Embracing Surrender: Strength in Worship and Calling

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When I lift my hands, you remember the old black and white westerns. They would lift up their hands, and it was a sign of surrender, right? It was like, I give, I can't do this. But then I also think of when my kids were smaller, and they would come up, and they would lift up their hands. You know what? It was a sign of I need you. [00:28:49] (20 seconds)


Nehemiah decides, all right, we're doing this thing. He's got the leaders. They're building. And Nehemiah experiences opposition, and his opposition has a name. His opposition's name is Sanballat. Sanballat. That's a horrible name. Sanballat is, he's a punk. Sanballat is the governor of Samaria, which is a neighboring. Like, nation. I guess you could call that tribe, whatever. [00:54:02] (28 seconds)


When you experience all this depression and this criticism for the sake of following Jesus, I'm not talking about legit criticism because you're being a knucklehead. Okay, let's get that out of the way. There are times where godly, wise people will say, hey, are you sure you need to do it that way? Are you sure you need to do it that way? Hey, you need to pay attention. [01:01:03] (22 seconds)


And what I love about this prayer is that it's not polished. And it honestly doesn't sound very spiritual. In fact, there's a lot of people that would say, Ken, I don't know that you're allowed to pray that kind of prayer. And I would just say, well, ask David and ask Jeremiah and ask Ezekiel. Because if you read their prayer, ask Job. [01:01:44] (28 seconds)


This would change so much when it comes to the criticism and the discouragement that you're facing, is if you would pray. Pour it out. Tell God, be real, be raw, be vulnerable, be honest. Don't be and thou the thing to death. You're not having to be a poet. There's no English teacher judging your grammar when you're praying. [01:04:27] (22 seconds)


Here's the second thing that you see that Nehemiah does here. He prays, but secondly, he remembers. And this is what I would encourage you with. When you're facing criticism, when you're facing discouragement, how about you just pause and remember? Did God call me to this? Look at what happens in verse 14. [01:04:54] (27 seconds)


Here's the third thing that you see that Nehemiah does. He acts. A-C-T-S. He acts. He acts. He acts. He acts. He acts. He's pulling trouble. Sort of like, is that an ax? Are we cutting down a tree? Like, what are we doing here? Look at verse 15. When our enemies heard that we knew of their plans and that God had frustrated them, we all returned to our work on the wall. [01:07:47] (24 seconds)


Because his purpose for me is far greater than any purpose I could ever come up with for myself. And even when I'm attacked by the enemy, I still would rather be in Christ than to go back to the enemy. Because there is purpose and fulfillment and fruitfulness and following Christ that I could never get anywhere else. He really is the way, the truth, and the life. [01:16:44] (24 seconds)


It's not the only point. You don't just pray that prayer and then go on. That's the starting point to a journey of actually actively following Jesus with the rest of your life and discovering his purpose and his peace for your life. But if you haven't started, you need to start. Today's a great day to start. [01:17:48] (22 seconds)


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