Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #268 Revival Ready: Nehemiah’s Blueprint for Rebuilding, Worship & Word

Transcript

#268 Revival Ready: Nehemiah’s Blueprint for Rebuilding, Worship & Word · The OneCry Podcast

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Speaker0: I am speaking to a God who has all power, all authority,
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Speaker0: all sufficiency. Pray in light of the size of your God,
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Speaker0: not the size of your situation.
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Speaker0: Welcome to the One Cry Podcast, a nationwide
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Speaker0: call for spiritual awakening. The goal: accelerating the
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Speaker0: movement of God through sharing revival truth, stories,
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Speaker0: and reports.
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Speaker1: Well, hello and welcome again to the One Cry Podcast.
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Speaker1: My name is Ben Dishner and I'm the Global Ministries Director for
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Speaker1: One Cry. This week we have a special message from
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Speaker1: one of our hosts, Kyle Reno, from his home church,
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Speaker1: Crossgates Church in Mississippi.
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Speaker1: Kyle is going to be sharing how to be revival ready,
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Speaker1: and he's going to share out of the book of Nehemiah. And this kicks off
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Speaker1: a whole series for Kyle. We'll share a few of those messages and
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Speaker1: hope that you tune in with us. So enjoy Kyle
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Speaker1: teaching on how to become revival ready.
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Speaker0: Now, as we start our journey, let me give you a little context. The book
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Speaker0: of Nehemiah is really a journal entry. It's really Nehemiah
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Speaker0: journaling what God was doing in him, through him, in the lives
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Speaker0: of a people and a specific place. We're going to get to know Nehemiah really,
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Speaker0: really well in these next few
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Speaker0: weeks, recorded what God did in a move of genuine revival,
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Speaker0: genuine renewal, genuine awakening
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Speaker0: that came. It's not just a history story,
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Speaker0: it's the way that God still works in the lives of human beings,
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Speaker0: what God wants to do right now in this moment in our nation.
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Speaker0: But you got to lean in and believe and cooperate. So for context's
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Speaker0: sake, let me let you in on a secret about what's happening.
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Speaker0: Nehemiah is actually God fulfilling a promise. One of
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Speaker0: the most famous passages of scripture is God actually fulfilling
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Speaker0: Jeremiah 29:11. Y'all know that famous passage?
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Speaker0: He says, for I know the plans I have for you,
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Speaker0: declares the Lord, plans for welfare, not for evil,
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Speaker0: to give you a future and a hope. In the book of Jeremiah,
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Speaker0: Jeremiah comes and he brings some prophecy that were hard
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Speaker0: for the people to hear. That because of Israel's rebellion,
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Speaker0: because of Israel's idolatry, because of how many times
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Speaker0: Israel kept crossing lines, it cost them. And here's,
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Speaker0: here's the truth. Rebellion always costs us.
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Speaker0: Not just you individually, it costs you as a family. It costs us as
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Speaker0: a church. It costs us as a nation. And, and he had told
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Speaker0: them that God's heart is broken because you have
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Speaker0: continually abandoned. You're going to experience brokenness. You're going
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Speaker0: to experience bondage, captivity, and it's going to last for 70
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Speaker0: years, and then He gives them the promise, but then one day I'm gonna
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Speaker0: restore you. Hallelujah, right? One day I'm gonna give you a future,
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Speaker0: and I'm gonna give you a hope. And now we're living— here's the collision.
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Speaker0: There's all these moments in the Bible. You have Ezra, man, that's gonna
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Speaker0: rightly restore the law of God. You got Zerubbabel that's gonna rightly restore the temple
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Speaker0: of God. And you got Nehemiah that's gonna go to work on the wall,
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Speaker0: the protection of God. Because without those things,
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Speaker0: no one flourishes. And then we pick up Nehemiah 1.
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Speaker0: Y'all ready? Are you ready?
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Speaker1: Ready!
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Speaker0: Come on,
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Speaker0: here we go. The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah.
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Speaker0: Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the 12th year,
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Speaker0: as I was in Susa the Citadel, that Hanani— you say it fast
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Speaker0: and you say it confident, baby, all right? That one of my brothers
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Speaker0: came with certain men from Judah And listen, and I
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Speaker0: asked them concerning the Jews
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Speaker0: who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning
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Speaker0: Jerusalem. Nehemiah lets us see through his
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Speaker0: journal where the work began in him.
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Speaker0: See, the work began in Nehemiah's heart with a genuine concern,
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Speaker0: and he was concerned about 2 things. He was concerned about a people, and he
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Speaker0: was concerned about a place. And he simply asked this one
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Speaker0: man this simple question, basically this,
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Speaker0: how are they doing? How is it doing?
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Speaker0: How are the people? How is the place? How are the people of God?
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Speaker0: How is this place that's been marked by God,
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Speaker0: Jerusalem? And what we're watching, hear me now, is we're
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Speaker0: watching his heart in Nehemiah start to
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Speaker0: consider and be concerned about things that were in God's heart.
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Speaker0: You're watching God start to share His heart with Nehemiah,
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Speaker0: that Nehemiah lifts his comfortable head. We'll find out at the end
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Speaker0: of this from his life, he lifts his head from him merely
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Speaker0: being a cupbearer to the king, and he looks out and he asks a genuine
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Speaker0: question, how are they doing? How is that place doing?
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Speaker0: And I want to ask you today, would you be willing— here's a principle—
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Speaker0: would you be willing to ask about the true condition Of
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Speaker0: people and places. Would you listen to me?
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Speaker0: In this season where it is so easy for us to, in our self-interest
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Speaker0: and being self-consumed, to forget about the true state of people
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Speaker0: and the true state of places. I'm gonna let you in on something.
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Speaker0: If you would genuinely say, hey God, how's it going out there?
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Speaker0: If you would even be willing to ask people at different times, how are they
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Speaker0: doing? How is this going? If you'll ask that
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Speaker0: question, God will let you know. And I'm gonna let you
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Speaker0: in on a secret, as a guy that gets to live on the front lines,
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Speaker0: there's a whole lot of hurting people out there. Hey,
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Speaker0: there's a whole lot of hurting people in here.
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Speaker0: There's a whole lot of brokenness out there.
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Speaker0: There's a whole lot of destruction and damage. There's a whole
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Speaker0: lot of things that the enemy has been doing. There's a lot of things that
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Speaker0: are messed up, and God— listen to me— doesn't want us to just put our
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Speaker0: head down and make it through through our moment in history.
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Speaker0: God actually wants us to know the true condition of
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Speaker0: our own heart, of our own house,
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Speaker0: of our own neighborhood, of our own city, of our own classmate.
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Speaker0: God doesn't play games. He's not trying to just get us through it.
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Speaker0: Verse 3, they respond to his genuine question about a people and a
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Speaker0: place. And he said to them,
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Speaker0: well, the remnant there in the province who survived the exile, listen, they're in great
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Speaker0: trouble and shame.
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Speaker0: See, the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and the gates are destroyed
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Speaker0: by fire. Here's their response to Nehemiah's genuine question. Hey, Nehemiah, the people
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Speaker0: are in trouble. They're in shame. Hey, that place is
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Speaker0: destroyed. The wall is broken down. The gates
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Speaker0: are burned by fire. What he's painting a picture is this.
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Speaker0: Hey, Nehemiah, it's real hopeless out there.
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Speaker0: The people are downtrodden, their heads are down, they're hopeless,
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Speaker0: they're not thriving spiritually, they're not thriving economically,
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Speaker0: they're not thriving relationally, and in every other
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Speaker0: way. And because they are not who they are intended to be, they're ashamed.
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Speaker0: They don't know how to get their— get out of this state of hopelessness.
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Speaker0: And the place in which they reside is broken and destroyed.
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Speaker0: I want to give you something that we need to hear as a people.
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Speaker0: There's 3 things that no one can live without. No one. 3 things
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Speaker0: that are displayed throughout the whole book of Nehemiah, also in Ezra and
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Speaker0: other places. It paints this picture. 3 things that no one can
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Speaker0: live without. You ready? One that no one can live— you can't live without the
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Speaker0: wall. Now, the picture physically— we're going to do a lot
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Speaker0: of work in the wall, on the wall in the weeks ahead, brick by brick.
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Speaker0: But please don't believe that this is merely about
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Speaker0: structural integrity. The wall was a symbol
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Speaker0: of the protection of God.
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Speaker0: We're going to spend a lot of time seeing them rightly cooperate with God
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Speaker0: to see— listen to me— walls put back in place.
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Speaker0: See, the walls being down around Jerusalem means this, hear me now,
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Speaker0: that anyone or anything could get in.
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Speaker1: That's right.
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Speaker0: That's why God's going to call them to cooperate with rebuilding the wall.
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Speaker0: Let me tell you, their rebellion had led to the broken wall.
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Speaker0: The walls— listen to me— might be down in your life today.
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Speaker0: Anybody ever have a season where you let the wall down? Come on now,
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Speaker0: don't look at me holy, I ain't impressed.
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Speaker0: Anybody— listen to me— ever found a season where the wall was down around your
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Speaker0: home? I'm gonna let you in on a secret.
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Speaker0: Listen to me. Walls are down in our cities.
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Speaker0: Walls are down in our nation. Walls are
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Speaker0: down spiritually. And listen to me, while there's physical representations of that,
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Speaker0: there's a bigger spiritual truth. No one wants to live without the protection
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Speaker0: of God. God longs to protect
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Speaker0: his people. God longs to shepherd his people. God longs for us to rightly cooperate
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Speaker0: with self-control being rightly put in place so that we might live protected from the
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Speaker0: enemy and from ourselves. Amen.
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Speaker1: lives.
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Speaker0: So the walls are down. If you're honest today, maybe some of you
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Speaker0: even right now, you're going, Kyle, the wall's down in my life. Well, would you
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Speaker0: cooperate with God to see them rebuilt? He wants
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Speaker0: you to live behind— listen to me— the strong tower of the Lord.
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Speaker0: Second thing they're missing, listen, they're missing the temple. The temple
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Speaker0: had been destroyed. You know what the temple represented in that moment, that epic
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Speaker0: of redemptive history? It represented the presence of God.
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Speaker1: Wow!
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Speaker0: Newsflash, nobody in this room wants to live without the presence
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Speaker0: of God. I'm telling you, you don't want a moment,
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Speaker0: not a second without the manifest glory of God!
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Speaker0: Now in the New Covenant, man, we know we got the Spirit of God for
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Speaker0: every follower of Christ that lives and resides within us, but if we're honest,
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Speaker0: many of us have quenched Him. Come on now!
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Speaker0: We have hindered His activity in our life, and so there's no genuine sense of
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Speaker0: His nearness, Or His leadership.
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Speaker0: And in this moment, man, I want you to imagine the people of God have
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Speaker0: no protection, they have no sense of God's presence.
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Speaker0: Let me tell you what revival looks like for some in this room.
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Speaker0: The rightly reestablishing your alignment
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Speaker0: that you might experience the presence of God again. Hallelujah!
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Speaker1: Hallelujah!
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Speaker0: And I'm gonna let you in on a secret. He hasn't went anywhere. He's waiting.
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Speaker0: He longs for us to rightly see those things restored. And listen to me,
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Speaker0: that's personal, but that's also among a people.
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Speaker0: That God so longs that the presence of God might be made manifest
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Speaker0: in the state of Mississippi.
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Speaker0: That the people would be so rightly aligned to Him by cities that
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Speaker0: were surrendered to Him, that He would make known His presence
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Speaker0: in ways that bring about flourishing.
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Speaker1: Amen.
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Speaker0: But it's not
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Speaker0: a game. It has to be rightly pursued.
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Speaker0: The third thing that was gone— I'm just giving you an overview of where we're
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Speaker0: going, man. The walls were down, the temple was destroyed,
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Speaker0: and the third thing— listen to me— the law was missing.
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Speaker0: Guys, they no longer had God's Word,
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Speaker0: God's rule in their life. They no longer had clarity. They had no light.
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Speaker0: You're going to see, we're going to get there. We're going to party by the
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Speaker0: time we get to the end of this. I'm in a good mood, y'all.
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Speaker0: I'm telling you, I've been studying too much.
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Speaker0: That we're going to pursue God through this, and you're going to see moments where
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Speaker0: they come and reestablish God's law over their life.
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Speaker0: Where they read aloud, like for a whole day,
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Speaker0: the law of God to rightly reorient themselves to
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Speaker0: that. Because listen to me, when we don't have God's book, we have no bearings.
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Speaker1: That's right.
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Speaker0: We don't have God's guidance,
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Speaker0: we'll do anything. Can I get a witness? Right? Listen to me,
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Speaker0: I promise you, you're one bad season away from decisions you couldn't
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Speaker0: imagine in the lot. And nobody—
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Speaker0: listen to me— nobody makes a plan in some season, let's do as much
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Speaker0: as I possibly can to ruin my life. Nobody does that. I haven't met you
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Speaker0: yet. If that's you, I'd like to talk to you. You are depressed, dude.
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Speaker0: I like— but over time,
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Speaker0: It dims. Verse 4, it goes
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Speaker0: on to say, so he's got a state he knows. Listen to this. The walls
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Speaker0: are down, the people are shamed and troubled. As soon as I heard these words,
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Speaker0: I sat down and I wept and I mourned for days.
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Speaker0: The report stopped Nehemiah in his tracks. He couldn't
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Speaker0: carry on like everything was okay anymore. I think
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Speaker0: in this moment God was giving Nehemiah clarity about the true state of God's
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Speaker0: people in a very special place. And I'm gonna let you in on a secret.
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Speaker0: If anyone will slow down long enough to let God give you a true evaluation—
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Speaker0: listen to me— a true evaluation of maybe of your own
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Speaker0: spiritual state, or the state of your family, man, or the state of the place
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Speaker0: that God has sovereignly placed you,
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Speaker0: God will start sharing things with you that's beyond you. Let me tell you 2
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Speaker0: things that Nehemiah does in this moment. that we
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Speaker0: can learn from. He took the time to feel something before he did something.
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Speaker0: I don't know about you, but oftentimes I do something before I feel something.
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Speaker0: You know what I mean? I'm an action-oriented, ready, go, set kind of guy.
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Speaker0: But what God does for Nehemiah when he— God gave
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Speaker0: Nehemiah God's heart before he did God's work.
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Speaker0: Here's the principle. Listen to me. He wept and mourned,
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Speaker0: before he even fasted and prayed.
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Speaker0: Here's— you want to write something down? Be willing to feel something before you do
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Speaker0: something. We talked about this Wednesday
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Speaker0: night some. Be willing, listen to me, be willing to feel something like,
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Speaker0: God, this breaks your heart. God, we've went so far.
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Speaker0: God, we've moved so beyond the design and the intent.
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Speaker0: God, I can't believe that we've got to this place. God, I feel for
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Speaker0: families what you feel for family. I feel for generations what you feel for generations.
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Speaker0: God, I'm starting to see I see what you see when you see our
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Speaker0: city. God, we've left our founding principles as a nation.
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Speaker0: God, I feel what you feel.
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Speaker0: Brokenness comes before building. Weeping comes
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Speaker0: before working. To be
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Speaker0: grieved with God's kind of grief towards something, and listen to me,
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Speaker0: that's not grief that's going to make you stall. That's grief that's going to get
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Speaker0: I would ask this morning, anybody in this room know what you're broken over
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Speaker0: right now? Are you broken for anything?
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Speaker0: If we really want revival, brokenness is always a part of the equation,
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Speaker0: and you can't fake true brokenness,
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Speaker0: but you can position yourself for it. That's right.
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Speaker0: You can't get to such a place before God, literally laying it all out.
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Speaker0: No more games, no more religious pretense, not just going through the rules.
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Speaker0: God, what's on your heart for me? What's on your heart for us?
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Speaker0: God, what's on your heart for this church? God, what's on your heart for
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Speaker0: this region? God, what's on your heart for this state, nation? God, give me
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Speaker0: your heart in this.
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Speaker0: Here's a, here's a prayer, and I'm gonna ask you to pray it right now,
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Speaker0: but you gotta mean it. Even as I say
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Speaker0: it, would you pray it?
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Speaker0: God, would you share your heart with me for people and places?
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Speaker0: Right now I'm saying it. I'm gonna do it again for you. Ready? God,
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Speaker0: would you share your heart with me
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Speaker0: for people and places? In Jesus'
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Speaker0: name, amen. I'll tell you this,
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Speaker0: you pray it and mean it and keep praying it, watch out!
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Speaker0: Watch out. Watch out. I love what an old missionary told me one time.
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Speaker0: He says, listen, when my heart's full, my eyes leak.
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Speaker0: Listen, I'm gonna tell you the truth. I don't remember crying. I don't.
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Speaker0: I don't remember crying until I came to know Christ.
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Speaker0: And I don't know what it is about Jesus Christ that opens
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Speaker0: up the tear ducts, baby. But I— and it ain't just merely crying
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Speaker0: for crying's sake, but when you get in position to where God is downloading in
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Speaker0: you what He has going on, every what He has for people.
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Speaker0: But he doesn't just merely get upset. Listen what it goes on to say,
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Speaker0: I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
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Speaker0: Nehemiah wept, he mourned, and then it says he
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Speaker0: continued fasting and praying, meaning that
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Speaker0: Nehemiah set aside a whole season to seek the Lord specifically
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Speaker0: through fasting and praying. That he gave meals
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Speaker0: and He gave moments so that he can pray in light of a situation.
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Speaker0: Look at me, he didn't merely not eat, he sought
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Speaker0: the Lord for stuff. Now listen to me,
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Speaker0: fasting without prayer is dumb!
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Speaker0: Hallelujah! It's called starving!
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Speaker0: But there's something about fasting
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Speaker0: and prayer, it's like jet fuel! Let me tell you
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Speaker0: what fasting does. Fasting helps you feel our desperation.
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Speaker0: Now, I know, listen to me, if you have health reasons why you can't,
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Speaker0: by no means, never do that. But most of us
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Speaker0: should set aside meals and moments,
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Speaker0: not merely not to eat, but to seek God and
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Speaker0: say, God, would you move in my family? God, would you move in my children?
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Speaker0: God, would you move in this school? God, would you move in this business?
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Speaker0: God, would you move in our church? God, would you move in this state?
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Speaker0: Amen. Amen! God, we need you
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Speaker0: more than I need me a meal! God,
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Speaker0: I'm getting serious about this because I know we seriously need you!
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Speaker0: And let me let you in on a secret. Nehemiah's no priest, he's no prophet.
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Speaker0: He's an everyday guy.
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Speaker0: He's a dude walking— working an 8 to 5.
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Speaker0: Cupbearer to the king, God has given immense favor to.
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Speaker0: So if you looked across the spiritual landscape, nobody's going, yep, it's gonna be Nehemiah.
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Speaker0: Nobody's going, Nehemiah's gonna be the linchpin to a real move of God.
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Speaker0: But God found a heart that would be willing. He knew one, listen to me,
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Speaker0: that would go hungry.
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Speaker0: He knew one that would get desperate.
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Speaker0: Desperation is spiritually expressed through prayer and
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Speaker0: fasting. Now, how does he pray? I got to keep rolling, man.
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Speaker0: And he said, O Lord of heaven, the great and awesome God
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Speaker0: who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his
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Speaker0: commandments. That's great. Let me
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Speaker0: tell you, the best prayers start with praise. I mean,
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Speaker0: the best prayers. And sometimes you won't even get past that. This is what Nehemiah
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Speaker0: does. He's fasting, he's praying, and then he records in
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Speaker0: this journal entry for us That's how he prayed. He went,
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Speaker0: hey God, as we get started here, let me just
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Speaker0: say you're awesome.
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Speaker0: We got problems, but it ain't you. You're awesome.
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Speaker0: Worthy is the Lamb.
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Speaker0: You're steadfast in your love.
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Speaker0: You're a covenant-keeping God. Amen. Hey,
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Speaker0: today, as you walk into God's presence to start praying for the rebuilding
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Speaker0: of God in our lives, in our day, in our city, start with
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Speaker0: a great reminder. He's good. Start with some perspective
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Speaker0: in your praise, man. I am speaking to a God who has all power,
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Speaker0: all authority, all sufficiency. No matter— we're going to level
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Speaker0: the crosshairs and we're going to pray for specific stuff, but I got a
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Speaker0: God that's bigger than all that. Amen! Yes!
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Speaker0: Pray in light of the size of your God, not the size of your situation.
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Speaker0: Man, I'm gonna back up and go, you got this!
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Speaker0: You're good! You made the cosmos! You can handle Crossgates!
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Speaker0: You're the maker of all things! You might— could move in the state of Mississippi!
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Speaker0: You're the God that sees every generation! You could move in this generation!
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Speaker0: He prays his praise, and then verse 6, he says, let your ear be
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Speaker0: attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now
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Speaker0: pray before you day and night for the people of Israel, your servants. I love
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Speaker0: the honesty of this, and listen, if you are
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Speaker0: learning still how to pray, welcome to the party!
21:17
Speaker0: Because I am too! Let me
21:21
Speaker0: tell you what, I can't tell you, I laughed this week reading Nehemiah's prayer
21:25
Speaker0: about his praying and thought, I have done that so many times. He said,
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Speaker0: hey Lord, let your ear be attentive and your eye,
21:32
Speaker0: let it be on it. Basically saying, hey God,
21:36
Speaker0: really need you to hear this one. Hey God,
21:40
Speaker0: really need you to see this. I can't tell you how many
21:44
Speaker0: times I've in my own spirit to the Lord say, hey Lord, I need
21:48
Speaker0: you to really tune in right now. And listen
21:52
Speaker0: to me, this is not as much to remind God to listen, this is to
21:55
Speaker0: remind us He's listening. This is not as
21:58
Speaker0: much about saying, hey God, I need you to look right now, as saying,
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Speaker0: hey God, please see what I'm seeing.
22:05
Speaker0: Let me tell you what, God, look at me now. I'm telling you, your prayers
22:07
Speaker0: move the needle. Can you imagine 2,000+ people
22:11
Speaker0: will be on this corner this morning? Can you imagine if just 100 of us
22:16
Speaker0: believe for bigger than that? Imagine though, if just
22:20
Speaker0: 100 of us walk out of this room and tomorrow morning or this afternoon we
22:24
Speaker0: say, hey God, would you please hear our plea for where you have placed us?
22:26
Speaker0: Would you— Amen! Please hear our cry for
22:30
Speaker0: the next generation. God, would you please hear our cry for our
22:35
Speaker0: nation right now? God, would you please listen and see what's
22:38
Speaker0: happening around us? We need you!
22:43
Speaker0: What do you think He'll do? He'll ride
22:47
Speaker0: in on the prayers of His people! I love that
22:51
Speaker0: it says that, I now pray before you day and night. For Israel.
22:55
Speaker0: Let me tell you what I love is Nehemiah just didn't pray a one-off.
22:59
Speaker0: He prayed the long haul. It says earlier,
23:03
Speaker0: it was talking about the, the month. We're gonna get to Nehemiah
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Speaker0: 2. It's gonna show us in a moment when we get next week when
23:11
Speaker0: God starts moving. What you have is the dis— the difference
23:15
Speaker0: between a fall and a spring season, which means this: Nehemiah didn't pray for once.
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Speaker0: He prayed, he prayed for a long time.
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Speaker0: Secret, things are not broken in just a minute, right?
23:27
Speaker0: Come on now. Listen, it takes a long time
23:30
Speaker0: to make a big mess. Come on, right?
23:35
Speaker0: Historically speaking, right? It takes a while for us to really,
23:38
Speaker0: really, really mess things up. In the spiritual
23:42
Speaker0: realm, and even right here on earth, it takes time. Now God can break— I
23:45
Speaker0: love big moments of rescue. I love big moments of restoration.
23:49
Speaker0: I love when God takes somebody from dead in their trespasses and sin to alive
23:53
Speaker0: alive in Christ. Isn't that awesome? But it takes a long time for God
23:57
Speaker0: to make that person whole. He can
24:01
Speaker0: free them from their sin, but it takes a while to free us from ourself.
24:07
Speaker0: That's right!
24:11
Speaker0: God can change the course of a nation in a moment, but it
24:15
Speaker0: takes a while to rebuild the wall. And what
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Speaker0: he's doing in prayer, he's asking, he's asking, he's knocking, he's knocking, he's seeking,
24:22
Speaker0: he's seeking. And here's the principle: keep praying consistently for what's broken.
24:27
Speaker0: I wonder who God, even in this room right now,
24:31
Speaker0: is placing a call to start interceding like you've never prayed
24:36
Speaker0: before. That God's giving you specific sightlines, ways that you're going
24:40
Speaker0: to pray, ways you're going to seek God for your school, man, ways you're going
24:43
Speaker0: to seek God for your neighbors, ways you're going to seek God for this region,
24:46
Speaker0: ways you're going to seek God on behalf of this church. God, send a move
24:52
Speaker0: Then he does what has to— non-negotiable. If you want to be revival ready,
24:56
Speaker0: this right here has to happen. Confessing the sins of the people of Israel,
25:00
Speaker0: which we have sinned against you, even I and my father's house have
25:05
Speaker0: sinned. Verse 7, we have acted very corruptly against you
25:08
Speaker0: and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you've commanded
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Speaker0: your servant Moses. Let me tell you what Nehemiah
25:17
Speaker0: was doing. He was confessing sin that happened before he was even born.
25:23
Speaker0: At some point, somebody's got to own
25:27
Speaker0: it before God.
25:32
Speaker0: At some point, somebody's got
25:35
Speaker0: to own it before God. At some point, somebody's got to bow
25:40
Speaker0: their knee and say, hey God, in light of my family, I'm coming, Lord.
25:42
Speaker0: I know that we've got off track. I know that we've done things that have
25:46
Speaker0: broken. God, I know that my family line's a hot mess.
25:49
Speaker0: But it stops now! I'm repenting!
25:53
Speaker0: God, forgive us! At some point in
25:56
Speaker0: our nation, if we want real revival and awakening,
25:59
Speaker0: somebody has to repent over what's been done!
26:05
Speaker0: And not pass it off! Own it!
26:10
Speaker0: God, here's my guttural confession! God, here's my cry! God,
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Speaker0: forgive us! Forgive me! Amen!
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Speaker0: To own your part in this brokenness.
26:25
Speaker0: God, forgive us for our lack of concern for your glory. God,
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Speaker0: forgive us for where we've forgotten how we were founded.
26:32
Speaker0: God, forgive us as a church where we've dishonored your name. God,
26:35
Speaker0: forgive us for being selfish. God, forgive us for
26:40
Speaker0: parts of our family's brokenness. Listen to me, name it.
26:45
Speaker0: Say it! Say it! Own it!
26:50
Speaker0: I will never forget a moment when my brother and I,
26:54
Speaker0: new in the faith, man, on our face
26:58
Speaker0: before the Lord, made a declaration. It changes
27:02
Speaker0: the day in the Reno line.
27:07
Speaker0: Never forget it. I think the Lord
27:11
Speaker0: went, now here we go!
27:15
Speaker0: Somebody's got to own it. It's got to start with
27:19
Speaker0: somebody somewhere. Why not us? Why not now?
27:23
Speaker0: Then he does something that everybody's got to come to learn how to
27:26
Speaker0: pray. He's praying this. Remember your word that you commanded your
27:30
Speaker0: servant Moses, saying, if you are unfaithful—
27:34
Speaker0: this, I love this. God sort of put into the manuscript what
27:37
Speaker0: moves we could make when we mess up.
27:43
Speaker0: Remember the word that you commanded your servants? You said, if you are unfaithful,
27:46
Speaker0: I will scatter you among the peoples. That's what's happened to them.
27:49
Speaker0: But if you return to me— that's huge— but if you return to me,
27:53
Speaker0: but if you return to me, man, if you just make a move, if you
27:56
Speaker0: just turn your face, if you take one step, the father runs back and grabs
28:01
Speaker0: up the prodigal! Hallelujah! He said, man,
28:04
Speaker0: if you just a slight little turn, I'm coming after you!
28:08
Speaker0: But if you return to me and keep my commandments, and you do them,
28:12
Speaker0: though your outcasts are in the utter parts of heavens, from there I will gather
28:16
Speaker0: them, and I'll bring them to a place that I've chosen to make my name
28:18
Speaker0: dwell there. They are your servants, your people, whom you have redeemed
28:22
Speaker0: by your great power and by your strong hand.
28:27
Speaker0: Let me tell you what I love in prayer.
28:31
Speaker0: We don't have to wonder what to pray. We already know
28:35
Speaker0: what to pray. Let me tell you what Nehemiah is doing.
28:38
Speaker0: He's saying, hey God, I'm going to take a promise you made,
28:43
Speaker0: and I'm going to bring it back in your presence to pray some
28:48
Speaker0: promises. God, you said if your people who are called by your name— God,
28:52
Speaker0: you said you'd never leave us, abandon us, forsake us. God, you said if we
28:56
Speaker0: repent and return, we'd be revived, refreshed by the presence of the Lord.
29:01
Speaker0: Lord, You said that You take the things that are eaten by the locusts and
29:04
Speaker0: You redeem them, God! God, this is
29:08
Speaker0: what You said! It's not what I said! You said You work!
29:14
Speaker0: Let me tell you, prayer isn't passive participation.
29:20
Speaker0: It's aggressive agreement. That's a
29:24
Speaker0: huge statement. Prayer, it's not passive
29:28
Speaker0: participation. Now, God, If you don't mind,
29:33
Speaker0: if you get some time, what do you think?
29:38
Speaker0: Prayer is when a man of God, a woman of God, comes into the presence
29:41
Speaker0: of God and says, God, based off your nature, based off your character, based off
29:45
Speaker0: your heart, based off what you've said, based off how you've worked,
29:48
Speaker0: based on what you want to do, based off your will and your desires,
29:51
Speaker0: God, I am asking you to save my friend.
29:56
Speaker0: God, based off your heart, based off your design, based off the way
30:00
Speaker0: that you intended things to work, God, I'm asking you to move in my family.
30:05
Speaker0: God, based off your character, based off your nature, God, based off
30:09
Speaker0: how you've worked in redemptive history, God, would you revive a generation
30:13
Speaker0: again? I'm not guessing,
30:17
Speaker0: I'm agreeing. And anything that's hindering
30:21
Speaker0: that, we bind that in the name of Jesus.
30:25
Speaker0: Anything that opposes the work of God, the will of God, the way of
30:29
Speaker0: God, destroy it!
30:34
Speaker0: God, we're coming to you on your terms, with your words, asking you to do
30:38
Speaker0: what you want to do. Verse 11, O Lord,
30:41
Speaker0: let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant. Miss Laura, you can
30:44
Speaker0: go ahead and come play. And the prayer of your servants
30:48
Speaker0: who delight to fear your name. And give success to your servants today,
30:51
Speaker0: and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
30:55
Speaker0: I love it! Nehemiah, I love who
31:00
Speaker0: God picked, because Nehemiah fasts, he prays,
31:03
Speaker0: he seeks God's face, he prays God's promises, he gets
31:08
Speaker0: into His presence, and then he does what we should learn.
31:11
Speaker0: He doesn't just stop with his prayers, he puts feet to them.
31:16
Speaker0: This is— I can't tell you how many times in faith I've been right here
31:20
Speaker0: before. All right, God, now I know your heart.
31:24
Speaker0: I'm going to move toward this in faith. Really need
31:28
Speaker0: you to meet me there. Let me tell you what he knows is coming,
31:31
Speaker0: and we'll see. I'm going to ask the king of a pagan
31:35
Speaker0: country to send me back to
31:39
Speaker0: be a part of the restoring of your people. And I'm going to
31:43
Speaker0: ask Him to pay for it.
31:51
Speaker0: Help! He's going, God,
31:55
Speaker0: hear me. God, hear me.
31:58
Speaker0: God, help me. God,
32:01
Speaker0: hear me. God, help me. God, hear what I'm
32:05
Speaker0: asking. Help me to do it!
32:09
Speaker0: God, I'm gonna move by faith toward it. I'm scared to death!
32:14
Speaker0: Help me! Hear me!
32:21
Speaker0: God, please hear the prayer that I'm praying for my marriage. Help me
32:25
Speaker0: to be a better husband. God, please hear me cry
32:29
Speaker0: out for my school. Would you send an awakening? I'm gonna
32:33
Speaker0: share the gospel with this person today. God, please bless
32:37
Speaker0: Rankin County and help our church to be a blessing
32:41
Speaker0: to it in whatever way I can be a part of it. I surrender to
32:45
Speaker0: it. God, do something supernaturally in and through the
32:48
Speaker0: church you've made me a part of, and I'm going to serve in it.
32:52
Speaker0: God, hear me. God, help me.
32:56
Speaker0: God, I'm asking for your mercy. I'm asking for your favor with this King,
33:00
Speaker0: and I'm gonna make a bold Now
33:08
Speaker0: I was a cupbearer to a king.
33:14
Speaker0: I'm gonna say it one last time. When God looked across the landscape
33:18
Speaker0: of the land for a key person to send a renewing work,
33:22
Speaker0: a revival that led to an awakening and
33:26
Speaker0: generational impact and reasons we're in the room, He didn't pick a priest,
33:31
Speaker0: didn't pick a preacher. He picked
33:35
Speaker0: a cupbearer.
33:40
Speaker0: Hallelujah! He picked a regular guy with a great gig,
33:47
Speaker0: looked into him, and He thought, he'll respond.
33:53
Speaker0: God loves using normal people. in real
33:56
Speaker0: revival.
34:00
Speaker0: God loves using normal people.
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Speaker0: My question to us this morning, would you be a part
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Speaker0: of it? Seeing ruins restored,
34:12
Speaker0: revival come. Would you let God share His heart with you?
34:16
Speaker0: Change you from the inside out? Pray big prayers,
34:20
Speaker0: would you? Fast! Seek His face! Pray with
34:24
Speaker0: tenacity, with precision,
34:27
Speaker0: and not let go until we see God establish Jackson
34:30
Speaker0: and make it a praise in all the earth.
34:33
Speaker0: To be moved so mightily in our families that we go, man, there ain't no
34:37
Speaker0: way that we could be this whole except for the power of the Gospel
34:40
Speaker0: of Jesus Christ!
34:46
Speaker0: Wow, what a great message from Nehemiah, and I
34:49
Speaker0: really love how Kyle points out at the very end that God uses
34:54
Speaker0: normal people in real revivals.
34:57
Speaker0: And so he's not always looking for the champion
35:01
Speaker0: or the one who everyone has on their friend lists,
35:05
Speaker0: everyone who has so much impact in so many
35:09
Speaker0: circles that they're involved in. He wants someone who is humble,
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Speaker0: someone who has poured their heart out to him and surrendered more and
35:17
Speaker0: more completely. That's the kind of person that He uses.
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Speaker0: So today, as you pray in, let me encourage
35:25
Speaker0: you to go back through this message, ask God to move in your heart and
35:29
Speaker0: show you how He wants you to surrender to Him, how He wants
35:33
Speaker0: to work through you and use you to be an agent
35:37
Speaker0: of change in the Kingdom of God and someone who helps bring
35:41
Speaker0: a movement, someone who helps the Body of Christ
35:45
Speaker0: Position themselves and orient their sails for the
35:49
Speaker0: winds of heaven in revival. So God bless you.
35:53
Speaker0: Thank you for joining us, and we hope to see you again next week.