Care the Most

Here’s where I left off last week in this series we’re in—I said there was three steps in beginning to start changing our worlds and they go as follows: 1. Listen to the world; 2. Be bothered by the status quo; 3. Stand up to act. This week, I want to continue on that track because I wanted to try to inspire you to see yourself as a world class, world changing leader. But I realize the serious shortcomings with simply inspiring, there are no tools with inspiration alone. So today, we jump off from the Book of Nehemiah, but I am going to attempt to equip you with tools to be a “Change Your World” leader. Let’s review Nehemiah’s situation. The time period was about 450BC, the walls of Jerusalem have been fallen for about 140 years already. Nehemiah, 1,000 miles removed from where he needed to care about anything was a cupbearer, not a contractor, or a king or a priest or even a warrior. Yet we know by historical record that his ability to fulfill his mission didn’t come from position but from passion! I want you to write this down in your notes right now—“To make a difference in this world, you don’t have to be the best. You just have to care the most.” Here’s the bottom line I am promoting here and I won’t be coy about it either. Somebody has got to do something about it and it might as well be me! We have less than 52 days to start doing something. I know that was good. Nehemiah heard the news, he sat down, and he prayed really hard and let’s go to Nehemiah chapter 2. We were there last week, but we need to go there again. Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it.” – Nehemiah 2:4-5 Here’s what I want to point out in verse 4. If prayer isn’t necessary for you to accomplish your mission, then you’re not thinking big enough. You see how Nehemiah prayed before he spoke to the king and then sort of word vomits on him and in so many uncertain terms says boldly, “I can rebuild the wall.” Yeah that is something you want to change. It’s so big and immense that you need to pray to God and ask for help just to word vomit. That is a worthy challenge. You don’t want to change small things like, you will keep the toilet seat down so your partner doesn’t fall into the toilet in the early hours of the morning. You don’t want things like you will only eat Chinese food once every quarter, either—that’s lame. Or something like, you won’t procrastinate as badly as you used to. That’s lame. You are not changing anybody’s world by wearing more color coordinated clothing or if your socks match. Nothing is changing about the status quo. You are still nothing and nobodys are still being oppressed because of something you decided you weren’t doing. Let’s look at verse 5 – this is in relation to verse four, but it’s really clear, Nehemiah defines the mission clearly—I can rebuild the wall. A person that cares the most about something understands what he or she has to do very clearly. If we see a problem and we don’t clearly see what we have to do, then we don’t care enough about it. And, and we’re not praying about it or thinking about it either. It’s like a kid who is failing out of school, see’s he or she is riding straight Fs and doesn’t know what to do about it. Yeah, he or she should be studying, but he or she doesn’t care enough about it to know what to do. That’s a shame. Here are some things that God is leading me to do: 1. to lead myself out of debt by 2015 (consumer debt) and out of student loan debt by 2020. 2. to lead 1 million people to Christ before I die – that is approximately 20,000 people a year from now until I die, that’s if God gives me 50 more years, otherwise I have to up that number 3. to build 23 school districts in the most neediest communities in this country and abroad. 23 is a specific number and it’s not Michael Jordan’s keepsake. It is specifically the number of districts that I know can vastly change the socio-economic fabric of their communities by the addition of education. 4. break the cycle of 2.7 million (10% of all human trafficked people in the world today) human beings from being trafficked by providing job training, therapy and community to help the reintegration back into society 5. to give $1 million dollars to church and church organizations that do community development work in third world countries before I am 50 years old. Tangibly that’s like $50K a year. I have to figure that out. If you can’t define it, then you can’t do it. God leads us; we have to be mindful that changing our world is specific and measurable. So I want to ask you right now and perhaps you should write this down in your notes so you can look at it later and ask yourself as you count sheep to sleep: what is God leading you to do? What are the specifics and measurable for that? Don’t tell me or yourself, that you’re going to help the poor or serve people or show God’s love or help disabled children. Let me explain to you what that means, it means if you are being lead to help disabled children, which disabled children? The ones with autism? Okay, well what does that mean to “help them?” Oh, it means to provide a service whereby they can learn to function normally in society as adults. Which children with autism do you target then? Oh, the children with autism who are orphaned and between the ages of 14 and 17 living in the state of South Dakota? That’s fantastic, let’s get you a team. Nehemiah told the king that he was specifically going to go to Jerusalem, not to rebuild the city and all the edifices in the city but to rebuild the wall that once went around the city. It was specific and clear. When we care we are specific with what we care about. So I’m going to continue with equipping you. When we care the most we carefully plan, that is the WHAT and the HOW look seamless. Let’s move down to Nehemiah 2:6-8 6 And the king said to me (the queen sitting beside him), “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time. 7 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah, 8 and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me. Look at what it says in verse 6, “so it pleased the king WHEN I gave him a time.” Have you noticed that when we care about something and can specifically say something about the thing we care about, it pleases people to help? It’s the craziest thing. No really, it’s not that crazy. If you look at verses 7 and 8, you’ll see more of what I’m talking about. “give me letters to the governors beyond the province Beyond the River and a letter to Asaph and for the wall, etc, etc.” Look at how the king responds—the king granted me what I asked.” I want to point something out here that maybe gets overlooked about the king. He has no reason to care but he does what Nehemiah asks anyways. He digs into his own resources to do something nice for Nehemiah. But here’s another thing we need to recognize here. Nehemiah word vomited yes, but he went to the top with his problems because he cared so much. Politically this would be a bad move, but he cared so much that it didn’t seem to matter at all! God works as much through your preparation as your presentation. [I need a story about something with no plan and what happened.] The funny thing about us in our post-Christ society is that we fail to care enough about anything to take it to the top, to the very person and being that can do anything useful about what we care about. We fail most often to take things to Jesus, our proclaimed Lord and savior. How silly? Nehemiah wasn’t reluctant to ask those who are most able to help. We shouldn’t be reluctant to ask God for that same help naturally or supernaturally. Check out what Jesus says to his disciples about caring so much about something and asking God for it: 12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” – John 14:12-14 The reason Jesus is willing to go this far is because He cares for you, he cares for us. He cared so much he died for us on a cross and carried the weight of sin on himself. This is a reality we fail to get a hold of. This is the truth we fail to see—that when Jesus died on a cross two millennia ago, it wasn’t an accident or happenstance, it was an intentional act of caring that lead him to go that way. If this is the type of care that got us salvation and a new life here on earth, apart from our past mistakes and regrets and shames, then we are incredibly blessed. Now, let’s consider whether this opportunity we are afforded here by our salvation was a stimulus to prompt us into caring about something other than ourselves to do something greater than ourselves and are narrowly small worlds and becoming a catalyst for change? Serious, what do we care enough about to change radically? If we don’t care about anything enough, why not. What’s wrong with us? I want you to care enough about something this week that you always said you want to care about and start planning. Use the tools that you were equipped with to make a difference. Let’s pray.