Making Heaven Crowded (4)

If you don’t have a burden for the lost, you can’t have a calling on your life.

I have helped youth ministries turn around and I have been called to help churches turn around. Currently I believe my calling in life is to

Equip Winners to Win

The one thing I have learned in all of the bringing life to dead places can be summed up with one word that can be formed multiple ways

Vision/Purpose or, ask the question what is your why?

Every single one of us need a why. Why do you get up in the morning? Why do you study the bible? Why do you go to work? Why do you absorb the insurmountable pressures in this life and continue to move on?

For married couples: Why are you staying with your spouse—and this is a free one—it shouldn’t be because you feel loved or the way they make you feel.

Those who get married for feelings don’t stay married long.

But it’s the same with life. If you don’t have an obtainable why you’re pushing toward than nothing in life matters. Feelings fade. I love my wife. I don’t always feel love. Problems happen. Things fall apart, but it’s knowing the why in the hard time, pushing toward the why in the hard times that separate men from boys. Women from Girls and successful marriages from divorce.

It’s also what makes a lasting thriving Christian push deeper into their relationship with God.

Nehemiah 1:4–7 ESV

4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5 And I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses.

In this moment Israel was destroyed and scattered. Nehemiah had a plush job as a cup bearer who was the most trusted person in the kings inner circle. Nehemiah had everything you could want on this Earth. His job was to drink wine, eat good food, and stay alive. That’s it. He tasted the kings wine and ate the kings food to make sure no one was poisoning the king.

But then God showed up and broke his heart for the lost.

Vision Follows Burden

If you aren’t burdened for something you can’t be passionate for anything. The vision of this church is in the next five years I want to see 1,100 people come to Christ through this church. The burden is for the hurting and the lost.

God didn’t break Nehemiah’s heart for the town. He didn’t break his heart for the temple.

He broke Nehemiah’s heart for God’s people.

If you’re life is going to matter; if this church is going to matter it must start with a broken heart for people.

John 13:34–35 ESV

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

What is Jesus saying:

Your love shows your salvation

Your love doesn’t get you saved; only Jesus can do that, but your love for other people will show how much you love God

God sent his only son to die for so that he could be with us. There is nothing more that God cares about than being with his people. And if we share his heart—there should be nothing more that we care about than his people.

You can get what you want if you help enough people get what they want.

If you want to win big, you have to dream big and, you have to ask big.

Nehemiah 2:1–8 ESV

1 In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. 2 And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid. 3 I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” 4 Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it.” 6 And the king said to me (the queen sitting beside him), “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time. 7 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah, 8 and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.

Nehemiah asks big- First let me have month to years off work despite that I am your most trusted advisor. That would be like Pastor Cash asking for vacation lol.

Then he asks for travel papers so they can go first class—the easy way and not have to take the long hard way around.

Then he asks the king for the finances and material to do the job.

We don’t have a situation problem, we have a faith problem.

We have a prayer problem.

James 4:2 ESV

2 … You do not have, because you do not ask.

You’re struggling to get things done; he even said your stealing and committing murder before you come to God with your need.

God needs to be your #1 go to - not your last resort.

I was in a conversation this week and someone told me that they are part of the equation for God’s will to be done. Which isn’t truth. Listen you are not part of the equation in the call gOd has put on your life.

You are the equation, God is the mathematician, and salvation is the answer.

Nehemiah 2:17–18 ESV

17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.” 18 And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work.

Nehemiah was the glue that held the entire project together.

God wanted to rebuild Jerusalem— Here’s the issue Ezra first tried to build just the temple and failed. When we don’t have clear vision opposition will stop our persistence. People came against Ezra he caved because he focused on the wrong thing. God’s heart is people. Today teh word says even his temple is his people. We have to focus on the people first.

Nehemiah had vision; he had direction; and he had gumption He had the heart for the people. Why was Nehemiah successful? He set everyone to build the walls—the protection of the town in front of their own homes. They wouldn’t stop fighting because they had something to lose.

Building this church isn’t about a structure—it’s about your home.

1,100 salvation isn’t about just any people—-it’s about your families, your friends, and your coworkers. Every seat in the new sanctuary isn’t a dollar amount it’s a soul you love. If you can capture that vision, if you can capture that calling, then you can capture the heart of God. If you capture the heart of God

John 14:13–14 ESV

13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it

He repeats it twice. Summed up the verse says this:

Ask anything that will make heaven crowded and I will do it.

In order to win you have to be ALL IN.

What determines which one wins is your why

Proverbs 11:30 ESV

30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise.

The word capture comes from the Hebrew word

Laqach- take, seize or capture.

This is a deliberate effort. Anything you deliberately want to well you need to have a plan in place. You have to be sold in.

Proverbs 11 talks a lot about actions, wickedness and righteous living, but here is shows that

The only way to wins souls is by example

Nehemiah 2:18 ESV

18 So they strengthened their hands for the good work.

This is a Hebrew idiom that conveys the idea of preparing yourself, gathering courage, and taking decisive action.

Be firm in your commitment to build the kingdom

Ezra wasn’t all in. When frustration, pain, and people came against him he quit.

Nehemiah was all in—when opposition showed up they had a sword in one hand and continued building with the other.

When you have vision you are guaranteed two things

Opposition and Outcome

What you prioritize you will do. But it’s also important to note that in this realm of telling people about Jesus more people will tell you no than yes.

People will come against you

Nehemiah 2:19 ESV

19 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us

They made it hard for nehemiah to push forward, but are you a Nehemiah or are you an Ezra Will you push past the opposition or will you give into it?

Every wall has a way to get around it; you just have to be more stubborn than the wall.