Hello Everyone,

Nehemiah verbalized his goal at the proper time, in the proper spirit and

...in a powerful statement. V. 5 - and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it.”

· last 5 words... "that I can build it." Here's a key to success: verbalize your goals clearly and concisely.

People who transfer their thoughts and dreams into actual words are far more likely to reach them than those who don't. Motivational speakers agree with the Bible...we should write down our goals...it crystallizes it in your heart!

Ex-Beatle George Harrison wrote a song that says, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there."

Alice in Wonderland - when Alice came to a fork in the road she said I don't know which way to go. The Cheshire cat said, well, where are you going? She said, I don't really know. He replied, then it doesn't matter which road you take!

You ought to have some clearly spelled out goals.

We should also announce our goals. This helps transfer the burden to others who will help us reach our goals. I must confess that I often hold such things inside for fear of failure.

As long as we keep our goals to ourselves there's no one to know if we hit it or not, and no one to hold us accountable. I appreciate some of you who announce how long you've been smoke free. 3 months, 2 weeks ... one time a guy said, 20 minutes!

Sometimes it takes the help of others to reach certain goals. Nehemiah needed the permission, provision, and protection of the king and the backing of his fellow Hebrews. When the moment came he gave his precise mission statement/purpose statement: "That I can build it!"

Nehemiah knew it would be tough, and there would be many challenges. But his clear cut mission statement got him thru it. When people tried to discourage him he went back to it and said, “I'm gonna build the wall”. [They tried to dissuade, distract, divert, depress him]

What goals should you let God drop into your heart for your spiritual life, family, home, business, ministry?

Aim at nothing, and you'll hit that too.

Let's get excited, let's get focused, and let's get together, let's get busy, let's get on board, let's get faithful ... let's get to it!

Some of you need to set some goals: to read your Bible every day, to witness to someone every week, to bring someone to church, to lead a soul to Christ, to increase your missions giving, to disciple someone yourself, to start having a real prayer time every day, to build your Life Learning class, to grow your own ministry, to improve your marriage, to start saving money, to defeat that habit, to bring a carload to one of our outreaches, etc.

First we need to pray and then wait for it ... and go!

Greater Things Are Still To Come!

Pastor Phil