Nehemiah: Living Bigger than ME

Nehemiah: Living Bigger than ME

Introduction:

On any adventure, someone has to be the Navigator…In John Maxwell’s book 21 Laws of Leadership…the 4th Law is the Law of Navigation.

The Law of Navigation is “Anyone can steer the ship but it takes a leader to chart the course.”

Transition:  The Law of Navigation requires preparation…”A Leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees further than others see and who sees before others do.” ~ Leroy Elms

Title:  Living Bigger Than Me

  • Living in a “me” society
    • We are consumed with Me in our Culture…
    • We even spend a lot of time trying to capture the best selfie…
    • When two me’s get together in marriage…you’ve got a mess.
    • We live in a narcissistic society because it’s all about me
      • My feelings
      • My wants
      • My desires
    • People who have kids, but are bothered by them…
      • These kids are always getting on my nerves…

I am not following a Navigator who is just looking out for themselves…

  • Brent mentioned Wednesday night in his teaching…how they went white water rafting and Kayla fell in…the navigator reached out and rescued her… I don’t need a Navigator who says…”Oh well you have three others…” Or says, “I aint risking myself because she fell out of the raft.”
  • No, this navigator reached out and snatched her back into the raft….

God is looking for Some Navigators

  • To be a navigator you must have a Vision of the future.
  • Navigation also requires Reflection of the past.
  • Navigation also means you must Adjust the course when needed.
  • To be a Navigator you have to have the whole group in mind at all times…

Nehemiah would be our Biblical example of this Navigational Leader.  The secret to navigation is the ability to prepare.  Preparation keeps you ready for opportunities as well as setbacks.

Neh 2:1-10

 

2 In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before; 2 so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.”

 

I was very much afraid, 3 but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”

 

4 The king said to me, “What is it you want?”

 

Then I prayed to the God of heaven, 5 and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it.”

 

6 Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?” It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time.

 

7 I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? 8 And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests. 9 So I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates and gave them the king’s letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me.

 

10 When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites.

NIV

Nehemiah Knew He was too Big to Live this Small…so He became the Great Navigator…

 

  1. Knowing What To Do
    1. 1 Chron 12:32

men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do

NIV

  1. This is the type of man Nehemiah was…
    1. He had never been to Jerusalem…He heard the news and he knew what needed to be done and how it needed to be done.
    2. He had an uncanny perspective when it came to vision…out of the box thinking.
  • Nehemiah saw Further than others were able to see, more than what others could see, and Before others were able to see….
  1. The Jews only needed 52 days to rebuild a wall that had laid in ruin for over 120 years…this didn’t happen by accident…it happened because of the Great Leadership of Nehemiah.
  1. Nehemiah understood His purpose, presented His plan and didn’t give up on that plan in the face of critics…He led the people through the process.
  1. Nehemiah’s Navigation Course
    1. He Identified with the Problem…He didn’t just identify the Problem…He Identified with it.

 

  1. Nehemiah was willing to be Present…
    1. Way to often Leaders don’t want to identify with the people in the problem
    2. Instead they want to rule from some superior place or position.
    3. To be Present means so much when trying to navigate through an issue…
    4. What do I mean by “Being Present” it means to be actively engaged…
      1. Experiencing the sadness and pain of those going through the challenge.
      2. I used the word Empathy last week.
    5. He Spent Time In Prayer
      1. Nehemiah 1:4-11
      2. He so Identified with the people that he begins to repent not only for the people, but he included himself in the repentance…that is huge.
  • There was no feeling of superiority…He wasn’t only identifying with their situation…He was identifying with their condition of heart.
  1. Prayer is a 2 ways street of communication…but somewhere in there you need to find out what God is saying about the situation.
  2. See you can Identify with the Problem and that is called Sympathy, but when you Identify with what God’s remedy is or what God is saying about the situation…that my friend is Compassion, which has the power to change.
  1. Nehemiah went to the Key Influencers
    1. Neh.2:1-9
    2. Nehemiah knew he couldn’t accomplish the task by himself…
  • Notice Nehemiah didn’t just approach Jewish people…he approached Artaxerxes.
  1. Nehemiah was favored…
    1. Favor will put you before people that you cannot earn your way into…
    2. God will give you favor with people who aren’t connected to you and who aren’t related to you…who will bless you.
    3. Favor and Positioned for something bigger than you…. Nehemiah was positioned for favor…but it was not for him…
    4. When favored…and asked…You better be ready to Ask.
    5. Nehemiah 2:6-8
      1. Are you willing to Ask the King for Big Things…?
      2. I’ve been saying through you to God…Don’t miss this…I’ve been saying outloud to you…but it is to God….
      3. I want you blessed…I want tithers Blessed…because the Vision God has given us here at MercyGate Church is going to require Provision for the Vision…
        1. God has put it in my heart to plant 7 Campuses in 7 Different Areas…and then plant 3 more churches overseas…
          1. That’s going to require finances…
          2. It’s going to require people who are willing to be trained and carry the Vision to other places…
          3. It’s going to require people to learn to preach…and communicate…
        2. We need a New Sanctuary here…God has given me a vision of a 1200 – 1500 seat auditorium to be built….
  • We need a gym, a double gym, with space for a CrossFit Center, with a loft for Youth…to expand our kids space…who knows maybe even a prep-school.

Transition:  So yea, like Nehemiah, I’m going to keep asking…Like Nehemiah, I could sit back, Pastor this church and coast…but I cannot do that…I am eaten up on the inside over the destruction of our Communities, Our Nation, because the walls of our Churches have crumbled…

  1. Nehemiah Met with the People and Cast the Vision
    1. Neh.2:16-17
    2. He described the project, his vision as well as the spiritual ramifications of such an endeavor
  • He painted the picture and put the people in the photo…
  1. That’s why I just told you all I told you…I want you to see the Picture…catch the vision and ask God how do I fit in the Picture…
  1. He Encouraged them with past successes
    1. Neh.2:18
    2. He knew the people needed encouragement…
  • Any team you lead is going to need affirmation and encouragement periodically
  1. He told them stories of How God had helped in the Past and the Lord would do the same here for them…
  2. That’s why we showed the Video last week of us eclipsing One Million dollars in Kingdom Builders…
  3. That’s why in Thrive classes you will here the Story of How we made it this far…
  1. He Received Buy-In From the People
    1. Neh.2:18
    2. From this verse we see the people had bought in…not everyone but enough for him to move forward…
  • You must understand when getting buy-in from people you have
    1. Early adopters
    2. Mid adopters
    3. Late adopters
    4. Never adopters
  1. Nehemiah Organized the People and They Began the Work
    1. Neh.3:1-32
    2. The People worked but the enemies didn’t just lay down…
  • But the people were organized and did the work required to see the plan put in place….
  • Application of the Law

Transition:  This KB Book is a resource of information attempting to get buy-in…by partnering with KB it gives us all an opportunity to Live Bigger than Me

  1. Neh 4:1-3

4  Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. 2 And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?”

ESV

  1. The enemy is asking Nehemiah and the People a series of Questions…
    1. Listen if we are going to do what God has called us to do…we are going to have to scrape away the chard places in our lives…
    2. No one in here is building with the finest materials…we all have chard places, places we have been burnt…But Jesus came to heal the burned places….

 

 

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