1/11/21. Nehemiah: The Sacrifices of Many - Gaining Vision

Well, hey, what's going on, family of God? This was a week, huh? Okay. Hey, you know, we actually record these on Fridays. And so it may be even a little bit more fresh for us than it is for you when you're watching it. Or maybe some else crazy fun to happen this week. I don't know, right? But honestly, I'm really praying and light of what happened really to our country this week that that would actually make today's message in this series, all that much more encouraging, all that much more challenging or maybe even valuable to us as a church, okay? And that's not me trying to cop out just to get to the sermon, all right? Like, I actually really mean that. Like, this feels timely because literally in the text today we're talking about foreign kings and people in political positions like Nehemiah was and ultimately what we're doing is we're looking for a greater kingdom than one that was right before us. And so that's really the heart, even of all of this. And as Stephanie said in hosting and as the well and I posted on our social media, like we all have actions to play in the midst of all of this as Anthony said in his prayer, like we have a response. Look y'all, the answer is not out there, okay? The answer is in here, the church. We are the hope, the light of the world y'all. We have the answers. And so I hope you believe that even more today and light of everything that's going on and maybe that God would speak to you that much more clearly today and light of the darkness of the world around us. And so I'd really love for us to believe what we're actually listening to is God's word today and that we would then take that and activate that and push back darkness together. And so let's try to do that as a church family, yeah? Cool, yeah, okay, so let's dive in. We are in the book of Nehemiah and we have a lot of work to do throughout this series. And honestly, we're not gonna get to all the groundwork goodies today, all right? We'll kind of scatter them throughout, but I'm actually really, really, really excited about this series, like more excited than normal. To be honest, I'm usually excited at the start of series. I feel like God is kind of leading us into something. I'm like that much more excited about this series. I feel like God is leading us into a lot. And so if I'm that amped at the start of this sermon, we probably gonna go five to 10 minutes late. So go get you some more coffee, all right? This is permissible right now. We have in black church today, okay? We might get out at 1130, we might get out at 145. It just depends on how this series leads, all right? So hallelujah, amen. And so, hey, as you're turning to Nehemiah, a real quick context for us in this book and then we'll unfold more as we go throughout this passage. But Nehemiah is actually a Jewish leader in Persia right now. He's in Persia because the Jews have been exiled for not obeying to or submitting to the Lord their God. And so really, they put their hope in human kings, which led them into idolatry and thinking that they were worshiping God. They were actually missing all of God's laws in the process and God exiled to give them a wake-up call. We drop in gold already, all right? Some of y'all missed that, you'll catch it later, okay? Like, don't go too far, one direction or the other, thinking that you're serving God and you're actually missing God in the process because you're serving kings or other leaders or other agendas, okay? And so this is what's going on in the people of God right now. They are in exile, but God is beginning a movement to lead his people back to him and back to be able to be a nation at large. And he actually began this work in the book of Esther a few decades before this. Esther was put into the position of Queen, really one of the most powerful positions for anybody to be in, particularly a woman to be in, in that culture, which actually probably paved the way for Nehemiah to be in the position that he was in today in the first place. As Queen Esther saved her people, the Jewish people, from annihilation, now there's favor with them. And all of a sudden we start to see the movement of God happening. And then in the book of Ezra, which is right, before this book, he teased this up and he begins the work of God of rebuilding Jerusalem. That work got paused though. But now Nehemiah is going to pick back up the work, lead the people out of exile to be able to gather together again to worship their God again. Allah regathering in a moment, it's okay. And so we are regathered to worship God is what's happening in this book. And yet the setting starts us in Persia. And that's where we're going to pick it up. Nehemiah chapter one, let's go ahead and dive in and I'm going to have my sister, my friend Anisha read that for us. - Good morning, well family. My name is Anisha Lawrence. I'm a covenant member, part of the Slotters E.G., and also part of the Connections team. This morning, I will be reading for you from Nehemiah 1 verses 1 through 4, the ESB version. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakalaya. Now, it happened in the month of just love in the 20th year, as I was in Susan Citadel, that had a nine, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them, considering the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile and concerned Jerusalem. And they said to me, the red minute there and the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are destroyed by fire. As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days and I continued fasting and praying before they got a pebbin. This is the word of the Lord. Amen, thank you for him. So I want to play my cards right up front as to why I think God has us in this series in general and really what we'll be focusing throughout the series. I believe that God wants to give us vision in this series, both personally as individuals and also corporately, collectively as the family of God. And I also think that he wants us to fulfill some of the vision that he may have already given to us once again, both personally and corporately as the church at large. And you heard me mention this last week, God has been speaking to our staff team and to different men and women that I've been connecting with in our church and kind of giving them vision in a lot of ways. And I really believe that God wants to speak to us as a church body and as the people of God at large because as we mentioned last week, a lot of us suffered a lot last year and suffering is often the precursor to God's voice. And I believe that he wants his voice to be heard. I think that God wants to speak to you personally about what he's really calling you into in a lot of ways and wants to speak to us corporately that when we gather together and when we work together, we actually make dents in the kingdom of God. We actually push back darkness. That's not a phrase. That's a reality that happens around us. And I think that God wants to begin to do that. And when I say that, I know what often happens is we hear this idea of vision or calling and what we always think is this like grand vision, right? Like our life calling and this may be the reality. God may want to speak that to some of us and praise God. But maybe God just wants to give you a vision to like focus on your family a little bit more this season or maybe read the Bible a little bit more and be able to connect with God in that way or maybe he gives you vision for the next year or the next month even. But I really think that oftentimes shorter term visions will actually pave way for longer term calling. And so whether it's the grand vision or the short vision, I believe that God wants to speak vision to us in a lot of ways. So my encouragement would be be obedient to whatever the spirit might speak to you. It may feel big, it may feel small, but I want to encourage you to walk in that obedience because it'll pave the way for the future. And also don't get freaked out by this idea of vision, right? Like me and God can speak to us in many different ways. And I believe he wants to, you can hear the voice of God. I also don't want us to kind of grow content with the sense of no direction in our life either though. I want us to be zealous to try to hear God's voice and to try to walk in the goodness of God and in the works that He has prepared for us. Now listen, God saved us because of His great affection, His great love, not because of the works that we will do for God. That is not why God saved us. Let's not get it twisted, okay? However, He has given us calling, in purpose and direction and reason to live on earth for His name. In fact, in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10, it says, "For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, that we may walk in them." So you were made new in Christ, you were created in Christ Jesus for good works that text is. God literally actually knew those good works before the foundation of the world beforehand. And once you to walk in those good works, so He did not save us for works or because of works, but now that we are saved, He wants to use us for works. He wants to be able to let us walk in the calling that He has given us. You were made to be able to be purposeful, to have meaning. This life is not empty or vain, it actually has significance and God has given that to us in Christ Jesus. He wants us to walk in the reality of that and to seek that discipline of hearing the voice of God and walking in the call is a discipline worthy of pursuing because as we know our calling, we really come alive in a lot of ways because we're walking in the will of God and where the will of God is for us, it is for our joy and for His glory. And so this is what God wants to do. And once again, I don't want to lose us in this before we dive into the text, I don't want us to get confused. We'll keep using this idea of vision throughout the series at large. And when we think of vision, we often think this grandiose vision. If God doesn't give me the 363 page plan of my life, then man, I must be failing as a Christian, right? And so we think that the vision is always like, God's gonna tell us like how to build the next Christian Tesla or something, right? Those are like Teslas, but they have like a cross on the hood. Okay, I'm just a facial skin. Skin, don't do that, all right? Or we think like, I gotta sell everything and be a missionary and save nine people, groups and write three children's books in the process, right? And that's what we tend to think. And look, maybe it means praise God of God gives us grand vision, but often our small unsung deeds and ripples into the kingdom that lasts longer than the boulders of others, y'all. Often our present faithfulness will actually pave the way for future generations and ways that we can never see just like Esther's, just like Ezra's is not paving the way for Nehemiah's. And so whatever the case, whether big or small life vision or short-term vision, God wants to use this and wants us to walk with him. And so how do we gain this vision? We actually see a lot of it from this text. And so I wanna work through the rest of our time together. First of all, we see that Nehemiah is with the king in November or December in Susa, which was actually the Persian kings winter resort area, which means he was trusted by the king, okay? This probably actually gave him easy access to be able to hear how Israel and Jerusalem was doing in the first place, which often God positions you where he has you for way more than just a paycheck, y'all. We'll get to that at the end of the sermon, okay? But he asks his brother Hannah and I, what's up? And then he gives him the news that there's trouble and shame, you see they're on the screen. And then great grief comes upon our boy Nehemiah, all right? My, my, all right? You ain't feeling that, right? We'll go with Nehemiah right now, okay? And so we see Nehemiah, he's expressing this great care, okay? Let me ask it, yes, I mean. Hey, listen, one of the ways that we get a sense of calling, one of the ways that we get a sense of our vision is that we actually care, y'all. Like we give a junk about what's going on, okay? And so point number one, you see the on the screen, there's care breeds vision, okay? Care actually blossoms, it breeds, it creates, it produces vision in us. And a moment you actually see Nehemiah go into this deep prayer, a clear heart for God and for God's people. Like look, he asks how his people are doing in the first place, right? Like do we ever ask how people are doing? Like do we know the condition of the world around us and how God may be wanting to interact in the world? Do we know the condition of the soul of our sister and our community group? Do we ask how the people of God are doing? Do we care? Nehemiah cared and that care began to produce vision in his life. And see for many of us, the gospel that can become really personal, like the only thing that matters is me and Jesus, us and the big man upstairs, right? And that's not the reality. The gospel necessitates a heart for God's people because the gospel is God forming you into the image of his son and his son cares desperately about the people of God. And so if his son cares desperately and we are supposed to be made in his image, then we should care desperately as well. And Nehemiah does here, Nehemiah cares about the overall, the greater mission of God. We'll learn in a minute. Nehemiah was actually in a plush position here, like he did not have to care about the people. He wasn't living in oppression. He was totally fine in his position, but he heard about the suffering of the people and he cared and did something. In fact, we'll see next week in chapter two, he actually prayed for four months like this because of how much he cared. And so even in here, we see this care and he asked the question about how things are going, what's up, what's the word brother, right? His probably biological brother is actually who we're looking at here. Is God's kingdom hurting or is it advancing? And so as we hear about unreach people groups or as we hear about suffering minority communities or as we hear about families that are in need or as we hear about the ability to be able to make a good product on earth that blesses others or the need for the well children to be served in different ways or the ability for us to make material money that we may then invest it into the spiritual kingdom of God or as we hear about the need of someone wanting to be discipled in a community group wherever it might be. If our heart are ripe for God to move already then we will maybe actually get vision from God that he wants us to do something about that need because care breeds vision and God will often speak to us as we care about the things that he cares about. So Nehemiah cares, he's a feeler, right? My guy, all right? And so this leads to vision, okay? Secondly, what we see here is actually something pretty ironic. We actually see that problems usually lead to vision. So your second point there is problems breed vision, okay? Several years prior, Ezra had actually begun to build the wall here and now it's actually destroyed again and this is terrible because the people of God have no protection, they have no home and worst in Nehemiah's mind and the people of God's mind, they have no place to worship the Lord their God. They're unable to gather to worship and to remind themself and to covenant themself to the goodness of God. And so Nehemiah, he mourns here and he actually enters into their pain and this is really important, y'all, because as humans, what we often do is we try to skip pain and go, "Ah, whatever God's God, he'll work it out." And then we avoid the mourning and the sitting and the brokenness of the world around us. Brokenness, it often stirs up a holy fire, y'all. It stirs up a holy ambition, a holy zeal to try to make things right and to fix the world around us or our other pitfall is rather than skipping the pain, we often fall into the temptation, the all the brokenness and pain brings and think that God is no longer in control or that He is no longer good. And so then we allow apathy or despair to suck us into the pit. And Nehemiah, what he does is he walks in the middle of that tension and allows the problems to actually lead to action and vision. And so sometimes family, because of the problems, it may feel like God isn't on your side. However, he's often in the background, planning bigger redemption than you could ever dream of if you would just trust him. So this is true of your family member salvation of your co-worker salvation that you've been praying for. This is true of you having to take a pause on what God may be calling you to do in this season as he actually prepares you for something more or as you're looking for that job to provide for your family and God may not be delivering it fully. Often God is at work in the background way bigger than what we can see in front of us. And so God is God. We do need to trust Him. Your heart must believe in the goodness of God more than your emotions will often lead you. God is God. And yet your emotions are often alarmed that go off, that tell you that something is not right in this world, that there is brokenness around you. And those emotions can actually awaken us and call us to action for His glory. And so problems can often breed calling. And we get to walk in the middle of that balance, not falling off on either side, but being driven to action when we see problems. Christian rapper, Manuel Lambert, he says this. He says, "Hey, tell me what drives you up a wall because your greatest frustration is a problem that you were here to solve. That is, if God gave you the tools to pull it off, if He has and get up off of your stool and get involved." And I love that idea there, right? Man, what frustrates you? What drives you up a wall? What angers you? What wrong do you see? Then get up off of your stool and do something. If you can do something about it, maybe this is how you find your vision and your calling, okay? Problems often breed vision. Now, at times, problems can seem so big like this one that we feel like we can't do anything about them. Like it feels like that person will never trust Jesus, right? Or it feels like how in the world is our church gonna plant 100 churches? That's too big is what it can feel like sometimes. Or how am I gonna share my testimony in front of all these people? I feel the call to get baptized, but I gotta share in front of all these people. And we get it, yo, whether it feels small or big, like sometimes the problems feel too big to overcome. And this problem for Nehemiah here was actually huge. It was actually impossible in a lot of ways for him to do, which God's grander vision for our life, by the way, often goes beyond what we think is possible, okay? Because they're not possible unless God moves in the process. And God wants to show us the impossible and then give us the faith to begin to believe that he can do it and then stretch our faith in the process because he's more into our faith in him and the joy that faith produces than he is about revealing full of plans that you would know he's actually in control. And so maybe sometimes the problems feel massive and God is actually at work in the background trying to produce faith in us to believe that he can do what he says that he can do. And so that deserves a man here, okay, right? And so look, A.W. Tozer, author of Old, he once said this. He said, God is looking for people through whom he can do the impossible. What a pity that we plan only things we can do by ourselves. Hmm, he's spazin' on us, all right? And so there's this big problem here, okay? And problem often breeds vision. So what does Nehemiah do? Does he get overwhelmed at the problem? Does he realize it's too big? Does this anger lead him to despair? How does he actually begin to grow in vision? Well, 0.3, he prays because only God can fix this problem. Prayer, 0.3, often breeds vision. Prayer breeds vision. Now we don't know Nehemiah much yet, okay? We just met the brother. We still date in the guy, right? But his response in verse four is actually amazing because Nehemiah, as we'll see throughout this series at large, is actually a man of swift, decisive, quick action, like Nehemiah don't play no games, okay? He won't all to smoke, all right? And yet here, we see Nehemiah, this man of action, take the most important action of all, bend his knees and pray. This shows where his priorities lie and who he trusts in. Not himself, but the God who can actually overcome the impossible, that's right in front of him. And so who cares if he can devise the most strategic plan on earth, if God isn't in it, it ain't flourishing, right? In fact, we can take a lesson here too in this because we need to pray if we're gonna seek vision from God or calling or purpose or direction, we need to be a people of prayer because what often happens is we kind of run ahead of God and we begin to make plans without God. And then after we make plans, we ask God to bless those plans and then wonder why those plans aren't successful in the process. Rather than seeking God for His plans, trying to walk in that and ask His blessing of our obedience for the plans that He has for us, we cannot ask God to bless our plans, we need to find the blessing of God in His plans, okay? And we see Nehemiah, he's understanding this need for God and he seeks prayer first before devising a plan. In fact, we see that clearly in the text, it says, as soon as he heard, you see there in verse four, there's an urgency here. In fact, he's a type of Christ who's weeping for Jerusalem for God's people. And then it says in verse four, and he continued in prayer. So this was a regular pattern for Nehemiah, this fasting and prayer continually recognizing the need. This actually probably gave him the confidence that God would move because he was a man of prayer historically, saw God answer prayers and believes that God will answer prayers again. And so this prayer historically is breeding vision for prayer today. See, we often, I think we put a limit on God when we try to walk in this vision or calling, especially if it feels really big. And so we fast once and then we pray once while we're driving and then we're doing, right? Our boy Nehemiah continues in prayer, okay? Look, you're gonna be saying this soon. This is, all right, that's our man's name. So look, he continues to see God until God moves in a lot of ways. That's a clear trust of Nehemiah that he does not put a deadline on God and demand that God submits to Nehemiah plans. But he also continues to seek the face of God, knowing that God wants to move in the process. And so do not grow weary in asking God, family of God, vision and calling often come through persistent prayer, y'all. In fact, that's true even in my own life when I look at my calling. I feel like God gave me this vision when I was younger than I would be in ministry, but I didn't know what that looked like. And so I remember being a freshman in college and I was outside of this little cafeteria area and I was just like fired up after a worship set or something and I was like, God, I'll do anything for you, you know? And at that time, I believed that the most spiritual thing to do was to sell everything you have and to move to Africa and to build a more finished or something, right? So I'm like, God, I'll sell everything and today, I'll drop out of college and you know, and I was seeking God, I had been seeking God for a while. And I actually feel like God very specifically put on my heart. I don't want you to go anywhere. Your calling is in America. And I was like, America. That ain't spiritual at all, all right? And all of a sudden, he began to give me his vision about planting and about the condition of our country and even where we were headed in a way and the need for church plants. And all of a sudden what started happening was I realized that the Lord had me serving in all these different areas of my church. And so I was on the set up team for a while and then they're like, hey, can you actually go into this evangelism team? And they're like, hey, can you actually lead this group? And then it was like, hey, can you lead this prayer ministry? And all of a sudden, I started leading all these different areas at different times in my church, lo and behold, I would plan a church eight years later and know how to lead every different area in a church. And so the faithfulness that God was forcing into me then, when I didn't feel like holding that crying kid, actually then began to give me vision for what we would do long-term. And so your present faithfulness and prayer often breeds vision and it begins to blossom vision as you are faithful where God has you. And so be faithful where God has you, family of God. It doesn't just end in prayer, though, okay? This, actually, there was all the more things that were breeding and feeding Neomyas vision here that we'll actually see in the rest of our texts. And so let's finish our text today. Neomyas, pick it back up in verse five. And I'm gonna have my brother Ryan Smoothman Careathers read that for us. - Hi, well family. My name's Ryan Careathers. My wife Mary and I currently host the Arboretum Community Group. And we're starting to lead pre-marital counseling in the New Year for the well. Today I'm gonna be reading from Nehemiah chapter one versus five for 11. And I said, oh Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant instead of fast love with those who love him and keep his commandments. Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel, your servants. Confessing the sins of the people of Israel which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father's house have sinned. We have acted very correctly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses saying, if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcast are in the utter most parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen to make my name dwell there. They are your servants and your people who you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. Oh Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name and give success to your servant today and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. Now I was cut bare to the king. - Ma'am, praise God. Okay, several things in this text I wanna walk us through. First of all, it won't be on the screen but look at the text at large. How many times the word servant is used? It's actually used eight times and that short little passage there. So Nehemiah understands his place before the royal ruler and he is humble as he makes these bold requests. And so God doesn't have to act. In fact, they're in exile because of their sin. God does not have to move. And yet Nehemiah is pleading with God on the mercies and faithfulness and promises of our God. So he recognizes his position as a servant and yet his access as a son and begins to walk in that balance even in his prayer here. And listen, family of God, you may not deserve to be used by God. You may feel like because of your passing that disqualifies you from being used by God. And there's actually measurements of truth with that if the gospel isn't real. But if the gospel is real, that is not the reality and I would implore you to come humbly before our God who is kind and who forgives and wants to redeem, restore, welcome you back to the family, cleanse you and then use you for the glory of his name, y'all. God wants to use you. Your past faithlessness is no champion over the faithfulness of God. God will always win that. And as we receive his grace, we actually are able to be humble in the midst of that. And so the fourth point I want us to look at is that humility and repentance often breed vision. Y'all, vision often comes as we are humble and as we repent. And here's why I believe that because if you think that you're better than someone else, it's really hard to serve them. It's really hard to lay down your life for them. Further, if you think that you're awful, it's really hard to serve. And so there's a pitfall on both sides. See what humility does is it allows us to see before God that we are all in the same position, y'all. And so even in all the political chaos this week, right? It's actually easy. The temptation is for us to look down our noses at other people and go, oh, those people they're so foolish or cowards or whatever it might be. And then we, even if at times we begin to make accurate judgments about other people's actions, yet with the wrong heart, we are unable to serve them because we are then operating in a spirit of vindictiveness and self-righteousness. And what humility does is it tells us we are all in need of God's grace. We all need the grace of the gospel, lest we think that we are Jesus ourselves, we need Jesus, family of God. And so notice, Nehemiah is confessing things. He ain't even do. He wasn't even a part of some of this mess. And yet he's confessing it because he realized he's not like God, he needs the gospel. Even though he may not have done that, he knows that he is broken and needs the grace of God in his life. And so the gospel it humbles him in a lot of ways. And then what he does is he repents before God and he cast himself on the mercies of God to be forgiven by God and then to go forth in the calling that God has for his life. And so listen, the gospel, it doesn't make you think that you're awesome because you're not, okay? But it also doesn't make you think you're awful because you're redeemed if you believe in Jesus. And he who redeemed you is pretty dope. And he now dwells inside of you, all right? And so the gospel, the humility and repentance, it allows us to walk in that balance and actually love the people that God has called us to serve. You tracking with that, yeah? Okay, the next point, the fifth point is that here's a big, big one I want us to grasp was that scripture often breeds our vision, okay? It gives life to our vision. In this passage, it's actually really clear that Nehemiah knows the scriptures really, really well because he's drawing upon several different passages in Deuteronomy. We can't see it when we read it, but it's actually all correlated to all different parts of the book of Deuteronomy. Nehemiah, he knows the scriptures. And if we are to hear the voice of God in our hearts, we have to read and recall and remember and reflect on and walk in and live by. The words that the Holy Spirit has already spoken, the voice of scripture. We have to hear God's voice most plain to us first if we're to hear his voice in the technicalities of our situations. That's why we often highlight the importance of being and leaning on the word because we get vision from it along with hundreds of other benefits from it. Even here, we actually see Nehemiah growing in confidence as he recalls who God's word says that God is. In fact, look at that the first verse there where he begins to highlight who God is. He says that God is a relational God as he calls him Lord God that word Lord, LRD all caps is the word Yahweh in Hebrew. This is God's covenantal name that he said he's going to give to the people that he has a relationship with. And so he's a relational God. He's the sovereign God as Nehemiah calls him the God of heaven. He's the powerful God as he is great and awesome. He's the faithful God who keeps his covenant. He's the loving God who acts instead fast love. I mean, we have a relational God, a sovereign God, a powerful God, a faithful God, a loving God. And that's been one verse of Nehemiah, y'all. Our God is good. Amen. Hallelujah for that truth. And Nehemiah knows this truth because of the scriptures and how God has revealed himself through there. Nehemiah also calls God the God of heaven, which is actually a really important phrase here. God of heaven is essentially only used in the books of Nehemiah, Ezra, and Daniel, which were all written while Israel was in Persian captivity. This is what the Persians actually called their God, was the God of heaven. And so the Jews are likely both kind of influenced by their culture, but also reclaiming it and proclaiming a greater truth that our God is the true God of heaven. So he's using the times that are around him and proclaiming a greater truth to draw people to the goodness of God. And so our culture, by the way, is trying to influence us and they want to make sure that you submit to them and the only one that is truly worthy of our allegiance is our King Jesus because the world is trying to produce a calling in you, family of God. It is trying to give you vision as well for political parties or movements or money or pleasure or whatever it might be. The world is trying to speak vision into your life, except the world's vision only leads into pits of discouragement and a continual bouncing back and forth in confusion. Only God's word is the guardrails to have us not fall off that cliff in the first place. And so we must submit to and know God's word. Further, we actually see a lot of Nehemiah's vision was really just a fulfillment of all the things that God had already spoken anyway, right? And this is true of our vision as well, personally and corporately as a church. Most of it minus the little specifics is really just gonna be an overflow of what he already said, right? And if we want vision, if we want to walk in our calling, then we have to walk in this, y'all. We have to walk in the word of God. If we want to hear the voice of the Spirit, we have to know the voice of his word because the Spirit breathed that word in the first place and is usually what he uses to speak to us again. And so God's word gives vision, y'all, stay drenched in it, family, drink deeply of the word of God, okay? You still with me? Yes, yes. Okay, I just have eight points left, okay? I'll just kidnest the last one, okay? You used to be like, "Oh, you've been a for real about black times, right?" It's the last one. Unless the Spirit of my church upbringing enters into me. Yeah, it's true. The last one, y'all, okay? God breathes vision is the last one. Now, if you're a notetaker, I want you to write this next to this that God breathes vision both in your intimacy with God and also because of God's sovereignty, this will give you vision where God has placed you and what he's already doing gives vision, okay? First of all, intimacy. As we fall more in love with God, we fall more in love with the things that he cares about and this produce is calling. It's real simple in that. We actually touched on that a lot already, but even look at verse 11 once again there, Nehemiah, God's servant, delights to fear, the name of God here, he delights to fear. What a powerful phrase, y'all. He is reverent, he respects God, he loves God, he delights to know God's name and to walk in the fear or the reverence of God. There's an intimacy here that Nehemiah is speaking about whereas not a fear that cowers away from him, it's actually a fear that draws him close and he wants to walk in this and we talked a lot about this last week in the Philippian sermon, but in order to have true vision that comes from God, intimacy must be a part of that y'all. And so intimacy with God, God himself, he gives vision, but further, God's sovereignty, where he has placed you, things that are outside of your control, like your masculinity or femininity, or your color of your skin or the place where you live, this actually will breed vision a lot of times as well. Because seeing this and understanding this often gives clues to what God is wanting to do in our life. We often think that vision kind of comes if we're called in the full-time ministry and then anything else is like a weak Christian status, okay? And that's just not the reality of any real situation here, right? It's actually a lie from Satan to distract us from being and doing what God is actually calling us to be and do. In fact, Nehemiah, he may have because of his position, been able to see things that pastors would never be able to see, right? Further, we often think that calling is only professional in a lot of ways, like what we do for a living, okay? But this also isn't true, Yom. Like Nehemiah was a cut bear, which was a legitimate and a very important job, and he was faithful to his job. And if you look at the passage, God didn't specifically call him to this job, nor did he give him vision about that job in and of itself. He simply sovereignly placed him in that job and then gave him a calling that was greater than the job that he was doing. But Nehemiah's faithfulness, him being a good cut bearer, actually put him in places to serve that then bred the greater vision at large. And so God is often trying to give us vision through how he's sovereignly placing us in different situations. Look at Nehemiah, think about what's going on with the cut bear there. He likely understands a lot of history here. And so he knows the history of Israel, the history of Persia, what's happening here? He knows how to rule. He actually knows how to gain the King's favor in a lot of ways. He was actually very rich, most likely, as a cut bear that was a lofty position. He knew how to write, which was actually really rare in that culture at large. He was in a very, very trusted position. And God is doing all of this behind the scenes to set up the scene of Nehemiah's life. Nehemiah wouldn't even be able to realize that unless he began to tap into how God is already orchestrating his life, partner with that, be faithful, and then keep walking as God called him into greater and greater things. And so this is what we need to realize in our own life. Look, God may be positioning you for today, what he actually has planned for you five years from now, y'all, and we need to be faithful where he has us. And if we stay sensitive to his voice and stay sensitive to his call and faithful to where he has us, that often breeds vision, y'all. And it begins to give us calling even in our life. And so where has God placed you today, where you might be an agent of redemption, where you are right now, why are we all living in Austin or wherever you're watching this? Why are we living in 2021 in the midst of a pandemic? Why, why, why God is doing something? He is not passive, he is an active God, y'all. And so he wants to do this in our life and to give us vision often through the places he's already put us in. And so of those that we discuss, those six things, I wanna ask you, which of those are you actually weak in? Which of those do you not seek God in normally or orchestrate your life in to hear God's vision or purpose for your life? I'd actually encourage you to just grow in them and to seek God's face as you grow in them. Once again, I really think that God wants to give us vision personally, y'all. And I think God wants to give us vision corporately as a church family. And so as we learn how to grow in our vision, we'll be able to hear God's voice more clearly and walk in what he has for us in our lives. I mean, even in our church family, my encouragement will be faithfulness here because even if you're only here for one year, I really believe that if this is where God has called you, then he wants to do something through you in and for our church that is greater than what you can do by yourself. And as we all come together and use all of our gifts, we actually are able to make a dent in the kingdom and we push back darkness corporately as a church family, as we love you and you love us. And as we're feeding into one another, whatever that looks like. Now, I think that God is trying to do something there. And so personal and corporate vision is we try to marry those together. It often begins to breathe the plans that God has for our life. God wants you to speak to you. Just put yourself in a position to hear his voice, y'all. That's really the heart of this at large. Nehemiah, he feels God's call and then he moves on God's behalf. And to be honest with you, Nehemiah is really a type of Christ here. And that's actually where we see the ultimate call of God come into full fruition. And while we can believe that we can have vision from God even today because of the person and the work of Jesus, think about Nehemiah and what he's about to do here, okay? Nehemiah was rich, he was well off, he was cool by himself. He did not need to serve God's people in any way whatsoever. And yet, love made him move, love made him feel called, love actually gave him a vision. And so Nehemiah, he frees himself up of his comfort to restore the people of God as we'll even see next week. And Nehemiah was in the presence of a king and yet he went into discomfort willingly though he did not need to to restore the people of God. Y'all, Jesus was in the presence of the king. He had full comfort and he gave up his privilege to be able to serve us who were in great trouble and shame as verse 3 says about the nation of Israel at large. Jesus became troubled in a shame that we might have peace and protection and joy. In fact, think about what cup bears did. If you know about the history there, one of their jobs was to actually drink the cup before the king drank it in case there was poison so that when the king touched it, the king didn't die. Jesus is the greater cup, Haryam. He drank the poison, the wrath of God, sin, the full cup of sin the text is that you and I might be free. And rather than Nehemiah drinking it before a king that he might save the king's life, Jesus actually drank it for us, the servants so that we might one day become kings. This is the goodness of the gospel. This is how much your God loves you and if he would drink the wrath of God that you might be free, don't you think he wants to use you today to make much of him? He wants to give you vision and speak into your heart and move with you that you might exalt the goodness of God. Even here, Nehemiah prays that God would bring all the people from the farthest parts of heaven and to bring them back to Jerusalem, to worship. Jesus is the greater Nehemiah who brought you and I as Gentiles who were sinners far away from God for at the utter most parts back into his kingdom to one day gather together with all of his people to worship the goodness of our God, y'all. Jesus is the greater Nehemiah, he's the greater cup bearer, he's the greater restoreer and he is able to give greater vision than you and I could ever give our lives, y'all. He wants to speak to us and in light of that love, I want us to be intentional and to walk with him and so there's a couple of things I would implore us in, really practical applications even this week. The book of Nehemiah is actually filled with prayer. In fact, Nehemiah prays specifically 12 times in this 13 chapter book. There's all these written prayers as we just read one today and so before we run ahead and try to get vision, I actually just want to pray as individuals and for our church at large that we would seek God's face so that we would have a heart like Nehemiah's that bleeds for the people of God and then that that prayer would actually give us care to concern ourselves with the mission of God over our position on earth and that we would seek to have a heart that bleeds like Nehemiah's really that bleeds like Jesus's for God's people and so what I want to encourage us to is to actually pray this week as a church and your own times pray that you would hear the voice of God, pray that God will begin to give you vision and calling once again, maybe life vision, maybe just vision for that day that you would pray more or listen to this worship song or whatever it might be, I think that God wants to speak to us and I also want to do that corporately as a church body and so actually on Wednesday of this week, so if you too late watching the God of Gathering sucks us up, but on Wednesday I would actually really love for us to pray together as a church and so actually if you go to the well austin.com/prayerday what we want to do is we want to pray all day Wednesday and rather than taking up like hour slots we actually booked it so there's 15 minute slots because I would really love our whole church to be praying here 15 minutes ain't a lot all right and so from 12 midnight until 1159 the next day I just want to pray that God would speak to us individually that God would speak to us corporately and that he would begin to move us into what he's calling us to do okay and so go to that click on that link it's going to take you to an external site the site's kind of wack low key all right that ain't our site okay but it won't spam you we did already test that okay and so we would really want you to do that the second thing is neomia prayed any fasted and I would actually really love for us to fast on Wednesday as well fasting can look like 55 different things okay you can fast from food you can fast from social media maybe you just fast from listening to music in your car whatever it is you give up something to focus on God in the process I would love for us to give up something and to focus on God and to pray and to ask God what is he doing in our life because once again I really believe that God wants to speak to us and wants to give us vision and so before we go into the church's vision at large which we'll get into in the weeks ahead just personally how is God speaking to you how does he want to do vision in your own personal life really a lot of the real work is even going to happen in community groups this week as you flesh out that vision so I would encourage you to be listening to God and to be open about what God maybe is calling you into none of God's callings are pointless or wasteful y'all what may feel small might literally change eternity be faithful wherever God has you okay and so I pray you to hear God's voice this week I'm going to pray for us even for that for a second whether big or small grand or short term vision that you would have a heart that believes for God's glory that longs for redemption to be on the earth that desires to be active in God's kingdom and then as a part of God's movement until he returns or takes us home to be with him let us always be a church that interacts with God in his mission like that amen hey I love you guys like crazy I love y'all let's pray Jesus thank you for the book of Nehemiah and thank you for his faithfulness and the vision that you are about to give him that we'll see unfold these next 12 chapters and I know that you want to give us vision to God so I pray we would seek that from you if that God I pray for those who maybe they do not know who you are they do not have a relationship with you yet the greatest vision the greatest call that you give is to yourself and so I pray that you would even give vision to my friends who do not know you right now that you want relationship with them show them that God give them vision to how you are calling them home and friends if that is you maybe your action step this week is to hear that voice of God and to come home to be obedient to submit yourself to the true King the only one who will never fail us the only one whose throne will never be usurped or even stumbled upon for he is the God of protection of joy of peace of power of patience he's the one that gets off his throne and lays down his life brings us into the throne room he wants that relationship with you y'all maybe that's the call and for those of us who have received that original call to you God we have received the call to become the family of God children of God princes and princesses really to the air the throne of God I mean would you show us what's next until you call us into that grand calling where we are one day with you forever while we are still here in this brokenness would you show us God would you give us care so that we would know what to do would you let us see the problems so we would know what to do would you give us prayer so we would know what to do would you let us be humble and repentant so that our hearts can be right postured as you show us what to do would you give us the scriptures that often lead us into what to do and would you God show us what you want us to do we want to be used by you thank you for your beauty for your goodness thank you for this series thank you for this church God we love you Jesus we thank you ultimately for you as we end in worship in this last song with our hearts reposher ourselves would you even give us vision here God as we sing let it be a prayer and let those prayers breed vision pray this in your very beautiful name Jesus amen