Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: A spiritual leader is someone who knows where God is taking them and is able to motivate others to go there with them.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in biblical studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled Heroes. Let’s listen as JP gives us part one of Nehemiah.

JP Jones: The book of Nehemiah, if you have your Bibles, would you open to the book of Nehemiah? It's about halfway through the Bible. What a great way to end this series. This is an unbelievable book. If you have not read the book of Nehemiah or if it's been a while, let me encourage you to sit down and read it. Thirteen chapters, an unbelievable story of God's miraculous provision and the testimony of being a godly leader.

Nehemiah was a godly leader. Every one of us in some way is being called to be a godly leader. Maybe it's of our families, men. Maybe it’s working with our husbands over our kids, women. Maybe it's in the marketplace. Maybe it's in our neighborhood, maybe it's over a small group, maybe it's some ministry here in the church, maybe it's in the workplace.

Every one of us is called to be an influencer for Christ. We're called to represent God to this generation. We have, in some measure, a sphere of spiritual influence we're called to. We can learn from Nehemiah's example. A spiritual leader is someone who knows where God is taking them and is able to motivate others to go there with them.

A spiritual leader has the capacity to discern God's will and God's direction and is moving in that direction where God is taking them. But they’re not just taking a walk by themselves. They are motivating, persuading, and encouraging others to go along with them into that future direction where God is taking them.

One author says this about Nehemiah: "A leader is a person who has vision from God, firmly believes in that vision, and doesn't move towards its fulfillment by himself. The real leader possesses the ability to get others motivated about the new idea. They know the problem, but they also have a solution in mind. A leader is a person who is dissatisfied with the way things are. He has a burden, a vision, and a call to see something different. He wants to see something change to build a new future. He then begins to communicate what he thinks and where he wants to go, and he persuades other people to go there with him."

Nehemiah gave his vision talk to the troops, and they rallied with him for battle. Maybe your troops are your kids. Maybe your troops are the people at work. Maybe your troops are your neighbors. Maybe your troops are people in your small group. Maybe your troops are the people in the serving team with you here at church. Maybe your troop is your spouse. Maybe your troops are yet to be named.

But stepping into the call of spiritual leadership means we have a sense of where God wants to take us, but we take other people there with us. We don't go there alone. There’s a lot in this book, obviously. I went over this message many times and decided I really couldn't reduce it. So, we're going to be here for the next four hours in the book of Nehemiah.

No, this may be that I get as far as I get or I just kind of pick some things and land there. But there are many great spiritual principles that I want us to learn from. As the Lord gives us grace over the next 30 minutes, we'll tackle as many as we can. Here's the first one: Nehemiah identified with the things that matter to God.

His heart was broken by the things that break God's heart. His heart was energized by the things that energize God's heart. Nehemiah was sensitive to God, and it affected him. So, he committed himself to the things that God was committed to. He didn't see his Christian life as receiving Christ, living the way the world lives, and then dying and getting to go to heaven.

No, his life was identified with the purposes of God. That's what God wants for us. God wants our life to be identified with his purposes, but not merely in a cold professional way, but in a sensitive, passionate, deep, relational way. So, we're moved by what we see happening in this world because people matter to God. And so we're affected by what's happening in the lives of people.

It says this in Nehemiah 1: "The words of Nehemiah, son of Hacaliah. In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile and also about Jerusalem. And they said to me, 'Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. And the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.' And when I heard these things, I sat down and wept. And for some days I mourned and I fasted and I prayed before the God of heaven."

Here is the scenario. Remember that Nebuchadnezzar came in and he took away exiles and he ransacked Jerusalem. Over a period of three phases, he took away people, he defeated the citizenship, and then he just destroyed the city and the wall. Daniel writes about this time of exile. At the end of Daniel, Daniel is reading in the book of Jeremiah and reads that Jeremiah prophesied that the captivity would be 70 years and then the exiles get to go back.

Well, this is now some time after the exiles have gone back. Nehemiah was living in exile, but he had risen to a place of prominence. He was the cupbearer to the king, which is a pretty significant position. But his brothers had gone back to Jerusalem. They come back and he told them what it was like, and it was a bad story. The people were in distress. The city was in distress. The wall was torn down.

Nehemiah hears this and his heart is broken because he had a sensitivity to the things of God. People matter to God, the people of God matter. He heard that they were in disgrace and discouragement. The temple was in disarray. The wall was broken down. The city of Jerusalem, the physical manifestation of God's kingdom on earth, was broken down and it broke Nehemiah's heart because he identified with the things of God.

God wants us to be people who can get excited about the things that get him excited, but also are heartbroken by the things that break his heart. God wants us to be people who get angry about the things that get him angry. Some things make God angry. We’ll pick this up hopefully in the end of the book. In Nehemiah 13, it's a pretty graphic picture of Nehemiah's confrontational approach to evil and sin because those things angered God, and Nehemiah stepped in with both barrels.

The point is, when we have a heart that's in tune with God, we get excited about the things that God gets excited about. We get energized and vexed by the things that frustrate and anger God, and we get our hearts broken by the things that break God's heart. We lose our capacity to do that, though, when we just get caught up in this world. When we spend all our emotional energy on the things of this world, then we have nothing left over for that emotion, God-given emotion, to be spent on the things that God would have us spend it on.

We have an emotional quotient like a bank account or like a gas tank. When it's gone, it's gone. If we spend it on just stuff that doesn't matter, we have nothing left over to care about the things that God cares about. So, like Nehemiah, we need to identify with the things that matter to God. Here's a second thing: Nehemiah sought the Lord in prayer. This guy was a prayer warrior.

When you read the book and you hear messages about Nehemiah and you read even books, because there are books you could go to the bookstore, go to the Sunshine Bookstore and find books on leadership principles from the book of Nehemiah. Oftentimes, we miss the obvious. What made Nehemiah such an effective organizational leader, what made Nehemiah such an effective people leader was that he was first and foremost a man of prayer.

He lived out of an abiding relationship with his God. It's like what Jesus says in John chapter 15: "If you'll abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. And by this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples." When you see a fruitful person, don't think they're fruitful merely because of their skill sets.

John 15 says fruitfulness is a byproduct of abiding in Christ. Nehemiah had an abiding relationship that was evidenced by his prayer. So in Nehemiah 1, he hears this message that the walls are broken down, the city's in disarray, the people are discouraged. And so he poured his heart out to God in prayer. In fact, this is the prayer that he prays.

"When I heard these things, I sat down and I wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. I said, 'Oh Lord, God of heaven, you are the great and awesome God. You keep your covenant of love with those who love you and obey your commands. Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer that your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, for the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites have committed, including myself and my father's house. We've committed against you. We've acted very wickedly towards you. We've not obeyed your commands, your decrees, your laws which you gave to your servant Moses.'"

"Remember the instruction you gave to 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 if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to this place where I've chosen as a dwelling for my name.' They're your servants, your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. Oh 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. Grant me favor in the presence of the king."

It's a protracted, desperate prayer for intervention. There's confession of sin, there's repentance, there's praise, there's thanksgiving, there's claiming scripture and promises. You see? So, we need to be people who pray desperate prayers. But also down in chapter 2 of Nehemiah, he has his audience with the king and the king wants to know what's going on.

He asks Nehemiah in Nehemiah 2:4, "What do you want?" And it says this: "Then I prayed to the God of heaven and I answered the king, 'If it pleases the king and your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it.'" This wasn't those long protracted, fasting prayers. This was one of those quick, the king is standing there and the king says, "What do you want?" Nehemiah goes, "God, help me right now. Well king, this is what I want."

It was one of those quick, "shoot it up right now" and ask for something kind of prayers. How many have prayed those kind of prayers? Those are legitimate prayers. You're in the heat of the moment, you're in the heat of the battle, you're facing something right now, but you take even five seconds and ask for wisdom. You just take a moment and say, "God, give me mercy. God, calm my heart right now. God, show me what you want me to do right here in this situation. God, I need help. Help me."

That's a great prayer. So Nehemiah had those desperate prayers, and he had those long seasons of prayer, but he had those quick little "give me something I need it right now" kind of prayers too. The point was he was a person who prayed. When you read the whole rest of the story, whenever he encountered spiritual opposition, he was praying. Whenever there was an organizational challenge, he was praying. Whenever he had to go back and appeal to the king for resources, he was praying.

Whatever your challenge is in your life right now, whatever wall you're trying to build, maybe you're trying to rebuild a wall in your marriage, maybe you're trying to rebuild a wall of your finances, maybe you're trying to rebuild a wall with your kids, maybe you're trying to rebuild a wall in reaching your neighbors for Christ, maybe you're trying to rebuild a wall in serving God with your spiritual gifts. I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, be a person of prayer. Have seasons of prayer, long times spent in prayer. Yes, maybe that's what you need to do.

Maybe you need to take off half a day and just pray. Maybe you need to commit yourself for a season of prayer and fasting. Maybe you need to gather around the people that in your estimation are the best prayers you know and say, "Will you join with me and pray with me at this season through this situation?" But also just fire up those missile-type prayers. Here's a third observation about Nehemiah, and this is what we'd normally think of: he had a vision and a plan.

So his heart's broken, he prays, and between the lines, he must have formulated what he wanted to do, and he must have heard God clearly about what he wanted to do. Because then he has his audience with the king and the king says in Nehemiah 2, "You seem depressed. What's going on?" This is like the depression of the soul, not just like the daily mood type thing. And Nehemiah says, "Yeah, I'm depressed because this is what's going on in Jerusalem and they're my brothers and it affects me."

And the king says, "Well, what do you want?" This is what you don't read in Nehemiah 2: "Well, what do you want? I don't know. I just want it to be better." No. "What do I want? Well, this is what I want. I want to be able to go and rebuild the wall. Oh, and I probably need letters from you that give me access to the king's forest so I can get all the timber that I need. And I also need some workers to go along with me, and I also need a military escort. And I need a letter of introduction so when I get there, they know I have your authority to get it done."

I mean, it's like he had it all calculated out. What he wanted to do, rebuild the wall, and then the strategy that it was going to take to get it done, and he specifically asked for it. He had a vision and a plan. And then as the story unfolds, the king says, "You got it." So Nehemiah takes all of this, he rides into town, and he's got his opposition all set up. And then the people who were just on the receiving end, they didn't know what's going on.

He sets up shop and he doesn't tell anybody what's happening. And in the middle of the night, he wakes up a couple of guys and says, "Let's go. We're going on a reconnaissance mission." And they ride around the edge of the city where the wall is broken down. Some places they couldn't even ride their horse around. And if you've been to modern Jerusalem, it has obviously been rebuilt, but you get at least a picture of what it is. The wall isn't like the wall between you and your neighbor's backyard.

It's a big wall that you could walk, march an army, ride a horse, have a chariot go through in places. That was the strength of the city. So it's all broken down. And in some places, he couldn't even take his horse, the rubble was such, and he had to walk and look. And all throughout the night, he went all the way around the city. And all the while he's doing it, he's going, "Okay, I need to put some workers there. I need to work there. Okay, it's a little stronger there. We'll do it that way over there. Hey, we need to have a team over here. We need mortar and brick over here. We need to get some timber over there. Okay, got it."

Then morning came, he gathered everybody together and said, "Yeah, my name's Nehemiah. I got orders from the king, I'm the new governor. And what we're going to do is we're going to rebuild the wall and this is the way we're going to do it. You're going to work there, you're going to work there, we're going to do this here, we're going to plan it out like that. Here's all the building permits that I got from the city. Let's go." Boom! And they did it. You see?

So Nehemiah had a vision and a plan. Here's the point. We have to be people who spend time with God, spend time in prayer, look at the word, get wise counsel, discern the times, capture the vision that God has for us. It may be for our marriage. It may be for our family. It may be for our finances. It may be for the ministry God's calling us to. It may be for our participation here in this church. But we get a vision. Where is God taking us? What does God want to do through my life? And then we develop a strategy of how to get it done.

Guest (Male): What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just five dollars. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or give us a call at 949-916-0250.

That's 949-916-0250. For your gift of 25 dollars or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, *Facing Goliath*. Please join us every Sunday at 9:00 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or check us out on the web at CrosslineChurch.com. We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. We are in a series talking about heroes. We're looking at men and women from the Old Testament who are being used by God because of their surrender and faith in God. They weren't extraordinary people. They didn't have supernatural gifts. They were normal people like us, real people, with weaknesses, with struggles. But they turned their lives over to God. They trusted in the Lord. They asked God to do something great in their lives. They were available to serve God for his purposes.

God can use people like that. God's not looking for superstars. He's looking for normal people, warts and all, but people who can be transformed by His Holy Spirit, people who are humble before Him and obedient to Him. We can be those kind of people. We can be people who serve God and advance His kingdom and who are witnesses for His salvation in Jesus Christ. Nehemiah was a person like that. Nehemiah was a person who was used by God humanly speaking to help rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Because in the history of God's people, the Israelites were taken into captivity into Babylon. They were in captivity for 70 years, then God had promised in the Hebrew prophets that that 70-year captivity would come to an end and they would be restored back to the land. They came back to the land first under the leadership of Ezra and rebuilt the temple. And then they came back through Nehemiah and rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem.

Nehemiah serves as an example of someone who was a servant leader for God. There's a lot of information out there about leadership. You can go to a local bookstore and go to a certain section, a business section, and you can see all kinds of books on leadership. The best definition of leadership I've ever come across is this: a leader is someone who knows where he's going and is able to persuade others to go along with them. A leader is someone with a dream, a vision, a sense of the future that's better than the present.

But he's also a person who has the skills to motivate and encourage and move people to go in that direction with him. Because if you think you're leading and no one's following you, you're just taking a walk by yourself. The spiritual dynamic of leadership is a godly leader, a spiritual leader, is someone who knows where God is taking him and someone who uses biblical means to move others to go along with them. That's the kind of person Nehemiah was.

He had a real sense of where God wanted to take him, and he had a sense of how God wanted to use him to encourage and motivate and recruit others to go along with him. God used Nehemiah to build the wall of Jerusalem and to bring about the worship of God in His holy city. Nehemiah was a person used to accomplish God's purposes. We can be people who are used by God to accomplish His purposes. God's calling every one of us to be an influencer, to be a leader.

Some of us it's within our family. All of us it's within our church. All of us it's within the context of our culture. We are to be influencers, servant leaders, those who call people to follow us as we follow after Jesus Christ. We can learn from Nehemiah's example. First of all, Nehemiah had a broken heart. Nehemiah heard that the walls of Jerusalem were torn down. His heart broke over that. He cried out to God, and out of that prayer came a sense of mission that he was to do something about the problem.

Nehemiah also out of prayer formulated a vision, formulated a strategy, formulated a methodology to do something about the problem. When we own that there is a need that only God can solve, and as we from God get the wisdom to do something about it, that's when we're following that path of servant leadership. That could be true of our family. That could be true of our church. That could be true of our community. We need to have a broken heart with the things that break God's heart.

We need to develop out of prayer a sense of what God wants to do about it, and we need to also, a sense out of prayer, how we personally own that solution and we call others to join us. Nehemiah was a person used by God and he's an example for each of us of how we can be used by God. If you want to ask God to use you in your generation in your context, I ask you to pray with me right now.

God, I pray that you would make each of us servant leaders. Give us a broken heart with the things that break your heart. Give us eyes to see around us people in need and opportunities that you want to step in and do something that only you can do for your glory. God, use us to be people who call others and to advance the kingdom of Jesus Christ. I pray for that in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you will find us at CrosslineChurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to CrosslineChurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.