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Ceres SDA Church

Anil Kanda

Needing a Nehemiah

Father in heaven, we thank you so much that we can worship you.

Higher than the highest thought is your ideal for mankind.

Lord, thank you that you are a God that reaches down to where we are at and you lift us up.

We pray and ask for the blessings of the Holy Spirit.

And we also pray for Yankiai, Lord Chris and Sherry's granddaughter.

Father, you said that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and right now, Lord, we pray and ask that the creator of the universe would fight for her life.

We pray you would bless this young child, that she would be born healthy.

Lord, we supplicate your throne together as a church family, and we are asking you, God, because we know your throne is a throne of grace.

Just a reminder, what's happening today at 6 o'clock?

Now, whether or not you're planning to be at Patterson as a missionary, it is very important that we as a church family are there as much as possible.

And because we're God's people, we want to participate in it, whether or not we are going to be there as missionaries.

It starts at 6 o'clock and will be done by 8 o'clock.

It'll give you an opportunity to check out the church where we're going to be renting the area and it's approximately 25 minutes from Ceres to that church.

The maps are going to be located in the lobby so if you need a map after service you can go get 1.

Also a reminder that it's not this Sabbath but next Sabbath from 4 to 5 we're going to have a special outreach, just putting up door hangers all over Patterson.

Well, church family, the name of the sermon today is called Needing a What?

How many people have read the story before of Nehemiah?

Well, here's a wonderful thing that we can learn from the story of Nehemiah.

It basically shares a principle that's found throughout Scripture.

It's the principle that when God steps into an ordinary life, that ordinary life can become an extraordinary life.

And so what you're going to discover in the book of Nehemiah, it's the story of how God used a very simple person, a very common person, and used him to change all of Israel and be part of what was happening during those prophetic movements.

The great thing about this book, the Bible, is that this principle is throughout all of Scripture, how God takes normal, everyday people, people who have variant backgrounds, people who have sinful pasts, people who have a lot of issues, how God takes people like that and transforms them into champions of truth.

In fact, when I was younger, I never forgot this story I had read.

It was this fiction, tale of fiction, about how there were these people who were invading America.

It's a story about how these individuals from a foreign country.

And this group of people that were in a mall realized that they were being surrounded, that America was being invaded.

And all of a sudden, this group of people inside the mall, common people from everyday walks, began to band together and fight off this invading force that had entered into America.

And so what happened was, as they were defending themselves against these invaders, they were able to fight them off and a particular leader arose during that time.

What was so unusual was that when people asked him, are you ex-military?

His only response was, I am a TV salesman.

Yet because of the right moment and the right opportunity, an ordinary man became an extraordinary leader.

The great thing about the Bible is because of Jesus, every 1 of us has that wonderful opportunity.

And what we're going to discover is in the book of Nehemiah, a simple man who had a very, you can say, interesting employment.

God used him to change the face of Israelite culture.

We're going to be getting into the Bible today and you're going to be, we're going to be learning some very interesting characteristics about this man who was a catalyst for all of Israel.

You're going to see something very beautiful here.

The word of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah, it came to pass in the month of what?

In the 20th year as I was in Shushan the citadel, now watch what happens, how the story begins to develop.

That Hanani, 1 of my brethren, came with men from Judah and I asked him concerning the Jews who had escaped who had survived the captivity And concerning Jerusalem so all of a sudden information comes back to Nehemiah this unusual Or you can say ordinary individual and he begins to find out about what happened to the Jews.

The Jews were actually released by a previous Persian king to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild after the Babylonian destruction.

However, they got discouraged because of the intensity of the work and the immensity of the situation.

And so here Nehemiah is, he's just there, and he begins to find out what the current situation is of his brother and his family that were supposed to be doing an awesome thing in Israel.

Verse 3, and they said to me, the survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great what?

Now what does the word distress mean, ladies and gentlemen?

When you're in great distress, you're in great what?

Sometimes it has that additive, or you could say of discouragement.

But he doesn't just say they are in great distress.

In other words, they seem to be attacked from the people and the nations around them.

The walls of Jerusalem is also broken down and its gates are burned with what?

In other words, the outer layer, the protective layer of Jerusalem, the place where the temple of God was supposed to be was destroyed.

And so it was when I heard these words that I sat down and what?

I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

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Needing a Nehemiah

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