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0:20 Whether you have listened to this show or my flagship show, you've heard me discuss many of Satan's tactics and how he is impacting our modern world. 0:27 He's obviously a great deceiver, the great deceiver. 0:30 He is the father of lies. 0:31 And one of his most effective lies in modernity is that Christians should have no voice in the world of politics. 0:37 Now, unfortunately, a bunch of low discernment Christians have bought into this lie and have completely disengaged from the political sphere altogether. 0:44 Now, some of these people have linked their disengagement to some sort of like, you know, personal piety, like they're above that for some reason. 0:51 But I think that's foolhardy, to say the least. 0:53 So I want to go back to my thesis for the episodes this week. 0:56 It is incumbent upon Christians to vote and participate in the political sphere because faithful stewardship of God's creation is an act of worship, and the dominion mandate does not end at the ballot box. 1:08 So this week we're looking at historical figures that are described in the Bible and how they leverage their political power to do the work of God and to help the humans around them to flourish. 1:18 Now, yesterday we looked at Joseph, and today we are looking at one of my favorite historical figures from the entirety of the biblical canon, and that's Nehemiah. 1:25 So I don't know how many times I've mentioned Nehemiah on the Daily Blade, but if you if I had to take a guess, I would say he's the second most mentioned historical figure behind Jesus of Nazareth. 1:33 I just absolutely love him, how he carried himself, just how he operated. 1:36 I think one of the main reasons that I'm drawn to Nehemiah and his story is because he was such a gifted politician and leader of men. 1:44 Some of you are like, wait, he was a politician? 1:46 Well, like, yeah, you can read his story and it's clearly there. 1:48 Again, we have to go back to the early parts of Nehemiah's story, and honestly, we can see his political maneuvering and acumen almost immediately. 1:56 So Han and I, one of his brothers, arrived from Jerusalem. 1:59 Nehemiah inquired as to the status of the city of Jerusalem and its people. 2:03 He was informed that the walls of Jerusalem were in shambles and really the hearts and minds of the people were in shambles as well. 2:09 He was incredibly distraught by this news. 2:11 He was so grief-stricken that he immediately prayed to God and confessed his own sins. 2:15 He wept bitterly over the status of the inhabitants and the walls of a city that he had never been to himself. 2:21 He was so anguished that he couldn't even keep from looking sad in the presence of King Artaxerxes. 2:26 And as I've explained many times, King Artaxerxes fancied himself a little g god. 2:32 So it wouldn't make any sense for someone to be sad if they were in the presence of a god, right? 2:37 But Nehemiah just couldn't help it. 2:39 So Artaxerxes obviously noticed he asked Nehemiah what was wrong, and Nehemiah told him about what was going on in Jerusalem, and King Artaxerxes asked Nehemiah what he wanted to do about it, and this is where we see the faithfulness and political acumen of Nehemiah start to shine through. 2:54 So let's go to Nehemiah two, starting in verse four. 2:56 Then the king said to me, What are you requesting? 2:59 So I prayed to the God of heaven, and I said to the king, If it pleases the king, and if your servants have found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's graves, that I may rebuild it. 3:10 And the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, How long will you be gone and when will you return? 3:16 So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time, 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, and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's force, that he may give me timber 3:33 to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, for the wall of the city, and for the house I shall occupy. 3:39 And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me. 3:45 So guys, I just absolutely love this. 3:47 Nehemiah responded to this question from the king with one immediate prayer and two strategic plans. 3:55 Right? 3:56 Now, some are you are you're you're just prayers, right? 4:00 Some of you are just planners, some of you are neither, but I would venture to say that very few of you, very few of us, are both prayers and strategic planners. 4:10 Because Nehemiah was a faithful and skillful man before he was in the presence of a king. 4:16 Before he was even there. 4:18 He had already come up with a detailed plan. 4:20 He had it ready to go. 4:22 So you can tell that he had weighed out the plan and considered his options, but before he was given an opportunity to obtain the resources needed to do what he wanted to do. 4:31 And that is one of the most amazing qualities of a great leader, magistrate, or politician. 4:36 It's coming up with a strategic plan, obtaining the resources you need to complete the plan, and then following through on the steps to get it done. 4:44 So Nehemiah was a great leader, for sure. 4:47 Under his leadership, the Jews rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in 52 days. 4:52 Like they experienced a bunch of negativity and they even had to prepare themselves to the f to defend the work that they were doing with physical violence, but they got it done. 5:00 Now I would assume for almost all of us, none of us will be in the position where we are serving in the cabinet of someone akin to a Persian king. 5:08 And beyond that, many of us will never raise our hands and try to attain local or national office. 5:13 But we can all have our Nehemiah moment, if you will. 5:16 Again, Nehemiah was a leader. 5:18 But if you focus in on the first four chapters of the book of Nehemiah, you see that the people of Jerusalem participated in the rebuilding and defense of their city. 5:27 I think we are called to be integrally involved in our local communities and at least in part in our countrywide community. 5:35 Your Nehemiah moment could even just be to vote for leaders that are men like Nehemiah. 5:41 Men who will pray and confess to God, but then not just stay in a puddle of emotions, but get their butts up and put a strategic plan together that would result in human flourishing. 5:51 Again, we'll wrap with my thesis for this week. 5:54 It is incumbent upon Christians to vote and participate in the political sphere because faithful stewardship of God's creation is an act of worship, and the Dominion mandate does not end at the ballot box.