unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We praise God for our worship team.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: How many of us know that there's no one greater than our God?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That's the next generation, church.
SPEAKER_00: That's the next generation.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That's the next generation.
SPEAKER_00: Such a blessing to see our children go over to play, but they're going also to learn the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you are visiting with us, we are walking through the book of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: And I would tell you, we would, well, the goal is to do it chapter by chapter, verse by verse.
SPEAKER_00: But I will tell you, if we go verse by verse today, we won't get out of here until tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have anywhere to be, I don't have anywhere to be.
SPEAKER_00: We can just stay right here in the text.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to be in Nehemiah chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a Bible, please turn with me to chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a Bible, you can look in the row in front of you and you'll be able to find one there.
SPEAKER_00: And you can turn and follow along with us.
SPEAKER_00: Keep Pastor Sammy and Mariah and Adassa in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: From one pastor's heart to another, it's not easy to be away from your flock.
SPEAKER_00: And so I know he is somewhat struggling, but can't be struggling too hard because he's on vacation.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to be in the entire chapter of chapter two on today, but I just want to read for our hearing the first eight verses.
SPEAKER_00: But we'll wrestle with the all 20 verses in this chapter on this day.
SPEAKER_00: So please keep me in prayer and keep yourself in prayer as we walk through this passage together.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: As we always do, and in reverence to God's word, may we all stand for the reading and the reverence of God's holy word.
SPEAKER_00: In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king.
SPEAKER_00: Now I had not been sad in his presence.
SPEAKER_00: And the king said to me, Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick?
SPEAKER_00: This is nothing but sadness of heart.
SPEAKER_00: Then I was very much afraid.
SPEAKER_00: I said to the king, let the king live forever.
SPEAKER_00: Why should I not, why should not my face be sad when the king, when the city, the place of my father's graves, lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire.
SPEAKER_00: When the king said to me, then the king said to me, What are you requesting?
SPEAKER_00: So I prayed to the God of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And I said to the king, If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah to the city of my father's grave, that I may rebuild it.
SPEAKER_00: And the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, How long will you be gone, and when will you return?
SPEAKER_00: So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time.
SPEAKER_00: And I said to the king, If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province beyond the river, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah.
SPEAKER_00: And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams of gates of the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.
SPEAKER_00: And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That's God's word for God's people.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father God, we thank you for your hand upon our lives.
SPEAKER_00: For without you, O God, we would not have breath in our bodies.
SPEAKER_00: We wouldn't be able to stand here to hear, to worship and to listen to your holy word.
SPEAKER_00: So we thank you, Father, that your word is living and it meets us right where we are.
SPEAKER_00: And so we pray right now, Father, for open ears and open hearts.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that your word that goes forth, dear God, that it is for our edification and for your glorification.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we pray for unsaved souls in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: That they hear something today, dear God, that pricks their hearts that they may come and ask, what must I do to be saved?
SPEAKER_00: Father, help me to set self out of the way so that your word can come forth.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you, we praise you, and we ask these blessings in Christ Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to talk to us for a moment about the kind of faith that God honors.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is a very common word that we always use, we know about, but when it's time to exercise faith, sometimes it's a totally different story.
SPEAKER_00: As a young adult in college, I lived in an apartment that caught on fire.
SPEAKER_00: I was not there in that moment, but I had two roommates who both had to jump out of the window.
SPEAKER_00: One jumped out of the window with no problem.
SPEAKER_00: He just ran and jumped out of the window.
SPEAKER_00: It was only two stories.
SPEAKER_00: But then the other one just hung from the window.
SPEAKER_00: He hung from the window, and my roommate was trying to tell him, hey, you need to jump.
SPEAKER_00: You need to let go.
SPEAKER_00: And he looking down said, no, I can't let go.
SPEAKER_00: And my roommate said, just jump, I got you.
SPEAKER_00: And he let go of the window beam, and my roommate was able to catch them, and they both fell to the ground.
SPEAKER_00: But in that moment, he had to have the faith that our roommate would catch him.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we look at faith and we examine faith, we have to understand that faith is a gift from God.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is full of narratives that we see that demonstrate how faith constantly opens pathways to divine favor.
SPEAKER_00: When you look through scriptures, you'll see Abraham's chief servant and Solomon both received wisdom when they sought, sought it out from God.
SPEAKER_00: Moses and Daniel's intercession for Israel brought divine mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Hannah found deliverance for her distress through earnest petition and prayer to God.
SPEAKER_00: And the list goes on and on.
SPEAKER_00: Joshua, Esther, Deborah, David, the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: These individuals were ordinary people who, like you and I, received answers to their prayers by placing confidence in God and trusting in his character and trusting in his word.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah is another name that needs to be added to that list of champions.
SPEAKER_00: His prayers for Jerusalem resulted in favor and protection for the reconstruction work.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 1, we met Nehemiah, the Jewish cupbearer, to the Persian king.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah is living out the fulfillment of Scripture, and that he's experiencing the exile.
SPEAKER_00: He's a man who is a student of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: He loves God, passionately prays for the king, for God's kingdom to come, and he has a deep concern for the welfare of his people.
SPEAKER_00: And now in chapter two, we have the privilege of watching what happens when God begins to answer Nehemiah's prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah, distressed by the report of Jerusalem's broken and miserable condition, he approached God on behalf of the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: He fasted, he prayed, he sought God's mercy and help, and God heard Nehemiah and answered Nehemiah's prayer.
SPEAKER_00: You see, church, answered prayer strengthens and grows our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Faith itself, understood as living in complete dependence on God's presence, power, and future promises, is the condition for God's divine favor on our lives.
SPEAKER_00: It was the psalmist who understood this when he pinned these words in Psalms 116.1.
SPEAKER_00: It says, I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.
SPEAKER_00: God heard Nehemiah's plea.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look back at what Nehemiah prayed.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me at Nehemiah 1.11 in your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah 1.11 says, O Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And I want us to listen to this prayer very closely.
SPEAKER_00: It says, O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name.
SPEAKER_00: And give success to your servant today and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
SPEAKER_00: This man whom Nehemiah served was the king of Persia, and God grants this very prayer to this man of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't want you to expect that this sermon will give you an easy formula to answer prayer.
SPEAKER_00: There are no religious formulas to answer prayer, church.
SPEAKER_00: There's no religious formulas that can minimize our sovereign God and his providence.
SPEAKER_00: Neither are there any shortcuts to answer prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah's prayer did not move the hand of God because he said the right words the right way.
SPEAKER_00: God accepted Nehemiah's prayer because God accepted Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: Fundamental obstacle to walking in faith is inadequate personal knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_00: And if you know what it means to walk in faith, and you've been walking with God for some time, you know that the more you walk with God, and the longer you walk with God, and the more you experience God, and the more you get to know God, the greater your faith.
SPEAKER_00: And so just as people naturally hesitate to trust strangers, Christians struggle to believe God's promises when they haven't developed genuine familiarity with his character and his track record.
SPEAKER_00: I like what Martin Luther says.
SPEAKER_00: He says, faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said faith can move mountains in Matthew 17, 20.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what kind of faith honors God?
SPEAKER_00: A living active faith is what honors God.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah's life will demonstrate for us four aspects of living active faith.
SPEAKER_00: And as we study his testimony, we must examine our own hearts to see whether or not that we whether or not we are really walking and working by faith.
SPEAKER_00: So we see first that Nehemiah had faith that rested in the helping hand of God.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 1 through 4 of our text says this, in the month of Nisan, in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king.
SPEAKER_00: Now I had not been sad in his presence.
SPEAKER_00: And the king said to me, Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick?
SPEAKER_00: This is nothing but sadness of heart.
SPEAKER_00: Then I was very much afraid.
SPEAKER_00: I said to the king, Let the king live forever.
SPEAKER_00: Why should not my face be sad when the city, the place of my father's graves, lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire?
SPEAKER_00: Then the king said to me, What are you requesting?
SPEAKER_00: And here it is, church.
SPEAKER_00: So I prayed to the God of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: When Nehemiah heard about the condition of Jerusalem's wall, he made himself available to God to do something about the situation.
SPEAKER_00: He was even willing to leave his royal executive job to go in order to rebuild the walls in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: But Nehemiah knew nothing would be accomplished in his own strength.
SPEAKER_00: He knew nothing would be accomplished in his own wisdom, and he knew nothing would be accomplished in his own authority, no matter how willing he was for success of this entire project.
SPEAKER_00: He knew that it rested in the hands of God.
SPEAKER_00: And because Nehemiah knew that the outcome was in God's hands, he prayed boldly.
SPEAKER_00: He prayed specific prayers, he prayed courageous prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me again at verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 1, chapter 1, verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: The second half of this verse says, And give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
SPEAKER_00: On the surface, these petitions may not seem like much.
SPEAKER_00: But the last sentence of the verse shows us the magnitude of the request.
SPEAKER_00: Look what it says.
SPEAKER_00: Now I was a cupbearer to the king.
SPEAKER_00: And this is significant.
SPEAKER_00: We can't miss this.
SPEAKER_00: The cupbearer was the most important cabinet position in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: The king trusted the cupbearer with his very own life.
SPEAKER_00: Sadness was dangerous, was a dangerous emotion to express in the king's presence.
SPEAKER_00: The king noticed that the cupbearer was carrying a heavy burden.
SPEAKER_00: And had Arta Xerxes been in a bad mood, he might have banished Nehemiah or even ordered him killed.
SPEAKER_00: But instead the king inquired, why is his servant, why his servant was so sad?
SPEAKER_00: He looked at his face and asked him, Why are you so sad?
SPEAKER_00: In verse 2, why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick?
SPEAKER_00: He knew that Nehemiah was not sick.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Persian monarchs required that those who served, who served them, were not to bring personal troubles into their presence.
SPEAKER_00: This sort of behavior would have had them killed.
SPEAKER_00: It was a signal for conspiracy or it was a signal for disrespect.
SPEAKER_00: But Arti Xerxes' next comment gave a little hope to Nehemiah because the king rightly interpreted his servant's disposition.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he says in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: I said to the king, let the king live forever.
SPEAKER_00: Why should not my face be sad?
SPEAKER_00: When the city, the place of my father's graves, lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, then the king said to me, What are you requesting?
SPEAKER_00: So I prayed to the God of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing that we see Nehemiah does in this text is in verse 3, is he approaches the king with respect and honor.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing he said, he assured the king that he was not in any kind of danger.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Let the king live forever.
SPEAKER_00: And then he was kind of wise when he says, Why should not my face be sad when the city, the place of my father's graves, lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire?
SPEAKER_00: There was a reason why Nehemiah did not mention Jerusalem in this text and in that verse.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason was because in Ezra 4 tells us that the king had previously ordered that Jerusalem not be rebuilt.
SPEAKER_00: So he purposely does not mention the name Jerusalem in this text.
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah now plans to go to the throne room and tell Artaxerxes that he's ready to take a leave of absence.
SPEAKER_00: To go do the very thing that King Artaxerxes did not want to be done.
SPEAKER_00: But Nehemiah knew a king that is greater than Artaxerxes.
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah asked the greater king to make him successful.
SPEAKER_00: After Nehemiah expressed his grief, the Persian king asked Nehemiah for his request.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 4 records Nehemiah's response So I prayed to the God of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Right in that moment, while he was talking to the Persian king, Nehemiah was able to breathe out a word of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: You can only breathe out a word of prayer in an instant like that if prayer is a part of your life.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not a stranger to prayer, if you're praying every day and you're praying consistently, as the Bible teaches us to always pray, he was able to stand before the king.
SPEAKER_00: And while he was talking to the king, he breathed up a word of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: This is a reminder that there is a king.
SPEAKER_00: And there's the king.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So he asked God, he asked God to touch the heart of Artaxerxes so that he would receive all that he needed to do the Lord's work.
SPEAKER_00: And God answered Nehemiah's prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Today we want to give up on careers and marriages that aren't going right because we're looking at a king and not the king.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't care what you're facing today.
SPEAKER_00: If you'll bring the king to bear it, it doesn't matter how big a king, a boss, or a rival or circumstance is.
SPEAKER_00: See, unlike Arta Xerxes, we serve a king who gives us permission to enter into his presence just as we are.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you discouraged, you can go to the king.
SPEAKER_00: If you're afraid, as the text says, and already Nehemiah was afraid, you can go to the king.
SPEAKER_00: When you're angry and brokenhearted, you can go to the king.
SPEAKER_00: You never have to worry if he'll be angry.
SPEAKER_00: You never have to worry if he'll want to do away with you.
SPEAKER_00: He accepts you just as you are.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Hebrews tells us something so wonderful about our priestly king.
SPEAKER_00: He sympathizes with our weaknesses.
SPEAKER_00: So more than the Lord Jesus being willing to hear us in the state of our heart, he actually feels us in our frailties.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of God that we serve.
SPEAKER_00: We don't serve an earthly king, we serve a heavenly king who's in control of every situation.
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah understood that listen, I may be standing before a king, but I'm going to the king.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: And so Nehemiah had faith that rests in the helping hand of God.
SPEAKER_00: But not only that, he had the kind of faith that patiently waits on the Lord for directions.
SPEAKER_00: Four months had passed since Nehemiah received the bad news about the plight in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Four months.
SPEAKER_00: As every believer should, Nehemiah patiently waited on the Lord for directions because it's through faith and patience that we inherit promises.
SPEAKER_00: Verse one of our text, of our passage says, in the month of the Nisan, month of Nisan in the 20th year, King of Artizeres.
SPEAKER_00: It was four months until God answered Nehemiah's prayers.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter one, we see his prayers.
SPEAKER_00: So it was four months of praying, four months of fasting, four months of patiently waiting on the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're like me, you would have the question why didn't God answer sooner?
SPEAKER_00: Because we can be like that.
SPEAKER_00: God, what's taking you so long?
SPEAKER_00: I need an answer now.
SPEAKER_00: But there are many reasons why God does not answer our request right away.
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah's story here in this chapter gives us one of those answers.
SPEAKER_00: And I submit to you today that divine delay can be the grace needed to give us time to practically plan and prepare.
SPEAKER_00: Divine delay can give us the grace we need to practically prepare and plan.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 5 through 10, Nehemiah shows us that these four months of fasting and praying, he was also thinking and strategizing.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me at verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: And I said to the king, if it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah to the city of my father's graves, that I may rebuild it.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6, and the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, How long will you be gone and when will you return?
SPEAKER_00: So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: God, or the king here in the text, but it's actually God doing it.
SPEAKER_00: God is actually granting him permission to go and do what he has called him to do.
SPEAKER_00: But it's interesting in this text, and if you see it in your Bible, it has a parenthesis beside.
SPEAKER_00: It says the queen sitting behind beside him.
SPEAKER_00: That's not by chance.
SPEAKER_00: Because it was said that if the king's wife, a lot of kings had many wives, but he always had he had one that would sit next to him.
SPEAKER_00: And if the king was sitting if the king's wife was sitting next to him, the king would be a little bit nicer to his subjects during that time.
SPEAKER_00: So this was not by chance, and this is not in our text by chance.
SPEAKER_00: God is intervening church.
SPEAKER_00: And so in verse 6, he gets permission.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 7, and it said to the king, if it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province beyond the river that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7, he gets protection.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 8, and the letter to Asap, the king, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple for all for the wall of the city and for the house that I shall occupy.
SPEAKER_00: And the king granted me what I asked.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8, he gives provision.
SPEAKER_00: But notice where his provision comes from, for the good hand of my God was upon me.
SPEAKER_00: But this happened during the time, during the four months that Nehemiah was waiting on the Lord to answer his prayer.
SPEAKER_00: He was waiting on the Lord to answer his prayer, and during that time, God was preparing him.
SPEAKER_00: He was planning him, he was giving him a plan.
SPEAKER_00: He was allowed to strategize.
SPEAKER_00: How else would he know how much time it would take for him to return?
SPEAKER_00: He knew the people that he had to go before to have the protection that he needed.
SPEAKER_00: And when the answer, when it was time for him to answer the king, answer a king, he gave the answer from the king.
SPEAKER_00: And God provided everything that he needed.
SPEAKER_00: Church, this is a reminder that whenever we call out to God, whenever we wait on the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And not just wait idly by sitting around doing nothing.
SPEAKER_00: No, and be while before God has answered, before we get to answer our prayer, He wants us to plan.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to prepare.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: He wants you to get ready.
SPEAKER_00: He wants you to get ready for your husband.
SPEAKER_00: If you want that job that you've been praying about, he wants you to get ready for that job.
SPEAKER_00: If he's calling you to ministry, he wants you to get ready for that ministry.
SPEAKER_00: He gives us time to prepare.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a shame if we don't take that time and use it for God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to see something.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9 says, Then I came to the governor of the province beyond the river and gave them the king's letters.
SPEAKER_00: Now the king has sent with me officers of the army and horsemen.
SPEAKER_00: See, Nehemiah asked for a visa.
SPEAKER_00: And God gave him a visa, and he gave him security.
SPEAKER_00: He gave him an army, officers to go with him, to protect him.
SPEAKER_00: But notice what happens in verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: But when Sanbalat the Hornite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Church, any time that you and I do something right for the Lord, enemies, enemies will show up.
SPEAKER_00: Satan church has his agenda.
SPEAKER_00: But we always need to remember that our struggle is not against flesh and blood.
SPEAKER_00: It's against spirit wickedness and spiritual palities in high places.
SPEAKER_00: There's a fight going on that we can't see.
SPEAKER_00: And so understand that it's not that individual that you're looking at.
SPEAKER_00: That's your enemy.
SPEAKER_00: They're not your enemy.
SPEAKER_00: So my question to you today is what obstacle stands before you?
SPEAKER_00: I submit to you that God honored Nehemiah's prayer in such a great way because Nehemiah had great faith in God.
SPEAKER_00: To have great faith in God is something that we have to thank him for.
SPEAKER_00: We have to always know that the faith we have is not because of any of our doing.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah walked by faith and not by sight.
SPEAKER_00: He tried something so great that he was sure to fail if the Lord did not help him.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of prayer that God answers.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of prayers, that's the kind of faith that God honors.
SPEAKER_00: God answers believing, faithful prayer.
SPEAKER_00: So what is it that you need God to do in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: Church, I got good news for you.
SPEAKER_00: God is able.
SPEAKER_00: God is able to bring you, bring your wandering child back home.
SPEAKER_00: God is able to heal a sin sick soul and a hurting body.
SPEAKER_00: God is able to strengthen us in our finances.
SPEAKER_00: God is able to save your loved ones.
SPEAKER_00: The issue is not God's ability to move in the situation.
SPEAKER_00: The issue is do you really believe that God is able to immeasurably above all that you can ask or think, handle whatever situation we bring before God.
SPEAKER_00: So the question is, are you willing to operate and to walk and to step out in faith?
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah 33:3 says this, call to me and I will answer.
SPEAKER_00: I will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 7, 7 says this, ask and it will be given to you.
SPEAKER_00: Seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.
SPEAKER_00: 1 John 5, 14 and 15 says this, and this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us, and if we know that he hears us, I love this part.
SPEAKER_00: If we know that he hears us, we know that we have the petitions that we desire of him.
SPEAKER_00: And so, church, and I said this number of times.
SPEAKER_00: If we're praying something and we know that it's according to God's will, how do we know if it's according to God's will?
SPEAKER_00: It's in the book.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to guess.
SPEAKER_00: But when we pray that prayer and we know that it's part of God's will, we can get up from that prayer in full confidence, knowing that God has answered that prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to guess.
SPEAKER_00: He will answer that prayer in an instant, or it may take him a couple months to answer that prayer, maybe even six to a year or so to answer that prayer, but you can rest assured that God will answer that prayer.
SPEAKER_00: It's a done deal.
SPEAKER_00: And so God answers the kind of faith that rests in his hand, and God answers the kind of faith that waits on him for direction.
SPEAKER_00: But then thirdly, God answers the kind of faith that personally, personally examines situations.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11 says, So I went to Jerusalem and was there three days.
SPEAKER_00: This one verse is a connection to what happened in verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10, he faced opposition.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10, he faced the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: And verse, right in verse 11, he says, So I went to Jerusalem and I was there three days.
SPEAKER_00: See, the opposition did not hinder Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: He knew that he had a call on God for his life.
SPEAKER_00: They were greatly displeased that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people.
SPEAKER_00: And what did Nehemiah do?
SPEAKER_00: He marched on.
SPEAKER_00: And interesting, in verse 12, says that he rose in the night, him and a few men with him, and I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah never lost sight of the fact that he was called to be on mission for God.
SPEAKER_00: If God really put it in your heart, then Nehemiah, why wouldn't you tell others about it?
SPEAKER_00: If God really put it in his heart, why wouldn't he tell others about it?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the reason he didn't tell others about it is because in this moment it's between him and God.
SPEAKER_00: It's between him and God.
SPEAKER_00: The answer to that is found in verses 13 to 16.
SPEAKER_00: Look what it says.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13, I went out by the night, I went out by night by the valley gate of the dragon spring to the Dungate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken, broken down, and its gates that had been destroyed by fire.
SPEAKER_00: Then I went on to the fountain gate, to the king's pools, but there was no room for the animal that I was under to under me to pass.
SPEAKER_00: Then I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall, and I turned back and entered by the valley gate, so and so returned.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16, and the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing.
SPEAKER_00: And I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah went on a recognizance mission.
SPEAKER_00: He went to go inspect what he was sent there to do.
SPEAKER_00: He went to go investigate what he was sent there to do and included in God's will is Nehemiah facing the facts personally without any interruptions, without any questions from anybody, without any doubts from anybody, without any skepticism from those who had lived in Jerusalem from all this time.
SPEAKER_00: And he even grown accustomed that of those who had grown accustomed to live a life with all these walls and ruins torn down.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah knew that the job of rebuilding the walls could couldn't go forward unless he saw exactly how bad the situation was.
SPEAKER_00: Some like to always see the good, and then some like to always find what is wrong, and that's fine.
SPEAKER_00: We just built like that.
SPEAKER_00: There's some people that's all positive, there's some people that can be skeptics.
SPEAKER_00: But Nehemiah teaches us that we must see the broken down walls.
SPEAKER_00: But only if we have the right heart, only if we have right prayer, only if we have the right prayer life and the passion to be used by God to set it right.
SPEAKER_00: You see, with the right hearts, hearts ready to act, we must be, we must take an honest look.
SPEAKER_00: If you got the right heart, you got the heart to act, then we can take the we can take an honest look.
SPEAKER_00: These walls were real.
SPEAKER_00: They were real ruins where the people could see in plain sight.
SPEAKER_00: And you and I have figurative walls.
SPEAKER_00: We got figurative walls in our own lives that need an honest look.
SPEAKER_00: Some are desperately hurting or trapped in a cycle of sin and want to get out but don't know how to ask for help.
SPEAKER_00: Some have a respect and know God and know God is real, but don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: When we look at the church, we can be thankful for it, but if we examine our impact on the community around us, we have to ask the question, what else can we do to impact the lives of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means to take an honest look.
SPEAKER_00: There's always more to be done when considering the outreach and the spread of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Many lives are like the city with broken walls, living with a constant sense of fear, poverty, and insecurity.
SPEAKER_00: And church, we should be the ones who don't hide our eyes to the brokenness in our own lives, and definitely not I hide our eyes in the brokenness that's around us.
SPEAKER_00: God wants us to see the brokenness so we can take the steps necessary to do what God has called us to do.
SPEAKER_00: Then lastly, God honors a faith that promotes unity and action.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 17 through 20.
SPEAKER_00: The time had finally come for Nehemiah to do what God has sent him there to do.
SPEAKER_00: He knew that he had to unite the people and encourage them to action.
SPEAKER_00: He understood this: that if it was one thing that was going to help him and necessary for him to rebuild the walls, he needed to build the people up first.
SPEAKER_00: And how did he do that?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17 tells us this.
SPEAKER_00: Then he said, and watch this verse clearly carefully.
SPEAKER_00: He said to them, You see the trouble we are in?
SPEAKER_00: How Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned.
SPEAKER_00: Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may long no longer suffer derision.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah could have approached them and made them feel guilty about the situation.
SPEAKER_00: He could have came to them, he could have said, Listen, y'all been here so long, y'all all this time, and y'all see that the wall is torn down.
SPEAKER_00: Why why why come none of y'all decided to fix the walls here?
SPEAKER_00: He could have came with that approach, but he didn't come with that approach.
SPEAKER_00: Look how he came to the people.
SPEAKER_00: He could have said all of that.
SPEAKER_00: No, but he he didn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: He could have said, listen, this over the last got God had to, I had to pray, I had to wait on God for four months, and then I had to travel all this way to come here when you guys are sitting right here in the city, you're looking right at it every day.
SPEAKER_00: He could have said that.
SPEAKER_00: But he didn't say that.
SPEAKER_00: His appeal was positive.
SPEAKER_00: He focused on the glory and the greatness of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He only been in the city for a few days.
SPEAKER_00: And look at verse 17 again.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You see the trouble we are in?
SPEAKER_00: How Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned.
SPEAKER_00: Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah said, look, we're in this together.
SPEAKER_00: In church, for any ministry to succeed, and I want to say this lovingly, as lovingly as I can.
SPEAKER_00: For any ministry to succeed, you and I need to reject the harmful mindset of me versus you.
SPEAKER_00: The word, my ministry, and your ministry, church, has got to be removed from our vocabulary.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone who is part of the local church as a member, the proper language and attitude is our ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And if you want to get really technical about it, the proper language is it's the Lord's ministry.
SPEAKER_00: We all have a common goal.
SPEAKER_00: We all need each other.
SPEAKER_00: Every single one of us needs each other to do what God has called us to do.
SPEAKER_00: Ministry is not for our own satisfaction and for our own self-esteem.
SPEAKER_00: It's for the glory of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Ministry is the combined effort of the body of Christ to accomplish the advancement of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we see here in this text.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah is willing to work together toward a goal.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the ways we do this is to encourage one another.
SPEAKER_00: And look what he says.
SPEAKER_00: And I love what he says in verse 18, and we're going to get ready to close in just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 18, and I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, Let us rise up and build.
SPEAKER_00: So they strengthen their hands for the good work.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words of that word that the king had spoken to me.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah lets them know that the only way that this is going to get done is if God is on this side, on their side.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me there.
SPEAKER_00: But when Sanbalat the Hornite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it now, in verse 10, it was just two of them.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 19, it grows.
SPEAKER_00: There's now three of them.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a reminder to us, church, that the more our ministry grows, the more the opposition grows.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: But notice something else that they did.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 10, they just greatly despised.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 19, they despised us and said, What is this thing that you are doing?
SPEAKER_00: Are you rebelling against the king?
SPEAKER_00: So now they don't just greatly despise.
SPEAKER_00: Now they despise and they say something about it.
SPEAKER_00: They jeered at them and despise them.
SPEAKER_00: What is this that the king you are doing and rebelling against?
SPEAKER_00: Rebelling against the king.
SPEAKER_00: Earlier, they didn't say a word, but now they had a whole lot to say.
SPEAKER_00: But I love the reply in verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah replied to them the God of heaven will make us prosper.
SPEAKER_00: And we his servants will rise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah understands that without with or without a king.
SPEAKER_00: God is on our side.
SPEAKER_00: Church, it doesn't matter what earthly kings do.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter who's in charge, doesn't matter who has authority, because we serve a God who has all authority.
SPEAKER_00: And I want us to think about that.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to let that sink in.
SPEAKER_00: God is on our side.
SPEAKER_00: If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have a God that is on your side, a God that is intervening in your situation when you don't even know it.
SPEAKER_00: A God that's permitting things to happen for you that you don't even realize.
SPEAKER_00: A God who's watching over you and protecting you.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't even know that he's protecting you.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of God who's on our side.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 831 says this, what then shall we say to these things?
SPEAKER_00: If God is for us, who can be against?
SPEAKER_00: Thank God for a text like this.
SPEAKER_00: Because it helps us to realize and to know that God has called us to salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He's called us to service.
SPEAKER_00: He's called us to sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: And he's calling us to glorification.
SPEAKER_00: We may have to deal with earthly kings now, church.
SPEAKER_00: But sooner or later, one day, we won't have to deal with no more earthly kings.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason we have to deal with earthly kings now is because our sin has separated us from God.
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't received Jesus Christ, the Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's the bad news, church.
SPEAKER_00: But then it gets even worse.
SPEAKER_00: We can't do anything to remove our sin.
SPEAKER_00: We have to put our trust and our faith in Jesus Christ and what he has done for us on Calvary's cross.
SPEAKER_00: And the good news is at the cross, Jesus paid it all.
SPEAKER_00: And the best news is through faith we freely receive forgiveness and eternal life through faith.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father God, we thank you.
SPEAKER_00: That you have given us the faith to trust you, dear God, to place all dependence upon you for our life.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing, oh God, that we have a place in your kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: That we'll be able to spend eternity with you, oh God.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in this moment that for anyone here, oh God, who have not yet accepted your son Jesus Christ, we pray, Lord, that you touch their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: That you press upon them in this moment the need for Jesus Christ in their life.
SPEAKER_00: You know what we all are standing up against.
SPEAKER_00: And some of us can thank you.
SPEAKER_00: That we can trust you and we can count on you to watch over us, to protect us, to provide for us, but then there's some who don't know what that's like.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we pray right now that you stir them up in the inside, that they may come and experience the favor that you have given us of those who believe in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.