Build The House | Protect The House - Pastor Scott Silcox

We trace Israel’s return through Ezra and Nehemiah to a clear charge: protect the house. Vision invites opposition, so we set our homes in order, refuse culture’s half-truths, and choose prayer over performance as we build and defend together.

• Identity, purpose and holy responsibility after exile
• Home before church: Christ, spouse, children, then ministry
• Culture’s lies, distractions and discernment
• Nehemiah 4: mockery, pressure and resolve
• When vision becomes visible, resistance awakens
• Don’t come down off the wall
• Cost of obedience and reordered friendships
• Hidden sabotage versus righteous community
• Influence must follow intercession, not replace it
• Build with a trowel, guard with a sword
• Different generation, same warfare; protect the house

Chapters

• 0:00 Build The House Recap
• 2:20 Culture’s Lies And Distraction
• 5:55 Home Before Church: Ordered Priorities
• 8:10 From Exile To Identity And Purpose
• 11:15 What God Builds, We Must Protect
• 12:50 Reading Nehemiah 4: Mockery And Resolve
• 16:10 Vision Invites Opposition
• 19:20 Progress Demands Personal Change
• 23:40 The Cost Of Obedience
• 27:15 External Enemies And Internal Doubt
• 31:00 Don’t Come Down Off The Wall
• 36:00 Strength For The Weary Heart
• 41:10 Hidden Motives And Sabotage
• 45:30 Influence Without Intercession
• 50:30 Prayer Over Programs
• 54:20 Different Generation, Same Warfare
• 58:00 Build And Battle: Sword And Trowel
• 1:01:40 Protect Home, Church, And City

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:03

Welcome to the Rock Family Sermon of the Week. For more information about our church, please visit therockfamily.tv. Now join us for a message from Pastor Scott Silcox.

SPEAKER_01: 0:20

But there is one other teaching that I have to put in your hands today, and it's very important because you can't teach on build the house, create the foundation of what that looks like, put walls on it, right? Continue to erect what that means. Of course, for us, we know this. When we talked about build the house from the very beginning till now, we were talking about a couple of different phases of that. How does that show up in today's world? That language. We used a bunch of Old Testament passages, and for some of us, that that was hard to get through. But the truth is, it's important to understand where you came from. The principles we're living out today aren't new, they're old. So we spent a lot of time in the books of Ezra, Haggai, and where? Nehemiah. Nehemiah. These were important books. So for all of those who are jumping in with us and saying, hey, I missed out on all of it, I'm going to catch you up briefly, but I want to mention one thing last week, and I try to do this every week, but last week, things that we took away, things that we learned. First of all, we learned the power of humility. What humility needs to be. It's a superpower in the Christian's life, right? We learned this that if we're not careful, that we can be owned by ideas. Instead of owning the idea, ideas own us. And we have to be in a constant, vigilant manner, recognizing that we don't want the ideas of this culture to what? To hinder who we're supposed to be in Christ. The invitation is to come up and to have a perspective on what life is supposed to look like. This is what last week was about. When we also look at that, we find out that there's there's all kinds of challenges. Like, for instance, when we're not careful, we can allow what? The lies to be cloaked as truth. I don't know about you, but we live in a society that's constantly doing a little slide of hand. Right? Where you hear something that sounds like the Bible but not the Bible. This is the thing that we have to guard ourselves from because it so easily distracts us. Like, for instance, my favorite part is to get uh uh posts that sent to me uh of packages. Do you guys see this? This like movement where uh there's these guys that are taking the the pat the package pirates that are stealing gifts? Those porch pirates, and then they turn around and they explode, and then there's all have you noticed that there's a trend that there's all these like crazy things happening? It's interesting to me, is that uh my own mom and dad were like, Can you believe this? And I was like, you know that's an AI generated thing. They're like, What are you talking about? Did you not see that deer and the bear and all of it showed up on the porch? And so when someone says, you know, I don't know why we're talking about technology, because we're so easily distracted and convinced that a deer and a bear and a mountain lion all showed up in South Alabama on a porch to get an Amazon package. And that sounds crazy, but people believe this stuff. What's even crazier is that stuff's being presented to us. First and foremost, we've learned this thing about our culture. Introduce something that makes you laugh so that you desensitize.

unknown: 3:42

That is right.

SPEAKER_01: 3:44

So that later they will take and form what? Big ideas and theologies that derail the believer. We are in a war. Two kingdoms. They're both being built on this place right now. Now we know this. The winner is Christ Himself. God wins this thing. But in our life, there's constantly building of two kingdoms, and there's attention. And what we have to do is recognize we have a responsibility. That's what we talked about last week. What is our responsibility as believers? So we find out there's spiritual disciplines that need to come into play. But this week is real important because we're in capping with this idea: protect the house. Protect the house. If you have your Bibles, I want you to get them out and get ready for today. And I promise I'll go as quick as I possibly can, but I do think it's important that we do this and to catch us up. You know, leading up to protect the house, we need to understand something. What have we done for the last nine weeks, now this week, ten weeks? What have we done? This is what we've done. We've walked with Israel through Ezra, Haggai, and Nehemiah as God has called his people what? Out of exile. What else? What's he calling us into? Not just out of something, but he's calling us into something. What is he calling Israel into? Identity, purpose, and holy responsibility. If you want to just sum up what the last nine weeks have been, we've been tracking with Israel, seeing how God has ordained and brought them out, established them for purpose and reason, then what? Brings us to this. Why does that matter? Because we go through Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah that are key players in this. Right? Cyrus releases them, right? Frees them up to go back and to become a nation, right? We went through all of that material, but why is that important? Because that's what Israel did, but why does it matter to you? Why does it matter to us? Why does it matter to the Rock Family Worship Center? Why does it matter to your home? Because these three things are at work home, church, and city. What is being built in us that build the house is not just build the rock alone. No, we do have a portion of that that's what is required to build the church. There is also the requirement of what does it mean to build my house? I'll take it a step further even today. Protect my house. There's so many that I sit down with that I find out that we've just kind of given up on protecting our home. Do you know that your first ministry is not the church? It's to the house. It's not to the church. It's not to the church. We are a collective of believers, homes, husbands, daddies. You have a responsibility first and foremost to your home. To your walk with Christ, your relationship with your wife, then your kids. And in this order. And in this order. You can't say I prioritize those things, but in different different ways. No, they're in this order. Your relationship with Christ will be a direct reflection of how you treat your wife, and how you treat your wife will change the way your kids grow up. The way they act and the way they respond and what they see and what they respect and what they worry about. Do you follow? When we do that well, the invitation is to build the church. We come in here and then we align our hearts, our faith, our heart posture gets aligned with Christ. And as a community, we express the love and the care that Christ, first and foremost, that we worship, as Pastor Brian mentioned today. We come in corporate worship, which he commands us to do. We come in corporate worship, which he commands us to do. Come on, it's time to get rid of the COVID life. Come on, this isn't that I'm just saying. I'm not telling you what I think or what sounds good or what benefits me. I'm just telling you what the Bible says. I'm not asking you to align to me. I'm asking you to align to what he wants. There's an order to what he's trying to accomplish. Amen? Why does it matter? Why does it matter? Because Israel is returning to rebuild. What they confront a generation generational tension, they resist opposition, reject compromise, and realign their priorities around God's presence. Isn't that amazing? Now, why does that matter to you? Because it looks like this it's becoming a people formed by God. It's building something bigger than ourselves. Right? It's resisting the pull of culture and carrying the weight of kingdom responsibility. And last but not least, what God builds, his people must protect. And this is where we're launching off today. Nehemiah 4. 4, 5, and 6 are like critical passages. I encourage you, if you want to track with us and know where we're going and how we're thinking, I would just encourage you to go through the book of Nehemiah again and revisit it. Now, I know that I'm saying Nehemiah, and I think everyone or the majority, not everyone, but at least the majority in this room would be like, I've already heard this message. I know what's coming. I would encourage you, do not discount what God wants to do to you today with fresh manna. Don't step away from it. I encourage you to lean in and ask, maybe there's something I need to get out of this today. Maybe I walked in today and I'm tired of fighting battles in my home. Maybe you walked in here today and you say, I'm I'm I'm fighting such turmoil in my workplace that I just I don't even, I can't even, I can't even seem to get make sense of the season I'm in. Or are you maybe maybe you're right here. Maybe you're in this place right here and you're saying, man, I'm I'm just trying to figure out where faith and and my life intersect. Where's my priorities? And is does church even fit into that anymore? Is church irrelevant? I mean, I have access to so many other things. Isn't church just feel irrelevant? And there's the tension. We're all facing it on some level. I don't know what what phase of that it is for you. I don't know what it is, but my hope is through the life of Nehemiah, briefly, that we can get through this idea that maybe there's something that God's trying to show us. If you go to Nehemiah 4, we're just gonna read the first ten. I've got them up here. You can I encourage you to read your word, pull out your Bible, open up your Bible. But I'm gonna read the first 10 just to give you uh a little bit of context here. It says, now then Sam Balat heard that we were building the wall. He was angry, greatly enraged. He jeered at the Jews, and he said in the presence of his brothers in the army of Samaria, what are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore? Uh will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish and burned ones at that? Tobiah, the Ammonite, was beside him and he said, Yes, what they are building, if a fox goes up on it, he will break down the stone wall. Hear, O our God, for we are what? Despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads, give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. Do not cover their guilt, and let their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders. Verse 6. So we built the wall. Let's just stop there, and we built the wall. I'm just I'm I was gonna move on. I was just stop right here for just a second. First and foremost, what a silly little light dig. You know, we're talking about a little fox. It's actually smaller than what we would consider a fox here. It's actually not much bigger than a little light. It's a little bit bigger than a squirrel. And what he's saying is like, it even a little squirrel, little fox would jump up and tear down the wall. I mean, what kind of silly argument are we doing here? They're so frustrated, they're so angry with the idea that Nehemiah would have the gumption, the gall to rebuild the city. I mean, Ezra, 72 some years prior, is trying to build the temple, and it's crushed over time, which ought to tell us something, is that there should be this message got missed somewhere. Protect the house. What was built by Ezra is broken down and to the point where Nehemiah is mourning what it looks like, and he said, I have to go do something about it. And in his obedience to do something about it, he has met with resistance. And it's not just any resistance, it's not just external resistance, which we'll find out in a second, it's internal resistance. This I want you to make sure that you keep in your mind today that there are there are three areas I want you to apply this. I want you to pray through this while I'm preaching. Through through what does that mean to me as as my home, my life, my my family? What does it mean in my connection to the church? And then how what does this mean for our city? And if you can keep those three intention, you're gonna be able to see strategic ways, I believe, Holy Spirit is trying to teach us how to protect those grounds, those houses. Does that make sense? Alright, just track with me today. We'll get through it. I want to talk about this real quick. When obedience draws opposition, when obedience draws opposition, it's a reminder that faithfulness often awakens resistance. Here's something interesting. The greatest threats arise when vision becomes visible. The greatest threats arise when vision becomes visible. Let me give you an example. When a dad takes his responsibility in the home, when he sets a course and casts a vision for who his family is going to be, how they're going to live, how many know that once the dad sets a course, that's where resistance is coming. See, when you don't say anything about what you hope your family's going to be, when you say, I'm going to come against all generational curse in my family, I'm going to live something different than what I've been seeing. It's only when you cast a vision that the enemy comes. So there's so many of us that are that that that haven't even stepped into casting a vision for our family yet. It comes down to this. I can tell you this firsthand. I told Pastor Rusty this a couple of days yesterday, I think it was. Hey man, like build a school, they said. Huh? It'll be fun, they said. It'll be a blessing, they said. And it will do all of that. But can I tell you, we didn't have resistance until we decided to do it. There was no resistance. It was hunky-dory. Oh my goodness, we could just float in and out. There was no pressure. Oh, it was beautiful, no expectation. Just live your best life, and then you cast a vision for the next generation. And can I tell you, it's been on since that day. Now we have a choice. We can come down off of it and be like, hey, you know, I didn't realize it was going to be like this. Hey, hey, April Fools. You know, like I was kidding. I was kidding. I was joking. We were had no, I mean, you can't, you can't because when it's him, there's something beyond pressure. It's called conviction. Beyond the pressure of the moment, there's conviction to stay anchored to the word that he gave you. Right? What about what about what about taking this idea and moving it into what? Into our community, to our city. When it says, when the vision becomes visible. When a city or a nation sets their heart to align it with gospel message or with the Bible, how many know there's going to be resistance? Anyone feeling that? This is a natural thing. What about this? When progress what? Motivates change. When progress motivates change. Now, what do I mean by that? When progress, when you start to move forward, and it's not enough just to have a vision, Terry, you've got to actually step out into it. Right? So it's not just the vision is going to get some some resistance, but when you faithfully take steps towards the completion of that vision, right? Cam, you could probably attest to this in your own life, right? In your own business. You found out that it will motivate change. Because here's the change that has to happen. I can't be the same. See, see, you thought I was talking about you. I'm not talking about you changing. I'm talking about if you carry a new vision, you have to, you're gonna walk differently. I wish I had a um. Can you give me a chair? Just give me a chair. Somebody give me a chair. Over here on the end. Yeah, so doctor, someone, one of y'all got one of those. Never mind. David beat you to it. He's a much better servant leader than you are. Yes. And well done, sir. And by the way, gave up his own seat. So I just appreciate that. Anyway, just kidding. Just kidding. I'm just making making jokes. But listen, when when you hold vision, listen, like this, you just walk differently. What I mean by that is this is like at some point, when you grab a vision, you get something God gives you in your hand, it requires you to walk a little differently. Like my walk is slower, more intentional, and it's always got something in mind. If I just walked haphazardly, if I just walked like it casually, if I just walked into every situation or into every conversation like I wasn't carrying a vision, how many of this will get in the way real fast? And this will start to feel like it's not important anymore, and this will feel like I can do whatever I want to do, but it's not because when you carry a vision, it causes you to walk differently. This is what I'm talking about. It's it changes you. When obedience becomes costly, when obedience is gonna cost you. Can I just be pastoral with you guys this morning? I'm trying to because you need to know how we're framing this build the house series. And so, when when obedience will cost you, anybody else had to pay for your obedience to Christ yet? Nice, so good. Three of you. That is, and I'm I'm with you, bro. But you, me, and some gay girl over here. I don't know, like, bro, it's us, right? There's a cost to obedience. There's a cost to obedience. I I'm I'm finding this out, and I I actually learned this like years ago, not through my own experience, but actually watching uh my dad's experience. Uh parents, please don't be naive to think that that your kids aren't watching and observing. But I I can remember my dad being obedient in a direction that God had put on his heart. And I began to watch his entire world dismantle. Because of his one act of obedience of trusting the Lord, everything that he had known in ministry, those people that were the closest. To them just turned on him in the most drastic and crazy way. Especially from a kid sitting sidelined and just kind of watching him, just couldn't believe people that we were having Thanksgiving with or Christmas holiday with couldn't be in the same room anymore because you were faithfully following the Lord in a direction that didn't please them. That's hard to deal with, but that's what we're talking about here. When obedience cost you something. I don't know about you, but when you got saved, did you find out that that you're not as good with your old friend circle? Did y'all ever figure that out? I even tried. I give my life to Christ and I try to hang out with other people that I used to hang out with and realize, like, oh no. Oh no. Like you're not good for me. Is anybody else? And then you got that really good friend that can convince you to do stuff and be a part of things and make you feel a certain way? Come on. And you realize it's gonna have to cost me something. This thing God's promised me, this walk he's inviting me into, might cost me friendship. And we live in an era right now that says you shouldn't lose any friend over any pursuit of faith. And I say that's a lie. That's a lie. They want to tell you, did he not leave the 99 to go after the one? Isn't it interesting that he didn't bring the 99 to find the one? Because he knew, look, they're taken care of. They're together. He didn't just like, hey, sorry guys, it's my rule. It's my rule. We all go back for the one. No. He kept them in a place of security. Instead, we're like, well, that's the Lord. We're going with the Lord to get the one. No, this is the Lord's responsibility. Okay, okay. There's only a few people this applies to, I'm sure. Three characters you're gonna hear Sam Ballot, Tobiah, Geshem. They represent this external resistance. Powers that hate kingdom advancement. They hate kingdom advancement. They're frustrated. Why are they frustrated? They've gotten so used to pillaging that city. They've had their way, they've been the rulers. But now there's a decree that Nehemiah is going to build the city walls again. There's a new sheriff in town. That's what happens. There's a vision in the city again. And they don't like what they're seeing. It represents internal discouragement. Now we know that because these guys don't just stay to themselves. What happens? They get gassed up from the people within. They do. How do you think they're getting their intel? How do they know about the progress? How do they know about the pressure inside work? Frustration internally, discouragement internally, right? People who lose heart or misread the moment. They don't understand what's being built, they don't know why it's being built, and so they misread what they sense in the moment. This is important. Because if we're gonna build and protect the house that God is building in America and in the church, we cannot misread the moment. We could read this moment and say, this is our time to be Facebook warriors. And yet, no prayer or intercession involved. The avenue in which he moves, the avenue of which he says, I will, hey, inhabit your praise and hear your petitions, and I will act on your behalf. No, no, no, we're good. We're good. We're good. Chat already told us what to do. Chat GPT's already given us the dialogue for that. Don't worry about it, God. He got you. This is real. And this is a this is a moment where we shake ourselves as a church and step back into our role. Our role. Right? Hidden sabotage, those who sit at the table but serve other motives. It's real. Okay, okay. Let me give an example. And you you may not expect me to go here, but I'm gonna talk about marriages for a second. You your work wife has got you convinced that your real wife ain't good enough. They've got a seat at your office desk and of your emotional heart. And what they want to do is sabotage. That's what they're out to do. They're being used to sabotage God's ordained call on your life. And we we act like, oh no, that ain't happening. No, I don't know nothing about that. I don't know about you know exactly what I'm talking about. Because if it ain't you, it's it's your boy sitting in the cubicle next to you. It's you sitting and listen, you can listen to people, hear their woes about their spouse, or hear their woes about how hard their life is, and be cautious of people who will pet you in that season. You need to be very careful. You you need to have a community of believers that come alongside of you, and one of them needs to be able to say, Hey, you're off. You're off. You're off, you're bad off. You're off, and we gotta fix this. You're off. Like we don't want that. We just want uh, Ray, I just want the easy Christian life. Please, can we can we just deliver that to everybody? Boy, I wish we could. I wish I could give you a get out of jail card. But can you hear me on this, man? We got, we have to fight. Nehemiah is fighting this. Why? Because you gotta protect the house. There's ground that's been taken that we're giving up too easily. Okay, all right. I gotta go. I gotta, oh man, we gotta go. Uh, you know, I asked for it. Okay, okay, number two, there are gonna be four of these. We're gonna hit it. Number two, when when guarding your focus, uh uh when guarding your focus in a distracted world, you need to know these quotes. When guarding your focus in a distracted world, what? Don't come down off the wall to fight battles that aren't yours. The the biggest hiccup for the church right now is we continue to get into something that we're either not equipped, we have no victory in our own personal life to handle, but we're taking swings at everybody. This is a fight you weren't asked to carry. And what when when you do that, you carry the wounds, the wounds that will come with this. And it's that I you just gotta hear me on this. When you sit and you talk to people, people that are carrying things since their childhood they weren't asked to carry. And I'm telling you, some of that has been pressed on them, and then some of it is self-absorbed. You did it. I'm I'm taking this off, I'm doing this. You better know what fight God called you to fight. You got to know, or you're gonna find yourself. Or how about this? Don't come down to satisfy the critics. Nehemiah has got to be strong in what he's called to do. And there are gonna be people that come into your life that do not understand what you do, why you stand on what you stand, like Sheree talked about last week, about Sabbath. You're not Jewish. Why are you doing Sabbath? I mean, that seems legalistic. Isn't that what Christ came to deliver us from? Um this is real talk. This is regular. Come on, somebody. You grew you living in the church. This is this is how now you may not be overtly saying this, but you might be thinking it, or maybe around somebody who said it. But I'm just telling you, that practice is a really strong practice that keeps me anchored to him. It's a great practice, but you can get in a place where you're like, hey, uh, you're right. Man, thanks for showing me the way. I'm gonna come off this conviction God's called me to do because it makes you feel uncomfortable. You just can't afford to. Don't come down because someone else lost the vision. Don't come down because someone else lost the vision. Don't come down because someone else lost the vision. Pastor Russy, you know this. You know this as a leader, that there are times where it even if you have to be the only one holding it right now. You know, and it's hard, it's hard, it's hard because you you want to give it off too. I don't want the weight either. But but but I but but it's that's not that's not that's not what he asked of us. And his promise to us is that he'll be there for us, he'll give us the strength to carry it. Is that it's not on you, but it's on him. But but how many know that that that delineation sometimes can get foggy? The weight is the same, even though the truth is that he'll carry it, but it feels still like heavy weight. Right? It's his, but it's still heavy. How many times have you prayed that? Only a thousand or more? Yeah? Me too. And I've only been doing this for two years. I mean, do the do the math. That's like five, six times a day. Like just saying, like, I always like I you got you've got to have a conviction to hold true to it. Even if others, and let me let me be honest with you. Not everybody distances themselves from the vision completely. Sometimes they just let it go temporarily. And it's gonna be real important for you not to isolate those people who just need a breather. And and you have to be honest with yourself too. Because if you're not honest that you need the breather, then you start to resent the weight. He'll give it to you, he'll give it. He'll carry it. You gotta own that though. And I need you to carry this. Alright? If I can't, if I can't put that in his hands, then what I do is I carry it into my offense. And then I then I then I build a world of justification for that. And then it gets real like sensitive. The wound gets hard because then now anybody that that rubs or bumps. I I'm trying to be pastoral here, but also I have a lot to do. So I gotta get through. Okay, don't come down to soothe someone who is threatened by your calling. I gotta keep going. I gotta keep going with this. Alright, nope. Okay. Alright, sure. Just all right, I'm gonna do it, and you don't do it. Nope, that's still terrible. Alright. Got it. Here we go. My apologies, man. This is see the flesh? I just want to throw this as far as I can. That's in me right now. Lord forgive me. My anger. Gee, whiz. Strengthening the heart when weariness sets in. Strengthening the heart when the weariness sets in. And this is what it sounds like. And I just tried to put statements up so we can jump off of these. Uh, internal discouragement can sound like these. Can sound like this. I'm tired of serving and no one notices. It can sound like this. Now, now remember, remember, remember, because see, some of you are thinking, like, I knew he was gonna get onto us for not coming to that turkey outrees. See, that's what I'm saying. You're pre, you're pre-wired to look for the offense. I'm telling you, like, take it and apply it in home church in the city, right? The houses we're building, the houses we're called to protect. So, where would you might see? I'm tired of serving and no one notices. How about the mom who's constantly serving her family? This is a regular thought. I'm pouring my life out for my children, and then when I when I get home, they shove everything off. Okay, let me say more specifically. This is my wife, and I'm telling on her, okay? So I'm telling. I'm telling on her. Greg, I'm telling on her because she's going somewhere else this afternoon, and I'm good. You know, I uh I got at least a couple of hours for her forget about it, alright? So here we go. Here we go. So I'm telling her, this is you know one that gets my wife is is she'll work so hard getting laundry done. There'll be nine things piled up, she'll crush it, get it in, fold it up, and I know we have a problem when I hear this phrase. Do not mess up my stacks. Because she's got it organized. This one goes to Evie's groom, this one goes to Jude, this one goes, and when the kids run around and kick a stack over, can I tell you? Can I tell you? This woman is pure as the driven snow. I'm telling you. The most pure-hearted person you'll ever meet. But you better not kick over that stack. I'm gonna just tell you, I when mom's folding or doing, I just tell the kids, don't even go in there. Don't even go in there. You're like a bull in a china shop kicking stuff around. Don't do it. Here's what I'm saying: I've given it all. This is the lie of the enemy. Listen, I've given all to my family, and no one appreciates it. That that's a lie because God's called you to serve your family. Come on, somebody. He's called, he's it's a call on your life to serve the family, and the enemy will come in and try to tell you it's unnoticed. See how slick he is? He doesn't he doesn't derail her with something crazy, just with a little turn. I don't think anyone sees you. That's a lot of effort, and nobody notices it. This is harder than I thought. Could sound like that. This is just harder than I thought. I was in until I got here and realized this is just harder than I thought. Uh I'm gonna talk to young married couples right now. Your greatest struggle right now is that you grew up, and I'm just gonna be totally honest with you, and I'm painting a very broad stroke, and I mean, just I know what I'm doing. Okay, hear what I'm saying. It's very broad, but I think it hits the majority. But you grew up selfish, spoiled, you grew up having everything handed to you. You just did. You just grew up in a way that you you think getting married was that person going to do everything for you for the rest of your life. And you you get in the car and say, This is harder than I thought it was gonna be. I thought we were just gonna like have sex and stuff, and that was it. Like, I thought that's what we were doing. Well, wait, what? What's marriage? I thought that's what we were doing around here. What are we doing? No, no, that's just what you thought. And so in your mind, you say, no, this is hard, this is hard. I don't know, like, like, and and and okay, I'll give you a real phrase. This is this is an old phrase, but it's one that's still still here. It's like what? Adulting is hard. Adulting? We we we we we've gotten so spoiled, we created a term for our for our deficiency. That adulting is a problem and not actually a mark of maturity. Adulting become becomes a a mountain to climb and not something to come on somebody. Yeah. But so hard. So hard adulting. Do you know you have to pay bills, mom? I mean, I I you know people expect us to pay them money to live in this place. This is harder than I thought. This this applies this applies to the house we gotta protect in our nation. Hey, the problem's too big. It's too hard. It's too hard. It's harder than we thought it was. It's hard, it's too hard, so we don't do anything about it. It's too hard to have that conversation. It's too hard to have that conversation. I have to be no, it's too hard. I gotta I gotta move on. Do you see what I'm saying? This is a lie of the enemy. It's not too hard. The yoke is easy, the burden is light, but you gotta get him involved, right? Nehemiah is seeing this, right? It's too hard. What's too hard? The rubble is everywhere. This is like, how do you build a wall that's been burnt and crumbled? And like, how do you motivate people? We'll get to that in a second, but this is where they're at. This is too hard. How about why do they get to decide the direction? Why do they get to do that? Some of you guys work for people that are not as smart as you. You've been telling yourself that for years. You sit in the office, you hear a guy talk, and you think, My God, how did we get to the moon with this guy? Come on, engineers, you know you do. And so you'll go, you'll leave a meeting and you'll go in your office and just look at all your certificates. Like, yeah, that's confirmed. I'm way smarter than that guy. I should get the promotion, they should hear what I'm trying to say. This is what we do. Well, why do they get to decide? I've been there before. I've been there before. I think everybody at some point in their life has been there. We just were like, why can't I be the decision maker here? Here's what you have to get in in your in your in your heart. God is in control of your promotion. It's it's a thing. And you say, no, I didn't go to school to hear that. I'm sorry. But he he controls. See, when when he is Lord of your life, you can have that kind of I trust you. And you know what he does? In the miraculous way, he will he will bring you and surface you in the right time in the right season. But that's all about your posture of your heart. That's all your posture of your heart. That's got nothing to do with your role. You know, you can be just as impactful as a leader serving where the vision's going. Gotta learn how to do it. Amen. I miss the old days, another big one. I wish we would just go back to the old days. Right? This also comes down like in family, right? I remember when we used to just do dates and now we have kids, and now we can't do this. Now we can't do that. Come on, somebody. I just miss the old days. Some of them will take it a step further. I just miss my old girlfriend. Nobody likes to say this stuff. But I'm just trying to tell you, at some point, as your pastor, I've got to just be honest, right? You're a, you're not the only person in this room. There's a thousand other thoughts, ideas, visions, experiences in this room. Now we just got to trust Holy Spirit. He's going to put his finger on the right thing for everybody. That's what he does. Right? We're obedient. He does that part, right? And somebody needs to hear that today. Come on, that's misplaced desire. That's misplaced desire. Plain and simple. Wishing for what was old is misplaced desire. Listen, why I say that is because this is not the same. This is not the same as what we did in worship just a second ago. Alright. You ready? This is why we did this, Brian. What we did in worship a few minutes ago is what did we do? Anybody notice that we sang a bunch of songs that we're all really familiar with? And they were like what? Life-giving, weren't they? Would one might even say it felt like a warm blanket? There's comfort there. There is, there is, there, you know why? Because there is there's been life transformation in those songs. And here's the cool part. This is the cool part because we're not talking about I miss the old days here. Miss the old days is to look back resenting the future. That's what this is. Looking back and resenting the future, that is a misplaced lie. But you can be in this place and experience this is what he did, and it motivates me into the future. And if you get those things mixed up, it's a lie. It's a lie, it's a lie, it's a lie, and you are in dangerous territory because you will resent anything God wants to do. The people of Israel had to deal with this all the time. I'm not going. Yeah, but when the cloud goes, you got to pack your junk up and let's go. No, no, no, I'm tired of it. I'm tired of it. I just want what I've always wanted. This is an age-old problem. This is an age-old problem. But but today, God is gripping our hearts around this idea. We can long for the old days and not lose the passion for the future. We can sit here and say, look at what you've done. Remind myself that you saved me here and you changed me here and you did this here. That gives me the courage to step into what you have. But if you say, I don't want that, I just want this, then you've turned your back on his movement. God is the God of movement. He is constantly advancing and moving forward. And when we want to monument more than we want to move, we've got to get back to that. It's too late. The work is good, but my life is busy. That's a good one. But we gotta go. The sabotage no one sees coming. When those closest to the mission carry hidden motives. Some people want the benefits of the house, but not the burden of it. So I'm talking about right here. This is the burden to carry something that's not normal. It's awkward at times. This is the burden. There's so many people who just want what? They want the benefit. Just give me what I need. Do the things I want done. Be what I need you to be right now. And yet you're bypassing the opportunity to carry some weight. The burden is what he's inviting us to get around. You know, in this place, we can have dependency on the Lord. There's no dependency on the Lord here. I have nothing to depend on. I'm good without a vision in my hands. It isn't until you put a vision in your hands. So the burden has to be carried. Nehemiah understands this on the wall. He's got to the point where he's saying, like, look, we're gonna build and fight and defend. So you know how hard it is to build a wall one-handed? One brick at a time. With a sword ready to fight. And they did it in 52 days. That's pretty good. I say that's good work. That's good work. Why is it why did it work that way? He increases the our capability. Okay. Alright. Did I go back? I'm sorry. I'm really not good at this. I'll fix it eventually. Okay. Some are loyal to the relationships more than to righteousness. What I mean by that is this you can be around people who who who who are who kindly spill on you and call it a life group.

unknown: 45:41

Say it.

SPEAKER_01: 45:44

Oh, I've been hosting a rock group for years. Have you now? Who's all involved in that? The same four people. For 25 years. That's amazing. It's a prayer group. But but careful that it doesn't fall over into. I know. Because we want so bad for our relational thing to be secure that when it confronts being righteous, we'd rather side with comfort. And then we say this to ourselves. This is what the lie we say. The Lord will work it out with him. And this is the crazy part. He sent you. Has been asked to handle it. You, Joe, Joe, you. Not somebody coming in as you, not Jesus showing up at their bedpost. You, the Jesus that he sent. To say, hold up. Let's hold to righteousness here. Let's see what the word says. Let's not jump to conclusion. Okay. Someone influence without intercession. Someone, I'm just saying, someone influence without intercession. We, we, we, we are still still, I'm saying we, and I'm speaking of the big C church. If you see this, if you can look at the big church, we're still taking steps away from intimacy with the Father. For for programs, or for slick experiences. And and that that is this here. I want the influence to lead tons of people, but I'm not willing to get on my face and pray. I'm not willing to, the cost of intimacy. We have some friends from Jerusalem here today, and I'm so excited that you're here. Matt and Deanna Dolan are here today, and they're from Jerusalem. But I yes, that's right. But I guarantee you they can see this right there in God's land. Many people want to be the voice in the land. But they gave up intercession over the land years ago. Oh, I can't, I can't. It's just like so slippery out there. But I'm just telling you, this is so real. This is so real. You ask, why the reason we this year as a church, the last year, and now moving into a year and a half now, just about a year and a half, why we put an emphasis on prayer on our Tuesday night prayer and our Wednesday midday prayer is because we, we, me, Scott, Scott, my team, I felt like we were getting better at good ideas and we were getting worse with intimacy with the Lord. We were creative, but we had lost its origination. Creativity isn't from me, it's from him. And I I worried that we would we would we would make a transition from Pastor Russian and try to be slick and not intimate. There you go. There's your leader, fearless leader. Fearful most of the time. Right? But truthful. You'll get honesty from me, I'll promise you that. And the honesty is this. I I I just couldn't because I I can't read the Bible and see where that's the idea. I read the Bible and I see that the the the the the ones that that God uses in the the the the churches and the people that God is using are not people who are slick of ideas. They're they're humble in spirit and they allow time for the so for God to do work. Man, Tim, we can we can get ideas. We we don't like ideas. Trust me. I can bury us with ideas. Some of you think I already have. I love it. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. We're doing it together, right? Some of you think I have, but the truth is, is if you know the heart of who we are, you know this. We we want to be led by the Spirit. And you're not led by the Spirit by just doing what you want to do. You do it by what? Humility and intimacy with the Father. I'm a better husband, I'm a better father, which makes me a better pastor. When intimacy is in place with the Lord. So you want to be better. I want to be able to do this, I want to do that. I want to ask you, where is your intercession? Where's your heart? Frustrated or longing for intimacy with the Father? Because I promise you that if you can get there, he will recalibrate your heart. Cause you to look at life differently, cause you to look at people differently, cause you to sympathize in a way that isn't natural to you. Come on, somebody. Alright. Alright. I did this one just to repeat to go back. Home church and city. But this is stand with me. Stand with me. 1152. 1152. Thanks, Greg. Appreciate it, man. Will you just bear with me one more slide and I'll pray over us, okay? This. Ezra rebuilt their worship. Nehemiah rebuilt their walls. It's about 72 years past between the two, but the same enemy kept trying the same tactics. Different generation, same warfare. Different assignment, same call. Protect the house. Protect the house. Protect the house. God will give us the grace to build it. God will give you the grace to be the husband, the wife, the family you're supposed to be. He'll do it if you humble yourself to him. He'll use you in the localized body called the church. He will. There's gifts, talents, anointings, but they're not greater than intimacy, but they're enhanced out of intimacy. And there's room for all of it here. Why is that important? Because he brought us to Huntsville for a reason. I am not so worldly focused that I don't lose the assignment of our Huntsville. Our assignment, our city, right here. From here, when we steward that well, when we do it well, his name is glorified, his kingdom is advanced, and he brings the people, resources, talents, gifts to continue the movement. And there will be days where we sit back and we remember. But they will be days that catapult us into the future. That's how we use it. It's used to catapult us into the future. It's to confirm who he is and what he's done so that I can have the courage to step out anew because I know he's already there too. The God of what? He's the beginning and he's the past, present, and future. Right? He's in all of it. He's ahead of you. Do you know that right now you're in this room and you're like, I can't see what you see. Can I tell you? He sees something in you. You know, you know you haven't run him off. I know you think you ran him off. Yeah, but you don't know. No, I don't know. I don't know. I know this. I know him. I know how gracious he is. I know how careful, how, how, how, how faithful. He is so careful with your heart. He's so careful. The hurt, the pain that tends to lead, be at the front of foot, right? The thing that you you use as a shield. He knows all that stuff. He knows the anxiety. He knows the worry. And here's the cool part. He doesn't run from us, Charles. Charles, he doesn't run. I mean, he should. I mean, what we know about each other, he should. But he doesn't. He doesn't. Instead, he says, you beautifully and wonderfully made. And yet there may be a moment, and yeah, there may be some things going on, but I can handle that. Here's my encouragement to us today. Don't fall for the lies of the enemy. That cultural drag that's trying to take away and steal what he wants from us. We are saying, God help us to be more aware and cognizant of those things. I don't want to be blind to what's happening around me. Does that make sense? And for this purpose, right? And this is interesting. I just need to say it, different generation, but the same warfare. And if that's the truth, then anybody that is in front of us who's already gone through it should have already equipped something to hand down to deal with it. The invitation, people are like, well, how can we do old and young and this and black and white and Asian and well, it's just it's all over the place. Jesus, the kingdom. This is what it looks like. This is it. I mean, I hope I mean, you maybe have been looking for something better than this, but I'm sorry. Like, but this is it. Surprise. Come on, touch your neighbor say. Welcome to the kingdom. Come on, we're all part of it. The idea is this is that that, yes, there may be uh an age gap. You know one of the things I love? Pastor Henry's here today, and he's sitting here on the front, so I'm gonna pick on him. But Pastor Henry and I uh shared an office, which wasn't an office. He had an office, I had a hallway. So when I first started here, thank you, Pastor Rusty. That was so gracious of you. That was so gracious of you. But literally in a hallway, I put a desk. There we were. And I gladly, can I tell you what? I'd be in that hallway today. I loved it. Pastor Henry was my little sweet mate over there. But man, he would come out and he would drop dimes on us. Me and my wife would just look at each other like, what? Henry Lee and Pat Lee are the most amazing humans. You know, one of the things I always appreciated is that he he would pick up on something, or he might even overhear us working with a student, and he'd just slide in. Hey, just a little word of encouragement for you, right? Think of it like this. And we'd be like, why didn't you come into the meeting? I have to have two meetings now. But that wisdom saying, hey, I let me tell you about the warfare you're walking into. Let me help you with that. And I was able to lead right back into it and bring solutions and not just attable, hey, I'm we're gonna believe. No, we can give real solutions, right? This is the interaction that we have for each other, right? And it would go back and forth. He would, he would make, he would allow me to sit and talk and act like he was interested in stuff I was saying. I mean, you know, you're around those people who are talking who think they know something, and you know they don't know anything. And he's just like, oh, that's fascinating. He wouldn't expose me, but he allowed us to work with each other, right? It's an invitation. All right? Build the house, but protect the house. It's on us. It's not somebody else. You can't praise somebody else's sin to do the job you've been called to do. Protect your ears and your eyes and the people that you let in. Protect the distractions and be aware. I don't mean be more cognizant of the culture than you are of Christ, but at least be aware that this is happening. Be aware that maybe, mom, dad, your student up here is sensing and dealing with things that you have no clue is happening. Your number one prayer point should be first, Christ save my child. I'm telling you, it's like salvation, ASAP, Holy Spirit, right on after it. Right? That's our prayer all the time. But you know what is what right at the top of my prayer list right now? Rico and Kendra. Rico and Kendra, and every youth leader that's in there, every person that's watching my kids and your kids in that nursery right now, I've been praying for. Right? God, use them. Use them. Use them, right? To influence, to care, to pray, to guide. Come on. This is this is that this is that thing that He's called us to do, okay? All right, all right, all right, bow your heads. Heavenly Father, we love you today. We magnify you. Above all things, you are to be glorified, lifted up. Oh, you are worthy. God, as we have declared again and again and again today, you're worthy of our worship, you're worthy of our time, you're worthy of our humility. We humble ourselves to you. Even in this moment, we we humble our hearts to you today and we ask you, Holy Spirit, would you press into us what we need to hear? God, what what needs to encourage and maybe light a flame in us for maybe, maybe, just maybe, something needs to be uprooted before it bears fruit and fruit that's destructive and not fruit that remains. God, God, we're giving you access to our hearts to say, whatever that is, in my home, the way I view my wife, my family, my circumstance. It's not what I always thought it was going to be, but you can give me a new perspective on that. God, you know my heart. You know the hearts of the people in here better than I. Better than I, better than anyone. Better than their spouses. You know them intimately. You know their thoughts. You know their desires, their hang-ups. And God, yet you still invite us to come closer. To come closer. Like Nehemiah today, our prayer is help us to be diligent, to stay true to the mission that you've called us to do. Not to come down or to compromise in any way. To be unapologetic, yet not rude. We're unapologetic, but we're not angry. God, we just we want to do the job you've called us to do. Holy Spirit, I'm asking for a new sensitivity that we walk out of this room when I get into the car, when I go home, when I go to work, when I'm driving about the day, and I'm just in the city, God, I just want that everywhere I go that I carry the presence of the Lord with me. I want to know that I'm in partnership with you. That God, I am protecting the house you've already built. Long before I ever got here, you were here. God, long after I am on this planet, you will be here. God, you will be present. And so, God, we just take this time and we give it back to you. God, we give you the rightful place in our heart, the Lordship of Jesus Christ. God, we invite you, if you're in this room and you have not asked Christ and salvation, I'm telling you, today's your day. Simply to say, I need a savior. It's not a magic word, there's no magic pill or bean. This is real simple. I need a savior. And God, we just do that. We say again, fresh and anew, a recommitment to relationship with you. God, that is our heart's desire that you be glorified in our life, through our life. God, we want to be the light you called us to be. Builders. Builders. We're not here to tear it down, we're here to build it up. Show us how to do that. Show us how to do that. We thank you for all these things and more. We bless your name. In Jesus' name, everybody said, Amen, amen, amen.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:26

We hope and pray this message was encouraging and impactful. Join us live on our website or Facebook on Sundays at 9 and 11 a.m. You can stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram at the Rock Family. Have a Jesus filled week.