Nehemiah chapter four, we'll begin reading in verse one. Nehemiah chapter four, begin reading in verse one. But it came to pass that when Sambalat heard that we built the wall, he was wroth and took great indignation and mocked the Jews. And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria and said, Listen to what he said, listen to what he called them. 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 said, even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall. And we'll share with you the story of this and how we're getting to this point in the story here in just a little bit. But here's what's been on my heart lately for the past few weeks. I've seen it, I've experienced it, and I've seen it in a lot of wonderful people, wonderful people of God. The subject today is battle fatigue. Battle fatigue. This is a beautiful story of Nehemiah. I suggest you go home and read it this week. It won't take you that long to read it. But it's a beautiful story. Nehemiah was not a great king. He was not a great warrior. He was just a common layperson. And actually, in Nehemiah chapter one, we find out he's just a king's cupbearer. That was an important job because a king's cupbearer meant He wasn't in Jerusalem at this time. They was in Babylonian captivity and everything had just happened. They were released. He's still the King's cup bearer. And so it's his responsibility. You know, there's always danger that the King's gonna be poisoned, right? So wouldn't you like to have that job, the King's cup bearer? Job, you know, job tenure isn't that long. And so they would always, they were very close to the king because if it wasn't for them, they would taste the wine, they would taste the drink before the king would do it. That way, if there's any poison, then they would be the ones that would die. It's a very important position. But he had favor with the king because of the position he was in, but he was just a common, ordinary man. But yet God called him to do what he called a great work. And here was the work. He found out that his home was in rubbish. His home had been burnt down. His home had been destroyed. And he wanted so bad to be able to go back and rebuild what the enemy had tore down. I'll run over that one more time. He wanted to go back and rebuild what the enemy had tore down. There was still a remnant there. There was still something to build on. There was a good foundation, but he wanted and he determined in his heart, I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna rebuild. So that's what he did. He went back and started the reconstruction of Jerusalem. He started reconstructing the wall. I'm paraphrasing here to get to my heart of my message this morning. And he, along with a man by the name of Ezra, that's also a book in your Bible, they were responsible for the physical and spiritual revival of the Jews, and especially the restoration of Jerusalem. But while they were doing this, they met some enemies along the way. And two of them specifically, Sanballat and Tobiah. and you'll find out that they mocked them, they ridiculed them, and you'll also find out if you do your research, they were not only enemies, but they were family. There's nothing worse than your own family being your enemies. And so here they were, they were ridiculing them, and they specifically called him, and this is what really struck out at me, Samalot, or Sambalot, however you wanna pronounce it, in verse two, he calls them, what do these feeble Jews? And as you read the book of Nehemiah, specifically chapters two and three, you'll find out that you get wore out just by reading it. because it talks about all the people that Nehemiah had gotten together to start rebuilding the wall. And it starts talking about, and next unto them, and next unto them, and next unto them. It's just a constant, seemed like every day, 24-7, they were working and building and rebuilding what God had promised them. And I don't know about you tonight, but this is where my heart has been leaning, and I promise you this sermon will get better here in just a little bit. You just stick with me. But I see a lot of people that are experiencing battle fatigue. God has promised them, and they are doing a great work. But I don't know if you realize it or not, but doing the work of God is a tiring job. It's a tiring calling. And here's why, because we face battles. The whole time they're rebuilding this wall, they're facing a battle. It's not only a physical battle, but it's an emotional and a spiritual battle. And just like the Jews of that day in Nehemiah's day, we are experiencing the same thing today in our own walk with God. We have three major battles that we fight. First of all, it's the battle of sin. Regardless if you are a Christian or not, you will fight the temptation to sin. We're not above it. Thank God we have conquered it through the blood of Jesus Christ, but it doesn't mean that you will not be tempted. But I'm thankful God has promised us in Corinthians that with the temptation, he will make a way of escape that ye may be able to bear it. It's a constant battle. I wish the days of being tempted by sin would be over, but it'll only be over when Jesus returns to come back for his church. It's a constant battle. Would you agree with that? We don't only fight the battles of sin, but we fight the battles of sickness. I'm gonna park it here just for a little bit. We are experiencing, we have been experiencing for several weeks and months a corporate battle fatigue because we have so many in our church family that are dealing with sickness, physical sickness. And I don't know if you are going through it right now or you're dealing with family members that are going through it, it is physically exhausting. and my heart breaks. My heart breaks for people that have to go through it. We can read down the list and it's in our bulletin, but there's many more that are watching by way of live stream, that email us, they call us and they are going through so much sickness and my heart breaks. My heart breaks, my heart yearns for people to be healed. They're praying for God to be healed, and it's a battle that we constantly face. God didn't intend for this to happen. God didn't intend for sickness and sin to be in this world, but after the fall, that's when the curse came. And it's things we have to deal with. I know it's a part of life, but yet it's exhausting. It's tiring. We're praying for our pastor right now, that God would give him a physical healing. And we've been with him, I've been with him almost every day for 23 years. And I can see it's taking its toll. And we all see it, I'm not saying nothing you don't already know. It's physically exhausting. You run to doctors, you get the runaround. You have to deal with insurance. Yeah. They bill you for things you don't need to be paying for. And then it takes you four weeks to get it turned around, then they do it again. And it's across the board, I don't care what institution it is, it's across the board. Because insurance companies are from the pit of hell. Having to deal with them. They run this country. They do. It's sick. It's sickening. that a common medicine that I've had to live with since I was 13 years old costs thousands of dollars. Sickening. Anyway, I'll move on. Let me get back to preaching here. But it wears us out. It's physically exhausting. Battle fatigue. And if we watch, if we let it overcome us, It's a battle that we always have to face, but if we will allow it to take over our lives, it'll start affecting our worship. The battles of sin and the battles of sickness, but the battles of service. You can't tell me that Jamie and Bruce don't get tired. In your daily work, we get tired from working. It's physically exhausting, mentally exhausting. But when you work for the Lord and you do something that he has called you to do, regardless of what it is, from the least, every job is important, I'm not even saying that, but from teaching the tiny tots all the way to pastoring a church, it can get physically exhausting. It can get where we can get battle fatigue. We're doing a work for the Lord. We know this is what he's called us to do, but I'm telling you, sometimes it's everything we have in us just to keep going. What do you think? Am I preaching the truth this morning? Battle fatigue. Battle fatigue. And as I began to study, I began to do some research and And I realize we have people in our own congregation, and I'm talking about on the physical side of this, that battle fatigue is not just a common word, it's an actual thing. It's something that happens with our military and those that have fought in war. Years ago, back in World War I, it used to be called shell shock. And then the second World War, they called it battle fatigue. And now it's progressed to what we, what we call today is PTSD. But actually what I'm talking about today is not something that you live with for years. This is the trigger that goes into lifelong suffering. It's called combat stress reaction. Listen to me now. Hope to not bore you too much. But what this means, the definition of combat stress reaction is an acute behavioral disorganization as a direct result of the trauma of war. An acute behavioral disorganization as a direct result of the trauma of war. What that means in Laman's term is, when you fight so long, it triggers a period of disorganization in your body. The stress of war and the stress of battle will cause soldiers fighting to be less efficient. Let me share with you some of these qualities. Now remember, this stuff is very real. Stuff is very real. Here's the reality of it. Symptoms include fatigue, slow reaction times, indecision, disconnect, and inability to prioritize. Those are all the main symptoms of what our soldiers deal with on a daily basis. Some deal with on a daily basis because of the trauma of war. Some from day in and day out, days upon days, years upon years, were fighting in war. And yet to this day, those that are still remaining, still alive, are affected every single day because they have fought for so long. And Christian friend, you can fight for so long. And the battles seem to never quit. And when you think one is done, here comes another. And what it develops, it develops into the same exact symptoms. Fatigue, slow reaction times, indecision. You don't know which way God wants you to go. It's disconnect. You feel like you're isolated. You're the only one going through it. You can't prioritize your life. You're spiritually in battle fatigue. I don't know if I'm preaching to anybody this morning, but I've been there. I've been to the fact when I didn't wanna get up on the next day, Heather said, you got to, you're the assistant pastor. You gotta go to church today. And I'm not gonna stand up here and be super spiritual and say that I've never experienced that. I have experienced that. Sometimes, and I don't want a pity party. This is what God's called me to do. I'm trying to tell you I feel what you're going through. I know what you're going through. We get spiritually exhausted. We can't react to things right. We say things we shouldn't at the most inappropriate time because we're tired. We're physically exhausted. We're spiritually exhausted. And that's where Nehemiah and the Jews were at. They were trying to do this work for God. God had called them, listen, listen, never forget when God's calling, sometimes it is work, it's a fight. And Nehemiah was called by God to do this great work. But yet it was physically exhausting. I wanna finish this first part of this message by telling you some things that he had to go through and what led to this battle fatigue. Number one, I want you to notice this. He started listening to the enemy. Remember what I told you? Verses two, they began to call the Jews feeble. How are they gonna protect themselves? Are they gonna sacrifice again? And even Tobiah in verse three said, well, even if they do build something, all it's gonna take is a little fox and a little fox can go in and it'll just crumble again. They ain't gonna be able to build anything. They ain't gonna be able to do anything. And then in verse eight, here they are again and they conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it. So not only did they get the two together, but now they're getting all the enemies together to go after him and try to hit him while they were down. Folks, if you understand, once you get in a place where you're physically exhausted and spiritually exhausted, and you're going through spiritual battle fatigue, I guarantee you who's gonna be in your ear when you wake up on Monday. It's gonna be Satan, it's gonna be the enemy, and not only will he do it himself, he will use people, he will use your family, and the worst thing you can do is listen to him. because let me remind you what the Bible says about our enemy. He is a liar and the father of lies. Everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. Don't listen to what the enemy says. And listen, I know people, sometimes they mean well, but sometimes they say things that just go against the grain and go against what God's calling you to do. They're not even understanding that the devil may be using them to try to get to you. But remember, everything that comes from the enemy is a lie. The greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. We are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Don't listen to the enemy. Don't listen to the enemy. The enemy's not gonna stop. Okay? He's not gonna stop. Let me remind you of something. Lord, help us. Whenever the disciples ran on a storm and the storm came, they were rowing and toiling, The Bible says Jesus come out to the front of the boat, right? And said, peace be still. And he calmed the storm. Do you think that was the last storm that appeared on the Sea of Galilee? No. No, Jesus calmed that one. But the very next day, there was another storm. What I'm trying to tell you, but I'm not trying to paint a dull picture or a dim picture. Whether you're saved or you're not, you're gonna go through storms. You're gonna go through battles. Don't listen to the enemy though, because he thinks they're going to continue forever. But I got news for him. There's a day coming, but he's going to fight his last fight. He's going to send his last storm. He's going to send his last sickness. Hallelujah, one day the trump's going to sound. The dead of Christ are going to rise first. Hallelujah, he's going to be cast into the bottomless pit. And guess what? He'll never bother us again. the shield of faith, part of the armor of God in Ephesians 6. You know what it does? It says it can be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked. It doesn't say it's gonna stop the darts. It quenches them, it puts them out. As long as you keep that shield of faith, he is gonna keep firing darts every day. But as long as the shield of faith is placed, and as long as you have it in front of you, thank God there's no dart that's gonna hit you. There's nothing that the enemy can pronounce over you that's gonna come to pass. We have authority in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah, they listened to the enemy. Then they began to lose focus. They listened to the enemy, then they began to lose focus. You can go home and read it. I won't have you turn there. But in chapter two, they started building the wall. They started doing the work of God. And then in verse, chapter three, rather, they started to lose focus. If you go home and read it, you'll notice this. God's people, the Jews, started to fall back on what they were always known for, complaining, blaming, they became irritable, they had a short fuse. You know why? Because they started to do the work and they were tired. And when they started going through that battle fatigue, they stopped losing focus on what their task was. Their task was to continue to build. But then they got their eyes off that, they started looking at all the other problems they had, they stopped losing focus. Listen, if we lose focus on what God has called us to do, I guarantee we will become irritable, we will become a short fuse, we will start to blame others. Listen folks, when we lose focus on our purpose that God has for us, it'll definitely send us down the wrong path. I never remind you. There's a phrase that came out in the last five or 10 years, it's becoming more prevalent, it's not as much now, but it was simply this, stay in your lane. You know what that means? If you're not the pastor, don't try to pastor. Good preaching. Stay in your lane. I'm talking about with anything, with anything. And it's not right for me if you are a Sunday school teacher and God's called you and gave you a purpose to do that. It's not right for me to step in and try to take over your spot. I need to stay in my lane. Somebody say amen. But see what happens when we start going through battle fatigue, we start looking at others and the job that we think they're supposed to be doing, instead of letting them do what God has called them to do, I'm not talking about, if there's blatant sin, we're gonna step in. But if you do what you do and God's called you to do that, then it's up to me to step back and say, God, use them. Use them. Stay in my lane, stay in your lane as well. But when we start going through that fatigue, we start rather losing focus on our true purpose. Amen. Well, that went over like a lead balloon. They begin to listen to the enemy. They lost focus, but then they were low in strength. Chapter one, verse 17, when Nehemiah got the word that their town and their Jerusalem was in rubble and rubbish, he even made the statement, he said, my people are in great distress. Ryan, think about this. That was even before they started to rebuild the wall. They were already in a mess before they started to build. than after they started working and after they started building. Look in verse 19. I want you to notice this in chapter four. I said unto the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest of the people, the work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall one from another. In what place thereof ye, therefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us, our God shall fight for us. Look at verse 21. So we labored in the work, and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared. Likewise, at the same time said I unto the people, let every one with his servant lodge within Jerusalem, that in the night they may be a guard to us and labor on that day, so neither I nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the men of the garden which follow me, none of us put off our clothes, saving that everyone put them off for washing. So the only time they took off their clothes was to wash them. I read all that to tell you this. Doesn't that make you tired just reading that? They were distressed before they started to build. And now they're right in the middle of building, and yet they gotta worry about their enemy, so the whole time they're working, they got a sword in the other hand. and they didn't stop. Half of them took the morning shift, the other half took the rest of the night. And they either stayed up and watched, or they built. Day after day after day, they got fatigued, they got low in strength. No wonder he said they were feeble, because he thought in their eyes, surely they can't have any strength by working all day. They were low in strength. But you'll notice, Nehemiah said, we're not gonna stop. We're not gonna stop. We're not gonna lose our focus. Even though we may be weak, even though the enemy tries to come at us, we're not going to quit. And tonight we're gonna learn why they didn't quit. Tonight we're gonna learn the remedy to battle fatigue. And oh boy, it's good. And you better come back or I'll think there's some of you against me. that this sermon this morning was to let us know that the hardest thing we have to deal with is admit that we are facing battle fatigue. We just want to go on. We just want to move on. We just want to keep going, thinking that it'll get better. But the sooner you admit that you're facing this battle fatigue and that you need help, listen, and Jamie and Bruce, would you care, I put you on the spot, would you care to come up and sing Lord I Need You one more time? Listen, this is what our prayer should be this morning. If you are tired, whether it be sin or sickness or service, whatever it be, if you are tired this morning, there's one thing that we can rely on, and it's the fact, oh, Lord, I need you. I need you, I need you. And it doesn't mean that he's far off, no. It means, Lord, I need you every day of my life. Without you I can do nothing. You need to run to him this morning. If you need strength, if you need help, if you need direction, he's the one you need.