February 9, 2025 • 52 mins
Pastor Kelly Kinder launches The Passion Project by bringing the book of Nehemiah into vivid focus. In a down-to-earth way, Kelly starts with a humorous story about teaching teenagers to drive—an experience that reveals how unexpected mishaps can shift our perspective. This becomes a springboard into Nehemiah’s remarkable task of rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls after decades of exile. At a time when God’s people felt broken and ashamed, Nehemiah chose prayer and unwavering trust in God’s promises to guide his actions.
Kelly underscores that Nehemiah’s path teaches several core lessons. Leadership matters, not as a quest for personal glory but as a means to rally others toward God’s purposes. Unity among God’s people carries remarkable strength—something clearly displayed when Jerusalem’s ruined walls were restored in a mere 52 days. Facing opposition is inevitable; Nehemiah encountered skeptics and enemies committed to thwarting his progress. Nevertheless, his resolve never wavered because he continually sought God’s guidance. Through it all, the pursuit of holiness remains essential: true restoration cannot happen without acknowledging sin and aligning life with God’s standards.
A highlight of Nehemiah’s journey is his poignant prayer in the first chapter. Kelly draws attention to seven distinct elements within it, each one underscoring an aspect of dependence on the Lord. Nehemiah starts by acknowledging God’s greatness, then pleads for a listening ear, confesses wrongdoing, and leans on divine promises. He recognizes that the people belong to God, asks boldly for favor, and stays watchful for the door God might open to act on his burden. Kelly shows how this prayer resonates for modern believers: even if the context differs, the same principles of humility, confession, and hope in God’s faithfulness apply.
The message also challenges us to remember that prayer is not passive. Nehemiah’s reverence for God ignites him to rebuild and rally those around him. Kelly relates this ancient example to present-day faith struggles, suggesting that God remains ready to heal broken walls—whether in relationships, communities, or within our own hearts. As The Passion Project kicks off, the call is clear: combine steadfast prayer with passionate dedication to see God transform ruins into places of renewed life. By looking to Nehemiah’s story, we glean practical wisdom for confronting challenges, trusting in God’s power, and stepping boldly into divine opportunities.
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Episode Transcript
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Kelly Kinder (00:04):
Well, I'm glad to be here, glad you guys are
online, and I'm just so thankfulto get to share the Word of God
and open up the series thatwe're going to be doing in
Nehemiah.
Hope you're ready for it, areyou?
It's going to be good.
I believe we're excited.
You know, a number of years ago, in our sort of our parenting
teens to drive years, which wasan experience our kids also had
(00:25):
friends who were learning todrive.
And you know, if you're a wiseparent, you are and this is for
parents who are in this seasonif you're a wise parent, you
will pick out a car that is safebut has all kinds of it's not a
very nice looking car, maybeit's because you're expected to
have some scrapes and bumps andscratches on your car.
(00:46):
But, as I said, our kids theyhad friends who were learning to
drive too, and at our house,getting in and out of the
driveway, it was a prettystraightforward process.
We live at the top of a hillbut right in between our house
and the house down below us itis a massive wall, a concrete
block wall that runs from thefront of our house to the back,
(01:10):
and in one day, after the kids'friends were leaving.
They went out of the house, gotin the car and they drove out
of the driveway.
And I walked out the door justin time in horror to see that
person hit the wall and theyknocked out a few of the
concrete blocks out of the wall.
(01:31):
And I was just like what?
Because it would not have beengood if that wall had fallen
down, and so I didn't do toomuch with the wall in terms of
repairs that day, but I wasthinking, boy, this could be bad
.
And a couple of months later ithappened again, and this time
with a different teenage friend.
(01:51):
He backs out of the drivewayand this time three more feet of
that wall got knocked over intothe neighbor's yard.
And I went out and picked upthe box and I thought, oh my, I
can't wait anymore, I've got tofix this wall.
And you know how they say,there's that saying bad things
happen in threes.
Yeah, before I could do therepair, another friend had come
(02:15):
over, a different friend, and Iwatched in horror as this friend
backed out and knocking eightmore feet of that stupid wall
out of place.
And this time the car hadactually turned sideways and
part of it was the front partwas up on our driveway, the rear
(02:36):
of the car was in theneighbor's yard and the car
itself was sitting on top of theblock wall.
Well, the tow truck drivercomes in with his tow truck and
he's scratching his head andhe's looking at me and he says I
really don't know what to do toget this car off here.
I've never seen this before.
Well, eventually the car getsremoved and I spent the whole
(03:02):
summer rebuilding the wall inthe blazing sun.
So this kind of leads us intoour series this morning, because
this morning we begin this newseries.
In the message in the OldTestament book of Nehemiah,
nehemiah is the story ofrebuilding of the walls in
Jerusalem which took place inthe fifth century before Christ.
(03:23):
And you're maybe sitting therethinking very exciting stuff the
walls in Jerusalem which tookplace in the fifth century
before Christ.
And you're maybe sitting therethinking very exciting stuff
what in the world does this haveto do with my life, where I am
right now?
Well, I want to sort ofconvince you it's worth your
time and encourage you to be apart of this series, because
Nehemiah also, he speaks to anongoing reality in our own lives
(03:45):
and that reality is that all ofus have seasons in our lives
where we need to rebuild what'sbeen broken and what's fallen
apart, and I know many of youare going through something even
today.
Something has been broken inyour life, something that has
fallen apart, something youexpected to be different than it
is right now.
(04:06):
And so, as we walk through thisbook together, my hope is that
you will find hope and you'll beencouraged in what God can do
and what God wants to do in yourlife to rebuild what is maybe
the enemy has taken from you.
And so we want to do this, sothat we can not only be strong
as believers, we want to advancethe kingdom in the world.
(04:27):
And so let want to do this, sothat we can not only be strong
as believers, we want to advancethe kingdom in the world.
And so let's pray that Godwould open up our minds and
hearts this morning, and justpray with me.
Father, we're so grateful forthe time today.
We know your word is powerful,it speaks to us and changes us,
and what you send out, itdoesn't return void, lord, it
has power to transform us, andso we pray, spirit of God, that
(04:47):
you would blow on your wordtoday, open our hearts and our
ears and our minds that we'dunderstand what you have to say
to us today and just change us,transform us.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
So I was just thinking aboutthis title what is passion?
Our series is called thePassion Project.
(05:09):
What is passion?
Passion is what you desire themost and are willing to do with
your whole being, whatever it is, to get it done, to get it in
place.
Passion is directly tied towhat you love, directly tied to
what you love.
Passion, you see, was theimpetus for 12 ordinary men to
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turn the world upside down toshare the gospel of Jesus.
Passion was what brought Paulto allow himself to go through
what he did.
He went through shipwrecks andstorms and beatings and
imprisonments for the gospel'ssake.
Passion is what took Jesus tothe cross, for your sake and my
sake, and it's what made himlove us to the end.
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Passion is important.
Passion can turn mediocrityinto greatness, darkness into
light, emptiness into creativevision, failure into success,
and apathy and indifference intoproductive power.
Passion is greater than talent,more vital than education.
Our passions expose our eternaltrajectory.
(06:16):
When our heart is broken ormisaligned with God's purposes,
we sometimes say don't we.
I've lost my passion, butpassion isn't tied to your
emotions.
Really, Passion is the divinespark that remains when your
wood is wet.
It keeps us going, and whatwe're going to see in this
series is how God-given passioncan result in accomplishing
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great things for God.
God wants to do something greatin all of us, and he's going to
do that as we allow Jesus to doHis work in us.
Before we look into the book,though, I want to just kind of
observe this kind of step backand look some kind of the whole
thing a little bit and kind ofgive us some context before we
go forward.
(07:00):
And we'll get into chapter onetoday, but it'll kind of be at
the end, and so first let's justset the scene in terms of the
background and in some contextand, by the way, there's a whole
lot to absorb here in terms ofthe history but I'm going to try
to kind of corral this all forus so we can kind of get a good
idea of what's going on here.
Let's set the scene.
(07:20):
The Bible tells us that,leading up to this period and
for at least 150 years, god'speople had rebelled against God.
They had done what God had toldthem not to do, and they had
refused to listen to Him.
They had rebelled, they hadbeen involved in idolatry, and
God sent prophet after prophetafter prophet to warn them to
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return to Him, but to no avail.
And so in 586, god, his patienceends and he uses a pagan nation
and a pagan king namedNebuchadnezzar to come in and
bring essentially, judgment onthe nation, god's people, for
their sins.
And so King Nebuchadnezzar andhis army, they come in and they
(08:06):
literally burn the city ofJerusalem to the ground, and the
result is that they take andcarry away God's people into
captivity and exile to Babylon,modern day Iran, or Iran, if you
pronounce it that way.
But what's interesting, priorto their departure and this is
the heart of God, I think, andyou think about their
(08:29):
discouragement in this prior totheir departure, jeremiah the
prophet he sort of predicts theoutcome of this sad period in
the life of this nation.
And in Jeremiah 29, 10, and 11,he holds out this promise of
hope.
And you know, this is what Goddoes Whenever you're in a bad
place, god always holds out apromise of hope to you.
(08:51):
And here's what Jeremiah saysin Jeremiah 29, 10, and 11.
For thus says the Lord, when 70years are completed for Babylon
, I will visit you and I willfulfill to you my promise and
bring youben quoted this morning, for I know the plans I have
(09:11):
for you declares the Lord plansfor welfare and not for evil, to
give you a future and a hope.
You know, when you see thesethings Eben quoting what he
quoted and what God, I thinkGod's doing something.
He wants us to hear it thismorning.
You know, in one of the mostamazing I guess a miracle,
amazing turn of events storiesin the Old Testament though, god
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moves upon the heart of adifferent pagan king 70, well,
not quite 70 years, but a numberof decades later, a man named
Cyrus, cyrus the Great Cyrus,the Second who had come to power
after Nebuchadnezzar.
King Cyrus issues this royaldecree to allow the Jews the
(09:55):
freedom to come back to theirhomeland, to come back home.
And so the biblical text is sosignificant.
I just want to read it to youbecause I think it's really
encouraging what he says here.
Cyrus speaks this in Ezra 1,verses 1-4.
In the first year of King Cyrusof Persia, in order to fulfill
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the Lord's message spokenthrough Jeremiah, the Lord
stirred the mind of King Cyrusof Persia Remember, he's a pagan
king stirred the mind of KingCyrus of Persia Remember, he's a
pagan king.
He disseminated a proclamationthroughout his entire kingdom,
announcing in a written edictthe following thus says the king
Cyrus of Persia the Lord, godof heaven, has given me all the
(10:37):
kingdoms of the earth.
He has instructed me to build atemple for him in Jerusalem,
which is in Judah.
Anyone from his people amongyou may his God be with him may
go up to Jerusalem, which is inJudah, and may build the temple
of the Lord, god of Israel.
He is the God who is inJerusalem.
(10:58):
Anyone who survives in any ofthose places where he is a
resident foreigner must behelped by his neighbors with
silver to go back home, and heeven pays for it.
What a miracle, so amazing.
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You know.
In that passage, cyrus callsthese people survivors.
Are you a survivor this morning?
See, only a remnant, though,would end up taking Cyrus up on
his offer to come back home, toreturn, and so, over the next
100 years or so, this remnant,god's survivors, would come back
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and settle in the land again,and this happened in three waves
, if you might say over 100years.
The first return is under a guynamed Zerubbabel and Joshua,
the high priest.
It resulted in what?
In the rebuilding of the templeitself.
That's found, if you want toread it, in Ezra 1, verses 1-6,
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chapter 6, verse 22.
A second way comes back about50 years later and this time
under Ezra.
Ezra was a priest and scribeand he is a leader in that
restoration back to the land 50years later, and you can read
about that in Ezra 7 through 10.
He is a restorer of the word ofGod to the people because they
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had lost the law and the word ofGod.
And the final return that we'retalking about here in this book
it occurs under Nehemiah, abouta decade later, and Nehemiah is
called for this purpose torebuild the city walls and the
city gates.
You say, why is that important?
Because ultimately, ezra andNehemiah together would lead
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efforts to bring God's peopleback to a revival, a spiritual
restoration, by doing what Godhad called them to do.
And let me just say, if you'rereading this, I would just
encourage you to read both Ezraand Nehemiah, because in the
original, ezra and Nehemiah wasactually one single book in the
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Hebrew.
It wasn't until the Middle Agesthat they split them, and so
you get a lot of context byreading the book of Ezra, just
to help you there.
Well, let's meet the governor.
The governor, the man behind thewall, nehemiah, eventually
takes that position, but it saysin chapter 1, verse 1, the
words of this book, he says, arethe words of Nehemiah the son
(13:39):
of Hacaliah.
Say that three times fastHacaliah, hacaliah.
The words of Nehemiah the sonof Hacaliah.
Say that three times fastHakaliah, hakaliah.
The words of Nehemiah the sonof Hakaliah.
Nehemiah's name means what itmeans God comforts, and it's
appropriate because these peoplewere needing comforting,
because they lost a lot.
He helps restore for them thisremnant that has been lost in
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the exile.
And, by the way, when you thinkof exile, the exile was, of
course, in that period.
But exile really has to do insymbolic way about being
separated from God.
We all can at times in our lifebecome separated from God.
He was a son of Hakalia, whichmeans wait on God.
(14:21):
So this name also sheds lighton this book, as he consistently
, they consistently, look to Godto fulfill their calling
Nehemiah as well.
So much of this book fromNehemiah is really his personal
memoir.
It's like a, if you want to say, a prayer diary, spiritual
diary of sorts.
It's his own words in manyplaces, but he is an amazingly
(14:44):
capable leader.
This is a great book forleadership.
He's a person we could say whowas and I just put a few of
these humble, visionary, bold,courageous, faithful, selfless
and resilient.
As one commentator said, he iswilling to give up the luxury
and ease of the palace to helphis people.
He is a man who has the rightpriorities and is concerned for
(15:07):
God's work, who is able toencourage and rebuke at the
right times, who is strong inprayer and who gives all glory
and credit to God.
Sounds a little bit likesomeone else and his name is
Jesus.
Jesus.
We see him in his ministry ofrestoration, in Nehemiah,
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because Nehemiah comes with aspecific mission.
He finished the work he came todo, and he all the while being
totally dependent on God.
That's our Lord.
So let's go on now to let mepoint out to you four what I
could just say, four lessons.
I pulled these from the book.
Four lessons, key lessons fromthe book that I want to share
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with you.
Number one is leadership iscrucial.
Leadership is crucial.
You know, everything rises andfalls on leadership, and so this
book, as many people have.
They've used it as a leadershipbook because it has so many
great principles on how to lead.
And you know leadership, if youthink about a definition, for
the best one I've ever heard isleadership is influence.
(16:12):
Leadership is influence, and sothat makes every one of us
leaders, because, guess what?
You influence someone else,whether you're a parent, whether
you're a student, whetheryou're a teacher, whether you're
an employer or employee.
You influence someone becauseGod gives you the ability and
capability to influence people.
For the kingdom, leadership iscrucial.
(16:33):
And so here's the thing aboutNehemiah though he didn't do
this by himself.
Great and godly leaders don'twork alone, and we find this in
Nehemiah in a very real sense.
He is this great leader, and soanyone who follows him can
learn these lessons.
It's a book about leadership.
Number two unity is powerful.
Unity is powerful.
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This book shows us howimportant it is for us all to
work together for the sake ofthe kingdom to accomplish God's
purposes.
Nehemiah he really justchallenges his countrymen to
arise and rebuild what's beenshattered.
Don't you look around in ournation and see all the stuff
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that's kind of been broken?
So we can look at this on abroader scale, and then we can
look at this in our own personallives of things that's been
broken and, what's amazing, hedoes this task of rebuilding the
wall in 52 days.
52 days A feat.
Even the remnant of Israel.
(17:34):
They look around and they haveto attribute this work to God.
Only God could do that.
By contrast, the task ofgetting the people back to where
they needed to be it took well,really beyond the whole book of
Nehemiah.
Because we're a work inprogress, aren't we folks?
We're a work in progress and itdemands the best of Nehemiah
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and the people he led.
Number three opposition iscertain.
Everywhere, from Ezra, allthrough the book of Nehemiah.
They don't do this without,just like it's a breeze.
All through the book, we seeopposition occurring.
Nothing is easy when we attemptto do things for God to advance
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God's kingdom.
That's because, why?
Because we have the forces ofdarkness arrayed against us, the
invisible warfare that weexperience because we have an
enemy of darkness arrayedagainst us.
The invisible warfare that weexperience because we have an
enemy who wants to do in anddestroy what God wants to do in
God's people and, ultimately,against God.
And so Nehemiah and the peopleexperience this great opposition
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, just like we will.
Nothing is easy.
When we do it for God, wealways have pushback.
When the Apostle Paul came tominister in Ephesus he said
there's a wide door for a greatwork here, although many oppose
me.
And I believe there's kind of adirect correlation between the
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level of threat we pose to thatenemy and maybe the pushback
that we get.
So it makes you wonder, withall the stuff going on, maybe
God's doing something reallygood.
We're invading maybe theenemy's kingdom and we should
just keep going.
We should just keep going.
You know it makes me.
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I was watching a video a few anumber of weeks ago and I was.
You know, it makes me.
I was watching a video a few anumber of weeks ago and I was.
You know.
I don't know why I like bees.
Well, I could tell you anotherstory about that.
But I was watching this pestcontrol guy who had come out at
a request of a neighbor to thehouse and there was this massive
I mean it was like three orfour foot long hornet's nest on
the side of the building there,and so this pest control guy got
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up on the ladder and he had hissmoker machine.
Of course he's all decked out,head to toe covered so he would
not get stung.
And he starts pulling out hissmoker and poking this hornet's
nest and, as you would imagine,man, those hornets came out of
their house just like crazy.
And in this way it's the samething when we poke the enemy's
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place of domain, his domain youcan guarantee we're going to get
some pushback.
But that's not always a badthing, because God is with us.
We're not alone, just like wasshared this morning.
God is with us, god is with us.
We're not alone, just like wasshared this morning.
God is with us, god is with us.
Let's keep on.
Jesus reminds us that a servantis not greater than his master.
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If they persecuted me, theywill persecute you too.
But take heart, I've overcomethe world, he says.
Well, the last lesson here I seein this book holiness is
essential.
Holiness is essential.
Hebrews 12, 14 says "strive forpeace with everyone and for the
holiness, without which no onewill see the Lord".
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Jesus himself taught blessedare the pure in heart, for they
shall see God.
And you hear that both of thoselines have seen God.
To see the Lord in Scripture isreally to me.
It's not just literally seeingHim, it's to really to know His
tangible presence.
This is what Moses asked.
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Let me see you, god and God.
Let him see His glory.
This is what Moses asked.
Let me see you, god and God,let him see his glory.
So we desire so often to seeGod's presence, his moving in
our midst, to see his glory.
But you know what we're oftenunwilling to do.
We're unwilling to see our sin,to look at ourself, and without
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repentance or brokenness, guesswhat?
We cannot know God's presence.
All you have to do is look atthe example in Isaiah, chapter 6
, and just point you to thatscripture to see that whole
process of how that works.
And one of the key lessons ofNehemiah is really to correct
this faulty assumption I thinkwe have, as God's people, that
if we just rebuild these thingsthat are important to us, like
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our financial situation or oursocial situation or our security
situation, that all will bewell and those are all good
things.
But it won't get us there.
It won't get us there becausereally, there are two walls that
have to be rebuilt, and thesecond one is the wall of the
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human heart, and that's the onlyplace that Jesus can do his
work.
It's the thing that will changeeverything when your heart is
changed by the Lord Jesus, itwill change everything for you.
And if you're here this morningand you don't know him yet, I
would just challenge you tocheck him out, because Jesus
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never goes back on who he is andhis promises.
Well, what's the big idea ofthis book?
Because there are these majorlessons that we see, but
ultimately, what's the big idea?
It's really the only thing weget from this book.
I guess, if we think about this, if the only thing we get from
this book is that we see a bunchof people go out and build a
wall, then we'll just get a sortof an interesting history
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lesson.
But I want you to see there'sso much more in this book.
Instead, our task is to takewhat we see really happened with
these people in history and seeand transfer the truth that is
learned in the principles andprecepts that are in this book
and see these vital spiritualtruths that apply to us today.
That's what we're doing we'retaking 5th century BC stuff and
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transferring it to the 21stcentury, and there's so many
lessons for us here.
Here's what Paul said about thatwhen we look at Old Testament
stories like this and many timesit's like what in the world
does that have to do with me?
There's no connect here.
Well, here's what Paul said.
He said these things happenedto them as examples for us.
They were written down to warnus to live at the end of the age
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.
It's really important.
So the book's major message,then, is this Only with God's
help can we actually changeourselves and recover from the
damage and ruin of the past.
Say that again Only with God'shelp can we actually change
ourselves and recover from thedamage and ruin of the past.
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See, jesus will help you dothat.
You may be here and feelhopeless and helpless and
discouraged today, but if you, Ijust promise you, jesus will
not let you stay the way you are.
If you ask him to help, he willhelp you.
So this is really the goalbehind the series the Passion
Project.
It sits us down and it makes usobserve this group of unwilling
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people led by a passionateleader, to bring about a
passionate spiritualtransformation in God's people,
and that would include us.
You know perhaps the mostfrequently attributed line to
the famous 19th centuryevangelist and pastor, dl Moody.
Remember DL Moody?
It was this line that goes likethis the world has yet to see
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what God can do with a man fullyconsecrated to him.
By God's help, I aim to be thatman.
That's passion.
But in fact this line didn'toriginate with Moody Henry
Varley, who was a Britishminister.
He had befriended this Americanevangelist and he recalled that
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in 1873, moody had asked him torecall those words that they
had spoken.
That Varley had spoken inprivate, in a private
conversation a year earlier,before Moody went back to the
United States, and so Varleyprovides this account about that
conversation.
I want to read it to you.
He says During the afternoon ofthe day of the conference, mr
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Moody asked me to join him inthe vestry of the Baptist church
.
We were alone, and he recalledthe night's meeting at Willow
Park in our conversation thefollowing morning.
Do you remember your words, hesaid.
I replied I well remember ourinterview, but I don't recall
anything special that I said.
Don't you remember saying,moody, the world has yet to see
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what God will do with a manfully consecrated to him.
Well, not the actual sins, Isaid.
I said, mr Moody, those werethe words that were sent to my
soul through you from the livingGod as I crossed the wide
Atlantic.
The boards of the deck of thevessel were engraved with them,
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and when I reached Chicago, thevery paving stones seemed marked
with moody.
The world has yet to see whatGod will do with a man fully
consecrated to him.
Under the power of those words,I have come back to England and
I felt that I must not let moretime pass until I let you know
how God has used your words tomy inmost soul.
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You ever had somebody ignite thepassion for you?
Years ago we attended a churchback named Calvary and a group
of college students, and out ofthat time alone, and with the
Sundays when the words of Godwere preached and we were
experiencing what I would saywas real, genuine revival, our
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hearts, those college studentsand myself, we were challenged
and changed by what God's Wordsaid.
And many times we'd findourselves lost in the time when
those Scripture was being taughtjust us and God and we were
doing things.
And out of that group, out ofthat time, there were probably
15 or 20 different collegestudents that went to seminary,
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that were called to missions,that were called to full-time
ministry, because it stirredsomething in us, and I just can
guarantee you that God does thatin every believer.
It just might be different foryou.
God is at work in you, and we'regoing to see that here in just
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a second as we ask this questionwhere does this passion come
from?
Listen, here's what Paul saidin Philippians.
Therefore, my beloved, as youhave always obeyed, so now, not
only in my presence, but muchmore in my absence, work out
your own salvation with fear andtrembling, for it is God who
(28:27):
works in you, both to will andto work for his good pleasure.
And here's what Nehemiah saidin chapter 2.
We find him with this passion,and he says this, and this is
prior to him beginning to work,as he's working through the
people and then walking throughthe land.
He says I told no one what Godhad put in my heart to do for
(28:52):
Jerusalem.
Has God put something in yourheart that you're just letting
lie dormant?
See, you can't just stay there.
You can't just stay there.
God wants you to take steps offaith to do something with the
passion he's put in your heart.
Hebrews tells us something else,because the thing I have to
(29:13):
address is what if you've lostyour passion?
What if you just don't have it,as we say, anymore?
Hebrews 12, 12 and 13 gives usthis advice, and it might seem a
little harsh, but I think it'sencouraging.
(29:33):
Lift your drooping hands andstrengthen your weak knees and
make straight paths for yourfeet so that what is lame may
not be put out of joint butrather be healed Just off the
cuff.
It reminds me of Jesus talkingto that man who laid at the pool
for 38 years and he said do youwant to be well?
(29:58):
We talked and we prayed forhealing today.
But there's also, just likethere's physical healing,
there's spiritual healing to behad as well.
You know, if you havephysically weak knees, you know
you can do exercise for that.
You can do lunges, you can dostep-ups, you can do side bends.
I mean, you can do lots ofthings to strengthen your weak
(30:20):
knees.
But to heal spiritually weakknees you have to do other
things.
You need regular spiritualexercise, just like what you're
doing right now, by being in theWord, by spending time alone
with God in prayer and devotions, by intimate worship with God
in your secret place and beingwith God's people.
(30:42):
Those are spiritual exercisesand they will strengthen your
spiritual life.
As I say, you can be healed,but you can't stay where you are
.
So when taken into exile, god'speople and one of the things I
saw in this is that God's people, when they first were taken
into exile, god's people, andone of the things I saw in this
is that God's people, when theyfirst were taken into exile,
(31:03):
it's just they hung their harpson the willows and if you know
that story, basically out oflimitations and so on, as they
get into the land of Babylon, inexile the people, one of them,
they said sing us the songs,sing us those songs of Zion.
It's just saying we want tohear that.
They said sing us the songs,sing us those songs of Zion that
you sang.
We want to hear that.
(31:24):
And the people's kind of likeare you kidding me?
I don't feel like singing.
I don't feel like singing.
And it took 70 years for reallyGod to heal their broken hearts
(31:44):
and their hopes and their dreamsand bring a new vision for a
better future.
Psalm 137 reflects this.
It says, literally upon thewillows in the midst of it,
literally in the Hebrew in themidst of it, we hung our harps.
Are you in the midst of it?
We hung our harps.
Are you in the midst of ittoday?
God will help you restorewhat's been broken.
(32:07):
Well, let's look now at thebeginning of this book, in
chapter 1.
And I just called the title ofthis, I know it's late, but
we'll move through it prettyquickly A plea for divine help,
a plea for divine help, a pleafor divine help, and it's the
first and greatest work.
Nehemiah, the man behind thewall.
He's not like the Wizard of Oz,he's not pulling levers and
(32:27):
switches and he's not trying topull the wool over anybody's
eyes and fool anybody.
He's a real person and what wefind at his core is the one
thing with which we have tobegin.
I can't say this enough If wemiss it, if we miss this in all
the work that God is doing inthe church, in our nation, in
our personal lives, in buildingGod's kingdom, it will fail.
(32:51):
But see, here it's the secretof Nehemiah's success.
He said what in the world, whatare you talking about?
Prayer, prayer.
See, our passion will berevealed by our attention to
this one thing called prayer,and it's the one thing.
Guess what the church ignoresthe most, neglects the most?
(33:15):
It's seen as being maybe lessimportant than other things that
we could just fix thisourselves, put in place
something that I know with mybrain, I can figure out.
But what prayer does is itmakes us totally dependent on
God.
Nehemiah was a man of constantprayer.
So we'll see, as we can see 14places in this book, 14 prayers
(33:37):
that are recorded in this bookBefore he begins the project.
Nehemiah prays when he reachesand approaches the king, he
prayed.
When he is in trouble, heprayed.
You know, we usually getserious about prayer when we
have a problem.
Amen, and Nehemiah had aproblem.
(33:59):
He's still in Babylon when hegets some disturbing news about
the spiritual condition of God'speople back in his homeland.
And let's just look into this.
It's in Nehemiah, chapter 1.
And let's just say this is theburden.
We see the burden that sparkedhis prayer in verses 1 through 4
.
Nehemiah's burden, the words ofNehemiah, the son of Hacaliah.
(34:23):
Now, it happened in the month ofChislev in the 20th year, as I
was in Susa, the citadel, thatHannah and I, one of my brothers
, came with certain men fromJudah and I asked them
concerning the Jews who escaped,who had survived the exile, and
concerning Jerusalem.
And they said to me the remnantthere in the province, who had
survived the exile, is in greattrouble and shame.
(34:43):
The wall of Jerusalem is brokendown and its gates are
destroyed by fire.
As soon as I heard these words,I sat down and wept and mourned
for days and I continuedfasting and praying before the
God of heaven.
And it seems that Nehemiah hadalready been wondering how are
things back in the homeland, inthe home area where I came from?
(35:07):
How are things going back therewith the remnant of God's
people who had made their wayback over these years and
settled down there?
And on this occasion, nehemiah,along with his brother literally
probably his little brother,hanani, and a group of his
friends, they come and they askfor a special time, a special
meeting with Nehemiah, as he'sat the palace in Susa serving
(35:30):
the king, and presumably to tellNehemiah what's going on.
It's kind of like some peoplewill tell you the truth and
other people say, oh,everything's fine, but this
little group says, no,everything is not fine.
Let me tell you how thingsreally are.
And at that meeting, nehemiahasked them two, really a
two-part question.
The first thing he asked themwas about their spiritual
(35:52):
condition of the remnant there,and the response was what the
survivors?
Well, they're in trouble, greattrouble and shame Verse 3.
And the sense is that God'speople are struggling because
why they're living indisobedience to the revealed
will of God.
In fact, if you're honest,nehemiah, let me tell you, you
(36:16):
really can't tell the differencebetween them and the people,
the pagan people, that areliving among them.
They look just the same, justabout Sound familiar.
Number two he also asked aboutthe actual city of Jerusalem,
the city of God, the holy city,and the answer he gets from this
contingent, his brother andtheir friends, is that the city
(36:40):
is in ruins and they've beenback there for almost 90 years.
What in the world is going on?
He says the wall of Jerusalemis broken down and its gates are
destroyed by fire.
But here's what I want you tosee.
I want you to see that thisname, jerusalem, the city of God
(37:03):
, is an object lesson of ourlife or our nation in spiritual
ruin.
I don't want toover-spiritualize this, but this
is the idea that we can get atthe walls and the gates are
broken down as a picture of alife that has lost its defenses
against the attack of an enemy,and are really those lies that
(37:27):
we believe are open to repeatedhurt and misery.
This is what this speaks of,these specific problems
mentioned by Nehemiah.
You know what, if we go throughthe book.
I want to just give you thesethree things I want you to pay
attention to as you go throughthe book that are faced by every
generation, including thatgeneration.
Number one is identity.
(37:48):
These people don't really knowwho they are.
These are God's people andthey've forgotten they're God's
people.
God's people are in greattrouble because they don't know
who they are.
And we can be in troublebecause we don't know who we are
in Christ, and the enemy canwalk all over us, could make us
(38:11):
discouraged and depressed andready to give up.
Here's a second one conformityor compromise.
God's people are in great shame.
Why are they in great shame?
Because they're not reallyliving up to what God has called
them to do.
Obedience matters.
And then, third thing, apathy.
(38:31):
God's city is in significantruin, so we can be safe and okay
in this place in the moment andjust be comfortable where we
are.
We have to move out of thatcomfort zone because we'll never
(38:53):
achieve the goal, the missionwill never get done, the gospel
will never be preached if we'recomfortable.
Well, listen, nehemiah'sreaction is immediate.
He says as soon as I heardthese words, I sat down and wept
and mourned for days and Icontinued fasting and praying
before the God of heaven, verse4.
(39:15):
And Nehemiah's despair isreally due to the fact that the
restoration it hadn't beencompleted.
It was just sitting therewaiting to get done.
And it just makes me think thechurch is a powerful force.
We have more resources and waysto share the gospel now than we
ever have in history, and yetthe gospel, at least in America.
(39:40):
What's going on with that?
Things are not as they shouldbe Now.
Notice.
This all happened, and it mayseem like an inconsequential
comment.
It happened in the month ofChislev, in the 20th year.
Say, what does that have to dowith anything?
Well, based on chapter 2, verse1, we can calculate that
Nehemiah is mourning and prayingand fasting for a whole solid
(40:05):
four months, four months ofprayer.
You say, what did he pray about?
I don't know, but he's talkingto God about what the problem is
.
And I anticipate that duringthis time, nehemiah is also
asking for a supernaturalintervention to sway the heart
and challenge and change themind of his boss, king
(40:28):
Artaxerxes, who's over him atthis time and is over the whole
book.
King Artaxerxes, that's becauseKing Artaxerxes and Ezra IV,
while they had started the workback under Ezra and before and
Zerubbabel built the temple,artaxerxes shut it down and so
(40:51):
nothing had been done since thattime.
And Nehemiah knew that.
And he's praying now, havingmade all of this in prayer for
four whole months, to sway theheart and the mind of this king,
who'd shut the work of God downto get him to, and the mind of
this king who'd shut the work ofGod down to get him to change
his mind.
And so, on the day he getsready to go and talk to the king
, he's decided he's going to now, he knows what to do, he's
(41:13):
going to talk to the king aboutit, and on this day he goes to
talk to the king.
We see this prayer in versesfive through 11.
Let's read it.
And says and I said O Lord, godof heaven, the great and
awesome God who keeps covenantand steadfast love with those
who love him and keep hiscommandments, let your ear be
attentive and your eyes open tohear the prayer of your servant
that I now pray before you dayand night for the people of
(41:37):
Israel, your servants,confessing the sins of the
people of Israel which we havesinned against you.
Even I and my father's househave sinned.
We have acted very corruptlyagainst you and have not kept
the commandments, the statutesand the rules that you have
commanded your servant Moses.
Remember the word that youcommanded your servant Moses
(41:58):
saying if you're faithful, Iwill scatter you among the
peoples, but if you return to meand keep my commandments and do
them, though, your outcasts arein the uttermost parts of
heaven.
From there, I will gather themand bring them to the place that
I have chosen to make my namedwell there.
They are your servants and yourpeople, whom you have redeemed
(42:20):
by your great power and by yourstrong hand.
Oh Lord, let your ear beattentive to the prayer of your
servant and to the prayer ofyour servants who delight to
fear your name and give successto your servant today and grant
him mercy in the sight of thisman.
And we won't spend a whole lotof time on this, but I just want
(42:40):
to quickly give you something Ithink is practical, that I
think don't disvalue this,because we're only talking about
it pretty quickly, but I wantyou to quickly see seven aspects
of this prayer that we shouldbe all praying during this hour.
This pattern for prayer was usedin many respects by Moses, by
Solomon, by Daniel, and we evensee it in the prayer that Jesus
(43:03):
gave as the pattern for prayer.
And so the first one that Iwant you to see is To you, god
of heaven.
He says, and I said O Lord, godof heaven, the great and
awesome God, who keeps covenantand steadfast love with those
who love him and keep hiscommandments.
Nehemiah begins by appealing toGod's character as a great and
(43:24):
loving God.
And so, listen, you can't prayeffectively to God not knowing
the God you're praying to.
You have to know who God is topray effectively, and so he's
praying that way.
He's appealing to what we hear,and Jesus said your kingdom
come, your will be done.
(43:44):
How do you know his will if youdon't know his character?
And that's what Nehemiah goesto first.
Second thing please listen to myprayer.
You ever prayed that to God.
Would you just listen, god?
Why aren't you doing anything?
God, would you just pleaselisten?
He says here let your ear beattentive and your eyes be open
(44:04):
to hear the prayer of yourservant that I now pray before
you, day and night for thepeople of your servants.
If you want God to hear you, wewant God to hear us we have to
live in obedience.
That's what servants do, right.
Where are we missing what Godhas told us?
(44:26):
Is there something God has toldyou to do that you haven't done
or that you're doing that youneed to stop?
Notice also that Nehemiah ispraying persistently, day and
night, and unselfishly, for thepeople.
Third, I'm confessing our sinagainst you, god, confessing the
(44:51):
sins of the people of Israel,which we have sinned against you
.
Even I and my father's househave sinned and we've acted very
corruptly against you and notkept your commands, statutes,
rules that you commanded yourservant, moses.
See here Nehemiah humblinghimself.
He's confessing what.
He's confessing the corporatesin.
Have you prayed for this nationas a whole, corporately?
(45:16):
And the reason we do that isbecause you and I are part of
this nation.
He prays for his personal sin.
I've acted wickedly, god, notdone this or that.
I did this and that that Ishouldn't have.
(45:36):
And it says he prays for hisfamily and you can pray for your
family because you're part ofthat family, so something in
your family that needs to beprayed about sins confessed, so
he's honest before God.
We say you know he came clean,and that's really true, because
(46:02):
when you pray and ask forforgiveness, god makes you clean
.
We haven't obeyed you in thesethings, god.
Number four remember thepromises you made, or promise
you made.
The promise, the word that youcommanded your servant, moses.
If you're unfaithful, I willscatter you, but if you return
to me and do them, I will bringyou back to the land.
Nehemiah is calling on God todo what Honor his Word, and one
(46:22):
of the things that I know is thebest thing to pray is to pray
Scripture, because I know he'swritten it and I know he will
honor it.
And this is good.
This is so good becauseNehemiah appeals to God's
integrity and faithfulness to dowhat he said he would do his
promise.
And one of the best ways we canpray is to know the Scripture
(46:46):
and pray the Scripture back tohim and say God, you wrote this,
please honor it.
And God will, because he'sfaithful.
Number five remember the peopleyou have redeemed.
They are your servants and yourpeople whom you've redeemed by
your great power and by yourstrong hand.
Oh Lord, let your ear beattentive to the prayer of your
(47:06):
servant and to the prayer ofyour servants.
It sounds like these otherpeople are praying this too,
isn't it just Nehemiah?
They delight to fear your name.
Here Nehemiah is appealing tothe covenant they had with God,
with his people, and essentiallyNehemiah is reminding them we
belong to you, god.
Remember we're your kids, we'reyour people.
(47:29):
You know one of the things Iknow we have two new
granddaughters and we get theprivilege of having one of those
granddaughters over just aboutevery week and I can guarantee
you she'll come in and she'llsay we're granddad, we're
granddad.
She's 18 or 19 months old and Iwas like, okay, what do you
(47:51):
want?
I'll do anything for you.
I'll do anything for you.
Jesus teaches that idea to usabout prayer because we're his
kids and I just don't know whatthe heart of God is, but I know
what my heart is toward mygranddaughter.
How much more would God answerthe prayer of his children when
(48:17):
we ask him Redeem and rememberthe people you redeemed.
Number six give me success andfavor, he says, and give success
to your servant today and granthim mercy in the sight of this
man.
And Nehemiah brings this prayerto bear on the first thing in
(48:39):
which he needs help and that'sthe day he's going in to talk to
the king Favor and success, tosway the heart of this king to
allow this work to start upagain.
And I think we can learn somuch from this to think that
before we take steps to doanything, anything that we just
(49:00):
need to stop and ask God forsuccess and favor with whatever
and whomever might oppose us.
And here's the thing Don't goout the door so quickly that you
haven't hit your knees.
Number seven, the last one.
(49:21):
I will watch and wait for you,god.
Because he ends up saying now Iwas cupbearer to the king.
I think that it's almost like apoignant way of ending this
chapter, because it's almostlike well, remember, nehemiah
was the cupbearer, he was thecupbearer, he's the guy who
tasted the food and the wine sothat the king wouldn't be
poisoning.
A great job, great job to have.
(49:42):
But what that tells us is thatNehemiah was in a really trusted
position by the king.
And so you might think well, Ican just tell him.
I talk to him every day, Itaste his food and wine, he
really trusts me.
So I'm just going to just saydrop the edict and let us get
back.
(50:03):
No, he doesn't think that way.
He doesn't move ahead withoutGod's help, and neither should
we.
I don't care what it is.
You want to restore your family, your dreams, your work, your
(50:24):
friendships.
Go to God first and say grantme success and favor, because
you can change a heart.
And you kind of get the sense.
This is the way the chapter ends.
It's like Nehemiah is justwaiting and watching for God to
work.
I pray God, now I'm going tosit back, I'm just going to
(50:47):
watch what you do, because Iknow you will, staying alert for
every opportunity that Godmight bring.
Watching in prayer is beingalert to the opportunities that
might come up, and then we cansay there's my time.
(51:09):
Now is the time.
Proverbs 21 says the king'sheart is a stream of water in
the hand of the Lord.
He turns it wherever he will,and very soon the king of kings
would promote Nehemiah togovernor in order to rebuild the
(51:30):
wall.
Let's pray.
So, father, we just thank youfor what you bring to us in your
word and Lord, as we begin andlay the foundations for this
series, lord, we just prayyou'll burn these truths into
our minds and that we will cryout to you for help, lord.
(51:53):
Whatever it is that we're goingthrough today, where our lives
have been broken and disruptedand shattered in so many ways,
lord, some of those we may tryto fix and then we fail.
But, lord, you are the one thatcan change everything, so do
(52:16):
that work.
Today, lord, we ask for everyone of us, those who know you
and those who are coming to knowyou, lord, that you might
glorify yourselves, as we trustin you, lord Jesus, for your own
glory and for your own sake.
In Jesus' name amen.
Well, I'm glad to be here, glad you guys are
online, and I'm just so thankfulto get to share the Word of God
and open up the series thatwe're going to be doing in
Nehemiah.
Hope you're ready for it, areyou?
It's going to be good.
I believe we're excited.
You know, a number of years ago, in our sort of our parenting
teens to drive years, which wasan experience our kids also had
(00:25):
friends who were learning todrive.
And you know, if you're a wiseparent, you are and this is for
parents who are in this seasonif you're a wise parent, you
will pick out a car that is safebut has all kinds of it's not a
very nice looking car, maybeit's because you're expected to
have some scrapes and bumps andscratches on your car.
(00:46):
But, as I said, our kids theyhad friends who were learning to
drive too, and at our house,getting in and out of the
driveway, it was a prettystraightforward process.
We live at the top of a hillbut right in between our house
and the house down below us itis a massive wall, a concrete
block wall that runs from thefront of our house to the back,
(01:10):
and in one day, after the kids'friends were leaving.
They went out of the house, gotin the car and they drove out
of the driveway.
And I walked out the door justin time in horror to see that
person hit the wall and theyknocked out a few of the
concrete blocks out of the wall.
(01:31):
And I was just like what?
Because it would not have beengood if that wall had fallen
down, and so I didn't do toomuch with the wall in terms of
repairs that day, but I wasthinking, boy, this could be bad
.
And a couple of months later ithappened again, and this time
with a different teenage friend.
(01:51):
He backs out of the drivewayand this time three more feet of
that wall got knocked over intothe neighbor's yard.
And I went out and picked upthe box and I thought, oh my, I
can't wait anymore, I've got tofix this wall.
And you know how they say,there's that saying bad things
happen in threes.
Yeah, before I could do therepair, another friend had come
(02:15):
over, a different friend, and Iwatched in horror as this friend
backed out and knocking eightmore feet of that stupid wall
out of place.
And this time the car hadactually turned sideways and
part of it was the front partwas up on our driveway, the rear
(02:36):
of the car was in theneighbor's yard and the car
itself was sitting on top of theblock wall.
Well, the tow truck drivercomes in with his tow truck and
he's scratching his head andhe's looking at me and he says I
really don't know what to do toget this car off here.
I've never seen this before.
Well, eventually the car getsremoved and I spent the whole
(03:02):
summer rebuilding the wall inthe blazing sun.
So this kind of leads us intoour series this morning, because
this morning we begin this newseries.
In the message in the OldTestament book of Nehemiah,
nehemiah is the story ofrebuilding of the walls in
Jerusalem which took place inthe fifth century before Christ.
(03:23):
And you're maybe sitting therethinking very exciting stuff the
walls in Jerusalem which tookplace in the fifth century
before Christ.
And you're maybe sitting therethinking very exciting stuff
what in the world does this haveto do with my life, where I am
right now?
Well, I want to sort ofconvince you it's worth your
time and encourage you to be apart of this series, because
Nehemiah also, he speaks to anongoing reality in our own lives
(03:45):
and that reality is that all ofus have seasons in our lives
where we need to rebuild what'sbeen broken and what's fallen
apart, and I know many of youare going through something even
today.
Something has been broken inyour life, something that has
fallen apart, something youexpected to be different than it
is right now.
(04:06):
And so, as we walk through thisbook together, my hope is that
you will find hope and you'll beencouraged in what God can do
and what God wants to do in yourlife to rebuild what is maybe
the enemy has taken from you.
And so we want to do this, sothat we can not only be strong
as believers, we want to advancethe kingdom in the world.
(04:27):
And so let want to do this, sothat we can not only be strong
as believers, we want to advancethe kingdom in the world.
And so let's pray that Godwould open up our minds and
hearts this morning, and justpray with me.
Father, we're so grateful forthe time today.
We know your word is powerful,it speaks to us and changes us,
and what you send out, itdoesn't return void, lord, it
has power to transform us, andso we pray, spirit of God, that
(04:47):
you would blow on your wordtoday, open our hearts and our
ears and our minds that we'dunderstand what you have to say
to us today and just change us,transform us.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
So I was just thinking aboutthis title what is passion?
Our series is called thePassion Project.
(05:09):
What is passion?
Passion is what you desire themost and are willing to do with
your whole being, whatever it is, to get it done, to get it in
place.
Passion is directly tied towhat you love, directly tied to
what you love.
Passion, you see, was theimpetus for 12 ordinary men to
(05:31):
turn the world upside down toshare the gospel of Jesus.
Passion was what brought Paulto allow himself to go through
what he did.
He went through shipwrecks andstorms and beatings and
imprisonments for the gospel'ssake.
Passion is what took Jesus tothe cross, for your sake and my
sake, and it's what made himlove us to the end.
(05:56):
Passion is important.
Passion can turn mediocrityinto greatness, darkness into
light, emptiness into creativevision, failure into success,
and apathy and indifference intoproductive power.
Passion is greater than talent,more vital than education.
Our passions expose our eternaltrajectory.
(06:16):
When our heart is broken ormisaligned with God's purposes,
we sometimes say don't we.
I've lost my passion, butpassion isn't tied to your
emotions.
Really, Passion is the divinespark that remains when your
wood is wet.
It keeps us going, and whatwe're going to see in this
series is how God-given passioncan result in accomplishing
(06:39):
great things for God.
God wants to do something greatin all of us, and he's going to
do that as we allow Jesus to doHis work in us.
Before we look into the book,though, I want to just kind of
observe this kind of step backand look some kind of the whole
thing a little bit and kind ofgive us some context before we
go forward.
(07:00):
And we'll get into chapter onetoday, but it'll kind of be at
the end, and so first let's justset the scene in terms of the
background and in some contextand, by the way, there's a whole
lot to absorb here in terms ofthe history but I'm going to try
to kind of corral this all forus so we can kind of get a good
idea of what's going on here.
Let's set the scene.
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The Bible tells us that,leading up to this period and
for at least 150 years, god'speople had rebelled against God.
They had done what God had toldthem not to do, and they had
refused to listen to Him.
They had rebelled, they hadbeen involved in idolatry, and
God sent prophet after prophetafter prophet to warn them to
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return to Him, but to no avail.
And so in 586, god, his patienceends and he uses a pagan nation
and a pagan king namedNebuchadnezzar to come in and
bring essentially, judgment onthe nation, god's people, for
their sins.
And so King Nebuchadnezzar andhis army, they come in and they
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literally burn the city ofJerusalem to the ground, and the
result is that they take andcarry away God's people into
captivity and exile to Babylon,modern day Iran, or Iran, if you
pronounce it that way.
But what's interesting, priorto their departure and this is
the heart of God, I think, andyou think about their
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discouragement in this prior totheir departure, jeremiah the
prophet he sort of predicts theoutcome of this sad period in
the life of this nation.
And in Jeremiah 29, 10, and 11,he holds out this promise of
hope.
And you know, this is what Goddoes Whenever you're in a bad
place, god always holds out apromise of hope to you.
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And here's what Jeremiah saysin Jeremiah 29, 10, and 11.
For thus says the Lord, when 70years are completed for Babylon
, I will visit you and I willfulfill to you my promise and
bring youben quoted this morning, for I know the plans I have
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for you declares the Lord plansfor welfare and not for evil, to
give you a future and a hope.
You know, when you see thesethings Eben quoting what he
quoted and what God, I thinkGod's doing something.
He wants us to hear it thismorning.
You know, in one of the mostamazing I guess a miracle,
amazing turn of events storiesin the Old Testament though, god
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moves upon the heart of adifferent pagan king 70, well,
not quite 70 years, but a numberof decades later, a man named
Cyrus, cyrus the Great Cyrus,the Second who had come to power
after Nebuchadnezzar.
King Cyrus issues this royaldecree to allow the Jews the
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freedom to come back to theirhomeland, to come back home.
And so the biblical text is sosignificant.
I just want to read it to youbecause I think it's really
encouraging what he says here.
Cyrus speaks this in Ezra 1,verses 1-4.
In the first year of King Cyrusof Persia, in order to fulfill
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the Lord's message spokenthrough Jeremiah, the Lord
stirred the mind of King Cyrusof Persia Remember, he's a pagan
king stirred the mind of KingCyrus of Persia Remember, he's a
pagan king.
He disseminated a proclamationthroughout his entire kingdom,
announcing in a written edictthe following thus says the king
Cyrus of Persia the Lord, godof heaven, has given me all the
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kingdoms of the earth.
He has instructed me to build atemple for him in Jerusalem,
which is in Judah.
Anyone from his people amongyou may his God be with him may
go up to Jerusalem, which is inJudah, and may build the temple
of the Lord, god of Israel.
He is the God who is inJerusalem.
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Anyone who survives in any ofthose places where he is a
resident foreigner must behelped by his neighbors with
silver to go back home, and heeven pays for it.
What a miracle, so amazing.
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You know.
In that passage, cyrus callsthese people survivors.
Are you a survivor this morning?
See, only a remnant, though,would end up taking Cyrus up on
his offer to come back home, toreturn, and so, over the next
100 years or so, this remnant,god's survivors, would come back
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and settle in the land again,and this happened in three waves
, if you might say over 100years.
The first return is under a guynamed Zerubbabel and Joshua,
the high priest.
It resulted in what?
In the rebuilding of the templeitself.
That's found, if you want toread it, in Ezra 1, verses 1-6,
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chapter 6, verse 22.
A second way comes back about50 years later and this time
under Ezra.
Ezra was a priest and scribeand he is a leader in that
restoration back to the land 50years later, and you can read
about that in Ezra 7 through 10.
He is a restorer of the word ofGod to the people because they
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had lost the law and the word ofGod.
And the final return that we'retalking about here in this book
it occurs under Nehemiah, abouta decade later, and Nehemiah is
called for this purpose torebuild the city walls and the
city gates.
You say, why is that important?
Because ultimately, ezra andNehemiah together would lead
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efforts to bring God's peopleback to a revival, a spiritual
restoration, by doing what Godhad called them to do.
And let me just say, if you'rereading this, I would just
encourage you to read both Ezraand Nehemiah, because in the
original, ezra and Nehemiah wasactually one single book in the
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Hebrew.
It wasn't until the Middle Agesthat they split them, and so
you get a lot of context byreading the book of Ezra, just
to help you there.
Well, let's meet the governor.
The governor, the man behind thewall, nehemiah, eventually
takes that position, but it saysin chapter 1, verse 1, the
words of this book, he says, arethe words of Nehemiah the son
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of Hacaliah.
Say that three times fastHacaliah, hacaliah.
The words of Nehemiah the sonof Hacaliah.
Say that three times fastHakaliah, hakaliah.
The words of Nehemiah the sonof Hakaliah.
Nehemiah's name means what itmeans God comforts, and it's
appropriate because these peoplewere needing comforting,
because they lost a lot.
He helps restore for them thisremnant that has been lost in
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the exile.
And, by the way, when you thinkof exile, the exile was, of
course, in that period.
But exile really has to do insymbolic way about being
separated from God.
We all can at times in our lifebecome separated from God.
He was a son of Hakalia, whichmeans wait on God.
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So this name also sheds lighton this book, as he consistently
, they consistently, look to Godto fulfill their calling
Nehemiah as well.
So much of this book fromNehemiah is really his personal
memoir.
It's like a, if you want to say, a prayer diary, spiritual
diary of sorts.
It's his own words in manyplaces, but he is an amazingly
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capable leader.
This is a great book forleadership.
He's a person we could say whowas and I just put a few of
these humble, visionary, bold,courageous, faithful, selfless
and resilient.
As one commentator said, he iswilling to give up the luxury
and ease of the palace to helphis people.
He is a man who has the rightpriorities and is concerned for
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God's work, who is able toencourage and rebuke at the
right times, who is strong inprayer and who gives all glory
and credit to God.
Sounds a little bit likesomeone else and his name is
Jesus.
Jesus.
We see him in his ministry ofrestoration, in Nehemiah,
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because Nehemiah comes with aspecific mission.
He finished the work he came todo, and he all the while being
totally dependent on God.
That's our Lord.
So let's go on now to let mepoint out to you four what I
could just say, four lessons.
I pulled these from the book.
Four lessons, key lessons fromthe book that I want to share
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with you.
Number one is leadership iscrucial.
Leadership is crucial.
You know, everything rises andfalls on leadership, and so this
book, as many people have.
They've used it as a leadershipbook because it has so many
great principles on how to lead.
And you know leadership, if youthink about a definition, for
the best one I've ever heard isleadership is influence.
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Leadership is influence, and sothat makes every one of us
leaders, because, guess what?
You influence someone else,whether you're a parent, whether
you're a student, whetheryou're a teacher, whether you're
an employer or employee.
You influence someone becauseGod gives you the ability and
capability to influence people.
For the kingdom, leadership iscrucial.
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And so here's the thing aboutNehemiah though he didn't do
this by himself.
Great and godly leaders don'twork alone, and we find this in
Nehemiah in a very real sense.
He is this great leader, and soanyone who follows him can
learn these lessons.
It's a book about leadership.
Number two unity is powerful.
Unity is powerful.
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This book shows us howimportant it is for us all to
work together for the sake ofthe kingdom to accomplish God's
purposes.
Nehemiah he really justchallenges his countrymen to
arise and rebuild what's beenshattered.
Don't you look around in ournation and see all the stuff
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that's kind of been broken?
So we can look at this on abroader scale, and then we can
look at this in our own personallives of things that's been
broken and, what's amazing, hedoes this task of rebuilding the
wall in 52 days.
52 days A feat.
Even the remnant of Israel.
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They look around and they haveto attribute this work to God.
Only God could do that.
By contrast, the task ofgetting the people back to where
they needed to be it took well,really beyond the whole book of
Nehemiah.
Because we're a work inprogress, aren't we folks?
We're a work in progress and itdemands the best of Nehemiah
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and the people he led.
Number three opposition iscertain.
Everywhere, from Ezra, allthrough the book of Nehemiah.
They don't do this without,just like it's a breeze.
All through the book, we seeopposition occurring.
Nothing is easy when we attemptto do things for God to advance
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God's kingdom.
That's because, why?
Because we have the forces ofdarkness arrayed against us, the
invisible warfare that weexperience because we have an
enemy of darkness arrayedagainst us.
The invisible warfare that weexperience because we have an
enemy who wants to do in anddestroy what God wants to do in
God's people and, ultimately,against God.
And so Nehemiah and the peopleexperience this great opposition
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, just like we will.
Nothing is easy.
When we do it for God, wealways have pushback.
When the Apostle Paul came tominister in Ephesus he said
there's a wide door for a greatwork here, although many oppose
me.
And I believe there's kind of adirect correlation between the
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level of threat we pose to thatenemy and maybe the pushback
that we get.
So it makes you wonder, withall the stuff going on, maybe
God's doing something reallygood.
We're invading maybe theenemy's kingdom and we should
just keep going.
We should just keep going.
You know it makes me.
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I was watching a video a few anumber of weeks ago and I was.
You know, it makes me.
I was watching a video a few anumber of weeks ago and I was.
You know.
I don't know why I like bees.
Well, I could tell you anotherstory about that.
But I was watching this pestcontrol guy who had come out at
a request of a neighbor to thehouse and there was this massive
I mean it was like three orfour foot long hornet's nest on
the side of the building there,and so this pest control guy got
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up on the ladder and he had hissmoker machine.
Of course he's all decked out,head to toe covered so he would
not get stung.
And he starts pulling out hissmoker and poking this hornet's
nest and, as you would imagine,man, those hornets came out of
their house just like crazy.
And in this way it's the samething when we poke the enemy's
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place of domain, his domain youcan guarantee we're going to get
some pushback.
But that's not always a badthing, because God is with us.
We're not alone, just like wasshared this morning.
God is with us, god is with us.
We're not alone, just like wasshared this morning.
God is with us, god is with us.
Let's keep on.
Jesus reminds us that a servantis not greater than his master.
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If they persecuted me, theywill persecute you too.
But take heart, I've overcomethe world, he says.
Well, the last lesson here I seein this book holiness is
essential.
Holiness is essential.
Hebrews 12, 14 says "strive forpeace with everyone and for the
holiness, without which no onewill see the Lord".
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Jesus himself taught blessedare the pure in heart, for they
shall see God.
And you hear that both of thoselines have seen God.
To see the Lord in Scripture isreally to me.
It's not just literally seeingHim, it's to really to know His
tangible presence.
This is what Moses asked.
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Let me see you, god and God.
Let him see His glory.
This is what Moses asked.
Let me see you, god and God,let him see his glory.
So we desire so often to seeGod's presence, his moving in
our midst, to see his glory.
But you know what we're oftenunwilling to do.
We're unwilling to see our sin,to look at ourself, and without
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repentance or brokenness, guesswhat?
We cannot know God's presence.
All you have to do is look atthe example in Isaiah, chapter 6
, and just point you to thatscripture to see that whole
process of how that works.
And one of the key lessons ofNehemiah is really to correct
this faulty assumption I thinkwe have, as God's people, that
if we just rebuild these thingsthat are important to us, like
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our financial situation or oursocial situation or our security
situation, that all will bewell and those are all good
things.
But it won't get us there.
It won't get us there becausereally, there are two walls that
have to be rebuilt, and thesecond one is the wall of the
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human heart, and that's the onlyplace that Jesus can do his
work.
It's the thing that will changeeverything when your heart is
changed by the Lord Jesus, itwill change everything for you.
And if you're here this morningand you don't know him yet, I
would just challenge you tocheck him out, because Jesus
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never goes back on who he is andhis promises.
Well, what's the big idea ofthis book?
Because there are these majorlessons that we see, but
ultimately, what's the big idea?
It's really the only thing weget from this book.
I guess, if we think about this, if the only thing we get from
this book is that we see a bunchof people go out and build a
wall, then we'll just get a sortof an interesting history
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lesson.
But I want you to see there'sso much more in this book.
Instead, our task is to takewhat we see really happened with
these people in history and seeand transfer the truth that is
learned in the principles andprecepts that are in this book
and see these vital spiritualtruths that apply to us today.
That's what we're doing we'retaking 5th century BC stuff and
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transferring it to the 21stcentury, and there's so many
lessons for us here.
Here's what Paul said about thatwhen we look at Old Testament
stories like this and many timesit's like what in the world
does that have to do with me?
There's no connect here.
Well, here's what Paul said.
He said these things happenedto them as examples for us.
They were written down to warnus to live at the end of the age
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.
It's really important.
So the book's major message,then, is this Only with God's
help can we actually changeourselves and recover from the
damage and ruin of the past.
Say that again Only with God'shelp can we actually change
ourselves and recover from thedamage and ruin of the past.
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See, jesus will help you dothat.
You may be here and feelhopeless and helpless and
discouraged today, but if you, Ijust promise you, jesus will
not let you stay the way you are.
If you ask him to help, he willhelp you.
So this is really the goalbehind the series the Passion
Project.
It sits us down and it makes usobserve this group of unwilling
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people led by a passionateleader, to bring about a
passionate spiritualtransformation in God's people,
and that would include us.
You know perhaps the mostfrequently attributed line to
the famous 19th centuryevangelist and pastor, dl Moody.
Remember DL Moody?
It was this line that goes likethis the world has yet to see
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what God can do with a man fullyconsecrated to him.
By God's help, I aim to be thatman.
That's passion.
But in fact this line didn'toriginate with Moody Henry
Varley, who was a Britishminister.
He had befriended this Americanevangelist and he recalled that
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in 1873, moody had asked him torecall those words that they
had spoken.
That Varley had spoken inprivate, in a private
conversation a year earlier,before Moody went back to the
United States, and so Varleyprovides this account about that
conversation.
I want to read it to you.
He says During the afternoon ofthe day of the conference, mr
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Moody asked me to join him inthe vestry of the Baptist church
.
We were alone, and he recalledthe night's meeting at Willow
Park in our conversation thefollowing morning.
Do you remember your words, hesaid.
I replied I well remember ourinterview, but I don't recall
anything special that I said.
Don't you remember saying,moody, the world has yet to see
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what God will do with a manfully consecrated to him.
Well, not the actual sins, Isaid.
I said, mr Moody, those werethe words that were sent to my
soul through you from the livingGod as I crossed the wide
Atlantic.
The boards of the deck of thevessel were engraved with them,
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and when I reached Chicago, thevery paving stones seemed marked
with moody.
The world has yet to see whatGod will do with a man fully
consecrated to him.
Under the power of those words,I have come back to England and
I felt that I must not let moretime pass until I let you know
how God has used your words tomy inmost soul.
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You ever had somebody ignite thepassion for you?
Years ago we attended a churchback named Calvary and a group
of college students, and out ofthat time alone, and with the
Sundays when the words of Godwere preached and we were
experiencing what I would saywas real, genuine revival, our
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hearts, those college studentsand myself, we were challenged
and changed by what God's Wordsaid.
And many times we'd findourselves lost in the time when
those Scripture was being taughtjust us and God and we were
doing things.
And out of that group, out ofthat time, there were probably
15 or 20 different collegestudents that went to seminary,
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that were called to missions,that were called to full-time
ministry, because it stirredsomething in us, and I just can
guarantee you that God does thatin every believer.
It just might be different foryou.
God is at work in you, and we'regoing to see that here in just
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a second as we ask this questionwhere does this passion come
from?
Listen, here's what Paul saidin Philippians.
Therefore, my beloved, as youhave always obeyed, so now, not
only in my presence, but muchmore in my absence, work out
your own salvation with fear andtrembling, for it is God who
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works in you, both to will andto work for his good pleasure.
And here's what Nehemiah saidin chapter 2.
We find him with this passion,and he says this, and this is
prior to him beginning to work,as he's working through the
people and then walking throughthe land.
He says I told no one what Godhad put in my heart to do for
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Jerusalem.
Has God put something in yourheart that you're just letting
lie dormant?
See, you can't just stay there.
You can't just stay there.
God wants you to take steps offaith to do something with the
passion he's put in your heart.
Hebrews tells us something else,because the thing I have to
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address is what if you've lostyour passion?
What if you just don't have it,as we say, anymore?
Hebrews 12, 12 and 13 gives usthis advice, and it might seem a
little harsh, but I think it'sencouraging.
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Lift your drooping hands andstrengthen your weak knees and
make straight paths for yourfeet so that what is lame may
not be put out of joint butrather be healed Just off the
cuff.
It reminds me of Jesus talkingto that man who laid at the pool
for 38 years and he said do youwant to be well?
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We talked and we prayed forhealing today.
But there's also, just likethere's physical healing,
there's spiritual healing to behad as well.
You know, if you havephysically weak knees, you know
you can do exercise for that.
You can do lunges, you can dostep-ups, you can do side bends.
I mean, you can do lots ofthings to strengthen your weak
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knees.
But to heal spiritually weakknees you have to do other
things.
You need regular spiritualexercise, just like what you're
doing right now, by being in theWord, by spending time alone
with God in prayer and devotions, by intimate worship with God
in your secret place and beingwith God's people.
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Those are spiritual exercisesand they will strengthen your
spiritual life.
As I say, you can be healed,but you can't stay where you are
.
So when taken into exile, god'speople and one of the things I
saw in this is that God's people, when they first were taken
into exile, god's people, andone of the things I saw in this
is that God's people, when theyfirst were taken into exile,
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it's just they hung their harpson the willows and if you know
that story, basically out oflimitations and so on, as they
get into the land of Babylon, inexile the people, one of them,
they said sing us the songs,sing us those songs of Zion.
It's just saying we want tohear that.
They said sing us the songs,sing us those songs of Zion that
you sang.
We want to hear that.
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And the people's kind of likeare you kidding me?
I don't feel like singing.
I don't feel like singing.
And it took 70 years for reallyGod to heal their broken hearts
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and their hopes and their dreamsand bring a new vision for a
better future.
Psalm 137 reflects this.
It says, literally upon thewillows in the midst of it,
literally in the Hebrew in themidst of it, we hung our harps.
Are you in the midst of it?
We hung our harps.
Are you in the midst of ittoday?
God will help you restorewhat's been broken.
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Well, let's look now at thebeginning of this book, in
chapter 1.
And I just called the title ofthis, I know it's late, but
we'll move through it prettyquickly A plea for divine help,
a plea for divine help, a pleafor divine help, and it's the
first and greatest work.
Nehemiah, the man behind thewall.
He's not like the Wizard of Oz,he's not pulling levers and
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switches and he's not trying topull the wool over anybody's
eyes and fool anybody.
He's a real person and what wefind at his core is the one
thing with which we have tobegin.
I can't say this enough If wemiss it, if we miss this in all
the work that God is doing inthe church, in our nation, in
our personal lives, in buildingGod's kingdom, it will fail.
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But see, here it's the secretof Nehemiah's success.
He said what in the world, whatare you talking about?
Prayer, prayer.
See, our passion will berevealed by our attention to
this one thing called prayer,and it's the one thing.
Guess what the church ignoresthe most, neglects the most?
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It's seen as being maybe lessimportant than other things that
we could just fix thisourselves, put in place
something that I know with mybrain, I can figure out.
But what prayer does is itmakes us totally dependent on
God.
Nehemiah was a man of constantprayer.
So we'll see, as we can see 14places in this book, 14 prayers
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that are recorded in this bookBefore he begins the project.
Nehemiah prays when he reachesand approaches the king, he
prayed.
When he is in trouble, heprayed.
You know, we usually getserious about prayer when we
have a problem.
Amen, and Nehemiah had aproblem.
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He's still in Babylon when hegets some disturbing news about
the spiritual condition of God'speople back in his homeland.
And let's just look into this.
It's in Nehemiah, chapter 1.
And let's just say this is theburden.
We see the burden that sparkedhis prayer in verses 1 through 4
.
Nehemiah's burden, the words ofNehemiah, the son of Hacaliah.
(34:23):
Now, it happened in the month ofChislev in the 20th year, as I
was in Susa, the citadel, thatHannah and I, one of my brothers
, came with certain men fromJudah and I asked them
concerning the Jews who escaped,who had survived the exile, and
concerning Jerusalem.
And they said to me the remnantthere in the province, who had
survived the exile, is in greattrouble and shame.
(34:43):
The wall of Jerusalem is brokendown and its gates are
destroyed by fire.
As soon as I heard these words,I sat down and wept and mourned
for days and I continuedfasting and praying before the
God of heaven.
And it seems that Nehemiah hadalready been wondering how are
things back in the homeland, inthe home area where I came from?
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How are things going back therewith the remnant of God's
people who had made their wayback over these years and
settled down there?
And on this occasion, nehemiah,along with his brother literally
probably his little brother,hanani, and a group of his
friends, they come and they askfor a special time, a special
meeting with Nehemiah, as he'sat the palace in Susa serving
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the king, and presumably to tellNehemiah what's going on.
It's kind of like some peoplewill tell you the truth and
other people say, oh,everything's fine, but this
little group says, no,everything is not fine.
Let me tell you how thingsreally are.
And at that meeting, nehemiahasked them two, really a
two-part question.
The first thing he asked themwas about their spiritual
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condition of the remnant there,and the response was what the
survivors?
Well, they're in trouble, greattrouble and shame Verse 3.
And the sense is that God'speople are struggling because
why they're living indisobedience to the revealed
will of God.
In fact, if you're honest,nehemiah, let me tell you, you
(36:16):
really can't tell the differencebetween them and the people,
the pagan people, that areliving among them.
They look just the same, justabout Sound familiar.
Number two he also asked aboutthe actual city of Jerusalem,
the city of God, the holy city,and the answer he gets from this
contingent, his brother andtheir friends, is that the city
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is in ruins and they've beenback there for almost 90 years.
What in the world is going on?
He says the wall of Jerusalemis broken down and its gates are
destroyed by fire.
But here's what I want you tosee.
I want you to see that thisname, jerusalem, the city of God
(37:03):
, is an object lesson of ourlife or our nation in spiritual
ruin.
I don't want toover-spiritualize this, but this
is the idea that we can get atthe walls and the gates are
broken down as a picture of alife that has lost its defenses
against the attack of an enemy,and are really those lies that
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we believe are open to repeatedhurt and misery.
This is what this speaks of,these specific problems
mentioned by Nehemiah.
You know what, if we go throughthe book.
I want to just give you thesethree things I want you to pay
attention to as you go throughthe book that are faced by every
generation, including thatgeneration.
Number one is identity.
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These people don't really knowwho they are.
These are God's people andthey've forgotten they're God's
people.
God's people are in greattrouble because they don't know
who they are.
And we can be in troublebecause we don't know who we are
in Christ, and the enemy canwalk all over us, could make us
(38:11):
discouraged and depressed andready to give up.
Here's a second one conformityor compromise.
God's people are in great shame.
Why are they in great shame?
Because they're not reallyliving up to what God has called
them to do.
Obedience matters.
And then, third thing, apathy.
(38:31):
God's city is in significantruin, so we can be safe and okay
in this place in the moment andjust be comfortable where we
are.
We have to move out of thatcomfort zone because we'll never
(38:53):
achieve the goal, the missionwill never get done, the gospel
will never be preached if we'recomfortable.
Well, listen, nehemiah'sreaction is immediate.
He says as soon as I heardthese words, I sat down and wept
and mourned for days and Icontinued fasting and praying
before the God of heaven, verse4.
(39:15):
And Nehemiah's despair isreally due to the fact that the
restoration it hadn't beencompleted.
It was just sitting therewaiting to get done.
And it just makes me think thechurch is a powerful force.
We have more resources and waysto share the gospel now than we
ever have in history, and yetthe gospel, at least in America.
(39:40):
What's going on with that?
Things are not as they shouldbe Now.
Notice.
This all happened, and it mayseem like an inconsequential
comment.
It happened in the month ofChislev, in the 20th year.
Say, what does that have to dowith anything?
Well, based on chapter 2, verse1, we can calculate that
Nehemiah is mourning and prayingand fasting for a whole solid
(40:05):
four months, four months ofprayer.
You say, what did he pray about?
I don't know, but he's talkingto God about what the problem is
.
And I anticipate that duringthis time, nehemiah is also
asking for a supernaturalintervention to sway the heart
and challenge and change themind of his boss, king
(40:28):
Artaxerxes, who's over him atthis time and is over the whole
book.
King Artaxerxes, that's becauseKing Artaxerxes and Ezra IV,
while they had started the workback under Ezra and before and
Zerubbabel built the temple,artaxerxes shut it down and so
(40:51):
nothing had been done since thattime.
And Nehemiah knew that.
And he's praying now, havingmade all of this in prayer for
four whole months, to sway theheart and the mind of this king,
who'd shut the work of God downto get him to, and the mind of
this king who'd shut the work ofGod down to get him to change
his mind.
And so, on the day he getsready to go and talk to the king
, he's decided he's going to now, he knows what to do, he's
(41:13):
going to talk to the king aboutit, and on this day he goes to
talk to the king.
We see this prayer in versesfive through 11.
Let's read it.
And says and I said O Lord, godof heaven, the great and
awesome God who keeps covenantand steadfast love with those
who love him and keep hiscommandments, let your ear be
attentive and your eyes open tohear the prayer of your servant
that I now pray before you dayand night for the people of
(41:37):
Israel, your servants,confessing the sins of the
people of Israel which we havesinned against you.
Even I and my father's househave sinned.
We have acted very corruptlyagainst you and have not kept
the commandments, the statutesand the rules that you have
commanded your servant Moses.
Remember the word that youcommanded your servant Moses
(41:58):
saying if you're faithful, Iwill scatter you among the
peoples, but if you return to meand keep my commandments and do
them, though, your outcasts arein the uttermost parts of
heaven.
From there, I will gather themand bring them to the place that
I have chosen to make my namedwell there.
They are your servants and yourpeople, whom you have redeemed
(42:20):
by your great power and by yourstrong hand.
Oh Lord, let your ear beattentive to the prayer of your
servant and to the prayer ofyour servants who delight to
fear your name and give successto your servant today and grant
him mercy in the sight of thisman.
And we won't spend a whole lotof time on this, but I just want
(42:40):
to quickly give you something Ithink is practical, that I
think don't disvalue this,because we're only talking about
it pretty quickly, but I wantyou to quickly see seven aspects
of this prayer that we shouldbe all praying during this hour.
This pattern for prayer was usedin many respects by Moses, by
Solomon, by Daniel, and we evensee it in the prayer that Jesus
(43:03):
gave as the pattern for prayer.
And so the first one that Iwant you to see is To you, god
of heaven.
He says, and I said O Lord, godof heaven, the great and
awesome God, who keeps covenantand steadfast love with those
who love him and keep hiscommandments.
Nehemiah begins by appealing toGod's character as a great and
(43:24):
loving God.
And so, listen, you can't prayeffectively to God not knowing
the God you're praying to.
You have to know who God is topray effectively, and so he's
praying that way.
He's appealing to what we hear,and Jesus said your kingdom
come, your will be done.
(43:44):
How do you know his will if youdon't know his character?
And that's what Nehemiah goesto first.
Second thing please listen to myprayer.
You ever prayed that to God.
Would you just listen, god?
Why aren't you doing anything?
God, would you just pleaselisten?
He says here let your ear beattentive and your eyes be open
(44:04):
to hear the prayer of yourservant that I now pray before
you, day and night for thepeople of your servants.
If you want God to hear you, wewant God to hear us we have to
live in obedience.
That's what servants do, right.
Where are we missing what Godhas told us?
(44:26):
Is there something God has toldyou to do that you haven't done
or that you're doing that youneed to stop?
Notice also that Nehemiah ispraying persistently, day and
night, and unselfishly, for thepeople.
Third, I'm confessing our sinagainst you, god, confessing the
(44:51):
sins of the people of Israel,which we have sinned against you
.
Even I and my father's househave sinned and we've acted very
corruptly against you and notkept your commands, statutes,
rules that you commanded yourservant, moses.
See here Nehemiah humblinghimself.
He's confessing what.
He's confessing the corporatesin.
Have you prayed for this nationas a whole, corporately?
(45:16):
And the reason we do that isbecause you and I are part of
this nation.
He prays for his personal sin.
I've acted wickedly, god, notdone this or that.
I did this and that that Ishouldn't have.
(45:36):
And it says he prays for hisfamily and you can pray for your
family because you're part ofthat family, so something in
your family that needs to beprayed about sins confessed, so
he's honest before God.
We say you know he came clean,and that's really true, because
(46:02):
when you pray and ask forforgiveness, god makes you clean
.
We haven't obeyed you in thesethings, god.
Number four remember thepromises you made, or promise
you made.
The promise, the word that youcommanded your servant, moses.
If you're unfaithful, I willscatter you, but if you return
to me and do them, I will bringyou back to the land.
Nehemiah is calling on God todo what Honor his Word, and one
(46:22):
of the things that I know is thebest thing to pray is to pray
Scripture, because I know he'swritten it and I know he will
honor it.
And this is good.
This is so good becauseNehemiah appeals to God's
integrity and faithfulness to dowhat he said he would do his
promise.
And one of the best ways we canpray is to know the Scripture
(46:46):
and pray the Scripture back tohim and say God, you wrote this,
please honor it.
And God will, because he'sfaithful.
Number five remember the peopleyou have redeemed.
They are your servants and yourpeople whom you've redeemed by
your great power and by yourstrong hand.
Oh Lord, let your ear beattentive to the prayer of your
(47:06):
servant and to the prayer ofyour servants.
It sounds like these otherpeople are praying this too,
isn't it just Nehemiah?
They delight to fear your name.
Here Nehemiah is appealing tothe covenant they had with God,
with his people, and essentiallyNehemiah is reminding them we
belong to you, god.
Remember we're your kids, we'reyour people.
(47:29):
You know one of the things Iknow we have two new
granddaughters and we get theprivilege of having one of those
granddaughters over just aboutevery week and I can guarantee
you she'll come in and she'llsay we're granddad, we're
granddad.
She's 18 or 19 months old and Iwas like, okay, what do you
(47:51):
want?
I'll do anything for you.
I'll do anything for you.
Jesus teaches that idea to usabout prayer because we're his
kids and I just don't know whatthe heart of God is, but I know
what my heart is toward mygranddaughter.
How much more would God answerthe prayer of his children when
(48:17):
we ask him Redeem and rememberthe people you redeemed.
Number six give me success andfavor, he says, and give success
to your servant today and granthim mercy in the sight of this
man.
And Nehemiah brings this prayerto bear on the first thing in
(48:39):
which he needs help and that'sthe day he's going in to talk to
the king Favor and success, tosway the heart of this king to
allow this work to start upagain.
And I think we can learn somuch from this to think that
before we take steps to doanything, anything that we just
(49:00):
need to stop and ask God forsuccess and favor with whatever
and whomever might oppose us.
And here's the thing Don't goout the door so quickly that you
haven't hit your knees.
Number seven, the last one.
(49:21):
I will watch and wait for you,god.
Because he ends up saying now Iwas cupbearer to the king.
I think that it's almost like apoignant way of ending this
chapter, because it's almostlike well, remember, nehemiah
was the cupbearer, he was thecupbearer, he's the guy who
tasted the food and the wine sothat the king wouldn't be
poisoning.
A great job, great job to have.
(49:42):
But what that tells us is thatNehemiah was in a really trusted
position by the king.
And so you might think well, Ican just tell him.
I talk to him every day, Itaste his food and wine, he
really trusts me.
So I'm just going to just saydrop the edict and let us get
back.
(50:03):
No, he doesn't think that way.
He doesn't move ahead withoutGod's help, and neither should
we.
I don't care what it is.
You want to restore your family, your dreams, your work, your
(50:24):
friendships.
Go to God first and say grantme success and favor, because
you can change a heart.
And you kind of get the sense.
This is the way the chapter ends.
It's like Nehemiah is justwaiting and watching for God to
work.
I pray God, now I'm going tosit back, I'm just going to
(50:47):
watch what you do, because Iknow you will, staying alert for
every opportunity that Godmight bring.
Watching in prayer is beingalert to the opportunities that
might come up, and then we cansay there's my time.
(51:09):
Now is the time.
Proverbs 21 says the king'sheart is a stream of water in
the hand of the Lord.
He turns it wherever he will,and very soon the king of kings
would promote Nehemiah togovernor in order to rebuild the
(51:30):
wall.
Let's pray.
So, father, we just thank youfor what you bring to us in your
word and Lord, as we begin andlay the foundations for this
series, lord, we just prayyou'll burn these truths into
our minds and that we will cryout to you for help, lord.
(51:53):
Whatever it is that we're goingthrough today, where our lives
have been broken and disruptedand shattered in so many ways,
lord, some of those we may tryto fix and then we fail.
But, lord, you are the one thatcan change everything, so do
(52:16):
that work.
Today, lord, we ask for everyone of us, those who know you
and those who are coming to knowyou, lord, that you might
glorify yourselves, as we trustin you, lord Jesus, for your own
glory and for your own sake.
In Jesus' name amen.
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