time for you.
I've got other responsibilities.
I've got higher priorities.
This work of construction on the walls
is a great work that we're trying to accomplish.
I love that about Nehemiah.
He does not want to be distracted.
He says, look, if I get pulled away,
the work is going to stop.
Obviously, he's a supervisor.
He's given direction to the workers in this place.
He also is someone that prioritizes, all right?
The work is more important
than having a meeting with my enemies.
I don't care what they have to talk about.
The work that God has given me to do is more important
than getting distracted with these things
of a lower priority.
And I think what we learn here as well
is a lesson in leadership.
If you're in a position of leadership,
I had to learn this the hard way.
Okay, but if we just take the Bible story here
and say, look, we know that Nehemiah is a great leader
and we can apply this.
If you find yourself in a position of leadership,
you don't want to be someone's lapdog
when you're in a position of leadership
where as soon as someone needs you,
you just go running in their direction.
Hey boss, I need your help, okay, over there.
All right, we need you over here, okay, we'll go over there.
You know, when it comes to leadership,
you know, and I've said this before,
but to me, time is so precious.
Time is so much more important than money to me, okay?
And you know, if someone, you know,
if I need to talk to someone of authority
and I'm gonna take their time so they can hear me,
I really appreciate the fact
that they've given me that time.
To me, time is so valuable, all right?
And so this is something you need to learn in leadership
if you're in a position like this,
is you don't want to run around,
you know, putting out little files here and there,
here and there, you know, every time someone needs you,
because if you act that way,
people are not going to respect your time.
They're gonna think you're just available at any moment
to do whatever, to come at whatever time, you know?
And it's important to prioritise what is important.
You know, I cannot go to this situation,
I cannot go with you because I've got a greater work to do.
And so time, time is important.
You know, normally, you know, as a pastor,
you know, I do want to make myself readily available.
And you know, I do take calls, I answer emails,
I visit people from time to time,
but I'm not some lap dog.
I'm not just ready, okay, you know what?
I'm just having a dinner with my family.
You know, I'm rushing out to see you in your house.
No, time is valuable.
You know, the time that I set for my family is valuable.
There might be things that I need to prioritise
that need to get done before other things take place,
you know, and we see that Nehemiah is a man
who's a strong leader, he knows how to prioritise
and he's not someone's lap dog, you know?
Just cause Sam Ballot and Tobiah are calling,
doesn't, okay, yeah, I've got to meet up with these guys.
He says, no, I've got things to do, you know?
I've got things to do.
And you know, it's important when you're a leader,
again, like if someone wants to bring something to you,
Sam Ballot and Tobiah want to talk to you about something,
hey, well, I'll tell you what,
next Tuesday at this time is when I'm available.
If you want to come and talk to me about that,
hey, let's have that conversation at that point, okay?
That's how a leader performs.
They don't just go running every time someone needs
a minor issue being dealt with.
Let's keep going.
Actually, let me just read another passage
that you guys are very familiar with
because I told you that the title for the sermon
was Responding to Fear.
And you'll see that these guys are trying to cause fear
in the life of Nehemiah.
But I just want to read to you a very familiar passage
and just apply it to Nehemiah here.
Second Timothy chapter one verse seven, you all know it.
It says, for God have not given us the spirit of fear,
but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
All right, God has not given us a spirit of fear.
You know, if you experience fear, fearing man,
fearing circumstances, fearing the world,
God has not given that to you, okay?
It's not a spirit that God has given to you.
He's given you one of power and of love
and of a sound mind.
And I believe what we've seen here in Nehemiah
is the spirit of God encouraging Nehemiah
to stand against Sanballat and Tobiah.
You know, he's got that power.
He's got that spirit of power.
He's able to go to Sanballat,
who's obviously a very powerful man in his own region
and say, no, I've got other things to do.
I've got other priorities.
He's able to stand up against Sanballat, right?
He's not like, well, Sanballat, you know,
you've got authority, you've got power.
I guess I got to come to you and make you happy.
No, he's got authority himself.
He stands up for himself.
He's got that power within him.
It says, and of love.
You know, the fact that he's prioritizing
the construction of the walls of Jerusalem
shows he's got a love for God.
He's doing this to serve God.
It's what God has put upon the heart of Nehemiah to do.
You know, he's able to prioritize
because he just loves the Lord.
You know, if you love me, keep my commandments,
Jesus Christ said.
He's doing the work that God has for him.
He's doing it out of love.
And then it says, and of a sound mind.
You know, he's clear.
He's not getting distracted.
You know, he's looking at this invitation for this meeting
and he knows he's got a sound mind.
He's not like some idiot, Nehemiah, right?
He goes, I know you mean mischief for me.
I'm not going.
You know, it's a waste of my time.
And so I believe these attributes,
the power, the love and the sound mind
are attributes that we can see in Nehemiah
through this story.
Let's keep going there.
Verse number four, Nehemiah chapter six, verse number four.
And they sent unto me four times after this thought.
And I answered them after the same manner.
So he says, no, I'm not meeting with you.
They send again, messengers.
They send again, they send again, they send again.
Four times after the same manner, all right?
You know, ask Nehemiah, Nehemiah, come and meet with us.
But Nehemiah is unwavering and Nehemiah is unwavering, right?
He's not distracted, no matter how many times they come,
you know, and contact him.
Now keep your finger there
and please turn to Luke 18.
This reminds me of a story here in Luke 18.
It might seem a little bit, you know,
unrelated to the story,
but it just brings a few thoughts to me.
Turn to Luke 18, please.
Stay there in Nehemiah, Luke chapter 18.
And, you know, I'm just showing you some stories.
You know, I love the brethren.
I love our church.
I love, blessed are Baptist church.
I love our brothers and sisters in the Lord, all right?
And so, you know, if you feel I'm targeting you,
I'm not really targeting you.
I'm just using an example, all right?
But, you know, there have been times
where someone has sought a conversation with me
and that's fine, okay?
But I've been like, like Nehemiah,
look, I just don't have the time right now.
I do have time in the near future,
but let me get back to you on that.
Let me get back to you on that topic,
on that issue when I can, so I can set a time with you.
And then I may be, you know, get a message.
So do you have time now?
And it's like, well, I told you,
I don't have time right now.
Well, can you meet up with me next week?
Look, I don't know just yet, you know?
I'll get back to you.
You know, and sometimes it's this thought is,
you know, if we keep just bringing this over and over again,
somehow it increases in priority.
And, you know, sometimes this can happen in the workplace.
And again, with leadership is that
when people are bugging you,
even though you know it's not a significant issue,
it's not a priority right now,
but the fact that it gets brought up
over and over and over again,
the person that's bringing it up
is trying to make it a priority.
They're trying to make, this is very important.
I brought it up four times already, but it still may be.
It doesn't matter how many times it gets brought up.
It's still a lower priority
than building the walls of Jerusalem, okay?
And again, as leaders, sometimes you can get distracted
by how many times the same issue comes up,
but we cannot get sidelined from the main work
that God has given us to do.
And this reminds me of the story there in Luke 18,
Jesus Christ gives a parable, verse number one,
and he spake a parable unto them to this end,
that men ought always to pray and not to faint.
So that's great, okay?
So Christ is teaching us, hey, keep praying,
don't give up in praying,
keep bringing your requests before God.
So what's the parable?
Verse number two, saying,
there was in a city a judge which feared not God,
neither regarded man, and there was a widow in that city,
and she came unto him, saying,
avenge me of my adversary.
So this widow's been oppressed by some enemy.
She comes to the judge, can you help me?
Can you deal with this?
Verse number four, and he would not for a while,
but afterward he said within himself,
though I fear not God, nor regard man,
yet because this widow troubleth me,
I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming,
she weary me, okay?
Now look, this judge, he's an unjust judge,
look at verse number six, and the Lord said here,
what the unjust judge saith.
So it's not a good judge,
but we just learn a simple principle, right?
He only cares for himself,
he's not really interested in the widow's plight, okay?
But the fact that the widow is coming to him
over and over and over again,
he goes, man, the widow's making me weary,
I'm just gonna deal with her case,
I'm going to bring her in the court and bring her case,
I'm gonna prioritise it
because she's brought it up so many times,
it's made him weary.
So this is the truth for Nehemiah,
the fact that they come in again and again to Nehemiah,
meet with us, meet with us, meet with us,
no doubt Nehemiah's getting weary at the request, okay?
Now this guy's an unjust judge,
of course he goes, I'm gonna cave in
and just deal with it, all right?
But Nehemiah, no, he's a man of character,
he's a man of leadership,
he goes, look, it doesn't matter how many times
they weary me, I'm not going to deal with it, all right?
But let's keep going there in the story there,
in Luke 18, verse number seven.
So Jesus Christ is just teaching,
look, even an unjust judge,
if people come to him over and over again,
they're eventually going to give in
and deal with the issue.
An unjust judge does that, okay?
And then he compares that to, of course, God.
It says in verse number seven,
and shall not God avenge his own elect,
which cry day and night unto him,
though he bear long with them?
I tell you that he will avenge them speedily,
nevertheless, when the son of man cometh,
shall he find faith on the earth?
And so we've been encouraged to pray.
You know, sometimes we may think that, man,
should I even bring this to God again?
Maybe I'm making God weary.
Maybe God's sick and tired of my request.
No, brethren, he answers, he responds speedily,
especially if you're being persecuted
by some type of enemy, God's going to step in,
protect you, and answer your prayer.
The point being, even the unjust man will do something
when people come to him over and over again,
well, you know, God, of course, is not unjust,
but he has his children, he looks for our wellbeing,
he hears our plight, he hears our concerns
as we go to pray before him, and he answers them.
Okay, so our God is a God that answers prayer.
All right, going back to,
so I just wanted to show you that,
that yeah, you know, well, if you're coming again,
you're gonna make the person weary,
and you're going to try to make that person
prioritize your case, your situation,
even though it truly is not a priority
in light of other things that are going on,
especially here in the case of Nehemiah,
who's building the walls of Jerusalem.
But let me just encourage those of you
that maybe are in a leadership position,
you may have people under you,
you've got to keep the priority the priority,
you know, don't get distracted when things
get brought up to you over and over again
that are of a lesser importance
than the things that you're currently working on.
Verse number five, verse number five,
then sent, sent ballot, so they haven't given up yet,
then sent, sent ballot, his servants unto me
in like manner the fifth time
with an open letter in his hand,
now he's actually got a letter, okay, in his hand,
wherein was written, so this is what's written,
this is why they want to meet with Nehemiah,
wherein was written, it is reported among the heathen,
so it's reported amongst us,
it's reported amongst the Gentiles here,
you know, and Gashmu saith it,
so even this guy is, I don't know who Gashmu is,
even Gashmu's saying this, okay,
that thou and the Jews think to rebel.
I mean, have we read anything in Nehemiah
where Nehemiah's like,
I'm ready to rebel against the authorities,
remember, they're under Medo-Persian empire,
they're under that empire,
is there anything that we've read where Nehemiah's like,
man, we can't wait to build this wall,
we can't wait to strengthen our city,
and then we're gonna rebel against the king of Persia,
but this is what the heathen are saying, okay,
I mean, they're just making things up, making up stories,
what's Nehemiah doing, just doing the work of God,
just loving his fellow brethren, the Jews, doing the work,
people start saying things about,
you're thinking to rebel, aren't you, you know,
for which cause thou buildest the wall,
that's why you build the wall,
that thou mayst be their king according to these words,
so Nehemiah, we know your purpose, you wanna be king,
you wanna be, instead of, you know,
the king of Persia being the king over this land,
you wanna be the king,
that's why you build the walls, Nehemiah,
so this is what they wanna talk about, you know,
now, is this true, it's not true,
of course, Nehemiah knows it's crap, okay,
he knows it's rubbish, you know,
he's made a wise choice to not, you know,
interact in this kind of stupid conversation, all right,
and let's keep going there, it's kind of like, you know,
before I keep going, you know, it's sort of like,
you know, so what's in it for you, Nehemiah,
surely you didn't come all the way to Jerusalem
just to build the walls, what's in it for you,
you wanna be king, you wanna be in charge,
it's about you, Nehemiah, isn't it, you know,
you wanna establish your own kingdom, Nehemiah,
and you know what, these things, again,
these things happen in leadership, you know,
and sometimes it surprises me,
especially when your heart is just to serve the Lord,
especially, you know, and again,
I'm just using my examples, okay,
just even as a church pastor, you know, starting churches,
there's always that little conversation
someone likes to have, you know,
it's a reporter amongst the heathens,
and it's a reporter, you know,
we think you're just after your own,
you only care about yourself, Nehemiah,
you know, you're doing things just for your own advantage,
you know, Nehemiah cares for the Lord,
he loves the Lord, he cares for God's people,
he cares for the city of Jerusalem,
he cares for the temple, he cares for these things,
he's given himself sacrificially to all these things,
but of course, there's always that little,
we think it's about you, you wanna be king,
you wanna be in charge, don't you, Nehemiah,
you know, Pastor Kevin, what's your real reason
that you went to Sydney?
To help the church, about the church,
to lead them through COVID, but yeah,
but you know, I've heard this stuff,
I've heard it through the grapevine, you know,
that so-and-so's asking, what's your real reason?
I've given you the reason, there is no hidden agenda,
there is no self-interest in making a move to Sydney,
right, when we went down there, you know,
it was like, you know, we just think that maybe you just,
maybe you just wanna go, maybe you just wanna go
back to Sydney and you're gonna leave us alone,
you know, you're not going to be the pastor
in this church, you know, that's just,
you know, it's nonsense, like, you know,
it's strange when you're just trying to serve the Lord,
you know, and these little things start to pop up
in people's conversations, you know,
you know, and it's, you know, I've had it even
from my old church, you know, conversations being had,
I heard it through the grapevine again,
so why, you know, why Sydney, why is it coming back?
You know, it can't be about just serving God's people,
it can't just be about helping a church,
it can't just be about providing leadership
in a tough situation, it can't just be about
loving the Lord and loving his people,
it can't, does it always have to be a selfish,
you know, reason, that, you know,
people are trying to do certain things, you know,
and, you know, there was a time where I needed
to recall attendance down in Sydney,
because, you know, we were limited,
there was all the mandates and we had this
four square metres and this and that,
and I needed to record, hey, let me know
who's coming to church, because, you know,
if we have this many number of people,
we can do this session, we have this number of people,
we can have this service, you know,
I need to work out how many services,
you know, we'll go to preach the same sermon twice,
you know, try to figure out exactly where does everyone go?
The question gets brought up,
so why are you recording our names?
Could this fall in the hands of the government?
Hmm.
I'm recording names so we know
how many services to have, right?
I mean, what, you think I'm in bed with the government
trying to, you know, tell the government
who God's people are or something like that?
You know, but these, it's strange,
these things come up, right, they pop up.
And look, you know, I'm not mad,
it takes me a lot to get really angry.
You need to, if you know me,
you know it takes a lot for me to get angry.
I know the heart of man, again,
I know man's heart because I've got that heart,
you know, I can't say that I'm this perfect man
all the time, there are times that I look at a situation
and I think, well, why are they doing that?
Hmm.
You know, and then I gotta think, well, who cares?
I mean, maybe they are doing that because of that,
maybe they're not, I don't know.
So I'm not gonna react on some hearsay
or some rumour or some thought.
You know, I'm just gonna, you know,
my default position is they mean well,
they're trying to just serve the Lord
as best as they know how.
That's my default position on pretty much anybody.
You know, it takes a lot for someone
to completely lose their reputation in my eyes.
Because I'm always thinking, well, maybe, you know,
even if they've done something bad,
my thought is, well, maybe that wasn't their intention.
You know, that wasn't their play.
But you know, people love this kind of rumour,
this kind of conversation, all right?
And yeah, you know, what's in it for you, Nehemiah?
Surely it's not just you love God.
It's not surely just not trying to, you know,
just love God people.
There must be something you really want.
That's why you're doing this.
Let's keep going there, verse number seven.
What else are they saying?
And thou hast appointed prophets
to preach of thee at Jerusalem.
Hey, Nehemiah, the prophets that you've got in Jerusalem,
you're making them preach about you.
What?
Instead of preaching about Jesus,
instead of preaching God's word,
hey, you're making them preach about you, Nehemiah.
You know, I mean, what nonsense.
Saying, look at this, saying, there is a king in Judah.
There is a king of Judah, Nehemiah.
You're telling your prophets to preach that you're the king.
And now shall it be reported to the king,
we're gonna report this to the king of Persia,
according to these words,
come now, therefore, and let us take counsel together.
Let's talk about this, Nehemiah.
This is what we're hearing.
Hey, if you don't come and talk to us,
you don't meet with us,
we're gonna go to the Persian king and tell him,
this is what's going on.
Rumors, nonsense, rubbish, rubbish.
I love how Nehemiah responds.
But again, if you're in a position of leadership,
you need to also learn to just cut out the rubbish,
cut out the crap.
You don't always have to defend yourself about everything.
Sometimes conversations start,
you need to just shut that down and go,
that's just, that's nonsense.
That's not true, okay?
And if you guys have any questions for me, brethren,
about this church, about church down in Sydney,
about my heart, where it is, I'm happy to tell you,
I try to be as transparent as I possibly can
about anything to do with ministry or church, right?
Of course, I'm not gonna share every little private matter
in my own personal life, okay?
But when it comes to God's house,
the work we're trying to do here on the Sunshine Coast
or down in Sydney, I'm an open book,
I've got nothing to hide, I've got no secret agendas.
We just have two good churches that love the Lord,
that wanna go soul-winning, win souls, learn the Bible,
and grow up to be more like Jesus Christ.
That's it, okay?
That's the goal of the churches.
There is no other alternate plan.
I don't have some, trying to get some personal gain
out of anything like that.
So in leadership, you gotta learn not to entertain rubbish.
Okay?
Now you would think, these are some major concerns,
these are some major issues
that are being brought up to Nehemiah.
I can almost understand that if there's a weaker man
in Nehemiah, he's gonna go, man, I better go to that meeting
and defend myself against these accusations,
even though it's nonsense, even though it's rubbish.
But I can understand how a weaker man may feel,
I need to go and defend myself.
That's why I love how Nehemiah responds.
Verse number eight.
Then I sent unto him, saying,
that there are no such things done as thou sayest,
but thou faintest, faintest them out of thine own heart.
He goes saying, ballot Tobiah, you're making this up,
it's coming out of your own heart.
There's nothing going on like you said there is.
I'm still not interested in meeting you, it's rubbish.
Yes, brethren, it's rubbish.
And I'll say this, I guess, as we go through this,
you don't have to defend every little thing
that he said about you.
You don't need to get into every conversation
or try to debunk every rumor out there
that might be against you.
If it's rubbish, leave it in the bin.
You know, if it's rubbish, you know,
if it belongs in the toilet, flush it down the toilet.
Don't pick it up and try to make sense of it.
If it's rubbish, it's rubbish, throw it out,
don't get distracted in the work that God has for you.
Don't entertain foolish speaking.
And, you know, sometimes we need to be aware
of when somebody's speaking just garbage
and just shut it down and go, you're just making it up.
That's your life coming out of your own heart.
You know, it shows me that that's who you are actually.
You know, you're trying to portray this on me,
but actually that's what you are like.
You know, that's what's coming out of your heart.
That's your, that's what your desire.
You know, you thinking that there must be
some personal gain for you is showing me
that you're interested in your own personal gain,
because that's where your heart is at, all right?
Let's keep going, verse number nine.
Now listen, okay, Nehemiah's a great leader,
but notice what he says in verse number nine.
For they all made us afraid.
So did some fear enter Nehemiah's heart?
Yeah, you know, and not just Nehemiah,
but everybody that's hearing about this.
There is some fear that has now crept in, all right?
I mean, what if this news reaches the king's ears
in Persia, what's he gonna do?
Is he gonna shut down our projects?
Is he going to believe these rumours and act upon that?
Yeah, you know, fear.
You know, as much as we preach against not fearing man,
when man tries to hurt you and harm you,
yeah, it will automatically develop some fear in your life.
The title for the sermon, again, was Responding to Fear.
How do we respond?
We start to feel afraid of man, what man can do unto us.
So yeah, you know, I mean, as great of a leader as he is,
as much as the Holy Spirit is working
and solidifying Nehemiah, there's still some fear.
What could happen?
What could happen in this situation?
And let's keep going there.
For they made us afraid, saying,
their hands shall be weakened from the work
that it be not done.
Now, therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.
So it says, look, the reason they're trying
to make us afraid is to weaken us from finishing this work.
That's what they're trying to do, okay?
They're trying to stop.
It's not, hey, Nehemiah, defend yourself
in these false accusations.
They're trying to stop the work of God, all right?
And he says, no, you know what?
Yeah, he experiences some fear in Nehemiah,
but what does he do?
He goes, yeah, we are being weakened by these rumours.
But then he goes, that it be not done,
now he prays to God, now, therefore, O God,
strengthen my hands.
He goes, the only way we can finish this work
is if God gives me the strength.
God has to help me overcome this fear
so we can finish the work that God has for us to do.
What is your response when you experience fear?
You know what we do?
We should immediately just turn to God.
Say, God, strengthen me.
God, please don't give me this fear.
Oh, he doesn't give us fear.
Help me overcome this fear, Lord.
You know, I'm feeling afraid,
whatever the situation is, brethren.
You know, I'm afraid I might lose my job.
I'm afraid, you know, maybe there was some fear of COVID.
I don't know, maybe in the early days,
what COVID might do, you know?
Is it a deadly killer?
You know, we're afraid, you know,
churches are being asked to close down.
Yes, so is 99% of everything else.
But anyway, you know, maybe God's people
are being persecuted, I'm afraid of that.
Sometimes fear can creep in our hearts.
And, you know, fear is debilitating.
Fear will stop you, you know, just stop you cold.
You know, have you ever been so afraid that you just freeze?
That's what fear does.
I mean, that's an extreme form of fear
where you just like, you just freeze,
you don't know what to do.
But that's what fear does.
It stops you from being productive.
You know, it creates clouds of confusion
and a lack of confidence and stability in your life.
And so he turns to the Lord God.
What is your response when you experience fear?
You know, if you can, can you please keep your finger there
and go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12,
2 Corinthians chapter 12.
2 Corinthians chapter number 12.
And while you turn to 2 Corinthians 12,
I'll read to you from Psalm 118 verse five.
Psalm 118 verse five, which reads, this is the Psalmist.
I called upon the Lord in distress.
The Lord answered me and set me in a large place.
The Lord is on my side.
I will not fear.
What can man do unto me?
Yeah, hey, the Psalmist is in distress.
The Psalmist is worried, fearful, right?
But he turns to the Lord and then he's, you know,
he's just encouraged when he goes back to,
the Lord is on my side.
Yeah, man, we're children of God.
We're his children, brethren.
We're his kings.
We're his priests that he's going to use to rule
on this earth one day.
We are so important to the Lord God.
Don't forget that we are in Christ Jesus, his only son.
You know, we've been made righteous
by the sacrifice of our Lord.
And we are, we are, you know, we're not just,
and we are just dust in one sense, our bodies,
but we are more than that.
We've got the new man.
You know, we have the Holy Ghost indwell us.
We've got his power.
You know, we've got important positions.
Hey, we've got important positions now,
not even before the millennium.
We've got important positions to preach the gospel,
see souls saved.
I'm never sure where I'm going with that.
Yeah, but I mean, my point being, you know,
how would God not come to our side when we're in distress?
How would God not come to us when we're fearful
and need his strength?
You know, one of the greatest things about being a Christian
is that when we experience weaknesses,
that's when you can be the strongest you've ever been.
And it's so contrary to this world.
You know, when you have weaknesses,
you can be even stronger than anybody.
You're there in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 10.
I love this verse, 2 Corinthians 12, verse 10.
It says, therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities.
Again, these are sicknesses.
Sicknesses make you weak, don't they?
Yeah, they make you weak in reproaches, in necessities,
when you have great needs, in persecutions.
You know, people are, you know, persecuting.
I mean, all these areas of weakness in our life, right?
In these stressors, for Christ's sake.
Man, a bit negative there, aren't you, Paul?
Right, we've got all these things that we experience,
but he goes, no, I take pleasure.
How do you take pleasure in this stuff, Paul?
And this is why.
He goes, for when I am weak, then am I strong.
Wow.
And it's true, brethren.
When you're weak in this flesh,
when you're suffering fears,
and you don't know what the future holds,
and you just don't know what to do,
you turn to God, and you'll be, you know,
if you turn to him,
he'll give you his supernatural strength,
and you'll be stronger,
you'll be able to accomplish
more than you ever thought possible.
Weaknesses is a great opportunity for God
to strengthen you, to give you his strength.
We need to rely upon his strength.
I love that.
I love that about being weak,
because I have weaknesses.
We all have weaknesses, if we're honest,
and yet, if you accept those weaknesses,
you find pleasure, and say, thank you, God,
that I can be weak in these areas,
because I know I can draw strength from you.
I know I can be even stronger
than I was before I had these weaknesses.
You know, if fear comes, brethren,
you turn to the Lord.
He'll give you a supernatural overcoming of that fear.
You know, fear God, you know?
It's just, God can do amazing things.
You know, if I just gave in to fear,
I never would have started a new life at this church.
I never would have come up to hear the queen line,
like, take that risk.
You know, were you afraid?
Well, a little bit afraid,
but then I said to God,
when I'm weak, then I'm strong,
because I've got your strength, Lord.
It's got to come from you, Lord.
You know, it's your work.
It's your people.
God, you have to make it succeed.
Yeah, you know what?
And I can look back in my own life
and know there were times because of fear
that I didn't do what I needed to do.
You know, I can think back in times
when I knew I should give the gospel to this person,
but out of fear, I did not do it.
You know, fear is debilitating,
but our response is to turn to God.
Nehemiah's response,
now therefore, oh God, strengthen my hands,
because God, I can't just rely on my own strength.
I need your strength
to finish this work that you've given me to do.
Verse number 10.
Afterward, I came to the house of Shemaiah,
the son of Delahiah, the son of Mepheptebil,
who was shut up.
So Shemaiah's kind of shut up.
He's closed his doors.
We don't know exactly what's going on here,
but you know, one thing we learn
is that this guy is fearful,
and Nehemiah thinks that Shemaiah is a good guy
at this point in time,
but he's actually a bad guy, okay?
But he thinks he's a good guy at this point in time.
So he goes to this house
because obviously he's seeking some type of counsel.
This man is some type of prophet.
He knows God's word.
He's seeking some type of counsel from this man, right?
I'm getting the enemies.
They're on my back.
You know, so he goes to Shemaiah,
trying to talk about the situation,
get some counsel.
Anyway, it says, and he said,
so this is what Shemaiah said,
and he said, let us meet together in the house of God.
Well, that's good.
Let's go to church, right?
Oh, no, no, no.
That's what he's saying.
Within the temple, look at this,
and let us shut the doors of the temple,
for they will come to slay thee,
yea, in the night will they come to slay thee.
So this is the counsel from Shemaiah, the prophet.
He says, look, we just need to go
to the house of God, the temple,
close the door there, okay,
put security around us,
because they're coming to kill you today, tonight, Nehemiah.
They're coming to kill you tonight.
Say, man, that sounds like friendly advice.
That kind of sounds good, right?
And this is the, as I said to you,
this is the biggest problem with fear.
Fear will make you shut yourself up,
to not do, you know,
and accomplish the things that you're required to do.
I mean, what good is for Nehemiah
to be closed up in the temple?
I mean, he might as well go to the meeting then,
because he's going to get pulled away from the work.
Hey, hide yourself, Nehemiah.
They're coming to kill you.
Let's hide ourselves in the house of God.
Kind of sounds good, but as you soon see,
you know, this develops, it's not good at all, okay?
And as I said to you,
the biggest problem with fear is that it is debilitating.
You know, how many Christians would be so winning
if they did not have the fear?
You know, I went soul winning for the very first time
as a silent partner when I was about 21, I think,
and I had such a great time.
I had a great time, the soul got saved.
Isn't it awesome when you go for the first time
and someone gets saved?
I like it when I get a silent partner for the first time
and they experience a salvation on day number one,
because we know it doesn't always happen.
It's always nice when it happens, right?
And I got a, you know, I saw a salvation, praise God.
Why did you not just get into soul winning
straight away, Pastor Kevin?
I had a fear.
I was fearful.
Well, what if I do a bad job?
What if I don't present the gospel very well?
What if they ask me questions and I can't answer them?
You know, I'm embarrassment to my faith
and I'm embarrassment to my Jesus Christ, you know?
And what if there's a Mormon that wants to debate
and I don't know anything about Mormonism?
What if there's a Catholic and he wants to debate?
I don't know anything about Catholicism.
You know, and I'm fearful about knocking someone's door
because, man, you know.
But here's the thing, brethren,
how often do you get involved in a debate at the door?
You shouldn't, zero.
It shouldn't happen.
We're there to preach the gospel.
If you know why you're saved,
if you know what Jesus has done for you
to give you everlasting life,
then all you're doing is telling the person at the door
the same thing you already know.
In fact, you're the expert in that conversation.
They don't know the gospel.
You're there to give them the gospel, you know?
And, you know, it's learning, just like Nehemiah,
to stay on the priority.
The priority is the gospel,
not to get distracted with this conversation,
that conversation, stick to the gospel.
They don't want to hear the gospel.
Move on, find the person that does want to hear the gospel.
But, brethren, it was fear that stopped me
soul-winding for many, many years
until I got back into it late in my 20s, okay?
But I just think about, man,
I blew my chance to be out there, you know,
using my time in preaching the gospel of Jesus
because I was afraid, you know?
What if someone yells at me at the door?
You know, that's a fear of a lot of people.
What if someone gets agitated and aggressive at the door?
Yeah, I got some stats on that.
It happens like once in a thousand doors.
Like, I'm not saying that someone gets agitated
and kind of just gets a bit mad at you or them.
I'm talking about someone that is actually trying to,
you know, cause you trouble,
someone that tries to pick a fight,
someone that just openly curses you and swears at you
and tries to intimidate you.
Yeah, that stuff will only happen once in a thousand doors.
And I'm like, ah, man, I'm so afraid.
What about the 999 doors
that you're not gonna have to deal with that, though?
You know?
And so it's fear.
Fear stops us from solving.
Fear stops us from just giving the gospel to our friends,
our family that we love.
How will they respond?
What would they think of me if I'd given them the gospel?
You know, finding a spouse.
Fear can cause you to not look for those opportunities.
Ah, but if I get rejected, well, that's life.
We get rejected all the time.
You know, you go and apply for a job, you get rejected.
You get rejected, you get rejected.
I'm too afraid to get rejected.
You get rejected until someone accepts you.
That's life.
You know, but I'm afraid, yes, I know you're afraid.
I was afraid, too.
You know, when I went to ask my wife to marry me,
I was afraid.
I couldn't even get the words out of my mouth.
I didn't even know what I said.
I had the engagement ring.
I took it out of the car.
I walked up to Christina, who was sitting on a bench.
I didn't even know, I didn't even bet.
I had all my plan.
I'm going to get on one knee,
like they do in the movies, right?
I'm gonna say, will you marry me?
And I think I just, I think all I did
was just shove the ring in her face.
And I couldn't even speak.
Because I was too afraid.
But hey, you know, you power on anyway.
What if she rejected her?
She didn't reject me, thank God.
Okay, but you know, fear is debilitating.
She's like, just hide yourself from society.
Hide yourself in the house of God.
Hide yourself in your bedroom,
because the world is a dangerous place.
You know, it's not good.
It's not good to give into fear.
Like I said, you know, fear even just stops you working.
But what if I don't do a good job?
What, you know, if it stops from accepting the promotions
and the greater responsibilities,
but what if I fail?
Yeah, but you gotta go through that.
You gotta go through the challenge.
You know, you gotta get to a place of weakness
and turn to God and say, God, strengthen my hands.
That's right.
God, you help me.
God, you help me find my spouse.
God, you help me take on these extra responsibilities
in the workplace.
Lord, when I'm weak, then am I strong?
As long as I'm dependent upon you.
So don't give into the fear.
Don't shut yourself up, you know,
from all the concerns you may have.
And look, you know, did they really have a plan
to kill Nehemiah at night?
No, let's keep going there, verse 11.
This is how Nehemiah responds.
And I said, should such a man as I flee?
He goes, look, if I flee, such a man,
he's got responsibilities.
You know, he's the governor of the land.
Like, if I flee, what are people gonna say?
What's gonna happen?
Like, if I'm afraid, everyone's gonna be afraid.
If I run away, we're all gonna run away.
If I quit the job, everyone's gonna quit the job.
Should a man like me flee?
And who is there that being as I am
would go into the temple to save his life,
I will not go in?
And look at verse number 12.
And now he trusts, now again, that gut feeling,
that instinct steps into himself
and he goes, and lo, I perceived that God had not sent him.
That's Shemaiah, the prophet.
These are not words from God.
He goes, this is not what God's asking me to do, okay?
But that he pronounced this prophecy against me,
look at this, for Tobiah and St. Ballot had hired him.
Because this does not line up with what God's will is.
This does not line up with what God,
God did not send his prophet.
Hey, he's under the payroll of my enemies,
Tobiah and St. Ballot.
I feel sorry for Nehemiah, he's trying to get some counsel
and the guy he turns to is under the payroll
of his enemies, okay?
But I like how he says that God did not send this prophet.
And we need to compare man's words with God's words.
We have to.
If you come to this pastor and ask some godly counsel,
look, I'm gonna obviously do my best
to give you something biblical,
something that is within the framework of God.
But you know men make mistakes, did you know that?
Do you know pastors make mistakes?
You know pastors can give bad advice, bad counsel.
Maybe they give bad counsel out of ignorance,
just not knowing the full situation.
Now these things happen.
And let me just say one thing to you.
If you do come to me for some words of advice
or some counsel, I'm happy to give it to you.
When I do, I usually say, look, this is what I will do,
but I'm not in your shoes, I'm not you.
You've gotta figure out what to do.
This is what I will do.
And you need to figure it out.
Now listen, when you get counsel and advice,
it doesn't matter who it is.
Any other man, any other woman, any pastor,
you need to work out, is this what God wants?
Does this line up with God's will?
And obviously if you go into a bad church,
you go into some of these charismatic churches,
I've received a word from the Lord.
Well is that in the Bible?
Because I need to compare what you're hearing
with God's words.
I need to be able to perceive whether God has sent you
or whether he has not.
Is God using you or is he not using you?
I need to know these things.
Well but he's a prophet.
He's an apostle, that's all right.
I went to my first charismatic Pentecostal church
and we're singing these songs, getting in a trance,
and I'm like, when's the preaching gonna start?
Because I don't know, I feel like we're singing
like for an hour.
And it's like, well, the apostle just turned up.
The apostle, wow.
The apostle.
I never had any apostles in my Baptist church
when I went to, well, you know.
But then, you know, the guy preached for like five minutes
before he started to go into tongues
and then people started to fall over
and all this nonsense.
And you know what, that man was not sent by God.
That man did not preach the Bible, surprise.
You know, we need to make sure we listen to people
that are actually preaching and speaking God's words.
If you're giving counsel to someone else,
make sure you've lined up your words
with what God's word says.
And we need to do that.
We need to make sure, no matter who we're listening to,
Nehemiah went to the prophet.
The prophet was sold out, okay?
The prophet was under the peril of the enemies.
You must be careful with false prophets.
Verse number 13.
Therefore was he hired, look at this,
that I should be afraid.
It wasn't about protecting Nehemiah.
Nehemiah, come and hide yourself, keep yourself safe.
No, he did, he said these words to make me afraid,
to make me go, yeah, maybe I am gonna lose my life.
Let's go hide in the temple and stop the work
that's been done in the house of God.
And look at this, and do so and sin,
that they might have matter for an evil report
that they might reproach me.
See, fear can cause you to make some stupid decisions,
even sin.
What is the sin here?
Of course, you know, the temple, the house of God
was a place for the priests.
You know, if you're going to be in that place,
you've gotta go through all the ritual cleansing
that they had to do.
You know, you have to be one of the Levites,
you have to be the priest to even be there.
You know, I believe what he's saying here
is that if I do hide myself in the temple
for some period of time, that's not the right thing to do.
I'm not the right person, I'm not of the right tribe,
I haven't gone through all the washing
and all that stuff that needs to go through to be there,
and this will cause me to sin.
And brethren, we need to overcome sin.
You know, we need to, sorry, overcome fear,
because if you don't overcome fear,
your fear may cause you to commit some stupid things,
commit some type of sin.
Okay, oh, but I'm just defending myself.
I'm just listening to the counsel of this prophet.
Yeah, but they might be leading you into sin.
You know, we have to be able to overcome fear
by going to God and say, God, please strengthen me.
Please strengthen me.
Like, just hearing the words of this prophet,
it almost sounds great.
It almost sounds like wonderful advice.
Let's hide ourselves.
You know, protect your life.
Hey, even hide ourselves in the temple.
You know, this is why he goes,
I know this guy's not being sent by God,
because that's not the right thing to do.
You know, going into the temple
and hiding yourself in this manner
is not the right thing to do.
It's not something that God would ask me to do.
And so he's able to determine this
by comparing what the prophet said
with what God was saying.
Let's keep going to verse number 14.
My God, now he's praying to God again, Nehemiah.
He says, think thou upon Tobiah
and send ballot according to these, their works,
and on the prophetess, Neodiah.
So there's a female preacher here, Neodiah,
and the rest of the prophets, look at this,
that would have put me in fear.
So it's not just this one prophet.
There are other prophets, even the prophetess,
that are saying these words to Nehemiah,
not for his protection, but to make him fearful,
to make him afraid.
You know, and it says to God, you know,
can you please remember these guys, what they're doing?
Can you, you know, bring your vengeance
upon these wicked people?
Anyway, let's keep going to verse number 15.
So the war was finished, praise God.
Nehemiah was not distracted, right?
He turned to God when he was fearful.
He got the work done, he got his priorities set right.
So the war was finished in the 20 and fifth day
of the month Elul, in 50 and two days.
And it came to pass that when all our enemies
heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about us
saw these things, look at this,
they were much cast down in their own eyes,
for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God.
The work that Nehemiah did honored God.
Even the enemies had to admit,
Nehemiah's had all these things against him.
And now the wars are just going to rebuild,
and the enemies just have to admit,
this must have been by the hand of God, okay?
And you know, we need to think about this.
I know we live in a wicked world.
I know we live in a godless world, you know, false religion.
But brethren, if we just keep serving the Lord,
not get distracted, right?
Do the works that God has asked us to do.
Then brethren, even the heathen will turn around and say,
you know what, they're doing the work of God.
God has helped, you know, new life at this church.
God has helped this family.
God has helped this individual
to accomplish this work for him.
It keeps going there, verse number 17.
Moreover, in those days, the nobles of Judah,
now before I keep going,
so far we have looked at some of the nobles
in the past chapters, and they've always been bad news.
They've never been these great people, right?
First of all, they don't want to get involved in the work.
It's just too low for them.
Secondly, they're charging interest usury
on their fellow Jews that were poorer than them.
So when we hear about the nobles now,
is it going to be good stuff or bad stuff?
It's probably going to be negative, right?
Verse number 17.
Moreover, in those days, the nobles of Judah,
look at this, sent many letters unto Tobiah,
and the letters of Tobiah came unto them.
What?
Tobiah's the enemy of Nehemiah,
and the nobles of Judah,
they're communicating with the enemies.
You know, they're keeping the peaceful relationships.
They're keeping the political correspondence going,
even though Nehemiah wants nothing to do with these guys.
Why are they doing this?
I think it's interesting.
Verse number 18, this is why.
For there were many in Judah sworn unto him,
that's sworn unto Tobiah, why?
Because he was the son-in-law of Shechemiah,
the son of Arar,
and his son Jehonan had taken the daughter
of Meshalem, the son of Barachiah.
So Tobiah had married into the Jews, okay?
Like, you know, he's got a prominent position,
and he's married into a prominent position
amongst the nobles, and they've got this relationship,
and it's like, you know,
the nobles have made friendship with Tobiah,
Tobiah knows them all,
and Nehemiah, you know, he's just doing God's work, right?
He doesn't want to be a problem.
He just wants to strengthen Jerusalem.
He's doing the work, not just God's work,
he's doing the work that the king of Persia asked him to do.
God put that in the heart of King Cyrus, right, to do.
But no one likes Nehemiah.
No one likes him, not even the people that are benefiting
from the work that Nehemiah is doing, the nobles.
Why, because they've got this relationship with Tobiah.
He's married into the family.
He's got a prominent position.
Reverend, they're a respecter of persons.
They're a respecter of persons, high status,
imported with the Samaritans,
married into a noble family here in the Jews,
you know, intermingled themselves, you know,
as we know that God, you know,
asked the Israelites to not marry the heathen.
Why, because they worshiped false gods.
All right, there was nothing wrong.
People of other nations migrating into Israel,
because once they migrated into Israel,
they were to not be treated as strangers.
All right, they were to be as people born in the land.
Of course, if they'll come into that nation,
they were there to serve the Lord and to worship the Lord.
Nothing wrong with that in of itself.
But the fact that these people are creating alliances
with people that do not worship the Lord God, okay.
And Nehemiah, even though he's not political in that sense,
he's just doing the work, but he's causing problems,
you know, to Tobiah, to St. Valet,
but also to the nobles.
They're kind of embarrassed by Nehemiah, you know,
at what he's doing, because he's creating enemies,
not on purpose, but he's creating enemies
through his work against the Samaritans.
Let's keep going there, verse number 19.
Also, they reported his good deeds before me.
They're saying, like, Tobiah's a good guy, okay,
and uttered my words to him,
and Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear.
So Tobiah's going through the nobles,
he's trying to work his way around
to get into the ears of Nehemiah to cause him to fear.
Hey, but Nehemiah finished the work, praise God.
You know, Nehemiah is not a respecter of persons.
It doesn't matter whose toes get stepped on,
he's got a responsibility, he's got to work,
he's building the walls, he's gonna get it done,
no matter what people say.
Even if he's fearful, he says,
no, we're going to prioritize this,
I'm gonna go to God and be strengthened by him.
And brethren, that is the role of a preacher,
is to not be a respecter of persons.
I know sometimes when I preach,
I know someone's gonna get a little uncomfortable.
I know these, like, obviously.
But you know, that's not my goal.
My goal is just to do God's work.
My goal is just to lead New Life Baptist Church.
My goal is just to lead Blessed Hope Baptist Church.
My goal is just to do what God wants,
and to love God's people, and to love the Lord God.
You know, please, if I ever offend you by a sermon,
like, I'm not gonna call you out individually,
and say, hey, you know, Brother Callum,
you know, I'm sick of his Christmas hymns.
I'm not gonna say that.
I'm not gonna, you know, obviously,
I'm not gonna call you out individually.
But listen, brethren, if I ever preach,
and you know it's coming from God's word,
and you get offended, you know,
please don't get angry at me.
You know, please say, at least I have a pastor
that loves me enough to preach God's word.
That's the right approach.
You know what, and if I get offended by this,
and if Tobiah over there gets offended,
you know, I'm not gonna try to appease him,
and say, hey, yeah, you're right,
pastor shouldn't have preached that issue,
you know, because you're in that situation.
You know, we just gotta do the work
that God has given us to do.
You know, we don't want a prophet like the other guy.
What was the other guy's name?
You know, preaching things that God never preached.
We don't want that kind of prophet in this church.
We don't want that kind of preacher,
that kind of pastor in this church.
So let me encourage you, brethren, please,
if I ever upset you, offend you,
hey, maybe come up to me individually,
and I'll say sorry, I have no problem saying sorry,
but I'm not gonna say sorry for preaching God's word.
Okay, I'm not gonna say sorry for preaching God's word.
So brethren, responding to fear.
We all get afraid from time to time,
but please, immediately, go to the Lord.
Ask for God's strength, okay?
Don't give into that fear.
It's going to debilitate you.
It's gonna stop you from doing the works
that God wants you to do.
Please turn to him, and if he strengthens you,
when the Lord strengthens you,
you're stronger than you'll ever be in your own flesh.
Okay, brethren, let's pray.