Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / May 24th, 2015 | Route 66 - Nehemiah

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May 24th, 2015 | Route 66 - Nehemiah · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: How are you?
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Both of you are good.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Two of you are good.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's good to see you this morning.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Topeka Bible Church.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: We're in a series called Route 66 because there are 66 books in the Bible.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: We're taking a journey through the Bible.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we're on the 16th book this morning.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: My title is Do Something Great in Life.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's the month of graduations and weddings.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And those are both big turning points and achievement points in life.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Was at a commencement graduation in this room yesterday, and it was extremely meaningful.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, wow, congratulations to those parents who've done something great, getting their kids, you know, this far in life.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And congratulations to a school that accomplishes all that and graduates students.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then last, yesterday after the evening, I was at the wedding of the Holder's son Matt.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: The Holders happened to be here in this service.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: It was an adventure.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: I've done a lot of weddings in my life.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Probably less than 200, but that's a lot of weddings still.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And never, well, I've done weddings in the rain, and they're very romantic, and they're considered lucky in many places in the world, fertility and all that.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: But to try to make that decision as the rain's trying to decide whether or not to fall, and then to dash into a tin at the last minute.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: It was just awesome.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought yesterday, as I looked at Matt and Ashley and everybody else, this is a great event in life.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And here are parents who've accomplished something great, and here are young people who really want to do something great in life.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: They want to establish a great marriage.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: They're excited about having children.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I was praying for them about that.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to talk about that this morning.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about doing something great in life because I believe that you, like I, really want to do something great in life.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And even if uh you're retired, I my heart ached when someone came up to me early this morning and said, Um, I retired, Jim, six months ago, and I just feel like I have no purpose in life.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And and I know that that's often typical.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, dear retired person, if you're here.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: You can still do something great in life.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: I want to challenge you with the book of Nehemiah.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Open your Bible, uh, flip it right open in the middle.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's the book of Psalms, and then go about a block left, and uh you'll get to the 13 chapters of Nehemiah.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: One of the three smallest people in the Bible.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: You're not.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, Dennis.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know who the other two are?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Neehai, Maya.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: He's short, but even smaller would be Bildad, the shoe height, right?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the smallest of all is the wicked flea.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Boy, you guys are slow.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: They're roaring, they are roaring over in the cab building right now.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: They're just, they're just they're off their chairs holding their sides, and here you guys are.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, Niha Maya, and he actually is not short, and he's really cool.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to talk to you about how you and I can light up our world and how we can do something great in life.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And if you'll flip over uh your study sheet, look at the front side on your own sometime.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: I have to get into this because there's a lot here.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um it seems to me as I look at Nehemiah, and I've read lots of success books as well in my life, for I once was in sales and a sales manager, it seems to me that it collapses into three main ideas: vision, action, and faith.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Vision and action happen to be big in all of the success and business books, faith is not, but it's one of the three key elements in the book of Nehemiah.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: So let's I want to talk to you about these three and how with vision, action, and faith, you can do something great in life.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the first uh category here is vision.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you're gonna ever do something great in life, you have to have vision.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And we're all for vision.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: The question is, what is it?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't like a lot of the definitions because some of them are so demanding, I feel like I'll never have vision in my life.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then some of them are, in my view, just cheesy or silly, such as the popular one.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Vision is not seeing things as they are, but seeing things as they should be.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I that's not only cheesy, but I think it's silly.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because, I mean, if you don't see things as they are, your vision's gonna be blocked from the start.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: All right?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be confused.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I I'm well aware that you could say that the world can be divided into two categories, and that is the uh the wishful thinkers who throw coins into fountains and the realists who fish them out.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh when we were little, my brother and I, my father actually would encourage us to wait until the fair was gates were closing and everybody left, and then fish out the pennies.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that's me and my brother right there.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not really, but um not really.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: But vision does start with seeing things as they actually are.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna find that Nehemiah saw things as they actually are.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not really good at this.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I I this is this is a difficult thing for me, and I recognize that.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: My Melody used to love, still does, loves to surprise me with little home makeovers when I'm gone during the day or on a trip.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and then to laugh to see how many hours, days, months, years it takes me to notice that the and one of the funniest was some years ago, she wallpapered the kitchen, changed it from really dark to pastel wallpaper during the day.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I came home and I walked in and I sat down at the supper table, and it was nearly done with the meal, and she's waiting and waiting and waiting, and age-year-old little girl's just on wondering too, she's going crazy.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, I look around and say, Did you get new light bulbs in here?
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I I tend not to be real observant, but but if you're ever going to accomplish something great in life, you're gonna have to start with seeing the problem.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to start with seeing things that are, you're gonna have to start with seeing that over there over there is a shut-in and nobody's visiting her.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: She's a widow and has no family.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Or over there is a prison and and there are people that need to get over there.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Or there's there's an orphanage that's about to shut down, you know, in Haiti.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Or there's a trash dump uh down in Honduras or Dominican Republic or the Philippines, and you have thousands of children in these places, just spending all of their lives.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Or they're over in High Crest, you know, here in Topeka, that you have that you have a uh breeding ground for future criminals because you have broken families and and all kinds of other stuff.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: You have to see needs and you have to see things as they are.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I I I like the the the he's now passed away, wonderful godly man, Alan Redpath, the Britisher, who who starts his little book, Let Us Learn from Nehemiah.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: You're never used of God to bring blessing until God has opened your eyes and made you see things as they are.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: So vision is, I think, I would redefine it as seeing things as they are and seeing them as they should be.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Vision is seeing things as they are and seeing them as they should be.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and and then deciding, you know, I I can I see that need and I feel that need, and I'm gonna do something about that need.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna find that in the book of Nehemiah that the first category underneath vision, I have two here, you see a need and you feel that need, chapter one, one through four, and then you pray the need and share the need with others to recruit others to that vision.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: So let's take these one at a time.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, you have to see a need and feel the need.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Chapter 1, 1 through 4.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: The words of Nehemiah, son of Hakaliah, when I was in the fortress city, this is a city in Persia, this is 900 miles east of Jerusalem, they're in captivity, Susa, Hanani, one of my brothers, arrived with men from Judah, that's 900 miles to the west, and I questioned them about Jerusalem and the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: And they said to me, The remnant in the province who survived the exile are in great trouble and disgrace.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: And Jerusalem's wall has been broken down, and its gates have been burned down.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And when I heard these words, I sat down and wept.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: He finally saw the need, and then he felt the need.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a really quick review, just this is gonna just be your one-minute seminary moment, is is 70 years uh previously, or actually 50 years from this, there'd been a destruction of Jerusalem.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: That is Nebuchadnezzar and the mightiest army in the world, the Babylonians, had come west and they had destroyed the holy city.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: And they had broken down and burned the temple, and they had broken down and burned the whole city, including the walls, and they had taken captive thousands upon thousands of Jews.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and they had taken them, marched them foot by, you know, almost 900 miles east to Babylon.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then they had been in captivity.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that's just prophesied.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: God had said, you know, if you neglect me, and they had neglected him, I will I'll let you go into captivity.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: But now it's seven years later, we started last week in the book of Ezra, and and uh Persia has defeated Babylon, and the king of Persia, whose name is Cyrus, is a really good guy, honored in the United Nations as the you know, the first, you know, uh uh person who firmly believed in true freedom.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he sends all the exiles back home to their homelands.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so exiles start returning to Jerusalem and Judea.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: It says, each to his own home.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: And there are in these two books, uh Ezra and Nehemiah, there are three returns.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Under Cyrus, Zerubbabel, Sir Rubber Bal, bounces back to Jerusalem, Ezra chapters 1 through 6, and rebuilds the temple.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: In Ezra 7 through 10, last week we saw that the people, Ezra returns and leads a return and revives the people.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now in the book of Nehemiah, the walls are going to get rebuilt.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: The walls, Nehemiah chapters 1 through 13.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's the need that Nehemiah heard and saw and felt.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that's an absolutely critical need in that day.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Just as today, uh you know, today do we call Jerusalem a holy city?
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was called the holy city back then.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, but it was almost, you know, neither holy nor a city because the temple had been broken down, so there's no holy, and you're not a city unless you have walls.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Chicago wouldn't be the windy city without wind.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Detroit wouldn't be the motor city without cars, Portland wouldn't be the Rose City without roses.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: How long can I do this?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Paris wouldn't be the city of lights without lights.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: I give up.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm done.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, Vegas wouldn't be the sin city without sin.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Bingo.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, and Jerusalem wouldn't be the holy, the little things that delight us.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Jerusalem wouldn't be the holy city because there's no the wonder of the world.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: The temple's broken down, the walls are broken down, you gotta have a wall, and he sees sees this.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want to stop right here for just a second because you're gonna get zip out of this message and out of the book of Nehemiah, unless you ask yourself this question.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Where in your life do you see broken down walls?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Is there any place in your experience, in this country, in this community, in this church, in your school, in your home, where you see a need, where you see broken down walls, where you see a need, where God can help you see a need so that you feel the need.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you say, you know what, I'm too busy.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: I have a job that's important, that takes all my time.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that objection falls flat in this book.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because Nehemiah had, I suppose you could say, one of the five top five or ten jobs in the world.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: He was his job title was cupbearer to the king.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: King's name is Artaxerxes.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Call him Art, Art, a Xerxes.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: He was the son of Xerxes.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so in those days, uh primarily kings uh uh left office because they were assassinated.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: His dad had been assassinated, Xerxes was assassinated when he was 18 years old.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then the oldest son, his older brother, had taken over and been assassinated in um 45 days.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then the another brother took over and was assassinated in seven months.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: So Arta Xerxes takes the job, and the first guy you hire is your cupbearer because the main way you assassinate people is through cyanide back then.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: So Nehemiah chooses the wine.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: He had to be a wine steward, he had to know his wines well, and he'd choose a wine, and he would bring the wine to the king, and before the king would drink, he'd pour some of them in his left hand and he would drink, stand there and then watch, see if he died.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, kind of a scary job.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and yet, and by the way, it's interesting.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I was reading a little bit of a uh uh uh in Berlin, it just came out last, I think, September.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: There was a 96-year-old woman over there who came forward and she was one of 15 women who was a food taster for Hitler.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, you know, we were all starving in Germany.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: We had the best food you can ever imagine, but we were terrified knowing that as we tasted Hitler's food ahead of time, we could die.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Poison, we never did.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so so there's a downside to Nehemiah's job.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the upside.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: A cupbearer was chosen partly because he was handsome.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so he was a very good-looking guy, partly because he was athletic, partly because he he was, he had to be convivial, had to be a great personality so that he could chat with a king, could be friendly, partly for his loyalty, uh, partly, uh, but especially he had to be a sharp guy, had to be wise because he automatically, by standing next to the king at all times, he became one of his chief advisors.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: So Nehemiah would tell you, you know, you know what?
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: I could have told my brother Hanani, I got an important job here.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a man of influence.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you want a job anywhere in Persia, I can get it for you because I have the ear to the king.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah realized there was a need there, and that need was more important than his incredible job, and God was speaking to his heart.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: He saw the need, he felt the need.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: The walls of Jerusalem have to be rebuilt.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was the need he decided to attack.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm saying to you again, where in your life, I don't care how busy you are, where in your life do you see broken down walls?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Where in your experience?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Is it in your school?
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a need in your church?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a need in the community?
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a need over hike?
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: It could be almost anywhere.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the great things about Topeka Bible Church, one of the reasons this church has done great things for God over the years, has been partly because we have people that arise out of the congregation that see worldwide need, and so we support dozens of missionaries overseas who love to meet needs overseas.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Their heart is moved within them.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Jim and Shirley Scheimer were sitting right here in the middle.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: I remember it so well.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Shimer's Feed and Seat, very successful business in Topeka in the surrounding area.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we brought, we had uh brought in a missionary named Buddha Court of Sudan Interior Mission years ago.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: And he stood up here and he was a great guy.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: And their hearts were strangely warmed, and they were smitten by the need for the gospel around the world.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: And within a couple of years, they had sold all their businesses and they were in Africa.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: That reminds me of Nehemiah, man with a great job, but he knew that if God had impressed his heart with a need, and he felt that need, that he should follow that need.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, now listen, there's an interesting verse, as long as we're talking about needs that God wants to put on your heart.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: An interesting verse in Isaiah 49, God himself says, Can a woman forget her nursing child?
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Or lack compassion for the child of her womb?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Heavens no.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Even if these forget, yet I won't forget you, God telling you how much he loves you.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Look, I've inscribed you on the palm of my hands, get this, your walls are continually before me.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that interesting?
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: God's saying to you, you know, your life is like the walls, the walls of Jerusalem, which I love so much.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, through neglect, over the years, you've sort of allowed them to crumble a little, a hole has appeared.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: There's few weeds growing in there because of selfishness or procrastination or immorality or whatever else, lack of self-discipline.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, your walls have fallen down a little.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean I love you any less, but you know, shouldn't you be paying attention to the broken down walls even in your own life?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I ask you one more time, where in your life do you see broken down walls?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they are overseas.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: But maybe they're right here in the state of Kansas.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're right here in the community, maybe they're here in the church, maybe they're right in your home.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Or in the home of your children.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, uh, he saw the need and he felt the need.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'll move on finally.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: But the next step that he took is he prayed the need and he shared the need.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before you share the need and sell other people on this vision you have, on this drive that you have, before you share it with people, you need to share it with God.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: I love the story of little Billy who's praying over the meal, so quiet.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Mother said, Annie, what are you saying?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to God.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: And before you talk with people about what you feel deeply about, you need to go to God and you need to talk to God.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: He says on verses 5 and 6, I mourn for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Yahweh, the God of heaven, the great and awe-inspiring God who keeps his gracious covenant with those who love him and keep his command.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: I did a prayer series here last fall.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: And do you remember we we tried the ACTS method of praying, where the A stood for adoration, C confession, T, Thanksgiving, S supplication.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Notice how he begins here with adoration.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: You could begin this way every single day in your prayer.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: God, Yahweh, God of heaven, great, awe-inspiring, keeps your gracious covenant, and so forth.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: What a great start.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then he jumps over C and T directly.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: He gets back to the confession and thanksgiving.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: But right now he says, let your ears be open, eyes be open and your ears be attentive to hear your servants' prayer.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: That I now pray to you day and night for your servants, the Israelites.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: This guy is a prayer.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't meet very many white-collar workers, successful businessmen who really have a heart for prayer.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah's an exception.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: In 13 chapters, he prays 11 prayers.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: He understood, you know, that if you go to the government, you're gonna get what the government can do.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you take your need to an organization, you're gonna get what an organization can do.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you take your need to uh to a charity, you're gonna get what a charity can do.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you take it to people, you get what people can do.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: But if you take it to prayer, you're gonna get what God can do.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so before you take this vision you have to people, make sure that you're taking it to God.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Great little stories of a little boy who's trying to pick up a heavy rock and he lugged and he lugged and he couldn't.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: His father came by and said, How are you doing?
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: I can't pick it up.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Are you using all your strength?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: No, you're not.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: You haven't asked me for help.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: God says, you know, so many of you get involved in this activity.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're working really hard in what you're doing, you're trying to accomplish something great in the workplace, in the church, in your home, but you're not praying about it.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: You haven't come to me for help.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: And before you try anything else, you need to pray the need.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Pray the need.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then you share the need.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, by the way, I want to tell one more story because this is, I've often wanted to talk about this guy.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: A hundred years ago, one of the great evangelists in our country was named Gypsy Smith.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: He was a real gypsy.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: He traveled with the gypsies, and he and he became a Christian when he was a little boy.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: His real name was Rodney, became a Christian, and immediately, even as a seven year old, he deeply cared about lost people, especially about his favorite uncle.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so he would pray for his favorite uncle, but you couldn't.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Go and talk in those in the gypsy society and to show such deference to adults.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: You did not speak unless spoken to.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: So he couldn't say anything, but he just prayed and prayed, and he finally got an opportunity.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: True story, his uncle came to him, his favorite uncle, and said, Why do you have a hole in your pants?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: He started to cry, and he says, It's because I'm praying for you that you'll become a Christian so much.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Is it any wonder that uncle became a Christian?
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: He started, Gypsy Smith did, with prayer.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: He prayed the need, and then he shared the need.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you see Nehemiah sharing the need.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, he waited four months.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was four months of prayer before he did, he went to the king.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then the king notices that he's sad, and he says, I had never been sad in the king's presence before.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: Great idea, by the way.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Good attitude, positive attitude.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, and says, Why, why, what's your problem?
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: Why's your face fallen down?
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you so sad?
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, How can I be happy when the walls of Jerusalem, my hometown, are broken down?
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the king says, What's your request?
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I prayed to the God.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: He shoots up a flare prayer, by definition.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is a flare prayer, and answered the king, If it pleases the king, this is the mightiest man in the whole world, and if your servant has found favor with you, send me to Judah and to the city where my ancestors are buried, so that I may rebuild it.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the king says, Go, and I'll help you out.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: So then we move to the second stage.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to do something great in life, it starts with vision, but it moves to action.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: It moves to taking action.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: And first of all, you plan.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: You get specific, you don't stay vague, you don't stay fuzzy.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: You actually, you know, he said to the king, I would like to go back to this city.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: And when he arrives in Jerusalem, chapter 2, 11 through 18, been there three days, he gets up at night.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: I took a few men with me.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't tell anyone what my God had laid on my heart to do for Jerusalem.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Smart move.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I went out at night through the valley gate toward the serpent's well and the dung gate and inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broke.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: So he inspects this stuff and then says to the people with him and other officials the next day, you see the trouble we're in.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: Jerusalem lies in ruins.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Its gates have been burned down.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Come, let's rebuild Jerusalem's wall so we'll no longer be a disgrace.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: I told them how the gracious hand of my God had been on me and what the king had said to me.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, Let's start rebuilding.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: And they were encouraged to do this good work.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so they start rebuilding.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: And he brilliantly, as you read this book, he plans, he organizes, he puts, he organizes all these people so that they are rebuilding the part of the wall that's closest to their home, really smart, because you're going to try to rebuild close to your home, okay?
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Jerusalem in that day looked sort of like a peanut, you can tell, and but it had no wall, and and so it was easily attacked.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's rebuilding these gates.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, just in the last 20 years, archaeologists have uncovered, believe it or not, 2,500 years later, remnants of Nehemiah's wall, so that as you walk to the old city of Jerusalem today, there'll be a sign.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you can look and you can see, wow, he never, I'm sure he never expected, and neither did the people helping him, expect that this wall that they were building, handmade wall, would still be seen in the golden city of Jerusalem in the year 2014-15.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: But it is, and it's and it's and it's really an awesome evidence of the Bible.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, they're rebuilding and they're rebuilding the wall, and that's what you and I need to do.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: We can't just stop with sharing the need.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: We have to take action.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: We have to get specific.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: But when you get specific, whether it's involved changing your own home, changing your school, changing your business, changing the community, going over to High Christ, you will find that so long as you were just sitting at home, Satan was not upset.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: He was actually happy.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: But the moment you get off your duff and start moving and doing something, he will oppose you.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: And when the opposition, the Satan in this book, in chapters 2, 4, and 6, are three guys named Sambalat, Tobiah, and Geshem.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: And when Sanbalat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Tobiah the Ammonite said, he's mocking, if a fox climbed up on it, he would break it down.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: But when they see it's actually becoming successful in chapter 6, three times they threaten to injure the workers and threaten to even kill them because they have been under control.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: They've been ruling the roost, and now if this wall gets up, all of a sudden they're going to be out of business.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so we find that what Nehemiah did is he started putting soldiers.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: He said, okay, only half of you can build, the other half will have, will protect them with swords and so forth.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: And as a result, he said, I'm definitely not giving up.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the people encouraged him, maybe we need to give up, maybe we shouldn't.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: But listen, if you stop having an impact in life, because people who don't want to have an impact make you feel bad about having an impact, you'll never get anything done.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly not get anything done great in life.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: And even in your own home, you find it a time and again.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: A husband or a wife who decides, I, you know, for years I've sort of let the wall break down, but I want to do something great in my home.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: I want us to start family devotions, I want us to start family prayers, you'll find opposition.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: Not because those are other, those people in your home are bad people, but it's because the enemy, the great enemy, Satan, is not about to let something like that happen easily.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if you try to do something great in your school, public school, Christian school, doesn't matter.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: You'll find opposition.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you try to do something great in your church, if you try to do something great over at the prison or at Highcrest or down at Haiti Lifeline or at Trash Mountain, you will find incredible opposition.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: But the question is, will you persevere or will you not persevere?
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: I love the story.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: I have to tell it.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's I've only got nine, ten minutes left.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I grew up on a farm, and the greatest example of perseverance I knew, I love, uh, was cutting heads off chickens.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we had chickens and we'd cut them off because chickens hop around for a while after you cut their head off, because you don't get all their brainstem goes down low.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: And um, we used to like to try to talk my little sister Ruth and the other girls out.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: We wouldn't tell them what we were gonna do, and we'd talk, oh, come on out, we're gonna give you candy or something.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: We'd get them out there and then dodge and then cut the head off the chicken and throw the chicken up, and then the chicken fly around for a while, and girls would run screaming.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's that was our our idea of fun.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, here's a story, true story in the 1940s.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: I got a farmer in in a place called Fruta, Colorado, population 6,000, loved the neck of the chicken, so when he's chopping the head off, he cut it off pretty high, not realizing he was leaving way too much brain stem.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: So that chicken just didn't die, and the next morning it didn't die for kicks.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: He he he fed it with a little stopper and so forth, and it stayed living.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: And after several weeks, and that chicken's still living with no head, he takes it to the university, and they start seeing how long, and they start feeding it.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: It lived for 18 months before it choked on a on a kernel of corn and died in an Arizona motel.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: But um but anyway, in this town, there's a four-foot-high, there's a four-foot-high monument to Mike the Headless Chicken, and they have an annual Mike the Headless Chicken Festival there in Fruto, Colorado.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: And there it is, and I think I know this is a little random, but I think it's it's a testimony to perseverance.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: And God wants you to hang on even if they go after your head.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: All right?
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the third category.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: We had vision, we had action, and finally we have faith.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: We have faith.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the story of faith is that here's Nehemiah, he's a businessman basically.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, he's not a religious guy.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the religious guy, Ezra, is in town.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: Ezra's standing up and he's reading.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: He's preaching, he's a preacher, he's doing what I'm doing.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah's the businessman.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: I love it when I go to a house or to some other place, you know, like for something.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: And instead of saying, uh, Jim, religious guy, would you pray?
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: I love it, and I don't mind, I don't mind that.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I love it when the man of the house or somebody else, when they pray.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: I just think it, I think it's great.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah did not give up spiritual leadership to Ezra.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: Ezra, he brought him up on stage, but Nehemiah in chapter 8 of this book is the one who stood up and he said, You know what?
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: All of us, all of us need to dedicate ourselves to the Lord.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be a preacher to call on your family to dedicate themselves to the Lord.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be a seminary grad to get your children to kneel down and pray with you.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be some high-faluting religious figure to study the Bible with your family or with your loved ones.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: You can lead spiritually.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: And if you do, you will find that wall almost builds itself.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm reminded of the story of Frederick Nolan, the runaway slave, who's hiding in a cave.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: And by God's grace, a large spider spun a spider's web over the mouth of the cave.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: So that when uh the slave hunters came looking for him, they didn't come in the cave because they said, well, he's not in there.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: There's a spider's web.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: And Frederick Nolan said a wonderful thing afterwards.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: He said, When God is present, a spider's web is as strong as a wall.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: But when God is not present, a wall is as weak as a spider's web.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: Bring God into the situation.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you include faith as you're trying to do something great in life, whether it's in your business, in your community, in your world, or in your home, and then finally trust God for the results.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: The key phrase in this book, used six times, is a strange and remarkable request by Nehemiah.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: Remember me, oh my God.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: Showing that he believes in God, showing that he believes in an afterlife, he believes in a heaven, he understands that one day there'll be a reward, and he trusts God for the results, both now and in the future.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that when Nehemiah went to heaven, God said, I did remember you, I do remember you.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: And isn't that what you want?
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that what I want?
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: We want to do something great in life, and we'd want to do it for God, because why would you want to climb the ladder of success and find it leaning against the wrong wall?
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: So you want to do something great in life, something that God will remember, and you can.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: You can even boil down your life into little segments.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think that if you're a student and you're you're starting a summer, you can say, Lord, I want to do something great for you this summer.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: And God says, Well, you can.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: Look for a need, see the need, feel the need, pray the need, share the need with others, and then plan as to how you can meet that need, and then persevere, don't give up.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you're leading spiritually and trust me for the results.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: And the end of it will be the kind of joy that you find at a wedding or find at a graduation, or that we'll find in heaven, whereas C.S.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis said, the serious business of heaven is joy.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: No less than five times in chapter 12, verse 43, you find joy or a or a root of the Hebrew root of that word.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: On that day, when the wall had been rebuilt, they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced because God had given them great joy.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: The women and children also celebrated, and Jerusalem's rejoicing was heard far away.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here to tell you that heaven loves to cheer, heaven loves to rejoice, heaven loves to dance a jig, and that it will rejoice.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: It will exult, it will dance a jig.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: When you and I go to heaven one day and sees Jesus come up to us and say, Well done now, good and faithful servant.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: Nicely done.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: You did a great work and you did a great work for me.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: You saw that need and you went after that need and you evolved me in it.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: And as a result, we got that wall rebuilt.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you want to do that in life?
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, thank you for Nehemiah's sterling example.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you that uh is maybe the great figure of the fifth century BC.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: He's such a wonderful model for us.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray for the people listening to my voice right now, and I ask that all of us would not lose our sense of desire, our ambition to be great, and great for you to accomplish wonderful things.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: Give us the grace and the courage and the strength and the perseverance, Lord, to rebuild the walls and our lives in Jesus' name.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: You are dismissed.