You know, he's uh he's not against us, he's for us, for for for each of us. He's not mad at us, and uh he loves us, he wants to be with us. And uh one thing he wants to do is just help us rebuild our lives, build into our lives. He's a great God, and we're gonna talk about that in a little bit. Uh first I need to share a couple things that uh that are going on. Um we had Telgate Sunday next uh next Sunday. Um it's uh it's a great Sunday, it's it's fun every year. Um we'll we'll get together, we'll hang out, we'll do, you know, we'll uh um kind of do our normal thing in here, and then right afterwards we'll have an hour and a half or so to Telgate and get ready for the Falcons game, which we'll show in high death on um on the big screen. And um you can wear all your gear. Um our Alabama fans will have a week tree cover, so you can um you can roll tide with pride next Sunday and um wear our team stuff and we'll just have fun together. They'll have uh an area for the older kids, we'll have some games and face painting and and that type of stuff. Bring your lawn chairs, we'll have a chili cook-off. If you uh want to participate in that and haven't signed up, um you can do that at the info desk um on the left uh as we go out. We're also gonna have a food drive um next Sunday. It's for uh Must Ministries and No Longer Bound, which is an addiction recovery program. And so if uh you think about it, bring some uh some non-perishable food, you know, anything dry or or uh canned, and we'll fill up that uh ban and take that uh to them afterwards. Um we're also getting ready to start Christmas Angels. It's that time of year, that time of year, and uh Christmas Angels is one of the fun things. Uh it's just a great thing that we do together, how we can really demonstrate love to uh to the community around us. And we've adopted a school this year, it's Chapman Elementary, and uh we're gonna help 200 and some uh of uh their children have uh have a great Christmas. And uh we do need some help. Uh we're gonna start putting together kind of three teams to uh to help with Christmas Angels. One will be an administrative team where um we'll get the list together, and you know what what happens is it's the school counselors uh in our case at Chapman that'll that will recommend the different uh the different kids. And so they'll give us a list and then we'll put it all together and and uh um and get stars together, and there's a t administrative team that does that. We'll have a big take-a-stars day when we all get to choose uh the children that we're gonna help. Um we'll need uh a team for that. And then drop-off days when we all bring back the stuff and we get it organized and and ready to uh to deliver. So if you can help in any of those teams, um please uh sign up for one of those at the infodesk uh afterwards. And um the last thing is just giving. Once a month I want to kind of share where we're at uh giving-wise. If you're new, we don't uh we don't pass a play. We have giving uh kind of stations in the back uh in the back of the room, and and some of us also give uh online. You can do that off of the website. This is a real important time for us uh giving-wise, especially the next you know, four months. We really need to get over the hump, if you will, um financially. And we talked first part of August how we really need to average about $20 per person per week is what it would take to do what we need to do, and we're really careful with everything and and have a very small staff and a ton of us volunteer, but but that's about what what it uh it takes to get the you know the principal on our loan paid down and and do what we need to do. And and uh and so in August we had one of our best giving months ever. And we were helped because we had five weeks, and uh, but still it was one of the best uh giving months ever. And then in September, we had our best giving month ever. And we did for the first time and we did for the first time average over over $20 per person uh um per week. And that is uh um, well, it I mean it's just it it's great news. And you should know that almost half of that came from two families with special one-time gifts. They got it put on their um their hearts. And uh and for both of them, it was like a sacrificial big-time step of faith, um, listening to God um type of type of thing. And uh so that should be really encouraging for us that that we're not in this alone. We're all in this uh um all in this together. And uh and I want to encourage you that uh that when God is talking to us that way, to uh to go for it. You can trust Him. And uh and those big steps of faith are sometimes the most important things in our life. It was true with Susan and I. We were at one of those points and uh just went forward and it was one of the most important, best decisions we ever made because it just changed our whole life, not just the financial part of it, but really that we could we learned that we actually can trust God. It's not just something we say on Sundays, we actually can trust Him. We have a real living God that loves us, and when we step out in faith, He never lets us down. We can totally trust Him. And uh it was a huge uh huge step for us, and um it's a it's a huge opportunity for all of us when we um when we uh when we get there together. But we're doing good, and uh and and we're we're gonna make it. And so I just want to thank you and encourage you. You know it's gonna take all of our stretching and faith and um sacrifice, but uh we are we are getting there and uh and we will do it and we'll do it together. So thank you for that. Um let's pray. Father, thanks for being such a wonderful God. And thank you for adopting us your key as your children. Thank you for your amazing grace. We just uh need that, and we praise you for that. Holy Spirit, thank you for being our teacher and comforter and counselor, and just please teach us this morning whatever we talk about. Would you just like translate it into each of our hearts and so we can each walk away with at least one thing for us from you? And we just thank you and trust you for that. And Jesus, we just thank you for doing everything, for giving us a way to reconnect with our Father, to show us what God is really like, and to for just being our friend every day. We praise you and we thank you, and it's in your name that we pray. Amen. So we are looking at one of the greatest books ever written together. It's about achieving incredible things uh with God. It's not a biography, it was written 2,500 years ago. It's the book of Nehemiah, and it's in the in the Old Testament. At the time of Nehemiah, uh Persia ruled the world. And uh Arta Xerxes was the king of of Persia. I was talking to Marlin before classes on on Wednesday night. And uh and he mentioned that that was roughly the same time that the movie 300 took place. I don't know if you um if you saw the movie, but that's absolutely right. That that is the uh the time frame. Um in the movie, uh Gerard Butler played King Leonidas, and he was on this kind of suicide mission, if you will, and and the enemy was uh the evil king of Persia, Xerxes, um, who was the king of the time. He kind of thought of him himself as uh part king, part uh part god. Well, about thirty years later, Nehemiah is on the scene. And the king now is Arta Xerxes. Arta means son of. And so King Arta Xerxes is the son of Xerxes. And so that movie was kind of historical fantasy, but it might give you a bit of a visual backdrop if you saw it, for this time that uh that Nehemiah lived. Nehemiah lived in the the city of Susa. Uh today it's a city in Iran. It was about 800 miles from Jerusalem. And one day, Nehemiah's brother and some of Nehemiah's friends come to visit him from Jerusalem, and they tell him about the terrible conditions uh in Jerusalem. In Nehemiah 1, 3, they said to me, Things are not going well for those who return to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire. When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven. The destroyed wall of Jerusalem was four and a half miles long around the city. Uh it's twenty feet uh tall, sixteen feet wide, but at this time it was nothing. It was piles of stone, piles of burnt wood, rubble, and the wall was so critical to Jerusalem. It was their main uh means of protection, and they lived in very dangerous times. I mean, without that wall, they were really hurting. I mean, they had no peace, they were on constant con under constant attack, they had no joy, no future really. As Nehemiah's brother said, uh, they are in great trouble and disgrace. Well, six months later, these same people would be dancing in the street, shouting so loud that all the people around them could hear. And you might be in trouble and disgrace. You might feel as if part of your life has crumbled or is in ruins. But sooner than you know, it can be you that's dancing in the street. It can be you that's shouting and full with of joy. It's a God thing. It's a God thing. With our loving Father, we can do anything. One of his favorite things is to build and to rebuild and to renew. We may not be in a build rebuilding mode. We might be more of a building mode. We're just building on what God's already done in our lives. Either way, God has shown us how we do that through this autobiography of Nehemiah. So Nehemiah hears this report and he decides that enough is enough. It's time to rebuild that wall. And so he asked God for help. Specifically asked that God would change the king's heart, that he actually put kindness into the king's heart for him. And that's exactly what he does. And he waits and he plans. And about four months later, you know, he goes to the king, and he's been cheerful and he's been positive this whole time. The king gives him everything he needs and more. And so he heads to Jerusalem. He inspects the wall, he gathers the people. They look and they say, you know, let's build. Let's build. Now there's a few local leaders that say to Nehemiah, Who are you to build? You should leave things just the way they are. Nehemiah tells them, It's none of your business. This is none of your business. And then they get busy. They get busy building, and that's where we start today. In Nehemiah chapter 3, verse 1. The high priest Eliashab and his fellow priests were up and at it. They went to work on the sheepgate. They repaired it and hung its doors, continuing on as far as the Tower of the Hundred and Tower of Hananel. The men of Jericho worked alongside them, and next to them Zachar, son of Imri. And it goes on. The whole chapter is a list of people and groups of people that worked together on parts of the wall as they rebuilt. And we've talked about how purposeful Nehemiah was when he wrote. How everything he said was for a reason. He had a real purpose. And this is purposeful too. It wasn't just God and Nehemiah, it was the whole city of Jerusalem. Everybody was critical. Everyone had a part. Nehemiah takes an entire chapter of his autobiography and names them by name. Because everybody was important. Everybody was critical. We won't read the whole chapter, but here's just a sample of what Nehemiah does. He says, the fish gate was built by the Hasannah brothers. They repaired it, hung its doors, and installed its bolts and bars. Uziel, son of Heriah of the goldsmith's guild, worked next to him. And next to Hananiah, one of the perfumers, they rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem as far as the broad wall. Malachih, son of Haram, and Haseb, son of Pathab Moab, rebuilt another section that included the Tower of Furnaces. Working next to him was Shalom, son of Halahesh, mayor of the other half district of Jerusalem, along with his daughters. The dung gate itself was rebuilt by Micaiah, son of Rechab, the mayor of the district of Beth Hakaram. He repaired it, hung its doors, and it stalled its bolts and bars. Okay, how would you like to have that gate? The dung gate. See, it was called that because that's what it was. That was the gate that they took all the trash and all of the waste out of the city of Jerusalem. Now here's a mayor of one of the districts. And what's he doing? He's repairing the dung gate. Whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. It goes on. Malachih the goldsmith repaired the wall as far as the house of the temple support staff and merchants, up to the inspection gate and the upper room at the corner. The goldsmiths and the merchants made the repairs between the upper room at the corner and the sheep gate. We just read about all kinds of people: mares, fathers working alongside their daughters, priests, goldsmiths, merchants, perfume makers, all sharing the same role. They were builders. They were all builders. See, Nehemiah teaches us a lot. He has up to now, and he's going to, as we go on, he teaches us a lot about building individually with God, how we hear from God and uh and just interacting with God as we build. But this chapter is a team chapter. He's teaching us how to build as a team. And a lot of the building and rebuilding that we'll each do in our lives is going to be with other people. It's going to be as a team. And he shows us that there's times to have roles and there's times to have specialties, but there's other times to forget all that and just work together, do whatever it takes as a team. In Romans 15, it says, those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, how can I help? You know, it's true in our marriages. You know, for a lot of us, we kind of divide up roles uh in our marriages based on, you know, maybe who's stronger at one thing, or sometimes even which of us uh enjoys uh something more. That's kind of how Susan and I uh operate in our marriage. It can be a really good way to function, but there's also times that we're all that doesn't matter. What matters is we both jump in and we do whatever it takes because we've got a marriage to build. I've talked about Susan and I being uh broke at different times uh in our marriage, and one was right after we were married, and we both tried to help with that however we could. Uh, one thing that Susan would do was that she managed uh the holiday um events at the mall. And so on uh on Christmas, you know, when Santa Claus would be there and the parents would bring their kids and they get pictures and and all that, then Susan would manage that. And it was the same on on Easter and and other holidays. And um uh one Saturday just before Easter, I'm at home uh with with uh Andrew, who is really small, and I get the call. Uh the person who is supposed to be the Easter bunny has called in sick. And Susan's called everybody else and everyone on her list, and and it's all at the the last minute. See, and the problem is I'm a real introvert. I mean, I was even more so uh back then. And so I tell Susan, I say, you know, listen, I love you, and and I really want to help, but I just can't do it. So I'm walking through the mall in my bunny suit, waving at all the kids with my big basket of uh of candy, and here's a pro tip for you uh Easter bunny wannabes. Um, the inside of those suits they smell really bad. I don't think Febreze had been invented, you know, at uh at this time. But sometimes you just do whatever it takes. You do whatever it takes for the team, because we are a team. We gotta work together. As parents, one of us might take an active, uh a more active role in in one part of our kids' lives. Um, you know, it might be the schoolwork. It might be that one of us is more gifted, and and so uh so that parent takes a more active role in homework and projects and school. But uh man, if our kids are struggling, we gotta be a team. We gotta both jump in. We've got something to build, something important. We're building together. We've got to do whatever it takes as a team. It's true here at his hands. And we have people, uh, all kinds of people that are highly respected uh in their careers, and they clean up afterwards on Sunday. They're you know uh key helpers in the nursery. Uh one leads uh his kids on weeks that uh Justin is uh is speaking, or out of town. So, you know, out of town, we might be trained to do other things. We might have our own gifts in our own areas, but we're building something together as a team. And so we're all builders. We all have the same role. It's all equally important. You know, whatever section of the wall you're building is equally important. It might be the prayer team or the welcome team or setting up coffee on uh on Sunday morning, helping with high school. It might be me sharing on Sunday, someone landscaping on Saturday. It is all equally important. It is all critical. It's just different sections of the wall. We're just building different sections of the wall. But it's all important. You know, in Jerusalem, it didn't matter if they were a jeweler or a perfume maker or a mayor, a son or a daughter, they were all builders. Nehemiah took the time to mention 38 people in 42 groups by name, because they were all important. They were all builders. There's something else key in this third chapter. Not so much uh Nehemiah, but why were the people building? See, there were two motivations. One was that it was an important cause. You know, it was worth the sacrifice, it was worth the time, it was gonna help thousands and thousands of people for decades. So many people were gonna be affected. But there was another motivation for many of these people, and that is that it was personal. That for them it was personal. In Nehemiah 3 10, it says, Next to him, Jediah, son of Haram, rebuilt the wall in front of his house. Hatush, son of Hashbaniah, worked next to him. Verse 23, Benjamin and Hashab worked on the wall in front of their house. And Azariah, son of Messiah, the son of Ananiah, did the work alongside his house. Above the horse gate the priests worked, each priest repairing the wall in front of his own house. After them, Zadok, son of Emmer, rebuilt in front of his house. See, they weren't just building a wall for the city, they were doing that. But they were protecting their own house. It was personal. And uh it was just a big step of faith. And they put a note with a check, and I saw the young um woman later told her thank you, and told her that Susan and I had been in that exact same spot that they were, and what a big difference it had made um in our lives, and God wouldn't let them down. And she said that she'd been reading uh Nehemiah, and that she wanted to build the wall in front of their house. That to her, his hands was the wall in front of their house. And she said that we've been there for them, and it's where they get love, and it's where they get uh encouragement and prayer, and it's where they want to raise their kids. And it's true. I mean, we're building something important together, and we're doing it for thousands of people all over the area, but it's also personal. It's for ourselves, it's for our own families, it's for our own friends. You know, we need a strong wall in front of our house, and we're building it. We're building it. And when we build, there's always opposition. You know, and uh in Nehemiah's case is the same folks in in their uh They're still at it. It says when Sambalot heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he exploded in anger, vilifying the Jews. In the company of his Samaritan cronies and military, he let loose. What are these miserable Jews doing? Do they think they can get everything back to normal overnight? Make building stones out of make-believe? At his side, Tobiah the Ammonite jumped in and said, That's right. What do you think they're building? Why, if a fox climbed that wall, it would fall to pieces under his weight. Whenever we build or rebuild something truly important, we are going to face opposition. We're going to face opposition. See, the first time Nehemiah saw these same guys, you know, they said, Who are you to be real at building the wall? He said, It's none of your business. Now they are openly mocking him, and not just him. I mean, they're mocking all the people for rebuilding this wall. And it makes Nehemiah mad. And so he turns to God. And again, Nehemiah prays. Nehemiah prayed, Oh, listen to us, dear God. We're so despised. Boomerang the ridicule on their heads. Have their enemies cart them off as war trophies to a land of no return. Don't forgive their iniquity, don't wipe away their sin. They've insulted the builders. See, Nehemiah demonstrates something really important. And it's obviously not forgiveness. But you know, he lived 450 years before Jesus. You know, God had shown a lot of forgiveness. But I mean, would any of us really understand forgiveness if it hadn't been for Jesus? If we hadn't seen Jesus demonstrate what forgiveness is? Nehemiah prays, have their cart and have their enemies cart them off as war trophies to a land of no return. Don't forgive their iniquity, don't wipe away their sin. They've insulted the builders. I mean, he's mad. Everybody's working so hard. They're volunteers, they're doing a great thing. Together, and Nehemiah prays. And what we can learn from his prayer is honesty. Honesty. You know, if we're going to have a real relationship with God, we talk about that. How God is real and we can really have a relationship with him. If we're going to have a real relationship with God, we've got to be honest. I was talking with a young lady just a few days ago who said that she really resented God. And she resented him because of the family that she was born into. And I said, you should tell him that. You should tell him that. It'd be a great place to start on a real relationship. So you don't have to pray in Christian ease or tell God what you think he wants to hear. Listen to David's prayer in the 13th Psalm. Long enough, God, you've ignored me long enough. I've looked at the back of your head long enough. Long enough. I've carried this ton of trouble, lived with a stomach full of pain. Long enough, my arrogant enemies had looked down their noses at me. Take a good look at me, God, my God. I want to look life in the eye. So no enemy can get the best of me or laugh when I fall on my face. Now he finishes that psalm with the, you know, I know you can trust, I know I can trust you. You've answered my prayers before. But David, he's just being real. He's being honest with God, expressing exactly how he feels. Sometimes I pray the opposite way, where I start with the disclaimer, you know, where it's uh, God, I know I can trust you, but what in the world are you doing? I mean, what's going on? Do you not see? But it's part of a real relationship, really talking, not pretending, not telling God what we think He wants us to say. It's opening up our hearts. It's our open hearts, honestly talking with God. So if we want to have a real relationship with God, which is a wonderful thing, sometimes it's going to start by us being real with God. Just opening up. Being honest with Him. He wants to be our dad, not our judge. We don't have to pray pretty prayers to God. We can just talk to Him. We can just be honest. So Nehemiah, in his own angry way, asked God to deal with opposition. But then He says, We kept at it. See, he prayed, but then they kept at it. We kept at it, repairing and rebuilding the wall. The whole wall was soon joined together and halfway to its intended height. Because the people had a heart for the work. It didn't take them long. Already they got the wall joined together. Already it was halfway to where it was going. They dealt with this wave of opposition by praying and then just staying at it. Because the people had a heart for the work. It's because they had a heart for the work. Opposition wasn't going to stop them. God was on their side. They had a heart for the work. And it's true with us. You know, sometimes it's difficult to have a heart for work. Have you ever felt that way? You know, God, I want to do this. I just don't have it in me. You remember back when Nehemiah prayed that God would change Artaxerxes' heart, that he would put something inside Arta Xerxes' heart that he didn't have, which was kindness for Nehemiah? You know, we can say, we can ask God for the same thing for ourselves. For our own hearts. We can say, God, I just don't have it in me. Would you give me the heart to do it? We can ask Him to change our own hearts. You know, are you trying to overcome an addiction and you just don't think you can do it? Ask God to give you a heart for it. You know, there were times in Susan and I's marriage where we both just wanted to give up, and we didn't think there was any way we could go on. But God gave us the heart. You know, it used to be that I would read the Bible every now and then, and it was usually some sort of penance. Because, you know, I knew it was good for me, and I wanted to do it, and so I'd get all worked up and I'd ask God. I'd I mean, I would, I would uh tell God, okay, God, every morning I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna read, you know, a section of the Bible every day. And, you know, so I'd do it for about three weeks, and then I'd get bored, or then I'd get tired, or then I'd miss a day, and that would be that would be that because I didn't really enjoy reading it. You know, and so I asked God, I said, give me a heart for it. What I actually prayed was, God, stir up my heart. Would you stir up my heart? And so I would love your word. You know, and he did. I mean, before long, he draws me to a uh a more easily understandable translation, and then he's got things that just pop off the uh um the page to me, and it applies to every part of my life, to home and to work and to my relationship with him. And now I love it. I love it. I love reading his word, but it's not me, it's him. You know, it's the same way with everything. If there's something that we know is important and we just don't have the heart for it, ask God. He can give you the heart. He can give you the heart. And that's why I know that we are going to rebuild. That's why I know that you are going to rebuild and to build. Because God will give you a heart for the work. A heart for the work. You're gonna overcome addiction. You are. God's with you, and you'll be a builder with a heart for the work. You're gonna rebuild your marriages, and you're gonna rebuild your finances. Because God's with you, and you'll have a heart for the work. We're building something amazing here together. God's with us, and he's given us a heart for the work. And we will build, and we will rebuild. Because God's for us, and we've got the heart. So if the worship team wants to come up, we'll finish with one more song, but there's one other interesting thing I want to tell you about the third chapter, real quick. And if you'll stand up, we'll get ready to sing that song together. But in this third chapter of Nehemiah, in his autobiography, it's the only place in the entire Bible where the twelve gates around the wall of Jerusalem are talked about together. And they start and they finish at the same gate, at a particular gate. And the gate is the sheep gate. And the sheep gate is where at Passover time they would bring in the lamb to be sacrificed for the Passover. Now, Nehemiah describes each of the gates in details. Eleven of them are described the same way. They've got bars and they've got bolts. But there's one gate that has no bars and no bolts. It's the sheep gate. And 500 years later, it's Passover time. And it's a huge celebration in Jerusalem. It was a time of excitement and celebration. And it's Passover time. And what they did is they took a national lamb each year. And all the people lined the streets, and they brought in palm branches, and they would bring this national lamb through the sheep gate into Jerusalem, and they would all wave the branches and they would celebrate for the Passover. But this particular year, it's Jesus that comes through that gate. It's Jesus coming through the sheep gate. And everybody throws down their palm branches, and he rides in over them. It's the Lamb of God, and the sacrifice is himself. And there's no bars and there's no bolts on his gate. There's nothing that stands between us and Jesus except us. All we have to do is turn to him in our own words, in our own way, whatever that is. I need you. Help me. I'm going to trust you. I believe in you. I love you. Whatever it is, we turn to him. You know, he takes over. We come alive. He transforms us. He saves us. He helps us. And so I don't know how you felt when you came in this morning. But I know that with our Father God, and with Jesus, and with the Holy Spirit, and together, we are going to build and we're going to rebuild. We're going to do it together. Let's pray. Father, just praise you. Thank you for being such an awesome God. Thank you for your love. Thank you for caring for each of us, for drawing us here this morning. Please stir up our hearts. Help us to trust you. Help us to not get discouraged by opposition. Give us each a heart for our work. God, we want to rebuild our lives. We want to build great lives individually and together. We thank you for loving us. We thank you for being for us. We love you and we trust you and we thank you. And Jesus, it's in your wonderful name. The Lamb of God who came to forgive the sins of the entire world. We praise you, we thank you, we trust you. It's in your name we pray. Amen.