Nehemiah, please, if you're not there already. Nehemiah chapter number 4. You say, Pastor, where is the book of Nehemiah? Well, start in Genesis, and you will get there eventually. You'll pop to it. But you can go to the book of Psalms or Proverbs, move to your left a little bit, and you'll come back to the book of Nehemiah. Chapter number 4, I'd like to begin reading in verse number 1. I'm going to read several verses. If you don't have a Bible or Scripture, I believe it will be put on the screen for you as well. Nehemiah chapter four, verse number one, the Bible says, but it came to pass that when Senballet heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth and took great indignation and mocked the Jews. And he spake before his brethren in the army of Samaria and said, what do these feeble Jews? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they make an end in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned? Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall. Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity. Cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee, for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders. So built we the wall, and all the wall was joined together under the half thereof, for the people had a mind to work. But it came to pass that when Senballan and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashtodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth, and conspired all of them together to come up and to fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it. Nevertheless, we made our prayer unto God, and 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, so that we are not able to build the wall. And our adversary said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease. It came to pass that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us ten times, From all places when she shall return unto us, they will be upon you. Therefore said I in the lower places behind the wall, and on the higher places I even set the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows. And I looked and rose up and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, be not ye afraid of them. Remember the Lord, which is great and terrible. The word terrible in the King James means awesome. And fight for your brethren, your sons and your daughters, your wives, and your houses. I want you to notice the phrase here in verse number 14, where it says, fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your houses. I want to talk this morning about this particular subject about fighting for your children. There are those of you here today, many parents that we had come up and we prayed for you. Many of you are involved with your grandchildren. Some of you here today are a born-again teacher, staff member, and you have some children that you're influencing. So I trust that this message, though it's particularly applied to parents, may every person apply the truths that are given today as we talk about this subject. And let's pray together, ask the Lord's blessing upon the Word of God. Father, I thank you for this day. Thank you for the families that are here in attendance. Thank you for the good spirit already. The singing. I pray right now that you just cause our heart to be still. May we not focus on anything of later today, this week. But I pray that, Lord, you would cause us to be attentive to the Word of God. And may you speak to us here today. And we pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. If you're not familiar with the book of Nehemiah, This book is actually a very simple book that is built around one man and a mission that he has. Nehemiah the man is a very simple man. Again, he's of the tribe of Judah, one of the 12 tribes of Israel. And he finds himself here in this book, as it's written, as a foreigner in the country of Persia, where his family had been taken away from their homeland 70 years prior. He had earned great trust from the king and his court and actually had risen up to the position known as a cup bearer. Now we may not be overly familiar with what a cup bearer is, but I want you to know that this position was a very honorable position and there was great confidence given to the one who held this position. The job description of a cup bearer was very simple. taste every drink and sample every bit of food before it enters the king's mouth." Well, one day while Nehemiah is in the palace, he gets some word from the Jews who had already gone back to the land and this word comes back from a contemporary of his by the name of Ezra. The report that comes back is not a good one because the conditions there in their beloved city of Jerusalem is still very bad. The people that had gone were still having trouble. The walls were still broken down and the gates had been burned. And there's three things in the very beginning of the book of Nehemiah that he does that really makes all the difference of this particular book in the Bible. Nehemiah begins to weep and mourn over the condition of his people and his beloved city. He then prays to the Lord and asks for God's guidance and then he goes to work through the king and he seeks out some help in order to remedy the situation. Now that brings us to the mission that Nehemiah has. The mission of this whole book and of this man, Nehemiah, is to go back to the city of Jerusalem and rebuild the wall around that city. Now we may not fathom much of the importance of a wall around a city today, but I want you to understand that it was very important in the days that Nehemiah lived. The wall served as a protection for all the inhabitants of the city. Without a wall, that city was open and very vulnerable to marauders, thieves, and those who would come in and attack. And Nehemiah, based upon his mourning and his desire to get back and his vision to build that wall, he recognizes the fact that without that wall, the people of Israel will not be able to worship God as God would so desire. And so this is what brings us to chapter number 4. Nehemiah secures from the king a grant, if you will, to be able to go back with money and certain possessions and to be able to get back to the city and rebuild the wall. But I'm telling you something, as we've read already here in chapter 4, if you're going to do anything for God, there will always be opposition. Man, I was so moved by Principal Schwartz and sharing what he shared today and how he loves his staff and working with his staff. But Principal Schwartz, you're old enough to recognize there will be opposition this year. Any spiritual task that you undertake, there will be opposition. Nehemiah and the people were busy building the wall, but they were harassed. They were opposed. and they were threatened by an enemy. And Nehemiah, knowing the importance of the wall, tells the people to get up there with their tools and to fight for their families. How amazing this passage of Scripture, these 14 verses we read here, how much they parallel us today and are very applicable to what we have as parents, As a church, you and I are given tools by God to build a wall of protection around our family. But I'm telling you, the enemy is doing all he can to wage war against you. He's trying to divide mom and dad apart. He's trying to divide parent from children. He's trying to do everything he can to oppose the work that you're doing. But I want to tell you something. There is a rally cry today from this pulpit, and there is a rally cry for all of us, and that is to gather your families together, to give them the tools that they need, and to fight for your children. Let's take this passage today, if we could, and talk about the war that we're in, the spiritual battle. And let's encourage one another to fight for our families. Let me remind you of a couple of things according to this passage. First of all, I want you to notice that you and I, if we're going to fight for our children, we ought to fight for the proper course. We ought to fight for the proper course. Now, if you're going to go the proper direction and fight in the right way and in the right manner, you need to, first of all, be focused on what is necessary. how amazing the focus of the Israelites could be so much on the problems that they had before them. Notice, if you will, I read this in verse number 10, I want you to note here, Judah said, the strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and notice this next phrase, he says, and there is much rubbish. Now, I've tried to envision, if I could, those broken down walls. When we use the word rubbish, we're referring to maybe trash that we may throw away, things that are to be discarded. But it wasn't so much of trash as we think about it today. But I believe that those walls that had been broken down were heaped up and it was an obstacle that was in their way, and all they could see was not the finished product, but all they saw was the problem of the broken walls. The area looked disastrous. The area seemed like it could not be possible to rebuild those walls. The cleanup job would have been too much to do, but it was so easy to focus on that, but also it would have been easy to focus on the enemy. Day after day, Sambalad and Tobiah and all of the enemy would come and would taunt these people, would oppose them, would harass them. And I'm guaranteeing you today that every time that these Jewish people got to put another brick down, they would be taunted by the enemy. And how easy it is to be focused on all of the negativity. Oh, this enemy came in and basically observed the plans and basically had a surprise attack and it was known to the Jewish people. Verse number 12, notice what the people say here. They come to Nehemiah and ten times they come to him. Hey, Nehemiah, do you realize that they're going to return upon us and they're going to try to destroy what we do? Ten times they tell him. So can you imagine here, the focus is on the problems. But I'm telling you today that you cannot focus on the problems because if you do, you will find yourself as a parent, as a teacher, you'll find yourself powerless and weak in accomplishing what God has asked you to accomplish. Today, you as a parent might be focused on all the social media problems. and they abound. There's a lot of problems out there today with social media. You might be focused on the problems that could be in your school, your family, or your particular friends. You might be so focused today as you look around at our world, at the ills of our society, and how corrupt things are. But may I remind you today that as long as you focus on the problems, you'll never accomplish what God wants you to. What does Nehemiah do as a leader? Nehemiah, look at verse number four. When they hear all of these things in verses one through three, notice where Nehemiah immediately goes. Hear, O our God. Instead of looking horizontally, he looked up vertically at God. And I'm going to guarantee today, no matter whether you're a parent or you're dealing with problems in your own personal life, as long as you view the problems and continue looking at them, you'll find yourself weak and unable to accomplish that which you need to. But my friend, get your attention on God and He'll help you. Notice in verse number 6, not only does he get his attention on God, but in verse number 6, he gets their attention on the wall. Hey, get back to the task at hand. Then he gets their attention on their families in verse number 14. Oh, I'll tell you, the devil knows that if he can get your attention off the wall, off of the mission, off of your children, off of the duties that he's called you to do, then I'll tell you what, you'll become afraid. You'll be discouraged. You'll be defeated. You'll find yourself weak in accomplishing anything good for your family. So I'm going to tell you here today, you've got to get on and fight for the proper course by focusing on what is necessary. Number two, not only focusing, but be faithful to that which matters most. Be faithful to that which matters most. You know, it's pretty incredible how many things we worry about that we have no control over. It's amazing to me as well how many things get in the way in this life that deter us from the most important things. Could I remind you today, some of you need a good old dose of faithfulness. Faithfulness to God in your life. Faithfulness to your spouse. Faithfulness to your children. Faithfulness to the house of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 58, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 4 verse 2, Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. whether you feel like it or not, whether you're discouraged or happy, whether there are trials in your life or all is well, whether you have all your kids doing well or some are troubled, decide today to be faithful to God and do what is before you as a parent. But be focused, be faithful, but notice, be fervent in your task. I noted that Nehemiah seemed to be very much on the ball encouraging the people of God and keeping them engaged in the work. To fulfill your role as a parent, you cannot be passive. May I remind you today, the world is not passive in the marketing of their philosophy. Through television, Hollywood, social media, and various other outlets, our children are being lured into a godless way. This is why you as a parent, a teacher, a grandparent, must be fervent. Be fervent in your relationship with Jesus Christ. Be fervent in guiding your children. Be fervent in knowing what is going on in their life. Oh, how many times there are parents whose children get up into their teen years and they don't know who their friends are. They don't know where they are at any given hour of the day. I'm telling you, a good parent who is fervent, and they are on top of these things. So I want to encourage you, fight for the proper course. Number two, fight the personal conflicts. Fight the personal conflicts. You know what the Israelites, when I read this chapter, here's what I believe they had to conquer for themselves. They had to conquer fear and disappointment. Disappointment and seeing the walls broken down. Fear in the enemy coming after them. And I want to say to you parents today that there are some personal things in your own life that you need to conquer if you're going to be effective with your children. Every parent must conquer here this particular thing of anger. Far too many parents who do not discipline their children when it is necessary find themselves getting angry with their children when those children misbehave. May I say that yelling and showing fleshly anger will never accomplish what is needed in the life of a child? Please understand there's nothing wrong with correcting a child when they've done something wrong. But I want to tell you it's wrong to act in anger, to degrade a child, to belittle them, to express anger. When you allow fleshly anger to govern your life, you're provoking and influencing your children away from God. Your children need acceptance, not anger. There are many parents today, you need to fight this personal conflict, not only of anger, but of apathy. There are a lot of parents, sadly, who do not get involved in their child's life. Their children are living life and it seems that parents on one side of the world and the children on the other side of the world. It's important to take time with them in all aspects of their life. Take time to go to church with your children. Don't just send your children to church. be involved in their schoolwork, attend their sporting events, do fun things with them, have a strong desire to be involved even when they get into their teen years. And I must say that if you're going to be a person who's gonna fight apathy, you need to know what is going on and be involved. Too many parents sadly are afraid to jump in because they fear they might lose their kids. But you know, there's a very important verse in Deuteronomy chapter six, verse number seven, where it talks about the duty of parents as they come to their children and teach them. The Bible says that they're not just to simply teach them, they are to diligently teach their children. That word diligence is a very important word because it references here, it comes from a root word, which means the sharpening of an arrow. And in the sharpening of an arrow, there is a great deal of effort that is involved, and you as a parent, if you're going to avoid being apathetic, it's important that you are involved. You know, there's four main styles of parenting today. A few years ago, I had come across this particular study, and I want to share this with you, and I want you to consider where you might be today. There's the neglectful parent. These parents tend to avoid their children. They'd rather do anything else and be anywhere else than with their children. They leave the children feeling unloved. That's the neglectful parent. There's the permissive parent. These are the parents that allowed the child to lead. This is actually where the apathetic parent lives. The parent's lack of concern leads them to allow their child to have bad behavior. Thirdly, there's another type of parent. This is the authoritarian parent. This is the parent that pushes the child to conform rather than mature. This parent has all the rules, but no relationship. Sadly, this parent does not know the power of what it means to praise your children when they do well. But I wanna share this last one, and this is where we need to consider, and this is the authoritative parent. Now, this is different than the authoritarian. This is the authoritative parent. This parent fellowships with and leads their child to maturity. In the context of fellowship and the context of fun, things can be dealt with in a very natural way. It's how important it is for you to consider where you are as a parent. But then lastly, I want you to fight the personal conflict of absenteeism. Years ago in a previous generation, you could count on parents being home. You could count on the fact that a dad would come home from work, and there would be the evening meal. A mom, most of the time, would be home throughout the day, and those parents could be counted on. Now, I understand today, maybe in our economic times that we live in, that it does force both parents to work, and I get that. But I want to encourage you today, even if you lead a busy life because of work, may I encourage you that whatever time God has given you to be at home, to be with your children, spend time with them. Don't spend time with them on the phone, don't spend time with them just simply watching television, but do what it takes to be with them. But I give this lastly, And that is what I see about this passage of Scripture is not only that did Nehemiah fight to get the proper course and fight the personal conflicts, but Nehemiah fought the public corruption. These enemies that were coming after him to deter the Israelites from the work, Nehemiah had to decide what he was going to do. And he fought the public corruption. You know, our country today, sadly, is living in some wicked times. But I want to tell you that the answer is not to withdraw from all of society. Now, I believe in a separated life. I believe every Christian ought to live a distinctive Christian life. I believe that people ought to see and know that there's something different in your life. But I want to tell you, you and I need not separate and be gone and vanished, if you will, from all society, but we ought to be publicly, actively engaged in fighting the corruption of this world. And as we raise our children, how important it is to give them the tools to live in this godly society. How can you and I fight the public corruption? Well, look with me, if you will, at verse four and verse number nine. I love this. When Nehemiah begins to share about what Samballot and Tobiah are doing and the mocking and the deterring of everything. You know what Nehemiah does? He comes right to God in prayer. Look at verse 9. It says here, Nevertheless, we made our prayer unto God. What does Nehemiah do in the midst of this public corruption? He comes before God and he prays. What can you and I do in regards to the public corruption? Sadly, many people come into church with their arms crossed and they just bemoan everything that they've watched on the news the last week. They come in and they talk about, can you believe this is happening? Can you believe this is happening? And sadly, there are far too many Christians who are shortsighted and think, well, if we just got this particular elected official in, if we got this president, if we got this person, I want to tell you something, the way to change America and the godless society that we live in is not just at the voting booth, but it's in the prayer closet. It's coming before God and asking Him. It's coming before God and saying, Oh God, move upon this president, move upon this governor, move upon these elected officials. Oh God, help our society. Oh God, help my children as they go to school. Oh Lord, be with this principal at this particular school. Oh God, help my teachers to have a good influence on my children. My friend, I want to encourage you today. You may not feel like you can do a whole lot in this society, but you have a God that can do everything and can move mountains. Pray to God and God will help you. Look to Him. Every Wednesday in Principal Schwartz, I think you've heard this before, but every Wednesday we have listed in our prayer bulletin your name. and the other principals in our schools and we lift your name up and we pray for you. Because especially after what I heard today and how you shared from your heart the desires you have for the school and the teachers that are there. Wow, I want to get behind and pray for this principal. He's got a job at hand. And how important it is that we pray for people like this. But fighting the public corruption is not just praying, but may I say it's committing to the mission at hand. Look at verse number 15. I did not read this verse, but it says, And it came to pass, when our enemies heard that it was known unto us, and God had brought their counsel to naught, that we returned, all of us to the wall, every one unto his work. Powerful. After Nehemiah the leader got their attention unto God to pray, to focus on Him, he got them back to the mission at hand, which what was the most important thing for them at that moment was to build the wall. What's our important task today? It's to win people to Jesus Christ. Now may I say today, you may be a teacher, you may be a stay-at-home parent, You may be a plumber, an electrician, a lawyer, a doctor, a nurse. I don't know what it is that you do, but our main mission as a born-again believer is to give people the gospel of Jesus Christ and see people come to a saving knowledge of that Savior. That's our job. You say, preacher, are you serious that really our main message and our main mission is really just to get the gospel out there? Absolutely. Because may I remind you of this fact that when you save a person, that is, when you give the gospel and God comes in and births them and causes them to be a child of God, there is a change from the inside out. And how wonderful it is that as I look across this auditorium and numbers of you in the last number of years who have trusted Jesus as Savior, there's been a change in your life. And how powerful it is to share the good news of Christ and to get our mission out there of telling people that there is a Savior. My friend, today as a parent, I want to just encourage you, Nehemiah got with his people and got them on track to do what God had called them to do. God has called you as parents here today to raise your children It's very easy to focus on all the problems. It's very easy to focus on all the issues at hand. But I want to encourage you here today that God has given you those children and God will give you the ability to do what you need to do. Though the hurdles and obstacles seem great, God will help you. But I tell you, one of the greatest ways in which God will help you is when you get on God's team and you get a part of God's family. You may be here today and you may say, well, preacher, I'm not really part of any church. And look, we're encouraged here to invite people to be part of a church if they don't have a church. But I want to tell you, more importantly than you being part of a local church is for you to be a part of God's family. You say, how do I become a part of God's family? You place your faith and your confidence and your hope in what Jesus did for you to give you eternal life. You have to understand there's nothing you can do to gain eternal life. There's no amount of church attendance. There's no amount of money given to the local organizations. There's no amount of good works that you can accomplish that would be satisfactory to God that God would say, you know what? You're a pretty good person. I'll let you come to heaven. The only way a person gets to heaven is through Jesus Christ. God loved you so much that he gave of his son to die on the cross to pay your sin debt. And if you by faith would believe in Jesus Christ, you can have eternal life. Can we bow our heads, please, and close our eyes as we close in prayer? Lord, I thank you for this day. Thank you for the opportunity to share the word of God. Thank you for the attention of these dear people. And I pray today that you'd help families. Oh, we're living in this hard society, but Lord, you can enable us to do what needs to be done. And we're going to have a special word of prayer for families here, but I am concerned about those that may be here today without Jesus Christ. While heads are bowed and eyes are closed here today, no one looking around, I'm just going to go ahead and ask this simple question. Are you here today and you're part of God's family? In other words, there's been a time previous to today when you asked the Lord Jesus to come in your heart and save you from your sins. You placed your faith in Jesus Christ, His finished work on Calvary. And you say, Preacher, I'm a child of God. I know it. I'm saved. I'm going to heaven. I have no doubt about it. I'd like you to do me a favor, just while heads are bowed, eyes are closed, as a way of testimony that you know Jesus, would you just lift your hand for just a moment? Don't need to say anything, just lift your hand for just a moment. God bless you, may I put it down. Now, honestly, I couldn't see every hand, but it's possible you couldn't raise your hand. Maybe you didn't understand what I was asking. Maybe you truly do not know Jesus as Savior. Then I want to tell you that you're in the best place right now, because right now you could become a child of God. You say, how do I do that? You pray something simple like this, Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. And I cannot save myself, but I believe Jesus. You died on the cross and paid for my sins, and I'd like to accept you as my Savior and ask you to forgive me of my sins. How many are here today and say, Preacher, I'd like to pray that prayer, and I'd like to ask Jesus to be my Savior. I'd like to know that I'm on my way to heaven. Would you just lift your hand for just a moment? Anyone here today? Preacher, I'm not saved, but I'd like to be saved. Just while heads are bowed, eyes are closed. I'm not saved, but I'd like to be saved. You're here today. I do this here today because I want to be sure that every person understands the gospel, what it means to know Christ. Now families, today could I invite you, you've come up once, we've had a public word of prayer for you, but maybe there's something I've shared in the message here today that has affected you in a great way and you'd like to really come and pray and do business with God. Could I invite you today, why don't you come make your way here at the altar? Come up to the stairs, you could kneel at the stairs, stand in the front, sit in the front row, whatever it may be. But why don't you come and ask God to help you this year? Maybe there's some difficulties with the school year. Maybe there's things going on because you have a blended family. Maybe there's things that are happening that are unique to this year. And I don't know what it is that's going on, but I'm telling you, only God can help. Maybe you're afraid and you're a little discouraged by the society that we live in and you think, boy, I just don't know if I can really do this. I want to tell you, God can help you. Come and bring yourself before the Lord. Ask God to help you. Would you come, families? Come and pray? Well, I'm going to ask some of our adults here that don't have children to come and pray. I'm going to ask our deacons that are here, our trustees, and some of our other leaders to come and find a parent or a family and come and pray with them. And so I want to invite you to come at this invitation. I want you to stand to your feet with your heads bowed and eyes closed, and I'm going to pray. Let's go ahead and stand together. I'm going to pray. And then when I say amen, I'm going to invite your families, families to come, moms and dads, and you pray for your children. You pray for this school year. And those that are adults here, come up and maybe put a hand upon some of these families and pray with and for them. Father, thank You for this wonderful day. Thank You for the Word of God, how real it is. Help us, Lord, in this time. And may we have families come and yield themselves to Thee right now. And I ask this in Jesus' precious name, for His sake. Amen.