You know, Paul writing to the church at Ephesus, he said, put on the whole armor of God. Always be alert. But he also says to us in the fifth instance, you know, I think what this teaches us is don't give up. Don't give up.
I want to say a word to someone today and you know who you are. You're ready to give up, aren't you? Don't give up.
I promise you, the best is yet to be. This is what it means to be a believer, to know Christ. God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton about persistent unity. And actually, it's not just persistent unity, it's the power of persistent unity.
Where are we falling down on the sense of commitment? Oh, we're going to talk about it and dive into God's Word in just a minute with Dr. Don Wilton, well-known author and evangelist here on The Encouraging Word. As a matter of fact, if you'd like to discover more about who we are and what we're up to, visit us on our website, theencouragingword.org.
Not only can you stream video and audio versions of these broadcasts, but you can also connect with some great resources like the Daily Encouraging Word Bible Guide, a wonderful daily email you can sign up for today and begin receiving tomorrow online at theencouragingword.org. Now let's discover the power of persistent unity, today's message with Dr. Don Wilton. You know, there are so many who go through tremendous challenges in life. There are challenges everywhere, unbelievable challenges, and they come in the form of so many different ways. There are people worshipping with us right now that you're in the midst of some great challenges. Some of those are challenges that you face, and you're very alone in that challenge. It's very personal, it's very lonely. That's why I love this series amongst many others on the power of one.
We've been studying the life of Nehemiah, and God has put a really a powerful word into my heart, something for you today. I'm on Twitter, if some of you know what that is. Twitter is a thing that you do on your telephone. I'm just letting some of you know, you have no idea.
I'm not talking about birdies and stuff like that. It's called social media, and I did something I very rarely do today. Very shortly before I came into the service, I picked up my phone, I went to my Twitter account, and I said something like this, please, please go to church today. God has something very special to say to you, and you will be blessed.
That's all I said. Please, go to church today. God has something very special to say to you, and you will be blessed. I believe that, don't you? You know, we look at our country today, and you and I have got a lot of questions. I don't know about you, but I have a lot of questions.
I have a lot of concerns about this great nation. Who are we? Where are we going? What's going on?
What is this downhill spiral? I haven't even got into the rest of the world. So, Christians, I'm going to ask you a question. Where are we? Where's the voice of those who know that God is God, and there is only one God, and that he's the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he makes all the difference, and that his word is truth? Why have we become so silent? Why are radical minorities telling us how to live?
And what can be done? The walls are broken. The gates are burning. Where does it begin? In your own life, you might find that this has so many applications.
Where does one go with these things? I do not believe that there is a marriage in this world that does not go through all kinds of difficulties. All marriages do, but all marriages do. But there are those who persist, and there are those who just give up. That's why I want to invite you to give your life to the Lord Jesus. The Bible says, greater is he that is in us than he that's in the world.
Being a believer means that God by his Spirit enables us to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or even think. When you give your life to Christ, this is the story of Nehemiah. I want to read to you, and you're going to have to beg my pardon this morning, because I'm actually going to be in three chapters, and I'm going to read to you three or four verses. So go to Nehemiah, and let's start in chapter four. I want to speak to you this morning on the power of persistent unity, the power of persistent unity coming out of last week's message on overcoming discouragement. Nehemiah chapter four, and I'm going to just read to you some select verses.
So just watch me and listen to me and let your eye go where I suggest that we go. Chapter four, verse one. Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry, he was greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. Let's go to verse six.
So he built the wall and all the wall was joined together to half its height for the people worked with all of their heart. Go to verse 14. And I looked and arose and I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome and fight for your brothers, for your sons, for your daughters, for your wives, and for your homes. Hmm.
What's at stake? Let's go to verse 19. And I said to the nobles, to the officials, to the rest of the people, the work is great and widely spread. By the way, how can just one person do it all? You cannot do it.
The work is great and it's widely spread. And we are separated on the wall. We are far from one another. In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet rally to us there because our God will fight for us. Go down to verse 23. So neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men or the God who followed me.
None of us took off our clothes. Each one had his weapon at his right hand. Chapter five verse one. Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. Look at verse six of chapter five.
This is Nehemiah. I was very angry when I heard their outcry. Where's the anger? How indignant are we? How angry are you that your marriage is disintegrating? How concerned are you? How concerned are you about what it's going to do to your children? You say you love them.
What's worth it? We say that we love America, do we? Let's go to chapter six and verse one. Now in Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I'd built the wall and that there was no breach left in it. What happens here is that they, these people, let me tell you something folks. The devil Satan is not going to let go.
He's going to be worse than a puppy dog latched to your ankle. It's going to be relentless. Spiritual warfare is very real. This is not just click your fingers.
This is jolly hard work. The people who win the game are those that are willing to play every part of it. You're not going to win that football game unless you're willing to play every minute until the final whistle blows. Now some games are won in the second quarter and some are in the third quarter when you look back and some are won in the very dying moments.
Some of those make for the greatest, most epic victories of all. Go to verse nine of chapter six. For they all wanted to frighten us. Fear is a tactic of the devil. I really believe in America today Christians are silent, many of us, because we're afraid. I'll guarantee if there's anything the liberal media will do in this country it will make sure that it instills fear into anybody that would dare stand up for truth. If they can get a people to fear. Let me just read that again chapter six and verse nine. For they all wanted to frighten us thinking if we can just frighten them, if we can just let them know that if they dare do what God is telling them to do, they're going to face the protests, they're going to get burned in a cage, they're going to be branded as radicals, they're going to be told some things, they're going to be viewed as outcasts of society.
If we can just frighten them, their hands will drop from the work and it will not be done. If the enemy wants anything, he does not want your marriage to be restored. That's victory for him. If there's anything the devil wants is he does not want the church to be united. Now he's going to find someone in this congregation to try and mess it up. If there's anything the devil wants to do is he does not want your children to come to church so he's going to get you as their child's father to champion the cause for him going rather to the ball practice field on Sunday morning than being in church.
He's going to convince you that the greater life for your child is anything but being in church. That's what he's going to do because he knows if he can do that, the work will not be done. The walls will never be built.
The gate will never be repaired. If he can just keep the church in America dis-unified, if he can just divide the people, if he can just keep throwing up issues, he will accomplish his purpose because all we'll do is continue to behave like the Congress of the United States of America. And as long as we can behave like Congress, we'll never get anything done. It wouldn't matter anyway. I mean, what is talk?
Talk doesn't accomplish anything, just makes news headlines. Your children are under threat. My children are under threat. Our marriages, our churches, our very democracy is under threat. The walls are broken down.
I love verse 15, by the way, I've just got to put this in. So the wall was finished on the 25th day of the month of Elul in the 52 days that it took to build this wall. This was a massive undertaking.
Not one man could have done it. In 52 days, they gathered all the people. They put all the people in the rightful place and everybody did their part, some little bit, some big bit, some small parts, some little bits, some big bits, some picked up shovels, some took, mixed the concrete, some drove the trucks, some provided the sandwiches, some made peanut butter sandwiches and others made jelly sandwiches.
It didn't matter, but everybody did their little bit, whatever it was, and the wall was complete in 52 days and they said it could never be done. Our God will fight for us. Now, what do we see in Nehemiah?
We see the broken walls. We've talked about that. We see the called leaders. We understand that.
God spoke to Nehemiah and then to all the leaders together. We've seen that. We've seen the difficult challenge. I think you and I can understand that in their context and the threat and the walls broken down and the challenge of that and the way in which this society was under threat. We've seen in Nehemiah the relentless opposition. You know, when you read this whole story of Nehemiah, it just, the challenges and the opposition, it was just relentless.
We've seen that, but we've seen the unity of the people. You can't avoid it. You can't get around it. You can't, you cannot avoid the power of one.
Began with one, two, three, four, five, impact. The wall was built. We've seen that, but we've seen most of all the power of God. That's the part that I love, the power of God. God, God's power. Our God will fight for us.
And so in this passage, in these passages, I've got to ask the question, how did they persist as one? You and I don't always feel like keeping on, do you? Challenges will wear you down, whether it be sickness, pain, the struggle of loved ones, your marriages, your finance, it'll just flat wear you out. There's a good southern man, it'll just flat wear you out. I mean, it just gets you down.
There's nothing worse than that. Our God will fight for us. You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton and that powerful phrase, our God will fight for us, is something that we don't hear too often.
I think that the fear is that we think our God is fighting against us and that's the furthest ring of the truth. God has a plan for your life and my life and it's a good plan and he is willing to all of us to never stop fighting for us, as a great song would say. I pray you would know that we're in the ring with you as well. Our goal to encourage you at The Encouraging Word is found out in keyboard to keyboard ways to connect on the website at theencouragingword.org, as well as an old school fashion of communication that we're discovering is more and more received by fresh new millennials and others today because we miss the power of conversation as well. Would you like to have a conversation? Would you like to have someone pray with you on the phone right now? 866-899-WORD will connect you with us and we'd love to pray for you.
That's 866-899-9673. Again, we'd love to pray as God is fighting for you, for you to know we're fighting for you as well. Now let's dive back into today's message. It's the power of persistent unity with Dr. Don Wilton. So I've asked the question, how did they persist as one?
Just a couple of thoughts. Number one, they cried out to God. Chapter four and verse four. They cried out to God. We're getting calls, letters, emails from our The Encouraging Word broadcast ministry from all over the country, people wanting to join us. I want to make an announcement to you. I want you to join us.
I want to make an announcement. Everybody is welcome at this table and we're each going to do whatever God puts in our own hearts. They cried out to God. That's what I love about being a believer. You know, anybody ever says to me, what's the one of the most wonderful things about having the Lord Jesus living in your heart?
You can cry out to him. It's like a child, the most wonderful thing about having a mommy and a daddy is you can just run to them, jump in the bed with them. I thought to myself, you know, yesterday some people lost power and my heart immediately goes to little children, depending on what time it is. When suddenly a house gets plunged into darkness, you know what children do? They become fearful.
Do you know where they go? Mom and dad, they cried out to God. This is us going to our heavenly daddy. They gave God their problem. That's what verse four and five tell us in chapter four.
They gave God their problem. You know, I love that. May I say this to you? I wish that I could tell you that I've got the answer to everything. And the more I think about all the things that we deal with, the more I realize how many answers I don't have, but I know God does.
Faith is handing over to God. At the very least, cry out to him and then hand your problem over to him. You're dealing with a struggle. You're dealing with a difficult person. Spoke to a older teenager some weeks ago and just in a private conversation and tears running down the cheeks, this student said to me in essence, they, they being bullied badly. And it's very subtle.
And every time they just are so fearful of going to school even because whether it's in the cafeteria and the walkway, there's this group of, of students that had just burned. Sometimes it can be so subtle. It's a little word. You know, you can bully with a look. And I know some of you amongst other things, as I got alongside this young person, I said, you know, let's just start by giving this problem to the Lord.
Can we do that? It's turning it over to him. It's not, you're not opting out or capitulating or giving up. You're doing one of the best things you can do. Number three, they followed their heart. You know, chapter four and verse six, and I'm drawing a lot. They followed their heart. They built with all of their heart. Don't lose your heart. If the devil can get your heart, he's won a great battle.
Not necessarily the victory, but he's won a great battle. Don't lose your heart. They followed their heart.
They followed their heart. You, you and I know what God is telling us to do. Don't lose that knowing what God is telling us to do. That's your heart. You know, if you ever had someone say to you, I just have to do this because I know it's the right thing to do.
That's what I'm talking about. Number four, they prayed to God. Now this is very significant, you know, because in verse nine, the Bible says we prayed to our God.
Whatever it is you and I are doing when we fast and when we pray, we must put those two things together. Number five, they posted gods. They posted gods. I love, I love that. I mean, in verse nine of this passage, the Bible says they posted gods.
They set a god. They were constantly on the alert. So I'd like to tell all of you during this period of time, never stop looking over your shoulder. It's like you've been sent out on a reconnaissance mission in the jungle and you've been appointed point. Maybe your commanding officer said, you're the point. And the rest of the squadron depends on you. And if you point and you're out there and you're armed and you're ready, you've got a whole lot of men walking behind you. Point is the person designated to encounter the enemy first.
And it may be just a sound. It may be just a sharp enough eye to recognize a trip wire before you get to it, because trip wires, if you trip on them will kill you. And there were many brave men who stood on a trip wire, lost their own lives so the men with them could live. Those are the real heroes.
Post a god and be that god. They stationed their people. Number six, Bible tells us there was a system here.
This wasn't a haphazard, just let's all get together and throw things together. There was a system. They stationed people. Do you know if you unpack the details of Nehemiah, every tribe and every clan and every group was responsible for their own portion of the wall.
So you need to determine before God what your portion of the wall is and you need to be positioned right there. Number seven, they united in their challenge. It's an amazing thing how they came together like this. Each one of them, the Bible says in verse 18, verse 19, each one of them, they all did. They came, they were united in their challenge. They all took their part. And number eight, the final one, they persisted in their work. And that goes all the way through to where I read to you that great verse in chapter seven about how the work was complete in 52 days.
They just persisted. It's like, you know something, we believe that God is going to do something great and he's shown us and he's instructed us and here we go and we're not going to stop. We're going to do it. As for me, my house, we will serve the Lord. I'm on your team. I hope you'll join me and be on our team. Let's seek God together.
You're not alone. You're carrying that burden and that pain. Please let us carry it with you. Maybe we can't feel it to the same extent, but one thing I do know is that burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Amen. As the Lord has been stirring our hearts through the power of his word, the word of God, the Bible itself and his servant, Dr. Don Wilton, would you like to talk to someone? Would you like to pray with someone? 866-899 word will connect you with one of us. Happy to talk or pray.
That's 866-899-9673. Let's connect our keyboard to keyboard online at theencouragingword.org. Before we get away, some closing thoughts from Dr. Don. God has spoken to you, hasn't he? And you ready to give your heart to Jesus.
I'd love to help you right now. Would you pray this prayer with me and accept Jesus into your heart and life? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner.
I know that Jesus loves me and died for me on the cross. Right now, I repent of my sin and I confess my sin to the Lord Jesus Christ. Come into my heart and save me today and forgive me for my sin. In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen. If you've found this prayer and you've prayed that prayer, we'd love to get alongside of you and celebrate with you and send you some literature and help you as you begin to grow. And I want you to know that I love you very, very much. And by the way, don't leave.
Don't go away, whatever you do, because I'll be right back. Now, if God has stirred your heart and you've given your life to Jesus Christ, let us put some resources in your hands that will help you grow. Free resources from Dr. Wilton. If you've given your heart to Christ today, call us at 866-899-WORD and ask for them.
That number is 866-899-9673. And there are a great number of resources. And one of those is a very cool book that Dr. John's going to tell you about now. I'm going to ask a penetrating question right now. What happens when you die?
Where exactly do you and I go? You know, over my many years of ministry and from so many of you, I get so many questions about life after death. All of us, people like you and me, are fascinated with the subject of life after death. That's why God led me to write the novel, The Absolute Certainty of Life After Death. This novel that I wrote was birthed out of my own personal, I think, near-death experience.
And it just flowed from my heart. It's the story about two men in a real world. One died and the other man died.
One went to heaven, the other man did not. And it's based on what Jesus teaches us in His Word. This book will change your view of heaven and it will help you to understand the significance of what it means to be with Christ or to live separated from Him forever. I want you to have a copy. Call the number on your screen and request your own personal copy of my novel, The Absolute Certainty of Life After Death. The encouraging word is a viewer and listener supported broadcast ministry and your financial support helps us to reach just one more for Christ. And this book has been used to change lives all across America. Call and get your copy now. I hope you consider getting a copy of that book, Absolute Certainty of Life After Death. You can call about it at 866-899-WORD.
That's 866-899-9673. Or discover more online at theencouragingword.org. Our prayer for you is that you'll be motivated through this Monday and through the rest of the week to know that God is ready to encourage you to the Bible itself, God's encouraging Word. Join us again tomorrow with Dr. Don Wilson. I ordered one of your devotionals. A teacher friend of mine came that day and was having problems with three of her boys in her class. I felt that she really needed the devotionals so I gave her mine and she took it as a treasure and assured me that she would take the time to read it every day. Praise the Lord. She needed that encouragement and I know that devotional will keep her encouraged every day as she draws closer to the Lord and hides God's Word in her heart.
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