Does this ever happen to you? I was in the midst of preaching, actually it was the invitiation and God convicted my heart. Maybe the invitation was for me and not for anyone else.
I was preaching from Nehemiah 1.1-4. In this passage Nehemiah is confronted with the terrible condition of his people and their nations reproach. I was preaching about our need for a burdened heart in order to reach people with the gospel or to fulfill our specific ministry calling. ( I will place a basic outline at the end of this post, if you're interested). That's when God spoke to me. He asked, "are you burdened for your people?" "Have you wept and mourned over their needs?"
If you are like me there are times that I find myself going through the motions. Some of you are right there with me. We preach, teach, visit, plan etc. . . and then next week we start all over again. Do we want to be used by God? Certainly! Do we know we are called? Absolutely! Have we lost our passion and does our heart break for where our people are at in their walk or where the church is in its life cycle? I know, OUCH!
Nehemiah wept, mourned, prayed and fasted over the needs that he heard about. Most of us have not, in fact it hasn't crossed our minds. But effective leaders will have a burdened heart that breaks for the sheep that he is to shepherd. This was not an easy message for me to hear, maybe you are there with me. But God will use it to draw us to where we need to be so that we can lead our people to be where God wants them to be.
Outline: Nehemiah 1.1-4
1. Concern for what God is concerned about
vs. 2
2. Understand reality
vs. 3
3. Become broken over the burden
vs. 4
