SEP 25 2022 | Rebuild: The Story of Nehemiah S1E1 | The Story of Nehemiah

Sea Change Church · SEP 25 2022 | Rebuild | The Story of Nehemiah
Nehemiah 1:1-11
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands and decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses. Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses saying, if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me and obey my commands, then even your exiled people are at the farthest horizon.

I will gather them from there and I will bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my name. They are your servants and your people whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name.

Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man. I was cupbearer to the king. The word of the Lord. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Where do we begin the rubble or our sins? Oh, where do we begin the rubble or our sins? And the old capital laid out in the city that we love. Oh, where do we begin the rubble or our sins?

He wanted me to dive back into the Old Testament for the fall. I wasn't following my Jewish calendar to the chagrin of Kimberly. Apologize, but it just happened to fall on Rosh Hashanah as we started. And God had began to speak about a few things. And he began to speak through culture. He began to speak in all these different ways. One of the ways is I was listening to just a sound mix.

A friend of mine sent me on Spotify. And that song by Bastille came up, Pompeii. And I listened to it as I was reading through Nehemiah. I'm like, this is a story of Nehemiah. The walls come tumbling down. What are you going to do? It's one person who's standing there. His dark clouds come over. Is he going to make a change in his life? Is he going to rebuild from the ashes, so to speak?

And then the key thing that it says in that song, and you saw in the video as well, is where do we begin? The rubble or our sin? When we're starting a rebuilding project in our lives, in the different things we want to do, where do we begin? We oftentimes begin with the rubble. What we're going to find by the book of Nehemiah is that God called them not to start with the rubble of the wall, the thing that would bring them security.

He told them to start with the temple. He said, I want you to begin with your sins. And as you see, as you saw in this passage, that in order to rebuild walls of security, in order to build stability in your life, in order to build prosperity of God's blessing, and I mean his presence by that or whatever he chooses to bring, we need to start with the thing that matters.

And we don't start with the rubble. We start with our hearts. And so that is the key. And so the story of Nehemiah is the story of one man's journey, one person's journey. Let me just read it from your notes exactly. The book of Nehemiah is the story of one man's 52-day journey to restore the walls of a nation. Now what is interesting in this is he restored all the walls that had been torn down in 52 days.

And the challenge to you, and the challenge that I felt like the Lord spoke to me is, this is going to be an eight-week series. And for the next 52 days, starting with New Year, today is a spiritual new year in the Scriptures, in the Old Testament, and I love what Kimberly said, that this is a feast of the Lord. No one really owns the feast. It is a feast of the Lord.

We can enter into it if we choose to. That this is a day where you can begin a 52-day process to rebuild the relationships in your life, the addictions in your life, the things that have breached the walls of your life, or perhaps there's some gates. We'll talk about that. And Nehemiah's strategy to rebuild. So this is a 52-day call to, we're going to see Nehemiah survey the walls.

He's going to go around. He has all these strategies. But basically, we're going to start with the first thing, the heart. We'll talk about that this week. But 52 days. And I guess the question is, do you want to join us? We're talking, we're not waiting until January 1st. The goal is this, that you get to January 1st, and you're like, man, I've done the heavy lifting.

Now I'm going to fine-tune. Because if he can rebuild the walls of a nation in 52 days, you can rebuild your marriage in 52 days. You can rebuild your finance in 52 days. It may take a while for that to play out. But you can do the things that matter. So we're starting. And I'm inviting you into that. I've been looking at my life. We were at a marriage conference.

A lot of our couples, I think we have 11, 12 couples that are still there right now. We left early so I could be back for this series. But my wife and I looked, and we just said, what are the things you want to do to, you know, we're getting ready to be empty nesters at some point, to rebuild. And we had a fabulous, fabulous time. And we're excited about what it is.

So let me just pray for you in that. And then we're going to jump right in. Lord Jesus, we just bless you. We want to see the next 52 days be a strong 52 days. Some people are looking at addiction. Some people are looking at whether it be lust, God, or just unkindness, or just things they want to get rid of. They want to rebuild. They need a security and a stronghold.

We pray for that, God, that 52 days, God, of your presence and your power to change our lives and to change this place. In Jesus' name, amen. Here's a historical context of the book of Nehemiah. I want to encourage you to read through at least the first 12, 13 chapters. But if you can read the book of Nehemiah, you know, as an addendum to what you're already doing in your scripture, it'll really help you with the scripture and this message.

I want to say that it's a lot easier to preach to people when they have a little bit of a context so I don't have to back up everything. It allows me to hit the point. So if you have a chance to get into that, I encourage you to read a little bit of Nehemiah chapter a day, and you'll be done pretty quick. The book of Nehemiah was originally two books, and it's been put in together.

It's Ezra and Nehemiah. It actually goes through the Chronicles and then Ezra and Nehemiah. Yeah, so they were two books that originally were one book. So they were two books now in the Bible that are originally one book. And they chronicle the last 150 years. That's Ezra and Nehemiah. Chronicle the last 150 years of Israel's history before a great silence.

And one of the tragic things is after all this renewal, the people's hearts go back to the things that they shouldn't. False gods. They go back to all these other things. And at that point, God says, that's enough. And there's a 400-year silence with the book of Malachi. The book of Malachi is a prophet, and there is no more speaking from God, no more writings, no more prophets for 400 years until John comes into the desert, and you have the birth of Jesus.

And so then all of a sudden you have the New Testament begins. This book is the last book written in the Old Testament. I know Malachi is the last book. But Malachi was preaching during this period, but the last book that was actually written was the book of Nehemiah. So this book ends, officially, ends the New Testament. It was also written after a 70-year exile.

So you have 500 years before, you have King David, you have Solomon, and then you have the nation falls, and you have a divided kingdom where Judah gets separated from Israel, and you have about 400, 350 years of that. And then God says, enough's enough. I'm going to use another nation to come in and take you captive. And that nation of Israel is captive for 70 years.

Now the book of Ezra and Nehemiah, Nehemiah especially, speak of three main characters that you want to know. And you might want to read Ezra and Nehemiah. It's really fascinating reading and a lot of practical for your day. The three characters are this. The first main character is Zerubbabel. Now Zerubbabel is the first character who shows up.

You'll see in your notes, he returns exiles to Jerusalem. He migrates from Babylon after the captivity and goes back to in order to rebuild the temple. So realize that when God sent the first person back from the 70-year captivity, some Jews were still left there that were living there. They had tried to repopulate. This is what they did in the Old Testament and back in antiquity.

If they destroyed a city, they would move inhabitants into that place in order to destroy the culture. So they would take people from other places and move them in to destroy the culture, to ruin it. Well, you were never able to do this with the Jews because the Jews had these customs culture that they lived by. That's why 2,000 years later in 1948, the Jews can be reassembled again to become a nation in Israel.

Now, at the end of Nehemiah's time, Israel was not a nation again from the end of that, about 400 years before Christ, all the way to 1948. And that is a prophetic thing that happened, and it's amazing. But they were able to reassemble as a nation because they had this cultural background. Now, that would be very difficult to do with, say, any other culture that has existed that doesn't have that same lineage.

So if you were to get the Aztecs back together or some other nation from antiquity, it would be very difficult to do. They had their lineage. They knew where they came from. They kept their birth records. They kept the same feast. It was this culture that kept them together. So Zerubbabel, 70 years after the captivity, brings back a group of exiles for one reason, to rebuild the walls and be safe?

No. He brings them back to rebuild the temple. Now, this is a really key point. We'll talk about it in one of the two key points, but he rebuilds a temple. And when you're starting, if you're going to rebuild your life, if there's some breaches in the walls, if there's some places where there's just, you know, the enemy can come into your life easily because the gates have been torn down.

He doesn't even have to breach walls because the gates are wide open. You've opened the gates for one reason or another or through the way you speak or whatever it would be. Then he came back. You know, normally you would close those up. But that's not what Zerubbabel is called to do. He comes back and God says, I'll take care of the safety. You take care of your temple.

So that's key. One of the key points is this. You have to do some heart work. You've got to go back to your heart and you begin, as we see with Nehemiah, with some confession. And you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that in the New Testament, that you are the temple. So where do we begin? Where does a renewal project begin? Where does this 52-day journey for us begin?

It begins with the temple of our bodies. It begins with the temple that the Holy Spirit dwells in within our souls and going back in confession and humbling ourselves before God. We have to do that as a people. That is the only hope for us individually. It is the only hope for this nation. It is the only hope for this world. It starts that renewal always starts with the church.

It starts with God's people. God says, if those that don't know you humble themselves and confess their sins, no, it doesn't say that. It says, if my people humble themselves and confess their sins, then I will, and it goes on to say what he will do. The changing of a nation, the changing of a world, the changing of a culture always begins with us individually, and it begins with the individual heart.

Do you want to start with that journey? So that's Zerubbabel. The next player that comes in about, I don't know, 60 years after Zerubbabel is Ezra. Ezra comes in to teach Torah and to rebuild the community. The people had forgotten the culture. They had forgotten the Torah. They had forgotten how to live before God. Now, there's this one incredible story in the Old Testament where there's a king, and the king is king of Israel, and it's before this time, and they find an old Torah, and they come and read it to him.

He goes, I've never heard of this before. He's a Jewish king. He'd never heard of the Torah, and he's all, we're supposed to follow God? And they're like, well, that's what we found in the old library. And he's like, come read this to me. I mean, they had completely forgotten. So Ezra comes, and he restores teaching. That is why an understanding of the Bible, an understanding of what God's Word said, and adhering to what the Word of God says is so important.

We want to be a Bible-teaching church. We want to go deep, and we want to disciple people up to know the Word of God. So Ezra comes. After the temple is restored, and he restores the teaching. And then after the teaching, God sends Nehemiah. Nehemiah means God comforts. Now, Zerubbabel means the offspring of Babylon. Zerubbabel. So it means that he is bringing offspring back to the place of God.

And I want to encourage you, if there's things in your life that need to be purified before God, take all those things and bring them to the face of God. Augustine says anything you cannot present to the face of God is in darkness. He says anything that you cannot present in your life to the face of God, if you cannot look upon God, then you stand in the darkness and you walk in the darkness.

That was St. Augustine. Really key. So Zerubbabel brings this offspring that don't even probably know the Torah, and he reminds them who they are, and he says, we're going to go back, and he brings people with him. I love that. That when you get right with God, it's almost impossible. I would say it's impossible not to bring people with you. When you get right with God, you're going to lead people with you.

I believe that we all lead people somewhere, and we're all leading them somewhere. But when you get right. So Zerubbabel was a person, and his name meant offspring of Babylon. Ezra means God protects. How did he protect? Ezra didn't build the wall. No, but he taught the Torah. How does God protect? What actually protects you? Your protection doesn't come from a wall.

Your protection comes from the presence of God, and it says, his word is a lamp unto my feet. God's word is a protective barrier in your life, and it is a stronghold. Now, the walls that Nehemiah builds, these things that keep them safe, are a metaphor for what God is actually doing with his presence and with his word. If you want your life to be protected, follow the word of God.

One of the best things you can do to protect your life is follow the word of God. And the next one we see is Nehemiah. Nehemiah means God comforts. So we go from the offspring of Babylon to God protects to God comforts. You see what happens. All of a sudden, Nehemiah is having a people that God is beginning to comfort. And so that is how we move.

Nehemiah arrives after Ezra with the purpose of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Two points today. Two main points that I really want you to take home. One, disregard for the values and ways of God leads to exile. It might not even be God being a part of it. Now, in the case of Israel, God's like, hey, I've had enough. I mean, it's been hundreds of years of your doing, you know, they're sacrificing their children to the fire, destroying their children.

There's all these things that they're doing. And at a certain point, God's like, enough's enough. I'm going to allow this nation to come in. He didn't cause them, the Babylonians or the Assyrians, to do the evil. But he just said, I'm removing my protection. You ever seen that? You know, there was a movie, I think, in the 80s about my bodyguard.

It was about this kid, and he had a big bodyguard guy. And he was protected because he had that bodyguard. Think about God protecting Israel. The bodyguard, in the end, when the bodyguard left, didn't say to the bullies, hey, come beat him up. The bodyguard just dipped. Then all of a sudden, they're there. And it's like, oh, you know, fresh pickings.

That is what happened. So God just removed his protection. And if you want to live in darkness, there is a protection of God. But at a certain point, but God in his mercy, because he wants you to experience that the things that you're going after don't work, sometimes will remove his protection. Now, God removed a lot of his protection, but there's certain times in my life where I realize he's like, okay, enough's enough.

I'm going to step back in. I got this. And I would go back to God. And then I'd get right with God for a while, and then boom, I'm back out. I don't know if you've done that little two-step with God, you know, back and forth. He protects you, then you start feeling good again. So we see that there is that protection in that. And so disregard for the values and the ways of God.

Go to verse 8. Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, if you are unfaithful, if you are unfaithful, if, key word, I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them. I will gather them up and bring them to the place that I have chosen as a dwelling for my name.

Maybe your family's in tatters. Maybe they're scattered to the farthest horizons. Does God have the ability, starting with you, to regather those people? That's the story of our family. Scattered. My mom made a decision to follow Jesus, got right with God, and they have come back. You know, the chicks have come back home. Chicks have come to roost.

And so you see that God is doing that and bringing them back. Where are you leading people to? And by the way that you rebuild your life, if you want to rebuild your life, you're going to bring people with you. You are a bringer of peace. You are a bringer of peace. You are a bringer of healing. You are a bringer of unity. You are a peacemaker. And that starts with our own journey.

And so we see that. And then the second point, rebuilding begins with the heart. Rebuilding begins with the heart. All right, here's the first point. Disregard the values and the ways of God always leads to exile. They said to me, those that survived, verse 4. They said to me, those that survived the exile are back in the province again. Now, this is someone coming to Nehemiah.

Nehemiah was a cupbearer of the king. He meant he drank a drink before the king would drink it, so it might be filled with poison. That's a rough job. You know what I mean? I don't know what the workers' comp premiums are on that, but a rough job. So God put him in a place, even though he was in persecution, he was under subjection, he was actually a slave, put him in a place of authority.

It's interesting that even in our slavery sometimes, even when we're trying to, if we're trying to follow God and we're in a place, God, why am I here? Why have I been here so long? God is just moving you to the right place. You see that with Esther in the book before this. You see God moving. Don't underestimate how God is writing your story by the chapter you're in.

Or don't undervalue, if that's a better way to say it, the ending of your story or where God's leading you by the chapter that you're in. Nehemiah is in this chapter. He doesn't want to be in this chapter. He's a servant. He's drinking possible poison every single day. And then one day, he's like, here's a little gossip. Hey, some guy named Zerubbabel, the remnant's back.

And he's like, they're back. And then we'll see next week, he goes to the king and he's like, hey, can I bounce back to maybe restart that nation that might rise up against you basically and take over again because there's all these rumors because David was this incredible king. That takes a lot of courage. And so we're gonna talk about courage in this.

You're gonna need courage. If you're gonna rebuild the walls of your life, you better have some courage because courage is the value upon which all other values live. Courage is the value upon which all other values are founded. You have to have the courage to love. You have to have the courage to have faith. Courage is the value that on all other values are found rebuilt.

And so we see Nehemiah there as this king. And so what it says in verse four that they are back in the province and in great trouble and they're in disgrace. This bothers him. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and the gates have been burned with fire. When he saw the nation that had had such a glorious history and he knew the history of God, it broke his heart.

He wasn't so much angry. Got angry about, you know, the Babylonians or eventually the Romans would come in. I mean, nations shift. He wasn't so much angry about the politics of the day. He was angry that the people were in disgrace and that had been turned away from God and there was no, but that's what he, it distressed his heart. Question, when you look at culture, are you angry or is your heart distress?

Is your heart broken? I want to say those are going to give you two very different responses. If you're angry, you can get an angry response. If you have empathy, if you have care and great distress that people are hurting and broken, it's going to be a very different response. Nehemiah has this place of a broken, a brokenness for the people of God.

It says the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burned with fire. We've got a picture of the city there. It's an old city. One of the things you'll see, not that one, that's the castle, the city of Jerusalem. There you go. You'll see those walls that go around it. Now I believe, Kimberly, how many gates are there? Seven? There's seven gates in, I don't know the right people to ask.

If I've got a baseball back, I'm going to Joe, Old Testament. Kimberly for the walls of Jerusalem. So if there are, there's seven gates that lead into the city and these gates help with commerce and all these different things. And then there's a wall. The wall is meant for security that you can't be breached, but then they're also, I mean, just so you're not completely autonomous and able to breathe in and out and make a difference in the rest of the culture, there are these gates that are there.

And so what the conquering Babylonians did was they would tear down the walls and then they also burn the gates. So one of the things that Nehemiah does is he, you'll see in a few weeks, and he begins to survey and walk around. He begins to survey the walls and to see it. You know what's interesting to me is, I always think to myself, you've got all these nations that live around you.

How can some little city with a wall, you know, it's just got a wall around it, how can it be so influential? How can a little stronghold like that be so powerful? I mean, look around them. It's an expanse. It's nations to the, Egyptians to the left, Philistines to the south. Like, how can that little wall actually matter? I wrote this in the notes this morning.

It's not in your notes, but it says, don't underestimate the power strongholds give you to take dominion over a territory for your life. I was in England this year. There's a picture of a couple castles. There's Conway Castle, a picture you'll see. That's Conway Castle, gorgeous castle. It's a World Heritage Site. It is the greatest defensive castle in all Western Europe.

I love castles. I'm a castle guy. So I love going into castles. I went in and I got a picture on King Edward's toilet. It was the king's toilet. So I sat there and took a picture because I know that King Edward I, that's Longshanks from Braveheart, had sat there and I thought, dude, why not sit there? So I got a picture of me there. That's Conway Castle up in Wales.

There's another one, Caenarfin Castle. You got to say Caenarfin. That's Caenarfin Castle. King Edward I was a castle builder. That is an incredible, that's where the Prince of Wales, the current king of England right now, was crowned as Prince of Wales in that castle right there, Caenarfin. He was named Longshanks. Edward I was able to subdue all of Wales by building four castles in 50 years.

Now, the Welsh were huge. They had this huge group of people, but he would build these four strategic castles. And just by having those castles, a place that is a stronghold, he was able to take dominion over an entire area. Now, whether you care about Edward Longshanks I or whatever, why am I telling you that? Because oftentimes we undervalue our lives as a stronghold.

We let the walls be broken down. We let the gates be open. We let anything come in. We let anything come into our eyes. We'll watch anything and don't realize how it affects our soul. We'll say anything and don't understand how it affects our soul. Your ears are a stronghold. Your mouth is a gate. If you want to look at gates, you have an eye gate. Your thoughts are a gate.

This becomes a stronghold. A community like this on this corner is a stronghold. We work together in a community. You saw what a community of people could do yesterday with Joe's group. $50,000 for orphans. I want to say these strongholds matter. And if you want to take dominion over where you live, meaning bringing more peace, bringing more joy, having more stability, having all the things that God promises, the kingdom of heaven stuff that Jesus talks about, you want to create strongholds.

You create strongholds by fixing the walls of your life, saying this no longer is allowed to enter the gates. This is no longer allowed to be in my life. This will not have influence. I will not let this out of my mouth anymore. I will change my thoughts. I will change what I think about. I will change my time with God. The word of God is a lamp, so the word of God can be one of those things.

It creates a stronghold. Prayer creates a stronghold. In the series about King David, one of the things we learned is that David was a master at knowing when to run to the stronghold. We went up into one of the hills where there was a well there where he cut the bit off of Saul's robe, and we were in that valley, and it would be so impossible to attack, because what does a stronghold do?

It allows an army of 1,000 to hold off an army of 10,000. You see, God's word is a stronghold for you. Worship is a stronghold. These other things that we step into, anger, lusts, unforgiveness, whatever it is, you know what your thing is. Those just open, you don't realize, those just open the doors or burn down the gates that protect your life. Forgiveness protects your life.

Joy, peace, God's word, hospitality, generosity, giving away more than you care about getting, peace, rest, these are things that protect your life. And so, over the next 52 days, I want to challenge you to take a survey around your life and say, no, this needs to be rebuilt. I need to rebuild this. Don't underestimate the power of strongholds to give you dominion over your life and the territory in which you live.

Jesus has come to set you free. If you want to give a New Testament answer to this, Luke 4, 18, right? The Spirit of the Lord, this is now, this is the first, when Jesus, the first time he speaks, right? He's speaking out of Isaiah. He stands up. We were actually at the temple he stood up at when we were there. The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me, this is Jesus speaking, to what?

Proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind to set the oppressed free. And if you don't realize how many people are oppressed in our society today, you don't have your eyes open. And God has called you to preach good news. God has called you to come and bring freedom to those people, to gather people up, to give them a word of exhortation, to give them a word of encouragement, to care for people, to love people, to invite them into life.

These are the people we need. These are the people that Jesus has called you to be. This is who we have to be in order to rebuild these walls because our society is crumbling. I was listening to a report this week about the meteoric rise, a 50% gain in the amount of children under 16 that are using anti-anxiety medicines, ADHD medicine, the amount of pharmaceuticals being used for children is off the charts.

And what this article said is we're perhaps maybe over-prescribing, that maybe if we had stability in our homes and our families and we used some counseling we can perhaps fix that. The point is not to go into that, but the point is to ask you, are you going to be a person that sets people free? Jesus calls us there. Final thing is this. Rebuilding begins with the heart.

Go to verse 6. Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open. This is him praying. To the prayer of your servant is praying before you day and night. The people of Israel, I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's family, have committed against you. I put in the notes, a rebuilding project that does not begin with a true heart's confession is a disordered renovation and destined for destruction.

Let me just say that again. If you're going to rebuild with us, a rebuilding project that does not begin with a true heart's confession is a disordered renovation and destined for destruction. We're getting ready to build here. Maybe you saw that in the La Jolla Light or Red, we're getting ready to build a children's building to take more ground and take more dominion in the lives of children.

There is zero, there is not zero, there's very little indoor safe, sacred space for children. The only place that is sacred and safe for children is in the school or in churches that I know of and maybe the YMCA and a couple other places. We're going to increase that because we want to have a safe place for children and I believe that we have a society that is predatory towards children.

I believe we're just lowering the age of childhood and kids are not allowed to be children as long as God has intended them to be and we want to be a bastion and a dominion to make that happen. We are pro-kid, we want you to be a kid as long as you can and if you're 60, we want you to stop being a kid. So, just FYI, we got that backwards, right? Kids are becoming adults too soon and adults are staying kids too long so got to figure that one out.

One of the things we're doing is before we're building, before we're building, they were here taking core samples of the ground. Why? Because you don't want to have what just happened at the YMCA. They built their YMCA up there in Torrey Pines and then the gym sunk and now it's flooded because I'm sure they did their core sampling but if you know the gym's not open at the Y so I go up there and can't play basketball up there, it's sunk.

So now they got to do a $1.5 million project to pump the water out of it because it's sunk. I want to say for us, one of the reasons we want to build rights. If you're going to rebuild, you don't rebuild the walls first. It's easy to do that, right? It's, you know, even AA knows this, you know. If you go to AA, the first thing they say, you know, you admit that you're an alcoholic.

You confess that you're an alcoholic. You confess the first place you need to begin. Whatever it is, you confess, hey, I speak to my children this way. I've made work a priority above my family. Your thing's your thing. I'm not here to tell you what your thing is. But you start with confession. You say, God, I confess. And not only does he confess his own life, he actually says, God, I want to confess for all the Israelites.

It's interesting that God gives us the ability to confess the sins that are not your own. Isn't that amazing? And so begin to confess and begin to spend time learning the art of confession. Confession is an art and we don't do it enough. We don't take it seriously enough. The Catholics are really good at it. That's one thing the Catholic Church does bring in a powerful way.

But we want to study confession to sit before God and say, God, show me what's on my heart. Show me where my thoughts have gone into darkness. Any thought that cannot be presented before God's face, as Augustine says, is in the darkness. We don't want to live in the darkness. We want to rebuild with a heart's confession. It's interesting, God commissioned Zerubbabel to rebuild the temple before he led Nehemiah to rebuild the wall.

Have you been rebuilding the walls, going out, trying to fix your finance, trying to go out and fix this and fix, but yet you haven't got to the core of the temple? You see, that's the order which God builds. He says to you, hey, look, I'll take care of the security. Trust me, just rebuild the temple. But God, the walls are a mess. The enemy is outside. I've got to rebuild this.

I'll take care of that. You just trust me. You rebuild this temple of your heart. You start with confession. You begin to learn the word of God. You begin to learn, like Ezra, you bring the Torah, you bring the New Testament, the teachings of God is what I mean in the scripture, and I will rebuild that. You need to guard. And so in Proverbs 4.23, as we come in for a landing, Proverbs 4.23 says this, above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it.

Not some. Everything. Guard your heart. Guard it from the cynicism of our media culture. Guard it from the desire for fame and celebrity. Guard it. Guard your heart. Guard your heart from the images that the world would want to show you. Guard your heart from lust, from greed. Guard your heart because everything you do will flow from it. Every single thing Proverbs says.

God commissioned Ezra then to teach the Torah after he sent Zerubbabel to build the heart, the temple. He sent then Nehemiah to secure the city. When Ezra came, he taught people the word of God, and I said that was important. Let's give one more verse. Proverbs 30.15. Every word of God is flawless. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him. If you want to protect your life, if you want to protect your marriage, if you want to protect your children, if you want to protect your society, your neighborhood, learn the word of God.

Learn the word of God and follow the word of God. It is an incredible lamp unto your feet. It is a sword. It is living. It is active. If you submit yourself to the word of God, if you allow the word of God to be over you and God's presence above that, your life will begin to take shape and the walls will begin to be rebuilt. Oh, where do we begin, says Bastille and Pompeii.

Oh, where do we begin? With the rubble or with our sin? Oh, where do we begin? Let's stand. If you want to extend your hands, I'll pray for you. If you need prayer after the service, please don't hesitate. We really want to pray for you. If you want to pray for others or if you just want to sit and not be prayed for, the front is open for just contemplation.

Cafe is open. Please get something on the way out. My daughter made some incredible overnight oats. Check those out. If you want to find out more about our church, accept Jesus as your Savior. Come forward or go to the next steps table. If you extend your hand, I want to bless you. Lord Jesus, I want to bless your people, God. We want to rebuild the wall and the stronghold that the city that you love, God.

The walls have perhaps come tumbling down, Lord God. We're going to begin to rebuild with our own hearts. It's not about our spouse. It's not about the political opposition. It's not about anything. It's about our own hearts. Oh, where do we begin, God? With the rubble or with our sin, God? We confess to you, God, that we are sinners. We confess that this nation, this world, turns into the darkness regularly.

We ask, God, that you would give us your grace and your mercy. We want more of you. Speak to each person here and let them rebuild. A brand new new year starts today. Let them get to January 1st, God, with nothing to redo. God, with just a celebration. This fall has been amazing. Give them a harvest in their lives. 52 days to rebuild, renew. Bless them and anoint them.

We send you out now in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. We love you. See you next week.