SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You may have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: If you would open up your Bibles to the book of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_01: My name is Pastor Sammy, one of the pastors here.
SPEAKER_01: If I don't know you, glad that you are here and would like to get to know you after service.
SPEAKER_01: I'll be over in the back.
SPEAKER_01: But if you can open your Bibles to the book of Nehemiah, if you don't have a Bible, there should be one in front of you.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't know where Nehemiah is, you can turn to your neighbor and they'll help you out.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to imagine this for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: There was a woman named Ida Scudder.
SPEAKER_01: She was a famous medical missionary who served most of her life in India.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, only a couple years ago we actually figured this out is that Mariah's maiden name is Scudder and was a great, great aunt of hers.
SPEAKER_01: This is before we even knew that we were, this was after the fact that we had felt called and serving in South Asia.
SPEAKER_01: And so the way God works is incredible.
SPEAKER_01: But Ida Scudder's story is an incredible story where for generations and years she lived there as a medical missionary, caring for the physical needs of people, but sharing the gospel, sharing the love of Jesus with people.
SPEAKER_01: But that wasn't her plan to begin with.
SPEAKER_01: See, her plan, she was bright and she was smart.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, the well-known preacher, minister D.
SPEAKER_01: Al Moody had offered her a scholarship to study in a school over in Massachusetts.
SPEAKER_01: And when she was there, she loved it there.
SPEAKER_01: And she thought, you know what, I'm gonna live here and spend the rest of my life here.
SPEAKER_01: Well, her parents were missionaries in India, and she went to go and visit her parents and spend time there.
SPEAKER_01: And while she was there in the day, one man knocked on the door.
SPEAKER_01: It was an Indian local there, a Hindu man who had come and who came to the father's door and said, My wife is sick and she's pregnant and we need help.
SPEAKER_01: And so Ida's father said, Okay, well, I can go and see her and try to help.
SPEAKER_01: And the man denied him and said, You cannot see or touch my wife.
SPEAKER_01: That was the norm there in that culture for that.
SPEAKER_01: And some time went on, and that man went home, and so after some time, another man came and knocked on the door.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this was a Muslim man.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I have my wife, she's pregnant, and she's sick.
SPEAKER_01: And Ida's father made the same request, and he said the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: I would die before I would let you see my wife.
SPEAKER_01: Well, guess what happens?
SPEAKER_01: Sometime later in the night.
SPEAKER_01: A third knock for the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: And the man went home and didn't let Ida's father, who was a doctor, see what to help.
SPEAKER_01: Later that day, Ida would hear the bad news that those babies and women passed away and died.
SPEAKER_01: And in response to this, there's a quote I want to read for her maybe on the screens, but if not, listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: She said, I could not sleep that night.
SPEAKER_01: It was too terrible.
SPEAKER_01: Within the touch of my hand were three girls dying because there was no woman to help them.
SPEAKER_01: I spent much of the night in anguish and prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I went to bed in the early morning after praying much for guidance.
SPEAKER_01: I think that was the first time I have ever met God face to face.
SPEAKER_01: And all that time it seemed that he was calling me into this work.
SPEAKER_01: Ida Scudder would leave her dreams and ambition and the nice life in the States to serve there.
SPEAKER_01: See, just like we've been seeing in our text last week and starting the series in Nehemiah, Nehemiah had started with a burden with a brokenness to do something, but it didn't just stay there.
SPEAKER_01: It led him to prayer, to broken, real prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And so the question that the text will answer for us this morning is this how do we pray for renewal within us and around us?
SPEAKER_01: How do me and you pray for renewal, for new things, restoration, peace in us and around us?
SPEAKER_01: And so what I want us to do is stand in this moment, as is custom here in reverence for the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: That when we stand, we are declaring that we are standing upon God's word, that we are ready to receive it.
SPEAKER_01: As we stand, I want you to turn to your neighbor and ask them, Are you hungry?
SPEAKER_01: Can you do that?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Not for physical food, not for physical food, but spiritual food.
SPEAKER_01: When this book is open, God is speaking.
SPEAKER_01: And we need to come ready to receive his word.
SPEAKER_01: Not just to receive it, but to obey it.
SPEAKER_01: This is the word of God, Nehemiah chapter 1, verse 4 through 11.
SPEAKER_01: Says, as soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.
SPEAKER_01: Let your ears be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayers of your servant, that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel, your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you.
SPEAKER_01: Even I and my father's house have sinned.
SPEAKER_01: We have acted very corruptly against you, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you have commanded your servant Moses.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples.
SPEAKER_01: But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen to make my name dwell there.
SPEAKER_01: They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand.
SPEAKER_01: O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servant who delights to delight to fear your name and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
SPEAKER_01: Now I was the cupbearer to the king.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We give you praise and honor and worship because you are great and you are awesome and you are worthy and you are incredible and you are high and lifted up.
SPEAKER_01: And you are holy, but God, we are sinners.
SPEAKER_01: God, forgive us of our sins.
SPEAKER_01: God, forgive us of the sins we committed this moment.
SPEAKER_01: Today, yesterday, tomorrow, God, we are broken people and we need your help.
SPEAKER_01: We need renewal.
SPEAKER_01: We confess it.
SPEAKER_01: Lord God, we thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_01: That you promised that you would be here with us, you would never forsake us.
SPEAKER_01: And that your spirit would come for us and give us power to obey your word, Lord God.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, we ask right now that you be here right now.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, be here and renew us.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's valuable before we jump in to chapter one to do a brief uh recap of last week because we started a new series and so we spent a lot of time uh going over the context of this book of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_01: Um and actually I want to provide a resource for you guys.
SPEAKER_01: This might be on the screen, but actually, we have uh a podcast of the sermons and messages on Spotify and on Apple Podcasts.
SPEAKER_01: So for ever any reason where you uh missed a Sunday due to just life circumstances, you can listen and find the message there.
SPEAKER_01: If you are jumping into the series, I would encourage you to listen to the first message because then you'll be able to hear more of uh the context and what's going on in Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so before we jump into verse four, um, just a quick uh reminder of what's going on here.
SPEAKER_01: See, God had made a covenant with his people, okay?
SPEAKER_01: He made a promise with them.
SPEAKER_01: He said, if you would follow me and obey me, then I will bless you and I will have a place for you.
SPEAKER_01: This place was the promised land, the land of Israel, and so God would do that and he would establish a nation, a kingdom in Israel, if they obeyed his commandments and followed him.
SPEAKER_01: Eventually, over time, they would run from God, disobey God, and so this caused the nation of Israel to split into kingdoms, a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, over time, these kingdoms, eventually, the north and the south, would be taken captive by different nations.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's what God promised.
SPEAKER_01: God promised them, he said, if you disobeyed me, I will scatter you.
SPEAKER_01: And so he did that.
SPEAKER_01: They were scattered to different parts all over the world, and Jerusalem, the city, which was the place where God was worshipped, where God dwelled and stayed, where people can see his glory and counter him, the temple was destroyed.
SPEAKER_01: The walls were in ruin.
SPEAKER_01: And now it's been a hundred and forty years since then.
SPEAKER_01: And God is getting ready to bring his people back.
SPEAKER_01: And it starts first in the book of Ezra with some people coming there to rebuilding the temple, and then now Nehemiah feeling a call and a burden to rebuild the walls.
SPEAKER_01: So that's where we are in the first verses.
SPEAKER_01: Nehemiah hears this news about the walls being destroyed.
SPEAKER_01: And who was Nehemiah, like we learned last week?
SPEAKER_01: Nehemiah wasn't a priest, he wasn't a prophet, he wasn't a king, he was a regular person.
SPEAKER_01: A regular person who God used to do something incredible.
SPEAKER_01: And so we pick up on verse 4, Nehemiah hearing this bad news of the walls still destroyed.
SPEAKER_01: It says, as soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: See, before Nehemiah touched a brick to rebuild a wall, he was filled with a burden.
SPEAKER_01: This is important.
SPEAKER_01: We talked about this last week, right?
SPEAKER_01: You will struggle to do anything great for God if you are not burdened about what's going on in your life and the life of others.
SPEAKER_01: And so what I want us to do, and what we're gonna do today, is just walk through Nehemiah's prayer, verses 5 through 11.
SPEAKER_01: And what I think is so valuable about this prayer is really this is gonna teach us how to pray.
SPEAKER_01: It's a beautiful model, it's a beautiful example to teach us how to pray.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you've ever had a moment where you were finally like, okay, I'm gonna pray and spend time in prayer, and you close the door and you get ready, you get on your knees, or you take your seat, and you begin to pray, and after only a couple seconds, you're like, what on earth do I pray for?
SPEAKER_01: Or how do I pray?
SPEAKER_01: Where do I start?
SPEAKER_01: Well, here I wanted to give you a model, a tool that would really be helpful for you to know how to pray.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5 starts with this, this prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I prayed.
SPEAKER_01: This is Nehemiah, Lord, O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.
SPEAKER_01: Nehemiah, in his prayer to God, starts with praise.
SPEAKER_01: He starts with praise.
SPEAKER_01: So, going back to that question, how do we pray for renewal within us and around us first?
SPEAKER_01: Pray with praise.
SPEAKER_01: That's the first point.
SPEAKER_01: Pray with praise.
SPEAKER_01: Notice the first words of Nehemiah's prayer.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't start with the problem.
SPEAKER_01: He starts with praise.
SPEAKER_01: He starts with praise to God, recognizing who God is and giving him worship.
SPEAKER_01: What is praise?
SPEAKER_01: Praise is to honor someone, to speak of someone highly, to recognize someone for their worth, for who they are.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Oh Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Let's start there.
SPEAKER_01: If you look in your Bibles, it's Lord with capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D.
SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
SPEAKER_01: There's a reason that's there.
SPEAKER_01: The reason that it's there is because this was the personal name of God.
SPEAKER_01: This was God's name, Yahweh, and back then that name was so holy that the people who would write down and transcribe these words of the Bible would not even write his name.
SPEAKER_01: But they would use this as a substitute of writing his holy name and just put Lord all caps.
SPEAKER_01: This was the name that the Lord revealed to Moses when Moses asked, Who do I say sent me?
SPEAKER_01: Say, I am sent to you.
SPEAKER_01: Really, there is no better word to describe who God is than I am.
SPEAKER_01: It is a statement that God is.
SPEAKER_01: God will always be.
SPEAKER_01: You and I are dependent on God.
SPEAKER_01: That our hearts are breathing, that our ears are hearing, that our eyes are seeing, that our lungs are breathing, we are dependent.
SPEAKER_01: God is holding everything together, he is sustaining everything together, and we are utterly dependent on him, and he is utterly independent and not needing anything.
SPEAKER_01: He is.
SPEAKER_01: I am who I am.
SPEAKER_01: So how important is that when the walls are breaking down in life?
SPEAKER_01: When everything's falling apart, when we hear the bad news, to know God is who he is and he never changes.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 1, it says, the Lord God, but also Lord God of what?
SPEAKER_01: Heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Nehemiah starts with the name of God, then he moves to the position of God where God is.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord God of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: God is on the throne.
SPEAKER_01: He's above all.
SPEAKER_01: Just like the Father who says, What?
SPEAKER_01: Father who art in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: He starts his prayer in that same way.
SPEAKER_01: That God, you are on your throne.
SPEAKER_01: You are above all.
SPEAKER_01: You are a position high.
SPEAKER_01: You are over everything.
SPEAKER_01: He gives them praise.
SPEAKER_01: This is your personal name.
SPEAKER_01: You are Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You are in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: But look out what else he says.
SPEAKER_01: He says, the great and awesome God.
SPEAKER_01: He says, God, you are great.
SPEAKER_01: You are big.
SPEAKER_01: He says, you are awesome.
SPEAKER_01: This word awesome is to be amazed.
SPEAKER_01: In some translations, it says to fear.
SPEAKER_01: That you're just so stunned.
SPEAKER_01: You are just blown away.
SPEAKER_01: That God, you are incredible.
SPEAKER_01: You are amazing.
SPEAKER_01: And not only that, but God, you are to be feared.
SPEAKER_01: You are to be in all of when we think of you, when we see you, but God, you also keep your covenant.
SPEAKER_01: It says, God, you tell the truth.
SPEAKER_01: And you don't lie and you don't go back on your word.
SPEAKER_01: You're trustworthy.
SPEAKER_01: Not only do you keep your covenant, you keep your what?
SPEAKER_01: Stead fast love.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see it there?
SPEAKER_01: In verse 5?
SPEAKER_01: Your steadfast love to those who love you.
SPEAKER_01: His kindness, goodness, and mercy towards you.
SPEAKER_01: This is incredible, but don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: That this God who is high and lifted up, who sustains all things, who created all things, who is the great I am, loves you.
SPEAKER_01: He loves you.
SPEAKER_01: This is who he is.
SPEAKER_01: This is incredible.
SPEAKER_01: You see this?
SPEAKER_01: He starts with praise.
SPEAKER_01: He starts with recognizing God.
SPEAKER_01: This is who you are, God.
SPEAKER_01: And so for us, this is a way that I would just encourage you when you're in prayer and your time with God to just start with worship, to recognize Him for who He is, to give Him the praise He deserves.
SPEAKER_01: So how do we pray for renewal within us and around us?
SPEAKER_01: Pray with praise.
SPEAKER_01: But let's keep looking at verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: Nehemiah says, Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel, your servants.
SPEAKER_01: Confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you, even I in my father's house we have sinned.
SPEAKER_01: How do we pray for renewal within us and around us?
SPEAKER_01: First, pray with praise.
SPEAKER_01: Second, pray with purity.
SPEAKER_01: Pray with purity.
SPEAKER_01: Look, he confesses sin.
SPEAKER_01: You see that in verse 6?
SPEAKER_01: Confessing the sins of the people.
SPEAKER_01: See, Nehemiah goes into the root of the problem.
SPEAKER_01: The problem was not the Babylons and these other Babylonians and the Assyrians or these other nations coming and taking them captive.
SPEAKER_01: The problem was sin.
SPEAKER_01: It was disobeying God.
SPEAKER_01: And it was in them disobeying God that this was the consequence that happened.
SPEAKER_01: He said that this would happen.
SPEAKER_01: And Nehemiah knows this.
SPEAKER_01: That this is the problem.
SPEAKER_01: We have sinned, and he's confessing it.
SPEAKER_01: But notice he says the word we here.
SPEAKER_01: Nehemiah confesses the sins of the people.
SPEAKER_01: But Nehemiah doesn't say they have sinned.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to remember that.
SPEAKER_01: It was 140 years ago that the captivity happened, that the walls were destroyed, that Jerusalem was destroyed.
SPEAKER_01: And he could have said, Yeah, their sin that they did 140 years ago in a place I've never been, yeah, forgive them.
SPEAKER_01: Is that what Nehemiah says?
SPEAKER_01: No, he says, We have sinned.
SPEAKER_01: And he moves it even further.
SPEAKER_01: You see that last part in verse 6?
SPEAKER_01: Look at that in verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Even I and my father's house have sinned.
SPEAKER_01: And Nehemiah took personal responsibility for his sin and the sins of the people.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't shift the blame to others.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing: you will struggle to build the broken walls and restore what needs to be restored in your life and around you if you do not take personal responsibility for your sins.
SPEAKER_01: You can't.
SPEAKER_01: You can't do it.
SPEAKER_01: You can't build the things around you until you take ownership and your part in it.
SPEAKER_01: Of our sin.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what I want you to understand is I'm not saying all the things that happen in your life are because of your sin.
SPEAKER_01: Or because of the brokenness that's going on.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm saying there are things that we do play a role in.
SPEAKER_01: That we do.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And we try to shift the blame.
SPEAKER_01: We say, oh, the reason my marriage is messed up is because of my spouse.
SPEAKER_01: The reason my child is run from God is because of them and their ignorance.
SPEAKER_01: The reason why this is going on in the workplace is because X or Y person.
SPEAKER_01: Or why that happened in that conflict in our church or the church split or the herd.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not saying there's responsibility in other parts.
SPEAKER_01: What I'm saying is in other people.
SPEAKER_01: Nehemiah is saying, I've played a role.
SPEAKER_01: And it's recognizing that.
SPEAKER_01: Say, I've sinned against God.
SPEAKER_01: And asking the Lord, God, where is it?
SPEAKER_01: Is there a place that I don't even realize in the situation where there's brokenness around me that I may be playing a part in it?
SPEAKER_01: That I need to take responsibility over.
SPEAKER_01: And again, I want us to be be careful with this because for those of us who've ever been hurt or abused or taken advantage of, that is in no way, in any shape, way or form your fault.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm not talking about those sins of what people have caused to you, but what are the things in your life that you know if you examine and think through and let this and asking the Holy Spirit to search that have happened because your pride and your greed and your lust that's led to brokenness, that you need renewal from, and that you cannot start rebuilding and renewing until you confess your sin to God.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 6, it starts this.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this here.
SPEAKER_01: Why does Nehemiah mention the ears and eyes to God?
SPEAKER_01: He says, Let your ears be attentive, let your eyes open to hear the prayers of your servant.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We know that the Lord, the creator of all things, knows everything that has happened, that will happen from eternity past to eternity future.
SPEAKER_01: He knows.
SPEAKER_01: So what does Nehemiah mean?
SPEAKER_01: Let your ear be attentive, let your eyes be open.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Isaiah 59, verses 1 through 2.
SPEAKER_01: It helps us understand what Nehemiah is asking here.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, or his ears dull, that it cannot hear.
SPEAKER_01: But your what?
SPEAKER_01: Iniquities, which was sin, have made a separation between you and your God, and your sin have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
SPEAKER_01: You ever try to talk to someone and they can kind of hear you, but they're not listening?
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: Me and my wife were just talking about this, right?
SPEAKER_01: Where the the go-to is the uh right?
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: And I would say I don't do it so much while I'm on my phone.
SPEAKER_01: It's more when I'm like falling asleep.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just like, uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: Because she's a night owl, I'm not, and so like I'm ready to go down, and she's ready to start partying late into the into the night.
SPEAKER_01: But you've experienced that.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what sin is like, where God is is there sitting and we've sinned against him, and he's hid his face towards us, and he loves us, he's for us, he wants to.
SPEAKER_01: And we're asking God, hey, God, uh, I can you help with this?
SPEAKER_01: And and here's what's going on, and God's saying, uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: He knows what you're saying, but he's waiting for you to do what Nehemiah is doing and saying, God, I've sinned.
SPEAKER_01: We've sinned.
SPEAKER_01: And confess, God, we need you.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: This isn't only in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: I want to give one example.
SPEAKER_01: There's so many passages we can go to, but it's also in 1 Peter in the New Testament, chapter 3, verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
SPEAKER_01: Nehemiah is saying, God, let your ears hear, let your eyes see, because he knows that if he does not confess his sin, his prayers will be hindered.
SPEAKER_01: So he confesses, God, we're broken.
SPEAKER_01: We need you.
SPEAKER_01: So what was that sin?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: It says this, we have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses.
SPEAKER_01: See, Moses was given the law, the Ten Commandments, and the other laws that the people of God were supposed to obey.
SPEAKER_01: And they were given.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this, Exodus 19, 7 through 8.
SPEAKER_01: This is a moment in Exodus in the Old Testament where the law is given and Moses is giving it to the people.
SPEAKER_01: Look what the people say.
SPEAKER_01: So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him.
SPEAKER_01: All the people answered together and said, All that the Lord has spoken, we will do.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So Moses gets the law and the commandments of God.
SPEAKER_01: He goes before the people of God and they say, Yep, we got it.
SPEAKER_01: We'll do it.
SPEAKER_01: But what happens?
SPEAKER_01: They fail.
SPEAKER_01: And they do the same thing in Exodus 24 and Deuteronomy 5 and Joshua 24, over and over, failing and coming back with this similar moment of Lord, you've spoken, we're gonna do it.
SPEAKER_01: And so here Nehemiah is quoting the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, We've disobeyed what the people said they would do.
SPEAKER_01: They heard the command.
SPEAKER_01: They said to obey it, but they didn't.
SPEAKER_01: You can't.
SPEAKER_01: Second Timothy, I want to go here.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Timothy chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Paul is saying to Timothy, this young man in the faith, training him up to be a minister.
SPEAKER_01: And he says this in verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: Now in a great house they are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
SPEAKER_01: What is it saying here?
SPEAKER_01: See, in a house, like ours, me and Mo, we don't have fine china, nice plates, right?
SPEAKER_01: What we have is we have our plastic plates and then maybe our regular plates.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: The plastic plates, those are disposable.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Use them, throw them away.
SPEAKER_01: Don't have to do dishes, it's great.
SPEAKER_01: And then you have the plates that when people are coming that we want to put out and make it look nicer, we'll use those plates.
SPEAKER_01: See, that's what Paul is talking about here, that there's two types of vessels, two types of instruments or plates.
SPEAKER_01: There's one that is for dishonorable use and one for honorable use.
SPEAKER_01: And he's saying to Timothy, he's saying, Timothy, you need to be pure.
SPEAKER_01: If you are gonna allow God to use you, you need to set yourself apart.
SPEAKER_01: That's what holy means.
SPEAKER_01: To be set apart, to say, my life is not gonna be used for filth and sin.
SPEAKER_01: My life is gonna be set apart, pure and clean for God to use.
SPEAKER_01: And so you cannot be used.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot be used to rebuild the brokenness around you, the brokenness in your marriage, the brokenness in your family, the brokenness in your community.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot begin to be a Nehemiah until you confess to God of your sins.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't mean generally, I mean specifically.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, God, here is where I've sinned against you.
SPEAKER_01: Forgive me of my sin.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be used.
SPEAKER_01: And I know it, I know it, I know it, I know it with all my heart.
SPEAKER_01: That there are people in here that you have such a desire to serve God, to share the gospel, to be a light, to be filled with the Spirit, to be that vessel.
SPEAKER_01: But you are in bondage to sin and shame.
SPEAKER_01: I know it because that's what I wrestle with.
SPEAKER_01: Where you feel it, you feel this call and this tug of, yes, I want that.
SPEAKER_01: I want that, I want to live for God.
SPEAKER_01: But then you're not willing to just sit before God and say, God, I've sinned.
SPEAKER_01: Truly and really be broken over it.
SPEAKER_01: To confess it to him and to confess it to others so that you may be healed.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the good news, 1 John 1.9.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't know this verse, I encourage you to write it down.
SPEAKER_01: 1 John 1.9.
SPEAKER_01: It says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_01: He's faithful to forgive us, to cleanse you.
SPEAKER_01: And you don't have to hold on to that.
SPEAKER_01: But you can be like Nehemiah and confess it and see the brokenness around you and say, Jesus, I've sinned.
SPEAKER_01: I've done some things that have broken down these walls.
SPEAKER_01: My family has done these things that have broken down the walls.
SPEAKER_01: There are people who have broken down the walls.
SPEAKER_01: God, start with me.
SPEAKER_01: I need renewal.
SPEAKER_01: He needs to do something in you before he can do something through you.
SPEAKER_01: So, how do we pray for renewal within us and around us?
SPEAKER_01: First, pray with praise.
SPEAKER_01: Second, pray with purity.
SPEAKER_01: Third, pray with promises.
SPEAKER_01: Pray with promises.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples.
SPEAKER_01: Nehemiah here, he's quoting the book of Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I'm giving you this command, and if you obey them, I will bless you.
SPEAKER_01: If you disobey them, I'll scatter you.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Deuteronomy 4.27.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you.
SPEAKER_01: This hasn't happened yet, but if you look at the verses surrounding there, the Lord is saying, Hey, if you disobey me, this is what will happen.
SPEAKER_01: And now they're living in the consequences of that, where they now are scattered.
SPEAKER_01: Nehemiah is quoting the Bible to God in his prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Nehemiah verse 1 9.
SPEAKER_01: It says, But if you return to me, this is Nehemiah quoting God, and keep my commandments and do them, though you, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen to make my name dwell there.
SPEAKER_01: God promised that if you disobey, you will be scattered.
SPEAKER_01: He promised, if you return, I'll restore you, I'll renew you, I'll bring us back together.
SPEAKER_01: Nehemiah again is quoting Deuteronomy 30.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this, verses 1 through 4.
SPEAKER_01: This is hundreds and hundreds of years before.
SPEAKER_01: It says, When all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord God has driven you.
SPEAKER_01: So you've been driven to different places.
SPEAKER_01: And return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I've commanded you today with all your heart and with all your soul soul.
SPEAKER_01: Then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will what?
SPEAKER_01: Gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.
SPEAKER_01: If your outcasts are what in the uttermost parts of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: We just read this prayer from Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_01: He's quoting Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER_01: From there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: What is Nehemiah doing here?
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, God, you promised if we disobey, you'll scatter us.
SPEAKER_01: And you did that.
SPEAKER_01: Jerusalem's destroyed.
SPEAKER_01: The walls are destroyed.
SPEAKER_01: Our nation, people everywhere, all over.
SPEAKER_01: We're scattered.
SPEAKER_01: But God, you promised that if we come back to you, you will restore us.
SPEAKER_01: That hasn't happened yet.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_01: One thing has happened.
SPEAKER_01: He said, we disobeyed, we were scattered.
SPEAKER_01: That happened.
SPEAKER_01: You said it, it happened.
SPEAKER_01: But you said, if we return to you, you'll bring us back.
SPEAKER_01: The promises are important.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to be careful with promises as Hadassah our first gets older.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you have experienced this before.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe with one of your kids, and maybe it's a Monday, and one of your kids is saying, hey, let's go to the beach.
SPEAKER_01: I want to go to the beach today.
SPEAKER_01: And you say, you know what, we'll go to the beach on Saturday, I promise.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So Tuesday comes and they're saying, alright, Saturday.
SPEAKER_01: Wednesday comes, they're excited, they're they're waiting through Wednesday comes, Thursday, Friday, Saturday morning, early in the morning.
SPEAKER_01: They wake you up.
SPEAKER_01: They were going to the beach.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: You promised.
SPEAKER_01: You said that you would take us.
SPEAKER_01: Promises are important.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Nehemiah is doing is God, you promised.
SPEAKER_01: God, you made a covenant with us.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the beginning of his prayer in verse 5?
SPEAKER_01: Oh Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant, who keeps promise.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, God, you don't break your promises.
SPEAKER_01: What you said you will do then, do now.
SPEAKER_01: God, you said if we run from you, you would scatter us.
SPEAKER_01: You said if we came back to you, you would restore us and bring us back to that promised land.
SPEAKER_01: And so, God, right now, I confess my sins to you.
SPEAKER_01: I confess the sins of your people.
SPEAKER_01: I am a person of Israel taking responsibility and saying, I'm coming back to you.
SPEAKER_01: So keep your promise.
SPEAKER_01: He says, remember.
SPEAKER_01: You think God forgets?
SPEAKER_01: No, but this is language they use in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying, God, remember your promise.
SPEAKER_01: Can I tell you this?
SPEAKER_01: There are 7,000 promises in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And this past week you didn't declare one to God in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: 7,000 promises.
SPEAKER_01: Here's some.
SPEAKER_01: I encourage you to write some of these down.
SPEAKER_01: Where you can take specific things you're going through in your life and let the word of God shape your prayer.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible shape your prayer just like Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_01: If you're anxious, Philippians 4, 6 through 7.
SPEAKER_01: Where it says, God, you promise peace.
SPEAKER_01: Would you guard my heart and mine, and I give you my anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: If you're afraid, Isaiah 41, 10, fear not, I'm with you.
SPEAKER_01: God, you promise you're with me.
SPEAKER_01: Give me courage because I know I'm not alone.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 13, 5, if you feel alone, where it says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you.
SPEAKER_01: God, you promise you will you'll provide for me.
SPEAKER_01: You'll be with me.
SPEAKER_01: If you're struggling with temptation, 1 Corinthians 10 13, where it says, God is faithful with the temptation, he will provide a way out.
SPEAKER_01: Where you say, God, you promised a way out of this temptation.
SPEAKER_01: You'll provide that.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're saying, God, I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_01: James 1.5.
SPEAKER_01: If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God and it'll be given to them.
SPEAKER_01: God, you promise wisdom, give it to me.
SPEAKER_01: If you feel weak, 2 Corinthians 12, 9, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
SPEAKER_01: Say, God, I don't have the strength, but your grace is sufficient.
SPEAKER_01: Show your power through my weakness.
SPEAKER_01: If you're worried, Matthew 6, 31 through 33.
SPEAKER_01: And say, God, I seek you, and I'm not going to worry about that.
SPEAKER_01: And you promise when I seek you, God, you will provide for me.
SPEAKER_01: If you're discouraged and want to quit Galatians 6, 9, let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up.
SPEAKER_01: And say, God, you promise to harvest.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see this?
SPEAKER_01: What Nehemiah is doing?
SPEAKER_01: Saying, God, you promise in your word.
SPEAKER_01: And you are a covenant-keeping God.
SPEAKER_01: Pray the scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason we don't know how to pray the promises of God is because we don't know the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Get into the Bible, get into the Word of God and see the promises that God has declared over you.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Talking about the people of Israel whom you have redeemed by your great power, by your strong hand.
SPEAKER_01: Saying God, remember, these are the people you've redeemed.
SPEAKER_01: He's using language of the Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: You took them out from bondage, from slavery in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: You've redeemed them.
SPEAKER_01: Saying remember.
SPEAKER_01: How do we pray for renewal within us and around us?
SPEAKER_01: Pray with praise.
SPEAKER_01: Pray with purity.
SPEAKER_01: Pray with promises.
SPEAKER_01: And lastly, pray for provision.
SPEAKER_01: Pray for provision.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the last verse in verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: It says, O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant.
SPEAKER_01: And to the prayer of your servant who delight to fear your name.
SPEAKER_01: And give success to your servant today.
SPEAKER_01: And grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that before Nehemiah asks anything, what does he do?
SPEAKER_01: He praised.
SPEAKER_01: He purified his heart.
SPEAKER_01: He declared the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: This prayer is seven verses long, and in one last verse, one of them, he asked for something.
SPEAKER_01: How many of us have it upside down?
SPEAKER_01: God, you're good.
SPEAKER_01: And then he boom.
SPEAKER_01: The list of things that you need, that you need help with.
SPEAKER_01: Like a grocer list, like a to do of God help me here, God help me here.
SPEAKER_01: God help me here.
SPEAKER_01: What is Nehemiah asking here?
SPEAKER_01: This is so important.
SPEAKER_01: He says, give success to your servant today, and we'll come back to Today, there.
SPEAKER_01: But he says, give me favor with this earthly king.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's asking.
SPEAKER_01: He's the cupbearer.
SPEAKER_01: We learned about that last week.
SPEAKER_01: We'll see more of that in the following weeks.
SPEAKER_01: He's the cupbearer of the king.
SPEAKER_01: And he's asking favor for a specific man.
SPEAKER_01: That there, this king that he serves under, has the power to help the situation.
SPEAKER_01: Nehemiah knows that.
SPEAKER_01: But before he goes to some earthly king for help, he goes to the heavenly king.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Give me favor with this man.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Help me, give me the favor I need.
SPEAKER_01: So when he's asking this, he says, Give me success in this way.
SPEAKER_01: And this is where we have to be careful when we're asking for success.
SPEAKER_01: Because when we pray, a lot of times we're asking for worldly success.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what Nehemiah is asking here, right?
SPEAKER_01: We know the context, we know what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: He's not praying for his own success.
SPEAKER_01: Nehemiah is burdened about what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: When he hears the news, he says, the walls have been destroyed and there's great shame.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: In the prayer, he says, God, this is the place where your name dwelt.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: People would go to Jerusalem when Solomon built the temple, said, This is the house of prayer for all nations.
SPEAKER_01: And the people would come and they would encounter God.
SPEAKER_01: And they were a people, a nation that what represented to the world.
SPEAKER_01: This is God.
SPEAKER_01: And they brought shame to that.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what's burdening Nehemiah's heart.
SPEAKER_01: And he's saying, God, I want your name to be known.
SPEAKER_01: I want people to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: I want people to know your glory, to experience you, to see the honor that you are worth and do.
SPEAKER_01: And the city is in ruins.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to do something about it.
SPEAKER_01: So God grant me success.
SPEAKER_01: So He's not praying for success of health and wealth and prosperity and everything to work out.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, God, give me success to fulfill your will for me and my life.
SPEAKER_01: Do our prayers look like that?
SPEAKER_01: Or do our prayers oftentimes look like a worldly success?
SPEAKER_01: And there's nothing wrong with praying those prayers, but if that's the only prayers we pray, everything needs to be filtered.
SPEAKER_01: Saying, God, I'm your servant.
SPEAKER_01: Use me.
SPEAKER_01: Give me success.
SPEAKER_01: Today.
SPEAKER_01: The focus of the prayer is not about Nehemiah, it's about God and what God can do.
SPEAKER_01: Do you pray prayers like that?
SPEAKER_01: Saying, oh God, use me.
SPEAKER_01: Oh God, give me success today as I go into the workplace to share your gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Oh God, give me success today.
SPEAKER_01: As I try to serve and love my family and leave them to you.
SPEAKER_01: Oh God, give me success as I try to renew and rebuild the brokenness around me.
SPEAKER_01: God, give me success to overcome these temptations in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing we have to see is Nehemiah prayed continuously.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: He said there, today I pray.
SPEAKER_01: That you give me success today.
SPEAKER_01: And you look at verse 4, it says, What?
SPEAKER_01: As soon as I heard these words, I sat down, wept, and mourned for days.
SPEAKER_01: And I continued fasting and praying.
SPEAKER_01: In his confession in verse 6, he said, Your servants that I now pray before you day and night.
SPEAKER_01: And if you look at chapter 2, verse 1, it says this.
SPEAKER_01: It says, in the month of Nisan, he's not talking about a car there.
SPEAKER_01: But if you look at chapter 1, verse 1, it was the month of Kislev.
SPEAKER_01: See, the month of Kislev to Nisan was four months.
SPEAKER_01: So when we'll see in next week in chapter 2, it wasn't till four months that God answered his prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And how many of us, we pray for these things.
SPEAKER_01: We pray to see God move.
SPEAKER_01: And we pray that one prayer and then we give up.
SPEAKER_01: And Nehemiah, he's burdened, he's broken, and he's praying, God, you need to do something.
SPEAKER_01: God, I need success today.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
SPEAKER_01: That day, it didn't happen.
SPEAKER_01: Next day it didn't happen.
SPEAKER_01: Next day didn't happen.
SPEAKER_01: Four months later.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll learn about what happened there.
SPEAKER_01: I want to close here off the band to come up.
SPEAKER_01: So often we will use prayer not as a as a first priority but a last resort.
SPEAKER_01: See, Nehemiah, he understood something.
SPEAKER_01: That this problem was too big.
SPEAKER_01: This was not something that he could fix.
SPEAKER_01: And there are lies that we're we believe that we're trying to fix these things ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Thinking, I can handle it, I can do it, and let me do this, let me talk to this person, let me make this call, let me reach out there, let me do this, let me and Nehemiah's like, God, I need you to do something.
SPEAKER_01: I I can't have success without you.
SPEAKER_01: I can't fulfill what is before me to renew our people without you, God.
SPEAKER_01: And we need that.
SPEAKER_01: We need to understand that.
SPEAKER_01: We are so in our pride, in our human nature.
SPEAKER_01: We'll spend so little time praying and so much time working and striving.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm just asking you today that you would pray.
SPEAKER_01: That you'd begin praying.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the great thing, we get to practice that now, in this very moment.
SPEAKER_01: If we can't do that here, then how are we gonna do it out there?
SPEAKER_01: We can come and pray.
SPEAKER_01: And I wanna just look at verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Before we close in prayer, it says, They are your servants and your people who you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand.
SPEAKER_01: See, God, He had saved and rescued the people of Israel from Egypt in the bondage that they were in.
SPEAKER_01: But in the New Testament, that same word redeemed is used for the work of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That me and you, we were in bondage, we were in sin, we were enslaved, and Jesus redeemed us from that.
SPEAKER_01: Have you been redeemed?
SPEAKER_01: That word means to be purchased, to be brought back.
SPEAKER_01: That Jesus paid a price, and the price was his life.
SPEAKER_01: See, a good way to think about it is Jesus was our cupbearer.
SPEAKER_01: See, what's the job of Nehemiah?
SPEAKER_01: Nehemiah was a cupbearer.
SPEAKER_01: Cupbearer was supposed to drink the cup of the poison to make sure the king wouldn't die.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing: Jesus was the king.
SPEAKER_01: And we deserve the poison because the consequences of our sin was death.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, although he prayed there with sweat and said, Let this cup pass from me, he would say, Your will be done.
SPEAKER_01: And he took the cup and the wrath of God, every single ounce, every single bit of it, he put upon himself.
SPEAKER_01: And he was our cupbearer.
SPEAKER_01: Because of his love for you, and three days later, he rose again, and now he offers eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: And you can just turn away from your sin and your brokenness and trust in him.
SPEAKER_01: And you can do that today.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna enter into time of prayer, into a time of worship together, singing praise to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And during this time, there's gonna be people right here.
SPEAKER_01: We're not weird people, we're normal people.
SPEAKER_01: And we just want to talk to you and say, here's how you can find hope in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And say, Hey, I found that hope.
SPEAKER_01: You can be saved today, you can be redeemed today.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I pray that.
SPEAKER_01: I just pray that.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray right now, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: God, my words aren't enough.
SPEAKER_00: God, to convince people of your beauty, of your worthiness, God, that you are better than the world's best thing, Lord God.
SPEAKER_00: I need your help.
SPEAKER_00: So, God, I pray that you would grant success to this message.
SPEAKER_00: That there'd be people in here who'd feel the weight of their sin against you and call out to a loving God and say, Save me.
SPEAKER_00: That they would come down here and talk to someone and say, I want to be saved, I want to be redeemed.
SPEAKER_00: But God, we pray for our church.
SPEAKER_01: We need to rebuild our lives, we need to rebuild and renew this community.
SPEAKER_01: And it starts within us that we need to be a people of prayer, God.
SPEAKER_01: Make us into people of prayer to see how much in need we are of you, God.
SPEAKER_01: So I pray for us to just start right now.
SPEAKER_01: Let's not think about a couple hours from now or tomorrow or what this looks like next week, but right now, what does it look like to be a people of prayer?
SPEAKER_01: To feel the burden and the weight of the brokenness in us and around us, and just to call out to you, God.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's stand in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: This is time to respond.
SPEAKER_01: I'd encourage you to enter in a time of prayer, whatever that looks like, and to pray a prayer of praise.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's with some of the people around you or just by yourself out loud to God, however you feel God is calling you or drawing you to obey Him and praise Him and purify your heart in confession.
SPEAKER_01: Remind Him of the promises that He's made, and then make your petition.
SPEAKER_01: Saying, God, grant me success to live out your will.
SPEAKER_01: Can we do that?
SPEAKER_01: Can we pray to God and worship?
SPEAKER_01: There's a song we're gonna sing that God is worthy of it all.
SPEAKER_01: There's a line that says, day and night, night and day, let incense rise.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: In Revelation chapter 5, it talks about before the elders and the angels that are worshiping God day and night.
SPEAKER_01: There is this bowl of incense.
SPEAKER_01: What's an incense?
SPEAKER_01: It's it's an aroma to God and his throne, and it says, This incense is filled with the prayers of the saints.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's what we want to do: we want to fill that bowl up today with our prayers.
SPEAKER_01: Asking God to renew us and help us to see the brokenness around us that we can renew others and be used by Him.
SPEAKER_01: And say we're gonna pray.
SPEAKER_01: Let's respond to God.
SPEAKER_01: You come down if you need to be saved, and let's pray now.