Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. I bless you to be as Ephraim, Ephraim, the name that means twice fruitful. God blessed your earliest ancestors to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion, Genesis 1.28. And his will is not changed. He's likewise destined you, as Jesus said in John 15, to bear much fruit.
You're a sower. A spiritual farmer, whose harvest will come in due season. And so I bless the seed that you have in the ground. May all your good, hard work sprout and grow. Into sweet fruit that contains more seed.
And I bless the seed you have in your hand. The good intentions and investments of your life that you're now scattering. Remember the smallest seed, can grow. And to the greatest, most fruitful, Tree. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright.
But I think so often what keeps us from a moment like this that Nehemiah had is the problem of shame and false humility. And I love this about Nehemiah. Like we see other people in the scripture like Abram, who just he's heralded for this one thing. God says, I'm going to make you a father of a nation. And Abram says, okay.
I'll believe that. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt. Excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Nehemiah, Dreamer, Builder, Warrior, as presented at Renolda Church in North Carolina.
If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. For a limited time, this can be yours for your donation to Allen Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org.
Or call 877-544-4860. Again, by phone, 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program, but now let's get started with today's teaching. Here. is Pastor Alan Wright.
Mm. This is part of the risk that Nehemiah faced: he knew he's going to the very king who had stopped the work in Jerusalem.
So when he goes to him, I'm just saying this is kind of a wise and beautiful thing. He first appeals to the heart connection of the king, and he speaks of his homeland and of the place where my father's graves. and the city of my ancestors has been put to ruins. He doesn't even say Jerusalem. And so he's connected now with the king's heart, and the king then asks at verse 4, what are you requesting?
And everything shifts here. Once, you know, when you're in any kind of conversation. where you were hopeful to be able to make a request. The dream come true is when then the conversation shifts. to someone saying, what could I do for you?
What are you asking? It reminds me of God coming to Solomon and saying, what do you want? And at the end of that verse, it says, So I prayed to the God of heaven.
So it's at this moment. That Nehemiah, having taken off his mask, saying, I'm going to be real, I'm going to risk it all. Ben realizes God's honoring This conversation, and the king has said, What are you requesting? And he's getting ready to make his big ask. And it just says, so I prayed to the God of heaven.
And Nehemiah does this a lot, and it's what some have called an arrow prayer. You might call it a breath prayer. Highly recommend building this into your spiritual life. where you just You don't always have time. Nehemiah wasn't appropriate, and he didn't have time to go get some.
Corner of the room and get on his face before God and pray for an hour, he was in a conversation. But just in a breath, he prays. And maybe he's praying as he did, we saw in chapter one, give me Rachem. favor in the eyes of this man. Maybe, Lord, have mercy.
Lord, show kindness. Maybe it's just God help me. Give me words. He just whispering it. I like to say, Jesus, how do you see this?
I like to say, Lord, help me here. I like to say, Lord, what do you want to do? You know, just little breath prayers that you can pray in the middle of a conversation. It's just whispered out with a single breath. You're not even being vocal with it, just you and God.
And that's what Nehemiah does here. He's asking for God's help because he's getting ready to make the big ask. And it comes at verse 5. I said to the king. If it pleases the king.
And if your servant has found favor in your sight, please notice the respect and the honor. He is an exile. Who Is a servant? And he probably doesn't agree. with any of the beliefs of this Persian king.
This pagan king. But he is respectful. He is not acting like an entitled person. He's not Being rude. Isn't that wise?
And all of the Bible counsels us to live like that, Christians, even if you disagree with someone. If your servant has found favor in your sight. If it pleases the king, he says. I'm not here. I'm not making a demand.
I'm coming with a humble request, but it's a big one. that you send me to Judah, That's the southern kingdom wherein lies Jerusalem. to the city of my father's graves. that I may rebuild it.
So he's asking to be released from his servitude. for some duration of time. To go Rebuild the city. that earlier Artaxerxes had said the building must stop. Wow.
At verse 6, the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, How long will you be gone? And when will you return?
So Now, the king is asking clarifying questions. Obviously, Nehemiah has. Information about this, and the king is not authorizing his full departure. He values this servant, Nehemiah. That's the kind of place he's found in the royal court.
And then we're just told, so it pleased the king to send me. when I'd given him a time. He'd given him a duration. He'd said, here's how it will happen.
So there was planning that Nehemiah had made. You would think maybe Nehemiah would say, okay, I made the huge ask. I'm good. Let's call it good now. But he goes further in his request.
Verse 7, and I said to the king, if it pleases the king, let letters be given to me to the governors of the province beyond the river, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah.
So now he's asking for diplomatic immunity. And it will require the king to give him certified traveling papers. that he could show to anyone with the king's seal. That would say, you can't stop me. It was a guarantee of his safe travels.
It was his passport. It was... his means of going uninterrupted and without impediment.
So first let me go and then help me get there. And then he continues at verse 8 with his bold request. And he asks for a letter to Asaph. the keeper of the king's forest. That he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple and for the wall of the city and for the house that I shall occupy.
Lumber was expensive, it was treasured. Nehemiah had done his research, he knew the name of the keeper of the forest, and he had come with specific requests of how he was going to use the timber. And he made his request, and we're told simply. At verse 8, this is one of those verses that is breathtaking in its implication, but you could just read over it. and not pause long enough to marvel, but it says at verse 8 at the end, and the king granted me what I asked.
for the good hand of my God was upon me. Wow. In the next verse, we will learn: not only did the king send him traveling certification papers. but sent his own cavalry and officials. And so as Nehemiah traveled to Judah, He was in an entourage with the sound of the thunderous Horse.
Calvary and He arrived with regal authority. We're later told he was actually the governor of Judah. Wow. That's Alan Wright. And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series.
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That's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. And doesn't it leave you wondering with this question?
What if Nehemiah had never asked? The way the story reads. The receiving came because of the asking. Or what if he'd asked for much less? I wonder why we don't ask Bigger things, O God.
And the story is so beautiful. It's like a memoir. Because Nehemiah is honest. I love this about all the Bible. The Bible, like, If you're new, if you're new and exploring Christianity and you start reading the scriptures, I'm just going to tell you, be prepared for a big surprise.
It's the most honest book imaginable. It puts on display the sin of the saints of God. It's not about All these people that had it easy and people that just constantly had all the courage in the world. In fact, he even says, I was very afraid. I love that.
And I think that it's pointing us to the very thing that stops most of us is our fear. And I love the way that Nehemiah just is honest about this because Just Yeah. Psychologists say that you begin to deal with fear. is by first admitting it and in that sense owning it. And by the way, just a word to anyone who battles with anxiety.
It is really best to be mindful of it. It never helps to take anxiety and just think somehow you can just override it and push it down. That doesn't work. it then actually becomes something worse. But when it's like My heart's beating faster.
Okay, what does that mean? Why? I'm nervous. Why am I nervous? Oh, it's because I have anxiety about thus and such.
Now you see, my mind, I'm being mindful of it, I'm being aware. This is why I'm feeling this. You're identifying the fear as an emotion. And in that sense, Nehemiah was owning it, not like it was his new normal, not owning it like that, like, oh, I'm just going to be a fearful person. It wasn't that.
It was instead an admission to himself. It was an awareness, he was self-aware. And there's a way in which, just by becoming mindful and self-aware of the fear that it doesn't own you, you start having mastery over it. Uh I mean, like people that have panic attacks, it's horrible. It can feel like you're dying.
And the heart might palpitate, breathing changes. And if you ever are a person you had that, one of the best things you first learned to do is go, okay. I'm experiencing fear right now. That's what this is. And it is just an emotion that is having an effect on my body right now, and you see that kind of talk.
It is better that way because then you can put it in its place. It doesn't make it. It's still an unpleasant thing. And Nehemiah had fear, but. Having identified it, there was something that transcended it.
It was, I think, like the active replacing of the what-ifs of fear. Which that's what fear does. What if this negative thing happens? What if I get rejected by the king? What if I get banished?
What if I get punished? What if I don't speak well? What if I stumble? What if I like all of those what ifs? But what what happens is in faith The what ifs change to what if something good happens.
What if all of this four months of prayer is God leading me to this very moment? What if I was made for a time such as this? What if the king grants his favor, as I've asked the Lord for? What then? What might happen?
All the good, what might happen for Jerusalem, for the kingdom of God? You see, you at least owe it to yourself. If you get caught up in worry with the what-ifs, you at least owe it to your soul to ask the what-ifs something positive. And eventually, let them by the Holy Spirit transcend and overtake the negative what-ifs. I think that so often it's not just the fear of rejection, the fear of.
failure But I think so often what keeps us from a moment like this that Nehemiah had Is the problem of shame and false humility. And I love this about Nehemiah. Like, we see other people in the scripture. Like Abram, who just, he's heralded for this one thing. God says, I'm going to make you a father of a nation.
And Abram says, okay. I'll believe that. And Joseph, who Is thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, falsely accused, put into prison, seemingly forgotten. And one day Pharaoh says, I want to make you second in command of Egypt. And he goes, Okay.
I think so many of us, we struggle with this sense of shame and false humility. That says, Who am I? Why would God use me? I can't see myself being used like that. Others are more qualified.
I feel like an imposter. The flaws, the weaknesses, the regrets, the sin of our life can be used by the devil to craft a narrative that, if listened to, makes us disqualify ourselves. And the number one way that we disqualify ourselves qualify ourselves is by not expecting or asking big things of God. I think that's what happens. And A lot of times this sort of disqualification masquerades as humility, but it is not.
It is diabolical. It is hellish shame. And we must know the difference between these things. I know this too well. Because I for I think the early years of my Christian walk Had a lot of confusion about what was real humility and.
What is really just toxic? shame that was disqualifying. I've got embarrassing stories to tell about it. not least of which, when I was in seminary, I interned at First Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. And I loved that church.
I loved Pastor Paul Eccle. He was a prince of preachers and a prince of a man. and I'm much indebted to him. I didn't realize until many years later when I was head of staff. of the gift he gave me that summer of every Friday.
He'd kick off his shoes literally in his office, and we'd sit in his office for three hours, and he mentor me. every Friday for a summer. And I taught the men's Bible class. It was called the Berean Bible class, and there were 50. Men, a lot of them older men who loved the word and loved God, and I loved those men.
And after I interned, they asked if I'd stay on and teach the Bible class. And they eventually started letting women come to it. And I love those people. And they took up a secret Offering off the books. It would be an honorarium to me.
It helped me through seminary, and I loved all of them. Only preached one time. In the big pulpit at First Pres, and afterwards, when those men came up to me and said, The Lord had put on his heart. He wanted to help me. And I said, thank you.
He said, no, I really wanted to help you. And he said, there was another pastor that he'd helped. Get started in ministry, and he mentioned his name. I recognized him. He was a person who was well known, had a TV and radio ministry, and all this.
I said, Wow. He said, I'd really like to help you. And I said, well, thank you. I was trying to figure out what he meant by that. And through the conversation, I began to realize that he wanted to launch me and he He offered to pay for my seminary.
And I was like, wow, thank you for that. He said, and I want to do more, I want to help you, you know.
So we'll thank you. I'll talk to you about this. I went and talked to my wife and she was like, He wants to pay for your seminary? I said, yeah. She said, wow.
You said yes, didn't you? I said, no. I said, That doesn't seem right to just let somebody pay for my seminary like that. It doesn't seem fair. She said, are you kidding me?
I said, well, honey, I just... I don't know, I don't know if that's something that I should do. And she said, well, what about everything else? She said, I don't know. He wants to help me launch.
I don't know what it means, you know. And long story short, I went back to him and I declined his offer. Paying for seminary. And I didn't know how to embrace anything else he was offering, so that kind of went by. And he said, Well, can I at least.
Can I at least get you some clothes? And I said, well, okay. And so he sent me to one of the nicest men's clothing stores in Atlanta at the time where he had an account. And he said, go get you some clothes, you know. This is back when people wore suits and stuff.
And so Ann's like, Can't believe you turned all this stuff down, but at least you're going to go to this store and get some clothes. And I go in and I'm like, what should I get? She's like, get everything. And I'm like, well, no, no, no. And she said, I got one suit.
She said, well, get more than that. And I said, I got one suit. I felt bad about, I don't want to, you know, take advantage of this man's offer, and so I got as an ice suit. And I got a sick. And that was the end of the story.
How idiotic was that? Pastor Alan Wright in our good news message, Asking Big, from the series on Nehemiah. Please stay with us. Pastor Alan is back joining me in the studio, sharing his parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. Unlock the power of blessing your life.
Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Alan Wright's Daily Blessing. It's free and just a click away at pastoralen.org. Ever wish you could be a child again? Ever long for the simpler days when your biggest financial worry was counting the money in the shoebox of the lemonade stand?
Ever long for the more carefree times when you wish the long summer days would never end? If you've ever longed to be like a child again, author Alan Wright has some good news. You can. Because Jesus commanded us to become like little children in order to enter the kingdom, it must be possible. When you make a gift this month, we'll send you a copy of the first book Alan Wright authored.
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We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen Wright Ministries. Call us at eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. That's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Back here with Pastor Alan in the studio.
Asking big is the teaching today. I'm placing the bookmark here, coming back for the conclusion on our next installment.
So praying big prayers, big bold prayers. And why wouldn't we? Because we have a big God, the King of all. Yeah, I thought a lot about why we don't ask such big things of God. And a lot of us just fear, right?
I love the honesty in Nehemiah's memoir here. He says, I was very much afraid. The Nehemiah, you could look at it like a memoir, and he's very honest. And he says he was he was very, very afraid. And so I think courage, as someone has noted, is, you know, doing it even though afraid.
And so there's something moving him. I think the other thing that holds us back is there's a sense of shame. And maybe a false humility that even amongst us as children of God, where we can start thinking, well, who am I and why would God use me? I can't really see myself being used in that way, or I feel like an imposter. or that I'm disqualified.
And I think that When we disqualify ourselves, then We don't ask big things of God. But Colossians 1:12 says that we give thanks to the Father who has. qualified you to share In the inheritance of the saints of life.
So, I want to say to our listeners: as you read Nehemiah, you think about what Jesus has done to qualify you. for this inheritance and who you are as a child of God. And therefore, when you sense a call of God in your life, ask Him. for the big things because he's a big God. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free.
Find out more about these and other resources at pastoralen.org. That's pastoralan.org. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
