Would you open your Bible, please, to the book of Nehemiah?
In the Old Testament? We take ourselves back in
history to about 450 BC in the Persian Empire.
Maybe you've read the book of Nehemiah, maybe you've not.
But for the next at least 13 weeks, we'll explore it through.
We'll have a few breaks because of Christmas and New Year.
You can be certainly reading ahead tonight.
The title of the message is When the bad news breaks you.
When we read from the MI, I'll be reading out of the new King
James Version. But I want to pose some
questions to commence with tonight.
And that is firstly, what do you feel?
Do you feel when you walk past a trolley of of meagre belongings
of a homeless person, perhaps in Perth, Fremantle, maybe around
parts of Rockingham or Mandra? What do you feel when you hear
another tragic story of a teenager loss to addiction?
What do you feel when you scroll past the news and you again read
an account of more corruption in our governments?
I think most of us probably feel very little because we've seen
it. We've heard it so many times
before that our hearts have maybe gone quiet.
We've been numbed or dulled to some of these situations.
But every now and then, every now and then, something breaks
through. A phone call, a conversation,
maybe even a single sentence. And you're standing in the
kitchen, phone in hand and the doctor reveals and says it's
cancerous. You open that email and the
message has we're letting you go.
You get that late night text message.
Mum has had a stroke and the world tilt.
It shifts and your stomach it drops.
Everything that felt solid suddenly just falls like rubble
into a heap. Well, I say all of that because
that is exactly what happened to a man named Nehemiah in the
Winter Palace of Susa. It's the year 445 BC.
He had the ultimate cushy job. He was cup bearer to King
Artaxerx. He's a powerful man, the leader
of the Persian Empire at the time.
His role was to taste the King's wine before the king did in
order to avoid him being poisoned.
And it sounds like, well, that's a pretty terrible job, thank
you. But it was actually a privileged
position. It meant that he had the ear of
the king. It came with quite prestige and
and money and possessions as a consequence and it was also a
position that was one that the king Artaxerxes would utilise
the ear of that individual and seek counsel and wisdom from.
So what we introduced to in Nehemiah is a very privileged
individual, a person who is trusted, a man of power.
And we're introduced to his story here.
And Susa, you could think of it as kind of the, the Bondi Beach
of the Persian Empire. It was the place where the
Persian kings would go and winter out.
It was warmer. It was, you know, filled with
pools and palaces and endless comfort.
Well, one afternoon we'll read in a moment 1 of Nehemiah's
brothers fellow called Hananiah walks in with a a few men fresh
from a visit to Jerusalem. You see what had happened was
that those of the exile of Judea, many had returned to
Jerusalem and he is seeking after a recount of what?
What's it like there? He asks and poses the question
Nehemiah, I think in this asked probably one of the most
dangerous questions that a comfortable person can ask, how
are the people doing? How is the city Jerusalem?
And the answer in one sentence effectively shatters him.
He hears the remnant there is in great trouble, and shame is upon
them. The wall of Jerusalem is broken
down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.
This is Jerusalem, this city that was on a hill, Jerusalem
that once was so dazzling under Solomon that it indicates in the
Scriptures that silver was as common as stones.
And Queens travelled from afar just to hear the King's wisdom.
That Jerusalem, its massive walls that once stood proud, its
Golden Temple had been the dwelling place of God.
But 150 years before our story that we get into now in
Nehemiah, Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar had marched in,
burned the temple, torn down the walls, and dragged the people of
God some 1400 kilometres into Exxon.
We've been reading of it as we've been studying through the
book of Daniel on Sunday mornings.
Some, as I mentioned, had returned some 75 years ago now,
but the the city was still very much a wasteland.
And Nehemiah, upon hearing these words, collapses.
He weeps, Scripture tells us, he mourns for days, he fasts for a
period of four months as he prays.
And his story is before us over the coming weeks as we study
this book. Nehemiah.
Now tonight for many of us, if the bad news about our nation,
if bad news perhaps about our people, the people of Australia
or our cities, think of the city of Perth or our suburbs here in
Secret harbour, our friends, our family, if if the news about
them has not broken you yet, it will, it will.
So the question is what will you do when it does?
Or if you are feeling in a state of brokenness much like Nehemiah
here, then you want to learn from Nehemiah what he does in
such moments. You see, Nehemiah shows us the
pathway that turns heartbreak into holy action and gives us
effectively A blueprint for how God rebuilds a city, yes, but
how God can rebuild human brokenness.
So tonight we're going to watch a man move from devastation to
determination through prayer. And there's three movements in
our text before us in these 11 verses of chapter one that I
pray God works in every one of us this evening.
We're going to consider #1 the burden that breaks us in verses
one to four. And then with that burden, what
do we do? Well, secondly, we'll see that
the believing prayer then builds us in verses 5 to 10.
And then lastly, in verse 11, the bold availability that sends
us. So let's consider the first as
we look at the 1st 4 verses the words of Nehemiah the son of
Hakaliah. It came to pass in the month of
Chislev, in the 20th year, as I was in Shushan, the citadel,
that Han and I, one of my brethren, came with men from
Judah. And I asked them concerning the
Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and
concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, the
survivors who were left from the captivity in the province are
there in great distress and reproach.
The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are
burned with fire. And so it was when I heard these
words that I sat down and wept and mourned many days.
I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
So first, the burden as we stop and consider these verses,
Nehemiah consider has never been to Jerusalem that we know of
prior to this as we're reading here, never seen it with his own
eyes. He grew up in exile in the
Persian Empire, knowing only Persia, only the Babylonian
influence before that, but hearing no doubt, stories of
Jerusalem's former glory, perhaps instructed by his
parents or relatives, or maybe even meeting at synagogue.
And then this news comes. He's living in marble halls.
Yes, he's eating at the King's table.
Yes, he's wearing the royal uniform.
Very important man. And when this news comes, he
could have changed the subject. Most exiles did, most of us do.
But he asks, he enquires, he seeks the truth and when it
comes, it feels like a spear in the chest for Nehemiah.
He has to sit down so much as it impacted him.
Picture this high ranking official in the Persian Empire
effectively collapsing into a chair.
And he wept, it says, and these aren't polite tears, but the
kind that burn and leave you gasping.
Ever, ever cried like that? Guttural, intense, convulsive.
It then tells us that he mourned for days.
And the Hebrew words here for all of this speak of this deep,
very visible grief that has come upon Nehemiah.
When hearing this, he fasted then.
And so for months he's pushed away the royal feast that were
his daily privilege. Why such agony?
Why such a response when hearing of this news?
Because the walls you see, for Jerusalem and for Nehemiah, this
isn't just a construction issue. These left the people residing
in Jerusalem vulnerable, poor and ashamed.
The report coming back said that the reproach was upon them.
Every bandit could walk in, every neighbour could mock and
say these words. Where is your God, the great God
of Israel? The glory of God lay in the dust
and Nehemiah felt it like a very personal wound.
We'll see. So you feeling this with me as I
as I read as I explained this. Are you sensing the strain and
the pressure on Nehemiah in this and again, this was not new
information for Nehemiah. He was aware of Jerusalem state
the fact he'd known about the destruction for years.
But here's what happened for Nehemiah in this revelation of
news. He he refused to let time
desensitise him to it. It's kind of like a child who
sees for the first time someone sleeping on concrete or on a bus
bench and can't believe it. You've had your children ask
that of you when walking out in public.
And they spot and they ask questions, don't they, about how
and, and why and, and where's their parents and why do they
only have this and where's their shoes and why do they look like
that? And they can't comprehend.
They can't fathom it. Well, Nehemiah, effectively,
when hearing this news, he sees the ruin and he's shocked all
over again. It's personal.
He asked first about the people, not just the stones.
Did you notice that? And the real tragedy in this
story isn't just the rubble on the ground.
It's the rubble in people's hearts, it's the poverty that's
there. It's the shame, it's the
insecurity that that they would feel constantly, the mockery of
those as we dig into the story, the derision of the people
living around them. But most of all, what breaks
Nehemiah's heart is the spiritual plight of this
returned people in Jerusalem. Now let's let's hit this home
for a little bit here. I don't know about you, but I
love living in WA. I honestly believe that we live
in the greatest place on earth and I've travelled a fair bit of
the world. There's parts of the world I've
not been to but man, I don't think many can touch WA for what
we are privileged to enjoy here. But walk with me for a moment
through some of our streets. Over 1300 people in Perth have
no home tonight. 5000 children are in foster care according to
recent wastewater analysis conducted by the Australian
Criminal Intelligence Commission.
Perth has become the new meth capital of Australia, where
wastewater traces of the drugs consumption was discovered to be
the highest per capita among some 20 countries around the
world. You know what?
Worse still is that hundreds of thousands have no idea who Jesus
is. It's the greatest tragedy and
therefore they have no idea who they really are.
They don't know God who who made them and who loves them.
They have no understanding, no revelation of that.
But most terrifying of this reality, I think of all is that
many of them will stand before God one day and without Christ
will be eternally lost. Heaven is real, yes, but hell
also is real. And that that news that should
break us. And if it doesn't, then
something within us is already broken.
I think you see, when Nehemiah hears this report of Jerusalem,
he doesn't criticise. He doesn't say what's Ezra doing
over there? I mean, he's there.
If you know that Nehemiah comes after the book of Ezra and he'll
be a character in this. And what's wrong with Ezra?
And Nehemiah could have criticised what's happening over
there. No.
What does Nehemiah do? He weeps, the burden breaks him,
he collapses into his chair, He mourns for days and fasts for
months. And so, Church tonight.
Do we weep over the brokenness of Australia and of its people,
over WA, over Perth, over our community secret harbour?
Do do we still feel the weight of friends, of neighbours, of of
Co workers who are on a trajectory to spend all of
eternity apart from God? If that does not move us, then I
don't think anything will. And so tonight, maybe as we, we
just stop for a moment, You, you might ask the Holy Spirit right
now to restore holy tears in your life, in your heart, to
pray the dangerous prayer. Lord, do not let me stay
comfortable while Your glory and your people lie in ruins to ask
the Lord tonight. Break my heart for what breaks
yours, Lord God, and don't let comfort numb you dare to ask
Lord, how are the people? How is this city?
And when He shows you, let the tears come.
Now, Nehemiah, He does not stop at weeping.
And, and many times we can do that.
Oh, we're, we're broken and we see the tragedy of society and
people around us and, and of the spiritual condition of Australia
and of our country and it breaks us and we weep for Nehemiah.
That weeping led him onto some action and in particular led him
straight to prayer. And the rest of the chapter is 1
long beautiful prayer that Nehemiah utters and will be our
focus as we read these verses. What we'll notice are four ways
that Nehemiah prays for the city of Jerusalem and and four ways
that you and I must pray too. And so secondly, tonight, the
believing prayer that builds us up, having felt the the weight
and the heaviness of tragedy and the brokenness that comes with
that, what do we need to do? We need to take take it and turn
it to prayer, and prayer should build us up.
We see that in verses 5 to 10. And I said, I pray.
Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, you who keep your
covenant and mercy with those who love you and observe your
commandments, please let your ear be attentive and your eyes
open. You may hear the prayer of your
servant, which I pray before you now day and night.
The children of Israel are your servants and confess the sins of
the children of Israel which we have sinned against you.
Both my father's house and I have sinned.
We've acted very corruptly against you and have not kept
the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which you
commanded your servant Moses. Remember, I pray, the word that
you commanded your servant Moses, saying, If you are
unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations.
But if you return to Me and keep my commandments and do them,
though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the
heavens, yet I will gather them from there and bring them to the
place which I have chosen as a dwelling for my name.
Now these are your servants and your people whom you have
redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand.
So Nehemiah's prayer is recorded for us here.
And, and 1st, I want us to see that as he prays, it's in
accordance with God's character. You see, what you believe about
God's character will in fact shape your prayer life more than
anything else. You know, if if you believe that
God is out to get you, then you will pray with fear and shame.
If you think that he's a a cosmic killjoy just ready to
destroy and bring ruin to your life, then there will be trepid
fear coming upon you and you'll pray in such a fashion.
If you believe God to be a distant, cold deity, then you'll
pray in a transactional way, just trying to get stuff from
him, almost like a celestial genie in the bottle.
If you believe that God is really nice but not holy, then
you'll pray for what you want, but never confess your sins
again. What you believe about God's
character will shape your prayers.
Nehemiah's prayer as we read, he's praying in accordance with
God's character. He starts, oh, Lord God of
heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and
steadfast love. And he starts with Yahweh, the
very personal, intimate name, Lord God, then great and
awesome. This is what Nehemiah is
focusing on. And Nehemiah here is not
focusing on the problem yet, but on the greatness and might and
power of God. And so your prayers, my prayers
will only be as big as your view of God tonight.
Small God, small prayers, great God, great prayers.
God I, I pray that they'll have my special oat milk when we get
to the coffee shop and that I can get a parking spot.
Small prayer, God, I pray that all in the coffee shop will know
you will ultimately surrender their lives to you and help me
today to lead someone to a saving knowledge of Jesus as the
Christ. And that's a big prayer.
Nehemiah also prays and mentions that he is the God who keeps
covenant. What this means is that God
binds himself to us by grace and never lets go of His promises in
His word. God is faithful to His word.
In fact, indicated in Nehemiah's prayer from verse 8 onwards is
is this that Nehemiah is actually reading the Scripture
as he's praying? This is a direct quote from
Scripture here. Now here's a very practical tip
for you and I. On prayer from this in these
verses, whatever you need, begin by opening God's word and
praising the part of God's character that meets that need.
So if you're hurting tonight, praise God as the comforter.
If you're sick tonight, I praise you God, that you are the
healer. If you're anxious tonight, I
praise you God, that you are the God of peace.
That surpasses all understanding.
Second, in Nehemiah's prayer, he prays in confession of sin.
Did you notice that? Let your ear be attentive, he
says from verses six to seven, confessing the sins we
Israelites have committed. Even I and my father's house, he
mentions, have sinned. We have acted very corruptly.
Was Nehemiah the cause of the reason why the people of Israel
were in exile in Babylon some 150 years ago now and why he's
in exile in Persian? No, but you know in this
Nehemiah, before he asks and seeks God to fix the city, he
admits that he's part of the problem.
There's no finger pointing here. There's the individual I and the
corporate we. And before he can be part of the
solution, he admits he is part of the problem.
There's not a Lord. You need to fix them.
You need to sort them out. It's all their fault this has
happened. He stands in the gap and he owns
it. And you and I, we, we often pray
and we long for revival in our land of Australia.
We maybe know our history and we should pray those prayers.
But you know, revival always begins here with the House of
God, with God's people getting brutally honest about our own
sin. And there's a wonderful prayer
of confession that the church has prayed from about the 1600s
forward. It's sprung out of the
Westminster Confession of Faith. And it's a, it's an ancient
prayer, yes. And I'm going to read it and I
want you to listen to it. But it's one that I've come to
pray quite regularly as a practise personally in my prayer
life. Most merciful God, we confess
that we have sinned against you in thought, word and deed.
But what we have done and by what we have left undone, we
have not loved You with our whole heart.
We have not loved our neighbours as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent for the sake of Your Son
Jesus Christ. Have mercy on us and forgive us
that we may delight in Your will and walk in Your ways to the
glory of Your name. Amen.
And you know what happens when we pray such prayers of
confession? It brings freedom to us, brings
liberation into our lives. It lets God wash away the sin in
our own lives and and the sin that we absorb living in this
fallen world that we do. You know what the Bible tells us
is that when we pray prayers of confession that forgiveness is
granted. 1 John 19 is one of my favourite verses.
We hear the good news again and again when we pray.
Pray as a confession. Your sins are forgiven, you're
awash clean, as white as snow, and they are castaway as far as
the east is from the West, so far as he removed them from you,
the Bible declares when Nehemiah confessed in his prayer.
And 3rd he prays by appealing to God's promises in verses 8 to 9.
As I pointed out, he is obviously reading the word, and
he says remember the word God? You said that if we would be
unfaithful that you would scatter us.
And that's happened, God. But if you return to me and God,
we're doing that, then I will gather you.
Nehemiah doesn't beg God here for him to do something new, but
he reminds God of what God had already promised.
You know, prayer is not us twisting God's arm.
Prayer is US aligning our hearts with God's will.
And so the problem often I think that when we pray and when I say
we, I, I know that I do this. So I'm thinking that many of you
do the same is that often we insert our own purposes into our
prayers instead of God's promises.
Ever found that? So I want my career to take off.
And God, would you use your power for that?
We pray, God, I want to get rid of this particular inconvenience
in my life. God, would you use your power to
do that? We pray.
Now, prayers again are transactional in this way, as if
God is the genie in the bottle. And then when that doesn't
happen, what do we do? We get frustrated, angry with
God, as if prayer doesn't work and God is not powerful.
Can you see what we've done when we approach God through prayer
in that way? We've reduced prayer to a
religious ritual to get what we want from God.
Now listen, prayer is not a blank cheque that we extend unto
God to access His power for our purposes.
Again. It is a means by which our
hearts are aligned with the will of God.
Your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven is our
prayer. But here's how we can do this.
Pray as Nehemiah exemplifies for us, for us.
Consider what has God promised? Go to His word.
You know what God has said in His Word.
God has promised to build His church.
And so when we pray, God build your church here on earth,
that's a prayer that we can pray in alignment with His will.
God has promised to grant to us wisdom.
And if you're needing wisdom to discern a situation or a
circumstance, you can pray according to the promise of God.
God, I need wisdom right now. We can pray because God has
promised it to work all things together for good for those that
love God and are called according to His purposes, God,
I love you. I'm, I'm desiring to seek you
and to serve you. I pray somehow miraculously that
you would turn this rubble, this destruction into something good
for your glory and my good. He has promised in His Word to
never leave you nor forsake you. God, you've promised that.
You promise that. I pray that now I'm I'm feeling
lonely, I'm feeling abandoned, I'm desperate, I don't know what
to do. But you've said in your word
that you would never leave me. Find those promises and pray
them back to God. There's a wonderful illustration
of this. George Mueller was a 19th
century Christian evangelist known for his faith based
ministry that included running orphanages in Bristol, England.
He's famous for operating large scale orphanages where over
10,000 children went through without ever asking for money,
never holding any fundraising. Instead, you know what he did?
He relied solely on prayer and trusting God that God would
provide. Here's what Mueller would do.
He simply would open the Bible, put his finger on a promise and
say do as thou has said. Isn't that cool?
That's Nehemiah's prayer. So I encourage you tonight, this
week, go home, open your Bible, find the promises of God and and
those that fit the burden on your heart.
Pray them, pray them out loud, pray them until something moves,
either your heart or heaven moves.
And then lastly, in His prayer in verse 11, the 4th aspect, we
see the bold availability that sends us.
He says this, Oh Lord, I pray, please let your ear be attentive
to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your
servants who desire to fear your name, and let your servant,
Speaking of himself, prosper this day.
I pray and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
Speaking of King Ardixxerxes the king, for I was the King's
cupbearer. He said so in Nehemiah's prayer
here after praising God, after confessing sin, corporate and
individual, after claiming the promises of God, Nehemiah now in
his prayer in verse 11, we just read it.
He offers himself, Oh Lord, here I am, send me, use me, help me,
grant me mercy in the sight of this man.
He's about to risk his life. That's that's what's wrapped up
in these words here. You see, showing sadness before
the king was a crime punishable by death under Persian law.
But he realises this as he's praying.
You know, I think God hasn't placed me beside the throne of
Persia by accident. So he's not praying, Lord send
somebody else. He's praying, Lord, send me and
open the door, God, to make the way possible for me to have an
audience before the king and present this issue.
You know, God loves to involve us in answers to our prayers,
just like he used a politician in a fellow called Zerubbabel,
who when the first exiles went back some 75 years prior to this
and then Ezra the priest some 15 years prior in Jerusalem.
And now effectively Nehemiah is a a city planner, a civil
engineer, a cupbearer, it says. But we could see him in the
modern context as that. And in the same fashion God
wants to use today, teachers, baristas, engineers, parents,
students, that's you, that's me, that's us.
In God's work of renewal, in God's work of saving lives.
Notice how the prayer ends. Oh, Lord, give success to your
servant this day. Grant him mercy in the presence
of this man. This man, Artaxyrx, he's the
king, the most powerful man on earth.
Notice the last sentence of the chapter, for I was the King's
cupbearer. I think you could almost see
that as like a mic drop by Nehemiah.
He's not boasting, he's simply saying, Lord, you put me here
for such a time as this, He's making himself available.
Be careful what you pray for. God may put you smack bang in
the middle of the answer. Hudson Taylor, maybe you've
heard his name, was a great missionary to China.
He said God's work done in God's way will never lack God's
supply. But he also said this, the Great
Commission is not go ye into all the world if you feel like it,
but go ye and lo, I am with you always.
So in other words, we go under the instruction in obedience to
God, but we go with the knowledge that God is with us.
Nehemiah felt the weight, the burden.
Yes, he he believed the promise as we read.
But now, now he steps forward and says maybe God wants to use
me as the answer to this burden, to this problem.
So tonight is there a a broken wall that you feel a neighbour,
A workplace, a child, this city, this town Perhaps tonight's
message from the Holy Spirit to you is stop waiting for somebody
else. Tell the Lord right now, here am
I send me, use me, use, use my job, use my gifts, use my place
in this city. I'm the cup bearer to the king.
Some of you tonight, I don't know, but maybe you walked in
carrying bad news. Maybe you you feel like you're
living inside bad news constantly.
Marriage in ruins, a child distant far from God, a
situation city, a town, a suburb, a household that feels
hopeless. Nehemiah gives us the blueprint.
Weep over the brokenness. Pray with adoration, with
confession, with bold trust in God's promises.
Then make yourself available for God to use.
You know the story as we read Nehemiah, it does not end with
Nehemiah. And often we can read stories,
particularly in the Old Testament.
And we can spiritualize and moralise them and turn them into
Sunday school lessons, and that's good.
Be like Nehemiah, do this, don't do this, do that, don't do that.
And that's part of it. Yes, we'll learn from Nehemiah
in this way. But you know, Nehemiah points to
something far greater, to another builder, the great
builder. Nehemiah has left the palace to
rebuild a broken city. And we'll study this story as we
go through this book. But Jesus left heaven's throne
to step into our broken world, not just to simply repair walls,
but to restore hearts. Nehemiah wept over Jerusalem's
ruins. Jesus, we read in the Gospels,
wept over Jerusalem's lostness. Nehemiah entered the people's
trouble and shame. And Jesus took our shame.
Our sin, when he hung upon the cross, died in our place, but he
rose to conquer sin and death. Nehemiah built walls that would
one day crumble again. But Jesus is building a city
that will last forever, the new Jerusalem, the Bible tells us
where there is no more pain, no more tears, no more
homelessness, no more shame. Tonight, return to him.
And if you've never known him, run to him.
Tonight. If you've strayed, come home.
Let Jesus rebuild your life with himself at the centre.
Let him renew your hope. Let him send you into this city
with a mission, with a purpose. Tonight, if the Holy Spirit has
put a finger on a broken wall, your life, a relationship, this
land, this nation, I'm going to pray in a moment.
I want you to see and understand and know this.
The same God who heard a cupbearer in a Persian palace is
listening right now. He's still in the business of
rebuilding ruined lives, ruined families, ruined cities, and
through broken people, you and I, who dare to weep, who dare to
pray, and who dare to be willing to be used by God.
So let's bow our heads. And with that thought in mind,
let me pray. Lord, thank you for this passage
of Scripture tonight. And I'm so looking forward to
teaching through this very practical book in Nehemiah and
seeing what God you would teach and speak to us about in the
coming weeks ahead. But Lord, tonight my prayer is
that you would break our hearts with what breaks yours.
Help us to feel the ruin like Nehemiah felt it.
But with that, Lord God, help us to praise you as the great and
awesome covenant, keeping God to know and to understand your
character, your attributes, and and your promises.
Lord, we confess our sin. We ask and seek your cleansing.
We desire your forgiveness and Your mercy upon us.
And as we turn to the Scripture, we claim the promises that you
have provided there for us. In them we are simply God.
Please do what you have said, Here am I, here we are.
Send me, send us. Use me, use us in this world.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.