Highlights: Nehemiah - Week 2

And Amen. Yeah, you know, we're going to continue our series today

on the Book of Nehemiah talking about personal leadership. We talked about last week.

If I could lead me better, I can lead everything better. Amen.

If I can get me going in the right direction, then things in

my life seemed to go in the right direction. If I'm going in the

wrong direction, it's hard to have everything else going in the right direction.

Amen. So we're gonna continue this study of the Book of Nehemiah. So

go to the Book of Luke and we're gonna start right there. We're gonna

start our study of Neamiah in the Book of Luke, chapter fourteen. Let's

start with the verse twenty eight. Luke, Chapter fourteen, Verse twenty eight.

Last week we talked about finding your why, that thing that aligns you

with the passions of God. The same things that anger God anger you.

The same things that break God's heart breaks your heart. Those things that move

you make you get out of the bed. Now we're going to start giving

you those those specific details to put that plan in place, to be able

to go from where you are to that thing. Amen. You know I

don't like just telling people what you should do. I try to tell you

how to do it too. And today we're going to start this very practical

process of going from where we are moving towards God's destiny. Luke, Chapter

fourteen, verse twenty eight. It says, for which of you intending to

build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he

has enough to finish it less after he has laid the foundation, is not

able to finish. All who see it begin to mock him, saying,

this man began to build and was not able to finish. Lord, we

thank you for your word. It's the only change agent on this planet.

And I pray that you changes the very fabric of our soulf Let it take

up residents and move us to a place of absolute fulfillment in you in Jesus'

name. Amen. Amen, You know the reality is is that when we

step into our purpose and we are fulfilling our purpose, we live a life

that fills complete. And I think that there are a lot of people who

get sidetracked and derailed from their purpose and pursuing their purpose, and they lose

sight of the purpose giver. Come on, somebody, Maybe they don't even

lose sight of it. Maybe they just don't know him. But the reality

is that the enemy will use hurting, broken people who choose to stay hurting

and broken. The enemy will use people that have a hunger for power and

position that the enemy will use people who are who are weak and small minded

and refuse to see things the way God sees things. God will or the

enemy will use people who use people as a stepping stone to get to the

next place. The enemy uses people like that. And you know, I

think that that in the world today, we see that happening all the time.

We saw it on the grand stage yesterday, and a terrible thing that

occurred in the history of our nation. We saw a broken, hurt person

with no direction, that saw all of the all of the division, and

all of the hate, and all of those things that that are going on

in the world. And they pointed that because the enemy directed them in a

position and they did something that absolutely devastated a nation. Young man with a

rifle on top of a building who tried to take the life of a presidential

candidate. We saw that happen, and listen, the enemy calls that to

happen. Let me say that again, the enemy calls that to happen that's

his plan, to bring enough division that it brings death. That's the enemy's

plan one hundred percent of the time. It's to stir things up until hate

bail's over. And whatever happened, whatever orchestrated those events, the enemy is

working hard. The enemy is trying to bring his plan to fruition. But

it's up to us to chase after our purpose and our destiny because our purpose

and our destiny stands in complete opposition to the plan of the enemy. Amen,

listen, this is I'm just going to tell you. If you're doing

what you're supposed to do, the devil is held at bay. If you

don't, he will run wild in our community. It's not up to the

church down the street. It's not up to anybody else. It's up to

you to pursue your destiny and your purpose. And when you get on purpose

and you get in alignment with God, at that moment, things begin to

change around you, and the people you have influence over will begin to see

and be attracted to the anointing in your life. Jesus here says, listen,

Hey, nobody starts to build a tower. Nobody starts that process until

they count the cost to see if they have enough to build it. And

usually when we read this, we we read it as a warning. We

read it as, oh, you need to be careful before you start doing

something, don't just jump out there. But I don't know that that's the

whole complete I'm tender of what Jesus is saying. He's saying, Hey,

listen, you're building a platform, You're building a place that is going to

put you as a city on a hill, and it's going to give you

some attention of people. And I want you to make sure that you have

the costs counted and that you know who you're building for, and that you

are resoluteing your faith on the inside, and that you're not going to get

distracted by the spotlight that will ultimately come. Because His purpose does bring notoriety,

not fame, but notoriety. It will cause people to look at you.

God doesn't want you to stay hidden. He wants you to stand out.

As a matter of fact, you can follow the world and always fit

in, never have to worry you just go with the flow and fit in,

or you can follow Jesus and always stand out. That's the ultimate choice

that you make when you're pursuing your purpose, and it's not an easy thing

to do. Following God's purpose is not easy. We think that somehow,

you know, we pray one prayer and we walk up to the to the

doors of destiny and they're automatic and they swing open and the angels sing,

oh, helujah, hallelujah, you're here. And that's not the way it

works. There is a journey from where we are to where we're going,

and we have to take inventory and know that we are ready for whatever is

next, that we are gaining the skills and the processes to carry us to

the next level. You know, there's only one way to eat that elephant

right, one bite at a time. Sometimes we want the elephant, but

we have no fork and no knife, and we don't know what to do.

We don't know how to proceed. Today, I want you to begin

to allow God to not just give you the dream the big picture at the

end, but to give you the details in between, because it's not just

about the dream. It's also about the visions along the way. It's about

those individual frames that will make up the movie of your life. In Niemiah

chapter two, starting in verse eleven, Niamiah has he's he was the cup

bearer to the king. He had a great job. Some people came to

him said that the walls and the gates of Jerusalem were in ruin. The

people were weeping, the people were upset. He was motivated, he was

moved. So now he's asked for permission for the king to go and to

check things out. And we find Namiah here where we pick up reading,

and he is in Jerusalem, and he finds it in disarray, and it

says, so I came to Jerusalem and was there three days. Then I

rose in the night, I and a few men with me. I told

no one what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem.

Nor was the any animal with me except the one on which I rode b

and mine says, listen, I got there, and I didn't get there

and announce I'm here to do everything. I'm here to rebuild the walls,

I'm here to build new gates. I'm here to make everything right. Mea

Mayah kind of took some time to take an inventory and a survey of what

was happening in the city before he told anybody what he was there to do.

Because the reality is the thing that derails our dreams a lot of times

is we begin to share those dreams before we have all the details, and

before we know the direction, and before people are ready to hear those details.

Listen, the worst thing you can do is to share a big dream

with a small minded person, because they will kill your dream. They will

speak death to your dream, they will annihilate it. Because it's much easier

for the enemy to use someone to abort your dream than it is to kill

your dream after it gets momentum. So he will try to cut it off

when you begin to speak and you begin it to Look at Joseph, God

gave Joseph a dream, and the first thing Joseph did was go and sit

down with his brother. Now, listen, how many of you got a

brother or a sister? Raise your hand? How many of you know somebody

with a brother or sister? How many of you they fight all the time

or you fight all the time? Liars? Listen, My best friend in

the whole world, I love Opie Man. He's he's he's like a brother

to me also. But he had an older brother. He's got a younger

brother. His older brother passed away. But they fought all the time man,

him and Brian. They fought all and I don't just mean like dangang

got me. They punches, they would they throw a punch of slap me.

I'm the size I am. My buddy, Opie is about six six

in ways what probably two eighty. He's a big boy. And then his

brother, Brian was probably twice the size of me. And then another friend

and we all got into one of those little Sion cars one day, you

know what to talk about, one of those little square cars. There was

some beef in that car, I'm just telling you. And and we got

in that car and we took off down the road and Brian was sitting in

the back seat next to me and Opie was driving party fussing with each other,

and we're going down the road and he puts his knee on the staring

wheel and he's driving with his knee and he's turned around like this, fighting

his brother in the back. And me and the guy in the car with

us, we're just praying. We're just praying. But you know, that's

what brothers do. They fight. They have disagreement. Now nobody else can

fight them, come on, somebody, but they fight each other and for

some reason, the youngest son, Joseph, decides to share a dream that

his older brothers are going to bow down to him, the most unwise thing

that anybody could ever do. But he shared a dream with someone who refused

to realize that dream could come to pass. He shared a big dream with

small minded people who only knew things could be done one way and wouldn't accept

anything else. Come on, somebody, this is the way it is,

because this is the way it's always been, and this is the way it

will always be. And we miss so many opportunities for our purpose and our

destiny because that's the way we think, are incarcerated by the way things have

been. And God is using you, wants to use you to get outside

the box and to see something created that's never even been dreamt before. That

those ideas are right here in this room, right now. Joseph ends up

going through a series of events. His brothers fake his death, sell him

into slavery, and he ends up at Potiphar's house as a servant. Then

he ends up in prison. Then he ends up interpreting a dream. And

God carries him through all of these things, but partially because he began to

share a dream at a time when it wasn't ready to be shared. Now,

let me speak to Let me speak to the people that are dream killers

in the room, because the reality is there's probably some dream killers, and

dream killers usually say this. You usually say things like this, I'm just

trying to help you. I just I just I just want what's best for

you. I just that's that's never gonna If somebody says something to you and

the first thought in your mind is that's never going to work, don't say

anything. Unless they're getting ready to jump off a building. Then speak up.

You say things like, well, I'm just a realist, you're a

dream killer. Well you know, I just don't think anybody should operate This

is the one I love. I don't think anybody should operate in false hope.

There is no such thing as faults hope, no such thing as false

hope. Hope is the promise that tomorrow can be better than today. If

someone is talking about a better tomorrow, that is literally the definition of hope.

It's not false, it's true hope. Could it be unrealistic, yes,

but it's not false hope. It's hope that will motivate someone to go

from where they are to where God is calling them to be. Now they

may be taking a giant step in a giant leap, and they may need

your help to get them in the right path and alignment. It's some systems

and some processes around it. But don't speak death to the dream before it

has a chance to be born. We need to lift each other up.

We need to speak life into each other. We need to dream to get

so that we can accomplish great things for God. The am I still In

chapter two, verse sixteen, it says, and the officials did not know

where I had gone or what I had done, because he had enough sense

not to tell him. They had spent their entire time since they got back

from captivity trying to accomplish this, and they didn't get The only thing they

got accomplished was they got some some kings down the road to take notice that

they were back, and those kings began to lord over them and oppress them.

They hadn't been that, they hadn't accomplished anything because there was nobody with

a dream. There was nobody with a dream, nobody that would create a

reality that was worth doing the hard things for. I wonder if on the

inside of you. There's something twisting and turning, and you know that there's

more than what currently is. That you see the world and you're not pleased

with the way the world looks. That you see the division and the animosity

and the hatred and all of those things. And God has put something on

the inside of you that has given you a dream for a purpose that will

bring some people together. Listen, if every person in here had a dream

and just brought a few people together, if you had a dream that could

convince people that where we're going is more important than the person you vote for.

We keep waiting on a government to save us, but maybe God is

waiting on us to save the government. Maybe God is waiting on us to

create the direction and build the culture. For so long we've been subject to

the culture, when God is calling us to be cultural architects and to create

a world that everybody else has to live in instead of us living in their

world. Just looking for some revolutionary dreamers that will pull people with the massive,

pinpoint focused dream that will wake people out of their slumber. And they're

stupor to do something that's never been done before. And the officials didn't know

where I'd gone or what I had done. I hadn't yet told the Jews,

the priest, the nobles, the officials, or the others who did

the work. I didn't tell anybody that looked like they were in charge.

We give you some dis honest reality. You were where you are because of

where you've led yourself. I am where I am because of where I've led

myself. And listen, where I am is not where I thought I would

be. I'm just gonna be honest with you. I thought I would be

further along in the process than I am right now. I think most of

us would say that, most of us would look at our lives and think,

Wow, if I had only if if I didn't have that testimony of

stupidity. Everybody says, oh, you got such a powerful testimony. No,

man, I was stupid for so long and God just let me live.

I don't know why ANGI and I were talking about all the times we

could have died. That was yesterday, wasn't it seemed like a year ago.

Yesterday. We're talking about all the stupid things that we did that we

could have died, but God spared us for such a time as this,

And if I had redeemed that time. Listen, young people. If I

had redeemed that time, I would be further along towards my purpose and my

destiny. I would have built my platform early. I would have rallied those

people that believed the same things, that want the same things, and we

would have grown it together. The best time to start chasing your purpose and

your destiny was ten years ago. The next best time is this morning,

he said. I didn't tell them yet because if they were able to do

it, if they had a dream to do it, they would already be

leading change. Then I said to them, do you see the distress that

we're in? How Jerusalem lies waste and the gates burned with fire? He

said, Listen, seems seems simple to us sitting in this room. Right.

He looked at him, and he said, do you see what's happening?

Do you see the wall? You don't, right, because it's not

there. Do you see that? If y'all see that, I'm asking because

I can't be the only one that sees Listen, you can't be the only

one that sees it. Other people see the same thing you see. They're

just afraid to do it because it may not be specifically in their anointing.

It may not align completely, but they're going to help you do it.

They see it, but they don't know how to start it. They're not

willing to dream about it. They're not willing to step out of the boat

and walk on water for it. They're not willing to do those things.

Maybe you're the catalyst. Do you see the gates, they're burned with fire.

Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem. That we may no

longer be a reproach, that we may no longer listen, be an embarrassment

to our God and our name. I know this ain't a feel good.

Most destiny messages are feel good. I know this one's not wanted it to

be. I wrote it that way. Then God got involved, and I

told them the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and

also of the King's word that he had spoken to me. He said,

I said, listen, don't you see it. Let's go build a wall

together, because the last person I told the dream to, the last person

that I talked to about it, they saw it. They've never been here,

but they saw it. They had the resources, and they're sending the

resources. We just got to go do it. Remember when I talked about

counting the cost. When you count the cost and you know you're building it

for Jesus, you have the resources to finish the project. He owns the

cattle on a thousand hills, all the tains underneath, he owns it,

all, every bit of it. He has the resources because where he guides,

he provides. In Mark chapter nine, verse twenty three, Jesus said

to him, if you can believe. Now this is in the context he's

about to cast out a demon. Jesus looks at he says, listen,

if you can believe. He did not say listen if you've read doctor Ed

Murphy's exhaustive Concordance of demonology, or you have a degree in deliverance, if

you have seen all the Amityville horror movies. There were no other requirements other

than, hey, can you believe? Can you? Can you dig deep

enough just to believe that what I've dropped in your heart and in your spirit

is reality? Can you believe? If you can believe, all things are

possible to him who believes everything you can believe is possible. Does that mean

it will happen? No, but it's possible. Guess what that also means.

If you don't believe it, it's not possible. If you can't see

beyond where you are right now, it's not possible. But God's about to

give you a dream. God's about to drop something right about here. It's

gonna wake you up and cause you to want to do the hard things because

you're achieving something Jesus. Immediately, the father cried out and said, with

tears, about ninety percent of us are right here. The father cried out

and said, with tears, Lord, I believe help my unbelief. In

other words, yeah, I believe you can do it. God. I

believe you can do it God. I believe that that you don't like the

way things are. God. I believe that there are people that nobody's reaching.

God. I believe that there is money that needs to flow into the

Kingdom, generated by somebody's great idea. And I believe those things are true.

But help me believe I'm the one that's supposed to be the catalyst.

Help me believe that it can happen for me. I've seen good things happen

for other people. But you don't know where I came from. You don't

know my mom and Daddy and my folks. You don't know them. And

nothing goods ever happened over there on my side of the tracks, nothing that

goods ever happened out of my house. Help me believe that it doesn't have

to be that way all the time. Help me see a better way.

I believe God that I am the person you can use to do this.

Help my unbelief. The band could come and get ready. When Jesus saw

that, the people came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying,

deaf and dumb spirit, I command you come out of him and enter

him. No more so. Listen. There was people watching, a screaming

help my ownbelief, and people are looking. Your purpose will cause a disturbance.

Let me say that again. Your purpose will cause a disturbance. It

won't let things be status quo. It won't let operations go on as normal.

And when people begin to look, Jesus shows up. And when Jesus

shows up, Jesus shows out. And this is what Jesus did. He

began to name every limiting factor. He began to call those things by name.

He said, death, spirit, dumb spirit, come out today.

I want you to open your ears. Listen. You may have been on

Facebook playing video or whatever. OH said. I want you to listen to

this. You need to hear this limiting fear. Come out insecurity. Come

out small mindedness. Come out imprisonment from the past. Come out that thing

your teacher spoke over you. I break it. Come out that thing your

parents said about you. I break it. Come out that thing that you

started but it never got off the ground, and now you feel like a

failure, failure. Come out. These are not your people. These are

the people of God. And there is a purpose and a dream for your

people that's only limited by you. Jesus. My Bible says that you created

the heavens and the earth, that you spoke things in the existence. That

you're so powerful that you created the earth illuminated it, didn't even create the

sun for another couple of days. Jesus, right now, awaken those that

feel defeated. Jesus, right now, stir that dream that's become a dormant.

I know people are seeking purpose in this place. Help us to do

that self inventory and count the cost so that we can take the next step.

Everybody's standing with me on