February 16, 2025 • 45 mins
In this second message from The Passion Project, Pastor Scott Wiens reveals how Nehemiah’s story offers a practical roadmap for anyone responding to a burning passion from God. Drawing on Ephesians 2:10, Scott emphasizes that every person is designed for particular good works, tailored to their gifts and circumstances. Nehemiah’s decision to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls demonstrates five vital lessons about transforming divine calling into real-life results.
First, it takes courage to move forward in faith. Nehemiah risked his position by approaching King Artaxerxes—yet God’s sovereignty and perfect timing turned that gamble into an incredible opportunity. Scott compares this to biblical figures like Moses, Paul, and Joshua, all of whom had to leave comfort zones to fulfill God’s purposes. Second, passionate faith must be paired with an actionable plan. While God orchestrates the outcome, Nehemiah still requested timber, letters for safe travel, and other logistics, showing that responsible preparation undergirds successful ministry.
Third, obstacles are nearly inevitable when doing significant work for God. From spiritual attacks to criticism, faithful individuals often face headwinds meant to stall progress. Instead of giving up, Nehemiah stood firm, modeling how to resist negativity and rely on the Lord’s protection. Fourth, wise discernment keeps faith-driven efforts from becoming reckless. By scouting the city at night and guarding his intentions until the right moment, Nehemiah balanced passion with prudence. Scott highlights Matthew 10:16, where Jesus calls His followers to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves—an apt lens through which to view Nehemiah’s method.
Finally, compelling communication unites people around a shared vision. Nehemiah rallied the inhabitants of Jerusalem by clearly stating the need, pointing to God’s provision, and explaining how their cooperation would spark renewal. Much the same way, believers today can inspire unity and action by casting a clear vision that others can embrace. When individuals link arms in faith, the results can transcend personal limitations and bring about genuine transformation.
Scott’s reflection on Nehemiah urges everyone to see that responding to God’s call is not just about momentary zeal; it’s a journey blending belief, courage, and organized effort. Whether you sense a divine nudge to launch a new ministry, influence your workplace, or encourage a friend, the narrative of rebuilding Jerusalem speaks volumes. This kind of faith in action can tear down barriers, lift up communities, and shine a light on God’s faithfulness. As you listen, consider where you might apply Nehemiah’s example, trusting that God can turn any risk into a testimony of His power and grace.
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Episode Transcript
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Scott Wiens (00:03):
I got a question for you have you ever felt that
God's calling you to dosomething?
I mean, he's giving you aburning passion to do something.
Maybe it's a move.
I know when God called my wifeand I to move up here nine years
ago, it was definitely a call.
It was a passion that wasdriven more than just the
(00:26):
beautiful area of Knoxville, butthere was a reason we needed to
move.
Maybe it's a new job.
Maybe it's a change in yourcareer.
Maybe it's to join a ministry.
Maybe it's to start a communitygroup.
Maybe it's to join a communitygroup.
There are times in our livesthat God's going to place within
(00:47):
us a strong desire to move in acertain direction, and how much
we all know it's for his glory.
Right, that's when he gives usthis passion.
There's an interestingscripture in Ephesians, chapter
2, verse 10, that says for weare his workmanship.
Notice there's a possessionhere his.
We are his workmanship, createdin Christ Jesus for good works
(01:13):
which God prepared beforehandthat we should walk in them.
If we take that scripture forface value, that means that God
has prepared for you and methings that he wanted us to do
and wants us to do, and is goingto empower us and anoint us to
do all for His glory.
(01:34):
And when he calls us and makesus followers of Jesus Christ, we
just have to realize thatthat's part of the package.
He's going to call us to dothings.
There are very few Christiansthat sit on the bench.
We're not called to sit on thebench, but following His leading
(01:59):
can be difficult at times,right, we know that.
But there's nothing more sweetthan being where God wants you
to be, regardless of howdifficult it is.
Enter Nehemiah Last week webegan a sermon series, as Tyler
mentioned, on the Old Testamentbook of Nehemiah, and we've
(02:21):
called it the Passion Project.
And the more I've thought aboutthis name, the more I love it,
because, truly, god ignited apassion deep inside of Nehemiah
to do something very, verydifficult.
Kelly, kicked off this series,did a great job.
He titled his first sermon APlea for Divine Help, and it was
(02:42):
great because the first chapterof Nehemiah, divine help.
And it was great because thefirst chapter of Nehemiah, the
majority of it, is recorded inNehemiah's prayer to God, and it
was wonderful.
He also gave us a little bit ofa backdrop into Nehemiah.
I'm going to do a little bitmore of that today too, just in
case you miss that.
And, by the way, if you miss asermon, I really highly
recommend you go back, andespecially a sermon that started
(03:02):
everything off, because itreally sets the tone for
everything else.
So, if you missed the sermon,put up your hand.
No, I'm just kidding, wealready know that.
We know everything.
But seriously, I reallyrecommend that you watch it or
listen to it online, because itwould set up a lot of.
(03:25):
It was just a great setting forthe whole message going forward
, the whole series.
Well, we're going to pick up thestory in Nehemiah, chapter 2,
and we're going to read aboutNehemiah's conversation with
King Artaxerxes, right, and thenwe're going to read about him
going to Jerusalem.
We're going to read about himexamining the wall, running into
some opposition and thenrallying the people to begin the
(03:51):
process of building the wall.
And I've entitled this a visionexpedition faith in action.
Faith in action Because withinthis chapter, we're going to see
five lessons about faith andaction that's played out by
Nehemiah himself.
And I am telling you and I toldthis to the prayer group before
the prayer team I said you know, it's almost cheating when you
(04:15):
read a chapter like this.
It's like that's the sermon,the whole.
It was just right there andthese are just beautiful points,
and my prayer is that theselessons are going to encourage
all of us as we follow thecalling God has given us.
So you guys ready for this?
Well, let's do it.
I'm going to give you a littlebit more historical setting to
this, just in case you missedsome of the stuff that was
(04:36):
covered by Kelly last week,because it's really important
that you wrap your head aroundwhere we're at and what's going
on.
So the whole setting is thekingdom, of course, of Persia
and, as we know from Kelly,we've got a slave, nehemiah,
who's a slave to King Artaxerxes.
(04:57):
Jerusalem, by the way, hadfallen to Babylon almost 160
years earlier, in 606.
And we have a little timelineup here for you to look at that.
And, of course, when aconquering nation would conquer
another nation, they would takea lot of them back into their
country, into their nation.
Why, well, they wanted toacculturate them, they wanted to
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make them part of us.
We want to turn them intobasically our own citizens.
We want to turn them intobasically our own citizens.
But, of course, they werecaptives, they were called
exiles.
Well, the Babylonian kingdomfell to Persia around the reign
of King Cyrus in 539 BC.
And now the exiles weretransferred from Babylonian
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exiles and now they're Persianexiles.
Right so you're a slave,doesn't matter who you're exiles
right so you're a slave,doesn't matter who, you're
serving somebody, right?
Soon afterwards, though, in 536, the Persian king Cyrus decreed
that a portion of the exilescould go back to Jerusalem, and
this, by the way, is alldocumented in Ezra, the book of
Ezra.
20 years after that first groupwas sent back, the rebuilding of
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the temple was completed.
That was in 516.
And now we're picking up about58 years after that.
We are now here with Nehemiah.
Now, nehemiah, born incaptivity.
He'd never been to Jerusalem.
That's important, by the way,because, you might like, we went
(06:24):
to Australia with our oldestdaughter when she graduated, or,
excuse me, new Zealand.
We went to New Zealand.
I've been to New Zealand.
I want to go back.
It's a burning passion for me,although the plane trip down,
that's not a burning passion forme.
But it was beautiful, right,but he'd never been there.
But it was beautiful, right,but he'd never been there.
He'd never been there before,right, but he had this burning
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passion to go.
He was born in captivity but, bythe way, he was probably a
pretty intelligent person, hewas probably pretty smart.
He might have been pretty goodlooking, and you want to know
why.
I know that and I wrote this inmy notes, because the king
doesn't surround himself withdoofuses.
Can I say doofus from stage?
It's okay.
(07:12):
No, it was really typicallysomething that kings would do is
they would surround themselveswith the highly intelligent, the
comely very beautiful peoplefrom the ones that he'd taken
exile.
Daniel was a great example ofthat right.
We read that as, for example,goes.
He was the king's cupbearer andhe had an unusually close
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relationship with the kinghimself and we're going to talk
about that.
He was obviously very burdenedwhen this delegation came back
from Jerusalem, told him whatwas happening and the walls were
broken down.
But it wasn't just the wallsthat were broken down.
The spirit in the hearts of thepeople that were there that had
come back, that was broken aswell.
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And he just got this burden onhim.
He just felt so burdened.
I'm sure those same people tolda lot of other people, but for
some reason Nehemiah wasburdened and we know the reason.
Of course, god put that in him.
He praised that very passionateprayer again.
Wonderful message last week andGod gave him this burden to go
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back and rebuild the wall.
So with that as a background,let's jump into Nehemiah 2 and
let's understand and see thesefive lessons of walking in faith
and faith in action.
So let's start in verse 1 ofNehemiah 2.
In the month of Nisan, by theway, it's Nissan.
It's not Nissan.
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That's about March or April, bythe way, of our calendar.
It's funny.
I remember I first read thatit's like it's missing an S.
In the 20th year of KingArtaxerxes, when wine was before
him remember he was thecupbearer I took the wine and
gave it to the king.
Now I had not been sad in hispresence and the king said to me
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why is your face sad?
Seeing you are not sick?
This is nothing but sadness ofthe heart.
Then I was very much afraid.
Now you might say what's goingon here?
Isn't it kind of strange that apagan king cares about a slave?
(09:31):
I mean, think about it.
The more I read this, the more Ithought this was a really
unusual relationship.
But do you remember?
A lot of times, from here wetalk about God's sovereignty,
from here we talk about God'ssovereignty.
Do you not think that Godsovereignly placed within our
exerces a connection withNehemiah, because he knew what
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he was going to call Nehemiah todo?
So there was this deeprelationship here which is he
could.
Literally, nehemiah didn't sayanything, he just saw that
something was different inNehemiah's countenance.
If you've been married for anylength of time, your wife might
come up to you and go what'swrong?
Nothing.
Usually it's the other wayaround.
(10:15):
I understand that, because theycan read our face right, they
know they can see something'snot right, what's going on.
Well, that's what KingArtaxerxes did.
So he really somehow had a deeprelationship with Nehemiah.
That was pretty special.
And Nehemiah, he said, I wasvery much afraid.
(10:36):
Why?
Why would he be afraid?
Why, why would he be afraid?
Well, I'll tell you why he'safraid Because he had a burden
and he had a passion, and now hehad an opportunity and it was
risky, it was very risky.
(10:57):
Do you realize that Artaxerxescould do?
You're gone that quick?
He had the power to put him todeath.
He had the power to take thisvision and this mission that God
had given him and to crush it.
And that really leads to ourfirst lesson of faith, and that
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is, taking a step of faith oftenmeans you're going to take a
risk.
You're going to take a risk.
Slaves don't ask their mastersfor favors, especially big
favors.
Nehemiah knew what he wascalled to do, but he also knew
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that he had a risk that he wasgoing to have to take.
And he took it.
And that's really theapplication.
The application is so obviousfor us.
When God gives you a passionfor something and calls you to
step up and face faith, italmost always means you have to
take a risk.
How many people here can puttheir hand up and say amen to
(12:03):
that?
Yeah, there's a risk.
Think about the Bible and justthink about some of the examples
.
Moses he's out there.
He's got a nice flock of sheep,he's got a nice wife, he's got
a good father-in-law.
He's doing great Burning bushCome on, by the way, take your
(12:24):
sandals off.
By the way, I want to send youto the king of Egypt and you
need to ask him to release hisentire workforce.
Yeah, risky, yeah, maybe right.
How about Abraham?
He was told to leave his wholehomeland to go.
How about the disciples?
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The chosen is reallyinteresting when you see them.
It's interesting how theyportray people being called and
it's just like drop the nets andgo.
There was a risk involved.
The apostle Paul was the onethat really hit me here.
He is the champion of theruling religious class, the
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Pharisees.
He was their champion, he wasthe one that went out there, he
was the equalizer and all of asudden he's now their mortal
enemy and they're trying to killhim.
It's a risk.
I think of even Tyler and Amy.
When you guys came up hereyou've told the story before
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they felt that God was bringingthem up here.
No job, he's pastoring, no job.
He just came and served thechurch.
He trusted God because he knewthe burden God had given him and
he came.
It was a risk.
I'm sure you had lots ofconversations about that before
that happened, but God is there.
(13:49):
One of the most encouragingpassages about someone who was
called to take a huge step offaith is found in Joshua,
chapter 1.
Most of you know, of course,joshua was called to lead the
people into the promised land,these wonderfully cooperative
Israelites into the promisedland, these wonderfully
cooperative Israelites into thepromised land.
And, by the way, he knew it wasgoing to be a very dangerous
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and a very bloody task.
He was going to be outnumberedalmost always, sometimes
multiple times over.
But listen to what God said toJoshua.
It's so encouraging.
In verse 5 of chapter 1, godsays no man shall be able to
stand before you all the days ofyour life.
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Just as I was with Moses, sowill I be with you.
I will not leave you or forsakeyou.
Be strong and courageous, foryou shall cause this people to
inherit the land that I swore totheir fathers to give them.
You might say, well, yeah, butGod never told me that.
(14:57):
Well, a lot of times he does,and he does through validating
the calling that you've got inmany different ways.
If God's given you a passionand a burden that requires you
to take a step of faith, it willalmost always be accompanied by
risks.
However, you must understand ifhe calls you to it, he's going
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to take you through it, becauseit's not for your glory, it's
for his All.
Right, let's keep going.
Verse four and the king said tome what are you requesting,
knees shaking, what are yourequesting?
And I love what it says.
So I prayed to the God ofheaven.
This was probably one of thosereally quiet prayers, you know,
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like when your child first comesand he says where do babies
come from?
Oh God, please give me thestrength and give me the right
words.
Or when you run across somebody, like the other day, somebody
confronted me about something,about my beliefs, and it was a
little bit tricky, and Iliterally just I took a breath
(16:04):
and no, I'm saying God, give methe right words to say to this
person.
You have all said that type ofa prayer, short, to the point.
God heard.
Well, that's what he did here.
And I said to the king if itpleases the king and if your
servant has found favor in yoursight, that you send me to Judah
, to the city of my father'sgraves, that I might rebuild it.
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And the king said to me thequeen sitting next to him.
You ever wonder why that wasabout.
Why would they say the queenwas sitting next to him?
Maybe the queen liked him too.
Maybe the queen was like comeon, let the guy go.
I don't know.
It was just interesting.
How long will you be gone andwhen will you return?
Because somebody's got to drinkwine for me, right?
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So it pleased the king to sendme when I'd given him a time.
I always wondered what time didhe give him.
You know, remember that wallwas built in a pretty short time
.
Maybe he had to hit thatdeadline.
And I said to the king if itpleases the king, let letters be
given me to the governors ofthe province beyond the river
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which is beyond the riverEuphrates, by the way, that they
may let me pass through until Icome to Judah and a letter to
Asaph, the keeper of the king'sforest, that he might give me
lumber to make beams for thegates of the fortress, of the
temple and for the wall of thecity and for the house that I
shall occupy.
And the king granted me what Iasked for the good hand of my
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God was on me.
We see the second lesson offaith here, and that faith in
action often requires having aplan.
And Kelly preached that sermonlast week about all the prayer.
Okay, think about this.
You think all that prayer thathe was praying was just the
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prayer.
I think God was not onlyanswering his prayer and giving
him a vision.
I think God was giving him aplan.
Have you ever been prayingsomething and you just feel like
God's telling you to do this?
Oh, come on God.
No, literally, I'm almostpositive that he had already
planned this out, because hevery succinctly told Artaxerxes
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what he wanted.
I always laugh when I thinkabout the story of Abraham
trying to stop the God fromdestroying Sodom and Gomorrah.
Right, and he keeps saying,well, what if there's 50?
What if there's 25?
But literally he was pushingthe limits.
But there were limits God hadgiven him.
He had a plan.
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He knew what he was going toneed.
He knew he was going to needthe written approval from
Artaxerxes or it wouldn't work.
He knew he was going to needmaterials to build this wall and
the gates especially.
In fact, he says specifically Ineed access to the forest and I
need wood, and we all know whatthe price of wood is.
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Right, but he knew all this andhe asked for it.
He had a plan and plans areimportant.
And I will tell you, from anapplication standpoint, a lot of
people and I've been kickingaround the kingdom for a while
there's a lot of people that Godgives them a passion and they
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love what.
They just feel this is what Godwants me to do and they just
start running and I applaud themfor running.
But a lot of times they runinto walls because they forget
that sometimes you have to planto carry out the mission that
God's given you.
He's given us good brains, he'sgiven us the ability to think,
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and we know he's going to giveus the ability and tell us how
we're going to go about doingthat.
If God's calling you to teach,okay.
If anybody here is feeling thatGod's calling you to teach,
that means you first must learnright.
If God's calling you to lead,then you need to learn how to
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lead.
But so many times we just wantto do it.
Well, I just feel God's callingme to the ministry.
So where do I get ordained?
Oh, wait a second.
It doesn't work that way.
Well, it does sometimes, andthen that's usually a disaster.
It doesn't work that way.
Well, it does sometimes, andthen that's usually a disaster.
You follow where I'm going withthis.
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You need to prepare yourself.
He was prepared for Artaxerxesto say yes, and he knew exactly
what to say and what to ask for.
I think of the early church whenit comes to this.
When I was just preparing this,I thought about when they
encountered the issue with thewidows.
You remember that the widowswere being neglected.
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The church was growing justastronomically and some of the
widows weren't being neglected.
Some were, and it was all thisstuff.
So what did the apostles do?
They came up with a plan.
I'm sure they prayed about it,but they came up with a plan.
I'm sure they prayed about it,but they came up with a plan.
And the plan, by the way, thecreation of a deaconship is
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still happening today.
It happens in our church.
They came up with a plan andthey followed the plan.
They didn't just say God,please take care of those widows
, they took action.
They had a plan and it's reallyimportant.
Now I will tell you that ourplans should always be subject
to God and his adjustment andrealignment.
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Sometimes our plans aresomewhat humorous to God.
And I came across this clip andI just want to show you.
It's a clip from the Chosen,but it's got a little bit of a
twist.
So watch the screen reallycarefully, we'll see.
Show me Impressive.
(21:58):
That is something.
But there's something didn'tsee that coming.
I love that clip.
This was Simon the zealot.
I should have set this up.
This was Simon the Zealot.
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I should have set this up.
This was Simon the Zealot.
He had just begun followingJesus and he thought he was
called to be Jesus' bodyguard,and so he proudly said look at
this knife and you saw whathappened.
So, yeah, sometimes God says,yeah, nice, try, but we're going
to try this again and we'regoing to, and that's okay, but
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it doesn't mean we shouldn'tplan.
Right, god's going to fine-tunethat plan and sometimes he'll
throw them away and give youanother one, but he's going to
guide us in that.
All right, let's move on to thethird point Nehemiah, chapter 2,
verse 9.
Then I came to the governors ofthe province beyond the river.
So he's gotten everything heneeds.
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Now he's already left, sothere's a big space and time
here, right, and gave them theking's letters.
Now the king had sent me withthe officers of the army and
horsemen which was, by the way,that was like an armed guard.
That's pretty cool.
He had his own secret service,it looks like.
But when Sanballat?
I have never run across a childnamed Sanballat.
We have a lot of women pregnantin here.
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You want Sanballat, maybe no,okay, maybe not.
The name always cracks me upevery time I heard it.
Sanballat the Horonite andTobiah the Ammonite servant
heard this.
It displeased them greatly thatsomeone had come to seek the
welfare of the people of Israel.
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In this section we see the thirdlesson, and that is faith in
action will almost alwaysencounter opposition.
The reason I'm hearing amens isbecause they've been through
that.
Sanballat and Tobiah wereregional governors serving the
Persian empire.
Remember this it's a vassalstate, right, everybody was
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working for the boss, right,sanballat was a governor of
Samaria and they think Tobiahwas.
He was an Ammonite.
He was probably the governor ofan area east of the Jordan
River.
So these were pretty highofficials, even though they were
slaves.
They were.
They were conquered people.
Why were they against this?
Well, there's a reason why theywere identified as an Ammonite
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and a Horonite Because thesewere conquered people.
These were people that Israelhad conquered when they took
over the promised land.
I think I understand why theydon't like Israel.
It was pretty apparent why theydidn't like him.
It was in their best interestto keep the Jews from unifying,
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as they knew that the buildingof the wall would essentially be
a huge step towards the Jewsregaining their identity as a
people.
They knew this.
By the way, if you ever wonder,why did Artaxerxes let them go
back and build a wall?
Well, remember who occupiedJerusalem the Persians.
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If they want to go, build thewall for the Persians, so the
Persians can protect their youknow their space.
Sure, go ahead.
So it's not like Artaxerxes wasworried about them, you know
rebelling or anything althoughyou'll hear later on that that's
something that Tobiah tried toand Sanballat tried to accuse
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them of.
Right.
But if the Jews werestrengthened, these people would
be weakened, and you're goingto see these guys throughout the
rest of the book becausethey're going to constantly try
to come against them.
The application is prettystraightforward when you think
about this.
When God places a passion in usto do something for him, that
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means it's something oppositefor Satan, and Satan will not be
happy.
He will not be happy.
How many of you have ever heardthe name William Booth?
William Booth?
Well, william Booth founded theSalvation Army back in England
in 1877.
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Salvation Army does a lot ofgreat things.
My mother, by the way, who's inher late 80s, still serves at
the Salvation Army in our littletown in Saskatchewan.
She used her walker because shehad a hip replacement.
The shelves aren't right.
Unless my mother gets a hold ofthem, she sets it all up.
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But they do wonderful thingsand they've been going ever
since.
But did you know that when hestarted the Salvation Army,
there was a huge opposition fromI mean from the press, from the
government, from the clergy.
They wrote terrible thingsabout him because he had a
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different way of spreading thegospel and it was offensive to
some of these people who said,no, it's supposed to be done
this way.
And he had a son, by the way,named Bramwell.
Now there's another idea forname Bramwell.
You don't hear enough Bramwellsout there.
Well, his son's name isBramwell.
And his son came to him onetime and said Dad, what do you
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think about all the stuff theywrite about you?
And this is what he said.
I thought this was so wise.
He said Bramwell, 50 yearshence.
It will matter very littleindeed how these people treated
us.
It will matter a great deal howwe dealt with the work of God.
It will matter a great deal howwe dealt with the work of God.
When you face opposition,realize that it's just
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opposition.
God's the one behind you.
Push forward.
In 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 17through 18, this is what we read
.
But we brethren, having beentaken away from you for a short
while in person, not in spirit,we're all the more eager, with
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great desire to see your face,for we wanted to come to you, I
Paul, more than once.
Yet Satan hindered us.
This is a chorus that would beechoed time and time and time
and time and time again tilltoday, and it's still going to
be echoed.
Satan will hinder you fromdoing God's work.
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He will do anything he can, butwhat he doesn't understand and
he's supposed to be so clever,he just doesn't understand that.
That just makes us stronger.
You want to know where thechurch is really growing.
It's the place where it'spersecuted.
It's persecuted.
Satan is a defeated foe, but hewill not go quietly into his
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fate.
If you're truly doing somethingthat God has called you to do,
you almost always will beattacked by the enemy.
But we're told throughScripture and a lot of you know
these scriptures we're supposedto resist those attacks.
We put on the armor of God toprotect us from that and we
don't lose sight of what God'scalled us to do.
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Expect it.
This is the thing that reallyblows me away sometimes is when
someone says this is the thingthat really blows me away
sometimes is when someone saysman, I started doing this
ministry and it's just not goingwell.
I'm like good.
They're like what I said.
That's good, because Satan'scoming after you Now.
It doesn't mean that sometimesyou don't.
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Maybe it's your own fault,you're doing something wrong,
but you get the idea.
This morning it was funny.
I came in here all ready forthis sermon.
We have electrical issues inthe place, these lights are out,
these lights are out and allthis and we're going back and
forth.
And I kind of stopped with theguys we were back in there.
I said you know what?
With the guys we were back inthere, I said you know what?
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God's the master, electrician,let's just pray and we're having
church Opposition's going tocome, but you just keep your
focus.
Alright, let's move to pointfour.
We're going to read five verseshere, beginning in verse 11.
So I went to Jerusalem and wasthere three days.
Then I arose in the night, Iand a few men with me, and I
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told no one what my God had putinto my heart to do for
Jerusalem.
There was no animal with me butthe one on which I rode.
I went out by night by thevalley gate to the dragon spring
and to the dung gate.
Wouldn't want a house by thedung gate, would you?
And I inspected the walls ofJerusalem that were broken down
and its gates that had beendestroyed by fire.
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Then I went to the fountaingate and to the king's pool and
there was no room for the animalthat was under me to pass and
it means the debris was so badhe couldn't even get over.
Then I went up in the night bythe valley and inspected the
wall and I turned back andentered by the valley gate and
so returned and the officialsdid not know where I had gone or
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what I was doing and I had notyet told the Jews, the priests,
the nobles, the officials andthe rest who were to do the work
, meaning I didn't tell thepeople that were going to be
doing all this work what we weregoing to be doing.
It was kind of funny.
I didn't tell the people thatwere going to be doing all this
work what we were going to bedoing.
It was kind of funny.
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We can see that Nehemiah isexhibiting the fourth lesson of
faith in action, and that iswisdom, wisdom.
You can have a plan, you cantake the risk, but you have to
have the wisdom to move forwardin that, isn't it interesting.
Here's this man with all thispassion.
He gets to Jerusalem.
Man, my bag wouldn't have evenhit my bed and I'd be going out
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looking at that wall and makingmy plans.
He spent three days doingnothing.
I really think what he wastrying to do is just keep a low
profile.
He was just laying low Becauseobviously you know Sanballat
Tobiah they were after himalready.
He just let things lay low.
He did his inspection at nightso no one would see him, and he
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only went to a certain portionof the wall, by the way, and
this was the area closest to thetemple, and so he was probably
just looking at that areaspecifically.
But he only took three peoplewith him, didn't want to bring a
lot of attention to him.
He was using wisdom whenfulfilling what God had called
him to do, and the applicationis pretty straightforward for us
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.
When God's called you to dosomething, yeah, you make your
plans.
Yeah, you take the risk.
Yeah, you take the risk.
Yeah, you realize there's goingto be opposition, but you
should do this with wisdom, andwisdom sometimes can come
directly from God.
Sometimes God's going to givesomebody else that wisdom.
I love when I hear people thishas happened before somebody
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come to me and I'm planning todo this and I start asking the
questions and they've alreadythought it through.
They've gotten counsel frompeople.
They have a plan and, eventhough God might change it, they
have a plan.
They're using their smarts,they're using their brains and
that's what's so important.
You know, when Jesus says inMatthew 10, 16, to be wise as
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serpents and as harmless asdoves, that wise part is really
important.
A lot of times we just want tobe harmless, but we need to be
wise and smart.
Use our noodle.
God's given it to us.
Let's use wisdom.
When we do this, let's get toour final point.
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We're going to pick it up inverse 17.
Then I said to them now, this isthe big reveal.
Now he's talking to them.
Which are all those people hementioned before here, the whole
list, I think it was.
Let's see the nobles, the Jews,the priests, the nobles, the
officials, the rest of them thatwere doing the work.
So he says this to all of themyou see the trouble we are in,
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how Jerusalem lies in ruins,with its gates burned.
Come, let us build the wall ofJerusalem that we may no longer
suffer derision.
And I told them of the hand ofmy God that had been upon me for
good, and also the words thatthe king had spoken to me and
they said.
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They said let us rise up andbuild.
So they strengthened theirhands for the good work.
This is so cool work.
This is so cool.
The final lesson about faith inaction is that faith in action
means we must communicate toothers the vision God has given
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us, and we must communicate iteffectively.
How did Nehemiah do this?
You can't miss this.
He does this so strategically,he said.
Then I said to them you see thetrouble we are in, how
Jerusalem lies in ruins with itsgates burned.
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Excuse me, nehemiah, thesepeople have been walking past
these rubble and these burnedgates for decades.
It was this way for decades.
He's pointing out the obvious.
It's like duh, we see thatalready.
But no, he's pointing it outfor a reason, because he's
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saying this is what it lookslike.
It cannot stay this way.
You see, sometimes have you everdone this, where you run into
somebody, you're working withsomebody, and they are mired in
a sin so deep that they can'teven see it anymore and they
need to be given a vision?
Sometimes it's the church.
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Sometimes you're working withpeople and there's a problem and
you got a church and it's likewe need to wait.
There's a need that we haven'tbeen meeting.
We need to do this.
There's a need that we haven'tbeen meeting, we need to do this
.
And so he was showing them this.
It was beautiful.
He said come, let us build thewall of Jerusalem that we may no
longer suffer derision.
This is really important.
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He says come, come means joinme, join me in this task.
He's calling them to action.
Remember, he's already startedthe action.
He's calling them to join himwith this.
And he gives them two reallysolid proofs, which I find is
really really powerful.
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He says they no longer sufferderision by the way, derision
when you think about that word.
See, they lost a lot of theirnational identity.
Now their temple got rebuilt,but when you come over the hill
and there's Jerusalem, all thesewalls broken down, people, you
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know it's not good.
And so he says to them and Itold them of the hand of my God
that had been upon me for good,and also the words that the king
had spoken to me and they saidlet us rise and build.
He gives them two solid proofs.
Number one he says God has toldme to do this.
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And you might say, yes, god.
I've had a lot of people tellme God told me to do this.
And you might say, yeah, Scott,I've had a lot of people tell
me God told me to do this.
But then he proves that Godtold him to do that because the
king of Persia has given him thedouble thumbs up and said he'll
fund it.
See, he didn't skip that.
And, by the way, just to showyou how smart Sanballat and
(37:37):
Tobiah were or not, don't namethem that, by the way.
They're not very smart people.
They literally their firstthing is to say are you
rebelling against Artaxerxes?
He already insulated them fromthat argument by saying
Artaxerxes has our back and he'stold us to do this.
He was casting a vision.
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It was so powerful.
Nehemiah's ability tocommunicate his passion and
vision caused both of thosethings to be transferred to the
people.
You want people to follow youin something that God has called
you to do.
You have to cast a vision andshare that passion, and then
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they have to embrace itthemselves.
Now you might say well, scott,I'm just not charismatic.
There are some people out there.
They just got this charisma,man.
They can just cause people.
I understand that there aresome people that just naturally
gravitate towards them.
We get that, we understand that, we understand that.
But that doesn't mean that youcan't do something great for the
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Lord, because remember, in theend it's God.
If God's behind it, I don'tcare how gregarious you are.
You know what the strengthfinder is one of the things
called a woo winning others over, right?
Well, god gives some peoplethat gift to do that.
But don't just say, well, I'mnot a woo, I'm not a woo, so I
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really can't do that.
No, you can share that passion,you know, I don't know if Brad
Martell's not here, he'sprobably out, he's in the
children's ministry.
Yeah, that's typical of Brad.
Brad Martell works for theCenters for Bioethical Reform
and they go to campuses and theyexpose what abortion really is
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and, believe me, the pushback hegets is great.
Now, brad's kind of a low-keyguy.
He's not somebody that youwould.
He's not up there banging thedrum all the time.
But God gave him a passion andit's I'm telling you it's
addictive.
I mean to see what he believesin what he believes and what
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he's doing about it faith inaction.
By the way, they get opposedall the time.
People scream at them, callthem all kinds of names whatever
, but yet he shows love topeople and he does that
constantly.
Yet he's not what you wouldcall a traditional woo, so you
can't use that as an excuse.
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If God's given you a passion todo something, he's going to give
you the ability to communicatethat and he's going to be the
one to strengthen you and tobring people to support that.
And, by the way, I don't careif it's a simple you're doing a
community group.
I don't care if it's somethinglike that.
I don't care if it's just evensomething like making the move,
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or maybe you're doing acommunity project of some kind,
or whatever it is.
God's going to give you theability to communicate that.
But again, you have to do yourhomework.
You got to have a plan.
There's nothing worse thansomeone sending up.
I'd like for all to help me dothis.
Well, what's the plan?
I don't know.
I just got passion, you know.
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So you see how you can't skipany of these steps.
Y'all they have to cometogether, do it together.
So what's ironic about today isthat we're starting the
community groups for thissemester and you know, out there
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you've got people some of themwere doing a community group for
the first time, and theseprinciples right here are really
things that they can applyright now.
But what they did is they tookfaith and they took action.
God called them to do somethingand they're going to do that
and they're following through.
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And to me, I think this chapteris just such a wonderful example
of what faith and action shouldbe.
God gave Nehemiah the burningpassion to rebuild the wall, and
this example of faith andaction is just such a testament
that can apply.
It's timeless, it's timeless.
Faith and action is just such atestament that can apply.
It's timeless, it's timeless.
Faith and action is going toinvolve risk.
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Faith and action is going torequire you to plan.
Faith and action means you'regoing to probably encounter
opposition.
Faith and action means you needto use wisdom which, by the way
, god will give you and faithand action means we need to
communicate that vision thatGod's given us with others.
Now, up until now, I've beenaddressing you individually in
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something God may have given youindividually, but let me just
say this Jesus gave us all apassion for one thing that is
the most important thing, andthat is to go to all the nations
preaching the gospel, and theseprinciples are going to apply
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to that too.
It's okay to plan that, it'sokay to think about things, use
wisdom, express that vision inmultiple ways, but we have all
been called to do that.
So, whether you're starting aministry or you're doing
something big like that, orwhether you are just trying to
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figure out how God's going tolead you to share your faith
with a coworker, theseprinciples that Nehemiah has
laid out are really effectivefor us.
Can you all stand to your feetand we'll pray, heavenly Father?
Heavenly Father, I am alwayshumbled by the fact that this
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ancient book that you've givenus is so applicable to us today.
It's timeless and, father, thepreservation of it is a miracle
oven by itself.
We thank you for the fact thatthe story of Nehemiah is
something that was preserved forus.
And, father, we know that youdidn't call anybody to sit on a
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bench.
You called each one of us toserve you in different ways.
Father, forgive us for the timeswhen we haven't listened to you
or we haven't taken up thepassion that you gave us, that
we were supposed to pick up.
Father, we repent of that.
Lord, we ask that we would beobedient and that you would
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speak to us.
And, god, we're going to make apromise to you, and that is if
you give us the passion, we'regoing to take the step forward.
We'll take the risk, father.
We'll prayerfully put togetherthe plan.
We will walk through theopposition with your strength.
We will use wisdom, father, andwe will communicate that with
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others.
Lord, give us the strength todo that, and we know that we
will be so much more effectivefor your kingdom.
And may your kingdom come soon,lord, and we pray this and we
thank you for it all In theprecious name of the one who set
the example for faith andaction, jesus Christ, our Savior
, amen.
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Thank you, be blessed.
I got a question for you have you ever felt that
God's calling you to dosomething?
I mean, he's giving you aburning passion to do something.
Maybe it's a move.
I know when God called my wifeand I to move up here nine years
ago, it was definitely a call.
It was a passion that wasdriven more than just the
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beautiful area of Knoxville, butthere was a reason we needed to
move.
Maybe it's a new job.
Maybe it's a change in yourcareer.
Maybe it's to join a ministry.
Maybe it's to start a communitygroup.
Maybe it's to join a communitygroup.
There are times in our livesthat God's going to place within
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us a strong desire to move in acertain direction, and how much
we all know it's for his glory.
Right, that's when he gives usthis passion.
There's an interestingscripture in Ephesians, chapter
2, verse 10, that says for weare his workmanship.
Notice there's a possessionhere his.
We are his workmanship, createdin Christ Jesus for good works
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which God prepared beforehandthat we should walk in them.
If we take that scripture forface value, that means that God
has prepared for you and methings that he wanted us to do
and wants us to do, and is goingto empower us and anoint us to
do all for His glory.
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And when he calls us and makesus followers of Jesus Christ, we
just have to realize thatthat's part of the package.
He's going to call us to dothings.
There are very few Christiansthat sit on the bench.
We're not called to sit on thebench, but following His leading
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can be difficult at times,right, we know that.
But there's nothing more sweetthan being where God wants you
to be, regardless of howdifficult it is.
Enter Nehemiah Last week webegan a sermon series, as Tyler
mentioned, on the Old Testamentbook of Nehemiah, and we've
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called it the Passion Project.
And the more I've thought aboutthis name, the more I love it,
because, truly, god ignited apassion deep inside of Nehemiah
to do something very, verydifficult.
Kelly, kicked off this series,did a great job.
He titled his first sermon APlea for Divine Help, and it was
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great because the first chapterof Nehemiah, divine help.
And it was great because thefirst chapter of Nehemiah, the
majority of it, is recorded inNehemiah's prayer to God, and it
was wonderful.
He also gave us a little bit ofa backdrop into Nehemiah.
I'm going to do a little bitmore of that today too, just in
case you miss that.
And, by the way, if you miss asermon, I really highly
recommend you go back, andespecially a sermon that started
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everything off, because itreally sets the tone for
everything else.
So, if you missed the sermon,put up your hand.
No, I'm just kidding, wealready know that.
We know everything.
But seriously, I reallyrecommend that you watch it or
listen to it online, because itwould set up a lot of.
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It was just a great setting forthe whole message going forward
, the whole series.
Well, we're going to pick up thestory in Nehemiah, chapter 2,
and we're going to read aboutNehemiah's conversation with
King Artaxerxes, right, and thenwe're going to read about him
going to Jerusalem.
We're going to read about himexamining the wall, running into
some opposition and thenrallying the people to begin the
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process of building the wall.
And I've entitled this a visionexpedition faith in action.
Faith in action Because withinthis chapter, we're going to see
five lessons about faith andaction that's played out by
Nehemiah himself.
And I am telling you and I toldthis to the prayer group before
the prayer team I said you know, it's almost cheating when you
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read a chapter like this.
It's like that's the sermon,the whole.
It was just right there andthese are just beautiful points,
and my prayer is that theselessons are going to encourage
all of us as we follow thecalling God has given us.
So you guys ready for this?
Well, let's do it.
I'm going to give you a littlebit more historical setting to
this, just in case you missedsome of the stuff that was
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covered by Kelly last week,because it's really important
that you wrap your head aroundwhere we're at and what's going
on.
So the whole setting is thekingdom, of course, of Persia
and, as we know from Kelly,we've got a slave, nehemiah,
who's a slave to King Artaxerxes.
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Jerusalem, by the way, hadfallen to Babylon almost 160
years earlier, in 606.
And we have a little timelineup here for you to look at that.
And, of course, when aconquering nation would conquer
another nation, they would takea lot of them back into their
country, into their nation.
Why, well, they wanted toacculturate them, they wanted to
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make them part of us.
We want to turn them intobasically our own citizens.
We want to turn them intobasically our own citizens.
But, of course, they werecaptives, they were called
exiles.
Well, the Babylonian kingdomfell to Persia around the reign
of King Cyrus in 539 BC.
And now the exiles weretransferred from Babylonian
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exiles and now they're Persianexiles.
Right so you're a slave,doesn't matter who you're exiles
right so you're a slave,doesn't matter who, you're
serving somebody, right?
Soon afterwards, though, in 536, the Persian king Cyrus decreed
that a portion of the exilescould go back to Jerusalem, and
this, by the way, is alldocumented in Ezra, the book of
Ezra.
20 years after that first groupwas sent back, the rebuilding of
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the temple was completed.
That was in 516.
And now we're picking up about58 years after that.
We are now here with Nehemiah.
Now, nehemiah, born incaptivity.
He'd never been to Jerusalem.
That's important, by the way,because, you might like, we went
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to Australia with our oldestdaughter when she graduated, or,
excuse me, new Zealand.
We went to New Zealand.
I've been to New Zealand.
I want to go back.
It's a burning passion for me,although the plane trip down,
that's not a burning passion forme.
But it was beautiful, right,but he'd never been there.
But it was beautiful, right,but he'd never been there.
He'd never been there before,right, but he had this burning
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passion to go.
He was born in captivity but, bythe way, he was probably a
pretty intelligent person, hewas probably pretty smart.
He might have been pretty goodlooking, and you want to know
why.
I know that and I wrote this inmy notes, because the king
doesn't surround himself withdoofuses.
Can I say doofus from stage?
It's okay.
(07:12):
No, it was really typicallysomething that kings would do is
they would surround themselveswith the highly intelligent, the
comely very beautiful peoplefrom the ones that he'd taken
exile.
Daniel was a great example ofthat right.
We read that as, for example,goes.
He was the king's cupbearer andhe had an unusually close
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relationship with the kinghimself and we're going to talk
about that.
He was obviously very burdenedwhen this delegation came back
from Jerusalem, told him whatwas happening and the walls were
broken down.
But it wasn't just the wallsthat were broken down.
The spirit in the hearts of thepeople that were there that had
come back, that was broken aswell.
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And he just got this burden onhim.
He just felt so burdened.
I'm sure those same people tolda lot of other people, but for
some reason Nehemiah wasburdened and we know the reason.
Of course, god put that in him.
He praised that very passionateprayer again.
Wonderful message last week andGod gave him this burden to go
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back and rebuild the wall.
So with that as a background,let's jump into Nehemiah 2 and
let's understand and see thesefive lessons of walking in faith
and faith in action.
So let's start in verse 1 ofNehemiah 2.
In the month of Nisan, by theway, it's Nissan.
It's not Nissan.
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That's about March or April, bythe way, of our calendar.
It's funny.
I remember I first read thatit's like it's missing an S.
In the 20th year of KingArtaxerxes, when wine was before
him remember he was thecupbearer I took the wine and
gave it to the king.
Now I had not been sad in hispresence and the king said to me
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why is your face sad?
Seeing you are not sick?
This is nothing but sadness ofthe heart.
Then I was very much afraid.
Now you might say what's goingon here?
Isn't it kind of strange that apagan king cares about a slave?
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I mean, think about it.
The more I read this, the more Ithought this was a really
unusual relationship.
But do you remember?
A lot of times, from here wetalk about God's sovereignty,
from here we talk about God'ssovereignty.
Do you not think that Godsovereignly placed within our
exerces a connection withNehemiah, because he knew what
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he was going to call Nehemiah todo?
So there was this deeprelationship here which is he
could.
Literally, nehemiah didn't sayanything, he just saw that
something was different inNehemiah's countenance.
If you've been married for anylength of time, your wife might
come up to you and go what'swrong?
Nothing.
Usually it's the other wayaround.
(10:15):
I understand that, because theycan read our face right, they
know they can see something'snot right, what's going on.
Well, that's what KingArtaxerxes did.
So he really somehow had a deeprelationship with Nehemiah.
That was pretty special.
And Nehemiah, he said, I wasvery much afraid.
(10:36):
Why?
Why would he be afraid?
Why, why would he be afraid?
Well, I'll tell you why he'safraid Because he had a burden
and he had a passion, and now hehad an opportunity and it was
risky, it was very risky.
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Do you realize that Artaxerxescould do?
You're gone that quick?
He had the power to put him todeath.
He had the power to take thisvision and this mission that God
had given him and to crush it.
And that really leads to ourfirst lesson of faith, and that
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is, taking a step of faith oftenmeans you're going to take a
risk.
You're going to take a risk.
Slaves don't ask their mastersfor favors, especially big
favors.
Nehemiah knew what he wascalled to do, but he also knew
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that he had a risk that he wasgoing to have to take.
And he took it.
And that's really theapplication.
The application is so obviousfor us.
When God gives you a passionfor something and calls you to
step up and face faith, italmost always means you have to
take a risk.
How many people here can puttheir hand up and say amen to
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that?
Yeah, there's a risk.
Think about the Bible and justthink about some of the examples
.
Moses he's out there.
He's got a nice flock of sheep,he's got a nice wife, he's got
a good father-in-law.
He's doing great Burning bushCome on, by the way, take your
(12:24):
sandals off.
By the way, I want to send youto the king of Egypt and you
need to ask him to release hisentire workforce.
Yeah, risky, yeah, maybe right.
How about Abraham?
He was told to leave his wholehomeland to go.
How about the disciples?
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The chosen is reallyinteresting when you see them.
It's interesting how theyportray people being called and
it's just like drop the nets andgo.
There was a risk involved.
The apostle Paul was the onethat really hit me here.
He is the champion of theruling religious class, the
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Pharisees.
He was their champion, he wasthe one that went out there, he
was the equalizer and all of asudden he's now their mortal
enemy and they're trying to killhim.
It's a risk.
I think of even Tyler and Amy.
When you guys came up hereyou've told the story before
(13:25):
they felt that God was bringingthem up here.
No job, he's pastoring, no job.
He just came and served thechurch.
He trusted God because he knewthe burden God had given him and
he came.
It was a risk.
I'm sure you had lots ofconversations about that before
that happened, but God is there.
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One of the most encouragingpassages about someone who was
called to take a huge step offaith is found in Joshua,
chapter 1.
Most of you know, of course,joshua was called to lead the
people into the promised land,these wonderfully cooperative
Israelites into the promisedland, these wonderfully
cooperative Israelites into thepromised land.
And, by the way, he knew it wasgoing to be a very dangerous
(14:14):
and a very bloody task.
He was going to be outnumberedalmost always, sometimes
multiple times over.
But listen to what God said toJoshua.
It's so encouraging.
In verse 5 of chapter 1, godsays no man shall be able to
stand before you all the days ofyour life.
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Just as I was with Moses, sowill I be with you.
I will not leave you or forsakeyou.
Be strong and courageous, foryou shall cause this people to
inherit the land that I swore totheir fathers to give them.
You might say, well, yeah, butGod never told me that.
(14:57):
Well, a lot of times he does,and he does through validating
the calling that you've got inmany different ways.
If God's given you a passionand a burden that requires you
to take a step of faith, it willalmost always be accompanied by
risks.
However, you must understand ifhe calls you to it, he's going
(15:19):
to take you through it, becauseit's not for your glory, it's
for his All.
Right, let's keep going.
Verse four and the king said tome what are you requesting,
knees shaking, what are yourequesting?
And I love what it says.
So I prayed to the God ofheaven.
This was probably one of thosereally quiet prayers, you know,
(15:43):
like when your child first comesand he says where do babies
come from?
Oh God, please give me thestrength and give me the right
words.
Or when you run across somebody, like the other day, somebody
confronted me about something,about my beliefs, and it was a
little bit tricky, and Iliterally just I took a breath
(16:04):
and no, I'm saying God, give methe right words to say to this
person.
You have all said that type ofa prayer, short, to the point.
God heard.
Well, that's what he did here.
And I said to the king if itpleases the king and if your
servant has found favor in yoursight, that you send me to Judah
, to the city of my father'sgraves, that I might rebuild it.
(16:26):
And the king said to me thequeen sitting next to him.
You ever wonder why that wasabout.
Why would they say the queenwas sitting next to him?
Maybe the queen liked him too.
Maybe the queen was like comeon, let the guy go.
I don't know.
It was just interesting.
How long will you be gone andwhen will you return?
Because somebody's got to drinkwine for me, right?
(16:46):
So it pleased the king to sendme when I'd given him a time.
I always wondered what time didhe give him.
You know, remember that wallwas built in a pretty short time
.
Maybe he had to hit thatdeadline.
And I said to the king if itpleases the king, let letters be
given me to the governors ofthe province beyond the river
(17:08):
which is beyond the riverEuphrates, by the way, that they
may let me pass through until Icome to Judah and a letter to
Asaph, the keeper of the king'sforest, that he might give me
lumber to make beams for thegates of the fortress, of the
temple and for the wall of thecity and for the house that I
shall occupy.
And the king granted me what Iasked for the good hand of my
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God was on me.
We see the second lesson offaith here, and that faith in
action often requires having aplan.
And Kelly preached that sermonlast week about all the prayer.
Okay, think about this.
You think all that prayer thathe was praying was just the
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prayer.
I think God was not onlyanswering his prayer and giving
him a vision.
I think God was giving him aplan.
Have you ever been prayingsomething and you just feel like
God's telling you to do this?
Oh, come on God.
No, literally, I'm almostpositive that he had already
planned this out, because hevery succinctly told Artaxerxes
(18:17):
what he wanted.
I always laugh when I thinkabout the story of Abraham
trying to stop the God fromdestroying Sodom and Gomorrah.
Right, and he keeps saying,well, what if there's 50?
What if there's 25?
But literally he was pushingthe limits.
But there were limits God hadgiven him.
He had a plan.
(18:39):
He knew what he was going toneed.
He knew he was going to needthe written approval from
Artaxerxes or it wouldn't work.
He knew he was going to needmaterials to build this wall and
the gates especially.
In fact, he says specifically Ineed access to the forest and I
need wood, and we all know whatthe price of wood is.
(19:00):
Right, but he knew all this andhe asked for it.
He had a plan and plans areimportant.
And I will tell you, from anapplication standpoint, a lot of
people and I've been kickingaround the kingdom for a while
there's a lot of people that Godgives them a passion and they
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love what.
They just feel this is what Godwants me to do and they just
start running and I applaud themfor running.
But a lot of times they runinto walls because they forget
that sometimes you have to planto carry out the mission that
God's given you.
He's given us good brains, he'sgiven us the ability to think,
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and we know he's going to giveus the ability and tell us how
we're going to go about doingthat.
If God's calling you to teach,okay.
If anybody here is feeling thatGod's calling you to teach,
that means you first must learnright.
If God's calling you to lead,then you need to learn how to
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lead.
But so many times we just wantto do it.
Well, I just feel God's callingme to the ministry.
So where do I get ordained?
Oh, wait a second.
It doesn't work that way.
Well, it does sometimes, andthen that's usually a disaster.
It doesn't work that way.
Well, it does sometimes, andthen that's usually a disaster.
You follow where I'm going withthis.
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You need to prepare yourself.
He was prepared for Artaxerxesto say yes, and he knew exactly
what to say and what to ask for.
I think of the early church whenit comes to this.
When I was just preparing this,I thought about when they
encountered the issue with thewidows.
You remember that the widowswere being neglected.
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The church was growing justastronomically and some of the
widows weren't being neglected.
Some were, and it was all thisstuff.
So what did the apostles do?
They came up with a plan.
I'm sure they prayed about it,but they came up with a plan.
I'm sure they prayed about it,but they came up with a plan.
And the plan, by the way, thecreation of a deaconship is
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still happening today.
It happens in our church.
They came up with a plan andthey followed the plan.
They didn't just say God,please take care of those widows
, they took action.
They had a plan and it's reallyimportant.
Now I will tell you that ourplans should always be subject
to God and his adjustment andrealignment.
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Sometimes our plans aresomewhat humorous to God.
And I came across this clip andI just want to show you.
It's a clip from the Chosen,but it's got a little bit of a
twist.
So watch the screen reallycarefully, we'll see.
Show me Impressive.
(21:58):
That is something.
But there's something didn'tsee that coming.
I love that clip.
This was Simon the zealot.
I should have set this up.
This was Simon the Zealot.
(22:20):
I should have set this up.
This was Simon the Zealot.
He had just begun followingJesus and he thought he was
called to be Jesus' bodyguard,and so he proudly said look at
this knife and you saw whathappened.
So, yeah, sometimes God says,yeah, nice, try, but we're going
to try this again and we'regoing to, and that's okay, but
(22:43):
it doesn't mean we shouldn'tplan.
Right, god's going to fine-tunethat plan and sometimes he'll
throw them away and give youanother one, but he's going to
guide us in that.
All right, let's move on to thethird point Nehemiah, chapter 2,
verse 9.
Then I came to the governors ofthe province beyond the river.
So he's gotten everything heneeds.
(23:03):
Now he's already left, sothere's a big space and time
here, right, and gave them theking's letters.
Now the king had sent me withthe officers of the army and
horsemen which was, by the way,that was like an armed guard.
That's pretty cool.
He had his own secret service,it looks like.
But when Sanballat?
I have never run across a childnamed Sanballat.
We have a lot of women pregnantin here.
(23:25):
You want Sanballat, maybe no,okay, maybe not.
The name always cracks me upevery time I heard it.
Sanballat the Horonite andTobiah the Ammonite servant
heard this.
It displeased them greatly thatsomeone had come to seek the
welfare of the people of Israel.
(23:48):
In this section we see the thirdlesson, and that is faith in
action will almost alwaysencounter opposition.
The reason I'm hearing amens isbecause they've been through
that.
Sanballat and Tobiah wereregional governors serving the
Persian empire.
Remember this it's a vassalstate, right, everybody was
(24:09):
working for the boss, right,sanballat was a governor of
Samaria and they think Tobiahwas.
He was an Ammonite.
He was probably the governor ofan area east of the Jordan
River.
So these were pretty highofficials, even though they were
slaves.
They were.
They were conquered people.
Why were they against this?
Well, there's a reason why theywere identified as an Ammonite
(24:34):
and a Horonite Because thesewere conquered people.
These were people that Israelhad conquered when they took
over the promised land.
I think I understand why theydon't like Israel.
It was pretty apparent why theydidn't like him.
It was in their best interestto keep the Jews from unifying,
(24:55):
as they knew that the buildingof the wall would essentially be
a huge step towards the Jewsregaining their identity as a
people.
They knew this.
By the way, if you ever wonder,why did Artaxerxes let them go
back and build a wall?
Well, remember who occupiedJerusalem the Persians.
(25:17):
If they want to go, build thewall for the Persians, so the
Persians can protect their youknow their space.
Sure, go ahead.
So it's not like Artaxerxes wasworried about them, you know
rebelling or anything althoughyou'll hear later on that that's
something that Tobiah tried toand Sanballat tried to accuse
(25:39):
them of.
Right.
But if the Jews werestrengthened, these people would
be weakened, and you're goingto see these guys throughout the
rest of the book becausethey're going to constantly try
to come against them.
The application is prettystraightforward when you think
about this.
When God places a passion in usto do something for him, that
(26:02):
means it's something oppositefor Satan, and Satan will not be
happy.
He will not be happy.
How many of you have ever heardthe name William Booth?
William Booth?
Well, william Booth founded theSalvation Army back in England
in 1877.
(26:22):
Salvation Army does a lot ofgreat things.
My mother, by the way, who's inher late 80s, still serves at
the Salvation Army in our littletown in Saskatchewan.
She used her walker because shehad a hip replacement.
The shelves aren't right.
Unless my mother gets a hold ofthem, she sets it all up.
(26:43):
But they do wonderful thingsand they've been going ever
since.
But did you know that when hestarted the Salvation Army,
there was a huge opposition fromI mean from the press, from the
government, from the clergy.
They wrote terrible thingsabout him because he had a
(27:04):
different way of spreading thegospel and it was offensive to
some of these people who said,no, it's supposed to be done
this way.
And he had a son, by the way,named Bramwell.
Now there's another idea forname Bramwell.
You don't hear enough Bramwellsout there.
Well, his son's name isBramwell.
And his son came to him onetime and said Dad, what do you
(27:27):
think about all the stuff theywrite about you?
And this is what he said.
I thought this was so wise.
He said Bramwell, 50 yearshence.
It will matter very littleindeed how these people treated
us.
It will matter a great deal howwe dealt with the work of God.
It will matter a great deal howwe dealt with the work of God.
When you face opposition,realize that it's just
(27:50):
opposition.
God's the one behind you.
Push forward.
In 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 17through 18, this is what we read
.
But we brethren, having beentaken away from you for a short
while in person, not in spirit,we're all the more eager, with
(28:11):
great desire to see your face,for we wanted to come to you, I
Paul, more than once.
Yet Satan hindered us.
This is a chorus that would beechoed time and time and time
and time and time again tilltoday, and it's still going to
be echoed.
Satan will hinder you fromdoing God's work.
(28:32):
He will do anything he can, butwhat he doesn't understand and
he's supposed to be so clever,he just doesn't understand that.
That just makes us stronger.
You want to know where thechurch is really growing.
It's the place where it'spersecuted.
It's persecuted.
Satan is a defeated foe, but hewill not go quietly into his
(28:55):
fate.
If you're truly doing somethingthat God has called you to do,
you almost always will beattacked by the enemy.
But we're told throughScripture and a lot of you know
these scriptures we're supposedto resist those attacks.
We put on the armor of God toprotect us from that and we
don't lose sight of what God'scalled us to do.
(29:17):
Expect it.
This is the thing that reallyblows me away sometimes is when
someone says this is the thingthat really blows me away
sometimes is when someone saysman, I started doing this
ministry and it's just not goingwell.
I'm like good.
They're like what I said.
That's good, because Satan'scoming after you Now.
It doesn't mean that sometimesyou don't.
(29:38):
Maybe it's your own fault,you're doing something wrong,
but you get the idea.
This morning it was funny.
I came in here all ready forthis sermon.
We have electrical issues inthe place, these lights are out,
these lights are out and allthis and we're going back and
forth.
And I kind of stopped with theguys we were back in there.
I said you know what?
With the guys we were back inthere, I said you know what?
(29:59):
God's the master, electrician,let's just pray and we're having
church Opposition's going tocome, but you just keep your
focus.
Alright, let's move to pointfour.
We're going to read five verseshere, beginning in verse 11.
So I went to Jerusalem and wasthere three days.
Then I arose in the night, Iand a few men with me, and I
(30:20):
told no one what my God had putinto my heart to do for
Jerusalem.
There was no animal with me butthe one on which I rode.
I went out by night by thevalley gate to the dragon spring
and to the dung gate.
Wouldn't want a house by thedung gate, would you?
And I inspected the walls ofJerusalem that were broken down
and its gates that had beendestroyed by fire.
(30:42):
Then I went to the fountaingate and to the king's pool and
there was no room for the animalthat was under me to pass and
it means the debris was so badhe couldn't even get over.
Then I went up in the night bythe valley and inspected the
wall and I turned back andentered by the valley gate and
so returned and the officialsdid not know where I had gone or
(31:03):
what I was doing and I had notyet told the Jews, the priests,
the nobles, the officials andthe rest who were to do the work
, meaning I didn't tell thepeople that were going to be
doing all this work what we weregoing to be doing.
It was kind of funny.
I didn't tell the people thatwere going to be doing all this
work what we were going to bedoing.
It was kind of funny.
(31:23):
We can see that Nehemiah isexhibiting the fourth lesson of
faith in action, and that iswisdom, wisdom.
You can have a plan, you cantake the risk, but you have to
have the wisdom to move forwardin that, isn't it interesting.
Here's this man with all thispassion.
He gets to Jerusalem.
Man, my bag wouldn't have evenhit my bed and I'd be going out
(31:46):
looking at that wall and makingmy plans.
He spent three days doingnothing.
I really think what he wastrying to do is just keep a low
profile.
He was just laying low Becauseobviously you know Sanballat
Tobiah they were after himalready.
He just let things lay low.
He did his inspection at nightso no one would see him, and he
(32:11):
only went to a certain portionof the wall, by the way, and
this was the area closest to thetemple, and so he was probably
just looking at that areaspecifically.
But he only took three peoplewith him, didn't want to bring a
lot of attention to him.
He was using wisdom whenfulfilling what God had called
him to do, and the applicationis pretty straightforward for us
(32:33):
.
When God's called you to dosomething, yeah, you make your
plans.
Yeah, you take the risk.
Yeah, you take the risk.
Yeah, you realize there's goingto be opposition, but you
should do this with wisdom, andwisdom sometimes can come
directly from God.
Sometimes God's going to givesomebody else that wisdom.
I love when I hear people thishas happened before somebody
(32:56):
come to me and I'm planning todo this and I start asking the
questions and they've alreadythought it through.
They've gotten counsel frompeople.
They have a plan and, eventhough God might change it, they
have a plan.
They're using their smarts,they're using their brains and
that's what's so important.
You know, when Jesus says inMatthew 10, 16, to be wise as
(33:19):
serpents and as harmless asdoves, that wise part is really
important.
A lot of times we just want tobe harmless, but we need to be
wise and smart.
Use our noodle.
God's given it to us.
Let's use wisdom.
When we do this, let's get toour final point.
(33:41):
We're going to pick it up inverse 17.
Then I said to them now, this isthe big reveal.
Now he's talking to them.
Which are all those people hementioned before here, the whole
list, I think it was.
Let's see the nobles, the Jews,the priests, the nobles, the
officials, the rest of them thatwere doing the work.
So he says this to all of themyou see the trouble we are in,
(34:04):
how Jerusalem lies in ruins,with its gates burned.
Come, let us build the wall ofJerusalem that we may no longer
suffer derision.
And I told them of the hand ofmy God that had been upon me for
good, and also the words thatthe king had spoken to me and
they said.
(34:24):
They said let us rise up andbuild.
So they strengthened theirhands for the good work.
This is so cool work.
This is so cool.
The final lesson about faith inaction is that faith in action
means we must communicate toothers the vision God has given
(34:45):
us, and we must communicate iteffectively.
How did Nehemiah do this?
You can't miss this.
He does this so strategically,he said.
Then I said to them you see thetrouble we are in, how
Jerusalem lies in ruins with itsgates burned.
(35:07):
Excuse me, nehemiah, thesepeople have been walking past
these rubble and these burnedgates for decades.
It was this way for decades.
He's pointing out the obvious.
It's like duh, we see thatalready.
But no, he's pointing it outfor a reason, because he's
(35:28):
saying this is what it lookslike.
It cannot stay this way.
You see, sometimes have you everdone this, where you run into
somebody, you're working withsomebody, and they are mired in
a sin so deep that they can'teven see it anymore and they
need to be given a vision?
Sometimes it's the church.
(35:49):
Sometimes you're working withpeople and there's a problem and
you got a church and it's likewe need to wait.
There's a need that we haven'tbeen meeting.
We need to do this.
There's a need that we haven'tbeen meeting, we need to do this
.
And so he was showing them this.
It was beautiful.
He said come, let us build thewall of Jerusalem that we may no
longer suffer derision.
This is really important.
(36:10):
He says come, come means joinme, join me in this task.
He's calling them to action.
Remember, he's already startedthe action.
He's calling them to join himwith this.
And he gives them two reallysolid proofs, which I find is
really really powerful.
(36:31):
He says they no longer sufferderision by the way, derision
when you think about that word.
See, they lost a lot of theirnational identity.
Now their temple got rebuilt,but when you come over the hill
and there's Jerusalem, all thesewalls broken down, people, you
(36:52):
know it's not good.
And so he says to them and Itold them of the hand of my God
that had been upon me for good,and also the words that the king
had spoken to me and they saidlet us rise and build.
He gives them two solid proofs.
Number one he says God has toldme to do this.
(37:13):
And you might say, yes, god.
I've had a lot of people tellme God told me to do this.
And you might say, yeah, Scott,I've had a lot of people tell
me God told me to do this.
But then he proves that Godtold him to do that because the
king of Persia has given him thedouble thumbs up and said he'll
fund it.
See, he didn't skip that.
And, by the way, just to showyou how smart Sanballat and
(37:37):
Tobiah were or not, don't namethem that, by the way.
They're not very smart people.
They literally their firstthing is to say are you
rebelling against Artaxerxes?
He already insulated them fromthat argument by saying
Artaxerxes has our back and he'stold us to do this.
He was casting a vision.
(37:57):
It was so powerful.
Nehemiah's ability tocommunicate his passion and
vision caused both of thosethings to be transferred to the
people.
You want people to follow youin something that God has called
you to do.
You have to cast a vision andshare that passion, and then
(38:20):
they have to embrace itthemselves.
Now you might say well, scott,I'm just not charismatic.
There are some people out there.
They just got this charisma,man.
They can just cause people.
I understand that there aresome people that just naturally
gravitate towards them.
We get that, we understand that, we understand that.
But that doesn't mean that youcan't do something great for the
(38:43):
Lord, because remember, in theend it's God.
If God's behind it, I don'tcare how gregarious you are.
You know what the strengthfinder is one of the things
called a woo winning others over, right?
Well, god gives some peoplethat gift to do that.
But don't just say, well, I'mnot a woo, I'm not a woo, so I
(39:07):
really can't do that.
No, you can share that passion,you know, I don't know if Brad
Martell's not here, he'sprobably out, he's in the
children's ministry.
Yeah, that's typical of Brad.
Brad Martell works for theCenters for Bioethical Reform
and they go to campuses and theyexpose what abortion really is
(39:29):
and, believe me, the pushback hegets is great.
Now, brad's kind of a low-keyguy.
He's not somebody that youwould.
He's not up there banging thedrum all the time.
But God gave him a passion andit's I'm telling you it's
addictive.
I mean to see what he believesin what he believes and what
(39:52):
he's doing about it faith inaction.
By the way, they get opposedall the time.
People scream at them, callthem all kinds of names whatever
, but yet he shows love topeople and he does that
constantly.
Yet he's not what you wouldcall a traditional woo, so you
can't use that as an excuse.
(40:13):
If God's given you a passion todo something, he's going to give
you the ability to communicatethat and he's going to be the
one to strengthen you and tobring people to support that.
And, by the way, I don't careif it's a simple you're doing a
community group.
I don't care if it's somethinglike that.
I don't care if it's just evensomething like making the move,
(40:36):
or maybe you're doing acommunity project of some kind,
or whatever it is.
God's going to give you theability to communicate that.
But again, you have to do yourhomework.
You got to have a plan.
There's nothing worse thansomeone sending up.
I'd like for all to help me dothis.
Well, what's the plan?
I don't know.
I just got passion, you know.
(40:58):
So you see how you can't skipany of these steps.
Y'all they have to cometogether, do it together.
So what's ironic about today isthat we're starting the
community groups for thissemester and you know, out there
(41:19):
you've got people some of themwere doing a community group for
the first time, and theseprinciples right here are really
things that they can applyright now.
But what they did is they tookfaith and they took action.
God called them to do somethingand they're going to do that
and they're following through.
(41:41):
And to me, I think this chapteris just such a wonderful example
of what faith and action shouldbe.
God gave Nehemiah the burningpassion to rebuild the wall, and
this example of faith andaction is just such a testament
that can apply.
It's timeless, it's timeless.
Faith and action is just such atestament that can apply.
It's timeless, it's timeless.
Faith and action is going toinvolve risk.
(42:04):
Faith and action is going torequire you to plan.
Faith and action means you'regoing to probably encounter
opposition.
Faith and action means you needto use wisdom which, by the way
, god will give you and faithand action means we need to
communicate that vision thatGod's given us with others.
Now, up until now, I've beenaddressing you individually in
(42:27):
something God may have given youindividually, but let me just
say this Jesus gave us all apassion for one thing that is
the most important thing, andthat is to go to all the nations
preaching the gospel, and theseprinciples are going to apply
(42:49):
to that too.
It's okay to plan that, it'sokay to think about things, use
wisdom, express that vision inmultiple ways, but we have all
been called to do that.
So, whether you're starting aministry or you're doing
something big like that, orwhether you are just trying to
(43:11):
figure out how God's going tolead you to share your faith
with a coworker, theseprinciples that Nehemiah has
laid out are really effectivefor us.
Can you all stand to your feetand we'll pray, heavenly Father?
Heavenly Father, I am alwayshumbled by the fact that this
(43:38):
ancient book that you've givenus is so applicable to us today.
It's timeless and, father, thepreservation of it is a miracle
oven by itself.
We thank you for the fact thatthe story of Nehemiah is
something that was preserved forus.
And, father, we know that youdidn't call anybody to sit on a
(44:01):
bench.
You called each one of us toserve you in different ways.
Father, forgive us for the timeswhen we haven't listened to you
or we haven't taken up thepassion that you gave us, that
we were supposed to pick up.
Father, we repent of that.
Lord, we ask that we would beobedient and that you would
(44:22):
speak to us.
And, god, we're going to make apromise to you, and that is if
you give us the passion, we'regoing to take the step forward.
We'll take the risk, father.
We'll prayerfully put togetherthe plan.
We will walk through theopposition with your strength.
We will use wisdom, father, andwe will communicate that with
(44:43):
others.
Lord, give us the strength todo that, and we know that we
will be so much more effectivefor your kingdom.
And may your kingdom come soon,lord, and we pray this and we
thank you for it all In theprecious name of the one who set
the example for faith andaction, jesus Christ, our Savior
, amen.
(45:06):
Thank you, be blessed.
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Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!