Greg Laurie here. You've heard about these devastating fires that we're experiencing right here in our backyard in Southern California. These fires are moving so quickly and they're 0% contained. So what should we do? Pray. Pray for these firefighters. Pray for their protection.
But we need to step into this situation. So we've created the Harvest Relief Funds for situations exactly like this. If you would like to send some support, to help people in need, you just go to our website, harvest.org slash relief. We want to bring help and hope to people in the name of Jesus Christ. I'm reminded of the passage that tells us that God can bring beauty out of ashes. Thank you for your prayers and let's pray that this fire is contained and stopped and that lives are spared and most importantly that people come to put their faith in Christ.
Thank you so much. Hey there. Thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie encouraging you.
If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org. It's our small groups, our relaunching. We took a break for the holidays and they too are going through the book of Nehemiah. Today we're in Nehemiah chapter one 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 to 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 gonna go big. I'm gonna 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. 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 for 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. Something seemed impossible.
But with God, all things are possible. Right? Nothing is a mess right now, as you all know. I mean, what a way to start a brand new year, a terrorist attack in New Orleans with a tragic loss of life. I have no idea why the FBI came out immediately and said this was not a terrorist attack. The guy's flying an ISIS flag on his truck.
That's the first clue. Someone might be a terrorist if they're flying an ISIS flag on their truck. And it turned out, of course, to be a terrorist attack.
Okay, to start a new year. Then we have this woke ideology. It has infiltrated the highest levels of government. We have continuing violent crime on the rise. We have families falling apart. It seems like the very foundation of our nation is crumbling.
But we have a glimmer of hope. We have a new president who's gonna take office. And America, and I believe we're going to see it, but realistically, there's only so much one man or even one new administration can do. Yes, 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. 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 God.
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, originally to Israel. But in principle, it applies to any nation, including ours, when God says, America 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. I don't know what state your spiritual life is in as we enter into the year 2025. But there's no better time to rebuild it if necessary, and at the beginning of a new year. Our life could be compared to a wall that is either strong and resilient, or it's weak and crumbling.
And if you neglect the walls of protection in your life, they will soon end up in rubble. So you need to be revived. Now we throw this word revival around a lot. I'm not sure if we even understand what it means. Let's just simplify it.
I think it's overly mystified at times. It's to revive something, or to restore it. It's to go back to original condition. So I used to have the coolest old car. It was a 1957 Bel Air convertible.
Now this is what it looked like. This is not my actual car. But my car looked exactly like that. That's called a Bel Air convertible, tropical turquoise, with a continental package. That's that wheel cover on the back. And this car had matching numbers. If you're into old cars, you know what that means. It means everything was original. It wasn't a resto mod. It was the real deal, and it ran like a top.
It ran perfectly. And I got it for a killer deal. And I loved to drive this thing.
It was just this massive cruising machine. The problem is I couldn't get anyone to go in the car with me. My wife didn't want to drive around with me in it. She says, oh Greg, I don't want to. I said, why?
She says, I feel like we're in a parade or something. And then Jonathan would go surfing, and I would pick him up in the Bel Air. And he'd say, Dad, could you not pick me up in that car? I was like, really? The only living creature I could get to drive with me in the Bel Air was my dog. And I'm not even sure if he liked driving in it.
I just drove off a showroom floor cruising along. And that's where revival is. It's restoration.
Going back to original condition. So in our context, when we talk about revival in the church or in our life, we're talking about restoration or waking up spiritually or getting back to living the Christian life as it was meant to be lived. In its roots and in its DNA. That's a very unique thing about the United States. How we have this in our roots and in our origins. You could arguably make a case for the fact that there probably wouldn't be an America today if it wasn't for a spiritual awakening that preceded the Revolutionary War.
There's a lot of 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 gonna learn how to plan our work and work our plan. And at the same time, trust God. We're gonna talk about how to motivate others when morale is slipping.
How to respond to personal attacks and react when lies are told about it. 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 they had around 10 acres of strategic land in Jerusalem at that point. And they had strong, fortified walls surrounding it.
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. He 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 end.
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. There were more idols and false gods in Babylon that you could shake a stick at. 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 also to 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.
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 he 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.
It was divided. And along comes Cyrus and the Medo-Persian forces and they conquer Babylon and now Cyrus is ruling. Well Cyrus respected the Jews 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. 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. Okay I got a joke for you.
Ready? Knock knock. Ach. God bless you.
Like achoo. Okay one more. Knock knock. Boo. You don't have to cry.
You don't have to cry about it. Okay so. 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.
We study history especially biblical history. 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. Not 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 gonna pull them up. They're gonna pull you down. Oh no I'm doing missionary dating you might say.
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 gonna pull you down far more often than you're gonna 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.
I'm going 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. An 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 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. Because chief of staff controls who goes into the oval office. The president's 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. So your job could end really quickly. One bad meal party's over.
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 king's heir. 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 health. Helping them. He wanted to be with them. In fact he wanted to be with them in their struggles even more than he wanted to be in the luxuries and the comforts of the palace.
Minds the same. 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. But we read Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
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're in church right now?
That's good. 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're living a godly life you will want to be with godly people.
Let me flip that around. If you're not living a godly life you will not want to be with godly people. And because Nehemiah was a godly man he wants to be with God's people. You know the last great spiritual awakening in America was called the Jesus movement or the Jesus revolution. And a movie was made about it of course. In fact right now it's on the Peacock network. The NBC network.
It just debuted there. So you know this tells the story of the last great awakening. I was privileged to come to Christ right as it was really exploding. And I can tell you this no one was ever late for church.
Are you listening to me? Third service. First service okay that's one thing. But you know no one was late for church and no one left early.
And people showed up with their Bibles with a sense of expectancy. I think that we contribute to what a service becomes. We expect everyone here on the stage to do all the heavy lifting.
Do all the work. Lead us in worship. Preach us good service. Move us. Motivate us. Okay we have our job. But you have your job. Come with an open receptive heart. Right?
That's your job. In Acts 2 42 it says they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine. The breaking of bread and worship and gladness and singleness of heart. It meant that they came giving their attention with intention.
A sense of expectancy. See you need to prepare your heart as you come to worship with God's people. And when our amazing worship team leads you in worship you should engage and join them.
Not stand there you know looking at Instagram or looking around or whatever it is. Engage it's a time to worship. And then when we open the word of God say Lord speak to my heart right now. That's an indication that you are loved. That you are living in a state of revival.
And we can fall away from this. Jesus in Revelation chapter 2 spoke to the church of Ephesus. First he commends them for all the things that we're doing right. Loose paraphrase. He says hey you guys are discerning. You work hard.
I commend you for all that. But I have something against you. I have something against you Jesus says. You have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen and do the first works quickly or I will remove your candlestick from its place. So what does he say to this church? You've left your first love. He doesn't say you've lost your first love. He says you've left it.
And then he says remember from where you have fallen and do the first works quickly. So the three R's according to Jesus of getting right with God. The three R's of personal revival are remember repent and repeat. Remember look at your life. Ask yourself the question was there a time in my life where I was more passionate about my relationship with God.
Was there a time in my life when I was stronger spiritually than I am right now. So remember it now repent. Change your direction and repeat. Go back Jesus says and do the first works quickly. If you want to see revival do revival like things. Do the things that you used to do. Again don't wait for some emotion to overtake you.
Just start doing those practical things and you will in time see personal revival in your life. Did you used to talk to people about Jesus more than you do now? Oh yeah. You know the best evangelists are brand new Christians. God bless them. They're so full of zeal. Bringing people to church every week.
I gotta bring more people. That's great but then time passes. You can't remember the last time you brought someone to church. That first love passion. Oh man I can't wait to open up the Bible and maybe you don't do that anymore or you don't pray about things anymore. You just stress about them and worry about them instead. Now get back and do those things again and the emotions of revival will come into your life as well. Remember from where you have fallen.
Anyway so let's look now at the book of Nehemiah and just one little other thing I wanted to say. Let's all make a commitment you know. Beginning of the year the old resolutions roll out right. I'm gonna go on a diet. I'm gonna get in shape. I'm going to spend more time with my family. I'm gonna do X, Y, and Z and then we break those resolutions pretty quickly. How about some new year commitments and how about just starting with this real simple. I'm gonna make a new year's commitment to go to church every Sunday week.
Without exception. I'm not gonna miss church. That guy's gonna do it. I'm gonna be looking for you every Sunday.
I know who you are. And we should all be like that. That's right. Like this is it.
This is what we do on Sunday. Hey I'm gonna ask you to do something else. I'm gonna ask you to get involved in a small group.
This is really important. Why do you keep talking about that Greg? Because it really is gonna help you spiritually. It gets you deeper into the word of God and you're gonna build new relationships that you don't have right now. See we find that when people are in small groups they don't come in nearly as often for pastoral counseling. Because they have a group of people to talk with and a group of people to pray with and a group of people to pitch in and help them.
We see this so often. So I really want you to do that. And so you that aren't involved in a small group after the service today try to get involved in one. But let's come now to our scripture Nehemiah chapter one. I'm gonna read verses one to three as we sort of set the stage.
And I'm reading from the New Living translation. I asked them about how the Jews were doing who had returned there from captivity and how things were going in Jerusalem. So we talked about the first wave of the Jews returning under Zerubbabel then under Ezra. How are they doing now? How are things going?
They said to me things are not going well. For those who return to the province of Judah they're in great trouble and disgrace the wall of Jerusalem that's been torn down and the gates have been destroyed by fire. So here's Nehemiah living in the lap of luxury in his super cushy job working for the king and he hears this really bad news. How does he react?
Well he's deeply moved and he realizes God put me here for a reason. I can make a difference because I have the ear of the king and I'm gonna use this opportunity. Now who does Daniel remind you of? Esther. Remember her? She won a beauty contest.
She ended up as the queen of the kingdom of Persia and there was a plot hatched by a wicked man named Haman to eradicate the Jewish people and Esther was a Jew and she decided to go to the king and put it all on the line and use her influence and try to save her people. But of course she was successful in that because God put her where she was for a reason and as Mordecai her cousin said to her who knows that God has not placed you where you are for such a time as this. I think Nehemiah discovered the same thing and that's what has happened to you as well. You are where you are because God put you there. Sometimes you say why am I here? Why am I in this neighborhood? Why am I in this job? Why am I in this place? Why?
It doesn't make sense. I'm gonna change my circumstances. Okay maybe you can make a case for doing that but did it ever occur to you that you are where God wants you to be for such a time as this? Leverage your relationships.
Use your influence. You see Esther did her part at an earlier time in the history of her nation and now Nehemiah's gonna do something as well. But before he does anything he prays.
Go back to Nehemiah one. Look at verse four. When I heard this Nehemiah says I sat down and I wept for four days. I mourned and I fasted and I prayed to the God of heaven. I said oh Lord God of heaven the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love and those who love him and obey his commands.
Listen to my prayer. Look down and see me praying day and night for your people Israel. I confess that we have sinned against you.
Yes even my own family and I have sinned. We have sinned terribly and not obeying your commands. Wow what a prayer that is. So a lot we can learn about prayer from that prayer. You want your prayers answered?
Well this prayer was answered. So what did he do? Let's see what we can learn together. First he wept. First he cared.
Have you ever wept over the broken walls in your own life or in your family or over people you loved or others who have turned their back on God? So you start there. But here's some principles from his prayer that we can apply in our prayer and if you're taking notes.
Here's point number one. He acknowledged the greatness of God. He acknowledged the greatness of God.
Verse five. Oh Lord God of heaven the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love to those who love him and obey his commands. Oh great and awesome God. When you pray remember who you're talking to. You're talking to the creator of the universe. The almighty God and his riches are unsearchable and his power is unlimited and he's literally listening to your prayer right now. So get that in mind because sometimes we come to God with big problems but we need to realize we come to God who's bigger than our problems.
Right? So Jesus taught us to pray in this manner therefore pray. And then he went on to give what we call the Lord's Prayer. But it's not just a great prayer to pray though does that. But it's a template for all prayer.
What does he say? After this manner pray or here's a template for prayer. Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
And then he goes on to the petitions that follow. But it starts with an acknowledgement of the awesomeness and the power of God. Our Father who art in heaven and that's exactly how Nehemiah begins his prayer acknowledging the greatness and power and sovereignty of God.
Number two Nehemiah reminded God of his promises. He reminds God of the promises that he made. Was that to jog God's memory?
Of course not. God doesn't need any help with his memory. But it's to remind himself of what God said and I love to do this in prayer.
I love to remind God of his promises and remind myself as well. As someone comes to us will you pray for me I'm sick. Okay let's pray. Father we come to you now in the name of Jesus and you've promised if there's any sick among you we should call for the elders of the church that should pray for these people and anoint them with oil. And then you promise that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man will accomplish much. Well Lord we are righteous men and women here not because of what we've done but because of what you've done and now standing on your promise in scripture we pray for this person.
So what did I just do? I reminded myself of what the Bible says. So when I start to worry Lord you promised me in your word and I should not worry about anything but I should pray about everything and the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus. So immediately before I've even given the prayer I'm reminding myself of the promise of God and that immediately brings calm to my heart. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Have you done this? And you really realize oh wow you know the Lord is is so powerful and he's going to help me through this. And there's so many promises like that found in the pages of scripture. God promises he'll get you through whatever you're facing. God promises he'll provide your needs.
Philippians 4 19 my God shall supply all of your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. Lord I have a financial need right now and you promised you'll provide all of my needs according to your riches and glory so therefore I pray he's promised to forgive us of our sins. Lord you promised me in scripture 1 John 1 9 if I will confess my sin you're faithful and just to forgive me of my sin and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. So Lord I receive your forgiveness because of the blood of Jesus that was shed for me on the cross of Calvary and I'm going to walk in that forgiveness now. That's taking hold of our promise of God because here's the devil trying to beat you up and kick you and fill you with guilt. You failed yeah I did fail but God's promised to forgive me and I'm going to accept that forgiveness and walk in that forgiveness right now.
That's that's what we need to do. So number three Nehemiah confessed his personal sin look at verse 7. I confess that I've sinned against you yes my own family and I have sinned we've sinned terribly by not obeying your commands decrees and regulations. Wow he says we my own family I have sinned but you know as you read the story of Nehemiah you don't really read of him sinning.
Now he did of course sin but my point is he was quick to acknowledge his own responsibility and that's something we don't like to do today. We like to blame everyone and everything for our problems. It's not my fault it's the fault of that teacher it's a fault of that parent it's a fault of that boss it's the fault of this it's the fault of that. And all these people that we're having conflicts with these people are all wrong it's their fault did it ever occur to you you're the problem.
You seem to be the source of conflict at the heart of all of these issues and you need to go and say Lord I have sinned. Because sometimes we'll hear a message and we'll say like this and say oh I wish so-and-so were here today. They really need to hear this message oh yeah okay well guess what you're here. This message is for you.
Now if you want to send a link to it to so-and-so that's fine maybe they do need to hear it. But the point is we're so quick oh this person needs to hear that and all that person needs to change this other thing. Maybe they do but what about you what do you need to change?
See Nehemiah starts with himself and acknowledges his sin so sometimes we'll pray for someone to change. Lord change my lousy husband he's the worst. He just doesn't love me enough he doesn't appreciate me just move in his life and maybe judge him a little and then change him I don't know. Lord this ungrateful wife of mine change her get her to stop nagging me and bothering me. Well Lord change this change that why don't you start by saying Lord change me and make me a better husband.
Lord change me make me a better wife. See God changed Nehemiah and Nehemiah changed things. And I like that because prayer will change things but prayer can change you. See so we have to start there and so off Nehemiah goes now with a desire to serve God and I love the fact that he prayed for days. He says in verse six look down Lord and see me praying day and night now this isn't boasting. He's just saying Lord look I'm praying I'm doing what you told me to do and if we miss everything else let's not miss this.
Whatever you're facing right now whatever walls are falling down in your life or in the life of your family or in your job or with your friends. The first thing to do is go to God and call out to him. God says in Jeremiah 33 3 call to me and I will answer you and I will tell you great and mighty things that you do not know. Okay so point number four Nehemiah was specific in his request to God I love this prayer he prays very clear. Verse 10 Lord please hear my prayer listen to the prayers of those who delight in honoring you. Please grant me success today make the king favorable to me put it in his heart to be kind to me.
So Nehemiah says okay Lord I'm gonna bet the farm I'm gonna go for this thing and I'm gonna go to the king. And I'm gonna ask for his help to basically underwrite this whole idea that I have to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. And I'm gonna ask you to touch his heart right now so Lord give me success but don't miss the fact that before he prayed this specific prayer. He spent time waiting on the Lord seeking the face and the heart of God. And I think when you spend time in scripture and spend time in God's presence it will change the way that you pray and it will change what you pray for. And Nehemiah certainly shows that in this prayer that he prays Lord give me favor. So he's gonna go to the king and he's gonna say I want to build a wall and you're paying for it.
You're gonna pay for it what do you think of that king? But that's exactly what he did and he went to the king with this request. And of course as we're gonna see as we get into this book he faced a lot of opposition as he undertook this project. And he faced difficulties and he faced challenges. And it reminds me of a statement from Alan Redpath.
Alan Redpath was a wonderful British gentleman of years gone by that I had the privilege of getting to know personally. He's written a lot of amazing commentaries but Alan Redpath said this from his commentary on the book of Nehemiah quote. There is no winning without warfare. There is no opportunity without opposition. There is no victory without vigilance. Whenever the people of God say let's rise and build Satan will say let's rise and oppose end quote. So when you're doing something for God you better expect opposition. Some of you would say Greg I get tempted all the time.
These bad thoughts come to my mind that these challenges come the persecution comes. What am I doing wrong? Maybe you're doing something right. If you say to me Greg I can't remember the last time I've been tempted. I can't remember the last time I faced opposition.
I'd say maybe you're not worth tempting. See the fact is when you're serving God you're gonna face opposition and that opposition is a confirmation. You're on the right path not on the wrong one.
Right? So get ready for it and that's what Nehemiah faced. So in conclusion as we come to this first Sunday of 2025 let's make a commitment. Let's make a commitment to pray for revival in our own life and pray for revival in our nation. As I said in the beginning it starts with us.
The title is Revival Starts Here. One other thing I would bring up is in Nehemiah 7 3 it says that they were to appoint the residents of Jerusalem to act as guards everyone on a regular watch. Some will serve at sentry posts and some in front of their own homes. So here's the point. As they're putting the plan together Nehemiah doesn't just hire a bunch of people to do it. He says everybody is gonna do this.
We're all gonna do it. I mean sometimes we may say you know I go to the church and it's the job of the pastors to do this and the job of the staff to do this other thing. Yeah well they have their roles and their positions and they're here to serve you but we all have a part to play. We are the church. We are the body of Christ. You're a part of this. I'm a part of it.
We're all a part of it. And so you need to say Lord what role do you want me to play? Another challenge I have for you at the beginning of this year is not only say I'll go to church every Sunday and that I want to get into a small group but that you volunteer to serve here somewhere.
Because there's so many needs here and great opportunities for you to develop the gifts that God has given to you and it will change the whole way you look at church. You know and you'll come and say oh man I've got this role and I take this seriously and this is what I do for God's kingdom. And then one day after a time of service someone comes and says man I see you're really faithful in these things and we have this other thing we're wondering if you'd be willing to help with.
I'd love to help with that. And then a little time goes by and someone says man we'd like you to do this other thing. You know one opportunity opens up after another. I remember when I was a very new Christian and I was going to Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa. And I wanted to serve the Lord so I went into Pastor Chuck's office. I was so bold I wanted an appointment with Pastor Chuck. So I sat down and I said hi Chuck I'm Greg Laurie and I want to serve God. And I was thinking maybe Chuck would say well Greg why don't you speak next Sunday morning or you know who knows.
Who knows. And Chuck just said to me oh that's nice. Craig why don't you go see Romaine. Now I didn't know who Romaine was. But Romaine his name was Laverne Romaine. Now you know why he went by Romaine.
He hated it when people called him Laverne. So Romaine used to be in the Marine Corps and he was a drill sergeant and he loved to whip young guys into shape. So I went to Romaine and I said hi Romaine Pastor Chuck sent me to you because I want to serve the Lord.
Romaine knew exactly what that meant. Free janitorial service for the next six months. That's exactly what I did. Here's a broom. Go sweep. Go clean up. Do this do that. And they just had me do.
I'm in the bathroom cleaning things. I want to serve God. Exactly. They were saying if you want to serve God be faithful in the little things and greater opportunities will open up for you. And if we're not willing to do those little things why would God want to give us greater things to do. See you're never too small for God to use.
You're only too big. But if you're willing to say I'll serve wherever you'll see what a blessing it is. So notice how everybody was given a job to do in front of their own homes that starts with you.
You can talk all day about all the need in America today and these people should do. Hey how's your family doing? How are your kids doing?
How are you doing in the family? I mean start with your home. Start with your life. Don't be so quick to point fingers at everybody else. Start with yourself and start building the walls there.
Our most effective tools are prayer and gospel proclamation. We need to rise up and do that. But let it start here. Let it start with you. And let it start with your relationship with God. One more knock knock joke.
Ready? Knock knock. Jesus.
Jesus Christ who stands at the door of your life and knocks. Well that's not funny. It's not a joke.
It's for real. He stands at the door of your life and he knocks and says if you'll hear his voice and open the door he'll come in. And I was shocked that you didn't know who Jesus was. You're like Jesus who? No I'm kidding. I know that's how the jokes go.
Okay so. So it starts by asking Christ into your life and then saying Lord revive me. So we're going to close with a prayer.
I want to invite people to believe in Jesus if you have not done it yet. And we're also going to pray for personal revival and we're also going to pray for revival in our church. And we're also going to pray for revival in our state.
Boy do we need it. More people are leaving California than any other state in America. The number one export of California is Californians. A lot of people want to write our state off. Don't forget the last great spiritual awakening happened in California. We're going to pray God does it again. And then we'll pray for an awakening for our nation.
Let's all stand up as we do this. Lord we come to you today as your people and I pray for any who have joined us who do not yet know you. If they've not yet asked Jesus to come into their life let this be the moment they do it. And while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying if you've not asked Jesus to come into your life you can do that right here right now. You just pray Lord Jesus forgive me of my sin. Thank you for dying for me on the cross and rising again from the dead.
I turn from my sin now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. In Jesus name I pray. Now as we're praying. Lord we pray for revival. Let it start with us.
Let it start with me. Lord we admit we fall short. We acknowledge that perhaps we have left our first love.
We don't do those things we once did. Help us to do them again as you tell us to Lord. Help us to have a passion for prayer. A hunger for the Word of God.
A desire to be a functioning living part of your church. And we pray for this church. We thank you for raising it up over 50 years ago. And we pray that you will bless our church and provide for us and protect us. And lead us and guide us and use us in our communities. In our state. In our nation. And Lord we pray for our state California. The Golden State it's called. We pray you'll send another great spiritual awakening to this state.
Where the last one happened. And finally we pray for our nation. Lord we pray that you will send a spiritual awakening to the United States of America. We pray for our new president Donald Trump. We pray for his administration. We pray for the people that serve us in public office. That you'll move in Washington D.C. and bring people to you Lord. Bring people to repentance. Republicans. Democrats.
Independents. Just bring people to Jesus. That's the most important thing of all. More important than anything else.
You can do this. You've raised this nation up Lord to be a light to the world. Imagine a world without America. How you've used us. But Lord we've forgotten you but you have not forgotten us. Send a revival to America. And let it start with us. Right here. Right now. In Jesus' name we pray.
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