Kingdom Revolution Nehemiah 1 - Nehemiah: Arise and Build

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

When you go into prayer church, always, always, always start with worship.

Always start with exalting God.

Before you start asking for stuff, exalt God.

Exalt before you ask.

Put that down.

Exalt before you ask.

Because what it does is it takes the burden off of you to answer your own prayers, and it puts your focus on the greatness of God to answer your prayers.

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

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

So we are looking at a very interesting book of the Bible.

We looked at Haggai a few months ago.

Remember that?

We went through Haggai.

Haggai is what we call a minor prophet, even though he had a major impact.

He's a minor prophet with a major impact.

And Zechariah with him were used by God to help a guy named, believe it or not, there was a guy named Zarebabel.

Who would name their baby Zerehbel?

I mean, that's but anyway, there was a king named Zarebabel.

And Zarebabel, excuse me, wasn't a king, he was a governor.

Governors and high priests with Zarebabel and Joshua rebuilt Solomon's temple that had been destroyed.

Now, take that and realize that a temple was built, but the walls around the temple, we believe, were not rebuilt.

They continued to crumble, and the Jews were constantly under attack during that time.

And so there's a guy named Nehemiah.

Say Nehemiah.

Nehemiah.

He's in the Old Testament.

Go to your Bible and turn to Psalms.

Psalms is right in the middle of your Bible.

Just open it up.

If you have an Old and New Testament, so open it up.

Most of the time it'll open up to Psalms and then turn left.

Turn left, and you'll come to Nehemiah.

It's right there.

And so this book was originally Ezra Nehemiah because of the high priest Ezra.

Ezra was used by the Lord some 60 years after Haggai.

He came, and as he began to restore the temple practices and the teaching of the Word, a revival came.

Bam! Revival hit, and that's covered in the book of Ezra, and Ezra's just before Nehemiah.

We're not going to cover Ezra.

When I taught this many years before, I taught Ezra first and then Nehemiah.

But now, 13 years after that, and you're like, you're losing me, and that's okay.

You can look it up if you're interested.

But 13 years later, after Ezra's been there, we come to the book of Nehemiah, and something happens.

Nehemiah is a cupbearer of the king.

And by the way, cupbearers did not usually reach seniority.

Cutbearers had the job of drinking the wine before the king did, or eating the food before the king did.

So if you can imagine everybody staring at you, every time you drink wine or eat the food, then that you get the idea of what the ethos was for a cupbearer of the king.

Probably he's a eunuch, probably not married, and as a eunuch, he had a short lifespan usually.

As a matter of fact, the king that he is under, he's a cupbearer of far, a guy named Artaxerxes.

So if you thought Zerebel was bad, we shall name our son Artaxerxes.

Okay?

His father was Xerxes.

So Xerxes named his son Artaxerxes.

And Xerxes got killed, we believe, by poisoning.

So that's the history.

By the way, that's how you did elections in Persian provinces.

You poisoned your enemy and then you became king.

Well, that had actually happened to Artaxerxes, and now we pick up our story with Nehemiah being a cupbearer of the king.

Short lifespan, but this is important, he's wise counsel for Artaxerxes.

And men and women, this is important.

God wants to use some of you in this room to be wise counsel in high places.

God wants to use some of you in this room to be wise counsel in high places.

We should be very concerned about the Merrill race.

We should be very concerned about the city council election coming up in April 2021.

We should take back city council.

And some of you in this room may be called by God to run for that office.

God wants Christians in high places.

He does.

And if you look at, for example, currently in the Trump administration, a lot of stuff that Donald J.

Trump wouldn't know anything about.

I mean, he can't even pronounce some of the biblical books right.

But what's happened is he's got a lot of Christians around him.

There's a lot of key people that are influencing him.

And whenever you see at ministrations where you see godly stuff coming out because of the way the media is, that usually says there's somebody of wise counsel who loves Jesus, who's embedded by the Holy Spirit in there.

Right?

So that's what happens all through Scripture.

And somehow, somewhere along the line, I don't know, a number of years ago, starting probably with the Johnson Amendment and other things, we've kind of had this mentality like we just gotta stay spiritual.

Just stay in our place and just let the rest of the country go to hell.

And I'm just telling you, we gotta change that.

God wants to bring a kingdom revolution.

That's not the way this country started.

Our country was started by patriots who cared about the Constitution, who cared about the Bible, and they were willing to risk their lives to build a godly nation because they saw America as a light on a hill.

And so I'm not saying America's the end-all.

The kingdom of God is the end-all.

You understand what I'm saying?

And there's a lot of stuff up there that's not good, but I'm telling you, we do ourselves a disservice if we sit around and complain and always on the defensive when we're not doing anything about it.

So, first of all, vote.

You know, vote in November.

If you're not registered to vote, you can get registered here to vote.

So vote, you gotta vote.

My philosophy on voting is if you're voting for the person I like, vote.

If you're gonna vote for the person I don't like, don't vote.

I mean, there's tons of other things you can do with your life.

Go shopping, you know.

All right, Nehemiah.

Let's look at Nehemiah chapter 1, and let's jump in right here.

Nehemiah 1 · chapter mention

So, the words of Nehemiah.

And by the way, this is gonna be about 13 weeks we're gonna go through Nehemiah, okay?

So get ready, buckle up.

This is about arise and build.

That's what I call the theme of this.

Arise and build.

I'm gonna just just say that I'm looking at it macro and micro, macro and micro.

So, macro, this book is about rebuilding the church, it's about rebuilding families, it's about rebuilding America.

But on a micro lever, it's about you and I rebuilding our lives.

Have you ever noticed in your own life?

I mean, yes, I mean, if you've received Christ, how many of you would say you were not very good at calculus before you received Christ?

Raise your hand.

You weren't very good at calculus, okay?

How many of you say after you received Christ, you were not very good at calculus?

Okay, there you go.

That proves my point.

All right, if you don't rebuild walls in your life, even though the temple is within you, God's not gonna rebuild your walls.

God came into your life, but you have to decide to have integrity.

You have to decide to start rebuilding walls.

And what happens to many believers is they think I received Christ, and like everything's gonna suddenly be like a rainbow or something.

It doesn't work that way, gang.

God comes into your life and he gives you power, but you have to discipline your life and rebuild the walls around your heart.

And so that's what this book is also about.

The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakaliah, it came to pass in the month of Chiselev.

In the 20th year, that means the 20th year of Artaxerxes, as I was in Shusham, which was the winter capital of the Persians, the citadel, that Hanani, Hanani means the grace of God.

One of my brethren, so he was Jewish, came with men from Judah.

And I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.

Now, church, we don't know, we don't believe that Nehemiah had ever been to Jerusalem.

He's always been a POW, he's always been a prisoner of war after the Persians came and the Babylonians before that had taken over.

And so he doesn't know what's happening.

And so he's concerned about the Jews.

He's concerned about what's happening to the Jews.

How many of you know that you need other people in your life sometimes to speak something that you don't know?

Right?

We need people in our life.

And Hanani is going to be used by God to speak something that Nehemiah could not figure out himself.

And so, men and women, we need each other.

We desperately need each other.

You don't need the screen right now, but you need each other.

Okay?

So say to each other, I don't need the screen, but I need you.

Alright.

Because what happens in your life is that you're you're blind.

We all have what we call a blind side where we don't see.

We think we're doing just fine.

But if we start having blood-stained allies in our life and people who love us and care about us, we can have conversation.

I had 10 guys out around my fire pit this week, and we talked, and a couple things that were said out there were like, wow, that's a great insight that I hadn't thought about.

So Hanani is used by God to show an insight to Nehemiah that he doesn't know.

And so, church, you need some brothers and sisters in your life who you give permission to speak into your life and to give you perspective and wisdom that you don't normally have.

And so, and so we call it blessed allies around here.

But that belief that we need each other.

So Hanani, meaning the grace of God, comes to Nehemiah and he's gonna give him information that he could not have without having that relationship with Hanani.

Verse 3.

And they said to me, the survivors who are left from captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach.

If you got a pen, a lot of you guys take notes, circle distress and reproach.

Distress and reproach.

The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down and its gates are burned with fire.

Now the focus of Nehemiah are the people, the Jews.

The focus of our heart at the road is always people.

Our focus is Jesus Christ in people's lives.

Our heart is for the common man, the common woman who's struggling right now and feeling that fear and feeling that distress that comes with this whole COVID-19 thing.

My heart goes out to you.

And this place is full of people who've come and you're breaking through fear to be here.

I'm so proud of you.

You realize that if you're under 65 and you're healthy, your chances of dying of code is 0.00017%.

You've got a better chance of dying from the flu.

We're getting played, folks.

We're getting played.

I drank the Kool-Aid for six weeks.

I did.

It's another version of the bubonic plague or something.

And then you do your research.

Write down critical thinking.

Write down critical thinking.

Write down use my own brain.

Use my own brain.

Don't let them feed you.

Now some of it's true, and I'm and I'm saddened that 600,000 people worldwide have died from COVID-19.

But if you could see the slide I was gonna show you, but we're I don't think we have time, I'll show it next week.

Put in perspective, you have nothing to fear.

Stay healthy.

Build up your physical immune system, build up your spiritual immune system.

We all die.

But to quote William Wallace, i.e.

Mel Gibson, but are you really living?

Are you gonna keep living this way?

Like in the basement, like Biden?

I mean, come on, let's get let's get to living, man.

Alright?

Use your head, be smart.

If you feel like you need to wear a mask because you have preconditions, and it's like then do it.

That's fantastic.

But here's the reality: live.

Live with joy in your heart.

I really believe, this is what I believe.

I really believe that if you're a spirit-filled believer, you're a word-rooted spirit-filled believer, you're not gonna die one day early or one day late from God's perfect timing.

So I have no fear of death.

If it's tomorrow, man, I live to the fullest, you know?

And so you got a bigger chance of getting whacked by a semi on I-25 than diet of COVID-19.

So I'm just letting you know.

I'm just going by science.

I'm being serious.

I get from Amy, Lathan, right here.

She and I communicate all the time.

She works for Cherokee Water District as a director, and she gets all her stuff straight from El Paso County Health.

I just quoted, stuff I used last week was straight from her.

So this is not something I just have an opinion about.

It's actually based in the statistics.

Verse 4.

So it was when I heard these words that I sat down and I wept and I mourned for many days.

I was fasting and praying, circle fasting and praying, and right in the margin put nuclear prayer.

Fasting and praying is nuclear prayer.

When you fast and pray, which Vince just came off, Pastor Vince just came off seven days of fasting and prayer.

I came off ten days of fasting and prayer a couple weeks ago.

When you are so burdened by something, God puts a burden on your heart and you start to fast and pray, you are releasing a nuclear arsenal into the fourth dimension of miracles.

I'm telling you, if you've never fasted and prayed, what you're doing, let me just tell you in a real nutshell.

You're giving up feasting on food to feast on God.

And some of you have stuff happening in your life right now that has got you so wrapped up in fear, the only way, the only way you're gonna break that fear is fasting and prayer.

You need to ask God, God, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired, and I wanna and I wanna see a breakthrough here.

And it might not be you, it might be somebody else in your life.

That's what's happening with Nehemiah.

Nehemiah's fine.

I mean, he's got it made to be a slave in a Persian court, getting to be the cupbearer of the king, that's pretty special.

That shows that even in the midst of the comfort that he had, listen, this is important, you can be comfortable but not content.

You can be comfortable but not content.

Nehemiah's not content.

Folks, I am not content with what's happening in our nation.

I'm comfortable, but I'm not content.

And neither should you be.

Ask God, God, what would you say to me?

I'm comfortable in my life, but I'm not content spiritually with where I'm at.

I'm not content with where my marriage is.

I'm not content with my job.

I'm not content with where my son or my daughter is at.

And I'm gonna fast and pray until I see a breakthrough.

And you and you say, well, what are we telling like fast and pray forever?

No, I'm saying ask God, He'll give you wisdom.

It'll usually be a period of time that you can do this.

And for some of you that if you're diabetic or you've got other issues, don't do a straight fast, but get some wisdom and then maybe fast from social media, or fast from sugar, or fast from carbs, or whatever it might be, but fast and pray and take that time where you would be eating and pray.

Hear what I'm saying?

So, in other words, you if you have breakfast, lunch, and dinner type person, then during that time, don't eat, go take a prayer walk, or go to your prayer closet, seek the Lord, call out to Him.

I'm telling you, there's nuclear power in it.

All through Scripture, you see men and women in the Bible who, when they prayed, God spoke.

Well, I've never heard God's voice.

Well, try try the nuclear power of fasting and prayer, and you might hear his voice for the first time in a powerful way.

Some of you are in crummy jobs.

I'm not gonna ask for a show of hands.

But some of you are, you know, you feel like I'm kind of in a crummy job.

Well, okay, then just be satisfied and just have a crummy job.

Or you can fast and pray your way out of it.

Break through, ask God to open doors.

I had a young person one time come up to me a few months ago, and they came up and they said that they were in a situation with a church situation, they didn't know what to do, and they've been asking God.

I said, Why don't you fast and pray about it?

And guess what?

They fasted and prayed about it.

God opened doors, they're in a different church now, and they're loving it.

So when you fast and pray, and by the way, I do not understand this.

It's not logically something I can understand.

It's just something about maybe it's a position of your heart before God, that when you care that much that you would give up something that's so basic to life, God gets, God, you know, you kind of get God's attention and he goes, Man, this guy's serious.

I'm gonna move on behalf of that person in a mighty and powerful way.

So that's what that's what Nehemiah does.

And then look at his prayer.

So basically the rest of the chapter is the prayer of Nehemiah.

And there's some really key points I want you to get here this morning.

First of all, verse 5.

He starts off this I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God.

First thing.

When you go into prayer church, always, always, always start with worship.

Always start with exalting God.

Before you start asking for stuff, exalt God.

Exalt before you ask.

Put that down.

Exalt before you ask.

Because what it does is it takes the burden off of you to answer your own prayers, and it puts your focus on the greatness of God to answer your prayers.

And so in Acts 4, when the early church was under duress because the government was coming after them, the first thing they did was not pray for deliverance.

The first thing they did is they exalted the God of heaven and earth.

All through Scripture.

You see it in the Psalms especially.

Praise and worship the Lord.

So get up in the morning.

Get up in the morning before you take a shower, maybe, before you do anything.

Exalt the Lord.

Thank him for the day by faith, even if it's going to be a bad day.

Just go and just say it to the Lord because it changes you.

How many of you know that if you change you, you can change your circumstances the fastest?

We have no control over what that boss is going to do to you.

You have no control over that paycheck in some ways.

You have no control of how your spouse is going to wake up in the morning, but you can have control about you.

Right?

And so to begin the day, Nehemiah is very burdened.

He says he's distressed, and yet he starts off with praise and worship.

Then he says, Lord, you keep your covenant and mercy with those who love you and observe your commandments.

Listen, everybody, our God is a covenant-keeping God.

What he's saying here is, you keep the covenant, Lord.

I fail many times, but you keep the covenant, and I'm trusting in you.

You promise that you'll never leave me nor forsake me.

We have a covenant relationship with each other, and so I'm about to tell you what's on my heart, but I can't do it without telling you you're a covenant-keeping God.

That you always answer my prayers.

You have commands in Scripture that if I'll follow them, you'll bless me.

Very, very clear.

So he starts off, secondly, with being a covenant keeping God.

Look what he does next.

Verse 6.

Please.

I like that word.

Please.

Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open that you may hear the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you now, day and night.

So he must have been staying up at night praying.

For the children of Israel, your servants, and confess, this is so important, underline this, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you.

Both my father's house and I have sinned against you.

We've acted very corruptly against you, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which you commanded your servant Moses.

Here's what he does: He actually is a true intercessor.

A true intercessor is someone who comes in between God and a need, stands in the gap, or kneels in the gap, or cries out in the gap, and says, the people don't know what they're doing.

They don't understand what they're doing, but I understand what you're doing.

And I'm asking you, God, to take my prayer and forgive them.

And I even, even my household, we ask for forgiveness in our life.

And men and women, we need to be praying for America.

We need to be praying for our country.

We have sinned greatly against God.

A passage that I've gone to again and again, and I'm gonna put it up on the screen for you, is Proverbs 6.

Proverbs 6, 16 through 19.

Proverbs 6, 16 through 19.

It talks about seven things that God hates.

Seven things that God hates.

And if we could put that on the screen, you don't have it?

Alright, we had it in the first service, we don't have it now.

Okay?

Let me read it to you.

But turn in your Bibles.

I want you to keep your finger in Nehemiah.

Go to the right to Proverbs 6.

This is really, really, really, really important that you see it on the page.

Proverbs 6, 16 through 19.

Proverbs 6, 16 through 19.

And then what I've done, which you don't have the opportunity to see right now, but in the PowerPoint I have it, I'm gonna read it to you, is parenthetically after each point, I've place what I believe is where we as America have dropped the ball.

He says this, verse 16.

These six things the Lord hates.

Yes, seven are an abomination to him.

A proud look.

There it is.

Great.

Thank you guys.

Appreciate that.

It's not up there?

Okay.

Well, they got it back here.

Everybody turn in your seats.

Alright, there it is.

I can read it.

And you can read it now, too, because I think it's important you see it up there.

Seven or abomination in.

Look at that.

A proud look.

Okay, parenthetically, our pride and arrogance in America.

A lying tongue.

Deception in high places.

Hands that shed innocent blood.

Abortion and sex trafficking.

A heart that devises wicked plans.

These are plans being cooked up right now about the coming election.

And we could go on with other things.

Feet that run that are swift running to evil.

The destruction of our cities.

A false witness who speaks lies.

Oftentimes that's our courts and judicial system.

And one who sows discord among brethren.

This is the one that really gripes me too.

Christians who spread slander about other believers and Christian leaders.

Okay, well, we could break this down on every point.

We're not going to do that.

But here's the thing: only the church can confess sin.

Everybody say that back to me.

Only the church can confess sin and be heard by God.

So that's our responsibility, church, that we repent, that we lift up our president, that we lift up our Congress, that we lift up our governor, that we lift up our mayor, that we lift up our city, right?

And we say, God, we have sinned against you.

And I know the age-old question how is it that a nation made of so many godly, spirit-filled believers could come under the judgment of another nation that has so few?

How is it that a nation that has so many godly people, solid churches, spirit-filled people, could actually be judged, possibly even come under the control of another nation that is godless?

Well, guys, listen to me.

It's happening all the time in Scripture.

God will use the Babylons.

God will use the Persians.

God will judge a nation by a much more godless nation to humble us, or if we get it while we still can, he'll forestall the movement of his judgment and he will give us a reprieve and another chance.

But that's up to us.

That's why we pray tonight at Memorial Park.

That's why we pray up here and then go to four locations in the city on Monday morning.

That's why we have Wednesday prayer.

This is your chance.

This is our chance.

A year from now, we may not be meeting anywhere in the country.

You think I'm kidding?

I've said it before and I'll repeat it again.

July and August, reprieve.

September, October, it's gonna get ugly, folks.

And you better fasten on your spiritual seatbelt and be ready to go.

And so if we're not praying, nobody else is.

I mean, listen, folks, two-thirds of the churches, if not more, aren't even meeting in the United States.

So you have a guy like John MacArthur who takes on Governor Newsom and wins.

And we may have a lot of differences, you know.

Got to get united.

Quit quibbling over spiritual crap.

I'm so tired of that.

That's what I'm talking about in Proverbs 6, that 19, where you got websites that all they do is tear down Christian leaders because they don't believe the way they believe or something.

I don't have time for that.

This is a war.

It's a spiritual war going on at the very heart of our nation and the heart of the church.

And most pastors are asleep at the wheel.

And it's time to wake up and smell the coffee, or you won't have any coffee to smell.

So it's time to battle, folks.

Gotta go to battle.

So I challenge you to come out on Wednesday night or any of these things we're doing and let's pray.

Because I here's the way I here's the way I look at it.

It's like, I mean, it was the same as an athlete.

I felt the same way as an athlete, like, okay, maybe I won't win state, or maybe our team won't win this or that or that or this.

But it won't be on my watch that I wasn't ready when I got up in that do that routine.

I was ready, I was gonna do my job.

But if I was only halfway in that, then it's on me.

And so if you're halfway in your commitment to Christ, I'm challenging you.

Not gonna cut it, folks.

If you think this is bad, man.

So you've got to build up your strength.

That's why we're studying Nehemiah.

I want to build up the walls of your life, you guys.

So if you got saved and the temple is now within you, temple right here in Jerusalem, and you have a problem with anger or jealousy or strife, just because you got saved does not mean that all of your anger and strife and jealousy goes away.

You have to build up the walls.

And the way you start building up the walls is prayer, spending time in prayer and reading God's Word.

You start building up, God, build up those walls in my life.

Strengthen those walls in my life.

If you don't, you'll be at the same place a year, 10 years from now.

If you couldn't manage money before you got saved, you will not be able to manage money just because you went to the altar and got saved.

Does that make sense?

So Nehemiah over the next few weeks is training us in building walls of protection over our hearts and our spirits.

And it's really exciting because when we build those walls, God actually comes and does cool stuff in our life.

Verse 8 Remember, I pray, the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, If you're unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations.

But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though some of you are cast out to the furthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there and bring them to the place which I've chosen as a dwelling for our name.

Here's what he's doing: he's quoting either Leviticus 26 or Deuteronomy 28.

What Nehemiah is doing is he's quoting the Bible back to God.

In other words, when you pray the scriptures, you're praying what God's already told you.

It's right there.

So God tells you something through, let's say, where I've been like last Wednesday, Psalm 127.

So you're in Psalm 127 and you read that that if the Lord builds the house, if the Lord doesn't build the house, you labor in vain, those who build it.

Right?

So you pray that, you read it, and then you go, God, build my house.

God, show me how to build my house with you and with your power in my life.

You're praying, which you already know is God's will, because it's right here in Scripture, and that's exactly what Nehemiah is doing.

He's either quoting Leviticus 26 or Deuteronomy 28.

Now, he says, These are your servants and your people whom you redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand.

O Lord, I pray, please let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who desire to fear your name, and let your servant prosper this day.

I pray.

And grant him mercy in the sight of this man, for I was the king's cupbearer.

Here's what he's doing: he's asking for favor.

Church, it's good to ask for favor.

Everybody say it's good to ask for favor.

God wants you to prosper.

He wants you to prosper physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Ask for prosperity.

Ask for it.

And then, of course, put the plow and start working it.

You gotta work it.

But he's praying it.

He's asking, this is the key word, he's asking for favor.

Some of you need favor in your job, some of you need favor in your marriage, some of you need favor with your children.

But ask God for it.

Ask God for favor.

He would give you favor.

And that's what Nehemiah does.

And I love the way he concludes this chapter.

I was a cupbearer of the king.

I was a cupbearer of the king.

This is no congressman.

This is no president.

This is no senator.

He's just a cupbearer of the king.

Men and women, listen.

Whatever and wherever God has placed you, He can use you.

God does not listen to listen, God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the call.

He will qualify you for that which He's called you to do.

We hope you have been blessed by today's message.

To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.

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Go to theroad.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.

Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.