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Part 4 of 11
Build Series
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We are a true church—transparent, unedited, and real. I really do enjoy being the pastor and preacher in a place where we can be honest about who we are. One of the things we could say is that at this church, we welcome all people who don't want to pretend to be perfect. Hallelujah.
I was raised in church, so I know what it is for broken people to show up imitating healing. But that means we can never actually get the help we need because we're too busy pretending we don't need help at all. I really do cherish a space where we can say, "Pastor, this is who I am. I love God for real. And while loving God for real, I know God's still working on some stuff in me."
When we can be honest, we can actually measure our growth. We can say, "Man, I see where I've grown." But when I'm too busy pretending, I can't even measure what God is actually changing in me. Public personas create private prisons. When you have to create this avatar of what people think you are, you don't know how strong of a wall you are building to keep yourself in prison while you're in private.
But when you can be real, when you can start to marry the two and not have a church version of you and a home version of you—when it could just be, "This is who I am and I'm okay with being who I am"—that's freedom. If you're not okay with who I am, that's really bad for you. But I'm not going to stop being who I am. I'm not going to change what God has told me to represent.
Has this Build series been helping anybody? Man, it's been so good even for me. I'm so excited to see what God is building here at Evolve, and I know this is just the beginning of what God wants us to do.
Today we're teaching discipline through discouragement. You know that when you're trying to build something, there will be moments when you are discouraged. It would be remiss of me not to warn you that there will be moments you are discouraged. I would be a terrible leader and a bad pastor if I did not tell you that while building in my life, there weren't times where I genuinely felt discouraged.
To be discouraged simply means that I can feel something was taking my courage away—whether it was the fight I was in, the enemies I was up against, or simply just having to be patient longer than I wanted to. You have to learn how to be disciplined even when you're discouraged.
When you feel encouraged, you feel good. You're going to run and see what the end is going to be. You can wake up every morning, pray, read your Bible—you just feel on top of it. I know when you're encouraged because you run and tell me in the hallway. But when you're discouraged, you sneak out of service early. You've been there, right? You've been in church in the back corner in the dark with a hat on and glasses, discouraged.
For some of you, when you're discouraged, you stop coming in person. You start watching online. Because it's hard to remain disciplined when you're discouraged. It's the same as when you're working out. If you ever tried to lose weight, ain't nothing more discouraging than working out for a whole month and you still look the same. You're in the gym every day for an hour, and 30 days later you look in the mirror and you get discouraged because you like, "I thought it was going to happen faster than this."
And really, that's all of us. We all assume that when God says your breakthrough is coming, "God, I thought you meant tomorrow." When God says that your spouse is coming, you're like, "God, I thought you meant last year. And here we are in another year. I've been waiting a bit long. I'm trying to figure out how do I not get discouraged and just say, 'Okay, whatever applicants, come on,' because I'm getting discouraged."
We're still here in Nehemiah chapter 6, and we see where Sanballat has failed several attempts to get Nehemiah to come down off his wall. Sanballat wrote him letter after letter: "Come down. Let's meet." And Nehemiah says, "Hey, I'm doing a great work. I cannot come down."
After several attempts, Nehemiah rejects him over and over. Nehemiah is showing us what it means to be disciplined. What it means to be disciplined is you got to tell the enemy no more than once. To be disciplined is to say, "I'm going to stay where God has for me, even though there's an invitation for me to take an easy road out."
John Maxwell said, "Most people want to avoid pain, and discipline is usually painful." Most of us want to avoid pain. And to be honest, discipline doesn't always feel good.
We arrive here in Nehemiah 6:5. This is Sanballat's final attempt to derail Nehemiah. He sends one more letter, and this letter, he changes his approach. He says, "Okay, Nehemiah won't come to me for a meeting, but what if I start a rumor on his name? Because if I start a rumor on his name, I can get him to respond out of fear. Because so many of us crumble under rumors."
"The fifth time Sanballat's servant came with an open letter in his hand and this is what it said: 'There is a rumor among the surrounding nations and Geshem tells me it's true that you and the Jews are planning to rebel and that is why you are rebuilding the wall. According to his reports, you plan to be their king. He also reports that you have appointed prophets in Jerusalem to proclaim about you. Look, there is a king in Judah. You can be very sure that this report will get back to the king. So, I suggest you come and talk it over with me.'"
Nehemiah replies, and I love Nehemiah. This is my dog. Nehemiah says, "There is no truth in any part of your story. You are making the whole thing up."
Nehemiah is a G, right? Let me explain why this rumor is such a deadly act of war. Whenever a person goes and builds a wall and then says, "I'm going to make myself a king," every king is now threatened. Kings can only grow by taking somebody else's territory. So when a person declares that they're a king, every king in the territory stands up: "Who's the king around here?"
Nehemiah knows that if this rumor was to be believed, he could be in danger. But he's like, "I know my integrity. Sanballat, I know you trying to start a rumor on my name, but everything you said right now is a complete lie, and you know it's a lie. And I'm not about to chase you down because you're making up a lie on my name. I'm going to remain disciplined where I am."
Here's the dangerous thing about rumors: there doesn't have to be any truth in a rumor for people to believe it. Ain't that crazy? That there don't have to be any facts, no details, no report cards, no text message—and still people will believe a rumor. Because there is an issue with humanity: we believe bad before we believe good.
And sometimes when you are successful, people would rather believe that there's something wrong with you than believe that God made something right about you. They want to believe the bad. You got to understand that whenever God is telling you to build something, and whenever God is elevating you and whenever God is taking you higher, all it takes is for one hater to make up a story to get some people to believe maybe you are not what you seem to be.
This was such a common issue in the church even back in the Bible days. We see it as such a common issue that the Apostle Paul had to put a rule in place to protect men of God who were under attack. In 1 Timothy 5:19, it says:
"Do not listen to an accusation against an elder unless it is confirmed by two or three witnesses."
This is such a common issue that what people were doing was making up lies about those in leadership to get them out of leadership. Whenever somebody wanted your seat, they had to destroy your character in the eyes of the people that honored you. So what they would do is make up a rumor about you, and they were getting people who walked in integrity to be removed from the church.
The Apostle Paul said, "We got to stop moving off of what people say. Unless it's confirmed in the mouth of two or three witnesses, you shouldn't even believe that it was a story to begin with."
Psalms 101:5 says:
"Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly, I will destroy."
This is now God speaking up to defend. And I'm trying to encourage somebody who maybe said, "Pastor, I've dealt with a lot of talk." Trust me, I've been there as well. But this is what God declares in his word. He said, "You don't got to chase down every rumor." This is why: "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the good and the evil." And he says that whoever slanders their neighbor, that I will go and destroy them.
Maybe some people are being destroyed and dying and sick because they won't keep their mouth off of people they have no business talking about. One of these days, you're going to realize your mouth is going to get you in trouble every time until you learn to watch what you say and who you're saying it about. You will be in trouble.
God says, "I'm going to be the one to destroy. That's why I say I don't got no enemies, just opposers. You just a hater. I ain't fighting with you. I don't got to war with you. I don't got to talk about you. I don't got to send no threatening text message while you're talking. My God is listening. And the God who defends Israel is the God who defends Kenny. And he will fight for me every time."
So I just remain quiet. I just stay where he told me to stay, and I let God be God.
Jesus showed us this in scripture. Rumors are a sign that God is blessing you. Rumors are a sign. They signify that the blessing rests on your life. Whenever you start to hear stories about you, stand up with your shoulders square and say, "God is doing something in my life."
Because the enemy only makes up stories when he hears our name mentioned in heaven. Whenever God starts to mention our name, the enemy starts to make up stories to derail what God is getting ready to do. But I need you to know a rumor is a sign that God is talking about you and angels are talking about you and God is moving on your behalf.
Jesus said it in Matthew 5:11:
"God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers."
Jesus exposes that this is actually the place of the blessing. The place of the blessing is when they start to make up stories. And I know it's uncomfortable to you because you're afraid somebody is going to believe it. But you got to learn to rest in God. And they say, "God, may the truth win and may every lie be exposed."
Here, back at our regular programming, Nehemiah 6:9, he says:
"They were just trying to intimidate us. They were trying to scare us."
You know, that's what a lie is supposed to do. That's what a rumor is supposed to do. It's supposed to intimidate you because now you're nervous. "What? Who is believing this? Who is believing what's being said about me? That's not who I am. I'm not no liar. I'm not a cheater. I've never moved like... who is believing what's being said about me?"
But when you recognize it's a plan of the enemy, you start to calm down because you realize Satan only starts fighting when he gets scared. Satan only starts fighting when he gets scared.
"Why keeps happening, pastor? The enemy keeps fighting me because he's afraid. He sees the anointing that God is stirring on the inside of you. And he knows if God pops the top and let you loose, he is going to be in trouble. He knows you're just a jack in a box waiting to be released for the glory of God. He has to try to stop you before you get there."
He says:
"They were just trying to intimidate us, imagining that they could discourage us and stop the work. So, I continued the work with even greater determination."
Now, I love this because we see here a few lessons. When the enemy can't get you to quit the assignment or to lose focus, his next weapon of choice is discouragement.
You're going to learn that when he can't get you to quit on God because you love God too much, when he can't get you to quit your purpose because you love your purpose and you are excited about what God has called you to do, so he says, "Okay, I can't get them to stop believing in Jesus. They're too far gone. I can't get them to stop reading their word. They're too far gone. All I could probably do is get them sad a little bit. Because if I can get them discouraged, if I can get them to read just a little bit less, if I can get them to pray just a little bit less, if I can get them to miss a couple of services a month, then I can finally get their attention. If I could just get them discouraged, if I could take away the courage that they had."
When Nehemiah heard this rumor, he worked even harder in his assignment. This is why I said he's cold because he realized, all right, they couldn't destroy me. So now they're trying to discourage me. All right, I see what kind of plan this is. So they're trying to get me to work less. I'm going to work more.
I'm trying to set you free. They want me to work less, but I'm going to work more. The plan of the enemy works against you because he knows he can get you to do what he wants you to do. Once you learn the attack of the enemy and I respond with greater obedience, I respond with more praise, I respond with a greater focus, I respond obeying God even more—the enemy will actually back off.
He keeps using the same attack because that same attack keeps working every time we get a little bit further. Think about it. It's the same thing. Even though we all have different fights, whatever your fight is, it's perpetual. It's the same kind of fight in your life because he knows what works in your life.
If your war has been your kids, notice how every time you get closer to God, something happens with your kids. If your war has been your relationships, watch how every time you get closer to God, something happens in your relationships. If your war has been your physical health, watch how every time you get closer to God, something crazy starts acting up in your body. Because the enemy is using the same thing, knowing what gets you to be discouraged, what gets you separated from courage.
And I've learned that the only proper response to discouragement is to work harder. You have to show the enemy your tactics won't work with me. The games you're playing won't work. The little stuff you're trying to do won't work here. Yeah, you keep throwing a little fire, but I'm going to keep putting it out because I'm going to work harder every single time.
We go here in verse 10:
"Later, I went to Shemaiah, son of Delaiah and grandson of Metabel, who was confined to his home. He said, 'Let us meet together inside the temple of God.'"
It sounds pretty honest. He said, "I went to my friend and he said, 'Let's meet inside the temple of God and let's bolt the door shut because your enemies are coming to kill you tonight.'"
But Nehemiah replies:
"Should someone in my position run from danger? Should someone in my position enter the temple to save his life? No, I won't do it."
Now, if you notice the character of this—I feel like God has a tendency to call fighters into ministry. God has a tendency. Now, when I say this, I want to speak to my fighters in the room. Just hear me for a second. If you ain't a fighter, that's okay. That's okay. Give me one moment with the fighters.
I'm calling my fighters in the room because if you're not careful, the way we teach the gospel is that once you get saved, you're no longer a fighter. And that is not the case. God calls fighters because he wants people to fight. What he's saying is, no longer are you fighting for your own purpose. I've recruited you into the army of the Lord, and I'm now asking you to fight for my purpose, my will, and my plan in the earth.
See, God isn't looking for people who when the enemy pushes them, they sit down. He's looking for people that when the enemy pushes them, they stand up ready because they're used to a fight. They know that that push ain't going to knock me down. I can keep going over and over.
And Nehemiah said, "You crazy if you think I'm getting ready to run for somebody trying to take my life. I will never run from a fight ever."
Nobody in my position. You can't be a leader and be afraid of confrontation. I know some of you say, "I just don't like confrontation." You got to stand up at some point. If you're going to be a leader, you got to learn how to deal with confrontation. Because people are going to do some fake and crazy and bogus stuff. And you got to know how to stand up and say, "No, this is not going to fly here. Not under my watch."
He stands here and he says, "Nobody in my position is going to run. You cannot take back what the enemy stole if you run every time it gets hard. I want to take back what the enemy stole. Well, you will never get there because you run every time it's a fight. Every time it gets hard, you get out of dodge. I need you to find out how can I get back what belongs to me if I'm never willing to fight for it.
In verse 12, he says:
"I realized that God had not spoken to him. [Speaking of Shemaiah, his friend, the prophet.] And I realized God had not spoken to him, but that he had uttered his prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him."
Now I know I need you to know that there are some prophets for hire. Now hear me. Please hear me. Some prophets for hire in the culture that we're in. There are some people—everything they do is about clickbait and to be seen, because they would rather be viral than be anointed. Because the anointing only comes from the presence of the Lord.
And it doesn't stop online. It also comes into the church. There are some people who, once they have something against you, if they're not careful, they will start to prophesy from their feelings, which is called the soulish realm. They'll start to prophesy from what they know about you and think that God agrees with their emotions. And when you aren't careful with this, you would allow people to prophesy against you a word that's not even coming from God.
This is why the Bible says prophecies must be judged. Listen to me. Don't let nobody pull you in a corner and prophesy to you when can't nobody hear you. Listen to me. Don't let nobody pull you off to the side in the dark and give you the word that the Lord gave to them the moment they're getting ready to prophesy. Hold on for a second. Let me get one of my leaders. Can you please stand with me while they give me this word? Because the last thing I want is a demon pretending to be an angel speaking the word over my life that's going to destroy me. I don't want nothing that came from no dream, no vision. If you're not willing to allow that thing to be judged, I got to make sure that what is coming from your mouth is coming from the spirit of God, that is coming from the Lord.
Stop letting people catch you in the bathroom and giving you them bathroom prophecies. "I was going... I won't go to say nothing, but since we right here, the Lord told me to tell you you're next." And you next to get a fight if you don't get out of my face.
So Nehemiah is saying:
"This dude is prophesying and God ain't said nothing to this man. God ain't said nothing to him. He just knows my situation and now he feels like he got a word for me. But God ain't said nothing to you about me."
No, no, no. That ain't come from God. You got to try the spirit by the spirit to see if that thing is really coming from God. There's a lot of people walking around in Jesus' name nowadays.
If you study the text, you realize Shemaiah was clearly someone that Nehemiah trusted. Remember Nehemiah was on the wall—Sanballat and those from Geshem are riding and saying "Nehemiah, come down. Nehemiah, come down. Nehemiah, come down." Nehemiah says, "No, no, no. I'm doing something great. I can't come down."
But his friend, his brother, a prophet he respected—"Hey bro, let's meet in the church." Nehemiah comes down because he's like, "Man, this person has had a rapport with me. We have history. We have a relationship. I've known you to be somebody that I can trust and that somebody I could respect."
This is why it's so important, please catch me, that you need to have discernment the most with people you trust. It's going to hurt because your love can blind you from who they really are. When you really trust somebody, when you really love somebody, the Bible says love covers a multitude of faults. So, because you love them, you can't even see how bad they really are.
Many of you know this because you were with somebody that was toxic and bad and you couldn't see it until that romantic and love stuff was off, and then you look back and say, "How in the world did I last in that for 5, 10, and 15 years? I was literally sleeping with poison and didn't even know it—because my love for you had me blind."
But when you have a trust and a relationship with somebody, listen, you got to be very careful. God, please don't allow my discernment to be paralyzed by the love and trust that I have for somebody. Just because we got history don't mean we got prophecy. Just because we got history don't mean that where we're going is the same place. And I got to be willing to abort any relationship and to kill any connection that is no longer serving God.
Nehemiah realizes, "This was my friend. But my friend saw an opportunity for elevation by turning me over." And you would be surprised how many people in your life would step on you if stepping on you meant they could go higher. If they can use you as a stepping stone, they would.
Here in verse 13, he says:
"They were hoping to intimidate me and make me sin."
You don't even realize that some people are pushing your buttons trying to get you out of your character because they want to have something on you. That's why they keep trying you at work. That's why they keep trying you in that group. That's why they keep trying you in your family. Because they're trying to get you to act outside of your character, get you to sin so they can finally have something on you. They are angry at your integrity. Mad that you represent Jesus, frustrated that your lifestyle has changed. And they will push every button they can to get you to act unseemly.
He said:
"They were just trying to intimidate me and make me sin, and then they would be able to accuse me and discredit me."
Watch this. They wanted to be able to accuse me and discredit me. So accusation comes from the rumor. But the last attack of the enemy is to discredit you.
Now I need you to catch this. Write this down.
When the enemy couldn't destroy him, he tried to discourage him. And when he couldn't discourage him, he tried to discredit him.
Pay attention. First thing the enemy is going to do: try to destroy you. Okay, didn't work. Here you are still serving God. Let's go. Second thing: I'm going to try to discourage you. All right. People you trust. All that. I'm going to try to get them to turn. I want to discourage you. But you done went through all of that and kept going.
You done had people walk off on you, friends walk off on you, family talk to you all kinds of ways, call you everything but the child of God. You done lost jobs and lost money and lost opportunity, and still here you are trusting God. And the devil is like, "Man, I couldn't destroy them. Couldn't discourage them. Let me discredit them. Let me try to get them to a place where I can bring up so much stuff on their name where people will stop trusting who they are."
Let me get them to a place where I can discredit them. I can get people to stop believing in the calling on their life and the anointing on their life.
It's so funny. I had a meeting with a pastor friend of mine this past week and we sat down. He said, "Man, Lock, how you doing?" I said, "Bro, I'm doing good. I ain't gonna say name. I'm just going say pastor man. I said, 'Pastor, man, I'm doing good.'" And he said, "Man, I just wanted to... I done heard all kinds of stuff about you."
I said, "Really?"
Now, you what? He said, "Man, they said you're going wild, man. You out here living crazy. You with all the peoples and the late."
I said, "Wow, really?"
And it was so funny to me because he didn't know this is what I was studying at the very time we were having this meeting—that when the Devil couldn't destroy you, he tried to discourage you. But that didn't work. 3,000 people saved later. It didn't work. So the next attack: let me discredit. Let me say you don't have an anointing or you're not teaching the Bible or you're not who you really claim to be. Let me try to discredit you. Let me send you viral a few times on Facebook and maybe people will stop believing then you really are who you are.
Verse 14:
"Remember, oh my God, all the things that Tobiah and Sanballat have done. And remember, Noadiah the prophet, and all the prophets like her, because women can be prophets too—all the prophets like her who have tried to intimidate me."
Now, I want you to catch what Nehemiah did. Nehemiah knew that they were fighting him. And he could have said, "I'm going to go take up one. I'm going to pull up on him and I'm going to confront him face to face, because bro, you really know me. Why you... Y'all know y'all lying on my name? Y'all this mad because I know y'all issues and y'all got exposed and now y'all like..."
He could have pulled up and made it a fight. But he went to God with it. You don't realize that going to them ain't doing nothing but starting more confusion. All they're going to do is lie about it anyways and blame somebody else or blame you for something they heard.
He said, "God, I'm taking this thing to you." Nehemiah trusted God to be the righteous judge and he did not try to take vindication in his own hands. He said, "God, I'm trusting you. I'm trusting God that if I'm wrong, you will show me. But if they are wrong, like I know they are, I know I'll put this thing in your hands."
I'm going to say this last two verses. I'm going to be done.
Nehemiah 6:15 and 16:
"So on October 2nd, the wall was finished, just 52 days after we had begun. Before two months was out, they were already finished with what God put on them."
Now, I don't want to give you this prophetic word for everybody, but there are some builds in your life God's going to do quickly. Some of these things you've been thinking were going to take all year—you're going to be in March like, "Man, God, you have already done exceeding abundantly above all that I could ask, think, dream, or imagine. God can do it suddenly, that in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, you can be changed."
Here we go. Verse 16:
"And when our enemies and our surrounding nations heard about it, they were frightened and humiliated. They realized this work had been done with the help of our God."
Now pay attention to what just happened here. Nehemiah says, "When the enemies and our nations heard that the wall was finished, they got afraid."
Now watch this. When they were building and all that was cool, but when they were finished, all of a sudden, they're like, "We really in trouble." Because what scares the enemy most is not your calling. It's not your skill set. It's not your gift. What scares the enemy most is when you finish.
Some of y'all miss it. It ain't for everybody, but I know you got it. It's not for everybody because so many of us start stuff we never actually finish. And Satan is like, "I know how to fight you. 21-day fast? I get you to cheat. Oh, you going to start? I get you to stop. Oh, you going to obeah? I can get that."
But to the person that says, "Whatever God tell me to do, I'm getting ready to finish"—you make the enemy nervous. Paul said, "I fought a good fight. I kept the faith. I finished my course." And when you finish strong, the enemy now knows that what he does, the little games he plays, can't get you to quit. And you become a real threat to the enemy.
You become a real threat when you say, "Whatever God tells me to start, I'm going to make sure I finish." And I want to speak this over you: this is the year that you will not quit prematurely. That you will not stop in the process. That you will not quit because you don't like the way it feels. That this year you're going to finish what God put in your hands. That this year you're going to finish what God puts in the assignment of your life. This year you're going to finish whatever he tells you to start.
Father, we thank you today. We praise you. We give you glory, God, that you give us the strength to be disciplined through discouragement. That it ain't always going to feel good. It's not always going to seem like a happy place. But we've learned the discipline, God, of staying even through discouragement. Even when we're sad, even when it's hard, even when it's difficult, God, we will remain disciplined.
We would say, God, whatever you told us to start, we are going to make sure we finish, because nothing is as powerful as Jesus on the cross saying, "It is finished." May we stand and prophesy the way our Savior did. May we declare on December 31st of 2024 that it is finished in Jesus' name. Can we give God praise right there? Hallelujah. It's finished.
