Brick by Brick // Our response to Brokenness // Nehemiah 1:1-10 // Pastor Josh Evans

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If you want to learn more about Truth Network and Truth Network, you can visit us at www. peeled death.org. tree that they shouldn't eat of and when that happened sin entered into the world and when sin entered into the world here's what happened all the fellowship and and the communion that they originally had with god the way that god designed for it to be all of that was broken not because god changed but because man sinned it's important that you understand that and so from that point forward here's what the whole point of scripture is it's god trying to redeem us back into a relationship with him and so in order for you to understand his his process for doing that you have to have a little bit of history of israel which will lead us to to where nehemiah begins with now all that when sin entered into the world genesis chapter number three if you flip some pages genesis chapter number 12 you're going to find god call a man by the name of abraham he called him to leave his homeland and god's going to make abraham a great nation now that sounds crazy because abraham and sarah god was making all these promises and it seemed you know physically impossible for them to have kids because of their old uh old age and it didn't make any sense right it's kind of like what in the world there is no way but we know that when god makes a promise he always fulfills it a hundred percent of the time and so god continued to re recount this promise to them and as they got older abraham and sarah had isaac we know that and uh and then after isaac came along we know that jacob you know isaac and rebecca had jacob and isaal and uh they were twins and and jacob and isaal you know they come into existence and and jacob's name would later be changed to israel and that's super important because that is god's chosen people so jacob had 12 sons and we know them as the 12 tribes of israel and this is how god's people was was born but we know that with god's people here's what always happens they always tend to rebel against god right and by the way before we hate on israel and them rebelling isn't that true of every single one of us from time to time we stray from god god tells us to do something we do the opposite in fact even the apostle paul in the new testament we find that he says and he writes he says that the things i want to do those spiritual things i find myself not doing and the things that i hate that's living in the flesh i find myself doing right and so that's the story of our life when we have the flesh in us we always stray we always rebel well the children of israel god's people no different than that and so what happens because of their rebellion because of their disobedience to god it finds themselves and lands themselves in egyptian captivity they were there for a very long time and so god he raises up remember from the story of scripture it's all about god's relentless pursuit of us and our rebellious hearts and so children of israel rebelled finds himself in egyptian captivity god raises up a man by the name of moses and moses comes onto the scene remember the burning bush experience right and god says hey you're gonna go before pharaoh and i'm gonna use you to to tell pharaoh to let my people go he does that moses goes and they get out of egyptian bondage and then after that what happens they begin to rebel again again and again it's the story of our rebellious hearts and god's redemption to try to purchase us back so god raises up 12 judges we have an entire book dedicated to the 12 judges in the old testament and so god raises up 12 judges to judge and to lead israel but remember they continue to rebel so much to the point that we find in first samuel chapter number six that the children of israel goes to the prophet samuel and they go to samuel and they say samuel we want you to go to god and tell god beg him that we need a king sam's like why do you need a king because everybody else has one it's like our kids right they want something new why because everybody else has one that's why israel wanted wanted a a king here was the problem though is that god was supposed to be their king all along that's what israel continued to miss everything israel god's chosen people was looking for was supposed to be found and fulfilled in a relationship with god but they continued because of their rebellious hearts they continued to look elsewhere but god in his mercy he gave them a king we know that and so god leads saul to be king you remember saul right and this is the history letter you guys still with me say amen if you're still there you're still awake right and so saul comes onto the scene we know him he's a great king he did you know a lot of great things well but towards the end of his life god told saul to take the nation of israel to defeat the amalekites and god said i'm going to fight for you and all that but he said when you defeat him i want you to leave them all there leave their stuff and you just come back to camp and leave them but we know saul got ahead of himself what did he do he went to defeat the amalekites and he ended up capturing the king so he brought the king back a pagan king and the god's people brought a pagan back and then he also brought a lot of their stuff back god didn't like it so god's face was turned against saul so god raises up another king we know him to be david david was the best king israel had ever seen after david you have solomon when solomon reigned if you remember the people still rebelled because of solomon's rebellion here's what happened to god's people the kingdom was ripped in in two so now you have israel that's the 10 northern tribes remember the 12 tribes of israel 10 northern tribes now you have judah judah's the two southern tribes now this is what's interesting to me and by the way we're going to get to nehemiah here in a moment so it's going somewhere i promise you and i'm just preaching the whole bible today we're going genesis all the way to the end we're gonna be here a while okay just understand that and so but here's the point israel now that is split with judah and so you got the 10 northern tribes two southern tribes israel had 19 different kings and none of them did that which was right in the sight of god in that wild 19 different kings so the only one that even came remotely close was a man by the name of jehu but even jehu rebelled against god and still god was trying the whole time to pursue man so that mankind can have a relationship with god judah had 20 different kings a few of them did that which was right in the sight of god but the majority of them also did that which was wrong in the sight of god because of their rebellion and we're getting close here it is israel was captured by assyria in 721 bc you can read all about this in second king 17 and israel was captured by assyria in fact assyria was the main empire during that time period they were capturing everybody so they were going into all of these different empires and they were taking over and they were capturing all of them and so they captured israel shortly after that another empire babylon captured judah in 597 bc now this is where we get to the story okay and so when babylon came in and captured judah judah was where jerusalem was so jerusalem was an important place for the nation of israel not only was it its most important city it was a beautiful city that's where solomon's temple was jerusalem also had this massive wall around it so it provided protection from all of the enemies around they couldn't just come into the city because of the wall it had this beautiful gate that separated it but not only was it this incredible beautiful city but beyond that this is where it was a sacred place because this is where god would dwell with them now here's what you have to understand is that for you and me we have the entire canon of scripture and so for us when you trust in jesus here's what here's the good news for you god in the third person of the trinity called the holy spirit the holy spirit comes and he lives within you so now you always have the presence of god with you that's good news by the way you should get excited about that right but during this day god would meet with his people in the temple the old testament remember the tabernacle and now it was solomon's temple this was the place that god's presence dwelt this was the place where god's presence dwelt and so babylon comes in in 597 bc and here's what they do to jerusalem they completely destroy the city they burn down the walls they tear down the gate they tear down solomon's temple and they overtake god's people to where now babylon took some of the brightest and some of the best that israel had to offer and he took them back we know that story remember daniel uh mishak and abednego that's what happened is when they overtook it they carted some of the best off to babylon to work there uh for the king for neby kenezer well we know that after that so israel juda they've been overtaken by the is Syrians by babylon and then later persia came onto the scene as a major empire and persia ended up capturing babylon now the king of persia his name was artaxerces and uh wouldn't you love to you know have that that is a name right or i've struggled saying it all week just trying to kind of say it so i'm not going to say it a whole lot because i'm going to mispronounce it but persia's king was artaxerces and here's the point artaxerces when they when they kind of captured babylon here's what he did to all the jews there he said listen all the jews the remnant that uh babylon had taken from juda when they captured it the persian king's like listen we don't need all these jews anymore so here's what we're gonna do all of you guys can be released and you can go back to juda back to where you came from back to jerusalem the place where god's presence used to dwell with his his people because the persian king didn't need him anymore well about 90 years now here's where we are 90 years after the persian king released the jews out of babylon captivity this is where nehemiah chapter 1 picks up i say all that to say i wanted you to understand what the nation of israel had been through so that you can understand what we find here in nehemiah chapter number one so let's look at it uh here today chapter number one says this the words of nehemiah the son of hakeliah and it came to pass in the month chislev uh chislev is november december uh on the jewish calendar and so this is um you know towards the end of the year um chislev in the 20th year as i nehemiah was in shushan the palace shushan uh is actually the is actually the capital city of persia and for whatever reason nehemiah he was a jew and for whatever reason when persia captured babylon and he released all the jews back nehemiah decided hey i'm not going to go back to my homeland i'm not going to go back to jerusalem i'm just going to stay here he had worked himself up in fact at the end of this chapter we're going to find that that nehemiah was actually the cup bearer to the king and that meant that anything that went before the king had to go through nehemiah first so nehemiah was super high up he was a bigwig he was an important leader there in persia working in the king's palace and for him he's there in shushan the capital city working in the palace that verse number two hananiah one of my brethren so this is nehemiah's brother he came he and certain men of judah and i asked them nehemiah asked him this question concerning the jews that it escaped which were left of the captivity and concerning jerusalem now so picture this nehemiah is a jew he's working for the persian king artaxerces and he's working as as his king's cup bearer he's super important he's a bigwig some of his family his brother comes to visit along with some of their other friends and they come from jerusalem and nehemiah is kind of you know i i picture them just chilling maybe on a front porch or something drinking some coffee or perhaps a diet mountain dude i don't know that's my drink of choice and so but here's the thing is they're sitting there and nehemiah is like hey hananiah can you just kind of tell me the state of my people tell me the state of my homeland what how are they doing how's the city looking it's almost like if you can remember if you you're not in your homeland perhaps maybe you're from somewhere else you know those times when you kind of go back home and you kind of look at the home that maybe you grew up in and and you look at it and you see all the changes you know my kids don't really care uh when i take them down memory lane i grew up in ashborough so it's not far from here so anytime we're in ashborough i'm like hey kiddos i want to take you to where i grew up and and show them some things and here's the thing it's never like you remember it a lot of times right it's different uh the house isn't as nice or or because i grew up there it's like the house isn't as big as i remember or or whatever and and you're always like looking at and things aren't the way that maybe they once were so nehemiah looks his brother and his friends he says hey tell me the state of of what jerusalem looks like now that you got i mean you guys have been back for 90 years what's the state of my people give me kind of the inside scoop on everything well in verse number three they give him the discouraging news of what had happened in jerusalem verse three and they said unto me the remnant that's the ones that the persian king let go and they decided that they could go back to jerusalem the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in listen to this great affliction and reproach great affliction and reproach the wall of jerusalem also is broken down and the gates thereof are burned with fire now think about this that didn't happen yesterday that's not something that man we got there yesterday i was like whoa this is this is 90 years after the remnant the jews that have been captured were released back 90 years in the maken and here's the description that we get of the city of jerusalem the walls are still down the the gate that used to surround you know that allowed people into the city of jerusalem the gates been burned with fire solomon's temple had been destroyed and they've been living there in other words when he says great affliction and great trouble it's almost like these all the jews the remnant when they would walk out of their houses when they would look around they would see it was almost like rubble and ash all over the place and it was a constant reminder that they had rebelled against god you see this was not only just a physical defeat that there was all this work to be done and devastation and pain that came with it but this was a spiritual defeat if you remember jerusalem was the place god dwelt this was the place of god this was a spiritual place it was a sacred place now i i get it that for you and me we have god with us all the time and i'm thankful for that through the holy spirit but for a moment i want you to just think so that you can feel some of the pain here is we still have sacred places perhaps maybe you have a a prayer closet at home that that you go to every single day maybe the same place that that you go to every day and that's where you you really spend time with god and you you meet with him and that's where i mean or perhaps you know this is a sacred place this is a a sanctuary where where many of you your lives god has spoken to you in this room you can probably remember where you were where you were sitting when god got a hold of your heart and he did something special in your life and so because of that reason this is a sacred place for you when it comes to you and you're going to be a place for you when it comes to your spiritual journey that's what jerusalem was they didn't have the holy spirit in dwelling them and so they needed the city of jerusalem to meet with god they needed solomon's temple so that they had a place to meet with god but because everything had been destroyed they didn't have any of it they didn't have any of it and so just for the sake of time i'll read the verses here in a moment but the question is is this that that i think you and i need to ask ourselves and it's what nehemiah got asked with is this how should we respond to the needs that are in our world like like when you hear that god's people are in great affliction how should you respond like when you hear that there is a world and a lot of unreached people groups that don't know god and you hear that there's a lot of things in our community right that that really are not from god and and you hear these things how should we respond like it begs the question like what should we do and by the way nehemiah he saw some major major needs i mean he saw that the people were in great affliction and reproach he saw that the people were in great affliction and reproach in other words devastation defeat and pain filled the hearts of the jews all the jews that had decided to leave persia and go back to jerusalem they were constantly reminded about their pain that sin and that rebellion had called now i tried when i you look at the words here affliction and reproach i wanted to kind of for a moment you to understand it honestly it's hard to describe what they were feeling but i want you to feel for just a moment the word uh the word reproach here's what this means literally it means that they were shattered means that their hearts were broken it means that they were devastated they were defeated they were broken their life was shattered it was falling apart in other words there was no hope why because the presence of god wasn't there it's not just about a wall it's not just about the temple it was about the presence of god and because the presence of god wasn't dwelling in jerusalem anymore they were in great affliction and reproach perhaps i think about this what if you didn't have the presence of god what would be your response would you just go on as life is normal and some of us neglect god's presence all the time and here's the thing for them the presence of god meant everything the presence of god was the most important thing that they had and now that they returned to jerusalem and it wasn't there there was no hope utter devastation everywhere they looked there was ash and rubble and it was a constant reminder that the presence of god was not there and they were in affliction and reproach broken and shattered because the wall is burned down and the gates were burned with fire this was the protection that they had so not only did they lose the physical protection where enemies could just come in and take whatever they wanted there was no protection that they had anymore enemies could just come in and do whatever they wanted and take whatever they had and things like that because they didn't have it but not only was it a physical uh defeat it was also a spiritual defeat because this was the dwelling place of god so i ask again how should we respond to the needs that are in our our world how should we respond we see nehemiah he's faced with this you know his brother is is sitting there saying hey man we're in great affliction we're broken our hearts are shattered and what what should be our response well we're going to look at verses 4 through 11 and i'm going to show you a few things that i think should drive how we respond to the needs that are in our direct community but also around the world from the life of nehemiah the first thing is this the need that we see must break our heart before we act i want you to think about this the need must break us before we do something if you're like me you know what we do when we're faced with a problem strategy right let's strategize let's figure it out what can we do like let's get out there let's do something let's act this is by far my biggest problem in life i love to act before i think right if there's a problem you come up to me sometimes i'm like man i got three-step solution me and abby we get in arguments all the time because she brings me problems and i'm just a solution person i'm like well i mean i got three three-step process to fix what what's going on in your life she calls it a sermon she don't like that okay you guys might enjoy coming to church and hearing my my sermons she's tired of it okay and so here's the thing it's like for us we always act before anything else before we think before we pray before we whatever and here we see nehemiah here in verse number four we see his response to the affliction of reproach look at it verse number four and it came to pass when i heard these words that i sat down and wept and mourned i sat down and wept and mourned you know what his response was the brokenness that jerusalem and that his people and that god's people were experiencing it tore his heart in two you know when i think about um things like you know i know we're trying to trying to do this building project and stuff like that this building program and perhaps this is true you know it's taken us a long time to get to where we are it's taken us a long time years years and years i'm just going to suggest something to you perhaps god is trying to break us before we do something perhaps god wants our hearts to break for his mission and he wants our hearts to break for the lost people that don't know jesus around not just our direct community but around the world and what god is wanting us to do is for us to hear the needs that are out there and for our hearts to be ripped into and to be shattered before we act and perhaps you know what we as a church our hearts haven't been shattered enough and perhaps that's why god's delayed us so much think about it like here nehemiah he hears about something like this and his heart was ripped into i beg the question have you mourned for the state of where our world is right now have you mourned that there are people right outside these doors this morning that do not know jesus's savior have you been broken over that and broken over the potential of what this light in this community could possibly do in a lost and dying world have you been broken over it you know what we get excited about we get excited about man a big building a really cool gymatorium it's going to be awesome and and we can do all and yes it is all of those things but if that's the thing that excites you your heart has not been broken for the need that is in front of us that's the point the the building it's not about a building it's not about a structure you say why are you doing it then it's so that we can reach more people with the gospel of jesus christ it's so that we can reach more people and disciple more people and when we do that and we accomplish the mission of god in our community it expands and it explodes but before we can see that explosion we have to be broken in our heart we have to be we have to be broken so i ask you are you broken are you broken like are you in affliction and reproach because of the sin now you say yeah it makes me angry i posted on facebook about how mad i am i'm not asking about that listen facebook posts don't change anything what changes things is when we get on our knees before god that's the point when we allow the state of our world to impact us so directly and so personally that's what we see from from nehemiah let me say this our world isn't a mess and it should tear your heart into like the brokenness that is in homes across our society is mind-blowing and it's not just out there it's in churches the the brokenness and the split of homes and and things like that or think about this like every time you turn on the news you see somebody that that hates somebody enough to want to take their life that's not just around on the news it's right here in our community and that is the ones that god has led us he's planted us here so that we can reach people with the good news of jesus christ that should break you it should break you and tear your heart in two that we have so many babies being killed that should break us because every life is precious to god but some of us we get on facebook and we think that's going to change us no what we need is for god to break our hearts for what breaks his that's the point that's what nehemiah had we live in an idolatrous society materialism it runs our society doesn't it we're all greedy and crazy over money and that's not just people out there that's people in here that's your pastor half the time right we're idolatrous that should break us we live in a society that that you can't they don't know what morality even is anymore they can't decide what they are if they're a boy or they're a girl or whatever we live in a society that that can't figure any of this stuff out and those things are all around us it's circling around our church it's all out here it's right outside of our doors and that should break us every couple of months you can take your kids down to a library right here in forsyth county and you can have your children read a book by by a drag queen and here's what i want you to know you say pastor are you getting political not at all these are not political things these are scriptural things that should tear our hearts into it should break you but some of us we haven't got there you might get mad about it you might get with your family and talk about it and stuff but it hadn't broken you yet you see that's the reason why god is leading us to do what we have what we are set out to do it's not about building this great big building no you know what it is it's so that we can share the good news of jesus with more and more people and more people can be saved by the glorious gospel of jesus christ that's the good news but some of us need to be broken before we do anything church i want to tell you as your pastor you guys have been so faithful many of you are given to to you know forward in faith and stuff like that you're so faithful about it but listen what's going to make the difference is allow the the opportunity in front of us and the state of our community to break us at the core of who we are i think that's when god wants to do his greatest work so i ask you are you broken when was the last time you mourned over the state of our society over the state of our world knowing that people are lost and dying and going to hell the second thing is this the need must mean more to us than personal comforts look at what he says in verse four after he wept and he mourned certain days and by the way this was happening in in the the month of shizleth uh which on a jewish calendar is around november december here's what i'll tell you in chapter number two when he goes before the king and asked to act on all of what he heard in chapter number one we find that it's the month nissan you say what it what is the month nissan that's the first uh which was april that's the month of jesus april on our calendar so here's what i want you to know from this point of hearing it before he did anything what you find in verse number four where he wept he he mourned he fasted and he prayed here's what i want you to know that lasted for four or five months before he acted on anything now is that how we live or do we just jump first opportunity let's go right no maybe god wants us to get on our knees for four or five months and pray and seek his face and fast and pray to him and ask him to break us and so number two the second thing that we find that he does is he fasted fasting is a spiritual discipline that christians don't practice enough you know many hate it because they feel like they have to give up a meal and we love our food and stuff here's the thing you're missing the point if it's all about food right you're missing the point of what fasting is fasting is giving up something that you love for something that you love more that's the point so in other words it's like man i love food i'm not gonna lie because i'm a human being and i want you to know and so i try to be as transparent as i can before that's yours is true before i got up to preach like you know my heart's you know lie in line with god you know what i did i sent my wife a text because they come to the first service today i sent her a text i said do you what's our lunch plan because i'm ready man i'm ready and so like i love food as much as anybody else like i'm ready to to eat and and so we love it and so here's the thing what fasting is is it's choosing something that you love like food or entertainment or social media or whatever it is that you enjoy doing it could be golf it could be any of those things and stuff any practical hobby you have it's giving up something you love for something that you love more and so that's what fasting is and what we get here is is when nehemiah heard that oh my goodness my people are in affliction they're broken they're shattered i'm weeping i'm mourning and i'm also fasting you see fasting says that the spiritual is more important than the physical that the supernatural power of god is more important than the earthly and the natural fasting says you need heaven more than you need what's on this earth fasting says that i need a word from god that is so much more important to me than anything that this world has to has to offer it's going to god and saying i'm going to let something go from earth like food or or social media or technology or your favorite tv show or whatever i'm going to get let something go from earth so that i can get something that's more important to me from from heaven you see that's what fasting is but you know what some of us i i would love to know this if you've ever done this have you ever fasted for what god is leading us to do for it in faith oh man no pastor i never thought about that listen some of it we got to get serious about what god is leading us to we got to get serious we got to allow the brokenness of our society to so impact us that we now are so passionate about it that we are saying we need you more than we need anything else here on this earth that's the picture of what nehemiah responded with when the problem came to him number three the need must drive us to our knees the need must drive us to our knees after he fasted he prayed before the god of heaven listen prayer is really the fuel that drives our church forward it's not good preaching it's not good deacons although that's all important it's not a good strategy it's not great marketing the fuel that should drive us as a church is being a church that is on our knees before god that's it that's what that's what drives us that's what gets us going you see prayer it's not about asking god to conform his plans to yours prayer is about asking god to conform your plans to his and by the way the closer i get to god the more my plans and ideas look like his but you got to get close to him for you to for you to see that and and here we find in verse number five we see his prayer nehemiah said during his prayer i beseech now we don't use that word i'm sure when you prayed today like you know when david prayed earlier he didn't say i beseech you here's what that means he said i beg i beg you that's what nehemiah is saying god i beg you oh lord god of heaven what a great statement the great and terrible god that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments i want to show you a couple things about his prayer and then we'll get out of here the first thing is this nehemiah recognized who nehemiah recognized who god is in his prayer he recognized that he was talking to the god of the universe the one who who resides in the heavenly realm oh lord god of heaven in other words it's recognizing that whatever god is leading us to here is being oversaw by him up there does that does that make sense and so he's recognizing who god is and by the way when you recognize who god is it's always a reminder of who you are and so here's he says great and terrible god now the word terrible it's not what what we mean you might think that's such a bad word to use of our god the word terrible in hebrew it literally means that he's awesome that he's awesome it's coming to god and recognizing that wow how awesome he is we stand in all of you you see nehemiah recognized who god is but number two in his prayer verses six and seven nehemiah confessed sin he says let thine ear now be attentive thine eyes open that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant which i pray before thee now day and night for the children of israel thy servants and confess the sins of the children of israel which we have sinned against thee both i and my father's house have sinned so nehemiah starts confessing sin for not only himself but for his forefathers it's like hey my grandfather my great-grandfather i'm sorry that they rebelled against you we confess that to you let me tell you this that every great movement of god involves confession every great movement of god we want god to do great and mighty things it's going to take god's people getting right before god you see the book of nehemiah is way more about the people of jerusalem than it is the wall it's all about rebuilding a people not just a wall and here he's confessing his and and his forefathers sin he's exposing it and by the way god already knows doesn't he god already knows why are we so fearful of exposing our sin he already knows you can't hide it from him number four or third nehemiah prayed god's word be accomplished in verse number eight he tells god in his prayer remember i beg thee the word that thou commandest the servant moses remember god saying if he turns grass i will scatter you among the the nations in other words nehemiah is saying this hey god do you remember that if we transgress you know judgments coming but if we obey you god please have mercy upon us let your will be done let your word be accomplished and then in verse number 11 we see he closes his prayer by praying for god to grant him mercy you see nehemiah ask in faith he asked in faith he's about to act upon something this news that he heard and he's about to take a step forward in faith and and so he's asking god god have mercy on me god lead me god direct me let thou thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant and to the prayer of thy servants whose desire to fear thy name and prosper i pray thee thy servant this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man for i was the king's cup heir listen here's what i want you to see is god's relentless pursuit of his people is incredible i gave you that long history lesson to bring us to this point because here's what i want you to know all throughout scripture god has been pursuing us not when we're searching for him but when we're rebelling against him isn't that true of the nation of israel rebellion rebellion rebellion rebellion and what god there's all these different stories and and fun stories to look at but here's what i want you to know is that it's all about god relentlessly pursuing us and that's what he wants he wants a relationship with you and all those in our community that don't know jesus here's what i want you to know god wants a relationship with them too like i'm thankful that i'm saved i'm thankful i grew up in a christian household and that god saved me when i was five years old but here's what i got to remember not everybody was raised around the bible and around church and stuff some people are out here they do not know jesus they don't know jesus and for us when we see that and we see the brokenness in our community and the brokenness all around our world what are we supposed to do about it nehemiah gives us a perfect way to look at it you need to pray first that it breaks your heart some of us aren't broken for our society some of us we're not broken we're not broken over the state of our world over the state of our community over the fact that people don't know jesus we got to be broken for it and when you're broken it will lead you to desire him and his work above anything this world anything this world has to offer and it will drive you to your knees church let me just say this very directly i know we've been talking about a building and all this kind of stuff in the building program for so long but i'm just going to be honest with you as your pastor we're not ready for it if we're not praying and asking god to break us before we act we're not ready many of you are like hey what can i do pastor the most important thing you can do is be begging god to break your heart and to pray for the opportunity that is in front of us that is when god's greatest movements happen it's when his people humble themselves and pray and pray and pray and confess sin and ask god to lead us and to chart the way forward it's not our strategy it's not our will it's asking god to let his will be done here on earth just as it is in heaven church listen we got to be broken over the opportunity in front of us so i ask you are you so i ask you are you are you broken are you praying listen if we were really praying just to be honest with you we've we've started about a month ago and i've announced this a few times and emailed it and that kind of thing we've been meeting downstairs 20 minutes before our services and and we've just been praying and and just praying for our services but also praying for the future and different things like that we meet right below this in a classroom and here's just what i'm just gonna be honest with you if we were really serious about what god has in front of us we'd have more we'd have more than three or four people showing up in that room i'm just gonna be honest we that room should be so packed with people because we recognize the opportunity is great in front of us and that we are nothing apart from what god can do through us that's the point and so i want you to know like be on your knees asking god to do something asking him to break you would you bow your heads with me ryan's gonna come and listen we're not gonna belabor the invitation but you know what some of you maybe god's convicted you that you are not broken for where our world is in fact let's do this just by a show of hands if you say nobody's looking around heads bowed hearts listening to prayer this is personal so nobody look around but you say pastor my heart is not broken for the state of our world and i want god to tear me apart so that i can see the opportunity in front of me if that's where you if that's where you are would you be honest before god and slip up your hand yes i see hands going up everywhere listen my hand is there i'm with you i understand that listen we gotta allow god to break us and when he breaks us that leads us to recognize that we are 100 dependent upon him we can do nothing apart from him and so we must pray and beg him to bring heaven down to earth would you stand with me i'm gonna pray everybody's standing listen this altar is open if your hand went up i'd love for you to pray maybe you need to come down and pray for the state of our world pray for the state of our society the opportunity that god has placed in front of us listen we got to be a praying church father blessing this invitation time give us the courage to respond when you speak to our hearts for it's in your name we pray listen nobody's looking around if your hand went up you said i'm not as broken as i need to be listen get on your knees today this morning don't delay get on our knees and say god we need you we're nothing without you god break us today so that when we leave here we can see that our world is lost and and it's in desperate need of him that's what nehemiah felt