What Breaks Your Heart? | Nehemiah 1:1-11

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

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Well, hey, good morning everybody. My name is

Chris Tarbaugh and I'm Kyle Dobmeyer. Yes, and today we

are the Bible Guys because Jeff's out of town and

he's flying over.

Where is he by the way, I don't know if

we could talk about it. Isn't it like a secret?

Oh? Yeah, you're right. He's in parts of the world

that he's that that are that are dangerous, yes, yes,

but he's there because.

He's helping with Timothy Initiative, yes, spreading the gospel. And

and I know that one thing he shared with me

is that some of the doors that have opened last

couple of years are things that he has been praying

about and their team's been praying about for years, and

God has allowed them to go into areas where the

Gospel was not present before.

So it's really cool.

Yeah cool.

And his and his wife's with him, so that's awesome.

Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. So Bonnie actually traveled with him

this time and she's keeping him safe. Yeah, I'll tell

you what she's she's a brave soul. Now we Kristen

like to do that? My wife would say no, ultimately, Yeah,

I don't know.

I think she'd like it, like try it, like going

once maybe, But I don't know. I don't think that

would be a normal Like I don't think Bonnie is

Bonnie is different. She's built different, right, Yeah, when it

comes to that, that's sure.

Yeah, Liz would say no, thanks, good for you, for you.

For you.

All right. Well, hey, today, before we jump into the

Book of Neamiah, which is extremely exciting, we're going to

be learning all about Neamiyah, you know, building the Wall,

and obviously that's a pretty famous story, uh for the

Old Testament. But before we dive into that, we have

a segment and the segment is written by Desiree and

it is Queen Desiree, and she says, guess the word.

Let's see if Kyle can guess the keyword based on

the clues from Chris. While Chris avoids saying the italicized words.

Chris also gets to determine how many points that Kyle wins.

Nice, okay, so you get to determine the points.

Yeah, so each one that you win is worth one

thousand points.

Okay, And I just want to prep the viewers who

are listening. I'm awful these types of games. So this

is gonna be bad.

You're gonna be yelling at them. They're gonna be yelling

out lot, They're gonna be like this guy is an idiot.

No, it's gonna be great. And if you're watching on YouTube,

then hopefully we're gonna have the words on the screen

that I cannot say. Okay, okay, are you ready? All right?

The first one? If you want to put your knickknacks

in something so it doesn't chip, what do you put

them in?

It doesn't chip?

When when taking them from house to house?

Douffel bag? No, nick knacks, purse? Secure them before you

put them in the box. You secure them by uh

uh wrapping them in?

What?

Foiling them in?

Uh no? What's the fun stuff? Oh my gosh, you

get let you haul?

Oh? Strip wrap?

Bubble wrap? Yes, that's the word.

Sorry.

Yeah, I couldn't say pop, no, no, no, that was good.

That was good. I couldn't say pop plastic, packaging, bubbles

or shipping.

Okay, gotcha, bubble wrap?

All right?

Yeah, I'm sorry, man, I could have done a better. Yeah,

I'm gonna give you five hundred for that five hundred.

I'm just kidding, thousand, five hundred points. All right, here

we go. Ready, Oh geez, When a person throws balls

up in the air repeatedly, that is called uh clown

jug Yeah yeah, but what is he doing juggling? Yes,

a singular word, juggle juggle. Yes, that's correct, that's good.

I wasn't allowed to say circus hands, catch, toss, or rotates,

So yeah, that's it. So okay, how about this one? Ready,

and Emperor's new groove? Emperor Cusco turned into a donkey? No,

you don't, I.

Love what is it?

Have you ever seen Napoleon Dynamite? Yeah? Remember he goes,

can you eat your dinner? What was that animal? A lama?

That is correct? Two references for that. I was allowed

to say animal spit, I'll pack a wool or South America?

Okay, good, Hey that was good. You went to do movie, right?

That helped a lot.

Yeah? Yeah, so dude, you said Emperor Cusco turned into

a donkey.

It's actually such a good movie. I just could not

remember what that animal was.

Good, it's such a good one. All right, here we go.

That's one of my favorites. By the way, how about

g is Okay, what do you put on hamburgers that

are green and crunchy?

Hamburgers that are green and crunchy? What do you put

out that? A green? Okay?

Let us Uh that's that's one thing. What's sickle thing? Yeah? Pickles,

that's right, and uh pickles onions in the jar? It

is soaking in juice. Pickle juice, Yes, pickle juice, that's right.

I couldn't say sour vinegar, cucumber, brine or drink.

Okay, hey, did you do better than I am? I

give you a thousand points?

No?

Are you so far? Did you have four thousand points?

Four thousand?

Let's go all right? The last one is this? Oh

gee whiz okay? Uh. Old people don't don't uh keep

together their new balances with strings but rather with balance

another way.

To tie your shoes killed.

A new balance wouldn't be with strings, but with what

old people do it all the time.

I don't even know girl, Yes, well crow, okay, yes,

I was yes, I wasn't allowed to say shoes, uh,

strap stick, rip or fastener?

Dude.

Wow, I'll get me honest, I think you did better

than I did, I would not have thought of new

I would not all old people.

That was really good.

Yeah, I couldn't say I couldn't say like new, I

couldn't say shoes, I said new balance, and I couldn't

say you know. Yeah.

But even still, I think I'd end up trying to

make sound effects or something if it me and I

had to describe velcrow.

I think it's against the rules. Probably, Yeah, I think

motions and sound effects the case. But at least if

you're doing taboo rules.

Yeah, yeah, right, So I got five thousand points.

Good job, buddy. I wonder how many listeners.

I bet you we have some pretty sharp people. Yeah,

they're probably on the road, just like that was easy

old people or maybe the rocket bell crow shoes.

So well, hey guys, thanks for playing along, and we

are now moving into the very exciting book of Neo Hi.

I love this book.

You know what's so funny is the listeners got Jeff

and Wesley last week, nice, and now they're getting Chris

and Kyle this week. Nice. So and you guys are

definitely the most present besides Jeff and I. You're the

most present on the Bible.

Guy, and if you're watching this from home. I didn't

realize until I stoodn't when I got here today, I

looked like a referee today. If you said you're watching this,

or if you're not, even go back and watch. I'm

wearing my referee re shirt. And then Chris is the

word of the Daily Bible.

Guys, he's representing, representing as if people need another logo.

Yes, you just need to get one with your face

on it.

So face f there's like logos surrounding us. So all right, buddy,

So here we go. Niamiah chapter one versus started through

eleven yep.

And we got some words that are gonna be fun

to say here, So be patient with me.

Neamaiyah, starting in chapter one, verse one says, these are

the memoirs of Neamiyah, son of Hakalayah. In late autumn,

in the month of Kislov, in the twentieth year of

King Arctic Xercees reign, I was at the fortress of

Susa Hannah, and I one of my brothers came to

visit me with some other men who had just arrived

from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had

returned there from captivity and about how things were going

in Jerusalem. They said to me, things are not going

well for those who return to the province of Judah.

They're in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem

has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed

by fire. When I heard this, says, I sat down

and wept. In fact, for days, I'm mourn. I fasted

and prayed to the God of Heaven. Then I said, O, Lord,

God of Heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps

his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him

and obey his commands, listen to my prayer. Look down

and see me praying night and day for your people Israel.

I confess we have sinned against you. Yes, even my

own family and I have sinned. We have sinned terrible

by not obeying the commands, decrees, and regulations that you

gave us through your servant Moses. Please remember what you

told your servant Moses. If you're unfaithful to me, I

will scatter you among the nations. But if you return

to me and obey my commands and live by them,

then even if you are exiled to the ends of

the earth, I will bring you back to the place

I've chosen for my name to be honored. The people

you rescued by your great power and strong hand are

your servants. Oh Lord, please hear my prayer. Listen to

the prayers of those who delight in honoring you. Please

grant me success today by making the King favorable to me,

put it into his heart to be kind to me.

And that ends by saying that in those days, I

was the King's cupbear.

It's a quick eleven verses here, but it's a lot here.

Dude, Nehemiah is obviously writing this first person. He's the

King's cupbear. He is a Jew, and here he is,

you know, inquiring on the people back in Jerusalem. Now,

let's remind our listeners that the Babylonians captured the Jerusalem

and it was the Babylonian's reign and then the Jews

were exiled. And remember back in the Book of Daniel

five point thirty eight BC was the Persians coming in

and taking over the five thirty nine five thirty nine BC.

The Persians came in and conquered the Babylonians, and then

it was actually King Cyrus, who was King of the Persians,

who decided to say, hey, any Jews who want to

go back to Jerusalem can do so. And not everybody did, uh,

but but but a lot did, and so and and

and so. Yeah, and then we went through the Book

of Ezra, and obviously we saw, you know, some some

Jews like Mordecai, had not gone back. But in this case,

here's Nehemiah. He's still a cut bart to the king,

and now he's cup bearer to a new king. This

next king is art Xerxes, and art Dexerxes is king

of Persia. So here's the name. I very prominent right now,

even though you're a cup barrier, you're sort of like

a servant, but you're also revered as you know, somebody

who I'm sure people bowed to him. He had great respect,

he had great command, and I would also imagine that

he probably based on what we're going to be read

in chapters three for you know, all that that that

he was a person of great leadership, right he So

he had prominence, right and and this was a great

position for him to be in.

Yeah, yeah, I think that.

For me.

There's obviously a few different just in this first chapter,

a few things that stand out, but I find it

interesting because Neemyah is seen as somebody who kind of

steps in, just kind of fills in the gap there,

steps up and says, you know, this is something that

God is calling me to do. But really it starts

with a couple of things that stand out to me.

For one, it says that when he heard the news,

he sat down and he wept. Says for days, I'm mourned,

I fast and I prayed to the God of Heaven.

There'll be a recurring theme throughout pretty much the entire

book in Neemiyah where he in times of crisis and struggle,

where he pauses it says that he wept. It's interesting

because it doesn't shy away from this emotion that he had,

that he himself so that I wept, and then he

said he mourned, he fasted, and he prayed. And so

prayer is something that is like very prominent throughout this

entire storyline. You see this person who, obviously, like you

were mentioned, he's got a higher position of prominence, you know,

to have the ear of the king.

But at the same time he.

Ultimately goes to the king of kings all the time

to pray. But I don't know about I'm sure, like

you've probably taught on this story a ton, but I

know one of the things that always stands out is

that that weeping part, right, the fact that it actually

broke his heart that his people were living this way,

that the walls of Jerusalem were torn down, and that

they were essentially wandering, they were essentially lost, and the

fact that he cared so much about his people.

Yeah, you know, it's interesting how so many times in

scriptures there's different examples of people's heart breaking for something.

You know. So I've been, I've been. I'm not nearly

as well traveled as Jeff Right, but I've been to

maybe I don't know, fifteen countries, you know. I've been

to Egypt and India, and I've been to you know,

Brazil in Israel and Costa Rica and Cuba and Haiti

and all those things. Right, So I've been to those

places and I've seen a lot of things. And it's

really interesting how even though that we had a lot

of global partners with our church, and was always pretty

moved by, you know, especially Cuba. I think Cuba probably

was the thing that moved me probably the most of

all the global partners from my previous church. But when

I came to Heritage Church about four years ago, I

was invited to I'm just talking about my heartbreaking. I

was invited to the Dominican Republic to go see college

buddy of mine who's you know, who's involved in anti

sex trafficking. He rescues underaged girls from sex trafficking. And

it's just one of those things where again I'm exposed

to a lot of things, you know, a lot of injustices,

a lot of you know, really bad things. And all

I had to do is just talk to a girl

who was rescued, and then we drove the streets of

this city and he was, you know, sort of giving

us a tour and showing us sort of the workings

of that area. And my heart just broke and I

just wept, and I think to myself, like, Okay, God,

God weeps all the time, right, So so for everything

that I'm placed in front of that is bad, that

is sinful, that is a result of sin and brokenness,

God weeps for all of it. Right. When I was

in India, for example, and Egypt, they discard their elderly.

It's it's pretty crazy, right. And even though I was

moved by that. I just I wasn't heartbroken the way

that some people were, you know, I was like, wow,

that was that's just that's just that's just awful. But

nothing like when I went to the Dominican and then

all of a sudden, Now, of course I'm for those

who know me, I'm on the board of Transformed one.

And by the way, it's a good opportunity to say,

go to transform one dot org, transform the number one

dot org and he just just donates something. Become a hero.

Hero is you know, forty nine bucks a month or

whatever it is. So anyway, bottom line is I just

want to talk about the fact that probably many people

have heard, hey, Jerusalem's walls are in ruin, your ancestral

city that your grandparents used to live in, is unprotected.

But Neamiah doesn't get moved. I don't think by the

fact that he knows, you know, his cousin, his cousin

lives in Jerusalem. Oh no, my cousin's going to be unprotected. Neamiah,

I think has moved because of God, because what does

he do. He prays and says, even my family is guilty,

we have sinned against you. And he's not referring to

his immediate family, sinning. Currently, he's referring to his lineage.

He's referring to the big picture. He's saying, like, I

realize that I've heard this. You know, Jerusalem's walls, they're

a remnant of what they once were. The whole city

is remnant what they once were. We were a great nation.

We were a nation that represented you. We were a

nation that once was serving you. And now all of

this destruction and banishment and exile and scattering, and we've

all our ancestors have all contributed to this. We brought

this upon ourselves. He's taking responsibility for his own lineage,

and he's saying, even my family has done wrong. We

have all sinned. And then he quotes this promise, and dude,

it's it's one thing to read it and say, oh, nam,

I believe the promise, but it's another thing to be

in that situation.

Yeah.

Right. Have you ever been in a situation where things

seemed completely hopeless and you're thinking, there's no way this

is going to work out, and then you're you're sort

of forced in your faith to believe a promise.

Yeah, Yeah, especially for him considering what he had witnessed

what he'd gone through.

Yeah, no, I love that true. You're right.

The fact that he goes back, talks about all that,

and then talks about the fact that God was going

to rescue him, and then he believed that God was

going to hear his prayers.

Right, yes, right, yeah, And he actually said, he actually said,

he quoted a scripture and he said, so the promise

in here is that if you return to me and

obey my commands and live by them, and even if

you're exiled to the ends of the earth, I will

bring you back to the place I've chosen, my name

be honored, and so and so so think about it.

He's he's hundreds of miles away and he's believing this

promise from you know, a couple of generations ago where

and he's he's thinking like collectively, as a whole nation.

This is how we know he's a great leader. He's

thinking not for himself or for his you know, families

in Jerusalem, he's thinking as a nation, as a people.

He's like, if we as a people came together and

returned to God, then God will bring us back. You know.

This is what Jerusalem needs, This is what the temple needs. Right,

this is what God. It's time for your you know,

for your for your name to be restored. Soniamiah has

this incredible vision and and so let me just say this,

don't ever underestimate the vision that God has given you.

And it may seem way too big for you, right,

it may seem like it's just a It's like, how

could I who am I that I should be able

to be a part of something, to accomplish something so great?

You know? How can I transform my workplace for Jesus?

How could I change my family culture to go to church?

How can I start praying at meal times or whatever

it is? And how can I start to become a

person of faith? Then you think maybe it's too big

of a dream, But don't ever underestimate that vision because

God can use you, one step at a time to

change a lot of things.

Yes, And I would even say, like, if there is

somebody listening to this, I'm sure there's everybody listening to this.

It's feeling like maybe a little bit of motivation on

this to step into the gap. And we're going to

see throughout the life of Neamiah through this story how

God does grant him favor, but also it all started

with his heart being broken. So I just want to

ask to our listeners, like, what breaks your heart? What

situation currently? Like Chris has mentioned he goes to Dominican

Republican his heartbroke for those people. But I imagine that

wasn't the first time. It's I've been dozens and if

not hundreds of times. I know my life, hundreds of

times we're a situation, whether it's a family member or

you know, even for me, I would even say when

I was brand new, before I even like felt called

by God into ministering to people as vocationally, I was

a small group leader to high school students and I

remember there was a certain type of students that I

was like, God broke my heart for them. There was

just certain students I was like, man, I just feel

like these kids are lost right here. And I remember

the youth pastor at the time when he met me,

he was like, hey, you seem like you can get

along well with these kids, and that they like you,

they respect you.

Would you mind playing basketball with them?

And it was those exact kids, the ones who were

far from God, the kids who maybe had you know,

on the outside, were one way, but an inside were

struggling and hurting, and God broke my heart for them.

And over the years, you know, there's been many other

situations where God legitimately broke my heart for a person

or a group of people, And so don't neglect that

nudge that God has or maybe just the interaction you

have with those people. Even my wife, my wife and

your wife has gone to some of my wife's classes before,

but she does a faith based yoga nonprofit that she

runs where she goes and they do scripture reading and

you know, since you workout class, but it's worship scripture reading.

And my wife, since she was younger, has always had

a heart for those with special needs. And when she

started doing this, God opened the doors up for her

to like go and lead these special needs classes. And

she's like, this is literally heaven on earth.

She's able to be.

It's just chaos around her. I mean, they're worshiping God,

they're lifting their.

Art and she's like, this to me is like heaven.

I'm giving them for a moment an hour to just

do something different and have fun like that is. But

God broke her heart at a young age for that

group of people and then has opened the doors up

weave listeners. I'm sure who have a heart for a

certain you know struggle, maybe you can be helping those

who are less fortunate. That's why maybe serving in something

like a food pantry or transform one and being a

hero and that like God like, don't don't underestimate the

fact that God has put that person or that group

of people on your heart.

You know that also reminds me as you're saying, like

what what does your heart break for? My mind always

goes back to shape shape, you know, you know that

acrosstic so Rick Warren a long time ago came out.

In fact, there's even a test where you can go

online and just google it and saddle back church and

the shape stands for shape, says stands for spiritual gifts.

You can go on line and to actually take a

spiritual gifts test and realize, like you know, like you're

gifted in some area. And then h stands for your heart.

And the question is exactly what you just said, what

does your heart break for? You know, like where does

your heart lead? Because for different people it's different things, right,

I was also a person who my heart broke for

teenagers right back when I was coming out of a

really difficult situation as a teenager, which is the reason why.

And then as abilities, So God has given every single

person abilities, just natural abilities. And people who are super

great at football, for instance, they usually become chaplains, right

like Luther el Us from the Lions. Uh you know

he he retired from the Lions and he became the

chaplain for the Denver Broncos. And now he's a coach.

And so now what he does is he does ministry.

Uh you know, same with John Kittna and and and

the previous Lions members that that have come and gone.

Uh that that I'm familiar with through our friend Dave Wilson.

And then so you know this abilities, natural abilities, and

then peace stands for personality. You know, God has wired

you in a certain way and and based on who

you are, based on uh you know, some personalities have

this uh you know, have like a pastoral carrying sort

of like counseling heart. Some people of their personalities are

not that way, but that that could play into it.

And then and then he is your experiences. Uh what

what experiences have you had? Uh? For instance, my wife.

Many people don't know this, but my wife and I

had two different miscarriages between my first and second child,

and uh, it was you know, hard on me, of course,

but not nearly as hard as it is on a mom.

And and I tried my best to uh, you know,

uh be that right there with her during that time.

But even now, so many years later, goodness, I mean,

just gosh, I mean, how many years later and she

still has a heart for people who go through that

because of her experiences, right.

So she probably can minister to people in such a

great way because of what she went through.

Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, even what is it, Corinthians?

I think that tells us that we should comfort others

with the same comfort that we ourselves have received from

God and so and so. But that's based on experiences

and so so sometimes your experience can determine your ministry

and that and that's a great example of that. So again,

if you want to, if you're interested in that, go

online and and and in google it. It's called shape

with a nacrosstic Rick Warren, Uh, spiritual gifts, heart, abilities,

personality and experiences and uh, and Nehemiah is a great

lead into that because he's going to be called to

this very specific assignment, and we're going to find out

that God has used all of those things in his

life to perfectly and strategically place him to do this job.

I'm excited for tomorrow.

Yes, okay, well that's about our time, so hopefully we

will see you then. All the Bible guys, yep you