Realties of serving God

Now, I'm so excited about this series, and I'm excited about a big new.

Are you ready?

Multi-purpose center.

Amen.

Come on.

You gotta go back, in fact, next week, right after our service.

Next week.

Oh, that's huge.

And what I was seeing, the wall builders, next, if we were already in there, the stage is gonna be huge.

I can already see the walls being built on that big stage with each big block we would bring in, and each block would have a name of how it related to the church and how it relates to you.

So it's coming, folks, because I wanted to just ease your uh yeah.

I know you pull in and you see a for sale sign out front.

What's going on?

Where are we going?

Well, we're going over the Jordan.

Can I get an amen?

That's where we're going.

We're going over the Jordan.

This is a this is a vision and a dream and a just an unbelievable gift that God's given to us and gave to David and me many, many years ago.

Next week could be eight years.

Eight years, folks.

We started this church with four of us sitting way back there, right there.

It's just been a blessing.

It's been a joy.

It's been an excitement, encouraging time, and we're getting ready to make that move.

And uh hopefully I was in there.

And now here's what we're gonna do next week after the service for you that would like to.

I know you got the uh you got a wana at 2.30, but we're gonna just go over after the service next week, and we're gonna go into the gym, and and I know we won't hold hands, but you can visualize holding hands.

And uh we're just gonna pray.

We're just gonna pray.

In fact, we're gonna start doing a lot between now and the time we open, and hopefully enough.

I'd love to see us in there.

Maybe we won't be totally finished, but I'd love to see us do Friends Day in the new building.

Even if we had to set up chairs and portable sound system just to get our people excited.

So that's kind of our goal.

That's what we're pushing for.

But anyway, and don't worry about all the other stuff.

We're we're working fervently.

Uh Bob's leading the team again, and we we got plans being built uh for uh just a lot of things, possibly another building, uh two.

Uh so there's just a lot going on right now.

We need your prayers, and I'm gonna really be, I'm not, I'm gonna go ahead and get in the message because I'm gonna be talking about a lot of that in the message today about how important prayer is.

We've got a major election coming up.

Major.

We've got to be praying and fasting and weeping over the land.

We got major problems in our land today.

We got division in our land today.

We've got to pray for God to intervene if my people, which you call by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, seek my face, turn from their wicked ways.

And let me tell you why I know prayer works.

Are you ready for I'm about to have a running spell before I get started, but let me tell you why.

Last week, when we called Jason Neely down here and we prayed for Jason, it was supposed to take three or four days in the hospital, it took one day.

He got all the cancer out.

Hey, I talked about I was visiting with him Tuesday.

He was talking to me almost clearly, and they said he probably couldn't talk clearly for two weeks, and we knew that'd kill Jason.

But uh, but but he was fine drinking a milkshake right there Tuesday when we visited with him, and not only that, he led a young man to the Lord while he was in the recovery room.

Amen.

Don't tell me my God's not an awesome God, and my God works.

And I told you from the very beginning of this virus and everything, just don't let fear encompass you and overcome you because greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.

He's gonna lead us through.

Not only will he take us through, he'll walk through it with us, and he already is.

And it's exciting to see.

I'm telling you, I've been here before, and we're gonna talk about that today as you turn with me in your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 2.

Nehemiah 2 · chapter mention

Nehemiah chapter 2.

Nehemiah 2 · chapter mention

I'm man, I'm so excited.

I was just telling, like I said, Benji, there's more preachers all over the country in this area preaching now in the book of Nehemiah.

And I realize why?

Because it relates to what's going on right now.

Let me tell you what's going on.

Let me give you the synopsis.

Well, how does this book relate to what's going on in America today?

Because in the book of Nehemiah, God had called Nehemiah back to Jerusalem to rebuild basically the city.

The temple had been rebuilt, the walls were down, there was no protection, they were desolate, they were depressed, they were discouraged, and they needed for God to divinely intervene, and he chose a man of God named Nehemiah, put the burden on his heart, and hey, then was given permission by the unbelieving king to go back, and not only to go back, he gave him protection and he gave him provisions to do the job for God.

Now let me tell you something.

Right now in America, and what what the the uh Tobias and the Sembalates and the Geshim, what they were trying to do is they hated the Jews, they hated God, and they hated anything that the Jews and God stood for, and they were suppressing them greatly.

And today we've got a what?

War going on in America right now to try to suppress God, do away with God.

We've already tried to throw God out of our school system.

Now we're trying to throw God out of our churches.

Folks, it ain't gonna work.

Ain't gonna work.

And I said ain't in purpose on purpose.

Amen?

So that's the same situation.

Tobias comes back.

They thought they had won because they had tried to build, rebuild Jerusalem 12 years prior to that.

And guess what?

Sambalans, the same uh Gresham, and Tobias, they all stepped in.

These are governors of providences of the north, the south, and the west, and they suppressed it, and now they're trying again.

But this time there's a major difference.

God's in it.

And if God's in it, get out of the way.

In fact, you better not try to stop it.

So that's kind of the context as we start in Nehemiah chapter 2.

Nehemiah 2 · chapter mention

And I love this.

Everyone, does everybody have an outline?

Anybody does not have an outline?

Raise your hand.

Anyone?

Oh, we're out.

Okay, we're out.

All right, good.

That's a good problem.

I love it.

I love it.

But now watch this.

Thank you.

You got your part.

My water boys, my cupbearers here.

Amen.

Between you and David.

Hey, David was gone last week.

I gotta have my water.

But now watch this.

This is exciting as we get started.

One of the, I think, refreshing marks of young people.

Let me tell you why I love you young people so much.

Young pastors.

The idealism, the excitement.

I can remember when God called me.

I can remember being in a conference at Liberty University and hearing W.A.

Criswell, and most of you don't even know who he is, but he was an unbelievable, godly man that pastored the first Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, for 50 years.

He preached through the Bible in that church, I think, 15 times, verse by verse, chapter by chapter.

He was an unbelievable man of God and believed in the word of God.

And he was preaching, the word of God will stand.

And he said, God will use you with, hey, if you stand on this book, young preachers, and I was graduating.

I was my grad, he was our graduation speaker.

And I'll never forget, I never forget.

I went into the bath out.

Well, we went to the uh altar, and and several of us, my buddies that were in school with me, we prayed, God, use this, use this.

And I'd just been called to go to uh Tuscaloosa to take over a church that was only two years old with about 30 people.

And I said, Oh, God, use this, use this, and I'll never forget.

I walked in the bathroom and and God had so gripped my heart, and I was in the stall, and I was, I just closed the door so I could just pray, and I was praying and weeping, and then I walked out, and there was a couple of older pastors standing there, and they said to me, Young man, I'm excited about your enthusiasm, but let me be realistic with you.

This you're headed for war.

And I thought to myself, well, if God be for me, who can be against me?

And that's so true.

But after about five years, actually about two years, when the honeymoon wore off, and Sister Fluffy Head and Deacon Potato Head showed up.

Sam Ballots, Tobias, Yeshums, they're in every church.

That's him.

I realized that my idealism now became realistic.

Now I understood what they're talking about.

You're in a war.

You're in a battle.

Anytime God calls you, listen to me.

Anytime God calls you to do something great for God, Satan's gonna rear his head and attack you.

Now, a lot of times, church, you will not even hear about it.

Because I'm not gonna bore you with those things.

I'm not gonna discourage you with those things.

But the leadership knows.

We fight battles every day.

And in fact, God interrupted me this morning because next week, the title of the message was gonna be chapter three, How to Accomplish God's Purpose Through Workers.

Oh, it's a great chapter.

But you know what he told me?

And he told me this earlier while I was studying this past month.

But I said, no, I don't want to do that.

I don't need to do that.

But he said, this morning, you're gonna do this.

He says, so next week, sitting right there a while ago, I submitted.

Next week, you're gonna meet Sam Ballot, Tobias, and Geschel.

We're gonna describe them biblically.

You're gonna hear about them today.

But next week, you're gonna see them.

So you don't want to miss next week.

But that said, the idealism.

Hey, have you heard this?

Have you heard this before?

Murphy's Law.

If anything can go wrong, ask Paul about this building.

Literally.

Ask Darren.

The guys that's been in charge, and Bob even, of helping build what God's called us to build.

We know this is what God wants.

I mean, there's been problems after problems after problems, and I apologize to Paul because it acted like I was throwing him under the bus.

Because it wasn't his fault.

I've been every step with him, and we've had meetings with the mayors and everybody that we needed to.

And all I'm just saying was this build, we ought we might have could have been in the building already if it wasn't for that sand ballot, Tobias, and Gesham.

He called these people by name.

I did.

Hello?

They want to stop what God's doing.

You better listen, church, because we're right in the middle of this.

We're right in the middle of it.

Poor old David.

I don't know how many problems he's had with the water to the field.

And we're not gonna bore you with that.

But it's been problem after problem after problem.

And I know what you're thinking, but that's just coincidence.

I got a Greek word for that.

Baloney.

I got a word that name.

But God.

Amen.

So, have you ever heard this one?

The other line.

Hey, have you ever been in a line in cars?

Oh, I'm fixing to get in the flesh, but I won't, I promise.

And especially on the expressway, and all of a sudden there's a wreck, there's traffic, or they're working on the road, and your line stops, the other line starts moving.

So the first thing you want to do is get another line.

By the time you get in another line, the line you're in takes off, and you're still sitting there.

Anybody ever done that?

I love to wait.

Yeah.

I'll ride ten miles out of the way just to keep moving.

But that's what we're talking about.

Things don't always go smoothly, even when we have prayed about it.

Following Jesus is not guaranteed a trouble-free life.

What happens to a lot of young Christians and young Christians that go into the ministry, they think, man, God's on my side.

I'm excited.

God's going to help me.

It's going to be wonderful.

Everybody's going to be happy.

And we're all going to live happily ever after.

I'll never forget.

Anybody read Linus cartoons?

Snoopy.

Y'all remember Snoopy?

That was my favorite.

Peanuts.

All of them.

Yes, all of them.

You remember what he used to say?

Linus made this profound statement.

He says, I love the excitement of the whole world, but I just don't like the people in it.

How many pastors have I canceled over my 40 plus years of ministry?

That said, Pastor, I love the ministry.

I love preaching.

I just don't like the people.

Now he wasn't talking about you.

Let me tell you who he's talking about.

Tobiah.

And guess what?

And you're going to meet those three people next week.

It's going to be exciting.

Unless you happen to be one.

And then you're going to be a mask.

And by the way, I have been a sandbag.

That'll help you.

I've been one.

I really have.

And I have a tendency every once in a while to be one again.

So we're all guilty.

Can I get out on me?

So we see that Nehemiah 2, chapter 2, has some helpful insights on the realities of serving God.

Nehemiah was doing God's will, but it wasn't all smooth and rosy.

In fact, what we're going to, you're going to see the rest of the book, is how he hand, how he led people to rebuild and accomplish an unbelievable feat of building the whole wall around Jerusalem a mile and a half in 52 unbelievable days, but the whole time he had, hey, he had a sword in one hand and a what, a hammer or whatever you want to call it in the other.

It was constantly fighting battles as they built the wall.

Or difficulties.

Let's not say battles, let's say difficulty.

And it's very teachable.

Nehemiah faced real problems, but he moved through them with great accomplishments.

Can I get an amen?

That's awesome.

In fact, let me say something after 40 years.

I think it's the major difficulties that you and I go through that mature us to the point that we're able to handle the next difficulty, hey, with more precision, more insight, more direction than the one previously.

That is, if we listen to God and mature, can I get an amen?

If not, we end up doing the same thing again.

We keep taking the test till we pass.

Can I get an amen?

Trust me, I know.

So here we go.

To serve God realistically, we must learn to wait on Him, work with people, and then wrestle wisely with problems.

So let's look at the first one.

Number one, to serve God realistically, we must learn to wait on Him.

From chapter one to chapter two, there is a period of four months.

Four months has gone by.

That's unbelievable.

Four months.

And it shows us that four months elapsed between the time that Nehemiah heard the report of Jerusalem until his opportunity to speak to the king.

Now during this time, Nehemiah was so burdened by the news that we see in Nehemiah 1, 4 and 5.

We saw that last week.

He wept.

Hey, he prayed, he fasted, and he mourned.

And let me remind you: he that goeth forth weeping and mourning, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his years with him.

In other words, he sees what God's laid on his heart because he's been burdened and he's praying and he's fasting, that it is accomplished.

That's exciting to me.

So we see that.

And by the way, compared to, now for some of us, four months would be an eternity.

I know Paul kept.

When I'd call, I know what Paul would be thinking.

Preacher's gonna ask me.

Aren't they working on the building?

I mean, I'm impatient.

I want, I'm actually, I'm a very patient person if God could do it by tomorrow.

Anyone else like that?

My wife just skits me on that.

Honey, it's okay.

It's not okay.

I want it done now.

Compared to the men in the Bible whom God used, four months was pretty short.

Abraham over 25 years, Joseph over 13 years, Israel was enslaved 400 years, Moses spent 40 years in the desert.

God used him to bring Israel out of Egypt.

The nation spent 40 more years in the wilderness.

David spent his whole 20s running from Saul.

I did not fall.

So, I mean, we see it's really a pretty short time.

Paul, after Call spent three years in the back side of the Arabian desert, being taught by God Himself.

So those whom God uses must learn to wait on him.

Be still and know that he's God.

Psalms 46, 10.

Isaiah 40, 31, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not quit.

So, look at the three things Nehemiah did while he was waiting.

First of all, A, while waiting, Nehemiah prayed.

The prayer that we looked at last week in chapter 1, verses 5 through 11 was not a one short deal.

It is a summary of what Nehemiah.

Prayed over and over again during the four months as the burden for God's glory and God's people in Jerusalem weighed heavily upon him.

Throughout the book, if you looked at it, we see no less than 11 times in 13 chapters, he's crying out to God for guidance and for help, for protection and for provisions.

Eleven times.

So many of these are just sentenced prayers like the one here in verse 4.

Look at what he says.

Then the king said unto him, For what dost thou make request?

So I prayed to the God of heaven.

In other words, he wasn't expecting this to be asked of him at that time.

They were having a supper.

In fact, the queen was there.

Do you realize that's the only place in this whole book the queen is mentioned?

That tells me when God needs something at the right place at the right time, every time it's there.

The queen needed to be there to make the king a little more sensitive.

Hello.

Ladies, you don't know how good you are to controlling your husband or your man.

She was there because she and the king both loved Nehemiah.

You know why they love Nehemiah?

Because he had character.

He had character and he had competence.

He was one of the best he had ever had.

Now that let me tell you something.

You want to be elevated by God, you have character and you have competence, and you put God first, you'll be used by God.

Amen.

So she was there at the right place because God knew that he was going to give the opportunity to Nehemiah to ask the question.

And he's been waiting four months for the right time.

Praying for the right time for four months.

Okay?

You got it?

That brought 1 Peter 3:15.

1 Peter 3:15

Always be ready to give an answer to the hope that lies in you.

Can I get an amen?

Nehemiah was ready.

So we see this.

And that we see verse 4 reflects that in any and every situation, Nehemiah looked to God in prayer.

He is an example of the man who prayed without ceasing in 1 Thessalonians 5.17.

He's the man that fits the description when Jesus said men ought to always pray and not to quit, not to faint.

Luke 18, 1.

He was the description of Psalms 55, 17, who was David himself that woke up, that didn't wake up.

Well he woke up in the morning and prayed, but at noon he prayed, and at night he prayed three times a day.

Now, folks, we've got to get back to that kind of praying to see God move in America today.

Can I get an amen?

We need to be, I hey, hey, I'm gonna challenge you.

Start getting people to pray with you.

Start coming over.

I'm gonna, hey, start coming over to this building and going inside the building.

You don't have to wait for me to tell you to.

Come over here.

You got a lunch break or you want to come in under the pavilion and just eat there and walk in the building and just pray.

Start praying around the uh, you know, we circle that land seven times.

It's about time to circle.

I think we may do that next Sunday.

We may circle that building seven times.

Bring your walking shoe.

And we'll do it inside so you won't get too hot.

Or we're gonna second, we're gonna walk it seven times.

And we're just gonna cry down God.

We're gonna be walking and praying.

Woo! God's giving it to me now.

We're just gonna be walking, we won't be worrying about holding hands.

We're just gonna walk the inside of that building and pray, God.

You can pray out loud, you can tell your testimony, what God's done in your life through the church.

We're just gonna have we're just gonna walk and pray.

Can I get a come on, get excited about it?

Praying is the hardest thing for most Christians to do.

You know that?

It's the hardest thing for me to do.

I can study the word six, seven hours and never get up but go to the bathroom.

But you get me praying, I need somebody to pray with me.

I can pray about 35, 40 minutes, pray pretty good.

But after that, I'm all right, let's go do something.

Let's go make it happen.

Now, let's go make happen what I just prayed about.

We can make our plans, but the Lord directs our steps.

Can I get an amen?

Proverbs 16, 9.

The king's heart.

Let me tell you what I love.

The king's heart is in the hands of the Lord as the rivers of water.

He turns it withersoever he will.

Proverbs 21:1.

Proverbs 21:1

Listen to me.

You can change people's heart by praying for them directly.

You got a problem with people, start praying about their hearts.

I got about five people right now.

I'm praying so hard that God will change their hearts.

I meant fervently.

And God just laid, he said, You, you know, you lift them up.

Oh, why don't you bless?

Why don't you bless him?

And he bless his business.

But I'm talking about, I'm praying fervently now.

You know, Lord, what this needs to happen.

You know.

Please, Lord, please.

You want that prodigal to come home?

You better start praying like you've never prayed before.

I believe that.

Or God's word would be a lie.

We just we don't put the time in that we need to put the time in.

There's got to be the greatness of sorrow and the greatness of a burden.

That's what changed Nehemiah.

He had a heaviness.

I've got a heaviness right now for these three or four people I'm praying for.

I really do.

I'm burdened.

Oh, God, change them.

I'm burdened for America right now.

If we don't have a burden and start praying our hearts out and praying and weeping and fasting, our kids will not grow up in the freedom of America that we did.

We're in war, folks, we're right and wrong.

B.

While he was waiting, Nehemiah developed patience.

Waiting reveals our impatience and teaches us to be patient.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance, self-control.

There's nothing to compare.

Now let me tell you what God taught me.

I've quoted that verse a hundred times.

Saying that we need to be patient.

We need to be the characteristics of the one singular fruit of the Spirit in that verse.

But God took me, let me tell you where God took me.

Because we're talking about waiting, being patient.

He took me to Psalms 1-3.

And he says, Ye shall be like a tree.

Now watch this.

And when he says like a tree, a tree that's its roots are down deep into that rich soil.

I mean its nutrients are just coming through with all the nutrients power and it's just grounded.

It can't be moved.

It's nourishing, it's blooming, it's blossoming.

Like a tree planted by the rivers of water.

You know what that means?

It's got so much nutrition and nutrients that it can't help but be and produce unbelievable fruit.

You got that with me?

That's important.

Now watch this.

Then it brings forth fruit in his season, whose leaf will not wither.

Uh-oh, here's the key.

His season.

See if Nehemiah, once he had got the burden, had a rust in to the king.

And ask him then.

It wasn't God's season.

It wasn't God's time.

Four months later, when God knew it was right, he had prepared the king's heart.

Why did he prepare the king's heart?

That's all Nehemiah prayed for for four months, day and night.

Day and night.

See the persistency?

The consistency?

Day and night.

And then all of a sudden, hey, it brought four fruit.

See, while waiting, Nehemiah planned.

The chapter shows that Nehemiah had been doing a lot of advanced thinking and planning.

When the king asked how long he would be gone, Nehemiah didn't vaguely say, Well, that's up to the Lord.

He gave him a definite time.

In fact, chapter 5, verse 14, we'll see he spent 12 years.

Now, now, he didn't say, what the scripture doesn't tell us is how long he was gone.

Now, a lot of the theologians, and I kind of feel this way too, he probably was gone and we figured it out.

We know that it took him about four and a half months to five months to accomplish the building of the walls, building, uh, and then rebuilding with 52 days and then the city.

Probably about five months.

So I think, this is just what I think, and a lot of other theologians think this too, that he probably, after he got everything built, built his own house, then he returned to the king, and we know the king loved him and wanted him back because the first question the king and the queen both asked, how long are you gonna be gone?

Okay?

They loved him.

And he didn't say, Well, I don't know.

That would be showing incompetence.

Remember, he's competent.

So I think probably he came back after the wall was built, the most of the town built, and came back and shared his heart again about what was going on and everything, and then we know what happens.

He goes and he ends up staying 12 years and becomes the governor of Jerusalem.

So, again, it was in God's time.

God's time.

Prayer and planning.

It was awesome.

And we see not only did Nehemiah give the king a definite time, but he also laid out some definite requests, verse 7 and 8, that showed that he had been praying.

He said, Hey, I need letters to the governors.

Guess who the governors are?

Ha ha.

Send by that.

Tobias, yes him, the ones that want, hey, that would have locked him up the moment he got there.

And he said, and I also needed a letter to the guy that's over the whole forest, so I can get the wood I need to rebuild the walls and to build the buildings in Jerusalem I need to build.

He had already thought through this.

He had planned.

He was ready.

He was ready.

Proverbs, I love what Proverbs, are you ready for this?

21.15 says, Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but shortcuts lead to poverty.

Somebody say amen.

You need to memorize that verse, Proverbs 21, 15.

Jesus said in Luke 14 that when you get ready to build whatever God tells you to build, you got to sit down and count the cost.

We have done that.

We've counted the cost.

We always count the cost.

I remember when we were gonna count the cost about the dirt, and I'll never forget, people kind of looked at me funny.

I said, We're not paying a half a million dollars for dirt.

We'll pray for dirt.

Yeah, I know.

See, I know, yeah.

I'll tell you what, I woke up praying for dirt.

I was eating every day, praying for dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt.

Every time I went out there, I said, Lord, fill this valley.

We need dirt, we need dirt.

I got news for you.

The trunks didn't make I saw three trucks just two days ago coming in with dirt.

They still bringing dirt.

Hello! That's a lot of dirt.

That's a lot of dirt.

Someone said fifteen things.

What does that mean?

A lot of dirt!

Woo! Don't tell me my God's not awesome.

My God's an awesome God.

Proverbs 20, 18 says, plans are established by counsel.

We thank God for our leadership in this church and our building team.

We got some of the best men and women.

God, thank you.

This is not our show.

It's God's show.

But we want to make sure we do exactly what God wants.

Make it God-centered, as I said last week, not men.

Man-centered.

Amen.

That's why he's provided.

Do you realize churches?

I've had seeing churches, closed churches, a major financial problem, the whole kind of going on because of this virus and this epidemic.

But I got news for you.

We have not had to suffer that because God has so blessed this church and we're debt-free.

And God knows that we got one objective, one purpose, one goal, and that's to be a light for Him in this community.

Nothing more, nothing less.

They don't go against each other.

Number two, to serve God realistically, we must learn to work with people.

I'm serious.

But the ministry involves people.

Let me show you three types of people.

Nehemiah learned to work with.

I don't care what business you're in, this is gonna help you.

Number one.

He learned how to work with an unbelieving king.

Nehemiah chapter 2, verses 2 through 5.

Nehemiah 2:2–5

That was an especially difficult situation where the king was.

Now you gotta let me tell you why it was difficult.

Because the king in Ezra 4.21 had already stopped the building of any kind of building in Jerusalem.

He said, Nobody else is gonna build unless I command.

That was important when you read Ezra 4.21.

He didn't say never again, because if you study Daniel, if a king said something, he never reversed it.

But he said, You're gonna stop the building until I command.

It's in the scripture.

So that was an important statement there.

Most people mislook or overlook.

So now here he is, he's fixing to deal with that the king had already listened to the Persian kings, Sambalat and Tobias, and Gresham, and stopped it, said, We're not going to do any more.

It's causing too many problems.

So he knew that was the situation.

And the first thing, if you notice, he didn't run in there and say, hey, king, I need to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls and the whole town.

That's not what he said.

That's not what he said.

How did Nehemiah do it?

First of all, he prayed, Proverbs 21:1, God had softened the king's heart and king's the king's respect for his competence and his character and his verbal witness.

Proverbs 21:1

But here it was, write this word down.

Nehemiah was tactful and sensitive in how he spoke to the king, verse 3, and said unto the king, let the king live forever.

He honored the king first.

Why should not my countenance be sad when this city, the place of my father's sepulchres, a laid waste and the gates there are consumed with fire?

In other words, you know what he did?

He went right to what the king would be sensitive about.

His fathers, his forefathers, all the kings knew about their fathers being buried and honored.

It was an honorable thing.

He honored the king and then brought honor to the death of his future relative.

It wasn't asking the king to do something immediately.

Now let me tell you what God gave me.

I wished they'd given it to me so I could, but you need to write down.

T-A-C-T.

What does that spell?

All right, let me give you a cross stick that God gave me a couple of mornings ago, what tack is.

I was sharing this with Rick and Steve the other day.

I want you to think about what tack could mean to you.

But here's what it meant to me and what I think it meant in Nehemiah.

One, temperance.

Patience.

Temperance.

Patience.

A in the word tack.

Ask questions.

C carefully.

In other words, ask questions carefully and sensitively.

Is that not good?

And then T, always be truthful.

Always be truthful.

That's tact.

Temperate.

Ask questions carefully, sensitively, and always be truthful.

That's good.

That's real good.

So we see that he was tactful and sensitive.

B.

Look at the second type of people he dealt with.

Demoralized believers.

Notice he didn't run into the city when he got there and said, okay, big meeting.

Come here.

Come gather together.

I'm going to tell you exactly what we're going to do and how we're going to do it.

If he'd have done that, they had already been, hey, demoralized.

It says they've been reproached, they're discouraged.

They had already been shut down.

But you know what he did?

He was patient and took three days and assessed the situation personally.

Even to the point it was so bad that he couldn't even ride his horse or mule through parts of it.

He had to get off and walk through the rubble.

Then he brought the people together.

The demoralized people.

He brought them together.

They had lost hope.

I love what he said.

Notice verse 17.

He said, You see the bad situation we are in that Jerusalem is desolate and the gates burned by.

He didn't say it's your problem, he said it's our problem.

Can I say something, every one of us here, covenant members of CCW?

When we have a church problem, it's all our problem.

It's not just my problem, it's not just your problem, it's our problem.

We're family.

Can I get an amen?

He identified with them immediately.

This is no time to try to point the blame.

It's time to go to work.

They all knew that, and then look at what he says.

He says, and I love this, he also identified himself with them in the problem.

It wasn't their problem, it was his problem.

Hey, but then he appealed to a need that they all felt.

Look at verse 17, that we may no longer be a reproach.

They all knew that a defenseless Jerusalem was a joke to the surrounding neighbors.

So they sensed right here, verse 10, that Nehemiah had come to seek their welfare.

And finally he told them how God already had been Fabral, how God, didn't you know what he started doing to build their hope?

He started telling them how God had already worked with the king, how the king had already signed letters, he had permission, the governors couldn't stop him, he had the provisions, the provisions couldn't stop him.

And next thing they know, they say, Whew! We got home.

And then they said, let's rise and let's build.

Leadership has been defined as the art of getting people to do what they ought to do because they want to do.

I can do whatever I want when I want to.

That's not what he said.

Man, this gets me excited.

I really had never thought about it until I went back and just really saw this truth.

And here's what he said.

Look at what he said.

Ha ha.

He didn't use the cloud of the king's letter, but rather spiritual clout.

The God of heaven will give us success.

Can I get an amen?

The God of heaven, let's arise and build.

The enemy will say, let's arise and stop them.

There's no winning without working and warring.

There's no opportunity without opposition.

A godly leader must have the discernment to know when to work with people and when to confront and oppose them.

There's no blessing without bleeding.

Thus, to serve God realistically, you must learn to wait on Him, to work with people.

And then finally, about another five minutes.

To serve God realistically, we must learn to wrestle with profit.

Verses 17 through 20.

Anytime you try doing anything significant for God, there will be profit.

1 Peter 4 12, count it not strange concerning the fiery trial that are gonna try you.

2 Timothy 3 12, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

I like what Nehemiah did.

Watch.

Nehemiah did not gloss over the problem.

He describes it to the people, hey, as a bad situation.

That's what the word means there.

It's desperate.

It's desperate.

Nehemiah realistically saw the problem and, as we will see, broke it down into manageable units in order to get the job done.

I thought about that.

Notice what he did first.

Nehemiah answered.

He said, We have verse 20, faith in God.

Look at verse 20.

This is so good.

Oh, is this so good?

Look at it.

Then he answered them and said unto them, the God of heaven, he will prosper us.

First, when we look at verse 17, look what he did.

Well, first of all, but then look at the next thing.

The fairness, hey, excuse me, the firmness of the purpose.

Look at verse 20, the second thing.

Look, he first of all, I wrote this down actually this morning.

He said, We got faith in God, and then look what he said.

The God of heaven, he will prosper us.

Therefore, with his servants, we'll rise and build.

There it is.

There it is.

The purpose.

The purpose.

The firmness of the purpose.

We're going to rebuild the walls.

We're going to rebuild the city.

And then look.

And then I love what he does next.

Watch this.

This is awesome.

But ye have no portion, nor right, nor more, nor memorial in Jerusalem.

You know what he told Sambalat, Tobias, and Gashem?

And you're not going to have anything to do with it, and you can't stop it.

You know what I saw?

See?

Tobias is Sambalat?

Gashem, they're scorners.

We'll give you a preview of it next week.

And you know what the ultimate solution to a scorner, if they don't repent and get right with God, as you pray.

Cast out the scorner.

Contention to a sea.

Proverbs 22.10.

He didn't even give them a chance to get in.

He already knew.

He had done his homework.

He knew they were going to try to stop it.

They had stopped it before.

He didn't even let them get in.

So I close.

Notice, verse 17, he presented the problem, the need, the burden to the people.

Secondly, he challenged the people to action, commitment, verse 17.

And then, verse 18, he gave his personal testimony.

God is with me and with us.

Can I tell you from the moment I drove on this parking lot?

To the moment I asked Benji to become the music director.

There were four of us that knew God was here, God was in it.

God had already provided the building, everything through David, Christie.

And then we watched God in every situation.

We started looking for land.

We looked all over Chelsea.

We looked all over Westover.

And then God woke me up and laid that 90 acres on my heart back here.

And not only did he lay it on my heart, he told me what he was going to, how we were going to get it.

We were going to raise at least 250,000.

And the guy was going to come down off his price of 800,000 to half a million.

We were going to raise half a million, and he was going to finance the other half a million.

In the morning he called me and said, Preacher, meet me over there at the land.

I want to say, I'm going to sell you some of that.

We've been talking about just buying 10 acres.

He says, God wouldn't let me sleep last night.

Come over here.

Long story short, he said, Here, I'll sell you this 10 acres for$250,000 right here, the main part of the right there where we're building everything now.

Or he said, I'll do something better than that.

I got a better deal.

I said, I'm listening.

I'll sell you the whole 90 acres for 500,000.

You give me 250, and I'll finance the rest.

God had already said it.

And you say, I've told you, I've told Benji's dad that.

Time and time again.

Listen to me, church.

Listen to me.

I've been doing this 40 years.

I've circled land seven times.

I watched him do it in Tuscaloosa.

I saw him do it at Liberty University.

And I'm seeing him doing it now.

My God, I do it again, and Satan can't stop it.

And here's the results.

Oh, verse 17.

They watched, they accepted the challenge encouragingly.

They said, let us rise up and build.

And they accepted it energetically.

They said, so they strengthen their hands for this good work.

Folks, I want you to enthusiastically and energetically get excited about what God's about to do.

You say, but we're in a mess.

I don't care.

Blood knows the mess.

You think this mess is taking him by surprise?

No.

Bless God charge.

Now's not the time to retreat.

Listen to me, church.

Now's the time to charge.

To stand in the gap.

To let our lights brightly shine like they've never shone before.

You with me?

And I want you to be praying right now.

What's your part?

We need you.

We're going over the Jordan.

God's going to bless this ministry like you've never seen in these next two to five years.

I promise you.

I've been, as Martin Luther King said, I've been to the mountaintop.

I've seen the vision.

I know what he's going to do.

I've been a part of it twice before.

And he's going to do it again.

Because he's God.

Amen.

Every head bow, every eye closed.