Rebuilding More Than Walls | Sunday Message (Pastor Jonathan Laurie)

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here.

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That was pathetic. Let's try it again. Good afternoon. Good to see you all. You can have a seat. Welcome to church everyone. I'm Pastor Jonathan Laurie. Can we thank our worship team right now for leading us?

Awesome. Well, it's good to see you all. We're going to be in the book of Nehemiah today continuing in our series.

We'll be in Nehemiah chapter 9 if you'd like to turn there. Shifting gears a little bit today, we can be thankful and celebrate something. Today is my parents' 51st wedding anniversary.

Amazing. They were at church here this morning and just so thankful for them. Of course, their marriage and their commitment to each other has blessed me and I know that it's also blessed all of you and all of our campuses. We're thankful for their leadership and for their commitment to each other and to the Lord.

Amen. So happy anniversary mom and dad. Pretty cool, the baby dedications we just had across all of our campuses. We dedicated 32 kids to the Lord. How cool is that?

Love it. 32 kids. I was dedicated here at Harvest I think probably 37 years ago, 38 years ago.

I'm not sure how long. Here's a photo of me when I was dedicated. That's my dad holding me. We still like to recreate that pose sometimes.

It's a little bit more difficult now. I dedicated all of my kids. We have three kids, all three of whom were dedicated. They're 12, they're 14 and 19 years old and being a parent, man, it's just a wild thing, isn't it? It's a wild thing being a parent through all of the different stages from the time they're wearing diapers and they start to walk and they start to talk and then they start to ask questions and they develop these little personalities almost out of nowhere and the difference between kids can just be so radical. One kid can be super outgoing and another kid more reserved and more insightful and it's just amazing to see each and every one of them have different personalities, different gifts and one of my favorite things is you teach them and you disciple them and you talk to them about Jesus especially when they're little kids. They almost seem when they're young especially like three, four, five years old to have like this intuitive insight into God's character.

Have you found that to be true? You parents who have raised your kids, you talk to them about the Bible stories or you start to talk to them about the character of God and they just grasp onto it so quickly. I think it's because their hearts are so pure that they understand what good is better than sometimes we as adults do and it's just, it's a lot of fun. It's such a blessing and the insights you get as a parent as well, how much you love that child.

Those of you who are aunts and uncles and have younger siblings, you know when you're a little bit older, you know how much you love those younger brothers and sisters and those nieces and nephews. Teaching your children to know and love God is maybe one of the best life hacks also to know how to love God in your own life because when you're teaching these little ones, these baby steps, you're also teaching them to yourself and you're like, yeah, you know what? I do need to read my Bible every day.

Yeah, I do need to read. I do need to pray to God and talk to him every night before I go to sleep. These things that you're teaching your kids and everything, you realize this is something that you need to be doing as well. It is a true blessing and as parents, our ultimate goal is not just to teach information but to really create a hunger in our kids for God, a hunger for him. I get creating an appetite inside of him and we do that as I mentioned during the baby dedication. We do that in every aspect of our lives. When we're in the car rides together, when we're cleaning up you know the house and picking up the trash, when we're you know putting a band-aid on their ouchie, you know there's an opportunity to talk about how your body's going to heal itself and God made you in such a beautiful way that your body can take care of itself and God loves you. You know, just little opportunities. They're a lot of fun and it's a lot of fun but when you're not teaching, when you're not shaping them into you know model citizens and you're not loving them, you're changing diapers, right?

And you're playing, being a playmate with them and making airplane noises. You're pulling your back out when you're picking up the toys that they didn't pick up and so there's a lot of different things that we do as parents, a lot of different roles that we have. I feel like I was a lifeguard for the first five years of my son's life especially. He always wanted to jump into the deep end of a pool for whatever reason. He didn't know how to swim. He just wanted to be in the deep end of the pool as much as possible, not the shallow end where he could walk.

He wanted to be where it was the most dangerous place as possible and he has continued with that to this day. He is a little bit of a daredevil, likes to climb trees way up high and catch snakes that he has no idea what kind of snake it is but he sees it, he wants to grab it, he likes to grab spiders, lizards, all kinds of stuff and so he's continued on with that. When he was little, like three years old, I remember one time in particular, he would obviously he would do this nonstop and we would tell him don't but he wouldn't listen. He would run out the door straight into the pool and sometimes we would have to jump in after him fully clothed. You know, it didn't matter if we were on our way out the door to an important appointment or whatever it might be, he was in the pool, we had to go in after him and thankfully, every time we were there to grab him but one time in particular, I was in the pool with him and I was telling him buddy, you can't jump in by yourself, you can't swim yet but you know, I've got to be there right with you.

He was like no, I want to do it and so I decided okay, here's the time. I'm going to teach him some tough love. He's going to learn some consequences for his actions right here.

He's going to learn to have a healthy respect for the water. So he jumped in the water and sure enough, he sank down a few feet and then he kind of wiggled his way up to the top and got through the surface and then he's kind of like at the surface almost treading water and then he starts to sink again and he goes underwater and then he breaks the surface again and he gets his face up the whole time, just a big toothy grin and finally, he goes underwater again and this time, he's just, he's sinking. He's going down.

He's going down. I can't you know, handle it anymore. I can't stand it anymore so I reached down, rip him up out of the water. Don't worry, it was probably only like seven seconds this whole thing elapsed, all right? Don't call CPS and so I pull him up out of the water and he looks at me and he's wiping the water out of his eyes and he's spitting the water out of his mouth and he's coughing a little bit and he looks at me and he goes, I did it. No, bud, you almost drowned. You didn't do it. No.

But he was determined to do it his way. Saying to Christopher, hey, don't go in the pool. Well, why not? Because you don't know how to swim. Yes, I can.

No, you can't. Well, you know, whatever. Saying because I said so to him, it didn't matter. It didn't matter but as a parent, I couldn't let him harm himself. I couldn't let him put himself in danger and so loving him meant leading him even when he kicked and screamed and bit and cried. Later on when he was a little bit older, Christopher was laying in bed with Brittany and I and he was kind of falling asleep and he reaches over and puts his hand on my chest and he says, I love you, dad. And I said, oh, I love you too, buddy. And he said, you make really smart choices. And I said, oh, can you say that a little louder so mom hears? No, I said, wow, Christopher, thank you, bud. Like what kind of choices? And he kind of, he goes, I don't know. Like you always know what kind of food to get.

There's a direct quote and you can be sure my wife heard that compliment. Leadership. Leadership means knowing what kind of food to get. No, leadership means doing the right thing even when it's uncomfortable.

Doing the right thing even when it's uncomfortable. Good leadership is everything. As we look at Nehemiah chapter nine, we see good leadership on display.

Nehemiah was a good leader. A good leader can determine the future of a home, whether future generations of grandchildren will live in faith and in legacy and inheritance or if that future generation will be divided by divorce or addiction or quarreling. Leadership shapes a company's success or failure, whether it's a fortune 500 company or it's declining bankruptcy for the third time.

Good leadership can define a nation's strength, whether they are a third world war torn country or it's a prosperous, safe, beautiful and God honoring nation. That's the difference leadership can make. Now you might be here today thinking, well, if we're going to be talking about leadership, I am going to tune out now because I'm not a leader. I'm not a leader. You might say to yourself, I'm not a leader. I'm young, I'm old, I'm single, I'm divorced, I'm married, I'm uneducated, I'm retired, I'm not a leader. The fact is you are a leader. First and foremost, you lead yourself and if you were involved in school or work or ministry or politics or you have neighbors or wherever, you are a leader. It just depends on what kind of leader you are. You could be passive, you could be strong, you could be engaged, you could be apathetic. What kind of leader are you?

Ask yourself that question. Now, as a pastor here, I am a pastor at this church, that might surprise you. In the scripture, the word pastor is used only a couple of times in the New Testament. It's the exact same word used for the word interpreted as shepherd, as shepherd. So when the angel appeared to the shepherds by night to declare the birth of Jesus, it was that same word as pastor, which is poimin. And so that's a really, I think, gives us a great picture of what the role of a pastor is to be.

A shepherd, a pastor is someone who has a flock and is there to protect, to feed, to heal, to correct and to corral the sheep. And so that tells me what kind of leader I need to be. So I would ask you, what kind of leadership does God expect from you in your position?

You might be a grandma, you might be a school teacher, you might be a CEO, whatever you might be. What does it take to lead well in our homes, in our churches and in our nation? Leadership is so important. And that's why we're going to be looking together in Nehemiah chapter 9 to really observe a picture of godly leadership and how we can apply this to our own lives. At this point in the story, quick little recap, the walls of Jerusalem have been rebuilt. In just 52 days, Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. That is some serious efficiency.

Amazing. The people have now heard God's word as spoken by Ezra the scribe and something incredible happens. They don't just hear the word with respect. They don't just stand still and listen and react solemnly.

No, they hear the word and they respond. The leaders of Israel step forward, not to just celebrate the success of the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, but to confess their failures, to repent and commit to something greater. Their example led the nation to renewal, restoring their relationship with God and laying a foundation for a future built on his truth. Now, Nehemiah, of course, he was instrumental in bringing this national revival about leading the people, not just in rebuilding the city's walls, but in restoring their faith and in commitment to God. And so that does bring us to Nehemiah chapter 9.

Now I've titled this message Rebuilding More Than Walls, Rebuilding More Than Walls. And we're going to be looking at verse 1. It says this, Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month, the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, in sackcloth and with dust on their heads. Then those of Israelite heritage separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for one-fourth of the day.

And for another one-fourth of the day, they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God. Let's stop there. That brings us to point number 1. Own it.

Own it. Leadership starts with truth and repentance. Sometimes before you move forward, you need to remember where you've been. Before you move forward, before you start a new work, you need to remember where you've been.

Before you set that goal, you need to reflect on the past. Recognize the decisions you made that brought you to your current position. You might say, my marriage could be better. I could be a better parent. I could work a little harder so I could get that raise at work. I could pursue the Lord with more discipline. I could be more intentional about discipling younger people in my life and leading them to the Lord.

It could be something else, but the pattern is the same. You recognize it. You confess it to God. You repent of it, and you start again.

God is the God of second and third and fourth and fifth chances, isn't He? We have opportunities all the time to confess, repent, and start again. In whatever area, like I said, marriage, family, work, wherever, we can glorify God.

We can have good leadership in our lives. Good leaders don't cover up sin. They confess it. Good leaders don't cover up sin.

They don't turn a blind eye to the areas in their life that have brought them down. They confess it to God. And when you confess it to God, you were saying, I agree with you, Lord, that what I did here, I was lazy. What I did here, this was sinful. What I did here, I missed the mark.

I got distracted. You learn and you grow from your mistakes. And here we see the Israelites doing just that. They openly acknowledge the failures of the past and the present.

And instead of ignoring it or excusing it or sweeping it under the rug, they own it. Now, they could have blamed their forefathers, couldn't they? They could have said, wasn't it like Solomon's fall, King David's son, the third king of Israel, and already, you know, he is worshiping false gods. He was intermarrying with women of other faith and was bringing in their idolatry and even putting up the Asherah poles. And he was starting to do that.

He's the problem. We need to point the finger back at him and blame him. Or they could have said, what about King Ahab and Queen Jezebel? They were so wicked, you know, passing children through the fire, sacrificing infants for the sake of Jezebel and all these, you know, wicked people for the sake of Baal, the false god that they worshiped. Shouldn't we blame them? They could have done that, and they did recognize their failures. But ultimately, they looked at themselves. They looked at themselves. They recognized that they were as guilty as anyone. They saw themselves with 4K clarity, 4K resolution, with no way to shift the blame.

They recognized that they were just as responsible as anybody. They were guilty of walking away from God's law, and they saw that it was destroying them. Why were the walls of Jerusalem torn down? Why were the walls of Jerusalem torn down?

Because they had ultimately given themselves, the Israelites, to idolatry. God delivered them to their idolaters, the idolatry, and the Babylonians took them in. Then the Assyrians conquered the Babylonians. Now they're in Assyria. And so ultimately, the walls of Jerusalem were in disrepair.

The small little nation was conquered by the superpower of Babylon in Assyria. And so they wanted to go back, and God allowed them to go back. Ultimately, Jerusalem was in its situation because of their sin, because they had turned away from God. And again, they recognized that they were the ones that had walked away from God's law, and that it was destroying them. They had exchanged the truth of God for a lie, as the scripture says. Now I gotta say, there are some really interesting parallels as we read through Nehemiah with what is happening in America today.

There's a lot of interesting parallels. In recent history, our nation has aggressively undermined biblical values, morality, and truth. Have you seen this? Have you been paying attention?

I think we've all seen it, right? Our nation is departing from truth. Our nation is departing from God. We've seen abortion expanded to include late-term procedures, even up to birth, with some doctors justifying infanticide.

That means after the baby is born, even going and resolving the problem. Devastating. We've seen a relentless push to blur the lines of gender, telling children they can choose their own identity while punishing parents who stand for truth and want to intervene. Schools have been transformed into battlegrounds for indoctrination, where kids are exposed to sexualized content and radical ideologies instead of being taught basic education. And we've also seen increased hostility towards Israel, with many questioning their legitimacy as a nation, something that we are told will begin to happen in the days approaching Christ's return. Listen, as a Christian, as a pastor, I see this is not just bad policy. It is spiritual rebellion against God's design. That is not a political statement. This is spiritual. If you think for this moment, you find yourself kind of wincing as I talk about these topics, like, oh, cringing, oh, you know, what about these? Well, Jonathan didn't consider this fact, and I've got all these rebuttal points. Hey, I get it. I can hear your thoughts.

They're louder than you think. I would strongly urge you, if you find yourself wincing, to consider where do you find your source of truth? What is your source of truth? Is it based on the emotions and the feelings and the stories of others, or is it based on God's word? Listen, I want to tell you here today, without apology, we here at Harvest stand on God's truth. This is God's word.

It is absolute, and it is final. We believe that God's word is absolute truth. Now, listen, if you want to open, if you want to, excuse me, argue for open borders, if you want to argue for universal health care or increase spending on housing for homeless or higher taxes for billionaires, that's fine because those issues are not black and white in scripture.

Some would say that they are, but I would argue there are far way to your topics that we need to defend. When it comes to scripture, this should not be up for debate, the sanctity of human life, the definition of gender, the definition of marriage, our support of Israel as well. I know it might sound foolish and out of touch to many of you right now standing on words that were written thousands of years ago and how irrelevant they might be today. Well, I would just quote back to you the words of the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 3 when he says, the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, he catches the wise in their own craftiness. And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise and they are futile. Listen, I would rather be foolish in the world's eyes than be foolish in God's eyes. I will stand with God on these topics and we declare his truth.

You know, it would really be so much easier for me and my dad and the pastors here and the pastors across the country to just go and say, hey, you know what? It's okay for you to go and have an abortion. It's inconvenient timing. I understand you don't want kids yet. You and your boyfriend, you're not even sure if you're going to marry this guy. You know, go ahead and have that abortion.

It's okay. It'd be so much easier for us to do that. Or it'd be so much easier for us to say, hey, you know what? You and your girlfriend, you really love each other, right?

Okay, well, you know what? It's okay for you guys to have sex. Just make sure it's safe sex, right? Okay.

Hey, and if you don't, don't worry, you can get an abortion later. It'd be so much easier. Or if someone came to us and said, oh, hey, you know, I'm not making enough money at my job and so I'm actually stealing from my employer and taking office supplies and you know, getting some business on the side and undermining, you know, the organization. It'd be easy for us to say, well, it's okay as long as your heart is in the right place, right?

It would be so much easier and we would be so much more popular. I've seen pastors try and wrestle with these things and they do kind of a theological jujitsu where they like, oh, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do a sleight of hand and oh, look, it's okay for you to do that. But listen, when it comes to biblical truth, when it comes to redefining what the Bible has to say, this is where we must draw the line. This is where we must draw the line. The truth is, real change, it doesn't come from the top down. We can't wait for the government to define it or redefine it for us.

It starts with us. This is where real truth and real change begins. It's easy to get excited about executive orders and new policies and leaders who push back against godlessness and I for one am thankful for our current administration on day one signing executive orders to unburden us by what has been.

That is a great thing. But again, just like in Nehemiah's day, the solution is not political reform, it is personal repentance and a return to God's truth. And this is where the battle lines are drawn.

This is where the battle lines are drawn. When we start redefining what God has made clear, where does it stop? When we start redefining what God has made clear, where does it stop? If we can dismiss His truth on one issue, why not another? That's exactly what has happened in our culture. The value of life itself has been put on trial.

The sanctity of life even once is a given is now up for debate. Has God been faithful to America? Absolutely He has. Has He blessed our nation?

He really has, no question. But let me ask you, how long can a nation continue to receive God's blessing when it has ended 63 million innocent lives since Roe versus Wade in 1973? Insane. And before you protest, well Jonathan, are you considering the life of the mother? Are you considering instances of rape and incest and deformed children and whatever else? I would just say to you, know this, less than 2% of all abortions performed are due to rape, incest, risk to the mother, or an abnormality in the baby. We believe here that abortion is murder. It is the taking of an innocent life. And listen, I have an intense understanding of abortion because my dad, who is a wonderful father, a wonderful leader, a wonderful man of God married to my mom, I'm so thankful for him, so easily he could have been a statistic on abortion, of abortion. His mother got pregnant with him out of wedlock in 1952, okay? You think that it's difficult today, try doing it back in the 1950s when it was Leave It to Beaver and that kind of stuff on television.

You were an abnormality, you were an outcast. How difficult it was for her and for my dad. Well I'm thankful that my grandma made that decision. I'm thankful that he was brought to term and he is who he is today.

Amen. I'm also thankful that my own wife Brittany, when she had her oldest daughter at age 19, just out of high school she got pregnant. She made the choice of having her and faced the difficult path of being a single mother for five years before I was able to marry Brittany and adopt Riley as my own daughter.

I'm so thankful because that little girl has grown up to be one of the most beautiful, hardworking, smart, easygoing, talented, and well-balanced people that you will ever meet. How easily Brittany could have just, how easily Brittany could have just popped a pill or taken a secret drive down to the abortion clinic and ended that life. And our next daughter, Alexandra, she was diagnosed with birth complications very early on and the doctors warned us immediately that what they are seeing on the sonogram was that she may have a mental or physical impairment and they asked us, would you like to terminate the pregnancy?

And that terrified us. But of course we, you know, we trusted God and we said, you know, no, we're going to continue with the pregnancy and carry the term and thankfully Allie was born healthy and she too is just smart and beautiful and creative and she's definitely a teenager and isn't great about cleaning her room but we're going to get through that. But it begs the question, what if she wasn't? What if she wasn't? What if she did have a mental handicap? What if she did have a physical handicap? What if she wasn't born healthy? Does she not deserve to live? Does she not deserve to have life if she had that mental or physical abnormality or if she was not born at an inconvenient time, which again is 97% of abortions?

The answer to that question is yes, of course she deserves to live and I want to tell you there are organizations today and adoption agencies and government programs to help you raise that child or to help you get that child out for adoption. Not the least of these being harvest right here. We want to help you listen. This isn't a political issue. It is a spiritual one. It is a moral one. When a nation decides that convenience outweighs the value of life, it reveals something far deeper and that is a heart that is drifted from God.

When convenience outweighs God's truth, that signifies that it is a heart that is drifted from God and that is exactly why laws alone won't fix this. Just like in Nehemiah's day, the solution isn't just political reform, it is personal repentance and a return to God's truth. But like in Nehemiah's day, we are able to see that God has not turned his back on us. We know that God has not turned his back on us.

In fact, he is showing his face to us, reaching out his hand to each and every one of us individually in a time where we can repent and come back to him and be leaders in the areas that he has called us to. You see the Israelites, they had lived under poor leadership. They had seen the consequences of compromise and yet when the walls were rebuilt, they didn't stop and pat themselves on the back and say, the job is done, that's great, we made Jerusalem great again, it's going to be prosperous, it's going to be beautiful.

They didn't celebrate political progress or national security. Again, they turned their eyes inward and recognized that the true crisis was not an external one, it was internal. And that brings us to point number two, remember it, remember it, leadership looks back to move forward.

Leadership looks back to move forward. That brings us to verse 17 of Nehemiah 9. Now as we read this verse again, this is Ezra the scribe speaking here and he's actually praying a prayer, reminding everyone of Israel's history and one of the longest prayers to be recorded in scripture, recounting God's faithfulness and Israel's disobedience. And he says this, I love it, he says, Israel refused to obey and they were not mindful of your wonders that you did among them, but they hardened their necks and in their rebellion, they appointed a leader to return them to bondage.

They're talking about going back to Egypt here. But this right here, you should underline this in your Bible if you haven't, but you are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant and kindness, and you did not forsake them. You did not forsake them. When you look at the relational history of Israel and God, this is like a very dysfunctional relationship.

I don't know if you had a buddy in high school who like had that really toxic girlfriend that was crazy and always, you know, checking on his location and asking him who he was with and just like really controlling. It seems like this obviously in a very one-sided way was Israel's relationship with God. Like they continued to always just forget how they got into trouble in the first place. Israel would walk with God, they were blessed, they honored him, they followed his commands, and then at some point they got comfortable and they thought, hey, you know what would be really great is if we could have God and sin. I really would love to sacrifice some children right now. And I don't know, they got some weird, crazy appetite. And so they would wander off into idolatry. They would wander into sin. And so what would happen? God would deliver them into their sins, into their desires. In their sin, in their desire, in their idolatry, they would become miserable and they would call out to God begging him to deliver them from the consequences of their actions.

What would God do? He forgave them. He restored them. He loved them. He blessed them. Their relationship was reunified and then they got comfortable again. They began to wander into idolatry and sin and then God delivered them to their desires. Are you seeing a pattern here?

This happened over and over and over again. You read about who the kings were. Oh, and then Israel had this king and he was king for this time and he was a good king and then they had a bad king and then a good king, just back and forth, a constant pattern. The blessing here for Israel is as they looked back, yes, they saw their failures. They saw how they had been so untrue to God, but they also saw that even when they were faithless, God was faithful.

He answered their prayers and he never forsook them. As a nation, America, if we forget our past, we are doomed to repeat it. But if we remember our past and see it for what it is, we are prepared to grow from it.

We must look in the mirror and see how we have drifted. It's not enough to say that those who, you know, sought to redefine gender, those people are the problem. Those that wanted to redefine what human life is and when life begins, they're the problem. It's not enough to just point to them.

We need to make sure that we are the ones that are really defining these things. We need to look in the mirror and see that we ourselves are also part of the problem. If you've lived a double life and you've been a hypocrite to your family, if you have neglected to disciple your children, somebody else is going to do that.

If you've, again, been a hypocrite in the workplace or in your home, listen, people have seen your flaws, they've seen your mistakes. And if you don't own them and ask them for forgiveness, they're going to want nothing to do with your faith. When a nation removes and neglects God's truth from the home, from the school, from the workplace, from the government, Satan will fill the vacuum. Since we have seen those things removed, especially, you look at the public schools and you look at our government. We used to have the Ten Commandments on the wall, right? I don't know this firsthand experience, but apparently it happened in the 60s where the actual Ten Commandments would be posted up on the walls. That is absolute truth. And they were also in the various courtrooms. They would actually have the Ten Commandments and then somebody was offended by it and so they got taken down.

They didn't like them. And so since then, you can mark it in time, there's been an increase in violence. There's been an increase in broken families, an increase in crime, an increase in corruption and leadership. And the question for us today is for how long will this continue to happen? How long will we drift?

How long will we wander? We who hold God's truth and hold to it are not trying to be inconsiderate or antiquated or bigoted or any of those things. We are being biblical and that is something we will never apologize or back down from. We need the Ten Commandments back in the school room. We need God back into our government. We need Christian men and women leaders involved in these spaces to bring honor to God. This is how our nation is blessed. People actually argue today that America is not a Christian nation and never was a Christian nation.

That is absolutely absurd. In the Constitution itself, it has a prayer to the supreme being, the supreme judge of the universe. Who's that? That's Jesus. That is Jesus. And so where does that leave us today? Israel's history, again, it shows us when they turned from God, chaos followed.

And when they repented, God was merciful and patient and He would restore them. And we see that in America today. We've drifted far from God rewriting truth, removing His presence from the public square and rejecting His design for life and marriage and family.

And what has happened? Chaos, violence, brokenness and moral confusion. And what is the secular world trying to do now? They're trying to push us even further down that road. And I think some of us may have thought, oh, we'll let them blur the lines a little bit. If it'll keep them quiet, if it'll make them happy, we'll allow this to happen. And we've realized they just want to keep going further and further and further and further.

Again, how long will we continue down this road before we turn back to God? This is where leadership matters. This is where leadership matters. We don't just need leaders who acknowledge the past. We need leaders who commit to God's truth and refuse to compromise.

It's not enough to simply remember what went wrong in your family, in your workplace, in the government. We must walk the talk and make a commitment to stand on God's word and to stand on His truth. And that brings us to the third and final point of this message in the third mark of Godly leadership, number three, live it.

Leadership walks the talk. Let's look at verse 38. And because of this, Ezra said, we make a sure covenant and write it. Our leaders, our Levites and our priests seal it. Now those who placed their seal on the documents were Nehemiah the governor, the priests, the Levites and the leaders.

You can skip down to verse 28. Now the rest of those people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the Nethenim and all those who had separated themselves from the people of the lands to the law of God, their wives, sons, daughters, everyone who had acknowledged and understood these joined with their brethren, their nobles and entered into a curse and an oath to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses the servant of God and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God, His ordinances and His statues. They don't just say, hey, yeah, we'll try and do better. They make an oath. They make a solemn promise to God. Not only do they make a solemn promise to God, they say, may we be cursed if we fail to observe these things.

May a curse come upon our heads if we are not obedient in these areas. Israel didn't just own and confess their sin. They didn't just remember God's faithfulness. In spite of their sin, Israel committed to change to follow God afresh.

It was a whole spiritual revival from the bottom to the top with everyone vowing and declaring a curse again on themselves if they disobeyed. Today, we need leaders like Nehemiah. We need leaders like Nehemiah, bold, decisive and committed. We need that kind of leadership in our churches in America, in our nation. In our churches, we need to support our pastors and our leaders who sometimes are put in the difficult position of saying something that is not popular, saying something that is going to make people uncomfortable. We need to verbally support our pastors. Thank you for saying that.

Thank you for sharing that. That is true. You are absolutely right. We need to support our pastors here at Harvest and also churches across America. We need leaders who are going to be like the apostles in Acts chapter 5 when they stood before the Sanhedrin and were commanded, don't preach about Jesus and his crucifixion and his resurrection anymore. The apostles said, we must obey God rather than men here. We are going to go ahead and keep on preaching Jesus.

And you know what? Their boldness changed the world. In our homes, we need to teach our children who God is. As men, as husbands, we need to cleanse our wives by washing them with the water of God's word as Ephesians 5 says. Listen, if you don't instruct your children or give them that spiritual foundation, they will likely depart from the faith. With our roommates, our parents, even our siblings, we can be the one to say, hey, let's read some Bible stories together.

Let's do a little study time together. Let's spend some time in prayer. In our nation, a government that abandons God and his moral law will collapse. Our nation needs more than just good politicians.

It needs men and women of conviction. Joshua didn't say, as for me and my house, I hope that we will follow the Lord. Or he said, I hope that my family makes good choices.

No. He said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. It was a commitment.

It was a public proclamation. And so in closing, I ask you these questions. As a parent, are you prepared to be a leader in the home? As a believer, are you prepared to be a leader and stand on biblical truth or will you follow the culture? And as a nation, will we turn back to God before it's too late? Nehemiah 9 is not just about confessing sin. It's remembering God's faithfulness or taking responsibility.

That's great. It's really, Nehemiah 9 is about taking action and being a leader in the spaces God has placed us in. Again, the real question today is will we follow the example of Israel later and turn to God and see that the problem was within or will we follow the culture?

Let's pray together. Lord, would you reveal in us the areas that we have missed, the opportunities that we have turned down, the things that we haven't stepped into because we've been lazy or apathetic or disinterested. And Lord, as a result, others have educated our children. Others have influenced us.

We have become more, we believe more of the culture and what society and what the news and what television shows might say about these hot topics more than what the Bible says. Lord, would you convict our hearts? Would you lead us back to yourself? We don't want to be led astray from you because we see time and time again what happened with Israel. God, you have been incredibly patient with all of us as individuals and you've been incredibly patient with our nation. Lord, we want to see our nation turn back to you, but we know the ball is in our court to do that. And so we want to live out our faith. We want to stand on absolute truth, even when it's unpopular, even when it's difficult because you know what? Whether revival happens in America and we go on for another thousand years or we collapse in the next 50, whatever it might be, we know that if we did our part, we will be able to stand before you and we will hear you say those words, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.

You have been faithful with little. I will make you ruler over much. God, that's what we want. We want to be your faithful servants. We want to be faithful with the message that you have given to us. And so we ask that you would help us in this area. Well, our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying together. There may be some who are here and this is a wild message for you to hear for the first time, but we're glad you're here.

But you may say, you know what? I want to know what absolute truth is. I want to know that I can experience absolute love and a relationship with Jesus Christ. You can have that today because there is a greater leader than Nehemiah that came and his name was Jesus Christ.

Nehemiah came to set the captives free and he came to tear the walls down of sin and despair and shame and guilt. And he has removed those things for anyone who would put their faith in him today. So if you would like to know that your sins are forgiven, if you would like to know that you are going to heaven when you die, you can just pray this prayer out loud after me, calling out to God, putting your faith in Christ. Pray this now. Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that Jesus is the savior who died on the cross for my sin. I make you the Lord of my life from this moment forward.

Would you fill me with your Holy Spirit and help me to walk with you and be a leader for you? In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. God lets you pray that prayer.

Amazing. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to harvest.org. And to find out how to know God personally, go to harvest.org and click on Know God.