THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL - PART 4 with Pastor Jeff Shipley

Spirit-Led Humility and the Need for Biblical Education

God input on the Spirit of God today. I want us to be educated, but education without a Spirit-led humility is absolutely worthless. It truly is. And we're going to be in the book of Nehemiah. Now, I hope all of you have these two pages.

As you look at these sheets, we are in the last section of part one. Now, I'm going to be real honest with you. Starting next week, it's going to get a little weird because we are going to be leaving a chronological pursuit as it's found in Scripture and go through all we have in the 400 years before Jesus is prophecy.

Because from Malachi to Matthew, God's Word is silent. So we're going to be in Daniel. Look on this first page here. We're going to be talking about the interaction between the nation of Israel and the Persians, and then the Greeks, and then they revolted, and then Rome, and then ushering in, of course, the birth of Christ.

Now, we are in ruin and return, okay? I always like calling this return of the Judah. Can I at least get one nerd to laugh? Just one. God, we're full of them. Tim, thank you! Big nerd. Guys, this is what has happened.

We were talking about the judges, all right? Remember that? Samson and all that. And then last week, we talked about the kings, the three main kings of Israel that first started of the United Kingdom.

In other words, the 10 northern tribes of Israel and the two southern tribes called Judah. They were all united under King Saul. They were all united under King David. They were all united under King Solomon.

But when Solomon's son, Rehoboam, went to take the throne, a civil war happened. And a church split happened. And the 10 northern tribes said, we don't like you anymore, we're gonna go up here. And then just little Judah and Benjamin, colloquially or collectively known as the tribe Judah, stayed down here.

Now, that happened in 922 BC. And someone asked me this and said, I know this is a stupid question, pastor. It's not a stupid question, okay? Some people just don't know. When you're talking about BC, the years get closer to us as they decrease, okay?

So 400 BC is a lot older than 300 BC. Does that make sense? Okay, Tennessee folks, help out the Mississippi folks, all right? So 400, 300 down to 200 down to 100 to the birth of Christ. Then it goes upwards, okay?

You with me? So this section that we're talking about, the ruin, I'm talking about from 722 BC to around 400 BC. That's what's on your little papers, okay? The reason I started 722 is because of the ruin.

Assyria came in, just like God said, because every one of the kings of Israel were godless heathens. God kept saying, y 'all keep messing up, y 'all fist and get whooped. And they didn't listen. And Assyria came in and beat them senseless.

And all the Jews were like, that's right, God loves us. We're the special people. And so they started sinning and God said, no, y 'all ain't special. If you don't start doing what's right, church, I'm gonna take you out too.

And in 586, Babylon came in and whooped them and took them off into captivity. Now, here's what's great if you're a child of God. Number one, God is going to spank your rear end, okay? If you're a real child of God, you will be punished by God.

If you've ever been punished by God, you know it's different because it's in here, in here, and in here, okay? He gets everything. You know, like your mama may have just got your backside, your legs, or whatever.

Of course, nowadays, corporal punishment is not apropos and that's why we have Antifa. But anyways, guys, God gets you everywhere. There is nothing more miserable than a backslidden Christian. There's nothing more miserable.

And if you can continue in sin and not be miserable, guess what, you're probably not a Christian. I don't care how many times you walk down the aisle and ask Jesus Christ, your heart, Lord and Savior, you're not a Christian.

You cannot rebel against your father and not expect a little punishment. But here's the great thing about God punishing you. You see, he also promises, I will never leave you nor forsake you. You see, what the world doesn't understand is discipline is part of love.

You cannot love and not discipline. That's not leadership. That's not love. That's not scripture. If you truly love, you don't want to watch someone self-destruct. You don't want to, okay? So we're in this timeframe.

Now, it's about 440 or 445 BC. All of the children of Israel are in Babylon, Nineveh, whatever, and they're starting to come back. Just like God said, I'm gonna allow you to come back. And so little by little, the first guy who brought some Israelites back to Jerusalem was a guy named, get ready, Zerubbabel.

Zerubbabel. That was the first guy. And then a few years later, a guy named Ezra brought some more people back and they rebuilt the temple. And then the last group, I shouldn't say the last group, the last main group that we have recorded is a guy named Nehemiah.

And that's where we're gonna be today. The ruin and return. This is the history of Israel, but I want you to be able to apply this to your life. How many of y 'all are not where you need to be with Jesus this morning?

Faith to Return from Ruin

Okay, man, we got some super Christians in here. Y 'all are awesome. Guys, isn't it funny how you walk down the aisle when you're 13 at youth camp and ask Jesus Christ, your heart and Lord and Savior, you don't have to ever repent again.

Isn't that cool? If you're one of those people, you need to seriously look in a spiritual mirror because this sermon probably is specifically for you. How do you get back from ruin? How do you get back?

Even if it was something that is not really your fault. If you have experienced critical illness or financial destruction or whatever it is, how does America come back from this? I mean, everything is racist nowadays, right?

Jeremy, you have a Nike hat on, that's racist. Your head looks like a starburst, that's racist. You're short, that's racist, right? The way to solve problems is defund the police and kill cops. I don't fix everything, right?

The other side is church. Well, we're white, we hate black people, right? It's like the whole church has gone crazy. You know why? Because we're mimicking and mirroring what the world is doing. We're supposed to be the shining example.

We're supposed to be the ones that stand up in culture and go, no, that's not right. What we do is get mad about tattoos and people smoking cigarettes and saying a curse word, but we don't look at our own actions and the hypocrisy of what we've been for the last 200 years, and then we're shocked and amazed when people rebel against hypocrisy.

How do we return from that? How do you get back to where you belong? As an individual, as a church, as a country, how do we get back? I'm gonna give you three things, or actually four things today on how we're gonna get back, all right?

First, this is what it's gonna take. It's gonna take a little faith, okay? Now, I'm not talking about saving faith. I'm not talking about the faith that God gave you in the beginning for you to actually be saved.

It's gonna take faith as an action to push you beyond the comfort zone of where you're at today. How many of you have blended in the world? Y 'all know what camouflage is? I mean, think about it. You know what camouflage is?

Everybody thinks of like, you know, painting your face and all that. Really, the whole idea behind camouflage is simply blending in with your environment. That's really all camouflage is. It's blending in to your environment.

It breaks up the outlines of who and what you are. Christian, if you're in here today and you look like the world, walk like the world, sound like the world, dress like the world, in love with the world, the love of God is not in you.

It says that in Scripture. It says the love of this world is not the love of God. And if you love this world, the love of God is not in you. You gotta have a little faith to understand and fight on the precept or the foundation of loving God.

You love God more than you love the acceptance of this world. Read with me. We're gonna be in Nehemiah chapter four. So you don't have to go far. Nehemiah chapter four, read with me. Now, here's Nehemiah.

He's the third group of Jews that have come back. They've rebuilt the temple, but the walls are destitute. And he came and said, we're gonna rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. And everybody was like, oh no, it can't be done.

It can't be done. It can't be done. Whining like little babies. But look what he said. He said, after I made an inspection of the walls, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the peoples, do not be afraid of them.

Remember the great and awe-inspiring Lord and fight for your countrymen, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes. If there is a verse that the church needs to tattoo on your forehead or paint on the side of our stupid buildings, it's this verse right here.

Guys, we are on the threshold of entering a new era in humanity. I promise you that. We are in a time and in a place where if you shirk the house and the family of God and you try to stand for Jesus, you're gonna be doing it alone.

And to be quite frank with you, if you can't do it attached to a church family, how do you think you're gonna do it standing by yourself? Let me help you with that. You ain't. You ain't. You're gonna camouflage and look just like the world.

And then you're gonna rationalize it. You're gonna rationalize it. Guys, we really don't need to have all this preaching and witnessing on college campuses because it just stirs up trouble. Let's make a law that free speech ends on campuses or let's just make a little area.

You really think it's gonna stop on a college campus? Let me tell you parents something. College campuses are the most hostile place for Christianity in the United States today. It's worse than communist Russia.

99 .4 of all college professors do not agree with the inspired word of God. Then you add in the peer group who have daddy issues and were forced religion down their mouth and they saw the hypocrisy in their parents and they might've gone to church, but they don't believe they never have.

I've fallen away from the church. No, dude, you were never a part of the church. You might've been part of a building or a club or some corporation called First Baptist Church of whatever, but you were never part of the eternal church of Almighty God.

You're more worried about certain things and being accepted by the world than you are having faith in God. So pastor, you said it takes faith. What's faith? Here's what faith is. Saying no. Saying yes.

Saying no to the world and yes for Jesus. Being called a freak. Or here's my favorite term. Pastor, you're one of them right wing conservative zealots. Do I look like a conservative zealot to you? Is this how every pastor at First Baptist is dressed in the United States today?

No. See, I'm actually an independent. I think Republicans are just as stupid as Democrats, right? I really do. I'm sorry. I do. But guys, I choose to say no to any candidate that supports the wholesale slaughter of unborn babies.

That is, I ain't gonna die on the hill of masks. I will die on the hill of abortion. Guys, we are going to suffer as a, put it in your heads. We are going to suffer as a nation because of the unbelievable sin of 70 million murders.

70 million, and we called it choice. The arrogance. How do we come back from that? You gotta have faith in God. God promised this. No matter what comes against the house of God, the house of God in the end will win.

But here's the second thing. You've also gotta have a little faith in each other. Look, look at this room today. How many of you people in here are different than everyone else in here? Guys, why are we all here?

What makes us unified? Listen to me real carefully. If you define yourself by your heritage, your culture, your political ideologies, you are saying yes to the world and saying no to God. Well, pastor, I don't quite agree.

You don't have to agree with me. You have to disagree with Galatians. For there is neither slave nor free, male nor female. There is neither Jew nor Greek, for we are all one in Christ. This is my family.

This is my family. I will live and die on this hill with you. I will never enter even at death the throne room of God with the stink of fear on my soul. I am never going to compromise the Word of God in its preaching of truth because that is what sets men free.

Not stupid religion and stupid churches. Guys, we gotta have faith in God. We also have to have a little faith in each other. Do y 'all trust the people in this room? Implicitly. Some of you don't. And here's why.

Because you're not connected by any other thing than a worship service on Sunday morning. You know, the Karen that I was referring to earlier today, it's funny. I have not seen them in over a year work, encourage, serve, or love.

And the first time I publicly hear from them, and privately, it's criticism. Things that make you go, hmm. Guys, if you're so busy serving something other than yourself, the pain in the culture of this world becomes very thin.

Because you are focused on your faith in God and each other. Second thing, it takes a little faith, but it also takes focus. My garage. I'm a very neat and clean person. No, I really am, Gwen. I am extremely neat, and I am extremely organized.

When it comes to my tools, my shop, if I have clutter, it's hard for me to concentrate. Have y 'all ever tried to rebuild something or build something, and everything's just like this? And my little head, it's just going.

It's like someone threw salt water on a computer. Guys, my head does not focus well in clutter, okay? Guys, read what Nehemiah faced. Read with me, if you will, chapter four, verse 10. I want you to read this.

It says this, in Judah, it was said, the strength of the laborer fails since there is so much rubble. We will never be able to rebuild that wall. Guys, some of the things when you face and want to focus on faith, some of the things that get to be distractions that you will start to focus on is the distractions of the rubble in your life.

Guys, how much time do you spend with God? Now, here's what the old Baptists used to say. They used to say this, if you read a proverb for every day of the month, in other words, Proverbs one on the first day of the month, then Proverbs two on the second day, and then all the way through 31 Proverbs.

So six months out of the year, Proverbs 31 got cheated. But anyways, you read a proverb every day. And then at nighttime, you read a Psalm every night, and your life will be great. Guys, do you realize the Pharisees didn't just read every day, they memorized entire books of the Bible.

You see, it's not reading. If you're one of those people that I read the Bible through in 2002, that's great. But you see, your reading and your religion can become part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

If you read the whole Bible and apply nothing, do you know how good it does you? Absolutely zilch. Quit letting your religion be part of the rubble pile. Organize your life. Organize it in a way, and I'm not talking about literally organize, like get a little daytime, or I'm talking about get rid of the clutter that's causing you a distraction in your real spiritual life.

Here's the second thing. Number one thing I hear out of Christians all the time, especially the younger group. If you are codependent on a significant other, it's gonna cause you massive, massive distraction.

But he says he loves me. Baby, if he says he loves you, he's not gonna demand of you things that are ungodly. And if you really love him, you're not gonna give into those things because see, love is defined by the word sacrifice.

You know, men are amazing. I am the man who will fight for your honor. I'll be the hero that you're, you know, I mean, I can remember when I was in the first grade, little blonde haired pigtailed Darla was sitting right next to me, and I just lived there.

And I had this picture of pirates crashing through the window. And Darla was like, help me. And you know, I pulled out a sword and went, shh, shh, shh. And I slayed her. And she's like, my hero. Oh, I didn't kill her.

No, the pirates. Well, I did slay her when I flexed. No capping. But listen, you know what's funny, men? Is we have daydreams about that. Come on, men. I don't wanna be the only one up here being truthful.

Okay, so I'm the only weird one that has those daydreams, whatever. And it's amazing to me. I wanna be the hero, but I don't wanna do the sacrifice to be the real hero. You know what I mean? Women don't need protection from Russian communists.

Red Dawn has not happened. Maybe one day it will. But, it hadn't happened. You know what the number one thing your woman needs protecting from? You. Your selfishness. Your pride. Your arrogance. Your indifference.

Your apathy. That's what they need protecting from. So, if you wanna get rid of some rubble in your life, understand that the cleanup starts in you. Always has, always will. Second thing, it's the rubble, but it's also the ridicule.

I love this part right here. It says, in Judah, it was said, the strength of the laborer fails since there is so much rubble. We will never be able to rebuild that wall. Do y 'all know people like that in your life?

Who are just pessimistic no matter what. Well, we're never gonna be able to do this. This is too, make me wanna slap the taste out of somebody's mouth. Cause you know what? Nothing will ever get done if the first thing out of your mouth is this will never happen.

Guys, 15 years ago when I came to this place, the pulpit committee who hired me to be the pastor told me before my first Sunday, this church is probably gonna close. So you're hiring me with the understanding that we're not gonna make it.

I'll never forget it. The chairman of the deacons told me that. What a loser. And no wonder that you're the leader, no wonder the place looks like it does. I remember coming down here and the first thing I saw when they took me on a tour, they didn't wanna take me downstairs over there.

And I was like, well, what's down here? Well, it's just rooms. Well, I wanna go see them. For a minute there I thought they had like, you know, Presbyterians tied up down there or something. Well, here I walked down there and this is what was down there.

There was six inches of dirt, six inches of dirt across the entire bottom floor. And I went, what is going on? They said, well, the basement leaks. And you know, it's just been doing that for years. And I'm sitting there going, well, why don't somebody fix it?

This is what the guy told me who was in charge of buildings and grounds. It can't be fixed. Well, sure it can Skippy. All it takes is a little bit of leadership and hard work. What do you mean it can't be fixed?

Guys, if you wanna have faith, you're gonna have to come to a place where your focus is on doing the impossible. Luke one says this. It says, with God, all things are possible. The world needs to see the church doing some impossible things because that is where faith is exercised.

It's not sitting there going, God hates fags. That is not acceptable for the house of God. It's not. And if you're one of those people, you need to repent of your hedonist and hypocritical hatred in your heart.

And you need to repent of the sin God has for you. Right? Listen to me. If you really are one of those racists, I personally don't know any of them in here. But if you really are one of those people, you better repent of that sin.

You best repent because God will not bless you for hating a brother and sister in Christ. Ain't gonna happen. And to be real honest with you, if you do hate a brother and sister in Christ and you call yourself a Christian, the letter of John calls you a liar.

You're a liar. Oh no, pastor, well, I walked down the aisle. You're a liar. Just flat out liar. In other words, you are going to hell. Just wrap your head around that if you need to. Well, my pastor said, my mama said, I don't care what God's Word says.

You cannot hate your brother and sister in Christ and be a Christian. Last thing, a little reluctance. I love Nehemiah. You know why I love Nehemiah? It's because he did this. He was a leader. He believed in God, which made him believe in the impossible.

But he didn't stop with just prayer. Listen to me. Prayer by itself, prayer within action is useless. You see, prayer don't solve the problem. I know some of y 'all are gonna be going, oh my gosh, did the pastor just say that?

Yes, I did. Let me say it again. Prayer by itself does not solve the problem. Prayer makes our actions more effective. That's what it does. Prayer encourages us and fills the gas tank so that we can do what God says.

People say, oh no, you just need to pray. Okay, let's play that strategy towards Jesus Christ. Jesus said, you disciples, just stay in that upper room where the door's locked and just pray. And the whole world will come to know my name by you guys doing nothing but pray.

Or did he said, get out of the room, go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations. Which one? Theologian? Uh-huh. Brother Jeff, I'm just praying. I'm just praying that my wife gets right with God.

Well, okay, buddy, what's going on? She just nags, this really happened. She just nags me to death. Why don't y 'all come see me? So baby, tell me what's going on. Well, I am nagging him quite a bit. What's she nagging him about?

Well, he doesn't have a job and he sits at home and smokes marijuana all day. Go get a job, you lazy bum. Well, I've been praying about, what do you mean you've been praying about it? You godless pig, repent, repent.

Was that May? She's speaking in tongues. All right, last thing, last thing. And we've already talked about prayer. Let's go to verse 17, chapter four, verse 17. It says this. It says, sorry, my eyes are failing me, hold on here.

It says, we'll start verse 16. From that day on, half of my men did the work while the other half held spears, shields, bows, and armor. The officers supported all the people of Judah who were rebuilding the wall.

The laborers who carried the loads worked with one hand and held a weapon with the other. Guys, you know what returning from ruin takes? It takes faith, it takes focus. But it also takes an understanding of absolutely knowing what it is to fight.

You ever been in a fight? I'm not talking about like, you know, somebody took your Richard Scarry book and pushed you down the playground. I'm talking about a fight. Mamie, Scott, Scott, Mamie. Guys, it's amazing.

Toughest dude I ever fought. And my kids are like, oh my God, he's gonna tell the story. Well, actually, my church. Toughest dude I ever fought. Toughest guy I ever fought. There were, I was in a tournament, there were seven weight classes.

And then everyone who won those weight classes at the end of that tournament, those seven weight classes fought each other, okay? This was in the rules before UFC and all that other stuff, I'm old. Anyways, I drew the super lightweight.

I drew him. Little Filipino dude about this big. I mean, I could literally use him as a toothpick. My left leg weighed more than he did. If you couldn't tell, I was the heavyweight. I know that seems weird with my sleek figure, but I was.

That guy for 10 three-minute rounds beat the brakes off of me. I'm not talking about it was one of those, you know, Rocky, I give a few licks, he gives a few licks. No, man, he beat my backside until the next day, this whole side of my face was swollen.

My eye was swollen shut. This one was black and my hands, I couldn't open them. And here's why. Because Filipinos are tough, right? Now, here's why. I got a Filipino mafia, so y 'all better be careful.

Here's why. No matter how hard I did hit this guy, he refused to quit. Refused. Absolutely refused to go down. Christians, we are leaving the 1950s through the 1990s. Christian church in America. If you're one of those people that grew up during that time, mourn over this if you got to.

But we're entering a new phase in the life of the church. We're still in the dispensation of grace, but we're entering a time where to be a family of Christ is gonna cost you something more than an hour and a half on a Sunday morning.

And if you think I'm lying, just wait. Well, that could never happen here. A hundred years ago, we're gonna kill unborn babies with saline solution in the womb. That'll never happen. That'll never happen.

Oh, there's gonna be a time where there's gonna be a national law to shut churches. You're so stupid, that's never gonna happen. We're gonna have a time where people in Congress are protesting in the streets saying, kill the pigs.

Congress people, kill police officers. Why? Because they home. They cops. So let's kill them. It's funny. There was this guy, I can't remember what he said. I can't remember who it was, but it said something like this.

In those last days, men will love lawlessness and they will hire preachers to tickle their ears instead of telling them truth. God loves you so much just where you are. God will accept you just where you are.

Praise Jesus. No, God accepts you where you are, but God will not allow you to stay where you are. You see, if you join the family of God, it's a call to faith, to focus and to fight. Christians, how much fighting you do besides amongst each other?

Over casserole dishes and someone stole my chair. How much fighting have you done? Standing up. Guys, if you're on that one side that says, well, Matt, social justice argument, I ain't got nothing to do with that.

You just cut out all of the minor prophets in the Bible. Because God wasn't joking about social justice. Part of the reason Judah got destroyed because they didn't care about people who were less, had less.

Church, you best beware. You can't pick and choose what makes you feel comfortable. You got to fight according to God's word, not your culture. But here's something else. When's the last time you fought and it left you standing alone because no one would stand with you?

In other words, you actually stood up for Jesus with your friends or coworkers or whatever, and you didn't care what the consequences were. In other words, instead of being, well, I don't care what they say.

My opinion is, if you can have that same attitude a second for Jesus Christ with a little bit more humility, you'd actually be fighting for something. Hey, internet warriors, hey, keyboard warriors, Facebook fighters, why don't you do something for Jesus?

Instead of like all the hyperbole of, if you love God, share this. Please don't send me those, because I ain't going to do it. I think they're stupid. Okay, because usually some black velvet painting of Jesus, you know, with like a unicorn and a wolf howling at the moon, some stupid garbage like that.

Guys, actually stand up for truth. Stand up for truth. Last thing, it takes faith. It takes focus. It takes fight. Oh, and yes, by the way, Christians, it did say in Scripture, they had tools in one hand and weapons in another.

Just want you to think about that for a second. And please don't, oh, I'll never forget this lady. Well, that was a metaphor for God's Word. They didn't have God's Word yet. They found it later on, but they didn't have God's Word yet.

Quit smoking the peyote and listen to the Scripture. All right, last thing. It also takes this, it takes finish. If you go to Nehemiah chapter six, it says this. It says, and we finished the wall in 52 days.

You know why some people don't wanna fight? It's because they don't wanna be that dedicated for that long. Or here's what I've actually heard people say, pastor, I wanna get saved. Pastor, I wanna do what's right, but I'm so scared to fail and be a hypocrite.

Do you know how absolutely ridiculous your lack of logic is? Here's what you're saying. Well, I know I'm gonna fail, so I'm not even gonna try even though the Holy Spirit of God is in my heart doing like this to me right now.

Because I know I'm gonna end up failing anyways. God, what a loser. Really, seriously. Are you really that big of a loser? Well, that's not nice, pastor. Well, I'm sorry. That is not a recipe for success.

That is not a recipe for God's people. Here's what you need to do. If that means you have to repent every week, come on down, because a lot of people do. I'm one of them. Guys, refusing to take the step of faith because of the fear of failure is a poison that will become a habit of losing in your life.

And so for the next four weeks, if you've been with me,.