SPEAKER_01: You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: What would happen if on a regular basis God's work in your life was so significant that Satan got disheartened by you?
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't that be a cool thing?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, wouldn't it be great that so dishearten demons that they're kind of sick of how supernatural you live your life?
SPEAKER_01: At The Road, our mission is to empower people to change the world.
SPEAKER_01: For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_01: We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: All right, turning your Bibles to Nehemiah 6.
SPEAKER_00: And for you that are guests with us today, we are going through the book of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about building spiritual walls in our life.
SPEAKER_00: And here's my title today God's work done God's way can build a city.
SPEAKER_00: God's work, how many of you know?
SPEAKER_00: God's work done God's way can build a family.
SPEAKER_00: God's work done God's way can build a marriage.
SPEAKER_00: God's work done God's way can build you to be as successful and effective in your job as you were created to be.
SPEAKER_00: God's work done God's way can enable you to break the power unforgiveness in your life.
SPEAKER_00: God's work done God's way can often bring healing in your life.
SPEAKER_00: God's work done God's way can cause you to experience so much supernatural stuff that you're living on the edge all the time of the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit because you start praying these kind of prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you told me to pray to seek first the kingdom of heaven, and all these things will be added unto me.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you told me in the Lord's Prayer to pray, Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come.
SPEAKER_00: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: If you start to believe that, and by the way, that does all come from the red.
SPEAKER_00: That's from the red in your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's from the main guy.
SPEAKER_00: That's from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, This is how I want you to live.
SPEAKER_00: Seek first the kingdom and pray for the kingdom to come.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not pessimistic about the future.
SPEAKER_00: I'm super optimistic.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that the city we're living in is not gonna get worse, it's gonna get better.
SPEAKER_00: And as long as we keep having a view like the end is coming, oh no, who's the Antichrist?
SPEAKER_00: When's the second coming coming?
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna live a pessimistic life.
SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage you that in God's hands, all that kind of stuff, what matters to us is what the Bible says, and the Bible says to build God's kingdom through the power of the Holy Spirit and through the anointing of the Holy Spirit with the gifts that God's given you.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody said amen.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody said amen?
SPEAKER_00: Everybody said amen.
SPEAKER_00: It's true.
SPEAKER_00: And so what we have in Nehemiah 6 and 7 is this incredible work that a cupbearer did.
SPEAKER_00: This guy's a cupbearer.
SPEAKER_00: He's a food taster.
SPEAKER_00: He's a wine taster.
SPEAKER_00: He's a nobody who becomes a somebody because he believes that God's work done God's way can build something great.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter what your education is, it doesn't matter how smart you are, it doesn't matter how many kids you have, it doesn't matter how many divorces you've been through, it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: If you'll surrender to Christ today and begin to give yourself to him, there's amazing things that God does through people who are completely surrendered to him, and that's Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: So here we've gone through these last few weeks.
SPEAKER_00: 52 days is all it took for him to rebuild the walls that the nobles, the government officials had had for years.
SPEAKER_00: For years they've had the temple there, all the walls come on down.
SPEAKER_00: It took one man.
SPEAKER_00: That's all it takes is one man.
SPEAKER_00: That's all it takes is one woman who begins to believe I'm sick and tired of the way things are, and I'm gonna make a difference.
SPEAKER_00: If nobody follows me, fine, but I'm gonna make a difference.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's often the way God works.
SPEAKER_00: He works through men and women who begin to get uncomfortable with status quo, and they want to make a difference, and that's what happens here with Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: So we pick it up, chapter 6, verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: So the wall was finished on the 25th day of Alul in 52 days.
SPEAKER_00: This should have taken years.
SPEAKER_00: He does it in 52 days.
SPEAKER_00: And it happened when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these things, that they were very disheartened.
SPEAKER_00: Circle, disheartened, underline, highlight, disheartened, in their own eyes, for they perceived that this work was done by our God.
SPEAKER_00: What would happen if on a regular basis God's work in your life was so significant that Satan got disheartened by you?
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't that be a cool thing?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, wouldn't it be great to so dishearten demons that they're kind of sick of how supernatural you live your life?
SPEAKER_00: It's possible.
SPEAKER_00: God does that and he took, and he took this guy and he began to follow God.
SPEAKER_00: He gathered a group, they began to build this city God's way, and in so doing, it actually pulls the heart out of the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: It pulls the heart out of the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: I think we should be on, we should have a goal as a church and as an individual that we want to see God do something at the road.
SPEAKER_00: We want to see God do something in this city that disheartens our enemies.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: Every time those guys pray, something happens.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm fearful of that.
SPEAKER_00: The prayer on Wednesday night for all the young people that were up here as we begin to ask the Holy Spirit to minister.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was like, I don't know, 40 or 50 young people up in the front getting prayer because they're, and it was about abortion.
SPEAKER_00: But they were coming forth because they saw something of the need in their heart for a supernatural encounter with God.
SPEAKER_00: And so and so that's what God wants to do.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to dishearten the enemy through heartened people of God.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens, you guys, is we become so used to our status quo Christianity that we lose the fire.
SPEAKER_00: We lose the fire.
SPEAKER_00: And when God comes and he begins to move in our heart again, we begin to trust him in fresh new ways, we come alive in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We come alive in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And so then God's work done God's way has supernatural speed in what he can do sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: Not all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we have to wait on the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But there are so many things, I'm sure, economically, physiologically, mentally, and emotionally, that God could heal today, right now in your life, if you chose to start doing God's work, done God's way, and let him have his way in your life.
SPEAKER_00: So on Wednesday night, this Wednesday night I'm gonna be talking about God, politics, and the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna do part one on Wednesday night, God, politics, and the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to give a basis for what I believe the Bible says about the political arena, civil arena, and our role in that.
SPEAKER_00: But then, secondly, you guys, I want it to be a healing time.
SPEAKER_00: I want to make Wednesday night a healing service.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have an ailment or you know someone who needs healing, bring them to Wednesday night at 6 p.m.
SPEAKER_00: for our strategic prayer, and we're gonna pray specifically about healing on that night.
SPEAKER_00: So, God moves, pulls the heart out of the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Look at chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: Then it was when the wall was built, and I had hung the doors, when the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed, that I gave the charge of Jerusalem to my brother Hanani and Hananiah, the leader of the citadel, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many.
SPEAKER_00: Now turn, turn in your Bibles to Psalm 127.
SPEAKER_00: If you turn to Psalm 127, keep your finger in chapter 7, but turn to Psalm 127.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 127 is one of those great Psalms that challenges us in how to build our lives in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.
SPEAKER_00: Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
SPEAKER_00: It is vain for you to rise up early to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrow's, for so he gives his beloved seat.
SPEAKER_00: Now write this down, jot this down.
SPEAKER_00: What God builds, he guards.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are hoping God's gonna guard something that he didn't build.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of churches that God hasn't built and they're struggling right now during COVID.
SPEAKER_00: One out of five churches is closing during COVID.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: And my feeling on that is probably it's exactly what they should have done years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so when God builds a house, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
SPEAKER_00: So when God's building his house, he's gonna protect it.
SPEAKER_00: If you're building your personal finances, if you're building your marriage, if you're building your family on God, your foundation is God in the Bible, he will guard it.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not, you're guarding it.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're guarding it, it's gonna be really, really tough.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's verse two.
SPEAKER_00: It's vain.
SPEAKER_00: It's vain to stay up late.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you stay up late worrying?
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you stay up late worrying sometimes?
SPEAKER_00: Wow, you guys are just so godly, hardly anybody.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I do, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Because there's things in my life that I know I'm not building on the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I know I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: And so I worry about them.
SPEAKER_00: And then sometimes you're building on the Lord and you still worry about them.
SPEAKER_00: Hello?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And so what God's saying to us is it's vain to give yourself to something, build something that God's not building, number one, and then number two, that God's not even guarding.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what he wants to do in a city church.
SPEAKER_00: He wants a city that he builds.
SPEAKER_00: He wants Colorado Springs to be a city that he builds.
SPEAKER_00: Now, before there's any misunderstanding, and I'll clear this up on Wednesday night, I'm not saying that everybody's Christian.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that every leader has to be a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, Martin Luther during the Reformation said, I'd rather have a good pagan who's not a Christian than a good Christian who acts like a pagan.
SPEAKER_00: And so the reality is that we have common values, we have common grace that we can all agree on as it relates to our land.
SPEAKER_00: And so, in the reality of all of that, he's saying, Let's build the city on me.
SPEAKER_00: Let me build the city.
SPEAKER_00: And he'll do that through civic, he does it through civic leaders as well as spiritual leaders.
SPEAKER_00: Continues.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward.
SPEAKER_00: Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth.
SPEAKER_00: Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.
SPEAKER_00: They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with their enemies in the gate.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, this is really important.
SPEAKER_00: Where God builds, children are cherished.
SPEAKER_00: When God builds something, children are cherished.
SPEAKER_00: We have a democratic party that is built largely on abortion.
SPEAKER_00: That is, God is not building that house.
SPEAKER_00: I can tell you that right now.
SPEAKER_00: It is wrong and it is wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And so God, when he builds a city, you guys, he builds a city where he's got a bow that he's pulling back so that our children will eventually be arrows.
SPEAKER_00: They're being equipped and they're being mightily built in a powerful way to be used for the next generation of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what this church is all about.
SPEAKER_00: That's what this city should be out.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't it be awesome if there's a day coming where there's a beautiful day coming, church, where when we pull back that quiver, we know that the whole generation of children coming, and when those children come forth, they're gonna be more godly than we were.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna be more biblical, they're gonna be more spirit-filled than we were.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to build a city on a foundation that cherishes children, even the unborn.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not real smart, but I can tell you this children can't be born if they're dead.
SPEAKER_00: And so, from conception, just so you know, and most of you would know this, for 5,000 years, even before, there was always, especially in the last 2,000 years with Christianity, there's always been a solid belief in the sanctity of life.
SPEAKER_00: It's only been in the last 75 or 100 years that we've actually regressed to paganism with child sacrifice, with the with the spirit of malek, the spirit of human sacrifice through children.
SPEAKER_00: What's been exciting recently is that at least in the Trump administration, they've been going after sex traffickers.
SPEAKER_00: You're not hearing about it in the news, but you're but they're going after them.
SPEAKER_00: And they're nailing them left and right and left and right.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that Lou said on Wednesday night, which I'd never thought of, he said, and you guys understand this.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know you don't, because I don't say this very often, but I am no big fan of Donald Trump's character and the things that he says sometimes, but I I agree on the policies, not necessarily the personality or the way it comes across.
SPEAKER_00: But uh he he said, in a way, Donald Trump is like a modern-day William Wilberforce who ended slavery because of his pro-life stance and also his commitment, his solid commitment to going after the sex trafficking that's happening around the world.
SPEAKER_00: And it's happening in our city.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't it be awesome if we built this city in the days ahead in such a way that no sex trafficker would be welcome here?
SPEAKER_00: Where no abortion is ever happening to a young person, where we're a church that loves our kids and cherishes our kids and adopts our kids and has homes for those kids where they can grow up to be who they were created to be by God.
SPEAKER_00: It's possible.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what's happening here through Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: So go back to Nehemiah chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: And so what he does here, men and women, is he begins to build leaders.
SPEAKER_00: He begins to hang doors, he has gatekeepers.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, he has gatekeepers and singers.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what I'm gonna say next.
SPEAKER_00: You need gatekeepers, gatekeepers that are civil gatekeepers.
SPEAKER_00: We need good mayors, we need good senators, we need a good city council, we need people that we voted in, who we believe have a worldview of cherishing life, cherishing others, a loving environment, care for our poor, justice.
SPEAKER_00: All those things, civil.
SPEAKER_00: But then there's also, he says, singers, there's also spiritual gatekeepers.
SPEAKER_00: There's civil gatekeepers, which are for the protection, Romans 13, for the protection of our land, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But then we have spiritual gatekeepers that are for the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand the difference?
SPEAKER_00: So there's protection of our land, presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 13, I'll talk about this more and unpack it more on Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_00: But the point is this, it really matters that you vote.
SPEAKER_00: It really matters who our civil gatekeepers are.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll talk about this again.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't written the message yet, but it's like going around in my head.
SPEAKER_00: And that is this that I believe so strongly that the best example I can think of is if you have a home and you're and you're worshiping God, you're praying, and yet someone breaks into your house, begins to steal and pillage everything that they can, you might not be as strong in your spiritual life or feel protected enough, right?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the reality is both matter that there's protection, that you have locks on your doors, that you have maybe you have an alarm system or something like that.
SPEAKER_00: But you have a way of protection, but then also you worship God.
SPEAKER_00: And so, in the same way in a city, there's civil gatekeepers, which are there mainly for protection of life.
SPEAKER_00: And then, secondly, there's spiritual gatekeepers, which are there for the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why, that's why on Thursday we're gonna meet with the mayor.
SPEAKER_00: Because I want him to feel supported, I want him to feel loved, I want him to know that the church is behind him.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm also interested to hear what's our vision.
SPEAKER_00: Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Mayor, what's your vision for the city?
SPEAKER_00: I I want to know because because what if, what if God wanted to bring a kingdom of God revolution in our city and in our state?
SPEAKER_00: Are we prepared for that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think you build toward that in your vision.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: And I said to them, Do not let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot.
SPEAKER_00: And while they stand guard, let them shut and bar the doors and appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, one at his watch station and another in front of his own house.
SPEAKER_00: So historically the tradition was with opening of gates, you opened gates at sunset, closed them at sundown.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, wait until it's hot.
SPEAKER_00: So he's saying, wait until noonday before you open the gates.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Because Nehemiah, who's a civil leader and a spiritual leader, but he's mainly a civil leader, he's the governor of the district, is saying, there's a lot of enemies out there.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, we need a police force.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So whether you want to call it defunding the police or whatever, it's idiotic.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, it's idiotic.
SPEAKER_00: The reality is that he's saying, look, there's enough enemies out there that we are going to open the gates not until noonday.
SPEAKER_00: So we're we're concerned about that.
SPEAKER_00: He's using gates, gates for protection.
SPEAKER_00: Gates are important.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's saying, be on, be aware.
SPEAKER_00: And look at what he says.
SPEAKER_00: He says, one at his watch station.
SPEAKER_00: I think that would be the assigned place that he's been given to watch over the city, but the other is in front of his own house.
SPEAKER_00: Church.
SPEAKER_00: Men.
SPEAKER_00: Protect your wives.
SPEAKER_00: Be there for her.
SPEAKER_00: Protect your children.
SPEAKER_00: What are your children being taught in school?
SPEAKER_00: It really matters.
SPEAKER_00: It really matters what in these formative years they're getting from teachers at school.
SPEAKER_00: Stand watch.
SPEAKER_00: Be aware.
SPEAKER_00: Be smart.
SPEAKER_00: Protect your family.
SPEAKER_00: Have a job.
SPEAKER_00: Take care of your family.
SPEAKER_00: One of your first and primary responsibilities is that you take care of your family and watch over them.
SPEAKER_00: And in the same way, women, in your life, you're there to be a protective force for your husband sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: And I can't tell you how many times Liz has protected me from myself.
SPEAKER_00: If I run into my wife between first and second service, there's always a comment.
SPEAKER_00: Don't say that.
SPEAKER_00: Why did you say that?
SPEAKER_00: Get away from me, woman.
SPEAKER_00: I'm your leader.
SPEAKER_00: You're my wife.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: No, she does.
SPEAKER_00: And I love that.
SPEAKER_00: I love that about her.
SPEAKER_00: And I she has my best interest in mind.
SPEAKER_00: And so we need our wives.
SPEAKER_00: But they speak things to us that nobody else will say because they love us so much.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of people that want to say things to me as a leader that sometimes I can't hear until I hear it from Liz.
SPEAKER_00: And when Liz says it, it's like, whoa, I change overnight.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm sure there's been times where people have said, Liz, would you tell Steve?
SPEAKER_00: So we're husbands and wives, we have a relationship with each other.
SPEAKER_00: If you're single, if you're divorced, if you're on your own, have other bloodstained allies in your life that can speak into your life, okay?
SPEAKER_00: You need others.
SPEAKER_00: At AIM on Tuesday morning at 6 a.m., the godly hour of 6 a.m., our men's gathering.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be speaking on this issue of shame and vulnerability.
SPEAKER_00: It's probably men's biggest struggle.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want anybody to tell us anything, and we kind of have our little way of doing things.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to say to guys at the road, don't be like that.
SPEAKER_00: Grow up.
SPEAKER_00: Be mature.
SPEAKER_00: Be humble.
SPEAKER_00: You'll keep growing.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you want to grow up before you grow old?
SPEAKER_00: I know your wives want you to.
SPEAKER_00: And so we keep growing together, all right, with all of our mistakes.
SPEAKER_00: And it's always two steps.
SPEAKER_00: Forward and one step back.
SPEAKER_00: So he says here, look, it's not good enough just to be at the watch station, but watch over your house.
SPEAKER_00: Watch over your family.
SPEAKER_00: Know what's happening in your family.
SPEAKER_00: Men and women, if you have children, know what's happening in the lives of your children.
SPEAKER_00: Family's really important.
SPEAKER_00: And if I was giving any advice, if I could sum it down to sort of the irreducible minimum, this is what I would give four things, kind of four things in a family.
SPEAKER_00: One was would be pray together.
SPEAKER_00: At least once a week, pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Daily pray together would be really awesome, but start with once a week if you don't do it.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, talk together.
SPEAKER_00: Talk.
SPEAKER_00: You know, share what's happening in each other's life.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, open the word together.
SPEAKER_00: That's a powerful thing.
SPEAKER_00: Open the word together.
SPEAKER_00: And then fourth, forgive each other.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're gonna have a lot of people in that family that hurt your feelings.
SPEAKER_00: And as we talk and we share and we pray, we can also forgive each other.
SPEAKER_00: Verse four.
SPEAKER_00: Now the city was large, spacious, but the people in it were few, and the houses were not rebuilt.
SPEAKER_00: Then my God put it into my heart to gather the nobles, the rulers, and the people that they might be registered by genealogy.
SPEAKER_00: Now look at this.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: That first sentence is so important.
SPEAKER_00: God put it into my heart.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have had times where God has put something in your heart that kind of seemed to come out of nowhere?
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: That's how God often speaks.
SPEAKER_00: The main way he speaks, 90% of the time, is this book.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody hold up your Bible, put your finger on it and go, this book.
SPEAKER_00: This book is 90% of everything that you need to know.
SPEAKER_00: It's right here.
SPEAKER_00: But listen, don't miss this.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing this book is key to hearing the voice of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because how many of you know that you hear a lot of voices in a week, or maybe even in a day, and most of them are yours.
SPEAKER_00: Most of them are just your own impressions.
SPEAKER_00: The last podcast you watched or TV program that you watched has nothing to do with God.
SPEAKER_00: It's just your fleeting thoughts as they float around in your head.
SPEAKER_00: But the way you can discern the two is by being in God's word so much, and I'm just talking about a little bit each day, being in God's word, what happens, church, is that God uses what you've given Him to work with.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know if you don't study for the SAT, you tend to not do well in the SAT?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's a kingdom principle that God's given you a volitional will, and he's given you a brain, and that as you study something, you actually become better at the thing that you're studying.
SPEAKER_00: So we call it logos.
SPEAKER_00: We call it the study of God.
SPEAKER_00: The study is we spend time in God's word, he fills our mind with godly thoughts, and then he can drop something into our heart that we might even call supernatural, but it's not even that supernatural.
SPEAKER_00: It's just the fact that you disciplined and conditioned your life to hear, and then he found, well, there's an easy one.
SPEAKER_00: That's an easy one.
SPEAKER_00: Because they're in my word, I can drop this in.
SPEAKER_00: I know they'll obey it.
SPEAKER_00: I know they'll do something about it.
SPEAKER_00: Hello?
SPEAKER_00: You know, and I think God sometimes looks and go, that's a hard one.
SPEAKER_00: And they have to keep saying it and saying it and saying it and saying it.
SPEAKER_00: But because we're not in God's word on a regular basis, we don't know it's from God.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's exciting when we begin to discover that value of being in God's word, God dropping something in our mind.
SPEAKER_00: And so I think what's happening, quite frankly, right here, is that by the way he says this, I don't think this was in Nehemiah's mind.
SPEAKER_00: I think Nehemiah is having to make it up as he goes along the way.
SPEAKER_00: So listen, don't miss this.
SPEAKER_00: If you'll be faithful at the last thing God told you to do, he'll speak to you about the next thing you're supposed to do.
SPEAKER_00: If you'll be faithful in the last thing he told you to do, he'll guide you and speak to you about the next thing he wants for you to do.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're not faithful, and this is the part I don't like to say, but it's true, if you're not faithful in the last thing he told you to do, then he can't speak to you about the new thing that he wants to do.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're embezzling money, if you're involved in an adulterous relationship, if you're addicted to drugs and alcohol or something like that, if you're constantly disobeying God, and you say, Well, I can't hear from God.
SPEAKER_00: I can't, I God never speaks to me the way he does with you.
SPEAKER_00: I would say, well, the reason is he is speaking to you, but you're not obeying him.
SPEAKER_00: If you'll start obeying him, watch out, watch out.
SPEAKER_00: God's work done God's way can have supernatural, speedy results.
SPEAKER_00: We trust him.
SPEAKER_00: And so then he says, verse 2, faithful men who fear God.
SPEAKER_00: Faithful men who fear God.
SPEAKER_00: Sounds very much like Acts chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: God's looking for faithful men and women who fear God.
SPEAKER_00: Now listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: Faithfulness is a result of the motivation of fearing God.
SPEAKER_00: So faithfulness is the external behavior.
SPEAKER_00: Fearing God is the internal motivation.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: So when you begin to fear God, what that means is that you fear what could happen being out of God's will.
SPEAKER_00: You're excited to be in God's will, and what happens is it makes you courageous.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Fearing God makes you courageous.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you fear God over man, you're not looking around at what everybody else's opinion is.
SPEAKER_00: You're following God.
SPEAKER_00: And when you do, you become a faithful man.
SPEAKER_00: You become a faithful woman.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's the kind of leadership that Nehemiah is looking for.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: And I said to them, Do not let the gates of Jerusalem be open until the sun is hot, and while they stand guard, let them shut bar the doors and appoint guards.
SPEAKER_00: And he talks about watching over the station and the house.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Now the city was large and spacious, but the people in it were few, and the houses were not rebuilt, and he put it into my heart.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: And so now we're going to read all.
SPEAKER_00: No, we're not going to.
SPEAKER_00: I I I would encourage in your own quiet time, you can read through this.
SPEAKER_00: But turn now to verse 70.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 70.
SPEAKER_00: And some of the heads of the father's houses gave to the work.
SPEAKER_00: The governor, which was Nehemiah, gave to the treasury 1,000 gold drachmas, 50 basins, 530 priestly garments.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the heads of the father's houses gave to the treasury of the work 20,000 gold drachmas, and 2,200 and silver minias.
SPEAKER_00: And that which the rest of the people gave was 20,000 gold drachmas, 2,000 silver minias, and 67 priestly garments.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's a reason why historically a lot of Jews have been bankers.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is incredible.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine you're writing this genealogy, you're writing the history of Nehemiah rebuilding the walls in 52 days, and they've got that much detail?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is incredible detail.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the point, though generosity.
SPEAKER_00: You show me a person who gets revived by the Holy Spirit, who becomes a true Jesus follower, I'll show you a person who becomes generous.
SPEAKER_00: You show me a person that can't be generous, and I'll show you someone who's never discovered the generosity and the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: And these people are fired up.
SPEAKER_00: And in Acts, we see this again and again the move of the Holy Spirit, and when the Holy Spirit moves, the generosity, the first early church, Acts chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul.
SPEAKER_00: Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.
SPEAKER_00: And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
SPEAKER_00: Nor was there any one among them who lacked, for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles' feet, and they distributed to each one as anyone had need.
SPEAKER_00: Amazing, amazing generosity.
SPEAKER_00: With that generosity, God moved powerfully in that early church.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if you know this, but the Jerusalem church was had abundance at that time and later would go through a famine, a very difficult time, and the other churches throughout Asia Minor would have to give to them.
SPEAKER_00: But there was generosity.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't it be awesome?
SPEAKER_00: If five years from now, there's so much generosity in this church and in this city that there's no one hungry.
SPEAKER_00: No one hungry at all.
SPEAKER_00: That there's opportunity for such tremendous generosity that we have more than enough in providing for all those that have needs.
SPEAKER_00: I believe God wants to so prosper his church.
SPEAKER_00: Write this down if you haven't already before, because I've said it a few times in the past.
SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy 28, Leviticus 26.
SPEAKER_00: I may talk about this on Wednesday night, I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_00: But but the promises of God, you guys, the promises of God, if we'll obey him, what he, that the promises he has there for your family, for your marriage, for your relationships, is phenomenal.
SPEAKER_00: Incredible.
SPEAKER_00: And it's only the darkness of demonic spirits that deceive us from seeing the resolute love of God toward his people, that he wants to pour out so much grace upon us as individuals, upon our marriages and our families and our cities, that we would see miracles on a regular basis if we would follow him and trust him.
SPEAKER_00: And so it is.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah believed God.
SPEAKER_00: And as he did, the generosity began to flow, and it was amazing.
SPEAKER_00: I believe God's work done God's way can build a church.
SPEAKER_00: I believe God's work done God's way can build a marriage.
SPEAKER_00: I believe God's work done God's way can build your single life.
SPEAKER_00: God's work done God's way can build a business.
SPEAKER_00: God's work done God's way can build a city.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we see here.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what God is saying to us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Let's build God's work, God's way.
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