[ONLINE ONLY] Kingdom Re-Build - Nehemiah 5 // Nick Serban IV

Message Transcript:

Well, hey, good morning, Full Life.Happy snow day.And, uh, I know there's some ice on the ground right now.And so we took some necessary precautions.We want to use some wisdom here and, uh, have online service only.So grateful that, uh, you're able to be here with us this morning.And I just want to read this verse before we, we get into worship.A- actually, we actually have Garrett and Kate, they're going to be leading us in worship this morning.So excited.Um, you can see behind me, uh, this, this wall, uh, was set up for our 24 hours of prayer.Uh, which we also had to postpone to February 27th through the 28th.Uh, we're going to start doing prayer and fasting, um, more consistently in this year in 2026.And so we really want to make 24 hours of prayer something we do quarterly.And, uh, I thinkHope, I'm praying, believing the weather's going to be better during that time.And, uh, so grateful for all of you that signed up to be a part of this.I, I just believe wholeheartedly that it's going to open heaven over this church that w- we engage together in unity, interceding for our church, interceding for our people, interceding for this city that God has placed us in.God's going to move in powerful ways and when we, when we humble ourselves to repent, God begins to open things up for us.And so just so grateful.But I want to read this scripture.It's, it's very fitting for this, this snow day.It's in Job, chapter 37, verse 6.It says, "He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth and to the rain shower, 'Be a mighty downpour.'" Come on."'So that everyone he has made may know his work.He stops all people from their labor.'" That's verse six and seven."He stops all people from their labor."My prayer for you today on this snow day, this iced out day, 1, I pray that you're safe.1, I pray that you're warm.But also I pray that you take this time to rest, to hear from the Lord, to engage with His word and grow with Him.And I just want to say, too, thank you so much, uh, for all of you as a church who continue to give, who continue to sow into the kingdom work that's taking place in this church.And I, I have a praise report.We're, we're about halfway, uh, raised in funds of the $10,000 that we, uh, committed to raise for the church plant in Thailand.And, uh, we wanted to give $10,000 and we've raised close to half of that now.And I just want to say thank you.So excited, uh, that pretty soon they're going to get to break ground once we reach that $10,000 goal.And it's amazing to sow into the kingdom.Remember, the, the, the church that they're building is right across the street from one of the largest universities in that province.There's over 40,000 students that they're going to be able to witness to and reach, and so such a, an amazing kingdom connection for us.And, uh, I just want to invite you to give, uh, to that even more.Even, even today as you give, you can go and, and type in, uh, Kingdom Builders, and, uh, make that note on there.And, uh, we'll make sure that the money gets to this project.But, uh, thank you.Thank you so much, uh, for, for partnering with kingdom partners like this.But, uh, hey, I want to pray over you and, uh, then we're going to have just a, a time of worship and, uh, let's, let's pray.God, we love you.Lord, we pray that your kingdom would come and your will would be done.We thank you that you're holy.God, would you give us your daily bread today?Would you help us, Lord, to forgive as you've forgiven us?And we thank you for the forgiveness that we get to walk in as we, as we repent, God.And we thank you that you don't lead us into temptation, you don't lead us into places, uh, that are going to, that are going to hurt us.Uh, but God you continue to walk with us through valleys, uh, through the shadow of death and, and because you are with us, we will not fear any evil.And God, we just, we declare that you are good, you are faithful, that all is for your glory here today.And Lord, let our hearts be aligned with you, that your kingdom would come and your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.We love you, we bless you.In Jesus' name.Amen.We honor you.You are worthy of it all.You are worthy of it all.For from you are all things.And to you are all things.You deserve the glory.You are worthy of it all.You are worthy of it all.For from you are all things.And to you are all things.You deserve the glory.Oh, yes, you do.You are worthy of it all.You are worthy of it all.For from you are all things.And to you are all things.You deserve the glory.All the glory, all the honor, all the praise.You are worthy of it-For from You are all things And to You are all things.You deserve the glory.Sing day and night.Day and night, night and day.Let incense arise.Day and night, night and day.Let incense arise.And day and night, night and day.Let incense arise.And day and night, and day.Let incense arise.And day andLet incense arise.Oh, day and night, night and day.Let incense arise.And day and night, night and day.Let incense arise.Day and night, night and day.You are worthy of it all.You are worthy of it all.For from You are all things.And to You are all things.You deserve the glory.You deserve the glory, Lord.He deserves the glory, God.You deserve the glory.There's no one like You.No one like You.NoGod, we give You the glory.God, we give You the glory.God, we give You the glory.God, we give You the glory.We give You the glory.And I exalt Thee.I exalt Thee.I exalt Thee.I exalt Thee.I exalt Thee.I exalt Thee.God, we give you the glory.Yes, we do.Oh, we give you all the honor.You deserve all our praise, Jesus.Oh, I live to bring you glory.That's right.God, we live to bring you praise.It's what we were made to do, to worship you.It's what we were made to do.It's what we were made to do.God, we give you the glory.I love You, Lord.Oh, Your mercy never fails me.In all my days, I've been held in Your hands.From the moment that I wake up until I lay my head, oh, I will sing of the goodness of God.Come on, we tell Him this morning, all my life.All my life, You have been faithful.All my life, You have been so, so good.With every breath that I am able, oh, I will sing of the goodness of God.I love Your voice.You have led me through the fire.And in darkest nights, You are close like no other.I've known You as a Father.Oh, I've known You as a Friend, and I have lived in the goodness of God.'Cause all my life, You have been faithful.And all my life, You have been so, so good.With every breath that I am able, oh, I will sing of the goodness of God.The goodness is running.'Cause Your goodness is running after, it's running after me.Your goodness is running after, it's running after me.With my life laid down, I'm surrendered now, I give You everything.Your goodness is running after, it's running after me.Your goodness is running after, it's running after me.Your goodness is running after, it's running after me.With my life laid down, I'm surrendered now, I give You everything.Your goodness is running after, it's running after me.God, all my life, You have been faithful.All my life, You have been so, so good.With every breath that I am able, oh, I will sing of the goodness of God.Oh, I will sing of the goodness of my GodI'll never stop singing of the goodness of God.Your favor is resting on us.Your goodness is running after us.Surely your goodness and mercy followSurely your goodness and mercy follow me.It's the year of favor.God, we believe that it's the year of favor.It's the year of the delight of our Father.We receive your delight, God.The delight of the Father.The delight of our Father.So I throw up my hands and praise you again and again.'Cause all that I have is a hallelujah.And I know it's not much, but I've nothing else fit for a king.Except for a heart singing hallelujah.Hallelujah.So I throw up my hands and praise you again and again.'Cause all that I have is a hallelujah.Oh, hallelujah.Hallelujah.And I know it's not much, but I've nothing else fit for a king.Except for a heart singing hallelujah.Oh.All of our praise belongs to You, and You alone.Oh, so come on my soul.Oh, don't you get shy on me.Lift up your song.You've got a lion inside of those lungs.Get up and praise the Lord.my soul.Oh don't you get shy on me.Lift up your song.'Cause you've got a lion inside of those lungs.Get up and praise the Lord.don't you get shy on me.Lift up your song 'cause you've got a lion inside of those lungs.Get up and praise the lord.Oh we sing come on my soul.soul, oh don't you get shy on me.Lift up your song 'cause you've got a inside of those lungs.Get up and praise the Lord.So I throw up my hands and praise you again and again 'cause all that I have is a hallelujah.Hallelujah.And I know it's not.I have nothing else fit for a king Except for a heart singing hallelujah.Oh my praise belongs to you.Belongs to you.YouEverything.Oh my praise belongs.All my praise belongs to you.For you alone deserve all my praise belongs.Oh my praise belongs to you.you deserve it all.All my praise belongs.All my praise belongs to you.For you deserve it all.with me to Nehemiah Chapter 5, this is week 4 out of 5.And, uh, my prayer, uh, throughout this series has been that wherever God has you placed, wherever God has you in this season, that you would represent Him, and that you would represent Him well, that you would build His kingdom in your, in your home, in your office, even online, uh, your online personas and accounts and profiles and all those things, and among the friends and people that God has, has brought along your path.And, uh, as we engage in this and as we continue to build God's kingdom, my prayer is that you would attend church regularly, uh, that you would give to the Lord faithfully, that you would disciple people who go on to make disciples, and that you would make room to invite others into the presence of God.My prayer is for all of our churches, uh, across this state would be not just a place where we worship but a place where we can be the church.That's my prayer.And so continue to invite people, uh, into His presence and, and to our church.Again, we're in Nehemiah.We've been learning to let God move us into action for Him and for others.And that building for God is gonna attract critics and opposition.But we are gonna build anyways, right?We're gonna step into it no matter what, no matter, no matter the naysayers that we may have in our lives.And remember Nehemiah, uh, left Persia.He was a slave to King Artaxerxes and he's returned toJerusalem, his hometown, to rebuild the walls of the city and to rebuild the people of God under God's rule.And we've seen, again, the crazy opposition from the critics.We, we talked about it last week.We had people that were joining to build for God, and some who would not stoop down to that level, uh, to build.And last Sunday, golly, we, we had such a powerful time in his presence, uh, uh, just a time of repentance and prayer.I didn't even have to have an altar call and, and we had people coming to the front and, and experiencing God and, and repenting and, and so many testimonies, uh, that I've been able to hear of God just radically transforming hearts.And so I'm so excited, uh, 'cause revival is here.Revival is coming.And, uh, just so grateful for what God is doing.But my first point today, uh, if you're writing down notes, and I hope you are, stand up for what's right.In Nehemiah 5:1-5 it says, "Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.For there were those who said, 'With our sons and our daughters we are many, so let us get grain that we may eat and keep alive.' And there were also those who said, 'We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.'" There's a famine going on in this time."And there were those who said, 'We borrowed money for the king's tax, to pay our taxes on our fields and on our vineyards.Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children, yet we are forcing our sons and daughters to be slaves.And some of our daughters have already been enslaved.But it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards."So again, we, we, we have Nehemiah.He's, he's building the, the walls.He's building up the city of Jerusalem, and he has all of these people that are working with him.But there's a reality check moment that we see here in Scripture, where Nehemiah sees that w- even though there's great progress, there's also people suffering.There's people suffering to, toin the process of doing the work.Families are suffering and being taken advantage of.And, and it's affecting even the next generation and our children.There's extreme food and financial strain.And, and because of that, it gave room for exploitation and suffering.Again, it's kind of similar to when we've had government shutdowns and different SNAP programs and benefits start to go away, or not be able to access food from food banks because of shortages and all these different things.It's a very similar situation in this regard.And, and again, it, it, itWe can't let politics and the political realities, uh, uh, of the day get in the way or become an excuse for people to be exploited.Because people matter to God.And again, that's why we at the church, we support ministries like Convoy of Hope.That's why we raise money for, for benevolence and we give away food to, to families every single quarter.We give away diapers and, and all these different things to people that are in need here in Franklin and across this county.Nehemiah 5:6-7.Nehemiah is the one speaking here.He says, "I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words.I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials.I said to them, 'You are exacting interest, each from his brother.' And I held a great assembly against them."So here, this is kind of wild.And, and, and again, when we look back at Nehemiah's first response to hearing about the city while he's a slave in Persia, what does he do?His first response was to pray.His first response was to get on his knees and begin to weep before God and pray and fast.But in this case, he reacts differently.In this moment, it says that he was angry, and then he took counsel with himself.It's kind of an interesting term and phrase here.And again, he wasn't angry at them.He was angry for them.It's, it's good to have emotion when you are a part of the kingdom of God.Th- th- just, just let me hit that we're, we're not just called to be this stoic church.We're called to have a little bit of life to us.We're called to have emotion.We're called to, to, to feel things in our soul because the Holy Spirit uses those emotions so often to guide us and lead us.We, we need to be a church that's willing to cry more.We need to be a church that's willing to, to weep more and let our souls come to bear before Jesus.Like, when was the last time that you wept and cried to the Lord?When was the last time that you were so moved by, by an injustice in your life that you began to be filled up with this holy anger?And again, we're gonna talk about what that, what that really looks like and what that means.Nehemiah, he was angry for their suffering.What does it say he did?It says he took counsel with himself.That means he paused.He was angry.He didn't allow his emotions to take control of him in the moment and, and do something rash and crazy.Remember that.He paused.He took counsel.He prayed and he thought about it and he considered a next step.He, he, he allowed himself to, to, to be under control in the moment, not allowing his emotions to, to overtake him, but the emotional reaction was the check for him to go, okay, I need to stop.I need to pause.I, I, I, I need to go to the Lord with this and begin to take counsel with himself and the Lord in this moment.And then he brought charges to those that were in authority.And again, that doesn't mean that like he pressed charges, like he called the cops on them or something like that.He openly held them accountable.It says that he held an assembly to bring the charges to them.He charged them with God's word and God's expectations.We'll see here in a moment.He held them accountable to God's word.And if we're going to be, uh, about building God's kingdom as a church, we need to stand up for what's right and godly.Not just stand up for what's right in our minds and our opinions or how we're feeling.Again, we can get really upset and we can get really angry about something and it shouldn't be this way, right?And we can have these emotions come out, but the response here was to hold them to the word of God and hold them to the truth of his word.And again, as, as a church, we're not called to stand on political justice or social justice as a higher platform than standing on the word of God.Can y- I mean, if you're, if you're, if you're watching right now, can you type in "amen" or something?Because th- th- this is, this is what God is calling us to.We're not called to be a Christian nationalist movement where, where, where America first and Christian second.We're called to, to take the word of God, of w- of what he's spoken to us and what he's, what he's promised us and we stand firm on that.And when there's other people that are, that are, that are following God or say they're following God and they're not living up to that standard and they're, they're causing people to suffer and they're exploiting people, we hold them accountable to the word of God.That's what he's doing here in this moment.He's holding these nobles and these leaders within the city and saying, "Hey, we're standing on the word of God.We're standing on business here and if you're gonna continue to be a part of this movement, you have to be held accountable to the word of God."We stand up for people that are in need, yes, and, but we call people to live godly in that process.So Nehemiah, he said, "So I said, 'The thing that you are doing is not good.Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations, our enemies?'" Again, Nehemiah, he held these nobles and officials to God's word.He said, "The Bible says this, so that's what we're gonna do."Again, as Christians, we need to, to lead and live in this way.If the Bible says what it says, then I'm going to do what it says.You know, it's one thing to read His word, it's another thing to obey it, right?We're called to live in obedience.We're called to live according to His word and again, this is why in, in 2026, we want to help more families that are in food crisis.We, we want to love and care for, for senior adults living in local nursing homes.We want to support foster care ministries and even open our homes to families in need, give to missions and plant churches all around the world.Like it's biblical, right?And it's kingdom building in the process and this is what God has called us to do.Nehemiah 5:10, it says, "Let us abandon this exacting of interest."Again, the, the nobles were charging their own people interest to, uh, uh, as they're being loaned money so that they can feed themselves.Like this is, this is wild.And again, the world may do things this way, but the kingdom of God will not.H- hear me today, like I'm not, I'm not trying to say that, oh, we need to hold up the word of God like when the world has, has no care for what we believe.Like you, you can stand on the injustice of it all, but, but this is for the church.This is for the people of God, that we would not treat one another this way, those who are part of His kingdom or part of the church.That, that, that's what's so important here.Again, so many times we can stand on scripture and try to apply it to the world when the world doesn't believe what we believe in the scripture.So again, this is for us as a church and how we treat one another.It says, "Return to them this very day their fields.Return their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them."Again, we're not taking advantage of people in our church.We don't want to take advantage of our brothers and our sisters in Christ.This, this goes against the very word of God.The kingdom of God is people, and people are a priority to His kingdom.We are all part of the body of Christ as people.Nehemiah not only came to, to build city walls, he was building the people up for God.Because the kingdom of God is people.And part of building God's kingdom is that we do it His way.We obey God's word and we stand up for what He wants, and He wants the word of God living and active within us.Us, us applying it to our lives, not just putting it into our mind.Living this way.Treating others the way that we want to be treated.This is their response."We will restore these and require nothing from them.We will do as you say."When we stand up for the right thing, change happens.God will make these things right when we choose to stand on the word of God.And we may not see it in the moment or in the, the season that we desire, but when God calls us to hold one another accountable, He's glorified in that.When we, when we call each other out on, on the stuff that we're, we're, we're walking in disobedience in, it creates a moment of unity and beauty in His kingdom.When, when we can come together and repent.When we can come together and confess.When we can come together and hold each other accountable.And this is, this is a hard word, because so many people within the church, this is the one thing that they don't want to hear.You know, of, of course, nobody wants to admit that they're taking advantage of anybody else, but we love to point the finger at, at people in the church and say, "They took advantage of me."Nehemiah was really brave.1, in controlling the anger and allowing it to become a response, because he went to the Lord with it and said, "Okay, we're gonna stand on His word.We're gonna walk this way."And point number 2, kingdom builders live and give generously.Nehemiah 5:14, "Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the 20th year to the 32nd year of Artaxerxes the king," 12 years, "neither I nor my brothers ate the food allowance of the government0 of the governor."And verse 15 says, "But I did not do so because of the fear of God."Nehemiah, he was entitled to these things, but he didn't walk with a spirit of entitlement.He's, uh, he, he was leading this, this movement, but he didn't walk with all, all of the, the things that he could have been given.The, the food, the, the house, all, all, all, all the different luxuries.But instead he saw his position as an opportunity to bless others.Isn't that, isn't that awesome?Like, can we be a church, can we be a peopleAnd, and, here in Franklin, it, it's very affluent area.We're, we're positioned in a, in a beautiful location.But can we see the influence and the position that God has placed us in so that we can bless others?There's a couple guys in the church that I've been, I've been talking to them about for, for the last couple years, about the prayer of Jabez.And when we pray about, "God would you expand our territory so that we may bless others?"Like, "Would you give us more?Would you bless us so that we can bless those around us?God would you protect me?Would you protect my, my family, my lands?"And, and, a- and again, we can look at these prayers and say, "That is so selfish."But a heart that is humble and is not going to take advantage of these things, that's the heart that we're called to have in this so that God sees our heart, Heand He begins to entrust us with so much more.And it's not just finances, but it's opportunities and favor and doors that begin to open.Again, just like Nehemiah had favor with both God and with man, and, and began to recognize that the position that he was in as a cupbearer to the king was actually a position of influence that God ordained.Like, can we, can we begin to see that as a church that, thatAgain, we're not put into position or a part of a church so that we can take advantage of people.We're here to love people.We're here to build people up.We're here to build His kingdom and bless others.Simon Sinek says this.He says, "The, the true price of leadership is the willingness to place the needs of others above your own.Leadership is not about being in charge;it's about taking care of those in your charge."Man, there are people in, inObviously, in this church, but there's people in your life right now that you are in charge of.And maybe they're em- employees, maybe they're, they're people that you, you work alongside of or, or business partners or whatever.Whatever that looks like for you, maybeAgain, you've got, you've got kids, you have a family.There's people that are entrusted to you.It's not about being in charge.It's not about, you know, move- move- flexing our muscles or boning up our chests to try to get our way and, and live in this place of authority.No.God has given you that authority so that we can walk in accountability under Him and begin to serve others well.Like, God sees our hearts.He sees our motivation in this.And that's what it means to be a kingdom builder, that we would put others' needs before ourselves, that we would live and give sacrificially and let others benefit from our sacrifice.Nehemiah 5:18, "Now what was prepared at my expense for each day was one ox and 6 choice sheep and birds.And every 10 days, all kinds of wine in abundance.Yet for all this, I did not demand the food."Again, this is so cool.Like, here's everything that he was entitled to, that heBecause he's the governor and he said, "I'm not gonna do it.I will not demand the food allowance of the governor because the service was too heavy on these people."He gave back to the people."This, this is too much.The people need this more than I do."That, that is the heart of a kingdom builder.It's putting others before ourselves.Again, he knew that his people were suffering.He knew that thoseThat, that the walls were down, and so he was rebuilding them.He, he saw the need and he filled the need.He saw the problem and he said, "I'm gonna do something about it."Again, there, there weren't any great builders so he recruited them, inspired them, raised them up.There was a famine and there were leaders exploiting all these different things, and he stood up for others.And he, and he went first in this way.Like, he, he prayed first, he built first, and he gave back first.And that he was always the first to lead in this way.And, and my prayer for us as a church, my prayer for you is that you wouldn't wait for someone else to go first.Uh, and, and I mean this in, in what God has called you to in this season.Don't wait for somebody else to go and pray for someone that you know is suffering.Be the first one to do it.If you gotta get somebody else to come with you, like, make it happen.But, but don't go last.Go first.Be the first to serve.Be the first to love.Be the first to pray.God, God desires us to be obedient first, to say yes first in this way.Would you use what God has blessed you with to bless others?It doesn't matter how much it may be.You may not see yourself as high on the totem pole in, in, in all these different areas in your life.You may just be, be working and hustling and all.But what would it look like for God to find you faithful with what He's given you?Are we, are we holding and hoarding things all to ourselves?And again, I'm not just talking about money.It's, it's, it's even a, a mindset and a heart set where we live in this sort of spirit of lack.We live in this place of we're never gonna have enough and so we have to hold it all onto ourselves, and we can't help others that are in need.And that's, that's not the heart of God.That's not what He's calling us to in this hour.He's calling us in unity to love others and to build people up around us.He's calling us to, to give to missions.I said, I said it last week or 2 weeks ago, like, this is the year for my family.We are giving more than we've ever given before to our church and to missions.Why?Because God has so graciously blessed my family, given us favor.And I, and I believe it's because we're walking in a place where we say, "God, this is not mine.How do we steward it?God, I just want to be obedient to you."And I hope that's your heart today.I pray that that's the heart of this church, that when an opportunity arises to give, that we're all in.When itWhen there's an opportunity that arises to serve, that we're all in.Because that is the, the, the heart of a kingdom builder, is someone who goes first and says, "Yeah, let's go.It may not look like I thought it was gonna look, but I'm stepping in because I know that God is calling me to it and so I'm gonna walk in obedience."Delayed obedience is disobedience.And so, I don't, I don't know what God is calling you to in this hour or, or even with Nehemiah.His heart was so moved by this project that he gave himself to it.I'm believing so strongly that God would burden your heart to build His kingdom.And it's not building a building.I know we're looking for a new location right now.And, uh, I'm, I'mWe're looking all over town.We're trying to find a new spot where we can expand our tent pegs and be in a bigger space for our kids and the next generation.I'm not here to try to raise money for a building.My heart is that we would go first, that we would step into generosity, not just with our money, but with our lives.Nehemiah 5:19, it says, "Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people."And it's funny because, uh, one day I'll read this scripture and then I'll kind of carry it as a chip on my shoulder and be like, "God, do You remember all the things that I've done for You?"Like, "God, d- do You remember that time that I gave so much money and then barely had enough for groceries?"Like, "God, the hours and hours that I've put in to serving in all these different areas and ministries."Or, "God, how many times am I going to get interrupted in my life with, with You saying, 'Go pray for that person.Go, go lay hands on this person.Go tell this person about Jesus.'" Like, "God, I- I- I've listened to You again and again."And I can read this scripture with that attitude, but I truly don't believe that's the heart of Nehemiah in this moment."Remember, Lord, for my good, all that I've done for this people and see how much more I'm willing to do."God, You see my heart.I wanna do more.I wanna love more.I wanna pour out more.God, remember that I've given my life to this.You can still trust me.And, uh, and maybe that needs to be our prayer today is, "God, there's been seasons in my life where I've been obedient, but maybe recently I haven't.Maybe recently I've gone my own way.Maybe recently I've been selfish.God, would You remember, would You remind me even as I pray this, that I know I'm called to serve people, that I know I'm called to love people and lift others up.God, would You use me?Use us as a church.Remember that I was obedient.I was obedient, and Lord, I repent for my disobedience.But would You open the door again for me to step into obedience?Would You remember that I am faithful and that I can walk in faithfulness?And in this new season, I'm going to be faithful."Nehemiah didn't get up in front of everybody in a crowd and say, "Remember all that I've done for you."It wasn't about him.And just hear me today.Many times, we're too afraid of looking confident or coming across prideful.We don't want to be too bold or, or maybe we're, we're wanting to look humble, and so we think walking in humility looks like not going first or not pushing and pressing the line forward.And in reality, that'sA lot of times, it's stemming from pride.A desire to look like you're humble is pride.A desire to look like you're all about justice and all about helping people and being seen, you know, it's all stemming from pride.Let us not be a church that's just posturing and performing from a place of pride.Nehemiah was so in tune and connected to the Lord when he prayed.When he, when he was angry, he went to the Lord.When he was, when he was sad and he was upset, he went to the Lord and began to walk out action steps from that place.It wasn't, you know, "Boo-hoo.My life is so bad," or, "Boo-hoo.The situation is so terrible."It was, "God, I need You.How do we take action steps now moving forward?"Come on, that needs to be our heart, our act."God, give us the action list.I remember all the things that you did, all the things that I got to do with you.Now, let's begin to walk into this new season."Put the action steps forward."God, give me wisdom because I cannot do this without you."That's fear of the Lord.It's, "God, I don't want to take another step without you leading me."Let God see you go first and serve Him whether you're seen or not.That's, that's my hope.That's my desire, that we would call people to be accountable to His Word and we would call people higher to walk in obedience and serving others, raising up people.Hey, I want to pray for you this morning.Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name.Holy is Your name.We recognize that You're God.We say that You're good and You're holy.Let Your kingdom come, let Your will be done, God.Lord, I pray that Your plans will become our plans, that we would come into alignment with You so that we can see heaven come to earth.We declare that Your kingdom is being built all across this city, all across this state, this nation, and the world.And we're grateful that we get to do it with You.God, I pray that You would give us our daily bread.You continue to provide for us, You continue to open up doors and opportunities for us.And God, we remember all the things that we've been able to do with You.And Lord, we look forward to being entrusted with even more, to walk in obedience in this hour.Lord, we confess our sins to You.Lord, forgive us.Lord, we repent for our disobedience.We repent for, for really sometimes our laziness.We repent for exploiting people or trying to use people, even like the nobles and the officials did.God, would You help us to bring justice and stand on Your Word and live on Your Word?Lord, help us to forgive others who've wronged us, who've exploited, who've caused suffering.Lord, You forgave us, so we walk in forgiving others.Lord, would You lead us not into temptation but deliver us?Continue to guide us, Lord.Continue to lead us to stand on Your Word and stand on Your promises.Lord, deliver Your people.We intercede right now for this city.We intercede for those that are far from You.Lord, fill this church with the lost that they may become disciples, that they may become saints equipped to make disciples themselves.Lord, use Your people to make disciples.Use this church to build Your kingdom.All the glory for You.In Jesus' name.Amen.Amen.Love you guys.So grateful for you.Have a, uh, a safe icy snow day.