Nehemiah - Chapter 3

Nehemiah - Chapter 3: Builders of the Wall

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We're continuing in our series. We've covered chapters one and chapter two in the previous weeks. Chapter one, Pastor Chris focused on Nehemiah's prayer and the importance of prayer. And last week we talked about being placed in unique positions by God and leveraging that position for the good of others. And today we're going to tackle chapter three, where at the end of chapter two, we saw Nehemiah rally the people to rebuild the wall. And so they are ready. And we're going to read our passage this morning. Now, let me give you a warning. What we're about to read is such good scripture. It is challenging. If you, okay, this would be a passage of scripture where maybe in your personal study, and I'm saying this as one who has done it, you might be tempted to skim over it because the names are so difficult and you're just like a list of names. You're like, okay, I get the picture. There's a lot of people who did a lot of things, but we are going to read it today together because we value reading scripture. It's good and we're going to do it. So you can pray with me as we read this. Let's go ahead and open your Bibles.

You can follow along Nehemiah chapter three. It says, "Elias Shib, the high priest and his fellow priests went to work and rebuilt the sheep gate. They dedicated it and set its doors in place, building as far as the tower of the hundred, which they dedicated as far as the tower of Hananol. The men of Jericho built the adjoining section and Zachar, son of Imri, built next to them. The fish gate was rebuilt by the sons of Hassanah. They laid its beams and put its doors and bolts and bars in place. Meramoth, son of Uriah, the son of Hakaz, repaired the next section. Next to him, Meshulam, son of Barakiah, the son of Meshezabel, made repairs. And next to him, Zadok, son of Banna, also made repairs. The next section was repaired by the men of Tekoa, but their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors." We're going to come back to that. That's important. "The Jeshenah gate was repaired by Joahida, son of Pesaiah, and Meshulam, son of Besediah. They laid its beams and put its doors with their bolts and bars in place. Next to them, repairs were made by men from Gibeon and Mizpah, Meletia of Gibeon and Jadon of Meranoth, places under the authority of the governor of Trans-Euphrates. Uziel, son of Hurahiah, one of the goldsmiths, repaired the next section. And Hanahiah, one of the perfume makers, made repairs next to that. They restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall. Rephiah, son of Hur, ruler of a half district of Jerusalem, repaired the next section. Adjoining this, Jadiah, son of Haramath, made repairs opposite his house, and Hathush, son of Hashabaneah, made repairs next to him. Melchijah, son of Harem, and Hashub, son of Pahath-Moab, repaired another section from the tower of the ovens. Shalom, son of Halahesh, ruler of a half district of Jerusalem, repaired the next section with the help of his daughters. The Valley Gate was repaired by Hanun and the residents of Zenoah. They rebuilt it and put its doors with their bolts and bars in place. They also repaired a thousand cubits of the wall as far as the Dung Gate. The Dung Gate was repaired by Melchijah, son of Rekeb, ruler of the district of Beth-Hakiram. He rebuilt it and put its doors with their bolts and bars in place. The Fountain Gate was repaired by Shalom, son of Kol-Hazeh, ruler of the district of Mizpah. He rebuilt it, roofing it over and putting its doors and bolts and bars in place. He also repaired the wall of the Pool of Siloam by the King's Garden as far as the steps going down from the city of David. Beyond him, Nehemiah, son of Azbuk, ruler of a half district of Beth-Zer, made repairs up to a point opposite the tombs of David, as far as the artificial pool in the house of the heroes. Next to him, the repairs were made by the Levites under Rehum, son of Benai. Beside him, Heshabiah, ruler of half a district of Kilah, carried out repairs for his district. Next to him, the repairs were made by their fellow Levites under Benui, son of Hanadad, ruler of the half district of Kilah. And next to him, Ezer, son of Jeshua, ruler of Mizpah, repaired another section from a point facing the ascent to the armory as far as the angle of the wall. Next to him, Baruch, son of Zebai, zealously repaired another section, I love that, from the angle to the entrance of the house of Eliashib, the high priest. And next to him, Meramoth, son of Uriah, the son of Hekos, repaired another section from the entrance of Eliashib's house to the end of it. The repairs next to him were made by the priests from the surrounding region. Beyond them, Benjamin and Heshub made repairs in front of their house, and next to them, Azariah, son of Masiah, I'm so sorry, Maaseah, the son of Ananiah, made repairs beside his house. Next to him, Benui, son of Hanadad, repaired another section from Azariah's house to the angle in the corner, and Pelal, son of Uzay, worked opposite the angle on the tower projecting from the upper palace near the court of the guard. Next to him, Padiah, son of Perosh, and the temple servants living on the hill of Ophel, made repairs up to the point opposite the water gate toward the east and the projecting tower. Next to them, the men of Tekoa repaired another section from the great projecting tower to the wall of Ophel. Above the horse gate, the priest made repairs each in front of his own house, and next to them, Zadok, son of Emar, made repairs opposite his house. Next to him, Shemaiah, son of Shekiniah, the guard at the east gate, made repairs, and next to him, Hananiah, son of Shelemiah, and Hanun, the sixth son of Zelophe, repaired another section. Next to them, Meshulam, son of Berekiah, made repairs opposite his living quarters, and next to him, Melchizedek, one of the goldsmiths, made repairs as far as the house of the temple servants and the merchants opposite the inspection gate, and as far as the room above the corner. Between the room above the corner and the sheet gate, the goldsmiths and merchants made repairs.

Oh, I'm literally sweating. That was... Amen. Should we go home now? That was it. That was a workout. All right. So, we all got what happened there, right? Everyone understands... Yes, exactly. A lot of guys did a lot of stuff. So, in this chapter... Yeah, let me just break that down a little bit without the names. They're great. They're in history and great forever. But in verses 1 through 5, they're repairing the north wall. I'm going to paint a picture now. I wish we kind of had this... If we were there, this would make a lot more sense. We could just turn around and see. These are the sections that they did. So, verses 1 through 5, they repaired the north wall. In verses 6 through 13, they did the west wall. 14 through 15, the south wall. 16 through 31, the east wall. And that last verse is the eastern stretch of the northern wall. And so, if you're looking at a map of the city and you're standing there, you start at the top and they went counterclockwise, fixing everything. And some places of this wall needed to be completely rebuilt, while other sections just needed a lot of repair. And there was also a focus on 10 gates as the gates are a vulnerable spot for the city. And so, as they're thinking of repairing everything and protecting themselves again, walls and gates, everything gets fixed. Now, besides recounting who did what and how it was rebuilt, I think there are some other observations that are really helpful as we look at this chapter. And that's where I want to spend the rest of our morning.

And the first observation is that there was unity in the rebuilding effort here. The walls and gates, this was extensive work. This isn't easy. We're not talking about a small gate like in your side yard. We're talking massive city gates, massive walls. As we talked about in chapter one, some of these places where houses were built into the wall. So, these are significant projects that they're taking on and everybody had to pitch in and make it happen. This was all hands on deck and they were able to accomplish so much because they were all bought in. They were giving their all to this monumental project. And let me ask you this, have you ever seen the power of unity at work in something in your life where you've seen a lot of people come together unified over something and you've seen them accomplish something amazing? If you have, you would know that it's a pretty, it's a testimony to the power of unity to see a bunch of people come together, maybe from all different backgrounds, working on one thing and seeing that thing get done. I want to share a bit of my own experience with that. In 2011, I got to go overseas to do some missions work in Greece. And I was working a lot with refugees in the city of Athens. But for two weeks of that time, we did work with something called Operation Joshua, which is an organization that has the goal and the mission to see every single household in Greece have a New Testament in their modern Greek language. If you know anything about the Greek language, there's old Greek and there's new Greek. And so there are old Bibles. It's not that the Greeks have never heard Jesus, they obviously have. But not a lot of people have the New Testament Bible in their modern language. And so, this happens every year, it started in 2008. And for two weeks, every year, this organization gathers people from around the world to help distribute these Bibles. And Greece is divided into provinces. And so each summer, they take on a couple of different provinces. And I just want to share kind of the extent of this project. It's amazing. I was a part of this team. And so the two weeks, the first week is all about gathering the resources. So we are in assembly lines on tables. We're at this campsite. And I was blessed enough to be in Corinth, where the book of Corinthians is addressed to. And so we're in this campsite and we have pallets of pallets of Bibles. And we unpack the Bibles and we're on this long assembly lines. You take out a Bible, you're putting it in a bag with other information, and it's going down the assembly line. You're bagging it back up, putting it back in boxes. And we're doing that for five whole days. And the second week is when we distribute those Bibles. And so we are getting all those boxes in the morning. You wake up, you get into a car, and it's all mapped out as to who's going where and drivers and everything. And we're loading the trunks of these cars with as many Bibles as we can pack. And then we all sit, all five seats, if we're taking a car, we're filled. And then you sit down and someone's putting more Bibles on your lap. And so you can't even see through the windows because we were just packed with Bibles. And you go out all day and we would go from places like Sacramento, where we're in a city, and we're going to apartment complexes and just leaving a bag on every door, to the same day we could be going out to, you know, heading out, what would look like heading out to Jackson. And you're just on dirt, you know, small roads. And then you find a dirt road and it's like, "Oh, I think there's four houses up there. We're going to go up that dirt road." And so just distributing Bibles everywhere. And we come back and at night, these are people from all over the world. So we're on these assembly lines or we're in these cars with people from the US, from Canada, from other places of Europe, South Africa, Australia. And then at night we come together and we sing praises all in our own tongue. And we're singing praises, we go to bed and we do it all over again. I just want to share some. In 2011, in those three provinces, we reached over 390,000 people. We had 269 volunteers. We gave away over 100,000 New Testaments to over 866 villages. We drove over 72,000 kilometers, which I don't have that conversion, but it's a lot. And an update, so that was 2011. They started in 2008. They said that God has blessed them. This is the organization. I looked it up just to kind of see how far they've done in the past, so 10 years plus. And they said that almost 85% of the entire population has gained access to a New Testament in their modern Greek language. Just amazing, amazing work. And so today they've distributed over 1,500,000 New Testaments. They've reached over 7,600 villages, and they've driven over 700,000 kilometers with the help of 5,000 people from all over the world.

That was a blessing for me to see the unity of God's people come together to accomplish something so important, where every hand was needed, every footstep was needed to spread God's Word to these people. I'm sure that many of you have seen something similar, where God's people coming together to work and accomplish something for caring and loving and serving other people. Maybe even here at Spring Valley, if you've been here for a lot longer than I have, longer than Pastor Chris, you can think back to things like the car clinic or trunk or treat, or even what we do today, which is our fireworks showcase, where we are all working together as a church and loving people in our community, reaching people for the sake of the gospel. The point is that when we work together, there is power in being unified and striving for God and His kingdom. The people in Nehemiah's time were unified in a powerful way, and things were getting done. They were no small projects. How did the unity impact what they were working on? Have you ever come across someone who's in the zone when they're working on a project? You might be talking to them, they can't even hear you. They're so focused. They're hyper-focused on what they're doing, whether it's a project around the house or they're at work. You're like, "Hey, hello, I've been talking to you." And they're like, "Oh, sorry, what? I'm in the zone." This is what Israel was doing. They got to it. All the people were on the same page. They all had that rhythm. They were getting so much done. So one of those moments where the unification brought them to a different level and they were able to take on a major rebuilding project. So there was unity and there was power in their unity. Now, while the majority of people were unified, there were still a few who were reluctant to join in the effort.

This brings us to our second point, which is that there was opposition from within. In verse 5, there's a few nobles who do not want to partake in the rebuilding of the walls and the gates. It's the only time in this passage where there is opposition. And this time from within, in the last couple of chapters, we've talked about opposition from the surrounding nations, seeing that Israel's rebuilding. They don't like this threat that Israel could be. But now from within their own people, there is opposition. And scholars think that they didn't want to join Nehemiah because it would give their opponents a reason to attack. "Hey, if we're getting stronger, then we might actually go to war and we don't want to go to war." They also think that maybe it's just their pride. Everyone was getting involved and maybe these nobles thought highly of themselves. They're like, "I don't want to get dirty. I don't want to do that work. I'm used to being up here, high class. I haven't done that work since I was a kid. I don't want to do it." Either way, if it was pride or if it was fear, their opposition is working against what everyone else is doing and what the people are trying to accomplish. And now before we are so comfortably looking at disgust at these nobles and saying, "Oh my goodness, these fools," we should be honest and look at ourselves, right? And say sometimes, and admit, sometimes it's easier to oppose things than to be unified. Sometimes opposing something is convenient or it just might be lazy. Whereas being unified is a choice. It takes effort to get on board with something, to choose to be unified with someone else. Sometimes opposing them is just, it's easier. It's convenient.

You ever find yourself being a contrarian in conversation, maybe with your spouse or with your family or with friends? You don't really set out to, but all of a sudden someone points out like, "Why are you disagreeing with everything I'm saying? Why are you putting down every option that I'm throwing out? You're just saying no. Why are you, I'm trying to, we're all being positive here and you're the only one being negative and you're like, "Oh, I don't even, I'm just, I don't know why. I'm just being a contrarian. I'm just opposing everything that's happening." And again, sometimes it's just easier. Maybe that's where our heart is at. But I think if we were to look at that, being in opposition to what's being unified, it's a heart issue and it's a matter of pride. And pride is the number one source of divisiveness. Just like the noble showcase for the rest of the people of Jerusalem, I'm sure we've all seen how someone's pride causes divisiveness in a group of people. And it can be devastating. It can leave behind a wake of hurt and ruin. This is especially true of the church. Now perfect unity in the church won't happen until heaven. And in fact, in times it can be very difficult for the church to be unified. It's such an issue that Paul addresses this over and over and over again in his epistles to the early churches. And he speaks to the threat that pride and divisiveness are to the church and to the mission of God's people. And the answer, he says, is to humble oneself and to submit to Christ. To lower yourself, to humble yourself, and to submit to Christ. He says we shouldn't settle for what is convenient or easy, but make the effort, make the choice to be unified with God, with his church, with others. And that means humbling ourselves and submitting to God. This is exactly what so many of the people that we read, all those names, so many of them did. They were working on the walls and the gates. They humbled themselves. They submitted to the plan and the leadership that was given to them by Nehemiah that got it from God.

And so that leads us to our third point, which is they were leading, for the rest of the people, many of them were leading by example, what we call servant leadership. Besides those few nobles, we see so many in this chapter who are choosing unity, choosing to lead by example, and choosing to serve the larger community by getting to work. We have in verse 7, people from various towns outside of Jerusalem. In verse 8, people from various professions. They're not all wall builders and gate repairers. No, these are just people with their own jobs who are coming together to get a project done. We see in verse 9 that there's government leaders. Verse 12 shares that there are entire families working on sections. Verse 21, we even have faith leaders. Everyone was on board, willing to lead by example. Now we can't interview these people, obviously, but I bet if we were to ask them about their attitudes during this rebuild, they would come across as excited, as eager, and as enthusiastic to help out with this project because none of them saw themselves, besides those nobles, as too big for this job. They understood what was on the line. We've been talking about unity this morning, and the leaders in this chapter led in a way as to encourage others to rally behind them. They led in a way that invited participation. Come follow me. Do as I do. They're servant leaders. I want you to think, can you think of a time when you experienced a leader impacting for the positive, the unity of the group that you were a part of? Maybe, hopefully, by the way that they were leading and how they were doing whatever the project was or whatever the task was at hand because they were involved. I'm sure you can think of a time when you experienced a leader who led by example. Servant leadership is key for me. When I'm following someone, I'm much more likely to respect them and to follow them if I see them doing the very work that they're wanting me to do.

I grew up playing sports. Soccer was a sport that I played the most. I can recall a time. It was my junior year. I was on varsity. The guy who I played defense. At the very beginning of the season, this guy broke his leg. I got a start. I was very intimidated. I was not that gap between maybe being a junior and a senior. I just was like, "Man, these are all guys who are just really good. I'm pretty good, but I'm not at their level." But being thrust, "Hey, you got to start." We were getting into playoffs, and there was a team that was very physical. Our whole defensive back line, I'm going to try not to be technical here, was playing very soft. The other team was kind of halfway. They were passing the ball wherever they wanted. At halftime, it was still tied, but you could tell that we were just feeling stressed out. We're like, "This team is really good. I don't know if we can do this." We come back out at halftime, and the captain, I really appreciated our captain, he kind of gathered the players and said, "Hey, be more physical. You guys got this. Step up, be physical, shove them off the ball, do all this stuff." We're like, "Okay." He didn't just tell us that because after the whistle blew, the second half started, and within that first five minutes, we all saw our captain doing everything that he just told us to do. He was not football tackle, like soccer. It's a good soccer tackle. Tackling the ball, tackling people, getting the ball, winning the ball back, shoving people shoulder to shoulder, and all of us were like, "We can do this. We got this." Because we saw him do it, we knew that he was serious, and he led the way, we all got on board, and we ended up winning that game, and it was great. But I think of leadership by example, I think of him of like, he didn't just tell us. He didn't just instruct us. He said, "Watch me do it too. I got this. Follow me." Servant leadership is the most effective style of leadership, and the leaders of the city of Jerusalem understood that, and so they were on board to help out with the rebuilding of this city. Even from the very beginning in verse 1, we see Elias ship Israel's high priest, which means he would have been the top leader of Israel at this time, and he didn't let his position prevent him from getting his hands dirty and rebuilding that wall. Now, of course, we can't talk about servant leadership without speaking of the one who did it best, the goat, Jesus. He came not to serve, but to, he came to serve, not to be served, and he led his disciples by telling them how to follow him, not just physically, "Hey, follow me wherever I go." No, "Do as I do." Talking about our community group. So servant leadership is exactly how Christ lived, and it's exactly what he's called us to do. And servant leadership not only keeps us humble, but it's inviting too. It invites others to get on the same level that we're at, saying, "Hey, see what I'm doing? Come join me in this." Living like this, serving like this, loving others like this. Our chapter today was full of, yes, difficult names, but people who were servant leaders, who held high positions and said, "I'm getting to work. Who else is going to join me in that work?" I'm thankful for a chapter like this in our story where the names can be praised for the work they did together. And despite inner opposition, they served each other as they were unified in this rebuilding project.

And so I want to end our time with just a few questions to help us reflect on the truths that we've heard today. And the first question is this, what area of your life needs the support of God's people? What area of your life needs the support of God's people? There are things in this world that we cannot do alone. Just like Nehemiah could not have rebuilt the wall by himself. He needed to get the people on board. There are things that are done best when everyone comes together to help. Now we're in a society that tells us otherwise. In America, they really value someone's lone ability to achieve something all by themselves. But as this story shows, there are things where it's not only better, but the support of others is needed. It's truly needed. And so what area of your life needs the support of God's people? Needs the support of the church, of this church, of the people around you?

Secondly, what would it look like to meet people's needs even when we don't feel like it? If our lives were ever to be written out into a testament, we do not want to be the nobles who said, "Our names are the ones that didn't want to get our hands dirty, who didn't want to do the work." So what would it look like to meet people's needs even when we don't feel like it? Sometimes we avoid getting involved when there's clearly a need or helping out. Maybe we don't feel equipped. We're like, "Hey, that's out of my scope. I don't know how to do it, so I'm just going to let them go through that. God bless." Maybe we simply just don't feel like it. It's an inconvenience. We have a lot of stuff going on in our own lives, and we're like, "I just don't have the time. I wish I could, but I'm not going to." Maybe it's just a pride issue. Sometimes it's easier to stick to our own business because things can get messy with other people, and we don't like messiness. Or pride. Pride can be difficult to let go of. But what would it look like to meet people's needs even when we don't feel like it? To take on that servant leadership role, to choose unity, to choose to support, to love one another and carry each other's burdens as Christ has called us to and as Christ does for us. So what would that look like for you in this next week? As you go about, what opportunities might God be laying before you to say, "This is an opportunity to help out someone.”

Lastly, do you feel like you have a valuable role to play among God's people? Do you feel like you have a valuable role to play among God's people, amongst this church? Then let me tell you that you absolutely do. We need you, and you need us. We need the church. We need each other. God made you with a purpose and a reason. And a part of that was to be a partner with God and a part of his church family. And if you're hearing this today, then it's for Spring Valley Church. Now, the enemy loves to try and tell you otherwise, to get you to doubt your purpose or to inflate your pride and think that you're more important than maybe you really are, to trip over yourself. But you have a place, you have a role, you have a purpose in God's kingdom. And if that's what the Spirit is emphasizing to you today from this sermon, then we'd love to hear that. So come find Pastor Chris or myself after the service. And if you want to share with us that, just feel affirmed that God has a purpose, or if you're wondering, "What is my role? What can I do? I want to be a part of this church in a bigger way. How do I do that?" We'd love to talk to you. But you have a role among God's people. And I pray that you would feel that, you would know that, you'd be secure in that, God's purpose for you. I'm going to close with this. Our prayer is that everyone comes to know that they can play a part in serving God's people. And we pray that hearts are inspired to serve alongside each other. And our desire as a church is to see changed lives as the church grows in unity through the love that we have for other people and how we serve one another. I would love, theoretically, if there was a book written about Spring Valley Church, that everyone in this room, all of our names would be in a chapter like this, with ways that we served each other. This person did this. This person served in this way. This person supported the church by doing this. What a beautiful picture of a church, of God's intention for His family, for His people.

Let's pray. God, thank you again for your word and for your instruction, for your encouragement. And God, as we seek to live for you, I pray that you would reassure us in our hearts that we have value, that we have a purpose, that you mean for us to be exactly where we are. And God, as we're where you want us to be, I pray that you would help us to understand and know what it is you want us to do, how you want us to serve, how you want us to love, how we can support each other. And God, maybe also we're on the other side of that, where we need the support, we need the love of other people. I pray that you would help us to let down our walls and to let people in, to ask for help, ask for prayer, ask for support. Say, "God, I can't do this alone. I shouldn't be doing this alone. I need my church family with me." God, as we go about this week, make those opportunities where we can serve others so clear, give us the strength, give us the words to say, guide us with your spirit so clearly. And may you get all the praise, God. We pray this in your name. Amen.

Nehemiah - Chapter 2

Nehemiah - Chapter 2: Nehemiah Goes To Jerusalem

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are continuing in our Nehemiah series. just started this last week, so if you haven't had the chance yet to listen or watch last week's sermon, I encourage you to do that. Listen on the podcast, you can watch it online. But this is a 12-week series, and this series is all about the return to Jerusalem, the rebuilding of its walls, the city, and the hopeful restoration of a people, the nation of Israel. And Nehemiah is continuing the restorative work that began in the book earlier in Ezra, but just to remind us of what Pastor Chris introed last week in this timeline of where we're at in Israel's history. We have a timeline to put up, I think. And yes, we do. Oh, awesome! So this is after the period of the kings. This is after the period of the divided kingdom. And Jerusalem is falling. Remember, by the way, I don't, this is just, I have to remind myself this. I'm going to remind you that the time as we're going forward in BC gets smaller. So we're not going, but it's the right way. So Jerusalem falls into captivity at 597. and then King Cyrus allows the Jews to return to Jerusalem in 538, and the temple is completed in 516, and then Ezra, again the book before this in 458, leads a group back to Jerusalem, and then we are starting in our series in around 444 BC, where Nehemiah goes back to Jerusalem. So just a hopeful timeline there for you guys to see, this is where in Israel's history this is happening. And in this particular story, in our series, we're kind of caught in this liminal space, this in-between, of despair from coming down from Israel's glory days, of like the best is in the past, to a hope of the future where the prophets are starting to say, "Hey, there's a coming savior at some point." So Israel's saying, "Okay, well the best was behind us, but there is something great ahead of us. This coming savior, we don't know what that exactly means, but it's gotta be better than this.”

And so in this book of Nehemiah, we have all those emotions and intentions, And some of the themes that we'll see are the doctrine of God, the supremacy of Scripture, the continuing history of salvation, the nature of leadership, and also the importance of prayer. And that's the theme that Pastor Chris honed in on last week. He shared that Nehemiah's first response to hearing the state of despair of Jerusalem was prayer. And we looked at how Nehemiah modeled a prayer full of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. And I love this quote from Pastor Chris. He said, "Prayer is a vital means for finding guidance, "expressing concerns, and seeking God's intervention "in our lives." It's exactly what Nehemiah needed in that moment. And so in chapter one, we learn that Jerusalem State is one of despair and ruin, and we are introduced to the character of Nehemiah, who is this cupbearer to the king of Persia, this kingdom that's ruling over the land of Israel at this time. And we see God stirring in Nehemiah the need to act and move. Let's continue that story this morning in chapter two. Let's find out what happens. We're gonna first see in the first couple of verses here that Nehemiah has the opportunity to come before the king and say something. So if you wanna follow along, this is verse one of chapter two, it says, "In the month of Nisan, in the 20th year "of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, "I took the wine and gave it to the king. "I had not been sad in his presence before, "so the king asked me, 'Why does your face look so sad "when you are not ill. "This can be nothing but sadness of heart. "I was very much afraid, but I said to the king, "may the king live forever. "Why should my face not look sad "when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins "and its gates have been destroyed by fire? "The king said to me, what is it you want? "And then I prayed to the God of heaven "and I answered the king, "if it pleases the king "and if your servant has found favor in his sight, "let him send me to the city in Judah "where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it." All right, we're gonna pause right there.

Couple of things. I just wanna point out that the time between chapter one, verse one, and chapter two, verse one, is four months. Four months has occurred since Nehemiah first found out about Jerusalem to this moment where he gets the opportunity to say something to the king. And I point that out just to remind us that God can move in a lot of different ways. And it's not always on our timeline where we want it. We find out something maybe moves us or our hearts are broken, and we want immediate resolution. God, can you fix this now? And Nehemiah, I'm sure, wanted to act right away. My heart is broken, I am feeling, I am mourning over the state of my home city. But this is four months later before he even gets to share about it with the king. Again, we might be ready sometimes, but God hasn't presented that opportunity. I don't know if any of you are bargain shoppers looking for a good deal, but I feel like it's kind of like that, where you have something on your wishlist, you know you wanna get it, you will get it at some point, but you're waiting for the deal. And as soon as that sale happens, or you see it on Amazon marked 50% off, it is boom, bye, now. And Nehemiah is in that state now. He's ready, he's waiting, just waiting for the right opportunity. The king notices in that passage that Nehemiah looks distraught. And what he's noticing is, like we said, four months, four months of Nehemiah's reaction, which we found out in chapter one, was prayer, mourning, and fasting. That takes a physical toll on someone when you are mourning and fasting for four months. Now, just to be clear, it's not four months of not eating ever. He did eat, but the fasting in that time just means you're significantly taking less food. And so that takes a physical toll, and he comes in one day, and the king just notices, "Nia Ma, you are not looking good. What is going on?" We have to remember that in that time, the king's court requires a certain countenance, maybe even a performance. There's an expectation of how you look and how you present yourself before a king. It's kind of like working at Disneyland. Have you ever seen sad people who have worked there at Disneyland? Probably not, you're not supposed to. My wife and I went to college, 20 minutes from Disneyland. We had a few friends who got jobs there And whether you're a character, which definitely means you have to be happy, or you're just someone who picks up trash, there are expectations of how you represent the happiest place on earth. And I think working in the king's court was very similar. And so we gather that Nehemiah, one, he couldn't hide it any longer, the despair that he felt, or two, he felt comfortable enough to finally share. I think it's probably a bit of both. We also see from these first five verses that Nehemiah knew how to share in a way that would get the king to empathize with him. Ancestors in Eastern culture are very important, very sacred. And so Nehemiah speaks to the king in a way that he knows the king will at least understand. Whether he will get what he wants, we'll find out here in a second, but he knows that the king will understand what he's trying to say.

And that brings us to our first point. I love the way that one pastor said it. He says, point number one, Nehemiah leveraged his position to help others. He knew that it meant risking everything, his livelihood, his job, possibly his life if the king was in a really bad mood. People had big fears over bringing something before the king and asking something out of turn in a way that a cupbearer wasn't supposed to just have these open conversations with the king. But he leveraged his position to help others. He knew that he had the ear of the king and that he could use it to benefit his people, the people of Israel. Just imagine waiting four months, mourning, fasting, praying. And then finally one day at work, the king says, "What's bothering you?" The one person in his reality on earth at that time for Nehemiah that could seriously influence the status of Israel. And after telling him, the king asked, "What do you want?" So Nehemiah used his position of being close to the king to try and benefit the entire nation of Israel. We've already heard the king ask Nehemiah what he wants, let's find out what else he says, and the king's response starting in verse 6. It says, "Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, 'How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?' It pleased the king to send me, so I set a time. I also said to him, "If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates so that they will provide me safe conduct until I arrive in Judah. And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the royal park, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?" And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests. So I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates and gave them the king's letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me. Clearly, there is trust between the king and Nehemiah. What a response after saying, "Here's what I would like," and he says, "How long do you need?" It's like getting a blank check. "I hear what you need, take your time. What's it gonna take for you to do what you wanna do?" There's so much sympathy and willingness to accommodate his cupbearer's desires. And while it's not stated here in this chapter, this ends up being 12 years. 12 years that Nehemiah is gone. It's not, I'll just be gone for a couple weeks, few days, should be back by, it's 12 years that Nehemiah asked to leave before he comes back in the presence of the king. We also see that Nehemiah was prepared for this moment. He knew what it would take. He had clearly given it some thought. And he had a list of things ready to present the king. letters for the governors, letters to get the right timber.

He was ready. This reminds me of being a kid around birthdays or Christmas, especially when I was a little bit older, nine or 10, I figured out how to best, you know, ask my parents for gifts. You guys know, I'm preaching to the choir here. You knew, as I'm sure as a kid, all these things. So a couple of factors. One, you had to wait till your parents were in a good mood. Cannot ask for gifts when they're in a bad mood. That's a recipe for disaster. So you wait till they're in a good mood. You also wait for them to ask if possible. You want them to be interested in the gifts that they're going to give you. And so that way you can kind of be like, oh, you want to give me something? That's so nice of you. Let me tell you what I would like. And then when that opportunity arises, you're ready with the specifics. You're like, this is the SKU number. This is the model number. It's on aisle 10, 50 feet down. It's going to be on your right. It's going to be on the third shelf. I want the big box. You are ready. And I think Nehemiah was ready. He was prepared for this moment. He's like, "Hey, can I go?" "Yes, what do you need?" "Funny you should ask. "I need a letter to here, I need this letter. "I'm gonna need safe travel." He was ready for this moment. And again, the king responds positively. At this point in the story, I'm a fan of King Artaxerxes. He's turned out to be a great ruler. It's not true of all the cases of the rulers that Israel goes up against or is involved with, but in my study this week, I learned that King Artaxerxes was known to be the most remarkable of all the kings for Persia, in Persia's history. He was a gentle and noble spirit, and he had a kingdom of justice. Now, maybe Artaxerxes sanctioned this whole endeavor to ensure that Israel would remain loyal to Persia, if this were to be positive and the city would be rebuilt. From a political standpoint, Jerusalem served as a buffer from other Western nations. But whatever the motivations of the king, it's clear that the king felt comfortable sending Nehemiah, That says a lot. And so far in Nehemiah, we have a bit of a pattern developing here, at least similar responses to hearing about another's misfortune or despairing circumstances. The response is compassion and a desire to help and a broken heart. In chapter one, we saw Nehemiah have that. After hearing about the state of Israel, he has a broken heart and wants to do something. And now in chapter two, the king hears and he has compassion and wants to do something. So just, I love that pattern that's developing here. That's a good response for people to have when we hear something that breaks us. So the king gives him the letters, the time to go back to Jerusalem, and even a military escort.

So this king went above and beyond. But what might be most important in these verses that Nehemiah had come ready before the king. And that's our second point today, which Nehemiah was prepared to make a bold request and trust God with the result. He was actively praying to Yahweh in that conversation as he was asking the king to leave his job, to leave the city, and to rebuild another city of a people that were once captured. Nehemiah makes this bold request and had to trust God with the result. He didn't know what the king was going to say. Even after the initial response was positive, Nehemiah kept asking for more. Again, not knowing, maybe he said yes, but if I ask this, maybe the king is gonna get upset after this. Maybe this is too much to ask. But he was bold, and he trusted God with the response. Nehemiah now has what is needed to make the journey. And so let's read about his next steps in verse 10. It says, "When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites. I went to Jerusalem and after staying there three days, I set out during the night with a few others. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on. By night, I went out through the valley gate toward the jackal well and the dung gate, examining the wells of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. Then I moved on toward the fountain gate in the king's pool, But there was not enough room for my mount to get through. So I went up the valley by night, examining the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered through the valley gate. The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing because as yet, I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work.

So first we see these surrounding nations are not happy with this new movement happening around Jerusalem. And if we're in their shoes, that kind of makes sense. They haven't had to worry about Jerusalem as a threat to them. And so with all of a sudden a military escort and a leader going back to apparently rebuild the city, that's cause for worry and concern for them. But Nehemiah makes this journey to Jerusalem. And this journey could have taken up to four months to take from all the way from Persia to Jerusalem. So no small trek. And again, just as a point of reference, that means that it's been around eight to nine months at the quickest since Nehemiah first heard the news to when he finally arrives in Jerusalem. It's a long time. I think sometimes we read this and we're just like, "Oh, this happened and this happened the next day." But this is almost a year now of this story unfolding in just a few chapters. And again, I remind us of this to say that God works in many different ways, and sometimes it's immediate and sometimes his plan unfolds over a longer period of time. But Nehemiah rests for three days, which makes sense now with such a long journey, he rests up before getting to work. And by verse 15, he's gone all around the city, all throughout it, all the gates, to all the wells. And in those verses, what we get are just scenes of destruction. Walls are down, homes are gone. In some of the places, homes were built into the wall, and so when a whole wall came down, that means no one could live in that section of the city anymore. It's just heartbreaking scene for him, the evidence of what was lost, and the inability of the people so far, even though they've been there for quite a long the inability to restore the city to its former glory. And yet Nehemiah has confidence because he's not alone in this journey. I'm not talking about the military escort.

Point number three is that Nehemiah partners with God in the redemption, the rebuilding, and the restoration of Jerusalem. Despite the discouraging scenes that he walks into, Nehemiah still has confidence because he is with Yahweh, The God who rescued Israel from Egypt, who sustained them in the wilderness, who brought them into the promised land, that is the God that is with him. And he knows that he doesn't have to carry the weight of this plan and this hope on his shoulders alone. He understands that this is God's plan, and if it's gonna happen, it's God who's gonna make it happen. From redeeming the people to rebuilding the city to the restoration of the nation, It is all gonna come from Yahweh. So it's that confidence that leads Nehemiah to say what he says next in verse 17. Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in. "Jerusalem lies in ruins, "and its gates have been burned with fire. "Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, "and we will no longer be in disgrace." I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me, and what the king had said to me. And they replied, "Let us start rebuilding." So they began this good work. But when Sanballit the Horonite, Tobiya the Ammonite officially, oh and the official Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. "What is this you are doing?" they asked. "Why are you rebelling against the king?" And I answered them by saying, "The God of heaven will give us success. "We his servants will start rebuilding. "But as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem "or any claim or historic right to it." Nehemiah shares his observations of the city, as well as the blessing he has from the king and God, and the people are ready. This just shows how God works, where hundreds of miles away in Persia, God had been working on the heart of the king and of Nehemiah to go back, but he's also been working in the hearts of the people who were there in Jerusalem, getting them ready for when that leader that God appointed came, they would be ready to work. And so as Nehemiah shares, "Hey, this is what we're gonna do, let's rebuild," They are on board. The time is now. We also see that these surrounding nations, the leaders are present again, which probably alludes to some shiftyness going on in Jerusalem, maybe some spies, 'cause how else would these other nations have known so quickly about what the plan is? And it just, again, shows the state that this Jerusalem is in it's not in a good place, it's not secure. But those leaders represent the surrounding nations on all sides of Jerusalem. You have Samaria to the north, Ammon to the east, and Arabia to the south. And I would imagine, if I'm Nehemiah, this could be pretty intimidating. You just got into town, the state of the city is very bad, and all of a sudden you have the surrounding leaders of all these nations coming up, giving you flack and trying to intimidate you. What do you do?

Well, point number four is exactly what Nehemiah did. Nehemiah gave a confident response in the face of criticism and confrontation. Nehemiah shows incredible faith and trust in God, not backing down in the midst of opposition, but resting in and taking courage from God being with him, sharing boldly the plan partnered with God to see his people redeemed and the city restored. Nehemiah was confident, not in his own ability, Not in the people that he's looking at, but in God. And he knew, again, that this plan was gonna happen because God wants it to happen, God would make it happen. So, Nehemiah really pushes us forward here in chapter two and helps set the tone for what to expect in the rest of the story.

But I wanna shift now to some personal reflection as we, and ask a few questions as we look back on chapter two. So the first question I have for you today is this. Has God placed you in a strategic position to help others? Before you say no, I don't have any position of influence in my life, I just want you to examine your life for a moment as I ask questions in a couple different areas of your life. So again, has God placed you in a strategic position to help others? What about the friendships that you have? The friendships and inroads that you have with a person that other people may not? Maybe you're the only one who has a voice to influence that one friend who doesn't listen to anyone else, but for some reason, they listen to you. Is God wanting you to use that position in that person's life to help him, to help bring them closer to Jesus? What opportunities do you have at work to help others? Maybe you are manager or you're the boss, and so your influence is pretty straightforward. I have the opportunity to bless a lot of people who work beneath me. Or maybe you are an employee, but the boss really admires how you work, you have great work ethic, and you're able to share the concerns and the desires of the team that you are a part of, and help your team by sharing that with the boss, and say, "Hey, we all would really appreciate this. "Thank you for listening to me." What opportunities do you have with your family? Maybe God's been doing something in your heart, teaching you new things, helping you have more grace, more love, more kindness, more compassion. And you are the one that gets to show those things to that family, to your family, and also teach them how they can show that to others. What opportunities does your financial status give you? Do you have the ability to give financially to those in need? Do you have the opportunity to invest in others and help them realize their passions and dreams? And what opportunities does your influence provide? Are you in a place to be a voice to advocate for people? Are you able to bring people together to rally them, to unify them around a common cause? Again, has God placed you in a strategic position to help others?

And whether you are now or you're waiting, The second question is still for you. Are you prepared to be bold and to trust in God? There are times when you might have a big ask of someone, when you might need to speak up, when you might need to say something, you don't know how it's gonna be received. And that's where preparation comes in. In the waiting, in the meantime, are you doing your due diligence to know what to do when that time comes? What to ask for if that one person asks what you need? What to say if that one person decides to listen? My dad taught me this, I know you're all familiar with this saying when it comes to large requests, but the worst they can say is no. Now for Nehemiah, that might've been a little bit different. I think his life was on the line possibly, if the king was in a bad mood. I don't think that's the case for us in hopefully your spheres of life. No one's, I don't think so. But the boldness that you might have to have might mean crossing some social boundary that you're kind of uncomfortable with. I don't normally ask this, I don't normally feel the freedom to say this, but maybe you need to be bold in a moment, prompted by the Spirit to say that thing or to ask that question. And as we are prepared and ready, we have to still trust God with that response. Maybe that person will say no. Maybe you'll get denied, But we can't control that. That is in God's control. And so we trust that whatever comes after we follow God's prompting, that's exactly what God needed, that's what God wanted.

Third question, where are you partnering with God in his redemptive, rebuilding, and restorative work? This is a prayer of ours right now as a church, church leadership. We're looking for where God might want us to serve our community in new ways. I'm trying to do so with wisdom and with discernment. Obviously as a church, our primary way is by reaching people's hearts, by sharing the gospel and partnering with God in the transformative work of people's hearts. And maybe that's your answer. You're saying, "I'm doing that on my own. "I have conversations with people. "I'm sharing the gospel with friends and family." And praise God for that. But it can also look like other things. Maybe feeding the homeless or helping bring reconciliation to broken relationships around you. Spending time with those who are lonely or lost. Volunteering at your kid's school to be another positive adult influence around those kids. Where are you partnering with God in His work? For a long time, missions was a primary aspect of ministry for me and I've been blessed to go all over the world for missions. What I miss about going overseas is that overseas, it's often easier to recognize that you're partnering with God in his redemptive work, because you're in situations that you probably wouldn't normally find yourself in. Why else would I be eating food that really doesn't agree with me? Or sleeping in a place that is infested with cockroaches, or drinking water that also is not good for me, or being away from family and friends Well, the answer to that is because I'm partnering with God in His kingdom work. But I found that when I would get home, the clarity over time would get hazy with just the everyday grind that we find ourselves in. And so I think it's important to ask this question to remind ourselves, this is how I'm partnering with God in His kingdom work in my day-to-day life.

And then lastly, I wanna ask you, will you be confident to what God has called you to do? Even in the midst of whatever criticism and confrontation you experience, even if those who have power and influence come against you, even if it doesn't make sense to the world and you're maybe offending some people, will you be confident to the work that God has called you to do? Will you remain steadfast to Him as He is perfectly steadfast to you? Whether that means you have something to say out loud or it's all inner resolve, will your heart trust in God that He has called you to a holy purpose and He will give you everything that you need through His Spirit to accomplish that task? Will you be confident to what God has called you to do? Nehemiah did a lot in chapter two. A lot of time has passed and he's modeled so much to us, from leveraging his position to the benefit of others to being prepared to make a bold request and trusting God, to partnering with God in His kingdom work, and to being confident in what God called Him to do. And this story is just getting started. We are very excited where it's going, and we're excited to learn more in chapter three next week.

Would you guys pray with me? God, again, thank you for your word, for these real stories that happened that show us your love and grace and your sovereignty as you work in people's lives for your goal that it takes time sometimes, God. So if we're in a place where we are frustrated, we're anticipating you moving, God, I pray that you would help us to be patient, help us to be ready for when that time or that opportunity comes. And God, I also pray that you would help us to look for opportunities to use whatever influence we may have for your kingdom. Help us to see how we can help others, love others, point people to you. And God, I also pray that you would help us to be confident, not in our own ability, not in our own words, not in anything that has to do with us, but in you, in who you are and what you do. God, help us to take all of our confidence from you and be able to live this life, go about our day with our family, at work, with confidence that we are doing what you want us to do in a way that glorifies you. So empower us this week, encourage us, use us God for your kingdom. We pray this in your name, amen.

Nehemiah - Chapter 1

Nehemiah - Chapter 1: Nehemiah’s Prayer

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I am pumped to be kicking off our Nehemiah series today. Me, Pastor Andre, and I, we've been working on a teaching series and figuring out what was next and how things were coming. We both kind of just stumbled in, I felt like, into this book of Nehemiah, but I feel like every time that I've done planning and prepping and year scheduling and stuff, when we kind of stumble into the sermon series, it's like, "Okay, God's got something for us. God's leading us in this place. God has something He wants for us today and in this series." I'm really excited we're going to kick this off. We're going to be about, I think, 12 weeks or so. We're going to have a break in the middle for a little bit, so we're not going to do all 12 weeks in a row. But this is going to be, I think for us, a really powerful study and book for us as a church and I think individually for us as well. So I'm really looking forward to you. If you're trying to find Nehemiah in your Bible, we just finished Psalms. If you head towards Genesis, a couple books, you'll land right in Nehemiah. Nehemiah is actually a two-part kind of a book where originally Ezra and Nehemiah were included together. These are all written in the same period and same time frame. The first part of the book being Ezra. I don't know if you guys have ever studied through Ezra, but this is a really incredible moment for the Israelite people. They in this time have been in this Babylonian exile. You're looking at around 586 BC, so if you want to get your time charts out, you guys can track exactly where that's at. But the Israelite people have gone through this season of amazing kings. You have King Solomon, King David, King Saul, just this year of reigning and then things just kind of fall apart. And the Babylonian Empire rises up and just basically conquers everything of the known world at that time and takes over everything. And so they march into Jerusalem and they destroy the city, they destroy the temple, they destroy the walls, they destroy everything about Israel and Jerusalem and they take basically everybody captive. They take everybody and they take the brightest of the brightest and they take them back to their main cities. The Babylonian Empire had this huge focus on learning and knowledge and education. And so as they conquered the surrounding nations and people, they would take the brightest of the brightest and bring them to their main capital city and they would just begin to learn and grow and understand all the different cultures and the societies and all their learning and growing with them to become the biggest, the brightest and the best that they could be.

And King Nebuchadnezzar at this point just had full reign of everything. He controlled basically everything in the world at that point. There were other subsidiary kings in different regions, but King Nebuchadnezzar was in charge of everything. And this displacement of the Jewish people was just a heart-wrenching time. I don't think we can fully understand what this would be like, but if you had the place where you were born, your hometown, your love, your family was there, people you grew up with were there, and all of a sudden somebody came in and packed you up and took you to the other side of the globe and said, "You can never go back there again," that would be horrible. It would be a horrible, horrible place to be. And the Israeli people are just so confused. They're like, "God, you brought us out of this slavery in Egypt. You brought us through all this stuff. You brought us into this promised land you said was going to be our place. It's going to be our home. We're going to have prosperity. We're going to have our families here for generations upon generations. This is where we're supposed to be, and yet you've now allowed this empire to take us away." Well, the Babylonian Empire eventually falls to the next biggest and best, and that's the Persian Empire. And they take over, and we have this King Cyrus the Great who comes in and conquers Babylon, and so now you just get passed off to the next king. But something special was happening here. Shortly after the Persian Empire takes over, God prompts the King Cyrus to issue a decree to allow everybody who had been captured in the Babylonian Empire to have free travel to go home to wherever home was at some point. And I find this pretty interesting, because God moves the heart of someone who does not have a heart after God.

This gives us a little glimpse of who God is. It doesn't matter who's in charge. It doesn't matter who the top dog is, who holds the throne, who is the one in the big house. It doesn't matter who is there or what's going on. God is still sovereign above all. Amen? I want us to hear this this morning, because I feel like even in America right now there's a heaviness on the nation. I don't care what side of the aisle you're on. There's a heaviness right now. And we're looking at what would be doomsday come November. I wasn't going to go here this morning. Holy Spirit's leading me, okay? We look at this doomsday of if this person, it's all gone. If this person, it's all gone too. And we've got the third guy out there. I don't know what his deal is. And we look at that and go, like, if my person doesn't get in there, it's over. We might as well pack up our bags. Jesus, come now. Still a prayer of my heart. Because it's always better when God's in control, right? Always better in heaven than it is down here. But God still has us down here. God still has us down here to love people, to care for people, to be there for people.

But King Cyrus is moved by the heart of God and issues a decree that people can go home. And so this fulfills a promise, a proclamation, a prophecy that Jeremiah said, that even though my people will scatter, they will come home. And it's after a guy has no heart for God, moves for God. And so this guy by the name of Zerubbabel, say that 12 times past, Mr. Z, Papa Z, we'll call him Papa Z. Papa Z says, we can go home. So he grabs a group of people, packs them up on their camels, their donkeys, dusts off their sandals, and they start trekking home. Going home to find only Jesus knows what Jerusalem is like. And so they get there and they have this incredible moment of God's faithfulness being blessed upon them to rebuild the temple. They get back to Jerusalem and it's in ruins. And begins to mark this amazing moment as the post-exilic period in our Bibles. And this is around 539 BC. So if you do the math there, you're looking at about 80 years or so of exile. So the people who have grown up that are the second generation have only heard of this mythical place called Jerusalem. Their parents, their grandparents, maybe their great-grandparents have shared with them of this place where God had this temple. And he came down and he dwelled among us and we had worship in God's presence. We had community with God Almighty. Our Yahweh was with us at all times. They've gone a whole generation without being able to experience this. And so the homecoming that is happening here is just marvelous. Their home. And they rebuild the temple and everything seems to be going great. They're trying to begin to find the old scriptures that were there in Jerusalem and begin to read God's word and begin to fall in line to follow God's law. And they think everything is going great. They got the temple rebuilt, but something just isn't right. Something's missing. God hasn't come back down to dwell in the temple like he did before and the people are confused. We thought we'd follow these laws and check the boxes like God was going to show up. And yet God's not showing up like they had taught.

So we move about a decade or so later and you have this guy Ezra who comes on the scene. He's in exile in Babylon and he hears that he can go back to Jerusalem as well. And so he grabs a group of people and this is kind of that second wave of coming back in Jerusalem and they show up and they think, "You guys have been here for a couple, like 10, 20, 30 years. You've done it. You fixed everything." And they show up and then they realize everything's not good. The city's still in disarray. Yeah, the temple's built, but it's not working. People are living in the way that they've learned being in exile and they're worshiping other gods and they're being deceitful with each other and there's this selfishness and this pride that just kind of lures over the people and something just isn't right. And so Ezra tries to bring in more laws and more strictness going, "Okay, if we just follow more laws, everything will be right." But we know what's wrong is the heart of the Israelite people. No matter how many laws were forced on them, no matter how many decrees from the leaders, no matter how strict they were with their code of conduct and their lifestyles, there was still something missing. And so we come on to the scene here now a little bit. Even after that, the temple's been rebuilt, Jerusalem is kind of functioning, but it still just isn't where it needs to be. The social and spiritual renewal about the people is not happening in Jerusalem like they thought. Still a disaster.

And so we come on to Nehemiah chapter one and we find out about this guy who has this incredible heart for the Israelite people. It says in Nehemiah chapter one, "The words of Nehemiah, son of Hakaliah, 'In the month of Kislev in the twelfth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, Hanani, one of my brothers came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile and also about Jerusalem. They said to me, 'Those who survived the exile are back in the province and in great trouble and disgrace.' The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burned with fire." Nehemiah is an Israelite living in exile and he's serving as the cupbearer to King Arxazerxes I of Persia. This is about 445 BC that Nehemiah has some family come to town who have been living in Jerusalem and have been in that region and he gets his visit from his brother and he's just so excited. Nehemiah asks about Jerusalem and he's like, "Hey, the people are back, they're living in Jerusalem, how amazing is that? What's going on in the city? How's it going? How's everyone doing? Is it amazing or what? You guys are back there, the promised land, the land of milk and honey, you've got the temple. Oh man, I can only imagine how amazing it is to live in Jerusalem and to be back there. Tell me all about it." Womp, womp. Not the news that he was hoping to hear, right? All these years of being forced out of their homeland, all these years where their beloved city lying in ruins, all these hopes and these dreams and these prophecies and holding on to God's word and His promise and His covenant word that we will go back someday and they're back and yet it's not what they had hoped and dreamed. Turns out what's really going on is pretty grim. The people are in great trouble, disgrace, the walls of Jerusalem are broken, the gates are burned. Yes, the temple's built, however the rest of the city is just a hot mess. It's run down, it's all broken, it's all messed up still. So Nehemiah responds, verse four, "When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days, days, I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven." Nehemiah hears the news and he's deeply distressed. He weeps, he mourns, he fasts, he prays, not just, "Oh, that's a bummer. God help Jerusalem." He goes on with his day. Days. He weeps over the brokenness of his family. His heart just sinks hearing the news of what's happening. See Jerusalem represents the spiritual identity of who the Israelite people were because God dwelled there and yet it's in shambles. Not only is it messed up without the protection of the wall and the gate and the city being built up, they're vulnerable to attack. And I can imagine Nehemiah saying, "We're going to get in captivity again. It's only going to be a matter of time before some army marches by and goes, 'That looks pretty sad. We can take that over in an hour.'" And Nehemiah's like, "God, don't let this happen again. We just lived through this. The generation of being scattered and under the control of other people and oppression and not being able to worship, not being able to praise you, not being able to live the life that you have called us to God under the oppressive control, it's going to happen again.”

So what does Nehemiah do? He goes before God. He prays. This is his prayer. "Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his coven of love with those who love him and keep his commandments. Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's family, have committed against you. I have acted most wickedly towards you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees, and laws you gave your servant Moses. Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me and obey my commands, even then, if your exiled people are at the farthest horizons, the edge of the earth, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my name. They are your servants and your people whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.'" Nehemiah has this incredible heartfelt confession for the sins of Israel, acknowledging that their disobedience to God has led them to their current plight. He reminds God of his promise though, reminds God of his promise to gather his people if they return to him. He then asked God for a favor as he prepares to approach King Cyrus with a request to go back and to rebuild Jerusalem. This is the heart of Nehemiah. And this is going to set the tone for this entire study and this entire book because this introductory chapter highlights his deep concern that Nehemiah has for his family, his people. And at the same time, this incredible foundational faith and reliance on prayer is the very first step in addressing this crisis. See, I believe Nehemiah shows us that there's power of prayer in times of crisis.

I don't know if you guys have ever been in a place like that where literally all you can do is pray to God. There's no decision you can make. There's no person you can call. There's nobody that can fix it. There's nobody that can rescue you. There's nobody that can redeem you from the situation that you are in. Not your spouse, not your parents, not your best friend, not any political figure, no lawyer or attorney, no, no, nobody can fix what is happening or where you're at in life. And the only thing you can do is turn to prayer. And I want us to see here that this wasn't a last result of Nehemiah. Nehemiah didn't go, "Well, I guess the only thing I can do is pray. Nothing else I can do." I think sometimes we live like that, right? We try everything we can to fix it. And if that doesn't work, well, I guess I might as well call on God. Might as well bring the big man into the conversation. Nehemiah sees prayer as the first power move in this situation. Prayer should be our first action, not our last act of result. His immediate reaction to the distressing news, he turns to God in prayer. This focus and dependence on God of going first to prayer is who Nehemiah is. That's who this man of God is. The character of Nehemiah. This is actually the first of nine core prayers we're going to read about in this entire book. That this wasn't the first time that Nehemiah just turned to prayer and then he got the green light and he packed his bag and hopped on the camel and headed to Jerusalem and then he got there and he said, "All right, God, I got that from here. Thanks, man. Appreciate the ticket to Jerusalem. I'll take it from here.”

Nehemiah continually goes back to God as his first offense, his first defense against what's going on in the situation. Nehemiah is a man of prayer. And his prayer includes four key elements that I see for us. You guys may have heard this before, but his prayer includes adoration. It includes confession. It includes thanksgiving. It includes supplication. This deep reliance on God and his mercy and guidance. What is this? You probably may have heard praying the acts, A-C-T-S. A, adoration. This involves praising God's nature, who he is, which actually in turn boosts our confidence in prayer. He prays, "Great and awesome God. You are our God who keeps covenant. You are God who is loving. You are God who is near to the heart of your people." He then goes into confession. This requires us acknowledging our sins with humility and this fosters an intimacy with God. I confess the sins of Israel. I confess the sins of myself. I confess the sins of my father's family who have acted wickedly and have not obeyed. Nehemiah's prayer includes thanksgiving. And this involves recalling how God has moved. Recalling God's past faithfulness, which in turn provides hope for our future. God, if you did this before, I know you can do this again. God, I remember when you did this back here. And when I thought there was no way out, you provided a way out. God, I know you can do it again. Nehemiah prays and he says, "Remember Moses. How God, you moved and saved us from Egypt. You are a great and you are an awesome God and I know you can do this again." Nehemiah's prayer includes supplication. And this is where we present our request to God, viewing obstacles in light of his power. Do you notice here, the last part of the prayer is when we actually ask God for something. This is a model of prayer we see in scripture that kind of puts us in our place, right? We struggle in life because we want to become God's ourself, right? We want to be in control. We want to be the one making the calls. We want to be the one handling everything. And when we pray like Nehemiah prayed with the axe, it puts us in our place, which is not first, but last. God is first. He is mighty. He asked God, "Bring your people back." And then he asked for favor for himself. Give me favor. Give me success. Grant me with the hope to be ability to return home as I go before the king.

Nehemiah was a cupbearer and so he knew the king pretty well. A cupbearer would have to taste all food and drink before the king ate it to make sure it was safe and it wasn't poisoned. And the king wouldn't get killed. That's how you would assassinate a king. You would poison the food as a quick way to take him out. They didn't have any other means of taking out leaders and so they would do that. And so a cupbearer would be one that would put his life on the line every time he'd take a bite of food. He never knew that that might be his last bite of food. And so the king at some point understands that this cupbearer is putting his life on the line and begins to develop a relationship with this king. And yet he still knew that the king was king and going before a king and making a request, it wasn't guaranteed that you were going to have this granted. I'd say 60-70% of the time you were killed because the king didn't like what you asked for and they would just, he would take you out. And Nehemiah is probably thinking, "Well, I'm on the line anytime eating dinner every time with this king. I might as well make my request to him because if I got taken out, I get taken out. But at least I went down swinging, right?" And so Nehemiah goes to the king and he's like, "Hey, can I go back? My people are hurting. The city is a mess. I want to help fix and restore what God blessed us with. Can I go back?”

Prayer is a vital means for finding guidance, expressing concerns, and seeking God's intervention in our lives. Nehemiah has this deep faith that God's response is evident in his prayer. Nehemiah has faith that this is going to happen even before it happens, even before he prays. He believes that God is a God who is faithful. God is a one who can respond and that God is one who is hearing us. Sometimes when we pray, we just feel like nobody's listening. I've been there. Even as a pastor, sometimes I pray for things and it's just, "God, are you there? Do you hear?" But Nehemiah has this faith that is unbelievable, knowing that it's going to happen no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in. God is faithful, right? Crisis or blessing, God's faithful. Hard or great times, God is faithful. When we are struggling or success, God is faithful. And this is a true core character of who God is, that God is faithful to his promises and covenant. Nehemiah references this in his prayer. If the people return to him, that he is faithful to return them to their home, to take them to their rightful place on earth that God promised to them years and years and years and years before this. I can only imagine how hard captivity must have been for Nehemiah, considering where scholars think his age was. He was born into captivity. Nehemiah wasn't one that was taken from Jerusalem back to Babylon during the Babylonian Empire, but he was actually born into captivity. So his whole life, this is all that he knows. He's heard the stories. He's heard the faithfulness of God, but he's never experienced it. And yet he has this faithful foundation in him, which I think is a testament to when we begin to learn and grow in who God is, he instills within us a faithfulness that can only come from him. A faithfulness that can only be found in God, that it can't come from knowledge. It can't come from experience. Nehemiah didn't have any experience, but it was a supernatural foundational faith that was placed in Nehemiah for this moment, for this time. They believe that this, even though exile seemed like forever, was not going to be forever. They were holding onto this hope that God is a faithful God. They remembered how God had moved and they knew that God was going to move again. This emphasizes a significance on holding onto God's promises and trusting in his faithfulness. How good are we at that? How good are we to hold onto the faithfulness of God when it seems like it's all falling apart around us?

God was right there in the presence with Nehemiah, even as he was enslaved in Susa. And he believed God was a faithful God and was going to restore the people. Nehemiah's prayer also reflects an understanding that God's desires for his people is to live in obedience with him. We too are called to holiness and obedience. This was a core piece of Nehemiah's prayer. And I think it's something that we kind of like to just step over a little bit, because this is a hard part of the prayer, right? God, rescue me. God, save me. God, give me favor. You're a great God. I love you, God. Thank you for everything you do. You're hearing me, God. I know you're listening. You're right there. And I'm sorry for what I did. Sometimes we like to skirt this one, because this is when we have to get vulnerable, right? This is when we have to admit that we haven't done it all right, that we've messed up, that there's a responsibility on our part that we haven't lived up to what the calling is for God in our life, which is holiness and obedience. Scripture tells us to be holy as God is holy. But I think we kind of like to put that one over here and just look at it every now and then when we're feeling really good about ourselves, right? Like, man, I'm killing it right now. I'm in God's word. I'm worshiping. I'm praying real good. Oh, yeah, God, I'm being holy, man. And then those times when we're struggling, we're not in God's word. We're not praying. We're not having the faith. And we look over, yeah, you know, that calling to be holy, that's for that guy over there, and that's not for me. But Nehemiah understood this, that the broken state of Jerusalem was directly tied to the people's past disobedience. There's a whole buildup to this.

This wasn't a situation where the Israeli people like messed up one day and God wakes up and he's a vengeful God and just like, "You're cursed." We see from the fall in the garden in Genesis, time and time again, God going, "Come to me. I love you. I want you to be with me." They live for a little bit, they mess up, start wandering off. God goes, "Come on, guys. Come on back. I love you. I want you to live like this. This is how you're supposed to care for one another. This is the love that I have for you. I want you to be seen in your community." And they do it, and it's great. And all of a sudden, they just start wandering over. Bring them back. It's just time and time again, you read in the scripture and God finally gets to the point where he's like, "I just, there's nothing I can do." You got to learn. As a parent, gotten there, right? Guys, don't do that. Don't touch the stove. Don't touch the stove. Don't, don't. That's hot. Stay away. Don't do that. Be careful. I tried to tell you. God does it in such a more loving and caring way than I would as a parent, right? But God's like, "You guys haven't lived in the way that I asked you to." And yet what? In that place of captivity, God moves the heart of a king, of a heart that's far from God to step into a moment of restoration. And we have to remember that yes, as loving and caring and gracious as God is, you can't have that loving, caring grace, mercy without justice, without God holding his people accountable to their actions. His righteousness cannot overlook sin. We must address it in accordance with his holy nature. And Nehemiah's focus here on repentance, he understands the key and holiness is to how we receive God's blessing and favor in our life. We like to live life this way, right? God, if you do this, then I'll do this. God, if you just get me out of this situation, you fix this thing in my life, I'll know you're real and then I'm in church every single Sunday till I see you in heaven. Promise. God can move that way, but that's not truly how it works. God desires our heart and obedience first, and then we're able to step into this relationship with him. That is phenomenal. Repentance opens us up to the holiness of God. Nehemiah demonstrated that God's compassion opens us to restoring those who genuinely repent and seek his grace. God is a faithful God that when we say, "I'm sorry," when we own up to what we've done, God acts and God moves in ways, in greater ways than we could ever experience or dream or imagine. But the obedience is required of us to step into that holiness. We're going to get more into Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the wall and his story and his struggles and his victory and his shortcomings in these weeks, but God stirs in Nehemiah to go back and to build Jerusalem. I mean, it was only in Nehemiah's obedience himself and seeking God's righteousness is Nehemiah's true calling revealed. He wasn't called to just be a cupbearer forever. God had a greater purpose in calling for him, and I truly believe that God has a greater purpose in calling for us as well.

But this leads us to three questions I want us to take away from today. The first of which is, how do you typically respond to challenges or crises in your life? Nehemiah's immediate action was prayer and seeking God's guidance. How might you incorporate prayer and dependence on God in your response when facing difficult or important decisions?

Two, how can you strengthen your trust in God's promises and his faithfulness? Nehemiah was rock solid locked in on God's promises and his covenant. There was nothing that was going to shake that from him. That was a foundational truth to who Nehemiah was. What steps might you be able to take to deepen your understanding and trust in God's promises for your life? And how can you remind yourself daily on how to live in the holiness that God has called you to?

And then the final question, which is going to lead us into a time of communion this morning, that what areas in your life or community do you need to acknowledge and repent from sin? None of us are perfect in this room. Not myself, not Pastor Andre. None of us have arrived to this place of perfection so that's where we get to be the guys up front talking or the gals up here. No, we're all figuring it out. We're all walking this path. We're all having to daily surrender who we are and what our natural selfish tendencies are to the will and the obedience of God's holiness. Nehemiah prays this incredible prayer asking for forgiveness for himself, but also for his family, his parents, generations before. When are we praying that prayer? I don't know, maybe sometimes it's easier to pray for other people for their forgiveness. "Ah, you know that guy? Oh, Jesus, he needs your forgiveness, Lord." We're sitting there and God's going, "What about you, pal?" Where do we need to surrender?

Because it's in that surrender we find the purpose and calling for God's plan for our life. Not our plan. Not what we want to do, but God's plan, right? What breaks your heart for God? What do you hear about and it just, your heart sinks? Maybe it's, we had Pastor Vivek up here, missionary to India. They're leaving, I think, next week. Got their tickets, they're headed back to India. But they're walking into a world that they have no idea what's going to happen. It's getting hostile in India for Christians. But Vivek is stepping forward in faith of the calling that God has for him. What breaks your heart for God's kingdom?