Build a Wall - Pastor Stacey Shiflett

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Build a Wall

Nehemiah 2:17 Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.

Intro: The phrase “build a wall” has become a hot-button, triggering phrase. The media and the Marxists in our country have done everything within their power to make the subject of border security a divisive and contentious issue.

ILLUSTRATION:

China built a wall is over 13,000 miles long that took over 2,000 years to build.

Heaven has walls. Is God racists? Is God xenophobic?

The Bible is filled with stories of walls, and gates and the importance of walls.

               A. The Picture of the Wall – separation; sanctification; identification (the OT Tabernacle had curtains)

               B. The Purpose of the Wall – to keep in and to keep out

               C. The Protection of the Wall – being within the wall provided safety and protection

               D. The Problem of the Wall – in our text, the walls had been destroyed and the gates burned with fire (ch.1)

The fact that the walls no longer stood around the city was a reproach.

If having no walls is a reproach, we are in a world of trouble in this country, both literally and spiritually.

I. Build a Wall around your House of God

The church belongs to God’s people; not the unbelievers.

The sense of entitlement that has permeated our society has created this idea that the world BELONGS in the church.

They even believe that the church belongs TO the world.

People try to use the same logic for the world and the church that they use for the invasion on the border.

We are being invaded by every nation on the planet on a daily basis.

Our churches likewise are being overrun and are losing their identity, their influence and integrity.

Jesus addressed this problem in John 10:

·        1 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

We need to understand that it is a priority to build a wall around the church.

If anyone wants to come in, they must come in through the door.

And Jesus is the door!

John 10

·        7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.

·        8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.

·        9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

We must protect the church from:

               A. The Wolves

·        Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

·        Acts 2:29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

               B. The World

John 15

·        18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

·        19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

1 John 2

·        15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

·        16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

·        17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

               C. The Wickedness

The Bible is clear; the wickedness belongs OUTSIDE the church; not inside.

1 Corinthians 5

·        6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

·        7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

·        8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

·        9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:

·        10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.

·        11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner;

·        12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?

·        13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

II. Build a Wall around your Home

·        Deuteronomy 22:8 When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence.

BATTLEMENT: a low wall at the edge of a balcony, roof, etc., or along the sides of a bridge etc.,

God literally commanded the nation of Israel to build walls around the roof of their house to keep anybody from falling and dying.

Failure to do so would make the owner of the house liable.

·        1 Timothy 5:8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

PROVIDE: to perceive before, foresee; think of beforehand; to provide for one; to take thought for, care for a thing

Looking ahead and making effort to provide protection for one’s household definitely falls within this verse.

III. Build a Wall around your Heart

·        Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

KEEP: to watch, guard, keep; to preserve, guard from dangers; to keep, observe, guard with fidelity; keep secret; to be kept close, be blockaded

How do you build a wall around your heart?

A. By building a wall around your eyes.

·        Psalms 101:3 I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.

·        Job 31:1 I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?

B. By building a wall around your mouth

·        Psalms 39:1 I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.

Psalm 141

·        3 Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.

·        4 Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity: and let me not eat of their dainties.

C. By building a wall around your ears.

Ephesians 5

·        11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

·        12 For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.