Good morning. Good to be with you guys today. Pastor Jeff just said, don't tell any embarrassing stories about him. I don't know any stories about him that aren't embarrassing. So now I got no stories to tell, but I love Pastor Jeff. Pastor Jeff and I have known each other for many, many years. And, oh, stop, stop it. There we go. Okay, my notes were being goofy on me. Pastor Jeff and I have known each other for many years. We both started youth pastoring right about the same time, and I am so thankful for Jeff's life. Pastor Jeff has always been an iron sharpeneth iron type of friend to me. And our times together, we were both young, There are even things in our ministry that we were talking about last night at dinner, there are things we do right now in our ministry, the one that I just stepped out of serving there at Fellowship Baptist Church, that are still continuing on to this day because of ideas of influence that Jeff had on our lives. We were talking about it. They used to do this camping trip. I came and spoke for one of their camping trips that they would do. And because they were doing that camping trip, it gave us the idea to start doing camping trips for our church. And now our church has been taking these camping trips every year for, how many years, 13? Like about 13, 14 years, whatever, you had me come speak for yours. And we started doing it the next year. And those camping trips have really become a big part of our church. We look forward to it every year. people from our church go on it and you know that's called a positive influence in your life. And I'm so thankful for Jeff and he's just always been that type of friend. And you know one thing I love about Jeff is no matter how long the period of time goes between our time talking or fellowshipping together, when we get together we just I feel like we're just youth pastors again, hanging out, and that's what I love about Jeff. I was actually down in Mexico on a mission trip. I was on my way back. Last time we chatted, I was in... Arizona and I was getting ready to get back home and and we got together on the phone and started chatting I don't even know how long we talked probably two or three hours Just just catching up on stuff. And so anyways, I love your pastor He's a dear friend and it is a privilege to be here with you guys today. Take our Bibles this morning open up to to Nehemiah chapter 1 Nehemiah chapter one this morning. Tonight we'll be sharing our ministry that God has called our family into. I'm so excited to share that with you tonight. Serving with core missions where we work with equipping national pastors all over the world to spread the gospel to places that we can't get to and plant churches in places that we can't really get to and working with them to help them do that more effectively. So happy to be here this morning with my wonderful wife, Rachel, and our four children weren't able to make it with us on this trip specifically. We do travel with them usually, but they just weren't able to make it on this trip. And I mentioned it in Sunday school, but today is our 12-year wedding anniversary for my wife and I. And so, you know, When we were trying to decide what to do for our wedding anniversary, we were like, why don't we go to Slippery Rock Baptist Church? Because that's how everyone wants to celebrate their wedding anniversary. This is the place to be. So we're excited to be here with you guys and to celebrate our wedding anniversary here. Nehemiah chapter 1, and we'll be in verses 2 through verse 4. Let me ask you this. Have you ever seen something, and then once you saw it, you couldn't unsee it? You saw something, and then once you saw it, you... Maybe you started seeing it everywhere. Maybe you became aware of something. Maybe something you didn't know before. And then after you become aware of it, you start seeing it all over the place. And you're like, am I the last to the party? Does everyone know about this but me? I remember this one time. I hate to say it, because I don't even remember what word it was, but there was a word in a book that I was reading, and I just didn't understand it, so I looked up the meaning of the word, and then like, I was watching the news the next evening, and they used that word like three or four times, and I'm like, isn't that funny how I had probably heard that word my whole life, and then my brain just kind of skipped over it, and then I learned what the word means, and now I start hearing it in different places? I remember it was, Quite a few years ago now, we were on our way to church, it was a Sunday evening, and you know, I mean, just a normal on our way to church. You know, we had communion that night, and I was supposed to be leading communion. My dad, I served for 17 years as the assistant pastor at Fellowship Baptist Church. My dad is the senior pastor, served underneath him. He was sick that night, so he's like, can you run communion tonight? On our way there, and I did about, we did about the most Midwest thing that you can do on our way to church. You wanna know what that is? we hit a deer, all right? That's about the most classic Midwest thing you could do, especially in Michigan. And so 70 miles an hour on the highway, we hit a deer, broadsided it. It completely crumpled the front of our van. And kids are so funny. So one of our daughters wasn't with us. And to this day, she still gets, sad and frustrated that she didn't get to get in an accident with everyone else. I'm like, what is wrong with you? She's like, I didn't get to be in the accident. I'm like, oh my word. Like you don't want to, that's a bad thing. You don't want to be in accidents. You know, everyone just wants that thing that they didn't have. So we got in an accident, destroyed our vehicle, and then we got a generous, generous settlement from the insurance company for our vehicle for a whopping $3,500. Oh my word, I remember I was on the phone with them and I'm like, what am I supposed to do with this? $3,500, what, you want me to buy a used motorcycle? Come on, you're killing me. And so we had to buy another vehicle, so we're looking for a used vehicle. and starting to do our research, and people are like, you wanna, well, there's not a whole lot of options anymore out there when it comes to minivans, because that's obviously what we had to get to fit our family. So we're looking for, we're doing our research on minivans, and we're starting to land on maybe like a Honda Odyssey. So I started doing my research on Honda Odysseys, and I'm watching YouTube videos, and reviews, and all that type of stuff that you do before you buy something. And then, I go out driving, And I start seeing Honda Odysseys everywhere. I'm like driving, I'm like, oh, there's a Honda Odyssey. Oh, there's a Honda Odyssey. I pull into church, I'm like, half the people in church have Honda Odysseys. You know what's so funny? It's like, how have I not noticed this before? How have I not seen all these Honda Odyssey? Have you ever done that? You're looking for a vehicle, then you start seeing them on the road as you're driving, and you're like, I never noticed that, that vehicle before. Once you see something, you can't unsee it. Once you learn about something, and then you start seeing it everywhere. I remember that kinda happened to our family when it came to reaching the unreached places with the gospel. That kinda happened with our family when we became aware of all the places that didn't have churches. When we became aware of all the places that didn't have the gospel being preached. we started seeing it everywhere. We would see it when missionaries would come in to preach. We would see it during our devotional time. We would see it when we were watching a documentary. It's just like everywhere we looked, we started seeing places that needed the gospel of Jesus Christ. And once we saw it, We couldn't unsee it. I think the same idea is kind of seen here in this passage with Nehemiah. Let's look here at this passage very quickly. If you're not sure who Nehemiah is, maybe you're like, who is this guy, Nehemiah? Nehemiah was a cup bearer to King Artaxerxes of Persia, okay? What is a cup bearer? Obviously not something we really have today. A cup bearer, I guess you could say this, a cup bearer is, they weren't just responsible for giving wine to the king, they were responsible for making sure the king did not get poisoned with food. Okay? That's what a cupbearer did. They were kind of like a bodyguard for food. Okay? They were the food bodyguard. By the way, that's pretty cool. That's a pretty cool job to be a food bodyguard. But they were there to make sure that the king was safe. Obviously, enough people back in this time tried to assassinate people of power through food that you literally had a person dedicated to making sure that didn't happen. So that's what he was. He was cupbearer to the king. Nehemiah had a high position. A high position of leadership. He had a high position of authority. I would guess that Nehemiah probably also had a high position of influence with the king. Because I want you to think about this. Who influences you the most? Think about that. Who influences you the most? I would guess to say the people that have the biggest influence on you are the people you trust the most. You trust them, and so because of that, they just naturally influence you more because of your trust for them. So think about that. He has influence with the king. He's got great position, great power, great leadership, great influence. However, Despite his high-ranking position, Nehemiah never forgot who he truly was. Nehemiah knew, even though I am cupbearer to King Artaxerxes of Persia, he knew that before that, he was first and foremost a Jew. He knew that before that, he was first and foremost one of God's chosen people. That God was his God. Before any of that, I am one of God's people. He recognized that. Listen, don't forget who you truly are. Listen, we have to live in this world, we have to work in this world, we have to be a part of this world. It's just, you know, that's what we have to do. But listen, your occupation is not your identity. Your identity, if you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, your identity is as a child of God. Aren't we tempted to make our occupation or what we do our identity? I'm a plumber, I'm a construction worker, I'm an accountant, I'm a truck driver, I'm a this, I'm a that, so on and so forth. I'm a stay-at-home mom, I'm a nurse, Listen, our occupation is not our identity. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, and behold, all things are become new. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, you are one of God's people. You are a child of God, you are a Christian. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Listen, who you are is more important than what you do. Who you are as a child of God is more important than what you do. Nehemiah understood this. Let's look here in verse 2, Nehemiah chapter 1 verse 2. And Hananiah, one of my brethren, so before I read this let me just say this. So Nehemiah, he's a cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, he's in Persia, and now he's got two friends that are coming to visit him. Okay? And he's about to ask them how things are going back in Jerusalem. He wants to know how things are going, because there were Jews that were in captivity, and the Jews had survived the Babylonian captivity. They returned to Jerusalem, and Nehemiah wanted to know how things were going back home. Okay, imagine I was here, and I'm serving with Pastor Jeff, and I came on as an assistant, and there's no television, there's no email, there's no social media, there's no cell phones, and I have some friends visit me from back home from my home church. What do I want to know? How are things going? What's going on at home? How's mom and dad doing? How are my brothers doing? How's my brother's business doing? If someone came and visited me, I'm excited to find out how things were going. So here he is. I'm not sure what he was expecting to hear. I'm guessing Nehemiah was potentially excited to hear how things were going back in Jerusalem. I just want to know, like, are they building the wall? Are they building the temple? Like, what's going on? So now look, so his friends are coming to visit him. He's going to ask them how things are going. Now let's see what's going on in this verse. Verse two. 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. How are things going? I can't wait to find out what's happening back home. Now look at verse three. And they said unto me, so they're about to tell him how things are going. They said unto me, the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction. The news is not good. What the report he is getting from back home is not probably what he was hoping to hear. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and the gates are burned with fire. What does that mean? You know what that means? Back home, they were ashamed to people, right? At that time, and even today, when you got no wall, when you got no borders, it's a shame to the city. because people could just come and go. Things are not good back home. Verse four, and it came to pass when I heard these words, this is Nehemiah speaking, 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. So in this passage, we see Nehemiah's reaction to learning about the need. in Jerusalem. You know what we see in this passage? Nehemiah saw something that he couldn't unsee. Nehemiah becomes aware of something that he can't ignore. So look at this. Nehemiah sees a need, and let's look at his response here. What's his first response? You know, the first thing we see is Nehemiah shows concern. Look at here, verse four. And it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept. and mourned certain days. Nehemiah sees this need, he sees what's going on in Jerusalem, and what does it do? It breaks his heart. God moves, he's moved emotionally because of the need that he saw. He saw what needed to be done, he saw the things going on, and his heart was burdened, it was broken for that. God moved him emotionally. Have you ever said, this is how we would say it here, have you ever said something like this, God touched my heart? Have you ever said something like that? God touched my heart. You know what that means? We saw something, and because we saw that, God started working in us. So here we see God starts working in Nehemiah's heart. God moves him emotionally. Let me say this, we don't make decisions off emotion, okay? If we just made emotional decisions all the time, we'd be making some crazy decisions. You know what I'm saying? Because have you ever had a day where in between the time you woke up and 12 o'clock, things were going awesome, you might have got some good news, and you're just celebrating, and then all of a sudden at 12 o'clock, You hit a deer with your car, right? And now all of a sudden it went from an awesome day to a bad day, okay? And we don't just make decisions based off emotion, but God does use emotion to work in us and to start getting our heart stirred. So look, God moved him emotionally and what's the next thing he does? Look at the next thing he does. So he says, and it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days. And then what's the next thing he does? And fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. You know what he did? He took these things and he just didn't make it, he takes them before God. Listen, the first thing we do when God starts working on us as we go to him in prayer, Lord, what are you doing? Lord, what are you trying to teach me? God, what are you trying to show me? Just, he takes it to the Lord in prayer. Here he takes it past that, fasting in prayer. He gets serious about this thing. Bringing it before God. And in verses four through 11, we see this prayer, and ultimately it leads him to action. Let's, I mean, listen to this. Can you imagine what Nehemiah is going through? His heart is broken for what's going on back home, but guess what? There is quite literally nothing he can do about it. Has God ever touched your heart and you're like, about something? And as He touches your heart about that thing, you're like, but... we start coming up with all the excuses of why we can't do anything, why we can't be involved, why we can't give, why we can't do what he is touching our heart to do. Imagine this, if anybody had excuses, it's Nehemiah. Listen, Nehemiah is cupbearer to the king. I don't know if you know how that works back then, but you don't go put in your two weeks notice with the king and say you quit, okay? Back then, if you quit being the cupbearer, you die. You know what I'm saying? Like, hey, king, I'm not gonna be the cupbearer anymore. And he's like, yeah, that's cool. We'll just go ahead and cut your head off. You know what I mean? You just don't get to say that with the king, okay? You are there. You do whatever the king has to say, all right? You don't dictate things to the king. The king dictates things to you. So it's that. Imagine he's got this heart. He's broken. He wants to do something in Jerusalem. But imagine maybe even the confusion, the prayer, Lord, What are you, God, what are you asking me to do? What do you want me to do? My heart is hurting to want to go be a part of that. God, this is impossible. I can't go, I literally can't go there. I'm here, I'm serving as the cupbearer. If I were to leave, like, the king would kill me. So look, he has this heart, he has this burden, there's quite literally nothing he can do. You know what he does? He takes it before God. And this is what I love, Nehemiah, even though he knew this was impossible, he knew that there was really nothing he could do, you know what he does? He prepares himself in case God does work. He starts preparing himself in case God does open the doors of opportunity. Lord, God, I don't know how this is gonna work. I don't know how I can be involved, but God, I'm willing. If you're willing to use me, I'm willing to go. I don't know how it's gonna happen. There's a million reasons why it can't happen, but God, I'm preparing myself. I'm ready to go and be used of you. Now let's look at chapter two, verse four. Because guess what? God opens the doors. God opens the doors for Nehemiah. Look at chapter two, verse four. Then, by the way, this is a miracle. What we're about to read right here is a miracle. Because kings just don't let their number one man go for months, for years. You know what I'm saying? You need him. I need this guy. He's a faithful servant. He's a faithful leader. I don't want him to leave. I want him to stay here. But look at what the king does. And this tells you the testimony that Nehemiah had and the love the king had for him. Then the king said unto me, for what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. So the king's like, what do you need? He's praying to God again. And I said unto the king, if it please the king, and if the servant hath found favor in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me to Judea, to the city of my father's sepulcher, that I may rebuild it. He prepares himself to be used of God, and guess what? God opens up the doors of opportunity, and Nehemiah steps through it. Listen, when we see a need, And it is tied to our calling of who we are in Jesus Christ as children of God. We see the need, it's tied to who we are. I am telling you 100% of the time, God is asking you to do something about it. He's made you aware of a need. He's touched your heart. And he's asking you to do something about it. Listen, we can't sit by and just hope somebody else does it. You know, the Lord starts working on you, somebody else will get involved. You know, there's a need, somebody else will give towards that need. Oh, there's a position that needs, somebody else will fill that position. You know, God, I know you're touching my heart about that thing, but we start coming up with all the reasons why we can't do it. Listen, I've been there. Okay, if there's anybody that can come up with good reasons, it's this guy right here. I can come up with a lot of good reasons of why something can't happen when God's working on my heart. I've made the excuses. I've tried to get out of what God was asking me to do. But I'm here to tell you, if God is touching your heart, and he's moving you, and you see the need and it's tied to who you are as a follower of Jesus Christ, God is asking you to do something about it. Much like Nehemiah, with our family, we saw the need and once we saw the need, we couldn't unsee it. Once we saw the need, like I said before, we started seeing it everywhere that we looked. And listen, we had reasons why we couldn't step out and start serving with core missions. We would go on prayer walks out in our neighborhood, and that's my wife and I, we love to, we have like this two-mile trek in our neighborhood that we walk, and we enjoy that time we get to talk. We don't often get to have good conversation time with the kids, so that's our time to get out away from them and to just have time where we're talking. I can't tell you how many times we would be like, is God asking us to start serving and getting involved in this? And then we're like, this is crazy. We love our church. Why would we leave our church? We love our church. We love the people. We love what we do. Like, we have security and they're taking care of our needs. Like, this is crazy talk. We have at Fellowship Baptist Church, we have what most people wish to have. We were getting ready, actually my dad's at that stage where he's getting ready to step out of the ministry. He's just getting old. He's ready to pass the baton to the next guy. I was the next guy. I was like, I'm going to be the senior pastor here in the next X amount of years. This doesn't make sense. Listen, we had a lot of good reasons of why we shouldn't follow the Lord in missions. A lot of good reasons. And guess what? If we were to share those reasons with anybody that was looking at it logically, they'd say, fair enough, you definitely shouldn't go. But I'm telling you what, God was touching our hearts, and when God starts moving us, when we saw the need, we couldn't unsee it. And we had to get to the point where it's like, it doesn't make sense to us. I don't want to. Like, I'm 38 years old with four kids, ages three, five, seven, and nine. We're gonna be traveling around the country in a minivan for the next two, three years presenting the work, raising support. I don't know if you know this, but traveling for 10 hours in a van with four children is not fun, okay? It's not fun for us. It's not fun for them. It's just not a fun time. I'm like, why would we do this? But once we saw the need, we couldn't unsee it. Here's my question to you. What have you seen that God has showed you and you can't unsee it? God's touched your heart about something and you've got all the reasons why you can't do it. All the reasons why you can't get involved. All the reasons, and guess what? You got good reasons too. I'm too old. That's a young man's game. That's a young woman's game. They could do that. I'm too, I've paid my dues. Or guess what? I'm not old enough. Isn't it funny? We could have the excuse I'm too old, and then others, I'm not old enough. I'm not smart enough. I don't have enough education. I'm not, I'm not, I just, I'm not smart enough. All of the reasons that we come, here's what I'm saying. What is God asking you to do, and you have all the reasons in the world of why it can't happen, but you know God has been putting it on your heart. I tell you what, when God is touching our hearts about something, he's asking us to do something, and it's maybe one of three things. Maybe God is touching your heart and he's asking you to go. Now, I'm not saying God's asking you to go be missionaries like God's called our family to, but guess what? I'm not saying he's not. I bet when a pastor would come to our church, I bet when a missionary would come to our church and he would preach, never in a million years would he guess the guy that's been here 17 years with his family, serving at this church, God's working on him and his wife's heart for missions. I bet he would never guess that. Guess what? I don't know what's going on in your hearts, in your lives, but maybe God's asking you to go. Maybe God's asking you to do something. And it's, listen, it's scary. Listen, faith is scary. If it wasn't scary, it wouldn't be faith, okay? Faith by its very nature of being faith is a scary thing to do because we don't know what's going to happen. We're putting our trust in God. So you can't use that as an excuse because that is what it is. Listen, working out is hard. That's why it's called working out. It's painful, but that's what you have to do to get stronger. Faith is what you have to do to follow God. Maybe God's not asking you to go and be a missionary, but let me say this, maybe God's touched your heart and he's asking you to go locally. Maybe God's asking you to go right here. Maybe God has shown you a need right here in your town. Maybe God has shown you a need in this, maybe there's a need in this church for someone to get involved in something and you keep saying somebody else is gonna do it. You know, the choir, I so enjoyed the service this morning. But you're like, somebody else will sing in the choir. Somebody else will teach that class. Somebody else will make the meals for that person. And you keep thinking of all the reasons why somebody else will get involved in doing it, but God's asking you to get involved. Maybe God's not asking you to go across the world, but maybe God's asking you to go right here. Maybe God's asking you to go to that coworker that you've developed a good relationship with, and you're like, I know God wants me to take the next step and tell them about Christ. God wants me to take the next step and have that family over, have one of my neighbors over, have that lady that I've met at our kids' sporting events, and God's giving me a good connection, and he's asking me to take the next steps, and you keep up making reasons why you can't share the gospel with them, why you can't invite them to church, but God's asking you to take the next steps. Maybe that's what God's asking you to go. Maybe he's asking you to go. Maybe God, this is why I say no matter what it is, 100% of the time God's asking us to do something because guess what we can all do? When we see a need and God touches our heart about that, you know what we can all do? We can all pray. Nehemiah saw the need, and the first thing he starts doing is fasting and praying for that thing. Maybe you can't go, but you know what you can do? You can pray. And that's why I said, no matter who you are, 100% of the time, God is asking you to do something about it, because that's something we can all do. And I'm telling you, for you to get more serious about prayer, about that need that you saw, about that need that God put in your heart, for you to start praying about it, I am here to tell you that is the will of God in your life. I don't need to pray about whether I need to pray, okay? It is God's will in your life for you, when God touches your heart about something, to go before the throne in prayer for that thing. That is God's will in your life. You can pray for it. Get more serious about praying for those needs. And literally, maybe you aren't in a place where you can get involved physically. Maybe you aren't, but you can pray for those. Pray that God will send people. Pray for those that are sent, that God will help them. And just listen, you can pray. There is power in prayer. And you, listen, there is nobody in this room that has different access to the Father than the other person, okay? You can't look around and be like, oh, well, that person, they just got it. Listen, we all have equal access to the Father. This is something we all can do. Maybe God's asking you to go. Maybe he's asking you to pray. Maybe God is asking you to give. You know, when we talk about giving, obviously we always think financially. That's the one we think of, and listen, I'm so thankful, so thankful for those that have been so generous financially, the American church in sending missionaries. It's clear that you guys love the gospel because you are investing in missions. I celebrate that, and I thank you for that. But maybe God's asking you to give more. You know, I guarantee you not everybody in here is investing financially in gospel work. There are some, I would guess there are many in here that are, maybe even most, I don't know your heart, but there are some where God has touched your heart and he wants you to get involved more. or maybe he's touched your heart and he wants you to start. Maybe you've never even started. But I want us to think past just financially giving, because I know that's what we always go to, and this is what I want to challenge you on. Maybe God wants you, yes, we need to give financially, but maybe beyond that, maybe God wants you to give your gifts and abilities. Listen, every person in this room, you have something that the person next to you doesn't have. God has given each and every one of you different talents, abilities. Some of you have different networks of people that you know. You have different connections. skill sets, different person. Listen, I'm here to tell you, God has given you something that he has not given other people. And when God gives you these gifts, he gives them to you for the advancement of the kingdom. I remember it was, we were in a missions conference. And I wanted to give more than we were able to give. We give to missions, we have our whole lives, but we wanted to give more. And you know what I told the Lord during that missions conference and the speaker was there, I told the Lord, I was like, Lord, we have nothing else to give as far as money goes. I said, Lord, I give you my gifts of video and photography. I have done photography for many years and videography, and I was like, Lord, I give you these gifts. This is my missions giving. I don't know what this means. I don't know how you're going to use these, but these are talents that I have, and I want to give these to you for you to do something with. That is my faith promise giving. Above what I want to give financially, this is what I'm giving you me. I'm giving myself to you. And I don't have time, just over the years, the Lord just blessed that. And I ended up going on trips all over the world with different mission agencies to help them with photography needs, for videography needs. And I had the opportunity to just go literally all over the world. And through that is how I first got connected with CORE Missions and helping them out with some video projects. And as I was going with them on these trips, I was like, I believe in what is happening here, and God kept working in my heart, and then my wife came with me, and God started working in her heart. And it all came back to the fact that we wanted to give, and we just gave ourselves. What do you have that you can give to God? Some of you have time. You just have more time than other people have. I'm telling you, if you got spare time, that's a gift of God. Because I am telling you right now, my wife, raising four children, she ain't got no spare time. In fact, she is always lacking on time and lacking on sleep, if you can remember the age of raising young children like that. But there are some people that have time. Here's my question. What do you have that you can give to God? If you see a need, God's asking you to do something about it, maybe it's go. Maybe it's to get more serious in your prayer life. Maybe God is asking you to give. Maybe he's asking you to give financially, but maybe he's asking you to give your gifts, your talents for the advancement of the kingdom. Imagine what God could do with this church if all of us had the heart of Nehemiah. When we saw a need, we couldn't unsee it. and God touches our heart and we bring it before God and we say, Lord, I don't know what this means, I don't know what you're trying to do, but God, all I say is I surrender to you. I am willing to do whatever you are asking me to do. Imagine what God could do through Slippery Rock Baptist Church if that was our heart. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for the truths of your word. Thank you for the life of Nehemiah. And Lord, I just pray that all of us, when we see a need that we can't unsee, and we start seeing it everywhere we go, that God, I pray that we will be willing to do something about what you have touched our hearts for. And that we won't make excuses, we won't try to Get someone else to do it, but that we will take the ownership. And I know that if we are willing to do that, you can do amazing things far and beyond what we could ever imagine. Just help us to have the ability to step out in faith and follow you. Pray these things in your precious name, amen.