Transcription | October 2, 2022 | The Book of Nehemiah | Poison Control

 

 

A few years ago. I think maybe at that time three trees would have been about seven or eight years old. So I guess as I reflect on that, it's been more than a few years. Last month we celebrated our 22nd year as a church, so let's just call it what it is. 15 years ago. Man, I'm getting old.

 

But but 15 years ago, our church, it seemed like we had a revolving back door in that we were kind of stuck at a certain size and we were seeing a lot of people. But it would seem like those people were just constantly transitioning. And so there was no sustain able growth taking place that was burdened by that.

 

I was bothered by that. I reached out to mentors, asking them to help me figure out what I was doing wrong as a leader, to how that our church could continue to to gain ground and be more effective at not just reaching people, but keeping people discipling. People, especially those that we were seeing, converted to Jesus through salvation experiences.

 

And one of the one of the things that came out of those conversations is it was said to me, Eric, if you want to get a crowd, learn how to preach. But if you want to keep a crowd, you better learn how to lead. And it changed my life. And I had spent so much energy in trying to become a good communicator, become an anointed preacher, become somebody who could deliver the word of God in a memorable way.

 

But I had put very little focus on becoming better at actually leading people and becoming more effective as an administrator later. And I had always kind of looked at leadership as something that I didn't even think was a spiritual topic. And as I was praying through that, God dealt with me. I felt like he just whispered, Eric, if you will pour in the mundane, I will pull out the miraculous.

 

And what I envision in that is that if you put if you give him the water, he'll turn it into wine. And so I began studying the subject of leadership and trying to get a hold of everything I possibly could in the realm of leadership. And what ultimately came to the conclusion of is that there's no better how to manual on leadership than the Bible itself.

 

And this morning, I want to talk to you from the book of Nehemiah. And I want to share a message entitled Poison Control. Poison Control. Nehemiah chapter one gives us the storyline of this man from whom this book is self-titled. This is a book about Nehemiah, and Nehemiah is a man who became an incredible leader. And you're going to see that unfold this morning.

 

But Nehemiah, chapter one, verse three, is, as they said to me. Nehemiah, speaking of himself, those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. And the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burned with fire. When I heard these things, I sat down and I wept for many days.

 

I mourned and I fasted and I prayed before the God of heaven. So what he's saying is he's found out that his homeland is is in shambles. The city of Jerusalem, its walls are all broken down. He's bothered by this, and he began to pray. Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this, your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight in reviewing your name.

 

And I ask you, God, that you would give your servant success today. Grant me favor in the presence of this man, the king. And I was cup bearer to the king. So again, the book of Nehemiah, the subject of leadership, a title that's just simply poison control. And that's going to make sense to you as we move through this today.

 

Father, help me to pray. Help me to teach. You mean anointing for this moment, a special grace to provoke your people, God, to that next step that you have for them, whatever that might be. Lord, let it be done in Jesus name. And this church said Amen. It's long been decreed and declared that the lion is the king of the jungle.

 

You might say he is the unofficial leader of the jungle. In trying to prove this point. The lion walked up to a bear and he roared. Bear, who is the king of the jungle? And the bear immediately replied, You are almighty lion. So then the lion went down to the tiger. He roared at the tiger. Hey, Tiger. Who is the king of the jungle?

And the tiger said. Most certainly you are almighty lion. The lion then went down to the elephant, said, Hey, elephant. He is the king. The leader of this jungle. Elephant reached out with his trunk, grabbed hold of the lion around his neck, picked him up and began to slam him against the ground over and over again as he let go of him for good measure turned and kicked him.

 

And as the lion was trying to come to his senses, he turned to the elephant. He said, If you don't know the answer, you don't have to be mean about it. You ever feel like that as a leader, that maybe someone has put you in charge or you're under the impression that you're in charge? But it just seems like that there's a very real struggle in being able to bring some kind of formality to the leadership.

 

You know, I'd like to ask you this morning, where are you struggling as a leader? Almost every single one of us are in a leadership role in some capacity. Maybe you're leading a home, maybe you're leading a business, maybe you're leading a team. Maybe you're hosting leading a small group. Maybe you're viewed as a leader within your dormitory or within your classroom in some way, shape or form or fashion.

 

You are a leader or you are probably preparing to be a leader because at some point life is going to put you in a place where you're going to have to make the decisions of a leader. And so I think, though, when we begin to think about leadership, the truth of it is that that many of us are struggling.

 

We we're struggling to lead our home. We're struggling to lead our business. We're struggling to lead our families, our teams, our spheres of influence. And so it's encouraging to me to know that the book of Nehemiah, really, from its first page to its last page, is a how to manual for leaders. What you see in the Book of Nehemiah is a man who evolves into grows into an incredible leader.

 

In fact, beginning as nothing more than a cup bearer, someone that would just deliver, drink and food to the king's table. Nehemiah actually became one of the most effective leaders in the history of his nation. One of the ways that that is proven out is the assignment that he takes on is to rebuild a wall around the city of Jerusalem.

 

And what happens is he is able to do in 52 days what his predecessor had not been able to do in ten years. It's a perfect example of how that everything rises and falls on leadership. If you enjoy sports, you've probably seen this happen a lot where that there are coaches who specialize in turnaround projects. It's like they go to a team that's been struggling, it's not been doing well.

 

And then as they begin to take over as the leader within a year, maybe a few years, all of a sudden that program is just turned completely around. There's people who've experienced the same thing in business that there can be a business that's just really struggling, can't seem to be successful, can't get off the ground. Maybe it's even on the verge of failing.

 

Maybe another leader comes in or another business buys out that business. The next thing you know, that thing just turns around, begins to take off. It's everything rises and falls on leadership. Nehemiah comes on the scene and steps into a position of leadership where his predecessor for ten years couldn't get the job done. And in 52 days it's done start to finish.

 

That's a leader. That's an incredible leader. That's a leader that every single one of us need to learn something from, especially considering how that he took a God first priority to everything that he did. And that's a key element of his success. But if you just look at the general overview of the book in the AMA and you're kind of trying to see how he became successful, there's a very specific course of action.

 

The first thing that the book in the AMA reveals is that Nehemiah saw a need. He saw a need in his nation, he saw a need in his homeland, and he was burdened by that. But he didn't just sit down and have a pity party about this need. He actually rose up and said, Look, something's got to be done.

 

Something's got to be accomplished. And it's from that that he he captures a vision. It's like God downloads a vision to him and he captures it and he's like, okay, this, this is what needs to be done. That vision, as he thought through it, as he prayed through it, actually then became a strategy which allowed him to lay a plan.

 

And then as you watch this book unfold, he starts to meet with people, even people that disagreed with him, people that would have been very difficult to lead. And he begins to communicate to them, hey, this is the plan, this is the strategy. This is what we're trying to do. And the next thing you know is people got mobilized to join his cause.

 

And that was one of the things that he was able to do that his predecessor had never been able to do. In fact, his predecessor, it says that when that guy presented the vision that he had, that the old people and the young people took different sides and they got out in the middle of the street and they started yelling against one another to where you couldn't tell who was for the plan.

 

And who was against the plan. That's the kind of spirit of environment and climate and culture that Nehemiah steps into. And so the fact that he got these people mobilized is incredible. And then when you begin to consider that the book of my Nehemiah also shows us that Nehemiah wasn't like doing these incredible miracles. Like he doesn't part a Red Sea, he doesn't do ten signs and wonders in front of Pharaoh.

 

He doesn't call Fire Down from Heaven. In fact, the entire book basically records no significant miracles. So so they're not following Nehemiah just because he's this super spiritually elite prophet of God. He's just an ordinary guy who worked with ordinary people. And God did something extraordinary. In fact, in the book, in the AMA, there are not even any testimonies of healing.

 

What we actually see is that God simply answers a prayer by providing a leader. That's who Nia Maya is. So this nation is in shambles. So just a little bit of a history lesson. So you can get a picture. The nation of Israel had been split into two kingdoms. Once it got split into two kingdoms, there was a North Kingdom.

 

There was a South Kingdom. So what we're talking about here is really more specific to the south. The kingdom, the south kingdom was overtaken by the Babylonian Empire and the Babylonian Babylonians decided they were going to exile the people of Israel, which means they basically dislocated them. They they took them out of their homes and they made them go into other Babylonian cities and serve or maybe even in some ways be enslaved.

 

They're exiled. But then the Persians come on the scene, and the Persians basically start taking over the whole world, and the Persians overtake the Babylonians, which means they now own the rights to this section of Israel, which happens to contain Jerusalem, which happens to contain the former temple site of the people of Israel. And the whole nation is broken down.

 

But the Persians were a little bit more merciful than the Babylonians, in that they said, If you are an Israeli person, if you have that blood running through your veins, we'll let you go back home. Well, when these people started coming home, they were heartbroken because everything's in shambles. The temples destroyed. The walls are torn down. The cities, nothing but just heaps of rubble.

 

And so they begin to rebuild. And as they're beginning to rebuild, they have a little bit of success. But the walls are still torn down, and that means that everything's vulnerable to being ransacked again. And so when Nehemiah finds out about this, he's burdened. But the truth of it was, is the scripture lays out that the nation of Israel was praying for restoration.

 

They were praying for the walls to be restored. They were praying for a heads of protection. They were praying to be able to lay down at night and feel a sense of safety that somebody wasn't going to run through their streets again and take everything away from them again. So when Nehemiah shows up, he is actually an answer to someone's prayer.

 

And I feel like I need to tell somebody this morning, you may be the answer to someone's prayer. You thought you were just changing addresses, but God intended to use you as a leader in that neighborhood to raise up a small group that's going to give people the chance to pray and do a devotion and seek Jesus Christ.

 

You thought you were just getting transferred to a new job, but the truth of it was, somebody was praying on that assembly line. Somebody was praying in those office cubicles that God to bring a sense of light and that God would bring some kind of a turn around. And you are the answer to that prayer. You thought you just got a promotion.

 

But the truth of it was, is that for such a time as this, you have been brought into that community and that place to bring godly kingdom minded influence. You may be the answer to someone's prayer. You thought that you just got recruited to a specific team. Then the truth of it was, you are the answer to someone's prayer that, you know, I think sometimes we overlook the fact that we could be the answer to somebody's prayer because we think, oh, we're praying for God to answer a prayer, or we're praying for someone else to be the answer to the prayer.

 

And I think God really does want to rattle somebody's spiritual cage a little bit this morning and help you to wake up to the realization you you you may be the answer to somebody's prayer. Now, do you get that and you accept that and you receive that. Then you start to feel a little bit of heaviness, like my I'm supposed to be the answer to the prayer.

 

I'm not even sure I got this thing figured out. Well, that's why we can learn something from Nehemiah. Because when Nehemiah realizes that he's the answer to someone's prayer, the first thing that Nehemiah did was pray. Well, there's a novel idea that, hey, God wants to use me. God wants to do something through my life. And so my response to coming into that realization is to pray.

 

Here's what it looks like in your mind. Chapter one. Verse three says They said to me, Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble. They're in disgrace. They need they need a breakthrough. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down. Its gates have been burned with fire. And when I heard these things sat down, I wept.

 

For some days I mourned and I first ID and I prayed. Yeah, I prayed for prayer. Has a way of changing things. And one of the things that prayer does is that it deepens our connection to a need. So remember what it said that Nehemiah becomes aware that there's a need, and in his response to that, it's to pray.

 

And what's happening with that is that there's a greater level of empathy that's coming. There's a greater level of compassion that's coming. If you're really struggling with someone or something, I dare you to pray about it, because when you start praying about it, God has a way of deepening your connection to that problem, to where that you start to want to figure out what the solution is going to be and you even become open to being a part of the solution.

 

Looking at this even further, verse three says, They said to me, Those who survived are in great trouble and disgrace. When I heard it, I sat down and I wept. What he's saying is my connection got even deeper, especially as I began to pray. It says to me further that prayer helps us to see what God wants to do.

 

As you unfold further in just the beginning stages book in the Amir chapter one and he starts to pray. His prayer looks like this, he says. And then I said, or I prayed, Lord, God of the heaven, the great and the awesome God who keeps His covenant of love. What he's saying there is, as I'm praying, I'm starting to see that God is not done with this city.

 

God is not done with this nation because God's got a covenant with these people and he still loves them in spite of them. And then he starts talking the promises of God back through His prayer. So, Lord, I'm just asking you remember the instruction you gave your servant, Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations.

 

But if you return to me and you obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon. I will gather them from there and I will bring them to the place that I have chosen as a dwelling place for my name. Because they are your servants and they are your people whom you redeem by your great strength and by your mighty hand.

 

When he started praying, he started realizing, Wait a second, God has got something in mind that is better than what these people are currently experiencing. And I get it. You can look at your nation right now and you can feel like that it is godless. You can feel like that it's lost God consciousness. You can feel like that.

 

It's far from the presence of heaven. But I came to tell you that if God's people, which are called by his name, will humble themselves and pray and seek his face and turn from their wicked ways, he will hear their prayer. He will respond and forgive their sins and heal their land. What's happening there? That's God's plan. It's never been a question of whether God was done with the nation.

 

It's always been a question of whether a nation was done with God. And when Nehemiah is seeing this, something's turning over in his heart and he's recognizing Wait a second, wait a sec. That God's not done with these people. God's got a plan. I see it differently now that I've prayed. When you pray, it takes away hopelessness and begins to give you that.

 

There is a hope, even against hope. That's Bible prayer invites God's assistance. It takes you beyond worrying and talking about it and gossiping about it and tweeting about it. It actually invites God to get involved. It's intriguing to me sometimes how we can toss over these problems in our life and never really invite God to get involved. And I love what Nehemiah does, and verse 11 of chapter one, he says, Lord, let your ear be attended to.

 

My prayer, watch this and give your servant success today. Be good for some of us to maybe get that. Doesn't matter how successful your business is, it doesn't matter how much influence you have, it doesn't matter how great of a parent you think you are. You better get up every day of your life and ask God to give you success for this day, just like He did yesterday.

 

Because without God, there's no way that we can bring this thing to pass. But when you begin to invite God to help you to be successful and you begin to you don't need to go into that big meeting, but you stop for a minute and you pray God to ask you that you would help me to be successful so that I could honor you through my life.

 

You get ready to make that big sale, but you say, got to ask you to help me to be successful so I can live a more generous life. You're getting ready to see your influence. Go to a brand new place. But you're saying, God help me to be successful, then I may be able to steward what it is that you're about to release in my life and what you do when you begin to pray.

 

That way you'll discover that God works in private while we serve in public. Because Nehemiah, he's he's he's in this place. He's still serving. But God is beginning to work behind the scenes in his life and God's orchestrating some things specifically with the King, because he's going to need favor from the king. He's going to need permission from the king to do what's on his heart.

 

And so while Nehemiah just keeps serving in his public position because he's praying, God starts working privately in that man's heart, the king's heart, probably in a way that nobody even recognizes, which shows us that prayer changes his perspectives. Prayer can be can be a way for the Holy Spirit to get involved in somebody else's life, and they can change their perspective towards you simply because you prayed.

 

They don't even know why they change their mind other than the fact that they just felt like they no longer needed to have that opinion of you. Well, the truth of it was, is because you prayed, the Holy Spirit went to work. That's the Holy Spirit went to work. And so what I want to I want to show you is in in this prayer time, not only do we start to see other people's perspective of Nehemiah possibly change, but we even see Neymar's perspective of himself change.

 

And if you just read it fast, you'll miss it. So I want you to just slow down with me for a minute, and I want you to read this verse. Verse 11. So he says, God, I need you to give your servant success today. We've already talked about that. And the way I'm going to need this success is I'm gonna need you to grant me a favor in the presence of the King.

 

And it's almost an afterthought, but it might be the most important sentence in this entire verse. He says, I was a cup bearer to the king. It's almost as though he suddenly gets the revelation. Wait a second. I'm already standing exactly where I need to be in order to get what I need done.

 

You ever considered the fact that you may already be positioned exactly where you need to be positioned, but you have overlooked the fact that because of your own insecurity and your own inferiority complex and your because it's one thing to go to work and say, I'm just a cup buyer and I get it. They got some problems over there.

 

But I don't know anything about building. I don't know anything about blueprints. I don't really know anything about organizing systems. And so I get it. Like they need help. But man, I'm just a cut bear. But after he prayed, he comes out of it with a different perspective. Wait a second. I'm the cup bearer. I see the king more than anybody other than his wife.

 

I'm hanging out with him three times a day. I'm the one that determines that he lives or dies because I keep the poison out of his food and he realizes, Wait a second, I may have as much influence with the king as anybody in this kingdom. But until he prayed, I'm just I'm just a cut bear, just just to cut my hair.

 

You know, man, I'm not I'm not that much is not really. But after he prayed, he realizes, wait a second, God has put me in a place of influence. He's put me in a place of authority. He's put me in a place of relationship. I am kingdom connected, I'm divinely appointed, and sometimes we never come to the revelation of who we really are, because we never really pray and invite God to reveal what He's already done in our life.

 

And when he got the revelation, wait a second, I'm the cup bearer. I'm the cup bearer. I'm the cup here. I got access. I have a way in when most other people can't even have a conversation with the king. I am the cup here. Watch. This teaches me that leadership often arises from unlikely places.

 

I have discovered in reading the Scripture that this one right here is repetitive. See, God likes to take the foolish things and confound the wise. God likes to take the weak down things and confound the mighty God likes to do things for which coincidence can't take the credit. God likes to do things in such a way to where that only He can get the glory because no other way would it make sense.

 

So that's why God likes to go to the backside of a desert and pull out of Moses. That's why God likes to go to the backside of a shepherd's field and pull out a David. That's why God likes to go to a tree and find a depressed prophet and raise up an Elijah. That's what that's why God likes to go to the belly of a whale and drag out a Jonah and turn a city upside down with the revival.

 

That's why God likes to go over into Bethlehem and pull out of swaddling clothes. A baby named Jesus Christ who will change the whole world for all of eternity. It's what God likes to step by a seashore and call forth a Peter, a James and a John. Because God has a way of raising up leadership from unlikely places.

 

And I would say to you that whether you are leading a family or you are leading a business or you are leading a ministry, now, don't be surprised if your greatest leaders come from the most unlikely of places and if some of you feel like you've been disqualified because you don't got the right name, you don't got the right network, you come from the wrong side of the tracks.

 

You don't live in the right zip code. I don't care if they even told you you were an accident. You are chosen by God for such a time as this. And the more unlikely you feel like you are, the more likely it is that God wants to do something for you, for which He will be the author and He will be the finisher.

 

And he will write a story that only he gets the credit for. Leadership often arises from unlikely places like or nobody expected to cut bearer to become the general contractor. Nobody expected to cut bearer to be the one who could do in 52 days what the people who were trained in the field couldn't do in ten years. But Nehemiah had some things straight.

 

It's that when you realize you might be the answer to someone's prayer, the first thing you better do is pray. And he realized that leadership is useless. If it's a good idea, it's only worth something when it's a God idea. And the way you got to stay calibrated is by choosing to always pray first. Pray first. Now, let's talk about this cut bare thing for a minute.

 

Let's talk about this position that Nehemiah was in. His job was make sure that the king does not die of poisoning. So let's just say this way, Nehemiah. His day job was to keep the poison out. Now, don't you find it intriguing that a man whose day job was to keep the poison out felt like that walls made sense and became burdened for walls to be rebuilt because in the same way that you might envision food making its way onto an airliner is the way in which that some commentators believe that a cup bearer's job would have functioned.

 

That from the time that the food initially arrived, the Cup bearer would have had some level of authority in making sure that there were boundaries around that food, that there were walls that were around that food, so that there was nothing that could get into that food that shouldn't get into that food. And so his his job is to think in such a way of we got to keep the poison out, we got to keep the toxicity out.

 

We can't let any harm come to the king. And so his whole life is keeping the poison out. And so when he begins to hear about a city, about people of God who don't have a way to keep the poison out, they don't have a way to keep the enemy out. They don't have a way to keep the things of the world out.

 

He's burdened by that and he realizes we need to get the poison under control. And I think it leads me to a question for you again, this morning of where do you need to rebuild walls? Where is poison corrupting your leadership? Where is poison being allowed in to your relationship with God and your relationship with others? Are there any places where you've just allowed the walls to become rubble and you're no longer making sure that God is helping you to guard your heart?

 

Are you just letting whatever you want, whatever the enemy wants to bring in, just come into your life and poison your way of thinking and poison your heart towards God. Something he'd known the history line again. Remember I told you that the Persians let the Israeli people go back and start rebuilding? Well, there's three major personalities involved in that.

 

And the River Bell, when he got there, he restored the temple. That's the place where they would worship. But when Ezra got there, he revived the worship in the temple. In other words, you can't just have a building. Somebody's been to worshiping in that building. You're not going to get any help this morning. Sorry. But. But. But when Nehemiah came, he said it's not enough just to have a place to worship and to have people who worship in it.

 

We have to have a hedge of protection around that worship. We got to get the walls rebuilt. So I wonder, are there walls around your Sunday? Are there walls around your devotional time? Are there walls around your prayer life where you've just made some decisions and just said, this part of my life belongs to God and I'm not going to let anything poison it.

 

Here the Bible says, Blessed are the pure and heart, for they shall see God. What are things that Jesus said He wants to do is guard your heart. What God wants is your whole heart. Are there walls around your purity or has the enemy created some rubble in places where you used to be fortified? And that that may be there needs to be some rebuilding take place.

 

So I just ask you, is there a heads of protection around your worship? Listen, when Nehemiah found out that the walls had been torn down, bothered him so bad, he said, I sat down and I wept. And he said, Then I prayed and I realized God's still great and God's so awesome and God still loves people. But people got to turn to him.

 

And this this one right here, he's in his spare time. He said, God, I confess that my nation has sinned. What's this? Including myself and my father's family have committed sins against you. And we have acted very wickedly towards you. And we've not obeyed your commands. This is my encouragement to you this morning as they begin to play some music softly, make the decision to develop yourself as a leader.

 

Maybe your father God wants to use you as a leader in your home. Maybe you're a single mother and you're struggling. But as you begin to pray first, God can use you to lead those children in a way to whether they become great men and women and of God, despite what your family has been through and the difficulties that you faced, that if you are raising up a brand or a business, invite God to make you truly a Christian leader.

 

The only way any of those things can happen is if you pray first. Make it a part of your life. Make it a rhythm in your life. And not just for the sake of tradition, but literally make it a ritual in your life every day, starting with prayer, every day's ending with prayer, your family's praying before you eat a meal you're getting with the word.

 

You're just taking some time. You just pray. And over God, let this word speak to me today as I read just even a few versus a scripture. Pray first and you're going to see he's going to connect you to a need on a more deep, deep, deeper level. You're going to discover that as a result of that, sometimes you're going to show up and not even realize you are the answer to somebody's prayer.

But as you walk all this out, Nehemiah, don't forget the importance of the walls. You got to keep the poison out. And a lot of leaders get to a place of success and start putting emphasis on keeping the poison out. One of the things that meaning I have made a commitment to do not just for the sake of our marriage, but for the sake of this ministry.

 

There's going to be some walls around that marriage. And it's just what it is, what it is. Like it or don't like it. There's walls, there's boundaries. And we are not crossing them. We've decided with our kids, so long as they live in our house and they're at our address, there's going to be some walls. And sometimes the enemy may attack them and sometimes those walls may feel like they're crumbling.

 

But when they do, we're going to build them back up and say, These walls are worth fighting for. These walls are worth dying for to keep the poison out. Am I making sense to anybody when it means when it comes to our church? And I believe we're going to show up in zip codes across Kentucky and beyond and we're going to get to be the answer to somebody's prayer.

 

Thank God for those moments that are going to come, but we will always have to build a wall around sound doctrine and pure worship and clean hands, pure hearts, renewed minds. Father, I ask you today is heads are bowed, eyes are closed, even in church, online. God, people are found in a place where they can just gain a posture of reverence before you that Lord, we don't just repent for the sins of a nation or the sins of a community.

 

We repent for our own sins. And thank you, God, for allowing Nehemiah to set an example, not just to be in a prayerful person, but that true leaders are repentant people and they don't hesitate to repent, and that God, a true leader, doesn't point the finger at everybody else and say, Well, bullshit, repent. And Bob should repent and sue.

 

She should repent. But God, we look ourselves in the mirror and we say, God, today I need to repent. I send my family sinned. We let a wall fall down. We came up short then. So, God, that's what we do. Especially if we're disconnected from you. Or maybe even if we've never had a relationship with you, you got right now we lift our hand and we just say, Give me a fresh start.

 

God, make me clean, make me new. Wash away my sins, Lord, redeem me through the power of the blood and the name of Jesus Christ. And I thank you for the cross where that your son would die for the sins of the world. My sins and I repent God, of every hesitation that I've had in praying this prayer before now.

 

So, Lord, thank you for making me a new creature, for redeeming me through Your Grace. But God, I also pray for people in the sound of my voice that are just struggling as a leader. And as they come to you with a repentant heart and they begin to embrace prayerful this God, I believe that you're going to connect them deeply to some needs for which they're going to get to be a part of the solution.

 

There's going to be some places, God, where you're going to change perspectives and some folks who felt like they didn't have the right relationship, they didn't have the right connection. You're going to even begin to reveal to them, God, how you've already given them influence in ways they didn't even know they had it. And God, as you begin to use them, may it always be first and foremost for the glory of your son.

 

May we live lives that are about Jesus, all about Jesus and always about Jesus. Because everyone needs Jesus or let it be done in Jesus name. And this church said, Amen, would you?