The First Step to Repairing A Broken Down Life

Sermon Transcript

“THE FIRST STEP TO REPAIRING A BROKEN DOWN LIFE”

Pastor Phil Winfield

Nehemiah 1:1-4; Lamentations 3:48-54 (KJV)

September 9, 2007

Grace Church of Des Moines, IA

4200 E. 25th StreetDes Moines, IA 50317

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You know, I mentioned that we are really going to emphasize prayer and I want to say that again that we are going to emphasize praying for our homes, our families, our own lives, our church, our nation, our culture.  Every great revival in history, world wide, has always started through prayer.  A lot of us like to think they start through preaching, but they don’t.  They start through prayer when some of God’s people get concerned.And what I am talking about as we get into this series is, is we are talking about the revival of individual Christians that will result in a revival of evangelism in the world and I want to say that very loud and clear that the evangelism of the world doesn’t depend on only going to out to evangelize.  It depends on Christians getting their own hearts right with God so that their light is bright enough and their influence is strong enough to make a difference in the world.I said something about prayer.  I’ve got to tell you a little story, share a story from my part of the country, from down South.  A fellow that I’m going to call Bubba—which that name fits most of us down South—a fellow we’ll call Bubba went to a revival meeting and listened to the preacher.  After a while the preacher asked that anyone had any need please come forward and let him pray over them.So, as their custom was, they made a line.  Bubba got in line.  And when it was his turn the preacher said, “Hey, Bubba, what do you want me to pray about with you today?”And Bubba said, “Preacher, I need you to pray for my hearing.”And so the preacher put one finger in one of Bubba’s ears.  He put the other hand on top of his head and he can tickle the angel’s feet.  He just really prayed for Bubba for a few minutes.  And finally he removed his finger.  He removed his hand and he said, “Bubba, how is your hearing now?”And Bubba said, “Well, I don’t know, preacher.  My hearing is not until next week.”So we are going to pray. I hope it will be more than that kind of prayer.  I’m not going to be teaching you now how to pray. I’m going to be giving you an opportunity to pray and challenging you to pray for your own self, your own family, your own needs or your church or your city, state and for your culture.Turn in your Bibles if you would, please, to the book of Nehemiah chapter one.Let’s try that again.  What are we going to do?  We open the Bible.  “Amen, Amen.”You say, “What’s that all about?”Well, if you haven’t been here, we have started doing this in relation to this series because, number one, they did it in the book of Nehemiah.  Number two, the word “Amen” means “so be it.”  It means “let it be done. That’s what I believe.”  And so we open up God’s Word and we say, “Amen,” to it because we want to be in obedience before we ever find out what it says.Stand to your feet.  I’m going to read you four verses from the book of Nehemiah.You say, “Pastor, we’re not going to make very much progress at four verses a week.”Well, I’m not going preach every verse in the book of Nehemiah though I encourage you to read every verse.  I want to talk to you this morning about the first four verses, set the stage about what it’s all going to be about. Nehemiah chapter one, verse one.The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. It came to pass in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the citadel, that Hanani one of my brethren came with men from Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.  And they said to me, "The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire."  So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.Let me read that third and fourth verse to you again.  Here is what he saw. Here is how he reacted.And they said to me, "The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire."  So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.And speaking of prayer, let’s go to the Lord right now.Father, I ask you even at this moment of the outset of these studies that we are going to look at now about how to repair a broken down life and how to build for a successful life, Lord, I pray that you would just be with us and help us to understand the ministry of prayer and how important it is that we would pray sincerely from the heart like Nehemiah did whenever his eye affected his heart, whenever what he saw and what he understood and the reality he faced made all the difference in the world to him.Father, let reality sink in to each and every one of us today.  We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.  Would you be seated?In Nehemiah chapter one we start off a book that is a journal.  It is the journal of one of God’s servants.  Now, this man, I must say at the first, Nehemiah, is not a preacher.  He is not a prophet.  He is not a priest. He is not an official, vocational preacher or teacher of the Word of God.Last week I spoke from the book of Ezra.  And, folks, I very, very, very seldom do this, but if you were out of town for some reason and you did not hear the sermon last week from the book of Ezra I want to encourage you.  You can go online and listen at grachome.com to that sermon.  If not you can buy a copy of the sermon for a dollar right out here on the other side of this wall there at the desk you can pick it up.You say, “You think it was a great sermon?”Nope. I think it was an unbelievably true sermon.  And I think you need to hear the truth that I shared from this pulpit last week.  Besides that, it’s the foundation on which we are building this series that we are into right now.Now, the Jews take the book of Ezra and Nehemiah as just one book.  Let me say that again so you get it straight.  The Jews, even today, take the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.  In fact, 1 and 2 Chronicles are just one book.  It’s the Chronicles.  In fact, 1 Samuel through 2 Kings are one book. They are all included, but they just look at them as one book.  This book—Ezra, Nehemiah—to them was one book.  It has three major players, three very important individuals.The first one is a man by the name of Zerubbabel. He was sort of a builder.  He went back. He was a builder and a rallying sort of person that went back and built the temple back.  A little bit later a man by the name of Ezra came along. He was a scribe, a priest.  He went there and he rededicated the temple and started the worship.The man we are going to study and we are going to learn from is this man Nehemiah.  Nehemiah, as I said, was not a prophet, a preacher.  He had no religious vocation.  He was a regular civic individual.  He was a citizen.  He was a child of the kingdom of Israel living in a foreign place and God used him mightily.In 586 BC—you need to know this in order to understand the story—In 586 BC the city and the walls of the city of Jerusalem were destroyed exactly as the prophets had predicted at the Word of the Lord.  As well, God promised that after 70 years of captivity in Babylon, the Jews would begin to return.  They did exactly as he said.  Just as the Lord promised, they began returning in about 70 years, Jeremiah 25:8-11 tells the story.First a few came back and began building the temple. That was finished in 516 BC.  Fifty years later in 458 BC Ezra the scribe showed up.  He rededicated the temple.  They began to establish some worship, but in spite of it all there were very few and not very dedicated worshippers.  Lots of problems and opposition was everywhere. This glorious City of David where God had promised to make his abode among the people and from where he would bless the world was in total ruins.Sadly, the people of Jerusalem and Judah—listen to this—had become indifferent to the conditions of the city.  They were simply stepping around, stepping over the rubble of broken down walls and they just went right on living.  They were discouraged.  They were disheartened and they were disinterested.God’s answer to rebuild the walls and restore the glory was to revive the people and to bring in a man named Nehemiah to do exactly that.  And God always starts a revival and he always starts spiritual activity in the lives of individuals.  In this case he chose a man by the name of Nehemiah.Now, folks, don’t go to sleep on me as we get into this study.You say, “Temple?  Old Testament?  Rebuild walls?  What does that have to do with me? I’m trying to pay a mortgage.  I’m trying to keep my kids in school.  I’m trying to keep the wolf away from the door. I’m trying to keep a marriage together.  I’m trying to rear some children in a pagan society.  Why are you talking to me about broken down walls and temples?”Well, here’s what we need to understand this morning and that is, that is that God is not in the business today of building physical temples and rebuilding physical walls, though all of those are...the carpentry and the masonry business are very legitimate businesses.  But God is not dwelling in temples made with hands.  Let me say that to you again.  God is not interested in inhabiting physical temples.This, that we sit in today and enjoy, this blessing of a physical location and building where we can sit on padded pews with air condition or heat according to the season, with lighting and sound and all of these things, it is a wonderful tool, but it is not the treasure of this church, neither is it the temple, the place of the dwelling of God.This building is not a temple, but it is where the temple of God comes to meet because you are the temple of God.  Understand that.  This is not a temple. This is not a treasure.  This is a tool.Say it with me.  “This is not a temple. This is not a treasure. This is a tool.”  And you are the temple.  If you know, Jesus as your personal Savior, if the Holy Spirit of God lives in you then I am here to tell you that you are the temple, the dwelling place where God lives.Listen to 2 Corinthians 6:16.  It says that you and I are the temple of the living God.  Ephesians chapter two, verse 22 says you and I are being built up together and fashioned by God to be a dwelling place for God’s Spirit.  In a very real sense, you as individual, are the location of where God lives.  In a very real sense we are being formed and fashioned together as a body of believers so that the activity of the Holy Spirit will be more powerful and the influence more strong because we work together.  We go farther together than we go separate.And so just like Jerusalem was in a mess and the temple was unattended, today our lives are in a mess and our hearts are out of touch.Without going into it again, our culture is in a mess because our churches are full of people who have lost focus about what God really wants in our lives.We have judges doing what Robert Hanson did last week because we have Christians who have forgotten what it is all about.  We have stopped being leaders in the world. We have stopped showing our influence.And I want to say to you that God intends for his people to lead, to show the way, to give the light, to indicate the way that it should be.You say, “Are we supposed to take over government?”No.  But we are certainly supposed to, as citizens, stand up and be counted, let our voice be heard, tell the truth, shine the light and, sadly, as I said last week, our lives have become so dimmed and we have become so darkened.  The Christian light and witness of our lives have become so unusable to the Lord because of sin and because of getting into this world and because we are in love with the same things that the world is that the light has been dimmed.  And God intends for us to show leadership.And if you say, “Well, what is leadership?”Leadership is influence.  Folks, after many years in the pastorate I have to tell you that what happens is instead of influencing the world, the world spends a lot of time influencing us and we are beginning to look too much and act too much like the world.God wants us to live holy, sacrificial, loving lives that honor him and point people to Jesus.  But there is a lot of junk and trash in the average Christian life and the hope of light and direction from us is very, very dismal.  But that’s where we start.We are setting out in Nehemiah on this 52 day journey to stop the despair and to start the repairs.  And I want to help you grow.  I have been praying about this and preparing for this for months. I have it in my heart.  I want you to...if you are a believer in Jesus—and I invite you, if you are not a believer today, you can get on board.  You can trust Christ to be your Lord and Savior.  You can have your eternal destiny settled here and now.  You can become the child of God by putting your faith and trust in Jesus.  But I want to say to you that our believers...and you ought to...you want to be like Jesus?  You want to be useful to the Lord in this world?   Well, I want to say to you that’s exactly what I have been praying for and how I have been trying to prepare to help you.I pray all the time.  “Father, please let the people of Grace Church be like trees planted by the rivers of water that bring forth their fruit in their season.”  That’s Psalms chapter one.  I pray for you people. I pray for you to be fruitful.  It is one thing to be faithful. That’s good.  It’s an even better thing to be fruitful.Do you know that’s what God wants of us?  The Bible says it is required of stewards that we be faithful, faithful in our homes, faithful with our children, faithful with our marriages.  But beyond that John 15 says that we are to be fruitful.  “I have chosen you that you go forth and bear fruit, more fruit and much fruit.”  God has chosen us to be faithful and fruitful. And I am praying for you that your roots will go down deep by the rivers of the Word of God and by the river of his love and by the river of his grace so that your lives become strong.I am telling you. The winds of our world, the culture around us, the things that are being pumped into us and told to us are wearing down our witness.Well, I’m praying for you. And I want to teach you and help you through this series to be strong and to be ready to rebuild and just to lay claim and stake to your own life and to your own family.I want you to write on your Scripture sheet there, you’ve got a place to write it down.  Here is something I want you to think about as we launch.  A clear vision of the state of our lives and homes will make us see what is, what could be and what should be and what we will be if we will but seek and obey God.Here is the way we are going to do this series. Every week I am going to come in and we are going to add another building block to our wall.  This is going to be, when we get done with it, it is going to be a great big wall. And right now the very first building block that I want to talk to you about...this is what I want you to know.When you leave here today you say, “Well, what did pastor Phil want us to know when we left?”I want you to know that step one, the very first thing that has got to happen at taking a look at your life, your family, your city, nation, your state and your culture, the very first thing we have to do is face reality.  There are a lot of us that like to just go on thinking that things are not as bad.  These things that were stated up here on the platform that are actual stories from the news right off the television, right over the radio and through the press, these are true stories.  But we had this eternal optimistic point of view.“Oh, it’s not all that bad, not my problem. It will all turn out.  I can’t do anything about it.  I just got to go on with my life.”And you know what?  We need to face reality.  The truth is that just as there are disasters going on in our culture, there are disasters going on in our own personal lives.I am praying for the Church of Jesus Christ called Grace.  I am praying for our church to grow. I am praying for our witness to become strong. I am praying for God to make us what he wants us to be.The first step, right it down.  Change begins when we take an honest look at our problems.  Will you write that down?  Change begins when we take an honest look at our problems.I heard about a guy that lived at the foot of Pike’s Peak for 50 years.  A traveler came along who got lost.  And when he got lost he was looking for his way.  He saw an old cabin up there and he came to see the old man that had lived there all these years.  He said, “Hey, I’m lost. I’m looking for how to get where I’m going. And, by the way, that sure is a big mountain.”And the old guy spit some tobacco and said, “What mountain?”He had gotten used to it.Change happens when we take a fresh look, an honest look at what is going on in our lives, in our culture.We can do several things.  Here is what we do.  We do one of several things with the things that...the problems that wreck our lives and thwart God’s plan. The first thing we can do is we can ignore a problem. Like a lady I heard about that had a mole on her back that started to become irritated.  She thought that she was just rubbing it with her clothing and that it would be ok.Her husband said, “Go to the doctor.”She wouldn’t.  Six months later it was a melanoma. It killed her in three weeks.We can just ignore problems.  We can be indifferent to problems.The people of Jerusalem had gotten used to the rubble.  They had gotten to the place where they could just walk around it.  They didn’t see it anymore. You know, it was just...you know, they were there.  They were living there.  It was the mundane life, every day just going through the...you know...up in the morning, go to work, step around the junk.  You know, some of us have got garages like that.“I need to clean that garage.  I need to clean that garage. I need garage.  I need to clean...”And ,boy, it’s been going on that way for 15 years and you’re still just stepping right around it.  You don’t even see it anymore.You say, “What about that mess out there?”You say, “What mess?  What’s she talking about?”We get used to it.  We get indifferent to it.  We become accustomed to it.  Just like we become accustomed to the anger in our lives.  We become accustomed to the envy. We become accustomed to the lust.  We become accustomed to the culture.  We become accustomed to what we see around us because, “Well, it’s just been that way.  I can’t do anything about it.  I’m just one person.  What am I going to do?”We get used to what is going on in our own life, our own house, our own neighborhood.  We just get used to it and we say, “What can we do?”Change begins when we take an honest look at our problems.  You know, in verse three Nehemiah got a report and he let it affect him.  Obviously the people who were living in Jerusalem were affected when they first got there, when they first looked at it. They tried for a little while, but they couldn’t seem to get anything done.  Nobody could work together.  They didn’t get it done.  They didn’t get the city going again.  And so they became indifferent to their problems.There is a little city called Chosica in Peru, real close to where we used to live. And going up the mountains we would go through there and in 1970 there was an earthquake there that was much larger than the one that was just down there a few weeks ago.  In 1970 on May 31^st at 3:30 in the afternoon an earthquake came that just simply rocked that entire nation, killed 75,000 to 80,000.  They can’t even determine the number.  But it was an unbelievable earthquake.Well, one of the little cites that was affected was a city called Chosica.  And this city, some great big boulders came down, crashed through houses, landed in the middle of streets and they just...these boulders, giant, enormous rocks, as big as houses, you know.  And it just broke up all of their communications and all of their water systems and everything.Well, they stood around waiting on the federal government to fix it, waited on foreign governments to come fix it. They got on TV shows and told how bad it was. They all just decided, “Well, I guess nobody is going to do it.”  They weren’t going to do anything themselves.  And so what did they do?  They just went on living their lives.In fact, you can to go to Chosica in the department of Hunin right now in Peru.  You can go to Chosica and you can find houses, shacks and businesses built next to, around and on top of the rocks that fell in 1970.Why?  They got used to it.You know what?  People are building their lives on junk just like that.  Some of us here this morning are trying to build our lives on faulty foundations because it is the junk of our lives.  You see, we’ve gotten used to the fact, “Well, I get angry. I get mad and I just...I get all...I just get all bent out of shape and that’s just the way I am and she’s just going to have to get used to it or my kids are just going to have to get used to it.  I can’t do anything about it.  I’m an angry man.”Or, “I’m a drunkard.” Or “I’m this or I’m that.  My grandfather was a drunk and my great grandfather was a drunk.  They are all drunks.  We drink.”And we just say, “That’s the way it is.” And just...we have to look at our problems.You know what?  We can ignore a problem. We can be indifferent to a problem. We can be insensitive to the problem. We can get to the place where we have just given up and we don’t feel the pain anymore.  We can’t see how it is hurting us.  Lots of times self destructive habits like anger, rage, addictions to substances because the normal way of life and we don’t even notice it.  We’re not honest.  We can’t tell the truth. We’re addicted to things that are just ruining us and we don’t feel it anymore.  We don’t worry about it.  The next thing is we can’t see how it is hurting our family either, our relationships, our church, our culture.  We don’t see how we are hurting anybody.  We just think we can do anything we want to.  We think we’re...you know, even though we do what Achan did that cost his whole family, we can do what we want to and, hey, it’s nobody’s business but mine.Boy, there’s no such thing as that.Here is where Nehemiah was so impressive.  He actually lived...he was far removed from the location of the problem, around 1000 miles away.  Folks, 1000 miles then, that was quite a trip.  That was quite a journey.  It wasn’t like going across the street. There were not busses, no cars, no trains, no airplanes.  He was going to get there on a camel if he got there and he was going to cross very dangerous territory to do it.He was far removed from the location of the problem, but he still felt it.  He was sensitive to it.Even though you might not be suffering with the weight of a problem, the ones you are supposed to love and care about are suffering with you and your problems.  Do you know that?The person that throws up his hands and says, “Oh, I’m just the way I am.  You know, it’s my business.  It doesn’t matter. People ought to just leave me alone, do their thing.  I’ll do my thing.”You know what?  We suffer with each other.I’ve said this before.  Man’s law nor God’s law will make you address your own problems, but love will.No wonder Paul said that the greatest of all the gifts is love.  He said, “Faith, hope and love. The greatest of these is love.  It lasts.”Jesus said to love one another.John wrote an epistle, the first epistle of John.  John, that little book there toward the end of the Bible has five chapters in it, the greatest treatise on love you will ever read.  He said in that book, “Don’t love in world only, but love in deed.”  Do something about your love.  Do it in deed and in truth.Jesus said to love one another and that’s where we begin this series.  As we begin it we talk about addressing our real problems in our lives, I want to tell you that love will motivate you to take action.  Love will motivate you when duty will not.  People that are in love with God will serve God far longer and with far greater dedication that people than are only serving out of duty.Now, if you are a husband today your duty is to love, to cherish, to take care of and protect and provide for your family, your wife.  If you are a mother, you are a wife, it is your duty to love your husband and your children.  If you are a child, it is your duty to be the person, to be a young obedient child. That is your duty.But I am going to tell you that duty runs short, but love never does.  If you are in love with God and you are in love with him and you are in love with your family and you are in love with those that are around you and if love overrides everything else, then you will do what you are supposed to do for their benefit and for your own.The second thing is, change comes when we take personal responsibility for our problems.  That’s the second thing.  Change comes when we take personal responsibility for our problems.You see, Nehemiah was a long way from the situation.  He could have thought, “Wow, that’s bad news about the people in Jerusalem, but what can I do about it.  I wasn’t there.  I didn’t do it.  Not my problem.”Think about it.“If I was there I would do something. I’m not there. You know, I can’t...it’s just not my problem.”He could go on and we could say, “Not...my anger doesn’t bother me. I can drink if I want to.  So what?  I like to gamble.  Big deal.  It doesn’t hurt anybody else.”Really?I was in this town when they were trying to decide whether they were going to put Prairie Meadows out there.  He said, “Pastor, are you a friend of Prairie Meadows?  Is Prairie Meadows a friend of the family?”I was here when they were trying to get that going and I heard Tom Coates and others, he was the guy with consumer credit and many others that stood up there and gave a warning.  They said, “You know, the day right now in the state of Iowa, Iowa is number three in the nation on personal individual savings.  This is a saving state.  People in the state of Iowa save for the future.  They put away a little bit for a rainy day.  They save for the future. We fear that if Prairie Meadows and the places like that come in we are no longer going to be a saving state.  We are going to be an indebted state, a bankrupt state.”Would you like to know?  We were number three in the nation in savings.  Would you like to know where we are in this year, 2007?  Number 47.“Well, gambling, it doesn’t...”Listen. I just want to say to you:  When you make choices and you choose things it does make a difference.  We have to take responsibility for our lives and for what is going on.“I wasn’t there.  I didn’t do it.  Not my problem.”We have to take responsibility.  You see, he was responsible because he was associated.  He was part of the situation.  He was a Jew.  Right now he is living...you know where he was?  He was sitting next to the king of the world.  Artaxerxes was the king of the world. And here is this man, a cup bearer. He was an attaché, if you put it that way today, of the king of the world, highly trusted, had a plush job.  He didn’t even have to work all the time.  All he did was he tasted the wine for the king.  He protected the king.  He had the king’s interest.Now, I want you to listen to me for a moment.  He lived in a foreign nation.  He was serving in a foreign nation.  But he was concerned about where he really belonged.Let me go to the next point.  Write this down.  Change comes when we take time to recognize the failures that led to the problems, the failures that led to the problems.Now, it wasn’t so much a failure in the personal life of this individual.  It was the failure of the people, the Jews.I want you read verse one and you will see what I am talking about.   “The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. It came to pass in the month of Chislev,” roughly November, “in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the citadel.”Now he is in Shushan the citadel which is in modern day Iran.  At that time Iraq and Iran were combined and they made up, largely, what was Babylon.  Today it’s interesting today.  All of the land where we are dealing with and the things, all the news is coming...this is...we’re talking about old Babylon, old Persian empire. That’s what we’re talking about right now today, all of these events, the same...it’s amazing. We’re still dealing with the same thing.“I was in Shushan the citadel.”You say, “Big deal.  So he was in Shushan.  What’s  that got do with?”Well, it has a lot to do with the fact that these people, he and all of his people had been carried away into captivity.  They were not in Jerusalem. They were not in Israel, the land that God had given to them, in order to be a light and in order to point people to God, in order to give the example of the great God and tell who God was.No. They had failed miserably at what God’s calling was for them. And where were they?  They found themselves in another kingdom. They found themselves completely away. And what were the reasons? What were the failures?Well, the failures were and the reason they had been carried away into captivity was that they forgot the Lord, they forgot his law and they forgot to live out their purpose.You say, “How do you know that?”Well, because Deuteronomy chapter 11 made this warning.  Right before...they are on the plains of Moab. They are getting ready to go in and take Canaan. This is way back when they are just now going into Canaan for the first time.  They have come up out of Egypt.  They don’t have anything except the things that they brought with them from Egypt and here is what God says to them very clearly.  He says, “Joshua, you tell these people, you tell them, ‘Do not forget the Lord your God.’  He says, ‘When you go into Canaan and you move into houses that you didn’t build and you take over lands that you did not purchase and I give you all of these fruitful places and your flocks begin to increase and your herds begin to increase and when you become very, very affluent and when you have lots of goods and all of your bank accounts begin to grow and when you become very affluent here is the danger.  You are going to forget your Lord.  You are going to forget his law and you are going to forget the purpose of your life.’”Do you know where we are today?  We have forgotten the Lord.  We have forgotten his law.  We have forgotten the purpose for our lives.  That is exactly where we are in the United States of America and we wonder why our culture is crumbling.I said this last week that if Satan is the god of this world then his sign, his symbol is the dollar sign. And Christians are just as guilty of falling down at the altar of the dollar bill. That’s the bottom line on everything.  I make all my choices on the basis of the dollar bill, where I’ll live, where I’ll go, what I’ll do.  And because of that we’re in a culture that cannot tell the difference between a male and a female, cannot tell the difference between a fetus and a baby, cannot tell the difference between life and death.  Folks, we can’t tell the difference between right and wrong.You say, “Well, what have we done?”We have done exactly what they did.  We have gotten wealthy.  We have gotten affluent.Oh, you say, “Well, I just wish I was part of that wealthy...”Listen to me. If you got here any other way but walking on your two legs this morning you are wealthy compared to 95% of the rest of the world.  If you had your own bed last night you’re wealthy.  If you know what you are having for dinner today you are wealthy compared to a great part of this world.“You are going to become wealthy. Your flocks, your herds are going to increase. And when you get there you are going to be tempted to indulge.  You are going to forget about your Lord.  You are going to forget about his law.  You are going to forget about the purpose for your life.”He warned them.  They did it.  And they go carried away into captivity.You know, what’s interesting about this whole story—and I have just got to finish—what is interesting about this whole story is that Nehemiah was faced with this whole issue of sitting next to the king of the world in a plush, comfy job. And the problems were a long way away form him.You know, we are like that. There is stuff going on in New York, stuff in foreign countries and all that and wow. And this is just terrible.  But I’m fine.  You know, I’m doing ok.Nehemiah was sitting next to the king of the world with one of the best jobs in that entire kingdom, but here is the whole point: We, as Christians, are doing everything we can to become comfortable in a kingdom to which we do not belong.  We do not belong to this world.  We do not...listen. If you are a child of God this world is not your home. You are only passing through.  Your treasure is laid up up there beyond the blue.Do you see what I’m saying?  Our home is in heaven. We are ambassadors for another kingdom. We are not here to set up ourselves in this kingdom. We are ambassadors for that kingdom. We are not here to see how well we can ride from the cradle to the grave. We are not here just for comfort and convenience. We are not here to pile it up, stack it away. That’s not why we are here.We are here in this world because this world needs a witness.  The lost people of this world need to see that somebody knows the truth.“Pastor, are you against personal ownership of property?”Of course not.“Are you against stuff, things?”No.  I’ve got a house. I’ve got a car.  But it’s all God’s.  It’s for him, whatever he wants to use it for.I can give you illustrations.Let me finish by just reading this last thing.  Write it down on your sheet there.  Here is the last one:  Change comes when we take all of our problems to God in humble faith.Whenever we are ready to lay down this first block, foundational block of the wall, facing reality, when we say, “Ok, I know that I don’t have the privilege of comparing myself to other people, I have to compare myself to Jesus.  I know that I have fallen short of the glory of God because I am a sinner.  Therefore I know that I need to change. I need to get serious about God and his Word and living this life and loving my fellow man and serving my generation according to the will of God.  I need to understand my purpose.  God put me here for his pleasure.  God put me here for his purpose.  God put me here for his glory.  God put me here to fellowship with him.  That is what I am here for and to point others in that direction.”Now, when we understand that then what do we do?  Well, we take our anger, our addictions, our broken lives, our misdirected steps, all of the problems that we...we take all of that stuff and we go to God in prayer.Look at your verse number four. “So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.”Notice what he did.  He wept.  He mourned.  He prayed.  He fasted.  It’s real simple, isn’t it?  He wept. He mourned.  He prayed.  He fasted.  He didn’t say, “Now, I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.  And if I day before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take.  God bless you and mom and dad and brothers and sisters and amen.  Let’s have a great day tomorrow.”  No, no.That’s great for little children. But that’s not who we are.Oh, have you taken a real good look at your life?  Have you taken a good look at your family?You say, “Well, my family is doing really good.”Well how about your culture?  How about your brother’s family?  Have you looked?  Have you paid attention to what is going on?  Do you know what they are teaching in your schools? Are you aware that they don’t... that education is not the point anymore?  It’s indoctrination.  Do you understand?I’m tired of it. I don’t know about you.  I am tired of education being put on the shelf and indoctrination to a world view becoming the most important thing that they think they are supposed to teach at the public school and the state schools and the private schools and everywhere else.It’s not about indoctrination into the point of view which is diversity. That is the biggest word in the world today, did you know that?  Diversity, tolerant. We have got to be diverse.  We have got to be tolerant. We have got to accept, just accept the pedophiles. Accept murder. Accept rape.  Accept incest.  Just accept it. Don’t just accept it, give your confirmation.Folks, I don’t want to do that.  God doesn’t want us to do that.  God wants us to tell the truth.  Be right. Live the light.  And tell the world what’s going on.Well, how is it going to...it’s not going to...we are not going to change anything, not in our own heart.  We are not going to change anything in our own heart by making a proclamation.  We are not going to change anything in our culture by getting a sign and marching down at the state house.  That’s not going to change it.What is going to change it? It is going to change when Christians get serious, diagnose their situation, weep, mourn, pray and fast.Keith Harrison is a friend of mine. He is a pastor in Illinois now, but back about 20 years when we were both trying to go to the mission field he became sick with Chrohn’s disease.  Keith is a gypsy. I mean, literally born of a gypsy family that has roots in Romania and in places like that in southern France. And was literally born to a gypsy family.He had many relatives that were hanged.  He had relatives that had the guillotine used on them way back to a time. He could tell you all these stories.Keith Harrison, as a young teenage boy played basketball at a gymnasium one night, was approached by a young fellow that invited him to church.  He went to church with him, took him out afterwards, bought him an ice cream and told him about Jesus.Keith didn’t believe immediately, but within three of four weeks he could never get away from that witness.  He went and found that young man, asked him could he go to his church.  He went to his church.  Keith got saved.  He loved the thought.  He couldn’t believe that God could save anybody, even a person born to a gypsy family that had murderers and homicidal maniacs in their history and he just couldn’t believe it.  But he got saved.And then he found out that God could actually use him and so he gave his heart to the Lord to do anything he wanted.  He decided,  “All right.  You want me to be a missionary?  I will.”He married a girl. They had some children. We were in the deputation mode at the same time.  He was going to Argentina and we were going to Peru.  And I will never forget.  Word comes that Keith Harrison is sick now. He is in the hospital. He is weighed at 83 pounds.  He is in the hospital. He is near death.  Keith had been there for weeks and weeks and he couldn’t do anything. And there he lay.People were trying to encourage him.  Visitors would come to see him.  Pastors had prayed over him. All the things that you would like to do and nothing seemed to just get him going. They just couldn’t get him over the hump of this disease.Many of you here know of it.  We have people in our church that have it to a lesser degree.Keith said, “I was laying there in my bed.” And he says, “I looked up from that hole. I looked up from that pit.  I looked up from that pit that I was and it looked like that there was no hope. I was in despair.  I wasn’t going to be able to fulfill the calling of God in my life and I said to my God, laying there looking up, ‘God, the only place I can look is up.  You are the only hope.  You called me to be your missionary, to be your emissary. And God I know you didn’t save me just to let me die like this.’”And so Keith called on the Lord to heal him.  “And, God, if you heal me I will be your missionary. I will be your man.  God, if you can bring me up out of this hole of despair, this place where I know that I...if you can do that, God, then I am going to live this life for you.”God raised Keith up off of that bed. He and his wife, two years later, did go to Argentina. They served there for 13 years. He is pastoring in Burbenay, Illinois as I stand here this morning preaching the gospel. And I am here to tell you that there is no hole of despair, there is no situation that is so bleak, there is no culture that is so corrupted, there is no family that is so disintegrated, there is no marriage that has gone so far...I’m telling you there is no situation that God is not interested in helping if we will do one thing.What does it say?  Face reality.What is it I want you to remember when you leave today?  I want you to remember one thing.  Face reality.Say it with me, “Face reality.”Take a good look at your life, a good look at your family, a good look at your children, your home and your culture.  Take a good look at it.Would you bow your heads and close your eyes?The last conclusion statement is: Change never happens until we admit there is a problem.  Is there a problem?  Let me pray for you.Father, I want to pray as we begin this Nehemiah series, Lord, that we would just be honest with ourselves.  Lord, help us not to hide, not to pretend, not to step over and around the situations of our lives.  Help us not shift the blame. Help us not try to get somebody else to just be responsible for us, but, Lord, help us to look ourselves square in the eye and look our problems square in the eye and help us, Lord, to face them.  Lord, I pray that you would work in our hearts.Nehemiah 1:1-4 (All Scripture references are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise indicated).Nehemiah 1:3,4Nehemiah 1:1Ibid.Nehemiah 1:4Sermon Transcript – September 9, 2007 Page  PAGE   * MERGEFORMAT 1 of 17