Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: It feels awesome today. My name is Wade Joy. I'm
Speaker 1: the worship pastor here and I have the incredible honor
Speaker 1: and privilege to bring God's word to you this weekend.
Speaker 1: I am so excited about what God has given me
Speaker 1: to share. But first of all, how awesome was that
Speaker 1: message from Pastor Stephen last weekend? The pressure to perform,
Speaker 1: and if I'm being real, I feel just a little
Speaker 1: bit of pressure being on this stage right now. We're
Speaker 1: the greatest preacher on the planet, preaches every single weekend.
Speaker 1: But that sermon last week it helped me so much
Speaker 1: to live out of a place of purpose and not
Speaker 1: trying to perform for us people. And in fact, Pastor
Speaker 1: Stephen was in a meeting with our campus pastors and
Speaker 1: a lot of our church leaders this week and he
Speaker 1: was really encouraging us as we talked about that message.
Speaker 1: When we look at ministry to always lean into what
Speaker 1: is most helpful for people, not what is going to
Speaker 1: impress an audience. And when he said that, it made
Speaker 1: me just extra thankful for all the sermons that he's
Speaker 1: preached that have helped me love God more, helped me
Speaker 1: trust the Lord more fully, help me believe that God
Speaker 1: can actually use somebody like me. So if anything in
Speaker 1: this ministry has helped you, can you just appreciate what
Speaker 1: God has done through the church. So God has given
Speaker 1: me something that I hope helped you. And if you
Speaker 1: can just remain standing as we look at our main
Speaker 1: text today, it's found in Meaemiah chapter six. And I
Speaker 1: was studying this book with a lot of our worship
Speaker 1: leaders earlier in the year and God just began to
Speaker 1: illuminate some truths in my heart that helped me a lot.
Speaker 1: And if you don't know about Nehemiah, he was a
Speaker 1: leader who led a remnant of Jews back to Jerusalem
Speaker 1: out of exile, and he was tasked with rebuilding the
Speaker 1: wall around Jerusalem. The wall was broken down, the city
Speaker 1: was vulnerable, and God had given him this great task.
Speaker 1: But he faced a lot of opposition. He faced a
Speaker 1: lot of setbacks, and that's kind of where we find
Speaker 1: him right now. Nehemiah chapter six, and it says this
Speaker 1: when word came to sand Ballot, to Baia, Guessham, the
Speaker 1: Arab and the rest of our enemies, that I had
Speaker 1: rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in
Speaker 1: up though up to that time I had not set
Speaker 1: the doors in the gates. Sand Ballot and Gesham sent
Speaker 1: me this message, Come let us meet together in one
Speaker 1: of the villages on the plane of oh No. Side.
Speaker 1: Note nothing good happens in a place called oh No.
Speaker 1: Just trust me there. But they were scheming to harm me.
Speaker 1: So I sent messengers to them with this reply, I'm
Speaker 1: carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why
Speaker 1: should the workstop? Well, I leave it and go down
Speaker 1: to you. Four times they sent me the same message,
Speaker 1: and each time I gave them the same answer. Then
Speaker 1: the fifth time, Sambalot sent his aid to me with
Speaker 1: the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed
Speaker 1: life in which was written it is reported among the nations,
Speaker 1: and Gesham says, it is true that you and the
Speaker 1: Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building
Speaker 1: the wall. Moreover, according to these reports. You're about to
Speaker 1: become their king. And I've even appointed prophets to make
Speaker 1: this proclamation about you in Jerusalem. There is a king
Speaker 1: in Judah. Now this report will get back to the king.
Speaker 1: So come let us meet together. And I sent him
Speaker 1: this reply. Nothing like what you are saying is happening.
Speaker 1: You are just making it up out of your head.
Speaker 1: I just gave you a new bibble verse you can
Speaker 1: quote to some of the people in your life. They
Speaker 1: were all trying to frighten us, thinking their hands will
Speaker 1: get too weak for the work and it will not
Speaker 1: be completed. But I prayed, now strengthen my hands. So
Speaker 1: the title today's message is stacking strength. Stacking strength. Come on,
Speaker 1: let's pray together. Lord. I thank you for the strength
Speaker 1: that flows from your word. God, I thank you for
Speaker 1: the strength that flows from your presence. So Lord, right now,
Speaker 1: I prayed that you will speak a very specific word
Speaker 1: to everybody under the sound of my voice, as your
Speaker 1: word is reached in Jesus' name. Amen, All right, come on,
Speaker 1: give a couple of hugs Memorial Day hugs as you
Speaker 1: have a seat. So I had a bit of an
Speaker 1: old man's rite of passage recently last week I turned
Speaker 1: forty three, was my forty third birthday. Thank you. I
Speaker 1: share a birthday with the Great Holly Ferdic. I'm much older, though,
Speaker 1: and I've really been praying to get that George Clooney
Speaker 1: anointing because I want to believe that I'm going to
Speaker 1: get better with age, that the gray in my beard
Speaker 1: makes me look more distinguished, makes me look more handsome,
Speaker 1: that I'm in the wisdom zone of with all this experience.
Speaker 1: But every day my body is telling me that that
Speaker 1: is a lie, because everything hurts. I think my knee
Speaker 1: hurts right now. But you know, a couple months ago,
Speaker 1: I was in a meeting and I started to get
Speaker 1: this just stabbing pain in my right and I had
Speaker 1: to wait it out a little bit because I don't
Speaker 1: know if you're like this, but I'm the kind of
Speaker 1: guy that I can't google any symptoms I have. I
Speaker 1: can't go to web md because I automatically go to
Speaker 1: the worst case scenario possible, even like one little snuff
Speaker 1: and I think I'm done for or I think I
Speaker 1: have this like disease. It's only in two percent of
Speaker 1: the population in Brazil, and somehow it's found its way
Speaker 1: to me and Charlotte, North Carolina. But this, this stabbing pain,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't go away, and I couldn't even focus. And
Speaker 1: it reminded me of when I had my appendix out
Speaker 1: about fifteen or twenty years ago. But since my appendix
Speaker 1: isn't there anymore, I realized something was wrong, and so
Speaker 1: I started to sweat in the meeting, I started to
Speaker 1: pace around. I couldn't concentrate. So I just had to
Speaker 1: leave and I went to the emergency room because I
Speaker 1: knew something serious was actually wrong. So once I navigated
Speaker 1: the glorious place that is the waiting room of the
Speaker 1: emergency room, I made it back to the doctor. I
Speaker 1: started to talk through my symptoms and where the pain
Speaker 1: was and where the pain was spreading to and I'll
Speaker 1: save you those details. And he looked at me and
Speaker 1: he said, oh, you've got a kidney stone. Some people
Speaker 1: have had. I heard some of those groans right there.
Speaker 1: You know, you feel my pain, and you know I
Speaker 1: knew my day of reckoning had finally come. For all
Speaker 1: the soft drinks that I drink. So if you know me,
Speaker 1: on a good day, I drink about six diet cokes.
Speaker 1: Are this healthier soda called ZeVA six a day most days.
Speaker 1: Most days I'm more in like the ten eleven twelve range.
Speaker 1: I know, just bring on all the judgment. I was
Speaker 1: ready for it. It's my vice, but thank you. But
Speaker 1: if you multiply six soft drinks a day times three
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty five days a year times twenty years
Speaker 1: that I've really kind of been been doing this, that
Speaker 1: equals one very painful kidney stone. And so as my
Speaker 1: doctor and I were talking, he then said what I
Speaker 1: was waiting for him to say, and he said, do
Speaker 1: you want morphine? And he then said, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: having a kidney stone is the closest a man will
Speaker 1: get to childbirth. I know all the women are just
Speaker 1: rolling your eyes. You think we're a bunch of WIMPs.
Speaker 1: Now we are. I am, And since I'm not into
Speaker 1: natural childbirth, I said, give me all the medicine. You
Speaker 1: can give me the morphine. I am ready right now.
Speaker 1: So once I got that, I was good to go.
Speaker 1: I was feeling better. They did some tests and they said,
Speaker 1: you have a three millimeter kidney stone, which is a
Speaker 1: medium sized stone. Six millimeters or more we'd consider a
Speaker 1: large stone. And then we do the procedure to break
Speaker 1: it apart and it'll pass much easier. And so I
Speaker 1: was just waiting to find out, how are you going
Speaker 1: to get this out of me today? Because I've heard
Speaker 1: horror stories about passing this thing and I do not
Speaker 1: want to experience that. And all they did is gave
Speaker 1: me some muscle relaxers, some pain meds, and a filter
Speaker 1: to catch it in and said this will come out
Speaker 1: sometime in the next two to three weeks. That is
Speaker 1: not what I wanted to hear, because three milimeters might
Speaker 1: sound small to you, but it was a mountain to me,
Speaker 1: and I need a God to move that mountain. Right then,
Speaker 1: I was praying every prayer of faith I could possibly pray,
Speaker 1: and thankfully the Lord heard my cry and in his mercy,
Speaker 1: the next day it passed. But I never knew that
Speaker 1: something so small could stop me dead in my tracks,
Speaker 1: something three millimeters could shut my system down, because small
Speaker 1: things make a big impact. And honestly, that's been the
Speaker 1: motto I've lived by. I mean, that's the short man's
Speaker 1: motto right there. I've always any any story where the
Speaker 1: short guy is the hero I love. That's why I
Speaker 1: love Lord of the Rings. I can relate to hobbits
Speaker 1: is awesome. Any story in the Bible where, like you know,
Speaker 1: the giant is slain with the one small stone, or
Speaker 1: the mountains could be moved with faith the size of
Speaker 1: a mustard seed or a kidney stone. I cheer about that.
Speaker 1: I love I love that. But it also can work
Speaker 1: the other way, And this is the way that we
Speaker 1: don't cheer about as much. Where a decade long friendship
Speaker 1: can be ruined by one betrayal or one mistake can
Speaker 1: have ramatic implications for your entire future. Galatians five nine
Speaker 1: and the Passion translation says, don't you know that when
Speaker 1: you allow even a little lie into your heart, it
Speaker 1: can permeate your entire belief system. See I want to
Speaker 1: be the guy like Nehemiah who does great things for God.
Speaker 1: I want to be the guy that builds the wall.
Speaker 1: But there is one little lie that makes me feel
Speaker 1: like a failure over and over and over again. See.
Speaker 1: I know all the promises of Scripture and that all
Speaker 1: God's promises are yes and amen for me and Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: But there's one little lie that looks like the truth
Speaker 1: that has taken up residency in my heart, and it
Speaker 1: makes me feel like I can't do anything that matters
Speaker 1: for God. It makes me think that God is using
Speaker 1: other people more than he's using me, and it stops
Speaker 1: me in my tracks time and time again. And this
Speaker 1: lie is so dangerous because it sounds a lot like
Speaker 1: the truth. And it's this and maybe you struggle with
Speaker 1: this as well. But the lie I tell myself all
Speaker 1: too often is that my greatest impact happens when I
Speaker 1: take giant steps of faith. So my greatest impact happens
Speaker 1: when I take giant steps of faith. And maybe you
Speaker 1: don't struggle with this the way I do, But I
Speaker 1: feel like God only uses me when I take the
Speaker 1: big risk, when I take the huge step of faith.
Speaker 1: If I'm being honest, I feel like God only uses
Speaker 1: me the two times a year I'm on this stage
Speaker 1: preaching or some of you know about you know how
Speaker 1: my kids were born and they had a lot of
Speaker 1: medical issues, and we prayed for miracles in the hospital
Speaker 1: and we saw those miracles, and I felt like God
Speaker 1: used me then. But what about every other day? That
Speaker 1: seems really really ordinary. I read a study on the internet,
Speaker 1: which of course means it's true that said the average
Speaker 1: person gets fifteen days of perfect happiness a year. So
Speaker 1: I don't know how they define perfect happiness, but no
Speaker 1: matter what, that's just depressing right right there. So two
Speaker 1: weeks of happiness a year, and I realized that I
Speaker 1: kind of think of faith that way. Then I might
Speaker 1: get fifteen perfect faith days a year where I can
Speaker 1: actually see God using me, I can see the evidence
Speaker 1: of it. I feel like I'm in the faith zone.
Speaker 1: And that just makes me feel so defeated, because what
Speaker 1: about the other fifty weeks of the year, when I'm
Speaker 1: in meetings, when I'm answering emails, when I'm chow foring
Speaker 1: my kids to and from their practices. How is God
Speaker 1: working in my life? Then? Have you ever felt like that?
Speaker 1: Have you ever wondered? Am I even making a difference
Speaker 1: in the ordinary and mundane routine of life? Well? I
Speaker 1: have two. And God has really been helping me with
Speaker 1: this passage from me Amiah. Break down that lie and
Speaker 1: replace it with a truth, because whenever you get rid
Speaker 1: of a lie, you have to replace it with something
Speaker 1: that is true. And so what God has been teaching
Speaker 1: me is this, And I want you to hold onto this.
Speaker 1: If you get nothing else from this message, I want
Speaker 1: you to walk away with this, and that is that
Speaker 1: my greatest impact doesn't happen through giant steps of faith,
Speaker 1: but rather through daily steps of faithfulness. God doesn't just
Speaker 1: move through the dramatic. He does do that, but more
Speaker 1: often than not, he moves through the daily, the day
Speaker 1: to day. See Nei a Mayah took the giant step
Speaker 1: to build the wall, but what inspires me about his
Speaker 1: story is how he persevered in the day today, obedience
Speaker 1: even when it's hard. And so that's what I want
Speaker 1: us to talk about today. There's three principles in this
Speaker 1: passage that are helping me a lot to believe that
Speaker 1: God can use me even when it doesn't seem like
Speaker 1: it around me, and I hope they help you too.
Speaker 1: The first is this, and if you're a note taker,
Speaker 1: go ahead and write this down. The impact definishing is
Speaker 1: greater than the excitement of starting. The impact definishing is
Speaker 1: greater than the excitement of starting. See even though it
Speaker 1: doesn't say it explicitly in this text, I have to
Speaker 1: believe that the people in Jerusalem were feeling energized because
Speaker 1: the wall looked to be complete. I mean, the walls
Speaker 1: were high, they look strong. I imagine they were standing
Speaker 1: there trying to get just the perfect selfie with the
Speaker 1: walls in the background to post on Instagram. They were
Speaker 1: feeling energized by the progress. But there was one detail
Speaker 1: that you might have glossed over, because I did it
Speaker 1: first in the first verse of this chapter, and it
Speaker 1: says this when word came to Sambalot to buy a
Speaker 1: guess in the Arab and the rest of our enemies,
Speaker 1: that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap
Speaker 1: was left in it, though up to that time I
Speaker 1: had not set the doors in the gates. See, there
Speaker 1: wasn't a gap in the wall, but there was a
Speaker 1: pretty big gap where the doors should have been. There
Speaker 1: was a pretty big gap where the gate was. There
Speaker 1: was a lot of progress that had been made, but
Speaker 1: the work hadn't been completed yet. How many of y'all
Speaker 1: were here for a series that we did about a
Speaker 1: year ago called Gates of Change. It was an awesome,
Speaker 1: awesome series. I loved it. Some of you did too,
Speaker 1: and we learned in this series how important gates were
Speaker 1: to ancient cities. They were the place of commerce, of trials,
Speaker 1: proclamations from kings. A lot of stuff happened at the gate,
Speaker 1: but it was also the most vulnerable part of the
Speaker 1: city because it was the part that enemies sought to
Speaker 1: conquer first, because if you could control the gate, you
Speaker 1: could control the city. So no matter how high and
Speaker 1: strong and mighty these walls were, the city was still
Speaker 1: vulnerable because the gates weren't in place, the work wasn't done.
Speaker 1: So we loved to start things, but finishing things is
Speaker 1: a different matter, and we used to experience this a
Speaker 1: lot back in the early days of songwriting for our
Speaker 1: church ten eleven, twelve years ago. First of all, y'all
Speaker 1: know nothing about old school elevation worship, but Pastor Stephen
Speaker 1: commissioned us to write songs, and you know, me and
Speaker 1: Chris and the rest of the team, we had no
Speaker 1: idea how to write worship songs. So anything that had,
Speaker 1: you know, remotely rhymed kind of had a melody to
Speaker 1: it was somewhat scripturally accurate. We would just test it
Speaker 1: out on the poor people of our church. It was
Speaker 1: not FDA approved yet, it did not have the official
Speaker 1: worship song stamp of approval, but the church was patient
Speaker 1: with us. It served its purpose in that time, but
Speaker 1: it was a huge blessing when Pastor Stephen got involved
Speaker 1: in the songwriting process because he would say, Okay, that's
Speaker 1: not a song, that's an idea, that's a rough draft.
Speaker 1: We need to take this round two, round three, round four, five,
Speaker 1: round ten, because he wanted us to really dig to
Speaker 1: find what was most meaningful for our church to sing.
Speaker 1: And that's why there's a song like Resurrecting that means
Speaker 1: so much to our church. But it took a year
Speaker 1: to write, and I remember, you know, nine months and
Speaker 1: ten months, and Pastor Stephen was trying to find just
Speaker 1: the perfect line for that fourth verse that would just
Speaker 1: elicit faith when we sang it at our church. And
Speaker 1: so now our team is on a European tour and
Speaker 1: when they get to the fourth verse and singing the
Speaker 1: tumb where soldiers watched in vain was barred four three days,
Speaker 1: his body there would not remain. Our God has robbed
Speaker 1: the grave. There's going to be shouts halfway across the
Speaker 1: world because of that line and how it elicits faith
Speaker 1: in people's hearts. But that didn't come with the song idea.
Speaker 1: That came after a year of work. You see, starting
Speaker 1: is fun, Starting is exciting. We love to launch the
Speaker 1: business we love to ask the girl out. We love
Speaker 1: to celebrate our kids first steps, and in fact, celebrating
Speaker 1: first steps is awesome. We go nuts here when somebody
Speaker 1: makes their first step of faith, committing their life to Jesus.
Speaker 1: That's why we exist as a church that deserves celebration.
Speaker 1: You know, when when you're making your vows at the
Speaker 1: altar on your wedding day, hopefully you're celebrating. If you're not,
Speaker 1: you're not making a good decision there. But how many
Speaker 1: of you know? Saying those valves is one thing. Living
Speaker 1: out those valves fifteen years later is a completely different matter.
Speaker 1: Now you have about one hundred of your friends and
Speaker 1: families celebrating you on your wedding day, They're not there
Speaker 1: with you in your living room fifteen years later when
Speaker 1: you and your wife can't even speak speak to each other.
Speaker 1: So you thought building or planning the wedding was the wall.
Speaker 1: The wall was building a marriage. That's what takes work.
Speaker 1: Making the baby is fun. Trust me, I've got some
Speaker 1: babies and it's fun raising those babies in their middle
Speaker 1: school years, their high school years. I haven't hit that yet,
Speaker 1: but I heard it's a lot of fun. But trying
Speaker 1: to show them what it looks like to be a
Speaker 1: man or a woman of God when you feel in
Speaker 1: perfect yourself and you don't feel like you have your
Speaker 1: stuff together, but you're trying to be there for them
Speaker 1: and love them in times where they're not very lovable.
Speaker 1: Raising a child is hard. It takes We're coming to
Speaker 1: church one time is awesome. We are so glad you're
Speaker 1: here if this is your first time. But to actually
Speaker 1: have your life change the way God wants to change
Speaker 1: your life, it takes being here consistently. A lot of
Speaker 1: you heard about eGroups earlier. That is the power of
Speaker 1: an e group. It's getting people in your life consistently.
Speaker 1: And can I be honest with you about one thing.
Speaker 1: This is some therapy for me. I used to hate
Speaker 1: that word consistent because people would use it to describe
Speaker 1: me and they would say, wait, it is just so
Speaker 1: con and the way I translated that is Wade is
Speaker 1: so boring. I hated that word. I didn't want to
Speaker 1: be the consistent one. I wanted to be the guy
Speaker 1: that was that was exciting and had a quick wit
Speaker 1: and was so insightful and was the life of the party.
Speaker 1: And Wade's a great singer, but instead I got Wade's
Speaker 1: just consistent sounds so lame. It's like, it's like, you
Speaker 1: know the girl, she has such a great personality. I
Speaker 1: never wanted to be the guy with the good personality.
Speaker 1: I wanted to be the hot one. Now some of
Speaker 1: you married the hot one, and thirty years later you
Speaker 1: wish you married the one with the good personality. Just
Speaker 1: look look straight ahead at me. You're good. We'll get
Speaker 1: through this. But what I am learning. What I'm learning
Speaker 1: is that Jesus celebrates consistency because consistency is power powerful.
Speaker 1: It might not be flashy, but consistency actually changes things.
Speaker 1: Consistency makes a huge difference. I mean, I had that
Speaker 1: stupid kidney stone because I consistently drank diet cokes every
Speaker 1: day for twenty years. Consistency makes a difference. This church
Speaker 1: is built on consistency. Consistent volunteers who serve every single
Speaker 1: weekend when you feel like it and when you don't.
Speaker 1: We couldn't do it without you. This church is built
Speaker 1: on consistent generosity, people who give and prioritize God through
Speaker 1: the tithe in plentiful seasons and in hard seasons. See.
Speaker 1: The church is built on consistency. And I feel the
Speaker 1: benefit of that and the impact of that in my
Speaker 1: family because my daughter, my youngest daughter, Sidney, she gave
Speaker 1: her life to Christ this past Good Friday, which was awesome.
Speaker 1: How cool was that to do that on Good Friday?
Speaker 1: And it made me so thankful for all of our
Speaker 1: e Kids volunteers who showed up consistently to show her
Speaker 1: what it looks like to love Jesus. And they showed
Speaker 1: up to serve when she was behaving, and they showed
Speaker 1: up to serve when she was not behaving. She was
Speaker 1: not going to get a gold star that day. You
Speaker 1: showed up to serve when you were feeling like it.
Speaker 1: You showed up to serve when you did it, and
Speaker 1: my family is different and change because of you. So
Speaker 1: thank you on behalf of all the families at Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: I want to thank the unseen Heroes and our e
Speaker 1: Kids Department. Consistency makes a difference, and I also think
Speaker 1: it's important to God because our culture doesn't celebrate consistency.
Speaker 1: Our culture celebrates convenience, leaving the hard thing to chase
Speaker 1: the thrill of the new thing. But I think God
Speaker 1: wants to show what it looks like when a people
Speaker 1: actually stays in the hard thing and makes it better.
Speaker 1: Who can honor their commitments when it hurts. Who can
Speaker 1: do the hard thing consistently, over and over again. Who
Speaker 1: don't just chase the new thing, but do the old
Speaker 1: thing with a new passion. So turn to your neighbor,
Speaker 1: speak the over yourself, say I am consistent. I like
Speaker 1: the sound of that, all right. The second principle is this,
Speaker 1: the path of least resistance is rarely the path of obedience.
Speaker 1: The path of least resistance is rarely the path of obedience.
Speaker 1: So one of the things I heard a lot growing
Speaker 1: up in church to justify decisions, and I said it,
Speaker 1: I heard it a lot. Maybe you've heard this too,
Speaker 1: is I've just got a piece about it? Have you
Speaker 1: ever said that? This is not a trick question? It's
Speaker 1: okay if you have. I got a girl dumped me
Speaker 1: one time because God gave her a piece about it.
Speaker 1: And I thought God was big enough to have some
Speaker 1: peace to go around and give me a piece and
Speaker 1: give me a little bit of a heads up. But
Speaker 1: he failed to do that at that time. But it
Speaker 1: made me feel so unspiritual because most of the things
Speaker 1: I felt like God wanted me to do. I rarely
Speaker 1: felt peace about In fact, they usually scared me to death.
Speaker 1: And I think me and Mayah probably didn't feel a
Speaker 1: lot of peace in the situation he was in. So
Speaker 1: he was confronted with this rumor at this time that
Speaker 1: could have gotten him killed. And I want us to
Speaker 1: look at verse six so you can see it. It
Speaker 1: says it is reported among the nations, and Gesham says,
Speaker 1: it is true that you and the Jews are plotting
Speaker 1: to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. So
Speaker 1: here we have this rumor that he's building this wall
Speaker 1: just so he can revolt against the king of Persia.
Speaker 1: So if that rumor gets back to the king, Nehemiah
Speaker 1: is dead. Now. If he goes to the plane of
Speaker 1: oh No to meet with these people who started the rumor,
Speaker 1: they're setting a trap firm. If he goes and tries
Speaker 1: to refute the rumor and set the matter straight, he's
Speaker 1: dead there too. So it's a no win situation for Niemiah.
Speaker 1: I have to imagine that he was tempted to take
Speaker 1: the path of least resistance, would be to kind of
Speaker 1: get out of town quietly, go find another city, go
Speaker 1: find another wall, to build, but the path of least
Speaker 1: resistance would also be the path of disobedience. I don't
Speaker 1: think Nehemiah when he was sitting there, thinking, God, know
Speaker 1: you called me to build this wall, and I'm facing
Speaker 1: this opposition, but I'm going to trust you anyway. I
Speaker 1: don't think that was a peaceful decision. And it reminded
Speaker 1: me of something Pastor Stevens taught us, and that is
Speaker 1: that peace rarely comes before obedience. Peace is a byproduct
Speaker 1: of obedience. Peace comes after you obey. We can't wait
Speaker 1: for our emotions or our feelings to validate God's voice
Speaker 1: when we know his word has told us to do this,
Speaker 1: when we know his spirit is leading us to fight
Speaker 1: for something. So you're praying for guidance and you're praying
Speaker 1: that God speaks and you know that you see this
Speaker 1: in his word, and you know you should take this step,
Speaker 1: and you know you should stay in this relationship and
Speaker 1: fight for it. But you're just waiting for this feeling
Speaker 1: and this emotion to tell you it's okay. And fighting
Speaker 1: for something is not a very peaceful thing. And God
Speaker 1: has called us as a people to fight for love,
Speaker 1: to fight for reconciliation, to fight for peace. Changing this
Speaker 1: world is not an easy thing, and peace doesn't come
Speaker 1: until after we obey. It is a hard thing to
Speaker 1: forgive somebody when they It doesn't feel very peaceful to
Speaker 1: take that step in to do it, But peace will
Speaker 1: come after the reconciliation, and that takes work. You know,
Speaker 1: some of you high school students, it's not a peaceful
Speaker 1: thing to stand up for the kid who's bullied and
Speaker 1: isn't treated with any dignity or respect. But you have
Speaker 1: no idea what that simple act of courage would mean
Speaker 1: in that person's life. But it's not a peaceful thing
Speaker 1: to stand up against your friends. Some of you made
Speaker 1: commitments at the end of the year to give and
Speaker 1: to begin to prioritize God through tithing, and now these
Speaker 1: bills hit that you weren't planning on, and it is
Speaker 1: a hard thing and it hurts sometimes to honor your
Speaker 1: commitment to God. But God always promises that he will
Speaker 1: bless us when we are faithful and we will trust
Speaker 1: him and when we obey. And if I'm telling the
Speaker 1: truth right now, sometimes I use peace as an excuse
Speaker 1: to get out of doing the hard thing. So I've
Speaker 1: said I've got a peace about this and it's given
Speaker 1: me the excuse to leave the hard thing when really
Speaker 1: what I was feeling was relief, not peace. Relief and
Speaker 1: peace are not the same thing. And some of you
Speaker 1: might have walked out on commitments, walked out of relationships,
Speaker 1: and you claimed you had peace, but you really just
Speaker 1: felt relief because you could wash your hands of the problem.
Speaker 1: God is calling us to be people who fight for peace,
Speaker 1: who are willing to do the hard thing, who don't
Speaker 1: wait on the emotion, because sometimes those opportunities do not
Speaker 1: last forever. And I learned this the hard way. See,
Speaker 1: I have two amazing parents. They raised me in church,
Speaker 1: they raised me to love God. They set a great
Speaker 1: example for me, and they moved to Charlotte to help
Speaker 1: us with our kids and their medical issues. I love
Speaker 1: them a lot. But a lot of people don't know
Speaker 1: that my dad is really my stepdad. He married my
Speaker 1: mom when I was seven and adopted me when I
Speaker 1: was sixteen. For all intents and purposes, he is my dad.
Speaker 1: He is the example in the role model of what
Speaker 1: a man of God looks like. I love him so much. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can clap for my father. I didn't know my
Speaker 1: biological father that well. I didn't see him much after
Speaker 1: the age of four. We lived in California right after
Speaker 1: I was born with him, and he was basically a
Speaker 1: con man, a white collar criminal. He was in and
Speaker 1: out of prison for money laundering, heavy cocaine user, had
Speaker 1: a double life behind my mom's back, had countless affairs,
Speaker 1: very violent person, and once my mom figured out who
Speaker 1: he was, she left him and moved to the East Coast.
Speaker 1: And about five or six years ago, I began to
Speaker 1: get this sense, this leading from God, this prompting that
Speaker 1: I should reconnect with him and just try to build
Speaker 1: a relationship, be some source of light in his life,
Speaker 1: and share my faith. And there was zero percent of
Speaker 1: me that wanted to do that. It felt awkward, it
Speaker 1: felt weird. I couldn't even get to the bottom of
Speaker 1: the depth of emotions that I felt about that, And
Speaker 1: so I really thought God on it. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to do it, but I knew it was something he
Speaker 1: was prompting me to do. But I kept putting it
Speaker 1: off until it felt right. One day, I'm just going
Speaker 1: to feel that it's right and I can pick up
Speaker 1: the phone and make the call. One day I'll get
Speaker 1: a peace about it. So October twenty sixteen, my mom
Speaker 1: caused me and said that he had passed away. And
Speaker 1: I remember I was in my office in a meeting
Speaker 1: with John Bishop, and I just poor John. I just
Speaker 1: broke down crying. And I never expected to grieve over
Speaker 1: somebody that I didn't know the way I grieved then.
Speaker 1: But I was also grieving because I knew I would
Speaker 1: never get that chance back to obey to share Christ
Speaker 1: with them. And it wasn't even something huge that God
Speaker 1: was asking me to do. It was one simple phone
Speaker 1: call that could have had a dramatic impact on his life.
Speaker 1: And thankfully, God is a god of mercy, He's a
Speaker 1: God of grace, and so he helped me come to
Speaker 1: terms with that and realize that there's other people that
Speaker 1: could have shared Christ with him too, And the Lord
Speaker 1: did help bring me to a sense a peace about that.
Speaker 1: But I share this with you because I resolved in
Speaker 1: that moment that I wanted to be the guy that
Speaker 1: obeys those simple promptings from God, even when they're not peaceful.
Speaker 1: I want to be the guy that sends the text.
Speaker 1: I want to be the guy that makes the phone call.
Speaker 1: I don't want to just wait for peace to come.
Speaker 1: I want to be the guy that does the hard thing,
Speaker 1: even when it's not the peaceful thing, because we all
Speaker 1: want to build these giant walls of faith in our life.
Speaker 1: But those walls are built one step of obedience at
Speaker 1: a time, one brick after the other. And sometimes to
Speaker 1: pick up those bricks and stack them. It's a painful thing,
Speaker 1: but God will always bless it when we obey. Here's
Speaker 1: the final point. Don't mistake what is most noticeable for
Speaker 1: what is most valuable. Don't mistake what is most noticeable
Speaker 1: for what is most valuable. So one of the biggest
Speaker 1: lies that has stolen my peace in my walk with
Speaker 1: God is trying to attach my worth with my accomplishments,
Speaker 1: my value with what other people can see, my value
Speaker 1: with the wall that I've built, the work of my hands.
Speaker 1: And here we have me a Mayah who's the builder
Speaker 1: of the wall, the leader of the exiles. And I
Speaker 1: don't think he was feeling a lot of significance or
Speaker 1: value in the work that he was doing, because it
Speaker 1: looked like it was in jeopardy, it looked like it
Speaker 1: might not get done. It looked like he might even
Speaker 1: lose his life because of it. And in this moment
Speaker 1: of weakness, he prayed a prayer that I think we
Speaker 1: would all do very well to pray ourselves. So Verse
Speaker 1: nine says they were all trying to frighten us, thinking
Speaker 1: their hands will get too weak for the work and
Speaker 1: it will not be completed. But I prayed, now strengthen
Speaker 1: my hands. I used to read over that prayer like
Speaker 1: it was some token prayer, like this is just some
Speaker 1: two D story character. But what I love about our
Speaker 1: church is Pastor Stephen helps us see that the humanity
Speaker 1: in the Bible, that these were real people with real emotions.
Speaker 1: And so I tried to put myself in Neamia's shoes.
Speaker 1: And he had staked everything on building this wall. He
Speaker 1: was risking his life, and it looked like it was
Speaker 1: in jeopardy, and all he knew to do was to
Speaker 1: pray for strength from God. It had to be so
Speaker 1: tempting to quit, it had to be so tempting to
Speaker 1: walk away. And I was wondering what kept him going
Speaker 1: in the midst of all the discouragement, in the midst
Speaker 1: of all the hardship. And I think one thing might
Speaker 1: be this, that he realized that God wasn't just building
Speaker 1: the wall, that he could see. God wasn't just building
Speaker 1: this outer wall to protect a city. God was building
Speaker 1: this inner wall of faith in his heart, this inner
Speaker 1: wall of character, this inner wall of trust, this inner
Speaker 1: wall of realizing that his hope was and then how
Speaker 1: strong this wall was. His hope was in how big
Speaker 1: and mighty his God is. His defender wasn't some far
Speaker 1: away king in Persia. His defender was the Lord God, Almighty.
Speaker 1: God was building something greater in the Amiah than what
Speaker 1: He was building through him. And God was also doing
Speaker 1: that for the people of Jerusalem. See, they had been
Speaker 1: sent to exile to begin with because they had trusted
Speaker 1: in false gods and lesser kingdoms, and God was building
Speaker 1: a renewed faith in them to trust in the God
Speaker 1: of Israel. That God was their defender and protector. Sometimes
Speaker 1: your faithfulness isn't just about you. It's about what other
Speaker 1: people see through your faithfulness, the way other people are
Speaker 1: encouraged by it, the way other people are inspired when
Speaker 1: you go and you do the hard thing, even when
Speaker 1: it hurts, and even when you're weak. See Nehemiah had
Speaker 1: to be tempted to quit, but he knew that his
Speaker 1: strength didn't come from retreating from the hard thing. His
Speaker 1: strength came from repeating the hard thing again and again
Speaker 1: and again. Strength wasn't in the retreat. Strength was in
Speaker 1: the repeat. Can you say that to your neighbor's strength
Speaker 1: is in the repeat. See God wants us to be
Speaker 1: a people that just the hard thing over and over
Speaker 1: and over again. It's to say, it's the principle when
Speaker 1: you work out, I'll work out maybe once a week
Speaker 1: at best. That's just enough to get you sore, not
Speaker 1: to build strength. If I really wanted to get stronger,
Speaker 1: I would work out day after day after day, week
Speaker 1: after week after week. That would build My strength comes
Speaker 1: in repetition. It's the same with faith. It's repeated obedience,
Speaker 1: repeated surrender, repeated trust in God. So Neamia didn't just say, Lord,
Speaker 1: strengthen my hands and expect some supernatural strength to make
Speaker 1: his hand stronger. No, he knew he needed some stacking strength.
Speaker 1: So he picked up a brick and he stacked it.
Speaker 1: Picked up another brick, stacked it, said Lord, strengthen my hands.
Speaker 1: Got back to work, picked up another brick, stacked it.
Speaker 1: Accusation came, kept stacking, Discouragement came, kept stacking, And when
Speaker 1: his obedience met God's power. That's when his strength came,
Speaker 1: and that's when the wall was built. Because verse fifteen
Speaker 1: shows us this. It says, so the wall was completed
Speaker 1: on the twenty fifth of a lull in fifty two days.
Speaker 1: And when all our enemy's heard about this, all the
Speaker 1: surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self confidence because
Speaker 1: they realized that this work had been done with the
Speaker 1: help of our God. So you might not think you
Speaker 1: had the strength to do what God has called you
Speaker 1: to do, but he promises that if you obey, if
Speaker 1: you keep stacking one brick at a time, it's not
Speaker 1: your strength, it's His power that's working within you, the
Speaker 1: wall will be built. And I really felt like God
Speaker 1: sent me today and brought you here this Memorial Day week.
Speaker 1: And some of you who feel like nobody notices you stacking,
Speaker 1: you feel like you've been stacking the bricks, and you
Speaker 1: feel like you've been trying to feel faithful and nobody
Speaker 1: sees and nobody notices, and maybe you're just tempted to
Speaker 1: quit because you feel like you just can't keep going.
Speaker 1: And I want to tell you that God is doing
Speaker 1: something mighty in your life, even if you can see it.
Speaker 1: Because I want to remind you of the truth of
Speaker 1: Philippians one p. Six, being confident of this that He
Speaker 1: who began a good work in you will carry it
Speaker 1: on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. So
Speaker 1: we talked about finishing what we start. We're never going
Speaker 1: to do that perfectly. But God promises he will always
Speaker 1: finish what he starts, and He has started something so
Speaker 1: special in each and every person under the sound of
Speaker 1: my voice. We're never going to be truly consistent. But
Speaker 1: Jesus is the model of consistency. The word says he
Speaker 1: is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His love is consistent,
Speaker 1: his grace is consistent. His power that's available to you
Speaker 1: is consistent. So do not give up, Do not stop
Speaker 1: building the wall. Keep stacking brick by brick, and God
Speaker 1: is going to build a mighty wall of faith through
Speaker 1: your life. I want to invite everybody to stand so
Speaker 1: I can pray for you well. For you, just to
Speaker 1: hold your hands, palm up like this and close your eyes.
Speaker 1: I want you to think, what is the hard thing
Speaker 1: that you know God has called you to do again
Speaker 1: and again. What is the brick He's called you to
Speaker 1: pick up? In a stack. What is the active obedience
Speaker 1: that you've been dreading, but you know the Lord is
Speaker 1: calling you to it. And I just want you to
Speaker 1: repeat this prayer after me, this very simple prayer that
Speaker 1: Neiamiah prayed, and say, strengthen my hands. So God, I
Speaker 1: don't know what was on everybody's heart as they prayed that,
Speaker 1: but I pray that you will give them the strength
Speaker 1: and the courage and the faith to obey, realizing that
Speaker 1: you are a trustworthy God, You are a strong and
Speaker 1: mighty God, and that even when we are faithless, you
Speaker 1: are faithful, and we can know that you do all
Speaker 1: things for the good of those who love the Lord,
Speaker 1: and our hard according to its purpose. So Lord, working
Speaker 1: the hard things, work in the good things. And Lord,
Speaker 1: I pray that you will open everybody's eyes this week
Speaker 1: just to get a glimpse of the wall that you're
Speaker 1: building through them. And I thank you for their faithfulness.
Speaker 1: I thank you for how you're using them, thank you
Speaker 1: for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who
Speaker 1: give generously to this ministry. Is because of you that
Speaker 1: this ministry is possible. You can click the link in
Speaker 1: the description to give now or visit Elevation church dot
Speaker 1: org slash podcast for more information and if you enjoyed
Speaker 1: the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with
Speaker 1: your friends. You can click the share button, take a
Speaker 1: screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag
Speaker 1: us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.