Rick Warren - Enlisting Support for Your Dream (05/16/2024)
In part four of Building a Better Future, Pastor Rick teaches how to enlist support for a God-given dream from Nehemiah chapter 2, emphasizing nine practical steps: waiting for the right timing, doing thorough homework, protecting the dream from premature criticism, creating community by using "we," painting a vivid picture of needed change, appealing to hearts with internal motivation, sharing personal testimony, asking confidently for help, and ignoring naysayers while trusting God's success.
Now, today we are in part four of our series on the Book of Nehemiah. I want you to take out your teaching notes—"The Outline." If you are watching online, you should pause and download the "Outline Notes" before we continue.
Now, during this series each week I have reminded you that the COVID pandemic is going to end obviously at some point. And when that ends, God does not want you to just resume your old life—your pre-COVID way of living. Instead, God has given you the opportunity to reset your life—to reboot your life in a completely new way. And that is why we are doing this series called Building a Better Future based on the Book of Nehemiah.
Review of Previous Principles
Now, so far we have looked at three principles for building a better future. And in this third message that we had last week, we looked at how to create a personal life plan based on the same seven steps that Nehemiah used to go after the dream that God gave him. And I hope you worked on your life plan this past week. But if you do not have a dream—you do not have a life plan for your life—I want to urge you to go online, watch my previous message in this series, and take those steps.
Now, after you have a clear vision or a dream of what you feel God has called you to do with your life, the next step—and that is what we are going to talk about today—is to enlist others who can support your dream.
Two Key Facts About Dreams
Now, fortunately chapter two of Nehemiah's story gives us a very practical model of how to do that. But before we look at Nehemiah as an example of how to enlist other people to support your dream, you need to understand two facts about dreams.
First: no dream is built without support. No dream is ever built without support. Just like a building needs support, your dream needs support. True success is never a one-man show. Anything significant that is done in your life—any great dream—will require help from others.
Kay—my wife—has a message called It Takes a Team to Fulfill a Dream. And Saddleback Church is able to do amazing things because of about fifteen thousand people who volunteer every single week to use their talents in some capacity.
Now, why will your dream require support from other people? Why cannot you just do it by yourself? Well, there are several reasons. First: you do not know everything you need to know. Number two: you do not have enough time or energy to do everything by yourself. And number three: you do not have every talent that you are going to need to get your dream done.
You see, God intentionally wired us to need each other so we would learn how to work together.
Now, Nehemiah could have never fulfilled his dream of rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem by himself alone. It would never happen. In fact, every phase of the dream that God gave Nehemiah would require assistance—even just traveling back to Jerusalem.
Nehemiah chapter two verses seven to nine says this, "I asked the king to help me by giving me permits for safe travel through the territories on my journey to Jerusalem. I also asked him to supply timber for building from his royal forest. And the king gave me everything I asked for because God's gracious favor was with me. The king even sent army officers and soldiers on horses to escort me!"
Now, did you notice that last phrase? The king actually added an escort service of officers and soldiers on horses to help Nehemiah get escorted back to Israel.
When you pray and when you ask God for help, God will provide even stuff you did not think of or even imagined that you would ever need—an escort.
Now, no dream is ever built without support.
Second fact about dreams is this: no dream is ever built without opposition. No dream is ever built without opposition.
Opportunity and opposition go together. The moment you decide to go after the dream that God gives you, there is always going to be somebody there to discourage you. The moment you say let us do this—somebody is going to jump on and say let us do not.
People are naturally resistant to change. They do not like it—even when they are living in ruins. And people resist change for a variety of reasons. But dream busters are literally everywhere. They feel it is their job to bring you down.
So opposition—listen—opposition is built into every opportunity in life.
Nehemiah is going to show us how to handle opposition in detail in a future message of this series. But in this chapter it introduces us to a couple of the vocal opponents or critics who oppose Nehemiah at literally every step of rebuilding the wall.
Now their names are Sanballat—what a name!—and Tobiah. Sanballat and Tobiah.
I am not going to give you the background of these guys today because we are actually going to study their tactics later in a message on how do you handle opposition. But let me just say this—these two men were local leaders in Jerusalem who were not Jews. They had moved into Jerusalem when the Jews had been deported to Babylon, and they hated the Jews. They were prejudiced. They took advantage of their suffering and captivity.
And while the Jews were hurting, they were ruling—and they had made themselves rich and powerful at the expense of other people's misfortune. So when they heard that Nehemiah was coming back to rebuild the city—guess what?—it threatened them.
In Nehemiah 2:10 it says, "Now when Sanballat and Tobiah heard that I was coming to assist the welfare of the Jews in Jerusalem, they became very upset and disturbed."
Friends, there will always be people who do not want things to change because it will end their unfair advantage. They want people to be kept in slavery. And there will also be people who do not want you to succeed because it will change things for them.
By the way, how did Nehemiah know even before he got to Jerusalem that these guys were going to oppose him? Well, he must have sent scouts ahead in advance to uncover any opposition. Remember last week we talked about doing your homework—doing your preparation.
Now, because of these two reasons—you are going to have opposition to any dream you have in life and you are going to need help from others—you need this message today. You need to learn how to enlist the support of others for your God-given dream.
Fortunately chapter two of Nehemiah's story beautifully illustrates how to gain support for your dream.
Background of Nehemiah's Dream
Now, let me give a background for those of you just joining us in this series. Here is the background of the story.
During the great Babylonian Empire thousands of years ago, the nation of Israel was conquered by Babylon—which is today called Iraq. Most of the Jews were actually deported from their homeland in Israel and taken as prisoners of war all the way over to Iraq or Babylon where they lived in exile for seventy years.
But then the Persian Empire came in and crushed the Babylonian Empire. And under their leadership the Jews were allowed to return home. But when they got back to Jerusalem they discovered that their temple, their homes, and the entire city had been destroyed. And the protective wall and gates around the city had all been destroyed too—so they were defenseless to guys like Tobiah and Sanballat.
Now Nehemiah—who was a Jew—had been promoted to working in the royal court for the Persian king. He gets this dream of rebuilding his hometown. So he prays and he prepares and he plans—we have looked at that in the last messages. And then he asks the king to give him permission to return home and rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. The king goes okay—lets him go because God had worked in his heart. And now Nehemiah heads back to Israel.
And his next task—what we are going to look at today—is to convince the defeated and discouraged citizens of Jerusalem to help him with a dream.
Now, the story of how Nehemiah succeeded in getting others to help him in his dream is found in Nehemiah chapter two verses eight to twenty. It is one of the great success stories in the Bible—really is. By involving other people, Nehemiah was able to accomplish—listen—in fifty-two days a project that no one else had succeeded in doing in ninety years. That is a success story.
Now, if you are a business person you really need to pay attention to this series and this message today.
So let us look at the steps that you are going to need to follow any time you need the cooperation of other people in your life—in your family, in your work, in your school, in your business.
All right—let us get right into the points.
1. Wait for the Right Timing
Here is the first step. Number one: wait for the right timing. Wait for the right timing.
Ecclesiastes 8:6 says this, "There is a right time and a right way to do everything."
Now, you know that from experience—that that is true. You ever seen a good idea killed because it had bad timing? Yeah. Timing can make or break you.
In baseball every pitcher throws the exact same ball—five and a quarter ounces baseball. Every pitcher stands the same distance from home plate—sixty feet six inches. The difference between a pro pitcher and an amateur is one thing: timing. Timing. The difference in timing is worth millions.
Now the best example of understanding timing is actually the ministry of Jesus. If you go and study the life of Christ, you will find that He often said it is not time yet. He actually told His mother when she came and asked Him to do a miracle—to turn water into wine—He goes it is really not my time yet.
Nehemiah understood the power of a dream having the right time to share it.
In Nehemiah 2:11 he says this, "When I arrived in Jerusalem..." He has just made this thousand-mile journey. "When I arrived in Jerusalem, I stayed quiet for three days."
Is not that interesting? This guy has a huge project—rebuild the city of Jerusalem—build the wall—restore the gates. He does not make a grand entrance. He does not arrive on a white horse with trumpets and flags shouting I am here to save the day! He did not even announce why he was there. He shows up and does not say anything for three days.
What was he doing those first three days? Resting from the long journey? Yeah—probably. Recovering from the journey across the desert? Praying? Probably—we know he is a man of prayer. Was he watching and observing and listening and learning? No doubt.
But I am guessing that as a smart leader he was also using this delay to build curiosity.
Now, follow me on this. Nehemiah arrives from Persia with a royal escort—he gets there—but then he says nothing for three days. Imagine the speculation and gossip that would create in the city. By day three probably everybody had heard of Nehemiah. He is using the silence and delay to his advantage. He is creating a hunger so people will listen when he actually shares the dream.
Now, you have to choose the right timing in sharing the dream for you. You do not just go out and blurt it out the first time you get a dream from God.
And while you are waiting for just the right time to announce your dream, you can do these same things that Nehemiah did. You can reenergize your life afresh. You can get in shape. You can pray. You can look around and observe and learn and get the facts. And you can build curiosity.
You start with waiting until the right time to announce your dream.
2. Make Sure I Have Done My Homework
Here is the second thing Nehemiah did—and you are going to need to do this with your dream: make sure I have done my homework. Make sure I have done my homework.
Before you go public and announce your dream to your family—your friends—your neighbors—your boss—whoever—make sure you have all the facts and all your information is correct and current.
The Bible says it like this in Proverbs 18:13, "It is stupid and shameful to decide before knowing the facts!"
You see—what you do not want to happen when you are making your pitch or proposal for help and you are sharing your dream—is you do not want somebody to ask you a question that you cannot answer because you did not get all the facts.
You see—it is not good if they say well what would you do if this happens? And you have to admit I do not know—I actually have not thought about that. You have to have all the facts and figures to back up your dream ready. You have got to do your homework.
Proverbs 23:23 says this, "Get the facts at any price."
Now, what happens in the next few verses is Nehemiah's fact-finding mission. Nehemiah secretly led a research party at night. He did not do this when everybody is watching—at night—to go out and to personally inspect the walls and gates of Jerusalem. He did not depend on second-hand knowledge for his dream. He did his own research. Good leaders do their own research.
He learned all he could about what he was getting ready to start—his dream—before he started. He is gathering information—he is assessing the size of the problem as an eyewitness before he says anything.
You need to do the same thing with any dream that God gives you.
Nehemiah chapter two verse twelve and thirteen—Nehemiah says this, "I set out during the night with a few men. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on." He evidently had a donkey.
And he said, "By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Dragon Well and the Dung Gate to inspect all the broken-down walls of Jerusalem and the city gates which had been destroyed by fire."
Now, during this research step—do your homework—Nehemiah did not want to attract attention to what he was doing, so he goes out in the middle of the night. This is his midnight ride. You have heard of the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere if you are an American. Well, Nehemiah has a midnight ride around Jerusalem.
Now I am sure some of you by the way are dying to ask me—Rick, why was one of the gates of Jerusalem called the Dung Gate? Well, why do you think? Okay—dung happens.
All right—Nehemiah verses fourteen and fifteen goes on, "Then I moved on to the Fountain Gate and the King's Pool, but there was so much rubble there was not even enough room for my donkey to get through. So I went up the valley by night"—it goes outside the wall—"examining the wall. Finally I turned back and re-entered at the Valley Gate."
What is going on here? He is surveying the damage in a war zone. It is like going out and surveying the field after a battle.
Now this is the unglamorous lonely part of leadership nobody ever hears about. It is when you are studying the situation in the middle of the night when everybody else is asleep.
And when Nehemiah studied the situation, it was bad. Did you notice that there was so much rubble and ruin piled up that at one point Nehemiah had to dismount—get off his donkey—in order to get through a tight spot just by himself. That is how bad the rubble was in Jerusalem.
Now every leader can imagine what Nehemiah is feeling right now. He is gauging the size of this project, and the severity of the problem is sinking in as he surveys the damage around the city. And he is probably thinking it is far worse than I thought. And it is a lot more complicated than I ever imagined—and I have never built anything in my life—why in the world am I here?
But God had put a dream in his heart and he had come this far in faith and he is not giving up.
So he waits for the right time to even start the project and even talk about it. He does his research. He does his homework.
3. Protect the Dream from Premature Death
Here is the third thing he does in advance before he announces the goal: protect the dream from premature death.
When God puts a dream in your heart, you need to not just go share it with everybody willy-nilly at any time anyway. Do not be in a hurry. Let me tell you this from experience—do not be in a hurry to announce your dream so quickly. You want to protect your dream.
Dreams can be destroyed very quickly. They are fragile when they first spring up. So do not be in a hurry to announce your dream so quickly.
Ecclesiastes 3:7 says this, "There is a time to be silent and there is a time to speak."
Now, you are not ready to announce your dream until your body is rested—the research is invested—the information is digested—and the idea has been tested. Okay?
Verse sixteen says this, "The local officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing because I had said nothing yet to the people or the priests or the nobles or the officials or anyone else who would be doing the work."
What is he doing? He is protecting the dream from premature death.
Verse twelve he had said, "I had not told anyone what God had put in my heart to do."
Why is he doing this? Why is Nehemiah being so secretive about his survey and about the dream that God has put in his heart? Because he does not want the project to be killed even before it got started.
You see, the background is there had been ninety years of negativism in Jerusalem. And two previous times somebody else had attempted to rebuild the wall and they failed. He did not want people going, "Oh, we tried that. We tried it a couple of times and it will never happen. We have always done it this way. We have always lived this way."
All of the citizens of Jerusalem felt discouraged and defeated and probably even apathetic. They had gotten used to living in rubble. They had gotten used to living in ruins for ninety years.
Besides, Nehemiah did not have all the facts yet that he needed.
Let me ask you this question: is it easier to promote a good idea or kill a good idea? It is kind of obvious.
Have you noticed that negative people tend to be more vocal and louder than positive people? And there were certainly far more negative people living in the rubble than there were positive people living in that rubble of Jerusalem. They had become jaded—apathetic to their situation—feeling that it would never change.
Some of you may be feeling that right now. COVID has dampened your enthusiasm. And you are thinking my situation will never change. You do not know what God knows. And you do not realize what God can do so quickly.
So I said Nehemiah in fifty-two days did what others had not done in ninety years.
Now after Nehemiah had taken these first three preparation steps in Jerusalem, he is now ready to unveil his dream. And how he did it and what he said and the way he said it was brilliant.
So these next six steps are the same thing that you need to say when you are trying to enlist support for something you want to do—for your dream—for your God-given vision in life.
And if you will follow precisely what Nehemiah did in Nehemiah chapter two and say what Nehemiah said, you will find a receptive audience.
All right—here is what you say to enlist support when you are trying to get other people to care about what you care about—to do what you know needs to be done. You see something out there and you go this needs to change—this is not right. How are you going to get other people to help you?
Here is step four: talk about we—not me. Talk about we—not me.
You want to create community. The words you use—it is not my dream—here is what I am going to do. Now think about this—Nehemiah is an outsider. He had never lived in Jerusalem. His parents had probably—but he had never lived in Jerusalem. But even though he is an outsider, he talks like an insider. He talks about we—us—not me—my—and I.
In verse seventeen, "Now I said to them, you can see the trouble we are in"—circle the word "we"—"you can see the trouble we are in. Come let us"—circle "us"—"rebuild."
Now, what is he doing with these words? He is identifying with the people. He says we—not me. He says us—not I. He is building community.
Great leaders create a team for the dream.
Nehemiah does not arrive in Jerusalem saying you guys are all a bunch of losers. You are living in a heap of rubble—defenseless—and you have given up and you have become apathetic. And you are used to living like a failure. You guys suck.
He did not put the blame on them.
Now, listen—there are going to be many times in your life where you are going to see a problem and you are going to have to choose between fixing the blame or fixing the problem. Any time you blame others you lower their motivation. Any time you accept the blame you increase the motivation.
Now, you have heard me say this so many times—you spell blame B-E L-A-M-E. Any time you blame you are being lame.
Nehemiah does not play the role of an outside expert coming in here to tell everybody what a bad job they have been doing. He did not say I am going to be your savior and I am going to fix everything for you. Instead he says I am one of you. This is our problem. And together I know that we can succeed this time because God is with us.
To accomplish your dream you have to identify with the feelings of other people, and you must draw them in—offering to help them accomplish something they have always wanted. You create a sense of community. This is what leadership is all about.
Now we come to the next step. When you create community—you talk about we—not me.
5. Paint a Picture of What Needs to Be Changed
Number five—the next thing you do when you are trying to help people get on board—you paint a picture of what needs to be changed. Paint a picture of what needs to change.
You have probably heard the expression I will believe it when I see it. That is actually true—but in a different way than that phrase is given. It is actually true—you will believe it when you see it.
Nothing great is ever accomplished with people until they see it in their minds for the first time. You have to see it in your mind first before you can accomplish it—whether you are an architect building a building or an entrepreneur building a business or you are a teacher planning a lesson or you are a chef cooking a meal or you are a leader leading change or you are a parent working with your kids—you have to see it in your mind and then you have to get others to see the end result in their mind before it happens.
So you have got to paint a picture.
Nehemiah graphically and dramatically painted a picture of how bad the problem was. Remember—these people are apathetic. They have been living in this rubble for years. In fact, he did not minimize it—he emphasized it.
"The second part of verse seventeen says you can see"—circle that—"all the trouble that we are in." You can see—he is saying—he is getting them to picture the problem.
Now, why? Because they are not seeing it anymore. When you live around something long enough it is human nature that you start ignoring it. When you live with a bad situation you start by justifying it and then you rationalize it and then you ignore it—then you become apathetic about it.
I remember years ago we had a mirror in our bathroom and it got cracked—and I do not know why it got cracked but it just did. And when I first saw it it really bugged me—we have got to get this mirror fixed. It really, really bothered me. A week later we had not gotten it fixed—it still bothered me but not as much. Two weeks later it did not bother me hardly at all. And six months later it was still there. Why? Because we become comfortable with the ruin and the rubble in our lives.
This happens in a lot of marriages. Status quo is Latin for the mess we are in. You become satisfied and apathetic with less than the best.
Now, if you are going to enlist support for your dream you are going to have to create some discontent with the current situation first. And then you are going to have to picture how it could be better. That is why this series is called Building a Better Future.
Nehemiah is getting them to face the facts—because he first researched the facts—and things were not good. Things were bad—but he would paint a picture of a better future.
Now, change—listen—never occurs until we become discontent. So if you want to create change in your home—in your marriage—in your family—in your school—in your work—if you want to create change in your office—in your community—in your country—in the world—you have to paint a picture of how it could be better. You create discontent and show how it could be better.
6. Appeal to People's Hearts
Now, along with this comes step six—Nehemiah's brilliant plan: appeal to people's hearts. That is the sixth thing you do when you are trying to enlist support for a vision—a dream—or a goal or project.
We often assume that people base their choices on logic and reason—but that is just not true. Most of the decisions you make in life are based on how you feel. You base them on your feelings—on your emotions. You make a decision based on your emotions and then later you look for a logical reason to justify the emotional decision you made.
So what does Nehemiah do? He appeals to their hearts. He appeals to their desire to feel good about themselves. Nothing wrong with that. And he appeals to them being proud of their city.
The third part of verse seventeen—he says, "Let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so we will no longer be living in disgrace."
Interesting. The motivation for rebuilding the wall—so we will no longer be living in disgrace.
The New Jerusalem Bible translation says so we will end our humiliation. The New Century Version translation says so we will not be ashamed anymore.
What is Nehemiah doing? He is appealing to their dignity. Smart guy. He says guys—we are better than this. We are better than this. We do not have to put up with this. We do not have to live in rubble and ruin. We are God's people. He does not want us living in disgrace or shame.
Besides—it is a poor testimony of our faith.
This kind of faith that Nehemiah is projecting now is a breath of fresh air to people who are discouraged and defeated and demoralized. He is going we can do this with God's help. We do not have to live in disgrace or shame. And once again we will be able to hold our heads high.
Now, one of the things that this said to the people of Jerusalem was this—this leader—this Nehemiah dude—he is different. He actually cares about us.
The motivation he gives for rebuilding the wall is so we will not be in disgrace. He cares about how we feel. He is not doing this for his personal agenda. He is not making a profit on this. He is concerned about us. He realizes we are demoralized—we are discouraged—we feel like failures. This is somebody who loves us. He is not trying to make money off us.
And you know what? All of that was true of Nehemiah. He did not want them to feel bad. He did not want them to be disgraced. But he even had a deeper motivation than that. Nehemiah was concerned for God's glory—because not only were the Jewish people being disgraced—God was being disgraced.
You see—the Jews were called God's chosen people—and yet the whole world was laughing at them. Those poor Jews—they claim to worship the one true God but they are living in the rubble of a ruined city. Their God must not be very powerful after all. It was a poor testimony. It was an embarrassment to God's reputation. God's name was being defamed by others.
So Nehemiah—when he is trying to motivate people to get involved in the dream—he does not appeal to external motivations—you know with a little reward systems. He does not say whoever helps me rebuild a wall will win an all-expense-paid vacation to the Dead Sea.
No—instead of external motivation—rewards—he uses internal and eternal motivation. You will feel good about yourself—and God will be glorified.
7. Share Your Story to Inspire Others
Now here is the next step that Nehemiah took—and you are going to need to do this in getting support for your dream—number seven—very important: share your story to inspire others. Share your story to inspire.
Verse eighteen—Nehemiah says this, "I also told them about how God had been with me and how He graciously helped me in my conversation with the king in gaining his support."
So now Nehemiah gives his testimony. This is an important part of sharing your dream. People want to know what does it mean to you—and what is God doing in your life.
Nehemiah is telling his story of trusting God. You need to tell your story of trusting God—because when you tell your story of trusting God it builds faith in other people. When people see your example of living by faith it motivates them to live by faith.
So Nehemiah explains how God put a burden in his heart. He said I did not want this job. In fact I had a very comfortable cushy job in the king's court in Persia—but God put a discontent in my heart when I saw what was happening to you guys here in Jerusalem. And the more I prayed about it the more God said to me why do not you be the answer to your own prayer Nehemiah? And God says that is what I want for you Nehemiah. This is the dream I am putting in your heart.
So I did my homework and I prayed and I planned and I prepared—and God opened the door and gave me the opportunity to share my dream with the king of Persia—and you know what? God changed his heart. The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord and He turns it any way He wishes. And he gave me everything I wanted. He gave me permission to come. He gave me protection for my journey—and he gave me the provision of lumber that we are going to need to succeed. And he is even going to pay for all this project.
So you guys—what do you think?
That is pretty powerful testimony.
Now, let me just pause here to say this—if somebody comes to you with a dream and they claim God told me to do this—you have every right to ask them okay—so what confirming signs from God prove that the dream really is from God? How has God already helped you?
And if they cannot say anything about that—well you have every reason to doubt it.
Nehemiah could say this is what God has done in my life so far. It was a miracle that the king of Persia was letting him rebuild a wall that he had previously said will never be rebuilt.
So Nehemiah's testimony is thrilling and it is inspirational. It is convincing the people.
How do they respond? Of course positively. Verse eighteen, "So they all responded saying let us—let us start rebuilding now!" So together they began the good work.
And what is happening here? The vision is being transferred. Let us rebuild the wall. First it was just Nehemiah's vision—now it is our vision. We are going to do this together.
8. Ask for Help Confidently
Now let us look at this. After you have created community—after you have painted a picture of what needs to change—after you have appealed to people's hearts with internal and eternal motivation—and after you have shared your personal story of faith and how God has been helping you—you are ready for step eight: ask for help confidently. You might even just write down ask for help fearlessly.
See—you just do not pump people up with all this inspirational dream and then walk away—say have a nice day. You get specific and you ask for help.
This is the moment of truth. Will you join me in this task? Will you join me in the dream?
Nehemiah verse seventeen—Nehemiah says, "Come—let us rebuild the wall now!"
You have got to ask friends. You have got to ask. That is the scary part of having a dream.
The Bible says you have not because you ask not. And that is not just true in asking for God's help—it is also true in asking for the help of others.
Now, in my previous message I warned you to not say no for other people. Never assume that you know their answer in advance. If they want to say no—let them say it. Never say no for anybody. Your job is to just ask.
Now when you think I do not like to ask other people for help—I do not like to ask them for assistance—I will just do it myself—when you say I will just do it myself you reveal your own insecurity. You limit what God wants to do in your life because it is limited to just you—and you rob other people of the blessing of being involved.
This church would have never been built by one person. It has been built by thousands and thousands and thousands of people.
At the start of this message I told you that no dream is built without opposition.
9. Ignore Naysayers and Expect God's Help
So the final step is this—number nine: ignore naysayers and expect God's help.
When you finally lay out the dream and you lay it out on the line and say will you help me?—there will be some naysayers. So what?
Verses nineteen and twenty of Nehemiah two says this, "When Sanballat and Tobiah—oh now we have added a third guy—Geshem—heard this, they mocked and ridiculed us." Can you handle that?
You do not need the approval of other people to make you happy. What other people think of you is none of your business.
"They mocked and ridiculed us. They said what do you think you are doing? Who do you think you are?—they asked. We have not done this in ninety years—why do you think now you are going to be able to rebuild the wall? Are you rebelling against the king?" They are trying to make them afraid. Maybe the king will come in and smash them all again.
Nehemiah says, "I simply replied to all this ridicule and mocking—the God of heaven will give us success!"
The God of heaven will give us success. We are His servants and we will rebuild this. But you have no claim or right to this city.
Now, did you notice that a third opponent is mentioned? I need to warn you—I have had this—I know this from experience—that the farther you go with God's dream the more likely the opposition will grow too.
I did not have a whole lot of opposition when it first started Saddleback Church—but there is an awful lot now. And in another message we are going to look at six different kinds of opposition—including this example that Nehemiah had to deal with—and how he brilliantly disarmed and defeated every one of these opponents and critics.
So I am not going to go into that right now. But as we close I just want to point out that Nehemiah did not spend much time responding to critics. I do not spend much time responding to critics—why? You would not have time to get anything done if you respond to every critic. The devil will make sure you are constantly criticized. And you will never get anything else done if all you are doing is reacting to what other people think of you.
Nehemiah simply replied, "The God of heaven will give us success!" We are His servants and we will rebuild this wall regardless of your criticism or your attacks or your mocking or your ridiculing—whatever.
Now, I hope you took some time this past week to begin writing down your thoughts and dreams using the seven steps we looked at for building a life plan that we learned from Nehemiah in our last message. If you did not—I want to encourage you to start this week. Go back and look at those seven steps in that message on starting to build a life plan post-COVID.
And then you can review these steps that we have just looked at today for how you enlist support for your dream.
I have carried this little card in my wallet and in my desk for forty-two years. I have revised it many, many, many times—but this is the original. And every time I was worried about are we going to have enough people to help us do what we need to do?—I would pull this card out and it says this, "Great people ready to help me at the right time and the right way—people I do not even know yet. I will never give up because I do not have the help but I will trust God to provide the help that I need. Because Psalm 37:5 says commit your way to the Lord—trust Him to help you—and He will."
God has the resources to help you that you have not even considered. There are multiplied thousands of persons with all sorts of talents and skills and concerns and contacts that God can bring into your life to fulfill His plan and dream. So open your eyes and see the faces of people around you. Open your ears to hear what they are saying. Today—tomorrow—next week—you will meet someone who is just the right person you need. And that right person will come along at just the right time and fulfill the things that you need—and you will marvel knowing that God arranged it so beautifully.
I have seen that fulfilled thousands of times in my life.
So I want to say to you—regardless of the dream that God gives you—you can do this. You can do this.
The same God who used Nehemiah—who had never built anything in his life—wants to use you in a great way.
So stop making excuses. Start dreaming the dream God has for you. Use the steps that He has given to us in His Word that we looked at in the last message on how to write out a life plan. And then when the time is right and you start asking other people to help you—use these steps that we have looked at today.
It will change your life.
Let us pray:
Father, when we look around at our world today we see a lot of things that need to be changed. There are a lot of people living their lives in rubble and ruin—and they become disillusioned and demoralized and discouraged—defeated—and even apathetic. And they need somebody to help them see your dream for their lives. I pray Father that Saddleback Church will be a fellowship of godly dreamers who attempt great things for God and expect great things from God. I am asking you Father—I really am—to help us see just a glimpse of what you would like to do in our lives and through our lives—and help us just like you helped Nehemiah to take these steps of faith in making a difference in our world.
If you have never opened your life to Christ, I always like to give you an opportunity to do that. You can say:
Jesus Christ, I want to know you. I want to open my life to you. And as much as I know how I ask you to fill me with your love and your purpose. I want to learn to trust you and follow you the rest of my life. In your name I pray. Amen.