SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm excited this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't that worship team super fun?
SPEAKER_00: I just, man, I'm so proud of that crew.
SPEAKER_00: So fun to watch God use them to minister and lead us.
SPEAKER_00: It's just, it's one of my greatest joys.
SPEAKER_00: My name is David.
SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the pastors here, and I have the privilege today of speaking.
SPEAKER_00: And it's an honor to begin a new series today on the book of Nehemiah, which is our launch week into a four-week study in the book of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: You hear parts two, three, and four in the next three weeks.
SPEAKER_00: I love the story of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: I love the book of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: The book is about a man who undertook an amazing assignment given him from God and was part of the revitalization of the nation of Israel after they had been taken captive by the Babylonian Empire before this time.
SPEAKER_00: Personally, Nehemiah was the place that God began to form in me a theology of worship.
SPEAKER_00: He said, start reading Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: I was after my freshman year in college, and it was that summer, and I was just beginning this journey of worship.
SPEAKER_00: And what is this?
SPEAKER_00: What's the point?
SPEAKER_00: All the stuff, asking all the questions, and God led me to Nehemiah, and I couldn't figure out why until chapter 8, and when God began to just unfold what he wanted to say to me through that.
SPEAKER_00: But over the next four weeks, uh, we'll be looking at the book of Nehemiah through a very specific lens.
SPEAKER_00: I'll share that with you in a few minutes.
SPEAKER_00: Before I let the cat out of the bag, let's talk just for a minute about the historical context and backdrop of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: It matters.
SPEAKER_00: It's a unique season in the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Nation of Israel has been divided into two kingdoms before this, hundreds of years before this.
SPEAKER_00: Northern kingdom they called Israel, and the southern kingdom they called Judah.
SPEAKER_00: And those two kingdoms both did evil in the eyes of God.
SPEAKER_00: The northern kingdom in 722 BC was taken captive by the Assyrians.
SPEAKER_00: A hundred years later, in 605 BC, uh Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon invaded Judah, the Southern Kingdom, for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: And then in 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar burned Jerusalem to the ground and demolished the temple of Solomon.
SPEAKER_00: Now many Jews at this time were taken captive to Babylon, but many were also left behind in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And during the exile, when the many of them were in Babylon, we still see prophets ministering.
SPEAKER_00: We see prophets like Jeremiah and his writings ministering back in their homeland of Judah, but then we still see guys like Daniel ministering while in Babylonian captivity.
SPEAKER_00: So God is still speaking, just in two different places, one in captivity and one in desolation, really.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Persian Empire comes in, overthrows Babylon in 539 BC, and then in 536, something shifts, and many Jews are allowed and permitted to go back from captivity now in Persia, back to their homeland of Judah and Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So 20 years later, after many do go back to Judah in 516 BC, I'm giving you all kinds of numbers.
SPEAKER_00: They don't matter at the end, but you need to know just the timeline.
SPEAKER_00: Zerubabel, the governor of Judah, rebuilds the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And this is kind of a cool little side bit.
SPEAKER_00: You read the story of Esther.
SPEAKER_00: Esther just is all by herself in the story timeline, and yet it's like, where does this fit?
SPEAKER_00: Esther fits right here.
SPEAKER_00: So people are back in Judah, back in Jerusalem, temples rebuilt, but there are still a lot of people that are still in this free area, but still not at home.
SPEAKER_00: They're still in Persia.
SPEAKER_00: And Esther, 33 years later, comes to the surface, saves the people, becomes the queen.
SPEAKER_00: That whole story is amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're almost to Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: 25 years later, 458 BC, Ezra, a priest, goes back from Susa in Persia again, back to rebuild temple worship in Judah.
SPEAKER_00: And 13 years later, Nehemiah shows up.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah is living in Susa or Shushan in Persia.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you don't need to know all the dates, but what you do want to know is this.
SPEAKER_00: Judah have been in captivity for 70 years.
SPEAKER_00: When they were allowed to go back to Jerusalem, some returned and some stayed.
SPEAKER_00: But God clearly was not finished yet with the Jews or with Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah is about to be brought to the forefront of God's unfolding redemptive plan.
SPEAKER_00: Now, while the book of Nehemiah has a ton of historical and spiritual insight, we're gonna look at the book of Nehemiah over the next four weeks through the lens of biblical leadership.
SPEAKER_00: It's phenomenal what Nehemiah does and how God uses Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: So the question really is: are there lessons of leadership we can glean from the story of Nehemiah?
SPEAKER_00: Now, you might say, wait, Pastor David, I'm not a leader.
SPEAKER_00: How will this apply to me?
SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you asked.
SPEAKER_00: Because we're gonna remove the title because the title has nothing to do with leadership.
SPEAKER_00: You can be a leader and not be a leader by title.
SPEAKER_00: See, John Maxwell said this: leadership is influence.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing more, nothing less.
SPEAKER_00: Simon Seneck, my favorite, said leadership is not about being in charge, it's about taking care of those in your charge.
SPEAKER_00: And so for us, our working definition is simply going to be this: leadership is influencing people to bring about God's intended plan.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're a business owner, maybe you're a mom at home, maybe you're a dad at home, maybe you're a 14-year-old student getting ready for your freshman year in high school.
SPEAKER_00: Every person in the room is a leader because someone somewhere nearby is watching you and you are influencing the decisions, the thinking pattern, the way people talk, whether good or for evil.
SPEAKER_00: But every person is and can be a leader.
SPEAKER_00: And it's that lens of leadership that we're gonna look through as we study the book of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: Now, sneak peek, skip to the end of the book.
SPEAKER_00: God uses Nehemiah to build a wall.
SPEAKER_00: That's the point.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah's gonna build a wall.
SPEAKER_00: But today we're gonna look at what happened long before the wall was built, before Nehemiah picked up a single brick.
SPEAKER_00: Today we'll see that before God uses a leader, he builds a leader.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what happens to Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: Before God uses a leader, he builds a leader.
SPEAKER_00: Before he used Nehemiah, he built Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is true of Moses, this is true of David, this is true of Paul, this is true of Nehemiah, this is true of you and true of me.
SPEAKER_00: That God is gonna use people, but God's gonna build them first.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna prepare them, and here's the process.
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
SPEAKER_00: Why not start with chapter 1, verse 1 in Nehemiah?
SPEAKER_00: Here it goes.
SPEAKER_00: Now it happened in the month of Kislev, which is late November.
SPEAKER_00: I was in Susa, or Shushan, depending on what version you're looking at.
SPEAKER_00: Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah, and I asked them, concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So Nehemiah just asked them, hey, how's it going?
SPEAKER_00: How was it like back in Jerusalem?
SPEAKER_00: See, Nehemiah, while free to go back to Jerusalem, is still in the foreign city of Susa.
SPEAKER_00: The only home Nehemiah knows is this foreign land of Persia.
SPEAKER_00: Now, but his brother Hanani had just returned from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He had just gotten back.
SPEAKER_00: Now, for perspective, it wouldn't have been like coming back from Lancaster or from even Philly.
SPEAKER_00: It would have been more similar coming back from Jacksonville, Florida on a walking trip.
SPEAKER_00: So a three or four-month walk for over 800 miles is what his brother Hananai had just returned from.
SPEAKER_00: And so Nehemiah welcomes his brother, asks him and his friends how the Jews in Jerusalem and how Jerusalem itself is doing.
SPEAKER_00: And this was their response.
SPEAKER_00: And they said to me, The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame.
SPEAKER_00: The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in that moment, Nehemiah faces his first leadership question.
SPEAKER_00: He's confronted with a decision.
SPEAKER_00: He can either ignore reality and that his homeland is in shambles or make a decision to be part of a solution.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah's response is epic.
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, as soon as I heard these words, I sat down and I wept and I mourned for days.
SPEAKER_00: And I continued to fast and pray before the God of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the starting place of biblical leadership.
SPEAKER_00: That as God builds the leader in us, as God built the leader in Nehemiah, number one, God meets us in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: It has to start in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Long before the first stone was lifted to build a wall, a burden was lifted in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: There are people that God has entrusted to your care.
SPEAKER_00: And long before you wield authority, whether it's over an employee or a son or daughter, we have to first be people who move heaven and earth in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah was moved to action, but his first action didn't appear to have an action at all.
SPEAKER_00: He just prayed.
SPEAKER_00: He just began to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keeps his commandments.
SPEAKER_00: He goes on.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen to make my name dwell there.
SPEAKER_00: See, Nehemiah understands that nothing eternal will ever start anywhere besides in the closet of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing eternal will ever start anywhere besides in the closet of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: These aren't just good ideas or good thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: He's acknowledging that the reason they were there in the first place was because of their own disobedience, their own decision to walk away from the plan that God had given them.
SPEAKER_00: But he understands, based on what he shared, what he prayed, that God was not giving on up on them yet.
SPEAKER_00: God wasn't done with the Jews or the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And he recalled a thousand-year-old promise that God gave through Moses in Deuteronomy 30.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same thing he just prayed.
SPEAKER_00: Moses said this if your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you.
SPEAKER_00: So Nehemiah is confessing, God, you warned us again and again and again, and we still did our own thing.
SPEAKER_00: We still walked our own way.
SPEAKER_00: And look where that landed us.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody?
SPEAKER_00: Stories that might sound kind of like that.
SPEAKER_00: God, you warned me over and over.
SPEAKER_00: I and here I am.
SPEAKER_00: But Nehemiah also acknowledges that the only God could make this thing right.
SPEAKER_00: Only God could make this thing right.
SPEAKER_00: And as a leader, whether in your home, in a school, on a job site, or in a boardroom, wherever God places you, as God is building the leader in you, God wants to meet you in prayer before anything else.
SPEAKER_00: That's step one in becoming the leader God has for us to become.
SPEAKER_00: But something shifts in verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: Something begins to take shape that just changes the tone a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: We begin to see the next biblical leadership principle.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah is still praying in verse 11, and it says this he's praying, he says, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we don't know for sure what's happening or how long it's been yet at this point, but what we do see is Nehemiah is asking for success for something.
SPEAKER_00: God grant mercy, give success to me.
SPEAKER_00: Some kind of thing is happening, and as a as God begins to build a leader in us, he meets us in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: But then point two, God reveals a plan.
SPEAKER_00: God begins to lead us step by step.
SPEAKER_00: If we're listening for his voice and we're in prayer, God will begin to direct our steps and reveal the plan of action he's going to lead us into.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a plan being revealed to Nehemiah, but it doesn't happen by looking for advice on TikTok or on YouTube or Chat GPT even or Google.
SPEAKER_00: The plan was found, it was hatched in the incubator of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Now, get wisdom, look for ideas, or do all the searches you want to do, but that better be found in the heart and in the closet, the secret place of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Why does this matter?
SPEAKER_00: It matters because if it doesn't start in prayer, how will I know if it's a good idea or a god idea?
SPEAKER_00: Because I got lots of good ideas, let me tell you.
SPEAKER_00: But the question is, are they God's ideas or just this guy with time on his hands?
SPEAKER_00: But if we're honest, how often do we make our plans before praying?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's just rhetorical, but how often, David, have you made plans before praying or without praying?
SPEAKER_00: And this is why I think James is so clear in James 4 13, when he says, Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow, we'll go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit, yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.
SPEAKER_00: What is your life?
SPEAKER_00: For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.
SPEAKER_00: If the Lord wills.
SPEAKER_00: How do I find that?
SPEAKER_00: In the place of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: As God leads our spirit as He connects with us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not sure, take a step and then check.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I do.
SPEAKER_00: If I I don't have a plan for the next 40 years, but I have today's plan.
SPEAKER_00: And when tomorrow comes, I'll take a step and I'll check in with God.
SPEAKER_00: Say, God, does this sound right to you?
SPEAKER_00: And when God gives you a direction, a step or two or ten, take those steps in obedience and then let God meet you in that place and then check in every time.
SPEAKER_00: Say, God, are we still good?
SPEAKER_00: Is this still your will?
SPEAKER_00: Is this still the plan?
SPEAKER_00: Is this still where I'm supposed to be?
SPEAKER_00: Is this where you're leading me?
SPEAKER_00: That's how God leads me.
SPEAKER_00: Check in.
SPEAKER_00: Let God know what you're gonna do before you do it.
SPEAKER_00: Let Him put up a stop sign in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody had that happen before?
SPEAKER_00: It's like I'm getting ready.
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, I can't do that.
SPEAKER_00: God put up a stop sign.
SPEAKER_00: Let us know the release and the restraint of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The release and the restraint of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts chapter 16, Paul is being followed by a demon-possessed young lady, and she's following him for days, it says, and it he's just enduring this.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, one day he turns around and says, Come out in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And she's set free.
SPEAKER_00: And the whole city begins to change because that one moment.
SPEAKER_00: Well, why not on day one do that?
SPEAKER_00: I think it's the release and the restraint of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Where God said, No, no, no, now's the time.
SPEAKER_00: Go.
SPEAKER_00: We have to know the release and the restraint of God's Spirit in us.
SPEAKER_00: So Nehemiah has the order correct.
SPEAKER_00: He meets God in prayer, and God begins to reveal his plan.
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah at the end of chapter 1 in verse 11 takes a right hand turn.
SPEAKER_00: It's like he says this.
SPEAKER_00: Now I was cupbearer to the king.
SPEAKER_00: He's praying, praying, praying, praying.
SPEAKER_00: Here's my job.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I was cup?
SPEAKER_00: Like you're giving him tea?
SPEAKER_00: Like what it was, it's so out of left field until you look a little deeper at first glance.
SPEAKER_00: It feels weird and not a big deal, but this was actually a huge deal for Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: See, as cupbearer to the king, Nehemiah was a highly influential top-tier security official.
SPEAKER_00: The cupbearer would have been like the modern-day equivalent of a White House chief of staff, a personal aid, and security advisor all into one.
SPEAKER_00: And as God is building the leader in Nehemiah, God meets him in prayer, God reveals a plan.
SPEAKER_00: And point number three, God sends the people.
SPEAKER_00: God sends the people.
SPEAKER_00: The king was one of the people that God had placed in Nehemiah's life, and it mattered.
SPEAKER_00: Now Nehemiah knows that this man is part of the answer that God's gonna bring to the prayer he had been praying.
SPEAKER_00: How do I know?
SPEAKER_00: Well, before that, in verse 11, chapter 1, Nehemiah is praying.
SPEAKER_00: He literally says, And give success to your servant today and grant him mercy in the sight of this man, this man being the king.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's no other option but to say, Nehemiah recognizes his position in this moment in time is providential, where Nehemiah is going to be used by God because of, and in addition to the king's relationship with him, it matters.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the same for us.
SPEAKER_00: See, as God is building a leader in us, he will set up divine appointments with people who will push us, who will help us to grow, help us move forward, help us to develop, help us to mature, and it's likely that those people are already in place or on the way.
SPEAKER_00: They're already probably next to you or coming.
SPEAKER_00: Moses, if you think about him, he's whining before God.
SPEAKER_00: God gives him a big job.
SPEAKER_00: Moses set him all free.
SPEAKER_00: I can't talk.
SPEAKER_00: He's terrified, he's scared.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what his problem was, but you know, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: But he tells God, I can't do it, and God's response says, Aaron is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Moses, stop whining.
SPEAKER_00: Aaron is already on his way.
SPEAKER_00: I already got you covered, boy.
SPEAKER_00: And scripture is full of divine appointments, just like that, miraculous connections where God sends people he knows we're gonna need.
SPEAKER_00: When I've talked with leaders over the years who were stuck in a situation, the question to ask isn't always, what should I do?
SPEAKER_00: Instead, it's often, who did God send?
SPEAKER_00: Who's in your corner?
SPEAKER_00: Who's in your camp?
SPEAKER_00: Who's God placed right alongside you just in time?
SPEAKER_00: A few years ago, I met a pastor named Denny.
SPEAKER_00: He lived two and a half thousand miles away.
SPEAKER_00: And I met him at a pastor's retreat.
SPEAKER_00: Just random, he happened to be there, and I was there.
SPEAKER_00: No point, no purpose, no longstanding connection, no reason to move forward until a few months later I walked through the most difficult season I've ever faced in ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And Denny was there.
SPEAKER_00: And God knew that I needed a shepherd to shepherd me in that season.
SPEAKER_00: And just like Nehemiah needed the king, I needed Denny.
SPEAKER_00: Who do you need?
SPEAKER_00: But God will send the people.
SPEAKER_00: God will send you who you need.
SPEAKER_00: He's providential that way.
SPEAKER_00: He provides.
SPEAKER_00: Let's keep going.
SPEAKER_00: Now in chapter one, Nehemiah begins to pray in the month of Kislev, it says.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter two begins with, in the month of Nisan.
SPEAKER_00: Not Nisan, your car, but Nisan.
SPEAKER_00: Almost the same.
SPEAKER_00: But something is about to happen, and it's the month of Nisan.
SPEAKER_00: And it seems irrelevant until we realize, recognize that it's been four months since Kislev.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what's been happening for four months since Kislev?
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah has been fasting and praying fervently for four months since Kislev.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody ever give up on day five?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe minute 27?
SPEAKER_00: Like, we're great for like five minutes and I'm done.
SPEAKER_00: Like, come on, God, hurry up.
SPEAKER_00: Microwave button.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone?
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: Four months.
SPEAKER_00: He's been praying fervently for God to do something.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know where it happened.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think God revealed his plan on day one, but maybe on day 101, Nehemiah gained some clarity.
SPEAKER_00: But at some point, he realizes the king is part of the point.
SPEAKER_00: And after four months, a day arrives.
SPEAKER_00: The opportunity knocks, and it says, I took up the wine and gave it to the king.
SPEAKER_00: Now I had not been sad in his presence.
SPEAKER_00: And the king said to me, Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick?
SPEAKER_00: This is nothing but sadness of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Then I was very much afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah is faithfully doing his job.
SPEAKER_00: And one day the king notices his sadness.
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah is afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah's job was to protect the king.
SPEAKER_00: And in the Persian courts, a look of sadness was seen as an insult to the king's good leadership.
SPEAKER_00: So if I'm sad before the king, I disapprove of who he is as a king.
SPEAKER_00: And that could cost me my job or my head.
SPEAKER_00: So Nehemiah was fairly afraid.
SPEAKER_00: It's appropriate.
SPEAKER_00: But since the king opened the door, Nehemiah walked straight in.
SPEAKER_00: The king asked, Why, what's wrong?
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah said, I said to the king, let the king live forever, meaning, spare my life, please.
SPEAKER_00: Why should not my face be sad when the city, the place of my father's graves, lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire?
SPEAKER_00: Why shouldn't I be sad when my homeland is a mess?
SPEAKER_00: And the king looks at Nehemiah and in verse 4 he says, This, What are you requesting?
SPEAKER_00: It almost feels like the king just got his pen and his checkbook and is getting ready to write some numbers.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, what do you want me to do for you, Nehemiah?
SPEAKER_00: That's how it feels to me when I read.
SPEAKER_00: But Nehemiah knows something's about to happen.
SPEAKER_00: I love the end of four, beginning of five, it says, So I pray to the God of heaven and I said to the king, I prayed and I said.
SPEAKER_00: Not a 10-minute prayer, not a three-day fasting and prayer.
SPEAKER_00: This is a flare prayer, like a one-up and go kind of deal.
SPEAKER_00: But it was the culmination of four months of earnest prayer.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just that, but it was the end of four months of prayer before that.
SPEAKER_00: See, as God is building the Nehemiah and as he's building us, he meets us in prayer, reveals his plan, sends the right people, and now Nehemiah is gonna see that while he's building the leader in us and in him, that God creates pivot points.
SPEAKER_00: A moment is gonna come when God is gonna shift the atmosphere of what has been to what is gonna be.
SPEAKER_00: A shift is gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna happen soon.
SPEAKER_00: And the king opened the door, and for the next several verses, Nehemiah lays out exactly what he wants from the king.
SPEAKER_00: He says, King, you asked for it.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to send me to Jerusalem so I can rebuild it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna need some vacation time.
SPEAKER_00: Like maybe a lot of vacation time.
SPEAKER_00: I need some letters, a few letters for a safe passage through the governor's areas I'm gonna walk through.
SPEAKER_00: And I also need a letter for the guy to give me free lumber.
SPEAKER_00: That's gonna be important.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how long are we talking, Nehemiah?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the walk is three or four months each way.
SPEAKER_00: So it could be a while.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe a year or ten.
SPEAKER_00: Give or take.
SPEAKER_00: But one of my favorite verses is the passage, verse eight, and it says this, and the king granted me what I asked for, for the good hand of my God was upon me.
SPEAKER_00: That's it right there.
SPEAKER_00: For the good hand of my God was upon me.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't because he made a great speech, it wasn't because the king liked him, it wasn't the quality of his pitch, it was because he understood the king gave him his request simply because the good hand of my God was upon him.
SPEAKER_00: That's where God wants us to live.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean it all goes perfectly, but don't we want to live in the blessing and favor of God?
SPEAKER_00: Where God shows up, where God meets us, where God directs us and God leads us.
SPEAKER_00: It isn't a oh, I'm just suffering for J.
SPEAKER_00: No, like come on.
SPEAKER_00: There's more to life than that.
SPEAKER_00: God has good things in store for his people, and God's gonna lead you to places where he's gonna set up for you.
SPEAKER_00: And God met Nehemiah in prayer, God revealed his plan, God sent his people, God created a pivot point for his plan to unfold.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly where Nehemiah finds himself in the middle of chapter two.
SPEAKER_00: With the king's blessing and provision, Nehemiah arrives in Judah, gives letters to the governors, and then he faces opposition.
SPEAKER_00: This is not going to be something that we talk about today much, except for right here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna warn you, dear one, is loved by God.
SPEAKER_00: The moment you say yes to Jesus, you said no to everything that's not of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And when you did that, you put a bullseye on your back, or maybe on your face.
SPEAKER_00: And so don't be surprised when stuff comes your way that wasn't part of the plan.
SPEAKER_00: Like, ah, that was painful.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be surprised when you get a knife in your back from someone you thought you could trust.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be surprised when the enemy begins to use people around and disrupt your plan because you're on target for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's not uncommon to have an enemy in your face from time to time.
SPEAKER_00: That's not part of the plan today.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna keep moving.
SPEAKER_00: We'll see them in a couple weeks.
SPEAKER_00: But Nehemiah is in Jerusalem, in position to get busy.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't start yet, but in fact, what he does next is so counterintuitive.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah goes for a walk.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, I'm like, for real?
SPEAKER_00: Like, you just got to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna go for a walk right now?
SPEAKER_00: He goes for a walk.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12, chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me.
SPEAKER_00: I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: There was no animal with me but the one on which I rode.
SPEAKER_00: I went out by night by the valley gate to the dragon's spring and the dungate.
SPEAKER_00: Great name.
SPEAKER_00: I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and its gates that have been destroyed by fire.
SPEAKER_00: Then I went to the fountain gate and the king's pool, but there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass.
SPEAKER_00: Then I went up in the night by the valley and fifted the wall.
SPEAKER_00: I turned back and entered by the valley gate and so returned.
SPEAKER_00: And the officials didn't know where I had gone or what I was doing, and had not, I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the rest who were to do the work.
SPEAKER_00: So before rallying the troops, before getting on a stage, before building a team, before planting a church, before starting a ministry, before starting a business, as God is building the leader, God prepares privately.
SPEAKER_00: Who's he with?
SPEAKER_00: A couple trusted friends.
SPEAKER_00: That's about it.
SPEAKER_00: God prepared Nehemiah privately on these nights when it was dark and no one could see what he was doing.
SPEAKER_00: God's preparing his heart for the next days ahead.
SPEAKER_00: There is no substitution for God's private preparation.
SPEAKER_00: There's no substitution for God's private preparation.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't learn to lead worship on a stage or in a classroom.
SPEAKER_00: I learned to lead worship when I began to learn how to pursue God's presence alone in the back of a chapel in a small Bible college in Oregon.
SPEAKER_00: At six in the morning every day, me and my friend would go, we'd learn how to pray.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where I began to learn how to lead worship.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't with a guitar even, it was just me and Jesus on my face in the carpet.
SPEAKER_00: It's pursuing his presence.
SPEAKER_00: But that's what God does.
SPEAKER_00: He leads us and he prepares us privately.
SPEAKER_00: Don't skip, discount, or begrudgingly endure God's private preparation.
SPEAKER_00: See, it's in those moments when God takes time and he fashions his image in us.
SPEAKER_00: It's in those moments when he builds his character in us.
SPEAKER_00: It's in those moments that he changes us to look more like him.
SPEAKER_00: And when he was alone in prayer, Jesus chose his disciples the next day.
SPEAKER_00: When Paul was alone for 13 years before ministry began, Moses spent 40 years on the backside of the desert before setting his rights free.
SPEAKER_00: There's a development of character that God wants to do in us, and it most often only happens when there are two people in the room, you and Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's no substitute for the private preparation of what God wants to do in us.
SPEAKER_00: Allow his preparation in you to be completed so that the man or woman of God may be fully equipped, not lacking anything.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to do a work in us.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to do a work through us, but he has to do a work in us.
SPEAKER_00: One more point.
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
SPEAKER_00: So God met Nehemiah in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: God revealed his plan.
SPEAKER_00: God sent the right people.
SPEAKER_00: God created a pivot point.
SPEAKER_00: God prepared him quite privately.
SPEAKER_00: And now Nehemiah gathers the people.
SPEAKER_00: And it says, Then I said to them, You see the trouble we are in?
SPEAKER_00: How Jerusalem lies with its gates burned in ruins.
SPEAKER_00: Now Nehemiah could have stopped right there.
SPEAKER_00: He could have painted a bleak picture and said, You guys are awful.
SPEAKER_00: You've been here for 50 years and you've done nothing.
SPEAKER_00: But he didn't.
SPEAKER_00: He was better than I would have been.
SPEAKER_00: He had more to offer because God had been preparing him privately.
SPEAKER_00: And as God builds the leader in us, point number six, God gives divine perspective.
SPEAKER_00: God will give divine perspective.
SPEAKER_00: You want to know what's different between divine perspective and natural perspective?
SPEAKER_00: It's really simple.
SPEAKER_00: Hope.
SPEAKER_00: So they strengthen their hands for the good work.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't can't get the problem.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't diminish what was wrong.
SPEAKER_00: He was honest, but he didn't stop there.
SPEAKER_00: Ironically, Napoleon said this the role of a leader is to define reality and give hope.
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what Nehemiah did.
SPEAKER_00: He defined reality.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, it's a mess.
SPEAKER_00: It's bad.
SPEAKER_00: We're in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: It's not done yet.
SPEAKER_00: God's not finished yet.
SPEAKER_00: Because yeah, we're in trouble, but this is what God's been doing.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the backstory.
SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, it's a mess.
SPEAKER_00: They're all burned down.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what the king gave to me.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, but you know what?
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't my idea, it wasn't my pitch.
SPEAKER_00: It was because God moved the king to supply the needs.
SPEAKER_00: God's not finished yet.
SPEAKER_00: Hope.
SPEAKER_00: He framed reality and hope.
SPEAKER_00: And both are necessary.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Reality without hope becomes despair.
SPEAKER_00: But hope without reality is just a fantasy.
SPEAKER_00: Divine perspective has both.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're leading in your business or in your home, someone's struggling, perhaps, an employer, you can definitely paint the picture of reality.
SPEAKER_00: You can paint the picture and say, hey, you better get your at together.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to have some words.
SPEAKER_00: You can paint that picture if you want.
SPEAKER_00: But if you can frame that in hope, you inspire people to believe God for the impossible.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're you have a middle school son or daughter.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps they come home from school and they're crying because at school something is impossible.
SPEAKER_00: It's I can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: It's impossible.
SPEAKER_00: No one can do it.
SPEAKER_00: And you know how that's just middle school life, right?
SPEAKER_00: You can frame that difficulty, acknowledge it, and put hope in it, and begin to say, I get it, that's hard.
SPEAKER_00: But then you get to frame that with hope from scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I hear what you're saying, but you can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
SPEAKER_00: And nothing is impossible with God.
SPEAKER_00: And God's strength is made perfect in your weakness.
SPEAKER_00: And you won't be alone, and God will be with you forever, and you can you cover it in hope.
SPEAKER_00: See, Nehemiah didn't just see broken walls, everyone saw broken walls, and they walked over them every day.
SPEAKER_00: In and out of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone saw broken down gates and they walked through them every day.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah saw what God was doing in the middle of the broken walls.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah saw that God's plan wasn't over in the middle of the broken walls, and that's reality framed in hope.
SPEAKER_00: That's divine perspective.
SPEAKER_00: So today, maybe you came this morning, and the last thing on your mind was leadership.
SPEAKER_00: I get it.
SPEAKER_00: You came just to come to church, man.
SPEAKER_00: Some guy mentioned leadership.
SPEAKER_00: It's like for real?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a leader.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be a leader.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care to be a leader.
SPEAKER_00: Let's strip the title away and reframe it.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe these two words, influence or discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: Because for us, leadership is influencing people to bring about God's intended plan.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Grace, this is the invitation that God has given to each of us.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't our desire to help people draw closer to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: That's influence.
SPEAKER_00: That's discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: It's leadership.
SPEAKER_00: Will you stand with me?
SPEAKER_00: See, no matter no matter what lane we find ourselves in, we're all called to influence people closer to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's our call.
SPEAKER_00: Our responsibility is just to allow him to do what he wants in us and through us.
SPEAKER_00: And when we do, I believe God will meet us in prayer, God will reveal a plan.
SPEAKER_00: God will prepare us privately, and God will give us divine perspective.
SPEAKER_00: See, God does the work, and we just get to make room for him to do whatever he wants.
SPEAKER_00: We just get to make room for him to do whatever he wants.
SPEAKER_00: So if that's your posture today, your heart, if that's your your desire of your heart, I want to pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Just a very simple prayer together.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll say a phrase, you say a phrase, that kind of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And it's just a prayer of saying, God, I'm here, I'm willing.
SPEAKER_00: If that's you, just pray with me.
SPEAKER_00: Dear Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
SPEAKER_00: Dear Jesus, I surrender.
SPEAKER_00: I'm available.
SPEAKER_00: I'm willing.
SPEAKER_00: I say yes to your will.
SPEAKER_00: And like Nehemiah, will you build me?