Time to Build | Week 10 | Daniel Goulding | Echoes Church

in Boston, in 1919, there was a major crisis that happened, okay? Boston was kind of the the the epicenter of where a lot of our imports and exports happen. In 1919, we were just concluding World War one. Prohibition was just about to happen and so molasses was an ingredient that was needed

at an all time high and so Boston decided to build essentially a steel tank that could hold almost 3,000,000 gallons of molasses right in the downtown part of Boston but the problem was that the tank was built in 1915

when a lot of their lead engineers and people were fighting out in World War one and so, there was all types of corners that were cut. There was materials that were used. It just were subpar

and from the very beginning of this tank being built, it was notorious for leaking and having all types of problems and the citizens had warned the ownership group like, hey, when we walk by the the tank holding almost 3,000,000 gallons of molasses, the the metal is groaning. The the the molasses is leaking out of the tank and everybody just ignored all of the warning signs and the leadership group went so far as to stop the complaints from coming in. They took the tank that was originally painted white and molasses would leak out of it, right? It kinda looks like maple syrup and so they decided to paint the outside of the tank brown

so that they could stop people seeing

the leaking and instead of reinforcing it, instead of letting the pressure out of it, we've since come to understand the reason that the tank exploded was because the molasses was put in during the summer when it was warm but as the temperature dropped, the chemicals inside the tank began to expand and eventually, the pressure built and built and built until it exploded and what eyewitnesses accounts would say is that in the middle of Downtown Boston was a wave of molasses. Think about it. A wave of maple syrup

that was 30 feet high and it just came ripping through the downtown area. It leveled buildings to the ground. It took train tracks and it twisted them into piles of rubble. It injured over fifty people. Almost eleven people were killed. All because

some people were unwilling to acknowledge that this thing was having problems and they didn't want to address it. And eventually, the things that they weren't willing to address, they weren't willing to come in and reinforce it. They weren't willing to relieve the pressure. That thing ended up imploding and causing all types of devastation to the people around them. The reason that I start there is it's a powerful visual of what the enemy wants to do to every single one of our lives and right now, all of us have to varying degrees

pressure that's building inside of our souls. There there are things that are there. There are warning signs that we should be looking at but our temptation

is to ignore them, to act like they're not that big of a deal, and to just downplay them, to maybe put some superficial paint on the outside of things to make it appear to people outside that our lives are okay but if we are not careful,

I promise you what we're going to see today is that sin continues to grow and it will continue to evolve. The pressure will continue to build until eventually, it will implode and cause devastation

all around us. What we're going to see today in Nehemiah chapter 13 is honestly kind of a heartbreaking story because so much of the book of Nehemiah, again, Tyshawn taught last week. He just did a phenomenal job. Did he not? Like, he's man. He's amazing.

One of my good friends. I just love how the guy is wired, but he showed us from Nehemiah chapter one and Nehemiah chapter 12 is one year and in one year, Nehemiah through one person's obedience to god, he took a nation from being in mourning to rejoicing

and spiritual revival was coming back again to the people of god and there was people repenting of their sins and god was stirring in their midst and things were amazing at the end of chapter 12

and then we turn the page to Nehemiah chapter 13 and what we'll see is that we're about four years after Nehemiah chapter 12 concludes. Chapter 13 picks up. Nehemiah has gone back to Babylon

and he hears about what's happening in Jerusalem and he comes and he sees the people who he left in revival and they're they're now back in ruins again and we are going to see today the cycle

that sin will always have on our lives if we're not careful. The progression of sin, if you will, is going to play itself out in this chapter and there's some things that I want us to see this morning so that we cannot get to a place where devastation happens in in our lives as well. So, Nehemiah chapter 13,

again, we're going to read the whole chapter. So, buckle in. It's going to be a good time. I promise. I'll get us out of here at least the next three or four hours, I promise.

Nehemiah chapter 13 verse one says, on that same day, as the book of Moses was being read to the people, the passage was found that said, no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be permitted. Okay, if you have a Bible, highlight underlying circle that no Ammonite or Moabite. It'll make sense in a second. They should never be permitted to enter the assembly of god for they had not provided the Israelites with food and water in the wilderness. Instead, they hired Balam to curse them. Though our god turned the curse into a blessing.

When this passage of the law of the Bible was read, all of those of foreign descent were immediately excluded from the assembly but before this happened, Eliashib,

the priest who had been appointed as supervisor of the storeroom of the temple of our god and who was also, again, highlight underline circle this next phrase, a relative of Tobiah. Make sense in a second. Verse five says that he had converted a large storeroom and placed it at Tobiah's disposal.

The room had previously been used for storing the grain offerings, the frankincense, the various articles for the temple, and the tithes of grain, new wine, and olive oil which were prescribed for the Levites, the singers, and the gatekeepers,

as well as the offerings for the priest. I was not. This is Nehemiah speaking. I was not in Jerusalem at the time for I had returned to King Artaxerxes in Babylon

in the thirty second year of his reign. Though I later asked his permission to return and when I arrived back in Jerusalem, I learned about Eliashib's evil deed and providing Tobiah

with a room in the courtyards of the temple of god. I became very upset and I threw all of Tobiah's belongings out of the room. Then, I demanded that the rooms be purified and I brought back the articles for god's temple, the grain offerings, and the frankincense.

Here's what's happening. Okay, Nehemiah tells us that he has gone back to Babylon and historians and theologians tell us that four or five years has passed and he now comes, he comes back to Jerusalem

and he comes back to the city that he left that was thriving. The people of god were experiencing the renewing power that only god can do in their lives. The temple was operating daily. Prayer was taking place. Worship was happening. The people of god were living into their god given purpose and their identity and for some reason, again, we don't really know why. Nehemiah goes back to be with King Artaxerxes and he leaves a man named Eliashib

in charge of the temple.

He tells him, hey, it's your job to continue what god is doing. He he literally would have been me. The pastor that was in charge of the local assembly of the body of Christ to orchestrate the services of god to make sure that the people of god were taken care of. Funerals could happen. Weddings could happen. That revival would continue through the people of god and and again, here's what's interesting that we we don't know so many details in here but you you can see them if you look with your imagination into the story.

See, we learn a couple really interesting details in what Nehemiah tells us here in the beginning. Four, five years have passed by and Eliashib is in charge of the temple but they all know the Bible is clear. The letter of the law is clear that when the temple moments happen,

when the assembly of god takes place, the foreigners, the Ammonites, and the Moabites, they're not supposed to be a part of that service and again, it's a whole long rabbit trail that I don't have time to go down today but for a lot of different reasons, they were supposed to be excluded from that part of the service.

Yet, we also learn another troubling fact that Eliashib has a relative named Tobiah, okay? If you've been paying attention in the series that we've been in, Tobiah has been a recurring character that we've seen multiple times in the book of Nehemiah.

We first learn of Tobiah when we're in chapter four and five when Nehemiah comes in and the walls around Jerusalem have been about halfway rebuilt.

He comes in and he famously mocks the people of god and he says, what are you doing? Like, these walls, he says, if a fox even walked on these walls, they would fall down. See, Tobiah was a sworn enemy of Nehemiah.

He was not man that was trying to further god's kingdom. He was a man that was only concerned with expanding his and the the priest that was in charge of the temple, this is a relative of his

and again, this begins to show us the power of the people that we spend the most time with. See, what's happened in four or five years somehow, Tobiah has moved from being an enemy of god to now living in the temple of god. Eliashib has gone from protecting the people against Tobiah

to allowing him to literally take root in the home of the people of god and I don't know exactly how it happened but I promise you, there was some detail that was in there that the scriptures don't tell us about.

Something went wrong for Eliashib in the journey and maybe it was like, hey, people just aren't aren't giving enough. Times are hard and we're not able to pay our bills and we're to have to turn the lights off at the church and things are just really difficult. We're not going to make payroll this week and maybe it was a Thanksgiving dinner or a Christmas party with all the other crazy relatives that were there

where he's talking about his problems and Tobiah offers him a solution. He offers him a solution. He says, you know what? Man, I've got a really thriving business and I could come in and I could help you. I could help take some of the burden and the pressure off of you of what you're feeling.

And here's what Eliaship does that you and I will all be tempted to do as well when it comes to honoring God with our lives. We don't know exactly what it is, but I promise you the first step that Eliaship takes is a small step away from God.

And he just makes a decision to compromise a little bit and to just go, you know what? Maybe I don't take this God thing so serious. And maybe I can just be a little bit more passive when it comes to my faith. Maybe it really isn't that big of a deal. See, what I want to show you today is, again, let this stool. It's it's a beautiful stool. I know some of you probably have the same stool at your house. It's not it's not a condemnation against this stool. It's just going to be an illustration for us. I think it's a nice stool. Okay? But I want this stool to represent

the progression of sin that's in all of our life if we're not careful. This cycle that we see here in Nehemiah chapter 13 is something that you see time and time again in the lives of most of the heroes of our faith.

It's a cycle that if you're not careful, it will begin to pull you in and the end of it is always destruction. See, what we're seeing here is the first of what I believe are four phases of sin's destruction. The first one, you gotta understand. See, sin always, it always appears innocently. It's just a stool.

It's not that big of a deal and at some point, Eliashib probably told himself rational lies, and he rationalized his way into abdicating the leadership that was given to him of the house of God to a sworn

enemy of god. I want you for just a minute speak to every man that's here today.

I need you to understand that I know there's not a temple that you've been given to steward but the New Testament says that you are all, you are priests of your home. You are the provider and the protector of your home and I promise you, the enemy is going to be insistent

about trying to get you to abdicate your leadership responsibility.

He's going to try to do it in really subtle ways. I think the number one thing that the enemy is doing today where he's gaining a lot of ground is he's convincing a bunch of guys not to step into some major big sins out there. I think the number one thing that the enemy has done is he's come in. He's convinced a bunch of men that it's okay for you to be passive and I know it's hard for you to lead spiritually in your home and your your wife is just better at those things than you are and so you just kind of through time and through small decisions, you've just abdicated the leadership that is yours to your wife who's just better at it and it is not an indictment against women but it's just a spiritual reality.

Men, women can't bear the load of burden that the spiritual leadership of your home is. It it literally is part of the curse that was placed on us in the Garden Of Eden. It was part of the burden that was given to men. You are the spiritual protectors and the providers of your home but you better believe if you won't lead

and you want to give that up, I promise you, there's a real enemy that is more than willing to step in and to begin to set up camp in your house and he's willing to come in and take control of the thing that you are supposed to be in control of. To Eliashib's greatest thing is a compromise of passivity.

He doesn't step into some huge, big, glaring sin. I think sometimes we're we're we're smart enough to not fall into those things but we just we we more especially for those of us men who are wired to go work and to build. It's much easier to lead in the work environment than it is to lead at home.

And so you become really good at building a business and then you come home and you go, why does this feel so foreign? Why does this feel so hard and so difficult? And so what you do unintentionally is over time, you you just allow the enemy to tell you it's not that big of a deal.

It's innocent. Just make a small compromise here and there. What I need you to see is the consequences of you abdicating your responsibility to lead your home men is

greater and graver than you could possibly ever imagine. If you're taking notes, I need you to understand that men, there are only two options. You can leave your home or Satan will.

There's only two options from the Garden of Eden. We've learned this this lesson time and time again and again. This is not an indictment against women. You're amazing, and I know you're trying your best, but there is leadership. The men are supposed to be the heads of their home, and the enemy's done a really good job of convincing you, men just step back and let your wife go first.

Let somebody else lead in your absence. And I promise you, if you pay attention to the story, you will see though it starts innocently. It starts like it's not that big of a deal. The consequences

are grave. I I need you to see it. Story continues. Verse 10, says I also discovered that the Levites had not been given their prescribed portions of food so that the singers who were to conduct the worship service had all returned to work their fields and immediately,

I confronted the leaders and I demanded, why has the temple of god been neglected? Then, I called all the Levites back again and I restored them to their proper duties and once more, all the people of Judah began bringing their tithes of grain, new wine, and olive oil to this temple storerooms.

I assigned supervisors to the storeroom, Shalom the priest, Zadok described Padaya, one of the Levites and I appointed, I appointed Hanan, the son of Zacor and grandson of Matineum as their assistant. These men had an excellent reputation and it was their job to make honest distributions to their fellow Levites.

Remember this good deed, oh my god, and do not forget that all that I have faithfully done for the temple of my god and its services. Did you see it? It it it's so subtle that you'll miss it when you read the section quickly.

See, Eliashib makes probably a business decision and he allows his relative, somebody that he trust that is not actually helping him advance the things of god in his life that is speaking death over his family. He allows him to come in and set up camp inside of his home and do you notice the very first thing that the enemy does, the number one thing that the enemy goes after in the people of god, the moment he takes root in the house of god?

You know what it is? He stops the people of god with from trusting god with their resources. The number one thing that he stops is tithing. All the people, once the enemy sets up camp in the house of god begin to be whispered into their ears going, man, you you you don't need to trust god with your money.

It's your business. Why does the guy that sings a couple songs need to eat and feed his family, right? It's not that big of a deal.

Nehemiah comes back from a temple. He left a temple that was thriving where people were understanding. No, we we don't have to give. We we get to give. All of life is worship. God's not here taking from us. God is blessing us and he's asked us out of obedience

to give back to him a 10% of what he's entrusted to us and the temple was operating well and the worship was taking place and Nehemiah walks in and all of a sudden, the Levites, the people that are supposed to be running the church, they're working out in the field. Why? Because the people of god had forgotten

that you're not an owner of your life. You don't get to do. The moment you surrender your life to Jesus. It's Galatians two twenty. Your life is no longer your own. The life you now live. You live to the power of the resurrected Christ but don't you dare get the audacity to step up and go, it's my life again

because the moment you do and the moment you think you're in charge, you'll begin to begin to unravel all the things that god has been doing in you. I don't think it's coincidental. I don't think it's accidental. The first thing that the enemy goes after is tithing. Why?

Because he knows that tithing is much more than giving god a tip. See, the enemy knows that tithing is a reflection of how much you trust god. It is an acknowledgement of lordship.

It is worship and I promise you, if you begin to not trust god with your resources, it's just a small step until you don't trust god with everything else in your life. It's amazing to me.

The first thing the enemy goes after is the number one thing he knows is the hardest for men to turn over. It's the number one thing he knows that men will struggle with, is trusting God with their resources. It's why

after he's invited into the home because it appears innocently, it's not that big of a deal that the progression of sin continues. So you think you gotta understand the reason that allowing this thing to be in your home, this king cobra, whatever it is that you struggle with, allowing it to sit in your home because you think it's not that big of a deal. You're dismissing the progression, the progressive nature

of sin because the problem is the second step, if you're looking at the phases of sin, is that sin, it it starts innocently. It appears innocently but then what it does is it begins to just tempt you incessantly. Once you allow this thing in your home, all of a sudden now, the enemy has a voice into your life.

And all of a sudden, every single day, he's just tempting you. It's not that big of a deal. You'll do it different this time. She'll never find out. I promise you, nobody's gonna know. It'll just be a website this time. It won't become a full blown. It's just alcohol. And all of a sudden, when this thing, instead of waging war with it, you just allow it to sit there,

it begins to tempt you to do things that you swore you would never do. This is what's amazing to me about what we're reading here in Nehemiah chapter 13. I don't know if you remember, but we read it a couple weeks ago. Flip back with me to Nehemiah chapter 10 verse 39.

See, the people of god are not trusting god with their resources even though just a few chapters before after this big spiritual revival took place in their hearts, they made a decree

and they made a declaration that is recorded in Nehemiah chapter 10 verse 39. It says, the people, the people and the Levites must bring these offerings of grain, new wine, and olive oil to the storerooms and place them in the sacred containers near the ministering priest, the gatekeepers, and the singers, okay? Nehemiah in in the priest are literally reading the word of god, reminding people, here's the standard and look at how the people of god respond.

We promise together not to neglect the temple of our god for about ten minutes until we feel like we don't want to do that anymore. See, this is the problem of our humanity is we can have great moments of inspiration but inspiration doesn't last and

you can have moments even here sitting on a Sunday morning where you swear this is the last time. I'm never going back to the bottle. I'm never going back to that web page. I'm never going to gossip again. I'm never going to overeat again. You can never, whatever your thing is, you can have these moments where you draw a line in the sand, stand before an assembly of people and say, I'm never going back to it.

But if all you do is step out of these doors and just go back to the regular rhythm of your life and nothing actually changes, I promise you this cycle, it will repeat again. It is the plight of humanity left to our own devices, and I don't think it's coincidental that the first thing that he goes after is resources

and after money. And here's the heartbreaking reality of what I've come to understand as a senior pastor. One of the hardest things to get people to trust God in is the arena of their finances. I would say the number one thing competing for your time and attention is your belief that you are your own god.

I was sitting on a call with one of the coaching networks that I'm a part of. They had a

CFO from a really big influential church that was kind of coaching some of us young church planters and talking about how to how to generate generosity inside of your church, how to create a culture of generosity inside of a new church and it was heartbreaking to listen to this guy that was sitting from a position of being an expert talk about here's how to do it in your church. You know what his advice was to us?

Speak to the women. He said, if you're ever gonna have a conversation about finances with a man, make sure you get his wife to come to that meeting too. Why? He said, because the data is clear that women are the spiritual initiators in their homes.

And when it comes to trusting God with their resources, women typically are willing to go first. And he said, if you have any shot of helping a husband become convinced to trust God with their money, you need their wife to be in the room too. Don't hear what I'm not saying. Again, my wife is an incredible

helpmate, and there are things that I struggle with that my wife helps me get there, and I think that is a part of their role. But I also think it's heartbreaking that we're sitting in a cultural moment where it's just become an accepted reality that men kinda sit on the sidelines and women lead their homes spiritually.

I look at that and I go, the enemy has this exactly where he wants us. And men, I'm telling you, if you won't lead your home, there is an enemy that's more than willing to do it on your behalf. Culture will disciple your children if you won't do it.

TikTok will become the primary voice into the formation of their character if you don't do it. And I know it's difficult. I don't know why it is this way. But I I lead in a lot of environments that I'm in in my life. The hardest,

the most difficult one for me every single time is in my home. I don't know what it is. I don't feel natural. It's hard to lead with my children. It's hard to have my wife there. Like, I I can lead a room like this all day long but you ask me to lead my wife and my kids and it feels foreign and it feels alien and so the temptation

is to just lean into the previous and ignore the latter but you've got to see this thing.

It matters more than you could possibly imagine because Nehemiah understands the enemy is not going to be okay with you just thinking that the sins are going to stay here and you're just saying, I I'm just going to not trust god with my money but everything else, I'm going to trust god with. I I'm not going to let this affect my family. I'm just going to step into this small arena.

You've gotta see that the sin is going to progress. It's going to continue to grow. The consequences are much further reaching than you than you realize. Look how the story continues. It says, in in those days,

I I saw men of Judah treading out their wine presses on the Sabbath. They were also

bringing in grain, loading it on donkeys, and bringing their wine, grape, figs, and all sorts of produce to Jerusalem to sell on the Sabbath. So, I rebuke them for selling their produce on that day. Some men from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise.

They were selling it on the Sabbath to the people of Judah and in Jerusalem at that. So, I confronted the nobles of Judah. Why are you profaning the Sabbath in this evil way? Wasn't it just this sort of thing that your ancestors did that caused our god to bring all this trouble upon us in our city and now here you are bringing even more wrath upon Israel by permitting the Sabbath to be desecrated in this way and then I commanded that the gates of Jerusalem should be shut as darkness fell every Friday evening not to be open until the Sabbath ended. I sent some of my own servants to guard the gate so that no merchandise could be brought in on the Sabbath day. The merchants and the tradesmen with a variety of wares camped outside Jerusalem once or twice but I spoke sharply to them and I said, what are you doing here? Camping around the wall. If you do this again, I promise. I I will arrest you And that was the last time they came on the Sabbath. Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and to guard the gates in order to preserve the holiness of the Sabbath.

Remember this good deed also, my God. Have compassion on me according to your great and unfailing love. See, here's the progression

that sin never leads with when you entertain the innocent nature of it. See, you will convince yourself eventually after telling yourself rational lives of why it's not that big of a deal. It'll be different. You can control it this time. It's really not that important. It's only gonna stay here. Eventually, you will make the decision to sit in the thing that you should be fleeing from.

And all of a sudden, just like the people of God in Nehemiah chapter 13 who make a decision, a business decision probably to just go, we're we're just going to keep our resources to ourselves. I don't think for a variety of reasons that I can trust the church with my money. I'm going keep it myself.

But all the other parts of my relationship with God, those aren't going to change. But the problem is is that sin never stays where you think it's gonna stay.

It's never comfortable just being in the rooms that you've invited it into. See, sin always grows. It always cost you more than you think you're gonna pay, and it makes you stay way longer than you thought you were gonna be there. And all of a sudden, the people of God in Nehemiah chapter 13 make a small compromise to not trust God with their money, but the next compromise was right behind it.

All of a sudden, God had told them, they all knew, keep the Sabbath day holy. One day a week, honor God. It's a big deal. Be in church with your family. But they go, did God really mean, like, every Sunday?

Like, travel baseball is pretty important. I think my kid's gonna make it in the big leagues. Like, we can we'll make it most Sundays. And we put the livestream on in the background while we're traveling most of the time. So I'm pretty sure that counts. Like, god's cool with technology. Right?

And all of a sudden, we we forget that when you sit in this thing that you can't control how much sin begins to spiral. So you've gotta see that sin, the third step in the phases of the destruction of sin, that eventually sin begins to spiral inevitably.

It begins to just have all types of consequences and go into places of your life that you never thought it possibly could go.

And you would think that that issue that you're struggling with is just something that would affect you, but yet all of a sudden now it's affecting your wife. It's affecting your kids. You're losing a job over it because this is the lie that sin won't tell you. That this seat that you should be running from,

it is out to kill, steal, and destroy every part of your life. This thing that you're entertaining that you think is innocent. I promise you, it's a king cobra. You you cannot contain it. It will come in innocently, but then eventually, it will come in and it will seek to destroy every single part of your life.

Nehemiah finds himself with a group of people who just a few years before were worshiping god weekly. They were in church. It's amazing to me to think about it. God gave the old the the nation of Israel in the Old Testament 10 rules.

The 10 chore charts for the nation of Israel. There's 10 things I need you to do. One of those things that was so important was to keep the Sabbath day holy. You will have a propensity to be your own god. You won't be able to stop working because you will be tempted to get your worth

from your work and you will equate your value in this world to the size of your business or the size of your 401Ks account or the next house you get or the next car you drive or that neighborhood you finally get to, you will think that that's where your value comes from and to get it, you will do everything. You will sacrifice anything including

skipping church and including putting away the things of god and I'm telling you, men, you you need to hear me especially in the culture that we live in today. I know there are a million reasons why you can justify

having your kids in some sports league that takes precedence over church. I'm not saying that we never take vacations. We can never go anywhere and you can never miss a Sunday. Okay? I'm not saying that. I will miss Sundays. I promise you that.

But I promise you the number one thing that I'm trying to build into my children is a priority for the house of God.

That god is a huge deal and above everything else, we are going to honor him. We're going to keep his name sacred and we're going to revolve our life not around a traveling baseball schedule but around the house of god and that has forced us to make some decisions. Okay? Travel baseball is like a huge thing out here and for my son, we've had to have the conversation. Like, dude, it's just it's just a non starter for us because the decision to travel three weekends out of the month to play a baseball tournament, it would be instilling something in you that I don't think is gonna help you long term. And here's the truth if I can just tell you. Your kid's not going pro. K? I don't know if nobody has told you that yet, but, like, let let me just break it to you.

The statistical probability that your kid is going to become professional baseball or soccer or hockey player is so abysmally small. But here's what I can promise you. I guarantee you at some point, they are going to die, and there's gonna be a question of, are they going to heaven or hell?

And the greatest legacy that you can give them is not getting them onto a certain sports team, but it's teaching them to prioritize the things of God in their life. It is why again, people ask us all the time. We don't livestream our services. It's not just because the internet here is terrible.

It's because we genuinely believe, hey, we're we're not going to feed into the culture that says being with the people of god doesn't matter. That doesn't mean we don't travel and there aren't going to be times we miss because we do and all of that is fine but if you come to church once out of every ten weeks,

I'm telling you right now, the enemy has you exactly where he wants because the first thing he'll do is get you isolated and to get you distracted and when you're isolated and distracted, you're susceptible

to his ways and his techniques. I need you to see this. This is especially true for all you dads. If if church is optional for you, faith will become unnecessary to them, your children. If church is not a big deal for you, I promise you at some point, faith will become unnecessary

to them. Here's why this whole thing matters. Here's why I'm teaching this and kind of leaning into this stuff. This next verse, it shows us what the stakes are. This is why Nehemiah cared so deeply about this. Verse 23,

about the same time I realized that some of the men from Judah had married women from Ashod, Ammon, and Moab. The enemies of God, the people of God are now marrying into. Furthermore, verse 24, half their children spoke the language of Ashod or some other people and they couldn't speak the language of Judah at all.

Why should you and I care about any of this stuff? Why should we wake up? Because the stakes matter. I'm telling you, you abdicating your responsibility. You might think it's not that big of a deal but you are setting your children up for more confusion and destruction than you could possibly imagine.

Nehemiah leaves a thriving church and he comes back to a group of men who've made decisions that they've watched before. They've seen people do this. God's told you not to intermarry. Why? Because the moment you do it, your children are going to lose their legacy.

They're supposed to know the language of Judah. They're supposed to speak Hebrew. Why? Because when they come to church, you know what's spoken? Hebrew, the worship songs are written in Hebrew. The Bible is written in Hebrew.

What Nehemiah is saying is that your compromise that you think isn't that big of a deal. It's costing you, it's costing your children their their identity. They don't know who they are. They speak a language that's foreign to them and it's because you thought that that thing wasn't important

and dads, I'm telling you right now, your children are going to bear the weight of the sins you don't wage war with. I promise you the destruction is more than you could possibly imagine.

Why do you think children today are walking around as confused as they are? Because for the first time we're watching children grow up in fatherless homes. More of them grow up without dads than do have dads in the homes

and we sit back and we go, what's happening to the country? I can tell you what's happening with the country.

Fathers have abdicated the responsibility of the leadership they have in their home and the enemy has become more than willing to step into that void and to fill it and to speak lies over our children and if we are not careful, we're going to lose the next generation as well.

But if some people can rise up again and remember who they are and remember that we have a purpose and an identity and the stakes matter that we could possibly imagine,

we can speak hope again into this. But you need to see the end of the cycle, the progression of sin that you sit in this thing long enough, it is going to reach in and to destroy every single part of what's around you. The final stage of the progression and destruction of sin is that sin devastates indescribably.

It wants to reach and destroy every single part of who you are. Again, I wrote it down this way, that passivity in the home, it always breeds confusion in the next generation. Our children are watching us. I'm not saying we've got to be perfect, but we've got to be engaged.

I'm not saying we have to get it right a 100% of the time, but I am saying we've got to get back up and try again when we fail.

The stakes matter more than we could ever possibly imagine. So the question is kind of what do we do? Okay. What do we do when we see this cycle and we potentially see ourselves somewhere in this progression of sin? I just want to read you what Nehemiah does. I'm not necessarily recommending we do the same thing, but I think it's interesting to see what he does. Look at verse 25.

So Nehemiah says, I confronted them and I called down curses on them, and then I beat some of them, and I pulled out their hair. I'm like, that's the most gangster verse in the Bible.

It's like, you talk about like men being like, oh, like it's all passive, and Jesus had the sandals and hippie feet on, and Nehemiah's like, no, man. Was ripping out hair and slapping dudes because they were not following God, you know? So here's what we're going do. We're going to form two lines. If you need to get slapped, come here. If you think pulling your hair, like, can you imagine it'd be wild? So, we're going to pull dude's hair out. For all you bald guys, this is your moment. You're like, I'm good. Okay?

Again, go read the rest of the story. He goes through recounts and he reminds them, guys, we've watched this. Remember Saul? The guy was supposed to be the greatest king of all of us. He tried this. He married all these foreign women and god left him. The favor of god left him because he was unwilling to follow god wholeheartedly.

I think what Nehemiah is telling us is that at some point, we have to be willing to take drastic

action. We've had to do whatever it takes to wage war with the sin that's in our life but but here's the tension and here's why I think this story is so important for us to see. See, Nehemiah chapter 13, what we just read, that is the close. That is the final chapter, the final verse of the narrative of the people of god in the Old Testament.

This is it. The story closes and now we go into the four hundred years of silence before Jesus is born that we'll celebrate

next week as he overcomes death on Easter Sunday but this is it. This is the plight of humanity. This is Nehemiah's tension. It's why you can feel the frustration where he's just, he's slapping dudes and pulling out here because he knows you're sacrificing your kids because you won't wage war with this but Nehemiah doesn't have any other tools. He doesn't know what else to do and this is the part that that is hard is I wish so badly right now that what I could say, men, all of you men who are here who are ready to take up the call, to pick up the mantle, and to run fast again, and to take leadership of our home. Here's what you need to do. I'm going put a QR code on the screen. We're going do a twelve week mastermind together. We're going to cold plunge every morning and we're going to do all this like really intense stuff together, right?

I wish it was that simple but but it's it's not. See, Nehemiah's frustration is he knew that this cycle is just going to continue to play out time and time and time again. Why? Because you and I can't change ourselves.

There's no amount of sermons that I could preach. It would inspire you enough to walk out of here and live differently on your own but Nehemiah also knew

that there was a day that was coming at some point. He didn't know when but the prophets had talked about how there was a day that was coming where this sin cycle would be broken ultimately

and that humanity would have an opportunity to not just try to be better and white knuckle their way out of sin but they would have an opportunity to actually be to be born again and it was language that they wouldn't have really understood but you and I through the New Testament, we understand what the prophets were whispering about. See, if you read in Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 26,

the prophet talked about how there was a day that was coming where dry bones would be able to come back to life and he said that I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit in you and I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and I will give you a tender, responsive

heart. See, the prophets had whispered about a day that would come eventually where god could do heart transplants inside of who you are and that the way that we change our lives and begin to reset generational cycles is not outwardly to inwardly.

Now, we've gotta ask god to change us from the inside out and we have to go through the process of being what the New Testament says is born again. Where we ask god to the power of his spirit to reach into our heart, to rip out the heart that doesn't feel, that is callous, that doesn't really care about the things of god

and we ask him to put in inside of us his heart, a heart of flesh, a heart that is broken over the things that god's heart is broken over. A heart that grieves the sin that's in us again and what it takes is not work, it's not achieving, but it is surrender

and men, here's the beautiful thing for all of you sitting here going, man, what do I do? What do I do? To stop the cycle from playing out again and for my kids to walk through some of the same things that I had to walk through. It starts with the moment of surrender. Where you bend the knee to the lordship of Christ.

Where you acknowledge that you can't fix this on your own. But the freeing part is is that God is not asking you to fix it on your own. But God is sitting here knocking on your heart asking if you will truly invite him in.

Not playing church, not going through the motions, not praying some prayer that you prayed as a kid, but with legitimate sorrow and surrender, acknowledging the lordship of Jesus over your life, inviting him to invade every single part of who you are, to come into your heart, and to set you free.

And if you're here this morning and you know that you need to surrender your life to Jesus, I'm telling you friends, don't don't miss this moment. Don't miss this opportunity between you and god. These moments come just in in special times that god has preordained.

I'm going ask you right now as we close. If everybody would, just stand to your feet with me real quick. Stand to your feet with me and if you're here this morning and it feels like I've been speaking specifically to you and there's some things inside of you

that you've been entertaining, some sin that's there that you need to deal with and and and handle and repent of. I'm going to ask you right now, the entire room is all close our eyes and bow our heads. This

right now is a holy moment between you and your heavenly father. I know it feels like there's hundreds of people around you but I promise you, this is just a moment between you and god. Between your father in heaven who knows you, who the scriptures say that he forms you in your mother's womb,

that he's knit together every fiber of your being. He loves you more than you could possibly ever imagine

and this is a moment where you have an opportunity to bend the knee to the lordship of Christ, to surrender all of who you are to him, to have the moment where you wave the flag and say, god, my life is no longer my own. I'm asking you to come in and take control. Be the lord of my life. If that's you right now, every eye closed and heads bowed. If that's you, I'm going to ask you. When I count to three, just throw your hand up right where you are. I know it sounds silly but something happens when we respond to what god's doing in us where we acknowledge, yes, god, this is me. I'm repenting and I'm turning of these ways. I want to stop this progression. If that's you on the count of three, one,

don't miss this moment. Two, this is you. You know this is you. Nobody's looking. It's just you and god. Three, if that's you, throw your hand up. All hands going up all over the room. Father, we see hands going up all over this place. Their hands going up all over this auditorium.

Heaven is erupting right now. Keep your hands raised. See, the scriptures say that angels rejoice. Heaven celebrates a thing we've never seen before. When one lost person is found, when one lost person acknowledges that they're willing to repent before god. So, father, we thank you. You can put your hands down.

Father, I thank you for every hand that was raised, every heart that's responding to you. If that was you right now in the quietness of your heart, just pray this prayer with me. Say, Jesus, with all the faith that I have, I surrender all that I am to you.

Father, I'm done playing church. I'm done going through the motions. God, I ask for you to come into my heart and set me free. Jesus, I believe that you are who you say that you are. Step into my life. Help me lead my family well.

Help me learn to trust your voice over all the voices that the enemy tries to whisper in my ear. Jesus, I give you my life. I give you control of all of it. It is in the mighty and holy name of Jesus. All god's people said, amen and amen. Hey, Ian's going to lead us right now in a song. Well, we're just going to proclaim how good god is and talk about just hail king Jesus because he's worthy. Amen? Let's worship real quick.

Father, that is our heart, that is our cry, that Jesus, you would be lifted high and magnified in this place. That father, in our homes this week, would we continue to pursue you? Father, would you begin to write new stories in the hearts and homes of every single person here today. Father, we're so thankful

for the free gift of salvation we've been given through Jesus. It cost you everything

and father, you invite us in to share in the abundant life that you died for us to have and father, we'll never get used to that. We're so thankful for who you are and for new beginnings for all of god's people. It is in the mighty name of Jesus all god's people said, amen and amen.