Foundation of Community Revitalization

Far too often we allow other things to push prayer aside, but we don't allow prayer to push other things aside. Dr. Tony Evans challenges us to prioritize prayer, especially in times of need.

If we want to save and turn around our community, that's what we have to do. Push something else aside and contact God. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. In a world with communities facing devastation, injustice, and brokenness, believers ought to lead with compassion as they take steps toward restoration. Today we're revisiting a powerful sermon series from Dr. Evans that delivers a timeless message, one just as relevant today as it was when first recorded in the Old Testament.

Join us as we listen in to discover how one man, seeing a need, stepped forward to seek God's help in bringing restoration and renewal in the face of overwhelming challenges. The book of Nehemiah is about a community gone bad. It is about devastation. It is about all kinds of injustice.

It is about family disintegration. You find everything in here, from robbery to bad interest rates to employment problems. You find in here male and female relationships. You find in here all kinds of social and psychological trauma. You find in here worship.

You find in here every aspect of the human dilemma is in this book. We want to look at today in the first four verses a dedicated person, a difficult problem, and a determined prayer. Nehemiah is going to accomplish in the nation Israel in 52 days what had not been accomplished in 141 years. You're going to find out what that is in a moment, but he's going to accomplish in 52 days what had not been accomplished in 141 years.

Now, why is it important for you to know that? You need to know that because whenever you put God first, it don't take long. Now, I don't know what you're trying to fix in your life.

I don't know what's broken down in your life. It could be your personal life, your family life, your career life, your community life, but I'm here to tell you it doesn't take long when you're in God's will. When you're out of God's will, you're spinning your wheel.

Fifty-two days is all it took to fix a 141-year problem. But first of all, God had a dedicated man. Now, this book is as much about a man as anything else.

It is the story of Nehemiah. Here you're going to find a man among men, and by the way, God's method is never first a program. It's always a person. God says that his eyes run to and fro the earth looking for somebody he can use. If God has a problem, if I could use that terminology, his problem is people.

He just has a hard time coming up with folk who are going to do right. It's amazing how many people want to change systems. We need to change the educational system, and we need to change the political system, and we need to change the economic system, and we need to change the criminal justice system. But the only thing that makes those systems systems are people.

So unless you fix people, you can't fix systems because systems are devised by people who run them. You know, since 1965, one trillion dollars has been spent by the federal government to revitalize the urban communities of our country. One trillion dollars. Now, you can do a lot with one trillion dollars. That's a bunch of money. In multiple lifestyles, no matter how lavish you lived your life, you could never spend a trillion dollars. And years later, society is worse off than before the first dollar was spent.

Why? Because the money was given to people. And when you look at the statistics, you'll find out that 70% of the trillion dollars was spent to administer the other 30%. So, God's problem is always people. He's always looking for a person, according to Jeremiah 5, 1 and Ezekiel 22, 30.

He's always looking for somebody He can use. Nehemiah. You're going to find out that he was a visionary person. He was a person with foresight. He was a planning person, an organized person, a person of faith and common sense, a person of compassion and integrity, a person of impartiality and persistence. You're going to find out that this man had it all.

You're going to find out that this is the kind of person you should want to be like. Now, he lets us know that what he's going to share with us happened in the month of Chizleb. That is the end of November and beginning of December in our calendar. He lets us know where he was. He was in Susa, the capital. Now, Susa was the winter playground of the kings of Persia. That's where they went.

In America, we go to Florida. In Persia, you went to Susa. That was the place where royalty hung out when it got cold.

It was a winter playground. Nehemiah is there. Now, why is Nehemiah there? Well, you find that in the last sentence of verse 11, it says, Now I was a cupbearer to the king.

Now, this is a little statement dropped in, but oh, what power it has. I was a cupbearer to the king. Because what you're going to find in this verse is that God wants to use your career for His glory. Who's a cupbearer? The king during this time of Persia was King Artaxerxes. He's mentioned in chapter 2 by name, King Artaxerxes. During this time, kings had cupbearers. These were the men who tasted the king's wine and the king's food before the king tasted it.

So if somebody was going to die, it was going to be the cupbearer. The cupbearer was the one to protect the king from internal assassins. Because poison was a major way of getting to the king. It is estimated that King Artaxerxes had some 15,000 servants, people who served him.

King Artaxerxes was particularly squeamish because his father, Xerxes, had been assassinated by one of his servants. So you can imagine all the pain and energy that went into Artaxerxes selecting his cupbearer. He wanted to make sure that his cupbearer would be one who would be of great reputation, who would be impeccable, who would be trusted. And the cupbearer, more than just tasting food, actually served as chief of staff. He made sure that things that flowed into and flowed out of the king were all appropriate. When the king went to take a nap, the cupbearer stood at the door to guard him so that he would not be assassinated in his sleep. When the king was moving about, the cupbearer would be with him. So now, what does this tell us about Nehemiah? He was well-to-do because all that belonged to the king he had access to. So he's, shall we say, in the upper class echelon of the Persian Empire even though he is a Jew.

Why? Because he is the cupbearer for the king. So whatever the king got to eat, he got to eat at first. Whatever the king got to drink, he got to drink at first. Wherever the king went, he was there too. So he flew on the royal jets, rode in the royal limousines, he walked with the royal entourage.

He was a known man because you couldn't get to Artaxerxes unless you came through the cupbearer. So we're not just talking about anybody, we're talking about a significant individual here. So we have a quality person. Now, in order to set this in its historical continuum, he is living in the same span as Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach, Abednego, Mordecai, and Esther. All those people are living in this same basic continuum. And so when you juxtapose or juxtaposition this story along with all the other stories, you really see all that's happening with Jewish people or God's people living in a pagan society.

Because they're all in this Persian Empire. So now we've seen or been introduced to this dedicated person, let's now look at the difficult problem, verses 2 and 3. Hanani, one of my brothers, appears to be his brother in the flesh, and some men from Judah came, and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and had survived the captivity and about Jerusalem. And they said to me, the remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates were burned with fire. Now when you read that, that may not grab you, that may not emote you, that may not say, okay, well, so you had a few bricks burning.

No, there's a lot more to this than that. That may seem like a small detail, but there's much more to uncover here. Dr. Evans will explain why this is crucial when he continues in just a moment. First though, I want to let you know that today's message is the first installment in Dr. Evans' comprehensive 15-lesson study on the book of Nehemiah.

The story of Nehemiah isn't just about rebuilding a city's walls. It's about restoring lives, strengthening faith, and stepping boldly into God's calling. Through this series, you'll discover practical insights on leadership, perseverance, and spiritual renewal.

Lessons that apply to your personal walk with God, your family, and even your community. We'd love to give you the complete series on digital download on either CD or USB stick as our gift when you make a donation to the Ministry of the Alternative. And as a special bonus, we'll also include a copy of Dr. Evans' powerful book, One Nation Under God. If you're concerned about the direction our country is headed, this book reveals what you can do about it, not through politics, but through a kingdom approach that aligns with God's principles. Dr. Evans lays out practical strategies to make a lasting impact, starting with you. Just visit us today at tonyevans.org or call us at 1-800-800-3222, make your contribution, and let us send you the Nehemiah audio series along with Tony's book, One Nation Under God.

I'll repeat that contact information for you after part two of today's lesson. Here's Tony once again. First of all, you need to understand a very fundamental principle of every dispensation, whether you're in the Old Testament or whether you're in the New Testament, and that is the principle of representation. As your leader goes, so go you, potentially. Wherever you have a bad leader, the people who follow them are in trouble. That's true in a family. If the father or the husband is a bad leader, well, that's going to affect the well-being of the wife and the children. In other words, there's a biblical principle, and that is the principle of representation. That is, when you're represented by somebody who goes bad, unless you change representatives, you're in trouble.

Well, in order to put this in its historical perspective, we've got to go all the way back. You don't have to turn in now, but 1 Kings 11, when the Bible says, And Solomon loved many women. And the Scripture says in those first 13 verses that these women turned his heart from God, and God judged him based on the prophecies of the Old Testament, and the judgment was that because you have loved many women, I will take your kingdom from you. So the kingdom was split between the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. The northern kingdom was led by his son Jeroboam, the southern kingdom was led by Rehoboam, and both kingdoms, the Bible says, intermarried with foreign women because of the sins of the father are visited among his sons. See, that's another principle of representation.

If you go bad, your genes carry it. And so, as a result of this, the two kingdoms were judged as the one man was judged. Nehemiah, when he sees his brother, asks his brother Hanani, How are things going back home? He was a man who remembered where he came from and the people that he had left behind, even though he was ascending a ladder of success.

He wanted to know whether they were making progress. The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity, verse 3, are in great distress at reproach, the walls of Jerusalem are broken down and its gates are burned with fire. Whenever the Bible talks about the walls of a city, it's talking about the breakdown of the security. There was crime galore because the walls had broken down. There was insecurity galore. There was all kind of degradation galore. In other words, he was saying when the walls were broken down that the people from the time the Babylonians destroyed the city have made absolutely no progress. In fact, they're regressing. In spite of all the energy, in spite of all the work, in spite of all the returns, they aren't going anywhere.

I would like to suggest to you today that that phrase is an appropriate phrase for the world in which we live. The walls are broken down. Because you see, when the walls are broken down, you have no standard by which people live.

People make up rules as they go along. And such as it was in Israel that these people living in Israel have made absolutely no progress to reestablishing what God had intended. Verse 4. It says, Now it came about when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for many days, and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. Now this verse is heavy and I haven't even gotten into the prayer yet.

Let me tell you why it's heavy. First of all, I couldn't get into the prayer because there are ten sermons in this one prayer. In fact, everything you need to know about fixing every area of your life is in this prayer.

When he heard about the situation among his people, he backed away from the security of his personal peace and affluence long enough to raise the issue, what about everybody else? Some of us here today are on our way to heaven and we are satisfied. We know we've been forgiven. We know we've been born again. We know we're on our way to heaven. I got mine.

You get yours. When is the last time you've wept over relatives who don't know Christ? When is the last time you've cried over people who have rejected the gospel?

Or have we become so secure in our own spiritual standing that we're too cute to remember others? But not only was it a spiritual concern, it was a social and economic concern because Nehemiah understood when people don't understand God, they also don't understand culture. And when people are not right with God, they cannot be right with their fellow men. He understood that you can never fix society until you fix people and the people were broke. And I would like to submit to you today that we live in a world of broken people.

And broken people can't fix broken walls. But what's the main thing I want to close with today? Here's the main thing I want to close with. Nehemiah is a big shot, but he was not too big to pray. In fact, before he comes up with a great society program, before he comes up with the Jerusalem New Deal, before he comes up with a strategy to fix broken Jerusalem, it says he fasted and prayed for many days.

I'm talking about a busy man here. If you see something in your life or in your world broken, is prayer the first thing or the last thing that you do? If relating to God comes last, then so was the solution to your problem. The Bible says of Jesus Christ, on the busiest day of his life, he woke up earlier to pray.

The busier he was, the earlier he had to get up. What I'm suggesting is the mess we in, we need all the prayer we can get up front. And so we see this determined prayer that this man is going to lay out. He's going to lay out an awesome prayer, but let me tell you what else he did.

He says he fasted. Fasting in Scripture is giving up a craving of the body because of a need of the Spirit. That is, there's something in your life going so deep, so heavy, and you need God so bad that you give up something for it. Now I want to make a major point about this, and that is this. Far too often, far too often, we allow other things to push prayer aside, but we don't allow prayer to push other things aside.

You understand what I mean by that? Look at all the things that push prayer aside, my show coming on. So prayer may be pushed aside. I got a long day, I need the extra time to sleep, so sleep pushes prayer aside. I got this major deal, and so prayer gets pushed aside. Well, God's no dummy.

He does not like being pushed aside. You know what I'd like to challenge you to do? To let prayer push something that's important to you aside. To say, Lord, instead of eating this noon because of the need in my family to save my marriage, I'm going to spend these noons praying.

In other words, I'm going to take the time that I would have spent eating, and I'm going to use that 30 minutes that I would have spent satisfying the hunger that I now feel in my stomach. I'm going to push that aside, and I'm going to call on you. If we want to save and turn around our community, that's what we have to do. For if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked way, I will heal their land. When was the last time prayer pushed something aside? Here's a man who understood if he was going to save his people, he needed all the God he could get.

And because he understood that, he was not going to let anything, including his position, his busyness, stop him. You're going to see through the book of Nehemiah a great man, but we're going to learn enough in this book to impact the world in which we live as well. Oh, it'll benefit you. It'll help you because you'll see a lot of spiritual characteristics that you need. It'll help your family to rebuild the walls of your home that may be crumbling down. You know, it's amazing all the time and energy we spend to get things fixed in our lives. A couple's marriage gone bad, so they'll spend $1,000 to go on a cruise to Nassau.

I guess they think that there's marriage healing magic in the waters of the Caribbean. Oh, I'll tell you what you should do. Give up your dinner meal for a week and spend that 30 minutes praying together as a couple. You don't have a job and it's a tight economy. Okay, you got a real problem and you got a desperate need. Now, wouldn't it be better to spend extra time in prayer having God lead you to the right place, than leaving prayer to last and you running all over the street every day looking for a job and none of them are turning out?

You have a desperate need to man faster than pray. The walls were crumbling down. My question in closing today is what wall is crumbling in your life? What thing is falling apart in your life? What thing is collapsing in your life? Is it your personal life? Is it your family life? Is it your children? Is it your community?

Whatever is falling in your life, push something else aside and contact God. If you'll make a donation to help us keep presenting these life-changing messages to a world in need of good news. You'll receive the complete two-volume series on digital download as well as either CD or USB thumb drive. And as a special bonus, you'll also receive Tony's thought-provoking practical guide, One Nation Under God. Take advantage of this limited time offer by calling for details 1-800-800-3222.

Resource team members are on hand 24-7 to help you. That's 1-800-800-3222. Or make the arrangements and get your digital downloads right away at TonyEvans.org. Again, that's TonyEvans.org. Harry Truman famously displayed a sign on his desk that read, The Buck Stops Here. This time, Dr. Evans challenges Christians to adopt that same mindset when it comes to influencing our communities. I hope you'll join us for this revealing look at ways to bring light into our culture.