In the sermon 'Search Your Heart, Ride Around Your Soul' by Scott Brown, the focus is on Nehemiah chapter 2, where Nehemiah inspects the damaged walls of Jerusalem at night. This action serves as a metaphor for examining one's own life and spiritual condition. The sermon highlights two main themes: the need for self-examination and the recognition of God's provision. Nehemiah's journey is seen as a reflection of God's care for His people, illustrating how God rescues sinners and calls them to rebuild the broken walls of their lives. The sermon emphasizes the importance of honest evaluation, acknowledging the damage in one's life and counting the cost of rebuilding. It also addresses the opposition believers face when seeking to do God's work, likening these challenges to those Nehemiah faced. The speaker encourages listeners to recognize God's presence and provision in their lives, urging them to rise up and build a life centered on God rather than personal ambition. Nehemiah's actions are paralleled to Jesus Christ, suggesting that the rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls represents a spiritual reality pointing to Christ's work in restoring broken lives.

Well this morning our sermon text will be Nehemiah chapter 2 and we're going to start in verse 7, even though the sermon text will start in verse 8, but it's a break in the sentence. So we'll start in verse 7 and read to the end of the chapter. Furthermore, I said to the king, if it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of the region beyond the river, that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah. And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel which pertains to the temple, for the city wall, and for the house that I will occupy. And the king granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me.

Then I went to the governors in the region beyond the river and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. When Sambalat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard of it. They were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel. So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days.

Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem, nor was there any animal with me except the one on which I rode. And I went out by the night through the valley gate to the serpent well and the refuse gate, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down in its gates, which were burned with fire. Then I went out, then I went on to the fountain gate and to the king's pool, but there was no room for the animal under me to pass. So I went up in the night by the valley and viewed the wall.

Then I turned back and entered by the valley gate and so returned. And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done. I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the others who did the work. Then I said to them, You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem that we may no longer be a reproach.

And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also the king's words that he had spoken to me. So they said, let us rise up and build. Then they set their hands to this good work. But when Sambalat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Gesham the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us, and said, what is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?

So I answered them and said to them, the God of heaven himself will prosper us. Therefore we his servants will arise and build, but you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you here now as we are about ready to hear your word preached. Lord, we are so thankful that we can sit under sound teaching.

Lord, that we can be instructed out of your word. And we pray today that you would make us so hungry and thirsty, O Lord, as we sit here that we would hang on the words that are preached. Oh Lord, please help us to see how this relates specifically to us. Lord, we see this man that you're using, Nehemiah, to rebuild, but Lord, we also want to see in him a type of Christ, a greater builder, present with us in our midst, to restore, to repair, to do what none of us can do, O Lord. We pray that you would help us to see Christ and also, Lord, to be moved upon to do the work that you've called us to do.

Please help us, O Lord. We ask you to please help Mr. Brown now as he comes to deliver your word. Help him Lord, fill him with power, uphold him by your spirit. Lord, and help him physically to be able to preach and to carry your word forth.

Lord, we are so thankful and ask you now to be with us all. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, in Nehemiah 2, verses 7 through 20, we find that Nehemiah is quietly inspecting the damage to the city and so in the previous chapter Nehemiah hears a report about the damage of the city and he prays for three to five months and he's moved to speak to the king and in speaking to the king he's risking his life to even suggest such a thing And so while he heard a report in the previous chapter, here now he's traveling 1250 miles from Susa on a line to the west to Jerusalem. And after hearing of the damage, he's going to see it with his own eyes and that's the text that we're in Here and he does it under the cover of night. We learned that he is seeking The Well-being of the children of Israel.

This is what's in his heart to seek the well-being of the people of God This is the whole driving force of his life And it's it's really a story of how God cares for sinners how he reaches out to them how he he shows He shows them their condition and he calls them to rebuild the walls of their lives that have been broken down. He rescues sinners out of darkness and he brings them into his marvelous light. This rebuilding of the walls is nothing less than a picture of the work of Jesus Christ and the hero of the story by the way is not Nehemiah it's not because he's such a great manager he is a good manager but that's not the point of the story the point of the story is that God cares for His people and He rescues them and He takes them out of their brokenness and He uses all kinds of means in order to do that. You might think about that for yourself. How many things did God bring to bear to rescue you from the jaws of the devil?

How many how many people how many sermons how many twinges in your heart? Well, this is a story of how God Restores broken lives and so Nehemiah's he's he's examining the damage in the city in the same way that you and I need to examine the damages from the devil in our own lives, in our own hearts, in our families, in our church right here, and even in our city. Now there are two main things I want want you to try to listen for as I go through they'll weave back and forth you'll hear them emerge a number of times here but the first theme is the matter of examining your life or you know examining your walls and to take a ride through the recesses of your heart take take a midnight ride take a quiet journey through the recesses of your soul and consider what really is there and ask yourself what's happening to me what's happening in my heart what's happening in my home what's happening in my work what's happening to me and to recognize any areas of infirmity. You know, God wants to, he wants a holy church, he wants a people set apart for himself, and he dedicates himself to the purification of his children he loves us so much he just keeps at the work by the way historically this is part of a 117 year season of God dealing with his people of always sending prophets always sending help God doesn't give up on his people.

It's so amazing. Aren't you glad God hasn't given up on you? Well, here now we find ourselves near the end of that 117 year period, but we can look back and see how God's faithful. He's always sending something. He's always sending someone To come alongside to help us But I think the New Testament parallel passage for this is in 2nd Corinthians chapter 13 verse 5 examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith.

Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you are disqualified. But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified. Let this be a 2 Corinthians 13-5 moment in your life to test yourselves, to examine yourselves.

Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon on this text and he stated it so brilliantly, so perfectly, I'm tempted to read this quote and go sit down and have us pray and then celebrate the Lord's Supper But here's what he said search your heart right around your soul How about the Tower of Prayer? Is that well kept? Are you much with God in secret? And how about the Castle of Communion? Do you maintain fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ?

How about the gate of humiliation? Do you bow before the Lord, humbly acknowledging what you owe to Him? Or has pride been pulling down the cornerstone thereof? How about the gate of holy zeal? Is that wide and in good care?

Or has it been burned with fire and taken away? And what about that wall of love does that stand erect as it used to and So that's really an appeal that you'll hear all through This message today is to search your heart Ride around your soul, you know test the waters of the fountain of your life. Test the soil in your garden, inspect whether there's good fruit or bad fruit coming out of that soil? You know, is the fountain and the soil and the fruit the result of the sluggered? You know, is the water murky?

Is the garden filled with weeds? This would be a great day to identify any weeds and pull them out by the root. When you ride around the walls and inspect the stones, you know, do they look good on the outside? But actually on the inside, they're soft and they're broken down. And so careful examination is very critical It's critical for every area of life You know if you're if you're in a business if you're doing any project at all careful examination is very very important Any anyone Anyone involved in any kind of project, anyone seeking to seeking the good of the church, anyone seeking to make progress in matters of the heart, anyone living in sin and broken patterns, This practice is life-giving to take a ride around your soul this morning.

The second thing I'd like for you to listen for is God's provision, how God helps his people who are inspecting the walls, his people who really desire to be a pure people. And there are many works of the Holy Spirit that you'll find in this rebuilding that we see here in this passage. And I want us just to see how good God is in the rebuilding process And and I'm gonna walk through this text verse by verse You might just as you're looking at your Bibles know that's how I'm going to handle it I'm gonna go from one verse to the next verse to the next verse and we'll see both both of those things here you'll see God's provision for you and how he takes care of you you know as you're rebuilding your walls and you'll you'll also you know have a sense of of what of various areas of brokenness now of course just by way of Understanding of this passage the walls represent a spiritual reality Everything in the Old Testament points to Jesus Christ. These walls point to Jesus Christ. This temple points to Jesus Christ.

It has a double meaning. When you read about walls and temples and tabernacles, it all points to Jesus Christ. And we have to really understand that. And so, Nehemiah is distressed not because necessarily of physical things but it's the spiritual condition that is reflected in the physical thing called this wall that surrounds Jerusalem And so this this chapter answers many questions about how to inspect your brokenness and how to rebuild your life and it and it also speaks of how God is so kind to his people as they're rebuilding their walls. Aren't you thankful for God's patience in the rebuilding process?

Well that's what we'll see here. So as you see there are 13 stops I'm gonna make in this text. You know by the way, preachers aren't supposed to do that. You're only supposed to have three points. But 13, well, there's at least there's a three in there.

13. And the first thing that we see is that that it was God's good hand that did it. Verse 8. It was God, it was God who did all of these things that letters were sent and favor was granted from Artaxerxes to the people of God. And we read here, and the king granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me.

Now, what's the application here? The application is this, when rebuilding we need a sense of the hand of God you know Nehemiah had a vision, but he didn't have any resources and God God came just out of the blue to help this man as he had been crying out to God and the king said I've got the resources and so it was the good hand of God that was at the center of it all. And I think we should be very careful to recognize that it is the hand of God and the hand of God alone that is the key to any awakening or any revival and that there's a sense of the hand of God on people's lives there's really there's really no hope for this church there's really no hope for any of us here unless unless we know the hand of God unless there is a sense of the presence of God. When God saves a sinner, He transports that sinner into His presence, and He opens His heart, and He allows him to have fellowship with Him. He is the vine, and we are the branches, and there is this connection with God.

But there will be no revival in your heart or my heart or in this church or in this city until there is a great sense of God. Now I know, I know for myself, this is my greatest cry. I cry out to God for this over and over again, day after day, multiple times of the day, that God would give us a sense of his presence. That's the only, that's our only hope by the way. It isn't in our fellowship, it isn't in any structure, it isn't in any matter of outward obedience or conformity, it is the presence of God and God alone.

That is the key to our revival, and I pray that you would be crying out to God for yourself and for me and for all of us that when we gather together there is such a sense of God, and that we don't care about anything. We don't care about how someone looks at us, or how someone is dressing, or how you are dressing, or how someone feels, except in matters of love. But that your heart would be gripped with a sense of the presence of God. And a whole church must recognize its dependence upon Him. So here's the great application here in this verse.

Search your heart, ride around your soul, do you have a sense of God? I mean, even now, if you don't now, you know, you can cry out to Him now, Oh God, change my heart, turn my heart to You right now. I'm cold, I walked in here cold. When rebuilding we need a sense of the hand of God. And then also in verse 8, it's very clear that Nehemiah starts a new chapter in life.

That's the second point I want to make out of this section that Nehemiah is beginning a journey here that would define the rest of his life He's going to go to Jerusalem and he's there for 12 years and then he goes back to Susa for some period of time and then he returns back to Jerusalem and he's going to walk for five months to get to Jerusalem from the city of Susa and he he's beginning a completely new phase of his life. And here's what I want us to recognize, that when rebuilding, we often need to enter into a new chapter of our lives. There needs to be a line that's drawn. There needs to be an old way of living, the old man, the old approach to life, the old approach to the church, the old approach to time, and the new approach where there is a new beginning that's here. Now I want to make something very, very clear that the call of God the call of God is most of the time not something that wells up in your heart it comes from the outside and it has nothing to do with your personal vision it has to do it has nothing to do with Finding yourself it has nothing to do with achieving your goals or getting your potential it has nothing to do with that It has to do with where God has placed you and You know, this is the season of graduations Maybe you've maybe you've read manuscripts of some of the some of the commencement speeches I have that have been given around the around the country, but they're they're really all the same, you know, in the graduation speeches in high schools and colleges.

It's the same old thing. It's follow your heart. You can change the world. Don't let people hold you back. Dream big dreams.

You know, you're the center of the universe. And, you know, in the graduation speeches, they always say how special you are and what you are going to do and don't let anybody stand in the way of what you you you you want to do and They tell you that the you're the important one you know they tell They tell you to be yourself and to march to the beat of your inner drummer. And they're all the same. They always flatter the narcissist in you and They always want you to satisfy yourself And they promised it will satisfy But it's not true. It's a lie.

And there's no profit in any of these kinds of communications to human beings made in the image of God. Because, and here's why, your life is not something that you create. Your life was created for you. There were outside forces that were working that created the life that you have. Now you didn't choose where you are today.

Do you understand that? You didn't choose your parents. You didn't choose your children. There were forces that were at work in your life. You were totally out of control.

If you met someone, they bumped into someone, you heard something, you applied for a job. There were all kinds of things that happened, but guess what? It wasn't you. And your life is not meant to be designed by you it's meant to be designed by the circumstances that God put you in and to live out those circumstances by obeying God and glorifying God of the midst of Those circumstances after all what is the chief end of man the chief end man's chief end is to glorify God and To enjoy him forever. No matter where God puts you You never know where God's gonna put you or where he's gonna take you.

He may put you in a hospital bed for months or years. He may put you in a foreign country. He may have you in a neighborhood for 40 years. But the truth is is that your mission in life has to do with where God put you. It's not primarily an internal call, it's an external imposition by God.

And all of us have been placed in places that were had been imposed by God and We're put in circumstances where something is required of us the glory of God and Here Nehemiah Nehemiah's life is really not defined primarily by a personal vision, but it's by things pressing upon him. He hears a report, he's disturbed, he prays, he knows there's a need, and then he goes. But all these things were created by circumstances that he didn't develop himself. He was responding to God in the midst of the life that God gave him. The problem with us today is that we want a different life rather than to glorify God in the life that God has given to us.

Paul said it in Philippians 2, verse 3, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interests of others let this mind be in you which is in Christ Jesus this is the heart of a servant in the world who's been placed in circumstances beyond his own control the job you have the person you're married to The kids you have the stuff that's happening in your life by the way you didn't create most of it And God God is like Nehemiah God has called you in the midst of it of it of trouble and and and how do you deal with it? So application search your heart right around your soul. Are you addressing the life that God has given you or are you longing for some other life? Maybe it's somebody else's life.

Maybe it's your designer life. But that's not how it works out in the kingdom of God because God's glorifying himself through sinners that he saves the third stop I want to make is in verse 9 where Nehemiah receives protections from the king. Then I went to the governors in the region beyond the river and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. So he had authority that was given to him through these letters and he also had horsemen he had an army with them the king gave him an army and The application is this when you're rebuilding you need to know that the king protects us The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is your protector.

Remember when Ezra came back he didn't have an army with him. God protected him and in this case God protected him with the King's army. Either way God will protect his people. He may provide troops he may not but his power is sufficient over every enemy you know and that's why you know the Lord tells us to put on the full armor of God so search your heart right around your soul do you feel the protection of God Or do you feel like you're just white you think you're like a sitting duck By the way, you're not a sitting duck He said he said he'll never leave you or forsake you He says my my grace is sufficient for you. In other words, no matter what happens to you, no matter what happens, he'll give you enough grace for that moment.

You never have to worry about what's ahead. You never have to try to project or anticipate Because God will give his grace and he'll be with you in the midst of it the next stop the fourth stop Is a disturbing stop because sand ballot and Tobiah here the plan in verse 10 look at verse 10 sand ballot the whore and I'd and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard of it and they were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel and the author doesn't want us to forget that the opposition never stopped. Remember this is a hundred and seventeen year period of opposition stopped. Remember this is a 117 year period of opposition that Ezra chapter 4 describes in broad terms. And Sanballat's name means secret hatred and that's the theme of his life.

But this is a prominent theme in scripture that works of God will be opposed, particularly those who desire to establish the true worship of God will be belittled and opposed unrelentingly. And you should always expect that. And so here's the principle, here's the application. When rebuilding, We need to be prepared for opposition and we're being resisted because we're seeking the well-being of the children of God. Whenever you seek the well-being of the children of God, which is defined in Scripture alone, then you'll find opposition.

Their crime, their crime was seeking the well-being of the children of Israel. In other words, they desired a state of prosperity and rest and contentment and happiness and blessing. This is God's design for His church that in the midst of the war, in the midst of the storm, that they have contentment and rest because their trust is in God. Now who are these people? Now there are three that are going to be mentioned here in this chapter.

You have Sanballat. He lives about 12 miles north of Jerusalem. And then you have Tobiah. And He lives to the east of Jerusalem, and then you have Geshem He's an Arab and he lives to the south and what you have you have a certain these people are surrounded People of God are surrounded by enemies of different kinds You know to the north you have sand ballot and you have you have the the enemies of religious syncretism They want to they want to take a lot of God and worship and they want to mix them They want to mix paganism into it. That's what the Samaritans did.

That was sand ballot and then to by he's to the east he's an ammonite this is a raw paganism and And and he's and he's he also by the way has a mixed marriage he married a Hebrew And he's trying to pollute the Hebrews Through his marriage and then you have Gashem the Arab to the south. This is the Arabs. This is Islam This is false religion. So you have you have religious syncretism to the north you have paganism to the east and to the south you have false religions and to the west you have you have water and you're hemmed in on all sides And it's the power brokers in the region are the enemies of Nehemiah and the people of God. But when God is reforming his people and blessing them, you should always expect a counterattack from different places.

Sometimes the hardest to take are the ones that come from the religious side of it. But you'll find them from from all over. But here's here's something we should recognize. Christ builds his kingdom behind enemy lines. Christ builds his kingdom behind enemy lines right in the midst of enemies.

And, but yet God, God saves sinners out of the midst of the enemies and, and he cares for them. You know, you might ask, you know, who, who are the people today who are, who are, who are not seeking the well-being of the church, who are the ones that want to destroy the church. First and foremost would be Hollywood. Secondly, it would be the great technology companies that exist today. You have false gospels of Mormonism and Rowan Catholic Church.

You've got the false gospel of the country Western Song. That's probably the most prominent false gospel that we encounter here in the South. You have our court systems. You have the powerful institutions, like public education and our universities. You have the ACLU, you've got political parties, you know, and you've got you've got Bill Nye, the unscientific guy.

I mean, they're all over the place, but you as you're raising children, you need to make sure your children know the names of the enemies of God. They need to know who the enemies of God are. Should help them understand that. But when you're rebuilding we need preparation for the opposition. We need to anticipate the opposition and not be afraid of it.

You know, we have this idea in our minds. I've had this idea in my mind, where if you're doing things right then you won't have enemies. Have you ever thought that? That like everything would go so smooth if you just did everything right. Have You ever thought that?

That is not true. That's not true at all. Because all those who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. It's a corrupt wrong idea. It's totally unbiblical to think that if you just find, if you've just said it the right way, if you nuanced it properly, then everything would be fine.

You know, that's not true. You're gonna have enemies. So search your heart right around your soul. Are you prepared for opposition? Or does it just scare you so much that you keep your mouth shut and your life worldly?

The fifth stop I want to make here is in verse 11. Nehemiah waited three days. I believe he was resting three days. Most of the commentators say, as I really struggle with this, was he just surveying the lives of the people? He could have been.

Quite likely he was. I'm sure he was making observations. Ezra did the same thing. You can read about this in Ezra chapter 8 verse 3 he paused and you know he could have he could have hit the ground and been examining everything and and checking everything out but he pauses he stops And I think one application we should consider is that when rebuilding we need rest and renewal. God's people are designed to function out of a wellspring of rest.

And that's one reason why God has given the Sabbath to his people 52 days a year, 7.4 weeks a year, to suspend your work and to delight yourself in the most delightful thing to the soul of man, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the goodness of God, the beauty of the kingdom of God, to behold the beauty of the Lord. God gives this treasure to his people that they would rest. It's out of that well spring of rest that we live our lives. Without that rest, without true rest, we live a frenetic life. Our souls aren't recalibrated, our attitudes aren't adjusted, and we end up, you know, running around like chickens with our heads cut off because we haven't really sat with God we haven't gone to the secret place we haven't We haven't laid our burdens before Him.

We haven't cast our cares upon Him. And, you know, some of you are not rebuilding these walls because you're not resting. You haven't had sufficient glory in your soul from meditating on the beauty of the kingdom of heaven and so you're kind of dry and you you don't use your tools that much to rebuild the wall Because you just haven't rested properly and you don't have anything to say you don't have anything to pray And you have nothing with which to enter into the fray of the rebuilding and often it comes back to resting in the presence of God Nehemiah Rested and he I believe he was recharging there In those three days now what we also find that if you don't rest God may put you down and make you rest I've seen that before but God really desires for you to come away come to me all you here weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest for I'm gentle and humble and hard and you will find rest for your souls You know let this be Just a question about whether you need more rest for your soul in the presence of Jesus so Search your heart ride ride around your soul You know Are you operating out of a wellspring of rest?

The sixth stop I want to make is in verse 12 Nehemiah inspects the city in in secrecy before God alone verse 12 then I arose in the night and I And a few men with me. I told no one what God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem, nor was there any animal with me except the one on which I rode. Nehemiah was a man before God. You know, he has a mighty conviction in his soul to rebuild this city. But he stands before God, almost as if alone.

He's a man with his face toward God and he's alone in it in many, many ways. And here's the application. When rebuilding we need to be before the face of God alone. In order to stand alone, you must be before the face of God alone. If you're not before the face of God alone, you'll always be lured into the crowd.

But Nehemiah, Nehemiah deep within his heart with no one looking he looks over the city he's not blowing his trumpet he's not making a public statement he's not blasting out what he's doing he's not exalting himself he's alone before God with that any fanfare at all You know the Apostle Paul speaks of a very difficult time in his life and he said, Nevertheless, the Lord stood with me. No one stood with me, but the Lord stood with me. You know, there's this sense that we often forget is that we do stand alone before God. We do stand together as a family, And we need to recognize that where we are one in that sense, but there's a whole other level of our life and that is that we stand alone before God and it's it's out of the resources of Beholding the face of God is where life really ought to be lived. And every man and woman is in this situation.

We stand before God alone. You know, if you look at verse 4 and verse 6 and verse 11 and 12 and 18 and 20, you get this sense this is a man whose face was before God alone. That was really the driving force of his life and that's why when he got into a jam, what did he do? He prayed. He was always ready to pray because he was praying all the time.

And then the seventh stop I want to make is his examination of the damage in verses 13 through 15. This is the most remarkable part of the passage to me as he goes through and you know if you can picture what's happening he's going through a city of rubble in the middle of the night now I think you children can really understand what this would be like you know they're they're climbing they're jumping from rock to rock you know they're they're going to one place and they're, you know what it's like, these are large stones. And they're jumping from stone to stone, maybe working their way up to see how bad the damage is near the upper part of the wall or how far it's broken down or how damaged the gate of the city or the gate of the temple is. And it's not like they were cruising around in a drone looking at it smoothly you know it was it was a bumpy ride and he was examining the damage that was there and you know when when Rebuilding here's here's a an application when rebuilding we need to see the damage and Count the cost in fact if you don't see the damage you won't even know what the cost is there's always a cost in repairing damaged things in your life just like there's a cost of repairing damaged things in your house or your car There's a cost in repairing damage in your soul And you should count the cost in that sense and so he's he's walking around these streets that are in rubble but you know They're the same streets where the prophets walked where David walked for where Solomon walked and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Malachi and Zechariah all those all those prophets walked in those same streets Now when we get into next week, we'll talk about these various parts of the wall, but let me just say this.

All of these parts to the wall that he visits, they point to Christ in some fashion. Now here's one thing that I think we should recognize. In order to love the city and restore worship in the city, You have to learn the city. In order to restore, you must relate to the city the way it is. Maybe not the way you wish it was, but the way it really is.

And go find the people and the damage that's there, the way it is right now. You know, we live in a city, I'm going to call it Wake Forest. I know people are from different cities, but you know there are over 80 churches in Wake Forest. And you know probably 20 or 30 of them are Baptist. There's one Methodist Church, there's one Lutheran Church, there's one Seventh-day Adventist Church, there is one Jehovah's Witness Church, there is one Roman Catholic Church, and there are two Presbyterian churches here.

And there are about 16 non-denominational churches. There is one Baha'i, and there is also an occult church in Wake Forest. Well, that's where we live. You know, the median household income in Wake Forest, there are about 30, 000 people that live in wake forest the median household income is seventy seven thousand one hundred and seventy three dollars is not remarkable and so it's an affluent it's an affluent population you know we're insulated from so many things Like if you go to a place like LA You know, it's like it's like 40% Asian and 35% Hispanic and like 16% Caucasian totally totally different demographic Then we experience here, but this is where we are. And in order to rebuild worship in the city, you need to learn the city and the people that are there.

I know a lot of the evangelists in this church, they know what's going on in this city. They know what people think about the gospel. You know, they get the answers and they know where this city is parked regarding the gospel and here's where the city is parked if you're good enough Jesus will take you to heaven that's pretty much the gospel according to the population of wake forest right now and it's a false gospel and You have you had people that are headed to hell And they're gonna go into these hospitals and they're gonna claim that they are Christians but they believed a false gospel and it's really important we understand that and they look really nice you know you can go to different parts of the country and you'll never see anybody pray in a restaurant not here I mean you can't go in a restaurant not see somebody bow their head so it's a it's a religious place that we live in, in many, many ways. But in order to rebuild worship in the city, you have to learn the city. You have to know where you are and where God placed you.

So Nehemiah was deliberate, careful. He managed himself in a decently and in order way. And I think as you look at the damage that's in your own city of your heart. You need to recognize the personalities and the dispositions and the sins of your children. You need to understand what's going on in your family.

You need to have a sense of, you need to learn the city in that sense. You need to learn your children. You need to learn your church. You need to learn the city. So search your heart right around your soul.

Do you see the damage and are you counting the cost and Are you mobilizing yourself to pay the cost to repair the damage in the city? The eighth stop I want to make is in verse 17, then I said to them, you see the distress we are in and how Jerusalem lies waste And its gates are burned with fire so Nehemiah He reports these appalling findings, and it was appalling look at the words for realities distress lies waste burn with fire Reproach he's not sugarcoating. What's really going on the worst thing you can do when you're surveying damage is to ignore what's really going on to live in La La Land to sugarcoat what's really happening and You've seen this happen maybe in your life, you've seen it in families, particularly when a father, he just doesn't see it. He's not acknowledging what's really going on. Nehemiah is not that way.

So here's the application. When you're rebuilding the worship of God, we must have honest evaluation and not sugarcoat who we think we are. Sometimes it takes fresh eyes like Nehemiah to come in and say we need to rebuild so that we're no longer a reproach. People have been walking by through the rubble, by the rubble, you know, for over a hundred years and they needed somebody to say, hey, this is a disaster. Every once in a while you need to hear somebody come into your life and say this is a disaster and and not just and not Reject them because they did it Search your heart right around your soul.

Do you have an honest evaluation of your situation? The night stopped. Nehemiah issues a challenge and it's a call to build. In verse 17, the second part, he says, Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem that we may no longer be a reproach and so he issues this challenge There's this call from Nehemiah to rise up and build. This is what leaders are supposed to do.

They're supposed to rise up and call out and say, let's go deal with this. And Nehemiah does that. And any person who's an authority must do that. You know, A husband needs to do that with his wife and say, come on, honey, let's go build. A father needs to do that in his home.

Pastors need to do that in their churches. Solomon in Ecclesiastes chapter three, he said to everything there's a season and there's a time for every purpose under heaven, and he says there's a time to there's a time to break down and there's a time to build up and so that's the question you know is this the time Maybe you've been delaying. Maybe you've been afraid to pay the cost. But now's the time. There's a time to build up.

And so when when rebuilding we must listen to the call From the leaders to rise up and build you know Maybe you're a father in a home, and you've been you know calling your children in a certain direction And they're resisting and maybe you're one of those children right now you need to listen to your parents when they say let's rise up and build a better life than we're living right now notice the word we let us rise up Nehemiah is not distancing himself from the problem and the people. But you know when people rise up it's such a blessing. You know there's this there's this Chinese proverb that says you know if you want to do something for a year plant a flower. If you want to do something for ten years plant a tree. But if you want to do something for 10 years plant a tree but if you want to do something for eternity plant people because they're eternal because their souls live on and their offspring lives on So search your heart right around your soul.

Are you listening to the appeals of those who are in authority? Maybe it's your pastor, Maybe it's your father, maybe it's your husband, maybe it's your mother. But are you listening to the authorities in your life who are saying, rise up and build. Let's go build a better life. The tenth stop.

Nehemiah brings hope in verse 18, and he directs them again to the good hand of God. Verse 18, and I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me and also of the King's words that he had spoken to me. Now here we, I think we find Nehemiah showing us what the very best leaders always do. They point you to God. They point you to the sufficiency and the power and the goodness and the love of God.

That's what they do. And that's exactly what Nehemiah does. He points them to God. Not to themselves, but to God. And you know, Nehemiah, he either had his face pointed upward or his finger pointed upward and he's pointing them to the good hand of God that was upon him and he's recounting a story He's telling them what happened to him when he was before Artaxerxes He went into the presence of Artaxerxes to tell Artaxerxes that his policies were not right regarding Jerusalem and when he would he give him resources to go rebuild it and he could have lost his head in a second but God's hand was upon him and he focused their attention on God and you know we need we need more than great leaders to rebuild our lives.

We need the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, our attentions focused upon Him. There won't be any enduring or true life-giving rebuilding if it is not born of God.