The Village Church
Justice and Endurance - Audio
If you have your babbles this morning, open them to Nehemiah chapter 4. Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashad Menon Hall found himself in the middle of a huge controversy this couple weeks ago over some kind of comments he made about the death of bin Laden I don't know if you familiar with this situation or what he said he wrote what kind of person celebrates death it's amazing how people can hate a man they have never said even her speak we've only heard one side of the story these comments about him open the floodgates of criticism by many people in our country many people said he was unpatriotic he was disrespectful to our military by his remarks he even lost some endorsements as well now Menon Hall he he did come out to clarify what he meant by this statement as most celebrities do they have to give a clarification of what they said in his own words he says I was just reflecting on our own hypocrisy he says during 9/11 we watched in horror as parts of the world celebrated death and our own soul and earlier this week this week parts of the world watched us in horror as we celebrated a man's death nothing I said was meant to stir up controversy it was a it was meant to generate conversation it was only meant to encourage everyone reading to think it did make me think when I read it because I was up that night when president Obama came on and delivered the good news about we finally called Bin Laden and you know what I felt pretty good about that I was like yes we finally got the mastermind justice was served but then I started asking myself as a Christian should I feel this way should I feel this way as a believer is it unchristian of me then I asked myself other questions I said to myself does loving ones enemy mean you send justice off to the city dump never to be found again does does love in my enemy mean I shouldn't pray for criminals to be held accountable for the things they do does does love in my enemy mean I just look over injustice and discrimination does look over it does love in my enemy mean I tell my child just let the bully continue to bully you turn the other cheeks on that's what Jesus would do is that what it means to love our enemies does does taking up our cross mean we simply become muddy door mats to other people that just walk all over us and we just take it is that what it means to love our enemy is that what it means is there ever a time to say enough is enough is there ever a time for justice to long for it to pray for it to seek for it yes there is there is a time and this is what exactly we see in the amount for this morning you see near my had come to a place where he had enough already enough he was to a place where he was tired of some ballot and to buy a and all of their other guys who were coming to try to hinder the good work he wanted justice he wanted these men to be held accountable for the things that they were doing for the actions so if you open if open your baubles to near my chapter four we're gonna look at the first six verses now when Sam ballad heard that we were building the wall he was angry and greatly enraged he jeered at the Jews and he said in the presence of his brothers in the army of Samaria what are these feeble Jews doing will they restore it for themselves will they sacrifice will they finish up in a day will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish burn warns at that and then to buy it aminate was beside him and he said yes what they are building if a fox goes up on it he would break down their stone wall here oh our god we are despised turn back the taunts on their own heads give them up to be plunder in a land where they are captives do not cover their guilt let not their sin be bought it blotted out from your sight for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders so we built the wall and all the wall was drawn together to half its height for the people who had a mind to work let us pray father guys we come to the preaching of your word I pray that you would take what is said by your spirit and apply to all of our hearts and apply to all of our lives we need a word from you father we need encouragement from your truth from your word your word is milking honey father it's just not it's not worth on the page for this life to us we need it in us we need it father and I pray that we'll be at a place we can receive it crashing my brain and man so the enemies of the good work are back same ballad and to buy you they're back during their old game up to their old schemes again and once again they're there to try to handle the work to try to prevent them from building the wall and so what do they do their old tricks they they unleash verbal assaults verbal attacks on them this is what to buy you did with these questions here what does he say what are these Jews are doing these feeble Jews would they restore it for themselves would they sacrifice would they finish up in the day he see this wasn't the first time that Nehemiah had to deal with these two men goes back in chapter two if you remember it was in chapter two where he sized them up it was in chapter two where he put a face and name to his enemies there weren't enemies in the shadows he knew who they were and he sized them up in the first in his first encounter with him they did the same thing verbal assaults on them they tried to they mocked them they made false accusations against them saying they were rebelling against the king were they rebelling against the king no Nehemiah would have the authority the king to be there to do the work that he was doing and now here in chapter four they show up once again once again they show up the Texas and ballot who was the ringleader was angry greatly enraged in jail that the Jews when he heard they have actually began to work see he responded this way because they didn't they didn't give into his last attack they still moved on that pressed on that persevered on and so he's upset and now he shows up again with tabaya with him to unleash more attacks on them this time they taunt them those questions that he asked them where are these fever Jews doing where they restored for themselves where they sacrificed where they finished it up in a day will they revive those the stones out of the heaps of rubbish burned ones at that those that's taunting he's taunting the people and even tabaya gets in his too soon for false goals up on it he will break down their stone wall they taunting the people again trying to hinder them and they doing it in the presence of other people again ten ballots brothers are there the army or scenario there and again their purpose in that is that they want these other people to join in the resistance to join in they to join their alliance against the Jews to try to prevent them from doing the good work now I don't assume that these verbal attacks which is an isolated incident just happened once that it just showed up one day and did it it was constant consistent persistent they were they the enemy was also following through don't forget last week sermon we're called to follow through but guess what so does your enemy so does the opposition against you and this is what they're doing they're falling through on their plan they are bent on stopping this work and so they're going to do what they need to do to do it and so they follow through as well they want the Jews to question the efforts they want them to give up and think about it these workers they're laboring hard man those of you who showed up yesterday to work you out there working you're cleaning and with you had a gang of folks standing over there taunting you oh look at those silly little Christians working on their little old trailer are they gonna finish it up in the day now are you happy about that is that encouraging you this is what they were doing to him they were listening to insults while they work they weren't whistling while they were listening to insults while they worked these enemies summertime where I don't like about summer nats come out they're all in your ear then it fly everywhere this is what the enemy is it's like a nap a buzzing nap that's flies in your ears your eyes your nose and at some point you get tired of those nats okay how holy you think you are you're gonna get tired of them you're gonna come to a point where you say enough is enough these men were doing that they were buzzing around Jerusalem trying to interfere with the workers in their work and Nehemiah has had enough let me ask you if someone talks you what is that person trying to do to you what's the purpose behind a time it's to anger it's to wound and most importantly it's to provoke you to do something you see these men were trying to get Nehemiah and the people to respond in emotional anger to overreact they wanted them to they want to anger them and ignore them so much that the people were actually lose their composure and leash out at them to initiate a physical altercation to initiate a fight which would play right into the enemy's hand which would play right into the hands so Nehemiah had to be wise of the serpent here innocent as a dove it would have been foolish of him to allow that tongue to provoke to provoke him to initiate a fight don't forget the army of Samaria is there too and with things have gone well for these builders if they were initiated a fight with an army with weapons who would have won that fight Nehemiah did not stoop to the level he did not hurt insults back at them instead he and the people they stay composed did not overreact when I was a teenager I had a I had a quick temper I get angry I actually get angry really fast and that led me to overreact to situations all the time and I didn't think things through I just went with my emotional response and that got me in trouble a lot and once summer I got a wake up call to where my quick temper and overreaction was going to eventually lead me see I got into a verbal argument with a guy over telephone I can't remember exactly the circumstances or while we're fighting but I do remember there was an insults and a lot of four letter words used and the argument kept escalating kept getting getting more and more intense and if I was a little a little teapot I mean I was steaming steam was coming off of my head and basically the argument was leading to a fight that's where it was headed and I remember I threw down a telephone I ran into the kitchen I actually grabbed a knife out of my mother's drawer and I took off up the road to where the guy was at you know I was a bit 300 pound offensive lineman in high school and I was running through my neighbor's yard mad as fire and so I get to the house where he was staying I go inside I go to the he's at a friend my house named Gary so I go to Gary's bedroom door I'm banging on the door I say Gary open the door right now open the door Gary open it and he wouldn't open it he would not open the door and so I eventually calm down and I went back home later that summer I asked Gary I said Gary why didn't he open the door man he said Alex he was standing there with a bat waiting for you to come through and he was begging me to open the door and I wouldn't and during that whole time it never crossed my mind that he had a weapon too I couldn't see past my anger and I could have been killed or at least it seriously injured that summer because I would have walked in blindly and that day Gary was an angel of God even though at the time I hated him because I didn't open the door and after that event it had to a lot of souls searching like man I need to start thinking things through because my anger my quick temper would eventually lead to my demise and so what about you are you easily provoked by other people but you have a quick temper do you overreact see your composure is one of your great allies she will help you from overreacting giving into your quick temper she will help you not to say and do things you will regret later and what does it look like to love someone that taunts you every day what does it look like I think one of the things it means is that you don't stoop to their level and do what they're doing to you I think it also means you you don't let them get under your skin and provoke you because when you do that you give them power over you they have power over you and say how you're keeping how does this what does it look like how do you do it you know keeping my knee in my ear was tired too he had grown frustrated too but he stayed composed under pressure but he events to God in prayer he events to God he prays for justice against these men that they would be held accountable what does his press say here oh our God but we are despised turn back that tongue on their own heads give them to be plundered in the land where they are captive do not cover they give let their sin be let not their sin be blotted out before your sight for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders he's asking the Lord to let their enemies are doing to them be done to let that was the enemies are doing he want God to do that to the enemies he wants him to turn that talk back on their own head now I'm going to ask you is this a Christian type prayer because you read what he's reading here these are some harsh words for me and my give them up to be plundered in the land where they are captives do not forgive their sin that's what he's asking them do not cover that sin that's him saying don't forgive it bother don't forgive it God what do you make of that prayer what is it is easy to say well how can they allow you praying for visions here is he totally not loving his enemies recall the questions I asked you in the beginning does love your enemy mean you send justice to the city dump does love in your enemies mean you shouldn't pray for people to be held accountable for their actions there's love your enemy means you just look over injustice and discrimination there's love your enemy means you just let your child be bullied at school you do nothing about it all for the sake of loving the enemy is that what it means to love your enemy no it does not mean that but what does it mean what does it mean you see it's love to fight and pray for justice that's love and it's love to hold people accountable for their actions and the things that they do turn of the cheat to injustice isn't love is you siding with the person who's doing the injustice I know the typical response is that you you would never pray a prayer like that there's no way I'd never pray that prayer like that which means you never been receiving the pain is injustice so evil cause if you have you will just be honest about it abuse being robbed at gunpoint or salted murder of a close relative to say you would never say pray something like that you totally underestimate yourself you totally don't realize that what some things can happen to you that would drive you to that place we all have our breaking point we all do what's your breaking point you see if you have been a victim of some type of heinous crime it is a good thing for you to pray for justice to pursue it to pray that God I'll rain it down like rain and to work for it and how do you work for justice in our country you work within the legal system that we have that ain't perfect but that's what the system that we have it doesn't mean you become a vigilante does it mean you become Batman and take the law until you're on hand because you don't realize how easy it is to become what you hate because we're all sinful you can become the crime that you hate you can become the person you fight against just like that if you ever seen um the dark night I don't know how many have ever seen that what happened to Harvey Dent nothing was white knight what happened to that white knight what happened to him he fought evil he fought crime he fought in justice he fought corruption but in the end what happened to Harvey Dent he became what he hated he became what he fought against and it can happen to the best of us he became what two phase right it can happen to the best of us James 1 20 says for the anger a man does not accomplish the righteousness of God no we can't take it into our own hands notice what Nehemiah does he he he he he gives it over to the Lord he gives it over to the Lord he's trusting that the Lord was going to work all these things out for the benefit of his people that God had called him to Jerusalem he called him to to be part of building this wall and so God was somehow going we're not going to let it fail if he's called him to it and he's going to somehow sustain him through whatever comes up against it and it's that's not true of Nehemiah it's true of us as well if you are convinced that the father has called you to whatever you're doing whether it's to be parents to be to be now in the village to be at this church to be wherever you're doing if you convince he's called you to do it and he's going to sustain you through whatever opposition come in your way but do you believe it do you have the faith to believe it this is Nehemiah saying Lord the battle belongs to you they have provoked you to anger died in the presence of your builders so in putting this in your hand at some point we always have to confess we really don't love our enemies I love people until they cross me that's what I really mean when I love everybody until they cross me then when they cross me I product going to take me a while to love them again that's all of us that's all of us and then just be real about it you love your enemies as long as they don't cross you it's really hard to love your enemies that's why you need the spirit of God in you can't do it apart from the spirit you can't because it's not in our nature to do so and so you're going to get tired of people buzzing around your life who are there to harm you not to help you there gonna be times when you cry for justice and pray for it but don't overreact and it takes wisdom and humility not to do that not to to seek justice without going into quick losing the temper and doing something you're going to regret later and all begins by bending your knee taking it to the Lord and a couple weeks Oprah had a special show about the freedom riders I think it was coming on their 50th anniversary and if you know anything about the history of our country you know the freedom riders had a very special role in terms of fight against injustice and discrimination in the south and freedom riders they took ride in 1961 basically to in order to stand up against the injustice that went in the south no the Jim Crow laws laws against segregation and and so they suffered a lot because of that some of them were in prison some of them were beating beaten you know harsh treatment one of the survivors on the show said before they left we signed our last willing testimony before we got on that bus because we didn't think we were going to make it back we didn't think we were going to make it back but we got on the bus anyway each of those Americans were brave put their life on the line for a cause to fight injustice see they didn't they didn't even initiate any physical of balance at all they were simply riding on the bus and many of them suffered for that they fully knew the dangers that awaited them but they got on the anyway perseverance endurance is what they had just like them me and my I had to know what he was going to get into before he got on the bus to Jerusalem he should have known that they were going to be those they're waiting for him who's not going to like what he's doing and at some point he was going to persevere and endure what they were going to do to him for the sake of the work for the sake of the work and they did. Verse 6 says so we built the wall so we built the wall we built the wall till it was joined to half as high while the people had a mind to work. What happened here they endured the attacks they kept they pressed on and they pressed on because they were standing on their faith trust in the Lord confidence in him confidence that he was going to see them through and the same is true for us in the church and what we do endurance and perseverance comes from a growing faith in Jesus because here's the thing when we all got on the bus to be part of a church like this it meant you are accepting what will come with that the things that come with starting a new church you were agreeing to be part of that when you got on the bus to start with a ministry that deals with issues of justice and poverty and spiritual brokenness it also meant you are accepting what comes along with that what comes along with a ministry like that and you're going to see stuff bad stuff and you're going to feel powerless to do anything about it it means you ain't going to be able to save everybody it also means you're going to save some you're going to see people deliver from all kind of things you're going to see people brought having hope as well you're going to see the good and the bad of it but you were accepting that you were also embracing that it's easy to become the monkeys here no evil see no evil speaking of evil that's easy man because you live in a la la world but you don't want to know it's easy not to know but when you're in part of a ministry like this you know you see you hear it you smell it you taste it and you accept it and you fight it there will be opposition and like Nehemiah you're going to see things that drive to keep driving to your knees and say father I need justice this child needs justice this mom needs justice this is not right Lord will you come and you know what else it means in this life some justice might not get delivered in this life out to wait until the next that's hard reality but it's true it's true life never goes according to plan church never goes according to plan ministries never go according to plan raising your kids never go according to plan careers never go according to plan life is always interrupted life always happens and we can't have enough self-protection around us we can't ever have walls of self-protection around our life that's going to protect us from life in the fallen world do you realize that we can't we can't escape life you can't escape brokenness you can't escape suffering pain this apartment lets that on you can't on this side of heaven you will suffer but we press so be it through it right we endure to the end right through who God spirit lives in you his word says in Philippians 1 6 this is a great promise that I want you leave here with he who began a good work and you you you you you you you you you he will bring it to completion not you not me in the day of Christ Jesus he will he is the one that will lead you to press a beer in this life no matter what you go through no matter what you're going through now what you're going to go through in the future you can't ever lose hope of that that's why I'm always talking about this has to be milk and honey to you this this alone your relationship with Christ has to be the foundation of everything you do everything you do because if it's not you're not going to endure you're going to quit cultivate your relationship with Jesus spend time in his word spend time in prayer time with his people you need those things man I need them I've said it this to you before if I'm not spending time in God's word then that's going to be the downfall of me I have to have more than just right in certain if this is all I do for my spiritual life I'm done I'm building on I'm building on sand this has to be I need to have time when it's just me and Jesus when I'm not writing about the studies I'll prepare for some I need time when I can just hear my daddy and so do you that I can't preach this enough spend time in this word spend time in prayer let us pray Father God perseverance Lord to the end I thank you that you would bring us to that place you are at working in us and it's not just us alone father and I know Lord we we still a lot of things in this broken world with people suffer people lose things they lose lives it's just a broken place and so we pray father for just justice to be served things that are wrong we may remain right and I praise you then Atlanta live and we do taste your goodness and we do thank you for that just it does get done in the side of heaven too now all criminals go free not all of them go free I praise you because of that Lord I pray for each of us and our family's father as we walk out this week and the things that we go through the things that we experience you know people who taught us whatever we go through father help us to know that Lord we can bring those things to you that you through your spirit gives the power to love those that is hard to love to love those who insult us to love those that who who persecute us it's hard we can't do it apart from your spirit father we can and so spirit you live in us manifest yourself in our life and in our circumstances and our families do it father for your magnificent glory and crafting our prayer amen. 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