greetings and the matches name of our lord and savior jesus christ as we prepare our hearts to hear what thus says the lord i will invite you wherever you are if you're in person to stand and if you're online with us let us pray god we thank you again for this moment we appreciate this opportunity to come to celebrate and to serve we asked in this time that you would once again be with us in this time of hearing and proclaiming so now god speak we're preparing ourselves for a new series that we hope will be challenging will be transformative we pray that would also again put us in the game as we understand we are facing perilous times what is it that we can do to help in this season so lord i just pray that you would use me as a willing vessel allow me to make it clear for the people in this moment this is our prayer in jesus name amen come on let's put those blessed hands together as we celebrate our god for who god is i'm excited guys we're starting a brand new series today entitled rebuild and we're going to be going through the entire book of nehemiah this summer i need your prayers as we set some foundational things today this is the companion narrative to the book of ezra that we started the year with uh and that series entitled it was all a dream and i wanted to lay some foundation today as foundational so you'll be getting a lot of topical things so allow me just a little more room to be explained some things but in the jewish manuscript you'll see ezra and nehemiah are considered one book their continuation of the same story of how god restored in ezra's time the temple and in nehemiah's time the walls and so we're going to really wrestle with that as ezra really dealt with the spiritual revitalization of israel and nehemiah is going to deal with the practical application and revitalization of israel all right so we're going to jump right in we have about 13 chapters and i only got about 10 weeks so we're going to try to figure out how we're going to navigate those so today i'm going to read a rather lengthy passage i'm going to read all of chapter one and half of chapter two so i'm going to read more than i'm going to preach but i want you to hear the story i'm reading from the message translation probably for a duration of this series just because i think the narrative is so important and significant for majority of this book it is written in first person we're going to hear from nehemiah himself all right so i really want you to hear the story i'm explaining some things out of it but that'll be how we start today foundationally here is the word of god for us today nehemiah and this is what it says the memoirs of nehemiah's son of hackalia it was a month of kislev in the 20th year at the time i was in the palace complex at sousa hanai one of my brothers had just arrived from judah with some fellow jews i asked him about the conditions among the jews there who had survived the exile and about jerusalem they told me the exile survivors who were left there in the province are in bad shape conditions are appalling the wall of jerusalem is still rubble the city gates are still senders when i heard this i sat down and wept i mourned for days fasting and praying before the god of heaven i said god god of heaven the great and awesome god loyal to his covenant and faithful to those who love him obey his commands look at me listen to me pay attention to this prayer of your servant that i'm praying day and night and intercession for your servants the people of israel confessing the sins of the people of israel and i'm including myself i and my ancestors among those who have sinned against you we've treated you like dirt we haven't done what you told us having followed your commands and heaven respect the decisions you gave to moses your servant all the same remember the warning you posted to your servant moses if you betray me i'll scatter you to the four winds but if you come back to me and do what i tell you i'll gather up all those scattered people from wherever they ended up and put them back in the place i chose to mark with my name well there they are your servants your people whom you so powerfully and impressively redeemed oh master listen to me listen to your servant's prayer and yes to all your servants who delight in honoring you and make me successful today so that i get what i want from the king i was cup bearer to the king chapter 2 opens up and reads this way it was the month of the nissan in the 20th year of arctis xerxes the king at the hour for serving wine i brought it in and gave it to the king i had never been hanging dog in his presence before and so he asked me why the long face you're not sick are you are you depressed it made me all the more agitated i said long live the king and why shouldn't i be depressed the city the city where all my family is buried is in ruins and the city gates have been reduced to senders the king then asked me so what do you want praying under my breath to the god of heaven i said if it please the king and that the king thinks well of me send me to judah to the city where my family is buried so that i may rebuild it the king with the queen city alongside him said how long will you work your work taken when you expect to return i gave him a time the king gave his approval to send me then i said if it please the king provide me with letters to the governors across euphrates that authorized my travel through to judah and also in order to asap keeper of king's forest is simple supply me with timber for the beings of the temple for fortress to all of the city and the house where i'll be living the generous hand of the lord of my god was with me in this and the king gave them to me and when i met the governors across the river the euphrates i showed them the king's letter and the king even sent along a calvary escort then sent out of the horonite and to buy the ammonite official heard about this they were very upset angry that anyone would come to look after the interests of the people of israel look again around verse four or five simply there's a portion that i think is important if it please the king and if my king thinks well of me send me to judah to the city where my family is buried so that i can rebuild it as we begin this introductory message today as we start our series rebuild i want to raise this question what are you going to do about it lord speak your people need to hear for many of us we always wonder will what we do make a difference as children we grow up wondering well our lives matter will we have the impact the influence that perhaps can change things and if we'll all be honest perhaps we think on it on an individual level or perhaps moving beyond neighborhood community city state nation and beyond all of us wonder does my work even matter does the things that i do and invest in does my camera concern does it really make a big ripple in this large ocean we call the world there's a book by benjamin zander entitled the art of possibility that has given me some kind of response and it's given me some encouragement as he talks about in this book the art of possibility he raises the specter now for many of us the level of our possibility is how our mind begins to deem reality which begins to suggest if one reads that particular book how benjamin zander begins to look at things is that possibility is only in the mind of those who believe it can be achieved which means that if you don't believe that it can be achieved then you believe that things are not possible that in itself is powerful and as we're beginning our new series this particular summer i'm believing that this will be a series of possibility one that will challenge us to understand that work must be done we're now picking up the story that we started in the beginning of the year and i hope that you will go back and look over your notes and see many of the things that we shared with as we started the year a series entitled it was all a dream as we walked through the book of ezra and really what it chronicled it was the time when god released a remnant that had been in babylonian captivity for 70 years and if you go back and recall what ezra taught us about 50 000 started the journey and they made their way to a place called jerusalem but it was not the place that they had left the city was in turmoil place was in ruins and rubbles and the temple was no longer there the whole emphasis of ezra was really rebuilding the temple and if you remember you'll see that they went back they started with the altar and then they rebuilt the walls of the temple they had a little setback as many of the people were disenfranchised they were discouraged by many people and so a lot of the work then was put on the back burner and 60 years after they started this journey after they started the construction process of the temple according to ezra they finally completed it and by the time we completed the book of ezra it wasn't just about the temple being rebuilt but it was also about them relearning themselves and their connection to god that's why god sent ezra describe this prophet this priest to go and make sure that the people of god knew that their commitment was not just to a building but to god and it was his job to make sure that they responded to the statutes and to all of the ordinances that god had for them and by the time ezra completed its assignment you'll note that it ended on what many of us would consider perhaps a down note as the people as they were trying to figure out their commitment to god they also realized that they were committed to other things that were outside the will of god and we ended with that idea that we realize that in all of our spiritual lives if we're not careful we can have some outside commitments and covenants that can take our hearts our loyalties and our faithfulness from god and that's how that story ended and ended with the people having to make the decision whom will you choose will you choose god or will you choose someone else that's what makes the transition as the book of ezra concludes around 457 it is now that we are entered into the second phase of the story and that begins around 445 it is here that we're introduced to the second phase of the rebuilding and construction process that falls under the headship and leadership of a man by the name of nehemiah nehemiah my brothers and sisters his name means yahweh comforts and as we go ahead and navigate his story there's a lot that we're going to learn about nehemiah we are introduced to him as a cup bearer he is an official in the royal palace of sousa there under the leadership of king arthur xerxes and by the time the book nehemiah concludes he is now lifted up as a governor of judah and jerusalem we're seeing the evolution of nehemiah we're seeing how he grows how god takes this cup bearer and helps and allows him to be the construction manager for the rebuilding of the walls of jerusalem but i want to focus on that because i think that is significant and i really hope and pray that during this particular series it will challenge you and i to know that just like then god is now raising and calling some more nehemiahs there was a person whom according to my text could not stand to see the walls of jerusalem be broken down and i think that that in itself is what's powerful and i want to start that because i don't think it's by happenstance that god aligned and ordained our preaching calendar for this year because what we see in the passage and what we'll see as a major theme throughout the book of nehemiah is how do you handle the broken down walls walls my brothers and sisters for jerusalem in its infancy was the thing that protected the city jerusalem was a city on the hill it was these walls that gave it its prominence its walls that created a sense of unity and now that the walls are broken down it was how is life and the people were considered the conditions of the walls is the conditions of the people and i want to suggest for you and i that that's where we are living culturally and contemporarily we live in a time of broken down walls broken down walls of economic uncertainty where on one hand we say that we care for one another but then we do not give people the living ways to be able to take care of themselves and their families broken down walls we live in a time of broken down walls of political divisiveness where we're trying to navigate red blue or somewhere in between wherever nation that still is trying to live up to the creed that it signed over 200 some years ago talked about life liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all we live in broken down walls even within a community where on one hand we want babies to be born but then on the other hand we don't want to provide them formula to thrive we're living in a time of broken down walls and what you're going to learn and what i'm going to give each of us homework over the next few weeks as we navigate through the summer is what is our call to help rebuild the broken down walls what is it that god can use you for what possibility can god bring you to be like nehemiah to help restore the broken down walls that in essence is what i want to share as we start today foundationally i want to give an overview i know i read a lot for you today but it raises the question and i really want you to put yourself in the shoes of nehemiah i really want each of us to examine ourselves to see what it is that how we can embrace this clarion call how then can we be serious and intentional about rebuilding there's things within our community that needs to be rebuilt things within our nation things within our homes and maybe god is sending you to be the very one that will make the difference that will bring about restoration and rebuilding as we looked over the chapter and a half that we read today as i stated in my introduction there's about 13 chapters we're going to go over so give me a few moments to kind of lay some landscape down this story has always intrigued me nehemiah himself this person that rises to the occasion is the one that god uses in a record manner to rebuild the walls and to get the gates of the city back in place you and i are going to examine it over the next few weeks we're gonna see how you manage opposition nehemiah teaches us from a practical position that you'll never have universal support and if you need a hundred percent to get moving then you'll never be moving nehemiah teaches us how we need to take responsibility where we are that before you feel like you're called to the nations can you at least help build your own neighborhood it is here in nehemiah that we see all these things starting to happen we see how he manages disappointment we see in nehemiah how you manage opposition what starts in the foundation is what we find in chapters one and the first ten verses of chapter two i wanna raise them today because i really want us to think through it i really want us to perhaps perceive where can we fit in because that question that i raised as the title for this sermon is one that i hope will resonate in each of your hearts as we navigate this series what are you going to do about it it's easy to talk about things but if he was back in my home we would say don't just talk about it be about it a couple of things i want to lift up out of this narrative i've read all of them for you it's about 20 some verses and i told you i'm not going to preach uh i'm going to probably read longer than i would preach but there are a couple things that i think that we begin to understand how these 20 verses this foundational narrative that teaches us about what's happening that gives us the genesis and understanding of what pushes nehemiah lifts it up in three forms we're gonna learn about assignment patience and readiness each one of those are critical to how we see nehemiah get started and as you think about that i want to push you because for each of us those are the three areas we must examine what is my assignment am i patient and am i ready let me lift up a couple things and the first thing that i want to note when it comes to assignment is that first of all i know you're raising the question i get it as a pastor what is my assignment well we learn in this passage that assignment is found at the intersection of passionate concern the opening portion of our nehemiah story it starts with this interesting conversation between nehemiah and a person who the text claims is his brother there is a lot of conjectures some scholars say perhaps it's not necessarily his blood brother could be someone that's just related to him but the narrative comes with this interesting conversation nehemiah he meets up with his relative who has now come back with some friends from jerusalem i want to give some space for you to understand that at this time nehemiah is now working in the palace that's located in susa he's under the administration of ark desert seas jerusalem and judah is 700 miles away one of his family members has come back and note what nehemiah does he asked him a critical question a twofold question how is the people and how is judah it's been some time it's been 12 years since they have heard from ezra 60 some odd years since the temple has been rebuilt and even longer than that since the 50 000 original remnant had been sent home under the leadership of king cyrus and everyone knew about them going home this was important but not everybody went home if you remember what we talked about in ezra there were some who made the decision to stay in babylon because they wanted to stay in the comforts of babylon than to deal with the ruins of jerusalem but what does nehemiah do he asked his relative his brother how is home how are the people and notice the response of the people this brother tells him well the people are are in ruins it's not going that well the walls are still broken down the the gates are still incinders matter of fact it's twofold because he literally outlines that not only is there physical degradation the walls are down the the dates haven't been lifted up the people are still scattered but there's also spiritual issues we're not as connected as we are we still look shameful to everyone else in other words he talks about the plight of his people he talks about how they have not yet progressed as they should and i need to suggest to you and tell you this is where the text begins to push and i need you to understand why this conversation is critical when it comes to what it means to grab onto your assignment because when nehemiah hears about what happens back home when he hears how the people are down how the walls are broken down notice his response he laments he weeps he sits down he can't help himself he keeps crying and i want to just raise a couple of things because i think it's important for us to gather when it comes to the context of this is that remember he's talking about a place that's 700 miles away he's talking about a people in a place that he never personally himself went to at the time nehemiah is cup bearer he got a good job i mean he got benefits he he's pretty much has made it he's successful but he's concerned about those who are less fortunate than him and notice nehemiah's response he does not say oh well well maybe they'll get it together he does not say well maybe at some point they'll be all right maybe i'll send some trinkets or something to add to the treasury note how nehemiah responds when he hears about the plight of his people he gets concerned he starts lamenting he starts crying and i want to suggest that for many of us because i want to suggest that for our community perhaps that's been the departure and the demarcation between why sometimes our very own people are stuck in the same position that they're in because many of us who made it many of us who've climbed the ladder of success many of us who've gotten out of the hood many of us who got those good childs many of us who now moved out into the suburbs maybe the issue with our community is sometimes they are the other than us they are the people that yeah we hear about them but we don't really deal with them because that's not where i am anymore i got a good job in saucy and i do a lot on my own but let me tell you nehemiah challenges you and i that whenever you see your community going down it ought to cause a response in your heart how can you hear injustice and pain and it not affect you won't be unto us if we're no longer concerned about our brothers and sisters i know you've made it out i i know you don't go back to the hood no more i know you you you've accelerated beyond that and i know you got some edumacation but i pray that we would have a nehemiah spirit that we will see wrong in our community and be concerned that we'll see pain in our community and be concerned i don't care how much money you make i don't care how tired the building is you work in there ought to be some concern that we have and nehemiah even though he had never been there it was 700 miles away he still had passionate concern about jerusalem i pray that you and i will have that concern about our families and our communities i know you don't live there no more but you still ought to be concerned about it i know you don't ride through that no more like you used to but you still ought to be concerned about it there ought to be something in us the commonality and the legacy for which we have borne on and please ma'am please sir don't get too big for your britches that you forget where you come from you know if it wasn't for them praying you through everyone for them helping you get to where you are we're just simply people who are standing on the shoulders of others and won't be unto us if we make it out the barrel and still don't want to help somebody that's stuck at the bottom of it there ought to be some passionate concern i'm concerned for my brothers and sisters who are still in the midst of poverty and economic distress i'm still concerned for the people who still gotta wrestle and have to make decisions whether to feed their children to put gas in their tank i'm still concerned and my brothers and sisters it was this concern of nehemiah that births his assignment i get that question all the time and i wanted to suggest to you watch this that oftentimes you want to know where you can be most effective at is where you're most passionate at i get that question all the time as a pastor pastor what's my calling i'm trying to figure out what god wants me to do and my response and my retort every time is what are you concerned about what is your passion because if you get passionate about something that's what your assignment is my passion is leading and loving people into a mature relationship with jesus christ that's manifested in my assignment as a pastor preacher professor and writer what your passion is is what determines your assignment and i want to challenge every one of us over these next few weeks as we're navigating through the story of nehemiah is find out what you're passionate about what is your concern where it be young people may it be single mothers may it be single for i don't know what it is but you've got to find out what your passion is because your passion is what breeds your assignment now let me go and help you because i know some of us oftentimes want to make sure that we have the best that we can and here's the reality some of us when we learn our passion often times will feel like well i'm not qualified to work in my passion well i got good news for you nehemiah is the story for you remember i told you he's a cup bearer he works in the upper administration of the king his his job his role and responsibility is to taste the wine before the king gets it he is a trusted advisor to the king he's a cup bearer but his passion is in construction and i want to suggest that sometimes when you avail yourself to the leading of god he'll send you places that you ain't got experience in and sometimes god will use you in places that you're not even qualified for but when you have been called i wish i had some time when you've been called god qualifies the call he don't just call the qualified but but he'll take cup bearers up and make them construction managers he'll he'll take people uh that don't have much of a role of responsibility or experience in a certain area but if that's your passion god will send you there and use you like he's going to use nehemiah ought to have somebody under the sound of my preaching voice that can testify lord just use me i may not have the degrees for it i may not even have to look for it i may not have the expertise for it but god i'm going to avail myself to say lord wherever you send me whatever you place in my heart then that's the area that i'm going to sell myself out for stop assuming you got to have all the degrees of stop assuming you got to have all the expertise all god wants to know is can he have a willing heart [Applause] simon my brothers and sisters it's found at that intersection of your passionate concern but not only do we have to understand assignment as we see in the foundational movement of nehemiah but also patience patience watch this is fueled through the interjection watch this of prayerful anticipation verse four through 11 of chapter one is powerful it is nehemiah praying why this is important is that throughout the book of nehemiah there are 13 chapters and there are 12 prayers laced throughout all the work of nehemiah he prays he's not a scribe he's not a priest he's not a prophet but he prays because nehemiah understands that the work that i'm trying to do is bigger than me and i need god to help me accomplish it i know this may sound a little old school and i know there's some who would say i thought pg was young and he's supposed to be contemporary yes i may look a little young even though i'm feeling real old but i want you to know something i still believe in the power of prayer i still believe the prayers of the righteous avail of much i still believe if my people who are called by my name would humble themselves and pray and seek my face i still believe that god inclines his ear to those who are willing to pray hear me child of god there's so much stuff that needs to be done there are broken walls that need to be rebuilt and before you pull out the cement trucks before you try to place one stone on the other just realize that the endeavor will not be successful if you do not bathe it in prayer so please hear me clearly i need you to lean in close to the camera and if you're in person get on the edge of your seat cause i come to tell you it's praying time you still need to know how to get a prayer through that's why the old saints would say father i stretch my hand to thee no other help i know if thou would ever draw thy hand from me where would i go power prayer verse 4-11 invites us to this intimate moment of intercession of nehemiah here he prays and he opens up his prayer by admitting god we've been wrong we knew your word and we disobeyed it and so he included himself in it like the others that we've read in the book of ezra where he admitted you're right god we didn't hold up our end of the bargain we knew you said if we would begin to be faithless that this would what would happen and this is what has taken place but notice the shift that takes place in the passage on one hand it's a prayer of lament it's a prayer that nehemiah admits we did not always do what we're supposed to see that's when you're really praying it's when you can be honest with god see see time out for phony people who want to act like you did everything right now i know some of y'all super saiyan folk i know those in global can't see the folk in person but those in person sometimes we want to act like we dot every eye and cross everything no we can admit no god we have failed you time and time and time we don't always do our end of the bargain sometimes we falter and fail but notice what nehemiah he admits on one hand our transgressions he admits on one hand the things we did wrong but then he says but god you say it if we get ourselves together you said that you're restorers you you say that you'll do this and now god there's a remnant that did what you said there's a remnant of people that's back in jerusalem and the walls are still down the walls are still broken so god i'm just here to remind you of what you said because that can be your most powerful prayer is when you can remind god of what god said this ain't for everybody because some of us don't know what god said and when you don't know what god said you can't remind god of what god said that's why i've been challenging us as a church to read through the bible because when you read through the bible then you can rehearse in your heart and mind what god has said so when you get down on your knees you don't have to bring up nothing new all you have to say is god now you said the prayers are the righteous of element now god you said that my god shall supply all of my now god you said that by your stripes i am healed god and you say it that you're my shepherd i shall not well now you say it i'm the head and i have to tell now you said that you'll keep us in prophecy now you said that you'll walk with us and guide us sometimes you got to remind god what he's saying and maybe that's the hope that the church ought to have and i ain't gonna front in this dare in time when i see fox news cnn msnbc social media stuff there's a lot of negative stuff going on and i ain't gonna find it's depressing and so it just causes me to get out on my knees and say god now you see what's going on and i ain't got all the answers trust me but i do want to remind you god you saying that you will take over us you said that we're covered by your blood you said that we shall get i wish i had somebody that can testify that's the most powerful prayers you got is when you remind god what he said what you said he talks about his part in it matter of fact if you read throughout these verses in this prayer upwards of eight times he calls out the word servant because the prayer watch this is god you said this but i need you to help me do something about it i'm not trying to pass the buck onto someone else but god use me to bring about the change you require use me to make the inactive things that need to be done god let me be a servant that's going to work for you my brothers and sisters i love this in our text because it challenges us to understand that you need to be prayerful and that's why between chapters one and two that's why i had to read them together is because between chapters one and two four months passes by four months passes by before god responds to his prayer he starts praying in chapter one but he doesn't see god move to chapter two he starts praying in chapter one but it doesn't see any movement on the prayer to chapter two i i don't i don't know why god got me hung up right there but maybe someone an imperson or a tab global then got me jacked up this one part of it but what i want to tell you is just hang on in there that sometimes while you're praying god reserves the right to win he can turn to page see see the problem is you want to pray in chapter one and hear back in chapter one that ain't always how it works sometimes you just gotta pray and keep praying until god responds sometimes it may be four days sometimes it might be four months sometimes it might be four years ought to have some people that say i'm just gonna keep on praying i i just made up my mind i'm just gonna keep on praying i'm keep seeking his face i want you to know that sometimes the prayers you pray in chapter one you don't get a response under chapter two if you don't get anything else out of nehemiah there is something to be said about being patient in prayer patience and prayer go hand in hand and i wish i could tell you i know some of you subscribe to some of those prophets that get you to send your money in and you get it all in the rag and they tell you in 24 hours some stuff going to turn around i'm not saying that god can't do it quickly but what i am going to say to god i serve the one that i've been mostly rolling with has oftentimes made me have to stay in the posture prayer that i've had to learn how to just be patient because sometimes he may not come when you won't [Applause] but here's the crazy thing he's always on time they pray in chapter one and the response doesn't come to chapter two patience my brothers and sisters is when you still pray and show up notice what he does he prays and still goes to work he prays and he still serves he prays and he still does what he needs to do let me help somebody just because you ain't getting an answer don't mean you can't get you get the clock out he continues to serve he continues to move he continues to trust i want to tell you you can be prayerful and patient at the same time the assignment is starting patience the third thing is readiness and readiness is favored watch this through the implementation of sovereign control i'm done with this because what i'm here to tell you is god's in control the question is are you ready after the four months we're in chapter two he goes before the king and this was dangerous he goes before the king and the king notices watch this that he's sad now if you know anything about antiquity you'll note that this was a absolute no-no you were never allowed to go in the presence of the king sad literally it could cost you your life they wanted everyone around them to make them feel good to frown around the king was tantamount to signing your death warrant but the burden of what he was facing was too much for him to hide and he goes in front of king ark xerxes with a frown and the king discerns that he's down and instead of him killing him he responds what's wrong with you see there are some moments if i if i could push you and this was a bible study and i had a little more time to explain it see there's certain moments within scripture that you can just lift up as grace it's not explicitly said but it's right that he should have died in chapter two we shouldn't even move on to chapter 13. there's no way he should even made it the 700 miles of route because this was supposed to have cost him his life but what should have killed him didn't kill him this moment of being down created an opportunity for them to have a conversation with the king king xerxes asked him what's the problem man what's going on and he he said well i'll be honest with you i'm down because when i think about where i'm from and where my ancestors are buried it's still in ruins how would you feel it were your family and your ancestors lived was still broken down and he raises this thing watch what king art desert sees done king arkansas then says so what do you want to do and this is where i need to slow down because i want to understand why this to me is one of the things that will push us throughout the entirety of this particular narrative why i love the book of nehemiah is because when the opportunity came watch what he does he has an immediate response send me he says i need to go home king says all right how much time do you need what do you need and he tells him right there he says this how much time that i need matter of fact this one he sent me some letters so that i can get some timber go ahead and send me so i can make sure that the governor of euphrates i'm good in other words when the opportunity arose even though he had been waiting for four months he was ready with an answer about how to deal with the situation this is what i want you to get if you don't get anything else out of this message he didn't know when the moment was going to come he did not know when the opportunity would show up that he would have to say what was on his heart he didn't know if the day would be today tomorrow next week he had no clue but when the moment came he was ready he said this is how long it's going to take me and this is what i'm going to need and let me help you because too many of us are in the process of trying to keep figuring things out can i tell you that opportunities only come to those who are prepared you may not know when it's going to come but what i am here to tell you is when it does come you got to be ready you need to know how much time you need to know what you need you don't have time to go back and say let me think about it let me contemplate let me go check with some people that's not what nehemiah he said i've been praying about this i just was waiting for the chance i just wait for the moment this is how long i need this is what i need sign me some levers king let me go back home to do what god has called me to do what if i told you that all you need in this moment is to be ready stop waiting on a committee stop waiting on legislation to pass just when the moment comes have an answer and here's what's crazy guys the king gives him more than he asked for oh if i had time and we felt like having spooky church i would tell you that when you know what you want he'll always give you more when you're sure about your assignment he'll always give you more he'll go exceedingly abundantly more than you can ask or think that's my prayer for all of us this year is that god give us an exceeding moment give us an overflow moment that when you know what you need he'll give you more than what you need he tells him what he needs king answers his request gives him more and now starts his journey to rebuilding let's stand i'm done that's all i got um just foundation i told you i may preach next week i was i was just teaching you today and and and that's that's the foundation he gets his assignment he's prayerful but patient and when the moment came he was ready you don't know when the time is going to come just got to be ready i'm done when i tell you this verse 10 of chapter 2 verse 10 11 chapter 2 tells us that now he's got it he's getting ready to make his way to jerusalem it's about a 700 mile journey that's what we're gonna pick up next but week text also reminds us that there's some people plotting before he gets there ken ain't got there yet and they already angry that someone is concerned about the people and they're going to warn you this listen we're going to get into this more in depth as we progress through the text but i think it's a foreshadowing that is incredible we have to mature to the place where we're not surprised by opposition and blow your mind then i'm gonna pray for you this i'm gonna leave you hanging what if i told you that oftentimes opposition is your confirmation [Applause] what if i told you that sometimes you can tell if you're in god's will based on the opposition that you are facing [Applause] i get scared i get scared sometimes when it's just too easy i'll be like no somebody got to get mad about this i need [Music] somebody need to send me a bad email or something i need something maybe some rumors should come around cause that's that's how i can tell when it's when it gets kind of thick like that i'm like oh yeah i'm right there i'm right where god wants me to be [Applause] i'ma challenge you global and i'm a challenge you in person what are you passionate about [Music] this summer as we walk through the book of nehemiah we are mobilizing some nehemiahs this summer god is going to call some cupbearers to some construction work but he needs to know where are you passionate what broken down walls can you not stand to stay broken and when you answer that question there is nothing that can stop you as in person stands let's pray for tab global lord we thank you we bless you now for those who've tuned in we pray that you will continually keep them lord i pray now that you give them the opportunity to connect and to be a part of this ministry and lord you know what we need to do and the work we have in front of us now god as we begin this sermon series help us to be committed to the rebuilding process realizing that it's not just prayer it's also work let us be intentional so now god be with us this is our prayer in jesus name amen