WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:01.919 How are you guys today? 00:00:02.160 --> 00:00:03.200 Everybody good? 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:07.759 Hey man, cheeseburger days are always good, right? 00:00:10.960 --> 00:00:14.080 There is never anything wrong with having a good cheeseburger. 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:15.839 Good to see you guys. 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:19.519 Hey, how many of you guys were there Sunday afternoon? 00:00:19.760 --> 00:00:21.039 That was awesome, wasn't it? 00:00:21.199 --> 00:00:22.399 Wasn't that a good day? 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:24.960 Man, that was a win for the church. 00:00:25.039 --> 00:00:27.359 That was so exciting to see out there. 00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:35.039 A lot of prayers, a lot of giving, a lot of work, a lot of all kinds of stuff went into actually ending up there on Sunday. 00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:38.399 So that was a great uh that was a great opportunity to be there. 00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:41.759 So let's uh let's go ahead and pray and we'll get rolling. 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:44.640 Lord, thank you for today and thank you for the chance to be together. 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:49.840 I thank you for these men and the encouragement it is for us to spend time together every Sunday. 00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:51.600 I mean uh Tuesday. 00:00:51.759 --> 00:00:54.479 And so, Father, I pray your blessings on today. 00:00:54.640 --> 00:01:02.399 I pray that you will be our teacher, that you'll guide us through the lessons that are just filling up the book of Nehemiah. 00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:06.400 And so I pray you'll help us and guide us and teach us and equip us through this time. 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:10.959 We thank you most of all for the gift of salvation through Jesus our Savior. 00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:12.400 In his name we pray. 00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:14.400 Everybody said, Amen. 00:01:14.799 --> 00:01:22.640 Hey, as you know, we're doing chronological Bible on Sundays, but on Tuesdays, I just I couldn't run past Nehemiah. 00:01:22.799 --> 00:01:23.359 So, right? 00:01:23.439 --> 00:01:28.799 So we're running past all those chapters so fast on Sunday mornings. 00:01:28.879 --> 00:01:35.040 There's great value in that uh chronology and putting everything in context. 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:40.640 But sometimes you get a book like this, and man, it's good for men just to work through the book of Nehemiah. 00:01:40.799 --> 00:01:49.439 And so what we've talked about in Nehemiah are the leadership lessons and the character of Nehemiah as a leader and as a man, as a godly man. 00:01:49.599 --> 00:01:51.200 Last week we talked about prayer. 00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:54.879 Today I want to talk about the difference that leadership makes. 00:01:55.200 --> 00:02:06.480 People talk about Nehemiah as being a leadership textbook in embedded in Scripture, and I think that is absolutely the truth. 00:02:06.719 --> 00:02:14.479 It's got, you know, more than just leadership, but it certainly is one of the best leadership texts that you could ever find. 00:02:14.639 --> 00:02:19.840 And leadership is something that is missing in our world today, good leadership. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:23.599 We've talked in here before about what leadership is. 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:30.080 Leadership is influencing someone towards an end or a direction. 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:31.840 That's what leadership is. 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:35.680 There's good leadership and there's bad leadership, right? 00:02:36.080 --> 00:02:40.479 The guy that runs the cell block is a leader. 00:02:40.719 --> 00:02:45.520 And often he's a very effective leader, and people are following him. 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:52.159 He is leading them in a direction, but he is a bad leader because he's leading them in a bad direction. 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:58.960 Godly leadership is influencing someone in the direction of their walk with Jesus. 00:02:59.199 --> 00:03:03.840 And that's what a godly leader is, and that Nehemiah is an example of. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:07.759 And so, what I want to talk a little bit about is the difference that leadership makes. 00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:15.360 And so I want to just take some thoughts and concepts about what people do and what actual leadership is. 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:18.240 So let's read here in Nehemiah chapter 2. 00:03:18.319 --> 00:03:20.000 We're picking up in verse 9. 00:03:20.159 --> 00:03:23.199 We got the first part last week of chapter 2. 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:26.000 Now let's pick up in verse 9. 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:34.159 Uh, after he has gone to the king, he's prayed before the king, the king has said, Hey, here's the royal credit card. 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:36.000 I'm gonna send you off. 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:39.520 Here's a group of soldiers to go with you, and a group of leaders. 00:03:39.599 --> 00:03:44.879 You take the credit card, you go get all the wood and everything you need, and you go rebuild the walls in your home. 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:47.680 So the Bible says, I went. 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:49.599 So Nehemiah went. 00:03:49.919 --> 00:03:52.479 He left and started doing it. 00:03:52.639 --> 00:03:58.800 I went to the governors of the region west of the Euphrates and gave them the king's letters. 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:03.919 The king had also sent officers of the entry, infantry, and cavalry with me. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:07.439 So he has sent an entourage to help Nehemiah do this. 00:04:07.599 --> 00:04:23.120 Just for a moment, you think about what an incredible thing it is that a pagan king, godless king, is gonna literally pay for the rebuilding of the wall of a conquered province that is under his rule. 00:04:23.279 --> 00:04:28.160 I mean, he's not only gonna release Nehemiah to do that, he is literally paying the freight. 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:30.560 God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:34.720 Money, provision is never a problem with God. 00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:40.959 It may be something we freak out about, but it is never a problem for Jesus, right? 00:04:41.120 --> 00:04:58.959 So here's what he says: when Sanbalat the Horanite and Tobiah the Ammonite, those are officials in that region around where Jerusalem is, when they heard that someone had come to seek the well-being of the Israelites, they were greatly displeased. 00:04:59.279 --> 00:05:06.879 Satan, lost world culture, it's never happy when Jesus' people are on the move. 00:05:07.759 --> 00:05:08.319 Right? 00:05:08.879 --> 00:05:17.360 After I arrived in Jerusalem, I, Nehemiah, after I arrived in Jerusalem, and had been there three days, I got up at night, so note that he's been here three days. 00:05:17.519 --> 00:05:20.560 Then he gets up at night, he took a few men with him. 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:26.240 I didn't tell anyone what God had laid on my heart to do for Jerusalem. 00:05:26.319 --> 00:05:33.839 So he just comes in with this entourage, and here he is, and he's just getting the lay of the land, and now he goes out to investigate. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:37.519 The only animal I took was the one that I was riding. 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:42.639 So this is a pretty clear picture of I'm just gonna go check this out myself. 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:44.480 I'm not having somebody else do it. 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:46.319 I'm not taking all this stuff with me. 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:47.759 This is not a show. 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:53.279 If I got to rebuild this wall, I want to eyeball personally what this looks like. 00:05:53.519 --> 00:06:06.000 And so he says it went out at night through the valley gate, through the shepherd's well and the dung gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and its gates had been destroyed by fire. 00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:13.279 I went on to the fountain gate and the king's pool, but farther down it became too narrow for my animal to go through. 00:06:13.439 --> 00:06:19.839 In other words, like all this rubble and mess, and it's that bad he can't even get his horse or donkey or whatever it was through. 00:06:20.079 --> 00:06:24.720 So I went up at night by way of the valley and inspected the wall. 00:06:24.879 --> 00:06:28.160 Then heading back, I entered through the valley gate and returned. 00:06:28.319 --> 00:06:35.519 So this is a pretty serious circumference evaluation all the way around the wall of Jerusalem. 00:06:35.680 --> 00:06:42.160 The officials did not know where I'd gone or what I was doing, because remember, you went at night, he hadn't told anybody what he's doing yet. 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:49.120 For I had not yet told the Jews, priests, nobles, officials, or the rest of those who would be doing the work. 00:06:50.399 --> 00:06:54.639 So I said to them, You see the trouble we are in. 00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:58.720 Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned down. 00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:07.040 Come, let's rebuild Jerusalem's wall so that we will no longer be a disgrace. 00:07:07.279 --> 00:07:13.759 I told them how the gracious hand of my God had been on me and what the king had said to me. 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:20.160 In other words, go and rebuild the wall, and here's the royal checkbook, and I'm gonna provide all this for you to go do it. 00:07:20.399 --> 00:07:26.639 And they said to me, Let's start rebuilding, and they were encouraged to do this good work. 00:07:26.879 --> 00:07:41.120 So here we've had multiple descriptions of the condition of Jerusalem and of the culture of the people at this point while they're living in ruins and the gates are burned and the people are oppressed and distressed. 00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:46.480 And we've seen multiple times in these two chapters this description of where they are. 00:07:46.639 --> 00:08:01.360 And he goes in and he casts this vision, and these people and this frustration that have been living this long and this oppression and this distress, they amp up and say, Let's go get with it, and we're ready to work. 00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:05.120 They are encouraged to work, let's go start rebuilding. 00:08:05.279 --> 00:08:11.199 That is leadership to get those people to that level and to that commitment. 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:15.519 And so let's talk about the difference that leadership makes. 00:08:15.759 --> 00:08:20.079 So here's a couple of things, a couple of thoughts, and I'm gonna kind of focus on the last one. 00:08:20.240 --> 00:08:26.560 So the first thing is this there is a difference between doing and just yapping. 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:29.439 Y'all know what yapping is, right? 00:08:29.839 --> 00:08:36.960 Like just flapping their gums and everybody's talking a big talk and all this kind of stuff, and they don't lift a finger to do squat. 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:39.360 They're lazy, they're whatever. 00:08:39.519 --> 00:08:52.639 And the Bible says that when he had that moment before the king, Nehemiah stepped into that moment, he had a plan, and when the king says you can go, the Bible clearly says he got up and went. 00:08:53.039 --> 00:08:54.720 He went and did the job. 00:08:54.960 --> 00:08:58.960 He got up in the middle of the night and went investigated and figured it out. 00:08:59.120 --> 00:09:01.759 He stepped into the breach, he went and did it. 00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:05.919 Leaders do, they don't just talk about stuff. 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:09.360 Leaders move, they get things done. 00:09:09.519 --> 00:09:17.440 They get up, they get their hands dirty, they get in the middle of stuff, they make plans, they walk alongside people and they do things. 00:09:17.679 --> 00:09:20.159 Leaders get stuff done. 00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:25.440 They don't just talk about it, they don't just say, hey, y'all go do this or whatever. 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:27.840 They get up and get stuff done. 00:09:28.159 --> 00:09:37.600 In church life, I'll use some examples in church life, but my law firm life and the corporations that we worked with and everything else, they weren't different. 00:09:37.919 --> 00:09:44.000 Every organization is simply a group of people, and people function the way people function, right? 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:56.559 And in church, we have a whole lot of folks that have a whole lot of opinions, and they come half the time, and then they leave early, so they can be you guys, your churches, to the restaurant. 00:09:56.799 --> 00:09:59.039 And they don't do anything, right? 00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:02.960 I mean, you think about Saturday at the football game. 00:10:03.679 --> 00:10:06.799 I'm not commenting on the football game, I'm paying an illustration. 00:10:07.039 --> 00:10:09.840 You guys have been to football games, you know how this is, right? 00:10:10.080 --> 00:10:18.399 Third and long, and he hands the ball up off the middle, and everybody around me, hundreds of people have opinions. 00:10:18.639 --> 00:10:21.360 They are highly vested in their opinions. 00:10:21.600 --> 00:10:24.080 They are vocal in their opinions. 00:10:24.639 --> 00:10:37.840 They add alcohol induced exclamation points to their opinions, using words that we're not going to use here today because they use them in the football stadium, right? 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:39.279 Now let me ask you a question. 00:10:39.360 --> 00:10:47.600 Of those 150 people around me that are screaming and hollering that they should throw the ball and they should do whatever, and I'm not commenting whether he should have thrown it or run it. 00:10:47.679 --> 00:10:48.240 That's not the point. 00:10:48.320 --> 00:10:49.759 Y'all track with me. 00:10:50.080 --> 00:11:03.279 All these people that know better than all of that, what do you think the percentage is of those people screaming and opinionated actually played football? 00:11:04.240 --> 00:11:11.600 How many of you think of how many of you think, what percentage do you think they actually strapped on pads and went and hit people and got hit? 00:11:12.639 --> 00:11:14.399 Maybe five, maybe. 00:11:14.720 --> 00:11:16.080 We'll go with that. 00:11:16.399 --> 00:11:16.879 Right? 00:11:17.120 --> 00:11:21.039 And then of those people, how many played more than just a year? 00:11:21.679 --> 00:11:23.840 The number gets smaller, doesn't it? 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:31.679 So now we have, and of those people, how many of you think, how many of those people, now we're probably down to four, three and a half percent. 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:36.720 How many of them do you think ever learned how to watch film and break down plays? 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:41.919 We're down to between zero and one or one and a half, something like that, right? 00:11:42.080 --> 00:11:50.399 And yet they all know, and they all got an opinion, and they're mad that it's not going the way they want it to, and they never did it. 00:11:50.639 --> 00:11:55.919 They don't know anything factually about it, they don't have any experience to base all that in. 00:11:56.080 --> 00:11:58.879 Now you just you just think about church. 00:11:59.279 --> 00:12:05.360 How different is church on Sunday than the football game on Saturday? 00:12:08.399 --> 00:12:19.039 How many people in the church on Sunday have taught Sunday school classes and studied God's word to the depth that they teach? 00:12:19.279 --> 00:12:24.639 How many of them actually have been in the trenches and brought people to church? 00:12:24.879 --> 00:12:35.759 How many of them actually have trained themselves to do evangelism and gone out and shared Jesus with somebody and led them to Christ and discipled a new Christian? 00:12:36.639 --> 00:12:37.279 How many? 00:12:37.759 --> 00:12:39.919 I mean, you know, it's not that different, is it? 00:12:40.559 --> 00:12:43.120 But everybody's got an opinion about it, right? 00:12:43.519 --> 00:12:46.639 And everybody knows what we ought to do and that kind of a deal. 00:12:46.799 --> 00:12:47.519 It's not that different. 00:12:47.679 --> 00:12:56.399 It's human behavior, it's what the experience is, and that's why leaders stand out because leaders go do things and they get things done. 00:12:56.720 --> 00:13:00.720 Leaders, leaders go, leaders do, leaders go. 00:13:01.279 --> 00:13:04.879 The difference between learning and lurching. 00:13:05.759 --> 00:13:07.440 Learning and lurching. 00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:11.759 Why does God's word spend all his time telling us in great detail? 00:13:12.080 --> 00:13:18.720 He got up by himself, he went out there, just his own donkey, hadn't told anybody else, he's eyeballing himself. 00:13:18.879 --> 00:13:24.399 When he gets to a spot that he can't get through, he goes around it, goes to the valley so he can look down on it. 00:13:24.559 --> 00:13:28.320 He doesn't take anything for granted, he doesn't miss any of the details. 00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:30.720 He's learning about what happens. 00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:33.200 And how many leaders just go do stuff? 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:36.799 Like, like, let's just go do this, or I think this is right, this is my opinion. 00:13:36.879 --> 00:13:38.720 We're just gonna do what I want to do because I'm in charge. 00:13:38.799 --> 00:13:39.759 I'm gonna do this. 00:13:39.919 --> 00:13:44.000 And how many of them actually go learn what needs to be done? 00:13:44.320 --> 00:13:44.720 Right? 00:13:44.879 --> 00:13:47.360 They actually evaluate things. 00:13:47.679 --> 00:13:52.720 I put on here evaluation versus evisceration. 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:59.919 Lots of people have lots of opinions, and they'll tell you what it is, and they'll tell you how everybody else is wrong. 00:14:00.879 --> 00:14:02.399 And they they don't know. 00:14:02.559 --> 00:14:03.840 They've never thought about it. 00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:10.159 We have all these people now, they got all these opinions about everything going on in politics, and not one of them ever read a book. 00:14:10.559 --> 00:14:11.039 You know? 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:12.639 I mean, you got all this stuff going on. 00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:14.480 How many, like, do we dig into there? 00:14:14.559 --> 00:14:16.399 Here's one thing we talk about in church life. 00:14:16.559 --> 00:14:22.960 I'm not trying to be critical about church life, but you guys get like this is the pattern of what happens, and it's got to change at some point. 00:14:23.360 --> 00:14:24.559 How many people come up? 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:28.480 Matt and I were talking about it Sunday, happened several times over the last week. 00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:31.200 Somebody comes up and goes, Y'all blah, blah, blah. 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:33.360 And he goes, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. 00:14:34.799 --> 00:14:36.559 What do you think we did, or what do you think the decision was? 00:14:36.720 --> 00:14:37.200 Well, you did. 00:14:37.759 --> 00:14:39.919 And he go, why didn't you just ask me? 00:14:40.080 --> 00:14:41.039 That's not what we did. 00:14:41.120 --> 00:14:42.159 This is what happened. 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:44.399 And they go, Oh, okay, well, that was great. 00:14:44.480 --> 00:14:45.519 And they walk off. 00:14:45.679 --> 00:14:47.360 And you're like, wait a minute. 00:14:47.600 --> 00:14:52.080 Why didn't you ask instead of accusing first? 00:14:53.679 --> 00:15:02.960 Because we focus on being critical, not on learning, understanding, and evaluating. 00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:05.919 Look at the extent of his evaluation. 00:15:06.159 --> 00:15:08.720 He spent three days before he even went to the wall. 00:15:08.960 --> 00:15:13.360 He came to build the wall, but he knows he's got to have the people and the culture. 00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:15.279 He knows he's got to speak to them. 00:15:15.440 --> 00:15:18.720 He can't lay every block himself and all that. 00:15:18.799 --> 00:15:20.559 So he's finding out what's happening. 00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:22.080 He's praying over this deal. 00:15:22.159 --> 00:15:25.440 He's learning what the culture is, he's learning what the situation is. 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:27.039 He's evaluating all this. 00:15:27.120 --> 00:15:31.679 And three days later, then he goes out at night to go figure out what the wall looks like. 00:15:31.840 --> 00:15:33.519 And he goes all the way around it. 00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:38.000 He, when he faces places he can't get through, he doesn't just assume what's behind there. 00:15:38.159 --> 00:15:43.519 He finds another way to come around and look at it from another angle in order to see what it looks like. 00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:48.480 And so the extent of his evaluation is significant. 00:15:48.720 --> 00:16:00.799 And the effort that he puts into his evaluation, what we know about his character, not only is he looking at all this, he's praying over it. 00:16:01.039 --> 00:16:04.720 He's asking God what this looks like and how am I going to do this? 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:07.120 And you sent me here, and that's that bad? 00:16:07.440 --> 00:16:09.279 And then, hey, God, this one's not too bad. 00:16:09.360 --> 00:16:10.320 We can work with this. 00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:11.360 Do we start here? 00:16:11.519 --> 00:16:12.399 What do we want to do? 00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:15.360 He is He is putting effort into this process. 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:18.240 He is not letting barriers get in the way. 00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:22.799 Why would God take the time to give us a description so detailed? 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:25.279 His animal got to this point. 00:16:25.759 --> 00:16:27.200 He can't get through that. 00:16:27.360 --> 00:16:31.279 So he's going to go out into the valley and look back into it. 00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:39.360 He's giving us a picture of the effort that Nehemiah puts into this to figure out what's happening and what it looks like. 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:41.120 And so he is learning. 00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:42.799 And we've talked about it here before. 00:16:42.879 --> 00:16:43.840 I've said it many times. 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:45.440 Leaders are learners. 00:16:45.600 --> 00:16:48.320 We're always learning, we're always evaluating. 00:16:48.480 --> 00:16:50.480 We're always figuring out what's next. 00:16:50.639 --> 00:16:55.279 We're always figuring out what does change the change around us that's happening. 00:16:55.440 --> 00:16:56.399 How do we address that? 00:16:56.559 --> 00:16:57.840 How do we respond to that? 00:16:58.000 --> 00:16:59.519 What's going on here? 00:16:59.759 --> 00:17:01.919 We're learning all the time. 00:17:02.240 --> 00:17:07.359 The next thing that we see, there's a difference between critical thinking and criticism. 00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:10.799 There's a difference between critical thinking and criticism. 00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:14.160 Critical thinking is analytical thinking. 00:17:14.319 --> 00:17:21.440 I'm gonna figure out what's happening here and why it's like this, and how do we get here and what's the need moving forward? 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:25.839 A lot of people are critical, but they're not critical thinkers. 00:17:26.720 --> 00:17:30.799 They don't like this, they don't like that, they challenge that, they got all kinds of opinions. 00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:35.519 You shouldn't kick the ball on, you know, fourth down, you should have thrown the pass or whatever it was. 00:17:35.599 --> 00:17:37.759 And there's no thought about any of that. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:40.720 Maybe there actually was a strategy in that, you know. 00:17:40.880 --> 00:17:48.240 Maybe since he's got three timeouts and there's almost two minutes left, and maybe we can call timeout, we stop him, and I get four plays instead of one. 00:17:48.400 --> 00:17:49.200 Who knows? 00:17:49.440 --> 00:17:52.160 But man, we just we just lay into all this stuff. 00:17:52.319 --> 00:17:59.359 And so what happens is we have to figure out what is the situation versus what's wrong with these people. 00:18:00.079 --> 00:18:04.960 I mean, you can come into Jerusalem and you can say, Well, y'all got hands and feet, why don't you build a dumb wall? 00:18:05.039 --> 00:18:06.319 There's plenty of rock out here. 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:11.359 We build walls by rock, just pick up the rubble, make the mortar, start building it, right? 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:12.160 Get busy with it. 00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:13.359 What's wrong with you people? 00:18:13.519 --> 00:18:20.319 Instead, he's looking at what's wrong with the situation and what needs to be addressed instead of what's wrong with whoever. 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:27.680 He's looking at what needs to be done, not this is bad, and this is bad, and that's bad, and y'all gotta figure out what you're doing, that's bad. 00:18:27.759 --> 00:18:29.359 He's like, what do we need to do here? 00:18:29.440 --> 00:18:30.319 How does it get better? 00:18:30.480 --> 00:18:31.440 Where do we go? 00:18:31.599 --> 00:18:32.960 What can we build? 00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:34.319 What are the opportunities? 00:18:34.480 --> 00:18:36.880 What are the things we need to climb over? 00:18:37.039 --> 00:18:38.400 What do I need in this? 00:18:38.640 --> 00:18:42.799 And so he is evaluating, he is critically thinking in the moment. 00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:44.240 And how do I fix it? 00:18:44.480 --> 00:18:51.759 Because the point of a leader who is on a mission, who is going to get something done, is to get it across the finish line, right? 00:18:51.920 --> 00:18:57.759 And so here's the last one I want to really think through because this is a this is hard to learn. 00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:04.880 And a lot of people don't have a model in their life of vision casters. 00:19:05.039 --> 00:19:07.680 Now, I probably wouldn't be good with at this. 00:19:07.839 --> 00:19:11.599 Just my personality, and you guys, I've been around long enough I can't hide anymore. 00:19:11.839 --> 00:19:18.640 My personality would probably be a critical person if I hadn't had good models and teachers in my life. 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:23.200 And so the pastor where I grew up was an incredible vision caster. 00:19:23.920 --> 00:19:28.240 I mean, he you were ready to charge hell with a water pistol. 00:19:28.400 --> 00:19:30.319 I mean, it didn't matter what was going on. 00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:32.799 I mean, I'll tell you the story I've told this maybe before. 00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:37.359 I'm sorry if I did, but like we, it was kind of like this, you know, Memphis. 00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:40.000 I grew up in Memphis, so you know, big city and all that. 00:19:40.079 --> 00:19:41.920 It moved all out from the river. 00:19:42.079 --> 00:19:44.799 So you can almost kind of physically picture this. 00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:51.920 Except where we all lived, not in Chaffee, which is 20 minutes away, we all lived an hour away. 00:19:52.160 --> 00:19:56.720 Like my house would have been on way on the other side of Charleston where we lived. 00:19:56.799 --> 00:20:03.119 And we drove downtown to downtown Memphis an hour was the drive. 00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:07.839 And and most of that drive, 45 minutes of it, was on the interstate. 00:20:08.079 --> 00:20:09.599 So that's how far we were away. 00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:37.359 And everybody lived out there, and everybody was driving in downtown, and we had gone to three services, we had spent millions on the property around us, and it gotten to the point where if you picture Darby High School, we middle school, we needed that, and that was an apartment complex with somebody who hated Jesus and hated churches so bad, he wrote into his will his children couldn't even sell it to us. 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:39.119 I mean, that's how much he had. 00:20:39.440 --> 00:20:42.720 And you can't grow if you don't have that property, and there's nothing else you can do. 00:20:42.799 --> 00:20:44.480 And God has shut every door. 00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:55.359 And unbeknownst to the church, they had been praying about a piece of property out, like kind of here, what we would see, chaffee and moving the church and that kind of a deal. 00:20:55.599 --> 00:20:58.559 Well, it's hard to do that on the down low. 00:20:58.720 --> 00:21:10.160 And so they had two or three different real estate agents, and they were looking on this thing, and they were looking on that thing, and they were looking on that one, and there were all these five or six different pieces of property that would come together to make what became the church. 00:21:10.400 --> 00:21:15.200 And just about when they got all that settled, somehow word leaked out. 00:21:15.440 --> 00:21:20.079 So on a Sunday morning, I'll never forget, I walked down to breakfast. 00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:38.640 My dad has got the commercial appeal, which was the big newspaper of the time in Memphis, and he's got the commercial appeal, and the top picture above the fold is a picture of Bellevue Baptist Church with a headline, Bellevue is moving out east from their downtown location. 00:21:38.799 --> 00:21:40.799 And nobody in the church knew anything. 00:21:41.279 --> 00:21:43.440 Now, can you imagine what that was like? 00:21:43.680 --> 00:21:45.519 Can you imagine what that's like, right? 00:21:45.680 --> 00:21:51.839 I mean, the chaos is gonna be, you know, and I mean everybody came to church that day. 00:21:52.079 --> 00:21:58.400 I mean, we got to church, I'm not kidding you, we s there were two balconies in that sanctuary downtown. 00:21:58.480 --> 00:21:59.519 So you think ours. 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:06.400 Similar, but a little bigger, and the balconies went all the way down to the stage. 00:22:06.559 --> 00:22:07.920 They weren't just across the back. 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:09.359 So they were a full U. 00:22:09.680 --> 00:22:15.039 And then there was a second balcony above that that was bigger than our balcony. 00:22:15.440 --> 00:22:16.079 Right? 00:22:16.480 --> 00:22:22.799 I sat in the floor in the second balcony that morning. 00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:24.480 That's how many people came to church. 00:22:24.559 --> 00:22:25.920 Y'all got this picture? 00:22:26.160 --> 00:22:27.920 So here's what happens. 00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:31.200 We do the call to worship, everything's great. 00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:35.200 The pastor walks up, starts to greet people, and everybody's like, What are you doing? 00:22:35.279 --> 00:22:36.240 What are we going to do? 00:22:36.480 --> 00:22:42.160 And he says, Oh, by the way, how many of y'all believe everything you read in the newspaper? 00:22:42.640 --> 00:22:45.359 And the whole room erupts laughing. 00:22:45.519 --> 00:22:46.720 I mean, the whole place. 00:22:46.960 --> 00:22:49.119 Diffuse the entire thing. 00:22:49.359 --> 00:22:53.519 And then he says, Listen, he said, we've been praying through things. 00:22:53.680 --> 00:22:54.799 We have a plan. 00:22:55.200 --> 00:22:58.559 That shouldn't have happened that way from the newspaper, but don't worry about it. 00:22:58.720 --> 00:22:59.519 God's got a plan. 00:22:59.599 --> 00:23:01.599 You come tonight, we'll talk about it as a church family. 00:23:01.759 --> 00:23:04.559 This morning we're going to do church and we're going to tell people about Jesus. 00:23:04.799 --> 00:23:06.319 And people are going to get saved. 00:23:06.559 --> 00:23:08.480 And that morning, people got saved. 00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:10.799 And you think that's leadership. 00:23:11.039 --> 00:23:17.759 And it's also a leadership that has the ability to cast vision in a way that people trust and respond. 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:20.079 And that's exactly what Nehemiah did here. 00:23:20.160 --> 00:23:22.960 He cast vision in a way that people respond. 00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:28.880 And so I want you to just think with me for a few minutes before we close about the difference between vision and vanity. 00:23:29.359 --> 00:23:35.119 He didn't go in and ride in as the Savior and I'm going to fix all this, y'all. 00:23:35.440 --> 00:23:38.000 God sent me here and we're going to take care of this thing. 00:23:38.079 --> 00:23:39.200 That's not what he did. 00:23:39.359 --> 00:23:40.880 It didn't go like that. 00:23:41.119 --> 00:23:46.400 It didn't come in like he is going to get all this done and this is his deal and all that kind of thing. 00:23:46.559 --> 00:23:49.200 This is not a sporting environment. 00:23:49.279 --> 00:23:50.319 It's not that kind of a deal. 00:23:50.400 --> 00:23:52.480 This is a biblical leadership deal. 00:23:52.640 --> 00:24:03.359 It wasn't about him, it was about the vision that God had given him beginning in chapter 1 when his heart broke about the condition of God's people and the city of Jerusalem. 00:24:03.599 --> 00:24:05.680 And so here's a couple things I want you to think about. 00:24:05.759 --> 00:24:06.960 What happens here? 00:24:08.079 --> 00:24:12.400 The first thing is he identified as a part of them. 00:24:13.359 --> 00:24:16.880 When you read it, I emphasized it when we read it. 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:25.279 We are in. 00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:29.359 Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been battered down. 00:24:29.599 --> 00:24:38.880 Come, let us, let us rebuild Jerusalem's wall so that we will no longer be a disgrace. 00:24:39.119 --> 00:24:41.119 Look, this is his city and his people. 00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:43.519 He's never been here before. 00:24:43.839 --> 00:24:47.440 This is literally the first time he's ever been in Jerusalem. 00:24:47.759 --> 00:24:49.039 But these are his people. 00:24:49.200 --> 00:24:50.240 This is his God. 00:24:50.400 --> 00:24:52.400 This is his identity as a person. 00:24:52.559 --> 00:24:55.440 And he says, this is our deal right here. 00:24:55.599 --> 00:25:00.000 And I am in this with you, and we are going to walk this journey together. 00:25:00.160 --> 00:25:05.839 And we're going to trust God and we're going to build and we're going to see God work and fix this. 00:25:05.920 --> 00:25:11.599 And so the first thing he does is he identifies with them and he is a part of them. 00:25:11.759 --> 00:25:20.799 And vision casting happens especially godly leadership when you know your leaders are with you and we are in this together. 00:25:21.039 --> 00:25:29.440 And people don't respond in any long-term way to some ego person that comes in and they're the savior and they're going to do whatever. 00:25:29.599 --> 00:25:31.200 No, this is us. 00:25:31.359 --> 00:25:32.640 We're doing this together. 00:25:32.799 --> 00:25:34.960 We're all in this thing together. 00:25:35.279 --> 00:25:38.480 Second thing you see, he identifies the need. 00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:41.920 You have to explain why we're doing this. 00:25:42.079 --> 00:25:43.279 There is a need. 00:25:43.519 --> 00:25:46.880 He says, I know y'all know, but he doesn't take it for granted. 00:25:47.119 --> 00:25:48.880 The walls are broken down. 00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:54.000 And then he attaches an understanding of the need, why that is important. 00:25:54.720 --> 00:26:04.480 We are a reproach because we are not reflecting the power and the person of God and how we do this. 00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:06.559 And so he identifies the need. 00:26:08.720 --> 00:26:17.759 He doesn't say, listen, if all you people run around with my great-great-grandparents hadn't been sinning and rejecting God and doing all this stuff, we wouldn't be in this mess. 00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:19.440 Look what y'all all did. 00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:30.000 Or y'all been sitting here for generations, you hadn't done squat, and I'm not even from here, and I got to go pray over there and leave my house and my big job and come over here to fix this, because you people sitting around not doing anything. 00:26:30.160 --> 00:26:31.359 He doesn't do any of that. 00:26:31.519 --> 00:26:33.039 That's not what the need is. 00:26:33.200 --> 00:26:36.240 He's not being critical about the situation. 00:26:36.559 --> 00:26:42.640 He is identifying in a factual way what the need is and why it's important that we do this. 00:26:42.880 --> 00:26:47.440 And then he says he identifies the specific mission. 00:26:47.599 --> 00:26:50.240 We're going to rebuild the wall. 00:26:50.559 --> 00:26:51.680 That's the need. 00:26:52.319 --> 00:26:58.160 We can't function, we can't do all this stuff, we can't protect, we can't rebuild, you can't protect the temple. 00:26:58.319 --> 00:27:07.279 We can't identify as God's people unless we rebuild this wall and what it means for us to rebuild the wall, we're going to rebuild this wall. 00:27:07.440 --> 00:27:09.200 Y'all, this is what we're going to do. 00:27:09.359 --> 00:27:10.880 And he's very clear about it. 00:27:11.039 --> 00:27:12.720 We're going to build this wall. 00:27:12.960 --> 00:27:21.680 And then the final thing that he does in identifying that need, he identifies the hand and provision of God as a foundation for their faith. 00:27:21.839 --> 00:27:24.720 And that is incredibly important to understand. 00:27:24.960 --> 00:27:35.599 You can do corporate leadership and all this other stuff, and that's really good, and you can communicate things well, and you can take Steve Jobs' platform on how he tells in the three points. 00:27:36.799 --> 00:27:37.920 It doesn't matter. 00:27:38.240 --> 00:27:46.400 When we're leading people from a place of faith, it is a faith journey, and we have a faith foundation to our vision. 00:27:46.559 --> 00:27:48.000 And so what does he say? 00:27:48.319 --> 00:27:55.279 I told them the gracious hand of my God, how it had been on me and what the king had said to me. 00:27:55.440 --> 00:27:56.960 Now that's not about him. 00:27:57.359 --> 00:28:06.720 That means he is relating the story of God has opened this door and he stuck me in that spot and he opened that door with that king. 00:28:06.799 --> 00:28:11.440 And here's what the king did, and y'all, here's the king's credit card. 00:28:11.680 --> 00:28:14.079 Like he's even paying for this for us. 00:28:14.400 --> 00:28:16.079 God has provided all this. 00:28:16.240 --> 00:28:19.599 So it's not just rah-rah rah, we're going to rebuild the wall. 00:28:19.839 --> 00:28:27.279 He's saying God has invested in this moment, and God has already provided this, and God has already done this already. 00:28:27.440 --> 00:28:42.079 And so when we look to rebuild this wall and we think I can't do this and I'm in this struggle, it doesn't matter how much we struggle because God has stepped into this moment and we're stepping out in faith based on what he's already done. 00:28:42.319 --> 00:28:45.119 We're not making up something that he might do. 00:28:45.279 --> 00:28:51.359 We're just following through on what God has already started and what he's already doing. 00:28:51.599 --> 00:28:59.440 And he builds a foundation of God at work, and we're pursuing his vision, and we're stepping out in faith. 00:28:59.839 --> 00:29:17.839 And so when he casts this vision, it comes out as we're all in this together, and this is the need that God has seen, and this is the mission God has given us and how he's already empowered us and started this process of us moving forward. 00:29:17.920 --> 00:29:21.680 And so we're going to get this done because God is on the move. 00:29:22.559 --> 00:29:24.960 And that's why people responded. 00:29:25.519 --> 00:29:27.599 Yeah, let's go build that wall. 00:29:27.920 --> 00:29:29.599 We're ready to roll. 00:29:29.920 --> 00:29:39.759 Because he was a godly leader that made a difference and he knew how to cast a vision that was built on the foundation of God's work. 00:29:40.480 --> 00:29:41.440 Let's pray. 00:29:41.680 --> 00:29:48.559 Lord, thank you for today, and I thank you for this incredible picture of Nehemiah and how it means so much for all of us. 00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:56.960