The Builder's Fight

We as a church are currently in the midst of 21 days of prayer and fasting, as well as our annual Kingdom Builders offering. Our 5th birthday is coming up in February 🤯and we are believing God for $50,000! Talk about big vision! Through prayer we have decided $30,000 will go to the things we are called to locally in Wilmington and $20,000 will go globally to the work we do with our partners in Southern Africa. If you would like to give follow the link 828church.com/give and use the pull-down tab for Kingdom Builders. Thank you for building God's kingdom with us!

Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. Nehemiah 4:1 ESV

The voice that declares we’re to weak and broken should serve only to remind us of the beauty and power of restoration.

And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?” Nehemiah 4:2 ESV

Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Yes, what they are building if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall!” Nehemiah 4:3 ESV

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be[a] against us? Romans 8:31 ESV
Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders. Nehemiah 4:4-5 ESV

So we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. Nehemiah 4:6 ESV

But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry. And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. Nehemiah 4:7-8 ESV

The enemy knows he can’t overcome the wall so he attacks the workers.

And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night. Nehemiah 4:9 ESV

In Judah it was said, “The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble. By ourselves we will not be able to rebuild the wall.” And our enemies said, “They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work.” At that time the Jews who lived near them came from all directions and said to us ten times, “You must return to us.” Nehemiah 4:10-12 ESV

The safest place to be is the place of obedient trust!

So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people by their clans, with their swords, their spears, and their bows. Nehemiah 4:13 ESV
And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.” Nehemiah 4:14 ESV

If the battle is personal, the fight should be passionate!

When our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan, we all returned to the wall, each to his work. From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah, who were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other. And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me. Nehemiah 4:15-18 ESV

And I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another. In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.” Nehemiah 4:19-20 ESV

Worship is a weapon the enemy can’t overcome!

So we labored at the work, and half of them held the spears from the break of dawn until the stars came out. I also said to the people at that time, “Let every man and his servant pass the night within Jerusalem, that they may be a guard for us by night and may labor by day.” So neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes; each kept his weapon at his right hand. Nehemiah 4:21-23 ESV