Greg Laurie and Harvest Ministries recommend the bestselling book Cold Case Christianity from former detective J. Warner Wallace. That's a book we're offering this month to our listeners, Cold Case Christianity, written by detective J. Warner Wallace. A homicide detective investigates the claims of the gospel. So, get your own copy of Cold Case Christianity. It's our offer for this month for your gift of any size.
Request yours for a limited time at Harvest.org. God wants to bring revival to our culture. And today, Pastor Greg Laurie says that plan involves you.
But don't let that scare you. God is not looking for ability as much as he's looking for availability. He's just looking for someone, well, like you, to say, Lord, here I am. I want to be an influence in my sphere of influence. I want to make a difference in the place you've called me to.
So revival starts with us. Remember Smokey the Bear? His correct name is Smokey Bear, a fictional spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service. It's a only you can prevent forest fires.
Fires can start by one careless person. But when it comes to the fire of revival, that fire can start with one person who does care. And today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us be that kind of person who lets God use them to share the love of Christ in a world that needs that message.
Turn in your Bibles to the book of Nehemiah. We're going to start a brand new series. And the title of this series will be From Rubble to Revival.
And the title of my message is Revival Starts Here. So I've told you this story before, but maybe some of you haven't heard it, about a woman who was walking down the beach here in Southern California. She saw something embedded in the stand and she reached down and brushed the stand off it and it turned out to be a lamp and a genie appears. This is a true story, as I often say when telling genie jokes. And so the genie says, oh Master, I will grant you one wish.
So this woman literally pulls a map of the Middle East out. She says, you know what genie, if I only have one wish, I'm going to go big. I'm going to ask for peace in the Middle East.
They're always having conflict in that part of the world. I want peace. And then she thought about it for a moment and thought, well wait, if it's only one wish, let's go even bigger. I want global peace. I want peace all around the world, genie. That's my wish. The genie says, are you insane? I can't grant a wish like that. That's too big.
Come up with something else. She said, well, I've always wanted to find a good man. You know, a man that would smother me with affection and tell me how beautiful I am, a man that would help me with housework, a man that would actually pick up after himself, that would not sit on the couch and watch sports all day long, just a nurturing, loving, caring guy. That's what I want, genie. I want one good man. The genie said, let me see that map again. Okay, so kind of a put-down joke for men.
Okay, so some things seem impossible, but with God, all things are possible, right? And our nation is a mess right now, as you all know. We have continuing violent crime on the rise. We have families falling apart. It seems like the very foundation of our nation is crumbling. And, of course, we want to see America strong again. Yes, we want to see America prosperous again. Yes, we want to see America great again. But, more importantly, I want to see America godly again.
That's the key. And that's only going to happen as a result of a spiritual awakening or what we often call a revival. So the book of Nehemiah is about a man named Nehemiah that played a key role in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. But it's not just about rebuilding the walls of a city. It's about restoring a nation's heart to God. Effectively, the book of Nehemiah is a blueprint for what happens when people cry out to God, confess their sins, and return to Him with all of their hearts. And so it's a good book to look at because God has given us a template for revival that we often quote. And it's 2 Chronicles 7, 14, which was given initially or originally to Israel, but in principle it applies to any nation, including ours, when God says, If My people, which are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, God promises, then it will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. So we want to see our land healed, and God tells us what we need to do. So revival starts with us.
That's why I'm calling this series From Rubble to Revival. And so here in Nehemiah we're going to look at a lot of really amazing things that are found in this book. Number one, we'll learn how to deal with challenges spiritually as well as practically. You know, there's a spiritual way to do things and a practical way, and sometimes we focus on one at the neglect of the other. We're going to learn how to plan our work and work our plan and at the same time trust God. We're going to talk about how to motivate others when morale is slipping.
How to respond to personal attacks and react when lies are told about us. And finally, how to finish what we start. But before we dive in, we need a little history lesson so we can understand what's going on in Israel as we enter into this story. So at this point, Israel has been a nation under the leadership of kings like Saul and David. Saul was the first king. He was rejected, replaced by David, who was the greatest king in the history of Israel. David was followed by his son and successor, Solomon.
And during this 40-year reign, it thrived. These were the glory days of Israel and the glory days of Jerusalem. So God promised. Israel says, look, if you obey me and walk with me, I will continue to bless you.
But if you disobey me and turn from me, I will scatter you to the ends of the earth. And it really started with Solomon. He didn't take the sage advice of his father on his deathbed who said, Solomon, my son, know the God of your father and serve him with an undivided heart. Soon Solomon's heart began to go astray and he turned to immorality and even open idolatry.
And it went from bad to worse. So when Solomon died, the kingdom split in two. The northern tribes were ruled by a guy named Jeroboam and the southern tribes by Rehoboam. And both tribes turned to idols and false gods. So the northern kingdom fell first and they were taken captive by the Assyrians, the people of the northern kingdom were absorbed into the various cultures of the world. But the southern kingdom fell later as they were sent into exile to Babylon. Babylon at this point was a powerful world power and so they took control of the Jews. Why Babylon? Well Babylon was idol central. So effectively God said, you guys want idols? I'm sending you to Babylon for 70 years.
Let's see how that works out for you. And that's exactly where Israel finds himself. And so while they were in Babylon, God still was at work. He raised up Daniel as a prophet. You remember the story of Daniel and how he spoke boldly to the kings Nebuchadnezzar and his grandson Belshazzar. And an amazing thing happened. Nebuchadnezzar actually became a believer. It's the most radical conversion in the Old Testament.
Completely unexpected. A world leader becomes a believer in the Lord God of Israel. But his grandson as I mentioned Belshazzar didn't follow the advice of old grandpa.
And he went his own way. And you remember the story of the writing on the wall that happened with Belshazzar as he was going out of his way to worship the false gods of his people. And even take these instruments that they captured from the Jews when they took over their temple.
And they were drinking wine out of them and toasting their false gods. And God wrote on the wall, your days are numbered and your kingdom is divided. And along comes Cyrus and the Medo-Persian forces and they conquer Babylon. And now Cyrus is ruling. And Daniel had a ministry with him too as you recall. And it was Cyrus that threw Daniel into the lion's den and saw how the Lord delivered him. And so now Daniel has faded from the scene. But Cyrus tells the Jews they can go home again. So in 536 B.C.
the first wave of Jews returns to Judah under a man named Zerubbabel. Now I know some of you are going, oh this is boring. Greg where are the jokes? We need jokes. Ok I've got a joke for you. Ready? Knock, knock.
Och. God bless you. Ok one more. Knock, knock.
Boo. You don't have to cry about it. Ok so there's your jokes. Now let's go back to the story. Why should we study history? Well because history is his story. Speaking of God. We can learn so much from the past, for the present, and for the future. And Malcolm Muggeridge once said quote, All new news is old news happening to new people. So there's a lot to learn as we study history, especially biblical history.
Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey everyone I want you to know about our app called Harvest Plus. Think of it as a Harvest version of Netflix.
We have all of our resources in one place. We have our movies like Steve McQueen The Salvation of an American Icon, Johnny Cash The Redemption of an American Icon, A Rush of Hope, and much more. Then we have our television program, daily devotions, and much more.
So go and download the Harvest Plus app. Well we're opening the book of Nehemiah in Pastor Greg's current study series called Rubble to Revival. Let's continue. So we have the first wave of Jews returning to Israel under Zerubbabel.
And they have a good start. And then Ezra enters the scene. Ezra is a priest that turns the people to God. But he found problems. So the first wave comes and they don't really get the job done.
Ezra now comes after Zerubbabel. And he sees that the Jewish people have intermarried with the other people living in the land. And it's caused a breakdown and a compromise.
And this can happen today of course. You know inner marriage. Now God is not against interracial marriage. But he is very against interfaith marriage. So let me say a word to you if you're single. And you're thinking you'd like to get married one day. You never want to marry someone who is not a Christian. And not that only. But someone who is godly. Who is a real follower of Christ. That's what you want to look for above all other things in that person that you may end up spending the rest of your life with.
Hopefully you will. And so when you marry a non-believer. Let me take it a step further. When you even engage romantically with a non-believer. You're not going to pull them up. They're going to pull you down. Oh no I'm doing missionary dating you might say. But here's the problem. The Bible says don't be unequally yoked together with non-believers.
For what fellowship does light have with darkness or righteousness with unrighteousness. You see the problem is they're going to pull you down far more often than you're going to pull them up. I could illustrate it if I picked someone from out there and I said come up here and see if I can pull you on the stage. Now despite my massive strength.
Even someone relatively small could yank me off the stage. And the reason for that is because I'm 72 and very feeble. No that's not the reason.
No the reason is because you have gravity on your side you see. So when you have a relationship with a believer and a non-believer. It's far easier for you to go backwards and for them to go forward.
So you want to look for a godly person. Well that's not what they were doing. They had intermarried and now soon the Israelites are worshiping this false god. So Ezra calls them out.
He tells them to repent and they did. And they start rebuilding the walls of the Jewish temple because everything was lying in shambles. And walls really mattered back in these days. I don't think we understand how important walls were. The walls of this city is where the elders would meet. It's where justice was meted out.
The walls of a city in ancient times were the center of power. Now we have a lot of talk today about our border and having a secure border. And how important it is to have a secure border.
And by the way that's biblical. Because in Acts 17 26 it says, from one man he made all the nations that they should inhabit the whole earth. And mark out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their land. So a nation needs secure borders. A nation needs to protect itself. And Israel needed that as well. But their walls were down and their borders were broken. And ungodly influence was coming and it was getting worse and worse.
And their problem was growing greater. And by the time Nehemiah enters this scene it's just a complete disaster. The once proud strong walls that surrounded God's city of Jerusalem are now lying in rubble and ruin. And so Nehemiah is such an interesting person for God to choose. Because Nehemiah wasn't an architect. He wasn't a builder. Nor was he a priest or a prophet. He was a different guy altogether. But what he was was he was available. He was available to God. And as I've often said God is not looking for ability as much as he's looking for availability.
He's just looking for someone well like you. To say Lord here I am. I'll do whatever you want me to do. I want to be an influence in my sphere of influence. I want to make a difference in the place you've called me to. So Nehemiah was called to a very unique position.
He was called the cup bearer of the king. Now this is a very important position. If we were to compare it to a position today it would be like being a member of the presidential cabinet. Maybe you could compare it to being chief of staff. Just chief of staff controls who goes into the Oval Office. And they have the presidents here. And they're usually in close proximity to the president.
They're a counselor and an advisor to the president. So that's similar to what Nehemiah was. But his basic job was really quite simple. Cup bearer means he tried the food before the king ate it. Because people would want to poison kings back in those days.
So he'd try the food. Your job could end really quickly. One bad meal party's over.
And oh you died? Well I need a new cup bearer. But the fact of the matter is because you would be around the king every time he ate.
You soon would have the kings there. You would be advising the king. Bottom line this was a really cushy job.
Not a job that you wanted to miss. But despite this luxurious life Nehemiah was living. He was a Jew and he had a heart for his fellow Jews. And he wanted to do something about helping them. He wanted to be with them. In fact he wanted to be with them and their struggles.
Even more than he wanted to be in the luxuries and the comforts of the palace. Reminds us of Moses. Who of course was adopted into the pharaoh's home. And some believe he was being groomed to become the next pharaoh of Egypt. We read Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God. Rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. So of course Moses ultimately led the Israelites out of Egypt into the promised land.
But Nehemiah it's similar. He's thinking what can I do to help the Jews? What can I do to help God's people? Because I want to do something.
I care. I want to be with God's people. Is that how you feel? Are you glad you are in church right now?
That's good. We should look forward to going to church. Like the psalmist said, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go to the house of the Lord. Not I was mad when they said, oh church again. Or I was sad, oh no. No you should be glad.
You should be joyful. And when you are living a Godly life you will want to be with Godly people. And then Pastor Greg I know you had a further word you wanted to share. So as you've been listening today maybe you've thought to yourself. Man I wish I had this relationship with God that is being talked about.
Well you can. He's only a prayer away. You see becoming a Christian it doesn't take years. It doesn't take months. It doesn't take weeks.
It doesn't even take hours. It can happen in a moment. The Bible describes it as turning from darkness to light. And from the power of Satan to God. But before that happens the Bible says you need to have your eyes open. And here's the amazing thing. It's just like in a flash a light goes on and you say this is all true. That's how it happened for me. I just heard the gospel and all of a sudden I realize this is all true.
And maybe you've realized that as well. Let me ask you. Would you like Jesus Christ to come into your life? Would you like him to forgive you of your sin? Would you like this relationship with God we've been talking about today? If so why don't you just pray a simple prayer with me?
You could pray it out loud if you like. But say this to God. Lord Jesus I know that I'm a sinner. But I know that you're the Savior. Who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. Jesus I turn from my sin. And I choose to follow you from this moment forward as my Savior and Lord. As my God and friend. Thank you for hearing this prayer. And I ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Hey did you just pray that prayer?
If so I want to send you at no charge what we call a new believers Bible. Here's Dave to tell you more. And let me just say congratulations. You've made the right decision.
Yeah that's right. And listen to help you begin to live this new life. This life where you're at peace with God and can begin to enjoy the peace of God. Let us send you Pastor Greg's New Believers Bible. It's the perfect resource for someone who's new to the faith. We'll send it free of charge if you'll just contact us and request it. Call 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300.
Or write A New Beginning Box 4000 Riverside, CA 92514. Or go online to harvest.org and click Know God. And then let us take a moment to thank you for praying for this ministry. And for supporting it through your generous donation. It's an investment in kingdom business. Isn't that right Pastor Greg?
Yeah it's really true Dave. And I believe it's so important because you know the Gospel saves lives. It saves eternal lives. Because when a person believes in Jesus according to scripture they pass from darkness to light. From the power of Satan to the power of God. And then of course that changes the course of their future.
That impacts their children and their children's children. The Gospel changes everything. And thousands and thousands of people respond every single year. Thanks to the Lord. Also thanks to you for your investment in this ministry.
Enabling us to reach people wherever they are. So if this is something you care about I encourage you to make a financial investment in A New Beginning and Harvest Ministries. Yeah that's right and we really do appreciate your support. Thanks for partnering with us today.
It can make a real difference not just for today or this week but for eternity. So get in touch with your support today by calling 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24-7 phone number 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or go online to Harvest.org. Well next time more insights from this opening message in our Nehemiah studies called Revival Starts Here. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie.
