You know, in times of trouble, times of crisis, it's common to look back. How did we end up here? But what God wants us to do and what Nehemiah is going to remind us is to look forward with faith. And we're looking forward to the conversation today coming up right now on the Cleavery Today Show. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr.
Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. Welcome to the Clearview Today Show. We got a great conversation for you guys today with our host, Dr.
Abadan Shah. If you're listening for the very first time, we want to say welcome. We're glad you're here. Whether you're tuning in on the radio, podcast, YouTube, wherever you're finding the show, we want to say that we're glad God's brought you here. Dr.
Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show, Dr. Shah, trucking along through the book of Nehemiah. It's good to see you. Yes, you as well. Yeah, today we're going to, just like you mentioned, we're going to talk about looking forward rather than looking backwards and staying there.
Yeah. This sort of different part approach, the different facets of Nehemiah's prayer. And we dove into that on yesterday's episode, and it's really creating this picture of how we should respond when God places a call in our lives, when there's a task in front of us. How do we respond? Nehemiah fasted and he prayed.
And we're going to continue that conversation today. But, you know, the reason we can do that is through the support of our sponsors. That's right. You know, we have lots of companies, lots of partners who are sponsoring with us. Supporting us financially, supporting us just even with their prayers and with their support of the show.
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You can always email us at info at clearviewbc.org, or you can reach out to us directly by texting in the show: 252-582-5028. Dr. Sean, Nehemiah has given us this picture of prayer, this different faceted approach to the steps of his prayer. For the people who missed yesterday's episode, do you want to just recap kind of how his prayer has been structured? Oh, absolutely.
And this is a prayer that you can use if you are rebuilding a ministry, rebuilding a marriage, rebuilding a home, rebuilding relationships, whatever it is, rebuilding a church, this can be your pattern. When you pray to God, because prayer is the key. Prayer is where the fire is. You know, if you think about. Like a steam engine.
This is where the fire is. uh years ago when some people came to visit Charles Spurgeon. And they said, What is the secret? What is the secret to the success Of the Metropolitan Tabernacle. What is the secret to Spurgeon's success?
And he took them down to what was somewhat like a basement or a boiler room, and he opened the door, and there were Men, several men who were on their knees praying. And he said, that. gentlemen, is the secret. of the success of our church, of our ministry. Yeah.
That is also the secret of any ministry, whether it is a thriving ministry or a ministry in need of some restoration. That's right. So here's the pattern. Number one, Nehemiah looked up in adoration. He prayed to the Lord God of heaven and he he reminded Not only God, but Himself and others, that He's a God who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him and observe His commandments.
So there's an adoration towards God. Second came repentance. He did not say those people or my ancestors. He said, We have sinned before God. It is because of our sins that we have lost the land and we are in this predicament.
Next he looked back to the promises. You know, if you don't trust in the promises of God, it is very easy. To get disillusioned, it's very easy to get discouraged. It's very easy to lose your focus, to lose the vision if you lose sight. of God's promises.
So always, always, always think back. To what are the promises that you are anchoring yourself to? That's right. Whether they are in your personal lives. in your family, in your marriage, with your children, in the church, in the community, in this nation.
What are those promises? Yeah, think back on those promises, whether it's in your personal life. That you remember God saying, Hey, I will not leave you nor forsake you. In your marriage, that if you build your home, unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.
So if you have that promise, That you're building your house, your marriage on that promise, you will go through some tough time. I mean, tough time in the sense that you will feel like it's over. But if that promise is there, you can you can Take the next step, you can face another day. If it's with your children, train up a child in the way that they should go. When they're old, they will not depart from it.
If you have built your Children on that promise. You will succeed. Yeah. In the church, if you're building it on the promise that Jesus said, on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not. Prevail against it.
then you know that that church will stand. That church that stands on the gospel of Jesus Christ, that church that is focused on the truth of God's word. That folk, the church that seeks to reach the lost, they will not fail.
So, once you have those promises in place, Then you can face whatever. I mean, I mean, whatever comes in your way. Yeah. You will not give in. You will not give up.
I like the way that you frame that because I think it's important to frame a discussion like this just the way that you did. Because you talk about framing forward or facing forward. With life and with faith, we don't ever want to communicate that looking back is not important. It's just that when we look back, so often, just like you said, we look back on the wrong things. We look like, how did I get here?
How did it get so messed up? Whose fault is this? Let's figure out where this went wrong. But often, when we look back, like here at Clearview and then thinking in successful ministries, it's looking back on those promises, seeing in the past where God has fulfilled those promises. Yeah, with our church, I mean, we can look back.
Now, we, Nicole and I have been at this church, and this is our first and only church, and we've been here since 1998. That's 28 years. Two more and it'll be 30 years, three decades. Three decades, not three years, not 13 years, but three decades, three long 10 years. And through the years, we have Trusted in some word from the Lord.
Not just some word out in the ether, you know, but some word from the word of God, the Bible.
some word, some promise, some truth that became very dear to us.
Some Some truth of God that the Holy Spirit took and said, Hang on to this. And do not let go. No matter what happens, do not let go. And those are the promises that we look back to. And we know that we will be okay.
I like that looking back because, in a sense, it propels you forward. You look back to see how God has been faithful, how God has seen you through, but not so you can just sit there and dwell in a sense of nostalgia. It's now let's capture ground.
Now there is action. Do you think if you don't look back on those promises, if you fail to do that, it's harder to look forward? Oh, yeah, absolutely. And you will try to. And this is where a lot of people either lose their focus or they lose their enthusiasm because they lose their focus because where are you headed to?
What what are you trying to do? Let's just pick the church. If there isn't a promise like like the standard promise. On this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I think, I believe, Jesus was talking about Peter.
And of course, I'm not Roman Catholic in that sense that I believe that he is the first pope or anything like that. I believe he was saying, Hey, Peter, you're the rock. You're going to lead, you're going to be that person who will help. on the day of Pentecost and and down the steps. But it was just the rock, the bottom line.
I don't think Jesus was referring to himself at that point.
Some people think that. I think the immediate context goes against it. But it doesn't need to be made into some papal succession either. It's got nothing to do with that. But that is a general promise.
That Nothing will Destroy the church. It will stand. But then there are other promises that we have claimed. You know, that God, if we're faithful and if we burn our ships. You know, that's one thing we have to do: burn our ships.
Means we're not going to. you know Moment things get rough on land, they're going to run back to our ships or swim back to our ships or row back to our ships and then sail away. We're going to burn those ships, and we did. And we believed. that if we are fully committed Fully committed, then God is going to do something powerful here.
So That And again, it's based on many, many promises in the Bible. I wish I could give you just one. I mean, he who began a good work in you will complete it. until the day of Jesus Christ.
So those are just some of the promises.
Now we have a focus. The focus is that he will do a great work.
Now, in our church's life, we're seeing the great work, whether it's a play or whether it's a worship album, whether it is. Children's ministry, or a youth mission trip coming up. All these things are the great work, or a series that becomes very successful. All these are great works.
So, if we don't have those kinds of promises, and I just give you the example of a church. You can claim that example as a family. What is a promise that God has given to you in your family? For us One of the promises was, God, help us to leave a godly legacy in this world, not our legacy. But children who will shine for Jesus Christ Once we're gone, that's what we prayed for.
And not for a single moment, we were perfect parents, or we were impeccable, and never made a mistake, or never lost a temper, or never got angry. None of those things. but we had that promise. That God helps us to leave a godly legacy for you. With our children and our grandchildren.
And if Christ doesn't return soon, down the ages. Do you think maybe this is why there's a lot of Christians, whether it's in the church or just in their family, they are doing things, right? They're putting out an album, or the pastor wrote a book, or even in their family, they're doing sports and they're succeeding in school. They're trying to be successful. Right.
And I think that's fine. But it's not a clear-cut goal as to what does that look like. Right, because I feel like maybe there's a lot of. Ministry leaders, pastors who are doing things, and the things I'm doing I think are important, I like doing, but I don't feel that focus like you're talking about. Yeah, the focus only comes from the promises.
Because a promise gives the focus. And then we can look forward to those. Right, and and that's in the future.
So, promise, if I could put it that way, is almost like the fuel that takes us to the destination. But without the fuel, you can either there is no destination or there is whatever fuel you can put in the tank at the moment. Let me get you there, whatever. Wherever we can make it. Wherever you can make it.
If it's like 10 feet down the tracks, oh, there it is. That's our destination. Or get off the tracks. Oh, that's our destination. This was always intended.
Or maybe you even went way, way further than you thought, but you're way far from your original destination. Right. In this conversation, that makes perfect sense. Right. Many people don't live that way.
Many people don't operate that way. Why are we content with just? Wherever our fuel can take us, or not even putting fuel in the tank. Why are we content with just listless, aimless life? I think we tend to think that the Holy Spirit leads us.
In ways that we can never imagine. Yeah, and so I think that's why we think. that there is no straight line or there is no systematic Future, it's all just the wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. But when Jesus said those words to Nicodemus, he was talking about what it means to be born again. It doesn't compute in the human mind, and yet it happens in us.
But that's not about how the future works.
Now you say, well, does that mean that you can plan out the future like every step down? No, God has something way, way better for us. Way better. That's quite different. And he may take us down a very different path than we imagine.
Like, I didn't imagine pastoring a. Church in a town in North Carolina called Henderson. I didn't even know that existed. But God brought me here. I didn't imagine having a ministry like this where we are on the radio show, on the Truth Network, on Pray.com.
I didn't imagine that I would get a PhD in New Testament textual criticism. Didn't imagine any of those things. But God took me down that path. But that is not random. I was always a good student.
I was always a leader. I was always preparing myself. That part was always built into me. And it's God. It's not like I was like, God made me.
I mean, everything we are is made by God. That's right. That's right. I think of it like, and I don't know if I can make this illustration work, but I think a lot of Christians live their life going down a lazy river, right? Like they're in the inner tube and it's like, what I'm going to go to work, go to church, and whatever happens in life just kind of happens.
I'm going to float and I'm along for the ride. And, you know, I'll see the scenery and I might, you know, reach out and grab. Or it's like, I've got lots of ambition. I want to accomplish as much as I possibly can. I'm going to just stroke and I'm going to paddle and paddle and paddle.
And all of a sudden, I end up in this crazy whitewater raft that I didn't intend to be in.
Well, I would say. People plan every Other place other than the things of God. They plan their finances, they plan their vacations, they plan where they're going to spend their retirement. They plan all those things. I don't buy into that that people don't plan their lives.
They plan their lives very much. In fact, I would say too much. But when it comes to the things of God, Spiritual things or church life, or how am I going to make an impact for God's kingdom once I'm gone? That part we're like, oh, whatever, just like the lazy river. Yeah.
Yeah. But even the lazy river as like a king's dominion or some theme park is pretty much planned out. Yeah. Yeah. Somebody else has planned it out.
Somebody else has planned it out.
So it's really not really planned out.
So, like with someone like Nehemiah, right? Who didn't plan on, I probably when he was in Shushan, when he was living, he was not planning years down the road, I'm going to go to Jerusalem and I'm going to go rebuild some walls. But once he gets there, I assume he goes in with a plan. Yeah, and I think just the fact that he rose to such a powerful position in Persia. I mean, Sushan was a citadel.
It was the capital, I think it was the winter or summer capital of the Persian king. And he is here. He's not like just a worker in the palace. I mean, he is with the king on his vacation. Yeah.
During his summer time, he is with the king, which means he is not just an ordinary cupbearer. Right. Yeah. Very important. You said on an episode recently that he had the king's ear.
Like he was like advisor to the king. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. You know, he's now in Jerusalem.
He's, he's, and we're, we're, we're looking at this prayer of his. And the fact that he's looking forward in faith, the fact that he's saying, he's, he knows as he's praying that this is going to get accomplished. Where do you think this confidence comes from, if not? I mean, I mean, the promise that God has given him. But Now he's here, he's on the ground.
We haven't really gotten to his opposition yet.
So. His plan. You know what I'm saying? But his prayer is very indicative here.
So let's look at the last part of the prayer, which is verse 10. He says Now these are your servants and your people. whom you have redeemed by your great power, and by your strong hand. Oh Lord, I pray. Please let your ear be attentive.
To the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who desire to fear your name And let your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. He is already making plans to talk to the king. But he prays first. And his prayer is: God, give me mercy in the sight. This man.
In another way, he's asking for favor. He's saying, God, let this king, but he also calls him a man, which means he's saying, God, yes, he's a king. Yes, I'm going to respect him. Yes, I love him and adore him and I'm grateful for him. But at the same time, he is just immortal.
He is just. A man. All this removed, he is no different than the rest of us. And we are simply Your creatures.
So God, you alone are in complete control. And I want you to start moving this man's heart, moving the circumstances, so that I can go and help my people because The walls of Jerusalem have to be built. Not so we can say, hey, guess what, guys? We are back again. We are a people again.
We are the chosen ones again. No, so that the promise can come. And the promise is not some principle or some idea. The promise is the promised one. Yeah, we talked about that on an episode, maybe it was the last episode of the one before, but Nehemiah was very gospel focused.
Absolutely. This motivation was not just to help my clan, my people. My tribe.
Now this was to To enable God's promise plan from the beginning of time, that someone is coming, and that someone is not an ordinary person, that someone is fully God becoming fully man. And that's that precision that you talked about, looking forward and like laser focus in faith, because Nehemiah knew that the plan of God was on the point of. We've got to rebuild these walls, not so that we can have walls, but so that God's plan can take place. Yeah, not so that we can have prosperity again and that my people can be happy and be safe and fight the enemy. No, so that we can continue as a people so that God's promises can be fulfilled.
And one of the chief Promises is the promise of the Messiah. Yeah, I think a lot of times people can, and tell me what you think about this. I think it reveals a lot about your character, how you view God's plan, right? Because you could say, Well, I know God is calling me to do this, but if I don't do it, someone else is going to do it.
Now, you could look at that and say, whew, that's a load off my plate because I know God's going to do it. Or you could say, no, I'm about to miss out on something really, really great. And I think the best leaders are typically in the ladder camp where they say, I'm going to miss out on what God has for me. The best leaders, I think, are in that ladder camp where it's like, yeah, I may not have to do it. God will raise up someone else, but I'm going to miss out on what God had in store for me.
Yeah, don't miss out on what God has laid out for you. Don't miss out on being used in his plan. Yes, God is going to accomplish his will in the world, but wouldn't it be tragic if you got to the end of your life and saw all of the missed opportunities, saw all of the chances that you could have had to be used by God to do incredible things and you missed it? If someone's listening right now and they feel like, I think I missed my chance, I think God put an opportunity in front of me and I was too busy looking backwards. I was too busy worried about where I was right now.
And I'm worried that. The opportunity God gave me has passed me by, but I want a second chance. What do they do? I mean, I would use Nehemiah as an example. I hope you will listen to the entire book as we go show after show, day after day, tune in, listen, because you will learn a lot about what to do when you are trying to rebuild.
Because, in a sense, you are trying to rebuild God's purpose for your life. You're trying to rebuild His goal for you. Nehemiah's goal was to rebuild the walls so that the people would be secure, so that the promised one will come. What is it that God wants you to do? Begin with God's plan.
You know, years ago, there was a program called Experiencing God.
Some of our older listeners, if you don't mind me saying that, definitely no experiencing God by Henry Blackabee. It was a great Bible study, and so many people were blessed by it, right? And again, Bible studies are not perfect, so you may have disagreed with this, that, and the other. But overall, I think it did an excellent job in calling God's people to join God. Wherever he is working.
So Look around to see where God is working. Look around and see where God is reaching the world with the gospel. It may be in your church, it may be in your Bible study group, it may be in the Sunday school. It may be on the ball field. Where you have an opportunity to impact others with the gospel?
I don't know. But then. To join God In his mission, don't try to go out there and say, I'm going to create a mission. Y'all help me. Pay for this mission.
Yeah, people do that. I have a mission. Pay for this or whatever. My GoFundMe is in the comments. Yeah.
Yeah. Don't do that. Instead, say, God, where are you working? That's right. How are you, in my generation, bringing lost souls to your son, Jesus Christ, and then join in?
And then in time, God will work out the details. God will take care of the rest as to what you need to do next. He said, you know, well, I love to sing. Great. Join the choir at church.
Start helping out. He said, Well, I'm more into helping children.
Well, join the church. And find a way to serve in that ministry. See how you can build those little lives to follow Christ. That's right. Right, so there are many, many ways that you can do that.
I love both of those examples because they both involve other people, you know, and we're kind of framing this discussion on looking forward in faith. My first reaction, and I think anybody's first reaction is, look, God's will for my life. You know, I'm looking forward in faith where I'm going to have a successful career and I'm going to be very close with God. I'm going to make a lot of money and I'm going to have blessed children. And all that is great.
But I love the examples that you gave because they also pour into the lives of other people.
Well, think even about Nehemiah from his calling to go rebuild the walls. He was doing that not so that he could say, Hey, I was in charge of this building project. Yeah, that's right. But he was doing it so that his people could be served and then bigger picture so that the world could be blessed in the coming of Jesus as the Messiah. He knew that God's plan was going to impact much more people, many more people than he could interact with individually.
Well, if you think about Nehemiah, there are so many similarities between him. And Jesus. Mm. You know, when you think about Nehemiah was in a high position. Yeah.
He was a cupbearer to the king. Which is more than just holding the cup or a poison taster. Christ was also in the highest position in heaven with His Heavenly Father, with the Holy Spirit. Nehemiah heard about the distress and reproach because the walls had fallen down. Christ saw our distress and reproach because of sin.
Nehemiah wept and mourned for many days. Jesus wept when he saw the city of Jerusalem. Nehemiah fasted and prayed before he did anything, Christ fasted and prayed for forty days before he started his ministry. And Nehemiah, as we will see, left his comfortable position. To go to Jerusalem.
In the midst of threats, in the midst of uncertainties, To rebuild the walls around the city of Jerusalem.
So also Jesus. Left his throne in heaven and came down on earth to give his life on the cross for us.
So you can see the, in a sense, a typology there. You can see in Nehemiah's life a typology of the coming Savior. Also in our life, there should be a similar typology. How do we go When we don't want to, we sacrifice when it's uncomfortable. And we do it not just to build our name or leave a legacy, so that we can we do it so that we can share the gospel of Jesus Christ with our lost loved ones and lost neighbors and lost people in general.
That's right. Dr. Shah, I know we're out of time, but just at the end of this show, there's someone listening to this who maybe they saw the title, looking forward in faith and they want to Accept Jesus into their heart because he can help me be successful. I think if I buy into this Christianity thing, I'll be blessed. And maybe they're about to accept Jesus for the wrong reason, if I can put it that way.
I know it's a crass, blunt way to put it. Would you just give a word of encouragement and then lead that person in a prayer of salvation? Absolutely. Whatever reason that has brought you to this point of giving your life to Jesus Christ, I'm glad you're here. But let's clarify the reason.
You need to come to Christ not so that you can do great things in the world, you need to come to Christ because you are greatly lost. You need a savior. I need a savior. Every human being needs a savior. You say savior from what?
Savior from yourself. Savior from sin. Savior who can save you from the judgment to come and hell to follow.
So come to Jesus Christ for those reasons and wants to come to Him and receive Him in your life.
Now follow Him fully. In whatever mission he has. That's right. Amen.
So good. Guys, make sure you join us tomorrow at the same time, same station. We're going to dig further into this conversation about Nehemiah and his life. Thank you to all of our sponsors for making today's episode possible. And don't forget that if you're supporting us online, we want to hear from you and what you are getting from the show.
Write in and let us know: 252-582-5028. You can always support us financially if you're not doing so already at Abadanshah.com/ford slash gift. That's right. We got lots of resources in the description for you guys. The one we want to draw your attention to is the Greek New Testament.
It's about to be available for order, but you can pre-order it right now at the link in the description. You can also follow all of our other shows on Dr. Abadan Shah's channel, link in the description as well. That's right. We love you guys.
We'll see you tomorrow. Hunkly Read Today.
