A Prophetic Call to Rebuild What Religion Has Buried.

🧱 I. Nehemiah’s Cry: The Watchman Weeps Before He Builds

“When I heard these words, I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven.” —Nehemiah 1:4

Nehemiah didn’t begin with blueprints—he began with brokenness. He wept for a city in ruins, a people scattered, and a testimony defiled. He didn’t blame Babylon. He confessed the sins of his fathers and his own house. This is the posture of the true reformer:

Eyes open to ruin

Heart pierced by grief

Hands ready to rebuild

“Let us rise up and build.” —Nehemiah 2:18

But not just walls. We must rebuild worship, witness, and the fear of the Lord.

🔥 II. Stephen’s Fire: The Prophet Rebukes the Temple System

“Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost…” —Acts 7:51 “The Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands…” —Acts 7:48

Stephen stood before the Sanhedrin—not with diplomacy, but with divine indictment. He traced Israel’s history not to flatter, but to expose the pattern of rebellion. He named their addiction to temple worship, their rejection of the prophets, and their murder of the Just One.

They stopped their ears. They gnashed their teeth. They stoned him in public view.

But heaven stood.

“Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” —Acts 7:56

Stephen’s death scattered the church. But that scattering became sending. The gospel left the building and entered the world.

🌐 III. Charlie’s Marketplace Witness: The Tent That Provokes

Charlie Kirk didn’t preach behind stained glass. He preached in tents, on campuses, in hostile forums. He invited confrontation—not for ego, but for truth.

And like Stephen, he was silenced. Not just by pagans, but by those who had grown comfortable in their own temples. Those who had traded fire for form. Those who had stopped their ears to conviction.

Stephen confronted the religious elite who resisted the Holy Spirit, clung to temple tradition, and rejected the living presence of God. Charlie confronted the cultural elite who replaced public worship with institutional idolatry, fortified temples to Baal, and silenced truth in the name of tolerance. Both exposed the error of their generation. Both provoked the gatekeepers of power. Both bore witness to a gospel that cannot be confined.

And both shared the same Lord—the Just One whom religion crucified and whom heaven vindicated.

But his death stirred millions. Not to vengeance, but to clarity. Not to politics, but to purpose.

“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” —Mark 16:15

The marketplace is the new Mars Hill. The tent is the new temple. The witness is the new worship.

🗣️ IV. Mars Hill and the Mandate to Go

Saul stood by as Stephen was stoned—arms crossed, heart hardened, breathing threats. He was the enforcer of temple purity, the silencer of Spirit-led fire. But heaven had other plans.

On the road to Damascus, the stone-caster was struck blind by glory. The persecutor became the preacher. The man who stopped ears became the voice that pierced nations.

“How shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?” —Romans 10:14–15

Paul was sent. Not to temples made with hands, but to Mars Hill. To the altar of the unknown god. To the philosophers, the skeptics, the seekers.

“Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.” —Acts 17:23

He didn’t flinch. He didn’t soften. He declared the resurrected Christ in the heart of pagan Athens.

Paul went from defending stone walls to building living temples—churches planted in hostile soil, letters written in prison, disciples forged in fire.

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” —1 Corinthians 3:16

🧭 V. How Then Shall We Live?

“And they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.” —Acts 8:4 “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together… but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” —Hebrews 10:25

We must gather—yes. But not to fulfill obligation. Not to rehearse tradition. Not to preserve religion.

We must gather to provoke, to equip, to send forth.

Organized religion has failed. It clings to form while rejecting fire. It resists the Holy Spirit and the living presence of God. It gathers in cathedrals to check a box, not to fulfill the Great Commission. And as cities and towns drift further from God, the message of the Cross remains locked inside these whited sepulchers—beautiful on the outside, but void of life within.

We must scatter again. Not in fear, but in fire. Not in rebellion, but in obedience.

We must rebuild—not monuments, but movements. Not padded pews, but prophetic pulpits. Not mini temples, but mobile tents of truth.

🧱 VII. Why Were the Walls Broken?

“Because ye have forsaken the Lord, he hath also forsaken you.” —2 Chronicles 24:20

The walls of Jerusalem didn’t fall by accident. They were breached because covenant was broken. God’s people abandoned His ways, worshiped idols, and silenced His prophets.

They fell into spiritual seduction—chasing Baal, blending with pagan cultures, trusting in alliances and rituals instead of repentance and righteousness. They honored God with lips but not with hearts. They kept temple routines but rejected the living God.

So judgment came. Babylon invaded. The temple was burned. The city was emptied. The people were exiled.

“This whole land shall be a desolation… and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.” —Jeremiah 25:11

Seventy years of captivity. Not just political punishment—but spiritual discipline. God used Babylon to purge idolatry, provoke repentance, and prepare a remnant.

Jerusalem lay in ruins. No active testimony of God remained in the land. The stones of the walls they thought would protect them became a testimony against them. Why? Because seventy years prior, they stopped their ears to the Lord’s ways.

And when we trace back seventy years in our own nation’s history, we arrive at a moment when the worship of God was outlawed in the public square and replaced with the worship of Baal. Temples to Baal were fortified in every city and state—taking the form of institutes of education, filled not with truth but with false prophets of Baal. The testimony of God was buried beneath policy, philosophy, and pride.

Nehemiah’s cry came after the sentence was served. His burden was born from history’s warning: If we bury the Word, we will be buried by the world.

🩸 VIII. Final Charge: Rebuild the Wall, Restore the Witness

Nehemiah wept. Stephen burned. Charlie provoked. Paul preached.

Now it’s our turn.

Let the watchmen rise. Let Mars Hill be filled. Let the hardest hearts melt before an awesome God.

Because when one falls, thousands must arise. And when one is sent, the silence is broken.

🙏 Prayer

Lord of the broken wall and the burning heart, we come not with polished plans but with pierced spirits. We confess our comfort, our compromise, our silence. We ask for the fire of Stephen, the clarity of Charlie, the boldness of Paul, and the tears of Nehemiah. Send us into the marketplace, the campus, the tent, the prison, the pulpit. Let our witness provoke, our worship restore, and our walk reflect Your glory. Rebuild what religion has buried. Revive what tradition has tamed. And reign where man-made temples have failed. In Jesus’ name, amen.

📸 Benediction

May the God who scattered the church to save the world scatter you with purpose. May the Spirit who stood with Stephen stand with you in every confrontation. May the fire that fell on the apostles fall again on your tent, your table, your testimony. Go now—not to perform, but to provoke. Not to consume, but to commission. Not to build walls, but to raise altars.

In the name of the Father who sends, the Son who saves, and the Spirit who speaks— Amen.