Strong Convictions to Help our Neighborhoods and Cities

I've got joy in the morning, joy in the evening, you keep me dancing in every season, whatever comes tomorrow. I've got joy. And why would I not sing of your praises even when troubles come? And why would I not worship forever, cause I've seen the good you've done? And I'm not ashamed, I'm a sinner saved, no, I'm not afraid anymore. What the world calls foolish, you call freedom, now I won't hold back anymore. We say, I've got joy in the morning, joy in the evening, you keep me dancing in every season, whatever comes tomorrow. I've got joy. I'm letting go, I'm wild in your presence, dance till the sun comes up. You make me strong, whenever I praise you, Jesus, you fill my cup. And I'm not ashamed, I'm a sinner saved, no, I'm not afraid anymore. What the world calls foolish, you call freedom, now I won't hold back anymore. Oh, I've got joy in the morning, joy in the evening, you keep me dancing in every season, whatever comes tomorrow. I've got joy. And I've got joy in the sunshine, joy in the rain, you keep me dancing again and again, whatever comes tomorrow. I've got joy. Oh, I've got joy. Oh, there's joy in your house, joy in your presence, God. Sing this together. I've got joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, I've got joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, I've got joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, hallelujah. I've got joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, I've got joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, I've got joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, hallelujah. Come on, sing that again. Joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, I've got joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, I've got joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, hallelujah.

Oh, I've got joy in the morning, joy in the evening. You keep me dancing in every season. Whatever comes tomorrow, oh, I've got joy. And I've got joy in the sunshine, joy in the rain. You keep me dancing again and again. Whatever comes tomorrow, I've got joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, I've got joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, I've got joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, hallelujah. Oh, we sing, I've got joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, I've got joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, I've got joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, hallelujah. Amen. Why don't you take a moment to greet your neighbor, and we'll be right back. All right, as we just Amen. It's just such a joy to worship together, to gather together. It's good to see everybody. And if you're joining us online, welcome from where you're at, where you're listening from home or a prison cell. The Lord is here and is ready to meet you wherever you are. So we're going to continue to sing and worship, but I'm going to pray for us first, just to get us in a posture before we continue. Lord, thank you so much for everything that you're doing, God, in this church, Lord, in this body, God, and through every ministry, Lord. God, I feel like there's a brightness today. There's just such a brightness to gathering together. And as different kids and students are moving on to the next step in their life and the joy that that is of just new beginnings, God, Lord, we just come to you today just ready to hear from you, God. I pray that as we worship, as we sing, Lord, that you would just open the eyes of our heart, Lord, that you would just show us your glory, Lord, and that you would also just show us how to be more like you. So we pray all of this in Jesus' name, we look to you, amen. Let's sing. It was mercy in your eyes To fulfill the law and prophets To a virgin came the word From a throne of endless glory To a cradle in the dirt

Praise the Father Praise the Son Praise the Spirit Three in one God of glory Majesty Praise forever to the King of kings Praise To reveal the kingdom coming And to reconcile the lost To redeem the whole creation You did not despise the cross For even in your suffering You saw to the other side Knowing this was our salvation Jesus, for our sake, you died Praise the Father Praise the Son Praise the Spirit Three in one God of glory Majesty Praise forever to the King of kings In the morning that you rose All of heaven held its breath Till the stone was moved for good For the Lamb that conquered death And the dead rose from their tombs And the angels stood in awe For the souls of all who'd come

To the Father are restored And the church of Christ was born Then the sphere lit the flame Now this gospel through the fold Shall not kneel, shall not fade By His blood and in His name In His freedom I am free For the love of Jesus Christ Who has resurrected me Praise the Father Praise the Son ♪ Praise the Spirit, three in one ♪ ♪ God of glory, majesty ♪ ♪ Praise forever to the King of kings ♪ ♪ Praise forever to the King of kings ♪ ♪ Amen, amen, amen ♪ ♪ All we praise this morning, God, are saints ♪ ♪ Hear the voices of people singing ♪ ♪ Worthy of every song we could ever sing ♪ ♪ Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring ♪ ♪ Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe ♪ ♪ We live for you, mm-hmm ♪ ♪ Jesus, the name above every other name ♪ ♪ Jesus, the only one who could ever save ♪ ♪ Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe ♪ ♪ We live for you, mm-hmm ♪ Sing holy. ♪ Holy, there is no one like you, there is none beside you ♪ ♪ Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who you are ♪ ♪ And fill me with your heart and lead me in love to those around me ♪

♪ And fill me with your heart and lead me in love to those around me ♪ Sing worthy of every song. ♪ Worthy of every song we could ever sing ♪ ♪ Worthy of all praise we could ever bring ♪ ♪ Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe ♪ ♪ We live for you, yes we do, yes we do, Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus, the name above every other name ♪ ♪ Jesus, the only one who could ever save ♪ ♪ Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe, we live for you ♪ Oh, we live for you, God. Sing holy. ♪ Holy, there is no one like you, there is none beside you ♪ ♪ Holy, there is no one like you, there is none beside you ♪ ♪ Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who you are ♪ ♪ And fill me with your heart and lead me in love to those around me ♪ ♪ And fill me with your heart and lead me in love to those around me ♪ ♪ Lead us in your love, Lord, open our eyes to see you, Jesus ♪ ♪ Open our eyes to see you moving, God, all around us, Lord ♪ ♪ Within us, God, yes you are, God ♪ Let's sing this together, I will build my life. ♪ And I will build my life upon your love ♪ ♪ It is a firm foundation and I will put my trust in you alone ♪ ♪ And I will build my life upon your love ♪ ♪ And I will build my life upon your love ♪ ♪ It is a firm foundation and I will put my trust in you alone ♪ ♪ You alone and I will not be shaken ♪ ♪ Only, there is no one like You, there is none ♪ ♪ Open up our eyes God, oh and show me who You are ♪ ♪ And fill me with Your heart and lead me in Your love ♪ ♪ To Yours alone, I will build my life and I will build my life upon Your love ♪

♪ It is a grand foundation and I will put my trust in You alone ♪ ♪ I will put my trust in You alone and I will not be shaken ♪ ♪ Oh I won't be shaken, here in Your love God ♪ ♪ We won't be shaken, we won't be shaken ♪ Sing holy one more time. ♪ And holy, there is no one like You, there is none beside You ♪ ♪ Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who You are ♪ ♪ And fill me with Your heart and lead me in Your love ♪ ♪ To those around me ♪ Amen. As we just sang, we just want the Lord to lead us in His love to those around us. We've been in a series called Scent. If you've been here and have been attending with us, we started off talking about just being global with our heart and our mission, being sent to other countries, other places that we haven't been to reach with the love of Christ. And we had so many great mission trips up to this point that have been amazing. And then after that, we focused in on church planting and talked about that and what that meant and brought in some people that we helped plant churches, which was awesome. And then we spent some time in Jonah, which was just really challenging and really called us to look inward into the attitude of our heart and to see the people that maybe we don't wanna think

about reaching with the gospel or maybe people that we have heart and hearts towards. And that was awesome. And so this week and today, we're gonna be kind of touching into what is the need around us right now, whether that's at work or just your day-to-day or places you eat. And I just want the Lord to just open the eyes of our heart as we just sang to the need that's around us and us to have the faith and the boldness to step into that. So we're gonna sing this next song. It's called Available. We sang it a few weeks back. And so I'm bringing it back. This is the second time. And so as we sing it, I just want you guys to reflect on what it means to be available for God and what He has for you in your space of influence, in your space of just how you live. So let's sing this together and take a moment to pause and reflect on being available. ♪♪♪ ♪ Narrow as the road may seem ♪ ♪ I'll follow where your spirit leads ♪

♪ Broken as my life may be ♪ ♪ I will give you every piece ♪ ♪ I hear you call ♪ ♪ I am available ♪ ♪ I say yes Lord ♪ I am available Here I am with open hands Counting on your grace again Oh, bless of me and more of you I just wanna see you move I hear you call I am available I say, yes Lord I am available I hear you call I am available I say, yes Lord I am available Oh, yes Lord, yes Lord This is my offering, Lord Here I am You can have it all Here I am You can have it all Here I am You can have it all Here I am You can have it all Here I am You can have it all

Here I am You can have it all You can have it all You can have it, have it all This is my offering This is my offering For the one who gave me life Nothing is a sacrifice Use me how you want to, God Have your throne within my heart Have your way, Lord I hear you call I am available I serve this Lord I am available I'm always for you I'm always for you Here I am Lord Here I am Lord Open the eyes of my heart Open the eyes of my heart ♪ I want to see you ♪ ♪ I want to see you ♪ Sing that again. Open the eyes. ♪ And open the eyes of my heart, Lord ♪ ♪ Open the eyes of my heart ♪ ♪ I want to see you ♪ ♪ I want to see you ♪ Let that be the foster of our hearts this morning.

Sing that again, open the eyes. ♪ Open the eyes of my heart, Lord ♪ ♪ And open the eyes of my heart ♪ ♪ I want to see you, yes you do, yes you do ♪ ♪ I want to see you, to see you, Lord ♪ ♪ To see you high and lifted up ♪ ♪ Oh, and shine in the light of your glory ♪ ♪ And pour out your power and love as we sing ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy to see you high and lifted up ♪ ♪ Oh, shining in the light of your glory ♪ ♪ And pour out your power and love as we sing ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy to see you high and lifted up ♪ Sing holy. ♪ And holy, holy, holy to see you high and lifted up ♪ Sing holy. ♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy, I want to see you ♪ Sing holy, holy, holy. ♪ And holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ I want to see you ♪ Yes, God, that is our posture this morning, Lord. To see you, to hear from you. We open ourselves, God. Would you, by your Spirit, draw us to repentance, Lord? Would you draw us to service? God, I just pray that your word that is preached this morning would be like a two-edged sword, Lord, that it would sharpen us, that it would challenge us, God.

That it would also comfort us and give us peace. Jesus, this is all for you. So as we look to you, Lord, I just pray that you would meet us with your love, mercy, and grace. In all this we pray, Jesus, amen. You may be seated. This is Soccer Sundays here at 121. What started several years ago as some young adults just wanting to play soccer for fun has grown into this. We started playing in Southlake and then the Lord kind of closed some doors and provided us an opportunity to come over to the Grapevine Community Outreach Center where we started playing with some neighborhood kids and through that started building relationships and have been consistently coming out and just been a part of the community which has been really special. Through 121 opening the courts over here, we've been able to bring this a little closer to the church, provide a safer place and a more fun environment for the kids to come out and just have a good time and it's been really sweet just to be a part of their lives and to see what God's doing here. So grateful for the ways

that God has been working among us in the last several months and wanna continue that. If you'll turn your Bibles to Nehemiah, if you are not sure where that is, in my Bible it's about right here. So go about a quarter of the way and you'll start running into it. If you need Table of Contents, feel free to use that. Somebody sent me this meme, I thought it was appropriate as we transition. This is from Babylon Bee. Man becomes missionary to remote African village so he doesn't have to share gospel with co-worker Brad. Well, why is it, do you think, that so often people will go on mission trips to other countries or other places and they'll boldly share the gospel, they'll go door to door, they'll mix it up with people and talking about Christ and yet it's so much more difficult when we come back home to think about our neighbors or think about who we work with or who our kids play with and their parents. What is that? What is it that makes that difficult? The Babylon Bee is, they're funny and they have a way of just kinda cutting to probably the truths of where we are.

But as we've mentioned so far this morning, we've talked about global efforts, we've talked about church planting, we worked through Jonah as a transition moment to really get a look at our own hearts and say, are we more like Jonah or not? Meaning, are we running from what God would have for us? Are we running towards what God would have for us when we think about being sent? In Nehemiah, before we begin, I'd like to give you just a quick timeline of what's going on in this period. And I don't know if you like these timelines or if this is helpful for those who like it. This is great. If you don't, you can check out for a second, whatever is good for you. But 587, 586 BC, and I didn't put it because I don't know if we do BC anymore or BCE or what our initials are, but that's before Christ. So somewhere before then, 587, 586, the Babylonians take, they become the ruling power and they place the Jews from the southern half of Israel into captivity. They take the majority away. They exile them. Babylon, just for perspective, is central Iraq today. That would be where Babylon was located. In 539, the Persians oust the Babylonians. The Persians are modern-day Iranians

and they become the world power. The Babylonians are out. King Cyrus in 538 then issues a decree for the Jewish exiles to return home. And Zerubbabel is the name of the guy that leads the first wave. There were multiple waves back to Israel and Zerubbabel leads that initial charge. And then we find ourselves at 516. The temple had been destroyed that Solomon built and now the temple is rebuilt. So the center of worship is rebuilt and established in Jerusalem. In 458, Ezra is on the scene in this timeframe and Ezra brings the people back to worship and to the reading of the law and the obeying of God's words. You can see a progression happening of God being restored to his rightful spot with his people. 445 BC then, Nehemiah arrives to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem. That will make sense as we work our way through Nehemiah. So that at least gives you a quick timeline of where we find ourselves. And what I'd like us to do is to lean into Nehemiah to tether ourselves to this part of God's word, to give us ideas and principles for how we're to relate to our own neighborhoods and cities. And the question I'd like to ask as we think about this is do you have any strong convictions

about how to help your neighborhood and your city? Do you have strong convictions about your neighborhood or your city? What are those convictions? And are your desires or convictions strong enough that they actually move you to pray and then to action? That's what I want us to think about in this initial chapter of Nehemiah. If we're going to have convictions about what's going on in our neighborhoods and cities. By the way, the beauty of where we are now, I don't know what you think about global efforts or what you think about church planting, but everybody in the room and everybody online lives in a neighborhood. And everybody here lives in a city. Kevin Brooks challenged us to think about the question, where are you sent? As the question just kind of rolls through our culture for a while. And what if rather just from us, but from. everyone in the body and your life groups and other ways you interact. What if you were asking each other the question, where are you sent? We've been talking about this for six months. We've got a few more months to go. Where are you sent? And I don't believe that God has accidentally put us in places.

All of us have been placed in our neighborhoods. You've been given a certain amount of resource that enables you to live in a particular place. And I believe God has you in that neighborhood for his purposes. And then you've been given different responsibilities, different ways that you're vocationally wired, and you've all been given jobs. So when we think about our neighborhoods and our cities, we don't necessarily think just about a traditional neighborhood. I don't know about you, but I had no idea we had children that lived in our neighborhood until COVID. And then all of a sudden, people are pushing strollers and kids are playing out in the street and in their yards. Like, where did y'all come from? You didn't just move here. Because the neighborhood is not the house they live in. Their neighborhood is their cheer gym, their theater, their sports, their academic pursuits, their extracurricular activities. And we find that our neighborhoods aren't always just where we live. That is one part that we think about is our neighborhood. Maybe you have one where everybody's running around. It's fantastic. But you know what? As soon as COVID ended, it's like the kids moved away. So where is your neighborhood? Your neighborhood also can be your work.

It can be coworker Brad. And God has given you a neighborhood that is where you work, where you play, and where you live. Do you personally have any strong convictions about the needs to be a help in your neighborhood and your city? That's the question we ask. And I just wanna pause for one minute and say that we have the DBU women's soccer team with us today, dead center, I believe. Right there. Thank y'all for coming. Love it. So where would their neighborhood be? Just for fun. DBU is their neighborhood. And the soccer team in that world is their neighborhood. What is your neighborhood? And what city does God have you in currently? Well, for us to have that conviction, we need to be aware. So the first idea I want us to think about is verses one through three. That's to be aware of what is happening in our neighborhoods and cities. That seems like that would be a logical conclusion that we would need to be aware. But I'm afraid oftentimes we don't know what the needs are in our neighborhoods. We don't know what the needs are in our cities. And so we need to be aware.

Let's look at what happened with Nehemiah. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakaliah, is how verse one starts. Now the name Nehemiah means Yahweh has comforted. Yahweh is the name that God gave Moses when Moses said to him, who are you? You're wanting me to go back to the people. Who do I tell them that you are? And he said, you tell them that I am who I am. I'm the self-existent one, and that's Yahweh. Yahweh has comforted. Nehemiah will be one who brings comfort to the people of Israel. Now when I run across names in the Bible that I think would be cool names for your babies, I'll suggest it. I think Nehemiah's a good one. Hakaliah, you're kinda on your own on that one. So if you like it, go for it. You'll be the only one with a kid named Hakaliah probably running around the schools. So the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakaliah. Now it happened in the month Chislev. That is November, December in our time frame in the 20th year. Artaxerxes is the king. That's why we know that this is 445 BC because Artaxerxes is king in the 20th year. While I was in Susa, the capital. Susa is in the southwestern part

of what is modern day Iran. That should give context. Why in the scripture do we get this kind of detail that candidly most of us probably just read right past? The Bible is not a myth. It's not a legend. It's not a fairy tale. It is rooted in history. And all through the scripture, we have the detail of what is going on historically. God is a God of history and he works in and through history. Verse two. Hanani, one of my brothers and some men from Judah came and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and had survived the captivity and about Jerusalem. So Hanani is either a brother by ethnicity. origin, or he's a brother, a biological brother of Nehemiah, and then some other men from Judah come. So this group of guys come, and Nehemiah asked them a question. He's wondering about the remnant and those who had survived the captivity. Most of the Jews were exiled from Jerusalem, some stayed, now some have gone back, and he's curious about those who are his country, men and women, how are they doing? How are the ones who survived it? Now if we're going to be aware of what's going on in our neighborhoods, in our cities, Nehemiah gives us a great example. He asks questions of people who had been there. He wasn't making assumptions about Jerusalem, he was asking people who had been at Jerusalem what was going on with the people of God, and they answered him. Are you a good asker of questions? Do you know the needs in your neighborhood? Do you know the needs in your city? Have you asked your neighbor what they need? I would say today that if you would like to know what's going on

in your cities, you could go to someone on your school board, and you could request time to meet with them to just understand what is going on with our schools. I know what I read, I know how everybody slings mud at each other, I know all that. You tell me. You could ask two people who are opposing views on the school board to meet with you separately, get both views, and come to your own conclusions. Ask questions. You could ask teachers, principals, you can ask. If you want to know what's going on in your city in the same way that the school board represents you, the city council represents you. Invite a city council member to talk with you. Say, I want to understand our city. What are the deepest needs in our city? What are ways I can pray for our city? What are ways that I can be about meeting needs of the city? Now what this requires of us is to get outside of ourselves and to be interested in more than ourselves and our own little interests. Philippians 2, 3, and 4 is the way Paul describes it. But he said that nothing is to be done from selfishness or empty conceit, but we're to have a humility of mind and we're to think more of the other person. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. So as a follower of Jesus, if you know Jesus, well we want to have that Philippians 2 mentality and the same mentality of Nehemiah. That our interests are outside of ourselves and we're willing to ask questions to understand what the needs are in our neighborhoods and our cities. Verse 3, they said to me, the remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach. That word reproach means shame. And the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire. So the remnant, the ones who survived, this is what they're saying. They're in great distress and shame. Now I know when we talk about a wall there are all kinds of thoughts. I'd like us just to have the the respect for Scripture just to stick to this one. And we're talking about the problem of a wall in Jerusalem. And the reason it was a problem, this was the way a city would have protection against its enemies. Jerusalem knew what it was like to fall. And they were now in great distress because they did not have the physical protection of a wall around the city.

They were defenseless against enemies coming against them. It had never been successfully rebuilt. They had the temple, the wall, everything was being restored, but the wall had not been restored. I mentioned our neighborhood is where you live. It's also where you play. It's where you work. That would be your neighborhood. All of us are in some kind of neighborhood like that. If you're a part of 121, God has placed this building where we gather as the church. In a neighborhood, in a city. And we ask God to place us somewhere when it was time to build a more permanent building where we could use our building for the neighborhood where we are. So as 121, we also have a neighborhood. The neighborhood around this building. And God has entrusted us with this neighborhood as well. So we have multiple neighborhoods we're working with and multiple cities we're working with as a church. God cares about your neighborhood and God cares about the neighborhood around our church. And again, I'll reiterate. I believe God gives everybody different resources to be able to live in particular places so that you might have the opportunity to impact that neighborhood. And then he has you a part of additional neighborhoods. What helps you be aware of the needs in the neighborhoods that God has given you? In the city where he's placed you? One place, I don't even know how I landed it, but somehow I'm on this email of like trends in my neighborhood or something.

I don't know what those things are. Some of you probably really love that. I don't love it, but it does help me figure out the needs in our neighborhood, so it's fine. It just seems like there's a lot, so you have to sort through it. So if you like that kind of thing, that's fantastic. But that's a way to find out about your neighborhood. What about the neighborhood around the church? One of the things that we wanted to do in this series is to make sure you knew who our mission staff is so that you'll know who to lean into when you're wanting help or ideas. So Jehuda Erebar is the person on our mission staff that is responsible for the neighborhood around this building. Amy Hadley is responsible for the neighborhood and Kenny Hadley is responsible for all the local partnerships that we have outside of the neighborhood and in the different cities in which we live. We're very on purpose in the way we've hired staff. They're amazing at what they do. I asked both of them to share with me at least some things that could help us know how to be aware of the neighborhood around our church. And this is what Jehuda said. That there is fear from people who have just moved here from a new country. There's fear of the police

and not knowing how that functions in our area. There's fear of being in a neighborhood where there's crime and it can be unsafe for children. There's fear just of the unknown. There's fear of not having enough to eat. There is shame that can go with not having the same clothes as everybody else in the community. There can be shame because they need sometimes help for rent or for clothing. It might have been easier for them in their own country and it's more difficult here. There is a fear of leaving their houses at times or even talking to others, just not knowing what will happen. And that actually hinders from being able to come to church. Were you aware that when you step out of the door today to leave, that you'll be within 45 seconds to a minute of the people I just described? Amy Hadley, when I asked her, we have a number of local partners in ways we minister in the cities, but the one that came to mind first for her was Mid-Cities Women's Clinic. There's a site in Euless and one in Hazlett. They do amazing work. They're helping abortion-determined women, and if the guy comes with them, to consider giving life to the child.

And they do this whole array of ministries to the mom and to the dad. It's not just we're trying to get you to have the baby and we leave you alone. It's this comprehensive way of loving the young woman and the young man and the baby. Recently, there were three baby showers held, and somewhere between 90 and 100 people, including several 121-ers, were a part of those baby showers. Those are ways we can be involved. Men could get in on this, because they need men who'd be willing. to mentor those young dads that come and choose to have the babies, or even if they don't choose, if they would be interested in having someone mentor them. We desperately need men that will get in the game with other men. Same with women. That's a huge need in our community, and it's a way that we can be a part. So we ask good questions so that we understand what's going on, and it gives us an awareness in the community. Those are just examples. You can find Jehuda and Amy in the hallway in between services, and my hope is that they come to me this week and say, we were not able to talk to everybody

because we have so many people wanting to talk to us, or it's hard to respond to all the emails because so many people are interested in what's going on. But this is the neighborhood around us, and then things in our city we can be a part of. What did Nehemiah do once he was aware? He asked the question, he was made aware. Now what did he do? I'll tell you what he did not do. He did not hear it and go post it somewhere. He didn't hear it and go make a reel of it, and he didn't go call a friend about it. The first thing he did was pray. That's the first thing he did. He's made aware of what's going on. Now he seeks God in prayer, and I would say for us it's the same. Once we're aware, we seek God in prayer on what to do in our neighborhoods and cities. We've had prayer permeate this whole series. We went through John 17 and spent three weeks on it. It's a prayer that Jesus prayed towards the end of his life, and it's a great model prayer for us as we think about being sent. We prayed through 1 Thessalonians in chapter one that he's talking about praying for them. Later in chapter five, verse 17, he said he prayed without ceasing. Then in Jonah in chapter two,

he prayed a psalm of gratitude to God when he was in his most dire spot. So we see prayer woven through everything that is going on. So seek God in prayer. How do we pray? In humility, through tears, mourning, and fasting. We'll tie ourselves to a framework that we see Nehemiah pray. Verse four, when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. He heard in answer to his question, what was the deep need for his people? And now his first response is to weep and mourn and pray and fast for days. And he wasn't fasting to get the toxins out of his body or to lose weight. He was fasting to come before God and deny everything else as he sought God out on what to do about what he just heard that broke his heart. What we see in him is a profound concern and intense emotion or feeling that goes with what he just heard. Is there anything in your neighborhood where you live, where you play, where you work, is there anything in your city that breaks the heart of God that also breaks your heart, that causes you for days, you cannot shake it. And with all that's in you, with all the profound concern that's in you and emotion,

you are coming before God. Now, I tried to think about this and make sure, sometimes we read things and we say, gosh, is that how, am I always supposed to be like that? There may just be one time in life where God does this with you. And then you proceed to act on it the rest of your days. You have a moment, you have a season of time where God is just making this so evident on your heart, you can't shake it. And I understand not everybody is a weeper and a crier. So if you're not, is there anything still that has caused such profound concern within you, you couldn't help but go to God about it and start figuring out how you're to be a part of it. And then I would say, if there's not anything like that, if it's so, if you're not, if there's not anything like that, if it's so, possibly we're so bent on ourselves and getting our stuff taken care of, there's not room for anybody else. Would we be willing to ask God, is there anything that you wanna give me strong conviction about so I can be about what you want? And by the way, we're not asking everybody to do everything that we talk about. We're just throwing out a whole lot of options. And is there something that God has for you

that this is the reason he placed you in this body, placed you in this neighborhood and in this city? Let me continue the way he framed his prayer. Ah, so this is for free. I was thinking, what if we use this same framework when we wanna rant about something online in a post? So just listen for this framework, and then I'll try to remember to come in the back end and say, okay, think about this. If you posted like this, what would happen? It would shake up your online world. I'm confident of that. So as we think about this prayer, it's with praise for who God is. So he's first coming in humility before God, and now he's coming with praise for who God is. Verse five, I said, I beseech you, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant in loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments. What is the first thing that Nehemiah does in his prayer? First, he's broken over what he sees. Now he's coming to God, and he's getting himself oriented right before God. He's locating himself rightly before God and who God is. And so when we think about how do we pray, well, when Jesus taught his disciples, they said, how do we pray? And this is how he started. He said, our Father who is in heaven,

hallowed be your name. Holy is your name. He started with praise. He started, God, you're my Father, and you're a holy Father. You're pure and radiant in who you are. Look what Nehemiah does. Our great and awesome God, that's where he starts. He knows who he's going to. God is a great and awesome God. He's a God of the covenant. He is loyal to his people who he's called to be his own that he treasures. And he has nothing but loving kindness he wants to pour out on them. And Nehemiah is just coming before God and acknowledging these things, and he's saying this love is for those who reciprocate, who love him and keep his commandments. But imagine if in our prayers, and I'm sure tons of you do this, but what if we just lingered in praise of God, just like we did in our worship today? There were some holy moments in this room today in our worship. What if in our prayers, this is how we start. God, you are a great and awesome God. You are wise and you know all things. You're powerful and mighty. Nothing is too difficult for you.

Nothing is impossible with you. God, you are a holy God. You're absolutely pure and perfect and radiant and majestic in who you are. God, you're the same today, yesterday, and forever. You're the self-existent God. You're the one who is the same. You are a God who is perfect and blameless in justice and righteousness. You're the God who is abundant and lovingkindness. You're the God who's limitless in forgiveness. You are massive in the mercy that you give. God, you are a God that's full of grace. You're my anchor today. You're my rock today. You're my firm foundation today. You're my provider. You're my defender. You're my protector. You're the one, God, that encourages. You're the one who is sufficient in my weakness, and your grace is amazing. What are we just hung there? Now, I am so oriented before God. When I come before him, I come knowing, and I've reminded myself, and I've praised him for who he is. That's where Nehemiah starts. Then how do we pray? We move from praise to confession and repentance

in verses six and seven. Let your ear now be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant, which I'm praying before you now. So, God, will you open your eyes to what I'm praying? Day and night, he just kept coming. On behalf of the sons of Israel, he's praying for the people of Israel. God's servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel, which we have sinned against you. I, in my Father's house, have sinned, verse seven. We've acted very corruptly against you, and have not. kept the commandments nor the statues nor the ordinances which you commanded your servant Moses. Look what happens. He moves from praise and when we see the the vastness and the bigness and the glory of who God is and we express that what starts happening is we see how small and fragile and weak and sinful we are. And what I'm grateful for Nehemiah is he owns it and he recognizes that Israel sinned. That's why they're in this mess. He recognizes that his family has sinned and he recognizes that he's sinned. He just gets right in there with the whole mix. He's not passing off blame. He's owning it. Several of you listened to the worship initiative for your some of your part of your time alone with God and on Friday they worked through Psalm 32. Paul Tripp was a guest and Psalm 32 is a psalm of confession and forgiveness. And it starts by saying how blessed are those who are forgiven. See God has given confession and repentance to us as a gift. It's a way to be released off of the weight and burden of sin. This is what Paul Tripp said and this is pretty close a quote. I think I missed a word or two so I want to own that. We dislike admitting that we are wrong. We do everything we can not to confess. We devalue God's grace when we diminish sin. We dislike admitting that we are wrong. Let me just get into your personal

life for a minute if you don't already think I have. How many things this week did you confess to God? You prayed to God and said God I sinned against you and I'm repenting of that in this moment. One thing. Two. Maybe five. Specifically owning this is how I sinned against my wife. This is how I sinned against my child. This is how I sinned against my employer. This is how I sinned in public. Come before God. It's against God that we sin against first and foremost. This is a regular rhythm and routine. And by the way a lady told me in between services she said I have the opposite problem. She said I'm constantly confessing my sin. I think that's a better spot. But once we've confessed it we're relieved. You know what the psalmist said in chapter 32? He said I was wasting away in my silence about my sin. That's what sin does. When we sin against someone or against God, it's ultimately against him, there is a weight that grows increasingly heavier on the inside of us. From the shame, the condemnation, the guilt, and we waste away. You can see it in people's faces. But the psalmist said then I acknowledge my sin to you God. And God forgave. And songs of deliverance surrounded him. That's what God delights to do. He's not trying to catch us. He's trying to relieve us. Psalm 86 5 says for you Lord are good, ready to forgive, an abundant and loving kindness to all who call upon you. That's who our God is. Nehemiah knows that. He knows his own heart is corrupt. He knows the people are corrupt. And he confesses that before God. Verse 8, remember the word which you commanded your servant Moses saying if you're unfaithful I will scatter you among the peoples. Now he's quoting and giving God's Word back to him in his prayer. We so often talk about praying the scripture. That's what is happening here. Nehemiah is praying the scripture. This isn't from Deuteronomy verses 8 and 9. And he says but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them though those of you have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens I will gather them from there will bring them to the place where I've chosen to cause my name to dwell. This is just the beauty of God. He's saying and he told them early on as a people if this is what you do and he knew they were

would choose against him. And he said, hey, if you return, then I'm gonna gather you back up. He's just looking for how to gather us back up. If you repent, confess and repent, return, then he'll forgive and heal. It's a grace gift. That's why Paul Tripp said, we're devaluing the grace of God when we diminish sin. Because we actually see the wonder of God's grace when we admit our sin. And it actually frees us to see clearly. The next piece of this prayer is to remember that we are redeemed, verse 10. They are your servants and your people whom you redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. Look at the flow of this prayer. It's praise to who God is. It's confession and repentance. And now he's remembering that they're the redeemed. Redeemed means to buy back. When they would hear Nehemiah or Nehemiah prayed, when he says that, he's thinking back to when Israel was in slavery to Egypt for 400 years. And then God miraculously delivers them out. He redeems them. By his great power, he rescues them out of slavery. Fast forward to the New Testament, that's a shadow of what's to come

in the substance who's Jesus Christ. In Colossians 1, 13 and 14, for he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. So now we have redemption through Jesus. Our slavery that we're in is a slavery to sin. Through what Christ did for us on the cross, we're rescued, now we're slaves to God. That is the most freeing place any human being can be. And that redemption came at a price as Peter would write in 1 Peter 1, verses 18 and 19. Knowing that you are not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. So our redemption came at the price of the blood of our savior, Jesus Christ. Well, just like a parent longs for a child to come clean when they do wrong, because they want to forgive them and want them to be able to walk in freedom. In the same way, we're reminded we're the redeemed sons and daughters of God, and God wants to forgive and release. And he wants to answer and hear our requests. Finally, he gets to the request. So how do we pray? With specific requests. We're specific, oh Lord, I beseech you, may your ears be attentive to the prayer of your servant

and the prayer of your servants who delight to revere your name. And make your servant successful today and grant him compassion before this man. And I love here Nehemiah, it's his desire to revere and delight in the name of God. It's Psalm 37, four, delight yourself in the Lord, he'll give you desires of your heart. It's delighting in him, it's treasuring him, it's enjoying him. And Nehemiah said it's his delight to revere and fear and honor his name. What's his request? That God would make him successful and give him compassion before this man. This man we'll find in chapter two is the king. One simple request after that long prayer, will you give me success today with the king? See, any time that we are in on God's mission for the city, the neighborhood, the states, the globe, God will turn the hearts of those who are the decision makers so that his purposes will be accomplished. Nothing will thwart the purposes of God. Notice the last thing he says, or it's written in this chapter. Now I was the cupbearer to the king. The cupbearer was a strategic position in the royal court. Nehemiah had regular access to the king. And you may initially think it sounds like a great job.

His job was to taste the fruit. the wine, but it was to make sure that nobody poisoned it to kill the king. So he would take the hit before the king would. But nonetheless, God had placed him in a strategic position and he was more than likely living a really comfortable life. And yet there was such profound concern in him for the city of Jerusalem and his people. That he was willing to leave that which was comfortable and that which was cushy and I suspect high pain to risk his life for others. Is it possible that God has placed you in a strategic position to be able to work on behalf of other people? And it's okay, by the way, if it's risky or dangerous. The safest place to be is in the middle of God's will, no matter how difficult or hard. So a few practical things as you think about ways God might be working in you as we move through Nehemiah. Jehuda, who I introduced to you earlier if you don't already know him, he comes here off the side every Wednesday morning, 9 a.m. and prayer walks the neighborhood. This would be a really practical way for you to understand what's going in the neighborhood and pray for the neighborhood. There's something about being on site that gives us a different sense of what's going on. You can do this in your own neighborhood as well,

by the way. If you know people that are believers, prayer walk your own neighborhood, asking God what are the needs in the neighborhood. But 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, if you'd like to join Jehuda in the neighborhood around the church. A second thought I wanted to share, someone in our church gave me a book called Lead with Prayer several months ago. Great book by Brian Skoug and other authors. But one of the suggestions was that people, if you have the ability in your business to hire someone to pray for multiple hours during the week for your business. Have you ever met anybody that their job, they're getting paid 20 hours a week to pray for the company and the people? You say, well, why would we pay somebody to do that? It frees people up, someone to be able to do that. It's intercessor. It's a fantastic idea. So I thought, well, what are we doing as a church? I said, as staff, what are we doing? I mean, we're already paid. We don't need to pay somebody to pray. We already are praying. What can we do in addition to that? So during our office hours, all week long, 40 hours a week, our staff is each taking an hour a week

and we're praying for our church, for our neighborhoods, cities, and the globe. If there's a staff person you'd like to join sometime, say, hey, when is your hour? I'd love to come join you and pray with you. That's 40 hours of additional prayer that we're covering where God is leading us. And then I asked Arnaldo Soto. He leads our Spanish service and does an amazing job leading them. But I asked him the same question I asked Amy in Jehudah. So what are people in the Spanish part of our church praying? They meet on Wednesday nights, 7 to 8.30. This is one of the prayer gatherings. It's like this every time. Sometimes they'll go offsite and pray through the community. Sometimes they will just pray here. They're gonna start joining another Spanish congregation to pray on a Wednesday night of the month. And they'll pray a number of things. One of the things they'll do is they, Arnaldo's made a map, doesn't hit every city, has most of them, and different groups will pray for different cities, for families, churches, leaders, however God prompts them in the cities. That's an intentional way to pray for the cities. And then they also pray for fractured families, for immigration concerns and fears, for fear of separation from their family,

fear of going to the grocery store, addiction and shame, employment needs. They will get down and pray spiritual warfare, strongholds to be broken, of fear, addiction, generational cycles, absent fathers, abuse. And then they're praying for boldness for our whole community to not be silent about our faith. And they're praying against Jehovah's Witnesses who are knocking on the doors actively in the community. And Jehovah's Witnesses, if you read their doctrine and teaching, it is a false gospel. But they're praying, well, we have the boldness in what we know is truth from God's word, to not be silent, but to bring the gospel to our neighborhoods and our cities. You could join them on a Wednesday night, even if you don't speak the language, I'm certain you will understand and sense what is happening in that room. Strong convictions, what are they for you? And let's ask God to do that work in us, to affirm and encourage where the ones are already there, and maybe where they're not, that he'll do a work in us, where there's the sins of apathy, ignorance, or indifference, that we confess and repent and actively be aware and see what God has. Let's pray together. Thank you for our time this morning. So grateful for our church. I love who you've gathered as 121.

Thank you for letting us just have a part in what you're doing in our cities, in our states, in our nations, all across the world, God. Thank you for the small piece you've given us. I pray we'll be faithful with what you've entrusted and where you've placed us. And God, today I pray you stir our hearts. And as we move through Nehemiah, that more and more, God, that we would see change for the sake of the gospel in our neighborhoods and cities. So God, I look forward to the way you work in each of us and pray in Jesus' name. If we could, let's just be quiet for a moment, have a little bit of silence before the Lord. And is there anything just immediately that God is bringing to mind? If not, you can continue to pray as we leave here. But let's just pause for a moment, give you a chance to settle in if there is something today.