 All right, everybody, open your Bibles with me to the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah chapter one. This morning, we're continuing on in our summer series entitled Heroes, where we're looking at Old Testament heroes of the faith and we're drawing some pretty powerful principles from their lives that it's astounding to me that anytime that you read the Bible and you see these principles that are thousands of years old, they still work. They're still present and relevant and life-changing. And, you know, the Bible never gets old and the reason why it never gets old is because it's God-breathed, God has spoken it. It's more than just the opinions of men. It's actually from God and what a gift. Is anybody grateful for the Bible? I mean, a couple of years ago, I was so convicted when they showed this video, and by the way, this has nothing to do with my message. This is, I haven't been here in a couple of weeks, so I'm like a fire hydrant right now. So, they showed this video of Chinese Christians in the underground church and it was videotaped on a phone by missionaries who had smuggled Bibles into China and they were handing out Bibles to these Chinese Christians and when the Chinese Christians got the Bible, they held it and they were crying and they kissed the Bible because they were so grateful to actually have a copy of God's word. I think sometimes we take the fact that Bibles are pretty commonplace to us. We just kind of take it for granted. It's kind of like we got Bibles at home. We've got Bibles on our phone. We have Bibles in the drawers at the hotels. We have Bibles everywhere and it's just kind of common. But man, we should never, ever, ever take the word of God for granted. It's just so powerful. Can I get a name in from somebody on that? I'm gonna come down there and stand on chairs this morning if I have to. All right, Nehemiah chapter one. We're looking at Nehemiah and I've entitled this Nehemiah the Rebuilder. Nehemiah the Rebuilder. Let's look at chapter one and we're gonna read the first five verses of chapter one. It says the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakeliah. Now it happened in the month of Chislev in the 20th year as I was in Sousa, the citadel, the Hanani. One of my brothers came with certain men from Judah and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the exile and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, the remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been destroyed by fire. Verse four, as soon as I heard these words, I sat down and I wept and I mourned for days and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And I said, oh, Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayers of your servant. The rest of chapter one is all of this prayer that Nehemiah prayed after he heard the news from his brother about the condition about the spiritual and the physical condition of his home city, Jerusalem, the city of the people of God. It's a city that Nehemiah has never seen in his entire life but yet he is spiritually connected to the city. And as he hears the news of the fact that the walls have been torn down, the city lies in ruins, its people are covered in shame and it's still destroyed some decades later, over a hundred years later, it's still decimated. Something happens in the heart of Nehemiah. Now, in order for you to understand why this is significant, you need to know that Nehemiah is part of the entourage or the collective group of Jews who had been taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar when Babylon came and destroyed the city of Jerusalem. They came and they besieged it and they tore down the walls that protected it. They burned the gold off of the temple. They took all the articles out of the temple. They took the royal class, the king and the royal family and all the high level officials, the very wealthy people and even the middle class and they made them march from Jerusalem back to Babylon and they took them as captives because the Babylonian way of thinking, the way that Babylon conquered other nations was first they overwhelmed you militarily and then they integrated you culturally. So they would take you out of your culture, out of your religion, they would bring you back to Babylon which Babylon, the city of Babylon was the largest, most influential, sophisticated city in the world at that time. I want you to think like London or New York and they brought you back into a Babylonian culture. They would give you a Babylonian name. They would force you into reeducation camps to learn Babylonian religion and philosophy and then they would merge you, they would force you to live in Babylonian culture. Why did they do that? Because they knew that after one or two generations you would cease to be who you were and you would begin to identify yourself now as part of Babylon. And so it was called colonialization. That's how they did it. They integrated all of these Jews that had been brought out of Israel, out of their land, out of their city, that their city was really a big part of their identity and their covenant relationship with God. The temple, the city, the promises, the prophets, all of that was stripped away. And now when we find Nehemiah, this had happened decades earlier, probably about a hundred years before that. Nebuchadnezzar had brought them back. Nehemiah is a second or third generation Jew living in Babylon. And what's interesting is that after Babylon was conquered by the Persian Empire, Cyrus was a man raised up, who was king of the Persian Empire, who basically said to all the Jews after 70 years in captivity, which by the way was prophesied in the book of Daniel, that it would be 70 years of captivity. After that 70 years Cyrus comes into power and he says to all the Jews living in Babylon, you can go back if you want, you can go back. But they had now become so culturally acclimated to Babylon that the estimates are less than 100,000 Jews actually went back. Vast majority, 70% of the Jews living in Babylon stayed in Babylon because they said this is home now. This is where we live. This is our culture. This is, you know, these are our TV channels. I mean, this is, we're used to the fast food joints here and why would we wanna go back to Jerusalem? Because Jerusalem was destroyed. I mean, when Babylon came in there, it says that they raised the city to the ground, which means anything that was a foot taller or more was wiped flat, including the temple, including their homes, their fields were burned, their streets were destroyed, nothing left. After 70 years, a group of Jews went back and they settled back in the land trying to rebuild the city. Eventually God would raise up a priest, his name was Ezra. Ezra would go back there to motivate the people to rebuild the house of God, the temple. But it was difficult for them to rebuild their city after it's been so destroyed because there are still enemies in the land. There's warlords and there's other countries that were competing for the resources of this city. And so whenever the Jews tried to rebuild their homes, they'd get destroyed again. Whenever they would try and rebuild the walls around the city limits because walls were built in ancient times to keep bad things out and good things in. If you had walls, you had a secure city. If you didn't have walls, you were exposed. It would be like you living with no front door. Think about that. I mean, just going to bed every single night and all of your goods and your resources and your family members are exposed. And there was no way that they could rebuild the walls. So Nehemiah, living in Babylon, has this high level position job. He is the king's cupbearer. He's a second or third generation Jew. He is an observant Jew, but he's never been to Jerusalem. He's never seen the temple. All he knows is Babylon. He works for the king. And his job is being the cupbearer, which is a high, high level trust job. You might think, well, what's the big deal about being a cupbearer? Well, what you need to know is in ancient cultures, the way that you got rid of a king is you poisoned them. So you would get a coup of people together and say, we don't like the king's policies. So, and by the way, they didn't vote people out. They didn't protest people out. They poisoned people out. I'm so glad our politics are so civilized in America. So, they would conspire together to kill. And one of the ways that they would kill an existing king was to poison them. So what the king did was he had a cupbearer. And the cupbearer's job was every day when they would bring the food or they would bring his cup of wine or his, you know, his Dasani bottle of water. Before he would drink it, he would call his cupbearer over and say, try this. So he'd take the wine cup and he'd drink it and the king would sit there and watch him. How you feeling? Feeling okay? Good? All right, give it to me. And then he would drink it or he would eat it. I mean, so the cupbearer, I mean, high level trust job but high turnover as well, as you can imagine. Nehemiah is the king's cupbearer. But here's what the position of being a cupbearer did afford Nehemiah. Nehemiah is closeness in proximity to the king more so than any other person in the kingdom. I'm sure when he took that job, he realized this is life and death but he didn't realize that God had positioned him like Esther before him in the king's courts for kingdom influence. And one particular day, the day that we just read about his brother comes back from Jerusalem to give a report to the king about how things are going 750 miles away in Jerusalem. And his brother comes back and he says, it's terrible. It's terrible. The city's destroyed. I mean, just think about some of the images you've seen of cities that have been wiped out because of war or the city escape of New York after 9-11, think in those terms and think of it lying like that for 100 years and nobody can rebuild it and people living in tents. And Hanani, his brother comes in, he says, listen, he says, it's terrible. The people are ashamed. Where are the promises that God made to us that he would restore our fortunes and that he would bring us back out of captivity after 70 years? It's been over 70 years and he's brought us back but for shame? We can't build our homes, the enemies, the animals. I mean, there's no way of getting ahead. It wasn't just, listen, it wasn't just about the physical city being rebuilt. The physical city being rebuilt was a physical indicator that God was smiling and forgiving them and restoring his promises to them. And the fact that it couldn't be rebuilt meant to the Jews that God had turned his face away from them. And so as Nehemiah is hearing this news, something happens to him. He's sitting next to the king and he's listening to these words and it's piercing him. And immediately he goes to prayer and the short end of the story, we won't cover the whole story but really this week it's a short book. I would encourage you to read the book of Nehemiah. The short story is, as he goes into a season of prayer and fasting, which is chapter one, just saying, God, you've got to do something. God, where are your promises? Lord, forgive us for our rebellion against you. Everything that's happened to us has happened because we brought it on ourselves. Lord, would you forgive us and remember your promises? He's fasting, he's praying and then he shows up to work one day and the king looks at him and says, what's wrong with you? He says, because you look like somebody who's heart sick. And he has this divine opportunity. Nehemiah says, well, he says, king, if I have found favor in your sight, listen to what I have to say. And he pleads his cause. And the king says, what do you want me to do for you? Oh, man, think about those words. King doesn't say that lightly. Sometimes we say that really lightly, don't we? It's like you hear somebody's problem and you feel so empathetic about it, you just say, hey, what can I do for you? What would you do if they said, well, you could buy me a new car? I mean, if you, maybe you would. I mean, that's happened. But I mean, really, when we say that it's like, what can I do for you? We mean to a certain degree. Hey, I'll pray for you. I'll feel bad with you. I'll probably talk to you at least one more time. If it goes beyond that, we're crossing lines, but tell me what I can do for you. When a king says, what can I do for you? He means, what can I do for you? And Nehemiah says, here's what you can do. You can give me a leave of absence so I can go to Jerusalem. And you can grant me favor, oh king, by handing me your credit card so that I can pay for all the material to rebuild the walls, because until the walls get rebuilt around the city, they'll never be able to finish rebuilding the house of God. And until the house of God is rebuilt, there can't be priests. And until there's priests, there can't be sacrifices. And until there's sacrifices, there can't be atonement. So give me your credit card, send me with a letter, give me a paid leave so I can go to Jerusalem, and give me a letter that I can present to all of the representatives, anywhere that I go that I'm here on your behalf, and let me go and rebuild the walls. I mean, that's a bold ask. And you know what the king says? He says, anything you want, here you go. And he gives him the equivalent of a credit card. He gives him his letter of recommendation. Gives him a paid leave and anybody he needs to take with him for skilled labor to go and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. What I think is interesting about Nehemiah, though, I think most of us probably would miss on the accursory reading of Nehemiah is that his name actually means something significant to you and I. The name Nehemiah, I know it's a Jewish name, but Nehemiah, every Hebrew name actually has a covenant meaning to it. It's because like, if it ends with a ya at the end, ya is the root word of God's covenant name, Yahweh. So Nehemiah means the comfort of the Lord. It actually means the comforter of the Lord, the Lord's comforter. And why that's significant is in the New Testament, Jesus used language like this to reference who the Holy Spirit would be to you and I. Remember in the Gospel of John chapter 14 verse 16, Jesus said this, he said, it's to your advantage that I go away because if I go away, I will send another helper to you. You guys remember that, that word helper. Another translation, I think the King James says this, I will send another comforter to you. The Greek word is paraclete, which means one who helps, one who comes up alongside and one who brings comfort. So Nehemiah, from a prophetic vantage point, is a picture of God sending the Holy Spirit to us in our state of shame, hopelessness and brokenness. Here we are, we're the ones standing in the rubble of our life. And oftentimes it's not a physical rubble, but we have broken places in our life that we've tried to rebuild on our own and we just haven't had what it takes to get it done. And we try and fail, we try and fail and we just kind of stand there sometimes thinking, is this all that there is? And what the enemy does is he heaps shame on our brokenness or maybe it's a standing in the middle of our marriage going, I don't know how we're ever gonna put the pieces back together again. And we almost wanna give up because we don't have the power in our own strength, but that's when God reminds us that he sent the comforter, the helper, the Holy Spirit to us, to do what we can't do. Sometimes it's crazy to look at the world that we live in, it just seems so broken. It's like everything that used to be a foundation stone of right and wrong has just been flipped upside down. There's chaos, there's uncivil discourse. We've got more proliferation of weirdness and perversity in our world now and there's so much brokenness that sometimes it can be overwhelming. I think sometimes even as the church, as Christians, we are kind of like the exiles who've gone back to Jerusalem and it's like, God, I know that you've got all these great and precious promises, but it looks like in our world that things are getting so bad that they're beyond repair. But that's when God reminds us that greater is he that's in us, the Holy Spirit, the comforter than he that's in the world. You see, Nehemiah is a picture of the comforter and what we know about what Jesus said, why he would send the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit has come to comfort the afflicted. And so in our brokenness and in a state of living in a world that's full of brokenness, God sends the Holy Spirit to comfort us and to remind us that God's a God who can do the impossible. He can rebuild the unbuildable. He can repair the unreparable. He sends the Holy Spirit to comfort us that it's all about his kingdom come and his will be done, right? I mean, so it brings great comfort to us to know that even though the world's busted and broken, God's going to redeem the world. God's going to put that things back together. His kingdom is truly going to come and that gives us hope. He comforts the afflicted. But can I tell you something? Another reason why God sends the Holy Spirit is not just to comfort the afflicted, but it's also to afflict the comfortable. That's what God did to Nehemiah. He afflicted this comfortable Jewish man in a high paid high level position. He was comfortable in his life. We know that because he didn't go back to Jerusalem. He's still living in Babylon. Why? Because this is comfortable. We know he's well paid. It's comfortable. He's got his relationships, his family, his friends. He's comfortable. But on this particular day, the Lord shows up and does something different in his life. He afflicts this comfortable man with something I call holy discontentment that changes him and changes not only the course of his life, but it changes the course of history. Nehemiah becomes a history maker because he becomes one who God in his mercy gives the gift of holy discontentment. Sometimes the most merciful thing that God can do for us is not to make us more comfortable. It's not to dull our senses to the problems that are around us, but it's actually to increase the irritation in our spirit at the problems that we see around us and it leaves us so frustrated with fire on the inside of us that something's got to get done. Sometimes the most merciful thing that God can do is make you miserable. He was like, well, that's just not nice. Nowhere in a Bible are you gonna say God's nice. God's love, God's kind, but it's not about nice. God afflicts the comfortable with holy discontentment. I have a definition of holy discontentment for you. It's this, it's an unquenchable fire of frustration that is kindled because we see the disparity between what God has promised and desires and the brokenness and injustice as it is. See, sometimes we see problems around us and it frustrates us. Has anybody ever been frustrated by a problem that you see either in your city, your neighborhood, your workplace, or maybe just in general, in culture? Raise your hand if you've ever just seen something. It's like, that bothers me, raise your hand. Can I just tell you something? The fact that that bothers you is like a spiritual breadcrumb that God has dropped to lead you into the potential of maybe that's why you were created to solve that problem. The problems that bother you the most are definitely indicators that connect you to the heart of God for why he has placed you, where he has placed you, when he has placed you, as the person that he has made you to be, where he has put you. That's what Nehemiah experienced. Here, I'm just a, you know, I'm just a cut bear and he doesn't realize God had backed up generations to get him in this time, in this place. At this moment, so that he could become the solution, he would, in his holy discontentment, go on a journey to Jerusalem. And listen to what he does. He goes to Jerusalem with everything that the King has given to him. Without anybody knowing what he's doing, he begins to scout it out. He sees what's going on. He develops a strategy. He gathers everybody together and he does the impossible. They rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in 52 days. Over 100 years, they've been broken down, but in 52 days, they've been rebuilt. And it has everything to do with what Nehemiah did with this holy discontentment. This morning, I want you to see the four things that Nehemiah did out of this holy discontentment because these are four things that God wants you to do. He wants me to do. Because make no mistake about it, just as much as Nehemiah is a rebuilder, you are called to be a Nehemiah in the time and place that God has positioned you because there's a rebuilding anointing upon your life. The Holy Spirit is a rebuilder, a rebuilder of lives, a rebuilder of generation, a rebuilder of dreams, a rebuilder of broken down cities, communities, and all those kinds of things. And if the Holy Spirit is a rebuilder and he lives on the inside of you, that means you are also a rebuilder, whether you know it or not. You might've just come to church this morning and thought, well, I'm just a cup bearer or I'm just a machinist or I'm just a lawyer, I'm just a mom, I'm just a teacher, I'm just a college student, I'm just a barista at Starbucks. No! You are a tool in the hands of God to rebuild the impossible broken places and to bring hope to the hopeless places in the name of Jesus. That's who you are. You are called to be a history maker. So what did Nehemiah do with this Holy Discontentment? Well, look with me at verse four. Here's how he responded. It says, as soon as I heard these words, I sat down, wept, and I mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the Lord God of Heaven. Look at the first three words. As soon as, well, let's first four words, as soon as I heard. The first thing that Nehemiah did was he heard. He heard. You know, there's a difference between hearing and hearing. We hear all kinds of things. In fact, I think we as a generation, because we are the first generation that has been brought up completely connected to the internet and therefore, we've got smartphones and we have more stimulant and more voices coming at us than any other generation all the time, 24-7. Because of that, I think we're also a generation of people that have learned almost just by default how to block things out. Because listen, you can hear sound, but that's different than hearing a message. Sometimes people come to church and listen, you guys all see me from your perspective. I see you from my perspective. I'm up here on stage and I'm looking out and here's what I can see sometimes. I see people sitting on the edge of the seat going, yeah, and that fires me up. I see people taking notes. I'm like, yeah, and then I see people doing nothing. You don't think I see you, but I see you. And I also see people going, hmm, hmm, hmm, and I know they're not scrolling through my you version notes. They're hearing, but they're not hearing. There's a difference. You see, we have 24-hour television. We have 900 channels on television. We've got the world on our smartphones. Every room that we walk into, there's somebody trying to sell us something. Have you ever wondered this, think about this. I grew up when you answered the phone. What does everybody say? When you pick up the phone, you say, except we ask it as a question. We go, hello? Have you ever wondered why we do that? The reason why we do that is because I grew up in a day when you didn't know who was on the phone. You're picking it up going, hello? We know now. We see their name, Jane Ice Cummings, in case of emergency, Cummings. Her phone, her number pops up. I know it's Jane. I still say, hello? It used to be a surprise. It's not a surprise anymore. So everything that we do, we've got television. I grew up at a time when they played the national anthem, showed Iwo Jima and the flag, and then it went to snow at like 1.30 in the morning. You didn't have television until 7 a.m. Now it's all the time. And our smartphones, our iPads, our computers, we listen to music. You go through the airport like I did the other day. People got their earbuds in. They're not communicating with one another. We've learned to block the world out because if we listened, if we heard, or listened to everything that's trying to speak to us, we would literally have no time for the things that are important. And we've come to realize that we're responsible for whatever we hear. And so therefore we've just chosen to block certain things out so we're not responsible for them. But if you'll ever give a moment of your life where you really open up your heart and you zoom in to listen to something, that's when you get, you not only take responsibility for what you listen to, you also get the received blessing of what you're listening to. And sometimes I fear that we miss out on opportunities and things that God is trying to say to us because we've learned to put mute on everything. You wanna know what Nehemiah did, the reason why he received the gift of holy discontentment is because as his brother was giving the report to the king, he listened in and he heard. He heard six times in the gospels. Jesus said this, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. He who has eyes to see and ears to hear, let him hear, six times Jesus says that in the gospel. And what he's saying is obviously we all have ears, obviously we all have eyes, but Proverbs, I think it's Proverbs 20 says the hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made them both. There is a way that we can hear with intentionality and there's also a way that you and I, as those who have the rebuilding spirit, the holy spirit on the inside of us, where we can hear what God is saying to us in every situation that doesn't necessarily even seem like a spiritual encounter. Can I just tell you some of the most spiritual encounters that I've ever had were just very practical moments where I've just been in a moment and I realized because I was asking the right question, it's like, oh, this is God speaking to me. But a lot of times we miss that and you know why we miss it? Cause we're not hearing. We're just going through life. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, what's that? And we've become so defensive about hearing, listen. We've just, we've become so defensive about it. We spend so much time listening to the world and trying to find out which opinion of the world, whose view on the media we agree with that we actually fail to ask the most important question and here's the most important question. In every situation, it's God, what are you saying? What are you trying to say to me in this moment? If all you do is listen to the world then all you draw from is the well of the world. But when's the last time we just stopped and said, hey, Jesus wants me to have ears and eyes to see what he's saying and what he's doing in this moment. So every single day of our life, the most important question that you can ask is, God, what are you saying to me today? Okay, I see these frustrations and these battles that I'm facing. God, what are you saying to me? There have been times, I can be thick-headed. Anybody else like that? I mean, there's been times where it's like, I'll meet this person and they bring something up and I'll say, wow, that's really interesting. I just read something about that the other day randomly and then a couple of days later, somebody else brings it back up and then I have a dream about something. You know, it takes me months and months and months and then sometimes I'll just be like, I think God's trying to say something to me. And God's like, oh yeah, it's been months. I mean, how many times, how many fleeces do you need to put out? I'm talking to you. Would you just ask me the question, God, what are you trying to say? Because I'm listening. That's what Samuel or Eli told Samuel to do. When you hear the voice of the Lord, you just say the Lord, your servant is listening. Greatest gift that we can give God is to say to him, I'm your servant and I'm listening. If you'll speak to me, I want to hear. It's the first thing Nehemiah did. Number two, what did he do was he wept. He says, I wept before God because hearing will always lead you to feeling. He wept. What does it mean that he wept? It means that he allowed his heart to be moved by it. He allowed his emotions and his spirit to think through what he was hearing. He's seeing a picture of Jerusalem destroyed. He's thinking about the injustice, that this is not how it's supposed to be. And it moves him. And literally what it means to weep, I think in our context is this, is he just did not hear information, but he took it personally. And guys, I'll tell you, the way that we change the world, the way that we change our life, the way that we help others is when we choose to take things personally. Which means we let down our guard. It's not like, well, that's somebody else's problem. I heard somebody say that the other day on the news, they were talking about people that were struggling financially in certain portions of our socioeconomic structures of life. And they just said, well, that's not my problem, that's their problem. I was like, whoa, that's really calloused. You may not know the answer, but you can at least say, I feel bad about that. We can be moved by that. We have to take it personally. Listen, I want you to know something. I take it personally. When I see the spiritual climate and condition of our city and our nation, I don't wanna hand off to my kids and my grandkids the problems that we're unwilling to face and address today. Some day, and by the way, our daughter Ashley is officially with child. And so Jane and I in this next year are about to become grandparents. Can't wait. Papa and Mimi. But it's got me thinking it's like, I don't wanna hand off brokenness to my grandkids. I don't wanna hand off a generation that's like, if my attitude was, I've only got to endure this for about 35 more years, 40 more years at the most, maybe I'll live to be 100 or whatever. And then I'm out of here, baby, I'm going to heaven. It's like, yeah, but I wanna leave a legacy. I wanna leave the world different. I gotta take that personally. And that's what Nehemiah did. He wept. He took it personally. You know, that's what Jesus did. Jesus didn't have to leave heaven. Do you know that if God would have just said, well, I told them not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They rebelled against me. I told them that if they did it, that they would die. They rebelled against me. So you know what, just leave the world the way it is. Let it work itself out and just destroy itself because I'm God, I'm holy. I was right. I'm just, I'm fair. I gave them fair terms and they didn't do it my way. And you know what, now they've got what they've got and I've got the angels and I've got heaven and I'm forever God. And that's just the way that it is. That would have been fair on God's part, but God didn't do that. God said, yes, they rebelled. Yes, they sinned against me. Yes, they mocked me. They ridicule me. They refuse to acknowledge me and their spiritual blindness, their spiritual prisoners and I just can't stand back and look at my good creation and the people I want to be sons and daughters of mine live in brokenness regardless of whether it was their own fault or not. God said, I'm going to send my son who takes off the garments of deity and steps into history, lets the very hands of the ones who are guilty nail him to a cross and instead of condemning them and cursing them he forgives them. And you know what it leads to? Resurrection. He begins to rebuild the human race. The reason why you and I are here today singing high praises to this God is not because of justice. It's not just because of his holiness or his knowledge or his infiniteness. It's because of his mercy. It's because he allowed himself to weep on our behalf and that's what Nehemiah did. He took it personally. What would happen in our city if every Christian looked out at the problems in our city? The 185,000 people in our county are the one and a half million people in West Michigan. Hundreds of thousands of people who are separated from God sometimes by ignorance and sometimes by rebellion and to realize that Jesus loves them and wants to save them. What would happen if we took that personally? And we said, I'm not gonna live my life going well. Hopefully they get it right. I'm gonna take it personally. I'm gonna be part of the solution. I'm gonna do whatever it takes. Like when Jesus saw the crowds in Matthew chapter nine he said he was moved with compassion because he saw that they were like sheep without a shepherd. Or like the time in Mark where Jesus is trying to take his disciples on a prayer retreat. And by the time they show up to the desolate, desolated place, the crowds that already gathered there again his disciples are frustrated. It's like, oh, we can't even get a retreat with Jesus. And Jesus says, well, they're here. Give them some food. And the disciples said, no, send them into the cities to go to Taco Bell and Jimmy John's or whatever so we can have some time with you. And Jesus, here, listen, Jesus says, no, you give them something to eat. You feed them. Well, Jesus, if we were to feed them it would take hundreds of thousands of dollars where we're gonna get that kind of food. Jesus says, what do you have? I got a couple of loaves and a couple of fish. I mean, come on. This isn't even gonna feed us. We're growing boys. And that's when the miracle of multiplication happens. Miracles happen on the other side of God's mercy, meeting our compassion. What would have happened if Jesus didn't take it personally? You wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be here. Those multitudes would not have been fed. The world would have been left in rubble and destruction just like Jerusalem was. What would have happened if Nehemiah had not gone there to rebuild the walls, to do what everybody else had failed to do said was impossible, that was outside of his comfort zone. What would have happened? It would have still been destroyed. But a miracle of rebuilding happened because of the fourth thing that Nehemiah did. Nehemiah went. He went. He got up and he went. He heard. He wept. He prayed. And he went. And on the other side of those four things, stirred by his holy discontentment, a miracle took place. And here's what I believe with all of my heart. I believe that if we will put our ear to the heart of the Father, if we will take it personally and weep between porch and altar over the things that God is weeping over, if we will see our culture, see our world, not through the lens of the world, but through the lens of the kingdom of God, through the lens of who Jesus is, through the lens of Scripture and eternity, then what will happen is our prayers will become a whole lot more passionate. The greatest weapon the Christian has in his arsenal is the weapon of prayer. The fervent effectual prayer of a righteous person avails much. When's the last time we prayed like it really matters? I believe if we'll see through the lens of Jesus, we'll feel it, we'll take it personally, we'll pray like it matters, and we'll be people that go. We'll see ourselves as the Nehemiahs of our workplace, the Nehemiahs of our neighborhood, the Nehemiahs of the youth culture, the Nehemiahs in the church culture. Come on, somebody, we need some Nehemiahs in the church. Nehemiahs in our city, in the business sector, in the education sector, in the arts sector. We'll begin to see ourselves not as prophets of doom, but prophets with a broom here, ready to sweep up the mess and to rebuild the walls, the walls of the city of God, the walls of the house of God, the walls of the presence of God, the walls of the word of God, the walls of the people of God, and we'll begin to elevate the name of Jesus above all other names. Come on, would you stand up with me all over this room today? I believe that the Holy Spirit that inspired Nehemiah is the same Holy Spirit that's here today to inspire you, to inspire me. When we talk about building a radiant city, well, we're not looking at what we see with the natural eye today. What we believe with all of our heart is that God has marked this city, this time. God has marked West Michigan, I believe, with all of my heart to be a shining city in expression to the rest of American culture that Jesus isn't done with America yet, that Jesus isn't intimidated by a generation that looks at the church and says, I'm not sure I believe in that. Jesus isn't in heaven going, oh, I gotta be cooler, I gotta be hipter, I gotta be sharper. No, we just need to let Jesus be introduced to a generation of people that are living in rubble and think that that's all that there is. And we need to be people who say, God, I'm gonna feel it, I'm gonna pray it, and I'm going to go. And whatever place that you've positioned me, come on, just all over this place, if you would just lift up holy hands as I pray. Lord, today, meet us, inspire us, motivate us, send us. We wanna be Nehemiahs that are on the wall, building and rebuilding the city of God. Anoint us with the Holy Spirit, the comfort, and anoint us with the affliction of our comfort zone, stirring us to be a part of the solution. Lord, I pray that you would open doors, open our eyes to see what you're doing and saying in our lives and through our lives, in the matchless, mighty name of Jesus. Amen, and amen. We're gonna invite our prayer team if you guys would go into place. I went a little long, sorry, but that's what you get when I take two weeks off. And listen, we wanna invite everybody to enjoy yourself out at the Summer Fest. If you need prayer this morning, please come forward. Our prayer team would love to pray with you. Have a fantastic afternoon, radiant. God bless you.