Remember that time I preached and God spoke to you?

I’m seriously challenged by these words. Most of us will walk out those doors and forget everything I shared. That’s the joke in today’s sermon title.

Remember that time I preached and God spoke to you?

We just don’t remember stuff as well as we think.

We really forget when we walk through a doorway.

Studies from all over call the “doorway effect”

examples

It’s hard to remember things. I am doing so much in life I can’t remember much at all.

What we commit to, we are more likely to do.

If you want to remember, write it down.

Today we introduce the newest thing, you can know take notes on the church app, when you are done, you can email them to yourself and store them FOREVER.

Open up your church app. Press “Sunday Notes”

You can fill in notes as we go

You can email the notes to yourself at the end

I don’t think these store on the app

Friends if you are like why do I need this

If you put the car keys on top of the thing you need to take to work

If you use a daily pill bottle to remember what you took today

It is so much more important to know what God is saying to you! I don’t mean what I am saying to you, I mean the individual words God gives you for your life

That is why we have the app to help today

If writing on your phone and spelling, typing, are not yoru thing, YES YOU CAN USE THE speech to text feature. Feel free to say what God is saying to you.

Or draw a picture of what God is saying to you today. Do something to answer these big things in your life today.

Of course, we go back to doing God’s word.

If you don’t believe me, ask yourself, what did I talk about the last time you were hear?

God is doing something in your life and I want you to be able to act on what He is doing. Not just, hearing nice things, but growing. And not just for you

Our mission: Love God, Love Others

When you grow in love for God, you will grow in commitment to becoming loving people as God loves them. Which will benefit the ones you love, the ones you don’t know and even the ones you hate.

Doing what the word of God says, we are always going to talk about what God revealed to us in the Bible. Doing that will change everything, maybe not all at once, but over time, wow.

I love to hike and now have a dog who loves to hike too. She can go for miles. But there is no way to hike for miles without walking a block. No way to have dramatic weight loss without losing a pound. True change is long, true change is being willing to do the work of remembering and doing and then in the doing changing to take on more of the attitude of Christ Jesus.

I want to help you remember, I know you will, if you take the time to use something to remember.

Who have we heard about God working through in the last couple of weeks? Nehemiah

what we have talked about with Nehemiah.

We are going to remember this guy named Nehemiah, but more importantly, we are going to

James 1:22 NLT

22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

Today is all review, if you want to get into the nitty gritty of these scriptures feel free to go back to our past sermons. Here is God’s word from the book of Nehemiah.

Nehemiah 1:1–4 CSB

1 The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: During the month of Chislev in the twentieth year, when I was in the fortress city of Susa, 2 Hanani, one of my brothers, arrived with men from Judah, and I questioned them about Jerusalem and the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile. 3 They said to me, “The remnant in the province, who survived the exile, are in great trouble and disgrace. Jerusalem’s wall has been broken down, and its gates have been burned.” 4 When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of the heavens.

A reminder, Nehemiah begins with great drama

Nehemiah is not in Jerusalem or but he was now in Persia

walls broke

No security

What breaks your heart today? What is your struggle today?

Those whose hearts are currently hurting, welcome home

You don’t have to exaggerate

Maybe broken heart is too strong, but you have something weighing on your mind for others, weighing on our mind for yourself.

What is your chief concern today

Write down that hurt, express that hurt put it in your phone

You can write it in your notes on your phone by clicking on the blue button.

Give you time to think, and truly listen to what you are saying to yourself

Timer

We don’t just stay in our hurt.

Sometimes depression becomes our resting place

Some say pray, as if it is the last hope or nothing else will do, Nehemiah shows us it is the first hope

Nehemiah 1:5–11 CSB

5 I said, Lord, the God of the heavens, the great and awe-inspiring God who keeps his gracious covenant with those who love him and keep his commands, 6 let your eyes be open and your ears be attentive to hear your servant’s prayer that I now pray to you day and night for your servants, the Israelites. I confess the sins we have committed against you. Both I and my father’s family have sinned. 7 We have acted corruptly toward you and have not kept the commands, statutes, and ordinances you gave your servant Moses. 8 Please remember what you commanded your servant Moses: “If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples. 9 But if you return to me and carefully observe my commands, even though your exiles were banished to the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place where I chose to have my name dwell.” 10 They are your servants and your people. You redeemed them by your great power and strong hand. 11 Please, Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to that of your servants who delight to revere your name. Give your servant success today, and grant him compassion in the presence of this man. At the time, I was the king’s cupbearer.

Nehemiah goes with faith in his prayer, knowing that the ability to do anything about this comes from the permission of God.

I’m going to remind you that Nehemiah’s prayer can be broken down into four areas.

Prays telling God who He is

God is the same yesterday, today and forever. What we learn about God then is still the same God today.

Prays confession by recognizing his own sin and others sins as his own

Nehemiah talks about the sin of the Jewish people.

It is often not just you that got you in this pickle. Please confess your sin but also the sins of those who even you like and love. Remember the failures but know that who God is, is a God who

1 John 1:9 CSB

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Nehemiah prays the promises of God, what has God promised?

I just gave you an example of a promise of God

God promised to forgive the Jewish people if they turned their hearts toward him.

What has God promised about your situation.

Don’t know - THEN FIND OUT!

Makes the request of God. What is your request of God?

Let us take the time to pray as Nehemiah did

Prayer will lead to action. It will lead to waiting on God to act. It will lead to living rightly so that we can see what God is doing. It will often lead to going or doing specific things.

If you were writing along, you have your prayer written, let us pray now, each one of us, where your at.

Meditation

For Nehemiah he had to wait for God to answer his prayer and then God made it happen.

Nehemiah 2:2–5 CSB

2 so the king said to me, “Why do you look so sad, when you aren’t sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart.” I was overwhelmed with fear 3 and replied to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should I not be sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” 4 Then the king asked me, “What is your request?” So I prayed to the God of the heavens 5 and answered the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor with you, send me to Judah and to the city where my ancestors are buried, so that I may rebuild it.”

A few years ago, someone was recruiting me for a job. What he asked me stop me in my tracks. How much would you need to do that job.

It’s an even bigger task when the Lord blesses us with

Sometimes we don’t have because we don’t ask.

Looking at the thing that has broken my heart,

what do I need from others? What do I need that I currently do not have?

Timer

Nehemiah 2:10 CSB

10 When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard that someone had come to pursue the prosperity of the Israelites, they were greatly displeased.

multiple times I walk with those who are ready to throw in the towel at the first sign of struggle. The first flat tire. The first enemy.

Perhaps not really but they are willing to say it.

Who or what is against me?

If you have enemies, if you have a threat against you, what is the plan to move forward?

Our battle is not against people though, God tells us

Ephesians 6:12 NLT

12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

Nehemiah’s plan has nothing to do with his enemies. It has to do with his goal.

Nehemiah 2:11–15 CSB

11 After I arrived in Jerusalem and had been there three days, 12 I got up at night and took a few men with me. I didn’t tell anyone what my God had laid on my heart to do for Jerusalem. The only animal I took was the one I was riding. 13 I went out at night through the Valley Gate toward the Serpent’s Well and the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. 14 I went on to the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but farther down it became too narrow for my animal to go through. 15 So I went up at night by way of the valley and inspected the wall. Then heading back, I entered through the Valley Gate and returned.

Nehemiah inspects the walls, he inspects the job. He realizes what he needs.

Turning to God in prayer, even the faith of God got this, is not a sit down on my butt kind of answer.

- There are all these problems in life.

What has God made me aware that I need to do about the situation?

Nehemiah 2:16–18 CSB

16 The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, for I had not yet told the Jews, priests, nobles, officials, or the rest of those who would be doing the work. 17 So I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been burned. Come, let’s rebuild Jerusalem’s wall, so that we will no longer be a disgrace.” 18 I told them how the gracious hand of my God had been on me, and what the king had said to me. They said, “Let’s start rebuilding,” and their hands were strengthened to do this good work.

We are not alone. God has equipped us with a spiritual family.

God will show you. Who do I need to help bring the victory?

You are not alone. You are part of a church family. You are part of a community of those who follow Jesus.

Who do you need?

Nehemiah 2:19–20 CSB

19 When Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about this, they mocked and despised us, and said, “What is this you’re doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” 20 I gave them this reply, “The God of the heavens is the one who will grant us success. We, his servants, will start building, but you have no share, right, or historic claim in Jerusalem.”

The enemies don’t become Nehemiah’s friends.

The hardships don’t disappear into a happily ever after

Faith sees the victor through this mess.

What is the victory in my heartbreak? What is the victory in my struggle?

- If you don’t have the willingness to look for the goal than you can’t arrive.

Remember that time I preached and God spoke to you?