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Have you ever found yourself in a seemingly impossible situation where there seems to be no good options and no way out? Do you find yourself in such a situation today? Join Reverend Daniel as he shares how to respond to life's very difficult situations.

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Good morning, church. Today's scripture reading is taken from Nehemiah chapter 4, from verse 1 to 23. Nehemiah chapter 4, verse 1 to 23. Verse 1. Now when Sambalak heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged. And he cheered at the Jews. And he said, in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, what are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish and burn once at that? Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, Yes, what they are building, if a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall. Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads, and give them up to be planted in the land where they are captives. Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders. Verse 6 So we built the wall, and all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. But when Sambalek and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Almanites and the Ashtodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the bridges were beginning to be closed, they were very angry. And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night. Verse 10. In Judah it was said, the strength of those who bear the abundance is failing. There's too much rubble. By ourselves, we will not be able to rebuild the wall. And our enemies said they will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work. At that time, the Jews who lived near them came from all directions and said to us ten times, you must return to us. So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall in open spaces, I stationed the people by their clans with their swords, their spears, and their bows. And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials, 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, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes. Verse 15 When our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan, we all returned to the wall, each to his work. From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leader stood behind the whole house of Judah who were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other. And each of the builders had his sword stripped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me. And I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, the work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another. In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us. Verse 21. So we labored at the work, and half of them held the spears from the break of dawn until the stars came out. I also said to the people at that time, let every man and his servant pass the night with Jerusalem, that they may be a guard for us by night and may labor by day. So neither I nor my brothers, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes. Each kept his weapon at his right hand. This is the word of God. Thanks be to God.

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We are continuing our sermon series on Ashra Nehemiah. So last week we learned that Nehemiah chapter 3 records how those who had returned to Jerusalem were mobilized to rebuild the different parts of the wall, the northern and western sections of the wall first, and then the eastern section of the wall. Now in Nehemiah chapter 4, we see an all-out opposition from the surrounding inhabitants of the land to the building project. So I'd like to just frame my sharing with uh just one question, and I hope that we can keep this question in mind as we uh work through the text. And the question is this What can we do in seemingly impossible situations with a dead end at every turn? Let me repeat again. What can we do in seemingly impossible situations with a dead end at every turn? Like what the uh former Methodist uh Bishop Robert Solomon says in his commentary, how do we light a fire when the wind is blowing relentlessly and steadily growing into a hurricane? Let us pray. Father, we pray that Lord, that your word will speak to us this morning, convict our hearts, and uh impel us to do what is right in your eyes. We pray and ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. So Sambalat from Samaria to the north and Tobiah from Amon to the east scoffed at the builders of the wall. They taunted the people and used sarcasm with exaggeration to bring the builders' spirits down. We see that in the verse, first three verses of Nehemiah 4. It says, When they came to the presence of the brothers and of the army of Samaria, they taunted the builders with these words. What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish and burn once at that? Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him and he said, Yes, what they are building, if a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall. We know that the words of radicule and uh sarcastic rhetorical questions were not based on what is true evidentially. According to archaeological findings, Nehemiah's wall was about nine feet thick. Uh it's a formidable wall that was being built. It certainly can withstand a fox up the wall. So this challenge by the surrounding people were meant to intimidate and break the spirit of those, break the spirits of those who were of one mind to build the wall. So the response of the builders was to pray and continue to build the wall. We read this in Nehemiah 4, 4 to 6. They cried out to God, they say, Hear us, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their thorn on their own heads, and do not cover their guilt, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders. So they turn to God in prayer and they continue to build the wall. Verse 6 of Nehemiah 4 tells us, so we built the wall, and all the wall was joined together to half its height. For the people had a mind to work. So when Sambalat from Samaria to the north and Tobaya from Amon to the east heard of it, what we hear, uh what we read from the text is the opposition grew even more intense. As if uh the from the north, sambalat coming and from the east, Tobiah is not enough. This time, the text tells us that opposition came from all sides, not just north and the east, but the south and the west. In other words, everyone was coming against the work, everyone surrounding where the temple was, from the north to the east, and now to the south and to the west. So they were facing a formidable uh situation, a challenging, uh almost uh impossible situation. Because in addition to Sambalat from Samaria to the north and Tobiah, uh we have the Arabs coming in to the south and the Ashtondites from the Philistine, which in the which is in the west, so they joined together in the attack against the builders. So Nehemiah 4, 7 to 8 tells us, but when Samalat and Tobiah and the Arabs that came and the Ashtodites heard that the repairing of the wall was going forward and the bridges and the bridges were beginning to be closed, they were very angry, and they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. They came with further threats, saying in Nehemiah 4 verse 11, They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work. We see the response of the builders was again to turn to God in prayer. Nehemiah 4.9 then says, and we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night. However, around the same time there was a discouragement and a weakening of the resolve of the builders. Nehemiah 4.10 tells us in Judah was said, the strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There's too much rubble by ourselves, we will not be able to rebuild the wall. It was at this crucial time that encouragement came from the Jews who lived near them. Nehemiah 4 tells us at the time where their spirits were low, they were discouraged. They were facing an insurmountable task with opposition at every turn. And encouragement came from the Jews around to say, You must return to us. So therefore, with that encouragement, Nahimay had to come up with a practical strategy to continue building and yet guard against the opposition. So he did a few, a couple of things. First, he ensured that the weakest points in the wall were covered and continued to exhort the builders to build. The parts of the wall that was most vulnerable were closed up and uh attention was given to that. In Nehemiah 4:13 to 14 tells us, in the lower parts of the space behind the walls, in open places, I stationed the people by their cleans with their swords, their spears, and their bows. Right? And then Nehemiah begins to exhort the people, do not be afraid. Remember God, who is great and awesome and who fights for you. And he also begins to come up with a strategy to ensure that half of the builders would work and the other half would guard against the cities with weapons of defense. This would ensure that the work would not stop, and it also removed the builders who were working on the wall that they were undefended and vulnerable to attack. So Nehemiah 4, 16 to 18 tells us half of the servants worked at construction, half held their spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leader stood behind the whole house of Judah who were building the wall. So again, out of practical necessity, the sound of a trumpet became a rallying call for the people. In case of exigencies or in case of attack on certain parts of the wall, the brothers from the other parts of the world can uh congregate and help to defend off the enemy. So, what are some implications of Nehemiah 4 for us today? What can we do in seemingly impossible situations with a dead end at every turn? My first point of application is this. Firstly, we must persevere through prayer and be found working. We must persevere through prayer and be found working. At crucial points, Nehimaya and the builders prayed in response and despite the opposition. It's almost when the opposition came in full force. Their first response is always to pray. You know, uh whether the opposition increased or not, their first response was to pray. First time when Sambala and Tobiayah came in opposition and insinuated against them, the the prayer is uh is a prayer uh that uh announces judgment against the enemy against the enemies, asking God to vindicate them and uh turn against uh the situation and bring favor to them. So Nehemiah 4:4, hear, O our God, for we are despised, turn back their thorn on their own heads and give them up to be planted in a land where they are captives. Do not cover their guilt and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they provoke you to anger in the presence of the enemies, of the builders. So it's interesting because Nehemiah turned the insinuation to God and asked God to judge the enemies. And that is something uh biblical. We see that in the in the Psalter, in the Psalms, where the psalmists often pray prayers like this. You know, so in times where we are unjustly treated, uh, when we are being taken advantage of, perhaps there's a place for us to cry out to God to make out justice. Because the Bible tells us that one characteristic of God, one of his attributes, is that he is a God of justice. So good news for those of us who are lawyers here. God is with you in your fight for justice, he's a God of justice, he will stand by truth, he will fight for the fatherless and the widow and the poor. Again in Nehemiah 4, verse 9, in response to a greater opposition from the north to the east to the south to the west, opposition came immediately. They prayed. And we prayed. Nehemiah 4 9, and we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night. So you notice as they prayed, they worked. As they prayed, they act, they acted. Right? So uh we see that continuation of working, they didn't pray and they didn't cower in fear, they didn't stop uh working and they say, Oh Lord, I surrender, this is too much for me. But they continue hard at work. We see that in Nehemiah 4 verse 6, in response to the first uh opposition from uh Tobiah and Sambalat, they continued to build the wall all the way, and all the wall was joined together to half its height. For the people had a mind to work, they were working. And towards the end of Nehemiah 4.23, they were still working. So neither I nor my brothers, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of them took off their clothes. Each kept his weapon at his right hand. They were they were working, they were on the defense, uh, they were on the alert, and they they were just hard at work. The Latin phrase, I think, is not unfamiliar to us, that says ora it labora. I'm not sure whether you have heard of this phrase, uh, this Latin phrase, ora it labora. So um is associated with the rule of Saint Benedict uh during the time of the monastic age of the church, where monks have the practice of working and praying. So their rubric or their rule of life is that they they will work, they wake up, there are chores to do, but as they work, they pray, as they pray, they work, right? So it is part of their life, it's part of the culture of how they live. So that's where this uh phrase comes up uh aura, eat la bora. So for us in Singapore, working is a norm, right? And we are a city that never sleeps. So we better be found working and working hard. Do you all agree with me? Can I hear an amen if you agree with me? So, but the irony is prayer is harder, right? We find it harder to pray. We have no time to pray, but only time to work and work and work. So we become uh inverted commerce workerholics and are addicted to work and we cannot stop working. And now with uh the fact that certain jobs demand uh 24 hours attention, especially if you are in a management role or if you're overseeing a team, uh you can't always uh care off your roles, responsibilities so easily. So, those of us who are uh leading companies or you know, we are always in some way we are always on the alert, right? So we are always working in some sense. So, but we see a very different picture in Nehemiah chapter 4. It's not work and work, but pray and work. Pray and work, pray and act. This was what brought the builders through, and this is what that will bring us through in trying times and impossible situations. We need to pray and commit every threat and fear and intimidation to God while continuing to work. Because in every situation, in every tough situation that we may face in life, God will always have that something for us to do. Right? As we pray, the Holy Spirit may inspire us what we what we can do while we pray, right? So this is the posture because the Bible tells us again and again, we see that in our study of Ashrah and Nehemiah, God always comes true for his people who praise and seek him. The question is whether do we pray? Do we, in our times of desperation, like Nehemiah, for turn to God in prayer? So the song, there's a song called uh Every Time I Pray. I'm not sure whether you have heard of it. It was written in 1981 by two Malaysians. One of them is a pastor. His name is Walok and Yuen Wu. So it is a full gospel tabernacle church. If I'm not wrong, I think it's in Subang Jaya in Malaysia. So they started the church with 30 people. And as Walok recounts in the story of how this song was being composed every time I pray. He says, In the early years as a church, when we started off, we were very poor and couldn't afford to buy chairs. And so we sat all on the floor. So we started with 30 people, and the song was birthed because of a need. As a church gathering, we were praying for our needs. The second verse of the song goes, When I'm weak and helpless, Lord, you my strength shall be. Brings prayer as the focus to meet our needs. All throughout the years, that's what uh he says, as the church grew, prayer is a very important foundation stone of the church. Together with the leaders, we always come together to pray for every major project or major work. As we prayed, God always met our need and helped us achieve the things He wants us to achieve. Prayer remains the most important activity. It's something we depend on. In everything we do, we always cover it in prayer. Prayer moves the hand of God. So when I first heard this song, I will just share with us the lyrics in a while. It says the first the chorus goes this way every time I pray, I move the hand of God. So if we do not know the context of how this song is composed, if we have a critical mind, we say, is it true? You know, are we so powerful? You know, each time we pray, we can move the hand of God. Or is this song a song that uh uh uh exposes uh uh prosperity gospel? You know, each time we pray, we move God's hand, you know, and you know, like Bruce Almighty in in the show, you know, we whatever we ask, you know, we move God's hand to move to work like a magician. Right? But the context of this, uh how the song was composed in 1981 kind of framed uh the words of the song. I think it's very meaningful when I know the context that the song was composed when they were, the church was in a point of need, right? It wasn't in a time of prosperity where they say, God, give me more blessings, but it was at a time where they needed God to move. So they out of their poverty, physical poverty, they cried to the Lord and say, Every time I pray, I move the hand of God. Because God moves. God moves in response to prayer. So prayer moves the hand of God. So the chorus goes something like this For every time I pray I move the hand of God, my prayer does the things my hands cannot do. For every time I pray the mountains are removed, the paths are made straight, and nations turn to you. So every time I pray, I move the hand of God. This is what is happening in Nehemiah for every time they pray, God acts. And that leads me to the next point. In impossible and trying situations, it is God who will act on our behalf. That's why prayer is so powerful, because we are weak, we are poor, we have no power to overcome the enemy before us. But when we pray, when we focus in on God, when we zoom in on Him, He acts. God acts. And that is a theological statement, that is an assertion of who fundamentally who God is. God acts, He will be, whom He will be, and He will act in a way that reveals who He is. So in impossible and trying situations, it is God who will act on our behalf. Therefore, we pray, therefore we turn to Him. Because God will never feel His people, even if you are facing a situation where uh north, South, East, West, opposition everywhere, you know, and you feel that you are you are kind of caged in in your circumstances, whether it's a work situation, a marriage situation, family situation, a health situation, whatever, pray and work. Ask God what He wants you to do. And pray and never stop praying. We know it is God who acted because in Nehemiah 4 verse 15 is being said that when our enemies heard it, that it was known to us, and that God had frustrated their plan. God was the actor, the primary, the one who acts, I mean. He acts to frustrate the plan of the enemy. This is the God that we worship. God acts. It was God who was moving on the behalf on behalf of his people. Again, in Nehemiah 4.20, um, when Nehemiah was talking about blowing the sound of the trumpet, in which there was there was likely case where there will be an attack on a part of the wall where you hear the sound of the trumpet together, for our God will fight for us. Nehemiah 4.20. Our God will fight for us. It's not us fighting, it's us fighting through prayer, and God will fight on our behalf. The whole idea of God fighting for us recalls another episode in Exodus 14 when Israel was again faced with a hard-pressed situation like Nehemiah 4, where an Egyptian army was marching towards them and the Red Sea was before them. The word of Moses to the people was, fear not, stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will work for you today. The Lord will fight for you. You have only to be silent. Exodus 14, verse 13 to 14. So as we pray and work, firmly set our hope on the deliverance that will come through God. God will deliver us. The question is, do we turn to Him in prayer? Lastly and thirdly, in times of impossible and trying situations, we need the support of one another. Even though there's only one verse that speaks of it, but I think it speaks volumes of the support and encouragement the people, the builders had. You are discouraged, you must return to us. Okay, I'll try, but I'm helpless. You hear it ten times. You must return to us, you must return to us, you must return to us, you must return to us, you must return to us, you must return to us, you must return to us, you must return to us, must return to us, you must return to us. How would you feel? Do you feel good that yeah, you have the support, even though opposition is all around you, but support is also all around you, because this is how God designed us to be a people in community, connected to one another. So let us recap. So how do we what can we do in seemingly impossible situations with a dead end at every turn? I guess Nahimah 4 seeks to answer this question. What can we do in seemingly impossible situations with a dead end at every turn? Firstly, we must persevere through prayer and be found working. That's always something the Spirit will inspire us to do. But we must pray. Secondly, in impossible and trying situations, we need to firmly believe that it is God who will act on our behalf, it is God who will break down intimidation and threats. It is a God who will fight for us. Thirdly and lastly, in impossible and trying situations, we need the support of one another. The Jews came from all directions, speaking to them ten times.

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