Greetings, friends. This is Dave Barba of Press On Ministries, happy to be with you. Join me now as we continue our study of the Word of God. Greetings to all. It's my pleasure to be with you here as we continue studying the exciting book of Nehemiah. It's a book of building, and as we'll probably discover very soon, it's also a book of battling. Someone called this the autobiography of Nehemiah, the king's cupbearer. This was his call to the wall. And that's what God did. He used his power, his providential control and direction, his sovereign control to let the king that he was serving, that's King Artaxerxes at that time, help him to go back to Jerusalem, help rebuild the broken down wall. This is the last historical book of the Old Testament. And we'll see here, 52 days it took the Jews to rebuild the broken down walls in Jerusalem. We have looked at chapter one, where God called Nehemiah, spoke to him, and Nehemiah prayed and said, Lord, give us grace to go forgive us of our sins and let us get back to the work and rebuild the wall. And then in chapter two, God used the king to give Nehemiah the passport, the letters, and even the equipment and the things he needed to help rebuild the wall and protection as he traveled. Then in chapter two, he makes it to the wall. He looks at it very carefully. By the nighttime, the Bible says in chapter two, verse 15, he viewed the wall entered by the gate of the valley. And he told the leaders, this wall needs to be rebuilt. In verse 18, chapter 2, he said, let us rise up and build. The next phrase says, so they strengthened their hands for this good work. And we'll see throughout this book, there would be time when they'd be discouraged, but they'd strengthened their hands. There would be times when they wondered if they'd get it done. They were facing opposition, but God stepped in and helped them to finish the job that he wanted them to do. Chapter 3, we see them beginning to work on the wall. All kinds of folks were used. The goldsmiths were used. The governmental workers were used. The outside helpers were used. Businessmen, merchants, families, fathers, mothers, kids on the wall. Sad to say, there were some shirkers who didn't help much, but that's in every situation of building, isn't it? Do you have any like that in your local church? Well, love them, pray for them. Try to motivate them and let them realize the only thing they'll ever see is what they did for God when they get to heaven. And then in chapter four, we're going to see here where they faced opposition. And in chapter four, we're looking at what I call five principles of successful building. Five principles of successful building. We have looked at principle number one that's found in the first few verses, and that is facing opposition. You say, that's not too encouraging, but my friend, it is a fact. If you're going to build a church for God, you can expect to face opposition. If you're going to build a life for God, that is your life, to bring glory to Him, you're going to have opposition, for Satan doesn't want us truly be used of God. So, principle number one, opposition. And the people faced it. You remember they called them names? Fetal Jews, you won't sacrifice, you'll give up in a day, the fox will knock down your work, you'll never, but you know what they did? They responded by calling out to God in prayer. In chapter 4, verse 4, the people sought God. They turned to God. Here, O our God, for we are despised, they said in verse 4. Turn their reproach upon their own head. Give them for a prey in the land of activity. And these folks were praying that God would be exalted. He would take care of the enemy because they were enemies not of Nehemiah and the Jews, though they probably were, but they were enemies ultimately of who? God. For when we face opposition and we are building, folks are fighting against Almighty God to stop the work of God. We must remember that. In any situation we're used to build, whether it be building a Sunday school class, or a family, or a local church, or our own personal life. And I love verse six, following their prayer, says, so built we the wall, and all the wall was joined together under the half thereof, so they succeeded. They got the wall halfway as high as they needed. They're succeeding. But then we press on in verse seven, chapter four, Nehemiah, verse seven. But it came to pass that when Sanballat and Tobiah, they're bad guys, and the Arabians, the Ammonites, the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very rough. So principle number three in building is this. you must take advantage of discouragement. That's what the people are doing here in this passage. They're taking advantage of the fact that they were facing discouragement and the enemy, they were turning up the heat. I mean, here we have the United Nations of evil guys. These folks saw the unbelievable progress of the Jews, so they got together more nations. Sanballat and Tobiah organized a group. They advanced their opposition from mocking to what? killing. They were ready to kill. Verse 8 says, they conspired all of them to come and to fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it. That's the evil spirit of the devil. He will do anything that he knows he can get away with to stop you from building what God has called you to build. Whether it be a successful local church, or even your own personal life, progressive sanctification, trying to know God more and grow in the image of Christ. Now, what happened? Well, because of that, those kinds of threats, the Jews got discouraged. And when they were discouraged, they, rather than give up and quit, they turned up the heat. Listen to verse nine. Nevertheless, that is, after they said they're going to fight us, we made our prayer unto our God, set a watch against them day and night because of them. And Judah said, the strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed and there is much rubbish. We are not able to build the wall. Our adversary said, they shall not know, neither see till we come in the midst of them and slay them and cause the work to cease. In verse 12, came to pass that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us 10 times, from all places which ye shall return unto us, they will be upon you. Now, it's obvious they were discouraged. There was rubbish in the way. The enemy threatened them and ready to take them out. So rather than just give up and quit, They took advantage of that by what the text tells us, praying and watching. They prayed in the time of discouragement. Verse nine, we set a watch. We meant our prayer to God. How about us? Did we do that? They not only prayed, but they took action setting a watch, 24-hour watch on the walls to be ready for the enemy. Now, sometimes we send up an arrow of prayer, but we really, in times of discouragement, need to do more than that. We can pray and pray and pray and pray, but we also have to get up, get out sometimes, do something for God. helps conquer discouragement. Somebody said we have a worrying side in our brain and a working side. Have you ever been worrying much about a problem, discouraged about something in your life or maybe in the life of somebody you love? When does worry seem to subside? When you start to do something about it. That's when it becomes super difficult when you realize you can't do something to help someone or change the situation. But what we can do, ask God, show me how to get out of this hole of discouragement. Nehemiah prayed and then protected his people, protected himself. Prayer and action. Like Oliver Cromwell, remember, trust in God and keep your power dry. If we think to secure ourselves by prayer alone, without watchfulness, we are slothful. We tempt God. If by watchfulness without prayer, we're proud and we slight God. And either way, we forfeit his protection. Story is told that Evangelist D.L. Moody was crossing the Atlantic in a boat and there was a great fire on that ship. Somebody looked at Moody and said, Mr. Moody, let's go to the other end of the ship and pray about this fire. Moody said, no, we need to stand right here, past the buckets, and pray hard all the time. So my friend, pray about that unsaved loved one. Ask God to save his soul from hell. Then do what you can to get him to church. Give him a gospel tract. Do what you can to share the gospel with him. Not being obnoxious, but doing it with compassion. Pray about that one and then do something. You pray about winning people to Christ and being a witness? Well, then put some tracts in your pocket. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to somebody you can tell about Jesus. Maybe you're praying about being a sacrificial giver. You heard a message at the Missing Conference. Well, get out your checkbook and sacrifice. Give to God's work. Now, maybe you say, I need to grow more in the image of Christ. So you pray about growing more into the image of Christ. And then what do you do? You read your Bible. You go to church. Every time the door is open, you pray and then you work. Sad to say, sometimes, rather than take advantage of discouragement, we let it get us down to the point of despair. And we start questioning God. rather than trusting God. If you're in an area of your life right now, discouragement, I'm sorry that you're facing that. My heart goes out to you. I've been there too. I mean, we're human. We have the old nature. We'll fight that end of the day. We see the Lord, but. Get on your knees before God, open the Bible, and say, Lord, speak to me. Maybe you just need to start reading in the book of the Psalms and say, Lord, give me a Bible verse or a passage that will help me. Holy Spirit, encourage me because you're my comforter. You may even need to do more than that. Call your pastor. Call a Christian friend that you know is right with God and seems to seek the face of God. Get help. Iron sharpens iron. Don't fall into the hole of discouragement and pull with a shovel dirt over on top of yourself to bury yourself in self-pity, martyr complex, and failure spiritually. Get the help you need. It is there. Cry out to God, Lord, help me to know who to talk to, who to go to, to get strength so I can have victory over this discouraging thing. That's what they did. enemy was about to destroy and hurt them, they prayed to God, God heard their prayer, and then they got ready for the battle. Join us on the next study and we will see that the people battled while they built. As we seek God, willing to have itch over discouragement and find the help we need, God will send it. And then, even though the devil tried to take us out, we can, by grace, press on. Thanks my friend for listening. This is Dave Barba of Press On Ministries, dedicated to sharing Jesus with the world. Please visit our website, IPressOn.com to find our books, music, and radio schedule. You can download this broadcast and see how to help us share God's Word around the world. Visit us today at iPressOn.com. That's I-P-R-E-S-S-O-N.com. Thank you for praying and for caring as we labor to teach truth and encourage all to press on.