PS Don't Forget: Focus, Engage, and Surrender to God

This is the gospel in Nehemiah that, hey, This is the ideal. We wanna grow in this. Those are all pointers for us to take away. But I know in my weakness, he is strong. I know that even when I don't get this right, God is faithful. God is good. And I'm gonna stay surrendered to him because of it. The call was there for the people in Nehemiah, and the call, the option, the opportunity is still there for us today. So I wanna invite you to pray with me for a moment. [00:55:47] (33 seconds)  #StaySurrendered

Four times throughout this chapter in Nehemiah, after he confronts them about something they had forgotten to do, after the focus, the engagement, the surrender, all of that, he he says something over and over again. Look, In verse 14, remember me, oh my God. Verse 22, remember this also in my favor, oh my God. Verse 29, remember them, oh my God. Verse 31, remember me, oh my God. Here's the point. As Nehemiah reminds the people in this postscript to not forgive, he knows they're gonna forget. [00:52:45] (38 seconds)  #RememberGodAlways

Think about the people of Nehemiah, if you wanna summarize the whole book, It was God that brought them back. Who can change the heart of a king in Babylon to bring back God's people so that they can experience God's plan in the land that he had for them, but God. God did this. Then he provided for them. He gave them the resources from surprising places so that they could worship God the way that God wanted them to. He spoke to them, He led them, and their enemies marveled at what God had done. And he continued to call them back time and time again. And is that not us? [00:54:22] (44 seconds)  #GodRestoresUs

Then Nehemiah confronts him, of course, and he says, I commanded that the door should be shut, and I stationed some of my servants at the gates. Then I commanded the Levites to keep the Sabbath day holy. God had given them a repeatable way to stay surrendered, and it was this, bake in a day every week where you are overtly reminded that you need me. In an agrarian society where you are subsisting off of the land, we're gonna take a day where you can't do for yourself, but you've got to rely on me. [00:47:48] (33 seconds)  #SabbathReliance

They've neglected worship, gotten mixed up with people who don't worship God. They're striving. They're not resting. The Levites are having to go work in the fields and all of these things, and it sounds stressful, and it sounds angsty, and it sounds all it sounds familiar. You know, I heard a funny description of adulthood the other day. It said that adulting is where we just say, things will slow down next week, every week until you die. That that's about right, isn't it? God has a different plan for us. We might be busy. I'm not saying clear your calendar, but we might be busy, but there's a difference. [00:49:04] (43 seconds)  #RestOverStriving

I don't know about you, but independence is not all it's cracked up to be. Because you know what I learned literally ironically very similar to what happened in Nehemiah 13 within the first year of my independence and being by myself. I learned I am not that good of a person. I learned I need a mom. I learned I need help. I need structure. I need guidance. I need all of these things. And, yeah, independence, freedom, whatever, all it does is it shows you, man, my priorities are whacked. And I am going to have to be intentional if I wanna be the person that I wanna be. [00:44:43] (39 seconds)  #IndependenceRevealsNeed

You know, one of the best ways to stay engaged is to make sure that what you are investing your resources, your time, and your attention into match your desired priorities. Somebody asked me, not long ago what the key to discipline is. And I think it's this, is that discipline is simply your actual priorities on display. Being a disciplined person is no magical thing because literally every person in this room is a disciplined person. You are. You're being you're disciplined in something. You are disciplined at whatever it is you do. [00:41:45] (41 seconds)  #PrioritiesInAction

It's really simple. Making your desired priorities match what you actually do. If I were to give you all five minutes to pull out a card and a pen and to write down your top five priorities in your life, you would all write down your ideal priorities. We would write down whatever it feels safe to write down for somebody sitting beside us at church to see. You'd like God, family, working out, eating well. Don't know. My Mary I don't know what you would say, but you'd write down, like, you're aspired to, you know, priorities. You'd put those down. But discipline is what we actually do. [00:42:25] (42 seconds)  #DisciplineEqualsAction