Get the Job Done!

Are your hands getting weak? Are you feeling tired, but you know there's work to do? We have to get the job done! There is a great work to do and it requires to focus.

Nehemiah continues to teach us how to navigate the call that God has on your life while meeting adversity and threats.  Join guest host, Erin, as she leads us through this prayer from chapter 6.

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Transcript

Press means to apply force.

When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation.

He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through. And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us. Greetings everybody and welcome to the press podcast.

Thank you for joining us today.

I have another one of our wonderful young people in the studio's light room with me. And again, it is one of my favorites. This is my niece, Aaron.

Hi. Hi, so glad you made it today.

Me too.

I'm not just inviting her because she's my niece. She's here because she is one of the leaders in our UND press club.

And Aaron, you need to tell me because you were already saved coming into this, but can you tell me how press has impacted you?

It's helped me realize where I couldn't Because a lot of the girls in my age group, a lot of the girls in my class that I interact with is like, wow, the Lord brought me a mighty long way.

And it's like I can help them get from a place where I was.

So, it's pretty great. Yeah, it's been really cool.

We've seen so many people saved and the Lord moving stuff after and you're listening and you're contemplating doing a press club, do it. Do it.

Reach out to us.

We will help you the best we can. We have all kinds of training videos and resources and the initial investment is like $20.

It is completely worth it because God is really using this press movement to reach young people.

So I'm excited about that.

But now that I've left the commercial, I want to dive into today's prayer.

As we continue in the book of Nehemiah, chapter 6 is where the prayer is, looking at another reason I think he was such an amazing leader.

So Aaron, lead us into the background for today's prayer. Okay, so before we get into the prayer in verse 9 and verse 14, Israel is still in Babylonian captivity.

So they've been carried away to another country and those that are left don't have any protection. So Nehemiah goes back with permission from the Persian king to go to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls in chapter 2. And so when we get to the prayer, he has enemies.

There's Sanballat and Tobiah, which will be mentioned a lot in this chapter. Sanballat was the governor of Samaria and Tobiah was an Ammonite official, and they were among the Israelites enemies who attempted to hinder and harm the rebuilding process.

So if we go to verse 9, when we read verse 9, it says, "For they all made us afraid, saying, their hands shall be weakened from the work that it be not done.

Now therefore, oh God, strengthen my hands."

Now we see in this verse, the Sanballat and Tobiah have been trying to set him up. And so to me what's tight in the scripture is that Nehemiah didn't ask God to do anything with Sanballat and Tobiah. He didn't ask him for revenge in this verse or anything like that.

He asked him to strengthen his hands to work. Oh God, strengthen my hands.

And I thought that was tight because he wasn't worried about the opposition. He was worried about getting the job done.

That's actually what stood out to me first.

That he was so focused on the work, he didn't have time to worry about his enemies.

You know, a lot of times in our lives I hear young people start to say, "I ain't worried about them. I ain't worried about them."

But then you switch up your whole way of existing.

Other people are not worried about them.

I think Nehemiah actually shows us the definition of how to move when you don't have time to worry about them.

That's tight.

And even in the verses after that, 10 through 13, you see them trying to set him up. They hired someone to prophesy lies to him, trying to get him to fight them, give them reason to cause war with the king. So they're trying to make Nehemiah afraid and or sin so that he wouldn't be allowed to continue to build. And so in verse 14, the scripture was, "My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works." And on the prophet's Noadiah, which is the person who prophesied lies to him. And the rest of the prophets that would have put me in fear. And I think what's so tight about this is he says that would have put me in fear.

What they were trying to do didn't work.

And after this was done, the wall was finished and all that, then he asked God to think about what the enemy had done to him. So in verse 10 through 13, Sanballat and Tobiah hired a man, Noadiah, to prophesy lies to him. And so what he was trying to do was to get him afraid, get him to fight them and give them reason to cause war with the king. Because if he had reacted the way they wanted him to, they would have been able to go to the king and tell him that he did this, he did that. That would have caused him to not be able to keep building the wall. That's tight because he didn't react the way they wanted that he wanted to do. He kept going. He kept doing what he was supposed to do.

And he just denied, denied, denied, denied.

In the scripture it says, verse 13 says, "Therefore was he hired that I should be afraid and do so and sin, and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me." So they tried to get him to react the way they wanted to do, but he didn't. And so then in verse 14, after they had done all that, that's when he asked God to remember what they had done to him. And then he said that would have put me in fear. So he continued to do the work that he was supposed to do.

They didn't stop him. He didn't react the way they wanted him to do. He kept going. He kept going. And then verse 15, he finished the wall. And then in verse 16, it says, "And it came to pass that when all 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 our God." So they were cast down. They were humbled. And so it says they cast down, which means they were failed and overthrown in that scripture. When they say they were humbled, they were overthrown and God was exalted.

He got the glory. Their plans and their attempts to stop the rebuilding of the wall failed.

God answered Nehemiah's prayers by humbling them. By the wall being finished, that was his prayer being answered.

That was them, Sanballat and Tobiah, and all the other people and all his other enemies trying to get him to stop and trying to get him to sin.

Their consequence was realizing that God was greater. Was realizing that him finishing the wall, it was only God's doing. Only God could do that.

And so that was their humbling experience. That was the response that God gave. He finished the wall and the people were humbled.

I believe that Nehemiah is definitely a worker's book, even as a servant leader. It is a worker's book.

I was looking at some other things you mentioned, especially about the setup and how they try to use a prophet to set up the true follower of God.

Do you think that still happens today? I think it definitely does happen today, especially with preachers and getting up on stage, even trying to ask people for stuff or you know, preaching something that might feel good, but you know that it's not what the Lord is wanting to say. And so I think it definitely does happen today.

I know our pastor makes a big deal out of the pastors and organizations that got money to promote the COVID vaccine. And you know, at first I had mixed feelings about that, but I think anytime the world and the church agree, there's probably a problem. And if they have to pay you to do it or pay for the voice of the preacher to endorse it, that is a scary thing. When the world starts telling the pulpit what to endorse, you know there's a problem.

So I don't know that it's just about a vaccine or anything else. I'm talking about across the board when politicians come in the pulpit or anything like that.

I just don't really see where in scripture that's a good thing.

I don't know that we're ever to have the same war cry, the same fight.

Yeah.

We're not fighting for the same things.

Exactly.

And yet, we have to stay focused on what we are to do, what we are to be building. I think Nehemiah shows the church how to stay on task.

Definitely.

And even when he asks about getting his enemies back at the end, him finishing the wall was the next verse. So him asking that at the end means that his goal was not about what they were doing that entire time. He's trying to, you know, maneuver between that. Maneuver, okay, I need them to just know I don't believe what you're saying. No, I don't.

I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that.

But it wasn't his focus.

He's just, you know, that's just something on the side. And you can tell because he finished the wall. And in verse 15, but in the verse before, right before he finished, right before the verse says he finished, that's when he asked, "Can you remember what they'd done to me?" He stayed focused. He stayed on task. He was like, okay.

And sometimes we ask the Lord, we want to do things in the church. We want to do things.

And then we get distracted by the little stuff.

And it's like, but you asked for this. You asked for mercy. You asked the Lord, you know, to be able to let you continue and to minister and to his people, minister in the kingdom. But then all the little side stuff, it throws you off.

And it's like, well, you asked for this and he asked for that. And he continued until the end.

I think that's a beautiful point.

I also see in the scripture where they understand how important it is to set division between you and the king. They go out of their way to make sure he loses the endorsement and support of the king. They're looking for anything they can tell the king. They want to sabotage the real relationship. When they figured out fighting him wasn't good enough, they want to cut his connections.

And I just love that, you know what?

They're trying to cut his connection by telling him to sin.

But when we stay committed to the mission, the king is also glorified. And so everything may try to navigate around you or finagle its way in the background, but when you're honest and true, they can't just cut your connections. What would you want the listeners to take away? Keeping your eye on the goal because that's exactly what Nehemiah did.

And most of the chapter, the enemies are, you know, coming at him and even with press, this year we had a little opposition in press. We had people, you know, saying things and all that, but we kept our eyes. We prayed more. We fasted more so that we could get to the goal. We were focused on the goal. And thank God that people were baptized, people were Holy Ghost, but if we weren't and if we were so distracted by all the naysayers and things like that, we would have lost sight of, you know, the souls and the people we were trying to reach. And so I just say it's important to stay, to keep your eye on the ball. I say it's important to keep your eye on the goal and to not get distracted by this person and that person or what's going on in life because I mean God is greater. And I mean Nehemiah recognized that when he said, you know what?

He kept going.

And even though the Sanballat and Tobiah, they recognized that because like she said, they're trying to cause division between the king and him and God and him and the Persian king. Even the enemies know who's greater. You know, they know who who has all the power.

And so it's important to just keep going because when you keep going, eventually they'll be humbled because they realize that, well, God had his way of being. God is always going to get the glory.

If you had to leave them with any last words, just how to keep pressing. How do you keep going?

You've been raised in church and I will say that doesn't mean it's easy, not at all.

Sometimes people have assumptions about what that means.

It means from the beginning we were given a shot, but not given a free pass.

And so if you've been through some things, you have made some decisions that have caused you to learn how to walk upright before God even in doing this thing. How would you encourage somebody to press? Well, the first thing I had to do was ask God to help me want to because I had to be honest with God. You know, I had to like Lord, I don't want this, but I want to want it because I don't want to go to hell. I mean a good reason to not want to, you know, the wrong is to not go to hell. So I didn't want to go to hell.

And I'm like, Lord, help me love you. Help me love your word. Help me love to pray.

And I think that the Lord, he honored my honesty. And so you know, going to him and then I prayed. And then he helped me.

I ask when I don't know, I ask. I ask my leaders. I ask, you know, people who have been walking with the Lord for a long time, I ask for help.

And so the Lord has helped me build a prayer life. He's helped me love his word.

And so I use just word and I'm always on just word and you know, trying to read my Bible daily or get more understanding or fasting.

He helps because if I don't fast enough, I will be having an attitude.

And keeping the right people around me.

It's something that church we talked about is just, you know, letting go of people and things like that, but it's important because it's important.

And so just keeping the right, the safe people around me, people who will tell me what I'm doing wrong or what I'm saying wrong.

I believe if you'll do those things, if you'll be honest with God, the Bible says truth and mercy. If you'll keep your prayer life, if you'll fast, if you'll seek God, if you'll study your word, there will be nothing, nothing that can overtake you. And you will continue in your desire to press. And you will find for yourself that prayer reaches every single situation.

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Did you know that when you are quiet, your voice is missing to God's ears?

I know some of us have prayed and we're wondering, how long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if God already knows?

How will I know God is answering?

And what do I do when I feel like God's not listening? But God is listening for your voice.

It's too quiet in this world for the troubles we have.

You have to raise your voice and God wants to hear from you. It's too quiet, a book about prayer, is designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith.

Visit presstopray.com.