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0:20 When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible person and crushes him. 0:26 Leave room in your life for the crushings, because that's part of the curriculum that very few people will tell you about. 0:33 So that's a quote that I just heard for the first time here recently, and that quote comes from a presentation that the great Chuck Swindah gave at the Catalyst conference back in 2009. 0:43 And he was actually recalling a quote from Pastor Alan Redpath when Redpath uh spoke at Dallas Theological Seminary all the way back in 1959. 0:51 So there's actually another quote that I heard for the first time here recently. 0:54 It's like this this isn't all an accident, but it's in that same vein as the crushing one. 0:59 And it's actually a quote from the A. 1:00 W. 1:00 Tozer book called The Root of Righteousness. 1:03 So here's the quote: It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply. 1:10 And again, I don't think the timing of me hearing these two quotes essentially back to back is an accident. 1:14 Again, I work in the men's ministry space, whatever that means. 1:17 But I get emails and DMs from men all over the globe. 1:21 And they're telling me about some of the most crushing circumstances imaginable. 1:25 And a lot of times I'm caught flat-footed. 1:27 I don't know exactly what to say of these men. 1:28 And these two quotes that I've read and that I've heard recently have just absolutely haunted me. 1:34 And I guess I mean that in a really good way. 1:36 And because those quotes have just stuck in my brain, I feel like the Holy Spirit has revealed to me different historical accounts of people in history that God crushed for his sovereign, divine, and good purposes. 1:47 And that's what we're going to be looking at on the Daily Blade this week. 1:50 We're going to focus on that crushing. 1:53 And today we're going to focus on one of my favorite historical figures and biblical figures, and that's Nehemiah. 1:58 So Nehemiah was a Jew that had never been to Jerusalem. 2:01 And at the very beginning of Nehemiah 1, we see the description of a conversation between Nehemiah and some men that came from Judah. 2:07 So let's go to Nehemiah 1 starting in verse 2. 2:10 And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. 2:15 And they said to me, The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. 2:22 The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire. 2:26 And we can see by Nehemiah's immediate reaction to hearing this news exactly what kind of man he is and where he derives his faith. 2:32 So let's go to verse four. 2:34 As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept, and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 2:41 And then if we skip down to verse six, we see this confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you, even I and my father's house have sinned. 2:52 So Nehemiah was absolutely anguished at learning of the status of the Jews in the city of Jerusalem, and his first response was to go to God in prayer and to confess sin. 3:02 So that's like that's really, really important. 3:05 And many of you know this part. 3:06 Nehemiah was called before King Artaxerxes. 3:10 He was visibly sad in the presence of Artaxerxes, which could have cost him his life because Artaxerxes considered himself to be a god, and you can't exactly be sad in the presence of a god, if you know what I mean. 3:20 Artaxerxes asks why Nehemiah is sad. 3:23 Nehemiah tells him, Artaxerxes asks him what he wants to do about it. 3:27 Nehemiah takes another risk and asks for a leave of absence from being the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes to go to the land of his forefathers to help rebuild the walls and rebuild the people. 3:37 And somewhat surprisingly, Artaxerxes agrees to all this. 3:40 So Nehemiah travels to Jerusalem. 3:42 Once he gets there, he surveys the damage to the walls of Jerusalem and really the despair in the hearts of the Jews. 3:48 He then reveals his plan to rebuild the walls and he gets everybody ready for the work. 3:53 Nehemiah 3 does a fantastic job of detailing the work that was done, so don't skip parts of your Bible kids. 3:58 That's actually really, really good stuff there. 3:59 And then we get to amazing details of Nehemiah 4, where all the workers stood ready to work on the walls with one hand and to fight to protect the work with the other. 4:10 So all while the work was happening, there were plenty of people that were scheming and fighting against the completion of this work, and yet Nehemiah and his men stood strong and got it done. 4:19 And then we see this recorded in Nehemiah 6, verses 15 and 16. 4:23 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul in fifty-two days. 4:29 And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. 4:39 So how does all this apply to you where you're sitting at today? 4:43 Well, we have to consider this question. 4:46 If God wanted the walls of Jerusalem to be fixed and for the spirits of the Jews to be lifted, then why didn't he just snap his fingers and do it? 4:53 And I mean, honestly, it's a fair question, but it's also a very short-sighted one. 4:58 I mean, could God have done that? 4:59 Like, sure, sure he could have. 5:02 But the narrative of scripture teaches us that when God wants to get something done, he uses men to do it. 5:08 And he doesn't just clear the path of all obstacles for that person. 5:12 He doesn't just, you know, snowplow it all for him, right? 5:15 He typically crushes that man. 5:17 Why? 5:19 So that he can rebuild that man, just as Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. 5:24 So Nehemiah was crushed with anguish. 5:27 He was devastated by the opposition to his work, yet, through it all, Nehemiah was able to restore the physical protection of God's people. 5:35 And guys, don't miss this. 5:36 Nehemiah left the safety of the palace in order to identify with his people and to rebuild their city. 5:44 This is a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ. 5:47 Jesus Christ is the ultimate Nehemiah. 5:50 He left the position of safety in order to give us a pathway to become citizens of the ultimate city. 5:58 More on that later this week.