This recording is from Willow Creek Church in Winter Springs, Florida, or Dr. Pete Owlinson, as our senior pastor. Today's sermon is part 16 in the offensive Christianity series. This message is titled, a glorious obsession, the making of an influencer. It's taken from Nehemiah, chapter 1, verses 1 through 11. Now here's Pete with today's message. Father, we bow before you today. Grateful that we are your children, your daughters, and your sons, that we belong to you. That you know our name, that you know everything about us. That you know our past, and our failings, and our sin, and yet that has not kept you from loving us, and your grace, and your mercy. Father, we come before one who cares so much for us because you are a God of holiness. Having taken care of our sin by placing them on your son. Lord, while it's hard for us to grasp such a high level of love and dedication for us to us, we give you honor and praise for being a God of grace, for being a God of mercy, for being a sovereign God, a holy God, who well could have used his sovereignty and his power against us, but you used it for us to draw us to you, to redeem us. Thank you that you're a God who knows everything about everyone of us in this room right now. You've been working before us. You have the plan that's going to carry on today and tomorrow. You know the outcomes. You know us. You know what we struggle with, Lord. Today, as we come into your presence, we bow before you because you know those who are in this room struggling right now with temptation, and father disease, you've heard bad news, some who need to hear good news. Father, you know those who need healing, and we thank you for Rex's progress. And we pray for David and Chuck, and we pray, Lord, that you would heal them. There are so many others in our church, Lord. We ask if you would touch them. And you know the needs that we couldn't even talk about right now or we cry. Father, meet us and speak to us. And in the midst of our suffering and difficulty, we pray that Lord God you would use us in a powerful way to impact our world. Lord, we pray for our president today. We pray for him that you would give him wisdom and strength as he leads, encourage, and honor. And Lord, we pray that you would be with our soldiers. And we ask today, as your people, that you would bring peace, but not peace at any price, we pray that you would bring justice. We pray that you would dethrone and destroy terror and terrorists. And Lord, you would bring your justice into this world. Peace so that the gospel could spread. That many could find hope and grace and mercy as we found it as you have showed it to us. Now, Lord, this morning we looked to your word. We pray that you would teach us. We need your word. We need that bread from you. We pray for the one who teaches that you would forgive him. Lord of his sins, we pray that you would use one who is finite to communicate your infinite truth. Be the teacher. And may we be the learners we pray. Be with our students now. As they leave us for an hour for we pray in Jesus' holy name. Kids, you may be dismissed if you are going to be dismissed at this time. While they're going, would you take your Bibles and turn to the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah way back in the Old Testament, and we continue our series. And some of you are saying you've been so done so long. What is our series? I've been gone for a while, haven't I? Kind of in the midst of a mini unplanned sort of sabbatical. And by the end of this month that will be straightened out a little bit better. But it's good to be back and to teach God's word to you and to be with you today. You are an incredible congregation. And it's fun to be back. But you do remember the series we're in, don't you? It's been great to have Steve Brown. Many pastors would give their right arm to have Steve Brown as a backup preacher. And I am so thankful for that. And I need those messages myself. But the series that we're in, offensive Christianity. We've been studying this for several weeks, not so that we can learn how to become more offensive as God's people. That's quite easy for us anyway. But the goal of this series is to really try to answer the question, how is it that we as God's people can stay on the offense in this world? Being a part of helping a broken world. How do we stay strong following Jesus in the midst of all the suffering and the difficulties and the challenges? Some of you are in school. Some of you are in job transitions. How do you keep on? Some of you are struggling with physical health issues. And how do you keep following? How do we stay faithful following Jesus? In the midst of all we got to do, some of you are stressed out right now. You're just starting to relax a little bit. But your schedule is maddening and you want to scream. Some of you did scream on the way over here this morning. Some morning is an interesting study, trying to get one family into a car at the same time, getting them over here. I never have to do that because I get here really early before anybody wakes up. And so if there are problems at home, they're resolved by the time they get here anyway. But our schedules are so challenging. How do you follow Jesus when your marriage is struggling? Guy was telling me the other day about a man who was struggling with tension in the home, trying to figure it out. So his buddy was listening to him and he said, you know, sometimes in the midst of marital problems, God speaks to you. And his eyes got big and he said, you're kidding. I had no idea God uses language like that. We can struggle in our marriages. And yet how in the midst of what happens if your child is hurt or raped? Or someone you love near you dies? How do we stay strong following Jesus? That's what we're doing in this series. How we can stay on the offense. Some days I wake up. Are you in like this? Some days I wake up and I say, I'm ready to go. God is good and they're lucky to have me out there, you know? I'm God's gift to the world and I feel so good about that. And don't you feel that way? And then some days I wake up and I look in the mirror and I say, aw, that'll lock me up, man, if they only knew. Some days I feel so absolutely ordinary that I don't know why I'm in this position. But it's probably because I am ordinary. God loves to use ordinary people. Somebody came to Teddy Roosevelt and said, President Roosevelt, you are a great man. And he said, no, no, no, no, Teddy Roosevelt is simply a plain ordinary man highly motivated. To me, that's the challenge. I love you guys. And you look good. You drive nice cars. You have good jobs. You're wonderful people. You're witty and intelligent. You're fun and all that kind of stuff. But we are all really, if we're honest, pretty ordinary, aren't we? Really? How do we deal with the issues of life? Being ordinary people. Stay highly motivated. That's what we're going to talk about. And Nehemiah is a man I want to introduce you to. Because I look at his life and I think of a man who is fairly ordinary but who did extraordinary things. So that's what we're going to talk about. Because if we can learn from him, we can stay on the offense, even in the midst of the challenges of life. Nehemiah 1, 1 through 11 is our text for today. This is God's holy word to us. The words of Nehemiah, son of Hakaliyah. In the month of Kizlev in the 20th year, while I was in the Citadel of Susah, 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. They said to me, those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burned with fire. When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Then I said, oh Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands. Let your ear be attentive in your eyes opened. Hear the prayer of your servant as praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's house, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees, and laws you gave your servant Moses. Remember, the instruction you gave your servant Moses saying, if you are faithful, I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if you or exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to this place I have chosen as a dwelling for my name. They are your servants and your people whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. 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 today by granting him favor in the presence of this man. I was the cutbearer to the king. That is God's word for us and I got to tell you as we look at Nehemiah's life that we simply have to start with his biography. Let me tell you a couple of things about him. Before we tell you a little bit about what he did, Nehemiah, the first saying, and this will not get you into heaven. Trust me on this. Nehemiah is the son of Hakkaliah and that's all we know about him. We know he was a son. We know he was a son of Hakkaliah but we don't find anything else about him in the entire Bible. That's point number one and that won't get you into heaven. But it leads us to the next point when it says that he is writing in the twentieth year of King Arduzerxes. Nehemiah, the son of Hakkaliah, was writing this account down but he was writing in the twentieth year of King Arduzerxes, the king of Persia. But he's writing from the citadel of Susa. I've never been there but let me show you a map to show you a little bit about historically where this whole story takes place. You see the red line over there starts at Jerusalem and moves all the way around part of the fertile crescent toward what are today, what nations are those today, where Babylon is. Iraq and Iran, we hear about those names every day. So this takes place in 446 BC, 446 years before Jesus and by this time Nehemiah is writing from Susa. The first arrow on the left is Babylon, the head of the center of the Meadow Persian Empire. Then in Susa we see on a river there is the summer palace of the kings of Persia. That's where you imagine being right out there on one of those really incredible rivers out in the desert. If you've ever seen the Tigris and Euphrates, it's beautiful right down near the river. That's where Nehemiah is. And he's been there all of his life and his parents have been there all of their lives because the Israelites in 586 were taken into captivity the best. And the brightest of Israel were taken as slaves and resettled in Babylon. And that's where he's writing because he is the cut bearer of the king. We're going to talk about that in just a minute. But I want you to know what Nehemiah's name means. All Hebrew names had meaning. What did you name your kids? And why? I'd love to know all those stories. We can't do this right now. But somebody asked us the other day why we named all of our kids with Jays. I don't know. I don't know. Joel, John, Jesse. Jesse, you know, we just kind of liked it. And we chose it. But Joel means Jehovah is God. John means beloved of God. And Jesse means my grandmother. And so, you know, the reality. We just chose those names and we did the Jays. They did have meaning in that whole connection. Nehemiah means the Lord has comforted. And so his parents wanted to memorialize in his name that God had done something for them and comforted them. You see, God loves to be where you are. Wherever you are in the midst of, he knows your name. He sees every tear. Really? He loves to be where you are and to comfort you and to be your father. And that's what he did to Nehemiah's parents. Maybe he just comforted them because they couldn't have kids and finally did. And they had a son. But Nehemiah and his parents were slaves and exiles in Persia. And he was the cup bearer of the king. When I meet new guys, I say, what is the standard fair, men? What do we say? So what's your name? And secondly, what do you do? You know, we guys are so predictable. Partly because we'll forget the name in about 30 seconds. But we do want to know what a guy does because the name is connected and our work is connected so much to our identity. He was a cup bearer of the king. What comes to your mind? When you think of a cup bearer, do you think of somebody on an airplane who is bringing you coffee or something to drink or maybe a servant, a waitress, a waiter? A cup bearer in this time was a part of the royal court of the king. You have to understand that the cup bearer was really kind of an insider in the government. Now, the cup bearer had unique roles. He first of all had to select the wine for the king to go with his meal. And I'd be in trouble. I don't know white, green, red wine. I don't know. I don't know what goes with what. He had to know. He had to know what kind of wine, what with the king like. He not only had to select the wine, he had to protect the wine to make sure it wasn't poisoned. He had to protect all that and not only did he have to protect all that and select it, he had to drink it first and eat the food first before the king. King says it's time to eat. He sat down and Nehemiah drank and Nehemiah ate. It's not the kind of a job that you would give to one of your family members unless you didn't have a good relationship with them. I'm going to be somebody who was basically disposable because they might die. I suppose it was a really good job. I mean, if you didn't die, at least you'd be well fed. And yet what happened, a curious thing happened. If the king had any integrity at all, what happened is that the king and the cup bearer often became close because this person was risking their life for them every day. They talked a lot. They spent time together and while the king was watching to see if you would choke up and keel over, you would talk and have a relationship. When I was a youth pastor, we had a kid in our group who's now a secret service agent. He's protected many presidents. It is so cool to hear him talk about how the presidents appreciate not only him, but his family, mom and dad. Because those who risked their life for us come to meet a lot to us. And Nehemiah was on the inside. He was a cup bearer of the king. He had a great job. The career was going swimmingly. That's where he was. Now, but it doesn't stop there because in the midst of life going wonderfully, he was personally transformed. And we got to talk about that. In verses one through four, it tells us that in the month of Kizlev in the 20th year, while he was on vacation with the king, one of his brothers comes back from Israel. And as they come back, he says, how's it going? How's it going in Jerusalem? How are our people? One thing about Israel, one thing about being a Jew is that no matter where you are, you are a Jew first. One thing about being a Christian is that no matter where you are and no matter what country you're in, no matter what job you have, you are a Christian first. He says, how's it going with our people back in Jerusalem? And he says, it's awful. Under the rubbable and under Ezra, the people of God came back. A whole bunch of people had come back. But they'd been attacked. The walls that were left have been knocked down. The gates were burning and Nehemiah pictured it. He knew what Persian might could do. And he knew what other people around Persia could do. He didn't need a live feed from Jerusalem to smell the burning fires and the burning flesh and to see the rotting corpses. And to see his people living in fear, he knew it. He knew it. He'd seen it. What we in the West tend to forget is that Israel, except for a few years under David and under his son Solomon, except for a few years under those kings, Israel was a small little nation of people of God, surrounded by people who wanted them dead. It's the same way today, isn't it? The Western press will always take the other side of Israel because they're anti-Semitic. That was a little political statement, I suppose, but it has biblical roots. And people have been anti-Semitic ever since. Nehemiah feels deeply the condition of the... Catch this. What he felt was a people need. What he felt was a need for other people. That's what gripped his heart. That's what God had. Guys, can you imagine this? Feeling something so deep that you all can actually start crying? That you couldn't eat? There are very few things that keep me from food. You need to know that. It could need. He mourned. He fasted. And he prayed. He couldn't get his mind out. He experienced an awakening. And this awakening was so intense that he no longer thought about his next vacation or his hobby. What happened in Nehemiah was that he came alive to indeed, that was bigger than himself, and greater than himself, and that was absolutely gripped his heart. It's been said that Nehemiah is a book on leadership, and if you want to study leadership, read Nehemiah. It is. It's a great book on leadership. Alan Redpath once said this. He said, let us learn this lesson from Nehemiah. You never lighten the load unless you first have felt the pressure in your own soul. You are never used of God to bring blessing until God has opened your eyes and made you see things as they are. That happened in Nehemiah. Chuck Swindall said, Nehemiah was called to build a wall, but first he wept over the ruins. People who do anything of significance for other people must first weep. You cannot build until first you weep. And while there are times for those of us as Christians and God's people to weep over our past and to weep over what happened to us, because of Christ we can by his grace weep for others as well. I think it's almost more important that we by his grace get to the point where we weep for others more than we weep for ourselves. Steve's latest newsletter he tells a story about Tony Compolo and I you know many of you have never read Tony Compolo you don't know Tony Compolo he's a bald preacher who is incredibly powerful and believes just about everything opposite of what I believe and what Steve believes and he's been criticized roundly by all kinds of but he said. Steve said in his newsletter you may have heard that Tony has affirmed gay marriage in fact he did not that was printed in the New York Times he did not. Not only this world magazine reported that because of his use Tony received a stand innovation and a major gathering of gays and lesbians you've got to know this. That Tony as a preacher did go and speak to this group and for a left leaning politician to go to a group of gays and lesbians is expected for a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ it is not. I may be looking for a new job if I went went there and even more if they gave me a standing ovation now do you know why they got he got the standing ovation now let me tell you Tony's been opposed to homosexual marriage and repeatedly made that clear. This is why I got it. He started out the speech saying that he could not affirm the lifestyle of the people to whom he's talking. He said he was against homosexual marriage and he made that clear and he said that what they were doing God says is wrong and destructive can't get any clearer than that and then he went and that's when he got the standing ovation not because he didn't say the truth. He did not because he went along with them he didn't but because he loved them and he had a compassion for them. See really the world doesn't hate us so they do hate us because of Jesus at times but a lot of times they just hate us not because of what we say but because of how we say it. They hate us for how we act they hate our arrogance they hate that we don't care they hate that we don't shed any tears. You can't build anything until you weathe first. I've done a lot of thinking on my sabbatical slash vacation and all that kind of stuff and yeah I was thinking in the backcountry with one of my friends in California by the way God does not live in North Carolina. He lives in the mountains of Southern California because I met him there and he is there and my friend Jim and I were back there and we were we have a little time at 10,000 feet no phones no faxes no humidity. You know we'd hiked all day and seen the incredible beauty and we got brought out some reading material and I read this and I just about started crying. Because in it it was telling me again that men whose average life expectancy was formerly on par with women are now dying 10 years earlier. Boys have inferior reading and comprehension scores and lower graduation rates and girls men are much less likely to pursue secondary degrees and university graduate programs. They're doing an affirmative action plan to get guys into college because girls are beating them in aptitude tests across the board. The suicide rates for boys, young fathers and older men range from four to ten times higher than for their female counterparts. I read further about the fathers who are going to war in Iraq and Afghanistan and their wives are leaving them and telling the courts that they're abandoning their kids when they've gone to war and they have no recourse they can't defend themselves and their kids are taken away and they're depressed and discouraged. I weep for them for the men who are wrapped up in paternity suits when the DNA says no it's not your child but the courts force them to pay. I know many wondered why I've been so focused on men's ministry over these years because it's partly my story but also partly most of the social problems come for men. And when men are broken women get broken and children get broken. It's like women and pro women I'm married to one. I love her deeply 27 years but what makes me weep is the brokenness of men because I understand it. I want to help women and I want to help children. What makes you weep? I want you to understand me. I want you to understand yourself because you cannot do anything in this world. You have this desire for justice and to bring mercy and to do great things but you first got to tap in to where you weep like me. And that was the transformation that's what changed his life is when he came to understand he got a glorious obsession and that was to help the Israelites to help his people to build the wall to bring protection to do whatever it took for those people. And I love this we have obsessions but we don't often have glorious obsessions. You might want to have the nicest home on your street many of you do. And that may be an obsession but it's not a glorious obsession is that you might want to be the most glamorous and the best shape physically and all that might be an obsession for you but it's not a glorious obsession. You might want to dress nicer than anybody around you that could be an obsession but it's not a glorious obsession. And I have to tell you that this morning I got up got dressed was about ready to walk out the door and looked at myself one more time in the mirror and I said no. And I went back and I changed the tie of the shirt and the coat okay I'm in a recovery class for that kind of stuff I want you to know. I want to have a glorious obsession and and Nehemiah paints the way he's a portrait of a guy with one of the what did he do? We've seen his biography we've seen what has transformation he got changed what did he want to do. He wanted to build the wall around Jerusalem what were the stepping stones to make a difference in the world around him. Verse 5, oh Lord God of heaven the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant. He first of all comes to God he recognizes who God is he stops dead in his tracks and he says God you are the one that's awesome. I'm not I got a great career going on but you are the one that's awesome. You are the one that is almighty you and he focused upon God secondly in these verses verse 6 he confessed his sins. I've sinned I've sinned he said my nation has sinned we have all sinned because see Nehemiah never forgot that God is infinitely holy. We said that his name is holy he is holy and holiness is one of those things that we tend to take lightly in the world today we tend to forget that God is high and holy and lifted up. He is infinite in his holiness and as a result of that he is righteous in all his behavior in all his actions everything he does is perfect because he's holy and he cannot not be holy. He cannot not he cannot sweep under our carpet our sins he must deal with it and he did you know what God's glorious obsession was when he looked at our condition. It was you he saw your sin he saw my sin he saw your separation he saw how messed up we were and he sent his son the glorious obsession of God when it comes to us was to redeem us that's why Jesus came. You and me and so Nehemiah confessed his sins confess the sins of the people of God and then he prayed for something big. He says in verse 8 remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses saying if you are unfaithful I will scatter you among he goes on this these verses are incredible you know on Sunday for a pastor what it's like we get to meet we get to talk to you all. And get to see a lot of you what happens is that after Sunday on this list I've got a list of probably 30 people that I need to talk to and things that I've forgotten and sometimes the next week people come up to me and say hey Pete do you remember when we talked last Sunday after the service and you said you were going to call me or do this or do that. You remember that and I say vaguely I write things down and I do my best but sometimes it doesn't get from that paper into my to do list and I mess up. And you come back and you say remember now it's one thing to say that to a human being can you imagine coming to God Nehemiah comes to God and he says God. Remember when you said that we would sin and be taken into captivity but if we repented remember you said you would bring us back bring us back. Look favorably among your people and the whole first chapter Nehemiah doesn't tell us but he says give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of the king. He's got the plan I want to go build the wall and I'm going to go to the king and I'm going to say king what I need is about a year off at full pay with letters of support and protection you can throw in some troops as well. What I need is to be given letters of introduction and power I need money and I also need you to call off your hounds over there in Jerusalem and by the way when I'm done I need my job back. He asked for something very very big because you see it had a passion in his heart he'd wept and he knew that if it was worth weeping over it was it was worth asking for the moon and he wasn't afraid well he was and when the time was right he asked what happened by the way is anybody know did he succeed oh yeah it was so cool God sets it up read the rest of me might forget the games today you can watch those later. Forget the games read Nehemiah it is so good your business if you're a leader you got to read Nehemiah you gotta read the rest of the book because not only does he build the wall but he brings them together the Israelites together in record time he gives them all a little section I've given away the story I know but you'll love it. He gives them all a second this week because they were building out here it range remember how it rained a couple of days really really hard the trenches that they built for the foundation caved in they had a dig him again I almost had to call you all out here and give you a shovel. Well Nehemiah called the people of Israel gave him a section of the wall said you build that that's a duet section over here that's a moderana section over here the Smith sections over there build it he brought all these people together. United the people built the wall in record time while defeating the enemies that attack them it's just a great great great great story God came through in an amazing way an ordinary guy who God burdened with the next ordinary bird here's the application three points you say you've already done three points I know these are gonna be quick three points by way of the application number one let God make you an influencer. You say I'm too ordinary no no see God loves take ordinary people he loves to take ordinary people and get them to feel something deeply and to see something clear than they've ever seen it before. That's you. You say you don't know what I'm going through you don't know I've been through I don't yeah you don't know my story totally either I'm a mess too God used us isn't that cool. Say I'll let you make me an influencer God just help me to see father what it is you want me to do or be a part of look around the church or outside the church be a part someone said you must get involved to have an impact no one is impressed with the one lost record of a referee. It's so true who cares got to get involved okay number two by way of application don't be put off by hypocrites who say they have a glorious obsession but don't really have one we we don't do a lot of things because we look at other people we say they're a hypocrite. They only care for themselves so what. There's hypocrites everywhere. There's hypocrites in the church in science in education you name it in the ministry I felt like a hypocrite yesterday you know my second son is going to UF and so I've got to become a gator fan this is tough for me. So I go into this I buy a floor to shirt you know I've been going to a story yesterday I'm wearing this Florida shirt and they just about jump all over me they're Tennessee fans. If you don't know Tennessee played Florida last night and everybody was gearing up yesterday you southerners for crying out loud take your football so seriously blood and guts and I felt hypocritical wearing a shirt and then I got attacked for it you know because I'm a University of Southern California fan. It's terrible it's awful and my other son went to UCF and so what I'm going to start doing is where my USC shirt that my UCF shirt that my Florida shirt because otherwise I feel like a hypocrite. Don't you feel like a hypocrite at times so do I. By the way after they won last night I stayed up real late so this sermon has not been coherent it's because I stayed up watching a game. Johnny I said I said to my son Johnny congratulations and he said he said no it's it's it's our victory you're in this too and I say I forgot that's right. The Tennessee fans support group will meet in 20 minutes but we feel hypocritical because we sin and we say God God can't use me yes he loves to use people just like us that's great. He can give you a glorious obsession where you can make a bigger difference. And that brings such joy to your life when you're a part of something bigger than yourself. Thirdly by way of application enjoy being ordinary and being used by an extraordinary God enjoy being ordinary. An author said this Anthony Esselin wrote this what is duller than a panoply of prima donnas of the 10th magnitude. The insight of Christianity is that there is something wondrous about this rock that tree that carpened over there turning a post on a lathe or that mother rolling out the dough for something as wildly fantastic as gingerbread be ordinary it's cool and let the extraordinary God of the universe use you. That's life that's Nehemiah that's how to stay on the offensive all because of Jesus you take it to heart let's pray. Father we come to you today thanking you but you have revealed your name to us in this world that you being holy and righteous and just all that you are still know our name. That you know our character and our personality you know our likes and our dislikes you know our sins and our failing and yet you've called us to be your sons and daughters. And to change the world. Father today as we start a new week we remember that we're ordinary but ask you to give us that great sense in our hearts that because of Jesus you can use us anyway like Nehemiah to help those who need us need you. Be honored and glorified in our lives for another another week. We pray in Jesus holy. Willow Creek Church is associated with the Presbyterian Church in America our website is www.willowcreekchurch.org and our phone number is 407 699 82 11.