Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel, 2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. 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.”
Now I was cupbearer to the king.
Nehemiah Sent to Judah
2:1 In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. 2 And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid. 3 I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” 4 Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it.” 6 And the king said to me (the queen sitting beside him), “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time. 7 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah, 8 and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.
Nehemiah Inspects Jerusalem’s Walls
9 Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen. 10 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.
11 So I went to Jerusalem and was there three days. 12 Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. And I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no animal with me but the one on which I rode. 13 I went out by night by the Valley Gate to the Dragon Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. 14 Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool, but there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass. 15 Then I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall, and I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. 16 And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, and I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work.
17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.” 18 And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work. 19 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” 20 Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim1 in Jerusalem.”
Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel, 2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. 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.”
Now I was cupbearer to the king.
Nehemiah Sent to Judah
2:1 In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. 2 And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid. 3 I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” 4 Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it.” 6 And the king said to me (the queen sitting beside him), “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time. 7 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah, 8 and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.
Nehemiah Inspects Jerusalem’s Walls
9 Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen. 10 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.
11 So I went to Jerusalem and was there three days. 12 Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. And I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no animal with me but the one on which I rode. 13 I went out by night by the Valley Gate to the Dragon Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. 14 Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool, but there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass. 15 Then I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall, and I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. 16 And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, and I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work.
17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.” 18 And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work. 19 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” 20 Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim1 in Jerusalem.”
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:
Well, good morning. Good morning.
Connor Coskery:
Good morning.
Speaker 1:
This morning, we will be continuing our summer sermon series through great prayers of the bible. So if this is your first time joining us in this series, we have been studying through some of the prayers throughout scripture that help us to know and understand how we can come to God through a variety of times and circumstances in life, and come to him in prayer. So join with me now as we turn today to the book of Nehemiah. It's okay if you aren't quite sure where that is. Took me a minute too.
Speaker 1:
It's in the first part of the old testament after 1st and second Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah. It's also in your worship guide, if you don't have a bible today. So today, we will be looking at the story of Nehemiah. We'll specifically be focusing on chapters 12. Now as a church family, we are committed to the reading of God's word, even when it does take quite some time, as it will today.
Speaker 1:
We are gonna be reading through the bulk of chapters 12. So let's dig in this passage together. Nehemiah 1. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hekaliah. Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in 20th year, as I was in Susa, the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah.
Speaker 1:
And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. 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. 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. 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.
Speaker 1:
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. 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 your 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 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.
Speaker 1:
They are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and by 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. Now I was cupbearer to the king in the month of Nisan, in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence.
Speaker 1:
And the king said to me, why is your face sad, seeing as you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart. Then I was very much afraid. I said to the king, let the king live forever. Why should not my face be sad when the city, the place of my father's graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?
Speaker 1:
Then the king said to me, what are you requesting? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, if it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's graves, that I may rebuild it. And the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, how long will you be gone, and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time.
Speaker 1:
And I said to the king, 'If it pleases the king, let letters be given made to the governors of the province beyond the river, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah, and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for the city wall, and for the house that I shall occupy. And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me. Then I came to the governors of the province beyond the river and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen. But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.
Speaker 1:
So I went to Jerusalem and was there 3 days. Skip with me to verses 17 18. Then I said to them, you see the trouble that we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision. And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me.
Speaker 1:
And they said, let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for the good work. This is the word of the lord. Thanks be to God. Pray with me.
Speaker 1:
Lord, open up our mouths, and our lips shall praise you. We wanna learn from you today. We want to hear your word, and so, lord, we come. We acknowledge that we need your help. Spirit, open up our ears, our hearts.
Speaker 1:
Open up my mouth. Lord, we ask that you will speak to us. We want to be changed by you, and we know that you will do this In the name of Christ. Amen. So 2 years ago, my grandmother passed away, and I specifically remember the drive up to North Carolina for her funeral.
Speaker 1:
And as I was on this trip, I was trying to reflect on the life of my grandmother. I was flooded with many memories of her life, many stories, but it felt like there was so much more to this amazing God fearing woman than could actually be relayed in just 1 or 2 isolated stories. The whole of her life was a testimony to who she was and to her relationship with Jesus. So to really understand this woman, one would really need to understand her lifestyle. A simple story or a brief memory was only a piece in that narrative.
Speaker 1:
But I realized to describe her as a person, to see the full picture of who she was, I needed more than just a snapshot or a memory. And as we look at this passage today, I think that we're gonna see something a little bit similar at play. At the beginning of chapter 1, we see Nehemiah pray a prayer to God, and it is a wonderful prayer. It's an exemplary prayer. However, it only gives us a glimpse into the life of Nehemiah, a lifestyle that was characterized by constant dependence on the Lord.
Speaker 1:
And unlike some of our other recent sermons over this summer that really dig just into singular prayers, we're gonna take a broader view today. We are going to look at this prayer in verses 5 through 11, but we're gonna see how and why Nehemiah can pray a prayer like this. We're going to seek to understand what a lifestyle of constant prayer before the Lord looks like, and how it transforms us. So now it's important to understand the context that we're diving into today here in Nehemiah. Some of our recent sermons over the summer, and even our talk back this past week, if you were there, discuss things like the life of Daniel and Esther, books that are also from this period of exile in the history of Israel.
Speaker 1:
The Israelites are in a foreign land due to God's judgment on their sin. And in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the Israelites have just been granted permission by the king to go back to their homeland and to begin the slow and arduous process of rebuilding their lives. So Nehemiah focuses on the process of rebuilding. We could spend a lot of time in this whole book. There are a lot of sermons and great resources about the leadership that's seen in Nehemiah, about how Christian Christians should interact in places of civil government, on care for the poor.
Speaker 1:
And, of course, as many churches have done over the years, today would be a great day to introduce a new building campaign. Could call it the Nehemiah Project. We're not gonna do that today. What we're gonna focus on today is the life of Nehemiah, and what leads him to be able to pray a prayer like this one that we see. So let's look again at the text.
Speaker 1:
If you'll look in verses 1 through 4 with me. Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the 20th year, as I was in Susa the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. 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.
Speaker 1:
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. Now we're gonna go ahead and jump into our first point for today, and we're gonna take our time unpacking it as we look at this prayer of Nehemiah. So here is our first point. We learned from Nehemiah that a lifestyle of prayer is one fervent for God's purposes and steeped in his word. Let me repeat that.
Speaker 1:
We learn from Nehemiah that a lifestyle of prayer is one fervent for God's purposes and steeped in his word. This whole plot begins because Nehemiah's heart is drawn to the people of God and to the things of God. Nehemiah does a simple thing. He asks about the condition of Jerusalem, but it demonstrates something. It reveals to us where his attentions and his affections are.
Speaker 1:
When he realizes that Jerusalem, his home, that's in no better shape than it was before the exiles began to return, he's devastated. He realizes that God's people are vulnerable, and that the restoration and rebuilding of their way of life is at risk. When he hears this terrible news, he is undone. He mourns deeply. Now, this is a picture of a broken man, a man who grieves before God over something that grieves the heart of God.
Speaker 1:
His affections are tied into God's affections. His desire for God's kingdom is the most important thing because it is so important to God. Let me just pause right now and ask you. Can you say that this is true of your life? Are the things of god's kingdom the things that calibrate your heart and your mind?
Speaker 1:
What is it that most often occupies your mind? Just stop and think for a minute. What most occupy occupies your mind? Do you ponder all of the ways that God is faithfully working in your life? Does your heart beat with the things of God?
Speaker 1:
Does your heart break with the things that break God's heart? Or if we're honest, do we find that sometimes we're more occupied with much cheaper, much more shallow, much more temporal things. Isn't it so easy to wake up one day and suddenly realize that your heart has drifted from the things of God? How did you suddenly become more occupied with the things of the world than the things of God? What what did you do?
Speaker 1:
Well, nothing. Nothing. If we do absolutely nothing, we will drift. The Kern of this world and its passing desires will take us with it if we are not actively walking in step with the Spirit and growing in our desires for the things of God. Nehemiah's heart, it's soft, and it's breakable for the things of God, and it breaks when he learns this news.
Speaker 1:
And what does he do? He takes his hurt and his pain to God. Now note, he takes it to God, not to social media. He doesn't write a thoughtfully reflective blog post about what he's learning. He doesn't post a selfie of himself in sackcloth and ashes, or an Instagram photo of the cityscape, hashtag Jerusalem, crying eyes, breaking heart, emojis.
Speaker 1:
He doesn't even go to a good friend. No. He takes his pain and his despair to God first, and he doesn't just do it here. He continues to do it throughout the whole book. After this initial prayer, the book of Nehemiah records 8 more prayers in the first six chapters during this process of the wall building.
Speaker 1:
Short prayers, long prayers, repetitive prayers, prayers for protection, for strength, for wisdom, for mercy. Nehemiah is completely immersed in prayer from start to finish, and he begins by entering into a time of concentrated prayer and fasting. So let's look closely in verse 5 at how this prayer begins. And he 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. Let's pause there.
Speaker 1:
Now if you've been listening to sermons from this summer, you're going to immediately recognize a familiar pattern here. Last week, Josh Howson helped us to look at Psalm 90, and we saw a similar structure there. And this structure goes something like this. We praise God for who he is. We confess our sin.
Speaker 1:
We thank God for his great acts for his people, and then we bring our requests before him. Now it would have been much more efficient for Nehemiah to cut to the chase. God, you know what I'm gonna ask, so why don't we just get on with this? Why don't you just go ahead and do it? But that's not what he does.
Speaker 1:
He probably he does what probably feels like to many of us a waste of time. He sits before God and adores him. Marvedon, a theologian and Christian writer, once said, to worship the lord in the eyes of the world is always a waste of time. If our hearts are beating in rhythm with this world, we will always see our time in prayer as a waste of time. After he praises God, Nehemiah still doesn't move on directly to his request.
Speaker 1:
No. In verse 6, he begins with a confession. Nehemiah's confession, it's both corporate and personal. He recognizes that his people, his family, and even he himself has sinned against the Lord. And Nehemiah is doing something important here.
Speaker 1:
He's praying a prayer of repentance, and he is asking God to act on behalf of his people. He is interceding to God for Israel, and he's echoing the words of Moses who also interceded to God for the people of Israel. He isn't just confessing using his own words. He's confessing words of scripture. In verses 89, Nehemiah is literally quoting from the book of Deuteronomy.
Speaker 1:
He's confessing that, yes, lord. We have turned from you. We have sinned, but you told us that we could turn back and that we would turn back, and you would renew us. You would restore us. And then Nehemiah calls on God to fulfill his promise that he would restore them.
Speaker 1:
Now this is pretty amazing. Nehemiah is quoting God's promises back to him and begging him to keep them. Do you see the importance of knowing God's word? It's the fuel for Nehemiah's prayer, and we must absolutely know God's word as well, because it's the fuel for our prayers. Hear me.
Speaker 1:
We can never pray more accurately than when we are praying the word of God. So let's dig deeply into God's word so that it permeates us, so that when we are cut, we bleed words of scripture. Now why does Nehemiah need to remind God of his promises? Has God forgotten what he said to his people? Is he like me who forgets my promises?
Speaker 1:
Some of you might know my oldest son, Mac. He's almost 4. If you know him, you know he's a very wild, active boy, and so we're constantly trying to find activities to occupy him. Most of them are outdoors. So I frequently find myself saying something to Mac that sounds like this.
Speaker 1:
Alright, Mac. If we have a good morning today, maybe after your nap time, we can go outside and play in the kiddie pool. So I'm prone to forget these promises that I make even though I have total intentions of keeping them. Mac never forgets. Never.
Speaker 1:
He is hanging on that promise for dear life. His head pops up off his nap, and he's talking about the pool. First thing, it doesn't matter if there's a thunderstorm going on or it's 5 minutes before dinner, we're gonna swim in that pool. Is God like this? Does he need our help remembering his promises?
Speaker 1:
Does he find himself in these tricky situations where he's forgotten? No. We don't need to remind God of his promises for him, but we need to be reminded of the promises of God. God has no problem remembering his word. He has no problem deciphering what's true from what's false, but you better believe that we do.
Speaker 1:
And when we cling to God's word and when we pray his words back to him, we are recalibrated. We are recentered to the things of God. He guides our affections to his own. So let's keep going. In verse 11, Nehemiah finally presents his request to God by praying for success in the form of mercy before King Artaxerxes.
Speaker 1:
And what we see is that the success that he desires is for God's promises to be fulfilled, for God's people to be restored to their land. His prayer for success isn't merely a personal request. It's a request for God's success, because Nehemiah's desires have been conformed to God's desires. How? God's word and the spirit who illuminates God's word has transformed Nehemiah's heart to beat in harmony with his own, and this must be true for us as well.
Speaker 1:
So our first takeaway, a lifestyle of prayer is one fervent for God's purposes and steeped in his word. If you and I want to have that same lifestyle of prayer as Nehemiah, We must have our hearts transformed by God's word. As we study and learn and memorize scripture, God's spirit is faithful to transform our hard hearts. We will begin to see our hearts beating and breaking in rhythm with the heart of God. So as we move into chapter 2 here, we find our second takeaway.
Speaker 1:
Nehemiah shows us that a lifestyle of prayer teaches us to wait on the lord's timing. Now when you compare chapter 1 verse 1 with chapter 2 verse 1, we see that time has passed from the month of Chislev to the month of Nisan. Four months. Four months have passed from this initial news, from Nehemiah's fasting and mourning, until the point when he finally comes before the lord. Why the wait?
Speaker 1:
Why so long? After all, at the end of Nehemiah's prayer, he does say to the lord, give success today. It certainly seems like he had full intentions of doing something right away, but here we are 4 months later, and nothing seems to have happened as of yet. Well, it's only at this point that we learn that Nehemiah is the cup bearer to the king, and he has access to him. Now this position in the local government was a fairly high and important position.
Speaker 1:
He's the one who makes sure that the king doesn't get poisoned. Not only does he bring the king his wine, but he has to taste it in front of him in case someone's tampered with it. Now I know some of you might think that this is an enviable job, drinking all of the king's best wine. Others are a little more concerned about being poisoned. It's high risk, high reward.
Speaker 1:
Despite this position of influence, for 4 months, Nehemiah has not said a word to the king. He hasn't even let on that. He's distraught over something. The reason that Nehemiah is waiting is because he is waiting on the spirit of the lord to move. As you read through the book of Nehemiah, you realize that he is a man of action.
Speaker 1:
When he acts, he's confident, and he's decisive in his leadership, but he refuses to move one tiny step ahead of the lord. He is doing all of the work that he needs to already before, not just the king of this empire, but before the king of the universe. He's praying to the Lord. And for some reason, God has not yet moved him to speak until now. What incredible patience to wait on the Lord, even when he clearly felt so passionately about this.
Speaker 1:
I mean, every day, Jerusalem is at risk. Now I think that we can all agree that waiting is hard. I confess that I am nowhere near as patient as I should be. It's actually probably one of my biggest weaknesses in life. I'm just asking my wife about that.
Speaker 1:
To illustrate how impatient I can be sometimes, the other day, I was driving my car, and I had Mac behind me, and we stopped at a red light. The light turned green, and I mean the second that the light turned green, Mac starts yelling, come on. The light's green. People around here don't know how to drive. Has he been riding with my wife again?
Speaker 1:
I mean, what is the deal? Sadly, that was probably me he he heard say that. I mean, it's unfortunate. Lord, save him from my sins, but isn't it even harder to wait on the Lord? I mean, He is in control of everything.
Speaker 1:
He's not bound by anything. And if we're praying to Him, and if we're praying for something that's honoring to him, why wouldn't he act immediately? This isn't how God works. His ways are not our ways. His ways are higher.
Speaker 1:
Not only does the Lord see the whole picture that we don't see, but He is not bound by time. We learned last week when Josh Howson preached from Psalm 90 that scripture says a 1000 years are but as a watch of the night to the lord. How encouraging is that for your patience and prayer? Friends, sometimes the Lord makes us wait for him, and we don't understand why. Sometimes we might find out a little bit down the road, and sometimes we may never find out why.
Speaker 1:
But he is teaching us to seek after him with all of our hearts, not just for one prayer or one week or one month, but for our whole lives. Nehemiah, he seems to understand this. He's waiting on God's spirit to give him the go ahead. And after all, this was no small thing for Nehemiah. His very job and life were at risk here.
Speaker 1:
You better believe that he was gonna wait for the Lord. But in his waiting, we see that he wasn't passively sitting on his hands. He was planning. He was scheming. He was using his sanctified imagination and prayer before the lord.
Speaker 1:
We see this because when the time finally came for him to speak, he's not caught without answers. As the king begins to get to the bottom of what's going on and bothering Nehemiah, he immediately cuts to the chase. This is kind of like a conversation with my wife. I'm trying to approach a sensitive subject somewhat delicately. I'm testing the waters.
Speaker 1:
I mean, in some circumstances, my life could be at risk too here. Hey, sweetie. You look beautiful today. May you live forever. She's not fooled, not in the least bit.
Speaker 1:
Alright. What do you want? Cut to it. Sure that's not exactly what's going on here, but it's something like this. Nehemiah is testing the waters.
Speaker 1:
He's trying to see if this is the spirit's time for him to speak, and the king leaves no question about that. When Nehemiah answers, he answers clearly, confidently, and definitively. He has been planning for this moment, scheming with the Lord as he's waited in prayer. Let me ask you. How are you using your time of waiting?
Speaker 1:
Are you so busy waiting for something to happen that you miss what's happening while you're waiting? If the lord seems silent in responding to your prayers, how are you responding to the lord? Maybe you're waiting on the lord to provide some good thing for you. A job, a spouse, a child. Maybe you just want freedom from that crushing anxiety that plagues you every day.
Speaker 1:
Or maybe you need wisdom or peace in some situation. Or maybe you're praying for health or salvation for someone you love. There's no shortage of times in our lives where we are required to wait before the Lord. How are you using your time of waiting? Are you losing heart?
Speaker 1:
Are you waning in persistence in prayer? I want to encourage you to persist in prayer and to wisely use this time of waiting to prepare for what the Lord may have for you to do, especially if he answers your prayers in a way that is different than what you desire. This brings us to our 3rd point. Nehemiah shows us that a lifestyle of prayer should lead to obedient action. Now Nehemiah has been spending 4 months planning and praying, but he doesn't leave it there.
Speaker 1:
When the time is right and the king asks, he capitalizes on what God has been teaching him and leading him towards. He says, king, I need to go to Jerusalem and rebuild the wall. I will take this long, and I'll be back at this point. And here's what I'm gonna need. I'm gonna need safe passage.
Speaker 1:
I'm gonna need free supplies for the whole project, please, for the wall, the gates, and my house. Oh, and a military escort would be nice, if you don't mind. Wow. For someone whose life is hanging in the balance, Nehemiah doesn't seem to be fearful at all, but we see in verse 2 that he is. It says he's terrified.
Speaker 1:
So what does he do with his fear? He prays. In verse 4. It's just a small p prayer, probably something like, God, help me right now. It's instinctual at this point because it's not the first time that he's come to the lord.
Speaker 1:
Now I wanna point something out here about Nehemiah's prayer for success. Nehemiah lived in the palace. He had a great job, comfort, privilege. He could have easily ignored the plight of his brothers and sisters in Jerusalem, but he did not live in a way that neglected the suffering, the marginalized, the forgotten, the underprivileged. Instead, he asks God to take him from that palace, from his comfort, and put him in danger, making new enemies with stressful, hard, uncertain circumstances in a hard place.
Speaker 1:
That is his prayer for success. Now, we could talk about this for a while, but I simply want to ask you, is that your definition of success? Is your definition of success surrender to the Lord and his purposes? Do you need to reevaluate your pursuit of success in light of that definition? Are you fully surrendered to the Lord and to his purposes for your life?
Speaker 1:
Nehemiah prays this type of prayer for success, and according to the good hand of the Lord, the King grants it all. Well, in verse 10, Nehemiah immediately meets resistance, which brings us to our next lesson. Nehemiah shows us that a lifestyle of prayer will inevitably encounter opposition. Nehemiah hasn't even reached Jerusalem, and he's already ticking people off. At first, it's not too bad.
Speaker 1:
It stays in the realm of passive aggressive and bad mouthing. It actually cracks me up. At one point, in chapter 4, one of his opponents, they just resort to good old fashioned ancient biblical trash talk. 1 of the guys says, hey, Nehemiah, Your wall is so weak that even if a fox climbed up on it, it would crumble to the ground. Boom.
Speaker 1:
Roasted. It does get more aggressive than this, though, and quickly, they begin to threaten reporting treason to the king. They levy personal attacks against Nehemiah. They plan conspiracies and ambushes. They even try to trick Nehemiah into following up on a false word from the Lord that would undermine his integrity.
Speaker 1:
The list of enemies grows until Jerusalem is literally surrounded by enemies on every side, and Nehemiah learns of an imminent attack. What does he do? He prays. He prays time and again for protection. He appeals to God to help them to finish the work that he has called them to do, and he never stops working to that end.
Speaker 1:
By the end, they take half of the people and put them on guard duty. The other half are working on the wall with a sword in one hand, and a tool in the other. This is intense opposition, but they don't stop praying or working. As Christians, we are told that Satan is like a roaring lion seeking whom he will devour. In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, we learn that we don't just wrestle wrestle against flesh and blood, but against spiritual powers of darkness.
Speaker 1:
In 1st Peter, we're told not to be surprised at the fiery trials that come our way. The book of James tells us that the testing of our faith develops perseverance. Friends, the road to prayerful, God defined success, It's not an easy road. We must expect opposition and continue to stand on God's word and be dependent on him in prayer. This leads us to our final point, our last lesson from Nehemiah.
Speaker 1:
We learn that a lifestyle of prayer recognizes God's sovereign hand over everything. It didn't matter what Nehemiah's enemies threw at him. He was under God's protective sovereign hand, and so are we. Nehemiah's enemies did not overcome him. The wall of Jerusalem was completed in a miraculous 52 days, and everyone knew that that was only possible by the hand of the lord.
Speaker 1:
It's the lord who moves Nehemiah's heart to be broken in the first place. When the king grants Nehemiah's request, he knows that it's only because the good hand of the lord was upon him. This is no surprise. Proverbs 211 tells us that the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the lord. He turns it wherever he will.
Speaker 1:
Just as the lord moved Nehemiah and the lord moved the king, he moved the hearts of the Jerusalem leaders. He moved the circumstances in favor against Nehemiah's enemies. Now maybe for you, as we read this story of Nehemiah, it's easy for you to see that God is sovereign over this story, but it's much harder for you to see Him as sovereign over your current circumstances. Maybe what you face seems a little more insurmountable, or it's far less likely for the lord to move in power on your behalf. Perhaps the opposition or the persecution that you face from very real enemies and spiritual enemies, maybe they seem so much greater.
Speaker 1:
But the same God who orchestrated every step of Nehemiah's life still rules in our chaotic hearts and circumstances. His plan is being played out, and he is still working for our good and for his glory. Now Nehemiah was a great man who demonstrated a lifestyle of prayer for us, but ultimately, it was God who grew him in his faithfulness and his boldness, not his own ability, not his own character. In fact, Nehemiah is only a shadow of what a lifestyle of communion with the father looks like. The life of Nehemiah is really meant to point us to the person of Jesus Christ, to the perfect lifestyle of communion with the father.
Speaker 1:
You see, Jesus and his father were 1, and they experienced true intimacy. Jesus also dwelt in a royal heavenly court, but he chose to renounce the glory of heaven and to come into great danger at great cost to himself facing the greatest enemy on our behalf. Just like Moses and Nehemiah, Jesus too interceded to God the father on behalf of his people whose very existence was at risk. Nehemiah left the royal court and the cup of privilege. Jesus leaves the royal court to drink the cup of judgment.
Speaker 1:
And in the garden, as Jesus he's praying, he makes an appeal to his father for the cup to be taken from him, but that request was denied. The success that Jesus was granted was the second part of his prayer, that God's sovereign will would be accomplished, not his own. And just as Nehemiah threw up a desperate prayer to the lord as he met the king, Jesus prayed a final prayer to his father on the cross, securing our forgiveness. Because Jesus took on the wrath of God and interceded on our behalf, we now have the ability to come to God and pray as children of God. The veil is torn, and we have direct access to him.
Speaker 1:
Furthermore, Jesus rose from the grave, ascended to the right hand of the father, where he now sits interceding on our behalf. Because Jesus submitted himself to the will of the father, we can come to God, and we can make our requests known to him. We can come boldly to the throne. We can even pray for success, success as he defines it, because as He changes our hearts through His word and through constant prayer, God's Spirit aligns His heart with our own to love what He loves, to desire what He desires, and to believe what He promises. Pray with me.
Speaker 1:
Lord, we need to be reminded of your words. We ask that you will root your word deeply in our hearts, in our lives. Lord, may we be so committed to your word that when we come to you, we are just spouting your words to you, and may we believe that you will keep your promises. You always keep your promises, lord. Thank you for this word for us today.
Speaker 1:
I pray that even as your body gathers right now to pray together, Lord, that we will see you as high and lifted up on the throne, that we will know that we have a great intercede or intercessor, and that Spirit you help when we don't have the words to come to the father. You intercede on our behalf. Lord, we love you. Amen.