A Mind To Work
Pastor Don Carpenter
Pray / Plan / Build / Nehemiah 4:1–6
“Slow Sammy” Ridiculed but Smarter than His Detractors Thought
A young fellow by the name of Sammy liked to hang out at Mom and Pop’s Grocery Store. Pop didn’t know what Sammy’s problem was, but the other boys would tease him all the time, calling him “Slow Sammy”, and punching him on the shoulder as they passed. To mock him for being slow, they would offer him a dime and a nickel, telling him he could have just one. They said he always took the nickel because it was bigger. One day after Sammy took the nickel, Pop pulled him to one side and said, “Son, don’t you know they’re making fun of you? They think you don’t know that the dime is worth more than the nickel. Are you really grabbing the nickel because it’s bigger, or what?” “No,” Sammy said, “but if I took the dime they’d quit doing it!” Not all ridicule is founded upon fact.
Satan does not play fair! When a Christian becomes burdened to do a work and spends time in agonizing prayer, then sets out to motivate people to follow his or her vision, Satan starts to mobilize his forces too. Often, after believers unite behind a visionary leader and invest some blood, sweat, and tears in labor, Satan brings some mockers from the sidelines to jeer and belittle the tremendous effort and vision that is on display. Discouragement is like a gut punch. It is designed to end the fight. If we are to see victories for the kingdom of Christ, we must learn from Nehemiah how to react in the face of discouragement.
Fight Discouragement With a Mind to Work
Nehemiah 4:1–3 (KJV)
But it came to pass, that when Sanballat heard that we builded 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, 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.
A. God’s enemies will be very angry with you
1. Wroth = charah = burning of anger
2. Indignation = provoked to rage
3. Mocking
B. God’s enemies will declare your task to be pathetically impossible
1. “Feeble” Jews
2. Will they fortify it for themselves? = What are they getting out of it? – motives questioned and attacked
3. Will they sacrifice? – sacrifice would be offered upon completion of the wall, dedicating it to God
4. Will they make an end in a day? = Will they finish in one day?
5. Will they revive the stones? – When the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem, fire caused the limestone walls to crumble. These stones were then neglected for almost a century, rendering them unfit for building.
C. God’s enemies will belittle the progress that you have already made
D. We believers often face personal attacks as we try to reach the world for Jesus.
E. We can suffer personal attacks as we try to stand for what is right based upon principle.
Develop a Mind to Work through Passionate Prayer
Nehemiah 4:4–5 KJV
Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity:
And 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.
A. Do not engage the enemy in your flesh
James 1:20 KJV
For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
B. Do not bottle up emotions and become bitter
Hebrews 12:15 KJV
Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
C. Direct your emotions to God
Romans 8:15 KJV
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Hebrews 4:15 KJV
For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
1. Recognize that when God’s work and worker is mocked, God will act. “…provoked Thee to anger…” – vs 5
2. Pray specifically and boldly
God moves when His People Have a Mind to Work
Nehemiah 4:6 (KJV)
So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.
A. The gaps were sealed
B. The wall was half its eventual height
C. It is because the people had a mind to work
1 Corinthians 16:15 KJV
I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,)
1. Mind = inner man, source of thoughts and emotions
2. The people were consumed with the work
3. Unified by God
Philippians 2:13 KJV
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
D. The enemies could not stand against a people who were willing to put action to their desires.
Conclusion:
Dr. Park Tucker, former chaplain of the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, told of walking down the street in a certain city, feeling low and depressed and worried about life in general. As he walked along, he lifted his eyes for a moment to the window of a funeral home across the street. He blinked his eyes a couple of times wondering whether his eyes were deceiving him.
But sure enough, what he saw in the window of that funeral home was this sign, in large, bold words: “Why walk around half-dead? We can bury you for $69.50. P.S. We also give green stamps.” Dr. Tucker said the humor of it was good medicine for his soul. Many people are walking around half-dead because worry has built a mountain of problem over which there is no path, and they have surrendered to fate.
Don’t walk around half dead… bind together with other believers who have a mind to work.
Exported from Logos Bible Software, 12:51 PM February 14, 2023.