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Making a Plan to Improve Your Life with Pastor Rick Warren · Voice of Rick warren

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  Speaker 1: Two weeks ago, we began a new series of messages
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  Speaker 1: through the book of Nehemiah called Building a Better Future.
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  Speaker 1: And it's a series to help you prepare and reenter
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  Speaker 1: life as this COVID pandemic is winding down. And it
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  Speaker 1: is winding down finally, thank God. And I told you
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  Speaker 1: that God isn't interested after COVID, you simply resuming your
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  Speaker 1: old life, the way you used to live before the pandemic. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: he's giving us all the opportunity of a lifetime. to
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  Speaker 1: reset our lives, to reboot our lives, to renew, refresh,
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  Speaker 1: re-energize our lives in a whole new way. And that's
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  Speaker 1: what this series is all about. Now, I also told
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  Speaker 1: you that there are five books in the Bible that
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  Speaker 1: specifically give us instructions for how to build a better
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  Speaker 1: future after a time of captivity. And those books are Nehemiah, Ezra, Zechariah, Haggai,
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  Speaker 1: and Malachi. They're all in the Old Testament. Now, two
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  Speaker 1: weeks ago, Pastor Tom shared the first message in this
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  Speaker 1: series and the first principle from the book of Nehemiah
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  Speaker 1: on building a better future. And the first principle, it's
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  Speaker 1: there on your outline. If you pull out your message notes,
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  Speaker 1: the first principle is this. Principle number one, you got
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  Speaker 1: to get dissatisfied with your current situation. If you're going
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  Speaker 1: to build a better future, you've got to get dissatisfied
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  Speaker 1: with your current situation.
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  Speaker 2: That's what happened with Nehemiah.
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  Speaker 1: Nehemiah held a very high position in the king's court
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  Speaker 1: in Persia, and he was the king's actually steward of
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  Speaker 1: the wine. But he got a burden for his hometown
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  Speaker 1: in Jerusalem. And some of the captives had been allowed
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  Speaker 1: to return to Jerusalem after 70 years, but when they
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  Speaker 1: got home, they discovered that the temple and their homes
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  Speaker 1: and the entire.
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  Speaker 2: City had been destroyed.
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  Speaker 1: And there were no walls or gates around the city anymore,
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  Speaker 1: so it was defenseless. Now, this really concerned Nehemiah and
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  Speaker 1: it made him very sad and he became burdened about it. Now,
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  Speaker 1: Tom talked about this first principle. You have to become
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  Speaker 1: dissatisfied with your current situation. Nothing is gonna change until
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  Speaker 1: you want to change. And in that first message, Tom
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  Speaker 1: taught us the four things that Nehemiah did with this
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  Speaker 1: first principle. And that is first, you have to grieve.
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  Speaker 1: You have to mourn what you've lost. You've lost a
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  Speaker 1: lot during COVID. And until you learn to grieve what
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  Speaker 1: you've lost, guess what? You're gonna stay stuck in the past. Second,
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  Speaker 1: Tom taught, you fast. Fasting helps us focus our heart
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  Speaker 1: on where we need to go. Third, you pray and
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  Speaker 1: you ask God for help. And fourth, you confess and
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  Speaker 1: you admit your mistakes that you made. If you missed
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  Speaker 1: that message by Tom, go back and listen to part one.
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  Speaker 1: Those are the first four steps in building a better future.
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  Speaker 1: Then next, in our last message that Pastor Buddy taught us,
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  Speaker 1: the second principle for building a better future. And principle
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  Speaker 1: number two is start with what needs changing inside of me.
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  Speaker 1: You don't start with all the externals around you. You
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  Speaker 1: don't start with changing your circumstance. You start by changing
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  Speaker 1: your attitude. You start with changing inside you. And if
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  Speaker 1: you missed Buddy's message on rebuilding the city of your soul,
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  Speaker 1: I want to urge you to go back online and
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  Speaker 1: watch that message. Now, today, we're going to look at
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  Speaker 1: the third principle of building a better future. And this
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  Speaker 1: principle is found in the second chapter of Nehemiah, the
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  Speaker 1: first nine verses.
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  Speaker 2: And here's the third principle.
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  Speaker 1: After you become dissatisfied with what you've got and you
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  Speaker 1: start looking inside at you, what needs changing inside of me,
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  Speaker 1: point number three is this. You need to make a plan.
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  Speaker 1: If you're gonna build a better future, you gotta have
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  Speaker 1: a plan for your life. You have to have a
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  Speaker 1: life plan. You need to write down a simple plan
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  Speaker 1: and get started on building a better future. Now, it's
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  Speaker 1: not gonna happen without a plan. If you don't have
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  Speaker 1: a plan for a better future in your life, you're
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  Speaker 1: just gonna coast. And you can't coast into a better you.
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  Speaker 1: You can't drift into a better future. It takes intention
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  Speaker 1: and it takes planning. Now, I'm sure you've heard the
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  Speaker 1: old cliche, if you're failing to plan, you're planning to fail. Now,
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  Speaker 1: that may be a cliche, but you know what? It's
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  Speaker 1: still true. Nothing's gonna happen in your life till you
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  Speaker 1: first get dissatisfied with what you're doing, take a good
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  Speaker 1: look at what's going on inside your soul, and then
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  Speaker 1: you come up with a simple plan.
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  Speaker 2: But you know what?
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  Speaker 1: As followers of Jesus, we don't base our lives on cliches.
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  Speaker 1: We base our lives on the foundation of scripture. Everything
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  Speaker 1: we do is based on God's word. And fortunately, the
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  Speaker 1: book of Nehemiah in chapter two gives us a very
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  Speaker 1: practical model for life planning. And that's why I'm calling
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  Speaker 1: this message, making a plan to improve your life. All right,
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  Speaker 1: that's what we're gonna look at today. Making a plan
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  Speaker 1: to improve your life. It's part three in our series
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  Speaker 1: of building a better future. Now, before I show you
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  Speaker 1: Nehemiah's seven-step planning model for making a better future in
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  Speaker 1: your life, let me first answer the question, why? Why
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  Speaker 1: should I make plans? Well, there are a lot of
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  Speaker 1: biblical reasons, but let me just mention three. They're there
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  Speaker 1: on your outline. First, you need to plan your life
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  Speaker 1: because God makes plans. Because God makes plans. As Buddy
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  Speaker 1: pointed out in his message last time, Jeremiah 29, 11,
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  Speaker 1: maybe one of the most quoted Bible verses at Saddleback Church.
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  Speaker 1: We even have a song about it. Jeremiah 29, 11 says,
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  Speaker 1: I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans
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  Speaker 1: to give you a hope and a future. Now listen,
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  Speaker 1: if God makes plans and he wants us to be
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  Speaker 1: like him, then we should make plans too. Do you
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  Speaker 1: have any plans for the rest of the year? Do
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  Speaker 1: you have any plans for your next year? Do you
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  Speaker 1: have any plans for the next 10 years? You're not living.
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  Speaker 1: You're just drifting. If you don't have any plans, you're
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  Speaker 1: just existing. You're letting circumstances determine the direction of your life.
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  Speaker 1: First Corinthians 14, 33 says this, God is not a
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  Speaker 1: God of disorder. So if your life has no plans,
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  Speaker 1: if your life has no order to it, then guess what?
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  Speaker 1: Your life's out of order. And that's not the kind
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  Speaker 1: of life that God created you to live. So God
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  Speaker 1: makes plans. Number two, you ought to plan because God
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  Speaker 1: tells me to plan. All through scripture, particularly in the
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  Speaker 1: book of Proverbs, the Bible talks about the value of
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  Speaker 1: planning your life. Proverbs 4.26 says this, mark out a
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  Speaker 1: straight path for your feet.
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  Speaker 2: What's that mean? Plan it.
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  Speaker 1: Mark out a straight path for your feet. That's another
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  Speaker 1: way of saying, make a plan. It says, mark out
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  Speaker 1: a straight path for your feet and then stick to
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  Speaker 1: that path and stay safe. In the New Testament, 1
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  Speaker 1: Corinthians 14, 40 says, everything should be done in a
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  Speaker 1: fitting and orderly way. What's he saying? God doesn't want
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  Speaker 1: your life to be a life of chaos. God doesn't
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  Speaker 1: want your life to be a life of confusion, just drifting,
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  Speaker 1: muddling through life, all mixed up. He wants you to
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  Speaker 1: have a plan. God plans. He tells you to plan.
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  Speaker 1: And here's the third reason. So I don't waste my life.
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  Speaker 1: So I don't waste my life. Planning is a matter
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  Speaker 1: of stewardship. Your life is God's gift to you. What
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  Speaker 1: you do with your life is your gift back to God.
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  Speaker 1: And the Bible says this in Ephesians 5, verse 15
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  Speaker 1: to 17. I love it in the Phillips translation. Live
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  Speaker 1: life with a due sense of responsibility, not as those
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  Speaker 1: who don't know the meaning of life, but as those
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  Speaker 1: who do. Make the best use of your time. You
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  Speaker 1: can't do that without a plan. Don't be vague, but
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  Speaker 1: grasp firmly what you know to be the will of
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  Speaker 1: the Lord. You say, okay, Rick, I got it. I
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  Speaker 1: realize that if I'm going to build a better future
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  Speaker 1: coming out of COVID, I'm going to have to make
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  Speaker 1: some God inspired plans. How do you do that? Well,
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  Speaker 1: that's what this message is about today. You just copy
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  Speaker 1: what Nehemiah did in chapter two, the seven steps when
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  Speaker 1: Nehemiah got a burden, when he got a vision, when
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  Speaker 1: he set up a plan, he did seven things.
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  Speaker 2: In his plan.
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  Speaker 1: It's found in Nehemiah chapter one, verse 11 to chapter two,
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  Speaker 1: verse nine. Now, again, background, Nehemiah desperately wanted to return
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  Speaker 1: to his home, the land of Israel. and rebuild the
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  Speaker 1: city of Jerusalem and the walls of Jerusalem. But he
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  Speaker 1: has a very important and actually a very comfortable, cushy
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  Speaker 1: job in Persia, serving in the royal court.
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  Speaker 2: Of a king called Artaxerxes.
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  Speaker 1: And he couldn't just offhandedly suggest to the king, just
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  Speaker 1: let him go without a plan. So he comes up
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  Speaker 1: with a plan and he gives us a model of
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  Speaker 1: seven steps that you need for life planning in your life.
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  Speaker 1: I want you to practice these seven steps this week
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  Speaker 1: as you think about building a better future for your
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  Speaker 1: life after COVID, after the COVID captivity this last year.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, you ready for the steps?
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  Speaker 1: All right, this is gonna be a very practical message.
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  Speaker 1: All right, here's step one in developing a life plan.
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  Speaker 1: Step one, pray and ask for God's favor. Pray and
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  Speaker 1: ask for God's favor on your life. God's favor is
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  Speaker 1: God's grace. This is the first thing that Nehemiah does
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  Speaker 1: in his life plan. Nehemiah chapter one, verse 11, he
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  Speaker 1: says this. He prays, oh Lord, please hear my prayer.
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  Speaker 1: and listen to the prayers of all your servants who
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  Speaker 1: love to honor you. That's all of us. Give your
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  Speaker 1: servant success today. Is it okay to pray for success?
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  Speaker 1: Nehemiah did. Give your servant success today by granting him
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  Speaker 1: favor in the king's presence. And he says, I prayed
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  Speaker 1: this prayer. He says, in those days, I was the
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  Speaker 1: king's wine steward. Now that probably wasn't a very stressful job.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, you're just serving the king wine, okay? Now
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  Speaker 1: you may be thinking, I have no idea what I
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  Speaker 1: should be doing with my future. I have no idea
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  Speaker 1: what I should be doing in the next six months.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know what to do with my life. So
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  Speaker 1: I don't have any idea what to pray about.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know what?
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  Speaker 1: You can pray about that. You can pray that you
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  Speaker 1: don't know what you should be doing. James chapter one,
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  Speaker 1: verse five says this. If you wanna know what God
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  Speaker 1: wants you to do, just ask him and he'll gladly
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  Speaker 1: tell you. For he's always ready to give a generous
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  Speaker 1: supply of wisdom to all who ask. So you go,
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  Speaker 1: I don't even know what my vision, what my dream,
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  Speaker 1: what my goal, what my target, what my plan is.
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  Speaker 1: Start saying, God, I don't have a plan. What's your
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  Speaker 1: plan for my life? Once you start asking God for
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  Speaker 1: wisdom and direction, you know what? He's gonna put eventually
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  Speaker 1: an idea in your mind or a burden in your heart.
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  Speaker 1: You're gonna look around and you're gonna see something that
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  Speaker 1: needs changing. When Nehemiah started praying, God gave him a dream,
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  Speaker 1: gave him a vision, gave him a burden of seeing
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  Speaker 1: his hometown rebuilt and restored. So let me ask you,
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  Speaker 1: what needs to be rebuilt in your life? What needs
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  Speaker 1: to be restored in your life, in your family, in
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  Speaker 1: your job, around you, in your nation, in your city,
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  Speaker 1: in your community? What do you see out there in
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  Speaker 1: the world that needs to be changed? Let God give
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  Speaker 1: you that burden and keep praying and keep talking about
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  Speaker 1: other mature believers about it.
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  Speaker 2: And you know what?
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  Speaker 1: Eventually, God is gonna put something in your heart. That's
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  Speaker 1: the first step in life planning. Get a burden for
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  Speaker 1: something God wants to do in your life or through
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  Speaker 1: your life in the world.
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  Speaker 2: Now, here's the next step. Ready? Step two.
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  Speaker 1: Once you start praying and you ask God for his
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  Speaker 1: favor in your life and show me what you want
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  Speaker 1: to do. Step two is this. Prepare for an opportunity
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  Speaker 1: and then wait. Okay, whatever you say, you know, I
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  Speaker 1: think God wants me to do something about this problem
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  Speaker 1: in society or God wants me to do about this
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  Speaker 1: problem in my company or in my home or in
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  Speaker 1: my community or in my church. You start preparing for
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  Speaker 1: an opportunity to do something and then you wait. You
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  Speaker 1: don't just sit around waiting for God to do something.
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  Speaker 1: You start preparing for that opportunity. Now the Bible says
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  Speaker 1: in Nehemiah chapter two, verse one, four months later, this
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  Speaker 1: is after he'd prayed this prayer. Four months later, when
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  Speaker 1: King Artaxerxes was dining, I took the wine to him.
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  Speaker 1: Now notice, when you start praying for a vision, for
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  Speaker 1: a dream, for a goal, for a plan, it doesn't
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  Speaker 1: come instantly. God is not a vending machine. He's waiting
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  Speaker 1: to see if you're serious. And he says, four months later,
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  Speaker 1: all of a sudden I get the opportunity.
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  Speaker 2: What was he doing during those four months?
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  Speaker 1: Preparing for the opportunity to ask the king, could he
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  Speaker 1: go do what God had called him to do? Now,
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  Speaker 1: Nehemiah had gotten this burden four months earlier. And for
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  Speaker 1: four months, he's been waiting for something to happen. And
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  Speaker 1: now something happens. What had been happening between that time
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  Speaker 1: when Noah, I mean, Nehemiah got his first idea about
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  Speaker 1: rebuilding the wall and rebuilding Jerusalem. And when he actually
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  Speaker 1: gets the opportunity to present his idea to the king,
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  Speaker 1: what he'd been doing? He'd been praying, but he also
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  Speaker 1: had been planning. And he had also been preparing. Now
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  Speaker 1: we know that by the way he responded to the
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  Speaker 1: king when the king said.
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  Speaker 2: What do you want me to do?
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  Speaker 1: Nehemiah knew exactly what to ask for because he had
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  Speaker 1: been preparing for the opportunity.
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  Speaker 2: He'd been thinking about it.
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  Speaker 1: Howard Hendricks once said, nothing's more profitable than serious thinking
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  Speaker 1: and nothing is more demanding. If you're gonna be a
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  Speaker 1: leader in this world, you need time to think, you
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  Speaker 1: need think time, you need time to get away. Leaders
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  Speaker 1: make time for think time. That's a law of leadership.
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  Speaker 1: Proverbs 13, 16 says this, a wise man thinks ahead.
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  Speaker 1: Are you doing that? Are you thinking about the next
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  Speaker 1: six months? Are you thinking about the next year of
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  Speaker 1: your life? You thinking about the next five or 10
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  Speaker 1: years of your life? A wise man thinks ahead, a
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  Speaker 1: fool doesn't, it even brags about it. See, it's wise
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  Speaker 1: to spend time thinking about your life. And what do
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  Speaker 1: I think about? Well, ask yourself some questions. Like, where
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  Speaker 1: am I now? Where do I wanna be? How will
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  Speaker 1: I get there? That's what Nehemiah did. He's thinking it through.
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  Speaker 1: He's praying for four months, but he's also planning and
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  Speaker 1: preparing for an opportunity to present his plan to the king.
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  Speaker 1: What happens when you pray and plan? God gives you
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  Speaker 1: a vision. But during this time, you're also preparing. And
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  Speaker 1: when opportunity knocks, you'll be ready to open the door.
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  Speaker 1: You see, all of life's full of opportunities. There are
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  Speaker 1: opportunities all around you. You're just overlooking them. You are
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  Speaker 1: not seeing the opportunities that are all around you.
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  Speaker 2: Why? You're not praying. You're not preparing. You're not planning.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of times we're just not ready for the
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  Speaker 1: opportunities and they pass us by and then they're gone.
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  Speaker 2: So pray, all right?
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  Speaker 1: Start preparing for the opportunity and then wait for the
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  Speaker 1: opportunity to come. God will provide it at the right time.
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  Speaker 2: Step three.
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  Speaker 1: Expect fear, but don't let it stop me. This is
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  Speaker 1: the third thing we see in Nehemiah's plan. Expect fear,
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  Speaker 1: but don't let it stop me. Nehemiah says, you know,
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  Speaker 1: after four months, I get the opportunity to serve some
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  Speaker 1: wine to King Artaxerxes. And in verse one and two
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  Speaker 1: of Nehemiah two, it says, when King Artaxerxes was dining,
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  Speaker 1: I took the.
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  Speaker 2: Wine to him.
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  Speaker 1: Now he had never seen me look so sad before.
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  Speaker 1: So he asked, why are you so sad? Your heart
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  Speaker 1: must be troubled. And Nehemiah says, that made me very afraid. Now,
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  Speaker 1: this is the moment Nehemiah is waiting for. He's been
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  Speaker 1: praying for an opportunity to present his idea of the king.
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  Speaker 1: He's got an opportunity now to state his case because
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  Speaker 1: he's been planning, he's been preparing, he's ready for the answer.
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  Speaker 1: But notice he has a sad face. He has a
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  Speaker 1: burden he can't hide. He goes, I want to do this,
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  Speaker 1: but it's not opening up. I'm not getting the opportunity.
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  Speaker 1: He had a burden he couldn't hide. He's getting a
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  Speaker 1: little discouraged by now.
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  Speaker 2: It's been four months. God, aren't you gonna do anything
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  Speaker 2: about this wall?
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  Speaker 1: I've been praying for the opportunity to go home and
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  Speaker 1: help restore and rebuild my city. Finally, the king says,
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  Speaker 1: what's wrong, Nehemiah? And notice it says, Nehemiah says, I
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  Speaker 1: was afraid. He's literally scared to death.
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  Speaker 2: Why?
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  Speaker 1: Because in those days, listen, it was a capital crime
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  Speaker 1: to be sad before the king. Kings were very fickle
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  Speaker 1: in those days. They didn't want any downers around them.
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  Speaker 1: They didn't want anybody raining on their parade. If you
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  Speaker 1: frowned in the presence of the king, you could get
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  Speaker 1: your head cut off. If you were depressed in the
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  Speaker 1: presence of the king, that was it. Notice it says,
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  Speaker 1: this is the first time I had ever appeared sad.
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  Speaker 1: He'd always been upbeat around his boss. It's a real
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  Speaker 1: gamble to show his true emotions. Not only that, Nehemiah
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  Speaker 1: is going to ask permission for a leave of absence. Now,
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  Speaker 1: in those days, if a king doesn't like your request,
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  Speaker 1: it means he doesn't like you. So no wonder Nehemiah
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  Speaker 1: is frightened. And on top of that, he's going to
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  Speaker 1: ask permission to go rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. And
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  Speaker 1: the king himself had said the walls could not be rebuilt.
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  Speaker 1: He'd said that earlier. So he's standing before a king
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: who has the power of life and death. He's got
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: a reason to be afraid. Here's the principle. If you're
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: going to be used by God, you're going to have
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: to move ahead in spite of your fear. All right.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: Leaders move ahead in spite of it.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: There's a myth that people who are walking with the
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Lord are never afraid.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: That's nonsense.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: I've said many times that every major decision in Saddleback's
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: 42-year history that I had to make, I was scared
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: to death to do it. I just did it anyway
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: because I was not going to let fear dominate me.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: We're going to do the right thing. Never let fear
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: stop you. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: is moving ahead in spite of your fear. If you're
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: not afraid, you don't need courage. You only have courage
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: when you're scared to death and you do it anyway.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Now notice what Nehemiah did with his fears. He did
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: two things. And when you start going after your plan
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: that God gives you, it's going to be so big,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: it'll scare you to death. And so what do you
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: do with your fear? Number one, first, he admitted his feelings.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: Verse three, He says, I was scared. He's admitting, I
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: was scared. I was scared to death because I could
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: lose my head making this request to the king. I
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: could lose my head just being sad around the king.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: But he says, I replied. And here's what he replied.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Long live the king. Good idea, Nehemiah. Start with a compliment. God,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: long live the king. Then he says, why shouldn't I
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: be sad for the city where my ancestors are buried?
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: lies in ruins and all its gates have been burned down.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Why should my face not look sad? The cities where
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: my fathers are buried lies in ruins. The gates have
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: been destroyed by fire. He chooses his words very carefully. First,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: he assures the king of his loyalty. May the king
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: live forever. Remember, this guy is also a bodyguard because
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: he's like testing the wine so he can't get poisoned.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: If he's sad, maybe he also knows some assassination plot.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: The king's asking, why is my number one guy upset?
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: So he admits his feelings. You're never going to get
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: anywhere if you stuff your feelings. You got to admit
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: what you're feeling. If you're discouraged, admit it. If you're sad,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: admit it. If you're grieving, admit it. That's how you grow.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: But the second thing he did is he prayed quickly
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: before speaking. Now, this is the second time he prays.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: There are actually 11 prayers in the book of Nehemiah.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: And here's the second one. He prays before he meets
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: the king, said, God, give me this opportunity to present
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: my plan. And then when the king says, hey, what's
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: the problem with you? He stops and he prays what
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: I call a lightning prayer.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Where it's really one word, help. Help me, Lord.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Nehemiah 4.2, he says, the king replied to me, well,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: what is it you want? And it says, then I
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: prayed again to the God of heaven. Sometimes a prayer
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: can just be one word, help. And the king says,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: what do you want?
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: You're obviously upset.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: And Nehemiah again, prays the second time. Now, this isn't
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: the four months of prayer he's already done. This is
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: the quick prayer. It's the silent, quick, on the spot prayer.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: I got the opportunity. God, give me the wisdom. Help
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: me to know what to do. Help me know what
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: to say right now. It's interesting that Nehemiah appeals to
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: the Eastern respect for ancestors. He says, my father's graves
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: are in ruin because Eastern guys were in to take
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: care of their ancestors' graves. And the king's response was,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: what do you want? And that leads us to step
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: four in establishing peace. a life plan. Step four is this,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: establish a clear target. That's the next verse, verse five.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Nehemiah 2.5, you establish a clear target. Nehemiah 2.5 says,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: after praying, I answered, if it pleases your majesty, and
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: if your servant has found favor in your sight, then
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: send me to the city in Judah, that's Jerusalem, where
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: my ancestors are buried, so that I can rebuild it.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: Now notice, Nehemiah gets very specific here. He wants to
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: establish a goal. He wants to rebuild the wall. He says,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: I want you to send me to my hometown. And
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: he's very specific. I wanna rebuild the wall. I wanna
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: rebuild the city. This is the next step in life planning.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: You set a goal. You gotta have a target. You've
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: all heard, if you aim at nothing, you're gonna hit it.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: So you ask yourself some simple questions. In the next year,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: what do I want to be? In the next year,
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: what do I want to do? In the next year,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: what do I want to have? In the rest of
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: my life, what do I want to be? What do
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: I want to do? What do I want to have?
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: These are questions you have to ask in establishing a goal. Now,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: let me tell you something. I've done a lot of
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: goal setting in my life, and there are two common
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: errors that people make in goal setting. We set them
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: too low, and we try to accomplish them too quickly.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Most people set little teeny tiny goals and then try
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: to do them immediately. I wanna challenge you to set
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: a big goal, so big you're bound to fail unless
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: God bails you out, but spend the rest of your
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: life going after it. That's what I did with Saddleback.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: You know, inch by inch, anything's a cinch. How do
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. You
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: set big goals. You make big plans so big that
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: God has to bail you out. You let the size
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: of your God determine the size of your goal. You see,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: God loves big planning. Why? It honors him. It honors
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: God to be a big planner. It's what you're expecting
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: God to do. And it's saying, God, I'm trusting you
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: to help me to do this. This is what I
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: want God to do in my life. So Nehemiah says, okay,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what I want. I want to go
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: rebuild a wall around the whole city of my hometown.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: Had he ever built a wall?
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: No. Was he a builder? No. He's a wine.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Steward and he's going to go home and do a
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: rebuilding project for an entire city. He never built anything.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: He's a cup bearer, but he has a big goal.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: As I said, we set our goals too low and
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: we try to accomplish them too quickly. So your first
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: is to get the prayer behind you. then you think
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: it through and you prepare for the opportunity so that
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: when God opens up the opportunity, you're ready for it.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: And then when it's there, you're ready to say what
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: you need. You know, people say, well, you know, that
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: guy has all the luck. He gets all the breaks.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: You know what I've found? The more I plan and
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: the more I prepare, the luckier I get. Okay, it's
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: not about luck. It's about preparation. The opportunities are always
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: there all around you. You just have to be ready
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: for them. You got to see them. How will you
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: see them? by praying, by preparing, by waiting. And then
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: you establish a goal. And then you come to the
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: next step. Step five in life planning is this, set
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: a deadline. Set a deadline. Nehemiah 2.6, then the king
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: with the queen sitting beside him, why Nehemiah mentions that,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: I don't know, but maybe it's because she had a
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: little impact or a little input on her husband. The
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: king with the queen sitting beside him asked, How long
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: will your work take? And when will you get back?
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: This is a legitimate question. Yeah, I'm gonna loan my
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: top guy to go to a project. Now, the king
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: was willing to send me, Nehemiah says, so, underline this,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: circle it, I set a time. That's the next step.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Step five is set a deadline. A goal has to
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: have a deadline. If your goal doesn't have a deadline,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: it's not a goal. This is the scheduling part of
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: life planning. You know what you want to do, and
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: then you know when you want to do it. You
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: schedule it. You put it in your calendar, and you
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: ask the question, how long is it going to take?
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: Probably longer than you think. You know, Nehemiah 5.14, Nehemiah actually,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: it tells us, he actually came back to the Persian
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Empire 12 years later because he was popular with this king.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: King didn't want him to leave. And so the king says,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: how long are you gonna be gone? You know, it
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: showed that the king really did like Nehemiah. But why
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: did Nehemiah throw in the queen is sitting beside him?
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: My guess is she had an influence over the king's receptivity.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Probably Nehemiah and the queen were pretty good friends and
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: he's the king right-hand man and she's sitting there and
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: he's pouring the wine and everybody's happy. And Nehemiah says,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: you know, I'd really like to go back home and
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: rebuild the wall around my hometown where my father's graves are.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: And probably the queen said to her husband.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: Honey, let him go, let him go.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: And maybe Nehemiah timed it this way, but God had
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: a time in it and you have to have timing.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Nehemiah establishes a deadline.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: He puts it on his calendar.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Remember this, a dream without a deadline is just an
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: empty wish. A dream without a deadline is just.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: An empty wish. It won't go anywhere.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Now here's the sixth step in life planning. anticipate the
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: barriers that I'll face. Anticipate the barriers that I'll face.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: Nehemiah 2, 7 and 8, he says, then I asked
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: the king to give me, listen to this, because he's
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: already thought through what the barriers are gonna be. Nehemiah says,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: then I asked the king to give me letters for
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: the governors of all the territories west of the Euphrates River.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: That's stuff he's gonna have to travel through to get
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: back to Israel. Give me letters of passage for the
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: governors of the territories west of the Euphrates River, giving
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: me safe travel to Judah. He says, I also asked
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: for a letter to the keeper of the king's royal forest.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Get this, instructing him to supply me with the timber
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: that I would need to rebuild the gates of the
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: city and the city walls. And by the way, for
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: a house for me to live in. Now, he's already
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: asked permission to go. Now he's asking for protection, and
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: then he's asking for provision. He says, you know, if
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: it pleases the king, give me these letters to these
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: governors so I can have safe travel. It's about 800
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: to 1,000 miles journey between Iraq and Israel, and he's
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: got to go through a lot of provinces. You didn't
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: travel freely in those days. You had to go through
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: proper procedures. You had to show your papers. And he goes,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: please give me the letters of authority so I'll have
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: clear sailing so when I get over there, there's no problem.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: I just need the traveling permits. So he's already thought
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: through what he's gonna need. He's asked for permission. Now
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: he's asking for protection. This implied that he thought it out.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: Remember, he's asked, he's just been put on the spot.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: What do you want? Well, he had already thought it through.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: If somebody asked you right now, what do you want
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: in the next year of your life? Have you already
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: thought it through? Or would you go, I.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: Don't know, but I don't know what I want.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: It's a clear example of planning. He's not just praying.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: He's not just preparing during those four months. He's planning
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: for the opportunity so he knows to say what he needs.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: So the questions you want to ask yourself in your
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: own planning is when you're anticipating problems, ask some stuff
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: like this. What could hold me back? What could hold
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: me back? You're planning some goal, some project, some dream.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Ask yourself, why don't I have it already?
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: What could hold me back? What are the problems, the
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: potential problems? What are the barriers? What could go wrong?
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: If anything could.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Go wrong, it probably will. Nehemiah again is thinking ahead
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: in his life plan. He's already thought through what he wants.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: He's already thought ahead about where he wants to go.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Now he's anticipating the problems. Part of the planning process
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: of your life is to anticipate problems in advance. I
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: have to do this all the time as a leader
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: saddleback to see the problems before they actually get there
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: and plan for them in advance. Proverbs 27 verse two
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: says this, a sensible man looks for the problems ahead
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: and prepares to meet them. These are all important steps.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: You might wanna listen to this message again a second time.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: You see, another part of anticipating the barriers is to
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: calculate the cost in advance because there's always a price
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: tag for every dream and for every goal. Nehemiah actually
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: gives the king, he's asked for permission to go. Then
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: he's asked for protection. Now he gives the king a
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: shopping list. He says, I want you to let me
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: go and I want you to give me protection. And
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: by the way, I want you to pay for it too.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: And notice what he asked for. He asked for the
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: lumber price. He says, I need you to give me
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: a letter to the head of all your royal lumber
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: to give me what I need to build the beams
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: for the city gates. Okay, I thought that out. Then
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: he says, and I'm going to need lumber for the
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: city walls. That's second thing. He said, oh, by the way,
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: I'm going to need lumber for my own house. Now,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: is Nehemiah a contractor? No, he's never built anything. He's
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: never built anything in his life. He's a cupbearer. Yet
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: when he has the opportunity, he rattles off exactly what's needed.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Why?
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: He has a plan. Now, how did Nehemiah know what
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: to ask for? Well, evidently calculated the cost. How in
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: the world did he know there was a royal forest
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: near Jerusalem? Evidently he had to do advanced planning. So
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: this whole chapter indicates he knows what he's doing when
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: he gets into the situation. He even knows the name
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: of the foreman. He's already figured it out way in
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: advance so that when the opportunity arouse, he's prepared for
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: the opportunity.
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: Now, what am I saying through about all this, this step?
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: It took a lot of faith because Nehemiah has taken
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: an enormous risk. Just look what he's asking for. He's
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: asking a pagan king to let him do something the
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: king had already said will never be done, build walls
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: around Jerusalem. He asked for permission to go build a wall.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: If he doesn't like your request, it's off with your head.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: He's scared to death. And you know, if most of
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: us had gotten the okay right there, we probably would
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: have breathed a sigh of relief and beat a hasty retreat.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: We wouldn't have even dared to ask for anything else.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: But Nehemiah just keeps asking the king. And he even says,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: I want you to pay for it all. So as
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: I said, he asked for permission, then protection, then provision.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: I want you to pay for it all. You know,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: some people schedule their plan And they think of their plan,
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: but forget to budget for it. Jesus pointed this out.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Look at this verse on your outline. Luke 14, 27, 28.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: Jesus said, you will never be my disciple if you're
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: not willing to carry your cross and follow me. So don't,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: look at this, don't begin until you count the cost.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Who would begin building without first figuring the cost and
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: seeing if they had enough money to complete it all?
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: All right, so there's a budgeting part to your life plan.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Not thinking through what energy it's gonna take, what connections
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: it's gonna take, what money is it gonna take. Now,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: there's a sub point here that I want you to understand.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: Leaders and people that are used by God are willing
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: to ask others for assistance. You're never gonna be fully
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: used by God until you learn how to ask other
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: people for help because nobody can do what God calls
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: them to do on their own. James 4, 2 says
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: you don't have because you don't ask. How many people
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: have you said no to for many times? And well,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: she really wouldn't want to do this. You said no
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: on their behalf. Well, nobody would want to help me
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: with this. You don't know that. You don't know what
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: people will say. Don't ever say no for other people.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: Let people say no for themselves. Now, again, that takes faith.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: It takes incredible boldness to do what Nehemiah does. He
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: asks a pagan king who has death and life in
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: the power of his hand.
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: It's risky business, but because he's.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: Prayed and he's planned, he's prepared, he's ready, then he's
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: strong enough that even though he's standing there with his
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: knees shaken to death, he keeps pushing it. Now, the
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: wisest risks, listen to me, are those that are taken
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: after prayer and planning. to take a risk before prayer,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: before planning is presumptuous. Proverbs 21 verse one, it's not
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: on your outline, says this, the king's heart is in
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: the hand of the Lord and he directs it like
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: water course wherever he pleases. If God wants to move
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: somebody in any direction, he can. And here's a clear example,
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: that proverb where God took a pagan king and moved
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: his heart all around. The point is God's a specialist
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: in changing hearts. Now listen, Some of you have dreams
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: in your life that you want to get done. You've
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: dreamed about it in your business, but you're not the
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: CEO of your company.
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: Maybe you're in middle management.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: And I want to say to you, the heart of
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: the executive is in the hand of the Lord, and
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: he can turn it whichever way he wishes. The company's
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: president is in the hand of the Lord.
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: You need to remember that. God is in the business
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: of changing hearts. It's up to him. He's sovereign.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so don't tell me that other people won't let
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  Speaker 1: you do what God has called you to do. Just
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  Speaker 1: start believing and trusting and watch what happens. Now, let
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  Speaker 1: me ask you, do you really wanna grow spiritually? You know,
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  Speaker 1: the very fact that you're here listening to this message
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  Speaker 1: means you wanna grow. What plans have you made for
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  Speaker 1: that in the next year? You know, we plan everything
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  Speaker 1: else in our life. Why don't we plan our spiritual growth?
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  Speaker 1: Do you have a plan to read through the Bible?
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  Speaker 1: Do you have a plan to set aside a certain
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  Speaker 1: time every day for prayer? Do you have a plan
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  Speaker 1: to talk to that person at work about the Lord?
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  Speaker 1: Do you have a plan to invite him over for
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  Speaker 1: dinner to your house to get to know him and
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  Speaker 1: then invite him to church? Have you planned it or
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  Speaker 1: are you just letting it, hoping it'll happen someday? Very
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  Speaker 1: few things happen spontaneously, you.
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  Speaker 2: Need a plan.
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  Speaker 1: A plan for Bible reading, a plan for witnessing, a
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  Speaker 1: plan for prayer, a plan for all the things that
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  Speaker 1: are important in your life. And the plans you have
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  Speaker 1: that you just think up and then ask God to bless,
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  Speaker 1: that's not what we're talking about. What we're talking about
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  Speaker 1: is saying, God, not help me to not do what
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  Speaker 1: I'm blessing, bless what I'm doing. Instead, you pray, God,
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  Speaker 1: help me to do what's your blessing. What's your plan?
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  Speaker 1: If you're getting your plans from the Lord, they'll be
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  Speaker 1: big enough for him to fit in. That's how you
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  Speaker 1: know they're from God. Now, let me point out here.
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  Speaker 1: Nehemiah didn't try to manipulate the king. When the king asked,
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  Speaker 1: what's wrong? He was totally honest. My home's in shambles,
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  Speaker 1: my hometown. He didn't make up some phony story. He
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  Speaker 1: didn't make up a story about going back to Jerusalem
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  Speaker 1: under false pretenses. He didn't manipulate the king. He didn't
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  Speaker 1: trick him. He didn't play games with him. He didn't
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  Speaker 1: use any deceit. He just, he had already talked to
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  Speaker 1: God about it. When you have a boss who's unsympathetic
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  Speaker 1: to a project or a goal that you wanna do,
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  Speaker 1: don't manipulate them.
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  Speaker 2: Don't play games with them. Just talk to God about them.
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  Speaker 1: You don't have to know the key men in life
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  Speaker 1: if you know the man who.
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  Speaker 2: Holds the keys.
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  Speaker 1: Because the heart of the king is in the hand
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  Speaker 1: of the Lord and he can turn it any way. Now,
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  Speaker 1: when you try to change somebody, that's manipulation. Let God
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  Speaker 1: change the heart. And that leaves us to the last step.
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  Speaker 1: And the last step, number seven, is this. Trust God
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  Speaker 1: to meet all my needs. When you're writing out this
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  Speaker 1: life plan, trust God to meet all the needs. You think,
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  Speaker 1: I don't have that. How could I ever do this plan?
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  Speaker 1: I don't have what I need. Nehemiah 2, 7 and
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  Speaker 1: 8 says this. Nehemiah says, because God's gracious favor was
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  Speaker 1: on me, the king gave me everything I asked for.
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  Speaker 2: Notice he gives God the credit.
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  Speaker 1: And Nehemiah gives God all the credit.
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  Speaker 2: And remember, this is autobiographical.
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  Speaker 1: This part we're looking at in the series on Nehemiah
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  Speaker 1: is not in the first person, but it does talk
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  Speaker 1: about Nehemiah. And it does say, Nehemiah doesn't say, look
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  Speaker 1: at what my planning did. What he says is, look
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  Speaker 1: at what God did. God was behind it all. He
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  Speaker 1: knew that it wasn't his cleverness. A mark of spiritual
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  Speaker 1: maturity is when you recognize that God's hand is behind
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  Speaker 1: the people who are helping you or may be delaying
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  Speaker 1: the project.
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  Speaker 2: God was with me, he says.
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  Speaker 1: If Nehemiah hadn't prayed and hadn't planned setting this thing up,
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  Speaker 1: nothing would have happened. Now, let me close with a
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  Speaker 1: couple of reminders as we've been talking about planning your
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  Speaker 1: life for building a better future. Two things you need
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  Speaker 1: to keep in mind. Proverbs 16 verse one says this,
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  Speaker 1: we may make our plans, but God has the last word.
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  Speaker 2: Have I ever had plans that didn't turn out the
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  Speaker 2: way I planned? Yeah, over and over and over. Why?
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  Speaker 2: Because I missed it.
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  Speaker 1: We're human beings. We don't always get the right plan.
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  Speaker 1: Your plan isn't infallible. My plan isn't infallible. We can
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  Speaker 1: make our plans and God tells us to make our plans,
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  Speaker 1: but God has the last word. And so if my
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  Speaker 1: plan doesn't happen in my time or in my way,
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  Speaker 1: I just go, God, I trust your plan better than mine.
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  Speaker 1: And James chapter four, verse 15 says this, that when
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  Speaker 1: you plan, you ought to always say, if it's the
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  Speaker 1: Lord's will. James 4, 15, what you ought to say is,
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  Speaker 1: if it is the Lord's will, we will live long
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  Speaker 1: enough to do this or that. That's godly goal setting. Now,
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  Speaker 1: let me just close by applying this to your personal life.
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  Speaker 1: What would you like God to do in your life?
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  Speaker 1: In the next six months, in the next year, in
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  Speaker 1: the next five years, what would you like to change?
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  Speaker 1: What do you want to be better at? in your future.
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  Speaker 1: We're talking about building a better future. It all starts
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  Speaker 1: with these seven principles. When God finds a person willing
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  Speaker 1: to do it his way, in his timing, based on
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: his power, he will always provide the resources. I have
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  Speaker 1: found that to be true in my life for 50 years. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the summary of this chapter is, is a beautiful example
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  Speaker 1: of the harmony that takes place between God's part and
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  Speaker 1: my part in accomplishing what God wants done on earth.
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  Speaker 1: God's part is the sovereignty part. And I'm trusting him
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  Speaker 1: in the timing and the location and the resources and
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  Speaker 1: all those things that are out of my control. My
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  Speaker 1: part is in the praying and in the planning and
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  Speaker 1: doing what I can control. You see, we pray for
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  Speaker 1: God to set up circumstances that are out of our control,
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  Speaker 1: but then we plan for all the things that are
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  Speaker 1: under our control. God has a part and you have
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  Speaker 1: a part in building a better future in your life.
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  Speaker 1: God won't do what he's given you the brains to do.
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  Speaker 1: And you can't do what only God will do. Now,
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  Speaker 1: if you've never opened your life to Jesus Christ, you
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  Speaker 1: need his power and presence in your life first.
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  Speaker 2: So let's just close with the prayer.
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  Speaker 1: And if you've never opened your life to Jesus Christ
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  Speaker 1: and had the power and the presence of God come
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  Speaker 1: into your life, follow me in this prayer. Let's bow
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  Speaker 1: our heads, say, dear Jesus Christ, I know you put
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  Speaker 1: me on this planet for a purpose and I wanna
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  Speaker 1: fulfill your purpose for my life. I want the life
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  Speaker 1: plan that you have planned for me. So I'm first
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  Speaker 1: of all asking you to come into my life. I
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  Speaker 1: wanna have a relationship with you. Just say that, I
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  Speaker 1: wanna have a relationship with you. I wanna get to
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  Speaker 1: know you and learn to trust you. And I ask
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  Speaker 1: you to guide me and I ask you to give
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  Speaker 1: me wisdom in building a better future. I surrender myself
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  Speaker 1: to your purpose for my life. In your name I pray, amen.