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This is Undaunted Life, a man's podcast.
0:51
I'm your host Kyle Thompson, let's get into it.
0:54
Welcome back to The Forging Table, the mission of Undaunted Life is equipping men to push
0:58
back darkness with content that forges spiritual, mental, and physical resilience.
1:02
At The Forging Table, you'll see a group of regular guys forging spiritual resilience
1:06
by digging into God's Word and we're welcoming all of you to come along on that journey with
1:09
us.
1:10
That's Eric, that's Matt, guys, y'all are familiar with this whole thing.
1:14
We're right in the middle of the historical narrative, right?
1:16
And as I've said before and as I've teeted up on the last one, The Book of Nehemiah is
1:20
probably my favorite book of the entire Old Testament.
1:23
I know for some people they're like, "Wait a minute, I mean, you got Genesis Exodus,
1:26
you got, you know, first and second Samuel, you got all these great things, Psalms, Proverbs."
1:30
But for me, I just feel like there's so much here and it's kind of something that does
1:34
get ignored.
1:35
And when you get into Nehemiah too, this is really where the rubber starts to meet the
1:38
road a little bit.
1:39
But Matt, one thing that you and I were talking about yesterday is you, I thought this was
1:44
interesting for you.
1:45
The Book of Nehemiah was like, it was there in the Bible, but it was just, it was never
1:49
like really a focus for you, you just didn't really, I guess see a lot there, but then during
1:53
this whole study period, it's kind of come to life for you a little bit.
1:56
Yeah, I knew that Nehemiah built the wall.
1:59
That was about it and I didn't really pay attention to it very much.
2:03
And it was just that, yeah, like you said, it was just there, it was just part of the
2:07
Bible.
2:08
And yeah, now going through, it has turned into one of my favorite books as well.
2:11
So.
2:12
What about for you guys?
2:13
I'm curious because like, I don't really know where my fascination with this came.
2:18
Maybe it was like 10 years or so, my wife and I were visiting a church for a short time
2:21
and they were in the middle of that series and their logo for the series or lesson series
2:26
or whatever was like a sword and a shovel and stuff like that.
2:28
I was like, oh, that feels pretty cool.
2:30
Like I was attracted to that, but it just, for whatever reason, it just gripped me.
2:33
And for you guys, it's like, has it ever been that way?
2:36
And I know Zach, you're more of a new Christian.
2:37
So it's like, you're probably trying to get square on like, you know, Genesis and Exodus,
2:42
maybe not digging into all the other stuff.
2:43
What do you guys think?
2:44
I mean, to me, it's similar, similar, but more recently, it's just like, I read this.
2:48
I'm like, gosh, I've read tons of leadership books.
2:51
Well, here's the best leadership book right there, right in front of me, you know?
2:54
It's amazing.
2:55
I think that's a great point.
2:56
That's exactly right.
2:57
Yeah.
2:58
And it's, you know, it's got a wonderful vision.
3:00
Well, I know we'll get into this, but you know, he's got the guys organized, the guys
3:04
got a plan, you know, and I just think that's, that's awesome.
3:07
Yeah.
3:08
Yeah.
3:09
So.
3:10
I was familiar with Nehemiah in the sense that, you know, you have, you grow up, you go to
3:13
church, you go to, you go to Bible school and all that stuff.
3:16
So I'm aware of the fact they built the wall and that they were having to hold a weapon
3:20
and build with one hand kind of a deal.
3:21
That was probably the extent after I read it.
3:24
That's definitely one place that I went from a leadership perspective.
3:27
But also I think the fact that there's a prophecy element to it, you consider what happened
3:32
in Daniel, the fact that you can go online if you've never been, and I haven't and see
3:37
remnants of this structure and get a sense of what was actually taking place and how
3:41
difficult that would have been and the fact that they did it in 52 days under tremendous
3:45
pressure, there's just a lot there to, I think, to appreciate.
3:48
And then one thing I'd add to that is the way that this book is written and the level
3:53
of detail in some of the chapters we'll go through, to me, jumps out as the authenticity
3:58
of the Bible because they're recording so many details.
4:00
And if you look at, you know, literature from that time period, it's my understanding that
4:03
it wouldn't look like this very often.
4:05
When you just got done with a fairly intensive business school education and things like
4:09
that, and there's so many business lessons going on in here, not just leadership lessons.
4:14
And also side note, I don't know if it's just the chair you're sitting in, but the last
4:18
guy that sat in that chair about broke the table and the number of times he was banging
4:21
on it.
4:22
So if you clowns can stop talking with your hands and banging on the forging table, like
4:27
I said last time, God gave me one forging table.
4:29
If we break this one, we don't get another one.
4:31
Okay.
4:32
So can we maybe relax just a little bit over there?
4:34
You know, I did it.
4:35
You guys don't know this.
4:36
We're recording this fairly early in the morning on a Saturday.
4:39
And so it like everyone just settled down.
4:40
We got a long, long ways ahead of us the coffee, it is coffee, but, but going into Nehemiah
4:45
two, here's the, the very first thing I wanted to talk about there.
4:48
There's so much here.
4:49
I, you know, to try to get it into an hour chunk is going to be really difficult.
4:53
But whenever you first read the book of Nehemiah and you go from Nehemiah one to Nehemiah two,
4:58
you're thinking, Oh, he was really, really sad about the walls of Jerusalem and his people
5:01
and all these different things that cities never been to.
5:04
And then he prayed and then boom, he went and talked to King Artaxerxes.
5:08
Nope.
5:09
We're the, the shortest timeline between learning about what happened in Jerusalem to talking
5:14
to Kean Artaxerxes that I found was three months, but most of the people that I looked
5:19
at said it was about four months.
5:21
So for four months, Nehemiah was praying, lamenting, repenting and planning, and we'll
5:30
get more than that.
5:31
You can clearly see it, but I don't know about for you guys, but that it didn't blow
5:34
my mind.
5:35
I mean, we, we use that way too often.
5:36
That's kind of hyperbolic.
5:37
But I was like, I just missed that because you just read right from here to the next
5:41
thing.
5:42
And you don't really think, no, no, there was a lot of things that happened between now
5:44
between the first thing and the second thing.
5:46
Well, I think you can definitely miss it if you're not looking for it.
5:49
And I think the intentionality of God's word is so apparent here when they use the months
5:56
of the Jewish calendar and, I mean, all throughout, all throughout the book of Nehemiah, they're
6:02
using months.
6:03
And so that gives you a picture of, of what is actually happening.
6:06
So yeah, from the time he finds out to the time he actually goes to the king, it is months.
6:11
And there's a lesson there to like fervently pray, and it's not just a, okay, I learned
6:18
about it, I prayed and now I'm going to go do something like he spent hours and days praying
6:25
to God.
6:27
What a lesson to learn.
6:28
Yeah.
6:29
And then waiting, you know, obviously for that opportunity, whenever it would come.
6:33
And I think that's, that's an interesting thing. I mean, when something really grips us like,
6:38
like this gripped him, which that's a discussion even in itself. I mean, just it wasn't like
6:44
a one time prayer. It wasn't like, man, I'm just, you know, I'm gripped by this. I'm just
6:48
pray it through. Okay.
6:49
And then I'm done. It was over and over and over thinking, thinking, thinking, planning,
6:53
planning, planning, when can I have this opportunity? Lord, give me this opportunity.
6:56
And then just being patient with that process up into the point where he meets with the
7:00
king.
7:01
He, it'll go on to say here in just a minute that, you know, he had to be pleasant and
7:07
nice all day long with this king. And at night, or what, you know, when he's not there, obviously
7:13
he has his, his issues that he's going through that, which clearly were really, really challenging
7:18
for him. But I think it, it speaks to what the Bible says in terms of withholding your
7:22
spirit containing that. And, you know, really putting your faith and trust in God. Because
7:27
I think from my perspective, that could be very difficult to do. And obviously we'll get
7:31
to what happens here in just a minute.
7:33
One also timing, you know, we got a lot of timing. Guys, I'm just going to start Donkey
7:37
Kong right here at my table every time. Can you all pick that up on the mic? Yeah, you
7:41
can't, that's great. That's great. No timing. And I'm horrible at this because I'm so impatient.
7:48
But he was looking for the right time to bring his thoughts to King Artaxerxes. And right
7:54
from the first verse of the second chapter, we have a predicament here because as it says
7:59
here reading from the ESV, now I had not been sad in his presence. And then verse two and
8:05
the king said to me, why is your face sad? Seeing you are not sick. This is nothing but
8:09
sadness at the heart. Then I was very much afraid. Why would he be afraid? Because King
8:14
Artaxerxes was a God, little G God, but he was a God. And if you're in the presence
8:20
of God and you're sad, that makes no sense, right? And so right then and there, he could
8:26
have, he could have lost his life just by looking like just looking like that. And so
8:32
again, that that's the thing that that's interesting to me is that he was so depressed
8:40
that he, he knew he could fake it. But he got into the point where it's like, I can't
8:44
fake it any longer. And he wasn't emotionally manipulating King Artaxerxes. He was just
8:49
like, I can't withhold this anymore. And then we get into verse three, where he's basically
8:56
describing, yeah, you know, the land of my forefathers lies in ruin. And then really
9:02
the big, the big part that really launches the entire book in Nehemiah is then the king
9:06
said to me, what are you requesting? So I prayed to the God of heaven. So I want to camp there
9:11
for a little bit. Because the king doesn't know why he said, or now he knows that he
9:16
said, but he doesn't know. So so what? You've told me this information that I already knew,
9:21
by the way, because as we see back in the book of Ezra, he'd already said, no, we're
9:26
not going to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, like those types of things like I get it.
9:31
But now Nehemiah has his opportunity. And as opposed to launching into his fully fledged
9:37
out and perfectly planned bullet pointed plan, he stops and prays. And I'll be real honest,
9:43
I don't really do that. I launched right into my plan. Why? Because I made this plan. Look
9:47
how good this plan is. And now it's time to go ahead and execute the plan. But as we've
9:51
seen with Nehemiah, even just in the short period in chapter one and chapter two, he stops
9:55
and prays.
9:56
Yeah, I mean, this is a build up, you know, for the previous three or four months, he's
10:00
been praying. He's been meditating. He's been thinking and, and talking with God on this
10:08
and in that moment, I just assume it's like, here's my opportunity. Lord, give me the words.
10:14
Yeah, Lord be with me. I'll probably wasn't some long winded prayer. Just this is what
10:18
I've been waiting for. Let's get after it. Yeah, the Bible doesn't really have a lot
10:23
about Nehemiah outside of Nehemiah. In fact, I think Nehemiah is the only place that he's
10:28
actually in the Bible is that I could be wrong, but I think that he's only here. Yeah, I don't
10:33
think he's mentioned an answer.
10:34
So we learn a lot about Nehemiah. And so, I mean, me and Kyle were talking earlier about
10:39
how God uses specific things and he drops, he drops things and events working towards
10:44
his ultimate plan in real history. And so in, in the context of history, Jerusalem had
10:52
been conquered. People had been moved out. Nehemiah was, was not living obviously in Jerusalem.
11:00
And so throughout the Bible, people who, like God's people who are not in the presence of
11:06
God all the time and they're not in Jerusalem, they're not in the Promised Land, like they
11:10
lose faith so fast. So the fact that Nehemiah is serving a little g God king and he's not,
11:18
like he's not, there's not really a temple for him to go to. So he's not actively in
11:23
the presence of God for him to have the faith and the trust in God that he had is really
11:29
inspiring to me because he wasn't, you know, it's different than when, you know, they had
11:35
the tabernacle and God's people were, were communing with him every day. And so the fact
11:42
that you learn so much about him, like he trusted God, he prayed, like very fervently,
11:48
but then he also knew that he had to appeal to the earthly authority that God had established
11:54
and he says, let the king live forever, saying, Hey, I serve you. And I, like, and so that
12:02
man, what this guy is one of the greatest figures in the Bible. Old Testament for sure.
12:10
I like the application, you know, kind of question that you brought up there because that was,
12:14
that's kind of where I went. I think, first of all, the fact that he spent four months
12:18
is huge because this is kind of an instant message, right? Like, Hey, please help me
12:21
out, but there's been a lot of time invested in everything. But then I think kind of where
12:25
you're going with this is back then, you know, not only is he a little g God, but he's, you
12:29
know, he's the king and all that sort of thing. He's saying in prayer in my, in my mind, almost
12:32
like you would say a prayer in front of a judge is getting ready to make a huge decision and
12:36
you have no clue where it could go. It could be that you're banished, you're fine or you're
12:39
killed. That kind of thing. So if you think about your life, I mean, how, how often can
12:45
you put this into practice? How can you put yourself in a position where you are going
12:49
to stop? Stop. You're not watching. He was banging the table again. It's a shocking revelation.
12:58
So that's my thought. Oh, yeah. No, sorry to interrupt you. One of the things that I know
13:02
we'll get away from this pretty quick, but one of the things that I was, it was coming
13:06
to mind was that we have a lot of people. Well, there are a lot of people out there and maybe
13:11
some of you guys are listening that see things in our society that you don't like, but you
13:19
kind of live in the realm of just complaining about it. You know, and that's just kind of
13:22
it. And I've been there. So I get it where, and then you get some people that are just
13:27
cup is always half full. And so you're not, you can't look and go, you know what? Something
13:33
might actually be broken in our society. So what I really appreciate about an EMI is that
13:41
he's able to look at this and go, you know, something is broken literally physically and
13:46
even beyond that. And he has a motion about it. He cares about his brothers. He cares
13:52
about Israelites. But then instead of just complaining about it, he goes and does something
13:57
about it. You know, he takes that next step. And as we'll see, has a plan for it. It's
14:02
not just, yeah, you know, kids these days, you know, and blah, blah, blah, but it's just,
14:08
it's way beyond that. So the thing that I was going to say is there are a lot of people
14:12
that like to oppose, but not propose. And so they will oppose something. And I don't like
14:17
that legislation. I don't like that law. And I don't like that thing that's happening
14:20
in society. But it's like, do you have a proposition for something better? And most of the time
14:23
they don't go ahead, man. I was going to say like what, what an amazing lesson that we get
14:27
here just in a few short verses of how personal God wants us to be with him. And this, this
14:35
idea that we pray one time. And if God doesn't answer, and I, and I say this as someone who
14:40
has been there, like I pray and I don't get an answer or I don't get an answer that I
14:44
want. And I, you know, I just, okay, I'm done. Pray one time. It took 30 seconds. And then
14:50
you move on with your life. And then you don't ever pray for that again. And here he is, he
14:55
is praying. I would imagine hourly, daily, like he's just caught in constant prayer.
15:03
And I was listening to my pastor at church talk about how this, this, this is kind of
15:10
like the story that Jesus tells in Luke 18, where the judge that doesn't fear God, he's
15:14
not a good judge, but that old lady just keeps coming back to him. Give me justice. Give
15:18
me justice against my adversaries. And finally, he, he decides, okay, I don't fear God, but
15:24
you are just continuously come, you've worn me down. I'm just going to give you justice.
15:30
How much then does a God that loves us and cares for us want us to pray and want to give
15:36
us the things that we ask for? What are, what are, what are really cool lesson we learned
15:40
in just a couple sentences.
15:41
Hey, last night, one of the kids wanted to go get ice cream. I mean, they really wanted
15:46
to get ice cream. And I answered them the first time. Well, I mean, three minutes later, it's
15:52
like, yeah, we're gonna go ice cream. And then like three minutes later, I'm not sure
15:55
you meant the first time. Can we, can we talk, talk about it again? Yeah, exactly. But that
15:59
persistence is a reflection of where our heart is, and the passion that we feel towards
16:05
whatever that is.
16:06
Yeah. And I think that, I mean, there's so much here, as you can see, we're, we're a few
16:09
verses in and we're, we're, we're going to go along with this one guys, because there's
16:12
not a whole lot going on in chapter three in EMI sorta. So Matt, if you could read verses
16:16
five and six real quick, or go ahead, Zach, yeah, I do want to say one thing here. So
16:21
another application question is when I became a Christian, what I was confronted with was
16:25
this line that I knew I had to cross publicly. And I knew that there's potentially sacrifices
16:30
that I was making.
16:31
Right.
16:32
I knew the fact that I was gonna give my life to Christ in front of a congregation of people
16:35
that know me, that know my background, that know all sorts of things, whether I'm proud
16:39
of those or not proud or whatever. And I'm sure I make things bigger in my mind. But as
16:43
I think about this, it's one of those examples of following Christ and God in a way that
16:49
is definitely going to change your life and have ramifications. So I would encourage anybody
16:54
listening this to think through from a faith perspective, because I know there's been a
16:57
lot of questions as I've listened to the podcast about where am I really at? What does that
17:01
mean? And all that sort of thing. And for me personally, it's when I started making decisions
17:05
that I knew were going to change my life. And that was pretty scary. And I think that's
17:10
what this does for me. And that's where everything kicks off. And then God takes them and amazing
17:14
things happen.
17:15
And it's where your feet planted because it's like, if you have your feet planted firmly
17:18
in midair, you're probably gonna have some issues, but he's planted firmly in the Creator
17:23
God of the universe. And so that that's going to be helpful as he's trying to build what
17:26
he's going to be going on into the future. So let's go to verses five and six.
17:30
Okay, so verse five, and I said to the king, if it pleases the king, and if your servant
17:35
has found favor in your site, that you send me to Judah to the city of my father's graves,
17:41
that I may rebuild it. And the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, how long
17:46
will you be gone? And when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me when I had
17:51
given him a time.
17:52
So Justin, these two verses, there's a lot there. So we have his request. It's interesting
17:57
to me. Perhaps it shouldn't be that he mentions Judah and not Jerusalem by name. Okay, because
18:04
again, if we we see an Ezra, Ezra four versus 21 and 22, where Artaxerxes has already said,
18:12
nah, we're not rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. So he mentions Judah, not Jerusalem by name,
18:17
he's mentions to the city of my father's graves that I may rebuild it. But then let's
18:22
say I'm reading too much into it. Let's say Artaxerxes obviously knows he's talking
18:25
about Jerusalem. In verse six, we have this thing in parentheses, the queen sitting beside
18:31
him. There's something there that why did they note that here? Why did Nehemiah note
18:37
that? And it implies that the queen had influence over King Artaxerxes in this area about feelings
18:46
towards the Israelites or feelings towards the Jews or something like that. And so maybe
18:52
there's a softening of heart happening here because this is basically the same exact request
18:57
that he had dealt with before. And so that that's an interesting thing as well. And Artaxerxes
19:02
question to him is how long will you be gone? He basically knows in that moment he has gotten
19:06
his request. And now it's time to go over the logistics. And this was not going to be
19:10
a short thing because as we see here in a little bit when he actually does travel to Jerusalem,
19:14
that's a three month journey, right? And like, he's one of the most important people in
19:18
the court, that's not family, right? He's the cup bearer to the king. And maybe Artaxerxes
19:23
doesn't know this, but Nehemiah is requesting to rebuild the walls, yes, but also to rebuild
19:29
the people, right? To rebuild their their attitude and their positivity and their ability to rely
19:35
on themselves. So he's asking a lot right here. I was just struck just even in those
19:39
two verses that there was just so much there.
19:42
So he as the cup bearer to the king, he has a lot of jobs. Like he's he's kind of the head
19:48
of the household like like a butler like he's the head servant, basically. So he had a lot
19:55
of responsibilities. It wasn't just I'm losing the guy who brings me my cup. Like, I'm losing
20:00
the guy that manages my affairs here. And a guy I trust, not with his life, absolutely.
20:09
And I think I don't I couldn't find anywhere where this was a thing. But like you look where
20:13
he says about the land of my father's graves or the city of my father's graves, I think
20:20
that's an appeal to Artaxerxes human side because Xerxes, the god king from the story
20:26
300, which is that's still crazy for me to think about. He was killed by the head of
20:33
his bodyguard. So Artaxerxes father was was killed by betrayal. And so he has he has
20:40
seen his father killed or no his father was killed. I think he's appealing to his human
20:47
nature. Like you loved your father. I love I love my father and my my forefather. So
20:52
I think there's I think there's some play to his his human.
20:55
Yeah, and I think I agree with Kyle. I I tend to believe that he was very strategic to just
21:02
I'm going to say it this way. Yeah, I'm not going to give it away all at once. You know,
21:06
I don't want to I don't want to cause, you know, other feelings to come up and you know,
21:10
so he's a smart dude. He is a smart. We'll break it down. Because what he did is is
21:14
tactic from a tactical standpoint is extremely good. He had all that pressure. And then he
21:19
comes in and he asks some questions that go straight to the emotional side. And he gets,
21:25
he gets this king to start thinking with his emotions, which is how you get somebody on
21:28
your side. And he doesn't the form of a question that's non threatening. Yeah. That's very smart.
21:34
And then after that, you know, he basically ingratiates him and does a few things. So
21:38
I think I think his instant message made an impact. Well, he he had prepared. He was praying
21:42
he he didn't he didn't just find out and go, Hey, I gotta go. I gotta go. Like he prepared.
21:47
He had months and months to prepare what he was going to do. And so how often do we just
21:52
hastily make a decision or go into something based on emotion?
21:56
When Matt, his preparation is proven in verses seven and eight, because he wasn't ready with
22:01
his first request. Hey, can I take a leave of absence to go back to the city of my forefathers?
22:06
He had two he had two other bullets ready to go. So the next bullet he shot was, Hey,
22:11
can you give me letters of safe passage? Because guys go look at a map from this time period.
22:15
He's going from Suso to Jerusalem. It's going to take about three months, not a whole lot
22:18
of happy people in between, you know, Susa and Jerusalem. That was like, yeah, just come
22:22
on. Walk on through. And so he asked for that. The king said, yeah, sure. But then this is the
22:27
one where really showed forethought. He asked for timber from the king's forest. Now we don't
22:33
know exactly which force that was how close it was to Jerusalem, all those types of things.
22:37
But that request showed that he knew exactly what what because imagine you don't know you're
22:44
going to get a yes to your first question. And so you don't prepare any other questions. And then
22:48
you're like, Oh, okay, cool. I have a leave of absence. All right, I guess I'm leaving in the
22:54
morning. And then it's like, okay, well, that probably wouldn't have worked out well. He probably
22:58
would have never made it to Jerusalem. And then the other thing that that's interesting about all this
23:02
is when when the king says yes to those three requests to leaving to the letters of safe passage
23:11
into the timber, he's committing financial, political and military support to the rebuilding
23:16
of Jerusalem's walls. That that is an enormous thing, because we can see even in verse nine where,
23:22
you know, they basically had the king's letters and he sent officers because he didn't just send
23:26
Nehemiah with letters, because some people were like, I can even read that and then, you know,
23:30
off with the head. But he's like, no, he's sending his people with them. And I guess, you know,
23:34
that section there guys versus five through eight, it's a really good apologetic for using secular
23:39
means to do the will of the father. And this is where people get really uncomfortable,
23:43
because we can't say by any way, shape or form that King Artaxerxes was a godly man. He saw
23:48
himself as a god king, as Matt said earlier. But Nehemiah is literally using him to do what God
23:56
told him to do. And so it kind of goes back to, you know, where I've learned about except reject
24:02
redeem. There are things in society that you can just accept outright, like the gospel of Jesus
24:06
Christ, there's things that you have to reject outright, like, you know, Satanism or demonology.
24:10
And then there's things that you can redeem. So maybe it's the words of Jordan Peterson,
24:14
who is not by strict definition or Christian, but his words can be redeemed for the use of God.
24:20
And King Artaxerxes, who did some very ungodly things, right, in terms of, you know, the God
24:26
creator of the universe. But he was able to be used for God's purposes here.
24:30
Yeah, I've thought about that a little bit. I mean, if you start down that path,
24:36
just think about how many things you use on a daily basis that are resolved to somebody that's
24:41
secular or whatever the case may be. I mean, you can't get away from it. It's just a fact and
24:45
everything technically, according to this book is created. So it all serves God's purpose in some
24:51
sense. So I think that distinction for me is still a little bit difficult as I think through how
24:55
that works. Because I think the reality is that this looks like reality to me, you know?
24:59
Well, and just like Pharaoh's heart was hardened, I think in this, in this text,
25:04
into this moment Artaxerxes, Art was softened, you know, and that was a work of the Lord that had
25:10
been prepared for that moment too. Yeah, I think Nehemiah being in tuned with God's will and God's
25:17
plan, like he obviously knew the scripture. And in chapter one, he's talking about like
25:22
our sin, people that we turn away from God and you scattered us. But now I know that your plan is
25:30
for us to gather back and for you to call us back to the promised land. I know I'm paraphrasing
25:37
chapter one, but like he knew it's not a I'm just going to ask for what I want. Like James talks
25:43
about. You have not because you ask not and that which is not like, okay, you didn't ask for a
25:49
million dollars so you don't have it. It's you don't pray the right way. Like you're not praying
25:53
in tune with the God with God's will. And if if we are if we are pursuing holiness, our desires
26:03
will begin to match God's will. And I that like what a perfect example of that. Like he was shaken
26:11
by under like knowing this stuff had happened and he desperately wanted
26:20
what God had already prophesied. And so he was in tune with God's I think that's so
26:24
you shouldn't miss that. You shouldn't miss that for sure.
26:28
When it's where did his request lie? Because at the very end of verse eight and the king granted
26:34
me what I asked for the good hand of my God was upon me. So it wasn't the king granted what I asked
26:41
for. I am so awesome. Like man, I did four months worth of planning and prayer. Look at me. Who wants
26:47
to touch me? Anybody? Yeah, it's like for the good hand of my God was upon me. There's so much
26:53
there, not the hand of God, the good hand of my God. Right. And it was not just around. It was upon
27:00
him in that moment. Yeah. And we'll see, I think in the future that the Ezra, it's the same thing
27:06
with Ezra. And it said the good hand of the Lord is on him. And then the next verse says,
27:11
for Ezra prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord to do it and then to teach statutes and
27:17
ordinances and Israel. The idea being that there was a process, but there was also some prerequisites
27:23
to having the hand, the good, the favor of God and his hand on him. So no doubt, we, you know,
27:31
Nehemiah's living in that same scope and has obviously done the work and set his heart towards
27:38
the Lord, not towards himself in order to receive this. And I think that also brings up the point
27:43
that there's no automatic happy ending because God's hand is upon you, because we'll get there.
27:48
But if you read Ezra and as you get to the end of Nehemiah, like we're so used to in 2023,
27:54
stories ending with a, with a thump, like, oh my gosh, I can't believe the cliffhanger from season
28:00
two to season three. This is mind blowing like that. We're used to movies ending and just having
28:04
being shocked, our minds being blown, right, being very, very satisfied with that. There,
28:08
these are not super satisfying endings where every loose end is tied up because, you know,
28:12
that's, that's one big complaint that people have of shows, you know, that go five, six,
28:16
seven seasons or something like that. And then there's too much left unresolved at the end of
28:21
all these things. But it's like, if you look at history, because again, they're, we're experiencing
28:26
this story in an instant, they were experiencing it minute by minute, right? They didn't realize
28:32
the, the totality of the story that they were living in, but obviously God did. And even thousands
28:36
of years ago, it's like, all right, I'm going to use this for my glory. And y'all don't really
28:39
know, I just need y'all for a little bit. So if you chimps could just like get, get your crap
28:43
together just for a little bit, like I'll show you my power just a little bit. And then we'll
28:47
keep moving on down the road. I wanted to say something before we move away from him and being
28:52
called the cup bear and how everything in the Bible points to Christ. Nehemiah is he points to
29:00
Christ as well. He's a deliverer of the people. Obviously he is not Christ and he has many faults,
29:06
which we will find out. But he's a willing cup bear. Christ bears the cup of our sin. And so
29:13
he's willing to take on that role and then come deliver God's people. And I think that's not
29:22
something we should miss also that even in the book of Nehemiah, it's all pointing to Christ
29:28
and the deliverance of God's people in ways that just don't seem like they should happen. So well,
29:35
that also brings up a good point. Excuse me. And in terms of how you guys study the Bible,
29:40
so I have the Reformation Study Bible right here in the ESV. One thing that's interesting about
29:44
the beginning, and you'll get this with different study Bibles, they'll all have a section to where
29:48
it's like, you know, basically, how does this book of the Bible point towards Christ? Because
29:53
the Gospels, it's fairly obvious. Some of the, you know, probably. And then you have these letters
29:58
from Paul, those are decently obvious as well. But when you're reading through some of the Old
30:04
Testament books, you're just like, how does this relate to a Middle Eastern Jewish construction
30:09
worker being, you know, killed on a cross? Like, I don't get it. Like, and then, but like, it all
30:14
kind of, again, look at this as a collection of ancient transcripts as Jordan Peterson, we call
30:19
a library. This isn't a book, it's a library. That's all telling the same story, right? And so
30:25
you can think about it like maybe you're like one of those nerds that likes Marvel movies and all
30:28
that kind of thing. But it's like, those are all in the same universe telling the same redemptive
30:32
story of Iron Man, apparently. But it's like, that's the, that's the thing that these are all
30:37
existing in one universe to tell the exact same story. And so that when you start reading the Bible
30:44
that way, that that's a big deal because you're looking for Christ, not for proof text. But you're
30:50
looking for Christ in these stories so that you can see how God's redemptive work of sending his
30:56
son as a sacrifice. For us, you're seeing how that wraps in to the story of history as well.
31:01
Eric, can you read verse 10 for me, por favor?
31:04
Do you need glasses?
31:10
But I did. I did forget. Oh, no, don't hear it. No, we're getting Zach, you're first in. No,
31:16
no, you're fired. Get out of here, Zach. First in. But when sand ballot, I'm not sure if I'm
31:22
saying that right when sand ballot and horror night and Tobias, the Ammonite servant heard this,
31:27
it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.
31:32
So the cool thing about that, there's not a whole lot that we really need to camp on here. But this
31:36
is where we can kind of see a little bit of foreshadowing. So we have sand ballot and Tobias,
31:42
these are the guys that have influence in Jerusalem. Okay, they see some guy coming to town like,
31:48
who's this new guy with all these fancy letters from the king? And they're seeing an encroachment
31:54
on their influence, right? And we've all experienced this. You're on a team and you're the guy on the
32:02
team. And some kid from some butthole town, he decides to come over into your your area. Now,
32:08
he's scoring goals. Now he's hitting home runs. Now he's smacking people. This is a problem for
32:12
you. He's encroaching on your territory. Maybe it's a business, right? They've hired somebody that
32:18
kind of looks like he's doing your job. And crap, he's better at it. So they're encroaching on your
32:23
territory. This happens in politics all the time as well. You thought you were influential,
32:26
but no one's listening to you anymore. They're listening to the new guy. And so this is very,
32:29
very important. And again, it's because these are people that had a tremendous amount of influence.
32:35
But then we get into versus 11 and 12 and Browning, I'm tempted to bring you off the bench. You know,
32:43
I'm bringing you out of the bullpen versus 11 and 12. We'll see how this goes.
32:47
So I went to Jerusalem and was there three days. Then I rose in the night and
32:55
I and a few men with me. And I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem.
33:01
There was no animal with me, but the one on which I wrote. This is very, very important. Okay,
33:10
we cannot skip this and miss this. This is a guy that for months. So now we're at the seven-month
33:16
mark. So it was four months of prayer, right? In preparation before he asking our Xerxes for
33:22
permission. And then it's took them at least three months to get from Sousa to Jerusalem.
33:25
That wasn't an easy journey for sure. That's another thing that gets lost here. It's like he
33:29
didn't just like teleport. Like he had to like it wasn't a train. Yeah, exactly. So we're seven
33:35
months down the road. This guy is on a mission from God. He is sent. He has been equipped. He's
33:42
been literally training for this his entire life. Another thing that gets lost here. He's been in
33:46
the King's court for years. He's seeing how things work. He sees how influence works. It reminds me
33:51
of the book, The Prince by Machiavelli. He probably knows how to influence people,
33:57
win friends and influence people, but also to manipulate people. Good and bad. Now he's in Jerusalem.
34:03
And I'm going to be honest. If irony am I, I would kick that door down and be like,
34:08
guys, I am here. Like y'all have been messed up for a long time. I'm going to fix it. Who
34:13
wants to touch me? Right? Like that is the attitude. But he doesn't do that. His very first thing.
34:20
He has calculated. He's patient and he spends days just evaluating because he's never been to
34:26
Jerusalem. He's never seen the walls. He's also never seen the ruin in the people's faces. Right?
34:31
And he's taking three days to marinate on really the totality of the tasks that's before him.
34:38
And he probably could have. There's evidence that he could have come in. And like you said,
34:42
kick the door down and say we could could he had permission from the God of the known world.
34:47
Like the Persian King said, go do this. He had written authority. He probably could have said.
34:52
All right, guys. Art is there. She said, let's go. Let's go. So that's an interesting point that
34:59
he took. He took three days to just kind of observe. Yeah, I think it comes back. For me,
35:04
it's always, do you want to be right? Or do you want to be effective? There's a big difference,
35:10
right? And he gets here. And after this journey, he very quietly rests.
35:17
And then we'll look at it. He looks around because he needs to assess what this is actually going
35:21
to take before he can engender the people, I think, to really get involved. And the only way he gets
35:26
this accomplished as a leader is by getting people really enrolled in this project and excited about,
35:32
of course, supply. There's a God thing part of this too. But I think this goes back to what he did
35:36
with the King being very, very sharp in terms of how he asked the question, how he got them
35:41
involved and all that. And to your point, I hadn't thought of that the fact that he's sitting in this
35:45
court, absolutely. I'm sure he got a major education day in and day out on how to make things happen.
35:50
And patience typically is going to win the day. Yeah, I've got my sidebar thing. But my father-in-law,
35:57
I used to think that he didn't like me. I know that that was not true. I just had to learn his
36:05
style of thinking and processing. He's not a guy that just comes up and says, "Hey, how's your day?"
36:11
"Hey, how's things going? How's work?" But that's not how that works. So when he wouldn't ask me
36:16
questions, I'd be like, "Oh, does he really like me? Does he really want me here?" But here's what he
36:20
would do. And very briefly, if we were there for the weekend, he'd be doing this thing or whatever.
36:28
But then he'd be like, "Hey, come here. I want to show you something I've been working on,
36:31
something I've been thinking about." And then he would take me wherever that was. And it could
36:36
be some new thing he was doing outside with new equipment or whatever could have been something on
36:40
the computer. But then he wanted to tell me all about this thing he had figured out. And then he
36:45
had thought through and he wanted to teach me and help me understand blah, blah, blah. And that was
36:48
kind of how he loved on me was to do that very thing. So I just, in some respects, I just really
36:55
appreciate the fact that me and my, it was slow. I mean, he could have come in and people looked at
37:00
him and be like, "Well, this guy's kind of a jerk. He's not really saying much. Not doing my base.
37:04
What's he doing?" You know, whatever. But then, boom, he comes with power. He comes with a plan
37:10
and he gets people jazzed up to do the work. So sidebar to your sidebar. What if you've done
37:17
all that patient observation of your father-in-law? Excuse me. And he still seemingly doesn't like
37:22
you asking for a friend. Do you have any advice for that? Well, yeah, no. No, I don't.
37:30
Keep faithfully loving his daughter. Oh, yeah. There you go. That's, that's a good one. That's just
37:34
good advice for anybody. I figured you would do that. I'm not. Yeah. I'm just, I was just asking
37:38
for the general public. But so I think the word that you could use even going back to Zach's point
37:43
is he was a very shrewd operator. And I was reminded of a story that I've heard Jocko Willink tell before
37:49
of when he got a job as the admirals aid. And so, you know, in the Navy, this, I mean, this is a guy
37:55
that's an operator. He wants to, he wants to go and, you know, you know, kill moos and that,
38:00
you know, he wants to take care of business, right? And here he is wearing a, wearing his
38:04
dress uniform all day every day, following the admiral, admiral around, going to the same meetings
38:09
as the admiral. And so he's in meetings with the top upper echelon of the United States military
38:16
and the White House and all these different strategists, right? And his job was basically
38:21
to sit in the corner and not say a damn thing. And that's what he did. And you could say, well,
38:26
that sounds boring. Yeah, if you've got your brain turned off, but he was absorbing all of that.
38:32
He was looking, he was watching, he was, he was taking in these lessons. And as he said before,
38:40
he's like, in those moments, I was taking notes. And I was also making deposits that I would later
38:46
use to help, you know, equip my teammates to help equip the guys that are under my care.
38:51
That's exactly what he did. Cause he knew how to request things to where they would get approval.
38:56
He knew how to wait and ask questions at the right time. Does it sound familiar to where he would
39:01
get the answer that he wanted? But it wasn't because he walked into that room and said, all right,
39:07
here's my time to shine. I'm about to show these people how smart I am that I'm not just like some,
39:11
you know, knuckle dragger, like I need to show these guys what's up. Now he was all over it.
39:16
By just being patient and being shrewd. And for those that don't know that job came before,
39:20
he went back in the field in Iraq and led his teams. Right. So exactly. It has a great parallel
39:26
to this for sure. And so where we get here is he's, he's in town. He's, he's doing inspections.
39:33
That's what we see with versus, you know, basically 11 through 16, but we see a shift here with verse 17
39:40
in terms of how he's comporting himself and how he's operating. So can you reverse 17 for me, Matt?
39:45
Sure. Then I said to them, you see the trouble we are in how Jerusalem lies and ruins with its
39:52
gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem that we may no longer suffer derision.
39:56
Hey, go ahead and read 18 as well. Sure. And I told them of the hand of my God
40:02
that had been upon me for good. And also of the words that the king had spoken to me.
40:08
And they said, let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for the good work.
40:13
A lot here. Let's, let's go to verse 17. He shifts into politician mode. And I don't mean that in
40:22
the modern sense of also anything to get elected, also anything to keep power. You know, just give
40:26
me my chocolate chip ice cream and just, you know, let me be president again. Like he shifts into
40:31
political action. I'm just using examples, not from actual history, guys. But 100%. At this point,
40:37
it's important to note that they, they see that this city has likely been in ruins for about
40:43
150 years at this point, not an insignificant period of time. And again, in this era, people
40:50
weren't living into old age, right? If you were in your fifties, you were ancient, right? So this
40:56
is multiple generations of people that have been beaten down mentally, right? And so you probably
41:04
have seen this is like you just assume things will continue. And it's almost like you need
41:09
somebody to grab you by the scruff, your shirt and shake your round a little bit and be like,
41:13
no, no, this isn't happening anymore. So Nehemiah comes into town. He surveys the walls. He surveys
41:21
the people. And then he shifts and says, it's time to fix this. And again, I'm sure there were,
41:26
there was time here, because we're just reading, it was taking us 30 seconds to read, you know,
41:30
verse 17 and verse 18. But this could have been days, weeks, months where he's convincing the
41:36
people, no, this is what we need to do. And I know, you know, we don't need to get too terribly
41:40
political here. But in our modern day and age, the party of whoever's in power decides what your
41:46
pet projects are going to be. And you're just going to convince the public, this is what we
41:50
need to do. Whereas back in the day, you would try to convince the populace. This is what's best
41:57
for you. And it's probably going to take some sacrifice. It's probably going to be uncomfortable,
42:01
but it's going to be best for everybody overall. So that's what we're going to do. So in that
42:06
sense, in the most pure sense, he became a politician. And I feel like that's just a very,
42:11
very important point here. He's also, he's also doesn't use the authority given to him by Artaxerxes
42:17
to say, let's do this. And what's interesting here is in the context of history, these people who
42:23
live in Jerusalem, they live in a place that Nebuchadnezzar had, I mean, he destroyed the wall,
42:29
he destroyed the city, right? And in those times, when that kind of stuff happened,
42:35
you would be looked upon as like, see, your God is not powerful. You serve a weak God who
42:43
doesn't exist. Your city has been burned. Your walls have been broken down. And so they would
42:49
have been ridiculed for continuing to serve a God who either doesn't exist, isn't powerful,
42:57
or isn't there, or has left you. And so now he's saying, God will restore you the same God
43:04
that's being made fun of, basically. And so it's interesting that he knows I'm still appealing to
43:10
the authority of the God of the universe, not Artaxerxes, to get them to buy into what they're
43:16
going to do. Well, look what he, go ahead. Oh, no, no, no, I'll go after you. Well,
43:21
just to just to build on that a little bit here, like you're saying in both of you,
43:25
he came in, he could have said, guys, do you see this, this group from the king? And you know,
43:29
what I've been doing, you see this work, all this stuff, we're going to make this happen.
43:31
He doesn't do that. He's smart about it. And the first thing that he says when he engages the
43:37
people after investigating what this is going to take, knowing that he's going to be personally
43:41
involved, he does it the right way and says, you see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem
43:47
lies waste and the gates are burned with fire come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem that we
43:52
may no longer be a reproach. He gets them involved. I mean, it's that that's leadership 101 buy in.
44:00
Yeah. In my world, this is called a soap note. So if you're in the medical profession, then
44:05
you know what I'm talking about. And so there are oftentimes people that will walk in as a
44:10
new patient and I'm an orthopedic. So they walk in and I immediately know what's wrong with them.
44:16
Like they almost don't have to say anything. I've just kind of read maybe over their chart
44:21
and already know what's going on. But that's not fair to them. And it's not fair to the process
44:26
for me to just jump to conclusions. So the S stands for subjectives. And so we work on feeling.
44:32
We work on history. We work on like, how did this happen? You know, whatever. And that's
44:36
an opportunity for me to get into their shoes a little bit and to sometimes hurt with them
44:42
because I know they're hurting. And that starts to build rapport, right? But it helps me understand
44:46
the actual problem. But that kind of lives in a subjective realm. You know, so there's a motion
44:52
with that in the objective component, which is the O, it's actually figuring out what structurally
44:57
is problematic, soft tissues, joints, whatever. And then the in the assessment is like, okay,
45:02
what do I do with that S in that O? You know, what does that actually mean? What does it all come
45:07
down to? Is this something that's been coming on for years? Is this something that happened
45:11
to the motor vehicle accident last week? So I assess all the information. And then finally,
45:17
at the very end, it's like my it's it's my time to sell myself and give them a plan and tell them,
45:23
hey, this is going to take time. This may not be easy. Your healing may be up and down and up and
45:31
down depending on the day and the week. But this is a worthy cause of something for you to do. You
45:35
know, but I miss a lot. If I just run in there and be like, I know what's going on with you,
45:39
let's just get to work. Well, your assumptions can be right, but your assumptions should guide
45:44
your questions. And I think what you're saying, a prescription without diagnosis is malpractice.
45:48
And that's true in the medical world, but that's also true here. And you know, just back to,
45:54
you know, verse 11, when he is out, like, he knew it was wrong. He knew what the prescription was,
46:00
but he still went and diagnosed. He still went and assessed. And there wasn't he let he I think
46:07
he let his assumptions guide the questions that he was asking. And I think that's a really important
46:12
thing to remember. There's a there's an amount of patience that's needed, even if we think we know.
46:16
And I'm sure you like, yeah, that guy's got this, but you still are patient enough to go, okay,
46:23
I'm gonna ask him questions. We're gonna figure this out. And then you probably write a lot of the
46:27
times, but you were you were able to ask questions and really get to the heart of it. And then that
46:31
patient is like in the sky. That's good. Well, I'm sure you guys have never made this mistake,
46:37
but have you ever known exactly what was wrong in a situation with your wife? And you just
46:42
walked right in and said, look, boo, I know exactly what's wrong. I know exactly how you're
46:47
feeling. I know exactly how to fix it. And then you fix it. And she's like, Oh, my gosh, my darling,
46:52
thank you so much for doing that. Has that ever happened in the history of humanity? No. So that's
46:56
the other thing. Even if you know what the solution needs to be, you think Nehemiah showed up to
47:02
Jerusalem with no idea what he was going to do. But he had to, he had to wait for the right
47:07
opportunity that we're getting mercy in a trend with Nehemiah here for the right opportunity to say,
47:12
Hey, guys, this is what we need to do. Because if you just waltz in as a stranger, like imagine
47:17
being in a board meeting, like whether you're on a 501c three or you're in a business or something
47:21
like that. And it's your first meeting at the board meeting. And while the CEO or the chairman
47:27
of the board is starting the meeting, yeah, cool. Thanks. Thanks, guy. Would you mind go
47:31
getting me coffee in a bagel? All right, guys, here's what we're going to do. And you just pull
47:35
out your marker and you start writing on the whiteboard. Odds are not going to go supremely
47:39
well for you. And so I think that that is a very important thing to note here, especially for
47:44
someone like me that likes to draw conclusions very, very quickly. Like, let's just get to the
47:49
point. Like, let's just figure this out how we can fix it. That's not what he did. And what that
47:54
leads to is immediate and positive action from your constituency. And we see that at the end of
48:00
verse 18. So they strengthened their hands for the good work. Okay, so we don't know exactly what
48:07
that means. We don't know exactly how long that means what it means or what the level of preparation
48:12
was. But the note that I wrote down as I was reading this is so many men strengthen nothing.
48:17
And they want everything to be good. So Browning, you see this in your life. People want their
48:24
shoulder to not hurt, but they don't want to work at it, right? They want their heart to work better.
48:30
But cardio and dieting and not eating Cheetos and smoking cigarettes, you're crazy. Why would
48:35
you suggest I do that? I'm an American. Like, it's that type of attitude, like, I'm going to do
48:39
whatever I want. And you're going to fix it, right? I'm going to do what I want. And doctor,
48:44
you're just going to write me a script to fix all of my bad decisions. And the same thing here,
48:49
men want things they they may they'll say that they want their house to be a spiritually positive
48:56
place. They want their kids to be catechized and they want there to be a positive environment.
49:00
But then they don't spend any time catechizing their children. They don't study the Bible with
49:04
them. They don't pray with their wives. They don't go to church. They don't value church. They value
49:08
the lake. They value going to ball games like those are the things that they value. And then
49:13
we're seeing in these moments that you need to strengthen your hands for the good work, whatever
49:18
the good work is. But we're in this super lazy malaise in modernity to where it's like, it's so
49:24
easy to just not do anything. And just to, you know, use an app on your phone to get your food or
49:28
whatever the thing is that we think, Oh, there's an easy button processed all this. And I don't
49:32
actually need to be strengthened spiritually, mentally or physically. And yesterday I had a
49:36
had a patient that transferred to my office. And you know, it's standard. I'm like, okay,
49:41
so when you hurt yourself, it's just six months ago. And you've been at physical therapy. Yes.
49:46
What have you been doing with you? And she goes, well, you know, they can bring me in. They may be
49:50
like going to rub on me a little bit. Put some heat on me a little bit, a little bit of IFC. And
49:55
then that's about it. I'm like, wow, that's called fake and bake. You know, and that's not going to
50:00
work. And I was like, and how are you feeling? She was, I feel about the same as I did about six
50:03
months ago. Oh my God. Yeah, I bet you do. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, I, what was hilarious, I started
50:09
showing her some exercises. And she was kind of like, I could tell she was like, oh my gosh,
50:13
and what am I doing? I was like, okay, we're going to ramp this up a little bit. So we go over
50:16
to like this other area. And I'm like, all right, we're going to do some warm up stuff. And we just
50:19
started going after it. Man, I could tell that she was, she was like, what? I actually have to put
50:24
some effort into this. You're not just going to like rub on my back a little bit and then put
50:28
heat on me. I think we can turn God into a genie and think like, okay, if I pray, he'll just let
50:35
the, he'll do this or he'll make this happen. And I think Nehemiah is just a great book of
50:39
obviously God is working and God is moving things and he's doing things. And the old cliche comes to
50:45
mind God can move mountains, but he expects us to bring a shovel. And I think this is a really
50:50
good example of that. Like, you know, a guy that, a guy that struggles with pornography and goes to
50:55
someone who has, who has killed that sin in his life. So how do you, how did you do it?
51:00
When he doesn't get the answer of, oh, I just prayed and God took it away from me. Like,
51:05
surely that can happen, right? But most times it's probably something like, well, you know,
51:09
I got rid of, I put, I put a, you know, accountability software on my phone and my computer. I started
51:18
meeting with accountability partner. I started reading my Bible reading the Bible. I started
51:24
doing these things that like put some, put some accountability and some work into my life. And then
51:30
I feel like probably the, the reaction a lot of times is it was, is there some, is there something
51:36
else? Like, maybe I can talk to somebody else about this. This doesn't really seem like something
51:40
that I want to do. And it's like, okay, but yeah, it's going to be tough. Like catacizing your kids
51:45
is hard. But it's also worth it. So what's funny about that is I will get asked from time to time.
51:52
And I just had a DM from a stranger just a guy that listens to show about a week ago. And I will
51:57
get asked like, Hey, Kyle, you mentioned before that you used to look a porn masturbating that
52:00
that's no longer part of your life in any way, shape or form, like how did you do that type of
52:04
thing? What they're actually asking me is what accountability software did you use? Like what
52:09
method did you use to pray? Like what do we deliver from this? That's actually what they're asking.
52:14
And we love to over complicate things. Because being in shape is not hard to understand how you
52:22
become that way. You have to move more and eat less typically now that you can move some stuff
52:28
here and you can optimize. And if you're going to be a professional athlete, obviously, there's a
52:31
whole lot more that goes into that. But at the end of the day, it's not complicated. It's just
52:35
difficult. That's kind of what you're saying, man. It's not complicated. It's difficult. And so
52:39
what I told this guy is I said, Oh, the best way to stop looking at porn, I was like, you ready?
52:44
Lean in. Stop looking at porn. Yeah. And I was like, and I was like, I also told, I was like,
52:51
you don't have a porn problem. You have a jerking off problem. Like, because you don't need one
52:56
without the other. Like porn is a masturbatory aid. And that is how you are using it. So a great
53:03
way to stop looking at porn is to stop jerking off. And it was just kind of like,
53:07
you could just see like he was like shocked by that. But it's like, Jaco, again, hey, man,
53:13
how do I do my more pullups? You should probably start by doing more pullups. How do I get better
53:17
at running? You should run. How do I learn to get better at jujitsu? You should probably go to class
53:22
and like learn how to grapple and, you know, fight people. Like those are the types of things we love
53:26
to overcomplicate things. Can you imagine that the same thing was happening during Neomize Age
53:31
in Jerusalem? For how many generations were people like, Oh gosh, I really wish these we could
53:36
rebuild these walls. It'd be so much cooler if we lived in a city where the walls were up.
53:40
Gosh darn it. I guess I'll go on about my day. And it's like, I got to rebuild the walls. It's
53:47
like you're kind of being sarcastic. But I think that's really spot on like how like and and I say
53:52
that as someone who's been there and yeah, I find myself often I want this but like,
53:58
do I want it that bad? Yeah. And I mean, you get to choose your heart. There's a difference like
54:06
Jaco, how do I how do I wake up early wake up early every day? Like you're saying, right? Yeah.
54:09
I do think and I'm no expert from a porn standpoint, it seems like there's something more sinister
54:16
satanic happening in that realm. So I think it's important that you do emphasize prayer
54:21
and reading your Bible and everything that you just said. It may be more than just you having
54:27
discipline in that sense to a degree. Here's what I would say. There's demonic activity happening
54:32
there. Certainly. Yeah. Right. So reading the scriptures, praying, getting counsel,
54:37
having accountability partners, you know, having software. I'm telling you guys, all that stuff
54:42
is valuable. But you also know how to get around all that. So at the end of the day,
54:48
and this is awkward not for some people at the table, you do have free will to make decisions.
54:54
Look at looks at Matt, but it's like, you do have free. No, we're not going to go there. We're
55:00
towards the end here. My laptop's open, which is the signal that we're almost wrapped up. Stop.
55:03
But you have free will. And so at the end of the day, this is why I tell people, I was like,
55:08
you can have the best software. You have covenant eyes. You can have guys that are literally checking
55:12
in with you constantly. You can have guys where before you're alone, before your wife and kids
55:16
are out of the house, which is the time when you would normally look at porn and masturbate,
55:19
you could tell guys, Hey, I'm about to be alone. Pray for me. You could have those guys check in
55:23
that night and check in the next day. And you have, you know, carrot or stick consequences,
55:28
like you can have all that. But you get to decide whether or not you do that. Right. And so
55:35
you could have the best path towards success, but you have to choose to go down that path.
55:39
And so that's not me disagreeing with you. That's me adding even more emphasis that at the end of
55:44
the day, you know how to get around your software. You know how to lie to the people in your life.
55:48
You know how to hide it. You're an expert at it. You've been doing it your entire life. And guess
55:52
what? You're going to make all the excuses possible. And you're going to be right back where you said
55:57
you didn't want to be. That's the problem that I see with a lot of people is they're liars. I really
56:01
want to be in shape. No, you don't. You haven't exercised in months. You like the idea of being
56:07
in shape. But you have no discipline to actually do that. I don't feel bad for you. So like when
56:12
these people like, you know, they spend 40 years not taking care of themselves and they get some
56:16
sort of debilitating disease that came from them neglecting themselves, it's like,
56:20
I don't feel bad for you. Like I'm sorry, you did this to yourself. Like if I were to take
56:25
a drill and drive it through my hand on purpose, you shouldn't feel bad for me that I have to go
56:30
through rehab and potentially get surgery because I'm an idiot. I'm a moron. I chose to do that.
56:35
And so again, there there is a an element here that most guys want to think their circumstances
56:40
controlled them. Now there are things that just happened to you that you can't control. But most
56:45
of the negativity that would befall a person in this world is by their own hand and by their own
56:49
doing because they made a bunch of bad decisions that led them to that moment where they were even
56:54
susceptible to that temptation or susceptible to that disease or susceptible to that ailment.
57:00
And so I'm not trying to diminish the power of God, the power of the power of, you know, warring
57:05
in the spiritual realm. But that's just the reality of kind of where we're at here.
57:09
Now guys, as we we wind up close here with Nehemiah two, this is where we start naming the the people
57:16
that are really going to be big in terms of the the negative tension in this situation.
57:23
So we've already heard about sandbout the Horanite and Tobia the Ammonite, but then we're also
57:27
introduced to Gesham the Arab and they're all ready to go in terms of how can we stop this
57:33
from happening. An interesting thing as I studied this is Nehemiah is literally surrounded by people
57:40
that don't want him to do this because sandbout's influence is north of Jerusalem, Tobia's influence
57:46
is east of Jerusalem, Gesham's influence is south of Jerusalem. He is literally surrounded by people
57:52
whose only job is just a nice saying be like, man, I don't let John do that. And it's like,
57:58
it's not just one guy, like all these people have people, right? So someone says, oh, you know,
58:03
Joe Biden's against me. It's not Joe Biden is the administration. Oh, you know, Donald Trump was
58:08
against me. It's not just Trump. It's the entire administration. The same thing is happening here.
58:12
So he gets there. He's doing the Lord's work and it should be smooth sailing from there, right?
58:17
That wouldn't be much of a story. No, he's got people that are really trying to contradict what
58:21
he's trying to do. And the point is that you're you're going to encounter opposition. When you
58:26
when you do something virtuous, worthwhile, there will be opposition. So plan for it.
58:31
And then we can look, we see that I was just looking back up really. I was like, oh,
58:36
SWAT analysis look like a perfect SWAT analysis. You know, uh, BMI knew of the threats that we're
58:42
going to come. And he was already planning for that. Um, I'm sure he, I'm sure he knew that
58:48
there would be others that would probably were less predictable. But he was already,
58:52
he already had his mindset. And just one more thing. And now I just watched with my son at the
58:58
book of Eli. And I told some of you guys about that. And I was just reminded of Denzel Washington
59:03
every time he met somebody where he headed, I'm headed west. You know, and then finally about
59:09
midway through the, the movie you hear kind of the why he's heading west and the, and the vision
59:14
that he had and the purpose that was placed on him and the promise that was given him that he would
59:19
be protected. And, and, I mean, he was just so set and I'm just going to, I'm going west,
59:24
he's going west and God will protect me. He told me I would be protected from harm, you know,
59:29
and of course you see the old movie is everybody's trying to kill him, you know, but he, he's,
59:34
well, I'm not going to give it away. I mean, it's like 13 years ago, really old. So you know,
59:39
spoiler alert, you guys, if you have not watched that movie, like fast forward, but go ahead and
59:42
make your point. Well, I mean, that was the point is just that I feel like me and I was kind of in
59:47
that realm. He just, it was like, this is what the Lord has set on me to do. This is how I've
59:52
found favor in his eyes. This is where he's placed me and this is what I'm bringing with me,
59:58
which is like, you know, all the wood and blah, blah, blah. And I think that is what, you know,
1:00:02
when we have a test, when we have passion and we have a testimony behind that, you know, that,
1:00:08
I think that's inspiring to people. And I think those people saw him in his passion.
1:00:13
It probably almost radiated in some respects. So well, and just I know the statue of limitations
1:00:19
on spoiler alerts is about a decade. So if you're about to describe a scene from the Godfather,
1:00:23
and if you say spoiler alert, no, no, no, no, when you said when you talked about them being from
1:00:32
different, like they're surrounding him, I immediately thought of song 22. So I turned to that deliverance
1:00:37
is not easy. Like God delivering his people is something that he will do. And we know the end of
1:00:44
the story. And it's something that happens. But that doesn't mean that there's not obstacles. And
1:00:49
so some 22 talks about it a couple of places, many bulls encompass me as strong bulls of Bishan
1:00:55
surround me. They're open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion. And then
1:01:01
it goes on to say for dogs encompass me a company of evil doers encircled me. They have pierced my
1:01:07
hands and feet. And there's this picture. Again, I think we should be looking to how this points
1:01:13
towards Christ and our own salvation and how we interact with what the Bible tells us about us
1:01:19
is he went to do God's work, but they're still like dogs and bulls encompassing him. There's going
1:01:30
to be obstacles. I would add one thing to that, which is, and this is coming from one of the
1:01:36
guides that I read, but it says not only was Nehemiah able to challenge his own people, but he was
1:01:39
able to stand up against the enemy and deal effectively with their opposition. Just as soon as God's
1:01:45
people step out by faith to do his will, the enemy shows up and tries to discourage them. So for
1:01:51
anybody that's that's leading teams or participating in teams, I think this is very important. It's
1:01:57
because we've talked a lot about I feel like God's getting me to do this and do all that. It's very
1:02:02
difficult to get a team pointed in the right direction in the midst of so many other challenges
1:02:07
that are occurring. And in order for this to truly be effective, it goes back to what this is saying,
1:02:11
what Jocko says other people, you got to get people on the same team working with you towards
1:02:14
the same goal. So I think as I read this, it was just it was like, wow, you know, this tells me how
1:02:21
difficult this must have been and what he was dealing with. Well, Zach, your point on opposition
1:02:25
is very well taken and probably a great place to end this because, guys, if you make a change
1:02:30
in your life, I've gotten a lot of messages over the years about, gosh, you know, you're right. I
1:02:35
finally, I decided I was going to get in shape. Or man, I have not been taking my relationship
1:02:39
with my wife seriously, man, I've not been catechizing my children, that type of thing.
1:02:42
And wouldn't you know it? As if it was part of the plan, they immediately run into a brick wall,
1:02:48
right? Maybe it's that their wife doesn't really care to work on their relationship right now.
1:02:52
Well, I do. So I thought you would, or maybe they get an injury, you know, right when they're
1:02:56
starting to get in shape, or they hit that plateau, you know, when people start losing a lot of weight
1:03:00
and then they hit the plateau and then they don't lose anymore. And there's always something that's
1:03:05
going to happen. It's almost inevitable. And or, you know, it's something not related to the
1:03:09
thing. So you decide you're going to get in shape. And then, you know, your father gets cancer.
1:03:12
And all of a sudden you're like trying to work out, but also be a caregiver. There's a lot of
1:03:16
those types of things. Expect it. Right. Do you think Nehemiah showed up in Jerusalem and expected
1:03:22
to be, you know, greeted as a conquering king? No, he, he expected this. Again, we don't see that
1:03:29
in the text. So I'm read, I'm I suggesting that into the text. But I, you got to know for a planner,
1:03:35
that he knew that he was going to walk in there and that the local governors and influencers in
1:03:39
that area, we're not just going to bow down and be like, Nehemiah, or the greatest, just let us know
1:03:42
what we can do to help. And so for all of you guys that are moving in that direction, just
1:03:46
understand that those things will happen to you. And I've heard other people talk about it before
1:03:50
is like Satan's not worried about you until he's worried about you. Okay. So when you're a non-Christian,
1:03:55
he doesn't really have to worry about you. You've been romanced by the world. You've been romanced
1:03:59
by these other, you know, a biblical, you know, a godly, you know, worldviews and philosophies. And now
1:04:05
all of a sudden, you're reading the Bible and you're praying and you're doing all those things,
1:04:08
go back to the screw tape letters, you're, you're seeing this with warm wood and you're seeing this
1:04:12
with with those types of individuals. It's like, now you're in the fight. Okay, you weren't in the
1:04:17
fight before. So you shouldn't expect slings and arrows heading your way. But now you're in it. But
1:04:21
guys, we're gonna have to, I was gonna, okay, that was ending with the thump, you know, this is,
1:04:28
this is a, he ends, he ends that in response with the perfect, the God of heaven will make us prosper
1:04:34
and we, his servants will arise and build. Yeah. And there's this God will, God will prosper us,
1:04:40
but we are also going to do the work. What a perfect response to their, you know, coming into
1:04:46
try to foil this, this whole plan. Even the last part, Matt, but you have no portion
1:04:51
or right claim in Jerusalem. It's like, if you're wondering where you're at in this setup,
1:04:56
there, that's the gauntlet. Yeah, that is absolutely the guy I'm like, dang, yeah, guys, there's,
1:05:02
there's so much in Nehemiah to again, if you were at all hesitant to anybody in the audience as to
1:05:07
why I said Nehemiah was one of my favorite books, you know, this is one of those chapters that should
1:05:11
really, really allow you to understand that more, but we're gonna have to leave it there for now.
1:05:15
But come back next Sunday, where we're gonna dig into Nehemiah three, and you might look at
1:05:20
Nehemiah three and read Nehemiah three and be like, what in the world are these guys going to do with
1:05:24
that? Guys, we're wizards over here. We're just the smartest dudes that have ever spoken,
1:05:28
and stop it, Eric, we are the smartest guys that ever said words into a microphone. So we're
1:05:33
gonna absolutely blow your guys's mind. So make sure you read that so you're prepared for next week.
1:05:36
But before I let you guys go, we are gonna do a quick resilience boost and in Daunted Life,
1:05:40
our mission is equipping men to push back darkness with content that for just spiritual, mental,
1:05:44
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Guys, the way that we're able to pull things off like the forging table, all the stuff that we're
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1:06:08
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1:06:27
Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook and check out our website for everything else,
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And as always, we want to thank the band August Burns Red for allowing us to use their music for
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1:06:48
I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual,
1:06:54
mental and physical resilience, keep seeking the Lion of Judah.
1:07:18
[Music]