Building Bloodstained Allies Nehemiah 2-3 - Nehemiah: Arise and Build

You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

Young people, all of you, young people in this room.

And I'll let you decide what number and the age chronology that is.

But all of you that are in this room and you care.

You might be young at 65, you might be old at 14.

But I say this.

We need nehemiah leaders.

We need Nehemiah leaders in business.

We need Nehemiah leaders in media.

We need Nehemiah leaders that are artists.

We need Nehemiah leaders that are political.

We need Nehemiah leaders that are pastors.

We need Nehemiah leaders that are accountants and financiers.

God, I believe, has created each one of you so incredibly unique.

You have a part of the wall.

At The Road, our mission is to empower people to change the world.

For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.

We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

Turn to Nehemiah.

We are going through the book of Nehemiah, chapter by chapter and verse by verse.

A couple weeks ago we got started.

Basically, the storyline in Nehemiah as a man who's a cupbearer of the king, which was a very um very important position in ancient times.

He he drank the wine before the king did because back in those days elections were held by poisoning your opponent.

And so he was very trustworthy.

And in the process of that, he hears about the walls of falling down in Jerusalem.

There's a temple, but yet the walls have never been rebuilt.

They're crumbling.

They're open to attack from all their enemies.

And he hears about the despair of the people of Israel, and it just breaks his heart.

And so a couple weeks ago we talked about the power of fasting and prayer.

That fasting and prayer is the nuclear-powered prayer.

I mean, if there's a nuclear bomb of prayer, it's fasting and prayer.

And then last week we talked about the fact that fear is one of our biggest struggles.

All of us struggle with fear.

And even Nehemiah admits in chapter two that he was full of fear when he went to talk to the king, you know?

And what's so cool about that is that he realized that it was fear.

And that's really important.

Because sometimes, you know, sometimes you don't understand why you feel so paralyzed.

You know what I mean?

You guys ever feel that way?

Like you wake up.

I kind of did this morning, actually.

I woke up just kind of down.

I was just down.

And I think it was related to looking at something right before I went to bed on the news, and it just got me depressed and down.

And I'm learning, for me at least, I've got a really sensitive spirit, and I can't look at too much negativity right before I go to bed.

You know, I'm good during the day, and ah, makes me, ah, let's go.

You know, I'm ready to fight.

But as I get ready to bed, man, I need to slow down.

Anyway, I had seen something on Fox News or whatever, and it just kind of got me so down.

And um, and so the reality is that if we're not careful with how we watch over our spirit, which we're advised to to watch over our spirit, then what happens is fear creeps in and hopelessness creeps in.

And it can be very, very damaging.

So last week, let me just give you three points.

I talked about how to release the grip of fear.

And I and every week there's new people, so sometimes I go back and just say a quick, some quick thoughts about last week.

First of all, I said last week, face your fears.

So face them.

Don't run from them, face them.

Realize that there's fears and walk into your fear.

So walk into your fear.

Most of us run from our fears.

We don't want to hear about it, we don't want to see it, but if you, there's something powerful about the courage and the strength that come to step into what you fear and stand.

Secondly, and this is really important, be vulnerable about your fears.

Be vulnerable that you have fear in your life.

It's it, you know, here's what Nehemiah says.

He says in verse, verse 2, 2-2, he says, Therefore the king said to me, Why is your face sad since you're not sick?

This is nothing but sorrow of heart.

So I became dreadfully afraid.

And I underlined that, and I put over to the side, he was vulnerable about his fear.

Some of you are fearful about a divorce.

Some of you are fearful about losing your job.

Some of you are fearful about where your kids are headed, some of you are fearful about flunking out, some of you are fearful about not having any friends.

I mean, whatever your age, we all have these areas where we struggle with fear.

Be open about it, be vulnerable about it.

It's okay to just say, man, I fear this.

And that's why you're gonna need blood-stained allies.

That's why you need other people in your life who love you and care for you.

You shouldn't do this alone.

You realize you were not made to be in isolation.

You need each other.

And not just your spouse for you that are married, but I'm talking about even other men in your life and other women in your life that love you and care about you, that you can be open about your fears.

And then thirdly, I talked about last week, build your faith, starve your fears.

Build your faith, starve your fears.

If you focus so much on your fears, then you'll become more fearful, right?

But starve it.

The way you starve your fears is by building up the walls of faith.

And the way we build up the walls of our faith is through God's word.

It's spending time in God's word, it's reading God's word.

I went out by the fire pit yesterday and I, there's a fire ban, right?

I did not have a fire, but I was I was by the fire pit.

It was it was nice.

It was a really nice time, but there was no fire in the fire pit.

Um, but I spent time in God's word.

I spent time in God's word.

I read God's word and I read God's word and I read God's word because I felt sort of down, and so I read God's word.

So we build up our faith, we build up the walls of our faith, and we starve our fears by not overly focusing on them.

So now we come to verse 11.

Verse 11 in chapter 2, Nehemiah now travels for probably four months.

We believe it's three to four months to get from where he was in the winter capital of the Persians in Shushon to Jerusalem.

So he ends up in Jerusalem, and this is what it says.

Very interesting.

It's very strategic what happens next.

So I came to Jerusalem and was there for three days.

Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me.

Underline, I and a few men with me.

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

That's really important.

I told no one what God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem, nor was there any animal with me except the one on which I rode.

And I went out by night.

Isn't that interesting?

He went out by night through the valley gate to the serpent well and the refuse gate, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and its gates which were burned with fire.

Then I went on to the fountain gate into the king's pool, but there was no room for the animal under me to pass.

So there's just rubble, you know, big stones and rubble everywhere because the wall's been destroyed.

So I went up in the night by the valley and I viewed by the well.

Then I turned back and entered by the valley gate, and so returned.

And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done.

I had not yet told the Jews, the priest, the nobles, the officials, or the others who did the work?

And this is crazy.

How many of you know that the people who've been in charge of a disaster may not be the people you want to get advice from?

How many of you know that people who have been a part of destroying walls instead of building walls might not be the people you want guidance from in rebuilding the walls?

Because what we have in our nation right now in many key areas are the very people that have been used by Satan to destroy walls in this country.

And if the church doesn't wake up, and if Christians don't wake up pretty soon, we are going to be a socialist nation in a communist regime.

And it is coming, and it is knocking at the door.

And I don't see how much more clear you need to have it than that.

Vote, vote, it really matters.

You should vote, you should run for city council.

We should take over the school board.

I'm telling you, folks, this is our country, this is our city, and God wants to rebuild the ancient walls that made this country great once before.

We're not perfect, we're not perfect.

I don't need to, but I don't need to also over-apologize for our imperfections because nobody's perfect.

But I can tell you this, after being to 30, 35 nations of the world, met Liz smuggling Bibles in communist China, been to most of the communist nations of the world, this is still the greatest nation on the face of the earth.

And you know, here, listen, you guys, you know, you know, somebody might look at your family and they see the kids where they're at and they say, wow, you got such a great family, but wouldn't you be as a parent the first one to say, oh, if you only knew all the problems that we have, right?

So there's always that problem.

But listen, don't over-apologize for the good things that God's doing in your family.

You can either focus on the negative or you can focus on the positive and work on the negative, right?

And so there's a big difference here.

So here's what he does.

Listen to that.

This is really important.

First point, my first point here is with rebuilding walls with bloodstained allies, is first of all, finding a few good men.

Or finding a few good women.

You've got a men, you need some men in your life that are bloodstained allies that you can build new walls with in your heart.

Women, you need some good women in your life that you can build some good, strong walls.

And your first bloodstained ally is Jesus.

He's your number one bloodstained ally, but then your second bloodstained ally, if you're married, is your spouse.

But here's the deal, guys.

How many of you know, men and women, that there's things that you can share with your spouse that actually can sometimes be counterproductive?

And sometimes we need some other guys or some other women in our life that we can share our heart with, that you can get prayer for, that are allies.

In other words, they, and here's what an ally is: an ally has the same commander, an ally has the same God as you, and also the same enemy.

And so they they're allies, that you're side by side, you're battling together.

That's more than just friendship.

That's more than just friendship.

That's something deeper than that.

And the vulnerability of where those broken walls are in our life, that's oftentimes how we find out who our blood-stained allies are.

I know in my life through the years that I could share certain vulnerabilities of my life with certain people, and that was not good.

That was not good because they didn't really have my back.

But when you start to find those people that do have your back, then there's a powerful nature to that that brings a release and a freedom in your life because we've all got stuff to work on.

And so as we're going through Nehemiah, I'm kind of looking at it from the perspective of our nation and rebuilding walls, but I'm also talking about it in our personal lives.

So, number two, this is important, number one, build new walls with the right people.

Number two, honestly assess your situation.

Honestly assess your situation.

So, Liz, in putting this together here, this school in a box, has realized through the communication we have with many policy and political operatives that are kind of in intelligence and aspects that are coming out of Denver and out of the school boards, what's happening in our schools?

It's kind of been a wake-up call, and so we're assessing the situation.

So, what what um Nehemiah is doing here, I think he's looking at the foundations of the walls.

And he's asking the question are the foundations still strong enough to build the new wall.

And by the way, that new wall is the wailing wall that you have there in Israel today.

Some of you have been to Israel, or you're gonna go with me in March when we go, but we will be at one of these original walls.

But that foundation's key.

Here's what I believe about America.

I believe the foundation is still there.

I really do.

I believe our Judeo-Christian foundations, our biblical foundations, our values and our morals, I think they're still there, but all around it it's crumbling.

We'll find out.

So, Amy, would you stand?

Amy Lathan.

I want you to stand.

Amy has been a county supervisor.

Amy has run for mayor.

Amy's been with me for 15 plus years.

You know, you guys, your whole family.

Anyway, I asked Amy and she accepted to take on a new ministry we're developing at the road called Public Policy.

Um, and she's gonna begin to form a team.

If you are interested in public policy, talk to Amy.

And this is everything from school board to city council to mayor to governor, I mean, all that stuff.

We're gonna begin to start forming a public policy ministry where we know what the heck is going on.

You know, and so thank you, Amy.

Thank you.

So we're honestly assessing the foundations, even of our nation.

And so I have a picture up here.

This has been in my bedroom for 20 years.

Um, you probably can't see it super great, but we'll put it down on the floor after the sermon.

You can come up.

But this is a portrait that was painted right after the signing of the Declaration of Independence about the first prayer in Congress.

And if you if you know anything of the history, and I'll talk more about it on Wednesday night, is strategic prayer, but the founding fathers were struggling.

They were struggling to put together the Constitution, and in that process, someone suggested, I think it was Benjamin Franklin, which is ironic because he wasn't even a Christian.

But he suggested they get down and pray.

And so this is a portrait of them praying.

I got this 20 years ago.

There were 300 prints made.

I went to Pensacola, Florida for a revival that was happening down there 20 years ago, bought this, and um, so I'll talk more about it on Wednesday night.

But this is a picture of the foundations of America.

Built on prayer.

Over half of the signers had a theological or seminary background.

These were men of God, and even of those that were not Christian, they were strong in their belief in a one true God.

So the question before Nehemiah right here is is there enough left?

Is there enough left to build?

Men and women, what about your life?

You're here.

You're here on a Sunday morning.

You could be in the mountains, you could be hiking, you could be fishing or hunting or whatever, but you're here.

Because you have enough foundation built into your life, you want more of God, you want to experience his blessing, you want to know him in a deeper way, right?

So I can tell you you have a good foundation.

But God wants to rebuild some areas of our life, right?

Some of the gates, some of the access points are burned down.

We need bloodstained our lives.

We need men and women who will not give up when you want to give up.

And you will not give up when they want to give up.

We so desperately, church, need each other.

We desperately need congregations that are unified, but listen, this is really important.

You hear me say it every week, I'm gonna say it again.

We need churches that are unified with other churches.

We've got to quit quibbling over theological differences or stylistic differences, or whether they they do this or that or that or this, and believe that Christ crucified is the main message.

That the life, death, and resurrection is the main message.

We may differ on our interpretation of scripture.

We may differ on whether there's spiritual gifts or not spiritual gifts, or whether there's miracles today or not miracles today, or whether you raise your hands or you like your hands in your pockets.

I don't care.

Gotta work together.

We've got to unify.

Yes, I wouldn't go to that church.

Yes, I wouldn't maybe worship that way.

That's not gonna change us, but what it does is as we become bloodstained allies with each other, we push back darkness.

It's so important.

So the Sean Foyt outreach, all these churches have come together.

We're doing it together.

We had a meeting here on Thursday, turned into a powerful prayer meeting at the beginning.

Gabe Vallier, some of you know Gabe because I've interviewed him here, one of the leading up and coming young Latino pastors in Colorado Springs, really good friend of mine.

He came up to me before the meeting and he said he had a he had something really strong in his heart.

And I said, Gabe, share it with the group.

And what he had wasn't a dream, it wasn't a vision, but he had this sense that a civil war was coming.

And he saw in his mind's eye white people killing black people, and black people killing white people, and people coming into churches and and killing people.

I've heard that like eight or nine times in the last two months.

God is speaking to his people.

That's the precipice we're on.

And that led into a powerful prayer meeting as us pastors began to call out and cry out to God.

Come on Wednesday night.

That's our strategic prayer night.

We started that because of all this.

We never had a Wednesday night prayer meeting at this church until what three months ago when we started it, and it's been growing in intensity.

Last Wednesday night I talked about destined to overcome and how we overcome in prayer.

And we're gonna do part two and a part three over the next few weeks.

Next, not this week, but the next week, we're gonna be praying specifically for the Sean Foyt uh outreach.

How many of you know who Sean Foyt is?

Raise your hand.

Okay, some of you don't have your hands raised.

Okay, just just go and look it up on YouTube.

It's Foyt is F-E-U-C-H-T.

F-E-U-C-H-T.

And God's using this young man to go into some of the most devastated areas of our city, right down into Chops in Seattle, Portland.

He's in New York right now, New Jersey, New York right now.

He just, he's gonna he's gonna fly out after he does our outreach at Memorial Park, he's gonna fly straight into Minneapolis.

There, and two to three thousand usually come out for his events with hundreds getting baptized.

And we're gonna have baptismals out there.

It's gonna be it's gonna be fun.

Verse 17.

Then I said to them, You see the distress that we are in.

How Jerusalem lies waste, how America lies waste, we might say, and its gates are burned with fire.

Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach.

And I told them of the hand of my God, which I which had been good to me, and had been upon me, and also of the king's words that he had spoken to me.

So they said, underline, this is the theme of Nehemiah, this is the theme of Nehemiah, let us rise up and build.

Let us rise up and build.

Nehemiah is a man of action.

How many get sick of words, words, words, and no action?

Anybody like that?

Turn to your neighbor and say, I get sick of words, words, words and no action.

I just realized that could be like somebody could be serving you divorce papers on Monday.

No, none of us like that.

I mean, none of us are like we're we're wired, guys.

We're wired for action.

You were wired for action the day you were created.

Ask your mother.

You were wired.

For action.

Your kids are wired for action.

They're wired to talk, they're wired to scream, they're wired to crawl.

You don't have to tell them, now, today, we will start crawling.

This is crawling 101.

We've got it here on video for you to watch.

Now you're you're just wired for action.

God made you for action.

And here's the thing: when you're not a person of action, you're actually unhappy.

You know, you ask anybody who's a quadriplegic or a paraplegic, it's so hard for them because they know they want to walk, they want to run, they want to do stuff, and you're wired for action.

And so, what kind of action is probably the most important thing.

Not that you're wired for action, but what your actions are.

And our actions are always gonna be either evil or good.

There's really not a whole lot in between.

They're either evil or they're good.

And the way you know is if one curses you, if it actually ends up being a curse to you mentally, emotionally, and spiritually and physically, that's evil.

I mean, that's just not a good, that's not the right way to go.

Okay?

And then if you're wired for good, then it actually strengthens you mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically, right?

And so God's made us for that.

And this is my third point, and this is really important.

Build walls in your life with a unified family.

Build walls in your life as a unified family or with unified families in your life.

In other words, you can't do it alone.

So Hillary Clinton wrote a book called It Takes a Village.

And we and you know, there's a lot of you know, jokes made about it and stuff, but it's actually not a bad title.

Because here's the way I would reframe it: it takes a church, it takes a family.

It takes a family to build a family.

And I'm so thankful with seven kids that we've had, that so many of you have been a part of the parenting process.

So many of you have invested in our children in ways that we as mom and dad couldn't.

You've offered them.

We said to our kids, many, every kid, many times, go see so-and-so about that, or go see so-and-so, because we know they know more than we do.

And so if we have a church that's a unified family, then we can grow together in ways that exemplify but also exponentiate the values you believe in that you don't always do a good job communicating.

But it's not all up to you, we do it together, right?

Same with churches.

If the church in Colorado Springs, and I'm not, I don't know what's happening in New York, and I don't know what's happening in uh Miami or what's happening in Nashville, but in Colorado Springs, if word and spirit churches, whether they're episcopal, Anglican, uh independent, Pentecostal, fundamentalist, conservative, whatever, if we begin to work together with the values of Christ crucified and the life, death, and resurrection in prayer and worship and in an aggressive stance toward righteousness, what a difference we could make and how quickly we could rebuild the walls.

And it's been years.

It's been years, and the wall's been crumbled down, and then Nehemiah comes along and he does it in 52 days.

Because he's a leader of action, and I believe we need Nehemiah leaders.

Young people, all of you, young people in this room, and I'll let you decide what not what number and the age chronology that is.

But all of you that are in this room and you care, you might be young at 65, you might be old at 14.

But I say this we need Nehemiah leaders.

We need Nehemiah leaders in business, we need Nehemiah leaders in media, we need Nehemiah leaders that are writers, we need Nehemiah leaders that are artists, we need Nehemiah leaders that are political, we need Nehemiah leaders that are pastors, we need Nehemiah leaders that are in the medical industry, we need Nehemiah leaders that are accountants and financiers.

We God, I believe, has created each one of you so incredibly unique.

You have a part of the wall that you're supposed to build.

Look at chapter three.

Really interesting, chapter three.

And if you got a pen in your hand, I want you to write this down at the top of where you see the three, the big three.

It may say rebuilding the wall or something like that in your Bible.

I want you to write there, repair.

Write the word repair slash build.

Repair slash build.

And then after that, write 44.

So repair slash build 44x, 44 times.

Next to it, or around there, put next to them.

Next to them, and write the number 20x.

20 times.

Because when you look at this chapter, folks, and look, mine is all, you see all the lines that I've written in mine, 44 times you see repair and build, and 20 times it's next to the person they're repairing and building with.

These were families building together the wall of Jerusalem.

And so this is what we believe archaeologically happened.

If this was that wall, the western wall or the eastern wall, families had their houses butted up against the wall.

And so that meant that one of your walls was next to, or was the wall of the family that was next to you.

And then their wall was next to the family next to them.

And every time you built up this back wall, the main wall, that was a protective wall, you were setting up the structure and the foundations for the next wall.

Does that make sense?

So you had to work together.

So they built together.

Folks, we've got to unite.

We've got to build together.

And for you that are here today and you've been kind of, you know, isolated from the body of Christ, you that are online and you've been isolated from the body of Christ, you've got to get united with some other families.

You've got to find that unity.

And I look forward to that day when we're all back together again.

But this COVID thing, I'm going to tell you guys, they're going to milk it for all it's worth as long as they can.

So at some point, at some point, you may have to take a step of faith and leave your house.

Okay?

Now I'm not, listen, I'm not talking about people who are immune compromised.

I'm not talking about those that are maybe even watching someone who's immune-compromised.

I totally get that.

But I'm telling you, men and women, that we are living in a pandemic of fear, not a coronavirus.

And God is speaking to us to step out by faith.

I'm going to get in trouble with what I'm going to say next, but I'm used to it.

I don't wear a mask.

Anywhere I go.

And you know what?

I've had several people almost in every place come up to me and say, I'm so glad you're not wearing a mask.

I wish I had the courage to do that.

So I'm getting my hair cut.

I did wear a mask, get my hair cut.

You can't get your hair cut if you don't get my wearing mask.

So I got my mask on, she's got her mask, and I said, So what do you think about all this mask stuff?

I'm just curious.

And then she goes, Stupid.

And then she begins to tell me, just I mean, she just went up and down, man.

Up and down.

Now let me say this.

If you wear a mask and you feel like that's important, wear a mask.

That's fine.

I'm not gonna judge that at all.

I bless you in that.

I'm just telling you that at some point the mask will have to come off.

And you're all gonna be around COVID.

It's gonna, it's gonna happen, okay?

I've had it, and I in our whole family's had it, and I think a lot of you in the church have had it, and we're all just doing fine.

So use wisdom, use wisdom.

But let me just say, God will speak to each one how he needs to speak to you on that, but I'm telling you, we've got to walk by faith and not by fear.

So they did it together now, verse 19.

Because guarantee you this is gonna happen every time you begin to step out by faith to rebuild walls.

But when Sambalat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it.

Write in your Bibles, unholy trinity.

This is the unholy trinity.

You're gonna hear a lot about these guys all through Nehemiah.

They laughed at us and despised us and said, What is this thing that you're doing?

Will you rebel against the king?

So I answered them and said to them, this is really important, verse 20, the God of heaven himself will prosper us.

Therefore we as servants will arise and build.

Number four, speak with the enemy, speak to the enemy with boldness.

Speak to the enemy with boldness.

Now, what I talked about last Wednesday night, and what I'm gonna talk about again this Wednesday night, is how to do that in prayer.

Jesus said to Peter, after he made the confession of him being the Son of God, he said, on this rock, first of all, he said, Peter, there's no way you could have figured this out.

But then he said, on this rock, meaning capital R rock, on him, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Then he said this.

He says, I give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Men and women, when we come with the keys of the kingdom to pray, we can bind stuff on earth that actually affects the fourth dimension.

We can loose things on earth that can actually affect the fourth dimension.

Isn't that exciting?

But you gotta do it.

You gotta do it.

You gotta pray.

And if there's one thing that I've seen in my own life and in many of our lives, is the negligence to pray.

We know that in principle, but to actually take time each day to take everything to the Lord in prayer, to bind spirits of unbelief and to loose spirits of faith, to bind spirits of lust and release spirits of purity, to bind spirits of hatred between the races, between people of different socioeconomic backgrounds, bind that spirit of hatred and release the spirit of love.

And then go out and live it.

Go out and live it.

We rebuild walls that way, church.

Does that make sense?

So Nehemiah is gonna, he's gonna be in it, man.

Wait till you see what he's gonna what's gonna happen next week.

He's gonna be deep in controversy and conflict.

Because here's what the enemy does.

Write these down.

Three things that the enemy always does.

Opposition works with derision, despising, and deception.

Derision, despising, and deception.

But God has made you an overcomer.

1 John 2, 13 and 14.

I have written to you that you have overcome the wicked one.

Young men, because you're strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.

1 John 4, 4, he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

1 John 5, 4, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world.

And this is the victory that has overcome the world.

Our faith.

Men and women, you are overcomers in Christ.

You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

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