to know that something is not going to go our way because if something can go wrong, it can go wrong. Therefore, when it goes wrong, we're just all the more downcast. This message kind of goes hand in hand, as I said, with this morning. Maybe that's why some did not come back this evening. Of course, they were not regular in the evening anyway, so that's probably why they didn't come back. I will tell you a little story I read about a mother of eight children. not sure where she lived, but when she came home from visiting her neighbor one day, she walked in the house and it was real quiet. And so she walked into the kitchen and she found five of the smallest, youngest children all crouched down and she didn't know what they were looking at. So mom kind of sneaks up real quietly And she realizes all five of those children are looking at little baby skunks. So mom yells, run! Each one of those five little children picked up a baby skunk and run to their bedroom. Murphy's Law. If it can go wrong, She had little children smelling like skunks, literally. It will go wrong. Oftentimes when things go wrong, we get very discouraged. There is no vaccine for discouragement like the COVID vaccine, and even if there was, it'd be about as 100% proof as the COVID vaccine. I didn't say that. But anyway, you know what I'm talking about. There is no pat answers for discouragement. discouragement. You can get discouraged at times. You know what? You can get over it and it can reoccur, can't it? It can come right back and bite you. It is also contagious. Did you know discouragement can spread quite easily? It can have a whole effect on a whole congregation. One person in New Life Baptist Church can disease the whole congregation. Did you know that? Think back with me. You remember the children of Israel, how they begin to murmur. When the 12 spies came back, 10 of them gave a bad report, 2 of them gave a very good report. The whole congregation listened to the bad report and what did they do? The 10 discouraged everybody in the camp, except the 10. You see how that can spread. Let me give you another example. You remember in the book of Isaiah the Rabbi Sheikah was speaking to Hezekiah and his men and he was speaking in the language of the Hebrew language. Y'all remember this story, I'm sure. You know your Old Testament, like we mentioned this morning. You do read your Old Testament, right? Yes. And you remember how they told the Rabbi Sheikah, speak in your language, don't speak in our language. And why he was speaking in their language was because he wanted to discourage them, and that's what he was doing. You see, discouragement can spread very much like a disease. The Word of God tells us that Satan is our adversary. That's what Satan means. That means if you're going one direction, he wants to push you in a different direction. He wants to withstand you. If you strive to do the Lord's work, you can expect opposition from Satan. Oftentimes you can feel like you're taking two steps forward and what? You go three steps back. Go one step forward, you can go two steps back. It seems like you're always losing ground some of the time. It seems like the more progress you make, it's like Alice in Wonderland. You're running and running, you never get nowhere. In the book of Nehemiah, we're in chapter four. The Jews have built the wall, at least partially. And in the process of building the wall, we know it's God's will for them to build a wall, but what happens? There's opposition. God did not remove the opposition. It's there. He could have, but it's there. God wants you to grow in holiness, but you know what? You're going to have opposition. And God's not going to move that opposition because He wants you to grow in holiness. God wanted that wall built, and it was built. The opposition was there, but you know what? They overcome the opposition. You're going to face opposition in your life, even when you get discouraged, and that's what happens to the Jews in this chapter. Opposition is necessary in our lives. Can you imagine what your life would be like if it was all a bed of roses? Oh, I'd be happy all the time then. No, you would not. You'd be miserable. If everything was hunky-dory easy and there was no striving, no work, and no effort to be put forth in anything, you know what? You'd be the laziest bunch of people and the most orneriest bunch of people if you never had any problems or oppositions or anything in your life that you were facing to strive to overcome. I think it was one of them women comedians, a Christian comedian that says it's the bumps of life is what we grow on. And that is so true. There is a process. As we walk the walk with Christ, we learn to lean upon him. We learn to walk with him. We often sing the song, and he walks with me, and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own. But you know what? We sing that song, but we've got to put it into practice that we actually walk with him. I'm not talking about coming to church and walking with the Lord and then leaving and walking home by yourself or driving home. Of course, we ain't walking home, but you understand what I'm saying. We learn to walk with the Lord, and we learn to lean upon Him during those difficult times. And what we see in Nehemiah, we see that in process. In Nehemiah 1, what you find is Nehemiah starts praying about a burden, and he even offers his own life to help out to ease that burden in whatever way he can. So in chapter 2, what we see, we see him leaving the palace, leaving the riches, and going to the poverty and the rubble in all the mayhem in Jerusalem to build the walls around Jerusalem. In chapter 3 what we see is teamwork. They get together and they're excited about building the wall and they start building the wall. In chapter 4 what we see is Murphy's Law smacks them right in the face. If something's going to go wrong, it's going to go wrong. Sure enough, something goes wrong in chapter 4 And so what I want us to look at this evening in chapter four is how the Jews got discouraged and look at the source of their discouragement, where it comes from, and ultimately how to overcome it. There are two different places discouragement comes from. I can narrow it down to two. One is from without. Uh-oh. You read my mind. That was almost perfect timing. Without. And one of them is within. You know, we can discourage ourself from our own personalities. So I want us to look at this in verse 1. What we see is a character comes in play. We've already read about him before. He is the governor of Samaria. And in verse 1, the Word of God tells us, but it came to pass that when Sanballat heard that we built the wall, he was wroth. I love that old English word. Sounds like he's drooling out of the mouth with anger. Sounds like a dog that's like, That's what Sanballat is doing. He is very angry. He is wroth. And he took great indignation. And notice what he does. He mocks the Jews. Now, to understand what's going on here, we can see the walls started getting built. When Nehemiah had his plan, he gave everybody different parts of the wall to build right around where they were living and right in front of where they were living. They were responsible for that area and the gates in those areas. Look down in verse 6 in chapter 4, and it says, So built we the wall, and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof. For the people had a mind to work. In other words, up to this point, they had built and worked on the wall. They had a heart. They wanted to do it. And they got it all the way around to where it all met, the whole wall, but it was only halfway up. Now, they still got halfway to go. So get the picture in your mind. You got a job to do and it's a very strenuous, laborious job. You get halfway done and it's taken months. No, it's just taken a few days. It's amazing how fast they did this. But because of the effort and the hard labor that it took, about halfway through, they're seeing they still got halfway to go. You know what? When you're in the middle of a big job, and it's a back-breaking job, let me tell you, laying rock would be a back-breaking job. When you realize you're only halfway through and you see the other half, It don't take a lot to get you discouraged. They had the enthusiasm starting out, but it's starting to fizzle out. There are some people in life that like to strive to live on the mountaintops. You know what I'm talking about? They like to live on a spiritual high all the time. There are some people that like to live in the valley and they never come up out of the valley. And ye go I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. You know they love to dwell in the death valley so to speak. They don't like to come up from there. In my life what I make it as a personal goal is to try to walk on a level plane. I know if there's spiritual highs, there's going to be spiritual lows. I know if I'm in a spiritual low, there's going to be a spiritual high. So therefore I try my best to stay even keeled. I'm speaking to you as your pastor. I'm speaking to you that I'd like to see you in your life walk level, not up high, not down low, but walking levelly with the Lord. You know what? It makes a world of difference if you can do that. Here, you must acknowledge there's going to be ups and downs in life and when they come, the Lord doesn't change. He's the same when you're on a spiritual high, when you're on a spiritual low, when you're walking level with Him. The Lord hasn't changed through it all. Your circumstances, situations, and things around you, people around you, they may change. And though the foundations be destroyed, mark this down, God does not change. Therefore, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So no matter what comes your way, you can still walk with the Lord. there's always going to be adversaries. When it comes to the work of the kingdom of God, there will always be adversaries. There's always been adversary because there is one adversary leading the adversaries until the kingdom of God is ushered in. I want you to notice what Sanballat does as this discouragement comes from without. As he hears the report of the wall being built, it's done encircled all of Jerusalem and it's halfway done, he's angry. Now why is that? Because it's going to mess up the economy. It's going to mess up the tradesman traffic flow. It's going to mess up his almighty dollar. He gets upset. And so what does he do? The Word of God says he mocks the Jews. He makes fun of them. Now you notice this. We are not ignorant of Satan's devices. Satan likes to make a mockery of God's people and God's work. That's true in our day and time. It's been true ever since time began. You think of Pharaoh. Who is God that I should obey him? Pharaoh mocked God. You remember the Philistines in Samson's day? They mocked Samson. They mocked the God of Samson. Goliath who defied the armies of God, you remember it was a little boy named David who defeated him in the name of the Lord because he mocked David's God. There are mockers consistently, even up in the time of our Lord Jesus Christ. They mocked Him, they spat upon Him, they beat Him and crucified Him. You saved others, can't you save yourself? You remember how they mocked the Lord? Here's where discouragement can come from when someone starts mocking you. making fun of you, or talking behind your back, or talking to your face. They eventually, what Sanballat does, he starts attacking them personally. In verse 2, the first part of that verse says, and he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, all of the army of Samaria is there, He's speaking before them and what does he say? What are these feeble Jews? Look at these Jews who are building this wall. They're feeble. They ain't even got no strength. They're not going to be able to finish this wall. What do you think you're doing? He's mocking and he's making fun of. He's attacking them personally. And you can imagine the military here laughing and chuckling and giggling. at Sanballat's words. Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they make an end in a day? Are they strong enough to finish it in one day? Are they going to be able to revive the stones out of the heats of the rubbish which are burned? In other words, when Jerusalem was destroyed, are they going to be able to raise it back up? from all the destruction, all the rubbish that is left behind. They're attacking their works. Tobiah joins in and attacks the works. Notice it says in verse 3, Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go on it, he shall even break down their stone wall. If a little bitty fox starts walking on top of that wall, it's just going to crumble. Now through archaeology what we know from the wall that was built back in that time, that wall was at least eight to nine feet thick. That's a thick wall. Let me tell you, ain't no fox gonna break that down. But Tobiah joins in the mockery and making fun of. In other words, you can see them attacking the people with their words. You see the attack with words is joined in by Tobiah. And then you see the attack intensifying. Look down to verse seven. It says, but it came to pass that when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth and conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it. Now notice here. There are four different adversaries. There's Sanballat. He is up from the north in Samaria. There are the Arabians. They're south of Jerusalem. There are the Ammonites. They're to the east of Jerusalem. There are the Ashdodites to the west of Jerusalem. Notice how the attack starts intensifying toward the work of God. In other words, it's looking even worse. They start conspiring from within. When people attack us, whether it's personally, verbally, or whatever way, we can be very discouraged. But that discouragement can also lead from without to discouragement starting to come from within. Now how do we have inward discouragement? How does discouragement start within? In some ways it can come from without and build up and we build it up within. But how can that discouragement, what could that lead to? If you start getting really discouraged, what does that normally lead to? Somebody help me out. Depression. You can get depression from discouragement and discouragement and discouragement. One of the ways that happens is internalizing words that are spoken to you negatively. Listen to what it says in verse 10. Judah said, the strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed and there is much rubbish so that we are not able to build the wall. Notice the language Judah uses. What does he say? There is much rubbish. Where did that word come from? Look back in verse 2. Sanballat said, are you going to make these stones revive out of the heaps of the rubbish? There was rubbish all around them when they started building the wall. They get halfway through, now they start thinking about the rubbish. Why is that? It's because somebody planted a negative seed in their mind, and here's what happens. They start feeding on that negativity, that negative word that's coming without, and they start building it and personalizing it. and pretty soon they're getting discouraged. That's what's happening in verse 10. Judah's saying, the strength of the bearers of burden is decayed. Their strength is worn away. There's so much rubbish. There's so much burnt stones and torn down stones. You see how discouraging words, we can feed on that. Another way discouragement comes from within, let me throw a little one in here, is through the way you have self-talk. Do you know what I'm talking about? Does anybody in here talk to themselves? Yeah, we do. Go ahead and admit it. You've been arguing with yourself? Oh dear, we got problems. We need Sister Helen as a psychologist over here. You're okay to talk to yourself, just don't start arguing with yourself. You got a big problem. I remember Sister Cindy Vaughn. She had told me one time, one of the things that I mentioned years ago in a sermon that changed her life was addressing that topic of self-talk. When you start talking to yourself in negative tones, let me tell you something, you are going to discourage yourself. You're going to build that discouragement up and literally wallow in it. Now how can we negatively talk to ourself? By being suspicious of other people, of what other people are thinking about us, You know what? You don't have a clue what I'm thinking about you. You can think you know what I'm thinking about you, but you know what? You don't have a clue. And I don't have a clue what you're thinking about me. You might be wanting to throw a tomato at me right now. I don't know. I can't see your thoughts. You understand what I'm saying? When we start trying to think what's in other people's minds, we've crossed a line. And that self-talk will bring you down like a lead balloon. We can have self-talk to imagine other people's words. We can think somebody said something and they meant it in a bad way, which they did. It's kind of like what Brother Wayne was saying, we may have offended you. It was not by intent, but you may have taken it wrong. That's why you're to go to a brother if you've got a problem with a brother because pretty much you've probably taken something in the wrong way. Self-talk is a very important thing. How are we to talk to ourselves? Remember it says it over in Colossians chapter three. Help me out, come on. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, yeah. Do we do that or are we feeding the negative thoughts? Discouragement can come from within very easily. When we get fatigued physically, we get worn out physically, let me tell you that has a play on us mentally. If you're tired, it's easy for you to be mentally tired. you can be mentally drained. Notice in verse 6, they're halfway done with the wall. By the time you get to verse 10, Judah's saying, we are not able to build the wall. Well, you already got half of it built. What do you mean you're not able to build the wall? They've gotten discouraged is what it is. that discouragement has brought them down. They're tired. You know what? If you're not used to moving stones and rocks and building a wall eight to nine feet thick, two-and-a-half miles long, You're going to feel it. You know what I mean? Anybody know what I'm talking about? Doing some hard labor that you're not used to. Here's where I feel it first, right there in the back. It starts getting there. When I was little, they used to call it a gristle. You know what I'm talking about? The gristle back there starts getting sore. When you get fatigued, they're ready to quit. halfway through. Usually halfway through the work of the Lord, people are ready to quit. Satan knows it, and that's when he attacks. I want you to notice in verse 10, Judah is frustrated by the rubbish, by the clutter. There's a lot of rubbish all around. Well, they've already been working in it, but you got to understand, he's discouraged now. And because of that clutter, they're frustrated. There are things in our lives that clutter our lives. Technology is good, but you know what? Technology can clutter our lives. Smart things are good as long as you control it and it don't control you. As I said this morning, like when COVID struck Brother Steve, COVID narrowed down what was priority in life. And you know what? It became very focused in his life what really mattered in life, as he knew he might be taking his final breath. If you think of all the troubles and trials Brother Steve has gone through, you couldn't name them because you haven't walked in his shoes and they're too big for most of y'all's feet anyway. But you know what I'm saying? Most of the things that you worry about are not worth worrying about. COVID is going to kill me. Has it killed you yet? If you don't get the vaccine, you're gonna spread it to everybody. Are you sick from me being around you yet? Maybe in other ways, but not with the COVID. You understand what I'm saying? We worry about things that really don't amount to a kilo beans. That leads us diverse. Notice it says, in verse 11 and 12, and our adversary said, they shall not know, neither see till we come in the midst among them and slay them and cause the work to cease. And it came to pass that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us 10 times, from all places which you shall return unto us, they will be upon you. In other words, they're gonna attack you. It's gonna get you. The COVID's gonna get you. Tobiah is going to get you. The Ashdodites, the Ammonites, the Arabians, they're going to come from all different directions. Here's another thing that causes discouragement is fear. What is the government right now pushing? It's pushing fear. And has been for a year and a half. Perfect love cast out all fear. I believe that. You need to be careful who you listen to. Did you hear me? I'm talking about, listen to me right now. You might not listen to me later, but listen to me right now. Be careful who you listen to. Because there are people who would drive fear in your life. And we are people who are not driven by fear, but by the love of Christ. We're not driven by the government making us fear about living the very next day. We're driven by our lives are in His hands. Fear, what does it do? It leads to deception. Fear leads to deception, which eventually leads you to doubting. Don't go there. Put a rock through your TV or cast your TV out of your house if it's making you fear. kick CNN in the rear. In other words, they're driving fear. Don't listen to it, because I want you to notice here, in Nehemiah, as they speak these words and they're talking about being attacked from different directions and nobody is even going to know they're upon them and they're going to be killed, it never happens in the book of Nehemiah. Well, look at there, it's just like I said. Most of the things we fear never happens. So you know what they were worried about was nothing. It amounted to nothing. Now God did protect them, there is no doubt about that. I want you to notice. I was reading something, I cannot remember the statistics on it, it was something like The majority of what we fear never happens. Next down the line, what we fear, if it does happen, it really ain't nothing to be feared. And then if there's something that does happen that we fear, there really ain't nothing we could have done about it to begin with. So ain't no reason to fear about it that way either. We waste a lot of time when we listen to the world. but we are overcomers. How do we overcome? How do we overcome the discouragement? The discouragement that sometimes comes from the world, that sometimes comes from within, from ourself, from our faults, feeding the negative thoughts, the self-talk. How do we overcome? In verse four, Nehemiah says, Hear, O our God, for we are despised, and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for prey in the land of captivity. And cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee, for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders. So built we the wall, and all the wall was joined together, and to the half thereof, for the people had mine to work. What does Nehemiah pray? Nehemiah prays for God's presence. I want you to notice this is an imprecatory prayer. He calls for God's wrath to be upon him. Now, this is not a personal vendetta that Nehemiah has. He knows they're attacking God's work. Does he pray for their salvation? Look very carefully. No, he does not pray for their salvation. He prays for God's wrath to come down upon them because they're opposing God. Very interesting prayer here. What do we do when others hurt us or slight us or disregard us or talk about us to where we're discouraged? Do you run and talk to somebody else about that somebody else that's talking about you, which was probably somebody else and not you? No, I'm just kidding. What do we do about that? You don't run to others and talk about them. You run to the Lord and talk about them. It is amazing what happens when you take others to the Lord in prayer. You know what? Your mindset and your heart changes when you pray for others. That means you harm. Down in verse 9, the Word of God says, Nevertheless, we made our prayer unto our God and set a watch against them day and night because of them. They prayed, they watched, they prayed, they put a guard out, and they worked. They prayed, they guarded, and they worked. They had to change their strategy a little bit. They reorganized here a little bit. Notice down in verse 13. It says, "...therefore said I in the lower places behind the wall and on the higher places I even said to people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows." And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them. Remember the Lord, which is great and terrible. And fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, and your wives, and your houses. And it came to pass, when our enemies heard that it was known unto us, and God had brought their counsel to naught, that we returned, all of us, to the wall, every one to his own work. And it came to pass from that time forth, that half of my servants, wrought in the work. And the other half of them held both the spears and the shields, and the bows and the habergeons, and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah." In other words, they had to re-strategize everything. They reorganized what they were doing, and they refocused on what they were doing. And the word of God says, they which builded on the wall, and they that bear burdens with those that laid it, every one with one of his hands wrought the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. For the builders, every one had a sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me. And I said to the nobles, and to the rulers, to the rest of the people, the work is great and large. We are separated upon the wall, one far from the other. In what place thereof you hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us. Our God shall fight for us." Notice how he refocuses his strategy. So we labored in the work, and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared. Likewise, at the same time said I unto the people, let everyone with his servant lodge within Jerusalem that in the night they may be a guard to us and labor on the day. So neither I nor my brethren nor my servants nor the men of the guard which followed me, none of us put off our clothes, saving that everyone put them off for washing, I'm glad God put that last part in there for you ladies, because you know them clothes would start to stink if they were not washed, and that would probably have been one of the thoughts some of you would have thought about, about them stinking clothes, because they didn't even put off their clothes. God saw to the little bits in there. I want you to notice as they refocus, what Nehemiah points the people to is to the Lord God. In verse 14, the middle part of there, he tells them to be not afraid. He says, remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren. In verse 10, notice what Judah had said, we are not able. And that's true. They were not able until they relied upon the Lord God. In your life, you are not able. Jesus said, without me, you know, you can finish that. You can do nothing. Without him, all of our work is in vain. He is able. What did they do? What did Nehemiah do as a leader encouraging the people? He did what we can do in our day and time. He strengthened himself in the Lord. When you are weak and feeble, when you are down and discouraged, when you have negative thoughts because of the negative self-talk, or whether you have someone who is an adversary openly, you strengthen yourself in the Lord. How do you do that? How does one strengthen himself in the Lord? These are not pat answers. These are real life truths. How do you strengthen yourself in the Lord? The number one thing think upon him. And what it says in verse 14, remember the Lord. A very basic principle which is something we very basically forget when we start going downhill. Remember the Lord which is great and terrible. He is almighty God. How are we to think upon the Lord? There are times when I am doing something that requires my thinking. I find myself thinking while I'm thinking or singing while I'm thinking. That was even tough to say. And yet I do that. Any of y'all sing while you're thinking about doing something? I'm kind of weird. I know that's, nobody else does that. But what we do is we think upon the Lord. As you think upon him, there are so many things you can think upon him about. think of his attributes. Just what we looked at this morning, his compassion, his many compassions, his tender mercies, his love. He is a just God. He's a merciful God. He is a good God all of the time. He desires for us to come to him in whatever situation is going on in our life. He already knows your thoughts. He already knows what you've done wrong. He's already forgiven you of what you've done wrong. He wants you to come to Him. It's our sinful self and sinful pride that keeps us from coming to Him. We think upon His attributes, but you know what? You can also think upon His promises. As we sang just a minute ago, I will stand on every promise of your word. There's a little song we used to sing with kids. Every promise in the book is mine. Every chapter, every verse, every line. Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na. I can't remember it all. That's why I'm humming it. Anyway, there's so much you can think upon to redirect your thoughts to get out of the valley of rubbish. don't think on the rubble as Judah did. Direct your thoughts toward the Lord as Nehemiah directed them to do. And you know what? They did that. Did they finish the wall? Yes, they finished the wall. Praise the Lord. Brother Josh will probably preach next Sunday, but the wall is getting done. It took them 52 days. It's going to take us probably about 52 days to get that ball built as far as finished. God's Word is a very wealth of resources for our encouragement during difficult times and times of discouragement, times of loneliness, times of negative dwelling in the rubbish. The rubbish was there all along. The problem was you were focused upon the Lord and now you're focused on rubbish. What does that mean you need to do, Judah? You gotta think, remember the Lord, even so in your life. May we make much of Him who's done so much for us. We're gonna give a hymn of invitation and just pray that you would make the Lord the center of your life, that you have a desire to walk with Him that you would remember him, not just on Sunday. And I'm not talking about when you wake up on Sunday morning, because you usually ain't even thinking then, you're thinking about what you're going to wear, if you're going to get there on time, why ain't my spouse hurrying up, why ain't the kids, your mind's going 50, then you get to church then. No, you need to be walking with the Lord. It'll change your life. if you are faithfully walking with him. I stand and go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you for your word and the encouragement of your word, even when there are times in our lives there is much discouragement as far as the world, what it's throwing at us. And Lord, it seems like the administration that's in control of the United States of America is trying to change all of society, all of our culture, all of our ways. Lord, help us not to fear, but help us to remember you and to look to you to seek your guidance, your will, and your way in how we can minister and how we can reach out to others to glorify your name. For Christ's sake, amen.