Built on Vision

As soon as Nehemiah puts this before the people, there are critics that come out. They despise him. They mock him. You're not going to be successful. This is going to end terribly. But you see Nehemiah and just the man he is. I gave them this reply. As he's hearing all this negativity, he says, "The God of the heavens is the one who will grant us success." He's like, "Guys, you're not up against me. You're up against God." Today we are continuing on in our study through the book of Nehemiah. And and as I was studying for it this week, I was thinking about, have you ever had those conversations where you know something needs to be said? You know, something needs to be done, but you're worried about how someone else will respond. Maybe it's with your kids and you need to have the talk. I think it used to be the talk. I feel like it's the talks now. All right. Um just exposed to way too much online. and you're like, we're starting these talks at like 8 years old and they're going to continue as they grow up. And maybe you're like, you need to have those and you're having those conversations, but you don't know how your kids are going to respond. Maybe you have a situation at work where you're a co-orker and you know that you just need to have that difficult conversation with a co-orker, with a boss or with an employee, and you just know it needs to be done, but you don't know what the response will be. Maybe it's a friend or a family member who is hurting, who is going through destructive behavior, and you almost need to have the intervention moment, but don't know what the response will be. Today is exactly that as we dive into the story of Nehemiah, Nehemiah chapter 2, that as Nehemiah and we progress in this story, this Old Testament book that as Nehemiah, God begins to work in his life that he starts out and God gives him this burden as he's in a far away land that he's grown up in Persia. He's never known anything else, but God shows him what his homeland looks like in Jerusalem that his ancestors are from. and he gets burdened that it's not where it should be, that the walls are in ruins, that the place is a mess. And he gets this burden in his heart that something needs to be done. As he gets that burden, he spends time in prayer as we looked at last week. And for 4 months, he prays to God and he asks, "God, show me, God, give me a vision. God, give me something." And God just opens door after door as he burdens his heart and kind of pushes him forward. And as we pick up in the story today, Nehemiah starts to get this vision of what God wants to do. And then I actually love it. And starting in verse 9 that we're going to look at in just a second, it actually kind of kicks off this theme we see throughout the rest of the book of Nehemiah that as God gives him this vision, it is this vision that leads to victory for not only Nehemiah, but at in his kingdom and ultimately God's people and for all of us. God gives us visions for our lives of how they could be better, of how they could be greater, how they could be more faithful, how they can be more aligned with him. And when we go down those roads, that vision leads to victory in our lives, whatever that might look like for God's glory. And as we continue to go into these weeds, Nehemiah starts this process of fleshing out this vision, of casting this vision to the people around him. And we dive into Nehemiah chapter 2, starting in verse 9. It says this, Nehemiah writing, I went to the governors of the region west of the Euphrates and gave them the king's letters. The king had also sent officers of the intentry and calvary with me. When San Ballet, the Horonite, and Tobaya, the Ammonite official, heard that someone had come to pursue the prosperity of the Israelites, they were greatly displeased. And as we jump in to this part of the story in Nehemiah, he leaves Persia and he travels 900 miles and he comes to the doorstep of Jerusalem and he comes in just like a total boss. All right, it says he's has a posi and he's got all these big old Persians surrounding him. They probably didn't even speak Hebrew, so he's not even going to talk to some of the people, but they're like he's just giving out papers and he giving out the king's letters and people are like, "What are you doing here?" He's like, "Just just read this note. Uh it's from Artic Xerxes." His dad was Xerxes. Uh he he was a big deal, most powerful man on the earth, he's like, I have some business to attend here. And as Nehemiah starts this journey, as God's given him this vision in his life, and he begins to cast this vision to the people of God in in order to make this project, this vision start to become a reality. The first thing we see is that casting vision requires us to leak to the right people. I I love this as he comes in. The first people he approaches in verse 9 is the governors of the regions. And when the governors see these letters, they know that he's being backed by the most powerful empire in the world at that time. But these governors were important people because these governors who were controlled this region. And Nehemiah knew that if he was going to get any footholds into this area, he had to first talk to these guys a few weeks ago. And and we we talk about this all the time at our staff. Um, but we say leaders leak and and we we joke about this that um our lead pastor Jackie is one of the greatest leaders I've been around of just preaching vision of seeing things before they happen and then and creating a road map to get there. And we joke on our staff with with some of our other pastors that were like Jackie uh is leaked so much as a leader that we need to get him to pens every now and then. All right, he's preaching in Alabama so don't text him that I said that. All right, we know he's not going to watch the live stream, so it just be our little secret. um and for service and everyone online. But anyway, we talked about how leaders leak and and a couple weeks ago we talked about here in our service that next year uh one of the visions that we've seen that God's opened some doors in is we're going to be able to start some more churches in Arizona. We're starting crossurch. If you don't know where that is, you can Google that when you're bored at some point. It's just outside of Prescuit on that Cordis Junction uh corridor. and and we're also start a glacia de la Cruz which is cross church Spanish in actual Spanish. All right. Um and and we've been excited and and as we announced that here's what's happened is we've actually been working on even though we announced that 2 weeks ago that's been a process of 6 months almost a year in the making that is conversations happening with the right people at the right time is first we had to talk to leaders and mayor we had to talk to our elders we had to talk to certain staff members we had to make sure that the right people knew at the right time and sometimes people like well why can't why haven't I known yet well and we always say is that we can't tell you before we tell you right um once we tell you we tell you. But it's in those things as Nehemiah, he's not even telling the people who are going to do the work yet, but he first has to tell these governors, kind of these gatekeepers in this region of, "Hey, I'm going to do something big in this area." And he doesn't even give them all the details, but he's starting to seed in their head. But notice in verse 10, I love this. Even though he leaks to the right people, sometimes the right people aren't even going to be the ones that celebrate it. We're introduced to two characters in verse 10. Sand Ballots, the Horonite, and Tobaya, the Ammonite. These are the villains of the story. And through the rest of the book, these guys are going to constantly be the nemesis. Like, if you were going through um and you know, you're kind of watching a movie, it's like they have the bad music behind him, like when the villain comes in. All right. Um I actually heard recently on Apple TV shows that you can tell the bad guy on an Apple produced show cuz they don't use iPhones. Yeah, they're green in the chat. All right. Um, if you make your chat green, you're the bad guy in your friend group. I'm just saying. Uh, yeah, some of you don't like that, but it's true. The truth hurts. All right. Get an iPhone so we can all have a blue conversation. Anyway, um, but sand ballots, he's a bad guy. And this guy, he's likely the governor of Samaria who's enemies with Israel. And then you have, uh, Tobaya, who was an Ammonite official, and he had connections and influence and the reason. And they're mad that Nehemiah shows up to rebuild Israel. And the question is why? Well, it it's pretty obvious because broken walls benefited these guys. Vulnerable people were easier to exploit and a strong Jerusalem meant that God's law would get enforced and meant that justice would happen, that the exploitation of the people that they were taking advantage would stop. And these guys did not want that. There's a leadership principle inside of this is when you start pursuing God's mission for your life, you need to expect opposition from those who benefit from the status quo. Think about this. Maybe you have come to Christ and maybe you are a follower of Jesus and and maybe if you even think early on when you say, "I'm going to follow Jesus," there are going to be some people that jump off that train where you say like, "Hey, I'm going to put some boundaries in my life that all of a sudden I'm not going to engage in these things. maybe I'm not going to drink as much or I'm not going to do that or I'm going to speak differently in my mouth. I'm not going to expose myself to this. I'm not going to watch that. Like there will be people that be like, "Bro, but you were so much more fun when you did, right?" And there will be those critics out there. There are those people that when you're saying like, "I'm going to be on mission. I'm going to have a purpose. I'm going to be more faithful to following God." There are going to be those people in your life that are critical of that. in Nehemiah, as he leaked his arrival to the right people, those the those who actually wanted to see God's work succeed, the governors of the area that were the good ones, the ones that were vital to moving forward, he also knew his critics would show themselves immediately. And you see, opposition reveals who's really on God's side and who's not. And when we are casting vision, when we are having difficult conversations, we always have to ask, who needs to hear that first? But it continues on in verse 11. He says, "After I arrived in Jerusalem and I had been there three days, I got up at night and I took a few men with me. I didn't tell anyone what my God had laid on my heart." He doesn't tell about the burdens in his heart to the biggest depth to do for Jerusalem. The only animal I took was the one I was writing. You see when we are casting vision it not only requires us to leak to the right people but also to look to the right motivation. I I love as the story progresses after three days in Jerusalem Nehemiah does something brilliant is he gets up in the middle of the night and sometimes maybe you get up in the middle of the night. Um certain men of certain ages get up in the middle of night maybe more than you want to. All right. Um first service didn't like it either. I was going to try it again. Uh sometimes I just know and I need to move on, but it doesn't work. All right. Uh but sometimes, and I tell my wife this is I can't like my brain can't be moving too much at night or I'll lay down and I'll just cycle and my head just will not turn off. If if I watch a late ASU game, they played at 11:00 a.m. yesterday. It was great. The rest of my day was glorious, even if they had lost. Um but it's just like then all of a sudden I can decompress. But if I watch a late ASU game or Suns game and they lose, my mind is just spinning of all the things they messed up and all the ways I just need to call the coach and be like, "Bro, watch out for this next time. We're going to get them." Um, if we just looked up and clean up these things, but like if sometimes your mind is racing, it's just too much. And and Nehemiah like something stirred in him. He's like, "There's I just need to get up and I need to go for a walk." And Nehemiah gets up and what's funny is he then wakes up some other guys to go with him. And what he does is he starts to secretly inspect the walls around the area. And and notice for a second what he doesn't do. He doesn't call a town meeting of all the Israelite people at that time is he doesn't announce his vision on day one. He doesn't start live streaming himself and be like, "Yo, on the walls of Jerusalem, they're all down. We're going to do some work here, right?" He doesn't do any of that. Instead, he quietly assesses reality first. And in verse 12, I love this. It says he didn't tell anyone what God had put on his heart to do for Jerusalem is the governors had already known kind of where this was going. They got letters saying this guy needs safe passage. They got letters that saying he needs all this material that's going to be rebuilding walls. They could put two and two together. But he's not telling people of the deepest burden that is on his heart. And when I look at that and kind of ask why, I think the reason is because I think vision without assessment is just empty motivation. Nehemiah wanted to see it for himself and evaluate why he was doing what he was doing. My kids are at the stage, they range from 9 to one years old where they're in very much in transactional type environments. Um, when they want something, they're like, "Can I get a candy if I do this?" They don't say like, "Can I just do all my chores out of the well-being of my heart cuz I want to make our home a better place." They're like, "If I do that, can I get something?" Right? And like my my four-year-old, I we just finished soccer season. and I'm going to start that flag football season soon. But at soccer, I was like, "Hey, if you score a goal, I will buy you a Paw Patrol toy." And he's like, "Yeah, that's awesome." He's like fired up about it. Hugged his teammates all season long. Didn't even get close to scoring a goal. After the season, he's like, "Do I get a toy?" I'm like, "No, you had to score a goal. All right." I'm like, "Here is a juice box. You don't get the toy, right? Um, you you need to try harder next time and then we'll work on that." But in kids in their mindset and there there's some good things the leadership lessons and life lessons to learn like if I do this this is the result if I work hard good things can follow. But maturity and spiritual maturity especially is all the something eventually we grow up enough that we do something big. We do something noble. We do something faithful. We do something great because of the burden on our hearts not simply because of the temporary gains we might get. In Nehemiah, he doesn't follow in fall into this trap of just this transactional type purpose in his life. And he's like, "God, you have placed this on my heart, but I want to make sure this burden is real. I want to make sure I bleed this. I want to make sure I truly understand what you are asking me and I am doing it for the right reasons." He got up at night not because he just wants an honest assessment of the work that needs to be done. and he will do that in a second, but he needs a heart assessment if he's doing it for the right reasons. And it tells us he takes a few men to do this with him. And I think one of those things that we see here that as we just kind of observe the story is there's so many things that like what the story directly tells us. But what we also see just from how it plays out is he surrounded himself with a few trusted people. And I think as we go and we look at the motivations of our life is why do we do things is do we have a few trusted people we let speak into our lives that tell us we are on the right track and not doing things for the wrong reasons. But the story progresses in verse 13 and he says I went out at night through the valley gate towards the serpent's well and the dung gate. That is exactly what it sounds like. All right. That's where they used all the waste. They didn't have, you know, plumbing underground at that time. It was a real different time. Probably smelled fantastic. Um, and he continues, "And I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down, and its gates that had been destroyed by fire." Verse 14, "I went on to the fountain gates and the king's pool, but farther down it became too narrow for my animal to go through." So I went up at night by the way of the valley, and I inspected the wall. Then heading back, I entered through the valley gate and returned. The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing. For I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the rest of those who would be doing the work. When we begin to cast a vision in our life that leads to something greater, a vision that leads to a victory that God wants to move through us, we need to leak it to the right people. We need to look to make sure we have the right motivation that we are pushing us forward. But we also need to learn the right scope. I I love this as Nehemiah rides through and starts to just go through this city. Goes past the valley gate and the serpent's well. He goes to the dung gate. He surveys every broken section, every burnt brick, every gate that is twisted and pile of rubble. He goes to the fountain gate and to the king's pool until it gets to a point that no longer it's too narrow. He can't get through anymore. So he pauses his journey and he comes back that night by foot. And as he's walking this foot by foot and surveying the valley and returning through the valley gate, all of a sudden in verse 16, it tells us that through all this process that the officials didn't even know where he had gone. Nehemiah disappears. He just starts drifting through Jerusalem. And they're like, "Were you watching Nehemiah? I I thought I was watching Nehemiah." They're like, "Does anyone have him on like life 360?" Right. Um, one time I lost a kid in Disneyland. All right. He was three years old at a time. It was very scary. It was actually raining while it happened. Um, it was only for like two minutes though. He was only a little bit scarred. But I No, he won't get away from us too far. But here, like Nehemiah is just gone. They're like, where is he? He's seeing what needs to be done. He's assessing the landscape. He's learning the scope of the project. He's seeing all that is going to be required in order to accomplish what God has placed on his heart. And here what is so important is leaders need to learn the scope of the problem before they cast the vision. You can't ask someone to do something and and put in front of them to go somewhere that you haven't gone yourself that you won't understand where the journey is taking. And I think it's huge here as Nehemiah is seeking clarity on the task before he's asking of what is going to require from other people. And before we ask people to commit, we know that what we are asking them to commit to know what's broken, know what's needed, know what it will cost. Think about this in your personal life as a parent before you set new family rules. And I have not yet any met any parent where it's like when your parent was or where your kid was born at zero, you know, all of a sudden you say this is the rules. We will govern our family and then never change them. All right? Cuz every kid's different. What works for one kid doesn't work for another kid. Some kids you can put in timeout. Some kids you have to make hold hands. Some boys you have to make like kiss each other on a cheek cuz it drives them crazy, right? Like whatever it is like is your way of punishing and you know setting boundaries in your kids. You got to they're adaptable and they're jerks. So you got to learn how to set those rules. But in that you got to know what the problem is first. You got to understand the depth of what is broken in your system to implement something new. When you talk about something at work and you launch a project, you need to assess what are your real resources. What are we trying to solve? How is this going to make a difference and be able to cast that vision to other people for it to make a difference? Before you commit to serve at a church, you need to understand what's actually required of it. But how much time it's going to take, how much effort, what is going to be put in before you say I can be there. Nehemiah spent three days waiting, walking, looking in one night learning before he said a word to anyone about what rebuilding would look like. And there is wisdom here. There is a path to follow. But I also want you to hear is sometimes that doesn't mean that we just wait until we have all the information to move. God will still push us even when with that burden and we will fill out some of the details as we go. A few weeks ago, my wife tricked me into redoing our laundry room. All right. And I thought uh cuz you know it's just a bare laundry room. We just got in our house about a year ago. There's like nothing to it. And I was like, "All right, we're just going to paint the room." That's how she sold it to me. We're going to just like paint it. It's going to be great. I'm like, "All right, I can paint a room." We painted it. We're like, she's like, "We really should put cabinets in here." I'm like, "Okay." Uh, all right. Right. So, we're looking at Lowe's and cabinets and like going to get into something that I don't know how to do. And then before I know it, I'm contacting a contractor at our church. We're getting cabinets. We're getting counters. We're pretty much doing a full built-in on that wall. We're like setting in the washer and dryer, and it looks great. But as I got into the weeds, I learned the project was a lot bigger than I thought. She probably knew all along, but I was along for the ride. And and sometimes God is going to push us into things. He's going to say, "Hey, this is go go go redo the laundry room. Go redo this part of your life." And we think, "I know what that's going to look like." But then as we get in, God, as we start to learn the project, God's going to open and broaden our horizons that this is bigger than when we think it is. And Nehemiah, as he's going down this journey, as he's making sure that he has the right people know it to open the doors, that has the right motivation inside his heart, that he knows the full scope of the project. It all builds to verse 17 where he said, "So I said to them, this is the people of Israel he's talking to that have lived around the shambles of this city." He says, "You see the trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been burned. Come, let's rebuild Jerusalem's walls so that we will no longer be a disgrace." I told them how the gracious hand of God had been on me and what the king had said to me. And they said, they responded, "Let's start rebuilding." And their hands were strengthened to do this good work. As Nehemiah builds through this process, as God continues to deepen the burden in his heart, to cast the vision in his mind that he then gets to relay to the people around him. I love this because here is this kind of comes to a culmination as he begins to cast this vision. The last part of this is casting vision requires us to leverage the right request. This is one of the most brilliant moments of vision casting in scripture. And and see how Nehemiah does this. First in verse 17, he starts and he he defines reality. He gives them a shared reality. He says, "You see the trouble we are in." He's like, "Guys, this is a mess." He's like, "Look at these walls." He's like, "They've been broken. They've been burned. And it's been 150 years." He's like, "You see it. I see it. He's not making up things. He's not giving his opinion. He's not saying this is like my I think it's this but we should do better. He's like guys look it is a hot mess. He's like every He's like Jerusalem is in ruins. He calls it what it is. He is specific. He is clear. He is undeniable. I love it because this is exactly what scripture does in our personal lives. It is when we come to the Bible and we come to the Bible in our flesh, in our sin, when we are separated from Jesus and we come in the way we are naturally born in our sinful manner. When we read scripture, scripture is very clear on who we are is we are sinners. It says for all have fallen have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. that God created us and God created things perfect, but sin messed up this picture. And when we have lived our lives the way we want it to, it's in ruins every time. And when we do an honest assessment of what our life looks like, minus Jesus, either before Jesus or even with Jesus, when we push Jesus to the side, it's always a hot mess. And just as Nehemiah defines and shows the reality in front of us, we constantly do that when we come to scripture. There is this conviction that rises up because we know that it is not modeling what God has for us. But he not only sets this reality, but then he also identifies with a shared identity. I love this. He says, "Come, let's rebuild Jerusalem's wall." Now, notice a few of the pronouns he uses in verse 17. You got to be careful when you say that in church now, right? Look at the pronouns. But he says you. And when he says you, it's not a singular you that he's talking to one person. He's saying you as a collective. That is a plural word. And then he's saying let's. This is also plurality in here. That's go. And then when he gets later in the verse, he says that we will. Nehemiah is identifying with him. And here's the funny thing is Nehemiah lived in Persia. He could have been like, "You suckers like you have been just walking by these walls broken down every single day." He's like, "I was just doing the Lord's work uh serving some pagan priest like or some pagan king. Like I I was doing good. I was in a cushy job." But instead, he identifies with their struggle. When we look at our world today, we identify the struggle with everyone who is a sinner around us cuz we are sinners. Even if you know the grace and love of Jesus Christ, it doesn't make you a less sinner. It just makes you a saved sinner. And when we look at our culture and we see how broken it is, how messed up it is, how much people are hurting, how much people are struggling, all the things they are going through, we don't condemn them and say like, "Sucks to be you. I'm sorry. You should get your stuff together." We come and we join them and say, "I know it's hard, but I know something better." That we can do a better job. That we can see Christ together. That we can see this better vision that God has for our life. Nehemiah is not standing above them. He's standing with them. And then I love this. He gives them a shared purpose. He's saying, "Why? Why? Why should we do this?" He's like, "I know your life's a wreck. These ruins are in. I I know we should rebuild it and and do something better, but what what is the the motivation? What is the purpose behind this? He says, "So that we will no longer be a disgrace." A capital in that day with no walls was a disgrace. It showed weakness. It showed vulnerability. It showed defeat. But more than that, this was a spiritual disgrace. This was God's city. His name was supposed to dwell here and in its ruins. It was supposed to be the light that brought the good news of God to the rest of the world. And he's saying is we don't have to stay like this. We can rebuild. We can restore what's broken. And this is crucial. He doesn't stop with motivation, but he continues in verse 18. He says, "The way that we do this is he starts to point to the faithfulness of God. He said, "Then I told them how the gracious hand of my God had been on me and what the king had said to me." From there, Nehemiah shares his testimony. He says, "Hey, I I heard about this that God put this burden on my heart." But then he's like, "But here's what's amazing is all of a sudden he made this opening God did with this pagan king and I shared with him and the king art Xerxes who was an evil man throughout history and was a ruthless empire." And all of a sudden, he says, "Yeah, I'll help you with that." Like, "I'll send you off. I'll give you 6 months of paid leave. I'll pay for the entire project. I'll give you an entourage that will protect you every step of the way. I'll make sure this is a success. And Nehemiah grants God as the force behind that. When we share our testimony, when we tell other people be like, "You know what? I'm broken. I got my issues. I'm a sinner. I'm prideful. I'm jealous. I've done this. I've done that." And we share about how screwed up we are. But hey, I know this Jesus who died for me, who rose again, who forgives my sins, who restores my relationship with him, that all of a sudden when we share that testimony, it's not because, hey, look how much I've gotten my life together, but look at the gracious hand of Jesus Christ that has been on my life, that has led to a restoration that I could never do on my own. And Nehemiah as he is casting this vision as he is sharing with God's people all that God has done when he is literally giving out the Old Testament gospel message of God is not done with us. God wants something greater just as we tell people about Christ today. Here is their response in the second half of verse 18. They said let's start rebuilding. They didn't have a committee meeting. They didn't study it. They didn't debate it. They hear the vision. They saw God's hand moving and they said, "Let's go. Let's be a part of that. That's what I want to be part of. This is the community I want to follow. I'm done with this garbage of the world. I'm done trying to do things on my own way. I've seen the results of my sin and my life choices. It always ends in some sort of emptiness. It feels good for a little bit later, but all of a sudden, I'm deeper in a bigger pit in despair than I was before. All of a sudden, when they hear this greater vision, when they see this restoration, when they hear God working in their world, they say, "Let's go. Let's be a part of that." And I love verse 18, it says, "Then their hands were strengthened for the good work." That phrase means they were emboldened. They were encouraged. They were empowered. Vision does that. Clear vision mobilizes people. It turns burden into action. It turns negativity into positivity. It starts motivating us in a way that we want to be a part of something greater than ourselves. The last couple years as a Suns fan has been really trying. Okay. Every week I wear Devin Booker shoes. All right. Um it is my He's my favorite player. He's the greatest son of all time. Uh I have seven different colorways. That's why they all look similar but are a little different. But I love the Suns. All right. I've grown up. I I I watched a little bit of Barkley. I I watched Marberry. I watched Nash. I lived through all the eras of Suns and and every time they always lead to a disappointment in some way or another. But last couple years, we're on the doorstep of the finals and we're like, well, you know what we're missing? We're missing another superstar. So, we went out and got Kevin Durant. Usually people say Kevin something Durant. Okay, that is how good of a player he is. And it was a travesty. The last two seasons were so disappointing. We like thought we're winning a chip. Like this is great. This is awesome. And it was a mess. This year they traded KD. Their talent pool is so much less. But this to start the season, they're exciting. They're fun to watch. We're totally going to win the chip this year. I'm just kidding. Um but I believe it in the delusional parts of my soul. But there are fun to watch. And why? Here's what's changed is they have a coach that has a vision, that has an idea, that is enacting things, that has created a culture. And all of a sudden, everyone is around it. You can see the players are bought in and it's completely changed the heart and soul of that team. And you see, we see that in sports and it's fun to watch in sports and none of you care cuz you're really quiet. You're still trying to think of you're googling who is Devin Booker and shame on you. He'll be the governor of Arizona one day. Um, but we see how that can happen in other areas of our life when there is something bigger, when there is a vision, when there is a plan and saying, "Let's go after this. Let's go for it. Let's follow it." that people mobilize. And when we see that in earthly things that don't matter, like sports games that are way too much of our mood, that don't really care, it is so much even greater on eternal things. When God is showing us a vision of this is how I'm going to rebuild this, of this is how I'm going to rebuild someone's life. This is how I'm going to change someone. This is how I'm going to rebuild this family. This is how I'm going to share my gospel through the church. All the sudden, people mobilize. They say, "Let's go." their hands are strengthened and people are prompted into action. And the beauty of this passage is we see Nehemiah go on this journey of how God starts to move in his life. He starts to flesh that out to the world around him. But I love how this chapter ends cuz that sounds so nice. That sounds so fluffy. That's great. They're like, "Dude, like Braveheart right here." Like they're grabbing their weapons. They're running, but give me a shovel. Give me a hammer. Let's build right now. But look at what happens in verse 19 when Sandelat the Horonite, the Android user, shows up again. All right. And his buddy Tobaya, the Ammonite official in Gisham uh in Gisham, the Arab, heard about this. All the bad guys of this text that will continue to wreak havoc through the rest of this story. When they heard about this, they mocked us and they despised us and they said, "What is this you're doing? Are you rebelling against the king?" I gave them this reply that the God of the heavens is the one who will grant us success. We, his servants, will start building. But you have no share. You have no rights. You have no historic claim in Jerusalem. I love is as soon as Nehemiah puts this before the people right off this bat there are critics that come up and these were influential critics. These were guys who had sway inside the community at this time and immediately they speak out and say like no like they despise him. They mock him. They said this is going to be a trap. You're not going to be successful. This is going to end terribly. But you see Nehemiah and just the man he is. He gives the most baller response in verse 20. All right. He says this. I gave them this reply. As he's hearing all this negativity, all this criticism, all this stuff breaking down, he says, "The God of the heavens is the one who will grant us success." He's like, "Guys, you're not up against me, you're up against God." And no matter how you might criticize, he's like, "No matter what the world puts against us, no matter how the world smears us, no matter how much it tries to put down us, we don't live out the vision that God has for our life, that has for our church, that has for his kingdom through our own power. We live it out through the power of our God in heaven." And Nehemiah consistently points to that the God of the heavens, not the God of this earth, not the sin of this earth, not the problems of the earth, but the God of the heavens is the one who will deliver. The God of the heavens is the one that is in charge. The God of the heavens is the one who ultimately will see this through. When God calls you to rebuild something in your life, critics will come. They will mock. When God calls you to a new obedience, people will question you. When God calls you to serve, some say you're wasting your time. But what you need to know is you don't need their approval. Just like Nehemiah, you need God's. So, what do we do with this today? And how do we take this from here? And as we begin to absorb all this and and we look at this vision that leads to victory that we're going to see play throughout the pages of Nehemiah. And honestly, this is going to play throughout the weeks of our church as we go into this new year and in this new year cast of some of the things that God has laid on our hearts and our elders and our staff for what God has next for our season of what how do we start to apply this today? And I think we see here in this foundational truth that as we begin to cast vision, as we begin to see what God has for our life is vision that comes from God, vision says, "Let's go." Though there will be critics that say no. Vision will say, "Let's go. Let's let's fix things in our lives. Let's get that counseling. Let's get in that Bible study. Let's change the ways that we have been doing things. Let's stop doing the same things over and over again and getting the same results that make us have this pit in our stomach. Let's change the things in our lives that are not working. And when God paints that picture in front of your face, you're going to say, "Let's go." But there will be a lot of things in your life that will try to pull you back. There'll be critics who will say like, "Yeah, I mean, like it's cool to go to church, but isn't it nice to sleep in and watch football? Yeah, I know it's great to have a community and like have people speaking into you, but do you really want everyone knowing your business? Yeah, I know it's great to like spend time praying and seeking God's word, but aren't you so busy? Don't you have other things to do? There will be always the critics in our head that as we begin to follow the path that God has for us that we're going to constantly have to block out the noise and rely on the fact that God has given us a burden for our lives. God has given us a plan for our lives and a vision of what it could be. And as we reflect this morning, my question for you is, what vision has God given you? Maybe it's a vision to repair a broken relationship in your life. And maybe with a friend or a family member that for whatever reason, something has come in and weaved a wedge in there and has broken. And when you look at it from afar, you think, "This is so dumb and I can't repair this." But God can. Maybe you need to trust after someone has failed you, after someone has hurt you. Maybe you need to rebuild a spiritual discipline in your life. Maybe you need to finally be vulnerable to letting people speak into you and have a true community. Maybe you need to rebuild your passion, your boldness for sharing the gospel to those around you. Have you assessed it? Have you prayed about it? Have you seen that vision come to reality in your life? Or are you waiting for the perfect moment that will not come? But what do we need to just take the step to begin to jump in? Not because we are capable, not because we have every inch of information, but because we have a God whose gracious hand goes before us. We have a God whose gracious hand goes with us and he will see victory that comes from that vision he has placed in our hearts. About 8 years ago as our staff began to think about what is the vision for Cross Church, one of the things we talked about is first you land on a mission statement. Our mission statement is making Jesus known. And hopefully you've heard that as you've come in here. You've seen it on walls. You've seen it on t-shirts, on hats, whatever. Making Jesus known. And that is the same mission of every church. It is the great commission to tell people about Jesus. But where churches do differ in different contexts, in different places, in different avenues is the vision of how they will make Jesus known. And when our staff talked about this years ago, when we got this burden is God opened doors and opportunities that we believe that cross church cares about making Jesus known in this way. How is by creating a movement of multiplying churches that are biblical, relevant, and missional. Our heart when you come into this place at Cross Church Surprise, it is biblical, relevant, and missional. And we live that out. And we want to start more of those like we have done in Phoenix and in Cornville and Elmarrage. what is coming in mayor in Eglacia de la Cruz and more that God is burdening on our hearts to be a part of something greater than ourselves to share the gospel to make Jesus known apart just from our small sphere of influence but so we can be a part of a great vision just like Nehemiah cast in that time that not under power not or under her own strength but that the gracious This hand of God be made known to the world around us.