In school of ministry, second year school of ministry, I've been working through a series

with the students on leadership through the book of Nehemiah.

And I've personally just been so powerfully moved by the book of Nehemiah and how God is

using it in my own personal life and encouraging me.

How many of you know the book of Nehemiah fairly well, like you're at least familiar with

it.

And so let me just give you a little background.

So, you know, Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, came from Babylon, came in and destroyed Israel, took

captive, all the Israelites are the ones that were left alive, that is, and took many

of them into Babylon.

And that's where we get the story of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo.

And so from the book of Daniel, Jeremiah prophesied that the people would be in captivity for

70 years.

Jeremiah prophesied years before the people went into captivity that Babylon would come in,

that they would destroy Israel, destroy the tear down the temple and carry the people

away for 70 years into Babylon in captivity.

And so when they carried the Israelites into Babylon, as you know, they carried Daniel,

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo into Babylon.

And how many of you know that God always has this X factor?

You know, I like graphs and shards and I like to see how things progress, but you can't

factor in Jesus.

Or maybe I should say you have to factor in Jesus because you just never know where he's

...