Framing 2026 With Prayerful Goals

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Well, good morning, everyone. We greet you in the precious name of Jesus. It is good to be together again this morning. I don't know. Did you see the title of the message or not? But the sermon is The Effects of Faithful Prayer. I don't know, Conrad. You said you didn't have much to say this morning, but that was a perfect introduction to the sermon this morning, what you were talking about. And I wasn't sure how the sermon will come out this morning. I just told Nevin and Monica this morning. I hope it makes sense. So I guess my goal in the sermon this morning would be to get you guys to dream about 2026. And be willing to, I know Connor, you said you're not great on goals, but be willing to set some goals for 2026. Now I'm not saying that you should do this in five minutes in a day. But take some time to set these goals. And I think actually this morning, we're gonna take about 60 seconds in just quietness and have um close your eyes and just think about it. Just start let's start dreaming a little bit. So we'll give us sixty second seconds to just think about two thousand twenty six. How many of us would have doubts

Naming Doubts And Counting The Cost

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about reaching those goals? Right. Now let's close our eyes for the next sixty seconds and just think about the doubts. Why why why couldn't I do this? Why couldn't I do this in two thousand twenty six? All right, let's do that for sixty seconds, and I'm gonna do it. So what would it take to accomplish these goals? Let's take sixty seconds to think about that. What would it take to accomplish these goals? I'd be interesting

Fasting As Planning With God

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to hear what your goals are for the year, but I guess my encouragement to you now would be for the next for the rest of January to pray about the goals that you want to make for um for 2026. In the in Dutch, we say gut geplanned Halwellschaft, right? Half of the work is planning. So I guess my encouragement to you and to myself is take once a week a 24-hour period of fasting and praying. And um, we did this in man year, and it was such a blessing. Don't just go without food for 24 hours. That's not fasting, that's just going without food. Make it something. Make that 24 hours something. And in these next rest of January, I highly recommend to do a 24-hour fast and praying, and then also the other days pray. And ask God what his goals are for you. Get God involved in setting the goals. Ask God what he wants for you in 2026. And God will, if you're serious about wanting to know his will for you, he will reveal things for you. And it's not. Some of the sometimes it might look overwhelming, but I think that's where God wants us. Maybe, maybe it's goals that you need to pull in other people in your life. It's not just go, we're not going through life by ourselves. We have other people that can help us reach our goals. Life would be very, would be very um, I'm not sure what the word I'm looking for, but if we'd have to go through life by ourselves, it'd be very depressing. We have each other.

Nehemiah’s Burden For Jerusalem

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We're gonna look at a character in the Bible, his name is Nehemiah. And I don't know that we have time to go through that whole story and read all the scripture. We want to go through the first four chapters of Nehemiah this morning. And I wasn't quite sure how we're gonna go through this, but I think I'm gonna just talk us through the talk us through the story a little bit. So let's turn to Nehemiah, the first chapter. And Nehemiah, kind of interesting. He's a Jew. He was born in Persia, or in that uh he was not born in Jerusalem. And he was living with Kim Xerxes, and he was the cupbearer for the king there. And in order to be a cupbearer, you you need to have, they need to have confidence in you. I mean, you taste, you taste the drinks, and you make sure there's no poison in the drink. If there's poison in the drink, you might die. So it's actually uh you get very involved in the king's life. Cupbearer's role involves more than just serving, they find themselves also um as a trusted. The king trusts him, he finds confidence, he he um he's kind of an advisor at times for the king. So this is where Nehemiah was uh finding himself. Nehemiah had integrity, which earned him this trust with King Artaxerxes. So we see a prophet, his name was in the first chapter, chapter here in verse 2, it says that Hanani, one of my brothers, came, sir came with certain men from Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews who who escaped, who had served who had survived the exile and exile and concerning Jerusalem. So the reason Nehemiah was where he was at was because of the exile. And I find it interesting that he never lived in Jerusalem, but he was still concerned about his brothers. And uh I'm not gonna take the glory. Nevin was this morning. We were talking a little bit about this, and he was like, well, it'd be kind of like our ancestors over in Switzerland, except the distance might be a little bit further. We'd asked about our ancestors over in Switzerland from Jerusalem to where where he was in Persia was about 900 to a thousand miles. So it was it was pretty far. I mean, not what is Florida? 1100 miles, roughly. So you can see the distance here, and they didn't have cars like we do to get there. So we see um this prophet was telling him about how the wall is still not repaired, and for some reason this hit Nehemiah, and he broke down and cried. So I'm gonna we're gonna have five points this morning about prayer and what the effects can be of prayer. And we see here in Nehemiah, the first thing he did was pouring out his heart. And that's my number one point this morning is pouring out our hearts to God. And that's what Nehemiah did here. He poured out his hearts to God, he recognized Israel had sinned, and that was probably the reason why that Israel, Jerusalem was in the state that they were in. I'm not going to go deep into history. I didn't do a deep study in history, but my my understanding is this wall that was that was broken, this was um well, when Nehemiah was going to start trying to rebuild it. This was not the first time people had tried to rebuild this wall. So for a few months, Nehemiah was the cupbearer.

Faith Over Fear Before The King

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He prayed and he poured out. We see he did it for a few days. He actually fasted and prayed, went without food, fasted and prayed for a few days. And we see how um he was trying to intercede for for Jerusalem to God. In chapter 2, we see here Nehemiah was sad. He came to the king, and the king noticed it. Obviously, he knew Nehemiah real well, and he know he asked, he asked Nehemiah one day, why are you sad? And Nehemiah said, Well, why shouldn't I be sad? Let's just read it. Um, trying to see here where which verse it is, but I believe it's in verse, uh, let me see here. Anyway, it says, he talks about. I should have marked this down. It says Nehemiah was deeply grieved and poured out his heart to God. And then in verse 2, in chapter 2, it says, Let the king live forever. Oh, okay. The king, the king asked him why he was afraid, uh, why he was sad. And this caused him to be afraid because you wouldn't have sadness. The king's, you're you're open to possibly being killed if you're showing sadness uh by the king there. And so the king said to me, Why is your faith sad? Seeing you are not sick, this is nothing but sadness of the heart. And I was very much afraid. This was Nehemiah speaking. I said to the king, Let the king live forever. Why should not my face be sad when the city, the place of my father's graves, lies in ruin, and its gates have been destroyed by fire? Then the king said to me, What are you requesting? And listen to what Nehemiah did. So I prayed to the God of heaven. On the spot, Nehemiah prayed right there. He was like, quickly, you know, not audibly, but in his mind, he was like, Lord, help me here. What should I be saying to the king? Will he kill me? I know the king very well. But he's like, Lord, help me. 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, then you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's graves, that I may rebuild it. And the king said to me, The queen sitting beside 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 have given him a time. And I said to the king, if it pleases the king, let letters be given to the governors of the province beyond the river, that they may not that they may let me pass through until I came to Judah. 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

Opposition Rises And Core Truths

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the house that I will that I shall occupy. And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me. So we see here what happened. Not only did he tell the king what his request would be, but he actually asked for more than that. And it doesn't say here, but I'm pretty much much convinced that because of his prayers is why this all happened. Because he was asking God, talking to God about this situation. So the next point I want to bring out is let your faith be greater than your fear. Prayer and spiritual preparation turns turned into results for Nehemiah. Prayer and preparation turned into results for Nehemiah. He let his faith be greater than his fears. Nehemiah overcame his fear here. He could have just brushed it off, but he didn't. He faced his fears. Let your faith be greater than your fears. I'm actually going to do a little bit of an object lesson. Sean, do you mind bringing that up here? I was kind of unorganized with my object lesson this morning. I forgot to bring it along. But anyway, it's just a little bit of a quick object lesson of our fears. I want to I want you to start thinking about some fears that you might have. Maybe about this coming year. What were you thinking this morning? Thank you. Appreciate it. What were some of your fears this morning? When you were taking the 60 seconds about the fears, what were some of the fears? We're going to pour the fears right into this cup. Is that one? Go ahead. Anybody have a fear? Failure. We're going to pour failure right into here. Anything else?

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Lack of self-discipline.

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Lack of self-discipline. Anything else? Health. One more.

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Overshooting.

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Overshooting. Afraid you won't get accomplished what your goals are, right? So we got all our fears in this cup. So I'm adding an element to this thing. I'm going to put faith. My hand is the hand is faith. And this is prayer. I don't like how bent this paper is. I wish I'd have a smooth one, or my object lesson might not work. So we're going to put prayer, we're going to put prayer on top of this. Moving on in chapter two, Nehemiah. Now he now he goes. He goes to the king sent him and granted him, granted him the permission to go. I don't know. He gave him a time. He didn't tell how long he was expecting to be going, but I believe he was going for twelve years. And so let's go to verse 9 of chapter 2. Then I came to the governors of the province beyond the river and gave them the king's letters. Now the king has sent me with sent with me officers of the army and the horsemen. But then Sanbalat, the Horanite, and Tobiah the Ammonite, servant heard this. It displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel. So we see here, Nehemiah decided he's going to go repair this wall. But not very long into the process, he's finding some opposition, some people that aren't very

Share The Vision And Rally Help

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happy with him. And not fear these guys. God is bigger than your fears. God will not always rescue me or you from everything we are threatened by. But we know that He will take care of us. There's four truths that we can hang on to. Truth number one is God loves you. You can know the Bible says God loves you. You can know that God loves you. Truth number two, God knows what is going on in your life. God is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He is omnipotent, omniscient. God knows everything. He's everywhere. Number three, truth number three, God can do something about it. When you face fears, God can do something about it. That is why it's so important to immerse ourselves in prayer when we set our goals. Because then we can have the confidence that God is with us. Sometimes when You face when you set goals, you think you might know how it's gonna end up. You think you might know the process, but God might have a different process in mind. But He has the best in mind for you. Truth number four, you can trust His goodness in whatever He chooses to do. However God chooses to accomplish your goals in your life, you can trust Him that that's the best route to take. Isaiah 41, 10. So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my right, righteous right hand. Psalm 56, 3 and 4. When I'm afraid, I put my trust in you, in God, whose word I praise, in God I trust. I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? A genuine burden coupled with prayer and feeling. A burden that you have this year. Maybe it's a burden that you have for someone. Maybe you want to reach someone. Maybe it's a relationship that you want to heal. I want healed. A genuine burden coupled with prayer and fasting and wise planning and trust in God leads to divine favor. I'm gonna repeat that. A genuine burden coupled with prayer and fasting, wise planning, and a trust in God leads to divine favor. God can do big things in your life. Let's make 2026 the best year. When we have this genuine burden coupled with prayer and feeling, prayer and fasting, and we plan wisely and we trust God, it empowers us to start a significant kingdom-building project. We can be sure that God is with us when we make plans for the future by using this formula. Number three, point number three,

Ridicule, Prayer, And God’s Justice

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share your vision with others. Don't just keep your vision to yourself. Include others in your vision. We see how in Nehemiah, in chapter two, verse 11. I think we'll just go ahead and read that. And we see Nehemiah traveled, so now he came to Jerusalem. So now he needed to come up with a plan. So he went to Jerusalem. This is verse 11. So he went to Jerusalem and was there three days. Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me, and I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. At this point, he hadn't told anybody about his plan. There was no animal with me, but the one on which I rode. I went out by night by the valley gate to the dragon's spring and to the dung gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down, and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. So Nehemiah was out inspecting the wall. Then I went to the fountain gate and to the king's pool. But there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass. So there was so much ruin. Even his donkey or horse, whatever he was on, it could not get through. Then I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall, and I turned back and entered by the valley gate, and so returned. And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing. And I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were there to do the work. Verse 17. Then I said to them, You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruin with us, with its gates burned. Come, let us build the walls of Jerusalem that we may no longer suffer derision. And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king has spoken to me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for the good work. But when but when Sanbalat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, What is this thing you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king? Then I replied to them, The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we will, and we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem. Here we see Nehemiah's burden was much bigger than himself of this wall. As we had talked, maybe your goals are bigger than yourself for 2026. But be a leader and pull others into your goals. You will accomplish great things. Like Nehemiah, we see here he did. He knew this was much bigger than himself. So he pulled other people in. In verse 17, spiritual renewal often begins with one person's vision. Spiritual renewal often begins with one person's vision. Nehemiah had a vision and he shared it with enthusiasm, inspiring Jewish leaders to rebuild the walls. We frequent frequently underestimate people and don't challenge them with our dreams for God's work in the world. When God plants an idea in your mind to accomplish something for him, share it. Share it with others and trust the Holy Spirit to impress them with similar thoughts. It is amazing what the Holy Spirit can do. If you bathe your goals in prayer, how he can get other people, speak to other people, the Holy Spirit can impress other

Build With A Sword And A Trowel

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people with similar thoughts. Don't regard yourself as the only one through whom God is working. Often God uses one person to express the vision and others to turn it into reality. When you encourage and inspire others, you put teamwork into action to accomplish God's goals. If we look at Nehemiah chapter 3, this is such a beautiful picture. I wish we'd have more time today and just put pictures on the wall of this is and a group of people, a diverse group of people, trying uh building, repairing this wall together. It's a picture of unity, teamwork, and individual responsibility in a massive building project, working together, showing priests. It was even the priests, the rulers, and common people were working side by side to rebuild Jerusalem's walls section by section. I thought it was interesting. If you read chapter three, you will see they had the priests doing the sheep gate. Well, that's where they brought the sheep in to have them slaughtered for the sacrifices. So they they actually had people kind of working what was special to them. There was other people that were building the repairing the wall across from their house. And it was just a collaboration of people coming together and to accomplish this massive project. But we see here there were people that were ridiculing, ridiculing Nehemiah. And what did he do? How did he face these ridicules? And my next point, number four, is put matters into God's hands. Maybe you have a project, maybe you have a plan, maybe you have goals for 2026. You might get some ridicule, you might get opposition. Don't let that, don't let it face you. Hand it over to God. That's what Nehemiah did. He handed it over to God, and he was like, Lord, I'll hand it to you. You know everything. You take care of them. So I don't have to. You take care of them. In verse 4 of chapter, chapter 4, it says, Now when Sanbalad heard that they that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews, and he said, In the in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, what are these feeble Jews doing? He was like, also making fun of them. Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish and and and burn ones of that? Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him and said, Yes, what they are building, if a fox goes up on it, it will break down the stone wall. So they're just making fun of them. And that's when Nehemiah said, Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads, and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. Do not cover their guilt, guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders. Nehemiah doesn't retaliate, but turns the taunts and threats of his enemies into a powerful prayer. Showing prayer is a core part of our spiritual warfare. He requested for justice, not vengeance. He asked God to turn their taunt into in on their heads. We are able to do that because God is sovereign and he can take care of those things for us. So when we face ridicule or made fun of, instead of retaliation, let's just give them to God. This passage just shows how God sees and knows everything. But then we need to trust in God. We need to trust that God will intervene. Depending on him. God loves when we depend on him. It expresses deep confidence in God when we can do that. That he will deal with those who oppose his work, asking him not to forgive or cover their sin, but they openly defyed him. When we respond, how we respond to insults and ridicule, Austin is a nice, is a good measuring gauge on our on our um

Perseverance, Unity, And Finishing Strong

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maturity level in a Christian life. So if you want to gauge yourself on your maturity level in your Christian life, check out to see how you respond to ridicule, how you respond to being made fun of when you face opposition. That's a good measuring stick for us. When we are able to put matters into God's hands, it shows that we are humble and that our identity is not in ourselves but in Christ. Point number five. Complete the task. Get it done. Whatever it takes. Pull in people, whatever it takes, get it done. Trust in God. Nehemiah 4. I'm gonna read verses 6 through 23. And this is talking about Nehemiah saying how they started building the wall now. So we built the wall, and all the wall was joined together to half its height, for people had a mind to work. But here again, these these two guys. But when Sanbalat and Tobiah, and Sanbalat, he was like a a governor in a in a in a neighboring in a neighboring uh country or community, and they just didn't like uh because it was a threat, it was a threat to them for this wall to be built. So when Sanbalat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches weren't were beginning to be closed. In other words, the walls was starting to be repaired. They were very angry. Verse 8, and they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. And we prayed. This is their response again. Here we see the effects of prayer, and we pray to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night. As we notice, Nehemiah always responded with prayer, a powerful tool in our spiritual warfare. Verse 10 In Judah it was said, the strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble. By ourselves, we will not be able to rebuild the wall. There is doubts were starting to come into some of the people's minds. They were hearing the threats of people coming over and want to fight, want to stop this building. Verse 11 And our enemies said, They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work. At that time the Jews who lived near them came from all directions and said unto us ten times, You must return to us. The people were concerned about their safety. They were like, You gotta come back so we can protect you. You gotta stop this building, repairing of the wall. So in the lowest part of the space, behind the wall, in open places, a I stationed the people for their clans, by their clans, with their swords, their spears, and their bows. And I took and arose and said to the nobles and to the Lord and to the officials and to the rest of the people, do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome. And here he brings out the uh when we go through this, when we have a when we go through the the tough part of reaching our goals, let's remember the purpose that we're doing it. He says, And fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, and your wives, and your homes. It's more than just ourselves. You're fighting for your family. When our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plans, we all returned to the wall, each to his work. From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction and half held their spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leader stood behind the whole house of Judah, who were building on the wall. Those who carried the burdens were loaded in such a way that each laborer on the on the work with one, that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other. Now I'm not sure. I couldn't work like that, but they must have been able to. And each of the builders had his sword strapped to his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me, and I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another. In the place where you hear the sound of the trump, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us. There again, the dependence on God is coming out. I love this picture of working with a sword. Now I'm I'm non-resistant, don't worry. But I love this picture of us of working with a sword on your side, a picture of our spiritual warfare, doing work in the kingdom of God, but having our armor in place so that we can fight off those temptations, we can fight off the distractions, we can fight off whatever is trying to keep us from getting our job done. Having that sword on our side, our weapons, to fight off the enemy, but getting the work done. I love that picture. So we labored at verse 21. So we labored at the work, and half of them held the spears from the break of dawn until the stars came out. I also said to the people at that time, let every man and his servant pass the night within Jerusalem, that they may be a guard for us by day, guard for us by night, and may labor by day. So neither I nor my brothers, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes, each kept his weapon at his right hand. Never let your guards down. That's what they were doing here. Never let your guards down in the spiritual battle. As we go through life, we always need to stay alert as we go through life. As we saw here, they had opposition. It is inevitable. Opposition is inevitable as we go through life. Even when doing God's will, expect enemies. Just like these the sandballot and the Tobia. Expect enemies to mock and plot against us. But we see here they united together. The people worked with shared purpose, demonstrating commitment to the shared goal. And I love that picture of us as a church working together in one goal, working with each other. While praying and working, they also took practical steps, standing guard and preparing to defend themselves. God heard their prayers and frustrated the enemies, conspiring against them, turning a potential disaster into a moment where the people refocused and returned to work. By prayer, they became refocused and went back to work. The passage here stresses doing the necessary work wholeheartedly, not letting fear or ridicule derail the God-given mission. The work of rebuilding a wall progressed well because the people had set their hearts and minds on accomplishing the task. So when you set goals this year, set goals that have meaning, have set set goals that are worth going through a hard time to get to them. Because that's what they had here. The work of rebuilding the wall progressed well because the people have set their hearts and minds on accomplishing the task. They didn't lose their faith or give up, but they persevered in the work. If God has called you to a task, determine to complete it. Don't let it come into your mind. If it comes into your mind, get the thought out of your mind. Man, you're guys. Determine to complete it, even if you face opposition or discouragement. The reward of work, well done. Well, the worth well worth the effort. Nehemiah in verse 9, we see Nehemiah constantly combined prayer with preparation and planning. His people trusted God at the same time, kept vigilant watch over what had been entrusted to them. Too often we pray without looking for what God wants us to do. We show God we are serious when we combine prayer with thought and preparation and effort. I love this picture of the church. Fighting the spiritual battle together, not one, not as individuals, but together. Working with swords at our sides, watching, having our armor, having our armors on, watching and guarding each other through prayer, praying for each other. We need each other. That is a way that we can have protection. Protection is when we pray for each other. Let's make sure we pray for each other. Let's help each other accomplish our goals in 2026. In closing, 1 Peter 4, 7 through 11. The end of all things is at hand. Therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. It's not, I don't think that's talking about actual sins.

Serving One Another And Closing Prayer

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I think it's more about our miss our we're not perfect when we work with each other. Let's just remember to overlook some of those. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling, as each has received a gift. Use it to serve one another. As good stewards of God's varied grace. Whoever speaks is one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to Him belonging, to Him belong glory, dominion forever. Amen. Conrad, I like what you said this morning about let's serve each other this year. That is so that's so powerful serving each other as a church. And when we reach our goals, let's give God the honor and glory. Give God the honor and glory for what is accomplished in 2026. So my encouragement to you this morning, don't shy away from big goals. If we have God involved, if we have a burden on our if we have a burden on our heart, and we have God involved in prayer and fasting, and we have um a good plan, then God will do great things for each one of us. Let's pray. God, we thank you for that we can trust in you and that you're for your faithfulness. Thank you, Lord, that when we set goals that you're involved with, that we can trust that you're always with us. I just pray for our church as you go through this year that we could serve each other out of a humble heart, that we could esteem each other greater than ourselves. Thank you for each one, Lord. Just pray that you would go with us in Jesus' name. Amen.