3 And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.”
Nehemiah’s Prayer
4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5 And I said, “O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. 8 Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ 10 They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. 11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”
3 And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.”
Nehemiah’s Prayer
4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5 And I said, “O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. 8 Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ 10 They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. 11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Collin Hansen:
To talk about spiritual disciplines. I'm reminded, actually a number of times in preparing sermons of, this story. It might be a legend. I don't, I don't know if it's true or not, but it's about, Gandhi, Mahatma, not the other Gandhi that you're thinking of, but Mahatma Gandhi was, approached by this woman, this mother. She traveled a long distance and, and she had her son with her.
Collin Hansen:
And she said, Gandhi, which I guess is Mr. Gandhi. She, she, she approached him and she said, Gandhi, now will you please tell my son not to eat sugar? Because he just, he eats all this sugar and it's terrible for him. We tell him not to.
Collin Hansen:
And Gandhi says, come come back in 2 weeks. And so she travels all this distance back to her house, and then 2 weeks later comes all the way back to him, and Gandhi looks at the little boy and says, stop eating sugar. And the mother was like, that that's it. I come to you, oh great Gandhi. And I gave you that's that's what you said.
Collin Hansen:
Why why did I have to go all the way home, wait 2 weeks, and come back for that? And he said this, 2 weeks ago, I still ate sugar. Now when it comes to spiritual disciplines and and me standing up here and and Dwight and Thomas and we talk about these things, we're not standing in front of you as people that don't eat sugar anymore. We don't stand up here as people that have these things down, and we just practice them, and we do them so well. And so we come up here, and we appeal to you to be like us, and do these things like we do them.
Collin Hansen:
And I feel that especially on this topic of prayer. And so what we're gonna do is is we're we're gonna look, to a man. We're we're gonna look to this man in the old testament, Nehemiah. And that's that's where we're gonna be spending our time tonight. If you would go ahead and turn your bibles to Nehemiah.
Collin Hansen:
If you if you hit Psalms, it's a little bit further to your left. But we'll be in Nehemiah chapter 1. As you're making your way there, just a quick thing about Nehemiah. Nehemiah, in, in the history of Israel, Israel has been taken captive by the Babylonians. Jerusalem has been destroyed.
Collin Hansen:
The city has been destroyed. The, the gates, the the the doors, like, they set on fire. The whole place has been rubble. And Nehemiah is hearing about this for the first time. And so we're gonna we're gonna look at his prayer tonight.
Collin Hansen:
And we're gonna consider what he believes about God, because here's something that that I've noticed. When we pray, think about God, For better or for worse. What we believe about God, what we think about him, our theology, truly, honestly comes out when we pray. And so we're gonna look at Nehemiah and what what he prays. And we're gonna ask ourselves if we believe those things, and if we can, and if we will pray like that.
Collin Hansen:
And if you would, please look with me in Nehemiah chapter 1. We're gonna start with verse 3. And let us listen very carefully. This is the word of God. And they said to me, the remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame.
Collin Hansen:
The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are destroyed by fire. As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days. And I continued fasting and praying before the god of heaven. Verse 5. And I said, oh, Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.
Collin Hansen:
Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day night for the people of Israel, your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel which have sinned against you, Even I and my father's house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant, Moses. Remember the word that you commanded your servant, Moses, saying, if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples. But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them though you're dispersed, be under the farthest skies. I will gather them from there, and bring them back to the place that I have chosen to make my name dwell there.
Collin Hansen:
They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and your strong hand. Oh, lord. Let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name. And give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. Let's pray.
Collin Hansen:
Let's pray. Oh, Lord God of heaven, great and awesome. We we ask that you would teach us now through your spirit. You would open our eyes that you would confront us. And that you would challenge us and change us to be more like your son, our savior Jesus.
Collin Hansen:
We pray these things in and for his name. Amen. So Nehemiah, here's the news about Jerusalem, and he turns to the Lord in prayer. And he begins and we're just gonna walk through a couple of things that that Nehemiah declares, all right? And again, we're gonna be asking this question, do do I believe those things?
Collin Hansen:
And can I pray? And will I pray like that? And the first thing in verse 5, great is God. He is he is great. He is Lord.
Collin Hansen:
He he uses the personal name of God. Yahweh, you are Yahweh, God of heaven. So God of heaven is kind of this, generic name that different religions all over were using for God. And he says that the God of heaven is Yahweh. So Yahweh, Israel's God, is the only God.
Collin Hansen:
That's a big statement. So we might need to clarify that. What does he mean? You are great and you are terrible. And maybe a better way to understand that is you are great and you are terrifying.
Collin Hansen:
And so he brings up this covenant and and later on in the prayer and he says that you told us that if we if we don't obey you, if we disregard you, if we go after our own way, you will scatter us. And you did. You followed through on that. The suffering, the great suffering that that he is hearing about. He he attributes that to this terrifying God.
Collin Hansen:
You are great and you are terrifying. And he believes that. Oh, Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God. The first thing that he recognizes that he is great and powerful over all. He controls all of these things.
Collin Hansen:
1st, that the greatness of God. The second thing that he moves to is that he keeps covenant. That covenant that he kept where where he said he would be steadfast in his covenant. Nehemiah says you you've been faithful to that. You are great and you are faithful.
Collin Hansen:
You are constant. Everything around us seems so transient. Things fall apart. The government's change. I mean, that's what actually one of the reasons why it's so difficult, I find it to understand Old Testament history going on.
Collin Hansen:
And that's because the these powers are just so transient and he is looking and and this is this is someone it it ends here that he's the cup bearer to the king Artaxerxes. He's saying that that's that's just a man. You you are lord, god of heaven. You are above all. You are great.
Collin Hansen:
You are awesome, and you are faithful. You are faithful in your covenant. And then the next thing that he moves to is that you are steadfast in your love. That you, you actually love us even when we are being disobedient and we are forgetting you and we are going after other gods And we are running like fugitives from your love. You are steadfast in your love.
Collin Hansen:
He confesses those those three things about God. And then he moves his attention. And he confesses he's honest about who he is. In verse 6, he begins that that he is sinful. That he, that he is, he is not perfect in these things.
Collin Hansen:
That he is broken. He acknowledges his brokenness before the great and powerful God. We Transgression has been against you. Which is another acknowledgment of the seat of power of the Lord. That sin is not just a communal bad, he has acknowledged about God, that God is great and God is powerful and God is he has acknowledged about God, that God is great and God is powerful and God is steadfast and covenant and steadfast in love.
Collin Hansen:
He's going through the list and saying, I am not those things. I'm sinful. I've been unfaithful. I have not loved as I ought. Really all these things that you are, I'm just not those things.
Collin Hansen:
But then he appeals to something. He moves his attention there in verse 8 where he goes back to the promises of God. And as I've said many times, about the importance of remembering yeah. Well, just just note that he said that and, and access the fact that I've brought that up like a 100 times every time I get up here. So, but, but he says, remember, and then of all the things that he says to remember, he says, remember how you said that if we're unfaithful, you will scatter us.
Collin Hansen:
Remember that. But also remember that if we repent, if we return to you, if we see our own sin and we turn in repentance to you, you said you would restore us. And we need you to remember that. We we need you to remember that it when you made this covenant with us, that that if we saw our failure and came back to you, you would restore us. You see, he prays the promise of God.
Collin Hansen:
He prays according to God's word. He prays first about the character of God, who God is, which is testified to in God's word. And then he prays according to what to who he is. He prays acknowledging honestly who he is, which is testified to in his word. Then he prays the promises of God.
Collin Hansen:
And he he moves through all of this, and he he appeals to the Lord and his mercy. So that that's kind of the the quick flow through Nehemiah's prayer. So then the question comes. Do you pray like this? We're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna cut to the heart of it just early on here.
Collin Hansen:
I mean, do do you? This isn't going to be like one minute of application at the end where you're like, I'm gonna feel bad. I already know, like, some of you are really gonna not like a lot of the things that I have to say and the reason that I know that I don't like a lot of the things that I'm going to say. Alright. So we're going to be in this together.
Collin Hansen:
Alright. We can complain together. See, do we pray like this? Do we pray honestly about who God is and who we are? And do we pray according to the promises of God?
Collin Hansen:
So then we have to ask the question since we're I'm gonna implicitly answer most often, no. That's going to be my answer. You can jump on board with that if that's you too. So I'm going to say, no. I don't always pray like that.
Collin Hansen:
So why not? Why don't I pray like that? And I've got a couple of different ideas. Why? And first off, I think I don't pray like this, and maybe you don't either sometimes because I doubt some of the things that Nehemiah believes.
Collin Hansen:
See, I I doubt that he is great and that he is terrifying. I doubt that he is all powerful, which leads me to sometimes I doubt that he is able. So, one of the reasons why I don't pray in a circumstance that that I'm facing, why I don't pray like that, is because I don't believe he's able to do anything about what's in front of me. And so, I just need to buck up, follow the Godfather's advice, you can be a man. Alright?
Collin Hansen:
I don't know what to do, Godfather. You can be a man, you know? Like, okay, so I I follow the the solo bootstrap. Yeah, I pull myself up by my bootstraps. I find my way, and I'm just gonna be determined enough to just get whatever's in front of me taken care of.
Collin Hansen:
And I neglect that God is able, and And The only thing worse than thinking that God isn't able to do something is to think that I can, that's not going to get me where I want to be going, and it's gonna take me there fast. So this unbelief, I doubt that he is able or I doubt that he is faithful. Will accept me. Why would he listen to me? This week's been really bad.
Collin Hansen:
Why would he listen to me? Like, I've made a lot of mistakes this week. Maybe I'll go to him when I've cleaned up a little bit. When I've been performing a little bit better, then I'll go to him. Maybe if I have a couple of days, just 2, just one day where I read my Bible.
Collin Hansen:
If I maybe after I read my Bible for one day consecutively, then I'm gonna I can go to him in prayer and then it will be acceptable. I doubt that he's faithful. And then one of the biggest of all, I doubt that he loves me. That really in all my mess, and all my brokenness, and So doubt as a reason for not praying like that. Luther, Martin Luther, this is hard to believe, but he had a barber.
Collin Hansen:
If you've seen any pictures of him, you'd think he must just fall down on near sharp things a lot. But, but he he had a barber and his barber asked Luther. He said, he said, how do I pray? How do I how am I diligent with something like the discipline of prayer? And so Luther wrote, to him this little it was published later, but this little pamphlet on on how to pray.
Collin Hansen:
And it's excellent. I mean if you if you it's really short and it can be, it's very devotional. It's very helpful. And so I don't, maybe go to your barber and find it. I don't know how those are distributed now, but, but it's it's a really helpful little guide on prayer.
Collin Hansen:
And, and one of the things that he said One of the primary places we should go is to the Lord in prayer. He said this, in the listening silence, the Holy Spirit himself preaches here. In one word of his sermon is far better than a 1,000 of our prayers. Many times I have learned more from one prayer than I have learned from much reading and speculation. That we would grow in our faith when we just draw near to him.
Collin Hansen:
That those doubts wouldn't just be, met with just an answer. Because because often we don't just need an an explicit, oh, well, God is faithful. Go and be well. You know, or it's not just somebody saying, no, God loves you. You know?
Collin Hansen:
It's all you need. Just no. We we need to enter into prayer and meet with him to draw near. And he would draw near to us, and he preaches to us. And one word of his sermon, one word, Luther says, can teach us more than we could ever speculate to learn.
Collin Hansen:
The other thing, another reason why I don't pray like that, like Nehemiah. And maybe it's the same for you, and and that's neglect. Outright neglect. You see, we and some of that some of that comes across just as busyness. I'm just so I'm just so busy.
Collin Hansen:
And and here Luther Luther responds to the barber saying, don't fall into the delusion that you would actually tell yourself, I will pray in an hour. Because you won't pray in an hour. See, we just we lie to ourselves about this busyness that we have. And really, if you are looking at your day and you are so busy I'm gonna venture to say that you are filling your time with things you don't need to be filling your time with. You you have some commitment somewhere in there.
Collin Hansen:
I have some commitment somewhere in my schedule that I don't need to be doing. And it might be good, and and it might be helpful, and beneficial, and kind. But, you know, when we say that we're too busy, like, your computer testifies against you. Your phone, the blogs that you read or you write, Angry Birds, like something something testifies against you in your life that says you have time. So so don't don't deceive yourself like that.
Collin Hansen:
Don't deceive yourself. And this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, The same is true in our neglect of prayer. Our neglect, our silence of not praying testifies to what we believe about God. And this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and this is, and That can be hard to hear. It's been hard for me to hear.
Collin Hansen:
Guard yourselves carefully, Luther says, against those false, diluting ideas that tell you, wait a little while. First, I must attend to this or that. Another reason. A third reason. And this is, this is a little bit stickier.
Collin Hansen:
Another reason why sometimes we are neglecting prayer, why why that's just not a priority for us and not something that we go after is our resistance towards legalism. Alright. It's our resistance to legalism. And just to to give just kind of a quick snapshot of of legalism. That would be behavior that is not acted out from grace.
Collin Hansen:
Any anything that we do that is not coming out of faith in Christ. Anything that we do that's trying to apprehend and obtain God's grace, that's legalism. And so things like church attendance or church membership, tithing, even prayer and bible study. Like, if we say, if you don't do x, God won't accept you. He will not give you grace.
Collin Hansen:
That's that's the structure for legalism. But and and our demographic is is so aware of that lie as as we should be, that we then start to neglect these really important things of obedience. And we neglect these things like church attendance or membership or tithing or prayer or Bible study because we so closely tie tie in, if I do this, that's how I get grace. Okay. That's wrong.
Collin Hansen:
But you are refusing obedience. See, discipline celebrates what God has done in us through his grace. So that's that's why we've gone through these four things. Not not because these are just new obligations that we need to take on, but it celebrates what god has accomplished through the cross. Not what he's accomplished through your behavior modification.
Collin Hansen:
Alright? It's what he has accomplished through the cross of Christ, and it's been applied to you. It is alive in you, and therefore, you can live that out. Celebrate it with your obedience to him. Discipline is grace lived out.
Collin Hansen:
Obedience is grace lived out. And some of you might even be disagreeing with some of the things I said because it it it is sticky and it gets really confusing and we wanna bow up so quickly against legalism. We want to bow up against this idea that we have to earn our salvation or earn God's grace and favor. And that's, that's right. You should bow up against that because that's wrong.
Collin Hansen:
But don't let that fight against legalism turn into a neglect of obedience and discipline and devotion. Discipline is lived out from faith. And so applying this into our understanding of the discipline of prayer, prayer should celebrate what God has done and has accomplished through the cross and what he is continuing to do in sanctifying us, and in our walk with him. This biblical discipline of prayer, this drawing near to God himself, Paul puts that that that is something that we should just hunger for. Every time he talks about prayer in in, his letters to these different churches in the new testament, every time he brings it up, he's talking about being in prayer constantly.
Collin Hansen:
And not this obligation, legalism, law, cold, distant prayer. He's talking about constantly seek after and hunger after the Lord. Now, an example of, of the stark difference. As I was, as I was working through this this week, I, I remembered, Frannie and Zoe, this book, J. D.
Collin Hansen:
Salinger. And, and there's this character Frannie, who is, she gets And she's trying to explain habitual prayer, constant prayer to her brother, Lane. And, I just wanted to read this, this short section to give us a glimpse because surely none of us fall into this camp when it comes to prayer. She says this, something happens after a while. I don't know what, but something happens and the words get synchronized with the person's heartbeats.
Collin Hansen:
And then you are actually praying without ceasing, which has a really tremendous mystical effect on the whole outlook. I mean, that's the whole point of it, more or less. I mean, you do it to purify your whole outlook, and to get an absolutely new conception of what everything's about. Lane had finished eating. Now as Frannie paused, he sat back and lit a cigarette and watched her face.
Collin Hansen:
She was still looking abstractly ahead of her past his shoulder and seemed scarcely aware of his presence. But the thing is, the marvelous thing is, when you first start doing it, you don't even have to have faith in what you're doing. I mean, even if you're terribly embarrassed about the whole thing, it's perfectly all right. I mean, you're not insulting anybody or anything. In other words, nobody asks you to believe a single thing when you first start out.
Collin Hansen:
You don't even have to know or think about what you're saying. That is a terrible perspective on prayer. And when I when I first read this, when I was in college, and mystical, and so enchanting, and all that, I, I, I really romanticized it and thought, what a great thing, you know. You just start praying to something, somewhere with some kind of words. And then magically, it just becomes special.
Collin Hansen:
It becomes real. But how distant is what she is talking about in Nehemiah's prayer? You see, Nehemiah cries out not because of duty or obligation or habit. He calls out because he believes that God is overall, that God is all powerful, that he is sovereign, and he is mighty, and that he is central in everything. And he cries out because he knows that he has sinned against almighty God and that he is desperate, for God to move.
Collin Hansen:
And he goes to God in prayer because there's no one else that he could go to. The Lord is above all, and in doing that, he declares the glory and the greatness of God. And we are invited into that still. And we are invited into that with confidence. And I would I would go as far as to say, more clarity than Nehemiah.
Collin Hansen:
And I say that because of this, we we go to the father just like Nehemiah, acknowledging his greatness and his love and his faithfulness. But we also go, and we also go because of the work of Christ. If you would look look at, Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 16. And I'm gonna give you a second to get there because as you're finding your way, you need to go to places like this.
Collin Hansen:
Alright? You you need to open bibles and find these things. Verse 16. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace. That we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Collin Hansen:
The confidence that he's talking about there, he also talks about And and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and in confidence, and to the Father because he is faithful, he is great, he is steadfast in his love, and Romans chapter 8, verse 26. Paul says this in chapter 8, verse 26, Likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness, For we do not know what to pray for as we ought. But the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We we go in confidence because of the character of God, the character of the father, because of the work of Christ, and through the power of the Spirit who interprets our very words into groanings that are too deep for words.
Collin Hansen:
And that's where we go when we struggle. And when we fail to pray as we ought, there is grace. You see that? That's the thing that keeps this from being the legalism, that keeps this from being just ritual of just pray these words that you don't even think about, what prevents that, and and also lifts us up when we fail is the grace of God. See, I don't pray as I ought because I am not as I ought to be.
Collin Hansen:
But I join with Nehemiah's call that says, lord, you have redeemed us. You have ransomed us. Out of captivity, out of sin, you have ransomed us. Of prayer, this active devotion that celebrates what God has done in us, If you are struggling with neglect or busyness or unbelief, go to him. Draw near to him.
Collin Hansen:
He will draw near to you. And when you do that, when you draw near to him because it is a grace that he permits you into his presence, right? Pray because he allows it. The maker of all that is seen and unseen gives ear to you. You, really of all people.
Collin Hansen:
Like, you've got friends that ignore your phone calls. But but he he gives ear to you. He listens. And when we do that, when when we draw near, what we really believe about him, we we we declare his unmatched greatness, his unrivaled faithfulness, and his unending love. Let's turn to him now.
Collin Hansen:
Oh, Lord, God of heaven. We come near to you not not because we are powerful, but because you are. Not because we are perfect, but because you are. Not because we are holy, but because you are. And as messed up as we are, we actually come in confidence.
Collin Hansen:
Not of our own works, but the work of Christ. Not because of our own words, but because of the words and the groaning of the Holy Spirit. We come to you, father. We come to you acknowledging that we can call you father because of your great mercy. God, we need you.
Collin Hansen:
We are desperate for you. Teach us to pray. Teach us what it means to hunger after you. Teach us what it means to believe you. That we might celebrate.
Collin Hansen:
We might celebrate not not out of just activity, but out of love. A discipline that celebrates your grace. Pray, spirit, that you would move in this time. That you would stir us to pray for one another, to care for one another. Instruct our hearts, spirit.
Collin Hansen:
Help us to listen to your sermon. We pray this in the name of Christ. Amen.