Time to Build | Week 3 | Daniel Goulding | Echoes Church

I I wanted to share a story about a time that I just made, like, a really dumb decision in my life. But hard part was there were so many things that came up. I was like, well, I don't know which one to share. But then by the out of the providence of God, the the really this really funny thing has happened over the last couple weeks where this video of one of those really stupid things that I did.

Somehow, this thing happened twelve years ago and somehow, it's going like viral on TikTok right now and I've had all of these like friends of mine from different parts of my life that are messaging me like, hey, I was on TikTok and is this you? You know, I'm like, I'm not on TikTok. So, I haven't seen it but the beautiful part is I don't have to just tell you a story. I can actually show you a video of one of those moments. Okay? Here's the context before I play it real quickly. One of the guys who was in my fraternity, one of my good friends in college that was on our golf team, his dad orchestrated

some of the largest like most prestigious

charity fundraisers all around the country and every now and then, if there's a local one where he needed some extras people to like fill in the extra tee times, he would call my buddy and us and we would come and play those tee times. Well, sometimes we would make poor decisions during those golf trips or, you know, golf tournaments.

This was one of them. Okay? This is the video that's going around TikTok that I had never seen before until a couple weeks ago. Yeah, that's a golf cart and us floating in the water. You'll notice there's lots of that's yeah. Us, do you see the chin strap there? I also had diamond earrings at the time. No big deal.

That's my buddy, Alan, looking at the bridge that we just flipped off of. The guy with his arms up like, what just happened? And and the the funniest part in that video is you can see,

all of the little fireball shots that my buddy, Alan, was hydrating himself with, like, floating on the water, and it literally one of the craziest moments of my life. We were on this bridge. Alan was well hydrated and was just kinda being funny.

I'm driving. He just reaches over and starts doing this with the steering wheel and pulls to the right and just never corrects. And we end up the it happened like in slow motion where we break through the handrail.

The cart tips over and we both slide out because there's no seat belts. Right? And we'd land in the water like up to our waist, and then the cart falls off of the bridge, hits us both, and we both end up completely underwater.

And we should have, you know, it could have done a lot worse damage, but then we just had to stand there humiliated as people like stood there like, what just happened? And I'm like, I I have no idea. And you're sitting here like, why are we talking about this at all this morning at church? Right?

I I I bet you that if you were to look back on some of those moments in your life, you would have the same realization that I've had. Right? I I have a lot of those moments where I've made some pretty poor choices, but here's the common factor with all of them. I was never alone in any of them. Right? It

was always with friends of mine. And then all of sudden you go, yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Like, why don't you go first? Right? Like, it's it's why they say that women will live longer than men because we just talk ourselves into some really goofy things. But I I think that the inverse of that is also true. See, I think the people that are in our lives matter more than we could ever possibly imagine.

See, just like the poor decisions of my life, people have led me to do things and, you know, talk me into things that later I'm like, man, I wish I hadn't done that. I I also could tell you anything you look at my life that you would say and feel like is any level of success,

I could point back to a single person that I I either had a conversation with that nudge me to go that direction. I can show you a person that encouraged me when I was on the verge of giving up that in both realms, both on the good and the bad, the people in our life matter more than we could ever possibly imagine.

What I want to talk to you about today

is the people that are in your life. We started a series a few weeks ago looking at the book of Nehemiah, one of the most important books in the Old Testament but it's one that's that's often forgotten. It's the last historical book that we have before the four hundred years of silence and Nehemiah was just a he was a cup bearer to this guy named King Artaxerxes.

At the time, the most powerful man on the face of the planet, Nehemiah was one of his trusted advisers and we learned a couple weeks ago that Nehemiah, his brother comes back from Jerusalem and he tells him, hey, the walls around the city that were from our hometown,

they're in disrepair and because of that, our city can't thrive again and and Nehemiah has this bombshell go off in his heart and he began to pray an audacious prayer.

One that I'm hoping and praying that every single one of us at some point will be bold enough to pray. He prays a prayer that says, god, could you use my life to do something significant?

God, for some reason, I feel like I can make a difference and what we learn to the story of Nehemiah is the power and the potential of one person

who understands what god wants to do through your life when you completely surrender it to him and we looked last week at when Nehemiah goes through the season of preparing and four months, he's praying and he's fasting and he's seeking the heart of god that ultimately ends up in a moment where he has to have a conversation with the king and he goes and he tells the king, hey, I need to go rebuild the walls around the city and this conversation he was terrified to have, it goes much better than he ever could imagine. The king tells him, man, go and do your thing. What do you need? I'll help you and Nehemiah goes and now, we're going to see the beginning of the the rebuilding project if you will. And what I want you to see today

is what I've been talking about in this introduction, the power of the people in your life. I wrote it down this way, kind of the big idea if you're taking notes that I believe that anything worth rebuilding cannot be rebuilt alone.

See, believe that god wants to rebuild some of the things in your life that are broken. I think the state of your marriage, the state of your finances, the the state of the the broken and fractured relationship,

the the state of your reputation, the character, whatever is in your life that you would look at and feel like it's in ruins right now. I believe that god wants to and god can rebuild that but I also want you to see that that thing

is going to require the help of other people And oftentimes, that is where we stop and that is where we kind of throw in the towel because we like to be really self sufficient people. And it's really interesting. You and I are living in this really bizarre time in history where with the invention of the Internet and social media, we we are more connected than we've ever been before.

But the data is telling us some very alarming things. There was just a report that came out and they said that one out of every three American adults would say that they're in they feel incredibly isolated and lonely. You take that and you go into college age, young adults.

What should be the time of your life when you're forging some of the most foundational friendships of your life, two out of every three young adults and college students would say they feel more often than not lonely and isolated. It's become such a big deal that literally Great Britain has assigned a minister

of isolation. They have the minister of defense and they look at it as such a national problem that if we don't do something about it, things are going to begin to take a turn for the worse because when you look at the effects of being alone and isolated, they're catastrophic

to our health. They they, you know, there's increased rates of diabetes. There's all types of stuff that happens to us when we become isolated.

What I'm trying to get you to see in these verses we're gonna read here in a second, in Nehemiah chapter three is one of those chapters that you read and you're like, you're through the bible plan, you're like, yeah, just skipped this one. I'll tell people I read it, but I didn't read it. It's just a bunch of names. There's no way that God can use it.

But I think there's important stuff in here for us to see, and it's more about the who than the what. See, I believe that God wants to use our lives to make a significant impact, but we have to understand it's not a solo mission.

We need each other, and it's incredibly vital that we learn to lean on each other. And again, there's a series we're going to do in a couple months, but talking about this whole idea of the relationships that we have in our life. But you and I, I'm telling you, it is impossible to live the right life if you have the wrong friends.

For some of you, you need to begin to look at the people you're spending time with. For others of you in here, you need to start to realize,

I need people in my life. I can't continue doing this on my own. And my prayer and my hope is that through this passage today, we'll begin to see some practical things that we can do to change that. There's a John Maxwell quote I wanna share with you before I read the verses. It says that a vision for your life that doesn't require other people simply isn't big enough.

See, my prayer is that God would deposit a dream inside of your heart and inside of your soul that would be so big, it would be impossible for you to do on your own because that is where the people of God can begin to do something together that is greater than what we can do on our own. Amen? We left off Nehemiah chapter two where he leaves King Artaxerxes. He goes to Jerusalem. He inspects the walls at night. He realizes, okay, it's in pretty bad shape and then he calls all of the Jews that are living in Jerusalem together and we'll start reading in Nehemiah chapter two verse 17.

He says, but now, I said to them, hey, you know very well what trouble we are in. Okay, he's referring to like you know the fact that these walls have been in disrepair for almost one hundred and fifty years now. You understand how bad things are. Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire. Notice his language. Notice the plurality and all of the things he's about to say. Let us, not me, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem

and end this disgrace.

Again, it's important to note the rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem were not they had less to do with the construction project and had more to do with a supernatural solution to the people of God. The walls were a solution to fix the disgrace that the people were living in. Verse 18 says, then I told again them

about how the gracious hand of god had been on me and about my conversation with the king. They replied at once, yes, let let us rebuild the wall. So, they began the good work.

Nehemiah gathers the people. He tells them, hey, here's what we're going to do. The king's given us favor. God is with us. We're going to do this thing and all of sudden, there's a moment where there's a rallying cry where the people of god go, yes, let's do this thing that hasn't been done in one hundred and fifty years. Let's do it. They believe this crazy prayer, this crazy dream, and notice what happens immediately after verse 19.

But when Sambalat, Tobiah, and Geshem the Arab heard of our plan, they scoffed contemptuously. What are you doing? Are you rebelling against the king? They asked.

It's important to note and again, this will be my whole message next week looking at Nehemiah four that anytime you try to take ground spiritually, you are going to step into opposite opposition spiritually as well.

Anytime you make a decision to put a flag in the ground that says, you know what? I'm going to start to rebuild my marriage. I'm to work on this thing. I know it's been in disrepair, but I'm going to step into this thing and start to work on. I'm going to try to figure out these finances. I'm going to begin to do something about that addiction that's been growing in the background. The moment you say yes and you think, okay, now it is. It's now it's me and God. I said yes to this thing. I had this moment in church. I felt God move. What happens almost immediately after

is the enemy that is trying to kill, steal, and destroy the life that Jesus died for you to have, he begins to step in and do work as well. And he begins to push opposition against you, and you and I need to be prepared for it. It's again, it's why I think God had Nehemiah go through four months of private preparation

because he knew you need to grow some spiritual muscles because you're going to face some opposition. And if you don't have any spiritual muscles, you will give up the moment the opposition comes. But I love that Nehemiah, he gathers a bunch of people, and what he just says there, it seems really simple,

but he just threw out a crazy idea.

Imagine for a moment that I told you right now, hey, this building project that we're getting ready to roll out, I'm going to build it all myself. I'm to be the lead contractor. I'm to be doing this. You guys are looking at like I'm a fool. Right? They're like, dog, you have no idea what you're doing with construction.

Yet for some reason, Nehemiah, a a cup bearer,

comes and gets a bunch of people with this god sized dream in his heart and everybody just says, yes, we're in. And they begin to rally around one thing. They go, let's rebuild the walls and watch what god can do. Now, again, this is going to set up now Nehemiah chapter three, which again, I oftentimes

regret reading verses like this in church because there's most words in here I can't pronounce. So two things, if you're ever stuck being the one reading at bible study and it's a bunch of words you can't pronounce, nobody else knows how to pronounce them either. So just say them quickly and say them confidently and move on.

And secondarily,

if you're here as we read Nehemiah three and if you're thinking about names for your future children, maybe take some notes here. K? There's some incredible possible names for your your future children in here. I promise you, it's gonna be crazy, but there'll be some stuff we'll see in it in a second. Nehemiah chapter three verse one says, then, Eliasheb,

the high priest and the other priest started to rebuild at the Sheep Gate. They dedicated it and they set up its doors building the wall as far as the Tower Of The Hundred which they dedicated in the Tower Of Hananel.

People from the town of Jericho worked next to them and beyond them was Zacor, the son of Imri. The Fish Gate was built by the sons of Hanasah. They laid at the beam, set up its doors, and installed its bolt in bars. Meremoth, tell a beautiful name for a young girl. Meremoth?

Like, that's just a girl who's going to have a lot of friends in school, right? Merimoth, the son of Uriah and grandson of Hakoz repaired the next section of the wall. Beside him were Meshalam, a little boy, Meshalam. Come on somebody. Meshalom, the son of Beechariah and grandson of Meshezebel,

and then Zadok, son of Banana. It's easier than the other way. Verse five, next were the people from Tekoa through their leaders though their their leaders refused to work with the construction supervisors. The old city gate was repaired by Joadai, the son of Paseya in Meshalam, the son of Besodeea,

beautiful middle name, right? There you go. They laid the beams up. They set its doors. They installed its bolts and bars. Next to them were Melatiah from Gibeon, Jaden from Maranath, people from Gibeon, and people from Mizpah, the headquarters of the governor of the province west of the Euphrates River. Next was Uziel, son of Hanariah,

the goldsmith by trade who also worked on the wall. Beyond him was Hananiah, a manufacturer of perfumes. They left out a section of Jerusalem as they built the broad wall. Raphiah, son of Hur, the leader of half the district of Jerusalem was next to them on the wall. Next, Jedediah, son of Haremphath,

prepared the wall across from his own house and next to him was Hattosh, the son of H guy. Verse 11, then came Michilagash, son of Hiram and Hashab, the son of Pahath, Moab. I'm telling you, take notes if you need kids names. They're all here. Who repaired another section of the wall in the tower of the ovens. Shalom,

the son of Helohesh and his daughters repaired the next section. He was the leader of the other half of the district of Jerusalem.

Last verse and it's just because it's funny. The Valley Gate was repaired by the people from Zanoah led by Hanan. They set up its doors and installed its bolts and bars. They also repaired 1,500 feet of the wall of the Dung Gate. Imagine being the guy that's recorded as you did the poop door. Right? Like for the rest of history, like, they're the ones that built where we take the poop out, but it needed to happen. Right? Again,

the reason that I forced myself to read those verses to you and why I would encourage you even when you get to things like the book of numbers and the book of Leviticus that can be nauseating at times when you're going through them. I I promise you, if we believe what the word of god says is that all of god's word is there and is useful for correction in teaching,

it says that there's something in here that we can learn, and it's more than just a list of names. There's a reason that these people are here. And as much as they can be difficult and I kind of joke through some of those, the question I've been asking God all week is, God, why is all of this here? Why are all these things here? And I think there's a couple things that I want you to see. The first one, the first lesson that I want us to learn from this is if we are going to be people who make a difference with our life, we've gotta understand that accomplishing god's mission,

it will require all of god's people to work together. Here's what I love about this story that is recorded in Nehemiah three. What you see is a guy who's a goldsmith by trade. You see somebody that makes perfumes.

You see a random guy that's a leader in his city who brings his daughters with him. It's a bunch of people who have been given random jobs in different skill sets yet together, they do something significant. When they take all of their individual skills and their individual jobs and they begin to understand

that my job, again, one of our core values is that worship is our lifestyle, that how we bring value and honor and glory to our king is reorganizing and reorienting our thoughts and our reality around the fact that Jesus is king of my life

and that my job as a goldsmith, my my job as a teacher, my job as an attorney, it isn't just to fulfill a vocation though that's part of it. It's to do this thing to bring glory and honor to god and that when all of us begin to do that, something supernatural

happens and the amazing part to me is again, we talk a lot about the three years of Jesus's life where he did all of the miracles and they're important. Don't get me wrong but you realize that 90% of Jesus's life, he was just a carpenter.

He was just a guy that went to work that would have been seen and tempted to be like it's unimpressive. It's not that important. There's nothing supernatural that's happening. Every day, he's just going to work and he's doing his job. This story tells me what begins to happen when you and I understand that, yes, I might have an assignment. I might have a job Monday through Friday.

But what God is doing when we begin to collectively understand the supernatural efforts of doing this job with the right mission, with the right understanding, god can begin to do something and you and I have to realize that we can't do everything ourselves

but all of us, god can do something through us if we see it. I love in here. There's 48 groups or individuals that are referenced in Nehemiah chapter three. 48 different people have their names written down in the Bible that we're talking about thousands of years later. Why?

Because they understood that God can do something significant when you're with your life, when you begin to tap into the potential of us working together towards a common mission.

We rolled it out last week and we announced it last week that we've officially signed a lease. We got the keys on Friday to a new what we're calling Echo's headquarters. It's a new facility that we just got that we are so excited about.

But this is also one of those things that's incredibly daunting. Okay? Again, just for clarity, people walked out like, okay, when do we start meeting there on Sunday mornings? It it is not unfortunately going to solve our Sunday morning meeting space, alright? We we will still be here on Sundays

but this building will give us the ability to get small groups going. We can get student ministries going. We can do marriage events and prayer events and all types of the lifeblood of our church. Right now, what this is, what we do on Sunday mornings, this is what I would call the crowd. The midweek is when we start to begin to be the community and Jesus always loved the crowd but he gave his life for the community. He gave his life for the people that were devoted to following him. My hope and my prayers that we would go from the crowd to the community. Okay, if you didn't see the new building that we're getting, it's right on the other side of the 60.

It's what we're calling Echo's headquarters. We got a couple photos we can show you of what it looks like inside. That's the outside of the building. Inside's got a big lobby area.

We've gotta come in and completely renovate everything. There's a worship center in there. We gotta take walls down to make it bigger. We've gotta bring in and update all of the AVL equipments and we rolled out last week what we're right in week one of of a twenty one day challenge of prayer and fasting and really beginning to ask the question, god, what is our part in being a part of the miracle that you're writing?

I am convinced that we are in the middle of kind of an acts to move of the spirit and you and I get the opportunity to be a part of the miracle that God is writing. Now, again, it would be nice if one person just stepped up and wrote us a check for $500,000. But in my experience,

the way that God always meets the needs of his community

is every single person looks inside of their heart and prays and fast just like me and my family are doing, and then we ask god, what can we do? And I'm telling you, I promise you, our collective effort will be more than enough. It is the story of Nehemiah three that when the people of god understand that they have a role to play, something significant begins to happen. There's a quote I wanna share with you from Christopher Wright. It says that it's not so much that god has a mission for his church in the world but that god has a church for his mission in the world.

See, so often, I think we sit back and we go, god, what what's my purpose?

What's my mission? What is it? And I think it's the wrong prayer. See, all of us that are a part of the family of god, the mission has already been defined for us. God has already given us the mission and we're the church that are supposed to step into it. That's the beauty of this whole thing is that we've already been given the what. We just have to kind of pray about the how. Okay, god. What is what is my role in this? What is my assignment in here? What can I do? I know I can't do everything but all of us have some skill set that we can bring to the table to begin to make a significant impact for the kingdom of god and when you and I begin to understand that,

I think as we start to partner and we start to be a part of the mission of god, I think it solves two purposes for us. It it does two things for us. The first one is that we start to live a life of significance. We begin to understand,

okay, all of this is more than just paying the bills and getting a bigger house slowly over time like there is something greater and you begin to experience purpose but I also think the second thing that begins to happen is we start to experience what all of us are longing for in our souls which is real community, real

relationships with people. See, I think often what we do is we've disconnected the the what from the how. I think we forget that god has already given us the blueprint for mission and purpose and significance. He's also already given us the blueprint for community

and so often, we step into church. I I hear it probably more than anything else especially if you're just new here. You just moved here from out of state. I just go, man, I just don't have a lot of community and I'm telling you, it it seems counterintuitive but one of the greatest ways to build lasting,

lifelong friendships is sign up and serve with somebody. Get outside of yourself and show up and do kids ministry. Show up and do set up and tear down. Eventually, we'll have small groups where that can be a part of the process as well but serving with people is an incredible way to begin to build lifelong friendships of meaning and significance.

Now, I look at the people that are in my life. Some twenty years into this journey of following god and trying to make a difference with my life and all of the people that I'm closest with. They're all people that I served in different capacities with in different ministries.

I went on a missions trip with. I served in youth ministry with. I was a part of setup for years with. I I did things with them. I wrote it down this way that I believe that shared experience plus shared mission is what leads to real lasting community.

See, it's not enough to just have friends. This is the tension that happens when you're newly saved. Like, you give your life to Jesus.

And Sunday morning, it's like you have this powerful encounter. You go, this is okay. This is crazy. Everything's changing. This is amazing. And then you walk out of these doors, and Monday through Friday, you go right back to the same group of friends.

I'm telling you, it's impossible to live the right life with the wrong friends. The Bible says that a a companion of fools suffers harm. But if you walk with the wise, you'll become wise. For some of us, the most important thing we need to do in 2025,

not because we're better than, not because people are worse off, but because our mission has changed, we have to start to reassess the people we spend the most time with.

Because I'm telling you, if you're trying to live a marriage that is going to stand for the kingdom of god in the middle of a culture that is telling you to bend the knee, if you're going to try to raise kids that stand in opposition to what culture is saying is okay, you better be rallied around some people that are trying to do the same thing because it is going to be difficult. It is going to be hard. You will not meander and stumble your way into a marriage that is honoring god.

If you're single here today, I promise you, you will not stumble and meander your way to the altar one day with purity. You will have to fight for it like hell, and you better be fighting with some other people that are trying to do

the same thing. See, it's not about it's not enough to just have people in our life. We have to have people that have the same mission. And I know what for some of you, what you just heard is you're like, that sounds a lot like a group project to me.

And I remember, I was the guy in high school that if you got assigned a group project, you were really bummed that I was in your team. Right? Because I was gonna get all the credit with none of the work. Right? I was gonna be like, yes. This is us. And what what I'm saying is that it's not necessarily a group project where we're dragging people with us, but here is what I hope you hear. What we see in Nehemiah three is that rebuilding.

No matter what it is that you're rebuilding in your life, marriage, finances, relationships, rebuilding is a group project, not a solo assignment. I'm telling you, the greatest lie that the enemy will tell you is that you don't need people, that you can do this on your own, and it is a lie from the pit of hell.

And the culture that we exist in says that you need to be able to be self made, self started, and doing it all on your own. And I've had to have seasons where I could not, I literally could not make it to the end of the week on my own. And I realized that I'm really good at being the person that helps other people.

I really enjoy people seeing me as somebody that comes in and helps others. And I'm really, really, really bad at raising my hand and saying, I need help. And I would bet I would venture to guess the same is true about you. I think sometimes the hardest three words for us to ever mutter is that I need help.

See, we've got to change the stigma of church culture that says you come in the doors of church and you act like everything is fine. When the prayer team is down in the front, you never go down for prayer because that's an admission that you are broken and there's no brokenness. You can figure this out. And I want I want to create a culture that says, it's okay to not be okay.

It's not okay to stay that way. And I'm not saying, hey, let's just sit in our pity party forever. But at some point, we have to be able to raise our hand and say, man, our our marriage is falling apart. Like, I'm not doing good. I'm dealing with anxiety and depression.

And you look at the statistics of what's happening in our culture, and there's brokenness all around in a culture that says you can't raise your hand and say you're not okay. And I'm here to tell you that that's a lie from the enemy, and it is okay for us to admit that we need help sometimes.

That's where the church can come in and do our best work. Here's the second thing I hope we see from this story is that nobody is expected to do everything,

but everyone is expected to do something. With every part of what we're building here at the church, I have zero expectation that one person can do everything, but you better believe I do have an expectation that every single person can do something.

See, even the building campaign that we're doing. See, the the reason that God uses things that go after our money so often, it's not because he wants or needs our money, but God knows that where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.

And I think it's okay if we go, hey, like, I I can't do some number that seems significant to a worldly standard. I'm telling you, I take screenshots of when they come in where people give us $4.37.

I think about the persons behind that and all of what it took to risk that and to go, I know the number might not feel significant, but the risk is. The sacrifice is.

And I just wonder what would happen if a church full of people start to go, man, I don't have to do everything. It frees us to know we don't have to do everything, but it also challenges us to go, but we can do something. And it's not just financially. It's relationally. It's serving on teams. All of us can do something,

but I think because of the world that we exist in, again, the time and space that we are in in world history being more connected than we've ever been. The problem is is we see the needs of everybody around us all the time

and it's not normal. It's not natural. We we are not built to see twenty four seven news cycles of things that are going wrong in our world. To pull up social media and see your friend's friend's friend who reposted a story about a person that committed suicide and the tragic 12 children that are left on the other side of that. Like, it's not natural and it's not normal for us. And I think that the downside is if we're not careful,

we will unintentionally just kind of numb ourselves to go, man, the the need in the world is just too great. I see it all the time. There's always a GoFundMe for something. And sometimes you will be tempted to believe that because you can't do everything, you shouldn't do something. I think the story

of Nehemiah three is a bunch of people that understood

they can't do it all, but they can do their part. And you know when every one of these stories, every one of these names that they're recorded, that they're fixing this part of the wall? See, the brilliant strategy that Nehemiah had is he asked every single person to fix the part of the wall that was right in front of them. Right in front of the home that they lived in. For the priest, why don't you fix the sheep gate? That's the gate where all the sheep come through because you need the sheep to do all the stuff inside of the church services. So he he mobilized the people to fix the parts of the wall that he knew that they would care about. They had a vested interest, and what he did is he said, look, there's something right in front of you that you can do. Focus on that. Don't let all the noise and the distraction of all the chaos of the world stop you from doing what you can do. So the question that has to be asked is what is it that we can do? What is it that we can give to? What is it where is it that we can serve? Because if we are going to be people who begin to rebuild what is broken, we understand we can't do it alone. We don't have to do it all by ourselves, but we have to do our part. Here's the verse in Nehemiah chapter three verse five that we read in there that I wanna rehighlight to you. It says, next were the people from Tokoa,

though their leaders refused to work with the construction supervisors. I love that it talks about a group of people from Tokoa, and I know that for us is a nothing town that means nothing, but it was a city that's about 10 miles away from Jerusalem.

It's a picture of a group of people who were willing to do almost anything to work really hard to inconvenience themselves. Honestly, I'm still blown away that people show up here at five in the morning to set all this stuff up and stay here way after service while we're at lunch so that other people can go to service. It blows my mind that people are back there with kids right now watching the kids that honestly, I'm trying to get rid of Monday through Friday, and they're here. Just kidding. I would never say that.

They're serving people. They're inconveniencing themselves, understanding that I get to play a small part in the kingdom of God. But notice at the exact same time, you have people that are willing to be inconvenienced and risk everything to go after what god has for them in the exact same verse though they're leaders,

the people of importance, the people of affluence,

refused to work with the construction supervisors. See, this is the problem of what happens often in church is we go because of my status, my degree, my pedigree, my awesomeness.

This stuff is just beneath me and we kind of walk around sometimes in the church world with our our nose raised to the need that's all around us and one of the greatest lessons that I've learned that I I I hope we all catch as a community is that if serving is beneath you, leadership is beyond you.

See, it is the reason that Jesus' message was not received with praise. Because Jesus came to a group of people hoping that he was going to bring an insurrection. He was gonna overthrow

the oppressive leaders of the people in the country that was oppressing them. And what did Jesus do? He came in and he says, here's the way to change the world. Serve the people that hurt you. If they want you to go a mile, go two. If they take one, give them two. And Jesus came and was called the suffering

servant. He said he didn't come to be served, but to serve the paradox of the kingdom of God. Is it often the thing that you and I really want in this life is found on the other side of doing the thing that we potentially think is beneath us.

It's the beauty of the invitation of faith is that if you will lose your life for my sake, Jesus says, then

you'll find your life. And all of a sudden, begin to go, oh, this is what it's about. This is the purpose. This is the meaning. This is the significance of the things I was trying to get from this world. Jesus wants to give them to you, but it's disguised. It's packaged as some snot nosed kids at the 10:00 service.

It's a set up and tear down team that shows up at the crack of dawn. It's the people setting up the parking lot. All of that is some of the small ways that we can be a part of changing the world for God. Here's the last thing. The last thing, if we're going to make a difference in this world, I I believe that where we work and who we work alongside of makes a huge, huge

difference. I think who you make a decision to be shoulder to shoulder with tells more about who you are than you could ever imagine. I think who you're spending the most time with is critical to your faith journey in the next couple months and in the next few years.

And the question is is who are you spending the most time with? The reason that I love the story of Nehemiah is it's one of the few books in the Bible where there are no big miracles.

Nobody walks around the city walls and cries out and then all of a sudden, supernaturally, rocks begin to turn from rubble into building again. That happens in other parts of the Bible but not the book of Nehemiah.

The book of Nehemiah doesn't record any major miracles but what it records is the miracle of the manpower of the people of god who understand who they are and what begins to happen to a bunch of people who go, you know what? Maybe, maybe god can take my little, my little life, my little effort, my little family, my little faith, my little obedience,

and maybe he can stack it together with a whole bunch of other broken people like me and he can do something significant with it. The reason that I love Nehemiah three is hard as the names are to read. It tells me that there's a way to live on this side of heaven that at the end of this thing, you will stand before god and what you will hear is well done. My good and faithful servant. Man, you push your chips to the middle of the table. You risked it for my kingdom. There's a bunch of people in Nehemiah three who thought they were doing something insignificant and yet here we are.

Thousands of years later talking about their lives, mispronouncing all of their names but their names are recorded as having done something significant. I wonder what yours will be recorded as.

When I get to the end of my life, I I I don't want people to talk about the the house that I had and the impressive resume that I built. If I really believe that all of this is perishing and that we are eternal beings that are temporarily aliens in this world that is foreign,

that this all should feel foreign but so often it feels too comfortable. I'm trying to get too much out of this life

And I go, no. I can't sacrifice because of being I would have less. And the kingdom of God stands in the middle of that and says, if you can rally around some people, when you're weak, they can be strong. When you're willing to give up, they'll keep working, and it will encourage you to move forward.

But you have to take a hard look at the people that are around your life because I'm telling you, is impossible.

It is impossible to live the right life, rebuild the things that are broken in and around you with the wrong people around you, with the wrong voices speaking into you. Nehemiah tells me, if you can get the right people and you can trust God with your little, he can begin to do some incredible things through you.

I wanna speak to some of you who are here this morning that really feel isolated and alone. I wrote it down this way, and I mean, I believe it to be true more than anything that I've learned over the fifteen years of being in ministry. I I know that before the enemy destroys you, he often disconnects you.

And I think sometimes we don't think being isolated and disconnected from the body of Christ is really that big of a deal, and I'm telling you, it's more dangerous than you could ever understand.

It it's more difficult to live for God on your own than almost anything else. The reason I can say it so confidently is Peter actually tells us this. First Peter chapter five, he's gonna tell you, here's the schemes of the enemy. The scriptures say to know the schemes of the enemy so you can resist them and stand against them. First Peter tells us, give all of your worries and cares to god for he cares about you but stay alert.

Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him and be strong in your faith. Remember your family of believers all over the world. He's going through the same kind of suffering that you are.

That's one of those verses I'm like, wait, that's not that encouraging. His encouragement is like, I know you're suffering but we're all suffering. At least we can do it together

but he says, here's what the enemy's going to do. Yes, god wants you to live a life of significance and get to the end and go, man, I I did something with my life and at the exact same time, the enemy is trying to tell you, no, no, no. Just get everything out of this life. That business will give you significance. That relationship will finally do it for you. Don't worry about god. Do your own thing. Play it safe. Give a little bit of money here and there but you build your kingdom

and what you begin to do is you get disconnected, you're isolated, you haven't gone to church in forever, you're not stepping out and living in real community and all of a sudden, you are set up for destruction because you're disconnected.

Peter says, the enemy is going to be out there roaring like a lion and you've you've seen the videos, you've watched the nature channel. How do lions always attack? They wait until one gets disconnected from the herd.

They become isolated. They go off on their own. They start to explore some things that are outside of the family and all of a sudden, when they're disconnected, it's moments before they're destroyed. And Peter is telling us the thing that I'm trying to implore to you this morning. Being disconnected,

it's more dangerous than you could ever imagine. Living a life with the wrong friends, I'm telling you, you will never live the right life with the wrong friends. So, the question is, is where have you become disconnected?

Next week, I'm telling you, don't don't miss it. Nehemiah four is the the message that I built this entire series around. I I would preach it right now if you let me go for another hour but don't miss it. I'm telling you, it's a powerful message about how we can fight through opposition and the battles we've gotta get through but right now, I think there's two types of people in this room. Two things I want to leave you with. If you're here and you have the the wrong friends, take a hard look at them. Begin to go, okay, what is my next step of faith? What is the next thing that I need to do to say yes to the thing that god has put right in front of me? For some of you, that is baptisms. Okay, next week is going to be baptisms. It's going to be incredible. I'm telling you, my favorite services of the year. Our baptism services where we get to watch people be buried to the death and leave the old life of who they were in that tub of water and come out as new creations.

If you're here and you are Christian, you've never been baptized. I'm telling you, sign up to do that. For the rest of you who are here, our team meant every ministry that we have needs tons of volunteers.

We're right now kicking around the possibility of going to four services starting at Easter. Okay? To do that, we need another 175 volunteers. Another 175 people to say yes. And I believe some of you, that is you. That is your next step. Again, all you gotta do is text serve to 31707.

Stop by the next steps table out there. We have a place for you to serve and I'm not saying that serving at church will solve everything but it is an incredibly important step in our faith journey. Amen? Let me pray for you. Father,

god, I thank you. Lord, so much for who you are. God, I thank you that you are the same today that you were yesterday and you will be tomorrow and god, I pray. I pray against all the people who are here that feel isolated, that feel lonely, that feel disconnected.

Father, I pray by the power of the holy spirit that you would begin to encourage them, that you would break off the bonds of depression and anxiety and that god they would begin walk out of here anew, filled with your spirit knowing that because the cross of Calvary,

our best days are ahead of us. Jesus, you died the death that we deserve so that we can live the life that we could never have earned on our own. Father, we thank you for your sacrifice for our behalf and god, I pray that you would speak to every single person here that they would be challenged to walk out of here differently. It is in the mighty name of Jesus all god's people said. Amen and amen.