← All episodes
The Forging Table

THE FORGING TABLE | Nehemiah 1 (Ep. 461)

May 14, 2023 49m 34s Full transcript available
THE FORGING TABLE | Nehemiah 1 (Ep. 461)
0:00 / 49m 34s
In this episode, we dive deep into Nehemiah 1, exploring how Nehemiah's heartfelt prayer and confession set the stage for rebuilding Jerusalem. We discuss the importance of spiritual resilience and the call to action for men to care about their communities and heritage.
Transcript
855 segments
0:00 Are your ad campaigns lighting up the dashboard, but not the pipeline?
0:04 That's bullspend, and marketers are calling it out in dashboard confessions.
0:09 My boss asked for results, so I opened my dashboard for the only positive-sounding metric I had.
0:15 Impression.
0:16 Cut the bullspend.
0:18 See revenue, not just reach.
0:19 Linkedin delivers the highest return on ad spend of major ad networks.
0:23 Advertise on Linkedin.
0:24 Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a $250 credit.
0:27 Go to linkedin.com/campaign-turnsick-addition-supply.
0:30 Struggling with weight loss?
0:31 Prolon's five-day fasting mimicking diet is a clinically developed nutrition program
0:35 designed to promote fat loss while protecting lean body mass.
0:39 Developed at USC's Longevity Institute, it assists the body in entering a fasting-like
0:43 state that helps reset metabolism and target visceral fat.
0:47 In just five days, Prolon offers a science-backed approach to weight loss without extreme restriction
0:52 or guesswork.
0:53 Give us a 15% off plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe at prolonlife.com/now.
1:17 This is Undaunted Life of Man's Podcast, I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
1:22 Welcome back to the Forging Table, the mission of Undaunted Life is equipping men to push
1:27 back darkness with content that forges spiritual, mental, and physical resilience.
1:31 So at the Forging Table, you'll see a group of regular guys foraging spiritual resilience
1:36 by digging into God's Word and we're welcoming all of you to come along on that journey with
1:39 us.
1:40 That's Russell, that's Zach, that's Ryan.
1:41 Guys, we're digging in.
1:42 If I look giddy, if I look excited, it's because like I said last week and I teed it up,
1:47 this is my favorite book of the Old Testament and like people, you know, it's kind of easy
1:52 ones like Genesis, Exodus, you know, First Amy, like those are like the cool kids ones
1:56 and everyone's got their proverbs and they got their coffee cups.
1:58 No, for me, it's Nehemiah.
2:00 I get super excited and super giddy about the stories that are going on in Nehemiah.
2:06 And what we're going to do is for anyone that's read Nehemiah before, typically when
2:11 you get into a book like this, it would be really, really important to do a somewhat
2:15 lengthy historical setup because obviously, you know, Ezra and Nehemiah are typically
2:19 like taught together and basically Ezra bleeds into Nehemiah and those types of things.
2:24 We're not going to do a whole lot of that today because Nehemiah three is there's there's
2:29 not a whole lot there in terms of what's going on because Nehemiah three gets into who's working
2:33 on what areas of the walls and everything and we'll get there.
2:36 So we're going to spend a lot of time in Nehemiah three talking about the whole context of what
2:40 we've been talking about here, but just in general, Nehemiah likely takes place, you know,
2:45 what's written down here takes place between 445 and 432 B.C. and this is in the Persian
2:50 Empire in the near East.
2:52 And so I'm actually going to just kind of read through this and maybe we can take some different
2:56 chunks here and then we'll kind of break down the different parts of this story.
3:00 And as of the recording of this, guys, I've not done my throat surgery yet.
3:03 So who knows what was going to end up looking like this.
3:05 So in order to save me, I'm going to have you smart guys read a little bit.
3:08 So Russell, how about you go ahead and read Nehemiah versus Nehemiah one versus one through
3:13 three, three, and then we'll dig in from there.
3:15 Oh, great.
3:16 That's got the fun words there.
3:17 Yeah, don't mess up.
3:18 I was like, I just, I don't want to be sound dumb by mispronouncing things.
3:21 So have fun.
3:22 You're good.
3:23 So I'm reading from Nazbi.
3:25 So the first one, the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hekaliah.
3:29 Now it happened in the month of Kislev in the 20th year while I was in Sousa, the capital
3:34 that had an eye, one of my brothers and some men from Judah came and I asked them concerning
3:39 the Jews who had escaped and had survived the captivity and about Jerusalem.
3:44 They said to me, the remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in
3:48 great distress and approach.
3:50 And the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire.
3:54 So the thing about this is so to break down a couple of things.
3:58 So the month of Kislev, that's the ninth month.
4:00 So we're looking like November, December, that's the time period.
4:04 The other cool thing about this is you can just easily buzz through that stuff, you know,
4:08 especially if you're a red letter person and you just don't want to dig into any detail.
4:12 But this is almost like, Hey, test us in this, like this is a historical fact that you can
4:16 go back and check out.
4:18 And so the 20th year that's also mentioned there in verse one, like this would be during
4:23 Artaxerxes's reign.
4:25 And so this would be approximately 13 years or so after Ezra's arrival in Jerusalem.
4:30 And again, we'll get probably way more into that when we discuss Nehemiah three, but then
4:35 in verse three, the walls were likely destroyed.
4:38 And if you want a reference to when this potentially happened, because they don't know for sure
4:43 for sure.
4:44 But Ezra four versus seven through 23, that's likely the description of what happened that
4:50 caused this damage in Jerusalem to begin with.
4:54 There are a couple of other thoughts in terms of what that looks like.
4:57 That one in my research seemed to be the most likely, but I did find it interesting that
5:04 he even inquired as to the status of the city.
5:08 And that's one of the things that talks about because there was another thing that was destroyed
5:11 earlier.
5:12 And so it would have been like old hat like, yeah, they've been destroyed, but as we'll
5:16 see here in a second, he seemed to be genuinely shocked at, you know, basically the status
5:22 of what was happening there in that area.
5:24 So was there anything else from the first three verses there, because that's really just
5:27 kind of a springboard for the rest of it.
5:29 But was there anything else that you guys saw from your commentaries?
5:33 I think that was something that came up in several commentaries that I read, just that
5:38 candidly he was interested in his people, right?
5:41 So he's he's in the Persian Empire and you'll find later, and he's a cup bear.
5:46 So he's like got status and he's right next to the king of Persia, but he really wants
5:51 to know what's going on back in Jerusalem.
5:52 He really wants to know what's going on back then, and he really cared about his people
5:56 and he cared about the heritage.
5:58 And he knew that, you know, what he knew the promises that were, you know, stated for Jerusalem.
6:04 And so I think for us, kind of the takeaway there is, you know, I can't be ignorant to
6:10 what's going on around me, and I know that, you know, it's convicting for me as I think
6:15 about that.
6:16 Sometimes, you know, ignorance is bliss, to be honest, and in our world today, there's
6:21 a lot of negative things going on and a lot of things going on, even geopolitically, that
6:26 I'm unaware of, and I need to be more aware of it.
6:29 I mean, I think the Lord wants me to be more aware of it because it impacts, you know,
6:33 what I can pray for and how I can be involved.
6:35 So I just think that his desire to want to know what's going on in Jerusalem is important.
6:41 That's good for sure.
6:42 Anything else on those first three verses, guys?
6:44 Yeah, I thought it was just providential, how that, you know, he was put into that place
6:51 of power in the Persian kingdom, the cut bear, basically the right-hand man to the king at
6:57 the time, and then he hears, you know, about Jerusalem, which had been destroyed for quite
7:02 a while, I understand, and he hears that and he's just immediately affected by his people.
7:08 Like Russell said, like, bam, just hit him right in the heart, and he was like, okay,
7:13 at some point, I've got to figure out how I can be helpful.
7:17 And just to me, how God was preparing that for so long, you know, through however long
7:23 Jerusalem had been destroyed before Nehemiah had even heard of it.
7:27 God's preparing this part of Scripture.
7:30 And then how, you know, if Nehemiah hadn't inquired, you know, do the walls get rebuilt?
7:34 Is Jerusalem what it is today?
7:36 Just really was a providential for me when I was reading it.
7:40 Yeah, go and read verse four, four, so that as soon as I heard these words, I sat down
7:45 and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
7:51 So there are like four keywords to me in that.
7:54 And so we're reading the ESV here on this side, wept, mourned, fasting, praying.
8:02 He's doing all those things for the status of a city he's never been to.
8:07 Yeah, and it's 800 miles away.
8:09 Never been there.
8:10 Yeah, it's like I was just saying, just really blew me away that he was even that affected
8:15 just from hearing that the walls were burned down.
8:19 I can't even think of a corollary today because typically, you know, did everybody grow up
8:24 in Oklahoma?
8:25 No.
8:26 Where'd you grow up?
8:27 Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Iowa, Oklahoma.
8:32 So I feel like people when you don't grow up and it's like different if it's like L.A.
8:38 or Seattle or Miami or New York or something like that, but everyone's got like pride for
8:42 their hometown.
8:43 You know, you had pride for your high school, especially if you're an athlete, like because
8:46 you were wearing your town's name when your chest when you went into enemy territory and
8:50 you know, defended your town against this other town.
8:52 Like it's kind of like when people describe what modern day sports is, it's like, this
8:56 is what keeps us from killing each other because back in the day, we would just kill the people
9:00 from the other tribes.
9:01 But now it's like, we pretend to kill them like by playing football or baseball or wrestling
9:04 or something like that, but that always struck me with this story.
9:09 The first time I realized that, wait, he's never been there.
9:12 Like, I don't have a connection to my, well, my dad's hometown is my same hometown, but
9:16 like, let's say it was different.
9:18 Like, who has that level of connection where the status of the walls, right?
9:24 Would lead you to weep, mourn, fast and pray.
9:27 That's like a hint from the very beginning.
9:29 There's something way bigger happening here than crumbled ruinous walls because in this
9:33 time period, like, I was first thing that you did when you conquered a people, you destroyed
9:36 their walls and then you destroyed their people, but I mean, if you destroy their walls and
9:40 they're basically their temple of their town, then you erase their history.
9:44 Right.
9:45 So yeah, and the only thing that I could think of reading through that was, you know, being
9:50 from Oklahoma and natural disasters of tornadoes, you know, you hear about a tornado in a small
9:55 town out in Western Oklahoma and it just took out the whole town.
9:59 You know, Oklahoma understands like we got to come around these people and we have to
10:03 help them.
10:04 And what can I do to help?
10:05 But it's never struck me like it struck me, am I here to drop everything I'm doing and
10:11 travel 800 miles away and try to rebuild their house, you know, of course I want to do that,
10:16 but I know what's going to happen without me.
10:18 Nehemiah actually follows through and is just, it was very impressive reading through there.
10:23 Well, it kind of brings up, uh, what's his name with the Arizona Cardinals?
10:26 Um, Pat Tillman, and how I don't, you know, maybe he's set foot in New York City.
10:31 I don't know, but I can tell you, you know, I've never set foot in New York City.
10:35 When I saw 9/11 happen, uh, I was a sophomore in high school, but still, I mean, like there
10:40 was mourning.
10:41 There was lament and what happened there and you look at somebody like Pat Tillman who
10:45 gave up a career in the NFL to go out and fight the war on terror after what he saw
10:51 happened in 9/11.
10:52 So that's actually a really good point because it's like there's this attachment to these
10:56 are my people, not New Yorkers, Americans.
10:59 And so you attach yourself.
11:00 And I know, uh, when you get into psychological literature, there's a lot of attachment to
11:05 groups.
11:06 And so it's like, you know, you have your immediate group, which is your family and then you have
11:10 your neighborhood and then you have maybe your church or your synagogue or your mosque
11:13 or whatever.
11:14 And you have these like concentric circles of connection to different people.
11:19 But that is really interesting and that that, you know, plays into Zach's point there to
11:22 where it's like, I've grabbed my chainsaw and driven to a city in Oklahoma that I didn't
11:26 even know existed because a tornado came through.
11:29 And I knew that there were going to be people with limbs down and, you know, trash that
11:32 needed to be picked up.
11:33 And it's like, that's ministry, like that, that's just walking the neighborhood, asking
11:37 people if you could help them.
11:38 And again, like you never know when these disasters will strike, but like that's, you're
11:43 literally being the church, you're being the feet of Christ in that moment.
11:46 So yeah, I didn't really think about that.
11:47 That's actually a really good point about, yeah, Pat Tillman probably had never been to
11:50 New York before.
11:51 I don't think you don't miss the point though that like, look what it says it says when
11:55 I heard these words, I sat down in a web and I mourned for days and I was fasting and praying
11:59 before the God of heaven.
12:00 Yeah.
12:01 So before I, I mean, before I jumped and grabbed my chainsaw, chainsaw or whatever, I mean,
12:05 I mourned and I prayed and he asked for God's direction and what he should do there.
12:10 And I think that's really important.
12:11 And, you know, a question I was going to post to you guys is, you know, the concept of fasting.
12:16 I mean, in modern America, you know, is that something that you guys even have, have practiced
12:21 or do practice or, you know, because for me, you know, it's still a relatively new thing.
12:27 I mean, there have been, you know, times when I'm trying to have an extended time with the
12:30 Lord or faster for those seasons, but I would say it's, it's post children that I really
12:36 had the seasons of my life where, you know, I'm fasting for something in particular because
12:41 I just need, I need to kind of clear out the distractions and I need to focus solely on
12:48 what I'm praying about what I'm talking Lord about.
12:52 And so I'm just kind of curious, you know, one, do you guys fast and how do you go about
12:55 doing that?
12:56 But then how do you find those things that you're fasting and praying for?
13:00 Yeah, I would say I clearly have not fasted in a while just by my physique, but you're
13:07 tall.
13:08 You wear it.
13:09 Well, the last couple of years when I did fast, it would be so that I could learn to
13:14 suffer better and when I did and when I felt that hunger, I would go to the Lord and it
13:19 just made me a lot more connected with scripture.
13:23 And it was super beneficial.
13:25 And then I met my wife and she's a foodie like me and how she's pregnant.
13:30 I don't think this is going to air for long enough to where we will have told people we
13:33 haven't yet, but we will hear you are skating up in ice water.
13:39 You do it.
13:40 She's hunger here now is what I'm saying, so no fasting going on currently.
13:45 So the interesting thing with fasting is I've been fasting for years, but not in this context.
13:51 So I've been doing intermittent fasting for probably three or four years.
13:55 It works really, really well.
13:56 My eating window is like 12 to seven or 12 to eight.
14:00 And the thing that is done for me, Zach is a little bit to your thing and I wouldn't call
14:05 it suffering in the same way, but it's like if you're used to eating and you're eating
14:09 windows starting earlier than that, if you shave four or five hours off your off your
14:13 normal eating window and you crunch it into a shorter time period, like it changes your
14:18 attitude.
14:19 Like my attitude towards the morning is like, you know, I'll be up at five or five thirty
14:22 and maybe they're doing jujitsu or lifting and that's I'm six or seven hours away from
14:28 my first calories, right?
14:30 And so part of it is you just get used to it, but then it's just like, you know, that's
14:34 kind of a weird position to put yourself in that you're in a deficit.
14:37 The problem is, and I guess this is where it really comes in for me, is by the time
14:41 noon comes, if there are any delays in me getting food, I have to really be careful
14:48 because it's like, I'm like, I'm going to kill the next person that distracts me from
14:53 this sandwich or from any of these things that are happening.
14:56 And so like the funny thing about it is, yes, I've fasted, but I've almost never pointed
15:01 that fasting in a direction.
15:02 It's always been about my health and cellular strength and all this other random crap that,
15:07 you know, people are deciding that that fasting does and all of that, but I, to be honest,
15:11 I've never even been around people that fasted for periods of time because the Lord was trying
15:17 to show them something or they felt like they were trying to show them something because
15:20 like for me, if I tried to do a short term fast, it's like, I don't know that I would
15:24 change anything.
15:25 It's like, well, I got to, I got to wake up and work out like, okay, I got to get ready
15:28 for a podcast.
15:29 Hey, I got to go record.
15:30 And so I guess that's just none of the crews I've ever ran and really did that.
15:33 I mean, did that, I mean, you kind of grew up in a little bit you were more like a silly
15:37 as a God charismatic, like, is that more or so prevalent in that career?
15:43 I have a family member that is, they're very much charismatic, love him to death.
15:47 He'll actually fast for a month just or he'll fast until he hears like a word from God.
15:55 Like God gives him a word that he can like for each one of his kids.
15:59 And then he'll wait, you won't eat until that happens, which is pretty, pretty extreme
16:05 on my end.
16:06 You look at me right now on camera and you know, I don't go a day without a meal.
16:10 So I feel like fasting is the point of fasting is to to break everything off of you and
16:17 to point everything towards God.
16:19 So sometimes food is not that thing.
16:22 Sometimes maybe it's me watching TV or me reading fiction and not focusing on the word.
16:29 Um, finding a way that when I have that downtime or I have that dead time that I, that I put
16:34 it towards God and put it towards, you know, what he asked for me, but, um, biblically,
16:40 they fasted from food.
16:41 I did the Daniel fast at a life church one time.
16:44 So, uh, that was fun.
16:45 I did that to lose weight.
16:46 Yeah.
16:47 I guess that was probably the last time I did a fast for any particular reason.
16:51 And I guess I was really consumed with the scripture talking about, you know, basically
16:54 not having a scrunched up face while you're fasting and like I didn't do a very good job
16:58 with that back then.
16:59 The funniest thing about my Daniel fast experience, because yeah, you know, you lose weight and
17:02 you do all those different things.
17:03 Like I apparently had no idea how to cook real garlic.
17:06 And so I left the skin or the shell on it and I'm so I'm making this like Daniel fast
17:11 approved, like super whatever.
17:13 And there's literally like garlic skin or lea leaves in there and I'm like, I had no
17:17 idea.
17:18 I just thought it was gross because it was like a, you know, specific for that diet.
17:21 But no, it's, it's that I was a moron like that was a complete difference.
17:24 So that was my, my thing for it.
17:26 The only thing I was going to say about that, and again, I haven't fasted from food or any
17:31 other type of fast much, but in the purpose, did it not that long ago, actually, just to
17:38 really because, you know, I didn't feel like my conversation in my prayer and the Lord
17:42 was, was, I don't know, say deep enough, but there's just so much distraction.
17:48 And I really needed to be like kind of pushed to really focus on the Lord and rely on Lord
17:53 in something that you talk about guys in your foxhole a lot, something that I just want
17:56 to bring this up.
17:57 There's another, you know, older gentleman, a friend of mine.
18:02 And so, you know, we're talking about, we're praying together and I'm, I'm expressing
18:05 some of my prayer requests to him.
18:07 And you know, he mentioned and we usually have a breakfast together and, and I'm not
18:11 eating.
18:12 And he's crying, treating one.
18:13 You know, you don't want to tell people when you're fasting, but obviously I expressed
18:16 to him.
18:17 I was like, I'm fasted with you.
18:18 And it meant a whole lot to me.
18:19 So for that whole day, for, for a 24 hour, almost 36 hour period, and I fasted together.
18:23 It meant a lot to me.
18:24 And I was like, man, that's someone who's in my corner.
18:26 And probably one of the more meaningful things anybody's ever done for me and it seems kind
18:30 of crazy just that someone would be willing to forego something like that with you.
18:34 So just for what it's worth, I think, you know, it's something that I think is meaningful
18:40 when you have people like that in your life.
18:41 Well, Zach, what did you say?
18:42 You said suffering well?
18:43 Like I know a lot of people like in the wrestling wrestling MMA community, things like
18:47 that, like weight cutting.
18:48 And some fighters, you know, in, in some of the biggest organizations, even championship
18:53 level fighters, they're so big, they're so enormous that they, they have to start their
18:58 weight cut weeks in advance.
19:00 And one of the things that you'll see a lot of times, especially in the week of the fight
19:04 when you're doing your kind of final weight cut, and it's, it's more scientific now than
19:07 it was back in the day where you basically put on trash bags and go sweat until you almost
19:11 essentially die.
19:12 It's a much more scientific now, but when you're sitting in the sauna and you're literally
19:16 just sitting there sweating out pounds so that you can get on the scale and, you know, make
19:19 the scale and you can go fight their teammates will be in there in the sauna with them.
19:24 And it's like the coaches that are going to be with them in their corner are suffering
19:29 with them because I mean, there's because you have to be able to trust those guys.
19:33 Yeah.
19:34 And when it's their fight in three months, you're going to be the guy in the sauna with
19:37 them.
19:38 You're in their corner like Russell was saying.
19:39 Well, that's kind of why whenever I talk about the foxhole so much, that's why.
19:43 And I've, I've picked on the model for a long time and I know there's a lot of ministries
19:47 out there that disagree with me, but I hate the men's ministry model of, oh, you don't
19:52 know any of these guys.
19:53 Great.
19:54 Here's your workbook.
19:55 Go and sit in a circle with these guys and y'all are going to talk.
19:58 It's like, oh, I'm going to sit around with these guys that I've accomplished nothing with
20:03 that.
20:04 I have no idea if I can trust.
20:05 I'm just going to supposed to, you know, just let my heart come, come through in these,
20:10 in these moments.
20:11 Right? So for the record, I've worked on Kyle's plumbing.
20:14 That's, I mean, we go way back now.
20:16 Yeah.
20:17 Really close.
20:18 It's, it's a big deal.
20:19 He like, he knows more about me than you would ever want to know.
20:22 But like the thing about it is is I tell people like you've got to accomplish something together.
20:26 That's why I encourage people like doing hard things, jujitsu, rucking, you know, these
20:31 backpacking trips or doing things like that.
20:34 Like that's where you figure out who a guy is.
20:36 That's where you figure out where the liners are, the complainers are, the people that
20:39 you can trust.
20:40 That's what, you know, my buddy, Joby Martin calls.
20:42 He calls your four corner friends.
20:44 So the guys that carried that guy on the mat and you know, you know, busted through this
20:48 dude's roof and like just to get him to Jesus, you know, I call him three AM friends.
20:53 It's those people that you know, regardless of the request, they're ready to throw down.
20:57 And it's like having those types of guys around you.
20:59 And so it's like, you know, maybe that's another corollary for people is like, who are the guys
21:03 in your life that you know would fast with you?
21:05 Like, cause it wasn't like that guy planned.
21:07 He woke up that morning.
21:08 All right, I'm starting to fast today, but who are those guys in your life that you could
21:11 call and be like, I know this is a really weird request and I know you probably got
21:15 plans, but I'm fasting over the next two days and I was hoping you could do that with
21:19 me.
21:20 Yeah, you have guys that are that selfless that will drop it all at the drop of a hat.
21:26 I mean, and you just said it, Joby said is four corner guys.
21:30 I like that a lot because those are the guys carrying the four corners.
21:33 Oh, and you guys call him the, the lower you through the roof friends.
21:35 Right.
21:36 Like that's, that's a different kind of.
21:37 How many miles did they carry the paralytic on that mat, you know, for, you know, 50 miles
21:44 to go to the next town to just to see Christ.
21:47 I mean, that is a.
21:49 Some sort of dedication that we don't even know about.
21:51 Yeah, absolutely.
21:52 So good, good stuff on, you know, going into the discussion on fasting.
21:56 Ryan, could you read versus five and six and I said, Oh, Lord, God of heaven, the great
22:02 and awesome God keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him.
22:06 His commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your
22:11 servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel or servants,
22:18 confessing the sins of the.
22:20 Of Israel, which we've sinned against you, even I, and my father's house have sinned.
22:28 Sorry.
22:29 I, I highlighted a lot there.
22:30 So I kind of lost my track.
22:32 We were literally making fun of them, like a second ago, because it's like, if you highlight
22:36 every word except for three or four words, you might as well not have highlighted anything.
22:40 And then it makes it hard to read.
22:42 It does make it hard to read.
22:43 I've learned my lesson.
22:44 That's okay.
22:45 Thanks for being my four corner guys.
22:46 If you just underline it, it should be good to go.
22:48 But the point is, is like versus four through, uh, through 12, these, these are our four
22:54 through 11 rather.
22:55 This is Nehemiah's prayer.
22:57 And the thing that I found very interesting is that Nehemiah begins his prayer with confession.
23:05 And you would think, well, that's weird.
23:07 Like five minutes ago, you didn't even know like the, the walls, uh, were, were torn down
23:12 and that the people were all depressed and in a bad way.
23:15 And now you're confessing what, what are you confessing?
23:18 And it's like, he understands that there's a generational component to what's happening
23:23 here.
23:24 And also he understands the greater point of like what you were talking about with Pat
23:26 Tillman, New York and just Americans in general, it's like these are his people.
23:30 And he assumes he doesn't want to assume that he has no role in the negativity that is befallen
23:36 his people.
23:37 Well, I think when it comes down to his people is, and, and why they're going through what
23:42 they're going through right now is his people broke the covenant with God and God who brought
23:47 the Persians in as a consequence to the breaking of the covenant.
23:51 And so I've, like you said, this, this prayer is a confessional.
23:56 He pleads for mercy, uh, but also acknowledges his own personal sin in the sin of his community,
24:01 which I think is amazing tying himself in with all Israelites and his heritage and the people
24:07 who broke the covenant he's saying to God in this moment, I am one of them.
24:12 So please, uh, you know, hear my requests and allow me, uh, if it's your will to go be helpful
24:20 in the situation by, yeah, yes, uh, praying and repenting or the heritage of his people.
24:27 I'm going to try to read this again and I hope I don't mess up, but I just follow your
24:31 finger, you know, do it like how they teach the chilens, like I says, Oh Lord God of heaven,
24:36 the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him
24:42 and keep his commandments.
24:43 I mean, we're all fathers here or soon to be fathers here.
24:46 Um, we catechize our children, you know, at least I hope you guys are all catechizing
24:50 your children.
24:51 Um, if you're not, definitely hit me up.
24:54 So, um, but one of the catechisms that, you know, my kids and I go over all the time
24:58 is, um, how can we glorify God and they always answer back by loving him and keeping his commands
25:05 and laws, you know, um, and that's something that Nehemiah is seeing in here is like you're
25:10 a God who holds his covenant and we need to hold our covenant and our love for you and
25:15 keeping your hands in law.
25:17 And so that basically means, you know, not only in the Old Testament, it was this prudent,
25:22 but it's prudent now, you know, um, we, we like to unhitch the Old Testament from the
25:27 New Testament, um, some people do and when it comes down, it's all the same as commands
25:33 in his law or how we glorify him, not only through being obedient to those, but also
25:38 through loving.
25:39 Right.
25:40 It's like he's asking the Lord to give him the opportunity to pull up the bootstraps
25:43 of the past and allow him to step in, uh, the place of, you know, his ancestors and be able
25:51 to go and do this great thing.
25:53 He's just like asking the Lord for the opportunity without giving too much away.
25:58 I mean, that's basically the route that you headed.
26:00 Yeah.
26:01 No spoiler alerts here.
26:02 Okay.
26:03 Because we don't want to go ahead in the story.
26:04 But like the other thing that's, that's great about verse six is it kind of calls into question
26:08 his, um, allegiance, I guess you could say, because again, and we'll get more, you know,
26:13 at the end of this discussion, we'll talk more about, you know, what a cup bear is and their,
26:17 their importance and whatever.
26:19 But he doesn't seem fully committed to Artaxerxes.
26:22 And in that day, you couldn't really survive in an inner circle of a man who saw himself
26:27 as a God if you weren't fully dedicated to that person, because they kind of had ways
26:32 of figuring out whether or not you were fully dedicated to them, even though his job was
26:35 fairly extreme and the things that he had to risk in order to serve, you know, within
26:39 Artaxerxes, is, you know, family and that, that type of a thing.
26:43 So I thought that was a very interesting thing as well.
26:45 Russell, could you read seven, eight, nine, por favor?
26:48 Sure.
26:49 Verse seven, we have acted very correctly against you and have not kept the commandments nor
26:55 the statutes nor the ordinances, which you have commanded your servant Moses.
26:59 Remember the word which you have come, you commanded your servant Moses saying, if you
27:05 were unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep
27:10 my commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the
27:14 most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the
27:20 place where I have chosen to cause my name to dwell.
27:24 So verse eight.
27:25 So Nazmi, Nazbi and ESV are the same here.
27:28 It starts with the word remember.
27:31 And so this is a plea for God's activation.
27:34 Okay.
27:35 So this is not that's one thing for everyone to understand that's listening to this.
27:38 God didn't forget anything.
27:39 So it was like, how can you please remember this?
27:41 Like, Hey, I need to remind you of something.
27:43 This is a plea for him to hit, you know, hit the activation button that that's really
27:47 the whole setup.
27:49 But versus eight nine, it frames his petition to God based on what God has already done
27:55 for Moses and the Israelites.
27:57 So this shows that he is very well, well acquainted with what we see in the book of Exodus, what
28:03 we see with Moses and Pharaoh and everything that went down in Egypt with the Israelites.
28:08 And so it's it's a good corollary for us because this whole book seems ancient, right?
28:14 Because it is.
28:15 It's everything in it is thousands of years old.
28:19 But even in our day, even in our advanced technology and our advanced age and the things
28:24 that we understand, we can still learn to lean on what God has done for other people groups
28:29 that aren't even tangentially related to who we are in this moment, because that's exactly
28:34 what Nehemiah is doing.
28:35 Now, you can make the argument, well, you know, there if there Israelites different, it's
28:38 different today, you know, Protestant Reformation, like you can, you can go a whole different
28:42 million different directions with this.
28:44 But that was something for me that I'd never noticed in, and I've read Nehemiah a lot.
28:48 I've read Nehemiah one a lot as well.
28:50 I never remember.
28:51 It's like, Oh, he's framing this in the finished work of what God has already done in Exodus.
28:56 I thought that was awesome.
28:59 Yeah, I think it's, man, that's one thing that scribes scholars, you know, even when
29:05 you get into the New Testament, how often they go back to look at God's faithfulness,
29:10 how they use that as a reference point, we're so bad at that.
29:13 We're so bad.
29:15 We don't have to know anything.
29:16 We just Google it, you know, and, and I think this is, you know, we used to mention catacizing
29:21 your children.
29:22 That's what our children need to know these things to where, you know, they don't have
29:27 to Google it.
29:29 And same with, you know, even just they have to know that I love them and that my wife loves
29:33 them and won't be there for them, right, no matter what happens in life.
29:37 And so, I mean, it's huge, it's huge that we need to do as men to be those guys who are
29:43 memorizing Scripture and in our word enough that, you know, we don't have to have Google,
29:48 right?
29:49 Yeah, Nehemiah might be just saying that he remembers the word that you commanded your
29:55 servant Moses and not, you know, assuming that God has forgot, but he could have put
29:59 an eye in front of a member there and just said, you know, I remember the word that you
30:03 commanded your, your servant Moses to keep the covenants.
30:09 I think it's great that he's, he's coming with a heart of repentance and that's something
30:14 we don't see a lot of these days when we make our mistakes last week.
30:19 Yeah, mistakes mistakes from our sins, you know, they, if we look at it, they've sinned
30:25 against God Israel's in Israel and Judah have sinned against God.
30:28 There's a consequence of their sin.
30:30 He's repenting of that sin and he's asking God, you know, he knows God remembers.
30:35 He's just saying, you know, like Zach said, you know, it's a reminder for him, like you've
30:39 made this covenant with us.
30:41 Um, you know, let's, we repent of this and, you know, I want to keep that covenant going.
30:48 I want to make this right.
30:49 And it's kind of remarkable that, you know, he's remembering this.
30:52 So he must have heard all these, um, stories and, um, Old Testament books or, you know,
31:00 the stories of Moses from his father or, yeah, like oral tradition from, even though he's
31:07 been outcast or, uh, you know, displaced 800 miles away, he's still heard all this and he's,
31:14 he's remembered it.
31:15 He's a cup bear too.
31:16 So I mean, that he had to come from a, I would assume a strong line to be a cup bear
31:21 and a Persian king's, um, a household.
31:25 Right.
31:26 Yeah.
31:27 Let's actually go there.
31:28 And one thing I did want to mention is that also a reminder, reminder of God's goodness
31:31 and provision because especially right now when he's, because, you know, some of the stuff
31:35 I read it's like, Hey, he wasn't just sad for a bit.
31:37 He was sad for a stretch, like he was just sad for a very long time, which will bleed
31:41 over into Nehemite too, and which we'll talk, uh, for next week.
31:44 Zach, how about you close us out, read versus 10 and 11, please.
31:47 First 10 and ESV there, your servants and your people whom you have redeemed for your
31:54 great power and by your strong hand.
31:56 Oh Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of
32:01 your servants, who delight to fear your name and give success to your servant today and
32:06 grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
32:09 Now I was a cup bearer to the king.
32:12 So let's talk about being a cup bear.
32:14 So people typically know now that a cup bear is somebody who would drink the wine of the
32:20 king before the king would drink it.
32:22 The reason is is because poisoning was a very common way of killing people that you wanted
32:26 killed in that day.
32:28 And so to prevent that from happening, they would not only have the cup bear drink from
32:32 the cup that the king would drink from, but the entire royal family.
32:36 And so that's kind of the difference.
32:37 Like it's not, it wouldn't be much help if you know, you kept the king from dying, but
32:41 then everybody else in there got poisoned because you didn't do that.
32:44 And so that was their number one job.
32:46 And they also guarded the cups, right?
32:48 It wasn't like, all right, somebody put the cups out and the servants poured it in their
32:50 eye on and go around and drink and, you know, roll, roll the roulette wheel here.
32:54 Like they were protecting the cups.
32:55 They were, they were overseeing the liquid that was put into these cups and all of that.
33:00 And if the royal family was killed, it was shame on that person and their entire family
33:06 line.
33:07 There will probably be ramifications for that person's family that was still alive in that
33:11 day.
33:12 But Ryan, your point is right on like he didn't apply for this job.
33:15 He didn't answer an indeed ad like he just, like this was something that he was set up
33:19 for.
33:20 And you could say even providentially, providentially God put him in that area for a very particular
33:24 reason.
33:25 Because again, especially when we get into Nehemiah 2, there's so much that doesn't make
33:30 sense in terms of the interaction between him and King Artaxerxes.
33:34 And if King Artaxerxes saw Nehemiah just as some peon servant that was keeping him from
33:38 dying, like I don't think we would see the interaction between those two in Nehemiah 2,
33:43 which again, I'm teeing up a lot for next week.
33:46 Is there anything other specific stuff that y'all know in terms of cut bear?
33:48 Go ahead.
33:49 Oh, not cut bear.
33:50 I just thought it was pretty cool.
33:51 Hearing of this story and Joseph and how Joseph became, you know, he was a slave and prisoner
33:58 and then became the governor of Egypt, you know, and like, this is just kind of foreshadowing
34:02 what Nehemiah is kind of going through.
34:04 But that was pretty cool.
34:05 I wanted to bring that up a lot.
34:06 Yeah, they were that they were placed there, they were placed there providentially because
34:10 Joseph actually was able to save his family in seven years of famine.
34:15 And without him being there, his, you know, the line could have died off.
34:19 Yeah.
34:20 Well, Queen Esther, Daniel and Babylon, I mean, getting the Lord, I mean, just how he's got
34:24 these people in places that it really shouldn't be, you know, one of the commentary is not
34:30 that this is kind of neat.
34:31 Obviously, we know those facts about a cut bear, but it also says a man who stood that
34:36 close to the king in public had to be handsome, cultured, knowledgeable, and court procedures
34:41 and able to converse to the king and advise him of asked.
34:45 So because he had access to the king, the cup, the cup bear was a man of great influence,
34:49 which he could use for good or for evil.
34:51 Right.
34:52 So, I mean, so I'm actually really glad that you read that it brought up something to mind.
34:56 So I have a book list on my website, the 100 books, every modern Christian man should read
35:00 lists.
35:01 And I have like seven, eight or nine, like bullet points as to, Hey, before you even look
35:06 at this book list, here are some things to keep in mind.
35:08 And some of it's like, Hey, it's a living list.
35:10 And so I mean, I'll take books off and put books on, you know, but one of the warnings,
35:15 I guess is like not all of these books come from a Christian worldview.
35:19 So these are not all books that you will be able to purchase at your local Christian bookstore.
35:23 And two of the books that are on that list are the prints by Machiavelli and the 48
35:28 laws of power by Robert Green.
35:30 And I remember back, like back in like 2017, like one of the first ever interviews I gave,
35:35 I can't remember the guy's show, but this was, you know, former preacher's kid is very
35:39 more secular kind of new agey now or whatever.
35:42 Great interviewer though.
35:43 He went to my book list and he was shocked to see those two books on there because 48
35:47 laws of power is banned pretty much in every federal prison in America, because it's a
35:52 book about manipulation, like how to manipulate people.
35:55 I love that book.
35:56 It's like a top 10 book for me.
35:57 And I love the prints by Machiavelli as well.
36:00 And people are like, wait a minute, like, why would you encourage a man to do those types
36:04 of things?
36:05 And it's because you need to understand how certain people in certain places of power
36:10 think because if I'm equipping men to push back darkness, it's going to be really hard
36:13 to push back darkness if you can't see it or recognize it.
36:16 The other thing about it is like Machiavelli was somebody who was able to literally, he
36:21 was like a puppet master in Italy at the time that he was in the court there.
36:27 And he was just manipulating people and just moving them a little bit here, moving them
36:31 a little bit there.
36:32 And he basically writes you a manual on how to do it.
36:35 And then Robert Green writes just this absolute firestorm of a book, the 48 laws of power
36:40 and goes even deeper in all these other different areas.
36:43 And so it's a good thing in terms of like how to understand, hey, not just that, that
36:48 there are people out there that do that, but how they do that, because then you can look
36:52 at the light of scripture and apply it to the depraved things that they're doing in
36:56 those areas.
36:57 But look at Nehemiah, he was in a position to be very Machiavellian.
37:02 Like he was in a position to, to use art as Xerxes for his own personal gain, wealth,
37:08 women, food, like just having food back in that day, being kept away from famine.
37:12 And the fact that he didn't do that and did what he did throughout the book as we see
37:16 it here in Nehemiah, that's no small thing.
37:18 Yeah, would have been real easy for him to just stay put, right?
37:21 You know, basically super high up in the Persian Empire can have whatever you want.
37:25 All the luxuries and pleasures of life would have been real easy for him to stay put.
37:31 But I think it's a great testament of how much you can accomplish when you align your,
37:38 when we align ourselves with God's plan and what he has for us.
37:43 And he just realized that God was putting that on his heart.
37:45 And he needs to step up and go be a champion for Jerusalem.
37:51 But getting back to, you know, part of Aquavelli's book, but just getting back to that discussion
38:00 there was, you know, in war times, any general would probably say that you need to know your
38:05 opponents so that you can beat them if you don't know what their maneuverings are or
38:10 how they operate and how are you supposed to defeat them, you know, or it's just like
38:14 coming up with the 18 rebuttals or abortion.
38:20 I mean, if you don't know those, how are you going to have a discussion with somebody who's
38:25 pro choice?
38:26 You need to know what other people are thinking.
38:28 One, you will fall to the level of your training.
38:30 That's something I say all the time.
38:31 Like guys, like when they think about getting into a physical altercation, they're like,
38:35 well, you know, if something were to happen to me or my family, I would just see red.
38:38 And then I would be able to, you know, fend off any attacker.
38:40 It's like, no, you wouldn't.
38:42 You would literally fall to the level of your training.
38:44 And from what I see, that's a very quick fall, like you're going to splat on the ground pretty
38:49 quickly.
38:50 And the same thing happens.
38:51 Like if you bring a knife to a gunfight in a verbal altercation, like it's not going
38:55 to go well for you.
38:56 If you're not familiar with all those, what were you going to say, right?
38:58 Honestly, I was just thinking of Don Corleone, keep your friends close, but your enemies
39:03 closer.
39:04 So I mean, it's basically like what you're doing here is you're keeping your enemies
39:08 closer.
39:09 You're knowing what they're going to do before they do it.
39:12 And it's just good.
39:13 And what do you want to say?
39:15 It's good practice.
39:16 Yeah.
39:17 Absolutely.
39:18 Before we get out of the discussion of Nehemiah 1, I want to talk about this one particular
39:21 line from verse 11, who delight in fear of your name or fear to or delight to fear your
39:29 name.
39:30 So the whole verse is, oh Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant
39:33 into the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name.
39:37 We don't even like to think about God as an entity or a person that we fear.
39:43 There's a book that I've mentioned several times in my show called Scary God by Matty
39:45 Montgomery.
39:47 And it just basically talks about the right ordering of how we are to look at God.
39:52 And you never see delight and fear in the same phrase, typically, because people don't
39:59 want to delight and fear.
40:00 No, no, I don't mean people that love watching scary movies.
40:02 That's not what I mean.
40:03 Like that's not the fear being described here.
40:05 Like jump out, boo, Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
40:06 Oh, wasn't that funny that I, that I jumped out of my chair and peed a little.
40:09 Like what we're, what we're basically looking at is like, this is a fear that moves you
40:14 and they are delighting in it because there is no more, there's no more thing that you
40:18 should fear on this planet more than God himself.
40:21 Because Satan is not as scary as God.
40:24 Because again, God set up the entire creation in, it said it in demotion for his glory.
40:31 And again, we, we, we, seeing these songs about how, you know, God just kind of wants
40:36 to be our friend and like, this is going to be so awesome.
40:39 And I just can't wait for my cosmic genie to give me all the things that I want because
40:42 I donated a little bit to the church.
40:44 And I think that that's a very important thing that in the middle of his, well, towards the
40:48 end of his prayer, as it's depicted here in Nehemiah one is his servants who delight to
40:53 fear in your name.
40:54 And he's describing that as a positive.
40:55 I think that's something that we need to make sure we don't miss.
40:57 Yeah.
40:58 You know, it doesn't say fear, it says revere, but obviously it's the reverence of scripture
41:04 right.
41:05 And I think, I think it's important to note, you know, if you go to when he's starting
41:08 his prayer, right?
41:09 You know, verse five, I beseech you, oh, Lord God of heaven, the awesome and great, the
41:13 great and awesome God, right, who preserves the covenant and loving kindness for those
41:18 who love him and keep his commandments.
41:19 I mean, you know, it's kind of a simple illustration, but I don't know if you guys have heard of
41:25 it, but the, essentially the, the prayer context of ACTS acts, so adoration, confession, thanks,
41:31 giving supplication.
41:32 Right.
41:33 I mean, you know, that, that's just a very good practical way to pray to God, because
41:36 right.
41:37 You're starting with revereing him, right?
41:40 You're adoring and revereing who he really is, right?
41:42 And, and with that needs to come just the sense of awe and inspiration of years, right?
41:49 The creator, the almighty, you know, the one that's holy.
41:53 And then obviously confession, right, which is why he does here, he confesses and I love
41:57 in this sport where he's confessing, he throws himself in there, you know, I know you've
42:02 talked about Jocko and some other stuff, I'll confess, I haven't read extreme ownership,
42:06 I have it, but the concepts, I mean, I feel like that's what he's doing here.
42:09 He's taking extreme ownership of his people of this.
42:12 That's what a leader is doing.
42:13 I mean, he's stepping into a leadership role.
42:15 He's hearing, he's hearing of something that he cares about.
42:18 He's praying about it.
42:19 He's asking the Lord for help.
42:20 And he's stepping into the shoot, he's confessing that I'm part of the problem and he's stepping
42:24 into the shoes.
42:25 And I think that's great.
42:26 I mean, I think just the way he's going about this, then obviously as Nehemiah moves on,
42:30 he'll kind of dig into that, but absolutely anything else on the end here with Nehemiah
42:36 1, which kind of sets up the rest of the book, correct?
42:40 Yeah, I think it's, um, delighting to fear your name is to just show God the ultimate
42:46 respect.
42:47 Um, it doesn't mean, yeah, like you were saying, Texas Chainsaw Massacre or anything, but it's
42:52 the fact that you understand that God provides all the love and joy in the world.
42:56 And just as powerful as that is, it can go the other way and you never know just because
43:00 you want your life to be all love and joy and sparkles.
43:04 That's not what it's going to be all the time.
43:05 He could use your life, um, in a way that negatively affects you, but to bring glory to
43:11 his kingdom through other people, you know, so you're delighting in the fact that God
43:16 is all powerful and that you've submitted to him.
43:18 So whatever happens in your life, you know, it's for the Lord.
43:21 I feel like we should make on Donald life t-shirts says love, joy, and sparkles.
43:24 Is that what you said?
43:25 Like, I think that's what, that's what we should go for.
43:29 Like, that's what we should all go forward and like, no, that's, that's a great point
43:31 in terms of how you would frame that.
43:33 But Russell Ryan, anything else on the end of Nehemiah?
43:36 I think of the third commandment, you know, I think, I think, uh, Nehemiah is just coming
43:39 after that third commandment and the fact that we shouldn't take the Lord's name in
43:43 vain.
43:44 So, um, if we're going to revere his name, we're not going to take it in vain.
43:47 And, uh, you know, during this time, they may have been taking taking the Lord in vain.
43:52 So I think, uh, it comes down to, you know, serving the commandment, obeying that command
43:57 that he talks about the only, the only kind of last speed out part I want to point, which
44:02 kind of, uh, it's just kind of overarching for this chapter one piece.
44:05 Um, and I'm just going to read this, you know, couple sentences from a commentary.
44:09 I think it's really good.
44:10 He just says, like large doors, great life changing events can swing on very small hinges.
44:16 It was just another day when Moses went out to care for a sheep, but on that day, he heard
44:20 the Lord's call and became a prophet.
44:22 That's an excess, obviously, and then it was an ordinary day when David was called home
44:26 from shepherding his flock, but on that day, he was anointed a king.
44:28 It was an ordinary day when Peter, Andrew, James and John were mending their nets after
44:33 not a failure.
44:34 That was the day Jesus called them to become fishers of men again, and then this is just
44:38 Nehemiah sitting here, you know, hey, hey, how are the, how is Jerusalem?
44:43 And it causes him to kind of weep and just let the Lord providentially lead.
44:46 And so you never know what God has in store, even in a commonplace conversation with a
44:50 friend or relative, keep your heart open to God's providential leading.
44:53 So, um, that's, you know, I don't, I don't think about my everyday being somewhere where,
45:00 you know, it could really change the trajectory of my life, but I need to be willing to be
45:04 open to that.
45:05 Yeah, and God can use anybody anywhere in his time for his glory.
45:09 And that's all of our story.
45:10 The day that you realized who God was and you submitted to him, that was the day that
45:15 you were mending your flock and then, bam, all of a sudden you're traveling on the road
45:18 to Damascus and you get knocked off your horse and blinded.
45:20 And now you're a follower of Christ, just, I mean, it happened to prophets, it happened
45:26 to everybody who is a believer and it's a huge testament that God can use anybody in any
45:32 time.
45:33 Father in law will always say, well, Zach, God always gets his man.
45:37 Well, and that's a good thing for everybody that's in a position right now.
45:41 It's typically usually in a, in a relational context or a job context where it's like,
45:46 Oh, I'm just not feeling like I'm, you know, really fulfilled.
45:48 I'm not really doing all those different things.
45:49 And it's like, it may not be about you and your fulfillment right now, right?
45:54 And you're talking about like lowercase F fulfillment, like, and God's trying to be
45:58 like, you know, capital letter F at some point, you're going to get the fulfillment that you
46:01 never knew you needed.
46:03 Like it's fulfillment.
46:04 That's not even fathomable to you.
46:06 So there's a whole lot there in Nehemiah one and it's just really teeing up the rest of
46:10 that book.
46:11 Again, I just absolutely love it.
46:12 But we're going to leave it there for now, but come back next Sunday where we will dig
46:14 into Nehemiah two.
46:16 So guys, make sure that you read that this week.
46:18 So you're prepared to go for that discussion.
46:20 But before we let you go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost add on dog to the
46:23 life or mission is equipping men to push back darkness with content that for just spiritual
46:27 mental and physical resilience.
46:29 So we've got one link and that is the donation link.
46:31 So you go to www dot undaunted dot life backslash donate or click on the link right there
46:36 in the show notes.
46:37 Guys, the way that we were able to equipment around the globe to push back darkness is
46:40 because we have people that are partnering with us.
46:43 We don't really sell a lot of merch.
46:44 We don't get a lot of money from advertisements.
46:46 It's guys just like you that love our content and what more guys around the globe to experience
46:50 it.
46:51 So we would appreciate it if you guys will hop on there and just join us and join the rest
46:54 of those guys in our goal to equipment around the globe to push back darkness.
46:59 Thank you guys for listening to this episode.
47:00 Wherever you're listening to this, please subscribe, rate and leave us a positive five
47:03 star review.
47:04 If you want to come speak live at your event or on your podcast, you shoot me an email
47:07 to info@andontin.life.
47:09 That's I N F O and on to not life, follow us on Instagram and likes on Facebook and check
47:14 out our website for everything else, including how to donate to keep more content like this
47:17 coming your way.
47:18 Just go to www dot undaunted dot life.
47:20 And as always, we want to thank the band August Burns read for allowing us to use their music
47:24 for our content.
47:25 The music on this podcast is our song cutting the tides, which is off their 10th anniversary
47:28 re recording of their album leveler.
47:30 The links are in the description.
47:32 I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
47:34 Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual, mental and physical resilience.
47:41 Keep seeking the lion of Judah.
48:11 You focus on your physical and mental health, but when's the last time you checked in on
48:22 your financial health?
48:24 Many Americans feel financially anxious, yet many are doing better than they think.
48:28 At Fairwind's Credit Union, we give you a clear snapshot of your finances and a plan
48:33 to move forward with confidence.
48:35 With high yield savings and free checking, we help your money work harder.
48:39 Visit fairwinds dot org for more information, federally insured by NCUA.
Key quotes
2
Kyle Thompson
Nehemiah likely takes place between 445 and 432 B.C. in the Persian Empire.
Kyle Thompson
You never know what God has in store, even in a commonplace conversation with a friend or relative.
Free Resource
31-Day Resilience Reset
If this episode hit, the next 31 days will be the reset. Free PDF, instant download.
START FREE →
Brotherhood
Apply to Dominion
Six pillars. Application only. The men's program Kyle built around the show.
APPLY NOW →
Dig Deeper
Ask the Archive
"Which episodes cover this topic?" Get answers grounded in all 940+ episodes.
START A CHAT →