OCT 30 2022 | Rebuild: The Story of Nehemiah S1E6 | The Enemy Within

Sea Change Church · OCT 30 2022 | Rebuild Ep 6 | The Enemy Within
Nehemiah 5:14-19
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

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Wow. Amazing, guys. Well, good morning, church. Good morning. My name's Pastor Sean. I'm the volunteer's pastor. I'm Christina. I am executive assistant to Pastor Adam and Andrea. And we get to read you the scripture this morning. So we'll start off in Nehemiah chapter 5, 14 through 19. Moreover, from the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, when I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, until the 32nd year, 12 years, neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor.

But the earliest governors, those preceding me, placed a heavy burden on the people who took 40 shekels of silver and from them an additional food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God, I did not act like that. Instead, I devoted myself to the work on this wall. All of my men were assembled there for the work.

We did not acquire any land. Furthermore, 150 Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from the surrounding nations. Each day, one ox, six choice sheep, and some poultry were prepared for me. And every ten days, an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all this, I never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people.

Remember me with favor, my God, for all I have done for these people. So, the word of the word. The word of the word. The word of the word. The word of the word. The word of the word. The word of the word. The word of the word. The word of the word. The word of the word. I. the word of the word. the word of the word. the word of the word. . Oh, where do we begin?

The rubble or our sins? Oh, where do we begin? The rubble or our sins? And the walls are made out in the city that we love. You have your Bibles. Open up to Nehemiah chapter 5, 14 through 19. If you have a Bible, bring it. I do kind of run around the text a little bit. We're only able to put so much in the notes. But you want to bring it so you can look at some of the other verses that I bring up.

And right now we are in episode 6. We've got two more weeks following this life, this rebuilding process of Nehemiah. And we're following the journey of a nation to be rebuilt. A journey of a people that is a lot of expatriates coming back that have been taken, human trafficked to Babylon. Plus their relatives that were never taken away that lived there.

We had some tension between them. And then the individual life of Nehemiah. And throughout this story, we always want to hold the scripture up. One, to mirror God. We always want to hold it like a mirror where you can see yourself in the mirror. But you can also see the reflection of God. The scripture is a reflection of who God is. And we always want to start with that solution, right?

Don't start with your own problems. If you have a problem, start telling God how good he is. Start with the solution. We'll get to the problem. The problem will take care of itself. We see Nehemiah go on a trajectory, an upward trajectory in his life. If you make straight paths for yourself, the Bible is clear that while things might not always be perfect, God will be leading you in a triumphal procession.

He will make your paths straight. It also says make your own paths straight. So if you're making your own paths straight, and God's making them straight as well, you're going to have a pretty straight path. His trajectory goes from a human-trafficked cupbearer to the king that would possibly drink poison in order before the king would drink the cup.

There before the king as a servant, as a slave, as a grunt, to becoming a gatekeeper. Remember, he goes, he asks the king, he has courage, steps out and speaks, and he ends up going and rebuilding gates and becomes a gatekeeper to build the wall and the security around Jerusalem. He goes from a grunt to a gatekeeper. In this passage, God makes him a governor.

God raises him up. And what does governing do? Governing means you have influence. Governing means you have impact. Now, some people govern according to power. Jesus and God, I have seen, and Jesus in the New Testament governs according to influence. God has given him all the power, but he doesn't force his way in on people. That's the Jesus way.

He doesn't force his way in. He takes the back seat and uses his influence. He uses his resource. To make a difference. One of the things that will kill your ability to impact others and to use your resources is greed. We're talking about greed today because there is greed in this passage. And the patriots who never left, who were part of Jerusalem, they didn't take all the people to Babylon.

They'd lived there for years. They'd lived there 70 years while everyone else had been taken to Babylon in human traffic. Some of the Jews were left there. And they had gotten comfortable. Status quo. Why change anything? Sure, we're under Arctic Xerxes. Sure, we don't have the glory of the old nation. Sure, we don't have a temple anymore to worship in.

We can't have the religious life. But man, my store never got shut down. I get to fish at the same fishing well. I, you know, pond. I get to, I got my life. So when Nehemiah comes, he upsets the apple cart. I'm like, man, don't upset the apple cart. Remember, this was the rubble, the rabble, and the relatives last week. The relatives came to him and they said, hey, you're messing everything up.

Nehemiah stood up and he says, I want to make a difference and I want to govern. And we see that. And so what happened was when these people came back, these expatriates came back in three waves. Remember? Zerubbabel, meaning the offspring of his name, fun to say, Zerubbabel, brought back the offspring of Babylon and he rebuilt the temple. Remember, we didn't start with the walls.

That's one of the upside way, upside down ways God does things in our lives, right? He didn't start with the safety. He started with the temple. Zerubbabel builds a temple. Then Ezra comes and Ezra teaches the law. You got to know how to live. And then finally we get to the wall building, the security. It's almost like God saying, you put me first.

I got your security. We're eventually going to build that wall. These Jews, relatives of them that came there, they had some money. They had some swag. They had some influence. They lived there. They still had their houses. They still had their businesses. They had all these things. Other people are migrants. We see migrants all over the world today, right?

Have a migrant crisis all over the world. You see this shifting of people. That's who these expatriate Jews were. And when they got there, as opposed to welcoming them with open arms and saying, come into our house and we're going to care for you. You are relatives. They said, I got a better idea. If you need to survive, we're going to lend you some money.

And we're going to do it at 12% per annum. No, 12% per month. Not per annum. Per month. And they started extracting upon the Jews, as we'll see in a moment, these expatriates, at a really high extortionist type of rate. It was almost like those money lending businesses that you see in certain parts of the city. It was greed. It was greed. And greed was the thing that was going to, if they didn't fix this, was going to destroy from within.

Everything else, we talked about the first week. We talked about the enemy of your thoughts. And then later on, last week, we talked about the outside enemies. There was enemies that were coming to destroy, maybe to bring it into your camp. Maybe there's a boss who kind of acts like an enemy or a neighbor or a parent or a former friend or whoever.

And we talked about how God protected the people in that position. Well, now there's another enemy. That enemy is within the walls. But the greatest threat to the stronghold of your life is often from within its own walls. It was their relatives who were actually taking these exorbitant amounts of money, and it was actually going to destroy the ability to rebuild these walls and to rebuild a nation.

But they didn't care because they had what they wanted. It said, the greatest threat to the stronghold of your life, your life's a stronghold, right? Your life is a stronghold. Strongholds give you the ability to have influence and governance over a larger territory. It's amazing, as you see when castles are built. I love studying castles. I mentioned that.

I was studying Edward I recently in the 1200s, and he built five castles in Wales. And through these five little castles, you know, maybe four or five, ten times the size of this building here, maybe not even, you know, this whole property here, maybe three times the size, was able to subject all of Wales with five strongholds. Be surprised if you have a stronghold in your life that is full of prayer and boundaries and God's word, how you'll have influence to bring the kingdom to other people.

The greatest threat, though, to the stronghold of your life is often from within the walls. And within the walls this time was greed. Greed? Now, let's talk about that in our own lives today. That's what we're talking about. It's this idea of greed. Greed is anything that is beyond, oftentimes, not anything, is oftentimes something that is beyond need.

There is need, and then there is greed. And we can, when we look at greed, it's easy to look at yourself and say, I'm not greedy. You know, it's Christmas time, right? So you think about these different, we're getting close to Christmas, actually, as we're turning the corner into fall. You think of Scrooge, right? You think, ah, I'm not like Scrooge.

I'm not like the Grinch up there looking at all the, you know, down at Whoville. That's not me. We often miss how subtle greed can be in our lives. It's just subtle. There are shades of greed. Greed. And these shades can have an incredible effect on the trajectory and the balance of your life. Greed is wanting more than you've been given. It's living sometimes above your mean.

It can actually be a lust, a lust for control. It can be a sexual lust. It can be all these, where you just want more. You want to control relationships. You want more things. So often it has to do with money. It's overextending yourself. And we seem to do this every 15 years in our nation, that we overextend ourselves. In 2004 and in 2008, there's this greed cycle.

And then we all pay the price. And we're all going to fix it from now on and not overextend ourselves. Greed is when you overextend yourself. We're going to look at greed today. This excessive desire, oftentimes excessive desire, to acquire or possess more than one needs. Here's the context before we get into these verses. Context. Powerful Jews were taking advantage of the repatriates, inflicting heavy burdens upon them through predatory lending during a time of famine.

I haven't even brought that up. That there was a famine. When God called them to rebuild the wall, he did it at one of the worst possible times. You know, God is not constricted by the circumstances of your life. Now, I have people, a lot of times, young couples, we're not going to get married until we can afford it. Like people in slums in Mumbai in India never get married.

They get married all the time. And it's always like, well, when we can afford it, we're going to get married. You can afford it now. Like there's been poor people forever that have been able to get married for like thousands and thousands of years. But sometimes we're like, well, we're not going to do that because everything's got to be perfect before I can ever make a move for God in my life.

Everything's got to be perfect. Like now, we need to use wisdom. Sometimes timing, God saying no. So I'm not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. But in this instance, and it takes a lot of wisdom to look around and to see that God was still calling them to do something. And it wasn't going to be influenced by their circumstances. They were still under slavery.

There was tons of rubble, right? It was all this rubble. Their life was surrounded by rubble. Rubble's an excuse, right? Rubble is such an incredible excuse in our life. They have all this rubble that surrounded them. And one of the most profound points for me personally last week, actually, I didn't prepare the point. It came to me while I was preaching.

And I'm like, okay, that's a good one, Holy Spirit. Thank you. I'll take it. It's that the entire wall that they built was not built out of newly hewn stones, beautiful polish from RC block and brick up in Encinitas or wherever they would get them. It was just ripped down, broken, and they had burned the stones in order to make them weaker. The stronghold that God had called them to build was built from the rubble.

And sometimes God wants to use the rubble of your life to rebuild and to build a stronghold in your life. And he also says, hey, the timing might be wrong, but I'm calling you to do it. Let's look at a couple of the things that were happening here in this context. I put, go to Nehemiah 5.1. If you have your scripture, you're going to need a Bible to look at that one.

Now, the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews. They raised this outcry because when God called them to build, it was not financially prudent for migrants to come back and build. They didn't have any money. They were coming back with maybe just the clothes on their back all the way back. Here's what was happening at this time.

It was incredible. It says, one, there was a famine going on. Two, there was inflation. So supply and demand, huge inflation was happening. There was a king's tax that could go up to 30%. Somewhere between 10% and 30%. Just the king's tax. So the king is, you know, taking a little scoop off the top. Besides the king's tax, you had this predatory lending where they said, well, if you can't afford 12% per month.

12% per month is steep. 12% a year right now. If you've got a car loan at 12% per month. I mean, even with all the interest rates rising, 12% a year is steep. 12% per month their relatives were charging them. It says they were charging them that as well as the 10% tithe that God required, right? So in the Old Testament, there was a 10% required tithe.

Jesus has freed us from the requirement of the tithe. Now we can tithe because we just love God. You don't have to. But if you take that up to 30% plus the 12% per month plus the 10% of God plus the famine plus the 10% inflation, there ain't much to live on at that point. And you're thinking, okay, God, I just got to hunker down here. I got to quit.

I got to tap out. I got to complain. I got to have all. And God says, no, we got to build. It's time to build. It's time to rock. It's time to roll. Let's go. And so I want to challenge you. If there's something, if there's a building project in front of your life right now that is separate from greed but something that God has called you to do, and you're saying, oh, I'm fearful that now is not the right time, it might not be the right time.

So wisdom, use the word of God. But there are times where God says, I'm calling you now separate of the circumstances, and you'll just know. Sometimes in your heart, follow that voice in your heart, and you will just oftentimes know. So I put today as we talk about greed and how that can throw you off because this greed of these relatives was throwing off the entire nation.

Now let's use the word of God to talk about us, right? Greed, this desire to have more than we need. Now it's okay to have more than we need, but greed is when it starts throwing you off, when it starts becoming a little bit obsessive, and it can come in levels. You know, 10% of greed still ain't good. It's like being 10% alcoholic. You're still 10% alcoholic, you know?

10% of greed is still not good. And so I put greed and contentment can never coexist. You can, contentment and greed will never coexist. And one of the things that ruins our contentment, one of the things that ruins our peace, one of the things that ruins our happiness, is that we want more for the sake of wanting more. And so we see the greed and contentment.

Now there's two points for today, and we'll tap out. One, let go of greed. Survey the wall. Walk around your life and say, hey, is this a natural desire? Is this something God's really calling me to? Do I really need this thing in my life? And what would my life look like without it? Do I really need it? This is a crucial question for living a life of meaning.

Do I need this? As we'll see, spoiler alert, at the end of the message, until you let go of those type of things, those things that you might pursue and want, but don't really need, you'll never be able to see the things that you're truly called to. When you are chasing something that is beyond your needs, when you are chasing something that you want, just because you want it, or for luxury's sake, or for control's sake, when you're chasing those things, you can't see the rest from the top of the vista.

We'll talk about that in a moment. But when you let go of those things, you'll see it opens up a space in your life that will open up. That happened to Nehemiah. We'll talk about that at the very end in the conclusion. Let go of greed. And the second one is cultivate contentment. Cultivate contentment. Really difficult. I think it's, what I think is really interesting is we keep telling ourselves, if you chase after this thing, that thing we want, if you chase after it, you will eventually be content.

As opposed to, just be content now. No, you have to chase, because when you get there, you'll keep chasing. Somebody said at the break to me, if you're not happy with the old Toyota in the driveway, or in content, you're not going to be content with the Ferrari either. That's actually true. Contentment is an art form. Contentment is a discipline.

And you know who chooses if you're content? You. No one chooses. You have control over your contentment. Now, there are times where we need to make changes in our life. But there are certain times where you say, I just need to be content with what I have. Let's look at this, let go of greed. Verse 15. But, circle but, that's one of our conjunctions.

The earlier governors, so there's a difference, those preceding me, he made it clear, placed a heavy burden on the people. We took 40 shekels of silver from them in addition to the food and the wine. Their assistance lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God, I did not act like that. There was a culture of consumption. There was a culture of consumption.

And there was no conviction that they were hurting the people because they were in a culture of consumption. They were consuming more and more. And they're saying, well, we're in charge. God has put us here. They're using a lot of God language. And the people were under the thumb of these governors. The governors were using their influence to increase their wealth, to increase their lust, to increase their desire, not caring for others.

I love this word, these conjunctions in the scripture. When you read the scripture, never miss if. If you do this. Never miss therefore. Therefore, I did this. Never miss but. But I did this. The conjunctions are where the story turns. When something happens in your life, you get a diagnosis or a bill in the mail you weren't expecting. Or somebody says something to you or whatever it is.

Or something good happens. Because the scripture also says that you are tested by the praise that you receive. So I see a lot of people, when you succeed, I think success is harder than failure. Personally, I have found. And I've seen more people struggle with success. I've seen more people win after a big failure, meaning God stepped into their life and they turned it around, than I have seen people have an incredible amount of success and be able to manage it.

Managing success is difficult. And when you get to the top of the mountain, how do you live? We see, but, therefore, the governance that he was using, he chose, as we'll see in a minute in the contentment piece, to take less than he actually deserved. It was actually in law to give it to him. It says, but, out of reverence for God, I did not act like that.

The conjunctions of your life. You know what? Nobody's getting married anymore. Forget about commitment. But, me and my fiance, we committed to each other for life. On and on. But, I did this. Therefore, I did this. This is what you will change. I put the conjunctions will oftentimes overcome the corruption. The conjunctions will overcome the corruption.

What will you do when push comes to shove? Oh, I had a bad day at work. So, I went and did this or that. Greed is a ravenous glutton whose appetite is never content. And, once having eaten, continues to lust for more. Why did he do it? Did he do it just to empty himself? So, you know, Buddhism gets this. I mean, they get it really well. This idea of emptying yourself for the sake of emptying yourself.

Now, you're supposed to empty yourself until you actually find nirvana by emptying yourself. The Christian ethos, the Judeo-Christian ethos, is empty yourself so that you can be filled with God. And, we're being filled with God here. So, why did he want less? What was the reasoning? Because God was enough. He said, but out of reverence for God, I did not act like that.

What does greed say? The bumper sticker of your life, what does greed say? God, you're not enough for me. What you have given me is not enough. You are not enough for me. I have to have more. Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't have dreams. I'm not saying you shouldn't have desires. I'm not saying you shouldn't pursue that thing you want. But, can you keep it in check?

And, if you don't get it, how are you? I've seen so many people's faith shipwrecked because they couldn't have that baby. Had so many people's faith shipwrecked because they didn't find that husband until so long. Or, they lost the house or the thing they wanted. Or, there's all these things that they want. Or, their career. No one sang their song.

No one danced their dance. They didn't get that thing that they want. Jesus says, the scripture says, seek ye for it's the kingdom of God. And, all these other things will be added to you secondarily. People, often times, shipwreck their faith because they want more than they need. What would it look like if you actually just lived for a week and only took and used what you needed?

What if you only lived according to your needs? What if you only got enough sleep as you needed? What if you only ate as much as you needed? What if you only spent as much as you needed? What if you just spent a week? Say, I'm going to do an experiment. I'm going to spend a week and I'm just going to live according to my needs. Now, there is a level where they say, you know, you obviously have to have basic human needs.

I'm not talking about basic human needs. I'm not talking about people in Africa and here in the inner city. I was at, man, I was up in L.A. at Skid Row. Oh, my goodness. What a train wreck. Oh, it was horrible. It was, it's crazy. It's like a war zone up there. I was up there this week. I'm not talking about those basic human needs. I mean, just so much poverty and things going on up there.

But beyond that, when we get past our, you know, our basic human needs of living, what's as little, have you ever asked yourself, what's as little as I can live with? Like, that's never our question, is it? It's never, how little do I need? How many, how few times do I need to go out to eat? How little do I need to spend? How, how small of a house can I actually live in?

We never think that way. Say, you know, when it comes to like, you know, the, the, the arguments, the discussions about climate and all, uh, climate and all these other things that are going on. I've always thought this way before the climate, um, conversation is where it is today. Back when we were just, the only thing that mattered was the rainforest and the Amazon.

That was all we saved. In the 80s, we just took care of the rainforest. There was nothing else going on. Now it's the whole world. Uh, you know, I've always thought this since then. Use less. Like, like, you know what's more powerful than solar and electric cars? Using less. Like, use, if everyone just uses less, but no one talks about that. It's always like, we got to create solar and we got to, and great.

Separate, I don't, I don't want to have that conversation. Like, we got to do all these, it's all this stuff we have to do, but there's very little like, hey, just have one car, you know? Or live where you can walk to work, or no, God forbid we do that, you know what I mean? Like, there's never any of this. So the question, I mean, I guess the experiment, first of all, in regard to, you know, letting go of greed, and one of the best ways to do it is just to live, like, below your means.

Use as little as possible. You'll see how when you do that, your life will expand. All of a sudden, you'll have time you haven't expected to have before. You'll have margin to thought. How little do you need to be on your phone? I mean, I'm not saying you move to, like, an island, like a monk, you know, and live with the puffins. I mean, there was this one monk, seriously, and he's off of Berwick in northern Scotland, and he moved to live with the puffins.

And you could smell the island. It's like three miles away, and it smells horrible. And he made a little hut out there, and he lived all by himself out with the puffins. I like puffins a lot. I don't want to live on an island with the puffins. So I'm not talking about being so, you know, so much asceticism where you're just, you know, wearing a hair shirt, you know what I mean, and whipping yourself.

Because I'm not talking about that. I'm just saying, you know, enough's enough. Half of a burrito's enough for me today. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's not a cookie. One cookie, I'll just eat nine. I'm that guy. You know, I just want more. You know, if I have one hour on the internet, on Netflix, I don't really watch Netflix, whatever, but five hours is better.

You know? Like, something's always better. Something's always more, you know? It's funny. You want to tick people off? Like, it doesn't tick people off. Like, when you talk about money, if you just said, I don't really need more money. Like, people, they think, like, you're bragging. It doesn't mean you're bragging. It's just, maybe you just have enough.

I mean, many of us have enough money to survive, right? Like, but we, it's not enough. We want more. Like, most of you could probably say, most of you could probably say, I don't need any more money. Most of you could probably, I mean, we live in a different culture. We don't live in the slums in India. But no one lives that way. No one lives in a way to have less.

And so, one of the ways we overcome greed is by just letting go. By just letting go and say, I'm not willing to pursue that anymore. Or I have more important things to do with my life. Does that mean you shouldn't write your book? No. Does that mean that you shouldn't try to be on America's Got Talent or whatever you want to do or buy your Toyota or I don't know, whatever your thing is.

We all got a thing, right? You're out. You want a farm. My wife and I, we'd love to have a little farm, right? Like, we kind of want it. But I've gotten to the point now, I literally think I can live in a van down by the river. Like, we've even had that conversation. What if we just got a little van and just, like, became one of those hosts at, like, one of the, like, you know, the recreation, the parks, like, San Alejo.

And we just live in the van, like, you know, drive each other crazy in a van. Nonetheless, where am I allowing discontent in my life because I don't have something I want? Where am I? If you're discontent, it's a you problem. It's a you problem. And it's also saying to God oftentimes, you're not enough, I need this thing to. I'm not talking about basic human needs.

I'm saying if you're not content with something, that's a you thing. You are the gatekeeper of your contentment. You can just say, you know what? I don't want that anymore. I'm going to let it. Or if I don't get it, that's fine. I'm never going to have the big yard for my family and the house because I can't afford it. Housing markets, how to reach.

You know what, though? I can walk to the park. And you know what? Walking to the park is good enough, and I get to say hi to my neighbors on the way. You can choose that if you want. Next one, cultivate content. Verse 14. Moreover, from the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, when I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, until his 32nd year, 12 years, neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor.

Wow. Neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. It was given to them. They didn't eat it. Did you see in the passage what he did with it? He invited a whole bunch of people over to eat. You see what he did? He could have just had it. They actually had a thing where to show... They did this in England as well. In the 16th century, I think it was under Charles.

It was under Charles II. They would have these... I could get my centuries wrong, but I know under Charles II. They would have these things where they would make enough food for 1,000 people. And then everyone would come to the party. 1,000 people would come, and they'd look at the food. And then they would scrap the food and throw it away and bring the same food out hot, just to show how rich they were.

That is a true thing. Charles II would come out. He's one of the little dogs that you see. And they would bring out this food, just the opulence of it. Nehemiah is completely the opposite. Nehemiah is like, I could have this food. I'm just going to... That's when they were doing... In Charleston, they had all those masks and everything. It was all crazy opulence.

They were building the massive stuff that you see on Downton Abbey. Nehemiah was completely different. Nehemiah is like, I'm just going to invite everyone to sit at my table. How much of a... Isn't that a better life? Just to invite people, I got all this food. I'm not even going to take what's allotted to me. I'm just going to give it away. Do you see how the vista of your life, the vision of your life just opens up when you live like that?

When you live with less, how little can you actually live with? Jesus is our exemplar when it comes to living beneath our means. Jesus is our exemplar when it comes to living beneath our means. Philippians 2. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who existing in the form of God, the very form of God, did not consider his equality with God something he needed to hold onto, to grasp.

grasp. But he emptied himself and he even became a servant. He even became a servant. This is our exemplar. That he didn't hold on. He was willing to give it all away. He was God. He was still God when he came to earth. Fully human. Fully God. But he gave up the rights of being God. He gave up the being the all-knowing. He gave up the all-present. He kept the deity within him, but he let those things go.

Are we even willing to give up an argument? Have you ever been in an argument in a point, like discussing something with somebody and the person, you can't even give up the point? Like, are you even willing just to, like, give that up? Like, something as small as that. Jesus gives them heaven. But we're like, we won't give up anything. Or a lane.

Somebody cuts you off on the road. Ah, I'm going to show them. Like an idiot. You know, put your whole life at risk, you know. Because you've got to show them, you know. They took your parking spot. Who cares? Jesus gave up the, that's our, that's our, that is our model. He's the exemplar. He's the one that gave it up completely to be content. He was content with what he had.

Socrates said this, he who is not content with what he has would never be content with what he would like to have. If you are not content now, no matter where you go, no matter where you get, it will not make you content. Contentment has nothing to do with your circumstances. Paul shows this when he's singing in prison. Has nothing. If you are not content right now, it is a you problem that you can fix.

You can fix by letting it go and saying, God, you are all I need. Now granted, once again, not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Maybe there are some basic needs and some things that you really need. You're going to need to decide the balance there because we have to live in tension, right? But if you're not content now with the studio apartment, you know, you know, with the small thing that you have when you get the mansion, you ain't going to be any more content.

You're going to have more, dopamine hits more often, but you ain't going to be any more content. I don't know if you've been there. I've been there. I've been sitting on the beach in Indonesia, Australia as a young guy with everything I want, everything I wanted and thinking to myself, I think I want to die. I was 19. I was on the beach. I was sitting there and I was in Indonesia and I had everything, all the drugs I wanted, all the, everything.

Everything you could have there. Surfing is incredible. It was the best. It was everything I'd ever dreamed of. And I thought, what is, I just want to die. I was just, I remember I was just thinking, what's this all about? It's just meaningless. I just learned early on. Just a van down by the river and Jesus is all I need. You know what I'm saying?

Let's finish. And my lovely wife, Carrie. Contentment opens, here's the conclusion. Contentment opens new frontiers when you want less. The boundaries of your life expand. It could be said that want is a form of slavery. In verse 16, he says, instead, there's that conjunction. What are you going to do? I devoted myself to the work on this wall. All my men were assembled there for the work and we didn't acquire any land.

He gave it all up. He even gave up stuff that was due him. He already had it. He wasn't giving up the desire to go get something. He was giving up what he already had. And in the midst of doing that, he was able to get about a business of not chasing after things, of actually going and doing what he was called to do. I have realized that when I am going after the things that I want, you know what I mean, I really want, when I'm going after those things, they're so big in my vision.

They're just huge. I remember I used to go to SeaWorld when I was a kid and they had this thing you could run through. They were like these bags that, you know, the football players hit and there was a ton of them and they would hang. And some of you guys are, you know, shaking your head. You remember that at Captain Kids Land or something like that?

And I remember you'd get in them and you'd just be like getting hammered by them. And they were so big and you couldn't see them. You'd see your friend for a second. That's what it's like with all of our wants. When you let go of your wants, it's like you step up on this vista. And all of a sudden you look over the whole plane and you can see everything.

Everything slows down. And then you can actually ask yourself, what do I really want to do with my life? What's it about? What can I go after? That is what we're looking for. These wants, bigger house, bigger thing, more fame, more control relationships, all that's going to cloud you. And to just see what happens when you slow down, live according to your needs, and see what opens up.

You might actually have the time to do the thing that you're meant to do. You might actually, for the first time ever, see what you're actually meant to see. And actually see who you are to be. Amen? All right, let's stand. If you want prayer after the service, you can come for prayer. If you want to sit and meditate, Bonnie will be tickling the keys.

We want to pray for you. If you want to have a relationship with Jesus, come here. Check it out. You're also going to check out our volunteer fair. We want you to serve here at the church. Be a part of it. Tons of fun pizza out there and all kinds of good stuff. I want to bless you today. Extend your hands. I want to bless you. God said to Abraham, who you bless, I'll bless.

So we can bless. I choose to bless you today. Choose to bless you with contentment. Letting it all go. Nothing but the blood. You need to say to Jesus, nothing but the blood. The blood's all I need. The blood of Jesus is all I need. Happy in my old car. Happy in my old chair. Lord God, bless these people, Jesus. Bless them with an ability, God, to cling to you, to have joy in you, and to see for the first time ever an expanse in front of them that is high, rarefied air, higher altitude than their base wants.

God, bless them. Give them joy. Let them rest in the moment. Give them you. Give them hope and love and peace. Give them your prosperity, God. And then open those fun doors, God. And all of a sudden their dreams will chase them down and lay at their feet. And then they'll really know how to live with them. Pray for that servant's heart. Nehemiah became a governor after he was a servant.

We pray for a servant's heart. We just give up less, Jesus. Bless this church. Let us take more, have more impact, more dominion, more dominion for these people that are listening, that are here, God. More dominion in their families. We pray over their holiday dinner tables. Pray over the conversations, God, to let things go. And to love God and to be with you.

We send you out now as an army of God's consolation, as wall builders, as wall builders, as gatekeepers, as authority bringers, as kingdom bringers. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. We love you. We'll see you next week. Have a great one.