Lord, we are again grateful to be here. Lord, we ask that Your word would work mightily among us and in us.
Oh, Lord, we want to be changed by Your word, by that living Word, by Your Holy Spirit. Lord, give us this. If You do not give this, Lord, everything is vanity.
We do have to see our Lord Jesus Christ as the living Word, Lord, but, oh Lord, we so desire that our hearts would be changed by Your words as well. Oh, that it would not simply be that in that day Your word would stand in judgment against us, but Lord, that in this day it would liberate us to follow You fully.
Help us, Lord. Bless us, Lord. We ask in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
I am so very happy and glad to be here. I thank you for inviting me. I bring you greetings from my family. My wife, Diane, wanted to come; Bethany, my daughter, wanted to come. Both of them could not come.
The brothers and sisters in Memphis send greetings, love, and affection.
The word that is on my heart today is a word about building. Actually, I came up with a title for it that I am afraid is not a very good title, but I will tell you what my thoughts were. I just put them down:
How do you rebuild the place for God to dwell in the day of trouble, with a few inexperienced, apparently ill-equipped, tired, frightened builders, in a war zone, in the middle of battle?
Brothers and sisters, that is our situation. Whether you see it or not, whether I see it or not, that is our situation. We are those I have spoken of. I speak to you as one of the troops.
There is a war going on, and we are in the midst of it. You either have to be blind, dead, or asleep not to know that. We have the Lord of life. We have Him who is our vision.
He can wake us up if we are sleeping. Oh, that we might find the grace, because today is the day. Today is the day. All of the introductions are over. All of the longing has come. We are here in this day. It is the great day that is coming.
It is the day that the Lord has prepared us for, for many years. I am going to speak to those who have experience and those who are mature, but I also speak to those I described a little bit earlier. It is for this day He has called us—for this time, for this season.
I want to speak, of course, from Nehemiah—chapters 2 and 3 mostly; perhaps 2, 3, and 4—as well as in 1 Corinthians. I am going to read just a few verses from Nehemiah, but I will come back to it, and I am just going to speak practically about these matters.
Nehemiah 2, beginning with verse 17:
Then I said to them, “You see the bad situation we are in, that Jerusalem is desolate and its gates are burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that we may no longer be a reproach.”
I told them how the hand of my God had been favorable to me, and also about the king’s words which he had spoken to me. Then they said, “Let us arise and build.” So they put their hands to the good work.
But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked us and despised us, saying, “What is this thing you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”
So I answered and said to them, “The God of heaven will give us success; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no portion, right, or memorial in Jerusalem.”
Amen.
Now I want to read just a little bit from 1 Corinthians 3, beginning with verse 6. Familiar words. All these are familiar words.
If you are looking for something new, look elsewhere. If you are looking for something real, oh, may the Lord give it to us today.
I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.
So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.
Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.
For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test each man’s work.
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him; for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.
When we talk about building, we are talking about relationships. We are talking about the relationship we have with God and the relationship we have with each other. Both of them are by the Holy Spirit. Both of them are consecrated relationships. None of them are natural.
But spiritually, they are the great reality of the universe, because they are all in Christ Jesus.
When we speak of building this house of God, it seems to me that we have two perspectives. One is an earthly perspective, and the other is heavenly.
I would like to talk a little bit about it today. The building of the wall around Jerusalem is mostly what I am going to be speaking about today, but let me tell you: the wall and the temple are one. It is the place where God has caused His name to dwell.
I remember many years ago, probably over twenty-five years ago, I asked our brother Stephen—our brother Kong—what that wall represented. Without a moment’s hesitation, he said, “It represents the Lord’s people’s relationships with one another.”
Several people were there. It was one question among many, and he moved right along. Well, I thought, That really sounds right. Then I looked in the Scriptures, and I could not see it. I could not make the relationship.
So several years later—I am confessing something; I apologize, but I did—I asked him again. Without any hesitation, he told me exactly the same thing. So I said, “Lord, You must show this to me. I must see this.”
Of course, it is so clear in all of the Scriptures. You all know that. But when I really asked the Lord to show me what that meant, He did show me that it is not a human relationship. It is not based on family. It is not based on friendships. It is not based on nationality or personality. It is not based upon economics, sex, or age.
It is spiritual. But it is so important. Both relationships are so important because they are all in Christ.
There are several questions that I want to ask you. One of them is this: When you look around in Richmond, when you look around today, what do you see? When you look in Christendom, yes, but also when you look in the church, what do you see?
It has to start with that.
Nehemiah 1:1:
The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah.
Now it happened in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in Susa the capital, that Hanani, one of my brothers, and some men from Judah came; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and had survived the captivity, and about Jerusalem.
They said to me, “The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire.”
Gates are places where people come in and out. They are very important. Walls are very important. They are the things that separate that which is of God on the inside from everything else on the outside.
When I look around in our country, boy, do I see that clearly. The walls are broken down. The gates are burned with fire. It is open.
Where is the standing in the light and for the light? Where is that which is true?
Brothers and sisters, when I look around the assembly in Memphis, I ask the same question. When you look around in the assembly here, you should ask the same question.
I do not look around the assembly here—I am not from here—though I am not a visitor, with all due respect. You understand? Look around. Ask the Lord. Come unvarnished. Come plainly before Him and say, “What is our situation, Lord? What about the gates? What about the walls? What about the remnant?”
Oh, Lord. We have escaped. We have survived. Is there reproach? Is there great distress?
The question comes up: Where do you build? There are many things we could talk about. I am not going to talk about that very much, but I will tell you: the place that you build is the place where God has caused His name to dwell, where the testimony is.
Read with me Nehemiah 1:8-10. This is Nehemiah’s response. He came, he fell on his knees, he fasted and prayed—many tears, many days.
“Remember the word which You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful I will scatter you among the peoples; but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the remotest part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.’
“They are Your servants and Your people whom You have redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand.”
That is an appeal to God that He will not resist, if it comes from our heart.
Nehemiah had a pretty good job. He was cupbearer to the king. He was okay. But God’s people were not okay. God’s name was not okay. God’s glory was not okay. The place where He caused His name to dwell was in shambles.
We begin with prayer from the heart. We have got to see what the situation really is, but then we have got to pray. We have got to really pray.
What if our hearts are cold? We will come to that, but so what? If we see the reality, come with your cold heart. Where else did your heart ever get warm?
Oh, brothers and sisters, we have a sympathetic High Priest. I just love Hebrews 4. We do not come to One who is unable to have sympathy with us. We do not come to One who has not been tempted as we are, who does not understand our temptations. He has been tempted in all things such as we are.
What a thought that is. What a tremendous thought that is.
The One who died for our sins, who paid the price for the past, present, and future sins we will ever do, is a sympathetic High Priest, whom we may come to because He is a sympathetic High Priest.
So often the enemy makes us think that what we have is a High Priest who is not sympathetic, who is far off. He says, “You must get right before you come to God.” Nonsense.
We have to repent indeed. We have to really repent and turn to Him. But He is full of sympathy. He is there for our weakness.
We are weak. We are cold. We are puny. We are few. But we are here, and there is grace and help at the throne of mercy, where we may receive grace and help in the time of need.
This is the time of need. There is a place. We are without excuse, brothers and sisters. There is a place to go with the things that you do not have, the things that you need, the things that I need.
If you are unclear why you are here, there is a little book I would like you to get and read. There are some of them back here called Why Do We So Gather?
Read that book in the light of the Holy Spirit. It is a quick read, and it will cut you from one end to the other. Every line you read, compare yourself to it and see if that is why you gather.
There is so much in the Scriptures, but I did not come to talk about that. I tell you, it is there. It is there, and it is yours. It belongs to you, for the sake of the Lord’s name.
With what do you build?
Nehemiah 2:7-8. You remember, Nehemiah went to the king after he had prayed to God. He said, “Lord, now give me favor in the sight of this man.”
When he came to the king, he was sad. The king said, “You are not sick. What is going on here? This is only sorrow of heart. What is bothering you?”
He was afraid, because you do not come into the king’s presence with a frown if you are the king’s cupbearer—the one he is trusting to give him something safe to enjoy and refresh himself with.
He said, “How can I not be sorrowful when the city of my forefathers is in rubble? It is destroyed. It is a reproach. The gates are burned with fire. The walls are torn down—the place where my forefathers are buried. How can I be otherwise?”
The king said, “What do you want?” He said, “I would go. Give me letters so that I can pass through the country to get there.”
And I said to the king, “If it please the king, let letters be given me for the governors of the provinces beyond the River, that they may allow me to pass through until I come to Judah, and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress which is by the temple, for the wall of the city, and for the house to which I will go.”
And the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was upon me.
Oh, brothers and sisters, look what he asked for. He did not ask for much. He just asked for timbers. That is very important. We will come to that in just a minute, but I tell you, it is very important.
We may ask for what we need from God. He is the King. He is also God. He will give it to us because His good hand will be upon us when we undertake this work.
It does not matter if we are many or few. It does not matter if we are cold or lukewarm. He can change that if we come to Him, if we confess our sin, if we turn to Him.
If we need strength, if we need timbers, we can ask for it. Timbers—the Scripture speaks of men. Nehemiah asked only for one thing, really, and that was for the timbers, for the wood for the gates.
Fresh wood. Fresh believers—not necessarily new believers, but fresh. And old burnt stones.
There are fresh believers in this room. There are those who have not put their hand to this work, who come to meet with the Lord, perhaps, but have not come to build His house, to build a wall around that city.
There are others that are needed, and we may ask that from the Lord: fresh timbers.
And the old burnt stones—some of us around here are old burnt stones. We have experience. We have experienced the glory. We have also experienced the fire and the destruction.
Many relationships were broken down. Many of the stones are not where they should be.
Praise the Lord. That is the earthly view. Of course, the heavenly view is that the gold, the silver, and the precious stones are what we build with.
The gold: the Lord Jesus Himself. The silver: His redemption. The precious stones: that which He makes the living stone into. He Himself is the precious cornerstone. We are the living stones that He makes into precious stones.
It is important how we regard one another. Do we regard one another as precious?
It is a question, brothers and sisters. If you would be built together, you must answer that question. You must search your heart, and you probably need to adjust your heart—to bring it to Him and say, “Oh, Lord, help me.”
We have such contempt for one another at times. We have such disdain. We feel so superior to one another. We are so much more important than one another, brothers and sisters.
If this is a confessional and I am confessing, let it be so. But I will tell you, it is still true. It is still true, brothers and sisters.
We have got to have our relationships right. We have got to have what is important to God be important to us—the reality of eternity come on the earth.
We pray it: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This is His will.
Brothers and sisters, we must wake up. We must turn around. We must stop.
Vision. Enthusiasm. Confidence.
Nehemiah 2:13-15:
So I went out at night by the Valley Gate in the direction of the Dragon’s Well, and on to the Refuse Gate, inspecting the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down and its gates which were consumed by fire.
Then I passed on to the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but there was no place for my mount to pass.
So I went up at night by the ravine and inspected the wall. Then I entered the Valley Gate again and returned.
Now, these are glorious places, are they not? At night, by the valley. Some of us know something about the valley here. Some of you know something about the valley of the shadow of death, where you have to tell yourself, “I will fear no evil.”
Because you cannot necessarily see at night, even the lily of the valley. But you know by faith He is with you. To the Dragon’s Well—it is on the right hand and the left. To the Refuse Gate, or the Ash Gate.
Brothers and sisters, there is no mountaintop here. He is not looking from a lofty peak onto things. He is seeing things as they are, and he is going out at night in secret because there are enemies around.
He is not going out to see what parts of the wall are good, what wonderful things are there. There are many wonderful things there, you know.
Brothers and sisters, when I say this, there is absolutely nothing but encouragement in my heart for the brothers and sisters here. I have told you many times the personal debt that I have to the assembly here. I will say it again without any reservation: praise God for your faithfulness.
But that does not keep me from saying today the same thing I say to myself: brothers and sisters, we must see things as they are. We must not look through rose-colored glasses.
We must see the dark crevices and, by the Holy Spirit, the light that He gives. We must assess the situation.
Then he comes back:
“You see the bad situation we are in, that Jerusalem is desolate and that its gates are burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that we will no longer be a reproach.”
And I told them how the hand of my God had been favorable to me and also about the king’s words which he had spoken to me. Then they said, “Let us arise and build.”
So they put their hands to the good work.
Brothers and sisters, I have something to say here. There is a lot of trouble, but God is favorable to us.
I love so much that parable He gives of the steward that He leaves in His house. He speaks of the steward who is giving his fellow servants their food at the proper time. He speaks of the one who carouses and gets drunk with the drunkards.
But He says, “Blessed is that servant whom his master finds so doing when he comes”—feeding, giving the needful thing to his brothers and sisters when he comes.
There is time for you to be that servant. There is time for you to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” for Him to put you over all that He has. He is going to do it to somebody. Why not you? Why not me?
There is time for that, because He said, “He who is so doing.” Now, if you take that to mean that you can just lay off until the last moment, how many times have you seen brothers and sisters who went the wrong way, who came to the end of their days and never found the place of repentance?
If you have not seen that, you have not been around very long or you have not been looking. There is no promise. Esau sought that place with tears and did not find it.
He is coming at an hour none of us know, but soon—we all know it is soon. There is time for you to be that good and faithful servant, but there is not too much time.
There are a lot of people who have got to be fed. It is the proper time. We need to be feeding one another, and we need to be giving one another life.
Leaders. I do not speak of something formal here, though that too. But I do speak to those of you who would lead us in the building, and I hope it is every one of us.
You have to see the situation as it is. But you also have to have the experience of God being favorable to you.
You need to take the matter to the Lord, and you need to come back and say, “No, the Lord is going to help us. He has helped us before. We have been in difficult circumstances before.”
He who saved us can save us utterly. He is able to save to the uttermost all who come to God by Him, for He ever lives to intercede. He is always praying for us—for those who come to God by Him.
Brothers and sisters, you have to see the situation as it is. You have to come to the Lord, and you have to get something from Him. Something that I tell you is not enough.
You need to see in His word that it is true. You need to hear from heaven—the logos made the rhema by the Holy Spirit. It is there. It is true. But your heart will not hear it and be changed unless you hear Him say it to you.
But He will, if you ask. Oh, if you ask. He wants to give it more than we want to receive it.
All the rest of us, when we hear that—and that includes everybody but the one guy who is speaking. Then the next time there will be another guy speaking, and it will be all of those, including the first guy, except the guy who is speaking. Hopefully, the guy who is speaking will hear himself and be encouraged by what he has seen.
Amazing thing: they said—he did not say, “We should arise and build.” They said, “Let us arise and build.”
What he did was describe the situation. He did say, “Let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so we will no longer be a reproach.” But they said, “Let us arise and build,” and they put their hands to the good work.
I have a question. You have a little time. You have a little life. You have a little vision. You have a little strength. How are you going to spend it? How are you going to spend it?
We inherited vanity—a life of vanity. Has there not been enough time spent seeking the desires of the Gentiles? What about the kingdom? What about the house of God? What about that glorious place where He has called His name to dwell?
You are the temple of God, but we also are the temple of God. We are the house of God together, where He can be expressed, where He can be seen.
You have something more important than that? Go do it. Do whatever God gives you to do. But today you heard this.
Brothers and sisters, God will give us success. There is an answer to those who would discourage the building. Discouragement is a real enemy, and hope is the Lord’s answer to it.
We have a living hope. Our Lord Jesus is our living hope.
But discouragement ought to be answered by Nehemiah—ought to be answered by those who have an answer, those who would lead us in the building. Who are you? Give an answer.
The answer is this:
“The God of heaven will give us success; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no portion, no inheritance, no right in Jerusalem.”
Burnt stones, gates, broken-down walls—oh, that is the situation.
And the remedy? The remedy is to rise up and build; to get a vision from the Lord that will carry you; to hear that word from the Lord.
What if our leaders do not have that enthusiasm that we think they should have? When you go down in Nehemiah 3, you see who is building the walls. I am just going to touch on a little bit of that.
Then Eliashib the high priest arose with his brothers the priests and built the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and hung its doors. They consecrated the wall to the Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel.
Next to him the men of Jericho built, and next to them Zaccur the son of Imri built.
Each built next to one another, starting with the priests. If you are a priest, you have a right to build. Our great High Priest is building with us.
He is our great High Priest, the Lord Jesus. He is not ashamed to call us His brethren. This is us. If you are saved, this is your inheritance. This is what you get to do. This is what you are called to.
Speaking of the building, I mentioned before: the building is not upon natural and family lines—not exclusively, not to the exclusion of others.
But brothers and sisters, we can build with families, with those we are near to. We are supposed to build close at home. We have to deal with the things that are close at home, because if we do not, how can we build with that which is far away?
It is so easy to have relationships with people who are far away. I just love Jerry. Jerry never offends me. You know what I mean? We do not see each other very often, do we, Jerry?
You understand what I am saying. I am not going to belabor the point. What I am saying to you is that virtual relationships are unimportant. They are trivial.
By that, I mean a relationship where you can take a pose on the phone or on the internet or whatever. You know what I am saying. It is the down and dirty. It is the here. It is the leaf blowing. It is the coming out when the weather is bad.
Brothers and sisters, we must build close together. We must build close to home with those near to us, but with consecration—with that which is set apart to the Lord—not with the natural.
It is interesting: their building was next to their homes, but it was not their homes; yet it was their home. The houses were built next to the wall, and each one repaired the part of the wall that was by his house.
Most of us have already repaired that first, but that which is next to it, and next to the other.
What if you think the leadership is going in the wrong direction or doing the wrong thing? Let me just point something out here. Nehemiah 3:5:
Moreover, next to him the Tekoites made repairs, but their nobles did not support the work of their masters.
What if those who are noble among you do not support the work? Turn to verse 27 of the same chapter:
After them the Tekoites repaired another section in front of the great projecting tower, as far as the wall of Ophel.
They did a double portion. Are there those among us who are not doing what they should do? We can criticize them. We can feel very superior and smoke, or we can simply double up.
Gird up our loins and build a second section. What is wrong with that? This is in the Bible. These guys are remembered. How many of you knew the Tekoites? You will meet them.
So precious. It is amazing: when you go through that list, you find the perfumers and goldsmiths, the merchants, the Levites, the officials. You also find the sixth son, the one who has a rented room, the man who had those sons—his daughters built.
Brothers and sisters, none of those people were builders. None of them knew squat about building. None of them understood how to build. Yet they built by the grace of God.
You understand what I am saying? We are not qualified. So what? Our God is qualified, and He will give us success in this matter.
With the discouragement, turn to Nehemiah 4:9-23. That is through the end of the chapter. I am just going to touch on that because I want to show you something that is important.
What had happened was that Sanballat and the Arabs and everybody on the outside had plotted. They said, “We are going to come in and kill them. We are going to go in before the walls get too high. We are going to attack them. They will not know we are coming, and we will kill them.”
Their brethren, the Jews, came to them ten times and told them this. Can you imagine how discouraging that was? “They are going to come get you, probably tonight.”
But we prayed to our God, and because of them we set up a guard against them day and night.
Thus in Judah it was said, “The strength of the burden bearers is failing, yet there is much rubbish; and we ourselves are unable to rebuild the wall.”
How about your strength? Are you tired?
Our enemies said, “They will not know or see until we come among them, kill them, and put a stop to the work.”
When the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times, “They will come up against us from every place where you may turn,” then I stationed men in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in the exposed places, and I stationed the people in families with their swords, spears, and bows.
When I saw their fear, I rose and spoke to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people: “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.”
They were fearful. They were tired. Someone rose and said, “Do not be afraid. Remember. Remember, it is the Lord who is great and awesome. It is His work.”
Fight for your brothers. Fight for your sons, your daughters, your wives, your houses. Fight, brothers and sisters. There is a war going on, and you are on the winning side, though you may be a casualty if you linger, afraid of the battle.
When our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan, then all of us returned to the wall, each one to his work.
From that day on, half of my servants carried on the work while half of them held the spears, the shields, the bows, and the breastplates; and the captains were behind the whole house of Judah.
Those who were rebuilding the wall and those who carried burdens took their load with one hand doing the work and the other holding a weapon.
As for the builders, each wore his sword girded at his side as he built, while the trumpeter stood near me.
I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, “The work is great and extensive, and we are separated on the wall far from one another. At whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.”
Brothers and sisters, your God will fight for you. Our God is fighting for us. He has won the battle, and He has won the war. Yet He has left the battle for us because He wants us to be like His Firstborn, the Lord Jesus.
That is what this is: food for you. As we approach the gates of hell, you remember, He said, “I will build My church; and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Do you think there will not be resistance?
There will be a drug addict who gets saved. There will be a prisoner who gets saved in prison, who comes out and falls on his face. There will be one you are not sure is saved or not. There will be those of Islam who come among you. There will be those who have all sorts of strange isms among you.
They are food for you; they are not stumbling stones. There will be one who is addicted from among your own flesh and blood. There will be one who has terrible marital problems.
As you approach the enemy stronghold, these things which he puts up as roadblocks, as stumbling stones—God’s intention is that you make them into building blocks.
It is not against flesh and blood that you war. It is against principalities and powers. You set the captives free. You go forward. You run into all these situations.
Is it messy? Sure. Is it troublesome? Absolutely. Is it pleasant? No. Do you know what to do? No, we do not know what to do.
We must throw ourselves upon the mercy of the Lord, who is our great High Priest, and He will fight for us. He will bring us through. Some of us get saved because it seems easy for us to get saved. For some, it seems easier than for others. It is never easy to get saved.
Oh, brothers and sisters, we have got to see what is going on. The trouble that we have, we have got to see that it is from the Lord to make us strong in the Lord, not just strong.
His grace is sufficient. Paul learned that. Will you and I learn that? His strength is perfected in weakness. Will you and I learn that, or will we remain sucking our thumbs, spiritually speaking? You understand what I am saying.
I am speaking to the man who is speaking to you, I promise you, in my heart. I hope he hears what he is saying.
So we carried on the work with half of them holding spears from dawn until the stars appeared.
At that time I also said to the people, “Let every man with his servant spend the night within Jerusalem so that they may be a guard for us by night and a laborer by day.”
So neither I, my brothers, my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us removed our clothes; each took his weapon even to the water.
Brothers and sisters, are you guarding one another? Are you helping one another in this thing? We know one another’s weaknesses. We know our vulnerabilities. Are we using them to make ourselves feel superior?
Or are we wearing out on the knees of our breeches and coming before the Lord for grace for this one and that one, and also giving the practical need that the Lord shows us to do?
The first comes, then the second follows. So often we try to do something and we have not that which to give. We give something that turns out to be smoke and mirrors, not life and reality.
Oh, brothers and sisters, there is so much. But let me tell you: we have a High Priest that you must come to in the day of battle. We all do. We say, “Lord, help us enter into the battle.”
To know Him in this way is so, so great a revelation. It is how you become like Him. We say, “Lord, teach me Your ways, that I may be pleasing in Your sight.” This is His way.
To rely upon Him and depend upon Him—oh, it pleases Him so much.
Brothers and sisters, I hope when you see me, you will remind me of the things that I have said. I hope when you see exceptions in my behavior, you pray for me and correct me when you need to.
I am simply telling you, from inside there, building that wall, what I see. I am saying, “Look, it is a big wall, and we all need to be involved in this thing.” It only takes one or two breaches.
May the Lord show us and give us grace.
Lord, we do ask that You would pierce our hearts with Your word—that all that is from You, Lord, we ask that there would be no escape from it.
But we ask, Lord, that You would have Your will done on the earth as it is in heaven, and Your way be seen and exercised among us.
Thank You, Lord. Amen.