The Battle For Leadership: Grace, Fear, and the Call to Stand

• Leadership as a Battlefield [00:45:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines leadership not as a position of ease but as a spiritual conflict where discouragement is a primary weapon used by the enemy to affect entire communities.
• Biblical Context of Nehemiah [00:42:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > The sermon grounds its argument in Nehemiah 4:14, highlighting the historical context of ordinary Jewish people rebuilding after 70 years of Babylonian captivity.
• Series Recap (Identity and Integrity) [00:40:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor briefly references previous weeks' topics (battle for identity and integrity) to establish the foundation for the current topic of leadership.
• Leadership as a Battlefield [00:45:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that leadership is inherently a conflict zone where the devil targets leaders to discourage them and disrupt the influence they have on others.
• Discouragement and Intimidation [00:46:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > The enemy uses mockery and intimidation (exemplified by Sanballat and Tobiah) to stop God's people from rebuilding and fulfilling their calling.
• Universal Call to Leadership [00:52:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor asserts that every Christian is a leader for Jesus, called to do more than just attend church, but to actively serve and transform lives throughout the week.
• Integrity and Spiritual Warfare [00:56:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > Believers are urged to fight the 'battle of integrity' and not cower under pressure, ensuring the church and next generation are protected and strengthened.
• Leadership and Calling [01:00:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor addresses the misconception that leadership is only for the experienced or older, citing Timothy as an example of a young leader, and asserts that God calls everyone to be a 'Jesus leader' regardless of age or experience.
• Fear and Paralysis [01:03:39 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines fear as Satan's favorite weapon because it creates paralysis, specifically convincing people not to start rather than quitting, and lists specific fears like failure, rejection, and inadequacy that hinder spiritual action.
• Focus and Perspective [01:13:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that focusing on the enemy or problems makes them appear larger, whereas focusing on God's greatness shrinks the perceived size of the problem, summarized by the principle: 'When your view of God gets bigger, your fear gets smaller.'
• Nehemiah's Instructions [01:01:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the biblical figure Nehemiah to illustrate two key actions for spiritual warfare: conquering fear by not being afraid of enemies, and remembering God's greatness to redirect focus away from threats.
• Perspective on God vs. Problems [01:13:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that increasing one's view of God decreases the perceived size of problems, enemies, and discouragement.
• Spiritual Warfare and Focus [01:15:56 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor emphasizes fighting for one's house and family, warning against 'shadow boxing' (aimless spiritual effort) and urging specific, purposeful action based on Ephesians 6.
• Rebuilding and Restoration [01:23:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor encourages those who feel they have failed or whose 'walls are torn down' by reminding them that God is in a rebuilding business and often rebuilds stronger than before.
• Salvation and Surrender [01:25:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor issues an altar call for non-believers to surrender their lives to Jesus, providing a specific prayer for salvation.

• Sermon Illustration [00:29:20 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about Lenita, a singer who recently had knee replacement surgery, joking that while the devil tried to stop her vocal cords through three strokes, he failed, and she is now propped up but still singing.
• Sermon Illustration [00:44:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the historical example of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to illustrate the timeline of the Babylonian captivity, noting that generations changed between the initial captivity and the return under Nehemiah.
• Sermon Illustration [00:48:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his failing eyesight, explaining that he refuses to wear reading glasses on stage and uses his phone with black screen and white letters to read the Bible, joking that the text on the screen will appear to get bigger as time goes on.
• Sermon Illustration [00:49:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the biblical account of Nehemiah chapter 4, where Sanballat and Tobiah mock the Jews rebuilding the walls, using this historical event to illustrate how enemies try to discourage leaders today.
• Sermon Illustration [00:52:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor mentions his goal in his men's group is not just to build a congregation but to build leaders, emphasizing that leadership extends beyond Sunday worship to weekday kingdom service.
• Sermon Illustration [01:00:34 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the biblical figure Timothy, a young man mentored by Apostle Paul, to illustrate that age is not a barrier to becoming a great leader in the kingdom.
• Sermon Illustration [01:09:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his seven-year-old son, Maddox, who was obsessed with attending a Forrest Frank concert, constantly telling everyone he knew about it and playing the song 'God's Got My Back' to illustrate that while we cannot always watch our own backs, God does.
• Sermon Illustration [01:06:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the biblical account of the disciples who, after Jesus' ascension, had to step into leadership without His physical presence, relying on the Holy Spirit despite not knowing exactly how to carry the weight of the resurrected Jesus to the world.
• Sermon Illustration [01:18:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of 'shadow boxing' to describe aimless spiritual warfare, noting that you cannot knock out a shadow and will eventually get tired and quit if you don't fight a specific enemy.
• Sermon Illustration [01:19:42 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the historical context of the Babylonian captivity, explaining that Israel's enemies wanted them dispersed and powerless, but God re-established them as a unified nation.
• Sermon Illustration [01:17:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal encouragement regarding men leading their homes, citing Joshua's declaration 'as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord' as a model for fighting for one's home.

• Pastoral Charge [00:05:34 ▶️ 📄]
  > Move to seats to begin the service
• Pastoral Charge [00:06:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > Show appreciation to fathers
• Pastoral Charge [00:06:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > Stand for the call to worship
• Pastoral Charge [00:38:08 ▶️ 📄]
  > Open Bibles to the book of Nehemiah
• Pastoral Charge [00:38:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > Stand to recognize the calling of fatherhood
• Pastoral Charge [00:57:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > Men are called to actively stand up and protect the church and children from spiritual harm.
• Pastoral Charge [01:00:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > Congregants are called to reject the idea that they are not leaders and accept their calling to lead for the kingdom.
• Pastoral Charge [01:07:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > Write down the memorable statement about the enemy's strategy of discouragement.
• Pastoral Charge [01:06:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > Take action on the calling the Lord has placed on their life.
• Pastoral Charge [01:21:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > Physical act of standing in the sanctuary.
• Pastoral Charge [01:22:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > Physical posture of humility and prayer.
• Pastoral Charge [01:25:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > Surrender life to Jesus, become a Christian, and pray the provided altar prayer.

[00:05:34] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:05:34] Well, good morning. If everybody will start making way to their seats, we can get our service started.
[00:05:41] Good morning. I just want to go ahead and make a special announcement.
[00:05:49] Happy Father's Day to all the dads. We call this Father's Day Christmas because this is the day they get presents, ain't it?
[00:06:03] But just a quick reminder, youth group is canceled tonight because of Father's Day.
[00:06:09] Kids, please show appreciations to your dad tonight.
[00:06:14] They need it, you know.
[00:06:16] We want to squeeze all that extra love, and we miss all year working for you all year, you know.
[00:06:22] But so no use service tonight.
[00:06:24] Enjoy it.
[00:06:25] If everyone will, please just stand with us as we do the call to worship.
[00:06:36] Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
[00:06:40] His love endures forever.
[00:06:41] shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous the lord's right hand has done mighty things you are my god and i will praise you you are my god and i will exalt you
[00:06:58] give thanks to the lord for he is good his love endures forever

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:07:05] give him a praise offering this morning if we can't shout about god in church where in the

[00:16:28] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:16:28] world are we gonna do come on now it's okay we can just acknowledge you can be seated for a minute we are going to uh we're going to take our offering here in just a moment so if you want
[00:16:39] to go ahead and get ready for that but in the meantime let me just you should have gotten your july newsletter or bulletin when you came in for the month of july things that are going on so if
[00:16:50] you did not get that when you came in, you can get one when you leave. We like to give that to you in enough time for you to go ahead and put things on your calendar. Because you know I always
[00:17:01] encourage you to get connected outside of only Sunday mornings. Like find something else to get connected into. Because we're a church family. If you're new with us today, just thank you for being here um and uh if you if you got a moment if you could take that little connect card that's
[00:17:20] in the pew in front of you and fill that out and drop it in the offering plate we would much appreciate a record of your visit but um but we won't we won't we're just a family and so um so
[00:17:32] we just like to do things together we like to walk life together and enjoy each other's fellowship i mean fellowship's in the name right you know what i mean counter fellowship some of y'all got
[00:17:41] that. Some of you get it about Tuesday. But anyway, so, but go ahead and put some things on your calendar, get connected. Everything we do, everybody's welcome to, and you can bring people with you, invite them to come. It's just one of those things. So we just like to continue
[00:17:57] to expand our family. Amen. So you can also see, but anyway, and then everything's not over in June yet either. So we try to be organized enough to give you what's going on ahead of time. So
[00:18:11] if our ushers would come and we're going to go ahead and and take our offering and just encourage you um to um to give as the lord leads you to give so that we can continue to be a church that
[00:18:23] impacts people's lives right like we're not doing it for us matter of fact i you you know i say this quite often is we don't do church for us right like if we're only coming to church for us then
[00:18:36] there's probably somewhere in our life this week that we just haven't been enough time with the Lord. We should be bringing people to church. We should be inviting people to church. We should, like, we want to do this to impact the lives of many, right? It's not just for me, it's for many.
[00:18:54] So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to be in your house today. Lord, we thank you for your Holy Spirit. Lord, let us not leave this place not being in
[00:19:05] your presence. Lord, if there's any hindrances in our lives, if there's anything, Lord, in our lives that would somehow hinder the move of your spirit, God, today we just ask, Lord, for forgiveness for that. We ask for you to remove that. Lord, we don't want to stand in your way.
[00:19:22] Lord, I don't know all the many prayer requests that are in this place today, but I know that you do. Lord, I know you know what every need is. Lord, what every encouragement needs to be. Lord,
[00:19:32] where every identity needs to be placed in this place today.
[00:19:36] And Lord, I don't want not one of us to walk out of this place not knowing that we've been in the presence of an almighty God.
[00:19:42] Because church isn't about us, Lord, it is about you.
[00:19:46] And so today as we worship, Lord, we're not just singing.
[00:19:50] Lord, we're just, we're worshiping, Lord, we're exalting you.
[00:19:54] Because the Bible says you inhabit the praises of your people.
[00:19:57] And so God, today we exalt your name.
[00:20:00] Lord, we don't sing to make us feel good.
[00:20:02] Lord, we exalt you, and we love you, and we thank you.
[00:20:06] Lord, we don't go to your word somehow to make us feel good.
[00:20:10] Lord, we do it to exalt you.
[00:20:12] And then through that, Lord, you speak into our lives.
[00:20:15] Lord, your word will never return void.
[00:20:18] That is what it says.
[00:20:19] So, Lord, as it's spoken, it has the power to transform every aspect of our lives.
[00:20:26] And so, Lord, we thank you for that.
[00:20:28] We give you all the glory, the praise, and the honor.
[00:20:31] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

[00:20:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_13]
[00:20:32] On the streets of gold, beside the crystal sea, we heard these angels singing, and someone called your name.
[00:21:44] We turned and saw this young man, and he was smiling as he came.
[00:21:52] And he said, friend, you may not know me now.
[00:21:58] Then he said, but wait, you used to teach my son in school.
[00:22:04] When I was only eight And every week you would say a prayer Before the class would start One day when you said that prayer I asked Jesus in my heart Thank you for giving to the Lord
[00:22:32] I am a man that was changed For giving to the Lord I'm so glad you came.
[00:22:54] And another man stood before you.
[00:23:00] He said, remember the time a missionary came to your church.
[00:23:08] His church made you cry.
[00:23:12] You didn't have much money, but you gave it anyway.
[00:23:18] Jesus took the gift you gave, and that's why I'm here today.
[00:23:25] Forgiveness to the Lord That was changed As far as the eye could see Each life somehow touched By your generosity Little things that you have done Sacrifices made A notice on this earth And heaven now proclaim
[00:24:28] I know up in heaven You're not supposed to cry But I am sure there was tears in your eyes As Jesus took your hand and you stood before the Lord He said, my child, look around you
[00:24:57] Great is your reward For giving to the Lord that was changed

[00:25:20] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:25:20] thank you lord amen man i don't know if you were if you were a life change because somebody else gave let's just give them a shout out for me it was a man by the name of steve horrell
[00:26:54] he was a youth pastor at garden sanctuary when i was growing up and in the seventh grade He came to me one day and said, Mike, I need to know if you've ever asked Christ into your life.
[00:27:09] And my response was this, Oh, I'm a Christian.
[00:27:12] I was born in this church.
[00:27:16] You know what he said?
[00:27:18] That's not what I'm talking about.
[00:27:20] I need to know.
[00:27:22] Have you ever received Christ into your life?
[00:27:26] He said, you're in the seventh grade now.
[00:27:27] You can't live off of mama's faith no more.
[00:27:31] And at an early morning, 6.30 a.m. prayer meeting, sitting on the back pew, I asked Christ into my life.
[00:27:45] Hey, never knowing what God would do, never knowing at that time the Lord would call me to be a pastor.
[00:27:53] And all I pray is that one day, when I get there, there are many lives that have been changed because of my obedience.
[00:28:01] Amen?
[00:28:02] So.

[00:28:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_15]
[00:28:03] Amen.

[00:28:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:28:05] And it's the same for you.
[00:28:07] You don't have to be a pastor to make a difference in somebody's life.
[00:28:10] And so when you serve in some kind of way, you're not just babysitting kids, you're investing into kids.
[00:28:20] You're not just working with the youth, you're investing into the youth.
[00:28:26] You're not just leading a discipleship group, you are investing into a life changed in somebody else.
[00:28:34] Amen?
[00:28:35] So God is good.
[00:28:36] If our ushers would come, we're going to pass out, we're going to take communion this morning.
[00:28:41] And so I always say communion, even though it is a sacrament of the church, it's not one of the things that we want to say we just do it because it is a something we do in church.
[00:28:52] Communion has a very special meaning that Jesus, do y'all have y'alls up here?
[00:28:59] That Jesus told us to do this and often in remembrance of him.
[00:29:05] And so they're going to pass out the elements during that time.
[00:29:10] I think Lenita is going to sing a song.
[00:29:13] Hey, y'all.
[00:29:18] If you're new with us, Lenita's been out.
[00:29:20] She's had a knee replacement, so she's propped up.
[00:29:27] But they operated on her knee, not on her vocal cords.
[00:29:31] You know, the devil has tried to stop them vocal cords through three strokes, but Lord have mercy, he ain't stopped it yet.
[00:29:38] So let's just worship a little more.

[00:29:46] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:29:46] Y'all can stay seated if you want.
[00:29:48] You can stand if you want to as the Spirit moves.

[00:29:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:29:51] that's why we do communion because that's what we are remembering we are remembering what Jesus

[00:35:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:35:03] did for us amen so if you've got your elements go ahead and you can open up that wafer and you can open up the other if you want to feel free but and I may do that because I have a tendency to
[00:35:20] spill the juice if i'm in a hurry so this is what we remember jesus said do it often in remembrance of him and he had this what we know is the last supper with his disciples and he was helping them
[00:35:40] to understand something that even at that moment they did not truly understand and it wasn't until after the resurrection that they truly began to understand but today we understand that as jesus said this represents his body that would be broken for us if you would take and eat
[00:36:05] and then as he passed the cup he explained to them that this represented his blood that would be shed. What we just sang about is the shedding of the blood of Christ. That is what set us free
[00:36:26] and what frees us. Amen? So take and drink. Let us pray. Lord, we come before you. We thank you that today, some 2,000 years later, we can certainly still be beneficiaries of the freedom of the cross and lord that we take this communion today lord in remembrance of what you did
[00:36:54] and lord today in this place if there's any that may not have surrendered that to you lord today let them understand how much you love them and what you did for them so that today
[00:37:06] they can walk in freedom and today we celebrate through this communion the freedom that we have the freedom in you, the freedom through the cross, the freedom through resurrection.
[00:37:18] Lord, that we no longer have to be slaves to sin, as the Scripture teaches us, but Lord, that we can walk in your freedom.
[00:37:26] Lord, not just experience it one time, but Lord, that we walk in it.
[00:37:32] Salvation isn't something that we just experience one time.
[00:37:37] It's something we walk in.
[00:37:38] And so today, we thank you, Lord, for our ability to walk in a salvation, to walk in a freedom that we could have never done on our own.
[00:37:49] That's grace.
[00:37:51] And Lord, today we thank you for that.
[00:37:52] In Jesus' name we pray.
[00:37:54] Amen.
[00:37:57] You can be seated.
[00:38:01] Just kidding.
[00:38:01] I'm going to put this right here, if it doesn't cause y'all to stare at it the whole service.
[00:38:08] If you're going to stare at that the whole service, I'm just going to put it on top of my head. So you look this way. All right. So if you got your Bibles, go ahead and open them up to, uh, Nehemiah. And, uh, again, I cannot say it enough.
[00:38:29] Happy father's day to all the fathers. Amen. Matter of fact, if you're a father in this room today, would you stand so we could just recognize the calling upon your life? Hey, fatherhood's a big job, but the Lord gave it to you because you're the right man for the job. Amen. So
[00:38:58] we are in our week three of our battle ready series. So this month in June, because it was Father's Day, we are doing this series for our men. Now, if you're a woman in here,
[00:39:15] especially if it's your first time and you weren't here the other two weeks, don't fall sleep don't check out don't jump on uh instagram or facebook or whatever other uh social media because i have been told by several women that they are really gleaning stuff from this too
[00:39:35] that the holy spirit is still speaking things to them so i just don't relate i'm not a woman Y'all know that, right?
[00:39:47] Newsflash, I'm not a woman.
[00:39:49] So I don't understand, you know, how it is to be a woman.
[00:39:56] I can only understand how it is to be a man.
[00:39:59] But I have had women saying, you're getting a lot out of this, because the premises of this series is five battles that shape godly men.
[00:40:09] And I am also understanding now that these same battles shape godly women.
[00:40:13] But week one was the battle for identity.
[00:40:18] And so we want to win these five battles in life.
[00:40:22] Whether we admit it or not, whether we try to ignore it or not, there are certain battles that we have through life.
[00:40:30] Some of them may be daily.
[00:40:32] Some of them just may come and go.
[00:40:36] Some triggered at different times in our life.
[00:40:39] Some under specific attacks that we may go through.
[00:40:42] trials and tribulations lots of things that cause us to fight battles in our life right but our first one was the battle for identity if we can win the battle of identity understand who we are in god understand who he's created us to be and how he has put himself in us
[00:41:03] back in genesis then we begin to understand that there is something so certain when it comes to our identity so if you haven't watched that go back two weeks ago on youtube and you can watch that
[00:41:16] secondly last week we talked about the battle for integrity if we win identity and that's why it's first because if we win identity and we understand who we have been created to be we understand how
[00:41:31] god has put himself into us and where our identity hinges on then it does help us when we come to these other battles. So the battle for integrity was last week. Today, we want to talk about the
[00:41:45] battle for leadership on Father's Day. And I'm really just going to look at one verse today.
[00:41:52] I will pull in some of the other, but the main text of today is going to be one verse, verse 14 in Nehemiah chapter 4. And I want to go ahead and read that to you, and then we'll build off of it.
[00:42:05] It says, after I made an inspection, this is Nehemiah, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, understand, he's just talking to ordinary men.
[00:42:17] He is not talking to some super spiritual, super powerful army of people.
[00:42:28] He's talking to ordinary men that are now trying to come back together after 70 years of Babylonian captivity.
[00:42:41] If you are a history buff, then you can understand how history connects to the Bible even though they never taught you that in school.
[00:42:51] Unless you went to a Christian school, they probably didn't say, hey, when we were talking about this era of a world power called the Babylonians.
[00:43:01] They did not connect it to what was going on in Scripture.
[00:43:06] But after 70 years of Babylonian captivity, these people, the Jewish people, are trying to rebuild.
[00:43:14] They had been cleared to go back.
[00:43:16] Their walls were tore down.
[00:43:18] They were in ruins.
[00:43:19] The city was in ruins.
[00:43:22] And so they were going back to reestablish themselves.
[00:43:29] in their city.
[00:43:34] And so ordinary people doing extraordinary things is what we see here.
[00:43:40] But notice he says, this is what Nehemiah says to these ordinary men.
[00:43:44] Don't be afraid of them.
[00:43:46] I'm going to help you understand that in a minute.
[00:43:48] Remember three things that he tells us to remember.
[00:43:52] Number one, the great and awe-inspiring Lord.
[00:43:57] Well, first he says don't be afraid.
[00:43:59] So that's one.
[00:43:59] Number two is to remember the great, awe-inspiring Lord, and to fight for your countrymen, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.
[00:44:12] So today, I want us to look into, because I really think Nehemiah, specifically in this area, but Nehemiah is probably one of the greatest passages, greatest places in the Bible to understand leadership.
[00:44:28] There's many, but it is one of the greatest.
[00:44:31] because of what they were coming back from, what they were having to overcome.
[00:44:36] Seventy years, generations changed.
[00:44:39] You get that, right?
[00:44:41] Some of the people that went into captivity when they were young, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, like Daniel, all of those went into the Babylonian captivity that you've read about all through the Bible.
[00:44:55] When all that happened in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, it was in the beginning of the Babylonian captivity.
[00:45:04] Now, many of them were young and they come out even older or maybe not even, maybe they have even passed away and some next generations happen.
[00:45:16] But what we realize in this passage is that leadership has always been a battlefield.
[00:45:22] So we got to get to the point as men and women and people of God to realize that wanting a life without a battle is probably unrealistic.
[00:45:38] If I want to live life with no battles, that place is called heaven.
[00:45:45] It's not called earth.
[00:45:48] So battles happen, right?
[00:45:51] And understanding, we just got to win the battles.
[00:45:56] And we don't win them on our own.
[00:45:59] We win them through Him.
[00:46:00] And so here we go, and we begin to see that when we think of the life of battles, when we think of leadership being a battlefield, then we've got to realize that the devil's not a dummy.
[00:46:15] The enemy understands a real simple truth when it comes to the battles, is that if he can discourage a leader, you with me?
[00:46:26] If he can discourage leaders, then he can impact everyone under that leader's influence.
[00:46:34] So put it in perspective.
[00:46:38] If he can intimidate a father, if he can intimidate a husband, a pastor, a spiritual leader, then the effects of what he does in that discouragement reaches far beyond one person.
[00:46:52] and so there's the battle because that's exactly what we just read about in nehemiah chapter 4 because here they was god's calling oh if jesus is caught if that is jesus and i said something
[00:47:11] wrong please tell me anyway because that's where they were so they were rebuilding the walls let's just let me just sum this up for you here they were they were rebuilding the walls and their
[00:47:26] enemies didn't like it the nation of israel always had enemies because of the fact of how powerful they were in god and how god continually blessed them in their battles and everything else gave them land and did all the things that god did and so because their god was so much more powerful
[00:47:45] than their enemies gods they they didn't like the nation of israel still kind of the same today right Um, and so, and so they, they were at the end of this captivity, they were allowed to go back and
[00:47:59] rebuild the walls, but it didn't mean that their enemies didn't resurface. Okay. So for 70 years, they didn't have to worry about it. Now the enemies have to resurface, the enemies resurface.
[00:48:09] And so the Bible tells us that their enemies tried to stop them from building the walls. If you, if you were to go back and read at the beginning of this, matter of fact, I'm going to do that for
[00:48:21] you right quick, but I'm going to read it from my phone because I can hardly see my Bible anymore without glasses. And I just want y'all to know, I refuse to wear reading glasses up here. So
[00:48:38] if you start seeing the words on the screen get bigger and bigger as time goes on, just bear with me. I have my phone on black screen with white letters so I can see. I can't do the white
[00:48:57] backgrounds anymore it's bad the ones that are laughing i know you you understand what i mean all the young people are like well that's why why can't he see you will understand one day when you have to start reading menus like this at the at the it's so true all right so here we are
[00:49:22] in verse one it says this when sanballat heard that they were rebuilding the wall he became furious. Sanballat was the governor of Samaria at the time. And so it said he became furious because they were rebuilding the wall. And then it goes on to say he mocked the Jews
[00:49:39] before his colleagues, the powerful men of Samaria, and said, what are these pathetic Jews doing? Can they restore it by themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they ever finish it can they bring these burnt stones back to life from the mounds of rubble he's taunting them
[00:49:59] he's trying to discourage them he's trying to get them to stop doing the thing that god has called them to do and release them to do and then it goes on and says then tobiah the ammonite
[00:50:15] who was beside him said indeed even if a fox climbed up what they are building he would break down their stone wall. Here they are taunting them. Here they are trying to speak to them in a
[00:50:33] way that would bring discouragement to them. This is their enemies trying to prevent them from rebuilding this wall, trying to undermine leadership, trying to get them to stop doing what will affect the generations to come and so from that we begin to understand how really
[00:50:57] realistic if you don't know this the bible is so realistic when people say i don't understand it sometimes i don't but read it anyway keep reading it yeah there's things in there that sometimes is
[00:51:11] difficult to understand but if you'll just read and you'll just say lord open my eyes the holy Spirit will allow you to see how that very thing, thousands and thousands of years ago, connects to
[00:51:23] your very minute that you live in. And so here we are today fighting these same battles, maybe not by a man named Samballot, not by a nation of Samaria, not by Ammonites, not by any of those
[00:51:37] others, but we still have an enemy that wants to stop the progression of God's people doing what God has called them to do. And every person, I believe this and you will, if you don't know this
[00:51:52] about me, you probably do, but you will. I said this to my guys in my men's group this Thursday is my goal isn't with you is to just build a good church congregate. I want a good church
[00:52:07] congregate, right? But my goal is to build leaders. Because if you are a leader, then you understand a purpose that God has called you to that far exceeds a Sunday morning worship service. I want
[00:52:24] us to come in here and shout. I want us to come in here and get excited. I want us to come in here and fellowship together. I want us to hug each other's necks. I want us to say it was a good,
[00:52:34] But I want us to come in here and celebrate a bunch of leaders who have been out doing what God's called you to do throughout the week.
[00:52:41] And other people's lives are transformed because we have just simply answered a call to do what God's called us to do.
[00:52:49] And if you've got breath in your lungs, then you are a leader for Jesus.
[00:52:55] If you're a Christian.
[00:52:57] If God has called you.
[00:52:58] And you might go, well, pastor, I don't even know what that means.
[00:53:02] Then you've got to lean into it.
[00:53:04] You've got to press on.
[00:53:05] I can promise you and I can show you this hundreds of times in the Bible.
[00:53:10] God did not save you just to come and sit on a pew and feel good when you leave and do nothing else for the kingdom Monday through Saturday.
[00:53:20] He didn't just save you for that.
[00:53:22] He didn't just give you the Holy Spirit for that.
[00:53:24] He empowered you.
[00:53:26] He anointed you to do something through Him for kingdom purpose.
[00:53:35] And this is what they were doing.
[00:53:37] They were rebuilding the city, rebuilding the walls, walking in purpose.
[00:53:45] Yeah, they had a 70-year hiccup because of their disobedience.
[00:53:50] But God never said He wouldn't reestablish them.
[00:53:54] And God is reestablishing them right here.
[00:53:58] And so their enemies are rising up, right, trying to discourage them because He doesn't want them, the enemies don't want them to walk in their identity that they have as people of God.
[00:54:14] I'll say this.
[00:54:15] Do you know why for literally centuries and centuries and centuries and centuries of the Bible, even to present day that the enemies of Israel continually try to fight against them.
[00:54:31] They do.
[00:54:32] They keep trying to stop this nation.
[00:54:36] Now, I know right now, and Heidi's here, and she could tell you right now, you wouldn't call the nation this nation of people that are Christians.
[00:54:46] Matter of fact, right now in the nation of Israel, there are the the christian community is so small they're almost not even recognized am i right heidi they're almost not even recognized or they're not even recognized but god's always had
[00:55:08] a plan and there have been times that throughout we see the bible throughout history that the enemy has tried to attack God's people. I'm not just preaching to the nation of Israel today. I'm preaching to you because what the enemy knows is that we still fight these same battles today.
[00:55:34] And he knows that when we as men step up and we understand the battle that we're in and we fight the right fight the right way, that there is transformation that happens through the kingdom. Families are strengthened, churches are strengthened, and God's kingdom
[00:55:54] advances because men don't cower down, but men say, you aren't going to intimidate me from doing the thing that God has called me to do. I'm not going to be intimidated. I'm going to fight the battle of integrity, and I'm going to win it because I'm somebody in God. I don't have
[00:56:16] to be somebody in this world. Newsflash, you weren't even meant to be somebody in this world.
[00:56:23] You were meant to be somebody to God. And so I'm going to fight that battle. I'm going to fight the battle of integrity. And you know what? I'm going to stand up and I'm going to be a leader
[00:56:33] and I'm going to do the thing that God's called me to do. And if I don't know what that is, I'm going to seek it until I do. But I'm not going to let my families be weakened. I'm not
[00:56:44] going to let my church be weakened and I am going to do what God has called me to do so I can see the kingdom of God advance. Let me tell you something. We have an entire next generation
[00:56:56] of children and youth that need you to be willing to fight. For you that is willing to fight the battle of leadership and say, we're not going to stand for it because we're going to be a church
[00:57:13] that does something for the Lord.
[00:57:16] Not something for ourselves.
[00:57:17] That's why I tell you, we don't just come to church for us.
[00:57:21] Right?
[00:57:22] We're not just doing it for us.
[00:57:25] Hopefully we're doing it for the ones that the Lord brings in or the ones that we invite that don't know Him and don't understand all of this and don't understand the Scripture.
[00:57:35] Or for the next generation.
[00:57:38] I hope that I've got men in this place that if a demonic transplant, I think you can read between the lines and know what I mean, if a demonic transplant was to come into this church
[00:57:52] and want to harm one of our children, I hope I got men that'll stand up and say, uh-uh, uh-uh.
[00:58:00] Nope, not in this church.
[00:58:02] It ain't happening because we're pouring godly stuff into there.
[00:58:08] And so understand, there is a battle for leadership.
[00:58:11] Here's our encounter point for today.
[00:58:12] Sorry, that was all the introduction.
[00:58:14] We're going to jump right in.
[00:58:19] Here's our encounter point today.
[00:58:21] If you're new with us, the encounter point is this.
[00:58:23] This is something that you will see ingrained throughout the message.
[00:58:28] But if it's kind of that reminder line for you, hopefully it's something in your life that sticks.
[00:58:33] And it is simply this.
[00:58:34] A godly man doesn't run from responsibility.
[00:58:37] I could even say it this way.
[00:58:39] A godly man doesn't run from leadership.
[00:58:41] He rises to it.
[00:58:45] And so, leadership isn't always easy.
[00:58:47] that's what you'll see about this today.
[00:58:50] Matter of fact, leadership is rarely easy.
[00:58:53] Leadership, many times, even if there aren't people like Sanballat and Tobiah and all the other nations, if it's just simply the enemy himself will make you sometimes go, why am I doing this?
[00:59:09] I'm going to be honest.
[00:59:11] I've asked myself that many a times.
[00:59:15] You're like, what?
[00:59:16] Preacher, you do that?
[00:59:17] Sometimes.
[00:59:18] And guess what?
[00:59:19] I deal with the enemy attacks too.
[00:59:21] And I have to remind myself, through the Holy Spirit, I don't do this for me.
[00:59:31] Because sometimes people in the church say hurtful things.
[00:59:37] Sometimes church people do hurtful things.
[00:59:41] Sometimes people leave for no reason and you're going, what did I do wrong?
[00:59:46] These things that really happen in a preacher's life.
[00:59:49] And you have to remind yourself.
[00:59:51] So in your life too, is that sometimes you're going to ask yourself, is it worth it? But it is. Because when people become leaders for Jesus, other people's lives are changed. And so here we go. Three things that I've already pointed out that Nehemiah gives us.
[01:00:13] If we're going to win the battle of leadership, if we are going to stay true, if we are going to see God do things through our leadership, if we are going to enter into leadership, maybe you're
[01:00:25] like I had never even done that before.
[01:00:26] I never thought of being a leader.
[01:00:29] I'm young. I'm 21.
[01:00:31] I didn't even realize I could be a leader.
[01:00:34] Do you know Timothy was just a young man?
[01:00:36] You know that, right?
[01:00:37] In the Bible, Timothy was just a young man who the Apostle Paul poured himself into and Timothy become a great leader.
[01:00:47] So, if you're here, God's called you to that.
[01:00:51] If anybody would go, I'm not called to be a leader.
[01:00:54] It's not true.
[01:00:56] God's called you to be the leader for the kingdom.
[01:00:58] God's called you to be a Jesus leader.
[01:01:00] And through that, He will equip you.
[01:01:02] But here's three things that we've got to remember if we're going to win this battle.
[01:01:05] Number one is this.
[01:01:07] We've got to conquer our fear.
[01:01:08] We've got to conquer your fear.
[01:01:09] It's exactly what Nehemiah tells these men of God.
[01:01:14] These ordinary men that are trying to do a good thing, and their enemies are trying to discourage them and trying to stop them.
[01:01:22] If you go on to read that, you'll see that, no, not that yet, sorry.
[01:01:27] I'll tell you when to throw that up.
[01:01:31] That means I've got to hurry today.
[01:01:36] But whenever these men were trying to, the enemies were trying to discourage them, when that didn't work, then they thought, well, we'll just attack them.
[01:01:50] Trust me, in your life, there is an enemy that wants to stop you from being the leader that God wants you to be.
[01:02:01] Whether it's in your family, whether it's in your workplace, whether it's in your church, hopefully all three.
[01:02:09] But there's an enemy that wants to stop you.
[01:02:11] He has this attack.
[01:02:14] He'll try to discourage you first.
[01:02:17] But if that don't work, then he might try to start attacking other things.
[01:02:22] He might try to start attacking your family.
[01:02:24] He might try to start attacking your finances.
[01:02:27] He might try to start attacking your job.
[01:02:30] Things that in your life that you have built security around.
[01:02:37] But if we're going to win this battle of leadership, just like Nehemiah said to these men, don't be afraid of them.
[01:02:46] That's what he said.
[01:02:47] Don't be afraid of them.
[01:02:49] That's an emphatic statement in the Bible.
[01:02:53] He didn't say, try not to be afraid of them.
[01:02:56] He didn't say, whatever you do, just try to ignore them, right?
[01:03:02] Because that's the premises we try to live on sometimes.
[01:03:04] I'll just try to ignore it.
[01:03:08] But no, He didn't say that.
[01:03:10] He literally said to them, regardless of what they're doing, regardless of what they're saying, regardless of what they have the ability to do and can do, and we are vulnerable right now because we don't have this wall built.
[01:03:22] We haven't reestablished. God hasn't reestablished us yet.
[01:03:25] God hasn't given us everything back regardless of that.
[01:03:29] He literally says, don't be afraid of them.
[01:03:33] Literally conquer your fear.
[01:03:36] Because here's the truth of this.
[01:03:39] Fear is one of Satan's favorite weapons because what fear does in a person is it creates paralysis.
[01:03:49] Right?
[01:03:49] If we have fear, it can literally create a paralysis of leadership in our lives.
[01:03:59] Let me say it this way.
[01:04:00] Fear rarely, rarely, now it does, but it rarely tells you to quit.
[01:04:07] But instead, it convinces you not to start.
[01:04:13] Let that sink in for a minute.
[01:04:16] If the devil can be successful of putting fear in your life of something, then more times than not he knows that you won't even start doing something and don't mean he's not going to try to get you to quit if you are but the devil would much rather you never start
[01:04:37] because he knows when you start something you might just see what god can do through your obedience what i've realized is that men like it's not like we're we're daniel and being thrown in a lion's den. It's not like we're in the Roman Colosseum where they have lions attacking us.
[01:05:00] We're not really being attacked by physical lions, but we're being attacked by fear, right?
[01:05:07] Most men won't admit it, but we have fear of failure. We have fear of rejection. We have fear of inadequacy. We have fear of messing up because fear says this. It says, don't pray out loud.
[01:05:22] you might say something wrong.
[01:05:25] Don't pray out loud because you may stumble over your words.
[01:05:28] Don't pray out loud because someone may laugh at you.
[01:05:35] That's what fear says.
[01:05:36] Don't do something.
[01:05:39] Rarely would it be in the middle of me praying, fear tell me to stop.
[01:05:44] It would be more of don't do it.
[01:05:48] Right?
[01:05:49] Or maybe fear says, don't lead your family.
[01:05:53] don't take your family to church don't get your family involved don't do it or maybe fear says don't step into that ministry that you know the Lord has been calling you to do people say to me all the time
[01:06:07] I really feel like the Lord's calling me to do this I'm like well do it it's almost like they wanted me to say I don't think you should do that if you ever tell me
[01:06:22] you think the Lord's calling you to do something I'm going to tell you to do it because if the Lord's calling you to do it then you need to be a leader and do it
[01:06:33] Even if you don't know what it means.
[01:06:38] Do you know the first time some 25 years ago that I ever began to pastor and stand in front of someone?
[01:06:47] I had no idea how to do it.
[01:06:49] Still don't always know how to do it.
[01:06:52] But I didn't.
[01:06:55] Like, go back to the disciples, right?
[01:06:58] when they when jesus left and they shifted to be apostles and were going to carry the weight of taking the resurrected jesus to the entire world around them they didn't know how to do that
[01:07:13] they had spent three and a half years watching jesus do it walking with him doing what he let them do but they didn't do it apart from him very often and they always knew that jesus was there
[01:07:29] if they needed Him.
[01:07:31] Now they're being called to conquer a fear to do something that they had never done before and that's where the Holy Spirit comes in.
[01:07:42] So, here's your memorable statement.
[01:07:45] I want you to remember to write this down.
[01:07:47] The enemy doesn't have to destroy a man or a woman if he can simply discourage them.
[01:07:56] He doesn't have to destroy us if he can just discourage us.
[01:07:59] Because if we walk in discourage, then we will refrain and the fear will paralyze us.
[01:08:07] And the fear will win.
[01:08:09] But the second thing that Nehemiah says to do, right, in that passage, was to remember your God.
[01:08:16] He said it like this.
[01:08:17] Remember your great and awe-inspiring Lord.
[01:08:23] Let me read that.
[01:08:24] He said, remember the great and awe-inspiring Lord.
[01:08:31] He literally says to them, first, right, don't be afraid of them.
[01:08:38] Then he says, remember who God is.
[01:08:43] Remember your God.
[01:08:45] Remember how awesome he is, how inspiring he is, how great he is.
[01:08:49] And you know why I love this part of Nehemiah?
[01:08:52] And I love it because Nehemiah doesn't tell them to focus on the enemy, right?
[01:08:57] He doesn't say, keep your enemy in focus.
[01:09:04] I'm letting that sink in for a minute.
[01:09:07] He doesn't say, watch your back.
[01:09:11] Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't watch your back if you need to watch your back.
[01:09:15] Hopefully you're not in a situation you have to watch your back too often.
[01:09:19] Because, y'all know the Forrest Frank song, God's Got My Back?
[01:09:25] Todd took Maddox to the Forrest Frank concert this past week.
[01:09:30] Forrest Frank is his favorite, seven years old.
[01:09:33] That's his favorite singer.
[01:09:35] And we were taking him to school sometime.
[01:09:36] He'd always want to play God's Got My Back before he went to school.
[01:09:40] So amazing.
[01:09:41] But he, for two days before the concert, he told everybody that he knew.
[01:09:47] The day before, he woke Todd up and said, guess what tomorrow is?
[01:09:51] It's Forrest Frank.
[01:09:54] And then the day of Forrest Frank, he called me.
[01:09:57] Pop, pop, guess where I'm going?
[01:09:59] I'm going to see Forrest Frank.
[01:10:00] I said, how many people did you tell at summer camp today?
[01:10:02] Everybody I saw.
[01:10:06] But the point is, God does have our back.
[01:10:09] Because even if we think we're watching our back, we can't always watch our back.
[01:10:14] But God can always watch my back because He is the great, awe-inspiring Lord.
[01:10:21] He is everything.
[01:10:23] All we have to do is remember the words of Nehemiah to remember my God.
[01:10:29] Because He doesn't tell them to focus on their enemy.
[01:10:32] He literally redirects their attention.
[01:10:35] Right?
[01:10:36] Because the people had become obsessed with the threat.
[01:10:40] The threat was speaking louder than what God had told them to do.
[01:10:45] And so they were constantly talking about their enemy.
[01:10:47] They were watching their enemy.
[01:10:48] They were worrying about their enemy.
[01:10:51] And so Nehemiah says to them, stop staring at the enemy and remember your God.
[01:10:59] Let me say, I don't know what kind of problems you got, but you're human.
[01:11:04] You live on this world.
[01:11:04] you probably got some problems, right? Let me just say, stop staring at the problem and just start staring at God. Begin to remember times in your life, just literally sometimes you just got to say, I serve a mighty God. I serve an inspiring God. And instead of staring at my
[01:11:36] problem or instead of staring at my enemy, I choose to remember God. I'm waiting for God to do something that he hasn't done yet. Maybe I need to remember something he did in the past so that
[01:11:52] I know he's going to do it in the future. Or maybe I just need to remember that God is big enough and has a provision for me. So regardless of where I'm at, God's still working. So I just
[01:12:05] need to remember he's a big enough god that's sometimes all we need to remember is that he's just a big enough god because what you focus on in your mind is what becomes bigger that's why i
[01:12:25] love how nehemiah said this to them remember you're all great and all inspiring god They had just come out of 70 years of Babylonian captivity.
[01:12:37] It wasn't like they just walked out of the David and Goliath moment.
[01:12:44] They had just walked out of 70 years worth of Babylonian captivity.
[01:12:49] And Nehemiah says to them, God is still good.
[01:12:54] God is still awesome.
[01:12:57] God is still big.
[01:12:59] God is still great.
[01:13:00] And so what he's saying is, focus on that, because what you focus on becomes what's bigger in your mind, right?
[01:13:12] For them, the enemy looked large, and the people had forgotten how really big God was.
[01:13:23] And so, I want to give you this memorable statement for this point, is that when your view of God gets bigger, your fear gets smaller.
[01:13:35] Or you could change fear to anything.
[01:13:40] When your view of God gets bigger, your anxiety gets smaller.
[01:13:43] When your fear of God gets bigger, your discouragement gets smaller.
[01:13:49] When your view, I think I said fear, when your view of God gets bigger, then your problem gets smaller.
[01:13:57] When your view of God gets bigger, your enemy gets smaller it applies to anything and so it was why nehemiah said to them remember god remember god remember god that's why if you don't remember nothing else from this sermon
[01:14:16] remember god remember god remember god remember what he's done for you remember what he's called you to remember what he has accomplished remember what he's already done remember that he has provisions literally remember him because when you put your focus on god everything that tries
[01:14:41] to distract you from god will seem to get smaller in your life i've always said it this way is if we have a little god equals big problems big god equals little problems and what i mean by that
[01:15:01] It's simply this, what we choose to focus on.
[01:15:06] You guys, you just don't know, Mike.
[01:15:07] You have no idea how my mind runs.
[01:15:11] I don't really know that.
[01:15:13] But I know the Bible tells us to take every thought captive.
[01:15:16] And so what it's saying is, if you let it play through your mind, then all of a sudden, your mind's going to try to tell you how big your problem is.
[01:15:27] And therefore, you're going to naturally think, maybe God just wants me to walk through this.
[01:15:33] Maybe He does want you to walk through some things.
[01:15:35] I'm not saying you're not going to ever go through a problem.
[01:15:36] But I'm saying that we need to focus, just like Nehemiah said, on how the great and awe-inspiring Lord is in our life.
[01:15:48] Remember that.
[01:15:49] And then the last thing is this, is the third thing that he told them was to fight for your house.
[01:15:56] Pull that verse back up.
[01:15:59] Right?
[01:16:00] At the bottom.
[01:16:01] Remember the great and awe-inspiring Lord and fight.
[01:16:05] He's literally giving them a command.
[01:16:07] Now, we understand our fight.
[01:16:11] First of all, we've got to understand what we're fighting for.
[01:16:14] Secondly, we've got to understand how to fight.
[01:16:18] And you're like, well, I already know how to fight.
[01:16:20] You might be fighting the wrong way.
[01:16:24] You might, as a man, be fighting it the wrong way.
[01:16:29] You might, as a woman, be fighting it the wrong way, wondering why you continually are fighting it.
[01:16:36] But he says, remember the all-inspiring Lord, And fight for your, watch this, countrymen, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.
[01:16:48] So the third thing, if we're going to win this battle for leadership, then you've got to realize sometimes you've got to fight for your house.
[01:17:04] You've got to fight for it.
[01:17:06] I get encouraged when men tell me that, you know, what Joshua said in 24, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That was Joshua making declarations for his leadership to his house. That was Joshua fighting for his home. And so I get encouraged when men do
[01:17:32] that. I get encouraged when men lead like God's called men to lead in the home. I get encouraged when men say, as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. What's going to happen in here
[01:17:46] might be different than what happens in another house because we are going to remember the awe-inspiring Lord.
[01:17:53] And we're going to teach our kids that regardless of the situation, God is still present and we're going to teach them how to fight properly.
[01:18:03] Because that is exactly what Nehemiah is saying here.
[01:18:07] Is that you've got to fight for your homes.
[01:18:14] And I love that as probably one of my favorite parts of this verse because he actually reminds them what they're fighting for. You ever heard of shadow boxing, right? You're never going to win. Your opponent is going to always hit you in the
[01:18:35] same place you hit them. Some of y'all get that about Thursday. This is how it's going to happen.
[01:18:45] You're never going to knock out your shadow. It's not going to happen. You're finally going to eventually get tired of shadow boxing because you can't knock out your shadow and you're just going to get tired and quit. God's not called us to walk through life shadowboxing. We are to fight
[01:19:05] very specific. We know that in Ephesians chapter 6. If I had time, I'd pull that all in, but go read it. You will understand exactly what and how, who our enemy is and how we're fighting.
[01:19:20] But I love this because he reminds them, these ordinary men, what they're fighting for. Because the battle wasn't really about the wall.
[01:19:31] You know that, right?
[01:19:33] The enemy didn't want them to build the wall because the enemies did not want them to be re-established to be what God wanted them to be.
[01:19:42] But even more so than that, all of these enemies remembered the nation of Israel before the Babylonian captivity and how many times that God fought for them and they won.
[01:19:57] they didn't want that they wanted them dispersed because for 70 years all of the jimmy i'm come on up for 70 years all of the nation of israel's enemies did not have to worry about them
[01:20:16] because they were dispersed they had no power they had no authority there was not god working through them as a unified nation, giving them land and giving them territory and defeating the enemies that would try to come against them. And so they knew, they knew what was going to
[01:20:38] happen when the nation of Israel come back together was God was just going to reestablish himself to his people because that's what God does. And so when the enemy tries to come and attack your house,
[01:20:54] you've got to be a man of leadership.
[01:20:56] When he comes to try to attack your church, foolishness would make us think that the enemy is not going to try to attack our church.
[01:21:04] And he might try to attack the church through your own home.
[01:21:06] I don't know.
[01:21:08] I just know that we've got to understand that we are to fight for our house.
[01:21:14] Right?
[01:21:15] Stand with me if you will.
[01:21:20] I do want to give you this memorable statement for this one because it's important.
[01:21:26] A man who knows what he's fighting for can endure what he's fighting through.
[01:21:31] A man and a woman who knows what they're fighting for.
[01:21:43] No shadow boxing.
[01:21:46] We're not walking through life spiritually shadow boxing.
[01:21:50] No.
[01:21:51] We're fighting against an organized enemy according to Ephesians chapter 6.
[01:21:57] And if we know what we're fighting for, then we can endure what we're fighting through.
[01:22:02] Amen?
[01:22:04] So, in closing, Nehemiah pointed them he pointed them back to God right and then he reminded them what was worth fighting for and I do believe that's still God's word to men today conquer your fear
[01:22:25] remember your God and fight for your house amen today I'm just going to ask you we'll close out in a song but before you do just bow your head and close your eyes because there might be men in here today
[01:22:46] that you feel like you lost the battle.
[01:22:51] I hope today was encouraging to you.
[01:22:54] I hope today was all inspiring to you to say, I don't have to fight alone.
[01:22:59] I don't have to fight battles by myself.
[01:23:03] I just need to remember God.
[01:23:06] I just need to know where to give it over to Him.
[01:23:10] I just know where to fall back into the background and trust God to do the front part because that's what God did to them here.
[01:23:23] The end of the story, they didn't stop building.
[01:23:27] God took care of their enemies and they built the wall and they were able to reestablish.
[01:23:35] And so maybe you're in places in your life to where you feel like that I've missed the mark.
[01:23:43] As a man, I have totally missed the mark.
[01:23:46] I didn't fight the right battles when I was supposed to or whatever.
[01:23:49] but let me encourage you today the walls were tore down but God rebuilt them so if that's you if you think things in your life have been tore down that doesn't mean that they have to stay down
[01:24:07] because we serve a God that is in a rebuilding business and what's so amazing is when God rebuilds it he usually rebuilds it stronger that's the God we serve so if this is you and
[01:24:22] I want to encourage you today. Don't give up. Just do these three things. Conquer your fear.
[01:24:32] Remember God. And for everything that you do, whatever you do, then you just simply fight for your house and you let God do the rest. Maybe you're in this place today and I don't want to take for granted. Maybe you're not a Christian or maybe you understand God, or maybe
[01:24:54] you've you've you understand church and you understand the bible and you believe that jesus died but you just really like i was when i was in the seventh grade you didn't you've never really asked jesus into your life you never surrendered your heart to him totally if that's you today
[01:25:10] man woman teenager been in church your whole entire life or this your first time ever walking in the church doors and today is the day you want to give your life to christ today is the day you
[01:25:24] want to walk out of this place saying, I'm a Christian. And you can tell everybody today is the day that you gave your life over to Jesus. I want you to pray this prayer with me if you mean
[01:25:35] it. Dear Jesus, today, I want to surrender my life to you. Today, I want to become a Christian.
[01:25:45] Today, I want to know that when I leave this place, that I belong to you. And that one day when I'm done here on this earth that I'll go to heaven.
[01:25:59] But more importantly, while I'm on this earth, I'll be able to walk in your spirit.
[01:26:05] I'll be able to walk in your guidance.
[01:26:08] I'll be able to do things for you and through you that I couldn't do before.
[01:26:14] I'll be able to lead my family in ways I couldn't before.
[01:26:18] I'll be able to love the way I couldn't do before.
[01:26:22] So God, today, I ask for you to step out of heaven, step into my life.
[01:26:29] God, today I'm giving my life over to you.
[01:26:33] I want to be a Christian.
[01:26:34] I want you to save me.
[01:26:36] Forgive me of every sin that I've ever committed.
[01:26:39] And today, make me a new person.
[01:26:42] God, today, help me to overcome any areas of my life that are going to be hard for me to surrender to you.
[01:26:50] Help me to surrender them.
[01:26:52] Because today when I leave here, I'm going to tell everybody I know, I got saved and I'm a Christian.
[01:26:58] In Jesus' name, amen.
[01:27:01] man, if that's you and you meant it and you're ready to give your life over to Him, then I promise you, you've just stepped into the best thing that will ever happen to you.
[01:27:11] The best thing.
[01:27:13] Now, as they begin to sing, altars are going to be open.
[01:27:16] Maybe you want to come and pray.
[01:27:18] Maybe you want to lay something down here.
[01:27:20] Maybe there's a challenge in your life that the Lord has spoke to you that you're like, I want to lay it down and I don't want to pick it back up.
[01:27:28] When I walk out of this place today, I'm going to walk out renewed and refreshed.
[01:27:34] Maybe you just want to pray for somebody else.
[01:27:36] I don't know.
[01:27:37] Maybe you need special prayer.
[01:27:39] I want to pray with you if you need special prayer.
[01:27:43] We're going to let them lead us in our final song.
[01:27:45] And as they do, you respond.
[01:27:47] Come and let the Lord lead you how He would.

[01:27:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:27:52] A few moments ago, all of heaven shouted.

[01:32:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:32:48] But the Bible tells us.
[01:32:49] Can I tell you why today's sermon means so much for us to just be the leaders that Jesus wants us to be? It's because two weeks ago, a week and a half ago, Michael Reed, I think he went back to
[01:33:14] get the kids. Where's he at? Get Michael Reed. Tell him to come in here for a minute. We got to celebrate what God does. If we don't celebrate what God does, God may just send people to where
[01:33:29] churches will celebrate if all the heavens celebrate good gracious we better do it too but i'm gonna wait on michael because this is very important he's slow by the way

[01:33:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[01:33:48] michael reed's slow he's on turtle time come here it's okay listen week and a half ago

[01:34:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:34:04] michael reed ran into john at the grocery store at the pool at the swimming pool Listen, didn't know him, invited him to church.
[01:34:16] Because Michael said that he felt like the Lord was telling him to do it.
[01:34:21] Invited him to church.
[01:34:22] This is his second Sunday.
[01:34:24] Today, he gave his heart to the Lord.
[01:34:34] And I told him, according to Scripture, he's a new man.
[01:34:38] Listen, that doesn't mean he's not going to have old battles, but it means that he's empowered to win them old battles.
[01:34:45] Because he is not alone.
[01:34:46] This is his family.
[01:34:48] This is why church is important.
[01:34:50] this is why fellowship is important. John, if you can't remember that name, you got a bad memory.
[01:34:56] John, pray for John, continually pray for John and watch what God's going to do in John's life.
[01:35:04] In this place today, we are a bunch of people who God is just saving and transforming and doing good things. I really want to put a sign out front that says no perfect people allowed.
[01:35:24] We just need people who need Jesus.
[01:35:26] Amen?
[01:35:27] So hug on John today.
[01:35:28] Let him know how much you appreciate what God's done for you.
[01:35:37] So listen to the Holy Spirit.
[01:35:40] When you're at the grocery store or the pool or Walmart or wherever you are, because the Holy Spirit knows what you don't know about somebody that you're coming in contact with.
[01:35:49] Real briefly, before we close, Teresa, we got plates still?
[01:35:53] Yes.
[01:35:53] Okay.
[01:35:53] If you did not pick up your barbecue plate yesterday, but you signed up for it there's a few eight or ten that's back there so you can go pick that up for the mission barbecue plate
[01:36:07] if you didn't pay you can pay John back there as well yeah not this John of course you know if you want to give him a if you want to give this John a bonus
[01:36:22] for coming into the kingdom he'll take it anyway so just get your barbecue if you signed up and didn't get it yesterday God is good amen Jimmy

[01:36:34] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[01:36:34] close us out with a benediction I will I'll tell you something I'm just about spiritually spent here so can't think of anything wise to say or sing for you except one thing and that is remember
[01:36:46] God and get a mic that works one thing to remember is to remember God that's the thing I'm going to take with me today remember God in everything you do and everything you don't do remember God
[01:37:05] Join me. May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you.
[01:37:13] May the Lord show you his favor and give you.