When One Yes Changed Everything | Nehemiah 2:1-20

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in

practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys.

I'm Chris Kyle.

This is Kyle and today we're the Bible Guys because

Jeff's out of town. So Kyle is a favorite, a

fan favorite of you know. It's it's I don't know

how they rank.

I don't know either.

It's probably probably Chris and Jeff. Yeah, definitely, It's definitely

christ and Jeff, and then probably and.

Then probably Quinn because that one time got on there,

that one time you like Quinn on there.

He still doesn't let that down, by the.

Way, it's so funny. Yeah, and by the way, for

our listeners, I h Quinn. I said, hey, is this

the first time you get on the Guys? He goes,

I've been on twice before you.

This is my third time. It was good.

It's terrible you're greeting it was It was funny because

you were so genuinely like thinking it was you were

greeting the first time.

Oh yeah, terrible. Anyway, we have a great story happening

with Nehemiah and Nehemiah is we're about to see that

he's about to approach the king and he's going to

ask him whether or not he has permission to go

back to Jerusalem and build the wall. And it's going

to be an incredible journey. But before we get into that,

we have a segment, and the segment is the Babylon Bee.

Because we are committed to the finest news. Have you

ever heard Jeff say that? Yes, he he's insistent about

saying it. He goes, we are just committed to your

listeners to bringing the best source of news. And of

course Babylon Bee's a satire. And here's how this one reads.

It says, oh no, Phil Robertson greeted in Heaven by

twelve million angry ducks, which is hilarious the Duck Dynasty guy. Yeah, okay,

so it says it's Look, it starts off with location

Heaven Church elder and Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson came

face to face with consequences this after he caught up

to Paradise. After he was caught to Paradise where twelve

million angry ducks awaited him, Robertson the Christian founder of

duck commander, a store specializing in gear for it, says,

the store specializing in gear for duck murder was found

dead following a battle with Alzheimer's disease at the age

of seventy nine. In his life, he had allegedly murdered

millions of ducks. Oh, my goodness, have mercy. I'm sorry.

It was just a harmless hobby, Robertson reported, and yelled

as he ran from a great ducks that s rolled

all around him. Don't hold against me. You're delicious and

fun to shoes, so funny. We are not so merciful, commander,

said John Mallard. A duck gifted with tongues. Ducks attack. Oh,

this is ridiculous. According to witnesses, a mighty flock of

ducks appeared like a seat of locusts and descended upon him,

just as Paul the Apostle was beginning the orientation tour,

and he chased away his own mansion. He chased away. Oh,

he was chased away to his own mansion and forced

to barricade himself indoors as ducks circled overhead.

We can do this.

All day, Commander Mallard. Quacky ducks don't get tired in heaven.

The dramatic event was witnessed by former American Presidents Abraham

Lincoln and James A. Garfield. At publishing time, Phil Robertson

had arrived at the wedding feast of the Lamb with

enough duck duck al lrange for everyone. Oh my goodness, gracious,

that is ridiculous. By the way, why did they say

former American Presidents Abraham Lincoln and James Dark hunters? Maybe

Dan if Jeff was here, he would have told them.

He would totally.

You would have been like, the duck unders has to

be a connection.

Okay, that is so.

Glad. That got you too.

He's in his story specializing indur for Dug murder. It

is so funny. That's great.

Yeah, that's good. Rest in peace, Phil Robertson.

Yeah, no kidding. And I've never once seen an episode Doug, so.

I know that, Like since the show has come on,

it's definitely been like a It was a cult classic

for sure, and then a lot of their their family

members members have done like spin offs. Sadie Robertson is

actually like an influencer if you have teenage girls or

I guess twenty something girls. That's a great person for

them to follow. She's she's pretty solid.

But yeah, I don't know. It's really sad, sad story,

but I love that met by twelve million ducks. That's Now.

Have you ever gone hunting?

Yeah? Once?

And what did you hunt? It was?

It was going deer hunting a long time ago. It

was I just it's not for me.

Yeah, sitting still?

Nope, Well yeah I didn't hit anything, but yeah, I

my impatience got to me.

Yeah, so what what What did you not like about it?

Because it's sitting it's probably the same.

Thing sitting still.

It's the patie, it's the way. I just it was

just a lot of it. And I think if I

what have like, that's the thing people like, go duck hunting.

They said it's a lot of fun. Pheasant hunting. Apparently

it's a lot of fun. Okay, But when it comes

to sitting in a tree stand and enjoying the scenery,

I think I could do that for about an hour.

But yeah, it was a while ago, and I remember

just being a little bit bored with it.

How about you?

Yeah, well I've never been hunting, but people describe it

to me like it's heaven. And like, for instance, like

Jeff as we as most of us know, Jeff's a hunter, right,

And by the way, I'm grateful for hunters. I'm not

anti hunter. I'm very glad. I love my hamburgers and

steaks right, well, not steaks, I mean that's that's pretty

hamburgers and steaks are pretty easy to kill, right, But

but like you know, I'm thankful for everything else, right,

I'm grateful for all that. However, I want to say this,

when people describe it to me like heaven, I literally

think to myself, I can't imagine a more miserable existence.

They're like, dude, man, I was sitting in the tree

for like eight hours. I was just looking at the

woods and I was sitting in the little and I'm like,

you mean that little red cherry that you have, that

that fastens against the tree. Yeah, yeah, that one. I'm like,

you sat in that for eight hours. It's crazy, like

like that would be uncomfortable for one hour. Yeah yeah,

let alone. It's like it wasn't like forty degrees out,

oh yeah, man, it was great.

It's freezing cold.

Yeah yeah, you just dress up warm, you know, And

it was great, and then the duck hunting, even like

you're wading through the you know, the muck and the mire.

You know, it's just I think even a little bit

of movement would be would do well.

But I would also say too, Jeff, he wouldn't enjoy

sitting on a golf course, you know, playing golf right

most of the day.

I know he does golf from Timetown, but it's not

his heaven, right.

But for me, you know that to him sometimes of

going to a golf thing, he's like, oh, I guess

I will.

He will if it's a social thing.

But to me, that's more My speed is going and

doing something where you actually have to you know, it's

just a little bit of variety. Even on a golf

course where things are going slow, that's that That is

like hell on Earth to me is sitting and waiting

super long. But that's also I probably need to work

on patients. Sounds like we both probably do.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, well we're probably wired that way because

because golf is golf, what would be something I would

enjoy for yes, four to five hours.

Yes, it allows you to, Yeah, you have to move

along a little bit.

I mean, it's not a super fast paced event, but

definitely more so than hunting.

Okay. For all the hunters out there, and especially all

of our listeners in my city and surrounding regions, thank

you for what you do. And I love Venison, and

I love.

Thank you for what you do.

Yet and I hope you enjoyed that story about the

ducks fwollow million angry.

Gosh, it's so funny. All right. Well, hey, we're going

to move on to Neamiah chapter two for our listeners.

Neemaiyah is a cup bearer to the king, and he

was moved when he had heard that his people were

defenseless back in his hometown. And so he is about

to approach the king and ask him to quit his job. Yes,

a very comfy, favorable job by the way of prominence,

all right.

Neemiah chapter two says this early the following spring, in

the month of Nissan, during the twentieth year of King

Arctic Service's reign, I was serving the king as wine.

I never before appeared sad and presence. So the king

asked me, why are you looking so sad. You don't

look sick to me. You must be deeply troubled. Then

I was terrified but I replied, long live the King.

How can I not be sad? For the city where

my ancestors are buried is in ruins and the gates

have been destroyed by fire. The King asked, well, how

can I help you with a prayer to the God

of heaven. I replied, if it please, if it yeah,

if it please the King, and if you are pleased

with me your servants, send me to Judah to rebuild

the city where my ancestors are buried. The King, with

the Queen sitting beside him, asked, how long will you

be gone and when will you return? After I told

him how long I would be gone, the King agreed

to my request. I also said to the king, if

it please the King, let me have letters addressed to

the governors of the province west of Euphrates River, instructing

them to let me travel safely through the territories, dressed

to through the territories, I'm a way to Judah, and

please give me a letter addressed to Asaff the manager

of the King's forest, and directing him to give me timber.

I will need it to make beams for the gates

of the temple fortress for the city walls and for

a house for myself, and the King granted these requests

because the gracious hand of God was on me. When

it came to the governors of the province west of

the Euphrates River, I delivered the King's letters to them.

The King, I should add, had sent along army officers

and horsemen to protect me. But when san Balat and

Hahrnit and Tobiah, the Ammonite official, heard of my arrival,

they were veried, displeased that someone had come to help

the people of Israel ont Verse eleven. So I arrived

in Jerusalem three days later. I slipped out during the night,

taking only a few others with me. I had not

told anyone about the plans God to put 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, passed the jackals well, and over

to the dung gate dung gate to inspect the broken

walls and burn gates. Then I went to the fountain

gate and to the King's pool, but my donkey couldn't

get through the rubble, so though it was still dark,

I went up to the Kidron Valley instead, inspecting the

wall before I turned back and entered again at the

valley gate. The city officials did not know I had

been 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.

Let us rebuild the Wall.

Of Jerusalem and end this disgrace. 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 when san Balat Tobaia and Gesshem the Arab heard

of our plan, they scoffed contemptuously. What are you doing?

Are you rebelling against the king, they asked. I replied,

the God of Heaven will help us succeed. We his

servants will start rebuild in this wall. But you have

no share, legal right or historic claim in Jerusalem.

Wow, all right, that is amazing. There's a there's a

graph on the next page where it actually shows all

of the different gates of the old Jerusalem walls, and uh, man,

there's a lot of gates. I mean there's like what

looks like the looks like fifteen gates or so. So

the walls, of course, back then you had to have

city walls to protect the city. Uh And so I

would say most prominent cities of significance especially had walls.

And the reason why is because it is very difficult

to infiltrate a city or attack a city when it

has walls. And so we've all seen the old movies

right where you know, like a castle for instance, you

know it's surrounded by a moat. That's one way to

protect the city. And then even even people trying to

climb the climb the walls and then they would pour

down you know, hot tar or you know, you know,

be able to shoot things and drop rocks and all

these different things, and and so yeah, that's that's what

it was needed. And so one of the reasons why

ne andm Iah was so moved is because he realizes

that back in that day, cities would just conquer cities

tribes would conquer tribes. I mean, case in point, the Babylonians, right,

you know, the Persians. King David's whole life was conquering

other people, right, and and so so that was obviously

a very big concern. And so imagine just an entire

city completely in ruins. And so yeah, sure, thanks King

Cyrus for letting all the Jews go back to Jerusalem.

But but but you know, I fear for my people.

That was the Amiah's big thing. I fear for them.

And so and again I love I love his vision

because because what does he say. He says, how can

I not be sad to the king? He says, the

city of my ancestors, right, So he's just I mean,

he's he's such a big thinker. It's it's a great thing.

I think there's a lot to learn about how he

approaches the king. Because it says that he had never

appeared sad in his presence.

So this is somebody who.

Whether he sounds he said, I've never appeared sad, never

it's not didn't say I've never been sad in his present,

never appeared sad. So he definitely knew how to turn

it on, turn it off, and also, you know, look

the part because, like you mentioned in a previous episode, Chris,

there's probably a little bit of fear he had, well,

there's probably a lot of fear that he had of

the king, of the position, of the king's power, maybe

even the queen's power. And so he's going there and

it says he was terrified, and then he responds by saying,

long live the King. And then he just kind of

broke down and was honest there when the king said

what can I help you with? I love that The

king just says, well, how can I help you? Like

that was the king's response, probably not at all what

he was expecting, yeah, to say, how can I help you?

Well, I mean, there's a couple of things about what

you just said. When it says then I was terrified,

it makes me believe that he didn't intend on looking sad. No, Right,

So it's like because it seems like maybe in his

mind he was probably thinking, hey, I'm gonna approach the king,

but all of a sudden he was caught off guard

by this premature conversation because the king said, why do

you look sad? He says, then I was terrified, So

I wonder if that's what it means, or it could

just mean that he planned it. Like you said, he

turned it on and uh and then uh and then

all of a sudden, it's like the reality kicked it.

He kicked in like here comes.

But I love it.

And it was mentioned again in the last episode. But

about his prayer life, it's interesting how before when they

when the King asked him, well, how can I help you,

it wasn't like he came up with and well, he

actually did have a plan, which I think was kind

of cool. We can get to that a little bit,

how he actually had already planned out the house how

much Like that's kind of sweet. And that's what's awesome

about about Neami. He's definitely a strategic leader. But I

like how it'd start off by saying with a prayer

to the God of Heaven. It's like he's just like,

it's just this idea that like he's in a wisconstant

state of prayer. It wasn't like, we know, we're pretty confident.

He didn't stop say let me pray before I ask him.

It was just this state. And I think everybody listenings

can relate to a time or maybe you had to

go to a boss or to a friend or fember

something where you know you have to ask for something,

or there's a little bit of fear of trepidation about

what's upcoming. And how often do we just think, man,

I want to make sure I got all my questions

lined up.

I want to make sure that I'm strategic. I want

to make sure that an argument is.

Correct, as opposed to saying I'm gonna pray first, you know,

it's very important. And then I like too how the

response the king says, with the queen sitting behind them

beside him, asked how long a you be gone?

And when we return?

I want to just believe that this was exactly how

the king felt like. I want to believe that that

the king was just like, okay, how long you be gone?

I don't know if that's exactly how I responded, but

it also is a cool indication of the mindset of

this king of king. Art exercees the fact that he

wasn't trying to hold on to the cup bearer, who

is a very important position. It wasn't something that he

felt like he needed to try to restrict him and

hold him back.

Well, you would think you would think that a king's

reaction would be literally the opposite of everything that our

desertions did. Like, for instance, the first thing is, hey,

you look sad. What king that we know in history

would ever care?

That?

Was cup bear looks at yes, right, who cares? He's

a cupbear? Right, It's like, it's like, who cares? Why

would a king even pay attention to that? And the

answer is because our desert sees obviously was a caring person.

And then you know there's probably a second answer to that.

And the second answer to that is obviously Nehemiah was

very well loved.

Yes, right, So if like Daniel was like, that's what

school A lot of the characters in the same time frame,

ish were very much they were influential.

Yes, well, they were revered as employees, right, so they

were the most faithful, they were the most uh you know,

uh efficient, dynamic, performing because after all, everything they touched

prospered and they had the favor of God. And so

those who were above them in Daniel's case, with Sharick,

Meshek and Bendio and Daniel, they continued to promote them

because their God favored them and uh and in this

particular case, we obviously they're seeing that Nemiah is Is

is a great and valued person and employee. And you

know what that there's a sermon in there somewhere, and

that is I remember one time hearing one of my

favorite speakers as Andy Stanley. I remember hearing him one time,

and it said Christians should be the best employees. Uh.

That that there, that there could be. So in other words,

every boss should say, man, is that person a Christian?

I want to hire that person? And somebody'd say, why,

WELLY may not necessarily be a Christian, but I want

to hire a Christian because Christians are always on time,

they're always loyal, they're always kind, they're always you know, faithful,

they're always diligent, they're always in all these different kinds

of things. And uh, and if you think about that,

that is a big testimony. I remember when I was

a high school student, I obviously grew up in a

household that had a lot of attitude, a lot of

rebellion in my household, right, And so a lot of

times if we felt like we were being treated unfairly,

or if somebody was not worthy of respect, we would

we would not react to that person kindly. Right, we

would do anything we could to stick it to the

man kind of thing, right. We would just we would

just rebel disrespect. And that was sort of the family

culture that I that I sort of grew up in.

I apologize if that sounds offensive to anybody in my

family who is listening. But the reality of it is,

it is true. It is sort of the mindset that

we had, in fact, the whole neighborhood mindset, right, maybe

even the whole west side Youngstown, I'm not sure, but anyway,

the point is is that I remember hearing that Christians

should be different, and I remember reading and I think

it's in Ephesians, right, that actually says we don't serve

our bosses for our boss's sake. We serve our bosses

like we're serving Christ, right, and therefore God will be

honored because we serve the boss, our employer, because of Christ.

If you think about it, it's like, what like, even

if my boss is a jerk, even if my boss

is it doesn't treat me well. Well, isn't that the

nature of the Gospel. The nature of the Gospel says,

you know, we should, you know, heap coals of fire

in someone's head. In humility, not returning anger for anger.

But you know we should, we should constantly forgive and

love and demonstrate Christ's spirit. And it's just I mean,

that's a massive sermon in there somewhere, Christians. Let's check ourselves.

Let's be the best example where we are, even if

it's frustrating.

Ye and Neemiah is somebody who is his influence and

all those things that led him to the permission from

the king, because at the end of the day, if

the king doesn't give permission, this story ends there. I mean,

who knows what have happened. You could have been killed,

There's a lot of things that could have happened. But

instead he had earned the favor of the king. And

when I was reading this, it actually a story that

came to my mind as I was looking at this,

because I think that the king's response was so important

here because I believe that the God actually gave favor

to Neemayah, and and Neamiyah previously prayed to have favor in.

The King's eyes and the king granted it to him.

Made me think there was a time a few years

ago she had somebody who was interning for me in

a role and she was awesome, like superstar intern. When

it got time to like the new year, we wanted

to hire her on the staff, and I remember she'd

spent a few months like kicking, but it was gonna

be awesome. Had this perfect role planned out for her.

And then I presented with the idea of her working

on this team in this role, and she said, you know,

I'm gonna pray about it and think about it. I'll

get back to you and.

I'll be honest.

I was kind of surprised because I feel like it

was such a slam dunk thing that I was like, Okay,

of course, go pray about it. She comes back and

she said, I've been praying about it. You'd be surprised

because I'm gonna say no for now, and here's why.

And what it was was that her heart broke for

the job she currently had as well, like before that

where she was making some headway and sharing her faith

with some of her lost unsaved coworkers, she was making

a ton of headway, she was sharing her faith and

was going great, and she said, I'm not ready to

say yes to this job right now because I feel

like it would be a bad example to my coworkers

who have like put so much trust and hope and

faith in me, and I'm still trying to lead them

to Jesus.

Now what do I say in that situation?

Right, I'm like, I'm like, in a way, I'm like, okay,

I think that's very noble of you. In a way,

I'm like, that's where your heart is breaking. I'm not

going to stop what God is doing your heart crazy enough?

Is this is wild? We just started our Stony Creek

in Rochester Hills campus eight months ago. One of the

people that she was trying to reach for Jesus comes

every single week. I think he's missed one week. He

makes a joke about it. He's only missed one week.

He recently told me he accepted Christ for the like

for the first time, and he's getting baptized in August,

like very excited about it. Now, this is a person

who he doesn't know this. He doesn't listen to this podcast.

Maybe maybe he will. But years ago she made the

decision to stick with that job because her heart broke

for someone like him, and now he can't.

He has come to know Jesus.

And so it was really just this cool moment where

I began to realize that there's so much going on

behind the scenes that oftentimes when somebody wants to be

released from something or that maybe God is moving them

in a certain way, it's really easy to want to

stay in our comfort, right, It's really easy for us

want to like make our plans and of course our

you know, sometimes your emotions or feelings get hurt. But

in that moment, I remember just being like, I'm just

going to trust whatever God has said to you, kind

of like with this king, I mean the king, he

clearly was like, Okay, what do you need?

How are we going to make this happen?

And I think it was because God had already softened

his heart to what Neamiah was about to ask.

Right, Yeah, that's great, And and it's also a reminder

that God is orchestrating all things everywhere. Right, there's a

master plan. There's a you know in neami is a

great example last chapter where he said he said, hey,

you know, you predicted that this would be true if

your people return to you, that we would come back

after the exile, And so he has this massive picture

of you know, what it means to you know, look

through the generations and and here you are. You had

enough sense in that moment to say, Okay, well God's

obviously up to something you didn't know what. And now

you're able to look back over how many years ago?

Is that three?

Yeah?

A long time.

That's a good amount of time to be sure through

planting those seeds.

Yeah, and then and then all of a sudden, three

years ago you look back and say, oh, God, God

obviously had her there for a reason, right, And who knows,

maybe she was instrumental in his life where you know,

you know, he was the one that you know, she

was the one that got used primarily to uh, to

push him that way. And so yeah, entire families could

be changed because of that one decision, yes, which is amazing. Well, hey,

that looks like a great place to end. And Nehemiah

is going to start the task next chapter and hopefully

we'll have you join us on the Bible guys, see

tomorrow