Crisis & Prayer - Nehemiah 1 - Rebuild

Man, what an incredible story. Praise God. Hey, we're going to get into some of that today. Let's talk about prayer and let's talk about how God wants to use us. Maybe He's breaking our heart for things that we see, and that's going to enable us to voice a prayer.

But maybe also what God wants to do is to use us with, you know, as part of the solution and some of those things as well. We're going to get into a new series today, the book of Nehemiah. If you have a copy of scripture, turn with me to Nehemiah chapter 1. As you guys are turning to Nehemiah chapter 1, let me tell you this: we have a class called Envision, and Envision is a class where we have the opportunity to see God's heart for the nations. You can see pictures of the class here.

Guys, we were praying for 150, 218 people signed up for Envision. Can we praise Him for that? Um The reason that that is so important, and I want you to know, is because I can think there's a lot of ways that you might think about indicators of church health. You might think, well, man, they got a lot of young people, or they're giving a lot of money, or they're doing a lot of good things in the community, or you could think a lot about different ways that you measure God's hand on a church. For me, I would say one of the greatest indicators I can imagine is having 218 people from middle school all the way to fourth quarter saints gathering together to hear about God's heart for the nations and trying to figure out how they can be mobilized to go.

All right, and so I feel like it's such an indicator of what God is doing in our church, and I just praise Him for that.

So, anyway, hey, listen, those classes, I want you to know.

Some of you are like, oh man, envision.

Okay, you know, that looks pretty awesome. A lot of people went. I want to go.

Sorry, too late. It's closed. Registration's closed, man. All right, I know somebody might be like, well, I want to come. No, you can't.

You can sign up next time. And this is what this is why I say it. I stand up here for a month and I'm like, envision, envision, envision.

Okay. And I just want you to know, man, once we get things rolling, the train keeps moving.

Okay. And so it's going to come back around. And when it comes back around, when we say, hey, envision, I would really love for some of us to say, man, okay, I'm going to do that. I'm going to plan. I'm going to jump in and I'm going to, you know, I'm going to go ahead and make my plans to do that.

All right.

Now, if you were already signed up and you just happen to miss week one, you can still go. All right.

So that's fine. But registration is closed for that. All right.

Let's dive in. Nehemiah chapter one. Really excited to be getting into a brand new series with you guys today. Here's what we're going to chase for the next couple of months. This is very important.

God can rebuild. what looks irreparably broken. Things in this world, things in our life. That looks irreparably broken. There is no way that God could put this back together.

It cannot be put back together. God is in the habit of restoring and rebuilding in situations that are just like that. And if you ever doubt that, go back and read the book of Nehemiah. In Nehemiah, God's people have been exiled for a hundred years. Their walls of their city are broken down.

It looks like all is lost. It looks like the promises and the mission of God will never come to fruition. And yet, our God is one who rebuilds and restores and can put things back together when it looks like there ain't no way.

Now, I've been in a lot of, I know some of you guys have, maybe it's your grandfather or maybe it's just somebody, a neighbor, something, but you've been in one of those garages that's like an old-timer, like an old school dude's garage.

Okay, I mean, you go in there, there's stuff everywhere, there's every tool, it smells like nothing but cigarette smoke and diesel fuel, okay? And there ain't no ventilation, all right? It's just, and you look, and they got, man, you're everywhere you look, there's parts of stuff. and and you're looking at a table and there's just a whole engine just torn all the way apart. And you think to yourself, there is no way any human on earth could put this thing together.

And you give that old boy about three days and it fires right up. And maybe you've been in a situation where you see something like that. My point is: this: we often look in and we're like, man, there's no way that God can. Can put this back together. There's no way that he can fix it.

There's no way that this marriage can be restored. There's no way that this home that has been broken can be restored. There's no way back for that father back into his home after he left the way that he did. There's no way this company can turn around. There's no way our financial situation's ever gonna be.

And listen, here's the thing. In many of those instances, we don't have a clear-cut promise. We do the right thing, God's going to do. You know, we do X, He's going to do Y. We don't have a promise like that.

But here's what we do know. We can err on the side of having an optimistic hope. Because God is a God that can rebuild anything, even when it looks like it's irreparably broken. When it looks like there is no way, Man, there can be a way. And even if he doesn't fix it the way we think it ought to be fixed.

Man, our God is still maybe even rebuilding things that we can't see. He's building our faith, he's building our character, he's building our resiliency, he's building his church. He's doing things even when we don't think it got fixed. That we can't even see. He's playing a bigger game.

God is a rebuilder, and we're gonna see that through the book of Nehemiah through the next couple of months. Guys, here's what I wanna chase today, all right? That sort of sets up our series, but here's what we're gonna chase today. When we see things that are broken in the world, it breaks our heart. That's an invitation for us to pray and to be involved.

So here's the big idea today. We should pray big to God and be used by God. Pray big to God, be used by God. Hard things, tough circumstances, things that look broken, these are invitations. For us to get involved by praying and asking God to move in this world.

And that's what we're gonna see. Man, Nehemiah was a leader, Nehemiah had courage. But at first, what we're going to see today is it all started with an absolute broken heart. Because of what was going on in the world. I know many of us are feeling that today.

All right.

And so let's dive in. Here's what it says in verse one: the words of Nehemiah, the son of Achilia.

Now it happened in the month of Chislev in the 20th year, as I was in Sousa the Citadel, that's Nehemiah, in Sousa the Citadel. that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the exile. and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in two things, great trouble and shame.

The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.

Now, Some of us are brand new. You haven't been studying Nehemiah. There's a couple of things you got to understand. You go from the Bible, you start in the beginning. We read the Bible front to back.

We interpret the Bible back to front.

So we are reading the Bible front to back, and here's what you know: God singled out a particular nation.

Alright, you could trace the lineage from Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and you can go all the way through. But very quickly, here, just a quick overview: God singled out a nation that would be a light to all the nations. All right, the idea is that through this one nation, the Israelites, that there would be a blessing that could go to the ends of the earth. And that blessing, of course, as we read the Bible front to back, but we interpret it back to front, that blessing, of course, came in the form of what was God's son sent in the form of a man. See, at the very beginning of time, right, as Adam and Eve are in the world, they sin, things are broken.

And God sends a promise. One day there will be a serpent-crushing savior who will put all this stuff back together, and he will come through the lineage of this nation.

Now, Nehemiah is smacked about 450 so odd years before Jesus was going to show up on the scene. Before that blessing for the whole world, the light to all the world was going to show up. Nehemiah is sitting in the Persian Empire. And the reason he's in Persia is because in 586 BC, The Babylonians conquered the southern kingdom. uh of Judah.

And it carried people off into exile.

Well, then in 539, the Persian Empire overthrew the Babylonian Empire, but the Persians, and this is all prophesied in the book of Jeremiah, so it's just kind of another check mark for the authenticity of scripture.

Well of course, the Persians had a different view of how to govern people. And so the Persians were okay with sending people back home. And so the first remnant that we get back going back home to Jerusalem happened some 70 years after the exile. And so this is what you end up having. You have the remnant, the escaped ones that he mentioned, that are in Jerusalem, but you have all these other Jews that are scattered all over the world.

Certainly, a bunch of them are in this Persian Empire. One of them is a guy named Nehemiah. And Nehemiah is in a very privileged position. He's a sharp guy, he's a leader. He's worked hard and now he is living a luxurious life.

As he is the cupbearer, as we're gonna see this, to the king. All right, so that's Nehemiah, and this is kind of what's going on.

Now, look what it says with me again. It says, I asked concerning the Jews, verse 2, the ones who had escaped, who had survived the exile, and they said to me, the remnant there. is in great trouble. The remnant there is in shame. The walls of Jerusalem are broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.

Nehemiah heard those words and his heart absolutely broke. What we're going to see in verse 4 is that he sat down and wept and mourned and maybe did so. We know he did so for days. Maybe he did so and was in that posture for months.

Okay? And and the reason is because It seems to me That he was expecting to hear a great report about what was going on in Jerusalem, and instead, what he heard was a disaster. Great trouble, great shame. Our brothers and sisters there are under persecution and opposition from everywhere, and it's just not going very well. And his heart broke.

Now, I'm gonna be honest with you: the timeline of the book of Ezra and Nehemiah can get fuzzy. All right, and listen, I'm a big believer. If God wanted us to know dates and times and all that, He could have just said it. He could have just wrote it out for us, okay? But you try to go back and you try to piece some of this together.

Some people have pointed to, if you want to go back and read it, Ezra chapter 4, that maybe Nehemiah is hearing a like a very contemporary accounting of what happened when Ezra was told to stop building the temple and the walls. And you can go read that if you want to. I'm not totally sure, okay? Here's what I know. Nehemiah thought he was gonna get a good report.

He ends up getting a very bad report, and his heart is broken. And here's what happens: okay, this is very important for us today. We're gonna keep talking about this. Whenever we have news come into our life that shakes us to the core, that's an invitation. for us to recommit.

and and declare that our dependent our dependence is on God. And not us, and that's what happened. Crisis calls us back to dependence on the Lord. I don't know if you're like me, man, when things in my life are just kind of rocking along. When when stuff's good.

When nobody's sick at home, you know, when the church stuff is going well, when the Gators finally win a football game, okay? I don't know. It's whatever it is in your life, right? It's like when you're just kind of rocking along. But you know what happens when you just abs out of nowhere just get leveled?

You know, when you're laying flat on your back, you ain't got one place to look. Right? And you're looking straight up. And that's kind of what happens in our lives: when crisis comes in, and that's what happens to Nehemiah, it can happen to you. If you're going through something hard right now, that way, listen, humans around the world have shown us one thing: humans can endure almost anything.

You can get through drought. You can get through abuse. You can get through the most horrific things. What I'm inviting you to do. is to get through the hard things in life with a softer heart on the other side.

With a more dependent heart. That's the invitation. You'll get through it, whatever's going on, you'll make it. But what I'm saying is Who is God going to build? Where are we going to turn?

And that's what we see from Nehemiah. He turns to the Lord. His heart is broken. Look what he says. As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days.

And I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. Oh, Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commands. Let your ear be attentive. He's crying out to God and your eyes be open to hear the prayer of your. Uh serve it.

That I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel, your servants, weeping and mourning. Let me tell you something, guys. If you don't know this already, I know many of you do. Pain is part of the Christian life. And the reason that it's part of the Christian life Is because you and I understand if you are a believer.

I know not everybody is.

Some of you are just, man, you're checking it out. We're glad that you're here, you're investigating, that's fine. If you're a believer You understand that this world is so broken. It's messed up, man. And we see things all the time that break our heart.

Now, here's what's crazy, okay? If someone at our campus is a college student or somebody in here right now, man, if you're coming from sort of a no-spirituality, no God beginning, all there is is matter. You know, matter, like all there is is the physical. What's funny is when you see something broken morally in the world, your heart groans a lot like ours and mine. But you don't, you know, honestly, it's kind of an illusion.

For you. I mean it has to be logically. Because you would think like, well, that's really sad.

Well, what's the difference if we're all just matter? What's the difference in a child dying of hunger or a tree dying because nobody watered it? What's the difference in those two things?

Now we know they're different, right? We understand they're different. They're different because we have a blueprint in scripture that shows us: man, God created this world and gave humanity his stamp, his image of God. And there's a way that it is supposed to be. And when a child dies of hunger, that's out of line with the way that it's supposed to be.

And we know that, and that's the groaning. and the real cracking that we feel. Christians, many times we're going to learn, maybe I was like more than anyone else. We have to learn that God uses people mightily who see the world through tears. You know, that our broken heart is the invitation of God to get involved with prayer.

and to get involved in his mission. The broken heart that we have because of the world that we see around us, it's not the way that it should be. That is something that believers carry. It is a believer's burden. It breaks our heart and it pushes us to pray and to be involved because we know this world is not supposed to be what we see.

Guys, I can't, I mean, you know where we're at right now nationally. You can't even turn on the news without another stabbing, without another shooting. You've got these ideologies that have run so wild in our nation. people around the world, literally kids taken away from parents. Because they refuse to go along with extreme gender ideology.

And I mean, you just look at the world and you're just like, man, it is absolutely. Broken and our hearts break.

Now, here's what I, and that's good. That pushes us to prayer. The world's not right. But. Can't we agree on this?

Sometimes, I know I can do this, sometimes we can end up being pretty selective about what we get really brokenhearted about. You know? We can get really selective about it. And then we can get really judgmental about some of the things that we get pretty brokenhearted about. You know, I understand that our hearts break if we drive by an abortion clinic.

Do our hearts break like that when we drive by a strip club? You understand? It's like we look at that and we say, man, there are terrible decisions that are happening there. That still breaks the heart of God. There are people that are there that probably have been abused and different things, and maybe that's even why they're there and working in this type of industry.

That breaks the heart of God. See, I'm learning about myself through Nehemiah. He hears of the walls of Jerusalem being broken, and he is broken. And I'm seeing in myself: wait, there are some things that break my heart, and some things that I think break the heart of God that maybe don't break my heart the way that they should. And that should be my repentance.

And that should be the call for us to repent. You know, I'll give you an example of this. And I know we got different campuses and our folks at Northeast Campus and maybe even Clifton, I'm not sure. But for the ridge and for High Point, a main artery for many of us in our life is the corner of 68 and 40, isn't it? And it's just like right there.

What's always there? Who who's always there? There's kind of a derelict gas station right there that's sort of an encampment for people that are homeless. And man, a lot of them are panhandling and things like that. And I'm not getting into what you should do, shouldn't do, all that kind of stuff.

What I'm getting into is the inner life, the thought life. And here's the question. You got children in the car with you and you pull up and you see that. What do the kids think? feel about the way that you feel about those people.

Does that make sense? Like, do the kids, and man, I'm not, listen, people make bad decisions, people get hooked on drugs, people have, but people also get abused when they're kids and they have terrible home lives, and there's a thousand reasons. I'm not getting into all that, what I'm saying is. Do do our kids feel A brokenness and a groan. in us.

When we see someone This should be in the prime of their life. and they look like they're on Death Door. And they look like they're giving their life away, and they're just over and over and over. Can it can our kids feel on us that we're broken by it? Not just mad, not just, but actually, man, I feel, and I know for me.

I think that's very key because if you look, look, if you think about Nehemiah. In verse 4. It says, as soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept. As soon as he heard of the brokenness of the world, Sits down and weeps and then what? Begins to cry out to God.

And begins to pray. And here's my point: this is why I'm laboring on this. If our hearts don't break for what breaks God's heart, we will never be pushed to pray like we should. The answer to our broken heart is that we pray. If we're so cal, I would just say like this, can we repent today of calloused hearts towards the world?

Selective in our brokenness towards the world. Because if we don't get there, we're not going to pray. I want you to think about this. What is prayer? Prayer is declaring our dependence upon God because I can't fix it.

It's breaking my heart. I can't fix it. Man, I cry out to God. One guy said it like this. Prayer.

is our rebellion. against the evil status quo of the world.

Now you think about that. What is the world trying to get us to do all the time? Christian, what is the world trying to get us to do? Just get used to the brokenness. And Christians, we say never.

I will never get used to the fatherlessness. I will never get used to the generation that has been so shaped by divorce. I will never get used to the addictions. I will never get used to sex trafficking. I will never get used to these things.

What in prayer? That's what we're declaring. We're saying, God, break my heart for what breaks yours? And then I will be pushed. to bring it to you.

And I'll be pushed to pray. And in prayer, we're going to see a few things here. This is what happens: brokenness flows into prayer, and that prayer takes on a few different turns, okay, for Nehemiah. And I think we can really learn. Guys, if you've ever thought to yourself today, no one's ever taught me how to pray, you're not going to be able to say that in about 15 minutes.

Okay? I'm serious. We had a thousand women. at the Abide Night, Friday night. We never praise God.

Across the whole church. I mean, this event wasn't even like promoted. I mean, it was just, there's something going on. And many of the women that came, and maybe you came to that event and you've come back. And man, you guys talked about prayer, and you got on your face and you prayed.

And here's the thing: some of us are like, man, I feel a shaking, I feel a spiritual stirring, and I want to pray.

Okay. I'm going to show you how to do it, right? All we got to do is look at Nehemiah's prayer. Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. X.

Alright? Acts. It's very simple. The first thing we see is adoration. Think about what he says.

And I said, O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commands. We adore God first. We say things about God that are true. Man, we grab scripture and we pray it back to God about how awesome He is. Look what He says: Oh, Lord God of heaven.

It is possible that Nehemiah here is actually borrowing phrasing from the Persian Empire. In Persia, it would have been like: if you say, Lord God of heaven, it would be like you're saying, Oh, I'm talking about the big one. Yeah. The big one that sits over all the little ones, okay?

Now, Nehemiah, certainly as a Jew, and we, you know, we don't believe there are little ones, there's only one God. But the point is: oh Lord God of heaven, even the way he addresses God. He is saying, God, I adore you. You are awesome. You are over it all.

Look what he says: the great and awesome God who keeps covenant. Great and awesome God. Is there a better word than awesome? We use awesome way too much, okay? The idea of awesome is it is inspiring awe in me.

Because of who you are. And I mean, is it? Listen, was there ever a greater song than My God is an Awesome God from Youth Camp?

Okay, you guys, some of you guys remember that? Or the Philwick conversion, okay, that now has recently come out. It's like this idea of awesome God. What else can I say about God? You are.

Awesome. And then he says this, he says, your steadfast love. He talks about God being a covenant keeper. God is such a covenant-keeping God. Here's what he's saying when he says, God, you're a covenant keeper.

He's saying, You're more committed to us than we are to you. You are Lord of heaven. You are awesome. And you are committed to us. Can you see how much different that is than the only prayer we say in a day right before we go to bed is, please be with my dear Aunt Sally?

Show me who to marry and help me not get fired. Amen. Right. It's like, this is, I mean, this is different, what I'm talking about, right? This is a different deal.

Not a sit down. And I adore God. And then we move on. This is going to get into us, okay? This is going to step on us a little bit.

Now he moves into confession. Confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father's house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that commanded your The rules that you commanded your servant Moses. Can you?

Okay. All right.

This is not about somebody else. This is about us. We move from adoring God. to realizing If he is the Lord God of heaven who is awesome and is a covenant keeper, I know I'm not. I see the deficiency in me.

Right? And the more I look at him, the more I see I have a deceitful and wicked heart. And the more I can say that out loud to God to confess my actual sins, guess what I get more of? More of His grace poured out over my life. I get to see that the depths of who He is and His mercy is not going to run out on me, but I will never get there if I can't actually confess my own sin.

Guys, I'm coaching I'm coaching middle school football right now, okay? Six, I got 39. Sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. Pray for me, okay? Uh it ain't no joke.

It's super fun. I've had a blast with it, okay? And um. But this is what I've learned. I love working with kids.

I love, you know, even the kids that you're raising in your own home, you're going to know that what I'm saying is right. All they are is Is grown up, all we are is grown-up versions of them. We've just learned how to hide stuff better. I'm serious. That's really all it is.

When you look at a kid and you start getting onto them X, Y, Z, I mean, it's really just us. They just haven't figured out how to hide it yet. And so like for it, this is how it works out in football. In football, man, I'll get on to them about something. You didn't do this right, or we got to do this, or whatever.

I get into them a little bit. And man, the second you do that, the second you do it. Excusitis. I didn't hear the play, coach. They're holding me, you know?

The ref didn't see it. It's always the ref. The ref didn't see it. The guy didn't block for me good enough or whatever, you know? And I mean, it's just, and as a coach, I'm like always trying, I mean, I just hammer them about it.

I'm like, hey, man, it ain't somebody else's fault. It's not somebody else.

Okay, at some point, you're going to have to just sort of own, like, man, whatever it is, I've got to be the one, right? And it's so funny because even when I'm getting into it with them, And the excuses are coming, and I'm putting it back on them. I can just see in my own mind, I'm just like, man, I am just like that. I am just like them, you know? I mean, we lost one game.

It wasn't my fault. It was their fault.

Okay, so yeah. I told him, I said, hey man, I wasn't playing the game. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. But you get it, right?

Like the kids. All everything they're doing, we do. Our confession before God is an opportunity for us to say, man, I'm not putting this on anybody else. I'm not going to be the victim. You want to know what's so interesting about Nehemiah?

He doesn't come to God as a victim, he comes to God as the villain. That's what he does. It's me. He even literally says in verse 6, Even me, I, and my father. We are the ones who have sinned.

Confession is an opportunity for us to clearly say to the Lord, I know that I'm on the wrong side and I know that I need your grace. My question for us is: How much does that characterize our prayer life? We adore God, we confess to God.

Now, I'm gonna be honest, okay? I feel like for the sake of just making this really clear, I don't wanna force something. All right, if I'm when I'm praying. Adoration, confession. Thanksgiving and supplication.

Now, in this passage, he doesn't get into much thanksgiving, okay? What he does, though, is he kind of sets up his supplication, I think, in a thankful way. I don't want to press it too far, but you guys can read it with me. Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples.

Well, that happened. They were unfaithful, they're scattered. But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, Though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen. to make my name dwell there. They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand.

What is he doing? He is saying back to God. God, these are your words to Moses. This is your word from Deuteronomy. That we sin, we get scattered.

That happened. But God, we are trying to turn back to you now. And I want to lead in coming back to you now. And Ezra is there building the temple or has already built the temple back now. And God, we're trying.

He's putting this before the Lord. What he's saying is, God, you are this type of God. I think he's grateful that he has the word of God to give back to God. But he sets it up. And here's the ask.

If you're not paying attention, you'll miss it. His ask is God. Use me. I mean, look what he says. It's great.

Oh, Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name. Here's what he says. And give success to your servant today.

Okay, success in what? And grant him mercy in the sight of this man. He's talking about the king. Give me mercy in the king's sight. Look what he says.

Now I was a cupbearer to the king. Listen. You've got to catch this, okay? You want to know a simultaneous, exhilarating and terrifying thought? The things that God is waking you up to.

He might be putting you in the very position. for God to use you. and the solution. Nehemiah just happened to be the cupbearer to the king. Right?

You know what story this is? I mean, think about this story. Y'all, is this not Esther's story? I mean, actually, it's very connected. Nehemiah is the cupbearer to the son of the king that Esther went into in order to be able to save her people too.

I mean, it's kind of all tied up together. And the point of the huge sovereignty of God and the point of Esther, I think, comes into play here in Nehemiah. Where you realize God has been preparing Nehemiah, maybe for decades. To have a broken heart over his people. And then to be in position for God to use him in answering his servant's prayer.

It's a pretty exhilarating thought. It's a pretty terrifying thought. That the things that you have going on that you see the brokenness in the world The things that really get you. Man, it's you know the things that you want to see rebuilt. Can God rebuild this marriage?

Can God rebuild this community group? can god rebuild this company maybe you've taken over a company and it's like man Godless leadership, terrible attitude, terrible culture, and you're like, man, how are we going to see this come back? You know, how are we going to? Maybe there's just something in front of you. You don't think God can rebuild it.

It's breaking your heart. Think about Nehemiah. Maybe God is breaking your heart for it because He's going to use you to do it. He's going to use you to be involved with doing it. You know, the great thing for us, you know, Moses, it's so funny, he keeps quoting Moses.

Moses didn't want to be involved in the solution, if you remember. Like Moses was like, man, I don't want to go get these people out of Egypt. I mean, he gets Moses excuse after excuse. I don't talk good. You know, I think good, but I don't talk good.

Okay, that's kind of what Moses said. And then he's like, man, they're not going to listen. And finally, at the burning bush, Moses just looks to God and says, oh God, please just send somebody else. I don't want to be the one to do it. Nehemiah is doing the opposite here.

He's stepping into the shoes of a heroine in scripture, Esther. And what he's saying is, no, no, God, maybe you are preparing me for this very moment. We don't want to voice prayers over a rebuild that needs to happen year after year after year after year if we are unwilling for God maybe to use us. to bring resolution and to be part of the rebuilding. Th this is so funny.

So I'm gonna tell you right now, okay, I've been there and monkeys are an issue, all right, in India. And in Thailand, and I've been to both places, okay? There is a town in Thailand where they have just. They have absolutely just taken over. It's called Lot Bari, Thailand.

Now, monkeys are an issue. I was in the high jungle, I was in the jungle of India one time. And I come out of my little bathroom and my roommate for the mission trip. I walk out and there is a monkey about this big just rifling through my backpack. And I open the door about this much.

I see him. My buddy is like standing in the corner in fear: help me, help me, help me. And I just shut the door, okay? I'm like, man. I mean, dude, you're kind of on your own at this point, all right?

Luckily. He was just after some crackers and didn't take my passport. All right.

These monkeys are an issue, they need to be dealt with. And this whole town, I'm serious, go look it up. This whole town in Thailand. has just been taken over and they can't seem to figure out what to do about it. I'm like, man, I think me and a few of you guys from Summerfield and get a couple guys from Northeast, we can fix this problem.

You don't even have to pay me. In fact, we might pay them. You know what I'm saying? Like, we could.

Now, here, now, this is what I want to tell you guys. This is so funny to me, okay? The most recent article I read, it just baffled my mind. They're now trying to use different fruits to lure the monkeys away.

Okay? I mean, just. The first, I've used this illustration twice now in my life, all right? The first time I used it was years ago. And the monkeys are still the problem.

I mean, it's crazy to me. And this is what I liken it to. I liken it to, I mean, you go and there's an article every year, monkeys are a problem, monkeys are a problem, monkeys are a problem, monkeys are a problem. We can't seem to figure out what to do about it. And then I think about us in our prayer life.

How many of us have been praying the same prayer for four or five years? And it's like, man, I'm praying you'll fix this. I'm praying you'll fix this. I'm praying you'll fix this. I'm praying you'll fix this.

I'm not saying God's going to fix it or not fix it. What I am saying is. Are we willing to also voice the second part of that prayer that says, God, and use me? Use me. to be involved in what you can rebuild here.

I want to be used if I can be. See, my original point when I was laying this sermon series out, I mean, you know, months ago, the original thought I had with this was: man, it was just going to be all about the power of prayer. But the more that I got into this text, I realized it is about the power of prayer, and it's also about the position that we need to be in in our hearts to say, God, I want to be used. To understand. That when we have a broken, you can say it like this.

A broken heart might be God's invitation for you to be involved. Right? Like Nehemiah, my heart breaks for Jerusalem.

Okay, what do I have? I'm the cupbearer. All right, God. I need you to give me favor with this man.

so that we can see what you're going to do. And maybe that's where we need to be today. You know, I've thought about this. Really recently, it's very hard. I mean, we're just going through a very hard season right now.

Personally, our daughter, our little chosen girl, you know, Faith Ann, some of you guys know her. She's dealt with a lot in her life, man. And for five years, we've been praying. that she was not going to have to have a very significant surgery on her neck. I mean a fusion.

fuse her skull to her spine. And we've been praying about it for five years. And man, it just looks like it's heading that way, and it may be sooner rather than later. And it's just, you know. Faith Ann doesn't, it's hard, you know, she doesn't talk.

It's hard for her to understand. She's going to have no idea that this is happening, and it's just going to go happen if it happens one day. And it's just, you want to talk about a dark night of the soul, just thinking about the recovery and all that stuff. Um it's just very hard. But here's the thing: this is what I was thinking about.

Man, it breaks my heart. to think about. you know, what Faith Anna is going to have to go through. But the day that we chose her to be in our family. was the same day that God chose us to walk with her in this moment.

You see, the broken heart that we have. towards something that we see needs to be restored and rebuilt. It is the invitation. to step in and to be part of what God does in writing that story. And I think we see that from Nehemiah's life, and I want to call you to it as we close.

All right?

So I'm going to call you to this. Pray with a willing heart to be used by God. It's not just pray, God, fix it. It's not just pray God move in it. It's it's God.

I'm praying for you to fix it and if I can be used in it. I'm not just praying that the nations will hear the gospel. God, how can I go? How can I give? I'm not just praying that the foster So, you know, the foster care system would be emptied.

How can I rope hold for some of our awesome foster families that are here? Maybe God would call us into that ministry as well. That's what I'm getting at. It's like we're praying that God would do it, but we're also saying, God, I want to be used in it. And you say, well, where do we, man, you're busy.

Life is busy. How do I find the motivation? to voice the prayer beyond just the prayer. I mean the prayer to be used. How do I get the motivation for that?

I want you to think about it. For Nehemiah The the motivation was this. God You must really care about these people. And here's what he says. Because you sent Moses there In order to bring them out of Egypt, you redeemed them.

You took Moses, you know, I'm not kind of just going through the history of it here. You took Moses from the palace of Egypt to the pasture of a shepherd. In order that you would get those people out of that predicament. You must love them a lot. And he puts that before God.

You must love them a lot. And if you care about them like that, I care about them like that.

Okay, all right. Nehemiah, pretty good motivation. What about ours? What about you and I living on our side of the cross? Don't you understand?

The broken situations that we're talking about, the things that need to be rebuilt, they always involve people. These are people that God didn't send Moses to get out of Egypt. He sent Jesus to buy back from sin, death, and hell. And if that is true. He must love them a lot.

And I was part of that. You were part of that. He must love us a lot. See, if Nehemiah had a motivation to jump in and pray big and be used. How much greater motivation do we have?

Man, we have a great motivation. And I would call us Man, let's do it, all right? Let's jump in.

Alright, so here's what we're going to do. Two things and I'm done. First thing is once you get out this prayer card. And oh, let me say this too, guys. If you've been hearing me say this over and over, let me say this.

Just really clear that I put on the screen axe. adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. Tomorrow morning. I'll go on a prayer walk, and I promise you, I... We'll do this.

I mean, it's just, it's just so, to me, it's very in line with scripture. Thinking about adore, confess, thankful, supplication. Maybe you can use that in your personal prayer life. All right.

God size prayers. Guys, here's what we're going to do. Man, we're going to come forward. and pray may altars all that I want you to write down what is the God-sized prayer. What do you need God to rebuild?

What do you need him to do? I've given a lot of examples. I don't need to give any more. You probably already know. I told you what's going on in my car.

We got to figure out how this thing, you know, we got to figure out what God's going to do with this thing with faith in, man. I mean, that's our biggest. That's my family. We were all down here. What what What does God need to rebuild?

What looks irreparably broken? That's what this card is for.

Now you don't leave it down here. This is for you. You write something, I'm gonna give you a minute. I'm gonna give you a minute. You write it down, you come forward, man.

Put your body in a posture, pray over it. At the campuses, pray over it. Take it back, put it in your Bible. Man, refer back to it. That's how we're gonna.

Respond. but I also want to say this. Guys, this is very important. I want to call our church. to a night of fasting and prayer.

You know this. I know this. There is something happening. The ground is shaking right now. It's almost like the Spirit of God is just waiting for the people of God to start shaking heaven with their prayers so that the Spirit would fall.

On our church, yes. On the tribe, yes. But I'm talking about in our nation. The Bible gives us a playbook for this. It's Joel 114.

You du to leaders. You declare a fast. And you gather a solemn assembly, and that's what we're going to do. On October 23rd is a Thursday night. We are going to cry out for revival in this nation.

And I'm praying from all of our campuses, man, that this would be a night of prayer that is unlike anything that we've ever seen. I mean, there should be people that are spilling all the way into the lobby and out into the parking lot. It should be that type of event. It's a Thursday night. It'll be in place of our service that night.

So we'll still have our normal services on the weekend. But this is an all-in moment, a Thursday night. And I want you to hear me very clearly. It is going to be a prayer night for revival. We're not praying for a generic healing.

We're not praying for a generic unity. We are praying for revival, that the Spirit of God would fall. and that the dry bones would begin to rattle. And I'm inviting you to come and be in that with us. All right?

I pray that you will. And I think a moment like this is a moment that we need to beg God to leave the window open. Many times our nation goes through things, guys. You guys saw some of y'all saw the Charlie Kirk Memorial. I'm not even talking about the speeches or anything, I'm talking about just the people.

In terms of the something is happening. And we've seen this before. The problem is the window shuts pretty fast, people go back to their life. Amen. I want to pray right now that God would leave this window open.

And then he would start a fire right here in Greensboro that spills out all over the nation. Let's pray, Father. Come before you, and Lord, we just ask right now. that you would move. God, I pray that you would.

Use us. Lord, I have no idea. I would imagine that there are prayers being offered right now or about to be. for healing. God for rebuilding a family.

for rebuilding a financial picture that's been lost. God, for planting a church, for building a new small group, for healing relationships in the church. Or what they are. Father, I pray that you will. Move upon the prayers of your people here.

Christ's name.