The Village Church
Not Today - Audio
[ Music ] >> Do you know the reason why Christians can be like a deer? Do you know why that is? Do you know why we can sing those two songs? What makes those things possible? It's because anyone who is in Christ is a what? It's a new creation. The whole has passed away, and behold, the new has come. And in that newness, you are now in fellowship with the Father. You can walk with the Father. You can love the Father in return. He can be more to you than gold and silver. And if you are a believer, a new creation in Christ, then all those words are true. You can say those things. Amen. Amen. >> Well, we're going to continue in Nehemiah this morning. If you have your Bibles, open them to Nehemiah chapter 4. [ Pause ] >> My two-year-old nephew, Jackson Walker Reed, he can speak in complete sentences already. And he has a phrase that he says every time he doesn't want to do anything. You ask Jackson, Jackson, are you ready to eat dinner today? Not today, he'll say. Are you ready to go to bed, Jackson? Not today. Are you ready to brush your teeth, Jackson? Not today. The things kids say are funny, yes, but sometimes they're truthful. You know, like my little nephew, I've been trying to say that same thing this week to that little voice that's been whispering lies to me all week. I've been trying to tear that little voice. Not today, voice, not today. All week long, I've been trying to do that. You see, for the past two weeks, I haven't really been taking care of myself. I haven't gotten much rest. And on Monday, I woke up tired. I was drained. I was like a wounded deer just waiting for the enemy to come. And he did. And the enemy really was me. It was an internal war with myself. Sometimes, I don't know if you feel this way, sometimes I feel like I am my own worst enemy because I can rip myself apart in my thoughts in the words that I say about myself to myself. I felt like a loser for being so weak. And you know what the voice said? Yeah, Alex, you are a loser. I felt like giving up. You know what the voice said? Yeah, Alex, you should give up. Why don't you just quit? You can't do it. I did not have, at the beginning of the week, the mind for the work. Basically, everything I told you guys last week, I didn't believe. So that's where I'm going. Basically. All that stuff about endurance, persevering, came Monday morning. I forgot everything I told you guys on Sunday. I did. I didn't believe what I preach. You see, it's always easy to preach truth in this to believe it. It's always easy to preach about endurance than living it out. And for me, it's always easy for me to abandon what I need during my times I need. Always easy for me to do that. What about you? Do you always have a mind to work? Do you always have the real power to endure? Do you have internal battles with yourself or am I alone? Or is it just me? Do you have the little voice that whispers to you? And are you able to say to that voice, not today? Or do you give in? You know, for so long the people in Nehemiah, they were saying to the external enemies, not today. Sam Ballad, Tabiah, saying not today to their tongues and their insults. Last week we saw Nehemiah, he had grown tired of that. He had grown frustrated. And so he prayed that God would come and deal with these men. Nehemiah and the people, if you remember the sermon, they did not overreact to the tongues. They did not overreact to the verbal assault. Stoop to the level of the enemy. Instead they kept the composure and persevered in the work. The text said the people had a mind to work and they did. They joined the wall to half the height. They continued to persevere in the work. They stood firm. They did not show any signs of raving. But as we are going to see this week, today, that strong mind that had to work is beginning to show cracks. The enemy, the voice of the enemy was beginning to get to the people. Not only that, but the internal voice, their own issues, their own junk was beginning to come to the surface as well. And so the point here is that it's not just the external stuff you have to look at, but it's also me. What is it inside of me that hinders me? What am I in turn of battles? My internal issues. And for Nehemiah, how is he going to deal with this? How is he going to respond? So if you have your bibles, open them to Nehemiah chapter 4, beginning in verse 7. "But when Sam ballad to bayah, and the arrows and the animites and the astrodites heard that the repairing on the wall of Jerusalem was going forward, and the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry. And they all plied together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them night and day. And Judah, it was said that the strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble. By our cells we cannot rebuild the wall. And our enemy said they would not see, they would not know or see until we come among them and kill them and stop the work. And at that time the Jews who lived near them came from all directions and said to us 10 and said to us 10 times, "You must return to us." Amen. I will bear with me. Father God, be coming before your word, be coming before your truth. And as I pray every week, Father, it's not Alex. It's Jesus. He must receive the glory. And your spirit has to take what is a preach and apply to the hearts of your people. And to me, we need the spirit to do his job. For I can't make the word going to anyone's heart. I can't. I'm just a man. So I need you, Spirit, to come and to do your job. And that is to encourage the people of God about to power his word and Christ in my prayer. Amen. So the first thing we see here is that the enemy's next move to come in and attack the people brought to the surface, some of the internal issues within the camp. You see, verbal taunts is small compared to someone actually coming to fight you, getting ready to come to do battle with you. That takes things to a different level. And this is what was going on here in Nehemiah. You see, Samba'a, Tabaya and all the other enemies, they finally saw that the verbal taunts, "Where's it going to stop them?" People continued to work. No matter how many threats they threw at them, they kept working. And they would not stop working on the wall. They were going to be persistent and strong in the work. So the enemy finally realized, you know what? We didn't take things up a notch. These Jews, they're not going to give up. It's time for us to go to the next level. And what you see here is that they were very, very angry now. Very angry. Last week they were just angry. This week they were very angry. Because they know we're failing in our attempts to stop the work. The Jews are going to finish the wall. But we got to do something else that's going to prevent it. It's time for us to intensify things. And so, in their anger, they made a decision to actually go and fight against the people. It says they all joined together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. So, they were going to resort to violence. They were going to resort to violence in order to achieve their goal. And at this point, things don't look too good for the builders. It doesn't. So these were not military folk. They were not. They were not trained military folk. They were just common, everyday people coming back trying to work on the wall. These weren't trained military. They weren't mercenaries. This is regular old folk who now got to prepare for war, basically, against armies of people. It doesn't look good. And to make things worse, they were actually surrounded by enemies. Surrounded by enemies. You see, Sam Ballot is from Samaria to the north of Jerusalem. And the animites were in the east. The Arabs were in the south. The ashrodites were in the west. So you got Jerusalem right in the middle of four enemies. Surrounded, basically. What are you going to do? Who are you going to call if you're surrounded by enemies? You talk about being stuck in a rock in a hard place. They were. And they were feeling the pressure, man. They were feeling the pressure. They were feeling it. If you found out others were plotting against you like this, what would you do to harm you, your family, your kids, what would you do? How would you respond? For so long that the people have, they've been enduring the work. They've been working hard. They've been listening to the verbal attacks. And yet, they still move forward. They did not give up. They had a mind to work. But now that mind, that strong mind was showing weakness. And you know how something sounds really good at first? And then over time, they no longer sound good anymore? Or did it just mean? You get engaged with something because you're excited about it. It sounds so sweet. You feel the vision. You feel the mission. And then, the more you walk down that road, you're like, man, what did I get myself into? This is what was happening in Jerusalem. Because you remember when they first started, man. We're going to do it, man. We're behind you. And now that passion and that excitement was dying. The morale was low, running on empty. The enemy was getting to the people. Especially when they finally heard about the rumor that they were coming to attack them. That just sent it down crashing. Now you mean, I got to take up arms and fight? I'm tired. I've been working all day long. This wall. Now I got to fight too? Come on, Nehemiah. My brother needs a break. No. No break. No break today. They were struggling to say to the enemy now today. And for Nehemiah, he was now getting ready to see. There wasn't just external issues he had to deal with. Now the people in his camp, his own allies, could be a hindrance to the work. Because of their own issues. And go to their own junk. Just like you and me, you know, we all have those internal battles or internal threats. And in terms of external factors like our enemies, you know, where someone's attacking you, someone verbally attacking you. Most of the time those external things bring to the surface your own stuff. Your own fear. Your own insecurity. Your own denials. Your own beliefs. This is what will happen in Jerusalem. As one commentator says, the external threats fueled the internal discouragement of the people. It brought to the surface. Last year, I went to a conference at Cove Church. It was a global leadership summit is what it was called. And it warned the talks. The speaker talked about how every person has what he called a vision cup. A vision cup. Well, that's a cup. All right. Every person has a vision cup. We all do. And over time, every week, all the time, you got to keep that cup filled with division. You know why? Because life sometimes drains the vision out of you. Circumstances, hardships, disappointments, failed expectations. Drains your vision cup. And so you got to continue to fill that cup up. Because if you don't, the vision dies. And you quit. You no longer believe in it. And so your vision cup. Is it full, half empty, or completely empty? Are you still excited about this church, this work, this mission, this vision? Has the newness and coolness of the village church finally worn off? Are you finally starting to believe we're just a regular church? And now that it's worn off, what are you going to do? Are you going to stay? Are you going to build? What are the things that drains your vision cup? It could be life, it could be business over commitment, high expectations. No signs of fruit. Your own stand balance into values, your own internal battles. What drains you? What is draining your vision cup? We all know. We all know what we deal with. For many of us, including myself, for me it's a lot of times the pressure I put on myself, my own internal stuff. We got to grow. We all have to grow and learn to say not today. To our unbelief, to our fears, to our internal struggles. You got to learn to say not today. Because if you don't, you're going to operate out of fear. You're going to live out of unbelief. You got to learn to say not today. This is what the people are going to learn to do. Beginning at verse 10, it says, "I lost my spot just a moment." Okay. In Judea it was said, "The strength of those who battle burdens is failing. This is too much rubble. By ourselves, we are not able to rebuild the wall." When you read that verse, what comes to mind? What are these people doing here? Man, they're complaining. Complaining Spirit. Oh, the burden is too hard. The M.I. is too much rubble. Too many stones. We can't do it by ourselves. We're not going to be able to do it, Nehemiah. Can't you see? You see all of this. It's just too hard. I want to go back home and get some Kool-Aid where it's easy. What does complaining do? If you're in a job, if you were in school and you got a complainer on your team, what does that person do to the team? Yes, it brings the morale down. Discouragement into the camp. Complainers. Everything is a problem. Nothing ever goes right. Are you a complainer? Are you a complainer? And one author says that these complainers, they were actually agreeing with the enemy here. Because the enemy called on feeble Jews, and the complainers were pretty much falling right into their hands. My feet hurt. I'm too high. I'm sweaty. Everybody's hot. Everybody's feet hurt. Not just them. They're yours. And so, who you are? Do you know enough about yourself to know if you have a complaining spirit? Because if you do, then you must realize what you will be bringing to this church. What you're bringing to the mission. What you're bringing to your family. What you're going to bring into your projects. You can bring the morale down. Because all you do is complain about everything. So, where are you? Is that your bent? And are you able to say not today to it? I don't know any of your hearts. You know. Are you able to say not today? What do you do when you sense complaining coming? Can you say get behind me Satan? I'm not dealing with that today. Because complaining was spread discouragement like wildfire. It will. And you got to know how to deal with it. Second thing we see. Internal issue. Verse 11. And our enemy said they would not know a seat till we come among them and kill them and stop the work. What's the issue here? Fear. Fear the unknown. I don't know when they're going to come. But I heard they're going to come. They say we're not going to see them when they come. But when they do come they're going to kill us and stop the work. When they're mad I can't live with all this uncertainty. I got it. I need to leave. I'm afraid. I'm afraid of the attack that's going to come. I'm afraid that I don't know when it's going to come. I'm blind, Nehemiah. Can't take this. And just like complaining what does fear do to the camp. What does fear do to the vision. The mission. Your family. If you're always afraid. You won't do anything. You just stay still. You play it safe. That's my, that's my bent. That's what I bring into the camp. Fear. I struggle with it. We all struggle with it. We all have our struggles. Fear man is a big one for me. Fear failure. Even fear success. And I have to learn and grow and say not today. When I see myself going down that fearful road. Not today. Now this week wasn't, I didn't do a good job of it. In the beginning of the week. Because I was giving in to it. Now the question is not perfection. The question is do you know enough about yourself to know your bent. To know what is your internal issue. Now I think we all struggle with complaining and fear. Sometimes we struggle a little more, a little more, one more than the other. Which is yours. And how are you dealing with it. How are you dealing with it. Finally. The last thing we see. Verse 12. At that time the Jews who live near them. These are the Jews that live near the enemies. Came from all directions and said to us 10 times. You must return to us. What is that. That's the voice. The voice that tells you to quit. The voice that tells you is too hard. It's just not worth it. It's not worth the move. It ain't worth all that drama. It ain't worth driving over there every day. It's not worth it. From all directions and told us 10 times you must return to us. Basically, many of the workers in Jerusalem came from surrounding cities to work on the wall. And so when the rug got out that the enemies were going to come, folks from these cities came to Jerusalem to tell them they're coming. So you need to come on back home. You need to return to us because their attack is coming. They're going to come. So 10 times they pleaded with them to come to avoid the coming danger. Abandon the work. Give up on the work. It ain't worth fighting for. It's not worth putting your life on the line for it. Come back home to where it's safe, man. Come back home to where it's easy. You don't have to deal with no enemies. You can sit on the porch. You just come on. It's safe here. It's okay, baby, to give up. Everybody gives up an hour and then come on home. What does the voice tell you when it gets hard, when your marriage gets hard? When your kids are difficult? When the job is difficult? When the church is difficult? When things don't go to where you want to go, what does the voice tell you? And are you listening to the voice this morning? The voice that tells you, just quit. Flee the danger. Go back to where it's hard. I think we all have that internal alarm clock that goes off from danger approaches. Danger. Danger is coming. It's a protection moment. It comes up. It's a protection moment. You've got to run away from the danger. Some of us will. Some will be like peace. I'm out, man. It's too much for me. At some point, during your time here at the village church, you will be tempted to quit. To leave. And to say that won't happen, then you just don't really know enough about yourself. It will happen. And when it comes, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? I was there this week. I want to go to a place where it was easy. I told Mark, I want to go to a place where I could have been an associate pastor, where I could just have my one job, and I'm not the main guy, where it's easy. That's where I was this week. But Mark, as he always does for me, he brought me back to my senses. I praise God for a brother like him. You've got to have folks like that that speak truth into your life when you don't believe it. You've got to have that. Of course, my wife does the same for me too. One of my friends told me that she's often tempted to leave the church in our tens to go back to your old church, which she called the Velvet Ghetto. And like her, we all have our own Velvet Ghetto, and sometimes we want to go back there. And what's the Velvet Ghetto? It's easy. Comfortable. It's predictable. It's controllable. There's no issues. You know it's coming. It's just safe, man. And for a lot of American Christians, that's what we want. We want a safe gospel, a safe Christianity where we come to church. We do our ten percent tithe, or for extra spiritual, you do fifteen or twenty percent. Then you think Jesus loved you more because of that. And then you go on your short-term mission trip during the summer, and then you think I'm living radical for Jesus because I do that. Is that no? No. Radical for Jesus means you get dirty. Short-term mission trip, you dirty for a week, and you back to your normal life because you know you're coming back. Getting dirty for Jesus in your neighbors next door. Getting dirty for Jesus down here in the village. Even when it's hard. Getting dirty for Jesus for your family, for your kids. Or whatever it is. Not wanting life to be easy. I won't like to be easy. I'll wish church planning wasn't easy. I beg Jesus to make it easy. But life isn't easy. And the voice that comes to me wants me to flee to that. Go to a place where it's easy, Alex. Where you don't have to struggle. Where you don't have to suffer. Is there ever such a place on this side of heaven? No. There's not. Here's the thing. If you end up leaving this church, if you end up breaking up that marriage, if you end up quitting that job, guess what followed you to those other things? What's the common denominator in all those things? You. So your new job, same issue, your new marriage, same issues, your new church, same issues. And if you don't deal with them, you're going to quit those two and go on to the next thing and quit that two. You're always going to be a quitter. And at certain point, you've got to realize everything in your life isn't other people. It's the person you see in the mirror every day. And all you willing to deal with. All you willing to say, not today. Are you? Not today. I'm not giving into that today. Because of Christ, lives in me. The Spirit of God, lives in me. I don't have to live out of fear. I don't have to have a complaining spirit about everything. Now, I don't have to listen to divorce that tells me to quit. I don't. Nehemiah, it says he prayed. Verse nine, he says, "He prayed to our Lord God and set a guard against them night and day." And what I love about Nehemiah in this session here is that he stood firm in his faith. If you notice, he didn't fall into complaining. He didn't fall into fear. He didn't listen to the voice. Now, I'm not saying he probably didn't struggle with those things. He was human just like us. I don't think Nehemiah was a mini-god. It didn't have struggles. All the men and women of the Bible had sinned in their life and issues. But you know what? He didn't operate out of fear. He didn't operate out of complaining. He didn't operate out of a spirit of wanting to quit everything. Instead, he lived out of his faith. He stood firm in his faith in Christ, faith in Jesus, faith in this God. You see, you don't have to make decisions based on fear and complaining. Some of us do. That's how he based all our decisions. I'm afraid, so I don't think I need to do that. Don't live your life making quick decisions out of fear. That's a challenge for all of us. How to make decisions that are not based on fear or a complaining spirit. And it takes wisdom to learn how to do that. And great discernment and having other people in your life that know you. I may not know about you that know you, that you can receive truth from. And they will help you to see the gospel when you can't see it. So saying no to your complaints and fears and temptation to quit is giving it all over the Jesus. And you got to think about these three things. These three things are basically spiritual germs. And what do you do with germs? You want to kill germs. God's Word, His people, prayer is sanitizing. And if you ain't using it, your hands are dirty. You read God's Word in you. Not just coming to listen to me preach every week. I'm talking about ending you money through sirens. Prayer. We have a monthly press service, which I counseled. Probably shouldn't have. We meet once a month of prayer. We should be here. We have Friday prayer. I think we still have that note in season. When people come, 9/30 on Fridays, come and pray. And also, you need other believers in your life. What got me through the week was when I finally reached out to the brothers and told them, "Guys, I'm struggling. Pray for me." I didn't want to do that. Because it felt like I was being weak, a wimp. But I did it. And guys, email me and say, "We're praying for you, brother. I got phone calls hanging there. I'm praying for you." And that helped me. And we all need that. You need that. Because there are going to be times when you need others to lift you up. We're not outing unto ourselves. We're our body of Christ. And we need Him. We need His people. And God always has a way of reminding me that, "Hey, I'm using you, Alex." And it happened to me on Friday. I got to the church. I saw one of the neighbors. He was out cutting grass. And something told me, "Go over and talk to him." And I usually don't do that because I'm always afraid to approach people. That's my personality. But that day, something the Spirit said, "Go talk to the guy." So I went over, talked to him. We started talking about, you know, he has a young son. And he's buying the house that he's living in. I told him a little bit about the Wednesday nights that we're going to have at the village. He said he was a DJ. And he's going to come over next Wednesday and do some music for us for free. And so I was excited about that. And then as the conversation went on, he said, "I've been thinking about this church." And I said, "Y'all got things going on over there I've been wanting to visit." And he said, "Before you pulled up, I saw you." He said, "I prayed to God that you will come over and talk to me." And when I came over, it confirmed it for him. And I was like, "God works in mysterious ways." Well, he put it on my heart to come talk to you. So I got out of the car. And so that was again God encouraging me. And I thank God for that. Because sometimes you feel like you're not making a difference. And God on Friday reminded me, "Alex, even if you don't see it, even if you can't even taste it, I'm using you." Sometimes it's just the plant seeds, but I'm using them. And he's using you too. Even if you can't see it, even when it's hard, even when it's difficult. He's using you in your families, using you on your job, your neighborhoods, and your communities. Always go back to that. Remember that. God is able. Amen. He's able. And he's willing. And he's going to use his people to take care of his people no matter what you go through. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Father, God, I thank you, Lord, for who you are. Thank you for your faithfulness. And I also pray, Father, as we prepare to come to the table today, that you will encourage your people. And encourage us where we are. That's what we take community today. Clasping my prayer. Amen. We're called Wayne and Mark. Up.