SUMMARY
How are you doing at facing your personal demons? Our internal demons poison us with worry and fear, stunting our growth and vitality. Every day we have plenty of opportunities to get angry, stressed or offended. Every day we have opportunities to stray and go to the dark side. Facing your demons is part of everyday life. Dealing with dark and difficult Problems is something every one of us must do. The only hope of real change is God’s Word! In order to lift people out of spiritual bondage we must give them God’s Word so the truth sets them free!
Compromising Companions 1-3
Be careful about the company that you keep.
Some people are toxic.
You may need to separate yourself from bad company!
Ezekiel 44:9 commands, that No foreigner shall enter My sanctuary.
Deut 23:3-4 forbade Ammonites and Moabites from entering the temple.
#1 they tried to curse Israel
#2 their women infiltrated Israel and tempted them to immorality
#3 their pagan cultures and values were incompatible with Judaism.
“Bad company corrupts good character.” 1 Cor 15:33,
Ungodly Influences 4-9
This has to do with the influencers and preachers you follow.
Many pastors are not faithful to the Word of God.
You need to separate yourself from false teachers.
This priest allied himself with the enemy; Tobiah.
His grandson was married to Sanballat, the mortal enemy of the Jews!
He was compromised.
Some have crept in unnoticed, who deny our Lord Jesus Christ. Jude 1:4
God Forsaking Priorities 10-14
When Compromise occurs, the people neglect God’s house.
“Why is the house of God forsaken?”
“Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together.” Hebrews 10:25
If we forsake the church we are leaving the world to the enemy.
Are you struggling against your personal demons? Maybe it’s because of your friends. Maybe it’s because of the influencers you listen to. And maybe it’s because you have forsaken God’s house. These are three huge threats to your well being, your personal peace and happiness. If you have fallen prey in any of these areas, confront those personal demons now and get your life back on track!
MESSAGE
How are you doing at facing your personal demons?
Have you been ill? Divorced? Felt abandoned? Been an alcoholic or addict? Moved to a place where you knew no one? Weathered a financial storm? Been estranged from family? Lost a loved one? If so, you have faced some disturbing demons that have threatened to drag you down into the black hole of sadness and depression.
Our internal demons poison us with worry and fear, stunting our growth and vitality. Every day we have plenty of opportunities to get angry, stressed or offended. Every day we have opportunities to stray and go to the dark side.
Facing your demons is part of everyday life. Dealing with dark and difficult Problems is something every one of us must do. No one is exempt.
It takes guts to face off against your demons. But dancing with those demons is the only way to overcome them. If you keep trying to bury or ignore your problems you will never overcome them. You must confront your problems. You must take life by the throat! …and that takes courage. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will set you free.
And may I say that the only hope of real change is God’s Word! In order to lift people out of spiritual bondage we must give them God’s Word so the truth sets them free!
We find Nehemiah facing some of the most thorny issues of his life. Just last chapter they celebrated an incredible triumph. They finally finished the wall and were now protected. They finally reached an incredible milestone in their lives and they celebrated!
But isn’t it interesting how, sometimes when you overcome one great problem, three more of those nasty demons rear their ugly head. One problem down, a dozen left to go. And that is just the way life is.
Maybe you were so preoccupied with an addiction, that we failed to notice that your attitude was terrible. Or maybe you were so busy juggling two jobs that you weren’t aware that your parenting was pathetic. Or maybe you were so overwhelmed that you just didn’t see that we were developing toxic relationship.
But now that you’ve finished building the wall, and now that you can take a breather and look around, you notice that there are some things that are not so rosy. There are some dastardly demons that are rearing their ugly head. What are you going to do?
You have to confront your problems head on. If you do, you will transform your darkness into a gateway into joy. So let’s get right into it and look at a few of the demons that Nehemiah and his people faced, so that we can avoid those nasty problems.
Compromising Companions
The first one has to do with the company that you keep. It’s great to have friends, but some friendships are toxic. Some people will drag you down into the pit of criticism, negativity and godlessness. I hate to say it, but you don’t need friends like that. You may need to separate yourself from bad company!
1 On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people, and in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever come into the assembly of God, 2 because they had not met the children of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. However, our God turned the curse into a blessing. 3 So it was, when they had heard the Law, that they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel.
It seems from verse 1 that the same day of their celebration in the temple of the dedication of the walls, that they read from Deuteronomy 23:3-4 which forbade the Jews from allowing The Ammonites and Moabites from ever entering into the temple. Perhaps they looked around and said, “oh, oh! We are not following this rule!” So right during their worship service, they took immediate action.
They may have also read Ezekiel 44:9 which commands, that “No foreigner… shall enter My sanctuary. Because of that, eventually the Jews put up signs around the temple that read, “No foreigner may enter within the balustrade around the sanctuary and the enclosure. Whoever is caught, on himself shall he put blame for the death which will ensue.”
In Judaism, worship in the temple is reserved for Jews only. They especially were not to allow pagans like the Ammonites and Moabites to worship with them because of their history, #1 they tried to curse Israel, #2 their women infiltrated Israel and tempted them to immorality, and #3 their pagan cultures and values were incompatible with Judaism. Unless they gave those up, they could not convert.
The principle we should take away from this is from 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Don’t be deceived, bad company corrupts good character.”
If you hang around with the turkeys, don’t be surprised that you can’t soar with the eagles. . I hate to say it, but you don’t need friends like that. You may need to separate yourself from bad company!
Ungodly Influences
You may think this is the same, but it is not. This has to do with the influencers you listen to and the preachers you follow. Just because someone is a pastor of a church, does not mean that he is faithful to the Word of God. There are many today who are woke, and many others who simply don’t believe God’s Word is God’s Word! You need to separate yourself from false teachers and illegitimate Christian leaders.
4 Now before this, Eliashib the priest, having authority over the storerooms of the house of our God, was allied with Tobiah. 5 And he had prepared for him a large room, where previously they had stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the articles, the tithes of grain, the new wine and oil, which were commanded to be given to the Levites and singers and gatekeepers, and the offerings for the priests. 6 But during all this I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Then after certain days I obtained leave from the king, 7 and I came to Jerusalem and discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, in preparing a room for him in the courts of the house of God. 8 And it grieved me bitterly; therefore I threw all the household goods of Tobiah out of the room. 9 Then I commanded them to cleanse the rooms; and I brought back into them the articles of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.
But that is not all, because later on, in verse 28-29 we read, “And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite; therefore I drove him from me. 29 Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.”
This was a priest who had allied himself with the enemy. Remember Tobiah, the guy who declared war against the Jews and threatened to attack and kill them! Same guy. And Eliashib’s grandson was married to none other than Sanballat, the mortal enemy of the Jews!
He was compromised. He was a priest in name only. He didn’t have the things of God as his utmost priority. He was mingling with the enemy for his own political gain! And it backfired. Nehemiah kicked them out of the priesthood!
Listen, not all preachers who claim to proclaim the Word of God are genuine. Some of them are false teachers. The book of Jude warns:
3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Be careful who you listen to! One man asked me my opinion about a certain preacher from Shepherd’s Chapel, and I told him, “Well he doesn’t believe that Jesus is God the Son, and he doesn’t believe in Salvation by grace alone, by faith alone. That’s just a few of his problems. He is a false teacher.” He didn’t like my answer, because it was his favorite preacher!
Be discerning! We must separate from false teachers and Ungodly Influences. If we don’t we will be creating more problems for ourselves, and more personal demons to battle.
The third serious problem we need to battle is
God Forsaking Priorities
If you hang around with the wrong crowd and listen to ungodly influencers, pretty soon you’ll be forsaking God’s people and God’s house! When you walk away from Christ and from His church, it will be because you have succumbed to pride instead of humility, and error instead of truth.
10 I also realized that the portions for the Levites had not been given them; for each of the Levites and the singers who did the work had gone back to his field. 11 So I contended with the rulers, and said, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” And I gathered them together and set them in their place. 12 Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain and the new wine and the oil to the storehouse. 13 And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouse Shelemiah the priest and Zadok the scribe, and of the Levites, Pedaiah; and next to them was Hanan the son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah; for they were considered faithful, and their task was to distribute to their brethren.
Do you see what happened here? Compromise crept in and the people began to follow illegitimate leaders and false teachers. “Hey, let’s move Tobiah into the spacious store rooms of the Temple. And lets follow pagan practices.” When that occurs, the people lose the priority of giving and neglect God’s house.
Nehemiah was not a happy camper! He decided that he had to take these problems by the throat! If he didn’t battle these demons, they would drift into paganism again! So he gathered the leaders of the people and sat them down and contended with them and said, “Why is the house of God forsaken!”
This statement gives new meaning to the passage from the book of Hebrews 10:25 which commands us Christians, “Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much more as you see the Day approaching.”
In today’s lingo, we’d say, “don’t forsake the church!” Are we doing the important things for the kingdom of God? Then you be here every week! You support the Body of Christ sacrificially! You serve faithfully! You seek the prosperity of Pine Grove Community Church and its building and grounds and its ministries!
If you don’t do a Nehemiah on the church, there will come a day when there will be no church, there will be no ministries, there will be no building and grounds. It will be a weed infested, broken down, paint chipped, empty shell. And you won’t need to ask, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” But we will not let that happen here! We will defeat that demon!
Are you struggling against your personal demons? Maybe it’s because of your friends. Maybe it’s because of the influencers you listen to. And maybe it’s because you have forsaken God’s house. These are three huge threats to your well being and personal peace and happiness.
If you have fallen prey in any of these areas, confront those personal demons now and get your life back on track! Nehemiah ends this section with a prayer: 14 Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for its services!” That is my prayer as well.
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