Did you know that the Bible mentions the heart over 600 times, and the book of Proverbs references it almost 100 times. What I am getting at is, the heart is a big deal. The question we need to ask is, why is the heart a big deal?

Ultimately what we see is, when it comes to Rising Up in life, what we need is not a ne challenge, a new vision, or new walls. The book of Nehemiah reminds us that what we need to Rise Up is a new heart.

We all need prayer. However, those who are self-sufficient do not pray, those who are self-satisfied will not pray, and those who are self-righteous cannot pray. The failure does not have to be the end of your story, repentance and God’s faithfulness are yours for the asking.

The people had returned from exile and there was not a regular hearing or reading of God’s Word. The people asked for the Word to be read, they wanted to hear it. They built a platform for the sole purpose of having the priest proclaim the Word of God (aka preaching). There was something missing in life of Israel and they wanted it back. They wanted to interact with God and view His Word the right way.

We see that the needs of the people were not being met and that people were being insensitive towards their countrymen, leaving the people feeling powerless to change their situations. The question being posed is, how do we fight for peace in divided times?

Nehemiah didn’t worry about the opposition because he had prayed boldly to God about them. He had a job to do a responsibility to build and restore. He did not have time to go back and forth with an enemy that was interrupting the work he needed to do.

Last week we kicked off our Rise Up Series in the book of Nehemiah. This week’s sermon was entitled Facing The Ruins.

Nehemiah is a powerful book about how faith can rise up in a person to spark transformation and renewal. Before Nehemiah inspires people to build his first response was a time of intense prayer. As we desire to rise up in faith, Nehemiah chapter one is filled with wisdom on why prayer should be our first response.