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MESSAGE FROM PASTOR TIM TO ALL LG LEADERS:

Dear Life Group Leader,
This week’s sermon, “Faith Under Fire: How to Stand Strong When Opposition Comes,” explored Nehemiah 4 and its powerful lessons on facing opposition in our spiritual lives. We learned that opposition is not only inevitable when doing God’s work but can also be a sign of progress and an opportunity for growth.

Key Takeaways to Familiarize Yourself With BEFORE Group:

• Rejoice in resistance: Opposition can be a sign that God is working through you and that you’re making an impact. It’s an opportunity to grow stronger in faith.
• Pray and Fight: While prayer is crucial, it’s important to couple it with action. Nehemiah prayed fervently and took practical steps to protect the work and encourage the people.
• Embrace a resistance reality: Life as a Christian involves spiritual warfare. We must be prepared to work and fight simultaneously, always ready to defend our faith and continue God’s work.

Remember that our struggles and oppositions are obstacles and opportunities for God to strengthen us and showcase His power. Whether you and your group face personal challenges, workplace difficulties, or spiritual warfare, stand firm in your faith and trust that God is using these experiences to develop your character and deepen your reliance on Him.

May we all be encouraged to build our own “walls” with the same determination and faith as Nehemiah, knowing God is with us in every battle. Let’s GO!

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Reminders:

✳ Please regularly check your Planning Center profiles for requests to join your life groups, remove members from the list that no longer attend, or add members not listed. Please ensure that you have added no-reply@churchcenter.com to your email contacts so that you do not miss an email from Planning Center and encourage your members to do so as well.  This will ensure you do not miss a member request or any emails that come from the Planning Center site. Thank you!

Waters Class Schedule:

• 1st Sunday: Discover Waters – after 1st service
• 2nd Sunday: NO CLASSES
• 3rd Sunday: Connect Class – after 1st service
• 4th Sunday: Baptism Class – after 1st service

Waters Help: Need marriage and family care  or have a group member in need of marriage and family care?   Click here:  help resources page  or visit waterschurch.org/help

Location Text Alerts:

LEADER GUIDE:

Take time to read the entire chapter, perhaps breaking it up among your group members beforehand. 

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Key Verse: Nehemiah 4
TOPIC: Faith Under Fire – Standing Strong in Opposition

Prayers that Get Heard and Change the World

Ice Breaker Question: Leader: Consider thinking about this beforehand and going first to give members a chance to think.

“What movie or book protagonist inspired you the most through what they overcame?” (Example: Andy Dufrane, Shawshank Redemption)

Opening Prayer: Heavenly Father, we are so thankful You have provided us with this opportunity to gather together to study Your Word. We ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance, wisdom, and discernment to fully come into the knowledge and practice of standing strong in the face of opposition. Let Your Words challenge us, transform us, and strengthen us. In Jesus’ mighty Name, Amen.

Opening Question: Share a time when you faced opposition while trying to do something good or necessary. How did you handle it?

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KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. Opposition often indicates you’re doing something significant for God.
2. There are three areas of opposition: mind (internal), mouth (external), and immaterial (spiritual).
3. Enemies often use psychological warfare tactics: scoffing, scheming, and sowing doubt.
4. Our response to opposition should include rejoicing, prayer, toughening up, and embracing a resistance reality.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. There is a famous quote that says, ‘You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.’ Nehemiah’s story shows us that great men and women of God are forged by great opposition. How does this perspective challenge or encourage you in your faith journey? 

Nehemiah 4:1–3 (ESV) Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. 2 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 burned ones at that?” 3 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!”

2. Nehemiah faced intimidation and hostility from his opponents. In what ways do you experience similar tactics in your life or faith? How can we recognize and combat these?
3. Opposition can come from your MIND, your (and other’s) MOUTHS, and the MYSTICAL (unseen) world. Which of these areas have been dominant lately?
4. The sermon suggests we should “rejoice” in resistance. How can we practically cultivate this attitude when facing opposition?
5. Discuss the concept of “imprecatory prayers” mentioned in the sermon. How do you reconcile this with Jesus’ teaching to love our enemies?

Nehemiah 4:4-5 (ESV) Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. 5 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. 

5. The message referred to the fact that opposition usually intensifies as it did with Nehemiah (see Nehemiah 2:10, 19). How have you experienced this in your own life? How can we support each other during such times?
6. Nehemiah knew where his people were weak and took steps to strengthen those areas. What weak areas in your life might God be trying to strengthen through opposition?

Nehemiah 4:13 (ESV) So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people by their clans, with their swords, their spears, and their bows.

Nehemiah 4:14 (ESV) And I looked and arose and 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, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”

Nehemiah 4:15–17 (ESV) 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. 16 From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah, 17 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.

7. The sermon emphasizes the importance of both prayer and action. What are some spiritual disciplines you have seen help you develop stronger faith in the past? What habits might God be challenging you to develop now?

Nehemiah 4:23 (ESV) 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.

8. Nehemiah 4 ends with a statement saying Nehemiah and his brothers never took off their clothes or weapons. In other words, they developed a resistance mentality. How do the enemy, the world, and the flesh seek to distract us from the spiritual battle?

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS:

1. Identify one area in your life where you’re facing opposition. Spend time this week praying about it, but also determine one concrete action you can take to address it.
2. Practice reframing opposition as an opportunity for growth. Each time you face resistance this week, pause and ask, “How might God use this to develop me?”
3. Strengthen your “weak areas” by identifying one vulnerability and creating a plan to address it (e.g., through study, accountability, or seeking help).
4. Commit to encouraging someone else who is facing opposition this week. Reach out with a message, call, or act of support.

REFLECT & SHARE:

• Next week, we’ll check in on how you faced opposition with faith this week. Be ready to share any victories or lessons learned!

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION

Matthew 5:11-12 (ESV): “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Romans 5:3-4 (ESV) “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”

Ephesians 6:10 (ESV): “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.”

CLOSING PRAYER:

Lord, like Nehemiah, help us to stand firm in the face of opposition. Give us the wisdom to recognize Your work in our challenges, the courage to take action, and the faith to trust in Your ultimate plan. Strengthen us individually and as a community to face resistance with rejoicing, knowing that You are developing us for Your purposes. Amen.