Built Different (Nehemiah 2) We See People

If you hadn't found Nehemiah, just stop where you are and no one will know the difference.

We're going to jump into God's word.

And to kind of give you the idea, if you weren't with us last week when we started this, I had this experience that happened to me several years ago.

And that is, I had a friend of mine who had he remodeled houses for a while and all of this.

And he said to me one day, he said, I've got this big idea.

I want to build my own home.

And I was like, Well, praise the Lord.

That is that is not my journey.

I don't even want to mow my own grass.

Okay, so I don't understand that.

But he's like, I want to build my own home.

I was like, that's great.

Well, because I had so little of an idea, I just thought you went from idea to completion, like over a week or two.

You know, that's that's how little I knew.

And so I went to see him about a month later, and he didn't have a house yet.

And I was like, dude, where's your house?

He just looked at me and he said, the one thing you never want to hear one southerner say to another, he said, Well, bless your heart, which is not a compliment where I come from.

Okay, it means any any number of bad things.

But he said, Brandon, you don't understand.

There's a lot of steps between me having this idea and the finished product.

And he started talking to me about you got to have the idea.

Then you got to do this thing called blueprints.

Then you got to have tools to make it happen.

And I started feeling more and more like an idiot as we went on.

Because I'm like, well, of course.

But the thing is that I'm learning in my life is that's not just when it comes to the big task of building homes, but it's like that with anything.

Like you can't just, you can't just happen stance your way into a healthy family or to a healthy marriage or into a healthy personal relationship with God.

Almost everything that we want in life is uphill that we have to work at and to work toward.

And especially when it comes to having a healthy church.

And what we like to do twice a year is we like to slow down the series train and just kind of remember why it is that we do what we do.

What is it about RLC that we focus on that we hope also inspires all of us to do the same things in our life?

And so we do this every year as we stop and we talk about that we got to have a mission for our life, we got to have a vision for our life, but we also have to have values for no matter what it is that we want to accomplish.

So the mission is the big idea.

Like, what is it that we are after?

And that's important for anything.

You want to have a healthy marriage, you want to raise uh good kids, you wanna do all this stuff, you gotta have a big idea.

But how many of you have ever had a big idea to lose 15 pounds and you're only 20 pounds away?

Right?

You know, it just don't work.

You also got to have a vision, you gotta have steps on how you want to get there.

But then also, I think the secret sauce is then the tools, how you're going to actually get there, because having a really good blueprint doesn't matter if we don't actually have steps.

And so what we are doing in this series is just going over these to make sure we're all on the same page so that we can all do everything that God has called us to do.

So if you're taking notes, this is what the big idea for us is the mission at RLC is that we exist to make disciples.

When I count to three, I want you to say amen.

One, two, three.

We exist to make disciples.

And here's the thing it's a lifelong journey.

Someone's asked me before, well, how long is it to become a disciple?

And I say, Well, how long is it to have a healthy marriage?

Forever.

You know, you you don't you don't get married and then five years later, like, well, I'm done.

No, or your spouse is gonna kick you if you do that.

It's a lifelong journey that that takes a life.

It takes a lifetime to develop a lifetime of faithfulness.

And we're in it for the long journey that we exist to make disciples.

That's the big idea.

But just wanting to be a disciple doesn't get us there.

So what's the vision?

How do we plan on getting there?

And that that is that we believe that we exist to make disciples by knowing God, growing in freedom, and sharing Christ with everyone.

That is the long lifetime journey of knowing God more every single day, of then growing in freedom every single day.

People have asked me before, is there ever a time that I'm done growing in freedom?

I say, okay, sure, yes.

The moment that you're done sinning.

And then you get healed from it, and then you never sin again.

So if you're like me, that means we're gonna be constantly working on it until we get to heaven.

But then also that God has given you everything you need to do everything you need to do to make a difference in your world by sharing Christ with everyone.

But here's the problem.

For some of us, we've been at RLC for a while and we realize that man, we exist to make disciples and we want to know God, grow in freedom, and make a difference by sharing Christ in our life.

But many times we feel stuck.

We feel like, oh yeah, I got that, but I don't know how.

So, what this series is focused on are the values, the tools.

I just want to say this.

If you've been part of RLC for a while, but you feel a little bit stuck, you feel like you want to know God more, you want to grow in more freedom, you want to share Christ, but you feel as though you're just not making that progress.

Maybe it's because the next step that God has for you is to find some values in your life that you're gonna live by.

And with those, you're gonna take those next steps.

We're gonna talk about what those are because here's here's what values are.

Values are, that's not the right next slide.

Okay, here's the big idea of the series.

Can we just go ahead and skip because I didn't said it?

Values are core principles that guide how we live out our life's mission.

As you can tell, this is this is live right here, right now.

Okay.

And the one I was gonna say before that is we will be the one to live differently so we can build differently.

And let's just act like I didn't skip a slide, okay?

Yeah, I would have just skipped it, but I know some of y'all are OCD like me, and if I don't have that blank, I will find you, okay?

I've got to have that blank.

But here's here's the reason for this series is that we want to live differently so we can build differently.

Everybody's building a life.

Everybody is building a life.

Some people do it on purpose.

The wise build their lives on purpose.

Everything we want in life is uphill.

Everything that we desire in life doesn't come easy.

It takes work, it takes effort, and it can take continual effort.

And so if you want to become a disciple, that means that you're going to have to know God more every day, grow in freedom constantly, and share your life with others.

But here's the thing, for most of us, it doesn't come natural.

Therefore, we have to have values, which are core principles that we're going to use to live out our life on purpose so that we can live differently, so we can build differently.

So here's the thing: this series is not for you.

If you would say that you are knowing God to such capacity that you ain't got time for anything else, and that you are in so much freedom right now that you don't know what to do with yourself, and that you are sharing Christ in such a way that folks are knocking on your door saying, What must I do to be saved?

If that's not you, then maybe there's some next steps that we can take so that we can get more freedom in our life.

And in order to do that, we are going to be looking at the life of a guy named Nehemiah, one of my favorite people in the entire Bible, because God used him, used the core values that God, God put them in his life so that he could complete a vision that was over a hundred years old, that had been stopped so many times that it probably looked like it was never going to happen.

But then God used him to make a difference.

Let me let me share with you what happened.

The Bible told tells us that for years and years, God kept telling the people of God through prophets, if you don't turn your life back over to the Lord, he's going to remove his hand of blessing and you will be overwhelmed by an invading army.

And their answer was a very pious, no, thank you.

No, man, we got this.

As a matter of fact, they were borrowing other gods to worship rather than worshiping God.

And so finally God said, Okay, he took his hand off of them, and the Assyrians and the Babylonians came in and just took over.

But what was amazing is even before they were invaded, God said, I'm gonna take my hand of blessing off of you.

You will be invaded, but 70 years later, I will bring you back again.

God had a promise before they even failed.

And then what happened was is 70 years later, under the Persian Empire, under the king Cyrus, God put it on this pagan king's heart to send the people of God back to their land to rebuild the city and rebuild the temple.

And that's what happened.

That back in 538 BC, a guy named Zerubbabel, which we talked about this last week.

If you are in here and you're expecting a son, call him Zerubbabel.

He'll be the only one.

No one else will do that.

And then there's no way to make a nickname out of that unless you just call him Z.

So in other words, he's gonna get called his full name.

But what happened was is Zerubbabel was given the mission.

The mission was to go rebuild the city of Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.

The problem was, is he wasn't able to do anything other than he did rebuild the temple.

He had the mission, but that was all he was able to do.

For the next 80 years, the people of God had the mission, but they weren't able to move forward.

And so then, 80 years later, under most likely the leadership of Queen Esther, God sent a second wave under a guy named Ezra, and he had the vision.

And the vision was this is not gonna work unless we get God back at the center of our lives.

And so he had the vision.

The problem was it didn't finish.

They weren't able to finish the project.

And now, 13 years later, Nehemiah finds out that the mission was amazing, the vision was right, but they weren't actually moving forward.

And God put some values inside of him to help him to move the ball forward.

And that's what we're examining is what is it that God put in Nehemiah's life that when we put it in our life, we're able to become everything that God's called us to be.

So come, let me kind of catch you up.

And that is this that last week we talked about how Nehemiah found out that some of his family had gone to Jerusalem, and when they came back, he wanted to hear the good report.

He was assuming it was done.

So he was just gonna celebrate.

Maybe he's gonna summer in Jerusalem one year.

And they said, No, actually, it's worse.

The city has been destroyed, the walls have been destroyed, it is a disgrace.

And the Bible said that he just wept and cried before the Lord, and he he got God back as number one in his life if he ever wasn't.

And he said, God, only you can do something about this.

And then in chapter two, he's the Bible said that he went before the king, and the king noticed that he was grieving and he said, Yo, Nehemiah, what can I do for you?

And he asked the king, he said, King, can I go to Jerusalem?

And can I do something about this problem with my people?

And and the king, instead of whatever else he could have said, he said, Well, how long is it gonna take before you get back?

Completely gave him permission, didn't just give him permission, but actually made him the governor over Jerusalem.

And so he was like, Okay, well, let's go.

And so he goes and he he stops off and he gets some timber and some different things, and he is ready to go.

He knows what the mission is, he knows the vision is it's gotta be about God, and now it's time to take the next step.

And so this is what happens after that.

The Bible says this it says, so I arrived in Jerusalem three days later, and I slipped out during the night, taking only a few others with me.

I had not told anyone about the plans that God had put in my heart for Jerusalem.

We took no pack animals with us except the donkey I was riding.

After dark, I went out through the valley gate, past the jackal's well, and over to the dungate to inspect the broken walls and burned gates.

Then I went to the fountain gate and to the king's pool, but my donkey couldn't get through the rubble.

So I thought while it was still dark, though it was still dark, I went up to the Kidron Valley instead, inspecting the wall before I turned back and entered again into the valley gate.

The city officials did not know I had been out there or what I was doing, for I had not yet said anything to anyone about my plans.

I had not yet spoken to the Jewish leaders, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or anyone else in the administration.

But now I said to them, You know very well what trouble we are in.

Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire.

So let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and end this disgrace.

And then I told them about how the gracious hand of God had been on me and about my conversation with the king.

They replied at once, Yes, let's rebuild the wall.

So they began the good work.

But Sinbalat, Tobiah, and Geshem the Arab heard of our plans and they scoffed contemptuously.

What are you doing?

Are you rebelling against the king?

They asked.

And I replied, The God of heaven will help us succeed.

We, his servants, will start rebuilding this wall, but you have no share, legal right, or historic claim in Jerusalem.

So in other words, he gets there and he realizes this is gonna be an uphill battle.

He gets there, he looks around, and he immediately sees, I can't do this by myself.

I'm gonna have to have other people with me.

And that's the second value.

If the first value that we talked about last week is that we love God, the second value is this, and that is that we see people.

That when we go through life, we are looking for opportunities to see people and to make a difference in the lives of others.

And I want to make a disclaimer real quick and say I realize that in all of our lives we need somebody else to see us, and there's a time and a space for that.

But this message is about how we can see others and make a difference in the lives of others.

And there's a lot of ways to talk about what church life looks like.

I think this is what church life looks like, and that is that we are a dysfunctional, weird, slightly odd, and little extra spiritual family that chooses to love and grow together.

And here's why: because we love Jesus, we will love the people that he came to save.

Somebody give me a better amen than that.

Because we love Jesus, we love the people that he gave his life for.

Because he loves them, we love them too.

It is out of the overflow of our love for God that we look out and we see everybody else.

And here's the here's the thing: the essence of seeing people is the ministry of being a blessing in someone's life.

That's what it means to see people.

It doesn't mean we just look around and go, Well, there they are.

It's no, no.

We look and say, How can I be a blessing in somebody's life?

I just want to be a blessing.

That's how we say it in the South.

We don't have time for G's in the South.

And so we just say blessing.

So look at your neighbor and say, I just want to be a blessing.

Now look at somebody else and say, Can I be your blessing today?

Some of you did not even try the southern accent.

I get it.

If it's not yours, it doesn't feel real.

I know that.

But the thing is, is I just want to give you one more disclaimer, and that is this.

This message for some of us is gonna sound wrong.

Just be honest.

Because we live in a culture that tells us the exact opposite.

Our culture does not say see people, it says people need to see me.

The reality of it is, is our culture teaches us to look at the world through a mirror.

How is everybody looking at me?

How does everybody see me?

Is my life properly, you know, is the algorithm gonna be favorable toward me so other people can see my social media posts, other people can think I'm right.

It's so bad that we don't even tell our close friends who we really are.

We tell them what we think they need to hear.

And the reality of it is, is the world says, I need other people to see me.

The kingdom of God says we need to see we, we need to see one another, that we need to stop looking through mirrors and start looking through windows to see other people in our life.

And can I just be honest with you and tell you that if you find yourself saying, Pastor, it's not working, I want to become a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ, I want to know God, grow in freedom, I want to share Christ, but it's not working.

Can I say this?

Maybe today's message, you need to take a personal inventory and say, Are you seeing people?

Are you looking through a mirror or are you looking through a window?

Because there's life there, there's fresh wind there when we begin to look through a window and see the other people that God has around us, which is the question of the day.

And that is, what does the value of seeing people look like practically in the life of a Christian?

What does it mean to see people practically in the life of the Christian?

And if that's your question, I'm so glad you asked.

Because we're gonna talk about it.

We're gonna talk about what it looks like to have an attitude, a lifestyle that says, I walk into every environment to double someone's joy and cut their sorrow in half.

I walk into every environment saying, I'm gonna be a blessing to somebody today.

They can't stop me from being a blessing.

So look at your neighbor and say, I'm gonna be your blessing whether you like it or not.

Go ahead and tell them.

And if you didn't know them, they are now creeped out by you, so don't talk to them anymore.

Here's the first thing about seeing people, and that is this that seeing people causes us to look for ways to work out God's plans together.

Now, once again, remember that's so different from our culture because our culture says, I'm gonna be a lone wolf, I'm gonna be a lion all by myself, I'm gonna get all by myself, I'm gonna figure me out, and then you can come and help me.

Actually, it says that we need to work it out and figure it out together.

Look at how the Bible said it.

It said this, it says, three days later, I slipped out during the night, and look, taking only a few others with me, I had not told anyone about the plans that God had put in my heart for Jerusalem.

We took pack animals with us and the donkey that I was riding.

And after dark, I went out through the valley gate, past the jackal's well, and then I went to the fountain gate and the king's pool.

But look, my donkey couldn't even go through all the rubble.

So though it was still dark, I went up to the Kidron Valley instead, inspecting the wall.

In other words, he said, I got there and I wasn't exactly sure.

I wasn't completely sure what was going on.

And so he said he actually took some people with him.

And then here's the thing that he realized, and that is this this says that he put it put in my heart for Jerusalem.

But the Hebrew word here is actually a present-tense verb that the most accurate way to say this would be he had put and was still putting into my heart.

So in other words, he said, I went to look at everything because I had the seed of what God wanted to do in my life, but I didn't have the full plan.

And so I needed some brothers with me to give me some different points of view I didn't have.

And so he goes through and he's looking, and there's certain parts he can't even get over there to, which is why he's taking other people with him so that he can do it.

You know something I've learned, and that is that God will not give you the full plan for your life, he will put some of the parts of the plan in the lives of others so that you have to do life with others to get the full picture of what it is that he wants to do.

And so maybe the reason why you're not getting where you want to be is because your miracle is sitting beside you right now.

Because that's the person that God wants to.

And I just made you feel really good right now.

Look at me.

I'm your miracle.

I got that.

All right, here's the here's the thing.

Here's the thing.

Discipleship is a team sport, but the problem is 49% of the people in that were surveyed in a most recent survey has fewer than three real friends.

That means that either you or your neighbor likely have three or fewer friends in your life.

And here's the thing: at any given time, we have three enemies in our life.

We have the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Therefore, if you have fewer than three friends, you are automatically outnumbered.

And the problem is it doesn't matter how great you are, if you're outnumbered, it's not fair.

Think of it like this.

I there's always this debate going on between who's the best, LeBron James or Michael Jordan, right?

I mean, I don't know why it's such a debate.

Of course, Michael Jordan is the best.

But here's, I just I just split the church right then.

I got you.

Okay, fine.

All right.

But the thing is, is it doesn't matter how great either one of them are.

If they play against five other people, they're going to lose.

Because it doesn't matter what your greatness is by yourself.

What matters is what you can do when we come together.

And everybody needs friends.

Everybody needs a place where everybody knows your name.

Everybody needs to defeat Thanos in some kind of way.

Everybody's got a private battle that nobody else knows about.

And the thing is, is that when we get somebody else together, we are twice as likely to make that difference.

There, there's a scripture in uh 2 Peter.

Um Peter wrote 2 Peter right before he was martyred.

It was during a time when he was actually probably in prison within a month of being uh of being martyred.

He probably had already heard of the apostle Paul being martyred.

It was a difficult, a dark time.

But the problem of it was is that right in the middle of that situation, when they could have been talking about anything else, look at what he says.

He says, by his divine power, God has given us.

Somebody say us.

God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.

We, somebody say we have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous and glorious excellence.

In other words, he's saying God has given you everything you need, but he's put it in all of us.

And he says, in view of this, make every effort to respond to God's promises and supplement your as a group faith with generous provision of moral excellence, moral excellence with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.

In other words, what Peter is saying is he's saying God's not finished with you.

That he's got this whole process that he wants to take in your life.

And then it's going to begin with faith, but it's going to continue with goodness and knowledge and self control.

Control, but here's the problem is for many of us, we are too easy on ourselves.

We will look at different things and not realize that the steps of spiritual growth are best worked out in the context of relationship.

We get to celebrate somebody else by being their cheerleader.

And here's the reason why that's important is because I've noticed in my life that I love not having a workout partner.

I love just going to my gym and y'all leave me alone.

You know why?

Because I'll lift a little bit of weight and I'll be like, that's fine.

That's good enough.

I'll just lift it twice and go back.

Good for me.

Look at what I've done.

And every once in a while, I will just have just a moment when I'm not paying attention.

And I will invite someone to come work out with me.

And they will not let me lift that weight two times.

They will tell me, keep lifting and keep lifting.

And then I'm telling them I can't lift anymore.

So don't worry, I'm gonna be right here.

And when you fail, I will help you pick it up.

I didn't come here to fail.

That's how you get better.

And what happens is in life, we need a workout partner.

We need somebody who will say, You can do better than that.

You can go further than that.

I believe in you more than you believe in yourself.

I believe you can make it further than that, but we got to work out together.

And I don't know how this looks in your life.

But let me give you a couple of ideas, maybe as an action step.

I don't know which one of these are for you, but maybe it's time to join a life group.

Maybe it's time to not go into a life group to look for someone to see you, but to go into a group to see if you can see somebody.

Here's another one.

Maybe it's time to be a friend to someone.

I heard someone say one time that if you go into life looking for friends, you won't find any.

If you go into life looking to be a friend, you will find them everywhere you go.

Because we go first.

And then here's one more, and that is to find someone that you can be a blessing to.

Someone that you can be a blessing to.

Who is it in your life that you can live differently so that you can build something different?

Someone that you can look and say, man, I want to double their joy.

I'm gonna cut their sorrow in half.

And as you do that, and as you live differently, can I tell you what begins to happen in your own life?

You begin to know God more through it.

You begin to grow in more freedom.

You begin to share, and God begins to move in your life more.

As you are pouring out and being a blessing to somebody else.

That's why it's such an important value.

Look at somebody and say, I'm gonna be your blessing.

I'm gonna be your blessing.

Whether you like it or not, I'm gonna find a way to add value to your life.

The first one is because we're gonna work it out together.

Here's a second one, and that is we're gonna walk it out.

Walk out the plan of God together.

Not just work it out, but then we're gonna take next steps together.

Because it's one thing to help somebody else figure out what to do.

It's another thing to show up in that time of need.

It's really hard to do.

But there's life there.

When we decide that we're going to do that, it's fresh wind in ourselves and it moves the ball forward.

Look at what the Bible said.

It said that after he had said all done all of this, then he said to them, You know very well what trouble we are in.

So let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and end this disgrace.

I told them about how the gracious hand of God had been on me and my conversation with the king.

And then they replied, Yes, let's rebuild the wall.

So they began the good work.

You know what's amazing about that to me?

It's amazing because for eighty years they've been wanting to build that wall.

Here's the next thing is that there wasn't a single person in that crowd that did not see those walls devastated.

They knew there were things that were going on.

They had a very public battle that everybody else knew about.

They knew there were difficulty, but for some reason they did not think that they could do it.

And the amazing thing is, is they had been there for years, but what they needed was someone to see what they could be and then walk out the mission with them.

That's the joy of what we get to do because discipleship is a daily walk.

It's not just a decision, but it's a journey that we get to be on together.

Is it possible that there's someone in your life right now that they do have that private battle, and that battle is beating them up because they have convinced themselves that they're never going to be free, they're never going to be whole again, but you know they can be.

And so, what would it look like for you to walk up to them and say, I see you, but I also see what God could do in your life?

And if you would just dare to try again, I won't let you fall this time.

But instead, I will be with you.

In other words, everybody needs what we call a 3 a.m.

friend.

Has anybody ever heard of a 3 a.m.

friend?

Okay, this is a 3 a.m.

friend.

If you ever heard of it, a 3 a.m.

friend is somebody that you can call at 3 a.m.

and say, hey, listen, I don't have time to explain it, but I need you, duct tape, black trash bags in 30 minutes.

Can you be here?

And a 3 a.m.

friend says, yes, I have a whole lot of questions, but I'll be there in 30 minutes.

Let's go.

And then when you get there, there's a whole lot of questions, but you got the duct tape and the trash bag.

You're ready.

We don't know what we're doing, but we're going to jail together in Jesus' name, all right?

But it's it's that person who says, I am in a hundred percent.

I couldn't care less, and I couldn't care more.

In other words, I couldn't care less that you're not perfect, I already knew it.

But I couldn't care more about wanting to watch you walk into freedom.

And that's the 3 a.m.

friend.

I love how the Bible shows this amazing moment of 3 a.m.

friends in the life of the Apostle Paul.

The Bible said that the Holy Spirit told the Apostle Paul, I need you to go to Jerusalem.

It's gonna be hard, it's gonna be difficult, but I have a plan for you in Jerusalem.

And look at what happened.

The Bible said that he and his friends were on the way there, and several days later, a man named Agabas, who also had the gift of prophecy, arrived from Judea.

And he came over, took Paul's belt, and bound his own feet and hands with it.

Then he said, The Holy Spirit declares, so shall the owner of this belt be bound by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and turned over to the Gentiles.

Pause.

There are other ways to do that.

Lesson learned.

If someone asks you for your belt, don't give it to them because nothing good is gonna happen, all right?

But the Bible said, when we heard this and the local believers, we all begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem.

But he said, Why all this weeping?

You are breaking my heart.

I am ready not only to be jailed at Jerusalem, but even to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus.

When it was clear that we couldn't persuade him, we gave up and said, The Lord's will be done.

And this is where a 3 a.m.

friend comes, because any good friend would say, Hey man, listen, I need you to not walk off that cliff.

If you don't mind, don't walk off that cliff.

A 3 a.m.

friend does this.

After this, we packed our things and left for Jerusalem.

A 3 a.m.

friend says, Hey, listen, it's gonna be hard, this is gonna be difficult, it's gonna be a long journey.

Are you sure you're in for it?

Yep, I'm in for it.

You sure you're in for it?

Yep.

Okay, where are we going?

A 3 a.m.

friend says, I don't just see you right now, I see the journey that we can take together.

And that's what the Lord calls us to do with our brothers and our sisters to say that because I love Jesus, I love the people that he came to die for.

And therefore, I'm going to find some people in my life and I'm gonna walk out this thing called discipleship together.

And then I'm going to walk it out over time.

I'm gonna find somebody and be a 3 a.m.

friend.

And here's the reality is what if the Lord has placed you in somebody's life to help them see what they cannot see in themselves?

All they see are their broken pieces.

What you see is something in the process of becoming beautiful.

And so you say, you know what, I know you're broken, but that's not all you are.

You're also a child of God.

You're also made in the image of God.

There's the of infinite worth, dignity, and value.

And I know you're broken today, but tomorrow is in the hands of the Lord.

Come on, let's walk and do it together.

That's what it looks like to see people.

And I don't know what your next step for this is, but maybe here's a couple of examples.

Number one is to maybe join a life group and to look for someone that you can walk it out with.

Here's another one be willing to earn trust.

You have to get permission to walk with somebody.

I what I don't want anybody to do after this message is to force someone into a walk of freedom.

I don't care if you like your sin.

I don't, so come on, don't do that, don't do that.

You have to earn that.

And then here's one be the friend you wish you had.

I'm just saying that again and sit with it for a moment.

Be the friend that you're praying for right now.

Because what I've learned in my life is that when I start being what I want to see, God has a way of bringing it into my life.

Maybe the reason why you're here today is to say that I know you want to know God more.

I know you want to grow in freedom, and I know that you want to share Christ, but you find yourself stuck in life and you don't know how to move forward.

Maybe you already love God, but maybe it's time to open your eyes and to no longer see the world as through a mirror, but to see it as a window and say, I'm gonna make the point today that I'm gonna step in and I'm gonna start working it out with other people.

I'm gonna start walking it out with other people.

I want to be the friend I wish I'd had and watch as God uses you to be somebody else's miracle.

That's why it's so exciting to be a blessing to somebody else, is because you get to see God transform someone's life as you walk with them.

Look at them and say, I'm gonna be a blessing to you.

Look at them right now and say, I'm gonna be a blessing.

Tell them, I'm gonna be a blessing now.

Look at somebody else and say, You can't stop me from being a blessing.

And the answer is you can.

It's called the police.

But we're not gonna go there.

We're gonna walk it out, we're gonna work it out.

Here's the last one, and that is this we're gonna stay focused on God's plan together.

We're gonna stay focused on God's plan together.

I love this one so much because we all live in the real world, and in the real world, everything's not perfect.

We live in a fallen world, and so we have to work these things out together.

And so we we want to work this out, we want to walk it out, but then over time, it's hard to stay focused.

Look at what God's Word said and said, man, can you imagine for a moment they were so excited and it was so awesome?

And like, yes, let's rebuild the wall.

But then right after that, Sembalad, Tobiah, and Gersh uh Gershem, Geshem, the Arab, scoffed contemptuously and he said, This, what are you doing?

Are you rebelling against the king?

But look at how Nehemiah stood up to them and he said, The God of heaven will help us succeed.

We, his servants, will start rebuilding this wall.

Here's the thing that you have to know, and that is that in the Hebrew Bible, Ezra and Nehemiah are one book because it's a continuous story.

And Ezra did try to rebuild the wall and do things, but these three guys stood against them and said, Hey, we we need to figure out what we're going to do here, but you can't build this wall anymore.

And they stopped them.

But this time, when they tried to do it again, Nehemiah stood up to them and they said, No, guys, we're gonna stay focused.

We're gonna stay focused on what's gonna happen, and we're not gonna let anything stop us from doing what God has called us to do.

And like I said before, there's three different enemies in our lives.

Sambalik could, he was a leader of the king of Samaria.

Tobiah was actually a fellow Israelite.

His family, some of his family actually helped build the wall.

And then Geshem was the local warlord, and they could symbolize the world, the flesh, and the devil.

And when these people came and stood up like before and said, You're not gonna rebuild the temple, you know it's what Nehemiah didn't do.

He didn't say, Well are you sure?

You mean, well, if you don't want us to, instead, he's like, No, God has called us to something higher, and so we're not going to be distracted by all of your distractions, but instead we're gonna move forward.

You know what happens in our life is that we move forward, but then that private battle begins to rage.

And then we have the world that wants to stand against us.

We have our own flesh that wants to try to work against us, and then we always have the spiritual warfare of the devil trying to stop us.

We all need somebody else in our life that says, I know that you're in that private battle, but don't forget what we see.

Don't forget that God is still good and that God is still close.

The reality is the greatest blessing is that we can be the blessing by walking with someone and reminding them that the Lord is with them too.

Someone who is constantly reminding them when it gets hard and when it gets tough that the Lord is with them.

As a matter of fact, that's what God has called all of us to do.

The Bible in Hebrews says this: it says, Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm.

For God can be trusted to keep his promise.

Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.

And let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

In other words, he said, I need you to get creative.

I want you to chat GPT it and go, hey, give me some different kinds of ideas.

Give me some different ways to motivate one another to stay focused because we live in such a distracted world.

But the greatest ministry we can have is that we remind people over and over and over again stay focused.

Don't give up.

God is with you.

It's gonna be okay.

Don't let these other people get you down.

The Bible says that the righteous may fall seven times, but they get back up again.

So come on, get back up again.

We got this.

Sometimes people need a coach, sometimes people need a friend.

Every time people need a prayer partner with them that's reminding them that God is with them.

And so, can I tell you, if you find yourself in this place and you would say, Pastor, I want to make a difference.

I want to share my life with others, I want to grow in freedom, I want to know God.

But the problem is I feel stuck.

Well, maybe the reason why you're here today is that someone can tell you there is more, and that more is to see people in your life.

And here's the reason why the Bible says this it says that thereafter Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord who had spoken to her, and he said, She said, You are the God who sees me.

That's a promise from God's word that reminds us that the reason why, because here, can we just be really honest?

This is a hard message because 49% of the people in this room, according to the statistic, don't have three or more friends in their life.

And what we really want to say is, is Pastor, that's great and all, but I need someone to see me.

And what the enemy will do is he will say, Well, you know, you you should be focusing on others, but right now you just need to focus on yourself.

And can I tell you, there's a place for that, there's a place for making sure that you are mentally healthy and that you are growing in God.

There's a place for that, but there's also a place to remember that you're never alone, that you're never forgotten, that God sees you right now.

God sees you if you're in a successful season, God sees you if you're in a transitional season, God sees you if you feel like you're all alone, God sees you if you feel like you are just drowning in circumstances.

The reason why we can see others is because the Lord sees us.

And when we have the essence of seeing people, it's amazing what the Lord can do as we become a blessing to others.

I got to be the recipient of this one time.

And uh, you know, one of the things that I get to do as a pastor, it's a um it's bittersweet.

I I love being a part of weddings, they're so fun, they're they're always chaotic, you know, and but it's beautiful watching people come together, and it's not my chaos, it's their chaos.

And so I just get to watch and just praise the Lord, you know.

And honestly, though, the greater ministry is being part of funerals.

Because especially when they knew the Lord, you just get to hear these wonderful stories about what God is doing, and it many times I will leave a celebration of life more blessed than when I got there.

But the very first funeral I was part of was a family member, was a close family member.

And I didn't I didn't want to be on stage, I wanted to be on the front row.

I was I was grieving like everybody else was.

And since I was the only preacher in the family, they asked if I would sing two songs and then get up and preach.

To which I lovingly said, no.

They said, Well, Brandon, if you don't do it, we don't have anybody else.

So I was like, no.

And they eventually did, and I'd never I'd never even spoken a funeral before.

And I felt so alone in that moment because everyone in my family was looking at me, and I kept looking behind them, going, I don't know who y'all are looking at.

I don't know how to do this.

And so I talked to my my life group I was I was with at the time, and I said, guys, I need you to pray for me.

I don't want to do this, I don't know how to do this, I feel so unqualified to do this.

I just, would y'all pray for me?

And they said, Yeah, what time does the the funeral start?

And they told me, and they said, We'll be praying for you at that time.

And so I had my I had my iPad with me, and we were beginning to sing, and and while we began to sing on on my uh on my notifications, I started I started to say, praying for you, Pastor.

It's gonna be okay, Pastor.

So I'm sitting there playing and moving notifications while I'm because I can't see the words.

And it was it was awesome and frustrating at the same time.

And then I got up uh to to speak, and for some reason it's like they even knew, and it just kept more and more and more.

And someone had the idea to send me a Chuck Norris joke, and they started sending me Chuck Norris memes over and over again, and I'm sitting there starting the ceremony, hidden notifications, until finally I just said, Y'all give me just a second, I had to put my iPad on airplane mode, so I'd stop getting Chuck Norris memes in the middle of a funeral.

But you know what happened in that moment?

The Lord used that.

There was seven people in that life group, and I felt like in that moment I had seven brothers standing beside me.

And I already had the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, seven brothers.

It was crowded on that stage, and I was able to do that because all seven of those men saw me in that moment.

Can I tell you what a blessing that was in my life?

What if that's what the Lord wants to do for you?

What if he wants you to be one of those people?

Just send the Chuck Norris joke in the middle of the funeral.

The Lord moves through Chuck Norris in Jesus' name, all right?

But what if what if God wants you to be somebody else's miracle?

The only way you can do that is if you stop looking through a mirror and start looking through a window.

And instead of going, who is here to bless me?

It's God, who can I bless?

Who can I double their joy, cut their sorrow in half?

Who can I remind that there's still hope in this life?

And his name is Jesus.

God wants to use all of us to be somebody's miracle.

That day, those seven men were standing with me spiritually, and it helped me make it through one of the hardest days of my life to that point.

And so now to this day, if I have a friend of mine who he is going through something difficult, I'm that guy.

And I send text messages as much as I can until they either tell me to stop or I'd realize the time has passed because I needed that in that moment.

What if God wants to do that in you?

I don't know exactly how you need to respond to this message.

I just know that God wants us to see other people in our life, and that is a wonderful way to take next steps in our walk with God.

But I believe there's probably three different people in here today.

One is you're somebody who you're more introverted and you struggle with seeing people.

And in just a moment, as the band begins to lead us in a song of worship, maybe, maybe what your prayer needs to be is God, I pray you will help me to open my eyes, to see that the harvest is all around me and that I can make a difference right here, right now.

Help me to see the people so that I can make a difference.

Maybe you're in here and you're more extroverted, and this message is your jam.

I'm gonna go hug the world as soon as this is over with.

Can I tell you, don't do that?

But instead, your prayer may need to be, God, show me the right people.

Show me the hurting people around me that I can give my life to.

And watch what you can do.

And maybe you're in here.

And I have a different message for you, and that is that Jesus sees you.

That you're in here, and you know that you're not where you need to be with the Lord.

Can I tell you he sees you right now?

His eyes are on you right now, and he's not mad at you, he's not vengeful toward you, he's in love with you.

That he sees you, he saw what you did, he saw where you were, and he still loves you anyway.

That the Bible said that God demonstrated his great love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

That's what salvation is.

It's turning our life over to him, saying, God, you see me.

Now I want to see you, I want to turn everything over to you.

If that's you, on the back of that connect card is the plan of salvation.

And in just a moment, as we're worshiping the Lord, and for some of us we're praying to see others, some of us we're praying to see the right others, yours needs to be, God, I'm ready to see you.

Back at the prayer table, there's gonna be somebody waiting for you.

And your next best act of worship is to take that card with you and say, I want to see Jesus.

I want to turn my life over to Him.

You've tried everything else.

It's time to stop running, it's time to let Jesus be the Lord of your life.

It's the best decision you'll ever make.

Let's pray together right now.

God.