Men's Luncheon - Pastor Greg Addison - September 15, 2026

Hey, how you guys doing today?

How's everybody today?

Hey, let me hear from the Cowboys this week, right?

The Oklahoma State Cowboys.

Not those other guys.

Because they can't stop anybody.

It's gonna be a long year.

Dak's gonna watch the games from the sidelines like he did the other night.

It's uh it's tough.

Well, he did fine.

I mean, they scored.

They only got the ball one time in the second half.

They scored a touchdown, but you only get the ball one time.

You know, it's tough, right?

Hey, let's pray and we'll get started.

Lord, thank you for today.

Thank you for a chance to be together.

Thank you for the food and uh use it to the strength of our bodies to serve you.

We thank you for the folks that prepare it for us.

They're wonderful every week.

And so we ask your blessings on them.

We ask that you teach us now from your word here in Nehemiah.

And uh in Jesus' name we pray.

And everybody said, All right.

As you guys know, we mentioned last week we're starting a study on Nehemiah.

As we read chronologically through scripture, all the scriptures are stacking up on me, all the ones I'm having to skip.

So we're just having to, you know, kind of work through it, and which is fun.

So on Sunday mornings, we started uh two days ago a three-week study on Daniel, and then we're approaching the New Testament pretty fast.

So I'm gonna do a study on Nehemiah.

Started last week on Tuesdays, and Pastor Dave is doing a study on Ezra on Thursdays, and so these are all podcasted, and uh, so that way we can keep track and help everybody walk through it and cover some of these things that uh that the overview pace doesn't let us cover, but I still Daniel.

Yeah, I had this this week will be week two.

We'll throw the fellas in the fiery furnace on Sunday, and then the next week we'll do the prophecy of Daniel, and so that's what we'll do over the next three weeks.

And so we're having a good time doing it.

I'm loving this.

I hear from a lot of people are enjoying it.

Really, um, just to get the overview of when all this happens and how it flows is is really good.

So here we are, Nehemiah.

Let's talk about Nehemiah today.

I don't know where my clicker is.

Oh, it's over there.

Thank you, Matt.

Uh, you can tell I'm running around talking with you guys.

I'm enjoying catching up, so I got to get my stuff together here.

Uh, let's talk about we're doing the decisions and character of a godly leader.

And Nehemiah is a great example of that.

And last week we talked about how he was serious about spiritual matters.

This week we're going to talk about prayer and uh and the five character traits of a gospel prayer, a person who's praying for the advance of God's kingdom, God's planning, and all of that.

Because if we're serious about spiritual matters, what that should create in us is a prayer focus to pray for those spiritual things to happen.

So here's what we get Nehemiah chapter 1.

Nehemiah 1 · chapter mention

Uh we'll begin reading.

Um that is last week.

So that's not loaded well.

Yep, that's the wrong one.

Uh so you have your seat there with you, and that's fine for us.

Praying for God to move in uh in chapter one, beginning in verse four.

And here's what the Bible says.

When I heard these things, uh Nehemiah says, When I heard those things, the things we talked about last week, that Jerusalem was in disrepair and the walls were broken, and the people were uh just struggling and depressed and downtrodden, and the whole thing was a m-that broke his heart.

And so what happens is he says, When I heard these things, that spiritual sensitivity that we talked about last week that he connected to, I sat down and wept.

For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

Then I said, and now we get an insight into his prayer, how he was praying.

This is one prayer, but I think it's representative of how he was praying.

He said, Lord, the God of heaven, the God, the great and awesome God, who keeps this covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments.

Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel.

I confess the sins we as Israelites, including myself and my father's family, have committed against you.

We have acted very wickedly towards you, we have not obeyed the commands, decrees, and laws you gave your servant Moses.

Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations.

But if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my name.

In other words, Canaan, the land of Canaan or the land of Israel.

They are your servants and your people whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand.

Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name.

Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.

I was the cupbearer to the king.

In other words, he is asking for God to move and give him favor before the king so that he can seek uh the opportunity to go back and help Jerusalem that's in all this mess.

So here's five character traits I want you to see from this prayer.

It's a great lesson that teaches us about how to pray.

And you'll see in your notes there, number one, pray specifically for kingdom advancement.

Now, the way I've structured this is I'm gonna just show you what Nehemiah was doing, and then I'm gonna ask you a question that each of us have to answer about this praying for God's kingdom to advance, praying for God's work to happen, praying for God to move in these things that we have seen when we are spiritually sensitive to what needs to happen.

So here's the first thing He is praying for kingdom advancement.

And I use that term, it's not a great term.

I like the term better.

He's praying for the advance of the gospel, he is praying for his work to happen all around.

And in the Old Testament, that work was to make the children of Israel the path that he brings the Messiah, the Savior, into the world.

And so look specifically at what he praised.

When I heard these words, what words?

That Jerusalem was a mess, that the walls were broken down, that the people were in this disrepute, I think is the word it uses, stuff like that.

They're oppressed, it's all broken, it's a mess.

And he's thinking, how in the world can God's people be God's people?

And how can we uh do the things God calls to do?

How can we model the person of God if we're in this condition?

And he's brokenhearted over this condition, and he says, that's not good.

That cannot stand.

It is that spiritual sensitivity that prompted him to pray about that.

Not praying for his aunt and his uncle and his whatever kind of a deal and all that.

He is praying for what breaks the heart of God and what should break the heart of God's people.

He is praying for the restoration of Israel, which is spiritually vital to him and to the people of God.

And he makes it clear in his prayer what he's praying for.

So he says in this very clearly, I am praying.

Listen, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night, for your servants, the people of Israel.

And so he is praying about what needs to happen in God's plan for the people of God to line up with God's plan.

That's what he's praying for.

That's what stirs his heart, and he focuses his prayer on that.

You think about what focuses our prayer.

We talked about that last week.

Um, less than 20% of the river valley goes to church on any given Sunday.

Less than 20%.

Like that's a problem, right?

That's something that should galvanize our prayers and be a part of what we're doing.

So let me ask you this question.

What is on your current prayer list?

You listed your prayer list between you and Jesus.

What's on your prayer list?

What needs to be on there, at least as a part of it, is what should break our hearts, what we should be spiritually sensitive for, and what we should be praying over.

In the advance of the kingdom.

Yes, we're supposed to pray for folks who are sick.

Yes, we're supposed to pray for, you know, whatever, we're supposed to pray for direction, we're supposed to pray for all those things.

But we're supposed to pray for lost people to be saved.

We're supposed to pray for our churches to reach people and to grow.

They don't grow because of the preacher or the music, they grow because of a move of God.

They grow because Jesus is at work and the Holy Spirit is moving, and things are happening that God is stirring and doing.

And so when we see that, you're sitting in a church, and this Sunday there's not a baptism, for example, what's on our prayer list?

So let's go back to that week, and in your minds you think through what's on my prayer list.

Are the things that I'm to be spiritually sensitive to, or the things that break the heart of God, are those on my prayer list?

Am I praying in a consistent way for the advance of God's work?

Second thing you see, pray with commitment.

We're to pray with commitment.

And I think that means a couple of things.

First of all, he says in here that when he heard these things, he began praying for many days, or for some days.

And if that word some is your translation, that doesn't mean a few, that means a lot.

Means many.

For many days, he's praying.

And then even when he talks to the Lord specifically, and we see that prayer represented, here's what he says.

Let in verse six again, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night.

When you put together chapter one and chapter two, chapter one begins with the statement in this particular month, chapter two begins in this particular month.

And so what we know is there is a matter of months that he is praying over.

And so a committed praying is a constant knocking on the doors of heaven.

When Jesus, when they asked Jesus, teach us how to pray, and he began to teach them how to pray in Luke chapter 11.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

It tells us when he taught that lesson, he told them to keep asking, keep seeking, and keep knocking on a continual basis.

And he told that story of uh the neighbor has travelers who've shown up at his house, and he doesn't have any food in the pantry to be attentive to them and to be hospitable.

And so he goes to his next door neighbor's house in the middle of the night and he knocks on the door and he asks him for food.

And the neighbor says, Go away, it's the middle of the night.

And he keeps knocking and he says, Go away, you're gonna wake the wife and kids up.

Keeps knocking.

And Jesus told us that the neighbor finally answers and gives him food because he kept knocking.

And he says, Keep asking, keep knocking, and keep seeking.

And Nehemiah is modeling that.

Now, there are some things that you write Philippians chapter 4 on.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

When it says, Be anxious for nothing but in prayer and supplication, let your be, let your prayer requests be made known to the Lord, and the peace of God dispatches all understanding and guards your hearts' minds.

There are some things that disturb us that are a struggle for us, and we keep bringing those to the Lord and we don't give them to him.

That's not what we're talking about.

Some prayers like that, the choice of faith is you give that to the Lord and you let Him and trust Him to take care of it, and that peace covers you that He has it taken care of.

That's not the type of prayer subject that we're looking at here.

This is a prayer subject that Jesus was talking about, where you keep knocking on the door and you keep banging on the walls of heaven until God moves and answers.

We can't make God move, but we can beg for God to move.

We can cry out to the Lord for him to move.

And scripture teaches us what should encourage our faith that God does answer when his people cry out to him.

Why would he not answer that prayer?

So if we're praying for the advance of God's kingdom and we're praying for people to be saved, and we're praying for our church to grow, and we're praying for things to happen, Jesus literally stepped out of heaven, went to the cross, and died on the cross and rose again so that he can answer that prayer that we're praying for people to be saved.

That's the kind of prayer that you keep praying day and night, day and night.

He also is praying passionately.

First of all, you get that sense of passion because he is mourning and fasting as a part of his prayer.

And there are topics like how many people we see saved, how many marriages we see saved, how many lives are changed, how many people are growing in the Lord, how many young people are called to ministry.

Those kinds of things, we should have a passion over praying over those things.

I mean, we should have a commitment that stirs our heart.

It breaks God's heart when those things are not happening.

It should cause that to us.

It's that spiritual sensitivity that Nehemiah had that we talked about last week.

You also see it in the language of this prayer.

He is crying out to the Lord.

He's calling out, Lord, you're the God of the universe.

You're the author of life.

You are the covenant God of Israel.

And he is passionately working through who God is and calling to him.

And then he says, please listen to me.

Let your ear be attentive.

Twice in this one prayer, he says, Let your ear be attentive.

Please hear us.

This is a passionate plea before God.

So let me ask you a question.

You see on your list there.

In the last seven days, just take the last seven days.

How many gospel prayers have I prayed?

Is there a commitment to praying for the advance of the kingdom?

How many of those prayers have I prayed?

Right?

What's on my prayer list?

How often am I returning back to the advance of God in those prayers?

Number three, pray in agreement with like-hearted believers.

Pray in agreement with like-hearted believers.

Now, a lot of times we look at this and we give credit to Nehemiah to being the singular guy that prayed this prayer and was raised up to go accomplish this.

And there's no doubt that Nehemiah is a singular leader in this process.

Right?

He is a leader and he is a catalyst leader.

But look at what it says in here very clearly, when he asks this prayer, he says, Um, let your ear, verse 11, be attentive to the prayer of this, your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name.

He makes it clear, Lord, I know I'm not the only person praying this prayer.

I know there are other people that love you, that look to you, that trust in you, that acknowledge you as God, as the God of Israel, and they are praying as well.

And he says, Hear all of our prayers.

Please put our prayers together and listen to us as we pray.

And so if you think about it, it's an incredible reality in Scripture.

We see all kinds of examples where Jesus called his followers together to pray.

In Acts, how many times you see stories of the church coming together to pray?

There's all these moments where people are praying together.

And here we are reminded that this praying for the advance of God's kingdom is a corporate exercise.

It is a multiple person exercise.

So here's the question Who are you praying in agreement with?

Who are you praying with?

You have a time when you sit down with someone, and the two of you are agreeing in a prayer for God to do something.

Now just think about it.

There's two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, at least nine tables, right?

Amen.

Think about nine tables of guys, and everybody had two or three people that they were just praying together in agreement for God to move.

Now, how do you think God would respond to that?

I think I would bless the Lord, don't you?

I think that would get God's attention in a good way.

He's probably waiting for us to do that.

Don't you think?

And so, how often do we get together with someone, and it doesn't have to be formal, it doesn't have to be a called church prayer meeting or something else.

It's just some brothers coming together in agreement with the same heart in a committed fashion to pray for more people to be saved in their church.

That's what it looks like.

Now, here's the other thing about Nehemiah.

Nehemiah is not a priest.

Nehemiah is not a pastor, Nehemiah's not a prophet.

In fact, Nehemiah is a government employee.

That's as far from a pastor as you can.

I'm not gonna go there.

I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding.

I can say that because I was a lawyer.

That's literally as far as being a pastor as you can possibly get, right?

So I'm farther away than anybody else.

Um so I mean just think about that for a minute.

This is this is a guy who is Jewish.

That's it.

He loves the Lord, he loves the people of God, he has an understanding of what's supposed to be happening that's not.

He's a captive guy.

Can you not hear me?

Is that better?

Is that better?

Okay, there you go.

Uh it's better.

He's a captive guy, he's a layman, he's he's just a guy.

Right?

Works for a pagan, and yet he has found other people that he knows are praying the same way, and he's praying with them over God to move.

And his people.

It's not a pastor thing, it's not a church leader thing.

It's a man thing.

So who are you praying in agreement with?

Number four.

Number four.

You pray on the foundation of God's gospel promises.

So, what we're asking for in these prayers, what we're seeing modeled in Nehemiah, taught in scripture, are not some creative, made-up, some kind of an evangelistic guy with some kind of special vision from heaven or some other thing.

He is basically doing the most fundamental Jewish prayer that he can do.

In fact, when we find Nehemiah, he is in captivity, and we have seen in the run-up to the children of Israel becoming captive to the Babylonians, we have seen in the run-up to that that God is continually called them to repentance, and he has reminded them of if you repent, I will forgive your sin, and if you do not, then you will be punished.

We have seen as the captivity began a few weeks ago on a Sunday morning, I preached on Jeremiah.

And Jeremiah is telling them, listen, you are in captivity, and those guys that are telling you that God's going to let you go back home soon are wrong.

I told you 70 years, I meant 70 years, but I have a hope for you.

I have plans for you, uh plans for a hope and a promise.

And he reminds them, I will restore you.

A couple of weeks ago, we looked at Ezekiel.

And Ezekiel, that whole thing with the dry bones and all that is my people have lost hope.

They don't think I'm really going to bring them home, or they don't think I can bring them home.

And I'm doing this whole exercise with the bones to let you know I am the God of hope, and I am going to do what I said I was going to do.

So there are within his recent lifetime preachers and prophets who are sharing this.

Promise.

But Nehemiah, when he prays, he goes back to the very beginning, most fundamental promise that the Israelites have.

He says, as you promised Moses.

That's a huge thing to recognize.

He's not saying, as you promised, as you promised King Solomon when he dedicated the temple and that verse that we all know in 2 Chronicles 7.14, my people who call by my name and all that.

He didn't go to that.

He didn't go to Ezekiel.

He didn't go to Jeremiah.

He doesn't go to any of those other guys.

He goes back to the very fundamental premise: this is who we're supposed to be and what we're supposed to do.

And we didn't do that.

We sinned.

Please forgive us for that.

But God, you promised as a part of who we are that this is your work.

And if we repent, you will return us.

That's what you promised.

And so I think it means a lot for us as believers when we think about the fundamental gospel promises that we have as the church and as people who recognize Jesus came to be our Savior.

We're not looking forward to the promise of a Savior.

He's already been here and accomplished that, and we know what salvation is and what it looks like.

Our most fundamental truths that he teaches us are going to all the world, baptizing, you know, teaching them, observe whatever I've commanded you.

It's Acts 1.8.

Once the Holy Spirit has come on you, you'll have power in going to all the world, being a witness to me in Jerusalem, Jesus, Samaria, and the other most part of the earth.

All that.

That's what we have.

We have whosoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

We have John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him will never perish but have everlasting life.

We have fundamental gospel promises that define who we are that we can stand on and pray for God's move and work.

In fact, I think a lot of times we get too creative in our prayers.

We sort of jump the shark and get away from what the actual fundamental thing of who we are is.

We should be praying for people to be saved.

So here's your question: What specific Bible promise are you praying back to the Lord?

One other thing I give you about Nehemiah.

Nehemiah was in captivity.

He had been in captivity.

God had been warning them about their sin generations and generations earlier.

Why is he repenting of a sin that he didn't commit and he wasn't there when he committed it?

Well, first of all, he is a part of the people of God, so it's appropriate to identify with their sin.

But second of all, how long has he been doing this before he started resting on the promises of God and praying for those?

There's been a period of time this promise was already there.

And Nehemiah is a grown man, and he's just now starting to pray, as you promised Moses, if we repented, you would return us.

And he's just now relying on it.

So there is a period of time in his life and in other Israelites' lives where their sin was they didn't return the way God called him to return, and they didn't invest their faith in the promise of God that he would return them.

And when Nehemiah came back and he said, I'm a part of the problem.

I've not been praying this promise of God, and you have promised this, and now I'm pleading to you, be faithful to that promise.

All of a sudden God opens the door, and now he sends them back with a paycheck from a pagan king to go rebuild the walls in Jerusalem.

When he finally started praying passionately and committedly on the fundamental promise, God answered the prayer.

So it brings the question back why don't all of our churches have six baptisms stacked up everything?

Well, what specific promises of God are we in a committed fashion?

Praying back to and finally, pray for specific action and prepare yourself for obedience when God moves.

Pray for specific action.

Here's what he prays.

He's crying out to the Lord and he's just not whining before the Lord.

He's not just being emotional before the Lord.

He's not just clinging up this generic thing because he's supposed to.

Nehemiah is thought about this.

And in months of prayer, he has recognized for that to happen, something has got to change the game.

God's got to do something in this to open the opportunity for the walls to be rebuilt.

When Ezra went back, they made an attempt to rebuild the walls, and the enemies around Jerusalem beat them up and they didn't build the walls.

And he's sitting here thinking about this.

I'm praying for God to do this.

I'm praying we should have relied on this promise before.

I got all these other people praying.

We're praying.

And it dawns on him at some point in his prayer time.

I am the cupbearer to the king.

I am the closest dude to the guy who can make this happen.

God has put me in this spot for a reason.

Maybe I am here because I am supposed to be a part of this.

And so he says, Lord, give me favor and success before this man.

Have him be compassionate before us because I am the cupbearer of the king.

And sure enough, God opens that door, and because he's been praying, because he understands that, he is ready in chapter two and steps into that moment and speaks to the king.

So, question what specific move of God are you praying for?

What specific move of God are you praying for?

So here would be my suggestion.

There's just, I don't know, let the Lord tell you what to do.

But here's a suggestion.

Pray specifically for salvation decisions at your church.

Pray for them.

And then you have to be obedient to that prayer and show yourself ready for that.

So when the invitation happens, if your church does it in a formal kind of a looking way, get up and go to the altar and pray for people to be saved.

Like if you're praying and you're being specific about that prayer, then go up there and pray.

If you have a person that you are praying as a like-minded believer, they come go up there with you and go pray at the altar.

You know, there's not an 11th commandment that violates that we're violating if we go to the altar and pray.

It's not really a problem.

You know?

Now, somebody in your church might have a heart attack if you did that, but that's okay.

God would be blessed.

So go pray.

And here's the other thing invite somebody to church.

Invite somebody to church.

It's amazing to me how many of us aren't inviting people to church.

Invite somebody to church.

Um you guys have a great opportunity when I introduce myself or I get to know somebody and they say, Well, what do you do?

And I say, I'm a pastor, and they go.

You guys get to invite them to church before they suspect what's about to come.

So spring it on them.

Right?

Pray for somebody to be saved.

Pray specifically.

Maybe it's somebody God laid on your heart, maybe it's somebody in your love list, or maybe in your church, you're just, we just need to see more people saved.

Or maybe you need to see young families in your church begin to get involved.

Whatever it is, whatever stirs the heart of God in your church, whatever stirred the heart of God in your prayer time, that you are praying back to him.

Whatever fundamental promise that you come back to that God lays on your heart to pray back to him, like Nehemiah was praying back the promise that was fundamental to the children of Israel made in the very beginning to Moses.

Whatever it is, pray that back to the Lord and then take a step of obedience in that direction to be prepared for God to answer and pray for.

When he talks about the other servants that he's praying with.

When he talks about morning and fasting.

Just all those different things, when we stop and read it, we just see all this stuff that you have taught us today.

And so I pray, Father, that in a good way today, not not in a not in a hypocritical way, but in a good way, stir our hearts towards this prayer.

Stir our hearts to be more sensitive to the things in our churches that you want us to be sensitive to.

And Father, I I I just pray that we'll see people saved.

I I pray for a Sunday again.

We've had some, and so I know you can do it.

And I pray again that we have Sundays where we baptize here in both of our campuses on the same Sunday.

I pray for all the churches represented here.

What a great thing it would be to see all of us baptized at the same time on a Sunday.

Lord, we just pray for that.

I pray you'll lay on our heart open doors who we can invite so we can see that happen.

We pray these things in the saving name of Jesus.

And everybody sit?

Y'all have a great day.