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Man, tonight I want to preach about Nehemiah, who's a great man of God, a powerful leader. And what made him so great? How did he become so mightily used of God? How did he end up such a great warrior for the faith from the humble beginnings of just being a servant in the king's household, just being a cupbearer? This is a great book of the Bible. And just the fact that God names a book of the Bible after somebody and documents his life shows that he's an important person in God's plan. And this book is here for us to learn from his attributes so that we can follow his godly example. Now it says in verse number one, the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah, and it came to pass in the month Kislu, in the 20th year, as I was in Shushan, the palace, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, concerning Jerusalem. Now let me just catch you up in the story here. Of course, the children of Judah had rebelled against the Lord and been carried away captive into Babylon and into all nations under heaven. And God has begun to turn again their captivity and bring them back to the promised land. Why? Because they turned back to the Lord in their hearts. So they're being brought back. And Nehemiah is in Shushan, the palace. Now after the Babylonian empire fell, it was followed by the Medes and the Persians. And the capital city of Persia was Shushan. So we're past the 70-year Babylonian captivity now, and we're into the Persian empire. And Nehemiah is an exiled Jew who is in Shushan, the palace, the capital city of the Persian empire. And he ends up asking certain men of Judah, you know, what's the news? How are things going? I mean, I've heard that you guys have come back to the promised land. You're back in Judah. You're back in Jerusalem. And he wants to get a positive report. He wants to be encouraged, hopefully, by good news from his home country. But unfortunately, there's bad news. It says in verse 3, they said unto me, the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. Now, affliction means that things are going bad for them. The word affliction is often used synonymously with trouble or tribulation or persecution. Things are going badly. That's what it means when it says they're in affliction. And when it says reproach, that's when people look down on you. That's when people make fun of you. That's when you're a laughing stock or a shame unto others. So he's saying that they don't have any dignity. Things are going bad. They're in great affliction and reproach. And he says, the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down. And the gates thereof are burned with fire. And this, of course, becomes the theme of the book to rebuild the wall and the gates of Jerusalem. That's what Nehemiah is known for. It says in verse 4, and it came to pass when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. So why was Nehemiah such a great man? Well, the first thing that we see about Nehemiah in chapter 1 here is, first of all, just a sincere love for the Lord and a sincere love for God's people. I mean, the one thing that comes across more than anything else in chapters 1 and 2 of Nehemiah is just that Nehemiah is a humble man who truly loves God and loves the people of God. And so he's very sincere. All of his motives are the right motives. Look what it says in verse number 4, and it came to pass when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days. He doesn't just think to himself, well, who cares? I'm living in the lap of luxury. I live in a palace. I have an important job. I'm doing well. I'm the king's cupbearer. No. It truly grieves him and pains him when he hears about the condition of other people. He loves others. He cares about the people of God and their condition. When he prays to God, he says in verse 5, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments. And what I want to point out about Nehemiah's love for God is that he truly loved God. And what I mean by that is he loved the God of the Bible, not a fake God that he had made up in his own mind. A lot of people today that they think they love the Lord or they claim to love the Lord, but they love a jolly Santa Claus of a God, not the real God of the Bible. Nehemiah knew who the God of the Bible was because he said, O Lord God of heaven, watch this, the great and terrible God. He's talking to the right person. He's talking to the right person, the great and terrible God. Now, what does it mean to be terrible? When we say something's terrible in 2017, we just mean that it's bad. And obviously, there's nothing bad about God. But over and over again, the Bible talks about God being terrible. And that comes from the word terror. It's not saying he's bad. It's saying that he's terrible, meaning he's terrifying. He's terrifying. Why? We should fear and tremble before him, the Bible says. What does it mean to tremble? To shake, to tremble, to fear before him. He is called the terrible God because he ought to invoke terror in the wicked. Even the righteous fear him. Even the righteous fall down on their face before him as dead, as the apostle John did. And so Nehemiah loved God. He loved the true God. He loved the God of the Bible. He loved the great and terrible God. And he knows God's attributes because he says that God, verse 5, halfway through, keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments. He understood that the love of God is tied in with keeping the commandments of God. The Bible said this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not grievous. He that saith I love him keepeth not his commandments is a liar. So he understood that the love of God and keeping the commandments of God go together. Let thine ear now be attentive and 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. Notice the humility, coming before God, humble, fearing him, acknowledging his sin, acknowledging the sins of those around him. We've dealt very corruptly against thee and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments which thou commanded thy servant Moses. Remember I beseech thee the word that thou commanded thy servant Moses, saying, If you transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations. But if you turn unto me and keep my commandments and do them, though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there. That's a promise that God made. And he kept that promise over and over and over again throughout the Old Testament, didn't he? He kept that promise. He would scatter them. He would put them in affliction. He would put them in bondage. He would put them in captivity. But when they turned to him, what did he always do? He always gathered them and brought them back and gave them the victory and put them back in the land. Every single time, it's what he promised to do. And it's what he's doing in this story, because Ezra and Nehemiah are documenting the return from captivity, the return from being scattered into all nations, the return from the bondage in Babylon. He always did that. And we see a back and forth throughout scripture, don't we, where they get to the land in Exodus, right? And they get the commandments from God at Mount Sinai, and then they continue on to the promised land. But then we get to numbers. They don't have the faith to enter the promised land. They disobey the Lord. So what does he do? He punishes them by saying, you're going to wander in this 40 years. Then after they spend 40 years in the wilderness, and that generation dies off, a new generation rises up that wants to obey the Lord. They want to serve him. They have the faith to enter the promised land. And he brings them into the promised land. Then they turn away from the Lord. They serve idols. What does he do? He takes away part of their land. He puts them into bondage. And then back and forth in the book of Judges, right? They get right with God. They're successful over their enemies. They turn to the way of the heathen. They end up going into bondage. Over and over again, it happens. Then eventually, fast forward, they go into captivity in Babylon. 70 years later, they turn back to the Lord. He brings them back, right? Now, the last time they were scattered was after Jesus Christ came to this earth and was rejected by them. In 70 AD, Jerusalem was wiped out, burned with fire, the temple destroyed. And the vast majority of the Jews were scattered at that time. But shortly thereafter, in fact, around 50 years thereafter, the Romans came back and finished the job in the early second century AD. And they literally scattered every last Jew to where there was not even one left. In fact, they even made it against the law for any Jew to ever set foot in Jerusalem. Talk about being completely removed. They were removed down to the last person, completely just eliminated and scattered into all nations of the earth. Now, if God never changes, which he promised, he said, I'm the Lord. I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. At any time during that captivity that has lasted for over 2,000 years, at any time during that time, if they would have turned back to the Lord, kept his commandments, received Jesus Christ as Savior, then he could have easily what? Blessed them, brought them back into their land, gave them their land. But that never happened. For thousands of years, they were just scattered and they never got right with God. In fact, over the last 2,000 years, the hatred of the Jews for our Lord Jesus Christ has just increased, just grown. Their wickedness has increased. Their hatred for the Lord has increased. Their perversion has increased to the point now where there's just so much pedophilia and human trafficking and Hollywood garbage that's all run by the Jews out of Los Angeles, all kinds of financial garbage that they're running out of New York and just total wickedness, total debauchery, total hatred for Christ, to the point where those who call themselves Jews today are the hardest people practically to even get to listen to the gospel, let alone to get saved. Just hardened, so hardened. You say, well Pastor Anderson, God brought them back in 1948. Really? Because they didn't keep his commandments, they didn't turn to him, they didn't love the Lord, they didn't receive Christ as Savior and they're not even hinting at that. They're not even beginning to do that. They're not even starting to do that. That's not God that brought them back, that's the devil that brought them back because it's all part of his plan for the end times with the Antichrist. The Antichrist is gonna go over there and they're gonna build the temple and there's eventually gonna be a one world government that's run out of Jerusalem that's gonna be in the end times where the Antichrist's gonna declare himself to be God and he's gonna be ruling over them and then he's gonna turn on them in the midst of the week and wipe them out and make their city desolate. I don't wanna preach about that tonight but you can see here that God never changes. Nehemiah says, honor your promise where you said that if we turn to you, you'll bring us back. And you know what God does in the story? He honors that promise because God doesn't change. But he keeps the covenant with them that love him and keep his commandments. But if they continue not in his covenant, he's not gonna regard them. So the Bible says in verse 10, now these are thy servants and thy people whom now is redeemed by thy great power and by thy strong hand. By the way, if you wanna be God's people, you wanna be God's servants, you gotta be redeemed. You gotta be saved and you're redeemed by the blood of the lamb. You've been singing it your whole life if you grow up a Baptist but we need to believe that and understand that that's redemption. There's no redemption outside of Christ. The Bible says in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. And so the Jews have no redemption outside Christ. Oh Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant and to the prayer of thy servants, plural, who desire to fear thy name and prosper. I pray thee thy servant this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. Which man? For I was the king's cupbearer. So he explains, I need mercy in the sight of this man because I'm gonna go to the king himself. And this man is a very mighty king. I mean, this is the king of the most powerful nation on earth at that time. He's the king of Persia. Chapter two, verse one, it came to pass in the month of Nisan, or you can pronounce it Nissan, in the 20th year of Artaxerxes the king that wine was before him. And I took up the wine and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been before time sad in his presence. Now what have we learned so far about Nehemiah? What made him a great man? Well, he's definitely a great man of prayer. He's definitely sincere. He definitely loves the Lord. He definitely loves the people of God. He's not selfish. His heart is definitely right before God. He's humble. He wants to keep his commandments. He wants to do right. But the next thing that we see about him is that he's a great worker and he's a great follower. See, before you can be a great leader like Nehemiah is going to become, you start out by being a great follower. You see, this guy has a job that's a menial job. He's in the food service industry, right? He's serving beverages to the king, but he did a good job. Say, how do you know he did a good job? Because it says, I had not been before time sad in his presence. Now, he didn't say, I've never been sad. He didn't say, I've never had a bad day. He didn't say, I was never tired. I was never depressed. He said, I was never that way in his presence. Why? Because he was a worker that went to work and had the right attitude every day. He didn't go to work and whine about how it's Monday, and whine about the time, and whine about how tired he is, and whine about the hours, and whine about the job. He didn't go to work and put on a long, sad face. He went to work, and he was an encouragement. He was a blessing. He was helpful. He worked hard. He'd never been sad on the job publicly, showing his sadness. That's a pretty good lesson right there. You wonder why, in the next breath, the king is willing to just give him whatever he wants. Now, I understand that the good hand of God is upon him, and because the blessing of God is upon him, God's opening all kinds of doors for him in this story. But there's also a human element here that he's doing his job, he's never been sad before, and the king is ready to give him whatever he wants. If you go to your job and you work hard, your boss is going to be willing to accommodate you. He's going to be willing to accommodate you when you want to serve the Lord. When you want to get time off for church, you want to get time off for soul winning, you want to get time off for things that you need to do, or you don't want to do things that are dishonest, if you go there and you're a super worker, even if he doesn't always like it, he's willing to make those allowances for you. Now, I don't believe that you should ever be rude to your boss at work, you should never be demanding, you should never be disrespectful. But every job that I've had since I've been an adult, I did when I applied for that job let them know that I don't work on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. And I told him, I said, there are 168 hours in the week, I'll work any other time, because anything else can be moved around, soul winning can be moved around, anything else can be moved. But I said, I want to be there Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, I'll work whatever other times you want, I'll work in the middle of the night, whatever you want me to do, but I can't work Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, just those few times. And then, OK, fine. And then you get hired, and then there's that tape. Hey, I need you to work on this Wednesday night. Hey, I need you to work on this Sunday morning. I remember my boss was always trying to get me to work through church services, even when it wasn't even necessary. I would have other solutions for how we would get the work done, and hey, I can go afterward, I can get the key, I can work late, I can do this. It was almost like he just wanted to see me do it, he wanted to push me or test me, is how I felt. And he would tell me, hey, I need you to work on Sunday morning, I can't do that, I'll do anything else, I'll find a way to get it done, I'll stay up all night, let me find it, no, no. And he would tell me this, he'd say, look, if your ox or your ass falls in the ditch on the Sabbath day, you go in and you pull it out. That's what this service call is like. And I said, no, that's not what this is like. There's another way to get this done. So it's just one of those things where he kind of pushed me. But you know what, the reason that I was able to keep that job, and a couple of times he wanted me to go work in some really seedy environments, and I said, hey, I'm not comfortable working in a bar at night and everything like that, I don't want to go to a place like that. And I told him, I could go there early in the morning when it's not open or something, and just work in the back, but I don't want to be around that atmosphere. You know what, he was understanding with things like that. Why? Because I worked hard. And so if you work hard in other areas, there's got to be a give and take here. You don't want to just go to work and just be a totally mediocre worker. You're doing the minimum, and then all of a sudden, you're just going to stand up for the Lord. And then you wonder where he's like, well, then you're fired if you won't work on Sunday. But here's the thing, he's not going to let you go if you're a major asset to the company. So you've got to be an asset. You've got to go above and beyond. You can't be an average worker and then expect him to make exceptions for you. You've got to be an over and above worker so that he'll then make the exceptions for you that you need. I remember what my boss one time, he was going to hire a guy who was a sodomite. And he's telling me how, well, this guy, his resume is great, there's only one problem with the guy is that he's a homo. And I told my boss, I said, well, go ahead and hire the guy just as long as I never have to see him, never have to talk to him, never have to train him, never have to ride in a vehicle with him. Because if that's what you're expecting me to do, then I'll go out and start looking for another job. And he said, no, no, no, no, no problem. There's other fish in the sea. But you know what? I told him it's me or him. Now, I'm not saying to go march into your job and do that. But I'm saying I had a rapport with my boss where I was able to do that. And I knew that I could get away with that. And he goes, oh, it's discrimination. I believe in discrimination. There, I said it. Yeah, I discriminate against perverts, and deviants, and freaks, and weirdos. Weirdest thing in the world that tells you you have to hire people that you find disgusting. Weirdest law ever. That's what the law says. You think I'm going to honor that law at Faithful Word Baptist Church? Never. Never will we hire some pervert to work here. It's unbelievable. And I'm not saying to go march in and do that. You've got to be humble. You've got to be going with the flow. You've got to be a good worker. But you know what? If you want your boss to help you out, if you want your boss to give you opportunities to serve the Lord, to give you a time off when you need it, to help you out and let you live by your conscience and not be willing to lie. There are bosses that want you to lie and cheat and steal. But if you want to be able to tell them, hey, look, I can't do that, and you want to still keep the job and just have them put you in a different department or just keep you away from those jobs or let you do it the right way, you've got to be a Nehemiah on the job. Meaning you don't show up all down in the mouth. Don't be a downer. Nobody wants to work with somebody who's down in the dumps. It just drags everybody down. Nehemiah was a great worker because he'd never been sad before in his presence. When he was crying and sad and fasting and praying, he did all that stuff secretly, like the Bible says to do in Matthew chapter 6. Wherefore the king said unto him. Now this time he is sad in his presence on purpose because he wants to ask the king for a favor. So he comes to him in verse 2. Wherefore the king said unto me, why is thy countenance sad seeing thou art not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid. So Nehemiah is a human guy. He's not superhuman. You know, he's scared. He has a human reaction here. And said unto the king, let the king live forever. Why should not my countenance be sad? When the city, the place of my father's sepulchres lieth waste and the gates thereof are consumed with fire. Watch this. Then the king said unto me, for what dost thou make request? What do you want? What can I do for you? So I prayed to the God of heaven. That's obviously praying in his heart because he's in the middle of a conversation. He didn't say, oh, just a minute. Dear Lord. So he prays in his heart. This is one of the few examples in the Bible of somebody praying in their heart. And I said unto the king, if it pleased the king and if thy servant hath found favor in thy sight, that thou would ascend me unto Judah unto the city of my father's sepulchres, that I may build it. Now notice, he doesn't just walk in and say, I need time off. I need these days off. Give me these days off. He comes in and he's meek about it because he says, if it pleased the king and if thy servant hath found favor in thy sight, that thou would ascend me unto Judah unto the city of my father's sepulchres, that I may build it. And the king said unto him, the queen also sitting by him, for how long shall thy journey be? And when wilt thou return? Hey, how much time do you need? Which days off do you need? So it pleased the king to send me. And I sent him a time. Moreover, I said to the king, if it pleased the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river that they may convey me over till I come unto Judah and a letter unto Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertain to the house and for the wall of the city and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God, upon me. You know what else I love about Nehemiah? Besides the fact that he's humble, that he loves the Lord, that he loves the people of God, that he's sincere, that he's a man of prayer, that he's a good worker. You know what else I like about him is that he thinks big. I mean, he's asking for a lot. I mean, the king says, hey, what do you want? He could have just said, well, just give me the time off. Right? Well, no, no, he says, give me the time off. And also, you think I could get wood so that I could build a house for myself to live in? And also, the palace that appertained to the house. And also, can I get the materials to build the wall around Jerusalem, a giant wall with 12 gates? And you know what? The king just says, hey, whatever you want, you got it. If he would have asked for less, he would have received less. And this is a great lesson on prayer if we were to represent the king as God and Nehemiah as praying, that when we go to God, he's able to do more than we can even imagine. He's able to go above all that we can ask or think. And we have not because we ask not. Go big or go home when it comes to doing the work of God. And we look at great men of God in the Bible. They asked for big miracles and big blessings and to do great works for God. I mean, Nehemiah's got a pretty big vision here. And the king just gives him everything he wants. Then I came, verse 9, to the governors beyond the river and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. I mean, this is getting better all the time. When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite heard of it and grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel. So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days. And I rose in the night, I and some few men with me. Neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem. Neither was there any beast with me save the beast that I rode upon. And I went out by night by the gate of the valley even before the dragon well to the dung port and viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down and the gates thereof were consumed with fire. Then I went on to the gate of the fountain and to the king's pool. But there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass. Then when I up in the night by the brook and viewed the wall and turned back and entered by the gate of the valley and so returned. And the rulers knew not whether I went or what I did. Neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work. So first of all, he gets there. He spends like three days there. And he basically assesses the situation. He figures out what the damage is, what it's going to take to get it done. He makes a plan. He comes up with a strategy. He gets prepared. Then he's going to roll it out to them once he has a good plan. So this is a great lesson on leadership. If you're going to be a leader, you've got to give people specific direction. And this is the problem in a lot of churches today. There's no game plan. There's no strategy. There's no direction being given. What you get is a lot of generalized preaching that just says, we need revival. Pray for revival. Right? What does that even mean? Hey, you need to put God first. You need to put God number one. You need to do work for the Lord. We need to think big for God. OK, what does that look like? What does that mean? I remember being so frustrated as a teenager when I was in the New Evangelical Movement, because that's how all the preaching was. And I remember just getting all fired up in these sermons. But it was like I had no outlet for my zeal. So I get all excited in a sermon, and the preacher's up there being dynamic and preaching. And I'm just like, all right, turn me loose. I'm ready to do it. What do I do? All right. And then it's just like, what do you do? There's no soul-winning program. There's no work. And you're going to them like, OK, put me in, coach. I'm ready. What do I do? And you go to them, and they can't even give you any work. Like, is there any work for me to do? Well, you know, we don't even have enough work to keep us busy around here. But you know, there's no work going on. You don't even know what to do. You don't even know what the game. That's bad leadership. And this whole thing of pray for revival, pray for revival. OK, what exactly are you praying for? We around here, we experience revival every week. Every week, people are getting right with God. Every week, souls are being saved out on soul-winning. Every week, people are being baptized. Every single week, thousands of doors are getting knocked. Every week, there's excitement going on around here. Why? Because we have a plan. And that's why. Because we looked around, and we see all the ruinous heap. We see the dragon well. And we see the dung gate. And we see everything burned up and broken down. And we say, I'll tell you exactly what we're going to do. We're going to go soul-winning at this time. We're going to go soul-winning at that time. We're going to preach in this place. Hey, you want to volunteer? OK, here's where you sign up to go with us. And we're going to preach to the Indians. OK, here's where you sign up to get on the cleaning crew. Here's where you sign up to go soul-winning. And here are all the opportunities. And we have a plan to reach Phoenix. We have a plan to reach the state of Arizona. We have a plan to reach all the Indian reservations. We have a plan to plant churches across America. We have a plan to plant a church in Los Angeles. There's a church plant in North Phoenix. We have a plan for missions. We have a missions trip that's going to be coming up, God willing, in the spring in Jamaica, where we're going to go and win souls there. We've been to Guyana. We've been to Botswana. And we always have a plan. In Canada, we have a plan. In Pensacola, Florida, on December 9, there's a plan. Something to do. That's leadership. We need leaders to step up to the plate and say, all right, here's what we're going to do. Here's what we're going to accomplish. Here's the strategy. Here's the goal. Here's what we need. Here are the volunteers. Instead of just serve God, put God first, keep him number one, let's pray for revival. They've been praying for revival for decades. Here it is. Careful what you wish for. Dead as a doornail, IFBs. I may be their worst nightmare, but I'm part of what they've been praying for. I'm part of a revival that's going on. Brother Jimenez is part of a revival that's going on. Pastor Donnie Romero is part of a revival that's going on. Look, we have pastors all over America. Brother Patrick Boyle in Ohio is part of that revival that's going on. Look, there's revival going on across America today. There are souls being saved, thousands of doors being knocked. We're running into atheists. They're saying, I got saved. Hindus that got saved. Muslims that got saved. Orthodox Jews that even got saved. If you can imagine that. And I'm telling you, I've seen it. I meet these people everywhere I go when I travel around. Why? Because there's great revival going on. God's spirit is being poured out. And people are responding to the preaching. And people are getting excited. And churches are getting fired up. And so many programs are being started. It's revival today. But the people who don't want to be a part of it are still praying for this weird, mythical revival where they sit on their lazy rear ends, eating McDonald's, and just watching it all happen, where God just sprinkles a magical dust. And everybody starts crying and bowing down at the little stairs at the front of the building. Hey, Nehemiah was a great leader because he actually had a plan. He went out. He assessed the damage. He figured out what needed to be done. He figured out, OK, this is how many doors there are to knock. This is how many workers we have. This is where we're going to go. This is the plan. And he got it done. That's what I love about Nehemiah. He was a man with a plan. And he was able to articulate that plan to other people and get them excited about it. Verse 17, then said I unto them, you see the distress that we're in, how Jerusalem lieth waste and the gates thereof are burned with fire. Come and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. I'm sick of people making fun of Christians and saying that we're lame and whatnot. No, no, no. We're going to shake this place. They're going to know that a prophet has been among them. We're not going to be a joke anymore. We're going to preach and teach the word of God with boldness and power. You're never a joke when you do that. Amen. He said, we don't want to be a reproach anymore. Let's build this thing. He said in verse 18, then I told them of the hand of my God, which was good upon me, as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, let us rise up and build. People respond to that leadership, right? When you give them a plan, here's what we're going to do. So they strengthened their hands for this good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant and Ammonite and Gaspag the Arabian heard it, they laughed us to scorn and despised us and said, what is this thing that you do? Will you rebel against the king? Then answered I them and said to them, the God of heaven, we will prosper us. Therefore, we as servants will arise and build. But you have no portion nor right nor memorial in Jerusalem. Notice that Nehemiah's great movement for revival and his leading people to great works for God wasn't all inclusive. Some people are told, you're not invited. Get out. Right? Let's go to chapter 3. Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests. And they builded the sheep gate. They sanctified it. And they set up the doors of it. Even under the tower of Mia, they sanctified it under the tower of Hananiel. And next unto him builded the men of Jericho. And next to them builded Zakir the son of Imrai. But the fish gate did the sons of Hasana build, who also laid the beams thereof and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof. And next unto them repaired Meramoth the son of Eurydia, the son of Kos. And next unto them repaired Mesholim the son of Barakiah, the son of Meshazabel. Next unto them repaired Zadok the son of Beinah. And next unto them the Tekoites repaired. But their nobles put thought their necks to the work of the Lord. They thought they were too good to get down there and get dirty and get to work, right? The nobles just forever are immortalized in the Bible. The nobles of the Tekoites are just known now as just the ones who didn't work hard. Moreover, the old gate repaired Jehoiada the son of Pasea, and Mesholim the son of Besodea. They laid the beams thereof and set up the doors thereof, and the locks thereof, and the bars thereof. And next unto them repaired Melotia the Gibeonite, and Jadon the Meronathite, the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah, under the throne of the governor on this side of the road. One of the things you'll notice here, you say, well, why are we reading all these boring names? Well, what you could notice here is that there was a pretty diverse group of people here, even including some people of other nationalities that you'll notice that had converted to the Lord and had converted to worshipping the true God and had joined themselves unto Nehemiah. See, the problem with Tobiah and Sanballat and Gisham wasn't just that they're a Horonite or an Ammonite or an Arabian. It's the fact that they were enemies of the Lord. Nehemiah knew that. He saw right through their fake flattery in pretending to be involved. He knew they were phonies. He got rid of them. Verse 8, next unto him repaired Uzziel, the son of Harhiah of the goldsmiths. Next unto him also repaired Hananiah, the son of one of the apothecaries. And they fortified Jerusalem under the broad wall. Next unto them repaired Rephiah, the son of Hur, the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem. And next unto them repaired Jadiah, the son of Harumath, even over against his house. And next unto them repaired Hattush, the son of Hashabniah. You say, why are we reading all these names? Why did God put all these in here? How is this edified? I'll tell you why. Because it shows that great works for God are not done by one man. It starts with one man with a vision. It starts with one man in food service, waiting tables, getting a vision for God, praying to God, mourning, and fasting, and thinking big, and serving God, and being a leader. But you know what? It doesn't end with one man. It ends with a whole host of God's people that come together. You'll never do great works for God by yourself. It takes a great team of people. And these people deserve to have their names mentioned because they worked hard, and they were part of the team and they got it done. Malkijah, the son of Harum, verse 11, and Hashab, the son of Peyhath-moab, repaired the other piece and the tower of the furnaces. And next unto him repaired Shalom, the son of Helohesh, the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem, he and his daughters. The valley gate repaired Hanan and the inhabitants of Zenoah. They built it and set up the doors thereof and locks thereof and the bars thereof, and a thousand cubits on the wall unto the dungate. But the dungate repaired Malchaiah, the son of Rekab, the ruler of part of Beth-hacharim. He built it and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof. But the gate of the fountain repaired Shalom, the son of Kolhozah, the ruler of part of Mizpeh. He built it and covered it and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and the wall of the pool of Siloah by the king's garden unto the stairs that go down from the city of David. After him repaired Nehemiah, the son of Asbukh, the ruler of the half part of Beth-sir, unto the place over against the sepulchres of David and to the pool that was made and unto the house of the mighty. After him repaired the Levites, Ream, the son of Banai. Next unto him repaired Hashabiah, the ruler of the half part of Keilah in his part. After him repaired their brethren, Bebei, the son of Henedad, the ruler of the half part of Keilah. And next to him repaired Ezer, the son of Jeshua, the ruler of Mizpeh, another piece over against the going up to the armory at the turning of the wall. After him, Barak, the son of Zabai, earnestly, earnestly repaired the other piece. Just that one little word shows this guy did a good job. He's immortalized forever. Thousands of years later, we all know that Barak, the son of Zabai, did his job earnestly. He was serious about it. He wasn't playing games. He repaired the other piece from the turning of the wall unto the door of the house of Eliashib, the high priest. After him repaired Meromoth, the son of Urijah, the son of Kaz, another piece from the door of the house of Eliashib, even to the end of the house of Eliashib. And after him repaired the priests, the men of the plain. After him repaired Benjamin and Hashab over against their house. After him repaired Azariah, the son of Maasiah, the son of Ananias by his house. You know what else I love about the leadership of Nehemiah besides the fact that he gave clear directives and had a plan that was specific? He also used common sense, common sense leadership. And this is sometimes lacking today when we do the work of the Lord, we get so spiritual that we forget to use some common sense in addition with being spiritual. You know, we wanna flip a coin and let the spirit lead instead of actually using some common sense. Now, here's some common sense that Nehemiah uses. He has Benjamin and Hashab repair the part that's right by their house. You see that? And then at the end of verse 23, it says that Azariah, the son of Maasiah, the son of Ananias is repairing by his house. By having people repair the part that's by their house, they're probably gonna do a pretty good job because you don't wanna have the weakest part of the wall right by your house. That's the first place the enemy's gonna come in, number one. Number two, it's just more convenient. There's no point in traveling to the other side of the city. You might as well repair the part that's by your house. And you know what? What do I love about the regional soul winning? Why? Because if you live a half hour from church, repair the part that's by your house. Get together with other people from church. Let's start a soul winning time. Let's start a soul winning location by your house. It's more convenient for you. It's more convenient for others who live in that area and those doors need to be knocked. Why? Because we wanna knock all the doors. And so that's why I like on that map back there where we paint everything orange that's been knocked, we see that there are these little islands of orange that start spreading out and radiating out from that point. That's where somebody lives. Or that's where somebody is hosting a soul winning time in that area. Because as we've knocked all the doors around our church within a 15, 20 minute radius, some of them six and seven times, it makes sense to meet in other parts so that people can repair the breach and stand in the gap by their house. He said in verse 24, after him repaired Benuei, the son of Henedad, another piece from the house of Azariah, under the turning of the wall, even under the corner. You say, you're reading too much Bible. Well, this in case you didn't do your Bible reading this week, I'm catching you up a little bit. Palau, the son of Uzzai, over against the turning of the wall and the tower which lieth out from the king's house, that was by the court of the prison. After him, Padiah, the son of Perosh. Moreover, the Nethinim's dwelled in Ophel under the place over against the water gate toward the east and the tower that lieth out. After them, the Tekoaites repaired another piece over against the great tower that lieth out, even under the wall of Ophel. From above the horse gate repaired the priest, everyone over against his house. See, all the priests are repairing against their house. It's common sense. It's common sense. Why would we go super far away to go do missions or soul winning when we haven't even done that, which is close? You have churches that aren't even knocking the doors across the street from the church, but they're taking a missions trip to Mexico. Why don't you repair the part that's right up against your house? Right, why don't you start in Jerusalem and then go into Judea and Samaria and under the outermost part of the earth, but we need to repair the part that's by our house. We need to take care of our own backyard, first and foremost. How about we go and do missions in countries where they speak English that are just as receptive, places like Guyana in South America, places like Jamaica and the Caribbean, places where the people are poor, they're meek, they're hungry for the word of God, they have respect for the Bible, receptive to soul winning, they speak English, and you don't get that jet lagged, because it's only like a three hour time change. I mean, it just makes sense. But you got people today say, no, no, even though I'm a Chinese man, God is calling me to Morocco. I don't speak Arabic, I'm Chinese. It's one of the most unreceptive places in the world. I don't know the language. Did I mention that I'm Chinese? But I'm gonna go to Morocco, why? Why don't you repair your own house? How many souls have you had saved so far over there, buddy? Goose egg, zero, zilch, nada, right? Could have stayed home and had somebody saved every week. He would have gone to a receptive area and worked hard and put his nose to the grindstone. But instead, he wants to go play missionary. He wants to go play world traveler, right? He wants to go play exotic missionary. It's ridiculous. Let's use some common sense, folks. And I'm all for missions. I'm all for going to other countries to preach the gospel but you know what? Why don't we go to other countries that are receptive? And why don't we go to other countries where the people are poor? Because God said preach to the poor. Why don't we go to other countries that speak English? Because we speak English. Now I know I'm making way too much sense right now. But let's use some common sense, folks. Common sense missions. I think I did, that's a sounds like a good idea for a sermon. Oh yeah, I already preached it. After them repaired Zadok, verse 29, the son of Emer over against his house. After him repaired also Shemaiah, the son of Shekiniah, the keeper of the east gate. After him repaired Hananiah, the son of Shelemaiah and Hanen the sixth, the son of Zelaph, another peace. After him repaired Mesholam, the son of Barakiah over against his chamber. After him repaired Malchiah, the goldsmith's son under the place of the Nethinims and of the merchants over against the gate, Mythcad and to the going up of the corner and between the going up of the corner under the sheep gate, repaired the goldsmiths and the merchants. And in the next chapters, we start running into the problems, the obstacles. We don't have time to get into that tonight. But in chapters one, two and three, what do we see? An ordinary guy living his life, working hard, being a good employee, loving the Lord, loving the word of God, loving the people of God, being transformed into what? A mighty leader that ends up taking on this massive, I mean, you say that list of names took a long time. Those are all his workers and they're all working hard and they have helpers and they're all doing a great work. I mean, this wall was built fast and they run into opposition. They run into problems. And Nehemiah has to crack some heads throughout the book of Nehemiah. That's what we like about him, amen. But we see here, great work being, of course, there's gonna be problems. Of course, there are gonna be setbacks, right? It's only the first three chapters. We got 10 more to go. But the point is that if we wanna be a great man, we can learn to be like Nehemiah. We can learn to be sincere, to be real, to have the right motives, to love God, to love his word, to love the people of God, to have a realistic view of who God is, to understand that he's not just up there to be buddy, buddy and friendly and loving toward everybody. He's terrible. And to understand that if we wanna do great work for God, yes, pray, yes, mourn, yes, fast, yes, love the Lord, but then you gotta take action, and you gotta take decisive action, and you gotta have a plan of action, and it's gotta have some common sense, and it's gotta be something that you can articulate to other people, where you can motivate other people, get them on board with your vision, get them signed on, everybody knows what to do. They know what part of the wall, hey, you're working on the dung gate, you're working on the sheep gate, you're working on the horse gate, you're working on the fish gate, you're working on the valley gate, you take the, they knew what they're doing. Everybody knows, they're organized, they're part of the team, and then, you know what, they're not treated as unimportant. You know what, Nehemiah is the one who wrote this book. What did it say in verse one? Look at verse one of Nehemiah chapter one, what's it say? These are the words of Nehemiah. So Nehemiah is a great leader because he recognizes that it's the people that are doing the work, and he acknowledges them. He doesn't just say, then I built the wall and I got it done, and you know, like a Trump-style wall building. You know what I mean, where he's gonna take all the credit for, you know, you should see the walls that I build. I mean, you know, I can't do a Trump impression, I need to work on it, though. You know, this is not Donald Trump. You know, here's a guy who's acknowledging every worker that he's got and praising them and giving them credit in the book. Obviously it's the Holy Ghost that's the author, but the Holy Ghost is using Nehemiah to do this, showing us what kind of a leader that he is, that he acknowledges them, he gives them a clear directive, and he makes them feel like, hey, you're part of the team, you're important. You have a valuable role, because they do, because you can't do it without them. You can only do it with them. And so this man is transformed from a lowly cup-bearer into a mighty warrior for God, and I submit to you that there are many, many people here today that God could raise up to be another Nehemiah. Just normal people, you know, you say, well, I'm scared, so was Nehemiah. Well, you know, I just have a menial job, so did Nehemiah. God wants to raise up more Nehemiahs that will rise up and build. And then there are other people today that aren't necessarily gonna be a Nehemiah. Not everybody's gonna be a Nehemiah. That's not even God's call on every life. But you know what, you know who they're gonna be, though? There are gonna be a lot of just Asbucks out there, and just a lot of these other guys that, you know, who would be a Palau tonight? Who would be a Ben UI? Somebody who's gonna be a Hanay dad, or, you know, who's gonna be a Zalaf, or, you know, I mean, look, there's a place for everybody in God's plan. There's a place for everybody in the work of the Lord. We can all be a part of something great in our lifetime. We can be a part of great revival. We can be a part of throngs of souls being saved. We can be a part of turning back God's people to righteousness and godliness. We can bring back hard preaching. We can bring back the King James Bible. We can bring back and have revival of the glory days in the word of God, in the New Testament. We can do it. There's nothing holding us back but ourselves. And so the story of Nehemiah shows us that. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this great book of the Bible, Lord, and everything that we can learn from it. I just pray, Lord, that you would raise up a whole generation of Nehemiahs, and a whole generation of men and women and young people that would follow those Nehemiahs, and that when Nehemiah, and Pastor Nehemiah, and Missionary Nehemiah, and Evangelist Nehemiah, when they roll out their plan and say, here's the soul winning we're gonna do, Lord, let there be a great mighty throng of man, woman, boys, and girls that will say, let us rise up and build, Lord. Please just do a great work in our day, Lord, and use your humble servants to do it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.