If you're joining us for the first time, we just started our
Bible study series in this brand new book, and it is a wonderful
sequel to the book of Ezra. And many of us have already seen
that in the first few verses of this new book.
But we have not completed chapter 1 yet.
And that's what we will seek to do tonight.
So plant your finger there at verse 4.
We will read in a moment here. But I would love for us to pray
once again, Heavenly Father, thank you.
Thank you for loving us. Thank you for showing your love
in so many ways. Thank you that according to the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ in John 17, you love us as you
love your Son. It's so hard for us to grasp
that you love us as you love your Son Jesus Christ.
And we know that this is difficult to fathom.
That's why Paul in Ephesians 3. Pray that we would know the
height and the depth and the breadth of your love for us.
So, Lord, use the means of this Bible study to help us
comprehend just how strong your love is and help us in response
to the revelation of your love. Love you with a greater
intensity and devotion, Lord. Some of us may be weary in the
flesh, and that can be a distraction.
Some of us may be distracted in our minds, though our bodies are
fine. Whatever may be an obstacle to
this Bible study, remove it and your power.
Remove it so that we can receive all that you have to say.
In Nehemiah chapter one, in Jesus name we pray, Amen.
I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but you can know a lot
about a person based on what makes them happy.
The objects that stir their passions, the things that make
them gleeful, even the things that make them laugh are
indicators to what they possess in terms of priorities,
convictions, and desires. Yet interestingly, Scripture
also teaches us that you can know a lot about a person based
on what makes them sorrowful, the burdens that they carry in
their hearts revealed just as clearly the priorities and
perspectives and passions of a person.
And today, you and I, by the grace of God, are going to know
more about this man, Nehemiah, because he is going to show us
how he responded to the tragic news of the condition of the
people of God in the city of Jerusalem.
Perhaps you've already read this chapter before, and so you're
already familiar with its content.
But in case you're not, the rest of this chapter is dedicated to
Nehemiah's heartfelt prayer in response to the news of the
devastation that the Jewish people were enduring after
returning from exile. But this is not the only time
Nehemiah prays. Depending on how you group his
prayers, it's safe to say that there are around 12 recorded
pleas that Nehemiah makes towards the Lord, and most of
them are shorter than what we have here.
And beyond this confirming that Nehemiah was a praying man and
that God uses praying men, there are wonderful and insightful
details waiting for us to uncover in the verses that we
will examine together. And so let's begin by reading it
all in one shot, without interruption, without
commentary. Let's just begin here in
Nehemiah chapter one, verse 4. Remember, we looked at the first
3 verses. And Nehemiah, while being in the
palace in Susa, was visited by his brother and friends, who
told them of the shame and trouble that the Jewish people
were experiencing because of the walls that were broken down.
And here is what he does in response to it.
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, 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. 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 in my Father's house have sinned.
We've 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 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. They are Your servants and Your
people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power and by Your
strong hand. O Lord, lay 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 a cup bearer to the
king. What Nehemiah is demonstrating
here is the tenderness and compassion that should be alive
in those who belong to the Lord. Remember, he is reacting to the
news of the trouble that God's people are facing.
And what Nehemiah felt about the dishonor that they were trying
to manage is something that God expects of all of His people.
I'm not necessarily speaking about the need to weep.
Some have a stronger tendency to be tearful about certain things.
Nor am I even speaking about the need for extensive fasting,
though there is an appropriate time and place for fasting.
What I am primarily referring to is a sense of disturbance and
brokenness and burden when something is brought to our
attention relating to the humiliation, disgrace, and the
need of the Church. And the reason why I can say
that Nehemiah's attitude here applies to Christians is because
the Lord rebukes Israel for having the totally opposite
attitude that we find here when learning about the impending
Assyrian invasion. This is worth turning to in our
Bibles, the book of Amos chapter 6.
God through His prophet, presents a few woes to the
generation of those who lived in the northern tribes of Israel
before they were removed from the land.
Remember, before the Babylonian exiled, there was an Assyrian 1
And I want you to see how he responds to the indifference of
some of the Israelites, even though they knew of the warning
of judgment to come. Amos 6.
I hope you're there. Look with me here at verse 4.
Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves
out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves
from the midst of the stall. Who sing idle songs to the sound
of the harp, and, like David, invent for themselves
instruments of music. Who drink wine and bowls, and
anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved
over the ruin of Joseph. You see that highlight the last
part. Listen, God is not against nice
furniture. He's not opposed to good food.
He doesn't reject wine, oil, or music.
But He is deeply opposed to the indulgence of these things while
having total indifference toward the state and the future of the
church. Notice how this crowd was
preoccupied with new forms of entertainment.
That's what it means here when it says that they are inventing
for themselves instruments of music, not to glorify God like
David, but to find new new shows, new forms of talent, new
inventions to stroke one's ego. And yet at the same time there
is not the slightest concern for the moral collapse and the
social decay of the spiritual community.
Notice also here that he does not say at the end, but are not
grieved over the ruin of Israel. Did you notice that the prophets
do not waste any words? God is speaking through them.
He says so clearly the ruin of Joseph.
Why? Because he wants to convey the
following message. In the same way.
Joseph's brothers were heartless towards him while he was in
anguish, while he was in that pit, while I was crying out for
mercy. These elite Israelites were
showing no sympathy, no thought for their fellow brothers in
time of need. How does this all relate to us?
Well, it would be unrealistic to say that we all have to feel a
sense of personal responsibility for the Universal Church, or
else we would constantly be burdened.
However, this is a call to reflect if there is any evidence
of concern in our hearts when something is made known to us,
especially that which is in our reach, in our community, in our
local church, in our nation. And one of the ways that we can
begin, or at least one of the signs that there is a softness
in our souls for the sanctification and the safety of
the church, of our fellow brothers and sisters, is that we
pray about it. We bring it before God.
We come to the prayer meeting and we say, Lord, pour out your
spirit. Your church is in trouble.
Churches are in trouble. This institution needs you.
Their walls are down. There's no discernment.
There are no Watchmen. Can you find that in you?
Or do you relate more to Amos chapter 6, where you're
constantly consumed with leisure and comfort and one form or
pursuit of personal fleshly happiness?
May God help us. Nehemiah shows us one way that
we actually care and reflect God's heart.
We pray. We pray about it.
Now that may seem like an obvious response, but I had a
question. Why was this Nehemiah's
immediate response to fast and pray?
And I think there are two reasons.
The first one is that Nehemiah had insight.
He was discerning and he understood the real cause for
the ruin of Jerusalem. Sin, Sin.
That's what he plainly states here in verse seven.
Look at it again. We have acted very corruptly
against you and have not kept the commandments.
It wasn't because they didn't have resources.
It wasn't because they didn't have the favor of the
government. It wasn't because they were lazy
necessarily. It was because they sinned.
He understood their present condition is caused by their
past rebellion and because of this, he responds in a spiritual
manner. He goes to God and he repents on
behalf of the people. Now here's why this is crucial
to understand. Unfortunately, what you have,
some people do not pray because they fail to recognize the
spiritual realities behind their circumstances.
I am fully aware that there are some people who over
spiritualize nearly everything, but there are also those who
don't have any hint of the spiritual influence at all.
Both extremes are dangerous, and that's why so many never arrive
at real, lasting solutions in their ministries, in their
marriages, and many other of their miseries, because they
have never factored in the spiritual elements behind this
predicament or this ongoing struggle, and so they never
applied the spiritual remedies to address them.
There are people like that. They never think maybe, maybe
the reason why there's chaos, the reason why there's conflict,
the reason why there's frustration is because of a
spiritual thing like sin or disobedience or spiritual
warfare. And so they don't pray.
Nehemiah was not like that. He was a very balanced man.
He prays in this chapter, in the next chapter, he's going to get
to work and he's going to ask and he's going to do very
practical things. But here we see that he is doing
the right thing at the right time.
He understands the root cause of the problem, and so he addresses
it at the root. He prays.
The second reason why Nehemiah prays immediately in response to
this news is because he also understands the magnitude of the
work and the miraculous power that would be required in order
to resolve it. Now we have the habit of reading
so fast through some of these accounts that we never pause to
meditate on the real life implications of some of these
challenges to some of these ambitions and achievements.
Nehemiah understood that there are going to be some hurdles
here. Where do I even begin?
And I have a hunch here that Nehemiah has one thing in mind
in terms of a challenge, and that is how the king is going to
let him go. A king who prior to this was
already convinced that rebuilding the walls in
Jerusalem would not be for his interests.
Do you remember in our study of Ezra that there was one section
where he abandons the chronology of the events that he is
recording and piles together different examples of the
opposition's that the Exiles faced upon their return?
Do you remember that study? Well in one of the examples he
goes to the future and he mentions what King Artaxerxes
asked of the Exiles because of the adversaries of the Exiles
and what they told him. Let's see it again because it
plays into what we find here in Nehemiah 1.
Go to Ezra chapter 4. The art Exerxes here in Ezra
chapter 4 is the same art Exerxes that Nehemiah is
serving. And notice what Ezra says in his
account of the persecution that the Exiles faced throughout
their time in Jerusalem. Ezra 4.
Look at verse 11. He writes this is a copy of the
letter that they sent. That is the adversaries of the
people of Judah, Tardig, Xerxes, the king, your servants, the men
of the province beyond the river, send greeting.
And now be it known to the king that the Jews who came up from
you to us have gone to Jerusalem.
They are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city.
They are finishing the walls and repairing the foundations.
Now be it known to the king that if this city is rebuilt and the
walls finish, they will pay no tribute, customer toll and the
royal revenue will be impaired. This letter that Ezra is making
known to the reader seems to indicate that there was before
Nehemiah, after Ezra, somewhere between that, though they are
contemporaries, they're going to work together.
Not explicitly clear, but somewhere before Nehemiah makes
this request to go back to Jerusalem.
There were earlier attempts to rebuild the walls.
And the enemies of the people of Judah saw saw this.
They didn't like it. And so they sent a letter to our
exertions and say, put a stop to this.
You're going to harm your Kingdom.
This is going to cause a rebellion.
And when you read later on in Ezra 4, he actually listens.
Now, there are others who do not consider to be this, to be proof
of previous attempts to rebuild the wall, but claim that these
adversaries are coming up with this.
They're exaggerating the efforts of the people of Judah, and they
are slandering them, and they are lying to the king.
But whichever view you hold, one thing is absolutely clear.
The last time Arctic Xerxes received any hint or news of the
people rebuilding the wall, he opposed it.
He was not in favor of it. So you can imagine how daunting
this would be for Nehemiah, who understood this.
How am I going to convince the king?
His last recorded declaration and statement was No way is
Jerusalem ever going to have walls.
This historical detail is not often taken into consideration
when considering Nehemiah's prayer life, at least in the
season of his prayer life. And so it makes sense.
Then look at Nehemiah one verse 11.
What was his final request? Oh Lord, let your ear be
attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of
Your servants, who delight to fear a name.
And give success to Your servant today, and grant him mercy in
the sight of this man. Who is this man?
The king? I need mercy, fresh mercy, and I
love that he prays this. His prayer for mercy is more
powerful when you connected with Ezra 4.
Why? Because Nehemiah understood that
there is a persuasive force with prayer not just toward those who
are neutral towards the things of God, right?
Sometimes in our human thinking, we evaluate where a person
stands with spiritual things or the gospel or the Bible or
Christianity, and we think that person has a better chance of
coming to Christ. I'm going to spend more energy
on them in my prayers, my evangelism.
And sometimes there's wisdom in that, right?
We don't cast our pearls before swine.
However, Nehemiah shows us that prayer even works for those who
are expressly opposed, like Artaxerxes was toward the
rebuilding of the wall. He still believed.
If I pray and if I seek and if I wait on God, he can change
anything and anyone, including the hearts of kings and rulers
and magistrates. Don't give up praying for your
loved ones. Not just those who seem to not
care, just do whatever you want, but those who attack you for
your faith, those who told you why do you come to this place on
Friday nights, hang out with us, you'd lose your mind or
something. Prayer is just as effective for
them. Nehemiah is going to show us
that in the very next chapter. Now I'm aware that we have many
other verses to look at, but there's one more thing that I
want us to look at here before we go on.
Notice how in verse 4, Nehemiah says that he sat down and wept
and mourned for days and I continued fasting and praying.
Does anybody have an idea how Nehemiah how long Nehemiah
prayed for? If you have an idea, you can
answer. Any clue?
Four days, 10 days, two weeks. This is where time stamps in
narratives and in different parts of the Bible should never
be ignored. Look back at verse 1 of this
book. The words of Nehemiah the son of
Hakalaya now happened in the month of Kislev in the 20th
year, as I was in Susa, the Citadel, the month of Kislev in
the 20th year, OK, this corresponds to November,
December. Go to Nehemiah chapter 2, verse
one, in the month of Nissan 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.
This is when Nehemiah is going to receive permission to go to
Jerusalem. Now the month of Nissan falls
approximately between the months of March and April.
So we can say based on this that Nehemiah was in this contrition,
the state of prayer, seeking God, raising up his voice to the
heavens for a solid four months. I'm not sure about you, but that
changes the way I understand this man's desperation.
And when we come to Nehemiah chapter 2, we will spend more
time looking at the whys and the hows of this duration of prayer.
But I want to just make note of one thing, and it's how this
reveals something about one way we can know that God may be
directing us toward a certain work.
One way you and I could discern a ministry, a service, a mission
that God is leading us to is by the persistent, steady burden.
We feel for it. Nehemiah's reaction to this news
was not short lived, was it? The timeline confirms that he
was not just emotional for a couple of days and then it all
fizzled out. He couldn't shake it off.
And sometimes an ongoing yearning to see a need met, to
see a work done in God's Kingdom, is a signal of a path
that we may need to pursue. Be cautious now, because
righteous desires, no matter how intense they are, are not always
signs that God is leading us somewhere.
As important as those feelings may be in those convictions
growing are, they need to be accompanied by wise counsel.
They need to be treated with persistent, serious prayer, And
they need to always, always, always be waited on, patiently
waiting on the Lord to confirm. What Nehemiah models for us,
though, is that when a burden is birthed, don't ignore it.
Tap into it, explore it. And with that, his testimony
shows that if it's from God, he will confirm it.
And the way it's confirmed for him is that the door will swing
open and what he felt and what he was wrestling with and what
he brought before God ended up being authorized by God because
Providence approved it. If you and I want to see genuine
fruit and longevity in ministry, it has to be birth and passion.
I'm not saying you have to feel giddy and excited for whatever
ministry you are connected to on an ongoing, unbroken basis.
However, if there is no passion, if there is no drive, if you
don't dream about it to some extent, if you don't talk to God
regularly about it, what are you doing?
And if you're just going through the motions, guess what the
fruit of it is going to show? But Nehemiah here is showing us
a very important sequence. There's something birthed in his
heart, something that will later be birthed in prayer, and it's
going to manifest in the remainder of this book in terms
of fruit and effectiveness. Let's actually get to the
content of the prayer, shall we? We're not going to look at all
the insights, but let's look at some.
You know, as I read this over and over again, something stood
out to me. Something began to glisten, and
it was how Nehemiah referred to himself and the other parties
involved who belong to the Lord and serve the Lord.
Let me show you what I mean. Look at verse 6.
He says, Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to
hear the prayer of your servant. Underline that you're saying
why? We'll keep reading that.
I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel,
Your servants. OK, look at verse 8.
Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses.
Out of all the things that you could have said about Moses,
what did you choose to say? Your servant?
And he does it twice. Look at verse 11.
We already saw, but let's revisit it.
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. So throughout, throughout this
prayer, Nehemiah identifies himself.
He identifies those who are the people of Israel.
He identifies those who are praying with him.
He even identifies Moses as what God's servants.
And this is a humble reminder that no matter the nature of our
ministry, whether we are leading people like Moses or we are
behind the scenes and helping a guy like Nehemiah build some
walls, all of us are no greater than this.
We are simply servants. Whatever your gift looks like,
whoever knows your name or doesn't know your name in the
sight of God, we are all merely servants.
You know, this attitude that Nehemiah displays here reminds
me of what Christ didn't suggest but commanded.
Actually, when I was thinking about it today, I thought in
teachings about serving the Lord, sacrificing for the Lord,
pursuing some kind of ministry for the Lord.
This verse that I'm about to tell you to turn to is rarely
brought up, rarely brought up, Luke 17, verse 10.
And I wonder if you've ever heard this being used to exhort
us to properly view ourselves and ministry for Jesus Christ.
This is Jesus Christ telling His own and us how we should view
ourselves in light of serving him.
Luke 17 verse 10. I will wait for you because I
want you to see with your own eyes.
So you also, when you have done all that you recommended, say we
are unworthy servants. We have only done what was our
duty, and that's something. Did Jesus recommend this?
And he says, when you've done your ministry, say this.
Now, why would Jesus say this? I'll tell you why, because there
are many Christians who are tempted to think that we're
doing God a favor by serving him.
That's why. Or that or something special for
serving him. Look at me, what I do.
I serve God not just on Sundays, Fridays, and Wednesdays.
Who cares? Look what I do.
This church wouldn't survive without me.
Oh, they might be able to go on, but it'll be a struggle.
I think you know what Jesus says to you and I.
You're a servant and you're doing your duty.
God is not in our debt when we serve Him.
That is the least that you and I can do after what He has done
for us. It's the least that we can do if
we actually understand how our Christ served us.
If I have 10,000 lives to live, I'll give you all of them to
your service. So the Lord is really bringing
us back down to reality here because we have a tendency of
having this sense of superiority, maybe self worth,
self praise, and Nehemiah's prayer reminds us of a new
covenant attitude. As we continue here, I want us
to consider something else. We see again here in verse 8 and
verse 9 that one of the greatest recorded prayers in the Bible is
biblically informed. Look at verse 8:00 and 9:00 for
a second. Here he says, 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, 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.
So what's what's Nehemiah doing here?
Showing us the importance of being saturated with the Bible
in order to be effective in our prayers and intercessions.
Right. This is something that we've
seen over and over and over again.
But there is an added layer of inspiration here with Nehemiah.
Was he born in Jerusalem? No, he's born in exile.
Was there a temple in Babylonia to draw inspiration from?
No. Yeah.
There was a community of Jews there, even God fearing Jews,
but just imagine the atmosphere, imagine the temptations.
And yet what I see in Nehemiah is what we saw in Ezra, that he
was committed to knowing God's word, to loving God through the
Word. And it shows up in his prayer
language. And not only does he say
something about Nehemiah's absolute commitment to the
truth, it shows him and it shows us the the secret to fuel in our
prayer lives rehearsing God's character, his abilities, his
works, his ways, and his faithfulness.
In fact, that's exactly what he brings up here in verse 10.
Look at it with me. He says they are your servants
and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and
by your strong hand. Notice this.
They are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by
your great power and by your strong hand.
There's something happening more than just Nehemiah reminding
himself that the people of Israel are in covenant with God,
therefore God will be faithful to his covenant people.
This is Nehemiah also reflecting on what God has done with this
people, giving him the hope that he can do it again with this
people. You have redeemed this people
from Egypt with all the impossible challenges, with a
tyrant like Pharaoh, with with, with a Red Sea.
You brought them out. Surely, Lord, you can bring them
out of this ruin. So you see already that Nehemiah
is energized and he has an anchor in this place of praying
for weeks and months because he knows God has done it before,
God can do it again. And the only way that you can
even have a a chance of tasting that kind of faith is if you
know what God has done. Can I ask you something?
What stories in the Scriptures do you visit in order to
strengthen your faith? Are you familiar enough with
them to apply them to virtually any situation that comes to you?
We should be able to get there and as primary and foundation as
that is, we should also be aware of what God has done in history,
what God has done in people's lives around us, what God has
done in our parents lives if they've served the Lord, our
pastors lives. Fellow brothers and sisters, we
should accumulate testimonies in order to know how to pray like
Nehemiah prays. You know, in the years that
we've been praying for a building, I found myself doing
something repeatedly. And my wife can testify to this
too, whenever she was in the car with me, that if I wasn't too
distracted thinking while driving safely, not too
distracted with my mind here, sometimes I would drive by
different buildings, especially buildings, church buildings with
nice parking lots. And I would say out loud, God,
if you did it for them, you can do it for us.
Just just simple, just simple words to the Lord and just
tangible observations that God, if you did it for that ministry,
do you love us any less? Surely not.
And he doesn't love us anymore. He's done it before.
He's helped different ministries, I'm sure, overcome
obstacles and and permits and persecution and neighbors that
might cause even more headache. All these things.
And the MI shows us that we need to know that if we're going to
be able to stay in the place of prayer long enough to see
answers. And we've seen answers, haven't
we? Now, as we continue, I want I
want us to just look at the final verse here.
And I can tell you this with a great confidence that we can, we
can spend an entire separate session on this one verse alone.
It is packed, packed, packed with incredible observations.
And I just want us to consider a couple of them here before we
close. We learn here that Nehemiah's
final words are mentioning not just his commitment to pray and
his desperate need for God to answer his prayers, but that
there are other people who are praying with him.
Did you pick up on that? Look at it again.
Oh Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your
servant. That's Nehemiah, and to the
prayer of your servants. Who else is praying with him?
Evidently he made this need known to them.
He got a prayer group to join him, to partner with him.
And the only thing that we know about them is what?
That they delight to fear God's name.
What a fascinating phrase. Delight to fear God's name?
That seems kind of absurd on the surface.
If there's any delight in relation to fear is to have less
of it, not more of it. Unless, of course, these
servants with Nehemiah comprehended the treasures that
come with fear in God, that made them fear God and want to grow
in reverence, in awe of him the way he deserves delighting to.
It's a delight for me to stand in awe of God.
I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
What a thing to be said of anybody who delight, one
translation says, who desire to fear your name.
If your heart fears God tonight, rejoice in that.
If it doesn't, if you can be honest with yourself and say, I
know preachers talk about the majesty of God and the awe of
God, but I believe in a theory, but I don't feel it in my soul.
Ask God for it. He can do something in you.
I'm sure He can open your eyes, certainly, and you don't need to
be a preacher to have it. These are unnamed fellows.
Which brings me to my next point.
There's something to learn here about leaders and non leaders.
So allow me to speak about this for a moment.
For those who are leaders now or aspiring leaders, I want you to
notice that Nehemiah acknowledged these servants in
prayer. Even though he would be
platformed by name, even though he would be the face of this
massive revival and a movement of great restoration of historic
proportions, he would be the main guy.
And yet I see something noble about Nehemiah.
He understood the value of those who serve alongside him in the
background. This is a hint that he
understood that he would not be able to do this on his own.
He's he's actually even relying on his prayer partners and he
mentions them in his prayer before God.
And we should go beyond that and even express our appreciation
from time to time to those who are serving behind the scenes.
So leaders, take note of this. Even though God has called you
to perhaps guide and and possess vision, understand that you were
never called to do it alone. You can't do it alone.
Neither can I. But secondly, we learned that
it's possible to effectively contribute to the cause of
Christ and not be a leader and not even be known.
Do you believe that the Holy Spirit could have mentioned
these servants who prayed with Nehemiah by name?
He could have. If you doubt that, we've studied
a lot of names, haven't we? God is not shy of including
names if He wants to include names.
But when He doesn't mention a name, sometimes there's insight
even in that. And what I find here is that
these individuals who served God and served Nehemiah were not
known, but they played a major part in what we're going to see
in the following chapters because they prayed.
Here's what that means. Unfortunately for some,
fortunately, I don't enjoy saying this, but for some, their
incentive to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in the context of
the local church or any kind of ministry is to have a sense of
recognition. It's to be respected.
Oh, and if they can get a title, like all I need is a title, if I
can have a title along those other guys who have titles, Oh
yeah, that's what I'm looking for.
Please listen, don't enter ministry if you are very aware
of your low self esteem. I'm not saying you can't be
tempted with self esteem. I can't.
I'm not sure you're saying that you can't be discouraged.
But if you are pursuing service to the Lord because you need
identity in that service, danger for you and danger for the
church that you're serving. I know it sounds innocent.
I know it's almost like it's kind of harmless.
Actually it's not. It can cause a lot of problems.
Instead, you and I have to come to a place and ask this
question. Am I willing to sacrifice my
time? Am I willing to serve and give
my energy towards whatever God asked me to if I never received
praise for it? If you and I fear His name like
these servants did, we will. We will, because when you stand
in awe of God, the appreciation of man has little value.
That's the problem. We get this thing all mixed up
and we, we, we crave the pat on the back and we crave the
accolades and we crave the attention and we crave people
say, oh, he's doing something effective, he's doing something
great. He's doing something popular.
As much as Nehemiah is so inspirational, I find equal
inspiration from these servants that we'll only know in heaven.
They feared God, they loved God. Think about it, the reason why
they were willing to pray with Nehemiah is because they
delighted to fear the Lord. No other ambition, no other
agenda. And I'm sure they celebrated the
fact that Nehemiah would be the leader of this whole movement.
Final thought for us tonight. What came to mind here and
meditating on these verses that prayer unlocks more rewards than
we often remember. The ultimate prize of what
Nehemiah does here in chapter 1 is that the king will indeed
give him the mercy that he asked God for and that he will have
the favor and more than just a favor to go because you have to
understand how difficult this is.
This is not just a normal job where you put in your two weeks
notice thinking I have another thing.
Thank you for all the benefits and the opportunities.
No, he was one of the most trusted individuals in the
Kingdom. It would not be so easy for him
to leave his post. So yes, we're anticipating that
God is going to answer this prayer, but I want you to see
that God gives him much more than that.
And one of those examples is how Nehemiah speaks about the king
in this verse. Look again at verse 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.
I mean, he mentioned servant 3 times in this one verse, and
grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
Now don't make the mistake of taking Nehemiah's reference to
the king as this man as an expression of disrespect or
disdain. That's not what's happening here
because the very first recorded words of Nehemiah in chapter 2,
when the king calls upon him, is May the king live forever.
That is respect. He didn't look down upon his
employer. He didn't look down upon this
king. Instead, lean into this.
As Nehemiah continued to spend time in God's presence, as he
continued to deal with the truths that he's studying in
God's Word and put them into practice in terms of praying
about it and allowing his heart to believe it, his perspective
began to change. Especially when you compare what
he says here in the last verse of his prayer with the first
words of his prayer. Look back at verse 5, Nehemiah
1/5 And I said, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome
God, what a way to address the Lord.
He begins by exalting His absolute sovereignty, His glory,
His infinite beauty and power. And then as He comes here to the
end of his prayer and refers to the most feared and powerful man
in the Persian Empire, when compared to the truth of who God
is, He is just a man. Do you see this?
He's just a man. As he glued his eyes, and more
importantly, the eyes of his heart, and as he exercised the
words of faith, and as he meditated on who he was speaking
to, whatever pomp, whatever pride, whatever power art exerts
he's possessed, it began to fade.
So here's what you and I have to understand.
Nehemiah was praying for the Lord to do a work in the city of
Jerusalem, and all the while the Lord was doing a work in
Nehemiah. Can God change the problem that
you're praying about? Absolutely.
Believe it with all your heart, but also believe this.
He's going to change you in the process.
And in this case, what you have here is Nehemiah's understanding
of who God is. And even the greatest obstacle
that he had was not so much of an obstacle in light of who God
showed himself to be to this man.
So Nehemiah received an added reward, and that was a
revelation of the majesty and might of his God.
Prayer carries power not just for predicaments, but for our
own personalities and our own perspectives.
You will never lose if you pray. You will lose a lot more than
you think if you don't. Do you believe that there is
much more that we can get from these verses?
I think so. For for the sake of our time
tonight, let's pause and pray. Lord, we delight to fear your
name. You're worthy to be feared.
And if any of our hearts have lost that sense of awe, use the
truths, Lord, from these verses that have been pressed against
our hearts to mold us and to sharpen our understanding of who
You are, who we are studying about, who we are speaking to
even now. Lord, much has been said and
there was more that could be said, but we say thank You for
the portion that has been presented to us this evening.
And we pray that when we learn something of You and what You
ask of us, that it would move us genuinely, that it would do more
than just tickle our brains, but that it would stir our hearts.
Lord, thank You that You do not change.
And what You long for and expect and desire out of many men and
women that we find in the Scriptures is no different for
us. So, Lord, if you're looking for
people who have concern for your church in a very real and
personal way. If we don't have that, birth it
in US. Lord, if if we are overcome by
the size of our obstacles, help us understand that you've given
us this weapon, this grace, this gift called prayer that can do
so much more than we think. But we, we bless your name, we
honor your name. We Revere you, Lord, and we
believe that you've brought us to the book of Nehemiah for such
a time as this. You will equip us efficiently
for this next season as a church, and we will glean from
it. And Lord, by your help, we will
apply all that we hear that we may see the fruit of it in our
days. We honor you now in song.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Well, I think the precinct will
come now and tell us what song we will sing together.
If you feel like you need to stay seated and just continue to
pray and talk to the Lord before you make your way out of here,
you can do that. But if you feel like you need to
stand and glorify God and sing it, you can do that as well.
So whatever you are inclined to do, as long as you are focused
on the Lord, let's take these next few moments and worship
Him.