0053S Rebuilding Walls, Reforming Hearts: Nehemiah1 Field Manual for Households at War

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CWM Outro with drums

Chapters

• 1:06 Welcome & Mission Rally
• 2:23 Reformation Day Plans & Stance on Halloween
• 2:55 Training Announcements: Triad & Shield Guardian
• 3:24 The Seven Battlefields of the Christian Warrior Life
• 7:04 Community Support, Vulnerability, and Accountability
• 7:54 Warrior Catechism: The Armor of God
• 8:44 Opening Prayer & Purpose
• 9:53 The Lord’s Prayer & ACTS Framework
• 11:21 Nehemiah: From Ruin to Resolve
• 13:16 How We Win: Small Acts and Steady Work
• 14:35 Lessons to Learn in Nehemiah
• 16:43 Historical Setup: Exile to Return
• 19:28 Why the Walls Matter: Security, Worship, Justice
• 23:07 Today’s Breaches and Our Response
• 26:31 Reading Nehemiah 1: Report, Grief, and Prayer
• 29:29 Confession, Covenant Promises, and Grace
• 33:54 Pray for Favor: Vocation as Outpost
• 36:33 Household Drills: Recon, Confession, Blessing
• 39:55 Thirty-Day Rule of Life: Seven Battlefields
• 41:52 Quotes, Charge, and Closing Prayer
• 43:23 Communion and Benediction

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:27

Welcome to the Christian Warrior Mission. Happy Lord's Day to you. Welcome to our home church, community, ministry, and farm forging Christian Warriors for today's challenges. Advance on every front, every day. No excuse, no retreat. All right, some things coming up. Put on your calendar. Reformation Day, Friday the 31st. I made an executive decision. We are going to do it on Friday, not Saturday. And let the chips fall where they may. So come on over. We'll do dinner and fire and all that stuff and trick-or-treater games here. And it'll be that instead of a nice little afternoon thing. But I'm not surrendering Halloween to the Dark Forces, which are all going to be out on that day. We will be here cranking Jesus music, dressed in righteous costumes, showing people that you don't have to be a hooker on Halloween or a sexy devil or you know, a pregnant nun or a zombie or an axe murderer. And I'm sure there's gonna be some tasteless Charlie Kirk uh costumes out there. So don't come here, it won't end well for you. So um, but for all of us, we'll have kids dressed up as cows and pigs, and you know, Lauren will be a milkmaid and whatever. We'll I'll I'll put on this helmet. So there you go. All right. So we're not gonna surrender that. It'll be here Friday, the 31st of October, Reformation Day, which is the day that Martin Luther nailed his thesis on the Catholic Church doors, which started the Protestant Reformation. Okay, just so happens that it's also Halloween. So the same, they're both on the same day. So we're gonna do that. The other thing is this week, Lauren and I are gonna sit down, we're gonna iron out uh the triad and shield guardian trainings that we're gonna do, which is teaching godly disciplings, combatives, which is striking, grappling, pistol, rifle, fundamentals, situational awareness, and biblical relationships. All in one weekend. All right. So we're gonna do that, and we're gonna do that here, and then we're gonna do it on the road. So be looking for that. Some things that we do here, okay. Those of you who have been following us know that we deliberately live the Christian warrior life. Okay, we deliberately live the Christian warrior life, and we pursue the following: faith, family, fitness, finances, fundamentals, fellowship, and fidelity, all in a godly way. We submit our lives to those seven battlefields. Okay, now some of you out there are still doing the challenge with me, but it's no longer the challenge. We've changed that. I've done massive remodeling to it. Now it is just the Christian warrior life, right? That's what we do. The first 90 days is the forging, so everyone can go through that and you'll be coached along the way. There's no more scoring, no more grace tickets, no nothing. Post when you want. Now, obviously, if you only post once every six months, your life's gonna continue to suck, and you're gonna be like, why does my life suck? Well, it's because you suck and you're not doing things like you said you were gonna do. That's why. So, and and if you're wondering why your life's getting great, it's because you're doing it every day. That's why you're submitting to your Lord and Savior, you're putting faith first, Bible, praying, family. Why are my relationships so good? Oh, because you're actually deliberately investing in them. That's why. Why is your fitness better? Oh, because you're making sure you're working out every day, or at least getting 10,000 steps or whatever is a lot for you, right? Why are finances getting better? Well, because you got rid of the$2,000 a month in auto drafts that you have for things that you don't use anymore. Fundamentals, why how are you becoming so useful? Well, you've decided to deliberately make yourself useful. You're learning skills, okay? Um, fellowship. Man, my life's getting so good. I got so many godly friends, they're all dragging me straight to heaven. It's great. Instead of, man, my life sucks. Everyone wants to go out and drink and do drugs and all this stuff, and I don't know why, I don't know why I feel so bad. Oh, it's because you hang out with ticks and hellions that are trying to drag you back into the the sewage that we pulled you out of. Okay, that God pulled you out of. All right, other Christians pulled you out of, and then fidelity. Why does anyone trust me? Because you're not a man of your word. You haven't kept your word to Christ, you haven't kept your word to your spouse, you are a betrayer. But not if you deliberately pursue fidelity. See, there's random reason to this stuff, all right? So that's what we do here. So you can find that on Patreon. Just look at Christian Moyne Mission and join. And it's a 90-day thing that you on-ramp, but it's something you should be doing for the rest of your life, and that's basically what we're treating it as. And it's not, like I got rid of all the suck factor, it's a support group. That's all it is, is a support group. Right? The support group can sit there and say, Bran, you, you know, I'll pick an easy one. Man, I really haven't feel like I've, you know, grown in the Lord. Well, you've posted nothing for faith for the past 30 days. Maybe you should get in your Bible, right? Whereas when you see other the other thing that's so great is we got men on there and women on there being so vulnerable, talking about kids with traumatic brain injuries and how they're dealing with it after they've gone off to the military and come back, and fighting lifelong sin patterns of their self. Right? Like people honestly working through stuff that you can learn a lot from. You can learn an awful lot from. So join it. Join it. And and and stop wandering aimlessly like you don't have a destination. It's like getting in a car and driving, you don't know where you're going. You need to know what you're aiming at. That's what this is. It's about deliberately walking it out. Okay, done with my rant on that. Now to Warrior Catechism week seven. We believe in catechism. Why? You need to know what you believe and how to defend it. Okay, so I'm gonna skip the first six and just go to seven because we're late because of the Charlie Kirk memorial. All right, Warrior, what is your armor? Okay, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel and the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, fortified by persistent prayer. Okay, now if you read your Bible, none of those should be a uh surprise to you. So, warrior, what is your armor? Belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes of the gospel, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the spirit, fortified with persistent prayer. Last time, Warrior, what is your armor? The belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes of the gospel, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the spirit, fortified by persistent prayer. All right. Let's go ahead and go to prayer, shall we? Almighty God, commander of heaven's armies, you alone are our refuge, our fortress, and our faithful creator. We come low before your throne, confessing that our walls have crumbled, where we have been prayerless, careless, and proud. Forgive us for our sins of the heart and of the household. Clean us by the blood of Jesus, renew us in a right spirit. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh upon us. Awaken holy sorrow that leads to real repentance. Stir courageous faith that prays big prayers and obeys without delay. Bend the hearts of rulers as streams of water in your hand. Teach our hands to war and our fingers for battle, sword in one hand, trowel in the other, so that everything we do today magnifies in the name of Jesus and strengthens your people. Set a watch over our lips, unity in our ranks, and joy in our labor. Establish the work of our hands, establish it for the honor of Christ our King. Amen. Now, that is a specific sermon for what we're going to talk about today, which we are starting the book of Nehemiah today. Right? Nehemiah, it's the amazing book. It's one of my favorite books. Top three favorite book of the Bible because it is so relevant. And uh, and we'll go over why that is. But if you're looking for an example on why we should pray, that isn't as elaborate as that one. Well, our Lord Jesus gave us one. I'm not going to teach it, but I'm going to go through it today, as we always do. Matthew 9, or sorry, 6, 9 through 13. Okay, and I'm reading out of the Legacy Standard Bible, but you can read out of the ESV or anything you want. Here we go. Pray then in this way, our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Alright. So we also talked last week on a nice orderly way to pray, which was Axe ACTS. Or eight, yeah, ACTS. Right? Yes. It's been a long week. I can't even spell Axe. I got it right. I'm gonna write. Okay. All right. So today's sermon is called Nehemiah from Ruin to Resolve, from Nehemiah 1. All right. Now, Nehemiah is in the Old Testament, you know, and it is was often, well, it was part of Ezra. You know, this, you know, a lot of people don't know that, but I believe it was part of Ezra for a long time. Um, it's been separated. But here we go. Nehemiah is not just a history book, it's a field manual for rebuilding God's people while surrounded. The city is broken, enemies jeer from every side, and yet in 52 days, a wall rises because of what because one man wept, prayed, planned, and worked with a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other. This is how households and home churches fight against the darkness. Not by rage or retreat, but by repentance, scripture, disciplined prayer, stubborn obedience, and action. It's real easy, as we covered last week, the uh the wickedness of the Charlie Kirk assassination. The memorial was today, it was running here, and uh that's why we were a little late. We were waiting for President Trump to be done. Um, and in that, I told you what how we win by doing small things. Okay, by doing the small things, by little acts of kindness and good is how we push back against this. But we have to deliberately do other things as well. All right, this is going to be a massive project. You're gonna see Nehemiah do over the next few weeks as we go through it. It's an amazing story with characters and a cast, and you know, it's not like some abstract teaching. This is this is great stuff. So, again, let's do it. So, in Nehemiah, we will learn the following. This is gonna cover everything from as we go forward. We'll learn to pray first. Arrow prayers in con in in battle. Pray arrows, okay? Your prayers are arrows. Face the rubble, honest reconnaissance without excuses. Look at your life. Why does it suck? Okay, look at it. What sucks in your life? What part are you refusing to look at? That corner right there. In this room, okay, build and work as families. Every household owns a section of the wall. You'll see that. Guard the work, watchmen. A trumpet rally, watchmen are set, guards are set. Everyone is responsible for the family's protection and rally when you hear the trumpet. Do justice inside the camp. There is no revival without repentance and repair. Okay? If you've got a cancer in your mix, you've got to fix it or else it will kill you. Ignore the bait, refuse distractions. I am doing great work and cannot come down. That's what you need to say. I'm doing great work. I'm not gonna be distracted. You are working for the king, you're not gonna get pulled off into something worldly. And be renewed by the word. Read it, explain it, weep over it, walk in it. This manual is household first. Before Nehemiah challenges nations, he assigns families to rebuild the stretch of the wall. Before the city sings, the people confess. Before strategies and supplication, before strategies, sorry, supplication. Prayer is out to the Lord to intervene. Charles Spurgeon said, prayer is the slender nerve, small tiny nerve, that moves the muscle of omnipotence, which is God. Prayer is the small tiny nerve that moves this giant muscle of omnipotence, which is the Lord. Nehemiah shows us how that nerve flexes. Private tears become public courage, hidden fasting becomes visible fortitude. So if you feel outnumbered, outshouted, or hemmed in by the darkness, take up this book. Learn to turn lament into leverage, scripture into strategy, and ordinary homes into fortified outposts of light. We are not building monuments to ourselves, we are raising gates for the king. Now let's open the manual and march line by line. So before we start, let me set the stage. Well, the first third is not that. I'd say that the next probably third of the Bible is betrayal of Israel, betraying God forgiving them repenting, God forgiving them, re remaking them, and then them betraying, and then getting smacked down, and then repenting, and then God forgiving them and bringing them back, and over and over. This is one of those. So they were exiled out of Israel for covenant treason. We see this in 2 Kings 17. Uh, 2 Kings 17 25. Yet in sovereign mercy, Yahweh stirred a Persian king or Persian kings to repatriate them. We see this in Ezra 1:1 and Proverbs 21.1. The temple rises under, there's a rubber bell. Holy smokes, don't make me say that too much. In Ezra 1 through 6. The world revives under Ezra in Ezra 7 through 10, but Jerusalem's walls lie shattered, a symbol of vulnerability and divine reproach. Enter Nehemiah, cupbearer in Persia's citadel, transformed into God's field marshal for a fortified rebuild. How does this point to Christ? Nehemiah foreshadows the ultimate rebuilder, Jesus Christ, who gathers scattered exiles into his church. Through his blood, he erects impregnable walls of holiness, demolishing sin's strongholds, and establishing a city whose gates never shut to the repentant nations. As Reformed theology teaches us, this is all of grace. Christ initiates, sustains, and perfects the work. So, in 60 seconds, warriors of the cross. Today we stormed the gates of Nehemiah, God's covenant people, fresh from exile, had rebuilt the temple, but Jerusalem's walls and gates were rubble heaps, inviting raids, shame, chaos on the city, bear on the city bearing Yahweh's name. Picture all the rape, plunder, murder, crime that we saw in this country with our open borders, except it's much smaller in location. It's not a giant nation. We're talking about a really small one, one town. Picture New York City or Chicago on its worst day. Nehemiah, an elite operative in Persia's palace, so he's a cupbearer for the king, which is like a bodyguard for the king. Okay, it's not just he just drinks. He is one of the most trusted people of the king. Receives intel, breaks down in tears, fasts, and unleashes a barrage of prayer. God deploys him to rally the ranks. Prayer fuels plans, confession clears the field, and the families lock shields to fortify the breach. This saga mirrors Jesus, our sovereign builder, restoring ruined souls and communities for eternal glory. In this series, we'll drill down on rebuilding our families, our church, and our nation, God's way, with sword in one hand and trowel in the other. Yahweh chose Israel as his vanguard to illuminate the nations. We see this in Genesis 12, 3 and Exodus 19, 5 through 6. They mutinied, covenants shattered, prophets silenced, judgment fell. Assyria raised the north in 722 BC. Babylon torched Jerusalem and the temple in 586 BC, exiling Judah. Persia overruns Babylon in 539 BC. A divine providence turns pagan kings into allies for Jewish return. Ezra through Nehemiah era. That's where we're at. The timeline, I already just went over that. So where are we in Nehemiah 1? Susa, Persia's winter fortress, Nehemiah the king's cupbearer, right? Again, this trusted, almost like bodyguard, high clearance intel roll under our tax Xerces. Okay. He hears the walls are breached, the gates are torched, God's people exposed and shamed. And his response is lament, you know, sadness, fast, prayer, confessional, confessing national depravity, claiming covenant grace. Okay? The cast of characters, Nehemiah. He's a lay strategist, meaning he's not some great general. He later becomes governor and he's a model for vigilant leadership. He is the guy we all want to work for. He's really, really, really great leader. Ezra, a priest scribe, a law enforcer. You'll see her in Nehemiah 8. Our Tax Xerxes, pagan overlord, providentially swayed. God softened his heart to do this, you'll see. Sandbalat, Tobiah, and Geshem. These are any command enemy commanders from Sumeria, Amon, and Arabia, mockers and saboteurs. And then Elisheib, high priest, later exposed for compromise in Nehemiah 13. Why the walls matter? Security, no walls, raiders playground, like poor's national borders borders that are we are still dealing with that chaos. The identity, rubble mocks God's honor. A call to conservatives to defend biblical values against cultural erosion. Worship, stability secures Sabbath, festivals and temple life. Right? You can't do any of these holy things when you've got chaos going on around you. Injustice, gates, which have been burned, host verdicts and mercy, rebuilt and restore righteous order. Okay. The spiritual problem behind the rubble. Physical decay exposes spiritual sabotage, idolatry, injustice, and sabbath neglect. Nehemiah launches from the prayer trench, not the brick pile. True warfare is spiritual and physical. As Calvin notes in his institute, Institutes, human depravity demands divine initiative. We confess to alignment God's electing grace. So here we go. So prayer in Nehemiah, right now, what we're going to cover. Prayer and deployment, verses one and two, wall assault three through six, people reformation seven through twelve, and purge compromise 13. Themes to listen for as we get ready to read this. Providence, kings' hearts turn like water in God's hands. Prayer as warfare. Every offensive starts in the prayer bunker. Covenant repentance, corporate and personal. Owning your sin, owning your sin, owning total depravity is the beginning of everything good. Word-centered renewal. Hear, understand, and obey. Resolve under fire, external taunts, eternal betrayal, and steadfast command. You must be resolved under all those. Reforming the front lines, Sabbath, marriage, finances, government, all under scripture. Why this matters today? Today's breaches look like prayerless families and moral relativism, compromise worship, and fatherless homes. Nehemiah drills us, lament the ruins, confess the sin and the depravity, volley God's promises in prayer, strategize, build with eternal vigilance, reform under the word, ranks, fall in, repent, rally, request, rebuild, defend the perimeter. Our children's legacy demands and depends on it. So here we go. Nehemiah 1 through 4. Nehemiah prays for the sons of Israel. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakalah, Hakaliah. I should want to cut my tongue out sometimes. Now it happens in the month of Chislev in the 20th year, and I was in Susa, the capital, right? That Hananai, one of my brothers, and some men from Judah came, and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and remained from the captivity about Jerusalem. They said to me, the remnant there in the province who remain from the captivity are in great calamity and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and the gates are burned with fire. Now it happens that when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days. And I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. Anani's report, walls down, gates of flame, great troubled reproach, public humiliation, God's name is being dragged through the mud. Nehemiah collapses, weeps, mourns, fasts, and prays. A true warrior's intel sparks holy grief, not hasty action. Again, that's how much to these people and how much it should matter to us of how holy and how much we should love God. That here is his city being completely dishonored. And he hears that and it crushes his very soul. Proverbs in Psalms, uh, in Psalm 137, 5 and 6, exile, Zion tears, and then in Proverbs 17, 20, broken spirits have strength, but godly sorrow fuels fight. Church Father, John Chrysostom, tears siege heaven's gates. Our tears siege heaven's gates. Application, scout your breaches, your family are your family altars crumbling. Is your church outreach stalled? Is your nation's morals eroding? Grieve righteously. Let it forge resolve. As Americans, we mourn cultural decay, but advance with biblical blueprints. All right, we all suck in some way. I'm gonna say it. I suck in more ways than most. Okay, there are parts of your life that are absolutely a catastrophe. And you don't want to look at them, and you don't want to fix them, and you'll work on anything other than that, because that's where your sin is. That's the part you don't want to touch, that's the part that's too hard. You don't have a city without walls and gates. All you have is a crime-spewn place where people happen to inhabit, where everyone's victimized every day. Same is for you. Sin is assaulting you. It's got places it loves to hide in your life that you refuse to bring the light of God to. Find them, fix them. Nehemiah 5 through 10. There's only 11 verses, okay? So you guys are gonna get out of here easy. I said, I beseech you, oh Yahweh, the God of heaven, the great and fearsome God who keeps the covenant covenant and loving kindness, for those who love him and keep his commandments. Let your ear now be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of what? Your slave, which I am praying before you today, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel. The sons of Israel, your slaves, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel, which we have sinned against you. I and my father's house have sinned. We have worked in utter destruction against you, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments which you commanded your servant Moses. Remember the word which you commanded your servant Moses, saying that if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples. Okay, so we're gonna pause right there, pick it up in verse nine. Here is Nehemiah owning his entire ancestry's sin, saying, I have sucked, my family has sucked, my people have sucked, we have betrayed you, you have done right by us, we have done wrong to you. We are sorry, we repent, we own it, we don't deny it, we don't justify it, we don't come up with a million excuses on why it happened. We own it, we say we sucked, we're sorry. That's what all of us need to do for one another. That's what all of us need to do, and you would find resentment melt away, you would find relationships restored. Owning your mistakes takes away the power to be used against you, and that's what he's doing here, and then he's gonna quote God's promise back to him. But again, so again, Moses saying, If you are faithful, I will scatter you among the peoples. Verse nine but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though those of you who have been banished were at the ends of the sky, I will gather them from there and will bring them to a place that I have chosen to call to cause my name to dwell. There they are your slaves, and your people whom you redeemed by your great power and your strong hand. All right. Again, he is doing what Paul has done and called himself, I am a slave to Christ. And what we see other disciples do, I'm a slave to Christ. Because you're owned by him. So Yahweh, God of heaven, great and awesome. Theology arms the warrior, covenant recall. Nehemiah owns the his own collective depravity for his entire people. We in my house have sinned. Confession raises inner forts. Verses 8 and 90 claims promises, scattering for sin, gathering in mercy. Sola gratia, God restores the undeserving. Proverbs 28:13, confess for mercy. Contrite hearts, God honors. We see that in Psalm 51:17. Church Father Augustine said, confession unlocks mercy's vault. Okay, when you confess to someone, you unlock the vault of their heart for forgiveness and grace. Total depravity demands covenant grace. We contribute nothing but sin. Drill corporate repentance. Families. Unite against shared treason. Arm prayers with scripture promises. Load and fire without cease. It's talking about prayers. Firing without ceasing. Own where you're failing. Own your godlessness. Own everything around you that you can affect. And that's happened before you because sin is generational and is passed down. You have to break the sin chain. And then pray those prayers and promises. God restore us. Save I come to you humbly. Recognize Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Repent, and you will be restored. And then the last verse, Nehemiah 1:11. Oh Lord, I beseech you. May your ear be attentive to the prayer of your slave and the prayer of your slaves who delight to fear your name and make your slave successful today. And grant him compassion before this man. Now I was the cupbearer to the king. He's getting ready to go to the cupbearer. I mean, as cupbearer to the king. And you'll see in the next chapter, he's going to ask to leave court and to go fix Jerusalem. But that's the story's for next week. Grant success, compassion before this man. Our tax Xerxes, and I am sure I am saying that wrong, or our Art of Xerxes, Artiserces, maybe? Who knows? If I showed it to you, you'd be like, holy smokes, might be manipulated by Yahweh. Mighty yet manipulated by Yahweh. Nehemiah's post, strategic outpost for kingdom ops. Proverbs and Psalms, Proverbs 21, King's heart channeled. And then plans granted. Jerome said, Providence plows scepters like soil. Meaning God's providence will move kingdoms. Your vocation is a forward base. Where you work, what you do every day, who you interact with, leverage it for Christ advance. Pray ball specific requests. Watch for God open doors. So some things we need to do doing the book, during the book of Nehemiah moving forward that I recommend. Five-minute recon. Think about your household. Spot one breach, whether it's you're not doing family devotions and then neglected it, right? You're not praying as a family, you're not singing as a family, you're not talking about God, you're not catechizing. Whatever it is in your home, you're not doing that for yourself. Never mind your kids. Bombard it. Bombard it. Confession drill, 10 minutes. Read Psalm 51. As a family, name we sins, sins that your family's been doing. And then I sins. Okay, things that you've been doing. I recommend you write down Deuteronomy 33 through 4 on your word journal. Fire it into the darkest times. Again, list we sins, family patterns, and I sins personal, then confess to God as fitting to one another. So if you've sinned against someone, say you sinned against them. I'm sorry, please forgive me. Done. Now if they bring it up in another argument, they're sinning. It's been dealt with. So here's what I recommend you do for family as a family, or if you don't have a family by yourself. Read one uh Psalm 103.1, and which is really short. Bless, you know, but you've heard it in a lot of Psalms. In the LSB, it's bless Yahweh, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. And your Bible probably says, Bless the Lord of my soul, all that is within me, bless his holy name. Okay. Read one Psalm proverb or section. Pray. Each person offers one sentence of confession, thanks, and requests. So when you're praying as a family, each person, if they're old enough and they understand it, says one thing they did wrong and they repent. Okay. Um, and then or a thanks or a request, a prayer for God on something to be to be asked for. And then read number 624 over your household, which is Yahweh bless you and keep you. Yahweh make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. Yahweh lift up his face upon you and give you peace. Marriage and parents, huddle two times a week, 20 minutes minimum. Confess to each other and forgive. Choose one habit to rebuild this week. Okay. Husband and wives pray together. It's the first thing that falls away with the Lord and I. We we stop praying together because we're so busy. We let the kids pull us in directions, schedules pull us in directions, and we do not take the time to lock hands and lock souls to pray together, and that's the most powerful thing we have. Okay. And we do, you know, share a meal, share a meal with someone. 30-day household rule of life. Focus on the seven battlefields. Okay. This week choose one habit per battlefield. Some examples. Faith. For prayer, kneel for five minutes each morning. Kneel and pray for five minutes each morning. Even if you run out of things to say, stay there. Five minutes. Period. I got bad knees, I take my purple pillow, put it on the ground, that's where I do mine. Okay. No drama. Read one chapter of the Bible, either alone or together, before breakfast or after dinner. Family confess and repent to one another. I covered that. We're just recapping this. For fitness, walk 10,000 steps a day or whatever is a lot for you. Fundamentals, if you can carry concealed, carry concealed every day, everywhere. Finances, track your spending. Set first fruits giving. If you're not being blessed, I guarantee you, unless it's because you're making a ton of bad mistakes, if you're not honoring God and you're not donating to somebody somewhere and using the kingdom, using your funds for somebody other than you, somebody other than you, in God's name, that's your that's what's going on. Fellowship, call a friend every day, tell them how much they mean to you, and share the gospel. And then fidelity. Park your phones and your iPads during mealtimes, and no phones during family worship. Some famous quotes to go over, and then we'll do um, we'll pray it out and then do Lord's Supper. So Charles Spurgeon, prayer is the slender. All right, I covered that one already. John Owen, be killing sin or it will be killing you. I love that. Be killing sin or it will be killing you. Hudson Taylor, God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply. Corey Tenboom. Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire? Ouch, how does that one hurts? Right? Doesn't that hurt? Go to God only when you get a flat tire and not oh where you're going. Oof. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Psalms of the Prayer Book of the Bible. JC Rao, prayer is the very breath of spiritual life. Matthew Henry, when God intends great mercy for his people, he first sets them praying. And then C.S. Lewis, relying on God has to begin all over again every day, as if nothing had yet been done. So conclusion, Nehemiah 1 declares ruins as God's rally point. There, warriors lament, confess, recall God's electing grace, and petition the eternal commander for victory. The rebuild begins in the prayer bunker and advances into the breach. Psalm 9017 says, Establish the work of our hands. Sharpen blades, hoist trowels, orders, rise, build, hold the line. Lord of hosts, anchor us in your covenant mercy. Make us quick to repent, mighty in prayer, steady in labor, fearless in the face of mockery, and turn the hearts of rulers, strengthening the weak, and establishing justice inside our gates. For Jesus' sake, amen. All right. But a man must test himself, and in doing so is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. Before we partake, let us quietly bow before the King of Glory. Let each man and woman, young warrior here search his or her heart, confessing sin, laying down burdens, preparing to eat and drink, and a man worthy of the Lord. Go ahead now. Almighty God, Sovereign Lord of hosts, we approach your table today not because we are worthy, but because Christ is worthy. We come not trusting in our own righteousness, but clinging to the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. We remember his body broken, his blood poured out for the new covenant. We bow in humble gratitude. We lift our hearts in reverent awe. Sanctify this bread in this cup and sanctify us, your people, as we proclaim the death, resurrection, and coming kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray in his mighty matchless name. Amen. The Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was betrayed, took the bread, and when he had given it, given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this and remember to me. Remember, this symbolizes his body, pierced, beaten, and sacrificed for you. Let us partake of the bread together and remember Christ's body broken for us. Go ahead and eat. In the same way, he took the cup also after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. Remember, this symbolizes his blood, the blood that perhaps starts forgiveness and sealed the everlasting covenant. Let us partake of the cup together to remember Christ's blood poured out for us. Go ahead and drink. For as long as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. By this eating and drinking, we publicly proclaim Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again. Let us pray. Captain of real salvation, Lord Jesus Christ, you are seated at the Father's right hand, and your scepter stretches from Zion. Today we have wept, and now we rise. Take our grief and forge it into steadfastness. Make us doers of the word and not hearers only, by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our witness. Teach us not to love our lives unto death, but to love your name above all. In Jesus' name we pray. May the God of peace who trains your hands for war and your fingers for battle, steady your hearts in grace, fortify your homes with truth, and surround your gates with his salvation. May the Lord of Jesus, our cornerstone and captain, go before you, stand beside you, and guard your rear. May the Holy Spirit strengthen your knees in prayer, your minds in Scripture, and your love in every good work until the joy of the Lord is your strength and every breach is made whole. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. God bless you. See you tomorrow.