Rise Up and Build

What do you do when life feels broken—and you don’t know where to start?

In this message from the Book of Nehemiah, we look at what happens when God’s people return from exile and face the overwhelming task of rebuilding what was lost. Nehemiah doesn’t respond with denial or hype—he responds with grief, prayer, repentance, and a plan.

This sermon is a call to rebuild with purpose:

not just walls, but hearts…

not just structures, but unity…

not just activity, but mission.

If you’re facing discouragement, loss, spiritual burnout, or a season where things need to be rebuilt, this episode will help you take the next step with faith and perseverance—together, not alone.

Scripture Focus: Nehemiah 1–2

00:00 Morning Reflections and Spiritual Stirring

01:36 Introduction to Nehemiah Series

02:12 Rebuilding the Temple and Facing Hardships

04:45 Spiritual Rebuilding and Community Efforts

07:42 The Importance of Unity and Hard Work

11:45 Nehemiah’s Leadership and Vision

21:45 Emotional and Spiritual Challenges

24:14 Responding to Bad News

25:22 The Importance of a Soft Heart

25:53 Weeping for Our Loved Ones

31:11 The Power of Prayer

33:53 Repentance and Reflection

40:48 Rising Up and Rebuilding

45:09 A Personal Song and Reflection

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OC Church of Christ

I don't know about you, but I've been feeling

2

it a little bit this morning.

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All right.

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The spirit's starting to stir.

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Let's really stir it.

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All right, let's stir it as the

word of God has spoken to us.

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You know my approach.

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It's to read the word

and let it speak to us.

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So open up your heart.

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Now that's a decision.

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I'm always longing for the Holy

Spirit to touch me, to fill me,

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to change me, to transform me.

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The Bible says that at the end of my

life, God wants me to be blameless.

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He wants to, to create in me his nature

so much, his character, his virtues, to

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the point that when I get to heaven, I

can stand before God and Jesus can present

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me and you to God without any blemish.

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Amen.

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Well, that's a lot of work for Jesus.

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Especially for me, as we heard even

the, the Saint Mor Maurice, you know, I

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mean, I, I, I, that was, I wish I'd have

heard that when I was a teenaged father.

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You know, that it's tough to be a, a.

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Uh, a perfect, you know,

there's a song, country song.

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Most of you don't know it.

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I won't refer to country songs that

much, but this is from Lubbock,

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Texas where Kathy grew up at.

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Uh, it's hard to be humble and, uh, I

think it's also hard to be Christian.

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Amen.

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'cause it's hard to be

perfect and Jesus was perfect.

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Good morning church.

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I'm so glad you're here.

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Turn your Bibles over to Nehemiah.

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Not the shortest man in the Bible.

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He was a kneehigh.

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It's a shoe height.

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That was the smallest.

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And so, uh, uh, he had a

little bit going for him there.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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You guys gotta lighten up.

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All right.

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See, sometimes I test you.

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All right.

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To see if you're, uh,

in a, in a happy mood.

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But, uh, we're going to start this

series today on Nehemiah, because this

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is really where we're at as a church.

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Let's go.

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The people had come back from exile.

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A few of them, they

had rebuilt the temple.

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They had re rebuilt the opportunity

to connect with God and to worship.

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And so people thought the

discipline of God was over.

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That finally the burden of, of

our, the generations before them

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that had sinned was released.

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And in some ways it was.

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But God hadn't poured out his

full blessing on the people.

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He was still letting those exiles

that were back in the Promised

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Land ghost through some hard times.

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And sometimes we only think

God's with us when things are

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great, but God is always with us.

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He's with us when it's tough and when

it's good, he's with us when we're

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prosperous and we're just squeaking by.

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Yeah.

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And so the exiles feel like

we're doing something wrong.

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I mean, the marauders are coming in

and they're taking all our hard work.

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They're, they're, they're,

they're pillaging us.

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We're in danger.

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We're always having to look over

our shoulder and they thought

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there's something wrong because

if you read the Old Testament,

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there's a very simplistic gospel.

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They, they missed a

lot of the true gospel.

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The gospel was, if you're

prosperous, then God's blessing you.

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If you're not prosperous,

God's not blessing you.

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He's not with you.

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That's not true.

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That's not what David said in the Psalms.

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That's not what the scriptures say,

but they really believed that it

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was just black and white like that.

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All right.

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That is just one or the other.

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And we've gotta have a more

sophisticated and nuanced faith

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that God is always with us.

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Can I get Amen?

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Amen.

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Yes.

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God is always with us.

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He's been with us when

we've been in this place.

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He's been with us when

we've been in other places.

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And I don't know about you, I think.

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I think you're like me.

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You liked that other

place too, didn't you?

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Yeah, there were advantages to the

bigger and the smaller and to near

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the beach and now more inland.

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I mean, there's all different advantages,

all different ways of doing church,

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and we will do that and we'll be more

sophisticated, but it's really good to

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come back together and get your strength.

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Yeah, it's good to come back together and

get fully united, so God can bless you.

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But as I thought about this first

chapter, I gave an introduction of it at

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a midweek, but not everyone got to hear

it, and I want to go into it more fully.

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I only did about five verses

before because what's really struck

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me is God wants us to repaint.

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He wants us to rebuild.

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He wants us to put new AstroTurf

where the grass is all dead out there.

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And we did all right.

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He wants us to fill up the dumpster with

all the stuff that's been accumulating

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year after year after year, and all the

closets and all the cubbies around here.

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And boy did we throw a bunch

of away, bunch of stuff away.

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I feel lighter just looking.

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I You gotta go up to the fellowship

hall, look at that dumpster

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and all the stuff that's in it.

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All right.

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Yeah, but just as the book of Nehemiah

doesn't start with rebuilding the wall,

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brick by brick, family by family, location

by location, gate by gate, it starts

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with rebuilding the inside of the people.

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Amen.

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Rebuilding the heart and the spirit,

because we can do all these things,

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but if our spirits aren't right.

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If we're not doing well on

the inside spiritually, then

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all the other is in vain.

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And so I wanna refocus this.

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I've been working hard.

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All the staff's been working hard.

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A lot of people have been working hard.

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Mike's been working hard.

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I mean, the, the, the, the, the

sound guys have been working hard.

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I mean, Stewart's been here, you

know, I mean, Phil Bailey's been here

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trying to get new lights in here.

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I mean, so many people working so hard.

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But we're doing it for the right reason.

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The reason is to bring glory to God.

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The reason is to get God's

blessing, be in a position where

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we get to watch God do his thing.

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You know why I'm so glad

I'm an older Christian?

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I'm not old, I'm just older.

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Somebody came up with a new term the

other day instead of the elderly.

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It's the classic.

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It's the classic.

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Some of us are classic Christians.

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All right.

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And you know why I'm so glad I'm a

classic Christian is because I've

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been able for the last 45, almost 50

years to see God do so many things.

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Yeah.

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Right.

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I have lived a charmed, blessed life

that really few people have gotten to

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live, and we want everybody, everybody

we know to be able to live that life.

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And so let's, uh, go for

it here and get into this.

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The theme is rise up and Build.

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And that's from, uh, the next chapter.

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And, uh, uh, I wanna recommend, always

gonna, gonna use my, my education.

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Okay?

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I'm not gonna dumb it down for you.

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This is Orange County.

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This is America.

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I mean, this is one of the most educated

places in the whole world, all right?

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And if it goes over your head, there's

things that will, you'll, you will get.

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All right?

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And, and so I don't dumb

down my sermons, all right?

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I had one sister come up to me

one, one Sunday after church sit.

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You know, you just give us too much.

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I just rather it be simple.

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I say, well, we get simple in

quiet time every day, right?

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Right.

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I mean, I want to, I wanna speak

to every level when I speak.

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All right?

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So some of it is gonna be educational,

some of it's inspirational.

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It's all faith building

and it's all God's word.

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All right?

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But if you wanna do some deeper reading,

here's a, uh, some two books you can read.

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Edwin uh, Friedman wrote a book, failure

of Nerve and Generation Generation.

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First it's about systems theory

and then it's about, uh, systems

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theory applied to the church.

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And a guy named Stanky took his work

and has really, uh, done a lot of

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research, but I introduced this fellow

to you because he, uh, thinks that our

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world is deteriorating, and he applied

it just to the Western civilization.

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I think it's.

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The whole civilization.

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Alright.

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I think it's the whole world.

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But he said, especially characteristics

of systems that fail, churches

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that fail, families that fail.

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Businesses that fail, it's reactivity.

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And so a lot of times people

say, you gotta do something.

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We gotta fix this.

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No, we don't.

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No, we don't.

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I know as a parent of

teenager, I was very reactive.

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You know, oh no, the sky just fell.

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Don't be reactive.

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When I'm reactive, usually I've

sinned and usually I have to

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confess my sin and apologize.

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I've been reactive a little bit this

week 'cause we've been working hard

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and we've, you know, when you get

tired, you're not your best self.

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I got tired long before I went

home and Kathy wasn't here

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to say, Greg, just go to bed.

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She, she knows when I'm at that point

and, and, and now I've told the brothers.

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So they'll just say that, that's

gonna become a joke around it.

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Greg, just go to bed now.

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I have an office.

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I have a couch up there.

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Just say it differently.

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Go take a nap.

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All right.

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All right.

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But reactivity anger, I've had

people mad at me this week.

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I won't mention your names.

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I won't even look at you.

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'cause when I look at you, you

think I'm talking about you.

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And I had to tell one of the brothers,

I can't see past the second row.

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Don't go where I'm not going.

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All right,

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come on.

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And I've gotten mad at some

people, you know, because we've

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worked hard for a good reason.

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Low emotional resistance.

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Does that remind you of yourself?

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I mean, of anybody.

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Okay.

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Blame shifting, instant gratification

and the big one, anxiety.

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Let's not let these things

be a part of our culture.

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Amen.

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Let's, let's give a lot of grace

and let's extend a lot of mercy,

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and let's try to check ourselves.

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So these six things are

not a part of our system.

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Now, getting to Nehemiah.

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I wanna give you a little bit of

preview of all the, the chapters

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that are coming in the weeks ahead.

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But it talks about the remnant

of God, the, the, the, the people

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of God that are in the land.

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The few that have come back from,

from exile, from Babylon, the few

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that stayed there, and it says

the remnant rebuilds the wall.

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And how did they do it?

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Side by side.

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Through family.

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Yeah.

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Nehemiah knew if you're fighting for

your family, you'll fight harder.

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That if you're trying to build

that section, you're gonna build

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it the very best way that you can.

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And so you know what portion of

the wall God gave to each person?

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Their house was right next to the wall

or even built into the wall, and so

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they didn't do shabby, shabby work.

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Shabby or shabby.

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Alright.

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They did great working excellent

work because that was protecting

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them and their family.

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This church, we need to build it in a

way that protects us and our family.

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Can it get amen there?

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All right, something else.

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We're gonna see the remnant rebuilds of

the wall while they were being persecuted.

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The hardship came one curve after

another, one challenge after another.

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And we faced that this week in a physical

way, trying to get this building ready.

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But we're always gonna

face it in a spiritual way.

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Nothing ever goes perfectly right.

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Never does.

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You know, my hair's never exactly

the way I want it, you know?

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And you and I, you learned years ago.

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The older you get, there's about

three things that keep growing.

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Your nose, your ears, and

especially your eyebrows.

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Now you're gonna stare at my

nose and ear and eyebrows.

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Alright?

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But I look in the mirror and I'm

like, is that what I look like?

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I haven't always looked this way.

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I looked better.

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I need a nose job now.

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I'm not getting one.

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You know?

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But you know how that goes.

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Nothing ever is perfect.

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I remember when I bought my first new

car, they were all used, but when I

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went to the dealership, you know, they

didn't have that exact one I wanted.

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With all the right options and the right

color, the right interior, right exterior,

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the right chrome, the right wheels.

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Why didn't they make one just for me?

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They don't.

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I've never lived in a perfect house.

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I think we've owned 10 houses.

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There was something wrong with

every one of 'em, and there was a

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lot right with every one of 'em.

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And you can focus on what's right or

you can focus on that little defect.

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You know, this is the

thing about marriage.

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You're not gonna find the perfect spouse.

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Now.

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I have, but you are

not going to All right.

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Right.

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She's taken all right.

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She's off the market.

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Right.

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Let's keep going.

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The remnant rebuilds the wall

while rebuilding their faith.

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The remnant rebuilds the wall and the

nation of Jews, they'd been scattered.

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This, this, this book calls

the people back together.

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I want this to be a church where every one

of our friends or family or or neighbors

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that have visited come back and, and guys,

there's been so many more people come

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through this church than you realize.

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I worked for a guy who is my supervisor.

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When I was getting trained as a counselor,

he'd been to the, the church I was

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leading in Antelope Valley before, not

before I was there, but he'd been to it.

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He said, what church do you lead?

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Greg?

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The Ammo Valley Church.

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Oh, I think I've been there.

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Tell me where it's at.

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And I gave him the address.

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He goes, oh, that's the one

out in the desert, isn't it?

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I go, yeah, that's not

very flattering, right?

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That's the one that when you go inside,

looks like an airplane hangar, right?

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Go.

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No.

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Oh yeah.

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It's got really high ceilings and it's

dark and Yeah, it looked like, to me

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it looked like an airplane hanger.

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Well, it doesn't look like an

airplane hanger to me, Stan,

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but we make multipurpose rooms, right?

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We, we, we make a multifunctional.

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He was, wait, he wanted to

see, see a stapel, a a steeple

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and, and stained glass.

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He, he didn't like this big open thing.

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I do.

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I think you do too.

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Amen.

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The remnant rebuilds

the wall in record time.

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Why?

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Because they were unified.

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There was so much work done yesterday.

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When I got here in the morning, I just

thought, we're never gonna get there.

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It's not gonna happen.

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I walked around and I tried

to put on a happy face,

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but I thought, we're not gonna get there.

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And then every once in a

while, I came outside and I.

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Where did all this stuff come from?

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And then I go in the back and I guess

we'd emptied the storage container.

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And I thought, we don't have anybody

to do anything with all this.

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And last night when I drove away about

six o'clock, I drove down there and I

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thought somebody did a lot of something.

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'cause all that's gone.

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I mean, you can do so

much when you're unified.

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Amen.

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Yeah, the remnant rebuilds the

wall, and this is the, a good

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one with the funds of others,

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their captors paid for all this.

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All right.

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Now, why should we do an OC

cleanup so that others would help?

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Fun things.

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I'm not as dumb as I look, right.

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The remnant rebuilds the

wall to renew their dream.

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I don't know about you, but a lot

of dreams I've had and spiritually

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have come true, and a lot of dreams

I've had have been shattered.

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And I'm, I'm in the business of reaming.

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I don't know about you, but

it's good to ream and, and just

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like Ron said at the beginning.

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God always takes us on a different course.

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We, we, we plan a straight line.

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If you look at a map,

there's no straight lines.

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They go around hills and

they go through valleys.

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There's no straight lines.

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We'd like straight lines.

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All right, but we've gotta go on

the course that God wants us to go.

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Let's keep going.

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The remnant.

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Amen.

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Let's get into the verses,

Nehemiah one, one, and two.

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The words of Nehemiah's.

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Son of Hala.

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In the month of Keli in the 20th

year, when I was in the Citadel of

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Susan Hananiah, one of my brothers

came from Judah with some other

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man, and I questioned them about

the Jewish remnant, that it survived

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the exile, and also about Jerusalem.

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Every Jew throughout the dispersion

all around the world always wanted

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to do, have news about Jerusalem.

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How's Jerusalem doing?

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How's the church doing?

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How's the place that God

meets his people doing?

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He wanted the news.

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Sometimes I like watching the news.

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Most of the time I don't

want the news, you know?

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Especially before I go to sleep.

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'cause I don't want to have nightmares.

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Right?

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But he wanted the news.

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He asks about the remnant and

I've, we've said some things

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already about the remnant.

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Let me just hit these things again.

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God builds through the faithful remnant.

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The remnant are the, continue those that

continue to remain obedient, faithful.

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Keep on keeping on the

remnants is righteous.

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Even in hardship, they confess their sin.

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We're gonna see that in this chapter.

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Claim the power of promises.

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God, we're gonna see that in this chapter.

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The remnant rise up and build in every

generation the remnant will experience.

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Here it is the supernatural acts of God.

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That's what I'm talking about.

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The remnant survives.

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The challenges?

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Yes, indeed.

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We who persevere are part

of the remnant of God.

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When you read about the remnant,

you always ask yourself, is it me?

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Am I a part of it?

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Let me just answer that for you.

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If you're obedient and you're

faithful and you're just trying

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not, you don't have to be perfect.

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You don't even have to be

necessarily going forward.

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You're just hanging in there.

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You can be crawling, you can

even be stepping back, but you're

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headed the right direction.

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You're part of the remnant.

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Amen.

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I, I'm just anointing all of

you, a part of the remnant.

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So all this that we read about

in Nehemiah applies to all of us.

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Can I get amen?

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Amen.

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All right, let's keep going.

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Verse three.

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They said to me, those who survived

the XL and are back in the province

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are in great trouble and disgrace.

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The wall of Jerusalem is broken

down, the gates are burned with fire.

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And when I heard these things, I got mad.

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You know, according to Kubler Ross,

that's the first response to change

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and to loss and to disappointment.

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We get mad.

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But you know what Nehemiah did?

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He got sad.

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He got broken hearted.

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It says he sat down and he wept.

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For some days I mourned and fasted

and prayed before the God of heaven.

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You know, he just jumped all the

steps and he was at the fourth step.

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Sadness, depression.

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Most of us start with denial,

and then anger's the second step.

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And then we start bargaining

with God and then it sinks in.

427

This is the way it is, and we

get depressed and then we accept

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it and we gotta deal with it.

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So when he heard this

bad news, he got sad.

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Some of us are at different stages

in our spiritual life with some

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of our disappointment with God.

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Some of us are mad.

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I hope you get glad, but I know

that takes time and that's just one

434

stage and you gotta go through it.

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So we'll try to be patient with each other

when we're mad and when we're in denial.

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I mean, others can usually see

our problems before we see 'em.

437

Right?

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You know, we talk about blind spots.

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Some of us have a little

bit bigger blind spots.

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But that's okay.

441

We'll work with you.

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And then some of us, we're

in our, that this part of our

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prayer life we're bargaining.

444

God, if you'll do this, I'll do that.

445

Somebody that's gonna remain

nameless, wanted to bargain doing

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some of the work around here.

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You know, I don't wanna be too

specific 'cause they worked.

448

So I don't, I, I don't

wanna discourage 'em.

449

They talked about maybe getting

paid, and I wanted to say something,

450

but I just kept my mouth shut.

451

They're just in the bargaining phase.

452

All right.

453

I did say this.

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I wouldn't say that to God.

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God doesn't usually bargain with us.

456

It's his way, and then we

get sad, but here's how God's

457

people respond to bad news.

458

We weep.

459

What, Greg?

460

I'm not a crybaby.

461

I'm a man.

462

I mean, look at me big man.

463

I day.

464

Children are so straightforward.

465

My little, my little

granddaughter, four years old.

466

Just this last week, she

said, Papa, you're big.

467

And then her dad jumped in, decided

he wanted to change the subject, you

468

know, well, well, well, daddy's big too.

469

No, you're not big like papa's big.

470

Okay.

471

Okay.

472

And he goes, well, I'm taller than Papa.

473

I'm not talking about tall dad.

474

And I don't know what else she said.

475

I left the room right.

476

We need to have broken hearts.

477

We need to have soft hearts.

478

We need to have good hearts and hearts

that are touched and empathetic.

479

The walls were broken down.

480

There was no safety.

481

The enemies could attack

anytime the gates were burned.

482

There was no security pe.

483

The marauders could come in

at night and do their thing.

484

The remnant was in trouble.

485

There was no protection.

486

The exiles were in disgrace.

487

That's probably the worst thing

that was going on in the land.

488

And then what does it mean for us?

489

We need to have a weeping soul.

490

Get over your madness,

get over your sadness.

491

Just have a soft heart and weep over

the loved ones whose faith are shaken.

492

Boy, when our kids went on their spiritual

journey and didn't just follow us in step.

493

Have, has any children ever

followed their parents in step?

494

I mean, I think we had a little

bit of unrealistic expectations.

495

Come on, kids be just like us.

496

Follow us, follow the things we believed.

497

You know, everyone's gotta

go on their own journey.

498

And when our kids started going on

our journey, oh, it hurt and we wept.

499

And we wept for years.

500

You know, there's things to weep about.

501

When friends that you love so much,

take a different path, it hurts.

502

You know?

503

I told one brother, I want

you to be a best friend.

504

That scared him to death.

505

He never started initiating anymore.

506

He became best friends with

other people who wants to be

507

best friends with a minister.

508

You know, I try not to be one of those

guys that's self-righteous and people

509

feel like they're judged around me.

510

But boy, that was the worst

thing I could have said to him,

511

you wanna be your best friend.

512

He'd have been a friend, but he won

a little distance from the preacher.

513

Right.

514

Thank you friends that

will get close to me.

515

There's a few of you I've told you.

516

But I haven't said best friend

'cause I don't wanna scare you off.

517

Right.

518

The gates were burned with fire.

519

We need to weep over the

discipline that God dispenses.

520

I mean, there's a lot of psalms

that are, they're all about lament

521

and weeping because the people are

in exile and they're crying, says

522

they will go down to the river.

523

And that's where they would write these

laments and these songs and sing these

524

songs because they were being oppressed.

525

You know, it hurts when God's

disciplined, but he only does

526

because you're a son or daughter.

527

Just push through, we'll

help you weep over the danger

528

we face in a hostile world.

529

You know, I'm glad we have

World War III hasn't started.

530

But think about our brothers and sisters

during World War I and World War II

531

and a lot's going on in the world right

now, and it's always a little bit scary.

532

There's a lot to just let go

of, weep over the reputation

533

of Christianity in the world.

534

This is one that breaks my heart,

just broken my heart that when I was

535

a college student, it was all right.

536

It was cool to be a CA Christian.

537

Now it's really not as cool.

538

There's things to whip about.

539

Why do we need to weep the,

because tears purge the soul and

540

keep the hardness from happening.

541

You've heard about cresty

old men, haven't you?

542

They let themselves get hard.

543

Your body gets stiffer.

544

Please do me a favor.

545

This is a commercial.

546

I can't bend over very well.

547

If you see any trash, pick it up.

548

I'll want to, but if I go down,

I'm afraid I won't get back up.

549

So do me a favor.

550

All right.

551

And even this morning, I went up

and snuck up to see the Korean

552

service and the Spanish service,

and I saw a few things on the ground

553

and oh, I wanted to pick 'em up.

554

Do it for me.

555

Will you, Moses Is, is gone.

556

His mother's ill.

557

So he wasn't able to do all that.

558

He keeps this place spotless.

559

He works so hard.

560

He's here at all hours.

561

He's awesome.

562

Guys.

563

Let's treat this like the house of God.

564

Amen.

565

Going a little quicker.

566

Now we, the reason we need to just

weep sometimes is because you can

567

get moving too fast and miss it.

568

You gotta stay in touch, you gotta stop.

569

You gotta have a Sabbath,

you gotta listen to God.

570

You gotta sit in Shiva with

people that, that are hurting.

571

Don't avoid those people that are hurting.

572

They'll help soften your heart.

573

You also need to stop and weep at

times so you'll be more spiritual.

574

'cause that's sometimes

when God speaks to us.

575

I've learned the best lessons spiritually

I've ever learned, when I've been

576

hurting, when everything's going well.

577

Sometimes, what do you get?

578

Prideful.

579

I get prideful when things are going well.

580

It's when I need to change.

581

That's when I really learned a lot prayer.

582

This whole chapter's about

prayer, Nehemiah's prayer.

583

And why did he start off with prayer?

584

Because it renews our faith.

585

It enlightens our minds, it soothes

our hearts, and I could have just kept

586

going, and it helps you dream again.

587

It just.

588

Takes the weight off.

589

On and on.

590

Prayer is the thing to be doing.

591

Verse five, then I said, Lord,

the God of heaven, the great and

592

awesome God who keeps his covenant

of love and to those who love him

593

and keep his command, do we love him?

594

Yes.

595

And guess what?

596

If you love him, God loves you back.

597

And I don't say that very often

because God loves you first.

598

Yeah, he's loved us first, and so we

need to be the ones that love him back.

599

But when we love him back, then he loves

us back, and then we love him back and he

600

loves us back, and it just keeps spiraling

up and there's just love all at work.

601

And it's just going and

going and going and going.

602

And then nothing seems as

bad when you're in love.

603

Right?

604

Yeah.

605

And when you're in love,

whatever, you know.

606

Greg, you got cancer.

607

Whatever.

608

I got Kathy.

609

You know.

610

Hey Greg, you got a bad heart.

611

Not spiritually, but physically.

612

Yes, but I also have Kathy.

613

It's all the way you look at things.

614

Amen.

615

Amen.

616

It is so good to be in love with

God and you know the Ocean's Church.

617

Showed us the potential

of this building than me.

618

They had three services on Sunday morning

at eight o'clock, nine 30, and 11.

619

That's one of my goals.

620

Now, don't run away from me like my

friends do when I say these crazy things.

621

But I look forward to three services

here, maybe five in a weekend on

622

Saturday night and Sunday night too.

623

Greg, slow down.

624

Slow down.

625

Why do I think this way though?

626

Because we have a great and

awesome and faithful God.

627

A great God that's powerful

with unlimited resources.

628

An awesome, phenomenal God that deserves

all the worship and recognition.

629

That the whole world should be giving

him in a faithful God that his covenant

630

and his promises always come true.

631

In verse six, let your be attentive

and your eyes open to hear the prayer.

632

Your servant is praying before you

this day and night for all the other

633

servants, for the people of God.

634

I confess the sins of the Israelites,

including myself and my family

635

that I have committed against you.

636

Oh no, Greg.

637

Are we going back to the old days where

all the preacher would say is prevent?

638

Are we going back to the old, old days

when there was those gospel meetings

639

and it was just hell, fire and brimstone

coming from the pulpit, you know, and an

640

altar called the end and everybody had

to be weeping and crying and repenting

641

and just throwing themselves down.

642

Every once in a while, we'll need that.

643

Yeah.

644

Yeah.

645

I don't do it every Sunday because I

don't want us to be guilt ridden, and I

646

don't want us to be motivated by guilt.

647

But every once in a while, I

want us to purge our souls of

648

anything that needs to be purged.

649

So I'll surprise you.

650

It won't be on the calendar.

651

I won't tell you when we're

gonna have an altar call.

652

You know, I'll just let the spirit

move and sometimes I just make it

653

up at the end of the sermon and

the singers have to improvise.

654

Start singing a song, you know, because

every once in a while it's good.

655

And it's amazing when you do that

spontaneously, how all a sudden people

656

get to change spiritually, a broken heart.

657

The people of God were endangered.

658

The people of God were in disgrace

and in dread and distress.

659

So it's good.

660

Everyone's swell to purge

Verse seven and eight.

661

We have acted very wickedly towards you.

662

We have not obeyed the commands, decrees

and laws that you gave your servant Moses.

663

Remember the instruction you

gave your servant Moses saying,

664

if you are unfaithful, I will

scatter you among the nations.

665

Now has our movement or our church

committed sins to the degree

666

where God needs to just exiles.

667

No, but God is always teaching and

disciplining and transforming his people.

668

I had a brother say,

Greg, stop apologizing.

669

Stop looking backwards.

670

Let's just look forward.

671

We'll do both.

672

We can do both the same time, can't we?

673

We can always be repenting 'cause

and we can always be saying we're

674

sorry 'cause we did do things.

675

Imperfectly.

676

You know, every church has

done things imperfectly.

677

There's people making a living

on the internet criticizing

678

churches in our church.

679

Oh, good for them.

680

Oh my goodness.

681

The great insight they have that

this isn't a perfect church.

682

I'm just amazed at their insight.

683

I mean, you people can do

that the rest of their lives.

684

We're all sinners, right?

685

Yes, we're right.

686

This isn't heaven.

687

This is California.

688

Some of you got that.

689

Praise God.

690

That's what prayer is.

691

Repent and confess your sin to God.

692

Ask God and yield to God.

693

That's what prayer is all about.

694

We're almost done.

695

F Nehemiah one verse nine.

696

But if you return to me, here's the

good stuff and obey my commands.

697

We've returned to our building.

698

We want to obey God's commands.

699

Then even in your, even if your exiled

people are at the farthest horizon.

700

The people that have been hurt, the

people that have been scattered,

701

I will gather them from there and

bring them to the place that I have

702

chosen as a dwelling from my name.

703

They are your servants and your

people whom you redeemed by your

704

great strength in your mighty hand.

705

People have been scattered, and this

is a promise that people will gather

706

again if we'll claim God's power because

God blesses the righteous prodigal.

707

You know, I don't know when

we'll do it, but sometimes

708

we'll have a homecoming Sunday

709

and we'll just invite everybody

back that have ever been here.

710

Wouldn't that be great?

711

You know, I've never, uh, Kathy

and I went to one reunion.

712

There's a 50th this summer,

uh, for my high school.

713

I'm not going, but there's

a, there's one for my, uh.

714

Campus ministry this summer

that we'll probably go to

715

'cause that's my real family.

716

You know the Boulder Forever,

brothers and sisters.

717

Amen.

718

Claim God's power.

719

Claim God's righteousness

and claim God's purity.

720

Keep yourself righteous.

721

And then verse 11, Lord, let your ear be

attentive to the prayer of your servant

722

and to the prayer of your servants

who delight in revered your name.

723

That's the church.

724

Give your servant success today by

granting him favor in the present.

725

Of this man.

726

He's talking about the king.

727

He's about to ask for

all the money to rebuild.

728

I was cup bearer to the king.

729

So what do we learn

from this first chapter?

730

What are the morals of the story?

731

God gathers a faithful remnant

to be rebuild his church.

732

That's what we are.

733

The remnant can be the

Orange County Church.

734

I'm not saying we are.

735

We have to choose that and we

have to become that, and I think

736

we're becoming that more and

more, but we have to choose it.

737

The remnant are the righteous disciples.

738

Who are a righteous above all else,

the remnant, confesses and repents

739

and takes responsibility, doesn't

just half repent, takes it all.

740

The remnant claims, the power

and the promises of God.

741

They're always looking

forward and dreaming.

742

The remnant rises up and builds.

743

The remnant will experience the

supernatural of God, and the remnant

744

gathers the dispersed disciples back home.

745

Amen.

746

Amen.

747

That's what one of our goals is, right?

748

Brothers and sisters.

749

So what lessons do we

learn from this chapter?

750

Christians don't complain.

751

They cry.

752

I want to change that about our church.

753

Orange County is a lot

of complaining people.

754

I walk around, I listen.

755

A lot of entitled people, a

lot of rich people, a lot of

756

people that have it their way.

757

A lot of people that cut

you off when you're driving,

758

they want it there.

759

You can get outta my way going too slow.

760

But we as Christians,

we're gonna be different.

761

We're gonna keep soft hearted.

762

God allows the walls of the

church to be broken down.

763

Some of us act surprised.

764

The church goes through hard times.

765

Some of us are just shocked

that our church isn't perfect.

766

Did we have a history?

767

Did we have a past?

768

Yeah.

769

And so do you.

770

I love these people that throw

rocks outta glass houses.

771

Wow.

772

God allows the walls of the

church to be broken down.

773

But you know what my job is, and

the elder's job and the other staff

774

members' job and the bible talk

leader's job, I'm putting it on you too.

775

It's not all up to me.

776

I'm spreading this leadership out.

777

Leadership rallies the people

to rise up and rebuild.

778

Leadership rallies the people

to rise up and rebuild.

779

God provides miracles to

provide the resources we need.

780

I don't know how we're gonna

do it all, but it'll work out.

781

It always has worked out.

782

Persecutor kick you when you're down,

783

but you're not out.

784

We've had some people

really jump on the ship.

785

Yeah.

786

That OCC church.

787

That ICC church, you know,

persecutor like to kick you when

788

you're down, but guess what?

789

We can take a beating and keep on ticking.

790

Some of you get that one too.

791

Christians will multitask

to protect their family.

792

God disciplines his people

and also prospers his people.

793

Leadership finds a way

to motivate the people.

794

We're gonna find the part of the wall that

you want to build to protect your family.

795

Amen.

796

Amen.

797

That's what we're gonna do.

798

The people of God rise up

and build the kingdom of God.

799

You've been rising up church.

800

You've been so impressive the

last few months especially.

801

I mean, there's a spirit.

802

It's brewing, it's happening.

803

Things are starting to

move the right direction.

804

We're coming together, we're

unifying, and we need to just

805

rebuild side by side in this church.

806

We need to rebuild by

being and making disciples.

807

We need about $33,000 a a week.

808

That's my guess, you know?

809

I mean, our contribution

goes up and down one month.

810

It's this one month is another, you

know, I've tried to do the math.

811

I'm, I got a calculator, I

can use it, you know, but this

812

is about where we need to be.

813

If it's over 33, we're

gonna really be good.

814

Alright?

815

But let's get there.

816

And that's what we've been

doing most of the time.

817

So it's not a stretch.

818

We need to rebuild our campus.

819

Cus guys, we couldn't have unloaded

all these chairs with all the out,

820

all these young people, you know?

821

I mean, the trash of

those chairs took forever.

822

I mean, thank you, thank you, thank you.

823

And I mean that, I didn't

mean to spit at you.

824

All right guys, you worked so hard.

825

You worked so hard.

826

I went to bed last night just

praising God for so many people.

827

I tried to remember everybody's name.

828

I just described, God,

you de to God last night.

829

Some of you, 'cause I don't know your

name, but you just touched my heart.

830

You worked so hard and tirelessly.

831

I mean, it's been amazing.

832

Thank you.

833

We need to keep pumping

our campus ministry.

834

I'm so glad this church wants to do bingo.

835

We got our tables right there.

836

We got our chairs here in March.

837

Hopefully we can start, we gotta

be really wise about how we start.

838

'cause you can lose a lot

of money with bingo too.

839

'cause you gotta pay whether

we have a lot of people or we

840

don't have a lot of people, but

I want to pay off this building.

841

I want to give it as a gift

to the next generation.

842

I don't want them to have to pay for it.

843

I want us, and I want to use the resources

of the world like the Bible describes.

844

Okay?

845

Keep that secret.

846

Alright?

847

Rise up and build every ministry,

rise up and our special will

848

be about what it was last year.

849

I'm going to end with

a very personal song.

850

I asked Brian Craig to

write this song years ago.

851

The campus ministry in Boulder that

I was a part of was a amazing, we

852

had a hundred baptisms one month.

853

You know, Brian Ell and others,

you know, were baptized that month.

854

Andy, Andy, winge, Corina, others.

855

But there was a time when the

campus ministry wasn't doing well.

856

We were gonna have a retreat and

the Coach McCartney wrote us, wrote

857

a book entitled Ashes to Glory.

858

And it was about how the Colorado

football, uh, program had just been

859

terrible for decades after decades.

860

And then it eventually

won national championship.

861

And so I asked Brian, I said, write us

a song for our retreat, ashes to Glory.

862

And he wrote this song and this is one

of my favorite songs, and it means even

863

more to me now 'cause Brian's gone.

864

And it's amazing what

he wrote in this song.

865

Maybe even knowing he wouldn't always

be with us, he says, oh, my eyes are

866

turning from the past behind the wall.

867

And oh, my world's been burning.

868

So I run to the waterfall.

869

I can see my life for what it is.

870

A fragile paper doll.

871

Oh, my heart's been yearning.

872

So I answer heaven's call.

873

I die and in made clean,

I fly unbound and free.

874

I cry.

875

And you move me from ashes to glory.

876

Oh, my heart was crying.

877

My life was spinning round and

round and oh, my soul was dying.

878

Ashes, ashes all fall down.

879

But then like the phoenix from the flame.

880

I leave the ashes on the ground.

881

Oh, for glory flying.

882

I want to wear a golden crown.

883

I die and am made clean.

884

I fly unbounded, free.

885

I cry.

886

And you move me

887

from ashes to glory.

888

Oh, I see forever.

889

Here's Brian saying this from heaven now.

890

I see forever and whatever comes my

way, oh, we'll be together and forever.

891

Yours, I'll stay A thousand

years from now, perhaps.

892

I'll think of what was yesterday and I

won't remember if I ever felt afraid.

893

I die and am made clean.

894

I fly unbound and free.

895

I cry and you move me

from ashes the glory.

896

Amen.

897

God bless.