Sometimes we treat prayer like that magic bullet that's going to magically solve all our problems. But guess what? When Nehemiah prayed for the ridicule to stop, it didn't stop. It actually got worse. What do we do with that?
How does that impact us? Let's find out together on the Clear Today Show. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill.
I'm John Galantis. Welcome to the Clearview Today Show. We're here in the studio once again with our host, Dr. Abadan Shah. And if today's the first time you're ever listening, you're tuning in on the radio, you just stumbled upon our podcast, we want to let you know exactly who's talking to you today.
Dr. Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. Dr. Shah, talking about leadership, right? Leadership is such an important part of our life in ministry, in church, or just in our personal lives and our work lives.
And it's got to be coupled with prayer. And prayer, as we know, is the magic God wish. Anything that I ask of God, it's going to be given to me that day immediately in a ray of light, and I won't have any problems again for the rest of my life. It's the cosmic vending machine. You input a prayer and you get what you want.
Would you mind just supporting that, please?
Well, to be honest, you know, prayer does work for me. But it may work in ways that you Do not understand. Right, right.
So sometimes God it may seem like God is not answering your prayers, but He's answering your prayers even better than you're asking. That's right.
So you may say, God, just remove these people from my life. God says, No. I'm going to leave those people in your life and they will be sandpapers. They're going to smooth out those rough edges in your life, cause you to be humble and submitted to me and dependent upon me.
So, no, that problem is not going away, but that problem is going to become a blessing in disguise, which is far more necessary than remove all the obstacles in my path. No. You may have to learn how to climb over them. That's right.
But in the process, you will know how much you need God. Amen. Amen. God's purpose in your life is to teach you to depend upon Him. God's purpose in your life is to teach you to be humbly submitted to Him.
That is. Is a lesson that I've struggled with. Yeah, I think a lot of times we almost get it. We almost get it because we'll say stuff like that. Like, God's not going to just remove all the obstacles, He's going to put these obstacles in your path, but it's to make you stronger.
And I think right there at the end, we trip and fall. Like, yeah, you'll become stronger, but I think what you said is really you're going to see how much you need Him. When sometimes you need a show like this to help you understand that, yeah, you might have confronted that in your own life, you might have other people in your life who have said that to you multiple times, and it just becomes like white noise. But listening and hearing someone like Dr. Shaw tell you that from his experience and from his leadership principles, that's going to make a difference.
It's going to change the way that you see leadership, it's going to change the way that you see opportunities to grow, and it's going to make you grateful for him. And we're grateful for the opportunity to have conversations like this. We're grateful for our sponsors for making that possible. Yes, of course. We're very grateful for all of our sponsors.
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You can always email us at info at clearviewbc.org or you can text us 252-582-5028. We're talking about Nehemiah's response to this ridicule that's been mounted against him. Specifically, we've talked about the three, Samballot, Tobiah, and Geshem. But this ridicule, Samballot, and Tobiah are named as the ones who are actively ridiculing, actively mocking. And Nehemiah responds by praying.
He responds by going directly to God. And continuing the work. Yes. Because here in Nehemiah chapter 4, verse 6, it says, So we built the wall.
So ridicule came Opposition came. They heard the words They heard the laughter. They prayed to God. And they went back to work. They went back to work many times Is missing.
Because people. Hear the ridicule, face the opposition, pray, and then they give up. They wait for a better time. They wait till things settle down. Yeah.
No, go back to work. That's right.
Back to work. Get back to it. Get back to it. I mean, we've seen that in recent projects where people opposed us and ridiculed us. We dealt with it the best we could.
And we went back to work. I told our team: get back to work, let's get it finished, let's get this project done. And that's exactly what Nehemiah does. This is where we're learning this from. That's right.
And the entire wall was joined together up to half its height for the people who had a mind to work. That get back to work component, you said, is often missing. What do you think is the gap for people? Why do they not make that connection? Or why do they just fall off after ridicule?
Because it feels like. you know, More ridicule is going to come, more opposition is going to come. I wonder. Has that ridicule or that mockery has that really impacted somebody's life? Are people believing that?
Let me wait and figure out if this has impacted my team. Mm-hmm. Or public opinion. Let's back up for a while. Let's regroup.
Let's let's wait it out. Like a storm. You know, let's just wait it out till the storm passes and then we can get out there again. Yeah. Huge mistake.
You go back to work. You go back to preaching. You go back to leading your people. You go back to working with those who are willing to work. In your business context, You go back to that project.
He put that vision back on the wall Go back to work. And what you'll find is that Just when you think the ridicule is going to be over, it's not over. It's going to ramp up. I think that's the thing. Nehemiah goes, he prays, he renews the people's vision.
There's this sense of renewal, and that's the logical place for the story to end. And yet, the opposition is not done. Yeah. Oh, no, they're coming back. Yeah.
Yeah, it says right here in verse 7: Now it happened when Sanbalat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored and the gaps were beginning to be closed. that they became very Angry now, the Ashdadites. Is that another group that hasn't been a part of this yet? These are people more towards the southwest.
So this is like Geshem's people. Far west. This is Geshem's people. Yeah, these come from that part of the country. Yeah.
Yeah. So Everybody is mad. And they're like, you know what? If our words aren't working, if our words aren't deterring them, maybe our swords will. You know.
Think about it. Haven't you second guessed when you think everybody is against me? Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent.
Yeah, there's a place where you are like motivated because, oh, you're going to challenge me? But watch this. But when you say, Oh, you too against me, or you're against me too, or he's saying the same thing, I know It's happened to me before. Where I felt like, well, if everybody's going to be against me, forget it. Y'all can destroy it all you want to.
Yeah. And then after some praying, some thinking. And I don't think it should ever take that much time.
Sometimes I've done it You know, perfectly. Other times I have taken a little longer to regroup. But either way. I get back to the task. Yeah.
It's like, okay. I gotta move forward.
Well, there's a vision and there's a mission at hand. And I think a lot of the times we neglect to remember. That the opposition typically does not have a vision. They're not trying to accomplish anything, they're just destroying. Right.
And that's easy. Yeah. That's very easy. Yeah, which is harder. The vision is very short-sighted: destruction.
Yeah. Building or destroying. Yeah. I mean, building is much harder. Destroying is easy.
It's easy to tear stuff down. Just look at a construction project. Demo is always faster than actually building. It takes maybe a week, tops. It's just swinging a hammer and just knocking everything down.
That's right.
And it's fun. Yeah, so I just want to encourage somebody out there, whether you're in a ministry context or a secular context, if you see more people joining the first group. And it seems like you are A minority and Everybody's against you. That is a good time to strengthen yourself in God. You know, David did that.
He strengthened himself in God. How do you strengthen yourself in God? You remind yourself that this is not about you, this is about God. You go back to the foundational principles of. God versus the enemy.
You go back to those stories in the Bible, historical events really, of how many times evil came against good and how God's people overcame. Go back to the principles that they used, go back to the truths that they hung on to. And what you will find is that, yeah, you are standing in line. with many, many people who went before you. And you can use their examples.
It reminds me of Samuel, when Samuel goes to the people and they say, we want a king. And I can't imagine an entire nation of people rallying and saying, no, you're wrong. This is what we want. And then the way God says, you know, it's not you they're rejecting. I think that has helped me a great deal.
Yeah, this is an old problem. Samuel, it's not about you, they're rejecting me. Leaning on the examples from scripture is huge. Looking at people that seemingly had all of the odds stacked against them, had everybody who was opposite them and no one in their corner. That's the time when people in scripture look to God because God is often working through what appears to be the underdog.
God is often working through the one that doesn't seem like the obvious choice because then it's evident that it's God and not that person. But now, going back to Nehemiah's story. These enemies, Sanbala, Tobiah, and Geshem, even though he's not named there, the description of the peoples is Geshem's territory. They take it a notch higher. I would say several notches higher.
Verse eight And all of them conspire together to come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion. What do they mean create confusion? Like, do they mean like a physically attack with an army? Yeah, always jump in if you see me printing something like that. Don't just wait, just jump right in.
One more time. Here you go. What exactly does it mean create confusion? Does it attack Jerusalem spiritually or like with an army? No, they just want to start rumors.
They want to come in and say, Hey guys, y'all do know that these walls are not going to hold on. And Nehemiah has an ulterior motive. He wants to become your king. He's trying to do something. He's going to make the Persian king angry.
We have heard what don't ever think that your enemies will not lie. Oh, yeah. 100%. Confusion is one of the biggest enemies of leadership. And don't ever think that.
Self-professed Christians will not lie. They will. They will lie. If it suits their motives, if it suits their agenda, they will lie. They will misrepresent you.
They will misrepresent truth. And I don't understand how they can justify that. But when you are so, so. obsessed with Something. Then at that point, all bets are off, and anything and everything goes.
This is what's going on here. You have no scruples, you have no morals, you'll do whatever it takes to further your own nefarious agenda. And we ignore the fact that people are this way. That people, you know, not in general, but there are people who are this way because we tend to think that all the people of an organization are just faceless people trying to do their best. And the leader.
Is the one creating confusion. If we're confused and we don't know what's going on and we've got like different motives, it must be because he didn't communicate clearly. We don't realize that there's people among us who want that. Right. Because that's unthinkable.
That's right.
And so, this is what's happening here. And I love Nehemiah's response. Verse 9. Nevertheless, We made our prayer To our God. They went right back to praying.
Prayer. Prayer, prayer. Prayer, prayer, prayer is vital in every project, in every vision, whether it is in your church context or in your business context or community context or political context. If you're trying to raise awareness and lobby for candidates who will stand for biblical or Christian values, prayer, prayer. Prayer, prayer.
I know it sounds silly to us, but maybe someone's listening and they're saying, but he prayed. He did. He already praised it. And the problem got worse. Right.
Yeah. No, it needs to be more. Problems will get worse. But you will go right back on your knees and you pray to God. That's right.
You say, God, we need you again. I know that Nehemiah was a cupbearer. I know that he was an advisor to the king, and then he's leading this building project. It feels like it wouldn't be a far stretch for him to say, you know what? You've picked up a hammer, now pick up a sword.
We're going to teach these guys a lesson. He doesn't. Yeah, because they would have died. Yeah. They would not have been able to fight back.
Imagine you're surrounded by the Samaritans. Sumerian army to the north, the Ammonites to the east, the Arabs to the south and the west, there's no survival.
Now, in time they will be able to. But right now It's not the time. The training hasn't happened. The motivation is not quite there. The fear is still there that we are surrounded by enemies and they're going to kill us.
And you don't even have city walls. They are not ready to fight back. That day will come. But right now, it's prayer. And by the way, All the time, it should be parameters.
That's right.
That's right.
And then it says here in verse 10, Then Judah said, The strength of the laborers is failing. and there is so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall. And our adversaries said they will neither know nor see anything till we come into their midst, and kill them, and cause the work to cease.
So it was when the Jews who dwelt near them came that they told us ten times From whatever place you turn, they will be upon us. We're surrounded. We're done. And there may be times in your ministry, and Dr. Shah, tell me what you think about this, or if you have any experience with this, where the ridicule just doesn't work.
It doesn't get to you. And so now we really have to resort to intimidation. Threats. I'm going to threaten you. I'm going to threaten you.
We've faced that. Even recently, we face threats.
Now sometimes they are couched and and sort of Camouflaged in just doing this for your own good kind of thing. But it's really a threat. Yeah. I've had that happen several times.
Some in ministry context, some in secular contexts, and it doesn't feel good. And momentarily, that fear does come. It's like, oh, great. Yeah. What if they follow through?
Yeah. What if they do it? I don't know how I didn't see that coming. Or maybe I could have done this. And then I'll say, wait.
Wait. If I prayed about this thing. And through this whole process I've been depending on God to guide us. and not for a single moment And I even turned to advisors and counseles in my life, counselors in my life. And none of them warned me about this situation this way, and this still happened.
Then God knew that this was going to happen. God allowed this to happen. What do you do as a pastor when someone is like, I'm not just going to threaten you, I'm not going to come to your office and threaten you. I'm going to post it online so all your people can see it. Right.
And so if you're not afraid of me, Maybe a couple hundred of them will be. Right. Well, just know that the source makes the difference. No. Don't be afraid of people putting things up there because they're going to do that.
The higher you climb, get ready for people to shoot at you. Because the higher you climb, the more visible you become. And the more vis visible you are, the more darts will be fired at you. That's a great point. If you're just sitting there milling among the masses, I mean, no one can see you to make you a target.
As John Maxwell says, and I'm paraphrasing, you know, down below is crowded. But the higher you climb, it thins out. Yeah. There are less people there. And when there are less people up there, you become a target.
That's true.
So you say, Oh, I want to do great things.
Well, you're going to climb higher. And then you'll become a target. Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to do that with God's hand? And sure enough, in this situation, that's what happens.
And don't let that discourage you. Don't give in. Consider the source.
Some people will Say this and that. Other people You just have to go, no, I'm not going to respond to you. I'm not going to touch you. I'm just going to leave you alone.
Some comments Some posts don't need comments. Ooh, say that again. Just leaving them where they are sends a message that you are not worthy of a response. Because what you're doing is so wrong. And so outlandish that to respond to you would be to leave that higher ground and come down to the level because that's what you want.
You're down here. You cannot stand the fact that somebody just stepped up. And so you're shooting, and you're saying, come on back down. For you to say, okay, I'm coming back down, then I'm back to their level. Yeah, absolutely.
Like, if I'm trying to fight someone, they're up there. I'm going to be like, come back down here so I can take some swings. Yeah, I can't hit you all the way up there. But come back down so you're in range. A wise person knows I'm not coming back.
Of course not. Not like, yeah, I might could beat you, but what if you get a few licks in? What if you're. Actually, stronger than me.
Now, I'm gonna stay up here. Right, here's the thing. When you come down, there won't be licks, there won't be punches.
Now it's fine. You'd back down again, fair enough. Yeah, that's true.
So, most of the time, it's not that come down here and I'll show you. Come down here.
Okay, you're down here. We're all good. Right. I'm sure Tara's the ones up there. You're down here, so I don't have to worry about that.
Yeah, I don't have to worry about you. You come down, you're like, all right, what's up? And it's like, wait, what? Why are you? You're no longer a threat.
I'm good to talk, man. Calm down. Yeah, because now you're down to the same level.
Now you look foolish.
Now you are saying the same thing they are. You're trying to defend yourself. And that's what they want. And then, when you start defending yourself, then, well, how about this? Yeah.
And how about that? Yeah. And I can ask you a million questions. I can be using a Socratic method and then question you to death. And then you spend your whole life answering those questions.
Oh, what happened to the project? Forget the project. I'm answering questions. Yeah, I got to talk to this guy. There are definitely comments online that we 100% just don't respond to.
Yeah. And it's on purpose. It's on purpose. Dr. Shaw, you're so savvy about when to respond and when not to, when to engage and when not to engage, because some comments just are there to get a response.
Some comments are there just to make you look bad or make you pull you down from where you are and color other people's opinion of you. Yeah. Lots of people are keyboard warriors and brave behind a keyboard, but when you talk to them in person, there's not much there. But you also have a good sense of who these people are. Like there are people who are like, hey, I'm asking a question online.
And you're like, no, that's a person who is very accomplished in their field. They've done a lot. They're well respected. That's a good person. And that person deserves an answer.
Then there's people who are like, I don't know who this person is. Are they a scholar? Oh, no, they're not a scholar. They haven't written anything. They haven't contributed to the field.
But they want you to come down here. Yeah, and talk to me. And then what happens when I come down? Fine. You're down on my level.
Yeah. I feel better about me. Moving along. Can I go back up? If you go back up, I'm going to.
I'm going to shoot you again. I know, but my project's up there. I got to go. I will shoot at you again. Your project's over, buddy.
Stay down here.
So in the muck with us. Yes. What did Nehemiah do? Listen to verse 13. Therefore I positioned men behind the lower parts of the wall, Add the openings.
and I said the people according to their families. With their swords their spears and their bows And I looked and arose and said to the nobles, to the leaders, and to the rest of the people, Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren. your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses. I think that's one of the best pieces of advice a pastor can give.
Not to go out and fight and to hurt people, but a lot of times I feel like when opposition comes, ridicule comes, a pastor or a boss or whatever will look at his team and say, don't pay them no mind. Don't pay them no mind. They're just jealous. Do you work? But he's like, no, don't be afraid of them.
And if it comes time to respond, be ready to respond. You know what I mean? I think that's a great bit of advice that you've given, which is, I've very rarely heard you ignore them. They're not important. No.
This is what we have is worth protecting. Right. It's powerful. Nehemiah says, don't be afraid. And it's powerful because it's genuine.
You know, there's a sense in which people will often say, don't worry about that. Don't worry about that. And they're saying don't be afraid, but the meaning behind it is much different. The don't be afraid from Nehemiah here comes from a place of. Confidence in his leadership ability and really confidence in who God is.
Yeah. Because then he goes on to say, remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses. Remember what's at stake. And God brought us to this. He's not going to abandon us.
That was a lesson I learned early in leadership from you: you can ignore opposition a little bit, but you can't always ignore it. Right. And very, very rarely can you ignore it, it's not going away. Yeah. You know, the remember the Lord is.
Evoking All the times in the history of God's people that God was faithful to fight for his people. Whether that fighting was in Egypt with all the plagues, or the fighting was in the wilderness against all the marauding tribes that were watching them. in the cover of darkness, at night, And over the hills they came against them. This was God's faithfulness as they went to take the land against the giants. The Canaanites?
This was God's faithfulness through against the Philistines and down through the ages.
So yes, the Assyrians came and took away the northern tribes. And yes, the Babylonians came and took away Judah and Benjamin. Yes, but that was God's judgment. to purify them. To change them, don't let God's judgment against you keep you from thinking that God is not going to be faithful.
Remember the Lord, great and awesome, because there's also part of God that you are the apple of his eye. That's right, he will fight for you. He loves you. He has put you where he has. And I'm not just talking about the Jewish people or the people of Israel and God's promises to them to the end of times.
I'm talking about us, I'm talking about me. Mm-hmm. that God is great and awesome, and time and time again He has proven that. And God has come through. And so, whatever we're going to right now, It's not over.
Yeah. Yeah. It's not over, it's just part of the journey. And we're going to be okay. Yeah.
We're going to be just fine. I think that really, what you just said, I think it transformed someone's life who is listening, who is maybe in the middle of some dark night of the soul, who feels like they have opposition on every side and there's no way to turn. They're surrounded and there's no hope. Remember God. Remember who he is.
Remember what he's done for his people and remember what he's done for you. Remember how faithful he's been. God is a promise-keeping God. He's never let people down and he's not about to start now. That's right.
And how does it help us, Dr. Shah, remember, like remembering God, remembering how he's fought for us? How does it help us when it's actually time to fight? And I don't mean physically fight, like fisticuffs, but when that conflict arises and it's like, okay, it's do or die. I have to face this if I want this project to succeed.
How does it help us enter that conversation or that conflict? I mean, for one, it fills you with faith and it fills you with hope and courage. But also, I would say it reminds you what you're fighting for. Yeah, this. Is a battle not just so that Nehemiah could win or that generation could live peaceably or peacefully.
This was fighting for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses means the next generation is depending upon you.
So this is critical. not just for you. Is for the many who are coming after you.
So fight for them. Like if somebody were to do something to your child, I mean, you would do whatever you can to protect them. Oh, yes. Absolutely. That's how we need to see the vision that God has for our lives.
The church, for your community, for your workplace, that I'm doing this because it's going to improve and better. The future of my children or our generation. That's right.
Keep the vision, keep the why in focus. Why we fight, why we do what we do, why we work hard, because it matters, because it matters not just for our generation, but it matters for future generations. That's right.
And your people will remember how you fought for them. I remember how Dr. Shuss fought for me. I remember how Ryan's fought for me, and all of the people that I love who are close to me have stood up for me and fought for the things that were precious to them. I remember that.
I will also remember the times that I wished people would fought for me and they didn't. And I think as a leader, the times that people wished that I would have fought for them and I didn't do it or I tried to avoid it or get around it. Hey, man, people will remember that.
So I think as we're talking about all these things, take these lessons to heart. Nehemiah is not just a cool story about how to handle opposition and get through to the other side. It's how to stand against. Amen. Yeah.
Guys, make sure you join us on tomorrow's episode. We're going to continue talking about Nehemiah and how he handled the opposition, how he moved forward with the building project, finishing the walls of Jerusalem, and recapturing the vision of God's plan for his people. Make sure you're sharing these episodes with your friends and your loved ones. You can do that by following along. On any one of our podcasting platforms and make sure you're supporting us financially.
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