In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the need for spiritual revival in a society where moral values have been destroyed. He compares the state of the country to the broken walls and gates of Jerusalem. The speaker highlights the importance of engaging with God's Word and seeking personal transformation through prayer and repentance. The sermon also mentions the opposition faced by those trying to rebuild the city, emphasizing the need for perseverance and reliance on God.

I turn to the Old Testament book of Nehemiah. And when you find Nehemiah, we're going to spend time this morning together in chapter 1. If you weren't able to be here last night and hear Brother Vaughn, he was a tremendous blessing to all of us. And really, I think as we heard him last night, God spoke to our hearts, God challenged us, about being in a place where we can have the presence and the power of God in our life. One of the things he said last night struck me, and I got to thinking about this. And then when Pastor Helm asked me to take the Sunday school hour this morning, I was thinking about this and couldn't get this out of my head last night. One of the things that Brother Vaughn said, just kind of as a statement, you know, preaching along, and he made a comment, and he just kind of went on. But this is a statement that kind of arrested me. And it's not one that you haven't heard before or that I haven't heard before. It just happened to be in a context, I guess, for me that it impacted me. He said this, he said, America might be in trouble with God. Remember that, those of you that were here last night? America just might be in trouble with God. I can remember as a boy growing up at home, my siblings would take great delight in making sure to inform the proper authorities any time something went wrong, or any time I did something wrong. Did you ever have siblings like this? We used to call them rats, or tattletale, go to jail, all that kind of stuff. But honestly, they would take great delight in making sure that Mom and Dad didn't just get the sanitized version, they got the real deal. And if you've ever had brothers and sisters like that, I think you can appreciate that in whatever ways you appreciate things. And I can remember as soon as they would go and tell Mom and Dad, they would come running back and say, you are in big trouble. You are in trouble with Mom and Dad. And you know what? You would always try to act really cool about it, or at least I would. No, I'm not. I can handle it. And you would try to act as though nothing were wrong and you were just going to go on your little merry way because you didn't want to give your brother or your sister the satisfaction of knowing that they had created a great deal of inner turmoil for you. But the truth was, and the truth is, if you're like me, that when you heard that Mom and Dad were upset and that you were in big trouble, there was some inner things that started to happen. And you know, folks, I bring that up because it's an illustration we can all relate to. We watch it in our own children. We can remember back to our own lives. But when we start thinking about it on a national level or really even on a church level, it's very easy to kind of isolate it and say, well, okay, it's America. Or, okay, it's our church. But, folks, a country and a church aren't individuals. They're made up of individuals. And the thing that struck me as I was listening last night was not just that our country in this nebulous way or that maybe our churches in these organizational ways are in trouble with God, but if that's really true, they're in trouble with God because they are individual people who make up the country or who make up the church who aren't doing what God has asked them to do. And we come to a place like this in Nehemiah chapter 1 where God's people have been in trouble with God for some time now. They started off in just ignoring God's Word. And Pastor Joe's five comments here a moment ago, you could take those five things and put the opposite on each side of those five things, and that's exactly what the nation of Israel did. And they didn't just do it once or twice. I mean, they did it continually, and they did it in the face of God's prophets coming to them. And finally God said, enough. And judgment fell. It fell in the north in 726 B.C., and then in 586 B.C. the judgment came right to the two tribes that made up the last little segment of God's people, the house of Jacob. And literally the armies of the Babylonians came in and in three separate waves took this nation captive. They took their children. They took their leaders. They took everything. And you know what, folks? When sin permeates a nation and when God's final judgment falls, there won't be an element of society that is left untouched. This entire nation was affected. The temple was destroyed, and for 70 years the people are going to live in captivity. This once glorious city that had been really the pride of Israel, the thing the nations had all heard. I mean, even the Queen of Sheba journeying all the way from Ethiopia had heard of all of the amazing things that God had done there in Jerusalem and in His temple, and she came to sit in the presence of Solomon and her first words out of her mouth were, the half has not been told to me of all of this. That this mighty nation, this nation that had this worldwide reputation is now reduced to ruin and rubble and reproach. And it has been that way for a long time. And then we come to Nehemiah, and we come to a faithful servant of the Lord in captivity serving thousands of miles away from all of this ruin and all of this rubbish and all of this reproach, and he has a burden for God and for God's work. And that burden is unfolded in chapter 1. Now, before we look at chapter 1, let me have you turn to chapter 2, if you will, because I want you to see the condition that the people were in. I mean, this is not just, you know, kind of a political or religious statement. I mean, this really is how it was. And let's read in verse 11. Nehemiah comes to Jerusalem, and he is there three days. And while he is there three days, he takes a tour by night just to see how bad things are. And I rose in the night, verse 12, I and some few men with me, neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem, neither was there any beast with me save the beast that I rode on. So here is Nehemiah at night by himself on his horse going through the city. And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire. Then I went to the gate of the fountain and to the king's pool, but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass. I mean, there is so much rubble lying around. The destruction has been so thorough and so complete that as he is riding along the path, as he is riding along the roads, that one time were so wide and so spacious that the entire king's procession could go there by the king's pool. His horse can't even get through because of all of the rubble that is there. A little bit later on in the book, if we go over to chapter 4, by now they have decided to try to rebuild the city, and there is some opposition. Look at verse 1. But it came to pass that when Sanballat heard that we built the wall, he was wroth and took great indignation, and he mocked the Jews. And in his mocking we are going to see just how bad things were. And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and he said, What do these feeble Jews? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they make an end in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned? Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall break down their stone wall. I mean, this is how bad these people were. I mean, this is how bad the situation was. I mean, if you were to look at what Jerusalem was in Solomon's day, and then you were to go and look at what Jerusalem was as Nehemiah was taking this tour, and then as this feeble army of Jews began to try to rebuild, you would kind of look there, and without trying to be discouraging, you would say, This is a hopeless cause. This is a hopeless cause. Well, look over, if you will, to chapter 6. And this is one of the most amazing verses in the entire book. Look at verse 15 of chapter 6. So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul in fifty and two days. And it came to pass that when all our enemies... Remember the enemies we were just reading about? When all of our enemies heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes, for they perceived that this work was wrought of God. How do you go from ruin and rubble and reproach to this in fifty-two days? You know the only answer is God. I mean, the only answer that can do what we just read here and make out of all of that ruin and all of that rubble and all of that heap of burned out Jerusalem, a new place, a new wall in fifty-two days, the only possible answer to this is God. And you know what the text says? Everybody that saw it knew it was God. Everybody that perceived what had been done understood that this was something so incredible, so massive, that it could only have been done because God chose to get involved. Now that's the background to what we're talking about here. You know what folks, when you think about our country, the moral walls of our country are in rubble and in ruin. Every gate that respectable, moral Christendom has erected in the past has not just been opened, it has literally been stormed. The gates have been ripped off their hinges and lie broken in the dust and everything is coming into our society. I mean, we basically live in a society where everything is okay except the idea that there are some things that aren't okay. As long as you are open to the idea that everything is okay, you're okay. But the idea that there might just be some things that aren't okay, spiritually and morally, makes you in a very dangerous category of people. And there are modern day sand ballots in Tobias's who are looking and saying, what do these Christians want to do? I mean, they're not going to do anything. I mean, whatever they try to do, a little fox is going to blow it down. And you know what folks, if we do it, that's true. You may think about this church, you may think about your own life. I think Brother Vaughn is exactly right. America is in trouble with God. But the reason that America is in trouble with God, folks, is not because of the heathen. The heathen are just doing what heathen people do. The heathen are just being heathen. I mean, the heathen people are just doing... I mean, what do you expect heathen people to do? I mean, what do you expect pagan people to do? What do you expect unsaved people to do? Do you expect them to tithe? Do you expect them to do the things that God condemned His people for not doing? And the answer is, well, of course not. They're unsaved. They're pagans. So if a nation is in trouble with God, it's not because unsaved people are doing what unsaved people do. It's because God's people are acting and thinking and involving themselves like unsaved people act and think and involve themselves. I mean, folks, if we really want to get down to where it hurts, which is sometimes where we have to go if God is going to bring revival, we have to start thinking that way. That's not meant to be an offensive statement, but it is an offensive statement. The problem in America is not with society and the secular worldview. The problem in America is not with paganism. That has always been present with the church. The church has always lived in a pagan world. The church has always lived in an environment where secularism has surrounded it. That's what God said we were going to face in John 17 when He said, I'm not going to take you out of the world, but I'm going to pray that the Father will protect you in the world. That's the whole idea. Remember we talked earlier last month about the idea of being a sheep, being sent out in the midst of wolves. That's the idea. The problem isn't that unsaved people aren't doing Christian things. The problem is that the sheep are trying to be like the wolves. So how do we fix this? What do we do when the ruin and the rubble and the reproach has come upon us and is building up? You know what, there has to be individuals like Nehemiah who get burdened, and that's what chapter 1 is all about. I believe that chapter 6 verse 15 is a direct response to what happens in chapter 1. And so let's take a moment this morning quickly to look at chapter 1. Nehemiah's name really means to comfort or to strengthen, to build up. It's amazing to me that in his very name, we see a picture of what God was going to send him to do. God was going to send this builder, that's what his name means, comforter, builder. God is going to send this builder to rebuild his people and to reestablish his reputation and his holiness in the nation. And you know what, folks, God is looking for modern-day Nehemiahs. I mean, Nehemiah was not living in Jerusalem. He was far away. He was a prisoner. He had been affected directly by what God had allowed to happen to the city. And yet he never lost his heart for God. He never lost his passion for God. And there are some things that happen here. So let's look first here at chapter 1 at the preparation that God began to do in Nehemiah's heart to get him ready. Because if we're going to see this kind of revival come into our life and into our family and into our ministry, it's probably not going to start with the masses. It's probably going to start as God starts reaching out and touching one of us at a time. Maybe it will be somebody over here and maybe somebody over there and maybe in the back. And one by one, as God begins to stir our hearts, there are things that start to go on in our life and all of a sudden, God has a small army of people in His church and God has a small army of people in our family. Maybe it's just an army of one. But I mean, that's all God needed to rebuild Jerusalem and to stir the entire nation. And so this morning, let's look at the preparation to be a builder for God. Number one, there is an intense personal concern and grieving over the spiritual condition of my people and really of my own soul. There is an intense personal concern and a grieving. Look at verses 1-4. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah. And it came to pass in the month Jislu in the 20th year as I was in Shushan the palace, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and the gates thereof are burned with fire. And it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. There was an intense spiritual concern. And I want you to notice that this concern was intentional and immediate. I mean, here he is in the king's palace. He's got a great job. We're going to find out a little bit later on that he was the king's cupbearer. He was literally dwelling in the lap of wealth. Everything he needed was provided for him. And the first thing he asks about when his brother and this delegation comes from Jerusalem is how is Jerusalem and how are the people? And he gets the answer and he sits down and he mourns. And it's not just this little casual, Oh, that's really too bad. I'm sorry to hear that. I mean, there is this intense and immediate mourning that takes place because of the condition of God's people. And you know, folks, that's really a rebuke to us as we think about it. There needs to be an intentional and an immediate concern over the things of God and what goes on in our life and in God's house. And then secondly, it was intense. It wasn't just intentional and immediate. Secondly, it was intense. The word mourn is the word that is used for extreme anguish or grief. I mean, it is the word that you would use when you see a father or a mother wailing as they bury the body of their child. I mean, there is nothing casual about that. There is nothing disengaged about that. That is not, well, I'm just kind of sorry to hear that. And I'm sorry that, no, I mean, there is all of a sudden this intense and this deeply personal involvement that that parent has as he watches that corpse. And that's the word that is used here to describe what Nehemiah did. As he heard what happened to God's people, as he had heard what happened to the city and to the temple, his immediate response, his personal response, his intentional response, this wasn't accidental, was one of intense spiritual mourning. Let me ask you a question. When was the last time you really mourned over the condition of God's name in the city of Milwaukee? I mean, folks, when all of a sudden the institution of marriage has been completely secularized and paganized so that all of a sudden across the country what started in Madison has made its way throughout the country and all of a sudden same-sex marriages and same-sex unions are now okay. When was the last time we got intensely concerned to the point that we mourned over that in our personal lives? I mean, this is what we're talking about. This is what this man did. It was intense. And then thirdly, it was inconvenient. He said that he sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and the idea there as you look at those words and as you read about how they're described there, it's not just that he did it one time. This was an ongoing thing for a period of time. And it's not so much that he kind of went to the king and said, hey, I can't work today. I can't do my normal duties. It's the idea that in the midst of his normal life he set apart this inconvenience to him so that he could devote himself to prayer for God. We have a modern term for this. It's called fasting. And what he did is that during the normal outflow of his life as he went about his life, he lived his life and it's like he kind of just did what he had to do. He went to work and he did what he had to do, but his focus, his real heart was on what he wanted God to do. And he was willing to take the inconvenience of every free moment that he had and suspend the normal activities of his life that were in his control so that he could devote that time to God. You know, folks, when you and I really get in trouble with God and we really understand that we're in trouble with God, all of a sudden the thing that is most important to us is getting right with God. And while we may have to go to work and while we may have to do certain things, what is really going to be at the forefront of our thinking is that restoration. I mean, let me give you a very human and maybe tragic example of what happens. Let's say there is a husband who has a wife and children and he has just completely for years ignored their needs and hardened his heart toward them. And all of a sudden, he's just allowed all kinds of things to come into his life of a wicked nature and he has always taken it for granted that his wife and his children are going to be there. And one day, he comes home and they're gone. And there is a note on the table. What do you think happens to that man at that point? I mean, at that point, he is going to do what he should have done way over here. He is going to do everything he can to move heaven and earth to get those people back to him. And you know what? He may have to go put gas in his car and he may have to eat a bowl of cereal just to stay alive. Or he may have to go to work, but his whole focus is on God, what do I have to do to get these... And you know what, folks? This is the idea that we see here in Nehemiah. All of a sudden, Nehemiah's greatest concern is Lord, what do we have to do to get right? And so there is a personal concern over God's work. Secondly, there is an intense awareness of God. I mean, all of a sudden, Nehemiah's life gets very God-focused. Look at verse 5. And I said, I beseech Thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love Him and observe His commandments. Let Thine ear now be attentive and Thine eyes open, that Thou mayest hear the prayer of Thy servant. I mean, all of a sudden, it's no longer that he's just concerned about Israel and the gates and the people. All of a sudden, his attention, his life gets very God-focused. You know one of the things that God does to get us ready for revival? He puts us in circumstances where the only way out is Him. And then all of a sudden, we're looking and God becomes very, very important to us. All of a sudden, we don't have to go to church. We need to go to church. It's no longer a question of, well, you know, I'm kind of tired. No, no, no, we're getting up. You know why? Because we need to hear from God today. You know, folks, when God creates those needs in us, that is a sign that God is getting ready to do something big in our life. Then notice, thirdly, that there was an intense desire and passionate plea for God's involvement and God's intervention in life. Notice the prayer that he prays in verse 6. And just let the words kind of sink into your thinking. Let thine ear now be attentive and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night for the children of Israel, thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against thee, both I and my Father's house. I mean, this man is on his face suspending the normal activities of life and he is beseeching God and he is begging God. The wording is very, very... When he says here, open your ear, it's the idea of somebody who has got his ears covered and Nehemiah is saying, open up your ears, Lord. Have you ever watched little kids who don't want to hear? You know, when you're talking to them and they decide they've had enough? What do they do? I can't hear you. And so sometimes as a parent, what do you do? You go, take their arms and can you hear me now? Well, that's literally what Nehemiah is saying. He's saying, God, it seems to me that You have taken Your hands and You have covered Your ears and I am asking that You open up Your ears, that You uncover Your ears to hear our prayers. I mean, there is an intensity here that is unbelievable. And then he is dominated by this prayer. He is driven by this prayer. He says that he did this day and night. I mean, it is no wonder, folks, that in chapter 6, verse 15, we can see that in 52 days they built the wall when you have a man that God has been working on in this way. So here's the question. Who of us in this room is God doing that to? Who of us is God stirring? As we hear Harold Vaughan this week, we need to hear with the kind of heart that would say, God, I want to be Your Nehemiah here. I want this. I need this. I want to be Your Nehemiah in my family. I want to be Your Nehemiah in my Sunday School class. Lord, we need Your restoring presence. We need Your power. How do we do this? If Brookside is ever going to see ongoing blessing on a regular basis, we're going to need to be a church of Nehemiahs. And that's why what Brother Vaughan is saying to us is so crucial to us. It's not just that America is in trouble with God. America is in trouble with God because people in churches like ours all around the country have gotten casual with God. If all our Christianity is is showing up a couple of times a week and putting some stuff on the plate and saying amen at the right spots, we are in big trouble with God. I mean, there has to be a point where your Christianity and mine doesn't end when we walk out those doors, but that it comes alive when we walk out those doors. I mean, here is just when we get our spiritual batteries charged. One of the things that R.D. got for Christmas and I kind of wish he hadn't got this, but he did. And I learned, you know, parents, those of you that have little kids, you learn by trial and error. And some of you need to warn us who have little kids and say, don't do that one. That one's not really good. He got a remote control car. Anything that can have the potential of moving is not good. And so he's running his car. And after a while, you're ready to just stomp on that car. And you're just rolling around. And then all of a sudden, it stops. And it runs out of juice. And you know what you've got to do? You've got to recharge it. And we conveniently lost the recharger. But you've got to recharge this thing. And if you don't recharge it, it looks great. It looks good. And you know what? The wheels will still move. You can take it and move it around and play. But it can't do what it did before. But you know what? You put it on that recharger and I mean, it's ready to go. You know folks, you know what Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night and Sunday school are? They're the times when we get our batteries recharged. We come in and we plug into God's Word and we get ourselves cleansed and we get the power so that we can go out and run all up and down the world in the week to come taking the message of God and the Gospel to people that need it. But if we just come in here and sit and never really engage, never really plug into the Word, then we're like that car. We look great. If somebody comes along and kind of pushes us, we can move around, but we're really not going to be the kind of people that Nehemiah was. I mean, it's incredible. You know what? Let me kind of end with this. There was the personal work that God did in Nehemiah, but God got Nehemiah ready to do this personal work so that he could go and lay out for Israel the prerequisites that they needed as a nation. And here's the point I want you to see, folks. God could take us, any one of us, and do what He did in Nehemiah's heart so that we could then go out in our families, in our churches, in our communities and say, you know, if we'll do these things, folks, God's power will fall again. Here are the four things that had to happen. There had to be spiritual and personal brokenness. Number one. That's in verses 4 and 6. I mean, it's not like He's, you know, Lord, we come before You and we're so thankful for all the good things and we love You and thankful that we have a great life and thankful that we are not like the heathen out there. That's not what verse 4 says. I sat down and I wept and I mourned and I fasted before God and I said, O Lord of Heaven, the great and terrible God that keep His covenant and mercy for them that love Him and observe His commandments, let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open that You may hear the prayer. And then here's the prayer which I pray now day and night for the children of Israel, Thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against Thee, both I and my father's house. I mean, folks, He stands up and He says, Lord, I want You to forgive these wicked and horrible people for everything they've done. No, that's not what He says. I want You to forgive us for the sins that we have committed. And then just to make sure we get it, both I and my father's house. There's a deep personal brokenness there. There's no demands. I mean, there's mourning, there's grieving as He looks at His own life and says, Lord, my life is a reflection of the nation. I'm just like this. Then there's personal honesty in verses 6 and 7. We have sinned both my father's house, I and my father's house. And you know, these are perfect tense verbs which simply means this. I mean, if you were going to put it in terms that you and I could understand every day, here's what He's saying. We have done a very good job of sinning. I mean, we didn't make a half-hearted attempt of this. We didn't just kind of dabble in it. We got it all over us. We thoroughly engaged in this. We sinned and we did it thoroughly. There's a deep personal brokenness and then there's personal honesty. And then number 3, there's deep humility. Look at verses 8, 9, and 10. Remember, I beseech You, the Word which Thou commanded Thy servant Moses, saying, if you transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations. God had already done that. But if you turn unto Me and keep My commandments and do them, though there were of you cast out unto the outermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence and will bring them unto the place that I may have chosen to set My name there. I mean, here's what He's saying. Lord, I want You to remember Your Word. You said that if we abandon Your laws, You would scatter us. And where were they? They were scattered. But here's what He's doing in deep humility. He's coming before the Lord and He's saying to the Lord, You also said that it didn't matter how far away we were scattered, if we would turn, You would gather us. He's not making a demand. He is appealing to the one thing that God has told all of us to appeal to and that is the character of God. That's what it means to pray in the name of Jesus. We are to pray and bring our petitions on the basis of who God is and God is faithful to do what He said He would do. You know what, folks? When you and I sin and we live as though God were not a part of our life, God is very faithful to do exactly what He would have told us to do or He would do. But when we repent and we come in brokenness to Him and we come in honesty to Him and we come with a humble heart, He is equally faithful to do what He told us He would do. And I realize that for some, 2 Chronicles 7-14 may just be something that God said to national Israel, but you know what, folks? The same God who is Israel's God is whose God? Our God. And the same God who did for Israel and made for Israel certain promises about them as a nation has made certain promises to us as His people about blessing and restoration. And if we come before Him with the kind of heart that Nehemiah had that was personally broken and personally honest and deeply humble, then you know what I believe? I believe God will restore. Here's the last thing. He was willingly obedient. Look at verse 11. Or verse 10, Now these are Thy servants and Thy people whom Thou hast redeemed by Thy great power and by Thy strong hand. O Lord, I beseech Thee, let now Thine ear be attentive to the prayer of Thy servant and to the prayer of Thy servants who desire to what? Fear Thy name. And prosper, I pray Thee, Thy servant this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. And he's talking there about the king. He's saying to the Lord, Lord, I'm coming in personal brokenness. I'm coming in honesty. I'm coming with deep humility. And I'm coming with a willingness to obey. You know what, folks? You and I need to do this week as we sit here and as we hear Brother Vaughn, God's servant to us, and as we heard Pastor Helm this morning, even in those Bible things, we need to say to the Lord, Lord, I'm willing to obey. If You say it, I am willing to do it. We are Your servants. The problem is we want to be partners. And in the Bible term, we're Your servants. What do servants do? And the answer is, servants do whatever their Master tells them to do. And so if the Lord says, hey, I need you to do this or this is an area I want cleaned up or this is something I want changed, then as His servants, Nehemiah is saying, we'll obey. You know what? When these servants got serious about doing what Nehemiah prayed, six chapters later, when they got done in 52 days, the wall was built and all of God's people saw it and all of God's enemies recognized that it was God that had done it. Let's be modern day builders. Let's be modern day Nehemiahs as we think about what God is doing in our lives.