Keep Pressing Ahead - Facing Internal Opposition, Part 1

Few things in life are as painful as having a good friend, a mentor, or maybe someone in your small group or someone at work turn on you. They betray you. They talk about you. When you get opposition on the outside is one thing, but when opposition comes from the inside, maybe even a family member, what do you do?

How do you handle it? That's today on Living on the Edge. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.

We're a discipleship-driven ministry on a mission to encourage Christians everywhere to live like Christians. Unfortunately, far too many of us could relate to the deep hurt Chip just described. Betrayal is one of the most painful experiences in life, and that's what Chip wants to help us with today as he continues his series, Keep Pressing Ahead. Through Nehemiah, chapter 5, we'll learn what to do when someone we wholeheartedly trusted stabs us in the back. Get your Bibles ready, and let's join Chip now for his message, Trouble or Tribulation in Different Ways.

And so you notice in chapter 4, adversity came because he obeyed. And for some of us, that just knocks us off kilter. You know, I took the step. We decided as a couple to go to counseling, or I decided, you know something? I'm gonna get my finances in order, or I got joined to ministry, or I'm gonna address an important issue. I have a good friend earlier this week who just decided, you know, I just can't get up. This week, I'm gonna get up and meet with God before work.

He said, man, this has been the hardest week of my life. When you do what's right, when you follow God, often it's adversity. First Peter says, don't be surprised.

I mean, don't be shocked. So he prayed, he prepares, and the enemies were thwarted. Notice, though, when you go to chapter 5, the adversity is not because people are doing something good. The adversity is because they're doing something bad. You notice their disobedience.

You kind of reap what you sow from Galatians 6. And then what you're gonna discover is there's a different way to handle it. So now turn to the front of those notes, if you will, and what I want to do with you is talk about how to face internal opposition.

When external opposition fails to thwart God's work, you can almost guarantee that you'll have the next attack, and it'll be from within. And if you, like me, got shocked when, I'm doing exactly what you said, and it gets harder instead of easier, and you go, what's the deal? Once you realize that's normal and to be expected, that's helpful. But then when I take the next step, and the people that I think should be for me and supporting me, and family, friends, people in my small group, maybe a pastor, and they're the people that are the problem, I don't know about you, but I just go nuts. How do you handle that one? Well, here's what I want you to know.

When that happens, you're not alone. You're Jesus, didn't it? And by the way, this isn't always from bad people.

Sometimes it's from the most well-meaning people that really have what they think is your best in mind. Peter tells to Jesus, don't go to the cross. That's not a good plan.

I rebuke you. And of course, you know, later Jesus rebuked him and said, get behind me, Satan. You know, Judas, of course, his motives weren't good at all. And all the while, he set up Jesus for a financial kickback that he would get by turning him in. He's got all this opposition from the Pharisees.

He's got all these issues he's facing. One of his closest friends is a point of opposition over here, a Judas betrayer over here, and then on the very last night, he's got 12 guys arguing with one another about who's the greatest. I mean, if you've ever been driving the car and have your kids in the backseat arguing, arguing, arguing, it makes you nuts.

But after three years of investing in their life, and they're arguing about, oh, brother, right? So if it happened to Jesus, it's gonna happen to you. And the apostles, as they started, I mean, you can just jot in your notes, Acts 6, Acts 15. The church multiplies. I mean, tens of thousands of people come to Christ, and pretty soon they're arguing some cultural issues.

You know, your group's getting more in my group. You know, the Hellenistic or the Greek Jews versus the Jewish Jews' widows. And then Paul and Barnabas, great friends. They have a little tiff. Part of it's philosophical and maybe part of it's personality.

But great friends are now rubbing each other the wrong way. And here's what you gotta understand. When you do what God wants you to do and you take a step of faith, you may find that your spouse isn't on board, that your parents think you're crazy, that some of your closest friends will just come to you privately and say, what are you doing? I mean, what were you thinking? I mean, that's not a good, secure plan. I mean, kind of Teresa's dad thought that's what he was getting, and so we're gonna put all the kids and everything we own in a Ryder truck, and we're gonna drive to Dallas and go to seminary, and we're gonna be missionaries.

Or so we thought. And here's the response, the supportive, loving response. If you leave, don't expect to ever see us again, and we will never, ever, ever visit you. Other than that, they were very positive. It was a journey and all that we'd been through together to marry Teresa, my spiritual leader. And by the way, this has been reconciled since, but the man that I looked up to, he discipled me for seven years. He took me out privately. We met at a very exclusive restaurant, usually 6 a.m. McDonald's. And he said, Chip, I've been thinking and praying about this.

I've spent a lot of time with you. I just want you to know, if you marry Teresa, God will never use your life. I said, do you have any other encouraging words?

You know, maybe another Egg McMuffin or something? And since that didn't work, he had his wife meet with my wife. And when they met, and he feels very bad about this now, but from his perspective, and from where he came from, then his wife met with Teresa and said, if you really love Chip, you wouldn't marry him.

Because God has his hand on his life, and if you marry him, he'll never use him. You know, that took my world spinning upside down. I mean, it was like, God, who do I listen to?

What, what, what, who, who, who? You need to understand, it's par for the course. Opposition comes from without, opposition comes from within. I actually put a definition, strife, angry or bitter disagreement over fundamental issues.

Vigorous or bitter conflict, discord, quarrels, struggle, competition, or rivalry. When you decide to say, I'm going to be an R12 Christian, and I'm going to live before God, I'm going to get in community, I'm going to get on mission, I'm going to discover who God made me to be, and I'm going to make a difference for the eternal God of the universe, I will tell you external conflict is coming, and internal opposition will occur. And in chapter 5, Nehemiah is going to teach you and teach me how to face it. Lessons from Nehemiah 5, internal strife occurs, here's the overarching thought, when the me principle overrides the us principle. The me principle is me, mine, what about me?

My future, my money, my ego, my position, what's in it for me? Even though we're Christians, even though the Spirit of God lives inside of us, under pressure, we can think more about us than about what God is doing in all of us. Philippians 2 verses 3 and 4, you might jot it in the corner of your notes, it says, let nothing be done without a selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind consider others more important than yourselves.

At the heart of internal conflict is greed, and selfishness, and pride. Now I want you to open your Bibles if you will, Nehemiah chapter 5, if you're like me and didn't grow up with the Bible, open in the middle and find Psalms and go left a couple books and you'll get there. Nehemiah chapter 5 opens up, now remember where we're at, he's left Persia, he's the right hand man of the king, he's gathered a group of people, the wall has started to be rebuilt, the wall is half finished, the enemies have threatened their lives, they've prayed, they've prepared, they're up at dawn until dusk, they have their swords on their side, half the people are guarding, the other half people are working, they're keeping their clothes on at night, and they're doing this work and God is fulfilling his promise to Nehemiah and he's realigning his historic purposes.

And so you think things ought to be really going well. Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against the Jewish brothers, some were saying we and our sons and daughters are numerous, in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain. Others were saying we're mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our homes to get grain during the famine. And then the third group, still others were saying we have had to borrow money to pay the king's tax on our fields and our vineyards. Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our countrymen, and though our sons are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and our daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.

Now you need to get a little picture of what's going on here. Number one, you have a food shortage. Apparently there was a famine during this time and it probably started well before the rebuilding of the wall. And so you get a food shortage and some people that don't own any land are basically saying we're trying to build this wall, we're trying to do God's will, we've got a bigger problem, we've got to eat. Some people who do own land, number problem is their debt ceiling eclipsed, unlike the government where they can have meetings and figure out where you want to put how many trillion dollars. Once you're collateral for your home, once you're collateral for your vineyards, and now they've actually sold their children, sons and daughters to slaves, they're basically saying we're done. We've got nothing else to mortgage. And then the third group is they've got high taxes.

The Persian king on all the places that were subject to him would exercise a tax. And so these people are saying, you know something, Nehemiah, I really appreciate this plan, I know God's in it and we're all excited and we're half done. But you know, we're rebuilding this wall to fulfill God's plan and my home is gone, my vineyard's gone, and my fellow Jewish brothers, you know, these guys that were working hand in hand, arm in arm, because in chapter three, remember, we all worked by affinity groups. The wealthy people have taken this opportunity to take everything I have and everything I own.

So what's the use of building this wall? In fact, the opportunistic situation you have is what's going on literally is loan sharking. And literally, I looked it up on Google just to make sure it wasn't as crazy as I thought it was. This used to happen, the mafia used to be really big in this actually, I learned, and I logged in Google, loan sharking, and I found out where I can get a super high interest for like a week, and if I don't pay in a week, the interest goes up and I think someone will break my legs or something even today, I'm not quite sure how it works.

But I mean, it's crazy. And so what happened is there were some Jewish brothers that had resources and finances, and so people needed grain, so they kept loaning in money. Well, you can't pay, well, you know, if you can't pay, I'll take your house, if you can't pay, I'll take your vineyard, if you can't pay, I'll take your son, if you can't pay. And when it says the daughters are enslaved, it's not just like they're a household slave.

The word here has the idea that some of them became someone's second wife. And these guys are saying, you know, where's the love in the room? And so the conflict, now put yourself in Nehemiah's situation.

He's looking at this, and now here's what's happened. The result is disunity. The result is these people that are supposed to be hand in hand, working together, building the wall, I mean, doing God's will, all of a sudden there's this great outcry, there's this disunity. I mean, there's people that don't like each other, and they're all Jews, and they're all on the same team, and so you've got a very difficult situation. And so in Nehemiah's perspective, the agenda is faltering, he's left his comfortable position, he's making a sacrifice, but these people are at each other's throats. So here's the issue. What do you do when you face that kind of internal opposition?

I mean, what do you do? How do you respond? You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and we'll get back to his message in just a minute. But first, our heart is for you to deepen your connection to God as you study His word with us. And another way we're supporting you in that is through our free resource called Daily Discipleship with Chip.

Let me encourage you to stick around after this message to learn more about it and how you can sign up today. Okay, here again is Chip to finish his talk. Let's pick up the story in verse 6. Verse 6 goes on to say, when I heard their outcry in these charges, I was very angry. By the way, there's a time to be angry. He's ticked off.

And this is so unfair, this is so wrong. He goes on to say, I pondered them in my mind, and then accused the nobles and the officials. The word pondered, literally he says, I consulted with myself. He's really, really mad, but instead of making a quick rash decision or saying something, he's very angry.

I mean, he's white-hot angry, and then he's having this private conversation. Self, what should I do about this? What's the why step? How do I address this?

I can't just run on emotion. And then he confronts or accuses the nobles and the officials, and I told them, you're exacting usury from your countrymen. So I called a large assembly to deal with them, and I said, as far as possible, we have brought back our Jewish brothers who were sold to the Gentiles.

Now you are selling brothers only for them to be sold back to us. They kept quiet because they could find nothing to say. He basically says, you understand, we've been in exile, the Gentiles, we've been slaves, I personally have taken some money, and others have taken some money, and we've bought our Jewish brothers back from the Gentiles, now we're in Jerusalem, we're lying to do God's will, and now they're being sold into slavery to one another, to you guys? I mean, this is literally like your hands in the cookie jar and someone's going, do you see that or not? And you notice their response, absolutely quiet.

I mean, they just know, yeah, you're right. Now, he goes on, so I continued, what you're doing is not right. Shouldn't you walk in the fear of God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. So he says, you know, I'm giving people food, I'm lending them money, but I'm not charging them interest. I'm not taking their homes and their vineyards. But let the exacting of this usury stop, give back to them immediately their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, and also the interest that you're charging them, the hundredth part of the money, the grain, the new wine, and the oil. And then notice their response. We will give it back, they said, and we will not demand anything more from them.

We will do what you say. Notice in your notes, his emotional response is anger under control. Okay? Anger under control. Some of you, right now, are thinking about some things, and you're thinking, I felt really bad about being angry. I want you to know, you ought to feel really good about being angry about some things that are wrong and unjust around people and friends who ought to be supporting some things that they're not.

But then you have to get under control. Notice the verse underneath that, the Ephesians 4.26, I gave this New Testament passage, it says, be angry, it's a command, yet do not sin. Anger motivates you to act. But notice the second thing he does. It's thoughtful confrontation. He doesn't go off. He doesn't just start screaming.

He's a demon. He consults with himself, he evaluates the situation, and there's thoughtful confrontation. Now, if you're thinking to yourself, now, I've got a pretty significant issue, and here what it is, and it's in my family, and it's really exactly what you talked about, but I don't know how to address it. I mean, I'm not sure exactly what I should do.

And let me give you the basics here. You can study it for yourself, but Matthew chapter 18, verses 15 to 17, just watch the progression. Because what we tend to do when something like this happens is we go to someone else and start talking about it instead of here's the biblical process for thoughtful confrontation. If your brother or sister sins, and they can be inside your home, they can be in your small group, they can be in the church, but if a brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you've won them over. But if they will not listen, step two, take one or two others along so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church, the idea to the church leadership. And if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

It doesn't mean you don't love them, but you're not going to afford the same fellowship and relationship that you would with a brother, sister, and Christ. The third thing that happens is public accountability. You notice that they respond, and then he doesn't just say, okay, I've addressed the issue, I was really mad, I thought about what to do, but then he says there's got to be a follow through, there's got to be a plan, so that what we're talking about now, because what happens in every situation?

It just slides back to the way it used to be. So follow along if you will, and notice what he does after they say, okay, we will do exactly what you say. Verse 12, second half, then I summoned the priests, and I made the nobles and the officials take an oath to do what they promised. In other words, he went public, he calls an assembly, he says we're going to look at this, there's going to be public accountability, and then he calls the priests, he says priests, you represent God, nobles, you've been loan sharking, right, you took these people's land, yeah, you took their kids, yeah, you did this, you did, okay, right, ready?

You said that you would stop it. Take an oath right now before God in the presence of these priests. And it says, I also shook out the folds of my robe and I said, in this way may God shake out his house and possessions, every man who does not keep this promise. So may such a man be shaken out and emptied. At this the whole assembly said amen and praised the Lord, and the people did as they promised.

Now, what you need to understand about the culture here is then, in the front folds of your robe, you would keep your personal possessions. And so Nehemiah makes him take an oath, and there's a large group, and I mean they're on the spot, he's telling it like it is, he's using the moral authority that God's given him, and then he unfolds his and his personal stuff falls on the ground, and basically it's a curse. May God do to you, just like all my personal stuff and all, may he take every aspect of your life, and I mean cause it to roll to the ground, if you don't keep your promise. And so he publicly charges them, he has them verbalize what they're gonna do, he gets people on a follow-up plan, and so what he does is he provides public accountability to move forward. Now, what's this got to do with us?

1 Timothy 5 verse 19 says, Do not entertain an accusation against an elder, unless it's brought by two or three witnesses, but those elders who are sinning you are to reprove before everyone, so that others may take warning. All I want you to see is even in the New Testament, when there's issues where it's, this isn't gray areas, this isn't my opinion versus your opinion, this is when in the church people violate the clear truth of God's word, and when they violate it, this is someone with the courage who does it lovingly, kindly, under control, but says that behavior or that attitude is destroying the unity, and when the unity is destroyed and we're not on the same page, the work of God gets thwarted. This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and you've been listening to part one of Chip's message, Facing Internal Opposition from our series, Keep Pressing Ahead. Well, Chip will be back shortly to share some helpful application for us to think about. You know, we all experience painful and challenging circumstances in life, the loss of a loved one, crippling depression, or a constant struggle with sin, and in those seasons, we want to throw our hands up and scream, I'm done. Well, through this study in the book of Nehemiah, Chip's going to teach us how to biblically respond to and overcome adversity.

Learn the steps to have unexplainable hope and strength, even when your world is falling apart. For more info about this series, visit LivingOnTheEdge.org or the Chip Ingram app. Well, I'm joined in studio now by Chip, who has a quick word he'd like to share with all of you. Chip?

Thanks so much, Dave. And before I come back with a few final thoughts about today's message, I just want to remind the Living on the Edge family that we live in a world that is rife with conflict, the conflict at work, with families and our marriages, and yes, part of it is just personality and fallenness, but the fact of the matter is the devil is on a mission to divide us from each other and from God, and we have to recognize that the real enemy is not that other person or that situation. There is a dark, insidious enemy attacking our souls and wanting to destroy us, and so we need to learn how to engage in spiritual battle, and let me encourage you to sign up now for the daily discipleship with Chip.

It's called The Invisible War. Through this study, we'll open our Bibles to Ephesians chapter 6. We'll learn what spiritual warfare is, who Satan is, what power he has, what power he doesn't have, and tools to help you live victoriously each and every day, and for those of you that are new to daily discipleship, this is a free video resource where you and I can study God's Word together.

I'll never talk for more than 10 minutes, and then I will ask you for 10 minutes with a brief study guide, and here's the thing. You're going to learn to study the Scriptures, to hear God's voice. This is not a Bible study. I'm going to mentor you one on one. Two hundred and thirty-four thousand people have gone through daily discipleships with me, and they all say basically the same thing. I'm now hearing God. I understand the Bible. I'm growing on my own, and that's our heart's desire for you. So let me encourage you.

Make the decision today. Sign up for the daily discipleship. We're in the midst of a spiritual battle. God has given us the victory, and I want to show you how to experience it.

Thanks, Chip. Well, I can't encourage you enough to sign up for this new daily discipleship, The Invisible War, by going to dailydiscipleship.com. As you and Chip study Ephesians chapter 6, you'll learn how to defend yourself and fight back in this unseen battle. Again, to sign up for this brand-new daily discipleship, visit dailydiscipleship.com.

App listeners tap discipleship. Here now is Chip with a few final thoughts for us to think about. As we close today's program, I'd like to talk a little bit about where we ended. We talked about disunity and how it breaks up a family, how it destroys an organization, how a team just falls apart when there's disunity. And my experience, my observation, and I'm not sure exactly why this is, of all the issues where we kind of think, yeah, we're not really on the same page anymore, and I have some very mild resentment, but it's not that big a deal. We begin to go into denial and rationalization, and we begin to allow the seeds of disunity to grow.

And what I want you to know is there are few things in all the earth that will break God's heart. And eventually destroy the most important relationships that you have is allowing disunity to go unchecked. You know, in my own heart, in my own life, because most of us, like me, don't like confrontation, we hope just time will heal things, that maybe that other person's having just a bad day, or maybe it's just me and I probably shouldn't say anything. All I'm telling you is all those things that you're saying in your mind, unless they get addressed, over time, the disunity in your marriage will cause a drift. The disunity with one of your kids, and you rationalize and say, well, they're just going through a stage when you know you need to address, confront, bad things are going to happen if it isn't addressed. And I believe God put us together at this moment in time because you need to sit down and talk with a team member. You need to sit down and talk with one of your kids.

You need to pull your whole family together and say, you know something? The way we're doing life right now doesn't reflect Christ. This isn't healthy. This isn't good. For some of you in church leadership, you need to say, things aren't right. Let's get them on the table. Call someone and say, we need to talk. Or maybe it's not that big a deal and you're just going to call and you're going to say, I just want you to know I'm sorry.

I said this or I did this and I want to make sure we make it right. Keep your accounts short. Address issues of disunity. Jesus said, the very last thing he said and prayed was, Father, may they be one even as we are one.

Unity matters to God. You'll be glad you did. Thanks, Chip. And as we close, I want you to know that as a staff, we ask the Lord to help you take whatever step is next in your faith journey. And we'd love to hear how it's going. Would you take a minute to send us a note or give us a call?

Either one is easy. Just email chip at livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003. Again, that's 888-333-6003 or email chip at livingontheedge.org. Join us next time as Chip continues his series, Keep Pressing Ahead. Until then, I'm Dave Druey thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge. of Living on the Edge.