1 Nehemiah 6 week 2 Boundary Crossroads July 3, 2011 Last week we started to look at chapter 6 of Nehemiah. We looked at how God s enemy will use Diversion, Temptation, and Deception to stop God s people and especially leaders, from completing what God desires. We looked at how Nehemiah s singular focus on God s calling helped him to defeat the enemy s attempts to derail the rebuilding of the wall. We recognized that along with focus, it takes awareness and wisdom to negotiate obstacles and opposition without becoming distracted, falling into sin, or damaging the integrity of our testimony, character, and personal walk with Jesus. All of these were what Nehemiah faced in chapter 6. And because Nehemiah was able to focus and negotiate the opposition they were able to finish the wall. Upon finishing the wall, the surrounding nations lost confidence in themselves and acknowledged God because they knew what had been accomplished was done with the help of God. I wanted to return to this chapter because I believe it speaks to us today To repeat a little from last week, the chapter begins with the return of opposition from Sanballat, Tobiah, and now Greshem an Aarab. They had heard that the wall was rebuilt and all the gaps were closed so they changed tactics in their campaign to destroy Nehemiah and keep him from finishing the doors and gates that would seal to city. They First tried diversion or distraction. In verses 1-4 they wanted to lure him to meet them in another city - suddenly appearing to want to iron out all their problems. They sent 4 messages inviting him to meet in a town on the outer edge of the land settled by the Jews who had returned from exile. But Nehemiah saw through their offers as a means to distract his focus, to break his stride, and stop progress on the project. He simply said, I m Busy. A first point here is that when we are focused on God s work, when we are dedicated and committed to God as our priority, it helps to keep us from being lured into other pursuits that would stop the progress of God s work in and through us. Focus is important it is also the signal for God s enemies to start their campaign of distraction. There are a LOT of good things that come along for us to do and not all are from our enemies. At first glance what Sanballat and his boys were inviting Nehemiah to do would seem good. Who would not want to work out reconciliation with others? Isn t that Biblical? Isn t it the Christian thing to do? According to 2 Corinthians 5 it is.
However, in this case Nehemiah recognized that to accept the invitation would first, stop what God was doing through him at a very critical moment and second, put himself in a harmful situation. He knew something. Maybe it was from the prophet Isaiah when he said You Lord give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you (26:3). He knew his purpose and what was not his purpose. Nehemiah recognized his boundary. He was called to fix a wall and not his enemies. Notice that the boundary was so that he would be able to do what he needed to do and not because he wanted to eliminate someone. That s the sign of a good boundary. What is interesting to see is that as Nehemiah repaired the wall God was repairing the broken places in the faith of his people and dealing with the opposition from outside. Dealing with the enemies of God s work was God s work and God is faithful in doing his work. We must learn which battles are ours to fight and when to take them up. Paul wrote this to the church of Philippi (2:13-16), Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. 2 When something new presents itself, a good measure is to stop and ask even if it looks like a good thing is this going to help in my responsibility for what God has given me to do or is it a diversion. A similar question is relevant to ask regarding any others who are involved. Will my involvement divert them from their responsibilities. It comes back to knowing what God wants to do in and through us, knowing that we want what God wants - and being given to it, committed and focused on it and God wants that. Colossians 1:16 tells us We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. The first line of purpose begins in our personal lives and responsibilities. In the book Boundaries the authors describe that each of us has to carry the God given responsibility for our own choices, attitudes, reactions, feelings, thoughts, and actions. No one else is responsible for these aspects of our lives nor can we assume responsibility for these in the life of another. The closest we may ever come to sharing these are in marriage and even then it is a very careful thing. We can become influential in these aspects of life and faith and someone can influence ours that is aimed at helping each other grow in Christ and is part of what God has designed into the church. However, we cannot become responsible for these aspects in the life of another nor should we ask someone else to be responsible for ours.
To ask another to take the responsibility for these parts of our lives: choices, attitudes, reactions, feelings, thoughts, and actions, or to accept responsibility for these areas in another makes us co-dependent. Co-dependency always creates powerlessness and victimization. It gives away the core responsibility of our choices and their outcomes in our lives. Co dependency asks another to become responsible for defining who we are and what we are to do. Co-dependency in the church will ask others to become responsible for our choices regarding our spiritual lives, health and development, and the discovery of our calling in Christ. And I sense that co-dependency is one of satan s favorite tools today. It makes God s people and Christ s bride powerless. I want to say something difficult to hear. I believe co-dependancy is a crisis in today s church. It seems that many of Jesus followers in his church today have come to believe that someone else is responsible for their spiritual health and development, growth in Biblical understanding, and the discovery of their calling in Christ. We have lost ownership of our Spiritual lives, of our responsibility to study God s word, of the great importance of knowing, growing in and wanting our calling in Christ, - to know what Christ s calling is and to want to live a live worthy of it. The result is that many believers have become powerless in their own spiritual lives. We become powerless because no one can take up the question of who we are in Christ and knowing God s call but ourselves. Yes, of course the church and its leaders are here to help. It is one of the key purposes of the church. but a leader can never be responsible for what God seeks to do in your heart and life. A leader is responsible to you to help you and walk with you, but not be responsible for what is yours. A second result of co-dependency is that we can become victims when we allow the choices of others to become our own. Then, when things don t go as hoped (they rarely do) someone else is responsible for our choices and the outcomes and we become victims. As we see with Nehemiah, we do need to ask for help with what we understand God has asked us to do. He could never have built the wall on his own. But he also never gave away the responsibility for his calling nor the choice to take up that focus as his own and neither did the people working on their part of the wall. (I have made this error) Nehemiah also recognized that to respond to the invitation of the Sanballat group would put him into physical danger. It seems this was just common sense because the group had already tried several times to put an end to him. He knew he was a threat to their power and control over the region and that had not changed. It was probably even more heightened since he was about the finish the gates and doors. Nehemiah had no issue with allowing them to stay where they were in God s hands, outside of his responsibility. This a great lesson to learn. When to leave an invitation in God s hands. 3
4 Nehemiah was focused on doing the good work that God had given him to do. He recognized he could do nothing about how this outside group of people reacted to it. He knew to do anything to appease them would stop God s work in and through him and put the future completion of that calling in danger. That was his boundary. We can all learn something from this. Certainly, we learn that every need is not a call. There are Needs that would distract us from our callings even though the invitations can seem like a good thing and we can even find a Biblical reason for doing them. Philippians 2 speaks of looking out for the interests of others and not just your own. But this is attached to being like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Like mindedness and love is not what was going on for Nehemiah. The story of Nehemiah rebuilding the wall is one part of a greater story of God rebuilding a faith relationship in his people. The key factor is that Nehemiah knew his own first line of responsibility and his choices reflected it. He didn t allow himself to get drawn into the drama of those around him who would have pulled him off focus. We can certainly apply these lessons of responsibility vs. co-dependancy, of focus vs. diversion to every area of our lives where rebuilding or strengthening is needed: our Faith, Marriages, Church mission and Ministry, our Work, our Callings, Relationships, and even our Money. The 4 th chapter of Ephesians begins with the urging to live a life worthy of the calling you have received in Christ make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace, then recognizes that it is God who fills the people in the church with gifts so that the church is built stronger so that everyone can grow in the knowledge of Christ and become mature attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ who holds all of us together and builds us in love, as each one of us does our work. We are to be focused on what God wants us to do and do that. God will wonderfully do the rest of the building and restoring and dealing with the obstacles in the way. So I ll leave you with this question have you given away any part of your personal or spiritual journey that you now need to reclaim as your own. In doing so you can be responsible and focused on what God desires to do in you and through you. What boundaries do you need to set? As we now turn to the communion table we recognize that Christ died for our sin but he left the responsibility of embracing that gift and believing in him to us. No one else on
this planet is responsible for your relationship with Christ. You are invited to believe, discover God s amazing purpose for your life and then know peace as the prophet Isaiah spoke into Nehemiah s heart. 5 Learning from Nehemiah we need to stay focused on God as top priority. Hebrews chapter 12 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the
6 pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Next, they tried to ruin his credibility, character and authority with lies and deception. They sent a 5 th invitation, this time as an unsealed letter which means it was public. The letter stated that according to Greshem it had been reported among the nations that Nehemiah was rebuilding the walls because he was planning a revolt in order to overthrow Artaxerxes as King. They said it would get back to King Artaxerxes. They were relying on lies fueled by insidious gossip to destroy his character and authority. He stopped their lies by simply calling them what they were. In verse 8 he said, Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head. But he knew what they were up to. In verse 9 Nehemiah says to those working with him that they (the enemy) want to frighten us so we will get discouraged and quit. His response was to pray Now strengthen my hands. How many times have you allowed fear to hold sway over your thoughts? Have you ever been in a situation that your imagination has spun into a huge problem that doesn t even exist? Then they set up another attack using Temptation to destroy his character, testimony, and the integrity of his relationship with God. This time it was from the inside. He went to meet Shemiah. This guy lived inside the walls and had some sort of connection in the Temple. He may have been a priest. He told Nehemiah the bad guys were coming for his life and he should hide in the safest place possible, in the Temple inside the house of God, or the holy of holies. This is where the Ark of the Covenant was. It is where only the high priest could go, only once a year, and he went with a sincere holy fear of God. The penalty of entering this place at any other time and by anyone else was death. By going where this man suggested Nehemiah would sin and damage his character, destroy the credibility of his place as a leader of God s people, and damage his own confidence in his relationship with God. He saw through the man for who and what he really was, an enemy. In verse 13 he says, He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me. Nehemiah was negotiating a field of opposition with great skill. He was able to recognize the attacks and continued to refute each one even as the tactics changed.
At the end of Chapter 6 we read that the wall was completed. It took only 52 days. Nehemiah said, when our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God. This one line in verse 16 that jumps off the page to me. It means that those who were once opposed to God people, even very powerful and influential people, who were watching one man lead a people in an enormous project which alone was daunting enough. But they were criticizing everything he was doing, threatening his life, his character, his integrity, his credibility, authority, and his walk with God. These people suddenly turned their eyes and hearts toward God because the one who in their eyes was such a threat had become instead a servant of the almighty and powerful God. Let me stop now and ask you. Isn t that how you want your story to be? Don t you want the result of your life, your walk with God and your faith to be a shining example of God? A story of God in which what others see you are about is driven by God s presence and power in and through you? A life that causes others to lay aside the illusion of confidence they have built up in themselves and turn to God? Matthew 5:17 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. The key to this part of Nehemiah was how he negotiated the fields of opposition and adversity. It reminds me of chapter 12 of Hebrews 7 700 years before the author of Hebrews and before the Disciples Nehemiah had the Scriptures, the Old Testament and it guided his actions to the point that even his enemies feared God. This is why it is so important to study and know the Bible. The New Testament writers built on the old testament. Without knowledge of God s word Nehemiah would have fallen into sin and compromised all he was doing for God. He would not have known God s promises which gave him wisdom and confidence and helped him stand firm, persevering and flourishing in the face of adversity. 1 By faith we have been made acceptable to God. And now, because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace [a] with God. 2 Christ has also introduced us [b] to God's undeserved kindness on which we take our stand. So we are happy, as we look forward to sharing in the glory of God. 3 But that's not all! We gladly suffer, [c] because we know that suffering helps us to endure. 4 And endurance builds character, which
8 gives us a hope 5 that will never disappoint us. All of this happens because God has given us the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with his love. Deception Reread Nehemiah 6:1-4. Our enemy is a deceiver (John 8:4, Gen 3:4, 2 Cor 11:3) always trying to distract us from the work of preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. What tricks of deception are being employed here? How does Nehemiah sniff it out, i.e. how did he decide this was a set up? How did Nehemiah s understanding of purpose protect him from being deceived? What is Nehemiah s response to the deception? What deceptions are keeping you from Gods work and a deeper relationship with Jesus? How will you respond to this deception? Temptation Reread Nehemiah 6:5-9. Our enemy is a tempter (1 Thess. 3:5, Matt. 4:1-11) giving us every opportunity to seek comfort and escape from the hard work of the Gospel. What is the temptation for Nehemiah? How is this similar to Mat 4:8? How does Nehemiah respond to the temptation? How does Jesus? How are you being tempted to comfort or short cuts to joy in your walk with God? The promise is comfort and joy but what is the reality of giving in to temptation? What tools do you have to resist temptation? How will you resist the temptations in your life today? The Lord is my light and my salvation--whom shall I fear? - Psalm 27:1