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Welcome back to the Forging Table, the mission of Undaunted Life is equipping
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into pushback darkness with content that forges spiritual, mental and physical resilience.
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At the Forging Table, you'll see a group of regular guys forging spiritual resilience
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by digging into God's Word, and we're welcoming all of you to come along on the journey with
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us.
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That's Jake.
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That's Ryan.
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That's Matt.
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Guys, we're digging into Nehemiah 7 today.
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And one quick note on Nehemiah 7 right from the beginning, there are certain parts
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of the Bible that are super easy to skip because it seems like nothing's there that as you're
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going through it, and maybe you've just got done with Romans, and it's like every sentence,
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every verse of Romans is just astonishing and like, it's just such a big deal.
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And then you get to certain parts of the Bible and they just kind of seem like a slog.
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If it seems like a slog, maybe you should really think about what you're seeing there
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because there's probably a whole lot more there than what you recognize.
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So that's just kind of the basic beginning to Nehemiah 7.
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But again, from last week with Nehemiah 6, the wall is rebuilt.
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It's done.
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Right?
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What they set out to do, what Nehemiah set out to do, when he risked his life by asking
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for, you know, a leave of absence from King Art of Xerxes court as the cut bear, it's
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done.
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And it wasn't without its opposition.
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And for a lot of us, and I think we mentioned this last week, we get to this thing where
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we've accomplished the goal and then we think we've arrived.
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And then we think there's there's nothing else that needs to be done, but there's clearly
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more that needs to be done.
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So Jake, if you wouldn't mind read verses one through three of Nehemiah 7, please.
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Sure.
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Now, when the wall had been built, and I had set up the doors and the gatekeepers, the
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singers and the Levites had been appointed, I gave my brother, Hananiah, and ananiah,
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the governor of the castle charge over Jerusalem, where he was a more faithful and Godfearing
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man than many.
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And I said to them, let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot.
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And while they are still standing guard, let them shut the bar, shut and bar the doors,
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point guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, summit their guard posts and some
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in front of their own homes.
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So the thing is, is right here from the beginning, the work's done, but the defense of the work
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is not the, it is an ongoing project, not a project that is simply finished.
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And so I think that's an important thing here.
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And there's, there's a lot of context here that, you know, if it's interesting to you
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guys, you can get into it, but, you know, why they wanted to wait until the heat of the
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day to open up the gates, because typically it was opened very, very early in the morning,
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but as part of their defense of what they just got through doing, they wanted to adjust
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that.
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And again, Nehemiah being the consummate manager, the consummate politician, he was ready to
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go with gatekeepers, singers, Levites.
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And then he appointed a man, so basically he gave some of his power away to a God-fearing
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and faithful man to be the governor of the castle and in charge over Jerusalem.
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So there's so many just basic business and leadership lessons here, even just in the
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first part to where it's like, you've accomplished your goal, you were the main guy.
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And then the very first thing you did is you basically assigned a manager over something
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else, you assigned a captain.
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And again, just in the first few verses, like that's a big deal.
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All this going on all at once.
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And then I did the worst job of setting anybody up, because everyone just looked at me and
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went, not only is he ugly, not only is he a ginger, but also he makes terrible points.
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So should I just, should I just leave you guys?
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Well, I think the delegation of these things and that Nehemiah does, like he obviously
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is, this is not for his glory, or you could probably see some, I'm going to do all these
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things because I don't trust these people.
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He trusts God for his promise, but then he also trusts other people to help carry out
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what God has called him to do.
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And what a great lesson in leadership.
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And Nehemiah is just a book chock full of lessons in leadership.
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I think that's a, what a humble, what a humble approach to say, I'm going to let these people
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do this thing.
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A sign of the people, these other things, instead of going, I want, I want the glory.
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I want to do it.
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You know what I found interesting was the first people he considers in terms of guarding
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the walls, okay, he, he brings out the gatekeepers, singers and the Levites.
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These are all worship officials, okay, he's not, he's not putting an army on the wall.
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It's not about, it's not about might.
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It's about worship.
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So the first thing that he comes up with in terms of, how am I going to defend this city
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from future attack?
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Well, the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to put people in place to honor God.
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That's first.
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Yeah.
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I wonder as well, because I, I definitely didn't think about that, Jake.
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I wonder if that even attaches to what we saw in Nehemiah six to where it's like, okay,
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what did Tobias and Sam ballot and Gesham, they tried to set him up as, oh, well, we heard
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through the grapevine that you wanted to make yourself a king.
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And so I wonder if that was even that, if that was intentional, because if it's like, okay,
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if you fortify the city and then you basically have mercenaries or a standing army there,
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it's like, well, yeah, that kind of does lend credence to what those, those guys were saying.
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I wonder if that, that had a part of it as well.
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I think you're right.
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I mean, honestly, if you think about it, the first thing that you would do, I mean, when
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you talk about, I like what King George said about George Washington, it's like, whenever
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he, if George Washington said that he was going to resign, you know, basically as commander
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in chief of the US Army, whenever they finally defeated the British, King George said, if
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he does that, he'd be the greatest man in history, okay.
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In this scenario with Nehemiah, you're going, if he had an army, he rebuilt this wall.
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He defends Jerusalem.
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He has an amazing stronghold.
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But if the first thing he was doing was, I'm putting an army on the wall to defend it.
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That's the thing I'm doing first.
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Absolutely.
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Artaxerxes would be kind of crazy not to think that what does this guy do in down there?
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I'm a little skeptical of what his motivations are.
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I trusted that guy.
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Mm hmm.
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When I think it's important, it reminds me, so you mentioned George Washington, so Cincinnati's,
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so the, the Roman general that was brought into basically uphold the Republican as soon
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as he had all the power in the most powerful, uh, people group on the planet.
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He gave it away and just went back to his farm.
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And the thing is, is that is a very romantic story.
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It's a story that it has a lot of lessons to it.
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But what if Rome fell immediately, then we wouldn't be remembering Cincinnati's as this
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great, moral, upstanding guy would be like, Hey, you did part of the job, like, awesome.
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But we needed you like in the long term.
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And I mean, even reminded of my favorite movie gladiator.
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So when, uh, when, uh, Maximus that they've, they've won, they've defeated all of the,
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the rebels, they've defeated all these different people and he's ready to go home.
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And the, the emperor is like, well, I need you now more than ever.
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It's like you did everything you needed to do, but now Rome requires more service.
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And so it's like the job simply is not done.
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And that gets us really into verse five.
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Uh, Mack, can you reverse five please, of course, then my God put it into my heart to
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assemble the nobles in the officials and the people to be enrolled by genealogy.
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And I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up at the first.
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And I found written in it dot, dot, dot.
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So the, the point here, because, um, they've rebuilt the walls and that could be your
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Cincinnati's moment to where it's like, all right, I'm going to go back and be cut, buried
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to Kingard Xerxes, but the work is not done.
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That is an enormous first part of the project, but now it's time to rebuild the people.
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And so it's the purpose was to repopulate Jerusalem, uh, now that the walls have been
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rebuilt and they want that the inhabitants to be, you know, of Jewish descent, then, you
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know, they want it to be of the covenant people.
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And you know, we all just got through talking about this.
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So we'll, uh, off air.
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And so we'll kind of let you all behind behind the curtain a little bit.
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So I was nervous about recording Nehemiah seven because in contravention of what I said
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to start this episode, I was like, well, there's not really a lot here.
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And Jake, you kind of said the same thing.
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And Ryan, you kind of said the same thing.
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And then apparently there's one smart person at this table and he's sitting to my right.
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And that's Matthew Grassmeyer.
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Matthew Gregory Grassmeyer.
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No, no.
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Dang it.
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What's your middle name?
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Raw.
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Gregory is my brother.
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Oh, God, I'm an idiot.
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Don't let him raise.
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Sorry.
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Sorry.
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My name is Ray.
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I just even said the wrong.
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Sorry.
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My brother's name is Gregory Ross.
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My name is my middle name is I don't feel as bad for ruining your middle name because
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that's you that it's never happened.
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You never read Charles something about the grandfather's name was Ray the time warp of
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the forging table.
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It kind of helps.
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He does that.
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So again, I go ahead, Ryan, before we get into that, because I know we're going to really
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extrapolate into this next.
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There was one thing I wanted to bring up in the last chapter or the last couple of verses.
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I think that we didn't recognize was Nehemiah's humbleness.
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How he humbled himself and he shared leadership with Hananiah and Hana and brought the men
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as governor.
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I think that's a that that's a huge thing to look at like he knows the work still needs
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to be done.
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But then he also shares the leadership with two other guys.
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One guy who he says is more faithful and God fearing man than many like for him to recognize
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that.
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I mean, you're Nehemiah right now.
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You're like, you know, I know God's doing all this.
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Like he's putting a lot of faith in God and what's going on here in the Jerusalem.
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And he even points out guys who are more faithful than he is, which is pretty amazing.
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Well, what were you saying before?
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Because before we record, we typically kind of get a sense of where everybody's at, but
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you were saying something else about kind of even in these these first few verses about
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like when when Paul was talking about the armor of God and the in the different things
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because it's like, yeah, you need literal armor to defend yourself.
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But then there's also some other things that that need to be done.
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You need righteousness and you need truth.
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And I mean, we kind of saw that in the last chapter as well where, you know, he put on
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the breast, the belt of truth in regards to the arrows that were being flung at him by
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sandballot and the other guys to buy a aggression, but then you also get sure I'm sorry, I just
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don't want Joe be to get on me.
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Joe be Mark listens to all of these and he takes notes about all the things that we say
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wrong.
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You're trying to find your own business.
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Joe, I'm like, I did for the I now, whatever Joe is on your show, I listen to every word
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he says.
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Like I'm going to get him.
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Don't mess up.
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Joby Martin.
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I'm going to get you, Joby.
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No, um, gash him.
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But then he also looked at, um, you know, the, uh, we looked at the belt of truth.
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I haven't pulled up right here.
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So I'll, I'll read it real quick.
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Um, therefore take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist on the
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evil day and having done everything, stand firm, stand firm, therefore having belted
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your waste and truth, which is what Nehemiah did, belted his waste and truth and putting,
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um, ending, stopping whatever the, uh, sandballot, gash him and Tobiah were trying to do and,
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and ruining his name, but then stand firm, therefore having belted the waste of truth
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and having put on the breastplate of righteousness.
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I think that's what he did.
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He put on the breastplate of righteousness and we're seeing that right now and that
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he put his trust in God.
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He held to what God's law was and the righteousness of that.
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Then he's even pointing out the men who are righteous among him to help lead these people.
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Like you brought up the, uh, Levites, the worshipers and now we're, we're leading a ragtag group
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of people.
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I mean, it's like the little giants right here, you know, going up against the Cowboys and,
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and he's like, you know, I can't do this on my own.
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You know, and so I just think it's, I think it's a beautiful picture of looking at Nehemiah's
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humbleness.
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It's just, I don't think I'd be that humble in this situation.
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There's so much, there's so much symbolism here too.
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You look at, at David as he defeats Goliath, you have this massive army, Saul's got an
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army.
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They're all afraid.
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What is David has?
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David has the word of God, David has God on his side.
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I come to you in the name of God and he kills Goliath like he wasn't, you know, an army
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of a thousand people.
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Now, David was no, he wasn't some, you know, scrawny, weak little kid compared to Goliath.
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He was compared to Goliath.
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He sure was, um, and I, there's just God uses so many things, so many times throughout
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history and throughout the word, like I, you know, when you said that, I thought, man,
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David is a perfect example of that.
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He was worshiping God and God used him to deliver his people, started to take us off
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track.
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And that's, that's actually really good because again, it's, you're not going to get many
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commentaries.
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I would point something like that or draw that correlation, but there's even some stuff
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coming up in Nehemiah that I was just like, Oh, that, that relates to something like really
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minute that's in the Psalms and it just kind of gives credence to the fact that like this,
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this isn't, you know, the Bible isn't like a book as much as it is a library, a collection
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of stories that all tell one massive meta narrative about, you know, the gospel and the
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saving grace that we're offered. And so, uh, but Matt, I just want to kind of tee you up
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a little bit to talk about this because so if you read the first five verses of Nehemiah
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seven, you could then get into verse six and be like, Oh boy, there's a bunch of names.
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I can't pronounce.
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There's a bunch of numbers and this isn't supposed to be the book of numbers.
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So what exactly is happening here and you can just buzz right through it and get all the
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way in and be like, okay, let's go ahead and get into a, you know, eight, you know, where
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Ezra comes and this is going to be great. But you, you found this verse seven, you found
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a lot of weight in what we had not in verse seven, but in chapter seven rather.
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Yeah, I think so this list is essentially the same list that's used in, in Ezra, but
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couple, the first thing that really stuck out to me was, and I found the book of the
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genealogy of those who came up at first, and I found written in it, and it goes through
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this list. And I think if we camp out here for a little bit, reading through these names,
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God reads these names. God knows these people. And if we take that to a personal application,
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God knows his people and God called specific people back to Jerusalem. He's rebuilding a
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application, not of random people. He's rebuilding his nation of specific people. These are all
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specific historical names that God is calling back. And so if we look at the way this plays
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out again, as God calls his people by name, he doesn't just say you are my people, he
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knows us and he knows us from the foundation of the earth. And the Lamb's book of life
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was, was what came to mind. And it's mentioned seven times in the book of Revelation, but
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chapter 21, I'll just turn that open and read, read that or chapter 20, sorry, read the, read
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the end of chapter 20. It just goes, then I saw a great white throne and him who was
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seated on it from his presence earth and sky fled away and no place was found for them.
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And I saw the dead great and small standing before the throne and books were opened, then
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another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was
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written in the books according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who
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were in it, death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. And they were judged each
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of them according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown down in the lake
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of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found
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written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. So what an amazing
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picture we have, even in the Old Testament of God calling his people by their specific
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names. If you weren't on this list of genealogy, you weren't coming back to the city. You weren't
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part of the rebuilt nation. And I think it's such an important thing to think about. If
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you're written in the Lamb's book of life, you are covered and clothed in Christ's righteousness.
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And what a great and glorious thing to sit in. And so that's what I took out of that.
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So I'd love to just talk through that a little bit with you guys on what that means because
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you can get, oh, this name, this name, this name, but your name's in there. If you are
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in Christ, your name is in there. Jake is written in there. And that's such a cool thing to
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think about. Where cool is probably cool is probably the biggest understatement that
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I could use. But it's a glorious thing. It's a great truth.
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Yeah, I think sometimes when you start getting into this, like when you start reading these
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list of names in the Bible, because I struggle to, I mean, truthfully, I'm reading this last
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night as I'm trying to prepare. And I'm like, well, all right, I'm going to skip through
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this. Where do they stop talking about different people? And I mean, I'm an accountant. So the
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numbers immediately started like getting interesting and I start getting my 10 key out. And I'm
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like, does this all add up? Does this? But at the same time, I mean, think about, I don't
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know, think about whenever you look at like your own family tree, you know, and how fascinated
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we can be by like, Oh, I was related to this person, you know, this is no different. I
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mean, you're reading your family tree right here. It all goes back. You know, you're going
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back to Abraham, you're going back to Noah, you're going back to Adam and Eve, even this
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is, this is your own family tree right here. And it's kind of it can be hard to think about
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that because we are so far removed from it. But you know, when you start a creation, this
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is your own family. I think one thing to look at too is, you know, they're coming back,
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they were exiled. They were, they were scattered across the Babylonian Empire when the first
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wave came through with Nebuchadnezzar. And now they're coming back to Jerusalem, which
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was virtually empty with broken walls. So now they're coming back into a new, a new
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era, a new, what you say, maybe a new covenant. And so it's, it's, it's more of a beginning
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now rather than we look at this and we look at a past, like, Oh, look at all the genealogy.
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Let's look at the past because that's what we know from Matthew. You know, but now if
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we look at these names and they're pretty important names, because they're an Ezra as
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well, that they came back and they inhabited Jerusalem and they brought a future to Jerusalem.
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Like this is their future coming back. And, and I think that's one thing to look at when
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we're talking about what the situation you were talking about about the Lamb's book of
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life is that we're coming back to the righteousness of what God has planned for us, you know,
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we're all exiles and sin. And because of Christ, we can be righteous in front of him. We can,
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we can be a new body. We can be a new life.
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I think also back to Isaiah, when he's, you know, he's feeling alone. And I think it's
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Isaiah and God tells him, no, there's, there's a remnant in my is not alone. He is not the
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only one he gets these people together, but they're not alone. There's a remnant that God
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is calling. And I want to be part of the remnant. Like, I want to, I want to, I want
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to run after that. I want to seek that. I want to be in the Lamb's book of life and God calls
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his remnant. Like you were saying, we're all exiled through sin, but God calls us back.
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And if you don't think the gospel is preached in the Old Testament, I would encourage you
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to think about that. Because man, right here, I could, even in Nehemiah, which truthfully,
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I had not really ever dug into. And then Kyle said it was his favorite book of the Bible.
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And I was like, Oh, that's interesting. But I respect Kyle's opinion. I could see that.
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Okay, that's cool. And then our Sunday school teacher did a series, a Wednesday night series
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on it. And then as I started getting into this, man, that has turned into one of my favorite
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books too. And the gospel is preached very powerfully here. It's built on leadership.
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It's just like, how can I be a leader? And when I look at myself as a father, and I look
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at myself as a person within the church with, you know, my friends, how can I lead them
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to the gospel? And like, how can I lead them to righteousness? And Nehemiah does that and
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Nehemiah shows us his leadership is not from his own hand, but the leadership of God. Like,
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he's let's God just take control. And I think that's something that's hard for us all to
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do is to let God take control.
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Another interesting aspect here. These are all people in exile. Okay. No cell phones.
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How are they getting back? Okay. How is he finding these people? This is going to take
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a lot of effort, a lot of work. And you know, I'm naming these people. These are the people
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who get to come back. I've got to get them. I've got to basically tell them, okay, here's
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who gets to stay. Here's who doesn't. And yet he just spent all this time rebuilding
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this wall from rebel. And at the end of that, he's like, you know, I think the natural human
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inclination here would be like, okay, I'm done. I rebuilt the wall. I'm good here. And
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yet you can see like in the very first line of verse five here, then my God put it into
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my heart. He's still going back to God. He's done. He's done with the wall. I mean, what
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he's done, most people would have talked about him for generations. And yet the first thing
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he's doing is I'm going back to God. I'm going to talk to him again. And then God's
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like, yep, I got more for you to do. You know, you got to go find these people. They got
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to go all come back to Jerusalem. They're going to get to stay here. They're the remnant.
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So with that on the remnant point, I'm curious. I think this is why you were why you were
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talking about earlier, Jake is I feel a connection to my ancestry, right? So Irish Choctaw Indian,
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like that that's interesting. And you know, maybe not interesting to y'all, but it's interesting
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to me because it's part of my story of who I am. But I feel like in modernity, even with
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all of our technology, all the genealogies, all the 23s and me's and all that kind of
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stuff, it's interesting, but not directive. And so maybe I'm maybe I'm reading too poetically
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into this. But when we get into this genealogy and kind of the point you were making mad
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and taking it to revelation and just these the importance of these lists, at that time,
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your your involvement or I guess your your membership in a people group, it wasn't interesting.
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You directed everything that you did. And because again, like, you know, we're in this
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modern moment where, you know, you get victim status by immutable characteristics that you
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can't control. And so it's like, why am I sitting here in Edmond, Oklahoma? And I have
24:01
a Irish descent. Well, there was an enormous potato famine that almost killed everyone
24:06
that lived on that tiny little island. But a lot of those people and my ancestors got
24:10
out of there and came to America were treated absolutely horrifically during that process.
24:16
But you know, I don't feel a connection to potatoes now, like in where it's any different,
24:22
but like when I went to Dublin and I saw the the memorials there in some of the artwork
24:29
that depicted the potato famine, it did feel different than somebody who doesn't have a
24:34
connection there. And I can't explain it. When I hear like when I heard the the Celtic
24:39
music and things over there, something was different that I couldn't quite explain. You'll
24:42
see people that come from different parts of the world and the mood or the food or the
24:47
music and hits them a little bit different. But that's I guess something here for me is
24:51
like these people weren't just interested in where they came from. Like it basically
24:55
gave them a plan of action for how they're going to move into the future. Maybe I'm reading
25:00
too much into it, but that's just constantly I think that's a good point. But like these
25:04
people, you have to think, okay, we have we have conceded that we are we have been exiled.
25:11
We pulled out of our the city of our fathers. I'm okay with that. I'm living with that.
25:20
We are all we are all in that. And you look at the Tower of Babel, God scatters his people.
25:26
People are all over the world. But even if you don't have that connection to genealogy,
25:33
you're all adopted into the family of God into the fold that Paul talks about adoption
25:39
in a very like legal way. God stands or Christ stands and says, I will take this person like
25:49
I will adopt this person into my family. And that's that's that's the story I read here
25:56
where all these people, okay, I'm here. I'm just going to be here. And then God says,
26:01
no, no, no, come on back. Y'all are part of my family. And if you read these names, it
26:07
can be very boring. These names are not boring to God. God reads these names and is like,
26:12
I love this person. I the sons of era, like he reads those in a way he knows those people
26:20
and we can we can we can very quickly. I'm going to go through this list and I want to
26:26
just get through it because it's really where I want to be. God is not reading the list that
26:30
way. God put it in here for a reason because it's important to go that brings up an interesting
26:36
point as well. And don't lose the tran thought y'all are on either, but the whenever you
26:42
go through a tragedy, right? So 911 or the Vietnam Memorial or if there's a school shooting
26:49
where there's, you know, a dozen or more victims, it's easy to just kind of like just go right
26:54
through and not even think about the list. But that's why at different points on on my
26:58
show when we're talking about these horrible things that have happened where I I try to
27:03
list those people. Because that's not just a list of people that like those are those
27:09
are people that were loved by entire communities of people. And so yeah, they may just end up
27:15
being a name on a memorial. But I mean, even recently, my my cousin, who's a police officer
27:20
that was killed in the line of duty last year, you know, he was part of, you know, the, you
27:24
know, the celebration that they do every year in Washington, DC, where they basically talk
27:28
about, you know, officers that have been lost in that year. And his name is now in a memorial
27:33
with other first responders that have died, different things like that. And it's really
27:37
easy for people that don't know my cousin didn't know my family to be like, you know,
27:42
that's a name and all that so tragic. But it's like, no, the ramifications of that are
27:45
going to ripple for decades and for generations. And like, that's, that's not a small thing.
27:50
And so that's another thing whenever you're reading through this, if this is God's word,
27:55
these names are here for a reason. And the reason may not be as profound to you as, you
28:01
know, the last book of Matthew where it talks about the resurrection and how that's basically
28:05
how we're able to have, you know, payment for our sins so we can be before a holy and
28:09
just God, maybe it's not going to hit the same, but it doesn't make it unimportant.
28:13
It is important, even if you don't understand why.
28:15
I think one thing to look at is why are these? Why did he choose these people? You know,
28:22
I'm going to Romans 11. I'm going into Romans 11.
28:26
So this is fantastic, but great. I wonder what he's going to say next. So, you know, it all
28:36
starts out, I say then God has not rejected his people. Has he far from it or I to him
28:41
an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected
28:46
his people whom he foreknew or do you know what the scripture says in the passage about
28:51
Elijah and how he pleads with God against Israel. Lord, they have killed your prophets,
28:56
they have torn down your altars and I alone am left and they are seeking my life. But
29:02
what is the divine response to him? I have kept for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed
29:08
the need of all. That's what that's when I was, I was, I was, I was wrong male, ball
29:14
male, you say it's made. I said, you know, Gordon Ramsey says basil instead of basil.
29:19
He's also British. They say, they say aluminum. So that's what Elijah was who I was thinking
29:29
of. So I'll correct my air earlier. Sorry, Joby. I really do. We need to start making
29:36
an honest or just say, sorry, Joby. I think that's a good point. Like God, I mean, there's
29:44
plenty of examples in the Old Testament where I didn't choose you because you did any
29:49
thing awesome. Yeah, I chose you because I love you. And is that not our relationship
29:57
with our kids too? Like, I love you because I love you. You're like, you're mine. Like
30:03
some days you're horrible. No, my kids got to do stuff or like, my, my love is super
30:07
conditional. God's love is unconditional. He's better as we see in tulip. I think one of
30:16
the things I like your point there though, Matt, about, you know, who he's choosing and
30:22
he's choosing them because he loves them. But they're in the grand scheme of things.
30:26
Most of the people he's choosing in the Old Testament, you know, at the time of their
30:29
choosing are generally unremarkable, like sometimes downright. I feel like that's why
30:35
I'm chosen because I'm unremarkable. But I agree. But the point is, I mean, I think,
30:42
again, talking through some discernment here, you know, powerful people invoking God all
30:47
the time. I don't think that's who God chooses. He's going to choose the humble. He's going
30:52
to choose those who seem relatively unremarkable to deliver those messages to you. I think a
30:57
lot of times when people invoke God in order to get you to do something and they're in
31:03
that position of power over you, sometimes you do need to have that little bit of a,
31:08
I don't know, there should be some skepticism. There should be. Yeah. This is probably not
31:13
who God would choose to necessarily deliver that message all the time. No, God is using
31:17
that person. He just might be using that person in a way to judge the nations. There you go.
31:22
Romans 13 says, so we have our own Nebuchadnezzar. Yeah. Yeah. So with that in mind, Matt, I want
31:29
to kind of get back to a point that you made whenever you were talking about this earlier
31:34
about how when a lot of people read the Bible, they don't see the gospel in the Old Testament.
31:39
I think part of it is that we don't have a full understanding of the Bible, of the context.
31:46
Cause again, we're, we're so inundated and marinated in this culture of bumper sticker Christianity
31:51
or something even recently that I've been thinking about. It's like, what I was, I
31:54
call it, it's like country music theology to where it's like, we talk about the man upstairs
31:59
and you know, how I'm too good at praying. But if I did, I'd do this and it's just like,
32:04
okay. And so it's where you can sound Christianity and not actually be saying anything. And it
32:12
sounds good when you say like, Oh, Jesus is my homeboy or man, the man upstairs is he's
32:16
leading my steps and it's going to be all right. And you know, I just feel his presence
32:21
when I got my Evan root and I'm out there on the pond. And it's like, that's fine. But
32:25
it's so vapid. It's just as vapid as going to a church that we talked about that has just
32:32
the TED talk, you know, topical preaching. And again, there's, there's not a categorical
32:36
problem with topical preaching. But if on top of that topic, isn't the word of God,
32:41
then we're going to struggle. And we're, we're going to kind of deviate. So talk a little
32:46
bit more because you just kind of drop that in the bucket there about when people read
32:49
through the Old Testament, when they read through Ezra or Nehemiah or first and second
32:53
Kings or whatever, they don't see the gospel there. Like it's easy to see it in parts of
32:58
Isaiah to where it's like, you know, he was crushed for our iniquities. And it's like,
33:01
he was his body was pierced like, Oh, God, that's Jesus right there. But it's not as
33:04
obvious everywhere else.
33:05
So if you think of the gospel and salvation, more in terms of deliverance, we are delivered
33:17
from our sins and our iniquities. I think that's a good place to start because then you like
33:23
all throughout the Old Testament, God's people are delivered and they are there is salvation
33:31
all throughout. And the Old Testament is quoted so often. In fact, I think in Revelation,
33:39
it's like almost two thirds of Revelation is quoting Old Testament prophecy or Old Testament
33:46
Scripture. And the gospel like the gospel starts in Genesis three. And you know, Noah,
33:56
the Ark is the gospel. There's only one door to the Ark. Jesus is the Ark. Like there's
34:01
only one way in and the water's coming. But if you're in that boat, you're good. The boat
34:09
is the Lamb's book of life. If you if you start to Joseph is a Christ figure, Nehemiah
34:16
is a Christ figure. Now, none of them live up to Christ's like godliness. None of them
34:26
are perfect, but they are our our Sunday school teacher says they are they are a dress rehearsal
34:33
to the coming Christ who will deliver all of his people. And I would encourage anybody
34:41
who who doubts that to just go read some of go read the New Testament, but then go read
34:48
some of these stories and you can easily see some of these things. Oh, okay, Noah, Moses,
34:59
Joseph, Nehemiah, all of these, all of these people are pointing to Christ and the whole,
35:05
the whole Bible points to Christ. I feel like an Old Testament just brings the
35:12
beautifulness of the gospel. Like you can have you can have the gospel. People are going
35:17
to hear the gospel without knowing Testament, but you're not going to appreciate it as much
35:21
as unless you look at the Old Testament. And I think that's one thing that will, you know,
35:27
not to get on to what we're going to talk about Nehemiah, but there's going to be a
35:31
certain point Nehemiah where people are going to look at the beauty of what the Old Testament
35:37
is. And then it's going to show them who they are. And then from that, they're know that
35:43
they're in need of a righteous figure, a righteous savior. Yeah. And so I think that's that's
35:48
the beauty of the Old Testament. I mean, it's just I thought I was I was on the whole, you
35:53
know, Andy Stanley thing, like, we don't need the Old Testament back when I was a cultural
35:57
Christian. You know, we just need the new Testament. And now I'm like, man, I totally
36:01
missed the gospel on what it really was when I didn't take when I took for granted what
36:06
the Old Testament was because I was like, why did why did Christ die for me? I'm a good
36:12
person. Pastor just told me last Sunday, you know, and so I think something that's interesting
36:19
in here. I mean, most of the old, I mean, much of the Old Testament is basically a story
36:24
of the Israelites, wanting their Messiah, wanting that savior, wanting the, I mean,
36:31
if you actually, if you think about it, I mean, even in, you know, as you're in Nehemiah,
36:36
typically, in history, we're actually one book at one point. And they've been separated,
36:42
but you have a prophet and you have a king, you have the story of a prophet and the story
36:46
of a king. When you have David, you have David, he's a king, but he has his own prophet that
36:54
was with Samuel, who was bringing him to who's kind of anointing him. They're generally not
37:02
one person. You'll notice there's always this separation between a prophet and a king and
37:06
a priest. There you go. I'm sorry, not prophet priest. Thank you. No, prophet, priests and
37:11
king. That's it. But where do they all come together? And they finally all come together
37:16
in the New Testament in the faith and in Christ Jesus, who is our savior, prophet, priests
37:21
and king is our savior. Yeah, absolutely. That's a great point. So I, there's, it's actually,
37:26
there's only one other and I'll deep dive a little bit. But McKill's a deck is actually
37:31
the only other prophet priest. And he was the only other person that got priest of Israel
37:35
and king of Israel. But he's mentioned like four times in the Bible, he was who Abraham
37:40
tied to. But at the same time, he was not even the Messiah. It was Jesus came back.
37:46
But Jesus came from or what is that he came from that life? Does he, yeah, does Hebrews
37:51
talk about that? I think it is a line of McKizzet. McKizzet? McKizzet? Yeah, whatever. Sorry,
37:57
Joey. Look, I could, I did a Bible study over Hebrew. I led up the first Bible study I ever
38:04
led was over Hebrews. And, and oh, yeah. And I got the, I got the McKills of deck heavy chapter.
38:11
I told my wife, I was like, I never thought that whenever I was going to start studying
38:14
the Bible, that I was going to have to start working on my, my Hebrew pronunciations. This
38:19
was not something I was expecting. Well, let me, so that brings up some of the
38:23
mind, like all of us, I think are fans of Alistair bag on this podcast. And of course,
38:27
you've got the just one of the greatest moments of any sermon that I've ever heard where it's,
38:33
you know, basically when he said the man on the middle cross said I could come. And you
38:37
know, if you haven't heard that part, like literally just search Alistair bag, the man
38:40
on the middle cross and listen to the entire sermon. But even that snippet has basically
38:44
gone viral and been everywhere. But one thing I'm trying to remember and I'll bastardize
38:49
it just a little bit on unfortunately, but he was just, you know, he's basically saying,
38:53
you know, the, the one of the guys I was being crucified next to Jesus, you know, gets up
38:58
there and he gets to the pearly gates as we're, you know, taught colloquially in culture.
39:03
And you know, he's talking to the people trying to, he's trying to get into heaven and he's
39:07
the other angels. Thank you. Sorry, Joe. But like, but the, so he's talking, he's talking
39:12
to him and it's like, okay, how are we going to let him in? And then they ask him, I was
39:15
like, well, what is your, what is your doctrine of faith? And do you understand the thing
39:21
about total the private, like he's asking, he's asking him, he's asking him these very
39:24
specific theological terms, these things that you learn in Bible college or at seminary.
39:31
And the, the, he basically describes it like, you know, the, the thief on the cross was
39:35
just basically like, I don't know anything about all that stuff. And you're reminded
39:39
about, you know, when these people were healed by Jesus in the New Testament, and then they
39:43
go off to tell about him and people are asking him, like, well, how did he do this? And what
39:47
was the thing? And does he know the laws and does he all that? And these people are like,
39:50
I don't know what you just said. But all I know is I was blind. I can see now. All I
39:54
know is I was paralyzed. My legs didn't work. And now I'm running around, like with my
39:58
mat over my shoulder. And so I wonder, and that that's kind of where my struggle in this
40:04
maybe goes back to a point we've talked about earlier on the show where it's like, you can't
40:07
just read the Bible, you have to study the Bible. Is it? I want to be fair with my question
40:12
here. Is it inappropriate for a new Christian to just stay in that naive where the only thing
40:20
they understand about anything in the Bible is that Jesus died for them. And they know
40:25
that's their only way to God. And they're going to put their faith in that. And then
40:28
they're going to live there. Or in what is what does the process look like from there
40:33
to where it's like, okay, but now we do need you to understand things further. Because some
40:37
people would say, hey, it's not bad that you're figuring out whether you're an Amalenius or
40:44
a dispensationalist or a cessationist or that that's all fine. But you're you're muddying
40:49
the waters like you're becoming smarter in the word and you're you're learning all these
40:53
big words that no one else knows how to pronounce. But it doesn't matter the gospels, all that
40:57
matters. Because that's where people that are big, Andy Stanley people are like, his
41:01
point is true. Like we need the resurrection. That is the center point of the faith categorically
41:07
he's correct. But how do we even know that? How do we even know to even look for a Savior
41:13
without the Old Testament? So that that is a very convoluted question. But I feel like
41:16
y'all are. Yeah. Everyone had a point. So I think I actually I'll go this. I actually
41:23
look it in two thoughts here. I think number one, hey, that is all you need. I mean, that's
41:29
a child like faith. I mean, that's what you're supposed to have. I don't really think that
41:34
there's any problem with having this. Well, this the new, you know, the New Testament,
41:39
the new covenant, that's that's all I actually need. And but to the going even drawing it
41:47
back into Nehemiah, we built the wall. Right. I have that wall. I know what I want. Now it's
41:53
time to defend it. And I think not having the knowledge of Scripture, not having the knowledge
41:59
of the word is I mean, that is how you guard your heart. So those temptations, those things
42:04
that are going to come to you over time. If you don't spend time in the word and try
42:09
and deepen your understanding, it becomes harder to keep on that walk with Christ. However,
42:16
in the grand scheme of things, yes, it's all you need. Yeah, I mean, if you look at if
42:22
you look at the Old Testament, you know, people are saved by faith alone. I mean, even New
42:25
Testament is faith alone. I mean, David's going to be in heaven. There was no Christ,
42:30
but Abraham's in heaven. Yeah, Abraham's in heaven. Moses is in heaven. But you bring
42:35
up Andy Stanley and Andy Stanley. Yeah, he may have the right message that the resurrection
42:39
is needed. But what is he doing to disciple his church? How is he discipling those people
42:44
that come to know Christ and are building that relationship? Because what we've seen in the
42:50
past is he's not discipling them very well, not biblically. You know, and so I think it's
42:56
twofold. It's you need to have that, but then you need to get yourself involved in the church
43:00
and have that yearning for, you know, God's word. And it could take time. I mean, I would
43:07
I could say I was saved when I was 12 years old. I didn't have a yearning for God's word
43:10
until 32. You know what we call that delayed sanctification. That's what I was talking
43:15
about with John Cooper. Like, yeah, where where's that gap come from? And is that appropriate?
43:19
There's a gap because like I knew I became saved. I was filled with the Holy Spirit. I
43:24
knew right and wrong. I still lived in the flesh. I mean, my wife and I lived together
43:28
before we were married. You know, I thought that was a great idea. Is it biblical? No,
43:33
was I added church that called me out, you know, and said, Hey, man, if you're going to
43:37
remember here, you know, this is the biblical view of marriage and cohabitation. No, they
43:42
didn't want to touch that. Why? Because it was a seeker sensitive church. They wanted
43:46
to be they wanted me to keep coming and keep tithing and just prop the numbers. And so that's
43:51
where it comes out when you're a Christian and you're building yourselves up. You need
43:56
to surround yourself with the right people with the people that are going to help mold
44:00
you and get you into the Bible and into God's word. Because if I would have had that early
44:05
on in life, maybe my sanctification would have been delayed. Yeah, I think that's a great point.
44:10
The point I would make is the Christian faith is certainly more than that. But it's absolutely
44:18
not less than that. Right. And in that same sermon, Alistair Begg says, because he starts
44:23
that sermon and he's in a church who you walk into a church, you can make some assumptions.
44:30
There's some saved people here. These are Christian people. But he says at the beginning,
44:35
the power of the message of the cross, and I should say at the very outset, especially
44:39
if somebody says, why choose such a topic for this evening? Is it really necessary to come
44:44
to an event like this to a place like this and address the matter of the centrality of
44:49
the cross? Well, I should say that I have not arrived here to tell you something that
44:53
you do not know, but rather that we would remind each other of that which we must never
44:59
forget. And that's one of my favorite sermons for sure. But like the gospel is something
45:04
that we should be preaching to ourselves constantly. And we can get into all the doctrines and
45:11
all of the theological discussions we want. But to your point, yes, it is, it is, we should
45:16
be so dogmatic about that that we're preaching ourselves, the gospel constantly. When you're
45:22
talking, I was reminded of what some would call the greatest sentence ever penned. Ephesians
45:31
one chapter three through 14. This is wordy, but I'm going to read this because this is
45:35
the gospel blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ was blessed us in Christ
45:42
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the
45:47
foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love, he predestined
45:53
us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of
45:57
his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved.
46:03
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according
46:07
to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making
46:12
known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ
46:19
as a plan for the fulfillness or for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things
46:25
in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined
46:30
according to the purpose of him who works all things to the according to the counsel of
46:36
his will, so that we who were the first hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
46:46
In him you also when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed
46:51
in him were sealed with a promised Holy Spirit, who was the guarantee of our inheritance until
46:56
we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. That is the gospel. God for
47:02
new us, he predestined us to be his children. I'm not trying to get into some theological
47:10
debates here, but God knew us from the foundation of the earth. Christ atoned for our sin and
47:15
then the Holy Spirit sealed us with the promise. Man, you talk about going to church for an
47:24
experience in an emotional high. If you don't get revved up by listening to that and what
47:29
the triune God has done for each and every one of us, and I don't know what to tell you,
47:34
because that's that's pretty powerful stuff right there. So I wonder with that. So here's
47:40
here's a struggle that I have that I feel like is related to what you just read and the point
47:44
that we've been making for the last 45 minutes or so. I think all of us would categorically
47:51
agree that we need to have the Bible or have the gospel preached to us. We need to remind
47:57
ourselves of the truth of the gospel, that that should be a constant companion to the
48:01
content we take in and our internal dialogue and all that would everybody agree with that
48:06
100% three checks, three checks. Here's my struggle. And I'm not about to contradict
48:12
what I just said, but you go to a church regardless of the type of church that it is, whether
48:18
it's, you know, a highly emotional church or even just a regular church. That's, you know,
48:22
just a little bit more subdued. Someone declares their faith in Christ. They get baptized.
48:31
They do any of those types of things. And then this is what we get kind of like an obligatory
48:37
clap. And it's not even fathomable or even comparable to the same people that go to a
48:46
stadium on a Saturday in the fall and their favorite college team with 18, 19 and 20
48:53
year old boys scores a touchdown and the elation and craziness that they feel, or even we were
48:59
talking about EPL before this, you know, you're a Tottenham fan, which you don't normally
49:04
get to cheer for anything. But maybe you're a fan of a team that wins games. And so it's
49:09
like when when your team scores a goal, you lose your mind. When your team wins the World
49:15
Series, you lose your mind. And but when somebody has their name written in the land's book
49:22
of life and there's an acknowledgement of that, it's just like, well, isn't that nice? Well,
49:26
blessed or hard. And then that the sweetest thing in the world. And I have struggled with
49:31
that. And I understand it because, you know, ultimately us as humans, we're all about the
49:35
bread and circus. Like, you know, we love that, but we're distracted from the greater things.
49:41
And again, I'm not hovering above my commentary because I have screamed myself horse positive
49:47
and negative at a ballgame. But I've never lost my mind and ripped my shirt off because
49:54
somebody declared their faith in Christ. Where I don't just want to default and be like,
49:58
Oh, that's Satan. And it's just like, but like, there's something, there's, there's
50:03
a sickness there inside the church and inside the hearts of believers. And I just I don't
50:08
know how to deal with that. Because there are churches that do a great job of celebrating.
50:12
I know we're given Jobe a hard time, but they do, they do beach baptism. And it is a party.
50:17
And they're like, and they're baptizing hundreds of people at a time right there in the ocean.
50:21
And it is like, it is a full on thing. And like, I feel like they're doing it right.
50:26
But like, that is certainly the minority. I mean, I was raised in a church, you know,
50:31
I was raised in the Catholic faith. We're baptized as an infant. Yeah. And I think that,
50:38
you know, when you start talking about, like a lot of faith has actually kind of been,
50:42
you know, spun off of that Catholic faith a little bit. I mean, it's all just kind of
50:47
outflow from it. Baptism has become a bit of a box checking activity, you know, where
50:54
well, that's just what you're supposed to do. I don't think that people quite understand
50:59
the ramifications of being saved and, you know, making that declaration of like, Nope,
51:04
I've been washed new. I'm coming out of this water as a new person. What is the actual ramifications
51:10
of that? You know, it's it does seem soft. When we go into the church and we actually
51:16
see that happening and it's just like, Oh, yay, okay, they check the box. My wife weeps
51:22
every time she watches baptism Sunday at our church. Every time she weeps. And what's ridiculous,
51:30
little convicting on myself here, I actually give her a hard time for it. And I'm going,
51:35
you know, it's like, you don't know these people. But she, she truly understands the
51:40
ramifications of this. What does this mean? Yeah. So what? Yeah. Steve Lawson says there
51:45
should always be a so what in your sermon? Yeah. Like, okay, that's great. So what Paul
51:53
uses therefore, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ
51:58
loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. That's also
52:02
a fusion chapter five. Yeah. So what? Yeah. What do we do? Then then what? I would love
52:08
I'd love to see a party with baptism. You know, that's almost baptized. Just this, this year
52:14
of February. And like, yeah, I teared up, you know, she got was. Yeah, I mean, it was it's
52:20
a beautiful sight, you know, and that's just my child. So seeing other children go up there
52:24
and get baptized, it's beautiful. You know, I feel like it loses its, its effect because
52:32
baptism isn't the saving grace. You know, it's belief repentance. It's a saving grace.
52:38
I mean, I was probably more excited when my son actually came to that conclusion than
52:42
I was when he was dipped in water, but still a beautiful thing. My wife and I have decided,
52:46
unfortunately, our son got, well, fortunately, he got baptized on his birthday. But if they
52:52
get baptized, it's a day that's not their birthday. That's going to be like a birthday
52:55
party for us and our family. Like that's something we're going to celebrate. And I get the reverence
53:00
of church. I mean, church is about God. It's a beautiful thing. Our church claps and everything.
53:05
But I love what Joby does. I think it's awesome that they throw a party and people are getting
53:09
baptized. And it's just, it's just a way to, you know, just celebrate the beautifulness
53:16
of somebody coming in saying in front of everybody, I am a believer in Christ. And it's the most
53:22
important team that you can declare your allegiance to. You know what I mean? Well, I think the
53:27
other thing, if you think about it, you know, Ryan, to your point, like, yes, I could see,
53:33
like when my daughters decide to make that step and say, I'm declaring this and they tell
53:38
me that they've declared that I'm going to go that I mean, I'm going to be so excited
53:42
and so emphatically like encouraging with them. However, at the same time, all those kids
53:49
that go through and get baptized, the adults that go through baptism. I don't know them.
53:55
And this is the first time they're declaring it to me. Like, this is the step I've decided
53:59
to take. And I'm sorry, but shame on us as Christians that the first time that they declare
54:06
this to a whole lot of other Christians that we are not hollering and wooing and doing
54:12
all those things we would do at a sports game, because this is their first step out into public
54:20
as I am now a follower of Jesus. We should be psychotically encouraging to them in those
54:27
very first moments. And we're not and we can even sub dude, we can even look at this as
54:31
a pragmatic business stance. This is a sale, right? I'm not I'm don't hear what I'm not
54:37
saying. Accepting the gospel is not a sale. But if you look at the sales cycle for customers,
54:47
the sale is made. That customer is either going to leave or stay with that company and
54:56
I don't care where you're at. If there's not a win for that customer, there's not a
55:01
celebration. If there's not a movement a calling to get something out of that sale, they're
55:07
going to leave. So there are whole industries, it's a billion dollar industry to keep customers
55:13
and it's the first 90 days you need to win. And here we are, like you said, golf clap
55:19
cool. Good for you. I'm wins lunch. And when that guy's wall has just been built up and
55:27
now he is at risk or she is at risk of these guys hiring false profits to tell him untruths,
55:36
we should be surrounding that person in love and saying, yes, this is awesome. We are so
55:41
glad you're here. This is amazing. And we should be celebrating that and encouraging
55:45
that. But yeah, I think we definitely have fallen short in a lot of ways. Not everybody
55:51
does. But think about who's paying attention. So you see this different places and it's
55:56
typically funny. So you'll see like a three year old that's watching a game and then
56:00
they see their dad like freak out or put his head in his hands or something like that.
56:04
And then they look at dad and then they do it. And then it's kind of cute and it's kind
56:07
of funny because they're they're modeling, right? They're modeling their behavior after,
56:11
you know, someone that they respect or just someone that's bigger than them, a bigger
56:14
chimp if that's your worldview. But modeling shared excitement. Imagine what would happen
56:19
because I have a three year old and one year old if they saw me get out of my mind over
56:25
my skis excited about somebody declaring their faith in Jesus. And the difference that that
56:30
would have in them and their development, then dad freaking out watching a st. Louis
56:34
Cardinals game or something like that. Because that's something that, you know, back in my
56:37
twenties, like the number of nights that I ruined, I talk about this every year whenever
56:40
I do my ways to be avoid being a crappy man that year, it's not let sports ruin your night.
56:46
And I remember my my wife at the time, we're six, seven years before having kids and she's
56:50
still still his wife. Still his wife. Yeah, he said wife at the time. Yeah. She they are
56:55
still married. Sorry, Joby. We're still, we're still super duper married. Okay, same woman.
57:02
But at the time, my wife who's still my wife said, I can't imagine having children with
57:07
someone like that, someone like you, like what you're doing right now. Like, this is a baseball
57:12
game in May. And like you're early in the season, like you're you're losing your mind.
57:18
My cubs are typically out of it by then. So you're going, you're going to work. You're
57:23
going to work and it's hard for you to talk to people because you're mad that that the
57:27
clothes are blue, the save, like with a thousand games to go in the season. Right. But even if
57:32
it was game seven of the World Series, it's like, this is how I remember going to a World
57:36
Series game. It was game two of the 2011 World Series and the Cardinals loss ended up winning
57:41
the World Series. But at the time, I'm like staying with friends like near St. Louis and
57:45
like, I couldn't even talk when I got back to their house. And here's this family that
57:49
have opened up their their home to my wife and I to stay there overnight. And I couldn't
57:53
talk, woke up the next morning, I could barely talk. So I'm so mad. I was so mad that my team,
57:57
my team lost a game. They were winning, right? But it's like, it just showed where I was
58:02
worshipping and what altar I was worshipping at. And if I had sons that were watching that,
58:07
and surely my sons have already seen, you know, bad parts of dad's personality and things
58:10
that dad's going to have to repent and ask their forgiveness for. But that that should
58:14
just be a lesson as we wrap up here to all you guys out there that have kids, whether it's sports,
58:19
which is kind of the easy one, or maybe, you know, you worship at the altar of hunting,
58:23
or you worship at the altar of how many times you get to golf that week,
58:26
or whatever your activity is, jujitsu, shooting range, whatever, what your kids are watching,
58:32
where you find excitement and where you find joy and where you find fulfillment.
58:35
Are you putting your time? I think Dustin binge says it this way and he may not even be the one
58:39
that originated this, but less than 1% of kids will be a professional athlete. 100% of your kids
58:46
will stand in judgment before a holy God. It's true. Where are you putting your time?
58:51
And so guys, show some level of attachment, some level of excitement to the things of the gospel
58:57
and continue to preach it to yourself and have it preached over you. But so if there's a lesson
59:02
there, like there's seemingly not a lot to Nehemiah 7, and yet we filled up an hour with a lot of
59:06
great discussion, but we'll have to leave it there. But guys, come back next Sunday where we'll dig
59:10
into Nehemiah 8. So make sure that you read that so you're prepared for next week. And before we
59:14
let you go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost. Add-on to life, our mission is equipping
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Also, we want to thank the band Holy Name for allowing us to use their music for our content.
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