Pastor Jon Burgess
November 15, 2015 - W1546

As we continue in our Come Together series, how can we make sure that we are prepared for the long haul? Remember now that this is not a sprint. It is a marathon. And we need to work together with God and each other just as it says here in Nehemiah:

“So, we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.” (Neh. 4:6 NKJV)

It says here that they were able to finish the wall to half its height because the people “had a mind to work”. But what does that really mean? Well, it’s when our attitude and action agree with the will of God. It’s when you put feet to your faith and you begin to do that which God has designed for you to do. Now you remember that these people did not have the knowledge or the skill to do this task by themselves, but, they made it this far because they had the mind to work.

It’s the same for all of us. Do we have the mind to work in order to move forward to where God has intended for us to be with our walk with Him? We need to continue to turn our “no” to some things and turn them into a “yes” for what God wants us to do.

Let me give you a fun example. I decided to take my kids hiking up Diamond Head Crater one day, but we stopped at Liliha Bakery first and then had a difficult situation. Should we just stay here at the bakery indulging on delightful pastries or should we proceed to the crater to climb it? Fortunately, they all decided to tackle the hike. But when they found out it was 216 steps - some of it almost vertically up - they almost relinquished the challenge. I kept telling them that the view is quite beautiful from up there, a view of the Island like no other. Though they turned the “no” to pastries into a “yes” to the hike they were complaining all the way to the top. And there were even some tears along the way, a lot of sweat from the climb and even some bleeding, because there were crowds of tourists, hundreds of steps, rocky paths and dark tunnels. But when they got to the top and saw the view, they knew all the blood, sweat and tears were worth it. It’s just like our walk with God, there is the blood, the sweat and the tears, but when we encounter what God presents to us in the end it is well worth the effort. So this November I want us to think Yes-vember instead of No-vember.

Just like the people of Israel, we have to say “no” to the worries and the doubts and “yes” to the will of God in our lives. So there are three things I want us to consider in our discussion today and we will see the acronym spells out “FAT”. But here we will find a way to make “fat” good. If you’re able to say “yes” to this kind of “fat” you will be able to find your way to God’s wonderful promises.

1. Faithful

The first step to turning No-vember into Yes-vember is by being Faithful to whatever God is asking us to do. It takes that mustard seed of Faith which will eventually grow to a mighty bush as we continue to walk out our faith in Christ. And yes it gets really hard sometimes especially when the enemy is really trying to push us down and hold us back. But if we say no to the forces of the enemy and am faithful in saying yes to God’s will then we will be on the track with whatever God holds for us in the end. So like the people of Israel we must boldly stand Faithfully by saying, “I’m not going to back down, I’m not giving up, I’m digging in and fighting for every brick on this wall or else we wouldn’t be able to build the wall even halfway.” Here is what is written in Nehemiah about how faithful the people of God were in the building of the wall:

“From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me.” (Neh. 4:16-18 NIV)

Why do they have to do that now? Because the enemy has watched how quickly they had built the first half of the wall so now they need to step up their game. Do you think the enemy will just let the Israelites continue happily along their way to finish the wall that will protect them from attack and make them invulnerable? Of course not. Does the enemy leave us alone as we continue in our walk of faith with God? No! So although they won’t be building the rest of the wall faster this is something they have to do. You see, the enemy is waiting for their guard to be down because at that very moment they are ready to attack and stop them.

It’s the same for us. The enemy is waiting for our guard to be down because it is at that moment he will try to bring us down. How many of us think that prayer is just not working, it takes time to pray and takes too long to get results. But you see, this is what the Nehemiah is showing us here. Prayer is the sword the people of Israel are holding in one hand while they work with the other hand. The enemy is just waiting for us to lay that sword down, he wants us to disregard the need for prayer because it is then that he can defeat us and halt any progress.

Nehemiah shows us that prayer is like that sword ready at every turn.  In every aspect of the building of this wall, he first went into prayer before proceeding. He prayed no less than 10 times during the building of this wall. Before he takes that rock he goes into prayer. Before he asks the king to go to help in the building of this wall, he goes into prayer. For everything in every way, he went into prayer, like in chapter 2, he prayed a quick arrow type prayer “help me Lord” and he prayed the longer prayer like in chapter 9 which was longer and in more detail like that of an intercessory prayer. But no matter short or long he is doing exactly like the workers, they have their swords but Nehemiah fights with prayer. Before going to work in the natural, he goes first to the supernatural. In order to go there to do the practical, he first goes to seek God’s presence.

It is very important like Nehemiah to take everything we do to God in prayer first. Prayer is a very vital part in our walk with God because without it the enemy will drag us down and hold us back. You see the enemy wants to stop us from praying by telling us being faithful is not expedient. He wants us to just continue on our way and it will be fine. However, in everything we proceed to do, whether with family or friends or whatever God asks us to do, we have to lead first with prayer. Not many of us will be able to say, “Yes, I pray every day!” Most of us will say, “I need to pray more.” So we ask the question:

How Can I Pray More Faithfully?

First of all, take a break. Everyday just take a 10 minute break from everything and say a prayer. Now for those of you who do pray, like an intercessory prayer warrior, you ask God how to proceed. This is for those who don’t pray consistently. Most of us do the yoyo prayer where when we are down, we pray, when we are up, we don’t. I want us to move beyond the yoyo prayer. I’m going to teach us how to be more consistent in prayer. Most times we will pray when there is an emergency or we pray for dinner, things like that. I want to move us more into a rhythm of prayer so that we actually take at least 10 minutes away from TV or our phone and genuinely take time solely to pray away from the 3 “w’s” - work, worry and wifi. The enemy will do everything possible to distract us from praying but I want all of us to do this, everyday, just take 10 minutes to pray without distractions.

The next question that will pop up is “What shall I pray for?” Well, I promise God will provide us with a list of things to pray for, just start writing things to pray for in your journal, you will then have a list. You can even pray for the volunteers in the church or for those who just signed up to volunteer for something. Things will get in the way to prevent them from serving after all. Things like extra work at their job or added responsibility elsewhere or even doubt and worry that their service is not adequate enough. These distractions all need to be prayed for. There’s a lot to pray for and we may begin to find that you will go beyond 10 minutes. So this simple 10 minutes will lead to bigger things if we just stand Faithful in prayer.

Now the next thing is to be Available:

2. Available

We are going to turn No-vember into Yes-vember by being Available. It’s like when the coach calls a new game plan at the last minute. The QB or the rest of the team is not going to ignore him, no, they will make themselves available to do whatever the coach designed for them to do instead. It’s called an “audible” because the coach saw something that needed to be changed for that last moment that will make a difference. God will often call an audible to change something in our service because God wants us to. We have to be Available to do whatever God calls us to do. Like here in Nehemiah 4:19:

“Then I said to the nobles, the rulers, and the rest of the people, ‘The work is great and extensive, and we are separated far from one another on the wall. Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.’” (Neh. 4:19-20 NKJV)

How many of us have been easily distracted by other people’s causes all vying for our attention or help and we are called away from the things that God intended for us to be doing. The enemy will do this often, to get us away from the call of God. In Nehemiah’s time it was even more difficult. They didn’t have cell phones or means of communication that could rapidly bring them together so they had the trumpet. Nehemiah could see where the attacks from the enemies would be coming from, so by the sound of the trumpet everyone would be made available to rush into action to fend off the enemy. Even in everyday life there are so many distractions and sounds coming from all over the place and we can’t hear the call of God. God calls us to be available, but, the distractions cause us to be unavailable to God, but we have to be made available to Him. The problem is there are so many things that sound religious and good, but it doesn’t always mean it’s from God.

How Can I Serve With Flexibility?

We just need to stop thinking about only ourselves but each other and everyone around us who looks like they need to know the Jesus within us. You see even if we have a plan for our lives, we need to interrupt it and be flexible enough for Jesus and be Available to do whatever God asks us to do for Him at any given moment.

Which brings us to our third point and that is we need to be Teachable.

3. Teachable

With all that we have learned so far about being “fat” Faithful, Available and now Teachable, we can see this is a good kind of “fat”, it’s a mean, lean, being trim kind of thing. But with this third part we are going to find out that this is the hardest part of all. However, if we can get through this part we will see all the good that God has for us and it will be well worth the efforts. This is the hardest because to be teachable requires us to go through a lot of humility. Because we have our plans and we believe in them, but then there is also something called reality. Then through it all there is a lot of holes, a lot of pitfalls and we aren’t even sure how to get from point A to point B. But you see with God’s plan we need to remember that where God is taking us, He has already been. So doesn’t it make sense to be teachable enough to go where God is leading us because He knows the plans He has for us?

This is what is happening to the people of Israel in this next part of Nehemiah 4. They had their plans, they had their rhythm, they were accomplishing things they didn’t think possible, and now they were getting it done but they had to change because of the enemies around them:

“We worked early and late, from sunrise to sunset. And half the men were always on guard. I also told everyone living outside the walls to stay in Jerusalem. That way they and their servants could help with guard duty at night and work during the day. During this time, none of us—not I, nor my relatives, nor my servants, nor the guards who were with me—ever took off our clothes. We carried our weapons with us at all times, even when we went for water.” (Neh. 4:21-23 NLT)

You know what is great about Nehemiah? He is not only telling the people this is what you need to do, but he exemplifies it too, he is leading by example. All his family, himself and his servants everyone was doing it all. Yes, it is taking them twice as long to accomplish things, but they are being diligent, continuing to build but also keeping everyone safe. They were working by day building that wall and keeping guard because their enemies did not want them to succeed. There is a saying by Harry S. Truman “It’s what you learn after you know it all, that counts” So now it is time to ask ourselves, who can we now learn more from?

Who Can I Learn From?

There comes a time where even if we think we know it all we have to slow ourselves down and be more teachable. We need to take second seat so that we can learn more from others and from God to see the new things God has for us. So we have to become teachable even if we think we already know it all. It’s like it says here in Ephesians:

“That's plain enough, isn't it? You're no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You're no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He's using us all -irrespective of how we got here -in what He is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now He's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day -a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.” (Eph. 2:19-22 MSG)

So you see, we are all a part of the action in which God is taking us to, as a Church, as a body of Christ, as a person of God, who is to become a permanent mark on the community around us, wherever we are. And we can do this together by being Faithful, Available, and Teachable. We just need to have a Mind to Work.

1) How can you make more time to be Faithful in prayer to God?

2) How can you be more Available to God?

3) To whom can you go to learn more from and be Teachable for God?

4) How can you make a permanent mark in the community of people around you?