Grace Thoughts

Guest (Male): Hello friends, welcome to Grace Thoughts, the radio ministry of Grace Connection Church with Pastor Tim Kelley. Grace Thoughts has been dedicated to preaching a clear gospel of grace for over 20 years. Here is Pastor Kelley.

Tim Kelley: So this opposition from the world, opposition from the brethren, and opposition from within. What do I mean by "within?" It's called the gray zone: the brain. That might be my biggest opposition of all. I know it's mine. It's a jungle up there.

First John 3:20 says, "For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, for he knows everything." This might be the biggest, most powerful enemy that I come against. Depending on who I am and how I'm wired, my upbringing, my background, and all this DNA that's inside of me, this might be the biggest battle I have right here is overcoming this.

I am talking about a messed-up brain. A brain that doesn't think right or a brain that goes down these rabbit trails all the time. Usually, what happens with this is there's enough facts to back up my projections. In other words, there are enough things I know about me that I can build up my case of why I'm this way. I'm a no-good loser, I'm this, or whatever I want to call myself, and I have facts to back it up.

The devil loves facts because they're hard to refute. But the problem is I'm really looking at myself through the lens of the world, through the lens of America, through the lens of society, and not seeing myself through the lens of the gospel. It changes when I see myself through the lens of the gospel. Everything changes.

This message we preached Sunday, I've been thinking about that ever since I preached it. I was excited about it before I preached it; I'm more excited about it now. Jesus is sitting down on the right hand of the Father. There's nothing left for me to do but sit with him, and that's where he placed me. He sat me with him. I can't get that out of my own head.

I'm sitting with Christ. That means the war is over, and Christ sees me as perfect now. Am I perfect? Oh, gosh, no. Am I a mess? Yeah. Do I screw up? Yeah, daily, hourly, minutely, whatever. Do I go down bad trails? Yeah, I do that too. Is my seat ever vacant beside Christ? No. It's still there and I'm still sitting there according to what Christ cares about.

Should we battle laziness, pride, sin, insecurities, woundedness, pain, or loss, to name a few? There are lots of reasons not to build the wall. There are lots of reasons to say I'm not the guy to build the wall if I listen to that voice. So how do we overcome this opposition?

Now, Nehemiah heard the call. He knew the call was from God, and so he never questioned the call. Once he didn't have any questions about the call from God, dispelling the voices and staying at the job of building the wall, I would imagine, became really easy.

For me to disobey my father and say I'm going to Bible college anyway and go wasn't a hard call for me because I really heard the call of God to go. I knew that. I wouldn't be that dogmatic about a lot of things in my life, but I knew I was dogmatic about that one because I knew that God had called me.

So he didn't panic, get worried, answer back, or retaliate. In other words, if God wants me to build this wall, Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem can't stop it. If God led me to come back here and do that and God spoke to me to do this, then those guys can't stop it.

They could cause me some grief and they may freak some people out, but they're not as big as God is, and they can't really stop what God is going to do. So I'm just going to keep my hands to the plow and let God use me to build this wall. If those guys attack, we'll fight them off. If they don't attack, that's even better. But it doesn't matter; the wall is going to get built one way or another because we know God has spoken. Because God has spoken, we will succeed and we will make it.

Alan Redpath, in his commentary on Nehemiah on verse six, said this: "So we built the wall." I think that is a magnificent statement. He kept on building and ignored them. I think that word "ignore" is good. For the people had a mind to work, and God's people did not mope over the difficulties nor did they find fault or chatter or gossip.

Neither did they answer back or retaliate. They simply concentrated on doing the thing God had called them to do. That's really good. If I spend time with somebody and most of my conversation is about how I was wronged, or a victim, or what's wrong with my spouse or that person or this church, my friends, maybe it's time you re-evaluate that relationship.

If you have a relationship with somebody and as soon as you get alone with them they're just chirping in your ear about everything wrong in their life, how this person's wrong and that person's wrong and this person did this, you don't have a healthy relationship with that person. You have an unhealthy relationship with that person.

The best thing you can do for that person is say, "Please, I love you with all my heart, but shut up." Because all you do is spew. Don't think that that person isn't part of the strategy of another kingdom. They may be a cornerstone member of any local church, they could be at prayer meetings, they could have a big old fat Bible they could choke a mule with, but if they're just spewing in people's ears all the time—and we all spew every now and then, don't get me wrong—but if that's what they do, that person has another kingdom behind them. I can promise you that.

Sometimes we've just got to shut off all the voices of the world, our friends, and our own hearts and just move forward with what God's asked us to do. Okay, three quick things I want to bring out here in light of Nehemiah under the fourth chapter. Number one: we keep praying and keep watching.

First Peter 5:7 says, "Cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Be sober-minded." That's a good translation, actually, when you look at that word. It is probably as good as any way you can bring it into the English. Be sober-minded, be watchful. That means you're stretching to look over the enemy. You're looking for them. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

If you remember Nehemiah chapter one when we read it, the work on the broken walls started with prayer. The whole most of Nehemiah chapter one is just a deep, deep prayer. So the vision was birthed in prayer, the work was birthed in prayer, and you can rest assured the prayer didn't stop after Nehemiah chapter one. The burden comes from God, the vision comes from God, and the fulfillment comes from God.

Number two: we arm ourselves with the weapons of humility and meekness. That's a message all by itself. In other words, we remain teachable, we submit ourselves to the word, and we own our own stuff because we all have stuff to own. We're all stuff owners. We all have stuff. So I own my own stuff, I remain teachable when that person in my life may speak to me or the pulpit may speak to me or a radio message may speak to me or the written Word of God may speak to me. I remain pliable and teachable, and I submit myself to the Word of God.

First Peter 5:5: "Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." So I arm myself with humility and meekness. I esteem others higher than myself. I accept God's dealings with me as good. That's meekness, no matter how nasty they may be sometimes.

I put away the stopwatch. In other words, I'm not keeping God to my timetable. I remember when we had the Christian school years ago, we had one of the kids come up to us after a while and say, "I've tried this Christian thing for two weeks; it's not working." Two weeks, okay. Well, let's look at that a little bit.

So I put away the stopwatch because God doesn't always follow my timetable. In fact, let me rephrase that: God never follows my timetable. I've been at the point of no return so many times, I've never returned. I'm just at God, it's now or never, you have to answer this prayer, and another week passes. God, really, I mean it now. I'm serious. It's now or never. I'm not kidding with you this time. It's now or never; you've got to answer this prayer. Prayer doesn't get answered.

God, we're out of time. We were out of time two weeks ago. Two years pass. All right, God, forget it. I'm turning off the watch here. And so I arm myself, I accept the plan of God with meekness.

Number three: I always endeavor to have the spiritual disciplines in my life. This is important. I'm not going to spend time on it. But in other words, I understand prayer is not a burden; it's me deburdening my heart to the Lord, elevating how I look. Try praying when you're really down on yourself; pray for people.

I meet people all the time now that have lost children and they're going through hell on earth. Pray for people. Pray for people in the church, pray for people in your business, your company, or whatever. In your school, whatever your life, just pray for them and you'll find that you begin to come out of the self-zone and go right into a Kingdom of God zone.

So we practice the disciplines in our life: the Word, listening to the Word like you're here tonight, serving God. This is where the Lord can speak back to us. We put ourselves in the place where the Lord can speak to us. I shared with a dear man this morning that had lost a child, and I told him about three times when the Lord has spoken to me since we've lost Hannah. Every time has been with my Bible open. I'm not saying he can't speak to you other ways, but in my case, every time was with my Bible open reading the Word of God is when he pierced through my conscious level and said, "Tim, this is for you," and spoke to me through the Word of God.

Lastly, we don't quit, we don't relent, and we don't lose heart. We just keep building. I may have the sword in one hand, but I don't quit, I don't relent, and I don't lose heart. You'll make it to the finish line and you'll watch the wall get built in your life, whatever that wall is.

Now let me read you this quote by Alan Redpath. This came from his commentary on Nehemiah. He defined victory: "When you have forgotten or neglected or set at naught and you smile inwardly, glorying in the insult, this is victory. When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed and your taste offended, your advice ignored, your opinion ridiculed, and you take it in patient, loving silence, this is victory."

"When you are content with any food, any raiment, any climate, any society, any solitude, or any interruption, this is victory. When you bear with any disorder, any irregularity, any unpunctuality and annoyance, this is victory. When you stand face to face with folly, waste, extravagance, and spiritual insensibility of other people and you endure it all as Jesus endured it, this is victory."

"When you never care to record your own good works or talk about the blessing God has given you or you itch after praise of man and you can love to be truly unknown, this is victory."