R1307 The Power of Intentional Preparation

Perhaps your word for watching with Dr. Don Wilton. And I'm absolutely convinced today that the Lord has got something very, very special to say to your heart today. It's about the power of one.

One, two, three, four, five, impact. On February 20th, 2011, I received a phone call. Many of you received that same phone call.

In fact, hundreds of people began to hear the news. One very, very fine young man had been involved in an horrific accident. His name is Mac, and many of you will remember that time back in February 2011. His parents, Jimmy and Becky, just wonderful, wonderful people. I don't know whether the word to describe was heartbroken.

I don't know how to describe the way parents feel when a son or a daughter is involved in an horrific accident and that the word is that it would be very probable that Mac would not live. His injuries were so severe. And as he lay in that coma in hospital, hundreds in our community came together. I remember it so well. I remember the prayer groups. I remember the times that I had the privilege of speaking to Jimmy and Becky.

I remember the conversation that was going on across the board. Church people, believers, and all the while Mac lay on his deathbed. His injuries were critical.

They were just the worst they could possibly be. And I guess we didn't fully appreciate what it was that God had in mind for this young man. And as they upgraded his condition, people were saying, I guess medical personnel and others, well, it looks like he's going to live, but he's going to live with major issues. His body is very badly damaged. Some were even saying that maybe his mental capacity would be impaired and others were talking about the fact that he might never walk properly again. And various and sundry other issues that were arising out of this horrific accident that he was involved in. There've been a lot of things that have happened. But an inner drive and a resilience took a hold of this young man's life. Yep, it was all about Mac and his Lord. This young man who was baptized here in our church followed the Lord Jesus Christ, knows and loves him as do his parents.

People of great deep and abiding faith, people who really believe that God can do things that you and I can not do for ourselves. And we began to watch something happen. We're still watching it. Wasn't just one.

Wasn't just about Mac. It was about his parents. I cannot tell you the number of times that I saw such strength in the middle of their anguish and their hearts cry to the Lord.

A couple well acquainted with grief. How this mom and dad rose up and the church community, believers, friends. It wasn't just one, it was two, it was three, it was four, it was five. And so it went on and the power of one began to come together. And Mac had to make some decisions that only Mac could make. One of those many decisions that he made was that he was going to do whatever he could do to get himself well again.

Only Mac could make that decision. He realized that the power of one began with himself. Even though he himself was not in shape to be able to follow through, but he began to put certain things in place. And amongst many other things that he did, Mac began to go to the same place that I go to, to try and at least sort of get myself into shape.

I go to the Nautilus Fitness Center downtown Spartanburg and I wish I could get there a lot more, but I can't tell you how many times I've seen Mac at the Nautilus Fitness Center, strapped up and harnessed and crying out from the anguish of his broken body, doing sometimes in the early days very elementary things. Beginning slow, one step at a time, until it happened. You see, it was said that Mac would never be able to actually stand up on his own. He couldn't go down into a seated position and then just simply stand up.

Those things are so simple for most of us. You know, it's amazing how simple it is for some people to stand up. Not so for Mac, just to stand up from a seated position, but months turned into years as Mac began to apply what he knew that he had to do. And then it happened. One, two, three, four, five, impact. You can do it.

I'm just so proud of Mac. You know, I want you to open your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter two. And I want to speak to you very briefly today on the power of intentional preparation. That's somewhat a long heading, I know, but you're going to get it in a minute. Nehemiah chapter two, the power of intentional preparation.

These are just the facts. This is Nehemiah, but I believe that there are going to be so many of us that are going to see ourselves right here. This is the power of one. It has to begin somewhere. In the presence of the Lord Jesus today, I'm going to call upon you. Make this your day.

And it must begin with the power of intentional preparation. Nehemiah chapter two, in the month of Nisan, in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. And the king said to me, why is your face sad?

Seeing that you are not sick. This is nothing but sadness of the heart. Then I was very much afraid. And I said to the king, let the king live forever. Why should not my face be sad when the city, the place where my father's graves lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire? Then the king said to me, what are you requesting? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And then I said to the king, if it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you would send me to Judah to the city of my father's graves that I might rebuild it. And the king said to me with the queen sitting beside him, how long will you be gone and when will you return? And so it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time. And I said to the king, if it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the provinces beyond the river that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah. And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple and for the wall of the city and for the house that I shall occupy. And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me. Then I came to the governors of the province beyond the river and gave him the king's letters.

Now the king had also sent with me officers of the army and horsemen. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel. And I'm asking the Lord by his spirit to write this word on your heart and on mine today. God loves you very much. I don't know what walls in your life are broken down. Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't.

Right? When it came to Mac Dunbar, I'm going to say hundreds upon hundreds of us knew what walls had been broken down. I don't know which of your gates have been destroyed by fire. And yet sometimes we do and sometimes we don't, but God does. Nehemiah understood some things. He knew what was going on and in fact we very quickly came to discover that this was not about whether or not Nehemiah was going to go and carry out and do what God told him to do even though he had no idea. He hadn't even been there. He hadn't even had an opportunity to actually inspect the broken walls and the burned down gates. He hadn't had an opportunity to go back to Judah. He was still cup bearer for King Artaxerxes.

He hadn't taken one step forward so to speak. But something within Nehemiah, the power of God within him, caused Nehemiah to take some very intentional steps of preparation. I'm going to submit to you that it is very important to know what to do before you do what you know you have to do. It's very important that you know what you have to do. Before you do what you know you have to do. You don't have to keep living like this. You don't have to continue like this.

So what I want to do today in a very rudimentary and somewhat elementary way is I want to just simply ask myself this question. What was it that Nehemiah did intentionally before anything actually happened that was going to happen? Again, when I look at Mac Dunbar, and I love that young man, he's got such a resilience. When I look at him today, even in the continuing struggles that he has as he continues to rebuild these broken walls of his body. And I look at where he is today, somewhere back there in this indomitable spirit, which is Mac Dunbar. This young man whose heart belongs to Jesus Christ, surrounded by wonderful parents and family and surrounded by wonderful men, women, boys and girls who love the Lord Jesus all across our community came together. And the impact is something that just blesses my heart, let alone the hearts of all who know him and let alone he himself. So what did Nehemiah do?

Here it is, just to give it to you. Number one, he consulted the king. He consulted the king.

That's what verses one through four tell us. He was the cup bearer of the king. He knew that the king was the man who could make it happen humanly speaking. He was in the employ of the king, so to speak. He also understood that the king had the residential authority. He had the means to be able to provide for him. For some reason, whatever it was, he consulted the king.

He went to King Artaxerxes. I think that's very, very important. Number two, he admitted his fear. It's an amazing thing, but the Bible tells us Nehemiah was unapologetic about the fact that he was fearful.

Fear is a very real thing. And for Nehemiah, he understood that he had to take a journey, an arduous journey, fraught with all kinds of dangers. I can't even imagine the journey that he would have had to have taken from the court of King Artaxerxes. I can't imagine who would have been lying in wait for him. I can't imagine the fear that would grip his heart at the very thought and prospect of going back to try and rebuild broken walls, walls that had been broken for decades. I can't imagine all the things that would grip his heart. This man was the cup bearer, and he was overwhelmed in many ways by fear.

Fear is a very real thing. He didn't hide it. He didn't try to pretend it wasn't there, but there was a third thing that he did. He understood his sadness. The king looked at him and said to him, you need to get a grip, boy. Why are you looking so sad?

Cheer up. Now, I don't want to try and read something into this text, but you know, I don't know what the king was trying to say to him. I guess he was saying, you need to remember that you have a public image, and besides that, you walk along next to me.

You're the one who makes sure that I never get poisoned by an enemy. And the people that work around me, the least I expect of you is that you have a permanent smile on your face. He understood his sadness. He immediately looked at the king, and he told him, he said, let me tell you why I'm so sad. Broken walls produce an inevitable sadness. You know, it's not easy to be jolly happy when your walls are broken down. I've come to understand, as I know we all have, that every time you and I meet, that there's a broken heart on every pew. One of the most difficult things for us to understand as believers is that we know that when we die, we go to heaven to be with the Lord Jesus, but we also know how sad it makes us feel. But I want you to know that I understand that. I must understand it, and when I understand it, I understand the sadness of that broken wall, of that burned down gate within the context of who God is. And that's therein that I begin to understand and see something far greater than myself, far greater than my sadness. We'll be back in just a moment, but Dr. Wilton wants you to know we're here for you, ready to pray any time, whether you're on the mountaintop or in the valley at 866-899-WORD. Jot the number down, store it in your cell, 866-899-9673 to connect with resources like the Pray For Your Spouse resource or more.

And you can also meet us on our website, TEWOnline.org. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. He consulted the king and he admitted his fear and he understood the sadness. And I love the fourth thing that Nehemiah did. He prayed before he answered.

By the way, did you notice that? Just look at verse four with me. Then the king said to me, what is it exactly, young man, that you are requesting? And the next statement is, so I prayed to the God of heaven.

Isn't that amazing? There he was in the most presence of the most powerful person, this person that he was consulting. Never brought anything to question about that, about his role. He was being respectful. He was doing what was right. He was doing the proper preparation. He was putting all the pieces of the puzzle together, but not before he prayed to the God of heaven. It's almost like Nehemiah understood that he had to have a word from God in order to have a word for man.

But there's a fifth thing that I noticed that Nehemiah did. He made an honest request. He made an honest request. Verse five tells us about it.

And I said to the king, if it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor, please send me to Judah, to the city of my father's graves that I may rebuild it. I just love the pure open honesty with which he came. I just love that. You know, when you just are just straight out and you say to people, listen, man, this is what we've got to do.

People identify with just straight up rank honesty because we all deal with the same things. You know, I just, there's something about this that Nehemiah in response to the king didn't try and slide this one under the table. He just made an honest request. But then I want you to notice number six that he analyzed the details. Verse six tells us that the king began to have this kind of tar-tay-tar with him. Now, it's not without any misunderstanding that the queen was sitting next to the king and I'm convinced that's where the details came from. You know, my wife is absolutely convinced and I can't argue with her that the reason why Moses and the children of Israel wandered around the wilderness for 40 years couldn't find their ways because that silly man wouldn't stop and just ask for directions. I didn't say that.

My wife said that. You know, there's just something so wonderful about this. Can you imagine the king here?

I mean, all this honesty and Nehemiah's telling him and the walls are broken down, he's getting this all out. The king says, now let's see, now how many miles did you say that was? And what is this going to have here and when exactly are you going to be back? And how long is this going to take and what does this involve and what do you need and how can we do this?

Let's see, do you need five mules to carry your equipment or do you need this? And how all the little details of it. Sometimes, folks, it's the details that really matter in God's economy. You see, it's something as small as saying, you know what, I'm going to set my eye on the prize.

The reason why many wide receivers drop the ball before they catch it and run is because they actually look away in the direction in which they're going to run before they concentrate on the ball that's coming toward them. Long before the touchdown is scored, he analyzed the details. Number seven, he rallied support. He has the power of one at its best.

In verse seven through nine, the Bible tells us about all of this. Not only did he go to the king, but he mustered all that the king had to offer and what did he do? He ended up with a company around him. You know, I couldn't help but think about Mac Dunbar, how many times I've seen him at the Nautilus Fitness Center. I've seen Mac walk in there over these past years where I thought he couldn't get to wherever it was he was going. I've seen Mac many times strapped up in like a harness. I mean, John Langford gives such attention to detail at the Nautilus Fitness Center and he would strap him up. He'd put this kind of like strap around him and he'd have him do exercise, but there would be machines that were designed so that as he stood up, it wasn't actually Mac standing up by himself.

It was all these gadgets and pulleys and ropes and John Langford saying, you can do it, you can do it. And then I'd walk in, hey Mac, you can do it, you can do it. Then someone else would walk in, you can do it, you can do it. And then Seth Bucky would come and say, Mac, I'm proud of you, you can do it, you can do it.

And everybody would come in. He rallied the support. And when you study this group, this Nehemiah, this is the power of one. It is.

It's one, two, three, four, five. That's what produced the impact, but there's one more thing here that he did in his intentional preparation. He anticipated the opposition.

Nothing came easy for him. You know, he hadn't even began to leave when certain people began to murmur. He anticipated the opposition. He knew about it. He knew that there are people, it doesn't matter which way you're going to shake this, they don't want any wall to be rebuilt. They don't want gates to be fixed. They don't want anybody else to get the credit.

And sometimes they are not particularly concerned about anything else than they're just against it. He anticipated the opposition. Now I want you to get a hold of this. Remember this, it's very important to know what to do before you do what you know you have to do. How does that apply? What does Nehemiah say to you and me? Consult with wisdom.

Listen to your mother and father. Wisdom. Number two, just admit your fear. I want you before the Lord today, just say, I'm scared.

Number three, understand your sadness. Pray before you proceed. What a powerful day of teaching from Dr. Don Wilton.

And now as he steps into the studio, open your heart to what he wants to share next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now?

Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin and by faith I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name, my friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. Welcome to the family of God. I'm convinced some of you were praying along with Dr. Wilton moments ago to rededicate your life to Christ or perhaps to give your life to Jesus for the first time. We'd love to walk with you in the next steps.

We have free resources. As a matter of fact, Dr. Wilton wants you to have if you'll call us at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 or meet us online at www.tewonline.org. My book, Saturdays with Billy, is about an extraordinary relationship with a precious man who impacted lives across the world. You don't want to miss this opportunity to be inspired by his life too. Meet us online at www.tewonline.org.