Bro. and Sis. Kelley - What Disturbs Me

just for a few moments tonight i'd like for us to turn to the book of nehemiah and we're going to read just a few verses there and bring something that the lord has impressed on my heart i pray it speaks to you we've been talking about praying and lifting our eyes up as sister amber has said also the song that was singing about open the eyes of my heart lord that's what needs to be opened is the eyes of our heart we are allowing too much of what we see naturally to determine what our heart is seeing and feeling we need to allow the lord to open the eyes of our heart that our neighborhood takes a different perspective yes we're dealing with countries but you're dealing right here where you live open the eyes of our heart lord that the people at work i just see them different than i have before the people in the store i just see them different

before they just walk by me but no longer can they just walk by me i see a need in their life opening our eyes verse 2 of chapter 1 of the book of nehemiah hananiah one of my brothers and i'm reading out of the new living translation came to visit me with some of the other men who had just arrived from jerusalem i asked them about the jews who had returned there from captivity and about how things were going in jerusalem they said to me things are not going well for those who return to the province of judah they are in great trouble and disgrace the wall of jerusalem has been torn down and the gates have been destroyed by fire zerubbabel ezra had come back now this is a report that's being brought back notice how nehemiah reacts he said when i heard this when i heard this somebody ought to do something that would have been my response somebody

needs to get a heart for the work of god and do something well doesn't the pastor see what needs to be done there doesn't the church see no when i heard this i sat down wept in fact for days i mourn fasted and prayed to the god of heaven father lead us these moments speak to our hearts challenge us but lead us in jesus name amen you're far more spiritual than i am i'm going to share with you some of my carnality i was at a store not long ago walking down the aisle a product that i wanted to get they were out of stock we're running because of lorry drivers and the brexit and the pandemic some of our shelves are starting to get empty and and when i went to get the product they didn't have what i wanted and i thought what kind of store is this they don't have what i want and i need it and they might as well just close the store i'm really carnal

i i mean i wasn't saying this but i was thinking this sister amber i just thought there's no need to even have the lights on because they don't have what i want i was so upset about it you know and it really made no eternal significance but it was something that i wanted and upset me and when i was just having my little child kind of stomping there and upset about it the lord just spoke to my heart and said are you this disturbed about things that are not taking place in my kingdom are you this disturbed about those that are not being reached with the gospel are you this disturbed and so upset that you want to do something about it and in that store i felt such conviction that gripped my heart and i thought oh god forgive me let my eyes be opened what disturbs me is what i want to talk about for a little while what really disturbs me in this

hour nehemiah was a man that believed in jehovah and had a walk with god he was in captivity so he was limited there were barriers that kept him from doing maybe what he would want to do he was a king's cup bearer judah was still in captivity some of them had gone back but he was employed by a king that if not pleasing he could remove you and even take your life so he had limitations can i say the world before us has had limitations about what we can and cannot do there's others that have walked this road but again they were doing what they could do and nehemiah was limited he just could not pack up and go and do what he wanted to but when he heard this news about was taking place there in jerusalem and the walls down and the state of the city and the way it was it gripped his heart to where he began to pray he began to fast he began to seek

the face of god not i don't believe brother river that he thought well i'm going to leave tomorrow and go do something about it my personal opinion is this i don't think he anticipated anything of like i think i'm going to go try to deal with this situation it just moved him so that he began to pray that's interesting as well there were those who came and told him who were there who saw the state of the walls but they were not moved whatsoever they only carried the message to one who would be moved and stirred he was disturbed by what they told him you can read the prayer that he begins to pray and this was in the autumn it tells us when this happened and he began to pray this prayer and when you read the prayer that he prayed it reveals he knew some things of god the promises of god and what he told moses and what god would do if the people

would turn back and also he began to repent for the nation of how they walked the way they did could it be some time that we get rid of the them and us mentality that when we begin to pray for our city we begin to pray for our neighborhood we begin to pray for people at work it's no longer god touch those sinners but oh god forgive us for the way our community forgive us lord for the way our city has turned from you and turned to other things forgive us lord as our nation is going forgive us of our sin and iniquity well i've repented maybe we need to repent for our nation as well we get so and oh we get so upset and intense about politics and politicians and i'm sorry i don't mean to offend you and all the stuff that's going on we need to get as intense and deeply disturbed spiritually because again your prayers my prayers can make the difference

to what is needed today what disturbs me they did not see he heard but he saw opened the eyes of my heart lord never having been but he had a love we need to have a love for people and we need to have a love for where we live we need to have a love for where we live not just love the people there but we need to have a love for where we live something is people have asked us why glasgow why the united kingdom why would you go there how can you live or we just say we just love where god has called us to live we need to love this city i don't know why i'm saying this tonight we need to love the city we can't i can't wait till i can get out of here but i want to see my neighbor safe no honey you just got to love the people you got to love the area where you are well you don't know where i live what could it be that god has so designed that you've

lived there that you can make a difference where you are lift up your eyes look on the field they are white and ready to be harvested yes beyond the borders here but also in your neighborhood as well and so he made that prayer he wept he sat down he fasted for certain days he was not the son of a leader he was not the son of an elder his daddy was not a prophet he was just we would say joe blogs you would say john doe here there was no pedigree behind him that would warrant the backing to say that he could really succeed and here's another thing we find nowhere written down where he he went to school to learn how to be an engineer or he went somewhere to learn how to lay block what do they call those guys carpenters plumbers huh i've seen some guys lay block it well praise god anyway he wasn't a bricklayer he wasn't he didn't go for apprentice

for all that we don't he was a cup bear in fact i don't know if his hands had even been calloused maybe his hands were polished and looked nice and he wore the finest of rose because he would have to come before the king he had a risky job but we find nowhere where his skill set would allow him to do the task that god was going to ask him to do you see sometimes we limit well i would like to but i don't know how to do it well why don't you get up and try hallelujah i can do all things through christ i have found in my life that the lord would begin to open the door while i haven't tried before but i'm going to give it a try i'm going to read i'm going to ask some people that's done this before i've never taught a bible study i really have but i'm just saying i've never taught a bible study well i'm going to talk to somebody that has how did

you do it how did you get a bible study i don't get this well you get me a bible study and i'll teach it well why don't you get one yourself how bad do you want to do it get one electronically get a chart get those little bibles at my lord we got so much stuff get the bible that even got the charts in it and you begin to talk to people lord open the door i want to do a bible study not only do i want to do it i'm going to search do i find someone to do it a life scripture is very important and one of the life scriptures that i have is i can do all things through christ which will strengthen me and when we talk about stuff like this i'm not meaning that god may relocate us somewhere geographically but right in our own area we can do things that no one else is able to do if we open our eyes somebody can come to you in your neighborhood that

may not even be a believer and they can start talking to you about something in the neighborhood that needs to be done and it just kind of gets you and you finally somebody's got to do something about it let me tell you a little more of my carnality and i got to watch here oh my watch is upside down i thought i had more time praise god hallelujah amen uh yeah you know more of my carnality i'm just old pastor's not here so i'm just revealing all kinds of stuff tonight yeah i told him tonight and i said hey just get some popcorn while you're watching me preach i almost felt him come across the phone i'll popcorn you i love them thank god for them but remember popeye the sailor man right ah see some of you just remember he there would be something that would happen and his little sweet heart would be getting in trouble was his name brutus is

always kind of getting these woman you know and always all of well he well you talk about eyes the scene thing said wow wow pop i saw i don't know what he saw on her but he saw something he liked and uh you know and then finally he would say it's i can't stand this anymore remember that he would get so round up i just can't stand this anymore and it's somewhere spinach would appear and he'd squeeze it and pop in him and the muscles would go and he'd take care of brutus sometimes we just need to get it where we see something in our community that needs to be done and reaching i can't stand this i've seen other things but i i just can't let this rest pastor i feel like i gotta go and pastor i feel like i need to reach in this area pastor i feel i need to go here the interesting thing is it just continued to grow in him and eventually as he

prayed that prayer and he prayed that prayer and the thing just kept brewing in him it was sometime in the spring it says the early spring when he was before the king and when he went before the king as the cupbearer the king noticed he said hey what's your problem man that's my vernacular i tell him in glasgow before i've got an rhk version robert h kelly version so you know it just he just what's your thing because when you went before the king you didn't go in with a do her face do her face is what we call in scotland's just you know a doer nothing you know you know when you went before the king you didn't go in with a sad face you went in with a smiley face no matter what was happening in your life because your life could be in danger because i don't want to look at sad faces would be him and so nehemiah was very concerned because when

he was going before the king what was in his heart was now showing on his face he was very disturbing the king begin to ask him what is the problem what's wrong here why are you looking sad you don't look sick to me you must be deeply troubled nehemiah said then i was terrified but i replied long live the king he said what it is i'm i'm so upset my ancestors are burdened is in the ruins and the gates have been destroyed by fire the king asked well how can i help you that is incredible you see we're worried at times when god begins to move on us to help in certain areas where will i get the money where will i get the manpower where will i get this and when i get everything i need to do this then i will here nehemiah was feeling it and he began to pray and seek the face of the lord it got so in him that the kings could see in his face there

was something troubling him and finally when the king asked he told him and god used the king to open the door and we find as you read the story it is incredible i love the book of nehemiah because god just takes somebody that doesn't match the skill set and he took him there back to jerusalem and he begins to look and the plans begin to unfold and they begin to build the walls and when the people were even discouraged and judah said there's so much rubbish here we can't build it he gave him guidance and when the enemy came in it was nehemiah that said well let's just pray and he gave them instruction when others come and said you got to get down off of the wall he said oh no i'm not coming down i'm doing a good thing when you get this in your heart and the enemy tries to stop you from doing the will of god you'll say no i cannot come down

i've got to do what god has placed we've got to get something that burns in us for our community where we are that i've got to hold on to see it finished the glory the lord what disturbs me what disturbs me it was john wesley that simply said set yourself on fire with passion and people will come for miles around to see you burn we need to have the passion and he eventually went from building walls to eventually he becomes a governor as well and it all started by just something that someone said 52 days god did this incredible miracle as we stand together this evening and as we'll be turning to service here in just a few moments to brother river what disturbs you what disturbs you what upsets you and i know we all get bad news i know we get disturbing news of sickness and disturbing news of losing the job disturbing news of of financial situations

i know that but what disturbs us we can look around and see things in our neighborhood things at our work things in our family spiritually that maybe needs to be done but does it disturb us enough to say i've got to be part of what is happening there i've got to try to do what i can do to help bring about what god wants to bring about and when the church moves in that realm things happen greater than ever before you see when people move in the work of god they were not a lot of people were not born just to really do that but as they took their step forward and the next step god began to help them to grow and develop my question tonight is what disturbs you what disturbs you