Johnny Hunt

if you have your bibles with you i want you to find your place pull it up in your phone look on when someone beside you nehemiah chapter one and what i'm gonna do i'm just gonna use major talking points and i want to walk you through what it looks like to be a burdened servant uh i call it beginnings and you may say beginnings yes paul's just finished a decade but really you sort of reflect back on where you've come from but what really is passionate about today is predicated on what god already has done your future is indeed as bright as the promises of god and so you're excited about that one of my favorite characters in the bible is nehemiah so let's let's talk about nehemiah how it relates even to the purvises and they're called here nehemiah is in a strange land he's in babylon he's there because of babylonian captivity you realize the babylonians from the south the assyrians from the north had invaded israel on different occasions and they would carry away back to their land some of the most gifted men and women and put them to work within the context of their their country's economics so you know that nehemiah ends up in the palace and is actually a cup bearer a taster of the food and wine of the king artiorxis now listen carefully this statement this is a passage that deals with old news but old news at times needs to be revived in our heart and recaptured as new news really what we need is a new commitment to old commandments and so in this passage listen to the statement the news is 142 years old it's not like the walls have just been destroyed outside of jerusalem they were destroyed 142 years before this conversation old news but it's amazing here's how god raises up a burden servant god takes old news and makes it new news and good news to be embraced to make a difference i've been training pastors for 27 years my ministry is called timothy barnabas timothy for instruction barnabas for encouragement here's what i believe for 27 years the average pastor or the average layman that wants to do the will of god does not so much need new instructions is they need to be encouraged in what they already know if i never hear another sermon never set through another bible study i already know enough to tell everyone i ever meet how they can miss hell and make heaven how they can have life abundantly in jesus christ so a friend comes from jerusalem and in chapter one he has a conversation and nehemiah simply poses this question how are things in my hometown and then it just reminds them as you know the walls are down and listen to this the city gates are burned now there's something major in that statement this text here's a good way to say it is pregnant with biblical truth and then the bible says after he shared that with him that his heart became burdened now listen carefully this honestly i want to encourage paul and kimberly and their boys but but i want to speak to the entire church before god births a vision in a person's life he burdens their soul for something different a vision will fizzle a vision you will die with it in your heart if it's not preceded by a burden and by the way let me say this many of you have a vision of what could be in your life in your home at your work in your school in your church but a vision will never become anything of importance in your life until you embrace it is your life's mission and then once god gives you your life's mission then you put strategies and goals and then you go for it nehemiah thought i need to go and tell the king of this burden and see if he'll give me permission to go back to my homeland to make a difference major problem if you go into the presence of the king of babylon with the sad countenance he can't have you executed now don't miss this every now and then it's just that major moment and i'm trying to set it up until you've found something worth dying for you've not found anything worth living for so so i'm i'm willing to go see artiercs even if it costs me my life and then you know the story there in chapter one the king has favor on nehemiah and grants him permission now here's a word for every leader when god begins to give you a vision it begins to develop in your heart and you begin to understand what it's going to take for the mission to become a reality so don't try to just spiritualize it so when the king looks at him and says okay i'm going to release you to go what do you need let me tell you what nehemiah didn't do he didn't say let me get back with you that's no vision he said i'm going to need some protection to make it through the forest and once i get there i'm going to need material to build and by the way the king has all the resources you will ever need i was meeting with the church last week they asked me to observe their sunday service i was preaching there and then they asked me if i'd meet with their staff on monday to tell them what i saw or didn't see and that's dangerous and then one of the staff members said this we're running 500 people but we don't have the people to serve the ministry look at me for just a moment listen to this paul jesus does not have a handicapped body he's a sovereign god he knows how to put together the body of christ everything this church needs to be everything god commissions it to be it's already here phil it is i remember one time we needed uh we needed a lot of money we built a 100 million dollar campus at woodstock that's a nightmare and i remember standing up one sunday and saying to the people i just want you to know that um god encouraged me this week and we have all the money we needed everybody look kind of puzzled they didn't know where to clap cry or shout and then i said but there's only one thing wrong it's still in your account all the service are y'all listening all the service all the finances everything jesus needs is here so as we get into relationship with others we begin to see that we've already got the necessary teachers we need the singers already here players everything that we need and by the way the music was just off the charts just encouragingly worshipful so what does he do he goes to jerusalem he's a burden servant so while everybody else is sleeping you've heard the question let me pose it again what keeps you up at night you didn't hear me what keeps you up at night when everybody else was sleeping he saddled a donkey and he surveyed the city it is in the context of your service and your surveying that jesus reveals his will some people i think god just gives them his will in a vacuum like what are you doing i'm just waiting on the lord well we pentecost have you not heard pentecost has already happened the waiting is over are y'all listening the waiting is over he has already come and so while he's out riding around the walls he begins to think i can i can put the 12 tribes each of them between the gates and we can rebuild this wall how many of you know that anytime you do something undertake something that is god-sized and god-ordained it will not be without opposition san ballad tobi geshem and then he moves from individual names to groups arabs ammonites electric lights i mean all of them i begin to come against the people of god hey and this is interesting you won't find this until you get to nehemiah chapter four but you know when the greatest difficulty for the work that god called them to do happened when they were halfway through uh my friend let me go a step further it says that judah their arms begin to fail what does judah translate praise um who is judah there's 12 tribes follow this the number one tribe was judah the lord knows every leader needs to hear this the lord knows if you want to defeat a ministry get the best men and women you have to fail so what did nehemiah do he he was the leader so he he really knew under god what to do he stopped the work he sat them all down and he reminded them why they were doing it and he began to talk first of all about the great god that they deserve they served that deserved their best and then they began to talk about their families their children and their grandchildren that not only am i doing this now but i'm doing it for those that come out to me adrian rogers there's a movie coming out on him lord willing this fall and i was privileged to be a part of that movie so i was watching it the other day he sent me the first draft and then there adrian rogers reminded me of something that he had taught me many years ago christianity ever since it was founded in acts chapter 2 and the church was really born christianity has always been one generation from extinction give me one generation that no longer makes much of jesus and it's 16. so with that in mind laying that groundwork let me talk to you through this passage one thing is notable in biblical history god has always had people who cared and responded to his purpose god has never been without a witness nehemiah begins with a question from an influential jew to his brother concerning the condition of his hometown as we study together reactions to nehemiah to hometown news one easily sees the great concern of his heart now this is not new there are other examples abraham cared and delivered lot from jordan moses cared and delivered the israelites from egypt esther cared and risked her life to save her nation from genocide paul cared and took the gospel to the roman empire jesus cared and died on the cross for a lost world so i'm convinced that nehemiah was aware of the condition of jerusalem before he asked for the report but in god's timing god is raising him up for this particular work ten years ago i remember don't remember explicitly but i remember conversations with paul purpose i had preached in his previous church in missouri that church had been extremely gracious to them it was a growing church a mission-minded church and he struggled about whether god wanted him to come here and so he's here because of a calling i taught a class on calling at my albamata southeastern baptist theological seminary a few weeks ago and here's what i said your calling is what conditions you for your staying the reason i stayed at woodstock 33 years i know this may shock you but it's not because i couldn't have gone other places significant other places but the calling is what kept me there every now and then someone may say this i don't like a decision to church bait i think i'm going to leave that's not your decision to make unless you're the one who's in charge and if you are goodbye and then you'll leave the next place i'm gonna stop there with that i could i could have fun with that statement but it's the staying power when god calls you here here's something else i've written there is no such thing as a great work without longevity that's not only a good word for the pastor but every staff member you want god to do something significant you've gotta you gotta get some roots down believe god called you there settle into that call unless god sovereignly there was a young man called this week and and he was invited to leave a church that it exploded to go to one of the largest churches in america and he told the pastor and the other staff members he was going i'm not trying to play intelligent or spiritual here but i sense that he shouldn't go but i didn't tell him but i did pray for him someone said if you know what you've got and you like it be reluctant to leave it and so that young man came to me this week they were doing student camp over in panama city beach where i live sometimes and he said this you you posed a question the other day and i couldn't answer so i've told that large church no god can never call you somewhere else until god's released you from where you are so a lot of times we say pray for me i'm trying to find out if god wants me here that's not the first question you have no right looking over there unless he's released you from here a renowned historian said no one is fit to lead his followers unless he holds their care and will begin to be his prime responsibility his duty his privilege so nehemiah is a man who was more concerned with the people than the project it's not about how many people lived there but who lived there so let me just give you some statements so if you've got a pencil pen lipstick or mascara let me give you a few statements to write down number one he's confronted with a problem you know when i say it's a problem it's it's really more of a mission but there was a problem the walls are down and the gates are burned but it really was an opportunity sometimes paul you know this when a preacher calls me and says the lord's calling me somewhere but it's a very difficult place they don't have this they've got these issues that issues i just look at them and say yeah god's probably calling you because the reason he's calling you is because of all those issues they need you somebody somebody's looking for the right church serving so long as a pastor i've been preaching now 45 years pastored churches for 43 years and so a pastor may call me and and he'll say hey i want to just give you um you know basically what i sense my next mission may be so here's what if you get a chance to recommend me here's where i'd like to go and he outlines what he wants the church to look like and in the back of my mind i think i'm not going to recommend him if i find this kind of church i'm going to it good night uh this this church every time i talk to paul the numbers increase if i i think i've got it right there's somewhere between 65 and 67 different nationalities in this church and uh maybe some of you are like myself this morning i might be number 68 i'm a native american just for the record's sake appreciate y'all coming to hear this white pastor but this land is our land all right just thought i'd throw that out there for what it's worth go to any just wanted to see if there's any more american indians here but um so he's confronted with a real problem but but here's the problem and this this may be your problem and i want to assure you it's not paul's problem because i hear him oftentimes uh cast his vision i'm i'm even i'm really this morning thinking about how god can use me to uh help him with a major need through the north american mission board but they were in a survival mode can i just simply say god did not place you on this corner to survive nothing is more miserable than just staying in a survival mode the bible in verse 3 refers to those who survived that means they were in distressed and reproached the walls of jerusalem is also broken down the gates are burned that means there was no protection but let me go a step further when you're in a situation like this their major issue was there was no leadership in proverbs 25 28 the bible says whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls a second thing they were stripped of honor which means they were shameful distress and reproach great affliction to strip of honor as you know this is a southern baptist church and i've served as leader of the southern baptist convention a number of years ago and we have our share of challenges right now but even in the midst of that challenge while people are being so critical i'll tell you who southern baptists are did you see those two souls get baptized this morning that's the southern baptist convention i'm part of uh the stand in a church this morning with 67 nationalities that's the southern baptist convention that i'm a part of to have the largest network of church planting on the planet that's who i am they have the third largest relief organization next to red cross and samaritan's purse next comes sin relief southern baptist the third largest in the world that's the southern baptist convention that i am a part of these people were stripped of honor hear me in jesus name we have our battles and the reason is it could be because we're pushing back darkness and normally you have battles they're internal they're what i call staph infections it's among the the leadership instead of among the grassroots people and so there was great affliction god city jerusalem had become a city of shame and reproach it's a city listen to this it's a city where his name dwelt the enemy always wants to tear the walls down and burn the gates where his name dwells so without walls with walls down they had become open gained to the surrounding nations no longer strong and vibrant they were now on the defense and not on the offense they were not aggressive they were just holding on but you know what else that happened their song had died their song had died i remember before i became a christian my wife maybe twice a year would get me in church maybe and normally and then i'm ashamed of this but normally i had a hangover from being at the red fox saloon too late but but i remember my wife she went up she would start singing in church and she would put the hymn book over like this and i would not sing one word oh but then i would get in my red gto and i would turn motown wide open you ought to know motown some of the great hymns were written you know by marvin gaye some of them anyway so i would i would listen and i would sing it to the top of my lungs but then one snowy sunday night while in church god out of heaven stepped into my heart changed my life and listen to this i have a song in my heart i have friends i have friends and former members here this morning from woodstock and there was a joke that every 10 years johnny hunt would sing a solo can i just go on record saying i know i'm not a good singer but i don't believe that you have to be a good singer to sing i i think you have to have a song to sing and so as a result of that i would say i remember the last time i sang at woodstock i sang a solo and my wife afterwards said i wish you wouldn't do that you are not you are not a good singer she's a prophet cuts to the chase black and white and she got it right i mean i'm not a good singer and i said well she said what what you did i said well janet contrary to what you're saying they lined up to tell me how much they enjoyed it who lined up and i said mostly senior adults her response not a single one of them could hear you um and i want you to hear this the song had died gates are burned the gates listen to the psalms and you'll catch it the gates were a symbol of praise we will enter his gates with thanksgiving they had lost their song in babylon uh it was in the temple of jerusalem listen to this where the presence of god dwelt however because of sin god left the temple god moved out of the tabernacle god moved out of the temple the next time god would be resident in someone it would be us and then he would tell us this in hebrews 3 5. and i will never leave you never forsake you he was reminding you that your heart is not a hotel god does not check in and check out when you get saved jesus christ moves in and he never moves out again and so he gives him that promise so nehemiah now refers to god jehovah as the lord god of heaven verses four and five ichabod had been written over the city the lord had departed and returned to heaven we should pray lord please don't take your hand off of my life or off my church and by the way this place is full this morning there's such a sweet spirit here by the way i just want to confess paul's sin right quick last night he said you know school's on break we normally have three services and when you don't have all your services you lose people he said i hope you have somebody to preach to tomorrow oh paul paul and so a moment ago i don't like to say i told you so but during the singing i looked over and i said uh look behind you paul ain't nobody here this morning but uh they paul paul they love you they love you and so um wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute uh you know as well as i do that it's really not paul we don't have a snowball chance in hades to lead a church without a good woman or a side thanks for coming out for kimberly this morning just make a note of psalms 137 verses 1 through 6 because it's hard to sing the lord's song in a strange land this is just um maybe food for thought if there were one time you came to church and joyfully worshiped during the music but now you find it hard to sing it could be that you're here this morning but it's not where you're dwelling maybe that you're living in a strange land it's just the thought number two he was consumed by a passion our chief passion should be the glory of god it's apparent that the report from his brother literally overcame him it's the truth that no one is moved to build until until they see the ruin no one is moved to build until they see the ruin what would happen if jesus mobilized and commissioned all 67 nations here to believe that it's not paul's mission at mission hill church to reach temple terrace but it's our commission and responsibility what if you begin to reach your own tribe of people you you begin to go after the people and and by the way somebody asked me every nandy and i say but what are you doing to reach the next gen um teaching the next gen how to reach their own people when i was in my 20s i got saved at 20 started passing at 23 i reached a lot of 20 year olds i went moved to a day i reached a lot of 30s 40s 50s and i still reach back but i'm in my later 60s now and uh i am most effective among my own tribe my own generation i share the gospel my wife will tell you i just led a 27 year old marine she was with me the other day the lord and by the way you may say you think he really got saved this this is little humors but let me tell you how i really believe he got saved to start with and i've watched him grow since then and we're in contact almost every week his name's darby moore darby i led him to the lord on a monday on friday he called me said hey i hate to disturb you but thank you for giving me your your text uh can i ask you a question i said sure he said uh i just got my check i'm sitting here at the table and i've got my check in front of me from this week i said okay darby what's your question uh i've heard people talk about tithe and what what is tithing i said it well the word tied really means one-tenth is what it translates and he said well i've got my check here in front of me and i want to give my first tithe check since i got saved monday and i said okay he said mr hunt do i give off of the gross amount that i made or off the net and i posed a question i heard many years ago which do you want god to bless he said i want god to bless all of us i'd give off all of it you may say why would you use such a story i'm not being ugly but i've been in this business a long time because most people have never tithed it's not that the mission is too great our commitment level of supporting the mission needs to be enhanced so it was apparent god used this to move his heart you may say preacher johnny i just don't see it that's an honest statement that's a biblical statement the apostle peter it an amazing if god could use peter to write two letters in the bible god can use anybody in fact when god uh saved him let me tell you what i know about him in his early christian experience he still carried a knife he liked to cuss and he liked to fight are y'all following me and yet he had been saved he he needed god had to get some stuff out of him before he could fill him with more of his own stuff and he finally did and you know the story as well as i did by the end of his life when they went to crucify me said turn the cross upside down i'm not worthy to die like my savior but he wrote two books in the new testament first and second peter and second peter chapter one and verse nine listen to this for he who lacks these things and is talking about all of the fruit of the spirit and the characteristics of jesus he said he's short-sighted even to blindness and listen what happens when you begin short become short-sighted you forget that you were cleansed from your old sins i'm writing a new book and so i had to i had to read through for my ghostwriter my first chapter yesterday to verify that all of my dates and all i'd given him were accurate so i finished it on the plane coming down here uh yesterday and what i was writing is um how to be chapter one how to be a godly leader and the last statement that i made i made 12 statements about how to be a godly leader the last statement was this constantly go back in your mind and heart and rehearse your conversion experience too many of our people have gotten over getting saved you are to constantly rehearse what jesus did in your life well it caused him to be broken he sat down he evaluated he wept the scripture says and someone said it this way you're not ready to work until you've wept they that sow in tears shall reap enjoy psalms 126 verse 5. um he mourned many days it when a person begins to be broken it affects their time their talents and their treasures it affected everything about his life you no longer simply throw a little money in that direction you give yourself to the mission it caused them to be burdened he the bible says he began to fast he was desperate to see god move you know what verse i was quoting a moment ago i was always taught no prayer no power little prayer little power much prayer much power go a step further no purity no power purity power beatitudes jesus's greatest preaching blessed are the pure in heart present tense verb for they shall see god but you'll see him now and you'll be able to say that today when i was there i was studying the scriptures and god showed me this how did he show you this you saw him in the text say pray and and by the way i studied this and theologians believed that he didn't just pray he prayed for four months let me give you the last statement and then i'll start landing this plane number three he was committed in his petition you know paul here's here's how i prepared for this week and prayed for this week uh that i would preach near my story be a reminder of your story there was a beginning here just like one day nehemiah showed up in jerusalem a few preachers asked me hey i'm going to a new church what would you recommend i do my first year i said just go there and get your finger on the pulse find out what god's up to this week henry black could be celebrated a birthday one of the great honors of my life it's when henry blackaby was 80 years old the family called and said daddy has chosen you to be the keynote speaker at his retirement celebration however he does not want you to use the word retirement and it's his 80th birthday and he's in his very early stages of dementia so what i did i'd already read experience in god millions of copies have been sold but a new edition had come out a revised edition it was twice as large so i went and i read that before i preached for him that night but still with revised or whatever he wrote here's the key statement find out what god is up to and join him see you don't have to start anything for jesus are y'all listening you don't have to start anything for jesus jesus is already up to something you've just got to find out what he's up to and then join him in his activity and so god is already busy about doing a great work so he's committed to his petition so nehemiah petitioned god two things happened two things happen and this would be my prayer for this church this morning the burden from god grew greater so let's just say that for 10 years under your present pastor's ministry that maybe the burden from god has grown greater and that's why it's moved from maybe 20 nations 45 nations to 67 nations but listen to this as the burden from god grew greater the business for god grew clearer you know god can begin to make things clear crystal clear so you can say this is what we are to do and we all get on the same page and we're better together so begin in verse number five with adoration the lord god of heaven old great and awesome god i mean he recognizes god's superiority and his sovereignty god is over all and he's in charge of all so the greater listen to this the greater god became the nehemiah the smaller his problems became and so if if this morning we could get a fresh new glimpse uh let me illustrate this give a couple more points and and i will uh i'll finish maybe i love you you know this if you study your bible and if not i'm going to fill in the blanks if you've studied isaiah chapter six what's happening isaiah 6 uh king uzziah had died what's the big deal about king yuzai listen carefully he was one of god's best kings but listen carefully gosh this is good we're not remembered for how we've started we're not even remembered for what we did we are remembered for how we finished my wife let's see if anybody here likes this my wife loves nascar any nascar fans here that will admit it [Applause] my family owns a car so we went to a race the other night and went to bed at 1 30 in the morning from the race somebody said you love nascar no why'd you go i love janet we'll go home in the afternoon and a race will be on and she says honey do me a favor and i'll preach like my average three services in the morning what a friend we have in jesus y'all came together god bless you wanna hug all of you and so what she'll do she'll say um i'm gonna turn the tv on go ahead and get your pajamas on if you want to but watch this race and here's what i always say always if i fall asleep wake me up when there's 10 laps why why are y'all listening because to me all that matters is who wins and hey wait a minute wait a minute most races are won in the last 10 laps well what really matters is not how we started by the way it's not hard to start enthusiastically it's not even hard to stay enthusiastic for a while but for decade after decade after decade um king uzziah in his latter years i don't know what happened he had a bad day and you know what he did he he transgressed the law of god he went in and started telling the priest and the high priest what to do overstepped his boundaries and what did god do y'all listening god struck him with leprosy for the rest of his life the rest of his life and so he died so king why is isaiah there isaiah remembered the 25 plus years before this happened and he's mourning the death of a great king a very commendable passage but while he's there mourning the death of a dead king the living king shows up [Music] and so the bible says that he saw the lord and his train filled the temple and then what words did he begin to say don't miss this i'm going somewhere with this holy holy holy is the lord god almighty now listen to this please everybody pay attention press in right now here it is it is not until you see god for who he really is that you'll ever see yourself for who you really are these very next words i'm a man of unclean lips how'd you see that because when you get in the presence of the king you're not just aware that the king's there but the king makes you aware of who you are see some of you you feel good about who you are but i believe and i quote bill stafford the closer you get to jesus the less you will think of yourself and then so number one if you can see god for who he is then you see yourself for who you are wait a minute wait a minute here it is this is the mission of mission hill then you see the people around you for who they are then he said i i i live in the midst of a people of unclean lips the reason the average person doesn't care that their neighbor's going to hell the people they work with are going to hell their classmates are going to hell their family is going to hell is you've not gotten a glimpse of the king [Applause] so the greater god became to nehemiah the smaller his problem became and so then he makes a confession in verses six and seven he just he really just confesses how great god is and this is interesting because we laugh about this you laughed a moment ago do you hear what i said i said let me confess paul's sins did you know that that was an old testament trait look at your bible in verses six and seven you know what he did he said um first of all this is so good he said lord i'm your servant but uh israel has sinned against you i've sinned against you see again when you see how great god is the first thing you sense in your own life is the need for cleansing you know why people are in church that are judgmental of others it's because that's what you do horizontally you talk about how maybe you're better than others until you really get a glimpse of the king and then when you see the king for who he is you're not looking at others like i used to go to church before i was a christian i remember this because i was 20 years old managing a pool room high school dropout when god saved me raised by a single mom from seven until i came to christ and didn't meet uh really get to see my dad for 13 years after he left and so um i would go to church and what i would do and i believe the enemy helps us do this i would look around the church because i didn't normally go to church and i would see some of the people that i saw at the places i would go and it would make me feel pretty good because i think if he's going to heaven so am i i never thought like this i'm going to hell and he's going with me i just always thought if he's going to heaven so am i but but um when jesus shows up you no longer look across the aisles you look up and you see him for who he is and you see yourself for who you are there was a recollection he said remember your word uh and this is good i wrote this every now and then i write a decent statement here's one listen carefully it is not the promises that you make to god that matters it's the promises that god has made to you matter of fact uh i'm working with the group they called me again this week my wife and i were out in colorado springs recently to meet with the new ceo of promise keepers and i'm not being ugly but i'm going to make a statement we're not promise keepers i've broken promises i said i would and i haven't i said i wouldn't and i did or y'all listening am i the only one here with a past there's look at me there's only one promise keeper i mean seriously whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved that's that's god's speaking that's how i know i'm going to heaven he you you asked student pastor you ask uh two questions have you repented of your sins put your faith in jesus christ and then are you confident when if something happens to you you're gonna spend eternity with christ the only reason we can say that is not because of the promise he just made to jesus it's the promise jesus made to him [Applause] not everyone that says unto me lord lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of the father which is in heaven in that day many will you say will say unto me we did many wonderful works in your name and jesus will say i never knew you see the big deal here today is not first and foremost and i know jesus but first and foremost that jesus knows me see there's people you claim to know there's people you claim to know but you don't they don't know you most of the athletes that you follow they don't know you but you know them my wife and i this was years ago we were at a braves game and we were sitting out in the outfield and and that's when dale murphy played with them and these guys were sitting down in front of me and they had a whole cooler full of embalming fluid and they were drinking during the uh the worship service the worship service they were drinking during the ballgame and uh and and uh dale murphy every time dale would come to the outfield i've never forget as long as you live there hey dale we love you man we love you dale never looked up because wait a minute this is the way it is at church they claimed to know dale but dale didn't know them that's how people are in church they claim to know jesus they call his name but the real question is he know you is your name when the role is called up yonder and there will be a role because you register for heaven when you repent but then finally and the ending was over i'll never forget as long as i live and there was a guy sitting down closer to the fence and janet and i were nearing and here's what he said hey daryl and daryl looked up and called him by name uh he knew them so whatever you do here there's more don't get all into the hype of this service because you call his name but he doesn't know you i need verse number 10 and i'm through there it is i've got to quit 45 minutes sometimes paul this is a good word for you and i sometimes we take too much responsibility for some of them i put it in my notes i didn't quote it yet i'll quote it now charles spurgeon said i can no more change a life then i can create a star the pressure's off pastor paul he can't change any of you only jesus can so he refers to him and it's worth uh reading here in verse number 10 because i meditated on this verse this morning so listen to this now these are your servants did you see that paul these people right here this morning they're not your servants or myself they're yours and they're your people whom you redeemed by your great power and your strong hand now he's trying to get them to buy in to build the walls around the city but they're not his servants they're god's servants you belong to christ and and see even in paul's life the greatest call in his life is not to be your pastor the greatest call in his life is when god called him to himself and saved him and so in verse 10 11 nehemiah prays to be successful in his campaign and he says and i want you to give me a favor in the sight of this man in the sight of king early artixies and i'm just um cupbearer but i'm your servant that's the game changer right there here's his servant um i know paul's going to have me back sometime and when he does i hope he'll say uh we're 75 nations um we're we're growing exponentially um you look around in here and you say boy what this who wouldn't want this there's probably 90 or better of the seats taking 95 of the seats taken it's wonderful here to honor your pastor most of all come to worship his king but there's so much work yet to be done there there's gates not all the gates have been mended around temple terrace there's still some walls down and everybody worked they even worked when it was dangerous there was one time they had a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other there were one time that the the threats were so intense that they gave each of the wall sections a trumpet and they said if they come against you in large number blow the trump and we'll all rally there together why because they're better together let me tell you what would be good today and this is the invitation here's what would be good it'd be great if someone this morning surrendered their life to jesus uh god god say that way heaven would rejoice in our worship um the bible says there is uh there's actually praise in the presence of god in the presence of his angels when a sinner repents number two maybe there's some of you visiting and listen to this and you live in this community and this is what you kind of consider church if someone say to you where do you go to church you say i'm a mission healed church but you have not joined i don't know why my mind thinks like this but i had this thought 35 years ago some of you moved to this community and brought everything valuable but your membership you brought your washing machine but you didn't bring your membership give me a break you know your church membership belonging to the local body means more than that so um so maybe you'd come and join but the vast majority what if you did this what if you me made a fresh new decade commitment that by the grace of god i'm going to join hands with my pastor and his family and i'm going to let god use me i'm going to put my yes on the table and let god fill in the blank see some of you are you have a request and you're asking god to grant those requests and you try to get jesus to sign it at the bottom so what you did you said lord give me this this this and this and i pray it in jesus name and by the way and if he doesn't do it just like you ask him you get ticked off there's only one thing wrong you're putting yourself in his place here's what i recommend you do offer your life as a blank sheet sign it at the bottom and ask jesus to fill it in that's what it means to surrender sanctify the lord god in your heart first peter 3 15. but i wonder how many majority there are hundreds of you here what if you would this morning say freshen and it i want to surrender to the next decade no reservation pray with me ask our instrumentalists just to begin playing softly as you can and i want you to listen to my appeal if you'd say this morning pastor johnny i don't have the assurance that if i were to draw my last breath today as we heard a moment ago in the baptism pool and i'd spend eternity with jesus but let me ask you this did you know that god loves you as jstrack said god loves you just like you are but he loves you too much to leave you like you are did you know you can be saved right where you said if you're on the back row you're down front you can be saved right where you are squire parsons wrote a song it's entitled he came to me we sang it at my mother's funeral when i could not come to where he was he came to me he'll come to you if you're saying this morning pastor johnny i believe jesus died for my sins and as we heard him when we go to baptism pool and i acknowledge that i'm a sinner and i want jesus christ to forgive me of my sins and i want to surrender my life to him as lord and savior is that your desire if it is i want to lead you in a prayer to receive him right now pray this prayer with me in your heart god knows your heart pray it to him now dear lord jesus just tell him dear lord jesus i need you i know that i cannot save myself come into my heart forgive me of my sins i'm sorry for my sins and save me thank you for dying for me help me to live for you and thank you this morning for hearing my prayer and for saving me now help me to never be ashamed of knowing you heads bowed eyes closed i'm not going to come to you i'm not going to embarrass you i'm not going to point you out i don't have the eyes of jesus i can't look into your heart i don't know what you've done soon my wife and i will make our way back through atlanta then back over to the beach but i'd sure like to know and rejoice with you in my heart that you've surrendered to jesus today so right where you sit if you say pastor johnny god knows my heart when you prayed i prayed along with you today i'm saying an eternal yes to jesus christ i'm trusting him to save me would you slip your hand up in the air for just a moment just put it up put it up high enough for me to see it god bless you ma'am others god bless you ma'am in the back put it up high it's a big old building so i can see others just put it up put it up in the air in the back god bless you ma'am others join these three at least that i've seen and probably others is very difficult to see all the way in the back but if you're in the back on either one of those sides and you prayed with me would you slip your hand up in the air for just a moment with you put it up put it up all the way up all the way up god bless you others others at least four have prayed with me to receive christ anybody else last time i asked last time i asked slip it up slip it up slip it up and then put it right back down how many of you say this morning i'm i'm visiting here but i'm believing this is the church god would have me to be a part of and and i want to pray for you i promise that's all i'm going to do is pray for you let me see your hands all over the building this is where i'm visiting hands are going up put them up this is where i'm visiting but i believe this is the church god wants me to call home slip them up slip them up slip them up now last but not least how many of you say this is home i'm here to celebrate the first decade of my pastor but i want to make a fresh new commitment without reservation i want to surrender a fresh and new to jesus christ and for the will of god for the next decade let me see your hands let me see your hands paul there's a lot of hands all over the building and they're holding them high you can put your hands down don't you look this way for this morning everybody look this way paul you or one of your staff i'm going to ask you to come and i'm going to ask those of you that pray to receive jesus i like what my friend tony nolan says if you meant it mission mention it i prayed a biblical passage romans 10 12. romans 10 12 says whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed jesus said if you're ashamed of me in this sinful and adulterous generation i will be ashamed of you when i come with my father what does it mean to be ashamed turn their face away from you i don't want jesus to turn his face away from me he said he's not ashamed to call me his brother god forbid that i'd be ashamed to call him my father and my savior so if you trusted christ they're going to be here to receive everyone simply come and say i prayed with pastor johnny and they'll give you the next steps some of you said you believe this is the church god happy to be a part of you'll never forget when somebody says how long have you been a member at mission hill i joined on my pastor's 10th anniversary wow you'll not forget to be easy to remember and then many of you are making a fresh new commitment and i don't want to be dramatic but i don't want to miss a moment god may lead you to just slip over where paul is and not take a lot of time to just say my yes is on the table i'm with you this is a big day this is 10 years let's stand all over the building we're standing [Music] i want to pray and then we're going to begin to sing father in the name of jesus we surrender this invitation to you it's yours i confess with spurgeon of old i can no more change a life then i can create a star i can't prompt anyone to respond only jesus can but i pray that a holy ghost of god would lead this invitation and it would be blessed of god have your will and way in salvation in family membership and those that are just putting their yes on the table for the next decade in the name of jesus have your way for christ

Channel: Mission Hill Church

Views: 123

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: #JohnnyHunt #SundayJune62021 #PaulSPurvis10anniversary

Id: 1--KgWj7Vps

Length: 60min 49sec (3649 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 08 2021