← ArchiveSunday, July 13, 2014DateJuly 13, 2014Speaker—TextNehemiah 2Passages in this sermonNehemiah 22:41Matthew 5:318:49Psalms 51:1719:13Titus 124:231 Timothy 324:231 Thessalonians 2:1835:081 Corinthians 16:935:34TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00Well it's good to be back in Alabama, amen? Or it's good to be from here, right? We had a good journey from North Georgia over here today and my son Josh was with me and he has two bodyguard with him. Charlie Carpenter and Charles Carter are with him today and we're going to be working0:29later in the week at FCA football camp with about over a thousand football players and coaches and we're excited about being there and these guys are helping me with real momentum and just really honored that they would travel with me and Joshua and just come and be a part of what God's doing in our lives. But thank you for praying for our family. I had one gentleman come up and tell me they were praying and one young lady come up and say they're praying for Nicole still. She's about six weeks out from delivery so we still need a prayer there. It'll be our ninth child and so0:58we'll get to finally field a baseball team and we're excited about that. Seven girls and two boys so now you know why we're involved in men's ministry, amen? We're doing the best we can to raise up a faithful generation of young men because I've got seven girls to marry and so either we need revival first or the rapture one. So no matter what happens we need to be moving pretty quick about that. But it's an honor to be here today. I'm excited about where your church is and some of you might be saying well our pastor's1:26leaving. When you're in the will of God it matters, amen? And so and I think it's a great blessing to see Chris and just Miss Gail thank you so much for who you are and what you're doing and responding to obedience. It's a great blessing to see where you are and where you're headed and so I'm excited about that. And the church as well. There's so much of a future ahead of you. We have heaven waiting on us, don't we? And the Word of God says that the psalmist makes it clear this way as the Lord looks upon1:53heaven or looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there are any who understand any who seek God. And so may God find people and congregation and individuals who understand God and seek God because we have faithful godly men who walk in obedience and live out that particular life God's called them to. So we look forward to what God's going to be doing in our meeting today and I'm excited about just hearing about what God's been communicating and just a privilege to walk with2:22men through truth and try to find a way that we find discipleship to be a priority that no man is left behind. That we invest in him and do whatever we can to see him reach his God-given potential. If you have your copy of God's Word, I want to be in Nehemiah chapter 2 today. Take your Bible and turn to Nehemiah chapter 2 and verse 11. Nehemiah chapter 2 and verse 11. I want to speak on the subject of movement of men. What does a movement of men look like and what can we as a people, yes, not just2:52men but women and children, anticipate when God begins to move in the life of men? Nehemiah chapter 2 and verse 11. You find your place in God's Word. We'll stand together in honor and reverence to the reading of God's inerrant, infallible Word. Nehemiah chapter 2 and verse 11.3:23If you're ready for the Word, please say Amen. Bible says, So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days. Note verse number 12. Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. I told no one what God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem. Nor was there any animal with me except the one which I rode. And I went out by night through the valley gate to the serpent well and the refuge gate and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down and its gates, which were burned with fire. Then I went on the fountain gate3:52and onto the king's pool, but there was no room for the animal under me to pass. So I went up in the night by the valley and viewed the wall. Then I turned back and entered the valley gate and so returned. And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done. I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the others who did the work. Then I said to4:18them, you see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem that we may no longer be a reproach. I told you to vote, I told you to note verse number 12. Now also note verses 18 and 19. Verse 18 says, And I told them of the hand of my God, which had been good upon me, and also the king's words,4:47which he had spoken to me. So they said, Let us rise up and build. Then they set their hands to this good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us and said, What is this thing you are doing? Will you also rebel against the king? Verse 20 is key. So I answered them and said to them, The God of heaven himself will5:13prosper us. Therefore, we his servants will arise and build. But you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem. You may be seated as I pray. Father, thank you so much for the privilege, Lord, to be here today with these precious people and already having somewhat of a relationship with them. It is a great honor to be able to just to come back and see just the number of people that5:39are in attendance this morning. The great attendance is a blessing and a testimony to you and the work you're doing here. What a great blessing it was to see a young man baptized. And Father, I pray that you will do much more than we could ever record or anticipate in the activity, especially through the lives of men. I thank you for this passage and how clear it is that you're up to something. In this passage, you're up to something because a man is responding to you. And because of that, things begin6:08to change. I pray that you'll bless and move in a special way today individually and men's lives and also in families. But also, I pray that there'll be such a rallying around of men that they will believe in each other, believe in one another and believe in each other's families. God, they'll believe in this church. But more than that, Lord Jesus, I pray that they'll believe in you. God, I pray that there'll be a closer step or at least a desired move in their own heart toward you that they might6:36be changed and transformed to be the men that we desperately need to have in our day and time. And I pray that they'll be the men that their wives are praying for, that their children need, that this church needs, that this community needs. And I pray in Jesus' name that you'll begin the movement even right now. God, before I begin to begin preaching this message, I pray that you'll begin stirring in our hearts. God, moving in our lives through the attitude of prayer that we will respond to you as you lead7:03us to at the end of this service. But more than that, that we will respond to you as we hear proclamation and truth being delivered from your word by the power of the Holy Spirit. God, move us closer to you. We make our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. You know, the privilege I have is to be what I would call a missionary to men. I realize that the largest unengaged people group in America today are men, even though they're in our services, even though7:33they're in our conferences sometimes, even though they're in our communities, they're the largest unengaged people group in America. And sometimes wives will probably make that statement. I have a hard time connecting with my husband. I have a hard time reaching my husband. I have a hard time bringing my husband to church. So as we think about a movement of men, I want to give you a statement that was made by G. Campbell Morgan to kind of outline this or really set the tone for this message. G. Campbell7:58Morgan made the statement one time. He said this. He said, the kingdom of God is not going to be advanced by our churches being filled with men, but men in our churches being filled with God. And I think that is a honest to God statement. And I believe it's the truth of our day and time. In regard to revival, I was here with Life Action earlier this year, and it's amazing to see what God's doing and what I've been hearing about the church. And it's pretty cool to see God's activity with Facebook and all that8:27kind of stuff, just keeping up with how things are happening here. And then also knowing that I could be praying for Brother Rick. I'm not even here. I can still keep up with him and how we're just asking God to touch his body. But I think about this thing called revival. If we just had revival in such a way that I got ahold of men, we would see things really change in our own personal lives and in our church and in the context of our family. So lives could be really be different. And I think about this. Leonard Ravenhill made the statement. He said this, as long as we're content to live without8:56revival, we will. In the context of men, as long as men are content to live without a move of God, guess what? They will. They will stay just like they are. And I just believe the greatest ministry that any local church could have would be to invest in their men, to pray for their men, to equip their men to be what God would have them to be. And I believe this particular chapter, this particular book will help us see that. If you'll take your Bible really and look closely with me, we'll notice three9:23particular things I want to give you before I even preach the text, okay? The first thing in verse number 12, we find that God begins to move in the heart of a man. And that's the first thing that happens. God begins to move in the heart of a man. Maybe God begins to move in the heart of a wife. Maybe God begins to move in the heart of a son or a daughter for their dad. God begins to move in somebody's heart before that movement takes place. The second thing that you'll notice is the hand of God begins to9:48really come upon Nehemiah and the people there, we'll see in other passages in this particular text, even in Ezra. The book before this, eight times it's mentioned that God's hand was gracious upon the people. So the hand of God is obvious at work whenever God begins to move and bless and affirm and guard and guide any particular type of movement, primarily among men. But you'll also notice not only the heart of man being10:13engaged, the second thing, the hand of God being upon the people there. And then lastly, it's so obvious when those two things are there, the third thing will always be there. That's the hindrance of Satan. The enemy's going to do whatever he can to keep that man from obeying God's truth, whatever he can to keep that man from going where God wants him to go in his prayer life, in his personal life, in his time with his wife, in his time with his children, keep him distracted, keep him divided, keep him10:40deceived. The enemy's going to do whatever he can to hinder that man from responding to a holy God. And he'll do whatever he can. Do we know he'll do whatever he can? A lot of times I make the statement that the devil has a much more effective plan to reach men than do most churches. And that's the bottom line truth today. You can search internet site after internet site in regard to church websites and really have a hard time finding anything that's offered for men. So I pray that that will change11:06in our churches and in our land today. But you think about this, in chapter one, Nehemiah is approached by the news, really by his brother, and he gives him the news about what's taking place in Jerusalem. And the Bible describes great distress, in other words, affliction. There's sadness and sorrow, great adversity, even evil in the midst of God's people there in Jerusalem. And that's not how it was11:33supposed to be. And so as we think about this, there's also sadness and sorrow in the lives of men, in many families today. Even in many churches today, there's great sorrow, there's great difficulty, there's great, listen to me, there's great evil even in churches today. The other thing is the word great reproach there. That means disgrace and shame. The bottom line is I've come to realize that the average man seated here today knows he could be more than what he has become. But the question is,12:02what are we doing to help him become that man? What are you doing as a wife to help your man be what God wants him to be? What are you doing as a son or a daughter to ask God to move in his life? What are you doing as a family to pray that God would work in that son's life for his glory, or that son-in-law's life for his glory? What are you doing to ask God to move? Because I believe that's one of the greatest needs in our day and time. As you look at this particular area here in this passage in chapter two, the question I want to ask is this, what are we going to do to help them? As we see Nehemiah12:32responding, what's that mean to me to respond as God begins to speak? So we've already read the chapter there, half the chapter, but in verses 11 through 17, we see that Nehemiah specifically says in verse number 12 that God had put something in his heart to do at Jerusalem. To better understand why that's there, go back to chapter one and notice with me verse number three through six, Nehemiah's burden.12:59Nehemiah has a burden here. Verse three, it says this, they said to me, the survivors who were left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem, this is God's city is also broken down and its gates are burned with fire. So it was when I heard these words that I sat down, look what he, look how he responded here. I sat down and wept and mourned13:28for many days. I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And I said, I pray Lord God of heaven. Oh, great and awesome God. By the way, he is great. And by the way, he is awesome. He is a magnificent, mighty God. And he humbles himself before this great and awesome God. And he says, you're the one who keeps your covenant and mercy with those who love you and observe your commandments.13:55By the way, he's praying the word back to him. He's making clear, God, you're the one that we're approaching. You're the one who, who keeps the covenant and, and really provides mercy for those who love you and observe your commandments. He says, please let your ear be attentive to, and your eyes be open that you may hear the prayer of your servant, which I pray. Look at this. I pray before you now, day and night for the children of Israel, your servants and confess the sins of the14:22children of Israel, which I, or which we have sinned against you. Then he says this, both my father's house and I have sinned. And so he came to the reality that we're not where we're supposed to be. My people are not where they're supposed to be. And the news came to him and it affected him greatly in such a way. He began to weep. He began to mourn and began to fast and pray many days about the14:49direction and how God would have him go. And what he had heard about what the great distress of God's people in God's city. Now we're God blessed America. Would you agree with that? We're, we're, we're, we're the, the land of the free and the home of the brave. But many, many, many people are living in bondage and great difficulty because they don't know the one who provides the great freedom that we all need. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. So we need to recognize that we need to really reconcile15:17with the God who really matters and really submit ourselves to him as people before a holy God so we can see him live out the truth through us for his glory. And it all begins in our heart. So Nehemiah was burdened. The question is this, when was the last time you climbed underneath the burden of God in prayer? Have you ever really prayed anything through? And I believe one thing I could give you today and put on your prayer list is begin praying for men. Pray like you never have before for that15:45husband. Pray like you never have before before that grandfather. Pray like you never have before for that father. Pray like you never have before for men no matter where they are. Nehemiah was burned by that. He was moved in such a way that humility granted access to him and then his great honesty allowed access to an almighty God that would move powerfully not only in his life but those who would rally around16:10him. So the second thing I want you to notice in verse number six and seven is Nehemiah's brokenness. Nehemiah's brokenness. The Bible says, he says, let your ear be attentive and your eyes be open that you may hear the prayer of your servant which I pray before you now day and night for the children of Israel your servants and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned16:34against you both my father's house and I have sinned. Look at this. Look how detailed we have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments the statutes nor the ordinances which you commanded your servant Moses. So the brokenness really begins to come out and how he is open and transparent before God and before other people and there's a difference in brokenness here and also experiencing17:03bitterness and I just think sometimes if we're not careful we could get to the place of bitterness before we know it. If we'd have gone the route of brokenness our lives would look totally different and brokenness is a powerful truth if you've recognized or remember what happened during the Life Action Thirst Conference here. The major topic was being broken before the Lord in such a way God could put you back together and help you be what God would have you to be. In every relationship that's to you. So God could use your brokenness only if you give him all the pieces and there's a difference17:33between experiencing brokenness with Jesus than experiencing brokenness without Jesus. I don't know about you but there's times I've been through difficulty in life I'm so thankful I could turn to my master and my savior that knew all about where I was. That knew the time I would experience this the difficulty I'd go through and I'm so grateful because I turned to him and he was there I was able to go through that because I know what it's like to go through difficulty without Jesus. Don't you? There's been times I made a choice to go through life without the Lord Jesus and pay a price I never thought I would18:01pay simply because I chose the route of sin and not the Lord Jesus even though listen to me I claim to know him. As a man I claim to know him but that cost me so much when I chose to go without him. So brokenness is an ally and friend. Here's a statement for you guys. Until you're broken God will never use you. You will be deceived to think he can use you but until you're broken think about the Lord Jesus18:27Christ it was until he was broken that we had the benefit of being forgiven of our sin that we are able to participate in the communion with God Almighty through the the the blood being shed for us and being able to realize that he was broken for our transgressions. Because of that I can go free when I respond and recognize that blood was shed for me and it changes everything. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 verse 3 blessed are the poor in spirit. The Bible says in verse number 4 that same chapter18:55blessed are those who mourn they shall be comforted. By the way Nehemiah's name means the Lord comforts. By the way he's breaking a man so he could use this man in a larger scale in that city in a miraculous way. Psalm 51 17 the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart. These oh God you will not despise. The bottom line however is this bitterness is always always always more costly than19:23brokenness. We need to remember that. And then the third thing about this major chapter in chapter 1 because it sets the stage for how God moves and also how the enemy moves. It sets the stage for Nehemiah being ready to respond no matter what God says or no matter what the enemy does. Did you hear what I just said? This first chapter sets the stage so no matter what God says to him or how the enemy responds19:48Nehemiah is ready. Remember number one he's burdened. Number two he is broken. Number three he begins to believe that God can do something in this city. Jerusalem. God had put Nehemiah in Jerusalem and God himself was responsible for Nehemiah being there on that horse investigating this city. God had got a hold of Nehemiah and he wasn't going to settle for how things were in Jerusalem.20:17Matter of fact there's only one thing worse as you think about this time waiting before the Lord and all these months getting ready to respond to the the call of God upon his life. There's only one thing worse than waiting upon the Lord God Almighty is wishing that you would have waited. Wishing that you'd have spent the time in prayer and fasting and getting before God. I wish I would have waited and spent time with God in this area so I would have known without without any doubt20:43whatsoever that God had called me to this city. So God's providence is getting us to the right place at the right time with the right heart and Nehemiah had that in his own life. He was ready for what God was going to do. The second thing I want you to notice is the hand of God. Verse number 18. The hand of God. The Bible says in verse 18, I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me. That there's there's a there's a relationship that's articulated here in these word these words.21:12I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me. You also see that I think a significant thing here and also the king's words which he had spoken to me. And there's a picture of obedience to authority and submission to authority. That's how God could use Nehemiah in a significant way. Then he says21:37as a result of the hand of God being there let us rise up and and build. So they set their hands. They had the hand of God joined with their hands to do the activity that God required in that day and time in that city. So they set their hands to this good work. So there can be no impactful outreach that shakes continents nor move generations unless we first have reached out to God and Nehemiah does that.22:03Verse number 10 through 11 in chapter 1 he says now these are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. God has been obvious that your hands with us. So I don't know about you but I think about the hand of God. I don't fear his hand coming upon me. I fear his hand coming off of me. I want God's hand to be ever on me to be what God would have me to be. Verse 11 really illustrates that. Oh Lord I pray please let your ear be22:29attentive to the prayer of your servant. I don't know about you but I want my prayers to be heard. I'm trying to raise a whole host of children today right. One of them will be 15 next month and God is really shaping her heart in a powerful way. She's helping me write a book and she's typing in some words in the book from a message I preached. I want her to type every word I preached. She said daddy your grammar is terrible. I said I know that's why I want you to type it out to learn how not to22:59not to use the English language. But the bottom line is we we I need their their help. I need God's activity in their life. I need I need to really be what God wants me to be there. That's why I got Joshua with me. I got two bodyguards who want to protect him this week if I'm not around. I mean that God is back. My wife said is he gonna be okay? Yeah I got two guys with me. So if I'm not paying attention I know they will be. So we're gonna have a great time. But the bottom line is this. We need23:26we need our prayers answered. Amen. We need God to move. I know sometimes sometimes people say I don't know what it means to to have your prayers not answered. I know what it means. Don't you? I know what it means not to be able to have the power of God to approach the throne of mercy in our time of need. I know what it means not to be able to have the fire like I need to have. And so I don't know when the time may come when difficulty may come across a cell phone or maybe person to person23:52that I if I'm not where I need to be if I'm living in sin and not reconcile with God I'm being a man of God knowing that the Bible says the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. And I hope and pray when when that request comes no matter if it's from my wife or somebody else I don't even know can I be the effective fervent prayer that avails much that the kingdom of God can go at work in a person's heart no matter where we are. That's the kind of man I need to be. I'm telling you that's24:19required of me to be. And it's so clear in first Timothy three in Titus chapter one that God really requires that men be be living to a measure that he sets no matter who we are and where we are no matter what office we hold if we hold one in the church no matter where we are God wants us to live in such a way that we can be men of God that get a hold of him at the deepest need in our family's lives primarily and then also in people's lives that God's put us in contact with.24:46Now thinking about this particular thing here I know you've recently gone through as a group of men I think before we came with Life Action earlier this year and you went through something called Stepping Up a Call to Courageous Manhood. We just recently had taken about 60 guys through that recently Charlie and Charles were both two men that were helping small groups and leading us in that and then we've come out of that into a larger group to really make a decision that we would step up as men25:13that no man be left behind no matter what his age is. And by the way that's bigger than we are. Amen? It's a lot bigger than we are. We can make all these cliches and these one-liner statements but I'm telling you those statements are bigger than we are. We must come before a holy God and recognize what it even taught in stepping up. And here's one thing I remember in that particular one of those lessons there about what a man looks like. If we're talking about God working in the heart of a man and the hand25:39God coming upon this man. What in the world does a man look like? How does a man like this look? And by the way it's confusing today. Can I get a witness? We don't know what men look like anymore. There's one article that was mentioned in that study that talked about a blue jean advertisement that talked about it's time for men to start wearing the pants again. And all the ladies said amen right? If the ladies don't get it the guys never will right? But the bottom line is this I think26:08I think as we learn from that particular study in there that number one as you think about the hand of God being upon a man number one I believe number one he has submitted to an authority beyond himself. He has recognized that he must reconcile himself with God and be right with him. That is the first place to start. It's the vertical relationship before anything26:37horizontal takes place. And by the way that's the crucified life. Living reconciled with him that no matter where God may send me horizontally I can be what God would have me to be. So I need to recognize I must submit to an authority beyond myself and that is the Lord Jesus Christ which in time God may put somebody over me such as a pastor or somebody at work that's my employer or somebody in the school system that's my teacher or coach. I must submit to an authority that's beyond myself because why? God27:03protects me that way. And as a result of that once I submit to him I can reject passivity. I can reject being a passive man because God's placed me under an authority that's got a connection within all mighty God. Listen to me whether he's in the will of God or not I can be. And that changes everything. The thing about this king here we don't know if he's in God's will or not do we? But he's in that he's27:29in God's hand and he can turn the heart of the king as the proverb says and he can dictate and direct no matter where Nehemiah was going he can set the stage so whatever Nehemiah needed the hand of God's there and everything Nehemiah needed that man that he needed he got everything from the other man. He got access to Jerusalem. He got all the supplies there to help begin rebuilding the walls and God made a way as he cried out to him and recognized authority beyond himself. He rejected passivity began to move27:55out and began to to move as God would have him to. He accepted responsibility because why? He accepted number one not only his nation's sins his father's sins but his own sins. He accepted responsibility and I want to say this to you sir until you accept the responsibility for your sin you can never go forward. Until you own your sin as your sins and nobody else's fault you will never go forward. You can't28:23blame somebody else for your sin. You can't point the finger to somebody else or even how you were raised. Guess what? We're all born into sin. No matter what that may look like for some of us we're born into sin. We're born after the first Adam who was what? Who was a guy who who welcomed passivity there in the garden. As a result it brought sin in but Jesus Christ the second Adam he redeems passivity and he28:52brings us out of that and he redeems us through saving us and he helps us come out to be actively living out and he did that. Jesus Christ he was actively living out our lives before us so we can live out with him through that. The other thing is this a man of God leads courageously. I don't know about you but man this guy goes and does an investigation more than I believe God investigates29:17him and as a result of that he makes a courageous call. Don't even hardly know the people there and he says let us rebuild the walls and they they just respond and say we're gonna help you rebuild the walls. It's amazing how God does that through a leader. I like what Billy Graham said. Whenever a man takes a stand he stiffens the spines of others. Right? So not only does he stiffen the spines of others here in this text where number verse 18 we see men standing up to help join together as families to29:47rebuild the walls but there's also another thing happening here. There's another thing happening here. Verse 19 that's the hindrance of Satan. The hindrance of Satan. That's that's really what's taking place. I want you to notice in verse number 10 to begin with however. Verse 10 we didn't read the verse. I left it out for this reason because I want to end here in this particular thought. When Samballat the Horonite chapter 2 verse 10. When Samballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite30:16official heard of it the Bible says they were deeply disturbed. Look at this. That a man that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel. It flack ticked them off. They were vehemently opposed to what God wanted to do. Now I want to just make a statement to you. Okay? If your church embraces biblical manhood you better get ready. Okay? I'm just going to be honest with30:44you. I want to fall in line with the teaching of the Word of God. If your church wholeheartedly embraces biblical manhood you will find opposition. Our culture will is vehemently opposing it even right now as I speak. They want men to become women and women to become men. Amen? And that's what we're being fed today in our culture. It is amazing to me. And the other thing I think about this particular31:11thing it will be it's going to be hard work. It's not easy work. Stuff I've been reading and trying to prepare for leading some a couple churches through some assessments and really work my own home church. I really realize man it's difficult ministry. Guys are are strange and difficult. Amen? Yeah. I mean pastor agrees. We're we're odd folks man. Wives I know you agree. You can't figure that guy out. You don't know what he's thinking when he is thinking if he does think. Right? Amen.31:40He won't even ask for directions. You know he's got a problem if he won't ask for directions. We came up right here by the church and I said man good night. We're almost there. And guess what? I thought they were going to check our our license and everything else and had a check right there on this back road coming in. I don't know the name of the road. I think it's Kerr. Is that Kerr Road? We came in the back way and there's there's a like a sink well in the road right there. And there's two cop cars right there. We didn't see that. I didn't see the cop cars. I mean the sink well first. And there's this guy. He's just he just was pointed to the police officer was pointing his finger going32:09that way. And we're saying we're trying to get to Bethel Baptist Church. He's going that way. And I said no I don't think we need to go that way. And I said there's there's a little cut through right here. We just we found our way out to the main road to God be the glory. And we disobeyed the law by the way. But the thing is I mean guys are are difficult. This guy wouldn't tell us how to get there without us asking him. He just pointed his finger. We don't know where we're going. We're you're fixing to change our route. And I'm just telling you guys need help. And if a church wants32:37to embrace men's ministry your church needs help. And we best know God because while all the stuff that's going to keep this movement from happening will come against you. Listen to me. Mark it down. Write it down. Get ready. Jesus on the way to the cross there's opposition to him to keep him from being obedient. Peter is the one. A man of God himself supposedly is opposing Jesus Christ from doing what? Hanging on a tree that was required of God to appease the wrath of him upon mankind. He33:06had to he had to let Jesus go to the cross and pay the price for us. But Peter was against it. And what did Jesus say to him? Get thee behind me Satan. So I want you to know going in guys this is not no no stroll in the park. Ladies it's not a stroll in the park. This is not no cakewalk. Men's ministry today is difficult. That's why churches don't do it. It's difficult. It's challenging. It's overwhelming. And there's so much that a guy brings into a33:35relationship that he won't share with you because why? He don't know if he can trust you. And that takes a lot of time. Matter of fact it may take you a decade. The question is will you pay the price that is required? If a man wins, I believe that wife wins, that family wins, that church wins, that community wins, and the movement takes place from there. So how does this happen? Verse 19 and 20. We'll get there in just a second. Let's read 19 and 20 real quick, okay? Let's look in verse 19.34:06When Sam-Balat the Horonite, remember, a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel. When Sam-Balat the Horonite, verse 19, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us and said, "What is this thing you're doing? Will you rebel against the king?" By the way, they'll say the same thing if you try to pour your life into men.34:35What are you, this is crazy. You're going to try to minister to men in a more intentional way? This is, what are you doing? What's this thing you're doing? So verse 19, there's Sam-Balat and Tobiah. Who are these guys? They're hindering the work of God, just in preference to really understand what's taking35:02place. In 1 Thessalonians 2:18, the Bible says, "Wherefore we said we have come unto you, we would have come unto you, even I, Paul, once and again, but Satan hindered us." That means to cut into, it means to impede and to detain us. The enemy's going to do whatever he can to cut into your focus, to cut into your ministry plan, to cut into your leadership, to impede any work of God taking35:28place in a man's life, especially in the context of discipling him in the church. 1 Corinthians 16:9, for a wide door for an effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries. There's many opponents, and there are many who withstand it. So how does this happen? Number one, when a man comes to seek the well-being of a people, whether it's his church, whether it's his family, whether it's35:55his community, whether it's other men, you can mark it down. The enemy will begin to work in secret. The enemy will begin to work in secret. Sam Bylet's name, as it's translated, means the enemy is secret. So the enemy works by deception. He wants to do whatever he can to deceive you, to think this is not for me, to maybe get you going off on another track, to get you focused over here, to pull you away from what's really important. And he just drifts you away and pulls you away, and you're not focused36:21on what really matters. And this guy was coming, but he's no longer coming. He thought you'd care, but he's confused now. He don't know what it means to be a man. He's struggling. He don't know what it means to be a husband. He don't know what it means to be a father. And by the way, I'm in that camp. I'm still learning, because I've got children from 15 down to six weeks before they're born. I've got one in the birth womb on the way here, and I still don't know what it means to raise an infant.36:47I like what James Dobson said that he gives you, that God gives you the number of children it requires to make you be more like Jesus. So I've got a lot of work to do, by the way. So he's giving me nine children, and I'm not so sure if I'm any closer, but I want to be. We're just keeping to trying that. But the bottom line is, you need to mark this down. As a leadership team, as a church, as a group of women that get before the Lord Jesus Christ and pray like you never have before, and praying for a37:16movement of men, I'm telling you, you will be deceived, just like Eve was. You'll be deceived to think that, hey, this is not that important. It really shouldn't put put a lot of emphasis on men. What about us? You'll be crying out, what about us? And the reason why you might cry out is because you think you're being left out. But I'm telling you, if you pour into men, you will be helped. You will be encouraged. You will be equipped. God will bless you. God will change your family. God will change your church. God will change your community. And we need some men to be changed. Amen.37:43We need that. The second thing is division. Tobiah's name translates this way. Listen to it. Tobiah means the goodness of Jehovah. But he's not acting like the goodness of Jehovah, is he? How is he acting? The Bible says he is deeply disturbed that God would send a man to seek the well-being of the children of Israel. He's flat ticked38:09off. And that does not sound like the goodness of my great God. So he is opposing the work of God. He is dividing the work of God. In the King James, it means they were greatly disturbed. It grieved them exceedingly is what it means, that a man would come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel. By the way, I just want to put you in on something for even for next week with Vacation Bible Bible school. The enemy is never for Vacation Bible school. The enemy is never for making a difference38:37in children's lives. The enemy is never for discipling men to disciple their children. The enemy is never for that. The enemy is never for godly marriages. The enemy is never for reconciliation among maybe people that are separated. The enemy is never for that. He never approves of this. He never is excited about this. He is appalled by this. He is annoyed by this. The enemy always is. When you step out for39:01a work of God, guess what? The enemy will do whatever he can to hinder you. How do I know that? Look at the next verse there. We see deception, we see division. There's also verse 20.39:26No, there's verse 19. There's the other guy, verse 19. There's Samballot, you got Tobiah, now you have Geshem. Geshem the Arab heard of it and they laughed us and despised us and said, "What is this thing you're doing?" So Geshem's name translates a shower or rain. My wife was in Ballground, Georgia, just south of Jasper, just south of the mountains, really. We could see them, but we're not there yet. It's beautiful, but we're not there yet. We long to be there, but we're not in the mountains. We're39:56just right short of the mountains. And there's enough hills there to make you think that you're in the mountains. She went down to the farmer's market there in Ballground, and there's a whole group of farmers there. And before you know it, the storm had just come up. And the bottom fell out. And here's my pregnant wife running around trying to get groceries or whatever. And her belly's out to here now, by the way. She's still little, but her belly's just right out. She's got a watermelon40:23around. I mean, she's just carrying a watermelon around. She is beautiful, and she knows it. No, she doesn't know it because I tell her that. She knows it because I tell her that. But she knows that she's got so much to carry around, and she don't want to be out in the rain when the storm hits without an umbrella. So here's this guy, this guy, tomatoes. We bought probably, I think we bought 100 pounds of tomatoes from him last year, and we've already eaten all of them. That's how big our family is. We put away all those tomatoes. But he was there, and he said, "I remember you from last year. You're going to get some tomatoes this year?" And she said,40:52"We're wanting to." And it's just pouring out. He said, "Why don't you come under here out of the rain? You can stay right here. It's just passing by. It'll be over real quick." So I'm talking about this guy here, a distraction. Geshem, okay? Rain's coming down, and she didn't tell me that she was out of the house. And so she had a little bit of time to go and be gone before I woke up from a nap, right? So she's thinking she got away without me knowing it would not wake me up. And she's sitting41:18there thinking, "He's probably going to wake up in the next few minutes, and I can't stay here any longer because I need to be home. He's going to wake up, and where am I going to be at?" Because I know what it means to be out in the woods and not let your wife know where you are and be gone for three hours that she calls the police recently and starts looking for you, okay? I know what that's like. It's not a good place to be in, okay? Especially when you get a phone call and she just starts crying that she hears your voice. Anyway, she's there, and the rain's coming down. She's underneath this tent,41:48and she said, "I can't stay here any longer. I got to go. I don't care if I'm going to get wet." And she leaves and runs her little pregnant self. I don't know where the car was, but she runs her little pregnant self to the car and gets in the car and makes her way back. Why didn't you tell that silly story? Because that's how distraction is. I know this. There's enough distraction in this room right now that you probably42:18hadn't heard the Word of God. Amen? There's enough distraction to keep us out of the will of God. And until we recognize we've got to fight for territory and have a focused mind about whatever God calls us to, there will be times in our lives where the enemy's going to do whatever he can to distract us and get us out of the way. There's enough going on that's outside of the kingdom of42:44God that we think it's the kingdom of God that's got us distracted that we don't know that we're missing out on something much better. And we've run this trail. We've been distracted for a decade, and we don't know the price we've paid until the results show up in a conversation with somebody and life's falling apart. So what do you do with a movement of men?43:09You pray that God would begin to work in the hearts of men. You pray that God's hand would come upon them. And you pray as much intensity that you need to because the greater, the more intense the warfare, the greater the affirmation and confirmation that you're right in the center of God's will. Nehemiah did not get distracted, did he? Listen to what he said. So I answered them and said to them, "Deception's there. Division is there. Distraction's right there."43:39I answered and said to them, "The God of heaven himself will prosper us. Therefore, we his servants will arise and build. But you have no heritage or right or memorial in the city of God." You don't belong here. You don't belong here. Deception, you don't belong here. Distraction,44:07you don't belong here. Division, you don't belong here. You're not welcome here. And he fought to make sure that God's people will begin to respond. How does this somewhat end? In chapter 4, I want to close with this, okay? Verse number 7. It's still happening, okay? He's in the middle of a fight. Some are tired. Some are wore out. Some are wondering if they're doing the right thing. Families are gathered together on each particular section of the wall. They're halfway there, and they're not finished.44:35And verse 7 says, well, let's start in verse 4. "Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their reproach on their own heads, and give them as plunder to a land of captivity." He's in the middle of hindrance here. "Do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before you, for they have revoked you to anger before the builders." So he built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together, up to half its height. "For the people had a mind to work." They're halfway45:03there, and that's a mediocre work, and they're not finished yet. They need to press on into who God is, and press on through to see this thing completed. "But they had a mind to work. Now it happened. When Sambalat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashtodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored, and the gaps were beginning to be closed, that they became very angry, and all of them conspired together to come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion." By the way, the enemy's great45:33at that, causing confusion. "Nevertheless, we made our prayer to our God, and because of them, we set a watch against them day and night." Then Judah said, "The strength of the laborers is failing. There is so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall." And our adversary says, "They will neither know nor see anything until we come into their midst and kill them, and cause the work to cease." So it was, when the Jews who dwelt there near came, they came and told us ten times, "For whatever45:59place you turn, they will be upon us." As a result, look what the leader did. Nehemiah, the leader did this, "Therefore, verse number 13, I positioned men, I positioned men behind the lower parts of the wall at the openings, and I set people according to their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows." By the way, men are made for gaps. Men are made for gaps, and Nehemiah places46:26them where the gaps were at the openings in the lower parts of the walls. And verse 14 says, Nehemiah says, "I looked, and I rose and said to the nobles, to the leaders, and to the rest of the people, do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, fight for your sons, fight for your daughters, fight for your wives, fight for your houses." And it46:52happened when our enemies heard that it was known to us that God had brought their plot to nothing, then all of us returned to the wall, everyone to his work. I believe everybody here must return to the great work of making disciples out of men. I think it's a priority that's bigger than we are. And how in the world will this happen? It reminds me of a story of Gypsy Smith, you may have heard it.47:18Gypsy Smith was a man who was on continents and countries, and wherever Gypsy Smith was, God did great things. I'm talking great things. Communities were affected. So much so that this group of people had heard that Gypsy Smith was coming to their town, and this group of people gathered together, and they, I'm not sure the number of these people, but they were desperate.47:43And they said this, "We so desperately want to see revival in our area. It's so dry and dead. We cannot go any further like we are. What can we do to see revival?" Gypsy Smith said this, he said, "I'll tell you what you need to do. You need to leave from this place right here, make your way home, go inside your48:06house, go down your hall, get in your room and close the door behind you. Take a piece of chalk and take that piece of chalk, draw a circle on that ground, right there on the ground, and step inside that circle and ask God fervently and prayerfully to send revival to that circle." How does that happen with a group of men that begins to be on fire? It takes everybody in here to get in a circle and cry out48:35to God that God would work in their heart and pray like never before that God would work in their man's life, whoever that man is. I believe that's the case. And you might be here today, what do I need to do? I pray that you'll draw a circle. Matter of fact, I've asked guys to get their family around them before, to make a circle with their family and step inside that circle, ask as they did for me this week. They laid hands on me and prayed for me. I pray that you will ask your family to put hands on you and pray like they've never prayed that God would work in your life.49:04And out of that, God will begin to move to their hearts and touch their lives and change their generation. I got enough sin in my life that's affecting my third and fourth generation for the way for that to change is to reconcile with God and to walk lovingly and obediently with him in such a way that, as the Bible says there on chapter five, he'll bless a thousand generations. So where are you today, man or woman, in this thing called a movement of men?49:32Where are you? Is it just something another preacher's gonna come and preach and another Sunday's gonna come by? I beg and plead with you that let this not be another Sunday, just another Sunday. We've had enough of those. May God change our lives as we begin to pray. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for this church and thank you for what's ahead.49:59I honestly believe that if men are tapped into, families will change and churches will change. I believe that's your heart.50:28You moved in a man's life by the name of Nehemiah and things began to happen. Not just in his, his own life, but his family's life. As he talks about his father's sin. But also many other men and families lives. As a result, the ball, the walls were rebuilt in 52 days50:58and the enemy stood off and said what only could be said. Only God could do this great work. God, I'm not talking about walls. I'm not talking about a city. Talking about men who are hurting. Men who need encouragement and help. Men who have been distracted. Men who have been distracted. Perhaps defeated.51:27Perhaps defeated. Disillusioned. Not knowing what to do. I pray that you'll begin to work in his life. God, I pray that he'll want it. I pray collectively in this church that you'll begin to move in the hearts of men and women. To pray like they've never have prayed before for their own lives. But for the generation coming behind them. That biblical Christianity would have its way. And make its way to the generation coming behind.51:57Because it's obviously clear that this nation and churches in this nation are drifting. From the Lord Jesus Christ and the God we claim to know. So move as only you can. Father, the invitation as you've placed upon my heart is simple. I'm just asking for people, whoever they are. Men and women, boys and girls. If they want to join with you and their church for a movement of men.52:24If they'll leave their seat and come to this altar. And in their mind's eye, draw a circle. And step inside that circle. And begin to pray. And God, I think about this. Nehemiah spent months praying. He spent months praying before he made a decision to do anything. So God, help us to get quiet before you. To be still before you. To begin to be burdened like Nehemiah was. Broken like Nehemiah was.52:53So we can believe like Nehemiah did. So help us today. Respond as you would have us to. If there is that one person here today who has never put their trust and faith in Jesus Christ. I pray God that they will recognize that they're guilty before a holy God. And they will come to you in repentance and brokenness. To be converted. God, I pray that they'll move quickly and obediently. And either invitation. That the movement can begin even right now.53:22We make our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. So stand to your feet. Pastor Chris is going to come and lead us to the invitation. And help us to respond as God would have us to. Okay.More sermons on Nehemiah →
