The Village Church
Stuck in an Odds Game - Audio
You're looking at Nehemiah this morning. If you have your Bibles, open them to Nehemiah chapter six. We're gonna be looking at the first nine verses. Here's God's word. Now when San Bala and Tabaya and Geshim, the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall, there was no breach left in it. Although up to that time, I had not set the doors in the gates. San Bala and Geshim sent to me, saying, "Come, let us meet together at Hackafarium "in the plain of Olna, but they intended to do me harm, "and I sent messengers to them saying, "I'm doing a great work, and I cannot come down. "Why should a work stop while I leave it "and come down to you?" And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner. In the same way, San Bala for a fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. In it was written, "It is reported among the nations, "and Geshim also that you and the Jews "and tend to rebel." That is why you're rebuilding the wall. And according to these reports, you wish to become their king. You have also set up profits to proclaim concerning you and Jerusalem. There's a king in Judah. And not a king will hear of these reports. So come and let us take counsel together. Then I sent to him, saying, "No such things as you say have been done, "for you are inventing them out of your own mind, "for they all wanted to frighten us, "thinking their hands were dropped from the work, "and it will not be done. "But now, O God, strengthen my hands." Let us pray. Merciful Father, gracious Lord, we come before you pleading with you to bring your truth to our hearts. That it has to be your spirit, Father, that takes to preach word and apply it to my heart, apply it to all of our hearts. And so we pray that Christ would be glorified, that we would be encouraged in our lives today, that we will receive a word from you, that a word will penetrate into all the areas of our life, and all the areas of our heart. And it will break down barriers. It will heal wounds, Father. It will encourage us this morning, and Christ came up with amen. Do you ever feel that your life is stuck in an odds game? What do you mean by that, Alex? You're in the odds game where you feel like the odds are always against you, not in your favor. It's 100 to one against you, and the things you try to do and seek to do. 100 to one against you, it being set free from past pains, past hurts. 100 to one against you from being healed up from brokenness. 100 to one odds against you from having a good marriage, from getting out of debt, forgetting a job, or whatever it could be, you feel that it's always against you. Every day, you feel they just keep stacking up like books on all sides. And as a result, some of us, including myself, we sometimes blame God for it all. It's his fault that these odds keep stacking up in my life. And God, you no longer see him as your heavenly father, he just becomes a Las Vegas Ozmaker who constantly sets odds against you, constantly working things against you, not in your favor. It's not like him and Jesus and the archangels or in the heavenly white room determine all the odds against everybody. They don't do that. Sometimes we feel that way. I feel that way. I felt that way this week. What about you? The odds are sometimes great. Sometimes we say, I just can't do it. The odds are too hard, Alex. Just let me hide, just let me quit. What do we need to hear this morning? We need to hear, don't give up. It's too soon to wave the white flag of surrender. It's too soon. Remember Nehemiah. Remember all the things we've been talking about Nehemiah since we started. He had eyes against him, didn't he? But does he give up? Did he ever give up? Did he ever wave the white flag? No, he persevered. He persevered in the work against all the odds he faced. It's all the things that came up against him. Why? Why could he do that? Because of his faith in the Lord God. A God who breaks the odds for his people instead of setting the odds against him. Against all odds, your God wins every time. Do you believe that? He is an on-time God. He might not come when you own him, but he will come. Do you believe this in the places where you live every day of your life? Not here on Sundays, not in Sunday school, not in officer training, not on Wednesday nights, but in those places where you live every day. Those hard times, do you believe that God is for you? Do you believe he can work, he can beat your eyes, no matter what they are. Most of the time, we struggle to believe this. Oftentimes, we forget it. So we need to pray, "Lord, help my unbelief today." Today, not tomorrow or next week, but help it today. This is what we should pray. You see, the odds were always against the Amaya, but every time the Lord beat him. Even when he was trying to go to Jerusalem, he had odds against him. What happened? The Lord moved, right? He moved in the heart of the King, with Sam ballad and Tabaya. All the things they did, the Lord moved. The Jew on Jew exploitation, God helped him solve that. And here in chapter six, he encounters more odds, more odds against him. The first one we wanna talk about comes again from familiar foes who attempted to get again under mind the Amaya. And this time, they wanted him to make compromises. Look at verses one and two of chapter six. Now when Sam ballad and Tabaya engaged him to Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall, and there was no breach left in it. Although up to that time, I had not set up the doors and the gates. Sam ballad and guest him sent to me, saying, "Come, let us meet together at Hacker for Him in the plain of O'Naw." When you read through the Amaya, you can't help but to be amazed that the wall actually was completed. Because man, he had a lot going against him, a lot going against him. And even here the text says the wall was built, no breach left in it. The work has progressed greatly to almost to completion. And yet the familiar foes did not give up. They kept coming. They kept coming to stand against him. And if you've been coming here since we started in Amaya, then you know that these things are opposition. These themes are having odds against him. There's a real current themes in the book. They keep coming up. Every time they get something done on the wall, here comes the opposition. Every step of the way, the enemy's there. These are real current themes in our life as well. Now the only themes, but two or many things, opposition, having odds against us, they're there. They're going to always be there. No matter how hard you work at taking the breaches out of your life, the cracks out of your life, your family, your community, your job, this world, you still going to have odds against you. Okay, how hard you work at it. You're still going to have things to stand against you. All of us are guilty in thinking that one day on this side of heaven, there are going to be no more breaches. There are going to be no more cracks. Then we can do all that we can do to turn the tide in our favor. We just sit around, we can wait for our blessing. So we're going to work harder at trying to patch up all of our spiritual breaches, our relational breaches, our emotional breaches, our financial breaches, our vocational breaches. We can do all that we can do. Trying to make it all together, trying to hold it together. And when you feel like you almost got it, something happens. Someone else stands against you and that deflates many of us. It deflates us because we think at some point in our Christian life, we're going to reach this Christian level of maturity where we have a breach free life. No more odds against me because I'm here now. If that's our perspective, we're going to get deflated every day. Every day because we expect not to ever have breaches in our life. It's never to have opposition and odds against us. Are you deflated this morning because of the odds against you? Or are you like, "What's the point?" Or are you getting ready to make a compromise? Or are you getting ready to give up? Have you given up hope? Thinking that things are not going to get better. Anyway, sometimes it feels easier to just give in. I felt that way. It's just easier to just give in and just give up. Just roll over. You can't beat on us. You can't beat on us in my way of joining. Sometimes it feels easier to just compromise your values, your standards, your convictions, your priorities, even your beliefs. It's easier to just do that. But we can't. We're not alone in this. Nehemiah faced the same things here. Even though we said the wall was almost completed, it didn't stop the enemies from coming. They even failed on self-occasions, right? We talked about that. They failed on self-occasions to stop the work. Man, they're like the energized of money. They just keep coming and coming and coming and coming. They won't stop. You would have thought they would have given up by now. But they keep trying and trying and trying. They would not give up easily. Still determined to put an end to the work. They were obsessed with it, man. It's like they had a meeting to change the whole strategy. Because in the first couple of attempts, they came at them as its enemies. We're going to hand them to work. But they came together, I guess, and had a re-strategize what they're going to do. We tried the fear method. That didn't work. We tried to scare them with coming with them in a war. That didn't work. So we got to try something different. How about we offer a hand a compromise to Nehemiah? Come on, Nehemiah. Come let us meet together, brother. Let the past be in the past. We friends, let's just talk. We just want to talk. So come. Let us meet together. Is that really their intentions? Is that really a peace treaty? Let's be friends. Let's make a compromise. It wanted him to stop his work to come meet with them. To make things even better, I guess they tried to pick a neutral location in the plane of Uno. On the surface, nothing seemed wrong with this request. Nothing seems wrong with it. But you got to consider the source. And the track record of the source. When you consider those names, it makes you question the trustworthiness of this request. Because on the surface of this, it's that still wants to handle the work. Four times they sent word to Nehemiah. Come. Let us meet together. Let us talk. Trying to get him to compromise. Trying to get him to quit the work to come meet with them. And what are the odds that Nehemiah would do that? What are the odds that he would make such a compromise? Would he give in? That's one. But the enemies didn't stop there. They kept persevering. They made a fifth attempt to meet with Nehemiah. This time they sent an open letter to him. Verse five. The letter says, okay. Yeah, verse five. In the same way, Sam ballot for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. And it was written, it is reported among the nations and gets him also that you and the Jews intend to rebel. That is why you are building a wall. And according to these reports, you wish to become their king. You have also set up profits to proclaim you concerning you and Jerusalem. There's a king and Judah. Now the king will hear this at these reports. So now come. Let us take counsel together. What are they doing here? Intimidation. They trying to intimidate him and to meet him with him. False threats, false accusations, trying to frighten him. Now these charges were false, but they're serious charges. Men accused of treason against the king meant death. That's a high charge, even though it was false. And more serious with Nehemiah because that charge on him was trying to make himself king and Judah. They are throwing everything at him. This is what this chapter should show you. They are throwing everything at him that can find every rock, every stone, whatever they can do to undermine what he's going to do his work. They're going to do it. They're going to do it. This attack was an attack on his character, on his reputation, on his motives, and even his loyalty. Even by sitting in an open letter, that's not sealed, anyone can read it. And what's the purpose of death for the spread of rumor? Nehemiah tried to make himself king. Well, that can't be good. We need to tell the king of Persia that Nehemiah is undermining his authority, furthering the rumor throughout the area, even for reaching Nehemiah's hands. Ours of compromise, odds of intimidation. Would he give in? Would he give in? You see, Nehemiah's foes did not make it easy for him to fulfill his purpose in neither were yours. We got to get that out of our mind that it's just going to be easy. It's not going to be easy to be a good dad, to be a good husband, to be a good parent, to be a good wife, a good mom, a good employee, a good boss. It's not easy because you have things working against you. You have things working against you. Most of you know I've been doing P90X now for over six months. I just started my third round. It's a home base workout with DVDs and all that. It's hard and it's challenging. That first week of month was tough. Every day I had to talk myself out of quitting. I was sore in places I never been sore before. I had to give up foods I love to eat. But I had odds against me that was not going in my favor. I had high cholesterol. My blood pressure was going up over 300 pounds. I was not. I was headed down a dangerous path health-wise. So I had to make some changes. You know, I work out. I pray about it. I go to the gym. But I always would go back to my old habits. And so I start this program and I decide I'm going to stick with it. I pray that God help me to stick with it. And I made myself work out. Even it was at 10, 11 o'clock at night. I was going to work out. You know, my personal trainer, Tony, as I call him, he always offers encouraging words to help you continue and not to give up. And I needed those words. I need to hear that every workout. And one of the things he would say is don't say you can't, but say you presently struggle with. Do your best, forget the rest. I love those words. Why? Because they're words of perseverance. Pressive hearing gets all the eyes you face. Every day you got to let the spirit whisper of persevering words in your ear. You got to let the word whisper, persevering words in your ear every single day. Because every day you're going to want to give up. Every day you're going to want to quit. Every day you're going to feel like it can't go on. And if you're not letting the spirit, your personal trainer, whisper truth into your heart, then you will. You cannot live this life without this, this, this. Not just listening to me on Sunday, but during the week. During the week, are you doing your P90X? Is this? This is your P90X. Are you doing it? Are you reading it? Are you letting the spirit encourage you? You need it. I need it. We all need it. Nehemiah needed it. That's why he prayed in verse 9. But now, O God, strengthen my hands. But now, O God, strengthen my hands. See, it's easy to over glorify Nehemiah in this book. Because he stands firm. He never gives up. You can read it and think, man, Nehemiah is just like Jesus, man. He don't ever make no mistakes. But you can't do that. Don't do that. Every person in the Bible, outside of Christ, has issues. Nehemiah wasn't on some super spiritual level above where you are. He wasn't. Do you honestly think it was because of Nehemiah's good leadership that he accomplished what he did in Jerusalem? Was that the only reason he succeeded? Because he was a good leader. Do you? No. He was not on a different level than us. And what he does in this book, against all the odds he faced, is something that every believer should do. He simply just press revered. He was grounded and growing in his faith. That's what's underneath all these pages here. His relationship with his God is underneath that stuff. But if he wasn't grounded there, there's no way he would have stayed. He went through the things he went through. He stayed because he knew God was falling. He knew God was on his side. Do you know that? Do you believe that? Nehemiah simply kept press revered against all the odds he faced. He press revered and not given into fear, to temptation. He press revered and not given into compromise and intimidation. And when he failed, guess what? He press revered through the failures. Nehemiah was not bulletproof to the shots that wounds us. He was wounded too. That's why he prayed. But now, oh God, strengthen my hand. Will you pray this prayer if you didn't eat strength? Will you pray this prayer if you weren't feeling the pressure to give in? Would you? No. You wouldn't pray that prayer if you got it all together. Well, I got it all together. God can handle these guys. I'm going to do it in my own strength. You pray this prayer when you know your own weakness. You pray this prayer when you know your own tendency to give in to temptation. He knew that. And so he prayed, Lord, I need your preserving strength. I need your persevering strength in order to press severe against the odds. That's what you need. You need Jesus' persevering strength in order to press severe. It gets the danger you're going to face in this life. Do you ever cry, Lord, strengthen my hand in the things that you face? Or do you just say it ain't worth it? Do you ever say, Lord, strengthen my hands in this situation, in this conflict, in this struggle? Or do you just throw your hands up and give up? Pray, Lord, strengthen my hands, that I may press severe through the odds there against me. Nehemiah did, and he had his first response to the first odds against him with his founding verses two and four, where he says, but they intended to do me harm. And I sent messengers to them saying, I'm doing a great work, and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop and why leave it and come down to you? Nehemiah was not gullible and naive. He knew the intentions of these guys' hearts. He knew what was really behind this request. It really wasn't a damn extended hand of friendship. He knew these men hated him. He knew they hated the work, and they were up no to no good here. This request for a meeting was nothing but a trap disguised as an offer of peace. So he says, I'm doing a great work, guys. I'm busy. I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you? Four times they sent the request, and four times he answered them the same way. And notice that his response to them wasn't nasty. It wasn't mean. It was calm, even respectful, and to the point. He did not personally attack them. Even though they got down to his skin, his focus was on a greater priority. That's what his focus was. He didn't have time to play the silly game of Cat and Mouse. Remember what he told them back in chapter 2 when they first came and opposed them? What did he tell them? The God of heaven would make us prosper. And we had servants with rise and build, but you, Sam Ballot, Tabaya, Gisham, have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem. He told them that back in chapter 2, and that has not changed. That has not changed in chapter 6. They still have no right. They still have no portion. They still have nothing to do in Jerusalem. And as I said when I preached on that verse is that we give people and situations power over us. We do. Because we focus so much on them, and not focus on the right thing. Focus on Jesus, focus on Him. And so you got to know that these things are going to come against you. Opposition is going to come against you. And how are you going to respond to them? How are you going to deal with them? How are you dealing with them? That's a better question. How are you? His response to the fifth request for a meeting was in the same way. Even when they accused Him of trying to make Himself king, attacking His character, attacking His loyalty, His reputation. He simply said, "No such thing you say has been done. For you are inventing them out of your own minds." He calls them "lawyer" for not calling them "liers." So against being a political correct, I guess. These familiar foes were, again, were doing whatever they could do to frighten them out. But He knew that was their purpose. And again, how can He do those things? The God of Heaven will make us prosper. That's what He's standing on. The God of Heaven will make you prosper in whatever you face in this life. My name ain't going to be on your timetable, but He will. And this is what He did here. The wall was completed. You can look over that sometime, but the wall was completed. Even though the doors and the gates were not put on the gate shit, He pressed there. God still worked. The people built the wall. And so He never blamed God, either, for all the things He faced while He was in Jerusalem. He didn't blame God for all the attempts that Sam ballot placed in Timbalia placed on Him. Like, we do sometimes. Like, I do sometimes. I was blaming Him this week for things I was going through as if it was His fault. I think a lot of us, you know, we need to have what I call a lieutenant Dan moment. Dan Taylor, you know him for Forrest Gump? We all need to have that moment when Him and Forrest were stuck at sea and He got in that screaming match with God. All the things you think God is doing to your life, you need to go to Him and talk to Him about it. Get it off your chest. You need to have a lieutenant Dan moment today, next week. You need to have Him. And when you vent to God about all the odds against you, the Spirit whispers truth into your heart. The Spirit says, "Your Father is a Father of mercies, a God of all comfort, who comforts you in all your affliction, who gives good gifts to His kids, who makes all things work out to those who love Him." So rejoice in the hope of the glory of your God. More than that, rejoice in your suffering, knowing that suffering produces oppressive fear. And perseverance produces character. Character produces hope. Hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Spirit whom He has given us. Perseverance is not a spiritual gift, if you think it is, it's not. It is produced in you through all the stuff you're going to face in this life. All those odds that are against you are producing perseverance in you. They are. They are. Have you accepted the fact. You got accepted the fact. You're going to have odds against you all days of your life. You got accepted. You also got to know that God of heaven would make you prosper. You got to know that. In Romans 7, Paul talks about this reality that He was facing in terms of His struggles with sin. Even though He was a Christian, He still struggled with doing things He shouldn't do. And I'm going to read to you what the message Bible says in Romans 7. I love the words here, so bear with me. This is Paul saying this is Paul. He says, but I need something more. For I know the law, but it still can't help it, but I still can't help it. And if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help. I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it. I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, as such as they all don't result into the action, something has gone wrong within me and gets the better of me every time. It happens so regularly that it's predictable. I'm going to read that again. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is that it tripped me up. One translation says, "When I want to do good, evil is close at hand." I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel. Just when I least expect it, they take charge. I've tried everything. Nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question? The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ does. The real answer is that Jesus Christ does. He acted to set things right in the life of contradictions. Who I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but I'm pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. Is that your life? Is that your life? Yes, it's everybody's life. There are a million to one odds against you. They don't care what it could be, sin, the world, the devil, all against you. But there's only one in your favor that really matters. And that ought is Jesus. And that ought is Jesus. The million to one odds don't stand a chance against him. Ever stand a chance against him. He wins every time. Is it your circumstances of Jesus? Is it going to be your failures or Jesus? Your hardships are Jesus. Your pain in the backside ex-boyfriend and girlfriend are Jesus. Your medical problems are Jesus. Your frustrations are Jesus. Your discomfort are Jesus. Your success are Jesus. Your righteousness are Jesus. Your financial problems are Jesus. My marriage problems are Jesus. Against all those odds you still have the advantage. But many of you don't believe that because your faith is weak. So is mine. You know why the advantage is in our favor because you're good and faithful. Shepherd will always and forever be your shepherd. Always. I don't care how dark it gets. Okay, how hard it gets. He is there in the midst of it all. Working on your behalf. Sustaining you. Providing for you. Going to comfort you. You've got to hold on to that truth. That forever and ever and ever and ever. Your God beats the eyes for you. And he did it first on cavalry. If you've ever doubted, look at the cross. Calvary is where he accomplished a lot of his work for him. There. Look at it. Bathe it. Drink of it. All the days of your life. Let us pray. Against all odds while you are odds be either on behalf of your people. And I look at the cross and that is definitely the case. Because their Christ defeated death. They defeated sin. They defeated enemy. And they made enemies friends. We have become friends of God because of Christ. No longer are we your enemies. No longer do we stand condemned. No longer are we separated. But through saving faith in him what we are renewed. We are now sons and daughters of the king of the universe. Crashing my prayer. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]