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Now, here's today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig.

Host (Male): Now, ask the second question. Lord, what do you want me to do? Ordinary people can help. You say, "Well, I'm not that talented, or I'm not that gifted." Please, don't hide behind those excuses, because it's not about the container, it's about what's inside the container. It has nothing to do with the container.

The Bible says, "God has placed a treasure in clay pots, or the King James, earthen vessels." Clay pots. God has put his treasure in clay pots. It's not about the pot, it's about the treasure inside the pot. Hey, look, there's a treasure in this clay pot. You're not going to be caring much about the pot when you see that, but about the treasure.

Now, before we move on, let me just say this, God has only ever used ordinary people to do his work. Did you hear that? God has only ever used ordinary people to do his work. And here's why, they're the only kind he has to work with. God has chosen the foolish things, the weak things, the ordinary things of this world to confound the wise.

We need to come to a place, all of us as believers, where we say, as Paul did, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Great cities can fall, but ordinary people can help. Here's a third mega theme that kind of goes along with that.

Real prayer can work. Real prayer can work. As soon as I opened up the book of Nehemiah to go through, I noticed chapter 1 begins with prayer. The book opens with prayer. The book closes with prayer. 12 times throughout the book, prayer is mentioned. So, prayer is one of the constant themes in the book of Nehemiah. It is a mega theme in this book.

In chapter 1, if you have your Bible open to chapter 1, look at verse 4. Nehemiah, after getting the word back about the city he loved, "When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for many days, fasting and praying to the God of Heaven." And you'll notice beginning in the next verse to the end of that chapter, it's all his prayer, quotes.

He's quoting Nehemiah's prayer in that second half of chapter 1. When we move into chapter 2, Nehemiah's working with the king one day. King knows that he's bummed out and says to Nehemiah, "Wherefore art thou bummed out?" Didn't really put it that way, but he said, "You've never been sad in my presence before, Nehemiah, what's up?"

And that's in chapter 2, verse 4, he said, "What do you request?" And then notice the second part of verse 4 of chapter 2. "So I prayed to the God of Heaven." He just shot up a quick, heartfelt request. God, help me, I got to say something. So Nehemiah sometimes prayed long, sometimes he prayed short, but always it was heartfelt. That's a theme of this book.

Very last verse of this book, chapter 13, very last verse, is a prayer. "Remember me, oh my God, for good." My pastor used to often say that you can always do more than pray after you've prayed, but you can never do more than pray until you've prayed. Nehemiah did far more than just pray about it. He went to work. But, he began with prayer. That's where he started.

He knew that he was facing a task way too big for him, but certainly not too big for God. So he gave himself to the task. Phillips Brooks said this, "Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers, pray for powers equal to your tasks." Stop saying, "God, give me an easy job to do." Start saying, "God, I'm faced with this, I need your power. Give me powers equal to your tasks."

But notice how I phrased this little point. I said, "Real prayer can work." Not just prayer can work. It has to be real prayer. Now, some people are going to imagine that any kind of prayer from the heart is real. But did you know that God doesn't answer all prayer? You know, people all over the world pray to their gods, heartfelt prayers that don't work at all.

Because first, you need a relationship, a covenant relationship with the true and living God that comes only through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Who said, "I am the only way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father but by me." Listen to this verse in Isaiah, Old Testament, Isaiah the prophet, chapter 59, verse 1. Listen to how it's written. "The Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor is his ear heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated you from your God, your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear."

That sin gap has to be eliminated, bridged. And that comes by a relationship with God through his son Jesus Christ. Okay, once you've established that, now you can start praying, and we do. All of us have some form of prayer life. My challenge to you is to tweak it a little bit. What do I mean by tweak it? Well, I have noticed that we Christians have interesting habits when we pray.

They're prayers, but they're kind of like hardly praying prayers. Some of us have ritual prayers, you know, go-to prayers, go-to phrases, go-to words that we always say over and over again. And we can't seem to break out of that because we're not really thinking deeply enough. You know, the Lord's Prayer is something that is often repeated by people. It's a great prayer, but did you know, Jesus didn't say, "Pray these words." He said, "In this manner, therefore, pray. Pray like this, let this be an example. Let it be a skeleton. Use this as your model when you communicate with the Father. Use all of these different categories to communicate with them." That's a better way to look at it.

I heard about a boy who was praying at night. You know, you're a kid, you go through rituals that you were taught. So he began, and you can guess what he prayed. "Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if he hollers, let him go. Eenie, meenie, miny, moe." You see what he did? He conflated two like sounding rhythmic patterns, one of prayer, one of a poem into one thing. We can do that, ritual prayers.

Then sometimes Christians pray and I'll call these Father-Father prayers. Father-Father prayers. So, have you ever been in a prayer meeting with somebody and they pray something like this. "Father, we just come to you, Father, and Lord, Father, God, we just, God, thank you, Father, that you, Father, are doing such a wonderful, awesome work, Father, God, Jesus, Father." It's like, "Who talks like that?" What's your name, sir?

Guest (Male): Antonio.

Host (Male): Antonio. It is Antonio. Antonio, what if I said, "Antonio, I noticed, Antonio, that you, Antonio, wear a blue shirt, Antonio. They have a Bible, Antonio." You'd want to slap me for that. People that don't know other people or are nervous in talking talk like that. So, if that's sort of a pattern you get into, learn to drop the Father-Father and just get a little more gutsy and real in your communication with God.

Now, let me give you a third prayer that is kind of hardly praying prayers. These are sermon prayers. This is where somebody wants to communicate something to others around him or her, but he will use a prayer to do it. Not really talking to God, talking to people around. Preachers are notorious for this. "Oh, yeah, there's a point I left out. So in my prayer, and God, I just thank you that Nehemiah also," you know, it's like, "Wait a minute, you ended the sermon but now you're giving the last point in the prayer."

And sometimes we can do that when we pray with each other. You might be gathered around a table, a dinner table, or in a little room to pray, and somebody says, "Lord, I just pray you'd help us to have a better attitude." "And when you do this or you do that, or you provide this, help us not be so selfish like some people are." You're not talking to God.

Real prayer. What is real prayer? Real prayer, here it is, real prayers are the heartfelt cries of saved people. That's all. Heartfelt cries of saved people. James 5 says, "It's the fervent effective prayer of a righteous man that avails much." The heartfelt cries of a saved person. I never want to guilt you into prayer. Every time I talk about it, it goes a little silent, because people always, we always feel that's an area we can improve.

I never want to guilt you into prayer. I'd rather guide you into seeing that it's as normal a part of your Christian life as breathing is to your physical life. Samuel Chadwick wrote this. We'll put it up. "The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray."

Host (Male): This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Your support helps reach people every day with biblical truth that brings clarity, hope, and direction in difficult times. And this month, we'd love to thank you with a timely resource centered on God's power to restore what's broken. When you give today, you'll receive City in Shambles, Pastor Skip's complete 18-message study through Nehemiah on CD plus digital download. These messages will help you understand how God works in times of confusion and instability, how revival begins in the hearts of his people, and how to move from passive concern to courageous faith in action.

Your gift helps extend the reach of Connect with Skip Heitzig, connecting more people to God's Word. Request your resource when you give $50 or more at connectwithskip.com/offer or by calling 800-922-1888. We'll be right back after this special message from Skip Heitzig about a way you can deepen your understanding of scripture in just 90 days.

Host (Male): Learning your Bible matters. I'm committed to teaching God's Word, and I want you to understand the depth of scripture for yourself. That's why I want to invite you to join me in a 90-day through the entire Bible reading challenge using the YouVersion Bible app. We call it Jesus people grow. So for 90 days, we're going to read together God's Word. We're going to learn it, receive it, and we're going to let it shape us so that we can also be faithful in sharing good teaching with others. So join me. Let's learn our Bibles and grow in the Word of God.

Host (Male): Now, here's more from Pastor Skip.

Host (Male): He trembles when we pray. Remember that little poem I often quote, "Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees." Prayer's powerful. Real prayer can work. So great cities can fall, ordinary people can help, and real prayer can work. A fourth mega theme that stuck out to me is about the revival, and that is spiritual revival can happen.

Do you remember that? Remember chapter 8 and 9 and 10? Let me just jog your memory. Chapter 8, everybody gathers at the Water Gate of Jerusalem. Ezra is there, he opens up the scroll of the law of Moses, begins reading from morning till noon, while people are standing up, listening. It brings such conviction of heart as they're hearing the Bible being taught and exegeted, that they in chapter 9, decided that they would, well, I'll read it to you, chapter 9, verse 1, "On the 24th day of this month, the children of Israel were assembled with fasting and sackcloth, with dust on their heads."

And the end of chapter 9, "And because of all this, we make a sure covenant and write it." And then chapter 10, verse 1, "All those who placed their seal on the document were," and the names are listed. They actually signed a contract that what we heard from the scripture, we're going to transport and transmit into our daily lives and we'll put our names on the dotted line. It was a real revival.

And a revival begins with a Re-Bible. A revival begins with a Re-Bible. It was a spiritual awakening as a result of being exposed to the Word of God. The Bible made its mark in their lives, and a revival occurred. I am reminded of a story of Queen Victoria. That goes way back in time, in Victorian England, when she was the queen.

And there was a tribal chief that she knew. He had moved to England, been educated in British schools. And when they were meeting, the tribal chief said, "To what do you attribute the great prosperity of the British Empire?" What a question. "What would you say is the reason the British Empire is so successful?" You know what she did? She took her Bible and held it up.

And she said these words, "Take this book and its message to your people, and they will likewise prosper." A revival begins with a Re-Bible. Every revival in the past centers on scripture. We have noted that in this series. Let me also remind you that America has had great revivals in the past. The First Great Awakening, followed by the Second Great Awakening. Just keep that slide up there.

Followed by, even though we don't have a picture of all of it, because these are just drawings, the Third Great Awakening. Great revivals on American soil. The Great Awakening. Then, in 1850s, there was the businessman's revival in New York City. A businessman by the name of Jeremiah Lanphier was a Christian, and he knew that the economy was slowing a bit. He was concerned about that.

So he thought, "I'll get a group of businessmen together at noon to pray." Well, that prayer meeting grew and grew and grew in that city, and it became a revival that spread to other American cities like Chicago, Boston, all around the eastern seaboard and the Midwest. And it became a revival, a movement in this country that saw millions of people make decisions for Christ.

Years later, there was and there are several others I'm not mentioning, but the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles in the 1900s, led by a black preacher named William Seymour, a fiery Pentecostal, and revival broke out on the West Coast, which is good. It needs it, it needs another one. Speaking of the West Coast, there was something called the Jesus Movement. I can raise my hand and say, "I was a part of that. I was in the middle of that."

And it was a time where just thousands of young kids, I mean, street kids, crazy kids, drug kids, including myself, had an awakening and a real, real revival happened. In fact, we're going to put up a chart and just kind of run through these real quick. First Great Awakening, and it has the dates there. Second Great Awakening, businessman's prayer revival, urban revivals, evangelistic revivals, Jesus Movement.

The interesting thing, keep the chart up, is these revivals happen in intervals of 30 to 50 years. The Jesus Movement happened way back in the 70s. It's now 2025. I think America is ripe for another revival, don't you? And with all that has happened this week and today even, I'm, I'm praying that we're on the verge of that.

That we're just kind of done with the emptiness of secularism, and people want to come back to a relationship with the true and living God. Spiritual revival, it's really the only hope. It's the only hope I see. I think it's either going to be an incredible revival or wholesale judgment of God. I see no middle ground. But a spiritual revival can happen.

So great cities can fall, ordinary people can help, real prayer can work, and spiritual revival can happen. Here's the fifth and final mega theme, and that comes with the last chapter of the book, "Good movements can falter." I was impacted by chapter 13 of Nehemiah. Because after the revival, they deteriorated. They backslid. The revival waned.

And great movements can falter. Great revivals can fizzle. Great people can backslide. Great churches can grow liberal and fold and compromise and die. The excitement of yesterday's revival can become the routine of today. We need to be aware of that, guard ourselves against that. Listen, all the people from the first, second, and third Great Awakening are now dead.

All the people from the businessman's prayer revival that happened in New York City and the rest of America, they're all dead. All the people from the Azusa Street Revival, I'm guessing most all of them by now are dead. And all of the kids from the Jesus Movement days are now grandparents. But you got to know we are praying grandparents. We're praying for the next generation and the next generation. I want to see my children and grandchildren, and eventually great-grandchildren, have their own Jesus Movement. I'm praying for that.

You want to see a revival? How many of you want to see a revival in our country? Okay. Next question, are you yourself revived? The prophet said, "Revive us again, oh Lord." He included himself in that prayer. "Revive us again, oh Lord." I'm not going to rehash what we covered last week. But ask yourself, are you revived?

Years ago there was a guy by the name of Gypsy Smith. I don't know if you've ever heard that name, Gypsy Smith. His name was Rodney Smith. He was British, but they gave him the name Gypsy, the nickname Gypsy. He was an itinerant preacher. He was born in 1860 outside of London, uneducated. He was born in a tent. And he was uneducated, but he went on to speak and lecture at Harvard University.

He became so well known that two different presidents invited him to the White House. This fiery preacher was once asked how to start a revival. His answer, "Go home. Lock yourself in your room. Kneel down in the middle of the floor, and with a piece of chalk, draw a chalk mark around you and ask God to start the revival inside the chalk mark. When God answers your prayer, revival will be on."

How do we start a This country needs a revival. Revive me, oh God. My heart. Let me be on fire. That's where it begins. And so, Father, we want to end this by doing what Paul did. What he tells us to do, to present our bodies before you as living sacrifices. If great cities can fall, but ordinary people can help, and real prayer can work, then here we are with heartfelt cries.

Saved people, asking the extraordinary God to use ordinary people to bring revival. Revive us and revive this country. May we come back to the place where indeed we can say in honesty and integrity, "In God we trust." Lord, I along with every believer in this room ask the second question that Saul of Tarsus asked, "Lord, what is it you want me to do?"

What is it you want us to do? Reveal your will to us, your people for our city, our state, our country, in such a time as this.

Host (Male): We're so glad you joined us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before you go, here's a reminder. When you give $50 or more this month, we'll send you City in Shambles. Pastor Skip's complete study through Nehemiah on CD and digital download, as our thanks. These messages offer practical biblical insight for anyone burdened by the brokenness they see in the world around them, helping you respond with faith, prayer, and hope instead of fear or despair. Your support helps keep this Bible teaching ministry on the air, connecting more people to God's Word. You can give today at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888. See you next time. Make a connection. Make a connection. Cast your burdens on his word. Make a connection. A connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.

Host (Male): Ready to go deeper in your faith and discover your calling? The School of Ministry at Calvary Church in Albuquerque is designed to equip you with practical Bible teaching, hands-on ministry training, and real-world experience. Whether you're called to lead, serve, or grow, this is your next step. Classes are forming now. Visit calvarysom.org to learn more and apply today. That's calvarysom.org. The School of Ministry at Calvary Church, your calling starts here.