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5310-Tom Marshall--Rebuilding the Nation_128k
00:00:00 Speaker: Book of Nehemiah is the rebuilding of the city. The Book of Ezra is the rebuilding of the temple. Seventy years after the temple had been restored, the city was still in ruins. We've had in this nation of ours a substantial rebuilding of the temple in the last thirty years. I would suspect in the last three decades there have been more Christians have come to know Jesus than any other comparable thirty years in our history. Certainly in the last thirty years. Far more Christians in New Zealand have been filled with the Holy Spirit than any other thirty years in the whole of our history. The temple has been restored. The city is in ruins. Let's. Let's pick the story up. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Heckelii. It happened in the month Kislev, on the twentieth year, while I was in Susa, the capital that Hananiah, one of my brothers, and some men from Judah, came. And I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and had survived the captivity and about Jerusalem. And they said to me, the remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach. And the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire. One of the very important symbols in the whole of Scripture is the symbol of the city. And the city stands for all of man's societal creations, as small as a family, as big as the nation. In fact, the First Nations were city states. And I believe God is speaking to us tonight about our nation. That's our city. And he's telling us the news that came to Nehemiah. The people are in great distress. The walls are broken down and the gates are burned with fire. What are the walls of a city? In ancient times, the walls of the city fulfilled these three functions. Firstly, they gave the city its security. Secondly, they gave the city its identity. Entity. You could tell where the city ended and the countryside began. And thirdly, they gave it the city, its structure within which the life of the city could be formed. And Jerusalem, the walls were broken down. Do you understand that in our nation the walls are broken down? What gives a nation its protection? Well, its legal system. But there's something more fundamental than the legal system. That's the value system that upholds the laws. No point in passing laws if the value system has been eroded. What has been grossly eroded and destroyed in our nation in all my lifetime, certainly since the war, has been the value system. I can remember after the war, when you were going to work in the get the train in the morning, you used to be a pile of newspapers on the platform, and people took their dominion or whatever it was and put the money down and and everybody did that took the change. They had to take the change. And some time later on, somebody would come and pick the papers up and and take the money away. Anyway. Now the honesty box is not enough to protect the papers. What's happened to our value system? That's just a little item. What's happened to our value systems here? It's destroyed. Now we have a problem with law and order in our country. I want to tell you, no police force, no harsher penalties, no legal system will work at all unless the value system is there to support it. Unless there's agreement within the society that these standards are right. And just secondly, this question of identity. Now, this is a very interesting thing that's happening in New Zealand right now, that there's beginning, beginning, just beginning to come a sense of care and identity in this nation. Now, I, like Ben, wasn't born in New Zealand. I was actually born in Scotland. And I came out when I was about four or five. So I'd grown up here. But all my lifetime there has been something that has stood apart from this nation. I mean, I never shed a tear when the All Blacks got beaten. I'm ashamed to say that was them. Particularly if the Lions were out here. About, I suppose, four years ago now, I was in, in Brisbane speaking at Easter conference, and I was singing a song in the big marquee, a song for Australia. I asked for Australia. They sang, I call her by name. I lift her to the father. And I never thought of asking for a nation. And I realised I'd never asked for New Zealand. I never shed a tear for New Zealand or, you know, I kind of thought I should. And even when I tried to, sometimes the only way I can describe it is one morning in that tent I got born in New Zealand. I started a week for this nation. I could weep for this nation now I got born into it. I was in Scotland a couple of years later, and I was very interested to see what my reactions would be. Because the Scots are a strange people, they get as far as they can away from that terrible climate and they sing nostalgic songs about the heather all the rest of their life. You see, there's something deep in the in the psyche that draws them back. You know, when I got back to Scotland, I discovered a total stranger. It was a strange land. Didn't belong there anymore. I belong here, I've been born into this land. See? And one of the remarkable things I see beginning to emerge is a sense of. Of identity, of longing for New Zealand. We've been very cynical about that. God's own country has been a joke we've had. But there's something emerging now. There's a love for New Zealand. I want to tell you something. We will never redeem the city until we start to feel like the city. The way the Jews felt towards Jerusalem or Jerusalem. If I forget you let my right hand lose its cunning. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of its mouth. If I do not put you above all my greatest joys. See, brothers and sisters, when we start to feel towards New Zealand like that? We can say New Zealand. If I forget you let my right hand lose its cunning. My tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth. If I do not put New Zealand above all my greatest joy. See, then we'll redeem the city. Then we'll rebuild the walls. The third thing that the walls will do is give the city its structure. In other words, it's the. It's the sense of local community. One of the things the city does, it destroys that. You know, it's amongst our Maori people. It's devastated. The extended family amongst Pakeha. It's ruined the nuclear family, see? And the tragedy of it is this that we, the Christians, have taken out of the neighborhood. The only people who understand community, the only people who could possibly have been have restored, that we've taken them out of the community and taken them down to the church and formed an alternative community. See? And we've robbed the city. We've robbed the city. No wonder the walls are broken down. See, it talks about the gates. What are the gates of the city? The gates of a city. Do these three things one. If you want to get into the city, you've got to get in through the gates. They're the entry points. We've been. I've been attending the the media seminars, enormously impressed by Brother Graham there and the insights he's got because I want to know where the gates are. See if we're going to get in the city. Don't climb over the wall, find the gates. And I believe as far as youth with a mission is concerned, God has given them in what they call the mind molders, significant gates of the city. And if we want to penetrate the city, we've got to get in through those gates. See? Secondly, the gates express the authority of the city. When the when the when the A man who had killed somebody fled to a city of refuge. He had to report to the gates of the city, and the elders heard his case and decide whether he's entitled to come in or not. It's where the authority of the city is exercised. They're in the gates. Do you understand? Do you understand what's happening? God has given us a lodgment. God is asking us to take a lodgment within the gates of the city. See, you know, this is an important night tonight. I've been sitting there realizing that God's been hiding somewhere in all of our thinking. See, thirdly, the gates of the city control it. God said to to the children of Judah, uh, I will give you the gates of your enemies. See, you control the gates. You control the city. It's not even enough to penetrate the gates. You've got to control them. See? Now the powers of darkness control the gates of the city. And we've got to take control of the gates of the city before we control the city. Time. That's what the book of Nehemiah is all about. This this book is as update as contemporary as your morning newspaper. It's speaking of issues that face us right here and now. I want to see what I want you to see what Nehemiah did. Okay, here's the first thing. Now, it came about when I. Verse four, when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days. And I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. The first thing. Are we going to rebuild the city? We've got to love the city. Listen, we've got to love the city. We have not loved the city. We have bad mouthed the city. We call it prophecy. And I believe we've helped to bring the very situations, very circumstances that we're experiencing now. I was reading a book some time ago. Secular book about business institutions. This guy said, the thing that's wrong with our society is that nobody loves the institutions. People don't love the companies. And that's right, we don't. People don't love the government departments. People don't love the parliamentarians. See? No wonder they make such a mess of things. A. Child. A family misbehaves like that if he's not lousy. God loves the world. See? God loves the world. Jesus wept over the city or Jerusalem. He said I would have gathered you together as a hen gathers her chickens under its wings. Have you felt that about the city? I haven't see, you felt like that about a nation I'm just beginning to see. It's the first thing we ought to love the city. We've got to pray to God. Pray to God to give us a love for the city. If we're going to rebuild it, we're going to redeem it. That's what we need to ask for, first of all. Secondly, what did Nehemiah. He prayed for it. He wept and mourned and prayed for days. Now how long? Nehemiah prayed. I checked up two months, two months praying morning fasting, repenting. And I said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and loving kindness for those who love him, and keep his commandments that on ear now be attentive, thine eyes open to hear the prayer of thy servant, which I am praying before thee now day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel, thy servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel, which we have sinned against thee. I and my father's house have sinned. Listen, brothers and sisters, we have a corporate responsibility because we have a corporate solidarity for the sins of New Zealand. It is not us and them. It's us. We are guilty before God. Where did the permissive society come? Who permitted the permissive society? Answers we did. We have let it happen by default. And we have a share to a share to carry the burden of guilt that this nation has. And we need to repent not just for them, but repent for our party. We and our father's house have sinned. There is a corporate solidarity in guilt that we can't evade just because we've been personally forgiven. And personally, we're not talking about personal guilt here. We're talking about corporate guilty. And the blood of the unborn dead are on our hands. The blood of the children ruined with drug addicts, are on our hands. Hardest funeral service ever had to preach. Well, a year and a half ago, when a young man who at one time gave his heart to the Lord through our church and his wife was a drug addict, he was a drug addict. And his wife led him astray. He died of an overdose. I'll never forget that. That funeral was stacked full of his friends. All the druggies and prostitutes, the place. You know, I got so angry. I got so angry. I got so angry at what drugs and sin had done to that young man's life. I spent the night with his parents. They were my parents. The body was there in the room, they said. But I realized I got to share in that. See, I share in that because it's a nation that's allowed that to happen to you. Nehemiah repented. I and my father's house have sinned. Third thing that Nehemiah did was he got a big vision. He got a big vision. Turn over to Nehemiah chapter two, when he appeared before the king, and the king said to me, why is your face sad, though you're not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart. And I was very much afraid. And I said to the king, the king live forever. Why should not my face be sad when the city, the place of my fathers tombs, lie desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire. Then the king said to me, what would you request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. I sometimes thought what would happen if we pray, Lord, make New Zealand a righteous land. What would happen if God said to us, right. I'll do that. It's yours. Now get to work and make this a righteous land. Where would we begin? What would we do? We haven't the faintest idea of what to do. I was talking to someone, uh, a couple of years back in, in, uh, in Sweden, actually, and we were talking, I don't know. We began to talk about Zionism and what I discovered. I discovered it thirty five years before Israel got the Promised Land. They had a shadow government in place with all the portfolios they had talked, argued, discussed, planned for the day when they would get into China and into Palestine for thirty five years. And when they got in there, they could do it overnight. And if we if we are really serious about taking this land, we've got to think like that. Nehemiah got a big vision. Verse five, I said to the king, if it pleased the king, and if your servant has found favor for you, send me to Judah, the city of my father's tomb, that I may rebuild it. He didn't say, well, you know, let me raise a team to go and let's send out an appeal or whatever. He said, let me go and rebuild it. I want to ask you is is that we tackle that? Would we tackle that? Are we prepared to say, God, give us New Zealand and let us rebuild it? You know, we we think defeated we we we see the enormity of the problem. The problem was enormous as far as Nehemiah was concerned. But he got a big vision. The church has lost two things, both of which Nehemiah got and one of them was the big vision. Now I've got a I've got to be honest, my my vision stops at a certain point. I do not have the faith to believe for United States of America. I face not big enough for that. I couldn't even believe for Britain. I couldn't even believe for Australia. I'll tell you something. I can't believe. For New Zealand, we're only a little country. We're only three million. We could do it. I believe with all my heart this nation can be stopped in its tracks and turned back to God. I believe the hand of God has been on this place. Even in the upsets that we're going through in the economy and the social structures of our land. So many of the familiar things that people are accustomed to have disappeared. I think this nation is open to hear a new message. The way has never been opened all my life. See, it can be done. And God, I believe, is waiting for people who are willing for a big a vision as big as that and saying, let us transform this whole nation. See Say firstly, my God. Second thing equally important, he got a long term goal. Look down to, uh, to uh, verse six, the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, how long will your journey be, and when will you return? So please the King to send me. And I gave him a definite time. Do you know how long that time was? You can check it out if you. If you turn to chapter five of Nehemiah. You know how long it was. Twelve years, twelve years, twelve years. Now, listen, the importance of this, I believe, is right here. And I remember Bernie giving these figures some time ago, and I got to acknowledge them because I've used them many times and I believe they're very significant. Do you understand that the control is in our society are roughly the people between the age of forty five and sixty five, the heads of corporations, senior politicians, the trendsetters and society societies generally in that bracket. I do not believe there's very much chance of the present lot changing very much. But in twenty years time, that lot will be over the hill. I said this in a meeting one time in Holland, and I said, I don't know where I'll be in twenty years time. And Winston said, probably under the hill. I plan as I can to stay on top of the ground for twenty years because, listen, I believe that's where the crunch point is. I believe it's roughly about twenty years ahead. And the reason why I say that is this if you go into any church in this country where there is any spiritual life at all, and I ask this almost every chance I get, everybody in this church today who is between the ages of twenty and forty five, stand up. I want to tell you something. You get anywhere from seventy five percent to ninety five percent of the people. Stand up. See, you're right. There is a move amongst young people. And that age group, I believe, is the significant sector of God's dealings. And that's why God is speaking about the kingdom right now. Because one of the things that God is saying to you of that age group, are you willing to spend your life for a goal that will take twenty years to achieve? Now listen, if you're not, you might as well leave right now. We might as well all leave right now because this won't be done in two years, won't be done in five years unless God sovereignly intervenes. And it may well be that God sees we're serious to stick in there for twenty years or fifty years, if need be, that God may move sovereignly and a revival may do it overnight. Last year was it year? Year before last? I can't remember now when I'm getting old in my memories going. I think it was one of the most significant conference I've ever had in my life when and I and Kenwright and Hudson. Salisbury had had a real growing burden to pray for younger leaders. We didn't want to preach them, but somehow we felt we're at the stage where we're on the sideline waving you guys on. We just wanted somehow to pass the mantle, give the anointing whatever it was we had, pass it on. And so we decided to have a to have a, have a gathering. And we let, let it be known, I thought we'd get about thirty or forty. That would have done me. We just wanted to pray for you. We had over two hundred. I think it was only about one or two of them were over thirty five years of age. And we prayed for every one of those young men and women in that in those days. I remember we had a very detailed conference program, gave the times the meals, and that was it. And we just moved from meeting to meeting as God spoke to us. But God started to show us what some of those young men and women will be in twenty years time. I wasn't interested in next year. I wasn't interested in five years. I wanted to know where God's destiny was for them two decades ahead. Many of them will be national figures. Some of them will walk the international stage. Couldn't tell it now. See? They don't believe it now. They're not ready for it now, is he? But twenty years down the track, there are significant men and women were there, and there are significant men. And women are here tonight to see. And I and God is looking for that kind of prophetic person. He sees that the that receives the word of the Lord and says, God, if this is going to take twenty years, count me in. It's going to take fifty years. Count me in. If it's not going to happen to my children, do it. Count me in. See, we got to get a big vision. We've got to get a long term goal. I do not know when Jesus is coming back. This I do know. We've got to be here for the long haul. If he comes back next year, wonderful. He comes back tomorrow even more wonderful. It takes twenty. If he doesn't come back for one hundred and fifty years, we've got to be here for the long haul because God has determined to establish his kingdom on this earth. That's what Nehemiah got. The big vision, got long term goal. go. The next thing that Nehemiah did, and this is very interesting in view of what's beginning to rise up, he researched the city. He went and lived in the city. We retreat from the city. We retreat into our spiritual ghettos, into our Christian clubs. And that's not a derogatory word. That is what they are. They are Christian clubs. Now we're entitled to have clubs entitled to have all sorts of clubs where churches are a Christian club, see, and we retreat from the world into those things. I remember, uh, some time ago, speaking to a Baptist minister in, in Auckland, and he'd just been down, uh, the week before to the jubilee of his old football club down in Dunedin or Invercargill or somewhere. And he said to me, he said, I spent most of the weekend in the pub because that's where all the guys were. And he said, he said, and he said this. He said when I became a Christian, out of those, I think it was an assembly, he said. An older Christian said to me, I said to him, I'm going to lose my friends. And he said to me, if they're really your friends, they'll come with you. They don't come with you. You're not your friends. You know what he said? He said, now I realize if I had been their friend, I would not have lost them. We're called to be friends of sinners. We are called to be their friends if we've got to live in the city. We've got to live where we live, where the darknesses we live with the hurt, where the grime and the dirt is. And we've got to. We got to know what we're facing. Look at Nehemiah chapter two, verse twelve. I rose in the night. I and a few men with me. I did not tell anyone what my God was putting in my mind to do for Jerusalem. And there was no animal with me except the animal which I was riding. So I went out at night by the valley gate and the direction of the dragon's. Well, interesting names on to the refuse gate, inspecting the walls of Jerusalem, which are broken down as gates which were consumed by fire and are passed on to the fountain Gate and the King's pool. But there was no place for my mouth to pass, so I went up by night by the ravine and inspected the wall. Then I entered the valley gate again, returned, and the officials didn't know where I'd gone or what I'd done. For as yet I had not told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, officials, or the rest who did the work. And I believe the issue that's been raised here in terms of research is critical. This is what this is what the Word of God says. This is what was happening here up on the Kapiti Coast. For the last five or six months. We've had a research team operating, we call it researching the gates. We've been trying to discover what we're facing up on the Kapiti Coast. Why it is like the way it is, it is the most fascinating things of emergency. It explains why patriarchy is the way Paekakariki is and why Waikanae is the way Waikanae is. It explains why Peacocke is the A marijuana center and the smuggling center of the coast. Traditionally, it was always a smuggling center. It was Maori heads and liquor and tobacco. One time, uh, you see, the principalities persist here. They're there. And we need to know these things. And if we're going to if we're going to be serious about recovering the city, recovering the nation, we've got to know what's happened. We've got to know the powers that are there. That's why, in Wade's talk this morning, I took particular note of Moloch. And I wonder what the Scripture says about Moloch. I found some scriptures that God's God, God's plans are for Moloch. And I think we need to know these things to see. We've got to know our city. We've got to know our town. We ought to know that place better than anybody else that's there. By the time we finish up the coast. I want to tell you something. We all know the demographics. We all know the needs. We'll know the characteristics of that coast better than anybody else on the coast. So we ought see, we're We're going to rebuild it. Okay. You see, the situation that Jerusalem in was actually full of hope. And that's what I say about this nation. It's full of hope. I was reading some time ago in a, in a, in a book, uh, on culture, and I came across an interesting passage. It was talking about the conditions that tell you that a culture is ripe for change. And these are the five conditions. Five or six. I've forgotten which now. And just run as I run them past your mind. Just see how many you can identify with in our immediate surroundings in New Zealand today. One, it says there are problems that threaten the stability and the security of society. Give that a tick. Secondly, there's a leadership vacuum that's not handling those problems. Give that attack the third. And this is the critical one. There is a reservoir, it says, of spiritual strength that can throw up a new category of leadership. Question mark. Fourthly, there are new leaders that are willing to to apply that source of spiritual strength to new answers. Question mark. There is political freedom to affect change capacity, and there are sufficient public support question marks and there are sufficient public support question marks. Now, you see, I believe all those conditions in potential are here today. That tells me that we are we are in a in a place one hundred and fifty years after our history. We're in a place where culture can change. It can change for the better or for the worse. We're at a kind of a watershed, And I believe there's a critical time when this this nation will either swing back to God and begin to fulfill its rightful destiny, or could go right down the tubes. Okay. And I believe you've come to this nation for a time like this. So what did Nehemiah do? He discovered the situation here. Then he did a very interesting thing. And again, I can see this beginning to emerge. He started to build a movement. He got together. The Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials and the rest. We did the work and said to them, you see the bad situation we are in. Jerusalem is desolate and its gates are burned by fire. Come, let us rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Now they lived for seventy years with that devastation thing. And here. Here is a man who has got a big vision and a long term goal. And he's set himself if it takes twelve years to do this. I'm here. See, he gets in there and he lives in the city and he knows the city. And then he starts to get hold of influential people. Just a handful, Mark. You're just a handful. And he starts to build a movement. Listen, we've I've seen I've lived through the beginnings of a movement in my life. We've been talking about this a lot in the last couple of days when and I and and Jim and so on. Because, because twenty five, thirty years ago, there was the beginning of a movement we call it now, the Charismatic Renewal. Uh, I don't know what it was called, but it was a movement. It was a grassroots movement. It came from nowhere. There were no ministers involved in the beginning. I can remember in the early days of the renewal in Wellington being hauled up before a bunch of Pentecostal ministers, and I can name them, you know, some of them very prominent men, and told, this thing is not of God, son. Yes. They said to me, I was younger then. I said, if it was of God that have come to us to run it, because I don't know anything about the things of the spirit. I think look back now, I think what arrogance he. But in the beginning it was just a hand. I there was a stage where I think I knew practically all the spirits of the Christians in New Zealand. There were so few of them see just the beginnings of a movement. But listen, once the movement gets underway, once it gets underway, it develops a life of its own. It develops a momentum, it gets a drive, and it's unstoppable unless you use overwhelming force against it politically. You see this in the world today. You see a movement gets underway, and when God's in it, it gathers momentum, it gathers momentum. And we're seeing the beginnings. You're part of the beginnings of another movement of God. See, I want to tell you something that's going to be far bigger and far more radical, far more costly and far more challenging than anything we've seen before. Because this is the last. This is the the purpose for which everything else was a means to the end. All my all my evangelical life, I used to wonder, what's it all about? When I came to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I started wondering, what's it all about? What's it all for? See? Do you understand that in Israel's history, everything from Egypt up to Dave was a means to an end? Why did God bring them out of Egypt? To get them through the Red sea. Why did he get them through the Red sea? To get them into the wilderness? Why did he get through the wilderness? To get to the Jordan? Why did he get to the Jordan? To get across the Jordan? Why did he get across the Jordan? To get them into the land? Why did he get them into the land? To conquer the land? Why did he get them to conquer the land? To establish the kingdom there? Do you understand where we are in salvation history? Everything God has restored and renewed in the church up until this point in time has been a means to an end, a means to an end. And now God is saying it's the end. This is what it's for. This is what it's all about. This is a purpose To establish his kingdom, to rebuild a city. Look at Isaiah sixty one for a moment, if you would, because I want you to see something important here. Isaiah chapter sixty one, the passage that Jesus read when he was in a synagogue in Capernaum, he said, The Spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. Jesus stopped there. Then we go on the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a Garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning. We sing all this stuff the mantle of praise instead of spirit, of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. We stop there. Bible doesn't stop there. The Bible says it's only a means to an end. It's as then Then very important word. Verse four. Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins. They will raise up the former devastations, and they will repair. What? The ruined cities. That's what it's for. They will repair the ruined cities. The desolations of many generations. And strangers will stand and pasture your flocks. What does that mean? Don't worry about your church. They'll be looked after. And foreigners will be your farmers and your vine dressers. But you'll be called the priests of the Lord. You'll be spoken of as ministers of our God. Listen, brothers and sisters, when we get the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness and all that kind of stuff, then we're called the oaks of the Lord, the planting, planting of the Lord, Oaks of righteousness. But when we rebuild the ruined cities, when we restore the devastations of there, then will be called priests of the Lord, then will be known of as ministers of our God. Do you understand what the prophet saying when we do what we're called to do? That's when people recognize your ministry. That's when people recognize your priesthood. We're doing this. This rebuild job. Okay, Nehemiah. Nehemiah built a built a movement. If you look at Nehemiah chapter three, and we're not going to go through all the book. If you're in case you're worried about that, if you look at Nehemiah three, you'll see the rebuilding that took place. And again, this was a this is a very, very relevant kind of chapter. I'd like you to read the book. Uh, when you've got time, because the rebuilding of the walls took place, as far as I can see, an entirely small scale, spontaneous grassroots thing. There was no clerk of works. There was no organized plan. But a group of people who decided we can alter our immediate environment. We can make real change there. Got together and did it. That's why you have all this list here. So and so and so and so built outside their city, outside their house. So and so and so and so built up to the gate. Another bunch took over their highly disorganized, highly effective thing. That's how it's going to happen. See it's not going to happen by big conference and a and a huge, uh, kind of organization. Suddenly New Zealand has turned around. Not going to happen like that. It's going to happen a grassroots movement of small groups of people who realize we can change our immediate environment. This little bit of this little bit of New Zealand we've got right in front of us, we can rebuild that. We can do it. We have to look for what I call winnable opportunities, not big, huge ventures yet that may come. Not big huge ventures yet, but little small scale, winnable opportunities where you can affect change in structures. Let me give you just a couple of examples. I'll admit these are small, but but I think it's important. This little town of Pike Creek I was talking about very divided little town. It was a boundary line between two warring tribes on the southern tip of Kapiti, across the Peacock always fought. Over all its history, Pike Creek has been isolated from the outside. We've never been able to establish from outside a successful work in Pike Creek, bitterly divided over everything full of New Age people, lesbians, feminists, drug people and so on. The local school had a trust board bitterly opposed to Bible, and schools utterly refused to have any religious brainwashing in the school. It will never happen to you. One day, one of the members of our church council came to me and said, I don't. I don't like this. My kids go to that school, he said. He said, why should we put up with this? He said we could take him on. I reckon we could take him on. And when he said that, I started to, I started to pick up some of his face. And so we spoke to the. We discussed at the eldership and we said, yeah, we ought to take this on. So we did two things. We released him from the church council because the meetings were the same night as that. And so he went and started to get together, Christian parents in the town. And the church began to pray, doing two things, began to pray against the principality over the town, and began to address the little principality that was at school, that rebellious little principality that was resisting the gospel, resisting the Word of God, and claiming authority over the children. So they approached. They got a deputation from the parents, and they went to the trust board. And the trust board refused, categorically gave them raspberries. So they they hung in there. They went round and rang up or visited most of the parents in the school and found they were parents weren't opposed to it. Some of them are not religious people, but if you want it, well, you ought to have that option, you know, fair, good Kiwi bloke kind of thing. They went back to school committee. School committee refused. Point blank. Now, at this time, the thing was starting to get a bit public. And interestingly enough, they had some unexpected allies. And the unexpected allies were the Maori people who suddenly decided they wanted spirituality for their children. I don't know how many of them were actually Christians, but but they are spiritual people, the Maori people. And they started hopping up and down and supporting this. And they and the the trust board was there. Politicking was quite underhand and they could run rings around these, these guys as far as politics was concerned in their meetings. But eventually the pressure got so much that they agreed to hold a referendum. And if the parents, they thought, well, they'll get to get chucked out. So they had the referendum. And the church all this time has been praying in the two directions I was talking about had the referendum. And when the results came in, fifty two percent of the parents were for Bible in schools and forty eight percent were against or were neutral. And so they went back to the school committee with with the results of the referendum. In the meantime, the school committee had done some figuring, and they discovered that if you counted up, not a number of families who voted, but a number of children in the families, you could actually get a result. That said, only forty nine percent of the children in the families wanted to buy them schools, and the fifty one percent were in neutral against it. So they said, no, no, no, go. Just about that time, the Pico thing came along and there was a new board up for grabs. So a whole bunch of Christians put themselves forward as candidates, and a whole bunch of the other side put themselves forward as candidates because they were getting a hot issue in the town when the results came out. Out of the six trustees, five of them were Christians. Now, uh, you know, there there is a group of Christians who decide you can change things. You can change these little structures if you if you if you deal in these two in both these two areas. Let me give you another small example. For a number of years, for five or six years in, in the Kapiti Coast, we had a long standing association with the local chapter of the Mongrel Mob, uh, through, uh, through one of the police, uh, amnesties. We suddenly had an approach from these guys. We'd be intermediaries to set up a meeting with the police so they could hand in their sawn off shotguns and stuff, which we did, and they all turned up with them, wrapped up in newspapers, and they dug a hanging in the church grounds and talking to them afterwards, they were complaining. They were fed up going in and out of jail and were living in the backs of cars. And all our women were down at Porirua and nobody likes us. It was a real cry for help. So at that time we were involved in, uh, beginning in employment training, uh, work schools. That was then called we had agricultural horticultural program. So we approached the Labor Department and said, why don't you do something with these guys? They'd be better growing cabbages than and burglarizing around around the place. And they said, well, if you'll take responsibility for them, we'll give them a six month trial. So we were looking for some land to to take them on. We didn't want them alongside the other ones in case of trouble. And the thing came to a head when they were sleeping in their vans down on the Esplanade, and the neighbours got anxious and sent for the police and to move them on, and they just refused to move. And there was a standoff situation for a while until they said, well, we're not going to go unless the Christian Centre tells us to go. So, so we we had to take it on board then. So it began a very interesting five or six years with, with the, with the Mongrel Mob. And we had a lot of learned a lot, a lot of lessons. Ended up with egg on our face more times than I can tell. But the church began to pray. And I'll always remember the first night we prayed for the mob. God gave us a prophecy. Nobody said. He said, listen, they are not mongrels and they're not a mob. Now, immediately for me, that removed all trepidation. We had some quite scary situations. Moments. A moments concern about it because I realize we imprison people in labels. People are never defined by labels. They're not them. They're not the alcoholics. They are not even the unbelievers. See? They're men and women. Anyway, we began to pray not only for the gang and work with them, but pray against the spirit behind the gang. And I remember one night we had a real breakthrough. We felt in the heavenlies we'd really clobbered something. And the results are very interesting because we didn't know. But that night they had planned a big do in their hall and they had all the, the local, uh, North Island chapters from uh, Hawke's Bay now going to come and all the symbols around the wall. And that night we prayed the whole thing got torched. They got burnt to a cinder. You know, they never, ever found who the arsonist was. It may well have been fire from heaven, I don't know. but about about six or eight months later, all of a sudden they decided on their own that their contact with the Mongrel Mob wasn't doing them any good at all. They burnt their patches. They closed the whole thing down. Now, it was quite scary for a while because two of them had a contract out on their lives because, listen, there's serious stuff. Those those lads that you don't pull out of the mob like that. But the upshot of it is that out of the I think about the fourteen guys we started off with, I think it was only about one who is not currently in employment and is the only town in New Zealand of its size that does not have a Patch gang. Now, if we if we had if we had not got involved with those, those guys, we could have prayed all we like. Nothing would have happened. They still be there if we got involved with them and not prayed, they'd still be there. But deal with both issues and things can be changed. Now I believe what God is, what God is, is, is wanting to raise up and is raising up is that kind of thing to small groups of people who realize here, here we can impact on this bit of our society and this bit of our nation. And brothers and sisters, I believe God is wanting to bring a movement like that to birth in this land now. That's why in terms of the kingdom, you're going to find a lot of confusion about the theology of it. A lot of people polarized into into positions, uh, diverse positions that can't be reconciled. That does not bother me because, well, we've been through that before. See, all that's happened before. It happened in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It's just it's just we've come to a paradigm shift. We come to a massive shift in people's people's understanding of truth. And it's a critical time we're in. But I that's why I believe these conferences are so exciting. And what what God is doing is so, so exciting because he's beginning again a grassroots movement. It will not be managed from the top as the renewal wasn't managed from the top. It began from the bottom up and you're part of it. And I believe God wants to birth in our in our, in our hearts in this conference. And more than just birth it in our hearts. Make it a compelling vision and a heart that God wants to turn this country around. Now, listen, sometime in our past history, somebody called this land God's own country. Do you understand that when that names give identities, names are very important things. If you if you call something a foundation right from its birth, it's very different from if you call it a mission. If you what the what the names we give even even in our Western mind, the names we give are condition things. And somewhere in our past history, somebody I don't know who it was called this God's own country. I believe personally with all my heart. That's God's divine destiny for this land. Now we have not we have not risen to that. We've laughed at it. We've rejected it, and we need to repent of that, I believe, see, but I believe, I believe that's God. That's the destiny of this land. Whoever wrote that song, God defend New Zealand, there was something in those people's hearts and minds when they wrote that song. See, I believe this. This nation is called to a divine destiny, to be a voice and a light and a message to the world. We have the chance, I believe, in terms of reconciliation, to model something for the nations of the world if we handle it right. That's why I'm not disturbed. I'm distressed, but not disturbed. This whole Maori thing is coming to the surface now. It's been a sore in our national psyche for one hundred and fifty years. But I believe God and what blesses me is because I see God raising up Maori leaders, men of stature. They weren't there five years ago. Less than that. They're there now. See, God's wanting to do something in our land and we need to pray for those brothers. We need to bless those brothers. We need to stand with them. See? And I think it's got to happen between Christians because we're the only ones who understand grace. We're the only ones who understand grace. And we have the choice of either doing it God's way or we've got to pick. We could go down the South African way. We could go down the Irish way. We go down Lebanon way. None of those lead anywhere. See, now, that's why I believe this little land of ours has got a destiny. See, uh, but having said that, we are a ruined land. A land that's lost spirit and lost hope. That's that's that's why, uh, you know, we're we're the most secular society in the Western world. And secularism has stopped people's vision at retirement. You won't. You won't get it. You won't. I guarantee you will not get a New Zealander today to think any further ahead than their retirement, their and all all the pressure is on that. That's why this whole super thing is becoming the, the, the limit of people's horizon. We're the only people in the hope for this land. There's a future sea. And God is calling us, I believe, to present a vision for this society. It's more exciting, more compelling, more demanding than the lack of vision that's out there. Without a vision, the people perish. The Bible says the land's got no vision. We've got no future, no hope outside of Christ. And part of me is glad we've run into that brick wall, see, because any hope we have outside of Christ will be an illusion anyway. But we've got we've got an opportunity. See, it's it's by no means. Even though God has set this up, it's by no means a guarantee that we'll rise up to the situation. If we don't, then I don't know, I don't know. I do not know. But God is giving us this opportunity, and he's asking us whether we love this land, whether we'll not just seeing the anthem. I would like to sing God Defend New Zealand and we've got the words or not, but I think we need to make a commitment of our hearts, this nation, God's calling, this nation because I know it can be done. I have never been more hopeful about this land than I am at the moment, and I don't know why. Look around it. You couldn't find much, much grounds for that. But I know in my spirit God has got a destiny. And these are days of destiny for this land. The walls are burnt with fire and broken down. But they can be rebuilt. And God wants to restore it. And we we need, we need to say to the city. We need to say to the city. Lift up your heads, you gates be. Lift up your everlasting doors. That the King of glory might come in. And let me tell you something for you. And you businessmen. You know, when Jesus came into the city, you know, when he came on, he came on the back of a donkey, donkeys. A very interesting donkey fascinates me. Donkey was a beast of burden. The donkey, I believe, represents people's secular vocation. Do you understand when, when when, uh, Jacob was prophesying over his sons. His prophecy for Judah, which was a kingdom tribe, was this. The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet. Until Shiloh comes. Shiloh was Messiah, tethering his his donkey to the vine, tethering his donkey to the vine. In the mosaic economy, the firstborn of everything belonged to God had to be sacrificed. The only two things that could be redeemed were the firstborn son and the firstborn donkey. And the donkey had to be redeemed with a lamb. Interesting. And the rule was, if we don't redeem it, break its neck. Donkey is very important because I believe that Christ wants to enter the city. He wants to enter the nation, and he will not enter it on the backs of preachers. I don't believe you. Enter on the backs of businessmen. You'll He'll enter on the backs of professional men and women, and we need to untether our donkey and bring it to Jesus and let him use that. That's just one of the gates. See all these gates? Family is a gate. That's why it's so important. That's why the battle is over. Family. Now God has raised up. What? The parenting trust. God wants to penetrate these gates. See? Another, another, another, another gate is the media thing. Now, Graham was saying, and I verify because we've done some networking and came across. There's hardly any people in our media. We have the most secular television media in the Western world. There's more religion shown on television in Denmark than there is in New Zealand. And yet New Zealanders are not there in the, in the, in the, in the technical field, but not in the creative field. The devil has got a stranglehold in the media. Why? Because he controls control the media, control the city. We need to take those gates. Now we've got to say something to our hearts about this call to government, towards government. Calling to education, calling to family, calling to business, calling to the church to take the gates. And I would like us before we before we close tonight, I'd like us to stand. I'd like us to pray for New Zealand. Uh, I'd like you to pray your own prayer out loud. Uh, pray for this land. Speak to this land. Call it back. To be what God destined it to be. To be God's own country. There is a principality. There's a power there. Creative power. That's the object of redemption. God wants to redeem it and restore our land. And then could we sing God defend New Zealand? Yeah, let's let's stand and pray for New Zealand first. Now you pray out loud and just pour out your heart to God. Ask God, if nothing else, to give your love for this land, Lord Jesus, we can pray for this land. We pray for Lord. Lord, this land that you've raised up, this beautiful, beautiful land. Lord, Lord, has come from your hand and has some of your handiwork. Praise the Lord. Praise you, Lord, the heart of my servant. This question I ask you. Is it your heart's cry? For this is my word for the nation. Let the sons of God be committed to me. Let the sons of God and every city be committed to me, that the sons of God in every town be committed to me. And every church fellowship. For if you are committed to me. If the rebuilding, the restoring of this nation. Is it your heart? Then it will happen. Let the vision that I have planted in you through my servant tonight. Let it become part of you. Let it grip you. Let it change your life, affect your lifestyle and let this message go right throughout the land. I'm calling you this. People who heard this message tonight to spread it throughout the land, to promote it. And as you are faithful, as you are committed to me, it will happen.