Well, good morning, Englewood. How about that video that just
broke me up. Appreciate you all being here
this morning. I know we still have a lot of
folks out with flu and I'm hearing strep and I'm hearing,
you know, the plague. I don't know.
I don't know, I'm telling you what, sometimes I just want to
take a snake in a garden and say you messed the whole thing up.
Fallen creation. Listen, thank you all so much
for being here. If you're a guest today, thanks
so much for being here. Listen, as we enter into 2026, I
wanted to share a big thank you to you, our happy birthday Jesus
missions offering. We had a goal of $185,000 and
not only did you blow that away, but you've given the second
highest Happy birthday Jesus offering in the history of this
church. So to be honest with you, I
can't give you the final amount because some of the final
amounts are still coming in, but we know it's well over $200,000.
That's going to really help us to not only support some of our
missions partners, but also start some new projects, some
new church plant partnerships, as well as to be able to give an
abundance to Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong and the City of
Refuge. So thank you so much for that,
and I look forward to what God's going to do with that in 2026.
Thank you for being faithful so much.
Had a great time with the deacons yesterday.
Hope you'll be back tonight. It's going to be a special
night. Love those guys.
And you got a great group of deacons, a larger group of
deacons now, and they're ready to serve you and want to do
that. And so we're going to honor them
and recognize them tonight. You have an outline on the back
of your worship guide if you want to use it, and you can also
download notes, but just to be aware of that.
William Butler Yates, it doesn't matter if you know who that is
or not, but he was talking about war, War One in Europe.
Listen to this quote. He was talking about that.
He goes the best. I got to do this slowly because
you got to think about this for a minute.
The best black all conviction while the worst are full of
passionate intensity. That's often the way our world
works. The very best of us, those who
believe, those who are good people, those who are trying to
serve the Lord often, often lack conviction, often lack passion.
Sometimes it happens especially in cycles.
While the worst of us, the ones that are the bad out there often
have passionate intensity. So the question of the morning,
as we continue in the book of Nehemiah, if you'll turn to
Nehemiah chapter 2, the question of the morning is how does what
you believe determine how you behave?
How does what you believe actually determine how you
behave? Does your faith decide your
action? What's the honest relationship
between the two? And in this story, we're going
to see an example of this. Is your Christianity
passionately proactive or simply reactive?
In other words, I've done some bad things out here, so now I've
got to do some good stuff to offset the bad stuff and somehow
try to maintain balance. Or I believe so strongly in
Jesus Christ and what He's done for me, I'm proactively,
intentionally avoiding sin, avoiding the bad.
And when I do stumble every now and then, and we will, we're all
sinners, then I depend upon His grace to set me right again.
Listen to what Martin Luther once said about faith.
He said this. He said faith is a living,
daring confidence in God's grace.
It is so pure and so sure and certain that a man could stake
his life on it 1000 times. Do you have faith?
So last week we learned that Nehemiah was a man of great
faith. He's also a man of great prayer.
He sought after God's plan for the future of his people.
And we're going to pick up that story because he believed.
And that made all the difference in Nehemiah's life.
He believed in what God wanted him to do.
And as we continue to enter into 2026, I want us to think about
not just how God's blessed in 2025.
I mean, what an amazing testimony.
And after the first service, we had some folks come forward to
say, I want to be baptized after they saw that video.
I promise you, just give the invitation right now.
Pastor Charles. Yeah.
And y'all stop it. We got to do a little more.
But he believed. How can I have that type of
faith to join God's plan? How can we experience the
miracle and mission of what God wants in 2026?
And though I can't guarantee you what God might do, I can show us
how to put ourselves in the best position for His movement, for
His revival, for His restoration.
As we work together, let's all be part of putting God's plan
into action. Look at Nehemiah chapter 2 verse
one in the month of Nissan in the 20th year of King Art
Xerxes, when wine was before him.
I took up the wine and gave it to the king.
Now I had not been sad in his presence.
Interesting sentence. It doesn't make a lot of sense
what that Well that's really important.
Pay attention to that. I had not been sad in his
presence and the king said to me, why is your face sad seeking
seeing that you're not sick? This is nothing but sadness of
the heart. Then I was very much afraid, and
I'll explain that why he was in a minute.
And I said to the king, Let the king live forever.
Why should not by my face be said, when the city, the place
of my father's graves, lies in ruins and its gates have been
destroyed by fire? Then the king said to me, What
are you requesting? So I prayed to the God of
heaven. Don't miss that last sentence
either. The first thing we're going to
see, four things. First thing I just wanted to see
is in order for us to move forward in God's plan to put
that into action in 2026, we must be burdened to engage in
that plan. We must care about it.
Nothing will happen if I don't seek what God wants.
Last week Nehemiah received a report that Jerusalem lay in
ruins, and it broke his heart and it drove him to mourn.
It drove him to pray, it drove him to fast for many, many, many
days. A lot of time passes and God
answered his chapter 1 prayer when he prayed that he might
have the opportunity of going before the king of Persia to ask
him for something. So God answers his chapter 1
prayer. And this was no small thing in
this context in culture. You got to understand, Persian
royal etiquette in those days was very, very strict and even
appearing sad or disappointed in the presence of the king or
wearing the wrong dress, wearing the wrong outfit would be
interpreted as displeasure in maybe disloyalty to the king and
it could result in punishment or even death.
This was a big deal. So This is why he's afraid of
being sad. So Nehemiah takes his own life
into his own hands by displaying this sad face in front of the
king. But his burden was just too
great to contain. He couldn't hold it back.
He couldn't not be this way. He was, his heart was broken,
his heart was burdened. As one commentator writes about
this passage, he says it's only the man with the heavy burden
that God can trust with his work.
If we do not have hearts that are burdened with conviction, we
will never be fruitful in the service of the Lord.
Revival is born out of burden. So Nehemiah reassures the king
of his loyalty and the king asks what what is he seeking?
And notice it's interesting in it right up in verse 4.
What are you requesting? And it and it doesn't mean that
Nehemiah starts talking doesn't mean Nehemiah just hops in there
with his answer in his quest request.
What does it say? He he says he prayed to the God
of heaven. This was a big moment.
So don't just speak before you think.
Sometimes we're guilty of that, aren't we?
But also, don't just think before you speak.
Pray, pray in these moments. Be a disciple that abides in
prayer. Nehemiah's focus on prayer was a
key to this whole story. You're going to see it over and
over and over again. He was in constant communion and
constant communication with God about what was going on in his
life and what God wanted out of his life.
And so his burden and hit the mission to which he knew he was
called was always right there before him, right there in front
of him, guiding the way. So how do we respond in the big
scary moments of life? Is abiding in prayer with
dependence and anticipation such a common discipleship essential
for us that it's our first, most natural response?
When crisis or burden or problem hits?
Even when your life, even when your career might be at risk,
where's your first turn? What do you want so badly as you
enter 2026? What?
What is? What is a burden on your heart?
What do you want so badly that you're so burdened and focused
upon it? What would you request of the
King who has the power of life and death?
What would lead you to months of prayer and fasting?
Is there anything in your life ever, or is there a long list?
Maybe there is. Maybe this is familiar to you
for what are you requesting of God for 2026 for your life, the
life of your family. He has the power of life and
death. What is your request to the King
of Kings? I was teaching a PhD seminar at
Southeastern part of this weekend and we were actually
focusing it was a, a seminar on conflict.
I'm a expert on conflict because I cost so much.
And so and so we were talking and one of the guys was bringing
up a certain passage, James 4/2 and and he kept bringing it up.
We kept talking about it in quite a lot of depth.
I don't have time for all of that.
But James 42 reminds us you, many of you know this.
First, you desire and you do not have.
So you murder, you covet and cannot obtain.
So you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do
not ask. We're we're not asking with the
right spirit. We're not asking for the right
things. And so in this life, in this
fallen world, we drink from empty wells and then we seem
shocked that we're still dying of thirst.
And that's what this world does out there, promises you a drink
of this and a drink of that, but then you're just dying of thirst
because it's not satisfying. It is your prayer life real
enough and constant enough to draw you into that living water
of abundance. Listen, Nehemiah walked so
closely with God, he knew how to answer his king.
He walked in dependence. He walked in anticipation, like
one of our essentials of discipleship we're teaching
here. He knew how to pray.
He had prayed, He had confessed if you go back to chapter 1,
he'd repented of his national sin, of his family sin, of his
personal sin, and he was ready to ask the king to join God for
what he wanted him to do. Look at verse 5.
And I said to the king, if it pleases the king, and if your
servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to
Judah, to the city of my father's graves, that I may
rebuild it. O King, I want to help restore
my people. I want to be used to help them
to be God's people again. I want to help save them from
these enemies in the land. O King of Kings, I want to be
used to bring restoration to my people.
Help us, O King, help us to be the people of God who are used
to save these people from the enemy.
We must be disciples at Inglewood, and we must make
disciples at Inglewood who love God with their entire being and
who love one another and including the people out there.
We must love them too, so that we can join God on his mission.
So our prayer must be. Dear Lord, I humbly request that
you allow us to join you and what you want to do in 2026 in
Rocky Mount and Red Oak in Nashville and this entire area.
What can we do, Father, to join you in your movement, in your
revival? GK Chesterton, an old
theologian, once said this. He was observing about soldiers
and he said, listen to this. He said true soldiers fight not
because he hates what's in front of him.
A true soldier fights because he loves what's beside him.
He loves what he's protecting. He loves who he's following and
serving with. Look at verse 6.
And the king said to me, and the queen sitting beside him, How
long will you be gone, and when will you return?
So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time.
And I said to the king, If it pleases the king, let letters be
given to me, to given me to the governors of the province beyond
the river, that they may let me pass through until I come to
Judah. And a letter to Asaph, the
keeper of the King's forest, that he may give me timber to
make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for
the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.
And the king granted me what I asked for.
The good hand of my God was upon me.
Then I came to the governors of the province beyond the river
and gave them the King's letters.
Now the king had sent with with me officers of the army and the
horsemen. So the king didn't just agree to
the request. The king also said, listen, not
only can you go, I'm going to empower you to go.
I'm going to resource you to go. I'm going to help you be
successful, Nehemiah. So the king provided Nehemiah
resources from his forest and from his army, from his guard.
And Nehemiah went on mission with all the authority and all
the power of the king, just like us.
Just like us, we engage in a mission under another's
authority. At the end of the service,
you'll hear Skyler or Drew often say to you, they'll quote John
2021 and where Jesus said to the disciples, peace be with you as
the Father has sent me, Even so I'm sending you.
We are to fulfill God's mission to bring glory to himself and
join Him in redeeming the nations.
And that includes the person across the street.
Power, provision, protection, these are the things our King
provides when we request it, when we seek him, when we seek
to engage in his work, we request to see his hand at work,
to be used by Him, to seek restoration for our people.
He'll supply us what we need. Philippians 419, often
misquoted, says this. And my God will supply every
need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus,
not according to my ability, not according to my wisdom, not
according to my to my strength, but according to his riches.
So make the request to be used by him known, be burdened to
engage. Nehemiah was willing to lay it
all on the line. He was willing to lay it all on
the line to be used by his people.
He was willing to give up comfort and power and a
wonderful place in the Royal Court to go serve and to
sacrifice. If we will commit all that we
are and all that God has provided for us, there is
absolutely no telling how He will bless us in 2026.
So don't simply pray. He'll send and bless others.
Pray, Lord, please send me. Send me, Please.
Use me as a catalyst, as the beginning of restoration, as the
beginning of revival. Listen, I was so blessed after
the first service. Someone, one of our members, I
won't mention a name, but one came up to me intentionally
wanting me to meet a friend that they had invited, one of our
Christmas blessings families that they'd reached out to and
brought. And they were here worshipping
with us, celebrating with us. Please use us.
How could I serve our church to move forward in 2026?
How could I help you, pastor, to carry the burden of leadership
and service? How could I help and bless my
lay leaders and my connect group leaders by lifting my share of
the load? How?
How could I? How could I be used and to
transform burden and belief into action and to join the King's
mission? Nehemiah was sent forth both by
his earthly king and by his eternal king.
Don't miss that. Look at verse 9 again.
In verse 9, Don't miss this. Then I came to the governors of
the province beyond the river and gave them the King's
letters. Now the king had sent with me
officers of the army and horsemen.
Don't miss this. They wouldn't have missed him.
This would not have been a small thing for him to show up with
this small armed force from the Persian king.
This was a big deal. He's not just out there all by
himself. He's bringing a small army with
him, and the enemies would have taken notice.
It would have called attention. He came in the authority of the
king, and so do we. So guess what happens.
Look at verse 11. So I went to Jerusalem and was
there three days. Then I rose in the night, I and
a few men with me, and I told no one what my God had put into my
heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no animal with me but
the one on which I rode. And I went out by night by the
valley gate to the Dragon Spring, what a cool name, Dragon
Spring, and to the Dung Gate. And I inspected the walls of
Jerusalem that were broken down and it's gates that had been
destroyed by fire. Then I went on to the fountain
gate into the King's pool, but there was no room for the animal
that was under me to pass. Then I went up in the night by
the valley and inspected the wall and turned, and I turned
back and entered by the valley gate, and so returned.
So not only do we need to be burdened to actually engage in
God's plan, but secondly, we need to appreciate the obstacles
in the way because there going to be some real ones.
This trip would have taken months.
This wasn't like an overnight, overnight jog through the
desert. This would have taken a long
time through dangerous land. So I'm sure when Nehemiah hits
Jerusalem, he needed a couple of days to rest.
But also based upon who Nehemiah is and his character, I bet you
he spent a lot of those three days praying, seeking God's
will. What do I do now?
I'm here now. What now?
What God, what do I do now? So he spends those three days in
Jerusalem. Then in the middle of the night,
while others slept, this man of burden and prayer reviewed the
extent of the work that had to be done.
He focuses his inspection on the southern, western and eastern
portions of the city. The northern walls have been
totally destroyed. And it's so bad at times he's
forced to ride along the Kidron Valley down below the walls
because the walls had collapsed so much they blocked the path.
He even had to scramble over the damage because there was no room
for his horse. Can you imagine this burden,
man? The extent of his grief when he
surveys this utter devastation? The report that he had received
was accurate. Things were in really bad shape.
This was real, my friends. Often before a restoring work of
God begins, faithful, burdened believers journey in the night
to weep over the ruins. And to wrestle in the darkness
through prayer. Nehemiah conducted a very
thorough assessment that ought to sound familiar to some of
you. Assessment never ends.
These last several months, that's what I've been doing.
And he carefully considered the extent of what my God has put in
my heart to do. God had a plan.
He always does. He always knows.
And so Nehemiah takes an honest
look and face the actual need. I mean, it would have been
easier to ignore it. It would have been easier to
spend the truth. It would have been easier to
talk about how great things were.
But it just wouldn't work this time.
It was time for the truth so real restoration could be
sought. Now that's the job of a true
leader. Leaders often spend nights in
prayer, weeping over the brokenness of their people,
seeking the restoration and what their God has put in their
hearts to do. Because these walls, these gates
broken down, represented obstacles to the future of His
people and to their ability to serve God and to worship God.
Something had to change. They needed a new normal.
And I was wondering our personal lives, how long has it been?
How long has it been since you spent the night reviewing the
walls and gates of your life and whether you have a solid
foundation or not? Is your relationship with God,
your relationship with others, the fruit you are producing?
The obstacles to producing that fruit, The number of people you
are actively discipling right now?
Do you ever stop and ask God? Will you saddle up and honestly
review your life and the lives of those around you?
Will you seriously count the cost of obedience?
And through discipleship? Revival will never begin until
we do. We must rebuild first in our own
lives. What needs to be rebuilt?
What needs to be repaired? What essential of discipleship
is missing? What needs to be upgraded?
What area do in which I need to grow, do I need to face?
Because they face real obstacles.
And so will we. In 2026, we have an enemy who
will make sure we do. Look at verse 16.
And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was
doing, and I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the
nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work.
Then I said to them, See the trouble we're in, how Jerusalem
lies in ruins with its gates burned.
Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer
suffer derision. And I told them at the hand of
my God that had been upon me for good and also of the words that
the King had spoken to me. And they said, let us rise up
and build. So they strengthened their hands
for the good work. So we got to be burdened to
actually engage in God's plan. In the 1st place, we need to
appreciate the obstacles that are in the way.
And thirdly, we need to choose to embrace our purpose.
It's time to commit to rebuild the walls and gates, which is
going to be a major part of the remaining story.
That actual process, not not just getting ready for it, but
what we actually going to do to rebuild the walls and gates
within the exposed condition of the city, which constantly
invited attack. It constantly invited reproach
from their enemies. So Nehemiah had a calling upon
his life, clear calling to be a rebuilder and the hand of God
was on him and he called the other leaders to join him.
But they had to make a decision. Would they embrace the plan of
God or continue to cower in the ruins like they had been?
Would they act in the powerful purpose God had for them, or
would they stall and allow the past circumstances to dictate
their faith and actions? I know so many people who spend
so much time looking through the rear view mirror they miss
what's ahead of them through the windshield.
Would it be too difficult, too big, too much for them?
As believers, we have a calling to act in faith and obedience,
to be the agents of revival. But it requires unity, it
requires cooperation. There's no way that one person
could do this. They'd have to do this together,
and so must we. There can be no divisive spirit
allowed when we're working side by side along the wall facing
the enemy. So we got to wrestle together on
our knees against a real enemy, never with one another.
We must resolve to act and to move into this next chapter that
God has for us. As Paul exhorts incredible verse
Romans 12/11, he says do not be slothful, slothful in zeal.
Hard to say that without spitting on somebody.
Do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit.
Serve the Lord. We must believe these leaders
had to decide how to respond to Nehemiah, and you got to think
about their context. I mean, who's this new guy?
I mean, here's this new guy telling us what to do when we've
been here, some of us for decades, we've been here, we've
gone through it all. It ought to sound kind of
familiar. I mean, who's this new pastor
guy who talks about new normals who shows up here and talks to
us that how dare him talk to us this way?
Verse 18 says, and they said, let us rise up and build.
So they strengthened their hands for the good work.
Let us not let you not let me let us.
So they set their hands to do this good work this and and you
got to think this is no small commitment.
It's a big deal. There's a lot of work.
They had been there and they knew the reality of the extent
of the work that they were facing that and they had to
believe that. And so it would be long and it
would be hard and there would be those who oppose them.
It's a big part of the story. But they also knew it was time
to rise up and build. So will we struggle with
embracing commitment, especially to to something we know up front
will be long and will be difficult and will have built in
opposition? Because the problem is, in this
culture, we are conditioned as individuals to seek our personal
comfort. We are conditioned to seek our
personal autonomy. We're conditioned to seek our
personal rights. And we often do not know how to
work together. We often don't know how to
commit to a shared mission. We would rather follow our own
personal opinions and desires or let our emotional reactions to
something guide us rather than do what God wants.
So we might just need to pay attention to this story.
The hand of God was upon Nehemiah, and he knew he was
called to do this work. He believed in the God who
called him. And the same Spirit called each
one of us to join together and to rise up and to build this
body of Christ. He is our reason for unity, not
me, not you. He is our reason for unity.
He's our reason for cooperation as we move forward.
So we've got to decide to act upon His future for you and for
His Church. So decide today to rise up and
build together. But we know it's a fact.
Until He comes again. Until He comes again, we have an
enemy and He never sleeps. He never relents.
He never gives up. He never grows tired, He never
stops. He is an army against us.
Look at verse 10. But there's always one of those.
When Sambalit the Horonite, and Tobiah the Ammonite servant
heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to
seek the welfare of the people of Israel.
They didn't like something new, they didn't like something
different. They didn't like something that
might challenge them. Verse 19 But when Sambal at the
horror night, and Tobiah the Ammonite servant, and guess him,
the Arab heard of it. They jeered at us and despised
us and said, what is this thing that you're doing?
Are you rebelling against the king?
Then I replied to them, The God of heaven will make us prosper,
and we his servants will arise and build.
But you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem.
Be burdened to engage in God's plan.
Appreciate the fact that there are going to be obstacles in the
way. Choose to embrace your purpose
and reject. Fourthly, any opposition to
obedience. Just reject it.
Rebuke it. Because among those who settled
in around Jerusalem during the exile, you got to recognize that
several forces moved into the area.
One of them is the governor of Samaria.
Symbolic. His name in Babylonian actually
means sin, the moon. God has given life.
That ought to tell you something about Him.
And then Tobiah, who is probably governor of the Persian
controlled Transjordan area and he's going to come into play
dangerously later because he's actually a relative of some of
the Jews in Jerusalem, including some of the priests.
He's going to try to pull inside jobs.
And then you've got you've got this Arab leader of Gesham who's
a leader of a confederacy of non Jewish groups around Palestine
and the Sinai. Now these folks normally would
be enemies, they'd all be fighting over the control of
this region, but now they had a common foe.
So they joined together and they, they were upset because
Nehemiah is coming in the power and the provision and under the
protection of the Persian king was huge and, and, and, and, and
we a public threat to their authority.
And, and they weren't happy about it.
As the King's personal cupbearer and bodyguard, he had the power
and the provision to fortify the city, which was the largest in
the region, which means they would seize control back of the
entire region. And they didn't like Nehemiah.
He wouldn't like the, he wouldn't like one of the
prophets. He wouldn't like these scribes
who'd been here before. They they could be easily
intimidated. These priests who showed up
earlier, some of them decades ago, they could be intimidated.
They could be forced to stop. The work took him forever to
build the temple, but this guy wouldn't like that.
This man was different and he scared him, but they still try
over and over again. We're going to see it.
We're going to make up a lot of the future portions of this
story because the enemy just will not give up that easily.
You've got to be warned. You've got to understand.
They begin mocking him by effort of the effort, and they mock
him. They actually threaten him later
with the king. But when?
Because when God is about to sweep in with revival, expect
opposition. Count on it.
When we move in the power, provision and protection of our
King, Satan will take notice. Just see what happens when
Christians are serious about their faith and allow it to
spill over into a community, into spiritual awakening, and
they allow it to truly dictate their actions.
You've got to expect the enemy to make every attempt to
distort, distort that or distract you from that.
He will mock, he will criticize what is happening.
He'll seek to discredit our leadership.
He'll, he'll, he'll seek to discredit our mission and
vision, just as he did when he tempted those to ridicule Christ
when he was on the cross. Just like he did on the day of
Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descends and he says he people
are just drunk, just like he did with the Greek philosophers who
called Paul a babbler. He never gives up.
Or, or maybe when he tells you that you're not worth it, or he
tells you that they're not these people out here who are lost and
sinners are just not worth it. They're not worth my effort.
They're not worth my time. They're not worth it.
Or maybe when he tells you that you can't be forgiven for that
sin that nobody else knows about and and that you're too
worthless to be used by God, he'll tell you all kinds of
lies. Or that this church cannot be
built to become what God really has in his heart for us.
As one commentator writes, Satan's not concerned about a
Christian until he sees him crowning Jesus as Lord and
seeking to glorify Jesus through his life.
But here came a man who is different, a man of great faith
and a man of prayer. And he walked with God, and
God's hand was upon him. So listen to how he responds to
these critics. The God of heaven will make us
prosper, and we His servants will arise and build, but you
have no portion or right or claim.
The victory here in 2026 at Inglewood Baptist Church in
Rocky Mountain, North Carolina, United States of America, is the
Lord's. Anything that happens, anything
good that happens, he's going to produce the growth.
He's going to produce real transformation.
And I must grow in my faith in the God who has a perfect plan
and who's still orchestrating history, the same God
orchestrating history right now in 2026.
He'll lead the way. So Nehemiah rebukes him.
You have no claim. You have no right, You have no
place here. And so I just have to say out
loud, Satan, you have no portion.
You have no right. You have no claim here at
Englewood Baptist Church. You are a condemned serpent who
will burn forever in the fires of hell.
And I say it out loud because I know you're listening.
You have no place here. This is the body and bride of
Jesus Christ who has crushed your head, and the stage is set
and restoration can begin. If, if we as his people are
ready for what's next, are we really ready for revival?
I've shared this old African proverb with you more than once
in different contexts, but a tribal elder in a class I once
taught shared this old Swahili proverb that simply says if you
want to move a mountain tomorrow, you must move stones
today. What stone is the first stone
that has to be removed? What?
What obstacle must be rejected? Is it a hard heart?
Is it a closed mind? Is it a hidden sin?
Is it a root of past bitterness? Is it a lazy commitment?
Is it a refusal to serve? Is it a lack of faith?
Nehemiah believed so strongly. He believed that he sacrificed
his earthly position. He sacrificed his comfort.
He sacrificed his safety to pursue God's plan.
I love what Spurgeon once prayed.
Spurgeon once prayed. God save us from living in
comfort while sinners are sinking into hell.
Forgive us, Lord, what will we do?
What is the relationship between your faith and your actions?
How What does what you believe determine how you behave?
Mark Twain once wrote the secret of getting ahead, getting
started. So let's go.
It's time to rise up and build. So we're going to enter into a
time of response and commitment right now, right here.
We're going to sing, pastors are going to be here.
Our next steps room is going to be open.
I appreciated the fact there's the next steps table out in the
lobby. One of our young lady went right
to that table after the first service is talking about getting
baptized. What is God laying on your
heart? Salvation recommitment, baptism,
church membership, obedience. Prayers are a prayer request.
What must you give God this morning?
What, what removal must take place and what offering must you
bring to his altar? Faith, obedience, belief,
action. And as Pastor Charles mentioned,
we're also going to begin passing the offering plates as
part of our response time. Every single Sunday morning.
We have ushers who are going to be ready in just a moment.
In fact, I was talking to a Deacon, but well, actually, a
Deacon was talking to me yesterday morning.
They had an incredible workshop and and he was talking to me
about this moment. I was sharing this with him and
he reminded me of an important truth.
This is not simply some transactional time during which
we give something. This is intended to be a true
transformational time of worship, of submission, of
recognition, of dedication. So when that plate is in your
hand, whether you're putting anything in it or not
physically, when that plate is in your hand, I want you to
think about what is it that I must give God in 2026 in order
to be fully obedient members. You can still give online.
You can still stick your offering in in boxes around the
building. You can still do everything
you've normally done. But if you'd prefer, you can
also start giving every week in the offering plate.
But this isn't about the monetary offering you put in the
plate. It's about an act of worship.
It's about an act of recognition, the fact that, that
the ownership of my life, everything that I am, everything
that I possess already belongs to him.
And so whether I give a tithe or an offering as a member, it, it
needs to be an acknowledgement that that everything is his.
And we're just giving back a, a portion of what he's blessed us
with out of that complete recognition that he already owns
everything. So it's an, it's an act of
worship. It's an act of remembrance and
thankfulness and a celebration of His ownership.
So as the ushers come in, just a moment, we're going to pray
about what you can offer to God this morning.
Now, if you're our guest this morning, we don't expect you to
put any monetary offering in that plate at all.
If you want to put that Next Steps card in there, put prayer
requests in there, we'd love to collect them.
That way you can still put them in the boxes, give them to one
of us. So if you're our guest, just put
that card in there. We'd love to contact you and
talk more about what God's doing in your life.
So let's stand together right now.
Stand up. Our ushers are going to come.
I'm going to pray, we're going to sing.
Everything else will be like normal.
But as that plate's being passed, I just want you to ask
God, what can I give you? What part of me am I holding
back in 2026? Father, we're so grateful that
Father, we don't have to figure this thing called life out by
yourself. We don't have to do that,
Father. You're, you're, you're in US and
around us, and you want to help us if we know you.
So, Father, help us to embrace the plan you have for each of
our lives and for this church. I pray, Father, that you'll help
us to commit to live out the purpose you have for us.
Now, there may be some in this room right now, Father, some
listening online who recognize that they need to give you their
salvation. Father, they're not saved.
They've never trusted in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
They need to believe this morning.
And I just pray, Father, right now in their heart of hearts,
they'll know that this is truth. And Father, they might come and
talk to us or someone in the Next Steps room about what it
means to be a Christian, what it means to be saved, what it means
to be a follower of Christ. Others saw that video, like in
the first service, they say I need to be baptized.
I just pray, Father, they'll come so we can talk about that.
What does it mean to be baptized?
What does that mean? Others need to come and
rededicate their lives. Others need to come to join the
church. Others just need to come and
pray. Whatever we need to surrender,
whatever we need to remove, help us to embrace your will.
Father, I pray that you'll bless this offering, that this
offering will be an act of worship.
Father, as we talk about as disciples, we must be good
stewards of what you've blessed us with.
I pray, Father, this act of worship will be an honor and
blessing to you and Father. It will be used, Father a
promise to further your purpose and your plan to Father be with
us now as we worship and we respond in Christ's name, Amen.