(CLASSIC SERMON) Nehemiah and the Heart of Jesus (Nehemiah 1)

Joshua Kehler: chapter 1, Nehemiah, it's in the Old Testament.

month of Chile in the 20th year as I was in Shushan, the Citadel that he and I, one

of my brethren, came with men from Judah.

And I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the

captivity and concerning Jerusalem, and they said to me, the survivors who are

left from the captivity in the province.

Are there in great distress and reproach in the wall of Jerusalem is also broken

down and its gates burned with fire.

So it was when I heard these words that I sat down and wept

and mourned for many days.

I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven, and I said,

I pray Lord God of heaven.

Oh, great and awesome God, you who keep your covenant and mercy with those who

love you and observe your commandments, please let your ear be attentive and

your eyes open that you may hear the prayer of your servant, which I pray

for before you now, day and night.

For the children of Israel, your servants, and confess the sins of the children of

Israel, which we have sinned against you, both my father's house and I have sinned.

We have acted very corruptly against you, and have not kept the commandments,

the statutes, nor the ordinances.

Which you commanded your servant, Moses.

Remember, I pray, the word that you commanded your servant, Moses,

saying, If you are 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 were cast out to the farthest parts of the heavens, yet I will gather them from

there and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for my name.

Now these are your servants and your people whom you have 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.

Let's pray.

God, I pray that you would take your word and, holy Spirit, would

you be mighty in this place today?

God, I pray that.

here we are and one of the things we want to ask you for as a body is

we examine our lives in the light of scripture, is we examine our, lives, in

your holiness Jesus, Lord, one of the things we need is we need your heart.

We need your heart for the people around us.

We need your heart for our families.

We need your heart for this city.

And God, I pray that your heart would be revealed today, that it might be

beautiful, as precious as a jewel.

And, God, I pray that we would desire that.

God, I pray that you would move us from comfort.

I pray that you would move us from complacency.

I pray, Lord, that you would move us into the very call that you've

purposed and planned for each and every single life in this room.

God, I praise you.

I thank you.

I pray that you would be revealed for who you are.

Great and awesome, glorious, magnificent, the loving God.

We praise you this morning, in Jesus name, Amen.

There, was a story, it actually involves pastor Mark and it's when he was down

in Southern California, he used to own a coffee shop and, in Ventura.

And one day as he was leaving, I think he was going to go to some job interview.

he noticed that across the way there was a park and there

seemed to be some commotion.

And so as he looked at what that commotion was, it came to be, that he could make

out hard in the daylight, but that there was a homeless guy and he was on fire.

He had been drinking and was drunk and, and they were barbecuing something

and he had caught in his coat on fire.

And Pastor Mark looked around and looked to see if there was anybody,

who was going to do anything.

The park being full of people, surrounded by people, but

people going on their business.

And so he ran in a full sprint over to this guy who's rolling

on the ground in flames.

His buddy's drunk off their nut too, and so they're pouring beer

on him trying to put it out.

And so he takes off his coat and he begins to hit this guy,

trying to smother the flames.

And finally he put this guy out, this fire that was burning his body.

The crazy thing was that there was that response to that danger, to that person

who is in that, That stupor who's in that place in their mindset that they

couldn't even figure out how to get their selves, the fire out of themselves.

That the people they surrounded, themselves by had no idea how to help.

And that there was a group of people in that park more concerned about

why they were there that day and what they were doing that day than that

someone was perishing in front of them.

So we come to the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah is an amazing book.

Nehemiah is a book about the rebuilding of walls of taking rubble.

And making out of the rubble something that is safe, something that is

permanent, something that is secure.

It is taking that which was destroyed by fire and by the enemy.

That which the enemy had hoped that they would never be able to use again.

And to find redemption in the rubble.

To take those stones and to pile them on the ground.

In their broken state, in their burn condition, in their charged state, one

on top of another, until as they were bound together, there was something

solid, there was something safe, there was something built, there was something

done, that now made that place a city.

And we look and it's such a physical work that is done in the book of

Nehemiah, but even Nehemiah himself knew that his purpose for the rebuilding

of the walls was not simply to have walls in a city, but to have a people

rebuilt to bring people together and to get them working on this project

so that they could then worship.

Years before, Zerubbabel had led Jews back from the captivity to rebuild the temple.

But as that temple had been rebuilt, the walls had been left broken, and

so every time the Israelites would go to worship their god, the people

of the land, the enemy, would come.

They would rob, and they would steal, and they would take.

And so the worship of God waned in light of the access that

the enemy had to their city.

In light of the access and the holes and the gaps and the lack of defense in the

broken state and condition that the people had, the enemy had access at any time.

And so there was fear.

And Nehemiah, God will call him up.

In this chapter, God will put his heart in him in this chapter because God will use

Nehemiah to put walls and to put a wall so that when the people go to worship, they

do it securely, they do it safely, and they can do it with all of their hearts.

What happens in the book of Nehemiah is from rubble, revival comes.

And as they begin to come together, as they begin to be tested by the

enemy and every one of his schemes, as we will see in our series, what

happens is the people churn their eyes.

They raise their voices to almighty God, and they see God work on their behalf.

It then brings them to a place of repentance.

It brings them up to a place of gratefulness.

And what begins to happen is God's people are grateful for

the work that had been done.

They begin to worship Him again.

They begin to sing His praises again.

They begin to see their sin again in light of His glory, in light of

His goodness, in light of His grace.

And what begins to happen in the people is the people together repent.

And they cast off their sin and they say, We are God's people.

And we will follow Him.

And God takes and He renews that city.

And in this book, there's not much.

Out of this book for a Lone Ranger Christian and in America, we live

in a very individualistic society.

We live in a society where, you know, we, it's about us.

and the great community that we have is if we have, people over for a special

party and that's community to us.

And you won't find much in this book, if you are that

kind of Lone Ranger Christian.

You come in and you think that Sunday is it.

You think that Sunday is Christianity.

Sunday just scratches the surface.

But being a Christian does not mean coming to church.

But being a Christian means being part of the people of God.

Part of the people of God.

And so there's not much for the heroic, high noon kind of Christian where

they're the one who will do everything.

They do everything independent of anyone else.

We can remember Peter's words to Jesus where he said, Man, though all these

guys fail you, though they all leave and abandon you, I will never leave you.

I will never fail you.

That mentality, I can do it.

I've got the strength and we know how that ended so poorly for him.

Nehemiah is a guy who, it's, he's not about this individualistic kind of thing,

but that it's this story about a people coming together from every walk of life.

I love chapter three and chapter three is going to be an interesting chapter because

basically it's just a list of names.

But it's interesting because this list of names was so important to

God that for all, of our time and that he put it in the word of God.

He sealed these names in the word of God.

What's fascinating is who these people were.

They were perfumers.

They were kids.

They were parents.

They were single people.

They were blacksmiths.

They were farmers.

They were soldiers.

They were people from every walk of life who stood shoulder to shoulder at the

great work that God laid before them.

They found that as they worked on the wall together, as they shoulder

to shoulder put the work, one brick on top of another, that together

they accomplished God's work.

And throughout the New Testament, God uses the language that we,

as God's people, are His body.

That we are not His flesh.

Not off on our own, doing our own thing, but that we function

together with the rest of the body.

Over and over in the New Testament, the word edify is used,

which is a construction term.

It means to build up.

It means to lay one brick on top of another until something is firm and

secure and in place and established.

So we are to do for one another as we are to build one another

up as the Holy Spirit builds us.

So we won't find much for those of us.

Who are individualistic, but hopefully Nehemiah is a picture

of a group that comes together.

How foolish would it be for a brick to tumble down the street

and for the brick to cry out, I'm a house, I'm a house, I'm a house.

But only when that brick is laid next To the other bricks, does it find the

purpose and the meaning for which it was called, for which it was made, and so too

I hope that in our study of Nehemiah, as we are put side by side in seeking the

restoration of Stockton and seeing the healing of Stockton, Turlock, and Modesto,

that as we stand side by side, God fits us into our place next to one another,

that we begin to more and more see that as we stand shoulder to shoulder in the

work, it is not a work that we do on our own or by ourselves, but that we do

together, that we come alongside and that we hold each other up, that we encourage

each other on, that we stand to gather in the work that God has done for us.

One of the amazing scriptures is when Jesus said, The world will know.

The world will know that you are my disciples.

The world will know that you are my followers.

The world of people who don't believe.

The testimony and the witness and the power is not in your theology.

The power and the testimony and the witness is not in spoken word.

It is not in the power of persuasion.

It is not in the intellect of convincing, but the power that is put on display is

when the body of Christ loves one another.

And the world will look and the world will see when a perfumer

can stand next to an ironsmith.

When a youth can stand next to a seasoned veteran who's been working for 80 years on

the front lines of the battle of Christ.

The world will go, there is something different here.

They are not bound together by just something they have in common.

By likes and dislikes.

and dislikes, but their bond is greater than that.

It transcends that because the bond is the blood of Jesus.

And it makes us one because there is neither Jew, nor Greek, nor male,

or female, nor Scythian, or free.

For all are one in Jesus.

And so I hope that we find that in this book, All are called

and so many say, I'm not ready.

I can't do it.

I'm not, adequate enough to the task.

All of that is a wash because all of us in light of the love that God

has shed abroad in our hearts and what he's done can love each other.

So that is the great apologetic of the day is to take up and to make

our hearts to stand shoulder to shoulder and next to one another.

The great call would be that we would give and lay down our lives for one another.

That we would be a body in a community because in reality this city has been

broken down These people have been broken down Their lives are at complete

access to the work of The enemy can come and go as he pleases in this city

He can do as he wants, and if there are a few that stand and say, I think

I want to seek the house of God, the enemy can come and pick and plunder

and take from them and the time for the body of Christ to say enough is enough

and to say we stand and we stand together.

And we will be a shield.

We will be a wall and we will be at the work lifting and glorifying

God in this city, worshiping God and loving one another.

But it will not happen.

If we do it on our own, it must happen as we work together.

The history of Nehemiah, where we find ourselves in this

story, we go back to the garden.

God had created man and woman, because God loved them, and God

wanted to give to them all that he had and all that his nature was.

So often, many think that God created man because God wanted to

take from man because God needed worship because God needed somebody

to say, wow, you're really awesome.

You're really good.

you keep doing, you keep going a thing, this kind of at a boy that God needed

that God would, show his, himself, and his splendor and his glory.

And people would go, yes.

And God's Oh, thank you.

for all of eternity, I've just been, up here and now I've got this outlet.

So needed.

But the Trinity teaches us that God lacked nothing, that God lacked nothing, but

that He existed in perfect community.

If God needed from us, He would not be God as the Bible declares God is.

Because God is perfect and all his attributes are perfect.

And so if he's perfect, something perfect cannot lack anything.

And so God being a perfect community, being in community, throughout the

Bible, this constant giving in the Trinity, the father glorifying the

son glorifying the father, the spirit glorifying the son, this constant giving.

And so why did God create man?

God created man to give to man.

To share with man, to bring him into joy, to bring him into his

splendor and glory and majesty.

And so when man was created in the garden, when man looked and when

man responded, and when man gave, he simply shared in that triune nature.

He shared in what he was created to be, an image bearer of God.

When there was that giving, when there was that worship,

like Pastor Mark talked about.

That's what we were made to do.

And so when Adam named the animals, it was worshipful.

I can't believe you made an anteater.

I don't know, name, I, it's a lazy name, anteater.

Of course he didn't name that, I know, but, what's he do?

He eats ants.

Anteater, a thing.

The name cheetah is a little better, I think, and, shark, that sounds, but

anyways, but there's this worship, and there's this, just praise.

He's giving, but what happened and why the fall and sin came into the

world is because they decided to take.

What happened was the serpent came and they bought the lie, and the serpent

said, Don't you want to be like God?

Don't you want to receive glory?

Don't you want to receive?

Because that was Satan's fault.

That's why he fell.

Because he wanted to be exalted like the Most High.

He didn't want to give.

And so they bought the lie, finding the whole loss.

Thinking they would gain by taking.

But God set up the universe quite different because He said, If you

lose your life, you'll find it.

If you give, that's when you receive.

And so Adam and Eve learned too late that in taking, they lost and sin entered

the world and death entered the world.

And we fell into sin, but God, from the very first, as we learned about Wednesday,

the Proto Evangelion, the first gospel.

Where God prophesied that from the seed of the woman, there would

come one who would, crush the man.

the serpent's head.

And so he said in motion, choosing a nation through which the Messiah,

this one who would crush, the serpent's head would come through.

And then what happened?

Because even though he's the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, he was going

to be born in the lineage of a king.

And so the kings got established.

David was king on the throne.

He was gonna, Messiah was gonna come through King David's line.

you have Rehoboam, Solomon's, son.

taking over and the people came to him and said, You know what?

Can you give us a break?

The taxes are gnarly.

just give us a break.

We'll follow you.

We'll do anything for you.

Your father Solomon was a little heavy on the taxes.

thing.

And so the old guys, this counselor said, yeah, that's a good idea.

Give him a break.

The people will follow you.

They'll do whatever you say.

But as young guys, they're like, what?

Come on.

You just got, you've got power, tell him, Oh, you think that's heavy?

You think a brick is heavy?

Yeah.

It's going to be like a whole car on you, a thing.

And so he did, he made it.

Ten times as worse.

And so the people split off.

Jeroboam took the northern ten nations of Israel.

And then, Rehoboam stayed.

and he had the southern, two nations, or the southern two tribes of Israel.

Judah, where Jerusalem was, and Benjamin.

And so what happened is through these, two, though they were

Israel, wickedness happened.

In fact, the northern kingdoms, every king they had was a wicked king.

But in the southern kingdom, sometimes you'd get a good king,

but then it would be a wicked king.

And so God, Constantly giving time for the nation to repent.

Finally, the northern tribes, Assyria came and took them into captivity.

And then eventually Judah fell to the Babylonians as well.

And when, the Babylonians came, they came in power.

Zedekiah, the king, had, tried to rebel against Babylon.

Jeremiah, warning him not to.

Don't do it!

this is God's hand.

You can't fight God.

And finally, they took him captive, and they put out his eyes, and,

and they led him away in shackles.

And so they led him away.

the people away and as the people walked away from their city, they looked back

as they walked through the sand and the hot day, they turned back and they

looked at their city, Jerusalem and every stone torn down their temple,

totally destroyed their houses, totally ruined, destroyed the city,

leveled, done their place, their home.

So as they.

Walked, they were reminded as they stood and as they walked through the

desert next to their king, who had been their leader, their ruler, who

had been so arrogant about his own power, so arrogant at listening to the

wrong opinions of the wrong prophets.

And now he stood there shackled and blinded.

It's interesting because Israel, as they came back to Jerusalem,

would not choose a king again.

But they would return to that theocracy of God being their king.

Tell that Messiah we've come.

As was prophesied in Daniel.

And you have, the people being led away, but God did not abandon them in Babylon.

God was using it for good.

God raised up the prophet Ezekiel to speak encouragement.

God used the stories of Daniel in Babylon and, his friends

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

and you have then God as, Babylon was overthrown by Persia.

And that's where we come to in our story today in Nehemiah and, in, 586 BC.

For those of you guys who like that, that's when the temple was destroyed.

And so Persia now takes power and they allow the children of Israel to go back.

One of the things was, is that Assyrians would do is they would take a people

captive in a way so that people wouldn't stay there and rebuild and then revolt.

And so often what happened is they would destroy the entire city and, and so that

you wouldn't have another rebellion, just another rebellion and another rebellion.

And so they'd take the people, they'd integrate them into society

so that they'd do away with that.

But the Persians saw it differently, because what happened for Assyrians

is now you take all these people you lose your tax revenue.

Because you've got all these people who are now, they were once paying

tribute to you, now they're poor.

Now they're looking for work and it took time to build that back up.

But the Persians thought, it's better if we could slowly integrate

people back that way we don't lose.

That, that, that tax support.

So they would take people trained in Persia and they would send

them to oversee and to represent the king and, their heart.

And so the Persians being a little different, begin to let the children

of Israel go back to Jerusalem.

They put out the call, go back.

Sadly, only 50, 000 people responded out of the whole nation

that had been taking captivity.

Only 50, 000 wanted to go back.

And so they go back, and they begin to rebuild the temple, and then you have

the story of Esther taking place at this time, and, and that's about God protecting

his people, as Haman wanted to absolutely obliterate the nation of Israel.

of Israel from the face of the earth.

Then God uses Ezra to proclaim to the people God's word as

they rediscover his word.

And then he uses Nehemiah to rebuild the walls, govern the

people and lead them in revival.

And, and God raised up during that time also, you'll find them in your Old

Testament, the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi to be an encouragement

and a reminder to worship God and to look forward to the one who would come

as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

So verse 1, we'll run through this.

The word of Nehemiah, the son of Hykelia.

And it came to pass in the month of Chislev.

Which is middle of November to the middle of December and the 20th year.

I was in Shushan the Citadel Shushan Was the winter palace for the king of Persia?

It's where the story of Esther happened and in that winter palace so when It

got too cold to rain at the other place.

They would come to the winter palace where the climate was more agreeable and warmer.

it says, that Hananiah, one of my brethren, came with me, with men from

Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived

the captivity, concerning Jerusalem.

And he wants to know.

as this one came back from Jerusalem, how's it going there?

Tell me about the work.

Because he was still bound to his people.

and so he wants to know what was happening.

And so what was happening is he says in verse three, the survivors who

are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress.

they, we will learn that they're constantly in distress.

being beat on by the enemy that they're constantly being taken advantage of

that any time they begin to work as there had been previous attempts to

rebuild the walls and to rebuild the city the enemy would swipe in because

the enemy wanted them in a place of total control and a place of fear.

They wanted to dictate how they lived their lives.

They wanted to keep them in bondage.

And so the people are in a great distress and in a great reproach.

And, and then the wall of Jerusalem is also broken down and

the gates are burned with fire.

So it was, verse 4, notice, that when I heard these words, that I

sat down and wept, and mourned for many days, I was fasting and praying

before the Lord God of heaven.

Okay, here's something you have to understand.

This is not new information.

It would be one thing if, This just happened all of a sudden it's 586

bc and all of a sudden nehemiah gets this report that the babylonians right

now are Sacking the city and they're they're tearing apart the temple.

they're taking the bricks of the wall They're throwing them down, he'd be

like, oh, I can't believe this is happening In fact, you have that story

in the book of lamentations Where jeremiah looks at jerusalem at the

ruined city and he laments the whole book is about looking and wailing

and crying Oh over the fact that Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed.

But here you have 141 years had gone by.

So all of a sudden, Nehemiah's brother, we see him again, we know it's his

brother because in chapter 7 verse 2, he references him as his brother.

And he says to him, he says, basically, Nehemiah, same old.

Same old.

It's the same.

It's the same it's been from 141 years ago.

Nothing has changed.

It's the same since the last time you asked me.

It's the same since dad asked about it.

It's the same since granddad asked about it.

It's the same, Nehemiah.

It's the same.

What happened to Nehemiah?

Why did he just have that, was that time for him?

What happened to him?

All of a sudden he hears this news and he goes and he shuts the room.

And he begins to cry and he begins to weep and fast.

We know in chapter two that he prayed and prayed on his knees for four months.

What happened to him?

It was not that Nehemiah got new information.

It was at this time that Nehemiah got a new heart.

It was not that Nehemiah got new information, but that

Nehemiah got a new heart.

Old information became alive.

became horrible, became terrible, became disgraceful, became discouraging, became

hard, became grievous, became painful.

All of a sudden something was done in his heart to the point where he,

in essence, got the heart of God.

He got the heart of God.

And

often I look at the city of Stockton, I love hearing stories about it in the past.

I've grown up here since I was six and a half.

A little time to run away to, to, to Modesto and for a season, escape.

But I love hearing the stories of what God's done and the

works that He begins to start.

But so often, The story concludes with the church got comfortable

or this people got comfortable.

They were a work of God began to move and people begin to respond.

That's something quenched it.

And it's amazing how we can live in the thick of something.

350, 000 people here on all kinds of top 10 lists.

The city is.

Sounded like Yoda.

the crime rate.

It's the number two in the nation for, pull, searching porn on your computer.

Number one in foreclosures month after month.

One of the amazing things is you can look at the census report

and 82 percent of the people who live here will always live here.

They don't move.

And you look at the city.

You drive down the street.

You go to Walmart at two in the morning, which is one of my favorite things to do.

It's a whole different world.

It's awesome.

that's the heart of the city.

And you are at stoplights and you look left, you look right, you pass through the

crowds as you, push through, people after people, you wait in line behind them.

They're behind you.

You're surrounded by people who were made in the image of God, people

who God declares in his word that he formed in his mother's womb.

People that he declares are fearfully and wonderfully made.

People that he declares over, I'm willing that none should perish, but

that all should come to repentance.

People who he made to know him.

And we're in the thick of it.

And here we are in this city that's broken down.

Here we are in this city where people go about their lives unto death.

And it's okay.

We find ourselves just in the mix, caught up, hearing the report after year.

How's Stockton?

Oh, she's bad.

And we go on.

How's Stockton?

She's bad.

How's Stockton?

She's bad.

after generation.

And we go about and we get our two cars, our 2.

5 kids.

We make sure everything's dialed and that we're secure, that we're going to heaven.

But we never have a thing.

Thought, or if we did, it never translates into action to the

person who's 50 feet next to us.

Who is on fire?

Who is sitting there?

Wondering, is there more?

Who is in the stupor of sin, blinded to the fact, is there anything more?

And yet we have that coat, we have that water, we have that which

to extinguish the flame, and yet we find that we drink from it

ourselves and keep it to ourselves.

It's so necessary.

It's so necessary.

And this young body is the prayer of this body to be like Nehemiah's

prayer, God, give me your heart.

We know that Nehemiah is a man of prayer.

This is one in nine prayers recorded in the book.

We know this wasn't, he heard this and all of a sudden he begins his prayer life.

This was something that he was consistent.

He has a developed theology about God as we'll see briefly in his prayer.

He knows who God is.

He knows the Bible.

He knows the word.

He knows and he loves the Lord.

But one of the things that were necessary was to get God's heart on this.

That when God called him up to go, to be the one, to rebuild the walls,

to be the catalyst for revival in the city, there needed to be the heart.

Why?

Nehemiah was the cupbearer, as he says in verse 11.

Amen.

It says in verse 11, I was a cupbearer to the king.

Now we might think that was just, Mr.

Belvedere or some butler job.

But the cup bearer was a very incredible position.

And often we see it in Assyrian monuments, how important cup bearers

were, how they would, carry themselves.

They held the cup in their left hand, the wine that the king would drink, and

they held in their right hand a feather.

to keep anything away from him, they were constantly by his side.

It was somebody who had to be trusted.

So trusted that they wore an embroidered napkin across their left shoulder, long

it was tasseled, that they would take in their hands and wipe the king's lips with.

Then, to test to make sure there was no poison, they would take the cup, they

would pour some out of the container into the cup, they would then pour it

out into their left hand, and they would drink from their left hand to make sure

that there was no poison in the cup.

They would then serve the king.

And here was a job that only the king and his most trusted

person would he trust with this.

And here was a place of influence.

You had the ear of the king at all times.

You heard the discussions.

You heard how things were happening.

You knew about this situation and that situation.

And here Nehemiah is going knowingly to trade.

What he was going to trade the palace life for a life in the rubble and in the dust.

He was going to trade a life that was warm and comfortable for a life of

sitting watch on the temple wall at night, not being able to change his clothes.

He was going to trade from the bounty from the king's table, all the food

and all the provisions never wanting to now taking care of 50 and a hundred

people at his table from his own pocket.

He was going to move from the place of absolute care and comfort to the

place where it would be hard, where he would be threatened, where he would

be attempted to be killed and slayed.

Where he would be lied against and slandered against, where once he

held prestige before the courts of the king, the world power at that

time, he would become the focus of all of the enemy's attacks.

And so Nehemiah needed one thing so badly, and that was the heart of God.

Because when the lies came, when the slander came, when the threats,

when these things began to roll in, Where one who is there by duty, who

is there because they felt some duty to the situation could look and could

see the people and could keep going.

He could see their poverty.

He could see their disgrace.

He could see their pain and where the tendency would be to run

back to that which we know best to be comforted in that place.

Once again, he fought.

Because he had a heart for them.

He's very similar, and he points to the one who would come.

Who it says in Hebrews chapter 12 endured the cross, despising the shame

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

for the joy that was set before him.

What was the joy that was set before him?

It was you and me in right relationship with him.

Jesus just didn't roll up and He didn't go, The cross, what?

I'm God.

Come on, bring it on.

You need some help there?

He despised it.

The Lord of glory.

You, Creator, in your own creation, you breathed life into these bodies.

You knew their name before they were even born.

You know how they function.

You gave them their very personality.

You gave them the tongues in which they mock you and lie against you.

You put the very saliva in their mouths in which they hurl at you.

And their spit.

He despised the shame.

He despised being accursed.

He despised being, becoming sin.

But he did it because he looked ahead at you and me.

redeemed and right relationship with him.

And so Nehemiah got God's heart.

And that is a prayer that God answers.

I remember being young and praying for that foolishly.

God, give me your heart.

Break my heart with what breaks your heart.

It's a prayer God answers.

And it wasn't like flipping on a light switch and all of a sudden you're dialed.

But he let me taste it.

And I remember being with a group of friends and, we were talking and

there used to be this one guy who always wore the same jacket and,

we gave him a hard time growing up and feel really awful about that.

We can be pretty brutal with people and, we always made fun of him.

And so I remember being with my group of friends that he rolled up and he

just wanted to be belong to something.

He just wanted to be a part.

And so people began to mock him with their half smiles and, oh, I really like your

jacket and is that new kind of a thing?

Everybody trying not to laugh.

And I remember as I used to participate in the exact same thing, I couldn't

that night and I had to run out.

We're at a church, funny enough, we had to run out.

I had to, and I just started bawling.

I'm like, what's happening?

I'm having a breakdown.

Oh no.

am I a female?

No.

it's So I remember the Lord reminding me, says, you want to know my heart, Kayla,

that we would put down somebody maybe grieves God that we would gossip

about them and make fun of them.

Maybe that grieves the heart of God because God adores them.

God took the blood from his veins and ripped it and spread

it on him just as he did you.

It was nothing better in you.

Nothing.

And we're hearing about a girl on the radio.

I used to listen to talk radio all the time.

My wife hated it.

I'd be like, I know what's wrong with the world.

We just need to, But I remember hearing a story on the news that came on.

The news would come on every hour and it was a story like every other story.

you hear it all the time.

It's the world we live in.

But a little girl in Las Vegas had gone into the bathroom of one

of the restaurants and she was eight years old and a guy followed

her and raped her and killed her.

I had to pull over on the side of the road.

I hear that.

That's, I wanted to be a cop.

that just, you, and I just, oh,

so it breaks God's heart when he sees that.

grieves his heart.

So you mean it grieves his heart when right now in that neighborhood

there's parents who are too high to get their kids breakfast

and they're looking through the cupboards for something to eat.

You mean it breaks God's heart that just down the street about four blocks

Women sell themselves just to make it, just to get bread on the table.

God's daughters, who he called beautiful.

So it breaks God's heart that there are people right now sitting in

church who think that God loves them because they're good and moral,

when they don't even know him.

When he says, I've died for you because you could never be good enough.

And you think because you're just a good person, don't you know your righteousness

is like a filthy garment to me?

Don't you know I died to give you my garment?

And they sit there cold and sterile in their Christianity.

Breaks God's heart.

Breaks God's heart when two of his people who he redeemed, who he made new, who

were born again, so much joy in their life, have begun to look at each other.

They've become bitter and unforgiving to one another.

And he goes, don't you know the forgiveness I offered

you, is it so hard to offer?

Do you not know how much you've been forgiven?

Is it so hard to offer just a little forgiveness?

Don't you know I've forgiven you millions and millions if

you want to take it like that.

And he's, you've got to forgive him ten bucks.

Is it so difficult?

Would you put your eyes on one another?

Would you put your eyes on a church when the world drowns around us?

Does it break God's heart?

Does it break God's heart when we used to get up in the morning

and it used to just be Jesus?

He's amazing.

He's glorious.

He saved me and set me free.

He's beautiful.

There's nothing else in the world like Him.

I was shackled and I was chained in my sin.

I was chained in my religiosity.

I was chained and in bondage.

There was nothing I could do.

I was smothered.

It was like one long breath, and it was like I was going,

and I was going to be gone.

And he reached his hand down into the mire, and he took me and he

brought me up out of that pit.

Oh, how he became beautiful that day.

And it is as it break God's heart that I take those same chains I was

delivered from, and I wrap them around my neck, ready to jump off the side

of a cliff to choke myself once again.

With the things of this world, does it break his heart?

So one of the great prayers that we could pray, beginning this

series, is God give me your heart.

God is my heart not right?

Is it different?

I have to tell you, we look at his prayer.

And, look in verse eight, he says, Remember, I pray the word that

you commanded your servant Moses saying, If you are 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 were cast out to the farthest parts of the heavens, yet I will gather them from

there chosen as a dwelling for my name.

And so he's remembering that covenant that was made to Moses, that

covenant that was always intention.

There's always this beautiful tension in the Old Testament because God said if

you sin, I'm just and I've got a judge But I'm loving, and so I want to bring

you back to myself, and theologians go back and forth, and commentators back and

forth, and they say, God's love overrules His justice, time and time again, but

that can't work, because God is perfect.

He's fully just, and He's fully love.

And so His justice is fully loving, and His loving is fully just.

And how does that happen?

How does it go back and forth?

Because the people are constantly going into sin.

God has said, you go away, I'm gonna write you off.

But then He's redeeming them and bringing them back.

It's because all those things were reconciled because He brought the cross.

They were reconciled at the cross where He judged Jesus for our sin.

That he might give us his love so that he would be declared just and the forgiver of

sins But the thing is that we think okay.

that's old school.

That's old OT or whatever But the thing is that in the New Testament

in Revelation 2 and 3 you've got The churches and one of the things that God

tells the church at Ephesus is he says if you do not Return into that first

love relationship with me If your heart is not mad after me, if I'm not the

center, then what will happen is I have to remove your candlestick or your witness.

So important is the heart of God.

So important is individuals praying, God, give me your heart for this person.

God, let me see through your perspective for the heart of God is simply

the right perspective of the soul.

It is seeing and counting eternity into its equation.

It is counting salvation.

It is counting glorification, it is counting justification and sanctification.

It's taking where once we took and we did, in our equation as we viewed

somebody or something, we said, how does this person impact me in my comfort?

Now the heart of God is taking and adding countless and infinite

resources to the equation.

And then it changes everything.

And so, briefly, he says in verse four, or verse five, So I pray to the Lord

God of heaven, O great and awesome God.

And the, Old King James, it says great and terrible God.

It doesn't mean terrible in the sense of awful, but it means

terrible in the sense of might.

It means in the sense of justice and holiness.

And so what Nehemiah does is he has a proper view of who

God is, that God is loving.

But God isn't just a God where he's just, just, Oh, hey, you get away with

anything you want, that's not love, but that he holds us, accountable to that.

And ultimately that we would see that we could never, ever pay the price.

And so that's why we would call out for Messiah.

That's why we would long for Messiah, as the children of Israel did.

Where they longed future, we would long past.

And we would look and we'd say, we need something greater

than ourselves to redeem us.

So often, our theology informs our lives.

Often I'll hear somebody say, I just feel so condemned by God.

So I'll ask them, are you a believer?

And they'll say, are you a believer?

Yes.

I'll say, you have bad theology.

It's bad theology.

'cause the Bible declares, there's therefore, now no condemnation

to those who are in Christ Jesus.

See, often

we forget the gospel, we forget its impact.

We forget what it is and what it's done in our lives, and we need to constantly fight

for that and applying that to our hearts.

Someone would say, I just can't see how God would forgive me this many times.

that's bad theology because the Bible declares that he's taken our sin as far

as the East is from the West to remember it no more, that where our sins were

scarlet, there'll be white as snow.

So we need to work and make sure that we're seeing things through the gospel,

that he adores us, that he loves us, that he's already done those things for us.

He says.

He says your covenant and mercy with those who love you at the end of verse

five and observe your commandments.

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 for the Children

of Israel, your servants and confess the sins of the Children of Israel,

which they have sinned against you.

Both my father's house and I have sinned.

We've acted very corruptly against you.

And have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which

you commanded your servant Moses.

And so he begins to identify himself in their sins.

Here he was in a place where he's not a part of that.

But he then begins to take responsibility and he begins to say, God, I repent.

I repent on behalf of this because there was somebody standing in the gap.

There was somebody taking responsibility.

There was somebody saying, yes, I repent on behalf of this.

Remember, I pray the word that you commanded your servant, Moses, saying,

if you are unfaithful to you among the nations, but if you return to me, keep

my commandments and do them, though some of you are cast off to the farthest parts

of heavens, yet I will gather them from there and bring them to the place which

I have chosen as a dwelling for my name.

Now these are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your

great power and by your strong hand.

Again, praying for the entire group, not just the Lone Ranger.

God, if you can use me, a thing, but praying for the whole people.

He says, Oh 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.

One of the beautiful things is that he says, this man.

Because in Proverbs it declares that the heart of the king

is in the hand of the Lord.

And he doesn't reference this king, but he's referencing this is a man to you.

You can do what you would.

You can move his heart.

The interesting thing is that years before this very king, has you where he,

had told them not to rebuild the walls.

He had signed a law and a decree saying stop the work, and you find that in Ezra.

And the walls, or Artaxerxes, excuse me, the walls had been rebuilt.

Stopped.

And, and so he says, for I was the King's cupbearer.

And so what he's going to do and is that he looks, he

goes, God, it's in your hands.

I trust you.

He begins to pray over and over and over and over for God to work and for God to

move because he understands that God has ordained prayers the means to get things

done, to further the kingdom of his work.

But one of the great things about prayer.

Is that in prayer, what happens is that's exactly where you get his heart.

And so when you have his heart, instead of just praying and saying, God, raise

up missionaries, God, raise up people for Stockton, God, raise up and do this.

Pretty soon your prayers change from that to God.

How would you use me in Stockton?

God, how would you use me in this city?

God, how would you use me?

God, I'm not adequate.

What could you use one such as I God, how would you use me at work?

Pretty soon you're up in the morning and you're praying and

you're saying, God, thank you for giving me this mission field.

Thank you for the people I work with.

Thank you for what you're doing in Joe's heart.

And how, he's asking questions.

God, give me your wisdom that I might represent you properly.

Pretty soon it's not God, do this for this.

But pretty soon it's God, use me in this.

Because when the heart of God, it's always borne out.

And that the feet of God are also given.

That the mind of Him, and the hands of Him, and the ears of

Him, that it's not just a heart that He gives, but an entire body.

Because He puts His heart in something that functions, that's

something that breathes, that's something that beats for His purposes.

So that one doesn't just sit back and say, someone else will do it, the pastors

will do it, my friends will do it.

But they raise up and they say, God, allow me to do it, by Your

grace and by Your strength.

Let me step with boldness.

Let me walk.

Walk with power.

Let me walk with wisdom and authority.

Use me.

There's no doubt that people are on fire in this city.

The end of that story goes that

he went to his interview and he sat there and the lady

said, Oh, it smells like beer.

And he explained the story and her response was, you should have changed.

Are we so different?

We have to be careful as a church.

Hear me out on this.

When we're on the front lines, it's like a hospital.

Things get dirty.

Things happen.

And we can be so quick to stand back and to go, Oh, I can't believe that happened.

I can't believe someone would fall like that.

I can't believe they're over at their house when it's

exactly where Jesus would be.

Make no mistake, the city blazes and it's in rubble,

and the walls are broken down, and the enemy has access, and God would raise up a

group for such a time as this, to stand in the gap, because the walls of God aren't

actual physical bricks, but His people, standing with arms lifted in praise.

And worship to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords to put on

display the goodness of God in their lives and effectual and fervent and

passionate love for one another.

And pretty soon people will be able to worship God.

They'll see him and God will redeem them.

But the question is, will you pray that?

If I could have the team come up.

I would never want you guys to hear a study.

And for you to hear from the study, alright, this is what's needed, now do it.

We always have to look to the gospel to be our strength and to be our motivation.

Because if we just leave here and we just go, okay.

Got to get the heart of God.

Come on, give it to me.

Come on, let's do this thing.

Come on.

Yeah, I love people.

Much too many say kind of thing.

our spiritual Christianity becomes like snapping into a Slim Jim or something.

We're just

in Romans chapter nine, verse one to three, Paul, the apostle wrote and he

said, I tell you the truth in Christ.

And when the apostles writing inspired by the Holy Spirit and he says, I tell you

the truth, he wants you to know something.

He says, I'm not lying.

So double.

Because what he's going to say, he's going to make a statement

that sounds far fetched.

He says, my conscience also bearing me witness.

So three times, he says, what I'm saying, I'm not exaggerating.

I'm not like being just a preacher right now and going for, effect.

He is saying, you have to know my heart.

He says that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.

For I could wish that I myself were cursed from Christ for my brethren.

Amen.

For my countrymen, according to the flesh, he straight says, I'm in the place.

I want you to know where my heart is, and that is that I would be accursed.

I would take their place.

I would go to hell.

If my brothers and my sisters could come to know Jesus, his heart was

so great for the people that he ministered to, but it was only great

because he looked to the one who.

Had been accursed.

with Jesus, it wasn't a matter of, I could do this, or I have this heart,

but God, as he looked down at humanity, crying out to him for a deliverer,

crying out for freedom, what did he do?

He didn't just sit on his throne and go, ah, that's tough,

that's rough, that's crazy.

But what did he do?

He said, I will be accursed for you.

I will be accursed, and he went to the tree, the cross of Calvary for us,

and he took on him our sin, and God judged him for our sin, and he gave

us his righteousness in his place.

That we might be in right relationship like the Garden of Eden that we might

be brought into that giving Relationship and so Christ has already done it And

so when you draw near to Christ when you see that he's been accursed for you

It becomes a beautiful thing him in you Even in your sinful condition knowing

everything about you that he would say I will go for you I will go for you because

you were the joy that was set before him and so that motivates your heart and

worship and you go Lord, you're amazing You're loving and you draw near to him

because he's beautiful because he's great and because he's glorious And so

it's not a matter of working and trying to do It's a matter of drawing close to

God as Nehemiah did and getting on your knees Not because we have to pray to get

in our time, but because He is glorious, and we can't wait to spend time with Him.

And pretty soon as we draw near to Him, as we begin to devote

our lives to Him, it's like Mary, we wash His feet with our tears.

As we worship at His feet every morning, He makes us and He fits us for His heart.

That happens.

It doesn't happen any other way.

It does not happen any other way.

if you don't know Jesus, you're on fire and He came to put you out.

That's it.

It's just the truth of it.

And He's the only one who can.

And all you have to do is believe in Him.

Talk to us.

We've got people over here who love to talk to you about that and pray with you.

You need to know Him.

He came to set you free.

Sometimes I feel a banquet could be prepared for you.

And you'd smell it, and it smells good into the hungry soul.

What is like a food?

But you never take a bite, and so you've smelled it, but you've left even more

hungry, because you've never taken a bite.

Take a bite today.

If Jesus,

would you pray for his heart?

But would you not just today go, Lord, give me your heart, if you want to.

And then walk away and go about life as usual.

Could you maybe Maybe see Jesus is beautiful.

Maybe see him as your passion and your heart's desire.

And maybe even, start to go to him every day and desire just to be near him.

To say thank you.

To begin to worship him and to give to him.

For the breath in your lungs, the saliva on your tongue, the tongue.

whatever's the barrier.