Assessing The Damage | Pastor Shane Idleman

Shane Idleman: Assess the damage. What's going on in your life where there could be a breach in the wall? You know it's there. God's maybe convicting you it's there. Then reposition yourself and say, "Okay Lord, I need You to repair this. I need You to restore this. God, just help me. Would You help me?" God will answer that prayer. But the first thing is we have to reassess the damage, and assess it often. Many people don't do that, do they? "No, my wall's not broken." Oh yes, it is. The bricks are falling down. "No, it's not." Pride comes in. But a true leader, a true believer will assess and reassess their life often.
Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us here at Westside Christian Fellowship, located in Leona Valley, California, one hour north of Los Angeles. Today on Regaining Lost Ground, we return for the conclusion of the message titled, "Assessing the Damage," and is from the sermon series, "Learning from Nehemiah." Reverend and writer John Newton, often known as the author of the famous hymn "Amazing Grace," once said, "Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come. 'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home." Today, Pastor Shane encourages us to lift our eyes to heaven, keeping our heart and mind guarded by our loving God the Father. We encourage you to listen to this message of hope as you present your requests to God, allowing His peace to fill you, that peace that passes all understanding found only in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Regaining Lost Ground is sponsored by the generous supporters of the ministries of Westside Christian Fellowship. For more information, visit us online at westsidechristianfellowship.org. We also encourage you to hear more truth from Pastor Shane with the Idleman Unplugged weekly podcast. And please be sure to follow us on most social media platforms. And now, from Westside Christian Fellowship in Leona Valley, California, here's Pastor Shane Idleman.
Shane Idleman: The flesh will prevail. The flesh will say, "No, let's take a nap. No, let's sit down and watch a good show. No, let's just go to bed. It's late." That's what fullness does. Being full of the Spirit and full in the belly is hard sometimes to have both those operating. Of course food is good. We need it. We enjoy it. God gave it to us. But if that's the predominating influence in our life, then it's going to be harder to hear from God, especially when you want direction. Is anybody wanting direction? I'm guessing probably everybody in this room. Fasting and prayer will open that door. Assessing the damage. What's happening and how can I correct it? That's what Nehemiah was doing. Nehemiah heard about the damage. He went to God in prayer and fasting. He assessed everything. He said, "Okay, how can I make a difference?" In verse five he said, "I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses." So what he's doing here, and this is a good reminder for us when we pray, he's positioning himself for God to hear him even more so. He's reminding God, "Listen, we are a people who have done wrong. We are repenting. I acknowledge this." He's acting as an intercessor. He's interceding on behalf of the people. God hear the prayers of your people, intercede for us. He said, "You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments." So he's acknowledging, "God, we've fallen off course." Been there? Acknowledge it. "Lord, we've fallen off course. I need to get back on course. You're a God of mercy and love. Lord, hear the prayers of Your people." And that's really the prayer that God hears. It's a repentant, broken heart praying out. And Nehemiah had the heart of an intercessor. If you truly want to pray for your family, if you truly want to see God make a difference, you have to pray as an intercessor. You intercede. You feel the pain. You feel the emotion. It's not just a quick prayer that really doesn't matter to you. I found if it doesn't matter to me, it might not matter to God. Now, of course it matters to God. It's just a play on words. But if it doesn't matter to me, God sees the sincerity of my heart, or the lack thereof. And when it comes to answering prayers, if it doesn't matter to me, He's not inclined to answer a prayer that I pray halfheartedly. He hears the groanings of His people. He hears the travailing. He hears the crying out, "Lord, You have to do something. I'm desperate for You. Unless You move in this area, I can't do anything. God, would You move?" So he's asking, "Lord, what do I do?" Then in verse eight, "Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses." Now he's going to remember what God told the children of Israel. "If you are unfaithful," which they were, "I will scatter you among the nations," which He did. "But if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name." This is a good reminder for us as well. If you return. If something is not going right, if you're off balance, if the enemy has come in and begun to do something in your life that you know is against God's will, if you simply return and get back on track, God will honor His commitment. He will honor His word. Verse 10, "Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand. O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." For I was the king’s cupbearer. Now here's where it gets interesting. Chapter two. "And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before. Therefore the king said to me, 'Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart.'" He could see that Nehemiah was carrying the pain of the people. He could see that he was upset. He could see that he was groaning inside. Have you ever been that hurt where people can tell something's wrong? And the king asked, and this can be scary because you're not supposed to be sad in the king's presence. The king could say, "Off with your head." But he couldn't hide his feelings. "So I became dreadfully afraid, and said to the king, 'May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?' Then the king said to me, 'What do you request?'" Nehemiah was saying, "Why should I not be sad when the place of my fathers' tombs lies in waste? Why should we not be sad when our family, when our nation, when we look around? Why should we not be sad when the place people died for, for the freedoms that we cherish and we take for granted? Why should we not be sad when this is falling into ruins and we see it before our very eyes?" Because that sadness can prompt action. And I would say the same thing today. Why should I not be sad? But we don't live in that sad state. We're not to walk around, "Woe is me," and depressed all the time. But that sadness, to see a holy discontent, should motivate us to take action on something. "Okay, I'm going to do something. I'm not going to live in this depressed state. I'm going to take action. I'm going to do something. I'm going to make a difference. I'm going to be joy-filled most of the time. I'm going to be seeking God." But there comes a time and a place where we have to say, "Lord, enough is enough. We need to take action. Lord, show me what that looks like." So I prayed to the God of heaven and I said to the king, if it pleases the king, now this must have been a very quick prayer. The king said, "So what do you request?" And he said, "Well, I prayed to God and then I said to the king." So it must have been one of those, "Lord, please help me right now. God, please help me. Give me the right answer. I need You to speak to me quickly." He didn't have a lot of time. And he said to the king, "If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it." Then the king said to me, the queen also sitting beside him, "How long will your journey be? And when will you return?" So it pleased the king to send me; and I set a time. So he's saying, "Let me go and make a difference." I know this is a lot to read, but I'm trying to get through it so you can see the story in the background. So he basically said, "Let me make a difference." Verse seven, "Furthermore I said to the king, 'If it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of the region beyond the River, that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah.'" And then verse nine, in a nutshell, the governors gave him permission to go through. So here's what happened. He wrote letters to the governors of the area that he was going to go through because he's coming down from where he's at to Jerusalem. So he had to get permission to go through all these lands and all this area. So not only did he have the favor of the king, guess what else he had? He's going to have struggles. Welcome to the Christian life. Anytime because we want the favor struggle-free life. That might be a good book title. The Favor of God Struggle-Free. But you'll never see that. Especially in Nehemiah, there's two little stinkbugs named Tobiah and Sanballat. And they harassed him every step of the way. Even when he's building the wall, they said, "Hey, why don't you come down and let us talk?" And he said, "I'm not going to stop the work just to come and meet with you." And then they would tease him later. They said, "Even if a fox runs on your wall, it's going to fall down." Contractors, have you ever built something and somebody teased you? "That block wall, it's just going to come crumbling down. It's so weak. As soon as a fly lands on it." So this is what's happening here. There's favor and there's struggle. It often goes hand in hand. We have the favor of God. We're going in the will of God. And then here comes the struggle. And what's the struggle often designed to do, or the discouragement? It's designed to knock us off track. That's why it comes alongside. It's to knock us off track, but it also strengthens us. The person who's been through a lot of struggles is very strong when it comes to spiritual fortitude. So now Nehemiah is going to view the wall of Jerusalem in verse 11. "So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days. Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem; nor was there any animal with me, except the one on which I rode." What happened here? He told no one what God had put in his heart. I think that's good advice for someone tonight. We don't always have to go around doing this. Look what happened to Joseph. "Hey, I had a dream that all of you are going to submit to me." And it got him thrown into a pit and sold into slavery. Of course, God was in that in His sovereignty, and what they intended for evil, God designed it for good. But this is good advice for us. He goes there, he's looking around. I'm not going to tell anybody yet what God has put in my heart. Verse 13, "And I went out by night through the Valley Gate to the Serpent Well and the Refuse Gate, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down and its gates which were burned with fire." Now it's interesting. This Valley Gate would lead to a valley. They would have other gates that would lead to different areas. It's this huge city and you would go out the different gates to different areas. So all the gates are burned with fire. "Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool, but there was no room for the animal under me to pass. So I went up in the night by the valley, and viewed the wall; then I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done; I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the others who did the work." Assessing the damage involves taking a hard look and making hard decisions, just like Nehemiah had to do. What do you need to do? What damage do you need to assess? What hard decisions need to be made? Because here's really the point I want to get across tonight that a lot of people need to hear. When you have to make a hard change, when you say, "Okay, this needs to change." Anyone been there or just me? God, this has to change. Hard decisions need to be made in order for that to actually change. Because if we pray, "Lord, just take this away," sometimes it doesn't just vanish. Often it doesn't. "Lord, help me with my whatever, anger, jealousy, lying, backbiting, whatever it is." Often there has to be hard decisions have to be made. We have to sometimes cut off old relationships. We have to spend our time differently. We have to make hard decisions to see results. And I think sometimes as Christians, we forget that. We think, "Well, this should be easy. God should just change me. God should just take it away." And sometimes He doesn't, because it's a struggle. It's a fight. Like Nehemiah, you're rebuilding something in your life. One brick at a time, one fight at a time, one struggle at a time. So the encouragement is to get back up and just keep fighting. What about with parenting? Finance? Marriage? Addictions? Wrong attitudes? Everything I just said. All of those things, especially parenting, I'm going through this now with all of you with young kids or you've had young kids, you remember. Tough decisions sometimes need to be made. "Okay, if we say we're not going to do that anymore. Less computer time, more family time." You think that's going to come easy or fit's going to be thrown? Or marriages. "Okay, we need to work on our marriage. This isn't working. We need to come together. We need to fall in love again. We need to." You think that's going to come easy? It's going to be very difficult, very challenging. So we have to make those hard decisions. Verse 17, "Then I said to them, 'You see the distress that we are in.'" So now he's talking to the nobles, he's talking to the priests, he's talking to the leaders. He said, "'See the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies in waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem.'" He motivated the people. Sometimes we need to be the motivating factor and say, "Come on, let's rebuild this church. Let's rebuild our lives. Let's rebuild our marriage. Let's rebuild whatever it is." Be that motivating person like Nehemiah. "And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also the king’s words which he had spoken to me. So they said, 'Let us rise up and build.' Then they set their hands to this good work." Here they come. Verse 19, "But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us, and said, 'What is this thing that you are doing?'" So here comes Nehemiah. He's motivated. I can picture this. I've been there many times. He's motivated. The king gave him permission. He's got favor. The nobles and the leaders are behind him now. "Let's rebuild this wall." And then here come these little guys. "Oh, that won't happen. You're just doing this to be a king. You're just doing this for your own glory, for yourself. Why are you doing this?" And here comes the harassing factors. Anytime God is doing a good work, watch out. Watch your sides. Watch the rear guard, the front guard. Because the enemy is going to come in and try to persuade you to do something different. So when Sanballat and Tobiah saw this, they laughed at them and they mocked them. Anybody laugh at you and mock you? Does it feel good? "What are you going to do? Are you kidding me?" You know that family member that just thinks they're funny but really they're not. And they just mock you and they're a little sarcastic. You know how they are. And they're just sarcastic and mocking. It's trying to distract. And for many people, it works. They go back home and they just stop. "Well, maybe it's not God. I don't want to deal with this. My feelings are hurt." Listen, you have to have rhino skin as a Christian. Thick skin. And you have to be able to know what God's called you to do and then do it. There's always going to be the taunting voices. And they said, "Will you rebel against the king?" So Nehemiah said, "So I answered them, and said to them, 'The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build.'" So in their face he said, "God will prosper us. I don't care what you say. We're going to arise and we're going to build regardless of what you say." And it's that tenacity, that boldness in the face of adversity that really helps things. "We will arise and we will build, but you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem." So he's kicking these people out, Tobiah and Sanballat. He's kicking them out. He's saying, "You have no right here. You have no heritage. Get away from here." Now you would think they would leave, but they didn't. You're going to see that they keep harassing and keep harassing. So I want to ask a few questions without reading any more. What are you doing? What are you doing and are you discouraged? Are you trying to do something for God but you're very discouraged? I want to encourage you to stay the course. Stay the course because there's often a blessing after the struggle. There's often fruit after the failure if we keep moving forward. Because God says if you're faithful, I'll bring the fruit. When you don't feel like it, when you're mocked, just keep moving forward. God looks at faithfulness. And how else is the enemy going to try to sidetrack us or knock us off course? Many times that discouragement comes in so anger comes out. And anger worketh not the righteousness of God. So the enemy uses discouragement to bring anger in our homes often. And we get angry, we get upset, "Well, forget it. I don't want to do that anymore." And this discouragement comes in. That's what they were trying to do. And we're going to read a little bit later next week about chapter four. Tobiah and Sanballat said, "Even if a fox, a little tiny fox runs on your wall, it's going to fall down." The enemy taunts us with those same things. "Do you think your little Bible study is going to succeed? Do you think your little endeavor is going to succeed? Do you think your little church is going to succeed?" many years ago. "Do you think that little thing? You think writing that book or working on that or helping that person? Do you think that's really going to succeed? That's not going to work. That's so little." And I've found that God often uses the little things first. He who is faithful in the little things shall be a ruler over much. God wants to see how you do with the little things, how I do with the little things. And sometimes, yeah, maybe one person shows up or two or three, or it's not going like we thought. And that really helps to clear our motives. Why are we doing what we're doing? Are we doing it for the wrong reasons or are we doing it for the right reasons? So you'll feel this way. The enemy will come in. "Oh, that's not going to succeed. That's going to fail." And you start to think about failure. And that's what I really appreciate about Nehemiah is through this whole book he pushes through regardless of what people were saying. And you'll hear the enemy whisper once, "You're a bad parent. You're a terrible parent. You failed. How can you look yourself in the mirror? How can you go to church? You're not a good Christian. You can't even deal with this. You can't even overcome that." And he'll use those taunting thoughts to try to knock you off track. So that would be my encouragement tonight on this message. Assess the damage. Assess the damage. What's going on in your life where there could be a breach in the wall? You know it's there. God's maybe convicting you it's there. Assess that damage and then reposition yourself and say, "Okay, Lord, I need You to fix this damage. I need You to repair this. I need You to restore this. God, just help me. Would You help me?" God will answer that prayer. But the first thing is we have to reassess the damage, and assess it often. Many people don't do that, do they? "No, my wall's not broken." Oh yes, it is. The bricks are falling down. "No, it's not." My wall's not broken. Pride comes in. But a true leader, a true believer will assess and reassess their life often. They'll examine themselves and they'll see, "Is God really pleased with what I'm doing? Do I need to make changes?" And just reposition yourself again and begin to rebuild those walls and God will honor that.
Guest (Male): He's calling wake up child. It's your turn to shine. You were born for such a time as this. He's calling wake up child. It's your turn to shine. You were born for such a time as this. Such a time as this. He's calling wake up child. It's your turn to shine. You were born for such a time as this. He's calling wake up child. It's your turn to shine. You were born for such a time as this. Such a time as this.
Shane Idleman: Hello, this is Pastor Shane Idleman. I wanted to let our listeners know that due to budgeting issues, we will be removing Regaining Lost Ground from some of the radio stations that we currently air on. Therefore, to continue listening to the sermons, I want to encourage you to follow me and Westside Christian Fellowship on YouTube and Rumble today, as well as other social media platforms. Again, due to budgeting issues, we will be removing Regaining Lost Ground from some of the stations that we currently air our program on. Therefore, to continue listening to the sermons, I want to encourage you to follow me as well as Westside Christian Fellowship on YouTube and Rumble, and also follow us on all other social media platforms as well. If you have questions, please reach out to us at westsidechristianfellowship.org. Again, that's westsidechristianfellowship.org.
Guest (Male): Westside Christian Fellowship is located 60 miles north of Los Angeles in Leona Valley, California. Thank you again for listening to today's message of Regaining Lost Ground where we are reminded daily, times change, truth does not. I want You to find me when He calls my name. He's calling wake up child. It's your turn to shine. You were born for such a time as this. He's calling wake up child. It's your turn to shine. You were born for such a time as this. Such a time as this. He's calling wake up child. It's your turn to shine. You were born for such a time as this.