Crossway Baptist Church: Recent Episodes
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Pastor Buffy Cook preaches the 2nd of a two-part message on the power of the tongue at FBC Somerville.
Inherent in any good parenting is to warn of the dangers of life. Jesus, who does the work of the Father, like any good Father, warns His disciples then, us now, of the dangers inherent in the Christian life. Jesus, in warning us to avoid hypocrisy, fear God not humans and confess Him openly & publicly, is not being a cosmic killjoy but simply providing some much needed "Good Heavenly Parenting" to His children! Grab your Bible & listen in to get a good ole dose of some "Good Heavenly Parenting."
Jesus told the Pharisee, the outside of his cup was clean but the inside was filthy. God knows the outside and the inside, and when they don't match, we've become hypocrites. One of the main reasons unbelievers won't associate with Christians is the issue of hypocrisy. But, we shouldn't be searching the church for hypocrisy, without first looking into the mirror. Grab your notebooks and bibles and listen in as Pastor Jimmy Hicks talks about this sensitive subject.
Listen in as Brother Amir Shahbaz Bbhatti, founder of Agape Mission for Pakistan, shared what God is doing in Pakistan through him and his ministry as well as the many ways in which fellow Christians in Pakistan find themselves persecuted.
Light is an oddity...without it we cannot see yet the brightest sun cannot enable the blind to see! We gleefully sing about light..."I Saw The Light" & "This Little Light Of Mine"...this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine; Praise the Lord I saw the light. But is it TRUE OF US?! What if this little light of mine is actually darkness?! What if we claim to have seen the light & the light in us is actually darkness?! That's what Jesus warns in Luke 11:35! Grab your Bible & listen in as Pastor Buffy Cook teaches us to examine "This Little Light Of Mine," being sure the spiritual lamp we're seeing by is spelled J-E-S-U-S, our spiritual eyes are healthy & not diseased and that what we think is light within us is not indeed darkness.
Neutrality = a virus that plagues that our world & unfortunately has infected the church! We, the church, need a fresh inoculation of God’s Word that we might be vaccinated against this deadly dz of neutrality! No better place to find such than in the 11th chpt. of Luke as our Lord teaches a crowd following His exorcism of a demon. Listen in as Pastor Buffy Cook teaches the 2nd of a 2 part message that teaches us that with the Christian life, there is "No Neutral Ground."
We live in a culture that increasingly espouses “The Myth of Neutrality.” Everybody gets a trophy…all winners; every view is equally valid…no absolute truth; gender/sexuality…multiple & fluid; culture war…no moral absolutes (Judges 21:25). Sadly, the church instead of influencing the culture has allowed the culture to influence, yea, infect her! Neutrality = a virus that plagues that our world & unfortunately has infected the church! We, the church, need a fresh inoculation of God’s Word that we might be vaccinated against this deadly dz of neutrality! No better place to find such than in the 11th chpt. of Luke as our Lord teaches a crowd following His exorcism of a demon. Listen in as Pastor Buffy Cook teaches that with the Christian life, there is "No Neutral Ground."
What is your favorite parable of Jesus'?? For many, it is The Parable Of The Good Samaritan. Margaret Thatcher once said, “No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions; he had money as well.” While we find that humorous, it does challenge us as to WHY is The Parable Of The Good Samaritan SOO well remembered?! It's WAY MORE than "it's good to help folks in need." Grab your Bible, turn to Luke 10 & join Pastor Buffy Cook as he preaches the 2nd of a 2 part message on The Parable Of The Good Samaritan.
What is your favorite parable of Jesus'?? For many, it is The Parable Of The Good Samaritan. Margaret Thatcher once said, “No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions; he had money as well.” While we find that humorous, it does challenge us as to WHY is The Parable Of The Good Samaritan SOO well remembered?! It's WAY MORE than "it's good to help folks in need." Grab your Bible, turn to Luke 10 & join Pastor Buffy Cook as he preaches on The Parable Of The Good Samaritan, teaching us to dig in & mine the riches of this greatest of stories, perhaps THE most endearing & well remembered of Jesus' parables.
Grab your Bibles and notebooks and listen as Pastor Jimmy Hicks discusses the most famous prayer in all of scripture and study the pattern for prayer that Jesus teaches.
What would you do if Jesus was going to visit YOUR house today?! Many, if not all, of us would pull a Martha! The truth is Jesus has given us a perpetual, open invitation to meet with us at & in our homes on a DAILY basis. Any many, if not all, of us miss out much like Martha did. We're too busy TCBing - Taking Care of Busyness! The gift Jesus most wants to give ALL of us is the gift of Mary - learning to abide at His feet!! It is a place of stillness where we can Forget Our Cares, Feed Our Souls, Focus Our Priorities, & Find Our Selves. Grab a Bible & listen in as Pastor Buffy Cook preaches our Mother's Day 2018 message - At The Feet Of Jesus.
One of the things I love THE most about the Bible is its honesty, especially with regards to the characters within its pages. When I think of Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah & the Disciples, the very Heroes of our Faith, it gives me GREAT hope in the messiness of my life!! How instructive if they got everything right?! How hopeful if God evaporated 'em after the 2nd mess-up?! As we read Luke 9:51-56, we see God wasn't finished working in the disciple's lives - they, like us, were God's Masterpieces, just Unfinished! There may be no more instructive & relevant & hope inspiring passage in our present day as we too seek to truly follow Christ! So, grab your Bible & turn to Luke 9 as Pastor Buffy Cook preaches a message entitled "Unfinished!"
Richard Dawkins, famed atheist, once said, "Accounts of Jesus’ resurrection & ascension are about as well-documented as Jack & the Beanstalk.” Is Mr. Dawkins correct?! When it comes to The Resurrection, is it simply “April Fool’s!”?! In this our 4th & final message in the series "April Fool's!" Pastor Buffy Cook preaches our 2018 Easter message. When it comes to Jesus Is Risen, who’s believing the wild & absurd while doubting & dismissing the credible & important? Are we as Mr. Dawkins would propose fools to believe Jesus Is Risen?! Is it April Fool’s or Fool Not To Believe?! Grab your Bible & turn to Matthew 28 and be prepared to be one minded that Jesus Is Risen, Jesus Is Risen Indeed and yes it is fool not to believe!!!
What is THE most offensive symbol you know?! I mean what could be more offensive than a swastika?! Is not THE CROSS the most offensive symbol you know?! Why is the Cross SOO offensive?! It's seen as weakness, foolishness, narrow mindedness. In a postmodern era in which only ¼ to 1/3 of Americans believe in absolute truth to say absolutely that the Christian God is The One True God, that Christianity is The One True Religion, that a Crucified Savior, Jesus Christ, is The Only True Way to salvation is absolute foolishness at best & bigotry at worst!! Is Jesus THE ONLY WAY?! Is it April Fool’s! to believe so or Fool to believe otherwise? Grab your Bible, turn to 1 Corinthians 1 & listen in as Pastor Buffy Cook teaches on "April Fool's! - Jesus Is The Only Way!"
'The Bible is a book of myths' is a common charge leveled by its critics. Since myths have no counterpart in historical truth, they are considered to be worthless sources of truth. One definition of myth terms it as “any fictitious story.” Christians, to support their claim of revealed truth, appeal to a book that was written hundreds of years ago. The Bible has been a subject of an enormous amount of study and criticism which has left the integrity of its trustworthiness seriously in doubt. Before studying the truth of Scripture, we have to have a grasp on the fact that the Bible is of divine origin, inspired, infallible, and authoritative. Unless we recognize that, we have no basis for believing anything the book teaches. Grab your Bibles an notebooks as we discuss The Bible - is it a book of fairytales and fiction or is it the inspired Word of God?
It's one of the strange quirks of human nature that we tend to believe the wild & absurd while doubting & dismissing the credible & important. It's this quirk that causes us to deny the Holocaust, to deny that Americans walked on the moon, to deny that 9/11 was the work of terrorists, that Pro Wrestling is real and as atheists would have us believe that to assert There Is A God one must be mentally ill or want nothing to do with evidence and logic or just be playing a big ole April Fool's Prank! In this first of a four part series entitled "April Fool's!" Pastor Buffy Cook asks who's believing the wild & absurd while doubting & dismissing the credible & important?! There Is A God - April Fool's or fool not to believe?! Grab a Bible, turn to Psalm 14 and listen in as Pastor Cook teaches on "April Fool's - There Is No God!"
This week Pastor Jimmy Hicks take a look at a verse of scripture that's a powerful commentary on the Christian life. Galatians 2:20 provides many truths about our christian walks. From that text we can see the Christian life is a crucifixional life. Paul says “I am crucified with Christ” Second, the Christian life is a resurrectional life. He said, “Nevertheless, I live.” Third, it tells us that the Christian life is an incarnational life. “But Christ lives in me,” It’s also sacrificial life. “and the life which I live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God.” The fifth thing we see from the verse about the Christian life is that it’s a devotional life. Paul says, “Christ loved me,” And the last thing the verse reveals is that the Christian life is a substitutional life. “He gave Himself for me,”
In this message we'll focus our attention on just one small part of the text, one of the most important phrases “Christ lives in me.” Gran your notebooks and bibles and study with us.
Spend any time in America, and the conversation will inevitably turn to greatness. Who is the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time) - QB, RB, WR, Basketball player, singer, actor, etc, etc?? And so it should come as no surprise that once when Jesus asked His disciples "What were you discussing on the way?" that their conversation had turned to greatest - in fact, which of them was the greatest. What is surprising is Jesus' teaching that follows about what constitutes true greatness! What did Jesus teach?! Grab a Bible & listen in as Pastor Buffy Cook teaches from Luke 9:46-50 on "True Greatness."
We’ve all had some mountaintop experiences in our walks. Maybe at a men's retreat or a youth camp, or when you go out of the country on a mission trip, you see the glory of God in a new way. Nobody wants to come down from the mountaintop. Mountaintop experiences are great, but you do have to eventually leave the mountain to go back down in the valley with Jesus. Listen in as Pastor Jimmy Hicks teaches on Luke 9:37-45 as Jesus comes down from the mountaintop and back into the valley.
What is THE greatest sight you've EVER seen?! When Jesus took Peter, James & John up on a mountain to pray, they had NO idea what awaited them! They would see THE greatest sight they'd ever seen little less would ever see - Jesus in all His glory!!! It was an experience that would serve as an anchor for their souls for years to come (Jn. 1:14). It still today, 2000 years later, can do the same for us as disciples of Christ! Listen in as Pastor Buffy Cook teaches on "The Transfiguration."
When Jesus comes asking the disciples "Who do YOU say that I am?," one view was completely inadequate, one view was completely correct and even the correct view needed some defining. When we confess Christ as Messiah, we not only accept a Suffering Messiah/Savior but we also embrace the reality of a cross for ourselves! Grab your Bible & listen in as Pastor Buffy Cook teaches our 42nd message through the Gospel of Luke in which Jesus asks His disciples - "Who Do YOU Say That I Am?"
In this, our 40th message through the Gospel of Luke, Pastor Buffy Cook teaches on "The Haunting In Herod's Palace." Herod's Haunting was no ghost but a laundry list of things that habitually troubled him, the worst of which was his very own conscience! 2000 years later the very things that haunted Herod in his palace still haunt us today in our own lives. His haunting has much to teach us about God & our own walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. So, grab a Bible & notebook and listen in as Pastor Cook teaches on "The Haunting In Herod's Palace."
Do you have plans to make a New Year's Resolution?! 45% of people in the US do. Only 9% will be successful! Repeatedly throughout Scripture, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, what God actually calls us to is a regular self-examination. What better time to do so than New Year's Eve?! In this message, Pastor Buffy Cook calls us to examine ourselves mere hours away from 2018 by taking A Look Back, A Look Around & A Look Ahead and spurs us to look more like Christ at the end of 2018 than we do at the beginning.
In this message, our final in a four part series, Pastor Buffy Cook finishes our Christmas 2017 Series, "What Child Is This?", by examining that that babe in the manger, Jesus Christ, is PRINCE OF PEACE!!! Grab a Bible and listen in as Pastor Cook teaches from Isaiah 9:6.
In this message, Pastor Jimmy Hicks continues our Christmas 2017 Series, "What Child Is This?", by examining Jesus as "Everlasting Father"
In this message, Pastor Buffy Cook continues our Christmas 2017 Series, "What Child Is This?", by examining that that babe in the manger, Jesus Christ, is MIGHTY GOD!!! Grab a Bible and listen in as Pastor Cook teaches from Isaiah 9:6, the second of a four part series.
In this message, Pastor Buffy Cook kicks off our Christmas 2017 Series, "What Child Is This?", by examining that that babe in the manger, Jesus Christ, is WONDERFUL, COUNSELOR!!! Grab a Bible and listen in as Pastor Cook teaches from Isaiah 9:6, the first of a four part series.
It is quite fitting for us to celebrate a National Day of Thanksgiving! For many, it will indeed be a time of praise while for others a pretext to something else. For many, it will indeed be a spiritual time while for others a superficial time. One of Jesus' most well-known parables, found in Luke 18, warns us of that danger; Thanksgiving as little more than pretext to something else; Thanksgiving as superficial vs. spiritual. Grab your Bible and listen in as Pastor Buffy Cook preaches on "A Superficial Thanksgiving," all the while asking yourself, who am I - The Pharisee or The Publican?!
During the course of Jesus’ ministry, the majority of His time was spent with His disciples. Just over 30,000 hours of public ministry, and 25,000 of those hours were devoted to training and equipping His disciples. We see a very clear picture of Jesus’ strategy in building His disciples in Luke 9:1-6. Grab your Bibles and notebooks and study with us as we examine the responsibilities of every disciple maker and the responsibilities of every disciple.
The Bible has much to say about FAITH - saved by, justified by, righteous live by, impossible to please God without! But what kind of faith is God looking for?! In this message, Pastor Buffy Cook teaches that as Jesus Raises A Daughter we should hone in on 12 aspects of faith that Jesus is looking for, faith that pleases Him, faith that He expects His disciples to live by. Is that YOUR desire - to live by faith?! If so, grab your Bible and a notebook and listen in!!!
Which of the 5 senses is THE most powerful?! Arguably...TOUCH! Scientific research verifies so in at least 7 areas (Developmentally, Financially, Socially, Physically, Romantically, Educationally, Emotionally). "A kiss may just be a kiss; A sigh may just be a sigh; but a TOUCH can CHANGE your life!" No more so is this true than in the 8th Chapter of Luke! Jesus heals a woman with an issue of blood simply through the power of touch!! We, a tech-saturated world, a "touch-phobic society" would do well to learn anew the power of touch! Grab a Bible & listen in as Pastor Buffy Cook teaches on the power of touch as Jesus Heals A Woman.
Luke 8:27 finds Jesus stepping outta the boat from which He just calmed a literal hurricane, only to be greeted by a man who looks like something from the Walking Dead or the latest Stephen King movie (possessed by a legion of demons, buck naked, terrifyingly violent, self-mutilating, maniacal menance screaming at the top of his lungs!). WWJD?! Jesus having confronted nature's storm stands just as cooly & confidently before an equally violent storm in human nature. There are many wonderful diamonds of truth we can mine from Jesus' deliverance of the Gerasene demoniac! So grab a Bible & listen in as Pastor Buffy Cook teaches from Luke 8.
What is the strongest muscle in the body?! There are many "candidates" for that honor (heart, masseter, soleus) but the tongue is not! Why then the myth that the tongue is the strongest muscle in the body?! Perhaps because we witness it's destructive power on a DAILY basis. Just this week (Trump & Corker, Jamele Hill, Cam Newton)... In the midst of such times when more than ever the tongue spells T-R-O-U-B-L-E, Pastor Buffy Cook reminds us that we as Christians do well to consider the "Incredible, Terrible Tongue"! Grab a Bible & listen in as Pastor Cook teaches us 12 truths with regards to the Incredibleness yet Terribleness that is The Tongue!!!
When evil confronts society, when a madman starts shooting into a crowd of people for no reason, when hurricanes come, when earthquakes happen, when thousands die, we ask, “Why are they dying?” When we open the newspaper or turn on the news, and we see murder after murder, rapes, child pornography, international threats – people start to ask, “Where are you God?” Today Pastor Jimmy Hicks steps away from our study in the Gospel of Luke and explores the question, "Where is God in the Midst of Evil?" Grab your notebooks and bibles and study with us.
What was the #1 "lesson" the disciples needed to learn?! How to answer "Who then is this man?" - Jesus' Identity (fully man, fully God) & Jesus' Authority as such. It was a 4 part lesson learned in the "Lab of Life" - stilling of storm, deliverance of demoniac, healing of woman, raising of a daughter. It would all culminate in Peter's great profession of faith in Luke 9:20. In this, our 35th message through the Gospel of Luke, Pastor Buffy Cook teaches on Jesus' Calming of a Storm and call us to conside the implications of Jesus' Identity as the God-Man and Jesus' Authority over the very Creation itself. Grab your Bible & listen as Pastor Cook teaches from Luke 8:22-25.
Could you imagine penciling in the flu next Thursday at 2pm or reserving next weekend, ALL weekend, for the rip roaring stomach bug? I mean NO ONE pencils in sickness! Unless you're a Christian! Far too many Christians "pencil in" sickness on a monthly, weekly, daily basis...we are SICK in our HEARING! We have itching ears (2 Tim. 4:4), wandering ears (2 Tim. 4:4), dull of hearing ears (Heb. 5:11), clogged with wax/sin ears (Jms. 1:21). In this passage in Luke 8, Jesus calls us to a good old fashioned ear self-examination! How's YOUR hearing??? Do you have ears that TRULY HEAR...Respond to Jesus' message by Hearing Responsivley & Obeying Demonstrably?!?! Grab your Bible and listen in as Pastor Buffy Cook teaches that we must "Hear It, Do It or Lose It"!!!
This week Pastor Jimmy Hicks breaks apart what was arguably Jesus' most prolific parable, the parable of the Sower, the Seed and the Soils. Grab your Bible and notebooks and study as we examine part one of this two-part study.
What do Ministry, Women and Money have in common? Other than it takes a brave man to preach a single sermon on all 3?! Luke 8 is what they have in common! In fact, there is much about Ministry, Women and Money we simply would not have preserved from the life and teaching of Jesus were it not for Luke. In this, our 32nd message through the Gospel of Luke, Pastor Buffy Cook teaches on that 3 fold subject (Ministry, Women and Money) as encompased in 3 verses no other Gospel writer includes but Luke. Grab your Bible, a notebook and a pen and listen in as Pastor Cook teaches on Ministry, Women and Money.
Can you have love without forgiveness? Can you hold onto a grudge and count yourself saved? That's a tough truth to face for anyone, but in this message Pastor Jimmy Hicks meets it head on. In this our 31st message from Luke's Gospel, Jimmy brings into view the biblical view of forgiveness, love and our own salvation by examining Jesus' encounter with a Pharisee and a sinful woman.
In this our 30th message through the Gospel of Luke, Pastor Buffy Cook teaches Part 3 of Compassion In Action - The Case of The Perplexed Prophet. Since the day Jesus ascended to heaven, folks have had questions about Him - "Who Jesus Is?"! The disciples struggled to answer that question as did the greatest person ever born among women, John the Baptist. In 2000 years, little has changed - folks still wrestle with questions and doubts as to "Who Jesus Is?" As we watch John the Baptist struggle to answer that question, Jesus didn't ridicule, mock, condemn or dismiss John's doubts...He showed COMPASSION! He still does the same today! He still tells us today - "Happy is the man who never loses his faith in me"! Grab a Bible, a notebook and a pen and listen in as we examine The Case of The Perplexed Prophet.
The only thing worse than a physician with a bad bedside manner is one with no bedside manner! We ALL desire a physician with a wonderful bedside manner. Jesus had the best!!! This passage - "the loveliest story in all the gospels" - is a beautiful, amazing, heart-rending pic of the wonderful, compassionate bedside manner of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ! As he literally attends the bedside of an only son being carried out for burial & looks into the eyes of his weeping heartbroken widow of a mother, we still today, 2000 years later, can feel her pain in Jesus' heart! True Compassion In Action!!! Grab your Bible, a notebook and pen and listen in as Pastor Buffy Cook teaches on "The Case of The Widow's Son at Nain."
What is the ONE thing we all desire in a physician? Knowledge, Skill, Diploma, Looks?! Is it not COMPASSION?! Compassion has been defined as "your pain in my heart"! OH the pain our Lord must have felt in His heart as He ministered place to place!! In Luke Chpt 7, He encounters a beloved centurion's servant on death's door, a weeping heartbroken widow burying her only son, a perplexed prophet in need of reassurance & a sinful woman in need of forgiveness. Jesus, The Great Physician, motivated by compassion, helped them all! Grab your Bible, a notebook and a pen and listen in as Pastor Buffy Cook leads us to examine The Case of The Centurion's Servant as we watch Jesus, The Great Physician, Compassion In Action!
In this, the 27th message from our walk through Luke's Gospel, Pastor Jimmy Hicks examines Jesus' final words in the Sermon on the Level by drawing four points from the text: I. A Tree is Known By its Fruit II. The Fruit of a True Disciple is Obedience III. True Disciples Build their Foundation on the Rock IV. Lives Founded on the Rock will Persevere
Do you have a hero?! Many of us do & at some point have sought to copy or imitate him/her. As Christians our "hero" is & should be Jesus Himself! Paul in 1 Cor. 11:1 said "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." Yet NOT mere outward imitation..."If you really reverence a great man, you will get at his spirit" (Brooks)...true Christianity from the inside out. That is what this section of The Sermon On The Level is about - the spirituality of a devoted follower of Christ...Jesus calls for A Magnanimous Disposition, A Life-Imparting Vision, & A Careful Self-Examination! Listen in as Pastor Buffy Cook teaches Part 3 of The Sermon On The Level.
Wouldn't you LOVE to hear Jesus preach a sermon?! Yet, are we really THAT eager? He's demanding - take up your cross and follow Me; He's radical - love your enemies! In His Sermon On The Level in Luke 6, Jesus says that just as kids physically look & act like their parents, spiritually the same is true. And so, the conduct of "King's Kids" (disciples of Christ) oughta be that of Supernatural Love...love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who abuse you. Jesus' words & their implication for our lives remain as explosively radical today as they were then!!! Listen in as Pastor Buffy Cook teaches Part Two of The Sermon On The Level.
As we continue our look into Luke’s Gospel, we come to Luke 6:12-19, where we see Jesus calling His 12 disciples from the masses who’d been following Him to this point. We know God had a ton of ways He could’ve used to give His truth to the world. He could’ve used the angels who would’ve likely been more obedient and productive at getting the job done than we have been. He could’ve even spoken directly from heaven, like He did when Jesus was baptized. He could’ve opened the skies and spoke to every person in the world. He for sure had more options, so I can’t tell you why He chose to do it the way He did. But what we do know for sure is,
“Jesus’ method for ministry was to prayerfully choose a few men to minister to the masses.”
From our text today we can take notice of 4 things – The Masses, The Master, The Method and The Men.
In this, our 24th message through the Gospel of Luke, Pastor Buffy Cook teaches on Jesus Sermon On The Level. In that sermon, Jesus dropped the equivalent of four "spiritual H bombs," dramatically leveling with the 12 & His other disciples; annihilating the world's value system in the hearts and minds of His disciples forevermore. Jesus outlines the profile of a true disciple (poor, hungry, sad, hated) vs the siren call of the world (rich, full, happy, popular), effectively blowing away any shallow talk of discipleship & thus calling for true commitment. We can glibly dismiss these four "spiritual H bombs" as shocking or we can take them to heart as what it truly means to follow Jesus!!! Grab a Bible, notebook and pen and listen in as we examine Jesus' Sermon On The Level.
In this, our Father's Day 2017 message, Pastor Buffy Cook teaches from 1 Cor. 16. America & her church is in desperate need for men to stand in the gap for Christ today. Paul at the close of 1 Corinthians lays out some very practical advice on Christian living, a call for "A Few Good Men." It's a timely call for Christian men everywhere, indeed anyone within the body of Christ, to stand in the gap for Christ today! So, whether you are a father, grandfather, young man, old man or none of those, grab your Bible, a notebook and pen and listen up as we hear God call through the apostle Paul for "A Few Good Men."
This is the 3rd message in our 2017 Summer Series, "Ten Steps to Spiritual Renewal" from the book of Nehemiah. Pastor Buffy Cook teaches in this message that Step #3 is "Getting Concerned Over Sin." Here in the 9th Chapter of Nehemiah, we find 10 Steps that serve to drive us to do just that!