WEBVTT

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 Men, this evening, I'm preaching on the subject

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 of building and battling.

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 In Nehemiah chapter four, really,

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 the enemies become a big part of the story here

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 because up to this point, you know,

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 Nehemiah had the idea and God's hand is upon him

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 and he's gonna come back and build the wall

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 around Jerusalem and help them not to be a reproach

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 and not to be so vulnerable to the enemies.

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 And if you remember, in chapter two,

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 there were some rumblings from the enemy,

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 like, "Eh, what do they think they're gonna do?"

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 And Nehemiah just kind of shut them down,

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 put them in their place, very briefly.

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 But this entire chapter is about serious threats

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 from the enemies.

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 You know, whenever you do a great work for God,

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 there's always gonna be opposition.

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 There's always gonna be persecution.

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 There are going to be many adversaries.

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 And so this is just to be expected.

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 You're not just gonna do something great for God

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 without any opposition.

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 It's just not realistic.

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 So if you're not ready to fight,

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 if you're not ready to battle,

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 as we talked about this morning,

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 and war a good warfare,

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 well then you're just not gonna succeed

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 in the Christian life.

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 You're not gonna do anything great

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 because it's a fight.

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 It's a battle.

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 Fight the good fight of faith, the Bible says.

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 Now, if you look at verse number one of chapter four,

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 it says, "But it came to pass

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 "that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall,

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 "he was wroth and took great indignation

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 "and mocked the Jews."

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 So you can see that he's wroth.

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 Wroth is the adjective for the noun wrath.

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 Which is intense, burning, anger, rage.

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 And so when you do something good for God,

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 it will enrage wicked people.

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 I mean, wicked people will just be gnashing on you

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 with their teeth, foaming at the mouth, furious.

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 Why?

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 I mean, you're doing something good for God.

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 You're doing something positive.

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 You're not hurting them.

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 You're not attacking them.

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 I mean, what did Nehemiah do to Sanballat?

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 Nothing.

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 But just the fact that he is serving God

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 and doing something good for God's people,

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 just enrages the enemy.

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 And it's the same way today.

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 There are all kinds of people

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 who are just furious at our church and hate our church.

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 Now here's the thing.

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 It makes sense for sodomites to hate our church

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 because you know what?

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 We've verbally attacked the sodomites

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 and we'll continue to do so.

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 You know, we're preaching against them.

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 We're fighting them.

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 We're rebuking their wickedness.

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 That makes sense.

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 But what's bizarre is when you'll see

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 supposed brothers and sisters in Christ infuriated

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 by the soul winning that we're doing

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 or just by positive things that we're doing,

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 getting people saved, mission strips or whatever.

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 It's amazing to see people get infuriated by that.

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 And part of the reason why they get infuriated by that

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 I think is because it makes them feel bad about themselves.

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 Because for example, if you go out soul winning,

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 people who don't go out soul winning

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 are gonna kind of take that as an implicit criticism.

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 Like, oh, you think you're better

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 because you're soul winning or something?

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 It's like, no, I don't think I'm better,

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 but I think I'm actually following Jesus, unlike you.

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 Because if you follow Christ, you'll be fishers of men.

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 So I do think I'm actually doing the work

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 that God prescribed for us, unlike you.

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 But no, I don't think I'm better than you.

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 I think you could also do great things for God too,

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 if you'd actually obey the command to go out and do them.

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 And so people will get mad that you're soul winning.

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 People will get irritated by that.

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 It bothers them that you do that.

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 It's like they wanna take you down a notch.

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 You're reading your Bible.

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 What could be more positive

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 than just getting into reading the Bible,

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 or you're praying, or whatever you're doing.

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 You join the church.

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 You start coming three times a week.

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 And then it makes them feel bad

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 that they only go once a week,

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 and you're going three times a week, and whatever.

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 It's amazing how human nature is like this.

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 But it's a sin nature.

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 It's a wrong attitude to get mad at other people

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 for doing something good.

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 And so what we see here is Sam Ballot.

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 He's super angry.

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 And so the tool that he decides to use is mockery.

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 So he decides that he's gonna make fun of God's people

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 in order to demoralize them and discourage them

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 and make them look stupid to other people

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 so that people won't support them.

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 And just so that they might just get discouraged

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 and just wanna quit.

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 The Bible says he mocked the Jews, verse two,

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 and he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria

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 and said, "What do these feeble Jews?"

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 Will they fortify themselves?

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 Will they sacrifice?

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 Will they make an end in a day?

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 Will they revive the stones

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 out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?

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 So he's making fun of them.

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 And the funny thing that he says at the beginning is,

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 what do these feeble Jews, will they fortify themselves?

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 Now here's the thing, if you're feeble,

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 feeble means weak.

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 I mean, if you're weak,

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 wouldn't the logical thing be to fortify yourself?

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 This would be like, if a fat guy walked into the gym,

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 it's like, what's this fat guy doing here?

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 What's he trying to do, lose a little weight?

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 It's like, oh yeah, that's what fat people do.

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 They lose weight.

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 That's why they go to the gym, so they can lose weight.

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 Like, wouldn't that be a stupid and wicked attitude?

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 Like, oh, this guy doesn't belong here.

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 What's he gonna do, lose weight?

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 Or some skinny dweeb comes in and is like,

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 what are you trying to do, build muscle?

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 What are you gonna do, build some muscle, you weak guy?

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 It's like, that's what weak people need to do, build muscle.

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 That's the whole point.

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 But it's amazing how people will criticize you

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 for trying to improve, for trying to do better,

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 for trying to fix problems.

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 It doesn't make any sense.

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 Oh, these feeble Jews,

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 what are they trying to do, fortify themselves?

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 If you're feeble, you wanna get fortified.

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 You wanna get strong, that's the whole point.

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 If you're weak, get strong.

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 He says, will they sacrifice?

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 Will they make an end in a day?

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 Will they revive the stones out of the heaps

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 of the rubbish which are burnt?

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 I mean, what's wrong with any of this?

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 What are you trying to do?

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 Sacrifice?

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 I mean, God commanded them to make sacrifices.

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 Of course they're trying to sacrifice.

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 What are you gonna do?

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 Revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish?

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 It's like, why not?

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 Why not recycle messed up burned stones

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 and see if you can salvage them and reuse them

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 and reuse some of those building materials?

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 You know, what's wrong with trying to take people

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 who used to be messed up and try to recycle them

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 and get them living for God again?

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 You know, what's wrong with taking areas of your life

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 that are messed up and trying to fix them

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 so that you can be used greatly by God?

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 You know, these aren't even bad things

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 that he's accusing them of.

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 He's just doing it in a mocking way

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 and making light of them and just acting like

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 there's no way they can succeed.

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 They're just gonna fail no matter what.

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 And I've had people tell me this throughout my life

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 that I was gonna be a failure

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 and that I was gonna crash and burn

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 and there's no way that my church

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 would ever even be a thing, that I could ever be a pastor.

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 I had people telling me that.

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 And it's just meant to try to demoralize you

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 and make you think like, oh, you know what?

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 I'm not good enough or whatever.

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 Well, at the end of the day, none of us is good enough,

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 but at the end of the day,

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 it's God that's gonna build the church.

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 It's God that's gonna do the work.

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 And he likes to use the weak things of this world

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 and the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.

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 And so it says in verse number three,

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 now Tobiah, so that's what Sanballat had to say.

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 Here's another enemy.

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 Now Tobiah the Ammonite, which was by him,

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 and he said, even that which they build,

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 if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.

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 Now here's what doesn't make sense about this,

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 is that if the wall that they're building is such a joke

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 that a fox could just go up on it

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 and it would just fall over,

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 it doesn't really provide any real protection,

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 then why are they so threatened by this?

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 If what they're doing is so meaningless,

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 then why is Tobiah the Ammonite so worked up about it?

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 Because if the wall is that weak,

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 then they don't really have any real fortification.

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 They're not gonna be a threat to him.

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 They're not gonna somehow be able to defend themselves

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 against the enemies with a wall that's that weak.

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 So what's the issue?

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 And that's the thing is that people will in one breath

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 act like we're tiny and we don't matter

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 and we're insignificant and we're weak

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 and we're lame and we're stupid, right?

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 But then they'll put all of this time and effort and energy

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 into attacking and criticizing us,

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 which kind of makes it seem like we must be significant

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 if we're worth that many hours of your life.

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 So he says in verse number four, this is Nehemiah praying.

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 And one of the things I really like about Nehemiah

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 is starting all the way in verse one we have,

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 or chapter one I should say, we have this phenomenon.

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 And then all the way to the end in chapter 13,

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 where basically Nehemiah just stops and prays

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 throughout the book.

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 And so we get like these personal insights

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 into the narrator here, Nehemiah,

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 and we get like some really intimate view

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 of what he's thinking and what he's experiencing

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 and actually word for word what he's praying to God.

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 And by the way, this is one of the reasons

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 why it makes absolutely no sense that in the Hebrew Bible

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 they combine these books into one book, Ezra Nehemiah.

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 And Ezra Nehemiah is one book.

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 That don't make no sense,

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 because these are two totally different books

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 that are clearly written by two totally different authors,

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 because Ezra does not read like Nehemiah

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 in this regard at all.

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 Nehemiah is really like autobiographical,

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 chapter one all the way to chapter 13.

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 And that's why our Bible is correct

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 to have it broken into two books,

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 the book of Ezra and book of Nehemiah,

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 because these have different authors.

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 I mean, I'm not saying it's a big deal or anything,

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 but I'm just saying it's clearly two different authors

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 and there's some subject matter between Ezra and Nehemiah

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 that's redundant.

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 There's some redundant lists.

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 If it was one book written by one person,

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 you wouldn't have the same information

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 listed redundantly like that.

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 It's two different books from two totally different authors.

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 So I'm not sure what their goofball rationale is

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 for combining them like that.

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 It doesn't make any sense.

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 And so here, we get an insight into what's going on

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 in Nehemiah's mind.

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 He's praying to the Lord, "Hear, O our God,

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 "for we are despised and turn their reproach

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 "on their own head and give them for a prey

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 "in the land of captivity."

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 Now, this is what we would call an imprecatory prayer.

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 Obviously, the book of Psalms

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 has a lot of imprecatory prayers.

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 Even the book of Revelation,

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 the saints that are up in heaven

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 at the opening of the fifth seal

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 are really praying an imprecatory prayer from heaven

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 when they say, "How long, O Lord, holy and true,

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 "dost thou not judge and avenge our blood

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 "on them that dwell on the earth?"

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 So an imprecatory prayer is when you're praying

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 ill upon someone else.

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 Praying that God would judge them or punish them

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 or that it would go poorly for them.

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 And so here, he says, turn their reproach

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 upon their own head, give them for a prayer.

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 But then look at verse five, he really ramps it up here.

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 "And cover not their iniquity,

00:11:24.090 --> 00:11:28.390
 "and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee,

00:11:28.390 --> 00:11:32.460
 "for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders."

00:11:32.460 --> 00:11:34.910
 So he's saying, man, do not forgive these people,

00:11:34.910 --> 00:11:38.800
 do not cover their sin, do not let this go.

00:11:38.800 --> 00:11:40.550
 Look, I'm telling you,

00:11:40.550 --> 00:11:44.220
 when you are fighting against the church,

00:11:44.220 --> 00:11:46.930
 when you are fighting against the work of God,

00:11:46.930 --> 00:11:49.960
 when you are fighting against soul-winning churches

00:11:49.960 --> 00:11:51.220
 and soul-winning pastors,

00:11:51.220 --> 00:11:52.850
 and you're trying to hinder their work

00:11:52.850 --> 00:11:54.730
 and stop them from doing the work

00:11:54.730 --> 00:11:55.980
 that God has called them to do,

00:11:55.980 --> 00:11:57.890
 I mean, you get some serious curses

00:11:57.890 --> 00:12:00.150
 coming down on your head here.

00:12:00.150 --> 00:12:01.820
 I mean, I don't know about you,

00:12:01.820 --> 00:12:04.880
 but when I screw up, when I commit sin,

00:12:04.880 --> 00:12:08.890
 when I make a mistake, I want God to go easy on me.

00:12:08.890 --> 00:12:11.080
 I want him to forgive me and let it go

00:12:11.080 --> 00:12:14.460
 and turn the blind eye to certain things.

00:12:14.460 --> 00:12:17.100
 I don't want God just coming down on me

00:12:17.100 --> 00:12:20.930
 for every single thing that I do.

00:12:20.930 --> 00:12:22.820
 But you know, this curse that Nehemiah

00:12:22.820 --> 00:12:24.140
 is putting upon them, he says,

00:12:24.140 --> 00:12:25.780
 "No, cover not their iniquity.

00:12:25.780 --> 00:12:28.340
 "Let not their sin be blotted out from before thee,

00:12:28.340 --> 00:12:30.530
 "for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders."

00:12:30.530 --> 00:12:32.580
 So when you're an enemy of the local church,

00:12:32.580 --> 00:12:33.960
 when you're enemy of God's people,

00:12:33.960 --> 00:12:36.510
 you got some serious punishments coming your way

00:12:36.510 --> 00:12:38.400
 and you're probably gonna get some imprecatory prayers

00:12:38.400 --> 00:12:41.310
 coming your way from God's people that are spirit-filled.

00:12:41.310 --> 00:12:44.030
 Now here's the thing about that is that

00:12:44.030 --> 00:12:48.030
 you can interpret this verse if the people are unsaved,

00:12:48.030 --> 00:12:52.830
 it's almost like now that they're not even gonna get saved.

00:12:52.830 --> 00:12:55.070
 That's the worst thing ever to be unsaved.

00:12:55.070 --> 00:12:58.790
 Or if they are saved, that God's gonna take them to task

00:12:58.790 --> 00:13:00.340
 for every sin that they do

00:13:00.340 --> 00:13:02.580
 and every idle word that they speak

00:13:02.580 --> 00:13:04.760
 instead of being long-suffering with them,

00:13:04.760 --> 00:13:06.220
 merciful with them.

00:13:06.220 --> 00:13:09.560
 I mean, this is a serious imprecation here

00:13:09.560 --> 00:13:12.690
 that Nehemiah is putting on these people.

00:13:12.690 --> 00:13:13.840
 It goes on in verse number six.

00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:15.550
 "So built we the wall,

00:13:15.550 --> 00:13:17.800
 "and all the wall was joined together

00:13:17.800 --> 00:13:19.410
 "unto the half thereof,

00:13:19.410 --> 00:13:21.770
 "for the people had a mind to work.

00:13:21.770 --> 00:13:24.790
 "But it came to pass when Sanballat and Tobiah

00:13:24.790 --> 00:13:27.340
 "and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites

00:13:27.340 --> 00:13:29.650
 "heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up

00:13:29.650 --> 00:13:32.410
 "and that the breaches thereof began to be stopped,

00:13:32.410 --> 00:13:34.000
 "then they were very wroth."

00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:36.060
 So, you know, they were already wroth

00:13:36.060 --> 00:13:38.890
 just at the idea of God's work being done.

00:13:38.890 --> 00:13:40.660
 Now that it's actually succeeding

00:13:40.660 --> 00:13:41.890
 and they're actually getting it done

00:13:41.890 --> 00:13:43.470
 and it's actually a reality,

00:13:43.470 --> 00:13:45.070
 boy, this makes them even more angry.

00:13:45.070 --> 00:13:48.520
 You know, the more success that we have as God's people,

00:13:48.520 --> 00:13:52.870
 the more the haters are gonna see the rage about it.

00:13:52.870 --> 00:13:54.680
 Now, the reason why they're having so much success,

00:13:54.680 --> 00:13:58.720
 the Bible says, is because the people had a mind to work,

00:13:58.720 --> 00:14:01.730
 right, and we wanna be a church of people

00:14:01.730 --> 00:14:05.480
 that are work-minded, that have a mind to work,

00:14:05.480 --> 00:14:07.990
 meaning that our mentality is,

00:14:07.990 --> 00:14:12.100
 hey, let's get something done, let's do something,

00:14:12.100 --> 00:14:13.550
 Let's be active.

00:14:13.550 --> 00:14:16.660
 Let's be proactive at going out and getting people saved

00:14:16.660 --> 00:14:18.480
 and preaching the gospel to every creature.

00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:22.360
 We're not just gonna sit around waiting for revival to come

00:14:22.360 --> 00:14:25.430
 or waiting for people to discover our church somehow.

00:14:25.430 --> 00:14:26.270
 No, no, no.

00:14:26.270 --> 00:14:29.060
 We're gonna go out and we're gonna seek and save the lost

00:14:29.060 --> 00:14:31.490
 and we're gonna go out there and be active

00:14:31.490 --> 00:14:36.850
 and be works-minded and just go out there and want to work

00:14:36.850 --> 00:14:40.000
 and want to go soul winning and want to do more

00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:42.630
 and want to help out and want to volunteer

00:14:42.630 --> 00:14:46.240
 and do everything that we can.

00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:47.640
 You know, at our church,

00:14:47.640 --> 00:14:49.820
 nobody's making anybody go soul winning

00:14:49.820 --> 00:14:51.410
 or putting any pressure like,

00:14:51.410 --> 00:14:53.240
 "Hey, you have to go soul winning,"

00:14:53.240 --> 00:14:55.470
 or "You have to go on these missions trips."

00:14:55.470 --> 00:14:57.810
 No, no, no, because we want you to have a mind to work.

00:14:57.810 --> 00:15:00.000
 And a lot of people here just, they wanna do it.

00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:01.270
 They wanna get involved.

00:15:01.270 --> 00:15:03.080
 They have a mind to work.

00:15:03.080 --> 00:15:06.590
 You know, I remember sitting in the pew as a young person

00:15:06.590 --> 00:15:09.110
 and hearing preaching from the Bible

00:15:09.110 --> 00:15:12.620
 and getting super motivated and just wanting to do something.

00:15:12.620 --> 00:15:14.760
 Just kind of like, man, just point me in the right direction.

00:15:14.760 --> 00:15:16.260
 Just point me at the battle.

00:15:16.260 --> 00:15:17.360
 I wanna do something.

00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:18.430
 I wanna be in the fight.

00:15:18.430 --> 00:15:19.380
 I wanna build something.

00:15:19.380 --> 00:15:21.480
 I wanna be something.

00:15:21.480 --> 00:15:24.690
 And sometimes you didn't really know where to go

00:15:24.690 --> 00:15:25.650
 or what to do.

00:15:25.650 --> 00:15:26.480
 You know, so at our church,

00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:29.190
 we're constantly putting these opportunities in front of you.

00:15:29.190 --> 00:15:30.620
 You wanna go to Southern California?

00:15:30.620 --> 00:15:31.460
 Let's go.

00:15:31.460 --> 00:15:32.590
 You wanna go to Flagstaff?

00:15:32.590 --> 00:15:33.430
 Let's go.

00:15:33.430 --> 00:15:35.020
 You wanna go here locally in Phoenix?

00:15:35.020 --> 00:15:37.550
 Well, seven days a week, there's a chance to do that.

00:15:37.550 --> 00:15:40.620
 Anytime, anywhere, you name it,

00:15:40.620 --> 00:15:44.000
 we're trying to make it easy for the work-minded people

00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:45.450
 to find the work.

00:15:45.450 --> 00:15:47.490
 'Cause we'd hate to have some guy who's all excited

00:15:47.490 --> 00:15:48.870
 and wants to do all this work,

00:15:48.870 --> 00:15:51.800
 and we're just like, "Sorry, we got nothing for you today.

00:15:51.800 --> 00:15:54.430
 "Call back in a week."

00:15:54.430 --> 00:15:57.350
 There's always something to do.

00:15:57.350 --> 00:15:59.980
 And so the people had a mind to work.

00:15:59.980 --> 00:16:01.390
 That should be our testimony.

00:16:01.390 --> 00:16:05.350
 Verse number seven talks about how they just get super angry

00:16:05.350 --> 00:16:08.170
 when they see the success that God people are having.

00:16:08.170 --> 00:16:09.010
 And so what do they do?

00:16:09.010 --> 00:16:12.250
 Verse eight, they conspired all of them together

00:16:12.250 --> 00:16:16.610
 to come and to fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it.

00:16:16.610 --> 00:16:21.130
 So they start uniting against God's people.

00:16:21.130 --> 00:16:24.200
 And what's funny is this can sometimes make

00:16:24.200 --> 00:16:26.830
 for some strange bedfellows.

00:16:26.830 --> 00:16:28.140
 And this reminds me of the part

00:16:28.140 --> 00:16:31.230
 where the Lord Jesus Christ is on trial

00:16:31.230 --> 00:16:34.050
 and Herod and Pontius Pilate had been enemies,

00:16:34.050 --> 00:16:38.600
 but then they become friends over condemning Jesus, right?

00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:41.050
 And this is also prophesied in Psalm two.

00:16:41.050 --> 00:16:44.070
 Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?

00:16:44.070 --> 00:16:46.450
 The kings of the earth set themselves

00:16:46.450 --> 00:16:49.720
 and the rulers take counsel together

00:16:49.720 --> 00:16:53.040
 against the Lord and against his anointed, right?

00:16:53.040 --> 00:16:56.280
 So Herod and Pilate come together

00:16:56.280 --> 00:16:58.090
 in fulfillment of Psalm two.

00:16:58.090 --> 00:16:59.280
 Obviously in the end times,

00:16:59.280 --> 00:17:01.370
 there's gonna be an even greater fulfillment of that,

00:17:01.370 --> 00:17:03.990
 of world leaders coming together.

00:17:03.990 --> 00:17:06.280
 The 10 kings are gonna come together

00:17:06.280 --> 00:17:08.680
 and give their power and strength under the beast.

00:17:08.680 --> 00:17:12.290
 But it's always funny when people are united,

00:17:12.290 --> 00:17:15.430
 not by having the same doctrine,

00:17:15.430 --> 00:17:17.740
 the same beliefs, the same ideas,

00:17:17.740 --> 00:17:19.410
 but rather they're just united

00:17:19.410 --> 00:17:21.200
 in their hatred for God's people,

00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:24.520
 united in their hatred for the man of God or for the church.

00:17:24.520 --> 00:17:28.010
 And a lot of times these unions don't last very long

00:17:28.010 --> 00:17:30.660
 because they're not really built on anything in common.

00:17:30.660 --> 00:17:33.380
 And hatred just isn't really a glue

00:17:33.380 --> 00:17:38.710
 to bind you together as a group.

00:17:38.710 --> 00:17:40.630
 Like in the long run, it's not gonna work.

00:17:40.630 --> 00:17:44.380
 Like our church is here 21 years later

00:17:44.380 --> 00:17:46.480
 and it's a lot of the same people that have been here

00:17:46.480 --> 00:17:48.510
 for five years, 10 years, 15 years,

00:17:48.510 --> 00:17:52.610
 even 20 years in some people's cases.

00:17:52.610 --> 00:17:55.150
 How have we stayed together all that time?

00:17:55.150 --> 00:17:58.680
 Is it because we all just hate a certain group or something?

00:17:58.680 --> 00:18:00.770
 No, that's not what binds us together.

00:18:00.770 --> 00:18:03.220
 We have a common goal, we have a common vision.

00:18:03.220 --> 00:18:05.530
 It's like we're all rallied around the Bible,

00:18:05.530 --> 00:18:07.960
 the King James Bible, soul winning.

00:18:07.960 --> 00:18:10.750
 We're all rallied around our doctrine of faith alone

00:18:10.750 --> 00:18:13.260
 and once saved, always saved.

00:18:13.260 --> 00:18:17.000
 And you know, the Trinity and all of these things

00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:20.920
 that we have in common and we have a positive goal

00:18:20.920 --> 00:18:23.490
 of reaching the community with the gospel,

00:18:23.490 --> 00:18:25.820
 reaching the nation, reaching the world,

00:18:25.820 --> 00:18:28.580
 that unites us over the decades.

00:18:28.580 --> 00:18:32.290
 But just being mad at Pastor Anderson

00:18:32.290 --> 00:18:33.910
 or being mad at Pastor Shelley,

00:18:33.910 --> 00:18:37.260
 like you're only gonna get so much mileage out of that.

00:18:37.260 --> 00:18:39.650
 You know, you're gonna run out of fuel with that pretty soon.

00:18:39.650 --> 00:18:45.500
 It's not enough to build your whole lifetime friendship on.

00:18:45.500 --> 00:18:48.050
 You hate Pastor Anderson, I hate Pastor Anderson.

00:18:48.050 --> 00:18:50.220
 You know, let's be friends.

00:18:50.220 --> 00:18:53.150
 That's not gonna last that long.

00:18:53.150 --> 00:18:55.480
 And what's funny is that over the last 21 years,

00:18:55.480 --> 00:18:58.550
 we've just made so many enemies.

00:18:58.550 --> 00:19:01.490
 Like every year, we're just making more enemies,

00:19:01.490 --> 00:19:03.060
 just pissing people off.

00:19:03.060 --> 00:19:04.910
 But here's the thing, the people that were pissing off,

00:19:04.910 --> 00:19:08.340
 they're all getting pissed off for different reasons.

00:19:08.340 --> 00:19:09.740
 You know, it's not like everybody's mad

00:19:09.740 --> 00:19:11.140
 about the same thing.

00:19:11.140 --> 00:19:14.540
 So it's like, you got the homos are mad.

00:19:14.540 --> 00:19:18.460
 The repent of your sins crowd is mad, right?

00:19:18.460 --> 00:19:21.810
 We got the Greek Orthodox mad.

00:19:21.810 --> 00:19:23.290
 The Roman Catholics are mad.

00:19:23.290 --> 00:19:25.220
 The Mormons are mad, you know?

00:19:25.220 --> 00:19:27.120
 The Seventh-day Adventists are mad.

00:19:27.120 --> 00:19:31.300
 The Flat Earthers are mad.

00:19:31.300 --> 00:19:33.150
 Who else is mad?

00:19:33.150 --> 00:19:34.270
 The feminists are mad.

00:19:34.270 --> 00:19:36.950
 Oh man, boy, are they mad.

00:19:36.950 --> 00:19:37.900
 The feminists are mad.

00:19:37.900 --> 00:19:40.490
 And then just the backslidden, washed up

00:19:40.490 --> 00:19:42.500
 former church members are mad,

00:19:42.500 --> 00:19:43.770
 because they're just backslidden,

00:19:43.770 --> 00:19:45.310
 so they just have to just come up

00:19:45.310 --> 00:19:46.980
 with something wrong with us,

00:19:46.980 --> 00:19:49.310
 so that it can be our fault and not their fault,

00:19:49.310 --> 00:19:51.230
 why they're backslidden and not serving God

00:19:51.230 --> 00:19:53.530
 and not in church.

00:19:53.530 --> 00:19:54.640
 So all these different people are mad,

00:19:54.640 --> 00:19:57.280
 but the problem is, you end up throwing these people

00:19:57.280 --> 00:20:01.660
 all together in this hodgepodge of like,

00:20:01.660 --> 00:20:05.390
 here's some people over here that are flat earth

00:20:05.390 --> 00:20:08.300
 and they're mad, and then you got these people

00:20:08.300 --> 00:20:10.280
 who are homos and they're atheists,

00:20:10.280 --> 00:20:11.750
 and it's just like, you know,

00:20:11.750 --> 00:20:13.980
 you've got Christians over here

00:20:13.980 --> 00:20:16.530
 that are just disgruntled and backslidden,

00:20:16.530 --> 00:20:20.170
 but over here, it's heretical doctrine.

00:20:20.170 --> 00:20:21.490
 Over here, the doctrine's right.

00:20:21.490 --> 00:20:24.360
 It's just the attitude that's, it's just, it's a mess.

00:20:24.360 --> 00:20:25.440
 You know, and Pastor Shelley,

00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:27.120
 we were talking about this yesterday,

00:20:27.120 --> 00:20:28.810
 or Pastor Shelley and I were talking about this yesterday

00:20:28.810 --> 00:20:32.980
 because he was talking about these two particular people

00:20:32.980 --> 00:20:35.540
 were like rallying together,

00:20:35.540 --> 00:20:38.320
 and it was like their doctrine was opposite.

00:20:38.320 --> 00:20:42.080
 One of them was like hardcore speaking against

00:20:42.080 --> 00:20:45.480
 calling upon the name of the Lord for salvation, right?

00:20:45.480 --> 00:20:47.840
 And then the other guy was totally for

00:20:47.840 --> 00:20:49.340
 and preached a whole sermon about

00:20:49.340 --> 00:20:52.450
 how you need to call in the name of the Lord for salvation.

00:20:52.450 --> 00:20:54.140
 And then it's like, but these guys are just,

00:20:54.140 --> 00:20:57.280
 they're just like liking each other and buddy buddy,

00:20:57.280 --> 00:21:00.100
 just over their hatred for Pastor Shelley.

00:21:00.100 --> 00:21:01.170
 And it didn't make any sense

00:21:01.170 --> 00:21:03.430
 because their doctrines are diametrically opposed.

00:21:03.430 --> 00:21:06.090
 Like this guy's whole big issue is he's like

00:21:06.090 --> 00:21:07.790
 anti calling upon the name of the Lord,

00:21:07.790 --> 00:21:11.010
 which is a really weird position to have.

00:21:11.010 --> 00:21:14.210
 And then this other guy over here is a hundred percent

00:21:14.210 --> 00:21:17.720
 for that, but they're just all just lovey dovey online,

00:21:17.720 --> 00:21:19.140
 just, oh yeah, it's so great.

00:21:19.140 --> 00:21:20.690
 It's like, boy, that's going to last long.

00:21:20.690 --> 00:21:22.920
 That's really going to last.

00:21:22.920 --> 00:21:25.680
 That coalition's going to last.

00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:27.440
 You know, and, and I think a good example,

00:21:27.440 --> 00:21:30.520
 I might as well just get specific and just name some names.

00:21:30.520 --> 00:21:33.110
 You know, like, like here's what's funny.

00:21:33.110 --> 00:21:36.800
 Salvador Alvarez, what a character.

00:21:36.800 --> 00:21:38.520
 I mean, this guy, and you're like, who?

00:21:38.520 --> 00:21:41.120
 Pastor who?

00:21:41.120 --> 00:21:44.880
 This guy, Salvador Alvarez, he literally starts pastoring.

00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:48.120
 And within like a couple of months,

00:21:48.120 --> 00:21:50.790
 he runs the church completely into the ground.

00:21:50.790 --> 00:21:52.330
 And he finally just had to disband it

00:21:52.330 --> 00:21:55.370
 because there was literally no one left.

00:21:55.370 --> 00:21:57.050
 He got down to one member,

00:21:57.050 --> 00:21:59.390
 then he had to break with that one member,

00:21:59.390 --> 00:22:00.770
 and then it's just him by himself.

00:22:00.770 --> 00:22:02.550
 And then he shut down the church.

00:22:02.550 --> 00:22:03.730
 It's like, bro, he didn't shut down the church,

00:22:03.730 --> 00:22:06.870
 you shut down yourself because there was no church.

00:22:06.870 --> 00:22:08.930
 The church was gone.

00:22:08.930 --> 00:22:11.880
 Everybody had already moved over to Spring Crest Baptist.

00:22:11.880 --> 00:22:12.830
 And so here's the thing,

00:22:12.830 --> 00:22:15.140
 the good people from that church

00:22:15.140 --> 00:22:17.170
 are over at Spring Crest Baptist in Houston,

00:22:17.170 --> 00:22:18.140
 and they're still serving God.

00:22:18.140 --> 00:22:19.590
 So no harm, no foul,

00:22:19.590 --> 00:22:21.890
 because Spring Crest Baptist is thriving.

00:22:21.890 --> 00:22:24.470
 You got Pastor Enrique Reyes at the helm,

00:22:24.470 --> 00:22:26.780
 and you got the good people from Pure Words

00:22:26.780 --> 00:22:29.600
 that moved over to Pastor Reyes' church

00:22:29.600 --> 00:22:30.840
 and lived happily ever after,

00:22:30.840 --> 00:22:33.340
 and they're continuing to win souls and serve God.

00:22:33.340 --> 00:22:38.030
 All things work together for good to those that love God.

00:22:38.030 --> 00:22:40.760
 But this guy, Salvador Alvarez, was way out there.

00:22:40.760 --> 00:22:43.810
 I mean, he just, within a month of starting

00:22:43.810 --> 00:22:47.850
 to become a pastor, he basically just malfunctioned

00:22:47.850 --> 00:22:49.940
 is really the only way to describe it.

00:22:49.940 --> 00:22:52.680
 And he was so wild, he's the point where,

00:22:52.680 --> 00:22:55.820
 remember, he's writing checks to, like,

00:22:55.820 --> 00:22:59.370
 Solomon and Isaac and John and, you know,

00:22:59.370 --> 00:23:01.830
 just just for you, exclamation mark,

00:23:01.830 --> 00:23:04.560
 with the church funds, just giving church money

00:23:04.560 --> 00:23:07.000
 to these rebellious teens.

00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:09.380
 It made no sense.

00:23:09.380 --> 00:23:10.670
 Okay, but here's the thing.

00:23:10.670 --> 00:23:14.550
 His big thing was, you know, he was just a super feminist.

00:23:14.550 --> 00:23:18.420
 His sister, like, literally wrote the book on feminism.

00:23:18.420 --> 00:23:19.980
 And so he's preaching all this, like,

00:23:19.980 --> 00:23:24.250
 hardcore feminist doctrine from the pulpit and whatever,

00:23:24.250 --> 00:23:28.020
 and he was just so offended by me and my marriage

00:23:28.020 --> 00:23:29.890
 and my parenting and whatever.

00:23:29.890 --> 00:23:31.520
 He's just so horrified and offended

00:23:31.520 --> 00:23:36.650
 that he just freaked out and malfunctioned and just whatever.

00:23:36.650 --> 00:23:37.740
 So here's the thing.

00:23:37.740 --> 00:23:42.690
 The good people, the normal people, quit the church.

00:23:42.690 --> 00:23:45.220
 And they're at Spring-Crest.

00:23:45.220 --> 00:23:48.560
 The people that stayed are all the weirdos.

00:23:48.560 --> 00:23:50.520
 OK, but here's the funny thing.

00:23:50.520 --> 00:23:52.050
 I don't want to lose you on the story.

00:23:52.050 --> 00:23:53.700
 I know I'm dragging it out a little.

00:23:53.700 --> 00:23:56.290
 But I want you to get the full picture.

00:23:56.290 --> 00:24:00.980
 The weirdos are the ones who stayed, OK?

00:24:00.980 --> 00:24:02.320
 Well, here's the thing about that.

00:24:02.320 --> 00:24:06.400
 Weirdos have weird doctrine.

00:24:06.400 --> 00:24:10.520
 Weirdos have heretical doctrine.

00:24:10.520 --> 00:24:13.550
 Good people have good doctrine.

00:24:13.550 --> 00:24:15.460
 Bad people have bad doctrine.

00:24:15.460 --> 00:24:17.210
 So here's what Salvador then proceeds.

00:24:17.210 --> 00:24:21.310
 After he just has this freak out, he's mailing out checks

00:24:21.310 --> 00:24:25.920
 and just making it rain on all the rebellious teenagers,

00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:28.740
 sending them $1,000 for you, $1,000 grand for you,

00:24:28.740 --> 00:24:34.340
 $1,000 grand for me, whatever, sitting there and just

00:24:34.340 --> 00:24:39.980
 teaching this weird feminist view just to go against moi.

00:24:39.980 --> 00:24:42.190
 Well then, he turns around.

00:24:42.190 --> 00:24:45.570
 Now that he's left with only weirdos in the church,

00:24:45.570 --> 00:24:50.080
 he starts preaching good doctrine.

00:24:50.080 --> 00:24:54.320
 So he starts preaching all the right doctrines of the NIFP.

00:24:54.320 --> 00:24:56.430
 He's just like, hey, I just want to let you guys know

00:24:56.430 --> 00:24:57.610
 I haven't changed my doctrine at all.

00:24:57.610 --> 00:24:59.520
 He's preaching all this good NIFP doctrine.

00:24:59.520 --> 00:25:02.070
 Well, here's the thing, all the weirdos and haters left

00:25:02.070 --> 00:25:03.840
 because they disagreed with the good doctrine

00:25:03.840 --> 00:25:05.410
 that he turned around and preached.

00:25:05.410 --> 00:25:07.520
 So here's what I'm saying.

00:25:07.520 --> 00:25:09.870
 So it's like he runs off the good people.

00:25:09.870 --> 00:25:12.670
 He only has the rebellious weirdos left.

00:25:12.670 --> 00:25:14.950
 And then he starts preaching good doctrine.

00:25:14.950 --> 00:25:17.140
 He preached like a sermon on calling upon

00:25:17.140 --> 00:25:18.850
 the name of the Lord that was correct.

00:25:18.850 --> 00:25:20.870
 He preached a sermon about Jesus Christ,

00:25:20.870 --> 00:25:22.780
 like where he was for three days and three nights

00:25:22.780 --> 00:25:23.690
 that was correct.

00:25:23.690 --> 00:25:26.490
 He just preached like a series of correct sermons

00:25:26.490 --> 00:25:29.830
 that just offended everyone who was left.

00:25:29.830 --> 00:25:31.570
 And then he's left with no one.

00:25:31.570 --> 00:25:33.540
 'Cause here's the thing, if you're gonna have a church

00:25:33.540 --> 00:25:35.700
 full of rebellious weirdos,

00:25:35.700 --> 00:25:37.840
 you gotta preach weird doctrine.

00:25:37.840 --> 00:25:38.800
 That's what they want.

00:25:38.800 --> 00:25:41.930
 That's what they're into.

00:25:41.930 --> 00:25:44.310
 And if you want to preach good doctrine,

00:25:44.310 --> 00:25:46.320
 you gotta have good people in the church

00:25:46.320 --> 00:25:49.010
 to receive the good doctrine.

00:25:49.010 --> 00:25:52.060
 And so, Salvador is hilarious, in my opinion.

00:25:52.060 --> 00:25:54.310
 He's my favorite enemy.

00:25:54.310 --> 00:25:56.640
 I wish all my enemies were just like Salvador.

00:25:56.640 --> 00:25:58.560
 I love him so much.

00:25:58.560 --> 00:26:01.190
 I think he's a wonderful person.

00:26:01.190 --> 00:26:05.030
 I just wish they would all be like Salvador.

00:26:05.030 --> 00:26:08.100
 Because he was just perfect.

00:26:08.100 --> 00:26:09.120
 Love it.

00:26:09.120 --> 00:26:14.630
 Because he's so absurd that he just makes our point for us.

00:26:14.630 --> 00:26:16.870
 Anyway, I was a little bit of a rabbit trail.

00:26:16.870 --> 00:26:20.350
 I hope you don't mind me indulging in that for a moment.

00:26:20.350 --> 00:26:23.630
 But it's just true though.

00:26:23.630 --> 00:26:24.880
 I don't know what the heck that has to do

00:26:24.880 --> 00:26:29.440
 with Nehemiah chapter four, but where are we?

00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:30.210
 What day is it?

00:26:30.210 --> 00:26:31.120
 What year is it?

00:26:31.120 --> 00:26:32.830
 What?

00:26:32.830 --> 00:26:35.620
 Verse eight, okay.

00:26:35.620 --> 00:26:38.110
 Oh yeah, they conspired all of them together.

00:26:38.110 --> 00:26:41.380
 So what I'm saying is all the strange bedfellows

00:26:41.380 --> 00:26:43.880
 of just like Pastor Anderson haters,

00:26:43.880 --> 00:26:45.640
 they're not gonna get along.

00:26:45.640 --> 00:26:48.550
 Some of them still believe the new IFB doctrine.

00:26:48.550 --> 00:26:49.950
 Some don't.

00:26:49.950 --> 00:26:51.360
 Some of them are saved.

00:26:51.360 --> 00:26:53.090
 Some of them are not.

00:26:53.090 --> 00:26:56.670
 Some are straight and some are queer.

00:26:56.670 --> 00:26:58.000
 How's this gonna work?

00:26:58.000 --> 00:26:59.630
 It's not.

00:26:59.630 --> 00:27:01.220
 But that's what the enemies do.

00:27:01.220 --> 00:27:03.360
 They join up with all these other enemies.

00:27:03.360 --> 00:27:05.960
 And next thing you know, you got some guy

00:27:05.960 --> 00:27:08.410
 who rejects calling upon the name of the Lord,

00:27:08.410 --> 00:27:10.550
 just donating money to a guy over here

00:27:10.550 --> 00:27:12.570
 who's marching in a gay pride parade.

00:27:12.570 --> 00:27:14.020
 And you're just like, what?

00:27:14.020 --> 00:27:15.820
 How does that work?

00:27:15.820 --> 00:27:18.170
 But it makes for some very strange bedfellows

00:27:18.170 --> 00:27:21.200
 when people unite against the work of God.

00:27:21.200 --> 00:27:23.940
 Verse number eight, and conspired all of them together

00:27:23.940 --> 00:27:28.160
 to come and to fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it.

00:27:28.160 --> 00:27:31.050
 So when God's people are thriving and succeeding too much,

00:27:31.050 --> 00:27:32.380
 all the enemies are like, man,

00:27:32.380 --> 00:27:34.250
 we got to put aside our differences and join up

00:27:34.250 --> 00:27:36.090
 and just fight the work of God.

00:27:36.090 --> 00:27:39.980
 Just fight Nehemiah, just fight against God's people.

00:27:39.980 --> 00:27:43.550
 Verse number nine, nevertheless we made our prayer unto God

00:27:43.550 --> 00:27:47.850
 and set a watch against them day and night because of them.

00:27:47.850 --> 00:27:50.630
 And Judas said, the strength of the bearers of burdens

00:27:50.630 --> 00:27:53.630
 is decayed and there is much rubbish

00:27:53.630 --> 00:27:56.210
 so that we are not able to build the wall.

00:27:56.210 --> 00:27:58.780
 And so you can see that in the Christian life,

00:27:58.780 --> 00:28:01.720
 when it rains, it pours, right?

00:28:01.720 --> 00:28:05.600
 Bad things will often come at you in groups or in waves.

00:28:05.600 --> 00:28:07.900
 So on the one hand, you have the enemies

00:28:07.900 --> 00:28:11.400
 all conspiring to fight and they're all gonna come

00:28:11.400 --> 00:28:13.190
 and they're all gonna fight against Nehemiah

00:28:13.190 --> 00:28:14.020
 and the people of God.

00:28:14.020 --> 00:28:15.210
 And then at the same time,

00:28:15.210 --> 00:28:17.310
 and it doesn't seem to be necessarily connected,

00:28:17.310 --> 00:28:18.820
 it could be coincidental.

00:28:18.820 --> 00:28:22.090
 At the same time, the bearers of burdens are like,

00:28:22.090 --> 00:28:25.260
 we're too tired, man, this stuff is just too heavy.

00:28:25.260 --> 00:28:27.590
 Like we're carrying these stones, there's too much rubble,

00:28:27.590 --> 00:28:28.620
 there's too much trash.

00:28:28.620 --> 00:28:30.950
 This job is just too hard.

00:28:30.950 --> 00:28:34.380
 And so we as God's people, we can sometimes just get tired.

00:28:34.380 --> 00:28:36.560
 I mean, don't you sometimes just get worn out?

00:28:36.560 --> 00:28:38.020
 And you're just worn out and you're just like,

00:28:38.020 --> 00:28:40.340
 man, I just don't feel like going to church.

00:28:40.340 --> 00:28:42.380
 Man, I just don't feel like going soul winning.

00:28:42.380 --> 00:28:44.860
 I don't feel like reading my Bible, I'm just burned out.

00:28:44.860 --> 00:28:48.000
 Or maybe me as a pastor, man, I don't feel like preaching.

00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:50.560
 I wish I could just take some time off or something.

00:28:50.560 --> 00:28:53.530
 And that's how it can be for us in our Christian life.

00:28:53.530 --> 00:28:56.720
 At some point you're going to feel just tired and worn out.

00:28:56.720 --> 00:29:02.910
 And so coincidentally, they're tired and worn out at the same time as all the enemies are

00:29:02.910 --> 00:29:04.260
 attacking them and everything.

00:29:04.260 --> 00:29:09.340
 So when these things coincide in our lives, it can be like a perfect storm that could

00:29:09.340 --> 00:29:10.320
 ruin us.

00:29:10.320 --> 00:29:14.480
 Because it's like we're already tired, we're discouraged, then the enemies are coming out.

00:29:14.480 --> 00:29:17.870
 That can be when we're tempted to quit.

00:29:17.870 --> 00:29:26.290
 And so it says in verse number 11, and our adversary said, they shall not know neither

00:29:26.290 --> 00:29:32.420
 see till we come in the midst among them, verse 11, and slay them and cause the work

00:29:32.420 --> 00:29:33.510
 to cease.

00:29:33.510 --> 00:29:37.540
 And so it's like verse nine is talking about the enemies are after them.

00:29:37.540 --> 00:29:42.910
 Then verse 10, it like, meanwhile, cuts to the people that are with Nehemiah, getting

00:29:42.910 --> 00:29:46.640
 tired, getting discouraged, getting worn out, then it cuts back to the enemy.

00:29:46.640 --> 00:29:49.270
 And it's like, oh man, they're never going to know we're going to get them.

00:29:49.270 --> 00:29:54.150
 It's like, there's problems inside and out here, and this is how it's going to be in

00:29:54.150 --> 00:29:55.130
 the Christian life.

00:29:55.130 --> 00:29:58.910
 You'll be going through something internally, and then there'll be an external attack at

00:29:58.910 --> 00:30:00.970
 the same time.

00:30:00.970 --> 00:30:04.580
 You know, the double pronged attack coming at you from the devil.

00:30:04.580 --> 00:30:08.720
 Or at our church, there could be like problems inside the church, and then also attacks from

00:30:08.720 --> 00:30:10.570
 outside the church at the same time.

00:30:10.570 --> 00:30:12.650
 And so that's what they're going through.

00:30:12.650 --> 00:30:14.500
 So they're in a really difficult place here.

00:30:14.500 --> 00:30:19.650
 Verse 12, "And it came to pass that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto

00:30:19.650 --> 00:30:28.020
 us, 'Ten times from all places, when she shall return unto us, they will be upon you.'"

00:30:28.020 --> 00:30:29.990
 And so let's slow down and understand this.

00:30:29.990 --> 00:30:30.980
 Let me read it one more time.

00:30:30.980 --> 00:30:35.910
 "It came to pass that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us..."

00:30:35.910 --> 00:30:40.340
 So there's Jews that are on their side, but they're not living in Jerusalem.

00:30:40.340 --> 00:30:42.660
 They're living by the enemies.

00:30:42.660 --> 00:30:47.570
 They make a trip to Jerusalem, and when they show up, they bring bad news.

00:30:47.570 --> 00:30:50.850
 They're basically giving Nehemiah the warning, because how would Nehemiah know that they're

00:30:50.850 --> 00:30:53.390
 over in some other place conspiring against him?

00:30:53.390 --> 00:30:58.840
 It's because the Jews that live by them are coming to Jerusalem, and they tell him this

00:30:58.840 --> 00:30:59.830
 ten times.

00:30:59.830 --> 00:31:03.810
 Like, he gets this message ten times.

00:31:03.810 --> 00:31:06.100
 This is a serious warning.

00:31:06.100 --> 00:31:07.070
 Everybody's saying it.

00:31:07.070 --> 00:31:11.020
 He's just getting blasted with this.

00:31:11.020 --> 00:31:15.090
 And this is what they say to him ten times, "From all places when she shall return unto

00:31:15.090 --> 00:31:20.050
 us, from all places when she shall return unto us, they will be upon you."

00:31:20.050 --> 00:31:22.150
 Like, man, they are going to be on you.

00:31:22.150 --> 00:31:23.860
 They're going to be attacking you.

00:31:23.860 --> 00:31:28.720
 From all sides, from all angles, you know, and this could be discouraging when everybody's

00:31:28.720 --> 00:31:31.060
 coming at you with all this negativity.

00:31:31.060 --> 00:31:37.810
 So people inside the group, oh man, tired, worn out, enemies conspiring, other people

00:31:37.810 --> 00:31:42.480
 from the outside are just warning him, like, "Oh man, it's going to be so bad.

00:31:42.480 --> 00:31:44.210
 You don't even know what's coming.

00:31:44.210 --> 00:31:45.680
 It's going to be a disaster for you."

00:31:45.680 --> 00:31:48.020
 I mean, you can see how this could be really discouraging for Nehemiah.

00:31:48.020 --> 00:31:50.880
 It could be easy for him to just say, "You know what, maybe I should just go back to

00:31:50.880 --> 00:31:54.550
 being the king's cup bearer in Shusha in the palace.

00:31:54.550 --> 00:31:56.010
 Maybe this is a bad idea.

00:31:56.010 --> 00:31:57.000
 This is too dangerous.

00:31:57.000 --> 00:31:58.340
 This is going to get me killed.

00:31:58.340 --> 00:32:00.620
 I'm going to get other people killed.

00:32:00.620 --> 00:32:02.390
 I don't think we can do this."

00:32:02.390 --> 00:32:03.380
 But you know what?

00:32:03.380 --> 00:32:04.370
 He pushes through.

00:32:04.370 --> 00:32:07.060
 He knows that it's the will of God for him to be there.

00:32:07.060 --> 00:32:10.850
 God's hand is upon him, and he decides that he's going to push through.

00:32:10.850 --> 00:32:14.950
 So instead of just rolling over and quitting, he decides, "You know what?

00:32:14.950 --> 00:32:16.460
 I'm going to fight back."

00:32:16.460 --> 00:32:18.070
 So look what it says in verse number 13.

00:32:18.070 --> 00:32:45.190
 "Therefore said I in the lower places behind the wall and on the higher places, I even set the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows. And I looked and rose up and said unto the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them. Remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your houses."

00:32:45.190 --> 00:32:50.590
 Now, this is part of leadership, is that maybe even if on the inside you're nervous

00:32:50.590 --> 00:32:55.840
 or worried, you know, you've got to give courage to the people. You've got to strengthen

00:32:55.840 --> 00:33:00.460
 the people, fortify the people. And so it's the same thing if you're just a leader in

00:33:00.460 --> 00:33:04.660
 your home. You know, as the man of the house, some of your wives get back, "Oh man, I'm

00:33:04.660 --> 00:33:09.400
 really nervous about this. I'm nervous about the finances. I'm upset about this. I don't

00:33:09.400 --> 00:33:13.980
 know if this is going to work out." You know, as a husband, you want to project calm and

00:33:13.980 --> 00:33:19.040
 strength and resolve and we've got a plan and God's going to bless us. We're doing

00:33:19.040 --> 00:33:22.670
 the right thing. If God be for us, who can be against us? You know, as a husband, it's

00:33:22.670 --> 00:33:27.570
 your job sometimes to give your wife that pep talk and tell her that everything's going

00:33:27.570 --> 00:33:33.310
 to be okay because women tend to be a little bit more emotional, worry a little more than

00:33:33.310 --> 00:33:37.870
 men sometimes. I mean, obviously we as men, we worry also, but sometimes women can get

00:33:37.870 --> 00:33:43.670
 more worried and they want that reassurance. They don't want to just panic with you. They

00:33:43.670 --> 00:33:49.250
 want to panic and they want you to tell them that it's going to be okay and talk them down

00:33:49.250 --> 00:33:57.480
 and talk them off the ledge. And so here we see that Nehemiah is projecting strength.

00:33:57.480 --> 00:34:03.420
 He's projecting confidence and he's saying, look, we're going to fight these people. He's

00:34:03.420 --> 00:34:08.400
 organized. He's got a plan. And he says, you know what? Don't be afraid of them. Don't

00:34:08.400 --> 00:34:14.490
 be scared of God before us who can be against us. Fear not them, which killed the body and

00:34:14.490 --> 00:34:18.580
 are not able to kill the soul. Rather fear him, which is able to destroy both soul and

00:34:18.580 --> 00:34:26.210
 body in hell. And so he says, remember the Lord halfway through verse 14, be not afraid

00:34:26.210 --> 00:34:31.890
 of them. Remember the Lord, which is great and terrible. You know who's scary? Our enemies

00:34:31.890 --> 00:34:38.850
 are not scary. You know who's scary? God is scary. They should be scared of God because

00:34:38.850 --> 00:34:45.830
 God is the great and terrible, terrifying God. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands

00:34:45.830 --> 00:34:49.900
 of the living God. They should be shaken in their boots, not us. Why are we scared? We're

00:34:49.900 --> 00:34:57.410
 not scared of them. They should be scared of God because God is the scary one. And he

00:34:57.410 --> 00:35:01.610
 says fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your houses. You

00:35:01.610 --> 00:35:06.210
 know, a lot of people think like, well, I just need to take a break from the work of

00:35:06.210 --> 00:35:10.120
 God. I need to take a break from the fight. I need to take a break from fighting the good

00:35:10.120 --> 00:35:15.090
 fight because I just need to just focus on my family. You know, I just need to focus

00:35:15.090 --> 00:35:20.100
 on my family right now. And I remember there was a pastor who quit pastoring. This is when

00:35:20.100 --> 00:35:26.420
 I was a teenager and he didn't even go to church anywhere. Like he was pastoring. He

00:35:26.420 --> 00:35:29.620
 stepped down from pastoring, but then he's like, well, I'm just not going to go to church

00:35:29.620 --> 00:35:33.840
 anywhere for the next couple of months because I'm just going to do family time for the next

00:35:33.840 --> 00:35:39.780
 couple of months. It's like, bro, your family doesn't need that much time. Like your family

00:35:39.780 --> 00:35:43.900
 probably wants a break from you a little bit. What are you just going to be with your family

00:35:43.900 --> 00:35:49.920
 24/7? That doesn't even make sense. Like how much time does it really take to go to church,

00:35:49.920 --> 00:35:55.340
 to go sit your butt in church at least once a week? You know, ideally you'd be free to

00:35:55.340 --> 00:36:00.970
 thrive, but at least you can't just get down there and warm a seat once a week. Oh, I need

00:36:00.970 --> 00:36:03.970
 family time. I have an idea. Take the whole family to church and sit with your family

00:36:03.970 --> 00:36:07.800
 in church and you can talk in the car on the way there and you can talk in the car on the

00:36:07.800 --> 00:36:13.990
 way home. Sounds like an activity. And you know, you know, these same people that are

00:36:13.990 --> 00:36:18.670
 quitting the church for more family time, they'll probably go to a movie together, which

00:36:18.670 --> 00:36:22.710
 is just sitting next to their, oh, let's have family time. Let's all sit and watch a movie

00:36:22.710 --> 00:36:27.450
 together and they sit and watch, well then why don't you sit and listen to a sermon.

00:36:27.450 --> 00:36:30.840
 If you can just all sit together and call that family time.

00:36:30.840 --> 00:36:32.910
 Well if you're sitting in church I guess that's family time too.

00:36:32.910 --> 00:36:39.800
 But you know the Bible says the best thing that you could do for your wives and your

00:36:39.800 --> 00:36:44.060
 sons and your daughters and your houses, you know what the best thing for you to do is

00:36:44.060 --> 00:36:45.890
 to fight for them.

00:36:45.890 --> 00:36:47.370
 Fight for them.

00:36:47.370 --> 00:36:48.800
 You're fighting for them.

00:36:48.800 --> 00:36:50.260
 I'm soul winning for them.

00:36:50.260 --> 00:36:52.740
 I'm preaching for them.

00:36:52.740 --> 00:36:57.480
 I want to make the world a better place for them.

00:36:57.480 --> 00:37:02.710
 I'm just like, "Oh, I'm just going to just let the world go to hell and just let the

00:37:02.710 --> 00:37:07.620
 church struggle and just let other people do all the work because I'm just so focused

00:37:07.620 --> 00:37:08.600
 on my family."

00:37:08.600 --> 00:37:11.700
 Your family is better off if you're serving God.

00:37:11.700 --> 00:37:18.760
 We need to find a balance in our lives of serving God and spending time with our families.

00:37:18.760 --> 00:37:20.200
 These things are not mutually exclusive.

00:37:20.200 --> 00:37:24.370
 You don't have to choose between the two, but when people say, "Oh, I just need more

00:37:24.370 --> 00:37:31.120
 time with my family," usually, they probably need more time with their video games.

00:37:31.120 --> 00:37:34.130
 They need more time with their sports.

00:37:34.130 --> 00:37:37.210
 They need more time with their hobbies.

00:37:37.210 --> 00:37:40.850
 Because I guarantee you, these people aren't just spending time with their family 24/7.

00:37:40.850 --> 00:37:46.220
 My wife would not want me to just dote on her all day, every day.

00:37:46.220 --> 00:37:48.470
 She'd be like, "Give me some space."

00:37:48.470 --> 00:37:49.450
 And I'd be the same way.

00:37:49.450 --> 00:37:54.250
 If she was just on me like a cheap suit all day, every day, I'd be like, "Honey, give

00:37:54.250 --> 00:37:55.180
 me some space."

00:37:55.180 --> 00:37:58.660
 Now, look, some people are more needy than others.

00:37:58.660 --> 00:38:03.290
 Maybe you're the overly attached girlfriend meme or whatever, but I'm telling you, most

00:38:03.290 --> 00:38:07.200
 people, they really like to spend time with other people and they also really like to

00:38:07.200 --> 00:38:09.970
 be alone.

00:38:09.970 --> 00:38:14.590
 And it's like, yeah, our kids want us to spend time with them, but our kids also probably

00:38:14.590 --> 00:38:19.200
 don't want us spending time with them all day, every day.

00:38:19.200 --> 00:38:20.440
 They probably want a little space.

00:38:20.440 --> 00:38:24.820
 I would have felt smothered as a kid and as a teenager if my parents are just with me

00:38:24.820 --> 00:38:26.820
 all the time.

00:38:26.820 --> 00:38:30.890
 And they're just right there and just like, "What are we going to do now, son?

00:38:30.890 --> 00:38:32.590
 What are we going to do now?

00:38:32.590 --> 00:38:33.970
 Let's play another board game, son."

00:38:33.970 --> 00:38:35.470
 It's just like, "Okay, folks.

00:38:35.470 --> 00:38:36.610
 I need a little quiet time.

00:38:36.610 --> 00:38:37.600
 I need some time to myself.

00:38:37.600 --> 00:38:39.960
 I want to be with my friends.

00:38:39.960 --> 00:38:40.930
 I want to be by myself.

00:38:40.930 --> 00:38:42.980
 I want to be alone."

00:38:42.980 --> 00:38:49.610
 And look, I'm a pretty extroverted person and I still need several hours alone every

00:38:49.610 --> 00:38:53.070
 day in order to stay sane.

00:38:53.070 --> 00:38:57.230
 If I'm just around people all day for a whole day, it's like, man, this is too much.

00:38:57.230 --> 00:39:00.730
 If I do that for two or three days in a row, I'm just like, "I want to go out into the

00:39:00.730 --> 00:39:02.070
 desert."

00:39:02.070 --> 00:39:03.630
 And you say, "Well, that's just you, Pastor."

00:39:03.630 --> 00:39:09.870
 Even Jesus is like constantly getting away from the multitude, going up into a mountain

00:39:09.870 --> 00:39:12.980
 to pray, going into the desert to pray, going by himself.

00:39:12.980 --> 00:39:15.510
 He has to get away from the crowd, get off by himself.

00:39:15.510 --> 00:39:20.580
 It's a normal human need to be around other people, and it's also a normal human need

00:39:20.580 --> 00:39:22.730
 to be by yourself.

00:39:22.730 --> 00:39:27.960
 And so here's what I'm submitting to you tonight, this radical idea that you can have some time

00:39:27.960 --> 00:39:32.570
 with your family, have some quality time with your wife, have some quality time with your

00:39:32.570 --> 00:39:39.210
 kids, and still have time to go to work every day and still have time to serve God and go

00:39:39.210 --> 00:39:42.750
 to church and go soul winning and read your Bible and pray.

00:39:42.750 --> 00:39:45.800
 You know, if you prioritize your time, you can make this happen.

00:39:45.800 --> 00:39:51.310
 You got 24 hours in the day, you sleep eight hours, you got 16 waking hours, you spend

00:39:51.310 --> 00:39:56.880
 eight of them at work, and maybe let's just say that you spend, what, an hour driving,

00:39:56.880 --> 00:40:00.340
 you know, an hour preening yourself.

00:40:00.340 --> 00:40:05.310
 So it's like, okay, but there's still a lot of time left, folks, right?

00:40:05.310 --> 00:40:11.690
 Eight hours of sleep, eight hours of work, two hours of preening, you got six more hours.

00:40:11.690 --> 00:40:18.200
 In that six hours, you can spend, you know, a couple hours with your family per day.

00:40:18.200 --> 00:40:20.560
 You can spend a few hours with your family.

00:40:20.560 --> 00:40:24.660
 And then you could still spend at least 15, 20 minutes reading your Bible.

00:40:24.660 --> 00:40:29.890
 I bet you can make it work.

00:40:29.890 --> 00:40:34.640
 You can listen to the Bible on audio while you take care of your personal hygiene.

00:40:34.640 --> 00:40:36.510
 Or how about in the car on the way to work.

00:40:36.510 --> 00:40:37.490
 You know what?

00:40:37.490 --> 00:40:39.860
 You can make it work if you want to make it work.

00:40:39.860 --> 00:40:42.360
 People are just like, "Oh, I don't have time.

00:40:42.360 --> 00:40:43.340
 I don't have time.

00:40:43.340 --> 00:40:44.320
 I don't have time to read my Bible."

00:40:44.320 --> 00:40:46.870
 You don't have 15 minutes a day to read your Bible.

00:40:46.870 --> 00:40:49.280
 It's absurd.

00:40:49.280 --> 00:40:50.270
 Everybody's got 15 minutes.

00:40:50.270 --> 00:40:53.860
 And if you read the Bible for 15 to 20 minutes a day, if you're an average reader, you'll

00:40:53.860 --> 00:40:58.100
 read the entire Bible cover to cover in one year.

00:40:58.100 --> 00:41:00.140
 That's pretty good, huh?

00:41:00.140 --> 00:41:02.940
 Whole Bible every year, full Bible cover.

00:41:02.940 --> 00:41:09.610
 In 20 years, you've read the Bible cover to cover 20 times, 20 minutes a day.

00:41:09.610 --> 00:41:11.170
 You think he can do that?

00:41:11.170 --> 00:41:16.180
 Absolutely.

00:41:16.180 --> 00:41:21.220
 But what there's maybe not time for is us just wasting tons of time on things that don't

00:41:21.220 --> 00:41:25.330
 matter and, you know, so we might just have to, and I'm not saying it's wrong to have

00:41:25.330 --> 00:41:30.410
 some useless time where you just blow off a little steam, but when you start sacrificing

00:41:30.410 --> 00:41:35.190
 the things of God and saying, oh, I can't show up for church, I can't go soul winning

00:41:35.190 --> 00:41:40.960
 because I just need more family time, did God just put you on this earth to just be

00:41:40.960 --> 00:41:42.240
 a family guy?

00:41:42.240 --> 00:41:45.940
 I thought we're on this earth to do the work of Christ.

00:41:45.940 --> 00:41:47.970
 It's like, yeah, of course we got to go to work.

00:41:47.970 --> 00:41:50.830
 Of course we're going to spend time with our, of course we love our wives and we get to

00:41:50.830 --> 00:41:54.880
 enjoy her and that's a fun time for us and we get to enjoy our children and play with

00:41:54.880 --> 00:41:57.690
 them and that's a fun time too and it's good for them.

00:41:57.690 --> 00:41:58.690
 It's good for us.

00:41:58.690 --> 00:41:59.680
 It's good for everybody.

00:41:59.680 --> 00:42:00.810
 But you know what?

00:42:00.810 --> 00:42:01.740
 It's not why I'm on this earth.

00:42:01.740 --> 00:42:09.640
 I'm just like, "Hi, my name is Pastor Anderson and I am my kid's dad, primarily.

00:42:09.640 --> 00:42:14.840
 And secondly, I'm my wife's husband and I also happen to pastor a church."

00:42:14.840 --> 00:42:20.350
 Is that really do you think the way I look at my life or do you think I would say, "Hi,

00:42:20.350 --> 00:42:21.730
 I'm Pastor Anderson.

00:42:21.730 --> 00:42:24.660
 I'm the pastor of Faithful Word Baptist Church.

00:42:24.660 --> 00:42:25.730
 This is my wife.

00:42:25.730 --> 00:42:27.220
 These are my children."

00:42:27.220 --> 00:42:28.180
 Okay?

00:42:28.180 --> 00:42:33.710
 Versus even if I weren't a pastor, I would have said, "Hey, my name is Steven Anderson

00:42:33.710 --> 00:42:37.170
 and I own a fire alarm business."

00:42:37.170 --> 00:42:40.260
 Not just like, "I'm my wife's husband.

00:42:40.260 --> 00:42:42.000
 I'm my kid's dad.

00:42:42.000 --> 00:42:45.280
 And I also own a fire alarm business."

00:42:45.280 --> 00:42:46.240
 Goofy and effeminate.

00:42:46.240 --> 00:42:50.400
 It doesn't make any sense.

00:42:50.400 --> 00:42:55.260
 And look, I know that I've been slandered ridiculously on this subject.

00:42:55.260 --> 00:42:57.180
 I've been slandered as a bad husband.

00:42:57.180 --> 00:42:58.980
 I've been slandered as a bad dad.

00:42:58.980 --> 00:43:03.680
 I'm here to tell you right now that God is my witness that I have been a very involved

00:43:03.680 --> 00:43:07.680
 husband and father for the last 25 years.

00:43:07.680 --> 00:43:12.430
 That I have been a good parent and a good husband, and I've spent lots of time with

00:43:12.430 --> 00:43:13.580
 my family.

00:43:13.580 --> 00:43:14.550
 But you know what?

00:43:14.550 --> 00:43:19.930
 I didn't sacrifice the work of God and say, "Oh, can't read my Bible.

00:43:19.930 --> 00:43:20.900
 Can't pray.

00:43:20.900 --> 00:43:22.100
 Can't go to church.

00:43:22.100 --> 00:43:23.560
 Can't go soul winning.

00:43:23.560 --> 00:43:24.530
 Can't pastor.

00:43:24.530 --> 00:43:25.500
 Can't start a church."

00:43:25.500 --> 00:43:29.320
 You know, I found a way to do both, okay?

00:43:29.320 --> 00:43:31.220
 And so that's what you have to do.

00:43:31.220 --> 00:43:32.190
 Don't bind it.

00:43:32.190 --> 00:43:33.240
 And you know what?

00:43:33.240 --> 00:43:34.720
 Let me just go off on this for a second.

00:43:34.720 --> 00:43:41.520
 There's this thing that I call the cult of the family, the cult of the family.

00:43:41.520 --> 00:43:47.150
 In our society that worships family life and says, "Family is everything."

00:43:47.150 --> 00:43:48.730
 Really?

00:43:48.730 --> 00:43:49.710
 Is that what the Bible says?

00:43:49.710 --> 00:43:53.710
 Because last time I checked, Jesus said, "He that loveth father or mother more than me

00:43:53.710 --> 00:43:55.250
 is not worthy of me.

00:43:55.250 --> 00:43:58.670
 He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

00:43:58.670 --> 00:44:02.200
 He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me."

00:44:02.200 --> 00:44:04.450
 That's what the Bible actually says.

00:44:04.450 --> 00:44:08.920
 Didn't Jesus say in Luke chapter 14 that, you know, if you come after him, if any man

00:44:08.920 --> 00:44:13.490
 come after me and doesn't hate his father, mother, brother, sister, child, and his own

00:44:13.490 --> 00:44:15.650
 life also, he can't be my disciple.

00:44:15.650 --> 00:44:17.620
 But family's everything, folks.

00:44:17.620 --> 00:44:21.030
 It's all about the family.

00:44:21.030 --> 00:44:22.590
 Hocus pocus on the family, right?

00:44:22.590 --> 00:44:25.590
 No, it's not all about the family.

00:44:25.590 --> 00:44:27.030
 It's all about Christ.

00:44:27.030 --> 00:44:30.560
 Christ is our life, okay?

00:44:30.560 --> 00:44:34.940
 Marriage is our second most relationship, our second most important relationship.

00:44:34.940 --> 00:44:39.590
 Our number one most important relationship is with the Lord.

00:44:39.590 --> 00:44:45.090
 Yeah, the most important person on this earth to me is my wife, but she's not number one.

00:44:45.090 --> 00:44:48.720
 Jesus is number one, okay?

00:44:48.720 --> 00:44:49.690
 And you know what?

00:44:49.690 --> 00:44:52.260
 Yeah, my kids are important to me, but you know what?

00:44:52.260 --> 00:44:53.790
 Jesus is more important.

00:44:53.790 --> 00:44:56.330
 And by the way, my wife's more important to me than my kids are.

00:44:56.330 --> 00:45:01.000
 And if you ladies are smart, your husband will be more important to you than your kids.

00:45:01.000 --> 00:45:05.720
 Big a big mistake, women, when you prioritize your children above your husband.

00:45:05.720 --> 00:45:09.560
 It's a stupid mistake, because let me tell you something, someday all your kids are going

00:45:09.560 --> 00:45:11.410
 to be gone, and it's going to be you and your husband.

00:45:11.410 --> 00:45:14.430
 Did you hear me?

00:45:14.430 --> 00:45:17.970
 Someday all of your kids will be gone, it's not going to be you and them, it's going to

00:45:17.970 --> 00:45:19.930
 be you and him.

00:45:19.930 --> 00:45:24.020
 And listen, I have a great relationship with both of my parents, okay.

00:45:24.020 --> 00:45:29.450
 I love both of my parents dearly, they love me dearly, we spend a lot of time together.

00:45:29.450 --> 00:45:32.070
 Even though they live in California, I see them all the time.

00:45:32.070 --> 00:45:35.850
 I talk to them on the phone, we spend time together, I have a great relationship with

00:45:35.850 --> 00:45:38.340
 both of them.

00:45:38.340 --> 00:45:43.080
 But let me tell you something, I go weeks without talking to them.

00:45:43.080 --> 00:45:46.800
 Even though we have a great relationship, love each other, do stuff together, we still

00:45:46.800 --> 00:45:49.040
 go weeks without talking.

00:45:49.040 --> 00:45:55.600
 But let me ask you this, do you think that my dad goes weeks without talking to his wife?

00:45:55.600 --> 00:45:59.580
 Do you think that my mom goes weeks without talking to her husband?

00:45:59.580 --> 00:46:04.590
 Or do you think that she talks to her husband every single day, lives with her husband,

00:46:04.590 --> 00:46:11.570
 eats meals with her husband, talks to her husband all day every day?

00:46:11.570 --> 00:46:15.180
 So at the end of the day, even if you have a great relationship with your kids, even

00:46:15.180 --> 00:46:19.430
 if you're super proud of them, and super close with them, and talk on the phone to them,

00:46:19.430 --> 00:46:24.330
 and you know what, here's the thing, even in my grandma's last days, she'd be on the

00:46:24.330 --> 00:46:28.910
 phone with my dad almost every day, sometimes, in her last days, but you know what, she's

00:46:28.910 --> 00:46:32.390
 still not spending as much time with him as he's spending with his wife.

00:46:32.390 --> 00:46:40.710
 At the end of the day, number one, Christ, number two, your spouse, number three, your

00:46:40.710 --> 00:46:42.330
 kids.

00:46:42.330 --> 00:46:43.320
 Do you understand?

00:46:43.320 --> 00:46:48.600
 Like, don't mix that up, just, oh, my kids are just my world, my kids are my everything.

00:46:48.600 --> 00:46:51.530
 That's not biblical.

00:46:51.530 --> 00:46:56.820
 Oh, it's just all about my spouse, and that's just, oh, I just live for my wife.

00:46:56.820 --> 00:47:02.760
 My wife would be like, if I said to my wife, I live for you, I exist for you, I live for

00:47:02.760 --> 00:47:04.790
 you, she'd be like, that's gross, don't say that to me.

00:47:04.790 --> 00:47:09.720
 She'd be like, you're freaking me out right now, you need to chill out.

00:47:09.720 --> 00:47:13.520
 It's true.

00:47:13.520 --> 00:47:20.030
 Now, look, maybe some of you psychos out there want your spouse to just worship you all day,

00:47:20.030 --> 00:47:25.600
 every day, but most of us normal people have other stuff going on, and hanging out with

00:47:25.600 --> 00:47:28.770
 our spouse is a treat, and it's cool, and it's fun, and it's something that we enjoy

00:47:28.770 --> 00:47:31.880
 each day, but it's not our whole life.

00:47:31.880 --> 00:47:40.780
 Look, folks, I'm making a lot of sense right now, okay, and the Bible's on my side, but

00:47:40.780 --> 00:47:41.730
 you know what?

00:47:41.730 --> 00:47:45.910
 TV's not on my side, because TV, who's the bad guy in the movie?

00:47:45.910 --> 00:47:51.410
 The bad guy is the guy who has to miss a birthday party to go to work, because his boss literally

00:47:51.410 --> 00:47:55.310
 says, "I will fire you if you don't show up today.

00:47:55.310 --> 00:47:57.950
 Show up to work or you're fired."

00:47:57.950 --> 00:47:59.290
 Sorry guys, I have to go to work.

00:47:59.290 --> 00:48:02.190
 My boss made me come in, "Such a bad dad."

00:48:02.190 --> 00:48:05.670
 Bro, we'll celebrate your birthday tomorrow.

00:48:05.670 --> 00:48:10.240
 Bro, it's tomorrow in the Philippines right now.

00:48:10.240 --> 00:48:13.200
 You know, it's just like, it's five o'clock somewhere.

00:48:13.200 --> 00:48:14.170
 You know what I mean?

00:48:14.170 --> 00:48:17.120
 It's just like, "Get over it.

00:48:17.120 --> 00:48:18.100
 Get off.

00:48:18.100 --> 00:48:19.160
 We're just not going to use the Julian calendar.

00:48:19.160 --> 00:48:21.750
 We're going to the Gregorian calendar."

00:48:21.750 --> 00:48:27.210
 You know, or vice versa, but you know what I meant.

00:48:27.210 --> 00:48:32.220
 Hey, we might have to get on the Iranian calendar, you know, because I need to stick and go to

00:48:32.220 --> 00:48:35.460
 work right now and we're going to celebrate your birthday tomorrow.

00:48:35.460 --> 00:48:39.670
 But is it, am I making that up or is that not a major trope in fiction?

00:48:39.670 --> 00:48:43.780
 Oh, bad dad, going out and making a living.

00:48:43.780 --> 00:48:44.750
 You know what?

00:48:44.750 --> 00:48:48.970
 My wife would much rather that I don't get fired and that I work hard at my job and bring

00:48:48.970 --> 00:48:51.990
 home the money than if I'm just like, "Hey, honey, great news.

00:48:51.990 --> 00:48:57.930
 I'm going to be spending so much more time with you now that I've been fired."

00:48:57.930 --> 00:49:02.910
 It's sort of like Pastor Stuckey was told in January when he was fired, "Look on the

00:49:02.910 --> 00:49:05.690
 bright side, you're going to have so much more time now.

00:49:05.690 --> 00:49:06.970
 You have time with your family."

00:49:06.970 --> 00:49:13.140
 Oh, don't you just love getting fired because you have so much time.

00:49:13.140 --> 00:49:19.950
 Alright, we need to get back on track here.

00:49:19.950 --> 00:49:24.940
 Verse 15, "It came to pass when our enemies heard that it was known unto us, and God

00:49:24.940 --> 00:49:29.370
 had brought their counsel to not, that we returned all of us to the wall, everyone unto

00:49:29.370 --> 00:49:30.350
 his work."

00:49:30.350 --> 00:49:35.230
 So basically they lost the element of surprise, and so their plan's not really going to work.

00:49:35.230 --> 00:49:38.360
 And so here's the thing, the attack never happens.

00:49:38.360 --> 00:49:43.350
 So it's this big scary thing, all these enemies are going to come, ten times he's warned,

00:49:43.350 --> 00:49:47.240
 they're going to kill you, they're going to get you, they're going to be all over you,

00:49:47.240 --> 00:49:48.220
 and it doesn't even happen.

00:49:48.220 --> 00:49:51.560
 Have you noticed that sometimes the things that we worry about in life most never even

00:49:51.560 --> 00:49:53.100
 end up happening?

00:49:53.100 --> 00:49:57.390
 You know, we're all nervous and scared and worried about something, and it doesn't even

00:49:57.390 --> 00:49:58.990
 happen.

00:49:58.990 --> 00:50:01.230
 This is why we shouldn't stress and worry about things.

00:50:01.230 --> 00:50:05.100
 Just pass all your cares upon him, for he careth for you.

00:50:05.100 --> 00:50:09.390
 The Bible says be careful for nothing, meaning don't be worried about or stressed out or

00:50:09.390 --> 00:50:14.390
 having all these cares about things, be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and

00:50:14.390 --> 00:50:19.690
 supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God

00:50:19.690 --> 00:50:23.620
 which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

00:50:23.620 --> 00:50:27.690
 Just be at peace and realize that some of these things that you're scared of, they're

00:50:27.690 --> 00:50:30.640
 not even real, they're not even going to happen.

00:50:30.640 --> 00:50:34.210
 Some of the things I've dreaded, I've been tossing and turning all night dreading something

00:50:34.210 --> 00:50:35.670
 and then the next day it doesn't even happen.

00:50:35.670 --> 00:50:40.510
 What was I, what did I waste all that time worrying?

00:50:40.510 --> 00:50:42.290
 And so the attack doesn't happen.

00:50:42.290 --> 00:50:45.090
 So they're like, all right, let's get back to work.

00:50:45.090 --> 00:50:49.750
 But they're still going to be cautious because you know, the threat is not zero.

00:50:49.750 --> 00:50:55.280
 So it says in verse 16, it came to pass from that time forth that the half of my servants

00:50:55.280 --> 00:50:59.770
 wrought in the work and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields and

00:50:59.770 --> 00:51:01.770
 the bows and the Habergens.

00:51:01.770 --> 00:51:06.170
 And the rulers were behind all the house of Judah.

00:51:06.170 --> 00:51:10.390
 They which built it on the wall and they that bear burdens with those that laid it, everyone

00:51:10.390 --> 00:51:16.000
 with one of his hands wrought in the work and with the other hand held a weapon.

00:51:16.000 --> 00:51:21.260
 For the builders, everyone had his sword girded by his side and so builded.

00:51:21.260 --> 00:51:24.350
 And he that sounded the trumpet was by me.

00:51:24.350 --> 00:51:27.060
 So there's basically two kinds of people here.

00:51:27.060 --> 00:51:32.870
 There are some people who just all their whole job is just to be the security force.

00:51:32.870 --> 00:51:33.850
 That's it.

00:51:33.850 --> 00:51:40.360
 I mean they are just out there ready to fight, weapon in hand, standing guard, showing strength

00:51:40.360 --> 00:51:41.340
 against the enemy.

00:51:41.340 --> 00:51:43.820
 They're just there to fight.

00:51:43.820 --> 00:51:49.880
 And then the other half of the people that are doing the actual building, even they either

00:51:49.880 --> 00:51:55.400
 have a weapon in one hand and a tool in the other hand, or they have a sword girded by

00:51:55.400 --> 00:51:59.490
 their side so that they're working with both hands, but they can at least pull the sword

00:51:59.490 --> 00:52:02.350
 at a moment's notice when they need to, if they need to fight.

00:52:02.350 --> 00:52:06.690
 So there's the people who are just only ready to fight, and then there's the people who

00:52:06.690 --> 00:52:08.540
 are building and ready to fight.

00:52:08.540 --> 00:52:13.050
 It looks like everybody needs to be ready for a fight.

00:52:13.050 --> 00:52:14.870
 Everybody needs to be a fighter.

00:52:14.870 --> 00:52:19.510
 It's all hands on deck when it comes to the fighting aspect.

00:52:19.510 --> 00:52:23.600
 He says in verse 19, "And I said unto the nobles," oh, by the way, let me just stop.

00:52:23.600 --> 00:52:24.530
 We're almost done.

00:52:24.530 --> 00:52:31.660
 But, you know, if you do the math on this, it's like 75% warfare and 25% building, right?

00:52:31.660 --> 00:52:36.330
 Because 50% is all war and then 50% is half and half.

00:52:36.330 --> 00:52:39.630
 So it's like 75% warfare, 25% building.

00:52:39.630 --> 00:52:40.850
 Now, think about this.

00:52:40.850 --> 00:52:46.660
 When I'm preaching up here, a lot of people want my preaching to be just positive all

00:52:46.660 --> 00:52:48.120
 the time, right?

00:52:48.120 --> 00:52:52.450
 And some people will be offended by hard preaching, negative preaching.

00:52:52.450 --> 00:52:55.700
 Like you don't have to rebuke sin and false doctrine.

00:52:55.700 --> 00:52:57.460
 Just tell us the truth.

00:52:57.460 --> 00:52:58.440
 Just tell us what the truth is.

00:52:58.440 --> 00:53:03.590
 I remember when I first started preaching, I mean, I just started preaching as a young,

00:53:03.590 --> 00:53:08.130
 you know, a young man, just newly married and everything.

00:53:08.130 --> 00:53:13.480
 And I'm preaching in a nursing home ministry on like every week or every other week kind

00:53:13.480 --> 00:53:15.540
 of a basis.

00:53:15.540 --> 00:53:20.030
 And I'm preaching in this nursing home and, you know, I preach some negative sermons.

00:53:20.030 --> 00:53:23.360
 And the guy who was running the thing told me, he's like, he said, you don't preach

00:53:23.360 --> 00:53:24.340
 against other religions.

00:53:24.340 --> 00:53:28.010
 He said, don't say anything negative about the Catholic Church.

00:53:28.010 --> 00:53:33.180
 He said, you don't, don't say, hey, confessing your sins, the priest isn't biblical.

00:53:33.180 --> 00:53:35.250
 Don't say that.

00:53:35.250 --> 00:53:41.620
 Just talk about how we can go straight to God, but don't mention how the Catholics

00:53:41.620 --> 00:53:44.050
 are teaching the opposite.

00:53:44.050 --> 00:53:49.530
 You know, just only mention the truth and you don't have to debunk the error, you know.

00:53:49.530 --> 00:53:50.520
 And here's the thing.

00:53:50.520 --> 00:53:55.120
 Now, if he were the pastor of the church or had authority like that, then I would have

00:53:55.120 --> 00:53:58.940
 thought to myself, "Okay, you know, this is my authority figure.

00:53:58.940 --> 00:54:00.520
 I'm preaching in his ministry.

00:54:00.520 --> 00:54:01.880
 It's his gig.

00:54:01.880 --> 00:54:06.360
 You know, I got to just preach, you know, the stuff that we agree on and I'm not going

00:54:06.360 --> 00:54:07.360
 to go against it."

00:54:07.360 --> 00:54:08.350
 But here's the thing.

00:54:08.350 --> 00:54:13.960
 I knew that the pastor of the church was a thousand percent on my side and the pastor

00:54:13.960 --> 00:54:18.090
 of the church, who's actually the boss, who's actually in charge, he was always ripping

00:54:18.090 --> 00:54:22.120
 on false religion every single Sunday.

00:54:22.120 --> 00:54:26.320
 Like there was not a Sunday that would go by that he wasn't ripping on something.

00:54:26.320 --> 00:54:31.230
 And I remember the way that my sister put it was, quote, "Pastor Nichols educated us

00:54:31.230 --> 00:54:37.630
 on every possible heresy," you know, because he's just preaching against every false doctrine.

00:54:37.630 --> 00:54:39.690
 Amen.

00:54:39.690 --> 00:54:42.710
 You know, we got educated against heresy.

00:54:42.710 --> 00:54:46.960
 And the thing is, this guy's telling me, "Oh, no, no, only preach positive.

00:54:46.960 --> 00:54:49.200
 You can only preach positive, right?"

00:54:49.200 --> 00:54:54.080
 So then I listened to what he had to say, I came back the next week, and I preached

00:54:54.080 --> 00:54:58.890
 a whole sermon that was 100% positive.

00:54:58.890 --> 00:55:03.100
 And I was just like, and it was all about being against Catholicism, but without saying

00:55:03.100 --> 00:55:04.860
 that.

00:55:04.860 --> 00:55:07.140
 So I'm just like, "Hey, there's one mediator between God and men.

00:55:07.140 --> 00:55:08.870
 We just go straight to God."

00:55:08.870 --> 00:55:10.320
 And I preached a whole sermon that way.

00:55:10.320 --> 00:55:11.790
 Then I get to the very end of the sermon.

00:55:11.790 --> 00:55:15.640
 I just looked at the guy and I said, "Hey, let me tell you something about the Roman

00:55:15.640 --> 00:55:19.230
 Catholic Church."

00:55:19.230 --> 00:55:24.500
 And then I just spent the last two minutes saying, "They don't agree with any of this.

00:55:24.500 --> 00:55:25.920
 They're not saved.

00:55:25.920 --> 00:55:27.560
 They're a false doctrine."

00:55:27.560 --> 00:55:32.500
 And then afterward, the guy walked up to me that had given me this advice and he said,

00:55:32.500 --> 00:55:33.510
 "Great sermon, brother."

00:55:33.510 --> 00:55:37.880
 And I said, "Thank you."

00:55:37.880 --> 00:55:41.710
 So we ended up agreeing to disagree.

00:55:41.710 --> 00:55:45.650
 But the point is, you know what, 75% of my preaching is battling.

00:55:45.650 --> 00:55:48.850
 "Oh, why is it so negative?

00:55:48.850 --> 00:55:50.540
 Oh, why are you so militant?

00:55:50.540 --> 00:55:52.550
 Why are you up there yelling and fighting?"

00:55:52.550 --> 00:55:58.690
 Because I spend 75% of the time battling because we're at war.

00:55:58.690 --> 00:55:59.650
 We're fighting a good fight.

00:55:59.650 --> 00:56:04.910
 And so there's so much heresy that many false prophets are gone out into the world.

00:56:04.910 --> 00:56:09.570
 There's constant problems cropping up in the church and people are fighting and there's

00:56:09.570 --> 00:56:15.630
 strife and then there's division, there's heresy, there's external attacks.

00:56:15.630 --> 00:56:19.570
 There's just false doctrine that's always popping up and influencing people.

00:56:19.570 --> 00:56:23.080
 I'm not saying in our church in particular because we don't have these problems in our

00:56:23.080 --> 00:56:27.820
 church because we already took care of it prophylactically.

00:56:27.820 --> 00:56:29.090
 You're like what the heck does that mean?

00:56:29.090 --> 00:56:34.380
 Hey, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

00:56:34.380 --> 00:56:36.260
 It's like the head and shoulders commercial.

00:56:36.260 --> 00:56:38.020
 You know, why are you using this dandruff shampoo?

00:56:38.020 --> 00:56:39.010
 You don't have dandruff.

00:56:39.010 --> 00:56:40.400
 Exactly.

00:56:40.400 --> 00:56:47.630
 I'm using dandruff shampoo, that's why I don't have dandruff.

00:56:47.630 --> 00:56:50.620
 You know, this message has been brought to you in part by head and shoulders.

00:56:50.620 --> 00:56:56.820
 But the point is that yeah, I am constantly preaching against sin, constantly preaching

00:56:56.820 --> 00:57:01.790
 against false doctrine, constantly fighting these battles so that we don't have these

00:57:01.790 --> 00:57:07.120
 problems, which is why our church is so unified on doctrine, has so little strife and bickering

00:57:07.120 --> 00:57:12.650
 and fussing, and has so few, you know, heresies creeping in at any given time.

00:57:12.650 --> 00:57:16.290
 I mean, we're doing great because we prevent it in advance.

00:57:16.290 --> 00:57:18.490
 Do you understand what I'm saying?

00:57:18.490 --> 00:57:21.490
 Now, is Nehemiah actually fighting against an enemy?

00:57:21.490 --> 00:57:23.140
 Like is his sword clanging against?

00:57:23.140 --> 00:57:25.900
 No, no, it's all prevention.

00:57:25.900 --> 00:57:32.160
 When I say it's 75% warfare and 25% building, is the 75% warfare actually active warfare?

00:57:32.160 --> 00:57:34.900
 No, it's really prevention.

00:57:34.900 --> 00:57:39.860
 It's really just a guy standing out there with a weapon showing force.

00:57:39.860 --> 00:57:44.820
 It's really just the builders just brandishing weapons all the time, waving them around while

00:57:44.820 --> 00:57:48.010
 they work just to scare off the enemy.

00:57:48.010 --> 00:57:52.580
 And so the preaching hard against sin is a prevention.

00:57:52.580 --> 00:57:54.230
 It's a prophylaxis.

00:57:54.230 --> 00:58:01.860
 It is to get us, you know, clean before it gets too dirty.

00:58:01.860 --> 00:58:05.420
 You know, we're not going to wait until we're just super filthy to take a shower.

00:58:05.420 --> 00:58:09.120
 Sometimes you just take a shower, you know, once a week whether you need it or not.

00:58:09.120 --> 00:58:10.110
 Just kidding.

00:58:10.110 --> 00:58:11.850
 All right.

00:58:11.850 --> 00:58:15.100
 That was a joke.

00:58:15.100 --> 00:58:16.710
 You know, that was what we joked about people.

00:58:16.710 --> 00:58:20.400
 Nowadays in Germany, they've been Americanized, so they take more showers.

00:58:20.400 --> 00:58:23.780
 But when I first went to Germany, like it was like once a week whether you need it or

00:58:23.780 --> 00:58:25.210
 not type of a thing.

00:58:25.210 --> 00:58:29.560
 And the joke was that Germans wash their car two times a week and their body one time a

00:58:29.560 --> 00:58:30.550
 week.

00:58:30.550 --> 00:58:34.020
 Because they're always like keeping their car really clean and nice and pristine, you

00:58:34.020 --> 00:58:35.000
 know.

00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:39.230
 But the thing is, you know, sometimes you take a shower even though you don't stink

00:58:39.230 --> 00:58:45.920
 to high heaven, you're not stinking yet, you're not filthy yet, you're not dirty yet.

00:58:45.920 --> 00:58:50.950
 But you just take a shower just to kind of reset the clock, you know.

00:58:50.950 --> 00:58:56.770
 And wouldn't you rather take a shower every single time before you stink really bad?

00:58:56.770 --> 00:59:02.960
 Or do you want to every single time first stink bad and offend someone's nostrils and

00:59:02.960 --> 00:59:05.740
 then be like, "Oh, now I've got to go take a shower."

00:59:05.740 --> 00:59:09.570
 You know, it's better to just do some preventative showering.

00:59:09.570 --> 00:59:10.550
 You know, how about this?

00:59:10.550 --> 00:59:14.840
 You get out of the shower, you're clean the moment you get out of the shower, and yet

00:59:14.840 --> 00:59:15.790
 what do you do?

00:59:15.790 --> 00:59:18.720
 Immediately you put on deodorant.

00:59:18.720 --> 00:59:22.910
 But you don't stink, you're fresh out of the shower, why are you putting on deodorant?

00:59:22.910 --> 00:59:25.880
 I'm putting on deodorant so I don't stink in the future.

00:59:25.880 --> 00:59:27.970
 Why are you preaching against smoking?

00:59:27.970 --> 00:59:29.680
 Why are you preaching against drugs?

00:59:29.680 --> 00:59:32.090
 Is your church filled with drug addicts?

00:59:32.090 --> 00:59:33.380
 No.

00:59:33.380 --> 00:59:39.010
 Because I'm preaching against drugs and alcohol and smoking and gambling and fornication and

00:59:39.010 --> 00:59:41.310
 adultery and divorce and all that.

00:59:41.310 --> 00:59:48.190
 I want to preach against these things in advance to prevent.

00:59:48.190 --> 00:59:54.180
 And so this battling or warfare is really more preventative than actual active warfare.

00:59:54.180 --> 00:59:56.740
 And that's how preaching should ideally be.

00:59:56.740 --> 01:00:01.220
 I mean I don't want to be in some doctrinal fight against heresy in our church.

01:00:01.220 --> 01:00:04.040
 Who wants to just be in some horrible doctrinal, no.

01:00:04.040 --> 01:00:07.400
 We want to just prevent it by just preaching against every heresy.

01:00:07.400 --> 01:00:12.170
 Like I don't even know if anybody's even thinking this, but I might as well just preach it anyway.

01:00:12.170 --> 01:00:17.750
 You know, like I'm really glad that I preached hard against modalism like three months before

01:00:17.750 --> 01:00:20.180
 we had that fight in 2017.

01:00:20.180 --> 01:00:24.390
 Because I preached that sermon on the shack, the shack part one and the shack part two.

01:00:24.390 --> 01:00:29.950
 And in that sermon I went hard against modalism and I'm glad I did.

01:00:29.950 --> 01:00:31.610
 Rather than doing it in the midst of the fight.

01:00:31.610 --> 01:00:36.370
 I did it again in the midst of the fight, but it was good that I'd already laid some

01:00:36.370 --> 01:00:39.420
 serious foundation three months earlier.

01:00:39.420 --> 01:00:41.740
 You know, it definitely doesn't hurt.

01:00:41.740 --> 01:00:44.320
 Caused people to be prepared for the fight a little more.

01:00:44.320 --> 01:00:46.350
 Myself included.

01:00:46.350 --> 01:00:47.620
 All right, we got to hurry up.

01:00:47.620 --> 01:00:51.160
 But it says in verse 19, I said to the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest of the people,

01:00:51.160 --> 01:00:56.610
 the work is great and large and we are separated upon the wall, one far from another.

01:00:56.610 --> 01:01:00.650
 In what place therefore you hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us

01:01:00.650 --> 01:01:01.920
 or God shall fight for us.

01:01:01.920 --> 01:01:05.400
 We don't want to all just fight our own personal war.

01:01:05.400 --> 01:01:11.390
 What we want to do is we want to rally to the church and fight the church's war and

01:01:11.390 --> 01:01:13.490
 not just doing our own personal thing.

01:01:13.490 --> 01:01:18.070
 It's better to rally to the group for the fighting.

01:01:18.070 --> 01:01:20.420
 Let's fight the battle together.

01:01:20.420 --> 01:01:24.620
 Verse 21, "So we labored in the work and half of them held spears from the rising

01:01:24.620 --> 01:01:27.500
 of the morning till the stars appeared.

01:01:27.500 --> 01:01:32.060
 Likewise at the same time said I unto the people, let everyone with his servant lodge

01:01:32.060 --> 01:01:38.140
 within Jerusalem that in the night they may be a guard to us and labor on the day.

01:01:38.140 --> 01:01:43.690
 So neither I nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard which followed me,

01:01:43.690 --> 01:01:48.420
 none of us put off our clothes saving that everyone put them off for washing."

01:01:48.420 --> 01:01:52.500
 So it's like, yeah, obviously we took our clothes off, take a bath.

01:01:52.500 --> 01:01:56.490
 But other than that, we're dressed, we're shod, we're ready to go.

01:01:56.490 --> 01:02:01.700
 And you know, the modern application would be the armor of God all the time.

01:02:01.700 --> 01:02:05.620
 You know, we're always vigilant, we're always working on ourselves spiritually.

01:02:05.620 --> 01:02:08.540
 We're denying self, taking up the cross every day.

01:02:08.540 --> 01:02:11.330
 We don't want to slack at all.

01:02:11.330 --> 01:02:15.280
 Day and night, we want to be in the right frame of mind.

01:02:15.280 --> 01:02:20.200
 You know, on guard, as it were, sober and vigilant all the time.

01:02:20.200 --> 01:02:21.190
 And that's what we see here.

01:02:21.190 --> 01:02:22.170
 Let's pray.

01:02:22.170 --> 01:02:23.160
 Let's have a word of prayer.

01:02:23.160 --> 01:02:25.510
 Father, we thank you so much for this great passage of scripture, Lord.

01:02:25.510 --> 01:02:27.690
 Help us to be like Nehemiah.

01:02:27.690 --> 01:02:35.900
 Help us to be leaders in our home, in business, in our friend group, in our family, in church,

01:02:35.900 --> 01:02:38.260
 Lord, that project confidence.

01:02:38.260 --> 01:02:41.100
 We don't fear man, but we fear God.

01:02:41.100 --> 01:02:47.090
 And Lord, help us to put the fear of you into the enemies, Lord.

01:02:47.090 --> 01:02:51.410
 And help us to stand our ground, to be sober, to be vigilant, Lord.

01:02:51.410 --> 01:02:57.310
 And to fight the good fight and not to be shy of being in a battle, Lord.

01:02:57.310 --> 01:03:02.500
 Help us to build a great work for you, but help us also to be ready for battle at any

01:03:02.500 --> 01:03:03.560
 time, Lord.

01:03:03.560 --> 01:03:07.770
 Give us the strength and the courage to be in our places and not to slack.

01:03:07.770 --> 01:03:09.650
 And in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.